The Copenhagen Post Feb24-Mar 1

Smokers under siege: New efforts to butt out habit

Søvndal pledges Danish support for Syrians

7

4

educ ation

Special education guide 2012 section INSIDE

a great start in life

career choices

adult education

advertising suppl

24 February - 1 March 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 08

ement

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk OBAMA: SCANPIX/SAUL LOEB; HTS: SCANPIX/KELD NAVNTOFT

NEWS

Should academics work at Netto?

Minister’s suggestion that they need to be realistic sets off debate

3

NEWS

Vigilantes or heroes?

Hackers publicly expose suspected paedophiles, but police and ethicist question their methods

6 BUSINESS

The EU and the US make trade agreement on organics – what will it mean for Danish farmers?

15 CULTURE

Hamlet with a twist

18

Price: 25 DKK

Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s first trip to Washington as PM will reinforce ties between Denmark and the US

4-5

Government chokes on congestion charge JENNIFER BULEY

Ahead of the worldwide premiere of ‘The Tiger Lillies Perform Hamlet’, we spoke to the stars of the show

9 771398 100009

First meeting among old friends

Solution to city’s traffic and air-pollution problems pushed off until next year

T

ENSE, eleventh-hour meetings between top ministers from the Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF) and Socialdemokraterne (S) on Tuesday resulted in the plug being pulled on the Copenhagen congestion charge (betalingsring) – a proposal that aimed to diminish traffic jams and airpollution, while financing lower public transport fares through tolls on cars that come and go from the city.

Instead, the government is now promising to spend a billion kroner to

cut ticket prices and raise public transAs part of its new plan, the governportation standards nationwide – but, ment is also creating a special commission crucially, without any penalty on those to study Copenhagen’s traffic and airwho drive cars into the city. The financ- pollution problems and offer a solution. ing will now come from higher taxes on Their commission’s findings, due leased vehicles. out on 1 January 2013, will supplement Addressing the backtrack, PM Helle several earlier traffic and air-pollution Thorning-Schmidt wrote on her Face- studies that went into the congestion book page on Wednesday: “The govern- charge proposal. ment has listened to the many objections Berlingske newspaper reported that against the congestion charge, even here transport experts were quick to note that on this page. It’s made an impact. We half a billion kroner would not go very have therefore decided to seek another far towards reducing fares at the national solution to the traffic problems in the level, as promised. capital. We will improve public transThe experts also noted that the lowport throughout Denmark with a billion er fares would not change the habits of extra kroner: 500 million for cheaper drivers – only higher prices on driving tickets, and 500 million forOrganise investment awould do that,meeting they argued – suggesting personal in new buses, trains and equipment.” thatathe compromise was more of a poand sit in on class.

FULL TIME MBA

litical solution for SF and S, than a real traffic solution for Copenhagen.

The congestion charge, in conjunction with reduced fares, was a key political promise by SF – and particularly its leader Villy Søvndal, who appeared in ads before the election promising 40 percent cheaper bus and train fares if voters backed SF and S. Voters did, but when a closer look at the numbers revealed that the congestion charge would bring in less than half the original estimate of 2 billion kroner in revenue – and when local, left-of-centre politicians, business leaders and the opposition, all banded together to block it – S began looking for a way out.

Congestion continues on page 10

The one-year general management full-time MBA at CBS focuses on leadership, entrepreneurship, and real-world experience.

Organise a personal meeting and hear how the MBA can give Join Scandinavia’s most internationally diverse program your career a new dimension.

FULL TIME MBA Macaroons & French pastry in a modern enviroment Brasserie Degas reopens its doors in a new location, presenting once again to all its customers, the famous club sandwich & foie gras salad Brasserie Degas / Le Macaron by Degas - Trommesalen 5, 1614 Copenhagen V - www.brasseriedegas.dk - Tlf.: +45 33 22 28 26

Organise a personal meeting E-mail lm.mba@cbs.dk or call 3815 6022and sit in on a class The general management full-time MBA at CBS focuses on toone-year organise a personal meeting.

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Practical Business Skills.

E-mail lm.mba@cbs.dk or call 3815 6022 to organise a personal meeting

Copenhagen Business School

Copenhagen Business School Porcelænshaven 22, 2000 Frederiksberg Porcelænshaven 22, 2000 Frederiksberg www.cbs.dk/ftmba www.cbs.dk/ftmba

2

Week in review

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012 scanpix/Claus Bech

Peace march

THE WEEK’S MOST READ STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK Hackers publicly out suspected paedophiles How Denmark forever has a place in Argentina’s heart EU calls Denmark’s economy “imbalanced” The Danish Halloween Search for missing woman goes international

FROM OUR ARCHIVES TEN YEARS AGO. City companies hire hairdressers to cut hair on their premises to help save time.

FIVE YEARS AGO. Denmark ranks third best when it comes to children’s welfare, according to UNICEF. ONE YEAR AGO. An Oxford study places Denmark at number three (out of 18 nations) for the number of couples who met each other online.

CORRECTION Our editorial last week

Thousands took to the streets of Copenhagen on Sunday in a peace march dedicated to the memory of Cem Aydin, who was killed in Frederiksberg one month ago in a still-unsolved murder. Simultaneous marches took place in Aarhus, Odense and Istanbul.

would have caused a national uproar, and that this was a case of a clear double standard. In the incident, cast members Jeanette and Sascha discussed “raping” male cast member Julian, and then rubbed themselves on his body and groped his crotch. Julian himself said he didn’t consider it abuse and indeed liked it.

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

Busted

Some are calling it a boob, others a bust, and the look on the face of Pentti Arajarvi, the husband of Finnish president Tarja Halonen, suggested they might be right. During a state dinner in Copenhagen last week, Arajarvi was caught looking at Crown Princess Mary’s cleavage for what seemed like an eternity. As she

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

turned towards him, he sheepishly looked away, and she adjusted her dress. Mary’s home town paper, the Tasmanian Mercury wrote: “Some royal jewels are intended for public display ... but others are private.” Maybe there’s some truth in this: was Arajarvi actually looking at Mary’s jewels? That’s probably what he told his wife, anyway.

Editorial offices: Slagtehusgade 4 – 6 DK 1715 Copenhagen V Telephone: 3336 3300 Fax: 3393 1313 www.cphpost.dk News Desk news@cphpost.dk 3336 4243 The CPH Post welcomes outside articles and letters to the editor.

Letters and comments can be left on our website or at: comments@cphpost.dk

Colourbox

A Debate raged on the website of Politiken newspaper following an incident on the reality programme ‘Paradise Hotel’ in which two female cast members groped a male cast member who was passed out drunk. Led by blogger Jakob Engel-Schmidt, a chorus of critics argued that had the gender roles been reversed, the incident

Abc News

Lemche & Serup

Abuse?

erroneously characterised the intention of barring ‘re-education trips’ and incorrectly indicated that the Udlændingeservice’s points systems were “proposed”, when one is actually still in effect.

How sick is sick?

A proposed law change guarantees replacement vacation days to those who fall ill while on holiday. If it passes in parliament, employees who fall ill for more than five days of their holiday can get their ‘lost’ days back – as long as they can produce a note from the doctor. But doctors are saying “no

Sales, Advertising and Marketing sales@cphpost.dk Subscriptions subs@cphpost.dk

thanks” to filling out the sick passes. “How sick does a person have to be that they can’t enjoy their holidays? Is having a cold enough, for example?” Dr Jette Dam-Hansen, the chairman of the medical doctors’ association Lægeforeningen, told JyllandsPosten. “That’s a conflict we really need to take on!”

Layout and design Justin Cremer Aviaja Bebe Nielsen Logo by Rasmus Koch

Annual home delivery rates: 1 year: 1,200kr 6 months: 750kr 1 year (online): 365kr Discounted bulk rates available.

The Copenhagen Post accepts no responsibility for the content of material submitted by advertisers.

The Copenhagen Post is published weekly by CPHPOST.DK ApS

Distribution distribution@cphpost.dk

Printed by Dagbladet, Ringsted.

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited by law.

3 Get a job – any job– minister tells unemployed grads News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012

Employment minister says graduates should take unskilled work instead of waiting for a job in their field

T

here are many reasons to go to university: for some it’s about enhancing career prospects, for others it’s the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge in a favourite subject, while for many it is simply an excuse to move out and party.

When it’s all over, graduates might hope that their new education would help them get on the career ladder. But the 2008 financial crisis has made entering the job market tough, so much so that almost a quarter of the country’s recent graduates are currently unemployed.

Commenting on this situation this past week, the employment minister, Mette Frederiksen, said that graduates ought to make more compromises on which work they were willing to accept.

“There is something very wrong with going to school for 20 years without knowing what you are going to do with it,” Frederiksen told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “When you start further education you are an adult.

You are responsible for yourself.”

Frederiksen’s comments

drew the ire of students and employment experts, particularly because of her suggestion that graduates ought to even apply for work at supermarkets such as Netto.

“It’s a gross political statement,” Flemming Ibsen, an employment market researcher at Aalborg University replied in Jyllands-Posten. “Netto doesn’t need more applicants and they could easily get young people to do the jobs. It’s wrong to place the responsibility on graduates because the problem is a lack of jobs and growth.”

In the ensuing debate about graduates and work, two broad attitudes have presented themselves. Many support the view that there are jobs, simply not the ideal ones the graduates had studied for. Others, though, argue that it is a waste to give people a university degree, only for them to look for work in supermarkets – especially when the government paid for both their tuition and living costs.

The reluctance of students to take unskilled work after university may be due to the fact that unemployment benefits amount to 17,073 kroner a month before tax – nearly the same salary as an unskilled job. Graduates simply need to sign up with an unemployment insurer, or A-kasse, within a month of graduating in order to qualify.

Scanpix/Niels Ahlmann Olesen

Peter Stanners

Following Frederiksen’s comments, graduates fired back that work training programmes were counterproductive

But for some, unemployment benefits run out after a year, and in the meantime, job seekers are made to enter the workforce through a variety of programmes designed to give them work experience.

These programmes are now coming under fire from graduates who claim they are being used as free labour by companies, while experts warn the explosion in the popularity of the programmes could suppress the job market.

The main offender, graduates feel, is the løntilskud programme, which allows companies to em-

ploy those on unemployment benefits and pay them a salary that is largely subsidised by their local councils.

Among the complaints about løntilskud jobs is that the graduates are not guaranteed a job after completing their contract. Moreover, the programme requires them to sign up for a fixed period of a year or less, during which time they are prevented from moving on if a better job training opportunity arises.

According to Charlotte Kjær Pedersen, who graduated last September from the Uni-

versity of Copenhagen with a master’s degree in modern culture, unions and unemployment insurers readily admit behind closed doors that the programmes don’t necessarily lead to permanent employment, but still encourage their members to take them.

Pedersen co-authored an article that appeared in Information newspaper on Monday that accuses unions of not doing enough to encourage their members not to take løntilskud jobs that, according to a report from the University of Aarhus, actually keep participants out of work for longer.

Pedersen also took offence to the suggestion by the employment minister that graduates like her were not actively seeking work or willing to be flexible.

“I am very open to changing career,” Pedersen told The Copenhagen Post. “That’s what I find so aggravating. The politicians are presenting it like there’s a bunch of graduates sitting around not doing anything. That’s just not true.”

Pedersen added that ultimately there aren’t enough jobs to go around. Despite the fact she is looking broadly and has a good education, complemented by plenty of experience at relevant student jobs, she has so far had no luck.

“Everyone I knew had rel-

evant study jobs. It was really important. I know I’ve chosen a career where jobs would be available and I’ve worked really hard for it. I’m not sure what I can do to be more attractive.”

Responding to Pedersen’s criticism, Franciska Lee Beckett from Dansk Magisterforening (DM), the union for university graduates, stated that løntilskud programmes were not meant to replace work.

“I am aware that løntilskud programmes during recessions can warp the job market and undermine graduates’ chances of finding work,” Beckett wrote in a press release. “It’s exactly this point that DM is trying to get politicians to pay attention to.”

While employment minister Frederiksen is currently examining ways of reforming the unemployment benefit system, Syddansk Universitet and Aalborg Universitet recently announced that they are setting up their own career centres. “[Publicly funded employment centres] don’t know anything about university education and don’t know what jobs they can lead to,” Jens Oddershede, the president of Danske Universiteter, which represents the country’s eight universities, told news website Den Korte Avis.

“The employment market for graduates has changed over the years and we need to adjust.”

Celebrity chef under fire for giving job to attempted murderer Scanpix/Jakob Boserup

Peter Stanners A woman nearly killed by her boyfriend says he has been given more opportunities than she has

A

celebrity chef ’s hiring of an attempted murderer, whose victim is still recovering from the attack three years on, has sparked a national debate about the opportunities given to criminals retuning to society.

Marlene Duus, 29, was savagely beaten with a metal pipe and thrown out of the window of her third floor apartment by her jealous ex-boyfriend, 43-year-old Frank Saksik, who also leapt out of the window in a suicide attempt.

They both survived, and while Saksik was sentenced to six years in prison for attempted murder, Duus had to endure over 20 operations and extensive therapy. It took her a year and a half just to be able to walk again and her injuries brought her modelling career to an end.

But after serving only two years of his sentence, Sakskik was released and secured himself a trainee position at the bakery of renowned chef Claus Meyer, a key figure in the New Nordic Cuisine movement.

Meyer defended his practice of hiring convicted criminals, saying it helps reduce future crime

Duus, on the other hand, is still recovering from her injuries and is unable to work. She has also yet to receive any compensation because the government disputes her doctor’s claim that she is 50 percent disabled. If she is only deemed to be 10 percent disabled, as the government argues, she cannot claim any free education or job training.

In an editorial Duus wrote for Politiken newspaper on Monday – which sparked a media frenzy – she expressed anger that her attacker was being given more opportunities than she was.

“We ought to first help the victim, then help the offender.

In Denmark, it is sadly the other way around,” Duus wrote. “I live in fear because I know that the system allows a violent criminal to walk around freely. He has been given a coveted trainee posi-

tion ahead of many law-abiding competitors simply because he is a criminal and needs help. How far should you go to help a man convicted of attempted murder?”

Meyer is involved in a programme known as High:Five, which involves his taking former inmates on as trainees at his bakeries in Copenhagen.

After well over 100 comments were left on Duus’s editorial, and tabloid Ekstra Bladet began covering every detail of the story, Meyer replied to Duus in an open letter published in Politiken, which expressed sympathy for her position.

“I understand your frustration that you have been left in the lurch by a system that gives the perpetrator a job while you can’t be re-schooled because of a disagreement between public bodies and doctors,” Meyer wrote, before defending his decision to hire Sakskik.

“Judges deliver the punishment and the prison service sees it through. What we do, where we can, is rehabilitate. We reach out to people who have committed crimes, served their punishments and have a hard time being given another chance in society. In doing so, we hope that as a business we can contribute to reducing criminality in the future.”

International design Our beautiful shop, 20 min. north of Copenhagen and our expert team of designers represent the best within classic and contrmporary interior decoration.

Let us help you find a thoughful and lasting solution whether it be a single piece of furniture or an entire home

We speak English · Wir sprechen Deutsch · Parliamo italiano Nous parlons français · Hablamos español · Vi talar svenska HOVEDGADEN 39 2970 HØRSHOLM TLF. 4586 0633 WWW.LYNGSOE-INTERIEUR.DK

4

Cover story

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012

Søvndal to Syrians: You have a friend in Denmark

The ally who’s come

Justin Cremer

Christian Wenande

Denmark’s participation in ‘Friends of Syria’ group has wide backing in parliament

V

illy Søvndal, the foreign minister, has confirmed that Denmark will participate in a February 24 meeting in Tunisia as part of the coalition group ‘Friends of Syria’, telling Ritzau news service that he personally planned to attend the meeting.

The Friends of Syria group was created after Russia and China refused to support a UN resolution that would have demanded that Syrian president Bashar Assad stop the crackdown against Syrian dissidents and implement a peace plan supported by the Arab League. The Associated Press estimates that the ongoing violence in Syria has killed at least 5,000 people.

Speaking at the European Parliament last week on Wednesday, Søvndal stressed that the EU and its partners will ratchet up the pressure on Assad and strengthen co-operation with Syrian opposition groups.

“I am horrified by the escalating violence in Syria and the situation in the country is totally unacceptable,” Søvndal said. “The international community must put strong pressure on the Syrian regime. In the EU, we are doing

our part by maintaining and increasing sanctions against Syria as long as the violence continues. The EU’s message to Russia and China is clear: they should not be on the wrong side of history.”

Denmark’s participation in the Friends of Syria group was supported by all of the national political parties with the exception of the right-wing Danske Folkeparti (DF), Politiken newspaper reported.

“Dansk Folkeparti rejects any notion of Danish involvement in Syria’s chaotic civil war, and we fully reject Denmark’s inclusion in the so-called ‘Syrian Coalition’, which includes a series of suspect Arab countries,” DF’s foreign affairs spokesperson Søren Espersen told the newspaper.

Despite Søvndal’s assertion that the ‘Friends of Syria’ would not be a military coalition, Espersen said that he did not believe that the group’s pressure on Syria would be confined to nonviolent means.

“There is talk of a peace-keeping force and sending weapons down to the rebels, and therefore it will end in a military effort,” he said.

Søvndal, however, said that the Friends of Syria would not get involved militarily.

“I don’t think that more weapons are what is needed in Syria,” he told Politiken. “I think there is a need to gain control, particularly over the government’s use of weapons.”

