A little excitement in Copenhagen

Some demonstrations in Copenhagen today after the police evicted some squatters from a house they've been living in since 1982.

Associated Press news article
BBC News article

A little background on the issue:

Danes view themselves as a very tolerant society. A quote from a Dane:

Denmark is a very tolerant country. In all sorts of ways.

Take gay rights. Our country was the first to allow same sex marriages back in 1989. Take the generous social benefits in Danish society; we tolerate that a minority of unemployed may not really want to work, because we want to secure help to those who do. And Danes have a high tolerance of inappropriate behaviour – particularly if it involves drinking. A shrug is a typical response when someone makes a complete fool of herself at a party. “She was drunk”, it’s said afterwards. And all is forgiven.

In Denmark we cherish tolerance. It is an important part of our self perception.

In the 1970s, some Danish people took over an abandoned military barracks in Copenhagen and kind of declared this as an autonomous region. My Danish politics professor described them as the "flower power" crowd. As Danes view themselves as tolerant, and really favor compromise over conflict in just about all areas of government, Christiania was allowed to stay. It actually isn't too far from my kollegium. You can click the link if you want more information about it.

Along those lines, in 1982 the municipality of Copenhagen allowed a group of young people to inhabit another building owned by the city, called Ungdomshuset. This is where the problems were today. I guess the building had a bad fire in the 1990s, and it turned out to be in worse shape than authorities thought. They wanted to renovate the building, but the squatters didn't cooperate. Anyways, the city of Copenhagen sold the building in 2000 to a Christian group. The squatters refused to leave. The group that bought it was well aware that this was the squatters intention before they purchased it.

Anyways, the squatters were still there until today. The city of Copenhagen, friends of these squatters (in Christania and elsewhere), and others had tried to find compromises. They raised money to buy the house back from the Christian group, but the group didn't want to sell. They found a different house for these people to have, but the squatters said they weren't leaving.

It went through all kinds of court battles, and the squatters lost and were ordered out by December 14, 2006. There were some riots on December 16, 2006 about the issue by these people in Copenhagen. I think it got kind of violent when the police came to break it up.

Anyways, the police raided the house this morning and arrested about 70 people I think. There were demonstrations all day today. Police in riot gear driving around in 10 person blue vans. Nothing violent though. They think these demonstrations might continue for awhile, with friends of these squatters from other countries maybe coming.

It was all over the news tonight. There were 2 helicopters flying over Copenhagen all afternoon. Nothing to worry about though. This area where the "action" is about a mile north of the metro station I get off at to go to DIS. My kollegium is in the far opposite direction. This is what DIS had to say:

Some of you may be aware that Ungdomshuset, a center for youth in Copenhagen, has been slated for closure and that there has been much controversy over this, including some violent protests in December. This morning Ungdomshuset was raided by the police; in response supporters of Ungdomshuset have started to gather in the surrounding area of Nørrebro. DIS students are strongly advised to avoid Nørrebrogade from the roundabout to the lakes. There is a potential that protests could spread to other areas of the city, including around Nørreport station and/or Rådhuspladsen (City Hall), over the coming days. If you see a large crowd, please avoid it, and do not walk or bike down any streets which are blocked by the police.

At this point, we currently assess the risk to DIS premises as LOW and to DIS students as LOW

So, no worries.

There were some demonstrators near city hall this afternoon after I got out of class and was heading towards my bus. I stayed well clear, but did snap some pictures from a block away.

2007_02_28 Demonstrations

I was very impressed with the police. They were extremely non-confrontational, but at the same time certainly made a big splash with their presence. The major Copenhagen newspaper had people all over town handing out "special editions" for free. I have no idea what is in it, but lots of pictures.

I'll let you know if anything new happens.

Visited Vestre today

We visited Vestre today, which is Denmark's center-right party. The biggest party in Denmark.

The party has 16 full time staff. An annual budget of about $6 million dollars, most of it funded by the state. That is their total budget for the entire country. Smaller than a senate race in the US?

Denmark has a 3 week election cycle. The prime minister calls the election, and then in 3 weeks it happens. I get the impression that this is a very busy time. :) Political television advertising is *not* allowed, so costs are kept down.

Travel break traveling

Our next study tour runs March 17-24. We then have March 24 until April 9 to travel on our own. I've been busy researching different places and trying to decide where I'd like to go and what I'd like to see.

A lot of people are trying to do the whole London->Paris->Barcelona->Rome->Vienna super whirlwind tour in 2 weeks. I don't have any interest in that at all. Besides the fact that those transportation costs add up, you don't really actually see any of those places. You see the top 3 sites in a town, and then it is off to sit in the airport waiting for the next flight. It is probably delayed too.

I think I'll pick one area of Europe I'd like to see, and then leave myself time to actually see some stuff without sprinting to the next. Where that destination will end up being, I do not know. I'm definitely going to stop by Vienna and visit Johannes. I've been thinking of going down and exploring Italy from there. Maybe Praque (where our study tour ends) -> Vienna -> Venice -> Florence -> Rome -> Sicily? Unfortunately that means bringing my business attire with me in the suitcase for those two weeks. Maybe I can just mail it back to Copenhagen inexpensively... The alternative is to go with DIS on the bus back to Copenhagen, but that seems a waste of time and heading in the wrong direction.

