Our last day in Copenhagen; heading back to a new house and job (officially) in Kiel. Just read this piece in the SMH; I loved it. I agree utterly about hope and the role of government being there to provide it, at least foster it. I look around the streets of Copenhagen; hope is what you see on the faces of the smiling, happy, healthy people. The belief that it will get better, not worse. A group of older Asian people drinking in the square, looking happy and hopeful rather than the bitterness I see on the faces of many Germans (but that's changing too- what was the joy in the World Cup if not hope?).
Yesterday we saw two men fighting drunkenly on the street, one calls the other a Muslim cock-sucker, tries to beat him with his belt. The other lifts his crutch to fight back. People stopped to watch. I wondered why, what's the point? But it's better to watch than not, just watching shows you expect something to change, to at least witness the worst rather than run away in fear of it. It's hope again, that in watching you will help, somehow. The fight broke up pretty quickly after that.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/a-grave-new-world/2006/09/01/1156817102748.html
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