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1 - 7 February 2013 | Vol 16 Issue 5 Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk
D ENMARK will end its mili-tary presence in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and instead start to focus its e� orts to sup-
port the civilian population according to the government’s new two-year plan for Afghanistan.
According to the foreign minister, Villy Søvndal (Socialistisk Folkeparti), the withdrawal of Denmark’s approximate 650 person contribution in southern Af-ghanistan is necessary if the country is to
regain responsibility for its own security.“� e Danish Afghanistan Plan con-
tributes to a responsible transition of the full responsibility to the Afghan authori-ties while at the same time enabling our soldiers to return home from Afghani-stan,” Søvndal stated. “Over the next two years, the task will be to support the Afghan authorities and the Afghan peo-ple in safeguarding and building upon the progress already achieved.”
� e Afghanistan plan, which was agreed between all political parties except the far-left party Enhedslisten, con� rms a promise made by Søvndal last April regarding Denmark’s future engagement in Afghanistan and plan for the with-drawal of international forces. Following the withdrawal, Denmark will continue
Danish troops out of Afghanistan by end of next yeartwo years, and that there will be a need for international support in Afghanistan for many years to come.
“But after 2014, the responsibility for Afghanistan’s security will lie with the Afghans,” Hækkerup said. “� us, our role will – to a much greater extent – be to train, advise and support the Afghans.”
Afghanistan has su� ered through several decades of con� ict, and as a re-sult it is lacking the necessary institu-tions and infrastructure that are needed if it is to move towards democracy.
Danish aid will focus on developing these institutions, and as a result Afghani-stan will become the largest recipient of Danish development assistance, receiving
Afghanistan continues on page 6
NFL legend on the highs and lows of his career
Mother-tongue teaching makes its way back
123
Four-week Wondercool coverage starts inside
After troop withdrawal, Denmark will support developing civilian institutions in Afghanistan with 530 million kroner in aid a year until 2017
to support the development of the Af-ghan police force by providing Danish police o� cials and � nancial assistance, although this will eventually be reduced and replaced by an EU-supported police mission.
� e War in Afghanistan began when international forces invaded Afghani-stan a month after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on New York. After more than a decade of occupation and only modest gains, there are fears that the withdrawal of international forces will create a power vacuum that the Taleban will seek again to occupy.
Defence Minister Nick Hækkerup (Socialdemokraterne) said he recognised that the task of securing Afghanistan would not be completed over the next
PETER STANNERS
COMMUNITY
Haggis, whisky, bagpipes, kilts, table dancing – in other words, just your average Burns Night
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NEWS
New PET controls announced in wake of Morten Storm controversy criticised for being too weak
5
Uranium adventure
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Lifting Denmark’s ban on uranium mining would pave the way for Greenlandic exploration
Fighting the bullies
15
Children’s author Ole Lund Kirkegaard built his career sticking up for the little guy
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NEWS
HISTORY
Marina and the Diamonds on fi ghting the sometimes losing battle against industry ideals
“Like a doll”4
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Four-week Wondercool coverage starts inside
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2 1 - 7 February 2013The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dkWeek in revieW
Nordea posted a record 30.7 billion kroner in profits for 2012. It’s a major feat consider-ing that its result for 2007, the year before the financial crisis struck, was 29.1 billion kroner. “In 2012 we had more custom-ers, capital and profit than ever before,” group Ceo Christian Clausen told Jyllands-Posten.
“We are ahead of schedule on the plan that was initiated in 2011. We have laid a firm foundation for Nordea with closer customer relations, unchanged costs and increased equity.” Clausen added that the strong result was due to acquiring 85,000 new custom-ers as well as increasing business with existing customers.
The amouNT of money spent each year by the Church of denmark is at its highest level since 2000, despite a con-tinued decline in membership. Church ministry figures indi-cated that in the last 10 years, wage expenses have increased 24 percent. It is particularly the salaries of choir singers, or-
ganists, gravediggers and other officials that have driven up overall expenses. The church lost around 20,000 members in 2012, many due to the debate over allowing homosexuals to be married in church ceremo-nies. The Church of denmark collects 600 million kroner a year in taxes.
THE WEEK’S MOST READ STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK
Demark siesta leads to Spanish fiesta
Video shows exchange student attacked on city bus
Dating the Danes | Know thyself, know thy Danes
Denmark take on Spain in World Cup final: LIVE UPDATE
Opinion | A tax everyone wants to see cut
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Cheer up, Mikkel
it was a more sombre homecoming than hoped for Mikkel Hansen and the rest of the men’s handball team, who returned to Copenhagen on Monday after falling badly to Spain in the world championships. Chins up, fellas – second best in the world is nothing to be ashamed of (see more, page 12)
CORRECTION due to a layout error, new opinion columnist Sarita rajiv was not included in the CPh Post Voices line-up on page 9.
Record profitsExpenses on the rise
The LeaNING Tower of Pisa, New York’s empire State Build-ing, the London eye (pictured) – now, Copenhagen’s Little mermaid statue will join the ranks of the world’s most famed landmarks to turn green in honour of St Patrick’s day. The ‘Go Green’ campaign started three years ago when the Syd-
ney opera house was the first to be doused in green light in honour of St Paddy’s. In addi-tion to a three-legged race, Co-penhagen will host a St Paddy’s day parade, and many pubs in town will be joining in on the festivities. The Little mermaid will be ceremoniously lit green on march 16.
Going green
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Aflive (verb) – put to sleep. Where you heard it: Dog lovers protested against the death sentence handed down to Thor, a German shepherd who bit another dog. The law says that dogs who attack others must be put down. CPH POST WORD Of THE WEEK:
TEN YEARS AGO. The Copenhagen International fashion fair celebrates its 20th anniversary as one of Europe’s foremost fashion events.
fIVE YEARS AGO. New statistics show that one in six Copenhagen residents live below the poverty line.
ONE YEAR AGO. In its economic survey of Denmark, the OECD advocates for cutting taxes and making students pay for their education.
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31 - 7 February 2013News
B ilingual primary school children will be offered teaching in their parents’ mother tongue
in a new 30 million kroner trial announced by the Education Ministry last week.
The programme will apply to around 3,900 students in years one and four – six-year-olds and nine-year-olds – at the 200 public schools where more than ten percent of the children speak another language at home.
according to the educa-tion minister, Christina an-torini (Socialdemokraterne), the programme is designed to test whether mother-tongue teaching raises the skill levels of students – particularly those with arabic and Turkish backgrounds.
“We want to know more about what helps develop the language skills and knowledge of bilingual students,” antorini said in a press release.
The students’ progress will be monitored by researchers who will assess to what extent the mother-tongue teaching im-proved their language and math-ematics skills, inclusion in class activities, motivation, achieve-ment and self-esteem.
The need to raise the aca-demic achievement of non-ethnic Danish children was revealed after the publication of the 2010 PiSa report into the reading standards of 15-year-olds. it showed that 46 percent of Copenhagen children
Mother-tongue teaching reintroduced in public schools
born to immigrants do not have functional reading capabilities, far higher than the city’s average of 24 percent.
But before the programme has even started, politicians have questioned whether it is a good use of resources. accord-ing to alex ahrendtsen (Dansk Folkeparti), the problem faced by the children of immigrants is poor Danish skills.
“That’s why all the resources should instead be placed on ac-quiring Danish language skills before they arrive at school,” ah-rendtsen told Ritzau. “it’s sad that the Education Ministry’s only proposal to improve integration at public schools is to keep the bi-lingual students in their own cul-ture instead of trying to include them in the Danish culture.”
Mother-tongue teaching was a right for all public school students until 2002 when the former centre-right government, led by Venstre and Konservative, made it a voluntary programme. Once it was no longer compul-sory, councils slashed funding for it to such an extent that it almost disappeared.
The benefits of mother-tongue teaching are not conclu-sive and some research indicated that the current voluntary pro-gramme is mostly used by mid-dle class immigrant families who have the least need for it.
The new trial is intended to gather data to see how effec-tive mother-tongue teaching can be, but the government’s intentions are now being ques-tioned because of the timing of the proposal. The government is currently drawing up a reform of the public school system, which has led some politicians accusing
them of introducing mandatory mother-tongue teaching with-out involving parliament.
“[antorini] is sneaking it in by the back door by masking it as a trial,” Konservative MP Mai Henriksen told Politiken, add-ing that the move will damage the reform negotiations. “it’s dishonest and it’s a real shame because what we need now are good negotiations.”
Even if the government’s tri-al does show that mother-tongue teaching is effective, niels Ege-lund, an education researcher at aarhus university, questioned whether the government can roll the programme out nationwide.
“There are not enough quali-fied teachers who can provide mother-tongue teaching in Den-mark,” Egelund told Berlingske newspaper. “in some schools with a high proportion of immigrants, there are as many as 50 languages spoken by the students, so it’s only the largest groups that will be offered the teaching. and that means giving some groups prefer-ential treatment.”
Rune Hejlskov Schjerbeck, a head of section at the Ministry for Education, responded to the criticism.
“We chose arabic and Turk-ish because they are the two larg-est groups and therefore most suitable for testing in the trial,” Schjerbeck told The Copenhagen Post. “The problems with these groups is that their academic achievement is much lower than the rest of the general population, so the trial will try and determine why this is and whether mother-tongue teaching can help.”
The trial will last until 2016, and the first results will be avail-able in 2015.
Trial will test whether teaching immigrant children in their first language improves their Danish, but opposition questions timing
Peter StannerS
Fly Icelandair to 10 destinations in North America Second bag travels for free across the Atlantic
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+ Book your flight at www.icelandair.dkOut with the old, in with the new?in a PaiR of online-only stories, we look at changes that are afoot in the Danish education system.
The first, ‘School experiment shakes up century-old education system’, described a pilot project at six Copenhagen-area schools aimed at revamping an approach that has remained largely un-changed for 110 years.
under the experiment, enti-tled ‘gymnasiet tænkt forfra’ (‘Re-thinking school from scratch’), teachers are only allowed to speak for seven minutes at a time, stu-dents don’t have books, and there is no homework.
although teachers and students are excited about the project, Dansk Folkeparti dis-
missed it as “a hippie ploy”. The second story, ‘Most
schools lagging on digitalisa-tion’, chronicles how only six percent of councils nationwide are on pace to meet the goal of having a computer or tablet for every student.
Find both stories on our website, www.cphpost.dk.
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4 1 - 7 February 2013The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dkCover Story
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Pop star Marina Diamandis: “The more driven we become to achieve that ideal view of beauty, the uglier we start to feel”
Danes are working about three hours less a week than previously thought, according to new, more precise calculations from statis-tics Denmark. While it was previ-ously thought that Danes worked about 37 hours each week – still less than most other eU coun-
tries – the new numbers reduce the working week to just over 34 hours. “We have discovered that we have significantly overesti-mated the number of hours that Danes are working,” sven eg-mose, the head of statistics Den-mark, told Politiken newspaper.
Danes work less than previously thought
Online this week
The nUmber of councils with a majority of residents in work has fallen drastically, ac-cording to a study by the mu-nicipal policy research group Kora. The study found that only three of Denmark’s 98 councils currently have a majority of em-ployed residents. In 2009, 59 councils could boast that a ma-
jority of their residents were in work. according to Kurt houl-berg, Kora’s head of research, it is the rising number of senior citi-zens and unemployed residents that poses the biggest threat. “These are the greatest problems facing councils both in the short and, even more pressingly, long term,” he told Dr news.
