Posts Tagged ‘Danish’
Monday, May 10th, 2010
The high fines meted out to high-profile white collar criminals are seldom affordable. If they cannot be paid, the criminals can serve a prison sentence instead. Iceland’s prisons are full, however and the National Audit Office fears that the lack of prison capacity could decide what sentences are given.
Fines for tax avoidance/fraud were increased significantly in 1995 and four years later, a law was passed to allow for community service as a substitute punishment. According to Iceland’s National Audit Office, community service is a softer option and the second law works counter to the first one. It is therefore important to build a new prison to relieve this problem.
National auditors are keen to ensure that justice is seen to be done if and when financial criminals are brought to justice.
Between 2000 and 2006, around 80 percent of those fined ISK 8 million or more opted for community service instead.
Tags: Brazil, Danish, Exchange Deal, Fears, Gangs, Iceland, National Audit Office, National Justice, Prison Capacity, Prison Scandal, Prison Sentence, Prisoner Exchange, Prisons, Profile, Sentences, Tax Avoidance, Tax Fraud, White Collar Criminals
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Thursday, May 6th, 2010
The annual competition run by the Icelandic Sports Association, “Cycle to Work” begins today. This is the eighth year the competition has taken place and, as the name suggests, people are encouraged to leave their cars at home.
The movement allows business and public employees to compete against each other to rack up the highest number of kilometres cycled between them. The competition runs from 5th to 25th May this year and 468 workplaces took part last year with 8041 participants who jointly cycled 493,202 kilometres – or 12.3 times around the world.
Participating workplaces are categorised by the number of employees they have, meaning that every one has a shot at fame and glory.
Tags: Cars, Christmas, Christmas Trees, Danish, Fame And Glory, Iceland, Kilometres, Pact, Participants, People, Price Rigging, Reykjavik, Sports Association, Times Around The World, Whit Monday, Workplaces
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Friday, March 26th, 2010
The Danish ethics Ethics council Council is charged with investigating cases of sexual abuse, leading a fact that has led Bishop Czeslaw Kozon to claim that he therefore has no obligation to report any such cases to police.
In recent weeks, a number of cardinals and bishops across Europe have been forced into apologising for the failure to act upon information pertaining to sexual abuse. However, the Danish Catholic Kozon argued that his church has no responsibility to neither -either investigate past abuse cases nor -or advise police of any new cases.
Bishop Czeslaw Kozon is Denmark’s highest ranking Catholic official. He made the claims in a written response to the media, which was reported published in the The Copenhagen Post. In his statement he argued that legal advisors had informed him that he was not obligated to notify authorities of any instances of sexual abuse. He did, however, reason that a specialist ethics committee comprising of a social worker, a lawyer and a priest were in charge of handling such circumstances.
“Therefore my conduct in those kinds of cases would be dependent on what the ethical committee recommends. Before you’re presented with that kind of case, it’s impossible to say how you’d react and what measures must be taken,” said Kozon.
Kozon’s statement has been denounced by theological and legal experts, who argue that the Catholic Church is legally responsible for identifying and preventing any instances of sexual abuse.
“If the Catholic Church does nothing, the cases will take on a snowball effect, getting bigger and bigger and destroying the Church’s backing and trustworthiness in Denmark,” said Peter Lodberg, an associate professor of theology with Aarhus University.
Tags: Aarhus University, Abuse Cases, Apologising, Associate Professor, Bishops, Catholic Church, Copenhagen Post, Danish, Ethical Committee, Instances, Lawyer, Legal Experts, Number Of Cardinals, Obligation, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Ethics, Snowball Effect, Social Worker, Theology, Trustworthiness
Posted in Iceland | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
It is self explanatory that there is not much sympathy worldwide for a country which first behaved irresponsibly and then tried to export its problems to other countries.
Like other countries which have run their economies into the ground – including Greece as a good example - Iceland must take responsibility for itself. So even if the Icelanders voted no and every last one of them had banged pots and pans in the streets of Reykjavik, the global community has to remain steadfast. If the Icelanders can not agree with the Dutch and the British about payment terms, then they naturally can not expect further loans from either the IMF, the Nordic countries or progression in the EU talks.
