Homeless in Copenhagen - The Bush Equation
June 24, 2008 06:12 AM EDT
(Updated: September 17, 2008 11:38 AM EDT)
An apx. 60 year old handicapped Danish woman on the streets of affluent Copenhagen...
In the past seven year, the Danish social landscape has turned on its head. Danes agreed to a 50% income tax base and 25% value added tax on even food to provide society with a safety net infrastructure. But under the Anders Fogh Rasmussen government, which is now one of the only ones in the world to support Bush's invasion of Iraq, our tax-derived funds have been diverted to give welfare to the multinational corporations operating in Denmark. It has happened one little step at a time, such that the average Dane hardly has noticed... and our attentions are diverted from the underlying issues by Danish Government-manufactured issues, such as "Fear those who are Muslim..." Here is yet another example of how 8 years of Bush (and likely also if McCain gets elected) has had a horrific impact in even among the most peaceful of nations. The final image in this short video is of a man who died that I tried to help. Please, America, do some good in the world and locally, and elect Obama!
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Comments: 64 ( 2 removed by Bent Lorentzen )
There are lots of other places too, but these people get thrown out of bus kiosks. What the hell are they hurting?
Right behind me is a huge state park. Many times during the day I see the homeless people that hide and sleep there, walking through. Heartbreaking and there is no good reason for it.
My daughter's case managing a project for homeless GLBT kids, they service straight kids too.
They get thrown out because they're queer. How could any parent do that? Boggles my mind.
It breaks my heart, Sharon. I had asked this woman, a week ago when I sat with her and gave her food and resources, if I could film her... but she was too shy. I asked the social services department in Copenhagen I once worked for, if someone couldn't help her... and last night, at about 1:30 AM, after walking around from the St. Hans Celebration, there she was... It so touched my heart that I filmed her anyhow, as best I could without crossing her boundaries.
Let's hope Obama wins.
My video is not working well today, maybe I have too many Firefox tabs open. No sound, it was not on mute = and I had to manually scroll. I will return again.
thanks for the reminder
I agree that Obama seems to be our best chance for change though men of good intentions, when thrown into the lion's den of "the way things get done here," often find change is too difficult.
As an aside, it would be interesting to discover whatever the "change" everyone is for means to specific people.
I appreciate your posts and your apprising us of this situation.
Or are the Danish people just determined to blame Bush for their problems?
Yeah, you're welcome for saving your asses in WWII, too.
What Bent is showing is that US polices affect more than the US way of life. If we have a bunch of corrupt corporate thieves running our country, that's the example we're showing other countries and we never know who is going to pick up on the tactics that have been used to widen the economic gaps here.
OBAMA '08!! If we can change the attitude and work toward creating a fairer and kinder US, the world can look to us as a positive example!
Thank you so much for this poignant video. We see the same on our streets every day and turn away, I think, because we are ashamed that we've done nothing constructive about it.
I think all Americans are looking forward to the November elections. We were discussing the elections at home the other day and I think even though we disagree on some policies and platforms on both the Republican and Democratic sides, that we all agree America needs to return to its status as a leader in the world. We need to lead not by might, but by doing what is right.
The world is looking for hope, no more so than here, in the US. Wish us luck in electing someone that will inspire hope and courage and shake us from our selfishness.
In the future, you should use "change" and "hope" at least five times in every response in which you support Sen. Obama. Oh, and exclamation points. You should have at least two.
I have always had a picture in my mind of the Nordic countries as humane and socially advanced. I am more than disappointed by the content of your video and commentary, frankly, I am stunned. Apparently, Denmark is having its share of problems with oligarchical parasites as well.
It is starting to dawn on me that perhaps the eighteenth century French version of reform is what history has in store for all of us. McCain's message is clear, "Let them eat cake." I have hope that Obama will bring about necessary change before things get to the point where the guillotine becomes a necessity.
But obviously the people all across America are most willing to subject themselves to not actually having a voice, but rather being under command of dictatorship, and too being robbed at gunpoint, by the dictating regime. You let them do what they are doing is why they are dong it. In the Civil War, somone had to fire the first shot. But what would happen today when the first shot was fired. Those who are even complaining and still being victimized would run call in the regime, the perpetrators of deceit themselves to go after the revolutionary. So now, you all are begging for that pacifier is all you are doing, but the regime is unrelentingly withholding it from you and robbing you to hunger and desparity. Why? Because you let them, and allow them to pacify you when and if they will.
Those who are secure are content. and therefore argue on behalf of themselves gaining power among the regime.
An American sociologist and anthropologist working in Sweden has analyzed this, from the perspective of our great fear of the Muslim culture, and his group's research indicates that the problem also exists because the government, the media and large industry are basically an exclusive old boy's club.
These corrosive Danish special interests have been waiting with salivating mouths for decvades for an administration like Bush to emerge, in order to generate an atmosphere of fear in our society, which then is how any society is easier controlled, so that the rich can get richer, if I can use a colloquialism. In Danish we have a special expression for this: Mere vil have mere.
