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NEWS

NASA salutes Niels Bohr Institute’s key role in analysing soil samples from Mars

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NEWS

Research reputation in shreds Another round of fraud allegations levelled at disgraced neuroscientist Milena Penkowa could damage country’s academic standing

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Big hair and dreams

SPORT

City’s bid to become a fashion capital could take a decade, warns leading designer A medal in the men’s handball will further improve Denmark’s best Olympic haul since 1948

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BUSINESS

Back to school!

As more companies outsource their production abroad, experts advise those remaining to retrain their workers

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Mamma Pia steps down as the leader of DF PETER STANNERS Kjærsgaard shows that breaking up can be easy, carefully choreographing her leadership exit from a party that has exerted an enormous influence over Danish politics, without ever joining a government

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IA KJÆRSGAARD announced on Tuesday night that she will step down as leader of the antiimmigration Dansk Folkeparti (DF) after 17 years at the helm.

In Kjærsgaard’s shock announcement – which was carefully choreographed after seven months of secret deliberation by the DF leader and her inner circle – she said she would encourage party members to vote in the MP Kristian Thulesen Dahl as leader at DF’s annual conference this September,

while she takes on a new role as ‘values spokesperson’.

Kjærsgaard said she would still stand in the next elections for the party, which she established in 1995 and led into parliament in 1998 with a quarter of a million votes.

DF quickly grew to become parliament’s third largest party (out of eight) by the time of its second general election in 2001. But despite its size, it never attempted to join a coalition government and instead opted to influence policy as outsiders.

This strategy proved extremely effective during the ten-year reign of the former centre-right coalition government whose legislation they supported in exchange for implementing stricter immigration laws.

DF was named in polls as the party that most Danes associate with ‘Danishness’, a concept that Kjærsgaard has sought to defend throughout her leader-

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ship through a tough anti-immigration dialogue.

Kjærsgaard has been quick to identify threats from abroad: whether it’s from Middle Eastern immigrants who refuse to integrate or travelling gangs of burglars from eastern Europe. To tackle these threats, DF influenced the government to tighten the requirements for Danes to marry foreigners from nonwestern countries and introduce shortlived border controls with Germany.

A polarising figure, she nevertheless commanded respect from her political opponents. The former PM and leader of the centre-right party Venstre, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, praised her impact on Danish politics.

“Not everyone predicted that Dansk Folkeparti would survive for long after Pia Kjærsgaard broke away from the Fremskridtsparti. But, as a result of Pia’s integrity, unfailing spirit and ceaseless effort, DF is now an unavoidable element

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in Danish politics. She has delivered an impressive chairmanship!”

Health minister Astrid Krag (Socialistiske Folkeparti) didn’t share Rasmussen’s views, however. ”I won’t miss Pia,” Krag wrote on Facebook. “She poisoned the immigration debate for ten years and pushed false politics in which she presented herself as the protector of the little man, while also granting enormous tax breaks to CEOs.” This morning’s Danish papers were filled with commentary pondering the future of the party in the hands of Dahl, an intellectual and respected politician who lacks Kjærsgaard’s common touch.

But even with a leadership change, DF’s influence is unlikely to change, as economy minister Margrethe Vestager summed up on Facebook.

“Pia K is leaving,” she wrote. “The views will remain the same. The debate about respect, openness and inclusion will continue.”

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Week in review

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

10 - 16 August 2012 Xinhua/Devapriyo Das

China girls

THE WEEK’S MOST READ STORIES AT CPHPOST.DK Man raped in city park At last! Gold for Denmark Copenhagen set to keep on growing Two women in custody for sex shop murder Sex shop murder was suicide police conclude

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

TEN YEARS AGO. Kvickly pulls children’s g-string underwear from shelves after barrage of protest from consumers.

FIVE YEARS AGO. Figures show more bicycles are stolen in Denmark than in any other EU country.

Young performers from Beijing performed a traditional ‘paper-cut’ dance at Frederiksberg Town Hall last week on Thursday as part of Chinese Culture Day, a new event co-organised by the Chinese Association in Denmark with supported from the Chinese Embassy

measuring over 4.0 that Denmark has experienced in the past five years. An earthquake measuring 4.7 shook Denmark in 2010 and an even stronger one measuring 4.8 struck back in 2008 – the strongest in Danish history. Every year a number of minor earthquakes hit Denmark, but most of them are too small to be felt.

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Additionally, our English language medium helps to bring Denmark’s top stories to a global audience.

In addition to publishing the only regularly printed English-language newspaper in the country, we provide up-to-date news on our website and deliver news to national and international organisations. The Copenhagen Post is also a leading provider of non-news services to the private and public sectors, offering writing, translation, editing, production and delivery services.

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Bright future

Olafur Eliasson, the Danish artist with Icelandic roots, has created an affordable solar-powered lamp aimed at replacing kerosene lamps in developing countries lacking electricity. The 45-year-old teamed up with engineer Frederik Ottesen to create the ‘Little Sun’ lamp, which only costs ten US dol-

President and Publisher Ejvind Sandal Chief Executive Jesper Nymark Editor-in-Chief Kevin McGwin Managing Editor Ben Hamilton News Editor Justin Cremer Journalists Peter Stanners, Ray Weaver & Christian Wenande

lars. Weighing only 120 grams, the lamps are expected to have a lifetime of three years while their users can expect to save 90 percent of what they would spend on refuelling lamps powered by kerosene gas. It is estimated that about 20 percent of Earth’s inhabitants live without electric lighting.

