Danish at the forefront of the climate change debate.

September 23, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , ,

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, on behalf of the Danish government as hosts of the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 has announced a new collaboration with the global internet company Google.

The aim of the collaboration is to increase global engagement in climate change in the run-up to and during COP15 in Copenhagen in December. The collaboration includes a number of online initiatives:

The Danish government will allow users of the online video sharing website YouTube to share their thoughts on climate change and to make their voices be heard at the conference. Through the channel, users can contribute their own opinion and questions, and respond to and view videos by climate change opinion makers. The channel will also allow users to watch videos that go behind the scenes of the conference itself. During COP15, videos will be shown to the leaders of the world gathered at the conference, who will have a chance to record their opinions directly from the conference venue.

Working with data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the international scientific community, Google has visualized climate change stories on Google Maps and Google Earth. For example, users will be able to view visualizations of greenhouse gas emissions by region, the expected consequences of climate change, as well as narrated virtual tours on mitigation and adaptation aspects.

A number of different organizations are working on outreach efforts in the period leading up to COP15. To unite all these campaigns, users of Denmark’s “Raise your voice” COP15 YouTube channel will be able to visit other major campaigns, including the UN’s official Seal the Deal initiative, UNICEF’s Unite for Climate youth campaign, the Hopenhagen campaign, Prince Charles’ Rainforest Project and the Tck Tck Tck campaign.

In addition to the above activities under the collaboration between the Danish government and Google, Google is collaborating with CNN to conduct a global, TV-transmitted Townhall debate during COP15. As such, questions submitted to the “Raise your voice” YouTube channel will be broadcast to a worldwide audience.

The collaboration between Denmark and Google was launched on Tues by the Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, during the UN Climate Summit in New York.

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What is hygge?

September 17, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , ,

Hygge ['hoo-ga'] –  a deep sense of place & well-being; a feeling of friendship, warmth, contentment and peace with your immediate surroundings.

Hygge is a Danish concept which roughly describes that warm and fuzzy feeling when you’re surrounded by good food and good company.  Hygge is an important element of the Danish mentality. The term is difficult to translate, but it is often, inadequately, translated as cosiness. Yet, it is much more than that because it encompasses many different words.  Hygge can mean cosy, comfy, snug and having a good time according to the context the word is used in, but most of all hygge means all of that in one term which makes it such a unique Danish word.

The term hygge is widely used and connected with different situations. For instance you can have a hygge-evening and a hygge-weekend. You can have a hygge-chat and you can even sit in a hygge-corner.

Hyggelig is the adjective for hygge and is used about many things. A person can be described as hyggelig, a café and a town – especially if it is a small town – can be hyggelig. Furniture for instance a sofa can be hyggelig and candlelights are definitely hyggelige.

Needless to say everyone deserves a bit of Hygge in their life!

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Denmark to send troops on UN mission

September 10, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , ,

Denmark plans to send 140 soldiers to Lebanon to join a United Nations peacekeeping operation there, Danish Defence Minister Soeren Gade said on Friday.

The Danish troops will leave in December to work with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has stepped up its activities since the 2006 conflict with Israel.

“We are responding positively to a request from the United Nations which asked for logistical support in South Lebanon,” Gade said, stressing that Danish soldiers would not be involved in monitoring of the border or any counter-terror operations.

Gade said the majority of Danish lawmakers backed the decision to send the troops.  He said the reduction of troop numbers in Kosovo had made the deployment possible.

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Nordic giant to buy Danish bank

September 4, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

Swedish bank Nordea has signed a contract to buy Denmark’s Fionia Bank for 121m euros ($173m; £107m) from the Danish state.

The Stockholm-based bank said the deal includes 400 staff at 29 branches.  The agreement is subject to approval by the Danish authorities, which took control of Fionia following the global financial meltdown in February.

The deal should give an investment return by 2011, said Nordea, the Nordic region’s biggest financial group.

“We have captured a unique opportunity,” added the bank. “By acquiring Fionia we continue our growth in Denmark… to the benefit of both Fionia’s and Nordea’s customers and our shareholders.”

Nordea has managed to avoid much of the fallout from US “toxic assets”.

Since the Danish state took over control of Fionia it has injected $169m into the bank to meet solvency requirements.

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Danish royals get pay rise

August 26, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

Denmark’s royal family will receive a 1.9 million kroner pay raise next year.

Prince Henrik, who is married to Queen Margrethe, is set to be given a total budget of 7.1 million Danish kroner – a rise of 200,000 kroner from last year.

Crown Prince Frederik – who is heir to the Danish throne – and his wife Crown Princess Mary will see their allowance increased by 400,000 kroner, bringing their spending to 17.6 million kroner.

Prince Joachim and Princess Marie are to be allocated a budget of 3.1 million kroner, which is 100,000 kroner more than last year.  Queen Margrethe’s younger sister Princess Benedikte will receive a total of 1.1 million kroner in 2010.  The monarch’s cousin, Count Ingolf, will be granted a rise of 100,000 kroner.

Countess Alexandra – the former wife of Prince Joachim – is also set to be given an extra 100,000 kroner, bringing her total budget to 2.1 million. However, because the countess is a private citizen she will have to pay tax on the money.

This isn’t the first piece of good news Danish Crown Prince Frederik has received recently.

Earlier this month, it was revealed the future king, Mary and their two children – Prince Christian, four, and two-year-old Princess Isabella – are to move to a 17th century palace in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

Frederik VIII’s Palace in Amalienborg has been empty since the death of Queen Ingrid in 2000 and is currently undergoing a $29 million renovation, which is due to be finished by the end of this year.

