Vol. 14 ISSUE 1118 - 24 March 2011

ThE DanISh nEwS In EnglISh

News 2

special focus 5

News 7

HisToRY 16

Copenhagen PostT: 3336 3300F: 3393 1313E: info@cphpost.dkW: www.cphpost.dk

pRice 25 dkk

Last one out, don’t forget the Pindprick

WhaT sTarTEd as one teen’s humorous protest against the new immigra-

tion minister’s comments has become something of a popular movement among social media users.

Last week on Thursday, 18-year-old, left-wing political activist Christian Træholt from aarhus changed his Facebook profile picture to Pind’s official press photo. Later, he and his 15-year-old real-life friend and fellow activist, Malthe Lange, set up a Facebook group called ‘assimiler søren Pind, skift dit profilbillede’ (assimilate søren Pind, change your profile pic-ture).

By Friday morning, about 500 had changed their picture and as of this Wednesday over 23,000 people had joined the group.

according to the group’s own description on Facebook, the point of asking people to change their pictures is “to show søren Pind how boring a country without diversity and space for multiple cultures

Will critics of the immigration minister prick his conscience and burst his bubble?

Nation mourns passing of swimmer who won Olympic medal aged 12 and refusedto heil hitler on podium

Green government’s good! an economist at the EEa has praised the state’s bid to be fossil fuel-free by 2050

Language schools happy torecognise students’ degreesfor payment purposes even if the rest of the country doesn’t

In the third and final part of our series, we question whether the welfare state can survive in his present form

would be”.“We were deeply dissatis-

fied with søren Pind’s state-ments,” Lange told The Co-penhagen Post. “a country that isn’t big enough for more than one culture, and where immi-grants aren’t allowed to leave their mark on our culture, even if it is for the better, is a country

By Kevin Mcgwin

that is at a standstill.”Only hours after taking

over as immigration minister on Tuesday last week, Pind de-clared himself ready to tighten up immigration laws. he said it should be set in stone that the country welcomes foreigners that adopt and respect danish values, norms and traditions.

“The way I see it, when you choose denmark, you choose denmark because you want to become danish,” Pind told Jyl-lands-Posten newspaper.

Pind, who has stated many times in the past that he pre-fers the term ‘assimilation’ to ‘integration’, said a misunder-

A Facebook campaign was mounted last week urging Danes to show they reject Søren Pind’s demand for immigrants to assimilate

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Presidential praise has a familiar twang

continues on page 4

WhEN PM Lars Løkke ras-mussen visited the White house on Monday, he re-

ceived some familiar-sounding praise from President Barack Obama.

On three previous occa-sions, Obama has praised small nations in exactly the same way, claims Jyllands-Posten newspa-per.

“denmark is a country that using an american phrase – punches above its weight,” Obama told rasmussen, refer-ring to the efforts of danish sol-diers in afghanistan.

In 2009 Obama told the Norwegian prime minister, Jens stoltenberg: “Norway has al-ways stood shoulder to shoulder with the Usa, and like I told the prime minister, there is a phrase we use in the Us – a boxing phrase – Norway is punching above its weight.”

Earlier that year he told former Irish head of state, Brian Cowen, he said: “The Irish gov-ernment is punching above its weight in crucial areas.”

and when Philippine presi-dent Macapagal-arroyo visited the White house in 2009, his country was praised with the line: “although the Philippines aren’t among the world’s biggest nations, the country punches above its weight on the interna-tional scene.”

ThE sITUaTION has wors-ened this past week for the seven danes being held

hostage by pirates in the Punt-land region of somalia.

Last week saw violent fire-fights between government forces and pirates in a rescue attempt, leaving at least ten people dead. The hostages, how-ever, were unhurt.

“The hostages have been in great danger all along,” said TV2 correspondent simi Jan. “But now the situation has be-come critical.”

One reason is that a somali police officer told local media

Pirates promise there will be bloodLocal Somali authorities increase efforts to rescue Danish pirate hostages

that “we will free them with force”.

“This could be regarded as a declaration of war, and the pi-rates have responded by saying there will be a bloodbath if that were to happen,” said Jan.

although experts say the danish hostages are worth more to the pirates if they are handed over alive, that does not guaran-tee it would not happen.

“Pirates are unpredictable. Four weeks ago they killed two american hostages,” she said.

and although the danish hostages have been in pirate custody for more than three weeks now, that isn’t much com-pared to the time it has previous-ly taken to negotiate with pirates to release hostages.

“Once the negotiations have started, it can take months before anything happens. But now the Puntland authorities have sent more troops to the area where the hostages are held. They are now trying to profile themselves and show that they can rescue the hostages,” said Jan.

Meanwhile, it was an-nounced last week that den-

mark’s largest warship, the hdMs Esbern snare, will con-tinue its hunt for pirates off the coast of somalia for another three months.

and, following the prime minister’s visit to the White house on Monday, denmark and the Us agreed to closely collaborate in the fight against piracy. (dv)

neWs In & ouT CommunITy

3 G2 11

another jukeboxmusical, this timewith the work ofBob dylan, is setto rock this city

Persian New Year, the vernal equinox to most of us, will put a spring intoall of our steps

how the disciplesof the good lordnoma went forth and multiplied their Michelin stars

neWs2 ThE copEnhagEn poST March 18 - 24

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InformaTIon

In BrIef

TICkET rULEs for public transport in Greater Copenhagen will be simplified, hans Chris-tian schmidt, the transport min-ister, has confirmed in a bid to re-vamp a system often described as confusing and illogical. The cur-rent set-up often makes it less ex-pensive to travel longer distances and there are conflicting rules for senior travel cards on trains, buses and the underground.

Travel shake-up

read the full stories atwww.cphpost.dk

Business plans launched to inspire growth in capital

ThE COPENhaGEN Business Task Force was launched last week by May-

or Frank Jensen to investigate ways of improving business in the city and stimulating growth in the regional economy.

Led by former managing director and editor-in-chief of fi-nancial daily Børsen, Leif Beck Fallesen, the Task Force will present their initial findings at the beginning of august.

announcing the initiative, Jensen called growth in Copen-hagen “crucial to growth in the whole of denmark”.

“Over half of denmark’s GdP is created in the Copen-hagen area. Therefore the living standards of all danes are de-pendent on Copenhagen hitting the throttle in terms of enterprise and growth.”

The Task Force has been given until 2020 to achieve its goals which include a 5 percent yearly average growth in GdP, a 4 percent yearly average rise in productivity, a population growth of 8.5 percent, and the creation of 20,000 more work-places.

another target requires the City Council to move up at least ten places a year on the Confed-eration of danish Industry’s list of the country’s local councils with the best business climates, where Copenhagen currently languishes 83rd out of 90.

speaking to The Copenha-gen Post, Fallesen said: “The im-mediate change is to look at how the city deals with businesses in Copenhagen and then to im-prove how we treat them. The council has never done any work to promote itself as a business. You associate many things with Copenhagen but not growth.”

he added that while Co-penhagen generally had a good reputation the Mercer quality of life index rates it the 11th best city to live in globally, business was not something that came to mind first when people thought of the danish capital.

“The council has not invest-ed any kind of effort.”

Competition with Stockholm

The push for growth in Copen-hagen’s economy is understand-

able considering growth figures for stockholm released by the city.

They state that if the capital had witnessed a similar rate of growth to stockholm between 1995 and 2005, the GdP would be 110 million kroner higher, which is approximately two and a half times the amount den-mark uses on primary education and three times the cost of the early retirement programme.

While stockholm has al-ready branded itself as ‘The Capital of scandinavia’, Fall-esen believed that Copenhagen is still in a position to compete as scandinavia’s main business hub.

“In terms of the business en-vironment, it’s geographically a better place than stockholm and there’s still a lot of potential in developing the Øresund region,” he said.

The strong shipping indus-try in Copenhagen and, in par-ticular, the presence of global gi-ant Maersk, makes Copenhagen an attractive site for potential investors.

“We don’t have a silicone valley, but we do have a mari-time valley which includes the largest shipping company in the world. In fact shipping is one of the few industries where Copen-hagen has been able to attract businesses from sweden and elsewhere.”

Lacking a national strategy

The Task Force initiative was met with approval at amCham, the american chamber of com-merce in denmark. Executive director stephen Brugger said they welcomed the initiative.

Initiatives to foster a better business environment in the city may be hampered by immigration debate

In-demand sperm

daNIsh sperm has become a hit among European women who cannot get treatment for ar-tificial insemination in their own country, reports Information newspaper. The number of for-eign nationals at danish fertility clinics has increased fivefold over the past five years. Unlike many other countries, denmark has liberal legislation which al-lows artificial insemination for both single and lesbian women. several countries have also en-forced legislation on donor ano-nymity that have scared many donors away.

steep price increases are forcing many highly edu-cated immigrants to drop

the danish classes they need in order to take further education courses here, reports Politiken newspaper.

Most non-danish educa-tions are not recognised here, so in order to qualify for jobs many choose to take further courses

Foreigners caught in a lingustic Catch 22at the country’s adult education centres, providing they have passed an advanced danish lan-guage course. however since January 1, they have had to pay the full price for the courses be-cause they have a higher educa-tion – qualifications that danish employers do not recognise. For example, a 180-hour danish course that once cost 110 kroner now costs 16,900 kroner.

“Unbelievable”, said social democrat education spokesper-son Christine antorini. “We re-

ally need well-educated foreign-ers, so it’s unfortunate that we’re so bad at recognising their edu-cations. It is a great barrier that we’re making it so expensive for them to upgrade their qualifica-tions in order to get jobs when they already have the qualifica-tions that danish businesses are looking for.”

anne Jelsøe, the head of training for the VUC adult edu-cation centre in Copenhagen, confirmed the problem. In the Copenhagen department some

Cost of advanced language courses has increased from 110 to 16,900 kroner

250 foreigners with a higher education have dropped out of courses as a result of increased tuition fees, which rose when the state withdrew subsidies as part of its economic stimulus package.

“These people work very hard to become integrated into our society. When their educa-tion is rendered useless unless they take additional courses, it makes life very hard for them because most of them can’t af-ford the tuition fees.” (dv)

“Copenhagen is an impor-tant driver for the danish econ-omy so increased growth in Co-penhagen will certainly benefit the whole of denmark.”

The City Council’s low busi-ness climate ranking, he be-lieves can be explained by the fact that the capital is always the natural location foreign inves-tors will head to, meaning the country’s other councils have to work harder in order to attract business away from the main seat of power.

“historically there hasn’t been much of a need to make it more business friendly,” he added.

however, Brugger believed the Task Force’s success will be limited if the danish state does not implement a strategy to make the country as a whole an attractive place for foreign investors.

“denmark needs to strength-en its framework conditions for attracting and retaining invest-ment and talented minds,” he said.

according to an amCham survey conducted in 2010, 50 percent of their members have or are considering moving jobs out of denmark, and the two main reasons for doing that are the high cost of doing business and the lack of qualified employ-ees.

“The City Council’s ini-tiative is definitely a step in the right direction. What I just hope is that the national authorities quickly follow suit. Copenhagen is still dependent on the frame-work conditions of the national authorities to ensure, for in-stance, that we have a consistent corporate tax environment.

“This is very important for foreign and danish authorities here. You don’t want changes every year which you can’t plan for.”

Unattractive immigration policy

The Task Force was launched the week before Copenhagen Capacity, the capital region’s of-ficial inward investment agency, announced a plan to attract 20 in-ternational companies, create be-tween 150 and 300 workplaces, and raise an additional 100 mil-lion kroner a year in tax revenue.

however, with new immi-gration minister søren Pind stat-ing in a recent interview with Jyllands-Posten newspaper that he believed immigrants should assimilate, the global percep-tion of denmark as a welcoming place may suffer.

Brugger was aware of this problem with the country’s repu-tation. “The rhetoric over the last ten years has not been beneficial to the perceptions of denmark as an attractive place for foreigners to come and work.”

For Mayor Jensen, the issue was about attracting the foreign investment the city needs in or-der to grow. The identity of these foreign investors is not relevant.

“The future of Copenhagen strongly depends on internation-al, skilled labour and foreign in-vestors who are attracted by and see the potential in living and investing in our city and region.

“I don’t expect them to be-come danish, whatever that is. rather I would like our interna-tional citizens to bring inspira-tion and become an active part of our city life.”

By peter Stanners

a JUTLaNd bishop has blamed X Factor for churchgoers sit-ting with their lips sealed during hymns, reports public broadcast-er dr. “We believe we need to be as good as those on X Factor in order to sing, but the truth is that we can all sing,” said Niels hen-rik arendt, the bishop of had-erslev. “There’s something very liberating about hearing people sing, and it really doesn’t matter if they don’t hit all the notes.”

Church attacks X Factor

Tax our vices!

dUTIEs on cigarettes, booze and unhealthy food are too low, say most danes, according to a Epinion/dr poll. The poll came on the heels of a new calculation from the Tax Ministry that the price of cigarettes (adjusted for inflation) had fallen by nearly ten percent since 2002 – a pe-riod in which alcohol prices fell by about 15 percent. some 72 percent of people said fees on cigarettes ought to be raised. a smaller proportion, but still a majority of 59 and 58 percent respectively, thought alcohol and junk food should also bear heftier duties.

