The Copenhagen Post Apr 27 - May 03

Paralysed girl may receive compensation from city

Base outlasted its need; soldiers continued to die

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27 April - 3 May 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 17

Good Doctor has a great stageside manner

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

NEWS

Why wasn’t the Armadillo base closed earlier – and who’s to blame?

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OPINION

Why all the love?

British journalist attempts to explain the UK’s obsession with all things Danish

8 NEWS

A shot in the foot HISTORY

RAY WEAVER

Cameron’s Danish muse Meet Carla Jensen, the young Dane who inspired one of cinema’s most memorable heroines

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9 771398 100009

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ARENTS in Copenhagen continue to struggle to balance family life and work while waiting for places at the city’s overcrowded daycare institutions. The lack of spaces and long waiting lists have some parents saying that they may have no choice but to give up their jobs to take care of their children. And with the number of children growing by 100 each month, relief may be a long way off.

Mayor Frank Jensen (Socialdemokraterne), who ran for election pledging to make Copenhagen a “chil-

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Mayor Frank Jensen denies breaking promise to voters

dren’s town”, claims he is living up to his promises.

“We are spending nearly a billion kroner to build 6,500 new daycare institutions in Copenhagen,” Jensen said in a statement. “By 2014, we will live up to our promise that there will be daycare for everyone within four kilometres of their home.”

Businesses in Copenhagen are also expressing concern about the lack of space and inconvenience for families. Some employees are simply choosing not to come back to work after having children.

“Companies are often forced to wait longer for workers to come back from parental leave, and I often hear from our company members that they have to make special arrangements for workers who cannot return from leave on time

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Daycare woes continue for Copenhagen parents

POST

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The location of a much-anticipated, legal drug-injection room has pitted some of Vesterbro’s local residents against the City Council

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Too far or not far enough? Nobody seems particularly happy with the government’s new smoking laws

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because they can’t find arrangements for their children,” Ole Steen Olsen of the Danish chamber of commerce, Dansk Erhverv, told Berlingske newspaper.

Meanwhile, some parents are accusing Jensen of reneging on a promise that siblings would be guaranteed spots in the same institution. They say Jensen made the pledge in an interview that he gave to Berlingske newspaper shortly after he was elected in 2010.

Jensen denied that he guaranteed that siblings would be able to attend the same institution, revealing that he regrets using the phrase “sibling guarantee” in his 2010 annual report to Copenhagen’s Socialdemokraterne.

“If we were to guarantee such a thing, we would have to hold places open while we waited for babies number

two and three to grow up,” Jensen said.

“We obviously cannot do something that would be so expensive.”

Jensen said he understands parents’ frustration and that the council does its best to put brothers and sisters together. Jensen said that currently less than three percent of siblings in Copenhagen do not attend the same institution.

Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for culture, Pia Allerslev (Venstre), said that although she appreciates Jensen’s push to provide more places for Copenhagen’s kids, it is too little, too late.

“We have too many parents in an impossible situation,” Allerslev said.

“Even though Frank Jensen has set aside money and made some effort, Socialdemokraterne have ignored Copenhagen’s parents for too long.”

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Week in review

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

27 April - 3 May 2012 Thomas Styrk

Bovine boogie

THE WEEK’S MOST READ STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK Terrorist Breivik invokes DK’s immigration policies in defence New immigration laws set to kick in next month Racist trash talk lands politician in hot water Cops raid McDonald’s, arrest illegal workers Frederiksberg Council to wake up school children

FROM OUR ARCHIVES TEN YEARS AGO. Danish youngsters’ European record for alcohol consumption ignites a national debate on parental upbringing.

FIVE YEARS AGO. A Rambøll survey reveals that an increasing number of young adults find life in ghettos cool and chic.

ONE YEAR AGO. Christiania erects barricades to block off outsiders as residents debate their future.

At 70 locations across the country on Sunday, thousands turned up to enjoy Økodag and watch the 12pm release of the country’s ‘dancing’ cows after a long winter spent cooped up inside.

cational level as they are. The women felt that in many cases the men’s lack of education and job training was the fault of the parents of young boys who allow them to drop out of school. Sali Arar, a lawyer at Dong Energy said, “Of course we do not want to drop our careers to satisfy some little man’s ego.”

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.

Visit us online at www.cphpost.dk

London calling

Noma is going to London for the Olympics. World-renowned Danish chef René Redzepi is moving his two-star Michelin restaurant – twice declared the world’s best – from Copenhagen to a temporary location at Claridge’s hotel in London during this summer’s games. Redzepi called the timing “perfect” be-

President and Publisher Ejvind Sandal Chief Executive Jesper Nymark Editor-in-Chief Kevin McGwin Managing Editor Ben Hamilton News Editor Justin Cremer Journalists Peter Stanners, Ray Weaver & Christian Wenande

cause the Copenhagen location will be closed for renovations from July 20 until August 15.

While in London, Noma will drop its new Nordic cuisine menu and focus on using local ingredients. A five-course meal while Noma is in London from July 28 to August 6 is expected to cost about 1,800 kroner.

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

Mohammed Al-Jishi

A recent poll taken by Politiken newspaper showed that well-educated young Muslim women in Denmark are reluctant to marry Muslim men.

The majority of the 106 women polled said they found young Muslim men to be “poorly educated and lazy” and that they preferred men on the same edu-

Scanpix/Erik Refner

Colourbox

Smarten up

CORRECTION The correct release date of the film ‘Haywire’ was April 19.

Delayed

A Bahraini court delayed the next hearing in the case of jailed hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja until April 30. Al-Khawaja is striking to have his life sentence connected to the Shiite-led uprising against Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy overturned. Al-Khwaja’s family say that his health is in danger after eleven weeks of

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striking. Bahrain officials insist al-Khawaja faces no immediate medical risks. His daughter, Maryam, told TV2 that doctors predict her father will not survive until the hearing. She called on the EU to step up pressures on the Bahraini government to help her father, who holds Bahraini and Danish citizenship.

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News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

27 April - 3 May 2012

Confessed mass-murderer says that had Norway adopted Danish-style immigration policies, he would not have carried out attacks

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ass-murderer Anders Breivik told an Oslo court last week on Friday that if Norway would have adopted a “Danish level” of cultural and immigration policies, he would never have committed his massacre.

Reports from the trial indicated that Breivik pointed to the outcome of the 2009 elections in Norway as motivation for his attacks, which claimed the lives of 77. He said that if Norwegians had voted in a new government, his attacks in Oslo and on the island of Utøya would not have occurred.

“If there would have been a shift of power and Norway would have adopted a Danish level when it comes to cultural politics and immigration, I would not have undertaken any action at all,” Breivik said in court.

He blamed the 2009 election results on the media, saying that they had not adequately covered immigrant-related violence in France and Sweden, and that the media actively supports the notion of multiculturalism.

“If the media had followed the rules for once, I would not have carried out an attack,” he said.

Scanpix/Stian Lysberg Solum

Justin Cremer

Scanpix/Bax Lindhardt

Terrorist Breivik invokes Denmark’s immigration policies in his defence

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Damage at a police school in Brøndbyøster caused by one of the arson attacks that the men are charged with carrying out

Five Danes charged with terrorism Peter Stanners The first ethnic Danes charged under anti-terror laws are suspected of being behind a string of arson attacks Confessed mass-murderer Anders Breivik said that if Norway was more like Denmark, he wouldn’t have carried out his massacre

This wasn’t the first time Breivik expressed admiration for Denmark’s stringent immigration policies. In the 1,500-page manifesto he released after the attacks, he praised Denmark’s approach in the “ideological war” against Islam as “the only Scandinavian country with some spine left”.

He also pointed to Denmark as being a leader in his perceived battle between Islam and the West.

“My bet is still on Britain, or possibly Denmark, as the first Western country to

face a civil war due to Muslim immigration,” he wrote.

On 22 July 2011, Breivik set off a bomb in Oslo that killed eight before going to the island of Utøya and killing 69 – most of whom were youths attending a summer camp for Norway’s Labour Party.

Breivik’s trial in Oslo is expected to last ten weeks. It will determine Breivik’s sanity and whether he should be sentenced to prison or a psychiatric institution if found guilty. He has admitted to the killings, but denies they were criminal acts.

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ive men have been charged under anti-terrorism laws for planning and participating in arson attacks in the Copenhagen area between 2010 and 2011.

According to a press release from the public prosecutor, Rigsadvokaten, last week on Friday, the men are being charged with attempting to “seriously frighten a population” and “destablisise or destroy a country’s fundamental political, constitutional, economic or societal structures”.

As a result, the Justice Ministry has agreed to the public prosecutor’s de-

mand to charge the five men under the anti-terror paragraph §114.

The five men, between the ages of 21 and 24, are the first ethnic Danes to be charged using the anti-terrorism legislation, the national media reports.

Targets of the attacks included the headquarters of Nestlé, the headquarters of Nordea bank, Rigspolitiet, the Danish domestic intelligence agency (PET), and the Greek Embassy.

The men had also planned to attack the Justice Ministry, Immigration Ministry and parliament, but four of them were caught when they attempted to set fire to the police school in Brøndby using petrol and flares – the fifth was arrested the following May. According to the tabloid B.T., the young men are far-left political extremists whose 23-year-old leader is the son of a policeman.

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Cover story

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

27 April - 3 May 2012

Residents prickled over site of injection room PETER STANNERS

Peter Stanners Location choice causes some of Vesterbro’s local residents to square off against the City Council

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any residents of Vesterbro have lived alongside the local homeless and drug-addict populations for decades.

But for the sake of the drug users’ health – as well as the hope to reduce crime and avoid exposing children to drug culture – many have long demanded that the city provide a room where drug users can inject their drugs under the supervision of healthcare experts.

After more than two decades of appeals, the City Council finally promised last week to invest in a permanent, supervised injection room in Vesterbro that will open in August 2013. With the city stumping up the 13-18 million kroner it is expected to cost, the government is expected to remove the only legal hurdle and legalise the consumption of drugs in the injection room, which will be located in a local community centre called Mændenes Hjem (the men’s home).

Mændenes Hjem has helped marginalised Copenhageners for over 50 years. Situated 300 metres from the central train station, it counts clean needles, food, health check-ups, condoms and beds amongst its services to between 400 and 600 men and women a day.

But on any given day, a crowd of users gathers outside its entrance on Istedgade, a major traffic artery. Many of Mændenes Hjem’s residents take drugs, and the centre serves as a hub for the local drug community. Drug dealing, injecting and smoking all take place in clear view of families, tourists and passers-by – a situation that some argue will only get worse after the house gets an injection room.

Why not Halmtorvet?

MÆNDENES HJEM was one of three permanent locations on the City Council’s final shortlist. The other two were buildings on the square of Halmtorvet, in between the main streets of Vesterbro and the popular clubbing area in the ‘meatpacking district’ called Kødbyen.

The square already houses a café and health clinic for marginalised Copenhageners, collectively called Den Runde Firkant (the round square). Since its opening in 2009 by the grassroots organisation Dugnad, it has successfully drawn much of the drug traffic away from Istedgade and into a walled-off cobblestone square. In fact, the city chose the health clinic as the site of a temporary injection room that will open this October.

According to Lasse Glavind, Vesterbro Local Council’s officer responsible for marginalised groups, it is here that

Jimmy Jensen (left) and Nikita Juul (right) believe Den Runde Firkant is “nothing but positive” for drug users and homeless people

the injection room should be located.

“It’s really great that we will get an injection room because we have been fighting for one for so many years,” Glavind told The Copenhagen Post. “But if the injection room is in Mændenes Hjem, the situation will simply get worse.”

Glavind, who is also on the board of Dugnad, said that the local council chose Halmtorvet as their preferred location for the injection room due to the success and popularity of Den Runde Firkant – success, he argued, that is due to the outdoor space available for drug users.

“We decided on Halmtorvet because we know that having outside areas is very important. There simply is not sufficient space outside Mændenes Hjem. We have taken a lot of the pressure off from outside Mændenes Hjem since we opened Dugnad [the original name of the café].

Some streets nearby were almost reaching a crisis point between drug users and local residents.”

Glavind’s sentiment was echoed by Johanne Nørvig, the chair of Dugnad’s board.

“I think putting the permanent injection room in Mændenes Hjem is really sad,” she told The Copenhagen Post.

“We should create an entirely new project that can include all groups. Mændenes Hjem already has its user group and the injection room will mean the house will have to give up some of its services.”