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Waqas Usman

Early on Monday morning at 04:57 an earthquake struck off the east coast of Jutland with an epicentre located just 21km from the Danish island of Anholt.

Measuring 4.4 on the Richter Scale, which is quite weak by international standards, the earthquake did not result in any casualties. It is the third earthquake

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Dawn shake

ONE YEAR AGO. Social affairs minister Benedikte Kjær claims that the nation’s daycare institutions are stuck in the ‘hippie era’ and calls for a system-wide revamp.

Peak performance

A joint Danish-Pakistani climbing expedition has successfully climbed the 5,290-metre peak of Malika Parbat, the highest mountain in the Hazara Division in Pakistan, which has only been scaled eight times before.

The five-day expedition to the ‘Queen of the Mountains’ was initiated by mountaineers Jens J

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Simonsen and Imran Junaidi to express the growing friendship between Denmark and Pakistan.

The peak was first scaled by Captain BW Battye and four Gurkha soldiers in 1920. Elsewhere in mountaineering, three Danes had to be airlifted off Mount McKinley in Alaska after being caught in an avalanche.

Layout and design Justin Cremer Aviaja Bebe Nielsen Logo by Rasmus Koch

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cover story

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

10 - 16 August 2012

Nasa

Jessica O’Sullivan

Copenhagen a fashion capital?

Maybe in another decade, says London-based designer Peter Jensen

Peter Stanners The Curiosity rover will beam data about the Martian terrain to a team of Danish scientists for analysis

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F

AShionistas get ready – the biannual Copenhagen Fashion Week is here again.

But while organisers are busy branding Copenhagen as ‘The city that breathes fashion – Scandinavia’s Fashion Capital’, it would appear the city still has a fair way to go until it can be considered one of the world’s leading fashion capitals.

Last year, Language Monitor’s annual ranking of fashion capitals put Copenhagen in a lowly 29th position, with the usual suspects, London, New York, Paris and Milan, taking the top spots respectively. Indeed the organisers’ claim that Copenhagen is Scandinavia’s fashion capital even appears to be loosely woven, with Stockholm scraping in above Copenhagen.

In spite of these damning figures, Copenhagen is playing to win. With 2,706 different brands represented in this August’s Fashion Week, it will in this respect become the second biggest trade show city in the world, second only to Paris.

And not willing to rest on its well positioned heels, it will have a record number of 50 catwalk shows from five different countries, as well as 14 designer shows from four different countries.

Danish Fashion Institute chief executive Eva Kruse believes it is these unique points that are bringing Copenhagen to the centre stage. “Our fashion week can achieve things that other fashion weeks can’t,” she explained to media. In combining the fair with shows, Kruse sees the Copenhagen Fashion Week as vastly different to those in London and Paris. “[They are] mostly built around shows.

Ours is both a fashion and marketing week,” she said.

But Kruse might be a little biased, so for a more balanced opinion on how Danish fashion is doing internationally, we caught up with one of its biggest overseas stars, the Danish-born, London-based Peter Jensen.

Originally hailing from Løgstor in northern Jutland, Jensen has been carving out an impressive international career since 1999.

His designs have been heralded time and time again by the international press as “cleverly conceived”, “technically brilliant” and “visually and conceptually captivating”.

The last time he spoke to The Copenhagen Post in 2005, Jensen expressed his contempt for Danish women’s approach to style. “Danish women dress like a jumble sale … they just don’t have a classical sense of style an-

Peter Jensen’s show is scheduled for Thursday 9 August

ymore,” he said. Not stopping there, he claimed Danish women looked like they thought “I’m having some children and that’s it.”

Looking to see whether the years have softened Jensen’s view on Danish fashion, we met with him to discuss his latest project and Danish fashion as a whole.

You certainly didn’t hold back in 2005 with your views on Danish women’s approach to fashion. Have your views softened over the years?

What I think I meant, and I still stand by, is that Denmark is a small country, and I think by being a small country it sometimes turns into what I call Legoland. That is something I’m a little bit against because I think that individualism, people being whatever they were meant to be, disappears a bit.

There’s always been a fair amount of criticism about Danish women dressing the same. What’s your take on it?

It’s that whole culture I think of not falling out of something that’s been agreed on, and that is how you’re looking. I think in Denmark there are rules.

Criticism aside, what do you think Danish fashion does well?

Danish companies have a very strong approach of being commercial. And they’re very price-orientated, and I think they know how to build a company. Basically, I think that is a strength.

Do you think that’s a Danish mentality or do you think it’s more a reflection of the time?

I think it’s probably both. What happened in that educational system, and I can say this because I went to [Central] Saint Martins [in London] and did my master’s and have taught there for the last ten years, is that it’s so different. Here I remember you had to have meetings about God knows everything, every bloody day. You had to have a meeting about this and this and everybody had to be happy – that is a Danish mentality.

