Dane MP labelled racist after NZ visit

MP Marie Krarup under fire

Hate mail from angry New Zealanders is landing on the desk of a Danish MP who ridiculed her Maori welcome. Right-wing politician Marie Krarup dubbed the powhiri an "uncivilised" ritual, and marae a "grotesque" mark of multicultural worship.Krarup, in an opinion piece in Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende, said she was shocked to be welcomed by a dancing, barely-clothed man, instead of a handshake or salute.

"When we came to a naval base, we were not received with a handshake or salute by uniformed men as usual," she wrote.

"No, we were welcomed with a Maori dance ritual, with a half-naked man in grass skirt, shouting and screaming in Maori."

Krarup, who was in New Zealand on a defence committee visit in March, said the man performed "strange rituals and poked his tongue out".

She said she felt like an "idiot" when giving a hongi, and was relieved to catch a big kiss on the cheek by one man instead of the traditional nose touching.

When it was time to sing, Krarup said the waiata sounded like a Danish children's song about a happy ladybird. She said it was accompanied by a "kindergarten-teacher-guitar-accompaniment".

The marae, or "Maori temple", was a form of cultural self-destruction, according to Krarup.

"It was decorated with God-figures with angry faces and large erect penises," she said.

"It's a mystery to me how the poor naval officers could endure both the ceremony and the surroundings."

Krarup told Berlingske Nyhedsbureau she had received hate mail from New Zealanders calling her a racist, and insisted she did not look down upon Maori.

She did, however, question why "European New Zealanders" were not able to "defend their culture", reported the Copenhagen Post. 

"It sounds like I look down on the Maori," Krarup told Berlingske.

"Indeed I'm not, even though the culture is very foreign to me."

Danes living in New Zealand were appalled at the comments.

Dorthe Siggaard, 49, who has lived in New Zealand for 12 years, said Krarup does not represent what Danes think about Maori culture.

"Of course this is embarrassing - we are not proud of these comments," she said.

"Krarup is against anything to do with Islam, immigration - anything. It is no surprise she has made comments about indigenous people."

Krarup is a member of parliament for the Danish People's Party, which is described as a very right-wing party by political commentators.

Its goals were to protect the freedom and cultural heritage of the Danish people, and limit immigration.

Borge Petersen, the Danish ambassador in Canberra, said he had been welcomed to New Zealand by powhiri several times.

"These events as well as the specific event during the welcome ceremony referred to by Mrs Krarup reflects for me the sincere wish of the New Zealand hosts to bid me welcome in the best possible way, namely through a Maori ceremony of welcome that has been a tradition for generations," he said.

"At the same time I feel the ceremony reflects the traditions and culture of New Zealand in general and thus gives me an insight into the history of New Zealand. All in all I see this as positive."

He said he had the "deepest respect" for people of Maori descent.

From stuff.co.nz

Secret racist network exposed in Denmark

Only two and a half weeks after the horrible terror massacre in Norway, a secret network of racists has been exposed in Denmark. With about 100 members, ‘ORG’ has existed for 20 years, preparing for a ‘showdown’ with immigrants and ‘traitors’. Leading members of the Danish People’s Party and an infamous police officer are among its members.
The news was published on 10 August by Politiken, reporting that ORG was “started by a small group of men, several of whom have held leading positions in the Danish People’s Party, or been candidates for the party, while at the same time taking part in Ku Klux Klan-type events and exerting influence on extreme right-wing organisations.
Several ORG members have said they are willing to use violence against immigrants and have praised the Hells Angels support group AK81 for “beating provocative wogs”.

The even more racist Dansk Folkeparti (DF, Danish People’s Party) is now implicated in the secret network with the aim of “cleaning” Denmark of immigrants and “traitors”. The leader of ORG, Jesper Nielsen, was the DF leader in Aarhus and another leader was a candidate for parliament. The network closely followed its “enemies” with an “extensive ‘traitor archive’, which is called “The Great Memory”, Politiken reported.
The Copenhagen leader of ORG was a police officer who was suspended from the force on political grounds in 2009, having used his position to monitor 8,000 left-wing political opponents. He also had guns and ammunition in his flat, alongside stickers saying “Real Danes shit on the Koran”. But, as in the case with the Murdoch scandal in Britain, the information gained about ORG in the investigation against this police officer in 2009 was not used further or made public.
The secret organisation, ORG, used several fronts, such as a right-wing youth organisation, a website and Den Danske Forening (The Danish Association). Even an organisation for ‘press freedom’, i.e. defending racism in the media, is linked to ORG. Most members are in public positions, at the same time taking part in racist rituals, burning crosses, and discussing ethnic cleansing.
The news about ORG shows again how far some of the right-wing extremists are prepared to go. At the same time, some of their policies are in line with populist and racist parties in parliaments around Europe. In Denmark, the role of DF as a support party of the conservative government has made Denmark’s migration policies some of the worst in Europe. For example, a Danish citizen has to be 24-years old to marry a foreigner (DF now demands this is raised to 27 years).

