Wednesday 30 April 2014

DANISH HACKING

We all know the story of the News of the World, the Murdoch stable paper that had to close after revelations that it had systematically (and illegally) hacked the mobile telephones of well-known people. The criminal trial of a number of former NoW executives is currently taking place in London.

Now a similar story has broken in Denmark. It appears that an employee of Nets, the company that runs the ubiquitous Dankort card payment system, regularly sold to the weekly gossip magazine Se og Hør ("see and hear") details of the credit card transactions of rich and famous people. A team of journalists at the paper could then use the tip-offs to write about those transactions and/or investigate them.

As with the NoW story, it appears that the illegal practice was both widely known at the magazine and sanctioned by management. More details will doubtless emerge in the coming weeks as internal and police investigations continue apace. But the story has already had consequences, with the resignation of Henrik Qvortrup from his current job as political commentator on the national television channel TV2.

Qvortrup is one of the "big beasts" of the Danish political analysis scene, having been spin doctor for Anders Fogh Rasmussen before he became Prime Minister. He was then editor of Se og Hør from 2001-8, and is widely credited with giving it the high profile position it has today. He was also, allegedly, the first editor to approve the hacking policy.

As with the NoW, there is already speculation that Se og Hør will have to close. Watch this space.  

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 29 April 2014

ROYAL WORTH (2)

If Denmark wants to sell things to Australia, then they send the Crown Princess, who hails from Tasmania. For China, the head honcho is required.

China is a key export destination for Denmark. The areas where Denmark is world class (welfare solutions, green energy, and processed agricultural products) are all ones where China is, or is likely to be, a big consumer. And the population over there is many times the size of that over here. If you can just get your foot in the door, then double digit export growth should be possible.

Hence last week's state visit to China. While the Queen joined the Chinese president's wife in reading Hans Christian Andersen stories to enthralled primary school children (the author is well-known in China, though where he comes from is not), 150 Danish companies were busy networking and trying to stitch up deals with their Chinese counterparts. Perhaps the most important for the long term was China's decision to allow Denmark to supply it with processed agricultural products, the first foreign country to be given that status. The Danes are brilliant at filling consumers' stomachs with sausages, liver pate and such like; and they have shown in Japan that they can cater to Asian taste buds. This could be a real winner.

It's not clear whether the Queen herself, a pensioner with a dodgy knee, likes being wheeled out as a turbo-charged export saleswoman. If she doesn't, she was her usual polite and diplomatic self. But whatever her personal views, she has demonstrated yet again that the institution of monarchy, anachronistic in many ways, can still pay its way.

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 27 April 2014

BRIDGE (12)

Back in October, my partner and I won the opening round of the national pairs championships at our club. Today we were in the Fünen regional final, 20 pairs playing 57 hands, with the top 7 going forward to the national finals in July.

In a strong field, we finished ninth. I was pretty pleased with that. In our round robin three hands, we beat the pair that eventually won, which is always nice. And we had a number of top scores. Unfortunately, we also had a number of bottom scores, so we ended up where we should have done, in the middle.

Walter Blotscher

Saturday 26 April 2014

SEX DISCRIMINATION (2)

The Bella Sky, a newish hotel in Copenhagen that opened in 2011 and which is Scandinavia's largest, decided to market itself with a new concept in order to distinguish itself from the competition; a whole floor dedicated exclusively to female guests. Out with trouser presses and no irons; in with hairdryers and magazines aimed at female readers. Many more women are travelling on business and on their own, and they want accomodation that puts them first. Hen parties also liked the idea of running around the top floor of a 4-star hotel in their bathrobes without being ogled at.

Discrimination, cried somebody. Who exactly, I don't know. I thought it was a good idea, and couldn't have cared less that I was not allowed there. But someone did; and the Equalities Commission agreed that it was discriminatory. That decision was challenged, but has now been upheld in the courts.

I am not sure what the decision means in practice. Men now have the right to demand that they are given a hotel room kitted out with hairdryers and female magazines. Whether any man will want to is of course a moot point. Personally, I doubt it.

