The Copenhagen Post Jan 13-19 2012 by The Copenhagen Post

Roj TV guilty of terror, but can still broadcast

Hop on in, the water’s ... cold – very, very cold

13 - 19 January 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 2

Revisit the chopping block of puberty

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk SCANPIX

NEWS

The mayor’s behaviour at an office Christmas party has left him with a political hangover

OPINION

Reflection of reality? Transparency International gave Denmark high marks, but even we are vulnerable to greed and weakness

BUSINESS

40 years on and still beloved

Is ‘inshoring’ the new trend? Several businesses are moving production back to Denmark

The “versatile” Queen Margrethe II celebrates four decades on the throne

Government proposes end to points system

SPORT

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JENNIFER BULEY Disagreement over strictest family reunification rules splits opposition

HEN THE government presented a bill to parliament on Monday proposing to scrap the controversial points system for family reunification, it received significant support from half the opposition as well. “The points system doesn’t work optimally. There are things that need to be adjusted, and we want to help those adjustments happen,” the opposition Konservative (K) party’s immigration

spokesperson, Mike Legarth, told Poli- unable to make the cut. In September, tiken newspaper. it was reported that the number of resiJust last summer K helped their dent permit approvals had fallen by 70 former coalition partners, Venstre (V) percent due to the points system. and the Dansk Folkeparti (DF), impleThat result has led to K, another ment the current points system for fam- opposition party, Liberal Alliance (LA), ily reunification, which requires non- and many business organisations proEU spouses of legal Danish residents testing against the same strict rules that and citizens to earn the right to stay in the left-of-centre parties Radikale (R) Denmark by amassing points for higher and Enhedslisten (EL) have condemned education, full-time work, Danish lan- on civil rights grounds. guage skills, community service, and “At a time when the business comother criteria. munity needs competent workers from The criteria are so strict – and the outside, a person can be hired by a Danminimum number of points needed to ish company at a high salary and still not qualify for residency is so difficult to be able to get residency for their spouse achieve – that a number ofOrganise highly-ed- aifpersonal the spouse doesn’t also have a full-time meeting ucated, top-earning spouses have been job,” K immigration spokesperson Mike

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Legarth explained to Politiken. LA political spokesperson Simon Emil Ammitzbøll said his party was also ready to negotiate with the left-of-centre government on the immigration rules, “if we think it will pull Denmark in a more liberal direction”. LA does not, however, support the plan to reduce the cash security deposit required for non-EU spouses from 100,000 to 50,000 kroner, as the government is proposing. Ammitzbøll told Politiken that foreigners ought to be able to prove they can support themselves without help from the welfare sys-

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Week in review

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012 Scanpix

Protest song

THE WEEK’S MOST READ STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK Government proposes end to ‘points system’ Mass layoffs at Royal Theatre Danish companies bring jobs back home Cycling fines to increase dramatically in 2012 Queen’s New Year’s speech strained patience

FROM OUR ARCHIVES TEN YEARS AGO. The Association of Danish County Road Engineers warns that raising motorway speed limits to 130km/hour would result in more motorway fatalities. FIVE YEARS AGO. Cause and effect as explained by the transportation minister: better cycling policies get more people to cycle, which means better health, less sick time and more production.

Over 1,300 residents showed up for a free concert at the Royal Theatre on Saturday. The concert was held in protest at the theatre’s cutbacks.

The nation received a rare guest this week as a humpback whale was spotted in the Øresund just south of Helsingør. Lars Pryds, a fisherman who encountered the whale, estimated its size at between seven and ten metres long. Pryds told Helsingør Dagblad newspaper that his fishing boat was able to get close

Generation Zzzz?

enough to the whale to touch its tail. Pryds said that he has been sailing in the area since 1983 and this was only the second time he had seen a whale. Whale spottings in Denmark are quite rare. In 2010, a fin whale captured the nation’s attention when it became stranded in Vejle Fjord before dying shortly afterwards.

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper Since 1998, The Copenhagen Post has been Denmark’s leading source for news in English. As the voice of the international community, we provide coverage for the thousands of foreigners making their home in Denmark. Additionally, our English language medium helps to bring Denmark’s top stories to a global audience. In addition to publishing the only regularly printed English-language newspaper in the country, we provide up-to-date news on our website and deliver news to national and international organisations. The Copenhagen Post is also a leading provider of non-news services to the private and public sectors, offering writing, translation, editing, production and delivery services.

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A recent analysis of unemployment rates among young people in Denmark shows that 80,000 youths between the ages of 15 and 29 have neither worked nor attended school in the past six months. They have instead been living on public assistance or receiving help from their parents. The employment

President and Publisher Ejvind Sandal Chief Executive Jesper Nymark Editor-in-Chief Kevin McGwin Managing Editor Ben Hamilton News Editor Justin Cremer Journalists Jennifer Buley & Peter Stanners

All photos: Colourbox

Rare visitor

ONE YEAR AGO. Crown Princess Mary gives birth to twins, a healthy girl and boy. Sharing a birthday with Elvis Presley, Crown Prince Frederik jokingly fuels name speculations.

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minister, Mette Frederiksen, called the figures “deeply alarming” – a concern that was shared by the economy minister, Margrethe Vestager. “This situation is unacceptable not just to parents and young people, but to every citizen as well,” Vestager said. Those without an education have been hardest hit.

Editorial offices: Slagtehusgade 4 – 6 DK 1715 Copenhagen V Telephone: 3336 3300 Fax: 3393 1313 www.cphpost.dk News Desk news@cphpost.dk 3336 4243 The CPH Post welcomes outside articles and letters to the editor. Letters and comments can be left on our website or at: comments@cphpost.dk

Hoping to replace a worndown ski lift, Bornholm residents successfully petitioned the EU for 200,000 kroner to build a new one. While that may have made the island’s ski bunnies happy, it made a German MEP quite angry. Inge Grässle, a spokesperson for the budgetary control committee, called funding the “mean-

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ingless” project “unacceptable” in light of the EU’s economic situation. Bornholm shouldn’t feel singled out, however. The committee also claimed that financial support for clowns in Finland and TV-showgirls in Italy were just as wasteful. Bornholmers defended the decision, saying they had played by the rules.

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NEWS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

13 - 19 January 2012

Diplomatic dispute costs Denmark 27 consulates JENNIFER BULEY Schengen partners refuse Danish demand for exceptions; consular agreements cancelled

PARTING decision by the Venstre-Konservative (VK) government during its final weeks in power has left Denmark without consulates in 27 countries, effectively slamming the doors to Denmark on those countries’ citizens. For years, Denmark has enjoyed the advantages of having consulates in many small countries around the world, without all of the costs associated with running its own consulates, through co-operative agreements with other Schengen countries. Under those agreements, the other countries accepted and processed visa applications for Denmark, according to a common set of rules for Schengen countries. But last year, the Immi-

gration Ministry under Søren Pind (V) demanded that the co-operating consulates begin forwarding visa applications to the Danish police for review on the grounds of Danish national security. When Germany and Finland refused to comply because the demand created administrative problems and was an exception to Schengen rules, the VK government cancelled their consular agreements. Those cancellations ended Denmark’s consular representations in 15 countries. France then objected to the Danes’ demand to be treated as an exception and chose to dissolve its agreement, effective from January 1. That cancellation ended Denmark’s representation in 12 additional countries. All told, the three cancelled agreements have closed Denmark off to citizens from 27 countries, who no longer can seek a Danish visa – whether for business, tourism, or visiting family members – without trav-

Cut off from Denmark (or is it the other way around?)

Our Danish friends don’t want to let us make the decisions elling abroad. Eric Bosc, a spokesperson for France’s foreign ministry, told Politiken newspaper that over 30 countries entrusted the French authorities with processing visa applications for them using the common Schengen procedures. “But our Danish friends don’t want to let us make the decisions,” Bosc told Politiken. “They want to have the cases forwarded to them, so that they themselves can say yes or no. That procedure is too work-intensive for us to handle.” “We would like to help Denmark, but we have to follow the existing rules,” he added. “Our view is that you either respect the common rules for the procedures, or else you find another

In these 27 countries it is no longer possible to apply for a Danish visa, because of Denmark’s broken agreements with Germany, France and Finland. In 2010, more than 2,800 visa applications to visit Denmark were received from them, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Caribbean: Dominican Republic, Haiti, Saint Lucia South America: Paraguay, Peru Africa: Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Libya, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Tunisia Middle East: Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen Indian Ocean: Mauritius, Seychelles Mediterranean: Cyprus Former Soviet Republics: Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Asia: Mongolia possibility.” Downplaying the issue, the justice minister Morten Bødskov (Socialdemokraterne), who inherited the problem from the former government, called it a “technical problem”. Bødskov predicted that the former agreement with Germany would be reinstated within a few months.

Alternative agreements were also being sought with other countries, he added. But others did not take the situation as lightly. Members of Dansk Industri, a business association that represents some 10,000 Danish businesses, expressed concern that the situation would hurt Danish trade

and tourism. Among the countries now cut off from access to Danish visas are the oil giants Qatar and Bahrain, the highgrowth economies of Paraguay and Peru, and Belarus – with its well-heeled, Danish-friendly tourists. EU expert and University of Copenhagen professor Marlene Wind noted that the timing of the broken agreements was particularly bad, given Denmark had just assumed the rotating EU leadership. “The lack of trust in our European partners is a negative signal to send just now when we have assumed the EU presidency,” Wind told Politiken. “At its most basic level it has to do with whether we trust the other Schengen countries to handle visa applications for us – apparently we don’t.” “The government ought to deal with this issue as quickly as possible, before we risk having other countries cut off their agreements with us,” she added.

Girl was supposed to be deported to Thailand, but is allowed to stay until family reunification application is resolved

TV2

Justice Ministry grants seven-year- Kurdish station fined 2.6m kr old second chance at residency for promoting terrorism RAY WEAVER Roj TV hangs on to broadcasting licence despite being judged the voice of the PKK

CHINK HAS appeared in the Immigration Service’s armour. On Friday, the Justice Ministry ruled to extend the stay of deportation of a sevenyear-old Herning resident, Phatteera, whom the Immigration Service ruled last month ought to be separated from her mother, sister and step-father and sent alone back to Thailand. Victory is still not certain for Phatteera and her family, but it appears that the battle with the Immigration Service has now turned in their favour, said their lawyer, Åge Kramp. That could be very good news, not just for Phatteera, but also for hundreds of other children who, like her, have been denied residency because the Immigration Service says they are not capable of being integrated into Danish society. Two weeks before Christmas the Immigration Service ruled to deport Phatteera, but after a public outcry, protests from select politicians, intervention from a lawyer with Amnesty International, and a formal appeal from Phatteera’s lawyer, the little girl was allowed to stay in Denmark until after the holidays. On Friday, the Justice Ministry decided to suspend her deportation until her appeal is finalised. “The answer from the ministry suggests that we will most likely be able to keep Phatteera in Denmark,” Kramp told Berlingske newspaper. “The more time that passes before she is deported,

Phatteera’s lawyer hopes her deportation can be delayed until new immigration regulations come into effect

the closer we will be to the date when the government’s new legislation will fall into place.” The SocialdemokraterneRadikale-Socialistisk Folkeparti (SRSF) government has promised to change certain immigration rules – particularly the rule introduced in 2004 by the Venstre-Konservative (VK) government, with the full support of Dansk Folkeparti (DF), S, and SF, which gives the Immigration Service the right to deny residency to children of immigrants, if their parents wait more than two years to send for them from their home countries. Since 2004, under this rule, more than 800 children have been denied residency and separated from parents living in Denmark. In 2010, 206 children – including a two-and-ahalf-year-old – were deported by the Immigration Service, Politiken newspaper reports. In addition to Phatteera’s case, The Copenhagen Post has previously reported on the cases of eight-year-old Ripa and

13-year-old Sirapat, who were also denied residency. Ripa was allowed to stay in Denmark until her appeal is resolved. Sirapat was deported to Thailand last March. Radikale (R), Enhedslisten (EL) and Liberal Alliance (LA) have been pushing for changes to the immigration rules, but until this month SRSF claimed that they could not stop the child deportations until the immigration rules are formally changed by parliament some time in March. Kramp and Amnesty International lawyer Claus Juul challenged that claim, and it now appears that the government – and the Justice Ministry’s lawyers – are finally listening. R immigration spokesperson Zenia Stampe said the decision to allow Phatteera to stay in Denmark was a relief. “It’s been deeply frustrating, not being able to suspend the deportations until we’re ready with the new rules,” she told Berlingske, adding that “we’re a step closer to our goal and we’re working at full speed”. (JB)

OPENHAGEN-BASED Kurdish TV station Roj TV was found guilty on Tuesday of charges that it promoted terrorism. Roj TV, which transmits news, cultural and children’s programming to an estimated 30 million Kurds worldwide, had been charged with promoting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organisation by the US, Canada and the EU. But while the court found the station violates anti-terror law and will be fined 2.6 million kroner, it said the licence cannot be revoked because of a technicality related to how the charges were brought. Prosecutors had demanded immediate closure of the station along with a fine of 20 million kroner for Roj TV and its parent company, Mesopotamia Broadcasting. Roj TV’s lawyer Bjørn Elmquist had first requested an acquittal. He subsequently argued that the station only be required to pay the fine included in Tuesday’s judgment and be allowed to retain its licence until the appeals process is over. The decision drew protests from Turkish ambassador Ahmet Berki Dibek, who was in Copenhagen City Court to witness the verdict. Roj TV was indicted on August 15 on charges that it promoted terrorism through propa-

ganda. The case marks the first time a Danish media organisation has been prosecuted for terrorism. Roj TV began broadcasting in Denmark in 2004. Broadcast authorities began looking into its possible ties with the PKK in 2005. Two years later the national broadcasting authority Radio- og Tv-nævnet found that the station had incited hatred and violence. Former Roj TV head Manouchehr Zanoozi, who had originally admitted that Roj TV had connections to the PKK, came forward in 2009 with incriminating photos and documents that demonstrated a strong connection between the two organisations, including an offer by the PKK to invest several million kroner into the broadcaster. During the trial it emerged that PKK guerrillas had appeared as journalists and used the station to broadcast the names of and threaten specific

Turkish soldiers. The station was also found guilty of accepting money from the PKK. The station had been a sore spot in the relationship between Turkey and Denmark. The Turkish government claims that the station is a mouthpiece for the PKK, and Turkish authorities had repeatedly made formal complaints about Roj TV to Radioog Tv-nævnet. Turkey banned the station in 2005 and accused Denmark of dragging its feet on the case. Denmark’s decision to prosecute was revealed in 2010 as being a reward for Turkey’s support of the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as Nato secretary general in 2009. A leaked US Embassy cable revealed that “Denmark had promised to clarify its legal requirements prerequisite to acceding to Turkey’s request for the closure of Roj TV” in exchange for Turkey withdrawing its objection to Rasmussen.

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COVER STORY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

13 - 19 January 2012 ALL PHOTOS THIS PAGE: SCANPIX

2011

2008 Whether meeting world leaders, travelling the world, cheering on the national team, or delivering her annual New Year address, Danes by and large have loved their queen since she assumed the throne in 1972.

2004

1972

1999

1995

1984

2004

2007

The queen of Danish hearts MALENE ØRSTED Once derided as a “clumsy teenager”, Denmark’s queen can celebrate her 40th jubilee with towering approval ratings

ER SUBJECTS wave at her when she steps out onto the balcony of Amalienborg Palace, and they listen to her when she gives her New Year address. Margrethe II is a popular queen. In fact the monarchy is the most popular in Europe, according to a recent poll. Saturday marks Queen Margrethe’s 40th year on the throne. Through those four decades as the titular head of state, she has managed to not only refine the monarchy, but also to gain her subjects’ trust and support. She has become a rallying point that most people can identify with and she is the country’s representative to the world, according to experts. Multifaceted monarch ONE OF the reasons why the monarchy has become so popular is because Margrethe has been able to make being a queen into a life-long project, according to Jon Bloch Skipper, a historian who specialises on the monarchy. “It’s not just a 9-to-5 job. She has put this duty in front of everything else. And she has been very professional about it, which has given her credibility,” he said. In addition to being a dedicated monarch, Margrethe has also established an identity for herself as a mother, an academic and an artist. “She’s a very versatile queen. It’s obviously important that she’s well versed in a lot of areas, and that she has so many interests in different aspects of society,” said Lars Hovbakke Sørensen, a historian with the University of Copenhagen. The queen’s high popularity ratings – over 70 percent support the monar-

chy, according to polls – is due to this versatility. Describing her, Skipper uses words like reliable and intelligent. He also pointed to her sense of humour about the job as one of the reasons for her success. “That’s an important thing to have as a queen, because people often feel awkward around her. A monarch who’s in command of the situation can help people to relax. It’s a disarming sense of humour,” he said. Even though the queen possesses a great sense of humour, she still maintains a sort of conservative sublimeness, Skipper said. This is especially apparent in the distance she maintains from the media.