It must be noted for fairness sakes that the Icelanders have underlined that their position is not one of not paying, but about the details. And Netherlands and the UK have listened. When Iceland voted no anyhow, the two countries had already offered a better deal, which the Icelandic leadership had already rejected as not good enough. It does not bear witness of either humility or sense of reality.
From Denmark’s Berlingske Tidende (in Danish)
Berlingske noting that Icelanders seem to lack the understanding that actions have consequences.
Related posts:
- What Have You Done?
- It Came To The Point Where I Saw No Sense In Continuing To Pay
- A Farewell Letter – I am escaping to a different reality that is more FAIR to me
Tags: Berlingske Tidende, Consequences, Danish, Denmark, Different Reality, Fairness, Farewell Letter, Global Community, Greece, Humility, Imf, Netherlands, Nordic Countries, Pots And Pans, Pots Pans, Reykjavik, Sakes, Sense Of Reality, Sympathy, Witness
Posted in Iceland, Market | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Iceland’s new coastguard ship, which is being built in Chile, was damaged in the tsunami caused by this week’s devastating earthquake.
The Icelandic Coastguard website describes how a 2.5 metre tsunami breached the dry dock the ship, Thor, is currently in. It swept away the ship’s support struts, leaving the boat listing at a 30 degree angle.
It is also thought a significant amount of seawater got into the engine room – which will have caused severe damage, Visir.is reports. The delays caused by the damage to both ship and shipyard will mean it is many moths before Thor is seaworthy again.
The construction of the ship was in its closing stages and it had been hoped it could sail to Iceland in June; but this will definitely not happen now.
Six Icelandic and Danish specialists in Chile to oversee the final setup and configuration of the boat are now preparing to return to Europe.
(Photo: Icelandic Coastguard)
Tags: Chile, Danish, Degree Angle, Devastating Earthquake, Dry Dock, Europe Photo, Iceland, Moths, Quake, Seawater, Shipyard, Struts, Thor, Tsunami
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Friday, February 26th, 2010
A young councillor with the Danish People’s Party has been ostracised from his political organisation following his posting of inflammatory comments on the social networking site Facebook.
19-year-old Mathis Groning, a member of the Tarnby local council, has found himself summarily dismissed from the party for violent anti-Muslim suggestions, said a statement from the party. “On a Facebook page against mosques in Denmark, Mathias wrote things that we cannot accept,” said Poul Lindholm Nielsen, the Danish People’s Party Secretary, in a report by Politiken.
The ire of party members was raised by written attacks in an internal discussion group on the webpage, whereby Groning criticises contractors Finn Bach and Kurt Thorsen, as well as Architect Bjarke Ingels.
“These are just some of the Danes up for sale. There are quite a few collaborators who wouldn’t think about helping Muslims to do this and that… but then WE will just have to do what we did in 1944,” writes Groning, in reference to resistance operations during Denmark’s Nazi occupation. The councillor, the Danish People’s Party Deputy Chairman of the youth movement, also posted a number of links featuring right-wing blogs which the party deemed unacceptable.
“We’re finished with him. We can’t have anyone with extreme right-wing views,” stated Lindholm Nielsen.
Tags: Bjarke, Collaborators, Danish, Deputy Chairman, Discussion Group, Facebook, Finn, Inflammatory Comments, Lindholm, Local Council, Mathias, Mosques, Nazi Occupation, Nielsen, Party Members, Party Secretary, Political Organisation, Poul, Right Wing, Social Networking Site
Posted in Iceland | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
The resolution committee of Landsbanki will in the coming weeks take over the operations of NP Hotels in Denmark and private jets owned by the rental company IceJet. Among the hotels is Copenhagen’s luxury hotel D’Angleterre.
