Copenhagen 11

Copenhagen 11

Danish and Epimetheus

I've been living here now for almost half a year. So I am inclined to say something quite striking about the Danish, what has been confirmed epically this morning. Basically it boils down to this: The Danish don't look.

The first instant this becomes painfully obvious, is in traffic. Cyclists here put out their hands to left, or to right if they want to go in said direction. Or upwards when they are halting. However most of them don't actually look around or behind them before doing such. In so, on various occasions a cyclists stands still and dismounts in the middle of the bike lane only to have several cyclists behind them brake hard. Or simply cut one of as they didn't notice someone was trying to overtake them went they went out for a corner. And this isn't a pretty thing to experience as the bike-lanes are elevated with respect to the road, and lowered with respect to the side-walk. There is often no place to go.   

But this isn't the only thing. Pedestrian don't look either. What you will notice here, again and again. Is that most Danish cross the road as follows:

1 - Find a place to cross the road
2 - Step unto the road
3 - After one step, look left to see if there is traffic comming.
4 - If no walk on
5 - If yes, wonder at what speed it is
6 - If slow look startled and completely surprised
7 - If fast, face your impending doom.

It might sound exaggerating, but this actually happens. And it happens a lot. Also another examples. Supermarkets. There is several supermarkets here. But thing is, in fact only three. Lidl, Aldi and the rest. As 'the rest' is all owned by the same supermarket group. And this is quite striking. As a large group buys in so largely it can have great deals. And so one would expect it to have lower prices. But thing is, they don't all the supermarkets have collective high prices. Whereas the exact same product might cost 20 percent less at Lidl or Aldi. In the Netherlands the retailer organisation would probably look into this. But they don't have such a thing here. Nobody is nosy enough to check large corporations or people in power. (also, the service isn't better in these more expensive supermarkets)


And this lack of nosiness into authority increases. In 1953 the current constitution of Denmark was written. And the house of lords (1e kamer) was abolished. I conversed about this with some Danish scientists, and they had to admit it was a risk. There is no check upon power. No check for laws that pass through. Nobody looks to see if everything is going as it is supposed to be going. (hence thank god for the media) However besides the media, there is no control. If you'd have 90 members in parlement to follow your lead, you could pass any law. And that is scary. Even though the judicial power is seperate they have no constitutional power, or right for that matter, to demand a review of the laws.

Nothing has happened with this so far, however if I were a good organized crime syndicate. Then Copenhagen might just be your free haven. Danish people are gentle and naive when it comes to these things.

And that brings us to the last, probably most striking thing so far.

In our appartment building there is a front door that connects to a large staircase that connects all the front doors. A very common thing in Copenhagen. Now, the door never closed well, you had to pull it to actually have it shut. But that was okay. However 4 days ago, someone decided that a new door had to be put in. And so this happens. Though not very neatly, and the finishing up work wasn't done. The door itself looks sturdy and strong. But here is the thing; It can't close.

It actually is physically impossible by construction to close the door. Surely they must have LOOKED to see if a door closes? I could not fatom the possibility that they hadn't. So I decided to conclude that they didn't have the right part to fix the door with. Saw it was 4 O'clock and decided to call it a day anyway. Not a very social thing to do, but they'd probably fix it later anyway.

Now this morning I got down, and saw they had indeed fixed the door. The electronic opening system was now installed. And since to do this, they'd actually have to screw of the part that was preventing the door from closing. I figured they must have installed a new part, making the door close...

But alas...

The door couldn't close. And then it came to me very apparent that they hadn't been lazy. But that they just hadn't bothered to look if the door closed TWICE! They installed a door, and didn't check whether it could close. They installed a lock, and didn't check if the door opened if it was activated either. I can't help it but it just seems mind bogglingly stupid to install a door that cannot close... Hence I think it would be a good name for the installer, as it is of course not valid for All Danish. But still... There are a lot of people here that would not be Prometheus, not Epimetheus. But 
 

Ametheus