Liberal Party has risen markedly since the last election, and will probably give them important roles in the formation of the next government. But their rise has come at a cost. e government’s main party, the Liberals, as well as the Social Democrats and the So- cialist People’s Party – who would form a coalition government together should the Social Dems win – are all failing to excite voters who are increasingly aban- doning them for the smaller parties. e reasons remain hidden amidst the fog of the media coverage, whose analysis of every twist and turn in the election run-up has only served to com- promise the integrity of some politicians. Villy Søvndal, the leader of the So- cialist People’s Party, suffered this week- end when he attempted to differentiate his party’s immigration policies from the Social Dems. He eventually withdrew his demand to abolish the 24-year rule after the coalition’s first term in office, and the two parties issued a joint press release de- claring their shared ambitions to change immigration policy. Søvndal’s policy of seeking consensus between the two parties on immigration, rather than raising his own party’s profile at the expense of the coalition, seems to have weakened the position of the soft- spoken and sympathetic former school teacher and his party. But while the pub- lic indecision of the Socialist People’s Party could explain their fall in the polls (down by between two and three per- cent since the 2007 election, depending on the poll), the silence from the Liber- als seems to be having a similar effect on their position. e prime minister, meanwhile, has been conspicuously absent from the media spotlight since the start of the election, leading experts to speculate whether it is a conscious strategy to al- low his opponents to talk themselves into the ground. If it is, it does not seem to be working, so should the Liberals really fancy remaining in power after, they have plenty of work to do in the final week of campaigning. 9 - 15 September 2011 | Vol 14 Issue 36 Golden Days is here to test your faith Open air market opens its doors G2 10 Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk BUSINESS TO BUSINESS MEETING IN DENMARK AND SWEDEN EVENTS OF ENTERPRISE MAURITIUS: DATE: 12 SEPTEMBER • VENUE: BELLASKYE HOTEL, COPENHAGEN DATE: 13-14 SEPTEMBER • VENUE: DANISH FASHION & TEXTILE INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION IN HERNING BIRK, CENTREPARK 38, 7400, HERNING DATE: 15-16 SEPTEMBER • VENUE: SCANDIC HOTEL, BORAS CITY, SWEDEN • TIME: 09:00-17:00 United Kingdom Contact: Mr. Phil Clement • Email: [email protected] • Mobile: +447766107025 Mauritius Contact: Mr. Kavi Boojhawon • Email: [email protected] • Mobile: +2309121415 • www.enterprisemauritius.biz Unique opportunity to meet reliable and flexible apparel manufacturers from Mauritius in Denmark and Sweden! SPORT Footballers keep Euro 2012 dreams alive with crucial win 14 NEWS If you thought it rained a lot this summer, you were right 3 Global competitiveness key to Denmark’s future OPINION | 8 AmCham Denmark’s executive director says Denmark needs to improve business climate Macbeth’s full of sound and fury but signifying nothing CULTURE | 18 Imaginative in places, this version of e Scottish Play is hampered by its tiny stage, ponderous delivery and tame fight scenes Price: 25 DKK Despite divisions, opposition remains poised for power As the election heads into its final week, centre-left’s chances of winning appear unaffected by internal disagreements F LIP-FLOPPING on the left and an eerie quiet on the right – the Danish election has been through a strange second week that ended with polls suggesting Helle orning- Schmidt will still lead the Social Demo- crats to victory, albeit with their lowest number of seats in 100 years. While the polls don’t all agree – some put the Social Democrats ahead of the PM’s Liberals while others have them neck and neck – what they all seem to suggest is that support for the ultra-left Red-Green Alliance and centrist Social PETER STANNERS SCANPIX More election coverage inside Growing pains in the opposition camp this week, as Socialist People’s Party seeks to come out from under the shadow of its ally, the Social Democrats. See also our profiles of the parties making up the gov- ernment and its allies. Pages 4-5. VoksenUddannelsescenter Frederiksberg Falstervej 3-5 • 2000 Frederiksberg • Telefon 3815 8500 • www.vuf.nu DANISH FOR FOREIGNERS Intensive courses for well educated foreigners Contact our counsellors by phone 3815 8521 We look forward to seeing you Sign up now! EXPAT FAIR COPENHAGEN CONNECTING WITH SPORTS! BEHIND THE SCENES! ACTIVE ARTS AND CULTURE! THE VALUE OF EDUCATION! *ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT* 13 SEPTEMBER 2011 • 15:30 - 18:30 THE CITY HALL Advertising section INSIDE! Even though Denmark has yet to experience a terrorist attack, 9/11 has left its mark on the country, politically as well as pyschologically 6 9/11 ten years on
Transcript
Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk
Price: 25 DKK
Liberal Party has risen markedly since the last election, and will probably give them important roles in the formation of the next government.
But their rise has come at a cost. � e government’s main party, the Liberals, as well as the Social Democrats and the So-cialist People’s Party – who would form a coalition government together should the Social Dems win – are all failing to excite voters who are increasingly aban-doning them for the smaller parties.
� e reasons remain hidden amidst the fog of the media coverage, whose analysis of every twist and turn in the election run-up has only served to com-promise the integrity of some politicians.
Villy Søvndal, the leader of the So-cialist People’s Party, su ered this week-end when he attempted to di erentiate
his party’s immigration policies from the Social Dems. He eventually withdrew his demand to abolish the 24-year rule after the coalition’s � rst term in o� ce, and the two parties issued a joint press release de-claring their shared ambitions to change immigration policy.
Søvndal’s policy of seeking consensus between the two parties on immigration, rather than raising his own party’s pro� le at the expense of the coalition, seems to have weakened the position of the soft-spoken and sympathetic former school teacher and his party. But while the pub-lic indecision of the Socialist People’s Party could explain their fall in the polls (down by between two and three per-cent since the 2007 election, depending on the poll), the silence from the Liber-als seems to be having a similar e ect on
their position.� e prime minister, meanwhile,
has been conspicuously absent from the media spotlight since the start of the election, leading experts to speculate whether it is a conscious strategy to al-low his opponents to talk themselves into the ground. If it is, it does not seem to be working, so should the Liberals really fancy remaining in power after, they have plenty of work to do in the � nal week of campaigning.
9 - 15 September 2011 | Vol 14 Issue 36
Golden Days is here to test your faith
Open air market opens its doors
G2 10
Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk
Business to Business meeting in Denmark and Sweden
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unique opportunity to meet reliable and flexible apparel manufacturers from mauritius in Denmark and sweden!
SPORT
Footballers keep Euro 2012 dreams alive with crucial win
14
NEWS
If you thought it rained a lot this summer, you were right
3
Global competitiveness key to Denmark’s future
OPINION | 8
AmCham Denmark’s executive director says Denmark needs to improve business climate
Macbeth’s full of sound and fury but signifying nothing
CULTURE | 18
Imaginative in places, this version of � e Scottish Play is hampered by its tiny stage, ponderous delivery and tame fi ght scenes
Price: 25 DKK
Despite divisions, opposition remains poised for powerAs the election heads into its � nal week, centre-left’s chances of winning appear una� ected by internal disagreements
FLIP-FLOPPING on the left and an eerie quiet on the right – the Danish election has been through a strange second week that ended
with polls suggesting Helle � orning-Schmidt will still lead the Social Demo-crats to victory, albeit with their lowest number of seats in 100 years.
While the polls don’t all agree – some put the Social Democrats ahead of the PM’s Liberals while others have them neck and neck – what they all seem to suggest is that support for the ultra-left Red-Green Alliance and centrist Social
PETER STANNERS
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More election coverage insideGrowing pains in the opposition camp this week, as Socialist People’s Party seeks to come out from under the shadow of its ally, the Social Democrats. See also our pro� les of the parties making up the gov-ernment and its allies. Pages 4-5.
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denmark’s only english-language newspaperSince 1998, The Copenhagen Post has been Denmark’s leading source for news in English. As the voice of the international community, we provide coverage for the thousands of foreigners making their home in Denmark. Additonally, our English language medium helps to bring Denmark’s top stories to a global audience.
In addition to publishing the only regularly printed English-language newspaper in the country, we provide up-to-date news on our website and deliver news to national and international organisations. The Copenha-gen Post is also a leading provider of non-news services to the private and public sectors, offering writing, trans-lation, editing, production and delivery services.
Visit us online at www.cphpost.dk
EU Index design North Sea oil
THE BORDER dispute with the EU took another twist this week when it was revealed that the European Commission is looking into taking more control of the union’s internal borders. Danish MPs criticised the plan, originally reported in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, that the EU would seek to veto
member states’ border legislation. Tax minister Peter Christiansen said that while proposed changes were actually a result of debates in France and Italy about how to respond to north African im-migrants, he was still against the proposal. “Sovereignty should lie with member states,” Chris-tiansen said.
THE wINNERS of the 2011 INDEX: Award were announced last Friday at the Copenhagen Opera House. Over 3.5 million kroner was distributed between the five winners, selected from among the 60 finalists. The Dan-ish non-profit design organisa-tion, INDEX: Design to Im-prove Life, received almost 1,000
nominations from 78 countries for ways to improve the lives of people across the world. winners in the five categories included an inflatable ‘airbag’ helmet for cy-clists, a free glasses programme for Mexican children, a school com-petition for Indian children, a housing project in Mexico and an urban design strategy for Seoul.
THE DANISH part of the North Sea is experiencing a boom in oil and gas exploration that experts say will only in-crease in the coming years. Some 40 billion kroner is expected to be invested in developing oil and gas fields, with Dong Energy an-nouncing it will spend nine bil-lion to quadruple its production
in the newly opened Hejre field. “It is an expression of great opti-mism for the Danish fields,” Jan Harley Anderson of the Danish Energy Agency said. Mærsk Oil also has high expectations for the North Sea and has invested in state-of-the-art drilling plat-forms designed to handle the rough conditions in the region.
Flag Day
MONDAY: Servicemembers stand at ease during the inauguration of the International Service Memorial at the military’s headquarters at Kastel-let. Monday marked the third annual Flag Day, which honours members of the armed services who have been stationed abroad.
Ten YeaRS ago. Copenhagen is reported to be the nation’s involuntary cash cow, as the capital’s revenues are used to support underfinanced rural areas.
FIVe YeaRS ago. prime minister anders Fogh Rasmussen voted against a toughening of terror laws after a successful raid at Vollmose (odense).
one YeaR ago. greenland is torn between financial independence, cultural and nature conservation, and the expectations of international oil companies as new oil fields are discovered.
The Copenhagen Post accepts no responsibility for the content of material submitted by advertisers. The Copenhagen Post is published weekly by CPHPOST.DK ApS
Printed by Dagbladet, Ringsted.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited by law.
denmark’s only english-language newspaperSince 1998, The Copenhagen Post has been Denmark’s leading source for news in English. As the voice of the international community, we provide coverage for the thousands of foreigners making their home in Denmark. Additonally, our English language medium helps to bring Denmark’s top stories to a global audience.
In addition to publishing the only regularly printed English-language newspaper in the country, we provide up-to-date news on our website and deliver news to national and international organisations. The Copenha-gen Post is also a leading provider of non-news services to the private and public sectors, offering writing, trans-lation, editing, production and delivery services.
Visit us online at www.cphpost.dk
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WEEK IN rEvIEW
39 - 15 September 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK
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SUMMER 2011 will go down as a wet summer. A very wet summer. Ac-cording to the � nal rain-
fall measurements for June, July and August, this summer was the second wettest since record keeping began in 1874.
Most people in Copenhagen will remember this summer for the torrential downpour on July 2 that left the Vesterbro district under a metre of water in some areas – with clean up and insur-ance costs approaching 3 billion kroner, it was the costliest ever � ooding event.
� e July downpour dumped 150mm of rain on the Greater Copenhagen area, more than double the July average of 67mm for the area. On a national basis, 26 percent of the annual rainfall occurs in the summer months, but this year 45 percent of the annual national average fell dur-ing the period.
But while the 2011 national average of 321mm was just 2 mm o� the o� cial record, set in 1980, there was widespread vari-ation in rainfall amounts.
Gedser, in the south-eastern
Wet, wet, wet: rain is all around
corner of the country, recorded a waterlogging total of 608mm, while the resort town of Hvide Sande only saw a slightly below average 178mm.
According to the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), the reason for the wet summer was a collision of warm air from the south with colder air stream-ing in over the country from the west.
During a normal summer, this collision zone is located fur-
Collision of air masses over Denmark led to second wettest summer ever
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ther to the north, leaving Den-mark with long periods of warm, dry weather. � is year, however, it hovered over the country, bringing with it the unstable weather most will remember.
“What we saw was warm weather from southern, eastern and central Europe. When that met the cold air from the west, it created a ‘bang’ right over our heads, in the form of downpours and thunder showers,” said Lone Seier Carstensen, from DMI.
Recent summers have seen an increase in the number of downpours and � ooding related to rain, but Carstensen said it was impossible to tell whether summers had taken a turn for the colder.
While summer was wet for many, it was also cool. Although the average national temperature this summer of 15.9 degrees was 0.7 degrees above average, according to the TV2 Weather Centre, in � ve areas the tempera-
A taxi driver gives up on his attempt to contract a makeshift sail
TWO men had their deten-tions extended in connec-tion with last week’s fatal
shooting of a 24-year-old Paki-stani man outside a mosque in the Vesterbro district. A total of � ve men are now being de-tained.
One of the suspects, a 25-year-old, was already being held in connection with the in-cident, but following new evi-dence, his detention has been extended for another 25 days.
� e second suspect, a 30-year-old man with prior of-fences, also received 25 days.
It has been determined that shots were � red by both groups of people involved in the gun-� ght that broke out on Ameri-kavej street in Vesterbro, killing Tamur Ashgar and wounding a 51-year-old man and his 26-year-old son.
Police believe the shooting was related to an outstanding debt between convenience store owners.
A green VW Vento with RD in the number plate is be-ing sought by police along with another suspect.
“He can be seen helping the 51-year-old get away from the scene. We don’t think he played an active role in the incident but we would still like to talk to him,” a police spokesperson said. (PS)
ture never rose above 25 degrees, which is the o� cial de� nition of a ‘summer’s day’.