Do you ever think you’ll come back to Denmark?

No I don’t. First of all, I’m married to an English man and I think my mentality now (I’ve been there for so long, 17 years) and my humour – the way that I run my business, the way that I sort of go about my whole life – is very English. I think I would very much feel frustrated if I came back to Denmark, and I can tell you again, it’s something to do with the rules: you have to be part of a union, if you have women in the company you have to have some kind of pregnancy payment, and so on.

You’re obviously more London and UK-orientated, but do you think you could say what direction Danish fashion is heading in?

That is really difficult for me because I feel very much like an outsider. I do think that they do good things and they do bad things as well.

fall and I think it worked really well, and I think it’s a sign of the times. It’s jackets, shirts, trousers, coats, knitwear, oversized satchel bags, ties and shirt holders.

Bad things … like what?

Why come and participate in a Danish fashion week?

Sometimes I think it would be very good for them to take a step back, look at what it is that they’re doing, what they’re actually sending out, and try to be a bit more critical. I’m not saying it to be a snob or anything like that, but that is just the way that it is at Staint Martins and having my company in England. It is something that you get all the time – be critical about your own work.

Despite being London-based, you are Danish, so do you incorporate any elements of Scandinavian design into your work?

Well I certainly think I can’t run away from being a Dane. I think that I do incorporate elements, and that it has some kind of simplicity for me: in what I do and what my work is. I grew up in the 1970s, and where I grew up, you had all the women doing knitting. You were always wearing home knitting and all that, and that I very much like and I’ve taken with me.

How would you describe your style?

I think the Americans have always called what I do ‘daywear’, and I like that. I think that what I do well in daywear, and what people have embraced, is the humour and quirkiness of it.

You have a new show at Copenhagen Fashion Week. What’s it about?

It’s a continuation of what we always do, and there are two muses because we’re showing men’s and women’s wear in this collection.

The two muses are Tippi Hedren and Mick Jagger. It’s a unisex collection. We did a unisex for pre-

Why did you decide to leave Denmark?

I studied at Denmark’s design school for three years and I found it too difficult being there. I wasn’t keen if I’m being quite honest. There was a rule about being embarrassed about being a fashion designer, there was a rule saying you couldn’t be proud of saying “Well I’ve come into this education because I actually like fashion, I actually like garments.” You had to do so many other things. I just had no idea what the hell I was doing, and it was such a disappointment for me.

We did a show here two years ago and then we got invited again this time. I said yes because I felt like: “I’m Danish, and I feel like I’ve had so much support” – I have to admit that. I think it’s nice to come and show your face here sometimes.

What do you think of Copenhagen Fashion Week? Does it compare well to other cities’ fashion weeks?

Well, I think it’s the little sister who’s trying to grow up, and I think it must be difficult because all the other ones have been around for so long and they’ve got such a long history that it wouldn’t surprise me if it takes at least ten years for somewhere like Copenhagen to catch up.

The fashion/clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries, and also harmful in how it has enforced a ‘buy and throw away mentality’. Copenhagen Fashion Week is trying to address this but is it something you care about?

Do I care about it - yes, but I can’t care about it so that it becomes a life-changing thing – I think that’s impossible for fashion. And I certainly think that it is, sorry Copenhagen, but a bit rich coming from a place where they are so focused on prices. I certainly don’t know how you can sell clothing at the price level that they do here and then still come out with things.

What do you think the next big thing in fashion will be?

Quality over quantity is coming back into fashion. Maybe don’t buy as much, but buy one good thing.

Stiene Badfogde. Photo by:Christine Dahlerup and Mathilde Hauch-Fausbøll

heers erupted when the Mars Curiosity rover landed without a hitch on Monday morning, though the joy was not restricted to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California.

Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute is collaborating with the American space agency to analyse the data sent back from the rover, which may lead to a better understanding of the origins and history of the Red Planet.

The rover took nine months to get to Mars and landed flawlessly in the 154 kilometre-wide Gale Crater, near the planet’s equator.

The area is significant as the crater has some of the oldest sediments on the planet, dating back more than 3.5 billion years to a time when water is thought to have flowed on the planet’s surface.

The secret to understanding the planet lies in its soil – it is still uncertain whether it is actually red. While the larger magnetic iron particles in the soil do have a red hue, it is the smaller dust particles that give the planet its colour.

“The environment is dry and there is lots of dust,” Kjartan Kinch, from the Niels Bohr Institute’s Mars Group, told Ingeniøren.

“We want to know how the dust was created and what it is made of. We know that it is magnetic, but we have so far not identified the minerals that make the planet red. “The dust and its origin is interesting because Mars bears many similarities with Earth. We could use it as a museum about how the Earth used to be before life arose.”

The rover, which weighs a tonne and is the size of a small car, can scoop up and analyse small samples of material using a range of onboard instruments.

Morten Bo Madsen, the head of the Niels Bohr Institute and a veteran NASA collaborator who is currently at the Jet Propulsion Lab where data from Curiosity is received and analysed, explained in a press release that Curiosity will make an initial analysis of promising soil by shooting the ground with a laser.