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Danish-owned wind blade factories in Britain closed after protests

August 13, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

A Danish-owned wind turbine firm closed two factories in Britain Wednesday with the loss of 425 jobs following a two-week ‘occupation’ by angry workers.

Vestas Wind Systems said it had ceased blade production activities at its sites on the Isle of Wight and in Southampton, southern England, because of lack of demand.

The Danish firm obtained a court order last week to remove six workers who had occupied the Isle of Wight plant for over two weeks to delay its closure.

The decision to close the plants had been ‘very difficult,’ Ole Borup Jakobsen, president of Vestas Blades, said.

‘Nonetheless, this commercial decision was absolutely necessary to secure Vestas’s competitiveness and create a regional balance between production and the demand for wind turbines,’ he added.

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Headscarves officially banned from Danish military

August 6, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , ,

Soren Gade, the Defense Minister of Denmark, has informed Parliament that Muslim women working in the Danish armed forces will not be allowed to wear their traditional headscarves anymore while on duty. The recent debate has threatened to boil over into a social bias issue, but the military is standing firm that their uniform is distinct and necessary for a purpose.

The response from the Defense Minister comes after a week of debate over a female Home Guard solider, Maria Mawla, who was given permission to wear her headscarf under her helmet while in uniform. The Danish People’s Party, however, reacted strongly to this in a Parliament session and demanded the Home Guard either enforce the uniform code or tell Ms Mawla to find another job.

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Denmark’s newest prince christened Henrik

July 27, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , ,

The name of Denmark’s newest prince was revealed as Henrik during his christening ceremony on Sunday, ending a long wait for royal family watchers.

The baby, almost three months old, was baptised “Henrik Carl Joachim Alain” in a church in the village of Moegeltoender, where his parents were married.  The prince, seventh in line to the Danish throne, was born on May 4 and is the third son of Prince Joachim, 40, who is the son of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe.

The youngster’s mother Princess Marie, 33, is French-born but took Danish nationality when she wed Joachim.  The young Henrik takes his name from his grandfather French-born Prince Henrik, who is Queen Margrethe’s husband.  Joachim is the second son of Margrethe and Henrik.

In April 2005, Joachim divorced Princess Alexandra, originally from Hong Kong, after around 10 years of marriage.  The couple had two sons, nine-year-old Nikolai and seven-year-old Felix.  Joachim has a residence in Moegeltoender, a small village in southwest Denmark close to the German border.

Danish media also made mention on Sunday of the confusion caused by a German magazine dedicated to royalty, called Freizeit Royal.  The publication believed it had come across a major scoop with the revelation the prince would be called “Farvel”.  This was the word Princess Marie uttered as she left the maternity unit, and the magazine was convinced this was the new prince’s name.

But just one minor problem: “Farvel” means “goodbye” in Danish.

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Denmark plans forces for Arctic

July 17, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

Denmark plans to set up an Arctic military command and task force because the melting of the ice cap is opening up access to the region’s resources.

Denmark’s activities will be focused on its vast ice-covered island Greenland and the Faroe Islands.  Details of the plan, for the period 2010-2014, have emerged in recent days. Danish MPs approved it last month.

The retreat of sea ice is fuelling rivalry between Russia, Denmark and other nations bordering on the Arctic.  Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the US are staking claims to Arctic territory, based on geological and other data collected in the region. The sovereignty claims are being submitted to the UN.

The Danish plan said the increasing activity in the Arctic “will change the region’s geostrategic significance and thus entail more tasks for the Danish Armed Forces”.

Denmark will set up a joint-service Arctic Command and is considering expanding the military base at Thule in northern Greenland, which was a vital link in US defences during the Cold War.

Denmark will also create an Arctic Response Force, using existing Danish military capabilities that are adapted for Arctic operations. The defence plan also speaks of using combat aircraft for “surveillance and upholding sovereignty in and around Greenland”.

Copenhagen has ruled Greenland for three centuries. But Greenland – with just 57,000 inhabitants – now has a large degree of autonomy. It is set to take a greater share of the revenues from its natural resources.

Russia expects the Arctic to become its main source of oil and gas within the next decade and in March it announced plans to set up a military force to protect its interests there.

And in 2007 Canada announced plans to build two military facilities in the far north in a bid to assert its sovereignty in the Arctic.

The Arctic is estimated to contain as much as 25% of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas, and global warming is opening up new drilling possibilities.

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Should Danish Culture be more international?

April 23, 2009 · Filed under Culture · Tagged ,

Should Danish culture become more international?

Citing a report by Kristen Bjørnkjær for the Danish daily news website Information.dk, euro|topics presents the arguments for opening up the country that nurtured the talents of Olafur Eliasson, among many other artists. After gaining power, Denmark’s conservative government has gone for the open approach by announcing that Danish culture should show the influences of interacting with foreign cultures beyond the country’s borders.

 “The funds that flew into individual communities so far have mainly gone to projects that encompass international cooperation,” writes Bjørnkjær. “This is why the communities are wracking their brains for ideas that integrate foreign artists. . . . Danish painters are moving to Berlin, films are exported, books translated.” But according to Bjørnkjær, the state could do much more than simply promote this development.

Citing Mark Lorentzen of the Copenhagen Business School, Bjørnkjær points to a fundamental problem: “The Danish ministry of culture sees culture as a way of making money.”

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