Aslaug's Axe Shed

… when I had to agree with the ultranationalists in Denmark about anything whatsoever in terms of politics. But in an astonishing turn of events, the most xenophobic party in Denmark, Dansk Folkeparti, the political party largely responsible for reducing anyone in Denmark not born a Danish citizen to a second or third-degree citizen … have stood up for ethnic minorities.

Our current government, flailing in its death-throes and helplessly trying to make themselves appear as the saviors of Denmark, have made a few severe blunders lately. The opposition, in turn, have come up with a pretty bad one themselves.

Let’s take it from the top:

First the opposition. The leader of the Social Democrats, Mrs. Helle Thorning Schmidt, is one of many danes with a non-danish spouse. In her case, her husband is an Englishman, Mr. Stephen Kinnock, son of former leader of the British Labour party, Mr. Neil Kinnock. Stephen Kinnock is an international businessman and consequently, he makes most of his money abroad. However, recently it was revealed that he does not pay taxes in Denmark. The right wing has pounced on this as an example of Mrs. Thorning Schmidt’s double standards. That she wants Danes to pay more taxes, but she won’t contribute herself, and that incidentally, Mr. Kinnock’s actions were illegal. However, several independent experts have already stated that strictly speaking, what Mr. Kinnock did was perfectly legal, if somewhat amoral. Mrs. Thorning Schmidt has stated to the press that since taxes were already paid on Mr. Kinnock’s income abroad, she did not believe she should ALSO pay Danish tax … but in order to avoid further problems, her husband volunteered to do so. He is still being investigated on the matter.

This, naturally, is not very good publicity and could have helped the government tremendously, if not for a whole -string- of issues.

Primary amongst the scandals coming from the government recently, would be the cutting in half of unemployment benefits. This, mind you, was done no more than two months after that members of Government solemnly swore that this would UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE happen in this election-period.

I’ve already blogged about that, however, so I’ll let that slide for now and focus on another few issues. Such as the new dog-killing act (probably the least problematic piece of legislation to come from the hands of Government lately).

Dog killing? Oh yes. Thirteen breeds of dogs have been declared illegal in Denmark. Thirteen breeds that are all considered socalled “fighting dogs” or “muscle-dogs”. Most of them are very rare breeds as it is, but some are not THAT rare, and the problem with this legislation is that it doesn’t fix the problem it’s meant to fix. The rationelle behind the law is, that certain dogs are more dangerous than others, and that consequently, they are actually lethal weapons and therefore cannot be allowed into private ownership. ANY NUMBER of vets and animal psychology experts have stood up and protested. Dozens and dozens of them, including in national media, time and time again, they have protested the insanity of trying to fix the problem of dogs attacking people by making the DOGS illegal. First of all, this will simply an underground market for illegal dogs. Secondly, the breed responsible for most attacks in Denmark is the otherwise-lovable Golden Retriever. Why? Because it’s the most numerous dog, no doubt, but also because a Golden Retreiver is an excitable dog, of medium-to-large build and it has an enormous amount of energy. People can go to the pet-store and buy a Golden Retreiver-puppy, while living in a one-room flat on the third floor and NO ONE can stop them.

Nor, and this is the most crucial part, can anyone force the new dog-owner to take dog-training. Because dog-training isn’t mandatory. Not even if you buy a really huge dog with no prior experience at having such a pet. It’s a recipe for disaster, and one all experts have called for a remedy for. And the remedy is so damned simple. In order to own a dog, you must be licensed. You must attend dog-training courses with your pet as a puppy and then at least every two or three years after the dog grows up. If you do not, your dog will be impounded. Simple solution. Police should be able to stop anyone with a dog and ask to see their license, whether we’re talking a chihauha or a St. Bernard. Instead, however, the government chose to simply say “It’s the dog’s fault”.

Now, I’m a human being too, and in the past, I admit I too have been swept up in the atmosphere of “Ohmygodwehavetodosomethingaboutthesedangerousanimalsattackingchildren!”

I’m not perfect, and I’ve argued in favor of that before. But in this case, the expert evidence has been EXCLUSIVELY on the side of licensing and mandatory dog-training courses. Every single expert who has made a statement about this has said that simply outlawing thirteen mostly rare breeds of dogs will NOT stop dog-attacks.

And now the newspapers are full of stories of googoo eyed puppies being put down.

However, that’s the least explosive piece of legislation the government has produced lately.