The Danish Mars group is comprised of seven researchers with different specialties, including a nano-geoscientist and experts in the study of organic molecules and minerals using x-ray diffractometry.

scanpix/ Camilla Rønde

Soil duties Big but nowhere near Milan, New York and Japan for NASA

Warming up backstage on Wednesday ahead start of the Fashion Week

news

The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk

10 - 16 August 2012

5

Peter stanners A panel of researchers claims to have found 15 irregularities in papers published by Milena Penkowa, who may now lose her PhD

scanpix/ Andreas Beck

Controversial neuroscientist faces fresh fraud allegations

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n independent panel of researchers claims to have uncovered fraud and malpractice in the research of Milena Penkowa, the controversial neuroscientist who was in 2010 given a three-month suspended sentence by Copenhagen City Court for forging documents and making unfounded allegations against her students.

The findings, which further vindicate the University of Copenhagen’s decision to suspend her in 2010, come after a yearlong investigation during which the panel claims to have found 15 instances of scientific malpractice in Penkowa’s 79 published articles. The malpractice includes missing data, irregularities in the number of recorded tests of animals, and the manipulation of photographs that illustrated the neuroscientist’s results.

“It is important to differentiate between unforeseen errors and deliberate falsifica-

Penkowa may lose her PhD if the malpractice committee confirms her results are as fake as her eyebrows

tions,” Hans Lassmann, a professor from Vienna University who headed the panel, wrote in a press release. “The panel of international researchers is in no doubt that there is justified suspicion of deliberate scientific malpractice in 15 of Penkowa’s articles. They are particularly from her early years as a researcher.”

The university is now passing on the panel’s findings to DCSD, the official committee for scientific malpractice, which is already processing several other claims of malpractice that have been filed against Penkowa.

Penkowa may lose her PhD and doctorate if DCSD establishes that articles written to support them contained falsi-

fied data.

Brain researcher Elisabeth Hock from the University of Copenhagen told Jyllands-Posten newspaper that the panel’s report demonstrates the lack of control and guidance given by the university to young researchers such as Penkowa. Hock also claims that the malpractice would have been discovered ear-

“It is in the interest of the lier if there were better guideentire research world to stay lines and protocols to follow.

“Fraud has taken place at transparent and avoid fraud,” the university,” Bock said. “This Dahl told Jyllands-Posten. “This case has been also happens at harmful to Danother top global ish research, and universities, and unless the Unimanagement canversity of Copennot always stop hagen assumes it. But they can No-one is perfect, responsibility and ensure that once a takes precautions suspicion of fraud not even me, and against future cashas been raised, it there is no doubt es like these, then is handled properother universities ly. The University that unforeseen need to place presof Copenhagen’s errors could have sure on the unileadership did not been committed versity.” in this case.”

Penkowa While she since I started would not compraised the panel’s ment, but did work, she won- working in a Jyllandsdered why Penlaboratory in 1993 direct Posten to a writkowa’s articles ten comment on were not also in- and for that I hjerneeksperten. vestigated for plaapologise deeply dk. giarism.

“No-one is “You cannot read this report and think that perfect, not even me, and there you have an insight into Pen- is no doubt that unforeseen erkowa’s malpractice. There may rors could have been committed since I started working in a yet be more to discover.”

A spokesperson for the So- laboratory in 1993 and for that cialistiske Folkeparti in the area I apologise deeply,” Penkowa of research, Jonas Dahl, also wrote. “‘Deliberate malpractice’ criticised the university’s han- is another matter and something dling of the case – especially as I have never done. I therefore research has been identified as do not think it is reasonable to an industry that will help sup- infer that my research has been port the Danish economy in the fraudulent as the press is doing these days.” future.

Peter Stanners Environmentalists are alarmed by a research expedition that hopes to expand Denmark’s claim to the Arctic sea floor and the lucrative oil deposits it may be hiding

A

n icebreaker is carrying researchers towards the North Pole to make measurements they hope will support Denmark’s claim to even more of the resource-rich Arctic seafloor.

Currently, the territory of the six nations bordering the Arctic Sea (Denmark, Canada, Russia, Norway, USA and Iceland) extends 200 nautical miles into the sea – an area which makes up their exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

But states can extend their rights over the sea floor to a distance of 350 nautical miles from their shore if they can demonstrate that their continental shelf extends beyond the 200nautical mile EEZ. This is what Danish researchers hope to prove, with the expedition onboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden, by gathering a range of detailed information about the seafloor north of Greenland.

Denmark has until 2014 to submit its claims for extending

its continental shelf, or ten years that we need to fill before we from its 2004 ratification of the submit our claim,” MarcusConvention on the Law of the sen told Berlingske newspaper.

Sea (UNCLOS) that outlined “We feel pretty sure that our the rights of states to extend argument is correct and that their seafloor territory, which Denmark can make the claim was drafted by the UN Com- outside the 200-nautical mile mission on the Limits of the limit.”

Denmark is not alone in atContinental Shelf (CLCS).