The sky’s the limit – the new business strategies aim to boost the city’s growth

aT LEasT four danes were still reported as missing on Monday after the devastating tsunami and earthquake that rocked northern Japan. about 550 danes are reg-istered as living in Japan and as of saturday two-thirds of them were safe and accounted for. Two of the six danes known to be staying in the affected area have contacted the danish embassy, leaving at least four unaccounted for. however, denmark’s ambas-sador in Japan told Ekstra Bladet that power cuts had made getting in contact with the embassy dif-ficult.

Four Danes missing

3ThE copEnhagEn poST March 18 - 24 neWs

COPENhaGEN is on a roll foodwise. Ever since the first Michelin star was given

to a danish restaurant in 1984, the food industry has done noth-ing but pick up momentum on its way to becoming the culinary capital of scandinavia. and never before has the city’s res-taurant scene grown with such leaps and bounds as it has over the course of the past decade.

In March 2010, a total of nine city centre restaurants were awarded with a single Michelin star, and one restaurant, noma, was given a well-deserved and coveted two-star rating. as if that weren’t enough, just one month later, noma came in first place in the san Pellegrino awards, the ‘world champion-ship’ for restaurants. With a phenomenal reputation like that, cooks and diners alike wait to see how the 2011 Michelin stars will be awarded this month, with many hoping that noma will walk away with three stars.

as far as culinary Olym-pics are concerned, denmark is a winner too. after years of extensive training, danish chef rasmus kofoed - along with his team of highly-skilled cooks

- won gold at the Bocus d’Or fi-nals in Lyon, France in January this year.

having world-class restau-rants with renowned chefs in their kitchens has helped put denmark, as well as New Nor-dic cuisine, on the culinary map. Yet what kind of an effect does noma’s existence have on the city’s other restaurants?

a former sous chef at noma and the current executive chef at Brasserie Nimb, robert Jacobs-son, believes that noma has a big influence on the city’s better restaurants.

“Noma is the top of the line. The work they do there is con-tagious, and it inspires us chefs very much. I speak with noma’s sous chef practically on a daily basis. We give each other ad-vice and talk about ingredients. at the brasserie, we don’t try to compete with noma, but we use them as a source of inspiration.”

The dining experience at the brasserie is very different from that at noma.

“Nimb Brasserie is a very busy restaurant; we do a lot more covers than they do, but we share some of the same tech-niques. We embrace the indi-vidual ingredients and focus on fresh flavours, and we treat our ingredients with love and re-spect, just as noma does. Many of our vegetables are the same; however, noma does use more expensive products, like differ-

ent types of fish and shellfish, than we do here.”

Jacobsson isn’t the only noma disciple who can feel positive vibes radiating from the gourmet house at the harbour. One of Jacobsson’s former col-leagues, Christian Puglisi, also had a stint as sous chef at noma before opening up his own res-taurant, restaurant relæ, in Øs-terbro late last year.

Like Jacobsson, Puglisi took bits and pieces with him from his time at noma, but created a more relaxed restaurant in com-parison. The result, says Puglisi, is a gourmet dining experience for a fraction of noma’s price.

“I am not interested in mak-ing a luxury restaurant, so I’ve cut out everything I feel is un-necessary, and that reduces costs: things like pouring water for the guests, setting out the cutlery between each course,

messiah of nordic cuisine still reigns supreme despite disciple successCity’s eateries were eagerly awaiting the release of the new 2011 Michelin Guide on Wednesday

By nichole accettola

BBjørn’s International School aims to give a democratic education to children from all over the world regardless of race, religion or colour.

Member of ECIS European Council of International SchoolsCenter for IGSE International General Certificate of Secondary Education

Bjørn’s International School • Gartnerivej 5 • 2100 København Ø • Denmark • www.b-i-s.dk • Phone: +45 39292937 • Fax: +45 39183842 • Email: kontoret.101152@b-i-s.dk

We have 150 students aged from 6-16 years from 50 different countries.

We have 2 sections. The Danish section (grades 1-9) where students can take the Danish State School leaving examination.

The English-speaking section (grade 1-9) where students can take the International General Certificate of Secondary Education.

Only transit students with a stay in Denmark of 1-4 years in the English speaking section.

We encourage parent co-operation.

We take into consideration the individual needs of the children.

We have small classes.

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BJØRN’S INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

having a lot of waiters around you all the time. These are things that people can take care of themselves, and I don’t be-lieve that our guests would ap-preciate spending more money on those things anyway.”

Not only do denmark’s current success stories inspire Puglisi foodwise, they also pro-vide the industry with fringe benefits in the form of better qualified kitchen applicants.

“a lot of people come to look for work in Copenhagen. Maybe they want to work at noma and then work somewhere else in the city afterwards, or maybe they can’t even get a po-sition at noma. It heightens the level of available staff, whereas before we only had danish cooks. Now there is internation-al interest.”

a better qualified staff, an exchange of knowledge among

chefs, and a source of culinary inspiration, in turn, are key factors in ensuring restaurant patrons have a positive dining experience. and though tradi-tional danish culture has a ‘stay at home’ mindset, those danes that frequent restaurants like the Brasserie Nimb and relæ have higher standards than those just five years ago.

“Because the danish restau-rant branch has become more international, the quality level of dining is higher than before. danes are getting used to higher quality. They are starting to ap-preciate it more, and they know what good is,” adds Puglisi.

Puglisi is looking forward to being able to spoil his customers with goodness when the aspara-gus season from Lammefjorden starts.

“danish asparagus empha-sises the difference between

something grown locally as op-posed to being flown in from another part of the world. The freshness makes all the differ-ence. Our asparagus is picked the day before we get it.”

When Jacobsson and Puglisi aren’t behind the pots and pans at their respective restaurants, they enjoy going out to eat. Jacobsson names the French-inspired restaurant Oubæk as one of his favourites, espe-cially when, Jacobsson says, “it doesn’t have to be challenging.”

Both men agree on one thing: when it comes to fine din-ing, noma is the place to go.

Only time will tell how long noma remains at the top of the list, or whether it succeeds in achieving Michelin’s three-star status, but nevertheless, its pure presence has and will continue to change the danish restaurant scene for years to come.

Robert Jacobsson describes norma as a “contagious” influence Christian Puglisi applauds the international attention norma has garnered

neWs4 ThE copEnhagEn poST March 18 - 24

Give school kids flexitime

ParENTs WaNT more say on when their kids take their school holidays and when they start their school day. “Most parents have flexible work hours,” Benedikte ask skotte, the head of parent or-ganisation skole & Forældre, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “It would therefore make sense for the school to follow suit.” some schools have already introduced flexible start times, while others have offered a choice of two or three weeks for the winter break. Ultimately, the councils decide the times of all the holidays, bar the summer break, which must start on the last weekend in June.

In BrIef

read the full stories atwww.cphpost.dk

Publisher nets Google deal

aN aGrEEMENT between pub-lisher Gyldendal and Google will allow readers all over the world online access to a large selec-tion of danish books on Google Books, to read up to 20 percent of them online, and to buy entire books through an easy link, reports Berlingske newspaper. Gyldendal, which publishes fiction and non-fiction titles as well as reference books, is now contacting any writ-ers and agents who may be affected by the new agreement

Prison better than home

a NEW study reveals that many young people think prison is bet-ter than home. Inge M Bryderup from the danish school of Edu-cation spoke to 14 young adults who praised getting three meals a day, having their pick of cable TV channels and, most importantly, getting some peace and quiet. One 18-year-old, Zaid, compared prison to taking a nice holiday. “It is the best place to go and take a break,” he told the study. “right now I actually wouldn’t mind get-ting in and just having a rest for a month.”

PM’s advisors quit

TWO OF the prime minister’s advisors quit within an hour of one another on Monday morning while Lars Løkke rasmussen was on an official visit to Washington. søs Marie serup Laybourn, the head of the Liberal Party Centre for Communications and Politics, released an email saying she could no longer support the Liberal Party’s strategy. and it was later announced that Michael helbo, rasmussen’s day-to-day advisor and head of press, had accepted a position with the consulting firm Mckinsey & Co. she will be re-placed by Mikael Børsting, the Liberal Party’s publicity manager.

The Conservative Party’s new leader joins PM and European Commissioner in call to adopt euro

Denmark should be proud of its cultural values and principles, and should expect those wishing to become Danish to adopt them, writes the immigration minister

The ‘assimilation’ minister speaks out

IN arTICLEs published ear-lier this week, the new im-migration minister, søren

Pind, stood by his belief that foreigners in denmark should assimilate rather than inte-grate, despite widespread con-demnation.

The scandal stems from an opinion voiced in Jyllands-Posten newspaper in February 2008 about the influence of integration on danish culture.

“Unfortunately integration has become an expression for the relativisation of the rela-tionship, where both parties must bow. The danish culture surrenders,” he said in 2008.

“If they are persecuted in their homeland and if they want to contribute actively, people are whole-heartedly welcome. But only on the con-dition that they recognise that it is denmark that they have come to – that until they are citizens they are guests. To contribute actively means to work with the danish culture. “assimilation must be the word.”

Pind’s views are not widely shared, however, par-ticularly by the left-wing. Nick haekkerup, a social democrat

By peter Stanners

Pind as a Borg from Star Trek — who forcefully assimilated other races — made by a member of the Facebook group

fOr ThE first time in his new role as leader of the Conservative Party, Lars

Barfoed has made his position on the euro clear.

according to Barfoed it’s time for denmark to accept the euro, or risk losing influence in EU economic policies now tak-ing shape in the euro pact.

The euro pact is the eco-nomic proposal being pushed by Germany and France. It was discussed at an extraordinary meeting of EU heads of state and government leaders in Brus-sels last week friday.

It would require EU coun-tries to maintain stringent eco-nomic policies and implement, for example, EU-established salary requirements. The sal-ary provision, in particular, has raised alarm with the danish Confederation of Trade Unions.

But according to Barfoed, the euro pact is good medicine for denmark and is precisely why the country needs to quit resisting the common currency.

“The goals of the euro pact are in total agreement with dan-

ish economic policies,” said Barfoed.

he added that denmark risks becoming politically and eco-nomically marginalised in terms of EU governance, if it does not accept the euro and take a place at the bargaining table.

“We have to take up the bat-tle with both the euro and the other provisos,” said Barfoed.

although denmark is a member of the European Mone-tary Union, voters have repeated-ly voted down proposals to enter into its final phase – the adoption of the euro. The danish krone, however, is pegged to the euro.

“To a large degree the pact puts further pressure on us: we have to make up our minds whether we actually stand out-side, or whether we will be a part of it,” said Barfoed.

PM Lars Løkke rasmus-sen and the country’s European commissioner, Connie hede-gaard, expressed the same point of view last month.

Barfoed would not say pre-cisely when a new euro vote should be held, but said “de-pending on how matters proceed with the euro pact, I believe there is quite a growing need for a vote.”

however, the danish Peo-

Conservative leader: time for euro

ple’s Party, the minority govern-ment’s traditional political ally, is vehemently opposed to adopt-ing the euro and recent polls have shown that most danes are also sceptical.

“It is unwise of Lars Bar-foed, and I would warn him against it,” said the danish Peo-ple’s Party deputy chairman Pe-ter skaarup.

“If there is going to be a vote on the euro now, it needs to be grounded in a thorough debate, so that citizens are in-cluded in the discussion and people have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the pros and cons.” (dv)

MP, commented that: “assimi-lation is basically a totalitarian idea: There is only one way to live life. and this is deter-mined by a small elite with the right opinions.”

The media have also been less than sympathetic. Ekstra Bladet editor Poul Madsen offered: “assimilation strikes me as being a coercive meas-ure. The word brings back memories of a not so distant past. Of course a comparison with hitler’s Germany is un-reasonable. But is it reason-able to want to force people to give up everything to become 100 percent danish?”

Information’s George Metz chimed in too, stating that: “In rejecting the concept of integration in favour of as-similation, Pind has moved the government towards the Peo-ple’s Party and revered ethni-cally exclusive regimes.”

But Pind, writing in Ber-lingske newspaper on Monday, defended his use of the term and accused the left-wing of self-hatred.

“What do I mean by the word? I believe that we include into our society those who want to be a part of the danish community in denmark. and there is a natural expectation that people who want to be a part of the community agree with this. We must seek an ‘us’ instead of us having, as we do now, an ‘us’ and a ‘them’.

“They key point in all of this is: what about denmark? have we become so modern, progressive and multicultural

that denmark means nothing any more? do we not care that in fact we have succeeded in creating a country where there is a place for diversity, equal-ity for women, freedom of ex-pression and community that make us the happiest people in the world?”

The article comes shortly after another piece published on saturday night for the same paper, in which he wrote: “If people do not become dan-ish when they establish them-selves in denmark, what else should they be?”

he added: “danish culture exists. and there are certain parts of it that should be per-manent. Freedom of expres-sion. Equality. democracy. Personal freedom. acceptance of diversity. Freedom of reli-gion and the separation of re-ligion and politics.”

a recent study about Mus-lims in Europe by the Open society Foundation

reports that Copenhagen has become better at integrating Muslims and minorities.

however, the study also showed that young Muslims, in particular, are often sub-jected to ethnic and religious discrimination.

Copenhagen was among eleven European cities stud-ied to determine how Muslims view their lives in various EU countries. The Copenhagen study focused on the district of Nørrebro, which is known for its multi-ethnic population.

depending on who you talk to, Nørrebro is either de-scribed as a dangerous ghetto or Copenhagen’s most vibrant, artistic and multicultural neighbourhood. The Open society Foundation’s study showed that Muslims and eth-nic-minorities particularly see Nørrebro in a positive light.

