Danes rebel against Pakistan Road

Copenhagen Post:

The naming of a two-metre long dirt road has owners of summerhouses in Copenhagen's Amager quarter up in arms. They don't want to live on Pakistan Road.

For anyone who has ever travelled a dusty country road in Pakistan, the address Pakistan Road sounds logical for a two-metre long dirt road in a summerhouse quarter in Copenhagen's Amager quarter, daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported on Tuesday.

The Road Directorate's decision to name the road after Pakistan, however, has not received a warm welcome among the quarter's residents, most of whom own small summerhouses and vegetable gardens on allotments near the road.

'We aren't racists. But Pakistan Road just doesn't fit Danish summerhouses. We understand that the city wants to send a signal of some kind by naming a road after Pakistan, but it's us who have to live by the address for the next 200 years. They should find a bigger road to call Pakistan Road,' said Ejvind Hernø, spokesman for the Allotment Association Formosa.

Hernø said the summerhouse owners felt that the Road Authority had ignored their protests.

'It feels like we've already lost this fight,' he said. 'People are furious, and it's easy to imagine that someone will take action when the new road sign is installed. Of course I hope it doesn't happen.'

The Road Administration said it preferred Pakistan Road to other suggestions, as it fit with other Asian country names in the quarter, such as Korea Road, Iran Road, and China Road.

The authority added in its answer to the summerhouse owners that it wanted to name the road after Pakistan based on Denmark's special relation to the country in recent years, due to the general population development.

Why on earth do Danes feel that they have to name roads after foreign countries? Why don't they just name them after places in Denmark instead?