The Copenhagen Post - June 22-28

CULTURE

Scandinavia’s secret: What’s the British attraction with our shows?

18

NEWS

China critics say they were silenced during visit of President Hu

3

Out of the camp

5

New deal will allow asylum seekers to live among us, but only if they agree to go home

Polar poster boy

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Peter ‘the Great’ Freuchen was a legend of the Arctic revered as an adventurer, resistance fi ghter and even a fi lm star

NEWS

CULTURE Ahead of the conference, the envi-ronment minister, Ida Auken (Social-istisk Folkeparti), said there was a need for growth and development that can lift people out of poverty.

“But if there are to be enough re-sources for everyone, we need to move toward a green economy,” Auken wrote in a press release. “We need businesses to integrate environmental concerns into the core of their work. � at is what we will achieve at Rio+20 through concrete decisions and a transition to a green economy.”

� e development minister, Christian Friis Bach (Radikale), was a key player in bringing together 105 countries to make a joint declaration last week calling for global goals on sustainability and a green economy, and to ensure stronger global organisations.

“� e common declaration under-lines that more and more poor countries no longer see the development of a green economy as a limitation, but rather as an opportunity to create sustainable growth and new workplaces,” Bach said in a press release.

Bach also stated earlier this week that Denmark would donate 10 million kroner for research into how to integrate environmental costs into calculations of GDP. Denmark will also be a trial coun-try for the new ‘green GDP’ measure-ments.

Global leaders � ew into Rio on Wednesday to discuss the � nal draft text that was released on Tuesday night by the Brazilian hosts after weeks of negotiations.

But alarm was immediately raised on Wednesday morning by a number of or-

ganisations, who say the text is so weak that it would be useless in the transition to a more environmentally sustainable global economy.

“Nobody in that room adopting the text was happy. � at’s how weak it is,” the EU’s climate commissioner, and former Danish environment minister, Connie Hedegaard, tweeted.

“Rio cannot a� ord not to have con-crete results. Rio must get it right,” He-degaard added in an opinion piece for EurActiv, an EU news website.

Concern focused on the lack of timetables, � nancing and environmen-tal monitoring. Aspects of the text that were welcomed included commitments to eliminate � shing subsidies that con-tribute to over� shing, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, and strengthening the UN environment agency, UNEP.

22 - 28 June 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 25

EU passes watered-down energy plan

Kids in charge at the Children’s Fair

6 10-11

Marrying the Danes: Guess who got hitched

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk

12

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Ambitions for sustainability conference in jeopardyDanish ministers attending the global sustainability conference may have to lower their expectations as concern is voiced over ‘weak’ commitments to global sustainability

THE ENVIRONMENT Ministry is pushing for a ‘green GDP’ and a global commitment for sustain-able development at the United

Nations Earth Summit.� ousands of participants from

governments, NGOs and business have gathered at the conference, more com-monly referred to as Rio+20, with the aim of creating a global vision for tack-ling the stress on resources brought about by climate change and an expanding glo-bal population.

PETER STANNERS

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A small community garden in Nørrebro is raising spirits and pushing out drug dealers 4

Weeding out crime

2 22 - 28 June 2012The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dkWeek in revieW

President and Publisher Ejvind Sandal

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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

ON JuNE 15, Stig Elling and his partner Steen Andersen be-came one of the country’s first same-sex couples to walk down the aisle to the chiming of church bells. The pair, who have lived as registered partners for the past 27 years, wed on the first day it be-came legal for same-sex couples to do so. Parliament recently voted

in favour of a new law allowing same-sex couples to get married in Danish churches, following in the footsteps of Scandinavian neighbours Iceland and Sweden. The law permits vicars to decline to marry same-sex couples. In such cases, couples would need to find another minister to perform the ceremony for them.

A NEw STuDy from Aarhus university suggests that pregnant women need not fear moderate alcohol consumption. The data stems from 1,600 five-year-olds whose mothers drank up to six alcoholic beverages a week dur-ing pregnancy. Children born to mothers who drank one or two drinks a week were just as healthy

as children whose mothers had not drunk any alcohol during their pregnancy. Despite the results, health authorities have no plans to change their recommendation that pregnant women abstain from drinking alcohol, pointing out that the study does not investi-gate the neurological aspect of the children’s health.

Pedal to the metal

Ten YeaRs ago. Leaked report from the Council of europe’s Torture Committee blasts denmark’s treatment of imprisoned asylum seekers at the sandholm detention Camp.

FIVe YeaRs ago. Moving with the times? political party the social Liberals announce plans for a Myspace profile.

one YeaR ago. popular nightclub Celsius becomes a crime scene after a 19-year-old punches another teenager to death.

FRoM oUR aRChIVes

The Week’s MosT Read sToRIes aT CphposT.dk

still adjusting | summertime odds and (rear) ends

Luck runs out for smarty pants

european parliament lambasts denmark over border control

a super, if not perfect, alternative

danish companies reaping Chinese contracts

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The flames licked the head-bangers at refshalehallen last weekend at another successful edition of the Copenhell metal festival. The festival, which was launched in 2010, serenaded metal heads with bands such as Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Lamb of God, Anthrax, immortal and Mastodon.

Gay bannsDrink rethink

THE ISLAND of Bornholm became the political centre of Denmark for four days last week during the second annual Folkemøde. Bornholm hosted the inaugural ‘People’s Meeting’ last year and the event is billed as an arena for political debate for politicians, NGOs, com-panies and voters. Among the

20,000 people taking part in the event were PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Socialdemokraterne), former-prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (Venstre) and Pia Kjærsgaard (Dansk Folkeparti), who all spoke on be-half of democracy in Denmark. Next year’s Folkemøde will be held 13-16 June.

People’s congress

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News

Related item:Facing the democratic stress test, page 8

as Danish business interests walked away from last week’s visit by China’s president, hu Jintao, with lucrative contracts,

critics were accusing the government of bending over backwards to ensure that the visit was not disrupted by protesters.

Blue chip Danish companies in-cluding Carlsberg, novozymes and arla negotiated business deals during the three-day visit to the tune of 18 billion kroner that could help hoist Denmark from a recessive economy, but the cost of those contracts, protest-ers claim, was their freedom of speech.

First, a Danish journalist was ar-rested by the police and detained for several hours because he had attempted to hang a poster on the Little Mermaid, which was on hu’s route as he toured Copenhagen. The poster depicted a Ti-betan monk burning himself to death in protest over China’s policies in Tibet

and said: “What are you going to do, Mr Dictator” in Chinese and Danish.

“Denmark shouldn’t ignore free-dom of speech simply because a top politician from China visits,” Peter skaarup, a spokesperson for Dansk Folkeparti (DF), told Berlingske news-

The darker hu(e) of Chinese investmentThe visit by president hu brings economic prosperity, cultural co-operation, environmental agreements and ... suppression

Christian Wenande

The FuTure of legendary Copen-hagen commune Christiania seems to be safe after Fonden Fristaden

Christiania, the organisation charged with managing the settlement, secured a 55 million kroner loan from mortgage lender realkredit Danmark that it will use to pay the state to purchase the disused naval base.

Christiania has until July 1 to raise enough money to purchase the water-front property its founders occupied in 1971, and things looked glum after con-siderable fundraising efforts had yielded just over 8 million kroner.

That loan, which will be paid off with interest over 30 years, allows the fund to

paper. “i know that things are different in China, but Denmark is a free coun-try and here you are allowed to criti-cise the Chinese regime. it’s unheard of that someone gets arrested for hanging up a poster.”

another sight and sound that hu

missed was a demonstration at højbro Plads square, where a small group of people from the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is outlawed in Chi-na, gathered to meditate.

in order to prevent hu, who was meeting with government officials in the nearby parliament building, from seeing the demonstration, the police parked buses in front of the group, and their music was promptly turned off.

“it is completely un-Danish, and Falun Gong are a peaceful group,” spokesperson Benny Brix told TV2 news. “and still the police harass us by preventing President hu from see-ing or hearing us. We’ve been asked to turn off our music so he doesn’t hear it.”

another incident involved the China-critical nTD TV station being told its reporters needed to get accredita-tion through the Chi-nese embassy in Copenhagen, despite being based in new York and having already been approved for it earlier. The accreditations never materialised, and the explanation from the Foreign

pay the first instalment of the total sum of 76 million kroner that is required to pay the state for self-ownership.

Knud Foldschack, the lawyer rep-resenting Christiania and a member of Fonden Fristaden Christiania’s board, was thrilled that the commune was on the threshold of owning the 34 hectare property and the buildings that stand there.

“On July 1 we will be ready with a cheque of 55 million kroner for the state,” Foldschack told public broad-caster Dr. “after 40 years of uncertainty in Christiania, and the failure by over 20 governments to agree to a deal, we have finally managed to sort it out.”

however, there are still issues present that could derail the efforts. a recent es-calation of violence stemming from a thriving drug trade that nets gangsters roughly one billion kroner a year, has provoked MPs to threaten to pull out of

the deal.Peter skaarup, the justice spokesper-

son for the right-wing Dansk Folkeparti (DF), indicated that the party would only support the deal if enough order is restored to Christiania to allow police to patrol there. Opposition party Venstre (V) has also voiced its concerns over the violence and the flourishing drug trade.

“We can’t promise to vote for the document when the situation in Chris-tiania is as lawless as it is,” skaarup told TV2 news. “We must ensure that the police have the necessary resources to stop the disorder and uphold the law against the gangster stronghold in Chris-tiania.”

recently the police announced it had given up on making raids in Chris-tiania in the wake of the recent escala-tion of violence that included attacks on a journalist and on several parking attendants. (CW)

Loan ensures Christiania survivalBut despite the commune securing 55m kroner from mortgage lender, burgeoning lawlessness may derail the deal

Peaceful prayer at Højbro Plads square was targeted by the police

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Knud Foldschack, the lawyer representing Christiania and who is a member of Fonden Fristaden Christiania’s board, is thrilled the commune has secured the 55 million kroner loan

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Ministry was that the situation was a communication error.

“i thought it was a joke,” nTD’s Corole Gustavsson told TV2. “We were very surprised and shocked. is it possible that in Denmark, a free coun-try, we couldn’t get accreditation?”

Opposition MPs have already warned the government that it can expect to be told to account for the measures it took to accommodate the Chinese during the visit.

“i guarantee that the government will show every lit-tle note and demand sent from communist China about their visit,” søren espe-rsen, the DF foreign affairs spokesperson, wrote in Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “i can also guarantee that the government will have to present every little instruc-tion sent by the Jus-tice Ministry to the

police in connection with the visit.”

We were very surprised and shocked. Is it possible that in denmark, a free country, we couldn’t get accreditation

4 22 - 28 June 2012The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dkCOVER STORY

What Nørrebro possesses in cultural diversity, it lacks in open green space.

other than the vast enclosed cemetery, assistens Kirkegaard, the district’s 70,000 inhabitants’ only other green area is a strip of land, Nørrebroparken, half of which has now been lost to the construction of the Metro extension.

but a group of volunteers are putting the space to good use and have established an ur-ban garden in an area of the park adjacent to Stefansgade that was formerly occupied by gang mem-bers openly selling cannabis.

Known as byhaven 2200, the Danish words for ‘city gar-den and the area’s postcode, the first soil was only turned on the garden two weeks ago, but it

has already attracted dozens of volunteers and hundreds of sup-porters to the Facebook page. raised beds constructed using sandbags and donated soil are formed in odd shapes while a colourful makeshift fence sepa-rates the garden from the rest of the park.

During The Copenhagen Post’s visit, a family sat in the shade of a tree, a dozen archi-tecture students were building a structure out of wood, while at a table a few volunteers took a break.

among them was Mia helmer Jensen, one of the founders of the project. She has a history of volunteering, particu-larly with the food co-operative Københavns Fødevarefællesskab. after approaching the council, she was told that it was possible to rent an area of the park. She then established byhaven 2200 and is now growing both edible and non-edible plants.

“There’s not enough of this sort of thing in the city,” Jensen said. “That’s why I wanted the project to be in a public park be-

cause I wanted to inspire people. Most of these projects in Co-penhagen are hidden away, and I want to reach out and inspire people who wouldn’t seek out this sort of activity.”

byhaven 2200 receives money from the City Council and the local political commit-tee, Nørrebro Lokaludvalg, and is run by volunteers that can number as many as 40 on a good day.

“Some people build a lot, others bring material, others are part of the social bit and play music or bring food,” Jensen said, adding that people have shown up and offered free plants and material.

The location of the garden seems not to be an accident. Drug dealers – members of the hells angels and its support group aK81 – who used to maintain an overt presence on nearby Jægersborggade moved into the park this winter as a re-sult of the gentrification of the street and the popularity of the small businesses located there.

even though only a few deal-ers ever used to occupy the area, it was enough to scare people off from using it. but now dozens of people work and relax in the same area while the drug dealers have moved off to another part of the park.

“I don’t think it’s a coinci-dence that this is where the coun-cil decided to place us,” Jensen said, adding that the dealers add their dynamic to the project. “It spiced up the project a bit. We had some customers who came by, and we pointed them in the right direction.”

Steffen Pedersen, a local resi-dent and volunteer, was attracted to the project for its inclusivity.

green-fingered volunteer group reclaim park from drug dealers

“This project is as much about community power as it is simply planting stuff,” Peder-sen said as he liberally distrib-uted seeds in a raised bed. “It’s about what we can create when we get together and when we don’t let the City Council decide everything.”

both Jensen and Pedersen seemed to view the garden as serving as a symbol for an alter-native and less materialistic life-style. Pedersen spoke out against the current global order and its fixation on wealth, while Jensen talked about the threats of peak oil and the need to take better care of the planet.

but to Peter Damsgaard, a Nørrebro resident of 25 years, the garden was just another step in the right direction for the district.

“I’ve lived here when the park was still full of bunkers from the Second World War and when it was just somewhere people took their dogs to shit – it was really just a shit park,” Dam-sgaard said, flashing a gold tooth. “but this garden is great, and I hope that it will be a permanent fixture.”

It may well be. The associa-tion running byhaven 2200 will soon sign a three-year contract with the council with an option to extend. With 30,000 kroner in funding and no shortage of free labour, the garden will soon be producing food that will be used to feed the local community at a harvest party.

Anyone interested in volunteering can attend one of the group’s work sessions from 12-6pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sun-days. To stay updated, find the Fa-cebook group ‘Byhaven 2200’.

an area of land once used by drug dealers is now a thriving community garden in the heart of nørrebro

Peter StannerS

It’s a dirty job … and the city is going to help do it

aFter rePortINg last month that the Co-penhagen officials had

curbed one woman’s efforts to tackle litter, it appears the city has finally agreed to adopt San-dra høj’s specially-designed tubes for disposing of paper coffee cups.