The study found that the majority of Copenhagen’s Muslims feel a strong sense

of belonging in Nørrebro and also in the city of Copenha-gen. Very few, however, feel the same about denmark as a whole.

Most Muslims in denmark want to be considered danish by people of danish heritage, but only a small minority feel they actually are, according to the study.

significantly, the report found that the national media has grown increasingly nega-tive towards Muslims over the past 20 years, while local media in Copenhagen has re-mained more even-handed.

The study emphasised that the media is highly instrumen-tal in shaping public attitudes and discourse regarding mi-nority groups.

Most Muslims and non-Muslim ethnic minorities in the study reported having little or no trust in denmark’s na-tional government.

approximately 180,000 Muslims live in denmark, rep-resenting 3.3 percent of the to-tal population. (jb)

Muslims are less at home in the sticks

despite repeated requests, Immigration Minister søren Pind has re-fused to speak with The Copenhagen Post to introduce himself and explain his views about immigration, integration and assimilation.

Will these colourful bills be lining our pockets soon?

Colourbox

Gang war crackdown

a sPaTE of gang-related gunfire has led to the Copenhagen Police establishing stop and search zones in Nørrebro and Nord Vest. The lat-est incident saw a 19-year-old shot and killed near Blågaards Plads in inner Nørrebro on sunday evening. as a result the police on Monday ransacked 43 addresses, arresting six people and uncovering a loaded pistol, a kilo of hash, and 200,000 kroner in cash.

stood notion of integration, where traditional danish val-ues have been compromised in an attempt to accommodate foreigners, was a threat to den-mark as a nation.

“In my view, mixing cul-tures creates friction, and I will do everything I can to fight that,” he said, adding that he would seek to roll back what he saw as appeasements the na-tion had made to immigrants in the name of integration.

according to the group’s founders, however, “most of denmark’s culture comes from immigrants from all over the

world, who have each contrib-uted to denmark in their own special way.”

Lange added they were sur-prised by the number of people following their example.

“We figured people would find it funny, but didn’t expect that so many people would join the group,” he said.

Over 300 people have signed up to another Facebook event planned for Monday, ‘assimilate søren Pind day’, which encourages people to dress up as the minster to show “how boring a homogenous, mono-cultural society is”.

despite the fact the cam-paign was designed to ridi-cule Pind’s beliefs, his own response to the Facebook ini-

tiative was that it served as a “good advertisement”.

“It just gets my name out there more,” he told The Co-penhagen Post by text mes-sage. “It means I’ll have to hang fewer posters during the election.”

at the time of going to press the event was no longer online after Facebook closed the account used to set it up.

One of the founders ex-plained that his Facebook account was closed with-out warning, because he had changed his profile picture and name to søren Pind.

“Facebook saw it as a big violation and chose to deacti-vate my profile and my events without hesitation or warning.”

Pind continued from page 1

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If we don’t fix the welfare state Sarkozy will This week Gunnar Viby Mogensen talks about the effect the welfare state has had on our work ethic

The massive borrowing to finance our welfare look set to continue until it’s stopped by the interest burden and by political pressure from the eu

“

By Dann Vinther

sUMMarIsING his new two-volume book on the history of the country’s wel-

fare state since 1970, Gunnar Viby Mogensen drew two main conclusions.

Firstly, danes can’t afford their current levels of welfare – and even less the automatic increases in benefits that the population has come to take for granted.

secondly, there are two pos-sible solutions to the problems of financing the welfare state. “Either we do what politicians and the public currently seem to prefer – no reforms, or insig-nificant ones, which just further extends our dependency on bor-rowing money, until the other nations start interfering with our reluctance to make reforms,” contended Mogensen.

“Or we push through with the unpopular reforms of our welfare system so that we could stop all this borrowing, while also making sure the reforms confine the benefits to those who are genuinely weak.”

Mogensen, who worked for 35 years as a social historian be-fore retiring in 2003, has never before spoken in public about the future of the welfare state. But sitting in his home in Lyn-gby flicking through the pages of his book on a cold day in late February, he started to by evalu-ating the two possible solutions.

In the current political cli-mate, he said, the first option is the most likely: the small ef-forts – minor reductions to wel-fare services, chosen according to how much public resistance there might be. This, he reck-oned, would only reduce the an-nual public deficit of around 50 billion kroner by 10-25 billion kroner.

“so the massive borrowing to finance our welfare look set to continue until it’s stopped by the interest burden and by politi-cal pressure from the EU.”

Mogensen believes the wel-fare state will gradually start to adopt the more successful con-tinental model, where a larger share of welfare expenses are covered by pension insurance policies linked to the recipients’ terms of employment.

“You can view such pension insurances either as compulsory, and therefore public, or as pri-vate, in which case it would be a relief to the public spending on welfare services.

But, he argued, in the ab-sence of extensive reforms, just about all other aspects of the welfare model would continue pushing up the public expenses

and with the rapid increases in technology, life expectancy will continue to increase. That means more expenses caring for

the elderly, while at the same time the working age population will shrink .

To further halt any develop-ment, he argues, strong organi-sations such as the public sec-tor trade unions and daneage, the national organisation for the elderly, will keep defending the rights of the country’s large middle class to claim benefits as well as securing them steady and well-paid jobs in the public sector.

“The customer base for the public sector will furthermore be maintained and renewed through an expansion via immi-gration of the group of people eligible for benefits,” he said. “Only two weeks ago, the for-eign minister suggested we re-lax our tight immigration policy from 2001 to make room for the large numbers of north african immigrants and refugees cur-

rently escaping the tumult in their countries and heading for Europe.”

The high taxes, he added, will be sustained, extending the negative effect on work incen-tives and thereby also on the growth of the economy.

Mogensen was reluctant to predict when the continued bor-rowing to sustain the public sec-tor growth will stop.

“at the very latest it will be when Merkel and sarkozy pass their common EU economic and welfare packages.

“however, with such rules being imposed on us by the EU, we would have a lot less influ-ence on the future of our own welfare model than if we went through with the necessary re-forms right now.”

Pushing through with re-forms to the welfare model would lead to great conflicts with the public sector trade un-ions. But if the politicians acted now, believed Mogensen, they could make the necessary annu-al savings of 50 billion kroner.

Mogensen sees three main areas where significant savings can be found.

a full 35 billion kroner could, according to govern-ment and opposition calcu-lation methods, be gained if people worked more. accord-ing to Mogensen, this could be achieved by abolishing the early retirement scheme, sync-ing the pension age with life expectancy and eliminating the eight “unecessary” annual days off danes have gained in recent years.

a further ten billion kroner, according to experts, could be saved annually through priva-tisation, outsourcing measures, and improving efficiency in the worst-functioning parts of the public sector – known as ‘best practice’ strategy.

The remaining five bil-lion kroner could be saved by improving efficiency at schools and universities – which are currently well below the EU average – while also lowering the generous student grants to somewhere nearer the EU stand-ard.

“To get these numbers to work in practice, you need to as-sume that the group of eligible recipients of welfare benefits is not expanded through a further influx of those immigrants who would have difficulties find-ing work in denmark, but who would get access to the welfare

benefits.”alternatively, Mogensen

added, there is a lot of money to be saved by reducing non-welfare public spending.

With regards to environ-mental issues, denmark, he said, has chosen to label itself as a pioneer by taking huge and costly steps towards phasing out its dependency on fossil fuels.

“Our slightly lower demand for fossil fuels makes these fu-els cheaper for those countries that have a demand for it, which leaves them wanting to buy more of it – and that just cancels out our extremely expensive pi-oneering efforts to fight climate change.

“If only we could take off our halo and make do with just keeping up with the other coun-tries’ pace in our environmental venture, we would have a lot more resources to finance our welfare.”

Mogensen concluded that the country’s weakest groups would be a lot better served in the long run by having the nec-essary reforms made not by for-eign bankers of the near future, but by their own politicians, right here and right now.

Is a doctor in economic and social history and a former lecturer at the University of Copenhagen.

He recently retired after 35-year career, first as head of research at SFI, the Danish National Centre for Social Research and then 16 years as head of the Rockwool Research Unit until he retired in 2003.

Mogensen has written a long list of books on topics such as welfare, tax fraud, work ethics, economics and unemployment.

Gunnar Viby Mogensen

Mogensen: If the EU were to force a reform on us, we’d have much less influence over our own futures

This is the third and final ar-ticle in a series of interviews with Gunnar Viby Mogensen about the welfare state. The first two articles, ‘How the welfare state broke the na-tional economy’ and ‘Why earn a living when you can demand one?’, can be read at cphpost.dk.

6 ThE copEnhagEn poST March 18 - 24CommenTary

edITorIaL oPInIon

reader CommenTsonly danish, eat rugbrød, play bingo and put Queen Margrethe II picture on the wall. I’ve got no problem with that but before you start pointing fingers at oth-ers, take a look at yourself in the mirror.Eva Komandjaja Via Facebook

We should all start wearing yel-low arm bands with the Jewish star on them. Areyou Sure Via website

I am a dane who’d rather stay far away from denmark than be-come anything like søren Pind or his colleagues. That said, he has a lengthy history of making ill-considered statements rich on symbolic politics and devoid of substance. and coherence. Thankfully, the next elections are scheduled for November at the latest. I am hopeful that my compatriots will manage to “throw out the rascals” this time round.THH Via website

I joined the second I saw the Fa-cebook group. had to because I strongly disagree with Pind and Pia. I was violently appalled by what he said the other night and will fight him tooth and nail as

much as I can. I do my best to make sure to argue the opposite of xenophobia whenever immi-gration is brought up. I defend rather than attack the foreigners who’ve come here and I always have. Christina AckermanVia Facebook

I want to throw up whenever I am in an environment where everyone is the same. Basically he wants dk to be the most boring, uninspiring, uncreative, unfriendly, uninnovative, unde-veloped country ever Peter Maahn SterkenburgVia Facebook

I think it is time to take our danish-american son home to america so that he grows up with an open american at-titude rather than this ridicu-lous closed myopic xenophobic danish attitude. Tomnashdk Via website

Integration to a point, but when it forces my danish husband and I apart for months at a time because the only job I can get in denmark is as a check out job, yet with my three degrees and experience I make over $250k a year overseas ... something

really does not add up. I had to laugh when I went to sign up for my contract with the state to integrate. The advisor said, you are very qualified, we normally help people find jobs, but we would probably not be able to help you. Rima Rajini Via Facebook

I’d like to ask him why he tried to get special treatment for his au pair last year. Was she a par-ticularly well suited candidate for assimilation? Laura Petersen Via Facebook

Live and learn, it’s always al-most unwise to permanently move to a non-English speaking country.Jackofknives Via website

at last a politician with some backbone . If only he could have done something a few years ago. I don´t see how hav-ing the country’s best interests at heart makes him a racist. Oh, that´s right, any talk about im-migration if not 100 percent supporting it makes you a rac-ist - same old same old. If you plan on living in denmark why would you not want to become a little bit danish??TOLENTONE Via website

o n 1 February, the nation’s traffic policy politicians decided that the new road

link to Germany would be a tunnel, not a bridge. a tunnel will create more jobs in den-mark and eliminate the risk of a collision with ships. Making a decision based on collision risk and job creation makes good sense – if you choose to overlook the fact that the Fem-harn link in general, as well as its financing, makes little sense.

It’s good that politicians consider risk when making de-cisions, but they ought to think a little more about the risk driv-ers using the tunnel face and a little less about ships sailing over it. Fortunately, there are others that already have. In a re-cent article, Marianne Flø and Gunnar d Jenssen, from Nor-wegian research organisation sINTEF, showed that drivers are especially concerned about driving through long tunnels and underwater tunnels. some 30 percent believe it is danger-ous to drive through tunnels, and 45 percent of older drivers are afraid of long tunnels.

so the decision is just a matter of cold figures. The de-cision can have a considerable consequence on the number of people using the tunnel, and by extension, its intake from tolls.

Proponents point to the suc-cess of the train tunnel under the great belt. People don’t get

off in Nyborg and korsør out of fear of passing through the tun-nel. That’s correct, but only one train passes through a tunnel at a time, and every single one is closely monitored. What’s more is that you don’t have to drive yourself through a train tunnel.

Most people know what it is like to sit in a queue on the motorway for hours at a time. Try placing that queue in a tunnel deep under the Baltic. It’s rare for cars on the road to catch on fire, but it does hap-pen. It if happened in an un-derwater tunnel, the situation would be critical. It’s impossi-ble to prevent drivers sitting in a queue from being injured or panicking. Fresh air needs to be pumped in from the ends of the

T he new immigration minis-ter got off to a controver-sial start, but looking more

closely at what’s he said – and has said previously – helps paint a less menacing portrait.

In his search for the cor-rect term to describe his views about immigration the new immigration minister has set-tled on the word ‘assimilate’. although he admits the word may not be a precise match for the concept he has in mind, the point is taken: new arriv-als should think like danes in order to be considered fully-fledged members of society.

It’s fair to ask new arrivals in a country to live up to certain requirements. Immigration au-thorities in every country do so. and in a world characterised by high mobility, intractable conflict and economic dispar-ity, residence and citizenship should be closely guarded.

