Culture is not theories on paper, or ideas made in heads of philosophers. Yes, sometimes we are able to contribute a bit, but culture is the living, vibrant congregation of people. When they live somewhere are happy or sad.

When I was young, my greatest fear would be to settle down, buy a house, get a Volvo. So now I am here. I dream about a house, I have a Volvo, a little wonderful daughter.

But behind that growing need for security, there is always the sincerity of being idealistic, of being young, and believing in something.

Idealism is also about being honest about where we are, and what we do. So, I suppose it is matter of keeping the young together with old, keeping ones idealism, also after the need of security is what you start thinking of.

When I was younger I lived in this amazing place called Vesterbro. It is as vibrant as Liverpool. Full of happy, weird, strong people, who have never given up.

In the last war with the Nazis, the one place that actually did not just give in as everybody else, was my neighborhood Vesterbro. We put up barricades in each end of the main road Istedgade. And the Nazis let us, because they probably thought that that little pocket of resistance was not to bother about.

But we stood our ground at that time. We still do, and all the work I have done, is in service of that spirit. We have this saying in Vesterbro, Istedgade will never surrender.

In a sense we have never done, and this is the well you are all drinking from. That spirit of Vesterbro, that has never surrendered. Before I was invited to Oxford, I talked to some of my old friends. And they send me to Oxford with love. In other words, you may have a motto about never walking alone, but we have a motto saying that we will never surrender, not now, not tomorrow, not ever.

So in a sense, you walk with us, and you do not walk alone, because your cousins are walking with you. And the fighting spirit we have, we graciously lend to you as well.

I have posted a smallish video from Vesterbro, it is not as fancy as the Liverpool video, and old and quaint, but you still can have a bit of that feeling of Vesterbro, that now is walking with you.