Volunteer auction donations needed for Prosthetics Outreach Foundation Gala Dinner

2010 PROSTHETICS OUTREACH FOUNDATION
DINNER GALA & AUCTION
March 27th, 2010
Meydenbauer Center Bellevue, WA

VOLUNTEER HELP NEEDED!!!!

We are low on Silent Auction Donations this year and we need YOUR help!

Tell your friends, family, co-workers, all of your Facebook friends, your barista,
pizza delivery man/woman, your hair stylist or nail salon,
your accountant & gardener about the amazing work POF does
& ask them to make a donation to our auction today!

Some of the items on our wish list include:

*2010 Sounders, Seahawks, Mariners Tickets
*Salon Gift Certificates
*Restaurant Certificates ($50+)
*Cooking Classes
*Unique Hand-Made Jewelry
*Hotel Overnight Stays
*Gaming Systems (Xbox, WII, PS3)
*Coffee & Specialty Item Baskets
*Services (landscaping, home decoration, design work)
*Wine

Donations are 100% tax-deductible, and all donors will be recognized in our event catalog, on our website, and on display materials at the event!

You can donate by filling out the attached form or by going directly to- http://pofsea.org/auction10 and click on "Donation an Item Online"


Prosthetics Outreach Foundation is a catalyst for change in developing countries.

Our goal is ensuring that children and adults suffering from limb loss & deformity have lifetime access to high-quality orthopedic and rehabilitation services.

Over 20 years, POF has helped more than 15,000 children and adults to walk again.

A few dollars worth of metal and plastic can restore mobility, independence, and hope to amputees and others with severe orthopedic disabilities.



For more information of the 2010 Dinner Gala & Auction, contact Auction Coordinator Charla Ojala at Auction@pofsea.org

Links:
Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (POF)
Facebook Causes: POF
POF on Facebook

Female Bodies and Gender Equality

Just read this article that a friend of mine posted on Facebook, and it made me jump to the keyboard. Yes, you don't need to be a Britney Spears fan to think it was sad to see her fall apart. And I'm not a fan of The Gossip or her message of "be fat, be happy", which is unhealthy and self-restricting, since having a healthy, reasonably slim body gives you the joys of physical freedom!

But nonetheless, I understand her message of women's need to disobey the cultural suppressions/expectations on women and their appearance. One way to disobey was burning our bras as the women of the late 1960's and 1970's did. Another is the punk movement, shaving your head or, I guess, refusing to be slim (healthy).

What I don't get is, why would you want to do harm to yourself as a protest to society's expectations? Not wearing a bra might be pleasant (or not, depending on your taste), and shaving your head or spending hours every day in front of the mirror striving to make that perfect mohawk might make you feel powerful (or whatever drives you to do it). But at least neither is putting your health at risk. The funny thing is, at as much as the whole punk style is a protest against the established fashion and society, getting the perfect punk look takes at LEAST as much time in front of the mirror (and the sowing machine) as any main stream look. Even though I do admire beauty and beautiful things, and that I do care whether I'm wearing matching stockings or not, I don't spend a lot of time in front of the mirror or the closet, even less sowing the perfect outfit. So in my opinion, the punkers are at least as enslaved by their quest for the perfect appearance as anyone else, as puzzling as it may seem.

That leads me to the the conclusion that the naturalists, the bra free, non shaved women are the ones that enjoy the most freedom from society's current beauty expectations on women.

But choosing to be overweight is just sad. It doesn't take any effort. Anyone can eat unhealthy "food" and drink sweetened drinks while doing other things, and choose to not exercise. Just as it takes no effort to not put on a bra, not shave your legs and not put on make-up. The non actions of the naturalists are not unhealthy - if anything they are actually healthier than us that wear make-up because most make-up, at least in the US, is still filled with led, hormones and other things that are really bad for us.

All is does to choosing to be overweight is making you unhealthy, with all the negative side-effects and increased risk of illness that comes along: higher cholesterol, higher blood pressure, joint pain, higher risk of heart attack and less mobility. And for especially this last reason I dare to claim that being overweight is giving you less happiness and less freedom of movement. How can anyone honestly claim that being so overweight that you can't dance all night or skip and jump and make summersaults or play catch or football with your kids is a positive choice?



Sadly, it actually takes quite an effort to starve yourself as some women strive to match the skinny idols from the fashion magazines: an unhealthy fear of food, of calories, and usually paired with excessive exercise. They might have their freedom of movement intact, but they still put their health at risk. According to Korea Times undernourished women have higher risk of osteoporosis and breast cancer.

Of all the protests against the beauty myth I think choosing to be overweight or unhealthily underweight are the saddest. Free yourselves, don't enslave yourselves to unhealthy living. It IS possible to both be a hedonist and healthy, beauty myth or not!

Rufus Wainwright still sings you dizzy

Just back from my third concert with Rufus Wainwright (the first in Seattle, however, since the two former concerts with him since I moved here sold out). Was a bit nervous if he could still control the many octaves. But not only did he do that (except from one single tone in one song), he also increased his piano talent several degrees!!! Goose bumps as always listening to Hallelujah, this time as a duet with Joan As Police Woman. Beautiful! But nothing beats the Cohen original!