Now, if I were an anthropologist from Alpha Centauri, coming to Earth to study her societies, and since I'd have no Earth-relative ethnocentrism in my analysis, I actually would not see a whole hell of a lot of difference between the Bush government and the Saudi government. Both are deeply influenced by a selected fundamentalist religion and a select few industrial interests.
One can trace back countless illness or the incidents you rattled off to issues that involve generations of violence and neglect of children in society. I have worked daily with these issues here in Copenhagen, having been in 2003 appointed by the government due to my work as a therapist-counselor to a comittee seeking to modernize our social-psychiatric services system. I quit that panel when I saw how controlled the panel was, and how little the social services ministry (like the US Social Security Administration), who hold the resources, were willing to listen to any good ideas.
Vote Democrat!!
And, Bent, again you're welcome. We didn't mind saving your asses in WWII at all.
Maybe taxpaying Danes can repeal their commitment to the fifty-percent income tax and the twenty-five percent purchase tax since they are not receiving the goods contracted for with their government. I would hope that they would be within their rights to do so.
The rise in popularity of greedy folk on the world's stage is wholly disturbing. Something other than money's gilded rewards needs to replace the ambition which the protestant work ethic seems to have instilled.
Best of Luck to ALL of us.
C A -- "We didn't mind saving your asses in WWII at all.
That sure is a fact. After all, "we" didn't jump into the war to save their asses. "We" only played around in WW-II at first, mostly just to make money, THEN "we" jumped in to fight to win because "we" had been attacked.
Your seeming implication that some debt of honor or nobility is due to "us" because we defeated their enemy in WW-II rings hollow and tinny on these American's ears. We fought only when we ourselves were endangered; which means that saving their asses was only a side-effect of our efforts to save our own asses. Not to mention that some of the "we" of that era (including our current president's grand-daddy), had been supporters of the Nazi Party's rise to power in Germany. Those members of "us" were happy to sit on the sidelines of WW-II and sell stuff to embattled countries for a nice tidy profit; up until the time that "we" got attacked.
If folks were going to operate on the kind of undying gratitude that you are implying, then "we" should be wholly and completely aligned with France, because without their help "we" never would have defeated the British and won our national independence.
Yeah, I still call them French Fries.
McCain unfortunately only inspires the average person to be very very afraid, and allows those with the history of exploitation and impulsive war tendencies to just carry with the status quo.
Speaking of fear, as long as I can remember, one side has said, "Stop at 2! the world will be over-populated and we'll all die, the trash will overtake the planet and we'll all die, the cars will warm the globe and we'll all die..."
I am an independent. However, I too hope that those of you spouting off for Mcsame get exactly what you deserve!
Hey CA, when we liberated Europe, we actually were treated as liberator's unlike the expectations your hero had regarding Iraq.
And give it a rest already, yes we did an awesome thing in WWII.
First of all, it was 63 years ago, second, we got alot in return including permanent bases all over the World.
Your boy Mcsame may just get his permanent bases in the Middle East if he has his way.
Oh BTW 'Queenie', I don't see your flag pin, where is it.
Did you leave it in LALA Land where your head is at?
Does that make you a traitor?
Thanks for the invite to leave our nation C A., but I think I'll stay right here in the country that I was born in, raised in, and whose military I voluntarily served in.
Just so we can be clear about my service: I was not drafted, I was active duty, and there was no G.I. Bill during my military service. I joined and served in our United States armed forces out of a sense of patriotism and citizen duty to country; not because I was forced to, or because some tasty carrot had been dangled from government pockets, and not so I would have something to do one weekend per month.
No thanks, I'll stay right here in the country that I served, because I believe in what America stands for; and that doesn't include bullying people for accolades, or trying to badger folk into being silent.
I wore combat boots (and I would don them again), but I will not wear jackboots and then require others to lick them.
and though we were in different branches, Semper Fi Brother!
profiting from their terms in office for a period of at least 10 years.
No book deals, no working for lobbyists, no speaking engagements paid for by corporations that did business with the former politician, etc.
This would drastically effect BOTH PARTIES EQUALLY!
Here in MIchigan, our former Governor left us with a $3BILLION Dollar Deficit, the worst roads in America, and packed the State Supreme Court with a lot of right wing anti-wrongful lawsuit political hacks who attempted to stop people who were horribly injured, killed, etc. and their families from collecting close to reasonable judgements.
After leaving office due to term limits (he had NEVER held a job outside of Government!),
John Engler went on to be the titular (or should I say BOOBULAR) head of the American Manufacturers Association at well over $1,000,000.00 a year.
Payback is sweeeet!!
Look back at all of the money Rupert Murdoch paid out in "Publisher's Advances" to
hacks of both parties. It is shocking!
Lets stop all political bribery in any form for Democrats and Republicans alike.
It would be a good place to start for honesty in Government.
