Written in the hope that my dear fellow Danes will be more aware of people in need. Not just in poor countries, but right in front of them.

The other day while I was cycling to work just as I reached the top of Valby Bakke [one of the steepest hills in Copenhagen, probably peas for the pro’s]. I hit a red light, stopped, and noticed an old lady. She was standing on the corner looking confused and anxious. However, what I also noticed was that several people, entire families, just walked by. They didn’t even look at her, nobody stopped to ask if they could help her.

I ended up getting off my bike to ask her if I could help her with anything. She was so confused and frightened, because she was lost. She needed to go somewhere at the other end of town and had no idea how to get there. Imagine if she was your grandmother or aunt. Wouldn’t you have loved if someone helped her find her way? Wouldn’t you be scared out of your mind if you were standing somewhere in Nørrebro waiting for her not knowing where she was, if something happened to her?

Needing a translation of the Danish word ‘næstekærlighed’, I called my dear choir teacher who’s from Chicago.. I told her the story and that I felt a need to express my concern somehow. She told me a different story that also upset me quite a bit.

One day she was walking up the side of the church while at work and a young man, well dressed and clean, walked up to her and asked if the church could help him. He wasn’t Danish, but had ended up here with no work permit, no permit to leave for Norway, but with a wish and hope that he could find work there. Having no money at all, this poor guy had been sleeping in the park for several days and had tried his luck in getting a meal at all the social centres around town. Same answer everywhere: ‘This service is only for Danes, sorry’.

This makes me wonder. Is our welfare system making us care less? Do we feel that the social security system should handle all those things for us? Or are we just too busy for love and charity?

To put all this in perspective, I talked to my Vietnamese friend the other day. She told me a long story about a girl who had fallen in love with someone her parents would never approve of. She had also quit her job, but was living quite far from her parents and hadn’t told them about any of it. In her need she came to my friend and asked her to help her take a loan so that she could find housing and get back on her feet. She helped her, setting up a loan in her name, letting her stay with her for a long time until she found a place of her own. My immediate reaction was; ‘Oh, that’s so nice of you to help her!!’ to which she answered; ‘Nice? It’s just normal’.

Why is helping each other considered ‘normal’ in Vietnam and ‘nice’ in Denmark? What made us so selfish? Wouldn’t we want others to help us if we needed it?

I will leave you to consider these few questions for a bit. And…. Remember to open your eyes next time you take a walk, a small effort from you, can make the world of a difference for someone else.