Local resident Michael Pascual (pictured on cover), who has actively campaigned for an injection room for many years, also expressed his disappointment.

“It happened against all the odds.

[The Council] hasn’t listened to anyone or any of the experiences from the local board, experts and neighbours,” Pascual said. “We have a gift that is Kødbyen, so why not use it? We have plenty of empty

places there. The experts and local board all pointed out that they need outside space where they can be together, just like Dugnad.”

Glavind, Nørvig and Pascual’s assertions are all supported by the findings of a report about Café D and Den Runde Firkant by engineering firm Rambøll.

It found that the outdoor area is a magnet for the local drug-taking community, drawing users and dealers from the streets.

“Café D thereby creates an alternative or supplement to the street,” the report states. “The users benefit enormously in that they can avoid undignified or uncomfortable situations in which residents and especially children bear witness to drug taking.”

Even the City Council acknowledged that Mændenes Hjem’s lack of outdoor space may be a serious drawback.

“The lack of outdoor areas near Mændenes Hjem already produces problems when the users stand outside,” states a document written by the city’s social affairs committee, Socialudvalget, concerning the placement of the injection room.

“There is a considerable worry that the problem will only get worse if the injection room is placed there. So social services do not believe that Mændenes Hjem is suitable, as there is no compensation for outdoor areas.”

Money talks IT SEEMS THAT funding and logistics were the major forces that sunk Halmtorvet. According to Socialudvalget’s deliberations, the city is considering selling both Halmtorvet 15 and 17 to raise money for the renovation of the adjacent ‘white’ meatpacking district, Den Hvide

Kødby. The document states: “The revenue is expected to be reduced by placing [the injection room] at one of the two addresses.”

Other problems identified by Socialudvalget include the fact that Halmtorvet 15 is already being leased out, while Halmtorvet 17 would require expansive renovations in order to become suitable as an injection room. According to the deputy mayor for social affairs, Mikkel Warming, the practical difficulties with the two buildings, combined with the current uncertainty over developments in the area due to the ongoing risk of an ammonium leak in the neighbouring Hvide Kødby, means that the only real solution left is Mændenes Hjem.

“If we chose Halmtorvet for the injection room, we might have to wait two or three years before it is a reality,” Warming said. “We can’t now wait three years for a permanent solution after fighting so long to get to where we are now. [Our] first drug-user room is such a big step forward that we have to get on with it as quickly as possible.”

Warming countered many of the criticisms levelled at Mændenes Hjem.

There are several successful injection rooms around the world that do not have outdoor space, he said, adding that they would try to create a system where users entered one door and left through another. He also added that there could be great benefits from having the injection room in the house due to the presence of other targeted services that could also be offered to users of the injection room.

“I understand the frustration and fears that local residents will face even more annoyance. We can’t ignore the fact that it could be a risk, but we will do everything we can to avoid it,” Warming said.

In a recent interview with Information newspaper, Mændenes Hjem’s manager Ivan Christensen said it was unlikely that adding an injection room would adversely affect the home.

“A large portion of our users are already drug abusers,” Christensen said.

“They take a lot of drugs all the time.

They are addicted. So if we get an injection room we are not creating something that is not here already.”

Copenhagen’s only injection room is a mobile facility, the Mobilt Fixerum, which is housed in a former ambulance.

According to the social entrepreneur who initiated it, Michael Lodberg Olsen, it is vital that a permanent injection room is established sooner rather than later.

“What’s most important is that Copenhagen City Council sets up an injection room to reduce the number of deaths from injecting drugs,” Olsen told The Copenhagen Post. “We’ve been waiting for it for 20 years, so it’s very important they get started.”

The mysteries of politics JIMMY JENSEN and Nikita Juul sit with 30 or 40 others in the secluded square outside Den Runde Firkant. Both injecting drug users, they say this outdoor space is vital for addicts and homeless.

“People thrive out here. They can talk and meet each other, and they also end up getting less involved in crime. There’s almost nothing but positive things to say,” Jensen said, adding that placing the injection room in Mændenes Hjem would be unwise. “It’s not a smart idea.

It will just end up as a mess. It would be best just to build on what we have here.”

Pascual agrees. Café D and Den Runde Firkant share a square with another city-owned property, PH Café, although a wooden fence separates its guests from the rest. PH Café was even on the shortlist for the injection room, but it was vetoed at an early stage in the City Council’s deliberations, much to Pascual’s dismay.

“Look at what we have here! It would be perfect to have the café and health centre on one side and injection room on the other,” Pascual laments as he stands with The Copenhagen Post on the square. “Drug users could have had the whole square but the city would not give up PH Café.”

This is not the end of the story, however. Warming told The Copenhagen Post that, after the summer, the city will re-examine the option of opening an injection room on Halmtorvet, once the risk of an ammonium leak is better understood.

And with the Health Ministry and City Council guaranteeing funding for Den Runde Firkant at least until the end of 2014, Juul and Jensen will still have a place to socialise for some time to come – space that appears to be just as important as the long-awaited injection room itself.

Online this week Rebild abuse case costs three council workers their jobs

Portuguese man held on charges of raping Danish tourist

Gang members sentenced for smuggling hash

Rebild Council cleaned house last week in response to its mishandling of the longterm sexual abuse of nine children in the so-called Rebild case (Rebild-sagen). Two managers – council ombudsman Erik Odder and social manager Søren Kjær – were dismissed, while the head of the council’s centre for

Police in Portugal have detained a man in connection with the rape of a 24-year-old Danish woman earlier last week, reports Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã. The woman was found on Monday evening near a petrol station in the town of Alto da Serra, trying to attract the attention of passers-by. The victim

Two members of the Hells Angels, a former member of the club, and one other individual were sentenced to prison for their confessed roles in smuggling 3.6 tonnes of hash. The trial of the four individuals was cut short after they all confessed to posses-

families and the handicapped, Jette Christensen, resigned with immediate effect. The firings were heavily criticised by trade union DJØF, which said that the three employees had been made scapegoats by the council.

Rebild’s mayor, Anny Winther (Venstre), however, defended the decision.

said she had been attacked by a lorry driver who picked her up as she tried to hitchhike to Lisbon.

She was able to give the police information, including the lorry’s licence plate and the spanner used by the attacker, which led the police to later detaining the 30-year-old, married suspect in connection with the attack.

sion and transportation of a little under a tonne of hash each. The police’s gang unit, Task Force East, suspects that due to the sheer quantity of the drugs, they were bound for Christiania. The prison sentences ranged from three and a half to five years.

Read the full stories at cphpost.dk

NEWS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

27 April - 3 May 2012

Soldiers’ union is critical of the decision not to close the Armadillo base earlier despite British recommendations

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HE FORMER defence minister, Søren Gade (Venstre), has come under fire in connection with the delayed closing of a Danish military base in Afghanistan.

For nearly a year and a half following the British military’s recommendation to close the post, around 150 Danish soldiers remained stationed at the Armadillo base, located in the dangerous and isolated Helmand province of Afghanistan. In early 2009, the British high command indicated that the base had exhausted its tactical usefulness in the battle against the Taleban, and recommended that it be closed.

Despite this, Gade decided against closing the base and waited until the autumn of 2010 before leaving the post. During that time, five Danish soldiers were killed and 69 were injured in the area, leading many to question the reasons for the base’s delayed closure.

Gade and his then chief-of-defence, Admiral Tim Sloth Jørgensen, cited ‘national interests’ in their decision to keep the base open. They indicated that it would be wrong to disassemble the base because it would damage the public sentiment towards the war effort in Afghanistan, an explanation that the chairman of the military union Hærens Konstabel og Korporalforening, Flemming Vinther, disagreed with.

“I fully comprehend the fact that there can be emotions tied to captured land, but one cannot wage war based on feelings,” Vinther told Politiken. “In

SCANPIX/SØREN BIDSTRUP

CHRISTIAN WENANDE

modern warfare, the condition of the professional soldiers also includes seizing a tactical area only to abandon it shortly thereafter, and if the Armadillo base had been evacuated earlier, personnel losses wouldn’t have occurred there.”

Sloth Jørgensen had earlier suggested that, although the military did provide some input, it was primarily a political decision to keep the Armadillo base running. But Sloth Jørgensen relented and concurred with Gade, who says the military made the decision.

PETER STANNERS The UN says civilian observers are essential for supervising Syria’s military de-escalation

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Armadillo remained open for a year and a half after it was suggested that it should close; during that time, five Danish soldiers died

It’s a waste of life that five soldiers died at the Armadillo base

Denmark sends observers to Syria

“I followed the recommendations of Tim Sloth Jørgensen; it was a military decision,” Gade told Politiken. “It was not my responsibility to close a military base. Ministers don’t close army bases – generals do. There are written minutes from the meeting that support my argument.”

While the various parties battle over who is to blame, the chairman of the war veterans’ union Krigsveteraner og Pårørende, Søren Johansen, was highly critical of the former regime and said he hoped the families of the five soldiers killed sue the state.

“It’s a waste of life that five soldiers died at the Armadillo base,” Johansen told Politiken. “And the 69 that were wounded would likely not have been had the government closed the base as the British recommended.”

Denmark still has approximately 650 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

ANISH observers will be deployed to Syria this week as part of a United Nations plan to maintain a tenuous ceasefire between the Syrian army and anti-government fighters.

Last week on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that ten of the 30 unarmed observers being sent to Syria will be Danish, with another ten to be drafted if necessary. There are currently six UN observers in Syria, although UN secretary general Ban Kimoon stated yesterday that 300 would be needed to adequately supervise the Syrian forces and ensure that they are abiding by the plan.

The foreign minister, Villy Søvndal (Socialistisk Folkeparti), said in a press release that the move to send observers dovetailed with the Danish position of increasing pressure on the Syrian regime.

“When the UN asked Denmark to contribute to the observer mission, we agreed without hesitation,” Søvndal said. “With our contribution, we are sending a clear message to [UN and Arab League peace envoy to Syria, Kofi] Annan that we stand behind his efforts to find a political and peaceful solution to the unfortunate situation in Syria.”

The defence minister, Nick Hækkerup (Socialdemokraterne), also stated that the observers are vital for monitoring the UN’s ceasefire demands.

“The goal of the mission is, first and

Prospective donor countries are likely to be hesitant about diverting more funds into Afghanistan, expert warns

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ECEMBER 31, 2014 is the date that all foreign military personnel will have left Afghanistan.

Going forward, the Afghan security forces, ANSF, will be on their own in defending their embattled country from the Taleban.

Denmark’s foreign minister, Villy Søvndal, is heading a new initiative, dubbed the 3-C (Coalition of Committed Contributors), that will help stabilise Afghanistan after the withdrawal of coalition troops.

Søvndal has sent a proposal to 87 countries appealing for financial contributions to help Afghans foot the bill for a national security force that is expected to exceed 355,000 men by 2015. Søvndal announced last December that Denmark would continue to provide Afghanistan with financial support following the 2014 withdrawal of NATO forces.

“We owe the Afghans as good a transition as possible, and that is why

I have proposed this 3-C initiative,” Søvndal told Politiken. “I believe that the best thing the international community can give the Afghan people is a specific and firm promise that we will be there for them after 2014.”

Currently, 23 countries, including Denmark, have signed the initiative, which is expected to raise 23 billion kroner annually to help support the massive resource allocation needed to address Afghan security concerns.

Despite the good intentions, however, there are a few parameters of the deal that have yet to be negotiated, such as the amounts to be donated by each country. It is expected that the terms will be determined during the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago in May and a donor conference in Tokyo in July.

Tomas Valasek, the director of foreign policy and defence at the Centre for European Reform, said that countries that have already signed the initiative may be a little less forthcoming during these negotiations, as many governments are struggling with a financial recession and the general feeling that they have provided enough to the struggle in Afghanistan.

“Many will probably give political promises, but actually getting mon-

ey on the table will be like trying to squeeze blood from a stone,” Valasek told Politiken. “That’s because many governments are looking forward to not spending any more money in Afghanistan. And the security forces are only one component – what we really need is a stable government. We don’t have that now, and we won’t have that in 2014, either.”

Yet the fact that so many countries have agreed to the initiative is a good sign, according to Søvndal.

“Now the countries have said that they want to be a part of this. We haven’t agreed on an amount yet, but that will come in round two,” Søvndal told Politiken. “I hope that many nations will join the initiative, and I am pleased that so many have already pledged their support.”

The initiative also states that Afghanistan will donate three billion out of the 23 billion kroner being given to the project.