Tags: Danish, Hotels Copenhagen, Hotels Denmark, Hotels In Denmark, Luxury Hotel, Np, Private Jets, Resolution Committee
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Sunday, January 10th, 2010
The novel Tryggdarpantur (“Deposit”) by Icelandic novelist Audur Jónsdóttir has received mixed reviews in Denmark, where it was recently released. The novel, known as Depositum in Danish, is meant to mirror the political reality of Denmark.
Tags: Danish, Denmark, Novel, Novelist, Political Reality
Posted in Iceland | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
A street between Austurstraeti and Skólabrú in downtown Reykjavík will henceforth be known as Jörundarstígur after Danish adventurer Joergen Joergensen who proclaimed Iceland independent from Denmark in 1809 and himself “Protector” of the country.
Tags: Adventurer, Danish, Denmark, Iceland, Independent, Joergensen
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Sunday, November 15th, 2009
Online booking services HostelBookers has launched eight new languages on its website among them Danish, Norwegian and Swedish in an attempt to provide a better quality of service to its Scandinavian customers.
This is done after a recent research carried out by Reed Business Insight. revealed that it was attracting a large and ever growing audience from across Europe.
Beside English, HostelBookers users will now be able to view and book hostels and cheap hotels in Dutch, French, Italian, Polish and Portuguese, taking the total number of languages available on the site up to eleven.
(Advertisement)
Tags: Advertisement, Attempt, Audience, Booking Services, Budget Hotels, Business Insight, Cheap Hotels, Danish, Europe, French Italian, French Polish, Hostelbookers, Hostels, Norwegian, Online Booking, Portuguese, Quality Of Service, Quality Service, Reed Business, Scandinavian Languages
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Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
The Danish Ethics Council has declared that future foetal examinations run the risk of ’extensive genetic hygiene practices’ which could result in increased abortion rates.
In its report ‘Future Foetal Diagnostics’ the Ethics Council argues that the overall health of the foetus should be the only investigation performed by new hi-tech systems which in the coming years are expected to reveal increasingly more characteristics.
The council has expressed fears that more women may choose to abort if they are presented with unwanted characteristics. Ten of the 17 Council members have proposed stronger controls over what can be tested for prior to the 12-week termination limit for pregnancy. The report also claims that new technology should be utilised only for women whose foetuses have a risk of deformity or serious illness
News source Politiken has reported that in a matter of years new developments in diagnostic technology will reveal the foetus’s predisposition for characteristics such as weight, height and even intelligence.
Council member Klavs Birkholm claimed: “Through maternal blood analyses we will soon be able to get much more information about the foetus. We will (be able to) see a long list of lesser illnesses but also normal characteristics such as height and weight, gender, eye colour and the suchlike. The question is, if we gather all this information, whether we should leave it to the individual family to determine whether this is a foetus that they want. I don’t think so”.
Birkholm agreed that it was not possible to prevent parents from rejecting a foetus which displayed unwanted characteristics. “We cannot forbid this. We don’t want to introduce more restrictive abortion rules. But it is a problem if we begin to generate all sorts of information on everyone. The result will be something that society in general may not want – a perfected population in which something that is divergent, weak, unusual becomes so strange that society will not take as much care of them as it currently does,” Birkholm stated.
Tags: Abortion Rates, All Sorts, Council Member, Council Members, Danish, Diagnostic Technology, Ethics, Eye Colour, Foetus, Foetuses, Height And Weight, Hygiene Practices, Illnesses, Individual Family, Maternal Blood, New Developments, New Technology, News Source, Politiken, Predisposition
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Sunday, November 1st, 2009
An Icelandic family living in Denmark has had a sudden change to a recent run of terrible luck. The four-member family decided to apply for the show after a flood ruined their basement.
The Westfjords news site BB.is reported earlier this month that the family was successful in their application and that the transformation was going well. The show was aired on Denmark’s Kanal 4- television station this week.
