They are the Climate Debt Agents, and their job is to get the Danish government industrialized countries, including Denmark, to pay their “climate debt” to the developing world. If you are in Denmark, and would like to don a suit and join them, you can apply here. You can also visit them on their blog or on Facebook.

Who pays the price?

When rich countries make decisions that have negative affects on the environment, people living in poverty pay the highest price. Drought, hunger, and death caused by climate change could be prevented in many places with technology like water storage facilities that can help communities adapt to new climate conditions.

But that costs money.

“Who should pay the climate debt?” [PDF] is the title of a short report by the international anti-poverty organization ActionAid that calculates the monetary value of the debt at €135 billion per year until 2020, and proposes how the bill should be divided between countries.

Over the past 3 months, MS ActionAid Denmark has educated a team of online and offline activists to help deliver their message, by sending them on research missions to Kenya, Brussels and Denmark, and pairing them up with Global Voices bloggers who mentored them virtually for 6 weeks on blogging.

On their website, the mentees-turned-debt-agents explain: “We want a world with climate justice and global justice. In order to get that the attitude of decision makers has to be changed so that they recognize and realize to pay off their climate debt.”

According to the Danish People's Party, a coalition partner of the two ruling right-wing parties of the Danish government, paying immigrants to leave Denmark will save the state money on social services and “problems” [da] in the long run. “It costs quite a lot to have maladjusted immigrants in Danish society,” said financial spokesperson of the party, Kristian Thulesen Dahl. Funds have also been set aside for campaigns by local authorities who wish to encourage immigrants to leave the country. The government have not yet calculated how many people can be expected to accept the offer.

Around 10% of the population in Denmark are immigrants or descendants of immigrants including from neighboring countries, as well as the rest of the world. The primary issue in politics and the media for the past many years has been the “integration” of Muslim and other non-western immigrants and the tension arising from a perceived clash of cultures. Danish politicians have created some of the most stringent immigration laws in all of Europe, and continue to score high for it in polls.

How much, to leave the country?

In response, a sarcastic public Facebook group [da] protesting the law has been set up to collect 100,000 kroners to pay the leader of the Danish People's Party, Pia Kjærsgård to leave the country.

The group has over 16,000 members, and the tagline says, “100,000 kr. dear friends - and maybe she'll do it”. The group creators pledge to offer any additional money collected to the minister of integration, Birthe Rønn Hornbech from the governing Liberal Party, in case she should be amenable to leaving the country as well.

The debate on the Facebook group page is heated. Some offer witty comments about who else should be kicked out of the country or what else should happen to them, while others counter that the offer from the Danish government is a generous offer and should be welcomed by immigrants who are unhappy in Denmark and would prefer to leave. One commenter disagrees with the hype, and reminds everyone that a similar policy has been in place for several years, but the amount of money on offer was only 10 times smaller.

Facebook commenter Dan Cornali Jørgensen says [da]:

Jeg har måske misforstået konceptet?
Drejer det sig ikke om et lovforslag som giver ikke-integrerbare udlændige mulighed for at sige ja-tak, til en check på 100.000 kr. mod tilsagn om frivilligt at rejse hjem til deres oprindelsesland? Umidelbart virker det storsindet og absolut humanistisk, da vi må formode at 100.000… kr. er en anseelig formue i det pågældende land, og nok til at starte en anstændig tilværelse i det land som de tilsyneladende har så stærk tilknytning til…

Pensioners must report travel of more than 2 months

Another initiative negotiated this month by Danish People's Party is a law that requires all pensioners and early retirees in Denmark [da] to report to their city government if they plan to leave Denmark for more than two months at a time. Ostensibly, the goal is to stop people “for instance, Iraqis” from receiving pension payments in Denmark while they may be collecting wages in another country at the same time. The most popular example is that of an Iraqi-Danish politician, Samia Aziz Mohammad, who was discovered to be collecting pension funds while she was earning high wages from the Iraqi parliament. She has since paid the money back [da] to the Danish government. Another pensioner was discovered by the Danish press to be earning wages from the Kurdish parliament.

Members of parliament of both the Liberal Party and the Danish People's Party have argued that the new restrictions will also cut down on holiday visits by fake refugees to their home countries, and repatriation of family members who spend too much time abroad.

The fact that all Danish pensioners wil in effect will become suspects of fraud is something the biggest association of the elderly in Denmark, DaneAge, is vocally angry [da] about. Many comments on newspaper articles [da] support the government's attempt to cut down on fraud, while others draw comparisons to East Germany (GDR) travel bans of the past.

