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How the ‘happiest people on Earth’ survive the dark, depressing winter

10

The grey time is upon us

11 - 17 November 2011 | Vol 14 Issue 45

Meet the founder of a children’s art workshop where creativity is en-couraged, nurtured and championed

13

NEWS

Greenland gets its investigation into CIA fl ights after all, and becomes a popular spot for foreign investors

3, 6

Jens Bond, 007

NEWS | 3

Need a job? � e foreign intelligence service is looking for a few good spies

Beyonce’s calling

CULTURE | 18

18-year-old Aarhus musician works with one of the music world’s biggest names to remix ‘Love on Top’

9 771398 100009

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

Price: 25 DKK

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A FTER a series of � nancial sup-port packages introduced by the last government to prop up the banking industry, the new

Socialdemokraterne-Radikale-Socialis-tisk Folkeparti (SRSF) government is signalling that it’s time for the banking industry to pull itself up by the boot-straps.

“Danish banks are in better shape than their colleagues in other coun-tries,” the new � nance minister Bjarne Corydon (S) told Bloomberg news last week on Saturday. “We have had four bank packages and now the sector is consolidating”.

Between October 2008 and August 2011, the former Venstre-Konservative (VK) government introduced Bank-pakke 1-4, a series of state-supported ‘welfare’ deals for the banking industry. � e � nal package, Bankpakke 4, was a ‘consolidation bill’ that allowed solvent banks to buy up the healthy assets of failed banks, while letting the govern-ment absorb the bad debts.

Bankpakke 4 was passed just two weeks before the September election. One month later, the regional Max Bank nearly went bankrupt. Bankpakke 4 enabled a consolidation deal at an es-timated cost to taxpayers of four billion kroner; Sparekassen Sjælland, another regional bank, got Max Bank’s good assets, while the state-owned Financial Stability Company ate up the bad ones.

� e business and development min-ister Ole Sohn (SF) has promised that

taxpayers will not be made to pay for more bank bailouts. Last month Sohn said he was working on a bill that would introduce penalties for banks that sys-tematically underestimate the riskiness of their loans.

In July, Standard & Poors warned that as many as 15 Danish banks could fail before the economic crisis ends – an end that increasingly appears to be re-ceding into the distance.

Analysts from the European Cen-tral Bank (ECB) announced last week that the likelihood of another Europe-an recession had risen from under ten percent a few months ago to over 50 percent today in light of the Eurozone crisis and lacklustre business returns.

� e Financial Stability Company’s own chief executive indicated that Den-mark had as many as 75 too many re-gional banks, many with risky farm and

real estate portfolios.To make matters worse, last month

Fitch threatened to lower its AAA credit rating on Danske Bank, the nation’s largest, citing, among other things, that household debt had risen, while real es-tate prices had continued to fall.

Despite the grim economic indica-tors, the new government is not indicat-ing the same eagerness as its predecessors to prop up the banking sector. Instead, it has emphasised increased spending on social welfare, education and public works in its budget for 2012-2013.

� e budget proposal, which was released last week, sets aside over 18 billion kroner over two years for infra-structure improvements as part of a plan to create jobs and stimulate growth. Co-rydon told Bloomberg the public works investments were “absolutely necessary” to get the economy moving again.

No more taxpayer bailouts for banksNew � nance minister says nation’s banks are better o� than most and need to take care of themselves

JENNIFER BULEY

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Top politician pays o� son’s cocaine debt

The New Nordic Diet: eat well and lose weight

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Xmas Crazy Cabaret’shigh jinks in the jungle

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COMMUNITY

2 11 - 17 November 2011The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dkWeek in revieW

Get out Prosperity

TWO TOUGH winters in a row have taught DSB a few lessons in preparedness. The national train operator announced this week that it won’t leave commuters stranded this winter, even if Denmark has another round of heavy snowfall and icy temps. Melting ice played havoc with electrical signals on the S-trains in previous years, but the flaw

has been fixed. DSB will also assign more workers to the lines to keep tracks free of snow and ice, especially at important switching points. Fewer trains will run in bad weather, but those that do will be longer. A spare set of train cars will be kept at the central station, in case coastal com-muters are delayed on the wrong side of the Øresund Sound.

MOre AnD MOre gang members are turning to their municipal council for help to leave the gang lifestyle. A national initiative instituted by the Justice Ministry earlier this year estab-lished programmes throughout the country to help gang mem-bers find a new life. Participating councils are now reporting an

increase in the number of cases and some are struggling to catch up. Copenhagen, Gladsaxe and Ishøj Councils have all employed a dedicated exit co-ordinator to help gang members through the process. In Copenhagen alone, there are 20 cases underway. There are an estimated 1,800 gang mem-bers throughout Denmark.

ACCOrDInG to the 2011 Legatum Prosperity Index, which assesses 110 countries accounting for over 90 percent of the world’s population, Den-mark has once again landed near the top of the charts – ranking number two overall, behind neighbouring norway. The index defines ‘prosperity’ as both the

overall wealth of a country and citizens who are “happy, healthy, and free”. Within the ranking’s eight sub-indexes, Denmark notched first place in ‘entrepre-neurship and opportunity’, but only 16th place in health, due to factors like low life expectancy (72 years) and a dissatisfaction with the health system.

Charge of the redcoats

TeN YeaRs ago. a centre-right coalition led by anders Fogh Rasmussen wins the general election. FIVe YeaRs ago. Two Berlingske journalists appear in court for publishing threat assessments made prior to the War in Iraq.

oNe YeaR ago. only a week after peT denied any knowledge, authorities admit that they were aware of american spying activities.

FRoM oUR aRChIVes

The Week’s MosT Read sToRIes aT CphposT.dk

pernickety dicky | a little more english please

Reunification rejection highlights cohabitation Catch-22

easyJet ponders base in Copen-hagen

Living in an expat world | dining with the danes

2012-2013 budget unveiled

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Some 160 riders took part in the annual Hubertusjagt in Dyrehaven on Sunday, and more than a few of them ended up in the drink

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NoTe To ReadeRs: In last week’s front page story on the budget, we wrote that the state’s børnecheck had been limited to 35,000 kroner per month. That was the annual limit.

S-tog snowproofed

311 - 17 November 2011 The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dk News

It seems like a strange thing to do if you want to keep a good relationship with the americansa n InquIry into CIA

flights in Danish air-space over Greenland is to go ahead, but it will

be far from the formal inquiry that Greenland had hoped for.

Instead, the independent or-ganisation Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) will produce an independent report on the use of Danish airspace by the CIA.

unlike a formal inquiry, DIIS will not be able to call wit-nesses, lay any responsibility for the flights, or have full access to classified information.

“We haven’t been able to get exactly what we wanted, so we have to appreciate what we have got,” the Greenlandic premier, Kuupik Kleist, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

The alleged use of Danish airspace by the CIA to transport suspected terrorists to secret jails has been criticised by human rights groups who suspect that

the suspects were subjected to inhumane treatment such as tor-ture.

“As a country that has been a forerunner in the fight against torture, Denmark has a special obligation to thoroughly inves-tigate the way it may have been involved in the transport of de-tainees,” Tue Magnussen of the united nations Association told The Copenhagen Post.

Evidence that the flights took place was put forth in a 2008 documentary aired on public broadcaster Dr. According to the broadcast, the CIA used an airport in narsarsuaq, Greenland, when transporting prisoners.

American diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks the same year indicated that the Danish government had turned a blind eye to the flights.

The current foreign minis-

søvndal backs down to greenland’s demands but does not promise access to classified information

Live and let die: become a spy

a Job announcement posted by Forsvarets Efterretning-stjeneste (FE) last week

advertised several openings for “interesting and non-traditional work” collecting information about people and things in other countries of interest to the Dan-ish military and government.

FE, the country’s foreign intelligence service, calls the po-sition a “collector”, but the job description sounds a bit more like a “spy”.

“you will be engaged in the physical collection of not freely accessible data about situa-tions in other countries that are meaningful to Danish security and interests. The work will take place with the help of people who either possess or have ac-cess to information that is oth-erwise hidden from the outside world, and which FE needs for its intelligence work,” the job announcement read.

An ideal candidate will, among other characteristics, have “well-developed social skills, be very outgoing, and have an easy time talking to anybody, regardless of their background”.

The job starts on 1 october 2012 – presumably allowing for proper training in ‘Spycraft 101’.

It is not the first time that

FE has publicly advertised for collectors. Similar ads ran in 2005 and 2008.

If FE is experiencing high turnover in spies, it could have something to do with the salary. When the ad ran in 2005, com-mentators noted that the pay scale was a tad stingy as com-pared to the responsibilities.

For just 280,000 kroner a year, or roughly 23,000 kroner a month, FE in 2005 was seek-ing information collectors who could take responsibility for another person’s life, spend long periods away from friends and

ter, Villy Søvndal, had initially stated that he wanted a formal inquiry into the allegations, but at a press conference outside the Foreign Ministry last week on Wednesday he said there was not enough political support for such a move.

“We won’t be having a for-mal inquiry because that isn’t what we promised in the com-mon government policy,” Søvn-

greenland granted investigation into CIa flights

family, and speak Arabic, Farsi, Dari or Pashto. They also had to be extremely outgoing and capa-ble of making scintillating con-versation with anybody.

bjørn Møller, a senior re-searcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, noted that 23,000 kroner a month was “not very much if you’re sup-posed to be responsible for other people’s lives, have other extraor-dinary qualities, and speak a spe-cial language”.

“Those qualifications should add up to a completely different salary bracket,” he told Informa-tion newspaper. “but then, may-be a Porsche and a licence to kill come with the package”.

Farsi and Pashto are not a job requirement for this year’s recruits; nor is taking responsi-bility for other people’s lives. be-ing “rational” and “analytical” – and speaking fluent Danish and English – are, however.

Wanted: denmark’s foreign intelligence service is looking for some new Jens Bonds

dal said, adding that it was im-portant to open the case to the public and that Denmark had nothing to hide.

DIIS will investigate the flights on behalf of the Dan-ish and Greenlandic authori-ties, though its access to classi-fied information will be at the discretion of the government authorities. Søvndal could not give any guarantees that the in-

vestigation would have full ac-cess to all the papers.

“We are making available rel-evant information. but the limits on access have not yet been set.”

The agreement with DIIS about the procedure of the inves-tigation states that it should make sure that the “publication of infor-mation would not harm relation-ships with other countries, state security or third parties”.

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peter stanners Experts have warned, how-ever, that the report could dam-age Denmark’s relationship with the united States.

“I have a difficult time under-standing how it is in Denmark’s best interests,” Mads Fuglede, an expert on the uS at the univer-sity of Copenhagen, told Poli-tiken newspaper. “It seems like a strange thing to do if you want to keep a good relationship with the Americans, who are notorious for hating these sorts of things.”

but ole Wæver, a professor of international politics at the university of Copenhagen, ar-gued that the enquiry held enor-mous symbolic importance for Greenlanders.

“In that respect it’s a smart move by the government to make the Greenlandic authori-ties look like they have taken the initiative,” Wæver told Politiken. “It also contributes to keeping a good relationship between Denmark and Green-land.”

Denmark and Greenland will split the cost of the inquiry.

jennifer buley

Maybe a porsche and a licence to kill come with the package

Foreign minister Villy søvndal (right) and Greenlandic premier Kuupik Kleist at a press conference last week

Intelligence agency Fe is looking for a few good Danes to serve in one of the country’s “most interesting and non-traditional” jobs

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ThE nEW government’s 2012 budget proposal recommends eliminat-

ing state-funded public health insurance while travelling throughout the European un-ion, the Faroe Islands, or Green-land, national broadcaster Dr reports. by making the national yellow CPr cards invalid for health coverage outside of Den-mark, the government estimates it would save an extra 70 million kroner a year.

under the proposal, resi-dents could use ‘the blue card’ – the European health Insurance Card (EhIC) – to receive medi-cal and health treatment outside Denmark.

Coverage with the EhIC means that, for example, if a Danish citizen is in France and is in need of medical care, the treatment, medication and all other health expenses are covered under the same terms as France’s own public health insurance.

Currently, the blue EhIC card can only be used if the length of stay in another Eu country is longer than one month. on shorter stays, the yel-

low CPr card “covers expenses for acute medical treatment un-der the Danish health Act dur-ing periods of vacation”. but the government’s new budget pro-posal suggests that Danes should be covered by the blue card while travelling within the Eu, regard-less of the length of stay.

Although the EhIC is of-fered to residents throughout the Eu with the same overall cover-age regulations, the Danish con-tention is that, under the current rules, it ends up costing more to use the yellow health card when it is needed during short-term travels.

The EhIC card can be ob-tained free of charge from all of the nation’s councils. not every-one in Denmark, however, has

If residents obtain ‘blue card’ insurance, government estimates it could save over 70 million kroner a year

amy clotworthy

government proposal could make CpR card invalid abroad

greenland open to China co-operation

premier Kuupik Kleist see potential in chinese investments

page 6

the right to receive an EhIC. If the proposed legislative change is approved, it will not benefit the 3.8 percent of Danish resi-dents who are not Eu citizens.

The citizenship requirements are not readily apparent when at-tempting to obtain a ‘blue card’ online. only after providing a valid Danish address, a local doc-tor’s name, CPr number and nemID number, is it mentioned that a person can obtain an EhIC if the following terms are met: the applicant has a Danish CPr number, lives in Denmark permanently, and is a citizen of an Eu country, norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Switzerland.

For those who meet these conditions, the blue card is nor-mally valid for five years.

The yellow Danish CPR card now provides health insurance for short-term travel in the eU, and the government wants the blue card to replace it

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4 11 - 17 November 2011THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DKNEWS

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A FTER the headlines of the past couple of weeks, many are left wondering if there are any Dan-ish politicians who don’t have a

personal connection to a drug-dealing biker gang.

Last weekend, stories broke about two politicians who settled drug debts with gang members on behalf of loved ones. � eir stories followed in the wake of a scandal involving an MP who failed a domestic security check in September because of his acquaintance with the leader of a biker gang.

In the latest revelations, Berlingske newspaper reported on Sunday that Anders Samuelsen, the leader of the Liberal Alliance party, in 2010 paid o� a cocaine debt of between 10,000 and 20,000 kroner to a drug dealer with connections to the Hells Angels.

Samuelsen paid the debt in two separate payments. � e � rst time he put an envelope with money in it in a mail-box. � e second time he hand-delivered the money to a person whose identity he does not know.

