Blogging Denmark

How about state institutionalized blogging and country spanking? The Danish foreign ministry have launched a new blogging site on the official portal Denmark.dk. The aim of Blogging Denmark is to create a range of commentary on Denmark and the Danes. The bloggers have been invited to blog by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and they will blog under their own names. The bloggers will not receive payment for their participation. The ministry promise no censorship which also would be in contradiction to our constitution, but reserves the right to remove entries and – I guess in particular – comments that contravenes Danish law.

I think it is wise always to be a bit hesitant about state sponsored blogging as they tend to become very uncritical and self promoting. But have a look at one of the bloggers Peter Andreas. He presents himself as a “41-year-old ad man. Very disappointed with his country and his people” and he continues about his blog: “This blog is a collection of all the things that have to be removed from Danish culture if we want to make the most out of our potential as a part of a globalised world. Simple as that. I’m going to smack down on all our wrongdoings with relentless vengeance. I will kick the shin of our patriotism, drop ice cubes down the neck of our national character and shout slanderous insults at our unfounded pride.”

Quite interesting. I will be looking forward to read his postings and definitely the comments he will receive. 

The other bloggers will blog about film, architecture, foreigners interacting with Danes, nightlife and very interestingly one guy will blog about the Danish bicycle culture – a truly Danish phenomenon. On this last note some facts from his blog:

1. In Denmark, at last count, 18% of the population cycle daily.
2. In Copenhagen, 36% of the population of the Greater Metropolitan area cycle daily to work or places of learning. That is 500,000 daily cyclists.
3. If you exclude the Greater Metro Area and just count Copenhagen proper, 55% cycle daily. On a hot summer’s day that number can reach 65%.
4. 80% of the above cyclists continue to ride throughout the winter.
5. In urban areas in Denmark there are separated bike lanes along most streets. In the country, most roads have separated bike lanes off to the side.
6. Denmark has the world’s safest bicycle culture. Our safety statistics are exceptional.
7. The busiest bike stretch in the nation is Nørrebrogade in Copenhagen. 35,000 cyclists use the street each day.
8. The average speed of cyclists in Copenhagen is 15,3 km/h.
9. Danes cycle just over 1000 km a year per capita. The Dutch occupy second place, just under 1000 km.
10. There are 1.7 million people in Copenhagen and 1.7 million bicycles.
11. Only 40% of Copenhageners own a car.
12. 36% of Copenhageners ride a bicycle, 35% take public transport and the rest drive or walk.

Feel free to link to: www.blogs.denmark.dk

Immigrants and descendants from Muslim countries are pleased with Denmark

Immigrants from Muslim countries are favourably disposed towards their lives in Denmark.

In a survey (in Danish) conducted by Statistics Denmark for CEPOS (Center for Political Studies) in 2007 (but for some unknown reason only published last weekend) 79 percent of the immigrants and 91 percent of the descendants from Muslim countries indicate that their lives are better in Denmark, compared to what it would have been in their countries of origin.

In the same survey 76 percent of the immigrants and 75 percent of the descendants answered, that they were satisfied with the general social situation in Denmark. This level is a par with that of ethnic Danes. This suggests that although the group is often presented as being very dissatisfied with the social conditions in Denmark, general satisfaction is dominating.

It is good news, partly because immigrants’ satisfaction in itself is positive, and partly because one must expect that this satisfaction is a better starting point for integration. In the survey, respondents were also asked about specific aspects of the Danish society compared to their countries of origin. The respondents are most satisfied with the economical conditions in Denmark compared to the countries of origin, and least satisfied with the rights of religious minorities. The assessment of the economic situation of the respondents seems to be the most significant for the level of overall satisfaction.

LEGO Charity Donation to Jordan part II

One of the important events at the Danish embassy this year is the LEGO Charity Donation to Jordan as has been reflected in the Jordanian media (article and photo). LEGO is a world renowned toy and educational tool that many, many children all over the world use every day. Many of you have probably been brought up with LEGO. Unfortunately this is not the case for a lot of children from less privileged families. LEGO has an ambition to reach out to those kids and this is why the embassy together with LEGO has organized a huge donation of LEGO building blocks (12.500 kg) to Jordan. More about that in my speech.

