PUBLIC SERVICES

Everybody knows that Denmark has a highly developed public sector, which provides one of the best levels of welfare in the world. Sometimes it is surprising just how developed it is.

Handicapped people are well looked after here. Many are able to live in their own apartment, with help from a visiting professional. One of the tasks earmarked for that professional was to help the handicapped person arrange their sex life, most often by using a prostitute. According to the Social Ministry's 2001 official circular, employees were supposed to arrange visits to/from a prostitute if requested, and if necessary to go with the handicapped person to the rendezvous.

Unfortunately - for some handicapped people, at least - the circular has just been changed. What used to be a duty is now merely a recommendation that the employee may refuse to comply with. It remains to be seen whether they will; but handicap organisations are worried about the change.

I don't have a particular view about the change. But I do think it is remarkable, in a positive way, that at a time when the words crisis, money and savings are on everybody's lips, some people are still thinking about the quality of life, rather than its quantity.

Walter Blotscher