Samuelsen told Berlingske that he paid the money to help a very close friend out of a dangerous situation. Later, however, he admitted that he had helped his oldest son.

“Intense inquiries have been launched from several sides to ‘expose’ who I helped. It was my oldest son. My concern for him outweighed everything else,” Samuelsen wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday afternoon, following the publication of Berlingske’s story.

“It was my hope that my son’s le-gitimate desire for anonymity would be respected. Unfortunately, I have had to give that up. I am extremely proud of him – not least because of the great progress he has made coming out of this,” Samuelsen added.

Samuelsen said he took the precau-tion of informing the then justice min-ister, Lars Barfoed of the Konservative party, before he handed the money over to the drug dealer.

“To ensure full transparency in rela-tion to my work as a politician I person-ally called Lars Barfoed, who was justice minister at the time, and told him about the situation before I did anything to

settle the debt,” Samuelsen wrote in an email to Berlingske. “I also asked Bar-foed to tell PET [the domestic security agency]. � e police were also noti� ed.”

Samuelsen is not the only politician who has had dealings with gang mem-bers. In its reporting, Berlingske also in-sinuated that there was a politician from Jutland who had paid o� a drug debt.

� at politician – Horsens City Council member Susan Gyldenkilde, of the Socialdemokraterne (S) – came forward on Sunday to prevent rumours from spreading about other people.

She told Politiken that two or three years ago she paid o� an 8,000 kroner drug debt for a close friend, who came to her saying he had been threatened by some bikers to whom he owed money. Gyldenkilde and the friend went to the police, but he was too scared to inform on the bikers.

In the end, she decided to pay o� the debt. She put the money in an enve-lope and gave it to someone she trusted, who promised to deliver it to the bikers. After the debt was paid, neither she nor her friend ever heard from the bikers again, she said.

According to defence lawyer

Party leader paid o� son’s cocaine debt

� orkild Høyer, Samuelsen – and by extension Gyldenkilde – did not break the law.

“He didn’t do the buying,” Høyer said of Samuelsen, “� e deal was al-ready � nished when he, at a later point, stepped forward with the money. Under Danish law you can’t be convicted for assisting in a crime, if you only become involved after it is over.”

“You could say that it was a case of extortion. In that regard, you could say that [Samuelsen] was helping a victim,” the lawyer added.

Whether Samuelsen or Gyldenk-ilde will su� er political consequences

Liberal Alliance’s Anders Samuelsen cleared his payment to gang member with justice minister

JENNIFER BULEY

A defence lawyer said that Samuelsen did not do anything illegal by paying his son’s debt

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for their actions remains to be seen, but another prominent politician is al-ready paying for his acquaintance with an alleged drug dealer and leader of a biker gang.

In September, MP Henrik Sass Larsen (S) was forced to resign as his party’s political spokesperson, and with-draw his name from the short-list of ministerial candidates for the new gov-ernment, when he failed the domestic security agency PET’s standard security check.

PET determined that Larsen could be indebted to Torben Ohlsen-Nielsen, a member of the Bandidos biker gang, and thus vulnerable to extortion, based on the context of a single meeting and two text messages between Larsen and Ohlsen-Nielsen.

� e text messages, which Larsen released last month, suggest that Ohlsen-Nielsen may have been protect-ing Larsen from some people who told police they furnished Larsen and his friend, Køge politician Tommy Kamp, with drugs. Larsen denied the claim, but Ohlsen-Nielsen said he was indeed protecting Larsen and his friend at their request.

Under Danish law you can’t be convicted for assisting in a crime, if you only become involved after it is over

QUESTIONS are being raised over the government’s unemployment statistics after a study released by

the Economic Council of the Labour Movement (AE) found many more Danes were on cash welfare than the numbers suggest.

According to an AE press release, 124,000 Danes are receiving cash wel-fare bene� ts, though only 33,000 of them count as being unemployed by the Employment Ministry.

� e remaining 90,000 are not counted in unemployment statistics as they are considered unemployable.

“Unemployment is actually a far greater problem than it appears in the statistics,” AE chief executive, Lars An-dersen, told Politiken newspaper. “We have to take it seriously.”

Cash welfare recipients are divided into three groups by job centres, with individuals in Group 1 considered ready to work. � ose in Groups 2 and 3 are not considered ready to enter the workforce and are not entered into of-� cial unemployment statistics.

What the o¦ cial unemployment statistics hide, according to Andersen, is that these last two groups are growing.

And while these groups are typi-cally comprised of individuals su� ering from alcoholism and/or drug addiction, more and more young people are falling into these categories.

“Now it’s more likely that people who have dropped out of their educa-tion or young people who never got into the workforce are being consid-ered unprepared for the workplace,” Andersen said. “It’s not that likely that we’ve gained that many more addicts.”

Some 90,000 individuals received cash welfare bene� ts in September 2011, up 22,000 from 2008. In the same peri-od, the proportion of recipients under the age of 30 rose from seven to 36 percent.

According to the AE, the new num-bers show that gains made in reducing the number of cash welfare recipients outside the workforce by 30,000 between 2004 and 2008 have been wiped out.

“We are close to losing all the progress we made in the good years get-ting cash welfare recipients into work,” Andersen wrote. “� e hidden unem-ployment numbers show that some-thing needs to be done about creating growth and work places so we don’t lose an entire generation.” (PS)

Unemployment numbers higher than suggested

511 - 17 November 2011 The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dk news

danish police have collected background information about a further 1,300 individuals linked

to those pre-emptively arrested during the COP15 climate conference, infor-mation newspaper reports.

The police are currently appealing against last year’s verdict at Copenha-gen City Court – brought by 178 of the 944 pre-emptively arrested indi-viduals – that found the police action to be illegal and granted compensation to the protesters.

To support their case, the police compiled a 1,000-page document com-prised of incriminating information about the pre-emptively arrested pro-testers, including details of their contact with police and their acquaintances on social networking sites.

This document was revealed at the start of the case, but when the case re-sumed on Monday after a four-week break, information revealed that the personal details of a further 1,300 indi-viduals were also submitted as evidence.

schools with high immigration enrolment to receive funding boost

s ChOOls with high propor-tions of bilingual and non-ethnic Danish children will receive ex-tra funding to help raise stu-

dents’ language skills.The initiative, outlined in the gov-

ernment’s new budget, will deliver one million kroner per year over three years to each of the 14 schools in Denmark where the student make-up is at least 40 percent non-ethnic Danish.

“it’s incredibly important to strengthen our integration efforts,” Christine antorini, the children and teaching minister, told Politiken news-paper. “schools with high proportions of children from non-Danish ethnic backgrounds need extra economic help.”

Decisions about what projects the money will be spent on will be made after discussions between ministry offi-cials, students, teachers and educational experts.

One of the schools due to receive extra funding is Tingbjerg school in the Copenhagen suburb of Brønshøj, which is almost entirely attended by non-ethnic Danes.

“What we need most is continued education for our teachers so they are better able to teach Danish as a second language,” Joy Frimann hansen, the head of Tingbjerg school, told Politiken.

hansen also argued that there need-ed to be better co-operation with kin-dergartens in order to prepare students better for school. Bilingual children start school on average with a vocabu-

Teachers, students and experts to work with government to improve educational standard of children with immigrant backgrounds

peter stanners

lary of 700 words, roughly half that of ethnic Danish children.

But according to lise Egholm, the head of Rådmans school, one of the major problems is that students from non-Danish backgrounds are too dense-ly clustered in particular regions.

“There still needs to be a better dis-tribution of bilingual children across Danish schools,” Egholm told Politik-en. “i have been campaigning for this for years. integration will suffer until we solve this issue.”

The previous government intro-duced similar initiatives to lift the educational standards of non-ethnic Danes. But according to antorini, the new initiative is more focused on get-ting schools to co-operate and finding productive solutions, rather than with-drawing funding and punishing schools with poor results.

The poor reading standards of non-ethnic Danish children was revealed

this summer after the publication of the 2010 Pisa report on the reading stand-ards of 15-year-olds.

it showed that 46 percent of Co-penhagen children born to immigrants do not have functional reading capabili-ties, far higher than the city’s average of 24 percent.

The poor results have been in part blamed on the removal of mother-tongue Danish lessons, where children born to immigrants are taught Danish in their native language.

The decision to remove mother-tongue teaching was made by the gov-ernment in 2001 and is widely consid-ered to have harmed integration efforts.

The government justified the de-cision at the time by saying that there were other aspects of education – such as improving the standard of primary school education – that were a higher priority than teaching the children of immigrants in their native languages.

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The export ambassador project is really expensive – they are being paid nearly the same salaries as cabinet members

Fourteen schools will receive one million kroner annually over three years to raise the educational standards of non-ethnic Danish children

ThE nEW export and trade min-ister, Pia Olsen Dyhr, has dis-missed the five elder statesmen appointed by the previous gov-

ernment to be Denmark’s export am-bassadors to emerging markets.

“We don’t have limitless means,” Dyhr told the media earlier this week. “You have to realise that the export ambassador project is really expensive – they are being paid nearly the same salaries as cabinet members. We would rather use that money for some real, concrete initiatives.”

Dyhr remarked that eliminating the five highly-paid export ambassador posts would save 18 million kroner – money that could be put to better uses.

“What we really need, if you talk to businesses, are efforts out in those coun-tries. They say they need people on the ground who actually know the condi-tions – that means people from those countries who can link Danish busi-nesses to the countries,” Dyhr added.

The five export ambassadors – Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, Ritt Bjerregaard, Mariann Fischer Boel, anne Birgitte lundholt, and henning Dyremose – are all retired ministers and members of parliament. They all have long CVs and years of political experience – but mostly in domestic politics.

The chairman of the Danish Ex-port association, Ulrich Ritsing, said it was a shame that Dyhr dropped the programme and fired the ambassadors before seeing what they could do – as the programme was only set to begin in the spring.

“We wish that they would have waited to see the results of the work. That would have been only fair to these people who agreed to do a whole lot of work,” Ritsing told Politiken newspaper.

Legality of police’s activist investigations questionedLawyers question relevance and legality of gathered information

But while Ritsing was critical, an international economics professor from aarhus University, Philipp schröder, commended Dyhr’s decision to cut the ambassadors loose and use the money for something better.

“We have not seen that initiatives like export ambassadors create any export growth whatsoever. The same amount of kroner would be much bet-ter used sending Danish businesses to trade shows in China, for example, or giving them legal advice to help them set themselves up in a new market,” schröder said.

he added that if the goal was to build the Danish brand in other mar-kets, there were better ways to go about it than sending five retired politicians on tour.

“if we want to raise awareness of Danish businesses, we should send the crown prince or host the Olympics,” schröder suggested. “But we’re nowhere close to that category with these export ambassadors. Ritt Bjerregaard and Uffe Ellemann are known in Denmark, but they aren’t in China.”

however, Ritsing disagreed, sug-gesting that the elder statesmen’s ad-vanced years and long CVs bristling with important-sounding former titles,

like ‘mayor’ and ‘minister’, would open doors in cultures, like China, where age and wisdom are valued more than youth.

But the 39-year-old Dyhr coun-tered that as the current trade and ex-port minister, she herself would have more ability to open doors and build effective trade relationships than the re-tired politicians would.

as former long-term members of

Minister axes expensive export ambassadors

says she’ll do their jobs and save the state 18 million kroner

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parliament, all five of the export am-bassadors already receive significant pensions – estimated at more than 28,000 kroner per month, according to Penge & Privatøkonomi financial magazine.

Dyhr proposed that if the five would like to continue as export ambassadors “con amore” – as a gift to the state – they were more than welcome to do so, and their efforts would be appreciated.

The five export ambassadors with former foreign minister Lene espersen. From left to right: Uffe ellemann-Jensen (India), Ritt Bjerregaard (China), Henning Dyremose (Brazil), Anne Birgitte Lundholt (other emerging markets), espersen, and Mariann Fischer Boel (Russia).

Details included the personal regis-tration numbers, birthdays and nation-alities of individuals who were not part of the pre-emptive arrest and have not participated in the original compensa-tion case levelled against the police.

By gathering the information, the police had been hoping to show that many of the arrested individuals were connected to militant political groups who have been known to participate in violent protest action.

Of the 178 individuals who sued for illegal arrest, the police say 37 have “been charged and/or in contact with police” in connection with arson, vio-lence, illegally wearing a mask and dis-turbing the peace.

But lawyers for many of those who brought the initial case against the po-lice believe that the backgrounds of those arrested do not provide sufficient justification for their arrest.

The lawyers, Knud Foldshack and Christian Dahlager, argue that the po-lice can only justify a mass arrest based on a concrete fear of disruption of the public peace, and that the police’s sub-sequent investigations may be a breach of data protection laws. (Ps)

Lawyers argue that the police investigations into protesters’ backgrounds is illegal

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6 11 - 17 November 2011The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dkInternatIonal

Christiania’s shares made their debut on Wall street last week. sort of. Three representa-tives from Christiania were in new York City to support the ongoing Occupy Wall street protests. While they were there, they attempted to convince in-vestors that they’d be better off putting their money into ‘social’ shares, similar to the Christiania shares that were introduced in

september. “You could say that we have experience with occu-pying a piece of public ground for more than 40 years,” risen-ga Manghezi, one of the three Christiania residents in new York, told Politiken newspaper. “We would like to share our ex-perience with the movement.” sales of the Christiania shares (folkeaktie), have brought in well over four million kroner so far.

Christiania goes Wall street

oNliNe This Week

tWO WOrkers from the Danish Demining Group taken hostage in somalia last week will only be released for a 50 million kroner ransom, ekstra Bladet newspaper reports. The two workers, a 60-year-old Dane, Poul hagen, and a 32-year-old american, Jessica Buchanan, were abducted a week last tues-day in the somalian town of Galkayo and have since been

moved to the region of Galmu-dug. The region’s deputy police chief, abdi hasan Gorey, visited the pirates to begin negotiations on sunday. “They are demand-ing between $9 million and $12 million,” Gorey told ekstra Bladet. Gorey added that the hostages were being treated well and were being fed camel meat and milk, the same food as the pirates were eating.

somalian pirates demand 50m kroner in ransom a DistrauGht man threat-ened to set himself on fire at Flygtningenævnet, the refugee appeals board offices in Co-penhagen, last week on Friday. according to police, the man entered the lobby complaining that his application had been rejected before dousing himself in petrol and drawing a lighter.

staff were quickly evacuated and the fire department, am-bulance service and police were called. a group of negotiators was called in to talk the man down. The man was not harmed in the incident and was taken to hospital where a Farsi inter-preter was able to discern that he was from iran.