The last two days we have conducted a number of workshops for teachers, community centre leaders, caretakers and charity workers on how to make children benefit the most from the donation. The workshops were interesting, intense and – I think - a great success – some of the advice given would help make Jordan a more creative society. To watch a group of Madrasati teachers going crazy in excitement and the impossible task of the workshop trainer to get the teacher to sit down and listen (like the teachers themselves orders every day in their classes) was simply hilarious. Just have a look at the pictures below.

Soon, I expect to do a more elaborate article on the idea behind the donation.

LEGO Charity Donation to Jordan part I

 

PRESS – check against delivery

Remarks by the Danish Ambassador at the LEGO Donation to Jordan

launch event

the 24. March 2009 at The Children’s Museum.

 

Greetings.

Let me start out with thanking the Children’s Museum for hosting this two day event. It was obvious to approach The Children’s Museum for the simple reason that this donation is targeting children and learning institutions at the same time – as the Children’s Museum do every day.

Tuesdays being the Museums weekly closing day we will not have the joy of hundreds of children playing around at the museum. But hopefully the Museum will experience grow-ups playing in this room today.

The Danish embassy is particularly happy to be part of this large scale LEGO donation to Jordan. The purpose is first and foremost to provide a number of less privileged children with toys and educational tools that they can enjoy in the same way as many Danish children do.

That LEGO is much more than just a toy has become even more obvious to me during the last months planning for this event. Many of us have read or heard about the robotics competition that is taking place in Jordan annually and some might have noticed that it is organized by LEGO.

I personally had no idea that the LEGO system is a learning tool to be used in schools as part of the curriculum. It is evident that the building bricks challenge the imagination of a child and thus enhances the creativity in play but when you think about it – they actually also opens up a room for thinking about alternative solutions, questioning the traditional – or conventional – way of solving problems.

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Allow me to be a little bit political. Denmark and Jordan are two very similar countries. Apart from both being kingdoms, both are small in size and limited in population – roughly 5.5 million citizens in each country. We have only one single substantial resource – human intelligence. As a country – as a national economy – we are forced to rely on the ability of our fellow citizens to invent, to improve and innovate systems, procedures and services and to create an economy and a country that is based on ingenuity and creativity.

The latest buzzword in my country is “creative economy” – to become a country where you discover new or alternative solutions to problems and challenges, and where creativity is encouraged.

All countries are facing this challenge but for the small resource lacking countries – there is no choice. We have to build our future on the creativity of our children. Denmark is moving slowly but surely towards this goal.

I will not go as far as to say that our focus on creativity is due to Danish children growing up with LEGO, but the philosophy behind – letting imagination and creativity free, seeking your own answers – is definitely something that has been taken up by our educational system. The same can be true in Jordan. Her Majesty’s Madrasati initiative – one of our partners – focuses not alone on the physical renovation of schools but also on creating a better learning environment with more focus on creativity and exploration.

Transforming Jordan into a creative economy is one of the formidable tasks that need to be taken up by us and our children.

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Today marks the launch of the LEGO donation to Jordan under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and with the title “The Building Blocks of our Children’s future”. The donation consists of two large containers with LEGO and DUPLO bricks and toys. It is 1000 boxes of the size you can see in this hall. The pile of blocks in front of you is roughly half a box. So it is a LOT of LEGO. In kilos we are talking about 12 till 13 thousand kilos.

The next step is to distribute these boxes all around Jordan. For that purpose, the embassy have partnered with a number of institutions running facilities for less privileged children. As the donation is purely charity based, only non-commercial community based or governmental institutions have been eligible.

Many of you present today are representatives of institutions that have accepted to receive a LEGO donation. We at the embassy are working on finalising the list of recipient institutions and within the coming weeks we will start distributing the boxes.

We expect the distribution to take place during the next three months. From the embassy it is our ambition to participate in as many visits to the receiving institutions outside Amman as possible. It will be a good opportunity to get to know Jordan a little better and hopefully to collect a smile from the faces of the children that we meet.

In order to make the LEGO donation more sustainable LEGO have arranged three workshops at the Children’s museum for special invited supervisors, caretakers, teachers and community leaders from schools, learning centres, orphanages, community centres, hospitals, nurseries and so forth.