It is also laudable that the new immigration minister makes his position clear, even though he knows it will stir controversy. and then when he finds himself misunderstood, it is to his credit that he seeks to explain what he really meant. søren Pind has, politely and correctly, pointed out that he never said “be like us or go home”. It was a newspaper headline, originally run by Jyl-lands-Posten and propagated by the rest of the press.

Pind’s explanation is that he was trying to ask whether denmark means so little to the people who live here (danes and immigrants alike) that only what is foreign is interesting. Explaining his position to the media, Pind says he takes pride in denmark and its great names like Niels Bohr, hans Christian andersen and the Vikings.

What’s worth noting, though, is that Bohr was influ-enced by Einstein; andersen’s motto was “to travel is to live” and it is impossible to imagine that he wasn’t inspired by his trips abroad; and the Vikings, (the danish ones anyway) made their reputation in England.

None of that makes den-mark less of a country or di-minishes in anyway the ac-complishments of the greatest danes. If anything, it shows that danish culture is healthy enough to take on new influ-ences without losing its sense of itself.

Citing an old adage, søren Pind wrote that denmark for him was the country where “there’s room for everyone – room for everyone who’s will-ing to make an effort.” What a great motto for an immigration minister. Let’s just hope that there’s no confusion about what he means by it.

Clearing up any confusion

tunnel – up to nine kilometres away.

I’ve driven through a seven-kilometre mountain tunnel. By the end, it felt like I was in a driving simulator and the tun-nel walls were being projected around me. Things became un-real, not necessarily dangerous, but uncomfortable. and that tunnel was only seven kilome-tres. The Fehmarn tunnel will be 18. What’s going to happen to the tired lorry driver with a dangerous cargo or a fam-ily driving non-stop on their way back from their holiday in southern Europe. Both will have been on the road far too long, and then they drive into a monotonous world that goes on kilometre after kilometre.

18 kilometres. straight ahead. under water

Most of us chose denmark because we fell in love with a dane, not to become danish. We came to denmark to be with our spouse, leaving behind eve-rything we knew. Why should we also give up our identities as well? Why should we have to give up our individuality and free will just because people are afraid of our differences?Stranger Via website

he has become delusional. Un-til denmark wakes up, this na-tion will go to the drains. Foreigner Via website

and to think that it’s actually double standards. I read docu-ments from Udenringsmin-isteriet (Ministry of Foreign affairs) urging danes abroad to keep their traditions, speak danish to their kids and cel-ebrate danish festivities. If you tell people here to assimilate, it’s only fair that you tell the danes abroad to assimilate to other cultures as well, only we all know that it’s not possible. I read articles about danes form-ing a ‘ghetto’ in the Costa del sol in spain where they talk

That’s how accidents happen. Part of the reason why mo-torways wind is to make sure drivers remain focused on the road. But because tunnel sec-tions that curve are too expen-sive, this tunnel is going to be a straight shot. It will likely become the world’s longest im-mersed auto tunnel.

The Norwegian study shows that deciding between a tunnel and a bridge is more than just a matter of numbers. The choice will also mean fewer tunnel us-ers and fewer tolls collected. The choice of a tunnel makes it probable that scandlines will continue to sail between rødby and Puttgarden. The competi-tion threatens the bridge’s fi-nancial foundation. The choice of a tunnel only highlights the need for a thorough, independ-ent study of the risks involved with the tunnel.

The transport minister wrote last year: “a bridge will be paid for in 29 years, while an immersed tunnel will be re-paid in 30 years. That shows the project is financially sound.” But it makes no sense to come up with just a single figure for the repayment time. The inter-est rates on the loans are also unknown, the volume of traffic is also more or less unknown, and what scandlines will do is unknown.

By Knud erik andersen

Who is ... Lise rønne?

she is a TV presenter, currently presenting dr1’s ‘X Factor’ and ‘aftenshowet’.

Do I know her?Maybe not. she is a very petite lady of about 30, with short dark hair. all the danish maga-zines seem to describe her as the smukke (beautiful) or yndige (lovely) Lise rønne, but I’m not convinced. The jury in our of-fice is split about 50/50.

Is she any good?If you look at her CV, you would certainly think so. after being an intern at MTV in London, she made a glorious return to her home country, becoming, amongst other things, the pre-senter of teen-programme ‘Bo-ogie’. In 2007 she became a reporter for ‘aftenshowet’, and since 2008 she has been the stand-in for the permanent pre-senter, Louise Wolff. she is also the presenter of the hit show ‘X Factor’.

Are there any other clues to her identity?rønne is often to be seen flap-ping her arms, a little like a pen-guin who hasn’t found out that penguins can’t fly. The bosses at dr seem to have cottoned on to this, because this VErY irritat-ing habit seems to have improved since she was first on ‘X Factor’.

She is extremely thin – surely that’s not a good image for all the impressionable teenagers who watch ‘X Factor’? “I have been criticised for this and I know one shouldn’t en-courage young girls to lose weight, but I’m naturally thin,” rønne told Billed Bladet maga-zine. “I love food, it just doesn’t show. I know this is irritating, and I apologise.”

That seems fair enough to me. Don’t you think?Yes, but it’s no excuse for the ridiculous outfits she wears on ‘X Factor’. I guess that isn’t her fault either, but really, what are those ‘stylists’ at dr think-ing? Even Lady Gaga would be ashamed to wear them.

Is this a balanced report?No, not really. You may have guessed that she’s not my cup of tea. Others in the office have pointed out to me that’s she’s a very talented presenter.

Victoria Steffensen

DR/Bjarne Bergius Hermansen

Pind: become like us or stay away

Knud Erik Andersen, a traffic en-gineer, is the former chairman of the Transport Economic Associa-tion

The motorways ‘wind’ to keep you awake, while tunnels tend to be straight

7ThE copEnhagEn poST March 18 - 24 neWs

Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, Greenland’s National Gallery of Art will be a showcase for Danish architecture

a NEW NaTIONaL art gal-lery on the coastline near Greenland’s capital Nuuk will showcase denmark’s

people-centric and environmen-tally-adaptive architecture across the world.

The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a danish architecture firm, in February won a pan-Nordic competition to design the gallery as a ring-shaped building. From directly above it looks like a per-fectly geometric circle, and from the sides it appears to drape itself around the rugged contours of the coast.

“We wanted to superimpose this perfect circle on to the land-scape,” andreas Pedersen, a part-ner in BIG, told Xinhua. “When you see it in facade, it is a soft shape, almost like a piece of ice melting over the rocks. We call this a melted circle.”

The proposed gallery reflects a danish architectural trend: whatever the style, a building must be rooted in its local envi-ronment, which in Greenland’s case is its rugged natural beauty and harsh environment.

Placed on a steep slope over-looking a fjord, the white, 3,000 sqm gallery will provide visitors

with views of the open sea and surrounding terrain, while its central courtyard will house a sculpture garden and be open to the raw, Greenlandic skies.

“We like this symbiosis; it creates with art and nature,” Ped-ersen observed.

The gallery will have thick concrete walls designed to with-stand the arctic climate, and to insulate its interiors from the cold. Its modestly-sized windows will limit heat loss, and it will tap into geothermal and hydrother-mal sources for heating.

Adaptive

BJOErN NOErGaard, an internationally-renowned danish artist, believes the gallery’s de-sign reflects a long danish tradi-tion of connecting visual art, ar-chitecture, craft and technology.

“a functional and materialis-tic shape that is borderline sculp-ture and architecture is a very interesting way of approaching architecture itself,” he said.

“It is able to combine those four elements in a very challeng-ing way, which shows us how we can form our environment in a new way.”

danish architecture is, after all, a fusion of old and new, for-eign and local, one that borrows but does not imitate.

“Today, very, very few things will be as if for the first time!” Noergaard remarked. “But it is not an issue to make something new: what is as important is to

use what you have, and use it in a new way, and show new pos-sibilities in the world you already know.”

People-centric

ThE GaLLErY will stand in stark contrast to the 1960s-style square, functional homes and buildings of Nuuk.

“We have a tradition of round buildings in Greenland: round snow houses and a lot of round forms in our sculptures,” explained anne-Birthe hove, an artist who has a seat on the gal-lery’s board.

“so I think it’s nice to see this form, because we are fed up of ‘60s-style, square architecture!”

This adaptive trend extends further, with danish architects saying that a building must adapt to the people who use it.

“One of the main challenges in this project was, not only to create a building for art [but] also about creating a building that could gather a whole culture: all Greenlandic and arctic art,” Ped-ersen said. “One thing that really symbolises this unity is a pure circle.”

as such, the gallery is meant to serve as a focal point for arctic region artists, art students and art lovers, and as a cultural gathering space for the people of Nuuk.

“This will be the first mu-seum ever to have a section for circumpolar art, and that is very important for us and the region,” hove added.

The glacier gallery that glistens in the Greenlandic sunDomestic firm’s plans for new island’s national art gallery set to put Danish architecture back on the map

By Devapriyo Das & lei Fei, Xinhua news agency

with energy prices predicted to double over the next 30 years, it will be europe that will suffer most“

LasT MONTh the govern-ment set out its vision for a green clean denmark with its ‘Energy strategy

2050’. The road map, the first of its kind in the world, describes in detail how the country can achieve independence from coal, oil and gas by 2050.

“This is the right moment to launch this strategy,” Pro-fessor Mikael skou andersen, an environmental economist at the European Environment agency, told The Copenhagen Post. “With oil prices on the rise again, it’s hugely important to be investing in renewable energy right now. What people need to remember is the global economy may suffer if the price of oil keeps rising.”

and with world stock mar-kets currently falling and con-tinuing concerns over Libya, the price of a barrel of oil stands at $117, fuelling concerns that this could paralyse the global eco-nomic recovery.

“denmark has lots of expe-

rience with renewable energy so it’s not surprising they are taking the lead,” continued andersen. “With energy prices predicted to double over the next 30 years, it will be Europe that will suffer most as it is more dependent on oil imports than others.”

andersen has been talking about environmental policies and green taxation for the last 30

years and will be giving a lecture later this month at the British Chamber of Commerce in Co-penhagen on renewable energy and discussing how denmark became a world leader in wind power.

“I remember as a child back in 1973 when the first oil crisis came about,” he recalled. “I was watching our then danish prime

2050 goal: a society free of fossil fuelsEEA economist applauds state’s bid to be totally reliant on renewable energy by 2050

By richard Steed

minister on TV make a speech where he expressed his sympa-thy to Israel and then denmark was embargoed by all the oil producing countries. I can re-member sundays when the high-ways were completely empty of private cars, so we learned the hard way how sensitive society can be to the energy supply.”

“What triggered the renew-

able energy movement here in the 1970s came from the peo-ple, not the government. It came from the grassroots, as ordinary people could see the effects of the oil crisis and so they began to experiment with wind energy.”

Wind energy is something denmark has always champi-oned. Interestingly, the technol-ogy itself was developed more than 125 years ago by Poul La Cour, an engineer from Great-er Copenhagen, who went to Jutland to work at a folk high school.

“he developed this wind blade design and created a pro-totype of the modern day blade windmill design,” continued andersen. “at the same time at school he educated many young windmill engineers. One of them later convinced the gov-ernment after World War Two to erect a test windmill which was put up in 1957 and ran for ten years. at the unveiling of the

windmill, the then minister said it was an interesting experiment but the future was all about oil and nuclear!”

“We then realised in the ‘70s we had to go back to this tech-nology. But most importantly the test windmill in Gedser was financed by government grants and this shows that renewable energy needs some public subsi-dies as the market will not take that risk.”

denmark, which currently makes 20 percent of the world’s wind turbines, is again pioneer-ing the way ahead, this time with offshore wind technology, and it is at the forefront of this emerg-ing technology. “Wind power is now the cornerstone of den-mark’s future energy portfolio,” contended andersen.

Professor Andersen will be speaking at the British Cham-ber of Commerce’s next monthly luncheon on March 25.

Already a leader in wind power, Denmark’s ‘Energy Strategy 2050’ aims to get the country fully off fossil fuels

Colourbox

8 ThE copEnhagEn poST March 18 - 24sPorT

aNdErs haNsEN took a step closer to qualifying for the Us Masters on sun-

day with his second top four finish of the year – a result that has catapulted the danish golf-er into the top 50 in the world.

hansen finished just three shots shy of Nick Watney, the winner of the WGC Cadil-lac Championship in Florida, thanks to a final round of five under par. Over the course of the tournament he was the only golfer to improve each day, fir-ing rounds of 71, 69, 68 and 67.

Following on from his runner’s-up place in the dubai desert Classic in mid-Febru-ary, the dane is clearly in the

ascendancy, and this was re-flected by Monday’s confirma-tion that he has now risen to number 43 in the world. The top 50 automatically qualify for april’s Us Masters, and it would appear that hansen, who based on 2011 ranking points alone would be the world number 14, has already done enough to guarantee a place.

also chasing a place in the Us Masters is the rapidly-improving Thomas Bjørn, the winner of February’s Com-mercialbank Qatar Masters and victor over Tiger Woods in the first round of the WGC-accenture Match Play Cham-pionship. Bjørn’s exploits have taken him to number 62 in the rankings. søren kjeldsen is the next highest ranked dane at 113. (bh)

Dane on course for Augusta NationalThird place finish catapults Dane up world rankings

Bungling Bendt Bundesliga-bound?

nICkLas BENdTNEr’s failure to control a simple pass in the final ten minutes

of arsenal’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona last week on Tuesday, when many onlook-ers were urging him to shoot first time, may very well prove to be the moment that finally persuaded his manager arsene Wenger to sell the striker – a player he has nurtured since his move to the club as a 16-year-old seven years ago.