Cancer sufferers living longer

C

ancer sufferers are surviving longer, a new study by cancer research organisation Kræftens Bekæmpelse has found.

Survival rates have increased over the past decade, with 72 percent of men and 75 percent of women surviving their first year with cancer – an increase of 10 percent and 5 percent respectively.

“We have seen a noticeable improvement in survival rates since we introduced the first cancer treatment plan in 2000,” Hans Storm, a medical advisor with Kræftens Bekæmpelse, told Politiken newspaper. “We are mostly seeing an improvement in cancers that can be treated with surgery and not with those that rely on chemotherapy.”

According to Storm, the improving survival rates can be attributed to investments made in cancer diagnosis as well the decision to provide better treatment at fewer, more specialised, locations across the country. This allows doctors to detect cancer earlier. The smaller tumors are easier to remove for experienced surgeons, which gives patients a better chance of survival.

The biggest improvements have been seen in cancers of the head, neck, oesophagus, stomach and intestines.

Survival rates for people with the notoriously deadly pancreatic cancer is also improving, with 23 percent of sufferers now expected to live a year after diagnosis, twice as long as just a few years ago.

The numbers do not give an indica-

Scanpix/ Claus Bech Andersen

Cancer patients are surviving longer, but questions remain whether investments have made a significant impact

tion of whether more patients are being cured, however, according to Torben Palshof, the chairman of the Danske Multidiscplinære Cancergrupper, an organisation representing specialists treating a total of 32 different forms of cancer.

“We still don’t know, however, how many more patients are actually being cured of their illness because of the plan,” Palshof said. “We probably won’t know until 2015 because the most recent cancer treatment plan only seriously got started in 2009 and as a rule of thumb you only talk of a cure if a cancer patient has survived five years without a regression.”

But while Palshof is urging caution, weekly science publication Ingeniøren revealed earlier this month that mortality has only been reduced by 1.7 percent.

The government has invested 8.7 billion kroner in cancer treatment since the year 2000. And according to Jacob Kjellberg from the publiclyfunded health research organisation Dansk Sundhedsinstitut, a 1.7 percent decrease in mortality was a poor result given the amount of money that had been spent.

“It is unfortunate that we cannot see the effect of such a large investment,” Kjellberg told Ingeniøren. “But we can hope that the effect will show itself later.

Otherwise we have to ask whether the money is being correctly invested.”

Responding to criticism that the money had not significantly improved treatment, Bent Hansen, the chairman of Danske Regioner – the national association of regional councils, which oversees health investments – said treatment was on the right track.

“It is correct that we have yet to reach our target, which is reaching the same survival rates as abroad, but we are on our way,” Hansen told Ingeniøren.

A

s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt prepares for her first trip to Washington to meet with President Obama on Friday, it may not be an understatement to say that relations between the two nations are at an all-time high. It certainly is a far cry from the gloomy days in the 1980s when former Danish minister of foreign affairs, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, was told by his American counterpart, George Schultz, that “if all the countries in Europe acted like Denmark, we wouldn’t have an alliance!”

Recently though, Denmark has remained an unwavering ally to the US during the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the War on Terror. In fact, Denmark has contributed more troops per capita than nearly anyone else and for this reason Obama will probably be thanking the Danish prime minister for her nation’s efforts when they meet up in Washington on Friday.

The American ambassador to Denmark, Laurie S Fulton, who will also be present in Washington, agrees that Denmark is a vital European partner of the United States.

“It is because we share common values and ideals such as democracy and freedom,” Fulton said. “In my opinion, relations have never been stronger. In addition, the United States cares very much about the situation in the European Union, which we consider one of our most valuable allies.”

According to Fulton, both President Obama and the US secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, see Denmark as a country that “punches above its weight”, which is important to the US, despite its small size and population.

The ambassador went on to say that it was essential for the Obama administration to meet the new Danish leader.

MP Jeppe Kofod (Socialdemokraterne) reinforced the notion that the trip to Washington will help further strengthen the consensus between the two nations.

“It is to reconfirm the strong relationship between the United States and Denmark and to discuss the shared challenges that lie ahead,” he said.

“These issues include the security needs in Afghanistan and the importance of the partnership in the Arctic pact. In addition, north Africa will also feature, as Denmark is scaling up efforts in the

Pamela Juhl

Peter Stanners

Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s trip to Washington DC will build on strategic alliance that has endured frosty periods

region, where the United States continues to maintain considerable interests.”

Professor David Nye at the Center for American Studies at Syddansk University in Odense concurred that current relations with Washington are cordial, although he said that there are a number of issues behind the upcoming meeting. “[Danish military efforts are] appreciated by the White House, and it surely has something to do with the former prime minister occupying the top post at NATO,” Nye said. “Americans in general are more interested in domestic

problems right now. Foreign affairs are not a major theme so far in the election campaign. The visit of the Danish prime minister will be noted, but probably will not provoke much discussion, unless the problems with the euro are not resolved by then. In that case, the visit will be more likely to generate comment and discussion, because Denmark is heading the EU for this period.”

Nye raises an interesting point. Aside from discussing the Afghanistan withdrawal, American aspirations for this meeting would appear to centre more on

A sometimes rocky relationship The ‘Footnote’ Period: Danish-American relations haven’t always been cheerful. At the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, Denmark became embroiled in the ‘Footnote’ period when a parliament majority, led by Anker Jørgensen (Socialdemokraterne), forced the incumbent Poul Schluter’s government to convey a foreign policy that it did not agree with. Much to the consternation of the Reagan administration, Denmark ended up reneging their earlier commitments to support the American stance on the Soviet Union setting up missiles in Eastern Europe. From 1982 to 1988, Denmark demonstrated this defiance by inserting countering footnotes in NATO resolutions to illustrate their opposition to various points. It was during this time that Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was told by American Secretary of State

George Schultz that “if all the countries in Europe acted like Denmark, we wouldn’t have an alliance!”

Thule Air Base: The Americans have contributed to a frosty relationship as well. In 1968, as war raged in Vietnam, an American B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons crashed near Thule Air Base in Greenland. This became a massive scandal in Denmark as the Danish official policy at the time strictly forbade nuclear weapons on Danish territory. In what reeked fiercely of subterfuge, both American and Danish officials scrambled to contain the situation and clean up the wreckage. The Americans maintained that the plane was not scheduled to land in Thule, but was forced to try to land in Thule due to a fire on board.

Cover story

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012

in from the cold

Danish ministers satisfied with Greek bailout

Main: Scanpix/Yuri Gripas; Inset: Lawrence Jackson

US-Danish relations through the years 1801: Diplomatic relations between Denmark and the United States are established and the US opens its first diplomatic post in Copenhagen.

1916: A financially struggling Denmark sells the Danish West Indies to the US for 25 million dollars; they are renamed the Virgin Islands.

1946: The US attempts to purchase Greenland from Denmark for 100 million dollars, but the Danes refuse.

1968: An American B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons crashes near the Thule Air Base, despite Danish policy forbidding nuclear weapons in their territory 1982-1988: Denmark implements ‘Footnote’ period, during which relations with the US suffer.

2002: First Danish troops arrive in Afghanistan to support the US-led coalition.

2003: Denmark joins the heavily criticised US-led invasion of Iraq.

2005: Denmark critical of delayed and weak US support over the Mohammed cartoon incident.

The meeting between Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Barack Obama on Friday is certainly not the first high-profile meeting between Danish and American politicians and leaders in recent years

Since Obama’s election, the Danish left has almost completely stopped criticising the US current EU dilemmas and future NATO operations than on individual relations with Denmark.

Ahead of the meeting, ThorningSchmidt has not indicated that the continued utilisation of Guantanamo, clandestine CIA flights or climate issues will be on the agenda, despite the fact that while her party was in opposition, it was

vocally against these practices during the previous Bush administration.

“It is as if the criticism of Guantanamo has more or less disappeared,” Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard, a professor of political science at Copenhagen University, said. “The last time there was a demonstration about Guantanamo was two weeks before Obama was elected.

Since Obama’s election, the Danish left has almost completely stopped criticising the US.” The minister of foreign affairs, Villy Søvndal, recently indicated to Information newspaper that since the Obama administration had yet to advise Denmark of developments concerning the Guantanamo prison, the question of supporting the dispersal of its prisoners is redundant.

Some may question if Danish poli-

5

2011: Danish military takes part in the US-backed effort to depose Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

ticians have become star-struck. But with Anders Fogh Rasmussen as secretary general of NATO, and Denmark’s current position as the interim EU president, it could be an opportune moment for Denmark to force some issues within the realm of foreign affairs.

But for now, as Thorning-Schmidt prepares for her journey across the Atlantic, Danish-American relations could be described as basking in the sun of a golden era. It is clear that the icy rapport of the past has long since thawed.

Ellemann-Jensen, in a column for Berlingske newspaper, said it wouldn’t be unthinkable for Thorning-Schmidt to hear Obama twist around the words of Ellemann-Jensen’s former counterpart and say: “If all the European nations acted like Denmark, we would still have a strong alliance.”

Peter Stanners European ministers forge trillion kroner bailout after private investors agree to take further losses on Greek debt

G

reece’s spiralling debt crisis has been given a temporary reprieve after European leaders on Monday agreed on a 996 billion kroner bailout package that saves the country from bankruptcy.

The bailout arrived after almost 13 hours of negotiations during which it was agreed on how to reduce Greece’s debt to 120.5 percent of GDP, rather than the projected 160 percent, by 2020.

The cut in debt was reached by convincing private debt holders to accept further losses. Without reaching the 120 percent mark, the International Monetary Fund would not have helped fund the bailout.

The deal will require Greece to implement further austerity measures, consisting of tax hikes and cuts to social services, which some experts have argued will only further depress the Greek economy. They blame previous rounds of austerity measures for the seven percent decrease in Greece’s GDP last quarter.

But after the deal was reached, Denmark’s minister of the economy and interior, Margrethe Vestager, argued that strict terms were to be expected when taking a loan.

“There are always conditions, even for ordinary people, when accepting large loans,” Vestager said on Monday in Brussels. “They also need to accept some tough conditions from their loan pro-

viders. Greece is not being forced to do anything. Neither I, nor the Eurogroup, are choosing anything on behalf of the Greeks. Greek politicians could say no if they wanted to. They are accountable to their voters at the election in April.”

But it is precisely this election that some commentators have warned could derail the entire deal, with at least one opposition party indicating they would resist the bailout package.

Impatience with Greece has been mounting, with German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble recently stating that Germans were getting tired of pouring money into a “bottomless pit”.

Without the bailout package, Greece would default on their debt and destabilise the European banking sector – a scenario that European politicians are so keen to avoid that they are willing to spend almost a trillion kroner to avoid it.

In Paris on Monday, PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt met with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, after which she admitted that the sovereign debt crisis was placing pressure on Denmark as the current holder of the rotating EU presidency.

“No-one is going to say it’s easy to be the president right now,” ThorningSchmidt said. “The point now is to make sure that we make constructive and forward-thinking decisions that will improve Europe’s growth.”

Thorning-Schmidt added that European leaders did have faith in a Greek recovery and that the new bailout package would work and allow the Greeks to regain control over their economy.

“It’s been good for both us and Greece that we have had a good co-operation about the Greek economy,” she said.

Russia denies Danish observers

F

orty Danes who intended to follow the March 4 presidential election in Russia as observers have been denied entry to the country, Politiken newspaper reports.

Russia denied the visa applications of the 40 Danes, who were members of the group Support Initiative for Liberty and Democracy (SILBA) and Radikale’s youth organisation, Radikal Ungdom.

SILBA’s foreman, Jens-Kristian Lütken, said he was surprised by Russia’s decision.

“We had a similar arrangement for the Russian parliamentary elections on December 4, and at that time there were no problems,” he told Politiken.

Ksenia Vakhrusjeva of Russian socialliberal party Yabloko told the newspaper she had invited SILBA to participate in a seminar as part of a standing agreement between the EU and Russia. However,

she received the run-around trying to get the invitation approved before getting a rejection via telephone from the foreign ministry in Moscow.

“We haven’t tried to push the case through the immigration offices, but that would take 30 days and by then the election is over,” she told Politiken, adding that her party does not have the authority to officially invite observers, which is why she offered the invitation to the seminar.

Although that means that Russia didn’t technically reject the election observers, Lütken said that was the clear intention of denying the Danes entry.

“No-one could doubt what we would be doing, and that you have to bend these kinds of rules,” he said. “The Russian authorities aren’t interested in having too many foreigners in Russia if there are protests following the election.” (JC)

Online this week S wants to harness wave energy Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, the energy spokesperson for Socialdemokraterne, has demanded support for wave energy when negotiations of the government’s new energy plan resume this week, saying wave energy could provide 30 percent of Denmark’s energy needs. She said that wave energy was a natural fit for Denmark’s geography and that it would help create jobs. The

idea is to find the funding from within the 3.9 billion kroner the government has set aside for the energy plan, meaning that money will have to be diverted from other energy projects. Opposition party Venstre’s energy spokesperson, Lars Christian Lilleholt, said the government should be careful when predicting the future of wave energy, which is still in its infancy.

Give us 500 speed cameras, police say The national police organisation Rigspolitiet is asking for more than 500 speed cameras to be set up on Denmark’s most accident-prone roads. The request was filed with the Justice Ministry and is currently being reviewed in anticipation of new traffic laws the government plans to propose in May, reports TV2 News. Traffic researchers at the Technical University of Denmark

estimate that placing 500 speed cameras on Danish highways would result in 30 fewer injurycausing accidents each year – a ten percent drop in the average number. The speed cameras would utilise sensors that measure the car’s speed. If the speed is above the limit, a photo is taken.

The photo is then used to identify the car and driver and a fine is delivered by post.

Search for missing woman continues Despite widespread media coverage and tip-offs from the public, police still have no clue what happened to Jeanett Rask Thomas, a 48-year-old woman who disappeared from her home in the Nørrebro neighbourhood on February 10. Copenhagen police have interviewed Thomas’s family

members, friends and acquaintances, and have searched for her at addresses where she is known to have a connection. “There is nothing to suggest that Jeanett Rask Thomas has fallen victim to a crime, but we cannot rule that out either,” said police inspector Youssef Lharraki of the Bellahøj police station.

Read the full stories at cphpost.dk

6

News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012

The prince and the pesticide: Joachim snagged in smuggling scandal Colourbox

Jennifer Buley Police uncover smuggling ring that distributed banned pesticides and fertilisers to farmers and royals

T

he case is becoming poison for the reputation of Danish farmers – and may already have poisoned Denmark’s drinking water.

Over the past month, police in eastern Jutland have broken up two large smuggling rings involving illegal pesticides and fertilisers. Hundreds of Denmark’s farmers, including some of the country’s largest food producers are named on the smugglers’ customer lists. Among those names are high-ranking members of the agriculture and food council Landbrug & Fødevarer, as well as a Danish prince.

Last week on Wednesday, one Landbrug & Fødevarer board member, Martin Arvad Nielsen, the chairman of the potato starch factory KMC, stepped down from Landbrug & Fødevarer’s board after the smugglers named him as a major customer, Politiken newspaper reports.

According to documents obtained by the newspaper through a freedom of information request, Nielsen purchased 24 tonnes of the illegal fertilisers from the smugglers.

Nielsen maintained his in-

Environmentalists fear that the pesticides may have polluted underground aquifers and bodies of surface water

nocence, but said he was stepping down to avoid damaging the organisation’s reputation.

Also named among the smugglers’ customers is the owner of Schackenborg Castle [i.e. Prince Joachim]. Schackenborg, home to the prince, is one of the country’s largest farms.

According to inspector Niels Bugge from the East Jutland police, investigators are now opening the books on farms all over the country.

“Bornholm, Copenhagen and west Zealand don’t have any cases, but farmers in every other region have purchased these things,” Bugge said.

Police in Jutland are currently investigating two largescale smuggling rings. One involves a 60-year-old man from Odder who is charged with selling illegal foreign fertiliser to more than 100 farmers. A second case involves two men from Djursland who are charged with

organising a vast smuggling operation that furnished illegal fertiliser and banned pesticides to as many at 160 different farms.

In the Djursland case, it is alleged that the men smuggled 15,000 tonnes of fertiliser and 45 tonnes of pesticides – of which 21 tonnes are banned substances – across the GermanDanish border in over 500 lorry trips between 2007 and 2009.

“It is really worrying. We’re

not just talking about four farms that ran things crookedly,” biology professor Mogens Flindt, from the University of Southern Denmark, told Politiken.

“Our lakes and streams may have picked up significant concentrations of pesticides and fertilisers because of this, thus damaging our water quality.”

Flindt expressed concern that the abuses could be far larger than even these two cases suggest.

“You have to wonder if this

is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

According to the environmental protection agency, Miljøstyrelsen, some of the pesticides that were smuggled into Denmark and spread on its farmlands are carcinogenic and categorised as harmful to human health.

Both the environment minister, Ida Auken (Socialistisk Folkeparti), and the food minister, Mette Gjerskov (Socialdemokraterne), condemned the illegal imports.

“Illegal pesticides and illegal fertilisers have the potential to harm our environment, our drinking water, and the food we eat,” Gjerskov told Politiken.

The Food Ministry, which Gjerskov has headed since October 2011, is therefore running an investigation of as many as 500 farms and food producers nationwide to ensure that fertilisers and pesticides are being used properly.

Landbrug & Fødevarer chairman Niels Jørgen Pedersen apologised for the scandal that is threatening to touch every part of the Danish agricultural industry.

“It’s a truly vexing situation.

