The Copenhagen Post Feb 17-23

Wondercool: February’s fab festival. Special section

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17 - 23 February 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 07

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NEWS

Denmark looks to lay Europe’s energy

Foundation for the future 4

Admitting that forced co-operation doesn’t always work, state changes custody laws

5

NEWS

Youngest kids spared Criticised practice of deporting minors will now end – at least for children under the age of eight

5 NEWS

Foreign students: We love it in Copenhagen and want to stay here, but we can’t find jobs

10 BUSINESS

Too big to fail

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Danske Bank has become so large that if it were to fail, it would take the country with it, experts say

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Evictions and unpaid bills on the rise New statistics paint a picture of a more impoverished Denmark

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N ECONOMICALLY depressed areas of Denmark, such as Lolland Council, ten percent of the population are behind on their bills. But even in affluent areas, like Copenhagen’s posh northern suburbs, 2.5 percent of the residents owe creditors for products or services they purchased but never paid for, according to a new study by the credit rating agency Experian.

End-of-year reports from 2011 showed a worrying upswing in unpaid bills, consumer debt levels, and even

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homeless children across Denmark.

In 2009, at the height of the recession, 16 percent of the population did not have the cash to pay their bills. But two years later, during the recovery, the figure has risen to 28 percent, according to the financial supervisory authority Finanstilsynet.

The number of debtors has risen fast in the past two years, and Experian’s analysts also note that the amount owed has also risen sharply.

In January 2008, unpaid consumer debt totalled 7.4 billion kroner. In January 2012, it topped 13.5 billion kroner.

In 49 percent of all cases of unpaid debts and delinquency, an unexpected expense – like a car in need of repairs or a broken appliance – is what pushed peo-

A new

ple over their limit. According to Louise Skjødsholm, a department manager at Finanstilsynet, that fact is revealing.

“What it shows is that, at the most basic level, these people don’t have any savings that they can draw on if something goes wrong and the refrigerator suddenly has to be replaced,” she told Politiken newspaper.

But for another group of Danes, it is not the surprises that push them over the edge into insolvency but rather predictable monthly expenses, like rent, that are beyond their means.

Two of the country’s largest rental management companies, KAB and Boligselskabet Danmark, are reporting a 25 percent increase in the number of forced evictions from the end of 2010 to the

end of 2011.

In Copenhagen, city administrators have seen a ten percent increase in the number of forced evictions, where a bailiff shows up at a person’s home and forces them to remove their belongings and vacate the premises on the spot.

Children are involved in one out of every five of these evictions, Politiken newspaper reports.

“Ten years ago, we had one or two evictions per week. Now we have two every single working day – and that’s just in our company. And ten years ago, we almost never saw children in this situation. Now we see many,” KAB’s president, Jesper Nygård, told Politiken.

Evictions continues on page 4

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2

Week in review

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

17 - 23 February 2012 Peter Stanners

The bright side

THE WEEK’S MOST READ STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK Who really IS an immigrant anyway?

Foreign students want to stay but report difficulty finding work Vestas delivers terrible 2011 result More work, less pay: Welcome to the new Danish workplace 700,000 kroner stolen in NemID attack

FROM OUR ARCHIVES TEN YEARS AGO. The Mayor of Farum, Peter Brixofte, faces allegations of financial fraud.

FIVE YEARS AGO. Princess Alexandra announces plans to remarry, meaning she will forego her title as princess.

ONE YEAR AGO. A school boating trip turns fatal when two adults and several students are thrown into freezing waters after their vessel capsizes in southern Zealand.

CORRECTION Our photo on page G3 Not everything about the cold weather is bad – residents have been enjoying the frozen lakes. With above-freezing temperatures predicted this weekend, the window to get out on the ice might be shrinking, though that is certainly not a bad thing, either.

sue if reforms are not made and budgets are not balanced. Greece, Ireland and Portugal were not on the list of 12, as their money troubles are already full-blown.

The commission named the high level of private debt, the artificially low property taxes, and a depressed exports sector as particular problem areas in Denmark.

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

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

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

Visit us online at www.cphpost.dk

Use less, pay more

Over the past two decades, the tax that Church of Denmark members pay for its upkeep has risen from 0.79 to 0.89 percent of their incomes, even though total membership dropped from 90 percent to 80 percent of the population in the same period.

In 2011 alone, the church collected 5.9 billion kroner in the

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

form of taxes from its members – an increase of 300 million kroner per year over 2009. Torben Larsen, the chairman of Copenhagen’s church budgetary committee, told Politiken newspaper that the Church of Denmark now has to pay professionals salaries to do what church volunteers used to do for free.

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

Scanpix

Denmark’s economy is out of balance and in need of finetuning to put it back in the black, according to the European Commission. On Tuesday, the EU authority released a list of 12 countries – including Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the UK – where, according to analysts, an economic meltdown could en-

Scanpix

Scanpix

DK unbalanced

had an erroneous photo credit and the pianist in last week’s music review on page G7 should have been listed by the name EBDK.

One percent

Hot on the heels of a political debate on who exactly should be categorised as an immigrant, and for how long, Statistics Denmark has released its latest immigration figures. In 2011, nearly 70,000 people immigrated to Denmark, roughly 1,000 more than in the previous year. Immigrants from Western countries increased by

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1,656 while those from nonWestern countries fell by 368, continuing a trend in place since 2003. At the beginning of 2012, there were 60,390 people with a Turkish background in Denmark. This accounts for 1.1 percent of the country’s total population, and makes Turks the largest immigrant group by far.

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3 PET agrees to increased oversight and transparency NEWS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

17 -23 February 2012

Head of domestic intelligence agency says organisation needs to build trust

T

HE HEAD of the domestic intelligence agency PET has conceded that his organisation should be more transparent after revelations that intelligence agencies in other European countries are far more open about their activities than PET. On Sunday, Jyllands-Posten newspaper ran a story detailing how the results of checks into PET’s activities are never publicised, and so the public remains unaware if PET has illegally tapped phones, investigated individuals, or engaged in the illegal use of agents.

The newspaper also revealed that a committee that has spent 14 years investigating how to create a better legal framework for PET will be publishing its results on February 24.

The committee – headed

by Supreme Court judge Hugo Wendler Pedersen and 15 other

legal experts – was established in 1998 by the government to find ways to improve PET’s transparency after concerns that the organisation was too secret and lacked accountability.

PET is primarily overseen by a parliamentary committee, the Justice Ministry and the so-called Warmberg Committee. Together, they keep track of PET’s activities and check whether their investigations are legal.

However, none of the information from the checks made by these committees is ever publicised.

The fact that PET’s remit is also based on guidelines by the defence and justice ministries, and not established in law, are both changes that the Wendler Pedersen-led committee have been tasked to investigate.

Jakob Scharf, the head of PET, acknowledged that PET’s operations need to change.

“It’s clear that there is a need for greater oversight of PET,” Scharf told Jyllands-Posten. “Increased oversight of our activities means a lot to the average citizen because we have so much power to intrude on people’s lives. But we also need to fol-

SCANPIX

PETER STANNERS

Jakob Scharf, head of PET, acknowledged that his organisation requires greater transparency to increase trust in their operations

low the rules in order to keep the public’s trust — oversight is important because we only have authority if there is trust. Trust is also important because in order to protect the public interest we have to draw on the knowledge of the people.”

While Scharf accepts that greater transparency of PET is in both its, and the public’s interest, he drew the line at reveal-

After discovering funds were used for visit to amusement park, the lack of oversight comes under fire

M

UHAMMED Aslam, a city councillor representing Copenhagen’s third district, has come under fire for misusing funds intended for activities to integrate ethnic minorities.

Berlingske newspaper reported on Monday that Aslam (Socialdemokraterne), who is also the president of the Mjølnerparken housing estate’s residents’ association, was using state integration resources to hold birthday parties and take families on trips to the amusement park Bonbon Land.

Karen West, a Socialdemokrat (S) in the third district, which covers the inner city, told Berlingske that in no way does taking families on a bus trip to Bonbon Land, especially when the residents divide themselves ethnically on the bus, promote integration.

“I don’t see Muhammad Aslam as a standard-bearer for integration,” West told the paper.

Not only has Aslam’s use of the integration funds caused him to fall out of favour with his own party, it has also sparked a debate over the effectiveness of integration projects in general.

According to Berlingske, projects aimed at promoting integration have very little over-

sight or criteria, and the Social Affairs and Integration Ministry doesn’t even have a complete overview of the projects, as they are spread out under various ministries. Berlingske Research also carried out a study that showed that many local governments cannot account for the effectiveness of their integration projects.

Karen Hækkerup (S), the social affairs and integration minister, conceded that the system needs improving and said she is currently scrutinising integration projects.

“It doesn’t work to just keep going the way it’s going,” she said. “It is untenable when we’re in a situation where the state is lacking money.”

If the experience of her predecessor is to be a judge, Hækkerup will have her work cut out for her.

The former immigration and integration minister, Søren Pind (Venstre), told Berlingske in an interview on Tuesday that while minister, he tried unsuccessfully to get an overview of how many integration projects were underway in Denmark and how much they cost.

“It was impossible to find out,” he said. “I was told that the bulk of the money for integration projects came from Satspuljen [money earmarked for social programmes]. But I never understood it.”

Pind called the integration projects “a huge waste of re-

BONBON LAND

Misuse of integration funds sets off larger debate

Integration activity?

sources” and said he would have completely discontinued them had his party not been voted out of power last September.

Fellow opposition party Dansk Folkeparti (DF) agreed with Pind’s criticism.

“Integration projects need to undergo a detailed study and there needs to be a way to measure their effects much better,” Martin Henriksen, DF’s integration spokesperson, told news agency Berlingske Nyhedsbureau. “It should be in place before any new funds are granted.”

As for Aslam, another S third-district board member, Eskild Dahl Pedersen, said he no longer believed he was the right guy to represent Mjølnerparken.

“I have lost faith that Muhammed Aslam is the answer to Mjølnerparken’s challenges,” he told Berlingske.

Aslam has not spoken publicly about the allegations. (JC)

ing specific numbers about their operations, as the British intelligence agency MI5 does.

“We see no reason to completely demystify all of our operations,” Scharf said, adding that secrecy also had a preventative effect. “It makes no sense to release numbers in isolation. If we say, hypothetically, that we have tapped 1,000 telephone conversations, is that a lot or a little? If

we think that 1,000 people want to detonate bombs, it’s little. If we think it’s five, then it’s a lot.

And we could never reveal the background for the numbers, as it would reveal too much about our investigations.”

This issue was the source of great debate in the Wendler Pedersen committee, which is comprised of the state’s attorney and representatives from the Justice Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office and the Defence Ministry.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that PET’s oversight is lower than the oversight of intelligence agencies in most European countries. Only Sweden, Greece and France have less oversight than Denmark.

Pia Kjaærsgaard, the leader of the Dansk Folkeparti, sits on the parliamentary oversight committee – comprised of one member from each of the five largest political parties – and said that while PET answered their questions, they could never be certain they were getting the whole story.

The revelations about PET have led to politicians from across the spectrum calling for an increase in PET’s transparency.

“Trust is good, but one of the few places that blind trust is not wise is with intelligence agencies,” Simon Emil Ammitzbøll of the Liberal Alliance said.

From across the aisle, government support party Enhedslisten’s Pernille Skipper expressed a similar sentiment.

“The oversight that we have now is only pseudo,” she said.

“The parliamentary oversight committee is not able to take any initiative; they can only check what PET presents to the politicians.”

The Wendler Pedersen committee took so long to publicise their information as they were awaiting the 2009 publication of the findings by the PET Commission.

Established in 1999, the commission was tasked with investigating whether PET illegally started files on individuals during the Cold War simply because of their political orientation.

While the commission found evidence of some illegal activity, their overall judgement was that PET was following the guidelines given to it by the Justice and Defence Ministries as well as data protection laws.

New health law threatens Young men report rise in data protection

A

STORM is brewing over a new executive order that would allow local and regional councils access to sensitive information in people’s health records, such as whether they suffer from sexually transmitted infections or are attending addiction programmes.

The executive order is designed to enact an aspect of last year’s health package, in which it was decided that allowing councils “permission to collect and use sensitive information” about patients would give them vital information that would allow for better health planning.

But several organisations are critical of the executive order – which has now been sent for public consultation.

“We think the government should repeal the proposal and instead consider the European Commission’s proposal for data reform,” said Anette Høyrup, a legal expert from consumer council Forbrugerrådet. “It will create greater protection of consumer data by allowing them greater control over their information.”

To reduce the risk of abuse, Forbrugerrådet is suggesting that greater protection is added to the physical access of files, rather than leaving it up to council health departments to handle the protection of sensitive information.

Ester Larsen, the vice-chair of the parliamentary advisory panel Etisk Råd expressed concern that the proposal would affect the treatment of patients.

“You could easily imagine that some patients suffering from mental health issues or sexually transmitted diseases would choose not to receive treatment in order to prevent having their information shared,” Larsen said.

The data protection agency, Datatilsynet, did not find the proposal encouraging either.

“We would rather that sensitive data was only used if it were anonymised,” said Datatilsynet head Janni Christoffersen.

