Entrance fee

Foreigners could be charged 3000 kroner for a mandatory Danish language test from next year

Foreigners seeking residency through family reunification may be required to cough up 3000 kroner for a new mandatory Danish language test, reports Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper. [...]

Marianne Jelved, the Social Liberal integration spokeswoman, was baffled by the cost of taking the test and said her party did not support such immigration procedures. [...]

But Danish People’s Party MP Jesper Langballe said if the test could cut down the number of immigrants coming to Denmark, then it would serve its purpose.

‘We wouldn’t be sorry if it meant the number of applicants fell,’ he said.

Spouses of Danish citizens who come to Denmark after living in another EU country will be exempt from taking the test.

More at Copenhagen Post. Interesting to read the comments.

Kierkegaard said...

The most dangerous revolutions are not those which tear everything down, and cause the streets to run with blood, but those which leave everything standing, while cunningly emptying it of any significance.

From blogs

Here are interesting foreigners' in DK opinions about danish, I agree with. You should meditate about...

Get used to it: Assholes.

Danish and foreigners

The danish dream

Danish bigotry

Now the Danish Nazis and their supporters are out in the open and reclaiming their Germanic roots and seeking to rebuild the 4th Reich.

Denmark’s cooperation with its German occupiers during World War II was “morally unjustifiable”, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Sunday, August 31, 2003.

Read more at zimbio

Denmark's Difficulties with its World War II Past

For fifty years after World War II, no one in Denmark investigated in detail the fate of the Jewish refugees who sought asylum there in the 1930s and 1940s. Denmark's status as one of the Allies was a delicate matter, and only the rescue of the Danish Jews to Sweden in October 1943 was widely known. Danish historians averted their gaze from darker aspects of Denmark's policy, which continued even after the war. Since the 1990s, closed archives have been forced open by a new generation of historians, revealing previously concealed aspects of World War II Denmark. It emerges that from 1935 Denmark rejected Jewish refugees at its borders, and that it expelled twenty-one Jewish refugees to Germany in 1940-1943 most of whom were eventually killed. New findings also show that Danish firms used Jewish slave laborers and that Denmark exported agricultural products that helped feed the German army.

The Danish World War II legacy is ostensibly a pleasant one. In most international presentations to date, the Danish chapter of World War II history has been positive. On the international level, the Danish rescue of nearly seven thousand Jews to Sweden in 1943 is probably the most important factor in this favorable assessment. Because of the policy that Denmark adopted immediately after the Nazi invasion in April 1940, Denmark also had fewer losses in lives and treasure than most occupied countries in Europe.

From:
Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson and Bent Blüdnikow, Rescue, Expulsion, and Collaboration: Denmark's Difficulties with its World War II Past, Jewish Political Studies Review 18:3-4 (Fall 2006) – link

Danes Recycle Corpses

Indians used every part of a buffalo when they killed it. The Danes are learning from their example.

Using corpses for greenery may be a step too far
But in one area, greenery might be taken to excess. Denmark’s crematorium association has revealed its profitable sideline in recycling metal parts salvaged from the dead. Burnt bodies leave knee or hip replacements that can be recycled as scrap metal, says Allan Vest, the association’s chairman. Since 2006 the country’s 31 crematoriums have earned DKr 77,762 ($15,000) from 4,810 kg of salvaged metal sold to a Dutch recycler.

When the ecclesiastical ministry changed the law to allow such recycling in 2005, it barred the reuse of such spare parts in works of art. But it did not say anything about telling relatives about the fate of a deceased.

The International Cremation Federation, a lobby group based in The Hague, advises against commercialising the products of cremation. But the Danish Council of Ethics, a group including scientists, clergy and philosophers that advises parliament, has found no ethical reason to oppose recycling heat.

From The Economist

The Collapse of the "Swedish Model"

MOTTO: There will be increased competition between countries due to internationalization. But it won’t be the country with the lowest tax rates that wins. It will be the countries wich have the most efficient use of the resources that win.

Knut Rexed

Sweden has held a special place in the academic literature and in the popular imagination for two separate reasons: first, it has often been viewed as the archetypical example of socio-corporatism; and, second, it is even more widely known as the country with the most expansive (and expensive) welfare state in the world.
The Swedish model (which comprises corporatist decision-making institutions, solidaristic wage policies and perhaps even the ‘politics of compromise’) may well now be dead. But the ambition and the political support for a largely egalitarian polity with a very large welfare state (and the taxes to support it) live on quite healthily in Sweden today. The Swedish model as a decision-making system was an historically bounded institutional setup. It did, however, enable the construction of a kind of social welfare state that now has its own political force. In short, though the model may be dead, its legacy is alive and well.
Sweden clearly faces important and difficult political and economic challenges. As in all advanced democracies, the ageing of the population will mean that an increasing share of its workers will be recipients of social benefits instead of contributors. Potentially more troubling is the possibility that the growing ethnic heterogeneity of this nation will one day undermine the traditional ‘nordic’ Swede’s willingness to pay taxes for social programmes that may increasingly go to racial and ethnic minorities. At this point, however, we see little direct evidence of this problem erupting in Sweden to anything like the same extent seen in several other European countries. The sky is not falling in in Sweden, at least not yet.

References:
1. Jason Coronel – Foundations, Decline and Future Prospects of the Swedish Welfare Model: From the 1950’s to the 1990’s and Beyond, DePaul University, 2002 (link)
2. Torben Iversen – The Choises for Scandinavian Social-Democracy in Comparative Perspective, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, vol 14, no.1, 1998 (PDF)
3. Kimberly Earles - The Gendered Effects of the Reregulation of the Swedish Welfare State, Issue #36, Vol 18, No. 2, 2004 (link)
4. Christopher S. Allen – Social Democracy and Capital Investment: A Democratic Left Option in Western Europe?, Department of International Affairs, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia, 2oo4 (PDF)
5. Sven Steinmo – Bucking the Trend? The Welfare State and the Global Economy: The Swedish Case Up Close, New Political Economy, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2003, pp. 31-48 (PDF)

Global Research about Denmark

All these articles are published in 2006 regarding the danish cartoons.

Cartoon Awakening: Toward a Positive Media Strategy
- by Ramzy Baroud - 2006-02-21

When Freedom of Expression Becomes a Weapon
- by Peter Matthews - 2006-02-07

The Muhammad caricatures: Freedom of suppression
- by Jan Oberg - 2006-02-07

Why ‘freedom of expression’ defence is questionable in the Muslim dispute with a Danish publication.
- by Stuart Pethick - 2006-02-02

Danish education

A cartoon (video) for children between 8 and 10 is used in danish schools. Here are no things for such an age - bees or flowers, but it is promoted sex education. Denmark is not afraid to tell children such things. Shouldn't they just tell kids the story about the stork that brings babies?
This is an example of how people are educated in Denmark, just from early ages.

Svend Auken

In the memory of the former chairman of the Danish Social Democrats and former labour and environment minister Svend Auken (May 24th, 1943-Aug. 4th, 2009) a very well written article can be found here.

All the great men

All the great men

All the great men

All the great men begins with an A:

Adam, Abraham, Archimedes, Aristophanes
Alexander, Androchles, Adolf
Woody Allen and Anders

Fogh Rasmussen.

Those, who don´t
are either exceptions
that prove the rule

or crooks.

Jesus is a good example
on the first

Mohammed on the second:

In the kingdom of camels
any two-legged could
claim to be a prophet

What was Karl the twelfth
other than a drunk Swede?

And Marx?
A new era
does not begin with an M.

Thus hereby
it has once again been proved

that God planned it all
systematically
from the beginning.

by Henrik Nordbrandt

In Danish

Quickies

Jewish Media Influence in Denmark

Why is a Nation Known for Pork Attacking Islam?

Why Danes are smug?

Danish Pork Industry

An Open Letter to Barack Obama: On Danish Racism

The Danish author of 'American Pictures' Jacob Holdt, and Danish author and columnist Rune Engelbreth, have published "An Open Letter to Barack Obama on Racism in Denmark" as a video-message on YouTube and Facebook.
The authors are concerned about the rising influence of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party and hope to get the attention of the American President Elect as well as the American public and media.
[...]
A critical appraisal of the danger from our neighbours and friends abroad may prove to be a helpful necessity, similar to the criticism directed at the USA in the years when American politicians demonized their own black minority to attract white voters. Many Americans today express gratitude for the international support in those years and in line with the American ambassador to Denmark James P. Cain, hope that Denmark can avoid repeating America's past mistakes.


In the spirit of optimism, and the courage to hope for real change which has been kindled throughout the world by the historic election in the United States, we hope to bring to your personal attention, and to the awareness of the American public, the distressing state of affairs in our own highly privileged corner of the world.
We wish to express our deep concern at the incremental rise of racism and the use of racist propaganda in mainstream Danish politics over the past decade.
Ethnic and religious minorities are demonized and marginalized. Discrimination and hate-filled rhetoric reminiscent of anti-Semitic propaganda of the 1930's has become an accepted part of Danish political debate. This especially affects African ethnic minorities, Arabian ethnic minorities and Muslim religious minorities.

Read the full letter at Panhumanism and American Pictures with Video

The Threats to the Nordic Model

During the entire post-war period the three Nordic countries, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, have excelled in one thing: well-being.
The “Social-Democratic” paradises, so to speak. The Third Way — not quite socialism, not quite capitalism.

We Danes, Swedes and Norwegians are proud of our societal model. We like it. It worked. We worked hard for it.
Yes — past tense. It does not work anymore. The welfare model require honesty and willingness to participate. Sadly, both attributes are declining.

Full article at Gates of Vienna

Corporate Fascism - Danish Style

Philip Jones wrote an excellent article about Denmark:

Denmark is in reality a ruthless `Monopoly Dictatorship` deceivingly disguised as a caring modern democratic welfare state. It is a place where one has no opportunity for redress of grievance, and where neither the State nor the Corporations with which it it is effectively merged, feel any sense of accountability to the people. By the use of the most subtle and sophisticated methods of mass programming, it has co-opted a whole nation of people into a `Hive` mentality with the State functioning in the role of the `Queen Bee.`

Increasingly, Denmark resembles Aldous Huxley's ` Brave New World,` in which he describes the perfect totalitarian model of government thus:

“ A really efficient totalitarian state would be the one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.“ Aldous Huxley.

Much more at The Righteous Alliance

Swine Flu Vaccine Will Contain Mercury

The Washington Post confirmed that the swine flu vaccine, which is set to be rolled out nationwide this fall in what some fear could ultimately become a mandatory vaccination program, will contain mercury, a toxin linked with autism and neurological disorders. [...]

Epidemiologist Tom Verstraeten and Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado, both concluded that thimerosal was responsible for the dramatic rise in cases of autism but their findings were dismissed by the CDC.

Cases of autism in the U.S. have increased by 1,500 per cent since 1991, which is when vaccines for children doubled, and the number of immunizations is only increasing. Just one in 2,500 children were diagnosed with autism before 1991, whereas one in 166 children now have the disease.

A peer reviewed study by Dr. Mark Geier which appeared in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons showed that the IOM research was flawed because it was largely based on a Danish study by Anders Peter Hviid, which did not account for the fact that American children have a much higher mercury burden than children in Denmark.

“In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to ethylmercury, the form of mercury in thimerosal, suffered brain damage years later. Studies on thimerosal poisoning also describe tubular necrosis and nervous system injury, including obtundation, coma and death. As a result of these findings, Russia banned thimerosal from children’s vaccines in 1980. Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have also banned the preservative,” writes Dawn Prate.

More: Prisonplanet.com