The city has agreed to set up 16 aluminium tubes on Dron-ning Louise’s bridge and other popular hangouts later this month. once they are in place, their effect on rubbish will be evaluated over the course of the summer before deciding whether they should be adopt-ed permanently and rolled out citywide.

høj came up with her idea after becoming “fed up with litter in Copen-hagen”, particularly with the discarded pa-per cups around the bridge. her solution: test tubes – two card-board tubes capable of holding cups, which she screwed to two separate rubbish bins located on the bridge.

although the tubes had a noticeable effect on the amount of litter, the city initially removed them. It did express interest in the idea, and upon further review the city has decided to adopt it.

While høj called the devel-opment “exciting”, she hopes that if the city chooses to make

them a permanent fixture, that they make them out of a sus-tainable material such as plastic.

She added that during this summer’s trial, she would be experimenting with the test tubes herself, tinkering with their design and coming up with the best way to get peo-ple to understand why they are there.

“It’s going to be an interest-ing challenge to try to figure out how to deliver the message: should I use text, images or both? I’m already playing with different concepts and ideas and can’t wait to put them into practice.”

City officials, though, won’t be the only ones watching over the tubes as foreign companies and cities have also expressed an interest in her idea.

“I have been contacted by a british trade magazine [boughton’s Coffee house] and they are running the tube story

this month,” she explained. “It’s going to be on the front page!”

but even with the interna-tional attention, høj said her primary concern remains keep-ing her city tidy.

“Copenhagen truly is won-derful and deserves to be treated

with respect,” she said. “It is all up to the peo-ple of Copenhagen now. I hope they play along. Fingers crossed.”

Read Høj’s blog at clas-siccopenhagen.blogspot.com. Check out Høj’s test tube Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TheTestTubes.

Rubbish vigilante sandra høj gets the city to commit to putting her anti-littering idea to the test

Claudia SantoS

Slowly, thanks to the work of the volunteers, the park is being reclaimed by the community

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Sandra Høj’s Test Tube was a success in its test run

For a while the sign should have read ‘BYHASH’

Høj’s work has been noticed abroad

The mess that inspired Høj to create

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522 - 28 June 2012 The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dk NEWSNEWS

since winning last Septem-ber’s election, the government has not had an easy time keeping the electorate on its side. in fact, sup-

port for the leading coalition party, So-cialdemokraterne (S), has dwindled to a historically low 16 percent, down from 25 percent at the election.

Many have blamed the govern-ment’s slipping popularity on its in-ability to push through a number of key policies, including a congestion charge in copenhagen. As a result, it was quickly branded the “government of broken promises”.

But a study by the think-tank Mandag Morgen has shown that the co-alition government has only abandoned a small portion of its election promises, leading it to argue that the reputation is a myth.

Mandag Morgen found that out of 315 pre-election policy proposals made by S and Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF), who were campaigning together, in the run-up to the election, 270 were added to the government’s agenda after the for-mation of the coalition with the centrist Radikale party.

Of the 270 remaining policies, 70 have been passed into law, 148 are be-ing negotiated, while 52 have yet to be addressed. Only 45, or 14 percent, have been abandoned.

Despite this, the opposition and media have presented the government as incapable, weak and unable to live up to its promises. The words “broken promise” have appeared in over 1,200 different articles, comments and editori-als over the past eight months.

The migration away from the cen-tre-left government parties could be explained by the image the media has presented. According to a Rambøll/Analyse Danmark/Jyllands-Posten poll, 71 percent of voters who supported the parties that formed the government (S, SF and Radikale) along with far-left sup-port party enhedslisten, do not think the government fought for the poli-cies they expected them to before the election.

Mandag Morgen explained that the problem the government faces is that the former Venstre-Konservative coali-tion was better able to find consensus on policy than the current three-party coalition.

“The broken promises debate com-pletely overlooks the fact that the condi-tions in parliament for the new govern-ment are fundamentally different, and as a minority government comprised of three parties it is by definition not able to fulfil the wishes of all three parties.”

The think-tank identified a range of policies that the government has intro-duced or found financing for, including a fund for victims of violent crime, as well as 2.6 billion kroner worth of in-vestment to improve public transport.

“none of these cases raised the same intense level of coverage as the broken promises debate,” Mandag Morgen wrote.

government not incapable says think-tank

aSYLUM SeeKeRS should be al-lowed to live and work outside of asylum centres after six months, a government committee has of-

ficially recommended. The recommendations were laid out

in the committee’s 200-page report that was published last week on wednesday by the Justice Ministry. it includes pro-posals for some of the most sweeping changes to the asylum law in the past two decades.

The proposals support a government pledge to allow asylum seekers to work after six months. Failed asylum seekers who refuse to co-operate with their re-patriation will not enjoy the same privi-leges, however.

“All asylum seekers will be allowed to work and to move out of centres after six months, if they co-operate in the han-dling of their case and the planning of their return journey if their application is rejected,” the Justice Ministry stated in a press release.

The justice minister, Morten Bød-skov, added in the press release that the government was not changing the con-ditions for granting asylum, but was ac-knowledging that asylum seekers needed to be better treated while they were in Denmark.

“if they are granted asylum [the changes mean they] will be in a bet-ter position to become integrated, and if they are rejected and have to return home, they will have better conditions for starting a new life in their home country,” Bødskov said, adding that a functioning asylum system requires that rejected asylum seekers leave the country.

“it is preferable that this is done vol-untarily. The proposal therefore also con-tains suggestions on how to strengthen the voluntary repatriation of rejected asylum seekers.”

Some 286 million kroner has been set aside to fund the new measures, which also include improved programmes for education, training and healthcare.

Better lives outside centres

OF THe 4,300 asylum seekers in Den-mark as of January 2012, the Justice Ministry estimates that about 1,850 could benefit from the new rules.

currently asylum seekers are exclud-ed from working and are only required to check in at asylum centres fortnightly to pick up their cash allowance. But with-out any significant income, the asylum centres, often located in hard-to-reach areas, are the only viable housing option for most.

Many remain trapped in the centres, often for years, either waiting for the out-come of their asylum application or to be repatriated, which is often impossible due to instability in their home country or because Denmark has no agreement with their home country.

Spending a long of time in the centres has been documented to be detrimental to both the physical and psychological health of asylum seekers, especially children.

with the changes, asylum seekers

will be allowed to take on work on the same footing as Danes after six months, as long as they are paid competitive wages and given good working conditions. employ-ers will therefore need to be pre-approved based upon whether they have signed up to abide by the minimum standards for working conditions outlined in the collective bargain-ing agreements. The report states that this is to prevent asylum seekers being taken advantage of.

Asylum seekers will also be able to live outside the centres af-ter six months, either in accommodation that they have paid for or through sup-ported living, in which case they will re-main close to an asylum centre.

Significant changes

THe cHAngeS were received posi-tively by the Red cross in Denmark, whose director general, Anders Ladekarl, told The copenhagen Post that they were the most significant to have oc-curred in years.

“we have been making these calls for a long time so we are more than pleased that more asylum seekers will be allowed to leave the centres,” Ladekarl said.

However, not everyone is likely to benefit. “The proposal will still leave peo-ple in asylum centres for more than one year,” he contended. “This is significant because we have evidence that children and vulnerable people are negatively af-fected by long stays at centres.”

Ladekarl was also pleased by the changes to the treatment of asylum seek-ers that do not co-operate with their re-patriation. currently, the immigration

Service can place a range of demands on failed asylum seekers who refuse to sign repa-triation agreements or provide information to the police. These range from reducing their pocket money and forc-ing them to sleep every night in asylum centres, to imprisoning them in the ellebæk Jail at the Sandholm asylum centre.

There are about 1,000 failed asylum seekers waiting to be re-patriated in Denmark. The report argues that the motivational meas-ures imposed on these failed asylum seekers will become more tar-geted, with greater levels of counselling and more comprehensive econom-

ic support in their repatriation.The report recognised that many

asylum seekers feel apprehensive about returning to their home country as many sell all their possessions to finance their journey and have nothing to return to.

“i’m pleased that the measures de-signed to persuade asylum seekers to re-patriate will change from being punitive at their core, to an attitude where more positive measures such as counselling and skills building become the focus,” Ladekarl said.

not all unco-operative asylum seek-ers will be excluded from the offers of work and outside accommodation. Families will have special permission to live outside the asylum centres, while in-dividuals who refuse to sign co-operation agreements will be allowed to find work so long as the police have sufficient infor-mation about them to be able to begin repatriation proceedings.

Failed asylum seekers who cannot be returned because of instability in their home country, such as Syria, will also be permitted to work and live outside the

Co-operative asylum seekers to be granted more rights

sweeping changes made to improve the lives of hundreds, but many argue the demand on failed seekers to co-operate in their repatriation is unnecessary

another report shows the government is doing a far better job than its media image suggests

Hundreds of asylum seekers will be allowed to live outside asylum centres such as Centre Sandholm

centres even if they refuse to co-operate. This exemption ends, however, once it is judged safe to return.

Finally, asylum seekers who are awaiting deportation after committing a crime will not benefit from the changes.

Pointless co-operation

cAMPAign group Out of the camps! expressed disappointment that not all asylum seekers will benefit from the changes.

“People flee for a reason, and sim-ply because the Danish asylum system doesn’t recognise their need for asylum doesn’t change the fact that people fear being repatriated,” spokesperson Zach Khadudu said. “The government is knowingly offering people the choice of co-operating so they can be returned to somewhere they fear, or remaining in Denmark and being broken by an asylum centre. This is not a reasonable choice.”

Johanne Schmidt-nielsen, the spokesperson for far-left party enhed-slisten, also argued that the insistence on co-operation with repatriation served lit-tle purpose.

“it’s completely reasonable to de-mand that asylum seekers co-operate with immigration authorities and show up to the relevant meetings, but not that they should sign an agreement to volun-tarily leave,” Schmidt-nielsen told Jyl-lands-Posten newspaper, referring to the 2009 case of failed iraqi asylum seekers who were forcibly repatriated after taking shelter in a church in nørrebro.

“we know from the iraqis that no matter how much we inconvenience them, they won’t leave voluntarily. even putting them in ellebæk Jail did not get them to leave voluntarily,” Schmidt-nielsen said. “There are lots of good ele-ments in the government’s proposal, but it was actually the rejected iraqis who were the reason enhedlisten and [gov-erning parties] SF, Socialdemokraterne and Radikale joined forces to make the six-month demand.”

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I’m pleased that the measures designed to persuade asylum seekers to repatriate will change from having punishment at the core, to an attitude where more positive measures such as counselling and skills building become the focus

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a commitment to reducing european en-ergy consumption by 17 percent by 2020 is being

seen as a partial victory for the Danish eU presidency that led the negotiations.

Some groups argued, how-ever, that the final commitments outlined in the energy efficiency Directive (eeD) were signifi-cantly weakened, particularly given that the initial 20 percent energy savings target the euro-pean commission proposed last year could not be achieved.

But the climate minister, martin Lidegaard (Radikale), said that the commitment was ambitious, considering the tough negotiations.

“Just a few months ago, the european Parliament and the european council were so far apart that an agreement was un-thinkable,” Lidegaard wrote in a press release. “But now we have taken another big step towards a more sustainable energy future.”

“it’s only 17 percent because that was possible to get,” Lide-gaard said according to eurActiv, an eU news website. “We fought like lions. We started at 13 per-cent, and now we have 17 per-cent, and that is actually some-thing we are proud of.”

The eeD will cost 180 bil-lion kroner a year until 2020, ac-cording to Danish calculations, but it will save companies and consumers 2.5 trillion kroner due to reduced fuel expendi-tures and reduced costs associ-

danes usher in weakened eU energy requirementsReduction initiatives are hoped to both create savings and stimulate economic growth

Peter StannerS ated with energy generation and distribution.

The eeD is also hoped to stimulate the european economy by creating 400,000 jobs and raising european GDP by 255 billion kroner in 2020, while also saving every european house-hold up to 7,000 kroner a year.

These jobs will be created as european countries put the directive into practice, and as a result the eeD will form a key part in the negotiations later this June over the creation of a euro-pean growth treaty according to the eU climate commissioner, connie Hedegaard.

“All the governments of eu-rope say they want growth, and they want something that can create jobs in the short term,” Hedegaard said according to Re-uters. “no matter how hard they think about it, it will be very dif-ficult to think of better ideas.”

in addition to stimulat-ing the european economy and creating jobs, the eeD will also contribute to the eU reaching its target of an 80-90 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, which is hoped to re-duce europe’s dependency on imported energy – the cost of which rose from 630 billion kroner in 1999 to 3.6 trillion kroner in 2011, according to the international energy Agency.

Pressure on energy companies

BUt WHiLe increased build-ing insulation and more efficient technology will make a signifi-cant contribution, energy com-panies will be given a 1.5 percent annual efficiency target.

much of these reductions are hoped to be achieved by help-ing their customers reduce their energy use.

majority Danish state-owned energy provider Dong energy already works closely with 130 businesses to reduce their energy consumption.

According to Lars clausen, Dong’s executive vice president, the eeD will help bring about significant savings for industry while also boosting job creation across europe.

“our experience in Den-mark proves that energy compa-nies can build a business based on saving their customers money by implementing energy-effi-ciency measures,” clausen said. “i was sceptical at first, but over the last five years we’ve helped large businesses and institutions, including helping novo nordisk to use around 30 percent less en-ergy, saving it around 40 million kroner a year.”

Dong is helped by a political climate in Denmark that firmly backs low-carbon and renewable energy solutions to stimulate economic growth.

creating green growth was a key ambition for Denmark when it took over the eU presidency in January. And the government this march agreed on an ambi-tious energy plan that hopes to end Denmark’s reliance on fossil fuels by 2050.

UK and Poland scupper talks

not ALL countries share these ambitions, however, with both the UK and coal-dependent Po-land providing considerable op-position throughout the negotia-tions.

The UK was successful in reducing the ambition of the eeD, according to Dave timms, an energy campaigner for en-vironmental group Friends of the earth.

Are there dark clouds on the horizon following an agreement that was held back by the feet-dragging of the UK and Poland?

“The UK government played a particularly significant role in weakening the directive by opposing an overall binding energy-saving target and, at the last minute, insisting on loop-holes so it could claim credit for old policies as a way of meeting its future obligation,” timms told the Guardian.

timms was referring to a

late change insisted on by the UK in which energy companies could fulfil a quarter of the 1.5 percent annual energy reduc-tion through energy-saving schemes that have already been introduced.

After european ministers agreed last Thursday to adopt the directive, Greenpeace Den-mark blamed Poland and its

dependence on coal for limit-ing europe’s environmental ambitions.