One Danish blogger, Erik Bentzen on Dette og Hint, says [da]:

Enhver kan sige sig selv, at meldepligten ikke dæmmer op for noget som helst, da den ikke indebærer nogen form for effektiv kontrol.

Det er ren chikane og tom signalpolitik, som øger kommunernes administrative arbejde til ingen verdens nytte.

Reglen er så amøbeintelligent, at den forhåbentlig giver bagslag, næste gang pensionisterne skal til stemmeurnerne.

The competition aims to raise awareness about climate change and discuss the consequences of climate change in different countries, points of view all over the world, and how local media and the public approach the subject. Organized by the EJC (European Journalism Centre), the launch event was split over two days, the first featuring a series of lectures from experts on climate change, and the second devoted to a visit to the Danish eco-village of Dyssekilde, in the north of the country.

The launch event kicked off with a welcome lecture by Wilfried Rütten, Director of the EJC, followed by a talk by Svend Olling, Head of Department, COP15 Logistics. Mr. Olling gave a presentation on the work that the Danish government has done for the competition and the expectations surrounding the COP15 conference.

Journalists from many parts of the world joined a round-table discussion moderated by Raymond Frenken from EUX-TV. Names such as Tasha Eichenseher, a National Geographic science producer and editor, Gerald Traufetter, a science and technology correspondent for Der Spiegel, Asbjørn Jørgensen, from the Århus School of Media and Journalism in Denmark, and Ramesh Jaura, Regional Director of IPS Europe, discussed how the media covers issue relating to climate change and the environment.

François Roudié, the European Commission Policy Coordinator, gave a rundown on the EU's response to climate change. A counterpoint to this was provided by Andreas Barkman from the European Environmental Agency, and Head of the Group for Climate Change Mitigation, who highlighted the problematic aspects of the negotiations that are going to be held at COP15.

Greenpeace Nordic Executive Director Mads Christensen also underlined what bloggers can do to encourage climate change discussion and voiced Greenpeace's expectations for a possible agreement resulting from COP15. In his talk, he expressed the view that, taking into account current negotiations and the speeches of national leaders all over the world, a huge cut in CO2 emissions and an idealistic agreement are unlikely to take place.

Probably the most eagerly anticipated lecture of the day was given by Søren Hermansen. Søren was one of the Heroes of the Environment named by TIME magazine in 2008, and he gave a presentation on the Samso experiment before the audience of bloggers. This experiment aims to introduce alternative energy resources to local environments. In this case, wind energy is responsible for meeting all the villagers' energy demands. Readers can check out some of the Samso experiment photos in this Flickr pool by Phil Lacombe.

On the second day of the event, bloggers visited the eco-village of Dyssekilde in the north of the country. The village has 70 households and a population of 130 adults and 50 children. It was created more than 20 years ago, and its inhabitants share an environmental approach, feeling the urge to act as pioneers of a lifestyle that allows a more ecologically friendly, sustainable community. Like the Samso experiment, Dyssekilde also depends on wind energy to meet the villagers' energy demands, and since they don't use much of the energy, what is left over is sold to a Danish energy company.

A Dyssekilde household.

Dyssekilde houses have a peculiar appearance. Villagers build their own homes, and many of them have solar panels attached in order to encourage the use of clean energy. Houses also have south-facing windows, so that they can make as much use of the solar energy and natural light as possible, and reduce the use of internal lights and heating units during the day.

Another great example of sustainable living in Dyssekilde is the non-chemical waste water cleaning system. The villagers created the system based on natural cleaning, which uses 30.000 willows to cleanse the water thoroughly, without chemicals or other products. Even though their current system reached its maximum capacity in 2006, they are now planning to build the biggest non-chemical waste water cleaning system in the world.

Who are these bloggers anyway?

“Would you like to participate in an international blogging competition about Climate Change in Copenhagen?” Some ninety people from all over the world said YES to the above question and have just spent three days in Denmark, attending the launch event of the TH!NK ABOUT IT blogging competition. But who are those people? And why did they decide to engage in environmental cyberactivism?

Most participants came from Europe, but the novelty of this second edition of TH!NK ABOUT IT was the participation of people from various developing countries, such as Brazil, India, Mexico, China and South Africa. Many participants came from Eastern Europe, but Western Europe was also well represented, with many British and Italian bloggers. The nature of their blogs and their motives for participating in the event were as diverse as their countries of origin.

