A Good Laugh

Europeans must be getting a good laugh these days. The restrictive Danish immigration policy has come to the end of the road with the revelations of how the Danish ministry of immigration has handled applications for family reunion.
According to Danish law applicants for family reunion in Denmark must be 24 or older, and they must have a primary attachment to Denmark. The result has been that hundreds of young couples have settled acroos the bridge in Malmoe Sweden.
Now it has turned out that some of the applicants have cited European law of the common labour market as a reason for permission to stay in Denmark, but this has been turned down by the ministry, in blatant violation of European law. If people have been working for at least two weeks in another EU country they're entitled to stay in Denmark. People have not been informed of these rights, even if they have asked the ministry. The minister in charge, Birte Hornbech, is not available for comments. Nor is the prime minister, Mr. Fogh Rasmussen, who is having summer holiday in Southern France. He refuses to come home for such minor details as families with children being broken up, when husbands or wives are expelled from Denmark.
The restrictive immigration policy gets backing from all the "responsible" political parties in the Danish parliament. It's a malaise at the heart of the political system. Danish jurists are trying to find a way out. But actually Denmark must come to terms with the stark choice: Does it want to stay in the EU, or does it want to maintain a xenophobic, anti-humanitarian immigration policy?

(The picture is an election poster from one of the most "responsible" of the political parties. The text: When she retires, there'll be a muslim majority in Denmark. Instead they could ask the question: When she retires, what kind of society will she be living in?)

It is DF who Crossed a Line, not Jørgen Poulsen

It is typical of the debate in Denmark that Jørgen Poulsen's likening of the DF poster campaign against the Danish muslims to the Ewige Jude campaign in Germany in 1937 has created such an uproar. Politicians from the governing liberal party have condemned what he said.

Why did they do that? These politicians evidently have a problem. They cooperate with a party with such leanings. The DF leader is the second most powerful politician in Denmark! They dare not speak against her.

Jørgen Poulsen made his remarks at the national convention of New Alliance, the smallest center party in the Danish Parliament. This party has been a critic of the Danish People's Party, and what they stand for. But in this case the leader of the party Naser Khader has said that Mr. Poulsen has gone too far. He would not put it that way himself.

Actually, when you look at the pictures and the surroundings in which the muslim symbols are set, there's a lot of similarity to what the German nazis did with the "Eternal Jew". He was associated with money, Rothschild, finance capitalism, maltreatment of animals, etc. Very few muslims in Denmark would be able to recognize what they stand for in DF's images of them. They are in favour of the Danish rule of law, not Allah's. However, the effect of the campaign might be that they turn away from Danish values. You can see a lot of young muslims doing that. The DF is inciting to ethnic hatred in Danish society. Wasn't that what the nazis did in Germany against the Jews?

In these posters, the muslims in Denmark are associated with submission of women, sharia legislation, dictatorship, curbs on freedom of speech and other principles cherished by the Danes.

It's a small minority of muslims in Denmark who are in favour of sharia. The Danish Court administration has said in very unequivocal terms that it would never allow any judge to make verdicts on the basis of any other legislation than the Danish penal code. Such a judge would be dismissed immediately.

Why don't Danes support Jørgen Poulsen instead of turning away from him?

DF crosses a Line

The Danish People's Party (DF) has crossed a line for what ought to be permissible; but not in Denmark! It is still part of the parliamentary majority of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, head of the liberal-conservative government in Denmark.

The Danish court administration has made a rule about head scarves in Danish courts. They should be allowed, even though there's not a single muslim judge. - At this moment, but they may come. Therefor the government is overruling the court administration's judgment by passing a law - with the support of the DF - prohibiting head scarves in Court.

What is so devilish in the DF advertising campaign is the fact that the court administration did not allow burqas.

Here we see a woman in a burqa and with a judge's gavel. Passing sentence on whom? The ordinary Dane perhaps? The man in the street?

"The Court therefore finds". Below the picture is the headline Submission (underkastelse). Who is going to submit? - submitted to whom? It's a devilish message! It makes you think of the 1930s.
Under the DF logo at the bottom: Give Denmark back to us. The muslim is supposedly stealing the country, or has stolen it.