Upset asylum seeker threatens to set himself on fire

Read The fUll sToRies aT CphposT.dk

Jyllands-posten offers support for targeted french magazinefrench newspaper targeted over plans to publish special edition with prophet Mohammed as guest editor

Peter stanners

prOFOunD environmental changes in the arctic are creat-ing new possibilities for eco-nomic activity in the area. This

is most strongly felt in Greenland, which with its vast potential reserves of oil, gas, industrial minerals, and unique tourist attractions, is fast becoming a hot spot for foreign investors.

kuupik kleist, Greenland’s political leader, said he expects foreign investors, including those from China, to play an important role in the future develop-ment of Greenland.

“i think that China together with other nations is taking a huge interest in the arctic area in general and specifical-ly in Greenland, and we have seen quite a number of visitors from China over the last couple of years,” kleist told Xin-hua in an exclusive interview last week.

“We don’t really have that much co-operation for the time being, but i know that Chinese companies are showing an interest in Greenland,” he added.

While Chinese tourists are already braving the arctic’s icebergs and freez-ing temperatures to experience its harsh beauty, deeper financial co-operation is also underway.

“Greenland is also showing an in-terest in China: my minister for miner-als (and industry) and labour is going to China today on an official visit. i would see a future co-operation as a very posi-tive one and we welcome the Chinese interest,” he observed.

Lying high in the arctic Circle, Greenland is the world’s biggest island and an autonomously governed terri-tory of Denmark. since gaining self-government in 2009, Greenland and its parliament can independently invite foreign investors to participate in its fu-ture development, where the prospects are hugely tempting.

The arctic is thought to contain roughly 30 percent of the world’s un-proven gas reserves and 10 percent of its unproven oil reserves. an estimated 97 percent of these resources fall within the exclusive economic zones of the five arctic states that have a coastline on the arctic Ocean – namely russia, Canada, the us, norway and Denmark.

already, foreign oil and gas compa-nies are prospecting in the deep ocean waters off Greenland’s west coast, while mining companies are hunting for rare earth minerals in its vast hinterland. This activity raises hopes for Greenland experi-encing high economic growth rates over the coming years, as well as economic, and possibly political, independence.

“We are a society in transition in many ways, and at a high speed,” kleist told Xinhua. “Our place on the global stage is changing fast, partly due to cli-mate change and partly owing to the international companies interested in Greenland’s minerals.”

But co-operation in other areas, such as communications technology and green growth, is also expected.

“so far, foreign investments have been in the business of minerals and oil and gas,” kleist explained. “But we would like to see economic co-opera-tion in other areas. Green growth, for instance, is a very actual and timely is-sue, and Greenland of course wants to participate in the development of green technology, and we want to see green growth in Greenland itself,” kleist said.

While the accelerated warming of the polar ice caps is making it easier to access minerals deep under Greenland’s permafrost, it is also making it experi-ence a milder climate. With its high-quality and largely unspoiled soils, this could help make Greenland an agricul-tural bread basket.

“a quite new area for development in Greenland, due to climate change, is that agricultural development is now be-coming an area of business,” kleist said.

For a start, this would mean Green-land could grow its own food, meaning its roughly 59,000 residents do not have to rely almost exclusively on imported non-fish food items, as they tend to do now. it would also make the economy far less dependent on fishing, currently the main industry. in the future, agricultural produce could even become an export commodity.

While the focus is mostly on com-mercial activity, other areas of co-op-eration are also expected to mature in the future. China, for instance, has ex-pressed interest in being granted observ-er status at the arctic Council, an inter-governmental forum for the region’s governments and indigenous peoples.

China says it wants to further its scientific and research interests in the area, not least to study climate change, echoing requests by others like Japan, south korea and the eu.

kleist said he would support China in becoming a member of the council, which counts Canada, Den-mark (including Greenland and the Faroe islands), Finland, iceland, nor-way, russia, sweden and the us as full members. (Xinhau news)

greenland warming to China’s arctic involvement premier kuupik kleist sees potential in improved co-operation with China on a number of fronts, as well as membership of the arctic Council

50 wounded libyans to receive treatment in denmark

d enMark will treat 50 Libyans injured during the country’s con-flict, the Foreign Ministry said

last week on Friday.Libya’s national transitional Coun-

cil requested the Danish government to provide the specialised treatment re-quired by the individuals, the ministry said in a statement.

The 50 patients will be flown to Denmark in an air Force hercules cargo aircraft that is specially outfit-ted to transport the sick and wounded. They will then be taken for treatment at the university hospitals in the cities of Copenhagen, aarhus and Odense, the statement added.

“i am glad we have the opportunity to help at least some of the many people wounded in Libya. it is indeed tragic

that so many have been hurt,” said the foreign minister, Villy søvndal, in the statement.

The ministry said Libya particu-larly needs to treat any citizens afflict-ed by war trauma, and confirmed that Libya would pay for the costs in treating and of transporting the wounded. Libya has also made simi-lar requests to other countries, it added.

Denmark supported the un-man-dated, nato-led intervention in Libya that enforced a no-fly zone over the country and helped topple the former regime led by Muammar Gaddafi.

Following the conclusion of the

foreign Ministry accepts libyan request to provide specialised treatment

N eWsPaPer Jyllands-Posten has offered its support to the French magazine Charlie heb-do after its Paris offices were

gutted by a firebomb last week on Mon-day night.

Charlie hebdo was planning to re-lease a special arab spring edition of the magazine on Wednesday titled Charia hebdo and featured a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed – the issue’s ‘guest editor’ – on the front cover saying “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter”.

The magazine’s editor, known as Charb, told France inter radio that they had received threats on Face-book and twitter in the run-up to the planned publication, but added they had not intended to provoke and that it was simply “business as usual”.

“i sent a note of sympathy to the publisher and chief editor of Charlie hebdo today,” Jyllands-Posten manag-ing director Lars Munch wrote on the newspaper’s website. “i clearly remem-ber the threats we received in the Mo-hammed case. it means a lot that you don’t feel alone in this sort of situation.”

The incident is reminiscent of the re-peated threats received by Jyllands-Posten after it published 12 cartoons of Moham-med in 2005, one of which depicted him wearing a bomb in his turban.

The cartoonist who drew that pic-ture, kurt Westergaard, was attacked in his home in January 2010 by an axe-wielding man shouting: “We will get our revenge!” Westergaard survived the

attack unharmed after locking himself in a panic room. The intruder was sub-sequently arrested and convicted of at-tempted murder and terrorism.

“it’s awful and completely unaccept-able that the media’s freedom of speech is threatened with violence,” Munch wrote.

Charlie hebdo has received broad support following the attack. in addition to Paris authorities pledging to provide new offices for the magazine, French newspaper Libération published Char-lie hebdo as a supplement in yesterday’s edition.

Charlie hebdo is known for its ir-reverence to all religions, and in 2007 it reprinted the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. it was later sued by two islamic groups for inciting racism, but was acquitted.

i clearly remember the threats we received in the Mohammed case. it means a lot that you don’t feel alone in this sort of situation

French cartoonist luz holds the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo renamed ‘Charia Hebdo’ as he stands in front of the magazine’s offices in Paris

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nato mission, Danish aircraft and per-sonnel participating in the intervention have returned home.

a spokesperson for the military said none of the individuals being sent to Denmark for treatment had been in-jured by Danish weapons. (Xinhua)

libya will cover all the costs of transporting the wounded

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8 11- 17 November 2011THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DKOPINION

tions. He can pay the money to himself. If he does that, the com-pany hasn’t earned any pro� ts, but that doesn’t mean the taxman has been cheated. In fact, the car-penter has to pay tax on the extra money he’s now earned.

“He could also decide to invest the money in new tools, computer equipment or the like. If he does that the company again ends the year pro� tless. But, the investment will pay returns in the form of higher turnover in the years to come. And that turnover will also be taxed – either in the form of income tax or as com-pany pro� ts.

“I hope you can see,” I said. “  at there can be perfectly le-gitimate reasons why a company doesn’t have any pro� ts, and that a company’s most important function is that it creates jobs so people can earn money.   at’s the main way that companies con-tribute to the tax base – not cor-porate taxes. In fact, income taxes make up about half of the taxes collected by the state. Corporate taxes, by comparison, only make up six percent.”

Our conversation ended here, but I could have added that our tax minister,   or Möger Peder-sen, is acting unwisely by mak-ing life unpleasant for companies by accusing them of cheating on their taxes and by threatening them with more control or pub-lic humiliation. Skat’s own set of guidelines for taxing multina-

saler. Let’s assume that a wholesale company has sales amounting to 10 million kroner annually, but a pre-tax pro� t of 400,000 kroner. If the company’s tax rate is 5 per-cent of its turnover, the company would have to pay 100,000 kro-ner more in taxes than it earned.   at doesn’t � y.

We could always lower the tax rate to 1 percent of turnover, but that would mean that com-panies with a very low turnover wouldn’t have to pay a lot in tax, even though their pro� ts were the same as the wholesaler’s. It makes most sense to tax a company ac-cording to its pro� ts.

  e young man didn’t accept any of this. He felt that it simply couldn’t be right that half of the country’s companies are unprof-itable. “Isn’t the whole point of running a company to earn mon-ey? And why do we make such a big e� ort to attract multinational companies if they don’t pay any taxes?” he wanted to know.

I asked him to imagine a self-employed carpenter. Some of the money he earns is used to pay for things like the rent on his workshop, utilities, lumber, etc. “And please note that the com-pany pays a number of surcharges in addition to these expenses,” I said. “And on top of that, the carpenter needs to pay himself, so that gets deducted from the earnings.   at income is taxed. If there’s still any money left at the end of the year, he has several op-

OPINION

IRECENTLY found myself talking to a young man who was upset that a lot of com-panies don’t pay tax. “I pay

tax every single year,” he said. “So I honestly can’t understand why big companies don’t have to pay anything.”

I explained to him that while individuals pay tax on their in-come, companies pay taxes on their pro� ts. When a company doesn’t earn any pro� ts, it doesn’t need to pay any taxes – just like a person doesn’t pay income tax if they don’t have any income.

  e young man argued that instead of paying taxes on their pro� ts, companies could be re-quired to pay taxes on their turn-over. “You and I need to pay tax-es, regardless of whether we have money in our bank account or if it is overdrawn,” he said.

I replied that, in the � rst place, some companies have a high volume of turnover, but a very small pro� t margin. One such example would be a whole-

Beyond the hype of the ‘New’ Nordic cuisine lies a healthy idea

Why do we need companies that don’t pay tax?

New budget to kickstart econ-omy

Not a bad � nanslov, all things con-sidered.   e extra 250 kr a month ‘raise’ is appreciated.   e fami-lieydelse/børnepenge was not only capped at 35,000kr per year, but the quarterly payment amounts were scaled back too by about 10%. I wonder if they are going to just remove the cap or also in-crease the payments back to the previous levels? I guess we’ll see tomorrow. I also � nd it interesting (in jest, of course) that the Danish government loves to use taxation and other policy to in� uence our behavior (eg the fat tax), so now it will pay us to have more kids and at the same time pay us to get sterilised! What to choose???JFD By website

Wahuu wah, starting to see that welfare I have been waiting for!!! Yes!!!   anks to all the fools who keep working! I am now on the public dole and enjoying it!!   anks to all you who pay the fat tax, car registration, etc. etc. Oh, what should I do tomorrow? I guess I’ll just sleep late and watch the telly (don’t worry, I’m not pay-ing the DR licence) polluting ex-isting models?� orvaldsen By website

  e � rst question is how to keep young highly educated Danes in Denmark with the dark long win-ters, no mountain and the world tax record. magic1964 By websiteI think I’m most tickled about the

Copenhagen Consensus Center losing its funding! Removing that media tax is very good common sense. Glad someone � nally real-ised the idiocy of that tax.Heidi aka MissFuzzy By website

A little more English, please

A monolingual person in a bilin-gual environment is not an asset, especially in a place where social cohesion in the workplace is val-ued. Also, most Europeans learn English for their own purposes, which decidedly do not include making it easier for anglophones to live long term among them without integrating linguistically. If you can’t deal with local bu-reaucracy on your own without an interpreter, read a local news-paper or international bestseller with ease and understand the evening news then you’re not � u-ent enough.Mafketis By website

I think you’ve missed the point. I could understand your stance if the work involved and the com-pany’s outlook was internal to Denmark. But the position was to work on “a new English-speaking international website...” so strong English skills should be far more important than Danish skills here. True, a monolingual person in a bilingual environment is not an asset, but where the focus is on the secondary language I would suggest that in this case it may be the other way around and I would be worried for the quality of the website in question.

Mike1963 By website

I have been facing same kind of a problems in DK. Coming from Helsinki, Finland, it has been hard to realise how regional and small Copenhagen and Aarhus are (both claiming to be international cities). I’m not saying that Hel-sinki is bigger, more international or better in the worldwide scale – but I think the di� erence is that the Finns realised they are small and tiny nation and to be able to survive the global market the lan-guage needs to be English (at least as important as Finnish). Maybe the Danish nation as a former co-lonial power has not come there yet.   ey have been huge it takes time to come down.MassiH By website

I’d love to know how companies manage when they need to call in a foreigner to take over a project for just a few months. Do they insist that they learn Danish too?   ere’s little need in day-to-day life to speak Danish here and I see it as nothing more than rac-ism in that “if you don’t speak the language, go back to your own country” way.   ere are hundreds of jobs out there that you could easily do without Danish but they force it upon you.   is is essen-tially a dual language country.   e majority of citizens can get by in both languages, yet they insist on using theirs or nothing. If that’s not enforced racism I don’t know what is.shu� emoomin By websiteI’ve lived in Denmark for over � ve

years – work in a Danish com-pany with English as its o¦ cial language. It may be the exception but I have no need for Danish at all ... haven’t learnt it yet and get on just � ne. And it’s also � ne with my boss.Tot By website

Native English speakers moving to any other country in Europe WILL learn the native language in the � rst year they are there.   ey won’t survive in Spain, France, Portugal, etc if they don’t learn it. In Denmark the anti-Danish atti-tude only persists because it is so easy to get by speaking English. So since Danes speak English all of the sudden foreigners do not need to learn Danish? I garantee this ar-ticle would not exist if the author would have moved to Spain for example. He would learn the lan-guage prior to trying to get a job. Even if the job was based around the English language.PC By website

World’s thickest book  ink of the manhours and costs that it took to produce a useless piece of crap like that. If they can’t write the rules on two pages, they’re not useable. Your welfare state at work!!� orvaldsen By website

My son’s teacher was telling the children in the class about the “book” but did not say what it was about. I later told my son - he was not impressed. Rugratzz By website

A company’s function is to create jobs so that people can earn money

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READER COMMENTS

DESPITE all the praise being heaped on it, there’s noth-ing ‘new’ about New Nordic cuisine. For most of hu-man existence, eating what you could pick, kill or for-

age was a simple fact of survival. Today, eating local, in-season foods is a conscious choice we have the luxury of making, but before the technology existed to process, refrigerate and transport food, the menu was limited to what was nearby.

