The Fat of the Land

Thank God Obama stuck to guns and religion, when trying to illustrate the big bind America has gotten itself into over the last years. One can only imagine what would have happened, if he had been deemed elitist for stressing an even (literally) bigger one: obesity. The Mister Softee jingle (“Bubblicious RMX” feat. Celine Dion and Enrique Iglesias) would go triple platinum, Ronald McDonald would clinch a last-minute nomination and pull home an election landslide, and Coca-Cola would break the NASDAQ after announcing its plan to fuse with leading water providers to deliver sparkling soft drinks fresh from the tap.

Obama for President: American Dream or Forever Hopeful?

Call him the Black Kennedy, the Tiger Woods of politics, or the Second Coming. The epithets used to describe presidential hopeful Barack Obama (D-Ill) are a testimony to an election that is so much more than politics. There is something close to biblical about rain, when the skies give way to an almost cathartic downpour, draining off the drudge, sins and conversation-residuals clogging the streets. In any Hollywood movie (especially considering the writers’ strike) it could have been a Second Coming scenario, yet it was an unassuming Monday with weather more befitting of an unassuming British city pronounced Gloomster (but probably spelled Gleucmcester) in the midst of Berlin. The prophesized savior of American politics, Barack Obama, drew close to a 100 people, who sought shelter in the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung on this rainy, borderline-suicidal Monday evening, to learn about the self-professed harbinger of a new era – in a country so far from theirs.

Have Prophets Replaced Pork as Denmark’s Main Export?

It’s election time in the Danish Kingdom, and what better way to churn out those votes, than to let the Prophet Muhammad work his magic?

The Danish People’s Party (DPP, Dansk Folkeparti) has published election posters (here) featuring a drawing by Alexander Ross from 1683 of the Prophet. The poster reads in bold, capital letters: “Freedom of Speech is Danish, Censorship Isn’t – We Hang on to the Danish Values,” and continues, “Danish People’s Party – Your Country, Your Choice.” According to Danish People’s Party’s party leader, Pia Kjærsgaard, “We [Danish People's Party] are not doing this to provoke, but are doing it exactly because a drawing – a 400 year old drawing of Muhammad – is a symbol of the freedom of speech in Denmark, because we hung on to that freedom of speech.”

From the 78th Floor to the Stairway to Heaven

Sometimes, silence seems louder than the shrillest noise. In New York, where noise is the norm, silence can pierce your heart and penetrate your soul, until you feel like crying.

6 years after 2 planes pierced the hearts of an entire nation, and penetrated the souls of the Western world, the silence at Ground Zero still screams. And though the pain will never go away, New York is back on its feet.

The Day Hurricane Muhammad Hit

When was the last time a hoard of crying Muslims set your flag on fire? If you are from Denmark, like I am, it couldn’t have been more than 20 months ago.

It is a funny thing symbols, really. One day, they’re decorating your birthday cake, the next, they’re burning on the West Bank. One day, they’re in your daily Qur’an, the next, they’re in a Danish, a French or a German newspaper with a bomb in their turban. One day, some Americans think your country is the capital of Stockholm (not kidding!), the next, they’re “supporting the Danes’ rights to freedom of speech” by drinking Carlsberg and eating Danish hot-dogs during football games. Seems ridiculous? It is. And it is not.

Letters From an American Wannabe: September 5, 2007

For the past 2 hours I’ve been dwelling mid-air above a calm, bright sea of white, cotton candy clouds.

Vivid images of casualties of cross-Atlantic crusades are safely tugged away in the books of history, and the hunger for the land of milk and honey has been staved off by a club soda, a chicken breast with risotto and season salad, a complementary cracker and cheese, and a chocolate chip cookie.

120 years ago, the people now 30,000ft below me, securely screened underneath the friendly skies, would have risked their life to cross the very same waters for the mere dream of a fresh potato. This goes to prove, like anything else, there’s a past and there’s a future – a prologue and an epilogue. First come the prologue…

M100 – Day 1: Is There More to Potsdam Than Popcorn?

 A lot can be said about Potsdam. Probably most of the stuff is true.

Located a stone’s throw west of Berlin, Potsdam drew national attention on Easter Sunday 2006, as a German-Ethiopian husband and father was sent into a coma by a blow to the head by an assumed, yet unidentified, right extremist. It was a punch on the nose for a nation, desperately fighting to move past its all too tragic past.