Jacob Christensen

Wow. Just: Wow.

Wordled that one as well. But that doesn’t really capture the speech.

Jimmie Ã…kesson in Aftonbladet 2009-10-19:

Pia Kjærsgaard in Berlingske Tidende 2009-10-12:

The big difference? That Kjærsgaard’s piece didn’t provoke any reactions in Denmark. Perhaps because of the paedophile poster proposition.

Both pictures created with Wordle.

Writer Jan Sonnergaard and political commentator Niels Krause-Kjær have different views about the 1980s. Sonnergaard finds that the 1980s were the worst of times with the developed world living under the threat of nuclear destruction. Krause-Kjær on the other hand saw a new dawn.

Who is right? Well, in a way, both are. If we look at two economic indicators, the 1980 were a mixed bag:

Where Krause-Kjær is right is in noting that post-1982, governments made a serious effort to bring down inflation and rates. This wasn’t just a Danish development: We see this in most Western countries. The price, on the other hand, was a permanent high level of unemployment. There were other reasons for the high level of unemployment which had to do with the fundamental imbalances haunting Danish economy until the 1990s, but unemployment was taken as a consequence of economic policy.

It was only in the mid-1990s that economic policy finally broke the spell and we began the 15 or so years of low unemployment. But if you were unlucky, getting stuck in more or less permanent unemployment was easy during the 1980s – in fact easier than in the 1970s.

Now, for a serious discussion I ought to include a host of other indicators: GDP growth, Balance of payments (remember that one?), Public deficit, public debt, etc. But I hope you get the picture.

Have been doing some catching up on the DVD collection:

Californication, second season. There will be a third season? Great: Here’s hoping that it keeps up the pace! And that Charlie Runkle can keep his hands … well, somewhere else.

Gomorra. Bleak and totally brilliant. If you thought Sicily was bad, Naples is worse. Much, much worse.

Happy-Go-Lucky. Can you make a movie about a sanguine school-teacher? Mike Leigh can. And then some. Exuberant and utterly brilliant. Bonus: The angriest man in the world. World as in the universe.

Roger Ebert:

The new “Fame” is a sad reflection of the new Hollywood, where material is sanitized and dumbed down for a hypothetical teen market that is way too sophisticated for it.

In Denmark, Beate Bille hated every minute of it as well.

PS: A member of the Fame Regurgitated crew writes to Mr. Ebert.

Google Wave seems to be the Next Big Thing.

And no: I do not have any invites.

HT: Jesper Dahl.

First of all, I think the Danish “Liberal” Party needs a new name. In Danish, it is called “Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Party”, but as I see it “Danmarks Autoritære Parti” would be a more fitting description.¹

Now, as we all know, the aim of the Danish People’s Party is to incarcerate and exclude as large a part of the population as possible (this includes all non-Danes which the party haven’t succeeded in getting thrown out of the country). The party has also demanded the lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12 years so that children of immigrants can be put behind bars from an early age. Sure, for the sake of window-dressing we’ll call it something else than prison but for all practical purposes, this is what we will be seeing. The government responded by offering 14 years as the age of criminal responsibility.

Or so we thought, because now Liberal MP Ellen Trane Nørby has come forward with the suggestion that we abolish the minimum age of criminal responsibility altogether and put special courts in charge of handling all kinds of transgressions made by people under the age of 18.

Sure, Ms. Nørby may argue that a criminal proceeding offers more formal guarantees than having your case handled by social workers (a problem which could be handled with less drastic means), but the real point is this: 1) All behaviour which do not conform to the very strict norms of “Danish behaviour” and “Danishness” put down by the Danish People’s Party is by definition criminal, 2) Even small children are by definition potential criminals, 3) social work is the supplement to legal punishment, not the first course of action or even a course of action designed to prevent crime.

We may say that Ellen Trane Nørby is just one Liberal MP, but we should remember that this is a party with a very well-functioning party organisation, especially when it comes to communication.

I really and truly cannot imagine that Ms. Nørby’s initiative has not been cleared (much) higher up in the hierarchy, which begs the question what the strategic goal from the point of the Liberal Party of this action is. My guess is that the Liberals want to establish their authoritarian credentials vis-a-vis the Danish People’s Party. The proposal also opens for a further reduction of the age of criminal responsibility (I still predict 13 years) as part of the negotiations about the 2010 budget. Needless to say, DF loved Ms. Nørby’s initiative.

In the bigger perspective, sociologists and historians have noted the Nordic countries for taking children seriously as children. Children are not seen as little adults (as before the 19th century) or primarily as consumers (as in the Anglo-Saxon world – note any Disney product). The aim of the Liberals and the Danish People’s Party is to break with this tradition, abolish the notion of childhood and replace education with a culture which is fundamentally penal in nature.

Welcome to the Dark Ages, my friends.

1. Check this and perhaps this if you want more about what is meant by Authoritarian in this context. [↩]

Hm. Let’s see: Denmark enters a coalition which invades/intervenes in Afghanistan (yes, yes: Lots of good reasons given the Taleban’s activities and links with al-Qaeda).

Intervention is not successful but causes a stream of refugees. To Denmark, among other countries. The situation in Afghanistan is so bad that asylum seekers are in fact granted political asylum despite repeated tightening of immigration and refugee policies in Denmark.

Needless to say, the Danish People’s Party is “concerned“.

Well…

Just to update an earlier post:

Forming a government in Berlin seems to be the easy part of the process. Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein will also be getting Black-and-Yellow governments but in the other Länder, the picture is more complicated.

Brandenburg: Matthias Platzeck had the choice between Red-Red or Red-Black. Here it seems that the CDU blew it by not having secured the internal hierarchy. Die Linke, on the other hand, realised that Kerstin Kaiser was a no-no as a cabinet member (she worked as a Stasi-informer when she was a student) and declared that they will negotiate with the SPD but keep her outside the state government. Also: Going Red-Red would secure the SPD from attacks in a fiscally difficult situation.

Saarland: Here Die Linke (and Oskar Lafontaine in particular) is the big no-no. The Greens seem to be serious about entering a Black-Green-Yellow coalition. In German this is known as the Schwampel or Jamaika coalition.

Thüringen: Looks like a complete mess. The leader of the state SPD Christoph Matschie wants a grand coalition, the party base wants Red-Red-Green. CDU’s lead candidate Dieter Althaus was forced to resign following the election – the question now is if the SPD will also lose its lead candidate.

A well-mannered conversation between former gossip magazine editor Henrik Qvortrup and comedian Casper Christensen on Danish TV2.