Rufus Wainwright on last.fm

The Americans deserve a better and cheaper health care system

Not knowing any members of Congress personally, I don't have any proof as to whether the members of Congress in general have sufficient knowledge on health care issues. But i certainly hope they do!!!

Health care reform is by far the most important issue the Congress will have voted on since FDR tried to rebuild the US after the 1929 financial crash and ensuing depression.



An example: in Denmark, where I am from, we have "free" health care:
- That means that we pay nothing for seeing a general practitioner or a hospital of our choice, whether we're having surgery or are giving birth.
- The state negotiates with the drug companies to press down the price (for buying in bulk) and pays a part of the citizens' medicine bill when they go to the pharmacy. This means that as soon as you have spent the limit of a few hundred dollars on medicine out of your own wallet each year, the state pays all later medicine bills for the rest of the year in order to protect people with health care problems that require expensive medicine (often elderly people with pension as their only steady income). For a woman in the fertile age, that means that your birth control pills are kept at a very affordable price (in fact, the price has actually FALLEN the last 15 years!!!). And that means that I pay 3 times - THREE TIMES! - as much for a little birth control pill over here than I did in Denmark!

So yes, the state pays. The citizens don't spend any time worrying about paper work or health care bills. The GP, specialist or hospital has had electronic patient journals since 1994 (nationally co-ordinated since 1996) and passes on the bill for their work directly to the state that covers the expenses with one of the highest tax rates in the world. But the Danes do also get a lot for their tax money. They never worry about their or their family's health, they get free education from first day of elementary school through university AND money to pay for books and rent while they study. State supported nursery care and kindergarten, high minimum wages, lots of vacation and parental rights.

And yes, there are waiting lists: 1 month for non lethal conditions which don't prevent people from working and don't get worse if they wait. You can chose any doctor (General Practitioner as well as specialists) and any hospital, public or private, even hospitals in Germany and Sweden. The state pays no matter what. People with rare illnesses are better off being treated in hospitals in Sweden and Germany because the Danish population is too small to give the doctors enough experience with rare operation and cancer cases. That is why the Danish state still pays when you get surgery abroad.


To me that proves that the Americans get too little for their health care money.



It's not all free though.
A visit to the dentist is free until you're 18. After that it gets expensive because the state illogically does not cover your dentist bill. This is why many Danes above 18 years of age get their complex dentist work done in Sweden and Poland, where they pay about half of what the Danish dentists want for the same procedure. But at least the free child dental care is the reason why almost no Danes in their 30's and younger have any fillings, and no one in the same age range need braces.
Same goes for psychology: it's free until you're 18. And as illogical as the dental care that you have to pay for it afterwards.

Nonetheless, some Danes do get private health insurance. About 10% of people in the work force, typically the top ten percent (CEOs and other people that have special value to a company) get private health insurance via their job, so that they can be treated immediately at a hospital if they need surgery. Some companies offer this to employees whose job can't easily be taken over by someone else if they get ill. E.g. all professional sports people have it.

The problem in Denmark is that it is slowly developing into the American system:
The number of private hospitals is increasing in an evil spiral because doctors and nurses flee to the private sector to avoid the busy work conditions and working overtime at the public hospitals. And there's the wage difference. So the more private hospitals Denmark allows to open, the worse the situation at the public hospitals get, and the contrast between private and public gets starker. Which again forces the government to pay for letting ever more people being treated at the private hospitals to fulfill the promise of getting surgery within a month.



My mother cried with despair when she was treated at a private hospital some years ago. Not because she was treated horribly at the private hospital. But because it was SO different than the way her old, dying mother was treated at the public hospital a few years earlier. The treatment she got at the private hospital was how she remembered the public hospitals used to be back when there were no private hospitals in Denmark (the first private hospital opened in 1990, but according to Ugeskrift for Læger (Weekly Publication for Doctors) they lost money until 2002, the right wing government took office in November 2001.


That leads me to the point:
The US needs to invest in the health of its citizens in order to have productive people that can generate income for decades while at the same time being as little a burden to the public health care system as possible. America can save a ton of money if it invests in the health of its people. Prevention is always way cheaper than repair. Imagine what all the money the state will save in the mid to long run can do to further develop this country: increase the average education level, improve the environment and free money to research and investment in green technology so that US can be on top of the list instead of somewhere behind Denmark, Germany and Spain, at least when it comes to wind technology.

The Danish government apparently can't see that it is destroying something very valuable while trying to copy a failed American health care system! Learn from Denmark's successes and mistakes!

Links
Health Action Now
HHS's healthcare reform site
CNN on Obama's health care reform
OECD Health Data 2009, Denmark compared
Boston Globe: Plenty of countries get health care right

Crossing Fingers for Obama's Health Care Reform

If carried out, Obama's health care reform might not make a big difference for me right here and now, but what matters is that it would make a huge positive difference for the majority of the people living in this country! I got irritated when hearing one of the CNN anchors mentioning that it's only relevant for the 47 million Americans who don't have health care insurance today--it certainly is very important for the huge amount of Americans who are UNDERinsured--which sadly turns out to be a huge group too.

And it certainly is relevant for all the companies that are bearing an ever increasing burden of paying their employees' health care insurance bills. By making health care a federal/state matter like it is in all other Western countries, the companies can concentrate on doing their business, which would free up money to R&D (and education of their staff) so the companies can improve their competitiveness.

