Denmark Report
The New Year brought an unsettled beginning. The Aussie cricketers had mercilessly surrendered the opportunity to regain the Ashes. More apparent on a personal note though, I endured sad farewells amongst family and friends as I bid farewell to the Australian summer in exchange for the European winter. I was embarking to Denmark to continue my Masters of Public Studies as part of the Flinders University European Student Exchange: Mobility Program.
Home would be the Esbjerg campus of the University of Southern Denmark. Having never experienced true dormitory life before, I was somewhat apprehensive pre-arrival. I knew I’d have ten years on the vast majority of my neighbours whilst sharing a kitchen with twelve others always has the potential to generate some hair raising moments. Nonetheless I soon settled into town and the surrounding landscape. Esbjerg is a coastal settlement with a population hovering around 70,000 people. I came to appreciate that the area resembles Ballarat....with a harbour. Inconveniently the noticeable difference encompassed bitter icy winds that were brought via a north westerly (from the North Sea) as opposed to the heat of the desert. The interplay between old and new buildings, including the University, is well balanced. Parklands are inviting with walking tracks interconnecting town landmarks. Streets are concurrently clean and safe. Emphasising this is the absence of locks witnessed upon ever-present parked bicycles. Conveniently, roads have been built to accommodate riders with definitive lanes (much superior to those in Melbourne) and even include explicit traffic lights. Consequentially the town is comparatively quiet, with air much more agreeable to human lungs. It’s not surprising that with an emphasis upon an eco-friendly environment the country played host to the recently themed global summit.
The course semester entailed an extension of the political and social determinants of health upon a global scale. Emphasis was placed on such themes as political structures, communicable diseases, research processes, immigration, and technological advancement in the developing world. I felt my previous studies at Flinders and my vast Pacific Island exposures held me in good stead for this enthralling study stream which encompassed tremendous classroom interaction. Perhaps this reflected the great diversity amongst student backgrounds, which far superseded the national representation within the campus dormitory. In addition to Danish locals there was a healthy representation from Europe and Africa, whilst Asian and Australian students made up class numbers. Lectures and discussions did, however, reveal a number of sad facts and stories particularly with regards to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Yet for mine the most disturbing story pertained to the migration of marginalised people to the deserted nuclear fallout region of Chernobyl. The underlying basis for such movement centred upon individuals (with a roof suddenly over their heads) believing their prospects for longevity surpassed the alternative option.
The exchange afforded the opportunity to directly understand the implications of Denmark’s liberal trade practices and stringent environmental regulations upon local population health determinants, in addition to broader European Union governance. Noticeably the standard of living in Denmark is one of the highest in the world with the Government serving to provide free, comprehensive social welfare for residents. Of course to fund such a system wages are heavily taxed and the cost of living is concurrently high and painful to a student’s hip pocket. Distributing familiar, however, is that upon calls of longstanding open borders allowing abuse of the welfare system, the Government has scrapped the right to asylum on humanitarian grounds and cut social benefits for refugees. I understand that whilst being a signatory of the UNHRC the universally incorrectly termed ‘illegal refugees’ are held in limbo at a former army base.
Exposure within the exchange program and to European practices has complimented the knowledge I’ve gained within the Australasian region and will advance my capacity to relate and incorporate studies into further environmental settings, being appreciative of global based methodologies employed in overcoming inequality, inequity and evolving the health continuum. I wish to thank Flinders University for affording me the opportunity to participate in the Mobility Program.