Mother of two Sandra Maria Arnardottir told BB.is that while the family were away in Iceland this summer, the cellar of their house in Copenhagen flooded, severely damaging many of their possessions and forcing the family to stay with friends and in hotels. It was in a hotel room that they saw a commercial for the show and decided to apply.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition is called “Den Vrede Tomrer” (or The Angry Carpenter) in Denmark and is presented by Jens Anderson.
Pictures from the house’s truly beautiful transformation can be seen on the Kanal 4- website here. “It’s just unbelievable how much they have done in such a short time,” Arnardottir told BB.is. “They have really saved us, because it would have taken us many months to do what they have done in three-and-a-half days.”
Tags: Carpenter, Copenhagen, Danish, Extreme Makeover, Extreme Makeover Home, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Flood, Half Days, Hotel Room, Jens, Kanal 4, Living In Denmark, Makeover Home Edition, Member Family, News Site, Possessions, Sandra Maria, Short Time, Sudden Change, Television Station
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Sunday, October 11th, 2009
Over a year ago I worked for a Danish financial institution as a web programmer. The job was well paid and the work place moral good. This changed after the Icelandic government nationalised Glitnir at the end of September 2008. From then on my employers were more or less edgy and a week after the emergency law was introduced I was called into a meeting where I was told that the bank couldn’t employ me anymore. The reason was supposed to be downsizing, which I found hard to believe as the bank was one of the few in Denmark which was solid and still is.
A few weeks later I heard from my former colleagues that my bosses had feared for the reputation of the bank if it were known that their internet bank and web-site user interface were managed by an Icelander. As I could not get this confirmed officially I could not seek my rights.
I soon discovered that the bank was not the only company which doubted the integrity of Icelanders. Wherever I sought employment the doors were usually shut when my nationality was brought up. I then decided to try to not mention anywhere where I was from and even stopped using Icelandic letters when I wrote my name. And lo and behold, as soon as Iceland was nowhere mentioned, interviews were easy to come by and a few weeks later I had a job.
Still today I don’t mention beforehand where I am from and try to not let on too much. Which is terrible. Once I was proud to be an Icelander. Today it is a burden and it has been so for over a year. What makes this even worse is that thanks to certain politicians back in Iceland, it looks like this is going to be the case for a few more years.
From the blog of an Icelander in Denmark
Tags: Blog, Danish, Denmark, Doors, Downsizing, Emergency Law, Few More Years, Financial Institution, Former Colleagues, Glitnir, Hindrance, Icelandic Letters, Integrity, Internet Bank, Job, Nationality, Politicians, Reputation, User Interface, Web Programmer
Posted in Iceland, Market | No Comments »
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
Tags: Danish, Gaffa
Posted in Iceland, Music | No Comments »
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
A landmark decision has seen Danish fishermen announce that they plan to adhere to internationally recognised standards for marine stewardship – thus ending years of wrongful catches and over fishing.
A spokesperson from that Danish Fishermen’s Association has declared that by 2012 all fish from its resources will meet certified standards as laid down by the Marine Stewardship Council.
WWF Denmark program manager for sustainable consumption, Espen Tind Nordberg claimed: “The Danish fishermen are now taking a huge step towards securing that Danish fisheries in the future will be sustainable,” adding that the announcement had been years in the waiting. “Now the fishermen deserve true recognition and support to implement their ambitious plan.”
According to the MSC’s standards, there are three Danish fisheries in the worldwide total of 52. The new changes would see that number increased tenfold as the Danish Fishermen’s Association pursues certification for more than 30 of its operations, a move which has been met with a positive response from the WWF.
The WWF has been promoting the MSC standards for some years as being the most environmentally sustainable option for producing seafood, and consumers and retailers have followed their lead in increasing demand for MSC certified catches.
According to its website the MSC is the world’s leading eco-labelling and certification organisation for sustainable seafood.
Tags: Ambitious Plan, Certification Organisation, Consumers, Danish, Denmark, Fish, Fisheries, Fishermen, Landmark Decision, Marine Stewardship Council, Msc, Nordberg, Spokesperson, Sustainable Consumption, Sustainable Option, Sustainable Seafood, True Recognition, Wwf
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Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Danish actress Iben Hjejle will chair the jury in the competition for the Golden Puffin, the grand prize of the Reykjavík International Film Festival (RIFF), held September 17-27, as announced today.
