Last Week in Denmark (16.07 - 23.07) Episode 27 Year 3
Brown-skin Danes; SOSU schools abroad; Savings for elderly care
Editor HQ
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Danish Politics HQ
Danish Citizenship, Integration and Immigration Laws
Proposal to establish a SOSU school in the Philippines: According to one of the mayors of Copenhagen (the liberal Jens-Kristian Lütken) (N.B., Copenhagen has one lord mayor and six mayors), Denmark will experience an extreme shortage of social and healthcare assistants (SOSUs) in the following years. Therefore, he proposed for a SOSU school to be established in the Philippines, where students would follow the same level of training as in Denmark and be taught Danish.
The idea is not new, as it was previously proposed by Moderaterne. They also suggested India as an option. The education would be paid for by Denmark, following Danish standards, and include Danish as part of the education. The best graduates will get work placements in Denmark.
The stone-age girl from Lolland challenges right-wing misconceptions: There seems to be a strong belief that Scandinavians have always had light skin among certain people in Denmark. Unfortunately for them, science proves that once upon a time, Scandinavians had darker skin, as you can see in the recreated picture by Lolland-Falster Museum.
The picture has caused waves in Danish society, as many people have had angry reactions on social media channels.
There have been a lot of positive reactions from Danish people with darker skin, as their daughters were able to mirror themselves in “Lola”, the stone age girl.
Law proposals and ideas
Savings for elderly care: If the current development continues, in the future there will be more retired people than the working population. This means that Denmark will have difficulties covering pensions and elderly care costs. This scenario is a real crisis that most European countries will have to face in the near future.
Over the last couple of years, different ideas on how to deal with this crisis have been presented. The latest one comes from a social democratic politician who proposed a personal savings account for elderly care, just like we do with our private pensions. So, basically, gather the money you need for old age care while you are still working.
As you can imagine, this idea has caused outrage in Denmark. People are concerned that in this way, some people will be able to afford better elderly care than others, due to differences in income.
Ban polygamy in Denmark’s religious communities: Legally speaking, you can only marry one person at a time. However, due to a loophole in the legislation, men within religious communities are getting multiple wives. The social democrats want to end this practice. Why? Religious laws should not be above country laws, and polygamy is illegal in Denmark.
The social democrats are motivating their proposal based on several conversations with women who got trapped in “religious marriages” and suffered because of them.
The political arena
Ban other nations flags in Denmark: We barely had a ruling from the Supreme Court that allowed the flying of any nation’s flag in Denmark. As you can imagine, this didn’t sit well with some of the conservative and right-wing parties. Now, they have started a campaign to gather support to ban other nations' flags in Denmark. So far, DF (social nationalists) and Konservative (conservatives) are behind the proposal.
The government doesn’t want to take a stance at the moment.
The verdict from the Supreme Court says that a ban on other nations' flags is an infringement on freedom of expression.
Danish Economy HQ
The job market is cooling off: After breaking record after record of the number of people employed in the last two years, the job market has started to cool off. In June, we had the lowest number of jobs advertised since January 2021. 26.627 jobs to be more precise. 3500 less than in May 2023. The number of jobs advertised has been declining since February 2023.
According to a leading economist, the Danish economy is slowing down, but it shouldn’t be a concern for job seekers. The number of jobs advertised still looks very good, despite all the latest crises.
Extreme weather conditions can turn Denmark into a vacation paradise: Tourism experts say that the very high temperatures in Southern Europe are pushing tourists to cooler places like Denmark. In 2019, Denmark had 29.488 tourists from Spain, while in 2023 (and the year is not over), the number increased to 103.280. This represents a huge economic opportunity for Denmark.
Business tip? As the number of tourists will significantly increase every year, this represents an opportunity for the hospitality industry. There will be space for more places where you can eat, sleep, and have fun.
A cold 2023 winter can trigger another gas crisis: According to the International Energy Agency, a cold winter combined with a full stop of Russian gas supplies in October 2023 can trigger another gas crisis. However, the European gas reserves are almost full, and the dependency on Russia has been lowered to just 10% (from 83% before), so even if the prices go up, they will not go as high as last time.
The average price for gas per megawatt-hour is 200 DKK today. During the energy crisis in 2022, it was 1619 DKK. Analysts predict that a potential crisis this winter will raise the price to a maximum of 745 DKK.
The banks are making good money from higher interest rates: According to the Consumer Council, the competition between banks (the free market) is not working as there seems to be no effect on lowering the interest rates for bank loans or having higher interest rates for savings accounts. Why? It is difficult for the consumer to compare the prices offered by the banks. The Consumer Council is asking the government to intervene and make bank prices transparent and easy to compare so that banks will be incentivized to give better deals to customers.
Daily Life in Denmark HQ
Public transport is losing to the private car: While more people in Denmark are buying cars, fewer are choosing to use the bus and train. On average, the public transport companies have 20% fewer customers compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019. At the same time, 224.000 cars have joined the Danish car fleet since 2019. (There are over 2.8 million cars on Denmark’s roads).
What are the most popular names for children in your region?
Copenhagen: Frida, Ellen, Nora, Karla, Luna (girls) Carl, Otto, Aksel, August, Noah (boys)
Capital Region: Lilly, Sofia, Olivia, Freja, Luna (girls) William, Noah, Elias, Lucas, Muhammad (boys)
Nordsjaelland: Luna, Alma, Ella, Lilly, Olivia (girls) William, Malthe, Aksel, Noah, Alfred (boys)
Bornholm: Ella, Luna (girls) Carl, Erik, Malthe, Viggo (boys)
Fyn: Ella, Ida, Agnes, Alberte, Frida (girls) William, Alfred, Malthe, Carl, Valdemar (boys)
Sydjylland: Freja, Ida, Emma, Clara, Ella (girls) Emil, Malthe, Lauge, Valdemar, Noah (boys)
Ostjylland: Nora, Ella, Frida, Ida, Agnes (girls) William, Oscar, Emil, Aksel, Carl (boys)
Vestjylland: Agnes, Ella, Emma, Alberte, Frida (girls) William, Malthe, Oliver, Oscar, Valdemar (boys)
Nordjylland: Frida, Freja, Alma, Agnes, Emma (girls) William, Malthe, Valdemar, Lucas, Oscar (boys)
Healthcare
Monitoring wastewater is an effective tool to detect infection: Statens Serum Institute is planning to expand the efforts to monitor wastewater for various infectious diseases, after using it successfully during the corona pandemic.
Culture, Religion and Royals with Cicek Eris
The Hollywood strike may impact ticket sales in Danish cinemas as 59% of tickets sold in 2022 were for American films. In 2022, According to Danmarks Statistik, 9.9 million cinema tickets were sold in Denmark. Before the corona pandemic, sales from 2015-2019 averaged 12.8 million tickets. The managing director of Danske Biografer is optimistic that people in Denmark will still visit cinemas, even if American films are unavailable, as there are plenty of other films to enjoy, including Danish and French productions. Films like “Gladiator 2” and “Mission: Impossible” are at risk of being delayed by the strike.
The Cinematheque is once again collaborating with partners to organize open air film screenings across the country. If you are still in Denmark and haven’t been on holiday yet, you can relax on a picnic rug and watch the classics and cult favorites outside on the big screen.
International media about Denmark HQ
36 hours in Copenhagen: Things to do and see (New York Times)
Rail route of the month: the gentle beauty of a ride from Hamburg into Denmark (The Guardian)