Cosmic Duck

Denmark introduces Border Controls

2011-06-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Danes are a powerful and rich people. If you have a lot of belongings you better take good care of them. Foreigners may come and steal your things.

On the other hand, Danes sometimes worry that they do not produce enough. GDP is too low, especially if you want to maintain a high living standard in your old age. The welfare, including pensions, risk running out. The Pension bomb is threatening the Danes. In order to avoid that, and to be prepared for the future, the government has passed austerity measures in the Danish parliament. It was, however, difficult to find a majority of votes without the Danish Peoples Party, the far right xenophobic party which is getting more and more popular. The party took a heavy toll for its votes to pass the welfare legislation, and that was the demand for border controls so the country can be protected from unwanted elements entering the country.

The passing of this legislation has been a big triumph for party leader Pia Kjaersgaard, who could celebrate the event with pink champagne and Danish flags. "It is a historic moment", she could announce. Development towards a more integrated Europe has been reversed. Now the Danes can again breathe freely in their own country.

The Germans and the European Commission are not so happy about the new legislation to introduce border controls. The deputy foreign minister of Germany wrote a comment about a "dangerous igniting of the flame of nationalism". This irked the stout lady, and she pulled the "nazi card". Seeing that she was being upstaged by a phanatical globalist she admonished that the Germans should know better, taking their historical experiences into consideration.

This has probably angered the Germans. And the foreign minister of Denmark has travelled to Berlin to do some damage control. As this is the diplomacy, it is hard to tell if she has been successful. Diplomats do not show feelings.

Denmark humiliates Clinton

2010-04-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

Is Danish foreign policy invented and developed at Landsbyens Gadekær, Danes ask themselves after the foreign secretary, Lene Espersen, cancelled her participation in the informal Arctic Council meeting. She preferred to holiday in Mallorca with her family.

That is something of a snub to the prominent participant in the meeting, Hilary Clinton. Why does the United States want to be represented at such a high level at this meeting with Denmark, Faroe Islands, Greenland and Canada? - Evidently because the meeting is important. The Arctic Council is important. So you're represented at a high level. But that is not a Danish concern.

Landsbyens Gadekær is the pond in the middle of Danish villages, where the villagers used to meet in the olden days. The days when democracy was alive and vibrant. Those days are long gone. Now policy is made by arrogant ministers at a distance from the people. They do not even have to make policy when family is calling.

Mallorca is an ancient Danish tourist resort. You could say the Vikings have come back to claim their right to places faraway from Denmark. Here they can drink sangria and enjoy life in the sun. The sun isn't shining much in Denmark, only on posters from Lene Espersen's political pals in the Danish People's party. Do present day Vikings know how to defend their turf? That seems to be doubtful. Too much sangria and lying in the sun makes them lazy.

The meeting was only for the coastal states. Hilary Clinton has criticised that inuit peoples and other Scandinavian countries were not invited. That makes the Danish foreign secretary's snub even more appalling. Denmark was invited, but sent the less important minister for Justice. The Americans have got an opportunity to feel superior in the eyes of arctic peoples. They have already a very big foot in the door in Greenland (Thule base, investments). And the Danes foot the bill, nearly a billion $ a year in block grants to Greenland. Footing the bill, but giving up on furthering interests in this important region. Luckily it's April 1st. !!

Another Giant step in the development of Danish Poster Art

2010-03-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

Who's in the driver's seat in Denmark? The priests, of course. Who else? You thought the Imams? No way. Or God perhaps? A special concept of democracy? Or just keeping up with the Americans?

And the flag is blue. With yellow stars. The places of worship are white. And they were built a long time ago. Who could be more innocent?

The talents of artistic expression are limitless. There is a concept for it. Danish design? No.

It is called Danish poster art.

What happened to the cows? Are they being milked? Or are they producing new posters? Nobody can tell. That's one of the secrets of organic farming!!

Racists want Racism Clause Abolished

2010-03-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Who makes the decisions in Denmark? The poster asks. What a silly question. You just read, on, and you'll get the answer.

Politics is the art of the ludicrous. Imagine a town hall with demonstrators before it, not understanding that they are demonstrating in front of a place of non-decision!
Anyway, that is what the Danish People's Party (PPP) seems to presume, when it comes to where the seat of power is. When it comes to actually deciding things, the people's own parliament is arguably a place of power. Who can understand this contradiction?

On the party's website there's a demand for the abolition of the ban in the penal law against racist utterances. Here is at least one law that is not passed in Brussels, but in the Danish parliament!

The spokesperson for the party, Mr. Soeren Espersen, has a charming way of putting it. It's a "demand to the government".
Who in Danish society, apart from the Queen, is so almighty that they can make such a request?

You guessed right: The Danish People's Party, and its chairwoman Pia Kjaersgaard. They call the shots. No Dane has any doubts about it. The party also wants the blasphemy clause done away with. This is more surprising, as the clause has seldom been used in Danish court rooms. But, as Mr Espersen puts it: It's a problem if you cannot make criticism of religion.

What about a civil discussion of the issues? Mr Espersen cannot distinguish between civil conversation and criticism!

No way, that is not DPP. When they criticise religion they really mean criticise religion. And it is not a laughing matter. You have the right to call muslims anything you want. If you had said to Jews some of the things DPP say about muslims, you would have been dragged in front of the UN and European Human rights councils and courts.

Some of the DPP people, for instance the representative in the European Parliament, Morten Messerschmidt, have got racism verdicts for statements about minorities. That has not been a hindrance for the Danish VK-government in its parliamentary affection for the party as a close and trusted ally. A position that has made Pia Kjaersgaard the most powerful woman in Denmark. Some people even mean she is the most powerful politician of all. When she looks inquisitive or when she raises her voice, the PM, Mr. Loekke Rasmussen is trembling. Good bye chauffeur driven limousine. Good bye all the perks of the premiership.

So now all Danish are expectant: Will the anti-racism and blasphemy rules disappear from Danish law.

The party with no longer accept "democratic debate being stepped upon", as Mr Espersen puts it. He doesn't go into any detail about other things in Denmark that get the feel of the big boot - and that can be understood in more than one sense!

Gender Separation in Danish old age homes?

2010-03-06T02:11:00.000-08:00

The Danish People's party, the extreme right xenophobic party, has found a new worthy case for its hate speech against muslims in Denmark.

On its website it claims that The Municipal Council in Copenhagen is working to make old age nursery homes where men and women are separated. This has turned out to be a big lie. The issue was discussed a couple of years ago, but no initiatives were taken. Now the Danish Peoples Party member of the council Finn Rudaitzky claims that the council is working to promote this issue again.

There seems to be no shame in the DPP when it propagates "Danish culture" and "Danish values". It is even more shameful that the website brings the picture above to validate the story. It is not a picture of Danish muslim women, but of muslim women in Germany. The photo can be found on many German websites.

The national chauvinistic Danish fundamentalists are fabricating stories to propagate its hate speech against minorities in Denmark.

Some weeks ago the DPP member of the Danish parliament Jesper Langballe said on TV that "muslim men rape and kill their daughters and nieces". This was meant as a general characterization and not as a statement about some men. The DPP leader Pia Kjaersgaard expressed mild disagreement about this statement. She did not distance herself from it or exclude Langballe from the party for racist statements.

The DPP is part of the parliamentary basis of the Danish government. It is practically part of the governing coalition of Denmark. It is a sorry state of affairs that the country's government is dependent on racists to get a majority behind its legislation. Some years ago the finance minister in the government, who is from the liberal party Venstre, said in a newspaper interview that he shared DPP's values in the area of identity politics. - Even though these values are against the European charter of human rigthts and the EU charter. It's important to keep government positions apparently.

New Giant Step for Danish Poster Art - a small step for mankind

2010-03-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

In our series on Danish poster art we got to this wonderful specimen. A protest from the Danish People's Party (DPP) against the Copenhagen City Council voting to permit the building of a mosque in Copenhagen. The DPP employs its usual and well-known charm in putting this delicate matter.

There is no doubting the intent, however. Nor is there any doubting the intent of Danish muslims. Have you noticed the two swords at the top of the postmodern building. What do they signify? Cosmic Duck promises a prize to anyone with the correct answer. Post a comment with the answer. It doesn't hurt!

A Good Laugh

2008-07-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

Europeans must be getting a good laugh these days. The restrictive Danish immigration policy has come to the end of the road with the revelations of how the Danish ministry of immigration has handled applications for family reunion.
According to Danish law applicants for family reunion in Denmark must be 24 or older, and they must have a primary attachment to Denmark. The result has been that hundreds of young couples have settled acroos the bridge in Malmoe Sweden.
Now it has turned out that some of the applicants have cited European law of the common labour market as a reason for permission to stay in Denmark, but this has been turned down by the ministry, in blatant violation of European law. If people have been working for at least two weeks in another EU country they're entitled to stay in Denmark. People have not been informed of these rights, even if they have asked the ministry. The minister in charge, Birte Hornbech, is not available for comments. Nor is the prime minister, Mr. Fogh Rasmussen, who is having summer holiday in Southern France. He refuses to come home for such minor details as families with children being broken up, when husbands or wives are expelled from Denmark.
The restrictive immigration policy gets backing from all the "responsible" political parties in the Danish parliament. It's a malaise at the heart of the political system. Danish jurists are trying to find a way out. But actually Denmark must come to terms with the stark choice: Does it want to stay in the EU, or does it want to maintain a xenophobic, anti-humanitarian immigration policy?

(The picture is an election poster from one of the most "responsible" of the political parties. The text: When she retires, there'll be a muslim majority in Denmark. Instead they could ask the question: When she retires, what kind of society will she be living in?)

It is DF who Crossed a Line, not Jørgen Poulsen

2008-05-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

It is typical of the debate in Denmark that Jørgen Poulsen's likening of the DF poster campaign against the Danish muslims to the Ewige Jude campaign in Germany in 1937 has created such an uproar. Politicians from the governing liberal party have condemned what he said.

Why did they do that? These politicians evidently have a problem. They cooperate with a party with such leanings. The DF leader is the second most powerful politician in Denmark! They dare not speak against her.

Jørgen Poulsen made his remarks at the national convention of New Alliance, the smallest center party in the Danish Parliament. This party has been a critic of the Danish People's Party, and what they stand for. But in this case the leader of the party Naser Khader has said that Mr. Poulsen has gone too far. He would not put it that way himself.

Actually, when you look at the pictures and the surroundings in which the muslim symbols are set, there's a lot of similarity to what the German nazis did with the "Eternal Jew". He was associated with money, Rothschild, finance capitalism, maltreatment of animals, etc. Very few muslims in Denmark would be able to recognize what they stand for in DF's images of them. They are in favour of the Danish rule of law, not Allah's. However, the effect of the campaign might be that they turn away from Danish values. You can see a lot of young muslims doing that. The DF is inciting to ethnic hatred in Danish society. Wasn't that what the nazis did in Germany against the Jews?

In these posters, the muslims in Denmark are associated with submission of women, sharia legislation, dictatorship, curbs on freedom of speech and other principles cherished by the Danes.

It's a small minority of muslims in Denmark who are in favour of sharia. The Danish Court administration has said in very unequivocal terms that it would never allow any judge to make verdicts on the basis of any other legislation than the Danish penal code. Such a judge would be dismissed immediately.

Why don't Danes support Jørgen Poulsen instead of turning away from him?

DF crosses a Line

2008-05-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Danish People's Party (DF) has crossed a line for what ought to be permissible; but not in Denmark! It is still part of the parliamentary majority of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, head of the liberal-conservative government in Denmark.

The Danish court administration has made a rule about head scarves in Danish courts. They should be allowed, even though there's not a single muslim judge. - At this moment, but they may come. Therefor the government is overruling the court administration's judgment by passing a law - with the support of the DF - prohibiting head scarves in Court.

What is so devilish in the DF advertising campaign is the fact that the court administration did not allow burqas.

Here we see a woman in a burqa and with a judge's gavel. Passing sentence on whom? The ordinary Dane perhaps? The man in the street?

"The Court therefore finds". Below the picture is the headline Submission (underkastelse). Who is going to submit? - submitted to whom? It's a devilish message! It makes you think of the 1930s.
Under the DF logo at the bottom: Give Denmark back to us. The muslim is supposedly stealing the country, or has stolen it.

A few days ago the top DF politician and chairman of the financial Committee in the Danish parliament Mr Thulesen Dahl admitted that the party is "anti-muslim". The following afternoon he retracted the word. The party is supposedly "anti-islamic".

Danish Torchbearers' Hypocrisy

2008-02-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

The Danes have fought a new battle for freedom of expression. 13 Danish newspapers have - in herculean bravery, or so they seem to think - reprinted the cartoon showing Mohammed with dynamite in his turban. Why have they done that? "In these days we're all Jyllandsposten", they say. All equally foolish and limited in outlook.
Do they really think they can entertain their readers with these amateurish lines on a sheet of paper?
The whole Danish society is now dancing to the tune of Pia Kjaersgaard.
It does so to the extent that they violate the principles of a society based on the rule of law that it otherwise cherishes. Two young Tunesians charged with plotting to kill Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist, do not get normal legal rights when they're expelled from the country. They have their families in Denmark. They have lived in the country for years. They must leave it by administrative order.

Freedom of expression does not seem to apply to muslims. Two days ago a young man of 17 was arrested in the Danish town of Kalundborg for expressing the view that the events might lead to more protests in the streets. There was no freedom of expression for him.

Revival of Danish golden age

2007-12-29T15:15:00.001-08:00

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

2007-12-19T06:38:00.001-08:00

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

2007-12-07T05:35:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-02T06:02:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-01T03:59:00.000-08:00

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!

Danish Head Scarf Debate to start all over

2007-11-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

The new minister of immigration in Denmark Birte Rønn Hornbech has stated that she has nothing against women wearing head scarves in public places. This has angered Pia Kjaersgaard, the firebrand leader of the Danish People's Party. She wants a ban on veils in public places. The government does not seem to succumb to her wishes.

But perhaps it will have to in the end. The VK government depends on her for parliamentary votes. The New Alliance leader Naser Khader has gone over to the other side, so the government is left with a very narrow majority of a single vote. Birte Rønn seems to be somewhat nervous when appearing in public; But perhaps this may be put down to her novice status as a minister.

Left to rot in the Desert

2007-06-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

Denmark beats new records in xenophobic policies. It has now come out in the press that one of the Danish interpreters in Iraq was abducted by insurgents, tortured and killed.
And: Did this happen recently?
No, it happened more than half a year ago. The Danish military and government have not wanted to inform the public of this. Instead there has been an intellectual debate about what to do with these people, the interpreters, who have so loyally cooperated with Danish forces in the Danish war effort.
Helping Denmark in this impossible war that has been based on lies and deceit from the beginning, they're left to rot in the desert.
Their lives were not endangered, it was said. Patience, patience! We have to await a report from a committee about what to do with the interpreters. And all because the Danish government is under the spell of Ms. Pia Kjaersgaard and her xenophobics in the Danish People's Party who won't let anybody alien to the precious Danish culture come into Denmark, for fear of them getting mingled with ethnically pure Danes.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen has been fighting for freedom and democracy with his pal George W. Bush. There does not seem to be any freedom and democracy for democracy's little helpers.

Don't Fuck with a Neo-Con!

2007-05-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

"If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too," Paul Wolfowitz is reported to have said, when his nepotism at the World Bank was revealed.

The arrogance of the Washington political class is appalling!

The man can't stand being faced with the truth. Even though several hundred employees at the World Bank have signed at petition in protest at his violation of the bank's rules this does not seem to affect him. He has got the support of President Bush. And the Americans call the shots in the World Bank, whether it's favouring loan applications from friendly countries or it's protecting fellow neo-cons.

Alas. This is the institution Denmark and a number of European governments are paying big sums to every year - to help underdeveloped countries develop, the official aim is supposed to be. Actually it is mostly self-help to American corporations and interests. They can use the Bank's engagement to promote their own interests.

It seems to high time for change in the World Bank. The Europeans should stop being poodles cosying up to Uncle Sam. High time they demand part of the action for themselvs and their pets in the Third World. Or perhaps it is high time for a world without exploitative relationships that the World Bank is such a sorry symbol of!

Cynical Rejection of Iraqui Asylum Seekers

2007-05-12T07:59:00.000-07:00

The cynicism of the Danish government is boundless.
Now it has made a new deal with its parliamentary support party, the Danish People's party to send about 600 Iraqui asylum seekers home. They are offered some 5000$ each and some education, so they can be qualified to come home and "build up their country". What a joke.
The political agreement is published the same day the Danish military intelligence publishes a report on the situation in Iraq in which they call it a civil war.

Many of the 600 Iraquis have spent years in Denmark. Their children speak Danish fluently; many of them are Christians, which means the racist populists do not have to have any fear of islamists!
The Danish labor market is suffering from a severe shortage of labor at the moment. And these people are to be sent out of the country. What folly!!
- The only reason being that the Danish government is under the spell of Mrs. Pia Kjaersgaard, a populist conservative politician who wants to secure votes for her party by playing tough. And the liberal-conservative Danish government are playing to her tune!

Danish Cabinet Minister in new Attack on Journalists

2007-03-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

The former CEO of the public broadcaster DR TV Christian Nissen has written a book in which he describes how the Danish government put pressure on the institution. The minister of culture Brian Mikkelsen wrote an e-mail to the politically appointed chairman of the board of Trustees, Jorgen Kleener (member of the ruling party Venstre), saying:

Dear Jorgen,
Just for your information: The DR coverage of the government, and particularly the coverage of the Iraq war, was taken up at the meeting of ministers this morning, at first during breakfast by a large number of ministers, and then later during the informal meeting. There's a lot of dissatisfaction with DR's coverage of the war, which is very biased - ministers are particularly angry with a couple of female anchors and Ole Sippel (whom by many was considered extreme in his criticism of the Coalition). The Minister of Foreign Affairs even suggested that we should not privatise the semi-public TV2, which is fair in its coverage of the war, but rather the public broadcaster DR. .... March 25th 2003. Source: TV2

This is a new example of the cultural and value policies of the liberal conservative Danish government. This government was already in 2003, when the e-mail was written, becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to cut the Danish welfare state down to size. Instead it attempts a "liberal revolution" of Danish society by intimidating "leftist reporters" and other cultural personalities to get in line behind the conservative leaders.

Opposition parties are now demanding the dismissal or Brian Mikkelsen. But this is hardly what is going to happen. Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen would not dismiss a conservative minister at this point when the Conservatives are angry because of the limited influence they have in the government compared to the xenophobic national-chauvinistic Danish People's party, which is not even in government.

IWD Came and Went - and Women are still Paid less than Men

2007-03-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

At a Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen1910, in the house of the People, an International Women's Day was proposed to honour the women's rights movement and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. They got the suffrage, but they did not get equality!!