The countries that have signed the initiative are: Denmark, the USA, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Croatia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Hungary, Portugal, Italy, Australia, South Korea and Albania.

There are currently only six civilian observers in Syria, but the UN wants 300

foremost, to be observers and confirm the reports of violence,” Hækkerup said. “We want the Syrian government to keep its promise of a ceasefire.”

The UN estimates that over 9,000 people have died and approximately 230,000 have been displaced as a result of the conflict in Syria, which started after a crackdown by President Assad alBashar on anti-government protestors.

The observers form part of Annan’s six-point peace plan that calls on the Syrian government to end fighting and pull troops out of civilian-populated areas.

Last week on Thursday, the UN and the Syrian government agreed to the terms of the observer mission in Damascus that, according to a UN statement, “is vital if the lives of ordinary Syrian families are to slowly return to normal”.

But with continuing reports of violence across the country, many, including Ki-moon, remain convinced that Syria has not done enough to end the violence in the country.

“Despite assurances from the government, there has been no meaningful progress on the ground,” Ki-moon told journalists in New York last week. “This is unacceptable.”

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News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

27 April - 3 May 2012

McDonald’s One person, seven different caseworkers raids lead to

Scanpix/Bax Lindhardt

6

Politicians eye changes as woman with seven different council caseworkers sparks debate on welfare reform

D City looking to help fall victim Ray Weaver Everyone says they want to help 14-year-old girl paralysed in fall, but no-one is quite sure how

F

rida Jersø – the 14year-old girl who was paralysed from the waist down after a fall from Dronning Louise’s Bridge in Nørrebro – may receive compensation from the city. Copenhagen Police released a report that absolves both the city and the two girls involved of any fault in the accident, which occurred in January when a rusty railing gave way and the girls plunged four metres onto the asphalt bike path below.

The deputy mayor for technical and environmental affairs, Ayfer Baykal (Socialistisk Folkeparti), said that the ruling clears the way for the girls to receive help from the city, although she declined to say when that may happen.

“It is a very sad case that we must resolve as soon as possible, but I cannot promise when that will be,” Baykal told radio station P4 København.

Baykal also said that, although there is broad support at City Hall to compensate the girl and her family, everything is on hold until lawyers decide

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how a payment would work can be reached is that there was by law. The city has not been something wrong with the railfound liable of wrongdoing, so ing,” Jensen told P4 København.

Baykal said that she has init is under no legal obligation to provide compensation. Baykal is structed city attorneys to meet not even sure if the family is al- with the Jersø family lawyer soon, although she stressed that there is lowed to receive any money.

“The correct legal ground- no date on when any compensawork needs to be in place,” she tion might be paid out.

Copenhagen’s mayor, Frank said. “We don’t want the state to take the money back because it Jensen (Socialdemokraterne), has made it clear that he wants was paid out illegally.”

The girl’s father, Tom Jersø, this case resolved quickly.

“As mayor, I simsaid the family has ply do not accept that waited long enough a 14-year-old girl and for the city to make her family should amends for the achave to wait so long,” cident. The incident It is their Jensen told Ekstra occurred when Frida Bladet. “I appeal to and her 14-year-old rail, and everyone involved to friend, Felicity, were they knew it resolve this matter.” leaning on the rail A report on the when it suddenly was poorly city’s web site said that gave way. Frida bemaintained the consulting engicame paralysed in neering firm COWI the fall and Felicity suffered a number of serious in- had recommended that the juries, including a concussion. bridge’s railing be replaced in Jersø has said from the begin- 2016. That report was commissioned after a 2010 report done ning that the city was at fault.

“They should have taken re- by another company, which recsponsibility immediately,” Jersø ommended that the bridge be told the tabloid Ekstra Bladet. repaired no later than 2012. The “It is their rail, and they knew it web site also said that the public works department makes regular was poorly maintained.”

Søren Jensen, the family’s le- inspections of the city’s many gal counsel, said he thinks it is bridges and that Dronning Loutime for the city to reach out to ise’s Bridge had been inspected just three weeks before the accithe paralysed youngster.

“The only conclusion that dent occurred.

Colourbox

The two 14-year-old girls fell from this railing on Dronning Louise’s Bridge; one was paralysed

orte Paterson currently has to see seven different council employees for her needs, and soon it will be eight.

One helps her with her social security; there’s another for her housing benefits; a third for family issues; number four is a support person; the fifth is an employment caseworker; the sixth is at the job centre; and the seventh helps treat her alcoholism. Soon, she will get her eighth – a job consultant.

Paterson, a 49-year-old unemployed recovering alcoholic living in Aalborg, said that she was completely bewildered when trying to contact someone at the council, and became stressed because she could only call between 9 and 10am.

“I sat there with a massive stack of papers, staring at all the names of the different caseworkers and contact people – their numbers, opening hours, addresses – and I didn’t know whether to call the firsrt, the second or the seventh,” Paterson said. “Now, when I get through, the worker is often busy or not available. It’s madness having to contact seven different people.”

One of Paterson’s caseworkers, Marianne Særmark, agreed that it’s a massive problem when one person has so many case-

workers and contact persons to deal with. And Paterson’s case is not unique.

“It is frustrating for all the people on social security that are in the system,” Særmark said.

“The process really needs to be changed. I don’t know if we can get down to one or two contact persons, but seven is simply outrageous.”

Ole Pass, the social manager at Rødovre Council, agreed that things should be made simpler, and said that the politicians must step in to make the necessary changes.

“We need help in the form of new resolutions from parliament, because it’s the politicians who have divided up the social arena into compartments, like separating the job centres from the social centres,” Pass said. “The challenge will be to make it easier for the citizen without jeopardising the expertise required to assist in solving problems.”

There are currently 130,000 Danes on social security, costing the state 15 billion kroner. The government seems poised to address the dilemma and has announced that it will make a proposal in the near future to reform the social security sphere.

“A lot of resources – financial as well as human – are being wasted,” said employment minister, Mette Frederiksen (Socialdemokraterne). “That’s why the government’s goal with the upcoming reforms is to place the person before the system.” (J-P)

“OK, next go down the hall and talk to Mette, then go see Ole, then Jens, then Stine, for Lars you’ll have to come back next week ...”

mass arrests McDonald’s suspends contracts with cleaning firms after 30 illegal cleaning staff were arrested in a night-time raid

P

olice raids last week at McDonald’s restaurants on the islands of Zealand, Lolland and Falster resulted in charges against 15 illegal immigrants.

The raids were carried out as part of an ongoing investigation into the use of illegal cleaning staff. Thirty individuals – the majority of whom were illegal workers not holding Danish passports – were arrested during the raids, and half of them have now been charged for illegally living and working in Denmark. Five have been charged with possession of false identification.

Last week on Wednesday, McDonald’s, together with its franchise owners, chose to suspend contracts with two Copenhagen-based cleaning companies.

“In agreement with our franchise owners, we decided to immediately suspend our cooperation with the two cleaning firms,” Sara Helweg-Larsen from McDonald’s Denmark told Fredriksborg Amts Avis. “This is because we have a very clear policy – and we set the same high demands on our suppliers when they hire their staff as we do with our own.”

Helweg-Larsen explained that the cleaning companies were hired by the individual franchise operators, and not the company itself.

The raid was co-ordinated by several police departments, including North Zealand Police, Middle and West Zealand Police, South Zealand and LollandFalster Police, Copenhagen Vestegn Police, as well as Swedish police forces. The illegal workers came from Ghana, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A 44-year-old ringleader was also arrested separately at an address in north Zealand. (PS)

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The sailors argued that sex with their accuser was consensual

A

court in Nuuk on Tuesday found two Navy seamen guilty of raping a Greenlandic woman last July.

The two men were sentenced to six months in jail for raping the 30-year-old divorced mother during their shore leave from the royal yacht ‘Dannebrog’ when it docked in the Greenlandic capital.

During the hearing, the two defendants denied raping the woman, but admitted to having consensual sex with her.

a 23-year-old witness, who was also serving aboard the ‘Dannebrog’ at the time. The witness testified that the three went to a bar in the city on their night off.

“There, the others were dancing and, at one point, this Greenlandic woman began to crawl around the floor, and she started licking the crotch of one of the defendants. He didn’t like it and stopped her. She seemed to take the hint and stopped her advances, but they started dancing again,” the defendant told the court, according to Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq.

The man said he did not drink that evening, and that after the bar closed, he returned

He reported seeing the accused and the woman together by the harbour and said, “There was no sign that the woman was forced by the men to accompany them.”

After leaving the bar, the two men and the woman tried to check into a hotel. When they were told there were no vacancies, they went behind a nearby building, where they had intercourse.

According to the woman, the men forced her behind the building.

Upon returning to the ship, the men reportedly boasted about having sex with the woman.

The identities of the two men have not been revealed, but the tabloid Ekstra Bladet reports that they are both 24 years old.

in court on Tuesday when the guilty verdict was handed down, but their counsel filed for an immediate appeal. In addition to their jail time, the two men will also be required to pay 70,000 kroner in compensation.

Aviaja Helms, the men’s defence counsel, called the woman’s allegation of rape “untrustworthy”.

“The woman’s friend has testified in the court that the woman decided to have sex with them, and that she helped the men try to get a condom. She had flirted, kissed and held hands with the men and had tried to obtain a condom with them; it had been clear that they would have intercourse with each other.”

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OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

Second-best location, but still a good first move

27 April - 3 May 2012

Britain’s fetish for Denmark, explained

I

T’S EASY to understand if the decision to place Copenhagen’s first injection room in what many consider the secondbest location comes as a disappointment to Vesterbro residents. Less than a kilometre away from its planned location, disused city-owned property already functions as an ersatz injection room for the addicts who frequent the health clinic located there. It would seem only too simple and logical to end the city’s 20-year wait for an injection room by upgrading the facilities in Kødbyen to a full-blown clinic where addicts can legally inject heroin in a safe, clean environment while under the watchful eye of health professionals.

For those living near Vesterbro’s notorious main thoroughfare, Istedgade, not wanting an injection room in their area is more than just a case of NIMBY. The city’s red light district, Istedgade, has long been plagued by IV drug users, and the area around the building chosen to house the injection room is already a hangout for many of the city’s down-and-out residents.

Adding a steady stream of IV drug users would only make it less attractive for residents.

Given Istedgade’s reputation, it’s impossible that anyone moving there could have been unaware of its drug problems, but neither should have it surprised the city that residents – most of them with good jobs, and many with children – would bristle at the prospect of bringing more drug addicts into their midst.

Even though we favour Kødbyen as the location for the injection room, there are still good reasons why Mændenes Hjem is a good choice too.

Firstly, as the organisation’s leader points out, placing it in Mændenes Hjem allows addicts to have a single point of access for multiple social services.

Secondly, there’s nothing to say that the injection room needs to remain in Mændenes Hjem permanently. If an initial trial period shows that the facility’s placement is causing trouble, the City Council could reconsider a Kødbyen location or even another address entirely.

Lastly, Copenhagen has one of the world’s highest rates of overdose-related deaths, and if continuing to lobby for the best placement would mean further delays – or the possibility of no injection room at all – then second-best, in this case, isn’t just the best option, it’s the only option.

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

KIERAN CONNELL

W

E BRITS have developed something of an obsession with Denmark. The start, perhaps, was the broadcasting of season one of ‘The Killing’, which was first shown on the BBC in January last year.

The series was a huge (and a surprise) success: despite not being shown on either of the BBC’s flagship channels, it averaged 500,000 viewers an episode – higher than the US drama ‘Mad Men’ when it premiered on the same network. By the time the second series was broadcast, in November 2011, ‘The Killing’ was regularly attracting more than a million viewers.

Television programmes like ‘The Killing’ and, more recently, ‘Borgen’ – the political thriller that has provided the BBC with another huge ratings success – may have been what first caught our attention; but our focus on Denmark quickly moved far beyond an appreciation for highquality television dramas.

Soon after ‘The Killing’ was first shown on television, for example, The Guardian ran a feature under the headline ‘Dan-

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near, but appears culturally far away, and is not tarnished with any of the deep-rooted, negative stereotypes that the British commonly reserve for the Germans or the French. Because of this, it is easy for the British to paint an imaginary picture of what life in Denmark is like, often based not on personal experience but rather on the images of Denmark seen in fictional television dramas.

