Downloading the happiness app

School reform receives serious setback

Door opened for Afghan interpreters’ asylum

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24 - 30 May 2013 | Vol 16 Issue 21

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

NEWS

A dagpenge solution has been found that will result in the restructuring of Danish courses for foreigners

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NEWS

No more smoking In a move to be a smoke-free workplace, DSB bans smoking on train platforms as of next summer

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Now what?

NEWS

With Eurovision title secured, attention turns to which Danish city will host next year’s contest – and how much it will cost Danes say they are the least stressed workers in Europe, but recent surveys cast doubt on those claims

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COMMUNITY

With Venstre on board, dual citizenship looks likely RAY WEAVER

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Nation’s largest political party says both Danes and expats should no longer have to choose between countries

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UPPORT for easing citizenship rules for both Danes living abroad and expats living in Denmark is growing. Opposition party Venstre, which has long been divided on the issue, now looks poised to allow dual citizenship.

“It is a journey we have been on,” Venstre’s citizenship spokesperson, Jan E Jørgensen, told DR News.

Venstre’s earlier lack of support for dual citizenship came into sharp focus when the party’s former leader, and Denmark’s former PM, Anders Fogh

Rasmussen’s son Henrik had to give up his Danish citizenship in 2010 in order to become an American citizen.

Although the government is not ready to introduce a change to the law, Venstre joins government coalition parties Socialdemokraterne (S), Radikale and Socialistisk Folkeparti in supporting dual nationality. Venstre’s support creates a consensus, virtually guaranteeing that dual nationality legislation will be passed when it comes up for a vote, possibly as early as this coming autumn. A working group is currently examining the legal ramifications of changing the law.

“Citizenship is regulated by the Danish constitution, so it is necessary to clarify how a law change will impact on both those conditions and Denmark’s international obligations,” the justice minister, Morten Bødskov (S),

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told DR News.

Currently, 20 out of the 27 EU countries allow either full or partial dual citizenship.

Margrethe Vestager, the economy minister and the leader of Radikale, which has been one of parliament’s strongest voices in favour of dual citizenship, has called it “a gift” that foreigners would be allowed to retain their original citizenship and be afforded “full access to the country [Denmark] they will contribute to and where their children would grow up”.

Danes living outside of the country welcomed the prospect of being able to get dual citizenship.

“It is incredibly important for Danes living abroad to be able to integrate where they live,” Anne Marie Dalgaard, the spokesperson for Danes

Worldwide, told DR News, adding that dual citizenship was about more than just an extra passport.

“Citizenship is such an important part of one’s identity that forcing someone to choose is the same as forcing a child to choose between their mother or father or a mother to choose between her children,” she said.

Dalgaard said that allowing Danes to come back home as citizens with the knowledge and networks they have developed abroad would benefit Danish businesses and the country as a whole, but that it was equally important to make those who wished to acquire Danish nationality feel welcome.

“It is important to accept newcomers and welcome them in the same way we allow our nationals to integrate in other countries,” Dalgaard said.

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OPINION

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

24 - 30 May 2013

Downloading the happiness app

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The Balancing Act

BY SARITA RAJIV Sarita Rajiv recently moved from sunkissed India to snow-topped Denmark.

Having hopped from east to west, she finds herself performing a balancing act between her old and new lives. A communications specialist in the past, she is now a gifting specialist. For more, visit ilovegifting.me

’VE BEEN thinking about happiness a lot lately. Denmark does that to you. First, it serenades you with its impressive happiness rankings and its near-perfect Scandinavian lifestyle. And then, when you live here, it compels you to think about the hows and whys.

With research indicating that genetics plays a major role in determining how happy we are, does Denmark’s consistently high rankings in the happiness ratings mean Danes are naturally blessed with happy genes? And what about the stellar supporting cast in the form of a welfare state that says: “I got your back” and the controversial but inescapable Jante Law? What exactly makes the Danes among the happiest people on earth?

I put my question to Sharmi Albrechtsen, an American living in Denmark for the past 12 years, who is working on a book entitled ‘Happy Danes: Investigating Danish Happiness’.

She says the answer is yes to all of the above.

“I believe there is a winning combination of circumstances that makes

Denmark the happiest country in the world,” Albrechtsen said. “The generous welfare system here allows society to have a certain level of comfort. And though most Danes have an aversion to the Jante Law – a norm in Denmark that negatively portrays individual success while criticising ambition and excessive materialism – I believe Jante Law is the reason they are satisfied with their lives, as it helps them manage their expectations. This in turn affords Danes a sense of peace with themselves and their place in society. It allows them to focus on other attributes like family, work-life balance, sports, nature and community – which every Dane, rich or not, values.”

While Denmark may have its winning combination, surely we nonDanes also have a shot at happiness?

Not all of us are blessed with happy genes or live in an environment that is conducive to being content and at peace with ourselves. What about individual effort and action?

Tapping right into our eternal quest for happiness is Happify, a web-based app. Yes, you read that right: an app.

