2009 an OECD study found that Danish people are the happiest in the world: http://lysander.sourceoecd.org/vl=9254796/cl=17/nw=1/rpsv/factbook2009/11/02/02/11-02-02-g1.htm. – That was among others because of low unemployment rates and good income – but also because many Danes are proud of their country, their monarchy, their Viking history and pleased with their well-fare state system.

But how come that another OECD report now shows that Danish people at the same time are the world’s most mentally stressed? http://www.b.dk/nationalt/vi-er-verdens-mest-mentalt-nedslidte

Going to work by bicycle was yesterday: It seems to be sporty, but it’s definitely not sporty enough in a town without proper hills. Living in Copenhagen you actually just have to get out off your bed, half sleeping, eat breakfast and get ready and then you, half sleeping, have to find your bicycle among hundreds of other bicycles and then you sit down – and roll. All the way to work. You only have to stop sleeping, because you have to pay attention to your fellow-cyclists and watch out for not being thwarted by a woman in a wedding dress or hurt by somebody’s briefcase (see also our earlier blog on that: http://tadracomix.sitebob.net/2010/05/28/the-soap-factor-why-its-more-entertaining-to-go-to-work-by-bike-than-by-car/).

There are lots of feelings involved in daily shopping in Copenhagen Nørrebro, a quarter were many young people and immigrants move to, a quarter were both the hip (wannabe) artists live and where rocker gangs fight groups of young immigrants. And there’s normal daily life as well – as daily shopping in the local super marked. Everyday life in Nørrebro can be quite emotional: Last week 3 or 4 customers of a small super marked were attacked by unhappy customers, after the salesperson had asked them to shift to the other queue because of a damaged checkout counter. After that emotional overreaction the super marked was closed for an indefinite time. Only a few days later other very emotional customers practiced another extreme and showed their solidarity with the injured sales assistants by setting up a kind of Wailing Wall in front of the closed marked, leaving flowers and letters to the staff. Since that one can read short messages as “We miss you” and “We want you back” and “There have been enough riots in that area and we absolutely miss you”. – That’s daily reality soap live. See a slideshow on the Danish newspaper Berlingske’s webpage: http://www.berlingske.dk/danmark/netto-vi-savner-jer