Next on the agenda comes the recurring tale of our foreign minister. The previous foreign minister, Mr. Per Stig Møller, was probably the only minister in the entire government for whom I felt the slightest personal respect. The man has a notorious temper, but frankly I don’t think you can be a successful foreign minister for a small country if you’re not the type to jump up and make a fuss at times. No one will hear you otherwise and no one will give a damned. Mr. Møller was highly respected amongst his peers on the international scene, he was considered a trustworthy and honourable man on whom one could always rely. Extremely important personality-traits in his line of work, obviously. Mr. Møller is a former leader of the Conservatives in Denmark, but he was ousted from the position some years back by a comparatively young, up-and-coming female star of the party (good Gods, where have we heard about THIS before?) called Mrs. Lene Espersen. Mrs. Espersen was minister of justice for a long stretch of time … a position where she could play to the traditional, Danish conservative value of a strong police-force. However, in the internal heirarchy of the government, the minister of justice is only ranked third. Highest on the ladder is the minister of state, then the foreign minister and then the minister of justice. Obviously, Mrs. Espersen found it hard to stomach that SHE was not the foreign minister, now that she was the leader of the Conservatives. So she demanded to replace Mr. Møller at the first possible opportunity. That opportunity came in January, when the minister of state rotated his team and reshuffled the deck, so to say. Mr. Møller was humiliatingly relegated to the third-rate ministry of culture (although those of us in the museum-world drew a sigh of relief as he is the ONLY minister in the entire lineup who is provably in favor of state-run museums … plus he’s very highly cultured and KNOWS what constitutes cultural inheritance), and Mrs. Espersen moved in at the Foreign Ministry, almost immediately wrecking everything Mr. Møller had spent almost ten years building up. First, she thought it was more important to go on a bathing vacation in the mediterranean than go to a meeting with the polar nations (Denmark is one of these through Greenland falling under the Danish crown), meant to discuss the future division of the North Pole’s resources …

I let that stand for a moment …

Later she repeated that stunt when she made sure she was sent to Spain for the DANISH Queen’s 70th birthday. It should be said that Mrs. Espersen’s own mother lives in a group of Danish expatriates on the southern coast of Spain, and guess where Mrs. Espersen was photographed vacationing while leaders of state visited Denmark to congratulate the monarch?

She has continued this trend up to the present day. Practically on a monthly basis, we hear of some new outrage where she’d rather use her large representation-account to travel the world and see the sights … rather than traveling the world to do her damned JOB!

And even now, when parliament is in recess for the summer-vacation (a time commonly referred to in Denmark as cucumber-time [agurketid] because, as reporters say “all we have to write about is the size of cucumbers until the politicians come back from vacation”), the government can come out with a new outrage.

This time it’s from the Liberal party. Having spent the last decade solidly in the parliamentary pocket of the ultranationalists, whose leader is routinely polled as far more powerful than even the minister of state, they are apparently trying to outdo their political partners in matters of xenophobia.

First let me outline a few details. In Denmark, you are a legal adult when you are 18. You can vote, get a driver’s license, get drunk in public bars and even marry.

Except, of course, if you wish to marry a non-Dane. In a startling, if watered down, copy of the “Protection of German Blood and German Honor”-act as introduced by Hermann Göring, where marriages between aryans and non-aryans were made illegal, the current government made it impossible to marry a non-Dane until you’re 25. Officially, the reason was that this would stop forced marriages in immigrant-families with Danish citizenship, where girls would be forced to marry their cousins or whatnot. But all the evidence since, has shown that instead of solving the problem, it’s made it far worse as the girls are now shipped out of the country to be married in the family’s native country, only to return seven or eight years later with her husband when she can legally be married to a non-Dane. Usually, she’d be bringing back two or three kids as well by that time and be well and truly caught, with no chance of getting out of that marriage, whereas if she had been in Denmark and been forced into marriage, she could have gotten help and the family could have been punished.

The problem has been made far worse for those who are affected, but the government couldn’t care less. And of course, the law is so badly formulated (a very typical problem for this government) that it affects EVERY non-Dane. Meaning that even an ethnic Dane, with hundreds of years of continuous Danish ancestry, who falls in love with say … an American … or a Swede … or a German … can’t marry his or her sweetheart -either- until they turn 25.

In this case, Ethnicity -shouldn’t- matter. But it shouldn’t matter -at all-. If you tell people they are adult and allowed to make their own choices at the age of 18, then they are legal adults and the state has no right to tell them “you can marry, but only if you marry another Dane, otherwise you have to wait another seven years before you’re REALLY an adult and able to make your own decisions”.