� e lowest top temperature this summer, 23.2 degrees, was recorded in the Jutland town of Grenaa. Other cold spots in-cluded Skagen and Ringkøbing in Jutland, the town of Nykø-bing on the southern island of Falster, and Aakirkeby on Born-holm, which recorded its high-est temperature of 23.7 degrees back in June.
More men held in mosque murder
NEWS
MEMBERS of the left-wing research organisa-tion Redox are suspected
of participating in illegal sur-veillance and assault, Politiken newspaper reports.
� e charges follow a 18-month investigation by do-mestic intelligence agency PET, with police con� rming that at least one of them – a 25-year-old – was a major � gure in Redox’s surveillance of the far right.
Several members of the left-wing group Antifascist Action (Antifascistisk Aktion or AFA) are also being accused of using
violence to disturb meetings and demonstrations held by right wing groups.
Police say up to six people face charges, each facing up to six years in jail.
While Redox denies having ties with the AFA, the 25-year-old was reportedly a member of the group, which is accused of using the surveillance to plan at-tacks.
A police raid uncovered a database of information about a large number of individuals – in-cluding their pin codes, banking details and education – as well as information about the families and their activities, including photographs of them obtained through covert surveillance.
� e information has been used to smear members of right-
wing organisations, such as in the case of Dan Jensen who allegedly lost his job after information re-leased by Redox, and published by tabloid Ekstra Bladet, revealed he was active in the Danish Front (Dansk Front).
Politiken used information from Redox as the source of its story about a secret right-wing network called ORG, which sought to purge the country of immigrants. ORG was revealed to have links to many far-right groups, including violent hooli-gan group White Pride.
� e newspaper acknowl-edged at the time that Redox was being investigated for illegal surveillance but stated that, ac-cording to Redox, the informa-tion was leaked from a source within ORG. (PS)
Up to six individuals may face six years in jail for participating in illegal surveillance and violence against right wing groups
Left-wing researchers face prisonRedox’s revalations of a secret right-wing network were based on information passed by informants
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ELECTION 2011
Trouble is brewing in the opposition coalition over the future of the govern-ment’s new raft of immi-
gration rules, should they win the election.
The conflicts concern the ‘points system’ introduced by the Liberal-Conservative govern-ment that preferentially treats highly-skilled or educated for-eigners who settle in the country, and its sub-regulation, the ‘24-year rule’, designed to prevent ar-ranged marriages.
The reforms are unpopular with left-of-centre parties, with
Left bloc stumbles toward consensus on immigration policies the 24-year rule – which stipu-lates that if one of the partners is under 24, the non-EU partner must earn twice as many points as required – drawing the most ire for preventing Danes from living in Denmark with their for-eign spouses.
But the Social Democrats and Socialist People’s Party (SF) – who are set to form a coalition should they win the election – have been having trouble agree-ing on what exactly will happen to the new immigration rules should they win the election.
In a 2008 pact, the two par-ties agreed that the 24-year rule would remain in place in the first term of a new government, though nothing was decided as to what would happen after that.
The SF is a vocal opponent of the rule, and last friday, after pressure from his party, leader Villy Søvndal announced that the
24-year rule should be abolished after the first term of a new op-position government.
But this Monday, Social Dems leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt told Berlingske news-paper that she was committed to the rule.
“I can clearly state that we don’t want to remove the 24-year rule,” she said.
“I think it’s a good rule that protects a lot of young people from being forced into marriage when they are better off getting an education. I know there are many who have opinions about the 24-year rule, but it won’t change in a new government.”
She added that while she was only referring to the next four-year term, she could not imagine the rule ever changing.
Thorning-Schmidt’s remarks were received unhappily by Trine Mach, a candidate for parliament
V ILLy SøVnDaL, the leader of the Socialist People’s Party (SF), has
responded to critics and spoken out about how his party differs from its ally, and leading opposi-tion party, the Social Democrats.
Ever since the two parties formed an alliance in 2007, Søvndal has appeared more in-terested in papering over the differences between the Social Democrats and his party, which recent polls suggest is experienc-ing dwindling popularity.
“We have worked in a close alliance with the Social Demo-crats, but we have come to over-emphasise the importance of the alliance,” Søvndal told Politiken newspaper. “I think that’s clear to everyone now. We have been under increasing pressure to an-swer ‘Is there any difference be-tween your parties?’ I’ll outline these differences now: we are the most environmentally ambitious party, we are the most ambitious on welfare, and we are the most
ambitious on social justice. The Socialist People’s Party is best at these things. The Social Demo-crats are next best.”
The SF would form a gov-ernment with the Social Demo-crats, should they triumph on election day as the polls suggest.
Søvndal went on to explain that he did not feel it necessary to justify his party at the expense of the Social Democrats.
“I just want to point out that the SF is more left-leaning, and that we are in a situation where we might have to wrestle with
the Social Democrats.”Social Democrat leader Helle
Thorning-Schmidt told Informa-tion newspaper last weekend that the two parties would not openly compete for voters.
It is also being speculated whether Søvndal is still top can-didate to become foreign minis-ter in a Social Dem-SF govern-ment. Landing the job would require spending a lot of time outside the country while the party, serving government for the first time, would be under pressure to pull its weight. (PS)
opposition allies not identical, Socialist leader says Socialist people’s party is the most ambitious on environmental, welfare and social issues, leader says
Though often campaigning together, Villy Søvndal now says he will stress the differences between his party and Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s
Opposition leaders Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Villy Søvndal finally found consensus over future immigration rules
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election ‘11 | The 24-year rule will remain for one term the opposition decides, while the points system will be replaced
Viewers pan TV2’s sports-themed debate
TV2, the nation’s most watched TV station, re-ceived hundreds of com-
plaints that the show ‘Battle for your Vote’, broadcast last week on Thursday, turned the elec-tion into popular entertainment by staging a political debate that incorporated features of a hand-ball match, including a timer, a scoreboard and a buzzer that cut off candidates who spoke too long.
While the show was billed as a “mix of sport and politics” that tried to show politics “could be fun” by eliciting “quick and direct” answers from the candi-dates, viewers have slammed it for being everything from “un-serious” to “a kindergarten circus of little spoiled children”.
TV2’s management defend-ed the choice of format, saying that it held more popular appeal than the four traditional debates
that will be held in the run-up to the September 15 election.
Michael Bruun andersen, a media expert with the University of Roskilde, cautioned, however, against resorting to gimmicks as a way to get people involved in politics.
“Getting more people inter-ested is one thing. The question is what effect does it have on the substance of politics,” andersen told Berlingske newspaper. (KM)
Peter StannerS and a member of the SF national leadership. She said it was the party’s ultimate goal to eliminate the rule.
“If we win the election, we will use our term trying to con-vince voters that the 24-year rule is a useless symbol,” she told Ber-lingske newspaper.
The points system has also been a source of tension between the Social Democrats and their supporting parties, the Red-Green alliance and the Social Liberals, who both wish to abol-ish the system.
“The Social Liberals will not vote for a points system,” Social Liberal leader Margrethe Vestag-er told Jyllands-Posten. “as far as the right to live in your own country, points systems are an in-terference by governments into a relationship between two people. and that we do not support,” she added.
The Social Libs – who are expected to lend crucial support to a minority Social Dem-SF government – are also ardent opponents of the 24-year rule. Grilled on how her party’s disa-greement over the rule would af-fect its working relationship with the government, Vestager said the Social Libs would work towards eliminating the rule, but recog-nised that it could not require its elimination.
However, later on Monday, the Social Dems and the SF seemed to have found some com-mon ground, releasing a joint press release stating that they intended to abolish the current points system and replace it with their own list of requirements.
“We have our own de-mands on people who want to be citizens in this country,” said the statement. “We believe it’s important for integration that immigrants learn Danish and make themselves available for either education or the employ-ment market. We think those demands are fair and reason-able.”
The two parties went on to state that the 24-year rule will remain in place along with an-
other contentious immigration regulation passed in 2001 that demands that a couple’s com-bined affiliation with Denmark is significantly greater than with any other country.
While the current points system distributes points ac-cording to an individual’s work and educational experience, the opposition’s points system would allocate points to those simply for being available to work and take an education.
59 - 15 September 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK
ELECTION 2011
MP for the Conservatives
Q: What are the key policies of the Conservatives?
A: We have created a system that gives too much to some people, especially those who do not con-tribute. To � x it, we want to motivate able-bodied people to work and help maintain the system. My favourite quote is “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your coun-try” by JFK. We want this attitude in Denmark.
Our � rst priority is balancing spending. Our cur-rent debt is about 45 billion kroner each year. � e country is in debt and my party and I don’t want to leave the next generation with this burden. � e second priority is unemployment and pension spending. People who are unable to work due to health or age should receive bene� ts. However, there are a lot of able-bodied young people who don’t work and receive 20,000 kroner a month from the state for the rest of their lives. We don’t want to put younger people into the pension plan, unless they are out of work for more than � ve years.Our third priority is reducing tax. Denmark is among the mostly highly taxed countries in the world. People with full-time jobs end up paying up to 58 percent of their earnings to the state. � is means even if you work extra hours, you only get 42 percent of what you earn. Of course no Danes want to do this. What we want is for people to work a little more, and a little harder, so we can compete with other countries. One of the ways we can do this is mo-tivating people to be more responsible for them-selves.
Q: How do you want the Conservatives to be remembered?
A: We want voters to identify the Conservatives as a party that says things that may not be popular but are necessary. Welfare reform is an example. Nearly every Dane knows in their heart that we cannot a� ord the system. We also aim to reduce tax. Right now a large portion of personal income goes to the state. By reducing tax, we give people the freedom to spend their money on whatever
they want. We also want to be remembered as a
green party. We want to leave our country as green as previous genera-tions left it.
By Hang Pham
Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti)Leader: Pia Kjærsgaard2007 Results: 25 seats (+1); 13.9%A good rule of thumb in Danish elections is don’t count out the Danish People’s Party (DF). � is election, like the last two, is shaping up to be a referendum against the right-wing’s infl uence on legislation in a number of key areas, including social welfare, justice and of course immigration. But while most pundits expect the party may again be the one celebrating on election night, DF could still lose seats for the fi rst time since entering parliament in 1998, when it stormed into the legislature by winning 13 seats. Should it lose electoral infl uence, the DF’s impact on the country’s immigration policy is likely to be long lasting, as the Social Demo-crats to a large extent support the increased restrictions the party helped push through.Key issues: immigration, social welfare, healthWeakness: far-right pro� le, polarising
justice and of course immigration.
Conservatives (Det Konservative Folkeparti)Leader: Lars Barfoed2007 Results: 18 seats (0); 10.4%After heading into the election as the faithful but somewhat bland ally of the Liberals, the Conserva-tives announced a declaration of independence from the Danish People’s Party-dominated govern-ing bloc last week. � e Conserva-tive rebellion follows a decade of serving as the junior partner in the governing coalition and the gradual erosion of the identity of a party that led the government for a decade from 1982-1993. Al-though less a strategy to win votes than a way to improve relations with co-operation-minded parties on the left, the move could wind up securing it more infl uence in a parliament where no single bloc dominates. Chances of serving in a Liberal-led government are all but eliminated. Key issues: lower taxes, better conditions for business, justiceWeakness: internal power struggles, image as party of the well-heeled
Liberals (Venstre)Leader: Lars Løkke Rasmussen 2007 Results: 46 seats (-6); 26.2%Even if the PM’s Liberals manage to win more votes than the Social Democrats, there’s no guarantee the party will be able to form a government after the election. � e Liberals appear to have lost their allyin the Conservatives, and the Danish People’s Party could wind up losing seats for the fi rst time ever. � e chances of a Liberal victory are looking increasingly unlikely. After seeing the party rule for ten years, voters appear ready to hand power back to the centre-left. � e party’s best chance for winning is to hammer home its economic achievements and sow doubt on the opposition’s ability to pull the country out of recession. � is is something it has been doing incessantly since well before the election offi cially began. Key issues: economic growth, streamlining welfare stateWeakness: social policy, leadership, voters ready for change
After failing to clear the 2 percent electoral threshold in 2005 and again in 2007, the Christian Democrats regained a seat when Per Ørum Jørgensen defected to the party from the Conserv-atives. � ere, he has tried to use the party’s sole, and occasionally deciding, vote to earn concessions for the party’s key issues and steer the Liberal-Conservative government away from the DF. Unlikely to clear electoral threshold.
Key issues: ending decentralisation, family, elderlyWeakness: Christian association, origins as anti-abortion protest party
up to 58 percent of their earnings to the state. � is means even if you work extra hours, you only get 42 percent of what you earn. Of course no Danes want to do this. What we want is for people to work a little more, and a little harder, so we can compete with other countries. One of the ways we can do this is mo-tivating people to be more responsible for them-selves.
Q: How do you want the Conservatives to be remembered?
Aa party that says things that may not be popular but are necessary. Welfare reform is an example. Nearly every Dane knows in their heart that we cannot a� ord the system. We also aim to reduce tax. Right now a large portion of personal income goes to the state. By reducing tax, we give people
Liberal Alliance (Liberal Alliance)Leader: Anders Samuelsen2007 Results: 5 seats(+5); 2.8% (as New Alliance)
After uncertainty about whether it would clear the electoral threshold, the Liberal Alliance appears to be all but certain to earn enough votes to make it into parliament again for a second term. Should it make it in, it will continue to act as a strong proponent of economic liberalism. Formed in 2007 as the centrist New Alliance, the party sought to give the gov-ernment an alternative to the DF. Since the name and profi le change in 2008, the LA has almost exclusively concentrated on economic issues, including a proposed 40 percent tax rate.
Key issues: economic growth, lower taxes, streamlining public sector Weaknesses: extreme economic liberalism, lack of party discipline
Party pro� les: The Incumbents
Candidate Q & A:Helge Adam Møller
the freedom to spend their money on whatever they want.
We also want to be remembered as a green party. We want to leave our
country as green as previous genera-tions left it.
