this is what democracy looks like

report from copenhagen:
we are spending out last few days staying with an x-christianite who lives very close to christiania (a large autonomous "free" zone/villiage within the city limits). last night we cooked dinner for for him and one of his housemates (quinoa w/roasted nuts, brussel sprouts, and a vegatable roast of carrots, potatoes and parsnips). Ditlev, our host, has his own businesses doing mediation and conflict resolution. he has no formal education in this (he used to be a carpenter), he just learned it living in christiania and working with group processes.

Yette, one of his housemates, works for a trade union and is a local politician. many years ago, she and some other people bought 2 ajoining houses and knocked out walls to make it a large open space for a collective. there are a few more walls now, but its still collectively owned and managed. Yette serves on denmark's version of city council--for copenhagen, a 55 person board that includes students and people of all walks of life. she represents the red-green party, a fusion of socialist and environmental parties. Their city council is similar to the national parliament in that it has proportional representation--so all parties must continuosly work together to create a critical mass for any particular piece of legislation. yette openly scoffed at our "democratic" 2 party system, and at the 9 month soap opera of election lead-up. hard to argue with that....