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13 October 2017

The burka ban comes to Denmark

The opening of the Danish Parliament in the first week of October is traditional occasion to take stock of the political situation: the balance of power, the administration’s intentions and its chances of fulfilling them. This year a leading theme is a rift in the Liberal Party, the largest party in the government coalition. The week before, the party’s immigration spokesperson, Marcus Knuth, commented favorably on Facebook on the success of the xenophobic AfD (Alternative for Germany) party in the German election.

Knuth’s colleague, Jan Jørgensen, responded “WTF” (in English – maybe it’s becoming a global trope in political commentary at this historical juncture). Knuth walked back his remark: By a “better balance” in the German Parliament, he meant that he hoped that the conservative parties would get tougher on immigration in order to pre-empt the rise of far right.

Those cartoons again
Around the same time, Inger Støjberg, the outspoken immigration minister, also took to Facebook to comment on an exhibition on blasphemy at the Skovgaard Museum in Viborg. She noted that the show omitted the most famous example of blasphemy in Denmark in recent times, the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in Jyllands-Posten in 2005 that led to riots in the Arab world. It wasn’t enough for her to reiterate her dedication to the principle of freedom of expression. She also shared a screenshot of her iPad background – the most famous of the cartoons, the one by Kurt Westergaard with a bomb in Mohammed’s turban.

The reaction from the media and opposition figures was to criticize Støjberg for gratuitous provocation – even egotistical and childish grandstanding – or to make fun of her for not having a more personal photo on her iPad. Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen made a suitably politic response (DK): He wasn’t “proud of any cartoons” himself, but he was proud to live in a country with freedom of expression.

Rounding up a majority
This was only a warm-up for one of the main items on the parliamentary agenda: a ban on burkas and niqabs. The far-right Danish People’s Party has been pushing for this for a while, but the Liberal Party had resisted. Similar laws in France and Belgium were recently upheld by the European Court of Human Rights. That was perhaps the factor that tipped the Liberal Party in favor of the proposal despite opposition from some of its leading figures.

The bill is formulated as a ban on masks, not specifically religious attire. It would thus apply as well to the ski masks sometimes worn by anti-fascist demonstrators who sometimes commit vandalism. The Liberal Party explains that it must balance the considerations of freedom to dress as one wants with the principle that in an open society, people need to be able to see one another. The Liberal Alliance, Denmark’s most libertarian party, also changed its position to support the proposal, citing the oppression of women that the burka represents.

Along with the long-time support of the Conservative Party, that was enough to give the proposal a majority. Since the government’s decision was announced, the Social Democrats, who had said they were waiting to see the actual proposal, also decided to support the measure (DK). 

Combating sexism with a dress code
Both the flaunting of the cartoon and the burka ban are seen as hardline moves by the government against the spread of the “parallel” Muslim society. But isn’t anyone bothered by a contradiction between the ban and the celebration of freedom of expression? Yes. Of the three leading daily newspapers, only the conservative Berlingske Tidende (DK) favors the ban. Both the further-right Jyllands-Posten (DK) (where the Mohammed cartoons appeared) and the left-leaning Politiken (DK) oppose it.

There are only an estimated 100 to 200 women in the country who wear a burka or niqab. No one suggests they are a security threat, and the police are pretty busy with gang wars at the moment. These are consenting adults after all. Some may be victims of coercion, others have been indoctrinated to accept their “oppression,” and others yet are educated ethnic Danish converts.

A ban on masks at demonstrations could be enforced without its being extended to religious clothing. The ban is thus largely a symbolic gesture of disapproval of fundamentalist Islam. Whether you favor it depends on whether you consider the threat of Islam to be so urgent that it justifies compromising the freedom of expression that is “fundamental” to a liberal democracy or whether you want to score political points with a certain constituency. In a recent poll (conducted just after a Danish modeling agency had announced its first hijab-wearing model), some 62% of Danes favored the ban.


