Richard AmmonAnd we go on as we can. Generally satisfied or accepting our acclimatized life and don’t look, or do look, for more than what we can achieve by our own efforts. Here in Denmark socialized medical care also helps maintain an appearance of contentment. So life continues with the heralded Skandic quality lifestyle so admired around the world.
Things work well here–the buses, the clocks, the electricity, steam heat, the opera house, Tivoli, the Queen’s appearances and even the self-regulating-dope-dealing affairs in Christiania alternative village across the canal; books in the ultra-modern King’s National Library are checked out electronically and all across town freshly made bread and pastries each early morning fill the window shelves of the bakeries. Crime is low (incarcerated criminals get paid for labor at standard wages).
And yet I doubt I should choose to live in this efficient society and city full time, much as I admire efficiency and reliable infrastructure. It’s much like Switzerland here, which is a good thing.
My hesitation is that it’s all so predictable, repeatable, so
well ordered and self-perpetuating that after a while I crave a bit of Asian disorder and African unreliability. The street kitchens of Bangkok woking food at one in the morning or a noisy crush during a Buddhist holiday or a public water dousing at Songkran (photo right). Or the chaos of Lusaka’s (Zambia) bus station when a seven AM departure really means eight-thirty and crossing the border from Mozambique to Malawi means a pot-holed dirt road and an indolent customs agent eating breakfast from a plastic bag as he fondles my passport (or tells me to come back tomorrow). Or a color-splashed Nepalese festival–take your pick of 40!