On the Internation women's Day Common Dreams calls attention to this roll call of shame:

Two-thirds of the world's 800 million illiterate adults are women as girls are not seen as worth the investment, or are busy collecting water or firewood or doing other domestic chores.
Two million girls aged from five to 15 join the commercial sex market every year.
Domestic violence kills and injures more people in the developing world than war, cancer or traffic accidents.
Seventy per cent of the world's poorest people are women.
Violence against women causes more deaths and disabilities among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war.
Women produce half the world's food, but own less than two per cent of the land.
Of the more than one billion people living in extreme poverty, 70 per cent are women.
Almost a third of the world's women are homeless or live in inadequate housing.
Half of all murdered women are killed by their current or former husbands or partners.
Every minute a woman dies as a result of pregnancy complications.
Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, yet earn only a tenth of its income.
One woman in three will be raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.

There was not much activity in Denmark on March 8th, but many places in the poor countries women workers staged protests. The women in the poor countries are the worst hit by inequality, discrimination and abuse. But even in Denmark there are still many problems of unequal treatment of women. Domestic violence is still widespread. Equal pay is something women can read about in government and trade union reports. Particularly in the private sector, admittance to the men's room where deals are made, cigars smoked, and whiskies downed, is not for women.

So, why didn't Danish women march in demonstrations in much larger numbers?

The Long Arm of the Law got even longer

2007-03-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

The Danish terror legislation got its debut at the eviction of the Youth house. Mass arrests, preventive arrests, arbitrary control and body searches. There have been searches without warrants, for instance described at the website www.ru.dk of the organisation Roed Ungdom, where the police smashed doors and searched the place without making an appointment with people at the place. In the Copenhagen City Court people have been remanded in bunches without proof of individual wrongdoing. The judges have rubberstamped police claims for custody on remand of several of the arrested.

More than 700 people have been arrested, among them 58 are under 18 years, 189 remanded. Freedom of speech is being violated through the arbitrary arrest of a spokesperson for the Youth House, who happened to be on the spot, after the events, when young people gathered at the place to cry and console each other at the witnessing of the demolition of the house.

The house itself was raided by an anti-terror unit, to prepare the ground for the very efficient businesswoman from the Father house Ruth Evensen. They bought the house for less than half a million $ - not in order to use the house, but to tear it down. The site will be worth millions of $, and after building a modern building there, worth a lot more!

The Terrorist War on Working Class Culture

2007-03-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

Photo: M. Knudsen Monsum

So now they've started tearing down the youth house. Good riddance, all the good bourgeois people think.

"What a shameful act", people with some respect for history think.

Rosa Luxemburg has spoken in that house. Lenin has been there. This is not said to make them heroic. But nobody can deny that they're historical figures, nor that the house has historical value.

March 8th, International demonstration day for women's rights, was first proclaimed in that house. It was built for money collected among ordinary workers, to make a cultural centre for the workers' movement. The building was more than a hundred years old. It was unique.

The politicians actually had a chance to stop the demolition of the house, against the property right of the religious sect, the Father House, who owns it. It could have been declared a historical monument and rescued from demolition. But the politicians in the city council, probably because they are afraid of reactionary public opionion, opted for permitting the Father House to tear down the old, historical structure.

The politicians have opted for vandalism. The worst kind of vandalism, public vandalism. Among them are people who have criticised the communist states of the former Eastern Europe of having no sense of history, of having no sense of the aesthetics of ancient monuments. Who are those who have no sense of the aesthetics of old historical monuments? They are destroying working class culture!

The Father house bought the house for less than an ordinary family home in Copenhagen costs, and they don't want to use the building. In Denmark property rights are placed above human needs. The Father house could have been given an empty lot somewhere to build their temple of lovelessness! But no, they had to destroy what they perceive as the symbol of youthless recklessness and indulgence.

Wasteful Politicians - Updated

2007-03-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

(The good Dane running for bonus pay). The reward is not in heaven but in increasing house equity! Why don't those silly young people understand this profound wisdom!

"The LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground".

Who are the sinners in the issue of the youth house in Copenhagen? Some say the rock throwing youth. Some say the politicians in the townhall. The politicians can help the richest man in Denmark to find a building ground to build an opera for 400 million dollars, and then afterwards pay 100 million crowns a year in expenses. But they cannot afford a little bit of help to young people wanting a place where they can do their piece. What shameful behaviour. Brimstone onto thee?

These politicians are certainly not too bright that they could give this old cultural centre of the workers' movement in Copenhagen to a fanatical sect of born again Christians. But sinners they are not.

The real sin is to tear down this old structure that ought to have been a national and historical treasure. You should not do away with your historical identity in such a crude manner.

The Father house has seen evil in the place: Youngsters smoking pot and listening to mind expanding rock music. That's a sin when the only mind expander is the good Lord. Therefore the youngsters must be evicted. The Father house couldn't stand the sight of young people enjoying life.

The council of Copenhagen sold the house at a price of only half a million dollars, less than the price of a family house in Copenhagen. The building lot is worth 20 or 30 times that amount. Will these wasteful politicians be brought to justice? That is doubtful.

Don't be Naughty. Don't show you're Young

2007-03-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

The Danish police right now are hunting Danish youngsters down to the age of 12-13 years around the streets in the interior of Copenhagen. Arrests have been made in the hundreds. Their crime: Staying in a building that the municipality of Copenhagen gave them in the 1990's! The city later regretted the donation and sold the building to a fanatical Christian sects that want to hold prayer meetings and religious raves in this historical place that belonged to the Copenhagen workers' movement. But nothing seems to be "holy" in this city that goes out of its way to evict young people and let new age religion in instead. The sect has even got permission to tear down the old house!

Here is what the young squatters have written:

Ungdomshuset is evicted, we are now setting up infopoints to help activists with practical advice such as how to get around, where to sleep and find communal kitchens. The infopoints can be contacted on the following numbers:(+45) 26 90 75 07 and (+45) 26 90 75 08Folkets Hus (people's house in Stengade 50, Nørrebro) is now open day and night, and is used as a meeting point. link to jagtvej69.dk

House equity Denmark ought to be grateful. The young people have given it top entertainment in prime time TV when people sit sipping coffee in front of their newly purchased broad screen TVs. Congratulations Denmark for your warmth of heart and your tolerance!

Turning Iraq into a Wasteland - and then beating retreat

2007-02-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

How shameful can you get? The governments of Britain and Denmark plan to make significant reductions in troop deployment in Iraq, Denmark reducing forces to practically nil by this summer. This is a virtual defeat! Where is the argument that you're an errand boy for the terrorists if you pull out or reduce troop deployments? Does this mean that these governments now are errand boys for Osama bin Laden and his kind?

Do we hear any regret, or apologies, from the leaders of the WMD Deception Coalition that they have turned Iraq into a wasteland where nobody can live any longer? 2 million people have fled the country. Iraqis are getting ill because their only source of drinking water is the heavily polluted Euphrates og Tigris rivers.

Denmark shows its wonderfully humanitarian attitude by refusing to take a single one of the millions of displaced people in this country that has been reduced to a bloody battlefield by Anders Fogh Rasmussen's, Tony Blair's and George Bush' imperialist war! A war that was started with lies and manipulation of intelligence information. "Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction - that is not just something we presume, it is something we know" (Anders Fogh Rasmussen to the Danish parliament on March 21st 2003).

What we do know is that these so-called state leaders had weapons of mass deception!

Stalinist Attack on Democratic Politics

2007-02-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

Lars Lokke Rasmussen is the 2nd most powerful man in Denmark (number three from left, with Kalashnikov), second in command to the prime minister Fogh Rasmussen. As minister of the Interior he is responsible for carrying out one of the biggest reforms of the administrative structure in Denmark ever, the abolition of the county councils and a reduction of the number of municipal areas. Instead of the counties the parliament set up 5 regions responsible for public health. They have no power to impose taxes, though. They're only expected to do the dirty work of saving on the public purse for health.

The great man is now threatening this grand structure that was built up with so much toil. It displeases him that the regions have not invested in enough cancer radiation equipment: "If it doesn't work, the next logical step is a state run health service", he tells the stunned Danish press. In Lars Lokke's opinion the regions should have purchased 10 more radiation machines than have actually been bought. This is exactly like the way the central planning authority in the Soviet Union, worked. Straight orders were sent down, and regional units had to carry them out. The only difference: In the Soviet Union orders were given to bureaucrats. Lars Lokke is shameful enough to pass such orders on to democratically elected politicians!

Lars Lokke seems to forget that the reason for setting up these region councils in the first place was to create scapegoats to blame when the waiting lists are not cleared. If state health is instituted the national politicians will get into the firing line of blame for continued waiting lists to hospital treatment. Therefore we all know he's only bluffing. But this kind of advanced fun is not "funny" to the victims of the big laugh!

The regions have barely been in operation for 1 1/2 months, and now they may have to go, Lars Lokke declares. This is equal to some of Stalin's worst scams!

The region councils have democratically elected politicians, voted into office by the population in the regions! Will the region politicians get time to clear their desks before being removed from office?
And this is said by a man who is officially in favour of decentralising power from the state. According to the official ideas of the Liberal Party Venstre where Lars Lokke is the leader of the pack, devolution is necessary to make people responsible and motivated to take part in the running of society. What happened to this grand idea? You wonder, if power has gone to his head so much he knocked his wisecrack bone!

Or perhaps he was harmed when he took part in another practical joke, that is when he worked with the Mujahedin (Osama?) in Afghanistan in the 1980's, fighting to rid the world of evil communism. Now he is fighting democratically elected politicians in Denmark.

Lousy Pay to Danish Neo-colonialism's little Helpers

2007-02-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

(A Representative of the Herrenvolk is inspecting the Royal troops!)

The Danish public broadcaster DRTV reported tonight on its evening news that assistant workers at the CampDanevang, the Danish military camp in the Basra region in Iraq, where the Danes are waging their neocolonial battle for uninterrupted oil supply, are paid lousy wages. A Nepalese worker working 12 hours a day 7 days a week made some 300 $ a month or something like 5 kroners an hour. A Dane would make 20 - 30 times that amount. A Phillipine worker washing dishes in the kitchens reported similar pay.

This is really too shameful! Denmark claims to be fighting in Iraq to help the Americans in their heroic struggle for freedom, human rights and democracy, and this is how the Danish Herrenvolk treats its servants! May the Christian God help the Danes to interpret the struggle for human rights in a more humane way in the future!

Danish Muslims demonised by right wing Politician

2007-02-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

Why u treating me so wrong
when all I try to be is so strong

The Danish public broadcaster DRTV has really been cowed by the right wing Danish People's Party. Tonight it ran an interview with right wing parliamentarian Martin Henriksen from the xenophobic people's party. He has been ired by Danish muslims in the Islamic faith community, the leading muslim organisation in Denmark, speaking up against its own people and criticising them for not integrating fully in the Danish society.

The occasion is the historic court verdict against the "Glostrup terror gang", 4 young muslims accused of terror in the first case in which the Danish terror legislation is being used. They are accused of plotting a terrorist attack. All 4 of them were guilty in terrorist plotting, according to the jury, but the judges acquitted three of them, whereas the fourth, a teenager of only 17 was sentenced to 7 years of prison. After the verdict was publicised an imam of the Islamic faith community admonished his fellow muslims in the Friday afternoon prayer that they accept Danish values and integrate into Danish society, or else they should leave the country.

This is exactly what the Danish People's Party (DPP) has wanted the muslims to do for years. And now that they do it, it is wrong. The diligent DPP parliamentarian has made research on the Islamic Community's website and found a couple of lines of excerpts from textbooks they use in the education in their schools showing that they have not completely adopted the Danish value system. This is really too vile!! It proves once again that no matter what Danish muslims do to integrate, it'll never be considered satisfactory by the DPP and their lot of xenophobes. They're afraid of losing the political issue that makes Danish voters - or those among them foolish and populist enough to support such a party - vote for them.

It's amazing the public broadcaster will lend ears to this hypocritical hate-speech from the DPP. The public broadcaster now wants to prove that it is not as "leftist" as claimed by the national conservatives in the DPP. They're politically correct, acting in tandem with the wishes of the parliamentary majority.

Client state reinforces allied ties

2007-02-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

The USA is having talks with Denmark on the establishment of a nuclear missile defence, American secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, revealed yesterday in the security conference in Munich. Gates praised Denmark for being a faithful ally, on the same standing as Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic.

What a great honour! Gates discarded all talk of "Old and new Europe" and instead talked "allies that could contribute more".

Gates has good reasons to be satisfied with his client state. The Americans need the Thule Base in Northern Greenland as a pillar for the missile defence. On August 7th 2004 The US and Denmark signed an agreement on "continued cooperation" in the running of the Thule base. After incidents in which the US accidentally dropped nuclear waste in the waters around the base, putting a big number of Danish Thule air base workers at a grave cancer risk, Denmark is giving away national and in grand postcolonial style Greenlandish sovereignty over this strategically situated area. One can understand the smug satisfaction of the Americans.

And in the process Denmark is contributing to the stepping up of the nuclear and space based arms race all over the world. Both the Russians and the Chinese have warned against the American escalation of space based defence. There's probably a generous pay-off for the Danes in this. Denmark has been promised lucrative defence contracts in the building of the new monster fighter joint strike fighter.

Alas! Where exactly are you heading, little client state in the high north, once an example of a policy of solidarity in the United Nations!!

Refocusing Public Attention away from the Freedom of Expression Issue

2007-01-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

The Danish prime minister is a master of spin.

Public broadcaster DR has cooperated with the left-wing political party the Unity List, the Red-Green Alliance, about producing evidence for the film "The Secret War" by Guldbrandsen, the daily The Avisen writes. In the film it is claimed that Danish soldiers in Afghanistan on a number of occasions have delivered prisoners to American camps where they have been tortured. The Unity list parliamentarian Fran Aaen has tried to force information out of the Danish military by questioning the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister in the questioning hour in the Danish Folketinget's (parliament) questioning hour.

And so fucking what? we're tempted to ask. What is the crux of this whole matter? And what has the Prime minister accomplished by changing focus away from torture and to the way the DR public broadcaster has dealt with the matter? By attacking the media, the prime minister is directing a fullfledged attack at not only the media, but freedom of expression as well.

The DR has not only a right - but a duty as a public broadcaster to inform the public of what is going on in Afghanistan. - And for that purpose they've bought a film from a private direction and shown it on prime time TV.

It is also not uncommon to cooperate with politicians to get relevant information. Anybody knows how difficult it is to get information from military personel in such matters.

Doesn't the public have a right to be informed? Tax-payers money is spent on such military expeditions. Cititzens hence have every right to be informed. The prime minister should be ashamed that he tries to stop the free flow of information. That's not worthy of a democracy - and especially not when we remember how the same PM boasted of his defence of freedom of expression during the Mohammed cartoons crisis a year ago!!

Striking at the Axis of Evil - with new Kids on the Block

2007-01-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

Denmark!! - you better reconsider the cosy relationship of Mr. Fogh to Mr. Bush! Because soon, it's going to sound a big Bang again!

Denmark's new friends in the EU, Bulgaria and Romania, are ready to let Uncle Sam strike at the axis of evil. The USA has been building up bases in the two countries, and in March the country will move some 3000 troops to the bases, ready to strike at Iranian nuclear installations. We like new kids on the block, - but some more than others. Here is what Scottish Herald On Sunday, who has the story, writes:

President Bush is preparing to attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of April and the US Air Force's new bases in Bulgaria and Romania would be used as back-up in the onslaught, according to an official report from Sofia.
"American forces could be using their two USAF bases in Bulgaria and one at Romania's Black Sea coast to launch an attack on Iran in April," the Bulgarian news agency Novinite said.
The American build-up along the Black Sea, coupled with the recent positioning of two US aircraft carrier battle groups off the Straits of Hormuz, appears to indicate president Bush has run out of patience with Tehran's nuclear misrepresentation and non-compliance with the UN Security Council's resolution. President Ahmeninejad of Iran has further ratcheted up tension in the region by putting on show his newly purchased state of the art Russian TOR-Ml anti-missile defence system.
Whether the Bulgarian news report is a tactical feint or a strategic event is hard to gauge at this stage. But, in conjunction with the beefing up of America's Italian bases and the acquisition of anti-missile defence bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, the Balkan developments seem to indicate a new phase in Bush's global war on terror.

Wowee, pretty scary. Denmark is in league with "New Europe" in this endeavour to rid the world of the nuclear threat. It goes without saying that some people consider the US a threat of - perhaps the same magnitude? Anyway, why doesn't Denmark use its privileged contacts in Washington to ask Bush what he's up to? After all, Denmark is as close as close can be! But perhaps they've already done that?

Danish Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen Attacks Public Service TV. UPDATED!

2007-01-25T06:42:00.000-08:00

The issue of Danish soldiers handing over "enemy combatants" to the American army, which abused them, has led to heated discussions in the Danish parliament. Until a couple of days ago the government was challenged in parliament by the opposition on information that the Danish army had on 5-6 occasions handed over soldiers.

But the other day the American prison guard reduced the claim put forth in the Guldbrandsen film shown on TV to three cases of handing over prisoners. In the film he uses the word "might" about the number of times prisoners were handed over. And this makes the prime minister state that Danish public service TV has brought "distorted information". The word "might" was not translated correctly into Danish. In Denmark it is very unusual that a prime minister comments on a single broadcast shown on public service TV.

The opposition has demanded an official investigation of the Danish Afghanistan troops' dealing with prisoners. Now Anders Fogh Rasmussen claims that Danish TV ought to start an "investigation of itself". An investigation of how the government has withheld information from parliament is not called for, according to the government, even though the opposition wants one.

"It is all a question of the credibility of Danish TV", the prime minister says.

He is being criticised by professors in media science for these statements. They have stated that Denmark treats the media in a way that is "similar to dictatorships and fundamentalist islamist states".

This is deeply ironical. Anders Fogh Rasmussen was an outspoken advocate of freedom of expression during the Mohammed cartoons crisis a year ago. Now he is himself criticised for limiting freedom of expression through these attacks on TV journalists who haven't done anything wrong, other than showing a film and making a wrong translation of the word "might" into Danish. It'll lead to self-censorship among journalists in future, it is feared. There is no doubt about the fact that prisoners of war ("enemy combatants") have been handed over for later torture. It's just a question of how many times it has happened.

During the cartoons crises the PM would not comment on what the Jyllandsposten printed. Freedom of speech was sacred. He could not interfere, and he would not interfere in the free press, he said. Now, it's different. When he himself is the target of the "free press", the whole matter is entirely different. It seems as if he is more or less trying to turn Denmark into a banana republic.

UPDATED NEWS:

According to the Politiken tonight, prison guard Edward Hermans was quoted correctly in the film "The Secret War". DR, the public service station interviewed him tonight, and Herman confirms all the things he is quoted as saying in the film", a Media manager of DR tells the Politiken. He has "no objections" to what he was quoted for by DR. This is big come-down for the Danish government and its meddling with the free press.

A central focus in the debate is a speak, in which he is indirectly attributed to having confirmed that Danish soldiers routinely delivered prisoners to the Americans (The Secret War can be seen on www.dr.dk/tv , the speak will appear 00:43:20). In a just published interview on the DR homepage with Edward Herman director Christoffer Guldbrandsen reads exactly this speak aloud to the American to ask him to corroborate it. "According to our American sources the Danes have routinely brought prisoners in and handed them over to the Americans. Do you object to me saying this in my speak?" Christoffer Guldbrandsen asks. "No, as you use several quotes, I have absolutely no objections to that speak", Ed Herman replies.