More at Socialist World

Denmark bans Marmite

After Denmark banned Redbull, now British Marmite is illegal in Denmark.

As far as Marmite goes, the Danish government hates the stuff. That at least is the conclusion that many foreigners have drawn following a ban on the sticky brown yeast extract.
The sales ban enforces a law restricting products fortified with added vitamins. Food giant Kellogg's withdrew some brands of breakfast cereal from Denmark when the legislation passed in 2004, but until now Marmite had escaped the attention of Danish authorities.

Marmite is not the only product to have fallen foul: Horlicks, Ovaltine and Farley's Rusks are similarly proscribed.
The ruling is not going down well with the country's substantial expatriate community – many of them work for large multinational firms such as Lego and Vestas, only to move away after a year or two.
The government has admitted it is having trouble retaining these highly skilled foreign workers, and has even debated measures in parliament to make them stay. This latest move is unlikely to help.
Recent comments from the Danish immigration minister, Søren Pind, that foreigners should "assimilate" or leave, coupled with the country's recent unilateral decision to reinstate border checks, have left some residents questioning the motivation behind the crackdown.

Lyndsay Jensen, a Yorkshire-born graphic designer in Copenhagen, despaired of the move.
"They don't like it because it's foreign," she said, adding that she already planned to send off for supplies from abroad. "But if they want to take my Marmite off me they'll have to wrench it from my cold dead hands."

More at Guardian and at The Telegraph (Marmite made illegal in Denmark)

Deportations

This indonesian She is threatened with eviction.

The Straarup Family She must leave in October 2010, after 9 years in Denmark, married to a Danish and have two children with Danish citizenship.

Danish authorities are racist

The Vicepresident of Det Radikale Venstre Party, Zenia Stampe, accused Ove Dahl for violation of the so-called racism paragraph (Penal Code article 266 b).
Zenia Stampe is angry at the way Ove Dahl has referred Romanian criminals. Homicide chief's opinions have fallen in the light of the extremely violent crime Monday evening on the 42-year-old Norwegian stewardess Vera Vildmyren at Radisson SAS Hotel on Amager.
The radical vice booklets mainly by the following statements by Ove Dahl in Politiken Saturday edition:
"The open borders, whereby we are overrun by Eastern Europeans. It is a huge problem. They are committing bank robberies, home robberies, serious theft, begging, shoplifting - everything."
And again: "The Romanians are unscrupulous. They kill for a couple of hundred dollars. It is a completely different culture."
According Zenia Stampe makes Ove Dahl with these statements is guilty of a violation of Penal Code section 266 b, ie. 'publicly or with intent to disseminate to a wider circle makes a statement or other communication by which a group of people are threatened, insulted or degraded on account of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation'.
Zenia Stampe elaborates: "Ove Dahl helps to legitimize racially motivated attacks, so-called hate crimes. On the way he is likely to create crime rather than preventing it. The police are there to prevent crime and provide reassurance. But with such statements, he creates insecurity - among both resident easternworkers and Danes. It is not served."
The radical politician adds' Romanians share our newspapers out and repairing the holes in our roads. It simply is not decent that they be accused of being thieves and murderers. All Danes are not murderers, just because we have Peter Lundin.

Source: Radikal næstformand anmelder drabschef (link in danish) and translation

References:
Drabschef anmeldt for racisme (1 with comments - some in english, and 2) (links in danish)