Minority pays to support majority as employment plummetsCoPenhagen’s Police mu-seum has closed their now-noto-rious exhibition of 12 murdered women after intense criticism from victims’ relatives and politi-cians. The museum set up the ex-hibition, entitled ‘Kvindedrab in memoriam’ (murdered women, a memorial), without first asking permission from victims’ fami-
lies. The museum’s administra-tors say they deliberately chose not to inform the families in or-der to protect their own freedom of speech. but now the museum has decided to take down the ex-hibition, writing on its website that the hefty media debate has irreparably compromised the ex-hibition’s original intentions.
Police Museum pulls victims’ exhibition after criticism
ReaD the full stORies at cPhPOst.Dk
f ashIon is the stuff of dreams. It promises glamour, beauty and adventure. Like a desert mirage, fashion promises to fulfil the
desire for stylish uniqueness, but more frequently it leaves consumers thirsting for a self-image that is unhealthy and largely unattainable.
This merchandising of illusion is a problem that eva Kruse, the head of the Danish Fashion Institute, and its sub-sidiary Copenhagen Fashion Week, is particularly aware of.
“almost every woman I know is constantly on a diet of some form or battling her weight,” Kruse told The Copenhagen Post. “The fashion indus-try plays a role in how women see them-selves, and we need to show people that it’s okay to have curves.”
however, glamour and dreams – not curves – sell copy. With tabloids and fashion magazines consistently pro-moting images of slim celebrities and diet routines, it seems that any attempt to change industry practice in this re-gard faces an uphill battle.
“It takes time and teamwork,” su-san scafidi, the co-founder of model al-liance, an ngo designed to help pro-tect models, said. “and that’s why we, as an organisation, have chosen to work and try to help develop our own fashion agencies, rather than aggressively point the finger at others.”
but it’s not just models affected by the obsession with youth and beauty. It per-vades the entire entertainment industry.
singer-songwriter marina Diaman-dis, who performs as marina and the Diamonds, was told by her label, Warn-er records, that the company had de-layed the released of her video because she was “too ugly” in it.
“my ex-manager told me the video needed more ‘beauty work’,” Diaman-dis, who is half greek and half Welsh, told The Copenhagen Post. “my skin tone wasn’t right, for example. and I mustn’t have shaved my armpits that morning, I guess.”
“The industry wants you to look a certain way, and that in turn has pushed the standards of beauty to an extraordi-
narily high level,” she contin-ued. “You have to be perfect. Like a doll.”
Diamandis, who herself sported dyed blonde hair for several years, says that she is strongly against the notion of “botoxing” her own appear-ance to please the industry. however, she admits that the battle is a compromising one.
“The whole blonde look didn’t come out of nowhere,” the 27-year-old singer admit-ted. “I knew it would make me more palatable and open me up to a larger audience. and it did. sadly.”
This superficial obsession is nothing new to scafidi.
“being thin and beauti-ful has become a real sign of wealth,” scafidi explained. “If you look good, it indicates that you have the money to put effort into your appear-ance. and that’s why people strive to emulate models and celebrities.”
however, Kruse says it is not productive to scape-goat models and entertain-ers as the guilty culprits for society’s unhealthy obsession with image.
hate the game. not the player. That is the increas-ingly emphatic message from fashion insiders. however, is it enough to simply point the finger whilst simultaneously feeding the media machine?
“getting people to join our cause has been very dif-ficult,” scafidi explained. “models are expected to be seen and not heard, and we see our job at model alliance as giving those professionals a voice in the industry.”
Diamandis, on the other hand, does have a voice and has used her career as a plat-form to question the notions of image in modern media.
and while songs like ‘Pri-madonna’ and ‘Teen Idle’ are critical statements of the in-dustry, the fact that Diamandis still allowed Warner records to “botox” her video is proof that the war is far from over.
“The irony is that the more driven we become to achieve that ideal view of beauty, the uglier we start to feel,” she said. “but I don’t think about that anymore. I’ve grown up.”
The question remains whether society will grow out of it, too.
hate the game, not the playerPart i: the problems with image
Bjarke Smith-meyer
Part ii: Goals and expectations
jeSSica hanley
the InjUsTICes of the fashion industry don’t just affect the professionals, they
impact the lives of everyday women. While many in the industry are speaking out that something must be done, tackling the obstacles and finding an all-encompassing solution to the myriad of problems is proving difficult.
according to eva Kruse, the head of the Danish Fash-ion Institute, that solution starts with changing our standards – both the ones so-ciety assigns to the female im-age and the literal standards that govern the industry. It’s an effort that, for Kruse and Copenhagen Fashion Week, begins with a charter of con-crete rules that govern how Danish agencies treat models.
The rules range from age requirements for models to mandating that they be served sufficient meals on the job.
but, Kruse says, regula-tions can only go so far – what’s more important is the fundamental message that the charter conveys. Treating models fairly, she suggested, should communicate the idea that they are worth more than just their looks. That’s why she always makes sure to have nutritious food available at fashion shows and shoots.
“The symbolic value of healthy food servings is about showing them that we care and that they are respected as humans,” Kruse said.
susan scafidi, who has fought for better treatment for women in the fashion in-dustry, agreed. Through her work with model alliance, she has fought to ensure that models receive fair treatment, such as breaks and meals at work, and that the models aren’t exploited or abused.
The underlying idea, she said, is that if the industry put more work into empowering models, ideals might begin to change on their own.
however, the efforts of model alliance have had mixed success.
“It’s had some big suc-cesses,” scafidi said. “Vogue
International, responsible for 16 publi-cations, agreed to stop hiring models un-der the age of 16. hopefully we can push that number up to 18.”
The under-16 measure was violat-ed within a year, however, but scafidi largely attributes that to models lying about their age.
according to scafidi, good in-tentions can only go so far, and rules and conditions alone aren’t enough to change the industry.
scafidi says the bigger issue is so-ciety’s obsession with physical beauty, which places insurmountable pressures on women.
“obesity is rife within society, and that’s why we’re becoming all the more obsessed with being thin,” she said. “If we were famine thin, then being curvy would be the popular thing.”
“no one player can change the sys-tem,” she continued. “That’s why we’ve chosen to work with agencies rather than simply hold banners and shout slo-gans. That might bring attention, but it’s short-lived. We’re in it for the long haul.”
Likewise, Kruse hopes that Copen-hagen Fashion Week’s charter will chal-lenge the traditional notions of beauty.
“We hope that the charter will pro-mote more natural and healthy beauty ideals,” Kruse explained. “It’s important that young people don’t believe all the images they see in magazines to be real. It’s a dream world where all the avail-able tricks have been used to make the perfect image.”
While Kruse felt that Danish fash-ion is on its way to promoting a greater range of images, she agreed that the in-dustry as a whole has a long way to go.
“on the international catwalk, you sometimes see female models who almost look like boys, as well as more curvy women. We’d like to see that even further expressed and have more diver-sity in the looks,” she said.
but Kruse also pointed out that hiring curvier models isn’t enough. Like scafidi, she feels that the problem transcends the models themselves. The greatest challenge, she said, is for the fashion world to open the lines of com-munication about the reality of the ide-als they promote.
“What we aim to work on is to open the discussion about beauty and health and show people that the fashion world is an illusion,” she explained.
at the end of the day, creating char-ters, enforcing rules and shouting slo-gans are all well and good, but a discus-sion of image is still imperative.
Perhaps a lasting solution will only arise when society begins to address what underlies the diets, music videos and fashion magazines: the human im-age as a product for profit. If the public stopped watching the game, perhaps the players would be forced to rethink their approach.
Ukrainian models valeria Lukyanova and olga oleynik have become Internet sensations after cosmetically enhancing their looks to mimic the blonde-haired Barbie Doll
Susan Scafidi (black skirt) co-founded Model Alliance to fight for better treatment for women in the fashion industry
eva Kruse, Ceo of the Danish Fashion Institute: Fashion is “a dream world”
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51 - 7 February 2013 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK NEWS
NATIONAL rail operator DSB secretly funded an environmental think-tank and magazine in
order to promote its own inter-ests, according to new revelations by public broadcaster DR.
� e Copenhagen Climate Network (CCN) was established by the PR � rm Waterfront to promote green and climate-friendly technology through its magazine Climate.
But according to emails ob-tained by DR, DSB secretly fund-ed CCN to promote its interests without the knowledge of CCN’s management, which included high-pro� le politicians such as the current environment minister, Ida Auken (Socialistisk Folkeparti).
� e secret relationship is outlined in an email from Wa-terfront’s managing director Lars Poulsen to DSB’s management.
“Waterfront Communica-tions established CCN and the magazine Climate with the sup-port of DSB,” the email states. “Rumours may arise about the political control of DSB’s inter-nal media. Climate will remain neutral on this subject and can speak freely – on behalf of DSB.”
Despite what these docu-ments say, several former chair-
men of CCN – including Auken, who stepped down when she was appointed minister in 2011 – deny ever knowing its relationship with DSB.
“I was introduced to CCN as a business network for green businesses,” Auken told DR. “� ey did not tell me that DSB and Waterfront were behind it.”
One of the clearest examples of DSB’s use of CCN was its attempt to position itself as the future operator of a light-rail ser-vice that will follow the Copen-hagen ring motorway, Ring 3.
“By presenting the rail solu-tion as a light-rail S-train service, where the light trains connect to the S-train network [...] DSB is brought closer to the job as the operator of the service,” the pri-vate document states.
Environmental think-tank secretly promoted DSBThe Waterfrontgate scandal deepens: new documents show DSB had secret in� uence over PR company’s environmental think-tank and magazine
Waterfront managing director Lars Poulsen contends that he is “a target for one undocumented allegation after another”
THE EUROPEAN Union climate commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, wants
her home country to provide 5,000 electric-car charging points by the year 2020 in order to reach stated climate goals.
Hedegaard said that if the 27 member states supply the charging points, electric car sales will increase.
“We can � nally end the discussion about the chicken and the egg when it comes to whether the infrastructure needs to be present before the electric car market explodes,” Hedegaard wrote on the Euro-pean Commission website. “It has to make sense to buy an electric car, but it doesn’t if you can’t even drive halfway across the country without having to recharge.”
� e automobile industry’s transition to the electric car in Europe has not gone as smoothly as hoped, with electric car sale numbers lagging seriously behind the 2020 goals set by the EU.
In Denmark, which is one of the better-equipped electric car nations per capita, there are only 280 charging points and electric car sales have plummeted dras-tically. As a result, Denmark re-cently downgraded expectations from 400,000 electric cars by
2020 to 200,000. But until now, political ini-
tiatives have focused on the cars without giving much thought to the charging points – some-thing that Hedegaard hopes will change.
“With our proposed binding goals for charging points, which have a common charge plug, electric cars will soon be hitting Europe’s roads. � at’s a victory for the environment, business, consumers and employment,” Hedegaard said.
� e vice-president of the European Commission, Siim Kallas, said that it was a strong step towards quelling Europe’s reliance on fossil fuels.
“Developing innovative and alternative fuels is an obvious way to make Europe’s economy more resource e� cient, reduce our over-dependence on oil, and develop a transport industry that is ready to respond to the demands of the 21st century,” Kallas said in a statement. “Be-tween them, China and the US plan to have more than six mil-lion electric vehicles on the road by 2020. � is is a major oppor-tunity for Europe to establish a strong position in a fast-growing global market.”