DF. Unlikely to clear electoral threshold.the freedom to spend their money on whatever
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6 9 - 15 September 2011The Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dkThe Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dk
In the 1990s the Danish perspec-tive of terrorism was vastly dif-ferent from what it is today. PET, the domestic intelligence service, was often ridiculed when issuing warnings against terrorists who made use of Denmark as a safe haven, according to the memoirs of Hans Jørgen Bonnichsen, the operative chief of the PET be-tween 1997 and 2006.
To Western eyes the 1990s had started so well: the Berlin Wall had come down, the US was a thriving superpower, and with the 1991 Peace Confer-ence and the 1993 Oslo Ac-cords, peace in the Middle East seemed possible. Bumps on the road did occur, such as the 1993 bombing of the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex that claimed the lives of six peo-ple. But they prompted limited reform of national security pro-cedures.
Danish investigators found themselves involved in the FBI’s investigation when it turned out that three Egyptian men already under PET surveillance were associates of Omad Abdel-Rah-man, aka ‘The Blind Sheikh’, and the convicted mastermind of the plot. The three men, however, could not be convicted of any crime under Danish laws of the time. It wouldn’t be until June 2002, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, that parliament passed legislation specifically aimed at convicting would-be terrorists.
Why the delay? Because in 1998 the Danish Defence Com-mission informed the PET that thanks to the country’s political status and geographical posi-tion the country was safe. It had no enemies to speak of. In terms of national security the coast seemed clear. As a logical response to this assessment, the
WITH THE SUN still high in the sky in the afternoon of 11 Sep-tember 2001, Brook-
lyn-based author Paul Auster jotted down the following: “We have been talking about the pos-sibility for years, but now that the tragedy has struck, it’s far worse than anyone ever imag-ined.” Helplessly drawn to imag-ine the consequences of the as-sault, he grimly ventured: “More violence, more death, more pain for everyone.”
But was he right? Have we all, Denmark included, been af-fected by the pain of 9/11?
There is no doubt that count-less changes swept through most of the world, especially the West-ern world and the Middle East, in the weeks and months after 9/11. At that time, it seemed like nothing and nobody would ever be the same again.
But how did Denmark get through the shock, loss and trauma experienced first-hand in New York but felt everywhere? The very freedom of the US had come under attack, as George W Bush said in his 9/11 address to the nation. In a globalised world, then, it seemed that the American poet Lucille Clifton spoke for everyone when she re-sponded with these words: “Our world is another place, no day will ever be the same, no blood untouched.” From our perspec-tive she was right; Denmark was in for its share of the post-9/11 implications.
This week will mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 a date that needs no further explanation, and an event that defies comprehension
PET was downsized. After 9/11, however, the organisation was significantly expanded.
Better safe than sorry
While truth is the first casualty of war, Bonnichsen finds that the first victims of terrorism are common sense and reason. With 9/11, ‘the weak immigrant’ in Denmark quickly became ‘the strong Muslim’ in the eyes of many. Bonnichsen and others consider this reaction to be an unreasonable one.
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, who served as foreign minister from 1982 to 1993, has observed that the repercussions of 9/11 have kindled a Danish public debate less informed and more unreasonable than in most other countries, “possibly because we Danes have for so long lain in lazy indifference amidst our local affairs,” he once suggested.
Terrorism by its nature trig-gers a personal response and this reaction can be read in the regular polls showing attitudes towards the threat of an attack. In 2007, 28 percent of Danes deemed terrorism the most sig-nificant problem threatening the world in years to come – global warming and pollution came second and third. Last year only 15 percent held this view, and the current justice minister, Lars Barfoed, was quick to attribute this to the two anti-terrorism acts passed by parliament.
“By passing the two ‘Ter-ror Acts’ we have strengthened the intelligence service and im-proved the security in several places such as train stations and airports. I believe this has con-tributed to preventing a terrorist attack and deflating the fear of terrorism in the public,” Barfoed
in Islamism and Radicalisation, blamed to the drawings as well as their reprinting by several other newspapers only months earlier. Amid the voices condemning the blast, PM Anders Fogh Rasmus-sen said it was “an attack against Denmark”.
The PET’s Centre for Ter-ror Analysis (CTA) announced in November 2010 that “there is still a significant terror threat against Denmark” due to the drawings.
The statement also warned that “there are new indications that terror groups abroad seek to send terrorists to Denmark to carry out terror attacks”. Six months later, with Osama bin Laden recently killed, the CTA issued a statement saying that the terror leader’s death didn’t represent significant reason to alter the latest terror threat as-sessment.
The near misses
Denmark has yet to experience a terror attack on home soil. Sev-eral would-be domestic terrorists have been sniffed out and prose-cuted in recent years, and in May 2011 the PET spoke of a “new, clear tendency” as it recounted four foiled terrorist attacks in Denmark since 2009. The ter-rorists came from Belgium, Sweden, Norway and the US, but were all apprehended while their attacks were being coordi-nated. As demonstrated by the 7/7 attacks in London, much to the consternation of intelligence services and the people they are to protect, terrorists are not nec-essarily people with nothing to lose. They might have family and children, be well educated and well integrated. In short, they could be anyone, like Lors Dou-
Emergency crews respond to a mock terrorist attack during a 2007 drill. The exercise involved 1,000 actors, 92 fictitious casualties, seven stages deaths and one demolished bus
Ten years after: Copenhagen in the age of terrorism
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told metroXpress in 2010. He was immediately coun-
tered by Karen Hækkerup of the opposition Social Democrats who explained that terrorism only seemed less terrible in light of the increasingly serious threats from “global warming and pov-erty”.
Denmark attracts attention
The frequency of actual terror threats received in Denmark in-creased between 2001 and 2003 as Denmark’s military began fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. The PET has acknowledged that the military involvement in Iraq might indeed put Denmark and Danish soldiers abroad at greater risk. The frequency of threats culminated in January 2006 af-ter publication of what have be-come known as ‘the Mohammed drawings’ in 2005.
The 12 drawings – some of which were considered blasphe-mous because they violated the Muslim ban on depicting the prophet – were printed in Sep-tember 2005 in Jyllands-Posten newspaper, but the upheaval was long-lived and deadly serious.
The crisis, which took hold after PM Anders Fogh Rasmus-sen refused to meet with a del-egation of Muslim ambassadors, soon resulted in boycotts and flag burnings in Muslim coun-tries and culminated in the sack-ing of the Danish embassy in Damascus. It was the country’s worst foreign relations crisis since the Second World War.
When a suicide car bomb destroyed the Danish embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing eight local employees, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the reason. Professor Mehdi Mozaffari, the head of the Centre for Studies
kaev a one-legged, Chechen-born Belgian who last Septem-ber single-handedly assembled a bomb that police suspected was intended to be sent the headquarters of Jyllands-Posten. However, the letter bomb went off while he was preparing it, and dazed and wounded, he fled his hotel and was apprehended soon after in a near-by park.
Last week public broadcaster cited a poll carried out by Try-gFonden in May 2011 (before the attacks by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway) revealing that one in four Danes worries about a terrorist attack in Den-mark and that one in ten worries about being a victim in one.
The research manager at Tryg-Fonden, Anders Hede told Politiken newspaper that he was personally surprised that – ten years after 9/11 – Danes still worry about terrorism.
“We’ve lived with it so long now and it seems the US has got things pretty much under con-trol. Intuitively I’d have expected people to think: okay, maybe it wasn’t the end of the world that a couple of skyscrapers came down in New York,” Hede said.
Part of the reason why Danes remain more concerned about the threat of terror than people in other countries, he said, was because in Denmark, the threat has remained.
“We know that terrorists have had their sights on us, due to the Mohammed drawings and our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.
While those threats are con-firmed by the PET’s arrests and its regular warnings, the actual risk of becoming the victim of an attack, according to Hede, are so slim that it is “non-exist-ent”.
covEr story
79 - 15 September 2011 The Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dk
Danish troops have served in US-led coalitions in Afghanistan and Iraq
A total of 41 soldiers have been killed, while scores more have been maimed or injured
Anti-terrorism legislation was used to prosecute T-shirt makers Fighters + Lovers after they sent some of their proceeds to blacklisted groups
Threats of terrorism including a botched bombing in 2010, have been near constant since the publication of the Mohammed drawings
After 9/11, no bomb threat is taken lightly
online ThiS week
CalCulations from the Danish Construction association show that a proposed congestion charge for Copen-hagen would not return a profit until 2025, five years later than its backers estimate.
Before reaching break-even, the scheme would amass a debt of 7.3 bil-lion kroner between its proposed imple-mentation in 2014 and 2020
The congestion charge has been a hotly debated topic in Copenhagen and parliament since it was put forth by the opposition social Democrats and the socialist People’s Party. The propsal calls for motorists to pay up to 25 kroner for entering or leaving the city. The revenue would go to improved public transport.
“it will be tremendously expensive
to establish and operate a toll system,” lars storr-Hansen, the managing direc-tor of the Danish Construction associa-tion, said. “a congestion charge is a very bad idea that will act as an extra cost for businesses and destroy competitiveness at a time when everyone agrees that we need more growth.”
government recognises libyan rebels
DEnmarK monday officially recog-nised the libyan national transitional Council (ntC) as that country’s official government. a brief foreign ministry statement described the ntC as libya’s “legitimate governing authority”.
in June, Denmark recognised the ntC as the sole representative of the rebels, and last week’s announcement fol-lows a similar decision last week by the international Contact Group to recognise the ntC as the country’s government.
officially recognising the ntC means the new government can send an envoy to Denmark.
libya’s previous representatives in Denmark were expelled earlier this year because they remained loyal to the Gadd-afi regime.
Congestion charge profitability questioned Construction companies with unregistered workers targeted
union representatives seeking to identify unregistered eastern European workers – who work for well below the industry standard – found deserted workplaces at nearly half of the 695 con-struction sites they visited monday.
according to the union, half of the employees the representatives did speak to were not registered by their employer as working in Denmark.
Despite high rates of unemployment among Danish construction workers, there are around 15,000 Polish, lithua-nian and other eastern European workers on Danish construction sites according to a union estimate.
The minimum wage for a construc-
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tion worker is typically around 130 kro-ner an hour plus pension and allowances. The wages among eastern European con-struction workers in Denmark, however, range from 30 kroner to 115 kroner.
The Danish Construction agency said it would like the Working Environ-ment authority to be able to fine foreign companies using unregistered workers.
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uS ambassador remembers 9/11
liKE all americans, laurie s fulton remembers exactly where she was on the morning of 11 september 2001. The us ambassador to Denmark since august 2009, fulton was working at her Washington DC law firm on 11 september 2001, less than a kilometre from the White House. Though she wasn’t watching tV when the first plane hit the World trade Center, the buzz of her colleagues caused her to tune in just before the second plane struck.
“What really jarred me was that it wasn’t just one attack,” fulton said when The Copenhagen Post sat down with her for her thoughts and reflec-tions on the sombre anniversary.
How did the events of September 11 change you personally, how did it change America, and how did it change the world?Personally, it made me face my own mortality which is something none of us really want to do. i understood how quickly life can be taken from us.
The fact that there were people somewhere else in the world who had planned so long and made such efforts, and were able to actually carry out hi-jacking four airplanes and using them in such a dramatic fashion, was a wake-up call that we needed to much better understand this new threat we were fac-ing.
it changed the world in a similar way. i’ve talked to Danes who say they saw it on television almost as immedi-ately as americans did and were just as-tounded that this could happen in the united states of america. There was a dramatic outpouring of grief and sym-pathy from people around the world and from our partners like Denmark in terms of trying to understand the ter-rorist threat and how to deal with it.
How has the US avoided another at-tack, and what can the US do to en-sure such an attack doesn’t happen again?i don’t think there is anything you can do to ensure there won’t be another at-tack. But what we’ve seen is the ability of various departments and agencies within the us government to work more closely together to understand and identify where these terrorists are, and carry out actions to eliminate them. The most important thing is that, as dramatic an event as 9/11 was, it hasn’t changed our way of life dramatically.
Justin cremer
i think americans understand there could be another terrorist attack at any time but we don’t live in fear of it.
Denmark is also viewed as a top ter-rorist target. How has the country managed to be thus far successful in avoiding an attack?i have very high respect for Danish [na-tional intelligence agency] PEt and i look for opportunities to enhance the relationship between Denmark and the united states in law enforcement and counter-terrorism. i think the Danes are extremely competent. Can they prevent everything? no, nobody can prevent every attack, but they certainly should be commended, particularly for last December [when Danish and swedish authorities arrested five people suspected of plotting to attack Jyllands-Posten].
What else should we keep in mind as we look back on the last decade?i think as we look ahead, it’s important to remember that muslims are very of-ten the victims of terrorism, and that muslim-americans died in the World trade Center and the Pentagon, and that muslim-americans were among the first responders. al-Qaeda kills as many people in mosques in Pakistan every year as they did on 9/11.
The arab spring demonstrates the importance of non-violence in making social change, and the whole premise of terrorists like al-Qaeda is that you have to violently destroy in order to make change, whereas in fact effective social and political change comes through non-violence. That’s the other lesson we should all be looking at in the context of the arab spring and the tenth an-niversary of 9/11.
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8 9 - 15 September 2011THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK
take seriously. It is essential that government and business work together to identify long-term, sustainable solutions and have the courage to implement them.
And just why should we be concerned with attracting and retaining multinational invest-ments? � e Danish economy is facing signi� cant challenges, including a shrinking work-force and low growth in labour productivity, which have made Denmark poorer relative to oth-er countries. Earlier this year, a report by Copenhagen Business School professor Jan Rose Skak-sen explored the potential for multinational enterprises (both foreign multinationals with sub-sidiaries in Denmark and Danish multinationals with subsidiaries abroad) to improve these con-ditions – an area that has been more or less neglected in the Danish debate.