More seriously, these sorts of cases both make life less interesting (do we really want men and women to be exactly the same?) and draw attention away from more pressing matters, such as equalising life expectancy. The (undermanned and overworked) courts have better things to do, in my view.

Walter Blotscher

Friday 25 April 2014

SPAM FILTERS

I have been battling with spam filters recently. Many servers are now fitted with such filters, which are designed to recognise spam, and park it harmlessly in a spam box. In the worst cases, they block any E-Mail or other electronic message from the originator in question.

However, there is a problem. How do you distinguish between a genuine E-Mail to a long list of people and a spam E-Mail to a long list of people? In my job as Chairman of the local cinema, I often have to send out E-Mails to all of the volunteers associated with it, some 40 to 50 names. A number of these volunteers have ferocious spam filters attached to their E-Mail systems. If I send out too many such E-Mails, the spam filter gets activated and the message can't get through. Even worse, my IP-address is blacklisted as a spammer.

One option would be to send individual E-mails to each volunteer. However, that's an administrative pain. As I say, I am battling ...

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 24 April 2014

CORNWALL

Before the Romans and Anglo-Saxons came, the island of Britain was populated by Celts. Since the newcomers were militarily stronger, the indigenous people (well, those who weren't enslaved or impregnated) were forced more and more to the west and north, into what is now Wales and Scotland.

And Cornwall. Cornwall was so far away from anywhere else important that it was left alone, with a lot of tin, strong links to Brittany (also a Celtic area), and its own Celtic language, which is now undergoing something of a revival.

That revival is likely to be boosted even further by today's announcement that Cornish people are to be designated a "minority" in the United Kingdom, in the same way that the Welsh, Scots and Irish are. They won't get any more money; but under the E.U.'s Charter of Fundamental Rights, Government bodies will have to take their views into account when taking decisions, and not discriminate against them.

A modest step, but a good one, in my view.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 23 April 2014

POLLEN

Thankfully, I don't suffer from allergies. But many people do, and this time of the year is a difficult one, with all of that pollen blowing around. A number of my students are affected, and they didn't look very good today.

I am not surprised. Birch pollen is a big irritant, and a level of 100 is considered high. Yesterday it was measured at 4,696, which is the highest ever recorded in Denmark.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 22 April 2014

EFTERSKOLER

Efterskoler (literally "after schools") are a curious Danish phenomenon. The school leaving exams (roughly equivalent to the U.K.'s GCSE tests, O levels in my day) take place at the end of the ninth grade. Yet most pupils, though not all, stay on for a tenth grade before moving on to the next stage of the educational system, the 3-year gymnasium (sixth form) or equivalent. Some politicians are anxious to scrap the tenth grade, since they see it as marking time at best, a colossal waste of money at worst. Yet it remains, for now.

Into that gap has stepped the efterskole. They are schools that cater mainly for tenth grade students, though some also have ninth graders. What marks them out as different is two things. First, that they are boarding schools (otherwise a rarity in the Danish landscape). Secondly, because they don't have to prepare the tenth graders for any particular exam, they can follow a minimalist obligatory academic curriculum and use the freed-up time to specialise in something else. That something can itself be academic - the school where I teach is avowedly internationalist, focussing on teaching in English and foreign exchange trips to far-away places such as India and China - but it can also be sport (the school where my sons went), music and drama (the school where my daughter went), practical (woodwork and ceramics) or outdoor (horses and adventure, for instance). In that way, they can cater to all tastes.

The first efterskole was founded in 1879, and the next century saw the founding of perhaps 100 more. Then, as more and more parents became dissatisfied with the state system, there was a boom. The number of efterskoler shot up to 260, and there were waiting lists to get in. However, there was also a snag. Although heavily subsidised by the state, the schools are fee-paying; and when the financial crisis struck, a number of parents decided that the expense was not worth it. 19 schools have gone bust since 2009; and for those that remain, waiting lists have disappeared and not all places are filled.

I think efterskoler are a great idea. 15 and 16-year olds are (let's face it) a pain in the arse for their parents, full of raging hormones and complete disrespect for authority. Sending them away from home for a year, to a place where they have to clean their own room, help in the kitchen and be subject to discipline is great for both parties. And in consensus-seeking Denmark, where many children have grown up with a fixed group all the way through school, the chance to meet new people, and (if they so choose) reinvent themselves, it is good for the young as well.