But one organisation, the union of patients, Danske Patienter, said that access to the information would allow the health services to offer better value for money.

“But we would rather that the sensitive information be controlled by a research institute, as they are covered by special rules,” chairman Lars Engberg said. “As an executive order, it’s phrased far too loosely.”

Jonas Dahl, the health spokesperson for Socialistisk Folkeparti, said that access to the information would be strictly controlled.

“The ministry is looking at how this can be done intelligently. Nobody wants sensitive information floating about so we have to ensure it is executed in a proper manner.” (J-P)

violence

Y

OUNG men are more than twice as likely to be the subject of violence or assault in Copenhagen as the average resident, a new report from the City Council has shown.

Despite a small overall drop from four percent to 3.7 percent, an increased number of men under the age of 25 reported experiencing violence, from 7.1 percent to 9.1 percent.

The report also revealed that women were only half as likely to have experienced violence as men, while belonging to a minority group significantly increased the risk of assault.

Anna Mee Allerslev, the city’s deputy mayor for integration and employment, welcomed the overall drop in the level of violence, but added that more needed to be done to help young men.

“I’m glad that it is generally going well. But the negative development among young men, especially those with minority backgrounds, is worrying,” she told Berlingske newspaper. “The environment for a small group in Copenhagen has become brutal, the tone has become raw, and certain things that were never acceptable before are now perfectly legitimate.” (PS)

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Cover story

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

17 - 23 February 2012

Can Denmark steer Europe’s energy future?

Understanding that Denmark holds an important role in shaping the agenda, the ten largest environmental organisations, including the WWF and Greenpeace, were in Copenhagen last week on Friday as the ‘Green10’ to lobby the Danish government.

“Half of the EU’s infrastructure is coming to the end of its lifetime and vested interests want to keep it in fossil fuels,” Green10 spokesperson Jorgo Riss told The Copenhagen Post.

Riss added that he had seen plenty

of EU presidencies arrive with honourable intentions about increasing renewable energy production in Europe, only to be led astray by lobby groups representing the carbon and nuclear industries, or distracted by their own domestic agenda.

“Lidegaard has a lot of work on his plate because he’s also co-ordinating his national energy policy, while also managing the larger job of managing the future of the EU’s energy,” Jorgo said.

“Denmark can make renewable energy the winners, but it depends on whether they build the right alliances and recognise that it’s a power game and that they have to work hard behind closed doors to get the results.”

Speaking to The Copenhagen Post, Lidegaard reinforced the message that Europe’s energy future was with renewable energy, but he accepted that even selling the message of green investment during a time of austerity might be difficult.

“There is no doubt that the economic crises is at the heart of European politics, and recovering the European economy is the main priority for member states, but green growth and the green transition of the European energy supply system is part of the solution,” Lidegaard said.

“We must convince EU partners that setting the right framework for a low carbon economy can be a driver of innovation that gives European companies the possibility to achieve and maintain a global lead position in technologies related to energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy.”

While Europe will have to invest in its energy infrastructure regardless of the economic crisis, the question is who gets the money. Lidegaard may seem dead-set on promoting renewable energy, but many experts have argued that the European grid cannot survive on renewable energy alone and will need stable sources of energy from fossil fuels or nuclear power to make sure there is always power being generated.

It will take some time before this question is answered, but for now there are some positive signs of a renewable energy future for Europe. For example, the next ten-year plan from the association of European electricity grid operators, ENTSO-E, will focus on improving the integration of renewable energy into the European-wide grid, which will make it easier to move renewable energy from areas with surplus to those in demand.

But if Denmark as EU president can shape the EU’s energy plan in its own image, then the next president, Cyprus, also can. And while Denmark has a thriving renewable energy sector, Cyprus is still almost entirely dependent on oil imports for its energy, which might make it a soft target for the oil lobby.

ment – at the beginning of 2012, so that all welfare recipients now receive the same level of state support.

But more is needed to reverse the trend in evictions and homelessness, said Hansen. Half of all the people evicted from their homes in Copenhagen had been previously sanctioned by the council for such things as not paying their bills or failing to show up for job activation – suggesting that there are opportunities for an earlier intervention than sending the bailiff.

KL and BL concluded in their study

that an eviction ends up costing society more in the form of emergency housing placements and emergency funds than earlier help would.

That viewpoint was shared by Sandy Madar, the founder of Den Sociale Retshjælp, Denmark’s largest debt counselling service. She told Politiken that debt had become commonplace in Denmark.

“We are seeing a steady increase in these problems, and they are becoming more and more widespread. Debt grows quickly into a societal problem,” she said.

Photos: Colourbox

Peter Stanners While most agree on the need to transition away from fossil fuels, renewable energy is not the only contender for picking up the slack

I

n 30 years time when you boot up your computer, flick on the light switch or turn on the TV, the power will probably not be coming from coal, oil and gas, but from solar panels in Spain, hydroelectricity in Norway and windmills in Denmark.

At least, that is the hope of many who see the need for Europe to turn its back on fossil fuels – a point of view shared by the European Commission (EC), which also wants us to use less energy to do more.

Denmark already has an ambitious energy plan. Launched in December, it envisages powering the country entirely through renewable energy – chiefly wind and biomass – while a ‘smart grid’ will enable Denmark to tap into other countries’ surplus renewable energy when its own is low.

It’s a neat fit then, that Denmark holds the rotating EU presidency at this moment. The major European issue may remain the ever dismal sovereign debt crisis, but with important continental legislation about upgrading energy infrastructure currently on the EU agenda, Denmark could play an important role in shaping how it turns out.

The primary reason for phasing out the burning of fossil fuels for energy is to help Europe cut carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to potentially devastating climate change. But there are other reasons. Coal may be cheap and plentiful, but it’s notoriously dirty. And Europe’s oil dependency relies upon imports from unstable regions at ever increasing prices.

“From 2010 to 2011 alone, the EU’s oil bill increased by nearly 100 billion euros,” a statement co-authored by the climate minister, Martin Lidegaard, read.

“It’s high time that we put a plug in this hole and redirect our money from importing energy from outside the EU to making energy investments in Europe.”

The statement was made as part of the ongoing negotiations regarding the Energy Roadmap 2050, the EC’s set of proposals to upgrade Europe’s ageing energy infrastructure and reduce carbon consumption. In a summary of the roadmap, the EC argues that transitioning away from fossil fuels will not only have environmental benefits, but also stimulate innovation into new technologies and create growth.

“Relying more on low-carbon or more diversified sources of energy – produced and consumed in an efficient way – can bring significant benefits,

Evictions continued from front page

Nygård called the uptrend in children being evicted “horrendous”.

In April 2011, the national association of regional councils, KL, and the national rental housing association, BL, produced a report showing that the number of evictions increased from 1,823 in 2002 to 4,382 in 2010 – a 140 percent jump.

Denmark’s own energy plan foresees the nation being powered solely by renewable energy by 2050

Half of the EU’s infrastructure is coming to the end of its lifetime and vested interests want to keep it in fossil fuels

not only for the environment, but also through increased competitiveness, energy supply security, economic growth, employment, regional development and innovation,” the EC’s summary stated.

Similar arguments were used when Denmark launched their energy plan.

But there is a rub – while Denmark is betting on renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and biomass, the EC has not ruled out using nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage (CCS) as ways to reduce Europe’s carbon emissions.

This is an important issue, as decisions need to soon be made about how to replace Europe’s ageing energy infrastructure in the form of power plants, transmission lines and energy grids. Any The vast majority of the evictions were due to a failure to pay rent. Most of the people evicted had lived in their residences for less than a year when the eviction process was initiated, leading KL and BL to conclude that people were being given leases they could not afford in the first place.

According to the housing minister, Carsten Hansen (Socialdemokraterne), the ‘starthjælp’ programme, under which immigrants and other new arrivals received reduced welfare benefits, was a major factor in the rise in evic-

The European Commission is still considering nuclear energy as an option

decision made now about which form of energy to invest in will lock Europe into a commitment for decades to come.

But there’s no clear winner. Renewable energy suffers from timing. After all, the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. CCS – burning fossil fuels, capturing the carbon and storing it underground – is a risky and unproven technology. Nuclear energy creates toxic waste, which if in the wrong hands could be used to create weapons.

Ten years ago, we had one or two evictions per week.

Now we have two every single working day tions over the last decade. The current Socialdemokraterne-led government eliminated that programme – which was introduced by the previous govern-

5 Agreement ends deportations of youngest children news

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

Jennifer Buley New family reunification rules offer relief to some immigrant families, but leave many others with broken hopes

D

enmark’s heavily criticised practice of deporting children deemed “unable to be integrated” will now end – at least for children under the age of eight, the government announced last week on Thursday.

The SocialdemokraterneRadikale-Socialistisk Folkeparti (S-R-SF) government, along with its far-left ally Enhedslisten (EL) and the opposition party Liberal Alliance (LA) have reached an agreement to soften the family reunification rules for the youngest foreign applicants.

Children under eight will now be exempted from the ‘twoyear rule’, which allows immigration authority Udlændingeservice to deny residency to children whose parents wait more than two years after moving to Denmark to send for them.

The announcement of the agreement came a month earlier than expected, reflecting the broad popular and political pressure to relieve a situation that many – including the European

Court of Human Rights – consider inhumane.

Since 2005 some 800 children – several as young as two and three – have been deported or prevented from joining parents legally living here. In 2010 alone, Udlændingeservice denied residency to 206 children under the age of 12 on the grounds that they could not integrate into Danish culture and society, because they moved here more than two years after their parents did.

Some of those children, however, were already speaking fluent Danish, attending school, and playing with Danish-speaking friends when they were deported.

Despite these facts, Udlændingeservice decided they were already too heavily influenced by foreign educations and cultures to become sufficiently integrated.

Seven-year-old Phatteera, eight-year-old Ripa and 13-year-old Sirapat, are just three of the children whose stories we have followed in The Copenhagen Post.

Last week on Thursday the justice minister, Morten Bødskov (S), announced that the parties had agreed to stop applying the two-year rule to children under eight, and that new rules would support a family’s right to stay together.

“I’m really satisfied that

Jennifer Buley

17 -23 February 2012

It’s a step in the direction of a more humane immigration policy

Immigration services had threatened eight-year-old Ripa with deportation to Bangladesh. But thanks to the new agreement, she may now get the chance to stay in Denmark with her father, Jamal

we’re doing away with policies that gradually lost their focus and were, instead, aimed at creating more and more meaningless barriers for even young children’s chances to live with their parents here,” Bødskov said in a press statement.

But while children aged under eight will now be exempted from the two-year rule and administrative judgments about their ability to integrate, children

aged over eight are apparently still subject to those criteria.

The failure to change the policy for older children will come as a disappointment for hundreds of families – like 13-year-old Sirapat’s – who have pinned their hopes on the new government’s promise to introduce a “new era” of fair and transparent immigration policy.

R and EL have led the fight to roll back the immigration

and family reunification rules to where they were before the centre-right Venstre-Konservative (V-K) government and the right-wing Dansk Folkeparti (DF) introduced the two-year rule in 2004.

It was originally intended to prevent families from sending their children on long ‘re-education’ trips (genopdragelsesrejser) to the parents’ home country to immerse them in the native culture and undo the influence of their Danish integration. In practice, the rule has prevented parents from bringing their children to Denmark to live in the first place.

R immigration spokesperson Zenia Stampe told Berlingske newspaper the new agreement was a compromise, but that she was nevertheless satisfied.

“Now we can break with the unfair rules that put many families in completely desperate situations. Now we can insist that young children always

have the right to live with their parents in Denmark and that well-integrated parents can also bring their older children here,” Stampe said.

However, EL spokesperson Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen was a bit more circumspect about the outcome.

“The agreement is definitely an improvement for children’s right to live with their parents, and it’s a step in the direction of a more humane immigration policy,” Schmidt-Nielsen told Berlingske. “Enhedslisten promises to carefully watch how the new rules will be applied in actual cases.”

Immigration lawyer Åge Kramp, who has represented Phatteera and Ripa in their appeals, told The Copenhagen Post that he considered the new agreement to be a disappointment and “not very ambitious”.

“At least there will still be a need for immigration lawyers,” he added drily.

Noting that S, the government leaders, in fact voted with V, K and DF for the two-year rule, Kramp suggested the party was the one putting the brakes on real reform.

“From a legal standpoint, it would be so easy to just roll the rules back to how they were before 2004. But I guess they don’t want to admit their mistake.”

Parliament to end 50-50 child custody rule

I

n a unanimous decision, the political parties agreed last week on a plan to change the national child custody laws, abolishing the default 50-50 shared custody arrangement for children of divorced parents.

With the agreement, the MPs acknowledged that while the ‘parental responsibility act’ (forældreansvarslov), which the new law will replace, was meant to ensure that both parents maintain optimal connections with their children, in practice it exposes the children to ongoing conflict and undue stress.

“Before, the law focused on parents’ rights to their children.

