Hello from Odense,
This week I have the pleasure of doing reports from the 25th Odense International Film Festival, which is an international festival for shorts, documentary and animation. Since we are doing all the reporting, behalf of Stupid Studio and OFF10, in English, I thought I would share the opening report with you. It is great to spend a whole week together with a lot of people from all around the world sharing the same joy of films. Both watching them and making them.

Personally I experienced something rather unusual as a result to a train station being floaded.  I was visiting a friend of mine one day, were I the same day had to be at birthday party later; the thing about the birthday party was that I was the one picking up the birthday cake, so I had to be there on time.

I took the bus from my house to my friends house; but had to take the train to the birthday party cause it was faster and the “cake-shop” was near the station. I took of from my firends house to catch the train and to my surprise the tunnel that leads to the platform was closed, I looked around and saw some “station worker” standing beside a gate leading to the railway; I walked up to him and asked: “excuse me, If I want to take the train where do I get to the platform?” and then he answered: “I’m waiting for a signal to let people in and out through the railway”. That’s right, I had to walk about 10 meters up the platform through the railway. It felt like being in an old western movie. quite the experience though

The miniflood is all gone; from copenhagen at least. but when it rains it pours. so it’s still pouring

Regards,

Noha

When I think of locations associated with delicious foods that tantalize and pleasure the senses – you think of the romantic and aromatic meals from Italy, France and Thailand.

Unfortunately haute cuisine is not on the list of wonderful things coming out of Denmark generally speaking.

The low number of Danish restaurants located around the world probably makes that point quite clear. Even in Denmark itself, the traditional Danish fare is hard to come by and these days a host of chefs have blended the traditional heavy recipes into lighter and fresher fusion fare.

But you know that Denmark is full of paradoxes…. the most recent being that Restaurant Magazine named the best restaurant in the world — NOMA which is located in Copenhagen. The name is a concatenation of the two Nordic words “nordisk” (Nordic) and “mad” (food), and the restaurant is known for its reinvention and interpretation of the Nordic Cuisine.

That said, the best Danish cuisine is still to be had in a Danish home where it is served with pride and gusto. It is here also that you may experience the illusive Hygge (Danish cosyness) which adds to the pleasure of the experience and may also be a contributing factor to happiness.

I have my own issues with Danish cuisine which I will describe at length in my book. Now Danes, please don’t get upset with me. But there are loads of funky fish products here that literally freak me out. Some of these include cooking the internal vital organs of fish that are nearly human size – boiling and eating them. This delicacy is affectionately called Torskerogn. (see photo)

 I make my Danish daughter pate (leverpøstej) sandwhiches on Danish rugbrød practically every day. It is the Danish version of my childhood favorite Peanut butter and jelly. Except for it has no resemblance to a sticky and sweet  PBJ on anemic white bread as it is ground pork livers, baked with lard and spread on a dense whole wheat brown bread.

This sandwich is such a Danish lunch staple that I feel obligated to try and re-taste it every 6 months. (Hoping somehow that I become Danish through osmosis and suddenly think leverpøstej is delicious.) Unfortunately these tastings sometimes start well, (hmm this is not so bad) ……to a murky after taste of (hmm maybe I should chuck this sandwich).

I would have to say that making my daughter’s lunch is a foray into culinary anthropology. I make her food, I would never, ever eat myself.  Intrigued by the mysterious smells and textures, like a good anthropologist I observe but do not participate. She by the way, loves torskerogen.

But what does this have to do with happiness you ask?

I recently stumbled across some research  “

According to “What You Eat can Affect Your Happiness!,” by accredited practicing dietitian Sharon Natoli that  B vitamins have a role in regulating mood, energy and memory. Recent research indicates that folate, vitamin B6 and B12 may have particularly important roles in regulating various aspects of mood and thus happiness. Her top 5 Happy Foods – spinach, parsley, sunflower seeds, strawberries and beetroot are found in many Danish specialties.