� e EU proposal, which wants 795,000 charging points across the EU by 2020, must be approved by the European Parliament and all 27 member states before it can come into e� ect. (CW)
EU proposes electric car ‘Plan B’Dropping electric car sales around Europe have forced the EU to adopt a new approach in order to reach its 2020 climate goals
DSB was promoted as the best operator of a light rail ser-vice in an article published in Climate in October 2011 and written by CCN and Waterfront employee Lars Lindskov.
An internal mail also revealed how CCN promoted DSB as the best operator for the light-rail project at a Nordic rail confer-ence attended by 5,000 people.
“We promoted DSB’s views at a Nordic conference in Swe-den the previous week and the co-operation seems to be work-ing well,” Waterfront stated.
MEP Dan Jørgensen (So-cialdemokraterne) took over as CCN chairman after Auken and says he feels deceived after hear-ing DR’s revelations.
“I’m angry at being misled,” Jørgensen told DR. “My name
was used to legitimise a product that wasn’t what it appeared.”
� is is Waterfront and DSB’s second scandal. Several weeks ago, DR revealed how DSB used the PR company to keep journalist Lars Abild busy so he wouldn’t have time to write about the troubled rail operator.
Waterfront recently an-nounced that it had reported two former employees to the po-lice for breaking con� dentiality agreements and stealing sensitive information.
In a press release, Poulsen complained about the use of uncited sources and unreleased documents to support accusa-tions against them.
“I � nd it absurd that I have become a target for one undocu-mented allegation after another,” Poulsen wrote, adding that he recognised that he had formu-lated himself badly in some con-� dential emails.
DSB suspended executive head Peter Nedergaard Nielsen and � red two political consult-ants following the initial scandal involving the journalist Abild. � e Transport Ministry is now carrying out an investigation into DSB’s relationship with Waterfront. (PS)
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THE EUROPEANUNIONThe EuropeanRegional Development Fund
THE EUROPEANUNIONThe EuropeanRegional Development Fund
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Even with the newly-announced controls over the intelligence agency, Denmark will still be one of the European countries with the weakest oversight
New PET controls too weak, critics say
THE NEW rules announced three weeks ago to give par-liament more control over
domestic intelligence agency PET are ine� cient and will see Denmark continue as one of the European countries with the least control over its intelligence agency.
� at is the verdict of the lib-eral think-tank CEPOS.
“Even though Kontroludval-get [a parliamentary committee established in 1946 to oversee PET] is given more information than it is today, it will continue under the current scheme in which the committee is mainly informed about PET’s overall ac-tions without the opportunity to conduct proper and running con-trols, and without any real op-tions to react,” Jacob Mchanga-ma, CEPOS’s director of legal a� airs, told Jyllands-Posten news-paper. “� e committee needs to be given more teeth if it should carry out an e� ective control.”
� e new controls over PET were announced by the justice minister, Morten Bødskov (So-cialdemokraterne), on January 11. Although he did not men-tion it by name, the new rules are largely seen as a reaction to
the numerous revelations by for-mer PET double agent Morten Storm, who claims to have in� l-trated al-Qaeda and worked with PET and the CIA to execute the American-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki via a targeted drone strike in Yemen. Storm’s story has generated immense domestic and international attention.
In 2011, the European Par-liament examined the control organs that EU countries have in place over the intelligence agencies. It revealed that Den-mark has some of the weakest oversight in Europe. According to Mchangama, even with the newly-announced changes, Den-mark’s oversight of PET will still lag behind mechanisms in place in other European countries.
“Kontroludvalget does not have direct access to documents and speci� c cases, as is the case in other countries,” Mchangama told Berlingske newspaper. “� e committee will now receive an annual statement on procedures such as wire-tapping and can request information on [PET’s] activities and guidelines, but it is still just an orientation that the committee will not be able to verify. And even if the mem-bers of the committee discover something illegal, they cannot do anything.”
� e new PET rules were also criticised by Amnesty’s Claus Juul, who told Information newspaper that they do not go far enough.
“We were told that a new law would tighten control of PET,” Juul said. “But in reality, the new law will concern only one little element of PET’s work. All of the things that would be found in a Morten Storm-like case, for example, would be out-side the inspectorate’s remit.”
Ole Hækkerup, a spokes-person for governing party So-cialdemokraterne, told Jyllands-Posten that the new laws were written in a way to keep PET’s work e� ective.
“� ere are other European countries with more openness, but that also causes some secu-rity problems and Denmark is high on the list of terrorist tar-gets,” Hækkerup said. “� ere-fore it is important to have an intelligence agency that can pre-vent attacks.”
JUSTIN CREMER
475,000kr a year for selling co� ee?
DSB’s on-board co� ee trolleys are big money losers for the company,
which blames high salaries, page 13
Justice Minister Morten Bødskov’s new rules have been criticised for lacking teeth
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6 1 - 7 February 2013The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dkInternatIonal
A parliamentary majority seems ready to drop Denmark’s 25-year ban on uranium min-ing, paving the way to permitting
Greenlandic mining operations that re-sult in the extraction of the radioactive element, and setting the Kingdom of Denmark on its way to becoming one of its largest exporters.
if Greenland’s Self-rule government also decides to follow suit and allow ura-nium mining, the world’s fifth largest re-serves in Kvanefjeld in southern Green-land would become available.
The current zero-tolerance policy prevents all operations that result in ura-nium being removed from the ground – even as a by-product. The policy prevents companies from mining for valuable rare earths that are vital for modern technolo-gies like mobile phones. Those minerals are located in areas surrounded by ura-nium, which has both peaceful and mili-tary applications.
Due to the element’s security sig-nificance, Denmark must agree to per-mit uranium exports before Greenland can decide whether it will allow it to be mined.
The government’s Greenland spokes-person, Flemming møller mortensen, Socialdemokraterne (S), said the ruling party and pm Helle Thorning-Schmidt
(S) were in favour of allowing Greenland to exploit its mineral wealth.
“to the extent that existing conven-tions allow for lawful exploration, trade and distribution, they should be opened up,” mortensen told politiken newspaper.
The Greenland Bureau of mineral and petroleum is set to deliver a report in the spring, outlining the potential pub-lic health and environmental impacts of uranium mining. if the report appears positive, a majority in Greenland’s par-liament appears ready to vote in favour of repealing the zero-tolerance policy.
“We are in favour of uranium mines as long as it is done in a proper manner and in co-operation with Denmark,” Greenland’s transportation minister, Jens B Frederiksen, told politiken. “There is good money in it, and if other countries can sell uranium, we should be allowed to as well.”
Frederiksen said he felt it was “very likely” zero tolerance would be dropped.
Kuupik Kleist (inuit ataqatigiit), Greenland’s premier, reiterated that for the time being zero tolerance was still the law of the land.
emerging from a congress of his rul-ing party last weekend, Kleist advised everyone to tone down the rhetoric.
“There may prove to be a valid rea-son to repeal the zero-tolerance rule, but at our convention, ia decided in favour of keeping it in place,” Kleist told Green-landic newspaper Sermitsiaq.
The party maintained its stance on zero tolerance because it has seen no in-formation that convinced it of the need for change.
Government looks at allowing uranium mining in Greenland
The Greenlandic premier, Kuupik Kleist, said that any changes to uranium policy should first undergo public discussion
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Kleist also wants a public discussion of the matter before any change to the uranium policy is considered.
“if Denmark has its own uranium and wants to extract and export it, they are welcome to do so. We maintain our zero tolerance for uranium in this coun-try,” he said.
meanwhile, many view Denmark’s current rush to get on-board in Green-land’s mining industry as a desperate at-tempt to make up for earlier mistakes.
Since Greenland took control of the island’s mineral resources in 2009, it has actively been courting mineral companies around the world. Chinese and australian companies have put seri-ous money and manpower on the table,
Environment minister addresses water usage
THe environment minister, ida auken (Socialistisk Folkeparti), is calling for action on the global
water crisis and wants to export Danish-produced solutions to the problem.
auken addressed the issue and po-tential options at the annual World economic Forum in Davos, Switzer-land last week.
“We need to secure sustainable management of the world’s water re-sources, which will endure extreme pressure in forthcoming decades due to climate change and soaring popula-tion numbers,” auken told Berlingske newspaper. “and one of the things we can do is to limit water waste.”
auken told politiken newspaper that part of the solution is getting more use out of ‘second-hand’ water – wa-ter that is not clean enough for human consumption.
“today, when we flush the toilet, take our cars through the car wash and water our garden, we use clean drinking water,” auken said. “That is a luxury, and maybe we can use some of that not-so-clean water for those types of things – and maybe in that way save both drinking water and money.”
The government, with the support of enhedslisten, has set aside eight mil-lion kroner to look into uses for sec-ond-hand water.
Saving the world’s water resources
has become a primary concern be-cause experts maintain that half of the world’s population will live in ar-eas that lack water by the year 2030 if nothing is done.
according to the consultants mc-Kinsey & Company, in some places up to 80 percent of the available water is lost before it ends up in the taps of consumers.
auken sees the potential for ex-porting Danish solutions to the prob-lem. The Danish export of technical water solutions already nets about 15 billion kroner annually, and the global market for technological water solu-tions is estimated to be 2.5 times more lucrative than the wind energy market.
“There are many cities around the world that lack water but still waste up to 50 percent of the water they have access to due to poor water systems,” auken told Berlingske. “But the good news is that there is widespread sup-port to ensure that there will also be water for future generations.”
auken hopes that water will be one of the key areas of focus when the 2015 climate goals – eight climate tar-gets that were agreed to by the world in 2000 – come up for revision.
The first steps towards securing wa-ter resources were taken in the summer of 2012 at the Un’s rio+20 Un Con-ference on Sustainable Development in rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During the con-ference it was agreed that there must be clear goals on how the world’s natural resources – such as water, oceans and agriculture – are used. (CW)
Ida Auken says we can no longer afford luxury of using drinking water for other means, claiming Danish technology can help combat global water waste
UniverSitieS wanting to em-ploy foreign researchers are still facing significant immigration
barriers, information newspaper reports.after the current centre-left gov-
ernment assumed power in 2011, it stressed that attracting and keeping highly-skilled foreigners was a vital pre-requisite for Denmark’s ability to com-pete internationally.
But despite promises to ease im-migration restrictions, the government has actually made it more expensive and more difficult for universities to hire foreigners.
For example, last year’s immigration reform passed on the responsibility for processing all applications for working and studying in Denmark to the Danish agency for labour retention and inter-national recruitment (Dalrir) under the ministry of employment.
This meant that universities were
Universities complain of difficulty employing qualified foreignersDespite government promises, the number of rules and the cost of hiring foreign researchers have increased
required to produce more documen-tation than they previously needed, which slowed down the processing time for applications.
Universities now have to produce a signed contract before a residency per-mit is granted as well as documentation proving that the employment conditions comply with those set by unions.
But universities point out that there is no need to provide this evidence because employees are automatically covered by collective bargaining agreements because the institutions are state-subsidised.
“The immigration authorities used to understand that as state institutions we did not need to prove that our sala-ries complied with collective bargain-ing agreements because it was taken for granted,” michael Winther from the in-ternational Center at aarhus University told information.
Foreign researchers are also still forced to pay a 3,165 kroner fee in order to be granted residence permits despite the fact that the minister for higher education, morten Østergaard (radikale), last year stated that he would get rid of them.
navigating immigration regulations is so complex that the University of Co-penhagen (KU) has had to establish a new department in order to advise for-eign workers.
