Yeah, Yeah. Get Back To Me When They Pass A Law That Forces People To Eat It…

Michelle Madsen on the Meatball Culture War:

The meatballs in question are frikadeller - moreish slightly burned miniature patties made out of pork, a Danish staple. You’ll find them on your open sandwiches, served up with potatoes and red cabbage or heated up, incongruously, on any traditional cold table. You’ll be seeing a lot more of them if you live in the central Danish town of Randers where the local council has just voted to make it compulsory for public institutions to have pork on the menu.

That's all. Just have it there.

And while you might think this is control freakery to the nth degree (and I'd agree with you), you'd think they'd passed a law that made consuming it compulsory, from the angst pouring out of this idiot...

This is the latest chapter in a debate over cultural mores, identity and pigs, which kicked off over two years ago after a number of day care centres in the country stopped offering pork at lunchtimes so people wouldn’t have to queue in different lines at lunchtime. The ‘meatball war’ (frikadellekrigen) super-sized in the summer of 2013, when front pages across Denmark were dominated by arguments about whether public institutions should take pork off their menus to cater for Muslim children. The Danish anti-immigration party even agreed to abandon a mayoral campaign in the town of Hvidovre near Copenhagen in 2013, on the agreement that the current mayor promised to put more traditional food, including frikadeller, on public menus.

How does removing something from a menu 'cater to' people who weren't going to eat it anyway?

The Danish pork debate has become an emotive symbol of the Islamophobia and fear of a cultural invasion which is gripping Europe.

*rolls eyes*

In Denmark, it’s not just pork that’s being used in this cultural battle against what the country’s anti-immigrant politicians deem ‘invasive food and customs’. A new Danish bill will see asylum seekers who arrive with more than 10,000 kroner in cash (just over £1000) forced to to use the surplus to pay for their stay.

And what's wrong with that?

If these are genuine asylum seekers, fleeing for their lives, they'll be happy to contribute to a country that gives them safe haven. Won't they?

Though Denmark only accepted 20,000 asylum seekers in 2015, its government is working hard to deter more people coming in by scaring people away and making life as hard as possible for those already in the country, including alienating Muslims with this public pork drive.

How is offering a food source that the country is known for alienating people who don't eat it? I don't eat jellied eels or doner kebabs, but having shops selling them doesn't 'alienate me'. I just walk past!

My Danish grandmother used to smugly comment in the 1970’s that Denmark didn’t have any ‘race problems’. This is because pretty much everyone in Denmark was Danish then. The great challenge for Denmark, the UK and countries across Europe where cultures will continue to collide will be to look past the fear-mongering and find a common humanity with those people that are in need on their doorsteps. Invite them in, break bread with them, and eat.

Just...don't do it on New Year's Eve, OK?