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Danish nurses continue their almost two-month long
strike affecting the lives of thousands and thousands of patients
many of whom have had surgeries and treatments postponed due to the
strike. The Danish embassy in Islamabad was bombed. But such bad
news didn’t seem to bother the 9,000 rock lovers. They paid almost
P5,000 each to watch American rock band Kiss perform in Copenhagen.
The concert venue was packed with spectators in all age groups. Men
and women who as kids or teenagers had rocked to Kiss in the 1970s
had brought their children to the concert. Middle-aged couples had
put on their favorite Kiss t-shirts or other black attire. In
Denmark, people actually stand up during concerts, seats are limited
to a few and they are far from the stage. People, including young
children, were frisked and bags inspected at the entrance. Despite
the crowd, the selling of beer, the smashing of a guitar, loud
fireworks and fake blood on the stage (the usual Kiss concert
stunts), the concert started and ended without any untoward
incident.
P5,000 for a ticket to a rock
concert is common in Denmark, I paid almost P3,000 to have my hair
trimmed! To a Filipino, or someone who lives in the Philippines,
everything is very expensive here. Taxes and salaries are also much
higher. But one newspaper mentioned high taxation as one of the
reasons why Danes hadn’t been as hard hit by the rising cost of
oil and fuel. Taxes reportedly constitute such a large portion of
gasoline prices, for instance, that the increase caused by the hike
in the price in the world market has had a relatively small impact
on the local price. Gasoline and diesel cost about P110 per liter
with diesel being only slightly cheaper than gasoline. Prices go up
and down several times in a day, the daily fluctuations often caused
by competition among local gasoline stations.
Denmark has a good public
transportation system compared to our privately owned public
transport sector. However, the railway system has been neglected in
recent years in some parts of the province. The Danish State
Railways is short of wagons—some very old ones are still plying
the routes—caused by a five-year delay in the delivery of train
wagons by an Italian supplier. Many trips are cancelled at this time
resulting in overcrowding during rush hour and more waiting time. As
a consolation, passengers who ride on the old wagons are given
coupons for the inconvenience. A coupon is worth about P100 and one
can exchange it for a cup of coffee, a bottle of mineral water or a
chocolate bar at any train station.
Well, despite the shortcomings,
public trains and buses still offer a decent, safe, relatively
reliable and affordable transportation to Danes. Public
transportation—which is owned and operated by the state—is also
used by people who could afford to own their own cars but who find
it more convenient to use public transportation compared to private
cars.
In the small towns, however,
buses are fewer. There simply aren’t enough passengers to make
public transportation viable. Alternatives to cars are
bicycles—and walking. Sidewalks are wide and not filled with
sidewalk vendors, parked cars or lampposts. Some roads have bicycle
lanes.
While Danes don’t talk much
about the bombing of the embassy in Islamabad, politicians and
political observers are concerned. Some believe that what provoked
the bombing was Denmark ’s foreign policy in general and not the
Mohammad pictures alone. In the aftermath of the bombing, some local
Muslims were attacked by angry Danes, even if these Muslims have
condemned the Islamabad bombing. Fortunately, these attacks were
isolated incidents.
Whether or not Muslim women
should be allowed to wear scarves has been a hot topic among some
politicians in recent weeks. Some see the scarf as a sign of Muslim
women’s being oppressed by their husbands and fathers. One
ultra-rightist politician declared that if she was in the hospital
and a nurse with a scarf approached her, she would rather not get
any treatment than be treated by this person. Most Danes, however,
seem to find the issue of scarves petty and would want their
politicians to focus on more urgent matters.
opinion@manilatimes.net.
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