In that respect, it’s easy to ridicule New Nordic cuisine as just another food fad that’s hookwinked people into paying thousands of kroner for a plate of foamed oatmeal garnished with locally picked weeds.

  row in the fact that the movement’s ‘founder’, Claus Meyer, calls the New Nordic Kitchen a “movement”, and that he’s created a list of 10 principles (read: commandments) for that movement, and the whole thing starts to feel like a granola version of South Beach, Atkins, or any other diet fad from the past.

But dig a little beneath the surface, and there are plenty of reasons to wish the movement success. True, we’re not do-ing anything new, but that’s just the point. At a time when people are increasingly developing illnesses because of what they are eating, there’s nothing wrong with taking a closer look at what we’re putting in our mouths.

And with its local focus, New Nordic cuisine would seem to contain at least part of the solution to global problems ranging from food scarcity to greenhouse gas emissions.

For all its potential though, New Nordic cuisine does have its drawbacks. For example, it’s hard not to point out that the conventional food industry, with its focus on ef-� ciency and standardisation, has made it possible for more people around the world to get enough to eat.

What’s more, that same food industry – be it agriculture, dairy farming, meat packing or food processing – has been a major source of jobs and exports for the country since the 19th century.

But times change, even in the food industry, and wheth-er it be modern production methods in the 1940s, organic foods in the ’80s, or New Nordic today, Denmark seems to have a knack for being able to turn food into money. While we could write Meyer o� as a huckster, if we cut through the hype, we might just wind up a healthier and wealthier nation.

tionals state that “corporate taxes are at a level commensurate with the level the domestic capital stock indicates they should”.   e tax minister’s own o¦ cials appar-ently don’t feel that they are being cheated out of corporate taxes.

  e real mystery in all of this is why the focus has prima-rily been on multinationals.   e number of multinational corpo-rations that don’t pay tax is less than the number of Danish com-panies that don’t pay tax. It’s a myth that multinationals are able to export their pro� ts as they see � t.   eir tax payments are regu-lated by EU directives, double taxation agreements and inter-national guidelines. What these companies can move to other countries as they see � t are jobs and investments. So we’d be wise to treat them nicely.

The author is the managing di-rector of the Center for Political Studies (CEPOS), an independ-ent think tank promoting a society based on freedom, responsibility, private initiative and limited gov-ernment.

MARTIN ÅGERUP

911 - 17 November 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK OPINION

G REETINGS from America! By the time you read this, I will be back in my homeland for the � rst time in nearly a year. Well,

that is, assuming I survived three � ights with a nine-week-old and a nearly-four-year-old.

I’m back in Iowa to spend � anks-giving with family and attend my cousin’s wedding. It will also be the � rst time my parents meet their new grand-daughter.

But beyond the family reunion, I’m also back for my own mental health. While at this stage in life eleven months isn’t what it used to be, it’s still an awfully long time to be away from the bulk of the people I know on this earth. I desperately need a heaping helping of home.

Having worked at � e Copenha-gen Post for over a year now, I know enough about our readership to know that my situation is far from unique. � e city – and to a lesser degree the rest of Denmark – is � lled with thousands of people who have left their home-lands to settle down in this little north-ern nation.

But still, seen as a whole, choosing to abandon everything one knows to begin anew in a foreign country isn’t ex-actly a widely popular life choice.

� e vast majority of the people I know from back home have never so much as left the country, let alone set-tled down outside of it. And that’s not unique to my circle of family and friends, the numbers play out across the United States. Only 37 percent of Americans even have a passport, accord-ing to numbers from the US Depart-ment of State, and that number is a big increase on just a few years ago thanks to a 2007 initiative that required US cit-izens to use a passport when travelling

to neighbouring Mexico and Canada. When it comes to permanently

relocating, the Pew Research Center found that 57 percent of Americans never move out of their home state and 37 percent never leave their home-towns. � at last number increases to nearly 50 percent when you look only in the Midwest, the region of the coun-try I’m from. Many of those who do move away end up returning, as rough-ly half of all Americans currently live within a 80-kilometre radius of where they were born.

� is isn’t meant to pick on my fel-low Americans. I think Americans are unjustly seen – particularly by many Europeans who appreciate any oppor-tunity to snootily look down their noses

at us – as oblivious and uninterested in anything that happens outside the country’s borders. While that stereotype may be grounded in some truth, Amer-icans do get around. Over 30 million Americans travelled overseas in 2009. What’s more, an estimated 6.2 million Americans currently live outside the US. A sizeable number to be sure, but one that only corresponds to two per-cent of the current US population.

In a quick and very unscienti� c poll of my co-workers, who repre-sent nine di� erent nationalities, about half – those from the US, Denmark, Ukraine, and South Korea – said that the vast majority of people they know from ‘home’ never left, while the Brits, Irish, South Africans, and Kiwis appear

Des Moines, Iowa: it may not look like much, but to our columnist it will always be home

You can go home again, but it won’t be the same

CPH POST VOICES

Born in 1942 on the Isle of Wight, Englishman Frank Theakston has been in Copenhagen 32 years and is on his second marriage to a Dane. Frank comes from a di� erent time and a di� erent culture – which values are the right ones today?

Clare MacCarthy is Nordic correspondent for The Economist and a frequent contributor to The Financial Times and The Irish Times. She’ll go anywhere from the Gobi Desert to the Arctic in search of a story. The most fascinating thing about Denmark, she says, is its contradictions.

Celia Thaysen is a British love refugee who landed on these shores six years ago. With below-par Danish, a tendency to tardiness, and a fondness for Marmite, she spends her time fumbling her way through unfamiliar territory as a working mother-of-two with a house in the ‘burbs.

‘SO SAYS CELIA’ ‘TO BE PERFECTLY FRANK’ ‘MACCARTHY’S WORLD’

It’s no surprise that so few people live outside their homelands. Being sep-arated by great distances from family, friends, and one’s culture and traditions is a mentally di� cult undertaking. For me it always strikes hardest when I am back in Iowa.

It brings to mind the popular say-ing: “You can’t go home again.” � at’s wrong. You can go home again, you just can’t expect it to be the same. Once you’ve been living somewhere else for an extended period – picking up new experiences, new thoughts, new per-spectives, and new friends – returning home can stir up a variety of emotions as you realise that everything you knew, while still very much a part of you, is now � rmly in the past.

So while I know I will greatly enjoy my time back home seeing friends, vis-iting old haunts and, most important-ly, watching my parents spoil my chil-dren, by the end of the trip I’ll once again be ready to trade Des Moines for Copenhagen.

I’ll be longing for my own house, my everyday family routines, and the charms of the city itself. In short, after spending two and a half weeks ‘back home’, I’ll be ready to come back home.

Still AdjustingBY JUSTIN CREMER

A proud native of the American state of Iowa, Justin Cremer has been living in Copenhagen since June 2010. In addition to working at the CPH Post, he balances fatherhood, struggling with the Danish language and keeping up with the ever-changing immigration rules. Follow him at twitter.com/justincph

English by nature – Danish at heart. Freelance journalist Richard Steed has lived in Copenhagen for nearly � ve years now. “I love this city and want Copenhagen to be a shining example to the rest of the world.”

‘PERNICKETY DICKY’

Once you’ve been living somewhere else for an extended period, returning home can stir up a variety of emotions

to have a stronger wanderlust.Danes certainly enjoy a reputation

as globetrotters, but they’re not all that likely to settle down and live abroad. Statistics Denmark shows that in 2008 Danes took 16.6 million vacations that required travel – that’s nearly three per person. But those of us who have settled down in a foreign country know that there is a big di� erence between visiting and living. Although no o� cial num-bers are kept on how many Danes live abroad, stats compiled by statsborger.dk – a group campaign for dual citizenship rights for Danes – put the total at 167, 950. � at � gure corresponds to only three percent of Denmark’s population – just slightly higher than the propor-tion of Americans.

10 11 - 17 November 2011The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dkcover story

d anes have been called some variation of the moniker ‘the happiest people in the world’ so many times that it has become

cliche, a bit of a long running joke. Just last month, in an OeCD publication entitled ‘How’s Life?’, Denmark fin-ished top out of 40 countries in terms of life satisfaction.

But while a visit to Kongens Have on a warm and sunny July day might make it is easy to understand how Danes can be such a happy lot, outsid-ers may be hard-pressed to explain this distinction during the dark, cold days of winter. How can people be so happy and satisfied when they go months bare-ly seeing the sun?

The answer, of course, is murkier than all of those ‘happiest people on earth’ studies suggest.

according to the Danish Men-tal Health Fund (PsykiatriFonden), 200,000 Danes currently suffer from depression and roughly 15 percent of the population – one in every seven – will suffer from a form of depression at some point in their lives.

For many people, the dark and dreary conditions of this time of year can lead to winter depression, or season-al affective disorder (saD). In a widely cited 1998 study, it was found that over 12 percent of Danes indicated a pres-ence of saD.

according to the Us national Li-brary of Medicine, saD is defined as ‘episodes of depression that occur at a certain time of the year, usually during winter’. The risk of saD is greater in locations like Denmark that have long winter nights. Its symptoms include social withdrawal, a lack of energy, in-creased sleepiness, and feelings of un-

happiness or hopelessness. Martin Morsing, a Vesterbro-based

psychologist, said that he sees seasonal affective disorder in five to ten percent of his clients, mostly women.

“In Danish, we call it vinterdepres-sion [winter depression], but actually I prefer the english term ‘winter blues’, because the word ‘depression’ carries with it a number of associations which, from a psychological viewpoint, could be misleading,” Morsing said. “It is im-portant to distinguish between a clini-cal depression and the winter blues. al-though the symptoms are similar, they are two very distinct states of mind. To complicate things, the winter blues can easily become a depression if it is not treated.”

The condition can particularly af-fect the elderly. “They’re less likely to

staying ‘happy’ during the dark, depressing winterThe much-touted happiness of danes gets put to the test during the autumn and winter

studies have pointed towards changes in the day’s length as the most significant explanation for seasonal variations in suicidal behaviour

justin cremer

leave their homes due to their increased immobility,” said sarika staflund, a swedish occupational health therapist based in Copenhagen. “They’re fright-ened they’ll slip in the wintry condi-tions, so they don’t go out and spend all their time inside, getting even more

myth that most suicides occur during December. But although the most sui-cides actually occur in the spring, the long, dark days of winter may be the culprit for that as well.

“People with a severe winter de-pression, or seasonal affective disorder, lack the initiative to act while they are suffering from the depression, and first get it when they are on their way out of the depressive period in spring,” Jensen told The Copenhagen Post.

Beyond the time of year, the partic-ular weather conditions are also a factor in suicides.

“During autumn and winter, there are more suicides when it is foggy, hu-mid, and rainy, but fewer when there is true winter weather (cold, clear weather with snowfall)”, Jensen wrote.

With the past few weeks providing dark and foggy conditions, what can be done to stave off the winter blues?

ask a Dane how to make it through the winter, and the odds are the answer will include two words: ‘hygge’ and ‘candles’. The theory seems to be that if one lights enough candles, has enough low-hanging lamps and regularly meets with friends over coffee or drinks, sea-sonal affective disorder can be avoided. Danes, after all, consume more candles per capita than any other people in the world. But does that work? The profes-sionals think so.

“Definitely that’s a way to survive the hard winter,” Morsing said. “Cud-dle up together and have some candle-light to make it more hyggeligt.”

For those suffering from saD, Morsing recommends they practice light therapy, where special lamps with bright fluorescent lights are used to simulate the light from the sun. spend-ing 20-30 minutes a day under the lamp can improve the depressive symp-toms. although, Morsing said, nothing replaces the real thing.

“Be active, do sports, and get out in direct sunlight,” Morsing advised. “That is, during those few hours when the sun is out.”

Foggy and rainy conditions are more likely to adversely affect the mental state than extreme cold and snow

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depressed as a result.”at its most extreme, depression

can lead to suicide. statistics from the Odense-based Centre for suicide Re-search (CsR) show that suicides and sui-cide attempts peak at two points during the year: October/november, when the days begin to shorten, and april/May, when the days get longer again.

“studies have pointed towards daylight hours or changes in the day’s length as the most significant explana-tion for seasonal variations in suicidal behaviour,” wrote Børge Jensen, CsR’s statistician, in a 2003 report. “as the changes in the daylight hours and temperature are the highest in the au-tumn and spring, the number of sui-cides and suicide attempts peaks [dur-ing these times].”

according to Jensen, it is a common

IF YOU find it hard to believe that Denmark, the home of hotdog wag-ons, rémoulade, and Danish pas-tries could have a slimming national

cuisine, then it’s worth remembering that it’s also the home of whole-grain rye bread, root vegetables, fresh fish and seaweed.

While the former foods still make up a large part of the average Dane’s diet, a new way of eating focuses on the latter, plus ingredients like game meat, cabbage, wild berries, and the occasion-al dandelion or two.

What has been dubbed ‘new nor-dic cuisine’ has taken hold in Denmark and beyond, in a large part due to the influence of the renowned chef Claus Meyer. Besides co-founding the award-winning Copenhagen restaurant noma (its name is a contraction of the Dan-ish words for ‘nordic food’), Meyer has spent the last decade encouraging peo-

eat yourself thin the New Nordic wayple to eat seasonal, local foods, and even to forage for their salads.

Meyer recently paired up with re-searchers from the University of Copen-hagen’s Faculty of Life sciences (LIFe) to develop menus for a series of scien-tific studies on the health effects of new nordic-style eating.

Preliminary results from one of those studies are certain to grab the at-tention of nutrition experts and dieters around the world.

as part of a 26-week study, LIFe researchers fed 181 overweight adults one of two different diets: an ‘average Danish diet’, comprised of the dishes currently most eaten in Denmark, in-cluding many imported foods, or the new nordic Diet, with Meyer-designed meals that were made from local and seasonal whole foods. all of the partici-pants were encouraged to eat until they were fully satisfied, paying some atten-tion to portion size, but never counting calories.

