The Copenhagen Post | Dec 14-20

Empty pew syndrome growing more acute

“Pioneer country” panned for biomass plan

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14 - 20 December 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 50

Christmas down the pub

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

NEWS

American tourist’s runaway lorry death leads to criminal charges against city and vehicle’s driver

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NEWS

Someone is lying Former PET agent Morten Storm and agency head Jakob Scharf are telling very different stories

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As mining projects and cheap labour head to Greenland, questions are asked about the openness of the process We hear a lot about the country’s Christmas traditions, but it turns out most of them aren’t even Danish

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BUSINESS

SAS mounting a turnaround, but questions about earnings remain

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Price: 25 DKK

Early snowfall a pain in the municipal wallet BJARKE SMITH-MEYER

Flying out of crisis

9 771398 100009

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While many councils say they are almost out of money for snow removal, Copenhagen says it learned its lesson from snowy winters in 2009 and 2010

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HE WINTER storm that dropped as much as 20cm of snow on much of Denmark over the weekend has placed a financial strain on a number of councils as they continue to struggle to clear roads.

In the northern Jutland town of Frederikshavn, where snow-clearing costs are as high as 50,000 kroner an hour, the council estimated that it spent 700,000 kroner a day to keep roads and walkways clear on Sunday and Monday.

After the first snowstorm of the sea-

son, councils could be facing a repeat of the financial problems they faced in the back-to-back snowy winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11. In 2009, snow costs left the counsils 216 million kroner overbudget, while in 2010, the amount mushroomed to 1.3 billion.

In Copenhagen, the snowy winter of 2010 meant that even though the city went nearly 20 million kroner over budget on its winter services, the then deputy mayor for environmental and technical affairs, Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard (Socialistisk Folkeparti), had to apologise for snow removal that “could have been much better”.

Niels Tørsløv, a spokesperson for the city of Copenhagen, assured city residents that wouldn’t be the case this year.

“We’ve deliberately put extra funds aside for this sort of scenario,” Tørsløv

told The Copenhagen Post. “So unless the situation gets consistently worse and worse throughout the winter, we’re confident we won’t be running out of money anytime soon.”

Tørsløv suggested that councils finding themselves short on funds take a second look at their planning procedures.

“We’d be very happy to share our winter strategy with other councils,” Tørsløv said. “But yes, it’s a problem, and one that we’ll have to adapt to in the future.”

While Tørsløv may be confident in the city’s ability to keep the streets clear, the snowstorm that began in western Jutland on Sunday night and wrapped up on Monday afternoon when it moved east past the island of Bornholm, did its best to wreak havoc with the trains, planes and automobiles around the country.

Rail service DSB faired best, cancel-

ling only five percent of its departures on Sunday.

Copenhagen Airport, on the other hand, saw 22 flights cancelled and a further nine redirected on Sunday after drifting snow forced the airport to close one of its main runways.

Road traffic had it worst. Over 1,800 motorists needed roadside assistance from Falck and Dansk Autohjælp on Sunday alone, as some cars couldn’t start and many others had spun off roads clogged with churned-up snow.

But as Mikkel Andreas Beck, a Falck spokesperson, explained, the number of people needing help was by no means extreme.

“This is nothing,” Beck told the Ritzau news bureau. “We’ve had winters in which 5,000 cars have had to be pulled out of the snow in a single day.”

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Week in review

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

CPH Post Word of the Week:

14 - 20 December 2012 THE WEEK’S MOST READ STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK

Snehaderen (noun) – The snow hater. Where you heard it: From a video making the rounds showing an angry man cursing the gods for dumping so much snow on Denmark. See it at http://youtu.be/l9bLoheF3uc Scanpix / Martin Sylvest

False alarm x 2

Snowstorm to dump up to 20cm on region Storm bearing down on capital Royal Library under fire for Armenian Genocide exhibition Yep, it was a wolf The art of the office Christmas party: Boozy fun or occupational mine field?

FROM OUR ARCHIVES TEN YEARS AGO. The Danish women’s handball team get closer to the semifinals of the European Championships after edging out Romania.

FIVE YEARS AGO. Seventy-five gunshots interrupt a quiet night in Høje Taastrup in what is believed to be a gang-related incident.

A mysterious suitcase led police to cordon off the area around Rådhuspladsen on Tuesday afternoon and deploy their bomb remover, Rullemarie, which confirmed that the suitcase was empty. Another scare occurred on Wednesday when an unknown package was placed on a Sweden-bound train at Copenhagen Central Station. It turned out to contain a car battery and two screen wipers.

and other visitors to sit next to each other in the reading hall to reduce the possibility of theft, casts suspicion on them. At the same time, many historians have had to halt their research as parts of the archive are closed. The stolen documents were recovered in October after being missing for the better part of the year.

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper Since 1998, The Copenhagen Post has been Denmark’s leading source for news in English. As the voice of the international community, we provide coverage for the thousands of foreigners making their home in Denmark.

Additionally, our English language medium helps to bring Denmark’s top stories to a global audience.

In addition to publishing the only regularly printed English-language newspaper in the country, we provide up-to-date news on our website and deliver news to national and international organisations. The Copenhagen Post is also a leading provider of non-news services to the private and public sectors, offering writing, translation, editing, production and delivery services.

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Woz it racist?

Not content with jokes about being attacked by kangaroos, Caroline Wozniacki has once again courted controversy, this time by doing an impression of Serena Williams that thousands have called racist. Wozniacki stuffed towels down her clothing, and it worked: her opponent Maria Sharapova hasn’t

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

beaten Williams for eight years and she duly lost the next point.

Fans couldn’t agree on what was worse: her lack of originality, or her perceived racism, but at least one YouTube commenter agreed she was on the right track.

“Maybe if she imitated Serena’s actual tennis, she’d win a little more,” he noted.

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

Colourbox

Historians are criticising a new security measure that Rigsarkivet, the national public records archive, has implemented following revelations earlier this year of the organised theft of World War II documents over a ten-year period. The historians argue that the new security demands, which require scholars

Scanpix / Nacho Doce

Scanpix / Jeppe bjoern vejloe

Don’t steal

ONE YEAR AGO. Michael Lychau Hansen, the ‘Amager Attacker’, is finally brought to justice and found guilty on seven counts of rape and two counts of murder.

Costy kids

The price of council-run childcare has risen considerably since 2007, according to figures from Statistics Denmark.

A number of councils, including Tårnby, Hvidovre, HøjeTaastrup, Herlev, Helsingør and Morsø, have raised the price of childcare in nurseries and kindergartens by thousands of

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kroner. But the biggest increase comes in Albertslund Council, where the price has risen by 40 percent, or over 10,000 kroner, to 37,584 kroner a year. At the same time, staffing levels have been reduced, so that there are now an average of 3.2 children per adult, compared with 2.7 children per adult in 2007.

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News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

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Police make Google translation error in terror investigation Wages rose last Christian Wenande Man accused of collecting money for Kurdish group said to have broken down after being confronted with message that turned out to be harmless

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openhagen police have admitted to wrongly confronting a Kurdish man accused of financing terrorism with a text message that had been incorrectly translated by Google Translate, the computer firm’s free, online translation service.

The man reportedly suffered a breakdown following the interrogation and his lawyer, Thorkild Høyer, called the use of Google Translate unacceptable in legal proceedings.

“But it is even more serious in a case involving allegations of terrorism, and in which the accused are being held on remand,” Høyer told Politiken newspaper.

Høyer said the Google-translated documents violate Danish laws preventing investigators from presenting people accused of crimes with false information, and he is demanding that

all such documents be dismissed from the investigation.

The 50-year-old man is one of the eight Kurds arrested in September and accused of financing terrorism by collecting upwards of 140 million kroner on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered by the EU to be a terrorist organisation.

The money is alleged to have been passed on to the PKK by Roj TV, a Kurdish TV station based in Copenhagen. The station is itself currently involved in a court battle of its own over whether it was run as a propaganda instrument for the PKK between 2006 and 2010. In January, Roj TV was found guilty by the Copenhagen City Court and fined a total of 5.2 million kroner. The station’s appeal is currently being heard by the Eastern High Court.

The police said no other documents had been translated using Google Translate and that it was not a method they used.

“During the interrogation, the investigator used a Google-translated version of the contents of the text message and he should not have done that,” Copenhagen police inspector Svend Foldager told Politiken. “There is not

year, but prices rose even more

Inflation outstripped salary increases for the third year running, but the decline in purchasing power could wind up helping exporters

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Police say that they made an isolated mistake and don’t normally rely on the service

again, they did indicate that the document in question had not been used in the decision to remand the eight accused.

The translation error was coincidentally discovered by a translator during the interrogation of the man.

The Google Translate version of the message in Turkish read: “I call for a meeting.”

But according to Høyer, the message was a mass-invitation and part of a textmessage chain without a personal sender.

There is not much to say other than it was a mistake much to say other than it was a mistake.

I know only of this one instance, and I’ve never heard of it happening before.”

While the police maintained that Google Translate will never be used

City and driver charged with manslaughter in tourist’s death Private photo

Justin Cremer Carl Robinson’s nephew says driver is being scapegoated and that the real blame lies with the city’s vehicle maintenance department

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he City Council and the driver of a runaway vehicle that killed an American tourist in August are now being charged with negligent manslaughter and various traffic violations.

Carl Robinson, a 63-year-old former school psychologist from Baltimore, Maryland, was struck and killed by a malfunctioning electric rubbish lorry on Copenhagen’s Strøget pedestrian street on August 29.

The accident occurred after a city sanitation worker parked and left the vehicle unattended while on his rounds emptying rubbish bins on Strøget. An inspector reported that a sensor in the driver’s seat that disengages the vehicle’s motor when it is unoccupied may have malfunctioned and caused the vehicle to accelerate.

But after investigating the city’s fleet of 77 electric rubbish lorries, it was found that seven of the vehicles – including the one involved in Robinson’s death – had their security mechanisms disabled.

“There are several security measures meant to ensure that this kind of accident doesn’t take place,” Hjalte Aaberg,

Jason Schoenfeld, the nephew of Carl Robinson (pictured), said that the family “feels terrible” for the driver of the vehicle and fully blames the city

the administrative director of the city’s technical affairs department, said in a statement. “We take it very seriously that the switch was turned off on several vehicles. We have rectified the situation and have stepped up our security measures.”

But that isn’t enough, according to Robinson’s nephew Jason Schoenfeld, who feels the blame should land squarely with the city and its vehicle maintenance department, and not the driver.

“I am actually appalled that the city would use the driver as a scapegoat,” Schoenfeld said. “From what I understand, the city bypassed the safety equipment of that vehicle. The only charges should be against the city and

whoever maintains that fleet. Whoever maintains those vehicles is 100 percent at fault for my uncle’s death.”

Schoenfeld, who once held a job conducting accident investigations, called it “a joke” that the city drove the involved vehicle away from the accident scene and stressed that the security mechanism should have never been tampered with.

“You just don’t do that kind of stuff,” he said. “That safety equipment was there for a reason.”

Schoenfeld added that his family has sympathy for the driver, who was “in a bad spot at the wrong time”.

Although the city acknowledged its

liability and compensation responsibility after being sued by the family back in October, Schoenfeld said his family continues to receive “horrendous responses” from the city.

“We have received zero dollars,” he said. “We are just constantly told that ‘it is being reviewed’. They should be responsible for more than just funeral expenses based on their obvious neglect.”

The news that there are now criminal charges was little solace for a family who lost a beloved member.

“Let’s say the city is found guilty,” Schoenfeld said. “What are they gonna do? Are they gonna pay a fine? They haven’t even paid what they were supposed to have paid. They don’t care about the loss of a life. Shame on the city.”

In Robinson’s hometown of Baltimore, the association of school psychologists has suggested creating a scholarship fund in his honour. Although the details of the scholarship are still being worked out, it would carry Robinson’s name and be awarded to graduates of Baltimore’s city high schools. The Schoenfeld family suggests that if Copenhagen wants to live up to its admitted liability in the accident, the city should consider contributing to the scholarship fund.

The negligent manslaughter charge carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, but Copenhagen Police prosecutor Charlotte Møgelhøj told Berlingske Nyhedsbureau that the police would only be seeking a fine.

he good news for consumers is that private sector wages increased by an average of 1.4 percent last year, according to new figures from Statistics Denmark. The bad news is that prices increased by 2.3 percent last year, marking the third year running that you can buy less with your salary than you could the year before.

“We would have to go back 30 years to find a comparable period,” Frederik Pedersen, a senior analyst with AE, an economic think-tank with ties to labour unions, told Politiken newspaper.

In the early 1980s, the country was dealing with the aftermath of the second world oil We would have crisis and pur- to go back 30 chasing power dropped each years to find year between a comparable 1980 and 1984.

Things began to period turn around in 1985.

Purchasing power, what economists call ‘real wages’, rose steadily from the mid-80s until the beginning of the current economic slowdown.

“On average, real wages have increased by 1.1 percent since the ‘80s, and from 1990 until the crisis set in, employees enjoyed an uninterrupted period of rising real wages,“ said Pedersen.

Pedersen added that a decline in real wages is not universally negative.

“It is not very conducive to consumer spending for people to lose purchasing power,” he told Politiken.

“But a drop in wages makes it easier for Danish companies to compete with foreign companies.”

The rising costs of fuel, energy, taxes, alcohol and tobacco helped keep consumer prices high. The price of household items like milk, cheese and eggs have also gone up, while the cost of staying at a hotel or going out to a restaurant jumped by as much as 4 percent.

A tax on fat, implemented last year, also drove up the price of some food products. It has been eliminated, while a proposed tax on sugar, which had threatened to make food prices even more expensive, has been shelved.

Economists, however, say it remains to be seen whether the savings will be handed back to the consumer. (RW)

Online this week Murder case brings unexpected spotlight to Faroes A man has been convicted of killing a Faroe Islands native, marking the first murder trial in the quiet island country in over 20 years, the Associated Press reported last week.

Milan Konovat, a 33-year-old Croatian, was found guilty of murdering Danjal Petur Hansen. Police discovered traces of

blood on a pillow and frying pan in Hansen’s home during investigations. His body, which is believed to have been thrown off a cliff, was never found despite extensive coastline searches. Home to 48,500 inhabitants, the Faroe Islands only has 14 prison cells, of which 12 are occupied daily.

Car advocates fuming over plan to reinstate plate fee Just six months after the car registration process was changed in order to make the process easier and less expensive, the Tax Ministry is now proposing changes that would save the state 75 million kroner a year by again requiring people to pay fees in order to obtain number plates.