“We have no choice but to play along because [Dalrir] is our means of employing highly-regarded foreign-ers,” morten Sand Henriksen from KU’s international Staff office told in-formation. “But it seems bureaucratic to introduce extra rules.”
vivian tos lindgaard, from KU’s international human resources depart-ment, contends that the immigration rules send the wrong message.
“researchers experience that the whole approach is full of mistrust, and it can be hard to explain to some of the world’s leading researchers in their field why they are being treated with suspi-cion,” lindgaard told information.
information reports that Danish universities have attempted to collec-tively lobby the government to ease the regulations that have been tightened, but were reportedly told they should get used to no longer being “spoiled”. (pS)
while Denmark and europe sat passively by – something that members of the pre-vious venstre-led government acknowl-edge was a mistake.
“We have not been in the game try-ing to get Danish, Scandinavian and oth-er european investors to take an interest in mining in Greenland,” former finance minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen (ven-stre) told politiken. “no-one imagined we would see a situation in which three or four thousand Chinese workers might come to Greenland, he said referring to a recently passed Greenlandic law relaxing labour and immigration regulations for foreign mining companies.
Danish passivity towards Green-land’s mineral resources has often frus-
Turnaround could be too little, too late after years of foot-dragging on Greenlandic mineral riches
Ray WeaveR trated the island’s labour and industry minister, ove Karl Berthelsen.
“it is obviously unfortunate and un-fair that nothing was done about it,” he told politiken.
Hjort Frederiksen feared that non-action would make it easier for foreign countries to influence Greenlandic pol-icy-making.
“it is scary because the Chinese do not expect their investment to pay off in five or ten years,” he said. “They see it as a long-term political investment, and once you have seen how the Chinese behave in africa, you do not want that behaviour to be transferred to Danish citizens.”
Thorning-Schmidt was bemused at venstre’s sudden interest in Greenland.
“They were in power for ten years and when Greenland was granted self-rule, so it is odd that they now want to distance themselves from decisions that they made,” Thorning-Schmidt told politiken.
She said her government would soon present a new Greenland policy, but Greenland’s Frederiksen warned that now that the Danes finally want to get into the game, they should not expect special treatment.
“all Danish investment is welcome, but we do not have exclusive agreements with anyone.”
an average of 530 million kroner in aid per year between 2013 and 2017.
But according to the development minister, Christian Friis Bach (radikale), afghanistan must live up to certain re-
sponsibilities in exchange for the aid.“The afghan government will be
held to account for their promises of tangible progress in areas such as the respect for human rights, elections and the fight against corruption,” Friis-Bach said. “There will be consequences for our development assistance if the afghans do not deliver on their commitments.”
Some media outlets report that the
government is considering bowing to the demands of opposition centre and right-wing parties, who want to send F16 fighter jets to afghanistan after Danish troops are withdrawn. This, however, was not confirmed by the gov-ernment’s press release.
Forty-three Danish troops have lost their lives since Denmark joined inter-national forces in afghanistan in 2002.
Afghanistancontinued from front page
Greenlandic premier: No special treatment
Kuupik Kleist says Denmark is welcome to get involved in mineral extraction, but it will have to compete with others, page 8
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1 - 7 February 2013THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK8 OPINION
The law sets a requirement that foreign employees working in Greenland are o� ered acceptable wages and working conditions
intact under the terms of the new mining law.
� e law sets a requirement that foreign employees working in Greenland are o� ered accept-able wages and working condi-tions. � e law states that foreign employees may not earn less than Greenland’s minimum wage, which is far higher than most
western European countries. Conditions such as these are
essential if we are to make sure that Greenland’s mining opera-tions and related activities can compete with similar operations abroad. � e statements coming out of Copenhagen only serve to cast doubt on the stability of Greenland’s mining sector and undermines the joint Danish-Greenlandic policy that has been in place for decades.
Even if we establish state-owned companies, it doesn’t elim-inate the necessity to ensure that Greenlandic mining operations can compete globally. Projects that turn a pro� t only with the help of subsidies are not sustainable.
In addition, there is some-thing that hasn’t been considered
And two Danish companies – DONG and Maersk – are in fact already actively taking part in the search for oil and gas o� Green-land’s coasts.
One fundamental principle the Self-Rule government has es-tablished is that all investments in Greenland’s mining industry are made in a competitive, mar-ket-based environment. Provided they abide by this principle, Dan-ish investment � rms and mining companies are welcome to be-come active in Greenland. For us, it makes no di� erence what pro-portion of the company’s shares are owned by the state, and what proportion are owned by private investors.
� e Self-Rule government would also like to underscore that should a decision to set up a state-owned Danish company be made, Greenland will not call for a proposed ‘time-out’ on the de-velopment of its mining industry to wait for the company to come online. Doing so would wreck our reputation in the eyes of the companies that have already sunk hundreds of millions of kroner into their own mining operations at the invitation of Greenland and the Danish state.
� e Greenlandic parliament recently passed a law relaxing certain regulations for mining companies establishing opera-tions in Greenland. � e Danish and the Greenlandic govern-ments agree that this law does not put the Kingdom of Denmark at odds with the rulings of the International Labour Organisa-tion (ILO). Speci� cally, the ILO’s core conventions on the right to organise and the right to engage in collective bargaining remain
G REENLAND’S Self-Rule government gath-ered last week to discuss statements by the oppo-
sition in the Danish parliament about the development of the Greenlandic mining industry.
We took note that a number of parties in the Danish parlia-ment are in favour of a state-owned company that would � -nance the development of mining operations in Greenland.
Denmark and Greenland are both supporters of open, fair and transparent international trade. Denmark and Greenland have pledged to uphold these three principles as signatories to a number of international agree-ments. Most recently, Greenland has entered into a letter of intent with the EU in which both sides agree to respect the principle of open and free trade. � at in-cludes an agreement not to enter into exclusive agreements with any country.
� e Self-Rule government welcomes Danish investment in Greenland’s mining industry.
No time for a time-out
Danes: Cameron’s EU speech sets new vision for Europe
Denmark has always followed Cameron’s ideal of ‘having their cake and eating it too’. It is en-tirely unrealistic to reduce regu-lations that damage competition in the single market, and at the same time allow more space for national di� erences at the po-litical and legislative level. � ese two things can never happen at the same time. � ere will never be a truly open market in Eu-rope while di� erent countries can choose to subsidise domes-tic products, impose taxes on imports, restrict free movement, have huge variations in taxation etc. Each model has pros and cons, but you have to choose.DanDansen By website
Christiania seeking to block bike path
Oh my god. � e incredible irony of saying that any construction next to Christiania has to be approved. On another note, a more direct route without hav-ing to bike through the centre of Christianshavn and over the road bridge would be most welcome. If Christiana gets to have a say
about where the city builds the path, then it’s more proof that the government here don’t have a backbone between them.Shu� emoomim By website
Immigration circus leaves theatre students in limbo
Nevermind that the simplest and best approach would be to grant (or rather not to deny!) anyone studying for a degree programme the right to work a part-time job. Dispensations, special permis-sions, prohibitions, according to whether you are out of EU or from the EU and all that red tape, over something as mundane as student work. It’s out of con-trol bureaucracy that pays not even lip service to rules of logic or common sense, not to speak of civil and human rights. Such is the state of legal immigration all over the world. Who is to say that Denmark cannot produce outstanding contributions to the tragicomedy?Loroferoz By website
Increased � nes a ”clear signal” that illicit sales to teens must stop
� is law is total bulls**t. You
must know that necessity is the mother of invention. If these minors need beer and ciga-rettes, they will de� nitely � nd a way. � ere are so many ways to buy them. If they cannot buy them now, they will have crav-ings and they will � ll it up by drinking and smoking more af-ter they turn 18. � e best way to encourage young people is to teach them some moral values. As a foreigner, I de� nitely can see Denmark needs to spend more time on moral values. � e whole of Denmark lacks it.Bhuiyan Jahan By website
‘Are the Danes racists?’
It is so absurd to use the word ‘racism’ to make headlines out of every sh***y article someone writes. Pro� ling and racism is not the same. Let’s say that 85 percent of all crimes and � ghts in night-clubs for the past ten years were started by Lithuanians. Now un-derstandably, most Danes would avoid clubs where Lithuanians like to hang out. Let’s say more and more clubs would start to re-fuse entry to Lithuanians. Would that be racism ? No.Raimondas BubububuBy website
Unfortunately, Kelly Draper chooses to misrepresent the prob-lem, which is actually what the book is about. � e book is not an examination of whether Danes are racist in the day-to-day sense Kelly Draper is talking about. � e book is a meta study on so-cial science: it examines all the lit-erature that has been written on the topic, and shows that there is a very strong tendency against ascribing racism to Danes. Un-scienti� c studies are quoted as if they are scienti� c studies, scien-ti� c studies are misquoted and scienti� c studies that do not come to the ‘politically correct’ conclusion, that Danes are rac-ist, are ignored. To those who do not know Denmark or Danes, I can assure them that racism is not a problem in Denmark (or less than most other places), but we do have a very harsh debate be-tween some people who want to strengthen ‘Danish values’ against interculturalists, and in this de-bate the ‘racist’ term is used a lot. � e problem is that foreigners overhear this and start thinking: “I’ve heard they are racist. I’d bet-ter not invite them to my parties; my daughter may meet one of them and fall in love.”Soh2 By website
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in the proposal to create a state-owned mining company: the customer. It’s not enough to just dig minerals up. Someone needs to buy them at competitive pric-es. Any Danish company that engages in mining operations will face the same commercial requirement.
� e Self-Rule government believes that changes to immi-gration regulations that would permit companies operating in Greenland to hire foreign labour should not be held hostage by politicians in Copenhagen. � is is too important for Greenland. � e Self-Rule government is call-ing on Danish lawmakers to re-spect Copenhagen’s agreements with Nuuk and accept the deci-sions made by Greenland’s demo-cratically elected legislature. We urge the Danish parliament to pass the required changes to im-migration regulations.
� e proposal to create a new mining company owned by the Danish state was not something that was discussed with the Self-Rule government ahead of time. Why not? Not doing so is in all likelihood a violation of the Self-Rule agreement between Denmark and Greenland, grants Greenland responsibility for its domestic a� airs. It’s not as if there hasn’t been a good opportunity. During the past month, the Self-Rule government has met with representatives of all the parties in the Danish parliament – with the exception of Dansk Folkepar-ti – to discuss the details of the mining law and its importance to Greenland.
� e author is the premier of Greenland
KUUPIK KLEIST
Missions accomplished?
BY THE END of next year, Denmark will – barring any international calamity – for the � rst time since 2002 be without a major contingent of ground troops deployed to
a combat zone. � e 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan marks the end of a
process that saw Denmark transformed from a peacekeeper – as a regular contributor to UN missions starting in the 1950s – to a peacemaker in the Balkan Wars, and � nally to regular combat-ant in the theatres of the current War on Terror.
� e missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have enjoyed inordi-nately high levels of support, but with the troops safely back on home soil, a self-examination of Denmark’s role as an aggressor nation is likely to begin in earnest.
� is is a process that has already begun to some extent in popular culture – as early as 2004, the � lm ‘Brothers’ looked at the cost of war on the aggressor nation. With demobilisation comes the freedom to speak freely about the value of sending armed forces into 21st century con� icts without fearing whether it will undermine support on the homefront and wreck battle-� eld morale. We should expect a frank discussion about what has gone on during the past 12 years, and not least what can be learned from it.
