LWID #5 - "The only thing certain in life is death and taxes"

This podcast episode covers discussion around the Last Week in Denmark (27.10-03.11) Episode 37 Year 4 newsletter update.

In this episode, we discussed Denmark gearing up to celebrate Christmas, our thoughts around taxes, and an international perspective on Danish culture when it comes to sports.

• Thoughts about municipal income tax... and hikes (04:00)
• Arun as the next Gentofte city councilman? (13:43)
• The (sports) hooligan culture in Denmark (18:53)
• Competitiveness in Danish culture (39:16)
• Thought about the future format of this podcast (46:55)

We also invite our listeners to reach out if you would like to be a part these podcasts discussions, or if you have any suggestions on the themes you would like to hear Arun and Narcis discuss. If you're interested, please send an email to lastweekdk@gmail.com!

The Last Week in Denmark podcast is now also available in both audio and video! And of course, you can always find the full newsletter here.

Want to stay updated with our latest news and events? Find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or visit our website.

Transcript

0:00

[Music] Hello folks! Hello everyone! And I says how are you and how did the week unfold for you? Well it was a strange transition week right? We went from Halloween on Wednesday to Christmas season on Saturday so let's just say it was a transition week. Transition week! One day you see people dressed up and wearing all sort of zombie things and going trick or treat around and then literally two days later you are in a sculpture park witnessing the kickstart of the Christmas season in Denmark. So that's how I am. I am ready to feel the Christmas season. You know there's two months of Christmas in Denmark. November is called, I just call it light Christmas season because you already start having the Christmas parties. We already have the Christmas beer lunch to Friday. So the light Christmas is starting then on 1st of December you have the advent calendar. You start having gifts every day right from 1st of December till Christmas itself and then obviously Christmas. So decorations right? I mean right now I have to start thinking about putting lights outside and slowly slowly get house ready. By 1st of December I should be fully feeling like in a Christmas movie you know. What about you? I had a really good week last week. It was very busy. We in India celebrate Diwali. It's a very popular festival. It also falls on the exact same day as I think in this year's calendar. It's the exact same day on Halloween and Halloween is the day of say the darkness. Diwali is a festival of lights just the other side. The contrary to what Halloween is and with a lot of mythological characters associated with why we celebrate festival of lights and it's a very joyful and also colorful festival with a lot of firecrackers and during Diwali it's like a it's a week. It's a season for Diwali. So we get into like a one week holiday. So if you have any Indian colleagues, no Indian colleague, they probably would have traveled to India or celebrate Diwali in Denmark and I guess in my company we had a day with a lot of Indian costumes people. Even Danest tried to come up with Indian saris and shuddae daaris and all those colorful yeah. It was enjoyable and also exchange sweets. So it was very very nice during the week. Saturday as usual yeah I just loved the week. Good good food but a lot of sugar a lot of calories but that's what we live for so I think it was fun too. I would like to experience this Diwali once. I mean it sounds like the Diwali festival of color right or the color festival. Is this Diwali? Holy is no they are two different things. Festival of colors is more likely you see the color powders and that has a story behind it but Diwali is what I would say popular through the entire country and it goes by a mythological characters and belief systems and it's deeply you know it's ingrained in Hindu culture, Hindu religion yeah but it's also now a celebrated thing across India. So despite the fact that it's not just Hindu today it's just Muslims, Christians, everybody purse crackers and exchange sweets and we have a public holiday in India so it's like the festival season of India I would say. Okay that's cool. Yeah but that brings us to yet another episode, episode five. We haven't even introduced the number. I'm super excited because I have read through the draft article and I handpicked three topics. We will start with the most interesting subjectively. The most interesting part which is the municipal tax, municipal income tax. Money, money around it. Money, money, exactly. This is what you think is most important is money related. At least you're honest about it. I am very honest about it. It's also the area that I really lack clarity is also the money part. So through these conversations I would not only educate experts but most importantly I would also get I would say some awareness you know and to start with the money part the municipal income tax. Let's start with what does Denmark do with the municipal tax? Maybe we could start with how does it affect us? What goes in and how does the government play with it? Well it's not the government who collects municipal income tax. The name says it's the municipal governments or the municipal councils to be more correct who are collecting that tax. And they're using it to finance well let's just see what goes under the municipality. It goes kindergarten, it goes to schools, libraries, local infrastructure like roads and public lightning. Basically, oh yeah you also have all the people the benefits right? Also under that people with disabilities. There's several areas where the money are going basically. It's for services. Also your administration right? All the services that you need when you go