It also makes me angry to see the Conservative ads on tv about how "some bureaucrat from DC will come between you and your doctor"--it's the exact OPPOSITE!!!! = Right NOW, an insurance company IS between you and your doctor. This fact costs some people their health and in worst cases their lives. Remember the guy in "Sicko" who had to choose which of his 2 fingers he would save when his middle finger and ring finger were cut off in a work accident? He had to choose the ring finger because he couldn't afford the more important and therefore more expensive index finger, even less to get both fingers back--THAT is not an acceptable way for a rich country like the US to treats it's tax-paying citizens!!!! No other Western country treat its citizens like that!!! I know, being Danish and having lived in three other European countries, among them Belgium (Brussels, the EU capital). From a doctor's perspective, I can only imagine that it will be equally easy/difficult to save the index finger as saving the ring finger, so this sad ending of the story can only be happening because a greedy insurance company wants to sqeeze as much money out of sick people as they possibly can--their profits mist be outrageous!!!...and ever-increasing it seems, seeing that the burden of health care bills grows on both companies and the states/federal authorities.

I know the economy in this country is under immense strains right now (again due to excessive greed in the financial sector), but as Obama says, the country will go bankrupt if nothing is done to change the current system. And the best investment this country can make is in its citizens: keep them healthy and educated so that they won't be a burden on society, but a steadily increasing income generator.

(Source: The Economist)

I know Denmark is a tiny country compared to the US, Canada, Japan or Germany. But nonetheless, Denmark topped the Economist's hitlist in both 2007 and 2008 for being the best country to do business in. And during this current economic crisis, Denmark has been the least affected of all the EU countries, probably because its economy already is one of the strongest in the EU and has been so for years. In the 1990's, Chirac and Schröder looked to Denmark's flexicurity society that makes it easy to hire and fire while at the same time making sure no one would be left behind homeless if they lose their job. Thanks to some of the highest taxes in the world (together with Sweden) the Danes are protected by a huge welfare state that not only gives them free health care, but also free universities and money to live for while they study. I'd say the Danish model has proven its strength!

Links
Obama's health care plan
Wonkroom on Conservative Patient Rights Group
Conservatives for Patients Rights themselves
Politico on the Conservative add
Michael Moore on his scary documentary Sicko
HealthReform.gov
whitehouse.gov on health care
World Bank: Denmark no 5 in the world to do business in
The Economist: Denmark the best place to do business in

Bloody Shadow of America

Check out this fascinating picture of Obama's shadow:
(Source: http://otaviorios.com.br/ilustras/0038g.jpg)


A friend told me last night that there was still if not legal, then de facto segregation in the Southern states of the US when he was a child!! Crazy to imagine!



Speaking of bloody, I watched a documentary today on native American Indians and how they lost their land to white Europeans like me. It filled me with loathing and shame. I wish the misdeeds could be undone or at least repaired somehow. How about, as a start, giving the native Americans all the national parks back, possibly provided they promise to keep the nature in balance?

Lucky Day

Whoa! I just used my luck quota for the whole year: As I was heading for a meeting with the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation, I realized that I had forgotten that I never brought home my bike from Café Septième on Broadway this past Monday! By unrealistic luck, it was still there. Thus broadly smiling I biked the few blocks to the POF in perfect time for the meeting.

50 minutes later, I'm back on the street, but NOW my bike is gone! I look around, don't see it anywhere nearby, so I start walking a bit down the street. I notice a bus stop about 100 yards ahead and see a man trying to mount a bike to a bus that just stopped there. I feel lucky, so I run down to the bus, and sure enough, THAT'S MY BIKE! I grab the handle looking firmly at the man: "That's my bike! I have the key for this lock, you don't!" Fortunately, the bus driver sees everything too since in Seattle, the bikes are mounted in front of the bus. Shortly after the man gives up his story (someone sold it to me for $50. You give me $50 then) and gives me my bike. I unlock it and walk away shaking by the experience (I always get that right after an attempted stealing episode), but smiling at my IMMENSE luck!!! 30 seconds later, and my bike would be gone!!!

In respect of the limits of luck's nature, I walk to the bikeshop and make them tighten my exisiting luck and buy an Amsterdam proof bike lock, too, just to be sure.

May luck smile on all good people this sunny weekend!

Gay Rights On a Roll

I am so proud of the Americans these days: First they come out in droves to vote - for a president with a white mother and a black father - and now finally gay rights seem to be on a roll in the US too!

I wonder how much Sean Pean and his Oscar winning role as Harvey Milk has helped this development :-) Not that I needed to be turned, but I definitely loved the movie and want to check out this documentary about Harvey Milk.

No matter what has moved the people in Iowa, Vermont and now New York to join forces with Connecticut and Massachusetts, I hope this movement will continue to all the other states in the US - this is notably an encouragement to my fellow Washingtonians here in the North West: make it happen!