� e � rst calculation that must be made is the cold cost-ben-e� t analysis of whether Denmark (and the west) got more out of deploying troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan than it put into it – in terms of monetary cost, military lives lost or shattered and, most importantly, the e� ect it had on Afghans.
� is last � gure may be incalculable, but it is far from insig-ni� cant. It’s possible that some people in Afghanistan are better o� thanks to the e� orts of Denmark and the other NATO forc-es. But, with just two years left until Afghans are left to provide their own security, and with the Afghans looking increasingly capable of doing so, it’s entirely likely the country will be worse o� than it was when Western troops invaded.
For military planners, the impending failure in Afghanistan and the partial success in Iraq should also serve as lessons before heading into similar con� icts. � e nation’s newly-found faith in military intervention has already seen it send the military to assist in con� icts in Libya and now Mali. If the foreign minister gets his way, the next destination for Danish forces could well be Syria, should that country’s murderous regime be toppled.
Before voters agree to again put Danish soldiers in harm’s way for the Syrians or anyone else, they should ask themselves whether the Afghans are better o� now than they were 12 years ago.
Before parliament commits forces to new military coalitions, it should ask whether intervention is worse than nothing at all
91 - 7 February 2013 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK OPINION
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Özcan Arjulovski Stuart LynchTHE WORDS OF ÖZ THE LYNCH REPORT
Brick by BrickBY STEPHANIE BRICKMAN
Stephanie Brickman has recently made the hop across the North Sea from Scotland to live in Denmark with her distinctly un-Danish family. This 40-something mother, wife and superstar is delighted to share her learning curve, rich as it is with laughs, blunders and expert witnesses.
Tendai Tagarira is one of Africa’s most proli� c independent authors, having penned over 16 books. Also a � lmmaker and activist, he lives in exile in Denmark after receiving death threats from the Mugabe regime. He refuses to cut his hair until democracy reigns in Zimbabwe. Visit www.tendaitagarira.com for more.
Grain of SandBY TENDAI TAGARIRA
CPH POST VOICES
W HEN YOU came to live in Denmark, the chances are you arrived by air and so, like me, were greeted by
a sea of red and white � ags. From the oversized to the tiny, no Dane meeting a loved one at Copenhagen Airport would feel right about the occasion without a � ag in hand, even if they had only been to Aalborg for a night.
It’s like the ‘Dan’-everything thing. You know: Danbillet, Dantaxi, Danher-pes (OK, I made the last one up). � e ‘Dan’ pre� x and the � ag are everywhere.
So why is the Danish � ag so ubiq-uitous? To get an academic and an ex-pat perspective, I put the question to Dr Gary Schaub, a lecturer in politics at the University of Copenhagen who is originally from the US.
“In Denmark it seems that � ags are a symbol of Danish identity but one that goes beyond the state. It’s about culture,” he said. “It’s di� erent in the US where the � ag is a symbol of pledged unity to the idea of the United States. � e Danish attachment is to an expres-sion of group identity.”
We mused together over whether the association of the � ag with birth-
days celebrates the survival of a member of the ‘Dantribe’ for another year. Per-haps belonging to the group improves survival chances, making the � ag repre-sent an evolutionary advantage? Maybe we were just over-analysing things.
“I really don’t get � ags for sales in shops,” Schaub said, “I mean, birthdays are fair enough, but why Netto?”
“And why buses?” I added sagely.� e � rst time I saw little � ags on the
front of the buses in Copenhagen coin-cided with me receiving an email from my daughter’s school telling me it was national Lusedag. Speaking no Danish at the time, I brie� y wondered if there was a connection. � ankfully I found out it was head lice eradication day at the school before I wished anyone a Happy Lusedag.
I do feel slightly inadequate, having never had much in the way of feelings for the Union Flag. Admittedly it’s been a � ag-waving year in the UK, with the Olympics and the queen’s Jubilee. But aside from that, we don’t wave it all that much. It seems to have been cropping up in fashion and interiors more re-cently, but that’s just a passing phase. I don’t know anyone with a � agpole, and
it certainly would be unlikely to feature on a birthday cake.
Odd then, that when going to the airport to meet family I found myself seized by the desire to wave a � ag too. Unfortunately all I could � nd at home was a pair of Union Flag oven gloves in less than perfect condition, so I paid a visit to Dahl’s Flagfabrik at Nørreport. � ere in the midst of a dizzying variety of � ags of the world and helpful posters about how to choose the right � agpole for you, I had a chat with Brian Nielsen, who took me through Danish Flag 101.
Known as the Dannebrog, it’s the oldest � ag still in use by an independent nation, having allegedly fallen from the sky during the battle of Valdemar (also Lyndanisse) in Estonia in 1219. � ere
A � ag for every occasion (even Lusedag)are all the usual rules other � ags also have about not letting it touch the ground and folding it properly. Nielsen also told me it’s forbidden to � y the Dannebrog after nightfall, unless it’s illuminated, and you can’t � y any other � ag from a pole.
“� ere are no � ag police,” Nielsen added reassuringly. “� ere are regula-tions, but it’s not law.”
And why is the � ag everywhere?“We’re a proud little nation,” Niels-
en said.Having the � ag everywhere strips it
of some of its gravitas. In some places � ags are so laden with symbolism they cause riots. In Denmark they’re in the corner shop. And yet, rumour has it, when the Mohammed Cartoon Crisis was taking place and the Dannebrog was being burned in various countries, people here were actually upset.
Perhaps it’s a sign of Dani� cation that even I felt a brief pang of shock one day, walking down Nyhavn early in the morning. To the side of the pavement a dog had done what dog-gies do and someone had put four little cocktail stick � ags on the crest of each turd. Who knows, maybe it was Dan-dog’s birthday?
DIDN’T THE famous Danish thinker and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once say: “It is the duty of the human understand-
ing to understand that there are things that it cannot understand ...”
Art can therefore help us under-stand the world around us and gives us a unique opportunity to examine how artists view the world around them. For centuries, artists have left impressions of their world on rock paintings, stone sculpture and other mediums. Today these ancient artworks help us under-stand the bygone worlds of the Egyp-tian pharaohs, the Inca rulers or even Harold Bluetooth of Denmark.
Fast forward to the modern day, and artistic expressions still � nd them-selves on our street walls as gra� ti, as the artist is compelled to comment on the world around them. Other artistic expressions are commercialised and hung inside art galleries or the walls of someone who can a� ord them. Either way, art is still saying something about the society we live in.
On December 25, I taught a class in Aarhus on how civil society can use art
to understand what people are thinking and therefore help direct their civil ef-forts in an e� cient manner. � e confer-ence was organised by Civilsamfund i Udvikling (CISU), the mother organi-sation for Danish civil society, and was attended by hundreds.
Of course, not all art forms are of use to society. But some art forms rise to the occasion and question the status quo and therefore can not be ignored.
For instance, during apartheid in South Africa, a little known housemaid began to sing about the conditions of black South Africans under apartheid. Her name was Miriam Makeba.
“Everybody now admits that apart-heid was wrong, and all I did was tell the people who wanted to know where
I come from how we lived in South Af-rica,” Makeba famously said. “I just told the world the truth. And if my truth then becomes political, I cant do any-thing about that.”
Back in Makeba’s day, there was no internet and no Twitter. It took longer than today for news to travel around the world, but Makeba toured the whole world with her band, telling peo-ple about the condition of her people through music. Because she dared to tell this story, she was exiled from South Af-rica for nearly three decades.
Makeba’s songs give a quick and de-tailed lecture about South Africa during her time, more so than most modern day history books on the subject. Her songs and lyrics take us to the very heart of apartheid.
Without a doubt, civil society can not a� ord to ignore Makeba’s songs. Nor can they a� ord to ignore Pussy Riot in today’s Russia. Civil society can not ignore Nina Simone, Tupac Shakur, Mi-chael Jackson, Bob Dylan or Fela Kuti.
� ese artists all have something to say, but does society listen and take heed of their message? Many artists scream
Art and civil society – new perspectives and new narrativeswhile others whisper, but does society listen? It is easy to dismiss an artist as crazy or weird, but can civil society a� ord to ignore the message from the arts? Art can challenge our meanings, re� ect our thinking and improve our understanding.
Even the non-commercial art-formsthat are created to express, without regret,the graffi ti on our walls!� e funny pictures on our Facebook walls!the paintings in our cavesthe unknown painter, lone poet, singer, photographer,All have something to say!
So I say to the civil society:Look to the arts! For there you shall fi nd many answers and questions.Look to the arts, for there you willsee the ailment in society!Look to the arts, for there you mayfi nd the cure!Look to the arts, for there you willdiscover what society is thinking!Look to the arts, for there you will fi nd both questions and answers.
Kelly Draper Frank TheakstonYOU’RE STILL HERE? TO BE PERFECTLY FRANK
Sarita Rajiv Christian WenandeCHRISTIAN VALUESTHE BALANCING ACT
Justin Cremer Vivienne McKeeSTILL ADJUSTING CRAZIER THAN CHRISTMAS
In some places � ags are so laden with symbolism they cause riots; in Denmark they’re in the corner shop
Many artists scream while others whisper, but does society listen?
1 - 7 February 2013THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK10COMMUNITY
When there’s whisky in the bar – every Burns Night since 1801
“Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess,” the great man wrote. “I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve.” Dancing on the tables? We think he would have approved
Few events at this time of year encourage such an outpouring of human � esh, so it’s no wonder the tarts, sorry tartans, were out in force in such heavy numbers for yet another rousing celebration of Burns Night at the Dubliner on Strøget last week on Thursday. Featuring hairy knees protruding from bravely worn kilts, and servings of haggis washed down with pints of whisky, it was a grand night thanks to the e� orts of the Irish pub’s Scottish management team and the con-tinued support of the Diagio and Braunstein breweries. Scotland forever!
Leading the celebrations again was Scottish landlord Gus, pic-tured here with his daughter Amanda
The Scottish � ags were � ying proudly Freedom and whisky gang thegither! Mette Gorrissen and Natalie Harrisson were back again
Andrew would have been proudLouise Larsen appears to have been caught by surprise
Also enjoying a family night out were Doctor and his son Mass Danish Clouse was back again to lend some bellow to the bag-pipes
But if there was one patron exhibiting exquisite taste it was Di-ana Sore from Vienna
Proving it was a British Isles a� air were England’s John Bastick and Ireland’s Neil and Catherine Moore
Clearly enjoying the festivities were Grant from the Dubliner (right) and Ronnie Wilson (left)
The master of ceremonies was once again Angus Rollo (right)
PHOTOS: CLIVE THAINWORDS: BEN HAMILTON
1 - 7 February 2013 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK 11COMMUNITY
Belgium’s Tiny Maerschalk, who has worked for the International Community networking platform since its foundation in 2008, knows how it feels to settle in a new country. Dedicated to improving conditions for new arrivals, here she shares her insights about the issues that mean most to internationals in Denmark
LIVING IN AN EXPAT WORLD
It’s really not you – it’s them
AS I HAVE said before, I really � nd surveys about internationals in Den-
mark interesting. Once being a Young International Professional (YIP) myself, I was really curious about International Commu-nity’s recent survey about this speci� c group of internationals.
YIPs are characterised as young international knowl-edge workers who came here by themselves. Not surprisingly, they emphasise networking more than people who bring their family and are very inter-ested in connecting with other internationals as well as Danes.