Now, we want to focus on the children’s rights. The children have been left alone with the burden of getting their parents to co-operate with one another, but now we’re going to take that burden off their shoulders,” Karen Hækkerup (Socialdemokraterne), the social and immigration minister, told Ritzau news service. Hækkerup has spearheaded the negotiations for the law change.

The parental responsibility act was introduced in 2007 – also by a unanimous parliament.

It made forced co-operation

and 50-50 shared custody the default decision in all child custody cases where parents cannot agree on an alternative arrangement and where both parents are deemed responsible. Under the law, each parent has custody on MPs say the new law will put more focus on the alternating weeks. rights of children as opposed to the parents While it was intended as a fairer The new law will also set a solution than earlier custody cap on the number of times parpractices that typically favoured ents can sue for custody, whereas the custody rights of the mother the old law had no limit. over the father, forced shared “Some people have used custody has proven problematic, the parental responsibility act particularly because it is being as a springboard for lodging applied to divorced couples who one case after another. As soon cannot agree to another arrange- as one case about time sharing ment. The state and courts have or the child’s living arrangeinsisted that they co-operate ment is finished on a Monday, with one another on a state- they file a new one on Tuesday,” mandated 50-50 custody plan, Hækkerup added. exchanging their children every In the future, the state’s adseven days. ministration (statsforvaltningen) With the coming law will determine whether a situachange, that rigid arrangement tion has changed enough to juswill end, and individual custody tify a renewed custody suit. If schedules that are good for the the administration determines children will be determined on a that it has not, and that the suit case-by-case basis after an evalu- is not in the child’s best interest, ation by a case officer experi- the administration will be alenced in children’s cases. lowed to throw it out.

“Parents who cannot co“We are making sure that operate and who are fighting a the law will protect the interests lot will no longer necessarily be of the children to a much greatforced to share custody of their er degree than before,” added children,” Hækkerup said.

Hækkerup. (JB)

Colourbox

Acknowledging that forced co-operation and shared custody do not work for all divorced families, politicians rethink law

InvItatIon The City of Copenhagen would like to invite you to a Welcome Reception at the City Hall, Tuesday the 6th of March 2012 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. · Head of Business Affairs Jakob Brandt from Copenhagen Business Service would like to officially welcome you to Copenhagen · Introduction to the city through interesting glimpse and stories presented by Jakob Parby from The Copenhagen Museum · Taste the famous Copenhagen City Hall pancakes whilst having the opportunity to meet representatives from different culture and leisure activities and ‘visit’ the human library.

Please register through www.kk.dk/english Enter through the entrance facing The City Hall Square (Rådhuspladsen).

News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

17 - 23 February 2012

Poll: More than a quarter of Danes support war against Iran

Scanpix

6

Jaya Rao Danish respondents more willing to send troops than those in the US and the UK

A

An anti-ACTA protester in Poland wears the Guy Fawkes mask that has become the symbol of the movement against regulations they fear could limit internet freedom. Poland recently revoked its support for ACTA

Support for ACTA wanes as debate heats up Peter Stanners Journalists’ union leader retracts support after a single day, while leaders of three European countries also withdraw their backing

T

he national debate over the controversial Anti Copyright Trade Agreement (ACTA) is starting to heat up after the vice-chair of journalists’ union Journalistforbundet (DJ) made a retraction of his public support for the agreement after only a day.

In an article published on the organisation’s website on February 6, Lars Wenge, DJ’s vice chair, said that ACTA, which Denmark signed in January, provided important regulations to fight copyright violation globally.

“We think it’s a good idea,” Wenge said. “ACTA will regulate many things globally that need regulation. We also notice that the regulations don’t change the way we do things in Denmark. The things that ACTA is supposed to regulate are already regulated in Denmark.”

Wenge’s point of view was far from unanimously held, however, and after receiving criticism from DJ’s own members, he published a retraction.

“My statement [the previous day] in the article on journalisten.dk is only my point of view,” Wenge wrote. “Copyright protection is central to DJ’s fight to ensure our members better working conditions. But in the past few hours I have noticed that ACTA is far more than this.

And, even though freedom of speech and copyrights can sometimes collide, DJ’s support for copyright protection should not be interpreted as a desire to stand in the way of free speech and dialogue.”

Wenge could hardly have chosen a more controversial piece of legislation

to support. ACTA has been criticised by many for its potential to unleash internet censorship by demanding internet service providers police its customers and cut their connection if they are merely suspected of violating copyright laws.

Opponents have also argued that it would halt the trade of life-saving generic drugs and would criminalise many ordinary acts, such as passing on recipes or publishing family videos where copyrighted material can be seen or heard.

In Denmark, ACTA has a number of supporters including the trade minister, Pia Olsen Dyhr (Socialistisk Folkeparti), who argues that agreements like ACTA are needed to fight copyright violators and protect jobs. “[Denmark] has a lot of information-intensive enterprises, which thrive on developing and designing products such as furniture and high-tech machines,” she wrote in Information newspaper. “These companies cannot survive without effective protection of their rights both in and outside of Denmark.”

But across the world a growing campaign has been mounted against ACTA. Global activist organisation Avaaz has amassed well over two million signatures calling for it to be scrapped, while Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have all announced they will not ratify the agreement.

Back in Denmark, Henrik Chulu, who represents the think-tank Bitbureauet, which fights for internet freedom, argued that ACTA would do more harm than good.

“ACTA is simply another example of an initiative taken by, or on behalf of, copyright lobbyists,” Chulu wrote in an op-ed published on Altinget.dk.

“Common to all of these initiatives is that they will benefit a narrow class of private interests, to the detriment of

a broader and far more substantial societal good, namely the free and open internet. It is more than simply a channel for information and free speech for people in oppressed countries, but is also a motor for growth and global development.”

Chulu also questioned whether Wenge’s initial statement had anything to do with DJ’s membership of anti-piracy organisation Rettigheds Alliancen, which represents copyright holders such as musicians and artists.

Rettigheds Alliancen has proposed tackling online piracy by sending letters to households whose IP addresses show they have downloaded copyright material, explaining to them what they have done and suggesting they reconsider their behaviour.

But the organisation found itself in an embarrassing situation recently, when the website frikultur.dk revealed that a computer at the law firm Johan Schlüter Advokatfirma, a member of the Rettigheds Alliance, was used to illegally download the Danish awardwinning movie ‘Dirch’.

The actual effect of ACTA will not be fully understood until it is implemented and currently many countries are standing by it. The European Commission even released a statement attempting to debunk ten of the most prevailing myths about ACTA, such as that it threatens legitimate trade in generic medicines.

Regardless of whether countries have signed the agreement or not, the European Parliament has the final say on whether to ratify the agreement.

Information newspaper will be holding a public hearing on ACTA on February 27, while an anti-ACTA demonstration is being held outside parliament at 3pm on Saturday, February 25.

s tensions continue to mount over Iran’s nuclear programme, a recent YouGov poll shows that over a quarter of Danes support sending Danish troops into Iran.

According to the poll results, 27 percent of Danish respondents want to directly engage Iran militarily. That’s a higher percentage than respondents in the US, the UK, Germany, Norway and Finland.

The poll results also revealed that more than three out of four Danes are convinced that Iran is working towards building nuclear weapons, despite its repeated assurances that its nuclear programme has peaceful aims.

“Since the fall of the [Berlin] Wall, Denmark has changed its foreign and security policies from being sceptical about military action to a more dynamic approach, in which it’s legitimate

to use military force if it serves Danish interests by preventing terrorism, as we see in Afghanistan, or for humanitarian purposes, as in Libya,” Peter Viggo Jakobsen, a lecturer at the Royal Danish Defence College (Forsvarsakademiet), told metroXpress newspaper.

Jakobsen pointed out that over 80 percent of Danes supported the country’s participation in the war against Libya.

“So in that sense, 27 percent is quite a small number,” he said. “However, it would be a very risky undertaking to start a war in Iran, with its population of 50 million people. It would be a very ugly thing and it’s not going to happen.”

Jakobsen said that the fact that Danes seem more willing to send troops into Iran than world powers like the US and the UK can be chalked up to a weariness of war in those countries.

“Americans and Britons know very well who would have to pull the heavy load,” he said. “While Denmark could simply send 200 soldiers to the field, they would have to send in thousands, suffering heavy casualties and bearing severe economic costs.”

Denmark ‘building bridges’ in the UK

T

he minister for European affairs, Nicolai Wammen (Socialdemokraterne), took a two-day trip to London and Dublin last week to strengthen ties between the UK and Denmark.

Wammen’s visits saw him meeting with cabinet members in the UK and the Republic of Ireland as well as a range of experts.

“The EU is facing some of its greatest challenges since it was established, and to a great extent I see our presidency as a question of building bridges and creating the foundation for the necessary compromises,” Wammen wrote in a press release ahead of his departure.

The main focus of the meetings was on joint efforts to increase growth and employment across Europe, issues which Denmark is essentially responsible for as EU president until the end of June.

In London, Wammen also met with former UK prime minister Tony Blair to discuss these issues.

“I had a very good meeting with Tony Blair, in which we discussed the Danish EU presidency and ways of increasing growth and employment in Europe,” Wammen said. “As prime minister, Blair also had a difficult presidency in 2005 so it was very useful to hear his experiences and good advice about the best way of promoting our key issues during the Danish presidency.”

The proposed EU fiscal compact treaty, which outlines stricter financial guidelines for member states, was also

discussed at the meetings.

The UK is one of a handful of EU countries that has opted to stay outside of the new treaty out of fears that it will affect their national interests. The government in London, in particular, is concerned about the damage it could do the country’s lucrative financial sector.

David Lidington, the UK Europe minister, also stressed the importance of strengthening Europe’s economy after his meeting with Wammen and defended the British decision to stay outside of the treaty.

“We are one of the most positive EU countries,” Lidington told Politiken newspaper. “I am sure that if you look at the other countries sitting around the negotiation table at EU meetings, there will be plenty of countries that are fighting just as hard for their national position as the UK.” The UK is also currently fighting against the introduction of a financial transaction tax (FTT), which is being supported by many of the core EU members such as France and Germany.

Denmark, however, is currently in the same camp as the UK, with economy minister Margrethe Vestager repeatedly expressing the potential damage an FTT could have on European economies in terms of lost jobs and growth.

Other issues discussed at the meetings included the further development of the single market as well as moving Europe’s energy production towards green and sustainable alternatives. (PS)

Online this week Are Wales residents breathing in our pig poo?

Neath Port Talbot Council in South Wales has complained that Danish pigs are contributing to their local air pollution, reports Wales Online. Danish pig poo particles are apparently showing up on the Welsh council’s atmospheric monitoring devices. Denmark, located just over one thousand kilometres

east of Wales, has about 5,000 pig farms. Port Talbot exceeded its safety threshold of polluted air on 13 days in 2010 but now that has increased to 29 days – a rise that its council is blaming on the Danish pigs. The Danish Agriculture and Food Council maintains that pig farmers follow stringent environmental regulations.

Deputy mayor: no more homework Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for children and youths, Anne Vang (Socialdemokraterne), has proposed banning homework at selected city schools. “We should do away with the concept of homework and instead turn it into something you do when you are in school,” she told MetroXpress newspaper. If

Vang’s recommendation is taken up, homework will be history for students in the fourth, fifth and seventh grades at select Copenhagen schools for a period of three years. The concept of homeworkfree schools has taken off in Denmark in recent years, due in part to the surprisingly positive results from a few pilot programmes.

Attach those bike lights, traffic authority says Trafikstyrelsen, the national transport authority, is banning dangling LED lights on bicycles. The government body wants the front and rear lights to be securely attached to the bikes. The cyclists’ union Cyklistforbundet announced its

support for the new rule, saying it’s essential that the bike lights should be visible from all angles.

The new rule will come into effect on November 1 and follows the increased fines for various cycling offences that came into effect last month.

Read the full stories at cphpost.dk

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OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

A giant leap for families, a small step towards “new era”

17 - 23 February 2012

Is it okay if we sell joints?

C

ALL IT A victory no-one is cheering. On the surface of it, last week’s announcement that children under eight would no longer be kicked out of the country for being found “unable to be integrated” looks like a win for families. And for some parents faced with the heartbreaking choice of a life with their children in their home country or a better life in Denmark, it is.

But despite the agreement to stop applying the law to the youngest children, it remains, for all intents and purposes, in place. So while the deal is good news for some, it still leaves us wondering when – if ever – the government’s promised “new era” of immigration will begin in earnest.

Given the condemnation of the rule by domestic and international rights experts, it’s hard to see what the government stands to gain by not eliminating it entirely. The government has a solid parliamentary majority in favour of doing so, and it has a cause the press is sympathetic to.

For a young government hard-pressed to claim any sort of political victory in the past five months, sending a clear signal that it is serious about turning its back on ten years of increasingly repressive immigration policy would have helped it recapture the enthusiasm of the progressive-minded voters that helped propel it into office last year.

One reason for the back-track could be the legitimate concern that it will re-open the door to the dreaded ‘re-education trips’. Well intentioned as this may be, it’s unfortunate, since the rule’s intention is to prevent parents from letting their kids become too Danish, not hinder other kids from becoming Danish at all.