Furthermore, immigrants into Denmark are only eligible for 50 percent of the same welfare-benefits as Danish citizens. At the same time, people complain that Immigrants are overrepresented in crime statistics, but they are forced by circumstance to live in the WORST ghettos in the country (though the government, of course, will not acknowledge that we -have- ghettos), where crime is rife and there is no help to be had for families with kids who are getting into trouble. Why are they forced to do so? Because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. They can barely afford -that- in fact.

And now comes the latest shot at anyone without blonde hair and blue eyes:

The government has now suggested that all immigrants getting a job must only be paid fifty percent of minimum wages for the first six months.

Why?

Because that, politicians claim, will be a way to help them get into the job-market.

Let’s do this by making a simple example:

Let us say a qualified engineer comes to Denmark from … hmmm … Iran, just to take one example. He has a degree in engineering from the University of Teheran, and he applies for political asylum. As he can prove he is personally persecuted in Iran for his political beliefs, he gets political asylum in Denmark after typically three years of waiting in limbo. However, happy as a clam, the man can now look forward to a new life in Denmark. But as he is a foreigner, he is only eligible for 50 percent of the welfare benefits of a Danish citizen. This sum comes to 6.351 kroner a month … roughly 650 British pounds or just under 1100 US Dollars. He is barely able to scrimp by on this, as it has to cover rent, food, clothes and all unforeseen expenses, and … mind you … he hasn’t even paid taxes yet. Consequently, he rushes to learn how to speak Danish as he knows he is a qualified, educated person who should be able to make his own way in life rather than relying on state benefits in the first place. Let’s say it takes him about a year to learn how to speak Danish … not a long time at all given the complexity of the language and the difference to this person’s native tongue. After this year has passed, however, Mr. Iranian Engineer goes looking for a job. Finally, he can make a salary he can sustain himself on, he hopes! He looks up what he can expect to make as an engineer, and in Copenhagen, according to the engineers’ union, the average monthly salary comes to 42.942 kroner a month. About 7300 US Dollars or about 4000 British Pounds a month. Alright, that’s the highest average salary for an Engineer in Denmark, but most immigrants and refugees do end up in the Copenhagen area. The lowest average salary is 34.000 kroner in Southern Jutland. Still an enormous leap in pay-grade.

So … let us say, just for the sake of argument, that our Iranian engineer, having learned how to speak Danish and having had his education validated at the University of Copenhagen (this latter part is a foregone thing. If he is educated from an internationally recognized university, his paperwork will be processed quite easily), gets a job with a large Engineering group. He looks forward to his first paycheck. Finally, finally, finally he can get a better place to live and start having a bit of fun again.

Imagine his horror as he then, after opening the letter from his employer, sees that the figure at the bottom line isn’t roughly 43.000 kroner, but rather 7.633 kroner. Barely more than he made before, but now he puts in a solid 37 hour workweek (if he has overtime he’d make slightly more money, of course).

This is what the government suggests. That Mr. Iranian Engineer and every other non-Dane getting a job in Denmark has to work for half the minimum salary for the first six months. In 2009 the lowest legal salary in Denmark was 103,15 kroner an hour. That would come to something like 15.000 kroner a month before tax and while yes, I’d work for that, I’d be desperarely looking for something else since at the moment, I actually get slightly MORE than that on unemployment benefits (I’d still take a job at that salary, just to get out of the unemployment system). However, people getting 103,15 kroner an hour are typically unskilled laborers in menial jobs. Not highly educated people with university degrees or similar.

But by the government’s suggestion, people who are not danish citizens getting a job in Denmark are to be paid thusly in the future for the first six months.

Even the ultranationalists are exploding in rage at the unfairness of this. I NEVER thought I’d see the day when they stand up and say that they won’t vote for a discriminatory suggestion on the BASIS of it being discriminatory. They have also pointed out, quite rightly, that employers will then simply employ foreigners on six month contracts in the future, making it even harder for people with a Danish citizenship to get a job than it already is. After all, if you were an employer and you could get a qualified workforce at one fourth or one sixth the usual price, wouldn’t you?

The government, however, is unrelenting and standing by their suggestion as a brilliant way of getting non-Danes into jobs.

Denmark has a general election next fall. No one -expects- an election before then … but by the Gods many of us are -hoping- for it.

And if any of you can get me a reasonable decent job abroad … let me know. Because I would NOT mind getting the hell out of this pseudo-fascist dump!