The media is convinced he’s going. While there may be no truth in them, the English press on Monday was awash with stories about how Bendtner is now a target of several German Bundesliga clubs – including Bayern Munich, schalke 08 and Borussia dortmund – who are all apparently considering £10 million bids for the player, a valuation that would represent a £5 million mark-down on ar-senal’s reported asking price in January.

While Wenger has previous-ly been reluctant to sell, his con-fidence in the player has been visibly disintegrating all season, and it was no surprise when he chose to start the game with the

injured robin van Persie instead of the dane.

still, it didn’t stop Bendtner speaking to the media about his prospects and that was his first mistake: speaking to the media about a game that he was going to start on the bench. While he didn’t say anything outland-ish by his standards, it should have been obvious the media had already written the headline ‘Brash Bendtner will make Bar-ca blush’ before the interview.

Later in the week English newspaper The sun confirmed Bendtner’s status as a national laughing stock when it ran the

As one former starlet fails to shine, another looks set to move to Ajax

By Ben hamilton

headline ‘Finally bungling Bendtner scores’ in connection with a photo taken of him with a mystery woman.

Meanwhile, as one former danish starlet fails to fulfill his potential, another has signalled his intent to become one of Eu-rope’s elite players with a move to ajax, reports sporten.dk. FC Midtjylland’s 16-year-old strik-er Viktor Fischer is on the verge of joining the dutch club, where he will hope to follow in the footsteps of Christian Eriksen, a dane who has truly managed to nail down a first team place at one of Europe’s top clubs.

Bendtner has failed to deliver on his promise

Bavnehøjhallen • Enghavevej 90 • København SV • www.ajax.dk

Admission: Adults - 50 Dkk / Children: 25 Dkk / Members: free

SUNDAY 20 MARCH - 15.00

AJAX COPENHAGEN

ODDER HÅNDBOLDVS

daNIsh men’s badminton pair-ing Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen on sunday finally claimed the title that had eluded them for so long, the all Eng-land Open Championships, in an incredibly tense game that went down to the wire. The pair were 11-16 down in the decider against Malaysians koo keat and Tan heong, but bounced back to prevail 15-21 21-18, 21-18. The victory was particularly sweet following on the back of five final losses in a row to the Malaysian pairing, who they lost to in last year’s final despite having four match points. “This is an unbelievable feeling.” Boe told media after the game. “We’re going to the swiss Open next week – hopefully we will win that too and then we’ll have a huge party.”

Duo’s delight

Let the curling commence

In BrIef

EsBJErG in Jutland is playing host to the Women’s Curling World Championships from Fri-day, with the final set for sun-day 27 March. The hosts will compete against Germany in the first game of the tournament in its bid to qualify for the semi-finals from a round-robin group made up of all 12 competing nations: sweden (world number 1), Canada (2), China (3), swit-zerland (4), denmark (5), Ger-many (6), scotland (7), Usa (8), russia (9), Norway (11), korea (13) and Czech republic (14). For more details see www.wwcc2011.com. Hansen is now Scandinavia’s third highest ranked player

9the copenhagen post March 18 - 24 COMMUNITY

At Frederiksberg Library, Denmark.dk, a service of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, filmed the event and interviewed participants. “I had no idea it was possible to meet this way – at a library. This would never have passed in Finland,” said one Finnish guest. Leon, a researcher from Russia said: “I like Danes. I used to work in Germany where people are very organised and controlled. Danes are much easier. But I must say sometimes the lack of conventions make you very difficult to understand.” Carla from Italy added: “It is only when I have made Danish friends and have been visiting them at home that I feel that my stay here is complete. You will never get to know a country if you do not make local friends. I have very nice colleagues at work here, but it is equally important to build a private social network that is not all about work. Expat Dinner gives me that opportunity.” Photo: Elisabeth Moltke

Expat dinner: an evening of inclusion fusion and integrated cheeseBy elisabeth Moltke

Sia Takiar (left) from Copenhagen ended up in Esbjerg for the night

Farum Library’s evening included participants from Bulgaria, Poland, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, Britain, the USA, Norway, France, Italy and the Philippines - and the variety of the buffet didn’t disappoint

Expats from Germany, Costa Rica, Spain, the USA, Sweden, Thailand, Romania, Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia and Ireland all gathered at Kolding Library. Photo: Stas Kalianov

More than 500 expats and Danes met up at their local library for ‘Expat Dinner’ earlier this month, an initiative organised by Association Newdanes, Expat in Denmark and Project Newcomers (State and University Library in corporation with Greve Library). Pictured here are some of diners at Kolding Library, one of 17 that participated in the event. “Actually, we are still a bit ‘high’ on the event,” enthused Gitte from Odder Library. “It was such a good and positive evening.” At Randers Library, a TV crew from TV2 Eastern Jutland even showed up. “This kind of event is really important for someone like me, who came to Denmark with my child - it helps me build a social safety net,” enthused Beba Monagas, one of the participants. Photo: Stas Kalianov

At Birkerød Library the children integrated over some table football

Esbjerg Library played host to a huge gathering. I want to express my unreserved positive response to the dinner evening I attended,” said a clearly delighted Danish woman called Anna later. “I returned home and felt uplifted, inspired and filled with the glow and energy of so many lovely people. It is for sure that I will attend again.” Here Robin He from China and Toda Miho from Japan are enjoying a spot of Southeast Asian integration

Dounia Righi and Amalie Winstrøm enjoying proceedings at Esbjerg Library

On the menu at Struer Library - among many things – was hot pea soup from Holland, cauliflower cheese and shepherd’s pie from England, bobotie with rice from South Africa, confit de canard from France, fastelavnsboller from Sweden, and finally apple pie, frikadeller and tarteletter from Denmark

The prize for winning the quiz at Greve Library - where participants from Denmark, China, France, Hungary, Australia, the USA and the Philippines gathered – was the Danish Indfødsretsprøve 2010. Here is a picture of the popular winners

COMMUNITY10 the copenhagen post March 18 - 24

Across: 1 Scarlet fever; 7 Later; 8 Hedge; 9 Inn; 10 Misguided; 11 Thrush; 12 Stigma; 15Concerned; 17 Egg; 18 Thing; 19 Upset; 21 Near relative.Down: 1 Sophisticate; 2 Let; 3 Thrash; 4 Exhausted; 5 Ended; 6 Dead language; 7 Liner;10 Messenger; 13 Great; 14 Endure; 16 Noise; 20 Sea.

text 05

Across1. Infectious disease (7, 5)7. Afterwards (5)8. Fence of bushes (5)9. Tavern (3)10. Led astray (9)11. Song-bird (6)12. Mark of disgrace (6)15. Troubled (9)17. Ovum (3)18. Object (5)19. Overturn (5)21. A brother, for example (4, 8)

The Copenhagen PostQuick Crossword No 342

Down1. Deprive of simplicity (12)2. Allow (3)3. Castigate (6)4. Tired out (9)5. Finished (5)6. Tongue no longer spoken (4, 8)7. Passenger-ship (5)10. Envoy (9)13. Large (5)14. Last (6)16. Din (5)20. Ocean (3)

Post Quick Crossword No 341Across: 4 Titular; 8 Openly; 9 Appease; 10 Napkin; 11 Theory; 12 Converse; 18Dethrone; 20 Grouse; 21 Credit; 22 Perfume; 23 Virago; 24 Restore.Down: 1 Connect; 2 Serpent; 3 Sluice; 5 Impotent; 6 Uneven; 7 Assert; 13Redeemer; 14 Cordial; 15 Festoon; 16 Grieve; 17 Outfit; 19 Hermit.

A large gathering attended the Copenhagen Sustainability Lecture at the University of Copenhagen (KU), including representatives from The World Bank, a sponsor of the event. Pictured here are (left-right) KU professor Nate Elers Koch, Inger Andersen, a World Bank vice-president from the sustainable development department, and KU provost Thomas Bjorn Holm

Five of the 54 contributing artists to the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition line up for a group shot – who will look the most enigmatic? Pictured here are (left to right) the aforementioned Shahar Marcus, Finland’s Riikka Kuoppala, Norway’s Unvor Nervold Antonsen, Ireland’s Helen Hughes, and Sweden’s Malin Petterson Öberg

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, paid a visit to Denmark last week where he met Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen to discuss bilateral relations between the countries. Following the meeting Rasmussen said he would upgrade the status of the Palestinian delegation to a mission, meaning that the status of its diplomats will be upgraded from ‘Palestinian general representation’ to the ‘Palestinian mission to Denmark’. Abbas, who is pictured here with former foreign minister Mogens Lykketoft, said the decision reflected “the deep commitment between the two countries”. Denmark’s move follows similar moves by the UK, France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain

There was a healthy turn-out at the opening of an exhibition at The Museum of Danish Resistance 1940-1945, entitled ‘The Power of Civil Society: The Fate of Jews in Bulgaria’, which is running in co-operation with the Bulgarian Ministry until April 3. Pictured here are (left to right) Bulgarian ambassador Valentin Poriazov, US ambassador Laurie S Fulton, Bulgarian foreign minister Nickolay Mladenov, Rabbi Bent Melchior, and health minister Bertel Haarder

ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD (UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED)

Charlottenborg Palace has been hosting festivities to coincide with the advent of spring (see G3 for further details). Pictured here are Israeli artist Shahar Marcus (twice if you include his photo) with Dan Oryan from the Israeli Embassy, who is becoming something of a regular on these pages

The one-day Chocolate Festival was once again a major hit with the sweet-toothed brigade on Sunday at TAP 1 on Ny Carlsbergvej. You would have thought this stallholder would been overcome by the demands of thousands of chocoholics baying for his products, but he still had the presence of mind to plug them for this photo Valentine’s Day was last month!

Lykke Friis, the climate and energy minister, was at hand to cut the ribbon and officially open the Floating Crystal, a new sustainable building that will feel at home standing next to the Black Diamond and Glass Cube. Designed by architect firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen and commissioned by Nykredit, the building appears to float in the air and is only held up at three points. Pictured here with Friis are Nykredit chairman Steen E Christensen (left) and Nykredit group president Peter Engberg Jensen

Your intranet and meThis is a direct appeal to ask anyone with anything to do with the social network co-ordination on the intranet at your place of work. You and I should be in touch as I flatter myself that I provide high quality, intelligent and entertaining theatre in this city. English is probably the language you use most despite living in Copenhagen. You and your colleagues and friends need entertaining. Could be a win-win situation?

Right now I feel like a character that Jeff Bridges might portray. With long hair and a four-week-old beard I look like a cross between a shaggy dog, an old hippy and a mad professor. It’s how the character of the professor in Oleanna developed during our rehearsals. A theatre director once said to me that my hair was my fortune. (If I had a pound for every hair on my body I’d be a multi-billionaire.) He also asked me to shave my chest as he could see my hairy chest through my cheese-cloth shirt and didn’t think that a 17-year-old boy should be that hairy. I went home and dutifully began the process. Luckily my flatmate came home and asked me what the hell I was doing as I stood in the bathroom with my upper torso covered in shaving foam and the razor blade at the ready. When I told him he said: “Wear a T-shirt under your shirt!” Brilliant,

why had no-one else thought of that?

Ben Hamilton, editor of this paper, said that he heard on the radio that my dear old mate Tom McEwan had died and that could I please check this out. Luckily it turned out to be a playful dig which Tom was privy to, at how talentless people can only get their chance at “success” if people with talent die and make room for them.

I’d like to give you a short example of the sort of man Tom is. On the first Tuesday of every month at the new Tivoli Hotel there’s a chance to meet other business people at the ‘Meet the World Café’. I couldn’t go this month because I’m performing, but Tom went on my behalf. On his arrival he was asked to stand in for a guest speaker who was too ill to attend. Tom did so with his usual aplomb and fun and shamelessly plugged ‘Oleanna’, saying that it was a West-End standard production. As he said that five people put their hands up to say they’d seen the public dress rehearsals and could back up Tom’s claim.

There are some people you meet in your life that you are so happy for eh? In my case one of those people is Tom McEwan.

Oleanna is playing until 26 March – see G2 in In & Out for details.

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

An Actor’s Life

11the copenhagen post March 18 - 24 COMMUNITY

New Year festival will take over the city on Monday

While Persia - the home of rugs, cats and Sinbad – was how the west referred to Iran until 1935, it wasn’t long ago that its borders stretched much further afield as an empire encompassing Turkey, Afghanistan, India (mostly what is modern day Pakistan), most of Arabia, and many former members of the Soviet Union. And it is no surprise to learn that the Persian New Year, which will be marked by celebrations across the city on March 21 – that sound you can hear is Søren Pind crying into his milk - is a big deal to any residents of this country who still have ties to these countries.

There are an estimated 18,000 Iranians residing in Denmark – a healthy proportion of whom moved here following the outbreak of the war with Iraq in 1982 – and the Iranian Embassy is holding its own celebration at the Royal Theatre, to which it has invited 500 international guests to enjoy food, drinks, an address by the Iranian ambassador and performances.

The new year is commonly known as the Day of Nowruz (pronounced no-rooz, formed by the Persian words for new

and day), a spring festival that has been celebrated for over 3,000 years as the start of the vernal equinox and as the first day of Farvardin of the Islamic solar calendar.