With the changes, it would cost

a minimum of 1,380 kroner to obtain new number plates, compared with the 1,180 kroner it costs today. It will also cost 480 kroner, instead of 380 kroner today, to change the ownership of a car. The move was met with disappointment from motorists association FDM, which called the measure “a hidden tax”.

‘Tis the season for internet scammers Fraudsters posing as Skat are sending out emails that state that the recipients have a windfall awaiting them and that they have to fill out a form with their credit card details in order to receive the money. Skat warns, however, that they would never ask for this in-

formation. “Skat would never ask you for your credit card details,” the tax authority states on its website. “If you receive an email that looks like it is from Skat that asks this, then it is a fake email.

You should delete the email without clicking the links.”

Read the full stories at cphpost.dk

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News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

“One man’s word against another’s” as new Storm surrounds PET

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fter another round of revelations from former PET secret agent Morten Storm cast serious doubt on the domestic intelligence agency’s role in the targeted killings of terrorists, PET’s chief, Jakob Scharf, has categorically denied allegations against his organisation.

“We have not contributed in, nor to, the operation that led to the killing of [al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar] al-Awlaki,” Scharf told Politiken newspaper.

PET’s role in the September 2011 killing of al-Awlaki has been under scrutiny since Storm, a former biker gang member turned militant Islamist turned double agent, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper in October how he infiltrated the terrorist’s inner circle while working with both PET and the CIA. “I helped the CIA and PET track Anwar so the Americans could send a drone after him,” Storm told Jyllands-Posten in October. “That was the plan, which was created by the CIA and PET.” Since then, a nearly endless stream of revelations and accu-

Scanpix/erik Refner

New recording reveals that secret service discussed tracking another terrorist with double agent’s help, but agency head denies the allegations

sations have come from Storm, including claims that he provided a Western wife to al-Awlaki who was outfitted with tracing equipment by PET without her knowledge, that PET attempted to buy his silence with the offer of 125,000 kroner, and that he was not the only Dane to have got up close and personal with al-Awlaki. Storm himself has also come under criticism, including from those who knew him during his time in England and claim he was a hot-headed “infiltrator” who tried to sell drugs to young Muslims.

Now, over this past weekend, Storm dropped another bombshell by providing a recorded conversation to Jyllands-Posten in which he and one of his PET contacts, who is identified as ‘Olde’, discussed the possibility of tracking another terrorist, Abu Basir, with references to a possible drone attack by the Americans.

The recording was secretly made on Storm’s iPhone during a meeting this summer with ‘Olde’ at the Hilton Copenhagen Airport. At the meeting, Jyllands-Posten also reported that ‘Olde’ delivered $10,000 in cash to Storm, who was referred to in the recording by his PET code name of ‘Archi’.

“The drones need to find them,” ‘Olde’ says in the recording. “They need to have something to find them with.”

“Yeah, and we can give that

Jyllands-posten

Justin Cremer

Morten Storm (left) and Jakob Scharf (right): one of these men appears to not be telling the truth

to them,” Storm replies.

The new report from Jyllands-Posten puts PET’s official line of not pursuing actions outside of Denmark’s borders in serious question, according to experts contacted by the newspaper.

“PET has said that it doesn’t take part in the killing of civilians in foreign countries, but if this material holds up, it is documentation that PET is actively involved in tracking and contributing to the liquidation of al-Qaeda terrorists abroad,” Lars Erslev Andersen, a senior researcher at the Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier, told Jyllands-Posten.

Even PET’s former head, Hans Jørgen Bonnichsen, agreed that the new recording cast further doubt on the agen-

cy’s actions.

“The conversation indicates that PET is highly active when it comes to eliminating people in foreign countries, and that doesn’t exactly concur with Jakob Scharf ’s explanation,” Bonnichsen told Jyllands-Posten.

“This [the new recording] seems like a preparation for a drone attack, and one gets the impression that PET is more aggressive than the CIA.” Despite the appearance of the new audio file, Scharf insisted to Politiken that PET is not involved in targeting killings.

“We can not and will not take part in operations that have the goal of killing someone, and that is the case whether one considers them civilians or military personnel,” Scharf said.

Far-left party Enhedslisten’s spokesperson Pernille Skipper, who had previously demanded answers from the justice minister, Morten Bødskov (Socialdemokraterne), on the Storm case, now wants more answers from Bødskov as well as the defence minister, Nick Hækkerup (Socialdemokraterne).

“Now it is one man’s word against another’s,” Skipper told Politiken. “Therefore we need the justice minister to give a clear answer on whether he has looked into the matter and whether PET has followed the rules.”

Last month, in response to the unanswered questions surrounding Storm’s allegations, Bødskov said that he would seek increased powers for parliament’s Kontroludvalg, a

committee established in 1964 to oversee PET, including giving the committee insight into PET’s use of civilian agents – an area in which it has not historically had any power.

With Scharf ’s denials directly contradicting the new recording released by Jyllands-Posten, Andersen said that it is more important than ever to get to the bottom of the situation.

“I have no reason to doubt that Jakob Scharf is telling the truth,” Andersen told Politiken.

“But I can say that what he is saying is something different from what Jyllands-Posten has presented through various documentation. This discrepancy is a problem because it is important that the Danish people have trust in the Justice Ministry and PET.”

Board finds state employer guilty Roads losing out to public transport of age discrimination Public agency disputes ruling, while unions plan to bring forward more cases of public employees being let go due to their age

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rade unions and legal experts have accused government agencies of targeting older workers when they cut staff.

In a recent decision, Ligebehandlingsnævnet, the national equal rights agency, overturned the dismissal of two state employees at the state’s own employment office, Moderniseringsstyrelsen. Unions representing the two workers claimed that they had been let go entirely on the basis of their age, which is in violation of national employment laws. The decision will see the government pay 700,000 kroner in legal fees.

“It is unthinkable that the government expects people to retire later, while at the same time cuts staff at its own personnel office because of their age.

That’s almost embarrassing,” Lars Qvistgaard, a spokesperson for DJØF, a union representing lawyers and economists, told Politiken newspaper.

The union brought both suits and has filed ten more age discrimination cases against the Foreign Ministry and Skat, the national tax authority.

The union representing tax and customs employees, Dansk Told & Skatteforbund, has already won several cases of age discrimination. Rita Bundgaard, of the clerical union HK, is convinced that older workers are being discriminated against.

“When they need to cut, they almost automatically look at older workers first,” she told Politiken.

Per Jensen, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, described older workers as low hanging fruit when cuts need to be made.

“There are many older government employees with many years of service and high wages, so they are an expensive group of employees,” Jensen told Politiken. “The state also wants to get new blood into jobs, so that means it is often out with the old, in with the new.”

The public sector, according to Jensen, often sets the tone for the rest of the marketplace, and he said the practice of targeting older workers for layoffs could easily spread to the private sector.

“The state is an important role model in the labour market,” he said.

Per Clausen, a spokesperson for far left party Enhedslisten,

The government has committed its entire infrastructure budget to improving public transport while road projects lack 27 billion kroner in funding

When they need to cut, they almost automatically look at older workers first called it “completely unacceptable” that the government gives older workers the boot based on their age.

“The rules cannot be that hard to understand,” Clausen told Politiken.

Clausen said that it is disingenuous of the state to constantly call for better treatment of senior workers and then target them when it needs to reduce its own workforce, especially when older workers often have a harder time finding a new job after they are let go.

The finance minister, Bjarne Corydon, declined to comment, while the head of human resources for Moderniseringsstyrelsen, Carsten Carlsen, said in a written statement that his agency had done nothing illegal in letting the two employees go and that the dispute should be decided in court. (RW)

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oad infrastructure is suffering due to a lack of investment and political will, according to the opposition parties and car lobby groups.

Planned road projects costing a total of 27 billion kroner – mostly new motorways or motorway extensions – have been put on standby until funding becomes available, according to the transport minister, Henrik Dam Kristensen (Socialdemokraterne).

“Our infrastructure fund is more or less empty,” Kristensen told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “That is why we have agreed not to start environmental impact studies for new projects as they may create unrealistic expectations.”

The infrastructure fund was created by parliament in 2009, and one third of it was supposed to be spent on road investment and the remaining two thirds on rail.

Despite this, the current government has decided to invest all of the available funds in rail instead of roads, leading opposition party Venstre (V) to accuse the government of failing to fulfil its obligations.

“The government hasn’t set aside a single krone for road projects next year and is instead focusing its attention solely on public transport,” V’s traffic spokesperson, Kristian Pihl Lorentzen, told Jyllands-Posten.

“The government is now going to be responsible for delaying promised road projects by four or more years.”

The car lobby group, FDM, also estimated that eight billion kroner a year was being wasted through lost working time due to the limited capacity of the nation’s motorways.

“It is a very short-sighted saving because billions of kroner are wasted keeping cars in traffic jams,” FDM spokesperson Torben Lund Kudsk told Jyllands-Posten. “It’s both disheartening and worrying that they seem to be giving up on doing something about roads.”

Some money will be returned to the infrastructure fund from projects that came in under budget – the fund was deliberately made 30 percent larger than it needed to be – but the government and opposition have different priorities regarding how this money should be spent.

The government wants to spend four billion kroner of the returned funds on building a replacement rail bridge over the Storstrøm sound between the islands of Falster and Zea-

land. The Storstrøm bridge is a vital link to the new rail connection between Germany and Copenhagen that will open once the Fehmarn Tunnel is built. Without the bridge, the entire tunnel project could be in jeopardy.

The opposition, on the other hand, wants to use the four billion kroner to move ahead with one of the delayed road projects, and instead add the financing of a new Storstrøm bridge to the cost of the Fehmarn Tunnel.

Far-left party Enhedslisten, meanwhile, announced that it supported the government’s decision to prioritise public transport.

“I want to use this opportunity to congratulate the transport minister and urge him to stay on course with his priorities,” spokesperson Per Clausen wrote on Facebook.

According to traffic expert Harry Lahrmann from Aalborg University, the focus on public transport makes sense given the government’s aims to both increase the use of public transport and make it carbon-neutral by 2050.

“Given those two goals, it is not unusual that the money is being spent on public transport,” Lahrmann told Jyllands-Posten.

“But it’s always up for discussion whether this is possible or the right thing to do.” (PS)

news

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

Christian Wenande Report finds that new review guidelines can help reduce cost overruns and delays when state implements new technology projects

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hile the public sector is no stranger to delayed computerisation projects, patients’ rights groups are worried that a recently announced delay could wind up costing lives.

The fears come after the announcement of further delays to the introduction of the Fælles Medicinkort, a card which was supposed to save hundreds of lives every year by preventing people from receiving the wrong prescription.

After intially being scheduled for rollout in 2011, the system is now due to come online in 2013.

Lars Engberg, the head of patient advocate group Danske Patienter, greeted the news of the delays with dismay.

He pointed to statistics showing that 60 percent of all error complaints in the health service are due to wrongfully prescribed medicine.

“It’s completely unreasonable. Hundreds of thousands of Danes are prescribed more than six different types of medicine at the same time, and these people need to have a better way to keep track of their medications,” Engberg told Politiken newspaper. “The health service has interns, doctors, nurses and surgeons that don’t have the time to contact everyone to get an overview of a patient’s medicine, and that’s when the risk of error increases.”

The Fælles Medicinkort project was launched five years ago with a budget of

200 million kroner. Once implemented, all hospitals in the Zealand, Central Jutland and Northern Jutland regions will be a part of the system, but due to technical issues, no hospitals in the Greater Copenhagen Region and only 20 percent in the Southern Denmark Region will use the card.

A recent report by Digitaliseringsstyrelsen, the state agency responsible for co-ordinating digitisation in the public sector, described the Fælles Medicinkort as “a programme that

It’s completely unreasonable; people need to have a better way to keep track of their medication consists of many projects” and suggested it was delayed because of its complexity.

“A number of projects are currently in the deployment phase, such as Fælles Medicinkort at hospitals and at doctors’ surgeries, while they are still being developed in the councils. Overall the programme is not deployable,” Digitaliseringsstyrelsen wrote in its report.

The Fælles Medicinkort is just one of a number of public computer and infrastructure projects that has been bogged down in the development stage. The most notable has been the IC4 trains and the continuing problems associated with the Rejsekort

electronic travelcard system.

The report found that of the 56 state computer projects that cost over 10 million kroner, 20 have been delayed and 12 have ended up costing more than originally anticipated.

Since February 2012, the delays have cost the state an additional 457 million kroner. In particular, two projects being carried out by tax authority Skat were singled out for their delays and budget overruns.

While the Digitaliseringsstyrelsen said that information was sparse about why the two Skat projects had stalled, it indicated three primary reasons why other projects wound up costing more than projected: their scope had been expanded, they had been delayed, or the contractor failed to deliver as promised.

The report also found that 13 projects were launched after the 2011 implementation of guidelines requiring Statens IT-projektråd, a national overview body, to evaluate all computer projects expected to cost over 10 million kroner before approving them.

It was these projects, according to Digitaliseringsstyrelsen, that were most likely to be over budget.

It pointed out, however, that many of the newer projects were still in an early phase. “It will be interesting to follow the projects in the future and see whether risk assessments and the increased focus on project finances will influence the key project figures in the long run.”

On the positive side, three projects have finished sooner than expected, and nine projects wound up costing a combined total of 69 million kroner less than budgeted.

Scanpix/Lars Helsinghof bæk

Delayed e-medicine card latest in long line of problem projects

5

An MP since 1987, this is Jelved’s first ministerial assignment in 12 years

Jelved named culture minister The veteran MP takes over from fellow Radikale member Uffe Elbæk, who stepped down last week amid nepotism allegations

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overnment coalition party Radikale has filled the vacancy at the top of the Culture Ministry from within its own party ranks.

Last week it announced that Marianne Jelved, its former leader 19902007), will replace her fellow party member Uffe Elbæk as the culture minister.

Following the announcement, Jelved, an MP since 1987, told Politiken newspaper that she was looking forward to working in her new position.

“I think that this is a very exciting development and assignment,” she said.

“I feel sorry for Uffe Elbæk, that is for sure. But when Margrethe [Vestager] asked if I would take over, I thought about it for a few minutes because it is quite the leap and I am happy where I am now. But Margrethe said it in the right way, and I ended up saying yes.”

Vestager, the nation’s finance minister in addition to being Radikale’s lead-

er, took to Twitter to welcome Jelved to the cabinet.