Denmark, where I am from, was one of the first countries in Europe to allow gay marriage:
"Currently there are nine European countries that give marital rights to gay couples. In Scandinavia, Denmark (1989), Norway (1993), Sweden (1994), and Iceland (1996) pioneered a separate-and-not-quite-equal status for same-sex couples called "registered partnership." (When they register, same-sex couples receive most of the financial and legal rights of marriage, other than the right to marry in a state church and the right to adopt children.) Since 2001, the Netherlands and Belgium have opened marriage to same-sex couples." (source: Slate)

Since August 2001, gays in Denmark can also be married in a church as long as both a mayor and a priest is present, but they have to find a priest that is willing to do so. The priests can't be forced to do it since some are against performing a wedding ceremony for a gay couple in their church. Oscar Frederiks church in Göteborg in Sweden was the first church in Scandinavia to marry a gay couple according to homotropolis.dk. This month the Swedish parliament voted that all marriages from May 1 2009 are gender neutral. Swedish priests that are against performing a wedding ceremony for a gay couple still won't be forced to do so though.

In December 2007 the Danish parliament voted to allow gay couples in Denmark to adopt children, after seeing it work well in Sweden, our more advanced brother country. Heja Sverige! Go Sweden!


Link time line:
NY Governor Introduces Bill to Allow Gay Marriage
Big Wins Re-Energize Gay Marriage Activists
Mayor Bloomberg urges NY to allow gay marriage
NY State Court Recognizes Gay Marriages From Elsewhere

A more pleasant flight ahead w United

Yes, oh YES! How I have waited for this to finally happen! Every time I get on on an airplane, my heart pumps with fear that I’ll have to sit next to an obese person that will at best make the trip uncomfortable for me, at worst, leave me harmed after hours of being unable to sit in a healthy position. I don’t know whether that famous story about a person that was crippled for life after being squished to the round airplane window wall by a severely obese person is true, but nonetheless it has frightened me!

So it is with great relief I hear this :-)

As for the obese, I do recognize that it is not solely their own fault that they have become overweight, seeing that unhealthy food is much cheaper over here in the US than healthy food is! A fact that vexes me greatly!!! That means that people with very little disposable income have no other choice than to eat bad food more often than they might have wanted to if they could afford to eat exactly what they wanted.

I point a big accusing finger at all the fast food companies to start taking responsibility for the obesity they create and start serving healthier food. I have noticed with great satisfaction that McDonalds in Denmark serve a children’s meal with incredibly sweet and crisp baby carrots instead of fries, and a very delicious top quality unfiltered apple juice instead of soda served with the hamburger and a plastic toy. THAT’s what I want all the others to do too!

Each state authority should also put pressure on food producers, food retailers and restaurants to serve better food. And schools should serve healthy food for lunch. I know it’s possible to do for a fair amount of money - or at least it is in Denmark, where unhealthy food is very expensive, and healthy food is kept cheap, and the British cook Jamie Oliver has proven it to be possible in the UK too.

So yes, don’t punish the people of normal weight in an airplane, but help stop obesity and help the ones already obese to get back to a normal weight. That will be a huge investment in the American society: to have healthier people living longer and being able to work for longer.

Read article on Huffington Post

Higher taxes on fat, candy and tobacco

Today I am a bit proud of being Danish: The government and their support party, The Danish People's party (Dansk Folkeparti) just agreed on a new tax deal for 2010 and 2011, where taxes on fatty foods, candy and tobacco will be raised even higher that they already are in order to encourage the population to avoid stuffing their bodies with unhealthy trash food and tobacco. American could REALLY learn from that!

After having lived in the US for just over a year, I still get angry when I compare the price of a non-organic apple with, say, a roll of Pringle's chips. Yep, you guessed right. When Pringle's are for sale - and that's very often - they cost the same as an apple that has been sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals that if they don't outright alter our bodies in weird ways, at least they are not known to do any good to us.

It's almost worse when I look at simple vegetables that are cheap in Denmark: cucumber, squash/zucchini, eggplant, fennel (at least in Netto you get a good big one for cheap), green and red cabbage, red beets, celery roots, frozen peas and frozen long green beans. All these cost between 1 and two dollars a piece (red beets about 2 dollars for a pound). Even asparagus are cheaper in Denmark, and that's not saying a lot! I can't get into my head why a fennel over here must cost $4!!! Or why an artichoke, even in season, must cost $4-5!! When they are in season in DK, you can get one for less than $2. Out of season when they are less fresh and smaller, you'd have to pay around $3. it's hard to say what makes me the most mad since there are so many competitors, but the winner will have to be the celery root: a tiny half withered head for almost $6!! Really? I mean, REALLY!?!? In Denmark they will throw it at you for $1.

I almost don't care how cheap or expensive all the unhealthy fat and sugar heavy food products in American super markets are, but at least the healthy, non-produced (and therefore logically cheap to produce!) food should be cheap!! It HAS to be more expensive to produce a roll of Pringle's chips than to pick an apple! The same goes for all other types of veg. It seems especially striking that apples should be so expensive here, since Washington State allegedly is a big apple producer?!

On the other hand, I wish it wasn't legal for producers of the immensely sugary so-called breakfast products from companies like Kellogs and others to make ads where they claim that their products are HEALTHY?!?! "Lower your colestorol", "lose weight with these [sugar-bomb] yoghurts" (Danone). In France where Danone is from, the parents treat it like a DESSERT, NOT breakfast!! If anything, they eat the "naturel" yoghurt which has no sugar, although it's still having some milk fat in it which is not good for your veines and your heart. But the chalk is great for your bones.