Halfway into the study, the 113 participants on the new nordic Diet had lost an average of 3.1 kgs each, whilst the 68 participants eating the

average Danish diet had lost just 1.6 kgs. LIFe associate professor Thomas Meinert Larsen, who leads the study, presented the preliminary results at the european nutrition Conference in Ma-drid last month. The study’s final results are expected in spring 2012.

Letting participants eat until they were satisfied allowed researchers to compare the “satiating effects” of the two diets, Larsen said.

and while noma – with its months’ long waiting list and 2,500 kroner prix fixe – may represent the paragon of new nordic cuisine, Larsen emphasised that making your own food at home is an essential aspect of the new nordic Diet.

“When you cook the foods yourself, you know exactly what the ingredients are, you know where they come from, if they are healthy, and also if they were prepared in a healthy way”.

Likewise, learning to cook new nordic-style meals is part of another large, ongoing LIFe study involving schoolchildren. as part of its new nor-dic school food study, third and fourth graders from nine primary schools are learning to prepare their own exotic-

sounding new nordic meals – like wild boar patties with mashed peas and root vegetables, or Jerusalem artichoke soup with hazelnuts and chervil.

Whilst the children eat, cook and learn about new nordic foods over the course of the 2011-2012 school year, re-searchers are busy measuring changes to everything from their fat-to-muscle ra-tios and blood pressure, to sleeping pat-terns, concentration levels, and learning abilities.

Professor Kim Fleischer Michaelsen,

who is in charge of LIFe’s new nordic school food study, reiterated that even though new nordic cuisine may in-clude unusual ingredients like wild gar-lic and dandelions, it’s neither exclusive nor elite.

“It’s very important to us to point out that the new nordic Diet is differ-ent from noma. Of course, the principle of using natural, local foods is the same. But the new nordic Diet isn’t about being ‘sophisticated’,” Michaelsen said. “It’s everyday food”.

scientists are busy testing the health effects of Noma’s acclaimed cuisine; the early results are head-turning

jennifer Buley

By eating New Nordic cuisine, it may be possible to lose weight over the holidays

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1111 - 17 November 2011 The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dk community

danes and expats bonding at the library over integrated cheese PHOTOS: CRAIG TILL & WORDS: BEN HAMILTON

Vadim Fedulov from Ukraine with Denmark’s Louise Andersen … Expat in Denmark’s Steffen Pedersen and Vivian (far left) …Also in attendance were Kirsten and Louise from Denmark …

More than 600 people took part at 16 participating libraries throughout the country, the organisers Expat in Denmark confirmed following the event.

Once again, the latest edition of Expat Dinners in late October proved to be a popular occasion, with Danes and expats flocking in heavy numbers to libraries all over the country to share dishes from their home countries, have a bite to eat and a ching-wag, and drink a few glasses of wine in good company.

New this time around, was a partnership with KODA, the Danish musicians union, who provided all the dinners with a Danish musician or band. Performing here are Katrine and Martin.

Pictured here is one of the candidates for the most international couples of the evening, combining no less than three different nationalities. Jawon Yun Werner (second right) is originally from South Korea, while her husband Derak Werner (far right) is Polish-American.

And here’s our choice for the most relaxed guest. With Rikke and Katrine looking on, proving it wasn’t all about the grown-ups is our little man in Lapland.

And as in previous editions, there was plenty of time to work the room before the dining. Here, German scientist Leon Mishnaevsky has cornered Denmark’s Mette Johnsen, or is it the other way round?

and finally, Germany’s Martin Fussel, who didn’t have to share his wine with anyone.

12 11- 17 November 2011THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

COMMUNITY

What is it with Danes and names?SOMETHING that has long inter-ested me (well, since I’ve been living in Denmark) is the relationship between Danes and their names. It � rst took my notice when someone told me that the queen’s husband was French. A French-man called Henrik – that didn’t seem likely, I thought. I then found out that this was not the name the dashing young French aristocrat was born with (and if you don’t believe me about the dashing bit, just google some old black and white photos of him – he was quite hot).

On marrying Margrethe, Henri was politely encouraged to change his name to a Danish one. Poor man. And as for the ‘dashing’, it seems that his looks have grown into his adopted name. Times have changed, in that respect. When Prince Frederik married his young Australian bride, Mary, there was no question of her changing her name to the Danish equivalent ‘Maria’, which in retrospect was rather lucky, because Frederik’s younger brother was also to marry a Marie (Henrik’s second name, by the way) a few years later!

On the subject of the Danes’ appar-ent inability to understand names that are not wholly Danish, cartoon char-acters haven’t escaped. Donald Duck, the iconic Disney character, is called Anders And in Denmark. Even the two European stars of voice dubbing, name-ly France and Germany, have chosen to keep the duck’s original name. How-ever, there are some other countries that have chosen to name him something else. We should be glad that he is not known as Aku Ankka, like in Finland, or Sergio Belasconi, as he is known in Italy.

Or is that the name they’ve given to Mickey Mouse? On that note, even the Disney god Mickey Mouse spent the � rst years of his life in Denmark called Mikkel Mus. � is was changed in 1949, when the Danes found out that they could actually pronounce the word ‘Mickey’, and that many children could indeed guess that ‘mouse’ actually meant ‘mus’ and were not irrecoverably damaged by the potential language con-fusion.

And what is it about Danes and long names? I come from the UK, and

over there double-barrelled names were the preserve of the mega-posh, such as Tara Palmer Tomkinson and the like. Here, they just love long names – the more the better. Look at the last three Danish prime ministers: Helle � orn-ing-Schmidt, Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

To further complicate the issue, many people also have two � rst names. Each to their own, I hear you say … except that this creates an unforeseen problem when the person travels by air. � e airlines’ international booking system only has room for 32 characters including spaces, and there have, in-deed, been cases of people encountering problems at customs, because the name on your ticket should be precisely the same as that in your passport.

Perhaps Danish parents should take note of a warning once given by national broadcaster DR. � e rules are � ne if you’re called Mads Jensen, but not if you’re called Mads Emil Tristan Toftegaard-Jensen!

So long, this has been Victoria Stef-fensen, or rather: Victoria Louise Stef-fensen-Jones!

The Argentine Embassy held a seminar entitled ‘Investment and Business Opportunities in Argentina’ at the Confederation of Danish Industry last Friday. Representatives of a number of leading Danish companies attended. Pictured in the photo on the right are the main speakers at the seminar: (from left-right) Argentine ambassador Raúl Ricardes, Augusto Costa, a representative of the Argentine Undersecretariat for Investment Development, and Ole Chrintz, the SVP at Lundbeck. Photos: Loupe Pargallm

The Thai Embassy held a charity bazaar in its garden on Sunday to raise money for the recent flooding catastrophe in the country. Pictured in the centre is Thai ambassador Piyawat Niyomrerks holding a portrait of the Thai king, one of the many ítems that was auctioned on a day that included a great spread of food (right) and lots of colourful national costumes (left).

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and Elizabeth Samnøy, the co-authors of ‘Meet your Guardian Angel’, were among the guests at the Mystikkens Univers event at Bella Center over the weekend. Märtha Lou-ise is the only daughter of the current king, Harald V, and fourth in line to the throne after her younger brother Haakon Magnus and his two children.

Our community editor, Victoria Steffensen, lives in Hellerup, the home of so many international schools, families, companies and embassies, and undoubted heartland of the expat scene. And although her kids don’t go to an international school and she couldn’t tell you where her closest embassy is, Victoria proves your home is where your heart is – in her case, in Hellerup.

Home sweet home in Hellerup

The new Georgian ambassador is Nikoloz Rtveliashvili. Gamarjoba!

Israeli artist Meir Tati was in town to attend the opening of his exhibition ‘Action Number 7’ at Rohde Contemporary. The artist’s inspiration comes from Soviet era educational propa-ganda.

1311 - 17 November 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

T HE COLOURFULLY painted windows invite you to enter. � e entire place radiates happiness,

and the walls are covered with beautiful paintings and drawings made by children. No, this isn’t Michael Jackson’s living room, this is the Eden Art workshop on Vesterbrogade, a special place hidden in a small shopping ar-cade where Danish and English-speaking kids can come and learn about painting, drawing, and a variety of crafts.

On the tables there are all kinds of wonderful papier-mâché creations – our eyes are particularly drawn to some strange-looking stones painted like small � shes. Creativity is in the air, and most of it stems from the workshop’s founder and co-ordinator, Ines Hon� , who also teaches a course at Øs-terbro International School.

Originally from Buenos Aires in Argentina, she moved to Denmark � ve years ago, eleven years after graduating as an art teacher and painter at the Art Academy in Buenos Aires.

Last week, � e Copenhagen Post caught up with her to � nd out more about her venture.

COMING UP SOON

The woman from Buenos Aires has created a belo horizonte

Where did you get the inspira-tion to make an art workshop for children?

Since I was little, I’ve been paint-ing and drawing in my free time. Nature is my inspiration – the abundance of colours, shapes and textures has always fasci-nated me. � is is what I convey to my little students – my love of nature and colours, and the transmission of positive and beautiful things through art. So when I graduated from the Art Academy in Buenos Aires almost 16 years ago, I decided to work with children and to create my own workshop for kids. After that I moved to Budapest, Hun-

Providing English-language tuition in creative art to children, Argentine teacher has always been inspired by the naturalistic and the beautiful

DAVE SMITH

COMMUNITY

AS WE enter the second week of Movember the Copenhagen Post sta� are experiencing var-

ied results with the moustache growing e� orts. Kevin seems to have the densest growth though he has been given a warning for

MOVEMBER UPDATE

At Eden Art workshop in Vesterbro, Argentine art teacher Ines Hon­ helps her students to “express themselves spontaneously” through visual arts, such as mosaics and painting

gary, and then destiny took me to Denmark, where I continue to teach art.

What is the concept behind Eden Art?

� e concept is to o� er a friendly atmosphere where kids can de-velop their creativity. I think it is important that they are allowed the freedom to express them-selves spontaneously. � ere is a lot of emphasis on using their imagination. We decide the projects together, and I help and guide them to make their ideas come true. We have a lot of ma-terial at the workshop, so each class we do a di� erent technique.

Which kind of techniques?

We do a lot of paintings using acrylics so kids can learn how to mix and combine colours. � e older kids are more focused on drawing in a proportional way. � ey learn shadowing and other graphic techniques. We work a lot with papier-mâché. We also do wire sculptures, mosaics, etc.

Are you telling them what to draw or paint?

Each class, I suggest themes that we can � t around the technique. For example, if the technique of the day was wire sculpture, I would draw some examples to

start their creative process. But if they come here with their own ideas, that’s very nice as well.

Which ages do you teach?

Normally, the students are be-tween � ve and 16 years old, and the classes are open to all ages. � e interaction between the ages is nice. While the older kids tend to do the harder techniques, there are times when one of the younger ones does something that makes everyone stand back in amazement.

What’s the admission criteria?

� e workshop is open to all kids

who love to paint and draw. Eden Art is for all kids who want to express themselves though the visual arts. � e important thing is their happiness doing some-thing creative.

We know you participated in the Children’s Festival in June organised by � e Copenhagen Post. How was that?

It was a great day – a real cel-ebration. Ever since I moved to Denmark, I’ve been waiting for such an event. It was nice to meet with new people, new clubs and workshops. I myself signed up my own kids for lots of di� erent activities.

Copenhagen Post Children’s Christmas PartyMarriott Hotel, Kalvebod Brygge 5, 1560 Cph V, Sunday 11 Dec, 14:00-17:00; free admFollowing on from the success of its Children’s Festival, � e Copenhagen Post is teaming up with Expat in Denmark and Spousecare to organise a chil-dren’s Christmas party at the Marriott Hotel for our readers, our fellow internationals and all their families. While the adults will be served Christmas treats that will remind them of home, the children can get their faces painted like a reindeer, make dec-orations at the Eden Art work-shop table (see above for details), watch a performance by a � nalist in last year’s ‘Denmark’s Got Tal-ent’, visit Father Christmas in his grotto, sing along to festive songs, and generally run riot.

Danish-French network launchDansk Erhverv, Børsen, Slotshol-msgade, Cph K; Thu 17 Nov, 17:30-20:30Dansk Erhverv and the Danish-French Chamber of Commerce are launching their new Dan-ish-French network ‘Le Cercle d’Entreprise’ in order to create stronger ties between French and Danish organisations. Join them as they host an evening to kick o� the new network with the theme ‘French Opportunities’. � ere will be an introduction by the French ambassador and chairman of the Danish Cham-

ber of Commerce, followed by a debate on the theme. Addi-tionally, participants will have a chance to get better acquaint-ed with each other and meet representatives of French and Danish companies.

Women in businessThe Frida Hallqvist Studio of Pilates, Hostrups Have 50, 5th floor, Frederiksberg; Tue 15 Nov, 18:30-21:30; members free, non members150krJoin the women of EPWN-Copenhagen and hear an in-spiring story of one woman who created a successful busi-ness. Frida Hallqvist will o� er her insights on how she made a brand for herself, her studio and her ideas through her own business model and the use of social media to drive commu-nication forwards.

Play reading at � e Bishop’s Arms: ‘Noises O� ’The Bishop’s Arms, Ny Øster-gade 14, Cph K; Thu 17 Nov, starts 19:00; free admCopenhagen � eatre Circle’s monthly playreading event is back at the Bishop’s Arms, an Anglo pub that provides a cosy and relaxing atmosphere. A guide will lead participants through the reading of ‘Nois-es O� ’ by Michael Frayn. A play within a play, the de-lightfully colourful script will

take you on a journey full of laughs.

Knitting ClubBibliothekshuset, Rodosvej 4, Cph S; Tue 25 Oct, 15:30-17:00; free adm; www.bibbro@kff.kk.dk At the knitting club you can swap gimmicks and experiences with like-minded people who share your passion for wool and yarn. When your work is all tan-gled up, there is always a help-ing hand to sort out the knots. If you are more into crotchet, you are welcome as well. � e next dates for the knitting club are 15 and 29 Nov.

Startup WeekendHowitzvej 60, Frederiksberg; 18-20 Nov; 450kr per ticket (in-cludes food, beer & DJ); register at www.copenhagen.startupweek-end.org orwww.facebook.com/co-penhagenstartupweekend� e Startup Weekend is a chance for entrepreneurs, developers, designers, marketers and others to come together to turn their ideas into realities. Participants will be put into teams to com-pete for a 10,000 kr cash prize. Additional prizes include three months of o¥ ce space at 5te (ITU). Readers of � e Copen-hagen Post can use the code “cphpost” to get a 100kr dis-count o� the ticket price.