A few days ago the top DF politician and chairman of the financial Committee in the Danish parliament Mr Thulesen Dahl admitted that the party is "anti-muslim". The following afternoon he retracted the word. The party is supposedly "anti-islamic".

Danish Torchbearers' Hypocrisy

The Danes have fought a new battle for freedom of expression. 13 Danish newspapers have - in herculean bravery, or so they seem to think - reprinted the cartoon showing Mohammed with dynamite in his turban. Why have they done that? "In these days we're all Jyllandsposten", they say. All equally foolish and limited in outlook.
Do they really think they can entertain their readers with these amateurish lines on a sheet of paper?
The whole Danish society is now dancing to the tune of Pia Kjaersgaard.
It does so to the extent that they violate the principles of a society based on the rule of law that it otherwise cherishes. Two young Tunesians charged with plotting to kill Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist, do not get normal legal rights when they're expelled from the country. They have their families in Denmark. They have lived in the country for years. They must leave it by administrative order.

Freedom of expression does not seem to apply to muslims. Two days ago a young man of 17 was arrested in the Danish town of Kalundborg for expressing the view that the events might lead to more protests in the streets. There was no freedom of expression for him.

Revival of Danish golden age

A rare specimen of - not only Danish poster art, when it is at its best, but of the Danish golden age. They know the noble art of not only drawing so that you can see what it's supposed to look like, but to make a representation of what is most precious to Danes: Their freedom of speech.

The Danish constitution may - admittedly - be a very old document, but there's one thing it is not doubtful about, and that is freedom of expression. "Ytringsfrihed" in Danish - a most valuable principle that the Danes are ready to die for.

On the other hand, censorship is not Danish. The Danes love being criticised, - when only the dialogue is constructive. Danes do not like unconstructive dialogue.

"We stand firmly on Danish values" - and we do not do it got get votes in an election. That way of thinking may apply to others, not the crusaders for freedom of speech. Because, after all, it is a crusade, a crusade we intend to win.

Revival of Danish poster art

A Danish election poster that tells the Danish people about the bright prospects, the happiness, a new government may bring. The long arm of the state, in the shape of a female hand, donates homes to the huddled masses. They no longer have to walk the streets of Copenhagen, unable to afford lousy bed/sit apartments at 2million kroners a piece. They'll just move into the ultimate Danish dream house - red-brick luxury in a sleepy suburb.

The voters are told that "the Social Democrats will do anything to get power" so the common man's habitat problems will be solved.

Don't believe that nonsense. Houses are God-sent from Heaven. The Manicured Gucchi-hand will see to that. And we shall not allow huddled masses to go hungry to bed. We know, because we depend on them. Who else would inhabit the royal corridors of Christian's Castle.

Will you play monopoly with Helle? Or will you give Helle the monopoly of power - let the red menace infiltrate the body politic of the sweet Danish electorate?

The Dane's home is his castle - a place for monopoly or the growing of bright flowers. Danish values are giving shelter from the pellets of storm from beyond the borders. We remain committed to Danish values. It's your country - and by that we mean it's literally yours. You own it. And you own the red bricks as well - you may even eat them. That we've also seen to. And we've seen to lots of other things too.

Danish Poster Art

The Danes are known as a hospitable people. Some years ago the tourist authority of Copenhagen made a campaign called "Meet the Danes". Tourists got the enviable chance of being invited into quite normal homes of quite normal Danes. What an experience that must have been.... - Eating brown gravy, pork and well-boiled white potatoes. Looking at photos of holidays in the camper with aunt Alma and uncle Fred.

Now Danish hospitality is being extended to new people coming to Denmark. Look at the lady in the picture. The tourist authority of Copenhagen has been kind enough to put an ATM at her disposal, so she can draw her social security money that other althruistic Danes willingly have paid to her in taxes.

No wonder that the poster talks of "genuine welfare". Where would we be without it?

The Danes know full well that they themselves go in large crowds to foreign places. And just as they want to be well-comed, the wellcome must be extended to foreigners coming to visit Denmark. After all, it's your country - your choice.