Denmark hopes to extend tempting to assert greater claim its seafloor claim out from the over the Arctic sea floor. Russia north of Greenland towards the has already made a claim to the North Pole along the submersed CLCS arguing that the LomonLomonosov Ridge. As the name osov ridge is an extension of its of the expedition (LOMROG own continental shelf. Norway III) suggests, it is the third time and Canada have also made that Danish researchers have claims, while the US has yet to headed towards the ridge aboard ratify UNCLOS. LOMROG III is part of the Oden to gather detailed data and to ascertain whether it can 340 million kroner state-funded be argued that it constitutes an Continental Shelf Project that extension of Greenland’s conti- has identified a further four areas where Denmark could extend nental shelf.

Gathering the data is no easy its sea floor rights out from the task, however, and breaking ice continental shelves of Greenthat can be several metres thick land and the Faroe Islands. Oil presents both technical and eco- explorations are already underway in Greennomic challenges land’s waters and – at full steam the it is thought that icebreaker can use large undiscovered 250,000 kroner of deposits of oil fuel a day.

C h r i s t i a n We have holes in our and gas could be found elsewhere Marcussen, the data that we need beneath the Archead of the Dantic sea floor – and ish national geo- to fill before we the more seafloor logical institute, submit our claim there is to explore, GEUS, who is the greater the leading the expedition, is confident about the chance of finding a commercially viable deposit. outcome of the research.

But not everyone is pleased “We have holes in our data

Larry Larsson, U.S. Navy Photo

Arctic expedition to prove territory claim

Researchers aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden hope to demonstrate that Greenland’s continental shelf extends further into the Arctic Sea

with the attempts by Arctic nations to seek out underground riches. Greenpeace is especially distressed by oil activities in the Arctic and has already launched aggressive and disruptive actions against oil rigs in Greenland’s waters to draw attention to the issue.

Oil companies have already been chastised for releasing chemicals into Arctic waters that are rich in marine life. According to Jon Burgwald from Greenpeace, the area surrounding the North Pole should re-

main in the hands of the international community instead of an oil exploration site.

“If Denmark has a claim to the North Pole, they must use it to place pressure on the other Arctic countries to seek a common solution in which the area around the North Pole will continue to belong to everyone as an unspoiled area of natural beauty for the whole world,” Burgwald wrote in a press release.

Denmark remains conflicted about the Arctic. Despite heavily endorsing renewable energy

and carbon reduction during its recent stint as EU president, its budget is heavily dependent on the billions of kroner in revenue derived from taxes on North Sea oil.

So while it promotes itself as a country that is turning its back on fossil fuels, the question is whether Denmark would still capitalise on a major oil discovery in the Arctic that would be a boon to the state’s purse and replace the revenue that will be lost after its North Sea oil dries up.

6

SPORTS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

10 - 16 August 2012

Another London Olympics to savour, worthy of the class of ‘48 SCANPIX/ SØREN BIDSTRUP

CHRISTIAN WENANDE The Danish team will return from Britain with their best medal haul for 64 years

S

HORTLY BEFORE going to press, Denmark secured its ninth medal of London 2012, its most successful Olympics since 1948, the last time the Games were in London. And the men’s handball team is a prime candidate to add a tenth.

They haven’t played at their best, scraping by Spain, Hungary, South Korea and Serbia, before being resoundingly spanked by Croatia, but the reigning European champions only need to beat Sweden in the quarterfinals on Wednesday evening to make the medal rounds.

To win that game and take a medal, the Danes will have to up their game

Denmark started off slow but had Hungary’s number in the end, prevailing 27-25 in the final minutes

significantly if they want to live up to pre-tournament expectations. A shaky defence and an overreliance on Mikkel Hansen to score their goals have contributed to a rather predictable gameplan that their opponents have so far benefited from. This was all too evident

in the tanning of a lifetime they received from the Croats, and the comefrom-behind victory they eked out against unfancied South Korea, which both exposed deep-rooted problems.

Sweden won’t be a picnic in the quarter-finals either, a game they must

win if they hope to medal, but they did qualify from the ‘difficult’ Group B after all.

Denmark initially complained about being seeded so low and placed in the toughest group even though they were European champions and had finished runners-up at the World Championship. Nevertheless, an easier knockout stage draw won’t see them progress unless they improve their game.

“Now we avoid France and Croatia, which I think are the best two nations, and which is a clear advantage,” the Danish goalkeeper Niklas Landin told Sporten.dk. “But if we keep playing the way we have so far, then we won’t beat Sweden, Hungary or Iceland. We need to up our game, but I know we are able to do that.”

And coach Ulrik Wilbek is pleased with meeting Sweden in the quarters, as well as a potential battle with Hungary in the semis, which he says is a perfect road to the final.

“We won’t complain to IOC or IHF over the opponents we will be meeting,” Wilbek told Sporten.dk. “It’s a perfect set-up, and if we can’t beat Sweden and Iceland, then we don’t deserve a medal. It’s set up nicely.”

A handball medal for the Danes will give it ten. Its current nine-medal haul surpasses the total of eight that it achieved in 2004 and 1968.

This year’s Olympics have already lived up to expectations. It predicted seven medals six months ago and with nine, as of Wednesday, they have outperformed both Sweden (seven) and Norway (three) – much to their neighbours’ consternation. Denmark sits 22nd in the medal rankings and rank even better in terms of medals per capita, where they are in the top five along with New Zealand, Jamaica, Slovenia and Grenada.