Typically, on the day, family members gather around a laid-out cloth on which they put seven items: lentils (representing rebirth), a pudding mixture

(affluence), apples (health and beauty), dried fruits (love), garlic (medicine and cure), sumac berries (sunrise - the triumph of good over evil) and vinegar (age and patience).

Additionally, many spreads include a small goldfish bowl and mirror to represent elements of the earth and human consciousness.

It may be a Danish holiday, but every year Fastelavn is proving to be increasingly popular with the international crowd

Fastelavn may be an old Danish tradition, but that certainly doesn’t stop foreigners taking part in the festivities. Especially not at Copenhagen International School, where children and parents from the international community were invited to celebrate the event at the school by CIS itself, the re-location company Setwell Location, and the sports club The Irish Rovers.

The children were dressed up in all sorts of costumes – from colourful princesses to the darker hues of Batman’s clothes. It was very lucky that neither The Penguin nor The Joker attended, because there were at least six Batmans present to stand up for the causes of truth and justice.

As is required at all Fastelavn parties, wooden barrels were hung up from the ceiling, and the children stood in line to attempt to ‘slår katten ud af tonden’ (hit the cat out of the barrel), and took their turn hitting the wood with the bat provided. The enthusiasm in which the children carried out

their task meant that it didn’t take long for the secrets of the cask to make themselves known. Wisely, the party’s arrangers had chosen not to put real cats in the barrels, and so when successfully broken, sweets abundantly fell out on to the floor, much to the delight of the children present.

It was not only small children that had decided to dress up for the event. One adult making the effort was Suzanne O’Reilly, who works for CIS and felt the need to ‘walk the talk’ so to speak. When I took a photo of her looking great in her costume, she asked me to be kind and carefully annunciated the word “Airbrush”!

Hitting the barrel was not the only activity available to the children. There was also a hugely popular crafts table, where the children could draw, and also decorate masks and other accessories for their costumes. Also, light refreshments were provided including the all-important saftevand – a must at any children’s gathering.

All in all, everybody seemed to enjoy Fastelaven, and in terms of dressing up, and hitting cats out of barrels, this group of expats could certainly gives the Danes a run for their money!

COMING UP SOON...Benelux Business Clubwww.bbcs.dkThe club is a Danish network with Benelux roots that is always looking for new members. Its president is Jeroen Tiel, the Dutch managing director of a recruitment agency responsible for Denmark and Sweden, and it currently has 100 active members who meet once a month. “Members come from Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, but it is no longer necessary to have strong ties with the Benelux countries,” says Tiel. “We are interested in attracting people that are willing to participate actively in the club, in order to create business opportunities or simply by exchanging knowledge and experiences with other members.” BH

Join Copenhagen Celtic!Valby Idrætspark, Jul. Andersens vej 3, 2500 Valby; meet Friday 17:45, 4023 2920; copenhagenceltic@hotmail.com; www.copenhagencelticfc.dkCopenhagen’s only truly international football club is looking for new members ahead of the 2011 season that kicks off in mid-April. Simply turn up at one of their Friday training sessions. The club welcomes all abilities: it has two teams that train twice a week and others who only partake once a season. Don’t forget your shinpads! BH

Photography WorkshopBooks&Company, Sofievej 1, Hellerup; Thu 31 March and Thu 7 April, 19:00-20:00 both days; Adm 500kr for the two sessions, includes drinks and snacks; sign up

by sending an e-mail to signup@booksandcompany.dk; www.booksandcompany.dkWant to learn how to use your camera properly in order to get the great photos you really want? Here’s your chance! Freelance photographer and former teacher Leah Meany Kristensen will teach you everything about shutter speed, aperture and ISO, so you can master sports shots, portraits, group shots and landscapes. All you need to do is sign up, bring a camera that has manual settings and a camera manual, and be ready to walk outside to take practice shots if weather permits. You may also request a topic by e-mailing it to Books&Company, but do so well in advance. TK

Launch of New Unskilled Work Sitewww.worldwide-work.comA new worldwide database for those struggling to find even the most simple of jobs in a new country has just been launched. The site is the first of its kind and was created in none other than Denmark by an English-speaking expat. Theidea is to take the work that doesn’t require a foreign language, education, or special skills (jobs like labouring, factory work, and stage hands), which normally get passed by word of mouth and put them all on show in one place. The site is still in its early stages, but looks set to be the next big thing for expats and travellers alike. JHW

One-day photography workshop for beginnersFotostudie, Turesensgade 5, 1368 Cph K; Saturday March 26, 10:00–14:00; price 550kr

(includes snacks & drinks), register at photo101.info@me.com, 5260 0665; www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=18784636458768Ever thought about trying your luck behind the lens instead of buffooning about in front of it in the hope you end up looking like an idiot on Facebook, or even worse in the Copenhagen Post. Sign up for Photo 101, a one-day photography workshop for beginners. The 550kr price includes snacks and drinks. Or if you’re already a handy snapper, try the intermediate course (over four Saturdays, April 2, 16 & May 14, 28, 10:00–15:00) that covers eight topics - lighting, exposure, flash, composition, portrait, workflow management (DAM), special techniques and digital considerations (colour management; backup/storage) - for 2,250 kr (including food & drink). BH

Learn to speak like a BritThe Globe, Nørregade 43-45, Cph K; Fri 20:00If you’re regularly on the move, you’ll know that adaptation is the key to success. Whereas your American drawl or lilting Irish accent may sound perfectly clear to you, it doesn’t always help to stick out like a sore thumb. So join the American Expats in Copenhagen this Friday to learn how to speak with a stiff upper lip. Though be warned – an office poll has found that parodying the British accent can be a major turn-off. But if you adam and eve you can pull it off, climb the apples and pears into the Globe and hope it doesn’t all go Pete Tong. PS

By James Honeyman-Wooler& Ben Hamilton

By Victoria steffensen

CIS honours host’s holiday – it’s like Halloween with barrels

All seven are here, plus the goldfish

Spread fit for a Persian king

Organiser Suzanne O’Reilly put on a brave face when she was told that no over 20s could hit the barrel

The celebrations are colourful and charming

Late arrivals Batman and Rodhino (alias Will and Nick Coffin) were pleased they still had the chance to hit the barrel

Stella Croucher enjoyed making accessories for her princess costumeDespite his hunger, this Hungry Caterpillar Isaac Summerfield, doesn’t find the Pritt Stick appetising

COMMUNITY12 the copenhagen post March 18 - 24

THE COPENHAGEN POST SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT PAGE

WHY: The Copenhagen Post wishes to help spouses looking for jobs in Denmark. We have on our own initiative started a weekly spouse job page in The Copenhagen Post, with the aim to show that there are already within Denmark many highly educated international candidates looking for jobs.If you are a spouse to an international employee in Denmark looking for new career opportunities, you are welcome to send a profile to The Copenhagen Post at peterk@cphpost.dk and we will post your profile on the spouse job page when possible.

SPOUSE: Dr Bev SitholeFROM: AustraliaSEEkING WORk IN: Social science research, project management, proposal writing and project evaluations.QUALIFICATION: PhD Applied Social Sciences; MSc Environmental Science; BA Hons Geography; Experiences in application of Participatory Approaches; Familiar with various project proposal writing frameworks. ExPERIENCE: I am an experienced social scientist with interdisciplinary training and am also an experienced participatory research, planning and evaluation practitioner. I have worked on governance of natural resources and community development issues in southern Africa and Northern Australia for over 15 years. I have been team leader on a number of research and evaluation projects. I spent more than five years managing projects and writing project proposals involving many organizations [ in the Stockholm Environmental Institute, Sweden) and in the Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia and most recently at LIFE, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.]. I am an experienced communicator and facilitator.LOOkING FOR: Short term or long term work in research, project management or proposal writing. Can deliver training in participatory approaches.LANGUAGE SkILLS: EnglishIT ExPERIENCE: Basic computer skills.CONTACT: Telephone. HP 27834333 Email: bev.sithole@gmail.com

SPOUSE: Anisha KanjhliaFROM: IndiaSEEkING WORk IN: Arhus in Teaching/Training/Administration/Media/Public RelationsQUALIFICATION: Post Graduate in Advertising & CommunicationExPERIENCE: 6+ years of professional experience in Training, Customer Service, Promotions, Brand Marketing, Content Analysis and Team Management. Strong experience in planning and executing initiatives. Extensive training experience and influencing skills that will assist me in building a high potential, motivated and an effective team. Hands-on training in soft skills like crucial conversations and people management Branch Manager & Head of Training for Cosmo Aviation Training School in New Delhi, India. Proficient in analyzing market trends to provide critical inputs for decision making and formulating training strategies.LOOkING FOR: Part time or full time in AarhusIT ExPERIENCE: Comfortable with all the basic computer knowledge like Excel, Word, Power Point, Internet browsing…CONTACT: anisha.feb@rediffmail.com P: 4522305837

SPOUSE: Chiara StevanatoFROM: ItalySEEkING WORk IN: København or nearby areasQUALIFICATION: Bachelor degree in Physics ExPERIENCE: Now completing the Master’s degree in Physics at Københavns UniversitetLOOkING FOR: Research in Physics. Research projects related to scientific areasLANGUAGE SkILLS: Written and spoken Italian, written and spoken English, written and Spoken French, very basic written and spoken Danish (still attending a second level course)IT ExPERIENCE: Operating systems: Windows, Linux. Programming languages: basic C, C++; PythonCONTACT: chiarasteva@gmail.com. Tel: 41681741

SPOUSE: Miss Parminder LallyFROM: United KingdomSEEkING WORk IN: Copenhagen in the Biotechnology industry, Patent Law (trainee position), Science communication, Physics tutor/teacherQUALIFICATION: Masters in Physics from Imperial College London. PhD in DNA Structural Nanotechnology from the University of Oxford (thesis to be submitted in Autumn 2010)ExPERIENCE: Science and Engineering Ambassador in the UK – encouraging adults and children to take an interest in science by demonstrating scientific principals in fun and interactive ways. Tutor in undergraduate Physics at the University of Oxford, and some experience of teaching science in school.LANGUAGE SkILLS: English (native speaker), Panjabi (fluent), German (basic), Portuguese (basic), Danish (currently learning)IT ExPERIENCE: Familiarity with the Windows O/S and the MS Office and OpenOffice suites, MATLAB (for mathematical modelling), CorelDRAW graphics package and some basic C/C++ knowledge.CONTACT: parminder.lally@googlemail.com

SPOUSE: Chao WenFROM: ChinaSEEkING WORk IN: Great CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Language teacher (German, Chinese) ExPERIENCE: Teaching Chinese as a foreign language by offering 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 offering private course; exhibition interpreter; translator.LOOkING FOR: Part time or full time in Aarhus, Language teacher, translator or interpreter LANGUAGE SkILLS: Chinese, English, German, DanishIT ExPERIENCE: Windows, Open office, PowerpointCONTACT: wenlily80@googlemail.com tel.: 48417526

SPOUSE: Isabel DouglassFROM: San Francisco-USASEEkING WORk IN: Music EducationQUALIFICATION: BA in MusicExPERIENCE: 10 years of internationally touring performances and 7 years of accordion teaching experience.LOOkING FOR: I offer piano accordion lessons to individuals and small groups. In the courses students will learn a repertoire of songs ranging in styles including French musette, Argentine Tango, and Klezmer while strengthening there technique and understanding of music theory. Please visit www.myspace.com/isabeldouglass to learn more about me.LANGUAGE SkILLS: Native English SpeakerCONTACT: isabeldouglass@gmail.com Phone: 60653401

SPOUSE: Isaac P ThomasFROM: IndiaSEEkING WORk IN: East Juthland preferably ÅrhusQUALIFICATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science)ExPERIENCE:Process Consulting, Quality Assurance, CMMI, ISO, Quality Audit, Process Definition, Software testing, software development, data analysis, best practice sharing, quality gap analysisLOOkING FOR: Process Consulting, Quality Assurance, CMMI, ISO, Quality Audit, Process DefinitionLANGUAGE SkILLS: Danish beginner, english, malayalam, hindi tamilIT ExPERIENCE: 8 years experence in IT Industry in software quality assurance, software quality control, software development.CONTACT: isaacpthomas@gmail.com, +4552225642

SPOUSE: Attila SimonFROM: RomaniaSEEkING WORk IN: Greater CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: International Welding Engineer (IWE/EWE), MSc in Welding Engineering, MSc in Flexible Manufacturing Systems, MSc in Quality Assurance of Metallic Structures ExPERIENCE: 10+ years experience in designing and manufacturing railway wagons, buses, trolleybuses and their subsystems. More than 7 years international project management experience in these areas. More than 2 years experience in industrial trading and investmentsLOOkING FOR: Transport, railway or welding related engineering job, also project management positionsLANGUAGE SkILLS: English (fluent speaking and writing), Danish (intermediate), Hungarian (mother tongue), Romanian (native speaker)IT ExPERIENCE: Several years experience working with SolidWorks, AutoCAD, ProgeCAD and VariCAD. User level of Microsoft OfficeCONTACT: attilon2@gmail.com; tel.: 28316752