“The longer the Polish government drags its feet, the longer the eU’s residents and economy will miss out on the benefits of a green transi-tion in our energy system,” Frauke Theis, a Greenpeace spokesperson said.

THe GoveRnment did not violate the constitution when it signed the Lisbon

treaty in 2007 without first holding a referendum, five judg-es in the eastern High court ruled last week on Friday.

The verdict was made in a class action lawsuit launched by 34 individuals against the former Liberal-conservative government. They argued that the Lisbon treaty handed sov-ereignty on a range of issues af-fecting Denmark to the eU, and would therefore require a refer-endum because it was not passed by a five-sevenths super majority in parliament.

The Lisbon treaty was rati-fied by parliament in 2008 and came into effect on 1 December 2009. it created the role of pres-

ident of the european council, currently held by Herman van Rompuy, and also strengthened the powers of the european Parliament.

After the verdict, the lawyer representing the 34 individuals, ole Krarup, a former meP for the anti-eU party Folkebev-ægelsen mod eU, said he was disappointed by the verdict but that it was expected.

“This shows that the courts don’t dare to contradict the gov-ernment,” Krarup said.

Both the prime miniter, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and

the foreign minister, villy Søvn-dal – who were members of the opposition at the time the treaty was signed and ratified – said they were pleased with the verdict.

“We have noted the eastern High court’s verdict with satis-faction, which states that parlia-ment did not violate any laws when it implemented legislation regarding Denmark’s accession to the treaty,” the two ministers stated in a press release.

Krarup said the deci-sion would be appealed to the Supreme court.

high court rules that Lisbon Treaty signing was not unconstitutionalPeter StannerS

a class action lawsuit failed in the eastern high Court after it found the government did not have to hold a referendum before signing the Lisbon Treaty

Those who attended reflect on the verdict outside the eastern High Court

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722 - 28 June 2012 The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dk News

a Greater Copen-hagen psychiatric care centre is facing intense criticism from former

employees and the Health Ministry over allegations of the over-medication of patients and poor management.

Psychiatrists working at Psykiatrisk Center Glos-trup have reportedly been concerned for several years that patients were receiv-ing doses of anti-psychotic medications that exceeded recommendations.

Michael Von Buchwald, a former centre psychiatrist, told public broadcaster Dr that many patients were also receiv-ing tranquilisers, which had resulted in some developing breathing problems.

“I don’t think it’s defensi-ble. It shouldn’t be happening,” he said.

Buchwald is one of eleven psychiatrists who have resigned from the centre in recent years due to their disillusionment with the leadership.

“The psychiatrists are par-tially dissatisfied with the working environment, leader-ship style and the way that they are medicating,” Buchwald said.

Concern about the over-medication has now led to the Health Ministry launch-ing an investigation and con-demning the management for overdosing patients.

“We want to ensure that there is sufficient justification to treat patients in this way as we do not want to subject patients to further risk,” anne Mette Dons, the head of the Health Ministry’s inspection authority, told Dr.

Psychiatrists who have spo-ken with the press indicated that high doses of an anti-psychotic medication, Zyprexa,

psychiatrists allege that the management at psykiatrisk Center glostrup ignored worries about the over-medication of patients, which was ordered by the managing director

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were ordered by Henrik Lub-lin, the psychiatrist who heads the centre. Lublin said he had reversed the decision after re-ceiving an anonymous letter in March drawing attention to the problem.

But a copy of minutes from a meeting in December 2009 reveals that Lublin had been made aware of the over-medi-cation problem long before.

The centre has seen eleven psychiatrists resign in recent years due to disillusionment with the leadership

s HareD CustoDy ar-rangements can work well for children of divorce

between the ages of 11 and 15, so long as the parents are flexible and communicate with each other, a new report from social welfare research centre sFI shows.

“Parents are generally good at getting together and making the set-up work,” Mai Heide ottosen, a senior scientist and program manager at sFI, told science news website viden-skab.dk.

The study shows that one in five children split living time equally between both parents, and that when parents worked together, those children fared better than children who lived primarily with one parent.

ottosen stressed that co-operation, not court imposed rules governing custody, was the most important factor for the well-being of the children.

“First and foremost, par-ents need to work well together, and custody must be designed so that the young people them-selves feel that they have a say,” ottosen told videnskab.dk.

The study also revealed that a lack of co-operation between divorced parents is detrimental to children.

situations where divorced parents either insulted each other or had little contact re-sulted in their children feeling

Joint custody kids fare better in divorce

so long as parents co-operate, children in shared custody arrangements can thrive, report finds

The management knew the psychiatrists were dissatisfied with the doses that the chief psychiatrists ordered should be used

ray Weaver more like they were living two separate lives than those ado-lescents whose parents worked to make the joint arrangement function smoothly.

“Parents who work on the arrangement so that they, for example, live near each other, create good conditions for a child’s or young person’s life to hang together,” ottosen told Videnskab.dk.

sFI’s child development study has followed 6,000 children since they were born in 1995.

Data regarding the chil-dren’s health, recreational hab-its and other categories has been collected in five rounds, most recently in 2011, when the children were 15.

ottosen had previously ex-amined the children’s custody arrangements during the early years of their lives up to age.

“The head clinician’s pre-scriptions of Zyprexa clearly exceed the instructed doses while also combining them with benzodiazepams [tran-quilisers],” the minutes state.

Psychiatrist Bent rosen-baum, who was at the 2009 meeting, confirmed that the management had been aware of the problem.

“It’s a high level of denial,”

rosenbaum told Dr. “The management knew the psychia-trists were dissatisfied with the doses that the chief psychia-trists ordered should be used.”

Lublin, however, has denied any irresponsible behaviour.

“I think we have been fully responsible and have used the medicines responsibly,” he told Dr.

8 22 - 28 June 2012THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

and told the reporter not to do it again or just to leave the area entirely. Arresting him was an utterly disproportional act, par-ticularly if you argue that he was trying to exercise his right to free speech.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only instance of the police plac-ing Chinese sensitivities above Danes’ right to exercise a con-stitutional right. According to Jyllands-Posten, a woman was arrested when she tried to un-furl a Tibetan � ag as Hu sailed past on his tour of Copenhagen Harbour. e police, according to the woman, told her that she was being charged for possession of narcotics, since it was the only charge that would allow them to search and arrest her. e charges have since been dropped. If her version of the story is correct – and all indications are that it is – then it’s a horrible example of the police’s random use of their powers. Just like the failure to ac-credit NTD TV, and the arrests of the Ekstra Bladet reporter and the demonstrator are standard Chinese procedures.

Again, according to the US State Department’s human rights report on China: “Authorities heightened restrictions on free-dom of movement periodically, particularly to curtail the move-ment of individuals deemed po-litically sensitive before key an-niversaries and visits of foreign dignitaries and to forestall dem-onstrations … e authorities in-creased attempts to limit freedom of speech and to control the press, the internet and internet access ... Abuses peaked around high-pro� le events, such as the visit of foreign o� cials.”

Can it really be true that Denmark adopts Chinese tactics on its own territory out of fear of how the Chinese would react? Unfortunately, these examples are just the latest in a long line that bear witness to the consequences the new world order will have on values such as freedom of speech and political pluralism.

is isn’t the � rst time you

and no Dane su� ered because of the government failing to speak up. But, it’s another thing to im-plement restrictions that border on censorship, creating in es-sence a mild version of the situa-tion faced every day by people in China. During the visit, while the Danish media were opting not to criticise China, other forms of public protest were being swept away from the view of the Chi-nese delegation. is meant that the independent broadcaster NTD TV was unable to get ac-creditation to cover the visit, and Jyllands-Posten newspaper re-portedly has a recording of a For-eign Ministry employee stating that Chinese o� cials determined which Chinese media were given accreditation, even though NTD TV is based in New York. It’s understandable that the Chinese didn’t want a critical TV station to cover Hu’s visit, and denying its reporters accreditation was a favoured Chinese tactic.

In the words of the US State Department in its most recent

human rights re-port on China: “ e govern-ment limited attendance at o� cial govern-ment press brief-ings to domestic media; foreign media and dip-lomats were only allowed to attend brie� ngs conducted by the Ministry of Foreign A� airs and a handful of

press brie� ngs held around spe-cial events.”

But, the situation was to go from bad to worse. On Friday, an Ekstra Bladet journalist was arrested for trying to hang a placard criticising China’s Tibet policy around the neck of the Little Mermaid. It’s well possible that such an action would violate some city ordinance, but if that had been so, the police could just have removed the placard

OPINION

O VER THE past year or so, banks across Europe have been given stress tests to determine how

well they would fare should the continent’s economic woes wors-en. Last week, it was Denmark’s democratic institutions that were put to the test during the visit of China’s president, Hu Jintao. Being put to the test was how a country that claims to be among the freest in the world, and which makes human rights among its most important foreign policy priorities, would deal with a state visit by the head of the world’s second-largest economy, but which is also an au thor i t a r i an one-party state that has carried out systematic human rights violations. is government has never been one to criticise China, and during the three day week, its “pragmatic” approach to Chi-na’s human rights violations was evident.

But, it’s one thing to refrain from taking China to task about the way it treats its own citizens. Even though you could criticise the government for lacking the fortitude to criticise China, it in fact has no obligation to do so,

The feel good issue Failing the democratic stress test

� e 2012 Children’s Fair

Just wanted to say congratula-tions for the event on Sunday. It was really well organised. I was very impressed and my kids loved it! I’ve had lots of positive feedback. Here is some feedback from one of my meet-up mem-bers that attended: “ is was a well planned event. e � re-man and police counters were a huge success with my kids. I had so much to learn from the Red Cross Counter. e other stalls like the meetup stall and the Job Centre stall (for example) had so much more information for me. My kids enjoyed every bit of the pony rides, face painting, balloon shapes, colouring, stick-ing, making masks, and playing activities. Nothing could be bet-ter for us and our kids. A huge

THANK YOU to the organis-ers, contributors, and helpers for making this happen for us. My kids were so very happy as were we.”Sarah Andersen New City Mums By email

Copenhagen’s best taxi driver: Osman Kucuk

I lost my iPhone last Friday. e next Monday, I got a message on Facebook from the taxi driver who drove me to the synagogue – he found the phone in his car. Osmon doesn’t live in Co-penhagen, and he wasn’t work-ing Monday, so he promised to come to my hotel on Tuesday to deliver my phone. He said he remembered me because we were discussing the Arabic Sal-lam Aleikum and the Hebrew

Shalom Aliechem on the way to synagogue. Embarrassingly, he refused to take anything for returning the phone. So I’ve got his address and will send him something special.Andrew Casey By email

You may now kiss the groom

Enough already with the gay marriage articles! e topic is all well and good, but � ve articles in two days is bordering on fetish – pun intended. e1youlove2hate By website

Luther must be turning over in his grave. When a government commands the Lutheran Church to embrace unrepentant sin, the line that Jesus drew in the sand is all too clear. God’s Church is not subject to such law, and I

guess we will see if the Lutherans know that.Lrcumming By website

Tits up, this is dead in the water

Come on CPH Post. Colour-ful headlines are � ne, but show some class while doing so. I ex-pect a professional newspaper to know when it crosses the line from witty humour for literary sake and crass humour for sensa-tionalism sake. e1youlove2hate By website

Says the one using the Mensa logo as an avatar. Exactly what did you expect? A cinematic three-dimensional in-depth aquatic study of Serrasalminae by a narrator with a minor stut-ter?RexKbh2100 By website

This isn’t the rst time you could question whether a Danish government is kowtowing to another country when there is something big at stake

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READER COMMENTS

NORMALLY, THe Copenhagen Post’s articles tend to fall into one of two broad categories: people (particularly cabinet members) telling us what we ought to do, or people (includ-

ing cabinet members) getting in trouble for saying or doing things they shouldn’t have.

at’s why this week is a breath of fresh air of sorts that we are carrying two articles about ordinary people doing praiseworthy things. And while the � rst (see page 4) – a community garden in an area once frequented by drug dealers – is a portrait of a project just getting underway, its organisers can be inspired by the second (also page 4), which shows that personal initiative and persistence can make a di� erence.

We don’t expect that everyone will go to the lengths Sandra Høj has – that level of persistence is exceptional in every sense of the word – but if her enthusiasm can in� uence people to think twice about what happens to their rubbish after it leaves their hands, we would we be living in a cleaner city. It would also conceivably be a richer one.

Over the course of a year, the cost of cleaning up Copenha-gen adds up to 90 million kroner. According to the city, during the summer months, an extra 40 full-time employees are needed to clean up after visitors. And in 2008, it was calculated that the cost of cleaning up a single cigarette butt costs 2 kroner, while scraping o� a wad of chewing gum costs 10 kroner. Take a look down next time you’re out on the pavement and start adding up how much money could be saved and instead spent on your programme of choice.

Add to that the impression visitors get when they come to a city ranked in a poll a few years back as one of the messiest in Europe, and the price of littering starts to become unbearable.

While Høj’s trash vigilantism is a testament to the power of personal persistence, the Nørrebroparken garden o� ers a model for how a community – whether geographical or social – can beat back blight.

Without intending it, those involved in Byhaven 2200 have forced drug dealers away from their homes. But now that the lesson has been learned, it could easily be applied in other places where residents are committed to reclaiming their territory.

Such measures would require the support of the community, but the rapid growth of Byhaven 2200’s membership underscores that people, given the opportunity, are willing to commit them-selves to a project they can engage in with others.

Whether it’s converting litterbugs or keeping drug dealers on the run, both projects will cost the city money, but few would argue that, even during a recession, keeping the streets clean of litter and criminals is a bad investment.

JACOB MCHANGAMA

could question whether a Dan-ish government is kowtowing to another country when there is something big at stake. Take, for example, the allegations that Co-penhagen-based Kurdish TV sta-tion Roj TV supported terrorism. Despite being cleared numerous times by Radio og TV-Nævnet, the national broadcast watch-dog, the trial against the station’s management began just as Turkey was using its growing economic prowess to put pressure on Den-mark, and at a time when then-PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen was seeking to become NATO secre-tary general.

Another example is the former government’s decision to reopen the case against Niels Holck, who had confessed to helping deliver weapons to In-dian insurgents. E� orts to extra-dite him had been given up, but again, with India’s rapidly grow-ing economy, the government de-cided to try again.

ese examples show that the West isn’t capable of dictat-ing the terms in the same way it did before. It may be a good thing that the world no longer needs to do what the West says, but it’s a problem when it starts to limit the power of our demo-cratic institutions and curtail our liberties.

e Chinese stress test showed that even a staunchly liberal democracy like Denmark can be shaken, and that thanks to decades of increasing quality of life, we’re no longer so protective of our rights. Just like the bank stress tests led to slashed credit ratings, the way Denmark dealt with the Chinese visit should lead to a downgrade of the country’s ranking when it comes to respect-ing people’s civil and political rights.

e author is the director of legal a� airs for the Centre for Political Studies (CEPOS), an independ-ent think-tank promoting a soci-ety based on freedom, responsibil-ity, private initiative and limited government.