The people who did these things have taken a huge toll on the entire industry,” he told Politiken.

“It has never been acceptable to use illegal fertilisers or to get around the system.”

Hackers expose suspected paedophiles

Colourbox

Justin Cremer Rigspolitiet and ethics board member condemn the action

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).

D

anish hackers associated with the global online activist group Anonymous have publicly outed two suspected child sex abusers in what they characterise as an attempt to clean up Danish websites that are “filled with paedophilia”, Berlingske newspaper reports.

The hackers released the names of two men suspected of paedophilia, one two weeks ago on Friday and then one the following Wednesday. One of the men was fired from his job following the release of his name and his house has been searched by national police Rigspolitiet’s IT research centre, NITEC. Two of the man’s computers were seized as evidence.

A post on the Facebook page of Anonymous Denmark appears to indicate that the hack was carried out in connection with Anonymous’s support of #Op SafeKids, a collective effort to report child porn and sex trafficking on Facebook and other online sites.

Berlingske spoke with one of the hackers involved, who goes by the name of ‘Locutuz’.

“They should have expected us, and they can expect that this will continue to happen,” Locu-

The action was carried out by hackers associated with Anonymous

tuz told the newspaper.

Locutuz’s response mirrors the universal calling card of Anonymous: “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget.

Expect us.”

NITEC vice police inspector Johnny Lundberg, however, told Berlingske that hackers should not take matters into their own hands.

“There are many cases of child abuse online, and we investigate a large number of them each year,” Lundberg said. “Of course there are more out there than we investigate, but that doesn’t mean that people should play police and expose people on the net.”

Thomas Ploug, who is a lecturer in IT ethics and a member of parliament’s ethics advisory panel, Det Etiske Råd, told The Copenhagen Post that he disapproved of the hackers’ methods.

“This is not the only way to catch paedophiles,” Ploug said.

“If people come across information that could lead to catching

these people, they should pass it on to police. We are a state based on law and passing judgement on these actions should be left to the courts.”

He added that there is the possibility that entrapment could have been involved and that the hackers are bypassing the legal process.

“We want to do this the right way by the right people.

Not everyone should play policeman. That is not the kind of society we want.”

Ploug also stressed that even if the suspected men were found guilty of paedophila, it would not justify the hackers’ actions.

The hackers’ claim that they are not doing anything illegal and their assertion that online child pornography is a problem in Denmark seems to be corroborated by a large bust in December in which 19 men nationwide were arrested for the possession and distribution of child pornography. One arrestee alone had around 29 terabytes of pornographic material.

7 Creeping legislation threatens national smoking habit NEWS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

24 February - 1 March 2012

PETER STANNERS An increasing number of initiatives marginalise nation’s smokers, though some argue even more needs to be done

I

N A MODERN and sophisticated country, looked up to for its welfare state, the popularity of smoking is a stain on an otherwise positive international reputation.

But a variety of initiatives, laws and public statements made over the past few months seem to suggest that smoking in Denmark isn’t quite as cool as it used to be.

Most recently, a debate was triggered when the health spokesperson for government party Radikale, Camilla Hersom, said that she would ban cigarettes in Denmark in a perfect world.

“If it were possible then I think it would be a good idea. I’m convinced that if cigarettes were invented today then they would be banned,” Hersom said during an interview on Tuesday with radio station Radio24syv.

While Hersom conceded that tobacco had a long history in Denmark and that banning it would be completely implausible, her comments drew ire from the libertarian party Liberal Alliance (LA).

“Camilla Hersom’s wish to ban smoking as a matter of principle is an extreme version of nannying,” LA health spokesperson Joachim B Olsen replied in a press release. “It is a desire to force a party’s politically correct values on all Danes. It is not an expression of responsibility, but rather an insight into a group of politicians who do not have faith that Danes know what’s best for them.”

Olsen’s response is perhaps indicative of Denmark’s laissez-faire and liberal approach towards tobacco: that it’s the responsibility of the individual, not the government, to decide whether or not to smoke.

This attitude could explain the incongruous message Denmark sends by touting its green energy credentials and large organic food industry, on the one hand, while also watering down efforts to curb smoking.

For instance, when Denmark followed Ireland and banned smoking in public indoor areas, exemptions were made for single person offices and bars with less than 40 sqm of floor space

for patrons.

But with anti-smoking campaigners slowly clawing away at smokers’ privileges, they might not have it so good for that much longer.

First off are initiatives against smoking at work. Helsingør recently announced that council employees were only allowed to have one 15-minute coffee and cigarette break a week in order to increase productivity.

“We waste too much time because of these breaks,” Helsingør mayor Johannes Hecht-Nielsen told Frederiksborg Amts Avis. “It’s also about lost time from people moving to and fro from their work stations. But we’re not banning using a few minutes to have a cup of coffee with colleagues.”

While public servants protested and councillor Allan Berg Mortensen from the left-wing Enhedslisten bemoaned the “lack of faith” the proposal signals, statistics from cancer organisation Kræftens Bekæmpelse state that smokers work 50 minutes, or 11 percent, less a day than non-smokers, due to their habit.

It was for this very reason that the Copenhagen regional office of tax authority Skat decided last December that employees would have their smoking breaks deducted from their salaries.

“We pay out about 400 million kroner in salaries to our employees,” Erling Andersen, the head of Skat Copenhagen, told Politiken newspaper. “For that money we expect a proper effort from our employees, so if they smoke it shouldn’t affect their work hours.”

The right to smoke in single person offices is also being targeted by antismoking campaigners. Politicians with offices in the parliament building have long used their right to smoke in their offices. But that practice turned into something of a scandal before Christmas, when it was revealed that the food minister, Mette Gjerskov, had installed a 34,000 kroner smoking cabin in her office at the tax payers’ expense, so she could avoid walking down from the fourth floor to go outside.

Gjerskov was allowed to keep the cabin, though she agreed to pay for it herself. After parliament’s executive committee banned smoking in its single person offices, she would be unable to smoke in her office without it.

The government too is adding to the list of woes for smokers. Among the proposals in their recent smoking bill is

a ban on smoking in single person offices, doubling the fines for establishments that break smoking laws and raising the legal smoking age from 16 to 18.

From this week, cigarette packs will also show graphic images of tobacco related diseases.

(The images, created by the EU, are also available w i t h

English captions.)

But much to the disappointment of Kræftens Bekæmpelse, smoking cabins will still remain legal. “[The laws] will improve conditions at youth institutions, but won’t remove carcinogenic chemicals in the work environment,” Dr Inge Haunstrup Clemmensen said. “There is much to gain if Danish law also banned smoking rooms and cabins in workplaces. Twenty percent of Danes are still working in places that allow indoor smoking where carcinogenic compounds in tobacco smoke are able to spread from smoking rooms and cabins to nearby areas.”

So while attempts are being made to limit smoking in Denmark, there is still a resistance to fully embracing a tobaccofree culture. And while there are some positive signs – 400,000 Danes have quit smoking since 2007 according to the Health Ministry – 4,500 Danes still die every year from tobacco-related cancer.

For now then, Danes in smoky ‘brown bodegas’, and cabinet members in their own offices, will continue to smoke cigarettes whose prices are kept low by manufacturers who sell packs of 18 or 19 instead of 20 in order to balance out increases to tobacco taxes such as the three kroner added over the new year – a practice outlawed in Germany but perhaps not unsurprisingly in Denmark.

Councils threaten to drop electronic travel card

C

OUNCILS in Jutland and on the islands of Funen and Bornholm are threatening to opt out of Rejsekort, the new electronic ticketing system for public transport, because they say it is too expensive to implement.

“We think it’s a good idea, but the way it’s been rolled out is really awful and it’s way too expensive,” Kasper Fuhr Kristensen, the chairman of Randers Council’s technical and environmental department, told public broadcaster DR. It is not the first time that Rejsekort has come under criticism. The project to roll out a convenient national commuter ticketing system has been plagued by budget overruns, technical problems and missed deadlines since its inception in 2006.

Now transport planners in Randers

estimate that Rejsekort will raise their operational costs by two million kroner per year, not counting the outlays for setting it up. Adopting Rejsekort and keeping a balanced budget would force the councils to raise ticket prices or eliminate a few bus routes, city planners said.

Regional transport authorities on Fyn and Bornholm are also hesitating to adopt the new system, reports Jyllands-Posten newspaper. And Aarhus Council, which has already implemented Rejsekort, is considering dropping it, reports DR. But according to Bjørn Wahlsten, the president of Rejsekort, the councils that are wavering over the new system do not fully grasp its benefits.

“More than three million trips have already been made using Rejsekort and

there are over 100,000 cards out there.

The response from customers has been really positive. And 12 percent of customers say they’re taking more trips because of Rejsekort,” Wahlsten told Ritzau news service.

Randers and Aarhus councils “are not looking at the advantages”, Wahlsten continued. “They haven’t calculated on the extra passengers that Rejsekort brings in.”

But neither Wahlsten nor the transport minister, Henrik Dam Kristensen (Socialdemokraterne), want to force the councils into accepting Rejsekort.

“In the places that don’t have Rejsekort, residents will miss out on easier transport,” Kristensen told Ritzau, adding: “But it’s optional for the transport authorities. I’m not going to force anybody to take it.” (JB)

What do you think about the government’s interference with people’s smoking habits?

Ole Jensen, retiree, 63 “I think it’s bullshit that the government interferes. The decision isn’t theirs but the people’s, and people know it’s dangerous. You should just put up a sign in the door that says ‘people smoke here’, and then people who don’t like the smell can go to another bar. I wouldn’t smoke less if I couldn’t smoke in pubs; I smoke whenever I feel like it.”

Oliver Haase, student, 20 “I understand it and actually I think it’s fine that you often can’t smoke inside, but if it was to become completely illegal, like they’ve talked about in Finland, I would think that was too tight. If you couldn’t smoke in bars at all I would be mad. If you ask me, I think both tobacco and hash should be legal.”

Ole Jensen, retiree, 63 “I don’t think they should interfere with smoking. Instead, they should interfere with all the toxic material in food because that’s something that impacts on everybody. Smoking is rubbish, but what is also rubbish is all the poison they put in the food. The risk is the same, but you can’t forbid people to eat, because they have to live.”

Text and photos: Malene Ørsted

Beauty and wellness in the heart of Copenhagen

DermaBelle skincare & spa Phone 33 33 07 73 Dronningens Tværgade 21 • 1302 København K Website, online booking: Dermabelle.dk/en

Welcome to personal, competent treatment in beautiful suroundings. Also for men.

Enjoy the very best of: - Spa and wellness treatments - Facials - Luxurious body treatments - IPL/laser permanent hair removal with efficient and mild iPulse - Luxurious diamond peel - Eyelash extensions - Threading (hair removal) - Perfect waxing - Brazilian waxing, our speciality

- Wonderfull massage, e.g.

Japanese, aroma or hot stone - Effecient AHA fruit acid treatments - Wonderful, relaxing beauty days - Beautiful pure makeup - St. Tropez self tanning, manuel or spray - Manicure - Pedicure

8

OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

Let botched congestion charge pave way for car ownership rethink

24 February - 1 March 2012

Why take to the streets against ACTA?

W

E’LL ADMIT it. We’re disappointed that the government has chosen to scuttle its plans to charge a toll on cars entering and leaving the city. The idea wasn’t perfect, but the experience from Stockholm and London showed that a congestion charge is an effective way to reduce traffic.

More than that, however, the congestion charge was also a symbol that this government prioritised progressive solutions to modern problems. Instead of embarking on an endless cycle of measures to accommodate increasingly more cars, the government wants to cut the number of cars on the road by making it more attractive to take the train or bus. In the end, though, the plan fell short because it punished those who wanted – or needed – to drive anyway.

The government still plans to improve public transport, and it will do so without the offending toll, but any plan to encourage more people to take the bus and train needs to look at the way car ownership is taxed.

Under the current registration system, new cars are slapped with a fee amounting to 180 percent of their purchase price over 79,000 kroner. For a new car costing 250,000 kroner, only 110,000 kroner of that actually goes towards its purchase. The rest – 140,000 kroner – is a fee paid to the state.

But the problem with a fee charged at purchase is two-fold: first, it means people refrain from buying newer, more efficient and safer cars, and second, it means that the fee is tied to simple ownership, not use. That 140,000 kroner fee needs to be paid whether you drive every day or if the car never leaves your driveway.

Given the amount of money generated by car registration – 25 billion kroner in 2010 – changing the fee would require some delicate maths, but retooling it so it is assessed on a per kilometre basis would give people a disincentive to drive when a better option exists, without adding an additional burden when driving is the best option.

Another likely benefit would be an immediate surge in the sale of new cars and, in the long run, a lower average age of cars on the road. These increased sales would help offset any decline in revenue from lower registration fees.

Round off the list of initiatives by slapping a hefty surcharge on the most polluting vehicles, and Denmark could find itself garnering as much attention for coming up with a pragmatic approach to car ownership as London and Stockholm got for their congestion charges.

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

twitter.com/cphpost

facebook.com/copenhagenpost Join us on Facebook and Twitter to be updated on current news and debate the issues that matter to you.

HENRIK CHULU

A

CTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is supposed to establish a framework for the international enforcement of intellectual property, but in its attempt to maximise enforcement the treaty threatens the fundamental rights of internet users.

In a letter recently circulated to members of the European Parliament, as well as to ministers of national governments, a large group of intellectual property lobby organisations headed by IFPI (the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) described the ongoing public protests against ACTA as “coordinated attacks on democratic institutions” and “attempts to silence the democratic process”.

But, as it turns out, hun-

yright police, as well as requiring the Danish state to increasingly police private copyrights.

The collateral damage of implementing the requirements of ACTA will lead to increased internet surveillance and expand internet censorship measures well beyond the scope of whatever gains these policing and punishing measures will present for copyright holders, many of whom have lobbied hard for the treaty.

The lobbyists behind ACTA complain that the free and open internet is undermining their business models and have thus set out to undermine the freedom and openness of the internet.

However, it is exactly because of its freedom and openness that the internet has proven to be one of the most powerful drivers for the economy, despite current crises.

Signing ACTA means signing off the possibility of someday rolling back current enforcement measures already proving counterproductive to the establishment of a vibrant digital public sphere.

More or less every single organisation concerned with consumer, civil, and/or human rights have pointed out that ACTA is bad news for the rights they advocate. Recently, Amnesty International warned that “implementing the agreement could open a Pandora’s box of potential human rights violations”.

However, while Pandora managed to close her box again and thus preserve hope for the future, ACTA does not give any reason to hope for a future where policy is guided by evidence, argument, and the protection of fundamental rights, and not dictated by special interest, lobbyists, and past privileges.

The biggest threat ACTA poses is its potential to quash the development of a free and open internet once its evils have been let loose on the world. One prominent Danish legal scholar, Clement Salung Petersen, has warned that ACTA “risks becoming a straightjacket for Denmark”, making future policy reform difficult, even if desirable.

Today, copyright policy is internet policy, and ACTA is particularly bad internet policy.

Instead of reforming copyright by adapting laws to their cultural and technological context, ACTA attempts to force the culture and technology of the internet to adapt to laws of a bygone era.

The current copyright regime is beneficial to the special interests that have lobbied for the treaty.

But we are not interested in leaving the future of the internet to the interests of the past.

That is why we are taking it to the streets against ACTA. The author is the co-founder of internet think-tank Bitbureauet

READER COMMENTS Misuse of integration funds sets off larger debate Immigrants should integrate themselves. It’s outrageous that Denmark bends over backwards to teach them Danish and “integrate” them. Why aren’t the immigrants taking the initiative and integrating themselves, and learning Danish before they decide to move to Denmark?

Leofwin by website I have lost faith that Denmark is, at all, interested in integration.

Throwing money at a problem without really understanding the outcome is a typical Danish solution. I am not sure what one would expect the residents of Mjølnerparken to do as a typically ‘Danish Social Integration’ activity. Perhaps they were supposed to meet, ‘flettet julehjerte’ and eat ‘flæskesteg’ and dance around a Christmas tree (just not a bellydance as we have seen how serious that can be, i.e. taken all the way as a paragraph 20 question to the parliament).

Thorvaldsen By website Can Denmark steer Europe’s energy future?

www.cphpost.dk

dreds of thousands of European citizens are writing emails and making phone calls to their representatives in the EP, and marching against ACTA on the streets of major European cities. This IS the democratic process.

ACTA was drafted under a veil of secrecy. For years the only access that the public, civil society organisations or elected officials had to the process was by way of secret negotiation documents published by the whistleblower organisation WikiLeaks.

In their letter, the IFPI and their co-signers even refer to the opinions of the European Parliament’s Legal Service, documents that several European digital rights organisations have repeatedly applied for, and repeatedly been refused, access to.

The opaque process of ACTA aside, the product is no less problematic. The treaty itself has been public for a while now, but the content of the negotiations are still kept secret. Thus, the only basis we have for interpreting the intentions behind ACTA is whatever has been leaked about the process and whatever public statements officials have made about it.

The articles of the treaty concerning criminal sanctions are couched in vague and broad terms that, from a Danish perspective, will cement internet service providers’ current role as private cop-

Yesterday, the Østre Landsret stopped some 130m tall ‘monster’ mills near Holbæk. But further south even taller versions have been approved by Lolland Kommune, within sight and earshot of several communities. The energy might be renewable but people’s lives are not.