Journalist Charles Nisz Lourenço from Brazil

Many professional journalists also took part in the competition, showing that blogging can add to a profession that already deals with reporting and expressing one's views of the world. Charles Nisz Lourenço, from Brazil, works as a journalist and is about to start a PhD in Economics, and is quite new to blogging. He only started his personal blog, Fragmentos da Realidade Cotidiana [Fragments of Daily Reality, pt] in February this year, and has covered political, financial and environmental issues; he also blogs for the Lixo Eletrônico blog, which was behind the Electronic Waste Manifesto.

Maltese journalist Keith Demicoli has his own TV program about politics in “the happiest place on Earth”, as he described his country of origin, and is participating in the TH!NK ABOUT IT competition for the second time.

Maltese Journalist Keith Demicoli

Chinese-Spanish language translator Ding Dawei, also known by his Spanish name, “Diego”, works as a professional journalist for the Chinese People's Daily [en], but is a newcomer to blogging, through which he wishes to look more closely at Climate Change issues and expand his horizons.

Ding Dawei. Chinese Journalist and newcomer blogger.

Non-journalists were, however, in the majority. A friendly pair of bloggers from Pilani in India, brother Abhishek Nayak and his sister Anindita Nayak, enjoyed the launch event for the competition. She is only 18 years old, but already blogs for the AoC Initiative, a youth delegation to the UN Negotiations on Climate Change. He was coy about his blog, which he says is “full of very ironic comments”, but with a little pushing we got the URL. He has been blogging since 2006 about politics and Indian issues, as well as sharing his photos and news about events he attends.

Anindita Nayak and Abhishek Nayak, participants from India

Lucy Setian [bg], from Bulgaria, works as a journalist, but has an online dream-come-true literary project with her boyfriend called Azcheta.com [bg], where they write book reviews and organize literary events in Sofia, and have gained fame with events such as “Coffee goes with books, not cigarettes”. Blogging about the environment allows her to address her political aspirations, too.

Lucy Setian

American Devin McIntire, from California, USA, has just set up the blog The Green Cadet, hoping to disseminate green business opportunities online and, who knows, maybe one day make them happen in reality. He believes that the solutions for environmental problems will come not from politicians, but rather from local eco-entrepreneurial initiatives.

Devin McIntire from the USA

Some bloggers were notably more high-tech than the others, like the Italian Frederico Pistono, who participates in no fewer than 12 blogs! A movie maker, from the beginning of the launch event he was filming the bloggers (at lectures, on the metro, etc), and is bound to have some interesting video clips of the competition. Here are some other blogs where you can check out his work: AsianCineBlog [it] and Activism [it].

Frederico Pistono from Italy

Other video bloggers were present at the competition. The British drama student Matthew Turner maintains a YouTube account where he “takes the piss out of himself” online - in typical British style, he aims to treat serious issues with humor.

Matthew Turner from the UK

Radka Lankasova has a personal blog and is also a contributor to the number one blog in the Czech Republic, but her main motivation is to make friends and travel through blogging opportunities like TH!NK ABOUT IT.

Radka Lankasova from Czech Republic

Some bloggers taking part in the competition were still crawling in the blogosphere or experimenting with it for various reasons, but the EJC (European Journalism Commission) hopes to encourage them to start blogging about the environment, too. From 23rd September to 16th December 2009 bloggers will discuss climate change on the official competition platform. Although there are prizes, one of them being an environmentalist's dream - to attend the COP15 conference for two weeks in Copenhagen with all expenses paid by the EJC - there is a sense of community rather than rivalry amongst the bloggers. As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to blog about the environment!

Global Change, the education program of MS ActionAid Denmak has an ambitious goal teaching social and political change on a global level through education of young people in communication, new media and innovative organising. They are being helped by a team of 31 Global Voices Blogger Mentors that have each been paired with one Danish or African student in order to help them become more familiar with both the technical and human aspects of blogging.

Challenges of mentoring virtually

Since the initial chain of introductory emails between Mentor and Mentees around two weeks ago, numerous positive interactions have taken place and new friendships are forming. Some Mentors have been giving technical advice on Gmail, Twitter, RSS feed, Skype, Facebook, instant messaging, embedding videos, sharing links, Flickr and creative commons, and Mentors have also been commenting on the Mentees' new blogs.