JESSICA SLICER

• Courses are held in both Dan-ish and English from Septem-ber until June on Mondays and Wednesdays from 15:00-17:00, and on Saturdays from 12:00-14:00.

• Students can sign up at any time over the year. In June, Eden Art puts on an exhibi-tion of the students’ work cre-ated over the year.

• � e courses cost 400kr per month, which includes all of the materials, and there are normally � ve-ten students per class.

• For more information visit www.ineshon� .com or contact Ines directly on 4222 9074 or via ineshon� @yahoo.com.

Fact fi le | Eden Art workshop

not keeping the rest of his face shaven.

Ben, Peter and Dima are all struggling to produce Tom Sell-eckesque results. Despite this, the fundraising is going well, with Ben in the lead on 915 kroner, and Peter not far behind

on 600 kroner.To help us on our way

and sponsor us, please head to http://dk.movember.com and search for Ben Hamilton (see G2 in InOut), Kevin McGwin, Peter Stanners or Dima Paran-ytsia.

Kevin Peter

Ben Dima

14 11- 17 November 2011The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dkSPORT

hoop dreams do come true – all it takes is one superstaring conference champion Old Domin-ion, no less) shows potential.

Larsen is an anomaly, however, as basketball has always struggled to compete with sports like football, badminton and cycling. These sports are deeply rooted in a tradition that basketball has never had; after joining the European Championships in 1951, Denmark lost 23 of its first 27 games in EuroBasket competition and has not improved much since.

“Basketball in Denmark is basi-cally a hobby,” Danish coach Geoff Kotila told an ESPN.com blogger. “It’s so hard to get a practice together.”

It would only take one great play-er to change all that, and maybe he’s already out there. According to eu-robasket.com, there are at least seven Danish players at American universi-ties and high schools with many oth-ers certain to join them in the coming years. Others have opted for a different path, staying in Europe to play profes-sionally in leagues throughout Spain, Switzerland and Italy.

The Danish youth national teams are also teeming with talent. The U-20 team finished seventh in Division B of the European Cham-pionships last year while the U-18s finished second and are now consid-ered one of the best young squads in Europe. Teen phenomenons Rasmus Glarbjerg and Esben Reinholt will be particularly interesting to watch;

denmark could potentially become world beaters in basketball … providing the next Michael Jordan is born in Jutland

Tom Schad

IT’S NEARLy impossible to call basketball a ‘team sport’ these days. Sure, there are five guys on a team and they occasionally pass the ball

to each other, but it’s all meant to dis-tract you from the fact that basketball is built on individual skill.

And to be perfectly fair, it has to be. With only five players on the court at one time, basketball is one of the few team sports in which a single superstar can carry his/her team to success. Hav-ing a dangerous striker on the pitch or a great defender on the ice will simply never have the same effect. Whether people like it or not, basketball is driv-en by stars.

Take Germany’s national team, for example. Prior to 1999, the Germans had been to the FIBA World Champi-onships twice over a span of 40 years and only finished as high as 12th. Then a German youth called Dirk Nowtiz-ki joined the team, and the Germans went on to qualify for each of the next three tournaments and even win bronze in 2002. As Nowitzki contin-ued to develop into the world-class player that he is today, waves of popu-larity in his homeland followed. Thou-sands of Germans stayed up until 6am to watch their hero lead his team to an NBA Championship last summer; Germans in 1999 would’ve laughed at such an event.

Nowitzki has singlehandedly put German basketball on the map, and he is not the only one. France was going nowhere before the emergence of fel-low NBA superstar Tony Parker, and where was Chinese basketball before yao Ming? All it takes is one great player to give a country hope.

For Denmark, maybe that player is about to arrive. His name is Anton Larsen and at 23 he’s one of the coun-try’s brightest ever talents in the sport. Lanky and an even seven-feet-tall (213.5cm), he left Copenhagen for the United States two years ago to enroll at Old Dominion University. He is one of only a handful of Danes whose skills on the court have brought them to the US, the mecca of basketball.

“Basketball is small in Denmark. It’s been my dream for a long time to play in the States,” Larsen told The Virginian-Pilot.

Despite entering his third year with the team, Larsen is raw by Ameri-can standards. He played in just 12 games last season, totalling 15 points and nine rebounds in 36 minutes of ac-tion. Unimpressive statistics to be sure, but the fact that Larsen was recruited to play in the United States (at defend-

Copenhagen’s very own Anton Larsen (above) is currently attending college and playing hoops for Old Dominion University in the US. He and other young Danish players are making the sport successful in Denmark. But will it capture Danes’ attention like perennial favourites football and handball?

both are currently playing profes-sionally in Denmark and were se-lected to participate in FIBA’s U-18 All-Star game this summer.

For a tiny nation of less than six million people, Denmark has all the natural tools to succeed in this sport. Danes are typically tall and nimble, giving them the size to post up under the basket and the agility to face up and shoot jump shots. Many European players, including Nowitzki, have had success with this build.

At this point, who’s to say that the next Nowitzki won’t hail from Den-mark?

If he does, the outlook for Dan-ish basketball would change dramati-cally. Curious Danes would flock to the Danish Ligaen, where imported Americans are already beginning to in-troduce the country to a flashy, high-flying style of basketball. Kids would start trading their football boots for basketball shoes and put their height to good use. As we saw in Germany, the sport could move from hobby to religion almost overnight.

Maybe that next great player is 6,000 kilometres across the Atlantic at Old Dominion University. Maybe he’s buried somewhere in the national team’s developmental system or a small club in northern Jutland. Maybe he hasn’t even been born yet. But if or when he comes along, Danish basket-ball will never be the same.

sporT News aNd brIefs

poulsen’s one of the meanest deposed champ

Basketball stars like France’s Tony Parker (far left) and Germany’s Dirk Nowtizki (above) have popularised the sport in their home countries

• 1951: EuroBasket debut, fin-ishes 14th of 18 teams with 3-7 record

• 1955: Finishes last of 18 teams with 0-8 record; last EuroBas-ket appearance for 41 years

• 1996: Returns to EuroBasket• 2005: Qualifies for EuroBas-

ket Division A with 86-70 win over Ireland

• 2007: Defeats Estonia 69-68, its first and only win in Divi-sion A competition before being relegated back to Divi-sion B

• 2009: Senior team is relegated once again, this time to Divi-sion C

• 2013: Will return to Division B after finishing undefeated in Division C of 2011 European Championships

Fact file | National Team Timeline

FC COPENHAGEN’S chanc-es of qualifying for the knock-out stage of the Europa League are hanging by a thread follow-ing a disastrous 2-1 defeat to German outfit Hannover 96 at Parken last week on Thursday.

Three second half minutes proved to be their undoing, as the Bundesliga visitors came

from behind to take all three points.

The Lions will need to beat Ukranian outfit Vorskla Poltava on November 30, hope Standard Liege fail to beat Hannover at home on the same night, and then beat the Bel-gians in the final game at home on December 15.

Likewise, OB, which last week lost 3-2 to FC Twente, face an uphill struggle to qualify. With just three points from four games, OB will need to beat Wisla Krakow on De-cember 1, hope Fulham fail to beat Twente, and then beat the English side in London on De-cember 14 to progress.

danish duo face euro ko

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DENMARK’S badminton junior world champion Viktor Axelsen failed to defend his title in Chi-nese Taipei over the weekend, los-ing to Malaysia’s Zulfadli Zulkifli in a match that went the distance. While Axelsen won more games – 58 to 51 – Zulkifli won more sets, prevailing 21-18, 9-21, 21-19 in 51 minutes.

DANISH football player Chris-tian Poulsen is one of the mean-est people involved in non-American sport according to US website The Bleacher Report. An article entitled the ‘50 Meanest People in Sport’ only listed two European footballers: AC Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso (#18), and Poulsen (#35, a place above bas-

ketball’s Kobe Bryant). Poulsen, who currently plays for French Ligue 1 club Evian, “isn’t just a baller, he’s also a brawler whose brawls incite other brawls”, con-tended the site, citing the inci-dent in 2007 when a Danish fan struck the referee after Poulsen was dismissed for punching a Swedish player in the stomach.

1511 - 17 November 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK BUSINESS

Companies are going to have to pay a lot to make sure their books are balanced. Denmark is on its own in this area

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

• official media partner

Anti-bribery – are you compliant?

BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN DENMARK

You can sign up via www.bccd.dk, send an email to event@bccd.dk or phone 31 18 75 58

The event is free of charge for all attendees. Programme details available at www.bccd.dk. Please specify your preferred date when you sign up.

Eversheds Advokataktieselskab, the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark and Dansk Fashion and Textile invite you to a seminar, focusing on the UK Bribery Act 2010 and the practical steps you can take to mitigate the risk of unintentional, but costly, violations.

With the UK Bribery Act 2010 having entered into force on 1 July 2011, Danish companies carrying on business in the UK are at risk of falling prey to one of the strictest anti-bribery laws in the world. Jail sentences of up to 10 years and unlimited criminal fines can be the uncomfortable possibility, not to mention loss of profits, business opportunities, reputation, management time and public trust.

The only defence to the UK Bribery Act 2010’s “failure to prevent” offence is, where the company can show it had “adequate procedures” in place to minimise the risk of bribery. The seminar will present the audience with the possibility of discussing compliance issues in a professional forum, as well as providing knowledge and tools to deal with compliance issues not only in relation to the UK Bribery Act 2010, but also in connection to the American FCPA and other global regulations.

The seminar will be held on three dates:

Tuesday 15 November 2011, 12.00 – 17.00 (max 40 participants) at Dansk Fashion and Textile Birk Centerpark 38, 7400 Herning

Wednesday 16 November 2011, 8.00 – 13.00 (max 35 participants) at Eversheds Advokataktieselskab Frederiksborggade 15, 11. sal, 1360 Copenhagen

Thursday 17 November 2011, 8.00 – 13.00 (max 35 participants) at Eversheds Advokataktieselskab Frederiksborggade 15, 11. sal, 1360 Copenhagen

Speakers:

• Mark Surguy, Eversheds LLP• Anders Lykke Pedersen, Eversheds Advokataktieselskab• TBA, The Danish Public Prosecutor’s office• Pia Odgaard, Dansk Fashion and Textile

Anti-bribery – are you compliant? Eversheds Advokataktieselskab, the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark and Dansk Fashion and Textile invite you to a seminar, focusing on the UK Bribery Act 2010 and the practical steps you can take to mitigate the risk of unintentional, but costly, violations. With the UK Bribery Act 2010 having entered into force on 1 July 2011, Danish companies carrying on business in the UK are at risk of falling prey to one of the strictest anti-bribery laws in the world. Jail sentences of up to 10 years and unlimited criminal fines can be the uncomfortable possibility, not to mention loss of profits, business opportunities, reputation, management time and public trust. The only defence to the UK Bribery Act 2010’s “failure to prevent” offence is, where the company can show it had “adequate procedures” in place to minimise the risk of bribery. The seminar will present the audience with the possibility of discussing compliance issues in a professional forum, as well as providing knowledge and tools to deal with compliance issues not only in relation to the UK Bribery Act 2010, but also in connection to the American FCPA and other global regulations. The seminar will be held on three dates: Tuesday 15 November 2011, 12.00 – 17.00 (max 40 participants) at Dansk Fashion and Textile Birk Centerpark 38, 7400 Herning Wednesday 16 November 2011, 8.00 – 13.00 (max 35 participants) at Eversheds Advokataktieselskab Frederiksborggade 15, 11. sal, 1360 Copenhagen Thursday 17 November 2011, 8.00 – 13.00 (max 35 participants) at Eversheds Advokataktieselskab Frederiksborggade 15, 11. sal, 1360 Copenhagen SIGN UP and Programme (Please specify in the comments section, which date you would like to attend) Speakers: Mark Surguy, Eversheds LLP Anders Lykke Pedersen, Eversheds Advokataktieselskab TBA, The Danish Public Prosecutor’s office Pia Odgaard, Dansk Fashion and Textile

Anti-bribery – are you compliant? Eversheds Advokataktieselskab, the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark and Dansk Fashion and Textile invite you to a seminar, focusing on the UK Bribery Act 2010 and the practical steps you can take to mitigate the risk of unintentional, but costly, violations. With the UK Bribery Act 2010 having entered into force on 1 July 2011, Danish companies carrying on business in the UK are at risk of falling prey to one of the strictest anti-bribery laws in the world. Jail sentences of up to 10 years and unlimited criminal fines can be the uncomfortable possibility, not to mention loss of profits, business opportunities, reputation, management time and public trust. The only defence to the UK Bribery Act 2010’s “failure to prevent” offence is, where the company can show it had “adequate procedures” in place to minimise the risk of bribery. The seminar will present the audience with the possibility of discussing compliance issues in a professional forum, as well as providing knowledge and tools to deal with compliance issues not only in relation to the UK Bribery Act 2010, but also in connection to the American FCPA and other global regulations. The seminar will be held on three dates: Tuesday 15 November 2011, 12.00 – 17.00 (max 40 participants) at Dansk Fashion and Textile Birk Centerpark 38, 7400 Herning Wednesday 16 November 2011, 8.00 – 13.00 (max 35 participants) at Eversheds Advokataktieselskab Frederiksborggade 15, 11. sal, 1360 Copenhagen Thursday 17 November 2011, 8.00 – 13.00 (max 35 participants) at Eversheds Advokataktieselskab Frederiksborggade 15, 11. sal, 1360 Copenhagen SIGN UP and Programme (Please specify in the comments section, which date you would like to attend) Speakers: Mark Surguy, Eversheds LLP Anders Lykke Pedersen, Eversheds Advokataktieselskab TBA, The Danish Public Prosecutor’s office Pia Odgaard, Dansk Fashion and Textile

THE NEW government’s plan to force multina-tional corporations with operations in Denmark

to come clean about their taxes is meeting resistance from ac-countants. � ey say tax regu-lations for multinationals are su� cient and warn against un-necessarily casting suspicion on companies.

“We recommend caution when it comes to transfer pricing regulations,” said John Byholm, the chairman of the tax com-mittee for national accountant organisation FSR. “Danish rules are tough enough as it is. Stricter laws aren’t necessary.”