Beet root is found at nearly every lunch table, sunflower seeds are found Danish rugbrød and muslii and fresh grown local strawberries are eaten by the million during the peak summer months. Oprah fell in love with rugbrød during her last visit and has arranged for it to be sent to her in Chicago.

In addition all the funky fish products including the oily fish that is in Danish herring products have an omega fat called DHA (docohexanoic acid) that is required in high amounts as part of brain tissue. These tissues regulate mood and have been known to reduce depression.

Overall, the recipe for Danish happiness is to:

• Eat protein-rich foods like lean meat, seafood, chicken or eggs twice a day.
• Eat at least 2-3 serves of wholegrain foods.
• Eat oily fish at least twice a week
• Include plenty of green leafy vegetables daily.
• Eat at least 2 pieces of fruit daily.

Some of the projects he works with is municipial – and he always enables the local community to take part in the process. It is extremely inspiring to see how he works. (You might like to check him out – this is his site. Actually, the very nice lady I had the pleasure of entertaining at the table, told me how Jonathan even chipped in when the dishes had to be done after a day of communal photography. (Please don´t let this scare you from actually checking his site – he is a cool photographer – and then he does the dishes!)).

So this Saturday, their wedding took place. Jonathan from UK and Britta from DK, who met on some exotic beach on some exotic country, on the other side of the world, was being married in a small and dying Danish agricultural village. In a very special ceremony which was conducted and shared by an english priest, namely Jonathans father, and the local Danish priest from the parish that Britta´s parents live in. Britta, in herself, is so wellread, knowing, empathetic and probably the funniest person, you could spend time with, so she is a natural gift to any man. Basically this is a not a good couple – they are a great couple. And the ceremony was a gift as well. Is was a cross between Church of England and the Danish Church – where we sang several hymns in two languages, at the same time. In some way it was a new revelation for me that we had reference points in the same hymns. (Sorry, im not to religious in my day to day life).

But the point of this blogpost, on this crosscultural and multinational blog, is not to tell you about Britta and Jonathans wedding – even though I have to constrain myself not to keep going. The point is to describe the differences that makes us the same. During the dinner, I had the joy of sitting at a table with a lot of good people from Britain. We had hours of good conversations (and you have to enjoy the Brits, they know how to have a conversation, they are well educated – and they do have a great humor – and the strange thing is this goes beyond almost all class differencies).

So we talked about Britta´s and my strange little country with 18 million pigs, and only 6 million human inhabitants (Denmark). We discussed the strange fact of having a mentally built in class-system, which is turned on by accents, the use of special words and geography (Britain). The strange craving for being the same (DK). The strange attraction of being posh (Britain). We talked about a tax-system which ensures that up to 67 percent of your income is redistributed (Denmark). And we talked a lot on the subject of politics, politicians and how the come over as trustworthy or not (UK+DK).

But basically we had great fun, in a big tent – during a sunny day and a rainy and thunder filled night – on a field on the very outskirts of Denmark. We laughed, drank and danced all night. We felt like twins for a night. We were two people, but all the same.

In return, personally I would want to know what it is costing ME to live here… I mean I pay taxes for crying out load! Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining, not at all… but I mean if Pia Kjærsgaard (the leader of danish people’s party) wanted to know what new danes are costing she might want to put into consideration that we’re paying for her lunch… I’m just saying.

The article is in danish (http://politiken.dk/politik/article1027413.ece)

Regards,

Noha

Sundown in Bagenkop, Denmark from Patrick Bay Damsted on Vimeo.

Late evening in Bagenkop – timelapse from Patrick Bay Damsted on Vimeo.

This week we are spending in Bagenkop, an old fishing community at the southern end of Langeland, Funen, Denmark. The harbour is filled with small ships, typically spending one day and night here – and then sailing on again, the next morning. It´s rather cool to see all the German, Dutch and Swedish flags on the ships, telling where they come from, but not where they are going. Every night at nine, a trompeteer and a tromboneplayer go up in the lookout tower and play the sun down.