To the government’s credit, this isn’t the first measure they’ve taken towards a more humane immigration policy – immigration authority Udlændingservice has been retooled and rechristened, and one of the two proposed point systems has been shelved.

Even though we would have hoped to be able to list more changes by this point, we’ll take last week’s agreement as another step away from the ‘Firm and Fair’ policy of its predecessor that had become ever more firm and ever less fair.

But, that sound you hear isn’t us applauding the latest change, it’s us impatiently tapping our foot as we wait for the bad old days to come to an end.

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

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PETER THIELE

T

HE CITY COUNCIL will soon be sending a letter to the justice minister, Morten Bødskov (Socialdemokraterne).

It might be formulated a little more formally than the question above, but that question is, in essence, what we will be asking. A majority on the council support

a Socialistisk Folkeparti initiative to request that the justice minister do what he can to help make it legal to launch a pilot project regulating the sale of cannabis in Copenhagen.

And why do we want to do this? The long-standing effort to legalise cannabis stems from a recognition that cannabis is here to stay, that the current situation is untenable and that 10 years of failed centre-right cannabis policies that include ineffective bans, tougher punishments and police raids have not helped the problem – neither in terms of abuse rates nor in terms of drug-related crime.

It’s unrealistic to expect that we can completely eliminate cannabis in Copenhagen and Denmark. Cannabis’s presence is something we need to accept.

But what we should do is try to tackle the problems it carries with it, and try to come up with some

sensible guidelines. A pilot project modelled on the Dutch system of regulated sales of cannabis could expose the problems we need to address and allow lawmakers to come up with sensible solutions.

Statistics show that cannabis use is no greater in countries that have decriminalised it.

And another important effect of regulated cannabis sales is that it takes the trade out of the hands of gangs. It could help end the lawlessness, drug wars and the reign of violence associated with the cannabis market. We owe it to the people of Copenhagen to take away gangs’ livelihood and make sure that gang warfare does not flare up again in Copenhagen the way it has in Malmö. We owe it to Christiania to allow it to again become a home for alternative thinking, solidarity and creativity – not a home for psychopaths that brutalise parking wardens and earn billions on cannabis sales.

“But cannabis is dangerous,” the critics will say. Yes, cannabis is a harmful drug and that’s exactly why we need to control its sale – unlike today, where we can find cannabis for sale just about anywhere in the city. Dealers are happy to sell to kids, and they aren’t shy about selling something a little harder.

Cannabis is here to stay. The way forward is to try to regulate cannabis sales in Copenhagen. If the justice minister won’t listen to the residents of Christiania, newspaper editorials, abuse counsellors or a socialist like myself, then he should at least listen to a former justice minister from his own party, who now happens to be the mayor, when he asks: “Dear Morten, is it okay if we sell joints?”

The author is the spokesperson for the Socialistisk Folkeparti on the City Council

READER COMMENTS Who really IS an immigrant anyway?

2,500,000 Americans are of Danish descent. They are Americans, not 1st, 2nd, 3rd immigrant generations. Wake up, Dansk Folkeparti!

GAMACHIS by website I am not a Dane and never will be. You cannot have an operation to remove your culture, and who would expect you to. I was and my children are taught to think for themselves, be polite and show respect. We have found this behaviour to be above the standard of many of my children’s friends and parents. My wife is Danish but is ashamed of her country. As she says, “it’s run by people who want to ruin it”. Remember if you are not Danish you know nothing, even if you have been raised here.

Rugratzz By website Anybody who doesn’t have blue eyes, blonde hair and doesn’t go to solariums to get a brown tan is not Danish!

BelTheCat By website If you don’t want to be a Dane, don’t move to Denmark.

Leofwin By website Let’s throw this into the political debate. I would like to be considered Danish. I am a 3rd generation Australian with English Danelaw Viking ancestry, which is where I and my 5 children and 1 grandson get our blond hair, blue eyes and Viking good looks from.

One of my sons visited Denmark 3 times while he was living in the UK and he was mistaken for a home-grown Dane every time.

So, even though my ancestors left the shores of Denmark probably at least a thousand years ago, I still want to be considered Danish. It’s my rightful heritage. Please send me citizen application papers.

Earthfire By website

I would have hoped that Fred and Mary’s children would be stigmatised because they are Denmark’s biggest welfare cases.

Thorvaldsen By website Fred and Mary’s offspring won’t be stigmatised. The Danes use another set of rules for the royals – not sure how the patter goes though if it’s to sound convincing.

Djeep By website This whole conversation makes me sad. Honestly, how can there be any debate? A person born in Denmark is a citizen. A person who has taken and passed the citizenship exam is a citizen. End of.

This second, third, fourth, fifth generation nonsense is just divisive as it’s intended to be.

HeidiakaMissJibba By website “...There is no reason to stigmatise them.” Stigmatise, eh? That’s an interesting word to use in regards to any immigrant.

Shufflemoomin By website You are probably right to some extent that DF will continue to decline in popularity and therefore lose MPs, but I wouldn’t necessarily take such a hard stance. Don’t get me wrong, I am not defending DF, but don’t underestimate the power of their message to ordinary Danes. DF’s core belief structure speaks very well to the millions of blue collar, country folk living in Jutland, Fyn and other non-urbanized sections of the country that most of us don’t live in. Their core value system and DF’s core philosophy go hand-in-hand, and this is not likely to change, even though it may seem incomprehensible to the better-educated, worldlier circles of Danish society.

The1youlove2hate By website I would add that Pia K deserves a lot of credit for being that charismatic leader that can take what was essentially a fringe party of lunatics and place it in the main-

stream. It will be interesting to see how the party fares when she is no longer leader.

John By website Church struggling with empty pew syndrome Marketing is the only way forward. The church must innovate.

Danish churches are boring and as Christians we must find ways to make the church fun for the young to be a part of.

Rebekah By website Maybe if the royal family rode the circuit (as one of my forebears, a 19th century horseback Methodist circuit preacher did), going to different parish churches within the month (that is, when not in France drinking and smoking), then an active audience of parishioners would reappear in Danish churches (albeit, only as royalty voyeurs). After all, part of the queen’s title is ‘Protector of the Faith.’ And once there, pass around the offering plate; after all the buzzword of the decade is ‘sustainability.’

SNCO By website More work, less pay: Welcome to the new Danish workplace Heard a nice story about a public sector worker on his first day being asked where he wanted the bed in his office. Apparently it’s necessary because everyone needs to take a break (i.e. go to sleep) during the tough public sector working day. This guy actually went for a public sector job because he wanted a ‘career break’. It was more than he was expecting.

Mark Stevens By website The reality is that in private businesses people work as much as necessary because they know that the success of the businesses and the safety of their jobs depend on it. Unfortunately people in the public sector are motivated only by self-interest and regard their

pay as free money. This decadent behaviour is encouraged by the unions, with the result that the effort actually expended is equivalent to perhaps half of the hours put in by their private sector paymasters.

Theoldjanus By website Seven Olympic medals: pie in the sky or feet on the ground?

Shame on you, The Copenhagen Post! I would not have thought you would start this Danish feelgood rubbish. Were you told to write this, or did you make it up yourself? You could be right if half the world does not turn up.

Djeep, and Thorvaldsen, theoldjanus, and HeidiakaMissJibba, remember we are not integrated until we recognise Denmark is the centre of not only the world but also the known universe.

Rugratzz By website Wow, we don’t even have to wait for the games or the medals to hear the typical “Danes are the best” propaganda. Oh yeah, most of the news in Denmark is made up, so why am I surprised?.

Thorvaldsen By websit Would winning 7 medals make Denmark ‘best in the world’ again? It must be something like Denmark getting 7 medals is the equivalent of the US or China winning about 35,000 or whatever! Go Team Denmark!

John By website It’s wishful thinking, counting your chickens before they hatch etc. Well, who’s going to have the last laugh!

Djeep By website I think some of the commentators have lost a grip on reality, if they see this as “the typical ‘Danes are the best’ propaganda”. It’s predicting sports results - just like people do all over the world, in all countries, for all sport.

Abby Crispin By website

OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

17 - 23 February 2012

9

‘The Lynch Report’

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

The suppression of art CÆCILIE PARFELT VENGBERG / WWW.VINDFANG.BLOGSPOT.COM

T

HE REACTION to a Danish theatre’s proposal to stage a play about the manifesto of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Brievik would appear to insinuate that artists should wait in the wings while politicians, the media and public opinion decide when and how the event should be commented upon.

Christian Lollike, the artistic director of Café Teatret who will direct the play, made the announcement in the middle of January and it was quickly reported and condemned by both the Danish and international media, and met by varying degrees of disdain and outrage from not only the politicians, but also the relatives of those murdered

by Brievik.

But how is it that the media and politicians have the right to comment, but the artists don’t? Should they simply wait until everyone else decides when it’s polite, appropriate and convenient to comment on world events?

The critique seems to be based on three main points: firstly that the play will support Brievik, secondly that the events are too recent to be made the subject of a play, and thirdly that ‘Art’ has no right to comment.

Regarding the first point, nothing could be further from the truth. Lollike is respected within the industry for his talent, guts and good judgment.

Everything he says about his proposal points to artwork that would in no way condone the actions of Brievik.

“We certainly do not want to create a voice for Anders Brievik,” he told Politiken. “Quite the contrary. The performance is a subjective, critical artistic treatment, which intends to explore the mindset of which Anders Brievik is far from alone in sharing.”

If this is correct, where is the objec-

tion? If one were to listen to the media, art simply has no right to comment on such a subject. But surely, it is valuable to examine as fully as possible such a situation, even if only to ascertain that it might relate to others and to be the more identifiable. To deny freedom of expression to Lollike is to deny that freedom to art.

To suggest that it is an inappropriate subject for art is to leave the media as the only public purveyor of moral information and opinion. Art must wait until the media has driven public opinion and deems the events no longer ‘fresh’ – in short, no longer newsworthy. Or, to be more blunt, when it ceases to sell.

As I write this on February 6, one of the main articles in the Danish newspaper Politiken concerned Breivik. The article, which was one of the most read on their website, was complete with a ‘leaked’ photograph of Brievik in military style police uniform standing in court, smiling, and giving a Nazi-style salute. I doubt if the article would have

been so popular if a ban on images of Brievik had prevented the publication of the photograph.

If such a ban were generally observed by the media, backed by politicians and the public, the views of Brievik would get little newspaper or television coverage. But that, you will object, amounts to censorship!

So where then is the line to be drawn between the newsworthy and the morbidly curious? Do we slow down for a road accident in order to avoid another or to have a good look?

For me the antipathy towards Lollike is indicative of a societal trend in Denmark veering ever closer to the viewpoint of a free market economy where art, if it is not a commodity, is a threat. As a commodity it may be worshipped, idolised and invested in. As a threat, as when it is critical or political, it is to be actively disenfranchised and ridiculed, so as to undermine the political claims it makes.

The righteous anger of the relatives is understandable; one does not argue with anyone who has lost a child. But the hypocritical anger of the media and politicians is self-seeking. The media indulges in a flow of airbrushed images and fact-less conjecture that is mindless at best and conniving at worst. It is significant that the politicians most vocal in the attack on Lollike are those closest to the right-wing views of Brievik. Can it be that they are afraid of being identified with him? There is a dangerous consequence of the propagation of fear, and the negative promotion of separatism and racial division.

One might not like the idea of a play, but to attack Lollike’s right to make it is to attack art and demote it to being a mere aesthetic cultural backdrop.

CPH POST VOICES

‘PERNICKETY DICKY’

‘STILL ADJUSTING’

‘TO BE PERFECTLY FRANK’

‘MACCARTHY’S WORLD’

English by nature – Danish at heart.

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

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

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

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

10 News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

17 - 23 February 2012

Muslim women’s virginity fix still causing controversy Foreign students want to stay but report difficulty finding work Jennifer Buley

Three years after call for ban, doctors still profiting from ‘virginity restoration’ procedure

Y

oung Danish women with immigrant backgrounds – most of them Muslim – continue to flock to private clinics across the country to have their ‘virginity’ restored for a few thousand kroner.

Several years after the little-known procedure became a topic of political debate, doctors are reporting that the demand for hymenoplasty operations has not decreased.

The doctors who perform these operations have come under sharp criticism for legitimising the procedure.

They are accused of protecting what critics say is the chauvinism and oppression that underlies the demand that new brides must be verified virgins.

“I don’t have any scruples about helping. The important thing is that these girls have good lives moving forward. You could call it my form of foreign aid,” Dr Christine Felding, who performs 30 to 40 hymenoplasty procedures each year, told Berlingske newspaper.

The procedure involves reconstructing the hymen – the membrane that partially covers the opening to the vagina, and which is presumed to tear and bleed the first time a woman has sexual intercourse. The doctor literally sews bits of the vaginal lining together to narrow the opening. It takes a little over an hour and is done under local anaesthesia. Felding charges 5,000 kroner. Other doctors charge as much as 12,000 kroner.

Felding estimates that three or four women with immigrant backgrounds call her each week asking about the

procedure. Most of them, she said, are frightened about what will happen if their fiancés or their families find out that they are not virgins.