“Marianne is back. Welcome to the team!” Vestager wrote.

The 69-year-old Jelved took over as culture minister just a day after Elbæk stepped down last week on Wednesday following mounting criticism of his decision to hold repeated events at the art school where his husband was employed.

He wrote on Facebook that he was happy about Jelved’s selection.

“It is the coolest choice in the world (Margrethe, you are so good!),” the now-former minister wrote. “This is very good for cultural live, for the ministry and for all of my (former) colleagues.”

This is not Jelved’s first time serving in a governmental cabinet. From 1993-2001, she was the economy minister under the Socialdemokraterne-led government, and also served as the minister for Nordic co-operation from 1994-2001.

During the course of her long political career, she picked up the nickname ‘The Lady with the Handbag’. (JC)

Emergency services admit mishandling call Yep, it was a wolf

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mergency service operators in Copenhagen admit they mishandled a call earlier last week that reported how a man had been lying unconscious for several hours on a snowcovered bench in the Vesterbro district.

“There is no question that a call like that one should have gone immediately to a healthcare professional,” Lars Bo Kjær, of the Copenhagen fire brigade, told Politiken newspaper.

A woman rang 112 and told the operator that she feared for the life of a man who by that time had been lying motionless for several hours.

The operator transferred the call to the police, despite the fact that the woman explicitly asked for an ambulance.

“You only refer a call to the police if there is a possibility that the victim is violent, otherwise the operator should always contact health professionals,” said Kjær, who revealed he will now review the proper procedure of alarm centre operators.

Dr Jan Nørtved, the head of the Greater Copenhagen emergency medical services, said that the man, who was

Colourbox

Man left freezing on snow-covered bench for four hours despite repeated calls to emergency workers

finally admitted to hospital, should have received immediate help. Nørtved said that he had heard a recording of the telephone conversation requesting an ambulance for the man.

The woman who first discovered the man, whose lips were blue and whose head was resting in an unnatural position, said she had to argue with police and emergency operators to get them Despite specifically requesting an ambulance, the caller was directed to the police to help. hours by this time and that he needed “I called the community police and they said he would be okay as long as to be moved right away, but that the he was snoring, and then they asked me if operator said it would be better if the he was drunk,” the woman, who asked to police came and woke the man.

When police came on the line, they be identified only as Lea, told Politiken.

“I said that he had urinated in his pants again asked if the man was drunk or a and smelled of alcohol, and the police drug addict.

After waiting another 20 minutes, said that I should call a shelter.”

The woman went home and called a the woman flagged down a man walkshelter, who told her that it did not have ing his dog and asked for help because the personnel to pick up the man and she was afraid the man on the bench asked if she could check on him every had stopped breathing.

The man refused to give the victim half hour.

After finding the man colder and – who he feared was a drug addict – his condition worsening, the woman mouth to mouth resuscitation, but he did ring 112. rang 112.

“You need to come now. There is a “When I called emergency services, they also asked if the man was drunk man dying out here,” the man reportand said they would transfer me to the edly screamed into his phone.

The ambulance arrived a short time community police,” she said.

She said she told the operator that later. The man’s condition remains unthe man had been there for several known.

Justin Cremer

Scanpix/Mette buck Jensen

Ray Weaver

Autopsy verifies that Denmark had its first canis lupus in nearly 200 years

I

t’s official. For the first time in almost two hundred years, Denmark has wolves. Well, one dead wolf at least.

Naturstyrelsen, the national nature agency, confirmed last week that the wolf-like animal spotted in Thy National Park in northern Jutland was indeed a wolf.

The animal, first spotted walking through a natural reserve by a group of bird watchers, was found dead on November 16. DNA tests carried out have now confirmed that it was a wolf, Canis lupus, and that its DNA matches exactly that of wolves found in Germany.

“This is a big discovery for Denmark’s nature,” Ole Markussen of Naturstyrelsen said. “We haven’t verified the observance of wolves in 199 years, and it is an animal at the top of the food chain that we don’t typically have a lot of in our nature areas. It was a lone wanderer and now it is dead. If or when a new wolf will come to Denmark, we do not know.”

Naturstyrelsen said that nothing indicates that wolves are on their way

It took about three weeks to determine if the animal was indeed a wolf

back to Denmark, but since the wolf population in Germany is growing, the nature agency predicted that sightings would be more frequent. At least more than once every 200 years, anyway.

It is unknown how long the wolf had lived in Denmark before being discovered. The autopsy report concluded that it died as a result of an inflamed tumour that eventually grew large enough to choke the animal.

The wolf also suffered a long period in which it could not tolerate food due to the tumour.

Its skeleton will now be sent to the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen. Prior to the October sighting, the last registered wolf in Denmark was shot in 1813.

6 News Exodus 2012: State church loses Asylum centre to be split record number of members The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

Peter Stannners

Jesus is the reason for the season, but what exactly is the reason for the leavin’?

C

hristmas is just around the corner and churches nationwide will most likely be standing room only for holiday services. And yet the Church of Denmark (folkekirken) will look back on 2012 as a year in which it lost an historic number of members.

More than 17,000 people quit the church in the first three quarters of 2012, and that number is expected to rise to 20,000 by the year’s end.

Experts pointed at three main reasons for the exodus: the debate over allowing gay marriages, the economic crisis, and the shrinking desire on the part of the overall population to be a part of religious communities in general.

For the former church minister Per Stig Møller (Konservative), the blame for falling church membership lays squarely at the feet of the current church minister, Manu Sareen (Radkale). Møller said that he warned Sareen that church membership would drop if homosexuals were allowed to marry in the church. After a long and often heated debate, gays were given the right to be married in state churches in June of this year.

Møller said that homosexual couples should have been allowed to be joined as “life companions” in a different ceremony and not use the same ecclesiastical rituals as traditional male/ female couples.

“If the current government would have followed our proposal, it would not have gone so wrong and the debate would not have been so extreme,” Møller told Berlingske newspaper.

Møller agreed that the sour economy did deserve some of the blame for dwindling church membership, but remained firm in his assertion that homosexual marriage was the primary cause of the massive flight from the church.

Reverend Charlotte Chammon of the Nørre Herlev parish church near Hillerød said she believes that a lot of the debate about empty pews is mediadriven and that the press is partially to blame for members leaving the church.

“I read an article a while ago that said church membership had fallen from 80 percent of the population to 78 percent – that doesn’t strike me as the ‘dramatic decrease’ that the media is reporting,” Chammon told The Copenhagen Post.

“I have not seen a steep decrease in membership in my parish – less than ten out of 2,000 members have left this year, and only two said it was due to gay marriage.”

Scanpix / Linda Kastrup

Ray Weaver

Sandholm Asylum Centre is under pressure from illegal residents, so Justice Ministry moves to separate failed asylum seekers from the rest

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evelations that Sandholm Asylum Centre north of Copenhagen is being used as a base for drug dealing operations by some residents has led to plans to split up the centre.

Sandholm is one of Denmark’s main asylum centres and houses about 600 asylum seekers. It is both a reception centre for asylum seekers new to Denmark, as well as a home for asylum seekers who have had their applications rejected and are being readied for repatriation.

The justice minister, Morten Bødskov (Socialdemokraterne), announced on Sunday that these two groups would be separated after reports indicated that many failed asylum seekers were selling drugs from and within the centre.

“We are splitting up the people who are currently residents in Sandholm,” Bødskov told TV2 News. “I hope that it will be enough, but we need to be aware that there are people who abuse our asylum system and we need to aggressively target them.”

Failed and criminal asylum seekers would be removed from Sandholm’s general population, though more details about where they would be located and who would operate the facility have yet to be determined.

The move arrives after a lengthy investigation by TV2 News that started after police caught several drug dealers in Vesterbro this May who were failed

If you show up at Christmas you might have a hard time finding a seat, but the other 364 days of the year look increasingly like this in Denmark’s churches

of an underlying societal deChammon said velopment in which everythat she believed thing is being re-evaluated,” that the economic he told Berlingske. “We do crisis has contribnot view the church in the uted more than We do not view the same way as former lifetime any other factor to church in the same members may have.” people leaving the Sørine Gotfredsen and church – people way as former lifetime Kathrine Lilleør are also have to decide where members may have priests in the state church. to cut back during They blame declining memtough times, she bership on ecclesiastical said, and trimming the contribution to the church seems like rather than political issues.

“We do a bad job,” they said in an a logical place to start to some.

“When people are trying to decide, interview in Berlingske. “Too many and there is already so much talk in the people associate the state church with media about people leaving the church, heavy, woeful worship services. We they think it may be a good time for need to focus on music and messages that hit people in the heart and make them to leave as well,” she said.

University of Copenhagen theol- them think.”

They said that the church must beogy professor Hans Raun Iversen said that the people’s relationship with the come a place where everyone feels welcome worshipping together regardless of church is merely evolving.

“The withdrawals are an expression their appearance, status and differences.

asylum seekers living in Sandholm.

Following this revelation, TV2 News exposed widespread drug dealing at the centre – cannabis could be bought from the centre’s small shop – as well as the extent to which people had illegally taken up residence there.

For example, police action at the end of last week at Sandholm led to the arrest of a 20-year-old rejected asylum seeker from Algeria who was caught in possession of 5.1 grams of cocaine, as well as the discovery of 25 grams of amphetamines.

Police also arrested a 47-year-old Polish man who was wanted by the immigration authorities and had illegally taken up residence in the centre without the knowledge of the Red Cross, which operates Sandholm.

TV2 also reported that between 30 and 40 individuals illegally enter the centre every day and that many of them are criminals – a fact known to the Red Cross due to reports by residents concerned by the presence of these individuals.

The Red Cross has also faced criticism for its handling of crime at the centre. While representatives repeatedly stated that all crime at the centre was reported to the police, documents obtained by TV2 News suggested that only around a third of all cases are reported.

The police and the Red Cross have now agreed on a new plan for co-operation that will include increased patrols by North Zealand Police inside the centre.

The Red Cross will also have to increase its control of both those who enter the asylum centre and those who are found within it. Contributing to this will be increased video surveillance of the perimeter and shared outdoor areas.

Education improvement undermines call for longer school day Need for more school hours being questioned after international study shows students are among the best

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anish fourth graders improved 13 places in the most recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), which found Denmark had jumped from 18th place in 2006 to a tie for fifth place in the most recent 2011 study, released on Tuesday.

Fourth graders (ages ten to eleven) also scored high on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which ranked students eighth internationally for their comprehension of mathematics and science.

The two studies, carried out every five years, come at an inconvenient time for the government, which last week unveiled a school reform that would see students spend more time in school, while also increasing the number of

hours teachers spend in the classroom.

The findings have given opponents of the reform new ammunition.

“There has been a lot of discussion about whether students should spend 37 hours a week in school,” Anders Bondo Christensen, the head of teachers’ union DLF, told Politiken newspaper. “Maybe we need to do something else entirely if we want to improve student performance. These studies appear to be giving a clear indication of that.”

He commended teachers for the results. “Despite budget cuts, these results show that teachers have still managed to deliver high-quality education.”

But the TIMSS and PIRLS results also show that teachers might not be faring as well as their students.

Some 23 percent of teachers said disruptive students significantly hindered their ability to teach, and 62 percent said they accepted disruptive behaviour as a natural part of the classroom. (BSM)

Online this week SF deputy chairman steps down

Children risk getting asthma from mother’s antibiotics

Mathias Tesfaye (pictured), the deputy chairman of Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF), has decided to step down due to disagreements with the party over the direction it has taken after Annette Vilhelmsen assumed the reins in early October. Tesfaye will remain a member of SF, but will withdraw from the party’s executive committee. Tesfaye

When mothers take antibiotics during their pregnancy, it increases the risk that their child will have asthma by up to 20 percent, according to a Danish study involving over 30,000 children and reported by the science website Videnskab.dk. Taking antibiotics such as penicillin disrupts the mother’s natural production of bacteria, which can lead to the

backed Astrid Krag’s losing bid to become SF leader after Villy Søvndal stepped down

development of the condition.

Danish scientists became suspicious of the link in 1998 when they followed a group of 411 children being treated for asthma while also looking at the antibiotic intake of mothers during the last trimester of their pregnancies. The results of the study have just been published in The Journal of Paediatrics.

Aarhus municipal building evacuated in bomb scare A city office in the Viby area of Aarhus was cleared just after noon on Monday due to a bomb threat. Police immediately evacuated 300 people from the building at Grøndalsvej 2 and brought in bomb-sniffing dogs to search the area after a phone call threatened to blow

up the building. No trace of explosives was found after several hours of searching, and the police eventually called off their search. “We’re not taking any risks,” a police spokesperson, Mogen Brøndum, told The Copenhagen Post.

Read the full stories at cphpost.dk

7 Hailed abroad, national climate goals attacked at home news

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

Peter Stannners Cheap coal is keeping fossil fuels alive and jeopardising efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

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enmark’s plan, unveiled earlier this year, to become entirely independent of fossil fuels by 2050 earned it the highest spot in the 2013 Climate Change Performance Index. However, the Index, compiled by Climate Action Network Europe and German Watch to coincide with the opening of the UN climate conference in Doha, left the top three places empty and ranked Denmark fourth.

“No country’s effort is deemed sufficient to prevent dangerous climate change,” the report stated. “Therefore, as in the years before, we still cannot award any country with first, second or third place.”

The report’s authors refer to the on-going struggle to limit greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees.

The two-degree limit was set at the 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen, but three years later, as COP18 wrapped up in Doha, the world’s biggest polluters seem to have done little to curb their consumption of fossil fuels.

In fact, the dirtiest fossil fuel, coal, has become even more popular as its price has fallen in recent years. The International Energy Agency estimates that carbon dioxide emissions will rise by 20 percent over the next ten years.

The Doha conference managed to extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and lay the groundwork for a new binding treaty to come into force by 2020.

Denmark is bucking the trend, however, and the current government is committed to sourcing half of the country’s electricity from wind energy by 2020, reducing emissions by 34 percent.

According to the climate minister, Martin Lidegaard (Radikale), Denmark’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should serve as an inspiration to other countries nervous about ditching coal.

“We show that it is possible to be both climate and businessfriendly while also raising standards of living,” Lidegaard wrote in a press release. “I am proud that we can be a pioneer country.”

Denmark’s plan to end its reliance on fossil fuels by 2050 is not without its critics, however.

A new study by three universities has shown that plans to replace fossil fuels with carbon-neutral biomass will have a greater environmental impact than the government predicted.