In ‘The Killing’, for example, if Sarah Lund’s jumpers were not to your tastes, one reviewer pointed out you could always marvel at the “cool apartments and beautiful streets” of Copenhagen. During ‘Borgen’, rather than thinking about David Cameron and the British government, you could instead drool, as one Guardian reviewer did, over the “ambitious, brilliant, confident [and] beautiful” Birgitte Nyborg, the fictional Danish Prime minister who has “a lovely home life, a sexy fella” and “rides a bicycle not because of a photo call, but because she rides a bicycle”.

Indeed, there is a political dimension to the growing attention Denmark is receiving in Britain. Following the election of a right-wing coalition in May 2010, there has been widespread disillusionment amongst those on the left about the chances of a left-of-centre, social democratic government being elected during times of austerity. The election of Helle Thorning-Schmidt in October last year – who bares more than a passing resemblance to Nyborg and who, the British press regularly point out, is the daughter-in-law of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock – seemed to show that it could be done.

Thorning-Schmidt’s election demonstrated to us Brits,

whether accurately or not, that Denmark’s fabled welfare state – which, it is regularly pointed out, includes state-funded higher education for all, a generous pension scheme and even ‘maternity hotels’ for mothers and babies – is all happily funded by the taxpayer. In the context of the perceived failure of the ‘New Labour’ project in Britain, and the ongoing struggles of Ed Miliband, the current Labour leader, it all seems a million miles away.

As well as providing cultural intrigue, then, Denmark also offers a beacon of political hope for those on the left in Britain.

The point of a fetish is that the projection of an idealised conception of something else provides a way of hiding away from one’s own insecurities. It is no coincidence that the newspaper that has focused on Denmark the most over the last 18 months has been The Guardian, a leftleaning paper that came out in support of the Liberal Democrats before the 2010 general election, only to see them form one of the most right-wing governments in recent memory.

For many in Britain, then, Denmark – whether represented in ‘The Killing’, ‘Borgen’ or the latest newspaper article – offers glimpses of what an alternative future might look like. As one columnist (in The Guardian, where else?) put it – only, you sense, half jokingly – “Denmark is obviously a better place; let’s all move there.” Denmark had better watch out – we Brits are on our way.

The author is a UK-based journalist who has written for the Independent, the Huffington Post and the Guardian. Follow him on Twitter @KConnellWriter.

READER COMMENTS

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

twitter.com/cphpost

mark – hvor det sker’ in which commentators listed the various things that made Denmark ‘the place to be’. This included a flourishing film scene, the “New Nordic culinary movement” fronted by the “deeply photogenic” Danish chef René Redzepi, the “functional, well-crafted, minimalist glory” of Danish design, and the brilliance of Danish fashion, symbolised by the kinds of knitwear sported by Sarah Lund of ‘The Killing’.

Then, later that year, the same paper ran a glossy-magazine feature that encouraged readers to move to the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, a place that has the same “cool” that Danes apparently “exude from their pores”.

When earlier this month The Guardian ran yet another feature on Denmark, this time by a British expat on the “blissful” nature of life in Copenhagen, a columnist on these pages wondered if the paper was “in cahoots with [the] tourism organisation Visit Copenhagen”.

At times, the focus on Denmark in Britain has almost bordered on fetishism. So what explains it? Part of the answer is cultural and specifically the fact that the key cultural influences on the UK have historically tended to emanate from the US. Since the 1960s, US cultural imports have saturated the British marketplace, meaning that although American television dramas such as ‘24’ and ‘Homeland’ are highly popular – just like Hollywood blockbuster movies – they do not now provoke the same fascination with the US as they once did, primarily because the US has become so familiar to British audiences.

Denmark, by contrast, is almost exotic. It is geographically

Government promises reforms to attract skilled foreign workers

talks companies into taking foreigners.

Shufflemoomin By website

This whole ‘how to attract foreign workers’ discussion has been going on in one form or another for years. What no-one is willing to step up to, or even discuss, are two very important issues.

What about a job for the spouse, and what about an international school for the non-Danish children?

Tom By website

Frederiksberg Council to wake up school children

What about those of us ‘highlyskilled foreigners’ who are already here and can’t find work? How about getting us out back in the ‘Dansk Arbejdsmarked’ again and putting our knowledge to use?

Kimberly Lauridsen By Facebook Good luck with that. I’m a software developer with 12 years of experience and no one’s interested. I only managed to get a job because my girlfriend knew the owner of the company and I was willing to work for just 150kr an hour. If neither of those things had been in place, I’d never have got a job. I’d love to see how she

I wonder how many times the local council had to wakeup a young Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller to get him to school. Denmark is a lost cause.

SNCO By website Don’t these kids have something called parents?

Jeff Smulyan

By Facebook Obviously not all of them are model parents, Jeff. In the meantime, the children need schooling so this has been introduced.

Abby Crispin

By Facebook Sad that it is necessary, when millions in the world would give anything for the opportunity to have an education. Perhaps they should consider fining/charging the parents for this service via child benefit deductions?

Becca Shaw Frandsen

By Facebook

Racist trash talk lands politician in hot water I am watching as the number of ‘good Danes’ (meaning those who stand up to idiocy, ignorance, racism, nationalism and hatred in government) rises. Lars Nexø: a real Danish patriot. He actually cares enough to speak up. Hats off to you, Lars!

SocraticDK By website Lars Nexø is not a patriot, he is a whiny little pansy. I don’t support the picture or comments made

by Tina Petersen, but we do have something in the West called freedom of speech, and if you think people shouldn’t be able to express their opinions, then I suggest you move to China or something.

Samhain1967 By website We also have the right to be offended and to call people out on their lack of taste, which people are doing now.

HeidiakaMissJibba By website Teachers spend only one fifth of their time teaching If you reverse it – more teach-

ing and less prep/grading – then it means that teachers will either have to assess students during every lesson (which isn’t as much as a part of Danish teaching culture as the UK), or stop giving as many assignments that need to be graded by the teacher. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of peermarking or self-assessment, but teachers really do need that many hours to plan lessons and assess students’ work. There is a culture of ‘Death by Meeting’; maybe that’s where the savings of time could be made instead.

Kel D By website And politicians probably spend less than one fifth of their time voting in the Folketing ... is the rest of their work less important?

Allium_Sativum By website Teaching 19% Holidays 13% Preparation 25% Grading 14% Exam activity 6% Breaks 4% Other activity 17% Age-related reduction in hours 2% George_Moon By website

OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

27 April - 3 May 2012

9

‘The Lynch Report’

BY STUART LYNCH English-Australian theatre director Stuart Lynch has lived in Copenhagen since Clinton impeached his cigars and writes from the heart of the Danish and international theatre scene. He is married with kids and lives in Nørrebro. Visit his Danish theatre at www.lynchcompany.dk.

Dreyer’s artistic perseverance CÆCILIE PARFELT VENGBERG / WWW.VINDFANG.BLOGSPOT.COM

A

WEEK AGO I sat in the manager’s office of the Dagmar Cinema in Copenhagen. I was giving the last performance notes before the premiere of a show for the CPH:PIX film festival. There were three actors in the meeting: Charlotte Munck of ‘Anna Pihl’ fame, Bo Madvig from the dance world, and the 76-year-old veteran actor Baard Owe. What made the meeting poignant was not the actors, the notes or the premiere, but the fact that 47 years previously Owe had sat in that very same office to audition for the brilliant Danish film director Carl Theodor Dreyer.

I love Dreyer’s work. Artistically his films are hypnotic, visually stunning and steeped in a dense psychological expression.

His visual style is unmatched, as is his creation of politically profound female characters. On a more personal level, watching his films allowed me to understand better what this ‘creature’ Denmark is.

Dreyer was born in Copenhagen, the illegitimate son of a Swedish housekeeper. Adopted by a family named Dreyer, he grew up in Denmark, and worked as a journalist, scriptwriter and film director for Nordisk Film. By 1930 he was considered the greatest living Danish film director. His best loved films are ‘The Passion of

Joan of Arc’ (1928), ‘Vampire’ (1932), ‘Day of Wrath’ (1948), ‘The Word’ (1955) and ‘Gertrude’ (1968). In Toronto in 2010, Dreyer’s ‘Joan of Arc’ was ranked the most influential film of all time.

There are few film directors where each frame can be taken out of the context of the film and still work visually as an image in its own right. Russia’s An-

While watching ‘The Passion drei Tarkovsky and Japan’s Akira of Joan of Arc’ it is easy Kurosawa have come to forget it was made close, but it is only with in 1928. The angles, Dreyer where it is a defbeautiful compositions inite. The intensity of realistic acting style his preparation, and his I am not of and make it closer in family commitment to achieving a visual parallel to interest, but to the films of the late 1950s or 60s. It put the film’s narrative, create each second as full my films are Dreyer on the international map, and was and complete with all a seminal work for the film inextraneous details cut away.

dustry in general. Lars von Trier references Dreyer as an essential influence on his own work. This 1928 epic pushed the boundaries of film, art and politics.

The manner in which he portrays the female leads within his films represents a significant commitment to women. The female leads are strong, firm and resolute in the face of torture, male dominance or societal mistreatment. His mother died from ingesting the sulphur from the tips of matches in an attempt to achieve an abortion - a common method in the late 19th century. Dreyer pushes us to understand the lot of the woman: their pain and injustice, and in turn all injustice. It is no surprise to me that this commitment to a female point of view is Scandinavian in origin.

Dreyer was once asked by the Danish documentarist Jørgen Roos if he could be the subject of a documentary. He replied at first humbly, but shifted within a sentence to a quiet passion: “But why make a film about me – I am not of interest, but my films are.” This statement made an impact on me. Despite the quiet comfort of the Danish feel-good ‘hygge’ phenomenon, there lies within a determination that begins to make sense of the fact that this country of a little over five million people has a huge impact on the world as a whole.

Strongly present in film, art and design and international politics: the Danes.

Dreyer was known as being quiet, hard working and unstoppable. In discovering Dreyer, I also discovered the same quality in a lot of my Danish friends. I had long before understood that Denmark was tribal in nature (see the anthropologist Dennis Nørmark and historian KJV Jespersen), but Dreyer made me understand why there are so many Danes and Scandinavians in the UN. Surely we have all experienced the Scandinavians’ immovable patience and sometimes insufferable love for meetings.

Dreyer is a lesson in artistic perseverance, and perseverance in general. He never stopped working on his art despite great setbacks. His huge success with ‘Joan of Arc’ was followed quickly by the equally huge failure of his next film ‘Vampire’. The film was not critically well received, and the production process was so difficult that Dreyer had a nervous breakdown. Ironically he recovered in France in a mental institution called the ‘Clinic of Joan of Arc’.

If you want to discover Dreyer, I recommend starting with ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’, followed by ‘Day of Wrath’.

If you are still on board after this – welcome to my world.

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

27 April - 3 May 2012

New smoking law attacked from both sides SCANPIX/NILS MEILVANG

JYLLANDS-POSTEN While the opposition argues the government’s new smoking law is far too strict, anti-smoking charities say it does not go far enough

F

ARMERS will still be allowed to light up while driving their tractor, and crane operators will continue to puff away as they move construction material from a great height.

But following the government’s new smoking law that was agreed on last Saturday with support from Enhedslisten, many will find their right to smoke has been taken away from them – and completely unnecessarily, argues opposition party Venstre (V).

“We think that the current smoking laws are perfectly adequate and that there are far more important things to debate,” V’s health spokesperson, Sophie Løhde, said. “Citizens can think for themselves and don’t need detailed manuals from the government.”

The new law will ban smoking in education institutions for children and youths as well as in single-person offices, though there will be exceptions for company cars, trucks and cranes as long as there is only one person present in the vehicle at the time.

Dansk Folkeparti (DF) were also vocal critics of the new smoking law, arguing that the ban on smoking in single-person offices is over-protective, while schools are already good at introducing their own anti-smoking policies.

“I actually think that the new smoking law will mean more people will

The new laws will completely ban smoking at education institutions and will increase fines, among other things

become exposed to tobacco smoke as everyone files outside to smoke by the entrances to buildings,” said Henrik Thulesen Dahl (DF). “They become more visible and so may also inspire more people to smoke.”

The health minister, Astrid Krag (Socialistisk Folkeparti), dismissed Dahl’s criticisms.

“Our deal focused on ensuring that children and youths are not exposed to the damaging effects of smoking,” Krag said. “We have a duty to help young

people make a healthy choice, and if we can keep them from starting to smoke, then we have made an important step towards a healthier Denmark.”

Over at the national cancer society, Kræftens Bekæmpelse, there is disappointment that the smoking laws do not go far enough.