However, in a recent online IRC chat meeting between Mentors to review progress, some were concerned that many Mentees are still only treading carefully into the online world, and have such a tight program, learning new technology, while at the same time learning and planning a campaign for the Copenhagen climate change summit that they have not all been as excited about daily online communication via email and chat as the Mentors.

Resources for new bloggers

Mentors have decided to approach this positively by looking for more ways to inspire Mentees to find meaning in blogging and appreciate how sharing information and building online communities  can contribute to transformation, epecially for a burning issue like Climate Change. With only 3-4 weeks left of the mentorship, Mentors have discussed starting blog memes, and providing topic suggestions for those new bloggers who are still unsure what to write about.

Mentors have been on the go, gathering resources for better mentoring for their Mentees on a wiki page. and in an email group mailing list. Noteworthy resources include: The Common Craft “in plain English” video series, including “Blogs in Plain English” and “Twitter in Plain English“; various articles on climate justice; a list of environmental journalists on Twitter; Sylwia Presley's newly started blog about how to blog; and Diego's suggestion of this inspiring guide.

Catching up with Mentee Blogs

Mentees have written many interesting and resourceful posts with their take on climate change and its challenges. Following are some of the highlights from the 31 mentees.

Annlou has questioned about superficial green revolution. Casper wrote about the obvious limitations of the individual approach – and the problems of the communal alternative. Josephine wrote a thought piece which was triggered by the idea of climate friendly food.

Mentee Arvid and Mentor Renata Avila jointly posted their experience and shared insights gathered while Renata visited Dominican Republic. Rie has blogged on what is happening with the climate issue on the NGO and grassroots level where she featured a number of non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace and Peoples Climate Action.

Signe reflected on the buzz about climate change and personal responsibility. Simonwr wrote about why changes must come from ordinary people rather than from government leaders.

Mentees also organized this happening in central Copenhagen as part of the Avaaz Global Wake-Up Call on Climate Change.

The course is organized by the development agency MS Action Aid Denmark (more info in Danish) and will bring together university students and professionals from Denmark, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia to build their skills in online and offline activism over three months.

Global Voices bloggers will act as virtual mentors to the students in the first six weeks of the course where they will be learning about blogging, citizen media, and online activism.

Organizing for climate justice

The final challenge for the students at the end of the course will be to develop a project related to “climate justice“.

After the first six weeks in Copenhagen, participants will conduct fieldwork in Denmark and Kenya (incidentally coinciding with the African bloggers meeting, Kelele) before returning to Copenhagen once more in time for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in December.

Through personal online communication, the mentors will introduce their mentees to the wonders of blogging, and help inspire them to see possibilities for creative use of citizen media for activism. Many will also be volunteering advice about micro-blogging and other technologies.

Mentoring from South to North

Among the mentors (from left to right): Tharum, Gayle, Joe, Renata, Ismail, Elia

The 31 Global Voices mentors come from more than 20 different countries, including Venezuela, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Cambodia, Brazil, and Bangladesh. Two-thirds of the students will be from Denmark and the rest from Africa.

Alongside their involvement with Global Voices, several mentors are well-known bloggers in their own countries, and all have either extensive experience or knowledge of online organizing efforts in their own regions. We expect that pairings between - for instance - a blogger in India with a blogger from Denmark; or a blogger in Azerbaijan with a blogger from Uganda; will lead to new friendships and greater understanding of how global community can be fostered via the internet.

Developing a new model for blogger mentoring

The Global Voices mentors are developing the new mentoring program themselves through IRC chat room meetings, a shared wiki for “lesson” ideas, a Google group email list, and a Facebook group.

Mentors intend to create enough documentation that the experience could easily be repeated by Global Voices or by others in the future. In their own blogs and tweets about the project, they will be using the tag: #gvmentors and we will be sharing developments and conclusions on Global Voices too. Later on, there will also be a student website at: globalchangenow.net

If you know of similar mentoring initiatives we should look at, we'd love to hear about them in the comments.

For Global Voices, this project is a welcome source of alternative revenue. Individual mentors (who usually contribute to Global Voices on an entirely volunteer basis) will be offered modest stipends for their work as mentors, but their collective effort is also generating revenue to support the Global Voices community as a whole.

Wikipedia enthusiasts took up the fight [da] with TV2, and the ensuing public debate has centered on questions of journalistic integrity. On Twitter, it quickly became known as #TV2wikigate.