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

Quickies

Danish pastries

Racist advertising in Denmark: 1, 2 and 3

Truth about Denmark

Violence and Racism in Copenhagen

Deportations in Denmark

There are many cases of foreigners in Denmark who, after they made a child with a local, are send (without the child) in their countries where they came from. Such a case is presented by Politiken: after 18 years of marriage, a kenyan woman who is married to a dane (and together, they have a daughter), is forcibly being deported because of the current immigration laws. She has done nothing wrong, she has committed no crime.
She is being deported despite the fact her husband is a danish citizen, has paid taxes all of his life, has worked for years on behalf of the danish foreign service for providing aid work in developing nations, is gainfully employed as an engineer, and together, they are homeowners. The immigration laws include a provision that stipulates that any dane who has received unemployment compensation for a cumulative period of over one year shall be ineligible to bring a foreign born spouse into the country under the "family reunion" act. and it is not just limited to unemployment compensation, the law penalizes danes who have ever benefited from ANY state-provided assistance (thus being deemed a so-called burden on society) by in-effect denying these danes the right to ever marry someone who is from outside the EU or scandinavia and then expect to live together in Denmark.
Had this woman been from Sweden or Poland, under the current laws, they would have no problem, but she is from Kenya, and therefore she is being forced out. The law treats her terribly and also treats danes differently. The law tells danes who they should marry and who they should not marry by giving danes who marry the "right" person many significant advantages. It is unfair and it is wrong.
And of course, the law is inhumane, unreasonable and discriminatory towards the non-danish spouse. Think about that.
This law does not apply to the two LARGEST recipients of state supported welfare: Crown Prince Frederik and his younger brother Joachim, who both have both married non-EU foreigners and in each case, a special law has been put into effect that circumvents the immigration laws for the sake of their spouses, the new princesses. Nobody raises an eyebrow.

Read more at Flickr. Comments are juicy.

Racism in Denmark

On June 19th, 2006, Politiken published an article about racist leaflets that are being handed out, unchallenged, in northern Denmark. They are being given to "foreigners" and are produced by the nazi party of Denmark. The headline says "A Free Denmark." Who will stand by this time and not say a word?
The racism in this country simply gets worse and worse, while the so-called 'creative class' doesn't want to be bothered with these kind of unpleasantries.
The racism has become institutionalized and a part of our everyday culture: as it continues to grow, unchallenged, the messages have become an accepted part of our discourse - the message becomes normalized and we begin to believe that there is a truth in what is being expressed.
It's a con, pure and simple, a ruse, a distraction, a way to make scapegoats out of people who live in this country.
It's not just the nazi's - it's the advertisers, the politicians, the every day people who use racist rhetoric in order to gain an advantage. It shouldn't be this way.

Source: Flickr

Racism persists in EU

The European Union's rights agency says racist violence and discrimination persist across Europe.

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights also says most members of the 27-nation bloc are not taking advantage of tough legislation to crack down on the scourge.

The report says "racism, discrimination, entrenched disadvantage, racist violence and harassment have remained a fact of life for many individuals."

It calls for sanctions tough enough to be a deterrent.

Britain and France lead a list of 9 countries credited with actively fighting racism and xenophobia. But the rights agency says a dozen EU member states issued no sanctions at all against discrimination, including the Czech Republic, Denmark and Germany.

Source: The Associated Press

Lego In Racism Poster Row

Danish toy maker Lego believes it has been wrongly accused of being racist by a UN anti-discrimination poster.
The poster shows what looks like one of the company's famous building blocks.
It reads "Racism takes many shapes" and shows a picture of a jigsaw puzzle next to a red brick. It was launched by the UN to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
"We feel that the message of this poster can be interpreted as if we are a racist company," Lego spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said.
"I don't know if that's what's intended, but it's definitely one way of interpreting it."
However, the UN said no affiliation to Lego was intended and apologised for the misunderstanding.
"The poster is in no way a comment on the specific situation in Denmark or on Lego," a spokesperson said.
"It is unfortunate that the poster has been interpreted as such."

Source: sky.com

Even in Sweden

This is a very good book about Racisms, Racialized Spaces, and the Popular Geographical Imagination, written by Allan Pred. A good eye-opener for foreigners in Scandinavia.

Allan Pred writes compellingly about the reawakening of racism throughout Europe at the end of the twentieth century–even in Sweden, a country widely regarded as the very model of social justice and equality. Many thousands of non-European and Muslim immigrants and refugees who took advantage of Sweden's generous immigration policies now find themselves the object of discrimination and worse.

Through the cascading juxtaposition of many voices, including his own, Pred describes the intensifying cultural racism of the 1990s, the proliferation of negative ethnic stereotypes, and the spatial segregation of the non-Swedish. He quotes the newspaper Dagens Nyheter: "It is high time that Sweden reconsider its self-image as the stronghold of tolerance" (July 21, 1998), and analyzes the strategies that allow people to maintain that self-image. Perhaps the greatest strength of Even in Sweden is that Pred gives to the social consequences of global economic restructuring some very specific faces and places and a multitude of expressions of human will, both ill and good.