SPOUSE: Fernando Carlos Cardeira da SilvaFROM: PortugalSEEkING WORk IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Accounting course from Danish Institution (Regnskabs medarbejder at Niels Brock), previous frequency of Accounting and Management courses in Portugal.ExPERIENCE: I have more than 5 years of experience in accountingLOOkING FOR: Job as accounting assistantIT ExPERIENCE: Microsoft Office (Excel, Word and Power point) and accounting software such as Navision C5LANGUAGE SkILLS: I can read and write Danish, English, Portuguese, Spanish and FrenchCONTACT: fercardeira@gmail.com +45 50437588

SPOUSE: Enikő TóthFROM: HungarySEEkING WORk IN: PsychologyQUALIFICATION: Psychologist (MA), Teacher of English (BA)ExPERIENCE: A beginner in psychology, 10 years of teaching experienceLOOkING FOR: A possibility in getting practical experience in clinical psychology, voluntary workLANGUAGE SkILLS: English, Hungarian, elementary French and DanishIT ExPERIENCE: Basic computer skillsCONTACT: tenila@gmail.com

SPOUSE: Dolon RoyFROM: 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 2009LOOkING 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 officeCONTACT: dolonroy2005@yahoo.com. Mob: +45 60668239

SPOUSE: Ying YuanFROM: ChinaSEEkING WORk IN: Great CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Medical Degree & Master in Human NutritionExPERIENCE: Practiced medicine for 2 years China 2000-200. Conducted a clinical trial for ½ year England 2008. Work in nutrition, pharmaceutical industry, food industry and health sectoIT ExPERIENCE: I am experienced in Statistical software SPSS and MINITAB, Nutritional software NetWISP/WISPLANGUAGE SkILLS: Chinese, English and DanishCONTACT: yuanying118@hotmail.com +45 31 36 92 58

SPOUSE: Laxmi ChawanFROM: IndiaSEEkING WORk IN: Sjælland, as an architect/ interior designer or as a logistic co-ordinator.QUALIFICATION: Masters in Design Sciences and Sustainable Design, University of Sydney, Australia; Bachelors in Architecture, University of Mumbai, IndiaExPERIENCE: Practiced medicine for 2 years China 2000-200. Conducted a clinical trial for ½ year England 2008. Work in nutrition, pharmaceutical industry, food industry and health sectoLOOkING FOR: Part time /Fulltime work in Architecture/Construction /Interior Designing Firm or Supply chain management field. IT ExPERIENCE:AutoCAD 2009, Adobe In Design, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Project management softwaresLANGUAGE SkILLS: English,HindiCONTACT: lchawan@gmail.com Mobile : +4552532498

SPOUSE: Debjani Nandy BiswasFROM: IndiaSEEkING WORk IN: Would like to join in kindergarten, School teacher in English, official work in English.QUALIFICATION: B.A., M.A in English literature and language (American, European and Indian). ExPERIENCE: Temporary school teacher in Bongaon, India and involved in social work (handicapped society).LOOkING FOR: A possibility in getting practical experiences in kindergarten or any international school, official work (administration) in English, voluntary work also.LANGUAGE SkILLS: English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, little Danish (currently learning).IT ExPERIENCE: Diploma in basic computer applications.CONTACT: E-mail: debjaninb@gmail.com, Tel: +45 50219942.

SPOUSE: Brant LangFROM: AustraliaSEEkING WORk IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Bachelor of Management (Hons), Bachelor of International Studies, starting Danish lessons Jan 2011 ExPERIENCE: 4 years recruitment consultantLOOkING FOR: An opportunity within consulting, administration, analyst or project work in an English speaking company.LANGUAGE SkILLS: EnglishIT ExPERIENCE: Microsoft Office, AdaptCONTACT: brantlang@hotmail.com or +45 50 33 94 10

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PARTNERS:

SPOUSE: Miss Marta GuerreroFROM: SpainSEEkING WORk IN: Great CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Bachelor of English teacher for Primary Education. Bachelor of Psychologist for Education.ExPERIENCE: Over the past five years I have worked in a Primary School in Barcelona as English teacher for children from 6 to 11 years old. Moreover, last year I gained experience teaching Spanish, as a foreign language, in the UK. I also have some experience teaching adults.LOOkING FOR: Full time position as Spanish or English teacher in a Kindergarden, a Primary School or in a High School.LANGUAGE SkILLS: Spanish and Catalan (mother tongue). English (fluent speaking and writing).IT ExPERIENCE: A good user of all the basic computer knowledge (Word, Excel, Power Point,...) as well as blog and web publication and maintenance.CONTACT: martaguerrero13@gmail.com

SPOUSE: Chia-Pei CHENFROM: TaiwanSEEkING WORk IN: Business Chinese/ Tutorial Chinese teaching in corporations, institutions or International schools.QUALIFICATION: A certified 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 certified 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 different phonetic systems (PinYin for China and HongKong, and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols for Taiwan) as well as to interpret differences between simplified 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 teachingLANGUAGE SkILLS: Chinese (mother tongue), English (Fluent), French (basic), Danish (beginner)IT ExPERIENCE: Word Office, SPSS statistic software, Basic Video and Audio editing, Blog writingCONTACT: teacherchen@live.com, Tel: 25 81 65 18

SPOUSE: Francesco GrandessoFROM: ItalySEEkING WORk IN: CopenhagenQUALIFICATION: Constructing architect ExPERIENCE: 4 years at TFF Engineering 2005-2009, 3 years at ADproject 2002-2005LANGUAGE SkILLS: English, Italian & DanishIT ExPERIENCE: AutoCAD 2011CONTACT: grandessodk@gmail.com Mobile: 50110653

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matchmaker with his eyes on the prize across the atlanticMedicon Valley’s new life science ambassador has a mission to create contacts in one of the world’s leading clusters. Identifying American risk capital will be one of his key tasks

Business-driven, analytical, a skilled networker with an excellent ability to visual-

ise ideas so that they result in concrete business. These are some of the words 34-year-old Torsten Jepsen uses to describe himself. he can now write “life science ambassador” on his business card as part of the ex-pansion of the Medicon Valley alliance’s life science ambassa-dor programme, which now has representatives in Japan, south korea and Canada and the Us. In practice this means that com-panies and universities in Medi-con Valley have their own rep-resentative to call on in the Us, the world’s largest life science market. The new life science ambassador will be located in Boston, but will also focus on the rest of the east coast.

Torsten Jepsen comes from a position as senior project manager in the Medicon Valley alliance (MVa). Over the past three years he has, among other things, been responsible for

building closer relations to lead-ing European life science clus-ters and for facilitating strategic discussions among public and private stakeholders in Medicon Valley on how to strengthen re-gional competitiveness.

“I have a good insight into the Medicon Valley region. My key task will be to brand Medi-con Valley and create a platform in the Us which Medicon Val-ley stakeholders can use for establishing relationships of collaboration and business de-velopment. Essentially, I will be a matchmaker who can get peo-ple to meet across the atlantic,” says Jepsen, who will be based at an office in the Cambridge Innovation Centre, a neighbour to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

World class universities

The life science ambassador programme aims to establish partnerships between Medicon Valley and leading life science clusters in North america, asia and Europe. The Medicon Val-ley alliance posts life science ambassadors to the foreign clusters for a period of three years. The ambassadors create an extensive network that can be used to help companies and universities establish new inter-national collaboration.

Jepsen is excited about his move stateside

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It only takes a week to get a couple of years wIser

Charlotte ahlgren Moritz, the executive vice president of the Medicon Valley alliance and responsible for the ambas-sador programme, emphasised the importance of expansion to the Us for Medicon Valley. “In Massachusetts you find some of the best universities in the world, and the concentration of life science companies is im-pressive. small and medium-sized biotech and medtech com-panies in Medicon Valley will benefit from being able to call on a life science ambassador in Boston. For many of these companies close collaboration with a foreign partner will be impossible because individually they do not have the resources to develop the necessary con-tacts, nor do they have the time to maintain such contacts,” Mo-ritz says.

Broad scope of work

Before he takes off for Bean-town, Jepsen is busy building a portfolio of interesting projects in close dialogue with relevant stakeholders in Medicon Val-ley. Over the last month before leaving denmark this work will be intensified and he will meet a large number of companies and universities.

“The scope of work is very broad,” Jepsen says, explaining

that he will work on three dif-ferent levels: policy, in order to help optimise framework condi-tions and the region’s life sci-ence ecosystem in general; plat-form, in order to bring larger groups of stakeholders together; and organisational by helping companies and universities on an individual basis to identify and meet potential partners”.

a key priority is attracting Us venture capital. american biotech companies raised in 2009 five times as much capi-tal than biotech companies in the entire continent of Europe. “The Us is the most important source of venture capital for the life science industry. My task is to develop a model that makes Medicon Valley more interest-ing to the american venture capitalists. I will monitor their investments closely and devel-op personal relationships with them. after meeting each other for coffee a couple of times or after playing tennis together for the second time, a useful rela-tionship may very well develop. hopefully they will find inter-est in what our companies and universities in Medicon Valley have to offer”, reveals Jepsen.

My approach to get inte-grated swiftly in the life science society in Massachusetts will be to ask: how do you manage to do so well? and, how can Medi-con Valley stakeholders support your key objectives? having a contributing, positive, curi-ous approach is far better than merely saying: how can you help me and the life science en-vironment in Medicon Valley?”

Ability to visualise

Jepsen has a background in eco-nomic geography with a strong focus on cluster development. his knowledge of the life sci-ence industry derives from his experience at Medicon Valley alliance combined with a di-ploma in Managing Medical Product Innovation (MMPI) from the scandinavian Inter-national Management Institute (sIMI).

“Essentially I have devel-oped a sound knowledge of life

science, from research to devel-opment and marketing. I find both the science side and busi-ness side of the industry very interesting due to the high level of complexity, so I read a lot to learn more. however, my role as a life science ambassador is not to be an expert in every recess of research and development. Instead I must have a holistic overview to understand the dy-namics of the industry and a creative and engaging approach to develop new collaborations and alliances. as far as I am concerned, I must be able to explain the life science environ-ment in Boston and Medicon Valley respectively, and where they can benefit from collabora-

By claus clausen

Factfile | Medicon Valley life science ambassador programme

Medicon Valley alliance began developing the life science ambassador programme in 2006. The pro-gramme provides companies and research institutions within the life sciences industry a unique op-portunity to find partners, collaborators, investors and sponsors. In their work, the ambassadors create a network of contacts and clients that can be used to help companies and universities establish new international relationships.

The Medicon Valley alliance currently has life science ambassadors in Japan, south korea, the Us and Canada, and hosts a life science ambassador from British Columbia, Canada.

Medicon Valley Alliance AmbassadorsThomas Jonssonresponsible for Japan and south koreaBased in kobe-kansai, Japan

Torsten Jepsenresponsible for Boston-Cambridge and the eastern UsBased in Boston, Us

Morten Fæsterresponsible for VancouverBased in Vancouver, Canada søren harbelForeign life science ambassadors at Medicon Valleyrepresents British Columbia

tion,” Jepsen says. Cluster development with

an international focus has been an integrated part of Jepsen’s career. Before he came to the Medicon Valley alliance, he worked as a consultant at ram-bøll Management on major international projects. he has worked in Tanzania and russia and has been project director on several large projects in the former Eastern Europe.

“I am used to developing novel solutions in complex en-vironments. I am highly ana-lytical in my work, and I have an ability to visualise projects and get people to co-operate on common objectives,” Jepsen says.

15ThE copEnhagEn poST March 18 - 24

New procedures would leave it up to the industry to deal with collapsing banks

Banks need to look after each otherBy Morten w langer

retically at least, replay itself if one of Nordea’s subsidiaries in sweden or Finland needed fi-nancial assistance from its dan-ish subsidiary.

although the government would like to be able to continue to protect national subsidiaries, the central bank, in its answer to the EU, appeared to be open to the possibility.

“We must bear in mind that

WhEN IT comes to the question of how best to deal with failed banks,

danmarks Nationalbank, the central bank, is changing its hard-line approach.

Currently, the central bank does not intervene when banks begin to fail, regardless of the consequences. The philosophy is that forcing a bank to face the consequences of their situation serves as a lesson to others.

The bank underscored that philosophy in print in a hear-ing statement last summer, and it was seen in practice earlier this year when amagerbanken crumbled.

But as the credit crunch forces more banks, most recent-ly spar Nord Bank, to put off its scheduled refinancing of loans, that line could be softening as it seeks to give the banking indus-try an incentive to bail out each other – dubbed a “bail-in”.

“Proper burden sharing will increase the incentive within the financial sector to strive for private solutions rather than let-ting a failing bank be resolved by the authorities, as they will ultimately bear the costs, but without any influence as to how the bank is wound up,” the bank wrote in a new hearing state-ment to the EU.

Officials at Nationalbanken also point out that under the bail-in system, bank cracks would not require public funds to be used to clean up, unlike the case of amagerbanken, which saw the state issue a 12 billion kroner guarantee in the wake of the bankruptcy.

however, before throwing its support behind a shift from

the bail-out model, the central bank told the EU it needed to carry out further studies. One area of concern, it said, was how investors would act when a bank approached the bail-in trigger.

“There is among other things a need for accurate and detailed case studies about how the market would react to a debt write down tool and a debt con-version tool respectively, includ-ing an assessment as to which tool would have less negative impact on market behaviour, fire sales by debtholders, and arbi-trage opportunities, it started.”

another issue National-banken is addressing is whether a healthy division of a bank would be permitted to rescue an ailing one. In the finance indus-try’s previous experience with this, Icelandic bank kaupting bank was not permitted to trans-fer money from its healthy dan-ish subsidiary FIh Bank.