This country needs a food revolution. It would make the farmers richer, which I don't have a problem with, and the producers of unhealthy food products poorer (for which I will cry dry tears), but most importantly: America will be healthier and need less unhealthy and expensive medicine!!!! (and operations). THAT will be the very best investment an American leader can make in his/her country at any time! This is an invitation to you, Obama!

See more in Danish:
(http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Politik/2009/03/01/152448.htm#)
(http://www.dr.dk/Sundhed/dinsundhed/Sundmad/Artikler/2009/0115132942.htm)

Mardi Gras

Four years after Katrina has not been enough to get New Orleans completely back to where it was before the dreadful hurricane rampaged the charming city. But it hasn't stopped the inhabitants from keeping a good tradition alive: the Mardi Gras, as the French called it when they started it, or fat Tuesday, at English speaking inhabitants and tourists might call it.

Overall, this year the celebration was peaceful, except on this day: 7 people shot right after the last major parade went by and people were lined up along the street to watch the truck floats hoping to grasp some beads that are traditionally thrown from the troupes on the truck floaters.


http://www.mardigras.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/24/us/AP-Mardi-Gras-Shooting.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Days of Joy in DC

Millions of happy people gathered from across the nation to witness the first African-American president being sworn in.

Having traveled all night, I arrive in Ronald Reagan International Airport a quarter after 9AM on the historic day. On my way to the metro, I grabbe a generously sized cup of coffee, a steaming pretzel and a sandwich to store up my batteries for the day.

Jumping into the first metro, that arrives, I couldn’t help noticing that a sound proportion of the passengers are heavily dressed black wearing some kind of Obama gear, e.g. the popular knitted hat or buttons.

Wanting to be time efficient, I get off at l’Enfant metro stop, since it is the closest one to the National Mall coming from the airport. I’m not sure whether that is a particularly bad idea or if the outcome would have been the same of worse if I had gone off at a later stop. Anyway, it seems that a good part of the people heading for the Mall had gotten the same idea as me—at the same time as me. So we are thousands—THOUSANDS—crammed onto the platform and all floor ground inside the metro stop.

“We’re from Tennessee, are you from Tennessee?”, shouts a black guy smilingly to another group of black guys 10 meters away. “No, we’re from Michigan”, he replies returning the smile. General laughter around me follows. As we slowly mount the stairs to the upper floor of the metro station, people in front of me dare to turn around to take pictures of the crowd behind them. The metro guards fortunately soon give up following the rules of ticket checking and open all gates so the crowd can disperse faster. Despite the tightness and the time, now 9.40, no one is pushing. Everyone is having a kind face on, crowds ahead of us are cheering as they see daylight, a sign that the exit of the metro station is near. Crammed on the steep escalators from the metro station, people again turn a round to take pictures of the cheering crowd.

View Spot Hunting
10:00 AM: On the surface, I follow the crowd heading left on Constitution Avenue, i.e. away from the Capitol, along the National Mall. Police and military guard the closed areas to the right of Constitution Ave, which are already full. I don’t mind too much, I’m just grateful to be here on this immense day in history, surrounded by happy people in the frost clear blue skied sunshine. So the crowd and I walk on slowly along the Mall, hoping to see an entrance. We pass the beautiful castle-like Smithsonian Museum and the North Building on the Mall side before some of us see our luck of no guards being around a fenced area. So we jump the fence. Some lending a supporting hand the each other.

10:30 AM: So I’m behind the fence! But where do I find a good spot so I can see something? At least get a tolerable view of one of the jumbo screens? My first idea is to follow the stream again. That lead me closer to the center of the Mall, but completely deprives me of seeing anything but knitted Obama hats, furry uchankas and the like. So I find a small stream of people I can follow to gently move backwards again and further down the Mall, away from the Capitol. While doing that another stream is heading in the opposite direction. All smiles, despite the rock concert tightness of people. The ones happy with their spot, politely give space to small streams passing them back and forth. No one is pushing or irritated. I have never—NEVER—seen so much happiness, politeness and patience gathered in such a tight and plentiful crowd!!!

11:30 AM: Just as the ceremonyy started, I find a spot from which I got a fair view of a jumbo screen: right by the temporary toilets. Fewer people show interest in staying there (I guess they expected it to smell, but miraculously it didn’t) The ground is a bit higher here too, raising me above the crowd right in front of me. I look around me: Next to me is a girl, about 8 years old standing on a backpack in order to see better. Next to her, her Caucasian father, and next again her black mother. Everyone else around me are African-American people of all ages, though mostly young. Some agile young people (some with children) have climbed the toilets to get a free view. Others have climbed the slim trees spread around the Mall, standing in more or less comfortable positions throughout the whole ceremony.

When an older black woman is getting dizzy, people from the crowd help her out, despite their risk of losing their spot to see the start of the Inauguration.

11:50 AM: People cheer politely as Joe Biden is sworn in as VP, but that cheer is silent compared to the thundering roar for Obama when he is sworn in – a few minutes late (after noon) and by a Supreme Court President who manages to mess up the swearing in words as old as the Constitution--twice. Fortunately, that doesn’t destroy the mood of the crowd. Thousands of waving paper flags from the hands of the crowd. Tears of happiness, smiles, hugs and kisses when Obama gives one of his best speeches yet. One that tears up eyes not just in this crowd, but all over the world.