“We have sadly seen that the number of young smokers has not dropped in recent years,” Kræftens Bekæmpelse’s CEO, Leif Vesterfaarg Pedersen, said.

He added, however, that the ban on

smoking at educational institutions for children and youths would help.

“But we are disappointed that smoke won’t be completely removed.

While it’s good that smoking will be banned in single-person offices, smoking rooms and cabins will still be allowed. We know that smoking cabins cannot completely remove tobacco’s dangerous chemicals effectively. Smoking cabins mean that many people will be involuntarily exposed to tobacco smoke at work.”

Snuffed out: New smoking laws • Total ban on smoking at education institutions for children and youths, such as daycare institutions, primary and middle schools, and high schools.

• Total ban on smoking in singleperson offices.

• Increased fines for breaking the smoking law and for selling tobacco to youths under 18. In both cases a first offence will cost 5,000 kroner, a second 10,000 kroner, and a third 20,000 kroner.

• Increased support for people wanting to quit, including 1.5 million kroner for the marketing of the helpline, Stoplinien.

Exceptions: • Work vehicles that are only operated by one person at a time – such as tractors, cranes and trucks – are exempt from the ban on smoking in single-person offices.

• Youths may smoke outdoors on the premises of educational institutions that can be considered their home, such as boarding schools, where they are also entitled to smoke indoors in smoking rooms as well as their private rooms.

• Staff are permitted to smoke in their private homes on the premises of educational institutions so long as students are not present.

After gay bar kicks out straight couple, debate over who is allowed

I

T’S FRIDAY night, and 21-year-old Danielle Young has just left the nightclub Never Mind – a gay club in central Copenhagen known for its partying.

She’s straight, but says places like Never Mind appeal to her.

“I can be left alone without anyone feeling me up or trying to make a pass.

It’s also easier to let your hair down, because there’s always someone who’s crazier than me,” she said.

Inside, the entire club is moving.

Some nights the party continues until 10am, and attracts so many heterosexuals that the homosexuals find themselves outnumbered, which happened at one point on this particular night. Last weekend, the frustration culminated when a straight couple were thrown out by se-

curity for kissing, with the message that such behaviour was “frowned upon”.

“I know that we need equal rights, but this is a gay bar,” said the club’s owner, Christian Carlsen. “We obviously have a lot of guests who aren’t homosexuals, and that’s fine as long as they understand that this is a gay bar. The gays can’t go to so many other places to meet each other. See, for instance, what would happen if two men walk into Pub & Sport and start making out. That’s why I really can’t see the big problem in this.”

The case of the straight kissing couple has caused a hefty debate about whether it is a double standard to demand equal rights while gay bars retain the right to remain primarily for homosexuals. When Carlsen took over the bar three years ago, only three out of ten guests were homosexuals. The same situation occurred at another well-attended gay bar in Copenhagen, Cosy Bar, until

COLOURBOX

Gays argue that if too many heterosexuals come to their clubs, they won’t have a place of their own

Should gay clubs be exclusively for gays?

the owner changed the music style and started sorting people at the door. Today, Cosy Bar’s owner says half the guests are homosexuals, though he would like to see 65 percent homosexuals.

“People think Denmark is so open towards homosexuals, but try walking

down the main shopping street holding your boyfriend’s hand. People spit and yell at you. It’s happened to me,” said Jimmy, a guest at Never Mind.

On the website homotropolis.com, ‘Christian’ said: “I think it’s fantastic that you can bring your friends – which

See what would happen if two men walk into Pub & Sport and start making out for many gay men means girlfriends – to the club, but f**k it’s annoying that every gay has to bring at least four girlfriends, who are all dedicated to showing how unprejudiced they are. Then it gets really boring when the girls’ dates show up because then it’s a complete straight-house, and all of a sudden, we’re annoyed in our own place.”

“Let’s take back the gay bars and impose a quota of one fag hag per gay,” he added, using the term often applied to straight women who are friends of homosexual men. (J-P)

ONLINE THIS WEEK The terror tapes: “Anyone in front of you, they die”

Rise in burglaries blamed on foreigners

“More Europe, not less Europe”

AS THE TRIAL of the four men charged with terrorism and illegal weapons possession in connection with an attempted terrorist attack in 2010 continues at Glostrup Municipal Court, one of the accused men admitted that a voice heard on tapes secretly recorded by the Swedish security service, SÄPO, is indeed

BURGLARY convictions in much of Jutland have risen by as much as 212 percent over the past three years, according to police statistics that were released on Tuesday. According to Jens Henrik Højberg, the head of Denmark’s national police Rigspolitiet, travelling criminals from eastern Europe

THE EU should not take the blame for the economic crisis in the individual member states.

That was one of the main points of Monday’s meeting between the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and Prime Minister Helle

his own. Sahbi Zalouti admitted he could be heard speaking, but claimed not to recall having the conversations that were played to the court, saying they only amounted to “idle chatter”.

“A newspaper has many rooms; you must bring many people with you,” Zalouti can be heard saying. “Kill everybody.”

are responsible for much of the rise. But Højberg admits that the statistics do not specify what portion are foreigners who travelled to Denmark with the express purpose of committing crime, adding that anecdotal evidence suggests there are a large number of foreign criminals operating in Denmark.

Thorning-Schmidt on the future of the EU at the University of Copenhagen. Both leaders argued that countries can’t get out of the crisis alone, and that EU member states need to stick together and have clear and concrete initiatives.

READ THE FULL STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK

COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

27 April - 3 May 2012

11

It’s time to move over Paddy, this patron saint slays dragons CLIVE THAIN WORDS BY BEN HAMILTON

Monday was St George’s Day and the place to be was St Nikolai Restaurant and Pub on Nikolajgade in the city centre where firstly a dragon was slain, and then afterwards multiple servings of traditional English cask ale and cider. Pictured here are John and Catherine – Californians no less but still Somewhere near Strøget, a dragon has snatched a damsel King Arthur (err, stay with us folks) is not amused enjoying the proceedings.

“Save me, save me, Georgie boy”

Moving in for the kill

The dragon’s getaway vehicle was a red English icon

Pub landlord Martin Popplewell draws the winning email address (bizarrely Dean won and he doesn’t have an email) with the help of his damsel-in-distress, Nadia Doherty, from expat food shop Abigail’s (www.nks.dk) on Peder Hvitfeldts Stræde 17 in the city centre. “We hire out,” said her colleague Sarah Andersen. “So if anyone needs a damsel.”

The provider of the horses for the day was ‘Art of Action’ (www.artofaction.dk), which specialises in stunts and stage fighting. Pictured here are Bo Thomas, ‘Confitera’ (which Bo explained is Spanish for candy woman, if that makes any sense), and Tania (she’s St George not the horse!).

Rikke Høst spent over a decade living in Taunton, the world’s HQ of quality cider, but three years ago she returned to her homeland, with new husband Duncan McArthur in tow, to launch Traditional Cider Import (www.ciderimport.dk), a distributor of the finest Somerset ciders, which were available for multiple tastings.

Teaching her daughter Serina (left) all things English was Karen Villadsen (centre), who’s lived here 25 years, and on the right is Annie Hansen, who’s been here seven years since moving here from Michigan.

Discovering there’s more to beer than Carlsberg were Denmark’s Natalia and Jimmy

And saying a big hola from Spain were senoritas Celia Torralba and Maria Macias

The Copenhagen Post’s Ben Hamilton (centre) had promised free pints to the first four readers to greet him with a copy of the current issue, and America’s Dave Plowright (left) wasted no time staking his claim, with Dean Beddal (right), who was still out after leaving the house to watch Man United vs Everton 30 hours earlier, just behind him.

Dave Plowright moved to Copenhagen three years ago following his marriage to his English wife Rosemary.

There were no arguments – she’s lived here 40 years.

Tally ho, it’s St George – all will be saved now

12

COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

27 April - 3 May 2012

ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD

(UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED)

Do not adjust your set. This photo is from an exhibition in Burkina Faso that depicts Danish men performing the kinds of roles that in more ‘traditional’ countries are exclusively performed by women. The exhibition was put together by Marcello Bosschar, who was asked to submit photos showing the role of women in Danish society for the country’s celebration of Women’s Day. “I ended up ‘twisting the plot’,” said Bosschar. “After all, compared to most other countries, Denmark is a Shangri-La for women’s rights.” Photo: Marcello Bosschar

The cast of the Copenhagen Theatre Circle’s ‘The Good Doctor’ take a deserved bow following their opening night last week on Wednesday. The play continues until Saturday. For a full review, see page 18, and for details on how to obtain tickets, check out G2 in InOut.

Siegfried Matlok, the Danish-German editor of Der Nordschleswiger, a German language newspaper for Danes living in southern Jutland, has been awarded the Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria – the country’s 13th highest honour.

He received the award at a ceremony at the residence of the Austrian ambassador Daniel Krumholz. Pictured here are (left-right) Krumholz, the former climate and energy minister, Lykke Friis, Henrich Jürgensen, the chairman of Tyske Mindretal, Matlok, MP Benny Engelbrecht, the Austrian ambassador’s wife, Swiss ambassador Viktor Christen, and German ambassador Michael Zenner.

A resident here since 1990, Ian Burns is the artistic director at That Theatre Company, and very possibly Copenhagen’s best known English language actor thanks to roles as diverse as Casanova, Oscar Wilde and Tony Hancock.

I

saw an article on Facebook recently about the healing power of music: an old man, surviving in a nursing home in the US, had been living in his own little world and hardly communicating with patients or staff for over 10 years. Then someone had the bright idea of placing some headphones over his ears so he could hear some jazz music.

An instantaneous reaction took place. He began to tap his feet and sing along. Afterwards he was able to engage in articulate and detailed conversation with doctors about his life as he remembered his own story and the music that was important to him. His own little ‘Desert Island Discs’ programme. How he used to go dancing to all the great swing music of his era.

It moved me and reminded me of when my father was in hospital trying to recover from

his stroke. Sadly he didn’t. One night a man was admitted just as all the men on the ward were settling down for the night. This man was screaming. Frightened.

Blind. His stroke had taken his sight. The nurses moved him into a separate room at the end of the ward, but he continued to scream.

The nurses were too busy to give him personal care so I took it upon myself to take charge. An act of kindness took place, but it began with a selfish urge to simply shut him up so all the other men could sleep, particularly my dear old dad.

I walked over to the man who was screaming and gently held his hand. I told him who I was and why I was there. I explained that he had just had a stroke and that he’d lost his sight, hopefully only temporarily. I lent him my dad’s Walkman and he eventually calmed down and fell asleep.

A delighted Matlok celebrated the honour with friends and family – it remains to be seen if any editors of this newspaper receive recognition for their contribution to keeping English-speaking people informed of events in Denmark ...

COMING UP SOON

AN ACTOR ’S LIFE For once in my life ...

The last of the magnates, the business icon Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, who died aged 98 on April 16, was on Saturday put to rest at Hellerup Cemetery. Among those who went to the funeral were numerous Danish and international dignitaries, including former prime ministers Paul Schlüter (front) and Lars Løkke Rasmussen (right), who both attended with their wives.

I found out that he had no family or close friends. He gave me the keys to his house so that I could go and bring some of his own music back to the hospital.

I did so. He never regained his sight and no-one came to visit him for the brief period he was on the ward.

He died three weeks later, but for the 20 nights he lived he had his music and the friendship that only closeness to death brings. I still have contact with some of the relatives that I met while my dad was there. I shaved and fed some of their dads.

That’s what people do to help on terminal wards.

Music is the food of love. So play on …

Ian Burns’s next Copenhagen production is Harold Pinter’s ‘Old Times’ from October 24 to November 24.Tickets are available from www.billetten.dk. Find out more at www.that-theatre.com.

Friday Networking Bar at CBS Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship, Howitzvej 60, Frederiksberg; April 27, 16:00; free adm; sign up at ap@venturecup. dk Come for a beer and some networking with like-minded entrepreneurial students at the last Friday Networking Bar of the semester. Sign up by writing an email to Amanda Borup Pedersen at ap@venturecup. If you have a friend or business connection who you feel could contribute to or benefit from the network, you can sign up this person as well Expat dinners All over Denmark; May 10; times vary; free adm; sign up at www.expatindenmark.com The purpose of the dinner is to have an interesting evening where local expats can meet local Danes and vice-versa. Dinners take place at libraries all over Denmark. For a full list, check www.expatindenmark. com.