The situation could, theo-

Lessons have been learned from the collapse of Amagerbankenintra-group financial support arrangements contain an inher-ent risk of contagion. This risk must be minimised to the great-est extent possible by defining the respective legal obligations, including the trigger conditions. No transfer should be allowed, if this means that another group entity potentially becomes at risk should it not fulfill the capi-tal requirements.”

BusIness anaLysIs

No guarantee of success for IPOs

as Iss prepares the ground-work for an IPO later this year, major investors say

there are a number of considera-tions that determine whether an IPO will take off.

Sceptical of venture capital

The simple fact that most com-panies going public being owned by venture capital firms makes investors sceptical.

“We’re particularly careful if we see an IPO where we know the operations and finances have been optimised for going public, which is normally the case when the sellers are venture capital firms,” said søren dal Thomsen from aP Pension.

In such cases, he said, inves-tors need to ask why they should pay more than the owners could have got had they sold to another capital firm.

Iss – like the recently float-ed Chr. hansen, Pandora and TdC – is owned by a venture capital firm.

Case by case

Not all IPOs are lined with gold. Out of the market’s four IPOs last year, two shares, TdC and Zea-land Pharma, have lost value (12 percent and 20 percent respec-tively). Chr. hansen has gained 36 percent and Pandora 47 per-cent.

Strong cash flows perform best

Those companies that have suc-

cessful IPOs are those that can document they have strong cash flows, according to anne Broeng at PFa. For that reason, biotechs, venture projects and other invest-ments that won’t show a return for a number of years are of lit-tle interest for the time being, she said. Other investors say biotech is a good investment right now.

Good IPO discount a must

Companies looking to go public need to set their offering price 10 to 15 percent lower than fair value in order to give investors an incentive to accept the inher-ent risk in an IPO, according to Broeng.

Shrinking tolerance for debt

Even though high debt ratios don’t automatically prevent ma-jor investors from taking part in an IPO, the current business climate means they “look more closely at it”, according to Claus Wiinblad at aTP, who added that the company’s debt tolerance had gone down.

No automatic seal of approval

although investors generally smile on IPOs, support isn’t guaranteed. Companies like Iss and TdC, they say, are solid companies people now have the opportunity to invest in, and, as Wiinblad put it, “generally, it’s great that more companies are going public, but that doesn’t mean we are going to be interest-ed in all of them. We turn down most offers.”

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You can sign up via the website, send an email to event”@”bccd.dk or phone 31 18 75 58. Non-members may attend for DKK 300 inc moms, on request to the secretariat.

• official media partner

Prof. Mikael Skou Andersen, European Environment AgencyAn appraisal of the plans for a fossil fuel free energy system

Mikael Skou Andersen is currently employed as an environmental economist at the European Environment

Agency. He is also a Professor in Policy Analysis at Denmarks National Environmental Research Institute, now part of Aarhus University.

Mikael’s hometown, Aarhus, is the hub of Denmark’s windpower industry, which has experienced first hand how conversion to renewable energy means real momentum for green growth.

In Denmark, Mikael is known for his research dedicated to quantifying the health costs of air pollution from fossil fuels. In 2005 he was part of the team that prepared the cost-benefit assessment that paved the way for Copenhagen’s environmental zone with restrictions for heavy traffic.

In 1989 he pioneered the idea of environmental tax reform, which involves the shifting of tax burdens away from labour and onto pollution and resource use – a method that has risen to prominence in the Nordic countries. He has been a member of an international task force advising Premier Wen Jiabao on how to introduce carbon-energy taxation as part of China’s next 5 year plan – which may obtain final approval at the People’s Congress this spring.

ProgrAMME:

11.45 Arrival and drinks12.05 Welcome and introduction by Mariano A. Davies, President, BCCD 12.10 Guest speaker - Prof Mikael Skou Andersen followed by questions and discussions13.00 Buffet lunch and networking

Date: Friday 25 MarchVenue: Conference Suite on 1st floor, Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Hammerichsgade 1, Copenhagen K

By Morten Sørensen

Projected exchange rates for key currencies Rate as of Projected exchange rates: Price including 6 month Jan 14 1 month forward 3 months forward 6 months forward forward premiumEUR 7.46 7.46 7.46 7.45 7.46 (7.45-7.46) (7.45-7.46) (7.45-7.46) GBP ! 8.65 8.63 8.63 8.83 8.65 (8.53-8.70) (8.48-8.76) (8.47-9.07) SEK ! 0.84 0.85 0.86 0.86 0.84 (0.84-0.85) (0.85-0.87) (0.84-0.88) NOK ! 0.95 0.97 0.97 0.97 0.95 (0.96-0.98) (0.94-0.98) (0.96-0.98) CHF ! 5.80 5.80 5.71 5.74 5.83 (5.74-5.92) (5.65-5.78) (5.52-5.96) PLN ! 1.84 1.89 1.90 1.94 1.84 (1.86-1.90) (1.86-1.94) (1.87-2.01) USD !! 5.42 5.33 5.34 5.56 5.44 (5.18-5.40) (5.18-5.47) (5.25-5.76) JPY !! 6.59 6.46 6.41 6.65 6.62(X100) (6.39-6.50) (6.34-6.49) (6.03-6.99) EUR/USD !! 1.38 1.40 1.39 1.33 1.37 (1.38-1.42) (1.37-1.42) (1.25-1.42)

since November, the driving factor forcing the euro up against the dollar has been

exchange rate differences. “The

Interest rates continue to drive eur/usd exchange rateBy Ejlif Thomasen market is focusing on two-year

interest rates, and it has been that way since Portugal ap-peared to not need help,” said Mik Ingenuus, lead foreign ex-change analyst for Nordea re-

search. should the market choose to

shift its focus from interest rate differences to debt problems we could see exchange rate move-ments later this month, and that

could unleash new pressures on the euro. Economists have de-scribed the current situation in which Portugal is paying well over 7 percent on ten-year bonds as “unsustainable”.

Note: Exclamation points indicate degree of uncer-tainty. !!! indicates the highest level of uncertain-ty. The upper figure is the panel’s average forecast. The span below indicates the highest and lowest fore-casts. The forward premium is the average for sales and purchases.

Forecasts made by repre-sentatives from: alm. Brand Marketsdanske Marketshandelsbanken MarketsNykredit Marketssaxo Bank and sydbank

PosTsCrIPT

denmarK ThrouGh The LooKInG GLass

s he was just 12 years old when she swam to a bronze medal at the 1936 Olympics

in Berlin and refused to heil hit-ler as she stood on the winners’ podium.

Last week ‘Little Captivat-ing Inge’ sørensen, an 86-year-old danish expat and world-class swimmer who remains the youngest female swimmer to ever win an Olympic medal, died at her home in New Jersey, Usa.

It was denmark’s legendary radio journalist Gunnar ‘Nu’ hansen, who gave sørensen the epithet ‘Little Captivating Inge’, while reporting live for danish radio from the Olympics in Berlin. The nickname stuck and even inspired a popular song.

denmark was captivated by the little girl from skovshoved who took the bronze for the 200 metres breaststroke.

When she returned from the games, her train, the Berlin Ex-press, was met by 30,000 fans. sørensen was paraded through the streets of Copenhagen to the harbour, where she was met by a boat that sailed her ceremoni-ously home to skovshoved, just north of Copenhagen.

In a 2006 interview she told

Traditional Chinese medicine TCM is said to be around 5000 years old. Through times knowledge about preventing illness and how to restore health by natural treatment like herbs, acupuncture, QiGong and massage has been growing.Your Chinese doctor will try to bring your body in harmony by offering a treatment that removes any imbal-

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Keeping the yin-yang balance is important due to the Chinese philosophy.To be healthy means to obtain balance in your life

UN’s health organization WHO approved and recommended in 1989 treatment with acupuncture for 43 diseases. Now acupuncture is also recommended for headache, migraine, immune-system, asthma, blood pressure problems, anxiety, depression, after effects of chemotherapy, menopause, menstrual problems etc. Just ask.

Jian Kang means good health

Akupunkturklinikken Jian Kang - Skånegade 2 st.th. 2300 København S Metro Amagerbro - Bus 2A and 5A • Pay cash or Dankort • Phone 6591 5555 – http://jiankang.dkOpen Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 8.30 – 16.30, Sunday 11 - 19 RAB-registered – health insurance refund

Dr. Kun has a university de-gree in Chinese medicine. She worked as the head phy-sician in charge of Hospital No. 10 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in China, when she came as a visiting doctor to

work with patients in Denmark. Since October 2008 she has been doctor of acupuncture in the clinic. She is a person with an open heart.

nation mourns swimmer whose defiance captivated their heartsBy Jennifer Buley

‘Little Inge’, Denmark’s super swimming star dies and with her a piece of history

Politiken newspaper she had been blessed with natural ability and barely trained at all – then she apologised for bragging.

“I trained one hour a week at the swimming hall in Østerbro. The rest of the time was in the harbour or at the beach in sko-vshoved – where I played in the water with my friends and swam out to the stone that I called ‘my dad’s stone’. If I really wanted to do something special, then I might swim to the stone two times. I was a sort of natural tal-ent, who lived by the strength in my legs and barely felt the wa-ter’s resistance at all, because I was so thin. I had nothing like the other swimmers’ power. Oh, that sounds like bragging – no-body wants to hear about that.”

she said that she had given up watching television years ago, because she hated to see how commercialised sports had become.

But sørensen was one of the most admired and popular ath-letes of her era – as big, or even bigger, than a Caroline Wozni-acki – not only because she was extremely gifted and ‘captivat-ing’, but because she refused to compete in the Nazis’ propagan-dist sports competitions during World War Two.

Professor hans Bonde from the University of Copenhagen wrote the book ‘Football with the Foe: danish sport under the swastika’ (2008) about how athletes and the sports federa-tion (dIF) co-operated with the Nazis during the German occu-pation of denmark from 1940-1945.

Throughout the 1930s, the Nazis had used ‘aryan’ or ‘north Germanic’ female sports stars to create heroic images of the “perfection of the aryan race”, Bonde writes. Leni riefens-tahl’s famous film, ‘Olympia’, from the 1936 Olympics, epito-mised the propaganda.

“Women swimmers were incomparably the most popular sportspeople of the time, and attention was primarily focused

on ragnhild hveger, Inge sø-rensen and Jenny kammers-gaard,” he writes. But unlike hveger and kammersgaard, sørensen was “less willing to compete in games with the oc-cupying forces”.

hveger and kammersgaard, both Nazi sympathisers, enthu-siastically took part. Like some-thing out of the film ‘Escape to Victory’, Nazi leaders were especially anxious to get den-mark’s star swimmer and dar-ling, Inge sørensen, to compete against the German champion annie kapell, but she refused.

sørensen herself never said whether her refusal to compete for the Nazis was an act of con-science. hveger, an Olympic silver medallist, complained that sørensen’s parents would not let her

“We don’t know her mo-tives. since she didn’t have any hesitations to meet the Germans during the war in denmark, the

argument that it was her parents’ fear that prevented her from going to Germany to compete seems probable,” Bonde told The Copenhagen Post.

When the danish resistance to German occupation took hold and began to grow in 1943, the image of the then 12-year-old ‘Little Captivating Inge’, who did not heil hitler when she stood on the winners’ podium in 1936, became a symbol for the danish resistance.

Bonde writes that it was “a dreadful human temptation” for world-class danish athletes in their prime years, who were barred from competing with athletes from outside the axis power countries, to accept the Nazi invitation to compete.

Phenomenally talented Inge sørensen, who broke 14 danish records and three world records as an 11-year-old and won Ol-ympic bronze when she was just 12 years and 24 days old – the

second youngest female winner of a medal after Luigina Giavot-ti, an 11-year-old Italian gym-nast who won a silver in 1928 – did not fall into that tempta-tion. We can only wonder what she would have achieved in her sport if not for World War Two.

after the liberation in May 1945, the danish athletes who co-operated with the Nazis were disgraced, and the dIF itself was at pains to “shake the mental images of danish-German col-laboration from its memory as quickly as possible ... through hastily-organised matches against denmark’s English lib-erators and against Nordic sister nations,” Bonde writes.

‘Little Inge’, who remained neutral, was forced to retire as an amateur and ‘go profes-sional’ in 1944 at the age of 20 when she took an education as a swimming instructor. accord-ing to the stricter rules that gov-erned amateur athletics at the

time, her education disqualified her from amateur competition.

she moved to neutral swe-den, where she helped train the swedish swimming team, lead-ing them to victory in an inter-national competition in septem-ber 1945.

sørensen married her swim-ming companion, the engineer Janus Tabur, in 1948, and the couple settled in the Usa in 1951.

But they never lost their af-finity for the water, and on three occasions sailed across the at-lantic to pay visits home to den-mark.

half of Inge sørensen’s ashes will be scattered over her garden in New Jersey, and the other half over her family grave in Ordrup kirkegård.

‘Football with the Foe: Danish sport under the swastika’, by Hans Bonde, is available from www.universitypress.dk

As a 12-year-old, Inge Sørensen from Skovshoved won a bronze medal at the 1936 Olympics and the love of an entire nation

Danish Royal Library

The swimmer was the subject of a popular 1930s song

Photos: Scanpix