And here it gets interest-ing. How do you connect with Danes? We all know the popular notions about Danes being cold, closed o� and that it is impos-sible to strike up a casual con-versation with the cashier at the grocery store or the lady in the elevator. We have probably all experienced that to some degree. In the beginning, I made the common mistake of thinking it was me – because I’m foreign. But it’s not me or you, it’s ac-tually them. It doesn’t matter if you are from Athens or Aarhus,
most Danes are just reserved.Danes don’t freely chat to
each other as you see many Americans do, and they don’t ask how you are doing. It’s just not who they are. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get closer to them eventually; you just need to be patient. Over time, they will come round.
� e YIP survey partici-pants recom-mend learning Danish, attend-ing social events and joining an association or doing volunteer work as great ways to develop a network out-side your o� ce and make your stay more enjoyable, and I can attest to that. When I joined Aarhus Sailing Club, I slowly made some progress with the Danes, and over time I made great friendships through the club. But beware; once Danes open up, they are really hard to get rid of again. � ey make friends for life.
� e survey also suggests that a ‘social buddy’ could be helpful
upon arrival, and I really wish someone had told me this ‘inside information’ when I � rst arrived and asked myself many questions about how to build up a new life here. It took me a while to set-tle and establish a network, and I was beginning to have second thoughts about my stay. For-tunately, I � gured out a way to
connect with the Danes and realised it wasn’t me as a foreigner they were clos-ing out.
If you are a Young Interna-tional Profes-sional in Den-mark, it may seem hard to establish a new network. � en
again, I guess it isn’t really that di� erent from any other country – here you just have to walk that extra mile outside o� ce hours when your colleagues go home and take care of their own. So get out there and join that event or club and make your stay here more gratifying. You might even end up with a Danish husband, kids and a house in Beder in-stead of Brussels.
COMING UP SOON� e Plant Hunters: Explorers, Botanists & Forgotten HeroesFolk Universitet, Niels Bohr Insti-tut, Blegdamsvej 17, Bldg D, Cph Ø; � u 17:15-19:00, starts Feb 14, ends March 14; www.fukbh.dk � is course, taught in English, will explain how our exotic house plants travelled across Asia, Aus-tralia and the Americas to � nd homes in European gardens.
Family and SuccessionLaw in DenmarkEuropean Professional Women’s Network Seminar, O� ces of Lund, Elmer and Sandager, Kalvebod Brygge 39-41, Cph K; Feb 20, 18:30-21:30; 150kr for non-members; register at www.epwn.etheryl.net/events/4382Lawyers Janne Køster and Pernille Ørskov team up with the European Professional Women’s Network to share their combined expertise about the challenges of border marriages and inheritance law.
Mindfulness course for expatsMBSR Course, Østerbrogade 56D, Cph Ø; eight-week course on Mondays, 18:30-21:00, not April 1, starts Feb 11; 4,500kr; contact Carina Lyall at [email protected] or 3142 4404; www.mindfulground.dkStressed-out expats can reclaim their calm and relaxation with a new mindfulness course in Eng-lish. � e course is 26 hours long overall, and the price includes training materials and an addi-tional all-day silent workshop on Sunday March 17.
Seminar: Why are the Danes so weird? Location TBA; Feb 11 17:00-20:00; sign up at www.expat-indenmark.com/events or email [email protected]; free adm, 100 kr no-show fee� is seminar, a collaboration of � e Copenhagen Post and Ex-pat in Denmark, o� ers insight to internationals working in Denmark, as well as to Danes looking to understand how strange they seem from the out-side. Studies show that around a third of the highly-skilled workers who move to Denmark are negatively surprised by the cultural di� erences. But what makes them so di� erent, and how do expats crack the code of Danish society? Speaker Dennis Nørmark, an anthropologist and chief consultant at Living Insti-tute, will address these questions at the event. A networking ses-sion after the seminar will take place from 19:00-20:00. Note that participation is free of charge, but sign-up is binding!
Stand-up comedy in English� e Dubliner, Amagertorv 5, Cph K;¸ Feb 7 19:00; advance tickets 90kr, at the door 120kr; call 3332 2226 for reservationsEnjoy stand up comedy (in Eng-lish) at � e Dubliner! � e line-up will feature Damian Clark, a native Australian who has writ-ten and performed in multiple television programmes, includ-ing ‘� e Apprentice: You’re Fired!’, and boasts two comedy awards under his belt.
Entrepreneurship andCreativity WorkshopBooks & Company, So� evej 1, Hel-lerup; Feb 20 19:00-21:00; 75kr; email [email protected] to sign upAn interesting and inspiring sem-inar on entrepreneurship.
Seriously Funny: Catalan Car-toon Humour under FrancoBooks & Company, So� evej 1, Hel-lerup, Feb 7 19:00-21:00; email [email protected] the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, dictator Francisco Franco’s regime sought to elimi-nate the public use of Catalan and promotion of the culture – and many of their cartoons went with it. Rhiannon McGlade, a PhD in Catalan political cartoons, will ex-amine examples of these cartoons and consider their underlying po-litical messages.
Forced Confessions – A Docu-mentary from IranCinemateket, Gothersgade 55, Cph K; Feb 2 16:45-18:45; 75kr, 65kr for Cinemateket members; tickets available at www.d� .dkIranian journalist and � lmmaker Maziar Bahari was forced to make a televised false confession of espionage in 2009, and now he has turned the experience into a documentary entitled Forced Confessions. � is event, hosted by the Danish Institute for In-ternational Studies, will feature an introduction from Bahari, a screening of the doc and a Q&A session with the audience. JESSICA HANLEY
The Venezuelan charge d’a� aire Roger Corbacho Moreno (centre holding a Danish � ag) was in � ne fettle last week on Wednesday hosting ‘Democracy Day’, a celebration of a concur-rent event in the South American country. Among those in attendance was Cuban ambas-sador Caridad Yamira Cueto Milian and her husband (far right)
The outgoing US ambassador Laurie S Fulton was among those attending the Danish pre-miere of ‘Lincoln’ on January 21. Pictured with her are Niels Knud Liebgott, the head of the Royal Chronological Collections at Rosenborg Slot, and Bryon C Andreasen, a visiting historian from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Illinois
The Egyptian Embassy last week on Friday celebrated the second anniversary of the Jan-uary 25 revolution. Among those in attendance were (left to right) Cuban ambassador Caridad Yamira Cueto Milian, Egyptian ambassador Nabil Habashi and his wife, and Ivory Coast ambassador Mina Marie Laurent-Baldé
The St Andrew Society of Denmark (� nd out more at www.skotsk.dk) celebrated Burns Night on Saturday (see page 10 for details of another, more riotous celebration two days earlier at the Dubliner) at Den Gyldne Okse in Vanløse. The occasion included haggis, kilts whisky and the bagpipes – the great Scottish poet wouldn’t have stood for anything less
The India Embassy celebrated its republic day on Saturday with speeches and delicacies, followed by a traditional � ag-raising ceremony in the embassy garden. Pictured here, Indian ambassador Ashok Kumar Attri is addressing those in attendance
The French and German embassies held a joint celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, a conciliatory agreement between the nations in 1963 to draw a line under past di� erences, at Skt Petri Church, followed by a reception. Pictured here (left-right) are French ambassador Veronique Bujon-Barre, German ambassador Michael Zenner, organ player Heinrich Walther and Indian ambassador Ashok Kumar Attri
Danes don’t freely chat to each other as you see many Americans do, and they don’t ask how you are doing. It’s just not who they are
ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATEDPHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
1 - 7 February 2013THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK12
SPAIN LED FROM start to � nish as Denmark � nished up on the wrong end of the most lopsided game in World Handball Championship � -nal history, losing 19-35 on Sunday night. � e Danes are now zero for three in world � -nals. � e Danish coach, Ulrik Wilbek, was so stunned by the horrendous performance – the biggest defeat of his illustrious career – that he didn’t show up to the post-match press confer-
ence, drawing criticism from his Spanish counterpart. � e Danish Handball Federation contended that he was ill, but when questioned about it on the following day, Wilbek lost the plot, furiously berating the reporter. On a night when it all went wrong for Denmark, they can look back on one positive at least. Winger Anders Eggert � nished the tournament as top goal scorer with 55 goals.
AHEAD OF THE closure of the international transfer win-dow on � ursday, rumours continue to persist that defend-er Jores Okore will leave FC Nordsjaelland. Fulham is the current favourite to sign him. Meanwhile, in other news, the national futsal side have won their � rst ever Euro quali� er, beating Albania 4-2, and AGF Aarhus is reportedly on the verge of signing a partnership deal with Manchester City.
FC COPENHAGEN young-ster Andreas Cornelius scored a hat-trick on Saturday as a Danish League select side beat their Canadian counterparts 4-0 in Arizona. Kasper Lor-entzen was the other scorer. Cornelius, who has scored 14 goals in his debut Superliga season and is rumoured to be a transfer target of both Arsenal and AC Milan, was due to face a Mexican League select team on Wednesday evening.
Danes lose dignity, Wilbek his temperSame old story for Okore Cornelius canes Canadians
SPORTS NEWS IN BRIEF
T HEY CALLED him ‘� e Great Dane’. Which isn’t too surprising consider-ing the number of sport-
ing records Morten Andersen broke during his 30-year NFL career as a kicker.
You name it, he’s done it. Not only is Andersen the all-time leading scorer in NFL his-tory, but he also has one of the most successful � eld goal con-version rates.
While the 52-year-old nar-rowly missed out on the NFL Hall of Fame this year, it was only his � rst year of eligibility for a place, and he is strongly tipped to be included soon as only the fourth kicker in NFL history, and unsurprisingly the � rst Dane.
Nevertheless, despite his legendary status in the game, Andersen is quick to con� rm he is a mere mortal. “You know,” Andersen told the Copenhagen Post from his o� ce in Atlanta in the kind of admission you might more normally expect
from a character in ‘� e O� ce’ sitcom. “I always liked languag-es. For a long time I wanted to be a translator.”
Not quite the type of com-ment you would expect from the only man to hold a career sta-tistical franchise record for two NFL teams (New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons).
And it gets worse. According to the all-time points scorer in the NFL, who on 565 occasions held his nerve to kick a � eld goal, his career boiled down to one factor: luck!
According to Andersen, his American Dream was one he sleepwalked into. When he moved to the US as an exchange student to attend the Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, he had no plans or ambitions to be-come an NFL success story. He hadn’t even kicked an American football before.
Andersen was raised in the rural Jutland town of Struer, where he had showed promise in athletics − particularly the long jump, gymnastics and handball.
“Of all those sports, I was by far the best at handball,” Anders-en explained. “I lacked the speed and technique to really succeed at soccer but had the physique, power and jumping ability to thrive within handball.”
A handball player who knew how to kick a ball is hardly the
Big game special: The Great Dane on staying sane in retirement
Ahead of the Super Bowl this Sunday, we catch up with Morten Andersen, the all-time leading NFL points scorer, to discuss the highs and lows of one of the sport’s most enduring careers
background you would expect from a man who was two days short of becoming the oldest NFL player to play pro ball.
“It was all down to luck,” Andersen admitted. “And that’s not false modesty. I’d never kicked a pigskin until I arrived in America. It just turned out I was quite good at it.”
“Quite good” would end up being somewhat of an under-statement. After joining his high school’s football team, Andersen and his team went on to win 12 out of 13 games, catching the eyes of lurking scouts.