Women have been known to suffer rejection, public shaming and even violent retribution at the hands of men in their own families if there is a lack of ‘proof ’– for example, a bloody bed sheet on the wedding night.

“It is more cultural than religious. If the bride is not a virgin and does not bleed on the wedding night, it is a big shame on the family. There have been honour killings in extreme cases,” Dr Magdy Hend, a UK surgeon who performs several hymenoplasties a week, told the UK tabloid Daily Mail.

Doctors in the UK, France, Germany and Belgium also report that the procedure is highly sought after in Muslim communities. The irony, as Time magazine’s Bruce Crumley writes, is that “the increase in the procedure reflects the growing emancipation of women from tradition-rooted communities, but also the ongoing male oppression signified by the obsession with female virginity.”

Even though the focus on virginity remains strong among conservative families living in Western countries like Denmark and the UK, Felding believes it will wane – eventually.

“It’s something that this generation of young immigrant women still have to live with. But I don’t think that their daughters will still suffer under it. Times change,” she told Berlingske.

Change, however, is exactly what Felding and doctors like her are preventing, according to nurse and social counsellor Kristina Aamand.

Aamand believes that by providing hymenoplasties, doctors are sheltering ignorance and helping a backward tradition to persist in modern society.

The daughter of a Danish mother and Pakistani father, Aamand knows well the confusing messages and conflicting

You could call it my form of foreign aid pressures young Muslim women growing up in Denmark experience. That’s why she started NyMødom.dk, an advice website that aims to dispel myths about female virginity and the hymen.

On NyMødom.dk, young women are encouraged to confront their families and fiancés about these myths, instead of opting for a secret surgery to create the illusion of virginity.

“The young women see [a hymenoplasty] as a little thing next to the anxiety they feel. They see it as something they just have to get through. But the fear of being discovered remains, and ten little stitches in the vagina won’t change that,” Aamand told Berlingske.

In 2009, Socialdemokraterne and Socialistisk Folkeparti, then in the opposition, challenged the old VenstreKonservative government to outlaw hymenoplasties, along with other “religious or culturally related surgical procedures”. Then-health minister Jakob Axel Nielsen (Konservative) refused, noting that they were medically approved by the national board of health, Sundhedsstyrelsen.

MP Jonas Dahl (Socialistisk Folkeparti) remarked last week that it was “worrying” that they were still sanctioned

by Sundhedsstyrelsen, that private doctors were still earning money peddling them to frightened young women, and that the demand for the procedures from young immigrant women was still strong.

“I hoped and expected that they would decrease. That’s something we need to work at,” he said.

Justin Cremer New study shows that three-quarters of students are interested in staying in Denmark — if they can find a job

F

oreign students are by and large interested in remaining in Denmark after completing their education, but many of them feel that Danish employers aren’t interested in hiring them.

A new study conducted by Momentum - the newsletter of the association of local councils, Kommunernes Landsforeging - and the career centre at CBS surveyed 334 students from 52 different countries.

A whopping 77 percent said they could imagine staying in Denmark after their studies. But that, of course, would require finding a job, and the respondents weren’t very optimistic about their chances. Some 37 percent said that Danish businesses were uninterested in hiring qualified foreign workers, while 40 percent believed the opposite.

Despite the number of foreign students in Denmark skyrocketing in recent years, the difficulty of finding work often results in the students leaving the country.

According to figures from the Agency for Universities and Internalisation (Styrelsen for International Uddannelse), the number of foreign students rose from just 793 in 2000 to 3,028 in 2009. A total of 17,306 international students were educated in Denmark between 2001 and 2009. Of those, just half remained in Denmark after their education, and of those that chose to stay, 74 percent have jobs.

The ability to find meaningful work

is key to getting the students to stay, said Finn Kjerulff Hansen, a career councillor at CBS. “If the students don’t find a job within six months, most of them go back home,” Hansen told Momentum.

“Not least of all because Copenhagen is a very expensive place to live if you don’t have a job. The job market needs to be much more open to international students.”

The students in the study pointed to that fact, saying that it is very rare to find job openings posted in English.

Some 59 percent said that they “rarely” or “almost never” saw job adverts in English. Not surprisingly then, 78 percent of the respondents agreed that learning Danish was necessary in order to find work in Denmark.

The students’ perception that finding work in Denmark is difficult was greeted with concern by Dansk Industri.

“It’s unfortunate that the foreign students have that impression,” DI’s research director Charlotte Rønhof told Momentum. “Not only does that weaken Danish companies’ opportunities to attract the most talented candidates, it is also factually incorrect. Danish companies to a great extent hire foreign specialists and will need them more and more moving forward.”

The large number of students that expressed their interest in staying in Denmark pointed first and foremost to Copenhagen’s appeal. Over three quarters of the respondents specifically mentioned Copenhagen as one of the main appeals for staying in the country. The second most-popular reason was that students felt there was a better life-work balance in Denmark than in their home countries. While 70 percent of the respondents said they were not bothered by the country’s high level of taxes.

Online this week 700,000 kroner stolen in NemID attack Hackers have broken into the online banking accounts of eight Danske Bank customers and stolen approximately 700,000 kroner. The attacks were confirmed

by Nets, the company behind the NemID digital signature for online banking. According to Nets, the hackers tricked the account holders into installing

spy software, called malware, onto their computers, which the hackers then used to monitor the customers’ actions in real time. These ‘real time phishing’ attacks, as they are known, allowed the criminals to steal the customers’ user IDs, passwords and keys from their NemID key card.

Psychologist fined 45,000 kr for keeping silent A retired military psychologist has been fined up to 45,000 kroner for refusing to divulge what her former client, a military interpreter, may have told her about the abuse of Afghan prisoners by Danish and American troops. In October, Merete Lindholm was held in contempt of court for holding her tongue.

On Thursday last week, the City Court fined her 500 kroner per day, every day for three months, or until she agrees to tell the court what her client told her.

Lindholm maintained that her pledge of confidentiality to all her clients was “inviolable” and above the law.

Injuries keep murder suspect from attending hearing The man suspected of killing social worker Judy Meiniche Simonsen did not appear in a Viborg court due to serious injuries he sustained in a car crash.

Kristian Heilmann, while attempting to escape from police, crashed his car into a group of

trees and is currently at Aarhus Hospital. Heilmann will face charges of killing Simonsen, who was found dead with multiple stab wounds. Prosecutor Pia Koudahl also alluded to forensic evidence indicating that the victim had also been raped.

Read the full stories at cphpost.dk

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17 - 23 February 2012

Patriots and football fans applaud the giants of gridiron

11

PHOTOS BY PAMELA JUHL AND WORDS BY BEN HAMILTON

While nobody can doubt that the New York Giants or New England Patriots gave their all (despite all those ad breaks) in the Super Bowl on February 5, you have to respect the thousands of fans across Copenhagen who stayed up into the early hours to watch the Giants repeat their 2008 win over their East Coast rivals. These included 160 diehards at the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers (an appropriate name given it’s also the name of the city’s gridiron side!), who as guests of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the Danish American Football Federation (DAFF) enjoyed this fantastic spread of all-American fare in the hotel’s Everest Ballroom.

A number of different companies bought tables for the night, including Better Place Denmark, which was ably led (does that make him the quarterback?) by its CFO Morten Leth (far left with hat).

US ambassador Laurie S Fulton was at hand to calm down a warring spectator, who is seen here remonstrating that the player was out of bounds by a clear foot.

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Also present were medical devices and software manufacturer Varian Medical – handy to have on site just in case things got too physical at the Budweiser buckets.

Lucky old Elo Fogstrup (left), who won the Squares Pool prize given to the best prediction of the scoreline, quarterby-quarter. He won two return tickets to the US courtesy of Iceland Air, which were presented to him by Shawn Wad- Clearly enjoying the occasion are the DAFF’s Jens Jordahn, Ambas- And don’t forget the efforts of the Bud girls who were on call all night to make sure nobody ran dry. sador Fulton, Stephen Brugger and the DAFF’s Lars Carlsen. doups from the US Embassy.

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Pictured here, Steen Parsholt from Bogani Aps is getting his football signed by Claus Elming (left), who as a NFL commentator on television (TV2 Zulu until 2006, he now works for TV2 Sport) has been an integral force in making the game more popular over the last decade. He is a co-founder of both the Herning Hawks and Aarhus Tigers.

Among those present were Claus Elming, the hotel’s chief executive Allan Agerholm, Jesper Elming, and AmCham’s executive director Stephen Brugger, who oversaw the night’s pre-game entertainment programme, which included an overview of American football in Denmark presented by DAFF’s athletic director Lars Carlsen, and a quiz compered by DAFF’s development consultant Thomas Nielsen.

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THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

17 - 23 February 2012

ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD

(UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED)

The queen of hearts has an admirer! Birgit Heimen, the secretary of the Lord Chamberlain, was the grateful recipient of a Valentine’s gift on behalf of the queen presented by American artist Heiko Schlueter (right). The painting, ‘Danish Christmas Soul’, is a depiction of the 2011 Christiania Jule dinner, which this year had a red heart theme – a wonderful fit for Valentine’s.

This drawing by John Lennon is one of 200 currently being exhibited at the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers (pictured here is its managing director Allan L Agerholm), which just goes to show that as long as you’re really famous for one genre, people are always going to be interested in your other creations. Next week, Picasso sings Sinatra.

We saw his face in a crowded place ... James Blunt was in town last week performing at Vega and was happy to pose for a photo in what looks like a bodega. Can’t say the same about his fan though, who is doing her best to conceal her identity.

Come on, he’s not that bad!

Iran celebrated its national day last week on Friday at its embassy in Hellerup. Pictured here are (left-right) Abid Ali Abid, the chairman of the Organisation for World Peace, Armenian ambassador Mrachya Aghajanyan and Iranian ambassador Morteza Damanpak-Jami.

US ambassador Laurie S Fulton was invited to open a new exhibition, ‘Jazz Ambassadors’, at the University of Copenhagen’s Humanities Library on Njalsgade.

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

The foreign minister Villy Søvndal last week on Thursday attended a meeting with the Latin American heads of mission to discuss relations between Denmark and the region. Pictured here (left to right) are Bolivian ambassador Bishop Eugenio Poma, a representative from the Foreign Ministy, Venezuelan charge d’affaires Roger Corbacho Moreno, newly-appointed Cuban ambassador Caridad Yamira Cueto Milian, Søvndal, Argentine ambassador Raúl Alberto Ricardes (who organised the meeting), Mexican ambassador Martha Bárcena, Chilean ambassador Ricardo Concha, and Brazilian charge d’affaires Renato de Avila Viana.

Russian ambassador Teymuraz Ramishvili, pictured here with his wife Marina (left), is leaving Denmark, and he marked the occasion with a reception last week on Friday, which was attended by Jette Nordam (right), the chief of protocol at the Foreign Ministry.

A

T THE PRESCHOOL, we aim to be as environmentallyfriendly as possible. We already do so much to this end.

Most of the furniture that we are using comes from flea markets, Den Blå Avis deals and donations from people clearing out their homes. It is amazing the good quality stuff that can be found in the second-hand market.

Moreover, as expected, we reuse paper, yoghurt pots, cardboard boxes, glass jars and many other containers.

On the energy front, we use energy-saving light bulbs and we have lights on timers. We also installed lowflow children’s toilets and we re-use grey water for our plants.

We try to work as much as possible with online administration and electronic payment for paper waste reduction.

We serve local organic food where possible and we buy in bulk for reduced packaging.

Most of our toys and materials come from sustainable sources and

But how do you explain eco-conthey are coated with non-toxic paints scious activities to a three-year-old? and finishes.

Explanation alone is fruitless. The We use eco-friendly cleaning and laundry products for a healthy indoor way to teach them is to help them to environment, and we use ceramic and create habits: setting an example and glass dishes to provide a toxin-free eat- having a system that small children can easily follow by modelling everyday ing experience. life decisions.

Unfortunately, at our They will automatipremises, we cannot sepacally know what to do rate our recyclables such with waste: reuse it, reas paper, glass and cans, cycle it or throw it away. but we make the effort of We also installed Showing children how taking all of these home where we dispose of them low-flow children’s to reduce waste and save energy can become fun in our building’s recycling toilets and we educational moments. bins.

It also teaches chilFinally, we are plan- re-use grey water dren, in a very practical ning a compost area, a manner, their impact dry outdoor toilet, a little for our plants on the environment. In patch for our own organic this way, they will grow fruit and vegetables, and we will apply to be certified as an ‘eco- up with innate habits and knowledge of how to respect, protect and school’.

While this is all fine and dandy, preserve the environment for future the most important thing for us is to generations.

You are never too young to learn teach our preschoolers about what we how to be green. are doing and why.

community

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

17 - 23 February 2012

13

How Denmark forever has a place in the heart of Argentina

Raúl A Ricardes The histories of the two countries have been intertwined for nearly two centuries

D

enmark has been of great significance to the development of Argentina, where Danish immigrants and their descendants have contributed with their entrepreneurial spirit, cultural, social and economic values throughout the last two centuries. The 40th anniversary of the

coronation of HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is a good occasion to tell Danes unfamiliar with this part of our common history how important the Danish people have been and always will be to Argentina.