It is also great to see how alike we are – gathering on the harbour in the evening, kids from different countries playing the same games together and adults relaxing in the days last rays of sun. This holidays project for me is to play with some different videosoftware – so far concentrating on timelapse video – which have the great advantage to be something you start and then leave the machine to do

The quality isn´t that great – I´m not using an external camera, since this is just a small holiday project to have fun with – but it gives a sense of the view of summer here. I hope you enjoy your summer as well.

After careful study, Professor Kaare Christensen at the University of Southern Denmark proposes the key to Danish happiness is low expectations. “What we basically figured out that although the Danes were very happy with their life, when we looked at their expectations they were pretty modest,” he says.

By having low expectations, one is rarely disappointed.

I think if the surface was scratched that this argument could be expanded. It is my observation that the blanket statement simply low expectations does not truly explain the Danish phenomenon. I actually think it is closer to Aesop’s Sour Grapes.

The story goes like this: One hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch.

 “Just the thing to quench my thirst,” quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success.

Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: “I am sure they are sour.”

It is easy to not want what you cannot get

Problem with Aesop’s Sour Grapes, is that no one really knows whether the fox was right in his rationalization. Maybe the grapes were really sour, covered in DDT or infested with worms…or simply not really worth the trouble.

A true Danish fox would not even try reaching for them. Why should the fox even bother striving for the unattainable, proverbial grapes? If labeled as ‘not interesting’/(LigeGlad) or my favorite term ‘whatever’ (in Danish – Det lige meget) and a roll of the eyes makes life so much easier and happier, shouldn’t we all just pass those damn grapes by. 

In general, people deal with cognitive dissonance — the clashing of conflicting thoughts — by rationalizing one of the thoughts. The idea that the grapes are delicious and sweet conflicts with the knowledge that you can’t have them… so you rationalize that it’s really not thaaat great and a waste of time/ money.

The entire luxury brand business is built on the concept on high expectations. You need to create envy among your peers in order for the ‘item’ to have worth. If everyone could afford it, it would lose its luxury status.

What is the point of the envy, why want stuff that is out of reach? The Danes have a saying for this called: medallions bagsiden (On the other side of the medal), which pretty means every prize has a cost.

If we go back to my fox example, let’s just say that his ambitious fox friend, Foxy, walked by those grapes and decided he must have them. He built a ladder out of twigs, which took many weeks and slowly climbed his way up the steep tree. Foxy’s work and his sacrifice. (ie. missing the Foxy summer party and a few dates with the cute female foxes that passed by) is the other side of the medal. Again, my dear Danish Fox would rationalize, the grapes are not sweet enough for that kind sacrifice!    

Are the Danes better than the rest of us at rationalizing? Are they making delicious, fresh lemonade from the lemons life has given them? Or have they convinced themselves that the lemons indeed taste better than oranges?

In Danish, the word for indifference, – ligeglad is used often especially by children to not get disappointed.

But unlike the words, ‘I don’t care’ which can be considered rude, being ligeglad is OK. In fact, it is a good coping strategy and way to avoid sadness.

Funnily enough if you separate the words into lige glad it means Just Happy.

The Danish Architecture Center attended Roskilde Festival and together with the festival they launched the architectural competition ‘Build What Here’. The competition addresses temporary sustainable architecture that engages people. The winning project will be constructed at next years festival.

It has been great weather these past few days, and people are taking advantage of it! I could imagine that fælledparken has been stuffed with people, cause the past few days I’ve been at work (work at østerport st.) and people just keep rolling in needing to buy drinks to cool off. So I also finally got into the summer holiday after a hard semester… usually I’d be planing my trip to egypt by this time of the year; but this year I’m staying in Denmark, so I get to follow up on my missed summers here in copenhagen for that past couple of years.

Oh and ofcourse this time of the year also there are all the newly high school graduates who drive round in huge trucks celebrating graduation; an old tradition… it has been to years now since my high school graduation and i miss it good times!