However, like anything else in the modern age, efterskoler will have to adapt. In particular, it is only the ones that have very clear profiles and can market themselves as such that will survive. Saying that they provide a time-out for unruly teenagers will no longer be enough.

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 20 April 2014

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER BOOKLIST

It is now 40 years since the British newspaper the Sunday Times launched its first bestseller lists for books. Since then, such lists have been a standard feature of the publishing landscape, both in the U.K. and elsewhere.

Which books and authors have been the most popular since then? The Stieg Larsson trilogy, Dan Brown, Bill Bryson, Adrian Mole, and Frank McCourt are all in the top 100, as are one-offs such as Sophie's World, Bravo Two Zero and Life of Pi. But the clear winner is A Brief History of Time, published in 1988 and written by a Cambridge University theoretical physicist suffering from motor neurone disease called Stephen Hawking. It was on the bestseller list for more than five years and sold more than 10 million copies. A remarkable outcome for a book charting the history of cosmology and relativity.

I read the book shortly after it came out. Well, some of it. I think I got to chapter 3 fairly easily, struggled in chapter 4 and then gave up in chapter 5, the reason being that I no longer understood what Professor Hawking was saying. That was despite having a first class honours degree in mathematics from Oxford University, where my special subject had been in (you guessed it) relativity!

I say that not to blow my own trumpet, but to highlight something I have always found odd about the book. If someone with my background couldn't understand it, what chance would there have been for the average member of the general public? A Brief History of Time may well have been the best-selling book in the U.K. during the past 40 years; I suspect it may also have been the least read.

Walter Blotscher

Saturday 19 April 2014

CYCLING (3)

It was good weather today, so time for my first cycle ride of the year without a jacket. I am 4kg heavier than at the same stage two years ago, but the will to do something about that is still strong.

I also took the opportunity to mow all of the lawns and turn over half of the kitchen garden. All in all, a productive day.

Walter Blotscher

Friday 18 April 2014

DYBBØL BANKE

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Danish defeat in 1864 at Dybbøl Banke. At the time, and despite the fact that Denmark held Prussia at bay for longer than either Austria in 1866 or France in 1870, the defeat (and the eventual peace terms) was a catastrophic event, which destroyed any pretensions the country might have had of Great Power status, and consigned it for ever to the ranks of small countries. Yet in the long run, it was the making of the country. Whereas Prussia's victories led to the German Empire, the horrors of two world wars, and its eventual abolition by the Allied Powers, Denmark turned inward, forging a strong national identity, staying out (in the main) of the wars of the twentieth century, and becoming ever more prosperous.

Today's ceremony, attended by the Danish Queen, is the first of many occasions that will mark the events of 1864. They include what will be DR's most expensive ever television series this autumn, which will be followed by a consolidating film. By the end of the year, every Danish schoolchild should know what happened 150 years ago.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 17 April 2014

GOMORE

GoMore is one of those brilliant little inventions where you think "that's obvious" as soon as it exists, but which was not obvious until someone invented it. In GoMore's case, their website matches people wanting a lift with people, who would otherwise travel alone in their car. The price charged is less than (say) the train, so the person taking the lift is happy; as is the driver, who gets to offset some of their costs. GoMore gets a fee for arranging the whole thing.

My son uses it regularly when he comes home from Copenhagen. And my wife offers up her car when she travels to Copenhagen or Aalborg. It all seems to work pretty smoothly. Which means that it is not impossible that I might become a member at some point.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 15 April 2014

IT'S THE SMALL THINGS IN LIFE ...

... that make you happy, goes the saying. I (re)discovered that today.

Yesterday I did something really stupid. I took kr.800 (roughly £90) out of the bank in cash, and put it in the pocket of my cycling jacket. I had lent my car to my sister-in-law and needed to collect something from a town 15km away, so I thought I would cycle there and shop at the same time. When I arrived, I discovered that the zip on the pocket was half undone, and that the money was gone. It must have fallen out of the pocket en route. Even worse, it was blowing a gale, so if the three notes had landed by the side of the road, then they would have blown up and away.