Articles about ordinary people doing good things are few and far between in these pages. The two we bring this week show there’s more than one way to make a change.

922 - 28 June 2012 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK OPINION

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

‘THE LYNCH REPORT’

Happiness … happiness …

CPH POST VOICES

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.

‘MACCARTHY’S WORLD’ 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’

� e sandy beach of Paleochora, the bride (not the pride) of the Libyan Sea

While Danes are currently squealing with indignation at the thought of giving up one of their myriads of public holidays, the people here are at work literally from dawn to dusk and beyond, seven days a week

plenty of pavement cafés, bars and restaurants at which to while away the evening in good company or to sit in the shade with a cold beer in the heat of the day. And lots of possibilities for walking in the countryside

GREETINGS from sunny Paleochora, ‘the bride of the Libyan Sea’ ac-cording to the o� cial

local website. � e site is impres-sively informative and well put together, though the odd typo did make me initially think that they meant ‘the pride of the Libyan Sea’. Not so: the explanation is that the sun god Apollo, according to ancient mythology, was the loyal suitor of his beautiful ‘bride’ on the south coast of Crete and never left her side, even in the depths of winter. Ulla and I came to Paleochora for the � rst time last year on the recommendation of some friends and immediately booked a return trip this year. A three-hour � ight from Kastrup to Chania and one and a half hours by bus or car and you’re there – a whole di� erent world. I know that’s a well-worn cli-

ché, but in this case it’s entirely appropriate.

It’s a small town surround-ed by daunting mountains and basking by the side of a crystal-clear sea. It has a long sandy beach on one side of the peninsula, and a little harbour on the other from which the ferry sails once a day, providing a vital link to otherwise isolated communities further along the coast. Small � shing boats set out in the evening to lay their nets and by early morning have been out to retrieve the night’s catch of fresh � sh for the local restaurants. No high-life here, unless you count walking to the top of a local peak and back. No late-night clubbing with the resultant rowdy behaviour. No unwanted noise at all in fact. Here you are immersed in the local community and you live by its conditions. � ere are

with just the occasional meet-ing with like-minded souls and a brief ‘hello’.

But why am I telling you this? � e key to the answer lies in that clichéd phrase I men-tioned above. � is is not just a di� erent world because it’s a couple of thousand kilometres south of Denmark and a lot sunnier. � e mentality is also a world away. Just take the at-titude to work. While Danes are currently squealing with indignation at the thought of giving up one of their myriads of public holidays, the people here are at work literally from dawn to dusk and beyond, seven days a week – at least during the long tourist season. As in most southern European countries, especially outside the major metropolises, work is not seen as the antithesis of leisure. � ere is no rush to get home at

three o’clock in the afternoon in order to have ‘quality time’ with the family and hygge sig. Note that I say they are ‘at work’, not necessarily ‘working’, since be-ing at work is just a normal part of everyday life and includes family a� airs and socialising as well as the work itself.

Of course, this contrast in attitudes to work can generally be seen between the north and west of Europe on the one hand and the south and east on the other, though it is most notice-able in regard to the countries most in� uenced by the protes-tant work ethic. � is of course includes the Calvinist countries of Scandinavia, whose peoples also claim to be among the hap-piest in the world.

So how do we measure hap-piness? I would contend that we can’t. What is measured and compared is not happiness but

contentment with one’s lot. And then it’s quite clear that those who are materially bet-ter o� are more content with their lot than those who aren’t. But then we come to the ques-tion of how we equate content-ment with ‘happiness’. In order to make that shift we have to accept certain conditions; in other words, we have to sell our souls, if not to the Devil then certainly to Mammon. Which is precisely what the materialis-tic Western world has done, as-siduously protecting its way of life from anything and anyone that might threaten it, building up a fear of anything ‘foreign’. Gated communities à la USA are appearing in Denmark, demonstrating the ghetto men-tality so derided when practised by immigrants. All in the name of ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’ and, I suppose, ‘happiness’.



The Copenhagen Post would like to thank all the participating clubs, visitors and sponsors who helped make the 2012 Children’s Fair an enormous success. See you in 2013.

Teis Cremer became an o� cer of the law for a couple of minutes when he sat on a police motorcycle. We wonder if he stopped any crimes

Once again, the Children’s Fair thrilled children and their parents, keeping everybody entertained for an afternoon in the park. Though rain and wind had volunteers wondering if people would show up, both the international and Danish communities were well represented at the event, with about a thousand visitors coming to see what Copenhagen’s various clubs and organisations have to o� er

Balloon artist Kai Ahlberg was once again a huge hit with the kids, who had their parents queuing for ages for animals and owers. Hopefully he recognised some faces from last year

These siblings were among the � re� ghters’ helpers, risking their lives to put out the ames threatening this house. Their mission was successful

Like last year, the Capoeira Skolen Sanzala drew huge crowds all afternoon. Everyone gathered to watch their Brazilian martial art dance performances, and some spectators even joined in

Jasper Hampson asked facepainter Thomas Vergo to turn him into a pirate – or else Vergo would have to walk the plank

Jakob Andersen (right) tried out these weights, and learned how to lift them carefully, swing them around, and then put them back down gently. Watch out – he may be Den-mark’s next bodybuilder

Pilates was among the various activities that visitors to the fair could try out. We don’t know for sure, but we call this one the upside down bicycle

The ballerinas oated around this area, impressing visitors with their carefully synchro-nised steps

Jonathan Jungsberg showed o� his street hockey moves in a secluded corner, whizzing around on his skates while others tried to steal the ball

for sure, but we call this one the upside down bicycle

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he sat on a police motorcycle. We wonder if he stopped any crimes

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PHOTOS BY ASHLEY TUITE WORDS BY SHANDANA MUFTI

CHILDREN’S FAIR 2012

1122 - 28 June 2012 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK


The 2012 Children’s Fair would like to thank its sponsors:Copenhagen International Services, Maersk, McDonald’s, the Employment Ministry, the Marriott

Hotel Copenhagen and DGI, and its partners: Expat in Denmark, Spousecare, the Copenhagen Public Library, the Danish Red Cross and Copenhagen Police and Fire Brigade.

Marie Tejsner Andersen was one of the hundreds who enjoyed the free snacks provided by Marriot. These portable cartons contained a cookie and some carrot sticks

Martin Briggs Andersen enjoyed stirring things at the Montessori International Preschool table. Who says only women belong in the kitchen?

This ladder would de� nitely come in handy if called upon to extinguish a � re in a sky-scraper! Luckily, this was just for show at the fair

Kristo� er Licht and Sander Mikelsen had us impressed with their football skills. The best part? Watching Sander score a goal against Kristo� er

Is that Spiderman riding a pony with a cookie in his hand? No, that’s just silly – it’s Eshaan Mehmood after having his face painted

Maxim Weilert tested out his batting at the Gladsaxe Softball & Baseball Club stand

The Copenhagen Post’s own Dima Paranytsia was one of the ra� e winners (it wasn’t rigged, we swear), winning a three-course dinner for four – drinks included – at the Marriott Hotel

Brothers Ferdinand and Alexander Weiss looked somewhat relieved following their tour of a � re engine

So� a Bussink joined her dad Pim in the police car. Seems like they lowered the driving age drastically

The KIF stand gave would-be athletes the chance to practice their standing long jump

The pony rides were probably the most popular activity for all the kids.Pictured here is Mia Lipscomb - a Zara Phillips in the making

Hotel Copenhagen and DGI, and its partners: Expat in Denmark, Spousecare, the Copenhagen Public

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ABOUT TOWNPHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD (UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED)

COMMUNITY

Dating the Danes columnist Jessica O’Sullivan signs o� this week with news that is bound to disappoint all her male readers. See below for more details

Croatia celebrated its national day last week on Wednesday. Pictured with his wife on the right greet-ing guests is the country’s ambassador Ladislav Pivcevic

German ambassador Michael Zenner (second from the right) gamely put on his country’s national football shirt to watch his country’s opening Euro 2012 game against Portugal at a meeting hall in Skt Petri Church. Not sure whether he was so bold for the game against Denmark!

Japanese ambassador Toshio Sano hosted an event called ‘Tastes of Japanese Traditional Culture: NOH Drama and more’ at his residence in Hellerup on June 8. Pictured on the right (left-right) are Carsten Dencker Nielsen, the former CEO of the East-Asiatic Company, Ambassador Sano, and the daughter of Takio Oda, who in 1957 was appointed the � rst ever Japanese ambassador to Denmark

Luxembourg celebrated its national day last week on Tuesday with a reception at Sølyst in Klampen-borg, which gave the city’s diplomatic corps the chance to bid farewell to its outgoing ambassador Pierre-Louis Lorenz (on the far right)

EMILY MCLEAN JESSICA O’SULLIVAN

Men the world over are not that di� cult to un-derstand. � ey are bio-

logically wired with the same instincts as their cavemen coun-terparts: they spot their prey and hunt it down, doing eve-rything within their power to catch it. In modern day terms this is known as ‘the thrill of the chase’.

Danish men, though, seem to be wired slightly di� erently to the rest of their homosapien coun-terparts. � ey seem to have lost their inner-caveman instincts. I blame this on their uber-evolved society, which actually encourag-es the genders to go against their natural hardwiring.

Now I have no aversion to asking a man out. But it seems Danish men almost ex-pect that. And here’s where my story begins.

I met a Danish man through

L ife rarely ever works out like we plan, and my life in Den-mark has been no di� erent. I

came here, rather naively I must admit, with a man I thought I was madly in love with. However, soon after arriving, I was forced back to reality when he declared his undy-ing love for me had in fact died.

Whilst I won’t bore you with the ups and downs that followed, I will say that alone and new to this country, I set out to do the only thing I could: move on. In the process, I started this column, and seeing as this is my last one, I think it only fair to � nish the story.

As many of you may know, in the process of moving on, I began dating Danish men, and throughout my time here, I’ve re-ally had some shockers of a date. From wannabe bicycle-oiling Romeos, to line-crossing smooth talkers and straight-laced bores, I travelled the country, well at least Copenhagen, in pursuit of my own Danish prince.

Overall, I’ve had some great experiences, as well as some lousy

a group of friends. He started emailing me, and so began the extended online conversation. After a month I was bored. He was clearly interested in me and I in him, but he just never made

the next move. So I did what every dating book had told me not to do: I asked him out.

While waiting for his reply the following thoughts ran through my mind: “I’ve been way too forward,” “I’ve scared him o� ”, “he will prob-

ably lose interest now”, and “the thrill of the chase is over”.

But I really had nothing to fear.

My pro-activeness in initiat-ing a date had the opposite ef-fect. He actually became even more intrigued. But from there on in, he assumed he never had to lift a � nger. He became a lazy hyena and I the hunting lion.

According to the Danish kingdom’s dating rules, this is completely within the realm of

moments. I bought bikes, only to have them stolen, met men I thought were nice but weren’t, and I even had a visit from he-who-should-not-be-named: � e Ex. Having drifted through Eu-rope, including a visit to his ex-girlfriend’s pants, he returned to Copenhagen, supposedly a changed man, and even asked for my hand in marriage.

I’ve also had my hopes set high, only to have them dashed again, but in spite of all of this, I have learnt that many things, includ-ing people, are not always as they � rst appear.

And with that I have a confession to make: I am in love with a Dane. Despite having written extensively about their failings, unbelievably feminine dress sense, Q & A style of dating and general cold demeanour, I must admit that they aren’t as bad as they � rst seemed.

You see, most of these col-umns have actually been back-dated, so over my time here, I have learnt to actually appreciate

the acceptable. Take one of my best friends for example. She hunted her husband for months before he � nally cracked, and it was her that even initiated the � rst kiss!

Danish men remind me of hyenas. � ey want to hunt their prey, but they’re either not too sure how to go about it or are just plain lazy. � ey therefore end up feeding o� the dregs of a kill that another animal bothered to make (most likely their best friend). � is also explains why there is so much double-dipping in this country.

Danish women are ulti-mately the lions of the land: they spot, stalk and hunt their prey, stopping at nothing to get it. So much so that they have put the men in a passive role.

Now, I’m not backward about being forward – never have been, never will be. If I like you, you’ll know about it, and if I don’t, you’ll know that too. But I won’t chase you all the way across the Pride Lands.

Do you ever see a zebra chas-ing a lion? Exactly my point.

Danish men. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying they aren’t without their faults. But I guess, regardless of origin, no men are.

What I do know now, after writing them o� months ago, is that I’ve had to eat my words. � e more men I’ve got to know here, including my own Mr Normal (yes, he’s the one), the more I’ve re-alised they are kind, sensitive, sexy and actually a lot of fun.

Now whilst I never would have thought that ‘fun’ and ‘Danish’ are two words I’d put together. I think I now know the secret to Danish men, and that is that you’ve got to approach them like a really good

candy bar. Good as it may look, eat it all quickly and you’ll never be satis� ed, but consume it bit by bit and you’ll learn to truly savour it.

With that, I leave you to continue exploring this country, with my new Danish husband by my side …

Pierre-Louis Lorenz (on the far right)

True, the Antipodeans hate being mistaken for one another and rarely agree on anything, but they are well-known for speaking their mind, so who better to ask for an opinion on dating Danish men than New Zealand’s Emily McLean and Australia’s Jessica O’Sullivan, two tough-talking girls who might have to kiss a lot of frogs to nd their prince. After all, nobody ever said Dating the Danes was going to be easy.

DATING THE DANES

The more Danish men I’ve got to know … the more I’ve realised they are kind, sensitive, sexy and actuallya lot of fun.

Danish men remind me of hyenas. This explains why there is so much double-dipping in this country.

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1322 - 28 June 2012 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

Ambassador Fulton raises a glass to proceedings

“I’ll tell you when to stop,” Polly Fairchild tells Esben Brendstrup

Fulton, Pia Vodder and Alice Rasmussen inspect the wares

Denmark’s Ulrik Fleischer-Michaelsen was among the converted

Converted to the cause: Now they wish they all could be California

Keld Johnsen and Peter Stakemann compare notes

JESSICA O’SULLIVAN

THERE aren’t many oc-casions when you � nd yourself locked in a room, drinking wine, stripped

of your worldly possessions and surrounded by futurists, audi-tors, CEOs, psychologists and a ballet dancer (to name a few) without thinking that maybe you’ve imbibed a few too many. Unless you were at last week’s Californian wine-tasting event at the American Embassy.

