Kitty's Corner

The Danish Free Press Society will soon be selling signed reprints of the infamous Mohammed cartoons to raise money for its daughter organisation, the International Free Press Society.

The controversial cartoon originally appeared in JyllandsPosten newspaper on 30th September 2005 causing a national and international debate on the freedom of speech and the press. I've blogged about this several times.

The 1000 reprints, signed by cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, are of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. They will be available for sale on the society’s website at 185 Eur.

However, the project to promote the freedom of speech and the press faced an unexpected hurdle when the society was unable to find a Danish printing company willing to reprint the drawings for them: The society contacted six different printers, all of whom turned the job down. In the end, a foreign printer was contracted to print the 1000 signed samples.

The president of the Free Press Society said that one of the printers told them that they would not be successful finding a Danish printer, because rumours of the controversial printing order had spread.

He told Jyllands-Posten newspaper that, despite the freedom of speech being protected in the constitution, he feared that one day printers would avoid printing certain books out of fear of reprisals.

The Danish Free Press Society was founded in 2005 as a private organisation with no state funding, which champions the cause of freedom of speech in society.

In conjunction with its coverage of the society’s latest news, Jyllands-Posten newspaper chose to print the Mohammed cartoon in question. The editor said the decision was "purely journalistic" and was not intended as a sign of support or otherwise.

"It is nothing special. We shouldn’t be afraid of showing a cartoon," he says. "In the same way as when our front page story about President Obama required having a photo of him, if we talk about a cartoon in a story, then we should show it."

And I agree. I do believe in freedom of speech.

Denmark is a land populated by an egalitarian, well-educated group of people that live well into their seventies after a life of work, at least according to the Danmark i Tal 2009 (Denmark by Numbers 2009), the annual publication that serves as a paint by number description of a nation and its people.

The publication is a treasure chest of facts and figures about Danes (5,475,791 in all) from birth (about 65,000 last year) to death (about 55,000) and everything that comes in between during their life spans (80.5 years for women and 76 years for men – about 25 years more than in 1900.)

Most of that life is lived in the 43,098 sq km territory that stretches from Skagen in the north, Gedser in the south, Christiansø in the east and Blåvandshuk in the west (excluding Greenland that is).

Most of that life is lived after a youth that now includes some form of post-secondary education for 30 percent (twice what it was in 1981) and in which most of us (97 percent) will work – or at least seek it. With unemployment at 3.4 percent, most will find it too.

When we aren't working or studying, one of the things we are doing more of is going to the cinema. After bottoming out at 10 million in the 1990s, annual ticket sales have rebounded to 12 million. And what do we see? Family films dominate the list of most seen movies from 2007. The most popular was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (620,000 tickets).


I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about the Danes!

An even 5500 applicants nationwide were scheduled to take the Danish citizenship test last week, but many did not because they did not realise that the format had been changed.

Previously, the 40 questions for the test had been taken from a database of 200 questions, making it possible to study for the test. But as of a change initiated at the beginning of October, questions are now randomly taken from a 180-page book.

In addition, the number of right answers for receiving a passing grade was increased from 28 to 32 and the time limit reduced from one hour to 45 minutes.

A Danish newspaper gave the test to native Danish students at Copenhagen's Technical Academy to see how they would fare. Only 6 out of 21 tested passed.

'The questions are simply too difficult,' said one student. 'Why should you have to know a bunch of historical things to become a Dane? The test should have more questions about our current society.'

I found a test and decided to try it. I answered 32 questions out of 40 correct, so I would pass, but one more wrong answer and I would have to move.
So all in all it means, that if you want to be a Dane, you need to know more about Denmark than the Danes themselves.

A 33-year-old female police officer has been found guilty of racism after publishing derogatory remarks on her personal home page. The woman immediately appealed the verdict and sentence of a DKK 4,000 fine. (530Eur)

In her explanation to the court, she said she had been tired of having her weekends off suspended and being unable to take her planned mountain bike tours. As a result she let her frustrations run away with her on her personal home page.

It took place in February this year where groups of youths of immigrant origin set light to vehicles, garbage containers and educational establishments across the country. That caused that a lot of police officers had their days off suspended, and that was too much for the woman. Among other things she wrote: "Go home you fucking wogs. Get the fuck out of our town and our country. I hate you!"

She told the court that she did not think that items on her web page could be found unless the precise URL of her domain was known. As a result, she did not believe that anyone but her closest friends would see what she had written.