Theoldjanus By website

The entire energy sector is rife with misunderstandings about technical abilities, is fraught with hype over the real-world readiness and maturity of new technologies, and is full of misnomers such as ‘smart grid’, a term that will get 37 different definitions from 37 different energy-sector engineers. Having the EU Presidency for six months will not provide Denmark, or any other country, with enough time to make a significant dent. Denmark would be wise to focus on creating the government-industry infrastructure and legitimate working groups to address these problems longterm, and avoid trying to shove a flashy Danish-specific preferred technical solution down another country’s throat.

Tom By website Agreement ends deportations of youngest children

people who know oppression and prejudice from other parts of the world are surprised and disgusted.

Where does that leave the Danish sense of superiority in regard to other nations? Lying between the curb and the gutter, shamefully unaware of how pitiful it is now.

Mnydk By website

It is completely unacceptable for such an extreme theocratic country to have access to weapons of mass destruction, especially in light of the fact that its leader has in an unprovoked manner threatened to wipe other countries off the map.

The1youlove2hate By website

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

Don’t these numbers conform to roughly the same percentage of hateful citizens who vote Venstre and DF? HeidiakaMissJibba By website

This articles shows that 27 percent of Danes are idiots. Because of the plausible reaction of Iran, and due to the lack of overall economical incentives to bombard Iranian nuclear sites, it will not happen. (Just compare the NATO reaction to the Syria and Libya cases). Invading Iran is simply beyond the power limits of west, today.

SamTheForeigner By website

This is totally inexcusable for a (supposedly) civilised society. Deporting children by themselves?

Even when there’s no adult to take care of them? This is one issue where I’ll gladly (and loudly) join the Denmark bashing. How can the people responsible look at themselves in the mirror knowing that they’re endangering children on a routine basis? Disgusting!

Cliff Arroyo By website

Is this a democratic European way of thinking? How could some people sit in their cosy homes in Denmark and wish for a harsh military operation against another nation? Have they imagined anything about the consequences of such a war? Do they have a good conscience if their opinion has an effect on the probability of war in that region? I wonder how apathetic some people are!

Diako Ecbataner By website

The agreement is a patch-up. The two-year rule is the problem and should be abolished altogether.

It’s uncivilised and in contempt of any notion of individual or family rights. To a degree that even

Iran’s extreme rhetoric, Holocaust denial, hatred of Israel and the West, religious fanaticism, and general lack of rational behaviour has rightfully led to severe distrust from the rest of the world.

Opinion | Is it okay if we sell joints?

Give the people what they want.

If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

Some 99 percent of all arrest is of users and low-level dealers. You’ll never stop the flow of drugs. Yes, there are some major drugs seizures you see from time to time in the news, which is maybe 1 percentof the stuff that is seized.

Cut the criminals out and let the government regulate it. Let them tax it like everything else.

ArthurBishop By website The only way you can cut organised crime out of the picture, would be to allow the government to license growers in Denmark to cultivate marijuana. Then sell that at a reasonable price (say, 60-80 kroner a gram). If you just legalise it without doing this, there is still a black market chain to point of sale, and you will still get a market that is flooded with low quality (often poisonous) hashish.

Tom By website

OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

24 February - 1 March 2012

9

Pernickety Dicky

BY RICHARD STEED 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.”

Metrosexual Copenhagen

B

ACK IN THE 1980s, when I was a young man, I somehow had a good ‘gaydar’ and was able to spot whether a man was gay or not.

Many who later became my friends had, as my dad said, “a touch of lavender about them”. Somehow they were different, whether it was due to their flawless skin (from using a face moisturiser) or naturally better fashion style, or just too much hairspray. Or the fact that the ‘80s were all about big hair, big shoulder pads and lots of glamour, and homosexuals didn’t look as ridiculous as the straights. My point is, I generally found them easier to spot and so would always gravitate towards them, knowing that at least I would have a fun night out.

straight boys who are copying the gay boys and embracing the ever-growing market of male grooming.

The term metrosexual was first coined in 1994 and describes a man who spends a lot of money and time on his appearance. Six main tips have been identified for how to spot them: 1. They own 20 pairs of shoes, half a dozen pairs of sunglasses, just as many watches and often carry a man-purse.

2. They see a stylist instead of a barber, because barbers don’t do highlights.

3. They only wear Calvin Klein or Björn Borg briefs, which can be seen at all times.

4. They shave more than just their faces.

They also exfoliate and moisturise.

5. They cannot imagine a day without their hair styling products.

6. They can’t stop admiring themselves in the mirror at the local gym while they pump iron.

So today it’s okay for a man to be vain, whatever your sexual persuasion, and now Copenhagen is awash with metrosexuals who look gay, even act a bit gay, but clearly are not. I wonder if they see their own irony?

Meanwhile, it looks like the homosexuals have quit the vanity battle and have gone to live a heterosexualised quiet, normal and suburban life with Villa, Volvo and Wuffy. Today they are the ones with little style and can often be spotted in unflattering jogging pants and tasteless casual sweaters at the local garden centre.

So it’s a crazy world right now with heterosexual men looking like the new gay boys, and gay men acting like the old bad-styled straights. It makes you wonder what’s next for male sexuality in the 21st century? Maybe the next big thing to come from all this male vanity and sexual identity crossover is the rise of the bisexual.

My view is: bring it on!

Today it’s the straight boys who are copying the gay boys and embracing the ever-growing market of male grooming Move forward 25 years and, you know what, today I cannot really tell anymore who is gay or not! Last weekend out in Copenhagen, my ‘gaydar’ was malfunctioning as I looked around the busy bar I was in. The straight men chatting up the chicks looked like the new gay boys to me. With their pumped up tattooed bodies, fake tans, flawless skin, perfect hair, plucked eyebrows and highly conscious fashion style, they looked gayer than my gay friends.

It’s what I have been told is the metrosexual look that is currently sweeping this city. Today it’s the

WWW. MORMORANDME.COM

CPH POST VOICES

‘STILL ADJUSTING’

‘TO BE PERFECTLY FRANK’

‘MACCARTHY’S WORLD’

‘THE LYNCH REPORT’

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.

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.

10 News

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012

Photo illustration: Aviaja Bebe

Old drunks harass us, homecare workers say Healthcare experts say it’s “taboo” to talk about alcoholism among the elderly

C

With a smartphone app, the lives of the deceased will be at your fingertips

Scan this! Storytelling tombs come to Denmark Jennifer Buley Scannable gravestones with digital links to pictures and stories about the deceased are next burial trend, say experts

A

“More and more people have smartphones, and in ten more years, gravestones without barcodes on them will be the exception,” Røntved told Berlingske.

Kaj Hansen was one of the very first Danes to buy a QR-encoded gravestone after his wife, Joan, passed away in December 2011.

“I’m glad I did it,” Hansen said.

When he and others scan the QR code on Joan’s gravestone, they are linked to pictures of her, her obituary and a eulogy.

“She was an open-minded person.

She was a giver and never kept things for herself,” Hansen added.

Røntved prefers when the QR codes on gravestones are visible and accessible to anybody who is curious about the deceased.

“But if somebody doesn’t want it to be that way, then they can maybe have a little cover over the QR code, so that you need a key to access it,” he added.

Undertaker Naja Genet May is also an anthropologist specialising in Danish burial traditions. She said scannable gravestones reflect “a modern and mobile lifestyle”.

“You could even say that the idea of life after death becomes reality when you have the option of telling your life’s story in this way,” she added.

May agreed with Røntved that QR codes on gravestones would become increasingly commonplace in Denmark.

“It will gradually become more popular as we learn more about how we can present the deceased, and as new products come along to help us do that.”

Congestion continued from front page

The conflict between S and SF culminated on Tuesday in what the media was billing as a “crisis meeting”, with commentators noting that their apparent inability to solve their differences behind closed doors exposed a lack of cohesion and weak leadership.

“Every Dane now knows there is internal friction inside this government,” Berlingske’s political commentator Thomas Larsen said. “First and foremost, Helle Thorning-Schmidt has failed as the prime minister to contain this conflict and lay the groundwork for an internal compromise.”

Rasmus Jønsson, a political commentator and professor at Roskilde University, agreed that the situation reflected poorly on the ministers.

“The government itself is to blame

for this circus, because all the politicians in the cabinet have been willing to comment on it,” he told Politiken newspaper.

The third coalition partner, the Radikale (R), sidestepped the negotiations. R leader, Margrethe Vestager, declined to take sides, but after it was announced that the congestion charge had been scrapped, the party’s traffic spokesperson, Andreas Steenberg, called it a “wise” decision.

R was ready to support an alternative proposal based on GPS roadpricing – a new technology that charges drivers according to how far and where they drive, instead of every time they cross a boundary – Steenberg said, noting that the opposition parties Venstre and Konservative had already expressed their support for the alternative.

On Wednesday morning, Søvndal – who perhaps had the most to lose from the congestion charge proposal’s failure – spun it as a win for SF and the people.

“It isn’t a broken promise. We

Wiping up vomit, being groped, sexual propositions, drunk man’s talk duced guidelines to help homecare workers determine and maintain reasonable boundaries. One such guideline is a ban on buying or serving alcohol to someone who is drunk or whom they suspect may have an alcohol problem.

Another permits homecare workers to leave someone who is drunk and has fallen on the floor if they are still too drunk to stand or sit on their own.

Nevertheless, Margrethe Kähler, a lawyer and senior advisor to the retirees’ association Ældre Sagen, argued that the councils had no right to meddle or pass judgement if a help-dependent elderly person chooses to drink a couple of glasses of wine per day.

“But if they lose all control, as many of these people do, then we think the social authorities have the right to tell them ‘no’ – that they won’t go and buy them 15 beers, for example.”

Becker pointed out that homecare workers are faced with an ethical problem, as well. If a resident relies on homecare workers to buy groceries, do the workers really have the right to refuse to buy alcohol?

“As far as the law goes they definitely don’t, but we could also advise home helpers to buy a small bottle of schnapps instead of a big one. Or they could content themselves with buying them a single beer, instead of a whole case,” Becker said. “There are lots of things you can do that are still ‘faithful’.

It’s just a matter of approach.” (JB) Scanpix/Keld Navntoft

stonemason in northern Jutland has sold the first gravestones with scannable QR codes on them, reports Berlingske newspaper.

With as little as a smart phone app, visitors to cemeteries can now scan the QR-encoded gravestones and be linked to photographs, videos, obituaries, personal stories – or any other information the families of the deceased want to share.

QR codes – short for ‘quick response code’ – are the square, two-dimensional scannable images developed by the Japanese company Denso-Wave in 1994. Originally designed to allow robots to gather information and instructions from other machines, after Denso-Wave made the technology open access, QR codes began cropping up on everything from advertisements to art – and now gravestones.

The QR-encoded gravestone phenomenon began in Japan, where the technology originated. In 2008, Wired magazine reported that a Japanese company was offering QR-encoded gravestones under the trademark name ‘Voice of Stone’.

Three years later, the phenomenon had a foothold in the US. The American public broadcaster NPR reported that memorial companies in Seattle and Phoenix were selling them, while the newspaper USA Today wrote that Americans were having QR codes added to existing gravestones. Now it appears that the trend has reached Denmark.

Michael Røntved, who owns the gravestone company Stenhuggeriet on the island of Mors in north Jutland, is convinced that digitally-enhanced gravestones “are here to stay”.

In ten more years, gravestones without barcodes on them will be the exception

ouncils and healthcare authorities are slowly coming to terms with the widespread problem of alcoholism among the elderly; lewd overtures, fondling and verbal abuse are daily experiences for many homecare workers in Denmark, according to a new study.

In the study of working conditions for over 800 homecare nurses and social workers undertaken by the trade union FOA, 40 percent reported encountering drunk and alcoholic elderly on a daily basis. Another 35 percent reported the same experience once or several times per week, reports Ugebrevet A4.

“Wiping up vomit, being groped, sexual propositions, drunk man’s talk,” was one survey respondent’s description of her working day helping elderly charges with alcohol problems.

“Residents who won’t let us change their clothes, even if there is faeces and urine on them. They won’t allow their bed sheets to be changed, even if the bed is soaked in urine and faeces,” another respondent described.

All told, 40 percent of the homecare workers surveyed reported that they were regularly offended and that they sometimes felt uncomfortable doing their jobs because of their elderly charges’ drunken behaviour.

Those statistics and personal stories are leading to public health authorities and trade union leaders rethinking their strategies concerning how to serve home help-dependent seniors with alcohol problems.

“We don’t talk nearly enough about the fact that alcohol abuse is a widespread problem in our society and, of course, that it also affects the healthcare workers in their jobs,” Anette Søgaard

Nielsen, the leader of the alcohol treatment programme in the city of Odense, told Ugebrevet A4.

Anny Winther (Venstre), the chairman of the social and healthcare committee for the national association of local councils (KL), agreed it was unacceptable that social and healthcare workers are regularly exposed to abusive language and inappropriate behaviour stemming from high rates of alcoholism.

“The councils are aware of the problem. There may still be a need for extra training and a clear agreement with residents that the homecare workers will only come to them if they behave properly – as long as skipping the visit won’t entail a health risk for the resident.”

The national board of health, Sundhedsstyrelsen, estimated in 2010 that 18 percent of Danes between the ages of 65 and 74 had a “problematic” alcohol consumption. More than 14 alcoholic units per week for women and more than 21 for men is how Sundhedsstyrelsen defines “problematic” alcohol intake.

Karen Stæhr, the chairman of FOA’s department for social and healthcare workers, told Ugebrevet A4 that alcohol abuse among the elderly, was “a bloody big taboo that – ugh – we still can’t talk about”.

Her comment was seconded by Ulrik Becker, a doctor at Hvidovre Hospital who specialises in alcoholism. To make matters worse, he added, the medications many elderly people take often exacerbate the effects of the alcohol.

To address the problems associated with alcohol abuse among the elderly FOA and local councils have begun looking at ways to treat it from both ends: through therapy programmes for the elderly, and specialised education for the homecare professionals who work with them.

Some councils have already intro-

Thorning-Schmidt had a rough go of it at her press conference on Tuesday

fought just like we promised we would.

And we won a bigger prize than you expected from your analyses. I think we deserve some credit for that,” he told public broadcaster TV2.

The discounted public transport fares will come into effect across Denmark on 1 January 2013. However, there will not be the 40 percent discount once promised.

Online this week Danish film snags two silver bears at Berlinale

Refund system for electronic waste proposed

Police turn to crooks to help fight crime

The Danish film ‘En Kongelig Affære’ (A Royal Affair) was handsomely rewarded at this year’s Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale). Director and scriptwriter Nikolaj Arcel, along with cowriter Rasmus Heisterberg, took home silver bears for best script, while newcomer Mikkel Boe Følsgaard claimed the best actor

Some day in the near future you may be able to feed your used mobile phone or broken iPod into a machine at the supermarket and walk away with a fresh 50 kroner note in your pocket in exchange. The Radikale, a member of the governing coalition, are proposing a cash deposit system for used small electron-

Police are hoping to reduce crime in northern Zealand by having criminals fill out questionnaires. The local police commissioner in Frederikssund said that the questionnaire aims to better understand burglars’ typical targets, motives, techniques

prize for his performance in the film. The film is set in 1770 and centres around the story of Caroline Mathilde, wife of deranged King Christian VII (played by Følsgaard), who has an affair with the king’s physician, Johann Struensee (played by Mads Mikkelsen). It premieres in Denmark on March 29.

ics, like the one that currently exists for beverage containers, reports Politiken newspaper.

The proposal is aimed not only at reducing the amount of carcinogenic rubbish that makes its way back into the eco-system. It would also be a means to collect and reuse valuable raw materials, proponents say.

and how they dispose of stolen goods. “We want to know how they decide on one specific house over its neighbour,” Andersen said, adding that the survey will be voluntary and anonymous.

Police were unsure, however, just how honest answers would be.

Read the full stories at cphpost.dk

COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

24 February - 1 March 2012

Sunday fun: Sports you’ve never done and girls with guns

11

PHOTOS: CLIVE THAIN

WORDS BY BEN HAMILTON

The DGI-byen leisure centre, just around the corner from Central Station, was the place to be on February 12 for Expat Sporting Sunday, an event attended by an estimated 700 internationals who took part in 17 different activities with a view to joining one of the country’s 5,000 local sports clubs.

One of the most popular activities was bhangra, the Indian keep-fit dancing exercise class, which was ably led by instructor Imtiaz Bagum.

The reception desk was a busy place and a great place for The Copenhagen Post, a sponsor of the event, to set up shot. Pictured here dealing with inquiries (and the stampede for the papers) are Sanishka Sina, Morten Rubæk, and Flemming Buur.

The action was non-stop at the table-tennis tables near the main entrance, although judging by the improvisation in some of the games of ‘round the table’ – a less kind observer would say immobility – the free yoga, bhangra, pilates and cross-fit classes might have been a better option.

It wasn’t all fun and games. At the touch rugby sessions, handling errors were awarded with press-ups by Frederiksberg Rugby Klub’s tough taskmaster Simon Brown.

Gracious me, it’s the Jackal, aka Anna Laursen to her friends.

On this occasion, though, these targets were the goal, not De Gaulle

Experienced marksman Finn Scheibye was at hand to help people let off steam in the shooting basement. It has to be said, there were a surprisingly large number of girls with guns.

Outdoors Jens Teglers ensured everyone stayed warm

As well as the snobrød (bread dough twisted around sticks and held over the fire), there were also pancakes – how sophisticated!