Organised by the Ameri-can Chamber of Commerce in Denmark (AmCham), the event was designed to promote the Californian wine industry to Denmark, and what better way than by o ering free wine samplings to the who’s who of the Copenhagen oenophile community who had gathered to learn, network and taste – and taste they did indeed.

Stephen Brugger, the execu-tive director of AmCham, jok-ingly kicked o the event by saying that “the day’s programme isn’t rocket science”, explaining that while Californian wines have tended to play a minor role in the minds of wine-consuming Danes,

this is slowly starting to change.� e US ambassador, the

highly personable Laurie Fulton, welcomed guests. An avid wine-lover herself, Fulton earned her grape credentials among the crowd by proudly saying that the � rst thing she does when going to a restaurant is look at the wine list, and if there are no American wines o ered, she often consid-ers going elsewhere.

Fulton told � e Copenhagen Post that she believes American wines “are among the best in the world” and reiterated how de-lighted she was to be part of an AmCham event that highlights the best of them.

� ose wielding the wine were

in high demand, of course, but when they weren’t busy topping up glasses, many distributors took the time to explain why they believe Californian wines are still struggling to make their mark in Denmark, despite their unbeliev-able drinkability.

“Unfortunately, Californian wine isn’t yet as popular, but that’s simply because the quality is so high and therefore the price is also high,” said Pia Vodder, the Danish manager of California Wines.

Not one to drown his sor-rows unless it’s with a good Cali-fornian red, Claus Tang-Holbek, a wine distributor with Kjær & Sommerfeldt, asserted that the

news isn’t all bad for Californian wines.

“Wines in this country tend to be easily drinkable like Coca-Cola. But for a wine with genu-ine taste, you have to be willing to spend around 100 kroner, and this is where Californian wines are going to � nd their niche in this country,” he said.

Despite a general consen-sus that American wines still have a long way to go to gain a foothold in Denmark, most guests were too busy lapping up the vino to dwell on any negativities. For example, Al-ice Rasmussen from California Wine ApS proclaimed the event a “super-cosy, exciting and suc-

cessful event to be a part of ”.With so many great wines

being o ered, some found it hard to choose a favourite, but Ambassador Fulton’s picks of the day included the 2007 Kendall-Jackson Camelot Highlands Chardonnay, the Hahn Pinot Noir and any of the Zinfandels, which Fulton cheekily suggested had a bit of spice that the Danes need.

Helping to soak up the abundance of alcohol, the food was prepared by � e Diplomat restaurant and included some much-appreciated Californian sushi rolls, Texan beef steak, New Mexican spareribs and seared Hawaiian tuna.

AmCham event lifts the lid on how American’s golden state produces some of the best wines in the world

COPENHAGEN � eatre Circle (CTC) is the oldest English-language theatre

company in Denmark, having produced high-quality drama for the general public in Copenha-gen since 1968.

� at’s an impressive 44 years (just six years until their diamond jubilee – that’s going to be a big party), which might explain why its management feel it’s time for a change, starting with its logo.

So calling all the graphic designers out there, here’s a chance to earn a little pocket money by designing the CTC’s new logo.

“In recent years, the Copen-

hagen � eatre Circle has been expanding rapidly,” explained CTC chairman Frank � eak-ston.

After seven productions in 1998 and 1999, the CTC hit a barren patch, producing just � ve plays over the following seven years. However, things began to pick up in 2007, and the group has produced six productions since April 2010. It now aims to produce at least three major stage productions a season, including a traditional British pantomime at Christ-mas.

“We’re therefore commis-sioning a new design concept for its internal and external communications,” continued � eakston.

“� e designer’s task is to comprise the design of a new logo, together with a visual and typographical palette, with the aim of compiling overall style

guidelines for our communica-tions.”

� e winner of the competi-tion will receive 7,500 kroner.

� e CTC also organises play readings, improvisation courses and social events for its mem-bers, and is increasingly moving into ‘fringe’ activities such as staged readings, theatre sports, � lm projects, workshops and ‘happenings’.

� e CTC is fully self-sup-porting through membership fees and box o ̈ ce takings at public events.

To enter the competition, please e-mail [email protected] before 30 June and you will be sent more detailed information. � e submis-sions deadline for the project is 31 August.

For further information re-garding the theatre group, visit www.ctcircle.dk or call Frank � eakston on 2812 3680.

DAVE SMITH

Enter the theatre group’s competition to design it a newlogo and win 7,500 kroner

Designs on the CTC prize COMING UP SOONBook club in EnglishØsterbro Library, Dag Hammar-skjölds Allé 19, Cph Ø; Wed 27 June, 17:15; free adm;www.meetup.com� e English book club pro-vides an opportunity to discuss thought-provoking and topical books. � is time they will be discussing JD Salinger’s ‘� e Catcher in the Rye’. You can pick up a copy at the library. Food photographyand dinnerCheck meetup.com for location; Sat 23 June, 18:30; free adm; www.meetup.comFood photography is very simi-lar to photographing people in a sense that each person has their best side. Considering the va-riety of food out there, diverse cooking and presentation styles, the � nal results are endless. Everyone attending will bring a dish from their own country.

Volunteers for Para-motoring Championship � e Baltic Open Para-motoring Championship, held in Latvia, is looking for volunteers and gra ̈ ti artists. Send your per-sonal information to [email protected]. Travel costs to Latvia will be covered. BCCD: Special Lunch with John StuttartRadisson Blu Royal Hotel, Ham-merichsgade 1, Cph V; � u 5 July, 11:45; free adm; sign up at www.bccd.dkJohn Stuttard is an English chartered accountant who was lord mayor of the City of Lon-don in 2006/2007. � e talk will look at the reasons behind the City of London becoming one of the � nancial centres of the world, what the key suc-cess factors, opportunities and threats are, and what the role of lord mayor is.

Family Day at Skt Josef ’sFrederiksborgvej 10, 4000 Roskil-de; � u 21 June, 16:00; sign up at [email protected]; 5339 4245Skt Josef ’s International School in Roskilde is organising a Fam-ily Day. Meet in the school courtyard at 16:00, play the ‘Town Challenge’ game, and then head o for some icecream at event sponsor Paradis.

Silver Spoon – e Clash� e Royal Café, Amagertorv 6, Cph K; Fri 22 June, 18:30; 425kr, www.billetto.dk/theclashVisually, you will be transported to a location evoking a blend of London, Copenhagen, and Hong Kong. Gastronomically, you will be teleported to Japan by chef Frederik Jensen, explor-ing the cozy izakaya-kitchen style. Musically, you’ll � nd your-self swaying to the beats of Ber-lin, Jamaica, and Chicago.

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14 22 - 28 June 2012THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DKSPORT

TOM CHRISTENSEN failed to win his ninth Le Mans 24-hour race over the weekend, � nishing in second place – his 12th time on the podium. Audi took the � rst two places, with last year’s winners – Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Be-noit Treluyer – again taking � rst, followed by their sister team, Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Kristensen. � e 44-year-old Dane last won Le Mans in 2008.

SOME 2.378 million people tuned in for Denmark’s 1-2 defeat by Ger-many on Sunday night – the most watched football game since the country’s 2-3 loss to Brazil in the quarter-� nals of the 1998 World Cup. In comparison, 2.6 mil-lion watched the Euro 1992 � nal. While the � gure exceeded the high-est ever ‘X Factor’ audience (2.2 ml), it was a long way short of the all-time record: 3.6 million for the � nal episode of drama ‘Matador’.

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI is tenth favourite (Ladbroke’s: 40/1) to win Wimbledon, which starts on Monday 25 June. � e draw will be announced on Fri-day. � e Dane, who at the time of going to press was warming up in the grass-court AEGON Inter-national in Eastbourne, told Eng-lish newspaper the Daily Mail: “I believe I can win Wimbledon this year,” adding she was hopeful Denmark would win Euro 2012.

MICHAEL LAUDRUP was con� rmed as the new manager of English Premier League club Swansea City last week on Fri-day. � e Welsh club has only been in the top ̈ight for one season, but earned widespread plaudits for its tiki-taka style of play – an ethos the club said Laudrup is a perfect � t for. He has signed a two-year deal and becomes the � rst Dane to man-age in the EPL.

Le Man comes second Sad times on the sofaWoz can win – so she says Laudrup’s historic � rst

SPORTS NEWS AND BRIEFS

Golfers disappoint Smarty pants out of pocketALL THREE Danish golfers missed the cut at the US Open, golf ’s second major the season, which concluded on Sunday in San Francisco. Søren Kjeldsen shot the second worst opening round – an 85 that included a 12-over outward nine – and � nished sixth from last overall. � omas Bjørn recovered from a poor � rst round to miss the cut by a stroke, while Anders Hansen slumped out of contention on day two.

NICKLAS BENDTNER has been � ned 735,000 kroner and given a one-game ban by UEFA for revealing the name of a bookmaker on his “lucky under-pants” after scoring an equaliser in Denmark’s 3-2 defeat by Por-tugal last week on Wednesday. UEFA rules ban all kinds of ad-vertising. Furthermore, one of the Danish FA’s main sponsors is English bookie Ladbroke’s. Bendtner plans to appeal.

Danes wave ‘auf wiedersehen’ with chins upCHRISTIAN WENANDE

IT COULD have gone either way on Sunday night. If only Jakob Poulsen’s e« ort had glanced the other side of the

post, if only Nicklas Bendtner had been given the penalty, and if only the name on the big screen at the stadium in Lviv included an extra ‘t’ and an ‘n’. Bender, Bendtner, these are the � ne lines by which games are won and lost.

But the gods of football did not favour the Danes that evening in Ukraine, and an in-spired performance against tour-nament favourites Germany was not enough to see them through.

Michael Krohn-Dehli’s sec-ond goal of the tournament had equalised an early Lukas Podolski

strike, and with the Dutch leading against Portugal at the time, Dan-ish hopes were high. But in a ̈ash everything changed. Cristiano Ro-naldo scored for the Portuguese and Denmark suddenly needed all three points. � e match hung in the balance for long periods of the second half. Germany had the lion’s share of the possession, but couldn’t capitalise, while Den-mark went desperately close when Poulsen hit the post.

� en things got worse. Por-tugal took the lead against the Netherlands and Lars Bender put the Germans up after some un-forgivable defending by Poulsen who let Bender stroll into the box and snu« out the Danish dreams. Agger was close with a header as time ran out, but there was no way Denmark would score two goals in the � nal ten minutes. As the ref blew the � nal whistle, the Danish players slumped to the ground with a mixture of disappointment and exhaustion.

Before the tour-nament had even

started, it was apparent that

Denmark w o u l d

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� re on all cylinders if they were to have any chance of progress-ing from the dreaded Group of Death. While some players rose to the occasion, ̈ourishing in the Ukrainian sunshine, others, for whatever reason, failed to impress and lift the team.

� ree players that sparkled

AN INJURY to the � rst choice keeper, the out-of-form � omas Sørensen, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil proved to be a blessing for the team. His replacement, Stephan Andersen, rose masterfully to the challenge and has been one of the best keepers in the tournament thus far. His performance against the Netherlands in the � rst game was absolutely brilliant.

� ere were few who predict-ed that Michael Krohn-Dehli, the little Brøndby left-winger, would score two goals and be one of the stars for Denmark at the Euros. But Krohn-Dehli became an unlikely hero and wrote him-self into Danish football folklore with his stunning goal against the Netherlands and followed that up with an assist against Portugal and another goal against Germany.

His career has been marred by injuries so the Danish fans could be forgiven for not count-ing on Daniel Agger lasting the three games in Ukraine. But the tattoo-ridden Danish captain not only lasted the distance,

but marshalled the back four with a poise and passion

perhaps not seen for Den-mark since coach Morten Olsen was the libero

in the 1980s. Agger’s crunching tackles,

domination in the air and his abil-

ity to read the game kept the Danes in many games when they were on the back foot. A massive inspiration.

� ree players that � zzled

CHRISTIAN Eriksen is consid-ered one of the brightest talents in Europe, and there were high expectations that his creative spark would give the Danes a creative edge not seen since the Laudrup brothers. Alas, Eriksen seemed jaded and was virtually invisible throughout the tournament, bare-ly even having a shot on goal. � e young starlet was by far the biggest disappointment for the Danes.

To be fair, Dennis Romme-dahl did pick up an injury against Portugal and didn’t play against Germany, but the experienced winger with more than a century of caps o« ered little in terms of going forward. His crossing was especially dire, and defensively he was far too lethargic against Por-tugal, costing a goal early on. � is tournament may mark the end of his international career.

Of the � ve goals Denmark conceded in Ukraine, Simon Poulsen was directly involved in four of them. Despite playing well against the Dutch, lax defending allowed Portugal to score twice from crosses by the man Poulsen was marking, and then he oddly failed to close down Silvestre Varela when Portugal scored their winner. Against Germany, Poulsen again looked poor as he allowed � o-mas Müller with his back to goal to turn and cross the ball to Lukas Podolski who promptly scored.

Looking back

IN MOST matches there are key

moments during which the games are decided and the three close games Denmark were involved in were no exception.

In the � rst game against the Netherlands with Denmark clinging to a 1-0 lead and the Netherlands pushing forward, goalkeeper Stephan Andersen made a series of saves that kept the Danes ahead and allowed them to preserve the fragile lead. One sequence was particularly im-portant as Andersen made a double save, � rst of all denying Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and then thwarting Ibra-him A« elay’s follow-up after a spec-tacular pass from Wesley Sneijder.

Against Portugal, Denmark had come back from two goals down to equalise with ten minutes left, but then substitute Silvestre Varela was given far too much space to score the winner with � ve minutes remaining. Simon Poulsen did his best to disappear to allow the Portuguese forward to turn and power a shot home.

With the game tied at 1-1 in the second half of the Germany game and Denmark needing a win to progress, Jakob Poulsen sud-denly found himself free on the edge of the German box. But Poulsen’s e« ort clipped the outside of the post, deny-ing the Danes an opportunity to win the game and send the Germans home.

Looking ahead

BUT AS the Danes pack their bags and set o« for home, they can hold their heads high know-ing they have exceeded expecta-tions. � e bitter disappointment of coming so close to progress-ing to the quarter-� nals will be washed away by the brilliant performance by the team picked to be the whipping boys of the Group of Death.

And they can’t rest too long on their laurels either. Already in September, the quarter-� nal bound Czech Republic will visit Denmark in a match that her-alds the beginning of the quali-� cation campaign for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Italy and Bulgaria will also provide stern opposition in the group, but the future looks bright for the Dan-ish football team. � ey may not have provided that miracle, but they’re young, hungry and have certainly won the hearts of all their fans.