to the municipality. I mean the driving license for example. Yeah health card and driving yeah. Health card yes. I think the driving license is under the state agency so no. Oh yeah so it's still not possible. Exactly yeah. Styrelsen are never run by municipalities. Those are like literally agencies of the state. But the yellow card yes that's definitely run by local and regional together let's just say. Because technically they're issued by the region not by the local but the people working for the local government are giving it to you and they are the ones processing the data and so on. So you can say both of them have this task or they're sharing this task. It's quite often that you might find different entities or different public entities who are sharing the same task you can say. Also business promotion right? Every municipality has a business department that is in charge of making sure that people who want to follow the entrepreneurship path have support from the local municipality. Tourist promotion of the location so more people come and visit. So let's say there's a benefit in fact. Yeah I will start with this particular part of this. I could see that there is a big table that the article had and in that article you could actually see a lot of communes and then the amount of tax the percentage of tax they collect. I couldn't differentiate. There isn't a huge difference in terms of let's say the communal tax the municipal tax from Copenhagen which is 23.5 and to the places like let's say Aalborg for example or Aarhus 24.5 too. So why are they first of all why are they different? Why can't they just have one number and if so why it is like who sets these data? Who sets this number? Who determines this number? First of all the the income the municipal income tax is set up by or decided by the city council of that municipality or the local council depending if it's a city municipality or a village municipality. So it's either a local or a city council who decides or the local politicians decide the tax rate because that's literally the biggest income of the municipality. They leave out of that. Unfortunately for many municipalities this is not enough so they depend on basically the state supplementing here and there what's possible so that they can basically survive but many municipalities are literally at the end so that's why whenever you see that they are raising the income municipality tax means that they are not doing very well financially so they need to gather more money from the people. So that's a mechanism that municipalities have to be able to because in Denmark we have this autonomy principle so decisions should be taken as close to the citizen as possible and the first level of government is actually the municipality and they are empowered to quite a high level you can say because they finance themselves, they take just most of the decisions that actually govern you day to day life. By the time you get for us as internationals yes the parliament decides a lot of things especially for non-Europeans not for Europeans but if you were Danish the parliament will not have as much significance to you as your city council because you care more about if your light on your street is working, if the roads are functioning, if the snow falls down, someone calls and collects it, if there are events happening on holidays so there's something happening in your community, if there's support for your business that's what you care about because it's things that directly affect you in your day to day life so you're not going to care so much about okay some larger framework. I have a sense of feeling that for example I live in Gentofte and if I see how many people live in Gentofte versus how many people live in Copenhagen it's a busy I would say city most busy city is Copenhagen let's agree for example and the amount of work that the government and the municipality has to do is let's say twice or thrice maybe for the cleaning or moving tracks or let's say clearing up infrastructure the cost of maintaining city just cost of maintaining let's say a far off state varies right but they still they collect the same numbers and why why why it has to be the same when let's say a commune like far room it's not as populated as it is it still has almost the same number does it have any direct impact to that number maybe I'm understanding it differently. You're saying that if the population of a municipality impacts the percentage yes the lower the population the higher the tax rates. Okay. You have to understand just because there's fewer people doesn't mean there's fewer teachers doesn't mean there's fewer educators yes there might be fewer but still they're still quite enough to need quite a decent budget for you to be able to run that municipality so any municipality no municipality does well if they have very few people especially few people that work because it's not enough just to live there you need to work so if you work in Copenhagen but you live in Gentofte you're going to pay your tax in Gentofte so Gentofte is doing well if you convinced you to move there so lucky Gentofte. What if what if let's put a hypothetical scenario I live in Gentofte but I maybe have an apartment somewhere let's say in Birkerød or Allerød somewhere in that place where do I pay my tax I still own some property in another commune which collects a different number will I still be paying the tax in Gentofte or is it double or how does it work? No your income tax goes to where your current declared residence is. It's not where your residence is nothing because your properties you're going to pay property tax to those municipalities that's another tax you have to pay to local municipalities but not income tax your income tax is related to because your deductions are also related to one single address if there's transport