Today, with extremely low expectations, I decided to cycle exactly the same route, just in case. Looking into the grass verges as I went. Some 8km into the journey, I was amazed to see the blue kr.500 note sitting in a field about 20m away from the road. Being blue, I noticed it against the green shoots of the wheat crop. Dismounting, I hunted around in the area, and eventually found the other two notes.

What are the chances of that? I don't know, but it made me very happy.

Walter Blotscher

Monday 14 April 2014

UKRAINE (5)

The situation in eastern Ukraine is getting trickier. Pro-Russian activists have taken over Government buildings and police stations, the Ukrainian Government has threatened to send in troops to take them back. Conflict may well lead to bloodshed.

In my original post on Ukraine, I said that the price of peace might well be the secession of the eastern part of Ukraine to Russia. I still see that as the long-term solution. The people there do not feel Ukrainian, do not speak Ukrainian, and are discriminated against by the authorities in Kiev. As in the Crimea, if there were a vote today, I believe that they would vote to switch country.

For the West, the problem is the old one of where the principle of self-determination - a good one in theory - has boundaries. For some years it has seemed as if it has been supported if the result makes the area more pro-Western; ex-Yugoslavia, Kosovo and Cyprus all spring to mind (though the last was stymied by those perfidious Greeks). Now, however, the self-determinists all want to go off and hug Russia. Since that end-result is a "bad thing" in Western eyes, self-determinism has gone out of the window and all the talk is of territorial inviolability and sovereignty.

Apart from some loss of prestige, I would also have thought that getting rid of those pesky easterners was in the Ukrainians' own interests. What would be left would be a country speaking the same language, and free to join the West if it wanted to.

Splitting up countries goes against a long-standing nationalist tradition. But the Czechs and Slovaks managed it. Why shouldn't the Ukrainian Ukrainians and Russian Ukrainians?

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 13 April 2014

BARE LEGS

It was sunny Spring weather yesterday, so I decided to wear shorts to do my rubbish collecting. Not swimming trunks-type shorts; nevertheless, my legs were bare from above the knee to above the ankle. For some reason, this provoked comments of amazement from both my fellow collectors and various people I met on my round. How would I survive?

This is not the first time I have thought Danes a bit mollycoddled when it comes to the weather. Once when I was a football trainer, I sent my flock of 12-year olds out to play a practice game in February in shorts (Scandinavia treats football as a summer game, so there is a long winter break from the end of October to the beginning of March). This decision brought down the wrath of furious parents wanting to know how I could possibly send little Jesper out in such weather, it was close to child cruelty. When I protested that I had played football in shorts throughout the winter during the whole of my youth, there were gasps of disbelief.

Danes like to think of themselves as rugged Vikings. Paraphrasing Arnold Schwarzenegger a bit, I would say instead "tøsedrenge", a Danish word that literally means "girlie boys".

Walter Blotscher  

Saturday 12 April 2014

BIG RUBBISH DAY (2)

Today was big rubbish day again in our local kommune; spruce things up in time for Easter. Unlike two years ago, my wife and I were sent out to the main road on the edge of town and told to search the hedges and grass verges. And unlike two years ago, we collected lots of rubbish; five sackfuls of all sorts of stuff.

The biggest culprits by far are beer drinkers and cigarette smokers, cans and packets being the most common items. However, alongside them are farmers. They don't generate much rubbish, but they can't be bothered to pick it up either. Their preferred solution is to drive their big machines over the top of it and hope that it gets buried.

Walter Blotscher

Friday 11 April 2014

TRANSFER INCOMES (2)

One of the key indicators in a country such as Denmark with a large welfare state is the number of people on transfer incomes, those of working age who, for one reason or another, are not working but receiving an income from the state. Here it is more than one fifth of the population.

The figure fell gently from its high in the mid-1990's (though a large part of that was due to some of those people becoming pensioners), but then jumped up again following the current financial crisis in 2008. However, since 2010 there have both been lots of reforms and a further gentle fall of some 46,000, a bit over 5%. That has led to a debate about what to do next; take the 5% and the downward trend as evidence that things are on the right course, or ramp up the reform programme, so that the the headline number is reduced even further.