Stefan Bøgh-Andersen who manages the Danish RSS feed search engine Overskrift.dk has kept a thorough time line [da] on his blog of the Danish media, blog, and Twitter reactions to the scandal throughout the month of May. This post is based on his links.

Anders Breinholt and Cecilie Frøkjær

You can see an archived video of the program (May 13) on TV2's website. The hosts of the TV2 program Go’ Morgen Danmark, Cecilie Frøkjær and Anders Breinholt demonstrate supposedly laughable errors in the Danish Wikipedia entries for themselves, and encourage viewers not to trust what they read on the internet.

Since the “history” of all Wikipedia pages show which users make what changes, it was quickly uncovered by a Wikipedia user that the IP address of the person who created an error in Frøkjær's date of birth on May 12 matched that of the production company of the morning show.

Incidentally, the history page also shows that the error was corrected only four minutes later by another Wikipedia user.

Danish blogosphere bites back

On Bootstrapping.net, Thomas Madsen-Mygdal wrote [en]:

Yesterday the main morning news show ran a story about how anyone can edit wikipedia. They make fun of a world where everyone can participate and spread fear about how dangerous it can be.

To prove the point they humorously tried to show that they had edited the hosts’ own wikipedia entries with some prank statements. Like small bullies in kindergarten doing it on national television - f*** with our collective creation Wikipedia. Arrogance is a small word for it.

On Blog.Flugge.Net [da], Matthias Flügge Hansen magnified the Wikipedia screenshot shown on television to prove that it was not the live webpage, but probably a photo-shopped image.

Claus Dahl of Notes from Classy's Kitchen said the media must be coming up with these stories to make themselves look better. He wrote [da]: “The sub-text is of course, ‘who could possibly trust stories that are not produced by journalists?'”.

Media lies or satire?

Bloggers were even more incensed [da] when a TV2 editor, Jes Schrøder, defended the fabricated story in an interview with Journalisten.dk [da] the trade publication of the Danish Union of Journalists, on May 15.

Schrøder said the hosts were merely trying to show funny examples of what one could have written if one wanted to manipulate the text on Wikipedia. When he was pressed on whether that was an excuse for lying on television, he insisted it had been an attempt at “satire”.

Here is the apology that was eventually issued by TV2 on May 18. “We apologize for imprecisions,” says Frøkjær.

The aftermath

Danish social media company, Socialsquare, (co-founded by Madsen-Mygdal) organized a meeting on May 19 for organizations to discuss how to engage productively with online communities. Andreas Lloyd offered some practical tips [en], including “Get the facts straight” and “Show respect for culture you don’t understand”.

In Mediebloggen, Lars K Jensen wrote an analysis [da] on May 24 of what the scandal had demonstrated about the Danish blogosphere.

On the one hand, said Jensen, bloggers uncovered the story and were able to grab the attention of the press. On the other hand, they did not demonstrate the ability to take matters any further themselves. Instead they merely added their opinions to the echo chamber:

Hvem førte så historien videre? Jo, det gjorde et af de “gamle medier”: Journalisten.

Hvad var fremgangsmåden? Hvordan fik man historien videre? Jo, man greb knoglen og ringede til TV 2-redaktør Jes Schrøder. Uden at kunne sige det med 100 procent sikkerhed, så tror jeg ikke, at nogen af dem, der omtalte sagen på blogs og/eller Twitter overhovedet har forsøgt at kontakte TV 2.

Det er muligt, at det er sådan blogs “skal” være, men det flytter ikke historierne nogen vegne.

Er det en konsolidering i mediebilledet, vi ser nu? At sociale medier og græsrødder finder historierne, mens medierne kører den sikkert hjem og bringer os og selve historien videre. Jeg tror det, og det er ikke nødvendigvis noget dårligt. Selve blog-mediet er rettet mod, at folk kan lufte deres egne holdninger, synspunkter og erfaringer.

Flowers in Xela, Guatemala by Erik++ on Flickr

From Denmark to Dominica, Peru to Pakistan, the United States to Uganda, bloggers of all ages are calling, visiting, or otherwise honoring their mothers today.

One such blogger is Santa Cruz Barillas of the Guatemalan province of Huehuetenango, who writes of a traditional celebration of Mother's Day:

Feliz día de la Madre. Como ya es tradicional en nuestro querido municipio, el día de hoy 10 de mayo, desde las 2 de la mañana han salido diferentes grupos de organizaciones como iglesias, la Municipalidad y grupos de jóvenes a darle Serenata a las madrecitas de todas las zonas.