Goran Tufkevic looks fit, and a tad cross maybe, which might explain why cross-fit was his exercise of choice

12

COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

24 February - 1 March 2012

ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD

(UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED)

There’s never a dull moment on Fastelavn, and Sunday proved no different, as every child in the city made their way to the nearest barrel to beat that cat into submission. Judging by the photos taken in Vanløse, it’s hard to work out who had the most fun: the kids or the adults. Photos: Marcello Bosschar.

Serbia celebrated its national day on February 15 with a concert, art exhibition and reception at the Serbia Culture Center on Svanevænget. Pictured here are (left-right) singers Zeljka Zdjelar and Dragoljub Bajic, Iraqi ambassador Albert Issa Nothor, Serbian ambassador Vida Ognjenovic, and pianist Nevena Zivkovic.

Welcome to Vytautas Pinkus (left), the new ambassador of Lithuania. Sveikas! This photo was Welcome to Dr H Bomer Pasaribu, the new ambas- taken on the occasion of Lithuania’s national Welcome to Kemal Muftic, the new ambassador sador of Indonesia. Apa kabar! Pictured with him is day, which the embassy celebrated with a concert and reception at the Odd Fellow Palace. of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Zdravo! his wife Sari Ena Lubis.

AN ACTOR ’S LIFE

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

Czech ambassador Zdeněk Lyčka (left) held a special film night at Husets Biograf on Saturday to mark the 80th birthday of his esteemed countryman, the film director Milos Foreman (‘Amadeus’, ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’).

The celebs were out in force for Watch Me, a promotional event at Ice Bar Copenhagen for Bering watches.

Pictured here are singer Kirsten Siggaard, Paradise Hotel’s Mascha Vang and erotic TV star Kira Eggers – anything for a free

W

ELL, IS this brass-monkey weather or what? Why do we live in this freezing climate? Why? I have to because I’ve got a family here, but it’s tempting to cast a glance at a world map and choose somewhere a tad warmer to live, isn’t it?

Of course, apart from my loved ones, I’ve got a job of sorts here in Denmark. I use the term lightly. It’s not really a ‘job’ in the sense of working myself to death doing something that I don’t want to do, dreaming about surviving until I am forced to retire and can then start to live out the rest of my days hopefully in reasonable comfort, as many of you reading this might be planning on doing.

If you are, I kind of envy you in a way, because at least you’ll have a nest egg to crack open, if you live long enough to enjoy it - or if the present economic climate will provide those who have planned ahead with a pension worth having.

I am an actor, for better or worse.

I know I’m that, not just because that’s of sentimentality – it’s a simple fact.

Our latest production highlights what it says on my passport, but because people tell me. That’s what they this collectiveness that we have. I’m know me as. An actor who struts and pretty sure that many larger compafrets his hour upon the stage and who nies would envy our team spirit and in the main enjoys every second of his our joie de vivre. If you haven’t been ‘creative’ life. An actor who makes peo- in to see any of our plays, then I ask you to try and make a ple laugh and who makes time in your calendar them cry, at least maybe to come in and see this an actor who can engage one. It’s daft, musical, an audience and tell a and shamelessly good tale.

The combined skills poetic sentimental.

I am lucky enough to But what’s wrong be surrounded by many of these talented with that, I’d like to talented people here in people enable know, ‘cos here we Denmark who wouldn’t go again - and I can’t waste their time working me to put on the wait… with me, I suppose, if I So, that’s why I’m wasn’t any good, or if the productions that here in Denmark, how plays or shows we present we do, and I can about you? didn’t have a certain quality. The combined skills say that I love and Ian’s latest play, ‘Shakeof these talented people cherish them all speare Unplugged’, is enable me to put on the currently running at productions that we do, and I can say that I love and cherish Krudttønden theate. See G2 in InOut them all. I won’t apologise for the gush for more details.

COMMUNITY

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

24 February - 1 March 2012

13

Euro 2012: a chance for Ukraine to leave the Iron Curtain behind Country’s ambassador reports a country buzzing with anticipation ahead of its co-hosting of the European Championship in June

M

YKHAILO Skuratovskyi, the Ukrainian ambassador to Denmark, realises that although he feels his country has made great strides politically, socially and economically in the 21 years since gaining independence from the Soviet Union, many people around the world still view Ukraine through prisms developed when the nation was part of the old empire. Skuratovskyi hopes that Ukraine’s joint hosting with Poland of the Euro 2012 football championship will begin to change misconceptions about his homeland.

“Events on the scale of Euro 2012 are important, not only from a sporting point of view, but for the country as a whole,” said Skuratovskyi.

A meticulously dressed man with a comfortable manner and quick smile, Skuratovskyi takes his time when measuring his responses to questions about Ukraine. Those answers usually contain a mixture of obvious pride in his country and realism about the challenges presented by staging an event like Euro 2012.

“We are pretty much building a whole new infrastructure: new airports, new hotels, new roads, and greater transportation possibilities. Everyone has heard the stories about the horrible roads

COPENHAGEN RENAISSANCE

MUSIC FESTIVAL In commemoration of Christian

Geist (c.1650-1711)

Holy Land Discovering Israel: Inside the Special advertising section INSIDE!

Photo: Karsten Movang

Festival Copenhagen Renaissance Music Special advertising section INSIDE!

HOLMENS CHURCH

COPENHAGEN 1660

THEATRE OF VOICES

CHRISTIAN IV

TThe he CPH Post

MASADA

HAIFA

TEL AVIV

JERUSALEM

*ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT*

*ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT*

newspaper | cphpost.dk

NEWS

“One of the hangovers from the Soviet days is that Ukraine is behind when it comes to speaking English, but there will be signs and information in English in every host city.”

Skuratovskyi said he hopes that some of the reported attempts at price-gouging during the run-up to the championship will abate as the tournament draws closer.

“It happens everywhere. It was the same in South Africa during the last World Cup. Everyone was trying to get rich overnight, and then, about a month before the start, prices settled down.

Entertainmen

Potluck Dinner with EPWN Anemonevej 13, Gentofte; Wed 29 Feb, 18:30; sign up at www.europeanpwn.net The European Professional Women’s Network would like to invite you to their ‘Potluck Dinner’, offering the opportunity to share one of your favourite dishes with the group and at the same time giving you the chance to brainstorm and debate topics of interest.

t Guide | 16 - 22 Sep

STANNERS

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

KIDS ON YOU BETT FILM TTH HEE CHILDR ER BELIEVE IT BU STER! EN’S M

6

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

3

SPORT

Get in or get out

OVIE FEST IS

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

14

Warrior Jesus from How Christianity borrowed Jesus Norse mythology and branded the to woo as a tough guy in order pagan Vikings

HISTORY | 19

9 771398 100009

Price: 25 DKK

A new budget to ‘kickstart’ the

economy

Danes abolished, saving some 525,000 mobile and of students. Moreover, stuwith business laptops (VK) govern- the number vious Venstre-Konservative no longer pay administrative phones 3,000 kroner per year. major points: dents will Master’s students look forment. Here are a few of the Not everyone, however, can the state’s fees, and prospective course tuitions Families: VK limited and junk (bør- will have prerequisite ward to a cash infusion. Smokers monthly child support handouts fam- paid. The government will also fund higher on their per food lovers will be taxed necheck) to 35,000 kroner corporations state-supported internship abolished, 1,500 more vices, while international plans ily. That limit has now been also see higher tax bills. SRSF will get positions. will families creation: many job that and meaning Infrastructure and by closing a number of AN YOU HAVE your cake ts. The government will be in- to raise revenue wisdom larger child benefi Some 17.5 billion kroner going back nearly 20 years eat it too? Conventional fertility treatments and infrastructure tax loopholes corporations budg- will also pay for vested over two years in that allowed international says no, but with their first as a new rail line between power, voluntary sterilisations. to escape paying corporate Folkeparti projects, such et plan since the shift of a project to in Denmark Welfare: VK and Dansk Copenhagen and Ringsted, erne-Radikaletaxes (see more on page 15). specialised welfare prothe new Socialdemokrat in the Holbæk motorway, erosion coalition (DF) introduced All told, the spending increases cash benefits widen the the west Socialistisk Folkeparti (SRSF) reduced Jutland’s that along minister grammes efforts as big as the Those programmes protection renovations to public hous- new budget are not appear to be giving it a shot. the new for new immigrants. coast, and economy and interior, Margrethe Many of the elements of eliminated and going Helle Thorning- of the to be re- have now been would like. She noted that state ing. Prime minister ‘kickstart’ Vestager (R), budget – which is expected all residents in need of the deficit for 2012, Schmidt has said that these ursday – will forward leased in its entirety on Th will receive the same welfare projects will create 20,000 new jobs VK under-reported to spend more. But a time when support making it imprudent increase state spending at The Danish ConstrucEU’s finanincreased. But benefits.

Denmark will still meet the and research: from 2012-2013.predicts 10,000. the budget deficit has education despite Higher recome from cial responsibility benchmarks, one billion tion Association where the money would The unpopular ‘mulUniversities will get an extra Tax break:meeting deficit, she added. costs as- a personal years to cover mained a mystery.

Organise

by VK will be the larger items kroner over two timedia tax’ introduced increase A number of the new budget a predicted and sit inin on a class. by the pre- sociated with full-time MBA at CBS reinstate spending cuts made The one-year general managementip, and real-world experience. focuses on leadership, entrepreneurshhear how the MBA can giveprogram meeting internationally diverse a personal mostand ia’s Organise Scandinav Join your career a new dimension. r 17:30-19:00 Novembe 17th Thursday 3815 6022 or callfull-time MBA at CBS focuses on E-mail lm.mba@cbs.dk Skills.

The one-year general management and Practical Business a personalp,meeting.

Entrepreneurshi to organise Leadership, up for the meeting.

See more or call 3815 6022 to sign at E-mail lm.mba@cbs.dk copenhag encard.co m Copenhagen Business School

JENNIFER BULEY

17.5 billion SRSF’s first budget will spend abolish kroner on infrastructure and previous taxes and restrictions

C

FULL TIME MBA

Cheering a Muslim as we do a Murderer!

Page 10

HERE

page G9

4

They were still higher than normal, but more realistic.”

Skuratovskyi’s office, the Danish Football Association, and the Danish embassy in Ukraine are developing a brochure to educate potential travellers about Ukraine and what they should expect to pay for various services. Fans interested in attending the competition are urged to book their accommodation through the website www.accom2012. com.

Skuratovskyi hopes Euro 2012 will throw back the old iron curtain once

ATION MEETING

FULL TIME MBA - INFORM

Free acces s to 65 and attrac museums entire metro tions in the politan area

School Frederiksberg Business n 22, 2000 Copenhagen Porcelænshave 22, 2000 Frederiksberg nba Porcelænshave www.cbs.dk/ftm www.cbs.dk/ftmba

GET

and for all and reveal Ukraine’s beautiful scenery, rich cultural heritage and many historic cities. He also hopes the championship will be a stepping stone towards Ukraine’s future as a modern European country.

“Portugal became a completely different country after it hosted the tournament. I can already feel and see the difference in Ukraine whenever I fly home.

As soon as I step off of the plane, there is a new feeling in the air. There are new cafes and restaurants everywhere. People are excited. It is a new era for us.”

COMING UP SOON

ILLUSTRATION BY PETER

Denmark’s only English-language

Issue 44 4 - 10 November 2011 | Vol 14

Ukrainian ambassador Mykhailo Skuratovskyi (third from right) proudly co-hosted an event in December along with Polish ambassador Rafal Wisniewski (far right) to mark the draw for Euro 2012. Also present were (left-right) the Croatian ambassador Ladislav Pivcevic, outgoing Russian ambassador Teymuraz Ramishvili, Portuguese ambassador João Pedro Silveira de Carvalho and Irish ambassador Brendan Scannell.

InOut

ISRAEL

7 - 20 NOVEMBER 2011

FROM SCHÜTZ TO GEIST 1600-1700 Early German Baroque Music

HASSE FERROLD

that existed during the Soviet period. We are working to fix all of that.”

Ukraine has had diplomatic ties with Denmark for 20 years, and Denmark is in Group B of the upcoming championship. All of Group B’s and Group A’s games will be played in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Lviv, Donetsk and Kiev (Kyiv). Kiev, Ukraine’s capital city, will also host the final.

Although Danes are usually well-represented when the national team plays around the world, ticket sales for the Ukrainian matches are reportedly slow.

Skuratovskyi is frustrated at recent stories in the Danish media about pricegouging and the potential for both police and hooligan violence during the championship. The ambassador said he wasn’t sure why some television stations in Denmark are engaging in what he called “sensationalism”.

“Some Danish television stations showed Ukrainian police beating up football fans. The footage was from 2007, and we have done much since then to educate our police force. There will be no police officers in the stadia.

Just like everywhere else in the world, we will have stewards in the arenas with police close by if needed.”

He went on to say that the officers shown in the videos were not assaulting average football fans, but attempting to control hooligans. The ambassador said that Ukraine is working with Interpol to prevent known hooligans from disrupting Euro 2012.

He also said that the plan is that every police patrol will contain at least one English-speaking officer.

RAY WEAVER

BLUES COPENHA GEN w w w. c o

penhag

enblues

festiva

l.dk

John Primer w. Nisse Thorbj Joe Louis orn Band Walker [US] [US/DK] Mud Morgan | Holmes Brothe field w. Peter Louisiana Nande Band rs [US] [US/DK] Harrington Red & Paul Lamb [US/UK w. Kenn Lendin ] | Janice Keith Dunn Band [US/NL g Blues Band [US/DK Delta Blues ] ] Band | The | Johnny Max Band Thorbjorn [CA] Healers | Risager | Shades of Troels Blue H.P. Lange | Mike Anders Jensen | Alain Apaloo Tutweiler en & Jens | Fried Okra See ful Bluesoul Band | The Kristian Dam l progr | Grahn Blues amme: Jacob Fischer & Malm | Ole Frimer Overdrive w w w.co Trio | Svante | Paul Banks penhag Sjöblom | enblue Jes Holtso sfestiv e al.dk

SEPT. 28

- OCT. 2 ·

2011

FESTIVA

L

& www .k

ultunau

t.dk

SUBSCRIBE UNTIL THE END OF 2012 FOR ONLY DKK 899 OFFER EXPIRES MARCH 1 Contact: Dima at The Copenhagen Post on 33 36 42 48 or by email at dima@cphpost.dk

WWW.CPHPOST.DK

Screening of Jiří Trnka’s films Husets Biograf, Magstræde 14, Cph K; Tue 6 Mar, 19:00; tickets: 50kr, sign up at jack.stevenson@ mail.dk On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Czech film director Jiří Trnka, the Czech Republic Embassy in Copenhagen and Husets Biograf cordially invite you to a screening of a series of animated short films: ‘The Devil’s Mill’, ‘Cybernetic Grandma’ and ‘The Hand’.

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

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 hand-inhand 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.

Audition for new sitcom For a new sitcom in the making, Xinxin is looking for English speaking actors/actresses. Auditions are being held on Saturday March 10. If you’re interested, send an email to xinxin@xinxin. dk, enclosing personal details and two photos.

Course: The Danish Society University of Copenhagen, Søndre Campus, Njalsgade 80, Cph S;

Every Tue from 20 Mar to 1 May; Tickets: 540kr for course, 90kr per session; 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.

Celebrate Holi with IDD Peder Lykke Skolen, Brydes Allé 25, Cph S; Sat 19 Mar, 16:30; free adm (only members); info@ indiansindenmark.com Celebrate the traditional Hindi spring festival ‘Holi’ with IDD (Indians in Denmark) where it is customary to throw scented powder and perfume at each other. Dinner is available for 50kr – a reservation is necessary and should be made by sending an email to info@indiansindenmark.com. This event is for members only so remember to sign up before you go.

MIKE HOFMAN

14

sport

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012

The young Dane in pole position to get a Formula One ride F3 Euroseries

ben hamilton

If Kevin Magnussen is as fast a driver as his father Jan was at starting a family, then there’s no reason why he won’t dominate the country’s motor racing scene for years to come

K

evin Magnussen, the country’s brightest prospect in motorsport and 19-year-old son of former Formula One driver Jan Magnussen, last week took another step closer to following his father into the sport’s top tier of racing.

Currently employed by Formula One’s second ranked team, McLaren Mercedes, Magnussen’s duties have been increased ahead of the 2012 season, which should see him involved in test-driving, albeit in a simulator.

“I’m really pleased,” Magnussen told media. “The team has shown great faith in me so far and I feel that this is an important step in my career. F1 is a highly pressured, data-driven environment, and anyone who wants to get there and succeed within it has to master all the technical aspects of the discipline.”

Magnussen is clearly a rising star in the sport. After winning the Danish Formula Ford Championship in 2008 and coming third in the 2010 German Formula Three Championship, he enjoyed a fantastic season last year in the British Formula Three Championship, landing eight poles and seven victories.

His win count was particularly impressive given that he only made the podium nine times, underlining that when he’s in contention he tends to win.

Nevertheless, his inconsistency cost him and he had to settle for second in the end, finishing behind Carlin Motorsport teammate Felipe Nasr.

Magnussen joined McLaren’s Young Driver Programme in 2010, and according to its team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, the time was right for a promotion. “By enabling talented drivers to fulfill their potential, our Driver Development Programme is a strategic investment in the future of that business and the sport as a whole,” he told media. “We’ve been delighted

by Kevin’s progress, aptitude and work ethic thus far. The time was right for him to take the next step and we look forward to helping him gain the experience he requires.”

