I’ve just spent
four days in London with my family. My daughter Sofie and her boyfriend Rasmus
has been living there since August. Both my mom and I have birthdays in March. So,
we went there for our birthday celebrations and to spend some time together for
once.
I love
London. I love the diversity, the bustling streets, the parks, the food. Just
walking the streets, looking at people – walk a bit, grab a cup of coffee, walk
some more, have lunch and so on. There is always something going on in London.
Phoenix Arts Club
Thursday,
we went to the Phoenix Arts Club for
The West End’s Theatre open mic night to experience Sofie on stage she is an
amazing singer. It was a great evening; the performers are fantastic, and we
had a lot of fun. They have open mic night every Thursday.
Friday on
my mom’s birthday we visited Kew Gardens, a
fantastic botanical garden. Way too big to see in just one day, so we only saw
a fraction of it. We also had afternoon tea at the Ivy in Covent Garden – afternoon tea
is a must every time I’m in London, love it.
Afternoon tea at the Ivy
Saturday,
we went to Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park while a million brits was marching
for a people vote. It’s hard to understand they are leaving the EU, but on the
other hand they don’t really see them selves as Europeans. They always talk
about the continent, i.e. Europe.
Kew Garden
It will
also affect us as a family because we do not know whether Sofie and Rasmus can
stay. Rasmus has just been accepted to one of the universities and will study
creative writing the next 3 years – it’s so cool and I’m proud of him.
Sofie has a
free scholarship for a musical performance school (MX Masterclass). We saw their show at Charing
Cross Theatre on Sunday. Sofie has applied for a master’s in musical
performance from this fall. All of this means we follow the Brexit negotiations
closely – tension rises each day.
But besides
the insecurity we had a great weekend in London – my feet were killing me, and
I had to relax all of Tuesday due to the pain.
I’ll be leaving
Denmark soon, but the whole family will be together again on Iceland in the beginning
of June – a family holiday.
I just
finalized my next article. Its about my visit to Rwanda and it has been
difficult writing it. Its been tough thinking about my visit again, so
emotional. I ended up spending several days writing the article, because I
needed breaks in between.
Thinking
about all those people killed during the genocide. All those lives lost.
Looking at history it doesn’t seem like we will ever learn and change our ways.
I’ve visited the memorial in Rwanda, I’ve also visited the killing fields in
Cambodia – my grandparents were part of the resistance during world war 2. They
were imprisoned in a camp in Denmark (Frøslevlejren). They were lucky. They
were caught just before the war ended, else they might have ended up in a
concentration camp.
Cambodia – Killing Fields
And why do
genocides happen – how is it possible for human beings to kill other human
beings. How is it possible for human beings to commit those horrible crimes. It
is difficult to comprehend.
Looking at
history the commonalities to me seems to be when groups of people are
dehumanised – either because they are from another tribe, another religion,
another race or just something else which differs them from the majority.
Denmark – Froeslevlejren
The
dehumanising begins when those in power (or the people who wants to be in
power) starts to distinguish us from them. They point out the differences
between humans. Next step is to put fear into people, claiming ‘the others’ are
bad people. Claiming ‘the others’ want to force you to change your life, your
belief or even that they want to kill you, your family and friends.
This is what
the Nazis, the Khmer rouge and the Hutus did. This is what happened before all
genocides. Fear is a powerful tool – it is a powerful weapon. It is easy to
scare people, especially when it comes to the un-known. It requires much more
energy for us to have an open mind, look at the facts and be pragmatic.
Everyday we
see how fear is spread, fake news and lies are all over the place. It’s a shame
because basically all we want as humans is living a good life. We want a good
life with friends and family being happy. This is what everybody wants no
matter where you live, what colour your skin has or what you believe in.
I haven’t
been active on my blog the last week. My writing routine is a bit off after I
came home. I’m still trying to adjust to everyday life – it is especially hard
to get used to the cold weather and the rain. I’ve been freezing, some days
just wanted to stay under my blanket binging Netflix. It is no surprise that
many people suffer from winter depressions here in the north.
