Vets Welcomed Home

Times are a'changin'.

The Danish public have always looked with quite a lot of skepticism on the military. Ether they thought that the soldiers were bumbling idiots of the Keystone variety, or the servicemen were bloodthirsty maniacs (although still idiots.)

I spend several years in the army back in the 80s at the heydays of the "peace movement" when I couldn't tell anyone I didn't know that I was a professional soldier lest I got personally responsible for the deployment of Pershing missiles, or little old me would provoke the Soviets to unleash Nuclear Armageddon.

This seems to have slowly changed as the army has shown great professionalism and fighting skills in Afghanistan, demanding the respect of the general public.

For the first time in years a parade was performed to celebrate the return of a battalion rotated out of Afghanistan. People actually cheered and applauded the soldiers:

People lined the streets of Holstebro yesterday to welcome home the Danish troops who recently returned from their tour of duty in Afghanistan

Spontaneous applause greeted the 600 soldiers returning from their tour of duty with the Nato-led Afghanistan mission yesterday, as they took part in an official parade through the streets of Holstebro, northern Jutland.
Defence Minister Søren Gade attended the parade and was surprised by the reaction of the crowd.

‘When people suddenly started to clap it was like an out of body experience for me. If I had said five or six years ago that people would applaud returning Danish soldiers, people would have thought I was drunk. It really was a moving experience,’ said Gade.

There was also time set aside to remember the six members of the deployed team who lost their lives in Afghanistan. Major General Niels Bundsgaard asked for a minute’s silence to remember the fallen at the local Dragoon Regiment Barracks.

Please include these six men who paid the ultimate price for our freedom in your prayers. I for one salute them and their comrades in arms.

LEGO donates toys to Sdrerot pre-schools

Danish Ambassador to Israel, Liselotte Plesner was present at a ceremony in Sderot, Israel giving LEGO toys to the pre-schools in the missile stricken town.

Denmark's ambassador to Israel, Liselotte Plesner, visited Sderot on Tuesday to take part in a celebration – held in a fortified pre-school – to honor a generous contribution by the LEGO group to WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization) pre-schools.


The LEGO group contributed two large containers holding a thousand boxes of 'duplos' – large-sized Lego blocks. The Danish toys will be distributed among 170 WIZO pre-schools across Israel and particularly to the 35 pre-schools located in southern communities, where residents are still suffering from rocket-fire.

The Danish ambassador surprised participants by delivering a speech to the children and pre-school employees in Hebrew. In her speech, she referred to the trauma to children in the rocket-plagued region, saying "the children who live under the threat of Qassams need to be able to escape to a world of magic and creativity – something that can be done with Legos."

Danish ambassador surprised participants by delivering a speech to the children and pre-school employees in Hebrew. In her speech, she referred to the trauma to children in the rocket-plagued region, saying "the children who live under the threat of Qassams need to be able to escape to a world of magic and creativity – something that can be done with Legos."

That's a nice touch, if I may say so. Definitely not something ARLA would have done.
Read more here.

Shouting 'Fire' in a Theater

Flemming Rose, the former cultural editor of jyllands-Posten and the man responsible for printing the MoToons back in 2005 has an interesting comment on the grounds of witch Geert Wilders was denied entry to the UK earlier this month. A take on the lazy argument that Freedom of Speech doesn't allow one to shout 'Fire' in a crowded theater.

Drawing an analogy with socialist Schenck handing out flyers falls short in the Wilders case. What's more, Holmes later used an opposing argument to defend freedom of speech. But note that in defending the move to keep Wilders out, Miliband forgot that Holmes said you weren't allowed to yell 'fire' unless there actually was a fire. If there is a fire, or if there is smoke, then you have an obligation to draw everyone's attention to it.

Wilders's film is made up of documentary pictures, which makes it hard to reject them as false. What's more, the issue the film takes up – violence carried out in the name of religion – is a part of the European reality, which makes it a subject of heated discussion. You can argue that Wilders's depiction is one-sided and that it is propaganda, but Michael Moore does the same thing, and he wins film awards.

Read his entry in the Copenhagen Post here (In English.)

(H/T Steen.)

Blog update

Well, I've finally taken the big step and updated the blog. Hope you'll enjoy the new look. Personally I think it's a bit cooler than the old one, but that's probably just me.

There'll be a lot of experimenting going on here in the near future, so don't be surprised if things looks different every time you pass by.

Now, if I only could figure out how to add pictures to the side bar, that would be a good place to start...