And there is plenty of evidence that suggests another solid medal haul in Rio in 2016. While several of the medallists are still very young – Lasse Norman Hansen, who brought home the gold in the ominium cycling, is only 20 – there’s plenty of young talent out there too. Badminton star Victor Axelsen is 18 and swimmer Mie Ø Nielsen, who won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Junior European Championships last year, is just 15.

But while Rio could be a great place for Danish Olympians in four year’s time, there’s still no place like London.

Medal winners

Fie Udby Erichsen took LASSE NORMAN HANSEN

DESPITE CRASHING and racing bloodied and scraped, the 20-year-old from Funen won gold after a dramatic finale of the men’s omnium in cycling, a sixpart indoor cycling dicipline that climaxed in the Velodrome on Sunday evening.

In a race that is about gaining the least amount of points, Hansen’s 27 was just ahead of the 29 scored by Frenchman Bryan Coquard and the 31 by Edward Clancy of Great Britain.

Hansen finished fourth in the flying lap 250 metre time trial, second in the 30 km points race, 12th in the elimination race, first in the 40 km individual pursuit, sixth in the 15 km scratch race and second in the 1 km time trial to finish top of the overall standings.

MADS RASMUSSEN AND RASMUS QUIST

THE DANISH rowers won Denmark’s first gold medal of the 2012 London Olympics on Saturday.

They overhauled Britain’s Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter in the final 100 metres to win the lightweight men’s double sculls gold.

The 2008 bronze medallists trailed by a second at the 1,500-metre mark, but finished fastest over the last 500 to win ahead of the defending Olympic champions.

It was a dramatic end to a race that had started somewhat controversially when the British pair successfully called for a restart after their equipment malfunctioned in the first 100 metres.

silver in the women’s sculls on Saturday after powering her way to a second place finish behind Czech rower Mirroslava Knapkova who dominated the final. It was a stunning result for the 27-year-old Olympic debutant, whose goal was just to make the final and was not among the Danes predicted to medal at London 2012.

Anders Golding, a young

carpenter from northern Jutland, last week brought home Denmark’s first medal by finishing second in the skeet shooting. Golding only missed one target in the final round, thereby maintaining his silver placing behind American winner Vincent Hancock. His final score would have won gold in 2008.

Carsten Mogensen and Mathias Broe had sensa-

tionally beaten the world number one South Korean pair in the semi-finals of the men’s badminton doubles, but couldn’t keep it up against the Chinese number one seeds, Yun Cai and Haifend Fu, in the final, losing in straight sets 16-21, 15-21.

Jonas Høgh-Christensen

took silver in the Finn sailing class on Sunday, but will have felt like he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as he had led the race since day one, starting two points behind in the race, British sailing legend Ben Ainslie made up the deficit to take gold.

Christinna Pedersen and Joachim Fischer Women’s badminton mixed doubles ‘Guld firen’ (Eskild Ebbesen, Jacob Barsøe, Morten Jørgensen and Kasper Jørgensen) Men’s rowing lightweight fours Allan Nørregaard and Peter Lang Men’s 49er sailing class

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NEWS

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

10 - 16 August 2012

FRANCISCO PEREZ After two weeks of toil and sweat, Team Farrell reached the final destination of their charity cycling tour of Europe on Wednesday, receiving a hero’s welcome in their home town of Warrington

Brigitte is still seeing double, apparently

Danish dames in trouble abroad LINN LEMHAG

T

HE BACON has been brought home! The Farrell family, led by their cycling captain Nathaniel ‘Tan’ Farrell, arrived in their hometown of Warrington on Wednesday after completing the final leg of their 1,500 km cycling tour of Europe, branded ‘Bringing Home the Bacon’.

The team’s initial motivation was to raise £10,000 (93,700kr) for a British charity fighting epilepsy as a way of honouring the memory of Felicity ‘Fliss’ Farrell, Tan’s younger sister who died of an epileptic seizure aged just 15 in 2008.

But the distance was not the only challenge the family faced.

A major concern ahead of the tour had been how they would be able to bear with each other for two weeks, non-stop?

“We have all become a bit closer,” revealed Sebastian Farrell, Tan’s younger brother. “Of course there have been days when we’ve had problems and arguments, but all in all, we have

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/LINKOBAN

COLOURBOX

Team Farrell streaks home to bring home the bacon

7

Two female celebrities have been causing a stir on respective continents this week

The tour went through Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Britain

bonded through this experience.”

The entire family took an active part in the adventure.

Tan’s father Kevin, his girlfriend Regitze and Sebastian all cycled along, covering several hundred miles to support their leader. They also formed a resilient support crew, along with Tan’s youngest brother Alex, and Kevin’s girlfriend Marion, guiding Tan through unknown, foreign roads; helping him with repairs; and feeding and encouraging him along the way.

This tale is also one of a man’s resilience and colossal effort. Tan Farrell cycled over 1,500 km, riding through no less than six countries. He suf-

fered the scorching heat in Denmark and Germany, pulled through the relentless winds in Holland and Belgium, survived the crowded seaside cycling paths in northern France, and overcame the cycling-unfriendly roads and steep climbs of the English countryside.