Europe has dozens of really low-fare airlines. This is good when you are trying to find really cheap flights (sometimes $10-20 flights, although the tax more than doubles that), but it also means that you have to spend *a lot* of time searching different airlines, different flight dates, and different destinations. The majority of really cheap flights go to and from the UK. I think it is usually cheaper (sometimes quite a bit) to fly to one of these hubs in the UK and then fly to Copenhagen or Malmo, Sweden (across the strait) from there. You also get a day or part of a day in London or Dublin out of the deal.

No more snow

Yea, our "most snow Copenhagen has had in 10 years" is gone. I guess higher than freezing temperatures and rain will do that.

A few things I learned my Danish Politics and Society class. Denmark's labor force is highly organized into unions. Actually everything in Denmark is highly organized into groups, businesses too. These groups are an engaged part of the political decision making process, so Denmark has very few "outsider" lobbyists as we might have in the US. In return for having a say, these groups also have responsibility to hold their members to the agreements that are made, otherwise they won't continue to get that access.

Anyways, the overall-umbrella worker's union and the overall employer's union (Danish Industry something) have been at odds for quite a while, and it was looking like there was going to be a general strike in about a month of all members of this union. Which would have been about every worker in the country. 2 days before the first deadline they reached an agreement though.

Employers will give a 4% raise in salaries, increased funding to the job-training fund, increased funding to the pension fund, and raised the minimum wage slightly to 103.6 kroner. (about $18)

About the Danish flag... it isn't a patriotic symbol like our flag is. It is more a symbol of the Danish people. It isn't something they salute, but rather something used at birthday parties, etc.

I feel at home and settled in here. This really hit after our little trip and we came back home to "familiar" Copenhagen. There isn't anything in my daily routine that I feel uncomfortable with anymore. On the first day here, there was a lot of anxiety (if thats the right word) in just buying a danish at the bakery. Not knowing where anything was and dealing with jet lag... I feel very comfortable with the geography of Copenhagen now (and of Denmark overall). I've been taking the bus more and more, both due to the fact that I recognize where the stops are at and it is generally faster than the metro I think. Not faster in direct comparision, but faster when walking times are factored in. Contrary to what I normally end up doing, it *isn't* faster to just walk rather than wait the 5 minute for the bus to show up. :)

Smoking

I saw a man biking through København today and smoking a cigarette at the same time. That is a new one for me. He wasn't just biking with one hand either...both hands on the handlebars. Not exactly sure how that works.

Our first of two larger papers in my business class was due today, so I was up late last night writing it. It was an analysis of the competitive strategies of the three companies we visited on the western Denmark (Jutland) tour. Naturally I put off writing it until late. I kind of like writing papers late at night. You can focus completely on the paper, you have no distractions, and you are forced to keep at it or you lose out on sleep. Managed to get some laundry done and popcorn ate too.

Gangs of New York was on Danish TV yesterday while I was eating (with Danish subtitles). The Man with One Red shoe (Tom Hanks) was on TV the other day as well. Lots of American movies and TV shows.

Vi ses!

Denmark pulling out of Iraq

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced on Wednesday that Denmark is pulling its 430 troops out of Iraq. They did this the same day that Tony Blair in Britian announced the Britian was reducing its troop levels in southern Iraq.

We talked about this in my Danish Politics class. The reason for the pullout is basically based on the domestic political climate here in Denmark currently, and has really nothing to do with a military decision or something like that.

The current government here is a coalition of the parties on the right. Fogh Rasmussen is from Vestre, which is the largest Danish party and center-right in ideology. They have a coalition government with the Conservative party. Their government is also supported by the Danish People's Party, which is a very nationalistic party. So the government is run from the right.

They have been the coalition in government since 2001, and supported the Iraq War from the start. The left-wing parties were initially against it. Then after Bush declared "Mission Accomplished", the UN Security Council passed a resolution regarding helping rebuild Iraq. At that point, the left-wing parties in Denmark supported troops in Iraq to help rebuild.

Late last year the left wing parties in Denmark changed their position in opposition to Denmark getting bogged down further in the Iraq War, and wanted Danish troops out. This was a politically smart move for them, because public opinion is against the war. The Social Democrats (2nd biggest party) would like to regain control of the government, and opposing the Iraq War would help that. It was an issue they could attack Anders Fogh Rasmussen's party with.

Basically, Vestre wants to keep control of the government and they are diffusing the campaign issue now before it becomes a problem for them. The justification is that things in southern Iraq are "getting better", so Denmark has fulfilled its agreement. This is painted in contrast to Italy/Japan who just withdrew last year without finishing the job. They are sending 200 new troops to Afghanistan, because they don't want the impression that they are giving up on the war on terror.

From a small-country perspective, they need to have strong allies if they want to have influence. It isn't in Denmark's interest to alienate the US, so thats the reason for the increase to Afghanistan. Politics in Denmark is all based on compromise, and I think their foriegn policy is kind of being run the same way. They want to have good relations with the US/Britian, but still get out of an unpopular war. So they compromised and sent more troops to Afghanistan.

Snow Effects

Copenhagen can't handle this snow. The entire town has been barely getting by. The buses are all off schedule and coming at odd times ... the metro sometimes doesn't go all the way to the end of its normal runs ... the S-trains (trains to suburb areas) are all running really late or cancelled. Some kids who live farther out (and take the S-train in) were an hour late for our test in the business class today.

My Danish politics professor said this is the most snow he can remember in the last 10 years. My history professor made the comment that all Swedes keep tire chains in their garage so they get by just fine.

The roads are now starting to get cleared off a little bit better. I had to wait a long time for the bus today though. Here is a news article in USA Today about it. Jutland got more snow, but there is some reference to Copenhagen transportation at the end.