I’ve been bust
processing all my experiences, catching up with everybody and at the same time plan
my next trip. My plans are in progress and I’ll hopefully leave Denmark in 3
weeks. At the same time, I am meeting a lot of new people and hope I can corporate
with some of them in the future. interesting times 😊
I & Maja aka minnie_mouseling
I met one new
friend through Instagram. The fun part is that she lives in Copenhagen, she is
an atheist and has made atheist jewellery for some years. I had never heard
about her before and we live a few kilometres apart from each other. She found
me and yesterday we met for coffee and talked for hours about humanism, atheism
and our common goals. She has a lot of followers in the US where it can be (in
some parts of the country) just as difficult to come out as a non-believer as in
Africa.
The invisible pink unicorn
Her name is
Maja but known as minnie_mouseling on Instagram. Maja has created a beautiful invisible
pink unicorn pendant for atheists to wear and has the motto: put a friendly
face on atheism. The invisible pink unicorn is an international symbol for
atheism. Check out her webpage
and follow her on Instagram.
Last week
was International Women’s Day and I spent a lot of energy being frustrated
about the media coverage. In Denmark the media prefer to ridicule feminism
instead of focussing on the issues and challenges we still face.
We do not
have gender equality in Denmark – a report
from Amnesty international highlighted this in a report on how rape
survivors are being treated by the authorities. It is devastating to read how
the survivors are blamed, victim blaming is the norm both by authorities and in
the public eye.
But the
media wanted to cover a non-existing conflict regarding gender neutral traffic
lights. A story created by a journalist who months back also created a
non-existing conflict about a song.
Saturday night dinner
So I was
mad most of Friday – fortunately we (Humanistisk Samfund) was hosting
the annual Nordic Humanist meeting the whole weekend – they managed to make me
happy again. It is always a pleasure meeting our friends in the Nordics – from Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
We talked,
shared experiences and made plans. During the weekend we also had a visit from
the Norwegian ambassador in Denmark Aud Kolberg talking about Nordic identity,
and a Danish scientist Josephine Valentin talked about SKAM (the tv-series) and
Nordic identity. Great weekend.
I’m also
adjusting to the day-to-day tasks – getting used to grocery shopping, doing the
dishes, cleaning the apartment, visiting the doctor and the dentist. I still
need to get a haircut. All the tedious tasks you have to do – it’s tough to
adjust 😉
I’m back in
Copenhagen, I’m back in my hood on Vesterbro down town Copenhagen. Today I went
back to my ‘office’ – a local restaurant BOBs where it is possible to work all
day if you are a member of Sp8ces. Through sp8ces (no I don’t get
paid to tell about it) you have access to several working lounges in Denmark
and Norway – they make agreements with hotels, restaurants, etc. to use
timeslots where their spaces are not occupied. It is a great concept – and
cheap.
I’ve spent
the last couple of days sleeping, doing absolutely nothing besides catching up
on Netflix. It will take time before I have processed all my experiences from
my journey. I have travelled many kilometres, met so many people – not only
humanists, but also other locals and tourists, seen the most amazing landscapes
and met fantastic animals. Earth is an amazing and beautiful place.
I know I’m
privileged – I have the possibility to visit places where the usual tourist never
goes. I’m glad this journey is a combination of following the usual tourist
path and meeting people living their lives in these countries. It adds so much more
when you talk to people living there and not just other tourists or people from
travel agencies.
My journey
has showed me the diversity of the different countries. There is so much
prejudice in the western world toward the African continent – yes, it is a
continent and not a country. Africa is unfortunately often perceived as a
country and treated as such in popular culture and media. Africa is three times
larger than Europe and occupies 20% of the land mass on Earth – it is huge.
In eastern
and southern Africa where I have been travelling, they have many challenges. I
travelled during the rainy season but in most of the countries, if not all,
they got lesser rain than they need to avoid drought. Climate changes are
already impacting this part of the world. The growing population is also impacting
the infrastructure – water supply, electricity and transport.
