Denmark is one of those places that most people know of but could not describe, even if they were paid. Like the middle child, or those items just around the corner of the aisle at the grocery store, the country is often overlooked. However, that does not mean that it is a dull place.
When I graduated from university in 1989, I applied for an AIESEC traineeship and was placed at Shell Oil in Copenhagen. On my first day at work, I was ushered into my supervisor’s office for an orientation session. He sat me down, and explained what it meant to work at Shell. After telling me what I was supposed to do and where I could find the toilets, he warned me about the politically difficult situation of working for an evil empire in a society full of socially conscious citizens. Denmark was a very politically correct country and Shell was a politically incorrect company. Due to its operations in South Africa, Shell was the main target for most of Denmark’s social activists.
Once he had finished the "Welcome to Shell, sorry about the activists" talk, he suggested that I not mention to anyone that Shell was my place of employment. Also, if I were to arrive at work when protesters were blocking the entrance, I should go take a walk and wait until everything had quieted down. While I was digesting this unorthodox advice, the phone rang. My supervisor spoke few words on the receiver and hung up. He turned back to me and said that the caller was a protest organizer, and was informing him of an upcoming protest. This struck me as being inherently Danish. Who else in the world would arrange to protest angrily about corporate greed, yet politely inform those affected by the protest? It all seemed so civilized.
Later that week, ‘Bad Brains’ was going to be playing in Copenhagen. They were an underground band that had some notoriety among hard core punk music circles, as they played a perplexing mixture of hard core punk and reggae. Because I was new in town, and did not know anyone else with similar tastes in music, I headed off to the concert on my own.
The concert was at Pumpehuset, an old pumping station that had been converted into a music hall. It was dark and eerie inside, with skeletons of the pump machinery protruding from the walls. The hall was packed with black leather jackets, spiky hair, and the complete absence of designer labels. I was alone in the company of Denmark’s hardest core punks. While waiting for the band to start up, I turned to a leather clad, mohawk adorned youth and struck up a conversation.
When I told him I was from Vancouver, he immediately grabbed two of his friends and crowded around me. "You are from Vancouver? Do you know DOA?" DOA was a very influential Vancouver punk band from the early 80s, who obviously still had many followers outside of Canada. Heartened by such interest in my home town, I asked him what he did.
In somewhat drug induced English, he replied that he was a Beseter (spelling unknown) but did not know how to translate the word. I asked him to explain, and he said "We are social activists. We are very active in developing social housing. We also do many protests. Next week, we will be protesting at Shell. And what do you do?"
I thought about saying "I’ll be there", but took another look at all the leather clad individuals milling about, and told him that I programmed computers for a living. As his eyes glazed over, the band got on stage, and I had dodged the bullet.
Later on, I found out that the Beseter were squatters. They acted as an extreme social conscience, and were a small minority within the Danish population. Many of them settled in an area dubbed ‘Christiania’, where you could find custom bicycles, Bob Marley T-shirts, and large quantities of hash. While many of the Danes I met thought the Beseter were just a bunch of lazy people who sold drugs and refused to pay taxes, they were tolerated as a whole. The police had been talking about shutting down Christiania for nearly two decades and had still not got around to it.
To me, this was what really made Denmark so attractive. Denmark was a place where everyone was fairly open minded and did not waste much time meddling in the personal affairs of others. At the same time, nobody seemed all that concerned with making large monuments to long dead rulers, or invading other countries. If only it had some mountains...
Rating
Denmark was a great place to live. Unfortunately, places that are great to live in are not necessarily great to visit. It was very expensive to travel, and the countryside was a bit too flat. However, the Danes know how to make a hot dog. Some people, including myself, say that they make the best hotdogs in the world.
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Text and images copyright © by Curtis Marr. All rights reserved.