Denmark crash out of the Euros after losing tough game against favourites Germany, but the future looks bright

If only the nameon the big screen at the

stadium in Lviv included an extra ‘t’ and an ‘n’

SCA

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Conservative estimates claim that banks earned 1.1 billion kroner in interest in 2010 by dragging their feet when making transfers be-tween accounts, according to Politiken newspaper. although banks have been reluctant to increase the speed of transac-tions, in 2013 customers can expect transfers to be made on the same day they are requested.

Cash lost in the ethernet

co

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While some economists say things are getting better, the statistics tell a different story

prices are high, such as alterna-tive energy and energy-saving products. secondly, Danish businesses are very energy ef-ficient compared with foreign businesses, so the higher the energy price, the greater our competitiveness.”

among the companies that benefit from high oil prices are vestas, velux, rock-wool, Grundfoss, Danfoss and novozymes. Many of them have signed contracts with Chinese businesses that are interested in sustainable energy solutions.

rasmussen from Danske Bank, however, does not think that increased oil and gas pro-

duction in the americas are like-ly to bring energy prices down even further

“oPeC will continue to be powerful, and it’s worth remember-ing that while the

american output rises, output from traditional sources will fall. That’s why we don’t think there will be much lower oil prices.”

For the time being, however, the varying energy prices do lit-tle to benefit Danish businesses.

“When prices vary so much, businesses don’t have time to change the price on their prod-ucts. This can cost both income and customers.”

high oil prices a double-edged sword

The FinanCial cri-sis continues to swing a brutal scythe through the economy.

The number of people in bad standing with the rKi cred-it agency has spiked dramati-cally during the recession. rKi now lists nearly 230,000 people as ‘bad debtors’ – those who are unable to pay what they owe. Between them they owe more than 14 billion kroner. That number increased by one billion kroner this year alone, and the average bad debtor is just over 64,000 kroner in arrears, as op-posed to 40,000 kroner before the crisis began.

“it is clear that the eco-nomic crisis has not missed the average person,” rené osten-feld, an analyst at experian, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “a steady stream of debtors is being added to the rolls, and each of them owes more than those that came before them.”

Meanwhile, one in ten houses for sale in the country is on the market due to a court-ordered foreclosure. There were 414 compulsory home sales in May, compared with 398 the month before, according to statistics bureau Danmarks sta-tistik. in the Copenhagen area, 27 percent of the houses on the market were foreclosures. lise nytoft Bergmann, a spokes-person for nordea bank, saw no sign of improvement on the horizon.

“The high number of home repossessions is due to the length of the crisis,” Bergmann told the media. “as the crisis drags on, families run out of

Sell 5.68 5.59 7.33 0.07 0.17 0.81 6.08 9.00 5.79

Buy 6.20 6.04 7.56 0.08 0.19 0.85 6.28 9.36 6.06

AustralianDollarsAUD

CanadaDollarsCAD

EuroEUR

JapanYenJPY

RussiaRublesRUB

SwedenKronor

SEK

SwitzerlandFrancsCHF

UKPoundsGBP

United StatesDollarsUSD

Exchange Rates

Price in kroner for one unit of foreign currency Date: 20 June 2012

Ray WeaveR

Recovery? What recovery?

For many, economic recovery is still a figment of the imagination

Business

Jyllands-Posten

hiGh oil prices are bad news for drivers, but for both the government and

the country’s businesses they mean handsome profits.

But as oil prices drop, the government’s income from north sea oil has shrunk, while businesses in the energy sector also suffer.

“since the start of the fi-nancial crisis there has been a reduction in economic growth across the globe, which also re-duced the demand for oil. That has lowered prices. oPeC also managed to reduce the price fur-ther, which is not good news for the economy,” Michael stæhr, a sydbank analyst, said. “We will soon run out of oil in the north sea and so it is important to draw out as much money from the underground as possible.”

Just before the economic crisis, north sea oil cost about $145 a barrel. The price then collapsed during 2008 as the fi-nancial crisis took hold, before rising again to $127 a barrel in March this year. The price has since dropped again – a barrel now costs about $96.

Part of the explanation for the drop in prices is that the eu-ropean debt crisis has also sup-pressed growth in other global markets. The other part of the explanation lies on the other side of the atlantic, where a new drilling technique known as fracking has led to increased output.

“The price is affected by what is happening in the Us where they have discovered how to extract both gas and oil through underground fracking. This has brought gas prices to their lowest level in 25 years,” arne lohmann rasmussen, the chief analyst at Danske Bank who is an oil market specialist, said.

BP is expect-ing that north and south amer-ica will be able to supply all of its own oil and gas by 2030, which many analysts believe will sup-press prices in the long term.

But lower oil prices not only reduce the government’s income, it also affects Danish businesses, according to Klaus rasmussen, the chief economist with Dansk industri (Di), a business lobby organisation.

“Firstly, many Danish busi-nesses produce products that are in high demand when oil

money and a compulsory sale is the only solution.”

Danmarks statistik’s num-bers revealed that 40 percent of the repossessions last year involved houses or flats pur-chased during the boom years of 2005-2008.

Fears are increasing that the government’s plan to re-duce the tax deduction for in-terest paid on mortgages will increase the number of peo-ple losing their homes. senior economist Mikkel høegh from BrF Kredit, a mortgage lender, warned that any future combi-nation of higher taxes and rising interest rates would send even more borrowers over the edge.

“For those holding larger mortgages with a variable inter-est rate, the tax deduction acts as a shield against rising interest rates,” høegh told Berlingske newspaper.

Despite the fact that more people could lose their homes, the tax minister, Thor Möger Pedersen (socialistisk Folkeparti), defended the pro-posal to reduce the deduction.

“interest rates have a far greater effect than a minor ad-justment in the tax deduction,” Pedersen told Berlingske. “i think it is only fair that those

who could afford to take out big mortgages should be responsible for paying more of the interest on their own.”

The situation is just as grim for businesses. some 477 com-panies filed for bankruptcy in May, compared with 363 in april, according to Danmarks statistik. That 23 percent rise is the largest one-month increase since 2008.

The trade and transport sectors were particularly hard hit, accounting for 41 percent of all the bankruptcies in May. although businesses across the country felt the pinch, Jutland was particularly hard hit, and more than 40 percent of the businesses going belly up were located in mid-Jutland.

nikolaj Pilgaard of Dansk industri, a business lobby or-ganisation, was concerned about the high rate of bankruptcies.

“Companies are still feeling the effect of the fragile economy, and it’s difficult to see any sign of improvement in the near fu-ture,” Pilgaard told Berlingske.

a particularly troubling sign was the age of the compa-nies that went bankrupt. The businesses that closed were nine years old on average – the highest on record.

drivers hate it, but expensive oil is best for both the economy and the government purse

business neWs and bRiefs

KJelD KirK Kristiansen, the owner of global toy colossus leGo, has been avoiding Dan-ish taxes for many years by stash-ing profits in a swiss tax shelter. according to the tabloid B.t., Kristiansen has sent 375 mil-lion kroner into the accounts of a company named Kirkbi aG, which owns the leGo copy-right and earns a royalty when-ever a leGo brick is sold. The registering of intellectual prop-

erty like trademarks and patents into subsidiary companies in low-tax countries like switzer-land is the same tax loophole used by many multinational companies in Denmark. The government is trying to clamp down on the practice. if the leGo profits had been report-ed as earned in Denmark, the tax rate would have been 25 percent compared to only 5 percent in switzerland.

Lego owner accused of playing badly with taxes

This has brought gas prices to their lowest level in 25 years

BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN DENMARK


• official media partner

If you would like to attend then please send us an email ([email protected]) or call +45 31 18 75 58

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

Reflections of a Lord Mayor of London on the Medieval Role in the Modern City

John StuttartDeputy Chairman, PWC Advisory boardLord Mayor of the City of London in 2006/2007

Sir John Stuttard is an English chartered accountant and was the Lord Mayor of the City of London in 2006/2007. He is also Deputy Chairman of PWC’s Advisory board. As the 679th Lord Mayor, John Stuttard attended nearly 2,000 engagements, including 466 formal lunches and dinners, 764 speeches and 133 media interviews. He hosted visiting foreign Ministers, businessmen and dignitaries and he spent more than 100 nights abroad in 23 countries promoting the financial, maritime and other business services industry of the UK. Every day was different; every day was special.

The talk will look at the reasons behind the City of London becoming the Financial Centre of the World, what the key success factors, opportunities and threats are, and what the role of the Lord Mayor is as the champion of the City both ancient and modern.

He is visiting Denmark as the organiser of a Rolls Royce Ghost owners tour of Northern Europe. 17 pre-War Rolls-Royces will participate in the tour, ranging from a 1913 Silver Ghost to a 1934 20/25. Of the 17 vehicles, 10 will be Silver Ghosts. The tour will start in Denmark and finish in Helsinki, travelling through Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The majority of the cars will be on display at Tivoli for the day but we will also arrange for one of these vintage cars to be on display in the hotel lobby.

Date: Thursday, 5 July 2012Time: 11.45Venue: Radisson Blu Royal Hotel

SPOUSE: Dolon Roy FROM: IndiaSEEKING WORK IN: SjællandQUALIFICATION: Masters in Science(Chemistry), BEd. (Teacher training course).EXPERIENCE: St. John Diocessan School February-May 2005, Kolkata, India. The Assembly of God Church School April-May 2006, Kolkata, India. Disari Public School June 2006-October 2007, India. Research project work Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Copenhagen University, March-July 2009.LOOKING FOR: Part time or full time work teaching in primary,secondary or higher school level (Chemistry, Mathematics, Science).LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Hindi, Bengali, Danish (modul 3/modul 5).IT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft o� ce.CONTACT: [email protected]. Tel: +45 60668239

SPOUSE: Pooja Nirwal FROM: New Delhi, IndiaSEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen and Capital region.QUALIFICATION: Masters (M. Sc) in Environmental Science, +2 yrs of Exp. as Env. Consultant in the � eld of Environmental Impact Assessment.LOOKING FOR: Positions in Consultancies/Organizations/NGOs working in the � eld of Environmental Science (Climate Change, EIA, Env. Compliance Audits, Solid Waste Management etc.).LANGUAGE SKILLS: Fluent in English, Hindi and Sanskrit, Started learning Danish.IT EXPERIENCE: MS O� ce (PowerPoint, Word, Excel).CONTACT: [email protected] Tel: +45 503 904 60

SPOUSE: Ylenia Fiorini FROM: ItalySEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Post Graduate Master’s Degree in Peace Studies, Development Cooperation, International Mediation and Con¥ ict resolutionEXPERIENCE: I have ten years experience as social worker in Italy,and experience in various � elds, in the social and third sector and I feel that my educational background combined with my campaign assistant practice in the Ngo Burma Campaign, in Barcelona, has been an excellent preparation. In the same way also my job experiences in the social � eld made me open to di¦ erent situations and to see them as a source of knowledge.LOOKING FOR: Entry Level jobs in the third sector � eld, in international organization or NGO’sLANGUAGE SKILLS: Italian Mother tongue, ¥ uent in Spanish, English, French, Swedish (basic)IT EXPERIENCE: Ms O� ce (Mac,Windows)CONTACT: ylenia� [email protected]

SPOUSE: Debjani Nandy Biswas FROM: IndiaSEEKING WORK IN: Would like to join in kindergarten, School teacher in English, o� cial work in English.QUALIFICATION: B.A., M.A in English literature and language (American, European and Indian). EXPERIENCE: Temporary school teacher in Bongaon, India and involved in social work (handicapped society).LOOKING FOR: A possibility in getting practical experiences in kindergarten or any international school, o� cial work (administration) in English, voluntary work also.LANGUAGE SKILLS: English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, little Danish (currently learning).IT EXPERIENCE: Diploma in basic computer applications.CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: +45 50219942.

SPOUSE: Mayurika Saxena Sheth FROM: India/USASEEKING WORK IN: Copenhagen & nearby areas, Greater CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: MCA, PGDMM(MATERIALS), B.SC (COMPUTERS) CERTIFICATIONS: CSTE, CSQA, GREEN BELT SIX SIGMA, TSP/PSP.EXPERIENCE: Eleven years of software development work/IT/BUSINESS experience with prestigious organizations (onsite and o¦ shore): Microsoft, General Electric, Primus Telecommunications (AUSTRALIA), CitiFINANCIAL(USA), ISS and Imany.LOOKING FOR: Full Time Job in IT, Management, Consulting or Business/Financial Field.LANGUAGE SKILLS: ENGLISH ¥ uent, HINDI ¥ uent, DANISH AND SPANISH (Beginner).IT EXPERIENCE: Testing tools like Test Director, Quality Center, Access Server, Product Studio, Polyspace Analysis, .NET testing, Web Page testing, Electronic Appliances testing, development in Winrunner, ASP, HTML, JavaScript, VBScript, Jscript, Oracle, Cold Fusion, SQL, Access, COM/DCOM, MTS, Siebel as well as UNIX, Tuxedo, C, PL/SQL, VB.Net/ ASP .Net, VB.Net. C#. CONTACT: [email protected] Tel: +45 7169 5401

SPOUSE: Rita Paulo FROM: PortugalSEEKING WORK IN: Great CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Architect .EXPERIENCE: I am an architect and I have experience in Project and in Construction Supervision. In the past 7 years, I have worked mainly in housing, masterplanning and social facilities buildings. My last employer was a Project and Construction company where I had the opportunity to complement my experience in projects together with construction related tasks, developing myself as a professional.LOOKING FOR: Job in Architecture or Construction Company.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Native Portuguese, Pro� ciency in English, Basic user of Spanish and DanishIT EXPERIENCE: Strong knowledge of AutoCad and ArchiCad. Experience in Studio Max, CorelDraw, Photoshop, O� ce tools.CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: +45 2961 9694

SPOUSE: Jik Boom FROM: The NetherlandsSEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: TeacherEXPERIENCE: CELTA (Cambridge Certi� cate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)see also Linkedin pro� le http://dk.linkedin.com/in/jikboom)LOOKING FOR: Work in the area of teaching (English), proofreading (English) and translation (English/Dutch - Dutch/English)LANGUAGE SKILLS: Dutch, English, French, German, DanishIT EXPERIENCE: MS O� ce (Powerpoint, Word, Excel)CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: +45 42129175

SPOUSE: Sucharita Reddy FROM: IndiaSEEKING WORK IN: Anywhere in DenmarkQUALIFICATION: Bachelor in Technology (Electrical Engineering)EXPERIENCE: 4+ years of professional experience in SAP ABAP & OO-ABAP programming for Material Management(MM), Plant Maintenance(PM), Document Management and Record Management System(DM/RM), Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) , Sales and Distribution(SD) and Finance (FI) modules.LOOKING FOR: Job opportunities in IT(technical or Functional),Consulting,Management or Business Field.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Pro� cient in English & Hindi. Danish(learning Intensive course)IT EXPERIENCE: SAP ABAP/4 technical skills include ABAP Programs (Dialog Programming, Standard and Interactive Reports), ALV Reporting, Smartforms, User Exit and Field Exit Development, Interfacing Data with external systems, Data conversions, Programming using BDC, ABAP/4 Workbench, Data Dictionary ,Batch Job management ,Work¥ ows, Adobe Forms, Webdynpro, ABAP ObjectsCONTACT: [email protected], Tel: 0045-5271184.