His new duties in the programme will mostly be technical as he works on developing McLaren’s new MP4-27 car in the simulator under the guidance of McLaren’s senior test drivers

Last season Kevin Magnussen won an impressive seven races in the British Formula Three Championship, but only finished runner-up

Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey. Towards the end of the season he will drive the MP4-27 in the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi. If successful in this simulator challenge, he’s likely to be promoted again in 2013 to work on the actual race car, inching him ever closer to becoming a test driver for the team’s two designated drivers and an untimely injury away from getting a Formula One start – an eventuality that would make him the fifth Danish driver to do so.

It would be recent history repeating itself as it was an occurrence like this that led to his father, Jan Magnussen, 38, making his Formula One debut for McLaren in 1995, when he stepped in to replace an unwell Mika Hakkinen. However, he didn’t get another drive and left two years later to race for Stewart in 2007 and 2008.

Kevin will not want to emulate his father’s Formula One record. Despite being a four-time winner of Le Mans and winning the 1994 British Formula Three Championship at a canter, in 25 Formula One races, Magnussen Snr, picked up just one point, in his final race, the 1998 Canadian Prix, before he was sacked.

Magnussen’s recruitment by McLaren two years ago was criticised at the time for being sentimental, and

his father conceded last week that there was probably some truth in this.

“Kevin may have had a slight advantage of his surname, but what he has got out of it, he has fought for himself,” he wrote on Facebook. “I am so proud”.

And in an interview with the BBC in 2010, McLaren’s Whitmarsh argued that there was room for sentimentality in his sport.

“Jan was a great talent that we didn’t get the best out of - and when I say we, I mean Jan and us,” he said.

“Kevin understands, I think, how his father didn’t realise his potential.

I liked Jan and I felt we should do something with his son. I spoke to Jan, obviously, and I think he sees the talent in his son, and in retrospect he can look back on his career and probably believe more would have been possible. There is some emotion in it because we’re emotional about our racing drivers. But we wouldn’t base it on purely here’s Jan’s son so we’re going to do it. He appears to have quite a steely character, and a slightly more focused determination than Jan, so we’ll see if we can help.”

Meanwhile, Magnussen Jnr has confirmed he will still compete in the 2012 World Series by Renault-WSR, again racing for Carlin.

Factfile | Denmark’s Formula One record As a country: Races 36 Starts 32 Points 1 Best finish: 6th Racing for Minardi, Nicolas Kiesa participated in five grand prixs in 2003, completing every single one ... outside the points. His best finish was 12th in the 2003 German GP. He then returned in 2005, this time as Jordan’s test driver, where he failed to add to his tally of appearances.

Races 5 Starts 5 Points 0 Best finish: 12th Jan Magnussen made his debut for McLaren in 2005, finishing 10th. He then returned to F1 with Stewart two years later, retiring in 12 of his 17 starts in 2007 and in four of his seven starts in 2008 before he was sacked. He won one point, and finished in the top ten just five times.

Races 25 Starts 25 Points 1 Best finish: 6th

Tom Belsø was Denmark’s first ever Formula One driver. Racing for Williams, he qualified for the 1973 Swedish Grand Prix, but was prohibited from starting due to a sponsorship problem. But in 1974, he raced twice, lasting just one lap in South Africa, and then completing the Swedish GP, finishing a creditable eighth.

Races 5 Starts 2 Points 0 Best finish: 8th Jacob ‘Jac’ Nelleman is credited with being Denmark’s fourth and final Formula One driver, but in reality he didn’t race a single second. While he officially entered the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix driving for Brabham, he failed to qualify.

Races 1 Starts 0 Points 0 Best finish: DNQ

Sports news and briefs Something wild about Patrick Middleweight boxer Patrick Nielsen, 20, will fight Gaston Alejandro Vega for the vacant WBA Intercontinental Middleweight Title in Frederikshavn on March 17.

Nielsen, who is better known for finishing runner-up in the 2011 ‘Vild med Dans’, earned the shot by defeating Hungarian opponent Joszef Matolsci in

just eleven seconds on Saturday night. On the same night, super-middleweight boxer Rudy Markussen failed to dethrone WBA interim champion Brian Magee, losing in five rounds.

Level at the start of the fifth on all three judges’ scorecards, a Magee body shot floored the Dane and he was unable to beat the count.

Men win, women second

Brøndby takes a tumble

The ladies’ badminton team failed to win their third European Women’s Team Championships in a row in Amsterdam over the weekend, losing to Germany in the final 3-1. Meanwhile, the men took their fifth consecutive title with a 3-0 win over Germany, meaning they have never lost a match since the tournament started in 2006.

Shares in Brøndby fell by 5.13 percent following a story in Ekstra Bladet tabloid that claimed the club had poor liquidity and might struggle to pay its players this month. The club released a statement on Monday denying the claim.

One analyst, Frank Jensen, told Politiken the drop was a “relatively large decline”, but

Ditch dad, Woz told conceded that football shares are “very volatile”. The story followed reports that FCK fans will boycott their next game at Brøndby on April 5 to protest against the increasing criminalisation of supporters.

Meanwhile, in other football news, Denmark has risen to number ten in the FIFA world rankings.

It’s been a bad week for Piotr and Caroline Wozniacki who is under increasing pressure to end their partnership for the good of the former number one’s game. Meanwhile, Wozniacki has told AFP that she has lost respect for tennis legend Martina Navratilova following her continued criticism of her limitations.

business

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012

15

Jennifer Buley

Jennifer Buley EU organic vegetables will soon be welcome in the US, but Americans say Europe’s organic dairy and meat standards are not up to par

T

he new organic standards agreement between the EU and the US paves the way for Denmark’s organic vegetable, fruit, grain and seed producers to break into the lucrative US market. But organic dairy and meat farmers are left behind for now.

Thanks to the trade agreement ratified on Wednesday last week in Nuremburg, Germany, vegetable farmers and producers of organic vegetable-based foods will no longer have the hassle and expense of applying for separate organic certifications to sell their goods in the US and the EU – a requirement that discouraged most growers from peddling their wares across the Atlantic. Starting from June 1, however, a single organic certification will do for both markets.

That’s good news for Danish vegetable growers and it also means that more organic products from the US could soon show up on Danish grocery shelves. But due to an ongoing disagreement over the definition of organic meat and dairy products, Denmark’s agricultural aces –pork and dairy – will be left out of play.

The opportunities for organic farmers on both sides of the pond are great, as Europe and the US are the world’s two largest markets for organics – foods grown or produced without synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilisers, which have not been irradiated or treated with chemical additives, and which contain

no genetically modified genes.

Europeans spent about 320 billion kroner on organic foods in 2010, while Americans spent 115 billion kroner – and both markets are growing fast.

Unfortunately, however, the door does not swing equally both ways under the new organic trade agreement, say organic policy experts from the agriculture and food council Landbrug & Fødevarer.

“The agreement is generally a good idea, but it should be an agreement without exceptions,” Landbrug & Fødevarer’s team leader for the organics sector, Kirsten Lund Jensen, told The Copenhagen Post. “Right now it includes exceptions that open the EU up more to organic producers from the US than it opens the US up to European producers. So, this is not an attractive agreement for the EU producers,” Jensen noted that Denmark’s organic dairy and pork farmers would get little out of the new deal, and animal husbandry is the area where Denmark excels in agriculture.

On the other hand, Jensen added, Danish seed producers – especially those who grow the organic grass and clover seeds needed by organic ranchers – could get a big boost from the deal, as their produce would be highly sought after in the US. “For Danish seed growers, this is a great opportunity – and seeds are something we do very well in Denmark in organics.

But there’s not much in this agreement for the animal farmers,” Jensen said.

She explained that despite years of negotiations, organic experts from the US and the EU were still unable to agree on what constitutes organic meat and dairy products.

US organic rules do not permit the use of antibiotics to treat

Exports and imports of organic foods are growing like a weed

It open[s] the EU up more to organic producers from the US than it opens the US up to European producers animals used for the production of organic meat and dairy products. In the EU, however, meat and dairy can still be labelled organic if the animals involved have been treated with antibiotics – both for existing illnesses and the prevention of possible illness.

This difference of opinion about methods of organic husbandry has kept US and EU authorities from meeting all the way on the new organic agreement.

“We think it’s better for the animal if we use these medications. But we’re also very aware that there are issues with antibiotics and we’re trying to diminish their use. There are things in the American organic husbandry rules that are not up to EU level, but we chose to make the alignment anyway,” Jensen added.

That means that meat and dairy products with the US organic label will be recognised in the EU, but not vice versa.

Uffe Bie, the organic farmers’ elected representative to Landbrug & Fødevarer, himself an organic dairy farmer, pointed out the need for further negotiations to even the playing field.

“We see the day’s results as a step in the right direction,” he said. “But we also have to be realistic that we are still far from reaching our goal of completely harmonised standards. There are still critical barriers that need work in the coming years.”

business news and briefs 2011: That called for a Carlsberg Despite selling eleven billion litres more beer than the year before and posting profits of 5.14 billion kroner, 2011 was a disappointment for brewing giant Carlsberg Group. Total profits were down 4.8 percent in a year that saw higher production costs and adverse business conditions in Russia, where

More American football

Carlsberg used to enjoy an almost 40 percent market share.

The brewery group, which is the world’s fourth largest, lost three percent in Russian sales in 2011, but saw single-digit growth throughout Asia. Carlsberg’s president and CEO, Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen, summed up 2011 as “challenging”.

Media company MTG has purchased the rights to NFL games in the Nordic market, which means even more American football for TV3+ and TV2 Sport viewers. The rights include television, streaming service Viaplay and mobile devices, and will run until 2017. Swedish MTG partially owns both channels.

D

anish citizens remain the world’s largest consumers of organics per capita. Of all the foods sold in Denmark, more than seven percent are organic – meaning that they have been grown without synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically-modified genes, and have never been irradiated nor treated with chemical additives.

In 2010, one third of all the milk Danes drank was organic, as were 20 percent of all the eggs they ate, and nearly a quarter of all the fruit and vegetables they consumed. Annual sales in organic food products top 5 billion kroner, according to the latest figures from the agriculture and food council Landbrug & Fødevarer.

And that number is set to rise, as the government has set itself the goal of making the food in public-sector kitchens – including schools, nursing homes and workplace canteens – 60 percent organic by 2020.

It’s an ambitious goal that could have a big impact on total organics consumption, as the public sector accounts for more than one third of all workplaces

and its kitchens serve up half a million meals every day.

“The public sector should be an engine for the demand and changeover to organic foods,” the food minister, Mette Gjerskov (Socialdemokraterne), told the health magazine Økologisk.

Another factor that could drive organic sales in the shortterm is the recent scandal involving the use of illegal pesticides and fertilisers at hundreds of Denmark’s conventional, nonorganic farms.

Increasing demand for organics, including everything from staples like carrots and lettuce, to tropical fruits and prepared convenience foods, has turned organics into a high-growth business sector for Denmark.

Danish organic growers tripled their exports – mostly to other EU countries – between 2006 and 2010. But, because of the high domestic demand for a wide range of organic products, the trade deficit was still 347 million kroner in 2009, according to Danmarks Statistik.

Imports of exotic, organic fruits and vegetables, as well as organic grains and animal feeds – largely from the Netherlands, Germany and Italy – make up the bulk of Denmark’s current organic food imports.

But with the new US-EU organic trade agreement, prepared and processed organic

Scanpix/Bax Lindhart

Organic agreement leaves meat Organics’ growth set to continue and dairy farmers in the muck Danish consumers know to look for the big, red ‘Ø’, the sign for organic products

foods from the US – those that are higher up the value chain than, say, a sack of oranges – could soon grab a share of the food market, as long as their prices are competitive with those of EU producers, Landbrug & Fødevarer’s organic team leader, Kirsten Lund Jensen, told The Copenhagen Post.

While many argue that shipping organic fruits, vegetables and meats across the ocean is hardly ecologically sound, Jensen countered that it’s often the best solution for the environment if consumers demand nonlocal and non-seasonal foods.

“If you produce tomatoes in Denmark in the wintertime, you have to use a lot of energy for heating. In that case, it can be better from an environmental standpoint to import them from a warm country. The energy use for transport is very minor compared to production,” she said. (JB)

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

Exchange Rates Australian Dollars AUD

Canada Dollars CAD

Euro EUR

Japan Yen JPY

Russia Rubles RUB

Sweden Kronor SEK

Switzerland Francs CHF

UK Pounds GBP

United States Dollars USD

Sell

5.80

5.47

7.33

0.07

0.18

0.81

6.04

8.73

5.50

Buy

6.32

6.92

7.56

0.07

0.20

0.85

6.24

9.08

5.76

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: 22 February 2012

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

16

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

PARTNERS:

24 February - 1 March 2012

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

QUALIFICATION: Cand. scient. pol. from the Humboldt-University Berlin and London School of Economics.

EXPERIENCE: Seven years work experience from the German Parliament (EU-consultant) and as distinguished research associate at the Humboldt-University (urban planning). Strong analytical and inter-cultural skills. Team-worker.

LOOKING FOR: Jobs in consulting, public administration, politics, NGOs, international institutions or companies.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: German (mother tongue), English, Spanish, French, Danish (all fluently).

IT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft Office, CMS. CONTACT: lenaszw@web.de

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).

EXPERIENCE: Temporary school teacher in Bongaon, India and involved in social work (handicapped society).

LOOKING FOR: A possibility in getting practical experiences in kindergarten or any international school, official work (administration) in English, voluntary work also.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, little Danish (currently learning).

IT EXPERIENCE: Diploma in basic computer applications.

CONTACT: E-mail: debjaninb@gmail.com, Tel: +45 50219942.

SPOUSE: Anisha Kanjhlia FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: Arhus in Teaching/Training/Administration/Media/Public Relations QUALIFICATION: Post Graduate in Advertising & Communication.

EXPERIENCE: 6+ years of professional experience in Training, Customer Service, Promotions, Brand Marketing, Content Analysis and Team Management. Strong experience in planning and executing initiatives. Extensive training experience and influencing skills that will assist me in building a high potential, motivated and an effective team. Hands-on training in soft skills like crucial conversations and people management Branch Manager & Head of Training for Cosmo Aviation Training School in New Delhi, India. Proficient in analysing market trends to provide critical inputs for decision making and formulating training strategies.

LOOKING FOR: Part time or full time in Aarhus.

IT EXPERIENCE: Comfortable with all the basic computer knowledge like Excel, Word, Power Point, Internet browsing.

CONTACT: anisha.feb@rediffmail.com, P: 4522305837

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...).

LOOKING FOR: A job in urban project field: planning department of Town Council or consultancy firm in town planning, environment and sustainable development, architecture firm, real estate development company.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: French (mother tongue), English (professional usage), Spanish (basic), Danish (In progress).

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office, Abode Illustrator, AutoCad (basic), PC and Mac. CONTACT: clotilde.imbert@gmail.com

SPOUSE: Barbara Liengaard FROM: Germany SEEKING WORK IN: (Greater) Copenhagen and surroundings.

QUALIFICATION: Bachelor degree in Business Administration (Germany/France).

EXPERIENCE: Profound 10-years’ working experience in strategic and operational marketing, product/brand and project management from different big globally acting companies (automotive supplier, white goods and medical industry), working/cultural experience from different countries (Germany, France, Spain, U.S.A., U.K., China, Denmark), first working experience in Denmark.

LOOKING FOR: A challenging job opportunity in e.g. marketing, product/brand and/ or project management, import/export; preferably in an international-minded working environment or with particular need for German.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: German (mother tongue), English (fluent), French (fluent), Danish (PD3 Prøvebevis), Spanish (good).

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office (Outlook, Power Point, Excel, Word), SAP (CMD-AP).

CONTACT: babolz@yahoo.com SPOUSE: Weihua Xiao FROM: China SEEKING WORK IN: Great Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Master in American Studies from University of Southern Denmark. Master in Education and B.A. In English. Diploma of Secretary. Certificate of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language from East China Normal University.

EXPERIENCE: Work in the fields of education, training, translation, interpretation, administration, Chinese (business) culture consulting. 8 years of full-time English language teacher in China. Work for a global company in Shanghai and Copenhagen as Personal Assistant to General Manager/ Secretary for about 2 years from 2009 to 2010.

LOOKING FOR: Chinese Language teacher, translator, interpreter, administrative position.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Chinese, English, basic Danish.

IT EXPERIENCE: A good user of Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel...).

CONTACT: weihua06@gmail.com +45 5048 9667 SPOUSE: Natalie Griffiths FROM: Australia SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: I have over ten years of experience in production management, sales and marketing in the advertising and media production industry. The past five years I have run my own creative production agency Sonique which I started in 2005 in London. Sonique (www.soniqueltd. com) specialized in audio-visual and digital production for direct clients and advertising agencies, from TV commercials to online corporate videos to virals to radio and music composition for clients including Barclays Bank, Santander, McDonalds, Lexus and many more. I have experience in localizing content and working with translators.

Working with these large clients and their agencies, project managing every job from briefing stage through to completion, I have excellent knowledge of processes both agency and client-side. My attention to detail, personal commitment to each job, high standards of quality, creative vision, ability to keep my calm and my humour under pressure I believe make me well-qualified to work on any ad agency team.

LOOKING FOR: Project Management, Customer Service, New Business Development, Account Management LANGUAGE SKILLS: Fluent English. Fluent Italian. Currently studying Danish and at intermediate level.

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office CONTACT: +45 21555823 or natgrif47@hotmail.com for full CV and references.

SPOUSE: Isabel Douglass FROM: USA SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: My lessons are organized, fun, and based around your individual needs! My role as your private tutor is to provide you with the information you need, to keep you on schedule with your educational goal, and to provide lessons that fit your learning style. In addition, I aim to keep you excited to learn by introducing interesting material such as news articles, movie clips, and song lyrics.