06 October 2017

The happiest convicts in the world

The new complex is located outside a town of about 2,000 on a quiet rural landscape surrounded by small farms and clumps of woods. It has a gym with a beautiful huge mural of a seascape commissioned from a well-known painter. In the square at the center, where the residents mix freely with the staff, there is a school, a library, a grocer and recreation facilities such as a sound studio. The church and prayer room are bright, modern and inviting. There is a football field and workshops. The 140 square-foot private rooms each have a toilet, shower, refrigerator, TV and natural light from two sides, including a floor-to-ceiling window with a view of a lawn or a kitchen garden. They are situated around shared kitchens and common areas.

What is it, a college campus, a retreat center, a luxury hotel, a wellness spa? No, it’s Storstrøm Fængsel, the world’s newest maximum-security prison, which opened on September 25 on the island of Falster, Denmark. The objective was to make it resemble a village and ordinary life so that it is easier for the inmates to adapt to the outside world when they leave. Prisons in Scandinavia have been tending in this direction since around the 1970s. The Halden prison in Norway is perhaps the best-known example of architectural design based on the “normality principle.” Storstrøm Prison is intended to rival it in that regard. According to the Berlingske Tidende daily, it is intended to be “the most humane prison in the world” (DK). The officials behind the project believe that the architecture helps  to resocialize criminals, some of whom have never experienced a normal daily life.

It takes a village
Security has not been compromised, prison officials insist. There are a 20-foot wall as well as a fence around the entire complex and a separate locked high-security section. The open areas are covered by 300 cameras, and there are user-friendly electronic communications between the residential units and guards. The 250 inmates are divided into units of 54, and with the push of a button, they can be further locked down into small units about four to seven inmates. The smaller units make it easier for the staff, which also numbers about 250, to work with the convicts and easier to avoid problems that could arise from gang rivalries. The officials emphasize that contact between staff and convicts is important in identifying signs of radicalization. There has also been much interest from prison guards (DK) who want to work at the state-of-the-art facility.

From panopticon to entertainment center
An American prison guard who visited a few years ago was reportedly shocked at the planned conditions: “Prisoners shouldn’t be coddled.” Will Romanian pickpockets be tempted to come to Denmark and get themselves caught in order to get off the streets in the winter? The prison officials don’t think so. The main thing is that they are locked up and deprived of their cell phones. Nobody wants that. Taxpayers also ask why they should all have TVs? Because it keeps them occupied. Why should they have private toilets and baths? It saves money because guards don’t have to accompany them down a hall and avoids conflicts with other inmates.

The architects maintain that the buildings and facilities won’t make life easy for the inhabitants. Prisons are always rough environments. They note that prisons from the mid-19th century were criticized for being too comfortable because they had toilets and electricity, which many criminals weren’t used to. Prisons should be built to last for a hundred years. According to the lead architect, Mads Mandrup Hansen of the C.F. Møller firm, who has presented the design at conferences around the world (DK), the idea is to create a framework for positive coexistence (the word he used was fælleskab, which usually connotes fellowship and community), but the architecture can’t do that by itself.

Evidence-based punishment?
Sounds good in theory, but does this bleeding-heart, rehab approach work and help make Denmark the happiest country in the world? Can a happy country afford to show compassion toward its less fortunate delinquents, and do comfortable convicts make law-abiding if not decidedly happy citizens afterward? What do the data on the recidivism rate for similar prisons say? There’s little information about that in all the coverage of the impressive new facility.

The crime rate is relatively low in Scandinavia, especially the violent crime rate. But prison design and policies are hardly the only factors in that. There must be a body of literature on the effects of various methods of incarceration, so it’s a little odd that it’s never mentioned. In any case, the new joint may get a good test because after a rash of gang-war shootings in Copenhagen in recent months, many dangerous characters who could use effective treatment have been arrested and jailed.

In contrast, the US, leaning back toward the eye-for-an-eye school under the new administration, recently voted against a UN resolution condemning the death penalty for behavior such as adultery, gay sex and blasphemy.




29 September 2017

The less happy among us

Except for the free newspaper MX Metroxpress, Politiken is Denmark’s largest-circulation daily (DK). In the past, it was associated with the Social Liberal Party. Now it is formally independent, but it still has a left-leaning political stance and its readership is decidedly sympathetic to socialistic currents in the country and the welfare state in general. One expression of this approach is a tendency to see victims everywhere, that is, to identify people as neglected or slighted and to showcase their plights. Of course the media have responsibility to identify injustice, analyze its origins and workings, and place the blame where it belongs. But Politiken’s treatment seems excessive.