SPOUSE: Margaret Ritchie FROM: Scotland, UKSEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: BA Business Administration majoring in Human Resource ManagementEXPERIENCE: Worked in the � eld of Education within a Scottish University. 12 years of experience. Administrating and organising courses and conferences and also worked as a PA to a Head of School. Great communication skills.LOOKING FOR: Administration work, typing, audio typing, data input. Can work from home.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Mother tongue: English, very basic DanishIT EXPERIENCE: A good user of Microsoft O� ce package, access to InternetCONTACT: [email protected] Tel: 71182949

PARTNERS:THE COPENHAGEN POST SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE

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. Remember to get it removed in case of new job.


SPOUSE: Debasmita Ghosh FROM: India SEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharmachemistry specialization). EXPERIENCE: 4 years in Clinical Research (Pharmacovigilance/Safety and Medical Coding) in a leading CRO (Quintiles) and 6 months experience as a lecturer for bachelor degree students in Pharmacy College.LOOKING FOR: Job in pharmaceutical industry, CRO or any vocation suitable per quali� cation and experience.LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (¥ uent written and spoken), enrolled for Danish language classes, Indian Languages (Hindi, Bengali, Kannada).IT EXPERIENCE: MS O� ce Applications i:e Microsoft o� ce word, excel, outlook, power point and tools, lotus notes, medical and drug softwares like micromedex and ISIS draw. CDM systems like ds Navigator-Medical coding tool and AERS database.CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: +4571488438

SPOUSE: Deepak Kumar Koneri FROM: IndiaSEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: M.Sc in Electrical Engineering specialization in Embedded Systems (Jönköping, Sweden), B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Hyderabad, India).EXPERIENCE: Worked as Electrical Distribution Design Engineer in Electrical Consultant company for more than 2 years. I was responsible from the start of design de� nition phase till the implementation phase of individual project. LOOKING FOR: Full and part time job opportunity in Energy, Robust Electronics design, PCB Design, Thermal Analyst, Design & Modelling of power systems, power optimization, simulation and also in constructional, architectural consulting organization.LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (Fluent), Hindi (Mother Tongue), Swedish (Basic) and Danish(Basic, Currently learning).IT EXPERIENCE: MS-O� ce (word, Excel, Power point, Visio), CFD (Mentor Graphics FloTHERM, FloVENT, Noesis OPTIMUS, Electrical CAD, Assembly Programming (PIC 16f77, 8086,8051), Wire-MOM, Telelogic SDL-99, C and VHDL.CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: 71561151

SPOUSE: Chao Wen FROM: ChinaSEEKING WORK IN: Great CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Language teacher (German, Chinese. EXPERIENCE: Teaching Chinese as a foreign language by o¦ ering company-course for 2 years, in Germany; teaching Chinese to native speaker in private school for 4 years, in Germany; teaching German as a foreign language by o¦ ering private course; exhibition interpreter; translator.LOOKING FOR: Part time or full time in Aarhus, Language teacher, translator or interpreter.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Chinese, English, German, Danish.IT EXPERIENCE: Windows, Open o� ce, Powerpoint.CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: 48417526

SPOUSE: Christina Koch FROM: AustraliaSEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Drama, 1997 University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Experienced actor and voice coach for speakers, with parallel high level experience in written communications.LOOKING FOR: Voice coaching for corporate presenters and speakers, Writing and Communications work, work in theatre organisations.IT EXPERIENCE:Microsoft O� ce, O� ce for Mac.LANGUAGE SKILLS: English - Native speaker, excellent written and oral expression. German – good reading and listening skills. Spanish – ¥ uent oral communication, good reading and listening skills. Danish – beginners level speaking and writing skills.CONTACT: Tel: +45 52 77 30 93 [email protected], www.hermionesvoice.com.

SPOUSE: Lillian Liu FROM: TaiwanSEEKING WORK IN: Marketing/Public Relations.QUALIFICATION: Bachelor of Foreign Language and Literature (Major in English, and minor in French)EXPERIENCE: 5+ years of professional experiences in Marketing and PR. I am a dynamic and creative marketing communications talent with substantial international working experience in large corporation and in agencies, possessing Integrated Marketing Communication ability. Pro� cient in analyzing market trends to provide critical inputs for decision-making and formulating marketing communication strategies. Familiar with brand image build-up, channel marketing, media communication, issue management, etc. Possess in-depth understanding/knowledge of APAC market and Chinese culture.LOOKING FOR: Marketing jobs in Jylland.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Mandarin Chinese, English, Danish, French.IT EXPERIENCE: Familiar with Windows O/S and MS O� ce.CONTACT: [email protected]

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 accounting.LOOKING FOR: Job as accounting assistant.IT EXPERIENCE: Microsoft O� ce (Excel, Word and Power point) and accounting software such as Navision C5.LANGUAGE SKILLS: I can read and write Danish, English, Portuguese, Spanish and French.CONTACT: [email protected] Tel: +45 50437588

SPOUSE: Munawar Saleem FROM: PakistanSEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: MBA logistics and supply chain management (Jonkoping University, Sweden) M.Sc. Computer Sciences (Punjab University, Lahore Pakistan).EXPERIENCE: 4 years, Lecturer in computer sciences.LOOKING FOR:Full time or part time job in Logistics and Supply.LANGUAGE SKILLS: English (¥ uent), Urdu (mother tongue), Swedish (Basic).IT EXPERIENCE: Pro� cient in MS O� ce (word, excel, power point etc.).CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: 71412010

SPOUSE: Chia-Pei CHEN FROM: TaiwanSEEKING WORK IN: Business Chinese/ Tutorial Chinese teaching in corporations, institutions or International schools.QUALIFICATION: A certi� ed teacher of teaching Chinese as a second language. A degree in Social Science discipline. Continuously participation in training program (organized by Beijing Hanban of CHINA and CBS) to teach Chinese to foreigners in western context. Enrolment to distance Chinese teaching education system that keeps professional Chinese teachers resourceful. EXPERIENCE: I am a certi� ed teacher of teaching Chinese as a second language to foreigners. And I have started teaching Chinese with English in my class for 2 years. I design suitable materials to teach Chinese with di¦ erent phonetic systems (PinYin for China and HongKong, and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols for Taiwan) as well as to interpret di¦ erences between simpli� ed and traditional Chinese characters. My past positions were Chinese language-related, such as: reporter, translator and social science researcher. Students who I taught before regard me as a sincere, discreet teacher who helps learners to progress in short time.LOOKING FOR: Business Chinese/ Tutorial Chinese teaching.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Chinese (mother tongue), English (Fluent), French (basic), Danish (beginner).IT EXPERIENCE: Word O� ce, SPSS statistic software, Basic Video and Audio editing, Blog writing.CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: 25 81 65 18

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] Tel: +45 60 16 80 40.

SPOUSE: Megan Rothrock FROM: California-USA,ViaSEEKING WORK IN: Toy Design, Games Design, or Photography (Syd Denmark Jutland).QUALIFICATION: Associate Arts Degree: Corporate Communication, Design, and Commercial Illustration, with a background in animation. EXPERIENCE: Former LEGO Product Designer, LEGO Universe: Level Designer, European Bureau Editor Brick Journal Magazine. I have a strong knowledge of Toy and Gaming Markets. I am driven, enjoy solving daily challenges and I’m a strong communicator wanting to join a creative team of colleagues. LOOKING FOR: Part/Full time work in an innovative and creative .LANGUAGE SKILLS: English: native - Dutch: Excellent - Danish (currently in): Danskuddannelse 3, modul 3.IT EXPERIENCE: PC and Mac - Microsoft O� ce Suite, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dream Weaver, Director, Maya, 3D Studio Max, ML Cad, LD. CONTACT: [email protected] Tel: +4535140779

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 rehabilitation clinic.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Italian (native), English, Danish (currently learning).IT EXPERIENCE: MS O� ce.CONTACT: [email protected]

SPOUSE: Mohammad Ahli- Gharamaleki FROM: IranSEEKING WORK IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Master degree in chemical engineering.EXPERIENCE: 5+ years as a chemical engineer in R&D oil/gas projects as a team leader or member in Iran.LOOKING FOR: A position in an Intrnational company to expand my experience and expertise.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Azeri (native), English (¥ uent), Farsi (¥ uent), Arabic (good), Turkish (good), Danish(beginner).IT EXPERIENCE: Professional (MATLAB, Hysys, Aspen plus, Auto Cad, others (O� ce, Minitab).CONTACT: [email protected], Tel: (+45) 71 63 12 85

SPOUSE: Malgorzata Tujakowska FROM: Poland SEEKING WORK IN: Aarhus and the surrounding areaQUALIFICATION: Masters in Ethnolinguistics with major in Chinese and English, Chinese HSK and Business Chinese Test certi� cates, 2-year long studies at Shanghai International Studies University and National Cheng Kung University,Taiwan.LOOKING FOR: Working for companies hiring Polish and Chinese employees, teaching Chinese, Polish, Business English, linguistics, translation and interpretation, proofreading, Chinese business and culture consulting, administrative work.LANGUAGE SKILLS: Polish (native speaker), Chinese – simpli� ed and traditional (¥ uent), English (¥ uent), German(intermediate), Danish (intermediate-currently learning).IT EXPERIENCE: MS O� ce.CONTACT: Tel:+45 28702377, [email protected]


Biotech Job Vacancies

For more information, deadlines and other job vacancies visit our webpage www.cphpost.dk/jobvacancies

Novo Nordisk


HR AssistantResearch scientistSenior Project CoordinatorProject Manager, GD Process ImprovementSenior Business ControllerBusiness ControllerAdvanced Business AnalystQA professional – Sourcing QAResearch scientistIn vivo research scientist for Translational Haemophilia PharmacologySupplier Manager for Contract Manufacturing production activities

HR AssistantResearch scientistSenior Project CoordinatorProject Manager, GD Process ImprovementSenior Business ControllerBusiness Controller

Ferring

Lundbeck

Novozymes

Leo-Pharma

HR AssistantResearch scientistSenior Project CoordinatorProject Manager, GD Process ImprovementSenior Business ControllerBusiness ControllerAdvanced Business AnalystQA professional – Sourcing QAResearch scientistIn vivo research scientist for Translational Haemophilia PharmacologySupplier Manager for Contract Manufacturing production activitiesResearch Scientist, PharmacokineticistMedical SpecialistMedical Specialist

IT Service ManagerCustomer Supply Chain ManagerProject & Development ManagerFermentation ScientistProject Leader

HR AssistantResearch scientistSenior Project CoordinatorProject Manager, GD Process ImprovementSenior Business ControllerBusiness ControllerAdvanced Business AnalystQA professional – Sourcing QAResearch scientistIn vivo research scientist for Translational Haemophilia Pharmacology

employment

• CFS A2 QHI’s (or equivalent) AW139 type rating, 200+ hours on type, Instructional Experience on AW139 in a SAR/Military Role.

• CFS B1 QHI’s (or equivalent) AW139 type rating, 200+ hours on type, Instructional Experience on AW139 in a SAR/Military Role.

• Operational AW139 Captains: Min 2000 hours total rotary time with SAR/Military Experience, Min 100 hours on type.

• AW139 Type Rating .

• Class One Medical .

• NVG Experience preferred.

• Helicopter Instrument Rating.

• Immediate starters preferred.

AW 139 QUALIFIED HELICOPTER INSTRUCTOR PILOTS &AW 139 QUALIFIED OPERATIONAL PILOTS

National Academy for Professional Training currently requires a number of AW139 Aircrews for positions based in Qatar. CV’s are therefore invited from Ex-Military Aircrew who have the

following experience.

To be considered for these positions you will require have the following:

Due to the nature of the role, applicants are required to speak fluent English. This is a fantastic opportunity for pilots looking to extend their experience and a very competitive tax free salary. Flights, accommodation and local transportation are provided.

To apply for this position please email a copy of the following to: [email protected] • CV/Resume • Copy of License / Certificate • Copy of Log Book • Copy of Medical • Colour Copy of Passport

All applications will be treated as confidential. Please attach resume in MS Word or PDF format only.In subject line of email write “AW139 Pilots.” Be sure your resume specifically addresses each of the minimum requirements.

NAPT is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

18 22 - 28 June 2012THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DKCULTURE

ELISE BEACOM

BJA

RN

E HE

RM

AN

SEN

/DR

Britain has been bowled over by this region’s television programmes. Is the secretNordic otherworldlinessor just good TV?

Two home-grown � lms, ‘A Royal A� air’ and ‘Hvidsten Gruppen’, are busy making 2012 one of this country’s best ever years for cinema

THE DR political TV dra-ma ‘Borgen’ triumphed at Britain’s BAFTAs last month, taking the award

of best international series at the country’s most prestigious award show and providing the latest chapter of the extraordinary suc-cess-story that is being called the Scandinavian ‘wave’.

Just 12 months earlier, ‘� e Killing’, another DR drama, also won a BAFTA. In spite of this, however, the success of ‘Borgen’ came as a surprise, not least to Camilla Hammerich and Piv Bernth, both producers at DR. Hammerich “never expected ‘Borgen’ to travel so well”, while Benth said it is “quite amaz-ing that DR can win a BAFTA award two years in a row and that two series with subtitles can beat English language series”.

For Jacob Wendt Jensen, a � lm critic at Berlingske news-paper, the international success of ‘Borgen’ and ‘� e Killing’ owes much to what he calls the “Nordic crime wave in books”. � e worldwide success in the mid 2000s of authors like Swe-den’s Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, Jensen argued, has made the “Nordic � avour à la mode” with overseas audiences.

Encouraged by this – as well as the success in Britain of other foreign-language dramas such as the French series ‘Spiral’ – in 2008 the BBC began showing the Swedish adaptations of Man-kell’s ‘Wallander’, which was followed by ‘� e Killing’ three years later. Sue Deeks, head of programme acquisitions at the BBC, recalled how what “had

KIERAN CONNELL been a relatively small but very appreciative audience suddenly seemed to double overnight, and the audience has continued to grow for each successive drama”.

� e Scandinavian wave does seem to have captivated British audiences in particular. Almost as soon as ‘Borgen’ was � rst shown on the BBC in January of this year, British internet forums buzzed with fans already smitten with Denmark’s latest o� ering. “Cor, them Danes [sic] can’t half make fascinating programmes,” one user exclaimed. “I still miss Lund; however Meyer being � t and well is a consolation,” an-other remarked. “Am going to make some cocoa while I recover my breath ...”