I’ve been
travelling for 10 weeks, visited 8 countries and held 30 interviews with
non-believers. During the next 3-4 months all the interviews will be published
as podcast episodes through Babelfish
and I will continue to write articles for POV International.
At the same time, I will plan the next steps of my journey. Which means I will be pretty busy while in Copenhagen – I also want to see, to hug and talk to my friends and family. Right now it is cold and rainy – I hope spring is coming.
Today I am leaving Namibia. The only country where I haven’t interviewed any humanists. So far, I know the country doesn’t have any humanist or atheist organisations – or at least no organisations are members of Humanists International.
I decided
to visit anyway – purely for recreational reasons. So, I have been on holiday
the last week, experiencing Namibia. A fascinating country almost twenty times
the size of Denmark, but the population is half the size of Denmark. It is the
least dense country in Africa with only 3 people per square kilometre – In the
whole world only Mongolia is less dense (2 people per square kilometre).
Namibia has
is all, in great amount. Savanna, desert, ocean, mountains etc. And everything
is big – the national parks goes on forever, you drive for hours through each
park in search for animals. For the first time ever, I have been part of a
tourist group with people I didn’t know beforehand. I’m used to be the only one
or travelling with Sofie.
It’s been
interesting travelling with other tourists, even though it means you don’t get
as close to the guide or the locals. You meet people from all over the world
who are interested in the same things as you – to see some animals up close and
spend time in a 40-degree desert after hours and hours of driving. Canadians,
Americans, Namibians, British, South African and French – the latter has spent
the last 8 years sailing around the world in their own boat (impressive).
Cheetah in Solitaire
The wild
life is amazing – I saw my first leopard (2 actually) and my first cheetahs.
Black rhinos, elephants, zebras, Oryx’s and many other animals. It is much
drier here than in the other countries I have visited – Namibia is dry, but
also feels the consequences of the climate changes.
There has
never been much water in this dry land – maybe one of the reasons for the small
population – but it is getting worse. They change salt water to drinking water
to cover the need. And everybody is asked to save water wherever we go. On the
positive side the water is clean enough for me to drink – I don’t need to bye
water all the time.
The most
overwhelming experience was the Namibian Desert – especially the orange sand
dunes. This is the oldest desert in the world. The sun is relentless, the
wildlife is well hidden – but there are some. We managed to come across the
mountain zebra, many oryx’s, jackals and other animals.
Dune no 45
Some from
the group climbed the Crazy Dune – aka Big Daddy – it is 325 meters tall. You must
get up at 5 o’clock in the morning or else it will get to hot to climb. I
didn’t get up there but walked to Deadveil to look at a dried-out flood pan
with trees which have been dead for 800 years – a fascinating place.
We had a
nice view of all the ‘crazy’ people climbing the dune while the sand got hotter
and hotter. Soon we could all feel the hot sand burning through the bottom of
our shoes – and it was only 11 o’clock. The temperatures were reaching 40
degrees at noon.
Etosha pan
This
country was definitely worth a visit. It was a so-called protectorate of South
Africa until 1990 – or the real story is that South Africa didn’t follow the
agreements made in the UN, so they took power over Namibia and treated it as a
protectorate and even implemented apartheid rules. It took 35 years before
Namibia finally got its independence.
When I
leave Namibia – I also leave Africa heading home to Denmark. It has been an
amazing trip, and an experience of a lifetime – I have been away for 10 weeks,
2½ months. This was a test run. I wanted to find out whether I can travel a
long time on my own. I can. I do not have any problems travelling alone – I met
a lot of people on the way. I talk to locals, I talk to tourists – and I meet
humanists, atheists and non-believers.
They are
the heroes of Africa today. They are fighting for human rights and humanism.
They are fighting for their life stance in a part of the world where they are
the odd one out. Their stories deserve to be told – and to be heard.
When I
arrive in Denmark, I will start planning my next steps. I want to visit several
countries in Africa north of Equator. I would also like to cover some countries
in the Middle East. I hope to be on the road again in April, but I will
continue blogging about my experiences from Africa.