You sound like a great candidate for the citizen imposed term limits movement. Check it out at:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977094084&nav=MyGather
For those who don't understand the connection between Bush and homelessness in Denmark. Bush is in office due primarily to the ideologies supporting the welfare of multinational corporations. Danica and many of the Danske Bank's subsidiaries are heavily invested in the munitions corporations of America, and especially the manufacturers of various ordinances now being intensely used in Iraq, including cluster bombs, which have a proven dud rate of between 12% to 40% according the United Nations.. In that atmosphere, a few in Denmark are getting quite wealthy, and for the first time ever, we have a prime minister with a salaried spin doctor. Denmark has about the world's second highest tax rate structure (apx 50% income tax). That tax and other taxes were part of the Danish contract with itself decades ago to establish a social and medical infrastructure to prevent the very homelessness America now is in the stratosphere with... due to investors who play poker with people's mortgages, for example... to prevent sickness or accident or whatever, from completely destroying a family's life and foundation. That was very important to Denmark after WW II. What has happened since Bush is that we then narrowly elected a government that went to bed with the special investor interests that got Bush elected twice, and we have many multinational corporations, most of them originally based in America, who get a free ride to establish themselves in Denmark, and vice versa. Danish firms were given special graces by the Bush Administration to function in the US. Danske Bank is the bank the Danish government uses. It's also the bank that controls the welfare and medical services money distribution. There has been so much privatization in Denmark due to all that, including US firms that now engage themselves directly with the Danish social services agencies. Huge resources, paid for by our taxes, previously contracted directly to the welfare of ordinary Danes, has been diverted to these firms, who behave even more hoggish with resources than anything Denmark had itself created for its infrastructure, including electricity, our public transportation system and so much more. In a small nation of a bit over 5 million, this generates a huge rift between various classes of peoples, and the result is a total handicapping of the Danish way to resolve its own issues. For the past several years, our government has been trying to establish a Reagan-like, trickle down type of economy. It has failed. But those invested with our current government's investment with Bush are getting wealthier, and this has created greed we've never seen before in Denmark... well , for a hundred years anyhow. We now have ministers who go all over the world to parties and vacvations on our tax dollars, and each time the newspapers reveal this, there is a moment of outcry, then its forgotten.
An American sociologist and anthropologist working in Sweden has analyzed this, from the perspective of our great fear of the Muslim culture, and his group's research indicates that the problem also exists because the government, the media and large industry are basically an exclusive old boy's club.
These corrosive Danish special interests have been waiting with salivating mouths for decvades for an administration like Bush to emerge, in order to generate an atmosphere of fear in our society, which then is how any society is easier controlled, so that the rich can get richer, if I can use a colloquialism. In Danish we have a special expression for this: Mere vil have mere.
I greatly doubt Mcsame even CARES about the 'little' people (you know, those of us making less than $200,00. per yr.) let alone the homeless or mentally handicapped among us.
Dear Lera, C A can dish out the criticism very well.
He needs to be able to take it.
Especially when he tells an American Citizen and Veteran to 'move to Denmark'.
A classless A*s!
Times are getting harder and harder on the economy everywhere you go.
I appreciate the video that you put together. It was very sad and touching and I really hope that you find away to make things better there.
Translated from the Danish, the video is called" Why Fogh is Dangerous."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeRrsnEkZso&NR=1
Until we inculcate that level of empathy within our psychological makeup, we will never rise out of our egocentric, alpha dominating, primitive instincts. And we will continue to have war and pandemics.
Get born in a family that ritually rapes/tortures you, or just plain ignores your nurturing, and you might wind up with some severe psychological scars. that include the dual diagnosis of an addiction to deal with that intense suffering.
We are only on this planet for something under 100 years. This planet, as we are scientifically discovering, is a "one nest family." Why are we so intent on messing up our nest?
Yeah those danish cartoons are only proof that Islam is a "religion of peace".
"""Here is yet another example of how 8 years of Bush (and likely also if McCain gets elected) has had a horrific impact in even among the most peaceful of nations. The final image in this short video is of a man who died that I tried to help. Please, America, do some good in the world and locally, and elect Obama!""""
If Obama couldn't solve homelessness in Chicago as a mighty community organiser, what makes you think he can solve the Danes problem. If you want to solve homelessness, ban it. Waiting for elections in a country across the ocean is foolish. Her I thought that they couldn't possibly find anything else to blame Bush for.....
Bush, McCain et al inspire only that fear which allows for further exploitation of peoples and places on the planet, and an ever descending spiral into a hellish scenario approaching mass extinction. Obama, on the other hand, inspires people to shake hands and seek real solutions with awareness. If he implements policies on his watch as president that will kill several hundred thousand people and make homeless and orphan a few million, yes, he'll get the same condemnation Bush, McCain et al deserve.
But I feel that we won't have the luxury of many more presidential elections to understand that simple point before the inertia of natural history and human history converge on us all.