Tags: Actress, Danish, Grand Prize, Iben Hjejle, International Film Festival, Puffin, Riff, September 17
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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
According to the report Northern Lights on PISA 2006, presented at a conference at Grand Hótel in Reykjavík which ended yesterday, the performance of Icelandic, Danish and Norwegian students is below the average of OECD states.
Tags: Danish, Northern Lights, Norwegian Students, Oecd Average, Pisa
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Friday, August 7th, 2009
Director of the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority Gunnar Th. Andersen and special prosecutor due to the banking collapse Ólafur Thór Hauksson believe a report on the fall of the Danish Roskilde Bank might prove useful to their investigation.
Tags: Andersen, Collapse, Danish, Financial Supervisory Authority, Gunnar, Iceland, Roskilde Bank, Special Prosecutor
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Sunday, July 19th, 2009
It appears that Danes are hitting the books again as most of the nation’s major universities have reported sharp increases in their applications for enrollment this year. Upper educational institutions throughout Zealand, Jutland, and Funen are even witnessing record-breaking figures.
The University of Copenhagen saw a 49 per cent increase in its applicants this year, the Copenhagen Post reports, while the University of Aarhus enjoyed a healthy 37 per cent rise in student applicants. For the University of Copenhagen, the 20,619 people who applied to study at the school represented the highest level it has seen in 30 years.
Claus Nielsen, who works at the university’s centre for study and career guidance, thinks several reasons are behind the sudden surge in new applicants for higher education. One of them is the introduction of the bonus rule, which took effect this year. The new rule allows any person who applies to college within two years of completing their qualifying exams to multiply their exam average by 1.08 per cent.
Since last year actually saw a decline in university applications across Denmark, Nielsen thinks many would-be students decided to wait until the bonus rule came into effect to apply for enrollment. The areas of Humanities, Health Sciences, Social Sciences, as well as English-language degrees, are all in hot demand. Foreign students applying for English-language programs are also on the rise throughout the country.
For the full article check out CPHPost.
Tags: Areas Of Humanities, Career Guidance, Claus Nielsen, Copenhagen Post, Danish, Decline, Educational Institutions, English Language Programs, Foreign Students, Funen, Health Sciences, Higher Education, Jutland, Language Degrees, Social Sciences, Student Applicants, Sudden Surge, University Applicants, University Applications, University Of Copenhagen
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Danish councillor banned for anti-Muslim Facebook tirade
Friday, February 26th, 201019-year-old Mathis Groning, a member of the Tarnby local council, has found himself summarily dismissed from the party for violent anti-Muslim suggestions, said a statement from the party. “On a Facebook page against mosques in Denmark, Mathias wrote things that we cannot accept,” said Poul Lindholm Nielsen, the Danish People’s Party Secretary, in a report by Politiken.
The ire of party members was raised by written attacks in an internal discussion group on the webpage, whereby Groning criticises contractors Finn Bach and Kurt Thorsen, as well as Architect Bjarke Ingels.
“These are just some of the Danes up for sale. There are quite a few collaborators who wouldn’t think about helping Muslims to do this and that… but then WE will just have to do what we did in 1944,” writes Groning, in reference to resistance operations during Denmark’s Nazi occupation. The councillor, the Danish People’s Party Deputy Chairman of the youth movement, also posted a number of links featuring right-wing blogs which the party deemed unacceptable.
“We’re finished with him. We can’t have anyone with extreme right-wing views,” stated Lindholm Nielsen.
Tags: Bjarke, Collaborators, Danish, Deputy Chairman, Discussion Group, Facebook, Finn, Inflammatory Comments, Lindholm, Local Council, Mathias, Mosques, Nazi Occupation, Nielsen, Party Members, Party Secretary, Political Organisation, Poul, Right Wing, Social Networking Site
Posted in Iceland | No Comments »