It works on the assumption that happiness is a skill one can hone through a set of activities. If happiness is a skill, then one can be born with it or acquire it through effort. I got an opportunity to beta test the app and be a ‘Happify Pioneer’. Intrigued, but armed with a heavy dose of scepticism, I decided to give it a try. This was my chance to test the role of individual effort in happiness. And, for once, I wasn’t going to be merely following a new tech movement that was being used by everybody I knew and everybody they knew. So, I tried this app from the virtual world and applied it in the real world, doing activities aimed at working on five essential happiness elements: savour, thank, aspire, give and empathise.

In theory, it made sense. But, did it work for me? Not really. It meant having a weekly ‘to-do’ list and that made it seem like a chore that, ironically, took all the fun out of being happy.

I also remain a sceptic because it is so easy to fake or artificially create positive experiences online. Facebook is a case in point. Many share pictures and posts of every moment and event in

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their lives – of anything even remotely remarkable, putting on a show and keeping up with the Joneses – in the hope that there will be someone who will ‘like’ it.

I have to admit, there is one thing Happify seems to be right about – you have to work at being happy. More importantly, what my little experiment confirmed is something I’ve suspected all along: there are so many different ways to happify ourselves.

What makes me happy can make another miserable. Some places, like Denmark, make it easier for you to pursue your happiness, while others make it tough, challenging you at every step. Still others do everything possible to make sure you flounder in misery. But, because where we live isn’t the only thing that dictates how happy we are, we continue to pursue happiness, acknowledging the one pervasive truth that applies to everyone: happiness is hard work. You just need to figure out the formula that works best for you. For Albert Einstein it was a table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin.

What’s yours?

Freedom of information act muzzles the watchdog

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Christian Values

BY CHRISTIAN WENANDE Christian Wenande’s Danish/American background caters well to a city brimming with cultural diversity and strife. The CPH Post journalist loves life in Copenhagen but yearns for the indomitable mountains, rolling prairie and starry nights of his Wyoming sanctuary.

HEN international transparency watchdogs level criticism at someone in the European theatre, they usually do so in the general direction of eastern Europe.

But the watchdogs are on to a new stench now, and this time it’s emanating from Denmark.

About a month ago, Transparency International blasted the government’s new freedom of information act proposal (offentlighedslov), contending that it would compromise Denmark’s transparency reputation, and last week the International Press Institute (IPI) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) asked the Danish government to drop the law in the name of democracy.

The two central points of infamy in the new law are sections 24 and 27.2 – both of which reduce transparency within the central ministerial forum of policy making. In short, the public and the press will be left in the dark when it comes to looking into the foundation of governmental decisions and laws. The fourth estate will be left crippled.

But most vexing in this farce is the

fact that not one minister or member of parliament has been able to describe a single instance in which the current law, which grants the public the right to access documents, has negatively influenced the transpirations of government.

This was exemplified by the excruciating performance of the justice minister, Morten Bødskov of the Socialdemokraterne (S), during a recent episode of the DR2 debate programme ‘Deadline 22.30’, during which Bødskov was asked a staggering 14 times to provide a specific case that illustrated the need to change the law.

Bødskov looked like a deer in the headlights as he stumbled and stuttered his way through the uncompromising questioning by host Martin Krasnik.

The debate more resembled a Gestapo interrogation than a political contest. It speaks volumes when the justice minister suddenly morphs into ‘Rain Man’ – I was half expecting him to start rocking back and forth in his seat and start counting toothpicks. It was a pitiful display, nothing less.

Opposition to the law, on the contrary, is widespread and determined.

Over 80,000 people have signed the ‘Nej tak til den nye offentlighedslov’ petition, and a massive demonstration, supported by all the party youth groups, took place last week in front of Christiansborg.

Clearly, the government is aware of the overwhelming public sentiment.

No-one wants to get within six feet of the offentlighedslov after Bødskov’s appalling performance. Coalition parties have been haemorrhaging members and every minister, including PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (S), defers to the justice minister when asked about the law.

Despite a hollow pledge to see where the law is in three years’ time, Bødskov looks poised to be the latest politician to be tossed in front of the Thorning-Schmidt bus – a bus loaded with hypocrisy.

Back in 2009, when Bødskov and S were part of the opposition, Bødskov was eager to point out the importance of transparency in the political space, maintaining “every time that there is doubt whether the public should have access to information, then it is transparency that should be prioritised.”

This access recently led journalists to

uncover the scandal involving the employment minister, Mette Frederiksen (S), vastly understating the number of people who would fall out of the unemployment benefit scheme, kontanthjælp.

It is quite obvious that this ‘freedom’ of information act will solely benefit the power-wielders who sit at the helm of power, while muzzling the opposition and public from gaining insight into any deviant undertakings. Do they not realise that the short-sighted move will backfire on them when they lose the next election and suddenly find themselves on the sidelines?

And surely, alarm bells must ring when the left-wing Enhedslisten and right-wing Dansk Folkeparti are able to set aside their monumental differences to concur that the law is unwarranted and unwanted.

According to international watchdog organisation, Freedom House, Denmark ranks sixth in the word when it comes to press freedom, a commendable ranking to be sure, but one that will undoubtedly suffer should Thorning-Schmidt and her cohorts get their way and dim the halls of government to the public.

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