Source: University of California

Police harassment triggered unrest in Denmark

A group of youths who have been torching cars and waste containers in the Danish capital said the wave of unrest started as a protest against police harassment.

In a letter published in Copenhagen newspaper Politiken, the youths accused police of "brutal, racist" behavior.

It was the first time that rioting juveniles had offered any explanation for the fires that have raged for nine consecutive nights mostly in immigrant neighborhoods across the country. The authors of the letter said they would now stop rioting.

"Basically the unrest is about the way we are treated by the police, who are brutal, racist and totally unacceptably insulting," the group said in the letter.

The authors called themselves "Boys of inner Nørrebro," referring to the immigrant neighborhood in Copenhagen where the unrest started on Feb. 10.

Police said 21 fires were set overnight Tuesday for a total of about 600 since the wave of arson started. The youths have burned cars, trash containers and schools. In some cases, they have pelted firefighters with rocks, but no serious injuries have been reported.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen defended police and firefighters and put the blame on the rioting youths and their parents.

"The youths have a responsibility and now they must stop. Their parents also have a responsibility," he told reporters Tuesday.

Fogh Rasmussen said he had asked the Danish justice minister to examine whether the parents could be held financially responsible for damage caused by the fires.

Some observers have said that the reprinting of a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad may have aggravated the situation.

However, Tuesday's letter did not mention the prophet drawing, which Danish newspapers reproduced Wednesday in a gesture for free speech following the arrest of three men accused of plotting to murder the cartoonist.

Copenhagen police chief Hanne Bech Hansen said she met Monday with the youths who wrote the letter, and would investigate their concerns about police harassment.

Interview with Pia Kjaersgaard

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Raving xenophobe or fearless defender of Danish values Nationalist leader Pia Kjaersgaard's anti-Muslim outbursts have earned her many labels _ and many votes.
Despite predictions of her populist Danish People's Party's demise, Kjaersgaard remains a powerful force in domestic politics after winning 14 percent of the vote in last week's election.
«The most important thing for the Danish People's Party is to maintain the Danish identity,» Kjaersgaard, 60, told The Associated Press in an interview.
«I am convinced that the Islamists want to sneak Sharia (Islamic law) through the back door, that they want to combat Western society and they want Islam to become the main religion,» she said.
Her party _ Denmark's third biggest _ has held the role of kingmaker since 2001, giving the center-right government the backing it needs for a majority in Parliament.
In return, Kjaersgaard has been able to press the government to adopt some of Europe's strictest immigration laws, which she says have been instrumental in stemming the inflow of Muslims with radical views.
There are an estimated 200,000 Muslims among Denmark's 5.4 million residents.
«The individual Muslim has never been a problem for Danish society. But their number has,» Kjaersgaard told AP in her office, decorated with Danish flags and paintings depicting Danish landscapes.
To emphasize her point, she said she shops at a grocery store owned by a Turkish Kurd who respects Danish laws and culture.
«He has a lot of great stuff _ fruits, vegetables _ and he's a good friend of mine,» Kjaersgaard said.
The flow of asylum-seekers has dropped by 84 percent since Denmark tightened its immigration laws in 2001. There is now broad agreement across party lines to maintain the system.
But critics say the Danish People's Party has polarized Danish society by bashing Islam and stereotyping immigrants as welfare cheats.
«She is a scare-mongering populist and opportunist,» said Holger K. Nielsen of the left-wing opposition Socialist People's Party. He added Kjaersgaard was a skillful politician who has tapped into undercurrents of nationalism and worries over immigration among Danes.
During last year's uproar over Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Kjaersgaard and other leading party members took turns blasting Islam as incompatible with Danish traditions including free speech.

Ahead of the Nov. 13 election, one of the party's campaign posters showed an artist's hand drawing a picture of Muhammad, with the text «Freedom of speech is Danish, censorship is not.
«Sometimes I wonder what other people think about me _ 'is she a monster?»' Kjaersgaard conceded in a moment of introspection. «I need to brush these things off, otherwise I will go down.
Kjaersgaard, who lives with round-the-clock police protection, quickly added she has no regrets about anything she has said.
She rejects accusations of racism and comparisons to far-right parties across Europe such as the National Front in France.
«There is nothing racist about what I have said, I know that. I have a clean conscience,» she said. «My driving force is the love for my home country. ... I want Denmark to be a safe and good and cozy nation that has a good relationship to the rest of the world.
When asked if she thought Islam can contribute to Danish society in any way, she replied: «I don't think so at all».

Source: Associated Press