� e CBS report showed that although foreign-owned compa-nies comprise just 1.2 percent of Danish companies, they gen-erate nearly 20 percent of the total number of private sector jobs and value added, as well as 25 percent of Danish exports. In fact, if foreign-owned � rms employed the same fraction of the workforce as in Sweden, the Danish GDP would be 16 bil-lion kroner higher than today. Additionally, Danish multina-tionals are making substantial investments abroad, including
community. � e survey looks at each company’s current invest-ments and their views on labour demands and the factors that cause them to consider moving investments and jobs in and out of Denmark. � e key � ndings of this year’s survey include:• 47 percent of the surveyed companies expect to increase their Danish investments in 2012. However, 53 percent of the companies indicate that they have considered moving their in-vestments outside of Denmark.• � e high cost of doing business in Denmark is by far the biggest challenge for mul-tinationals. Of the companies surveyed, 78 percent of those who are considering moving jobs and/or investments out of Den-mark point to high costs.• 40 percent of the compa-nies consider Denmark’s abil-ity to attract foreign workers as poor or very poor. A competi-tive tax system and openness to foreigners are important areas to address.
Although we � nd it positive that so many of the multination-al companies anticipate increas-ing their Danish investment, when 53 percent of the com-panies say they are considering moving their investments/jobs out of the country, there is rea-son for concern. � e high cost of doing business in Denmark is a serious threat to jobs and invest-ments, which politicians must
OPINION
FOLLOWING nearly a year of speculation, Dan-ish parliamentary elec-tions are � nally here – and
not a moment too soon. Essen-tially Denmark has been in polit-ical gridlock for most of the year, rendering it unable to e� ectively address the urgent economic challenges facing this great coun-try. As the voice of international business in Denmark, AmCham Denmark looks forward to en-gaging a new government - re-gardless of its colour – blue, red or any shade in between.
Last week AmCham Den-mark released its 2011 Business Barometer, an annual survey of CEOs of multinational compa-nies with activities in Denmark, gauging the current business cli-mate and future trends in Den-mark’s international business
Year 10 in the reign of terror
New government must address global competitiveness
Mosque shooting
I condemn this assault on the occasion of Eid Day Cem Ozan By Facebook
I condemn such an act on any day! It’s not at all acceptable!!!Jaya Rao By Facebook
It is just extremely sad that someone got killed but it is equally sad that it will have its political rami� cations. Next time Muslims demanded a mosque, it could easily be re-jected based on the grounds that it may incite violence and it would be hard to argue against it. Muslims should spend en-ergy in putting their house in order. It is all too easy to blame others for their collective state. Muslims themselves are their biggest enemies. � e idiots who were involved in this could have at least chosen a di� erent day and a di� erent place for such a thing. � ey not only ruined their own lives but ruined Eid for all Muslims in Denmark. It is so sad that Islam and Muslims get all the blame for such inci-dents. Having said that, it is a fact that quite a lot of them are ignorant bu� oons who could not learn much even after living all their lives in the rich western world.Brusque By website
Brusque, if I take out the word ‘Muslim’ and substitute the
word ‘black’ you sound like some white boy from Alabama in the 1960s.tomnashdk By website
I am a Pakistani MuslimBrusque By website
If I allowed myself to subscribe to conspiracy theories, I would almost believe that this was a stunt carried out by the Dansk Folkeparti. How idiotic the whole thing seems - two Mus-lim families shooting each other just outside a mosque on Eid and 15 days before an election where one party would love to be able to paint Muslim immi-grants as violent terrorists. We are just missing a few symbols thrown here and there and we could have a Dan Brown novel.� orvaldsen By website
Biking for a better world
I have Nigerian colleagues and they point blank refuse to ride a bike as to them it´s seen as a poor man´s means of transport. After all, things are a little bit di� erent in Africa. Sure the de-veloped cities have what some might regard as roads but these bikes are meant for more rural areas, hence the long walks for basic munitions, also hence the lack of roads - how long will any bike last on a potholed dust track?? Not long I’m guessing. Nice gesture but not very prac-tical imo.
Tolentone By website
Interesting you refer to your Nigerian ‘colleagues’. Perhaps if you started the day with a smile instead of a scowl every day they’d be friends by now?Damaged Goods By website
Well to give them their proper title then “my employees”, and I have learned not to mix work life with personal life for an easier life.Tolentone By website
� ere are also many Latin Americans who believe, like in Africa, that if you don’t have a car you are nobody.
Kids smoking less
� is is a no-brainer. Increase the price of tobacco products by a factor of 10. � at will get all but the richest kids to stop. Problem resolved.sunnchilde By website
Alcohol is bad for teens - why not tax that by a factor of 10? Spending too much time watch-ing TV is also bad for teens - why not make the multimedia tax 2,500kr a month instead of 250? Let’s make the DR License 14,000kr every six months too. I have heard that teens listen to music too loud, so I think we need an earphone tax - 2,000kr per pair sounds reasonable. Let’s just tax everything that
is bad for everyone. � e reds will be here in two weeks, so I think this philosophy’s time has come. Besides who needs per-sonal freedoms anyway? Politi-cians really are best suited to tell you how to live and what you should use your money for.JFK By website
Congrats to our 2,000th Facebook Friend
Congratulations to our 2,000th Facebook friend Ghislain Sarry! And thanks to all our readers for following us on FB and Twit-ter, and reading us online and in print. Ghislain, could you please contact us at our oª ces to learn more about your prize.Copenhagen Post By Facebook
Hi, Ghislain here. I’ve changed my name to Jens Jensen follow-ing a lost bet with an exception-ally crafty wood nymph. But I’ll come and pick up my prize tomorrow. Very exciting. What I’d really like is a pair of shoes - nothing fancy, just something to get me from A to B. And preferably ones that don’t ap-peal to wood nymphs or she’ll come back for them, I just know it.Jens Jensen By Facebook
Tusind tak Copenhagen Post! I will contact you tomorrow. PS nice try Jens !Ghislain Sarry By Facebook
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READER COMMENTS
THE WORLD is a di� erent place today than it was before September 11,” said then-PM Poul Nyrup Rasmussen two days after the attacks on New York and Washington.
Whether the world had changed after 9/11 or wheth-er we in the West suddenly became aware of an undercurrent of discontent is open to interpretation. But what is true is that neither the world nor Denmark is the same today as it was in the days after 9/11.
Denmark hasn’t always been a target for Islamist terrorists. In the pre-9/11 world it was better known among would-be terrorists as a safe haven. Today, according to law enforcement authorities, it is under constant threat from both foreign and domestic terrorists.
While the Mohammed drawings are generally given the blame for terrorists’ interest in Denmark, the country’s partici-pation in military coalitions in � rst Afghanistan and then Iraq has turned it into an aggressor in the eyes of Islamists, making it fair game for reprisals. � row in a public debate that often sees Muslims depicted in the harshest of tones and the image of Denmark as a tolerant country begins to morph into something uglier.
Even with the anger directed against it, Denmark has fortu-nately been spared a terrorist attack on its soil. Its embassy in Pa-kistan was bombed in retaliation for the Mohammed drawings, but so far all attempts here at home have been sni� ed out. Law enforcement agencies attribute these successes to anti-terrorism legislation passed in the wake of 9/11. While the arrests o� er evidence they are right, critics also argue that they have been abused to curtail civil rights. One favourite example opponents like to point to is the 2005 conviction of Greenpeace activists on terrorism charges for protesting against genetically modi� ed organisms.
And while it can be argued that the e� orts of Denmark’s military have contributed to the neutralisation of al-Qaeda, they have inspired an undergrowth of potential terrorists among countries’ disa� ected Muslim populations, including Den-mark’s.
A direct line can be drawn from the world before 9/11, through the attacks themselves and straight on to today. � is line was dictated by the actions decision makers, the media and ordinary citizens took in the years afterwards.
Whether those actions were correct will be up to those who come after us to judge. But with the threat of terrorism still looming, we should be asking ourselves which choices would make the world a better place than the one we live in today.
STEPHEN BRUGGER
over 1.3 million employees, which is nearly equal to the to-tal number of private sector em-ployees in Denmark.
Multinational companies make decisions each and every day on where to best place their investments. � erefore, im-proving framework conditions for multinational companies in Denmark should be at the top of the agenda for a new govern-ment. And it won’t be easy – tough decisions must be made to improve Denmark’s competitive-ness and the high cost of doing business in this country.
Regardless of the present economic situation, it is a fact that the demographic changes facing Denmark in the long-term indicate a shortage of la-bour and a shortage of talent. We will be pushing for Denmark to implement a national strategy for the attraction, development and retention of quali� ed talent. � is requires not only qualify-ing, educating and motivating the domestic workforce, it’s also about openness to foreigners.
Finally we need the new gov-ernment to provide a consistent and fair corporate tax environ-ment in the years to come.
AmCham Denmark looks forward to addressing these im-portant issues together with a new government.
� e author is the executive director of AmCham Denmark
99 - 15 September 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK OPINION
IT’S A FUNNY THING but this turn of phrase, ‘to be perfectly frank’, which will be familiar to most English mother-tongues,
suits this column very well. It’s of course a play on my name, but also happens to re ect my character to some degree. Yes, I’m a perfectionist … a self-confessed perfectionist. It can be very satisfying in some circumstances – when things go right – and hell for me and my immediate surroundings when they don’t. Part of the reason is that I’ve spent the best part of my professional life correcting failings in other people’s work, most recently as an English edi-tor with the World Health Organisa-tion. � e legacy of this is that I tend to notice faults wherever I go and I can also be rather impatient, not to say hot-tempered! A rather dangerous combination sometimes …
On the other hand, these scrib-blings are not the confessions of an inveterate, small-minded nit-picker. I really do feel I have the right to feel in-dignant when my sense of propriety is violated. � e secret, I guess, is to choose to protest about the things (or people) one can have an in uence on rather than those one can’t. For example, I was recently sent an announcement for a production of Tom Stoppards’s [sic] Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. And this from a leading theatre in the West End of London. Does the writer really think the author’s name is Stopp-ards? If so, why has s/he been employed as copywriter by a professional theatre? If not, how come nobody noticed the ga� ? And � nally, what does the poor author feel about his name being gra-tuitously misspelled? I could have sent them a letter signed “Outraged, Copenhagen” but I didn’t. I knew it wouldn’t have made one iota of dif-
ference. Just maybe, though, I should have sent a letter to Sir Tom signed “Sympathetic, Copenhagen”.
Now I suspect that some of my readers are beginning to � nd them-selves in one of two camps: those who think “so what?” and those who are already delving deep to � nd their own favourite bêtes noires. No doubt we will hear something from the latter in due course. � e so-whats, however, will need a degree of provoking out of their indi� erence. People are indi� er-ent because they are lazy, or ignorant, or passive, or just uninterested. And people are, of course, entitled to be any or all of those things. But passivity is a special case. Passivity in the face of provocation is unnatural and involves suppressing one’s normal emotions in
favour of a more ‘civilised’ way of be-haviour. It drives me crazy and will no doubt raise its ugly head in this col-umn again!
� is is by way of an introduction to myself and to the avour of my forthcoming contributions. As I told the Post’s editorial team, I was born into another time (1942) and another place (the Isle of Wight) and I don’t necessarily see what’s going on around me in the same light as other genera-tions or other nationals. I’ll probably be called a grumpy old man by some, and that label I will willingly wear if it re ects a concern as to the way that western European values are being dragged down the slippery slope that leads to decadence. Rights? It appears that everyone has them, but they are
A collection of typos guaranteed to get Frank’s blood boiling (and to prove we’re good sports, we included one of our own)
I’m quite frankly a perfectionist
CPH POST VOICES
I’ll probably be called a grumpy old man by some, and that label I will willingly wear if it re� ects a concern as to the way that western European values are being dragged down the slippery slope that leads to decadence
To Be Perfectly FrankBY FRANK THEAKSTON
Born in 1942 on the Isle of Wight, Englishman Frank Theakston has been in Copenhagen 32 years and is on his second marriage to a Dane. Frank comes from a di� erent time and a di� erent culture – which values are the right ones today?
Clare MacCarthy is Nordic correspondent for The Economist and a frequent contributor to The Financial Times and The Irish Times. She’ll go anywhere from the Gobi Desert to the Arctic in search of a story. The most fascinating thing about Denmark, she says, is its contradictions.
Celia Thaysen is a British love refugee who landed on these shores six years ago. With below-par Danish, a tendency to tardiness, and a fondness for Marmite, she spends her time fumbling her way through unfamiliar territory as a working mother-of-two with a house in the ‘burbs.
‘SO SAYS CELIA’ ‘MACCARTHY’S WORLD’
no longer connected in any way to re-sponsibility. Personal responsibility in particular has become almost a subject of ridicule. Even Mr Breivik is appar-ently not necessarily responsible for his behaviour (assuming that he is in fact sane) and must have been the product of some failing in society.
One last point: you won’t � nd me expressing any views to do with party politics or organised religion. � at’s a waste of time and energy to my mind. � at doesn’t mean, though, that you will be spared any mention of politics or religion should the need arise. Con-fused? You won’t be if you watch this space ...
By the way, the correct possessive of Stop-pards would have been Stoppards’.
English by nature – Danish at heart. Freelance journalist Richard Steed has lived in Copenhagen for nearly � ve years now. “I love this city and want Copenhagen to be a shining example to the rest of the world.”
‘PERNICKETY DICKY’ A proud native of the American state of Iowa, Justin Cremer has been living in Copenhagen since June 2010. In addition to working at the CPH Post, he balances fatherhood, the Danish language and the ever-changing immigration rules. Follow him at twitter.com/justincph
‘STILL ADJUSTING’
10 9 - 15 September 2011The Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dkA
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The weather turned it on for the opening of Copenhagen’s newest food market
T he butcher, the baker and the sushi mak-er stood side by side on Friday as copenhagen’s
newest food market opened its doors.
home to 60 different food stalls and occupying an indoor area of 2,500 sqm, torvehallerne has a focus on diversity, differ-ence, flavour and quality.
Mayor Frank Jensen offi-cially opened the marketplace, talking of the recent explosion in Nordic food culture.
“People from all corners of the world come to copenhagen to experience our food,” he told a crowd of several hundred gath-ered for the official opening.
Designed by architect hans Peter hogan, the project had become bogged down a number of times since its inception in 1998. Development firm Jeudan gave the torvehallerne the final boost it needed, injecting 70 million kroner into the project in 2009 after one of the major investors went bankrupt.
based on the shift in co-penhageners’ buying habits, torvehallerne is designed to reflect an in-creasing con-sumer interest in shopping at markets and specialty food shops instead of supermarkets.