deductions for example so you cannot yeah yeah yeah that way I understand now okay I'm better now yeah yeah so what is the what is the first about the new municipal changes is it is it something specific or no I mean I just want people to be to be aware that's why I included I want people to be aware that your tax is different depending of where you live in Denmark and I want them to understand that they have the power as people living in that municipality to influence the tax level in that municipality so for example if you vote for people that will I don't know support higher tax or lower taxes or at least to explain and find out why are you now paying more from your salary what's the reason are they is because they are saving a school from being closed is it because they are saving a few bus lines from being closed why are they increasing it so people should question it you know you shouldn't just accept things from the way they are that's not how Denmark functions Denmark is built upon the idea of questioning things making sure to understand that you are part of the conversation so okay your municipality decided to raise your tax by 0.7 percent that's that's high that's high yeah that's that's high like you saw that most of the raises are 0.0 nobody dares to say one day one percent increase that's a lot of money but that's political suicide so so everyone plays with 0.06 0.07 because people sound too little to bother but when you take you know 10 crowns from there 10 crowns every month then it gets to a decent amount that you can do something with like saving a school from being closed for example so you see for municipalities this is a it's a mechanism to ensure that their their finances are well equipped and also people to understand that the municipality level where they have the right to vote and candidate for if you're European you can vote again from day one while you're in Denmark if you're non-european after 40 years you have this right you know you don't have to be a citizen to be able to influence so the municipal elections I can go and vote and also participate in these is that what you mean sorry can you repeat so the municipal elections I can just go and vote for municipal elections being an expert okay I've never I've never realized this I should become more aware I don't you should vote for elections be the first international ever elected in Gentofte I don't think I'm quite certain that Gentofte never had an international elected as a city councilman think about how many thousands of international that are in Gentofte and you vote by selecting a person on the voting ballot in Denmark so there's at least more than a hundred candidates usually the votes are so split that you can get in with 600 votes personal votes so if you know 600 people in Gentofte Arun I can go for it no you can get their vote and you can be in the in the city council making history in Gentofte being on the just being on the posters will encourage a lot of internationalists to understand hey we can do more than what we do today you know it can have quite a very positive impact in in that direction but it's also it is also I would say I see these posters in city centres and I I've always had this question maybe I should watch more of Danish television to understand and understand them in detail but I get an impression that there's a lot of voices expect voices in the city and very few voices if you go let's say outside Copenhagen or the greater Copenhagen area and you find less and less expats or less and less expat trade candidates but you don't find any candidates in Copenhagen either to the shame of Copenhagen which has 68 000 internationals there never has been an international running for elections for the city seriously seriously okay oh wow shame shame shame on Copenhagen people or people listening to this this is not a hate which you this is a fact it's funny come on guys you're 68 000 one of you has the right the courage to stand up and represent you you easily get someone elected you could close your eyes put your name out there say you're international and then you literally gonna get in it's the easiest possible place to get elected in Denmark somehow no and you know it's funny if you go if you come to Jylland if you cross the bridges to the so-called you know Udkendts Denmark to the farmlands you'll find a lot more internationals who are who took this step in front and and run for elections in various small municipalities that nobody heard of but yet that happened you know that history has already happened in this side of Denmark what's happening down there or then said nobody ever bothered so from the moment you cross Fredericia in that direction zero not even one single international running in the direction besides there was some one running in Slagelse one Romanian guy Roskilde I mean those are exceptions yeah Slagelse and Roskilde that's it and there was a there was a Frederiksbjerg I remember last time there was a woman in Frederiksbjerg running for elections as well okay three places fine enough three but okay even Frederiksbjerg was faster than Copenhagen just to understand so if you know anyone in the picture yeah if you know anyone in Copenhagen get them to do this especially if if they have a good profile and they will be a great representative for for us internationals in in Copenhagen we should have someone there it's just it's also for the people listening to this podcast here they should also be I would say motivated or have the drive to just show up so all you listeners looking forward to get inspired from this conversation that we're having then go nominate yourself for the election I I actually have to be more I would say aware about political political situations in Denmark because then I've become more and more involved also gain my know-how I would say but I think it's