EXPERIENCE: 5 years of experience.

LOOKING FOR: English Teaching LANGUAGE SKILLS: Native English Speaker CONTACT: isabeldouglass@gmail.com Phone: 60653401 SPOUSE: Jennifer Bouma FROM: The Netherlands SEEKING WORK IN: Egedal Kommune, Copenhagen 30 km.

QUALIFICATION: Managers Secretary, hands on, reliable, structured, self reliant, social, team player).

LOOKING FOR: Secretary job.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Dutch, Danish, English, German, French, Italian.

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office ( Word, Excel), Outlook, SAP. CONTACT: jenniferbouma@ hotmail.com SPOUSE: S.M. Ariful Islam FROM: Bangladesh SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: PhD student (2nd year) in Language Policy and Practice in Aalborg University, MA in Bilingualism, MA in English Linguistics, BA in English.

EXPERIENCE: 18 months as a University lecturer in English in Bangladesh. Taught advanced grammar, four skills (listening, speaking, reading & writing), ELT courses, Second Language theories, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics.

LOOKING FOR: A position of English teacher/lecturer in English Medium Schools, Colleges and Universities.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Bengali (mother tongue), English (second language), Danish (fluent), Hindi and Urdu (Spoken) and Swedish (basic).

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office.

CONTACT: Mail: ariful@id.aau.dk, arif401@yahoo.com, mobile: +45 42778296

SPOUSE: Cindy Chu FROM: Hong Kong SEEKING WORK IN: Anywhere in Denmark.

QUALIFICATION: MSc in Marketing from Brunel University (West London), B.A. in English for Professional Communication from City University of Hong Kong.

EXPERIENCE: 4 years experience on strategy planning in marketing, project management and consumer research. I have 3 years experience working in global research agency as a project manager and a research executive for multinational marketing projects. I worked closely with marketing team for data analysis and delivering actionable insights. I am familiar with working with staffs and clients form different countries. I have also as a PR officer in a NGO for 1 year.

LOOKING FOR: Jobs in project management, marketing and PR field.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Cantonese (Mother tongue), Mandarin (Native speaker), English (Professional), Danish (Beginner).

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office, SPSS, Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator.

CONTACT: chocolate3407@gmail.com, +45 22 89 34 07 SPOUSE: Jawon Yun-Werner FROM: South Korea SEEKING WORK IN: Healthcare, Hospitals, Elderly/Child Care (in Greater Copenhagen Area).

QUALIFICATION: B.A. in Nursing, Masters in Public Health. I am AUTHORIZED to work as a Nurse in Denmark. (Have Danish CPR and work permit).

EXPERIENCE: 1O years of experience as a nurse and midwife from the prominent hospitals.

LOOKING FOR: Any healthcare related jobs (hospitals, clinics, elderly/childcare places). I am open to any shift or day.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Korean, Danish (Intermediate, in progress, Module 3).

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office, SASS Statistical Software CONTACT: cuteago@yahoo.com +45 30 95 20 53 SPOUSE: Brian McNamee FROM: Australia / Ireland SEEKING WORK IN: Greater Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Bachelor of Engineering and Diploma of Education from University of Melbourne.

EXPERIENCE: Six years teaching Mathematics at Zurich International School, previously worked in Telecommunications.

LOOKING FOR: Full or part time teaching position (available from July).

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (native) German (basic).

IT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Geometer’s sketchpad, Autograph.

CONTACT: brian.g.mcnamee@gmail.com +41 79 362 83 67 SPOUSE: Sarah Andersen FROM: United Kingdom SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: BA Honours Design Management.

EXPERIENCE: Creative and versatile Project manager with experience of working in both agency and client environments on projects including; digital, print and event management. Worked with a range of international clients, including Panasonic and Disney. Previously employed by NMA Top 100 Digital Agencies and D&AD Awards in London. Able to manage projects from concept to production and to meet tight deadlines.

LOOKING FOR: Digital Project Manager or Event Production Manager (full, part time or freelance) LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (native), enrolled for Danish language class.

IT EXPERIENCE: Office, Project, Visio, FTP and CMS. CONTACT: www.sarahandersen.net for portfolio, CV and contact SPOUSE: Ieuan Jones FROM: United Kingdom SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen (Will travel if needed) QUALIFICATION: BA Hons and Professional Diploma, Town & Country Planning (Urban Design & 3rd World Development).

EXPERIENCE: Over 7 years experience working as a Development Manager for one of the UK’s leading health and socialcare infrastructure companies, developing new health and community buildings.

LOOKING FOR: Opportunities to transfer and develop my skills and knowledge in Denmark. Ideally a full time position but I remain realistic and my options are open. I am more than happy to take on a part time role or work placement while I continue with my Danish course.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (Mother Tongue), learning Danish at Studieskolen, Borgergade.

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint), Promap.

CONTACT: ieuandhjones@gmail.com Tel: +45 52 40 07 85 SPOUSE: Katarzyna Szkaradek FROM: Poland SEEKING WORK IN: Mental hospitals, voluntary(Ngo) organisations, kindergartens, nurseries, babysitting QUALIFICATION: Ma in Psychology (2008), post graduate studies in psychotherapy (4th year/ 5 year).

EXPERIENCE: I am a highly motivated and creative individual with excellent communication skills.

From January 2010 till August 2010 I worked independly in private practice. For the last 2 years (January ,2009 -October, 2010) I worked with children (also with special needs -Autism, Asperger, Down syndrome etc) and their families as a psychologist. My duties included organizing games, monitoring children’s development , consulting teachers and parents where appropriate and providing individual therapy. For the last 10 years I was member of NGO organisation and I was a volunteer in Israel, Italy, Portugal and Romania.

LOOKING FOR: Internship in mental hospitals, part – time or full time jobs in kindergartens, nurseries, job as a babysitter, voluntary job in hospitals.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English–advance level (C1), Danish – (module 3 /module 5), Polish-native speaker IT EXPERIENCE: MS Windows, basic MS Office, Internet.

CONTACT: szkasienka@gmail.com tlf. 50828802

SPOUSE: Francesco Grandesso FROM: Italy SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Constructing architect.

EXPERIENCE: 4 years at TFF Engineering 2005-2009, 3 years at ADproject 2002-2005.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Italian & Danish.

IT EXPERIENCE: AutoCAD 2011.

CONTACT: grandessodk@gmail.com, Mobile: 50110653 SPOUSE: Raffaele Menafra FROM: Italy SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: A degree as Prevention techniques in Work and Workplaces.

EXPERIENCE: I worked 4 years in a rehabilitation clinic.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Italian (native), English, Danish (currently learning).

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office.

CONTACT: menafra1@yahoo.it SPOUSE: Margaret Ritchie FROM: Scotland, UK SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: BA Business Administration majoring in Human Resource Management EXPERIENCE: Worked in the field of Education within a Scottish University. 12 years of experience.

Administrating and organising courses and conferences and also worked as a PA to a Head of School. Great communication skills.

LOOKING FOR: Administration work, typing, audio typing, data input. Can work from home.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Mother tongue: English, very basic Danish IT EXPERIENCE: A good user of Microsoft Office package, access to Internet CONTACT: email: megmagsritchie@googlemail.com tel: 71182949 SPOUSE: Stephanie Bergeron Kinch FROM: USA SEEKING WORK IN: The Copenhagen area.

QUALIFICATION: Several years of experience writing for newspapers, magazines, and Web sites.

M.S. in Media and Communications with focus on social media.

LOOKING FOR: Full-time or freelance writing and communication jobs (copywriting / journalism).

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Native English, Conversational Danish and Spanish.

IT EXPERIENCE: Professional use of on-line social media, Microsoft Excel, PhotoShop, InDesign, Mac and PC operating systems.

CONTACT: www.stephaniekinch.com or http://dk.linkedin.com/in/stephaniekinch SPOUSE: Suheir Sharkas FROM: Syria SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus and the nearby areas of the mentioned cities.

QUALIFICATION: MBA–International Management, Bachelor in English Literature.

LOOKING FOR: Positions in Organizations/Companies in the fields of: Administration and organization, Event & Project Management, and Assistance Management.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Arabic: Native speaker, English: Fluent (understanding, speaking and writing), German: Fluent (understanding, speaking and writing), Danish: Basic 3.3 (understanding, speaking and writing).

IT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Power Point) and web publishing.

CONTACT: ssouheir@gmail.com, Tel: 533 721 20 SPOUSE: Lorenzo Albano FROM: Venezuela (with CPR number) SEEKING WORK IN: Greater København and Hovedstaden QUALIFICATION: PhD in Physics.

EXPERIENCE: I have wide experience as an university lecturer in physics, physics laboratory, mathematics and informatics. I have done research in theoretical quantum optics and quantum information. I have done research and development / programming of numerical methods applied to geophysical problems, such as tomographic inversion and wave propagation, independently and as part of multidisciplinary teams. I have participated in gravimetric and magneto metric geophysical surveys.

LOOKING FOR: Short and long term work in education in science and mathematics / research / scientific computing / oil exploration or other geophysical applications.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Fluent in Spanish (native), English and Italian. Basic Danish.

IT EXPERIENCE: OS: MSDOS, Windows, Linux (Ubuntu), Solaris, incl. Shell scripting. Programming Languages: BASIC, ANSI C, C++, FORTRAN. Web: HTML, CSS, Joomla!. Typography: LaTeX2E. Software: Mathematica 7, MS Office and OpenOffice suites, several Windows utilities.

CONTACT: lorenzoalbanof@gmail.com. Tel: +45 50 81 40 73 SPOUSE: Rita Paulo FROM: Portugal SEEKING WORK IN: Great Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Architect .

EXPERIENCE: I am an architect and I have experience in Project and in Construction Supervision.

In the past 7 years, I have worked mainly in housing, masterplanning and social facilities buildings.

My last employer was a Project and Construction company where I had the opportunity to complement my experience in projects together with construction related tasks, developing myself as a professional.

LOOKING FOR: Job in Architecture or Construction Company.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Native Portuguese, Proficiency in English, Basic user of Spanish and Danish IT EXPERIENCE: Strong knowledge of AutoCad and ArchiCad. Experience in Studio Max, CorelDraw, Photoshop, Office tools.

CONTACT: rita.vaz.paulo@gmail.com, Tel: +45 2961 9694 SPOUSE: Heike Mehlhase FROM: Berlin, Tyskland SEEKING WORK IN: A job opportunity in Copenhagen (administrative position, research assistant or psychosocial care).

QUALIFICATION: MPH, Master degree in Psychology, Lerntherapeutin.

EXPERIENCE: Five years experience in psychological research and child psychology.

LOOKING FOR: Looking for: a position to expand my experience where I can use my excellent organisational, social and communication skills.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: German (mother tongue), English (fluent), Danish (Module 2).

IT EXPERIENCE: I am proficient in software such as word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software and basic graphic editing programs (Microsoft Office, Open Office) plus statistical software (SPSS).

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.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Hindi, learning Danish.

IT EXPERIENCE: Worked with SAP Labs for 4 yrs and 3 months and have functional experience with modules like: SAP IS Retail, SAP SCM F&R, SAP SCM APO DP. Worked with DELL International Services as a Technical Support associate.

CONTACT: himani.kanwarpal@gmail.com

THE COPENHAGEN POST SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE SPOUSE: Shilpa Lingaiah FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and nearby areas of the mentioned cities.

QUALIFICATION: PG Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (JSS University, India); Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (RGUHS, India). Danish agency for international education has assessed the above qualification and corresponds to Danish Master’s degree in Health Sciences.

LOOKING FOR: Research related to health science, jobs in pharmaceutical industry or new challenging career opportunities.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English(fluent written and spoken), Enrolled for Danish language classes, Indian languages(Kannada and Hindi).

IT EXPERIENCE: MS Office.

CONTACT: drshilpalingaiah@gmail.com Tel: +4552742859 SPOUSE: Monika Sysiak FROM: Poland SEEKING WORK IN: Greater Copenhagen / eastern Zealand QUALIFICATION: Master degree in Environmental Engineering from Cracow University of Technology. Major in Water Supply, Sewage and Waste Treatment and Water Quality Protection.

Completed one semester in Environmental Engineering at Engineering College of Aarhus.

EXPERIENCE: Internship during studies in designing water supply systems and sewerage systems.

LOOKING FOR: Graduation programme, internship, training, part time or full time job related to mymqualifications.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Polish (mother tongue), English (fluent), Danish (starting).

IT-EXPERIENCE: AutoCAD, MOUSE DHI, MS Windows, MS Office.

CONTACT: EMAIL: monikasysiak@gmail.com; phone: +45 50 43 70 43 SPOUSE: Dolon Roy FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: Sjælland QUALIFICATION: Masters in Science(Chemistry), BEd. (Teacher training course).

EXPERIENCE: St. John Diocessan School February-May 2005, Kolkata, India. The Assembly of God Church School April-May 2006, Kolkata, India. Disari Public School June 2006-October 2007, India.

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

LOOKING FOR: Part time or full time work teaching in primary,secondary or higher school level (Chemistry, Mathematics, Science).

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Hindi, Bengali, Danish (modul 3/modul 5).

IT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft office.

CONTACT: dolonroy2005@yahoo.com. Mob: +45 60668239

PARTNERS:

SPOUSE: Francis Farias FROM: Venezuela (CPR number) SEEKING WORK IN: Greater København QUALIFICATION: Master in Spanish Studies from Universidad de Cadiz, Spain, as a Spanish Teacher and BA in Teaching English as a Second Language. Diplomas in Digital Photography (from Venezuela and Spain).

EXPERIENCE: 7 years experience as a teacher of English and Spanish at JMV University. Academic translator (Spanish-English/English-Spanish) and freelance photographer.

LOOKING FOR: Spanish language teacher, translator, interpreter, photographer.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish (native). Basic Danish.

IT EXPERIENCE: Office tools, Photoshop.

CONTACT: carolina1928@gmail.com, +45 50814073 SPOUSE: Isaac P Thomas FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: East Juthland preferably Århus QUALIFICATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science).

EXPERIENCE: Process Consulting, Quality Assurance, CMMI, ISO, Quality Audit, Process Definition, Software testing, software development, data analysis, best practice sharing, quality gap analysis LOOKING FOR: Process Consulting, Quality Assurance, CMMI, ISO, Quality Audit, Process Definition LANGUAGE SKILLS: Danish beginner, English, Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil.

IT EXPERIENCE: 8 years experience in IT Industry in software quality assurance, software quality control, software development.

CONTACT: isaacpthomas@gmail.com, +4552225642

BaseCamp

SPOUSE: Megan Rothrock FROM: California-USA,Via SEEKING WORK IN: Toy Design, Games Design, or Photography (Syd Denmark Jutland).

QUALIFICATION: Associate Arts Degree: Corporate Communication, Design, and Commercial Illustration, with a background in animation.

EXPERIENCE: Former LEGO Product Designer, LEGO Universe: Level Designer, European Bureau Editor Brick Journal Magazine. I have a strong knowledge of Toy and Gaming Markets. I am driven, enjoy solving daily challenges and I’m a strong communicator wanting to join a creative team of colleagues.

LOOKING FOR: Part/Full time work in an innovative and creative .

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English: native- Dutch: Excellent- Danish (currently in): Danskuddannelse 3, modul 3.

IT EXPERIENCE: PC and Mac - Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dream Weaver, Director, Maya, 3D Studio Max, ML Cad, LD. CONTACT: megzter1@yahoo.com +4535140779

Sandals bureau/ Basecamp We are looking for two part time employees for our reception for approximately 20 hours to begin on March the 1st .

As a receptionist you will be providing service to our guests, planning and preparing for conferences in the house. The job will contain some administration work and odd task beside helping The Copenhagen Post with different tasks.

Please send your application to Dorthe Elkjær at Dorthe@basecamp.biz If you have any question please feel free to contact Dorthe at 3393 3391.

SPOUSE: Maihemutijiang Maimaiti FROM: China SEEKING WORK IN: Aarhus area, Denmark QUALIFICATION: M.Sc. In Computer Science, Uppsala University, Sweden; Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, Southwest University.

LOOKING FOR: IT jobs.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Chinese, Uyghur.

IT EXPERIENCE: 1 year experience in Java programming and modelling in VDM++.

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

EXPERIENCE: Practiced medicine for 2 years China 2000-200. Conducted a clinical trial for ½ year England 2008. Work in nutrition, pharmaceutical industry, food industry and health secto.

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

CONTACT: yuanying118@hotmail.com, +45 31 36 92 58 SPOUSE: Mayurika Saxena Sheth FROM: India/USA SEEKING WORK IN: (Copenhagen, Kobenhavn & nearby areas, Greater Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: MCA, PGDMM(MATERIALS), B.SC (COMPUTERS) CERTIFICATIONS: CSTE, CSQA, GREEN BELT SIX SIGMA, TSP/PSP. EXPERIENCE: Eleven years of software development work/IT/BUSINESS experience with prestigious organizations (onsite and offshore): Microsoft, General Electric, Primus Telecommunications (AUSTRALIA), CitiFINANCIAL(USA), ISS and Imany.

LOOKING FOR: Full Time Job in IT, Management, Consulting or Business/Financial Field.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: ENGLISH fluent, HINDI fluent, DANISH AND SPANISH (Beginner).