Minister pleased with climate conference outcome Denmark’s climate minister, Martin Lidegaard (Radikale), welcomed the outcome of the UN COP18 climate conference in Doha, which concluded on Saturday with an agreement to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020, at which point a new binding agreement would come into force.

It was also agreed that the 2014 climate conference would work towards finding ways to make more ambitious global emission reductions part of the 2020 deal, with the aim to

keep warming within two degrees of current levels.

“It’s vital that we soon make decisions that ensure we keep our political promises,” Lidegaard said. “That is why I am pleased that the climate conference in 2014 will deal with how to limit carbon emissions in the near future by, for example, increasing energy efficiency and removing state subsidies for fossil fuels.”

Extending the Kyoto Protocol before it expired in the new year was vital to maintaining

The study by Aalborg University, the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Southern Denmark argues that Denmark will have to burn four times more biomass in order to reach its 2050 targets.

But this biomass needs to be grown on land that is otherwise not being used for crops, meaning that extra fertiliser will be used that will inevitably flow into lakes and fjords, carrying with it a higher risk of oxygen depletion and fish casualties.

Environment lobby group Det Økologisk Råd argued, however, that the study exaggerated the environmental impact of biomass.

“DTU study made its calculation on the basis of a scenario where most of the fossil fuel used

in Denmark would be replaced by biomass - and this would certainly go terribly wrong.,” organisation head Christian Ege said. “But this is not going to happen. The highest priority must be given to energy conservation and the use of wind, sun, geothermal, and biogas. Use of biomass must be the last option, and it must be a short term, intermediate solution.”

Finding cost-effective alternatives for fossil fuels is one of the major problems facing the introduction of a low carbon economy, especially given the plummeting costs of shale gas and coal.

Denmark has a distinct advantage in that it is a wealthy country with a technology sector capable of providing both renewable energy and energy efficient solutions.

Christmas lights go dark in small towns Businesses say they simply cannot afford to pitch in for Yuletide cheer

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he recent uproar over a community association’s decision to drop the neighbourhood Christmas tree made national – and international – headlines. It was reported as an all-out War on Christmas featuring strongarming Muslims on one side and a violation of an elected body’s democratic rights on the other.

But in some places throughout Denmark, seasonal lights are not coming on simply because there is not enough money to pay for them.

Closed shops and a struggling economy are making it harder and harder for businesses and cities to decorate for the holidays.

The nation’s retailers pick up a large portion of the bill for the festive hearts, bells, garlands and lights over their town’s pedestrian streets, and more and more are opting out.

“We have dropped Christmas lights on one street this year because we simply cannot find the money,” Helle Sørensen, the head of Viborg Handel, the Jutland town’s trade association, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

“Many shops said that they sim-

ply did not have the three to five thousand kroner each it costs to keep the lights on.”

While councils in some areas provide a grant for Christmas lights, Sørensen fears that closing shops will result in even fewer holiday lighting displays.

“When storefronts stand empty, there is no-one to send the bill to,” she said. “Those still in business have to pay more and more and that is not fair.”

The Copenhagen suburb of Frederiksberg is doubling the distance between the stands of light in order to stretch both decorations and money.

“It is a struggle everywhere,” said Bent Aarrebo Pedersen, the chairperson of Danmarks Handelsstandsforeninger, the national shopkeeper’s association. “It is difficult to find funding for joint activities in the towns at a time when revenue has stalled.”

Larger cities seem to be faring better than small towns when it comes to holiday decorating.

Claus Bech, the head of the local business lobby Aarhus City, acknowledged that it gets harder and harder to find the money for Christmas lights every year, but he considers it both time and funding well spent.

“If Christmas lights are shut down elsewhere, the cities that keep them on have the edge during the holiday season,” Bech told Jyllands-Posten.

The high shopping turnover

Scanpix/Kim Haugaard

Ray Weaver

While Aarhus was able to go big, other towns aren’t so lucky

on Copenhagen’s busy streets has actually allowed the capital to expand its lighting this year.

“We actually have very broad support for our Christmas decorations, but I know that it is a challenge in many places to get decorations up,” Jan Michael Hansen, the head of the inner city advocacy group Københavns City Center, told Jyllands-Posten.

Meanwhile Aulum, a tiny town of just over 3,000 citizens located between Herning and Holstebro in Jutland, went on the offensive and asked citizens to help the town keep the lights burning.

“We heard only positive things about the new LED Christmas lighting that we set up last year,” city spokesperson Bodil Grove Christrensen said.

“They cost less to operate, but we have also spent all of our money, so we are asking everyone to chip in. We welcome both small and large donations.”

the legal framework for binding emissions commitments before a new deal begins in 2020.

Lidegaard was disappointed, however, that more money was not pledged to invest in ‘climate-friendly’ infrastructure in developing countries, such as low-carbon and energy-efficient technology.

“It’s disappointing that we couldn’t find more money for developing countries,” Lidegaard said. “We only barely made the goal with this deal. It’s not ambitious.” (PS) Developing countries are not in such a fortunate position, however. A $30 billion fund was established for the period 2010 to 2012 and developing countries lobbied at Doha to increase this investment. One of the only major developed countries that has agreed to do so is the UK, which last week pledged an additional £133 million to finance a solar power project in Africa, bringing its contribution to £2.9 billion.

While Denmark has established its own 700 million kroner climate fund for the same purpose, Lidegaard argued that the conversion to renewable energy is being hampered by the 3,000 billion kroner in subsidies for fossil fuels given out every year by governments.

“It’s not true that support

for fossil fuel subsidies help the poorest, it goes to the middle class and to those that drive cars,” Lidegaard told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “It’s also not right that it creates economic growth.

In some developing countries, 25 percent of the state budget is used on this sort of support without it leading anywhere.”

But while Lidegaard argued that the subsidies would be better used investing in energy efficiency and low-carbon energy solutions, John Nordbo, the head of conservation at the World Wildlife Foundation, argues it would prove difficult in some countries.

“Removing subsidies will have serious social consequences in poor countries,” Nordbo told Jyllands-Posten. “It could lead to revolt on the streets. State support for fossil fuels is such a sensitive subject that governments in countries such as Indonesia don’t dare talk about them.”

While Denmark may preach, it still has a long way to go to fulfil its climate ambitions.

According to a study by the IDA, the national society of engineers, Denmark is only set to achieve ten of the government’s 29 goals for 2050.

One of the major issues is finding initiatives to reduce emissions from the transport sector, though Lidegaard has promised to put forward a plan targeting transport, agriculture and housing in the new year.

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8

OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

The trouble with the Armenian Genocide COLOURBOX

Criminal, convert, radical … blabbermouth

14 - 20 December 2012

PET’s biggest problem right now isn’t that a former agent is spilling the beans, it is that no-one prevented him from becoming an agent in the first place

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OLLOWING along with the series of stories about PET agent Morten Storm, it should be beyond any doubt that it is time to change the way we keep tabs on the spy agency.

Even with the successes PET can claim in preventing terrorism, questions abound about the way it does its business.

Given the continued uncertainty about what role PET may or may not have played in the targeted killing of US-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, there’s good reason to heed the calls of critics and take a close look at its use of informants and whether it is engaging in operations abroad in violation of its mandate.

An investigation into PET is likely to bring new information to light, but those demanding clarity about intelligence operations should prepare to be disappointed. Spying is by nature secretive, and we’ve already seen that one of the most serious attempts to help improve transparency at the organisation concluded only this February after being in the works since 1998.

Ironically, one the key elements of that report was a proposal for how to monitor the use of civilian agents like Storm, and it is tempting to think that such control would have forced the agency to stop using a former criminal and self-promoter, turned Muslim convert, turned radical, turned agent, turned blabbermouth.

Although PET chief Jakob Scharf has already announced his support for greater oversight, he has also warned that too much transparency can be a bad thing. Instead of “demystifying” PET entirely, he would keep some facts about its operations under his hat. Secrecy, he has said, “has a preventive effect all its own”.

Assuming he is right, then one of the challenges of any oversight reform would be to allow him to keep the secrecy he says he needs, yet at the same time open up the agency enough for someone to have a clear idea of whether it plays by the rules.

Right now most of what we know about how PET operates comes from the allegations of a man who we know has already lied to at least one group of people who trusted him. The problem with Morten Storm isn’t so much that he likes to run his mouth. The problem is that he was chosen as an agent in the first place. If PET can’t do a better a job at identifying its friends, you can only wonder how well it can identify our enemies.

CECILIE BANKE

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ACHIAVELLI once wrote that you can conquer a people, but you can’t conquer their memories. Suppressed memories, he concluded, will only have a way of cropping up whenever they get the chance. There can hardly be a better modern example of this than the massacre of the Armenians during the First World War. Even though over 90 years has passed since Armenians living in the former Ottoman Empire were forcibly deported, and even though the memory of what happened was first suppressed and then later neglected, the past two decades have seen increasing international focus on what happened.

Most recently, the Danish Royal Library came under hefty criticism from both sides for its decision to organise an exhibit ion about the Armenian Genocide. First, they were criticised by the Turkish Embassy. Then, when the library decided to allow the Turks to present their side of the story, the Armenian side protest-

ed. The decision was seen as kowtowing to Turkey and continuing the denial that lies at the heart of the dispute.

But how can something that happened over 90 years ago continue to divide two countries? And why should the Royal Library be dragged into a conflict that boils down to the Armenians’ struggle for the world to recognise what happened to them during the war – before modern Turkey even came into existence? It has happened because the question of the Armenian genocide has become a part of the global culture of memory, which over the past two decades has come to play an increasingly significant role in inter-state relations and in the relationship between minority groups and states. The question touches on not just state policies towards minorities, it also touches on foreign policy and security policy. States can improve their relations with their neighbours if they own up to past crimes. The most famous example is West Germany accepting its responsibility for crimes committed against the Jews during the Second World War, symbolised by the spontaneous gesture of humility and penance by the chancellor of West Germany, Willy Brandt, when he fell on his knees at the memorial to the victims of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Other gross violations of human rights have come to define which historical signals states choose to show to the rest of the world.

The row over the Royal Library’s exhibition shows how even a small country like Denmark can

get caught up in other countries’ conflicts over how a specific period of history should be interpreted. Disagreements about how the past should be interpreted can grow into a diplomatic dispute and come to determine which signals independent states show the rest of the world. The US Congress has, on more than one occasion, been close to ratifying a resolution that would recognise the Armenian Genocide, but each time pressure from Turkey has prevented this from happening.

It is actions like these that Armenian interest groups, as well as historians and other scholars, say constitute a Turkish attempt to downplay the brutal deportation of Armenians and other Christian groups. As Taner Akcam, a Turkish historian now teaching at Clark University in the US, wrote in the New York Times recently: “Turkey’s attitude towards the Armenians sends a worrying signal to the Christian minority in the region.

In such an interpretation, responsibility for preserving not just Turkey’s modern history, but also its Ottoman history, needs to be seen in terms of overarching questions of security, stability and democracy in a region where continued denial of past transgressions only adds to tensions between ethnic and religious groups.”

Akcam’s views can also be seen as part of another trend in this global culture of memory; it is expected that countries will own up to their pasts the way Germany did. Germany has admitted its historical guilt and has set the standard for how other states should act when faced with a problematic

past. Nowadays, we expect that a state admits its guilt, atones for its transgressions and compensates its victims. This is precisely what Turkey is fighting against. Turkey does not believe it is responsible for crimes committed by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Nor does it see itself as having done something comparable to Germany or that it needs to atone for anything or compensate anyone. As long as there is an expectation that Turkey will face up to its violent past, Turkey will continue to resist international pressure to recognise the genocide.

However, letting Turkey present its version of the massacre of the Armenians will not contribute to the process being carried out by European and American historians to draw up a modern picture of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenians will feel Denmark has bowed to Turkish pressure. Instead, the library should support the efforts of historians to place the Armenian Genocide in a historical context together with other religiously motivated violence that arose as a result of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Doing so would move the discussion away from the difficult issue of whether or not it was genocide and towards historical research and documentation, for the benefit of everyone involved.

Memory is the way we recall what happened in the past. History is what makes us wiser about it.

The author is the head of the Danish Institute for International Studies’ holocaust and genocide research unit

READER COMMENTS Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

Emergency services didn’t mishandle this one

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

I am a 53-year-old American citizen who has been working and living in Copenhagen for the past two years. I am writing to share my experience and show my appreciation for the Danish people, police and health system for saving my life. Two weeks ago, I went for a quick run in the centre of Copenhagen near our apartment. My boyfriend was gone for the weekend in his hometown for a traditional annual Christmas party with his friends. While running, my heart stopped for seven minutes. A garbage collector and a nurse that happened to be walking by saved my life. The ambulance was there within minutes so they were able to revive me. I didn’t have any identification with me. I was all over the news as a “35-year-old who fell to her death and probably had children alone at home”. I had the key ring for the Lexus, our car. Our upstairs neighbour guessed it was me and notified the police. They called my boyfriend, picked him up at the train station and brought him to hospital. I stayed in hospital for two weeks undergoing tests, and now have a defibrillator implant which will save me if this should happen again. I cannot

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say enough of the care that I was given at the Bispebjerg hospital with professional, around-theclock medical staff and the latest diagnostics technology. Lessons learned: I will never leave home without identification and information on who to call if something happens. Also once I am back on my feet, I will take a CPR class to save people if I happen to be walking by. I am grateful for coming back to life again.

Maryam By email

and hampered many people who could be fully contributing to Danish society and be happily ‘integrated’, but are not allowed to.

Maybe they should try something totally new: to show and teach us foreigners a reason to love what they deem Danish culture (and associated trivia) for a change.

Their attempts to scare us away have failed, and we don’t love that culture more for their sake, rest assured.

Loroferoz By website

Curtain falls on history-rich citizenship test

Former minister faces ‘stateless’ scrutiny

History (in this case) is not relevant, what matters is respect of, and allegiance to, Denmark and the Danish way of life.

Andrew Wilson

By Facebook

I don’t know how other countries handle these matters, but maybe articles like this need to appear more widely outside Denmark to highlight an element of shame over political wrongdoings.

Lucy Jordan By website

Folkeparti are all about control and not being able to follow the looks of the future. Thus they privilege trivia over relevant facts, bureaucracy over openness and the antiquated over the modern.

But leading Denmark towards a demographic and societal dead end is an effect of their actions that they might not be aware of.

Fortunately, this is not possible any more than communism or racial purity among humans is possible. But they have delayed

What? You mean that you can be a good Danish citizen without knowing who the queen’s third inbred cousin is? Unheard of!