She is a person people can relate to, no matter what cultural or religious background they may have National symbol AS A CONSTITUTIONAL monarch the queen doesn’t have political power. However, the constitution states that laws don’t take effect until she signs them, and she plays a ceremonial role in the formation of new governments. In reality though, she has no choice but to follow the instructions of elected leaders, and laws do not become valid until signed by a member of the cabinet. But according to Sørensen, these formal roles are not her most important ones. “She has two very important tasks. The first is to be someone who can gather Danes. She is a person people can relate to, no matter what cultural or religious background they may have. Secondly, she’s Denmark’s official representative to the world,” he said, emphasising that her popularity has a lot to do with the fact

that she has understood this role. Skipper agreed that at the end of the day the most important thing for the queen was to have the support of the people. “This is why people wave with flags when she passes in her coach,” he said. Being a national symbol means that people identify and reflect themselves in her. A part of this identification is based on her gender. “You shouldn’t underestimate the fact that she’s a woman, and also the first woman in that role,” Skipper said. “She has been able to balance family and career. This has inspired other women.” The future queen SINCE ASCENDING to the throne as the young mother the then-PM Jens Otto Krag referred to as “a clumsy teenager”, Margrethe, now 71, continues to refine her role, according to Sørensen, who points to her New Year’s address as an example. “She has developed the address into something personal – a way for her to give good advice to the population. Like her last one, when she said that people need to remember that during a financial crisis people have to do something themselves,” he said. With the New Year address becoming the queen’s personal trademark, Skipper doubts that Prince Frederik, the heir apparent, will be able to carry on the tradition in the same form. “He’ll have to figure out his own way of doing things. But he is lucky that he will avoid a direct comparison, because he’s succeeding a woman,” he said. Even though 40 percent of her subjects are in favour of the queen’s abdication in the next five to ten years, according to a recent Megafon/Politiken/TV2 poll, Margrethe has made it clear that just like her job isn’t a 9-to-5 one, nor is it something you can retire from. “I’ve always had the perception that it is an assignment you get,” she recently told Politiken newspaper. “And you keep it as long as you live.”

2011

Factfile | Queen Margrethe II •

Margrethe Alexandrine Þorhildur Ingrid was born on 16 April 1940 at Amalienborg Palace. She is the oldest daughter of King Frederik IX (1899-1972) and the Swedish-born Queen Ingrid (1910-2000).

•

Because the king had no son, the Act of Succession was changed in 1953 to allow conditional female succession.

•

In 1967, she married the French-born Henri Marie Jean André de Laborde de Monpezat. They have two sons: Frederik André Henrik Christian (born 26 May 1968), and Joachim Holger Waldemar Christian (born 7 June 1969).

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The queen’s winter residence is Amalienborg Palace. During the spring and autumn, she prefers Fredenborg Palace. She spends summer at Marselisborg Castle, Gråsten Castle, aboard the royal yacht Dannebrog and at the French residence Château de Cayx.

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She has a great interest in art and has practised several forms since the 1970s. She has even illustrated several books, including the 2002 Danish publication of JRR Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of The Rings’ (2002).

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The queen’s 40th jubilee is on Saturday January 14. She is scheduled to make a public appearance on the balcony of Amalienborg Palace before travelling through the city by horse-drawn carriage to City Hall for the official festivities. TV stations DR and TV2 will be broadcasting live and airing retrospectives all day.

NEWS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

13 - 19 January 2012

Congestion charge is “not perfect” – but it’s coming anyway JENNIFER BULEY PM invites grumblers to come forward with better solutions – if they have them

HE DEBATE over a Copenhagen congestion charge flared up again last week when the prime minister told TV2 News that her plan to implement a toll charge (betalingsring) around the capital city was “not perfect”. “The government has made a proposal. It is not perfect, but it will solve some of the challenges,” the Socialdemokraterne (S) prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said. Since October, arguments have raged over whether vehicles should be charged to drive into Copenhagen and, if so, where to place the proposed toll ring. At first the criticism came mainly from the opposition. But after the government released a preliminary drawing showing the proposed borders of the toll ring and then conceded that it could not afford to discount bus and train tickets – as promised during the election campaign – the party faithful began to gripe. On Wednesday, ThorningSchmidt welcomed the opposition, as well as critics from the governing parties’ own ranks, to come forward with their own

ideas to improve the plan. “We are listening to the criticism, of course,” ThorningSchmidt said. “But we have to find a solution, and anyone who is against our solution can come forward with suggestions of their own. Right now we’re in the process of listening to everybody who has an interest in this congestion charge. After that, we’ll submit our proposal.” But instead of praising the PM for showing flexibility, the opposition leaders, Venstre (V), claimed that Thorning-Schmidt’s statement sounded the death knell for the entire plan. “When the prime minister is acknowledging that the project is full of problems, I can’t possibly imagine how they expect to push it through parliament,” said Martin Geertsen, V spokesperson for the capital region. “It looks like the initiative is falling apart in the government’s hands. And I hope it does,” added V group chairman Kristian Jensen, whose party claims that the congestion charge will slow growth in Copenhagen. But if the opposition was unrelenting, local mayors and critical members of the governing parties appeared to take more positively to the PM’s remarks. “I see it as an acknowledgement of the worries that we’ve been expressing,” Rødovre’s mayor Erik Nielsen (S) told Ritzau.

Alternative proposals from the opposition Leif Mikkelsen (Liberal Alliance) “The only sustainable option is to make public transport better and cheaper, because if it does, people won’t want to mess around sitting in line on the Køge-Bundt motorway.”

Benedikte Kiær (Konservatives) “It needs to be easier to come into the city and park. As it is now, you have to circle around looking for a parking spot, and that adds to the congestion. That’s why for years we have fought for more carparks.”

Martin Geersten (Venstre) “The solution is the carrot instead of the stick. We want to see a harbour tunnel built, an expansion of the Metro and light rails and get public transport to work together better with the various operators.”

Kim Christiansen (Dansk Folkeparti) “We want to entice motorists to use public transport by making it more convenient for them. Maybe there should be coffee in the mornings. The solution is to invest in public transport.”

* All quotes were given to metroXpress newspaper

Nielsen is the spokesperson for 15 suburban mayors (many of them from the PM’s party) of councils on the outskirts of Copenhagen, the very councils whose residents may soon have to pay to drive their cars into Copenhagen. In recent weeks those mayors have been vocal about criticism of the toll ring. They have questioned the proposed borders, and have insisted that the capacity and quality of public transportation must improve before a congestion charge is implemented. Nielsen expressed hope that the government was now ready to accept some of the mayors’ demands. “It’s a really important signal from the prime minister,” he said. Governing partner Radikale (R) have been accused of not showing complete loyalty to

When the prime minister is acknowledging that the project is full of problems, I can’t possibly imagine how they expect to push it through parliament the congestion charge proposal. But after the PM’s statement, R traffic spokesperson Andreas Steenberg announced that a congestion charge was indeed the right solution for the city’s traffic problems.

“The congestion charge is a good solution … because it gives people a reason to drive at other times of the day or to carpool. Plus it brings in money to improve public transportation,” he said. However, Steenberg expressed some impatience that the government had not yet managed to publish a report showing how public transport would be improved or how income from the new tolls would be spent. “If we would just present the plan for how we are going to improve public transportation between the councils around Copenhagen, I think that many of the surrounding towns would see that it’s a reasonable initiative that will benefit them,” he said. Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF), the other coalition partner, un-

derscored that the government intended to carry through with the congestion charge, even if the current plan was “not perfect”. “It’s just a fact that whenever you make such a big change, it creates some inconveniences,” said SF political spokesperson Jesper Petersen. “But the bottom line is that tradesmen and all the others will no longer have to waste thousands of hours waiting in queues whenever they have to drive around in the city.” The government’s far-left ally Enhedslisten also expressed continued support for the congestion charge. With their support, the government will have the majority it needs to pass the measure – assuming, of course, that it can persuade its own support base that the plan is good enough, despite not being perfect.

What happens at the office Christmas party, doesn’t necessarily stay there – when you’re mayor

F YOU’VE ever woken up the day after the annual office Christmas party with feelings of embarrassment, regret, and anxiety about your job, then you just might have an inkling of how Copenhagen’s mayor, Frank Jensen, feels. At the annual Christmas party (julefrokost) for the city’s financial administration on December 16, Jensen (Socialdemokraterne) allegedly stayed late, drank too much and licked the ear of one female employee, the neck of another, and inappropriately grabbed and squeezed two others, reported the tabloid Ekstra Bladet. Behind closed doors the mayor received a sharp reprimand from city manager Claus Juhl for the unacceptable behaviour – and one week later, on January 3, Jensen stood up and made a general apology to all of the employees gathered at the financial administration’s New Year’s reception (nytårskur), according to the tabloid B.T. But the mayor’s hangover is not quite over yet. A political rival, Pia Allerslev (Venstre), has called for a public explanation of

ment is never okay”, but added that she thought the city manager and administration had handled the episode appropriately. Following a Socialdemokraterne Christmas Jensen was involved in a similar situation during party in 2004, a Christmas party in 2004 that saw him apologise Jensen – then for comments made to a female intern the party’s the employees’ complaints and political spokesperson – was what the city’s management has obliged to apologise to an intern done about them. for alleged overtures. “It’s not about Frank Jensen,” “I don’t remember exactly Allerslev told Politiken news- what happened,” Jensen said paper. “It’s about ensuring that at the time. “But apparently I employees can feel safe attend- said something that offended ing social events at City Hall and her. I suppose I was running about making sure that it remains my mouth and I paid her some Denmark’s best workplace.” compliments, which she took Unfortunately for Jensen, the wrong way.” political allies from EnhedslisJensen offered another ten (EL) and Radikale now also apology of sorts in an internal support the Venstre politician’s document obtained by Jyllands demand. Posten on Tuesday. “We’re backing up the call “I would obviously like for an explanation from the city to apologize if my behavior at manager about how this case, the julefrokost upset anyone which we have all read about in or crossed any lines. It was not the papers, is being handled on intentional,” Jensen said in the behalf of the employees,” Mikkel document. Warming (EL), the deputy mayThe document also stated or for social affairs, told Politiken. that the employees in question Socialistisk Folkeparti city are satisfied with the handling of councillor Ninna Thomsen un- the situation and that the case is derscored that “sexual harass- now considered closed. JASPER CARLBERG

JENNIFER BULEY

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Mayor can’t lick his Christmas party problem Points continued from front page

tem by putting 100,000 kroner in escrow. In addition to eliminating the points system and halving the security deposit, the government’s proposal would lower the exemption age for the tilknyttning requirement, which states that the family must prove that it has a stronger connection to Denmark than another country, from 28 to 26. It would also change the requirement’s wording from saying that the connection to Denmark must be “significantly stronger” to merely “stronger” and the proposal would also eliminate the indvandringsprøve, a test of knowledge of Denmark and Danish society. According to V immigration spokesperson Inger Støjberg, if the points system is scrapped – and it appears there is a majority behind that decision now – Denmark “is going back to the situation we had earlier, where people who didn’t contribute to Danish society were coming to Denmark”. Støjberg added that the proposal to end the points system bore the signature of R, as opposed to the other governing partners, Socialdemokraterne (S) and Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF). “There’s no doubt that this here is a softer immigration policy. Nor is there any doubt that it’s clearly the Radikale who have prevailed once again in this government,” Støjberg

If the proposal – championed by justice minister Morten Bødskov – passes, the points system could be eliminated as early as next month

[The points system is] an obstacle to normal, well-functioning families being able to live together told Politiken. The justice minister Morten Bødskov (S) told Ritzau that the government intended to “stick to a robust and fair immigration policy” based on the 24-yearrule (the rule that the Danish spouse and the non-EU spouse must both be at least 24-yearsold to qualify for residency in Denmark) and the tilknyttning requirement.

But the points system, Bødskov said, had turned out to be “bureaucratic” and “an obstacle to normal, well-functioning families being able to live together”. Besides, the justice minister added: “Danish businesses have also complained about it.” If the proposal passes, the elimination of the points system would occur in February. The other immigration points system – in which immigrants residing in Denmark on a temporary permit must amass 100 points through work, language, and volunteer requirements in order to earn a permanent residence permit (opholdstilladelse) – would be unaffected by Monday’s proposal. The government, however, has indicated it would address making changes to permanent residence permits later in the spring.

EU Presidency

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012 Colourbox

EU presidency ready to work Scanpix

Factfile | Denmark’s EU priorities 1. A responsible Europe • Individual countries must get their budgets under control • Support the Eurozone countries’ financial agreement to implement tighter budgetary restrictions • Continued work on the EU’s seven-year financial framework for 2014-2020 • A six-month period in which member states provide their budgets for EU review

At a press conference last week on Friday, the government formally presented their plans for Denmark’s six-month EU presidency

Kevin McGwin Holding Europe together will keep the government busy, but its programme also includes green growth and security

aking over the leadership of the EU at a time when it faces “possibly its greatest challenge”, PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt unveiled last week on Friday her government’s programme for the six-month presidency. Entitled ‘Europe at Work’, Denmark will spend most of its time attending to the health of the euro, but it will also push for development in areas it labelled ‘A responsible Europe’, ‘A dynamic Europe’, ‘A green Europe’ and ‘A safe Europe’ (see factfile to right). Joined by three other key members of her cabinet, Thorning-Schmidt made it clear that European unity would be the overarching goal of the presidency. “There’s no denying that we’re taking over the presidency at a historically difficult period,” she said. “Our presidency

will be one that’s defined by the crisis, and I think we should make that clear.” In her government’s efforts to stop the euro’s slump, the prime minister said she would seek specific solutions to the problems it faces. “Concrete results are the best way we can contribute to making sure that Europe sticks together in the coming months,” Thorning-Schmidt said. Reiterating the analogy used by her minister for European affairs, Nicolai Wammen, the PM said Denmark would be valuable as a bridge-builder between the 17 Eurozone members and the rest of the 27-member EU. Denmark has not adopted the euro, but the krone is tied to the single currency. Traditionally, support for the euro equally divides voters, but as its troubles have mounted, its popularity has plummeted. The government said it will focus on export and “targeted trade policy” to stimulate growth. It also hopes to promote green growth, but recognised the crisis made this aspect of its agenda a tall order.

2. A dynamic Europe • Growth in the Internal Market • Progress on EU’s patent court, which so far has no consensus on its establishment or location • A digital Internal Market • New business opportunities via the WTO or bilateral agreements with countries including Japan, India, and Canada 3. A green Europe • Creation of green jobs • Green growth within agriculture, transportation, and other fields • A new energy directive so that the EU can reach its goal of decreasing energy use by 20 percent by 2020 • Cut emissions by 80 percent in relation to 1990 levels by 2050 4. A safe Europe • Increased regulations on food safety and cross-border criminality • Implementation of the European Asylum System • Strengthen Schengen co-operation • Continued work on the expansion of the EU The full programme of the government’s EU presidency can be found at eu2012.dk

PM: Denmark should participate in Euro financial pact

enmark should be part of the financial pact to fix the Eurozone debt crisis, the prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Socialdemokraterne) told DR’ current affairs programme Horisont on Monday. However, she refused to say whether Denmark should commit to the entire pact or just to part of it. “I am absolutely sure that there will be elements that will be in Denmark’s interest to agree to, but I also think it’s fair that we wait until we have a final pact so that we can determine which parts to agree to,” said Thorning-Schmidt. The question of whether Denmark would sign up to the pact agreed upon this December by the 17 Eurozone countries, and supported by all of the 10 remaining EU members except Great Britain, has already caused rifts within the cabinet, even though it’s not clear what the pact will ultimately entail. Denmark is not a member of the Eurozone, and shortly after the intention to create the pact was announced, the foreign minister, Villy Søvndal (Socialistisk

Folkeparti), announced that he opposes full Danish participation. His position invited harsh criticism from the Radikale, the third member of the centre-left coalition government. ThorningSchmidt herself said any discussion of Denmark’s degree of involvement in the pact would be premature until the details were Thorning-Schmidt also hosted European Council president Herman Van Rompuy on Monday known, a position she reiterated on Monday. The financial pact will be a legally ence on Denmark,” Thorning-Schmidt binding treaty that commits countries said. “That’s why it’s important for us to exercising fiscal discipline and tight also to subject ourselves to the general discipline of the Eurozone – for our control over their own economies. “If you ask me whether it’s a good own benefit because it will strengthen idea for Denmark to link itself to the confidence in the economy.” Thorning-Schmidt added that she new discipline in Europe, then I would say it is a very good idea,” said Thorn- believes the financial pact is necessary to save the euro because it will establish a ing-Schmidt. She emphasised that it makes sense discipline that has been missing in some to agree to the pact, since Denmark Eurozone countries. “Members of the Eurozone haven’t is already closely tied to the other EU countries, and because its currency is been good enough at abiding by the deals that they have made with each tied to the euro. “The policies implemented by other other,” she said. “That’s how we got into Eurozone countries have a major influ- this mess.” (JW) Scanpix

Financial pact’s discipline would strengthen confidence in economy, Thorning-Schmidt says