� e reaction comes after a proposal last week to give tax authorities more power to pre-vent multinational companies from avoiding the payment of taxes by shipping pro� ts abroad. � e plan would give tax author-ity Skat the power to call for an audit if it suspects parent com-panies are charging their sub-sidiaries in Denmark arti� cially high internal prices, also known as transfer prices.

Bygholm said such audits

could be a “signi� cant” extra cost for companies.

“� ere’s nothing wrong with increasing � nes,” Bygholm said. “But companies’ accountancy costs are also going to increase. And this means that companies are going to have to pay a lot to make sure their books are bal-anced. Denmark is on its own in this area.”

As it is right now, the regu-lation would require companies to pay for the audit, regardless of what it turned up. But Bygholm called it “only fair” that tax au-thorities reimburse companies if an audit turned up nothing suspicious.

He also criticised the pro-posal for essentially requiring companies to carry out Skat’s work for them.

According to government statistics, as many as half of all companies in Denmark do not pay taxes each year. Proposing the new taxation regulations, the Tax Ministry expressed concern that this � gure remained con-stant even during the economic expansion that ended in 2008.

“It should be a sign that something needs to be done, when so many companies aren’t paying taxes, and when corpo-rate losses can rise so rapidly during a period when the econ-omy is doing so well,” the minis-try wrote in its proposal.

Another of the concerns ac-countants have, according to

Accountants unwilling auditors in corporate tax proposal

Bygholm, is the proposal’s “im-precise” wording.

“We think it needs to specify the criteria that need to be met in order for Skat to demand an auditor’s certi� cate. � ere could be some judicial problems in-volved with the two criteria set out in the proposal.”

Ahead of its general election defeat, the previous government was also working on a similar proposal. � ose plans called for Skat to require an audit if a com-pany had an average net loss over a four-year period, based on its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT).

Bygholm, however, suggested that the period should be extend-ed to between eight and ten years.

Both proposals also mention “transactions in tax haven coun-tries” as grounds for requiring an audit. But Bygholm said Skat should not be able to demand a review based on a suspicion of such transactions.

National accounting organisation says the new rules mean companies will do Skat’s job for them

Audit would catch companies trying to ship pro� ts abroad to avoid paying taxes

Sell 5.35 5.16 7.34 0.07 0.17 0.80 5.90 8.55 5.29

Buy 5.84 5.58 7.57 0.07 0.19 0.84 6.10 8.87 5.54

AustralianDollarsAUD

CanadaDollarsCAD

EuroEUR

JapanYenJPY

RussiaRublesRUB

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SwitzerlandFrancsCHF

UKPoundsGBP

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Exchange Rates

Price in kroner for one unit of foreign currency Date: 9 November 2011

CARSTEN VITOFT, ØKONOMISK UGEBREV

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easyJet eyes city airport as base

BUDGET airline easyJet is considering establishing a base in Copenhagen from

which to expand its operations, Politiken newspaper reports.

� e news comes less than a week after the airline added three weekly � ights to Lisbon, easyJet’s ninth destination from Copenhagen Airport’s low cost terminal, CPH GO.

� e trade and investment minister, Pia Olsen Dyhr, an-nounced that the airline was interested in Copenhagen after meeting with easyJet representa-tives last week in London.

“EasyJet is seriously consid-ering Denmark as a site for es-tablishing a larger base for their planes and creating jobs,” Dyhr said.

� e message was echoed by easyJet’s regional general manag-er of northern Europe, � omas Haagensen.

“Copenhagen is clearly in a group of airports that we are focusing on because of the po-tential for growth and expan-sion,” Haagensen told Politiken. “When you look at demand, Copenhagen � ts well within our strategy.”

Copenhagen is one of easyJet’s more successful des-tinations, achieving an annual

growth in passenger numbers of almost 20 percent, as opposed to an average of 12 percent.

But while Lisbon was an-nounced this Saturday as the air-line’s 23rd European base, there is no guarantee that Copenha-gen will be the next.

“� ere are some provisions that need to be met and there are other airports that are being considered. But Copenhagen is de� nitely on easyJet’s radar,” Haagensen told Politiken.

One of the conditions would be allowing easyJet to

Government keen to attract airline’s investment but easyJet says there is no guarantee of starting Copenhagen base

BEGINNING this month until the end of March next year, � ai Airways will o� er three weekly direct � ights from Copenhagen to Phuket. � is will be the air-lines � rst direct route between Europe and Phuket.

“We expect that the new route will attract passengers from the whole of northern Europe

wishing to travel to Phuket with fewer stopovers,” said Flemming Sonne, the sales director for � ai Airlines in Denmark.

� e airline’s current Boe-ing 747 plane has 389 seats. With the three weekly � ights to Phuket, it will be able to of-fer an additional 4,600 seats per month. (EM)

Thai Airways to open � rst direct route to Phuket

park some of its airplanes at Copenhagen Airport overnight, which Politiken estimated would create about 100 jobs.

According to Dyhr, the gov-ernment is keen to accommo-date easyJet’s demands in order to secure the investment.

“I have always said that the government is always willing to negotiate and get things to hap-pen,” Dyhr said.

EasyJet has been � ying from Copenhagen since 1998 and � ies one million passengers in and out of the city annually. (PS)

Overnight parking is one of the conditions required by easyJet

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EMPLOYMENT

Learn Danish fast anD

efficientLy

focus on pronunciation

anD oraL communication

professionaL anD reLiabLe

teachers

centraLLy LocateD

(near centraL station)

Learn Danish

Københavns SprogcenterDANSK FOR UDLÆNDINGE

Københavns Sprogcenter • Valdermarsgade 16, 1665 V • Tel: 33 21 31 31• Email: adm@kbh-sprogcenter.dk

• www.kbh-sprogcenter.dk • Enroll today: 33 21 31 31

1711 - 17 November 2011 THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

Journalist praktikant

RestaurantHercegovina

Croatian restaurant with a wide choice of national and international dishes.

“Eat as much as you like” Live music and dance

Tivoli/Bernstorffsgade 3 - 1620 - Copenhagen V

Tivoli Free access to 65 museumsand attractions in the

entire metropolitan area

See more at copenhagencard.com

InOutThe CPH Post Entertainment Guide August 19 - 25

Don’t miss this Dolly fixtureForum: Thursday 20:00 Tickets 415 - 815 kr

page G6

Læser du journalistik, kommunikation, engelsk el. lign. og ønsker du at forbedre dit engelsk? Så kan The Copenhagen Post tilbyde dig muligheden.

The Copenhagen Post søger en dansktalende praktikant, til primært at hjælpe med research for engelsksproget artikler til både web og print.

Du skal kunne researche danske - og evt. engelske kilder og kunne skrive det ned i et sikkert engelsk.

Du behøver ikke være fejlfri på engelsk – det skal vi nok lære dig – men du skal være vant til at bruge det. Du behøver heller ikke vide alt om det danske samfund, men du skal vide, hvor du finder informationer.

Du vil muligvis også få muligheder for at dække nyheds begivenheder og skrive artikler på engelsk.

IT kompetencer, især design og web, er en fordel, men intet krav.

Ansøgninger, CV samt eksempler på tidligere artikler/opgaver på engelsk sendes til: hr@cphpost dk. Skriv venligst ”Journalist praktikant” i emnefeltet.

For yderligere information, kontakt venligst Editor-in-Chief Kevin McGwin på 3336 3300.

The Copenhagen Post is looking for an energetic intern to lend a hand around the newsroom.

You will primarily assist the news team by helping to maintain our website and helping with general newsroom tasks, but you will also get the opportunity to write general news items and cover community and cultural events.

In order to be considered, applicants must be able to use English at a professional level. Knowledge of Danish is useful, but not required.

Prior experience in journalism would be beneficial, is but not expected - enthusiasm and passion for reporting the news are.

Please send your application and CV, along with any writing samples, to: hr@cphpost.dk, noting “Journalist Intern” in the subject field.

For more information, please contact ditor-in-Chief Kevin McGwin på 3336 3300.

Denmark’s only English-language newspaper

RestaurantHercegovina

Croatian restaurant with a wide choice of national and international dishes.

“Eat as much as you like” Live music and dance

Tivoli/Bernstorffsgade 3 - 1620 - Copenhagen V

Tivoli Free access to 65 museumsand attractions in the

entire metropolitan area

See more at copenhagencard.com

InOutThe CPH Post Entertainment Guide August 19 - 25

Don’t miss this Dolly fixtureForum: Thursday 20:00 Tickets 415 - 815 kr

page G6

Journalist Intern

EMPLOYMENT

Help desk tecHnician, part-time city campus

The Help Desk provides ICT support to faculty, staff, and students of the school, on both Mac and Windows platforms. Working hrs between 8:30-13:30, Mon-Fri. For a detailed job description please see the school website www.cis.dk.

The successful applicant will be solutions focused and service minded, have the ability to work under pressure, prioritise requests and manage time efficiently. An excellent command of both written and spoken English is required. Great communication skills, patience, and a friendly and calm manner are vital.

Experience working in a teaching and learning environment would be an advantage. Candidates should email the information requested below to Dr. Caroline Brokvam, Senior School Principal, attention Lesley McDonald LesleyMcDonald@cis.dk

application should include:• Letter of Interest• Current CV (not to exceed two pages) and photo• References (total of 3, one being immediate supervisor)

Stockholmsgade 592100 Copenhagen ØT +45 3946 3309 www.cis.dk

Hellerupvej 22-26 2900 HellerupT +45 3946 3311 www.cis.dk

sen teacHer for tHe primary scHool resource teamHellerup campus

Applications are invited for a fixed-term part-time (80%) position of one term as SEN (special educational needs) teacher for the Primary School Resource Team at Copenhagen International School. The position will start in January and run until the end of June 2012. The successful applicant should be a qualified teacher with a further specialisation in the field of special needs.

We are seeking a candidate with the following qualities:• A strong commitment to the education of students with learning differences• Strong interpersonal and communication skills• Good organisational skills• Excellent pedagogical skills• A strong work ethic• Strong collegial relationships• A willingness and commitment to contribute to the greater school community

The successful candidate will be an individual who can demonstrate professionalism in its broadest sense.Interested candidates should email a letter of application, CV and contact details of three current referees to: Mette Trock-Jansen at mtj@cis.dk

maternity cover - early years assistant for kindergartenHellerup campus

This is a temporary full-time position to cover a maternity leave and will be starting in January 2012.

Copenhagen International School is looking for a compassionate, committed and creative early-years-educator to join the highly professional Kindergarten team in the Primary School at the Hellerup Campus. The successful candidate should be qualified to work with children between the ages of 5 and 7 with a strong background and experience in early years’ education and with a minimum of two years of experience working in an early years programme.

We are looking for an early years’ educator who• has a caring and nurturing approach with children• is organized and demonstrates effective classroom practice• has a strong work ethic can demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively• preferably has knowledge and experience of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme

Interested candidates should email a letter of application, CV and contact details of three current referees to: Mette Trock-Jansen at mtj@cis.dk

invites applications for tHe folloWing positions

tHese positions require tHe applicants to Have a Work permit for denmark.applications for all positions must be received by november 30, 2011, HoWever We reserve tHe rigHt to fill tHe positions at an earlier date.

receptionist/administrative officer, part-timecity campus

This position involves working on Reception, with the Counseling Department and IB Coordinators. Working hrs between 8:00- 13:30, Mon - Fri.

applicants should have:• Excellent organization and time management skills• Fluency in English and Danish• Excellent IT skills• Enthusiasm, energy and a sense of humour• Great interpersonal and communication skills

Experience working in a teaching and learning environment would be an advantage. Candidates should email the information requested below to Dr. Caroline Brokvam, Senior School Principal, attention Lesley McDonald LesleyMcDonald@cis.dk

application should include:• Letter of Interest• Current CV (not to exceed two pages) and photo• References (total of 3, one being immediate supervisor)

18 11- 17 November 2011The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dkcultureculture

Who is ... Thure Lindhardt?

He is a Danish film, TV and theatre actor.

How did he start out?He was educated at the Odense Theatre School, graduating in 1998. His professional debut was in the beautifully named ‘Shopping and F**king’ at the Caféteatret.

What’s he been in?In Denmark, he is perhaps best known for his starring role in the 2008 Danish film ‘Flammen og Citronen’.

Has he been in any english-language films?Yes, he had a cringeworthy cam-eo in the Hollywood film ‘Into the Wild’ and acted alongside Tom Hanks in ‘Angels and De-mons’.

Is he any good?He has received much critical ac-claim.

Has he received any official recognition?I’ve tried to avoid saying it, but he won a Shooting Star award in 2000 at the Berlin Film Festival. I’m so sick of these bloody awards – everyone I write about in this column seems to have won one of those cheesily-named things … except Prince Joachim and Bamse.

Has he been in anything bad?Most actors have appeared in films they’d rather forget, but Lindhardt starred in something everyone would rather forget. In 2002, he was in the Danish film ‘Slim Slam Slum’. The film is a Danish ‘hip-hop comedy’, and with that concept, you might wonder how it ever got past the drawing board. An IMDB re-viewer suggests you should “… watch the TV shopping channel for 10 hours instead”!

looking at that picture, I’d say he’s quite hotOf course I don’t know if you are male or female. But to be quite honest, it doesn’t matter – you’d be in with a chance either way – Lindhardt is bisexual.

What has he got lined up for the future?He is currently filming an Amer-ican film, ‘Keep the Lights On’, which will be released in 2012. If you can speak some Danish, you can catch him starring in ‘Rød’ at the Betty Nansen Teatret this month.

victoria steffensen

a gNeS Obel’s musical career so far has been de-fined by the slow ascent.

On 5 November, the fruits of the 31-year-old singer-song-writer’s labour were on full dis-play at the 22nd annual Danish Music Awards. Obel took home prizes for this year’s Danish Album, Danish Female Artist, New Danish Name, Danish Songwriter and Danish Pop Release

The Berlin-based song-stress’s success at the Danish Music Awards was done almost entirely on the back of her 2010 debut album ‘Philharmonics’. Keeping with the theme of a ca-reer that has blossomed slowly but steadily, the critically ac-claimed album only climbed to the number-one slot on the Danish charts in its 13th week after debuting at number four.

The success of ‘Philhar-monics’ isn’t restricted to Den-mark, however. The album also hit number one on the Belgian Album Chart in April, and it made the top 10 in France and

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While Beyonce is singing ‘Love on Top’, an 18-year-old arhus is getting on top … of the music industry, that is

YOUNg Carl emil Jo-hansen was recently of-fered a golden ticket to the big-time after being

contacted by Beyonce Knowles’s management team to remix the pop star’s latest hit.