After this, we can safely conclude that "there's nothing to come for", to quote one of the prime minister's own words of wisdom. The prime minister's attack on the free press has no justification whatsoever.

Branding Denmark III - Turning Culture into Commodities

2007-01-24T03:00:00.000-08:00

The Danish film director Susanne Bier has been nominated for an Oscar for her movie Before the Wedding. Congratulations! Well done. The Danish film industry is getting increasing acclaim internationally. Denmark is a creative nation.

That is good news. What is not so good news are all the primitive robotic reactions it leads to among Danish politicians.

A wave of criticism is coming forth about the fact that Danish films are not mentioned in the Branding Denmark campaign that has just been launched by the minister of economic and business affairs, Mr. Bendt Bentsen.

The minister of culture, Mr. Brian Mikkelsen, now moves to the forefront of this important debate. He suggests that films should also be mentioned and perhaps receive a proportion of the 412 million Danish taxpayers money for the project. Novo Nordisk sells insulin syringes, Danfoss thermostats, and then the enterprising Danes also sell films. What's the difference?

What a wonderful world where everything can be commercialized! Selling sugar, body parts, plastic eyes, sports cars, films with a touch of societal criticism - it all amounts to the same thing: taking part in the great commercialization! It does not occur to the minister that perhaps a few aspects of our lives might be transported back, away from the commercial spere, - become decommodified so to speak!

Maybe cultural politics is the next item that is going to be exported form Denmark! Or Danish cartoonists' drawings of personalities from world religions. Logos/brands are items that might be exported. Or what about the very cartoons? Freedom of expression transformed into commodity? What a wonderfully creative idea! Perhaps we should wait until the Mohammed cartoons crisis is completely forgotten!

Right Wing Politician Attacks Danish Academic

2007-01-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

Right wing politician Pia Kjaersgaard from the Danish People's Party (DPP) is arguably the most powerful political figure in Danish politics at the moment. One really wonders why the Danish government is not becoming personae non grata in the EU, like the Jörg Haider supported Austrian government in the 1990's, when Council meetings were held without Austrian ministers.

Nobody likes to be peppered by neither her, nor her lieutenants.

The latest target for her virulent attacks is the highly respected political scientist Joergen Goul Andersen from the Norther Jutland university in Aalborg. He is perhaps the most prominent opinion poll researcher in Denmark. He is drawing the iron lady's heat because he has interpreted an opionion poll just published in the Jyllandsposten showing that 42 % of the Danish population is satisfied with immigration policies in Denmark. 18 % wanted a stricter politicy. 34 % thought that the immigration policy is too strict. Pia Kjaersgaard interprets the results as general voter satisfaction with the centre-right government's policy. It makes her angry that Goul Andersen assesses the results differently. He thinks they show that the policy on foreigners - or illegal aliens, as Kjaersgaard would probably call them - has become a "loser's issue". As this can be understood in two ways: an "issue for a losers' party" or an "issue for losing the coming general election", it has drawn the iron lady's immense wrath!

She even calls Goul Andersen a "dusty academic" in her latest weekly newsletter. As Goul Andersen is not so old, "dusty" means that she regards him as "outmoded", which is a very condescending word to use about an academic of his standing.

Kjaersgaard is a sly politician. If she is not tried in court for libel, you might say that she is getting away with using her "freedom of speech" to provoke people who have not provoked her. What is the purpose? Probably to make a smear campaign against people who do not live up to her own image of what it means to be a "normal" xenophobic Dane waving the proud Danish flag on every occasion.

On the other hand, you can also sense in the newsletter some kind of understanding of how volatile the Danish voters may be, and that maybe the learned professor is not too far from the mark in his judgments. That means she'll have to invent a new populist issue. - Whatever that may be?

How about: McCarthyist attacks on academics: "You just climb down from the ivory tower, you egghead! You're not one of us!"

Branding Denmark II - Breaking Geneva Conventions

2007-01-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

Denmark has been breaking the Geneva convention on the treatment of prisoners of war on a number of occasions in Afghanistan in 2002. Danish troops have delivered prisoners on to the Americans, probably knowing what the Americans would do to them: expose them to torturous treatment.

The funny thing is that the Danish government won't admit it, so now it is being pressured by the opposition in parliament. The abuses have been revealed in a film by film director Guldbrandsen that was shown on Danish TV a few weeks ago. In this film American prison guards admit that the maltreatment of prisoners delivered to them by Danish soldiers took place.

The opposition in the Folketinget now demands the minister of Defence Soeren Gade to withdraw from his post, as he has been misinforming parliament in the matter. The Danish special troops in Afghanistan wear a small Danish flag on their jackets. This has been confirmed by several sources, but Soeren Gade denies it. This is important for verification of what has been going on.

The Danish government denies that there is a case. Its parliamentary support party, the right wing Danish People's party calls it a trifle. That is quite astonishing.

Is it a trifle to hand over prisoners to torture? There seems to be a dangerous slip in humanitarian thinking here. It is, however typical of the right wing DPP. It doesn't respect internationalt conventions that Denmark is signatory to. The party has on several occasions, also in matters concerning asylum seekers and refugees, declared that the conventions don't matter. Danish law is above the conventions. Actually it is the opposite. The conventions are above Danish law.

Official Denmark knew all along what was going on in Afghanistan, and how the Bush administration after 9/11 offered its own interpretation of the conventions regarding how terror suspects might be treated. The Danish foreign office warned the Danish government, when the Bush administration issued its legal interpretation of the conventions. But nobody took any notice.

Now the chickens have come home to roost, but the government still denies trespassing the conventions. Under the influence of the DPP the Danish government and its leading political parties of the Liberalists and Conservatives are getting alienated from their previously held humanitarian principles.

Branding Denmark

2007-01-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

The Danish government is going to give 400 mio kroners to the branding of Denmark. After the Mohammed cartoons crisis Denmark has experienced quite a lot of problems with its image abroad. For some odd reason people in the Middle East and other places with big muslim populations are not too keen on Denmark and Danish goods. And that's a problem, because then Danish exports suffer.

So what do you do?: You make a branding campaign, no matter the cost.

How stupid can you get? Why not just make a decent society that respects minorities? Then the 400 mio might have been saved. That, however, does not seem to be the recipe of the foreign office and the Danish government. By "branding the country" you can teach a whole population to think like profit-seeking capitalists, instead of making them think like decent human beings, caring for thy neighbour. The neo-liberal profit mentality is filling our lives, and the Danish government is helping it along by spending taxpayers money on this silly endeavour. They are not going to help ordinary citizens by spending money in this way. It's money right down into the pockets of the large corporations that are making bucketfuls of it already, corporate giants like Arla and Maersk, who need to repair their images, which have been spoilt by Danish racism.

Danish tax-payers: Why don't you rebel against such folly?

"Death and Destruction"

2007-01-17T03:35:00.000-08:00

It's heartrendingly sad to read a comment on the well-known Danish blogger The Belly Blower's blog on the Youth House. An anonymous reader Ole writes:

Dear Allan!

Can you explain to me why there are all these hateful comments on anything concerning the Youth House? - Coming from people obviously wishing death and destruction for young people, who are actually making few demands, and who are ready to commit themselves to their ideas..... It is beyond me - Is it because of some hyper-active internet debaters on the extreme right dominating the agenda? - or what do you think.

Ole.

That's an interesting comment. It says quite a lot about the intellectual climate in the Danish debate. A couple of years ago the Danish corporate giant A. P. Moeller group got a permission against all zoning laws to establish a huge ware-house in the very centre of a large Danish city. The Ware-house was just built. Permission was something you could get afterwards. And the A. P. Moeller group got it, even though the minister for the environment was against it! But she was quickly swept aside for more powerful lobbyists and interest groups impacting the Danish goverment. And then the media are getting outraged at these young people not obeying the law of the land. There is one law for big capital and big media, - and a completely different "law" for the young of Copenhagen!

When the issue is a place for young people it is quite different. They were even granted permission to stay in the place by the council of Copenhagen, but the city later sold the house to a right wing religious sect, which has now got a verdict to set the young out. Of course they do not go voluntarily!

The youth house was originally a meeting place for organised labour and the members of the trade unions, built for funds collected among ordinary workers. It has housed many memorable events for the Danish labour movement. Vladimir Ilich Lenin even visited the house. The name Lenin, however, gives people of power in Denmark the creeps. Some even consider him in the same category as Pol Pot. Historical consciousness is at a low level. The religious sect wants to tear down this architectural treasure and historical place in favour of .... - who knows? - probably a concrete, glass and steel "warehouse" for sloppy sentimental revivalist religion where they can exhibit their sloppy religious goods.

And the young are kicked out. Corporatist-and-house-equity Denmark has no room for young anarchists.

Last Throw of the Dice?

2007-01-16T02:12:00.000-08:00

Condoleeza Rice is touring the Middle East at the moment to try to get some support among Arab states for the new American initiative in Iraq. Why isn't she coming to Denmark and Britain? The answer is very simple: You know a pal when you got one! Danish right wing politicians already boast that in terms of population size Denmark is already one of the most dedicated participants in this colonial war. And the Danes have problems with recruitment.

But what about looking at the matter from the Danes' and the Brits' point of view? Why not use this as a chance to withdraw from the killing fields?

What is the geopolitical game the Americans are involved in? To start a war on false premises, lies and manipulation. And Denmark just went along without much debate about in the Danish parliament. On May 1st 2003 a triumphant George Bush in combat uniform announced "mission accomplished". What a big laugh.

Mission was not accomplished, and it'll not be accomplished with the new initiative, the purpose of which is to break the shia militancy in Iraq by concentrating on Sadr city and Moqtada al Sadr's militia. But these people are not so studid that they just sit in Baghdad and wait for the new troops to arrive. They'll have dissipated before the Americans have engaged them in combat, leaving just a lot of civilian casualties.

The Danes should get out, so they're not accomplices to the coming atrocities that'll perhaps make Falluja look like a picnic.

Denmark is getting a Globalised Upper Class

2007-01-15T00:47:00.000-08:00

It is well-known that Denmark is one of the countries that is most open to globalisation. What is less well-known is that the country is getting a globalised upper class. Denmark normally prides itself with being "a very egalitarian society".

This is being undermined by increasing economic differencies between the "haves" and the "have-nots". It's like in America. The incomes of ordinary workers and employees do not increase very much. Whereas those at the top get extremely well-packed pay-deals. Last year the top manager of the tele giant TDC got nearly 100 mio. kroners in reward for the selling of the tele-empire to foreign capital. A manager on his way out of Keops, an investment conglomerate, leaves with 170 mio. kroners in "after-payment". A number of bank managers scored more than 100 mio in stock options. Several thousand top employees in private business enjoyed the fruits of the globalised economy by raking in millions in stock options and bonuses.

The owners of houses and flats in the "right" neighbourhoods in Copenhagen and other big cities are becoming milionaires just by sitting on their backs raking in millions in free equity values. One doesn't pay any taxes whatsoever on this kind of capital income, whereas an ordinary worker who works hard in a 7-16 job has to pay upwards to 60 per cent or even more of what he or she makes in income tax to the Danish state.

Together with leaders of the media and politicians the business elite form a close-knit circle that won't let the underdog in. They regulate who "get on" in the media. They go to receptions together and make deals that only the initiated understand. They live in the same classy neighbourhoods, their kids go to the same schools. They even use the same beauty parlours for their dogs.

If an ordinary worker complains about this, he or she is told that they have no understanding at all of what it's about! It is necessary for Danish competitiveness in the global economy that the elite enjoys "certain benefits". Likewise, it is "necessary" that workers wages are frozen, because Denmark has one of the highest hourly wage costs in the world, making it difficult for Danish business to compete. Alas, what a sorry state of the world we're in!

Minister in Witchhunt against Danish TV Reporters

2007-01-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

The Danish Minister of Education Bertel Haarder is trying to intimidate journalists in the Danish public service TV. Last sunday he appeared in the evening news programme where he criticised the DR TV-channel's coverage of parental fees for having kids in kindergarten and school day care.

In the last general election the centre right government, in which Bertel Haarder is minister of education, promised to cut the parental fees for having children in municipal kindergartens.

Some of these expenses have consequently been cut for parents, as the limit for parental payment was cut to 25 per cent of the total expense.

Many municipal councils have, however, reacted by increasing the payment for after school day care for kids, in such a way that many parents are worse off than before. The DR TV ran a story about this, in which parents and council politicians were interviewed. Bertel Haarder appeared in the TV studio where he attacked the TV reporter Anders Bech-Jessen very virulently. Anders Bech Jessen was criticised for not coming to the minister first. And the TV reporters were criticised by the minister for bringing wrong figures and statistics.

This information was at a glaring disharmony with the TV report, in which there were interviews of parents and local politicians who told about day care expenses from their point of view. This, however, did not seem to fit well into the minister's world view and agenda.

On Tuesday 9th January in the Danish parliament's question hour, the minister answered questions about the problematic, and he used the occasion to criticise the Danish public service TV for being "propagandistic".

The matter is probably revelatory of a government being under considerable stress. The Fogh Rasmussen centre-right government fears for its public image in the welfare arena, which is dear to many Danes. But does that give the minister the right to intimidate ordinary reporters who are making interviews with ordinary Danes, who talk about their daily lives? Haarder is turning into a kind of mini-Putin with such attempts at hitting at ordinary reporters with the authoritarian state's long arm.

What it therefore amounts to is another deplorable attack on freedom of expression. The minister is seconded by politicians from the Danish People's Party, who are making attacks on TV reporters through their campaign organisation "Critical License Fee Payers", which has recently demanded that "red TV reporters" be fired. Where the "red TV reporters" are is, however, a big mystification to most Danes. On the contrary, Danish TV seems to become increasingly staid and conservative.

War Buddies are Planning the Next Bold Move

2007-01-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hello from beyond the big blue ocean!

George called Anders tonight, and the two war buddies were talking for nearly half an hour, the Danish media were proud to announce.

George wants to send another 20.000 men and some women to become fodder for worms or desert spiders in the Iraqi Qagmire. Anders' situation is different. He is running for reelection, and being keenly aware of what Danish voters think of this post-colonial desert expedition he has perhaps not shown too much enthusiasm at the prospect of troop reinforcements! But a pal knows a pal, when he sees one!

Maybe that's the reason why the conversation lasted so long. Denmark is, in spite of everything, religious right, neocons, Disney and chewing gum, the most faithful and staunchest of allies. So Anders was somewhat ambiguous as to what stance his government should (or would?) take, confronted with these deja vu Vietnamese tidings. But don't give me any of that Westmoreland shit! That was a long time ago. And we live in a different world now.

The Danish People's Party (DPP), third party to the proud war-mongering coalition, are proud to have calculated that in terms of population size Denmark is one of the most willing contributors to the allied war effort in the shifting sands. Anders can be sure of support from this side. If you wear sun-glasses you won't get sand in your pretty eyes, Betty Sue.

Danish McCarthyists on the March

2007-01-08T02:31:00.000-08:00

Freedom of speech is again being threatened in Denmark, this country that was the big champion of this fundamental right during the Mohammed cartoons crisis a year ago.

This time it is the representative of the Danish People's Party (DPP) in the European Parliament Mogens Camre (photo) and Morten Messerschmidt, backbench MP of the DPP in the Danish Folketing. The two gentlemen have not been in the media for some time, and they probably feel an acute need to "get on", be part of the big political show, and get some attention, so they can successfully run for reelection in the next election.

So now they are launching a new initiative of "Critical Feepayers" that are supposed to look at the public service TV and radio in Denmark, in order to get some "value" in terms of "objective reporting" for the license fees they and the voters they claim to represent are paying to the institution.

The two politicians have sent a letter to the Danish government (that depends on the DPP for parliamentary support in parliament) in which they demand that "the government takes action against 'politicising activity' in the DR".

According to an interview in Danish paper the Politiken today, Messerschmidt says that the "leftist journalists" in DR (Danish public service Radio and TV) should be dismissed if they are not capable of making more "objective" news.

When he is asked by the Politiken for a definition of "leftist", he seems to be at a loss for an answer. He just has a vague feeling that the broadcasts are leftist.

This seems to be a bit odd. Actually the institution is being criticised by the Danish Left for being too rightist, for instance in its coverage of the Iraq war, in which Denmark participates with troops.

Cuban Guests turned down at Scandic Hotels

2007-01-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

It has caused a lot of anger in the Nordic countries that Cubans are being rejected as guests at the American owned Scandic hotels in Norway and Sweden. The Cubans are turned down after orders from American owners who are following the Helms-Burton legislation. It forbids Americans having business dealings with Cubans. It is part of the American embargo against the island.

Therefore it is surprising that the manager of the Scandic and Hilton hotel chains in Denmark Hans Frank is able to follow another policy. According to the Danish business paper the Borsen, Cubans are heartily welcome at these hotels in Denmark.

Scandic is the largest hotel chain in the Nordic countries. Shortly before christmas a Cuban trade delegation was rejected by a Scandic hotel in Oslo.

- I'm running a hotel business in Denmark and we obey Danish law. Therefore I shall not turn guests from Cuba down, Hans Frank tells the paper.

Jyllandsposten in attack on Freedom of Speech of Danish Textbook Writers

2007-01-06T00:07:00.000-08:00

The Jyllandsposten became world famous about a year ago. In a bold defence of freedom of expression the Jyllandsposten printed the Mohammed cartoons.

It is somewhat odd that the Jyllandsposten does not uphold these noble principles in the campaign against textbooks that right wing politicians from the Danish right wing People's party are waging at the moment. On January 5th the paper lets the minister of education express his condemnation of a number of Danish textbook writers without letting these writers defend themselves.

The centre-right Danish government depends on the right wing Danish People's Party (DPP) for its majority in the Danish parliament, and the minister of education Bertel Haarder is being pressured by the right-wing party to take a hard stand against the textbooks.

One textbook on politics for secondary education students writes about the Danish People's Party that it is based on Danish voters' fear of immigrants, and that the party is nationalistic and xenophobic. This seems to many people to be the very truth about the party, but the DPP does not like this characterization, so in the Jyllandsposten it demands the book withdrawn from schools and taken off the curicula. The whole matter is quite hilarious, as the DPP has characterised its voters/members in the same way in a film commercial. The message in the commercial is that if you're in favour of cosy Danish idyll from before Denmark lost its innocense and became open to globalisation, and you love the typical Danish allotment garden houses, then it only costs 150 kroners a year to register as a member. What hypocrisy!! And what hypocrisy of the Jyllandsposten and Bertel Haarder, minister of education, to participate in such a low campaign.

Another textbook writes about American politics and describes the policies of the present Bush administration as "an odd combination of influences from the religious right". This is deemed "wrong" by Bertel Haarder, and this book is likewise by the DPP required taken off the market for school books. The Danish People's party has also started a campaing titled "Report on your teacher", in which Danish school children are encouraged to visit the campaign's website and write reports about "indoctrination" and other abuses in the class room.

