Archive for April, 2008
Jørgen Ingmann
European Tribune reminds us that today is the 83th birthday of Danish guitarist Jørgen Ingmann.
You really don’t need an excuse to play “Dansevise”, the song with which Jørgen Ingmann and his then wife Grethe won the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest but Ingmann’s birthday is as good an occasion as any to remind the world of this classic piece of elegant 60s pop written by Otto Francker and Sejr Volmer Sørensen.
As the YouTube-post has been taken down, I’ll offer this link to Wikipedia. Trying to find a recording of the song outside of Denmark may be tricky, though.
And Before You Know It They Will Demand that You Write Æ And Ø
International arms deals are often very fascinating. They form a curious mix of military and industrial policy and when the Nordic countries are involved, human rights issues also join the mix. When I’ve taught exchange students about Swedish politics, I summarised the Swedish position as “We are happy to sell our weapons as long as you don’t use them”.
One of my favourite show-stoppers was showing the students a photo of this jetfighter and have them guess what it was.
The Eurofighter was the obvious guess and, let’s face it, the idea that a country of 9 million people produces its own fighter aircraft would seem a bit far-fetched to most people. But Sweden does so and the latest generation of aircraft is called JAS39 Gripen.
Now, developing a jet-fighter is a pretty expensive undertaking, and this means that Sweden – or rather SAAB AB1 – has to export the things. This is all the more necessary as Sweden is in the process of decommissioning most of its armed forces.
SAAB has enjoyed some successes in convincing other countries in adopting JAS Gripen as their weapon of choice and as Denmark, Norway and a number of other European countries will be replacing the ageing F-16s in the coming decade, JAS Gripen may have a bright future ahead of it.
But according to Svenska Dagbladet, Norway has presented SAAB and the Swedish government with an unusual demand: “We will consider buying the next generation of your aircraft, the Norwegians say, if you commit yourself to deploying them on an equal basis”. In case you wondered, the usual demand in arms sales is of cause: “We will buy your product, if our national industries get a substantial amount of subdeliveries”.
So it seems that we have an upside-down situation: Rather than using military exports to create economies of scale by having the exports support national commissions, Sweden could be forced to either abandon JAS Gripen in favour of either the Eurofighter or a US produced alternative, or to buy a series of next-generation JAS Gripen planes to the Swedish air force in a situation where the government is in fact already trying to offload spare aircraft to third countries.
Maybe we are seeing a new Swedish-Norwegian Union forming, only with the slight twist that the Norwegians are calling the shots this time around?
- SAAB AB should not be confused with SAAB Automobile which these days is a division under General Motors [↩]
Nordic Brethren
Sweden is not Denmark. But not always in the way you would expect.
Suburbia
In his blog, Västerbottens-Kuriren’s political editor Ola Nordebo asks if Umeå has any suburbs.
My immediate answer is: No, Umeå cannot have any suburbs because the town itself has the feeling of being a suburb. When I go to central Umeå, I always have – and always have had – the feeling of visiting a suburban shopping centre while the real centre is somewhere else. I can’t say where exactly, but one of my colleagues recently put this note on his whiteboard:
Gone to Sundsvall. The only place in Norrland that doesn’t look like a village.
Size, of cause, plays a role. Umeå proper only has some 75.000 inhabitants1 and there are limits to how much action you can squeeze out of a place like that. And it really is too small to sustain suburbs in the true meaning of the word.
On the other hand, I’m still left with the impression that Umeå is stuck somewhere between the small town it used to be forty years ago and the city it wants to be. It has lost the Norrlandish charm but not really gained a true identity.
Oh, and speaking of suburbs: When I have the choice, I’d much rather go shopping in Kongens Lyngby north of Copenhagen than in Umeå. Lyngby is a true suburb, but even that can be a bit lacking in the charm department. At least on a Sunday.
- Sundsvall clocks in at a measly 50.000, in case you wonder [↩]
links for 2008-04-25
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Berlin für wenig Geld – was bekommt man da zu sehen? Ein Tagesausflug mit dem Schriftsteller und Hartz-IV-Empfänger Bernd Wagner
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Jurister og økonomer er blevet et nyt præsteskab i Danmark. Er det ikke på tide, at de tager lidt ansvar?
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Mitt intryck är att den offentliga debatten i Umeå om aktivistgrupperna är förvånansvärt liten. Det är inte ofta man hör mer kritiska inlägg mot dem i medierna. Jag tror därför att det är sunt för det politiska klimatet om fler röster hörs
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Her er opskriften på, hvordan de ni kritiske danske punkter blev demonteret i et samarbejde mellem jurister fra Danmark, andre medlemslande og EU-systemet – med det klare formål at styre uden om grundlovens § 20:
Economists vs. Political Scientists
Economists are rationalists. This makes them despair at public policies because they think things could be better.
Political scientists are realists. This makes us depressed because we know things cannot get better.
Complexity
My life just took a complex turn. I could get a new (temporary) job. But do I want it or should I go for the plunge now instead of later?
Problems. Problems.
Today’s Most Important News Story
At the third and final reading, the Danish parliament ratifies the Lisbon Treaty with 90 votes to 25. The Danish People’s Party and the Red-Green Alliance voted against the treaty, the Socialist Party split 11-3 while all other parties supported the treaty.
Politiken notes the media silence.
links for 2008-04-24
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Arbejdsmarkedskommissionen er nedsat af regeringen og består af ni uafhængige eksperter. Arbejdsmarkedskommissionen skal komme med forslag til, hvordan beskæftigelsen kan øges og hvordan man kan undgå faldende arbejdstid. Forslagene skal medvirke til
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Unemployment has fallen greatly in Europe during the last decade, yet government creating millions of jobs are losing elections. The source of public dissatisfaction is that the price of lower unemployment was greater employment risk.