As soon as Obama had finished his speech, the crowd slowly leaves the Mall, even though the Inauguration Day is far from over. I fear it is because everyone is trying to get a good watch spot at the Inaugural Parade that is supposed to start at 2PM after the President Obama, VP Biden and their wives have had lunch with the senators and their wives in the Capitol.

1:00 PM: Optimist as I am, I stride through the crowds heading for Pennsylvania Ave right by the Capitol, hoping to get a good spot to watch the Obama family start the Inaugural Parade. My optimism paiys off: I get a first row spot right by the security fence and start chatting with some of the police officers standing guard along the fence together with the other armed services in their uniforms.

Waiting for the Parade
When I was standing at the Mall I felt just perfectly dressed for the weather, protected from the wind gusts by the row of temporary toilets and the tight crowd. Now, standing here in open space, I realize my former luck. The wind gusts make me drag up my warm, furry collar as high as possible while I try to keep out the cold by jumping and stepping.

“Are you cold?”, Tiesha asks me. She’s a black police officer in her 30’s guarding the inside of the fence. “Yes, the wind gusts are rough, but besides that I’m fine”, I reply. The weather leads us into talking about Seattle and Denmark. Tiesha is impressed I came from so far away to be at the Inauguration.

“How long have you been standing here?”, I ask Tiesha.

“Since 2 AM”, she says.

“2 AM!!, Wow, you must be tired then!”, I say. She replies with a smile that shows some sign of fatigue.

Taking care of a president’s security is more than a full time job: Tiesha’s gonna have to stay here till 6 AM, AND go to work again next morning. She doesn’t know what paid time off is. I’m glad I’m not a police officer.

2:00 PM: Two black women in their 40’s have arrived and are now standing next to mee, waiting to see the Obama family. Parade-wise, nothing is happening, so we start chatting, asking where we’re from.

“I flew all night to be here. I landed twenty past nine this morning”, I said.

“We got up at 2 AM to be on the Amtrak from Maryland”, said Darlene wrapped in a blanket outside her winter coat.

If that’s the general story of people arriving to the Mall in DC, then I’m less surprised why the vast majority of the crowd hurried home/inside after Obama’s speech.

Police on Wheels
3:00 PM: Something is finally happening. A band of sporty policemen come biking up the hill towards us, in the opposite direction of the parade.

“Ah, here comes the fit parade”, I say to a tough New York type policeman standing next to me. He smiles broadly. Some of the other guards smile too. Maybe by the thought that at least they all look pretty bad-ass in their uniforms, but they don’t look stupid. These guards clearly had to suffer the cold temperatures for their vanity. I was surprised to see that the army uniforms don’t even come with a scarf. So the closely shaved heads and necks were completely unprotected against the wind. Brrrrrr!

Shortly after we hear the smooth humming of Harley’s in the right direction of the parade. That’s a gang of policemen on motorbikes starting the parade. Finally! I try to wiggle my fingers, hoping to get the blood moving, so I can hold still the video camera I borrowed from a kind friend. Beautiful machines, these Harley Davidsons. I really like the sound too.

Right after them came some boring open trucks carrying camera men and journalists from the big networks. And then…the first black security cars surrounds a limousine…can that be the one?, I wonder? Nope, that’s Biden and his wife. Then it must be the one right after, I think, looking at the next limousine surrounded by walking guards slowly approaching.

A Sight Tatooed in My Mind
As the second limousine is right in front of me, just about 5 meters away, I see the Obama fail my through the slightly tainted windows, all waving to me and the few others lined up to see them. The guards kept their stone faces on as they must, but I and the few people around me cheered, waved and took pictures with their iPhones, digi-cams and video cams.

I must admit I shed a little tear of exaltation being so close to these two amazing grown-ups who hold so much promise for the future in their hands. So close to me, looking at me, waving to me. That was worth freezing my fingers half off for, having the start of the parade almost to myself. Even if it was an hour late.

As soon as they had passed, I get the email addresses for Tiesha and Darlene so I can send them my video of the moment, and I walk off, bubbling with joy like a shaken bottle of champagne. I sigh with happiness, spread out my arms to the sky, Hello World – here we come!!!!

Walking off turned out to be easier said than done. Since there’s still 3 hours to go before the endless row of high school bands dressed up for the occasion have finished, most roads are still closed off—also for pedestrians. So it takes me another few hours of circling around the city before I manage to find a way out that leads me in the right direction: to the charming area around P Street where Pete’s friend Larissa lives. She’s been so kind to let me sleep at her place while I’m in town.

I check e-mails in my room (she has a guest room, how great is that!), and go downstairs to meet Larissa’s friends that are in town for the Inauguration. Larissa takes us to this charming restaurant on P Street a few minutes walk from her house. Everyone is tired but my day is still far from over.

Looking for a Party
After dinner I walk back downtown to try my luck getting in at the Youth Inaugural Ball, guessing that that’s where most of the fun (and good reportage pix) will be. No luck. Not only do the bouncers outside claim that the party’s over. It’s 11:30 PM. The party is supposed to go on till 2:30AM.