Spring Fair Copenhagen International School, Hellerupvej 22-26, Cph Ø; April 28, 11:00; free adm; www.expatindenmark.dk The Spring Fair at Copenhagen International School is a great opportunity to spend Saturday afternoon with the whole family and meet other people. Try the games hall, have fun with chemistry, participate in the gift basket auction or buy a used book at the auction. New this year is the rodeo tyre.

International Book Club Østerbro Library, Dag Hammarskjölds Allé 19, Cph K; May 2, 17:45; free adm; sign up at meetup.com Read some good books, enjoy some lively discussions and meet nice people. At this meetup, they will be discussing ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho. Østerbro Library has set aside ten copies – nine in Danish and one in English – for people to pick up. However, you can pick up a copy of the book from any library close to you.

Support concert for Christiania Den Grå Hal, Refshalevej 2, Christiania; April 28, 19:00; 120kr; www.meetup.com After 40 years of struggle and a decade of negotiations, Christiania last year reached a settlement with the government, forming a new Christiania Fund that will buy the majority of the buildings in the area for 76 million kroner. On 1 July 2012, the first instalment of 50 million kronor is due. Besides an entertaining night of live music, you get to become a shareholder in Christiania.

Poetry and Pints Sankt Nikolaj Pub, Nikolajgade 18, Cph K; May 3, 19:00; free adm; sign up at meetup.com If you like to perform and to drink beer, this is the event to join. The Copenhagen Theatre Circle invites you to their monthly meet-up, where poetry, skits and readings go handin-hand with drinking. If you don’t have any theatrical skills whatsoever, you’re still welcome to join.

MIKE HOFMAN

LIFESTYLE: FOOD THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

27 April - 3 May 2012

A plan for all seasons

BY DITTEMARIA SØNDERGAARD

S

UMMER IS nearly upon us. I still feel cheated after last year’s supposed-to-be-summer, so I truly, madly, deeply hope that this summer will grant us sun, warmth and beach days in abundance. Nothing beats the amazing flavour of a newlyharvested Danish strawberry that has been soaking up sun since spring and has been watered properly ... okay, maybe if you’re actually in a strawberry field picking your own berries and munching while picking.

Hostage to the weather Most of the fruit and vegetables we have here in Denmark are dependent on the weather (good luck farmers). If the rain is pouring the entire spring, and the sun-rays rarely hit the soil, the strawberries (let’s continue with that example) won’t have the best conditions to grow and develop their amazing flavour. And their sales period won’t be more than three weeks long. But if the tasty berries get the right conditions, the harvest duration can last for months.

PHOTOGRAPH © CAROLINE CAIN

May the good things grow Now, let’s take a look at some of the other amazing Danish summer fruit and veggies, month by month, as they come into season. In May you should opt for cucumbers, baby leaves, (baby) spinach, spring onions, new garlic, pak choy, radishes, rocket salad and, my personal favourites, strawberries and rhubarb. The strawberries might be late though. It all depends on the sun, and how the sun has chosen to present spring to us this year.

The joy that is June June offers us green and white asparagus, fennel, broccoli, summer cabbage, parsley, mushrooms, plums, tomatoes, gooseberries, raspberries and lettuce.

A self-confessed “food passionist and organic geek since forever”, is the assistant manager at BioMio, Copenhagen’s best known and biggest organic eatery. Founded in 2009 , and located on the always interesting Halmtorvet just outside the vibrant Kødbyen, its finger is on the pulse of what Copenhageners want on their plates: seasonal fare straight from the source with nothing in between.

depende n t on the weather. Ask your local greengrocer and keep an eye on the prices.

The very first new potatoes and berries always cost a fortune, but the prices soon go down. And don’t restrict your shopping to the supermarket. They might get fresh deliveries every day, but nothing beats the local farm. Items like fresh peas, berries, potatoes, rhubarb – you’ll be hard pushed finding these in the cities.

Remember, Denmark is a nation of farmers, so you won’t have to go far outside the city to find a farm shop. You might even get to pick your own.

And please note – the season for the May veggies continues. My shout out for June specials goes to new potatoes, peas, carrots (with the green tops) and – last but not least: asparagus.

Sensuous asparagus The asparagus is strictly a one-month appearance vegetable. Indulge in them while you can! Eat the greens fresh and raw in a salad, and steam the whites and enjoy them with a nob of butter on the top. (I know it’s close to illegal to even mention butter during the bikini season. But TRY it! Really, it’s way too good to miss.)

Best to try in July July is the month to enjoy celery, cauliflowers, turnips and courgettes. Continue buying broccoli, fennel, carrots (green tops), summer cabbage, new potatoes, radishes and tomatoes. And make room in your shopping basket for my July favourites: cherries, blackcurrants and redcurrants.

If you eat according to the season, you’ll enjoy a more flavoursome and nutritious experience.

As a bonus it’s cheaper for you and better for our environment. What’s not to love? So go and soak up all the vitamins and minerals from the freshly harvested fruits and vegetables (remember in organic fruits and greens, the vitamin and mineral contents are higher than the non-organic versions), save some money and, if you please, get out and harvest your own. Enjoy the unpredictable, yet hopefully warm and sunny Danish summer, and no matter what, promise yourself you’ll taste it. I guarantee you’ll love it.

August is the month for carrots, leeks and red cabbage – a taste of autumn. Green beans and corn are also worth seeking out.

But don’t despair, summer isn’t over.

Still in season are celery, cauliflower, broccoli, fennel, summer cabbage, new potatoes, radishes, courgettes and tomatoes. And don’t forget that cucumbers, baby leaves, pak choy, rocket salad and lettuce remain in season all summer.

Chance your arm at the farm Halmtorvet 19 • The Bosch building • DK-1700 Copenhagen V Remember that everything is Tlf: +45 33 31 20 00 • hej@biomio.dk • www.biomio.dk

Naturopathic Nutritionist & Reflexologist

Natural health and detox specialist guiding and motivating you to create optimal, lasting health. tel: 50 19 76 06 www.carolinecain.dk

Halmtorvet 19 • The Bosch building • DK-1700 Copenhagen V 19 • The Bosch building • DK-1700 Copenhagen V Tlf: +45 33 31 20Halmtorvet 00 • hej@biomio.dk • www.biomio.dk Tlf: +45 33 31 20 00 • hej@biomio.dk • www.biomio.dk

BioMio is Denmark´s largest 100% organic restaurant.

Flavoured with love, passion & purpose

For four weeks at a time, four times a year, our aim is to give you all the seasonal lifestyle advice you need to thrive in the areas of gardening, health, food and sport. When should you plant your petunias, when does the birch pollen season normally start, which week do the homegrown strawberries take over the supermarket, and which outdoor sports can you play in the snow? All the answers are here in ‘A plan for all seasons’.

Food Sport Next week

Reasons to be seasonal

August – a first taste of autumn

Caroline Cain

13

CominG Soon!

Garden Health

ReloCation GuiDe

• What is a CPR number & that little yellow card?

• Want to say “hej” to Danish?

• Want to find the perfect neigbourhood?

SPRinG 2012 look for the Relocation Guide due out in may

14

sport

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

27 April - 3 May 2012

Anticlimactic by nature, this year’s Superliga might go down to the wire Keld Navntoft/Scanpix

Christian Wenande With six games to go, FC Copenhagen are only six points clear with a potential title decider coming up in a week’s time

O

n 10 June 2001, Sibusiso Zuma chested a football into the air and rose majestically into the blue summer sky to acrobatically overhead kick it over a disbelieving Mogens Krogh and into the far side of the net. The crowd went ballistic, some of the players fell to their knees in awe, and commentator Carsten Werge might even have crapped his pants a bit.

Zuma won the league for FCK that day with arguably the most spectacular goal in Danish history against arch nemesis Brøndby with one game to go.

Surely it couldn’t get better than that. It didn’t.

This time last season, FC Copenhagen had already won the league. They ended up winning it by a whopping 26 points.

In fact, not since the 200304 season has any team won the league by less than five points.

That year FCK nipped archrivals Brøndby by a single point.

The lack of an exciting finish has plagued the Superliga ever since, and although FCK maintain a six-point advantage over this year’s surprise package FC Nordsjælland, a loss away to FCN next week on Wednesday could see the advantage cut to three points.

The remaining schedule is relatively easy for both teams (see factfile). FCK have a tough game away at FC Midtjylland while FCN’s biggest test may be an away fixture at Brøndby in the same week.

As for key injuries, FCN will probably be without Mikkel Beckman, who is nursing a heel injury, but perhaps their biggest loss may be their young national team defender Andreas Bjelland, who is highly doubtful due to a hamstring injury.

FCK just lost solid Lars Jakobsen for a week, so he is doubtful for the FCN clash, as is Thomas Kristensen, while Thomas Delaney and Peter Larsson are out for the season. They do, however, have young Zanka

Norwegian striker Mustafa Abdellaoue was among the summer 2011 signings brought in to ease the effects of the exodus

Jørgensen back from a long-term knee injury and it should be pointed out that the FCK squad is far deeper than FCN’s.

One final consideration would be that although FCN have home advantage, their supporter numbers are notoriously low. In contrast, FCK fans travel well and could be vocal enough to make the atmosphere rabidly FCK friendly.

Could there be an exciting finish on the horizon perhaps?

Let’s hope so, because the closest thing to excitement recently has been the odd relegation battle.

But still, HB Køge versus Lyngby just doesn’t inspire much when it comes to the ‘crapping of the pants’ scenario.

The last time a side outside the New Firm won the league was in the 2007-08 season when Aalborg BK stunned the Danish football community and bested traditional bigwigs FCK and Brøndby. Since then FCK have won three titles on the trot and are eyeing a fourth, despite losing nearly half their team last year to transfers and retirements.

And let’s not forget that

this is the most lucrative Superliga title … ever. The winners will automatically qualify for the Champions League group stage, forgoing the qualification process – the first time a Danish club has been afforded this luxury. For FCK to miss out on this bounty – particularly after earning the bulk of the UEFA coefficients that have made this possible – would be a difficult pill to swallow.

FCK owes much of its recent success to the CL. The financial windfall that it provides is invaluable, and every time FCK do well – last season they made it past the group stage and qualified for the knockout phase for the first time ever – their Superliga opponents have more reason to worry.

Should FCK win the Superliga this year, they will only further solidify their dominance.

Good news for FCK perhaps, but bad news for the rest as their dominance will only produce a boring league. So while it’s true FCN might have poor home attendances, next Wednesday their support is likely to be national.

Factfile | Superliga Title Run-in FCK remaining games:

FCN remaining games:

Aalborg BK (home) Aarhus GF (home) FC Nordsjælland (away) FC Copenhagen (home) Odense (home) Lyngby (away) SønderjyskE (away) Odense (home) FC Midtjylland (away) Brøndby (away) Silkeborg (home) Horsens (home)

Factfile | FCK vs FCN: Dame N’Doye vs

Jores Okore If FCN are to have a chance at beating FCK, they must find an effective way of stopping the best striker in the league, Dame N’Doye. Fortunately they have a very competent young defender in Jores Okore, who debuted for the Danish national team this season. If Okore manages to keep N’Doye from having a good night, FCN will have a good chance of getting a result.

Factfile | Superliga Table # Club P

W

D

L

Goals Points

1 FC Copenhagen 2 FC Nordsjælland 3 AC Horsens 4 FC Midtjylland 5 AGF 6 Silkeborg 7 SønderjyskE 8 AaB 9 Brøndby IF 10 OB 11 Lyngby 12 HB Køge

17 16 13 13 9 10 10 9 8 7 6 3

7 4 6 6 12 8 7 8 8 6 4 6

3 7 8 8 6 9 10 10 11 14 17 18

47-20 37-19 41-32 41-35 33-27 43-38 36-39 36-36 28-33 38-45 26-48 26-60

27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27

58 52 45 45 39 38 37 35 32 27 22 15

Sports news and briefs Tine top again Danish players won three titles at badminton’s European Championship in Sweden last weekend thanks to the ladies top seed, Tine Baun, women’s pairing Kamilla Rytter Juhl/ Christinna Pedersen, and men’s pairing Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen. Meanwhile, a guest pairing, Mads Pieler Kolding/ Julie Houmann, took silver in the mixed doubles despite their limited experience, and

Line Kruse/Marie Roepke also came second. There were no representatives in the men’s final, after both Jan O Jorgensen and Viktor Axelsen bowed out in the semis. Axelsen lost to Sweden’s Henri Hurskainen, the eventual runner-up, who had beaten the Danish top seed Peter Gade in an earlier round.