Denmark’s position is “schizophrenic”, an EU expert says

Not quite in, not quite out Peter Stanners While Denmark’s four opt-outs from the Maastricht Treaty were designed to retain sovereignty, they are now restricting the country’s EU influence

enmark sits on the fringes of Europe, not only because of its geographical location, but also due to the opt-outs from the Maastricht Treaty that it was granted in order to keep Denmark in the union. But while the opt-outs were designed to offer Denmark a degree of sovereignty over certain issues, some are now outdated and could restrict Denmark’s involvement in Europe – particularly the plans to create a tightened fiscal union. The Maastricht Treaty marked some major changes to the structure of European institutions, but most importantly led the way to the introduction of the euro which Danes were, and still are, adamantly opposed to. In order to come into effect, all EU member states had to ratify it, so when a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty narrowly failed in 1992, there was widespread fear that Denmark would have to pull out of the union entirely. To keep Denmark in the union, it was granted four opt-outs by the Edinburgh Agreement, which was accepted by voters in a second referendum the following year with 56.7 percent in favour. The result did not go down well with all Danes, leading to one of Copenhagen’s most violent riots ever. Eleven protesters were treated for gunshot wounds after police fired 113 bullets after being instructed to shoot at their legs. While the opt-out on European citizenship – Danish citizenship could never be replaced – has become redundant after the Lisbon Treaty, the other three are now becoming a bit of a headache for Denmark. The opt-out on the euro, which allowed Denmark to keep the krone, has been criticised in recent years for not limiting Denmark’s ability to set its own fiscal policy. This is because the krone is pegged tightly to the euro, and if it fluctuates in the currency markets, so too does the krone. Not being part of the euro means that while the krone is affected by European fiscal policy, it does not have any say in the decisions that affect the policy. Having a fixed-exchange rate while sitting outside the euro has been described by some experts as the worst possible arrangement for Denmark. Denmark isn’t likely to adopt the euro anytime soon however, with many polls placing support for joining the common currency at about 25 percent. A referendum on abolishing the two remaining opt-outs, however, is less likely to happen if centrist government party, the Radikale, get their way. The

referendum has been a long time coming, however, and was promised by the former government without ever materialising. With Denmark now taking the presidency, the two opt-outs only make their job more difficult. The third opt-out on Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), means Denmark does not have to participate in defence initiatives dictated by European foreign policy. This means Denmark makes no decisions and contributes no forces in any actions mandated by the European Union. But speaking at a press conference in Brussels in December, the defence minister, Nick Hækkerup, bemoaned the delay in holding a referendum. “We’re in a situation in Denmark where we have to save a lot in our defence budget, so one of the ways to get through this and have a defence that can solve the problems we want it to solve internationally, is to undergo binding agreements with other countries and we can’t do that with the EU right now.” Denmark’s valuable shipping industry has been the target of repeated hijackings off the coast of Somalia, and maintaining a constant pressure in the Indian Ocean is prohibitively expensive. Joining common defence projects would enable Denmark to share the burden. Poland will continue chairing the CSDP meetings during the presidency. The final opt-out on justice and home affairs (JHA) will place Denmark in an awkward position during the presidency as they will chair meetings but won’t be affected by the decisions. Currently, Denmark can only join particular initiatives through inter-governmental treaties, though it is at a disadvantage as they cannot shape the policies. While Denmark may not choose to abolish the JHA opt-out completely, the 2009 Lisbon Treaty allowed Denmark an opt-in option that allows it to sign on to specific policies instead of being forced to join everything. Voters here are still strongly against further integration into Europe, especially after the sovereign debt crisis took hold. Many political parties have another view however, and regard abolishing all of the opt-outs as a chance to regain influence in policy areas that end up affecting the country anyway. “EU civil servants have told me that when they are negotiating issues in justice and home affairs, they forget Denmark has an opt-out and won’t be covered by the legislation because Denmark acts like any other country just speaking their voice,” an EU expert from Copenhagen University, Marlene Wind, said. “It’s a dilemma for our civil servants, as they have to be loyal to the Danish people who don’t want to fully take part, but on the other hand the civil servants have to do what’s best for Danish interests. “It’s a schizophrenic position.”

international

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012

scanpix

Justin Cremer Overworked police bring in re-enforcements to deal with the spiralling gun crime

ollowing the shooting death of a 48-year-old man last week on Tuesday, Malmö has now seen five gun-related killings in a span of just over five weeks. As a result, Malmö police are now appointing a special unit to deal with the rise in killings. “This is an exceptional situation with this many violent crimes,” county police chief Eva Årestad said on Tuesday, according to Sweden’s English-language news site, The Local. Malmö police will also request the assistance of Sweden’s National Bureau of Investigation (Rikskriminalen) as well as neighbouring police districts. Tuesday’s shooting death followed the murder of a 15-year-old boy on New Year’s Day. Police in that case say the motive may have been revenge for scaring a young girl with a firework. Prior to that, a 27-year-old man was shot to death on Boxing Day and a woman renovating a centrally-located café was shot and killed on December

The Malmö suburb of Rosengard, where a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed

20. On November 24, a 31-year-old suspected gang leader was killed. According to The Local, police point to the easy availability of illegal firearms as being behind the rash of shootings. Sven Granath, a criminologist at the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande Rådet), told Politiken newspaper that Malmö’s location may also have something to do with it.

“It’s close to Denmark and the Øresund Bridge, where narcotics are smuggled,” Granath said. “It makes the battle for market share more intense. Malmö also has a large black market for services and goods, in which violent confrontation is not unusual.” The recent killings in Malmö bring to mind the period of October 2009 to October 2010, during which another long sequence of shootings spooked

city residents. During that time, an estimated 50 shootings occurred that targeted immigrants, killing at least three people. A 38-year-old man was arrested for the racially-motivated shootings on 19 charges of murder and attempted murder. Unlike the 2010 shootings, which targeted innocent citizens of immigrant descent, Malmö police say that most of the victims in the recent shootings were previously known to police. In response to the recent spate of shootings, Malmö residents took to the streets in protest last week on Friday. According to police estimates, upwards of 6,000 people gathered at Gustav Adolfs Plads for a demonstration that included speeches, music and the burning of candles. According to The Local, Friday’s protest was organised on Facebook in direct response to the 15-year-old’s death. One of the organisers was former Swedish MP Luciano Astudillo. Speaking to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Astudillo said that Malmö is increasingly being viewed as a violent city. “[Malmö] is such a young city and people move here because they think that’s positive, but the violence denigrates that image and it frightens people,” he said.

maersk

Bodies of two US hits Maersk with massive fine for false claims Aarhus women Shipping company reaches 180 million settlement with US Department found in Madeira kroner of Justice The women were experienced hikers, but apparently fell off a path

ocal authorities in Madeira have confirmed that two corpses found there were those of two previously missing Aarhus women. Portuguese TV channel SIC Notícias reported that the two bodies found were 73-year-old Ulla Linnea Ruby and 77-year-old Amalie Kjerstine Flindt, who had been reported missing since last week on Sunday. Rescue crews found the bodies in a nature area on the island that was not easily accessible. A backpack believed to belong to one of the women was found on a hiking trail, leading rescuers to spot the bodies in an overgrown thicket 20 metres below. The two Danish women arrived in Madeira two weeks ago on Thursday and were reported missing on Sunday when hotel staff noticed they had not returned to their rooms. Both were described as experienced hikers and according to the travel agency Aarhus Charter, the weather in Madeira had been clear and dry the day they disappeared. (JC)

he United States government has hit a subsidiary of shipping giant AP Moller Maersk with a 180 million kroner ($31.9 million) damages claim, the US Department of Justice has announced. Maersk Line has agreed to pay the compensation, which stems from having “knowingly overcharged” the US Defense Department to transport cargo to the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a release from the US Justice Department. The US government claims that Maersk overcharged in various ways, including over-billing for the operation of refrigerated containers at a port in Karachi, Pakistan; failing to account for cargo transit times and contractual grace periods when charging late fees; and billing for delivery delays improperly attributed to the United States. “This settlement should send a strong signal that the government is committed to safeguarding taxpayer funds by ensuring that contractors operate ethically and responsibly,” Melinda Haag, the US attorney for the north-

The US says Maersk Line submitted several false claims on invoices

ern district of California, said. The allegations against Maersk were filed by Jerry H Brown II, who is described by the US Department of Justice as “a former industry insider”. The settlement with Maersk was coordinated among several US justice and military agencies. “Our men and women in uniform overseas deserve the highest level of support provided by fair and honest contractors,” said Tony West, a Department of Justice spokesperson. “As the Justice

Department’s continuing efforts to fight procurement fraud demonstrate, those who put profits over the welfare of members of our military will pay a hefty price.” Maersk’s chief legal adviser, Christian Kledal, confirmed to news service Ritzau that the company had “made a mistake” but denied that the false claims amounted to “intentional fraud”. Kledal also said that Maersk did not anticipate the company’s relationship with the US military to be overly affected by the settlement. (JC)

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New rash of shooting deaths rocks Malmö again

Authorities will now decide what to do with the 14 hostages (seen in bow) and captured pirates (stern)

Danish warship frees 14 hostages An investigation is underway to determine what happens next to the pirates and their former captives

ow that a sea-borne rescue operation conducted by the Danish warship Absalon against pirates off the coast of Somalia has freed 14 Iranian and Pakistani hostages, the Navy are working to determine what should happen next. On Saturday, the Absalon, which is part of a NATO-led anti-piracy operation, pursued a craft it suspected of being a pirate mother ship off the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean. The pirates surrendered after a three-hour standoff, during which the Absalon fired warning shots and instructed the pirates to surrender. The 25 pirates and 14 hostages are currently being interviewed aboard the Absalon in an effort to establish what exactly happened onboard the captured vessel. “We are in the process of piecing together what happened”, said Navy commander Mikael Bill from the Søværnets Operative Kommando (SOK) . “We are questioning both the hostages and the pirates. The information we gather will help us decide the next steps.” Early reports indicate that the Iranian fishing boat was captured two months ago and that the 14 sailors onboard had been held captive since then. They expressed great relief at having been rescued and have made contact with their families. The captured pirates cannot be prosecuted under Danish law, but Denmark has agreements with Kenya and the Republic of Seychelles that would allow for the pirates to be tried in those countries. The Iranian vessel is seaworthy, and the hostages could use it to get home. “Having the hostages simply sail their ship home is possible, but it is still too early to say if that will happen,” Bill said. The Iranian vessel, one of the largest captured by a Danish warship in the battle against pirates, is currently being held alongside the Absalon. Somalia, which has been without a functional government since 1991, has become a home for pirates who launch attacks on ships off its coast. (RW)

Online this week City suspends parking enforcement after Christiania attack Following a brutal attack on parking wardens working near Christiania last week on Friday, the City Council has temporarily dropped parking patrols on the streets surrounding the area. “The safety of our employees is paramount. We will conduct a full investigation into this incident before sending parking wardens back into the area,” said Anders Møller, the council’s director of park-

ing enforcement. According to police, the wardens had just finished distributing parking tickets on Refshalevej on Friday evening when eight to ten men wielding clubs ran out of Christiania and attacked them. All three are in good condition and recovering, according to the council. The police were treating the incident as an isolated matter and have asked any witnesses to come forward.

Cutting child allowance for the wealthy under discussion

Majority support raising drinking age

Denmark’s ongoing financial struggles have members of the coalition government willing to discuss the idea of eliminating quarterly child allowance handouts (børnecheck) for the country’s wealthiest citizens. SF spokesperson Jesper Petersen said that changes should be considered, but declined to say what would constitute ‘rich’ under any new guidelines. He emphasised that no specific proposal for

A vast majority of Danes support raising the legal purchase age of alcohol to 18, according to a newly released poll. In an Epinion poll of 1,126 Danes conducted for Retail Institute Scandinavia, 73 percent said it was “a good idea” or “a very good idea” to forbid the sale of alcohol to individuals aged under 18. Sharing that opinion was the

eliminating the børnecheck has been made, but said that nothing should be considered off limits when the country is facing such difficult economic challenges. PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Socialdemokraterne) also expressed an openness to eliminating the child support allowance for the wealthiest families, as did coalition partners Radikale, and opposition parties Konservative and Dansk Folkeparti.

health minister, Astrid Krag of the Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF). “Danes’ high alcohol consumption is to blame for poor health and a lower life span, and especially among the younger population we have a problem that we must tackle,” Krag told Berlingske newspaper. “I believe that the age limit is one of the things we should adjust.”

Read the full stories at cphpost.dk

OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

Sentiment, not logic, reigns when it comes to royal support

T’S HARD to place a value on something like a Royal Family. For every republican complaint about cost and inequality, there are royalist counter-arguments showing that the immense sums spent to maintain the monarchy is more than paid back in terms of national unity and publicity abroad. But at a time when the kingdom is facing a 100 billion kroner deficit, it’s worth questioning whether the royals’ nearly 100 million kroner in direct support, and the approximately 250 million in related expenses, could be better spent. The obvious logical answer is ‘yes’. Public institutions struggling for ways to make ends meet could certainly use an extra million here and there. And, as beloved as the queen is, it sends a particularly bad signal that while the economy is sputtering the Royal Family will accept an extra million kroner in state funding in 2012. But when it comes to the Royal Family, we’re dealing with something that has less to do with logic than it does with sentimentality. And given that the queen right now is enjoying approval ratings normally only seen in dictatorships, ask commoners if she should cut back, and the answer is likely to be a firm ‘nej’. It’s true that as a national symbol the monarchy does have an uplifting effect, especially in times of national calamity. Images of King Christian X’s daily horse ride through the streets of Copenhagen – unaccompanied by guards – during the Nazi occupation have become mythological symbols of Danish sovereignty. And in these depressed economic times, events like royal births and this weekend’s 40th jubilee serve to distract us, at least temporarily, from our worries. Logic also says that the monarchy flies in the face of the modern tenet that all people are created equal. Still, it’s hard to imagine an elected or appointed figure, no matter how well loved, obtaining the mystique that appears to be the monarchy’s most valuable asset. If the royals were ordinary people, they’d just be another mixed-marriage family on welfare. And what business abroad would be impressed by a visit by an exalted politician? The royals’ money – or at least some of it – could be better spent, now and in times of prosperity. But we do live in a democracy, and if the majority of the kingdom’s subjects are willing to foot the bill to keep the monarchy alive, then long live the queen, as they say.

13 - 19 January 2012

Breakthrough or broken promise?

POUL RIISKJÆR MOGENSEN

N CASE you missed it, December 9 marked International Anti-corruption Day. If you live in Denmark, you probably did miss it. The explanation for why you didn’t hear more about International Anti-Corruption Day might be found in the report released by the Danish chapter of Transparency International on Thursday (January 12). The report was the first to give an overall assessment of the national integrity system. This is no small undertaking, and it is made possible only as part of a European Commissionfunded effort that includes over 20 member states. The report is based on a common set of strict guidelines, which makes it possible to look at it from a European-wide perspective. Although such guidelines don’t make it possible to make a one-to-one comparison or even rank national efforts, using a com-

mon set of questions can elicit useful, parallel impressions of similar institutions, processes and regulations. Such information can be used to identify the weaknesses of our own integrity system, but possibly more importantly we can use the information to learn from other countries that might have made more progress in some areas than we have. We should clear one thing up right away: there is nothing controversial in the report. Yet, that said, the overall picture does show some tendencies that are hard to misinterpret. Denmark is internationally recognised as a leader in the fight against corruption. In a world where corruption and bribery are increasingly apparent, it’s important that there is a role model for countries trying to put an end to the destruction caused by this social evil. Denmark has had few cases of corruption in the true sense of the word, and the major corruption cases we’ve had haven’t touched off widespread public debate, the way they have in other countries. Nor have they led to significant changes to anti-corruption legislation. That isn’t to say that we are immune to corruption – the 3 billion kroner Nordic Feather scandal of the 1990s, the Oil-for-Food scandal of the First Iraq War, and the 800 million kroner IT-Factory swindle in 2008 are just three that spring to mind. We too need to accept that with a large, hierarchical public

sector, increasing liberalisation and the increasing internationalisation of commerce – often according to entirely different practices than our own – come new challenges. The OECD and the Council of Europe have made it clear that if being be able to deal with these challenges will require other regulations and institutions. We too are vulnerable to human weakness and greed and must constantly be prepared to defend against them. We too need to recognise that we must constantly evaluate whether our regulations are good enough. And even if they are, we need to ask whether they are enforced strictly enough. We too need to consider whether we can always use homogeneity, social cohesion and mutual trust to justify our general tendency to rely on informal norms and predictable practices. Historically, our society has not always been this way, and we have no guarantee that it will continue to be like this unless we make an active effort to support the strengths of our integrity system. Maybe the consequence of our apparently carefree approach to fighting corruption should be to include not just corruption in the strict sense of the word, but also transparency and integrity in broad terms at all levels of society. It’s important to note that our repeatedly high ranking in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index is due to other countries’ opinion of us, and that this is not necessarily a true reflection of reality. We should also ask whether

regulations are being enforced the way legislators envisioned. The assessment of the national integrity system was released as part of a public event on Thursday (read more at transparency.dk, in Danish only). During the event, a panel of leading politicians discussed the challenges faced by the political system, focusing on the financial support for political parties, lobbying and public records of the financial activities of members of parliament. Seen from a wider perspective, political parties are only a part of the topic, and we need to be careful not to make matters worse by demonising politicians based on a destructive populist current that has been churned up by all manner of scandal. The private sector, the financial sector and the public sector all deserve the same scrutiny, and we’re prepared to extend our assessment into these areas. But even though we should look beyond the political sphere, politicians should be required to live up to a higher standard of integrity, since the electorate entrusts them with the authority to make decisions that affect their lives. Transparency International’s role is to serve as a watchdog that, working on the national and international levels, can ensure the continued development of collaboration and regulations targeted at preventing corruption. Even if that means having to learn from others. The author is the chair of the Danish chapter of Transparency International.