I love love love danish summer, it’s not too too hot, but you know the sun is out and everyone is in such a good mood. Cause I feel the extreem heat when I’m in egypt in the summer everyones cranky and the humidity definitly isn’t helping either. So danish summer is fantastic (when it’s not raining of course )

Here are some top ten things you can do on a sunny day in Copenhagen :

1. (personal favourite) canal tour

2. botanical garden (very beautiful and peaceful)

3. Round tower (a classic)

4. Lange linje (though the little mermaid currently isn’t there, but the icecream is great)

5. speaking of lange linje… The beach! wether it’s amager or hellerup it’ all good

6. Copenhagen Zoo (for the kids)

7. Bakken or Tivoli (amusement parks)

8. For the ladys in shopping mood, take a walk down “Strøget” tons of shops and eating places

9. Sight seeing buses, guess you can find those at “Rådhuspladsen”

10. This one you can do anywhere, but you don’t have danish summer anywhere so enjoy the danish sun and summer wheather with a good book in a park

to find out more visit: http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/tourist

have a great summer everyone

Regards, Noha

But the social welfare community has roots with a pattern of group behaviour within Scandinavian communities, which negatively portrays and criticizes individual success and achievement as unworthy and inappropriate.

It has been observed as a form of behaviour for centuries, but was identified as a series of unwritten rules, the Jante Law, by the Norwegian/Danish author Aksel Sandemose in his fiction novel A fugitive crosses his tracks 1933, where he portrays the small Danish town Jante (modelled on his own hometown Nykøbing Mors as it was at the beginning of the 20th century).

Many Danes that you ask about Jante law are a bit ashamed of it – it is considered a snide, jealous and narrow small-town mentality which refuses to acknowledge individual effort and places all emphasis on the collective, while punishing those who stand out as achievers.

There are ten different rules in the law as defined by Sandemose, but they are all variations on a single theme and are usually referred to as a homogeneous unit: Don’t think you’re anyone special or that you’re better than us.

The ten rules are:

        Don’t think that you are special.

        Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.

        Don’t think that you are smarter than us.

        Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.

        Don’t think that you know more than us.

        Don’t think that you are more important than us.

        Don’t think that you are good at anything.

        Don’t laugh at us.

        Don’t think that any one of us cares about you.

Don’t think that you can teach us anything.

Ask a Dane and they will tell you Jante Law is terrible, yes it exists but they hate it. They hate to admit it exists. Yet they almost feel powerless to change it.

But why is it so terrible? If carefully looked at the Laws could be re-written in a PR friendly, spinned way. Indeed, more like the way it is actually practiced in Denmark today.

Sandemose’s Jante law is harsh, and a bit mean but in Denmark, the unwritten and nearly unspoken actions behind Jante law are more subtle and almost polite. The idea is to avoid creating envy in others.

It is better to want what you have than to have what you want, Danish proverb 

Several economists have stressed the paradox between high ambition and the stagnation of happiness in high-income countries. The creators of the Jante law realized that rising aspirations created by the desperate search for status would be detrimental to their collective community.

Why play that game? The creators of Jante Law changed the rules of the game by encouraging modesty and reducing envy by squashing individual ambition. They knew that individual success and prosperity was a zero sum game.

In normal competitions in order for one to win, others had to lose. But why should anyone value such as system? Why not create a system with different values? Values that are non material based. Values based on collective success and a win-win attitude. Values like the Danish system.

Like the young man in Sandemose’s book who moved to this fictional small town in Denmark, I too experienced that coming from one of the largest superpowers in the world provided me with no credibility on this island, called Denmark.

My money was useless, (dollar is worth nothing outside of USA), my attitude was too American and (that was not a good thing) and I thought Denmark should change – better work ethic (work longer and therefore harder?), shops should be open ALWAYS!, why weren’t people impressed with what I do? 

If I was here to push my American ideals, on the Danes, I could just forget about it, turn around pack my Louis Vuitton suitcase and get on the next SAS flight out of here.

The Jante laws are here to preserve the idyllic, happy communal living standards in Denmark. And if I wanted to live here, I had to learn the unwritten laws, shut up and pay my taxes.