Gade recently confirmed he will retire after this summer’s Olympics.

Just like Laudrup

Ice team shaping up

No tweets at Euros

Polished performance

Lasse Schone is leaving NEC Nijmegen to join Ajax on a free this summer. The midfielder, 25, who has eight caps, has agreed a three-year contract.

Schone, who has played in the Netherlands since he was 16, told media he was delighted to be joining the same club as his idol Michael Laudrup. He will join Nicolai Boilesen, Christian Eriksen and Viktor Fischer – and is the club’s 21st Danish signing.

Jannik Hansen will represent Denmark at the forthcoming Ice Hockey World Championships, following the failure of his side, the Vancouver Canucks, to qualify for the quarter-finals of the NHL play-offs. He joins Philip Larsen, Lars Or, and Frans Nielsen on a roster that is already looking like one that will serve Denmark well. The two-week tournament starts on May 4.

The Danish national team’s players have been banned from making comments on social media sites while they remain involved in Euro 2012, according to sporten.tv2.dk. Lars Berendt, the Danish FA’s communications officer, confirmed that the players will only share their opinions at official events and post-match interviews, and that there was a need to “limit meetings with the media” during the event.

Caroline Wozniacki will donate the proceeds of her debut single, ‘Oxygen’, to the Polish and Danish Paralympic teams. The single has a rather strange video, even by the Dane’s impromptu Macarena-dancing standards. An Alsatian retrieves her tennis balls, she gets on a bus with a stalker, who then she takes to dinner, and then it goes behind the scenes – spoiling the allusion that she might have ditched Rory McIlroy.

BUSINESS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

27 April - 3 May 2012

15

CHRISTIAN WENANDE While employees and private clients were saved by takeovers, investors were not as lucky

SCANPIX/BO AMSTRUP

Another setback hits banking sector Young workers hit

T

HE STUTTERING Danish economy claimed two more casualties in the banking sector as Sparekassen Østjylland and Spar Salling, both based in Jutland, were forced to capitulate last weekend.

Fortunately for most of their customers and employees, both savings and loans banks were taken over by competitors who assumed large chunks of debt and personnel. Spar Salling was completely acquired by Den Jyske Sparekasse, and Sparekassen Østjylland was mostly obtained

by Sparekassen Kronjylland.

While the Danish banking sector managed to throw out a safety net for the many private clients of the two banks, the big losers were the guarantor investors of the two banks, who ended up losing 300-400 million kroner in the bankruptcy.

The chief executive of Sparekassen Kronjylland, Klaus Skjødt, indicated that the debts of Sparekassen Østjylland were simply too considerable to save

Sparekassen Østjylland was mostly obtained by Sparekassen Kronjylland, while Spar Salling was taken over by Den Jyske Sparekasse

the guarantor investors, but said he was still pleased with the new acquisition.

“The new branches fit really well with our current network, and as a result we were interested when the Financial Stability Company [Finansiel Stabilitet] contacted us about the deal,” Skjødt told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “The new branches are located in towns where we already have banks, and they are also located in towns that will help to naturally extend our network reach.”

One common denominator

for the two latest financial casualties was that they were heavily invested in the agriculture and real estate sectors. Agriculture and real estate clients accounted for one third of Sparekassen Østjylland’s total clients.

Both of the banks had endured heavy loses in recent years, and neither bank has revealed their annual financial statements for this year. On top of the unhealthy financial situation, Sparekassen Østjylland also suffered a scandal last year when its former chief executive, Henrik Vestergaard, was accused of giv-

ing loans at buddy prices to another bank.

The new bank failures further highlight the growing fear in the banking sector that the smaller banks may be forced to make substantial adjustments to avoid a similar fate, according to Finansiel Stabilitet’s chairman, Henning Kruse Petersen.

“It’s not fun for the board of a bank to have to tell their stockholders or guarantor investors that their money is lost,” Petersen told Børsen newspaper. “Hence, I hope that troubled banks will solve their issues by merging or taking other action to put them in a better position to tackle the difficulties.”

Despite the two bankruptcy cases, the business and growth minister, Ole Sohn (Socialistisk Folkeparti), said he has not lost his confidence and trust in the Danish banking sector.

“The reality that two Danish savings and loans banks have gone under does not mean that there are issues with all Danish savings and loans banks,” Sohn said in a press release. “I still believe that Danish financial institutions are generally healthy and viable.”

Denmark has seen a number of banks go under since 2008, including the much publicised collapse of Amagerbanken in 2011.

Yelp launches Danish website ELISE BEACOM

T

HESE days when people are thinking about where to go for dinner, they will often head online to see what people are saying about different restaurants – and now Yelp is putting the Danish options on the table.

Yelp is a social media and peer review website that allows users to give feedback and assess

others’ ratings on anything from nightclubs, accommodation and shopping to education and health services.

The website, which attracts 66 million visitors a month worldwide, also gives business owners the opportunity to get honest feedback from their customers.

Yelp’s vice-president of marketing, Miriam Warren, said that, given the high penetration

of smart phones and iPads here, Denmark was an obvious choice for a new website.

Available in English, Danish, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch and Swedish, Yelp is a good tool for Danes, new arrivals to the country, and tourists passing through, Warren said.

This is the company’s second website in Scandinavia, having launched a Swedish version a month ago.

BUSINESS NEWS AND BRIEFS Easy to Bristol

North Zealand residents turn to eastern Europeans

BRITISH budget airline easyJet is opening up a new direct route to Bristol, the largest city in south-western England, from October 29. Copenhagen is one of the “most wanted destinations for passengers across the southwest and Wales”, Shaun Browne of Bristol Airport told the Weston & Somerset Mercury.

WHEN homeowners in northern Zealand need work done on their houses, they often turn to workers from eastern Europe.

Financial publication Ugebrevet A4 has investigated the use of foreign labour and found that the highest concentration of use is in Gentofte and Hørsholm. Mogens Larsen, the

chairman of trade union 3F Frederiksborg, said that the foreign workers are used because they can undercut Danish construction workers. “When we come to a building site with foreign workers, it is almost always the case that no bargaining agreement is in place. The foreign workers are underpaid.”

Canada Dollars CAD

Euro EUR

Japan Yen JPY

Russia Rubles RUB

Sweden Kronor SEK

Switzerland Francs CHF

UK Pounds GBP

United States Dollars USD

Sell

5.59

5.51

7.34

0.07

0.18

0.81

6.08

8.95

5.56

Buy

6.10

5.96

7.57

0.07

0.20

0.85

6.28

9.31

5.82

Price in kroner for one unit of foreign currency

A

NEW REPORT from the economic policy institute Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd (AE) indicates that from the middle of 2008 until 2010 a massive number of young workers lost their jobs as the financial crisis took hold.

During the two-year period, 265,000 Danes lost their jobs.

Nearly 25 percent, or 65,000, of them were under the age of 30.

The uneducated were especially hit hard. Some 28 percent of young workers under the age of 30 without a high school diploma lost their jobs, and according to AE’s managing director, Lars Andersen, it is often the unskilled jobs that disappear first.

“People without an education are affected the most and they’re the ones that will be at the end of the queue when things hopefully begin to move forward again,” Andersen told Politiken newspaper. “This only goes to further emphasise how important it is for young people to get an education.”

As opposed to the young uneducated workers, only eight percent of workers under 30 who had completed long term educations lost their jobs. The report from AE also indicates that it is primarily the trade, transport, building and industrial sectors that have suffered the biggest reductions of young employment.

The employment minister, Mette Frederiksen (Socialdemokraterne), is appalled at the unemployment rate, which is at its highest since the 1980s, and said education was the key to turning things around.

“The numbers are terribly high,” Frederiksen told Politiken.

“It is essential that the younger folks get an education, more so than getting a job, otherwise we risk that they will become unemployed again in the future.”

According to AE, the average unemployment rate among workers aged 15-29 in the EU15 nations is 16.5 percent.

While Denmark is below that average at 11.8 percent, and well below 35 percent in Spain and Greece, the rates in Germany and the Netherlands are considerably lower, at between six and seven percent. (CW)

2012 BCCD-BIU Golf Tournament

This year’s golf day will be held at Ledreborg Palace Golf Club, which has Scandinavia’s only course designed

by Sir Nick Faldo, on Thursday 14 June . We have arranged both a tournament for experienced golfers, and a fun golf event for beginners.

The tournament will be a 4 person team (best 2 scores per hole per team) Stableford competition over 18 holes with a gun start for experienced golfers. It will be arranged to accommodate company teams, private teams and individual players in a way that will provide good networking opportunities. In addition to the Hole-in-one prize and tournament prizes, there will also be other attractive individual prizes. The beginners’ event will start with training from the Pro, followed by a competition and will give non-golfers and beginners an opportunity to learn the basics and have some fun! Equipment will be provided.

WIN AN ELECTRIC CAR! The first player to score a hole-in-one on the designated hole will win a Better Place, battery powered Renault Fluence ZE. Book Now – there are a limited number of places available Date: Location: Time:

Beginners Event:

Australian Dollars AUD

Jobless figures amongst young Danes echo dour EU statistics showing historically high youth unemployment rates

BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN DENMARK

Participation Fee: Main Tournament:

Exchange Rates

hardest by crisis

Thursday 14 June 2012 Ledreborg Palace Golf, Ledreborg Allé 2A, 4320 Lejre Arrival 07.00 – 07.30 AM, Gun start 09.30 Member/guest – DKK 1000 per player + moms Non-member – DKK 1200 per player + moms Member/guest – DKK 900 per player + moms Non-member – DKK 1000 per player + moms

Participation fee includes breakfast, lunch, green fee etc. Players (with DGU card) that register and pay early (deadline 3rd May ) will be eligible to play a free practice round before the tournament. This represents a saving of up to DKK 595 on Ledreborg’s normal green fees. Registration fees are non-refundable but transferable.

Non-members are very welcome. Please contact BCCD or go to www.bccd.dk for further information.

REGISTRATION: Online at www.bccd.dk or via email to event@bccd.dk by Wednesday 30th May at the latest.

Please state DGU membership number in the “notes” section for each player entering the tournament.

• official media partner

Date: 25 April 2012 Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

Addy van der Borgh [UK] Brian Mørk [DK] Anders Stjernholm [DK] Al Pitcher [NZ] Thomas Hartmann [DK] Mark Little [AU] Nigel Williams [UK] Carsten Bang [DK]

Christian Schulte-Loh [GER] Khalid Geire Geoff Whiting [UK] Sanne Søndergaard Morten Sørensen [DK] Mads Brynnum Joe Eagan [CA] Claus Reiss [DK] Steve Hall

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Sofie Hagen [DK] Ben Kersley [UK] Louis Zezeran [AUS] Mikkel Malmberg [DK] Julian Oaks [UK] Mikkel Rask [DK] Jørund Larsen [NOR] Petrina Karlsson [SWE] The entire festival will be in english

Show start every day at 8pm. tickets: 50 DKK. - www.billetlugen.dk / Door from 7pm.

Late night Open Mic

every day from 10.30pm to late.

WWW & calendar

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Address: Lygten Station , Lygten 2, 2400 København, Denmark www.copenhagenanglocomedyfestival.dk

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18

culture

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

27 April - 3 May 2012

Justin Cremer Festival organisers will never please everybody, but there is still plenty to like in this year’s offerings

I

t must feel like a thankless job at times to be a music booker for the Roskilde Festival. Regardless of which acts you secure for the four-day festival – the largest music festival in northern Europe – your decisions are bound to be savaged by fans angry that their particular favourites didn’t make the roster.

Such was the case last week on Thursday when the Roskilde Festival held a live press event announcing 93 additions to the 2012 line-up. As the festival’s music director, Rikke Øxner, ran through some of the highlights, the vast majority of the online commentators following along with the announcement’s live stream were complaining every step of the way.

Following a year in which Roskilde’s perceived lacklustre headliners received much criticism, the pressure was on to come strong with the 2012

If the sun is shining and the beer is flowing, who cares who’s playing?

line-up. The problem for Øxner and her crew was that many of the biggest names for this year’s Roskilde Festival – Bruce Springsteen, Björk, The Cure, The Roots – had been public for some time. Even Thursday’s first big announcement that former White Stripes frontman Jack White would be gracing the Orange Stage had previously been reported by Soundvenue.

But despite the lack of a big

punch, Thursday’s announcement gave music plans plenty to look forward to in July. Depending on one’s tastes, the Roskilde Festival promises to deliver many memorable performances. Here’s an overview.