Economically, the second course (advocated by big companies and employers' organisations) would be the right course. Politically, it is the first course that looks more promising. As in other areas, politics trumps economics, so I don't expect any further radical action any time soon.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 10 April 2014

THE BIG DIG

Pity the inhabitants of Copenhagen. At the moment there are around 1,000 different places where they are digging up the roads. By far the biggest reason is the building of the second metro line, the so-called city ring, which will go in a ring under most of the inner city sights and which will not be finished until 2018. But there are lots of other projects, both big and small.

In the long run, all these excavations will make the capital a nicer place to live and visit. Until then, I am rather glad I live out in the sticks.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 8 April 2014

KEVIN MAGNUSSEN

All countries need sporting heroes, people whom the man in the street can look up to and take inspiration from. Denmark has done well in recent years from its teams; the 1992 football team and the men's and women's handball teams. However, it has lacked true international sporting giants. Caroline Wozniacki flattered to deceive for a while, becoming the world's number one tennis player without really winning anything. But she has plummeted down the rankings in the past year, and seems to be spending ever more time with her boyfriend.

All of which helps to explain the hysteria surrounding Kevin Magnussen. The son of a moderately successful sports car racer, Jan Magnussen, Kevin has been groomed for a career in Formula 1 since before he started wearing long trousers. And this year he made it, taking the second seat alongside Jenson Button at McLaren.

A third place in his first grand prix in Australia, later upgraded to second after David Ricciardo was disqualified, had Danish commentators going bananas with thoughts of the world title. Magnussen is a talented driver; but he is still a rookie, with lots to learn. The hype over him says more about the lack of alternatives than about his true talent.  

Walter Blotscher

Monday 7 April 2014

GAY BLOOD

Should gay men, who may have or may not have had unprotected sex with other men, be allowed to donate blood? The risk, of course, is that the blood may be contaminated with HIV; so there is a serious issue there. But you would think that the rules would be the same within one country.

Not in the U.K. One thing not generally known, even within Britain, is that the law can be different in different parts of the country. Scots law, which has strong roots in Roman law, can be very different from the common law of England and Wales. Norther Irish law generally follows English law; but in some areas, notably criminal law, it can be different.

A complete ban on gay men's donating blood was introduced across the whole of the U.K. at the height of the Aids crisis in the 1980's. This was lifted for England, Scotland and Wales in November 2011, and replaced with rules that allow donations if the man has not had sexual relations with another man within the previous 12 months. However, the blanket ban was not lifted in Northern Ireland.

A judge has now ruled that the decision not to lift the ban was "irrational"; I agree. However, both the Northern Ireland health minister and the U.K.'s Secretary of State for Health are appealing against that judgment. That seems bizarre.

Walter Blotscher

Saturday 5 April 2014

DIE HERREN

One of the problems facing all of the established Christian churches in Europe is declining numbers. Buildings that can easily house hundreds of people are serving a handful of customers. In some places - Copenhagen, for example - the decline is so great that the churches are being closed or sold off.

My wife is a newish member of our local parish council, and this is something she is determined to try and change. Her big idea was to hold a free concert in the church for Die Herren, a Danish rock band who only play U2 music. Apparently the texts of U2's songs are heavily influenced by Christian themes, and they give nearly all of their concerts in churches.

And so on Thursday evening I was together with more than 350 people in a packed local church, which was literally heaving to the sound of rock music. In some ways it was an odd experience, in other ways perfectly natural. But the best thing was that it was a new and imaginative event in our small, rural society. So congratulations to my wife for organising it.

Walter Blotscher

Friday 4 April 2014

MY DAUGHTER

My daughter is 20 today, so congratulations to her. She says that this means that she is no longer a teenager, but I don't think that it quite works like that. In some ways, she stopped being a teenager eight years ago; in others, I suspect she will still be exhibiting teenage behaviour in twenty years' time. Therein speaks a parent.