The Danes have an admirable ability to keep an open mind towards the world around them while conserving the identity that unites them as a people. They are deeply attached to their common social and cultural values, which are also represented and promoted by the queen of Denmark through her personal commitment to democracy and social justice, as well as her vivid interest in cultural variety.

Because of these qualities, her majesty has not only ensured the good reputation of Denmark all over the world, but also the support and high esteem of the Danish people towards her as their head of state.

The diplomatic relations between Denmark and Argentina emerged at a time when Argentina was still in the process of defining itself as a nation state, institutionally as well as politically. Argentina is a country of immigration, and it was especially European settlers, who played a fundamental role in the building up of the Argentine community. The first Danish settlers arrived in Argentina in around 1840, and they distinguished themselves by initiating the massive change of agricultural prac-

tice in certain regions of Argentina that had only been used for keeping cattle.

Clear evidence of the entrepreneurial spirit of the Danes can be found in the town of Tandil, where the remains of the very first wheat mill in Argentina still exists. It was built by the Danish pioneer Hans Christensen Fugl (18111900), who became known by the Argentine people as Juan Fugl and was one of the first to settle and become a farmer southeast of the capital Buenos Aires.

Fugl also contributed as a founder of the Danish community that emerged around the local, protestant church.

In the absence of an ordained, protestant clergyman, Fugl acted as such and took on the organising of the local community.

From that point on, numerous Danish settlers joined the community.

It is estimated that about 13,000 Danes crossed the Atlantic to start a new life in Argentina during the period from 1848 to 1930, while others migrated to North America. Many of the Danes who went to Argentina were relatives or friends of Danes already settled there. About 60 percent of these newcomers ended up settling in Argentina and became part of ‘The Danish Triangle’ composed of the towns of Tandil, Tres Arroyos and Necochea, 400-500 kilometres southeast of Buenos Aires. The production of wheat, which was mainly run by the Danish farmers, prospered and became

an economic factor of great importance to the country.

Today the descendants keep cooking Danish dishes, conserving Danish traditions and speaking the Danish language. They are fully integrated, yet they still keep their ancestors’ culture alive, for instance by participating in association activities and social events.

The celebration of the Danish højskole (a liberal folk high school) with festive days once a year is a very popular event.

The old-fashioned Danish desserts such as lemon mousse and Danish Christmas pudding are also enjoyed around Christmas, during the peak of the Argentine summer.

The three towns in the Danish Triangle soon became characterised by a high level of education and a prosperous agricultural industry. The three towns underwent a dynamic organisational and economic development in a country that was encountering great social and economic expansion.

The Danes are brave and adventurous people and throughout history they have explored even the most remote parts of the world. This open-mindedness also characterised their way of offering us their friendship, and we highly appreciate the productiveness and social conscience with which the Danish immigrants participated in the construction of the local communities that each of them became a part of.

With time, a most fruitful co-operation has emerged between Argentina and Denmark, including areas such as trade and cultural exchange.

In Argentina, we have a great interest in nourishing this positive attitude of co-operation and a bonding of the two peoples, as well as strengthening political, economic and cultural links. In this sense, we must take full advantage of the possibilities offered today by the process of globalisation – particularly in the fields of science, technology, transportation, and communication.

At the same time we Argentinians would encourage to keep up the good work on the international scene promoting the values and priorities that the Argentinians and Danes share, such as our respect for human rights, freedom, equality for all, and international peace and justice.

Argentina takes this opportunity to associate itself with the joy and goodwill expressed by the Danish people during the jubilee of the queen.

On behalf of the Argentinian people, we would like to welcome her majesty to Argentina and encourage her to revisit the Danish Triangle that continues to have a very special place in the heart of the Argentinian people.

Raúl A Ricardes is the Argentinian ambassador.

Double celebration at the church COMING UP SOON Screening of Miloš Forman´s film ‘Taking Off’ Husets Biograf, Cph K; Sat 18 Feb, 16:00; tickets: 50kr; sign up at jack.stevenson@mail.dk On the occasion of Miloš Forman’s 80th birthday, the embassy of the Czech Republic in Copenhagen and Husets Biograf cordially invite you to the screening of the Czech director’s American film debut.

Due to the limited capacity of the cinema, it’s recommended to reserve your seat by sending an email to jack.stevenson@ mail.dk.

The highly-acclaimed St Alban’s Cathedral Girls’ Choir are in town on Saturday.

Ben Hamilton Don’t miss this chance to see one of the world’s best cathedral choirs

S

t Alban’s Anglican Church in Copenhagen is hosting a double celebration this weekend. Not only is 2012 the 60th jubilee year of Queen Elizabeth II, it’s also 125 years since it was built by Princess Alexandra, the wife of Britain’s Edward VII who went on to become queen of England and empress of India from 1901 to 1910.

To mark the occasion, the church is welcoming an esteemed choir from the historic city that it was named after.

The St Alban’s Cathedral Girls’ Choir are rated one of the top cathedral choirs in the world, and on Saturday 18 February at 5pm, they will be singing a special free concert at the church.

The programme for the public event (no tickets are needed) will include works by Mendelssohn, William Boyce, Alessandra Grandi, Maurice Greene, Schubert, Parry, Jerome Kern and Henry Mancini, as well as some Danish pieces.

The conductor will be Tom Winpenny and the organist Peter Holder.

“This will be a really wonderful double celebration of two queens, and I look forward to welcoming all the Anglophiles of Copenhagen to this special free concert,” enthused Jonathan LLoyd, the parish priest at

St Alban’s Church. “Princess Alexandra is an important link between Denmark and Britain, and the building of St Alban’s Church was her vision and project. This will be the first of several celebratory events at St Alban’s Church Copenhagen to mark our 125th year, and I extend a warm invitation to all.”

The choir, which consists of 26 girls aged between nine and 14, have recorded several CDs – including a critically-acclaimed recording of John Rutter’s ‘Gloria’ and ‘Magnificat’ – and are regularly broadcast live on BBC Radio. After tours to the USA, Holland and Germany, this will be their first visit to Denmark.

St Alban’s Church is located next to the Gefion Fountain at Churchillparken. The nearest Strain station is Østerport.

Seminar: Design Beyond Luxury Marriott Hotel Copenhagen, Kalvebod Brygge 5, Cph V; Thu 23 Feb, 18:00; sign up at expatindenmark.com Expat in Denmark invites you to a professional network seminar on design. This session will provide you with a first-hand insight into the world of design, its broad scope and the huge amount of opportunities involved with approaching problems from a designer’s perspective.

Poetry and pints with CTC Sankt Nikolai, Nikolajgade 18, Cph K; Thu 1 Mar, 19:00; sign up at www.meetup.com If you like to perform and to drink beer, this is the event to join. The Copenhagen Theatre Circle invites you to their monthly meet-up, where poetry, skits and readings go handin-hand with drinking. If you

don’t have any theatrical skills whatsoever, you’re still welcome to join.

Meet the Leaders with Defence Minister Nick Hækkerup Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Hammerichsgade 1, Cph V; Mon 5 Mar, 13:00; free adm, register at www.amcham.dk Just four months ago, Nick Hækkerup was appointed as Denmark’s minister of defence.

Minister Hækkerup’s appointment comes at a most challenging time, when the on-going economic crisis and cuts in government spending have put tremendous pressure on military budgets. So what’s next for the Danish military? Join the instalment of AmCham Denmark’s ‘Meet the Leaders’ series, where Hækkerup will speak about his vision for the Danish military.

Let’s go dancing: 30+ Nord Natklub, Axeltorv 5, Cph V; Sat 18 Feb; free adm before 23:00, 90kr after; www.nordnatklub.dk The average age of people in Denmark going to nightclubs is getting younger and younger. Fortunately there is Klub Nord, where you can only get in when you’re over the age of 30. The dress code for this evening is ‘casual smart’, which means no old sneakers and no hood-shirts. If you don’t have anyone to go with, you can meet up with other expats at 22:00 outside the club – check

www.meetup.com information.

for

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Welcome to Copenhagen Reception at the City Hall City Hall, Rådhuspladsen, Tue 6 March, 17:00; free adm; register at www.kk.dk/english The City of Copenhagen invites all new Copenhageners to a welcome reception at City Hall. Whilst you get the chance to taste the famous Copenhagen City Hall pancakes, Jakob Brandt, the head of business affairs from Copenhagen Business Service, will officially welcome you to Copenhagen.

Course: The Danish Society University of Copenhagen, Søndre Campus, Njalsgade 80, Cph S; Every Tue from 20 Mar to 1 May; Tickets: 540kr for all courses, 90kr for one; register at www. expatindenmark.com The course is intended for both newly-arrived citizens and for those who have lived in Denmark for a number of years, or perhaps were born and grew up in Denmark.These lectures deal with the overall structure of Danish Society. The course consists of six two-hour sessions in which different lecturers present Denmark, seen from their social scientific perspectives. The aim of the course is to give the participants an introduction to the Danish state and its way of functioning with the aid of several scientific disciplines.

Mike Hofman

14

sport

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

17 - 23 February 2012

Sweet sextet who make 2018 WC look a better prospect than Euro 2012 While a group of death awaits Denmark this summer in Ukraine, there are untold riches in range across the border in Russia six years later

A

s the kickoff to Euro 2012 inches ever closer, one would expect a certain degree of abuse for being more optimistic about Denmark’s chances at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. While many are looking forward to seeing the Danes trying to beat the odds this summer, it’s difficult not to be despondent about their chances and look a little further down the road.

Given the current crop of Danish teenagers already plying their trade in Europe top leagues, there are many reasons to be optimistic – six in fact. In the last few months alone, a sextet of Danish youngsters, ranging from 15 to 18 years of age – Kenneth Zohore, Christian Nørgaard, Pierre Emile Højbjerg, Andreas Christensen, LasseVigen Christensen and Viktor Fischer – have been snapped up by big foreign clubs.

The most gleaming talent of them all is attacking midfielder Fischer. After demolishing the Barcelona youth team with two goals and an assist, Fischer’s incredible potential is becoming clear for all to see, the Ajax coach and former Dutch great, Wim Jonk, told the Ajax Life Fanzine.

“We see the same potential in Viktor as we saw in Christian Eriksen a couple of years ago. If he continues to develop and grow as a footballer, he will be ready to step up when Eriksen moves on.”

Yet the positive change should not come as too much of a surprise. In 2011, the Danish national under-17 team beat

England, France and hosts Serbia on their way to the semis of the European Championships. They lost to a tough German side, but earned a place at the U-17 World Cup in Mexico a month later, making them the first Danish youth squad to ever qualify for a World Cup. Five of the aforementioned six played for the under-17s last year. In an interview with DR, the Danish national team manager Morten Olsen indicated that it was not a coincidence that Danish youth football has begun to foster an increasing number of gifted talents.

“There is a definite trend. Our talent development strategy was modified about five or six years ago and the results are more skilled youth players, not only technically, but on a tactical level as well.

The progress is splendid as it gives a clear signal to everyone involved in the talent development process, at a club and national level, that the strategy we incorporated a few years ago is beginning to pay off.”

And the sextet to watch out for aren’t the only youngsters making inroads – they’ve got older brothers as well!

Among them are Christian Eriksen and Nicolai Boilersen (both of Ajax), Frederik Sørensen (Juventus), Jannik Vestergaard (Hoffenheim) and Nicolai Jørgensen (Leverkusen).

Boilersen has already cemented himself as the starting left back in Morten Olsen’s first eleven, and club team mate Eriksen is arguably the brightest talent to come through the youth ranks since the Laudrup brothers. As longtime Ajax scout John Steen Olsen contends, this potent production of gifted young players has not gone unnoticed outside the Danish footballing borders.

“I think that Denmark is beginning to reap the rewards of the system that Morten Olsen implemented, but I also

ALEKSANDAR DJOROV

Christian Wenande

Christian Nørgaard and Viktor Fischer in action together for the under-17s

believe that youth coaches, such as the under-17 coach Thomas Frank, have done a fantastic job,” he told Tipsbladet.

There is a good chance that additional Danish youngsters are poised to leave for greener pastures. A 17-year-old, Lucas Andersen, who plays for Aalborg BK, recently became the youngest ever player to be selected for Morten Olsen’s ‘Ligalandshold’, a national team based solely on players from the Danish League.

So as the Euros in Poland and

Ukraine steadily approach, will there be another rising star picked for the national team as they do battle in the ‘group of death’ with the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal? Although Eriksen was only 18 and the youngest player at the 2010 World Cup, Morten Olsen insists that a repeat is unlikely.

“You never know, there could be a surprise inclusion of one of the young starlets,” he told DR. “But then the talent would have to be extraordinary, to

the point where it is clear that the individual has a bright future in the national team.”

The Danish national squad for the Euro 2012 may not feature any of these up-and-comers, but Olsen and his colleagues are continuing to get the most out of the talent available. And who knows, don’t be shocked if all six in this article end up standing on the pitch in Russia, proudly singing the Danish national anthem in 2018.

Factfile | The six to watch

Chelsea beat out interest from Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Ajax to lock up 15-year-old defender Andreas Christensen, who will join them this summer from Brøndby IF.