IT EXPERIENCE: Testing tools like Test Director, Quality Center, Access Server, Product Studio, Polyspace Analysis, .NET testing, Web Page testing, Electronic Appliances testing, development in Winrunner, ASP, HTML, JavaScript, VBScript, Jscript, Oracle, Cold Fusion, SQL, Access, COM/DCOM, MTS, Siebel as well as UNIX, Tuxedo, C, PL/SQL, VB.Net/ ASP .Net, VB.Net. C#.

CONTACT: mayurika.s@gmail.com Tel +45 7169 5401

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

THE COPENHAGEN POST SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE WHY: The Copenhagen Post wishes to help spouses looking for jobs in Denmark. We have on our own initiative started a weekly spouse job page in The Copenhagen Post, with the aim to show that there are already within Denmark many highly educated international candidates looking for jobs.

If you are a spouse to an international employee in Denmark looking for new career opportunities, you are welcome to send a profile to The Copenhagen Post at aviaja@cphpost.dk and we will post your profile on the spouse job page when possible. Remember to get it removed in case of new job.

Biotech Job Vacancies Ferring

Novo Nordisk

Sourcing Specialist Resource & Systems Manager, Clinical Development Support (TEMP)

Category Manager, Construction Senior Scientist – Diabetes biology and lipid metabolism Non-clinical toxicologist Regulatory Professional Global Product Manager Senior Research Scientist Regulatory Associate Director for Global Market Access, Global Marketing Department Head for Type 2 Diabetes Pharmacology Project Assistant - Temporary position Area Sales Manager – international sales Engineer - Automation or IT Mammalian Cell Culture Scientist Product Communication Manager Global Project Manager Steno Diabetes Center: Can you drive an ambitious strategy for diabetes education?

Laboratory Technician for Department of Haemophilia Biochemistry Research Scientist for in vitro Potency assays Experienced Statistician to Biostatistics PostDoctoral position in biomolecular modelling procedures incorporating HX-MS data Enteric coating specialist - Oral protein formulation

Lundbeck Regulatory Affairs Professional Process Specialist – Sourcing Development Head of Department for Clinical Data Management Head of Section in Biostatistics Department IVRS Coordinator Regulatory Affairs Specialist Experienced DMPK Scientist or Technician Senior Computational Chemist Scientist for cell culture/protein expression QPPV Manager Scientist, Immuno-toxicology/Immunology

Leo-Pharma Clinical Process Manager Energetic and Service minded Coordinator for Corporate Medical Affairs Needed Experienced Executive Management Assistant for Senior Vice President, R&D - New Product Discovery

Novozymes Technology specialistv

For more information, deadlines and other job vacancies visit our webpage www.cphpost.dk/jobvacancies Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

18

culture

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

24 February - 1 March 2012

Vive la Republique! Tiger Lillies show is an international coup Who is ...

M

y first question to the British anarchic cult band isn’t a million miles away from the title of Woody Allen’s first film, ‘What’s up Tiger Lilly’. But then again, this isn’t the most conventional of settings to start an interview. We’re on the street, outside Republique in Østerbro where they’re currently rehearsing for the worldwide premiere of ‘The Tiger Lillies perform Hamlet’ on Saturday February 25, and while I’ve seen the Tiger Lillies perform before, they were in costume then and I’m not 100 percent sure it’s them, so I check.

Well that’s a lie. First I consider eavesdropping. After all, it’s not every day you get the chance to have a little taster before the main. As far as I know I’m only interviewing the band’s frontman, Martyn Jacques, and if my instinct’s right, this is the rest of the band: drummer Adrian Huge (I remember reading that he looks like James Joyce) and double bassist Adrian Stout, who is stylishly dressed and looks every inch the musician.

scanpix

Malene Ørsted She is a Danish model, actress and TV presenter.

Out of costume but still in their element: Adrian Stout, Martyn Jacques and Adrian Huge

While I can sense they’re extremely patient as I fumble with my notes, I’m a little wary of how interview-weary they might be, and want to avoid asking them hackneyed questions they’ve heard a thousand times before. But I can’t help myself and quickly ask them what they think about Denmark.

The conversation doesn’t really lead anyway – probably because they’re very well travelled. ‘Shockheaded Peter’ was so successful they ended up touring all over the world with it until 2005, including a run in Denmark, which they later returned to with other productions. However, they have no great affinity for the place – well, not more than any other Euro-

www.cwgmagazine.com

Volbeat knocks out US charts

Volbeat’s feat in the US is unprecedented in the history of Danish rock music

Claudia Santos Copenhagen-based metal band earns coveted number one spot on US Active Rock Chart

O

riginally written for Mikkel Kessler, Volbeat’s song ‘A Warrior’s Call’ has gone on to do far more than gee up the boxer and his fans, reaching number one on the US Active Rock Chart – a feat never before achieved by a Danish act.

“It’s a great honour,” the band’s lead-singer and guitarist Michael Poulsen told metroXpress newspaper after the song fought off competition from

American rock acts Foo Fighters, Staind, and Red Hot Chili Peppers to land the top spot. “Many dream of making it to the top of the list, so I’m deeply grateful that it happened to us.”

The song is from the band’s fourth album, ‘Beyond Hell/ Above Heaven’, which debuted at number one in Denmark, Finland and Sweden and made the Top 10 in several other countries.

Formed in October 2001, Volbeat have established themselves as dynamic metal act, as well as major headliners in Europe and the US. The band’s sound derives from a colourful combination of genres, including rock ‘n roll, heavy-metal,

Ibi Støvring?

Mikkel Tjellesen

The British cult band are currently rehearsing for a show that could help them finally move on from their magnum opus, ‘Shockheaded Peter’

They’re discussing somebody’s antics from last night – it sounds racy. My journalistic instinct is urging me to listen, particularly as the subject of their ‘recollections’ might be my interviewee, but then I remind myself that the Copenhagen Post isn’t that kind of paper – it’s a resources issue more than anything else.

“Excuse me, are you members of the Tiger Lillies, because I’m here to interview ... Mr Jacques,” I stutter as they type in a code to get into a building. Mister! I sound nervous, even star-struck maybe.

Then again, it was nicely improvised given that I’d forgotten his name. It quickly transpires that their illustrious leader is getting coffee and that the two Adrians are here for the interview as well.

Ouch, I hadn’t banked on this – it’s going to be tough-going railroading all three of them into the Danish-centric feature I’ve already figured out.

And things get worse when we sit down and my recording device doesn’t work. “You’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way,” says Jacques. “Don’t worry, we’ll be gentle on you,” adds Stout, before proceeding to talk at a million words per minute.

But despite the mishap, I’m really beginning to enjoy myself in the company of the band I first saw ten years ago during the London West End run of their most enduring work, ‘Shockheaded Peter’.

miklos szabo

Ben hamilton

punk-rock and rockabilly.

Michael Poulsen is known for his eclectic music sensibility, which shines through every Volbeat song. His love of Elvis has even earned the band the label of ‘Elvis-metal’.

The band are currently touring in the US and Canada, so they have not yet had a chance to properly celebrate their achievement, Poulsen told metroXpress. However, boxing star Kessler might soon be commemorating the moment in style: “I talked to Mikkel Kessler when the song was number two, and he was very excited and said something about getting a tattoo of our logo if the song reached number one.”

pean country of similar ilk. They can’t say it’s really changed much over the last decade. “Oh hang on,” says Jacques, my pen hovering in anticipation. “Last time we were here, we had to get a ferry into Malmø,” he offers somewhat sardonically. “Now they’ve got a bridge!”

The Tiger Lillies have a reputation for being shocking and “pushing people’s buttons”, but you can’t help thinking that if anyone leaves one of their shows in Denmark, it will be because they think it’s rubbish.

“We only really have a problem in countries where English is the mother tongue,” muses Jacques. “I don’t know why people are offended, but there’s a group of people in society who are offended by anything. We’re not sure why they come in the first place.” Stout thinks it might have something to do with the description of the band’s music as Brechtian and gypsy cabaret. “They get confused by the word cabaret,” he says.

One word often used in criticism of the band is ‘infanticide’, a subject that was central to ‘Shockheaded Peter’. “I’m a little bit sceptical about people who saw ‘Shockheaded Peter’,” Jacques tells me following my admission that I saw it. “I’m not sure that today it’s really as good as everyone said it was. It’s become something sacred, something holy. Just like Orson Welles started at the top with Citizen Kane and worked his way down, so did we.” Stout agrees: “Even the press tend to see it through misty eyes – it’s become a nostalgic piece.”

However, it’s clear the band still love it as much as the fans, media and London’s theatre scene – it won two prestigious Olivier awards and full marks from nearly every critic who saw it – and they are delighted when I show them the Danish version of the source material, Heinrich Hoffman’s 1845 children’s book Struwwelpeter – so much so that Huge takes a photo of it, and the Tiger Lillies start interviewing me about it. So this is Gonzo journalism ...

The German book was a huge hit and rapidly translated into many languages, including Danish in 1847, as ‘Den Store Bastian’. But they didn’t stop with the name. It was reillustrated, and three of the original ten stories

were cut to make way for more Danish-friendly ones. “They’re replaced Johnny Head-in-Air,” complains Jacques about the story of the boy who ends up falling into the river and nearly drowning. “People not looking where they’re going – that would never happen in Denmark,” observes Stout.

The same could be said about Danes producing Englishlanguage theatre not so long ago.

While immigrants to this country have been performing in their native tongue going back to the 1960s, it is a relatively recent development to see Danish theatre companies doing the same. After all, while a successful Danishlanguage play can only tour parts of Scandinavia, a home-grown English-language production can tour the world.

Spearheading Republique’s foray into English is its three-time Reumert Award-winning artistic director Martin Tulinius, who last autumn oversaw the production of the English/Danish performance ‘The Bollywood Story’, the first of three international co-productions with London’s Southbank Centre, of which ‘The Tiger Lillies perform Hamlet’ is the second.

If you haven’t heard about this, it’s because the media weren’t very interested, a proud Tulinius told me in between rehearsals on Monday. “It might be a unique partnership with a prestigious company,” he said. “But it was hard getting it noticed. They’re just not interested in a success story. Theatre world stories have to be about scandals and low ticket sales – it’s really quite amazing.”

While ‘The Bollywood Story’ only used home-grown talent, Tulinius’s recruitment of the Tiger Lillies – independent of the Southbank Centre, he approached them in Prague early last year – gives the production true international clout.

Factoring in the worldwide universal appeal of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, Republique could have a monster hit on its hands. At any rate, it might be big enough to help the Tiger Lillies move on from that other monster, ‘Shockheaded Peter’.

This interview is a companion piece to a preview of ‘The Tiger Lillies perform Hamlet’ on G2 in InOut.

Where might I have seen her?

She’s currently one of the three hosts on the TV2 morning show ‘Weekend Weekend’. She took over from the equally pretty Christiane Schaumburg Müller.

So is she as equally annoying as Christiane?

Not really, she likes to talk a lot.

She’s always been good at talking – so much so that her parents quickly signed her up for drama classes at an early age.

Does she have any other talents?

I don’t know about talent, but she did study acting at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Hollywood, and she’s worked as a model, writer, design assistant, singer, and presenter of several Danish reality programmes.

If she studied acting, she must have starred in some movies?

You probably wouldn’t call her the ‘star’, but she did have a nonspeaking role in Danish Niels Arden Oplev’s drama ‘Portland’ in 1996. And she later appeared in the Canadian thriller ‘Aurum’ in 2008.

I haven’t seen those. What reality shows did she do?

Well probably the worst of the worst, ‘Paradise Hotel’, but don’t worry, she wasn’t one of the contestants! Although hosting the show for the first three years of its existence is probably something she’d like to distance herself from.

And just before she got her job with TV2, she hosted a show on TV3 about spiritualism.

Spiritualism? So is she superstitious herself?

Well, she has a tattoo of the number 22 on her right index finger to remind herself that she almost died three times at the age of 22.

What happened?

First she had a violent haemorrhage and was actually declared dead for almost two minutes.

Then she was on a plane that had to do an emergency landing – sitting in seat number 22. And, if you thought that was bad, she was hit in the arm during a driveby shooting in the provincial Jutland town of Randers. The bullet type? A 22 mm!

Wow, talk about bad luck …

Yes, she refers to herself as a ‘drama magnet’ because weird things always happen around her.

Maybe that’s why she got the job at ‘Weekend Weekend’.

24 February - 1 March 2012

DENMARK THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

19

Speed of thought: the master of all trades and jack of none Astronomer Ole Rømer’s list of achievements is enough to fill ten lifetimes, let alone one. He discovered the speed of light, vastly improved Copenhagen’s infrastructure, introduced temperature, measurement and weight systems, never stopped inventing, and even found time to be a policeman

WWW.DENSTOREDANSKE.DK

WWW.RUNDTRN.DK

JAYA RAYO

A

SKED TO NAME the 17th century’s most important scientist, most people would reply Isaac Newton, maybe a few Robert Hook, and even fewer, Denmark’s very own Tycho Brahe, who died in 1601.

However, this country has another claimant worthy of consideration: Ole Rømer, whose ground-breaking discovery – that light travels at a finite and measurable speed – took astrophysics to a new level.

Rømer was born in 1644 in Aarhus, the son of Christen Pedersen, a merchant, and Anna Olufsdatter Storm, the daughter of an alderman. His father adopted the name Rømer, after the island of Rømø on which he was born, to distinguish himself from two other men of the same name. There is little information on Rømer’s early life, and after completing his schooling at Aarhus Cathedral School he enrolled at the University of Copenhagen in 1662.

While at university, he fell under the wing of Rasmus Bartholin, the scientist assigned with preparing Brahe’s astronomical records for publication (Rømer went on to marry his daughter in 1681).

Under his tutorship, Rømer learnt mathematics and astronomy, although his heart remained in astrophysics. As part of their research into Brahe, the pair joined

royal connections, he became a member of l’Academie Royale des Sciences and was involved in the construction of the splendid fountains at Versailles and Chateau de Marly.

While in Paris, Rømer invented various astronomical instruments, including a micrometer and a star chart analogue, the planisphere. According to one of his biographers, Bernard Cohen, Rømer’s plani-

sphere “was so superior to any designed previously, that it was speedily adopted for general use”.

But, of course, it was his discovery of the speed of light in 1676, based on the exact times that astronomers in different parts of Europe sighted the same occurrence, that was his most notable French endeavour – to this day some people celebrate it as a French triumph, not a Danish one.

The speed of light had baffled scholars all over the world for thousands of

years, and the scientific community was not quick to embrace Rømer’s findings – Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Cassini was especially critical, while Christian Huygens and Newton welcomed and adopted them - and it was a full 20 years until they were fully accepted.

In 1681, Rømer returned to Denmark to take an astronomy professorship

at the university and to become royal astronomer – a role that enabled him to take an active role in the establishment. He was responsible for several civic infrastructural projects, including the paving of the streets and city squares, improving the city’s water supply and sewers, and upgrading the city’s fire department. He took over the office of mayor and became the deputy chief of Copenhagen Police in 1705, a position he held to his death. He was responsible for erecting the first street lights (lit by oil lamps) and worked enthusiastically towards introducing various social reforms aimed at controlling beggars, preventing prostitution and reducing unemployment and poverty.

And despite all these duties, Rømer continued inventing. His temperature scale, one of the world’s first, acted as a huge inspiration to a visiting German physicist in 1708, a certain Daniel Fahrenheit; in 1683, he introduced the first national standard weights and measures system; he convinced the king to adopt the Gregorian calendar in Denmark in 1700; and he invented and upgraded numerous astronomical instruments,

This one-metre high depiction of the Solar System was given to Rømer by Christian V, although today it resides in Rosenborg Castle - in other words, the state nicked it back

that he used at the university observatory at the Round Tower, including the Meridian circle, the Altazimuth and the Passage Instrument.

He also defined the Danish mile, which was set at 24,000 feet (7,532 m), corresponding to four geographic arc minutes – a calculation he made during a survey of his country’s roads, which led to Denmark’s first stone milestones,

some of which are still around and often referred to as ‘Ole Rømer stones’. And at the time of his death in 1710, he was working on proving that the Earth revolves around the Sun by demonstrating the fixed stars’ parallax – a theory that would have to wait a further one and

half centuries before being proved.

Unfortunately, most of his observations, astronomical instruments and much of his accumulated works were destroyed in the great Copenhagen fire of 1728. ‘Triduum’ is one of the few surviving works of Rømer from that disaster.

But he is far from forgotten. In 1943 the Post and Telegraph service issued a postal stamp to commemorate the tricentenary

of his birth. Denmark’s National Bank issued a 50 kroner banknote with his portrait in 1957, which remained in circulation until 1975. And today the Ole Rømer Museum is located in Høje-Taastrup Council near the ruins of Rømer’s observatory at Vridsløsemagle, which was in operation until 1716.

WWW. DENSTOREDANSKE.DK

French astronomer Jean Picard on a mission to find Brahe’s lost Uranienborg observatory on Hven in 1671, which would help to interpret Brahe’s observations more accurately.

His meeting with Picard led to him spending nine years (1672-1781) of his life in Paris, principally working at the Royal Observatory, where he was in charge of observations. Given his standing, it was no surprise when he was appointed by King Louis XIV of France to teach the dauphin, and through his

Ole Rømer’s emergence in the 1780s was a breath of fresh air for his country following the Struensee scandal in the previous decade

Tycho Brahe’s subterranean Stjerneborg Observatory, which was located next to his palace observatory Uranienborg on the island of Hven

InOut The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

pages of entertainment

selecT shopping

PAGE g9

hoT dogs PAGE g12

The Tiger lillies perform hamleT page

g2

The oscars PAGE g20

The iron lady

PAGE g18