The Great Danish Update

After a few days of digesting my visit, I think I'm prepared to put a finer point on my thoughts. After what was a fantastic 4 days in the Danish capital, I am incredibly amazed at the maturity of their policy initiatives and their support of NATO's mission in Afghanistan. Yeah, that NATO. Don't forget that NATO's calling the shots there with US leadership.

But the Danes are struggling a bit with their identity. This country of only 5mm people are incredibly homogeneous, therefore Europe's common thread of discourse, immigration, is no different in Copenhagen. At the risk of restating what most people probably already know, anyone trying to understand the Danish immigration struggle has to look at it through the eyes of the Muhammad Cartoons. These were cartoons of the Prophet sponsored by a conservative newspaper that got Danish consulates/embassies bombed and raised the ire of just about every Muslim in the world, even the moderates. It also got Danish travelers to put away their backpacks with Danish flags on them and do what Americans do with their backpacks when things get dangerous: pretend they're Canadian.

These cartoons are largely looked upon as a national embarrassment and as a complicating factor for Muslims emigrating into their country. The Dane's self-identity is *totally* wrapped up in the Society. Everyone is polite, the city is spotless and collectively they only struggle with political issues (and as a whole, even those don't seem too divisive). Then come the immigrants who cannot readily assimilate --they look, talk, and act differently. As an aside, one reason may be Danish citizenship is damn hard to come by and with so many official hoops to jump through, immigrants may choose not to embrace the Danish notion of Society.

This struggle is also financial and echoes the immigration issue in the US: the social costs. The Danes begin their marginal tax rate at ~50% and it goes up from there. For that kind of money, they expect the gov't to pay for anything that is a problem, and if someone is getting these free services and not paying taxes... Sound familiar?

The Danes we met would bristle at the mere suggestion of xenophobia, and it's a word that may in fact be too harsh. The Danes are good people, ardent supporters of the US, and are having growing pains. In a lot of ways they're envious of our immigration debate, as it mainly focuses on illegals.

But wait til I go into climate change legislation.