In order to make sure that the market maintains a diverse assortment of retailers, stalls are limited to a maximum size of 50 sqm, and can be subdivided down to 12.5 sqm.
copenhagen residents Mads carstensen and Philip Nørr said they enjoyed the market atmos-phere.
“It’s the personal touch we like, for example when you’re buying a piece of fish the staff will tell you the best way to cook it.”
Lene christiansen, a sales assistant at Mejeriudsalg, which
sells cheese and other dairy products, said torvehal lerne gives customers an authentic ex-perience.
“You get to tell the sto-ries about the cheeses, which is
something you can’t do in a su-permarket”.
two enthusiastic shop-pers, Jette Kofoed and Kirsten Voigt, made a onehour trip from northern Zealand for the open-ing. Kofoed was nostalgic about the opening of torvehallerne, which stands on the site of co-penhagen’s previous farmers market that closed in 1958, and which gave the square its name, Grønttovet (Vegetable Square).
“This is something we’ve wanted for years to replace the open air market that stood here
when I was young,” she said.Some have criticised torve-
hallerne for focusing too much on the gourmet than the eve-ryday, but with around 25,000 cyclists passing the facility every day and its proximity to Nør-report Station, the city’s busiest traffic hub, stallholders are prim-ing themselves for business.
“We’re just glad to be a part of this,” tapa del toro staff member Antony Manly said. “I’ve been here since 6am and we’ve been flat-out.”
Let the feasting beginhigh profile market is looking to bring good food to the masses
Emily mclEan
people from all corners of the world come to Copenhagen to experience our food
Anthony Manly at Tapa del Toro’s stand
One of the 60 different food stalls at Torvehallerne
A stallholder shows off his range of fresh produce
Customers were treated to delicious tastings such as these mini-sandwiches
Mads and Philip enjoying the market atmosphere
Jette and Kirsten made a long trip to attend the opening
onLine ThiS week
nemid outage affects millions
NeMID – the security platform used by Danes to access their bank details – went off line for three hours yesterday morning. Three million people were af-fected by the breakdown, which lasted until 9:40 on Thursday morning, dur-ing which they were unable to access their online bank, tax account and oth-er public facilities that require NemID access. Søren Vinge from the company Nets, which runs NemID, told tv2.dk that the cause of the breakdown is still unknown, but that they were working hard to figure out what happend.
Read The fuLL SToRieS aT CphpoST.dk
LASt WeeKeND, 1,200 young peo-ple aged 18 to 25 descended on Zürich for the second One Young World sum-mit. With guest speakers who included the reverend Desmond tutu, bob Geldoff and Jamie Oliver, the summit was a chance for ambitious young peo-ple from across the globe to come to-gether and gain inspiration and develop projects to change the world.
Among the delegates is 24-year-old Mads hermann from Denmark. he is part of a talent program at Schneider electric, a company that deals with en-ergy efficiency and management and
whose corporate Social responsibility (cSr) programme often mean teaming up with local non-governmental organi-sations to deliver energy solutions in the developing world.
dane sees potential of global youth summit odense Council smoking ban voted down
A PrOPOSAL banning Odense council employees from smoking dur-ing working hours was voted down by the city council this week. The idea was proposed in order to reduce the number of average sick days an em-ployee took from 18 to 13, saving the council 50 million kroner a year. The consequences of the ban would have meant staff would not be allowed to smoke during working hours, regard-less of whether they were in an office or driving to meet a client in their car. Odense would have become the first council in Denmark to ban smoking during working hours in Denmark if
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the proposal had been accepted. Ac-cording to the cancer Society, coun-cils would benefit financially from weaning their employees off cigarettes, as 11 percent of an employee’s working hours are spent smoking even if it is only five cigarettes a day.
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fact file | opening hourstorvehallerne is open tuesday to Thursday, 10am to 7pm, Fridays 10am to 8pm, Saturdays 9am to 5 pm and Sundays 10am to 3pm. The building is situated at Frederiksborggade 21, 100 metres from Nørreport Station.
119 - 15 September 2011 The Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dk
Foreign dignitaries observe Vietnam’s 66th year since independence
The diplomatic community were out in force to celebrate Vietnam’s national day at a function at The Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Hellerup last week. The day marks the country’s declaration of independence in 1945, read out by President Ho Chi Minh at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi.
It was a lively gathering with many members of the city’s Vietnamese community present, along with nu-merous dignitaries including Danes Worldwide chairman Carsten Dencker Nielsen and US ambassador Laurie S Fulton.
Enjoying proceedings are (left-right) Le Minh Thang, the deputy head of mission at the Vietnamese Embassy, Japanese ambassador Toshio Sano and Cypriot ambassador George C Kasoulides.
The proud hosts, compare Vietnamese ambassador Vu Van Luu and his wife notes with the South American contingent: Bolivian ambas-sador Bishop Eugenio Poma (left) and Venezuelan charge d’affaire Roger Corbacho Moreno (right).
Among the other attendees were Ukrainian ambassador Mykhailo Skuratovskyi …
and Norwegian ambassador Jørg Willy Bronebakk ... and South African ambassador Samkelisiwe Mhlanga.
Chinese ambassador Xie Hangsheng and South Korea am-bassador Geun-hyeong Yim, possibly catching up on the athletics results from Daegu.
Canadian ambassador Peter Lundy, Cypriot ambassador George C Kasoulides, Moroccan ambassador Raja Ghannam, and Cuban ambassador Guillermo Vázquez Moreno, who re-cently confirmed he is leaving Denmark shortly.
Luxembourg’s attaché Armando Muno and Israeli ambassa-dor Artur Avnon – but don’t mention the football! Israel beat the duchy twice during the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
The Vietnamese community was well represented – this is the family who own and run VietSense restaurant on HC Ørsteds Vej in Frederiksberg
PHoToS HASSE FERRoLD & WoRDS BEN HAMILToN
community
12 9 - 15 September 2011THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK
ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
COMMUNITY
Købmagergade 65, 1150 København Ktel. 33 34 35 36 www.yoga.dk
WHERE WERE you on 11 Sep-tember 2001? I remember the day well. I was living and
working in the beautiful city of Bath in the west of England. � at evening I was at the welcome service for the new rector of Bath Ab-bey. � ere was shock and uncer-tainty on every-one’s faces. � e mood was som-bre. Bishop Jim � ompson was the preacher. Af-terwards he drove the 25 miles back home from Bath to Wells. He then received two tel-ephone calls. � e � rst informing him that Sarah, the daughter of one of his priests in Bath, had gone to work that morning at one of the higher � oors of the World Trade Center and was dead. � e second from the pro-ducers of BBC Radio Four´s ‘� ought For � e Day’ asking the bishop to
speak live to eight million people at 7.48am the next morning to re� ect on what we now call ‘9/11’.
Bishop Jim spoke to a numbed breakfast audience. He told me later that this was one of the most impos-
sible tasks he had ever been asked to do. His broadcast was later nomi-nated for a Sony Award, such was its impact. His words included these:
“On a perfect morning in New York – looking impregnable, the vast twin towers reduced to dust, and thousands on
thousands of people crushed in the fall. � e mayor of New York said the casualties would be more than anyone of us can bear.
So many questions: Who did it? How would we all be a� ected? And rumbling from the ruins the fear. � is
volcano didn’t come from below but above, raining terror on Manhattan; not a natural disaster but man-made. What just cause could possibly deserve such an evil and unjust response. Will the appetite for retaliation lead to in-discriminate reprisals? Can ever the good in the human mind cope wise-ly and e� ectively in the face of such evil?”
Ten years later, the world remains an uncertain place, with new con� icts and challenges. But the questions put to us by Bishop Jim remain. We can never forget that day. And the more than 3,000 people who died. � e familes who still grieve today. � e he-roes from the rescue teams. � e need, more urgent now than ever, to prevent terrorism and build peace and securi-ty, to understand and challenge funda-mentalism, and to break down barriers of fear and suspicion between peoples and communities.
Ten years on, let’s pause for a mo-ment on 11 September and remember those who died. And ask “how were we a� ected?” How we can play our part to build a safer future?
He told me later that this was one of the most
impossible tasks he had ever been asked to do.
Jonathan LLoyd is the Anglican/Episcopal priest in Denmark. You can find him on your way to the Little Mermaid at St Alban’s Church, Churchillparken. This may seem like a little piece of England complete with its distinctive spire and statue of Sir Winston, but it gathers people from across the globe plus hundreds of tourists each week. Jonathan has lived in Copenhagen for the last two years and loves the place.
Inspiration from the Spire
‘Warhol & Basquiat’ is a new exhibition at Arken Museum. Pictured here with Warhol’s depiction of The Statue of Liberty is the museum’s chief executive Christian Gether.
Irish ambassador Brendan Scannell was at hand to address a well-attended Tourism Ireland event at the SAS Radisson Hotel. “Ireland has a lot to o� er our Danish cousins – great food, terri� c scenery, cultural and historic links but above all a warm and friendly Irish welcome,” he told the gathering.
The Lithuanian Embassy was the setting for the presentation of the Lithuanian Diplomacy Star to Hans Skov Christensen (middle) “for merits promoting the name of Lithuania”. The Lithuanian minister for foreign a� airs, Audronius Azubalis, presented the award, with Lithuanian ambas-sador Rasa Kairiene looking on.
The Ukrainian Embassy celebrated the 20th anniversary of its country’s independence on Monday with an art ex-hibition, traditional dancing and national dishes. The ambassador Mykhailo Skuratovskyi is seen here addressing a gathering that included Israeli ambassador Artur Avnon and Cypriot ambassador George Kasoulides.
Ahead of the Elephant Parade auction this Friday (see www.elephantpa-rade.dk for details), Prince Henrik and his grandsons, Prince Nicolai and Prince Felix, attended the farewell exhibition at KPH Volume (Enghavevej 84) of the elephants that have been bringing jumbo jollity to our public places over the summer.
Israeli writer David Grossman was among the at-tendees at the four-day Louisiana Literature event that ended on Sunday. His book ‘To the End of the Land’ has just been published in Danish. Here he is with the Israeli Embassy’s Dan Oryan (left).
139 - 15 September 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK
THE COLOURS of freedom were unfurled and the rekin-dling of patriotic fervour en-sued. To mark India’s independ-
ence day in mid-August, celebrations echoed among the Indian community and events were organised by Indi-ans in Denmark (IID) at Valby and the indian Cultural Society Denmark (ICSD) at Lyngby to mark the occa-sion.
� e distinctly Indian perform-ances included patriotic action songs performed by children, Bollywood-inspired dances, Bharathnatyam danc-ing, and classical instrumental music. Nostalgic memories of India were brought to life by the warmth of the occasion. India was everywhere: in the initial chaos, the buzz of chit-chat, the colourfully-adorned shades of brown, and the aroma of curry to be served later in the evening.
� e event was not devoid of local � avour. � e Bollywood dance number was the highlight of the day and in-cluded many Danes, including Mette. � e dance culminated beautifully with the unfurling of Danish and Indian � ags. “I love to dance and I support the cause of integration,” said Mette when asked about her motivation for being part of an Indian programme.
Furthermore, Danish poet Claus Ankersen recited a few lines that he
COMING UP SOON
Indians in Denmark, and a few Danes, celebrate big day in style
had penned for the occasion, and the group song by Indian and Danish children was also noteworthy. � ere were quite a number of locals among the audience, presumably by a cultural
extravaganza that would unfold. When asked about the reason for their pres-ence, most of them cited the food and cultural experience. India does seem to be popular among Danes. � e In-dian community in Denmark, though, is miniscule in comparison to that in the UK and USA. � is is largely attrib-uted to factors like the language bar-rier, high cost of living, high tax rate, dearth of lucrative jobs and general lack of awareness.
“When I came to Denmark in 2008, I was completely in the dark for want of information,” said Kannath-asan Pandian, an IT professional from Tamil Nadu who went on to found IID.
“All information was in Danish
and I knew no-one in Denmark. � is instigated me to launch a platform for the Indian community in Denmark to come together, as well as help new-comers with necessary information. � us Indians in Denmark was born in 2009.”
Nevertheless, apart from minor concerns like the Danes’ reluctance to socialise - especially if you don’t speak Danish (as pointed out by Rishab from Delhi) – and the non-availability of Indian food (Bipin Gandhi, a techie from Mumbai), most Indians had pos-itive experiences to talk about.
“My professional stint in Denmark has been very satisfying,” said Kuldeep Khatri, a nurse from Rajasthan. “We are treated on par with our Danish col-
leagues and have a great relationship with them.”
� ough Vineet Budhiraja, an HR professional from New Delhi agreed, he has a di� erent take on integration, “We interact with Danes in our daily life, both at the work place and else-where. � ey have been nice, and we have a comfortable work environment. But it is never possible to completely integrate. � ere will always be di� er-ences. What is more important is to have mutual respect.”
Later in the evening, ICSD put up a commendable show of traditional performances, the most memorable of which was the Bhangra dance with its pulsating energy and rhythmic drum beats.