READER COMMENTS Cycling fines increase

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They forgot farting when pedalling: 1,000kr. Denmark is becoming a ridiculous place to live with all of these crap taxes and afgifts. A few more years and I`m outta here. ziggedwhenishouldazagged By website It is clear that royal family or politicians need more money (for whiskey and war) and they will imagine any stupid thing to take money from people. You and I both know that this is yet another tax. Most cyclists don’t transgress but if they do, the fines are now ridiculous. Theoldjanus By website Why not just issue cycling licences for a sum of DKK 20,000? And as for maintenance, I propose a yearly certificate from a registered Mechanic. Period! BellTheCat By website What about the fine for the national weekend sport, also known as biking hell drunk? Or it’s okay, as long as you are on the right side with all the needed lights. Vilcsen By website

www.cphpost.dk

According to Danish traffic regulations §53, you should not ride a bicycle if, due to the influence

of alcohol, you are ride the bicycle in a ble way. A fine is the punishment. George Moon

unable to safe/sensimaximum By website

The good news is there simply are no police in the streets at all! In my five years of living here I can count with the fingers of my hands how many times I have seen police patrolling the streets. What I cannot count is how many of the rules above I have broken over and over and over. It’s just a bicycle - spend your energy tackling the car drivers who are a bigger and real danger. Pc 11 By website Well, no. I’ve been hit by a bicycle twice in three years. My girlfriend has ended up in hospital due to a cycling accident where the other party ignored the laws and caused the whole thing. Neither of us have been hit by a car. Shufflemoomin By website Police regularly wait at certain intersections downtown. They choose places where the rules are consistently broken. These places are typically right-turns. I have also seen them leap out of the gates along the cemetery wall in Nørrebro to stop cyclists en masse by the traffic lights near Sjællandsgade. George Moon By website

Denmark is one of the few countries where life is regulated on the microscopic level. And for the opportunity to live there, you are taxed to death. Can someone explain the appeal of residing in Denmark (aside from the obvious such as a wife or a temporary job transfer)? BTW I write from the outside looking in. Latok By website Like any road user, don’t break the rules, although I think the fines are excessive. But there are some elements of the cycling fraternity that don’t follow the rules of the road, they think they are above it, and expect cars, lorries, bus/drivers to know what they are thinking. Hopefully they will be caught. I would also like to see a fine for people riding their bikes with MP3 players in their ears, oblivious to the traffic. What about children: they don’t have any idea of the rules on the road, as many parents don’t teach them and let the schools do that at 8/9 years old. I have a three year old - is he expected to ride on the road? Rugratzz By websit Hide your cigarettes This just started here in Finland. This is idiotic. The lines in kiosks and shops are longer because now the cigarettes are hidden and you

have to ask for them every time. What’s next? Hide alcohol? We had that 50 years ago and it was decided to be idiotic. Please Denmark, don’t let your government do this. Next it will be Finnish alcohol rules like no drinking alcohol outdoors (it’s true); special areas for drinking outside a bar; you can’t take drinks to go (it’s dangerous!); special area in concert where people queue to drink (can’t see the artists). This social engineering is okay if it’s done right for things that make sense and it doesn’t bother innocent people. But why are people so eager to control other people’s lives? Armpit Humour By website Queen’s speech annoys subjects I would expect her comments were intended to help inspire those who are waiting for someone else to help them. Remember Socialism requires everyone to work for the good of all. The government information suggests that Denmark has a growing number of residents that have learned how to not work , not contribute, and criticise accurate political commentary. I don’t expect your queen enjoyed telling the Danes to get working - however she was right. Eastward By website

OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

13 - 19 January 2012

‘Celia Says Ciao’ BY CELIA THAYSEN Celia Thaysen is a British love refugee who landed on these shores six years ago. With below-par Danish, a tendency to tardiness, and a fondness for Marmite, she spends her time fumbling her way through unfamiliar territory as a working mother-of-two with a house in the ‘burbs.

Resolutions are dead, long live bucket lists DET KONGELIGE BIBLIOTEK

NO LONGER make New Year’s resolutions as I am hopeless at sticking to them. Basically all my good intentions are doomed to almost certain failure within a week, and that is not the way I like to start the year. My annual resolutions are dusted down and regurgitated year after year with a total lack of wit and inventiveness. So this year, I have taken a different approach: I have made a ‘bucket list’. Traditionally a list of things to do before you die, I have tweaked this concept to create a list of things to do before the end of 2012. This is a far more positive way to address one’s goals for the year. Rather than focusing on our weaknesses and failings, a bucket list presents us with an opportunity to assess our lives and address the things we want to do with it. It makes us approach life with a sense of urgency. Items on a bucket list tend to err on the side of happy, fun-filled, and momentous activities to accomplish. You will rarely see party-pooping pledges to ban and limit one’s daily intake, or promises to engage in endeavours that you have no enthusiasm for. It’s a strange paradox. When you think you have all the time in the world to do things, you become complacent. Then suddenly, when you realise that you only have a finite period of time available, your mind jumps to all the things that you’ve never got round to doing. And that’s where I presently find myself. After six years in Copenhagen, we are heading back to Shanghai. It was unexpected, as these things often are, and as soon as the Christmas and New Year festivities were over, we were thrown into a maelstrom of preparation and packing, with little time left over for much else. So given my new-found fetish for

A visit to the Black Diamond is in order before leaving town – even if it is only to please mum

bucket lists, I decided to make a ‘things to do before I leave Denmark’ list. To my horror, I discovered some significant omissions. I am a self-proclaimed foodie. This statement sits proudly in the interests section of my resume so it pains me in no small measure that I have not yet experienced the delights of the world’s best restaurant for two years running, Noma. I’m afraid I’ve missed the boat on this one - the earliest booking available is for May 2012, by which time we will be long gone. Six years ago, the names Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Jørn Utzon,

Poul Henningsen, Verner Panton et al would have elicited nothing more than a blank stare. Now, I can namecheck iconic chairs - there’s the Egg, the Swan, the Ant, the Panton … but my transformation from design ignoramus to aficionado is incomplete as I have never entered the hallowed grounds of the Danish Design Centre. Louisiana is also on my list, although in my defence, I did once reach as far as the ticket counter but then had to make a hasty exit as my hungover companion vomited into her handbag. Nor have I waded in the mud at the Roskilde Festival. Once a bona fide

stomping, pogo-ing indie kid and rave regular, my recurring no-shows are a woeful admission that I have now succumbed to the stereotype befitting my stage in life. It has upset my mother, a librarian, that I have not made a pilgrimage to the Black Diamond – that bibliographical mecca. In deference to her, this has been politely added to my bucket list. And while we are on the subject of maternal guilt, I have never taken the boys to the plastic play palace that is Legoland. However, given that my kids are only of Duplo-constructing age, I reserve the right to save this one for

When you think you have all the time in the world to do things, you become complacent when they’re older. My worst transgression, though, nearly had me banished to dinner party exile in London after I admitted that I had not seen Danish crime drama ‘The Killing’ (Forbrydelsen). I have now ordered the DVD box set to watch when I’m feeling homesick. Now by comparison, if I had made a list of resolutions, it might have read a little bit like this: improve my Danish; get a bike and start cycling; bake my own bread; resist the special offers in the supermarket advertising catalogue; and of course, the dreaded (and never completed) January detox - substituting wine for vitamin shakes, the consumption of several lettuce leaves a day in lieu of real food and actually going to the gym that I joined two years ago in a moment of weakness. So as I move onwards and upwards to our next destination, I will try and approach it through ‘bucket list’ eyes. This time around, I will soak up as many experiences as I can possibly fit in and embrace my new home country with vigour and fervour. And the minute I land, I will be sure to make dinner reservations for all the hotly-tipped restaurants in town, just in case they one day gain status as the world’s best. Due to her move to Shanghai, this will be Celia Thaysen’s last opinion column

CPH POST VOICES

‘PERNICKETY DICKY’

‘STILL ADJUSTING’

‘TO BE PERFECTLY FRANK’

‘MACCARTHY’S WORLD’

English by nature – Danish at heart. Freelance journalist Richard Steed has lived in Copenhagen for nearly five years now. “I love this city and want Copenhagen to be a shining example to the rest of the world.”

A proud native of the American state of Iowa, Justin Cremer has been living in Copenhagen since June 2010. In addition to working at the CPH Post, he balances fatherhood, the Danish language and the ever-changing immigration rules. Follow him at twitter.com/justincph

Born in 1942 on the Isle of Wight, Englishman Frank Theakston has been in Copenhagen 32 years and is on his second marriage, this time to a Dane. Frank comes from a different time and a different culture – which values are the right ones today?

Clare MacCarthy is Nordic correspondent for The Economist and a frequent contributor to The Financial Times and The Irish Times. She’ll go anywhere from the Gobi Desert to the Arctic in search of a story. The most fascinating thing about Denmark, she says, is its contradictions.

10 NEWS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

13 - 19 January 2012

“A celebration of ice-cold water” Danes love their winter swimming, and science shows they may be on to something

ISITORS to Denmark are often surprised to learn that Danes leave their infants outside to sleep in the cold Nordic air. But it takes living here a little while to discover another peculiarity about Danes’ fondness for the cold: there are a lot of winter swimming clubs – and they have waiting lists. According to one index, Denmark has 80 official winter swimming clubs, with a total of almost 20,000 registered winter swimmers. At the Helgoland sea baths, 5km from Copenhagen’s city centre, a winter swimming club called Det Kolde Gys (The Cold Shiver) has been in operation since 1929. Today, it has more than 2,000 members and a waiting list. Mary-Louise Sørensen, the club’s chairman, has been winter swimming for over a decade. “I swim around 200 to 300 metres, but I’ve been training for that for quite a few years,” she said. “It’s not something you just do.” As if swimming in ice cold

water in winter were not enough, Sørensen’s preferred swimming hour is 6am – long before the winter sunrise in Denmark. The natural sea currents at Helgoland make each winter morning swim unique, she said. “There’s a lot of movement in the water here. So, one day we can have ice all over, the next day it will all be gone, and the following day it will be back again.” Last month, the City Council opened Koralbadet (The Coral Pool), the third outdoor swimming pool in the city’s harbour. The other two harbour pools are at Kalvebod Brygge and Islands Brygge. But isn’t December an awfully strange time to open an outdoor pool in Scandinavia? Well, Koralbadet has winter swimming and – luxury of luxuries – a sauna too. “There’s a new mentality and the politicians were really supportive,” said Ulla-Britta Buch, the chairman of Badekompagniet Sluseholmen, the winter swimming club that convinced the city to build a sauna on Koralbadet and open the pool for winter swimming. You have to be a member of Badekompagniet Sluseholmen to use Koralbadet in the winter, and there is, of course, a waiting list. But, like Det Kolde Gys, the price is a reasonable 500

BOTH PHOTOS: SCANPIX

JENNIFER BULEY

At Islands Brygge’s harbour pool, brave souls wait to take the plunge ...

... and then make a mad scramble to get out of the cold water

kroner per year. “I think that if this turns out to be a success, the city will be open to even more possibilities. Islands Brygge contacted us, because they want [winter swimming with a sauna] too,” Buch said. Sørensen has also noticed increased interest in winter swimming. “It has become more and more popular in the past few years. I think it’s because of the focus on health. Winter swimming is outdoors and it’s really healthy.” According to Dr Jerk Langer, swimming or even just dipping into icy cold water invigorates the blood circulation, raises the metabolism, and flushes out toxins. The cold shock also sends adrenalin and endorphins racing through the body, producing a feeling of well-being that lasts up to four hours after a cold plunge. Langer admits that there isn’t a whole lot of scientific evidence to prove all of the health claims made about winter swimming, but devoted winter swimmers – himself included – swear by it. A few studies have indicated that winter swimming reduces pain and discomfort among arthritis sufferers and boosts the body’s anti-oxidative protection, which could make it more resilient to environmental stress, disease and ageing. “I don’t know if winter swimming makes you healthy or if it’s just that healthy people are the ones who winter swim. I guess

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When you dip in it’s a gorgeous shock! that’s a chicken and egg thing. But I do know that it makes you a little proud of yourself. It’s become a part of my personality that I never knew I had,” said Berrit Sidse Kvorning, a Badekompagniet Sluseholmen member. A few years ago, a friend who winter swims invited Kvorning to the beach in January and challenged her to dive in. She did and hasn’t stopped since. “When you dip in it’s a gorgeous shock! It’s simply a celebration of ice cold water.” Still, Kvorning sometimes needs to remind herself that the water can only get so cold. “Sea water can never be less than -2°C, otherwise it’s ice. So, if it’s fluid, you know that it’s not colder that -2°. If you remember that, you can go in easily,” she said. “And with the sauna, it’s a piece of cake.” Partway into an unusually warm winter, swimmers all over Denmark will be hard-pressed to find any ice chunks – and they may not even need that sauna. With water temperatures at Helgoland and Koralbadet still between 3-4 °C, is it too warm to winter swim? “Noooo, it’s wonderful!” said Buch. “I was just in this morning, and it was so nice.”

community

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012

Get the Ferrero Rocher out – this ambassadors’ reception had it all Photos by Hasse Ferrold and Words by Ben Hamilton

As they do every year, the country’s leading diplomats turned out in force at the queen’s New Year reception at Christiansborg Palace last week on Tuesday. The occasion included the customary queue to meet The soldiers ensured there was no rowdiness the royal and crown prince couples – not that different from a wedding really, minus the bride’s parents of course.

Polish ambassador Rafal Wisniewski and his wife Aneta

Armenian ambassador Hrachya Aghajanyan and wife Annie

Algerian ambassador Abdelhamid Boubazine and his wife Halima

Turkish ambassador Ahmet Berki Dibek and his wife Ceyda

Bulgarian ambassador Valentin Delchev Poriazov

Anyone fancy a game of human chess?

Narnia’s ambassador is asked to leave by an entire platoon

South Korean ambassador Kim Byung-ho and his wife Hae-Young

Icelandic ambassador Stirla Sigurjonsson and his wife Elin

Tanzanian ambassador Muhammed Mwinye and UganNicaraguan ambassador Ricardo Jose Alvarado Noguera and wife Paula Croatian ambassador Ladislav Pivcevic and his wife Marija da’s Joseph Tomusange, who gave an address

Russian ambassador Teymuraz Ramishvili and wife Marina

Indonesian charge d’ affaires Parbadiani Poppy Tobing

Estonian ambassador Katrin Kivi

Chad ambassador Dr Tchonai Elimi Hassan and his wife

Georgian ambassador Nikoloz Rtveliashvilli

Asaf Ademi, the ambassador of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and his wife

French ambassador Veronique Bujon-Barre

Azerbaijan’s ambassador Fakhraddin Gurbanov

community

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012

ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD (UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED)

A normal complaint from viewers of Eurovision is that they think they’ve heard the songs before, but in the case of ‘Nowhere’ by Valen:tine (aka Tine Lynggaard), there’s a very good chance they had. Just days after appearing in a photo shoot last week to publicise the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2012 - which on Saturday January 21 (No! It doesn’t clash with X Factor) will decide who represents Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan in May – it emerged that Valen:tine had contravened strict European Broadcasting Union laws by uploading the song on to the internet over the summer.

The Berlin-based British/Danish artistic duo benandsebastian (Ben Clement and Sebastian de la Cour), the creators of the ongoing ‘Phantom Limbs’ exhibition (see G4 in InOut for details) at the Danish Design Museum, have won the Planken Ud Prisen 2011 (the Walk the Plank Award), a honour traditionally given to outstanding bravery in the art world. Proudly holding the certificate is Clement, the assistant editor of InOut from 2007-08, and with him (left-right) are the museum’s director Anne-Louise Sommer, award committee member Louise Campbell, De la Cour and award committee member Sebastian Holmbäck.

The photo probably doesn’t do her jug-stice, but this is Busty Heart (on the left), a woman who squashes beer cans with her breasts – a talent that has seen her participate in reality shows in the US, Germany and the Czech Republic, but fortunately not here. Busty was in attendance at the opening of the new Inger Scharf (right) exhibition at MOHS Exhibit last week on Friday. COPENHAGEN RENAISSANCE

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Isabelle Valentine’s husband works at a video game company and gets to play at work. She also wanted to play for a living so she started the Montessori International Preschool. She moved to Frederiksberg in May 2008 where she lives with her young family.