DanDansen By website School reform calls for English in first grade As a non-Dane, I was surprised when I found that almost everyone in Denmark speaks or at least

understands English very well. I can assure you that you don’t need to learn it that early unless you want your kids to master the accent – but the language itself can be learnt at any age. On the other hand, learning English that early can turn the culture of the next generation into a more ‘American’ one. Such a decision must thus be made wisely without rushing.

Free_Man2010 By website Culture minister resigns after nepotism allegations What exactly does a Danish culture minister do? I mean, it basically consists of arranging Hans Christian Andersen retrospectives, subsidising the publication of unreadable short stories by Karen von Blixen, making sure Carl Nielsen isn’t totally forgotten outside of Denmark, and hiring out the Little Mermaid. I could do that. Unless it’s Kim Larsens’ centenary in 2013. Or maybe it just feels like that.

Boredwitless By website Elbaek is such a fool! He should have learned from his last case about spending money not according to rules. Nevertheless, Denmark is still the least corrupt country this year.

Stinne Nørby

By Facebook

OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

14 - 20 December 2012

Ancient Danish Christmas traditions are anything but

W

You’re Still Here?

BY KELLY DRAPER Kelly Draper is a British teacher who came to Denmark four years ago for work. She has been acting informally as a critical friend to Denmark. This has not gone down particularly well with Danes, who often tell her she should like it or leave it. Her blog is at adventuresandjapes. wordpress.com.

HEN I FIRST arrived in Denmark as a lone immigrant, I continued to go home for Christmas. All I noticed at first about the Danish Christmas was that it smelled a bit different and was a little less commercialised, but otherwise it was the same as what I was used to.

My view of Danish Christmas changed when I could speak Danish.

My school has a yearly trip to the local church on the last day before the December break. The first time I went, I had zero idea what the vicar was saying.

The second time, I was stunned to hear a sermon about the conversion of the Vikings. (In short: Viking leader invited to become Christian. Missionary did a magic trick. Conversion.)

This was a real whiskey tango foxtrot moment for me. I was shocked that a vicar wanted to tell pagan fairy stories to celebrate her Messiah’s birth. It was a good story, sure, but it does not say anything about the messages of Christmas (which are: sharing is good, God loves us, children give us hope). You would think you could rely on a vicar to slot at least one of those bad boys in.

Christianity is not the religion of Denmark. Danishness is.

Thing is, Christianity is not the religion of Denmark. Danishness is. Many believe their traditions stem from when a pagan warlord was convinced that Christianity prevents burns. Nowadays, the worship of Jesus is considered a bit weird, but not observing the shibboleths of Danishness, especially at Christmastime, is seen as a major provocation.

Witness a community deciding not to put up a tree and the unholy ruckus that results. One politician has had death threats for saying it is not really for parliament to interfere with what they are doing. Yes, death threats.

One commenter said that anyone saying Danish traditions are open for discussion is a traitor, so death threats are not surprising. So much for “peace on earth and goodwill to all men”!

Where is the tree in the New Testament? The Christmas tree was intro-

duced to Denmark in the 1800s by Germans. In fact, most Danish Christmas traditions that are no longer up for discussion are both modern and foreign.

The woven heart thingies: 1800s. Wrapping paper: 1800s. Christmas elves: 1840s. Æbleskiver: late 1800s. Creamy rice pudding: late 1800s. Advent calendars: early 1900s, from Germany. Flags on trees: 1940s. Santa: post 1940s.

The ‘perennial’ Christmas Eve menu is also more modern than Viking times.

The potato did not become popular in Danish kitchens until the 1800s, and as for roast pork and duck, they only really got popular a little over 100 years ago.

Many Christmas traditions started during the Occupation in the Second World War as a way of asserting a sense of national pride. This feeling has warped over time into the idea that all Danish Christmas traditions are ancient and not subject to alteration.

Consider anyone in Denmark with a background other than evangelical Lutheran. The idea of celebrating Christmas in a different way, on a different day or not at all is thought outrageous. How else can we explain how everyone eats the same accompaniments

9

with their roast meat on Christmas Eve? In my country, families have their own variations on their plate. In Denmark, there are the same four things next to the meat on the table and two of them are types of potatoes.

A friend of mine in London received a Christmas card from her new neighbour with a cheery “Apologies if you don’t celebrate Christmas!” Here friends are asked “Yes, but HOW do Jews celebrate Christmas?”

Denmark needs to mix it up a little.

Sure, these traditions are nice, but we badly need some novelty. Brown potatoes and roast meat are delicious, but a little diversity also goes down well. Why not introduce some Brussels sprouts?

Why not try having Christmas dinner at lunch time? Why not see what the Germans are doing this year and copy them? Again.

I think without this flexibility in approach, some Danes will continue to feel threatened by their neighbours observing their own family traditions in their own way.

Those without a sense of proportion, please send the death threats in the usual way.

Mind your own business!

D

To Be Perfectly Frank

BY FRANK THEAKSTON 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?

of ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’.

The assertion that Danes are some of the best informed people in the world is seemingly justified by the quantity of newsprint that abounds in this country. But for people to be informed, they must read and understand what has been written, and my gut feeling is that the assimilation of knowledge is somehow inversely proportional to the sheer quantity of ‘information’ that is thrown our way.

And there is apparently a generation growing up now who won’t be able to read the stuff anyway! So from where do we glean the informed public opinion necessary to run such a meticulous, finely-tuned democracy?

What’s more, the amount of personal information available in the public domain in this country is quite staggering. (Though not as staggering as in Sweden, I’m told, where everyone’s personal details are hung out to dry.)

We are at the moment trying to sell our house, and not only can prospective buyers find out about it on the web, which is quite reasonable of course, but once it’s sold, any busybody will be able to see what we sold it for and

ENMARK is often described as a society of contradictions, and I put that down to the Danish concept of democracy. It’s apparently not enough to elect a government now and then and devolve decision-making to local authorities and such. That’s quite normal in any democratic country.

But here it’s taken further – much further. The endless political debates about the seemingly most trivial subjects reflect this society’s obsession with individualism. There is apparently room for everyone’s opinion about everything, whether or not they are indeed qualified or informed enough to express one.

Of course, this has been aided and abetted by the blogging culture that sprang up in the wake of the internet and, following on, the ever-pervasive social media that allow the emptyminded to reveal to the world the extent of their empty-mindedness. But the influence that this manifestation of ‘people power’ exerts is such that institutions such as the BBC, hitherto respected for its high standards of broadcasting, feels the need to devote entire programmes to vacuous statements from the present-day equivalent

The amount of personal information available in the public domain in this country is quite staggering even how much we might have had to reduce the price by in order to sell it.

A similar thing happened when we bought our summer-house. The neighbour appeared quite unannounced though a gap in the hedge and, after the niceties of introducing himself and welcoming us to the area, soon cut to the chase and demanded to know what we had paid for the house. Now this sort of thing engenders an odd combination of emotions in me: I feel offended and embarrassed, but at the same time am unable to do anything but answer for fear of being rude. The fact that my upbringing tells me that he was being rude by intruding on my private affairs is immaterial: it’s the ‘when in Rome’ principle I suppose.

So one’s personal circumstances are everyone’s property, but then how does this tally with the insistence that one’s personal actions are not up for discussion? Just think back to the SAS debacle a few weeks ago. Everything hung on the Danish trade unions swallowing the bitter pill of changing a previous agreement. One union had allowed ‘negotiations’ to pass the official deadline, when the finance minister, Bjarne Corydon, had the gall to text the chief union representative and remind him of the grave consequences for Denmark of not backing down.

Indignation – man skal ikke blande sig! Incredible! The same indignation that I get when I remind someone that perhaps he or she should not be cycling on a pedestrian crossing, or when I gesticulate at some idiot who’s texting or phoning while trying to drive a car.

The response is either complete passive indifference or a sarcastic (sorry, ironic) demand to know whether I’m a policeman. I don’t mind being told to mind my own business when it’s clearly not my business, but I draw the line when it’s my personal well-being or even my life that’s on the line.

CPH POST VOICES

BRICK BY BRICK

GRAIN OF SAND

MACCARTHY’S WORLD

CHRISTIAN VALUES

STILL ADJUSTING

Stephanie Brickman

Tendai Tagarira

Clare MacCarthy

Christian Wenande

Justin Cremer

NEXT WEEK

IN 2 WEEKS

CRAZIER THAN CHRISTMAS

Vivienne McKee IN 3 WEEKS

THE WORDS OF ÖZ

Özcan Arjulovski

THE LYNCH REPORT

Stuart Lynch IN 4 WEEKS

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COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

14 - 20 December 2012

They survived a snowstorm to sequin streamers and salute Santa

BY JESSICA O’SULLIVAN

Not even a snowstorm could dampen the spirits of those who braved the frosty odds to make their way to the annual Copenhagen Post Family Christmas Party. Held at the Copenhagen Marriott Hotel, in co-operation with DTU, Expat in Denmark and CPH International Service, it was a kids paradise with arts and crafts, a Christmas choir and music, and of course glögg

For these two gorgeous half Danish, half English girls, Billie and Emiliye, it was all smiles throughout the day, whilst the arts and crafts room proved extremely popular with kids and adults alike

Enjoying some quality family time were Maja and her parents, Jan and Britt, making Christmas cards; while Lykke My and older sister Anabell toiled away as their proud parents looked on. Australian parents Geoff and Sam were only too happy to pose for this happy family snap with their daughters, Tessa, eight, and Sophie, seven

Around the hotel there was a great chance for Danish and international families to relax and enjoy the Christmas carols; while others, such a Copenhagen Post intern Jessica Hanley, enjoyed the opportunity to kick back with a much needed cup of glögg

THE COPENHAGEN POST would like to thank Marriott Hotel, McDonald’s, Royal Unibrew, our partners Expat in Denmark, DTU and CPH International service, and all of our guests for making the Family Christmas Party an enormous success. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you in 2013!

Organised by

14 - 20 December 2012

community

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

11

Ines Honfi the Owner of Eden Art, who organised the arts and crafts room, once again enjoyed the festivities, as did mum Sofie, seen here helping her half Danish, half American twins, Carl and Ingrid, with their decorations. Meanwhile little citizens of the world, sister and brother Delta and Storm, were eagerly waiting for Santa, while talented Qingfang entertained those present with the assistance of her teacher John, from Harman Music Methods

Bilingual Santa proved to be quite a hit with the kids as he made his way into the party. Surrounded by chords of happy and occasionally bewildered children, Santa was handing out goody bags full of candy, that were bound to make him popular with parents

While many of the older children were only too eager to give Santa their wish list, a few of the smaller ones weren’t exactly sure what to make of him

in co-operation with

Supported by

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COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

14 - 20 December 2012

ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

Thailand’s new ambassador is Vimon Kidchob. Sawatdee kraup! She made her first public appearance at a celebration of the Thai National Day (and its king’s birthday) last week on Wednesday at Asia House. (Right) A Thai dancer poses in front of the king’s portrait

The stars were out in force for the premiere of ‘The Hobbit’ on Sunday. Vivienne McKee (left in red) celebrated her day off from appearing in the Crazy Christmas Cabaret at Tivoli to attend, while former prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (right) took part of his family along

Romanian ambassador Viorel Ardeleanu celebrated his country’s national day last week on Monday with a reception at the Marriott Hotel. Here he is greeting Greek ambassador Dimitrios Kontoumas

Finnish ambassador Maarit Jalava celebrated his country’s independence day last week on Thursday with a reception at her residence near Kastellet. Here she is greeting Polish ambassador Rafal Wisniewski

American author Richard Ford was in town to attend the International Authors’ Scene at the Black Diamond on Monday. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘The Sportswriter’ gave a presentation including readings and then took part in a Q&A

The Albanian ambassador Arben Cici was the host on November 28 of a special celebration marking the 100th anniversary of his country at the Mirror Hall of the Art Association. Pictured here (left-right) are South Korean ambassador Geun-hyeong Yim, Jørn Thulstrup, the owner of the think-tank Institute for Business Cycle Analysis, US ambassador Laurie S Fulton, Mogens Lykketoft, the chairman of the Danish parliament, and Cici

DATING THE DANES

And then there was one ... Swapping New Zealand for Zealand for her second tour of duty, Emily McLean isn’t, as far as we know, getting hitched anytime soon. She’s out there kissing frogs to find her prince - nobody ever said Dating the Danes was going to be easy.

D

Serbian ambassador Vida Ognjenovic last Wednesday held a poetry evening in English and Serbian at the Serbian Culture Center.

Pictured here (left-right) are Usha Kiran Attri, the Indian ambassador’s wife, poet Amir Or, who has just published some of his poems in a book called ‘Loot’, Ognjenovic, Indian ambassador Ashok Kumar Attri and the embassy’s first secretary

Choirs from the Faroes (left) and Greenland (right) took to the stage for a North Atlantic Christmas concert on Saturday at Helligåndskirken.

ENMARK IS a land of this point in time he was studyextremes. Extreme weath- ing to be a bus driver. er, extreme political par“I figure when I have lots of ties and extreme men. There’s kids, I’ll be able to drive them all incredibly bad ... and there’s around easily,” he added – and incredibly good. The middle of he wasn’t making a joke. the road here doesn’t really exist.

The third warning sign went Now generalisations are easy. off when he entered into converIndividualisation is not. If you’d sational territory that shouldn’t encountered some of the dates even be crossed until well after I have, you’d understand why I the fourth date. build certain boxes to put men “When I was 23, I lost my into ... which leads me to my virginity,” he blurts out. “Refirst story. ally,” I said, wondering what I’d A few weeks ago at 8 o’clock done to deserve this information. on a Thursday “Yeah, my sister night I embarked was 26, my older on my first ‘blind brother was 24 date’ in Denand my younger mark.

Dating I figure when I have one was 21.”

Danes ‘unblind’ Yes, I am is hard enough, lots of kids, I’ll be totally serious. I so I was more able to drive them all not only heard than tentative. his sexual histoAfter seeing around easily ry, but his whole a confused lookfamily’s. I didn’t ing guy in the café, I figured it ask if it was on the same night. was him. He seemed normal ...

Now people say the Danes at first. But then the first warn- are closed − but when they do ing sign went off when I paid for open up, it’s extreme. the drinks.

But for every 200 Danish The second warning sign men who are odd, confusing, went off when he told me he rude and reserved, there is that wanted to be a pilot … but at rare one at the other end of the

scale. And I met one.

