Right now, in these exact hours, anybody who is anything somewhere around the world is in Denmark. Michelle Obama is having lunch with our queen at Amalienborg, the royal palace. Her husband Barack will be joining her here in Copenhagen on Friday. Oprah Winfrey is doing some early Christmas shopping in Strøget. Her staff arrived a few days ago to prepare for the 30 minute documentary about The Happiest People In the World that she´s doing during her stay. Yesterday, football legend Pelé was training a bunch of Little Leaguers about 5 kilometres from where I’m sitting at the moment. The Spanish King Juan Carlos arrived… just now, actually.
Why are they all here? Well, the fact that the 115 members of The International Olympic Committee are occupying an equal number of somewhat overpriced hotel rooms right now as well would probably give you a clue. This Friday they will gather in all their magnificence and decide which city is to have the honour of spending billions on hosting The 2016 Olympic Games.
So all these people aren’t here to experience the crass and hostile atmosphere of everyday Danishness or to enjoy the questionable cuisine of the pølsevogn. They’re not here in admiration of everything Danish or to celebrate our newly acquired record in inter-collegial bullying at the workplace. They are here to pull strings, kiss cheeks, cross fingers and garner a high-risk business opportunity for their respective cities. And pay their tribute to the Olympic Principle as formulated by its second father Pierre de Coubertin: “for people who dare to try to break records”, of course.
Right now, in these exact hours, thousands of people are fighting for their lives in the aftermath of a tsunami in the Samoan Islands. 113 are already dead and the number is rising. An earthquake on the Indonesian island of Sumatra sent 1.000 people to their graves this morning and tens of thousands are still buried under the rubble.
Why am I mentioning this? Because the prioritisation of these events in the Danish news tells you everything about how the Danes view the world.
A brief summary of any randomly chosen news programme from Danish television today would look like this: “Breaking news!! Michelle Obama is attending a party tonight at the Admiral Hotel! Extra, extra! Oprah Winfrey asked for an umbrella today because it was raining a bit! We interrupt this programme to announce that Brazilian president Lula da Silva is picking up his suitcases at this very moment at the airport. Oh, and by the way… some people died on some islands in The Pacific today. This just in! Famous Friends actor David Schwimmer is in Copenhagen too!! And now the weather: Looks like all them Denmark-loving celebrities will experience occasional showers and temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius.”
I try to make a habit of ending posts here on Downsides of Denmark with a quirky little remark. A funny twist of sorts. But I’m all out of those today.
7 Comments
I’m all out of quips too. Whole thing leaving me feeling rather flat.
It’s like finding out that Santa Claus doesn’t really exist.
I mean, if Oprah’s team buy into the ‘Denmark - Happiest Place on the Planet’ gag, then maybe that means that everything that she’s ever covered is a gag too.
I am starting to doubt myself. Maybe, every day, in every way I am NOT getting better and better….
Well, I don’t think that it is neither a specific Danish nor a new phenomenon. It is a fundamental principle in journalism that the degree of relevance of any given thing is inversely proportional to the distance away that thing is. And as La Rochefoucauld remarked more than 300 years ago: We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others. Not to mention one of the small cartoons by Storm P. (the Danish melancholy humorist Robert Storm Petersen) where a distressed man is asked:
- What do you think of the world situation? and answers
- Nothing! I’ve got something in my eye.
But you are a man of feeling Peter Andreas - a nice trait. However, The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel, as Horace Walpole said.
I wonder if Oprah’s happy segment is sponsored by Xanax and she will hand out 5.2 million free strips of Xanax post show.God knows we need it here in DK..it doesnt help that its turning cold and that will makes us cuddle our suicide ropes under the duvet.
Wow, the last comment makes a great quirky little ending! Bravo!
As usual, a poignant statement is made. Well done.
gud/oh, god! say it ain’t so…that the dansk news media has joined the sensationalist ranks of stateside! this is preciously what has caused the credibility of our news media to be become equal with the tabloids. shame on them for buckling to paparazzi-ism (gossip) vs. their role of true information disseminators. I voted for truth not celebrity, mr. president.
How very selfish of you.
It’s been at least a week and you haven’t blogged.
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