I’m hardly the first to notice this phenomenon, but surveying some examples offers a curious angle on the ramifications of the “welfare society” that produces the highest relative happiness rankings in the world. Few of the opinions represent the newspaper’s own explicit editorial positions. Some reflect the journalist’s or commentator’s views, some belong to the subject of the pieces, and some are from letters to the editor. But they all reflect the kind of topic the paper wants to draw attention to (the paper has an English-language extract).

Disasters natural and man-made
So who are victims? I’m not referring to the obvious, indisputable cases covered by all newspapers: hurricane victims, earthquake victims, the persecuted Rohingya. Migrants who drown in the Mediterranean. Yemenis suffering from hunger, cholera and war. Sri Lankan children kidnapped and sold for adoption. Random shooting victims and residents of Copenhagen neighborhoods with gang wars. These people may be portrayed with more or less pathos and indignation, but they are not the type that Politiken specializes in. Here is a random sample from the past couple of weeks.

Students who feel compelled to take Ritalin and beta blockers because of pressure to perform. Families with more than three children, who because of an administration proposal would see their “child-check” reduced. One hundred and ten Siemens employees in Jutland who were laid off because jobs were moved to France and Germany. Train passengers who are delayed more than an hour and don’t get the free meal they’re entitled to according to an EU directive. Divorced men who miss out on those same “child-checks” because their children have their official address with their mother.

Jobless, pedestrians, girls, the EU
Children who are bullied at school, despite the decline from 25 percent to 10 percent over the past 20 years. Local citizens who must pay for the cleanup of a nature preserve polluted by the military. Young girls who don’t read a book everyday (41 percent instead of 32 percent seven years ago) because peer pressure makes them chat on social media instead. Quota refugees whose reception the Danish administration has postponed until 2018. The unemployed who are denied permanent disability benefits and forced to undergo job training because of a stricter policy. The mentally ill and handicapped who were not approved for aid by their municipalities and won on appeal.

Children seduced into becoming compulsive gamblers by computer games. Pedestrians on a new bridge over Copenhagen Harbor who are endangered by cyclists. The EU, which is being cheated out of EUR 5 billion in taxes by the likes of Google and Facebook. Civil servants who get emails from work on Sunday. People swindled into sending money for purchases of iPhones on Facebook. Senior citizens who want to supplement their low income with home equity loans and are rejected because their income is too low. Young women who have to live with emasculated men.

Smokers, politicians, nurses, trippers
Smokers on welfare who do not get a bonus for quitting smoking as other citizens do. Hospital employees who are overworked and hospital patients who are under-served because of a reduction of funding. An adoptee from India who is perceived as non-Danish. Children born to older mothers who have an elevated risk of ADHD. Politicians whose budget proposals are heavily criticized in the media. University students who can’t find an apartment or room to rent. Children whose parents won’t let them be vaccinated. The world, which will experience more hurricanes because of global warming.

Denmark, which will get a politically unqualified US ambassador. Alcoholics, who can’t get good treatment because Danish culture encourages overdrinking. The unemployed, who are subject to a longer qualifying period for benefits. Students who are abroad for more than one year and according to a legislative proposal would lose their stipend. The elderly, who do not receive adequate care in nursing homes. Babies who suffer from understaffing at day-care centers. Everyone who does not have access to psychedelics, which according to the chair of the Psychedelic Society should be a human right.

Universal basic well-being
I’m not saying that many of these things aren’t legitimate grievances. Only noting that there seems to be an endless supply and asking, in the welfare society, where do these purported human rights end? The Danish concept of “millimeter democracy” refers to a contest in which if one person gets favorable treatment, another person feels entitled to the equivalent, and the next in turn, ad infinitum, or at least until you have accumulated the world’s largest public sector. If it confers great happiness, why does it also produce so much resentment? What used to be known as the right to the pursuit of happiness often comes to be viewed as a right to every comfort and convenience, if not happiness itself. Why not just break out the soma?