For the, ahem, ‘mature’ audience: it can’t be ignored that despite the festival responding to criticism over last year’s lack of marquee headliners by saying that Roskilde wasn’t about chas-

ing up old dinosaur acts, the biggest names on offer this year are past their prime. Yes, Bruce Springsteen will put on a great show and no-one wants to speak poorly of ‘The Boss’, but his best-selling album was released 28 years ago. Similarly, The Cure’s biggest hit, ‘Lovesong’, graced the music charts in 1989.

For headbangers: Roskilde has a reputation for being heavy on heavy metal, and this year

is no exception with acts like Behemoth, Baroness, Machine Head, Crowbar, Suicide Silence and Red Fang.

For electronic fans: Thursday’s announcement added plenty of names for those who like their music coming from MacBooks: M83, Modeselktor, Araab Muzik, and Pretty Lights.

For hipsters: you could almost hear the collective hipster swoon when Bon Iver was an early announcement. On Thursday, media darlings Alabama Shakes and indie rockers The Shins and Friendly Fires were added gifts for the tight-trousers set.

For hip-hoppers: in addition to headliners The Roots and previously-announced acts like Wiz Khalefia, Royce 5’9” and Yelawolf, hip-hop heads can look forward to Big K.R.I.T., Sage Francis, and Evidence.

Of course, like the Roskilde bookers’ impossible task of pleasing everyone, this too is just a short list bound to cause disagreement. To see the full Roskilde line-up for yourself, visit the festival’s website. And if you’re not happy with what you see, perhaps you can take heart in the fact that around 15 more acts will be added before the festival kicks off on July 5.

Elise Beacom

The Good Doctor

I

f you steal other men’s wives, another man might steal yours. This was one of the underlying lessons on Friday night when the Copenhagen Theatre Circle brought ‘The Good Doctor’ to life in front of a near full house at Krudttønden. Written by Neil Simon, the play comprises a pastiche of legendary Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s short stories and the morals belying them.

Director Frank Theakston takes inspiration from Chekhov’s époque in his realisation, allowing Chekhov’s brilliant and ironic writing to speak for itself.

While the play is filled with humour, slapstick and irony, there are poignant moments tactfully buried between the comedic episodes. The interplay between superior and inferior characters is common throughout, illustrated by the doting civil servant who sneezes on his minister, and the incompetent swimmer charging passers-by three rubles for the privilege of watching him drown.

‘The Drowned Man’ is a hilarious sketch in which a suspicious man – played creepily well

by John Shennan – slinks out of the darkness and approaches ‘The Writer’ (Chekhov) to negotiate a price for some “entertainment”. That entertainment entails the slimy man jumping into cold water, going under and bobbing up three times,

www.cphpix.dk

Doctor leaves audience in stitches Trilogy ends on a high Diana Cereniewicz BLACKOUT!

A

Back in the days of the quack, praying was often your best bet

and puffing up like a drowned blowfish before being rescued by his colleague. This entertainment soon descends into tragic irony.

Jens Blegaa also does a great job as The Writer, narrating the cleverly layered tales and performing in some of the sketches himself. His appearance in ‘The Seduction’ is particularly memorable as he coaches the audience on how to seduce other men’s wives. The Writer helpfully suggests getting the girl through her husband. “Poison her with your tongue … but stay as far away from her as possible” – treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen isn’t a new concept after all. But even this piece has a moral. The bachelor gets out of his self-destructive cycle, marries, and has a happy life except when his bachelor friends start telling him how beautiful his wife is.

The set was minimalistic, incorporating antique furniture against a black backdrop.

While this made the transition between each sketch as simple as reconfiguring the seating and tables onstage, some of the scene changes were slightly clunky.

The costumes, designed by Maria Lundbye, evoked a sense of Chekhov’s time and helped to place the characters in their respective positions of hierarchy. The lighting is simple but effective, making good use of spotlights to highlight the vulnerability and passion of an actress as she reads for an audition.

Some might have recognised her audition piece from Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’.

But even if you are not familiar with the works of Chekhov, ‘The Good Doctor’ is an entertaining production with a depth that will take you by surprise and have you thinking long after you have left the theatre.

The Good Doctor is playing until April 28. See G2 for more details

s you walk into Store Carl, the venue at DANSEhallerne where ‘BLACKOUT!’ is performed, the fragrance of a sweet-smelling incense hits your nose, and the whole place is enveloped in still, thick smoke. The performers enter silently and disappear within it. The lights fade and the performance begins.

It’s difficult to describe with just words a spectacle that in itself speaks with expressive dance, haunting music, and dizzying lights and smoke that twist and trick your perspective.

‘BLACKOUT!’, the last part in a trilogy about the world’s biggest illegal economies, is a story about drugs and escapism, and is everything Mute Comp promised and more. It’s pure, raw energy wrapped in engaging, unsettling choreography and heavy tunes.

The topic is narcotics and Mute Comp strips them of any excitement or simple, lighthearted fun they may be associated with. Do not be fooled: it’s heavy and psychedelic and the performance leaves the audience shaken to the boot. Kasper Ravnhøj, Jakob Stage (scary!), Louise Hyun Dahl and Thomas Bentin present a brilliant show accompanied by Kristine Stubbe Telgbjærg, MC Jabber and Dodebum.

The choreography is abso-

lutely magnificent. It conveys the inner struggle and effects of the drugs on the body and the soul. It shows how drugs destroy the individual and relationships. Dancers crawl and twitch, sometimes like puppets, as if they really can’t control their bodies. It sends shivers down the spine. An especially poignant scene, which shocked everyone in the audience out of their wits, and was a certain dénouement for the whole mind-bending spectacle, was a controlled waterboarding scene.

Mute Comp used a couple of extras for that and the effect was amazing, though incredibly disquieting.

The music only enhances this feeling of unease. It’s heavy, soulful and the lyrics suggest a lack of hope, desolation and desperation. “Are you never satisfied?/There is nothing, nothing I can do/When will I sleep, where can I sleep?/When will I hear my own heartbeat?/I cannot hear my own heartbeat/ Why can’t I hear my own heartbeat?” sings Kristine.

‘BLACKOUT!’ wraps up three years of research into unpleasant, but ever-present “touchy” issues. It’s a spectacle to behold and remember. It won’t leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. No, rather than that, it will shake your very being, demanding you to at least spare a thought about the reality you’ve been shown.

BLACKOUT! is playing until April 28. See G3 for more details

Who is ...

Kim Bodnia? tine harden

scanpix

Roskilde Festival finalises its line-up for 2012

Malene Ørsted He’s a Danish actor.

What’s he been in?

He’s mostly known for his parts in ‘90s movies like ‘Nattevagten’ (‘Nightwatch’), ‘Pusher’, and ‘Bleeder’. And lately he has been in the Danish/Swedish crime series ‘The Bridge’, which will soon air in the UK as well.

Trying to carry on the Sarah Lund success?

Yes, probably, though the plot is somewhat different, and the young woman at his side is Swedish and doesn’t wear a sweater in any of the episodes.

Who does he play?

He plays a laid-back policeman, Martin Rohde, who can’t stop massaging his groin.

That doesn’t sound very appealing!

Apparently it’s because he’s had a vasectomy.

Ouch! Has he done anything outside Denmark?

Not really, but he just got a part in a major American movie, ‘Serena’, which is hitting the cinemas in the autumn of 2013. It stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, and is directed by Susanne Bier.

Ohh, so the Danes are sticking together, huh?

Well according to Bier, he and the other Danish actor on the crew, David Dencik, have a certain charisma that fits the movie.

They’re “dangerous and unpredictable in an intelligent way”, she told Ekstra Bladet.

Intelligent? Isn’t he quite butch?

He does have a tendency to be typecast in macho roles. He’s always been quite big. It was something he was teased about at school, although maybe that had more to do with him not learning to read until the s eventh grade.

So he’s typecast for a reason He once received an unexpected award in France for his part in ‘Nattevagten’ and said: “The great thing about being an actor is that you can be in your hotel room drinking while you’re working in all the cinemas in town at the same time.”

Working in the cinemas? Was he a part-time usher?

Let’s just say it’s a good thing he usually has lines.

Denmark through the looking glass The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

27 April - 3 May 2012

19

How Carla’s ‘nightie to remember’ inspired the ‘King of the World’ James Cameron, the creator of the 1997 Oscar winner ‘Titanic’, partly based Kate Winslet’s role on a young Danish survivor of the 1912 disaster

W

Despite eye-witness accounts like Carla’s, artists tended to depict the ship sinking intact in their paintings unknown/scanpix

hen Carla Jensen set sail from Fyn in 1912 for a new life in the USA, she couldn’t have imagined the fate that lay before her. Not only would she survive the 20th century’s most famous maritime disaster, but 17 years after her death in 1980, her story would become one of the inspirations for the most famous film in movie history.

James Cameron, the director of the 1997 film ‘Titanic’, came across a photo of Jensen displaying the nightgown she wore onboard, and this led to his creation of the character Rose (portrayed by Kate Winslet), and most notably that character’s appearance in the film as an elderly woman who in the film’s closing moments throws a necklace into the deep Atlantic – dressed, you guessed it, in only a nightie.

Carla Christine Nielsine AndersenJensen was one of the 231 Nordic passengers (123 Swedes, 63 Finns, 31 Norwegians and 14 Danes) on board the Titanic on that fateful voyage a century ago. The 19-year-old housemaid from Fyn wanted to chase the American dream – just like her uncle, Niels Peder Jensen, a carpenter who had already settled in Portland, Oregon. She obtained permission from her parents, bought a third class tickets for seven pounds, seven shillings and a penny, and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. Sadly for many of her co-passengers, their lives were about to come to an abrupt end.

One of them was Hans Peder Jensen, her fiancé. Together they intended to acquire their own farm once they arrived in ‘the land of the free’.

However, for the journey they had to sleep in separate quarters at opposite ends of the boat. Carla’s cabin was in the stern, while Hans, along with Carla’s brother and uncle, were located in the bow.

At the time of the collision with the iceberg, Carla was asleep, and the first she knew about the unsinkable ship’s unthinkable dilemma was when she was woken up by her uncle.

“I heard a knock and my uncle said: ‘You better put a coat on and come up

on the deck,’ so I put a coat on over my nightgown[and clothes],” she later wrote in a letter.

She was the only one of the group allowed into a lifeboat. Her uncle joked with her that she would “come to New York a year ahead of us.”

“When the lifeboat I got into rowed away from the Titanic, the orchestra was still playing,” she wrote. “One said later it was the psalm ‘Nearer My God to Thee’. That is possible. It was not the time to listen, and I did not know the psalm since it was in English.”

And then the finale happened before anyone expected it. “With fright we heard an incredible crash, and it was as if a scream from 1,000 voices came from the lit giant ship, when it broke in two and both parts rose into the sky and sank. We sat like stone figures and saw it all happen. What was even worse than the screams was the deadly silence that came after … it was frightful.”

Carla was taken to a hospital in New York. From the hospital she sent a telegram home to her family telling them she had survived, but that the rest had not. Her father told her to come home immediately. The boat’s owner, White Star Line, gave her a secondclass ticket to Liverpool and she arrived back in Fyn on 13 May, after which she never travelled out of Denmark again.

Carla married a farmer from Oremark in 1915, where they raised three children. For the rest of her life she observed a tradition on the anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking. She would put on the nightgown she had worn and stay up, all night, to see in the morning of April 15, just as she had done in 1912.

Shortly before her death in 1980, her story was picked up by a Danish newspaper, which ran a picture of her holding the nightgown. She was, at her own request, buried in it.

It has been suggested that Cameron saw this picture of Carla and that her nightgown was an inspiration for his creation of Rose – particularly the scene at the end of the film in which Rose throws a valuable necklace, ‘The Heart of the Ocean’, into the sea.

If this is true, then Cameron – and no doubt Carla had she still been alive – would have seen the irony in the theft of a valuable necklace from Tivoli’s special Titanic exhibition last September.

Unlike ‘The Heart of the Ocean’, it actually was found in the wreck of the boat (in the film, Rose has it all along) in the pocket of a deceased butler, who might or might not have stolen it (just like Rose) from an American passenger.

NF/SCANPIX

Mike Hofman

The great ship itself in shallower, friendlier waters off the British Isles unknown/scanpix

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Just like Carla, Rose in ‘Titanic’ is very attached to her nightie

Sure, Carla didn’t end up in the drink like Rose, but their stories are similar

Who said Irish wolfhounds were lucky?

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