interesting then we say there's no expatriate candidate in in greater Copenhagen wow I could not even believe and when you say there is more in Jutland compared to Zealand it's also surprising yeah yeah yeah it's interesting I mean we I know we broke the ice in Aalborg we were the first ones in 2007 13 in 2013 but since then you know many years have passed so it was enough time for Copenhagen to catch up with us that's just a little bit of you know rivalry between the north and the capital there always has been a rivalry between the north and the capital one way to get votes here up north just say something bad about Copenhagen and pull yourself up 100 votes easily just like that 100 votes so they're like a hate story not a hate story just say something like oh my god those people in there I don't know fancy apartments and child at their lives they don't know real Denmark they don't know real Denmark or we make the pigs and the bacon you know point yeah that is municipal tax and I think we also dive deep into political parties but yeah situation municipal elections let's dive into another topic which is about this time it's about the hooligan culture that was mentioned in the arts not about money I don't know how is that possible I really expected your second subject to be about money again again okay we will end up with the money again I hope I promise that we have I don't think there is more subjects about money so I understand why you couldn't find another one but hooligans huh yeah what do you think hooligans are in your mind I have the same question I know I've seen a lot of media and also some of my colleagues usually mention if there is a match between FC Copenhagen and Brøndby FC we expect to have a lot of let's say these fan fights or rival flashes that that could also be demonstrated in stadiums and and I kind of understand but I don't know what exactly hooligan means is it like a cult or I don't know is it violence is it is it groupism is it extremism I don't know I don't know god no it sounds negative though yeah you can say so but it's a hooligan is a if you come if you would look at Britain it's it's it's basically like a term to define food organized football fans within firms like you know you create a firm and then you you basically fight for honor with other firms to score honor points what is honor points street cred you know you're okay so you're you know you're standing on the street your level of influence on your on your brothers I know what the hooligan is because when I was 16 I was a hooligan as well I used to be part of a firm and for me I had anger issues when I was 16 right so I had to find a place to get better and that was the best place because you got to really leave the match you know when you go to a match you don't sit and just watch you leave it you know you stand your half naked you scream you scream crazy yeah you beat the the the the drums you have a troll with with fireworks and stuff you know it's like basically it's like a crazy style crazy energy or adrenaline rush yes yes yes so that's that's the idea you know and then you go out there and you fight for honor you basically if you're if a rival firm comes and takes away your flag so they beat you up they get your flag then you're out you're you're completely you're from that moment when you don't exist as a firm so it's the end of you as a hooligan but if you manage to defend the flag then it's fine so every time different firms try to quank or new territories by saying okay I see that this firm is meeting at this bar all the time okay we're gonna take over this bar but to take over we need to first make sure that they don't exist anymore to not exist anymore we need to get the flag from them so then they come I remember once we were in after a match they they come they came three trucks like three buses with 300 people they surrounded us from every direction and they got us in the middle right and obviously we we didn't survive and that was the end of our firm you know we were three firms in that bar last night all three got destroyed destroyed meaning destruct the physical properties as well or is it just a removal of flag and then keep their flag they took the well they beat us up and took our flag that's that's that's miss well that's the idea of it right you have to have some the challenge otherwise if they just come in and they just take the flag what's the point okay so you have the it's like sport you know it's the same thing but it's not ethical though sounds so unethical but but you don't attack civilians okay as long as you are not having the fcco or kopenhagen or any other club sporting club on the match day so we are good to go I guess then the problem is some some some people some people misunderstood what what means to be a hooligan and some people try started to act like gangsters and act like you know gangs and they forgot about the old style the the owner style now it became more about I don't I don't know the the Danish hooligan scene obviously in Romania it was more about honor and you would go and the worst thing you could do to another firms city is to go to their city and for example we would take a bus prisoner right and we use that bus to go through the middle of the city to show them that look we took over one of your public transport just to be transported directly to the to the stadium right and everyone will be like very angry from the side that we're going straight through the middle of the city and that's dishonorable for them to allow another firm from another city to do that in their own territory you know that was the whole idea of it but so but it's not a fan club though it's not a fan club though it's just a firm that it is like a fan club an organized fan club to yeah have demonstrations and cross yeah yeah so just show superiority yeah I guess but not