We’ll call this guy the ‘Great Dane’. You see a lot of Danish men think it’s all about the big gestures. But it’s not and it never has been – the Great Dane knows this.

Take chivalry for example.

About 99.9 per cent of Danish men don’t even know what the word means. The Great Dane, however, lifts my bike, holds my bag and even lets me wait in the car while he gets ice off the windows.

Or let’s take ‘play’. Most guys here don’t realise that play isn’t spelt c-a-r-l-s-b-e-r-g. The Great Dane does though − he even lets me play with the ultimate toy: his car. Despite the fact I drove the wrong way down a one-way street and didn’t manage to stay in my lane, all I got was a reassuring “That lady over there is just being rude.”

So I’m left with a dilemma.

Two extremes don’t make a gross generalisation about the Danish male population. So despite my past conclusions, I’m simply left to say this: Danish men, no matter how good or bad, can’t be placed in boxes.

COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

14 - 20 December 2012

13

Job centre’s doors closed, but new ones open when you’ve got skills New seminar series at Københavns Sprogcenter encourages disgruntled jobseekers to see their search for work through a new lens

F

OR MANY internationals in Denmark, the battle doesn’t end when they receive a residence permit.

Once their stay in the country is guaranteed, finding work becomes an even bigger struggle.

The problem is that many of these foreigners don’t qualify for job assistance from the Danish government. Students, au pairs and green card holders are left to search on their own. And for one Copenhagen language school, this isn’t enough.

Københavns Sprogcenter recently held a ‘Skills and Growth’ seminar aimed specifically at their students who don’t qualify for job centre assistance. According to Casper H Cordes, the careers guide at the school, a person’s eligibility for governmental help shouldn’t be a deterrent in their search – their abilities should take precedence instead.

“We’re not thinking about recruitment, and not about ‘can you give me a job?’ − we want to think along the lines of: ‘You have skills,’” Cordes said.

The school called in speak-

PAMELA JUHL

JESSICA HANLEY

ers from five Copenhagen-based companies to address the crowd of 150 students. The representatives, several of whom were expats themselves, offered candid advice on job searching as an expat, supplemented with anecdotes from their own careers.

The event then transitioned into breakout sessions during which the representatives spoke directly with smaller groups about marketing the students’ own skills and abilities. Cordes hoped this segment of the evening would help students see their own potential in a new way, in addition to creating new net-

Throughout the course of the evening, students enjoyed the chance to network with small and medium-sized business leaders in between light meals and mingling with fellow job-seekers The careers guide, Casper H Cordes (left), discusses the presentations from visiting company representatives with an attendee

We’re not thinking about recruitment, and not about ‘can you give me a job?’ − we want to think along the lines of: ‘You have skills’ working connections. “Some of these company reps are actually hiring, so there might be matches,” Cordes observed.

Finally, the attendees took the event into their own hands.

“We want to see what happens if we make classes with teachers and students and it is peer-based,” Cordes explained.

“In this room, one of us knows more than the other about something, so he or she is the teacher.

You teach what you are better at than the others in your group.”

The intent, he explained, is to boost students’ confidence after potentially numerous rejections: “Instead of feeling that you are asking for something all the time, you feel that you can actually give something as well.”

The event is the second in what Københavns Sprogcenter hopes will become a series of workshops aimed at assisting their students’ job searches. The previous seminar focused on networking, demystifying the Danish job application and targeting

NGG International School Teacher Vacancy Grade 4 Primary Teacher Teacher vacancy is a Grade 4 class teacher position of 24 lessons per week. The position is from February 18th through to June 30th Interested applicants are invited to inquire with a cover letter and current CV to: Vice-Headmaster Karen Johansen on jo@admin.ngg.dk Applicant must be a native English speaker with relevant teacher qualification, preferably with knowledge and experience of the international Primary Curriculum.

Qualified applicants should apply by deadline December 7th 2012

NGG ID Cirklehuset Christianshusvej 16 2970 Hørsholm +45 45 57 26 16 www.ngg.dk

small and medium-sized businesses. For future workshops, the school plans to look to the students for input and ideas.

Københavns Sprogcenter, according to Cordes, puts particular emphasis on career help so that students don’t just get grammar lessons when they come to class.

For him, it’s essential to give the Danish language a purpose for their students. “If you don’t already have a job, why should you speak this [difficult] language if you don’t need to?”

Through their workshops, this is exactly the question Københavns Sprogcenter is hoping to answer.

COMING UP SOON Business Development in the Arab World

Mon Dec 10, 15:30-20:00; register at copenhagenmarketing@eversheds.com; www.bccd.dk/Events/ BCCD is pleased to invite you to join this seminar on the challenges faced by international companies trying to do business in the Middle East. You will be briefed about Danish business in the Arab World, the legal workings, and various business opportunities in the Middle East.

Additionally, you will hear from people with first-hand experience, and it all wraps up with a Q&A and refreshments..

Urban Gardening Group

St Nikolaj Pub, Nikolajgade 18, Cph K; Sun Dec 16, 15:00-17:00; www. meetup.com/Copenhagen-Social-Catalysts While your green thumbs might turn blue because of the low temperatures, don’t let the snow and cold put you off from joining the Urban Gardening Group to make a difference.

Carols at Candlelight

St Alban’s Anglican Church, Churchillparken 11, Cph K; Sat Dec 15, 16:00; 50kr as donation Listen to carols sung by candlelight and soak up the atmosphere of Advent. And then warm your spirits up with mulled wine and mince pies – comfort food for both the soul and body.

Cast Calling Ansættelse sker i henhold til organisationsaftale af fællesoverenskomst mellem finansministeriet og Lærerne Centralorganisation. Skolen bestyrelse har besluttet, at ansættelse sker under forudsætning af ren straffeattest.

Københavns Sprogcenter welcomed students like Teresa, Julien and Mariana (left-right) to a career evening aimed at skilled internationals

Scene Kunst Skoler, russell@ scenekunstskoler.dk Scene Kunst Skoler is searching for two English-speaking male actors, living in the Copenhagen area, aged 35 to 40, for a short run of a Peter Asmussen play to be played early next year.

Christmas carols and mince pies at the fish shop

Fisk & Færdigt, HC Ørsteds Vej 37B, Frederiksberg; Sun 12:00-15:00; info@simonfisk.dk, 3535 1729 or 2143 5803; www.simonfisk.dk; sign up on Fisk & Færdigt’s Facebook page and get alerts on special offers The international community’s favourite fish shop, Fisk & Færdigt, is inviting everyone to its premises on Sunday to listen to carols (12:0013:30) and eat mince pies, while enjoying a glass of gløgg or a few slurps of Piscator beer from Mikkeller – all free of charge. The Chorus Jubilis choir consists of 14 singers and a conductor, while the mince pies will be freshly prepared by the fishmonger’s owner, Simon Longhurst, a former Michelin star chef. It’s a great chance to learn about all the goodies he’s selling this Christmas and New Year and to get an order in for a turkey or duck, which can be picked up on December 23. The shop will also be open on December 30.

Sunday NFL Football!

The South African Bar, Østerbrogade 112, Cph Ø; Sun Dec 16, 18.45; www.meetup.com/americans-in-cph Join fans of the most American of sports and get caught up in the buzz of a game, chowing down on a pizza and touch-downing a cold one!

Christmas Carolling with the CPH Glee Club

Varies venues in Cph K; Sat Dec 15, starts 11:15; www.facebook.com/copenhagengleeclub Singing’s one of the quickest way to lift your spirits, so why not join the CPH Glee Club carolling group who on Saturday will be going door-todoor in the heart of the city. Check out the Facebook page for more details.

Let’s do some post-processing!

Abakion, Masnedøgade 20 2 sal, Cph Ø; Sun Dec 16, 11:00; www.meetup. com/photo-cph Bring a laptop with Lightroom 4 installed and some of your best pictures in raw format to Abakion.

Once there you’ll learn how to use the latest new applications in postprocessing, which will enable you to give your photos all the visual effects the pros use. Discover their secrets and apply them to your own snaps.

Capital Icons

Det Humanistiske Fakultet, University of Copenhagen, kua 21.1.49, Njalsgade 76, Cph S; Fri Dec 14, 13:00-15:00; www.ku.dk Join this conference and listen to the speakers discussing how culture shapes urban profiles and how in European capital cities, buildings are created enriching them with symbolism and ambitions.

Christmas Fair medieval style

Jakriborg, Hjärup train station, Sweden; Sun Dec 16, 13:30; www.meetup.com/malmo-internationals Meet at the entrance of Jakriborg’s merchant street, Köpmannagatan, and cross the boundaries of time and space to return to the Middle Ages to experience an ancient Christmas atmosphere a mere 10-minute ride away from Malmö. Jakriborg is a copy of an Hanseatic town where normal people live in houses that are modern inside but medieval outside.

MARIA ANTONIETTA RICCI

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sport

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

Riis gets a ticket to ride in cycling’s equivalent of injury time Copenhagen scanpix/ Nils Meilvang

Christian Wenande Dramatic month culminates with Team Saxo-Tinkoff being awarded a WorldTour licence for next season on a technicality rather than merit

on that night. Ward had better get ready.”

Slightly confusingly, Ward is also a WBA Super Middleweight title holder (as well as WBC and The Ring), but he is classified as a ‘super’ champion, while Kessler is now the ‘regular’ champion.

Following Kessler’s victory, there have also been several reports linking him with a rematch against Carl Froch, the Englishman who Kessler beat in the Super Six in 2010. Froch is the current IBF super-middleweight champion.

release that its decision came as a result of the hearings held on November 19, 21, 22 and 28 and December 7. Team SaxoTinkoff’s WorldTour licence will be valid for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Back in September, when owner Bjarne Riis and his Team Saxo-Tinkoff assessed the future of the team, things were looking good. Alberto Contador had just won the Vuelta a España, Oleg Tinkoff had poured his sponsorship millions into the team’s

famished coffers, and a plethora of new quality riders were on their way.

But there was just one problem. Team Saxo-Tinkoff hadn’t been granted the WorldTour licence that would ensure its participation in next season’s major races: the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia.

To make matters worse, Riis failed to endear himself to the sport’s governing body, the UCI, by criticising it for implementing a new law retroactively that

Victory in his first fight for nearly two years should see Kessler earn a big-money bout against either Andre Ward or Carl Froch next

M

ikkel Kessler (462, 35 KOs) is now a five-time world champion after defeating Northern Irishman Brian Magee (36-5-1, 25 KOs) in snowy Herning on Saturday night. Magee entered the ring as the WBA Super Middleweight title holder (following an upgrade in November) and was defending his crown for the first time. He exited less than ten minutes later, doubled over in excruciating pain following an assault of body blows from the Viking Warrior.

Round one saw a give and take that didn’t add up to much

for either fighter. Kessler, however, clearly noticed an opening to exploit and went on to institute a body attack in earnest in round two. Twice, Magee succumbed to punishing rights to the midsection, turning his back on Kessler before dropping to one knee. Back on his feet, the round quickly ended.

Round three began as the second one ended. A Kessler right to the body dropped Magee and referee Luis Pabon stopped the bout just 24 seconds into the round. The boxing fates seemed against Magee from the outset. It was a night that only a Jutlander could love, with freezing wind whipping the snow. The Northern Irishman’s supporters failed to materialise, with virtually the entire 10,000 in attendance at the Jyske Bank BOXEN arena backing their Danish hero.

With the win, Kessler ex-

scanpix/ Henning Bagger

Viking Warrior crushes Magee in three Mike Amundsen

W

acted a measure of revenge for Danish boxing. Twice Magee came to Denmark and defeated highly-touted fighters in Mads Larsen and Rudy Markussen.

The third time proved no charm and at 37, Magee’s boxing future now looks cloudy. Kessler, on the other hand, appears set for a summer rematch with the US’s Andre Ward, who handed him one of his two career defeats in the Super Six competition in 2009. That fight, held in Ward’s hometown of Oakland, California, ended controversially in a technical draw due to severe cuts around Kessler’s eyes in round eleven. Ward, ahead on all cards at the time of the stoppage, was declared the winner. Kessler is keen for another crack at Ward.

“Andre Ward knows that he owes me a rematch,” Kessler said through his Team Sauerland management. “That was not the real Viking Warrior in the ring

Alberto Contador’s missing points nearly cost Team Saxo-Tinkoff its licence

Danish rider Anders Lund was slightly less diplomatic in his analysis of the debacle.

“It would have been insanely wrong to deny us a place. But I thought that there has to be some logic behind the decision,” Lund told Ekstra Bladet tabloid.

“If you look at our team, rider for rider, which looks so strong next year, and the company behind it, then not giving us a ticket would be like pissing all over our hard work.”

The UCI wrote in its press

could co-host Euro 2020

hen Europe’s biggest football event kicks off in 2020, Copenhagen could be one of the cities that hosts matches.

The European football governing body, UEFA, decided last week on Thursday that Euro 2020 will be hosted by the whole of Europe. The project, called a ‘Pan-European’ football event, is a one-off and UEFA expects the tournament to return to its regular hosting format in 2024.

UEFA president Michel Platini said the change would help celebrate the 60-year anniversary of the European Championship, while helping European countries that are struggling through the financial crisis.

Platini’s plan was praised throughout the European football sphere, aside from a few corners. Turkey and Azerbaijan, who had already made bids to host the tournament, were detractors – as was FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, who said it was “not what’s best for the tournament” – while the Celtic nations, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, had also expressed an interest in co-hosting the tournament together.

The Danish national football association, DBU, is firmly behind the idea.

“Within the DBU, we have declared our support for the plans and so have most of the other member nations until now,” said DBU’s chairman Allan Hansen, according to Ekstra Bladet tabloid. “We are positive about having this as a one-time event.”

It has not yet been decided which, or how many, cities will host the tournament, but Infantino indicated that the bidding process would be determined within the next few months.

Once the bidding has been cleared up, it is expected that the decisions concerning the host cities would be made sometime in 2014.

Given that there will be six groups at Euro 2020, there is the possibility that UEFA might decide to assign each group to a region, which could very easily see the Nordic countries host their own group. (CW)

F

irst it changed its name, then it brought in a former world champion, and finally it was snubbed for a WorldTour licence before being given one anyway due to another team being kicked out. All in a month’s work for Team Saxo-Tinkoff.

The Danish team was awarded a WorldTour licence on Monday evening in stunning fashion after being handed the spot of Russian outfit Katusha, which was controversially kicked out for unknown reasons.