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7 - 20 NOVEMBER 2011

FROM SCHÜTZ TO GEIST 1600-1700 Early German Baroque Music

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Dane unable to obtain family girlfriend reunification for his Thai Catch-22 says residency rules are a

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Exploiting ‘fat tax’ Supermarkets are scamming guise their customers under the of the new national ‘fat tax’

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Is now the time to join the euro, or to run like hell? new National coach Morten Olsen’s job in the contract will keep him Cup. until after the 2014 World

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Danes abolished, saving some 525,000 mobile and of students. Moreover, stuwith business laptops (VK) govern- the number vious Venstre-Konservative no longer pay administrative phones 3,000 kroner per year. major points: dents will JENNIFER BULEY Master’s students look forment. Here are a few of the Not everyone, however, can the state’s fees, and prospective course tuitions Families: VK limited and junk (bør- will have prerequisite 17.5 billion ward to a cash infusion. Smokers SRSF’s first budget will spend monthly child support handouts fam- paid. The government will also fund higher on their per food lovers will be taxed abolish necheck) to 35,000 kroner corporations kroner on infrastructure and state-supported internship abolished, 1,500 more vices, while international ily. That limit has now been previous taxes and restrictions positions. higher tax bills. SRSF plans creation: will also see many families will get job that of and number meaning a and closing Infrastructure by AN YOU HAVE your cake ts. The government will be in- to raise revenue wisdom larger child benefi Some 17.5 billion kroner going back nearly 20 years eat it too? Conventional fertility treatments and infrastructure tax loopholes corporations budg- will also pay for vested over two years in that allowed international says no, but with their first as a new rail line between power, voluntary sterilisations. to escape paying corporate Folkeparti projects, such et plan since the shift of a project to in Denmark Welfare: VK and Dansk Copenhagen and Ringsted, erne-Radikaletaxes (see more on page 15). specialised welfare prothe new Socialdemokrat in the Holbæk motorway, erosion coalition (DF) introduced All told, the spending increases cash benefits widen the Socialistisk Folkeparti (SRSF) grammes that reduced the efforts along Jutland’s west as big as the minister not protection are shot. a it budget new giving programmes be Those appear to public housthe new for new immigrants. coast, and renovations to economy and interior, Margrethe Many of the elements of eliminated and going Helle Thorning- of the to be re- have now been would like. She noted that state ing. Prime minister ‘kickstart’ Vestager (R), budget – which is expected all residents in need of the deficit for 2012, Schmidt has said that these ursday – will forward leased in its entirety on Th will receive the same welfare projects will create 20,000 new jobs VK under-reported to spend more. But a time when support making it imprudent increase state spending at The Danish ConstrucEU’s finanincreased. But benefits. research: from 2012-2013. Denmark will still meet the the budget deficit has despite Higher education and predicts 10,000. come from recial responsibility benchmarks, one billion tion Association where the money would The unpopular ‘mulUniversities will get an extra added. Tax break:meeting costs as- a personal be the larger deficit, she years to cover mained a mystery. Organise tax’ introduced by VK will items kroner over two timedia in on increase class. a A number of the new budget a predicted and in with sit sociated preby the full-time MBA at CBS reinstate spending cuts made The one-year general managementip, and real-world experience. entrepreneursh focuses on leadership, can giveprogram MBA diverse and hear how the ally Organise a personal meeting internation

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aving friends from regular basis. And although it is abroad visiting for the somewhat available in the UAE, holidays is a great way to pork is definitely not the meat be reminded of the things that of choice at a dinner party and make Denmark you would special and that never see a we now take for hotdog stand granted. And it in the street. is especially the Of course, But the biggest children who we envy them raise the most in- difference is the the guaranteresting crucial teed sunshine life questions: fundamental sense and heat, what is remou- of having a security whereas they lade really made would like net in our lives that of? some of our Our visiting will allow us to live work-life balfriends are Caance. But the nadian and they relatively worry-free. biggest diflive in Dubai. ference is the We are basically very fundamental As we compare our lives and talk well looked after here sense of havabout this past ing a security year, the con- in Denmark, even as net in our lives trasts could not foreigners. that will allow be starker. They us to live relalive in a world where there is tively worry-free. We are basino income tax. We pay the cally very well looked after here highest taxes in the world (or in Denmark, even as foreigners. at least I believe they are). Life Living in a place such as is inconceivable without a car Dubai where having a cheque there where petrol is cheap and bounce means imprisonment, children do not ride bikes on a and where people can be sued

and eventually kicked out of the country because they got impatient with the wrong people, is not the kind of life that I imagine ever having. I would rather be forced to eat remoulade every day. So in spite of the high taxes and the unpredictable weather, I am more than satisfied with life here. Not that my friends aren’t happy in Dubai, they just feel that some of the reasons that made them decide to move there are now being overridden by basic lifestyle necessities that they crave, such as being more involved in their daughter’s life and not having the constant worry of facing trial or deportation. Putting things into perspective is the best way to be thankful for all that we’ve got. And that will be my first New Year’s resolution: enjoy all that I have got here. My second resolution is to go and see our friends in Dubai soon for a quick refill of Vitamin D. That should do the trick. Happy new year and have a great 2012.

community

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012

Aussie songwriter proves there are no language barriers in music Liam Barker It has taken a mere three years for Sasha Karcher’s talent to take him from performing in pubs to releasing his own album

wapping the sun and surf of the world’s driest continent for life in Denmark may seem a little crazy, but for one Australian, this is one adventure with a purpose. The journey began with a typical ‘boy meets girl’ story that brought songwriter Sasha Karcher to Copenhagen three years ago. While it was not a voyage in the Captain Cook category, upping sticks with a suitcase in hand and guitar on his back, Sasha headed more than 16,000 km north, hoping his talent for music would allow him to make a life for himself. Three years and many headaches later, Karcher has released his first solo album, ‘Drawn Swords’, which has been welcomed with excellent feedback, leaving the 2003 Australian Songwriters finalist feeling very humbled: “The response has been wonderful; on Twitter and iTunes we have had downloads and comments from all over the world, as far as Canada, USA and South Africa. It has been great so far.” The album was released last month following an intimate album preview gig in front of a packed house of family and friends at Karcher’s favourite pub in the northern hemisphere: Diligencen in Gentofte. Getting the album recorded has taken a lot of hard work from Karcher, with

more than a little help from his friends and fellow expats: producer Brian Armstrong who has worked with Danish acts such as the Neil Brophy band and singer Yuki Badino, fan favourite guitarist and singer Rich Vargas, former metal head Manos Anassis, keyboard player Rob Luca, and Marco Diallo, who is one of the most sought-after young drummers in Copenhagen. Karcher will be touring northern Europe in the spring and summer of 2012 as well as performing his usual gigs throughout Denmark. “The aim is to be heard by as many people as possible,” Karcher states. Sasha is hoping to feature at the 2012 Copenhagen Songwriters’ Festival, as well as Tønder Folk Festival, Roskilde, Skanderborg and the Green Concert, amongst others. The debut album ‘Drawn Swords’ contains ten songs tracing a rough timeline of events in Karcher’s life over the last ten years. While there is a huge Bob Dylan and Beatles influence on the album, even if Karcher wanted to disguise his country of birth, the music gives it away. There are folk tunes, ballads, grunge songs and pop. But throughout it all is the undeniable sound of Aussie pub rock. You can take the boy out of Oz ... The song entitled ‘Receive me’ is the stand-out hit on the album and is set to hit the national airwaves very soon. The song ‘Floor of Hong Kong’ also has great inspiration behind it. Karcher recalls: “My wife-to-be, a die-hard Cliff Richard fan, put one of his songs on the jukebox in the Hong Kong bar in Nyhavn and proceeded to fall flat on her

Karcher’s debut album retraces the last ten years of his life

face. The perfect antidote for a song.” Karcher began his music career in the late 1990s in Adelaide, Australia where he played and wrote songs with bands such as Semanon, Raw and later The Brothers Gibson up in Brisbane. During this time Karcher co-wrote songs that went on to win awards with the Australian Songwriters Association. Like many sport-obsessed Australians, cricket was Karcher’s first love. But as he recalls in words not quite appropriate for print, it took less than one over to realise he would be more comfortable holding a guitar than a cricket bat: “Let’s just say I’m a better musician than

COMING UP SOON Mindfulness course for expats MBSR Course, Nansensgade 47 st th, Cph K; ten-week course on Wednesdays 18:30-21:00, starts 18 Jan; price 4,500kr; contact Carina Lyall at kontakt@mindfulground.dk or 3142 4404; www.mindfulground.dk Stressed-out expats now have a chance to regain their calm and relaxed selves when Carina Lyall starts a new mindfulness course in English. Lyall, who was born in Canada but has lived in Denmark since 1990, promises that “the programme is a really profound way to reduce stress”. After working with stressed Danes for a few years, Lyall was contacted by several expats looking for a course in English - a wish she has finally had the chance to fulfil. The course is 26 hours overall and includes training materials and an additional allday silent workshop. CTC Auditions for The Good Doctor Copenhagen Theatre Circle; Sat 14 Jan at 10:00; contact Frank Theakston (frank.theakston@get2net.dk) if you wish to audition or require further information The Copenhagen Theatre Circle is holding auditions for their spring production of ‘The Good Doctor’, a comedy by Neil Simon, the writer of ‘The Odd Couple’. The story is set in Russia in the 19th century and comprises a series of short plays or sketches about Russian life.

Writing and Acting workshop Copenhagen Theatre Circle; 40hour course starts Sat 14 Jan, ends 24 Mar, Saturdays 10:00-15:00; 1,000kr; contact Frank at frank. theakston@get2net.dk Do you have a writer hidden in you? If yes, you now have the chance to discover, develop and shape you own story into a 10-20-minute performance with guidance from Steven Karwoski, a writer and performer known from the Fringe Theatre. Intro meeting about CPH business start-up Copenhagen Business Service; Njalsgade 13, Cph S; Fri 13 Jan, 16:00-17:30 or Tue 24 Jan, 12:30-14:00; Free adm; sign up at expatindenmark.com, or contact Jean Luc Kouassi-Zessaia at A27U@erhverv.kk.dk or 2199 6885. If you are an ambitious international entrepreneur with a big drive, the Copenhagen Business Start-up programme might be something for you. The programme provides guidance and support through the different stages in the process of starting and developing a new business. Join the free introductory meeting to learn more about the programme. All that is required is an international background and a wish to challenge your entrepreneurial skills. Note that the introductory meeting takes place on either of two dates.

Seminar: Smart Grid Technology Marriott Hotel Copenhagen, Kalvebod Brygge 5, Cph V; Tue 17 Jan, 18:00-20:00; sign-up at expatindenmark.com Expat in Denmark invites you to a professional network seminar on smart grid technology. The seminar revolves around CO2 reduction goals in Denmark and abroad, intelligent responsive houses, energy production and consumption, and the age of smart grid technology. The speaker is Birger Hauge Nielsen, the CEO of Passsive Systems in Scandinavia and opportunity manager at GlobalConnect. Dancing at Karmaklubben

SSøpavillionen, Gyldenløvesgade 24, Cph K; Fri 21:00; tickets 80kr, 20kr wardrope; register at www.meetup.com/ cities/dk/copenhagen

This Friday you have a chance to dance and meet new people at the same time. The various Meetup groups has arranged a night of dancing at Karmaklubben, which is a monthly event at Søpavillionen. The club is located at the end of Peblingesøen, so you’ll be able to enjoy an evening of dancing with a great view of the lakes. It’s a place for everybody who loves to dance, but who is sick of having to wait until midnight before going out. No age limit or dancing skills are required - just bring your good mood and meet the rest of the expats outside the club at 21:00. Malene Ørsted

opening batsmen. There’s more chance of seeing me with bagpipes before you see me with a baggy green.” Karcher did however get to write and record a song with Australian rugby league legend Tommy Raudonikis for his national radio show, a proud moment in his career. In the time that Karcher has been in Denmark he has played either solo or with friends in over 50 pubs across the country in addition to flying to gigs in Amsterdam, and across Spain, Germany, Sweden and Italy. In Copenhagen he has played at the Drop Inn, Nyhavn 17, The Dubliner and the Old English Pub among many others. Having covered

many classics, Karcher has now opted to write and record material of his own as well as writing with multi-platinum award-winning songwriter Fabian Petersen, who also works with the likes of Sys Bjerre and Anna Nordell. Karcher will be playing solo at Rosie McGee’s pub on Vesterbrogade throughout January, so go in and say G’day. For information on the upcoming tour check out dvkmusik.dk, follow him at twitter.com/dvkmusikdk or email sasha@ dvkmusik.dk. The album ‘Drawn Swords’ is for sale on iTunes, from dvkmusik.dk and at the gigs – for just 100kr.

BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN DENMARK Towards Peace in the Middle East - A New Year, New Promises Gregory Rockson, Founder of Matrix Gregory Rockson is the founder of Matrix, an “action tank” that brings together young entrepreneurs and innovators from groups that have been historically divided to create solutions to some of the challenges their societies face. One of their major initiatives is the Six Days of Peace Initiative. Greg has been invited to participate in the World Economic Forum in Davos at the end of January on his Middle East Peace Initiative. We will have the opportunity to hear a preview! The Six Days of Peace is an Israel-Arab initiative which aims at building a strong foundation of dialogue and cooperation between young Israelis and Arabs with the hope of raising a new generation of leaders with a different orientation and socialization. The initiative focuses on three areas of cooperation; business, education and culture. Last year, Gregory was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper. The Global Shapers community is made up of young people between the ages of 20 and 30 with great potential for future leadership roles in society and who have an entrepreneurial track record, having already initiated and delivered a major project or founded a company or organization, exceptionally contributing to serving society at large. He has been invited to attend the Annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where he will participate in a panel discussion on the role of the Millennial Generation. Gregory is a PPIA fellow, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Co-founder of a Storbror, Storsoster, an afterschool mentorship program for refugee kids in denmark and a former board member of the Callaway County United Way Date: Friday, 20th January Venue: Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen Event programme: 11:45 Registration & welcome drinks 12:00 Welcome & introduction by Mariano A. Davies, President, BCCD 12:15 Guest speaker - Gregory Rockson 12:40 Questions & discussion 12:55 Announcements by Penny Schmith, Executive Director, BCCD 13:00 Buffet lunch & networking. Non-members are very welcome. Please contact BCCD.

If you would like to attend then please send us an email (event@bccd.dk) or call +45 31 18 75 58 • official media partner Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

sport

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012

Ben Hamilton The nation’s golden girl begins her bid to break her grand slam tournament duck next Monday, but Woz this her last ever week as number one?

scanpix/ SAMUEL KUBANI

A week in the life of the world number one

Ben hamilton

any contend that Caroline Wozniacki’s number one ranking is meaningless. They’re wrong. While she might not be the best player in the world, her 64 weeks at the top have changed her life forever. Sure, she’s pretty. Sure, she’s got a famous boyfriend. But without the top spot she wouldn’t be where she is today: one of the most talked about athletes on the planet. The world loves number ones, and in the build-up to her assault on the Australian Open, the first grand slam of the year that starts on Monday, here’s the irrefutable evidence that everybody’s talking about Caroline.

Caroline hasn’t been able to find that elusive first grand slam

Tuesday January 3

Thursday January 6

As if she didn’t need the attention, she does the Macarena. And not just at home, or at a nightclub, but on court in front of thousands of Thai fans, with Victoria Azarenka. The Dane’s impromptu dance performances have become something of a common sight in 2011, endearing her to fans of her laidback persona, armchair perverts and people with appalling taste in music.

Wozniacki loses to rival Petra Kvitova, but perhaps the 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 score-line is closer than her critics expected. The tournament is the fairly ludicrous Hopman Cup, a team tournament in Australia in which Wozniacki is partnered with Denmark’s top male player Frederik Nielsen, the world number 240. With him losing all his games, she didn’t really have a prayer – no wonder she’d already booked her flight ahead of her loss to Kvitova.

Wednesday January 4

Sporting director takes over in bid to bring “the squad closer to the management”

Friday January 7

There are few players in the history of tennis who don’t have an opinion about Caroline Wozniacki’s bid to break her grand slam duck, and Australian legend Margaret Court is the latest to come out of the woodwork to give her two pennies worth. While some of her opinions tend to be just pure baloney – in 1990 she memorably accused Martina Navrátilová and other lesbian and bisexual players of ruining the game – she did win a world record 24 grand slam singles titles, and 62 titles overall, so she does tend to know what she’s talking about … on court, and her words were encouraging advice for the Dane. “I would say to Caroline, if you can beat them in all the other tournaments, there’s no reason you can’t beat them in the grand slams,” the 69-year-old told Reuters. “I think you get a bit of a thing about it, thinking: ‘I haven’t won a grand slam,’ but the mind is a battlefield and she has to wipe these negative thoughts out. She can’t look back to the ones she’s lost. She has beaten all these other players and I think she will at a slam this year. If you look at the women’s majors this year, there were four different winners and that means any of the top women are capable of winning one.”

FCK parts company with coach

A rare rest day and perhaps a chance to catch up on all the nasty comments made about her in the media. Who are we kidding: they don’t call her Little Miss Sunshine because she sits around the house googling herself. Although she would have to be backward not to already know what Swedish coach Sven Groeneveld told her and her father at the season-end WTA Championship in late October. “I told them that they have to realise that grand slam tennis does not last a whole year, but two weeks and seven matches,” he told Danish newspaper Politiken. Blimey, must have been like on the road to Damascus, until they closed their car window. And then there was former number one Martina Hingis, who isn’t at all bitter that she had to retire at the age of 22. Wozniacki “may be moving better than the others, and she tries to go inside the court, but not often enough’’, she told French newspaper L’Equipe. “The fact that she does not win grand slams is not only her problem, but also that of her coach.’’ Miaow! Forbes magazine, on the other hand, thinks Caroline Wozniacki is the bee’s knees, naming her on their exclusive un-

der-30s list - a total of 30 people still not 30 who they expect to make a difference in the years ahead. Saturday January 7 Ah, the perils of fame – there’s always a rag waiting to publish an unseemly photo. Aussie newspaper The Australian graciously implies that their current guest might be a porker, or is the camera telling porkie pies? An even bigger mystery is the headline: ‘New balls please for Caroline Wozniacki’, which begs another look at the bottom half of the photo. If there were grand slams in headline writing … Sunday January 8 Wozniacki reveals that she likes a good punt with her fella, Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, and that some of the forfeits involve them swapping clothing. No, it’s nothing like that, they’re a wholesome couple: clean, young, a little bit sickly. Apparently it might involve the Manchester United fan having to wear her specially-signed Liverpool shirt. “We had one bet about who was going to win a tournament first, and I did,” she tells Reuters. “Actually, I still have that ace in my hand in case he’s not nice to me.”

Monday January 9 When the going gets tough … Woz comes out fighting. Staring defeat in the face, 0-4 down in the decider against Slovakia’s Dominika Cubulkova – the same player who sent her crashing out of Wimbledon in the fourth round – the Dane digs deep to reel off six games in a row, avoid defeat and cling on to her number one ranking with a 7-5 2-6 6-4 victory in 140 minutes. With Petra Kvitova in fine form on the other side of the draw, Wozniacki knows that a place in this weekend’s final might not be enough to prevent the Czech overtaking her. Or at least she knows that now, after finding out at a press conference. Whoever wins will “take” the top spot, she is told. “Well, I have the number one ranking, so I can’t take it,” comes the gnarled reply. Next up: Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarters in the late game on Wednesday. Tuesday January 10 Wozniacki is confirmed as the top seed for next week’s Australian Open ahead of the draw confirmation on Friday. It’s another excuse for the media to remind us she might not be number one by then.

Wozniacki fact box | Rankings and grand slams Wozniacki is one of three players – along with Russia’s Dinara Safina and Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic – to reach number one and not win a grand slam. Wozniacki’s 64 weeks as number one is the longest spell by a woman who hasn’t won a grand slam.