Per Kjærbye

Highly rated midfielder Pierre Emile Højbjerg is only 16 and also chose the German route, joining giants Bayern Munich from Brøndby IF.

Per Kjærbye

Lyngby BK have always developed good talent and recently sold 17-year-old central midfielder Christian Nørgaard to Hamburg SV.

Per Kjærbye

Kenneth Zohore, who turned 18 in January, was sold by FC Copenhagen to Italian Serie A side Fiorentina. The recently lumbering striker is related to Chelsea legend Didier Drogba.

Per Kjærbye

JENS DRESLING

ALEKSANDAR DJOROV

Viktor Fischer has scored an impressive 20 goals in 30 games for the Danish under-17 side, and the 17-year-old joined Ajax from FC Midtjylland last summer.

English Premier League side Fulham has also got in the mix, picking up 17-year-old midfielder Lasse Vigen Christensen from Midtjylland

Sports news and briefs Davis suck

Sure thing

Boxing tall

Bube on cue

Danish pasting

Sure-hand Søren

Home side Slovenia walloped Denmark 5-0 in the Davis Cup over the weekend. The men’s tennis team only managed to win one set in five matches – in the first of which Kristian Pless only won one game in the first two sets. With three players in the world’s top 200, Slovenia are currently ranked 30th in the world, 12 places above Denmark.

Denmark are once again the overwhelming favourites to win badminton’s European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships, which began on Tuesday in Amsterdam and climax over the weekend.

The men are undefeated since the inaugural championships in 2006, while the ladies are aiming for their third title in a row.

Danish boxer Morten Poulsen, 37, has been confirmed as the world’s tallest.

At 219cm, ‘The Great Dane’ is 6cm taller than ‘The Beast from the East’, former world heavyweight champ Nikolai Valuev, who recently retired. Poulsen, who attributes his size to an abnormality of the pituitary gland, is scheduled to make his debut on April 28.

Olympic 800m prospect Andreas Bube enjoyed a satisfactory start to the indoor season last week, clocking a personal best time of 1.47.81 in Dusseldorf.

The time qualifies Bube to take part in the Indoor World Championships (Istanbul, March 9-11) ahead of his intended participation in the European Championships and London Olympics.

FC Copenhagen made light work of Norwegian club Vålerenga on Saturday, beating them 5-0 at Parken under new coach Carsten V Jensen.

Among the goals were former Vålerenga marksman Mustafa Abdellaoue, who FCK signed in January, and Dame N’Doye, who has stayed at FCK despite plenty of interest during the winter transfer window.

Søren Kjeldsen is the latest Danish golfer to step up to the mark, finishing fifth equal in the Omega Dubai Classic on Sunday, an event that compatriot Thomas Bjørn led at the halfway stage before finishing ninth. As things stand, Bjørn is Scandinavia’s top ranked player at number 25 in the world. Kjeldsen, meanwhile, has moved up 29 places to number 180.

business

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

17 -23 February 2012

Stephanie Kinch If Danske Bank fails, it could take the whole country with it, financial experts warn

D

enmark’s largest bank needs to slim down if it’s going to fit into the country’s economy.

That’s what financial experts told trade union magazine A4 last week, which reported that Danske Bank has grown too big for a country as small as Denmark.

“With the size that it enjoys today, it is only fair to describe Danske Bank as a financial weapon of mass destruction, because the bank can pull the entire Danish society down with it,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, an economist and research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Danske Bank has grown at a rapid pace over the past ten years. In 2001 it had a total net worth that was equal to 115 percent of Denmark’s GDP. By 2011, its assets had grown to 3,381 billion kroner – nearly twice the value of the GDP Among the existing worries about Danske Bank is that it played a lead role in exacerbating the recession in Denmark, thanks to loose lending policies

that inflated the housing bubble.

It has also been criticised for a risky foreign expansion strategy that saw it acquire National Irish Bank in 2005 and Finland’s Sampo Bank in 2006. In 2010, foreign bank activities accounted for 36 percent of the bank’s overall exposure.

Caspar Rose, a professor at the Institute for International Economics at Copenhagen Business School, agreed that Danske Bank’s size is a problem, especially given its lack of competition in the banking market.

“Danske Bank currently has a commercial advantage by being what one would describe as too big to go down,” he said. “It can do business knowing that the state will come to the rescue if it goes down. This leads to market distortion and could provide the bank an incentive to grow even bigger.”

For this reason, the government has begun to consider regulation to control big banks like Danske Bank, which may soon be deemed “systematically important banks”. In January, a government-appointed committee was formed to submit recommendations for large bank regulation in order to further comply with the internationally agreed financial regulation rules of the Basel Accords.

Several European countries

have exceeded the Basel Accords by putting capital requirements on banks, thus controlling how big they become. Rose told A4 that Denmark should follow suit. “[Denmark] should give a clear incentive for Danske Bank to slim down while widening the field for healthier-sized smaller banks. But that being said, it is also important that the government be clear that it regards Danske Bank to be systematically important to the country so that the bank’s funding costs are reduced,” he said.

Danske Bank CFO Henrik Ramlau-Hansen told The Copenhagen Post that a bank’s size isn’t what’s decisive. What’s most important, he said, is that “Danske Bank is one of Europe’s best capitalised banks, has a solid funding, and a well-founded business platform.”

Ramlau-Hansen also noted that it is important that Danske Bank caters to large international customers, which will give it equal footing with competing banks. Still, he noted that he agreed with the need for tighter regulation.

“We are prepared to enter into a dialogue with authorities on how future capital requirements for how future capital for systematically important banks should look,” he said.

Lawmakers A4 spoke with

Scanpix

Too big for its britches?

One Washington-based economist called Danske Bank “a financial weapon of mass destruction”

had several suggestions for how to tame Danske Bank. Liberal Alliance spokesperson Ole Birk Olesen said that it is sensible to split the bank up by the countries it operates in. What’s important, he noted, is to develop a plan to make the banks survive without government help in situations like Danske Bank’s

Management and workers achieve “tremendously positive” agreement over miniscule pay rise

T

rade union representatives and business leaders on Sunday agreed on the terms of new two-year labour agreements affecting more than a quarter million workers in all areas of heavy industry and its administration.

Pay rises and increased benefits were never expected to be part of the negotiations between the labour association CO-Industri, which represents eight different heavy industrial trade unions that employ 240,000 workers, and Dansk Industri (DI), which represents 6,000 businesses.

Instead both parties acknowledged that the new twoyear collective bargaining agreements (overenskomster) must address the need for wage controls and increased productivity

in order to make Danish businesses more competitive and keep more jobs in Denmark.

But in the end, the trade unions managed to win a modest 2.55 percent wage increase over the next two years to bring the minimum wage for industrial workers up from 106 to 108.70 kroner per hour.

In actuality, that slim increase will not even keep pace with inflation. But in a year when actual pay cuts and a longer working week were on the table as real possibilities, the unions considered it more than acceptable.

“It’s a humble agreement in terms of the money, but it’s the right idea for the present, so I’m really quite satisfied,” Harald Børsting, the chairman of LO, an association representing 18 trade unions, told public broadcaster DR. “I have no doubt that this agreement will improve our competitiveness and help create

past activities in Ireland and Finland.

Taking it a step further, Enhedslisten spokesperson Frank Aaen said Danske Bank should be entirely split into a division for commercial banking and one for market speculators.

Venstre spokesperson Kim Andersen said his party is most

interested in financial stability.

“There will certainly be increased capital requirements and certain institutions need better padding or slimming of balance,” he told A4. “But we also have an interest in ensuring that reasonable projects can receive loan financing, because we must also think about growth and jobs.”

business news and briefs Economists: we’re not heading for a recession With cautious optimism, top economists have declared Denmark safely out of the red zone and back on track for slow and steady growth. Months of uncertainty over the fate of the Eurozone are fading now that Europe’s leaders have hammered out a plan for dealing with the debt crisis.

And that’s “unequivocally good

Negotiators bang out labour agreement jobs. It pulls us in the right direction, because it will make it easier to keep jobs in Denmark,” he added.

John Dyrby Paulsen, the finance spokesman for Socialdemokraterne, the government’s leading party, wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that it was “tremendously positive” that labour and business leaders were able to see eye-to-eye on the austere agreement.

“Money is too tight for the big excesses, but this agreement is good for Denmark and the Danish economy,” he added.

Other details of the agreement include more flexibility for older workers and improved continuing education and skills development for all industrial workers.

The deal between COIndustry and DI is considered significant as it sets the tone for all of the unions involved in collective bargaining this year. (JB)

15

VetCur expands to the US

news for the world’s economy, to which we here in Denmark are so sensitive”, Hans Jørgen WhittaJacobsen, the leading advisor to the national economic council Det Økonomiske Råd, told financial daily Børsen. Job market experts are also noting continued positive growth, despite media focus on ‘perma-crisis’.

Danish biotech company VetCur is expanding into the US with the foundation of VetCur Inc in Florida: a partnership between international top dressage riders Melissa Taylor and Lars Petersen and VetCur. The company produces feed supplements and care products for horses, cats and dogs.

BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN DENMARK The Impact of the Global Economic Situation on Danish Industry

Peter Foss

Chairman FOSS A/S Peter Foss (born august 4, 1956 in Copenhagen) is a Danish Master of Science and Chairman of FOSS. He is the son of Nils Foss, who in 1956 founded FOSS A/S, who make and market “The World’s best Dedicated Analytical Solutions” for the Agricultural and Food Industries. FOSS are a truly global company with R&D and Manufacturing in 4 countries, direct sales offices in 27 countries and over 98% of turnover from outside Denmark.

Peter Foss graduated in 1980 as a M. Sc. from Danmarks Tekniske Højskole (DTU), after which he worked for Brüel & Kjær as an engineer. In 1981, he took a HD at Copenhagen Business School.

In 1985, joined FOSS and was Divisional Director until 1990. In 1990 Peter became CEO of FOSS and in 2011, was elected Chairman of the Board.

Peter Foss sits on the Board of Directors in William Demant Holding A/S and Oticon Fonden, both places as Vice-Chairman.

Date: Friday 24 Feb 2012 Time: 11.45 Venue: Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen

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

If you would like to attend then please send us an email (event@bccd.dk) or call +45 31 18 75 58 Price in kroner for one unit of foreign currency

Date: 15 February 2012

• official media partner Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

16

THE COPENHAGEN POST THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE

SPOUSE: Lena Schulz zur Wiesch FROM: Berlin, Germany SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen and Capital Region.

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17 - 23 February 2012 SPOUSE: Debjani Nandy Biswas FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: Would like to join in kindergarten, School teacher in English, official work in English.

QUALIFICATION: B.A., M.A in English literature and language (American, European and Indian).

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SPOUSE: Clotilde IMBERT FROM: France SEEKING WORK IN: Greater Copenhagen Qualification: Master of town planning and development and master of urban geography (Paris IVSorbonne) EXPERIENCE: 5 years in field of town planning and development: - Coordinator in urban project in a semi-public company: supervised a major urban project in Paris area (coordination of studies, acquisition of lands, worked with Planning Development of the Town Council, architects, developers to define the master plan and implement the project...); - Officer in research and consultancy firm (urban diagnosis, environmental impact assessments, inhabitants consultation...).

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CONTACT: heike@mehlhase.info SPOUSE: Himani Kanwarpal FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: Århus/ Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Completed Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and communication in the 2005 EXPERIENCE: I worked with Dell International Services India for 1 yr and 5 months as a Technical support agent. Thereafter, I was with SAP Labs from March 2007 till June 2011, where I worked on functional topics like SAP SCM F&R, SAP IS- Retail and SAP SCM APO DP. The profile mainly comprised of customizing and configuring SAP systems and also testing various scenarios. I also conducted training on functional topics and SAP’s automation tool called eCATT. LOOKING FOR: Full Time, part time, intern etc.

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Research project work Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Copenhagen University, March-July 2009.

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CONTACT: mehmudjan@live.se SPOUSE: Ying Yuan FROM: China SEEKING WORK IN: Great Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Medical Degree & Master in Human Nutrition.

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IT EXPERIENCE: I am experienced in Statistical software SPSS and MINITAB, Nutritional software NetWISP/WISP. LANGUAGE SKILLS: Chinese, English and Danish.

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18

culture

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

17 - 23 February 2012

U-turn over plans to put contemporary before classical Who is ...

Lisa Lents?

Scanpix

scanpix

Peter Stanners Culture minister decides not to cut classical funding to support contemporary music and instead uses extra lottery money to prop up venues and encourage broader collaboration between genres

T

he classical music scene breathed a collective sigh of relief last week when the culture minister, Uffe Elbæk, revealed his plan to strengthen music in Denmark.

In the run up to the election in September, Elbæk had voiced controversial plans to cut into the funding of classical music in order to increase funding for contemporary music styles like rock, pop and electronica.

But Elbæk’s plan entitled ‘En Scene – Mange Genrer’ (One Stage – Many Genres) is instead focused on increasing co-operation between contemporary and classical music.