It is odd that these totalitarian tendencies are finding their way into the Danish government as Bertel Haarder has previously prided himself with being a liberal. He has been brought up in the Danish folk high school tradition well-known for its emphasis on experimentation and freedom of the mind. Now he seems to be ready to do anything to cling to power.

Che Guevara - Persona non Grata, or Business Journal Bigotry?

2006-12-23T08:08:00.000-08:00

The big American chain store Target Corp has withdrawn a CD with a portrait of Che Guevara after heavy criticism. Target sold the disc with music for admirors of Che, and with the famous Alberto Diaz or Korda photo. They had slightly altered the photo so that a pair of auriculars were visible.

This was apparently too much for the business press. Columnists from some business papers condemned the selling of the disc with the Che photo. What'll be the next, Investor's Business Daily wrote: "Hitler's knapsack, Pol Pot's kitchen utesils, - or Pinochet underwear?" They think Guevara should be ignored because he presumably helped to promote Castro's communism in Cuba.

This is really hilarious. - And extremely hysterical! It's far beside the point to compare Guevara to Hitler and Pol Pot. He did a lot of good acts in Cuba. It was not his fault that it was difficult to get high economic growth on the island. The American embargo can get part of the blame for that!

These writers in the business journals do not seem to know much about history. Otherwise they would know the difference between a revolutionary leader like Guevara and the dictators mentioned.

Brought to Justice?

2006-12-22T03:50:00.000-08:00

Now the marines that did the killings of civilians in Haditha seem to be brought to justice. Al Jazeera writes on December 21st:

Four US marines have been charged with 13 counts of murder in connection with the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, western Iraq.

Four marines will face other charges related to the killings last November, in the most serious war crime case involving US soldiers since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US army said on Thursday.
The killing of the two dozen men, women and children is one of several incidents in which US troops have been accused of killing civilians and dereliction of duty. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called the Haditha killings a "terrible crime".

In announcing the charges, Marine Col. Stewart Navarre said a press release issued the day after the killings wrongly reported that 15 Iraqi civilians were killed by a roadside bomb and that Marines and Iraqi army soldiers killed eight insurgents in a subsequent firefight.

This is, however, only the tip of the iceberg. A lot more crimes have been committed than just this one, and the few others that have been reported. War always takes its toll on civilians. This war does not appear to be an exception.

Pia Kjaersgaard is moving the middle ground of Danish Politics to the Right

2006-12-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

The poster-girl and two of her lieutenants. "A fresh breath of air all over the country" the caption goes.

Dubbed the second most powerful politician in Denmark Pia Kjaersgaard seems busy moving the middle ground of politics in this traditionally Social Democrat welfare democracy to the right. Her way of looking on immigrants is no longer called "hate speech", but is the respectable and normal way of describing the "immigrant problem".

It is not immigration problems that are dealt with in the party's peculiarly national socialist way. The youth branch of the party has started a campaign in schools called "report on your teacher". Pupils and students are encouraged to write to the website or the party and report on indoctrination in schools. Lists of textbooks with a "leftist bias" are formed, and the powerful party has asked the minister of education to make a "textbook board" in the ministry that examines textbooks and forbids books with a "questionable content".

Most Danes do not seem to be aware of how this has happened. Therefore it comes as a big surprise when newspapers report very emotionally about asylum seekers who have been denied asylum and are then expelled from Denmark. Somewhat hypocritically the normal Dane seems to side with the vicitims of the harsh expulsion. The legislation that made it possible was passed by the Danish People's party and the centre-right coalition that it supports with the necessary parlimanentary mandates. Danish voters have only got what they voted for in the first place.

Danish People's Party fires Minister in Danish Government

2006-12-15T00:29:00.000-08:00

The Danish People's party which is the parliamentary basis of the Fogh Rasmussen liberal-conservative government has cut the life line to minister of Family Affairs and Nutrition Lars Barfod.

Lars Barfod har been under mounting criticism after a number of revelations of heavy food security risks. The inspectors of food and nutritional standards in the ministry have not visited and sanctioned all production and distributional facilities in the Danish food sector, resulting in serious problems with the quality of meat in some sales outlets around the country.

It's a bit hypocritical, however, to fire the minister, because the problems are due to a shortage of funds and too few inspectors, after cuts in funding in which the Danish People's Party have contributed with their votes.

The dismissal of the conservative minister has angered the Conservative party which is the coalition partner of Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The latter is being criticised for succumbing too easily to pressure from Pia Kjaersgaard from the DPP. The affair may shorten the life span of the Fogh Rasmussen government which is already suffering greatly in opinion polls. The latest surveys of voter intentions show stronger support for the opposition Social Democrats. The latter will be able to form a government after a general election.

DID HE MEAN OUR WMD?

2006-11-27T08:22:00.000-08:00

The Independent writes today:

Dr Hans Blix, the former UN weapons inspector, will launch a new attack on Tony Blair today, warning that the decision to press ahead with a full replacement for Trident will make it more difficult to stop Iran acquiring the bomb.
The respected chairman of the Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction will use a speech in London to renew hostilities with Mr Blair. He will say that modernising Britain's arsenal puts the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) under "strain" and increases the feeling among non-nuclear states, such as Iran, that they are being "cheated" by the nuclear states.
Dr Blix will take Britain and the other permanent members of the UN Security Council - America, China, Russia and France - to task for failing to comply with their obligations under the NPT by failing to do more to eliminate their nuclear arsenals. He will point out "the strong feelings of frustration" at the way nuclear nations "are in the process" of developing new types of weapons rather than examining how they could manage defence needs with non-nuclear weaponry.
His remarks, in a speech to the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, follow the decision of the Cabinet last Thursday to "whip" a decision on the replacement for Trident through the Commons in the new year. Although the Tories are likely to back Mr Blair, there is strong concern over the issue on the Labour back benches.
Dr Blix will tell the international gathering of lawyers that his Stockholm-based WMD Commission believes the UN General Assembly should call a world summit on disarmament to revive the NPT efforts to reduce the risk of a nuclear war.
He will say it is 60 years since the UN called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, but there has been a fragmented approach to tackling nuclear proliferation. The five members of the nuclear club have been joined in recent years by Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea.
The Commission, Dr Blix will say, believes top priority should be given to ratification of a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, including North Korea, the latest member of the "nuclear club".
Dr Blix infuriated Britain and the US before the Iraq war when, as the leader of the inspection team on WMD, he challenging the "dodgy" dossier claiming that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Rebel Labour MPs said last night he had been proved right over Saddam's WMD, and they believed he would be proved right again over Trident.
MPs have been demanding a wide debate on the options. Some senior MPs, reported to include Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary, have questioned the wisdom of backing the most expensive option favoured by the chiefs of staff, instead of a cheaper alternative such as nuclear-tipped cruise missiles on planes.
However, a White Paper setting out the Government's preferred option will be published next month and Labour MPs will be told to back it. They will be allowed three months for "debate" but Labour MPs will be "whipped" to support the cabinet decision in a vote in the Commons in the new year.
Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, and a former member of CND, defended the decision to push the issue through Parliament on a whipped vote. "You couldn't expect a serious government in charge of one of the world's global powers, Britain, making a recommendation to Parliament and just say you can do what you like chaps ... and make your own mind up," he said on the BBC AM programme. "We're a serious government and serious Cabinet. We will put our view when that view is finalised by the Cabinet, and it hasn't been yet. We've not had a further cabinet discussion on the detail of all of this. We'll make a recommendation through a White Paper. Then there'll be a full debate."
Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has already made it clear he will support the most expensive replacement for Trident - a new generation of submarines, with US-designed missiles and a new nuclear warhead. Early estimates suggested it could cost £25bn, but some experts have claimed the true cost could be nearer £76bn over 30 years.
Mr Brown's position on the issue has dismayed even some of his own supporters. Other Labour MPs rallied behind Dr Blix. Neil Gerrard, a Labour MP who tabled a Commons motion signed by more than 20 Labour colleagues warning the Trident replacement would breach the terms of the NPT, said Dr Blix would strengthen opposition.
"Dr Blix was proved right on WMD and a lot of people will agree with what he is saying now," he said. "It is possible that Mr Blair will lose a majority of Labour MPs on this issue."
The ending of the Cold War has changed the argument in the Labour Party. It is no longer a simple divide between those favouring multilateral disarmament and those supporting unilateral disarmament. Dr Blix's speech will increase the doubts among those who question the value of a more powerful nuclear weapon with multiple warheads designed to penetrate "hardened" targets, when the foreseeable threat is from rogue states or terrorists. Unlike in the 1980s, there are significant military figures with doubts over the renewal of Trident.
A spokesman for Greenpeace, said: "Hans Blix said that invading Iraq to tackle concerns about WMD was wrong. He was proved correct. Now he's pointing out that the Labour Government building new WMD "because of an unknown future" is wrong and will destroy the UN disarmament process. Let's hope this time Labour listen."
The other nuclear states
* US: 10,000 warheads, Trident fleet being extended to 2,040 but developing "mini-nukes" for tactical battlefield use
* FRANCE: 482 warheads on air-to-surface missiles and ballistic missiles on subs being modernised
* RUSSIA: Ageing arsenal of 15,000 warheads which it is seeking to put into storage
* CHINA: Unknown, but thought to have 100 to 500 nukes, mostly ageing, keen to avoid race with US
* ISRAEL: 200 warheads, getting nuclear-capable subs from Germany
* INDIA: 150 warheads, has not tested since 1998 but recently tested missiles.
* PAKISTAN: 50 warheads. Not tested since 1990s, but tested missiles recently.
* NORTH KOREA: Tested first nuclear bomb this year
South Africa, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus have all disarmed .

That's a good one! The cheak of this Swedish diplomat. He wants to play ball with Tony. He must be out of his mind, for God's sake!

Universal Walker - towards the Glow of Blue Liquid

2006-11-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:
Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,
That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
When living light should kiss it?

Mortal Aesthetics

2006-11-22T23:32:00.000-08:00

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost.

Pardon Me!

2006-11-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

This bird is all stuffing and no brain!

That's a fucking no-brainer!

I beg your pardon!

No, I beg yours!

Don't be silly. You know next to nothing about Texans.

Wait till I hit Chavez with this one!

I know what it might be like to be peppered by the Vice.

That's definitely a no-brainer!

A goose doesn't know the whereabouts of Vices following the vice of the downunder demon of stuffing your big fat stomachs with Thanksgiving dinners and lurching about on the sidewalk on a wintry evening with no prospect of finding nor invading the nearest liquour store.

Poetic wisdom. A Texan truck is a man's best friend. All the way down wise-cracking alley.

A man's best home. Such people should try being stuffed like a greasy duck in southern France. Thought they invented red-wine, blood and freedom. Better think twice of that one.

Aint got no turkey's delight on this red-neck table. Perhaps under it, licking but not liking the presidential sneakers. Hurray for freedom - the great American innovation of the 21st century.

And so be it and good day to all patriotic Americans.

The Danes found the way to the bottom of the North Sea where the one-eyed serpent eel is sleeping the long forgotten sleep of Dante's first experiment with the fires of hell.

Being good to animals beats it all!

Shame on Danish Toadies

2006-11-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

The US has vetoed a motion in the Security Council condemning the Israeli attacks on women and children in Gaza. BBC News Writes:

The attack was a source of grief and outrage in GazaThe US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning an Israeli attack in Gaza that killed 18 civilians, including women and children.
The draft, which also condemned Israeli military operations in Gaza, followed Wednesday's attack in Beit Hanoun.
The US ambassador at the UN, John Bolton, described the text as unbalanced and politically motivated.
Ten of 15 Security Council members backed the resolution. Four abstained - Denmark, Japan, Slovakia and the UK.

Once again Denmark proves how it is a vassal state of the US.

"Denmark will stay in Iraq"

2006-10-30T10:58:00.000-08:00

Recent opinion polls have shown increasing opposition in the Danish public to continued Danish military presence in Iraq. More than 60 per cent of the Danish electorate want Danish soldiers out.
But the Danish government does not waiver. According to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen Denmark will remain as long as the Iraqui government wants it to, as long as it is under UN mandate and as long as it contributes to developing democracy in Iraq.

And one might add: As long as the US government wants Denmark to remain as part of a weakening "coalition of the willing". It is necessary to prop up the puppet regime in Baghdad which would not take long to fall if the coalition troops were withdrawn.

According to resolution 1637 of the Security Council:

Determining that the situation in Iraq continues to constitute a threat to
international peace and security,
Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
1. Notes that the presence of the multinational force in Iraq is at the request
of the Government of Iraq and, having regard to the letters annexed to this
resolution, reaffirms the authorization for the multinational force as set forth in
resolution 1546 (2004) and decides to extend the mandate of the multinational force
as set forth in that resolution until 31 December 2006;

Anders Fogh Rasmussen discussed the matter with Nordic colleagues at Nordic Council meeting in Copenhagen on Monday 30th. The Iraqui government wants the foreign troops to remain after expiry at end of the year. Fogh Rasmussen thinks that Denmark contributes positively to building up democracy in Iraq. It is the white man's burden to build democracy among the savages in the desert! For the Americans - and the Danes - the oil interests are of paramount importance. Leaving Iraq to itself may endanger the whole situation in all of the Mid East area.

On October 28th Bush said in an address to military personel in Charleston South Carolina:

We face an enemy that knows no bounds and no conscience. They're ideologues. But their ideology is the exact opposite of ours. They kill innocent people to achieve their evil objectives. But make no mistake about it, they have objectives. They have clearly stated that they want to drive the United States from the world so they can establish a caliphate, a governing organization from Indonesia to Spain, that would allow them to spread their ideology of hate, allow them to dominate a society in which people could not worship freely, or speak freely, in which people who did not adhere to their point of view would be punished. They seek safe haven from which to launch further attacks to achieve their objective. And their attacks would aim right here at the United States of America.
I want you to think about a world in which rival forms of radicals competed for power in the Middle East, to deny the hopes and aspirations of millions of people who simply want to live in peace. They would topple moderate governments. They would use oil as an economic weapon to bring the West to her knees, and to mix all that in with a country with a nuclear weapon. And 20 or 30 years from now, if that were to happen, people would look back and say, what happened to them in 2006? How come they couldn't see the challenge? How come they couldn't see the threats to a generation of Americans?

The enemy is "evil". The Danes and the Americans are God's own children, who fight for the good. Bush and Fogh Rasmussen do not understand that they themselves have produced the terrorists that keep coming out of the dungeons in increasing numbers. The "war on terror" is an ill-conceived idea. It is use of the word "war" in the wrong way. It produces more terrorists than it does away with.

It is quite typical that the only support Fogh Rasmussen got at the Nordic summit meeting was from Lithuanian prime minister Gediminas Kirkilas. This is the Europe that Rumsfeld dubbed "New Europe". In "Old Europe", for instance Sweden, an opinion poll has shown that a majority of Swedes consider the US a bigger threat to international peace than North Corea. - Who hoodwinked the Swedes? - Who hoodwinked the Danes?

Jyllandsposten acquitted

2006-10-26T03:37:00.000-07:00

The Jyllandsposten was acquitted today of violating the libel and racism articles in the Danish penal code. The court in the city of Aarhus found the paper's chief editor Carsten Juste and culture editor Flemming not guilty. The charge was brought by 7 muslim organisations in Denmark after the general attorney Henning Fode would not press charges as public prosecutor against the paper.

The Two most Obstinate Men in the World

2006-10-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

The Independent's front page today.

Yes, indeed! One would think that in a democracy they would have to admit defeat? But no! Then there must be some other reason for the stubbornness, - like pressure from their backing groups?

Nobel Prize in Economics given to Conservative Economist

2006-10-14T03:33:00.000-07:00

Apart from 2001, when Joe Stiglitz got the prize with two other economists, it seems to have become a rule of thumb that the Nobel prize in economics be given to a conservative economist with pro-American leanings. America is the unofficial leader of the free world and the leading exponent of the Anglo-American model of free market competitive capitalism. So perhaps it is no wonder that the Sweden's Riksbank should give the prize to representatives of this profit-oriented view of the world we live in.

Phelps is being heralded for being an early critic of the Phillips-curve. In the opinion of many economists this curve showing a relationship between the two economic variables of the rate of unemployment and the rate of inflation is associated with keynesianism. In the Keynesian economists tool-box of economic policy instruments the right balance between unemployment and inflation could be found, it was thought.

The trade-off between inflation and unemployment was, however, never an important element in Keynes' work. It is due rather more to the post-Keynesians.
Phelps was right to point out that the inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation would to a large extent be determined by expectations. When inflationary expectations are built into the economy it may be difficult to make expansionary monetary and financial policies work. This, however, was correct in the mid-seventies, after the first oil shock, and well into the 1980's. It is not very interesting today.

Nor is the NAIRU, non accelerating inflation rate of unemployment, very interesting, as you can see it move back and forth according to the arbitrary labour market policies being pursued by various governments. The Scandinavian economies are a case in point. Many Danish and Swedish economists are surprised at the present low level of unemployment in Denmark. It should not be possible - at least not with the low level of inflation that persists in the country. A few years ago it was thought that the rate of "natural" unemployment in Denmark was 7-8 per cent. Now unemployment is getting close to 4 per cent, without triggering inflation, not for the time being at least. The rate of "natural unemployment" is a truism, reflecting after-rationalization about the working of the economy.

So what is Phelps' big contribution to economics today? - good question. The WSJ journal article (move down a few lines on the page the link brings you to) summing up Phelps' reactionary views on the trans-atlantic economic debate, and quoted by many when citing Phelps' latter-day work, cannot be considered an original contribution to economics. An example:

"The U.S. economy might be said to suffer from incomplete inclusion of the disadvantaged. But that is less a fault of capitalism than of electoral politics. The U.S. economy is not unambiguously worse than the Continental ones in this regard: Low-wage workers at least have access to jobs, which is of huge value to them in their efforts to be role models in their family and community. In any case, we can fix the problem".

Here Phelps is apologetic about the fact that many workers must make do with 5.15$ an hour (federal minimum wage). Actually, in spite of this extremely low wage nobody can live on in the US, there is still considerable unemployment in many places. In Phelps' view capitalism is not at fault. But how can an hispanic or black worker be a "role model" for his or her kids with a minimum level of education and a wage that nobody can survive on? It seems as if the relevant economic questions to Phelps are: How do you maximize profits? - Disregarding the impact on income and wealth distribution. They are not: How do you maximize living conditions for the low-paid workers in the economy? Because that would require investments in education, housing and health. That would require higher taxes, and that is not palatable to the conservative economist.

It is not much more than a political-ideological defense of competitive capitalism, of the Anglo-American capitalism model as opposed to the "central European corporatist model". It is always entertaining to whiplash the latter and accentuate the value of the former, but it is not a sign of sound economic sense.

The recent success of the American economy in terms of over-liquidization and over-consumption due to printing too many dollar bills and assets, which unfortunately mostly accrue to the wealthier segments of society, actually proves that Keynes is right.
The enormous budget deficit has stimulated the economy and brought unemployment down. This has been due to a stimulus to effective demand, not by supply side effects. But it has led to balance of payments deficits and budget deficits that are not sustainable in the long run. What is sustainable in the long run, however, is the proven competitiveness of the European "corporatist model". Germany and other central European economies are gaining market share in international markets at the moment.

The USA and Britain are losing market share, especially in manufactured products. Why did the Economic Nobel Committee give the Nobel prize in economics to a man whose economic theorizing was slightly interesting two decades ago, and whose economic writing is no better than the average conservative economic journalist? Well, there is probably a political motive behind it. How many Keynesian economists have got the prize, one may ask once again?

Danish People's Party: "Mohammed's Possible Pedophile Inclinations satisfied by Aischa"

2006-10-12T01:29:00.000-07:00

Illustration from the review in Danish People Magazine

In the Danish People's Party's magazine, which is published 6 times a year, there is a review of a book on Mohammed's life. The reviewer writes that "In Germany there is a disappointed publisher who can only dream of the global attention which Jyllandsposten got after the paper printed the 12 cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. Already in 2004 Dr. Armin Geus, manager of Basilisken-Presse in Marburg, published the controversial book "The Prophet's Harem" by Johann Georg Mausinger."

The reviewer continues writing that it's a book with a number of juicy illustrations of the "carnal sides of the prophet's life". And further:

"The book describes how Mohammed fully lived up to his own statement that in life on earth only three things interested him: Women, good scents and prayer. Mohammed was exceedingly prolific and active in the art of love making. He had several wives simultaneously, and in the Harem there was something appealing to any taste - possible pedophile inclinations were satisfied by the only 9 year-old wife Aischa".

In all its stupidity the review is characterised by a completely ahistorical view of Mohammed and the historical period he lived in. It was not uncommon for men to be married to young girls. That should not be interpreted as pedophilia, which is a contemporary sexual perversion. By using this term the party reviewer reveals that his intention is to pour scorn on Mohammed, not to try to deal with the religious and historical character in a detached, unbiased way.

The book review is printed in nr 2 2006 edition of the magazine, and the corresponding .pdf file has just today been uploaded to the party's website. According to spokespeople from the party this is pure coincidence. There has been some delay in publication, it is claimed. This is considered normal practice in the party.

There does not seem to be much doubt, however, that it is meant as a provocation, following in the wake of the recent scandal about the video from the cartoon competition in the Youth Party's summer camp. The right wing Danish People's Party wants to tell everybody that it doesn't take the sensitivities of Muslims seriously. The party finds it amusing to tease people's sensitivities. Perhaps it also wants to score some votes in the upcoming elections by being stalwart defenders of freedom of expression.

It is deeply ironical that freedom of expression does not apply to the party's own members. Recently 11 members have been expelled from the party for voicing criticism of the party leadership.

Indictment of "Opror"

2006-10-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

The Danish Minister of Justice Lene Espersen has decided to indict the spokesperson of the movement Opror ("Rebellion") for violating the Danish anti-terror legislation. After 9/11 2001 the Danish penal code has been expanded with the following article:

§ 114 b. Den, som i øvrigt ved tilskyndelse, råd eller dåd medvirker til at fremme den kriminelle virksomhed eller det fælles formål for en gruppe eller sammenslutning, som foretager en eller flere handlinger omfattet af § 114 eller § 114 a, nr. 1 eller 2, når virksomheden eller formålet indebærer, at en eller flere handlinger af denne karakter begås, straffes med fængsel indtil 6 år (The Danish Penal Code).

According to this article noone is allowed to incite to terror, or promote terror, by means of advice og help. Punishment for violation of the article may be up to 6 years behind bars.

In 2005 Opror collected money to the Colombian FARC guerillas and the Palestinian PFLP. FARC received some 50.000 Danish Kroners (about 8000 $). Some of the money was collected through the arrangement of a party and the income from this party. Opror has some 700 members, and during the party (in August 2005) a large number of people were aware that they paid for tickets, music, and drinks in support of FARC. Furthermore Opror has published an appeal on its website that encourages others to collect money for the organisations mentioned. This appeal has been removed by the police from the Opror website, but it can still be read on the website of the Danish Parliament as it is part of a question asked by a parliamentarian of the Unity List in Parliament. The view point of the Unity List and Opror is that the Danish state violates the principles of freedom of expression in the Danish constitution.

As a lot of people have been involved, and there is a principle of collective leadership in Opror, it does not seem to be an easy judicial case. By only indicting the spokesperson, this person is made the defendant of an act that hundreds of people have taken part in. The question may hence be asked: Why aren't all those responsible of supporting the FARC guerillas indicted?

It is well-known that the Danish government has been under pressure of the Colombian government, which has even asked for extradition of not only the spokesperson, but a large part of the members of Opror. It is conceivable that the Danish government has been under pressure from its close ally the United States of America. The Danish people are suffocating under the pressure of Big Brother. Before this embrace by Uncle Sam Danes could do solidarity work in 3rd world countries. They could collect money for freedom movements. A lot of people got involved. This is getting increasingly difficult in this stifling intellectual atmosphere.

It is obvious that this whole case has become a caricature of the functioning of the international judicial system after the 9/11 2001 strengthening of the terror legislation in a number of countries. The European Union has accepted blindfoldedly that a large number of organisations and movements have been placed on the terror list.

A lot of Danes are now fearful about collecting money to humanitarian organisations and freedom movements. Are the FARC guerilla fighters a freedom movement, or are they "terrorists". Perhaps they have been involved in acts that might be called terror, but so have American agents when they have been trying to effect regime change in Cuba and other places. Apart from that the FARC have a programme for societal change for the benefit of poor Colombian farmers, and the organisation is administrating large parts of Colombia in ways that most people would not categorise as terroristic. Danes are not allowed to support that work. This has been stressed by the Danish government by its pressing charges against Opror.

Cartoons Exhibition in Copenhagen Causes Anger in Jewish Community

2006-10-08T01:23:00.000-07:00

(Bitsch drawings that have provoked an uproar in Danish media. Click on drawings for larger prints)

The Cartoons made by the Danish artist Joergen Bitsch, which were among winners in the holocaust cartoons competition in Iran, are now on exhibit at the Café Riga in Vesterbro Copenhagen. This has caused outrage in the Jewish religious community, Mosaisk Trossamfund, in Copenhagen. The leader of Mosaisk Trossamfund, Jacques Blum has called those responsible for the exhibition "useful tools" for the priesthood in Teheran. The gallery manager Bent Jespersen has been accused of making fun of holocaust.

The drawings, or those among them that have caused the most consternation (can be seen in a higher resolution here) , depict three starved children, the one to the left being a victim of holocaust and those to the right victims of the present/and future globalised world order.

Is the whole matter really a case of "the chickens coming home to roost?" after the Mohammed cartoons: The Danes being not so open-minded as they thought they were, when the victims of freedom of expressions were the muslims? It's hard to tell. So far, the holocaust cartoons have mostly been debated in intellectual circles, where opinions are divided. Most people tend to view them as artists' freedom of expression. But also some people express some "solidarity" with the Jews in Mosaisk Trossamfund and condemn the drawings. What has probably enraged jews the most is the fact that the infant victim of holocaust is holding a note in his hand that says "goodwill", and the fact that the title of the three cartoons is "Where's the Real Holocaust?".

New Mohammed Drawings in Danish People's Party

2006-10-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

(Members of DPP Youth laughing and having fun at drawing of Mohammed as a camel urinating)

The right wing Danish People's Party is its own arbiter concerning what is an acceptable debate in the party, Danish Journal The Politiken writes. It has just expelled 9 members of the party due to these members' criticism of the lack of openness to discussion in the party.

On the other hand the leadership of the party finds it acceptable that the youth organisation of the party has made crude fun of the prophet Mohammed (link here to videos of drawing contest). This happened at a national reunion in the youth branch where the participants made a contest about who could make most fun of the prophet. Some of the young people dressed up in turbans and pistol belts, others made drawings of the prophet as a camel peeing and drinking beer, and as a drunk terrorist bombing Copenhagen.

One of the top leaders of the party, member of parliament and foreign affairs spokesman Soren Espersen sees no problem in this kind of mockery. To the paper he says: "I see no problems in mockery of the Prophet. This was done in a party mood, where we are free to make fun. I myself could make a contest about drawing Mohammed for my own anniversary. This is pertinent considering that we have been doing nothing else than discussing Mohammed drawings for a whole year. "

The same tolerance does, however, not apply to the party's own members when they want to criticise decisions by the leadership. Everybody is expected to stick to the party line in hardcore stalinistic style. Otherwise they'll be hit by the long vengeful arm of Pia Kjaersgaard.

Danish Enlightenment against the Dark and Evil Forces

2006-10-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

At the opening of the Danish Parliament's new session October 3rd prime minister once more celebrated Denmark's activist foreign policy, hand in hand with Bush' America. He did so by speaking condescendingly to the Palestinians: "We do not question the election. But we must demand that Hamas stops terror, recognizes the right of Israel to exist, and accepts existing agreements."

There is nothing about the war Israel has been waging against the Palestinian territory for some months, leading to a couple of hundred dead, among them dozens of children, and destroying infrastructure. Nor does he mention the virtual blockade Israel has made of the area, leading to hunger and destitution among the Palestinian people.

The Danish PM talks about helping democracy along. That's why Denmark is involved in Afghanistan and Iraq, he says. "We want to help the populations to freedom and self-rule.... That's difficult, because the terrorists fear freedom".

By using the term "terrorist" in this way, Anders Fogh Rasmussen is clouding further debate - that is probably done deliberately. The "terrorists" do not as such reside in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. The "terrorists" are without country and borders. They are virtual states of mind, living secret lives in certain parts of the internet and in people's imagination. The Danes and the Americans have not hit very many "terrorists" by waging war on the territories of Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead they have been waging war on Iraqi and Afghani populations, thus producing new terrorists in the thousands, because the people in these countries are getting enraged at what they perceive as foreign domination and occupation.

The Word "Imam" used condescendingly by Danish top politicians

2006-09-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

It is symptomatic of the islamophobic intellectual climate in Denmark that the word "imam" is being used condescendingly by Danish top politicians without their even thinking about it. These politicians would never dream of using the word "bishop" in the same way.

The Danish welfare debate is raging at full speed. Disagreement has broken out between socialdemocratic mayors in some of the largest cities and the conservative-liberalist government about the level of welfare spending and the distribution of expenses between the state and the municipalitities. Lars Lokke Rasmussen, home secretary and second in the political hierarchy under the PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has said about his political opponent, social democratic lord mayor of Aarhus Nicolai Wammen that the latter "talks equivocally like an imam". Anders Fogh Rasmussen has supported his second in command and said that the latter has put it "succinctly".

What they call back in memory is the journey to the Middle East by Danish imams that triggered the Mohammed cartoons crisis. It was said at the time that the imams "spoke with two tongues", one when in Denmark and defending Denmark, and with another tongue in the Middle East when defending the prophet against defamation. Whether this is correct or not, is not the point. It is not a generally recognised attribute of an imam to speak with two tongues.

These two politicians are role models for a large number of Danes. Therefore they ought to be careful not to spread more hate speech than that which is already around.

War Mongers' Narratives destroyed by Intelligence

2006-09-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

BBC News has printed excerpts from the American Spy Agencies' National Intelligence Estimate on Trends in Global Terrorism released on Tuesday 26 September 2006. Below is an extract from the report:

We assess that the operational threat from self-radicalized cells will grow in importance to US counterterrorism efforts, particularly abroad but also in the Homeland. The jihadists regard Europe as an important venue for attacking Western interests. Extremist networks inside the extensive Muslim diasporas in Europe facilitate recruitment and staging for urban attacks, as illustrated by the 2004 Madrid and 2005 London bombings.

We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.
The Iraq conflict has become the "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight. We assess that the underlying factors fuelling the spread of the movement outweigh its vulnerabilities and are likely to do so for the duration of the timeframe of this estimate.
Four underlying factors are fuelling the spread of the jihadist movement: (1) Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination, leading to anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness; (2) the Iraq .jihad;. (3) the slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, and political reforms in many Muslim majority nations; and (4) pervasive anti-US sentiment among most Muslims, all of which jihadists exploit.

All Danes should read this carefully. It is further evidence of the dangers inherent in the shift to the right of Danish foreign policy under the Conservative liberalist Fogh Rasmussen government. The Danish prime minister Fogh Rasmussen has denied the conclusions of the report, which is rather silly. It has led to questions from the People's socialist party (SF) and the Unity List in the Danish parliament. We're still waiting for the PM's answer. Anders Fogh Rasmussen must have some confidential knowledge that the intelligence agencies do not have.

This is not surprising, as it corresponds to the situation i 2003, before the outbreak of the Iraq war, when both the American president and the Danish PM disregarded intelligence reports on the true nature of Iraq's arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Political "necessity" takes priority to following the truth.

Time and again we've been hearing in Danish media about the threat the terrorists pose. This has been used by Anders Fogh Rasmussen as a justification for the Danish military involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The foreign minister Per Stig Moller and the minister of Defence Soren Gade are in that respect simple replicas of their master. "We have to do this," Per S. Moller has said repeatedly. "Otherwise we'll regret it some day, when the terrorists come to haunt us." Therefore the terrorists have to be defeated militarily.

Now this turns out to be a perverse logic. The terrorists come about in the first place due to the war, - and due to the many humiliations Middle East populations have suffered because of colonialism and imperialism.

Danish Industrialists Worried about new Cartoons Crisis?

2006-09-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

Pia having the rant party of a life time

When will this lady, perhaps the most powerful politician in Denmark, be invited as the guest of honour to the Industrialists' annual conference?

The chairman of the Conferation of Danish Industry, Henning Dyremose, may have sent out an invitation. We don't know.

What we do know is that he commented upon the Jyllandsposten Mohammed cartoons at the annual conference of the organisation on Tuesday. No wonder, these cartoons are still a top topic at meetings in the chattering classes.

According to Dyremose the cartoons case demonstrates that "an eye is kept on what is happening in Denmark. But not all Danes seem to appreciate this".

"When you have freedom of speech, you also have the right to remain silent, - if that is the wise option", Dyremose says to press agency Ritzau. "What The Jyllandsposten did - within the confines of Danish law - has a number of consequences that the paper may not have predicted. My point is that what we're doing in Denmark may have a global effect".

The chairman emphasises that he does not want to criticize The Jyllandsposten. But in his opinion we have to start thinking in a "global way" in Denmark. What we consider all right in Denmark, may be interpreted in an entirely different way in the rest of the world.

It is really amusing to see this top representative of Danish capital interests go out of his way to warn the Danes about not doing something that may jeopardize important economic interests.

Why doesn't he warn against The Jyllandsposten, in the 1930's a paper supporting the views of Danish nazis, and warn against the rampant xenophobic tendencies in parts of the Danish public? This xenophobia is expressed by the politicians from the right populist Danish Peoples Party, for instance the leader of the party Pia Kjaersgaard, who is pouring verbal abuse on immigrants almost daily.

Instead of doing this most obvious thing, Dyremose is beating around the bush for fear of getting his tail trapped in the xenophobic lady's virulent word stream.

Dyremose is the man who has just scored 100 mio. kroners (17 mio$) in personal benefits from selling the Danish tele communications giant TDC to foreign capital interests for more than 12 billion$. A new cartoons crisis may lower the price of the crown jewels of Danish business, so such generous deals may be more seldom in future. Freedom of speech is a good thing - no doubt about that, but it may come at a price.

The Affluent Society and its Enemies

2006-09-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

Reclaim the Streets is alive and vibrant. The demonstrations for the Youth House in Copenhagen have been gaining momentum for several days. On Saturday some 3000 young people walked in demonstration from the Youth House in Nørrebro to Christiania. The house has been bought by the Christian sect the Fatherhouse, which has won legal right to evict the young people.

On Sunday the demonstrations evolved into a Reclaim the Streets action. The young anarchists who had got reinforcements from Germany (Die Autonome) and Sweden blocked the Dronning Louise Bridge to interior Copenhagen. Here they were met by numerous police. The police claim that the demonstration had not been notified, and therefore it would be considered illegal. Some demonstrators put on balaclavas, which has been illegal in Denmark since the demonstrations during the EU summit meeting in 2002.

The police succeeded in pressing the demonstrators back from the Queen Louise Bridge to Inner Norrebro, where street battles raged for some hours, and the police made some 260 arrests. Police have been accused of using too much violence during some of these arrests. Politicians from the Unit List (Red-Green Alliance) and social liberal Radicals have taken up the matter. They will pose question about the role of the police to Minister of Justice Lene Espersen.

Iraq War intensifies terrorism threat according to Intelligence Reports

2006-09-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

According to the New York Times September 23rd US intelligence has spawned reports saying that the war in Iraq intensifies terrorism rather than alleviate it:

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.
The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.
An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology.
The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

This probably does not come as a surprise to most people. What is surprising is that this chain of causation has not reached the upper echelons of the White House yet. President Bush continues being involved in a great civilizational battle of the good forces against the evil forces, thus engaging the whold world in a kind of John Waine stage set that is getting more and more absurd.

The Danish secret service has also produced a report saying that the Iraq war - and Danish involvement in it - increases the threat of terrrorism in Denmark, rather than diminishing it. This has been denied by the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Yesterday a Danish soldier was killed by a wayside bomb. Fogh Rasmussen expressed great regret at this, and this is probably also how the Danish people feel. - But who is responsible for these meaningless deaths. Fogh Rasmussen called it an act of terrorism that ended the young soldier's life. It might also be called an act of national resistance against a foreign occupying force. In World War II Denmark was occupied by German forces. There was a resistance movement. They were called freedom fighters, not terrorists. Fogh Rasmussen has turned these historical events upside down, claiming that the Anglo-American-Danish forces in Iraq are freedom fighters, who fight against the post-fascism of the Baath party survivors. He is a kind of echo of his master, President Bush.

This perverse logic may be an act of stupidity. It is also possible that it is deliberate. If that is the case, it reveals a growing discrepancy between the stated ideals of the American nation, freedom and democracy, and reality. Bush claims to fight for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. What is meant is the freedom of American economic interests. What he is doing is trying to impose his own version of "freedom" on foreign peoples in these lands. We've heard this song before from men in power. It was the same thing the soviet rulers did, when they imposed the state-controlled centralised "people's democracies" on the countries in Eastern Europe at the end of the 1940s. They were not "democracies" in any reasonable sense of the word. Likewise, the "democracies" of Iraq and Afghanistan are not that in a reasonable sense of the word.

Stumbling over a cell phone - purely incidental?

2006-09-23T03:48:00.000-07:00

One of the seven young men remanded in custody by Danish police in the Vollsmose terror case has been conducting cell phone talks from his supposedly isolated prison cell, The Fyens Stiftstidende writes today. According to the rules for remand in custody no contact to the outside world is permitted. Yet two of the 27 year old SH's brothers have spoken with him. This came out during a public meeting on Thursday night at a local Odense school. Here the two brothers told an audience that their brother found the cell phone when he was on exercise. He used the phone at once to get into contact with his family. The whole family have talked with him.

Together with the intelligence leaks (see previous posts) this incident has caused an uproar in Danish legal circles and the press. It has been suggested that the cell phone has been planted by the police.

If it has turned out to be difficult for the police to find sufficient hard evidence for convicting the terror suspects in court, they may have been tempted to use this stratagem to get more evidence. This was, however, denied by the police in the 9 0'clock radio news this morning.

Danish PM reinforces Alliance with right populist party

2006-09-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

The political Right in Denmark which is presently running the government and having a comfortable majority in parliament is moving closer together. PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen's top lieutenant, the minister of employment Claus Hjort Frederiksen, tells daily journal Politiken today that the governing liberalist party Venstre has developed a "community of value" with the right populists in the Danish People's Party (DPP). It is the DPP with its "Denmark for Danes" policies that is largely responsible for the tough stance on immigration issues and the confrontations during the cartoons crisis.

The liberalist-conservative government depends on the votes of the DPP in order to have a majority in parliament. This makes Pia Kjaersgaard, leader of the DPP, a very powerful politician in Denmark. She calls the shots when the restrictive Danish immigration policies are formulated.

Calling the relationship a "community of value" is Danish political newspeak that signals close ideological affinity. Venstre, Anders Fogh Rasmussen's governing party, is traditionally the liberalist party in Danish politics, favoring a limited, non-interventionist state and low-tax politicies. The Danes, however, are fond of their welfare state. So, in order to stay in power and win the next election, Fogh Rasmussen has been moving towards the centre. But in doing so he alienates the stauncher liberalist ideological elements of his party. The close relationship to the DPP makes the move towards the centre credible, as the DPP also favours welfare policies, especially towards the elderly who are a core electoral group for the party.

It is, however, only in the welfare field that the two parties are center parties. In foreign policy they both support Danish military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and a close relationship to the US. Development aid to third world countries has been cut down, and the previous close relationship to and support of Nordic countries' solidarity policies towards third world issues and national independence movements has been given up.

Continuing his newspeak Hjort Frederiksen defines the common ground of the two rightist parties: "We're preoccupied with the coherence of the Danish society, of being Danish and considering central values like freedom of speech and democracy. . ... We have a whole number of values in common". By connecting "being Danish" and "the values of freedom of speech and democracy", this top lieutenant of Anders Fogh Rasmussen makes a spiritual connection to the Mohammed cartoons case, which was a traumatic event in Danish politics that really divided the nation, pitting groups in the Danish ruling class against each others in ways that have not been seen in Danish politics before. By committing his party to the DPP, what Hjort Frederiksen is really saying is: We'll stand firmly together if we're confronted with "new onslaugths from islamists" who are not ready to accept the special Danish interpretation of freedom of speech, which implies the right to mock other people's faith in any way the Danes see fit.

It is also a warning to the political left in Denmark, which seems to be gaining electoral support in opinion polls: You can just come forward. We're ready for a fight. He is defining on what turf the fight will take place. It'll be on the turf of xenophobic politics where Fogh Rasmussen previously he has proved that he is the real master of spin and ceremonies.

Chavez Call for UN Reforms

2006-09-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

"Dictator Bush" is more popular in Denmark. Since the right came to power in 2001, Denmark has been one of the US' staunchest allies. Here Danish PM and foreign minister in dog chains. Cooperation with the Americans helps to sell Lurpak and getting good deals for Danish defence contractors:

At his speech to the UN general assembly yesterday Hugo Chavez spoke virulently against "dictator" Bush and the American quest for world domination, and he suggested some reforms of the UN system:

"... The assembly have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.
Last year, Madam, we made four modest proposals that we felt to be crucially important. We have to assume the responsibility our heads of state, our ambassadors, our representatives, and we have to discuss it.
The first is expansion, and Mullah talked about this yesterday right here. The Security Council, both as it has permanent and non-permanent categories, (inaudible) developing countries and LDCs must be given access as new permanent members. That's step one.
Second, effective methods to address and resolve world conflicts, transparent decisions.
Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.
Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the council was prevented.
Fourthly, we have to strengthen, as we've always said, the role and the powers of the secretary general of the United Nations".

It is obvious there is a great need to reform the UN. Since the foundation of the organisation it has functioned more or less as a branch of the State Department in Washington. Whenever the US has been discontented with debates and resolutions in the General Assembly funds have been frozen, until the organisation became more malleable.

Now the US under the leadership of Bush is trying to bully the whole world to accept its manichean image of the world as a fight between good and evil. Actually the purpose is not so much to fight real life terrorists as to find a recipe for world domination.

However, the world is changing. The US is not so much a dominant power as it has been. The growing energy shortage is felt acutely. That is what gives a country like Venezueala considerable leverage. The US is becoming increasingly indebted because of the massive deficits in its balance of payments. That means that the rest of the world has to finance US militarism and quest for world domination.

This situation is becoming increasingly untenable. Even though the US enjoys considerable support from its docile allies in Western Europe, the world is in the midst of profound economic changes at the moment. Big countries that were previously seen as "underdeveloped economies" are gaining stature as still larger economies vying for markets and resources. How long will they accept American dominance?

Seen in that light it is high time that the Venezuelan proposals are taken seriously. The UN must be reformed so it reflects a sincere multilateralism.

Mysterious Intelligence Leaks in Vollsmose terror case

2006-09-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, September 11th, Danish tabloid paper the BT got hold of a secret report about explosives seized at Vollsmose, the council housing ghetto outside Odense where the alleged terror suspects lived. The secret report was found in the street outside the Civil Emergency Agency in Copenhagen. It was a report on analysis data of the alleged explosives found at the alleged terrorists' residences.

The other leak is a confidential report containing names, ID numbers, telephone numbers, etc of the presumed terrorists and the staff involved in the arrests of the presumed terrorists from Vollsmose. This report was found in a metro station in the vicinity of Copenhagen. The chief of Danish intelligence Lars Findsen explains it by carelessness. The intelligence officer who lost this report has been dismissed.

Legal experts find it doubtful that both incidents could be entirely accidental.

Division of powers in Danish Constitution threatened?

2006-09-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

The presumed terror case in Vollsmose, Odense, has provoked fear among some politicians and legal experts for the principle of the division of powers in the Danish constitution. According to this constitutional principle the power to legislate resides with parliament (Folketinget), the power to administrate with the government and the ministries, and the power to pass sentences resides with the courts.

After the apprehension of the presumed terrorists the Danish minister of Justice Lene Espersen said that it is a very serious case, perhaps the most serious ever, and that the police has got very far in its investigations. A responsible high-ranking minister, and least of all the minister of justice, should not say such things, as it may affect the courts. The courts are supposed to be completely independent of the executive branch of government. They are supposed to pass judgments independently of what leading politicians think.

In The Berlingske Tidende September 6th the chairman of the Judicial Committee in the Danish parliament Peter Skaarup (Danish People's Party) writes:

It is with a mixture of fear and relief that one sees that Denmark for the second time within a year manages to unravel a terror group. The Relief of course is due to the fact that the Danish Police Secret Service have been on the spot at the right time and apparently have unraveled an armed and determined terror group right in the midst of Danish society.

Skaarup talks in a way that suggests that the presumed terrorists have been convicted. He is chairman of the Judicial Committee of the Danish Parliament! Actually there is no sentence in the case so far. We are still waiting for the court to speak.

Terror case makes Libyan-Danish blogger feel guilty

2006-09-09T23:15:00.001-07:00

Libyan-Danish blogger Safia Aoude writes about the Danish terror case on her blog:

A number of Danish Muslims have been apprehended by Danish Intelligence under suspicion of alleged terrorist planning. According to reliable sources police has found incriminating material in their homes, such as metal scraps, nail polish and Islamic books.

Makes me feel sooooo guilty! Please make lotsa dou3a Danish Intelligence doesn´t know what I have been buying at my local Seven Eleven convenience store earlier today - just minutes before I proceeded to attend Islamic fiqh teaching at my local mosque.....maybe I could set the entire thing off by burping nitrogene air right from my lungs after drinking it ?

The Danish intelligence police have been looking for fertilizer with nitrogen contents in allotment gardens near Vollsmose, the suburbian ghetto where the presumed terrorists live. Sacks with fertilizer have been seized and may be shown in court as evidence to prove that the young people were plotting a terrorist act. Seven young men are in custody at the moment.

Police want Terror Suspects to be kept in Custody

2006-09-08T03:41:00.000-07:00

At the city court of Odense Danish police have today asked for 5 of the terror suspects from Vollsmose, Odense, to be on remand, pending further investigation of the case. Court proceedings are held behind closed doors. There's speculation in the media that the police badly need sufficient hard evidence to press for charges of terror under the article 114 in the Danish penal code.

In the meantime there has been a great deal of interest in getting details about the life of the Danish muslim convert, one of the suspects. Actually, a few thousand young Danes have converted to islam.

The 31 year old Abdallah Andersen was a Salvation Army member before converting to Islam. According to The Berlingske Tidende on converting to Islam he promised his mother that he would never be an accessory to terror in the name of Allah, a promise he could easily make, as he found it was not consistent with islam to make terror.

He lived a very common Danish life in a drab semi-detached house in a suburb of Odense, the third largest city in Denmark. The Berlingske journalist finds it hard to believe that a terrorist should have grown up in this environment.

Most people reporters speak to in Vollsmose, Odense, express great surprise that these youngsters are presumed terrorists.

Abdallah Andersen converted to Islam about five years ago. He changed his first name into a muslim first name. He grew a beard, and he began to wear the jilbab, a traditional Arab-Muslim dress.

Abdallah has told local papers about his conversion to Islam. It was due to his great curiosity about life and his multireligious group of friends that he started reading the Quran. In Islam he found inner peace of mind that he had not been able to find in the Christian faith. A few years ago he moved to Vollsmose, one of the largest council housing areas in Denmark where a large part of the Muslim population of Odense live.

He defended the islamic way of life and was an opponent of Naser Khader, a prominent advocate of a Danish kind of Euro-Islam, and other "infidels", whom he criticized in frequent reader's letters in local newspapers.

Abdallah also participated in chat rooms on the Internet, where he discussed muslim norms and way of life with other muslims. Even though friends describe him as "wise", it has been difficult for him to get a job because of his beard and the jilbab. He has spent a lot of time nursing his sick mother, going to the job centre, and to religious service in the local mosque. A friend describes him as a solitary figure, divided between two cultures. He wanted to be married and get a family. This was difficult because parents with an Arabic background would not "give" their daughter to a Danish muslim. That made him sad; he felt as much a muslim as the others.

Danish Muslim Convert wrote Letter to the Editor shortly before Arrest

2006-09-07T01:47:00.000-07:00

The ethnic Danish muslim convert that we talked about in the last post, wrote a letter to the editor of The Politiken one and a half hours before Danish secret service police smashed the door to his appartment and arrested him on suspicion of being an accessory to terrorist plotting.

The letter to the editor was published in the Politiken this morning. In the letter the suspect Abdallah Andersen, Bøgeparken 236, Odense writes critically about an interview with Danish media darlings Karen Jespersen and Ralf Pittelkow that was published by the Politiken in its Saturday edition. Karen Jespersen is a former Social Democratic minister of Home Affairs. Ralf Pittelkow, a former marxist - later spin doctor for former Social Democratic prime minister Nyrup Rasmussen, is now political commentator at conservative Danish paper the Jyllandsposten. They are a couple and well-known for a "stand firm" attitude in the Danish debate on immigrants. Karen Jespersen, a former radical socialist, joined the Social Democrats in the beginning of the 1980's. She became an increasingly outspoken critic of the Social Democratic left's "soft" political line on immigration issues. As the Interior Minister of the social democratic governments of the 1990s she was increasingly isolated at the right wing of the party, especially after suggesting that asylum seekers should be placed on an island, away from Danish population centres.

On Tuesday a new book entitled "Islamists and Naivists - an Indictment" by Jespersen and Pittelkow was published by the publisher People's Press. The Saturday interview in The Politiken is about this book.

In his letter to the editor entitled Fanaticism Abdallah Andersen writes critically of the Jespersen-Pittelkow couple and their views on islam:

".... Karen Jespersen and Ralf Pittelkow write in the best Helle Brix style; islam is not only a faith, but as a religion it carries the seeds of a fanaticism that is threatening Western society." - He continues criticising the two for prejudice and ignorance about islam. He concludes, "yes, there is indeed fanaticism in Denmark", and he expresses his wish to ask the question: "Why are the Danes so xenophobic. The answer is quite obvious to us muslims living here".

In the interview in the Politiken with Jespersen and Pittelkow they criticize the "naivists" for being soft on islam. The interviewer asks: Who are the "naivists", and they reply:

"The muhammed drawings case was a decisive event. This was the first time you saw that a major part of the Muslim world demanded that islamic law should also apply in Europe. I.e. our rules about freedom of speech should be adjusted to islamic law, the Sharia. That was the crux of that conflict. A major part of those speaking in the Danish debate did not understand that. Those are the ones we call "naivists". "

This is quite clearly an interpretation of what happened in the cartoons crisis. Another possible interpretation might be that the "muslim world" just wanted some respect for their faith. It is typical of hardliners like Jespersen and Pittelkow that they see things in the worst possible light when it comes to understanding what islam and muslims stand for. In that way they probably help to make muslims an explosive issue in Danish politics. They stand for an intellectualised kind of "hate speech" that does not make the issue of immigration easier to deal with in Denmark. In that sense Abdallah Andersen's characterization seems quite relevant. According to the Danish papers Abdallah Andersen has written a number of letters to the editor. Whether this has been a factor in drawing the attention of the police to him, we do not know.

Hospitality

2006-09-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

Come in and sit down, Pol. photo

Terrorists are not always as hospitable as the presumed Danish terrorist, who is by the way an ethnic Dane that has converted to islam. Last night when he was arrested the police went in without knocking, smashing the door to his appartment in Vollsmose, Odense. According to Danish newspaper the Politiken, the door to his flat is still open. So if you need some genuine Danish hospitality, come to Vollsmose and pay him a visit. According to Politiken his humble abode is very neat. You can only risk being contaminated by the intellectual climate.

Two of the presumed terrorists were to be kept in isolation for four weeks, the city court of Odense ruled. That means that the police presumably has a case. The public prosecutor will press for charges under the Danish terror legislation (article 114 in the penal code).

The Danish right wing politician Pia Kjaersgaard has called for further strengthening of terror legislation in Denmark. The media has been so kind as to lend ears to her criticism of the lax anti-terror work in Denmark.

Denmark in Shock at Anti-terror Raid in suburban Ghetto

2006-09-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

9 young men have been held in the immigrant suburb of Vollsmose at the outskirts of Odense, the third largest city in Denmark, about a hundred miles from Copenhagen. BBC News writes about the case:

The country's Justice Minister, Lene Espersen, said it was likely they were planning an attack in Denmark.
The men had been under surveillance for months and were detained on suspicion of planning terror acts.
All nine are due in court later and are being held under anti-terror laws introduced after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
Ms Espersen said: "The clues police found indicate that they were very likely planning an attack somewhere in Denmark.

According to the evening news on Danish TV the arrests were quite dramatic. The police kicked doors in and surprised the suspects, who were put in handcuffs. Computers and various effects were confiscated by the police. Two of the suspects were released today.

Danish politicians across the political spectrum use the occasion to stress the need for further strengthening the anti-terror legislation in Denmark and channeling more funds to the secret service police.

Stockholm Conferences on Lebanon's Early Recovery and the Humanitarian Situation

2006-08-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

The following message you can read on the homepage of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Denmark does not participate as a host nation in this conference. And the event is not being covered very much in Danish media. One may wonder why, but cosmic duck is not a one to ask silly questions!

On 31 August and 1 September, Sweden will host two conferences at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm. Ministers and senior officials from main donor countries and international organisations are expected to attend.
The Lebanon conference is an answer to the call in UN Security Council Resolution 1701 for immediate steps to extend financial and humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese people. The Government of Sweden is arranging the conference in close collaboration with the Government of Lebanon and with support from the United Nations. The World Bank and the European Commission have also been consulted in the preparations of the conference.
Stockholm Donor Conference on the Humanitarian Situation in the Palestinian Territories is a response to the reviewed UN humanitarian appeal for the Palestinian territories, as yet underfinanced despite great and growing humanitarian needs, especially in Gaza. The conference is held in collaboration with Norway and Spain, in consultation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The conference already appears to be a success. A larger amount of money than anticipated has been raised according to the BBC:

The Lebanon donor conference in Stockholm has raised more than $940m in pledges of new money, Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson has said.
The organisers of the aid conference had set a target of $500m.
The new pledges bring the total amount of money raised to help with the rebuilding of Lebanon to $1.2bn.
PM Fouad Siniora told the meeting his country had sustained billions of dollars of damages during the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Mr Siniora said Lebanon's recovery from its civil war had been "wiped out in days".

On the Danish ministry of foreign affairs homepage there's only a brief message, and it is announced that about 4 mio $ has been appropriated for the rebuilding of Lebanon, and this amount has been increased by 3 mio.

The BBC article also writes about the Israeli use of cluster bombs, a matter Danish media has not been very noisy about:

On Wednesday the UN's humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, condemned the "completely immoral" way Israel dropped thousands of cluster bombs on Lebanon even as a resolution appeared imminent

Young People to be Evicted from Youth House in Copenhagen

2006-08-28T10:19:00.001-07:00

Young people are going to be evicted from the Youth House in Nørrebro, traditionally a working class district near the centre of Copenhagen. The house was occupied by squatters ("BZ") in the beginning of the 1980's, when it was not being used by anybody. The municipal council of Copenhagen tried to get the young people out, but they would not move voluntarily, claiming that they did not have any other shelter.

After some negotiations between the municipality and the young, they got permission to stay. They turned the place into an activity centre for the counter culture youngsters in Copenhagen. The municipality attempted to sell the house in 2000, claiming it was in a state of dilapidation and decay. It was, however, renovated by the youngsters. The house was purchased by a company called Human Ltd through its attorney Inger Loft.

It turns out this is a cover for a fundamentalist Christian organization called the Fatherhouse. The Fatherhouse later buys the house from Human Ltd, and they then try to evict the young people.

They do not succeed. The young people claim that they have been given use right to the house by the municipal council. In 2003 the Fatherhouse indicts the young people in the Youth House at the district Court in Copenhagen with claim of violation of their property rights. The Fatherhouse wins the case. The sentence is appealed to a regional court which upholds the sentence on August 28. So now the Fatherhouse can ask for evicion of the young people with the sentence in their hands. And they will do so. The young people, however, still refuse to move out. It may thus end in some kind of confrontation.

The young people will probably have to move out, with their concerts, discussion groups, soup kitchens, cafés, bookshop, alternative festivals, and a lot of other activities that have helped to make Copenhagen a less boring city than it would otherwise have been. It's a disgrace for the Fogh Rasmussen Bismarckian-Conservative government and the municipality of Copenhagen that it is not possible to find space for the activities of young people who break through petty-bourgeois bigotry and live in a somewhat more colourful way than the rest of the materialist buggers. Denmark is going to enjoy a very healthy surplus on the state budgets this year of some 10-12 billion dollars, and yet this rich Bismarckian welfare state cannot afford to find some space for a few hundred young people outside the mainstream of welfarish materialism. It's a disgrace!!

Israeli Foreign Minister Reported to Danish police for War Crimes

2006-08-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

The Danish Member of Parliament from the Unity List/Red-Green Alliance Frank Aaen has reported the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livne to the Danish state attorney for international penal cases.

The Israeli foreign minister is on an official visit to Denmark today and tomorrow. Frank Aaen asks for the detention of the minister, while it is investigated whether she can be charged with co-responsibility for war crimes.

Aaen refers to the Amnesty International report on Israeli war efforts in Lebanon. According to this report Israel has committed war crimes during its attacks on Lebanon and it has asked for prosecution of those responsible.

Denmark is a signatory to the Geneva convention and, according to Aaen, this means that Denmark has an obligation to prosecute war criminals while they are in Denmark. Aaen would do the same to Nasrallah if he came to Denmark, as he thinks that Hizbollah also has violated the convention on how war should be waged - even though he thinks that Hizbollah violations are not measurable to those of Israel.

New CERD Report on racial relations in Denmark

2006-08-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

The UN Committee for the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) has presented its latest report on racial discrimination in Denmark. The report is critical of the state of racial relations in Denmark.

The Strict Danish rules for family reunification are criticized. According to Danish immigration laws spouses must be at least 24 years of age to have a legal right to family reunification in Denmark. One of the consequences has been the virtual flight across the bridge to Malmoe of more than 1000 mixed couples. They now live in Malmoe across the Oresound and travel to work in Copenhagen. It's a violation of human rights that two humans who love each other cannot choose their place of residence.

The conditions for asylum seekers in Danish asylum centres are critized in the report. Sometimes whole families have to live in a room, and the children do not have enough space for play.

It takes a very long time, and it is a very difficult procedure, for people of foreign origin to become Danish citizens. In the meantime they do not have full citizen rights. One of the gravest problems is the problem of women who have been exposed to domestic violence. They're in Denmark with right of residence because they live with the violent man. If they leave him, or he leaves them, they're bound to be expelled from Denmark. In that situation a lot of women prefer to stay in a violent marriage.

Asylum seekers and refugees who are unemployed get lower social welfare benefits than other residents in Denmark. It's difficult for them to subsist on these social selfare hand-outs with the high price level in Denmark.

The report also criticizes the widespread use of hate speech about immigrants. As has been documented also by Cosmic Duck (look into the archive for February and March), even a number of influential politicians in the Danish parliament have abused the immigrant population verbally.

It is symptomatic for the state of racial relations in Denmark that the state attorney would not sue the Jyllandsposten, when it printed the Mohammed cartoons, for violating the article on blasphemy in the penal code, so it could be tried in the courts.

The report is very lenient on the state of racial relations in Denmark. Many other aspects of the problematic should have been mentioned. It's a big problem that employers discriminate against people from a foreign background. If an applicant to a job is called "Mohammed" or "Ali" it's much more difficult to get to the job interview than if he is called "Jens" or "Søren". Employers generally prefer people with ethnic Danish names (like Jensen or Petersen). There is a chorus of employers yelling about a tight labour market, and yet they will not employ for instance more than 40 unemployed ethnic Danes in engineering. The chairman of the national union of engineers has presented a list of these people from his union's membership archive to Danish engineering employers. All of them have foreign sounding names. All of them have sent hundreds of applications. Because of their names they're not called to job interviews.

In contempt of international law

2006-08-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

The Guardian writes today about the Israeli military offensive that took place after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to stop the Lebanon war:

Israel continued its military offensive in Lebanon today, killing at least 19 people, despite a United Nations resolution for a ceasefire, passed unanimously last night.
The deadliest attack was on homes in the village of Rachaf, in the south of the country, just four miles from the Israeli border, where at least 15 civilians were killed by air strikes, security officials said.

Israel is contemptuous of the UN. It's a disgrace that a nation acts in this way. And one wonders why? It is probably in complicity with the US. Otherwise Israel would not dare disregarding the international community. It may also be due to the fact that Israel has been humiliated by the surprising strength of Hezbollah and hence is yearning to prove that it is still a first rate military power in the Middle East.

Etnically divided classes in Copenhagen school dropped

2006-08-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the new school year a Copenhagen school planned to divide the pupils in the first year courses along ethnic lines. The School situated in the working class/middle class neighbourhood of Vesterbro bowed to pressure from a group of Danish parents.

After talks with the cultural and school affairs mayor of Copenhagen and pressure from some national politicians the plans for divided classes has been dropped. In stead the school will try to deal with the problem of "non-learning" pupils in another way. Classes will be divided into subgroups, - not along ethnic lines, but according to themes and interests.

Etnically divided classes is probably unlawful according to the Danish school laws: The declaration of basic principles of the Danish school law states that the pupils must be dealt with on an equal basis, no matter their racial, gender, and religious background. Also it is a painful problem to decide the "ethnicity" of some pupils. What are the defining criteria: citizenship? colour (this would be racial prejudice/discrimination)? language? Some pupils will be extremely difficult to place in either class.

Vesterbro Ny Skole has probably made the ethnic division in classes in order to deal with a problem that is quite common for schools in some inner city areas: When ethnic pupils come in, ethnic Danes pull their kids out and enroll them in another school. That brings about an ethnic division of schools. That seems to be a more palatable alternative to the authorities. It is however a problem that the resource flow to the ethnic schools is insufficient when measured against the need for supportive education and native language teachers.

Denmark's neo-colonial adventure

2006-08-07T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes there's news in the Danish media about Afghanistan. That happens every time something happens to Danish soldiers there.
Why has Denmark sent 290 soldiers to Afghanistan? If you ask the average common man in the street, he probably doesn't know the answer. If you ask the politicians in the Danish parliament who sent them there, they probably don't know the answer either.
One answer to the question you sometimes hear is that they're in Afghanistan to see to it that there's "stability and quiet" in this far-away country. Or that "it's necessary to help the Americans to build democracy".
Now the Danish People's Party who is part of the war coalition demands that the Danish force be employed against the Taleban insurgents. Otherwise the soldiers "should be withdrawn from the turbulent Helmand province", foreign spokesman Søren Espersen from the DPP says to the Danish press in the beginning of August.
"If we do not want to be part of a war of aggression against the Taleban and al-Queda, we either got to get the soldiers home, or they shall be stationed in the north, where they can do surveillance and law-and-order tasks."
"They cannot build a bridge and be shot at at the same time," Espersen adds, and as a kind of after-thought: "It's boundlessly naive to imagine that this is possible"!
It's nice that the leading politicians are such common-sensical folks.

The Brits do not seem to be in doubt about what their troops are doing in Helmand province. When the 10th British soldier was killed this morning the British military sent out the following message (Guardian):

The Ministry of Defence said in a statement that the soldier's next of kin were being informed. "It is with regret that we can confirm that a member of the UK Armed Forces has been killed in action this afternoon during ongoing operations against insurgent positions in Helmand Province"

As the Danish soldiers are under British command in the ISAF force they're probably there for the same purpose. They're fighting insurgents, whether they're called "Taleban" or something else. And these insurgents are getting stronger by the day. Because they do not like foreign occupation. Nor does the Afghan population. That is the reason why insurgents become increasingly efficient. This is the way guerilla force normally operate.

The end of the road for Castro? - Not the end of the road for Cuba and the Cuban people!

2006-08-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

Fabian Escalante, former head of Cuban intelligence with the job of revealing attempts at the leader's life, has calculated that there have been a total of 638 attempts on Castro's life. Among the more amusing is the cigar assassination attempt. Unfortunately, Castro stopped smoking in 1985, so the cigar trick cannot be used any longer.
Castro's disease and operation is followed with keen interest in Washington. President Bush has spoken. He has said that the US will support Cubans who will "build a transitional government in Cuba committed to democracy". There's a lot of interference in Cuban affairs.
Actually, Castro was not a Soviet inspired communist in the first place. He just wanted the corrupt Batista dictatorship supplanted by a more development oriented regime.
The US made him a hard core communist.
Castro was in favour of land reforms which antagonised the Americans because big American multinationals owned large parts of the land on the island. Through a series of measures and counter-measures the conflict escalated. In the end Cuba had nowhere to turn to, but to the Soviet Union.

If the Americans want to turn Cuba into a semi-colony again, dominated by American investments, and with a prostitute waiting in the hotel bed for the visiting businessman, this is not necessarily in the best interest of the Cubans.
American style democracy and capitalism is not what they're yearning for, even though a lot of the Cubans probably want some democratic change and more freedom. There are, however, other kinds of democracy and capitalism than the American brand.

The Council have spoken

2006-08-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

(Don't push. There's room for everyone!)
"The Council calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities to be followed by a sustainable
cease-fire".

This is the silly decision the European council of foreign ministers could agree upon at its latest meeting. The war in Lebanon was on the agenda.
What is the difference between a "cease-fire" and an "immediate cessation of hostilities"? This peculiar semantic exercise is a cover-up over the deep differences of opinion between the member states, primarily Germany, Britain, some new memberstates, and Denmark on one side, and France on the other.

The US and Israel did not want an immediate cease-fire, until Israel's army had done its job of "securing the area". The EU council seems to be afraid of deciding something that they fear might antagonise the Americans. In that way the EU countries do not help to solve the conflict. The Israelis get a free hand to carry through with its high-tech warfare against Hizbollah and civilians in Lebanon.

Mounting global Inequalities - do We Care?

2006-06-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

In 2007 the majority of the world's people will be living in urban centres. One third of them will be poor slum dwellers, according to the UN. This is a problem the rich world ought not to ignore:

"When a critical mass of people are in one place, if you don't empower them they will empower themselves through revolution," Anna Tibaijuka, head of UN-HABITAT said in London, presenting the agency's State of the World's Cities 2006/7 report.

What does the rich world do? For many years the flows of money paid in interest and amortisation of loans going from the poor south to the rich north have been larger than total devlopment aid.

Listen to the transcript of the press conference in Camp David where George Bush met with the Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen:

First, I appreciate the Prime Minister's belief that freedom can help change the world, and that freedom is universal. We had a really important discussion about our desire to help others realize the great blessings of liberty, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They seem to believe that freedom is the answer to all prayers in this world. However, economic freedom does not seem to help, because economic freedom favours the efficient and competitive. Also there is a lot of double standards here, when it comes to applying the freedom to others. The US and the EU still have heavily subsidized and protected agriculture, i.e. trade barriers that keep the products coming from these poor areas out of the US and EU markets.

Here is what the PM answered the president:

I think it's fair to say that Danish companies are at the edge in developing new technologies, and they are already engaged in the United States. Some of them are traveling with me to the West Coast on Monday.
Which brings me to my final point on our bilateral economic relations. Trade and investment between the United States and Denmark is flourishing at impressive growth rates. The United States is now the biggest foreign investor in Denmark. Likewise, Danish companies have turned their attention towards the United States. Our top five companies have created more than 20,000 jobs in the United States, and they have engaged in a vast number of subcontractors. I think that the broad range of subjects demonstrates the vitality and closeness of our relations. (Quoted from the PM's website)

There seems to be a reason why it's a good thing to have close contacts with Uncle Sam. By the way, only the profits of the biggest of the companies mentioned above is much higher than the total national income of a country like Niger in Africa with 10 million inhabitants.

We live in a world where millions of children are starving. Some people have a completely different set of problems - another quote from the press conference:

Mr. President, the health experts tell us that we need daily exercise. So before we even start thinking about lunch, I'm looking forward to exploring Camp David in even greater detail on bike. It's going to be hard work; I know that. But I will do my very best to keep up with you, Mr. President. (Laughter.)

Brothers in Arms - Certainly not in alms!!

2006-06-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

(We're only in it for freedom and democracy!)
Press release from The White House, april 21:

President Bush will host Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen at Camp David on Friday, June 9, 2006. Denmark is a close ally in the war on terror, a valued partner in advancing freedom in the world, and a key member of the United Nations Security Council. Under Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen's leadership, Denmark is making significant contributions to support the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, is promoting reform and democracy in the broader Middle East, and is an advocate of a transatlantic partnership working together on common challenges. In July 2005, Prime Minister and Mrs. Rasmussen hosted the President and Mrs. Bush in Denmark. The two leaders look forward to continuing their discussions at Camp David on a range of bilateral and strategic issues.

This was the first time a Danish prime minister got such an invitation. The US seems to appreciate the Danish contribution - even though it is only with some 500 soldiers in the southern, more peaceful part of Iraq. In June/July Denmark sends some 290 soldiers to the restive Helmand province in Southern Afghanistan. - Not much, compared to American and British contributions. It has mostly symbolic value.

What's in it for Denmark? In Denmark there's a growing opposition to the u-turn in Danish foreign policy implemented by the Rasmussen conservative-liberalist government, when in 2001 it started cutting down on Danish development assistance, and in 2003 decided to send Danish troops to Iraq. Decades of low-profile NATO alliance membership was replaced by an activist foreign policy. Brothers in arms with other leaders of the free world. One of the things Rasmussen said on coming home was that the fight for freedom and democracy was the important part of it. To wage this struggle you have to trample over tens of thousands of human lives, Iraqis who are made victims of war.

It is a well-known secret that the economic reconstruction of Iraq has been a very interesting thing for any capitalist out to make a good bargain. At a world bank/IMF meeting in Dubai in september 2003 the victors decided on the economic set-up for the "liberated" country. This was - and is indeed - a capitalist's paradise. Don't forget to bring bibles and prayer books:

Investors allowed 100% ownership of Iraqi assets
full repatriation of profits
equal legal standing with local firms
Foreign banks would be welcome to set up shop immediately, or buy into Iraqi ventures
Income and corporate taxes would be capped at 15%
Tariffs would be slashed to a universal 5% rate

This is not India we are dealing with - with a fussy nanny state interfering in private enterprise with a lot of red tape and restrictions. Nor is it China with forceful local competitors. What is it then? Read my lips, dummy!!
It is even more interesting for the friends of the coalition who get privileged access to the enormous amount of money channeled into reconstruction in the country. And reconstruction will be an eternal money wheel. A brotherhood of Arms is not one of alms.

The New Labour Spin Called

2006-06-05T00:49:00.000-07:00

Madeleine Bunting has a good piece in The Guardian today:

The key for Labour is to revisit the concept that Tony Blair dug out of the sociology textbooks and used to great effect. He seized upon Anthony Giddens's ideas of rapid globalisation. Huge change was sweeping through every area of life, particularly the labour market, it was claimed. Blair used this to outmanoeuvre anyone who didn't endorse his idea of "modernisation": they were characterised as dinosaurs while he was surfing the wave of tumultuous change all around us.
But this story of huge change was only part of the picture - what about all those lives shaped by humdrum, which haven't been changing? Jon Cruddas, MP for Dagenham, does a brilliant job in the most recent edition of Renewal, demolishing all the exuberant guff about the "knowledge economy". In fact, there has been only a little growth in skilled, knowledge-based jobs and much more in unskilled cleaning, care, security and sales assistants. So much for this great wave of change. Even by 2010, 78% of jobs will not require a degree.
Why is this so important? Because it punctures the myths about meritocracy and it belies all the speeches about opportunity. The lived experience of the British electorate bears little relationship to the reality that Labour's political elite has been pronouncing upon. The more a Labour politician talks about opportunity, the more a substantial number of voters are left scratching their heads and wondering what opportunity, and if it's just them who are losers. Or even worse, they wonder if it is just their ethnic group, or their housing estate, that has been the loser.

She says Labour has lost touch with its common voters. That is a very true description. It also applies to the Social Democrats in Denmark. They are actually copying New Labour. It is only recently they voted against keeping Danish forces in Iraq. The conservative government in Denmark won't tax homeowners more than they are being taxed at the moment. Their taxes have been frozen. The Social Democrats agree with them out of sheer fear of the voters. It's populist policy. It's not Social Democratic policy, if by that phrase you mean politcies in the interests of common people.

One of the results of this has been that home owners' equities have risen astronomically. It is, however, the more well-to-do have have gained most by the rising house prices. The normal average Social Democratic voters have not experienced so big gains, because they mostly live in small house and semi-detached houses in more "modest" residential areas.

Madeleine Bunting says further:

What we glimpse is the gravy train on which this elite travels: the freebies that "come your way" and the kind of gambling with property and mortgages now considered respectable. And alongside it, an implicit contempt for modest, unambitious, ordinary lives

This is the game of turning the whole population into petty capitalists: "Gambling" with equity values in houses, investing on the stock exchange. There's nothing intrinsically wrong in that, of course. But the chances of doing it with some success and profiting enormously from it are so unequally distributed. Of course, we can all become capitalists, but some are so much more successful capitalists than others. Maybe we should start trying to find life's meaning in a completely different direction.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
(Frost)

The Tip of the Iceberg

2006-06-04T02:40:00.000-07:00

The BBC on Thursday informed of yet another atrocity committed by US forces against Iraqi civilians. The video evidence contradicts the initial US account of the events of March 15, 2006 in the village of Ishaqi, in the Abu Sifa district near Balad, some 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The Americans deny it. When you hear about how the 24 Haditha deaths were covered up, and how the Iraqi families were offered compensation for their dead relatives, this does not give credibility to the American version.

It is, however, interesting to hear the Iraqi Prime Minister tell that atrocities against Iraqi civilians are committed on a daily basis. What else could you expect? The American army consists of professional soldiers. Many of them have been recruited in poor parts of the southern USA with lots of unemployment. Robert Fisk has called it the "army of the slums" in the Independent, young Americans, many of them from ethnic backgrounds, many with low educations, who have been looking for the fairly well-paid steady job that could give them some kind of a tolerable life. How do they react when put in a seemingly hopeless situation i the Iraqi desert and in run-down towns? Are they educated well enough for the complexities of this job? Probably not, it's a very sad story.

The Iraqi PM is probably right. What we see is only the tip of the iceberg.

We have written about the atrocities before on this blog, when we quoted the Iraqi blogger Citizen of Mosul who had two versions of events on his blog in March:

news item now reported by the Associated Press:
"An unidentified relative mourns over the bodies of children, reportedly killed during a U.S. raid, as they arrive in a hospital in Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, March 15, 2006. Eleven people, most of them women and children were killed when a house was bombed during a U.S. raid north of Baghdad early Wednesday, police and relatives said. The U.S. military acknowledged four deaths in the raid that they said netted an insurgent suspect (emphasis added) in the rural Isahaqi area, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital. (AP Photo/Bassim Daham)Iraqis Say U.S. Raid Kills 11 People March 15, 2006This news item has a picture gallery of this massacre. Can the U.S. military count? or are they in their usual low level mode of 'counting' killed U.S. soldiers, instead of declaring the true figures of dead soldiers?.يـُعرض مع هذا الخبر بالإنكليزية عدة صور للضحايا الأطفال. يقول الجيش الأمريكي بأن عدد الضحايا هو أربعة فقط، بضمنهم "المشتبه" فيه. ألا تستطيع قوات الإحتلال الأمريكية العــدّ بالنظر المـُجرّد الى هذه الصور؟ أم أنها على سجيتها في "التقليل" من العدد المـُعلن لضحايا جنودها الذين يـُقتلون على أيدي المقاومة؟"ـ.

The Iraqi version:"Amer Fiadh, the Councillor of Al-Ishaqi (pronounced Al Is-haqi) District in Salah Al-Din province said that the American forces have executed eleven people belonging to one family, including a six-months old baby and four children who were less than eleven years old.Fiadh further stated today that these people were executed in front of their home, after having their hands tied behind their back and summarily shot. After their execution, American helicopters then strafed the family's home levelling it to the ground."The Councillor of Al-Ishaqi District claims that the American forces have executed eleven members of one family (In Arabic) March 15, 2006

Mr. Bush - Tear down this Wall!

2006-06-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

"Mr. Gorbatjov, tear down this wall!" Who said so 20 years ago? It may be disappearing into the annals of history, but it's important to remember president Ronald Reagan's words to the Soviet leader in Berlin 20 years ago. Gorbatjov followed the friendly advice and did not intervene when the Berliners started tearing it down 4 years later - and that was well done!

So why do people start erecting new walls? Like the wall in Palestine built by the Israelis and cutting Palestine West Bank in two - in countervention of international agreements - the Oslo peace talks?

Or the fence and wall between Mexico and the US? Last year 400 Mexicans lost their lives trying to get across to the promised land. To get their small share of the American dream they were promised after the signing of the NAFTA free trade agreement in 1994. What has happened since then?
Still more Americans die of obesity from eating too many big Macs, and too many Mexicans die of starvation or malnutrition, some of them from buying subquality tin can food in over priced Wal marts.

More than a million underpaid Mexican women work in maquiladora assembly plants just acroos the border from the US. In the name of the free trade credo the Americans believe in. They should be allowed to cross the border to try and get a job in God's own country. Why aren't they allowed to do that? The merchandise is allowed back and forth, but not the people. The Americans want to keep their affluence to themselves. Don't share it with Mexicans! They can become nannies and gardeners and do other menial tasks, but they shouldn't come in too big numbers. That would press wages down.

According to the credo of free trade and economic competition, NAFTA should have given some equalization of wages on both sides of the border. That was one of the reasons for the Mexicans to sign the treaty. Wages in Mexico have stagnated in the last decade. The minimum wage is only a little more than the price of a bigMac, a day, and millions of workers in the informal sector, which is very big in Mexico, do not even make that.

That's why the Americans have to build a wall - to keep people out. The Soviets built a wall to keep people in! The Americans wanted them out! If they get out in too big numbers that's a problem, - but the ultimate proof of a superior system!

"Mr. Bush, tear down this wall!" Follow the advice of your great presidential icon, Mr. Reagan - and tear it down!

Proud Freedom Defending Traditions among Danish liberalist Politicians

2006-06-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

Number three from the left on this photo is the Danish minister of health and vicechairman of the governing party Venstre. In 1988 he visited the Mujahedeen freedom fighters in Afghanistan to deliver to them 100.000 $ that had been collected in Denmark. There were no terror lists at that time, so it was not illegal to make such a donation - which it would probably be today. Anyway, these Mujahedeen are the Osama folks that you're certainly not supposed to cooperate with today. At that time it was different, because they fought the Soviets. So all freedom loving and idealistic liberalists and conservatives who were ready for a good fight for Western values helped the Mujahedeen in their fight against the atheistic communists. The photo was published in a Danish popular magazine with the caption: "Lars Lokke as Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. He is giving one of the guerillas' Kalashnikovs a try and at the same time collecting money for Osama bin Laden".

At that time Lars Lokke was only 25 and chairman of Venstre's youth organisation. Today he is number 2 in the Danish political hierarchy, right below Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and considered official "crown prince" in the party. It is the Danish paper the Information that ran the story.
- It really warms your heart to see this amount of idealism in such a young man!

Save the Planet. Yes, but do it right!

2006-05-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

According to the Guardian on Wednesday Bush is a "renegade rightwing extremist". That's a good one! I couldn't have put it better myself.

Then after some reflection I started wondering: OK, but how progressive is the wooden victor Gore from 2000, whose defeat was declared by the Supreme Court, even though he got more votes than Bush?

Well, he would probably in some ways have become a better president. But how progressive is he? He is called an environmental activist, but take a look at his concrete proposals, as they are reported by the Guardian:

From activism to energy-efficiency: Al Gore's top tips for saving the planet
1. Insist that politicians in all parties make this planetary emergency their top priority; this is crucial
2. Think about conservation and efficiency in the way you use resources in your own life, eg:
· drive less (every mile not driven saves one pound of CO2)
· fly less
· recycle more
· keep your tyres properly inflated
· use less hot water
· use a clothesline instead of a tumble-dryer
· insulate your home
· avoid products with a lot of packaging
· turn down the thermostat by 2C
· plant a tree (one tree absorbs one tonne of CO2 over its lifetime)
· turn off electronic devices when they are not in use
3. Be a conscious consumer with regard to everything you buy, both in the marketplace and in the investments you make, eg:
· switch to green power
· buy locally grown food, and organic where possible
· buy fresh food over frozen
· buy less meat
· offset your impact on the planet's resources by investing in renewable energy projects For more information go to climatecrisis.net.

These tips are not going to "save the planet".
OK, these initiatives are not bad, but how much do they really help?
I must remember to breathe less when I bicycle to work. And keep the tyres of the bike properly inflated!! And I have already turned down the thermostat by 2 degrees. And how much did it help?

Who are the big sinners, when it comes to emission of greenhouse gases?
It is not only consumers and life style that are the culprits. It is also business. In order to effectively combat pollution and get a more environmentally fit globe it is necessary for the state to pass much more restrictive legislation and change society in fundamental ways. Al Gore does not talk so much about what it'll really take to develop a society in ecological balance.

A Dane writes an e-mail to the second most powerful man in the world - or is it the most powerful? - , and the Great Man answers

2006-05-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

The Danish journalist Samuel Rachlin has written an e-mail to Dick Cheney, and the Vice has answered (see below). It is the Danish blogger Punditokraterne that asked Samuel to appear as a guest writer on their blog. And what he did was, he wrote this e-mail to Cheney
(- in this open democracy of ours any man can write a letter to the president - or those above him; and he may receive an answer, even though he is not even a voter!).

E-mail to Dick Cheney by Samuel Rachlin

Right after Vice President Dick Cheney’s trip to Europe and Central Asia, I wrote him an e-mail:

Dear Dick,
It’s fine with me that you give President Putin a lecture and tell him what democracy is about, and that he should not use the oil weapon against his neighbours. I think it’s appropriate that you tell him that the Russian government has “unfairly and improperly restricts the rights of her people.” and that Moscow should not use oil and gas as a tool of “intimidation and blackmail”. I also find it OK when you tell new East European and Baltic democracies in Vilnius that they are on the right track and they have the full support of the U.S.
But I have a problem when you, after that meting, move on to Kazakhstan to visit President Nursultan Nazarbaev - a mix between Ghengis Khan and a Soviet Politbureau Member without any tolerance of opposition or respect of human right, but with great patience with corruption and abuse of power. He is a leader of the same mold as Azerbaidzhan’s President Ilham Aliyev who recently was received by your boss in the White House.
It’s problem for me because it creates a lot of confusion and uncertainty about the American message. Nazarbayev and Aliyev are by no means on the right track to democracy and are even more undemocratic and despotic than President Putin and his crowd in the Kremlin. It’s obvious that this weakens the message to Moscow and causes confusion among the East European leaders you met with in Vilnius.
Nazarbayev and Aliyev both control significant oil wealth, and you have to understand that this could lead some people to think that the U.S. applies different criteria and values for who’s in and who’s out, and who should be lectured on what’s wrong and what’s right. That’s what we call double standards. When you and your boss cultivate relationships with people like Nazabayev and Aliyev one could get the impression that you distinguish between those who have and those who don’t have oil. The new breed of haves and haves not.
Some people could draw the conclusion that if you have oil it does not matter that much that you violate the rules of democracy and suppress basic human rights. The problem becomes even more conspicuous because everybody knows how close you and your boss are to the American oil industry. The relationship with Saudi Arabia - one of the most important providers of oil to the U.S. - has never suffered under the lack of democracy in the Arab kingdom.
You have to understand that there is not a very big jump from these observations to raising the question about the real motives behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Was it primarily a question of freedom and democracy or was it Iraq’s oil wealth that led the U.S. into the war? It’s obvious to anyone that your and President Bush’s credibility has suffered considerable damage. After Abu Graihb and Guantanamo, your lecturing about democracy and human right begins to sound hollow. After more than three years of warfare in Iraq no one can claim that the U.S. has been defeated, but the lack of results, not to speak of victories, is a defeat in its own right. That has not only undermined your status as a hyper power, but also weakened your ability to speak out about democracy and freedom on behalf of the free world - at least with the same authority as in the past.
You wound up your trip in Croatia, and in a speech to regional leaders in Dubrovnik, you again spoke about freedom and democracy. That’s a problem for me, too, because you welcomed the new countries to the EU. Listen, Dick, on whose behalf did you do that? Who gave you that mandate? Are you out of your mind, as you Americans say. Don’t you think that we have problems enough already in the EU with the timeout for the constitution debate, with our European identity and our direction.
We don’t need any good advice. We have more than enough of our own good ideas. What we need is determination and action, but right now we are confused and enervated by all the changes we have gone through with integration, expansion and one treaty after the other. We have gone into rethinking mode, and no one really knows when we will come out. Untimely interference can only make things even worse.
And don’t you actually think that you and President Bush have problems enough on your own? The Iraq war more and more looks like a dead end. The oil price in the U.S. is still half of what it is in Europe, but your voters are so angry that they are ready to start a new revolution. The trade and budget deficits look like a Hollywood horror movie. The President’s support is at a historic low, and your own ratings are lower than Michael Jackson’s. How do you feel it’s going for you, as we say in Denmark? I understand you need a breather, but I would suggest that next time you feel like getting out of there you should go back to Texas for some old fashioned hunting with your buddies.
Sincerely yours,Samuel

It did not take long before I got an answer from Dick Cheney:

Dear Samuel,
The hunting season in Texas has not started yet, and after that deplorable episode at my latest hunting trip, I have to go abroad to test my markmanship before I try to renew my license. Quite frankly, I think things are going just fine. It was a great trip - one of my best in a long time,
Sincerely yours,Dick

I like that one: "Dear Dick!" - From one man to another - right in the middle of the public sphere! Isn't it funny, though, that Dick Ch. only gives an answer to the last couple of lines of the Samuel's mail? Why is that?

It is perhaps understandable because the mail is a heavy criticism of US policy, not only double standards in the democracy and freedom rhetoric, but also criticism of the erratic economic policies of the Bush administration. It proves that the Left and other concerned democrats have been right all along in their criticism of the Bush administration's policies of world domination.

Some of the information in Dick's e-mail are quite worrisome. He'll go abroad to "test his markmanship". What does he mean by that? I sincerely hope, it's not Denmark/Copenhagen he intends to go to. Or is it perhaps Iraq? That'll be the great test of his markmanship.

I'm blasphemous. Consequently I exist

2006-05-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

"Cogito, ergo sum" is being turned into "I'm blasphemous, consequently I exist" by Charlie Hebdo the French satirical weekly that published the Mohammed cartoons. Wednesday the weekly is going to publish a special issue of 79 pages with blasphemous texts and cartoons of - in some cases - partly or wholly undressed clerical personalities.

This is supposed to be funny. Anyway, we're dealing with Charlie Hebdo. So perhaps it will be funny. Among others there will be a drawing by one of the paper's cartoonists in which he is himself drawing the prophet Mohammed as an SM dreesed in leather. By way of revenge the prophet inflates his ego and threatens to bring about a tsunami and bird flu. The cartoonist reacts by erasing the drawing.

Charlie Hebdo sold a lot more papers in February when it published the Mohammed cartoons. Perhaps it wants to repeat the success. Perhaps it wants to express its credo that man only exists when satirizing. Anyway, there is no doubt that the Mohammed cartoons case is going to be a never-ending saga. On Sunday the 28th the cartoons were published again by the progressive Danish paper the Politiken. A triumphant chief editor, Tøger Seidenfaden, declared in Danish media that this showed what the matter was really about. When you didn't do it in harm's way, no harm was done. The Jyllandsposten, he said, published the cartoons as a deliberate provocation, and then the muslims naturally felt provoked.

Maybe Tøger Seidenfaden is right. That remains to be seen. It is also possible that people have just lost interest in the cartoons.

The Mosque as a Community in Denmark

2006-05-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

(Abu Laban in the mosque in outer Nørrebro. Even this large mosque and muslim cultural centre is in an abandoned business complex. There are no minarets or other outward signs of it being a mosque)

The Danish sociologist of religion Lene Kühle of Aarhus University has made research on Danish mosques. The research results are published in the book "Mosques in Denmark - islam and Muslim prayer sites", Univers Publishers.

There are about 200.000 muslims in Denmark. She has found 114 "mosques", or prayer "places" ("Mosque" is too ambitious a term) , where the Danish muslims practise their religion. These "mosques" are very unobtrusive, you might even say subdued. It is as if the muslims are aware of the fact that they're perhaps not so welcome in the otherwise very homogeneous Danish society. Anyway, the mosques are not as visible as the churches which tower over hamlets and towns from ancient times.

If you expected the mosques to be hotbeds of religious fervour and revolutionary (terrorist) activity, you'll be disappointed, Kühle's research shows. In most places she found a group of men playing cards and women chatting. The most noisy activity may be a game of table football. It is only in a small group of mosques, about 37 in all, that Kühle calls "organization mosques" that you find a religious head of some standing and with some religious education, an Imam, who may be sent from the "mother organization" in the home country, for instance Turkey. Even these mosques are very modest with serious religious activity only during prayer. Then there are 7 larger mosques which put some emphasis on the religious message and denomination. In these places there is a recognized Imam of some standing (for instance Abu Laban) that people will travel some distance to listen to in Friday prayer. It is only these places in Copenhagen and Aarhus that have been scrutinised by Danish media and considered possible breeding grounds for anti-Western activities or propaganda. Kühle has not tried to distinguish between potentially "subversive" imams and more docile ones, as this has not been the purpose of her research, but she considers it doubtful that one can make any kind of distinction between "evil" and "good" islam. It is not possible to "paint" islam in images of "black" or "white". The mosques do not have the influence on people's minds that the media seems to have presumed, she concludes. By means of this focus we ourselves are responsible for turning religion into politics, she thinks.

We tend to equate deeply religious with fundamentalist, she says, thus seeing a menace to the cohesion of modern society and its democratic institutions. In that way we tend to see deeply religious people as threats in themselves, which is a very questionable practice. The Danish mainstream politician Villy Søvndal, who is chairman of the Socialist People's Party, is a vocal critic of the Danish participation in the Iraq war. In many other issues he has quite moderate points of view. Had he been a muslim, he would have been considered an extremist, Kühle says. We have developed a climate of debate in which we turn people, with whom we disagree, into extremists (Kühle in interview with Danish paper the Politiken May 23rd).

After the cartoons issue there has been a lot of debate on whether there is full equality between the religious communities in Denmark. The muslims' humble prayer sites might lead to the conclusion that this is not the case.
Church and state are kept separate in Denmark. About 85 per cent of the Danes are members of the Lutheran state church, and they pay a special church tax, about 1 per cent of tax declared income. The income from the church tax goes to the Lutheran church.The other recognized religious communities (included muslims) do not get any of this money, but they can finance their activities through a right to deduct the money their members pay to their religion from the declared tax income. Most of the Danish muslims are immigrants and descendants of immigrants from Turkey, the Middle East and other muslim areas. A lot of efforts are done to integrate them in the Danish society in such a way that their distinctive culture and religion is respected. Still the Danes could do a lot more.

Especially in the religious area more can be done for integration.The Danish state church should not be a church for only Christian Lutheran protestants. Perhaps it should not be called a “church”. It should either be a comprehensive umbrella for all officially recognised religions, including islam, or else the Christian church should be cut loose from the state, so all religious communities will be truly equal. Births and deaths are registered by the state church. It has been difficult for muslims in thinly populated areas to find burial places. Some have chosen to be buried in their original home lands.Omar Marzauk, a Danish comedian of immigrant background, has said jokingly that he should have been born a poodle, not a Muslim: “Dogs in this nation have their own burial grounds, and Muslims don't," he has said in one of his shows. "So I either have to be sent out of this country in a box or change my name to “Fluffy”". Like most satire, there is some truth also in this satire: Denmark's Muslims have found it hard to find land for Islamic cemeteries.Denmark is a secular country. Science and rational thought dominate. So does the official Folkekirke. The Danes, however, are not very diligent churchgoers. Many churches are practically empty during sermons on Sundays. It is only on Christmas Eve that a few Danes find it worthwhile going to church. It is not sinful not going to church. So why bother?

Denmark sending reinforcements

2006-05-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

At least 16 civilians and up to 60 Taleban fighters have been killed after US-led coalition forces launched a raid in southern Afghanistan, officials say.
Kandahar governor Asadullah Khalid told reporters that 15 civilians were wounded in the air strikes, which took place in Panjwayi district.
Other reports say 30 civilians were killed and 50 injured.

This is what BBC News reports today. The coalition forces must be hard pressed when they have to kill so many innocent civilians. They probably look forward to getting reinforced by 290 Danish soldiers in June/July this year. Is this the kind of operations they're going to take part in:

Reporters were prevented from reaching Azizi by Canadian and Afghan roadblocks. However, locals who fled to Kandahar said the coalition appeared to be targeting insurgents hiding inside a madrasa (Islamic school). "Helicopters bombed the madrasa and some of the Taliban ran from there into people's homes. Then those homes were bombed," Mr Ikhlaf, his clothes stained with blood, told Reuters news agency at a hospital in Kandahar.
Zurmina Bibi cradled a baby in her arms and wept as she described how 10 people were killed in her home, including three or four children. "There were dead people everywhere," she said

It is even difficult to get information about what is going on. Reporters are not allowed on the scene, which is perhaps understandable, when you consider what has been going on! - It is better to let the military control the flow of information!

What is this war about? To prop up the puppet regime in Kabul? Actually, it looks more like an imperialist war for Western interests. In the 19th century the British and the Russians fought for control of this region which lies strategically in Central Asia. After the Mohammed cartoons crisis it has turned into a clash of religions and cultures war.

In the eyes of the West, the Taleban are terrorists. In the eyes of the coalition, the Taleban are fanatics who have jumped right out of the medieval dark ages. In the eyes of big parts of the Afghan population the taleban are, however, gaining credibility. After the cartoons crisis they are seen as defenders of the prophet, against the infidels. That turns the NATO war operation into a Western crusaders' operation. Denmark and its allies are up against a lot of popular resistance. In the 1980's these poor people were attacted by communist atheists. Today they're attacked by materialistic infidels from the West.

NATO was not originally designed as an alliance waging wars of aggression far from the North Atlantic area. Denmark and other NATO allies were lured - or forced - into compliance with American interests in twisting the word and meaning of the treaty. By calling it a "war" on terror, the article 5 of the treaty could be used to get support for the American anti-terrorist operations after 9/11. This seems to imply war all over the globe. Denmark and other NATO allies should try to remember what the original goals of the NATO alliance were.