Richard Klein, the control-ler of BBC Four, the channel on which ‘Wallander’, ‘� e Killing’ and ‘Borgen’ were each aired, be-lieves the central reason behind the allure of Scandinavian dra-mas is their “other-worldliness”. As Stuart Daniels, a viewer from the Birmingham area, puts it: “Scandinavia is relatively un-known to us Brits, so the context seems almost exotic.” Whereas, for Jacob Wendt Jensen, Danes “tend to take a woman prime minister or a woolly sweater for granted”, Daniels argues pro-grammes like ‘Borgen’ o� er Brit-ish viewers a “picture of a ‘softer’ society than ours: more physical space with less tra¡ c jams and litter; a more equal workplace … a quite di� erent way to how we do things here”.

Alongside their ability to provide viewers with glimpses into alternative lifestyles, an-other important reason for the popularity of these programmes is the way in which they tend to deal with themes that are uni-versal to audiences, no matter which language they are watch-ing the subtitles in.

Wallander, for example, struggles to balance the demands of his job with the needs of his

only daughter, while Camilla Hammerich thinks ‘Borgen’ asks a “kind of universal question. � e question we ask, in every scene and every episode and in every character, is ‘are you able to maintain power and at the same time maintain yourself?’”

Piv Bernth suggests the success that DR has enjoyed is partly the result of a conscious decision taken at the station to focus on creating high-quality, original drama. Bernth says that over “the last ten years [DR] has improved our way of developing the stories and the characters, and we work with the � nest writers, directors and actors”, of-ten giving them the space to be able to try innovative practices to keep audiences intrigued.

With ‘� e Killing’, for ex-ample, its creator Søren Sveis-trup used the almost unheard of technique in television pro-duction of writing the script only after the previous episode had been � lmed, often in col-laboration with the actors. In order to make ‘Borgen’ as re-

alistic as possible, meanwhile, writer Adam Price recruited a prominent political journalist to whom ideas were pitched on an episode-by-episode basis. � e journalist, Price recalled, would “sit there and listen to us, and he’d say what sounded realistic, how things would happen in real life, how a politician would say things”.

For Rob Buckley, a critic for the popular British TV blog ‘� e Medium is Not Enough’, there is nothing “mystical about the success of Scandinavian TV in the UK – it’s about quality”. British television often focuses on remakes or cheap reality shows, and Buckley argues Scandinavian TV has been able to “� ll that gap. � e most successful shows such as ‘� e Killing’, ‘Borgen’ and ‘Wallander’ have been well made, well acted and have had funda-mentally strong scripts, with tight plotting, good characterisation and depth of emotion.”

In the few instances where Scandinavian programmes have been of lower quality – the 2011

TV2 series ‘� ose Who Kill’ (Den som dræber) might be one example – Buckley suggests “the shows have faced the same reac-tion as poorer UK shows: they’ve been ignored!”

A few blips aside, the Scan-dinavian success story is show-ing few signs of waning. DR’s latest o� ering, ‘� e Bridge’, which explores the di� erences between Denmark and Sweden through the prism of a mur-der committed on the Øresund Bridge, which connects the two countries, attracted more than a million viewers each week in Britain.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian author Jo Nesbo seems destined to follow a similar trajectory to Mankell and Larsson. His 2008 novel ‘Headhunters’ was made into a critically-acclaimed � lm last year, and there are plans to make his Harry Hole crime se-ries into yet another Scandinavi-an television franchise. It seems that the Scandinavian wave will, for the time being at least, keep on rising.

Why the Scandinavian wave is a big splash in Britain

LAST YEAR, television ruled supreme. � is year, on the other hand, is increasingly

looking like it belongs to the Dan-ish � lm industry. Films like ‘Jag-ten’ (‘� e Hunt’), ‘En Kongelig A� ære’ (‘A Royal A� air’) and ‘Hvidsten Gruppen’ (‘� e Vil-lage: One Family’s Sacri� ce will let a Country Live’) are picking up awards and good reviews, both home and abroad, and for the lat-ter two, audiences are showing their approval at the box o¡ ce. Before the year is out, these three � lms (‘Jagten’ will be released on October 18) are expected to reap unprecedented earnings.

‘En Kongelig A� ære’ took

£74,000 (683,000 kroner) in its opening weekend in the UK (June 15-17) and a glowing report from the British public. Ninety-one per-cent of those polled said the � lm was either excellent or really good – 30 percent above the average.

Furthermore, both ‘En Kongelig A� ære’ and ‘Hvidsten Gruppen’ are currently neck-and-neck in their quest for 2012 domestic box o¡ ce glory,

outselling the top international � lm, ‘� e Avengers’, by two to one. � ey have already sold more than 500,000 tickets, al-though they have a long way to go to catch ‘De Røde Heste’ (‘� e Red Horses’), a 1950 � lm that 2.3 million Danes saw.

‘Hvidsten Gruppen’ with 756,000 sales, is (according to Danmarks Statestik) the third best watched Danish � lm this century

and has earned more than 60 mil-lion kroner domestically. In com-parison, last year’s top grossing � lm in Denmark, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2’, raked in 65 million kroner.

‘En Kongelig A� ære’ (510,000 sales) has helped by its inclusion on Biografklub Danmark’s special of-fer ticket. A purchase enables the club’s members to see seven movies at a signi� cant saving every season.

Inclusion on the Biografklub Danmark list, which started back in 1997, is believed to greatly strengthen a � lm’s performance at the box o¡ ce, as it means many Danes end up seeing a � lm they wouldn’t have normally chosen.

It has a controversial selec-tion process, and in Tuesday’s Jyllands-Posten, it was reported that a storm is brewing at pro-duction company Zentropa over which of its � lms should be in-cluded in the special o� er.

Meanwhile, both � lms are preparing for an assault on inter-national audiences. ‘En Kongelig A� ære’, which won two Silver Bears at the 62nd Berlin Interna-tional Film Festival in February, has already been released in Ger-many, Estonia, Sweden, Ireland and the UK, and is slated for release this year in Australia (21 June), New Zealand (28 June), the Netherlands (23 August), Argen-tina (13 September), Norway (14 September) and France (October).

‘Hvidsten Gruppen’, which is taking a slower approach, will be screened at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which begins on 29 June in the Czech Republic.

With the country’s Oscar nomination up for grabs later this year – don’t forget that there is also a third � lm in the hunt – it could go on to be a rivalry every bit as intense as that of ‘Borgen’ and ‘Forbrydelsen’ (‘� e Killing’).

� e Danish resistance lm ‘Hvidsten Gruppen’ has wowed domestic audiences

A former Danish football player, who is now a coach

What’s his claim to fame?What, besides acquiring his nick-name from an incident as a Brønd-by youth player when his more experienced team-mates decided to teach him a lesson and shower him with their favourite brand of beer. Most of it ended up in his shorts, apparently.

Yes

He scored the opening goal for Denmark in their 2-0 defeat of Germany in the � nal of the 1992 European Championship.

Striker was he?Nope. While he did score four goals in 69 games for the Danish national team, the defensive mid-� elder was famous for his inability to score at Arsenal. � eir ever-op-timistic fans loved him for it and came up with a song in his hon-our: “We’ll be there when Jensen scores!” And whenever Jensen did get the ball, no matter where he was on the � eld, the Arsenal sup-porters would yell “Shoooot!”

Sounds frustrating- did he ever get one?It came on a windy, wet day in 1994, in his 98th game for the club. � e club went on to lose 1-3, but it didn’t stop the fans singing “Johnny Jensen, Johnny, Johnny Jensen” for the rest of the match. You might even be able to pick up a T-shirt proclaiming “I saw John Jensen score” from a � ea market in North London somewhere.

What happened after that?After 138 appearances, and just one goal, Jensen moved back to his former club Brøndby in 1996 before taking the player-manager position at Herfølge BK, where he took the small club up to the Superliga on his � rst attempt. But the team were relegated in 2001, so Jensen moved back to Brøndby again as assistant manager along-side Michael Laudrup.

Have Laudrup and Jensen worked together since?Yeah, you could say Jensen is Laudrup’s puppy dog. � ey stayed at Brøndby until 2006, and then Jensen followed Laudrup to Spanish side Getafe. Laudrup then quit after a year and took his man bag with him. When the two parted ways, Jensen didn’t perform as well with-out his master – he was sacked as coach of Randers in 2009 after zero wins from eleven matches.

What’s next for ‘Faxe’?� e rumours are swilling be-cause Laudrup has just been appointed manager of Swansea City. Will his sidekick follow? We’ll have to wait and see.

She ain’t pretty, but she’s gritty and likes her knitties. British audiences have warmed to the “otherworldliness” of So e Gråbøl and the Scandinavian wave

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Who is ... John ‘Faxe’ Jensen?

SHANDANA MUFTI

This year will be an annus mirabilis for Danish � lm

1922 - 28 June 2012 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK DENMARK THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

ELISE BEACOM

IF YOU WERE asked to picture an adventurer in your head, chances are you’d come up with the image

of Peter Freuchen. A bear of a man, well over six foot tall, with a long, bushy beard, sailor’s cap and rugged, weathered face – and in later years, a wooden leg completed the look.

Born in the provincial Dan-ish town of Nykøbing Falster in 1886, Freuchen found his spir-itual home in the remote land-scape of northeast Greenland, and commercial success in the United States. He was married three times and was an explorer, polar researcher, writer, � lm star, diplomat, landowner, resistance � ghter and sailor. Quite simply, he was an adventurer.

It’s said that Freuchen was � rst drawn to Greenland after watching a student revue por-traying the Arctic heroes of the time. After a brief stint study-ing medicine at the University of Copenhagen, he applied for, and was accepted on, the ill-fated 1906 Mylius-Erichsen ex-pedition to uncharted northeast Greenland as a meteorological assistant.

Despite the awful conditions faced on this expedition, which ended with the deaths of not only Mylius but two other members of the party, Freuchen was not put o� by the experience; on the con-trary, he was hooked. � is seems unbelievable when one hears of the utterly inhuman life Freuchen lived for almost two years – while still just 21 years of age. He spent the winter of 1907-08 manning a weather station 70km away from any other human being, unable even to read because all the books were frozen, with wolves lurking close by outside his hut. Only on his return to Denmark in the spring of 1908 was he informed about the tragic fate of the expe-dition’s leaders.

Freuchen returned to Green-land for the � rst � ule expedi-tion in 1912, which disproved Robert Peary’s claim that a chan-nel divided Peary Land from Greenland. � e name was apt: this was a journey to the end of the known world, to the ‘Ul-tima � ule’ of classic folklore. His companion was the famous explorer Knud Rasmussen, and after having experienced an in-credible 1,000km journey across the ice that almost killed them, the pair’s friendship lasted un-til Rasmussen’s death in 1933. Freuchen would later write his own account of this journey in ‘Vagrant Viking’ (1953) and ‘I sailed with Rasmussen’ (1958).

� e pair of them established the � ule trading station in Cape York (now Uummannaq) in 1910, which Freuchen managed until 1919. Despite wildly dif-fering backgrounds and person-alities (Rasmussen was half Inuit, Freuchen, despite his attire, was very much the Dane; Rasmussen had shrewd business sense, while Freuchen was a deep-rooted so-cialist), there was little animosity between the two explorers.

A Bohemian before his time, Freuchen seemed to � nd a spir-itual happiness in Greenland. He dressed in full Inuit attire and described the Inuit people as “the happiest in the world”. In turn, Greenlanders named him ‘Petersuaq’, or Peter the Great. In around 1911, he married an Inuit woman called Mekupalut, who took the name Navarana. � e couple had two children: a boy, Merkusak (not much is known of him – he was perhaps mentally ill), and a girl, Pipaluk, born in 1918. Navarana herself died during an in© uenza epi-demic in 1921; as she was not a member of the church, the local priest refused to allow her to be buried in the oª cial graveyard. Her husband sneaked in one night and buried her in secret.

Freuchen lost one leg to frostbite in the 1920s. He was caught in a snowstorm and dug himself so far into the snow that he had to make a chisel from his own frozen faeces to dig himself out. � ough the � rst amputa-tion only involved a few toes, another bout of frostbite took the rest of the leg, which was

replaced by a wooden one, thus ending Freuchen’s era as an in-trepid explorer.

With daughter Pipaluk, he moved back to Denmark where he married former silent � lm ac-tress Magda Vang Lauridsen, his childhood sweetheart, in 1924. He bought an island, Enehøje in Nakskov Fjord, where he lived a relatively quiet life, writing his novels and memoirs.

“� ere was a time when this charismatic adventurer was known the world over as a mas-todon from the heroic period of polar exploration,” is how Jes Stein Pedersen described him in Politiken newspaper.

During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, Freuchen played an active role in the resistance movement, hiding refugees on his island before his actions were discovered by the Germans and he was forced to © ee to Sweden, and later the United States.

On the other side of the At-lantic, Freuchen was consulted by President Herbert Hoover re-garding the US military’s � ule Air Base; worked as a journalist for the UN; and, in 1932, wrote

the script for and starred in the MGM picture ‘Eskimo’, the sto-ry of how an Inuit’s idyllic exist-ence was changed dramatically by the arrival of an unscrupulous white trader. Filmed on location and considered a ‘documentary’ of its time, Freuchen played an evil, wooden-legged sea captain who unwisely rouses the wrath of the Inuit hero.

Freuchen met and married his third wife, the fashion illus-trator and Danish immigrant Dagmar Cohn, in the US in 1945.

In 1956, Freuchen partici-pated in and won the TV show ‘� e $64,000 Question’ with the specialist subject ‘� e Seven Seas’.

In September 1957, at the age of 71, Freuchen was invited by a production company to join a group of polar explorers who were to be � lmed in a staged reunion at the North Pole. Freuchen died of a heart attack while walking up the steps to the plane in Anchorage, Alaska.

His ashes were scattered over the tundra near � ule (Qaan-naaq), his spiritual home.

JANE GRAHAM

Peter Freuchen’s amazing life reads like a boy’s own adventure tale – yet he has been overshadowed in the history books by his colleague and contemporary, Knud Rasmussen

Forever Peter the Great

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Peter Freuchen with his third wife, Dagmar Cohn

There was a time when this charismatic adventurer was known the world over as a mastodon from the heroic period of polar exploration

Polar attraction, in life and in death:

The Copenhagen posT CphposT.dk

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Copenhagen Talent Bridge is financed by the EU Social Fund, and on board are some of the Copenhagen Region’s most central play-ers, all working to improve the framework for the many talented foreigners who come to Copenhagen to work.

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The Copenhagen Post - June 22-28

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Transcript of The Copenhagen Post - June 22-28