Kim Clijsters and Amelie Mauresmo are the only players to reach number one first and then go on to win a grand slam. Wozniacki is the youngest player in the top 10, the second youngest in the top 20, and 14th youngest in the top 100.

C Copenhagen has parted company with its Swedish coach Roland Nilsson, barely half a year after appointing him to succeed long-term boss Ståle Solbakken, and replaced him with Carsten V Jensen. Nilsson and the club’s board disagreed over the future direction of the club. Its chief executive Anders Hørsholt told media that “there was no agreement … on how the team should be continued, and therefore our ways parted”. Jensen’s responsibilities as the club’s sporting director, a position he has held since 2006, will be merged into the role, and further changes to the management set-up will see the assistant coach Johan Lange take a more prominent role. “We wanted to bring the management closer to the squad and the squad closer to the management,” Hørsholt told media. “CV has almost 20 years experience at FC Copenhagen as a player, coach and sports director, while Johan Lange’s knowledge of the club’s founding principles and daily processes means we have found the relationship that can best develop FCK.” Filling the shoes of Norway’s Solbakken was always going to be a tough task, and while FCK currently lead the Superliga ahead of the resumption of the season in early March, Nilsson has been a disappointment in Europe, failing miserably to match last season’s qualification for the knockout stage of the Champions League. This season, FCK didn’t even make it to the CL group stage, and then performed dismally in the group stage of the Europa League, picking up just one win and two draws in six games – a far cry from their 2010-11 CL group stage performance in which they won three games and held Barcelona at home. Jensen, 48, has pretty much been connected to the club ever since its foundation in 1992. He played 138 times from 1993 until his retirement in 1998 – he had previously won two championships at Brøndby in 1990 and 1991 – and was the club’s assistant coach until 2006.

Sports news and briefs Damages doubled

Juniors relegated to Division One

Twenty20 draw revealed

Danes make Dutch team

Bendtner banged up twice

The Danish fan who famously attacked the referee during his country’s Euro 2008 qualifier against Sweden has lost his appeal against an original verdict that decreed he should pay the Danish FA 900,000 kroner. The Eastern High Court on Tuesday doubled the damages to nearly 1.9 million kroner.

The under-20s ice hockey team failed to win a game at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Canada. A 2-1 overtime defeat by Latvia last week on Wednesday sealed their relegation from the elite level to Division One. It was a miserable tournament for the Danes: they scored 13 goals in

The national twenty20 cricket side has learnt the draw for March’s tournament to qualify for September’s World Cup. Just two out of 16 teams qualify, and Denmark is in the same group as Afghanistan, the Netherlands, Canada, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Bermuda and Nepal.

The sports website goal.com has named Danish internationals Christian Eriksen and Simon Poulsen in its Eredivisie team of the year so far – a selection it makes during the Dutch winter break. Goal.com called AZ Alkmaar left back Poulsen “trustworthy”, and Ajax playmaker Eriksen as one to “keep a close eye on”.

Sunderland striker Nicklas Bendtner was actually arrested twice in 2011, it emerged in the British tabloids last week. Ahead of a December episode in which he was detained on suspicion of criminal damage, he was in September put in custody following his alleged involvement in a fight at a hotel.

seven games, conceding 55, and the management was widely criticised for suspending five players for taking part in a mock news conference – a decision that left the squad severely depleted for a game against Finland that the US badly needed Denmark to win to help them qualify for the quarter-finals.

business

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012

Jennifer Buley Claiming that problems with offshoring outweighed concerns over profits, some firms are now turning ‘inshore’

hile many companies continue to offshore manufacturing jobs in search of savings on labour and raw materials, a small but noteworthy countertrend has begun both here in Denmark and abroad. Many Danish companies re discovering that manufacturing overseas is not the moneymaker they expected it to be and are now bringing production back home, reports metroXpress newspaper. One of those companies is T-Rex, which produces guitar effects pedals. Seven years ago, T-Rex moved its production offshore to China. Now the company plans to bring it ‘inshore’ back to Denmark. In China, “prices have risen on wages, duties and raw materials. It’s a trend that began a while ago, and we expect it to continue,” Steen Meldgaard, the president of T-Rex, told metroXpress. “At the same time, production in Denmark has got cheaper because companies have used the recession to automate and become more efficient,” ”

Meldgaard continued. Copenhagen Business School associate professor Peter Ørberg Jensen confirmed the observation. “Everything being made in China, especially down in the southeast part of China where workers have been putting a certain pressure on wages, is getting more expensive,” Jensen said. “These factors will certainly strengthen the tendency for companies to move back to Denmark.”

There were too many things that didn’t come together when we were working in China This ‘inshoring’ trend was also noted in the US, where the tractor manufacturer Caterpillar, NCR Corporation (which makes ATM machines), Ford, and a toy company that makes plastic frisbees – the sort of product we now associate with the ‘Made in China’ stamp – have also pulled production back to the US. Noting such examples, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) predicted last year that the US would experience a

“manufacturing renaissance” over the next five years, as companies disappointed with rising costs and mediocre productivity in Asia would come home. BCG predicted that Chinese and American wages would converge by 2015, as wages in China are rising at 15-20 percent per year, while American wages have stagnated – a scenario now also playing out in Denmark. Unreliable electricity and a persistent shortage of sufficiently skilled workers in China and other Asian countries have also decreased the gains from offshoring, reports BCG. Add in high fuel costs, long delivery times, and language and cultural barriers, and many are finding that the offshoring incentives are not what they were once cracked up to be. Other companies have found that offshoring compromised the quality of their product, turning the venture into a bigger hassle than they had bargained for – as the Danish shoe and clothing designer Ilse Jacobsen discovered. She has now also brought production back home to Denmark. “There were too many things that didn’t come together when we were working in China,” she told metroXpress. “Too many things didn’t turn out to our standards, and I wanted to be able to sleep soundly at night.”

Most workers ready to accept pay freeze Majority acknowledge that pay rises are unrealistic in current economic climate

hen top union negotiators went to the table last week on Wednesday with business leaders to begin banging out new collective agreements (overenskomster), there was little expectation of winning pay rises for their members. Instead, avoiding pay cuts was on their minds. And based on recent opinion polls, workers expected no more. In a new Gallup/Berlingske poll, 58 percent of workers admitted having no hopes that a pay rise would be part of their new labour agreement, despite the fact that real wages have fallen in comparison with living costs since the beginning of the financial crisis. Some 12 percent of respondents even expected to see a pay cut.

Business leaders, for their part, indicated that they were ready for a fight if the unions thought they could extract pay rises in these lean times. “It’s going to be an extremely tough negotiation. We don’t expect that we can negotiate salaries down, but even the slightest wage increase and all of the things that always come up that cost money – more maternity leave, for example – will be off the table,” one Zealand business leader, who asked not to be named, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Mogens Therkelsen, the CEO of transportation company HP Therkelsen, told JyllandsPosten he was aiming for a threeyear agreement with no pay rises and an extension of the working week by two to three hours – amounting, in essence, to a significant pay cut for his workers. The chairman of LO, an association that represents 18 different labour unions and more than one million workers –

more than a third of the Danish workforce – admitted that his organisation was going into the negotiations with modest expectations. But not so modest as to accept pay cuts. “We’re going to be fighting to protect the current wage level, but I really can’t say when we’ll be able to recover the real-term wage losses we’ve experienced during the financial crisis,” LO’s chairman, Harald Børsting, told Urban newspaper. Because LO will not press for higher wages this time around, and securing other concessions for workers will take centre stage, Børsting added. “Education and competencies are just as critical, and we will fight to get more of those.” Union representatives from Dansk Metal, HK/Privat Nordjylland and 3F indicated to Jyllands-Posten that they would also be fighting for better job security and more flexibility for workers, in lieu of cold cash. (JB)

Lego.com

Danish companies bring jobs back home

The new girls’ line was the result of years of research but has also faced criticism

Lego sets it sights on girls Eric Maganga The world’s second best familyowned business is launching a range aimed at females, but not everyone is happy with it

anish toy manufacturer Lego has finished second in a poll of the best family-owned businesses, as voted for by the readers of CamdenFB, a British business magazine. It won 20 percent of the vote, a long way behind winner Coopers Brewery (38 percent) while Kenyan Nakumatt came third. 2011 was another good year for Lego, which has seen profits rise 68 percent since 2008 and is switching its focus over to young girls – a market that it has traditionally struggled in. For four years it worked on developing a new range of toys entitled Lego Friends. Using data obtained through interviews with women and their daughters, the company has discovered that girls

aged five to 13 want more roleplaying possibilities. The new collection will be in stores in March and the storyline centres on five girls in the makebelieve town of Heartlake City. The five characters have unique personalities and interests ranging from art to animals. According to Karen Owen, the Lego brand manager for Australia and New Zealand, this new emphasis has been something that has been on parents’ wish lists for quite a while. “Parents have been asking us to come up with an offering for their daughters for a long time,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald. The girl-orientated line, however, has come under fire by many for pandering to stereotypes. A petition on the website Change.org was created to request that Lego “stop selling out girls”. Calling the new line “Barbielicious”, the petition criticises the company for giving the Lego girls sexist activities including “lounging at the beach, brushing their hair in front of a vanity

mirror, or shopping with their girlfriends”. The petition, which also asks Lego to include girls in advertising for all Lego sets and to market regular Legos to girls, had amassed over 3,000 signatures as of Monday. For the company’s part, Lego is still considering how to launch the new marketing drive - an area of business in which it is well known for not holding back. In London, in the buildup to Christmas, it unveiled a 12.2 metre Christmas tree at St. Pancras train station. It consisted of 600,000 pieces and 172 branches and took a total of two months to put together. It goes without saying that this was the largest Lego tree ever constructed. Meanwhile, in other Lego news, Warsaw’s museum of Modern Art in Poland has just purchased a Lego model of a concentration camp built in the 1990s for 55,000 euros. The museum paid one-third of the total price, with the rest coming from a donation by the Society of Friends of Modern Art.

Exchange Rates Australian Dollars AUD

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Switzerland Francs CHF

UK Pounds GBP

United States Dollars USD

Sell

5.72

5.51

7.33

0.07

0.17

0.81

6.01

8.87

5.73

Buy

6.24

5.96

7.56

0.08

0.19

0.85

6.21

9.22

6.00

Price in kroner for one unit of foreign currency

Date: 11 January 2012

business news and briefs Egmont purchases Norwegian TV2

Skagen Designs sold to Fossil

The Danish media giant Egmont has acquired full ownership of TV2 Norway. Already a 50 percent shareholder in TV2 Norway, Egmont paid 1.9 billion Danish kroner to Norway’s A-pressen for the remaining 50 percent. Some Norwegian politicians and TV2 Norway employees expressed concern

The American company Fossil has purchased the Danish company Skagen Designs, known primarily for its watches and jewellery, for 1.3 billion kroner. An agreement finalising the deal is expected to be signed in February. Skagen Design’s founders, Charlotte and Henrik Jorst, said that the company’s

about the deal, but Egmont chief Steffen Kragh said in a statement that TV2 Norway would remain an independent media house with a Norwegian profile. Egmont has a long history in Norway. It was 100 years ago this year that they first published the Norwegian version of the weekly magazine Hjemmet.

Sydbank accused of aiding tax evasion products will occupy a unique place in Fossil’s portfolio and that the deal will help them achieve their goal of spreading not only the brand but the concepts of Danish design worldwide. The Jorsts, who started their company in the United States in 1989, plan to remain as advisors.

Danish bank Sydbank has actively helped wealthy clients avoid paying inheritance taxes by investing their money in Swiss tax shelters, reports Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Sydbank invested clients’ money in Switzerland “first and foremost, with the intention of reducing their inheritance taxes”, stated a

leaked memo from a top manager at the bank. An official at Økonomisk Kriminalitet, the tax authority Skat’s special department for financial crimes, said that if the allegations were true, Sydbank’s auditors, lawyers and individual financial advisors could be charged with aiding tax evasion.

THE COPENHAGEN POST The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE

Spouse: Francis Farias From: Venezuela (CPR number) Seeking work in: Greater København Qualification: Master in Spanish Studies from Universidad de Cadiz, Spain, as a Spanish Teacher and BA in Teaching English as a Second Language. Diplomas in Digital Photography (from Venezuela and Spain). Experience: 7 years experience as a teacher of English and Spanish at JMV University. Academic translator (Spanish-English/English-Spanish) and freelance photographer. looking for: Spanish language teacher, translator, interpreter, photographer. Language Skills: English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish (native). Basic Danish. IT experience: Office tools, Photoshop. Contact: carolina1928@gmail.com, +45 50814073 Spouse: Bhargavi Lanka Venkata From: India Seeking work in: IT industry- Software - Manual & Automation Testing. Qualification: Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science Engineering. Experience: Part Time/Full Time work in Software Testing, 4yrs and 9 months experience as Senior Software Engineer – Testing in a U.S based MNC in Bangalore, India. Language skills: English, Hindi, Enrolled for Danish classes. IT experience: Manual testing, Automation Regrwession testing using QTP, Web service testing using SOA Tool, HP Quality center, Unix, SQL, XML, Basic shell scripting. Contact: bhargavipsk@gmail.com; Mobile: 50376689 Spouse: Chao Wen From: China Seeking work in: Great Copenhagen Qualification: Language teacher (German, Chinese. Experience: Teaching Chinese as a foreign language by offering company-course for 2 years, in Germany; teaching Chinese to native speaker in private school for 4 years, in Germany; teaching German as a foreign language by offering private course; exhibition interpreter; translator. looking for: Part time or full time in Aarhus, Language teacher, translator or interpreter. Language skills: Chinese, English, German, Danish. IT experience: Windows, Open office, Powerpoint. Contact: wenlily80@googlemail.com, tel.: 48417526 Spouse: Isaac P Thomas From: India Seeking work in: East Juthland preferably Århus Qualification: Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science). Experience:Process Consulting, Quality Assurance, CMMI, ISO, Quality Audit, Process Definition, Software testing, software development, data analysis, best practice sharing, quality gap analysis looking for: Process Consulting, Quality Assurance, CMMI, ISO, Quality Audit, Process Definition Language skills: Danish beginner, english, malayalam, hindi tamil. IT experience: 8 years experence in IT Industry in software quality assurance, software quality control, software development. Contact: isaacpthomas@gmail.com, +4552225642 Spouse: Fernando Carlos Cardeira da Silva From: Portugal Seeking work in: Copenhagen Qualification: Accounting course from Danish Institution (Regnskabs medarbejder at Niels Brock), previous frequency of Accounting and Management courses in Portugal. Experience: I have more than 5 years of experience in accounting. looking for: Job as accounting assistant. IT experience: Microsoft Office (Excel, Word and Power point) and accounting software such as Navision C5. Language skills: I can read and write Danish, English, Portuguese, Spanish and French. Contact: fercardeira@gmail.com +45 50437588 SPOUSE: Steffen Schmidt FROM: Germany SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen. QUALIFICATION: Structured Finance Proffesional. LOOKING FOR: A challenging finance position in Copenhagen (preferable within Corporate Finance). LANGUAGE SKILLS: German (native), English (business fluent). IT EXPERIENCE: MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint. CONTACT: beffenmidt@gmail.com SPOUSE: Monika Sysiak FROM: Poland SEEKING WORK IN: Greater Copenhagen / eastern Zealand Qualification: Master degree in Environmental Engineering from Cracow University of Technology. Major in Water Supply, Sewage and Waste Treatment and Water Quality Protection. Completed one semester in Environmental Engineering at Engineering College of Aarhus. Experience: Internship during studies in designing water supply systems and sewerage systems. Looking for: Graduation programme, internship, training, part time or full time job related to mymqualifications. Language skills: Polish (mother tongue), English (fluent), Danish (starting). IT-experience: AutoCAD, MOUSE DHI, MS Windows, MS Office. Contact: email: monikasysiak@gmail.com; phone: +45 50 43 70 43

PARTNERS:

13 - 19 January 2012 SPOUSE: Vadim Fedulov FROM: USA SEEKING WORK IN: Pre-clinical or clinical/ biotech or academia/ Copenhagen region (100km radius). QUALIFICATION: Ph.D., Biological Sciences (2008). EXPERIENCE: 5 years research experience in biotech and 6 years in academic settings. For full experience summary, please visit: http://dk.linkedin.com/in/drvadim. LOOKING FOR: Position in research, project management, writing, editing, teaching, or new challenging career opportunities. LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (native), Russian (native), Danish (completed Module1 at Studieskolen). IT EXPERIENCE: Proficient in both Mac and PC OS, MS Office (Excel, Word, Powerpoint etc.), StatView, Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator). CONTACT: fedulov@gmail.com and mobile tel: +45 41 83 36 60 SPOUSE: Magda Bińczycka FROM: Poland SEEKING WORK IN: Sjælland QUALIFICATION: M.A. in philosophy, pedagogy ( postgraduated diploma) ,5th year of history of art ( Master Program). EXPERIENCE: Independent curator 2009 - present, art catalogues editor (English&Polish versions) 2009-present, art critic 2005-2010, art and English teacher for children 2005-2010, English tourist guide 2010, gallery assistant 2004/5 and 2009. LOOKING FOR: Job as a curator, coordinator, gallery assistant, event organizer, English tourist guide, art history teacher. LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (proficiency), Danish (intermediate), Polish (mother tongue), German(basic), French (basic), Latin (basic). IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office (Word advanced user). CONTACT: Tel: +45 41 44 94 52, magda.binczycka@gmail.com Spouse: Vidya Singh From: India Seeking work in: Copenhagen, Odense, Arhus, Aalborg or nearby areas. Qualification: Master in Computer Management, Bachelor of Science, Certified Novell Engineer, Microsoft Certified Professional. Experience: Total 8 years (4 year in telecommunication as customer care + 4 year as HR recruiter consultant). looking for: HR (Trainee/Assistant/Recruiter/consultant), Customer service, office work, IT Language Skills: English, Hindi and Danish (currently learning). IT experience: MS-office, Hardware, Networking, Intranet and Internet. Contact: vidya.singh37@gmail.com, Mobile: +45 71443554 SPOUSE: Deepak Kumar Koneri FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: M.Sc in Electrical Engineering specialization in Embedded Systems (Jönköping, Sweden), B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Hyderabad, India). EXPERIENCE: Worked as Electrical Distribution Design Engineer in Electrical Consultant company for more than 2 years. I was responsible from the start of design definition phase till the implementation phase of individual project. LOOKING FOR: Full and part time job opportunity in Energy, Robust Electronics design, PCB Design, Thermal Analyst, Design & Modelling of power systems, power optimization, simulation and also in constructional, architectural consulting organization. LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (Fluent), Hindi (Mother Tongue), Swedish (Basic) and Danish(Basic, Currently learning). IT EXPERIENCE: MS-Office (word, Excel, Power point, Visio), CFD (Mentor Graphics FloTHERM, FloVENT, Noesis OPTIMUS, Electrical CAD, Assembly Programming (PIC 16f77, 8086,8051), WireMOM, Telelogic SDL-99, C and VHDL. CONTACT: konerideepak@gmail.com, 71561151 SPOUSE: Mohammad Ahli- Gharamaleki FROM: Iran SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Master degree in chemical engineering. EXPERIENCE: 5+ years as a chemical engineer in R&D oil/gas projects as a team leader or member in Iran. LOOKING FOR: A position in an Intrnational company to expand my experience and expertise. LANGUAGE SKILLS: Azeri (native), English (fluent), Farsi (fluent), Arabic (good), Turkish (good), Danish(beginner). IT EXPERIENCE: Professional (MATLAB, Hysys, Aspen plus, Auto Cad, others (Office, Minitab). CONTACT: mohammad_ahli@yahoo.com, (+45) 71 63 12 85

Spouse: Teja Priyanka From: India Seeking work in: Copenhagen Qualification: MBA in Finance and marketing , bachelor in Biotechnology. Language Skills: Telugu(mother tounge), Hindi, English, Danish(biggnier). IT experience: Familier with Microsoft office(word, excel,powerpoint,access, ), photoshop. Contact: teja.priyanka.n@gmail.com

Spouse: Miss Marta Guerrero From: Spain Seeking work in: Great Copenhagen Qualification: Bachelor of English teacher for Primary Education. Bachelor of Psychologist for Education. Experience: Over the past five years I have worked in a Primary School in Barcelona as English teacher for children from 6 to 11 years old. Moreover, last year I gained experience teaching Spanish, as a foreign language, in the UK. I also have some experience teaching adults. looking for: Full time position as Spanish or English teacher in a Kindergarden, a Primary School or in a High School. Language skills: Spanish and Catalan (mother tongue). English (fluent speaking and writing). IT experience: A good user of all the basic computer knowledge (Word, Excel, Power Point,...) as well as blog and web publication and maintenance. Contact: martaguerrero13@gmail.com

Spouse: Pooja Nirwal From: New Delhi, India Seeking work in: Copenhagen and Capital region. Qualification: Masters (M. Sc) in Environmental Science, +2 yrs of Exp. as Env. Consultant in the field of Environmental Impact Assessment. looking for: Positions in Consultancies/Organizations/NGOs working in the field of Environmental Science (Climate Change, EIA, Env. Compliance Audits, Solid Waste Management etc.). Language Skills: Fluent in English, Hindi and Sanskrit, Started learning Danish. IT experience: MS Office (PowerPoint, Word, Excel). Contact: poojadahiya1@gmail.com, +45 503 904 60

SPOUSE: Hugo Ludbrook FROM: New Zealand SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen. QUALIFICATION: BA (1st Class Honours) in International Relations + BA in History and Religious Studies. EXPERIENCE: Have worked in a wide variety of organisations with focus ranging from the organics sector, to international development, to company directors, to work with the United Nations. LOOKING FOR: Research, writing, editing and/or communication work. LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (Fluent), French (Good), Danish (Basic). IT EXPERIENCE: Strong MS Office, Outlook and Excel Skills. CONTACT: hugo.ludbrook@hotmail.com

SPOUSE: Clémence Arnal FROM: France SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen; Region Sjælland QUALIFICATION: Wastewater/drinking water (processes and treatments, building design, water sampling and pollution rate measurement); environment protection ( river basin management, waste management). EXPERIENCE: Waste sorting representative (Office “Communauté du Pays d’Aix”, France); Leaks investigation on drinking water networks, Help to communes to deal with their drinking water system, Control operation of individual sanitation systems (Office “G2C Environnement”, France); Drinking water stations security: putting the Antiterrorist security plan in practice, employees security , Distribution network security: determining the cost of a network re-chlorination unit (“Drinking Water” administration of Aix en Provence, France). LOOKING FOR: Water treatment assistant / engineer. LANGUAGE SKILLS: French (mother tongue); English (Fluent); Danish (Prøve Dansk 3). IT EXPERIENCE: MS-Office; AutoCAD (basic); Mapinfo (basic). CONTACT: clem.arnal@gmail.com / tlf: 23 34 63 22

SPOUSE: Megan Rothrock FROM: California-USA,Via SEEKING WORK IN: Toy Design, Games Design, or Photography (Syd Denmark Jutland). QUALIFICATION: Associate Arts Degree: Corporate Communication, Design, and Commercial Illustration, with a background in animation. EXPERIENCE: Former LEGO Product Designer, LEGO Universe: Level Designer, European Bureau Editor Brick Journal Magazine. I have a strong knowledge of Toy and Gaming Markets. I am driven, enjoy solving daily challenges and I’m a strong communicator wanting to join a creative team of colleagues. LOOKING FOR: Part/Full time work in an innovative and creative . LANGUAGE SKILLS: English: native- Dutch: Excellent- Danish (currently in): Danskuddannelse 3, modul 3. IT EXPERIENCE: PC and Mac - Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dream Weaver, Director, Maya, 3D Studio Max, ML Cad, LD. CONTACT: megzter1@yahoo.com +4535140779

SPOUSE: Kamali Ganesan SEEKING WORK IN: Jylland, Denmark QUALIFICATION: IT engineer. EXPERIENCE: LEGO systems. LOOKING FOR: IT and Multimedia jobs. LANGUAGE SKILLS: Tamil, English and Danish. IT EXPERIENCE: 3 Years in LEGO systems. CONTACT: anbukamali@gmail.com

FROM: India

Spouse: Jennifer Bouma From: The Netherlands Seeking work in: Egedal Kommune, Copenhagen 30 km. Qualification: Managers Secretary, hands on, reliable, structured, self reliant, social, teamplayer). looking for: Secretary job. Language Skills: Dutch, Danish, English, German, French, Italian. IT experience: MS Office ( Word, Excel), Outlook, SAP. Contact: jenniferbouma@ hotmail.com SPOUSE: Maihemutijiang Maimaiti FROM: China SEEKING WORK IN: Aarhus area, Denmark QUALIFICATION: M.Sc. In Computer Science, Uppsala University, Sweden; Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, Southwest University. LOOKING FOR: IT jobs. LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Chinese, Uyghur. IT EXPERIENCE: 1 year experience in Java programming and modelling in VDM++. CONTACT: mehmudjan@live.se SPOUSE: Sadra Tabassi FROM: Iran SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Master of Business Administration (MBA) LOOKING FOR: Any full time job related to my qualification field LANGUAGE SKILLS: Languages Fluent in English; Native in Farsi (Persian) and elementary level of Arabic. IT EXPERIENCE: Basic knowledge about computer (Windows), Office 2010 (Word, Excel, Power Point),Statistical software (SPSS) CONTACT: sadra.tabassi@gmail.com, Tel:+4550337753 Spouse: Isabel Douglass From: San Francisco-USA Seeking work in: Music Education Qualification: BA in Music. Experience: 10 years of internationally touring performances and 7 years of accordion teaching experience. looking for: I offer piano accordion lessons to individuals and small groups. In the courses students will learn a repertoire of songs ranging in styles including French musette, Argentine Tango, and Klezmer while strengthening there technique and understanding of music theory. Please visit www.myspace.com/isabeldouglass to learn more about me. Language skills: Native English Speaker. Contact: isabeldouglass@gmail.com Phone: 60653401 Spouse: Lillian Liu From: Taiwan Seeking work in: Marketing/Public Relations. Qualification: Bachelor of Foreign Language and Literature (Major in English, and minor in French) Experience: 5+ years of professional experiences in Marketing and PR. I am a dynamic and creative marketing communications talent with substantial international working experience in large corporation and in agencies, possessing Integrated Marketing Communication ability. Proficient in analyzing market trends to provide critical inputs for decision-making and formulating marketing communication strategies. Familiar with brand image build-up, channel marketing, media communication, issue management, etc. Possess in-depth understanding/knowledge of APAC market and Chinese culture. looking for: Marketing jobs in Jylland. Language skills: Mandarin Chinese, English, Danish, French. IT experience: Familiar with Windows O/S and MS Office. Contact: sugarex@hotmail.com SPOUSE: Munawar Saleem FROM: Pakistan SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: MBA logistics and supply chain management (Jonkoping University, Sweden) M.Sc. Computer Sciences (Punjab University, Lahore Pakistan). EXPERIENCE: 4 years, Lecturer in computer sciences. LOOKING FOR:Full time or part time job in Logistics and Supply. LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (fluent), Urdu (mother tongue), Swedish (Basic). IT EXPERIENCE: Proficient in MS Office (word, excel, power point etc.). CONTACT: libravision3@gmail.com, 71412010 Spouse: Attila Simon From: Romania Seeking work in: Greater Copenhagen Qualification: International Welding Engineer (IWE/EWE), MSc in Welding Engineering, MSc in Flexible Manufacturing Systems, MSc in Quality Assurance of Metallic Structures. Experience: 10+ years experience in designing and manufacturing railway wagons, buses, trolleybuses and their subsystems. More than 7 years international project management experience in these areas. More than 2 years experience in industrial trading and investments. looking for: Transport, railway or welding related engineering job, also project management positions. Language skills: English (fluent speaking and writing), Danish (intermediate), Hungarian (mother tongue), Romanian (native speaker). IT experience: Several years experience working with SolidWorks, AutoCAD, ProgeCAD and VariCAD. User level of Microsoft Office. Contact: attilon2@gmail.com; tel.: 28316752 Spouse: Chia-Pei CHEN From: Taiwan Seeking work in: Business Chinese/ Tutorial Chinese teaching in corporations, institutions or International schools. Qualification: A certified teacher of teaching Chinese as a second language. A degree in Social Science discipline. Continuously participation in training program (organized by Beijing Hanban of CHINA and CBS) to teach Chinese to foreigners in western context. Enrolment to distance Chinese teaching education system that keeps professional Chinese teachers resourceful. Experience: I am a certified teacher of teaching Chinese as a second language to foreigners. And I have started teaching Chinese with English in my class for 2 years. I design suitable materials to teach Chinese with different phonetic systems (PinYin for China and HongKong, and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols for Taiwan) as well as to interpret differences between simplified and traditional Chinese characters. My past positions were Chinese language-related, such as: reporter, translator and social science researcher. Students who I taught before regard me as a sincere, discreet teacher who helps learners to progress in short time. looking for: Business Chinese/ Tutorial Chinese teaching. Language skills: Chinese (mother tongue), English (Fluent), French (basic), Danish (beginner). IT experience: Word Office, SPSS statistic software, Basic Video and Audio editing, Blog writing. Contact: teacherchen@live.com, Tel: 25 81 65 18

THE COPENHAGEN POST SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE SPOUSE: Malgorzata Tujakowska FROM: Poland SEEKING WORK IN: Aarhus and the surrounding area QUALIFICATION: Masters in Ethnolinguistics with major in Chinese and English, Chinese HSK and Business Chinese Test certificates, 2-year long studies at Shanghai International Studies University and National Cheng Kung University,Taiwan. LOOKING FOR: Working for companies hiring Polish and Chinese employees, teaching Chinese, Polish, Business English, linguistics, translation and interpretation, proofreading, Chinese business and culture consulting, administrative work. LANGUAGE SKILLS: Polish (native speaker), Chinese – simplified and traditional (fluent), English (fluent), German(intermediate), Danish (intermediate-currently learning). IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office. CONTACT: Tel:+45 28702377, m.tujakowska@gmail.com SPOUSE: Heike Mehlhase FROM: Berlin, Tyskland SEEKING WORK IN: A job opportunity in Copenhagen (administrative position, research assistant or psychosocial care). QUALIFICATION: MPH, Master degree in Psychology, Lerntherapeutin. EXPERIENCE: Five years experience in psychological research andchild psychology. LOOKING FOR: Looking for: a position to expand my experience where I can use my excellent organisational, social and communication skills. LANGUAGE SKILLS: German (mother tongue), English (fluent), Danish (Module 2). IT EXPERIENCE: I am proficient in software such as word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software and basicgraphic editing programs (Microsoft Office, Open Office) plus statistical software (SPSS). CONTACT: heike@mehlhase.info Spouse: Andrea Heilmann From: Germany (Marburg) Seeking work in: Greater Copenhagen Qualification: Communications Manager & PR Consultant. Experience: I successfully work as Communications Consultant for a global company and have more than 10 years of experience with company communication and public relations as well as event management, executive assistance and project coordination. I also have a strong crosscultural understanding since I always worked with different cultures from all over the world. LOOKING FOR: Communications, Public Relations or Event Management job. Language skills: English (fluent), German (native). IT experience: Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel, Outlook; Lotus Notes; CMS; Acrobat Writer; PaintShop Pro. Contact: andrea_heilmann@web.de, cell phone +49 160 3534209 SPOUSE: Barbara Liengaard FROM: Germany SEEKING WORK IN: (Greater) Copenhagen and surroundings. QUALIFICATION: Bachelor degree in Business Administration (Germany/France). EXPERIENCE: Profound 10-years’ working experience in strategic and operational marketing, product/brand and project management from different big globally acting companies (automotive supplier, white goods and medical industry), working/cultural experience from different countries (Germany, France, Spain, U.S.A., U.K., China, Denmark), first working experience in Denmark. LOOKING FOR: A challenging job opportunity in e.g. marketing, product/brand and/ or project management, import/export; preferably in an international-minded working environment or with particular need for German. LANGUAGE SKILLS: German (mother tongue), English (fluent), French (fluent), Danish (PD3 Prøvebevis), Spanish (good). IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office (Outlook, Power Point, Excel, Word), SAP (CMD-AP). CONTACT: babolz@yahoo.com

PARTNERS:

Spouse: Jawon Yun-Werner From: South Korea Seeking work in: Healthcare, Hospitals, Elderly/Child Care (in Greater Copenhagen Area). Qualification: B.A. in Nursing, Masters in Public Health. I am AUTHORIZED to work as a Nurse in Denmark. (have Danish CPR and work permit). Experience: 1O years of experience as a nurse and midwife from the prominent hospitals. looking for: Any healthcare related jobs (hospitals, clinics, elderly/childcare places). I am open to any shift or day. Language skills: English, Korean, Danish (Intermediate, in progress, Module 3). IT experience: MS Office, SASS Statistical Software Contact: cuteago@yahoo.com +45 30 95 20 53 SPOUSE: Debasmita Ghosh FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharmachemistry specialization). EXPERIENCE: 4 years in Clinical Research (Pharmacovigilance/Safety and Medical Coding) in a leading CRO (Quintiles) and 6 months experience as a lecturer for bachelor degree students in Pharmacy College. LOOKING FOR: Job in pharmaceutical industry, CRO or any vocation suitable per qualification and experience. LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (fluent written and spoken), enrolled for Danish language classes, Indian Languages (Hindi, Bengali, Kannada). IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office Applications i:e Microsoft office word, excel, outlook, power point and tools, lotus notes, medical and drug softwares like micromedex and ISIS draw. CDM systems like ds Navigator-Medical coding tool and AERS database. CONTACT: ghoshdebasmita@gmail.com, Mobile No. +4571488438 Spouse: Laxmi Chawan From: India Seeking work in: Sjælland, as an architect/ interior designer or as a logistic co-ordinator. Qualification: Masters in Design Sciences and Sustainable Design, University of Sydney, Australia; Bachelors in Architecture, University of Mumbai, India. Experience: Design development, Drafting, Working drawings, Planning and scheduling of projects, Report compilation, Invoicing and Administrative works. looking for: Part time /Fulltime work in Architecture/Construction /Interior Designing Firm or Supply chain management field. IT experience:AutoCAD 2009, Adobe In Design, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Project management softwares. Language skills: English,Hindi. Contact: lchawan@gmail.com, Mobile : +45 5253 2498 Spouse: Geet Shroff From: Bangalore, India Seeking work in: Midtjylland / Copenhagen / Odense Qualification: Bachelor’s degree in Communicative English from Bangalore University, India. Experience: 8+ years of experience as Senior Copy Writer, Assistant Manager – Marketing Communications, Executive – Customer Loyalty & Communication, Customer Service Associate respectively. Through these years, I have developed content, handled complete marketing communications, organized numerous corporate (internal & external customer), private and institutional events ranging from 50 to 1000 people and also handling special projects that have included training & internal communication campaigns. looking for: A Corporate or Marketing Communication (Internal or External) position or that of a Copy Writer at an advertising agency or a corporate house. Also open to a position at an event management company. Language skills: English, Danish (Beginner). IT experience: MS-Office, Adobe In Design CS3 (Basic). Contact: geet_shroff@yahoo.co.in +4550834024

Spouse: Shilpa Lingaiah From: India Seeking work in: Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and nearby areas of the mentioned cities. Qualification: PG Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (JSS University, India); Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (RGUHS, India). Danish agency for international education has assessed the above qualification and corresponds to Danish Master’s degree in Health Sciences. looking for: Research related to health science, jobs in pharmaceutical industry or new challenging career opportunities. Language skills: English(fluent written and spoken),Enrolled for Danish language classes, Indian languages(Kannada and Hindi). IT experience: MS Office. Contact: drshilpalingaiah@gmail.com Tel: +4552742859 Spouse: Daniel Jones From: United Kingdom Seeking work in: Greater Copenhagen Qualification: Qualified Teacher Status, UK; Bachelor of Science Degree (1st Class), UK. Experience: Enthusiastic, hands on teacher with 8 years teaching experience of Mathematics and Science in UK and International Schools. IB, GCSE and A-Level, including as Head of Department with excellent feedback from pupils, parents and teaching colleagues. looking for: Teaching positions in secondary schools; Private tuition; Education related roles. Language Skills: Mother tongue English, fluent in Italian. IT experience: MS-office. Contact: daniel_glyn_jones@hotmail.com SPOUSE: Margaret Ritchie FROM: Scotland, UK SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: BA Business Administration majoring in Human Resource Management EXPERIENCE: Worked in the field of Education within a Scottish University. 12 years of experience. Administrating and organising courses and conferences and also worked as a PA to a Head of School. Great communication skills. LOOKING FOR: Administration work, typing, audio typing, data input. Can work from home. LANGUAGE SKILLS: Mother tongue: English, very basic Danish IT EXPERIENCE: A good user of Microsoft Office package, access to internet CONTACT: email: megmagsritchie@googlemail.com tel: 71182949

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

The Copenhagen Post Spouse employment page Why: The Copenhagen Post wishes to help spouses looking for jobs in Denmark. We have on our own initiative started a weekly spouse job page in The Copenhagen Post, with the aim to show that there are already within Denmark many highly educated international candidates looking for jobs. If you are a spouse to an international employee in Denmark looking for new career opportunities, you are welcome to send a profile to The Copenhagen Post at aviaja@cphpost.dk and we will post your profile on the spouse job page when possible.

