Monday, October 19, 2009

Living in a bubble

"To travel is to live" so said H.C. Andersen, and hence being away from my home in Denmark I must travelling. No doubt that I am, and I feel alive, so the old writer was right.... or was he? I have always enjoyed to be travelling, mostly because of the change that it brings, of the diversity it offers and the way it changes my view of the world.

However, when travelling becomes the norm, and when change becomes constant then it feels like being in a vacuum where change is expected and without power to overwhelm. This I call to live in a bubble. But as all bubbles, financial, real estate or bubbles of soap they are transparent or hard to see. I have now however spotted how I live in one, I enjoy living in Reykjavik, I have much of what I have always hoped for, close friends, I do community service and I feel i make a difference. I am closer to being complete. But as with so many things, "you get some you give some", and I have until yesterday not realized what I was giving, but Anders helped me see that.

As he put his arm around me and said "I am so happy to be here, bro" I realized what it is that I have given up to achieve all of the above, I have given up intimacy. As I realized this my mood deteriated for the sole reason that I have always seen this as very central to my life, but I had lost sight of it. This is scary, because it shows the path to how core values are forgotten or pushed aside, a development I had sworn never to take part in.

But the bubble of living in Reykjavik has a will of its own.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Dem som overflødiggjorde det frie valg

Det lader til at vores folkevalgt betragter sig selv som vores forældre. Borgerne i Danmark ligger nu hver uge øre til endnu flere forskel om hvordan vi skal opføre os, hvilke valg vi skal træffe og hvordan vi skal bruge vores hverdag.

I løbet af den sidste er følgende tikket over nyhedsskærmene:
"Kamphunderacer skal forbydes", det er dybt beklageligt at vores regering føler sig så paternalistisk og i en uhørt grad søger at begrænse borgernes frie valg.

"Unge skal lave noget", ja ingen tvivl om at alle borgere i samfundet har et ansvar for at føre det Danmark videre som vi kender. Men at gå ned i unges kalendre og søge om de laver noget fornuftigt er et forslag helt til hundene (selvfølgelig ikke kamphunde, det må vi jo ikke)

"S vil forbyde unge at købe brezzere", nu hopper oppositionen således også på vognen med formynderiske forslag. At skulle lovgive på de enkelte varegruppe, overfor bestemte alderssegmenter må antageligt være en masdodont opgave (men måske de kan hyre de unge til i bedste stasi-stil at holde øje med hinanden, og der lave noget fornuftigt så som at håndhæve loven)

Sager som er fremme i medierne giver det stemmer at reagere på, eller gør det? Mit håb er at regeringen, og alle andre danske politikkere vågner op og stopper denne micro-management af borgernes hverdag. Resultatet af ikke at gøre det bliver jo i yderste konsekvens at vi stopper med at stemme, fordi vores folkevalgte jo træffer vores valg for os.

Lars, Lene, Helle, Villy, Pia, Margrete & Ø
Styr landet, så styrer vi vores