that's why i'm sitting her procrastinating. we're now in the "action research" phase of the fellowship, meaning we've been split into small groups and are working on specific topics relating to things we've learned about during the lecture phase. my group is focusing on denmark's policy regarding asylum seekers, specifically looking at iraq and a group of 282 who are now facing deportation, many after spending years in denmark in asylum camps. pretty much denmark is at least as fucked up as the u.s. in this area, and it's kind of sad and weird to learn about. the danes are supposed to be super happy, and it seems that most of them are (aside from being beautiful and all more or less well-off), but they're beginning to realize it was quite easy to be ultra-liberal and all human-rightsy when there were no issues actually facing denmark. now there are immigrants and refugees and the current government is creating this self-fulfilling prophecy of fear and anger towards these people, reiterating over and over how impossible it will be for such people to "integrate" into danish society, and thus - send them back! our paper is being guided by the idea that the current group of iraqis are being used as an example for others thinking of coming to denmark, making sure they know how terrible and difficult it will be. the sad thing is, it seems to be working, though at great cost to the current refugees.
so, yeah, that's what i've been working on the past few days. we interviewed two members of parliament this morning, a psychiatrist who works with refugees yesterday, and a volunteer at the church where many of them are currently living the day before that. kind of overwhelming, and i haven't even started writing the article yet...
outside of the academic-ish sphere things have been going quite well here. still getting along with marissa, and still loving her relatives' amazing house. sadly per and nonni left for london this morning, meaning marissa and i are on our own in this grand old house for the next 6 days. today after a muggy day of running around doing interviews and tracking down my seemingly-lost camera marissa and i hopped on nonni's new and old bikes and rode the 10 minutes over to the sea where every copenhager around seemed to have spilled onto the mostly grassy, minimally sandy beach for a bit of lounging and some quick swimming. copenhagen boasts about its clean water, and while it may be toxin free it sure was surprisingly yucky looking and incredibly shallow, so we just hopped in and out, dried off in the sun, then rode home just in time for a heat-induced thunderstorm. quite an afternoon.
now it's back to work for me...
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Hey, I am so bummed! I've done three or four comments and none are here cuz I didn't do it right--damn! Love your blogs and all the good writing and info--sorry about no cms. I'll see if this goes thru. xoxoxoxo mutti
ReplyDeleteyeah, well crappy on me--all those long notes I wrote. can't remember a thing of what it all was--thx for keepin on with the posts. Now I post this--Lena's here--same old same old hangin with Dave. . . I'm on house rest intensive physical therapy to turn this foot thign around. Turns out a lot of it is old ankle injury. I'm getting better--way less pain. God pain is weird.
ReplyDeletehey mommy - i was wondering about the lack of comments! don't worry about it though, it's just good to know that someone out there is reading what i write.
ReplyDeleteglad to hear your feet are on the mend. another good reason to take a break from teaching.
say hi to lena and daddy for me! xoxo
Yes Ursi, I'm reading your blog too, and a comment didn't post. anyway sounds so great, all that you are doing! When you're back to Pdx, David and Claudia should be here. They asked for your blog too. Have a great wind up in Paris.
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