“Had it not been for that scholarship o� er from the Mich-igan State scout, I’d simply have gone back to Denmark,” An-dersen said. “So yeah, like I said. Total luck.”
Luck may have launched An-dersen’s career, but he was on his own when it came to adapting to the culture shock that lay ahead of him. Drive-thrus, TV dinners, pick-up trucks and the faster pace of life were all things that caught Andersen completely o� guard.
“Everything was basically the opposite of Denmark,” An-dersen explained. “I really got into trouble at my high school prom, for example. I didn’t re-alise you were only supposed to bring one date. So I brought several. � at didn’t go down so well.”
Dating aside, there were dif-ferences within American sports that Andersen noticed immedi-
ately − ones he was not overly enthused in adopting.
“� e competitive aspect of sport is on a whole other level here in the States,” Andersen said. “Here, the result is what always seems to matter at the end of the day. � e process and quality of the experience seems to somehow get lost.”
It’s a truth that seems to be as relevant today as it was when An-dersen began playing professional football. Only last year, it was revealed that Andersen’s previ-ous employers, the New Orleans Saints, who he left in 1994, had a lucrative ‘bounty system’ in place in which players could win thousands of dollars should they injure their opposition players enough to leave the pitch.
“People get so lost in win-ning that everything else seems to be thrown out of the win-dow,” Andersen explained. “In Denmark, on the other hand, you play sports together to so-cialise and have fun. But that’s not the case in America, and it’s the kids who ultimately su� er from that. My own included.”
While Andersen is raising his family in Georgia, he maintains strong ties with Denmark, par-ticularly in his work to support Denmark’s højskole programmes to encourage the country’s youth to mingle together while pro-moting a healthy lifestyle.
“� ese programmes are not only physically healthy but mentally, too,” Andersen said.
BJARKE SMITH-MEYER “Competition is much less of a factor in that scenario and that’s why I’m particularly hopeful that my kids will go to Den-mark at some point.”
And maybe Andersen, as well. “I’d kill for some herring and schnapps,” he confessed. “But forget the cold and dark winters. No-one wants that.”
Andersen’s departure from the Saints, where he had become surplus to requirements, was a low point in the Dane’s career. Few then would have guessed that he would go on to play for another 14 years.
Twelve years of service to the Saints, in which he had amassed a record breaking 1,318 points including 302 � eld goals, and been selected for six Pro Bowls, was suddenly all forgotten. ‘Mr Automatic’ was on his way out.
“� e Saints made a huge mistake letting me go,” Andersen said de� antly. “But they paid for that. After the Atlanta Falcons signed me, we went on to beat the Saints ten times in a row.”
And to really rub it in, An-dersen became the � rst player in NFL history to kick three � eld goals of over 50 yards in a single game − against none other than the Saints in December 1995.
But age waits for no man, not even the Great Dane. After 30 years, it was time to hang up his kicking boots. Andersen struggled to cope.
“It felt like dealing with death,” Andersen explained. “I
had to see a therapist to help me through it. I’m okay now. But there was a big void that had to be � lled.”
� is is a well-documented struggle for many athletes, who often su� er from depression and a sense of loss once they leave their focused and regimented lives as sportspeople. Andersen was no di� erent.
“Structure just falls away,” he said. “Suddenly, every day is Saturday. � en boredom starts to creep in. And when you can’t satisfy that boredom, you quick-ly become depressed with life and very irritable, which then af-fects everyone else around you.”
Nowadays, Andersen has managed to � ll that void by go-ing into business and becoming a family man. We asked if he has embraced the average American way of life after all.
“Not completely,” Andersen insisted. “I’m determined to en-sure that my household’s family culture stays as Danish as ever. � ere are no TV dinners in my house. � ere’s no way I’ll let that consumer culture take over my Danish values.”
Looking to the future, the former handball player remains open-minded and trusts in fate.
“� roughout my career I al-ways let the game play me, not the other way around,” he said. “I may have retired from the NFL, but that won’t change my philos-ophy. If anything, I’ll just let life play me like the game did.”
SPORTS
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Fact� le | Morten Andersen
Records: • Points in a career: 2,544• Games played: 382• Consecutive games on the scoresheet: 360• Field goals: 565• Field goal attempts: 709
Pro Bowl Records:• Points: 45• Field goals: 10• Appearances by a kicker: 7
Honours:• � ree time All Pro (1st Team)• Seven time Pro Bowl• 1986 and 1995 Golden Toe Award• NFL 1980s All-Decade Team• NFL 1990s All-Decade Team• New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame• Waleter Camp All-Century Team (college)
Super Bowl appearance:Losing � nalist with the Atlanta Falcons to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII.
1 - 7 February 2013 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK 13BUSINESS
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Price in kroner for one unit of foreign currency Date: 30 January 2013
T HE CENTRE-RIGHT political wing is looking to privatise the state-owned energy provider,
DONG Energy.� e former government, led
by Venstre (V) and Konserva-tive (K), was forced to drop a 2008 plan to list the company on the stock exchange after the � nancial crisis took hold, but V now wants DONG to be listed publicly, provided that the state maintains a controlling stake in the company.
“We can easily see the per-spective in gaining capital and knowledge from the outside by having DONG listed at the right time. It will give the company an opportunity to grow when people have their own money at stake,” V’s � nancial spokesperson Peter Christensen told Berlingske newspaper. “But it’s important that the state remains in control.”
While Christensen and V don’t want the state to lose the controlling stake and let DONG fall into foreign hands, opposi-tion libertarian party Liberal Al-liance (LA) believes that DONG should be completely privatised – particularly given the com-pany’s many failed investments.
“All companies can make poor investments, but the trou-ble is that Danes are forced to invest in DONG through taxes. Danes should be free to choose whether to invest in DONG,” Ole Birk Olesen, a LA spokes-person, told Børsen newspaper. “� e losses aren’t just DONG’s losses, but the taxpayers’ too. Private ownership is a clear ad-vantage.”
Last week, the state audi-tor’s o� ce, Rigsrevisionen, pub-lished a scathing report about DONG’s investments and criti-cised the passive role of the Fi-nance Ministry in overseeing the company. DONG’s continued plight has also a� ected its over-all value, down from 70 billion kroner in 2008 to 35 billion kroner today – a situation that was compounded recently when energy regulators ruled that the transportation tari� s charged by Denmark’s leading energy com-pany were too steep.
According to one � nancial
analyst, DONG won’t be ready for a listing on the stock exchange for another couple of years.
“DONG needs to turn around the negative develop-ments and reach stable and solid pro� ts,” Jacob Pedersen, a � nan-cial analyst from Sydbank, told Berlingske. “At the same time, the stock market needs to have been stable for at least one year, so we’re talking earliest 2015, though 2016 or 2017 is more realistic.”
But despite DONG’s ongo-ing troubles, the government has said that it has no plans to priva-tise the company.
“I haven’t seen any strong ar-gument for privatising DONG,” John Dyrby Paulsen, a spokes-person for Socialdemokraterne (S), told Berlingske.
Berlingske newspaper has uncovered a number of dubi-ous DONG investments since 2010 that have attracted criti-cism from Rigsrevisionen. Five of the largest failed moves that have cost DONG and the state billions of kroner are:
Investments in gas-powered plants (about fi ve billion kroner)In its last two annual reports alone, DONG has recorded losses of two billion kroner for its gas-powered plants. � e low prices of coal and CO2 resulted in gas-powered plants being less pro� table than coal-powered plants. Some 2.9 billion kroner has also been lost to unpro� table
Opposition: Privatise DONGGovernment has rejected listing the nation’s energy providers despite � ve years of failed investments, while one expert suggests that the time is not right
DONG’s investments in gas-powered plants have cost the company approximately fi ve million kroner
gas stockpiling contracts.
Scrapped coal plant in Greif-swald (about 1.1 billion kroner)Plans to establish a coal plant in Greifswald, Germany had to be dropped late in the project phase. DONG con� rmed losses of around one billion kroner, but never revealed the precise number in its accounts.
Fibre-optic broadband (1.5 billion kroner)A � bre-optic broadband project ended up costing DONG over 800 million kroner in losses. It then sold the project o� to TDC for 600 million kroner less than what it had invested in it.
Inbicon (about 0.5 billion kroner)DONG ventured into bio-eth-anol with the Inbicon plant in Kalundborg – the � rst plant in the world able to make bio-etha-nol from straw. DONG’s invest-ment is considered a write-o� because the plant won’t produce commercially.
Better Place (about 0.2 billion kroner)DONG admitted that it hasn’t seen any pro� t from its 200 mil-lion kroner investment in the embattled Better Place electric car project and stated recently it would not invest more money into the company, although it would keep its 17 percent stake in the company.
CHRISTIAN WENANDE
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S INCE state-owned rail operator DSB took over the operation of the co� ee
trolleys on the company’s trains, they have produced an annual de� cit of between 86 and 115 million kroner each year, BT tabloid reports.
� e combined loss since 2004 to operate the trolleys that sell co� ee, drinks, sandwiches, magazines and candy have now nearly reached one billion kroner.
� e Transport Ministry has released a statement saying that salaries are the major cause of the de� cit.
According to Anette Hau-gaard, the head of rail opera-tions at DSB, the annual sala-ries of up to 475,000 kroner paid to those who push the glo-ri� ed mobile kiosks through the trains are breaking the bank.
“We have streamlined this area in the past few years, but it’s just not possible to sell kiosk
products from small trolleys us-ing a sta� who are much more expensive than the sta� in a ki-osk,” Haugaard told BT.
DSB is considering cutting its losses by closing the carts on all but the longest trips.
DSB is currently more than 17 billion kroner in the red, and political leaders are lining up to take pot shots at a train steward salary that is higher than what many police o� cers and nurses are paid.
“I am con� dent that in a few years DSB will show a pro� t,” Radikale tra� c spokes-person Andreas Steenberg told BT. “� e carts have shown a 925 million kroner loss in eight years. � ey look like an obvious place to start.”
Haugaard said the stewards do more than just sell co� ee, like checking tickets and pro-viding security.
“Our sta� put in a tremen-dous e� ort,” she told TV2 News. “� ey are not the problem.”
Professor Casper Rose from Copenhagen Business School said it is a major failing by DSB’s leadership to allow the de� cit to grow so large.
“I do not believe a private company would have stood by and worked up such a loss,” Rose told BT.
Several have suggested that DSB could outsource the cof-fee trolleys and let them be operated by a private contrac-tor. DSB has contacted several potential partners, but has yet to � nd a taker.
“We have not been able to � nd an external partner who will operate under the current condi-tions,” Haugaard told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “We are no worse than many other train companies; nobody is showing a pro� t, but we believed that our customers and the politicians ex-pected us to have goods to pur-chase on the trains.”
DSB has engaged in several � ring rounds over the past few years and has asked its remain-ing workers to combine tasks in an attempt to reduce its de� cit.
Haugaard said that the wages currently paid to the trol-ley operators was negotiated between DSB and the union Dansk Jernbaneforbund. She said negotiations concerning DSB employee wages were on-going, but she declined to spec-ulate on whether wages would come down.
She said that for the carts to turn a pro� t, the operators would have to earn a wage simi-lar to the one paid to a worker in a regular kiosk.