� e Danish/Indian performance goes to Bollywood
Indians in Denmark founderKannathasan Pandian
Photography WorkshopBooks & Company, So� evej 1, Hellerup; � u 8 Sep (today) and � u 15 April, 19:00-21:00 both days; Adm 500kr for both sessions (includes drinks and snacks); register via [email protected] your holiday pictures didn’t turn out as well as you would’ve liked them to, then this workshop might just be the thing for you. � e freelance photographer and former teacher Leah Meany Kris-tensen will teach you everything about shutter speed, aperture and ISO, as well as guiding you into capturing such things as sport ac-tion, portraits, group shots and landscapes. All you need to do is sign up now before the group is full, bring a camera with a pos-sibility for manual settings, and be ready to walk outside to take practice shots if weather permits. You may also request a topic by e-mailing it to Books & Company, but do so well in advance. TK
Knitting ClubBibliothekshuset, Rodosvej 4, Cph S; Tue 13 Sep, 15:30-17:00; free adm; www.bib-bro@k� .kk.dkAt the knitting club you can swap gimmicks and experiences with like-minded people who share your passion for wool and yarn. When your work is all tan-gled up, there is always a help-ing hand to sort out the knots. If you are more into crotchet, you are welcome as well. � e next dates for the knitting club are 11 Oct, 25 Oct, 15 Nov, and 29 Nov. EK
Copenhagen � eatre Circle Start-of-Season PartyStalden, Cph Ø; Fri 9 Sep, starts at 19:00; www.ctcircle.dkCome with a dish to share with others pot-luck style to help the Copenhagen � eatre Circle kick o� its new season. Music, enter-tainment and plenty of food will be in store for those interested in theatre and a good time. � is year, the theme of the party will be ‘Fairy Tales’, and guests are en-couraged to get into the party spir-it by dressing as a good, wicked or unconventional fairy. � e bar will serve beer, wine, co� ee and soft drinks at very practical prices. While you’re there, ¥ nd out about their Improvisation workshop on Tuesday. JS
Bicycle TrainingHans Tavsen Park, Hans Tarvsens Gade 40, Cph N; ends 29 Oct, every Sat 10:00-13:00; free adm; contact: Cecilie Herløw 2291 5962, registration: [email protected]; www.dcf.dk Every Saturday Cecilie Herlow of-fers free bicycle lessons for people with a non-Danish background. If you can’t make it to Nørrebro, please visit the bicycle club’s web-site to ¥ nd out more about the lessons in Amager, Vesterbro, Fre-driksberg, Valby or Tingbjerg. EK
StorytimeBooks & Company, So� evej 1, Hellerup; every Tue 09:30-10:00; Free Adm; www.booksandcompany.dk� e popular storytime is back after a summer break! Tuesday morn-ings at the international book
café are dedicated to inspiring and captivating the imagination of the little ones. � e wonderful story-teller Sara Albers, a teacher and a mother of two young boys, enter-tains the kids with stories, poems, ¥ nger plays and small projects. � is is a fantastic way to start the day! TK
Cinderella auditionsØsterbro International School, Præstøgade 17, Cph Ø; Sep 10 & 11, from 10:00; [email protected] on from the enormous success of their Christmas play last year, the Copenhagen � ea-tre Circle are putting on a musi-cal version of Cinderella, and here’s your chance to get involved. Email Sylvain to arrange an audi-tion time and ¥ nd out more info. � e play itself will run at Krudt-tønden from 15–23 December and 3-7 January. EK
Seminar by Chryssi GiannitsarouCopenhagen Business School, Porcelæn-shaven 16 A, Frederiksberg; Mon 12 Sep, 13:00-14:00; www.cbs.dkIn a time when immigration issues are a hot topic across Denmark and the world, Cambridge Uni-versity professor Chryssi Gian-nitsarou speaks out about the dy-namics of human capital, growth and inequality and how they are a� ected by network structures. For anyone interested in how so-cieties can ¥ nd long run equality and a balanced growth path, they can learn about those topics and more during this academic lec-ture. JS
International Bollywood dance numbers and songs, and Danish poet’s dedication, prove integration is alive and kicking
BY JOHN THOPPIL
COMMUNITY
You can sign up via the website, send an email to [email protected] or phone 31 18 75 58. This event is free of charge for members / 350 DKK inc MOMS for non-members.
• official media partner
Denmark’s anti-piracy operations & the lack of policing in global commerce
Dr. Lars Bangert Struwe has conducted research on armed non-governmental actors including pirates since 2006. The research program was originally framed as a historical research program, but the hijacking of the Danish ship Danica White in 2007 changed this! Since then the research has focused on contemporary piracy as a high risk on the open seas. Today Lars is working as a researcher at the Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen, where he is developing strategies to fight piracy.
Event programme:11:45 Registration & welcome drinks12:00 Welcome & introduction by Mariano A. Davies, President, BCCD 12:05 Presentation of the Scholarship Award12:15 Guest speaker - Lars Bangert Struwe 12:40 Questions & discussion 12:55 Announcements by Penny Schmith, Executive Director, BCCD 13:00 Buffet lunch & networking
Date: Friday, 16th SeptemberVenue: Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen
This lunch will also be the occasion of the presentation of this year’s scholarship award.
Lars Bangert Struwe, PhD, Research Fellow, Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen
BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN DENMARK
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14 9 - 15 September 2011The Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dksport
danes keep euro 2012 dreams alive with crucial win
The Danes are now favourites to finish at least second in the group
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what it takes to win grand slams – she has made four finals, winning the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open – so Wozniacki will take encouragement from a resilient display in a second set that saw an in-the-zone Kuznetsova ini-tially dominate.
Wozniacki made just three un-forced errors to Kuznetsova’s 29 in the set to fight back and draw level, and then never looked back in the third to win in 182 minutes.
The Dane hit a higher number of winners than usual – 20 to Kuznetsova’s
CarOline Wozniacki produced arguably her best performance of 2011 on Monday night to advance
to the quarter-finals of the US Open.The world number one defeated the
in-form Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-7, 7-5, 6-1, coming back from 4-1 down in the second set to overcome her experienced russian opponent.
Kuznetsova is a player who knows
Woz that attacking enough? World number one shows true grit to advance to US open quarters
denMarK’S footballers won their crucial euro 2012 qualifier against norway 2-0 at Parken on Tuesday night thanks to two
first-half goals by nicklas Bendtner.The result leaves Denmark looking
more likely to avoid elimination than norway – should the sides finish level (they currently both have 13 points; Denmark have two games left, norway one), Denmark will advance courtesy of their head-to-head record.
To guarantee a second-place finish, Denmark need to win in Cyprus on October 7, particularly as norway are expected to beat Cyprus at home in their final game. To win the group and auto-matically qualify, Denmark will need to beat Portugal at Parken on October 11.
With lars løkke rasmussen prefer-ring to attend the game - possibly his last as prime minister - instead of tak-ing part in yet another live debate, it was an all-round encouraging and confident display from a Danish side that always looked the likely winners.
a clinical move cut open the nor-wegian defence in the 24th minute, al-lowing Dennis rommedahl to pick out a well-positioned Bendtner for the easiest of openers. and then in the 44th minute, Bendtner tried his luck from distance against a keeper who only minutes earlier had completely missed the ball – without a bobble in sight – and beat him em-phatically with an explosive shot into the bottom left hand corner.
Should Denmark make the play-offs, they will be one of the seeds courtesy of their high FiFa ranking, which currently rates them as the 21st best team in the world.
Meanwhile, four Danish interna-tionals were involved in transfers last week ahead of the closure of the inter-national transfer window on Wednes-day august 31.
arsenal have loaned Bendtner out to Premier league rival Sunderland for the rest of the season. it is hardly the most glamourous of moves for a player who in the spring was linked to moves to Bundelsiga trio Bayern Munich, Schalke 08 and Borussia Dortmund, but he should have plenty more op-portunities to play than last season, particularly as he has already previously played for and impressed Sunderland manager Steve Bruce.
Wolfsburg defender Simon Kjær has joined aS roma on a season-long loan deal. it is believed that the Serie
a club will have the option to sign the 22-year-old at the end of the season. Before joining Bundesliga outfit Wolfs-burg, Kjær enjoyed two pretty success-ful seasons in italy with Palermo. Kjær told the Danish Fa’s website that he was “very proud and happy” to be sign-ing for such a “top club in both italian and european football”.
Midfielder Christian Poulsen, 31, currently out of favour with the Dan-ish national team after playing only six times for liverpool under Kenny Dal-glish following the Scot’s arrival in Jan-uary, has joined French ligue 1 new-comers evian on a one-year deal. He will link up with fellow Danes Daniel Wass and Stephan andersen.
and Danish midfielder Dennis rommedahl, 33, has returned home
Qualification very much in the national team’s hands following 2-0 defeat of norway
Ben Hamilton
online ThiS Week
indians invest in FCM
DaniSH Superliga club FC Midtjyl-land has signed a deal with indian in-dustrial group Dempo, which will see the company take a stake of 34 percent in FC Midtjylland Holdings aS in re-turn for capital investment of 70 mil-lion kroner. The arrangement is part of a commercial and technical partnership that will involve the Danish club assist-ing with the technical development of the company’s club Dempo FC and the establishment of a joint academy in the Goa region. The deal will be put to a shareholder vote at an eGM on Thurs-day 15 September.
Read The FUll SToRieS aT CphpoST.dk
DenMarK finished eighth equal in the medal table at the World rowing Championships in Slovenia, which concluded on Sunday. The Danish men’s team won one gold and two bronzes – three better than the ladies – at an event that serves as a qualifier for the 2012 Olympics in london. leading the way was the impressive Henrik Stephansen, who dominated the lightweight single sculls final to win by a clear five seconds. Trailing at the halfway mark, an impressive third-quarter spurt saw the Dane go into a lead he easily maintained over the final 500 metres. also medalling were the third-placed lightweight
quadruple sculls and the lightweight eight, while the lightweight double sculls and lightweight coxless four will not be too disappointed with their fifth-place finishes, as they have at least qualified for the Olympics courtesy of making the finals. Both teams are focused on london and will be pleased with their progress. The lightweight double sculls, Mads rasmussen and rasmus Quist, won bronze at the 2008 Olympics, while eskild ebbesen, the stroke in the lightweight coxless four, is a three-time Olympic gold medallist.
Rower looks a good bet for london no doubting Thomas’s form
FOllOWinG his four-shot victory in the european Masters in Switzerland, Danish golfer Thomas Bjørn has now won back-to-back titles. The victory continues a fabulous year for the golfer, who started 2011 as the world number 127 but has since won three tourna-ments and risen to number 28. Only the world number one, luke Donald, has won as many tournaments. Bjørn, 40, on Sunday shot an imperious nine-under 62 to overhaul overnight leader Jamie Donaldson, a player he trailed by four after bogeying the fourth. But he followed that with four straight bird-ies and added another at the 11th to go ahead – a lead he then regained with an
eagle at 15 and cemented with birdies at the final two holes. “The way i finished was special and it’s been an amazing two weeks,” Bjorn told media. “at the end you think nothing can go wrong. Golf seems easy sometimes and you have to remember that when you are not playing well.” The Masters was the first qualify-ing event for the 2012 ryder Cup – a good start to Bjørn’s bid to qualify for a third time. He has also risen to seventh place in the race for Dubai (formerly The Order of Merit), one place behind his compatriot anders Hansen with earnings of €1,381,444.
to sign for Superliga club Brøndby on a two-year contract after being released by Greek outfit Olympiakos. it is be-lieved that he had been away for so long – he last played league football in Den-mark in 1997 - that he qualifies for the same tax breaks that entice highly-qual-ified foreigners to work in the country on three-year contracts.
and finally, it emerged on Tuesday that Morten rasmussen, 26, has been loaned out by Celtic to Turkish side Svasspor on a loan deal until the end of the year. Signed in January 2010, rasmussen, who has five international caps, has yet to force his way into the Celtic side and spent last season on loan at German side Mainz before moving to Danish side aaB on loan in February.
40 - signs that her offensive game is im-proving.
“i knew i could come back so i just stepped into the lines and went for my shots and tried to make fewer errors,” she told media afterwards. “i am in good shape. i can play for five hours if i have to.”
Her first serve percentage was good (72 to Kuznetsova’s 68) and return of serve excellent - she gave herself 17 opportunities to break to Kuznetsova’s seven. However, the russian showed greater nerve on the important points
(winning 71 percent of her break points to Wozniacki’s 53), especially in the first set tie-break, which she won 8-6 after falling 5-2 behind.
at the time of going to press, Woz-niacki was a 2/5 favourite to beat the German tenth seed andrea Petkovic in the last eight on Wednesday, with the tournament’s odds-on favourite Serena Williams her most probable opponent in the semis on Friday.
Williams is 2/5 to win the final on Saturday, with Wozniacki a 17/2 second favourite to upset the odds. (BH)
STeve BrUCe took the teenage nickas Bendtner on loan at second tier side Birmingham City in 2006 and he repaid his faith by scoring 13 times in 48 games as the Blues won promotion to the Premier league. Still, it is believed that Bruce signed Bendtner after a bid for Peter Crouch fell through. Crouch ended up joining Stoke City – a club that was strongly tipped to buy Bendtner only hours before.
“i’ve HaD the privilege of working with nicklas previously,” Bruce told media. “i had him as an 18-year-old and he helped clinch promotion for Birmingham. He’s an outstanding talent and is a big, physical presence who will lead the line magnificently for us.”
Given Bendtner’s Pl experience (79 appearances thus far), he cer-tainly looks a better bet to partner Ghana’s asamoah Gyan than young-ster Connor Wickham, a 18-year-old in the same mould as Bendtner who was signed from ipswich Town over the summer, and South Korean signing Ji Dong-Won.
Fact file | Bendtner’s prospects
159 - 15 September 2011 The Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dk
A Shortcut to Danish
• 10 levels
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Cyklernes by – Copenhagen City of Bicyclesby Cecilia Vanman. Photography by Robin Maddock
Cecilia Vanman vividly describesthe multifaceted Copenhagenbicycle culture with all that itentails. Her stories are accom-panied by stunning images ofthe cycling capital captured bythe celebrated British photo-grapher Robin Maddock.
Find out why Copenhagenersare so in love with their bikesand see them portrayed in thestreets with their favorite twowheels: cargo bikes, fixies,classic racers, tourers, velomo-biles, home built/new/vintageand on it goes – Copenhagenholds the whole spectrum.Bikes are everywhere, all day,every day, year round.
English and Danish text.
www.nytnordiskforlag.dk • www.cityofbicycles.cc
byCyklernes copenhagenCity of Bicycles
Photographyby Robin Maddock
Nyt Nordisk Forlag
Arnold Busck
Cecilia Vanman
business
Tough third quarter bearing down on economy
despite last week’s positive economic figures, the winner of the election is likely to receive bad economic news during the first months of their term
although second quarter economic statistics showed the country posting surprisingly strong gDP growth, a repeat in
the third quarter is unlikely.A closer look at the figures shows
that the 1.0 percent gDP growth fig-ure was due mainly to governmental spending and inventory build-up in the private sector. The domestic con-sumer spending that is necessary to drive continued growth, on the other hand, has remained stagnant. Exports meanwhile are likely to decline.