superiority in terms of you know don't see it like in a racial way but see it more in a I'm stronger than you yeah it's like you know a match day we just show like ah let's see who wants today and let's see who's the mightier of the game no no I get the point the context is still competing for who is stronger in terms of match and not just physical force or of course yeah yeah I understand of course if your team losing then there's no point to for you you have nothing to defend so if your team keeps losing match after match after match there's nothing to fight with other firms because you have zero honor to fight for yeah like that's that's literally what happened to out to our firms anyway we got we couldn't we didn't exist anymore but at the same time our team went to second league and from there on the whole culture of hooligan is died in the city simply just like that do you follow sporting football clubs any do you follow any clubs in Denmark are you a fan of I mean I support all work I'm a local patriot right so of course I'm always support all work but I know that all work is going through a generation change so we don't we cannot claim any more championships let me we did the double right we got the cup and the championship here in all work so for us it's great we also have a super leagha yeah man super leagha okay we also have hooligans down here and we have a firm but I'm not part of it I'm too old for it I know I no longer have those anguish but one thing that concerns me with the whole hooligan thing is that I'm just wondering why it got out of hand right like why is it is it because it's no longer fights in between firms is it because they're attacking I don't know civilians on the street and then just because you were because probably in Denmark I guess it's easier to buy t-shirts of a certain club and people misunderstand who you are okay I can understand why problems can arise in there yeah fair enough but what concerns me is a bit the hooligan register the fact that they consider making it public so people know if you are a hooligan or not and then I feel like in Denmark that can have huge changes on someone's life right let's say you are 17 or 16 or 19 and you were hooligan ones but now you're 35 you're a mid manager you have family yeah you don't have responsibilities you don't have anger issues so yeah and then out of nowhere you you see some newspaper publishing your name oh how would your co-workers your family your family react to that I feel like he's gonna destroy a lot of lives that's also like personal personal identity right what I actually observe on these match days I've when I travel and I see a lot of say patria take a FC club or FC Copenhagen or Brøndby they come in groups and they live in groups and that's celebration it's it's also good that even in India we have a band culture I mean 1.4 billion right it's usually freaking crowded when you have a match day traffic jams everywhere we just it's uncontrollable on match days especially when we watch cricket matches it's very popular and I'm a fan of let's say Chennai Super Kings which is one of the most populous and popular franchisees we also have this yellow versus blue rivalry the blues are actually the Mumbai which is also a very popular sporting club that is kind of you know FC Copenhagen's colorish I subconsciously I thought okay yellow is my favorite color because I have been following 40 club Brøndby I said I once said I think I will go with Brøndby for some reason and then immediately my colleagues are judging me ah those guys I don't like them and I don't know the history but she just to me on the day and I was like really feeling like bad okay what is it about Brøndby and then it's not one person though it's a lot of people that say but I guess fans are fans but if you said if it goes beyond control it makes sense that then it is no more a hooligan but it's not just a brown be problem I mean you cannot just say oh it's brown be it's also fck but I feel like because you are in an office with a lot of people probably living in Gentofte they will never ah it's it's brown be with the working class team you will have never been supported by people living in where you live to be honest you live in the more upper middle class part of Denmark you know fck is a it's a more conservative more the team of the richer people it's always been so you oh wow so we have this class segmentation and even in football sporting yes oh my god if the club has a history in that direction I mean any person that comes to you even in Denmark is it like an identity issue so if I associate myself with Brøndby they will identify me as like okay this guy is that person wow then it's not that different from casts or grouping people right it's so unfair I mean it's unfair we're not unfair it's part of how people perceive other people right so in the end it's not actually coming to watch a match they're coming to be part of a tribe no matter who who they are playing against I guess you have to understand in Denmark even the the club that you support in UK can define your identity so if you come and say oh I'm a Manchester fan and then the guy that's next to you he's from a working class he's a social democrat he'll be very offended then be like dude Liverpool is the only one you know no I'm not joking you know it's it's like this you know the the working class football team is Liverpool so you cannot go in a in a working class bar and start saying hey Manchester City especially oh my god you're gonna be beaten up so so yes be careful with what I say in clubs or it's it's it's about identities you know people try to build around identity around different things it can be it's not just you know ethnic identity it's also football club identity it's it's political identity in Denmark it depends on the political parts that you support how you