Huge annual co� ee trolley losses add to DSB’s � nancial woes
Rail operator tempted to discontinue snacks and beverages sales after nearly a decade of losses fuelled in part by the 475,000 kroner annual salary of senior attendants
RAY WEAVER
1 - 7 February 2013The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dkCulture14
If you were to say he was Den-mark’s version of Dick Clark, you wouldn’t be far off. Start-ing at the age of 16, and for the past 50 years, de Mylius has been the nation’s leading radio and TV host. He is best known for hosting eleven Danish na-tional qualifiers (1978-88) for the Eurovision Song Contest.
So that makes him 66. What has he done lately? Fans of Eurovision will have seen him during Saturday’s Danish national qualifier. Al-though he’s long since given up the stage to the scantily clad women demanded by to-day’s viewer, his opinion of what songs have hit potential is still widely respected. As a jury member, his vote went to the
eventual winner.He started at 16? like in his basement?His first involvement with radio was public broadcaster DR’s newly-created popular radio station P3. De Mylius, then an avid listener of radio broadcasts from the UK and pirate stations like Radio Lux-embourg, wrote to the station less than a month after it took to the airwaves on 1 January 1963, complaining about its selection of music. He was later interviewed on the air and then hired to host his own show, ‘Efter skoletid’ (after school), which he used to popularise names like The Beatles, Pat Boone, Cliff Richard and Elvis. He’s been on DR’s payroll ever since, having hosted any num-ber of TV and radio shows dealing with music, including a chart show, which he is cred-ited with popularising here.
Sounds like a match made in heaven.Nowadays, de Mylius comes off as being squeaky clean, but like any long-term relationship, he and DR had their problems. In the ‘60s he was rejected by conservative voices at DR, who didn’t consider rock to be music. On the other hand, he was the subject of protests by those on the cultural left, who sought to get him fired because
he didn’t play enough politi-cally orientated music. He also said he frequently violated DR regulations by airing certain songs he knew were popular abroad, but weren’t permitted on the air in Denmark due to licensing restrictions. In the early days, he recalls having to bring his own records because DR didn’t have copies of some of the most popular albums.
Does he try to keep up with modern music?In a recent radio interview, he said he tried to keep up and admitted he didn’t like most of what he heard. At the same time, though, he said the les-son he learned as a teenager fighting against preconceived adult notions made him un-willing to reject the value of any form of music.
So no embarrassing public ef-forts to stay young? Even though he says he’s got no plans to retire, he admits that he’s not young anymore. He still has two weekly ra-dio programmes, but they are marketed towards the same listeners who listened to him back in the ‘60s. Even though musically he sticks to his own generation, in his personal life, he’s not so strict. His wife is 17 years his junior – something he credits with keeping him lively.
leading the way, Danish actors have of late carved out a niche playing villains – in Mikkels-en’s case, very often with one eye! Later this year, ‘One-Eyed Mads’ is set to become a house-hold name in the US playing the title character in the forth-coming NBC series ‘Hannibal’ about the serial-killing doctor
The Brits aren’t the only ones who tend to be type-cast as a villain – the Danes have that problem too. But all that might be about to change
Hector Martin
A POTENTIAL new agreement between na-tional state broadcaster DR and American TV
network HBO will lead to less Danish actors being typecast as the villain, according to Gunhild Agger, a media researcher from Aalborg University.
Agger believes the as-yet unsigned agreement, which ac-cording to a report in Politiken will see the broadcasters co-producing a drama that will star equal proportions of both Dan-ish and English-speaking actors, will enable domestic performers to play a greater variety of roles in dramas seen by a considerably larger audience.
“When starring in American movies, Danish actors tradition-ally get cast as the villain,” Ag-ger told The Copenhagen Post. “If a future co-production with HBO has a set division of Amer-ican and Danish characters, this is what it will take to give the Danes a chance to prove their worth in America not just play-ing ‘the bad guy’.”
With Mads Mikkelsen
How One-Eyed Mads and co look set to break the mould
from the Thomas Harris novels. Additionally, Mikkelsen
played the main Bond villain in ‘Casino Royale’, a franchise that Ulrik Thomsen (‘The World is not Enough’) and Jesper Chris-tensen (‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Quantum of Solace’) have also appeared in as adversaries of the English agent. Meanwhile,
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Who is … Jørgen De Mylius?
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to be fair, Coster-Waldau (seen here in ‘Game of Thrones’) had a crack at playing a hero in the uS series ‘New Amsterdam’, but it was rubbish
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (‘Game of Thrones’) and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (‘Angels & Demons’) are also well-established villains stateside.
“They have a slight Danish accent, which is almost impos-sible to eliminate,” Agger ex-plained. “Therefore it usually seems much more obvious for
the American producers to offer them the roles of the villain in-stead of the hero, when they are looking for new actors for their productions.”
According to Politiken, HBO has actually asked the Danish scriptwriters to come up with an idea for a TV drama with a similar narrative form and aes-thetics to ‘The Killing’. The plan is to show the new TV series both on the American cable channel and on its Scandinavian stream-ing service, HBO Nordic, which was launched in December. In Agger’s opinion, a co-production in both the English and Danish languages will be a unique chance for Danish TV drama to reach a much broader audience.
“Normally it is extremely difficult to enter the American TV market. They prefer remak-ing the international TV series they buy, like they did with ’The Killing’,” Agger said. “A co-oper-ation will provide Danish actors with a lot of exposure.”
However, she warned that it might be difficult to repeat the winning formula of ‘The Killing’.
“They need to be careful to not lose the innovative thinking that has become a trademark of Danish TV drama,” she said.
“The question is whether it will still be able to do this while adapting to the co-operation with their American business partner.”
Normally it is extremely difficult to enter the American TV market
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1 - 7 February 2013 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK 15
MARK WALKER
There aren’t many people who can claim to have died in a place that bears their name, but this country’s second most distinguished children’s writer is one of them
O N THE evening of 23 March 1979, a teacher stopped by a small wa-tering hole in Stenderup
− a tiny village in East Jutland. After consuming his consider-able � ll of alcohol, he braved the walk home. Despite the month, winter was still in full swing with freezing tempera-tures, bitter winds and icy roads to contend with. � e alcohol in full e� ect and the warmth of the bar quickly leaving him, he soon became desperate to � nd shelter. Only a church stood nearby. He approached it, but on closer in-spection the teacher found the church to be closed and despite his best e� orts, he could not gain entrance. Tired and unsteady, he went around the church to � nd a shortcut home. He was met by snow drifts that prevented him from reaching his house. It was on the lawn outside the church that a gravedigger found the teacher’s body the next morning, frozen. � ere were marks on the church door where the teacher had tried to kick and claw his way in. Furthermore, the grave-digger recognised the body, tell-ing his wife that he thought it was the famous writer Ole Lund Kirkegaard.
Born in Aarhus in 1940, he was just 38 years of age when he succumbed to hyperthermia that night. He had only enough time to grace us with 13 of his books, which were exclusively written for children, but this was enough to secure his reputation as one of Denmark’s, if not the world’s, greatest children’s authors. He left a legacy of cherished works (both written and illustrated)
that will remain in circulation for generations to come and whose reputation in Denmark is rivalled only by those of the great Hans Christian Andersen. Many of the books have been translated into several languages, while several − including ‘Lille Virgil’ (‘Little Virgil’), ‘Gummi-Tarzan’ (‘Rubber-Tarzan’), ‘Otto er et næsehorn’ (‘Otto is a Rhi-no’), ‘Albert’ and most recently ‘Orla Frøsnapper’ (‘Orla Frog-snapper’) − have been adapted for the screen.
It all began in June 1966 with an open invite from Poli-tiken newspaper to determine “Who can write the best short story for children aged seven to 15?” Already a teacher at that point, Ole won the competition with ‘Dragen’ (Dragon) and fol-lowed it up with ‘Lille Virgil’, starting a long line of success-ful publications. He remained a teacher until 1977 (after which he went on the road to lecture) and often read out loud his own writing for the pupils, but it was perhaps a strange profession for one who, as a pupil himself, had grown up disillusioned with the school system.
Indeed, many of the antago-nists in Kirkegaard’s stories are school teachers or schoolyard bullies. � e answer lies in the allegiance he felt towards his pu-pils; in many ways, he was one of them − rather than a member of the adult world. In fact, much of the con� ict that occurs in his books is fuelled by clashes that occur between the regimented adult world and the curious cha-os of childhood. He once said of his work, “My main motivation is describing the relationship be-tween child and adult.”
In perhaps his most celebrat-ed work, ‘Gummi-Tarzan’, dur-ing a face-o� between a teacher and pupil, we � nd particular contempt for “those who have completely forgotten how it is to be small and scared”. � e story of ‘Gummi-Tarzan’ is a
classic example of the themes, characters and (crucially) the humour that occur in most of his books: Ivan is a short, weedy loner, he’s constantly bullied by other kids because he’s dyslexic (a condition Kirkegaard him-self su� ered from), he can’t spit very far and he has no interest in playing football. To top it all, his father is angry that his stupid, puny son is nothing like his idol Tarzan and accordingly refers to him as ‘rubber Tarzan’. When Ivan meets a witch, she grants him one wish. Without hesita-tion he uses it to take his revenge on all who have wronged him.
Certainly it would seem that Kirkegaard posits himself as someone who gives voice to the underdog or the loser. He empowers the weak, the lonely and the unloved. All of his characters exist on the periphery of society, often repre-senting the anarchic elements of nature in opposition to the rig-orous structures of the imposing adult world. He rallies against notions of normality, conventional-ism and all those who have forgotten how it is to be a child and be full of curiosity and wonder. Often he gives the grown-ups a taste of their own medicine, and he has a particular knack for exposing the absurdi-ties and ridiculous con-tradictions of adult behaviour.
One might be forgiven for imagin-ing Kirkegaard’s own upbringing was par-ticularly strict, but that wasn’t apparently the case. He had liberal par-ents, Neils and Ellen, who gave him
a long leash at home. He was al-lowed to do many things that others in the neighbourhood were forbidden to do: their gar-den was at his disposal and he freely climbed the trees, carved totem poles and once built a miniature circus. � ey lived in a small town 25km outside of Aarhus, and his writings indi-cate a nostalgic fondness for these smaller communities and their inhabitants. � e teachers often get a rough ride, but other public servants such as priests, � remen and doctors are rep-resented as kind people who
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would freely give of their time. � e chief of police in ‘Otto is a Rhino’ is one such example.
While his works are brim-ming with playful humour, there’s an un- deniable m e l a n - c h o l y
that pervades each one. At the time of his death, Kirkegaard had, for only three months pri-or, been separated from his wife, Anne Lise, with whom he had two young daughters. Since the split and giving up teaching, his drinking had increased, and al-though rumours of suicide were
quickly dismissed, the impression one
gets is t h a t of a
s e n s i -tive man who fell foul of his own shadow.
As well as actually dying
in a kirkegaard, it is ironic that he him-self should die quite literally as an out-sider who for the � rst time wanted to get inside, in a small village of around 400 inhab-
itants, much like the ones he a� ectionately
wrote about. But un-like in one of his books,
there was unfortunately no kindly public servant to come to Kirkegaard’s
aid that night in 1979 to rescue him in
the same man-ner he would have surely a� orded one of his protago-nists.
DENMARK THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
The bitter-sweet life of a writer who gave schoolyard bullies their just desserts
Ole Lund Kirkegaard wrote 13 books – given the circumstances of his death, it proved to be an unlucky number Kirkegaard took inspiration from his time at school: both as a pupil and a teacher
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