Seasonally adjusted figures show that consumer activity in the second quarter fell 0.1 percent, which is a smaller decline than was expected. Sta-tistics earlier in the month showed that payments with the Dankort debit card were lower than normal – normally this is a trustworthy indicator of the direction of the economy.
So while the government was given some unexpected help in its bid for re-election, the real indicator of the coun-try’s economic health won’t come until the third quarter figures are released – well after the votes are counted on September 15.
Economic indicators are already pointing towards a return to negative growth rates when those figures are re-
leased. The cause: a double whammy of slumping private consumption here at home and the flagging german and Swedish economies.
While Øknomisk ugebrev’s Eco-nomic Barometer, which is a compos-ite of ten economic indicators, showed only a moderate decline in June, it wasn’t until July that it began in ear-nest. The pace of the decline, however, more than doubled between July and August.
Aggravating matters, the Econom-ic Barometer only measures private sector consumption, not the public spending or inventory build-up that contributed to the second quarter’s positive numbers.
According to Statistics Denmark, retail sales fell by a percent, year on year, in July, marking it the third month running spending had de-clined. The seasonally adjusted figures show that sales fell 2.9 percent between May and July.
ThE EconoMic decline once attributed to rural regions is slow-ing making its way towards the
capital. originally confined to rural areas
in Jutland that suffered economic de-cline and widespread depopulation as industrial jobs moved away, the phenomenon is now being used to describe Slagelse, a town with a popu-lation of 30,000 that is less than an hour’s drive from the capital.
The town has been hit by large-scale factory closures in recent years, according to Berlingske newspaper.
companies like confectioner Ma-laco leaf, popcorn producer Popz and cFS, a maker of food processing equipment, have all moved produc-tion abroad, resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs that labour unions say are unlikely to be replaced.
Experts warned that much of the surrounding area would also suffer the same fate eventually.
“Provincial Denmark begins just outside copenhagen,” said Jon Sun-dbo, a professor of business econom-ics at Roskilde university. “With the exception of Roskilde, all of Zealand outside greater copenhagen can be characterised as provincial. The region has low growth, high unemployment, a lack of investment, and its manufac-turers are threatened by closure.”
Steen Bach nielsen, the president of the Zealand Regional council, con-firmed that private and public work-places in the region are migrating to-ward the large urban areas. he stressed the need for public initiatives.
“We would like to join forces with local authorities to make more busi-nesses stay, but it is an uphill battle, and we must fight hard to get the nec-essary capital for entrepreneurs,” he said. (EK)
as jobs dry up, eastern Zealand town becomes latest to head into decline
economic decline creeping in on capital
The Popz factory in slagelse that the popcorn producer is leaving for pastures newA closer look at the figures reveals that the second quarter revival was a false dawn
Morten W Langer, ØkonoMisk Ugebrev
The other challenge facing the economy is the slowing economic ac-tivity in germany and Sweden. The robust economies of the country’s two largest export markets helped keep overall export figures afloat in the sec-ond quarter, when industrial producers recorded a 2.8 percent increase com-pared with the previous quarter.
Those gains, though, were due solely to sales of industrial machines. Such sales would be hit hard by a de-cline in economic activity in export markets. other key export sectors – in-cluding the food industry, pharmaceu-ticals and transport – declined in the second quarter, making it likely overall export rates will fall.
underscoring the likelihood that the economy is in for bad news, Sta-tistics Denmark’s latest economic fore-casts for the manufacturing, service and retail sectors are all negative. A number of other economic indicators also point in the same direction.
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THE COPENHAGEN POST SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE
WHY: The Copenhagen Post wishes to help spouses looking for jobs in Denmark. We have on our own initiative started a weekly spouse job page in The Copenhagen Post, with the aim to show that there are already within Denmark many highly educated international candidates looking for jobs.If you are a spouse to an international employee in Denmark looking for new career opportunities, you are welcome to send a pro� le to The Copenhagen Post at [email protected] and we will post your pro� le on the spouse job page when possible.
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PARTNERS:THE COPENHAGEN POST SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE
SPOUSE: Bhargavi Lanka Venkata FROM: IndiaSEEKING WORK IN: IT industry- Software - Manual & Automation TestingrQUALIFICATION: Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science EngineeringEXPERIENCE: Part Time/Full Time work in Software Testing, 4yrs and 9 months experience as Senior Software Engineer – Testing in a U.S based MNC in Bangalore, IndiaLANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Hindi, Enrolled for Danish classesIT EXPERIENCE: Manual testing, Automation Regression testing using QTP, Web service testing using SOA Tool, HP Quality center, Unix, SQL, XML, Basic shell scriptingCONTACT: [email protected]; Mobile: 50376689
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SPOUSE: S.M. Ariful Islam FROM: BangladeshSEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: PhD student (2nd year) in Language Policy and Practice in Aalborg University, MA in Bilingualism, MA in English Linguistics, BA in EnglishEXPERIENCE: 18 months as a University lecturer in English in Bangladesh. Taught advanced grammar, four skills (listening, speaking, reading & writing), ELT courses, Second Language theories, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics.LOOKING FOR: A position of English teacher/lecturer in English Medium Schools, Colleges and Universities.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Bengali (mother tongue), English (second language), Danish (¢ uent), Hindi and Urdu (Spoken) and Swedish (basic).IT EXPERIENCE: MS O« ce.CONTACT: Mail: [email protected], [email protected], mobile: +45 42778296
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179 - 15 September 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK
SPOUSE: Heike Mehlhase FROM: Berlin, Tyskland SEEKING WORK IN: A job opportunity in Copenhagen (administrative position, research assistant or psychosocial care)QUALIFICATION: MPH, Master degree in Psychology, Lerntherapeutin;.EXPERIENCE: Five years experience in psychological research andchild psychologyLOOKING FOR: Looking for: a position to expand my experience where I can use my excellent organisational, social and communication skillsLANGUAGE SKILLS: German (mother tongue), English (� uent), Danish (Module 2)IT EXPERIENCE: I am pro� cient in software such as word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software and basicgraphic editing programs (Microsoft O� ce, Open O� ce) plus statistical software (SPSS).CONTACT: [email protected]
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SPOUSE: VIDYA SINGH FROM: INDIASEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen, Odense, Arhus, Aalborg or nearby areas.QUALIFICATION: Master in Computer Management, Bachelor of Science, Certi� ed Novell Engineer, Microsoft Certi� ed Professional.EXPERIENCE: Total 8 years (4 year in telecommunication as customer care + 4 year as HR recruiter consultant)LOOKING FOR: HR (Trainee/Assistant/Recruiter/consultant), Customer service, o� ce work, ITLANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Hindi and Danish (currently learning)IT EXPERIENCE: MS-o� ce, Hardware, Networking, Intranet and Internet.CONTACT: [email protected], Mobile: +45 71443554
SPOUSE: Clémence Arnal FROM: FranceSEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen; Region SjællandQUALIFICATION: Wastewater/drinking water (processes and treatments, building design, water sampling and pollution rate measurement) ; environment protection ( river basin management, waste management).EXPERIENCE: Waste sorting representative (O� ce “Communauté du Pays d’Aix”, France) ; Leaks investigation on drinking water networks, Help to communes to deal with their drinking water system, Control operation of individual sanitation systems (O� ce “G2C Environnement”, France) ; Drinking water stations security : putting the Antiterrorist security plan in practice, employees security , Distribution network security : determining the cost of a network re-chlorination unit (“Drinking Water” administration of Aix en Provence, France)LOOKING FOR: Water treatment assistant / engineerLANGUAGE SKILLS: French (mother tongue) ; English (Fluent) ; Danish (Prøve Dansk 3) IT EXPERIENCE: MS-O� ce ; AutoCAD (basic) ; Mapinfo (basic)CONTACT: [email protected] / tlf: 23 34 63 22
SPOUSE: Fernando Carlos Cardeira da Silva FROM: PortugalSEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen QUALIFICATION: Accounting course from Danish Institution (Regnskabs medarbejder at Niels Brock), previous frequency of Accounting and Management courses in Portugal.EXPERIENCE: I have more than 5 years of experience in accountingLOOKING FOR: Job as accounting assistantIT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft O� ce (Excel, Word and Power point) and accounting software such as Navision C5LANGUAGE SKILLS: I can read and write Danish, English, Portuguese, Spanish and FrenchCONTACT: [email protected] +45 50437588
SPOUSE: Simon Rigby FROM: United Kingdom (originally Scotland)SEEKING WORK IN: Jylland, Fyn or Sjælland (anywhere in Denmark)QUALIFICATION: Secondary High School - 8 ‘Ordinary’ levels & 3 ‘Advanced’ levels achieved.EXPERIENCE: Business Development, Sales & Marketing and Client Relationship Management specialist. 15+ years experience in securing ‘insurance and lifestyle bene� ts’ contracts with high volume and high consumer numbers within the A� nity Group Marketing sector from a wide variety of distribution channels including banks, � nancial institutions, large membership a� nity groups and employers, credit card issuers and insurers. Highly accomplished and skilled at ‘low cost, high perceived value’ large scale marketing to B2B and B2C target audiences through both on-line and other direct marketing channels. Entire career spent in the banking, � nance and insurance sectors the latter of which I have spent in the UK employment of 3 of the top 4 global insurance brokers. A team player and a ‘people person’ with the skills and abilities to easily and comfortably interact with individuals at all levels. Natural problem solver who sees opportunities rather than obstacles. Simplistic and structured approach to � nding straightforward and practical solutions to problems.LOOKING FOR: A job within an organisation (� nancial services or otherwise) where my Sales & Marketing and Key Account managerial skills and experience are fully utilised and where I can provide a sustainable and tangible long term contribution to my new employer as well as to my new country within which I have chosen to permanently live.LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (mother tongue) ; German (very good) ; French (good) ; Danish (basic, but currently enrolled on a ‘Danskuddannelse 3’ language course). IT EXPERIENCE: Word - Advanced user. Powerpoint - Pro� cient user. Excel - Basic. CONTACT: [email protected] or mobile +45 60 16 80 40.
SPOUSE: Shilpa Lingaiah FROM: IndiaSEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and nearby areas of the mentioned citiesQUALIFICATION: PG Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (JSS University, India); Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (RGUHS, India). Danish agency for international education has assessed the above quali� cation and corresponds to Danish Master’s degree in Health Sciences.LOOKING FOR: Research related to health science, Jobs in pharmaceutical industry or new challenging career opportunitiesLANGUAGE SKILLS: English(� uent written and spoken),Enrolled for Danish language classes, Indian languages(Kannada and Hindi)IT EXPERIENCE: MS O� ceCONTACT: [email protected] Tel-+4552742859
SPOUSE: Suheir Sharkas FROM: SyriaSEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus and the nearby areas of the mentioned cities. QUALIFICATION: MBA–International Management, Bachelor in English Literature.LOOKING FOR: Positions in Organizations/Companies in the � elds of: Administration and organization, Event & Project Management, and Assistance Management.LANGUAGE SKILLS: : Arabic: Native speaker, English: Fluent (understanding, speaking and writing), German: Fluent (understanding, speaking and writing), Danish: Basic 3.3 (understanding, speaking and writing)IT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft O� ce (Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Power Point) and web publishing. CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: 533 721 20
SPOUSE: Weihua Xiao FROM: ChinaSEEKING WORK IN: Great CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Master in American Studies from University of Southern Denmark. Master in Education and B.A. In English. Diploma of Secretary. Certi� cate of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language from East China Normal UniversityEXPERIENCE: Work in the � elds of education, training, translation, interpretation, administration, Chinese (business) culture consulting. 8 years of full-time English language teacher in China. Work for a global company in Shanghai and Copenhagen as Personal Assistant to General Manager/Secretary for about 2 years from 2009 to 2010.LOOKING FOR: Chinese Language teacher, translator, interpreter, administrative positionLANGUAGE SKILLS: Chinese, English, basic DanishIT EXPERIENCE: A good user of Microsoft O� ce (Word, PowerPoint, Excel...)CONTACT: [email protected] +45 5048 9667
SPOUSE: Vadim Fedulov FROM: USASEEKING WORK IN: Pre-clinical or clinical/ biotech or academia/ Copenhagen region (100km radius)QUALIFICATION: Ph.D., Biological Sciences (2008)EXPERIENCE: 5 years research experience in biotech and 6 years in academic settings. For full experience summary, please visit: http://dk.linkedin.com/in/drvadimLOOKING FOR: Position in research, project management, writing, editing, teaching, or new challenging career opportunitiesLANGUAGE SKILLS: English (native), Russian (native), Danish (completed Module1 at Studieskolen)IT EXPERIENCE: Pro� cient in both Mac and PC OS, MS O� ce (Excel, Word, Powerpoint etc.), StatView, Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator)CONTACT: [email protected] and mobile tel: +45 41 83 36 60
SPOUSE: Lena Schulz zur Wiesch FROM: Berlin, GermanySEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen and Capital RegionQUALIFICATION: Cand. scient. pol. from the Humboldt-University Berlin and London School of Economics. EXPERIENCE: Seven years work experience from the German Parliament (EU-consultant) and as distinguished research associate at the Humboldt-University (urban planning). Strong analytical and inter-cultural skills. Team-worker. LOOKING FOR: Jobs in consulting, public administration, politics, NGOs, international institutions or companiesLANGUAGE SKILLS: German (mother tongue), English, Spanish, French, Danish (all � uently)IT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft O� ce, CMSCONTACT: [email protected]
Denmark’s only English-language newspaper
Intern
RestaurantHercegovina
Croatian restaurant with a wide choice of national and international dishes.
“Eat as much as you like” Live music and dance
Tivoli/Bernstorffsgade 3 - 1620 - Copenhagen V
TivoliHercegovina
TivoliHercegovina
Free access to 65 museumsand attractions in the
entire metropolitan area
See more at copenhagencard.com
InOutThe CPH Post Entertainment Guide August 19 - 25
Don’t miss this Dolly fixtureForum: Thursday 20:00 Tickets 415 - 815 kr
page G6
The Copenhagen Post is seeking an Intern.
You will be assisting with various tasks including administration, events and customer support.