make your wedding you know it influences the traditions you have at your wedding based on which political party you support or you've been part of you know so here it's like you know you take that's why many people are not so open to say hey I'm from this party or I'm from this party because immediately if you were a label on you yeah you'll never feel comfortable networking or really like supporting or working with someone who is red right if you're a blue and so on so it's the same like football football political parties I don't know maybe maybe even music who knows I don't know much about music but I have a feeling even that has a its own tribes and but I don't actually understand if I if let's say for example if I'm in an interview my hiring manager is supposed to be let's say an FC co-fan and then he says oh so what match do you watch recently I said I allowed Bond be playing last match against FC K then probably he's going to judge me but I hope it doesn't affect my employability I don't know that's your risk and probably should not answer such I don't know private questions so easily in an HR isn't it's not that's interesting that's interesting because in India of course we take pride in telling that I come from this place we have a pride in language a pride in identity identifying that we come from this place and it's funny that I actually see the opposite when when when I hear from you that it is pride for everybody to say I come from one view football club or say I'm an FC co-fan or diehard fan of let's say Mithu or let's say Veebo FC for example yeah yeah but that should be the case I mean there should be I remember one of my colleague he took a bond with flag and then he placed that pole in where where he sits because I think it was two years ago where Bond we won a league and then he's celebrated by bringing the flag and also yeah just to show that he supports this club I love that that's that's a sign of let's say wow celebration in my in my place where I come from it's also huge I'm actually thinking of making a podcast just for upcoming league just to you know we talk about this a lot of times and and it's also it's also you know it's it's never a taboo to actually talk about this and show over I would say it's not just enthusiasm it's it's like emotion for us no color is emotion taboo no not taboo is more like you share this with your friends you share this with people at a party you share but you're not going to share this with people that might be biased against you in terms of decision-making power because we are humans and then we start thinking we use our biases to kind of make decisions to kind of perceive people regardless if you pretend to not or or yes but I mean I know a lot of people say I don't have biases I don't see color you all judge we all judge within fraction of a second and that's also like yeah a lot of psychology say so that's what I'm saying like it depends with whom you share it right if you're in a place where you can celebrate and enjoy I'm the guy who came at work with a flag that shows strength like I can say I'm a hardcore rugby fan in a game of tiffing but if probably the guy doesn't have any interest in promoting right anytime soon no he I think he left the company and I think he had a good opportunity doesn't mean that he was fired I think he was also in front of my but I guess no it was coincidence that what you said that he's no more not working with me but I think I like he's also a military guy he's from the army okay ex-army and and I think I have a huge respect for him that is interesting so a lot of information about hooligan culture but but do you see the landscape going towards people being disturbed the civilians being disturbed about about all these fan mob I feel like I'm starting to think it's a problem in in Copenhagen between fck and brown view and because of that problem they are somehow the government reacts and decides to make common rules for everyone that's how it is okay and then there will be more shitter rules everything it's basically they want to make this face recognition software so they stop hooligans from literally entering the matches oh okay so basically you take away the main thing that makes them a hooligan um so that's that's yeah that's how it is and then they want to make they want to see if it's legally possible to publish the hooligan register they didn't promise they can't do it because they actually have to find a law that allows them it goes against several European directives to do that um but yeah so I guess that maybe that's the idea the idea is that they're afraid that uh the hooligan environments are being used by gangs to train their youngsters or to recruit from among those environments and because we have a gang problem in Sweden they're afraid that we also have a future gang so basically we are like in the future they might have a gang problem because Sweden has one today and therefore we should make everything possible to reduce the chances that they have places where to recruit potential people from therefore any places where violence is being demonstrated like a hooligan environment should be strictly restricted so that uh chances for gangs to form in Denmark is reduced or organized crimes or organized hate crimes yeah yeah yeah that's that's like the whole uh thinking line in uh in the policy line yeah exactly so and that's fair that's fair that's fair there's also a lot of stringent security uh devices that are going to be installed and I don't know if these infrastructure are everywhere right maybe in Copenhagen in Parkland maybe I don't know if it's applicable at all well they will force every club to install such things so it doesn't matter uh I mean all the main stadiums they cannot force this on a third league uh village stadium because that would be madden maddening and second of