During the workshops the participants will discover how to benefit the most from the building blocks both as a toy and as an educational tool and how they can help increase the ability of the child. Hopefully many children will play with the bricks so it is good to know that the bricks can be washed.

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There are a lot of people I would like to thank on this occasion.

First of all, my thank goes to LEGO Charity without whom this event and donation literally speaking would not have taken place. Danish LEGO-volunteers have been instrumental in making this donation possible and they definitely deserve our gratitude. I have promised that they will receive some photos of excited children unpacking the boxes.

As I mentioned earlier The Children’s Museum generously hosts us today and tomorrow for the workshops, but they have also provided us with contacts and helped with practical issues that we otherwise would have had difficulty in managing. Thank you once again.

Our two main partners Madrasati and UNRWA have been very helpful in organising the two dedicated workshops for their staff and we will continue our cooperation when the distribution begins.

The Ministry of Social Development with H.E. Hala Lattouf as a keen supporter, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and the Greater Amman Municipality have each within their respective fields provided us with necessary information for planning the donation and allocation of the LEGO boxes.

I would like to say particularly thank you to Save the Children Denmark national coordinator Raghda Qandour and the Zaha Children’s Cultural Centre, general manager Rania Subieh and her close collaborator Hadeel Al-Oran for having spend numerous hours collecting, compiling, mapping and contacting the many institutions and NGO’s that runs facilities for children. Getting information about the number of children attending each institution and breakdown into age groups have been a burdensome task, but probably also created new knowledge that others might be able to exploit.

I also wish to show my appreciation for the embassy staff that all have been doing overtime and shown great flexibility in organizing this event. 

And finally a great thank you to the volunteers that will help distributing the LEGO boxes. The embassy will get back to you with the practical details in the near future and I hope this will be as beneficial to you personally as it has been for us at the embassy. The smile from a child is invaluable.

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Water

Jordan is not a natural resource gifted country. It might have some commercially exploitable uranium and potash but no oil. But what is even less fortunate is that Jordan does not have much water. Apart from objectively lacking water resources some argue that this is also due to bad water infrastructure, unequal distribution within the country and between neighbouring countries and an uneconomical water usage for agriculture and the private sector.

Anyway, one reason has been evident for all to see during this winter – the lack of rainfall and the extreme low level of water reserves in the dams. Whether this is due to climate change – what is believable – or some other natural occurring phenomenon like bad weather luck this made the government take the decision to ban growing water intensive summer crops in the Jordan valley this year. The water outlook for 2009 was very bad, indeed. To me it shows that Jordan should care a lot about what other countries are doing to fight climate change and of course should continue to implement efficient water management projects.

A bulldozer clears snow from a road in the southern region on Sunday morning. The Maan and Tafileh governorates witnessed heavy snowfall on Saturday night, which temporarily blocked traffic on main and side roads (Petra photo)

Luckily, somehow the rain prayers that many have performed the past months must have been heard. The last week snow and rain has been pouring down from the skies, so much that the dams now holds almost 50% of their capacity which I think is more than last year. What is considered bad weather in my country is a blessing in Jordan. Within the next two to three weeks we will see Jordan turning green where it used to be brownish and we will hopefully have a beautiful spring season. While it is still to early to say 2009 will be a good water year – at least the worst case scenario has been avoided.

Water for agriculture has not been the only water issue these last days. A couple of days ago information about a possible natural radiation contamination of a potential very important aquifer for drinking water began to appear in the press and on the net. The government was quick to dismiss the information. None the less Jordan Times today brought some new information on the issue, and it seems – according to the study – that if used for drinking purposes the water should be treated to some extent. I remember from my own country that this natural radiation is somewhat common not just in water but also in building materials and leaking as gas from the ground. So while Jordan is not very fortunate in natural resources this could look like a case where we actually have too much of it. The good thing is that this is something you can deal with – it does not depend on the whims of the weather or climate change – just sound planning and testing from the Government. Blogger Batir – who has taken up blogging again – has a more detailed description of the phenomenon.

Update 1: The authorities has lifted the ban on growing summer crops - and it still rains in Amman.

Update 2: The issue of drinking water was addressed yesterday by a number of government entities confirming that water for drinking is safe.

Update 3: Nizar Abu-Jaber, professor of Geology at the Yarmouk University, presents a scientific explanation of the phenomenon on his blog - a must read for all interested.