Team Saxo-Tinkoff had looked to be the odd man out after Argos-Shimano, earlier on Monday, was given the last remaining spot on the 18-team WorldTour licence roster, but then came the UCI’s dramatic exclusion of the Russians and a reprieve.

Trey Greenwood, the managing director of Team SaxoTinkoff, was relieved that his team was granted a spot, while

would deny his team any points acquired by Contador, including those from the Vuelta triumph, until the Spaniard has cycled for a full two years following his drug suspension.

Furthermore, pundits speculated that Riis’s strained relationship with UCI chief executive, Pat McQuaid, could also have been a stumbling block to a new licence.

But despite the dramatics, Team Saxo-Tinkoff looks poised to enjoy a solid 2013 season. It has done away with the jumbled Team Saxo BankTinkoff Bank name; Nicolas Roche, Roman Kreuziger, Matti Breschel and Daniele Benatti are among the high-profile riders that have joined Riis’s squad recently; and on Friday, it announced that it had added former Australian time-trial world champion, Michael Rogers.

“It’s an amazingly strong team, especially for the stage races. Roman Kreuziger is probably among the top ten stage riders in the world and he’ll be helping the number one rider, Contador,” veteran Team Saxo-Tinkoff rider Nicki Sørensen told Ekstra Bladet. “And backing them up are quality riders like Nicolas Roche and Chris Anker Sørensen. It’s a very tough tour team and it will be exciting next year.”

Mikkel Kessler’s story will continue ... for now at least

Sports news IN brief Teams flop in Europe

Recognition for kabaddi

Futsal a tough mistress

FCN keeper wants out

New role for captain

Iberian test for under-19s

FC Copenhagen, 12 points clear in the Superliga, were knocked out of the Europa League at Parken last week on Thursday. The Lions failed to get the win they needed, drawing 1-1 with Steaua Bucharest despite holding a numerical advantage for most of the second half.

With FC Nordsjælland no longer in the Champions League, Denmark will have no representatives in European action in the spring.

The men’s national side are out of the Kabaddi World Cup following a 28-73 loss to hosts India on Tuesday that saw them finish third in their group. The women also lost to India, but retain a slim chance of advancing.

Meanwhile, according to Indian media, the Danish government has added kabaddi to its list of recognised sports – the first nonAsian country, the report claims, to do so.

The national futsal team lost both its games at a friendly tournament in Norway late last week. A national team was only inaugurated in the spring, and so far the sport has proven to be a cruel mistress. Denmark lost 3-8 to Norway and then 2-3 to England, another newbie on the international stage, which gives them an overall record of played four, lost three. The UEFA Euro qualifiers start next month.

FCN’s keeper Jesper Hansen might have played his last game for the Superliga champs. The 27-year-old, who conceded six in London in last week’s Champions League clash against Chelsea, has said he would welcome a move this January to the English capital to join West Ham United, which is considering a bid for him. “I saw the news after training and I have to say that I’m flattered,” he told Tribalfootball.com.

Davis Cup captain Kenneth Carlsen has been handed a new full-time coaching role by the Danish Tennis Federation (DTF) that will see him take charge of both the men’s and women’s (Federation Cup) teams and work more in youth development. The DTF’s elite chief, Niklas Rosengren, commended Carlsen’s “professionalism and dedication”. Carlsen will assume the new role in January. .

The Danish under-19 football side will need to win a group consisting of Portugal, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria in order to qualify for the Euro 2013 championships in Lithuania next July. The group will be contested from June 4-9 in Portugal, but Denmark, as one of the seeds heading into the draw, will be confident they can maintain the 100 percent record they enjoyed in the first qualifying round.

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The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

Colourbox

16

Cover story

The land where they let sleeping dogs lie, but not for much longer

Mining law passes unopposed, In the kingdom of the least corrupt, Greenland remains uncharted territory but political chasm remains Ray Weaver Not including the island in transparency statistics may make Denmark’s reputation appear better than it really is

D

enmark has once again risen to the top of Transparency International’s (TI) list of the world’s least corrupt countries.

After slipping to second place last year, Denmark shares this year’s number one spot with New Zealand and Finland.

The rankings are based on TI’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which collects data from independent institutions specialising in governance and business climate analysis.

The CPI is an indicator of the public’s perception of public sector corruption in TI’s 176 member countries.

The export and trade minister, Pia Olsen Dyhr (Socialistisk Folkeparti), wasted no time in trumpeting Denmark’s return to the top.

“In Denmark we have a society based on trust,” she wrote on her ministry’s website. “I am pleased to see that this is also reflected in the newest study by Transparency International. A well-functioning public sector is also a key element in running a professional business.”

Interestingly, Greenland, a part of the Danish commonwealth where trust in government and the public sector may well be the most pressing issue of the day as it rushes to develop its mining industry, is not included in this year’s numbers. Although it was welcomed last year by Transparency International chairperson Huguette Labelle as an accredited chapter, Greenland is still waiting to become a full member.

Anne Mette Christiansen, a spokesperson for TI’s Greenlandic chapter,

said the organisation was working to get Greenland included in the report.

“We are not yet a full chapter,” she said. “We are in dialogue with TI’s secretariat and our plan is to be ready next year.”

As part of their effort to become a part of the parent organisation, Transparency Greenland commissioned an independent study to assess the public’s perception of the level of corruption in Greenland. As the country stands on the cusp of major developments in the mining and industrial sectors, the report worried that accountability processes in the country were in need of a complete overhaul.

“The process of establishing the Alcoa aluminium smelter in Maniitsoq is an example of how not to do things in the future,” concluded the report. “The process has been rushed and opaque, and it has been difficult to control the authorities, which in turn makes the system vulnerable to corruption.”

The report points out that the system lacks significant anti-corruption instruments such as clear rules on the acceptance of gifts and whistleblower options.

Transparency Greenland chairperson Anders Meilvang said that he hopes Greenland’s government will take the report to heart and use it to strengthen the system, particularly where it applies to the island’s Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, which has been criticised for its double role of regulating the industry at the same time as it promotes its growth.

“The report will now be used as a tool in Transparency Greenland’s work to prevent corruption and increase awareness of the harmful effects that a lack of openness and transparency have on society,” Meilvang told the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq.

Meilvang said that inconsistent and confusing regulations in all facets of life

Sermitsiaq Oil & Minerals

Greenland will be known as a place where money talks and human rights do not have to be taken seriously and business left Greenland open for corruption. Thomas Trier Hansen, a TI Greenland board member, expressed concern that the expected passage of a law, which allows major projects to import low paid labour from outside of the country, would seriously damage Greenland’s reputation.

“Greenland will be known as a place where money talks and human rights do not have to be taken seriously,” Hansen told Sermitsiaq.

Since Greenland is seeking to be judged on its own merits next year, it remains to be seen if it will find itself sharing space with Denmark at the top of the list or joining the two thirds of the countries ranked in the 2012 index with a score below 50 – meaning they are considered significantly corrupt.

Transparency International’s least corrupt countries 1. Denmark 1. Finland 1. New Zealand 4. Sweden 5. Singapore 6. Switzerland 7. Australia 7. Norway 9. Canada 9. Netherlands

None of the island’s MPs vote against relaxing laws for mining firms, but opposition says it will call for new vote if it regains power

G

reenland’s parliament ended months of heated debate by passing a controversial law last week on Friday that will relax a number of regulations for companies establishing mines and other raw materials operations in the Danish selfgoverning territory.

“We believe this law gives Greenland a stronger hand when negotiating with companies seeking to begin operations here,” Naaja Nathanielsen, a spokesperson for the governing IA party, wrote in a press release after the law was passed.

The law, which will allow companies to pay foreign workers lower wages than Danish law currently permits, passed with 13 members of the 31-member legislature voting in favour. The remaining 18 MPs abstained from voting.

In recent years, mining companies have increasingly cast their glance towards Greenland and its treasure-trove of raw materials, which includes rare earths, iron, gold, uranium and rubies.

There is also evidence to indicate it sits on some of the world’s largest untapped oil reserves.

The law was expected to be passed by parliament last month, but the final reading was delayed until today in order to give legislators more time to listen to concerned groups.

In addition to the law’s wage provisions, critics were concerned that it had been rammed through parliament without sufficient debate.

Even though the Self-Rule govern-

ment reacted to public uncertainty about the effects of the law by promising to give residents a greater say in the decision-making process, oppositionleading Siumut maintained its resistance, saying it had been tailored to the needs of foreign companies.

“Given all the dissatisfaction and concern there is about the emergence of the mining industry, it’s all the more difficult to understand why this bill needed to be voted on so quickly,” Siumut MP Per Berthelsen said.

All of the Siumut MPs abstained from voting last week, and during the final debate, party representatives pledged that if it regains power in the 2013 general election, it will call for a new vote on the law.

The newly-established Greenland chapter of the anti-corruption group Transparency International urged the island’s parliament to adopt a go-slow attitude.

“This law will have an enormous impact on Greenland’s future. We can’t afford to rush a decision through parliament without involving the entire population through a democratic process,” said Anders Meilvang, the head of Transparency Greenland.

Proponents of the law argue it is necessary to relax regulations in order to make it easier for attract mining companies to invest in mining operations in Greenland’s harsh Arctic environment.

Establishing such operations would require first building basic infrastructure, such as roads, power plants and port facilities. Greenland, with a population of 55,000, would be unable to provide the necessary labour to establish such facilities. It is estimated that a planned aluminium smelter alone would require over 5,000 temporary foreign workers to build.

Business

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

Despite its recent financial woes, SAS’s passenger figures grew quicker than those of its European competitors

S

AS may have already started to reverse its fortunes following drastic spending cuts in November that will save it 2.8 billion kroner annually.

According to the Association of European Airlines, SAS’s passenger numbers grew by 6.5 percent this year compared to the European average of 4.6 percent.

SAS’s relative growth has been even more rapid in recent months as traffic across Europe slowed while SAS’s passenger numbers remained stable.

“SAS’s advantage is that the company operates mostly in the part of Europe least affected by the economic crisis,” Jacob Pedersen, a senior analyst at Sydbank, told JyllandsPosten. “The Nordic region and northern Europe have not been as affected by the debt crisis as southern Europe where airlines have been having a harder time.”

Pedersen is also impressed that the company was able to successfully raise ticket prices after several years of falling prices.

“It’s positive that SAS has

Scanpix Sweden

Airline’s numbers taking off again

New moonlighting rules World’s largest solar heating plants coming to Jutland to take effect in 2013 Jessica Hanley

Jyllands-Posten Skat hopes to clarify when doing a good deed becomes a taxable income, but it may be impossible to eliminate this grey zone

Neither snow nor near bankruptcy are enough to ground SAS

managed to increase traffic despite the company’s great challenges and the several weeks of uncertainy over its future,” Pedersen said. “But SAS still needs to prove that it can earn money.”

Pedersen added that he expected the company to post a profit when it announces its earnings for this financial year, which ended in October.

The savings plan was agreed in November after tense negotiations with staff and unions about accepting essential pay cuts − without which the company would not have been able to make the savings.

Following the deal, SAS announced it would aggressively expand its traffic capacity with 45 extra routes, particularly during the summer months, which would put it in direct competition with low cost carriers such as Norwegian and Vueling. (PS)

T

he rules about working under the table, or earning ‘black money’, can be tough to sort out. The tax authority, Skat, hopes that rule changes taking effect from January will help clarify some of the confusion.

The new rules especially lend a hand to those under 16 and old-age pensioners who are trying to make a few extra kroner.

Those under 16 are not required to pay taxes as long as they are working in someone else’s home, while people in retirement get the same break on the first 10,000 kroner they earn in a year.

Pensioners are required to pony up on any income earned above that threshold, and if they are receiving a state pension, the pension will be reduced if they earn more than 30,000 a year.

Along with the new rules for private work, there are some new statutes in place for registered businesses.

Vehicles with yellow commercial number plates will be required to have a company logo clearly displayed on both the

right and left sides.

In addition, most construction sites on private land will be required to display a sign that clearly shows which companies are working there.

What is less clear is when the thin line between working and helping out friends and family becomes a case for the taxman.

“Especially when it comes to work in other’s homes, people have been unsure whether to involve the tax authorities,” Bo Sandmann Rasmussen, an economics professor at the University of Aarhus, said.

On its website, Skat says that, in principle, work done amongst friends does not need to be declared, so long as the service does not represent a “significant economic benefit” to the recipient.

“Exactly where the boundary lies is uncertain,” said Rasmussen. “I have heard tax agents say that you can help a neighbour build a carport, even though it could be worth as much as 30,000 kroner.”

Although the rules say that work done amongst friends cannot be done in exchange for other services and no money can change hands, Rasmussen said it is almost impossible to draw a line between working under the table and taxable work between family and friends.

New app makes photo sharing quick as a Wink Jessica Hanley Copenhagen-based company’s app lets users share photos quickly, easily and selectively

W

e’ve all heard the responses when a particularly memorable photo is captured: the embarrassed plea from a friend not to post the shot online, and the requests for a copy from everyone else. Danish tech company Evertale wants to make both of these scenarios easier.

Evertale recently created Wink, a new app to help users instantly share photos with those closest to them, both figuratively and literally.

Wink collects a set of advanced location points – instead of using GPS – as the user moves around. The app then determines which of the user’s friends are nearby and immediately shares photos they take

with friends who are there at the moment, creating a ‘real-time’ feed of your experience.

“Imagine you are at a party and you snap a great group shot of your friends,” explained Francesco Patarnello, the head of Evertale. “Right away, every friend who is there gets your photo on their phone. You can picture the scenario of the whole group taking their phones from their pockets and smiling at your image on their own screens.”

Social networks allow us to share thousands of photos at the tap of a touch screen. But even as our contact lists grow exponentially, Wink co-creator Luca Ferrari theorises that people are actually sharing less and less.

“The more connections we have on our social networks, the more picky we get with what we share,” Ferrari said.

Wink, according to its creators, makes it easier to share more photos quickly – and only with the right people.

“Your photos will automatically and instantaneously get seen by exactly the audience they deserve, making uploading, downloading and tagging time-wasters of the past,” Patarnello said.

Evertale is made up of British and Italian expats, several of whom were exchange students at the Technical University of Denmark and the Copenhagen School of Design & Technology.

Among their investors is Mangrove Capital Partners, which also backed Skype. Evertale plans to set up a second office in San Francisco next year.

Wink’s creators hope that the app will become as indispensable as some of its popular predecessors.

“Inventions are genuinely revolutionary when you look back at your life before they became a part of it,” co-founder Matteo Daneli said. “You wonder: how did I live without them?”