People in full dress (galla) waving their tickets are also told to go home! People are furious. They don’t believe that the party’s over so they refuse to leave. A couple in full dress and with tickets tell me that they came earlier in the evening, and were still told the party was over, and that they should go home. Back home, they had turned on the tv, and seen MVT still sending live from the party. Knowing the party was still happening, they hurried back, now standing here still being refused. All these heels, gowns and tuxedos in the tearing cold for nothing. Not ok.

After a while, a representative from the party comes out and tells everyone, “yes, the party’s over, go home. Your tickets will be refunded”. Still not ok. You just don’t do that to people who had been spending a ton of dollars on outfits, looking so much forward to the event. Obama and Michelle showed up at all the 10 official Inaugural Balls. And then fob people off with “Your tickets will be refunded”. It turned out that the people arranging the party had sold 1000 too many tickets, so they stopped letting people in shortly after the party started.

Well, I thought, I’m not in full dress anyway, so even if the others could get in, I might not have been able to, even if I waived my press card. So I leave the angry crowd and head for the unofficial Obama Girl Filibuster Party that I had received a few emails from during the day, thinking that many of the people turned down at the Youth Inaugural Ball might try their luck here.

Not so. The bouncer at the entrance happens to be a journalist himself (when not a bouncer on Inauguration Day) so he takes pity on me and let me in for free, even though my clothes is not anywhere close to full dress. There are about 20 people inside, most of them pretty black women in their 30’s, and a few white men. The two women I interview are both politically active, volunteers in their states (Chicago, IL, and LA, California), so taking a quick look at the rest of the crowd I figured that they all were. “Filibuster party”, I think to myself, yea, I should have guessed it would be for a politically active crowd, but the “Obama Girl” in the title made me hope it would attract a lot of young, party people. Guess not.

I head back to my room, write the reportage and press the ‘send’-button at 3 AM.

The Day After
Set the alarm for 8:15 AM. I have a coffee appointment with my senator Patty Murray of Washington State in the Dirkson Senate Office Building. Hoping I could get some good quotes and see the inside of the magnificent Capitol was just enough to drag me out of bed, even though I could definitely use a few more hours of sleep after a night of barely no sleep at all (shifting air planes heading to DC) and 5 hours this past night.

The weather is still gorgeous and cold. I’m still high on happiness from the day before, as I head to the nearest metro stop. Man, I miss descent public, fast transport! A pity, that Pete and I will be long gone before they finally finish the metro in Seattle, I think, as I sit in the underground tube.

Coffee with my senator turned out to be coffee with a lot of Washingtonians who had hoped to have coffee with Patty Murray. She had already left for meetings. Which is fair, I guess, since it’s her job after all. But still a bit disappointing when you get an invitation from her saying from 8-11, feel free to drop in at any time in that time span.

Ah well, I chap up two teenage girls wondering why they are here. It turns out they are active in Seattle! Wow! I was somewhat more selfish and interested in more mundane things like boys and pop music when I was that age.

Chatting with a black woman that I approach because I thought she was a journalist I met at the Obama rally in Seattle a year ago, she tells me that she’s sure her high school mate working for Patty Murray will give me a admittance ticket for the Capitol. Thus reinvigorated, I approach the girl, head for the Murray office, get a blue ticket for the Senate Floor signed by Senator Murray herself, and stride out of the Dirkson Senate Office Building, heading the few hundred meters for the Capitol.

Inside the Capitol
11:20 AM: There’s next to no security check line so once I’m inside the building, a guard tells me to hurry to the Senate floor because a session is about to start at 11:30, and the doors will be closed thereafter. Feeling really lucky, I head for the audience seats in the Senate Floor. Wow. I can’t believe I’m actually sitting here, in this historic room, listening to John Kerry and John McCain debate whether Hillary Clinton should be accepted as the next Secretary of State! What a pity I had to leave all my gear at the wardrobe—no pictures allowed.

We are only a few in the audience at this moment, so I take advantage of sitting close to the guard by the door, asking him all kinds of questions about what I’m looking at: “All these young people in dark blue suits down there on the floor, who are they? Are they interns?”, I ask. The guard (black, like almost all staff I notice) tells me they are high school A-students who had won the possibility to work for the Senate. “Wow”, I whisper back, I’d have loved such a job in high school!

Not true, that the doors would be closed at 11:30, sadly. Until the session break at noon people keep on pouring in, filling up all seats in the audience. I have go give up my good seat next to the guard to make space for the incoming crowd. No matter, I think, as I lean forwards to get a better look of what’s going on down on the Senate floor.

Getting a House Floor Ticket
As everyone has to leave their seat during the session break, I head for the elevator, wondering how I can get my hands on a ticket for the House Floor. My memory of the names of the Washington House members is more shady, and finding the right person in the right building and office would cost me precious time.

Again, luck strikes me. In the elevator a staff woman in a yellow suit is holding a bunch of unsigned yellow House Floor tickets. I put on my most charming innocence asking her “Do you know where I can get such a ticket?” She’s in a good mood: “Yes, here you are”, she replies and hands me one of her tickets. I thank her and smiles broadly, remembering to silently thank my god of good fortune.

So I head for the opposite side of the Capitol, for the House Floor, seeing wonderful wall decorations on my way. The House Floor is much bigger, of course, but the debate much less spectacular, so I only stay for a moment. The sudden dense audience also makes it less interesting.