She has just come home after her second term at Oxford university, where she is reading chemistry. University these days seems to require much more effort than it did in my time; there are many more exams along the way, and if you don't keep on passing them, then you are out (35 years ago, it was actually quite difficult to get thrown out). I suppose this is simply a reflection of the wider world, where everything is more competitive. I am not sure that it is a good thing.

To celebrate her birthday we went to see Lucia di Lammermoor in Odense this evening. It's a ridiculous opera, all mafia clans and religion, weirdly set in Scotland (though they speak Italian). But the music's great, which is the main thing.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 3 April 2014

NEBRASKA

Nebraska is a lovely little film, for which Bruce Dern was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for best actor. An old man in the first stages of Alzheimer's is convinced that he has won US$1 million in a lottery, and decides to travel to Nebraska in order to get it. The letter is of course nothing of the sort, but his son decides to humour him by driving him the 700 miles anyway. Along the way they stop off in the father's childhood town, where he quickly becomes a celebrity for having made it out of small town farming and struck it rich. And thereby attracts the interest of his relatives.

The film is shot and black and white, and there are nice performances all round. It's not really about the money, but about giving old people a purpose in life. Nothing much happens, but that is probably the lot of old people most of the time. I really liked it, as did the two other people who saw it with me.

There have been a succession of good films recently, which have had critical acclaim, but not sold many tickets in the local cinema. Dallas Buyers' Club, Gravity, American Hustle and August: Osage County were all good, but didn't sell in rural Denmark. I don't mind, since I get to see them, and we make money from other things. Die Andere Heimat starts this evening for four days, and will probably be the same. I still remember the original 24-hour film from the 1980's. At 4 hours, this is just a snip, but it wouldn't surprise me if I was the only person in the cinema when I am the operator this Saturday evening.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 2 April 2014

A SURPRISE

It's always a nice surprise to discover talent when it is least expected. In one my maths classes there is a boy who looks most like a rugby player; tall, big, physical. The last thing you (well, I) would expect of him was that he was a ballroom dancer. But that is exactly what he is, complete with swinging hips and poise. I was very impressed when he gave us a demonstration of a cha cha cha this afternoon.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 1 April 2014

PRODUCTIVITY

Politicians have two really irritating traits. The first is that they react immediately to everything, no matter how small, instead of saying something along the lines of "well, that's interesting, but we'll look at it next year/sometime in the future/never, because we have bigger fish to fry at the moment". The latest example in Denmark is an extension of the row about child benefit. The tax system gives you relief on transport costs to and from work if you travel more than 24km a day.That relief is in principle unlimited (though the rate falls if you travel really long distances), and is not restricted to Denmark. Someone worked out that if a Polish builder works in Copenhagen and drives home to Krakow three times a month, then he wouldn't have to pay very much in tax because of the huge tax relief generated by the many kilometres to and from work (that ignores of course both the motor vehicle costs of actually travelling three times a month to Krakow and back, plus the misery costs of doing so, but hey, don't let those get in the way of a good story). Cue a host of outraged politicians, who then filled the airwaves with ever more complex and surreal "solutions" to a potential problem that might in fact not exist (how many of these motorway-loving and homesick Polish builders are there? And why are Danish employers employing them when there are unemployed Danish ones, which is a much more difficult question to answer and/or do something about?).

The other irritating habit is the converse, namely ignoring well-thought-out proposals. The latest example this week was the publication of the final report by the Productivity Commission. Over the past decades, Denmark's high wage, high cost, high welfare economy has been losing competitiveness to both other countries in Europe and developing countries such as China. So the Government set up a commission, headed by a former head of the "economic wisemen" and stuffed with heavyweight businesspeople and academics, to look at ways of improving productivity in the Danish economy and society. The final report had 127 concrete suggestions, divided amongst 25 main recommendations. Yet even before the report was formally presented, politicians and Ministers were rushing to denounce their proposals and say that they would not be implemented. All of that work will, therefore, just sit on a shelf and gather dust.

Not thinking seriously about the long term, yet reacting obsessively to the short term, however trivial, is no way to run a whelk stall, as my mother would say. Unfortunately, many modern countries, and not just Denmark, have more and more the appearance of vinegary seafood vendors. This is not good.

Walter Blotscher