Wink is now available in app stores.

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District heating plants in southern Denmark will start converting to solar energy in 2014

F

our district heating plants in southern Jutland will be converted to make use of solar energy, engineering consultancy firm Ramboll reported in a press release last week, creating the largest solar heating plants in the world.

The new plants will measure between 40,000 and 80,000 square metres, making each one larger than existing solar plants in Denmark and Saudi Arabia.

Fuel for the plants is currently supplied by natural gas.

Ramboll, which will perform all the consultancy work for the projects, reported that half of the fuel will come from solar energy, while the other half will come from a combination of natural gas and heat pumps.

“The new solution means that citizens will be able to avoid the expenses of high fuel taxes, thus reducing their heating bills by 15 to 20 percent,” Flemming Ulbjerg, a senior consultant at Ramboll, said in the press release. “Today, solar heating is the cheapest solution, compared to other alternatives such as natural gas and biomass,

even though these are also taxexempted.”

Solar panels, which are placed in fields next to the four heating plants, will collect heat from the sun’s rays, which will then be used to heat water, according to Ramboll. The water is then transported to a district heating station and converted into heating.

Such a technique is wellknown in private residences, where solar panels are often installed on the roof in conjunction with a hot water tank.

Denmark’s less-than-balmy climate makes it important to store seasonal deposits of thermal energy for later use, Ramboll reported. “These stores can contain somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 cubic metres of water and will be placed 10 metres underground,” the press release explained.

“The reason why a solar heating plant this big can be established at all is that we already have lots of district heating plants that we can transfer the heat to,” Ulbjerg said. “This is a unique thing for Denmark, and it will probably take a while before we see solar heating plants this big in other countries.”

While plans are still in the design stage, the first plant will be completed and ready for use by 2014.

BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN DENMARK

The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link – Opportunities and Challenges Technical Director Femern A/S Steen Lykke graduated in 1978 with an MSc from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), majoring in civil and structural engineering. He is a highly qualified project manager and has considerable experience from major international projects, including as Contract Director of the immersed tunnel and the dredging & reclamation contracts for the Øresund Fixed Link.

He was subsequently appointed Project Director and the client’s representative on the Marmaray Tunnel and Railway Project in Istanbul. Steen Lykke is currently Technical Director at Femern A/S where one of his main responsibilities is to manage the development of the concept design and the contracts, and the construction and commissioning of the 18 km long immersed tunnel under the Fehmarnbelt.

Programme: • 11.45: Registration and welcome drinks • 12.00: Welcome and introduction by Mariano A. Davies, President, BCCD • 12.10: Guest speaker - Steen Lykke • 12.40: Questions and discussion • 12.55: Announcements by Penny Schmith, Executive Director, BCCD • 13.00: Buffet lunch and networking

Venue 18 Januar 2013 11:45 Conference Suite on 1st floor Radisson Blu Royal Hotel Hammerichsgade 1 Copenhagen K

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

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

18

culture

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

Rikke K Mathiassen

T

he Copenhagen Theatre Circle’s decision to run its annual pantomime entirely in January has left not just English-language audiences, but also Danes, with barely any shows to take their families to this Christmas.

Fears of poor ticket sales mean that most Christmas shows pack up shop long before the festivities, with most theatres arguing that it would take something particularly special to persuade the Danes to leave their dinner tables at Christmastime.

A quick browse through Copenhagen’s theatre listings reveals that over half of them will be completely empty between December 24 and 31, and according to Tivoli, which is hosting the last performance of its classic Christmas ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ on December 22, the reason is a simple one: it is a fear of poor ticket sales.

“The main reason is that there is not as much sales potential between Christmas and New Year’s Eve,” explained the head of the amusement park’s media department, Torben Plank.

“There is a tendency for a lot of people to stay at home.”

Tivoli is in good company.

Nørrebro Teater hosts the last performance of its Christmas play ‘Montebello’ as early as

We specialise in experimental performances, and December is primarily for children’s shows or entertainment in the classical genre or entertainment in the classical genre. This period is all about doing things together: to go out to see something funny or popular with your family and colleagues.”

A glance at the shows being performed on December 27 − a Thursday this year and one that many people are expected to take off − bears this out. The children’s play ’Cykelmyggen Egon’ at Østre Gasværk, the musical ’Love Never Dies’ at Det Ny Teater and the jukebox musical ’Hey Jude’ at Forum are all popular shows that speak to a

Big entertainment shows such as ours normally do well in this period. I guess if we had put up a deadly serious Shakespeare play, we would not have performed over Christmas.”

And this optimism is catching, it would appear. Following the success of ‘The Nutcracker’, Stine Lolk, the entertainment manager at Tivoli, is open towards extending the season in 2013.

“It is always tricky determining the length of the run when introducing a new performance like we did this year with ‘The Nutcracker’,” she said. “Next time we will most likely have performances between Christmas and New Year’s Eve as well.”

And Republique’s Tulinius is also considering a Christmas programme next year.

“Our budgets allow us to experiment next year,” he said. “Nothing is settled yet, but we are considering setting up Ballets like ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ will be over by the time the holiday starts a show over Christmas that has more of a public percent full between December appeal, while still being of a high broad audience. national standard. It is going to And while it is a Christmas 27 and 31.

“There is an ongoing myth be a completely different experishow in name, the same could be said of London Toast Theatre’s in the industry that you can’t ence from what people usually recurrent Crazy Christmas Cab- put on a show after Easter or run expect from a show like that.”

For the time being, the theaaret, which runs at the Glassalen a show over New Year,” he said. theatre from mid-November un- “But obviously, we would not tres will be empty and the dintil mid-January. The theatre’s ad- schedule performances between ner tables full. After all, would it ministrative director Søren Hall Christmas and New Year’s Eve feel like a Danish Christmas if it expects the theatre to be 80-90 if they did not sell any tickets. wasn’t celebrated at home?

Eroica & Sacre HHHHHH

December 6

B

oth physically arresting and acoustically exquisite, the DR Concert Hall is a beautifully suitable space for any musical occasion.

Last Thursday, it played host to ‘Eroica & Sacre’, which featured the outsized genius of Beethoven and Stravinsky and spanned the diverse orchestral genres of romanticism and modernism with mighty aplomb.

The performance began with ‘Fanfara funebre’, a short contemporary piece by Soren Nils Eichberg. At four minutes long, it packed a lot, from strained urgency to melodiousness that floated seamlessly into the opening of Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 3 in E flat major (opus 55)’ - the famous ‘Eroica’, which was initially dedicated to Napoleon until Beethoven changed his mind about the little Corsican. Scored in 1804, ‘Symphony No 3’ is perhaps the most famous piece of music of the early Romantic period; the opening passage of the scherzo in the third movement is in-

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The DR Concert Hall is an inspiring location for orchestral music

stantly recognisable to even casual fans of classical music.

The DNSO, with esteemed conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos at the helm, flew through the piece with consummate skill and verve. The No 3 traverses an aural universe from the grave to the playful to the majesty of the finale in the fourth movement.

The DNSO handled it all with precision and splendour.

After the intermission came the dark intensity of Igor Stravinsky’s ‘La sacre du Printemps’ (‘The Rite of Spring’), the music from the ballet of the same name. When the work premiered in 1913 in Paris it was met with equal measures of incomprehensibility and outrage.

Stravinsky’s work of modernist brilliance only grew in reputation, however, and has found its way into the standard repertoire of orchestras and ballets around the globe.

‘La sacre du Printemps’ still has the power to rankle the nerves of music lovers of sensitive tastes. The DNSO attacked this piece with superb energy, at times using six percussionists to drive its frenetic pace. Fruhbeck de Burgos conducts while seated, but the intensity was written all over his face throughout.

By the time Stravinsky’s masterpiece reached its thunderous conclusion, the man to my left let out an audible sigh. I know what he meant.

Stephen King gave us a pet cemetery, ooh scary, and now a dome

Rikke K Mathiassen

N

obody’s made a decent Stephen King adaptation for a while now, which might explain why Stephen Speilberg’s company Amblin Entertainment has thrown a curveball and recruited ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ director Niels Arden Oplev to take the reins of its new TV series for CBS: ‘Under the Dome’.

Still, even the Dane who vividly brought Lisbeth Salander to life might struggle to inject some vitality into a storyline, which is based on King’s book of 2009,

about a city that wakes up to find itself under a dome.

Even though Oplev’s first US-feature ‘Dead Man Down’ has not even hit the silver screen yet, he had already done enough, according to American film site Deadline Hollywood, to convince Amblin he was the man for the job.

As well as his work in film, he has also directed several episodes of Danish TV series ‘Ørnen’, ‘Rejseholdet’ and ‘Taxa’.

‘Under the Dome’ will appear on American TV screens next summer.

Jussi AdlerOlsen?

Phillip Drago Jørgensen

Most festive shows will once again pack up shop early this year, but there is growing optimism that 2013 could be different

December 15, and the Royal Theatre’s Christmas ballet ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ will conclude on the 16th. Folketeateret has no Christmas shows, while Republique is skipping the entire month altogether.

“Traditionally we are not the type of theatre that would be able to attract an audience this month,” explained Republique’s theatre director Martin Tulinius.

“We specialise in experimental performances, and December is primarily for children’s shows

Henrik Stenberg

City’s theatres dreaming of an extremely light Christmas Who is

linn lemhag He is a 52-year-old Danish crime author most famous for his series of ‘Department Q’ books − the first of which is currently being made into a feature film.

So he’s a kind of Danish Stieg Larsson then?

Of sorts! They both write (or wrote, in Larsson’s case) crime novels, come from Scandinavia, and have been successful.

Says who?

It’s safe to say he’s won pretty much every Nordic award for crime fiction that exists, and Adler-Olsen recently beat out fellow Scandinavian crime writer Henning Mankel (of Swedish ‘Wallander’ fame) for the highly-prized Barry Award, an American honour afforded to the best crime novel of the year, and one that Larsson was awarded posthumously.

Which book was that for?

‘The Keeper of Lost Causes’, which is the first of the ‘Department Q’ books. It follows the life and career of Carl Mørck, a maladjusted police commissioner who gets put on cold case duty after an investigation gone wrong.

Sounds familiar!

After the international success of Sarah Lund and her knitted sweater in ‘Forbrydelsen’, everyone just loves angst-ridden, conflicted Scandinavian detectives apparently. There was no way Adler-Olsen could go wrong! And considering the fact that a Danish A-lister, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, is playing the lead role in the upcoming film, something tells us it isn’t going to do too shabbily either.

So this Olsen is doing well for himself, then!

Indeed he is! During an interview with the tabloid Ekstra Bladet earlier this month, a reporter asked him about his 27 million kroner fortune. AdlerOlsen scoffed at this measly calculation, and said it was at least double that number. When asked about his year, he said he was very satisfied. No doubt about that!

Denmark through the looking glass The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

19

Photos from www.nisseland.dk

14 - 20 December 2012

Reinvented and resurrected: how the nisser have persevered over the years Jane Graham Out in western Zealand lies Nisseland, a nostalgic tip of the hat to the department store displays of Christmas past

B

ack before Disney, with a cry of “Bippity, Boppity, Boo,” took out a patent on fairy tales, Christmas displays were still handmade and the nisser of Nordic folklore were more country trolls than Christmas elves. But if anything, the festive period − which has seen the mischievous trolls put on red and white striped tights and move inside the Danish home (normally the attic) − has helped the nisser persevere in the popular imagination despite an increasingly more global outlook and them becoming a little benign.

Right up until the 1960s and 70s, children in provincial Zealand would look forward to the annual Christmas outing with their parents, who would take them to a large department store like Magasin or Illum in Copenhagen (or Daells Varehus back then, which is now the upmarket boutique hotel Sankt Petri) to see the elaborate mechanical displays of the nisser, handmade in meticulous detail, each one the centrepiece of its own small yuletide scene. Stand for long enough and some of the

A real-life nisse, the American actress Sissy Spacek, was happy to model as Snow White’s nemesis for this display

figures would move their heads towards the viewer, or their arms as they made something in the workshop, and a train might pass around the entire display.

In Denmark, as in the rest of Scandinavia, nisser have nothing to do with Santa’s helper elves and instead originate from the region’s pagan past, causing trouble on the farms, perhaps encouraging children to stay indoors on perilously icy winter

Santa has just ordered a bucket of beard

days and, later, giving small advents gifts in return for a bowl of risengrød (or rice pudding) left up in the attic – but woe betide you if you forgot. Livestock might die or even worse.

While Copenhagen’s department stores have long since abandoned the old mechanical displays, a real old-fashioned Christmas experience can still be had out in the country. Nisseland, near Kalundborg in the

most western part of Zealand, is the world’s largest mechanical nisser display. Over an area 1,500 sqm in size located in a large engine shed on a farm near the village of Mørkøv, it displays hundreds of unique, handmade mechanical nisser and animals, all with their own fantastic seasonal scenes.

The mechanical nisser displays of Nette Philipsen and John Rogers first went on dis-

It’s freaky to think this would have once looked appetising

play at Tivoli during its 1996 Christmas season, and they have since been exported to Liseberg Amusement Park in Gothenburg, Sweden, and even to Japan at the indoor Sapporo Media Park Spica. Nisseland, meanwhile, was established in 2002, and the nisser business is now so successful that the husband and wife team spend all year on the displays, employing a team of (human) helpers dur-

ing the busy months of November and December.

“It all started over 20 years ago, when my wife Nette and I, both big nisser fans, were lamenting over the fact that the mechanical Christmas displays at Copenhagen’s large department stores − ones we had experienced as children on annual outings with our parents − simply did not exist anymore,” explained Rogers to Landbrugs Avisen.

“There was only one thing to do, and that was to make one ourselves. We sold our first display in 1983, and since then our nisser company has grown.”

Aside from the display at Nisseland, Christmas trees are sold, along with wreaths and other decorations, by the neighbouring farm owners, and there are pony rides on diminutive Icelandic ponies. Children can pet goats and sheep, and there is a booth of Christmas treats from all over the world.

Each year, the couple refresh their display with new scenes, replacing old figures, which are all handmade by Rogers, who learned after the first year that simply gluing the figures was not enough and soon invested in welding equipment.

Philipsen, meanwhile, sews the clothes individually for the beloved nisser figures, and business is booming enough that the couple are already planning next year’s theme.

Jesper Langballe and Pia Kjærsgaard show them how it’s done

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Things To do aT Xmas page

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mind-blowing opera

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Jessica O’sullivan

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