13:40 PM: Exiting the elevator again, I ask this guard standing right outside if there’s any way I can get or buy pictures of “this beautiful building”. He looks at his watch: “If you come back at 3 o’clock, I’ll give you a personal tour myself, and then you can take all the pictures you want”. I get so happily surprised that I catch myself making a crazy happy face before I could control myself: “Deal! I’ll be back at three then”, I said.

Now I really noticed that I hadn’t eaten anything since the evening before, so I head down to the public canteen in the public entrance area.

A Personal Tour
3:00 PM: Sharp, I stand in front of the kind guard whose shift is just happening, he’s off for the day. Larry Gould is 55 years old, a former marine that has worked in the Capitol for 16 years. “I’m starting to get bored. Nothing never happens here”, he said. I stared at him in shock: “YOU are spoiled talking like that! Sometimes it’s a luxury to be bored. I would LOVE to work here!”, he smiles admittedly.

He starts by taking me to the stairs Obama walked down to get to the West Balcony where he gave his speech. “Obama walked these stairs before he gave his speech”, Larry said. Ok, but that didn’t beat my amazement when he leads me to the actual spot where Obama was inaugurated and gave his speech. “Right here”, I thought to myself. “He was standing right here. This is what he saw. All these people filled with happiness because of his words.” I get chills, not sure whether it’s because of the brisk temperatures of emotion.

We walk on to the Capitol Dome, the Statuary Hall where Obama had lunch just yesterday with the senators, the Crypt, down amazingly richly decorated halls—they made me think of the Russian Winter Palace even though I haven’t been there—and down a tiny winding staircase—with a sign saying “staff only”—I felt lucky again, always loved to explore all corners of interesting buildings—especially the forbidden ones. It turns out this staircase is the only original part left of the Capitol since a big fire burned it to the ground in the Independence War. Along the tour, he greeted the other guards making sure I didn’t have to go through any security so I could take all my gear with me: video cam, digi cam and mobile phone (with built-in camera). I will never forget his kindness!

















As we depart he promises me he will give me and my husband a tour next time we’re in town. He makes me write down his name so I get it right. “But then you’ll have to promise me not to retire in any near future”, I said, “because it will be a while before I can be back here”. He smiles and promises me he won’t.

Just before it gets too dark for outdoor pictures, I make it to the White House, which is closed for the day, Obama’s first day in office. So we are a bunch of people standing outside taking pictures.

After twilight I walk back towards the cozy P Street to shop at Wholefoods there. I’m going to cook for Larissa tonight to thank her for hosting me. She has an exam tomorrow morning and is crazy busy, in need of power-food.

Walking in this city knowing it will be the last time in a long while, I make sure to take a deep breath of it, savouring it’s beauty. As I didn’t expect at all to fall in love with New York, I have been happily surprised to feel so at home and so happy here. I hope this will be the next stop on our home hopping list, if not Paris or New York come first.

Inauguration Day 2009 in pictures

Inauguration Day 2009 in pictures

Obama and the Rise of the Youth

They came in droves to his rallies. They volunteered in higher numbers that ever seen before among young people. And they showed up to salute him as he was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States of America.

But what is it that made the young people rally so strongly behind Barack Obama as their next president, I asked two teenage girls at a coffee event with our senator Patty Murray in the Dirkson Senate Office Building the day after Obama’s inauguration.

Zoe Ingraham and Alena Kantor, both 14, are with their parents in the nation’s capitol for the inauguration, and they are both very exited to have experienced the event.

Volunteered for Obama
“It was great”, they say as with one mouth and big smiles on their faces. Both girls volunteered for the Obama campaign, making phone calls to potential voters. That idea didn’t come out of nowhere.

“All our friends are pro-Obama. Everyone is talking about the issues, and what he [Obama] can do to fix the country”, says Alena, and Zoe continues, “Some of our friends volunteered like us, but not all of them”. “They’re all jealous of us for being here”, says Alena.

Parents strong Dems
But the influence of their parents probably plays a part in their interest too. “Both our parents are strong Democrats”, explains Zoe, as her mother stops by to see who’s talking to her daughter. Zoe’s mother smiles and nods confirmingly before she walks on. Zoey continues: “They’re [our parents] mad about Bush and what he has done to this country. So we have watched all the debates with them".

School might also have inspired Alena and Zoe to engage in politics years before they can cast their own vote. “We’ve had a governmental politics class where we campaign for different people”, explains Alena.

At the Obama Girl Party
On the night of the inauguration, I stopped by the Obama Girl Filibuster Party and asked two women in their thirties why they thought Obama has been to popular among young people.

“Obama talks the young people’s language. He speaks in color, if you know what I mean”, said 31-year-old Francesca, a long time political activist from UCLA in California. “I appreciate that you feel something when he speaks. You need to bring it to live when they talk about problems in our society, and only a fe w people have this kind of oratory skills. He’s genuine, so the young people get it. He’s the real deal.”

Believe what he says
Jennifer, a volunteer from Chicago, agreed: “I think Obama appeals to young people because he’s clearly spoken. He doesn’t mix up words like Bush did. People believe what he [Obama] says. Besides, Bush messed up so badly that people want a different face, and they want hope, and younger people see it that way too. Bush and McCain are old politics”, said Jennifer, while admitting, “We know Obama probably can’t carry out all the plans the talked about during the campaign, but we fundamentally believe that he’s going to try”.