Revival of Danish golden age

A rare specimen of - not only Danish poster art, when it is at its best, but of the Danish golden age. They know the noble art of not only drawing so that you can see what it's supposed to look like, but to make a representation of what is most precious to Danes: Their freedom of speech.

The Danish constitution may - admittedly - be a very old document, but there's one thing it is not doubtful about, and that is freedom of expression. "Ytringsfrihed" in Danish - a most valuable principle that the Danes are ready to die for.

On the other hand, censorship is not Danish. The Danes love being criticised, - when only the dialogue is constructive. Danes do not like unconstructive dialogue.

"We stand firmly on Danish values" - and we do not do it got get votes in an election. That way of thinking may apply to others, not the crusaders for freedom of speech. Because, after all, it is a crusade, a crusade we intend to win.

Revival of Danish poster art

A Danish election poster that tells the Danish people about the bright prospects, the happiness, a new government may bring. The long arm of the state, in the shape of a female hand, donates homes to the huddled masses. They no longer have to walk the streets of Copenhagen, unable to afford lousy bed/sit apartments at 2million kroners a piece. They'll just move into the ultimate Danish dream house - red-brick luxury in a sleepy suburb.

The voters are told that "the Social Democrats will do anything to get power" so the common man's habitat problems will be solved.

Don't believe that nonsense. Houses are God-sent from Heaven. The Manicured Gucchi-hand will see to that. And we shall not allow huddled masses to go hungry to bed. We know, because we depend on them. Who else would inhabit the royal corridors of Christian's Castle.

Will you play monopoly with Helle? Or will you give Helle the monopoly of power - let the red menace infiltrate the body politic of the sweet Danish electorate?

The Dane's home is his castle - a place for monopoly or the growing of bright flowers. Danish values are giving shelter from the pellets of storm from beyond the borders. We remain committed to Danish values. It's your country - and by that we mean it's literally yours. You own it. And you own the red bricks as well - you may even eat them. That we've also seen to. And we've seen to lots of other things too.

Danish Poster Art

The Danes are known as a hospitable people. Some years ago the tourist authority of Copenhagen made a campaign called "Meet the Danes". Tourists got the enviable chance of being invited into quite normal homes of quite normal Danes. What an experience that must have been.... - Eating brown gravy, pork and well-boiled white potatoes. Looking at photos of holidays in the camper with aunt Alma and uncle Fred.

Now Danish hospitality is being extended to new people coming to Denmark. Look at the lady in the picture. The tourist authority of Copenhagen has been kind enough to put an ATM at her disposal, so she can draw her social security money that other althruistic Danes willingly have paid to her in taxes.

No wonder that the poster talks of "genuine welfare". Where would we be without it?

The Danes know full well that they themselves go in large crowds to foreign places. And just as they want to be well-comed, the wellcome must be extended to foreigners coming to visit Denmark. After all, it's your country - your choice.

Sweden is Drowning in Foreigners

DPP Election poster 2007: Sweden is drowning in Foreigners - they haven't got a Pia Kjærsgaard


Sweden is used as a scare-mongering symbol. The Danish People's Party is a very responsible parliamentary player in Danish politics, though. It forms a parliamentary majority with the liberal-conservative Fogh Rasmussen government. It is compensated handsomely for this support. The party, under the leadership of Pia Kjaersgaard, is working for the poor and elderly by giving ear-marked money in the annual budget negotiations.

Welfare, however, is something that is reserved to ethnic Danes, not to foreign "aliens". When it comes to foreigners the party is xenophobic - to say the least. It is also throwing verbal turds around to an extent that it's an embarrassment to Fogh Rasmussen and to Danish society in general. In the election campaign 2007 its member of the European Parliament Mogens Camre called one of the leaders of the new centre party New Alliance an "Arab carpet trader" with a "carpet-trader logic".

The Danish People's Party is reinforcing known stereotypes about the immigrant population in Denmark. Look at the picture in the election poster: Immigrants are religious devout muslims facing a traditional Arab gate. Some of the immigrants do live up to this description, and they have a right to do so. But investigations have shown that the typical muslim immigrant gets rather secular and a little materialistic, taking only superficial, "cultural" part of their religion along with them into the new society - a little bit like the other Danes. So what's the big deal? The Danish labour market needs labour. Some immigrants have come to the country, some fleeing from religious persecution, some looking for work. And they do most of the menial jobs - for a low pay. Work and work conditions most Danes would discard. Your country - your choice! - Your choice not to be like Sweden, a country with a booming economy and an industry that has not been outsourced completely to low-wage countries. Sweden, still being the genuine Scandinavian welfare state, with some solidarity to people with less means.

Thy Kingdom Come - Hedegaard's Hate Speech

When will he replace Queen Margrethe?