“It is hoped that the plan will break down the old institutional and economic differences between the main genres, such as by having, for example, a symphony orchestra work with a klezmer band, or by encouraging collaborations between jazz and electronica,” Elbæk wrote in the report.

Malene Ørsted She is a taekwondo athlete, TV presenter, former Miss World contestant and reality television regular.

Uffe Elbæk, seen here at the launch of radio station Radio24syv, did not follow through on plans to slash funding for classical music as announced during last year’s election

In total Elbæk has managed to find an additional 135.5 million kroner in lottery funding to support music over the next four years, with the vast majority of the extra funding going towards extra support for regional venues and transportation costs for musicians.

“We managed to find 135.5 million kroner over the next four years, which is extraordinary in a

time of economic crisis,” Elbæk wrote in a press release. “The music plan is a forward-looking solution that not only strengthens contemporary music, but also every other link in the music chain.”

Regional venues will see their support increased by 7 million kroner to 31.7 million kroner a year, while the fund to support transportation costs for

Alex Ehrenzweig

Ithys Press

Communists with a fascist ideology

James Joyce (left) and an exclusive copy of his ‘new’ children’s book

ben hamilton A children’s novel by James Joyce, ‘The Cats of Copenhagen’, suggests that not everything was as it seemed in the capital in 1936

A

children’s story from the 1930s by the Irish novelist James Joyce that depicts Denmark as a country under the grip of communists who behave like fascists has been published by a small press in Dublin.

The release of ‘The Cats of Copenhagen’ provoked “outrage” last month from the Zurich James Joyce Foundation, which claimed it has not given permission to the Irish publisher, Ithys Press, to go ahead.

The short story is “exquisite, surprising, and with a keen, almost anarchic subtext”, Ithys said upon its publication.

“In this tiny text, we see Joyce commenting on fascism, even in its guise as communism, with the ‘red boys’ carrying out the orders of the Politburo,” revealed Anastasia Herbert of Ithys Press in a statement.

The story was part of a letter Joyce sent to his grandson in 1936, and described by the author as a “younger twin sister” of his published story ‘The Cat and the Devil’, which he wrote earlier that year.

The story was written by Joyce in Copenhagen while on holiday there in August 1936 and inspired by his desire to send his grandson “a little cat

filled with sweets”. The first line of the story reads: “Alas! I cannot send you a Copenhagen cat because there are no cats in Copenhagen.”

“For an adult reader ‘Cats’ reads as an anti-establishment text, critical of fat-cats and some authority figures, and it champions the exercise of common sense, individuality and free will,” Herbert told British newspaper The Guardian.

All of Joyce’s works entered the public domain at the beginning of 2012, but the Zurich James Joyce Foundation disputes Ithys Press’s claim that this applies to unpublished works.

Ithys Press has only so far published 200 illustrated copies of the story, which range in price from 300 to 1,200 euros.

musicians will gain an extra million kroner, raising the support to 4.5 million a year.

Some 16 million kroner has been set aside to promote Danish music abroad, while another 16 million is being invested in developing musical talent and supporting new types of musical expression.

The additional millions were found without cutting into the budget for classical music, as was widely anticipated.

“It’s problematic that classical music gets twice as much support as contemporary music even though contemporary music is in much more trouble,” Elbæk said in October when he laid out his ideas for the future of Danish music. “So we’ll see if we can transfer money from classical to contemporary.”

Two of the most controversial suggestions included turning the Royal Theatre’s Gamle Scene into an ordinary venue by moving ballet to the Opera, and disbanding a symphony orchestra.

Elbæk argued at the time that it was preferable to eliminate badly performing institutions when money was tight, rather than cutting evenly across the board.

Neither of these plans materialised, however, and Elbæk explained that he decided to change tack after meeting with important music figures.

“The white elephant in the whole discussion has been: can the culture minister conceive of disbanding a symphony orchestra?” Elbæk told Politiken last week. “The reaction in music circles has been that they don’t want that. It has been an ‘aha’ moment hearing from both the contemporary and the classical genres that they want to be seen as one stage.”

As a result, Elbæk’s plans focus on increasing co-operation across the genres by encouraging music schools and academies to start projects to investigate new musical genres.

Symphony orchestras will be encouraged to collaborate with other types of musicians in order to increase their relevance as well as the size of their audiences.

In particular, the funding will target women and young people, in the first instance to encourage greater participation of women in contemporary music, and in the second to support the national talent base.

Last Thursday’s announcement was met with a muted response, though representatives of live music organisations were disappointed they did not receive more money.

“It’s deeply disappointing that contemporary music isn’t getting the extra support everyone in the music scene had hoped for with Uffe Elbæk as culture minister” Jacob Brixvold from Dansk Live told Jyllands Posten newspaper on Friday. “It has been shown that venues need between 30 million and 40 million kroner more, and we have been given 5 million.”

Elbæk responded that he had never promised any money for venues at all.

“They should be pleased that they received any money at all,” Elbæk told public broadcaster DR. “They have to understand that Denmark is in a completely new economic position and that culture has to adapt its expectations accordingly.”

Elbæk was also criticised by some for stating that 135.5 million kroner had been found to support music, when in fact most of the money was needed simply to maintain funding for projects established by the previous government that were going to end.

By some calculations, only about 50 million extra has been found to specifically support contemporary music.

Elbæk’s proposals now have to be considered by parliament, after which it is the role of the government’s music committee to implement the initiatives.

Where would I have seen her?

Probably on the cover of Danish magazines like Alt for Damerne, Fitness World and M!. In 2008 she represented Denmark in the international beauty pageant Miss World, and since then she’s been a true media darling, participating in every cheesy TV programme offered to her.

Which ones?

I hardly know where to begin.

She has been on ‘Høvdingebold’, ‘Guldpigerne’ and ‘Fangerne på Fortet’, to mention a few, and she also participated in the sixth season of ‘Vild med Dans’, the Danish version of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, in 2009.

Anything not in Danish?

Yes, she has been a fashion reporter for American E! Entertainment, which is broadcast in the US and South America.

Okay, so in general she’s just another pretty face who wants to be seen?

Actually not. She’s also very active in taekwondo. She started at the age of ten and she remains the youngest woman in Denmark to have achieved the fourth dan in the discipline.

So has she achieved anything I would have heard about?

Yeah, probably, as she has won 162 medals in total. Her biggest achievements include winning the junior world championship in ‘taekwondo technique’ in South Korea in 2004, and finishing fourth in the senior world championship, again in South Korea, in 2006.

Sounds impressive – is there anything she can’t do?

Well, apparently she can’t dance.

She had to settle for fourth in ‘Vild med Dans’.

What are her future plans?

Since 2008 she has worked as an elite and talent trainer in taekwondo, and also as a judge, and she’s currently studying for her bachelor’s degree in TV and media co-ordinating. And don’t forget that she’s the woman behind the ‘Miss & Mister of Denmark’ organisation and also the organiser of several pageants.

Any juicy details about her love life?

She dated the English singer Craig David for a period, but it didn’t last long.

17 - 23 February 2012

Denmark through the looking glass The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

19

Neither Warner Bros nor MGM: the oldest film studio in the world is Danish The suicide of its hottest star, the effect that talkies had on international audiences, and the explosion in the popularity of television would have seen off lesser companies, but Nordisk Film has endured for 106 years

A

Bille August’s Zappa was one of several youth films to revitalise Nordisk Film in the 1980s

all-singing, all-dancing folk comedies were gaining popularity. At the same time, on the fringes of this artifice and farce, the documentary began to find new form – and quietly blossom.

Denmark’s occupation by the Nazi regime saw the national cinema take a darker, more melancholic tone. In 1944 the studios in Valby suffered considerable damage when Nazis bombed them in an act of ‘counter sabotage’. Thereafter, the demand for light, escapist folk comedies only increased. It was with the appointment of Erik Balling as managNordisk Film A/S

ing director in 1957 – who was not only Oscar-nominated for ‘Qivtoq’, but also made the first Danish colour film, ‘Kispus’ – that things began to look promising again for Nordisk Film.

In the 1960s, television presented a great challenge for cinema everywhere.

There were pockets of Danish resistance in the form of experimental and avantgarde filmmaking, but Balling’s response was bold: to partner Nordisk Film with broadcaster DR and produce films for television. This eventually led to the legendary series ‘Matador’, which Balling also directed.

Nordisk Film and Danish cinema as a whole became revitalised in the early 1980s, with the arrival of ‘youth cinema’, of which Billie August’s films ‘Zappa’ and ‘Brewster’s World’ are good examples.

This period also saw the re-emergence

of Danish avant-garde. From seeds sown by the likes of Jorgen Leth and Jytte Rex before him, Lars von Trier sprang forth with the release of his criticallyacclaimed ‘Element Of Crime’ (1984).

Once again gaining widespread recognition, Nordisk Film was positioning itself at the centre of the international stage.

It is undoubtedly this unique ability to constantly shed skin, to reinvent itself, to absorb blows and to respond to the changing times that has seen Nordisk Film endure. With corporate partner Egmont and initiatives such as Nordisk Film Interactive, it will probably do so for another century to come.

For parties of ten or more, Nordisk Film operates reasonably priced tours of their Valby studios in English, French or German.

Nordisk Film A/S

Valdemar Psilander (1884-1917) was one of the world’s most popular actors, and then he went and killed himself Nordisk Film A/S

s we find ourselves entrenched in this year’s international awards season, we examine the sizeable contribution to cinema history made by Danish production house and distributor Nordisk Film. Situated in Copenhagen’s district of Valby, the studios have remained the company’s central hub for over a century. Their overseas influence has at times extended to international offices held in London, New York, Berlin and beyond. An unbroken record of production now means that they carry the enviable status of being the oldest film studio in the world.

Of course, it wasn’t always plain sailing ...

In December 1895, the Lumiere brothers famously premiered their first films in Paris. Six months later in June 1896, several films arrived on Danish shores. They are widely believed to have been short films from England (silent, of course). Some years later, Ole Olsen opened the Biograf Teater. Olsen was a self-made entrepreneur from humble beginnings. When in 1906 he started what was then called ‘Nordisk Films Kompagni’, it was initially to ensure he had something to exhibit in his theatre.

In that first year, an allotment in Valby was acquired and it was decided that a polar bear sitting on top the globe should represent the company. The iconic logo remains to this day. In that same year the first short film was produced, ‘Pigeons & Seagulls’, a two-minute reportage. Many more were to follow and the company was an instant success, ushering in what is referred to as the golden age of Danish cinema.

In 1910, Viborg-based Fotorama, a direct competitor of Nordisk, released the first Danish multi-reel film, ‘The White Slave Trade’, to great box office acclaim.

Olsen was quick to respond with his own version, essentially the first remake (Fotorama threatened legal action and they settled out of court), kickstarting a global trend for longer films with melodramatic subject matter – often with some mild form of sexual interest. Nordisk fared brilliantly with the release of their film soon after (also directed by Blom), ‘At the Prison Gates’, which was their first production to star Valdemar Psilander, who went on to make a staggering 83 films for Nordisk in just six years. Due to the universal nature of silent cinema, his popularity was global. He was largely responsible for a huge increase in international sales and cemented Nordisk Film’s status as a major player with branches, affiliates and theatres the world over. Despite his success, however, Psilander killed himself in 1917, aged just 32.

By the First World War, 98 percent of the company’s revenue was dependant on international sales. Distribution throughout Europe became ever more complicated, and while Denmark remained neutral, a great slice of Nordisk’s pie was coming in from Germany.

The authorities there had banned films made by the countries they were fighting against - such as England and France, and later the US – and so there was an opening, which Olsen was quick to ex-

ploit. By 1917, Olsen had almost 40 cinemas in Germany, plus a production house.

However, when Germany decided to nationalise its cinema, Olsen was pressured into relinquishing all German interests to the German studio UFA. His North American branch soon closed and the Russian market had been lost. Nordisk Film suffered as many abandoned the studio, including in 1922 Olsen himself.

New management came in and chose to concentrate on higher quality pictures, with a smaller output. Throughout the 1920s, Nordisk Film produced big budget adaptations of Charles Dickens’s novels and the like, nurturing many new talents. Among them was the great director Carl Theodor Dreyer who later left the company, finding recognition in France with his masterwork of the silent era, ‘The Passion Of Joan of Arc’. Although this period was artistically fruitful for Nordisk Film, they struggled to find their audience and in 1928 Nordisk Film filed for bankruptcy.

Fortunately, Nordisk was kept afloat

by Carl Bauder, a wealthy stockbroker who took a majority share in the company. Sensationally he also won a lucrative patent for ‘noiseless’ sound projection that saw all the major American studios pay him to use the new technology as ‘talkies’ took over. In 1931, Nordisk produced the first Danish language talkie: a classic crime drama called ‘Vicar of Vejlby’. However the arrival of spoken dialogue robbed Danish cinema of its international appeal, as cinema became increasingly provincial. In the wake of sound technology, tastes were such that

Nordisk Film A/S

Mark Walker

Carl Theodor Dreyer nurtured his talent at Nordisk Film during the 1920s

Like the company itself, the logo has endured for 106 years – perish the thought that the polar bear should ever go extinct

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk