Denmark has stolen children from their foreigner parents

Friday, September 30, 2011

Denmark to Provide Banks $72.6B Lifeline

Denmark’s central bank said it will provide as much as 400 billion kroner ($72.6 billion) as part of an extended collateral program to provide emergency liquidity to the country’s banks.
Lenders will also be able to borrow liquidity for six months, alongside the central bank’s existing seven-day facility, at a rate that tracks the benchmark lending rate, currently 1.55 percent, the bank said in a statement...

The country’s lenders face a deepening crisis that threatens to stall a recovery in Scandinavia’s worst-performing economy. Two Danish bank failures this year triggered senior creditor losses, leaving international funding markets closed to all but the largest banks. Lawmaker efforts to spur a wave of consolidation and help banks sidestep Denmark’s bail-in rules have so far failed.

Denmark’s liquidity lifeline mirrors programs in the euro area, where the European Central Bank has been pumping cash into the region’s money markets, including dollar liquidity, to support lenders.

The central bank is boosting its liquidity support to help lenders stay afloat as they struggle to refinance 158 billion kroner in debt backed by a state guarantee that expires over the next two years. The central bank’s pricing means “people will dare to use it,” Hovard said. “ There will be no stigmatization from using the facility. It’s so cheap that even the strong banks will consider using it.”
Still, the head of the country’s bank resolution unit, the Financial Stability Company, said the emergency facility may not be enough to prevent further insolvencies.

More at Bloomberg

Denmark taxes fatty products

Starting from this Saturday, Danes will pay an extra 30p on each pack of butter, 8p on a pack of crisps, and an extra 13p on a pound of mince, as a result of the tax.

The tax is expected to raise about 2.2bn DKK (£140m), and cut consumption of saturated fat by close to 10%, and butter consumption by 15%.
"It's the first ever fat-tax," said Mike Rayner, Director of Oxford University's Health Promotion Research Group, who has long campaigned for taxes on unhealthy foods.
"It's very interesting. We haven't had any practical examples before. Now we will be able to see the effects for real." The tax will be levied at 2.5 per Kg of saturated fat and will be levied at the point of sale from wholesalers to retailers.

Less than 10% of Danes are clinically obese, putting them slightly below the European average.
But researchers at Denmark's Institute for Food and Economic estimate that close to 4% of the country's premature deaths are a result of excess consumption of saturated fats.

From The Telegraph and BBC, interesting comments at Time

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Freediving

Rune Hallum Sørenson (link in danish) sets a Danish record of 68 metres at the AIDA world freediving championships in Kalamata, Greece. Competitors swim on one breath, and the disciplines include maximum depth reached, maximum distance swum and static apnea – or longest breath held underwater.

Photo: Fred Buyle/ Hungry Eye Images (Guardian Eyewitness series)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Quickies

1. Sperm bank turns down redheads (The Telegraph)
2. Banking Crisis in Denmark (Bloomberg)
3. Gucci Helle Revamps Image to Beat Sex Gap in Danish Election (Bloomberg)
4. Denmark set to move to left in general election (Euronews)
5. Denmark poised to shift left in parliamentary election, elect country's first female PM (Sun Sentinel)
6. Queen of Denmark, please stop using Bearskin Hats in the Royal Guard (Petition)

Friday, September 16, 2011

Helle Thorning-Schmidt to be Danish PM

Denmark's centre-left has won the country's general election, ending nearly a decade in opposition.
With all votes counted, the bloc led by Social Democrat leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt had won a narrow majority in parliament.
She is set to become Denmark's first woman prime minister. Incumbent Lars Lokke Rasmussen has admitted defeat.
Ms Thorning-Schmidt had campaigned on a platform of tax rises and increased public spending.
She also promised to roll back tough immigration laws proposed by a junior partner of the current coalition.
The centre-left bloc won 89 seats in Denmark's 179-seat parliament against 86 for the centre-right. Turnout was high at 87.7%.

The country has seen its worst economic downturn since World War II. Although Denmark is a member of the EU, it has chosen not to adopt the euro.

Mr Rasmussen's liberal-conservative alliance has long relied on the anti-immigrant People's Party (DPP) to push legislation through parliament.
The recent decision of Denmark, a Schengen state, to reimpose border controls came after pressure from the DPP, the third-biggest party in parliament.
However, the main issue of the election has been the health of the national finances.
Ms Thorning-Schmidt campaigned on a platform of tax rises and increased public spending.
The economic crisis has turned Denmark's healthy surpluses into deficits, estimated to climb to 4.6% of GDP next year.
Local banks have also been struggling, with nine taken over by the state since the start of the crisis in 2008.
Ms Thorning-Schmidt has accused Mr Rasmussen of failing to spur growth and allowing the deficit to grow.
She advocates increased government spending, along with an unusual plan to make everyone work 12 minutes more per day.
An extra hour of productivity each week, the Social Democrats argue, would help kick-start growth.

In full at BBC

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Right-Wing Populists Face Test in Denmark

A right-wing populist party, one of Europe's most influential, will face a test of voter sentiment at the ballot box. The Danish People's Party [DF] has been instrumental in tightening at least 20 laws pertaining to immigration and migration.

The path to the right-wing outsiders leads straight through the hallowed halls of Christiansborg Palace, right on past the red and white national flag, the "Danebrog," as well as the portrait gallery of past politicians and finally right under the heavy chandeliers in the country's political control center. This, it seems, is the place where the Danish People's Party feels most at home.

'We Are Proud of Our Policies'
Messerschmidt is a member of the European Parliament and one of the party's strategic thinkers. He combats the political stigma of being defined as right-wing or xenophobic. "We are conservative," he says. "We are the only party that stands for national identity and tradition."
Messerschmidt speaks quickly, as if he wants to forestall any objections. "We are proud of our policies, and there is no greater success than having your policies get adopted by others," the alert young politician says. And that, he says, is why he believes in his party's re-election prospects.
For weeks now, however, Social Democratic challenger Helle Thorning-Schmidt, 44, with her three-partner, left of center "Red Block" has been two to four percentage points ahead of the "Blue Block" comprising of the Liberal party, the conservatives and the right-wing populists.
For 10 years now, the People's Party has backed the minority government in Copenhagen -- causing a sustained shift in the country's political climate. So far, the nationalists have succeeded in pushing through legislation to tighten at least 20 laws pertaining to immigrants and asylum seekers. Traditionally liberal Denmark is now the country with the most conservative legislation for foreigners in Europe -- an achievement that makes the People's Party proud.

A Secret Network of Extremists
The "secret lodge" with the name ORG, has formed the "backbone of the extreme right in Denmark" for more than 20 years, the journalists' initiative Redox concluded, reporting that the group was linked to racist associations, extremist football fans and neo-Nazis.
The secret network also reportedly conducts ceremonies reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan and espouses its teachings of a "utopia of an ethnically homogenous society" at a private school attended by around 200 pupils. It also operates martial arts and shooting clubs and maintains a black list of politicians deemed to be "traitors to their country."

Over the years, the Denmark's right-wing populists have developed a steady base -- one that is easily reached with messages that are skeptical of the EU or anti-immigrant.
In Denmark, the Social Democrats believe there will be a "mood for change" in the country. Many Danes have grown tired of the country's right-wing image in the eyes of their European neighbors. That's a sentiment the Social Democratic challenger Thorning-Schmidt has sought to channel -- along with concerns about the economic crisis.
The country has seen an estimated 175,000 jobs lost in the crisis, it will have a budget shortfall of 85 billion crowns next year and a budget deficit of 4.6 percent instead of the budget surplus seen in 2008.
"After 10 years with a liberal-conservative government, Denmark is at a standstill," says Thorning-Schmidt. Now she only needs to convince the voters of that.

More at Der Spiegel

Denmark election tipped to oust rightwing government

Helle Thorning-Schmidt expected to lead centre-left coalition into power and become country's first female prime minister.

Ten years of rightwing rule that have turned Denmark into the most closed country in Europe for immigrants looks likely to end this week, with a Social Democrat tipped to become the Danes' first female prime minister.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the daughter-in-law of Neil and Glenys Kinnock, looks likely to head a new centre-left coalition, replacing the Liberal leader, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, whose minority government has been propped up for the past decade by the far-right anti-immigrant and europhobic Danish People's party (DF).
The Social Democrats are struggling in the opinion polls and may lose votes and seats in the 179-seat parliament in Copenhagen, but her four-party "red" coalition is expected to nudge ahead of the coalescing liberals and conservatives. The latest polls before Thursday's general election give the centre-left a margin of victory of between three and 10 seats.
A victory for the centre-left would wrest the kingmaker status from the DF, which has leveraged its support for the current government to drive legislation on immigration and asylum.

If Thorning-Schmidt fails to secure the Danish premiership on Thursday, her six-year spell as Social Democrat leader may be over.

It is unclear whether the allegations will have any impact on Thursday's election. Danes are eager voters, with turnouts of up to 90%. The economy will be the key issue.
In a country boasting some of the highest living standards in the world, the economy is stagnant, the budget deficit is set to soar to almost 5% this year and job losses have been high. Thorning-Schmidt has promised a new era of public investment in welfare, education and infrastructure. The government is preaching austerity and public spending cuts, the general trend across a Europe dominated by the centre-right.

More at The Guardian

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Too many bikers in Copenhagen

In Copenhagen – one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world in which 36% of its inhabitants cycle to work or school, and which has committed to increasing that figure to 50% by 2015 – there are controversial voices coming from unexpected places.
According to the Danish Cyclists' Federation and Wonderful Copenhagen, the official tourism organisation for Denmark, the sheer success of the drive to get more locals and tourists on bikes is creating a dangerous, intimidating and unpleasant climate for cyclists in the city.
"In Copenhagen, we have quite extraordinary problems around cycling congestion," said Aneh Hajdu, of Wonderful Copenhagen. "I don't take my children on their bikes into Copenhagen at rush hour any more. It's too dangerous and scary. I just wouldn't risk it."

As numbers increase in the cycle lanes, says Hadju, so behaviour deteriorates, with jostling and cutting-up becoming more frequent. "The locals rush past the foreigners, who are often uncertain on their bikes and going slowly," she said. "The locals get impatient and therefore become more threatening."

Even to an untrained eye, it is immediately obvious that the city is struggling to cater for its growing number of cyclists. It is already near-impossible to find cycling parking places near main stations...

So what happens when the critical mass of cyclists grows faster than the government can improve their uban environment?
In rush hour, there are enormous numbers of cyclists fighting for space on Copenhagen's bike paths, which become cramped and packed.
"As numbers grow and they fight for space, cyclists are becoming more aggressive and reckless in traffic. I increasingly see people bringing themselves and others into dangerous situations," "They break the laws and use their bikes in completely reckless ways."

More at The Guardian