At times I find myself alternately enthralled and appalled by the digital world in which we live. That I could recently watch a man jump out of space on my phone, or watch the full US presidential debates as I commuted to work on the other side of the world, shows the beauty of today’s…
After seven and a half years of marriage, my wife has learned that when a certain mumbling arises over the morning newspaper, she should brace herself for an angry diatribe. Such was the case a few weeks ago when I read about a study conducted by University of Copenhagen researcher Martha Sif Karrebæk that detailed…
Thanks to parental leave, for the first time since I was 13, I had a full summer off. Back in those days, one of the first things you’d be asked to do upon returning from summer vacation would be to write a ‘What I did this summer’ essay. Following those lines, here are five things…
Aaah, summertime. Well, what passes for summertime here in Denmark anyway. Despite what my thermometer says, the calendar says June. That means the Euro 2012 tournament is here – for those of you into that sort of thing – the Roskilde Festival is just around the corner and the tourists are pouring in by the boatload.…
At the risk of beating a dead horse, this ‘Neger’ headline deserves another look. For those who may have missed it, a headline from Dagbladet Roskilde on April 18 read: “Neger stjal bil fra 80-årig”. Translated, this reads as “Negro/n****r stole car from 80-year-old”. Now, anyone from the English-speaking world would know that those two…
Just days after Denmark put through its much-heralded energy plan, resulting in plenty of back-slapping among politicians and more than a fair amount of praise in the international press, Eurostat figures revealed that the average Dane produced 673 kilos of garbage in 2010, putting Denmark behind only Cyprus and Luxembourg when it comes to trash.…
A series of recent interactions – many spurred on by my last column – have left me feeling overwhelmed by anti-Danish sentiment and aware of just how often I am guilty of engaging in Dane-bashing. I trade Denmark-related barbs on Twitter, laugh along in agreement to pieces like ‘How to Piss Off A Dane’, and…
In late December, when I reported that the S-R-SF government would put a hold on deporting children, I wrote that while this was wonderful news for the families who find themselves facing the unimaginable scenario of sending their children alone on an outbound plane, the rest of us navigating the minefield of Danish immigration were…
Last month, the City Council voted 39-9 in favour of a proposal to legalise marijuana use. The proposal, if it gains parliamentÂ’s backing, would establish state-run shops for the sale of cannabis. Despite the councilÂ’s overwhelming vote, several national politicians immediately went on the record in predictably reactionary ways, throwing out the same tired arguments…
Greetings from America! By the time you read this, I will be back in my homeland for the first time in nearly a year. Well, that is, assuming I survived three flights with a nine-week-old and a nearly- four-year-old. IÂ’m back in Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with family and attend my cousinÂ’s wedding. It will…
When writing an opinion column only once every five weeks, the long intervals provide no shortage of potential topics to tackle. Since I last graced this page, the interminable waiting for an election was replaced by the interminable waiting for a new government, Denmark continued to show its warm and fuzzy approach to immigration by…
Well, Lars Løkke Rasmussen finally did it. After proving pundits wrong time and time again, the prime minister finally called an election last week on Friday. You could almost feel the collective sigh of relief from the nation’s press corps. After all, Rasmussen has been making fools of them for the best part of a…