Columbia Records came a-knockin’ after Johansen’s dad Jacob went a-callin’, sending a copy of Carl’s remix of ‘Count-down’ to a contact of his in Brooklyn, New York. “They re-ally liked ‘Countdown’ so they asked me to do another remix of ‘Love on Top’, which I just fin-ished last week ... I actually think it’s better than the original,” said the teenager, who goes by the name Carl Tio.

It then came as no surprise to Johansen that the record com-pany also fell crazy in love with ‘Love on Top’. “I think my remix stood out because it’s more me-lodic, I don’t just sit at a compu-ter and bang out something … learning piano for ten years has given me a the ear for creating great tunes,” he said.

And if Columbia Records keep that lovin’ feelin’, Johansen’s remix will be featured on an eP due to be released next month.

So the chase to nab a piece of the up-and-comer has begun … and it’s not just the girls making the moves. “Lenny Kravitz, Chris Willis and Peaches’ management team have contacted me after hearing the Beyonce remix … they want me to do something with their material too,” said Jo-hansen, who seems unphased by the offers.

While he’s becoming known abroad for his remixes, locally he’s known as a member of the seven-piece group ‘Point Blank’. Describing their sounds as old jazz records meet soul meets ‘90s hip-hop, their tunes seem to have stood him in good stead.

And we all know that when fame is on your back doorstep, it’s important to keep your head screwed on and stick with your education. But Johansen has dropped the books in favour of something a little more to his liking. “I dropped out of gym-nasium three weeks ago, but I’ve started at frontloberne – a cultural institution where I can focus on music.”

So does he see a future rub-bing shoulders with P Diddy and binging with Britney? Perhaps, but “if I don’t end up as a mu-sician I want to be a booker for bands.”

Who runs the (music) world? Carl Tio soon might. But hey, if he doesn’t make it, he can always look back and say that was the best thing I never had. tio is grabbing the attention of international music acts like Beyoncé with his talent for remixes

Three of her five awards - game of skittles anyone?

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all the single ladies … take a look at Carl TioeMiLY McLean

slowly but surely, agnes obel is taking over danish music

Across: 1 Acknowledge; 9 Put; 10 Vigilance; 11 Recur; 13 Apparel; 14 Punish; 16 beaten; 18 Imagine; 19 Cadet; 20Tangerine; 21 Tan; 22 Traditional.Down: 2 Cut; 3 Never; 4 Wigwam; 5 Eclipse; 6 Generated; 7 Appropriate; 8 Wellingtons; 12 Container; 15 Stipend; 17Desist; 19 Credo; 21 Tea.

text 35

Across1. Own (11)9. Place (3)10. Watchfulness (9)11. Happen again (5)13. Attire (7)14. Chastise (6)16. Thrashed (6)18. Fancy (7)19. Military student (5)20. Fruit (9)21. Brown (3)22. Handed down as custom (11)

No 372

Down2. Sever (3)3. At no time (5)4. Red Indian tent (6)5. Outshine (7)6. Produced (9)7. Suitable (11)8. High boots (11)12. Receptacle (9)15. Clergyman’s salary (7)17. Cease (6)19. Creed (5)21. Beverage (3)

Post Quick Crossword No 371Across: 1 Such; 3 Astonish; 9 Amateur; 10 Comic; 11 Discomposure; 13 Recess; 15 Cohere; 17 Overstrained;20 Again; 21 Collide; 22 Skeleton; 23 News.Down: 1 Standard; 2 Crass; 4 Scrape; 5 Occasionally; 6 Immerse; 7 Hack; 8 Remonstrance; 12 Heedless;14 Caviare; 16 Stucco; 18 Noise; 19 Pass.

The Copenhagen Post Quick Crossword No 371

the Netherlands as well. The sales reflect this; ‘Philharmon-ics’ has been certified gold in Belgium, platinum in France, and triple platinum in Den-mark.

And judging by the viewer-ship numbers for the Danish Music Awards, plenty of people witnessed Obel’s ‘coming out party’. With assistance from the fact that these were the first awards broadcast on national TV since 2008, the Danish Music Awards drew 958,000 viewers, crushing the previous record of 854,000 viewers who watched the awards in 2001.

Late blossomer arrives in style

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1911 - 17 November 2011 The CopeNhageN posT CphposT.dk Denmark through the looking glass

gorgeous georgie, shy gI, who said “hej hej” to being a guy

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a N AMERICAN citizen born to Danish parents, George Jorgensen Jr would return to Denmark to transform into

the woman he had always dreamed of being. The unconfident and depressed George became the beautiful and suc-cessful Christine, and an international symbol for the rights and acceptance of life as a transsexual, courageously break-ing social barriers starting in 1953.

On 20 May 1926, Jorgensen was born in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. He reported a fairly happy childhood, but hiding just below the surface, he always knew something was different. So did his mother, and she would later tell Jorgensen that she chose to ignore his difference because she didn’t know how to deal with it. In American Weekly magazine in 1953, Jorgensen, who had become Christine at that point, wrote that he remembered praying at night that Santa Claus would bring him a doll just like his older sister, Dorothy. Instead, he received a bright red train and had to hide his disappoint-ment.

During his teenage years, young Jorgensen’s alienation became more pronounced. A thin, pale child, he grew

From the time he was small, he knew he was different from all the other boys. after years of struggle, george finally found happiness and success as a woman in denmark

into a slight, delicate young man. Jorgensen felt “lost between the sexes”, a woman trapped in a man’s body. He found some solace in attending the dances held at the Danish-American Beach Club in New York. But rather than ask the teenage girls to dance with him, like the other boys did, Jorgensen stood at the side and admired the girls’ dresses and their ability to flirt. The girls, in turn, admired his long eye-lashes, giggling portentously that, “he should have been born a girl.”

Jorgensen’s father was a photog-raphy buff. During his senior year of high school, Jorgensen sublimated his conflicted feelings by pouring himself into learning the craft of photography. He thought that perhaps by becom-ing successful professionally, he could overcome his constant feeling of being alone in the world. George’s father was thrilled and helped him build a dark-room at home.

After high school, Jorgensen got a job cutting together newsreels for RKO-Pathe News. The job gave him the idea that he could perhaps one day use his photography skills to make motion pictures. Hollywood became a private dream for the shy, thin young man.

Though he came of age during World War Two, Jorgensen’s physi-cal stature led him to be rejected for army service twice by the United States Draft Board. But the third time he was called before the Draft Board, Jorgensen passed his physical examination and was approved for service in the armed forc-es. Jorgensen was intelligent and passed

BONNIE FORTUNE

Jorgensen served in the us army during World War ii before undergoing revolutionary sex-change surgery in Denmark

The true story of Jorgensen’s life was so sensational at the time that a feature film was based on her autobiographical book

the qualifying exams to be given a job as a clerk, never seeing combat. Jorgensen had a relatively easy time in the army, considering his physical stature. Despite this, feelings of being trapped between the sexes remained in the back of the young serviceman’s mind. After com-pleting his army service, George resur-rected his Hollywood dream and moved to California.

In his early 20s, California seemed like a land of possibility far away from his awkward youth in New York, but sadly his dreams did not come true there either. In California, Jorgensen was friends with two Danish ladies, Lone

and Ellen. The three went shopping together and socialised in Hollywood clubs and restaurants in the evenings. Jorgensen helped them prepare for dates with Hollywood moguls, choosing ac-cessories and hairstyles for the women. Though he was close friends with Lone and Ellen, his alienation remained just below the surface, leading to a perma-nent state of depression and shame. Jorgensen felt unable to share the true cause of his anxiety, and the emotional turmoil sapped his energy and confi-dence in finding Hollywood success; he returned to New York.

Under the ‘GI Bill’, the US govern-ment paid for servicemen like Jorgensen to attend college. At this time, his feel-ings and feminine tendencies became so pronounced that Jorgensen started researching possible medical causes. At libraries in New York, he researched and read that the treatmement for hormo-nal imbalances was at an advanced stage in Scandinavia. Jorgensen, convinced that he was actually a woman trapped in a man’s body, began taking female hormones without the supervision of a medical doctor. It was a bad idea, but he was desperate.

Luckily, a medical friend convinced him to stop his adventures in self-treat-ment and follow up on his research. “Go to Scandinavia and see if the research-ers and doctors there can help you,” his friend said. So in 1950, at the age of 24, Jorgensen set sail for Denmark, never to return to the US as a man.

Jorgensen’s friend from Hollywood, Ellen, had returned to Denmark and met him at Copenhagen Harbour. She suggested that he visit a Danish doctor called Christian Hamburger. Dr Ham-burger, along with others, was working on cutting-edge hormonal research. He agreed to take on Jorgensen’s case pro bono if Jorgensen would agree to be his research subject. Jorgensen happily agreed – hopefully this would finally provide relief from his crisis.

The Copenhagen doctors diagnosed Jorgensen with a glandular problem. He did not have an Adam’s apple, and his sexual organs had never matured to an adult state. At that time, research into hormonal and glandular problems and transsexualism was being successfully conducted in Scandinavia and Germa-ny. Little was being done in the field in the US. The doctors suggested he begin hormonal treatment.

Over the next two and a half years, Jorgensen would undergo intensive hor-monal treatment and several operations at Copenhagen’s Rigshospitalet to re-

move his male sexual organs. At the end of the treatment in 1953, George Jor-gensen Jr was no more. He had trans-formed into a she, the beautiful, blonde Christine Jorgensen. Christine chose her new name in honour of Dr Chris-tian Hamburger, who had believed in her case enough to help her become who she felt she was inside.

Over the course of her treatment in Denmark, Jorgensen became happier and happier. She made friends, taught classes in colour photography, and be-gan making a film about her travels. She finally felt comfortable in her skin. Jor-gensen wrote in ‘American Weekly’ that, after she underwent her final operation, she went to the beauty salon with a Danish female friend. The pair got their hair and nails done and went to Tivoli amusement park to celebrate. At Tivoli, a place Jorgensen loved, she got her first catcall from a group of American sol-diers on leave. Of this time, Jorgensen later said: “My years of insecurity were over, and my energy was boundless.”

Jorgensen’s parents came to visit her in Copenhagen and meet their new ‘daughter’. They expressed happiness because their child was finally happy. Overall, the European attitude towards sex and sexuality was more relaxed than the American attitude that Jorgensen had fled from. Her story began to spread – first in Denmark and then around the world. She began receiving letters from hundreds of lonely and desperate peo-ple to whom she was an inspiration. For the majority of her life, Jorgensen had been a shy, insecure person, but reading the anguished letters supporting her ac-tions, she began to feel that it was her duty to speak out in public.

Jorgensen sold her exclusive story to ‘American Weekly’ and went on to live the rest of her life as a public fig-ure. Returning to the US in 1953, clad in furs and red lipstick, she was met by a cadre of reporters and never looked back. Jorgensen supported herself with speaking engagements and her night-club act in which she sang ‘I Enjoy Be-ing a Girl.’ After her parents died, she moved to California again, finally feel-ing at home, accepted as a woman and recognised as a bona fide celebrity.

Before Jorgensen died of cancer in 1989, she authored ‘The Christine Jorgensen Story: An Autobiography’, which was also made into a film. She died a celebrated woman who had advanced the public’s understanding of transsexualism and acceptance that some people do not feel comfortable living as the ‘wrong’ gender.

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

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Top left: 1 Anker Overgaard, Post Danmark A/S. 2 Mika Hamalainen, Tyrolit A/S. 3 Rune Hansen Telia, Part of TeliaSonera Group. 4 Morten Stahlschmidt, Arkitema Architects. 5 Bojan Jokic, Epteca Ltd. 6 Morten Søndervang Sohrt, DMI. 7 Torben Bjerring, Simonsen & Weel A/S. 8 Jørgen Sparre, STELTON. 9 Finn Kofoed-Dam, Evenex. 10 Frank Skovsted, Vestas Nacelles Deutschland GmbH. 11 Malte Fryd Tønnesen, MT Højgaard A/S. 12 Frank Steen Pedersen, Frederiksberg Forsyning A/S. 13 Rasmus Grusgaard, Væksthus Sjælland. 14 Pablo Kroff, Simbiente-Environmental Engineering & Management. 15 Lars Thiesson, Hvidovre Forsyning. 16 Jesper Dünweber Darre, Human Capital Group. 17 Anne Marie Tommerup, Dansk Arkitektur Center. 18 Rikke Gotfred, Region Hovedstaden 3kløveren. 19 Klaus Stahl Rasmussen, Nokia Siemens Networks. 20 Joachim Gerlach, Lightship Chartering A/S. 21 Henrik Rohmann-Sønderby, Nordania Leasing. 22 Allan Bodal, Scan AB/Kreatina A/S. 23 Brian Kain, H.J. Hansen Genvindingsindustri A/S. 24 Kim Tingleff Bruun, Sophus Berendsen. 25 Kristian Andreasen, SuperGros a/s. 26 Morten Rytter, Rovsing. 27 Pernille Sten Krohn, HESN Holding. 28 Thomas Bo Christensen, Saxo Bank A/S. 29 Kenneth Traulsen, Telia, Part of TeliaSonera Group. 30 Jesper Højer Jensen, Haldor Topsøe. 31 Peter Christensen, Quintus Corporate Finance. 32 Lise Grove Linde, Transmedica A/S. 33 Yan Liu, A.P. Møller Mærsk. 34 Stefan Kousgaard, Amesto Solutions A/S. 35 Changye Song. 36 Lene Elisabeth Schmidt, KPMG. 37 Anita Osborne, Dako Denmark A/S. 38 Jesper Klingsten Nielsen, PowerSense A/S. 39 Lars Klepsch, BEC. 40 Martin Ridderstråle, Skåne University Hospital. 41. Kåre Find Nielsen, Københavns Lufthavne A/S. 42 Aske Wieth-Knudsen, DSB S-tog A/S. 43 Dorte Voravong, Birkegaarden Danmark A/S. 44 Pia Krogh Albrechtsen. 45 Sue Piper, Sony Nordic A/S. 46 Sigrid Viergutz, Nycomed. 47 Tex Tofte, FRIE Funktionærer. 48 Joshua Perry, Onsite Service ApS. 49 Priti Bajaj, Medical Affairs Consultant. 50 Mira Mi Song Nielsen, Tryg. 51 Line Køhler Ljungdahl, GasLog Ltd. 52 Annette Richter Nærum. Not present: Ben Holland, Siemens Wind Power A/S. David Mygind, International Lighting Company ApS