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Denmark got its first democratic constitution on June 5, 1849. This
is celebrated every year with cultural and political activities
organized by local organizations. The activities are open to the
public, a way of celebrating democracy and the Danish way of life. I
was able to witness one such activity in the small town of
Svogerslev.
The church council had organized the event
together with the institution in charge of adult education. The
brass band entertained, while this year’s speaker was brought from
the nearby university. Henrik Jensen spoke about duty in a Danish
society where citizens seem to know only their rights, not their
duties. About 100 local residents attended.
Jensen traced the change in Danish society to
the 1960s. During this decade, women started working outside their
homes. The State took over responsibility for the welfare of
children, the elderly and the sick. Gradually, people came to turn
to the State rather than the family for their individual needs. The
family evolved into a group of individuals not a pyramid wherein
parents are at the top. Today’s parents are afraid to assert their
authority over their children as they do not want to ruin their
relationship as friends. Jensen’s research project, while far from
completed, has led him to believe that future generations of Danes
grow up without learning adequately about duty and responsibility.
The pillars of democracy are freedom, equality
and solidarity. But Jensen believes that people have forgotten these
pillars, or that they do not know the true meaning of the words.
Freedom isn’t simply about us and what we want. Freedom is also
about a truth that is bigger than ourselves, he explained. Western
democracy was always built on a balance of duty and right. Duties,
not rights, make up the cement that holds our society together,
Jensen said. It made me think of the Philippine Supreme Court’s
Writ of Amparo and Philip Alston. They insist that the rights of
individuals and groups who shun no means, including violence and
deception, to undermine and bring down the Philippine democratic
state, must be upheld at all cost, that is, at the expense of our
democratic society and its institutions.
A society cannot survive if its citizens only
take but don’t give anything back.
Au pair girls from the Philippines know much
about duty. Many slave for hours without end to be able to send
money to their families in the Philippines, a long-time Filipino
resident told me. These girls, officially about 1,700, are in
Denmark illegally as far as Philippine authorities are concerned.
The Danish embassy, however, grants visas. The girls typically end
up paying P15,000 to 30,000 to Philippine immigration officials at
the airport to be allowed to leave the Philippines .
The girls make P23,000 to P46,000 a month, and
many take additional jobs in their free time in order to send home
more money. There is a growing problem with pregnancies. Some are
unwanted, but others are deliberate. The girls think they will be
allowed to stay in Denmark if they get pregnant. But pregnant or
not, they have to leave Denmark when their contracts end. A few are
lucky—they end up getting married to Danes. This is the dream of
many.
St. Anne’s Church is packed with young
Filipinas. After mass they chat and exchange mobile phone numbers.
There are thousands like them back home in the Philippines. They
dream of a better life but are seldom equipped with the skills
needed for the very different life in Denmark. Some are recruited on
false promises—host families are told that their au pair is
willing to do any kind of work even if au pair girls are obliged to
do nothing but look after the host family’s young children. Some
au pair girls are recruited on the false promise that they could
earn as much as P100,000 a month. This has reportedly lured some
well-educated and relatively well-paid girls to quit their jobs in
the Philippines and become au pair girls. The recruiters are often
former au pair girls.
About 100 years ago the Mexican revolutionaries
fought for freedom and justice. They defined justice as respect for
the freedom of others. We still have a long way to go to achieve
this ideal.
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