all there is no hooliganist culture down there there is more of a problem between in the I heard there is an issue in the children's matches where parents start beating up referees okay is it true the referee union has made a statement about it that they they got tired of parents either verbally abusing the referees or literally taking good things because they they burn harder than their children on the on the sidelines my child he was supposed to score that goal but you stopped him he's his future to be the next messy and maradona why come to me oh goodness yeah so it's it's a bit dangerous because a lot of internationalists are working actually as referees in Denmark um and unfortunately they are also in the in the midst of all so it's the worst thing is to to be a referee to me I was a referee here in Denmark and then to have parents come streaming at you in danish you're probably in your second year in Denmark you have no idea what the hell he's saying that's good for you but you don't take it a personal or personal because you don't understand either you'll be like what's he do problem is when when they when they are like more older parents they are like weaker than you and they don't dare to attack you besides verbally but then there's some guy viking genes in him is like oh my god I am not going to escape this match so like slowly slowly at the end of the match go as fast as you can from you can wow have you ever tried to you said you're into football right so I want you to try to be a volunteer referee to see how it is I know the rules but I've never played enough football but I know one of my colleague he used to also do a referee his child I think his kid he plays for junior everything division and then he his child was also selected to go and play in Portugal to get trained from Portugal and yeah and he's very very talented we had this company football once and I was trying to dribble the ball with him he just like within a fraction of a minute I think he just took the ball and he he dribbles like the South Americans it's not like the Danish way of playing it's very different because I've seen a lot of videos him being playing he has control of his ball and he tries to I would say possess have more possession than the rest of the place in in fact it's so contrasting to the rest of the team so all the team players pass to him even though he's not a striker he plays like the midfielder but he has a lot of control and he is also very vigilant where to pass and where to through pass but I guess he my friend would have actually had the similar experience somewhere where people are yelling maybe at the referees about maybe some judge judge being offside or a friend or something but it's a very it's a very strange incidents you know when parents try to beat or let's say threatened or verbally yeah yeah no I mean that's how it is when you burn for your child you know you really want your child to succeed and when you see that if you can find the fault in the referee for the mistakes of the child and you're gonna go for that it became a very competitive culture in it's quite an unfortunate turn that's taking the in the Danish society that competitiveness has become a lot more a thing you know the the yant alone has kind of kept our heads down and like okay don't overestimate don't overreach you know be average don't be too much unfortunately be too much has become the new thing in Denmark so the new generations are coming out a lot more competitive they want they want this night higher they they they run for more yeah but they also see a lot of immigrants coming in and then I know for a fact that a lot of immigrants they are they are let's say their parents they school them say you need to study more you need to be taking these competitive exams and and this is one way of saying they also got inspired in the Danish kids are also getting inspired from what other other cultures are doing and then they have say indirectly directly challenged right now you see a lot of expats children's getting into top schools and yeah that that competitiveness gets inspired from it's probably international right yeah yeah yeah it's yeah it's not it's not great because if this reflects on the higher side I mean Denmark was the idea is that we are a community we help each other thrive but we don't try to stand out too much because it's not about me it's about us but now it's becoming way too much about me right that's why people are more and more people are if you look at liberal alliance right the idea of let's reduce taxes let's make it easy to become rich a lot of young people are supporting such rhetorics in in Denmark and that's dangerous for the future because the reason why Denmark is looking the way it is today is because it has been a society that has put more access or more priority on the idea of community we are one we help each other we thrive together we don't leave anyone behind but we because the the the effect of people rushing to get rich and getting more for themselves means others will have less it's simple you know it's just one bag of money if you take the whole bag for yourself then 10 other people will not ever reach that bag so they will never have it right so so I feel like there has to be a balance in things moderation in things and that's why Denmark is where it is today it's not the american model of you know capitalism to the extreme if you look at the american now it's not the country to follow it's not a country to follow but unfortunately there's a lot of influences from american societies that takes place in the products in stews programs in swatch and also there is a lot of these policies being changed because uh yeah I think it's a lot of influx already maybe the idea of actually having entered long uh is a good good thing to have but I I guess there's a lot of especially