22 September 2017

The agonies of European multiculturalism

Douglas Murray is a British journalist and associate editor at the Spectator. His latest book, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity and Islam, which came out earlier this year, is of great importance for understanding developments in the past 50 years in Europe. It concerns the growing Muslim population in the region that poses an intractable social problem because it is not being integrated in European culture. A combination of mass migration, a falling birth rate among Europeans, and the acquiescence of Western European politicians has led to a situation in which traditional liberal Western values are being undermined.

The acts of jihadist terrorism that the book recounts are well known. The less sensational but disturbingly frequent incidences of rape and anti-Semitic attacks are also becoming familiar. The most shocking revelations of the book, however, concern the denial and guilt displayed by Western European politicians and the mainstream media, partly because they run counter to the skepticism about immigration that Western European populations have shown since the 1960s.

From guest workers to sharia law
At that time, when there was a labor shortage, Western European countries invited “guest workers” from Turkey and elsewhere to fill the shortfall. They were expected to return home when they were no longer needed, but they stayed. They were expected to become integrated, and when they did not, politicians denied that there was a problem because they were afraid of being called racist and would not admit that their policies had been mistaken. The police and the media supported this position by suppressing news of gang rapes and white slavery, for example.

Even though the large majority of the Muslim population does not commit acts of terrorism and violence, there is surprisingly widespread support among it for sharia law, the Islamic State, honor killings, female genital mutilation, and so on. The earlier predictions of problems that were treated as alarmist proved to be underestimated.

A religion of peace
And when news of atrocities did get out, politicians insisted that the acts had nothing to do with Islam, a religion of peace. They blamed their own culture for its colonial history and maintained that Europe had a unique responsibility to shelter even those opposed to its basic values. This is political correctness taken to masochistic lengths. At various times, for example, Swedish cabinet members and prominent figures have said that everyone is a migrant, that Swedes were jealous of the authenticity of Middle Eastern culture, and that a failure to accept migrants was equivalent to the Holocaust.

The book describes this syndrome in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, and it also describes a resistance to it in eastern Europe, notably Hungary. It makes little reference to Denmark besides the Mohammed cartoon crisis, but the implication of its message for Denmark is striking: with its infamous 50+ measures to restrict immigration, the current Danish government is actually taking the course that Murray recommends to mitigate the worst integration problems afflicting its neighboring countries.

Fake Syrians and children
Consider the issue of repatriating people whose applications for asylum have been rejected. In Germany, Sweden and elsewhere, there have been thousands of cases of people whose applications have been rejected for making false claims of being Syrians, of being minors or of being persecuted on political grounds. In very few cases, are they returned to their homeland or to the country where they should have sought asylum according to the Dublin III accord. The authorities lose track of them. Perhaps they survive economically on the black market or join criminal gangs. In any case, the official policies are considered impossible to enforce.

In Denmark, the number of such cases is relatively small, but they have been identified: In the first half of 2017, some 1,835 rejected applicants were repatriated. As of August 3, there were 941 waiting to be repatriated (DK), including 434 who could not be repatriated because of difficulties reaching agreements with their home countries. There is a debate between humanitarian organizations, which argue that those who cannot be sent home be given residence or work permits, and the administration, which argues that such measures would encourage others to enter the country on false pretenses.

Racist or realist?
Rejected asylum applicants have also escaped from Danish refugee centers and disappeared from view, but the concrete figures on the issue, the open debate on the policy and the negotiations conducted with the applicants’ home countries set Denmark apart from the usual practices and attitudes that Murray describes. The center-left Social Liberal party now also favors (DK) a reduction in the number of refugees, and the Social Democrats now propose (DK) following the Australian model in which applicants are processed outside the country. Because of a reduction in the number of applicants, Denmark using the allocated funding to support refugee camps (DK) in North Africa, as Murray and others recommend.

Denmark has been vilified for exemplifying xenophobic tendencies that have appeared in France, Germany and elsewhere, but if Murray’s portrayal is credible, its recent policies exemplify rather a more candid and realistic attitude toward the European cultural crisis than is found in most of the continent.