He impressed his entire family, whose pride grew stronger with each turn of Tan’s pedals.

Sebastian, the main writer of the group’s blog, went as far as to promise he would take “a course in English literature” to convey his admiration for his older brother.

As their adventure draws to a close, the group can contemplate the scale of their success. Their

appeal for donations was effective: they managed to raise over £6,000(56,000kr) and are expecting further contributions in their hometown. This will surely help them fulfil their wish to make sure no family has to experience what they went through when Felicity passed away.

Now, the exhausted and homesick Team Farrell can enjoy some hard-fought rest and celebrate their reunion with friends and family. There’s no doubt that in the coming days they, along with the rest of Britain, will join in celebrating the Olympic spirit of which, one can argue, they have been the modest but tireless bearers throughout their journey.

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T

WO DASTARDLY Danish dames have misbehaved this week, causing varying levels of offense. One has only let herself down, the another has managed to upset 1.35 billion people.

Linkoban, a Danish rapper of Chinese origin who goes under the name of Ling Ly in China, defied the country to play several songs blacklisted by its ministry of culture.

Linkoban had been invited to play at InMusic – China’s answer to Woodstock, which is held every year in Hebei in the last week in July. But she withdrew after most of her songs were put on a blacklist.

“We sent five songs with lyrics to the Chinese Ministry of Culture,” Linkoban’s manager, Kettil Myrstrand, told the me-

dia. “Only one out of five songs was approved by the ministry, with no further explanation.”

Instead Linkoban ended up performing at two nightclubs in Beijing. Needless to say, the Chinese state was not amused.

Not to be outdone, Brigitte Nielsen has once again been making headlines for all the wrong reasons after passing out in an LA park on Saturday.

The 49-year-old professional reality TV star was seen drinking out of a Popov Vodka bottle and chain-smoking before what appeared to be vomiting behind a bench. She then used mouthwash before exiting the park through a bush.

Nielsen – who rose to fame through her marriage and subsequent divorce to Sylvester Stallone in the 1980s – first entered rehab in 2007, and has since spoken out about the damaging effect her alcoholism has had on her life, saying it is something she “lives with every day”.

Provided, of course, she can remember the day in question, that is.

8 BUSINESS Retraining of workers only way out for manufacturing THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

As more and more Danish companies outsource production, experts advise high-tech manufacturing companies to stay put

COLOURBOX

FRANCISCO PEREZ

10 - 16 August 2012

L

AST WEEK, the Danish furniture design company, Fritz Hansen, announced that it would be moving its production out of the country.

Its decision, particularly, to outsource its production to Poland, prompted a passionate response from within the media and has led to a nationwide debate about the viability of the Danish industrial model and labour market.

Breaking the news, liberal business daily Børsen was sympathetic to the complaints of Fritz Hansen CEO Jacob Holm, who lambasted high Danish salaries and taxes. But Politiken newspaper branded Børsen’s idea a “losing strategy” and instead advocated better training for Danish workers as a way to help them clinch highly-skilled positions and to allow the Danish manufacturing industry to specialise in high-quality products.

Deindustrialisation is a European-wide phenomenon that decimated the Danish shipbuilding industry, while also levelling the furniture manufacturing sector, which employed 23,000 workers in 1993, compared to 11,000 today.

“The new trend is that typically Danish brand names are leaving the country,” Kim Sundtoft Hald, an associate professor at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), said. “Before, these companies thought it could hurt their brands to be

The future Danish manufacturing worker will need further training and skills

produced outside of Denmark.”

And Denmark cannot compete with salaries in eastern European. According to 2010 Eurostat figures, the average annual salary for full-time Danish employees was 437,893 kroner before tax, which was the highest in Europe. In the same year, the average annual Polish salary amounted to a seventh of that figure: 70,216 kroner.

“We can never go back to competing with other countries in labour-intensive businesses,” Hald said.

The situation is not all doom and gloom, however. The Danish manufacturing industry is also managing to attract jobs to the country.

According to a 2006 paper by the Institute for International Economics, between 2002 and 2005, 30 percent of

Danish companies created jobs in Denmark while 23 percent of Danish companies had moved part of their production chain abroad.

Most of the outsourced po-

If we do not keep some of the manufacturing, we will also lose the research and development sitions were in the manufacturing sector, while the majority of the created jobs were highlyskilled research and development positions. But according to the paper’s co-author, Nico-

BUSINESS NEWS AND BRIEFS Profits for Danske Bank

Vestas trumps Donald

Maersk makes Mexico move

DANSKE BANK has presented its best financial result since the start of the financial crisis, posting a pre-tax profit of 4.1 billion kroner for the first half of 2012, a 20 percent improvement on 2011. Nevertheless, the bank will be closing between 65 and 70 outlets in Denmark, according to its chief executive Eivind Kolding.

WIND TURBINE producer Vestas has signed up for Vattenfall’s new offshore wind development testing facility in Scotland.

The Danish company has signed an agreement concerning one of its 7MW V164 turbines for the project in Aberdeen, much to the consternation of Donald Trump, who says it ruins the view from his golf course.

