Coronavirus DK: Big race canceled and a letter from the Devil

Today the government’s limit on gatherings was raised (DK) from 50 to 100 people. That was according to an agreement made one month ago. The limit will be increased further to 200 people on August 8. Researchers think lifting the restriction is reasonable since the infection rate in the country has fallen very low, but they warn that the virus is still circulating and the great majority of people are vulnerable to it. They urge people to maintain social distancing and good hand hygiene. By mid-June the police had issued 836 fines for violating the limit.

Wait till next year

The gradual increase of the limit is not enough to save the Copenhagen Half Marathon (DK) this year, though. The arrangers decided that it would not be responsible to unleash 25,000 runners onto the streets of the capital as planned on September 13. They were annoyed that they had not received guidelines from the government on the conditions for holding the race. Almost half the participants are from abroad, and many do not know how they stand in relation to the current rules on travel and lodging, explain the arrangers, Sparta and Dansk Athletics. They considered postponing the event until later in the year, but the uncertainty would remain and the weather could be worse. 

The Copenhagen Half received much attention last year, when it sold out for the first time and the world record was broken (DK). Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor ran the distance in 58:01. “People in the running scene began to compare us with the Berlin Marathon, the London Marathon and the New York Marathon,” says Dorte Vibjerg, Sparta’s managing director. “And we want to preserve the brand that we have developed.” Earlier in the year, the DHL Relay Race, the world’s largest, with more than 200,000 participants, was also canceled. The CPH Half is scheduled to resume in 2021.

Bribe from the “world’s most dangerous man”

An American living in Denmark got a surprise in her mailbox – a letter with a check for $1,200 (DK) from Donald Trump. “It was confusing, it was incredible, and I was insulted,” said Amy Faircloth, an anthropologist who has lived here for 45 years. The payment was part of the $2 trillion US relief package. Some 160 million citizens are to receive up to $1,200 to help them survive the coronavirus pandemic financially. That includes $2.5 billion for American citizens who live abroad, since they are also liable for income tax in the US. 

But the letter itself was disconcerting. It was presented in Trump’s “grandiloquent” style “as if it were his money that he was giving to me personally,” said Faircloth, and the signature “resembled a seismogram of a very bad earthquake.” In his notoriously crude and narcissistic fashion, Trump had insisted that his name appear on the check. But Faircloth believes that if he thinks he can buy votes that way, he is mistaken: “Actually, I think the problems in the US are that people don’t listen to one another. People are convinced that Donald Trump is a savior, and others think he’s the Devil himself.”

The check arrived just as the contents of the latest book about Trump, by Mary Trump, his niece and a clinical psychologist, are being disclosed. The book may offer the most detailed portrayal yet of Trump’s many pathological traits throughout his life.