We are looking for a candidate who has completed or is currently pursuing a marketing-related or other relevant degree. You must have excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and be able to work daily for approximately 20/25 hours per week. You should be an enthusiastic team-player with the ability to work independently at times. It would also be an advantage if you have a driving license.
The internship is unpaid.
Please send your application and CV to [email protected] noting ‘Intern’ in the subject line.
For more information please contact Hans Hermansen, [email protected], tel.: 3336 3300
Denmark’s only English-language newspaper
Søger Opsøgende Salgskonsulent
RestaurantHercegovina
Croatian restaurant with a wide choice of national and international dishes.
“Eat as much as you like” Live music and dance
Tivoli/Bernstorffsgade 3 - 1620 - Copenhagen V
Tivoli Free access to 65 museumsand attractions in the
entire metropolitan area
See more at copenhagencard.com
InOutThe CPH Post Entertainment Guide August 19 - 25
Don’t miss this Dolly fixtureForum: Thursday 20:00 Tickets 415 - 815 kr
page G6
The Copenhagen Post er i en forrygende udvikling, derfor søger vi endnu en dygtig salgskonsulent. Gennem 2011 har vi især haft succes med at producere særtillæg til vores ugentlige avis. Derfor har vi brug for dig. Du skal sælge og rådgive, primært i marken, men også over telefon.
Hvem er du:· Du er udadvendt· Du kender alt til salgsarbejdet· Du er ikke bange for kanvassalg· Du har erfaring med annoncesalg til både print og online· Du taler dansk og engelsk
Hvad tilbyder vi: · Et spændende sælgerjob i et internationalt miljø på en engelsksproget avis· Et udviklende job hvor du selv bestemmer hvor langt du vil nå· En god fast løn + en attraktiv provision· Fleksibel arbejdstid
Send ansøgning og CV til [email protected] mærk emne linje: Opsøgende salgskonsulent
For mere information kontakt venligst Hans Hermansen, [email protected], tel.: 3336 3300
SPOUSE: Ra ́aele Menafra FROM: ItalySEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: A degree as Prevention techniques in Work and Workplaces.EXPERIENCE: I worked 4 years in a rehabilitationclinicLANGUAGE SKILLS: Italian (native), English, Danish (currently learning)IT EXPERIENCE: MS O� ceCONTACT: [email protected]
EMPLOYMENT
18 9 - 15 September 2011The Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dkculture
1. A curb (6)2. Mozart opera (3, 5, 5)3. Oust (5)5. Corrected (7)6. Reminiscences (13)7. Concealed (6)8. Angry (5)13. Dried up (7)15. Bores (6)16. Due (5)17. Count (6)20. Follow as a result (5)
How did he get into the busi-ness? His father was the much-loved (in Denmark, at least) singer Tommy Seebach, so it seems to be in the genes.
Wow. It must have been great to grow up with a famous dad Not really. His dad was an alco-holic and died in 2003 from heart failure, at the early age of 53 years.
That must have been terribleOf course, in many ways it was, but in one of his songs, ‘Den jeg er’ (2009), Rasmus Seebach says (to his dead father) “promise me you won’t say sorry because you have made me what I am today.”
Does he sing good songs?Mmmm ... they’re popular in Denmark, shall we say.
come on, surely you can say something good about him!Well, he does dispel the myth that you have to be fantastic looking to make it in today’s shallow world of pop music. He is very ordinary-looking, and in fact bares more than a passing resemblance to the caretaker at my old school.
So has he always been a singer?He did start a pop group with his older brother, Nicolai, named ‘G-bach’, and released an album
victoria steffensen
in 1999 entitled ‘Skakmat’. They may have been talented music-makers, but I guess they could have done with a hand thinking of a catchy song title – one which didn’t sound so much like a sexu-ally-transmitted disease.
So, he has always been a singer.Actually not. He and his brother quickly recognised their limita-tions regarding marketing their own tunes and started writing and producing songs for other artists.
What made him change his mind?He wrote a song entitled Angel and, seeing its potential, felt it would be awful to sit as a 35-year-old and think “Why didn’t I sing it myself?”
And …It was kind of a good decision, be-cause he has gone on to win loads of Danish awards, and is currently trying to break into the interna-tional music scene by releasing an album in English.
aquA’S 1997 smash hit ‘Barbie Girl’ has been named the worst song of
the 1990s by readers of Rolling Stone magazine. It beat off stiff competition from ‘Macarena’, ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ and ‘Ice Ice Baby’ to top the poll.
“Barbie Girl – written by the Danish dance-pop group Aqua – is an incredibly polaris-ing song,” wrote Rolling Stone, conceding that many “loved the over-the-top cartoonish video and bizarre sound of the song”. While ‘Barbie Girl’ was only the 94th best selling single of 1997 in the uS, in the uK it was number two. It has sold an estimated eight million copies worldwide.
The song is no stranger to polls – and the results tend to
be mixed. It finished fourth in VH1’s Best Number One of All Time list and 27th in Much-MoreMusic’s top 50 Guilty Pleasures poll, while AOL Radio ranked it the fifth worst song of all time, and Same Difference voted it number two in their ultimate Cheese-Fest Top 20.
Barbie manufacturer Mattel was initially not a fan. It filed an unsuccessful lawsuit that it took all the way to the Supreme Court. But by 2009 it had changed its tune and used the song in one of its ad campaigns, with altered lyrics.
Most Rolling Stone readers backed the results, although one Scandinavian reader was furi-ous. “Aqua is a Danish band with one Norwegian member,” he wrote. “Please correct it.”
Ben HaMiLton
Made of plastic, poll is drastic
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Imaginative in places, this version of The Scottish play is hampered by its tiny stage, ponderous delivery and tame fight scenes
TO PERFORM this action-packed and darkly foreboding play steeped in supernatural forces outdoors in the corner of
a park before nightfall would be a chal-lenge for any theatre company. To at-tempt to do so with six actors, as TNT Theatre Britain chose to do so last weekend in the Kongen Haven gardens by Rosenborg Castle, showed an admi-rable ambition but the performance failed to deliver.
There were some moments that showed great imagination and what the concept behind this production was trying to achieve. At the outset the skills of all the actors were evident as they portrayed horses grazing and be-ing spooked by the presence of evil in-carnate in the guise of the three witch-es bent on bringing chaos to Scotland. This beginning was gripping and pure theatre, which held a mainly young student audience and yours truly spell-bound.
But this level of performance wasn’t maintained throughout and only man-aged to do so on a few occasions. King Duncan played as a blind man made
him even more vulnerable and reliant on those trusted to serve and protect him. This worked very well and was the first time I’ve seen that interpreta-tion.
Another section that was border-ing on brilliant was the Porter scene, in which Shakespeare provides us with a short bit of comic relief amidst all the
bloody gore of ambition and murder and witchcraft.
The Porter here is very, very drunk and in the process of trying to seduce a young lass, but is incapable of doing so. This double-act to the tune of the ominous hammering and pounding on the castle gates with Eric Tessier Lavigne and Louise Lee trying to get
into each others pants was funny and well-timed and again showed us the inventiveness TNT are capable of. If only this could have been sustained throughout.
Essentially then a school produc-tion aimed at a student audience, but I felt that there were times when they underestimated the language skills of
Danish gymnasium students. The pace of the delivery was sometimes ponder-ous in a “we have to speak slowly and clearly for them to understand any of this” kind of way. Not all the time, but I suggest to TNT that this is a mistake. Macbeth is a well-studied text that can only be served better by more attack.
The set and costumes teetered on the brink of being that of a school pro-duction. I mean this kindly – as I’ve seen some excellent school shows - but it would have been preferable to have no set at all, than one that wobbles and shakes as the actors use what was a very small postage stamp of an acting area.
The Attention to detail is a sign of any production value, even on the strictest of budgets and Macduff played well here by Richard Croughan looked as if he wanted a belt for his heavy broad sword, as he carried it by his waist as if he had one. This looked odd and was actually distracting.
For a company that prides itself on movement, the essential fight scenes were extremely tame. Here the actors came across as nervous and under-rehearsed as they placed their heavy blunt pieces of metal with enormous care against each other. A few sparks as they clashed and rang out would have been a welcome sign of two warriors fighting for their lives.
Finally, as the thin four-man army crowned King Malcolm, it looked and felt like this production of Macbeth was full of sound and fury but signi-fied nothing.
Theatre review:‘Macbeth’
A witch forewarns Macbeth and Banquo of their destiny – half the cast were involved in this scene
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Macbeth’s full of sound and fury but signifying nothingian Burns
199 - 15 September 2011 The Copenhagen poST CphpoST.dk Denmark through the looking glass
despite the presence of plaques and statues scattered through-out Copenhagen, very few peo-ple realise the role the Danish
Resistance played in fighting the Nazis during the second World War. While nearly every Dane is aware of the oc-cupation, few realise the lengths taken by a defiant minority to express their dissatisfaction with their Nazi overlords and contribute to the Allied war effort.
The date was 10 April 1940, and Danes in Copenhagen woke to the sound of stukas and other German war-planes circling the capital. As Operation Weserubung continued, armoured vehi-cles drove slowly through the streets and columns of German infantry marched triumphantly up to Rådhuspladsen, their Nazi flag held high in front of them. While the knowing few wept openly, most were confused by the sud-den change in the city. There was no fighting, no loud explosions, no burning buildings, and most listened in bemuse-ment as a German officer explained via his megaphone the need for his German soldiers to “protect” the city.
After spectacular success in poland and France, Hitler moved his Werch-mact north in order to safeguard both Denmark and Norway from British influence. The Germans were there in order to thwart British ‘aggression’ fol-lowing the mining of sea lanes between england and Denmark. The Danes were close to Hitler’s (mythical) perfect race, and due to his desire to model Denmark as an example of an agreeable protector-ate, they enjoyed unusually generous conditions of occupation compared with countries like Norway or France. The Danish government was allowed to remain, the police remained under the government’s control, and the Jewish question was not initially considered.
This situation was further compli-cated by the fact that Denmark had not officially declared war on Ger-many. Despite the clear occupation of the country, Germany had insisted that Denmark remain ‘independent’ and did not consider itself an occupying power. Although not in support of the Nazis, the Danish government nevertheless agreed to the terms set out by them and advised their military and citizens to avoid armed resistance.
Although most agreed, some did not and almost immediately resist-ance materialised. Fearing that their ships would be appropriated, many in the Danish navy sailed to Allied ports and some ambassadors in europe re-fused to accept their government’s line. Communications were set up between members of the Danish military intel-ligence and their British counterparts, and some journalists became informers in both Denmark and neutral sweden.
Although widely published, King Christian’s daily ride on his horse through the capital was largely symbolic - a relatively passive way of attempting to reassure his people, many of whom followed him on their bikes. A statue of the king on top of his horse can be seen today on sankt Annæ plads leading to Amalienborg palace.
it was in the actions of ordinary Danes, however, that active resistance
every bronze plaque tells a story - together they symbolise a city that was united in resistance
came about. The Churchill Club was one of the first resistance groups to arise. Made up of schoolboys under the leadership of 17-year-old Knud ped-erson, the group was responsible for 25 acts of sabotage on German targets and continued to operate despite many members being imprisoned.
Another larger and better equipped group was Holger Danske, named after the famous Danish hero. Formed by five members of the military who had fought on the side of the Finns in the Winter War, Holder Danske was unpre-pared to accept its government’ acqui-escence to the Nazis and was disdainful of what it saw as the population’s wide-spread co-operation. engaging in both sabotage and counter-intelligence, the group was responsible for the destruc-tion of the Forum Arena in 1943.
Borgeligepartisaner (also known as Bourgeois partisans or BOpA) was a similar group. Comprised of com-munist sympathisers, members of the Danish army and schoolboys, BOpA began to engage in acts of sabotage throughout 1942, gaining momentum in the second half of the occupation. The group was responsible for attacks on German shipping interests, attack-ing supply ships and docking facilities.
By 1943 it had become clear that the Nazis could not win the war and the membership of the Danish resistance groups grew exponentially. Through contact with the British special Opera-tions executive, the resistance groups were able to receive better supplies via
airdrops and soon began to expand their operations. in september of that year the ‘Danish Freedom Council’ was established in an attempt to unify the resistance groups, and the attacks on German interests increased.
The Nazis’ attempt to impose martial law on the country was largely ineffective,and ss General Werner Best decided to target Denmark’s Jewish population in a lame attempt at saving face. There followed perhaps the great-est resistance to Nazi ambitions, with whole swathes of the Danish popula-tion involved in shepherding more than 7,000 Danish Jews to freedom in neu-tral sweden.
Following the D-Day landings of 1944, the Danish resistance targeted railway lines, attempting to prevent the resupply of German troops moving from Norway to France.
By the end of the war, it is esti-mated that close to 30,000 Danes had participated in the various resistance movements, with more than 850 killed and countless more tortured and im-prisoned. Although overshadowed by larger resistance networks in countries like France, the contribution of the Danish resistance to the overall war ef-fort is something that can make Danes feel proud. Next time you spy a bronze plaque embedded in a wall or pavement throughout the city, it’s worth spending a moment or two reading it. For those with a further interest, the Danish Re-sistance Museum is well worth a visit. it remains free to the public.
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Andy Rugg
Thirty thousand citizens whose efforts made their country proud
The main street in aarhus in 1944 following an attack by the Peter group
kong Christian X became a familiar site on his horse during the war
The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dk
3:30 pm – 6:30 pm ~ Copenhagen Expat FairJoining a sports club or any leisure activities is a great wayto meet Danes and fellow expats.Denmark is a country with many clubs and associations.At the Copenhagen Expat Fair, you have the chance to talk tomembers from various clubs and associations from the GreaterCopenhagen Area about what they can offer you and your familyand how to sign up.
4:00 pm ~ Official welcome by Anna Mee Allerslev, Mayor ofEmployment and Integration.The City of Copenhagen and Mayor, Anna Mee Allerslev,would like to welcome you officially to Copenhagen.Also, we are happy to announce The President of The NationalOlympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark,Niels Nygaard as our guest speaker.After the two presentations, the world famous"City Hall Pancakes" will be served.
Many kind regards,City of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Post and Spousecare
Please enter through the Main Entrance facingRådhuspladsen (City Hall Square)
