Racism, a Danish delight?

‘We are here because you were there’

“SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Denmark.” The government there is outdoing Draco, the ancient Greek legislator, by introducing extremist laws. One after another, in quick succession, all aimed at the country’s minorities. The latest asinine law aims to cap the population of Danish neighbourhoods to 30 per cent “non-Western”. Lord John Reid said the law “may sometimes be an ass but it cannot be so asinine at that”. He could not have been more wrong on Danish law. Unsurprisingly, a look at the country’s Economic and Interior Affairs Ministry’s definition equates Western to White. Clearly the Danish Dracos are targeting people of colour and Muslims. Coming as it does hot on the heels of the European Union’s Anti-Racism Summit in Brussels last month, it means one of two things: either EU is not able to tame Denmark’s Dracos or EU’s anti-racism initiatives are just for telling, not showing. Shakespeare’s “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” has gone 17th century bad to 21st century worse. Here is why.

Let’s begin with what has come to be known as “the jewellery law” that Denmark passed in 2017. The law requires refugees to surrender their valuables, including jewellery and gold, to pay for their stay in the country. Denmark surely knows how to be inhumane in new ways. It is perhaps telling the world that a country can top global tables and break all the rules of human rights, all at the same time. Little wonder that then Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen called on the United Nations to review the 1951 Geneva Convention on the rights of refugees, a treaty that provides helpless migrants worldwide with legal protection. “There comes a time when you have to discuss whether to adjust the rules of the game,” Reuters quoted Rasmussen as saying in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV 2. This from a country that was the first to sign up on the treaty. Denmark, hear the words of famous Sri Lankan writer-migrant to England, Ambalavaner Sivanandan: “We are here because you were there.” Touche. The Danish tale gets stranger as the years get older. On Sept 7, 2015, the BBC reported a peculiar phenomenon.

Denmark had invented a way to stem the tide of refugees into the country. Or so it thought. Take up ads in Lebanese newspapers. “Dear refugees, do not come to Denmark because we have tightened the regulations in a number of areas.” Like the refugees escaping war have time to read newspapers. Be that as it may, Denmark must be given high marks for turning a humanitarian crisis into a commercial. Denmark would have scored even higher if it put all its xenophobic energy into finding ways to end wars and conflicts, the two main causes of forced migration. Let’s be blunt. Refugees from Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Myanmar or anywhere else do not want to leave their homes. They are forced to because of wars and conflicts, for the most part schemed by the West. Ask the Palestinians, who are victims of Israeli persecution tacitly urged by the West, where they want to be? It will be a chorus of Palestine. Ask the Iraqi refugees, who are victims of an illegal war invented by lies hatched in Washington and London, where they want to be? It will be a resounding Iraq. Syrians, too, will say Syria. Not anywhere in the West. Because the West is still inhumane after all these years.

Denmark would have scored even higher if it put all its xenophobic energy into finding ways to end wars and conflicts...