LARS HEDEGAARD:The Growth of Islam in Denmark and the Future of Secularism. There appears to be a growing realization among demographers that, despite the anti-immigration policies of the current Danish government, third-world immigrants and their descendants will constitute the majority of the Danish population before the end of this century. A sizeable segment of this third-world population will be Muslim, and well before the middle of the 21st century, the number of Muslims will be large enough to have irreversibly changed the composition and character of the country. (Sappho.dk)

Listening to Lars Hedegaard's hate speech on Sappho one gets the impression that so-called democratic Denmark has moved back to the 1930s. It's not hard to see where the inspiration comes from, and it's not only from xenophobic Mogens Camre, who has said similar things at Danish People's Party meetings (some of the nonsense quoted on his website), it goes further back in history.

In the 1970s a vet from the progress Party (forerunner to the Danish People's Party) got a sentence for saying that they were "breeding like ......" (guess what?). Hedegaard's message is not quite as blunt, but the content is the same.

Hedegaard seems to be unaware of demographic data saying that the birth rate falls among immigrant women when they have stayed in Denmark for some time. Quite apart from that, - isn't it a fact that we need "more hands" in this society? In Hedegaard's view these hands should not be muslim hands. Christian hands are so much better in his opinion!

A Revolutionary Dane

In the last post we talked about a subversive sausage man. In this post the subject is a revolutionary Dane.

Generally speaking Danes stopped being in favour of revolution a long time ago. But when it comes to Pia Kjaersgaard, and what she would like to do to the Enhedsliste candidate to the Folketing Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, revolution is the word.

In an interview with the xenophobic-conservative magazine Sappho Pia Kjaersgaard is asked: What would be the significance of Asmaa being elected to the Folketing? Pia Kjaersgaard answers:

"There should be a lot more focus on the backing she's got from the Islamic Association in Denmark. Are they in favour of the same things as the Enhedsliste (Unity List)? Weddings for homosexuals, Lesbians' right to insemination, etc. No, they aren't! But if Asmaa had run for the Conservatives, they would have backed them as well. The don't give a damn, if only they get a fundamentalist into the Folketing".

Then they ask her: So what'll you do the day she speaks in parliament and starts her speeches with the words "In the name of Allah, the Merciful"? Pia Kjaersgaard:

"I think there'll be a revolution.... We'll kick her out. Yes, we will. I nearly said by physical force. but that's not feasible. So, what'll we do, by all means? Let's see, if she intends to sign the constitution in the first place. I think there'll be a revolution, the Danes have a way of clenching their fists in the pockets for a while. I think they'll have had it."

So, the parliamentary support of the conservative-liberal government is a closet revolutionary. That is interesting. It is even more thought-provoking that she talks about freedom of speech on all occasions. She seems to have some difficulty practising this principle herself, when she will deny Asmaa Abdol-Hamid this fundamental right.

The Subversive Sausage Man

One of the cozy Danish "national tokens" is the so-called "pølsevogn" (Sausage van). It exploits the Danish tradition for producing pork in enormous quantities. The rather unpalatable remains from the butcheries are turned into the traditional Danish red sausage that is sold from the small, rickety vans at street corners.

Now the pølsevogn - or at least one pølsevogn in Copenhagen - has become a hotbed of revolutionary activity. The Guardian wrote about this peculiar phenomenon a few days ago:

It is an unlikely terrorist hideout, inhabited by an even less likely terrorist. But in the eyes of Denmark's ministry of justice, Preben Mikkelson, the 56-year-old grandfather cheerfully grilling half a dozen different kinds of sausages by the roadside earlier this week is at the very least a terrorist sympathiser. And if the Danish justice minister, Lene Espersen, has her way, soon his only contact with the culinary world will be prison rations.

What is happening to the peaceful little Kingdom of Denmark, once the pride of lovers of freedom of speech? Some young people, and the 56 year old grandfather and sausage seller, are producing T-shirts with the emblems of FARC and PFLP, and selling them, even from a pølsevogn (which is near to blasphemous to this symbol of the national identity!) - not to support killings and terrorism, but to give a fraction of the money to humanitarian purposes.

Their organisation "Fighters and Lovers" wants to assist down-trodden people in their freedom fight. The Danish state does not like this idea. Even though the Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and justice minister Lene Espersen are self-professed champions of free speech, these young people - and the sausage seller - should not be allowed to share this freedom. With the EU terror lists and the Danish penal code in their hands they're prosecuting the young activists, who can be sentenced to 10 years in jail.

On a famous Danish tourist poster you can see a policeman helping a duck and its ducklings across the street - peace and quiet in the romantic Kingdom. Not for young people who want to make a difference in the world!