MAERSK’S terminal operations units, APM Terminals, has agreed to construct a new container terminal in the Lazaro Cardenas Harbour, the largest seaport in Mexico. The deal will run for 32 years and involves an investment of 900 million dollars. The deal follows the acquisition of the shipping operator 3PSC, which is based in Cape Canaveral in Florida.

lai Søndergaard Laugesen, these activities are interdependent.

“If we do not keep some of the manufacturing, we will also lose the research and development,” he said. According to Laugesen, the trick to keeping jobs in Denmark will be further integrating manufacturing and research. He particularly advises the use of so-called ‘rapid

manufacturing techniques’, which are a series of industrial strategies that enable companies to quickly move from the first sketch on a piece of paper to the final product through the use of prototyping technologies such as computer-aided design or 3D printing.

Hanne Shaprio from the Danish Technological Institute

explained that major Danish companies have already integrated these mechanisms in their production chain. Big businesses such as Lego, or the medical equipment designer and manufacturer Coloplast, have accelerated their production cycles, producing prototypes faster and outsmarting competitors through innovation.

Shapiro acknowledges, however, that Danish manufacturing may run into problems as it is mostly composed of small and medium-sized enterprises that, unlike Coloplast or Lego, will struggle to gain access to these technologies.

The requirements of rapid manufacturing are also likely to put a strain on the Danish state.

Their intensive use of technology will require future manufacturing workers to be more skilled than their predecessors in the production chain, which in turn places pressure on universities and colleges to train sufficient numbers of workers to fill the roles.

While universities struggle to provide training for everyone who wants it, it is still hoped that improving the training of manufacturing workers may just save the sector, which in 2010 accounted for 45 percent of Danish exports and employed 350,000 people.

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Date: 8 August 2012

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COPENHAGEN

EXPAT FAIR

27 AuGust 2012

at Copenhagen City Hall 3:30–6:00pm

live PeRfoRmanCeS danCe, kaRate & moRe

JOiN us 27 AuGust Copenhagen is a vibrant center of cultural events and experiences with a broad range of music, art and sport activities to choose from.

Joining a club or any leisure activity is often the basis of a rich social life in Copenhagen, and provides excellent opportunities for meeting both Danes and fellow expats.

Copenhagen Expat Fair gives you the chance to talk to a wide range of clubs and associations from the Greater Copenhagen Area.

Pia Allerslev, Copenhagen’s Mayor of Culture and Leisure, will make an official welcome speech at 4pm. After the welcome speech, the world famous “City Hall Pancakes” will be served.

Throughout the fair you will be able to enjoy entertainment such as dance shows, kids and adults performing, and clubs demonstrating the activities they offer. We hope you will be inspired!

Please enter through the main entrance facing Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square) Register at: http://www.kk.dk/cphinternational

We look forward to seeing you!

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Organized by:

10 ABOUT TOWN

THE COPENHAGEN POST CPHPOST.DK

10 - 16 August 2012

ABOUT TOWN PHOTOS BY HASSE FERROLD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

A deuce fine effort! Wimbledon doubles champion Frederik Løchte Nielsen attended a special event at Kongens Have to explain the secret of his success. Former player Kenneth Carlsen was present, painfully taking notes

Miaow! The felines from Frederiksberg came out for the premiere of the new Batman film, pictured here with naughty socialite Rigmor Zobel

Holy moly, the Mongolians last month gathered at the HC Andersen statue outside City Hall to give an impromptu performance in national costume. Apparently the splits is a stand-alone subject at the Inner Mongolia University

Pearl Jam fans got a treat when the rock band’s lead guitarist Stone Carpenter Gossard (left) took to the streets ahead of a concert last month at Forum

Former prime minister Anker Jørgensen (1972-73 and 1975-82) celebrated his 90th birthday in mid-July. Here he is receiving the congratulations of Henrik Sass Larsen

Vietnam’s new ambassador is Lai Ngoc Doan. Chào!

Swiss ambassador Viktor Christen (left), pictured here with Mexican ambassador Martha Bárcena, has left these shores. Adieu/ Auf Wiedersehen/Ciao/Cumià!

Kickass! The Asian Street Party in late July didn’t disappoint as hundreds descended on to Studiestræde for tastings, live music and demonstrations

The jewel in the crown of the English Speaking Union’s summer was a gathering hosted

by Indian ambassador Ashok Kumar Attri. Pictured here (left-right) are the ambassador’s wife, Usha Attri, the ESU chair Claire Clausen, the ambassador, and ESU member Clarice Scott, the chief executive officer of the American Women’s Club

Ooh la, la! The berets were out in force for Bastille Day last month

Egyptian ambassador Nabil Habashi (left) marked his country’s national day with a fine reception in mid-July

Alto this world was the verdict of the Opera Festival, which concluded last week on Friday. Pictured here are (left-right) festival organiser Anders Beyer, dancer Ana Raquel Marques, Argentine ambassador Raúl Alberto Ricardes (well, it was tango!) and countryman Victor Diaz, another dancer

Moroccan ambassador Raja Ghannam (left) welcomes her Serbian counterpart Vida Ognjenovic (right) to a celebration to mark the anniversary of the accession of her country’s king in late July

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