Dear Enemies, Please Don’t Hate Us

Danish intelligence has warned our participants at the Olympic Games in Beijing that they are among those under the most threat by terrorists. The assessment has been made by Chinese authorities, which put Denmark in the same grade as the US and Israel.

This is not good news of course, and might serve as a wake-up call for Danes to some of the realities of the world today. Not so for handball and Olympic delegate player Kasper Hvidt, though, who comments:

“I must say that as a Dane I am shocked that we even want to be in the same league as such extreme countries. I have to say. It really saddens me. Not just because of my participation in the Games, but as a Danish citizen.” (In Berlingske Tidende, my translation)

How naïve. First of all, calling the US and Israel “extreme” is exaggeration at the least. But as if him being sad would make any difference. Nobody wants to be hated. People might speculate that the threat is due to our engagement in Afghanistan or the Mohammed cartoons, and that had we just minded our own business, none of this would have happened. But while the cartoons have obviously made a difference, the notion that the terrorist threat could be avoided is utterly wrong.

In the world of today there is no such thing as minding your own business. There is only closing or opening your eyes. To some, the mere existence of Denmark as a secular and liberal state, is an offence. These are the real extremists: jihadists and fundamentalists. Not the average Muslim or the majority of Muslims (if they were ever asked). But some people in Denmark need to open their eyes to the fact that certain people actually hate them for being Danish, and there’s absolutely nothing they can do about it. Except taking the necessary consequences and moving on.

100 km Later

I had decided beforehand to take up running again after coming to Australia. And while hard the first few times it has proved to be a good respite from otherwise potentially tiring days of studying and writing.

Today I passed the 100 km mark. This includes a 10-day break from having the cold and adds up to a total 22 trips in two months with an average distance of 4.6 km per trip and an overall average speed of 9.6 km/hour.

It feels great to be in better shape again, and I am somewhat proud of my discipline. Whether I can keep it up indefinitely is questionable, but I would certainly like to continue expanding.

The Pilgrims’ Congress

The Pope is in Sydney, celebrating World Youth Day along with a couple hundred thousand (not all quite so) young Roman Catholics from around the world. It’s a huge event for the city, although much of the attention focuses on road closures and infrastructure challenges while the event lasts. I won’t be going in to watch him. Mainly because it’s not worth the hassle, and of course I’m hardly Catholic either, although I hope that the throngs of Christians have a good time here.

Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd, of course. And several not so pope-friendly people are using the opportunity to point out some of the darker sides of the Catholic Church. One of the more ingenious (and very Aussie) ideas was T-shirts with the inscription “The Pope touched me down under”.

This highlights one of the main battles of the church in recent years: the sex abuse scandals involving Catholic priests. I wouldn’t suggest that the Church actually condones such behaviour, but the handling has probably come short. What struck me today was the news report of the Pope’s meeting with PM Kevin Rudd, and his commending of Australia’s recent apology to the aboriginals: “Thanks to the Australian Government’s courageous decision to acknowledge the injustices committed against the indigenous peoples in the past, concrete steps are now being taken to achieve reconciliation.”

These are bold words from a man who has yet to formally apologise for the sex abuse by Catholic clergy. No, Ratzinger did not to my awareness personally abuse anybody. I’m not saying that he did. But the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church is such that the pontiff should acknowledge responsibility and offer an unambiguous apology, not just the “regret” he has so far expressed. If nothing else, it would be a wise communication strategy to do so.

Nudity is not Porn

We live in a so-called liberal, western society, but in some ways tolerance has been on the decline for the past decade or so. One thing is religion and freedom of speech, especially when it comes to criticising Islam. But in the quest for protecting values that we’re not even sure we share any longer, sometimes people trip over themselves in ridiculous attempts to preserve long-lost sanctities.

Even in multi-cultural, laid-back, easy-going Australia, where ‘wowsers’ were supposed to have disappeared years ago.

Case in point: the recent furore here in Sydney, which started with an art exhibition featuring images of nude women (gasp), some of which were children. The exhibition was closed down, and to highlight the issue of free speech, the magazine Art Monthly Australia featured a front cover depicting a naked girl on a painted backdrop (inset). And highlight it they have indeed – who said Jyllands-Posten? As if they had nothing else to do this has put politicians on edge, with even the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd criticising the picture.

Now whatever your opinion on it may be, the picture is clearly art, and clearly non-sexual. I am not a naturist myself, but I will agree with my friends who are on at least one thing: nudity in itself is not particularly sexual and usually not especially arousing. Denmark is one of the countries where the distinction has been made without too much fuss. Australia, apparently, has either not, or has retreated in recent years.

Freedom of speech includes art. Underage pornography should, of course, be banned. But this is not it. Get a grip.

Who Are You?

This time I need your help.

I have been blogging now for exactly three years. It all began in St. Louis in 2005, and eventually kept on going. It has been fun, especially because of the many good comments from you, my readers. But now that some of you will have had the opportunity to know quite a bit about me, I thought it was time to turn that around and let me know a little about you.

So I’ve created a short survey for you to complete. It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes, but will help me to know a little bit more about you, and what you think of this blog. If you’re anything like me, you actually enjoy taking surveys, especially if they’re not to long or boring. Please help me out – click here to take the survey.

Thank you for your help. And I will, of course, post the key results later.