Biotech Job Vacancies Novozymes

Scientist for the Laboratory for production strains Laboratory Technician Senior Application Specialist Senior Application Specialist - Integration Recovery Scientist

Ferring

International Clinical Trial Manager, Clinical R&D Reproductive Health

Leo-Pharma

Experienced Forecasting Manager Category Specialist, Sales & Marketing and PR Procurement Senior Tax Manager in a Global Business Senior Procurement Manager, IT

Lundbeck

Business Manager Business Manager Student Assistants Regulatory Strategy Leader Statistical Programmer/SAS Programmer – Biometrics Experienced Toxicologist – Non-clinical development of Biologic

Novo Nordisk IVRS Coordinator (Maternity Cover) Immunopharmacologist Senior in vivo pharmacologist within Diabetes research Industrial PhD Position in Histology, Biopharmaceuticals Research Unit Manager Prim. Pack. & Product Maintenance Quality Engineer Protein Scientist: HX-MS

Rygaards International School Invites experienced, enthusiastic and well-qualified individuals, familiar with and experienced in British-style education, to apply for the following position. Applicants should be lively, energetic and committed professionals. They must also be native English speakers. The job will be for the 20th of February, 2012. Rygaards School has a Danish and an International English-speaking school each teaching its own separate curriculum. Rygaards International School consists of Key Stages 1 – 4 (Years 1 – 11). Rygaards is a Catholic school founded in 1909 by the Assumption sisters. The school has strong ecumenical traditions and welcomes applicants who are interested in actively supporting Christian values. The position is as follows: •

Reception Class Teacher – maternity leave cover

Terms of employment in accordance with contract between The Ministry of Finance and BUPL/FGF (Unions) Applications, including a cover letter and CV, should be addressed to The Board of Governors and sent by e-mail to: The Head of Rygaards International Primary School, Shirley Jacobsen, shirley.jacobsen@rygaards.com. Information about the school can be obtained from our website www.rygaards.com

Closing date for applications: Thursday, 26th January, 2012

For more information and other job vacancies visit our webpage www.cphpost.dk/jobvacancies

culture

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

13 - 19 January 2012

Vega to put new spin on live music New project, Lydkultur, re-examines the traditional concert format

zentropa

henrik reerslev

Claudia Santos

Banned by Cannes, Von Trier’s revered by critics

right lights, a stage, a bar, an audience and a band – the traditional recipe for a successful live concert experience – no longer does it for Vega, one of Copenhagen’s largest concert venues. Vega is determined to tweak the concept of live music by adding a few ingredients of its own: loudspeakers in the restrooms, original and over-the-top decorations, optical illusions and much more. Vega’s standpoint on live performances is shared by Livelaboratoriet (Live laboratory), an independent organisation whose goal is to inspire and modernise Danish music life through research, discussion, coaching and live events. Together, Vega and Livelaboratoriet have created Lydkultur (Sound Culture), a project aimed at developing concerts and the live music experience as a whole. “Anything can be rethought; you have to be willing to experiment in order to see what works,” said Line Engberg, Vega’s spokesperson and the project manager for Lydkultur. “That is Vega’s approach. We look at specific con-

No Golden Globe noms, but maybe ‘Melancholia’ can net a Oscars

Ben hamilton Another award for ‘Melancholia’ suggests a probable Oscar nod

American rapper and Grammy award nominee J.Cole performing in Vega, one of Copenhagen’s largest concert venues

certs and try to determine where we can do something extra so that the concert can be different, from creating special themes to doing something before and after the shows.” Having received half a million kroner grant from the Greater Copenhagen Regional Authority, the Lydkultur project seems to be off to a good start. Along with five other venues - Global (Copenhagen), Gimle (Roskilde), Templet (Lyngby), Forbrændingen (Albertslund) and Klaverfabrikken (Hillerød) – Vega will begin their journey to find the

best way to put across Lydkultur’s vision of live music that has never been seen (or heard) before. Lydkultur’s first official initiative will be the Vegas Udvalgte (Vega’s chosen) concert on January 20. The six chosen bands - Ulige Numre (indie-rock), Penny Police (singer/songwriter), Rangleklods (electronica), Shaq Boosie (alternative rapper), Death Valley Sleepers (‘60s pop) and Soffie Viemose (electronica) – will be videotaped and the videos will be released online. The new stage seems to be set, but the outcome remains

to be seen. Given the ongoing change and financial difficulties the music industry has seen in the past few decades, it’s difficult to predict how yet another development will be received by artists and music fans. “The odds are tough”. Fabian Holt, a lecturer at Roskilde University and researcher of live music, told Urban newspaper. “Bands come in with completed shows, so can you get them, their managers, booking agencies, and so on to rethink their framework? It’s many years of routines you are up against”.

jimmy fyfe

Who is ... Sofie Gråbøl? Tine Harden,/DR.

victoria steffensen She is a Danish television and film actress. What might I have seen her in? She was the star of the hit DR1 series ‘Forbrydelsen’. This has recently been shown in the UK, under the title ‘The Killing’. Music lovers enjoying the music festival in the skate park in Roskilde

Roskilde Festival adds new stage for electro Malene Ørsted The god of music will set up house in the skate park

here’s good news for electronic music fans who are tired of all the indie rock and hardcore metal that so often dominate Denmark’s largest festival. This year Roskilde Festival is introducing a new stage, Apollo, with a special focus on electronic music. “We have been promoting leading electronic artists since the beginning of the ‘90s, from The Orb to Daft Punk to Tiësto,” the festival’s programme planner Claes Roepstorff said. “Apollo is going to continue this tradition and give room to those artists who have a big sound, but

who don’t take up a lot of space on stage. “ The Apollo stage is named after the Greek god of music, and festival organisers said its addition will add to Roskilde’s innovative music profile. The stage will change locations on a daily basis during the pre-festival warm-up before being placed in the camping area near the skate park during the festival. The Apollo stage will profile emerging talents from Scandinavia and have an audience capacity of 3,000-5,000, putting it close in size to the Odeon and Pavilion venues. With the addition, the Roskilde Festival now has a total of eight stages. So far the festival has announced ten music performers for 2012, including names Bruce Springsteen, Björk and Bon Iver.

How would I recognise her? She has mousey coloured hair (I’m allowed to say that because I have ‘mousey’ coloured hair too). Many would recognise her simply by the jumper she wears in ‘Forbrydelsen’ – a natty little Faroe Islands knit. I guess they must have dubbed ‘Forbrydelsen’ in the UK ... Actually not. It has been shown in the original form with ... subtitles! Can the Brits read subtitles?! It seems we can. And it’s great for the hard-of-hearing too, says my dad! Has ‘Forbrydelsen’ been a success in the UK? Has it just. The series – despite its subtitles – won the BAFTA for the best foreign TV series of 2011. Is Gråbøl now a star in Britain? She certainly is. She was even in a special Christmas episode of the BBC1 comedy ‘Absolutely Fabulous’, in which Edina – in an attempt to look ‘cultured’ – says she has begun watching ‘The Killing’.

t’s a general rule of thumb that Nazis and sci-fi make a bad mix in the movie world, but it doesn’t look like Lars von Trier was listening. His arthouse film about the apocalypse, ‘Melancholia’, has won yet another award – this time the prestigious National Society of Film Critics gong, which in previous years has been a reasonable indicator of Oscar pedigree. The award was complemented by one for Kirsten Dunst in the best actress category and follows the European Film Award the film won in December. However, Von Trier missed out

in the best director category to Terrence Malik for ‘Tree of Life’, and the film also came up short for best cinematography. In the last seven years, two winners of the Film Critics award have gone on to triumph at the Oscars: ‘Million Dollar Baby’ in 2004 and ‘The Hurt Locker’ in 2009. The Oscar nominations are due out on January 22. Meanwhile, it was announced on Tuesday that ‘Melancholia’ has received six Bodil nominations ahead of Saturday’s awards show. While there is no award for best director, ‘Melancholia’ is on the shortlist for best film along with Kirsten Dunst, John Hurt, Keifer Sutherland, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Charlotte Rampling in the various acting categories.

The Copenhagen Post text 42 Quick Crossword No 379 No 379

What about her family? She has a young son and daughter from her marriage to film director Jacob Thuesen. She and Thuesen divorced in 2006. When did she get into acting? She starred in ‘Barndommensgade’ at the age of 18, and became instantly recognisable to all the attendees of Hellerup Sprogskole, who were forced to watch the very grey and depressing film as part of their language course. Was she any good? I couldn’t really say; I was too busy trying to work out what on earth was going on, because we had only learnt “Jeg hedder ...” and “Jeg kommer fra ...” – neither of which appeared in the script. We did however learn that Danish films, as a rule, are quite grey and depressing. This was confirmed when they then showed us another Sophie Gråbøl film, ‘Pelle Erobreren’, which was even greyer and just as depressing.

Down

Across 3. 8. 9. 10. 11. 14. 15. 16. 18. 20. 21. 24. 25. 26. 27.

Make sure (9) Harvest (4) Happy (9) Inexperienced (6) Concise (5) Scholar (5) Speed (4) Killed (5) Grain (4) Attack (5) Cold dish (5) Deadly (6) Highly pleased (9) Stronghold (4) Female tutor (9)

1. 2. 4. 5. 6. 7. 9. 11. 12. 13. 17. 19. 22. 23. 24.

Steep cliff (9) Compasses (9) Dull (4) Come in (5) Fond (6) Thought (4) Winds in rings (5) Trade-mark (5) A lie (9) To air (9) Eminent (5) Indigenous (6) Pale (5) Roman emperor (4) Minus (4)

Post Quick Crossword No 378 Across: 1 Clap; 3 Reliable; 8 Note; 9 Graduate; 11 Incandescent; 13 Credit; 14 Stupor; 17 Affectionate; 20 Eviction; 21 Mere; 22 Tutelage; 23 Busy. Down: 1 Convince; 2 Article; 4 Earned; 5 Indication; 6 Brawn; 7 Even; 10 Incidental; 12 Greenery; 15 Plateau; 16 Strong; 18 Feint; 19 Feat.

13 - 19 January 2012

Denmark through the looking glass The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

As mysterious as the Marie Celeste, this was Denmark’s answer to the Titanic Alexis Kunsak Its last ever sighting was in 1928, an encounter that confirmed its radio was working, so why didn’t the København make a mayday before vanishing forever?

The ‘København’ ship’s missing crew of 60

There was nothing wrong with the København’s radio, because one week and 1,000 miles into her voyage she was in touch briefly with a steamer,

plus 45 cadets. The ship left in ballast and the skipper was meant to follow the west winds at around 43 degrees south.

Master Captain Hans Ferdinand Andersen before ‘København’ disappeared in 1929

Sketch of the disappeared ‘København’

Jack Cato

www.fyrskibet.dk

n the 1920s before the era of wireless radio, sailing ships carried no means of communicating with the shore. Information about a ship’s progress was passed along by other ships met along the way. All was considered well until a ship failed to arrive. Even then there was no panic as it was perfectly conceivable that a sailing ship could have encountered a storm, been dismasted and had to proceed with improvised mast and yards. It could be a month before the shipping company knew one of their ships had met with an accident. The København was, according to renowned mariner Alan Villiers, the largest and finest sailing vessel in the world at the time it vanished. Plans for the training ship were drawn up for the Danish East Asiatic Company by the Scottish firm of Ramage and Fergusson in Leith in 1913, but it was not completed until 24 March 1921. The vessel was chiefly employed in the Australian grain trade, but was also used as a training ship for cadets at the Danish Merchant Marine. Named after the city where it held its registration, the deep-water cargocarrier was a five-masted, steel-hulled auxiliary barque, fitted with radio. It was the first of a series of large school sailing ships built with a diesel auxiliary manufactured by the Danish shipyard Burmeister & Wain. She was a giant of a ship: 430 feet (131 metres) long with a 49-foot beam, and a draft of almost 29 feet when carrying cargo. She spread 50,000 square feet of canvas. Her gross tonnage was 3,965, her deadweight capacity was 5,200 tonnes, and her cruising speed was six knots. The ship was also built with an eye towards safety and equipped with watertight bulkheads - vertical walls that divided the hull into compartments. Villiers described the København as a very well-built, strong ship, and one that would have not been in such immediate danger that it could not send off a distress call. The ship left Leith in September 1921. Her first voyage was a year-long circumnavigation of the globe, and before she left, 10,000 people visited the ship, including King Christian X of Denmark and his wife. The crew of 60 included two boatswains, a sail maker, a carpenter, 16 able seamen, 10 ordinary seamen, and 20 company cadets. There were two officers and 24 men on each watch. Over the next few years, the Kobenhavn carried cargo all over the world with a similar crew. A brief report on a typical docking of the ship read: “Arrived Thevenard (Australia) 16/1/27, departed 15/2/27. Berthed on North side. Outward cargo, 4,161 tons bagged wheat. Master Capt H K Christensen, pilot P M MacIntosh.” For her tenth voyage, the København was turned over to Captain Hans Ferdinand Andersen, who had come up through the ranks. He and the crew both had years of experience sailing ships. The København left Buenos Aires on 12 December 1928 bound for Melbourne, Australia to pick up grain for Europe, manned by a crew of 15

Renowned Australian mariner Alan Villiers described ‘København’ as largest and finest sailing vessel in the world at the time of disappearance

the William Blumer. The skipper had taken a noon sight. His DR position, an approximate reading used in navigation, was 43 degrees, 35 minutes south, by 16 degrees, 15 minutes west on December 21. Everything was well and he expected that he would arrive in Australia in no more than 50 days. Nothing further was heard from the København. Due to the length of the voyage to Australia the lack of word from the ship caused no anxiety initially, but by mid-February the concerns of the Danish East Asiatic Company had grown. When the København didn’t show up in Australia, the East Asiatic Company sent out ships to search, but no wreckage was ever found. Several vessels conducted a search over a wide area. The Danish tanker Mexico was chartered to search eastbound from the River Plate

and the Australian interstate steamer Junee searched westbound from Australia. Their search began on 2 July 1929, seven months after the København sailed on its last voyage, and lasted for three months. The search included the islands of the world’s southernmost waters and parts of the west coast of Australia, but no trace of crew or vessel was ever found. No reports of a sighting from any vessel resembling the missing ship were made, and although there were some reports of icebergs, conditions were not abnormally bad. Off-course islands such as the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean were included in the search, but with no results. A court of inquiry in October of 1929 decided that a collision with ice was the likely cause of the huge barque’s disappearance. The event was described as a sudden act of god that was so fast it prevented the sending of any message or launching of a lifeboat. The 60 men on board were lost, of which 15 were crew and 45 were cadets, some as young as 16. In 1935, along the southwestern coast of Africa, human remains and the remains of a lifeboat were found partly buried in the sand. These may have come from the København, but could not be definitively identified. In his 1952 book ‘Great Gales and Dire Disasters’, Edward Rowe Snow referred to the København incident. He claimed that that he received a letter years after the disappearance of the ship from a Canadian reader. Apparently an acquaintance of the reader was beachcombing and found a fragment of wood that turned out to be a section of a lifeboat with the word ‘København’ on it. But besides ruling out an alien abduction, it doesn’t really shed any light on what happened to Denmark’s Marie Celeste.

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