if you see Copenhagen very international and and students who study in schools are mostly international and if you if you see a Dane studying with an indian or indian with chinese and um lebanese or you see ukrainians and then there's that the child feels like okay she or he is getting rich I should also excel and the other is the other way is also possible right for example uh an indian gets to improve his her skill in presentations I've never done presentations in my school so only when I actually passed my school I was I was actually would say involved in presenting something but in Danish schools I mean we're getting off track from the topic but I guess it's inspired from both cultures and trying to get get an average and that is very normal in any any influx of two different societies of two different cultures right and but the but the idea is to also let's say have the mentality of us and not myself or for for the gains or I'm competitive I am I'm I would say I'm producing more so why can't I have the majority of the share that is that is again American society right and and I don't know I don't know how to advocate yeah unless you gonna build a wall from four sides and live in a in a bunker disconnected from the rest of society that's the only way you can truly sit and enjoy your benefits but at the same time you still need someone to make sure there's water running to you there's electricity running to you there's the stores are still working that so you know this is this is such a I don't understand when people search for this idea I need to have more more more more for myself and then something will happen I'm not sure what but if you if you if you if you amass way too much and you make everyone else suffer because of you then then you haven't done much unless as I said you buy yourself a private island and I don't know you you get some other people to join you to serve you there and then you disconnect from the rest of society and hope nobody will bomb the world because you still live on the same planet and regardless even if you run on your little island unless you're gonna build a rocket and go to another planet then there's not much you can do about it right because if the rest of us destroy the planet with pollution and what not climate change would just happen and then your little island will be underwater sooner than later you see it's there's no escape from community there is no escape from society that's what some people don't understand so if you wish that you do well at the expense of others that's the wrong approach there's a reason why us is where it is the society one of my friends when they're recently and he said literally you go from one street to another it feels like you go from 21st century medieval times 21st century homeland medieval times 21st century it's incredible how the same city can be so segmented and it doesn't feel like you're living in the same country you know i don't want that for Denmark i mean that's not why that's not how the Danish dream works like so but let's see let's see how it evolves in the future yeah i think there's many people who want to defend Denmark the way it was and many internationals who want Denmark to stay the way it was because we came here for the ideals that made Denmark where it is today so of course we are not so inclined to be like well we came here now the country doesn't look the same anymore time to leave to where where is left i agree and i guess time flies uh nurses we're almost heading to end of the podcast today for episode five um thank you for enlightening me with a lot of terminologies and also awareness to municipal tax hooligan culture and of course policies and we ended up with the communal mindset i think it was interesting how about how did you feel so far yeah i mean as i said i enjoy having a place to discuss about such situations and it's always fun to to have the chance to go deeper in one or two subjects you see we didn't we spent 50 minutes on on literally three subjects maximum yeah yeah time goes fast when you go deep into any of this subject but it's fun you know it's it's it's Denmark it's the country we live in and it's a good idea to make sure others understand as well what are the possibilities what are the opportunities and what can you make put your own two hands happen in this country because luckily the whole idea of organizing yourself building a community fits very well within the Danish narrative and it really feels like you want to be part of here so the more involved you want to be the better great and for the listeners listening to the podcast like Narcis mentioned during the last episode if you want to be part of this conversation you might have to consider maybe adding one more to each of these episodes if you would wish to be part you can reach out to us and maybe we could have a theme around what we should talk about and then have some fruitful discussions and i could be kind of a moderator to see where it leads to what do you think about this Narcis because we find it is interesting to have interactions more and different races maybe as i said we are doing this recording at eight in the evening on a sunday so that's why we are where we are but it's fun right so i enjoy this is super unscripted as you can imagine it's a raw talk we don't have any script yes that is unfiltered conversations yeah and it's and it's without alcohol can you imagine in 2024 Denmark a podcast only water having a glass of alcohol on our table to encourage the conversation between us no we do not need alcohol to discuss about things we love to discuss about as long as as long as we stay to the facts and also the perspectives are also important okay that that brings us to end of this conversation thank you Narcis for being on the show thank you have a yeah see you see you next Sunday. Yeah, sure. Bye.