Mahesh, from Bangalore, India, is also blogging about today's holiday. Of mothers, he writes:

In every culture Mother plays the most important role in bringing up kids. But at times I do feel in urban India children [i.e. grown ups] are slowly drifting away from parents :-( We will pay a heavy price for this sin down the road. It would be best we thank our Mothers (and Fathers) on a daily basis instead of on a ‘yearly basis’.

The blogger behind American blog “Plan A” is a mother herself, and is celebrating two special lives today: those of the mothers of her two adopted children from Uganda. The blogger writes:

Did you know ~ Mother’s Day is not just an American holiday but is celebrated in many other countries across the globe, including Uganda. Today, I am very aware that there are two women out there who birthed two little boys back in 2006 and 2007. There is no way for them to know what happened to the sons they last saw so long ago. Since maternal death is a primary reason for children becoming orphans in the first place it is very likely that they are no longer living. But, even though we will never know their stories - today I am deeply grateful for the two African women who birthed my two youngest children.

The Filipina Mom in Denmark marks the occasion with this short and sweet message:

Because Moms were once daughters and without our children we wouldn’t be mothers! Happy Mothers Day (2009) !

Finally, Manfred Elfstrom, blogging for Labor is Not a Commodity, takes the time to remind us to appreciate all women, and not just our own mothers:

With Mother’s Day and the less-well-known World Fair Trade Day approaching, it’s worth thinking about a sector that employs a large number of women and is singularly unfair. This is the electronics industry—not the industry of Silicon Valley creative types on bean bag chairs, but the industry that makes the actual MP3 players and laptops we use. While some jobs in the sector are skilled and pay reasonable wages, many require long days of repetitive, minute tasks, tasks that cramp backs and cause workers’ eyesight to wear out at an early age, all for low pay, sometimes lower than the local minimum wage.

Courtesy of 7iberdotCom

Ambassador Lund-Sørensen announced the event on 7iberdotCom:

Beyond Stereotypes – as the event is called – will put spotlight on stereotypes.

I suppose most of us would like to be looked upon as individuals and not as belonging to one big bulk or group of individuals that can be put into a box defined by one culture, one nationality, one linguistic group and/or one religion. I also suppose that most of us have tried at one point or the other to be stereotyped into one of these boxes and felt that we did not belong there at all – although we did share some similarities with the others in that same box?

In many ways we are lucky. Globalisation, satellite TV and the internet has given us opportunities that the majority of the generation before us had not even imagined would be possible. Opportunities not only to watch – but also an opportunity to interact.

These media are very powerful tools when it comes to creating stereotypes, transmitting them – or breaking them down. On Thursday 16th we are inviting you to meet a stand-up comedian, a journalist, a blogger, two filmmakers and an actor who will put spotlight on media and stereotypes. I hope that you will join us in a constructive reflection and debate over perceived stereotypes and how the media can help breaking down stereotypes – not building them up. To get the debate going I challenge you to start blogging about your thoughts right here and now and then we will follow up on the 16th.

Following the event, the Ambassador wrote some thoughts about the evening on his personal blog:

Thank you very much for your participation in the “Beyond Stereotype” event last night. It got nicely crowded and a little bit to warm in the theatre. The feedback I got in the lounge afterwards was very positive.

I didn’t get the possibility to comment on a sceptical remark from the audience about the lack of Danish negative stereotypes on the net. I do not claim scientific value to my research but I actually didn’t manage to find some really negative Danish stereotypes through Wiki or Google (only in English). Maybe it is because we are just a very small population of 5.5 million (like Jordan) or simply not interesting enough as an ethnic group. Even searching for Scandinavian negative stereotypes didn’t yield much. Didn’t look for specific Jordanian stereotypes - but I guess it will be difficult as well. These three links were the best I could find for Danish stereotypes.

What are Danes like?    Yahoo Answers     Yahoo Answers 2

Where can you watch the full version of “An Arab comes to Town”? I was told that it will be released on DVD soon - in the meantime the Embassy together with the Royal Film Commission are planning an open-air screening at the Film Commission late May early June - probably in connection with a workshop with the participation of the Directors Georg Larsen and Ahmad Ghosien. We will announce the screening in the same way as we did with the “Beyond Stereotype” - through the Royal Film Commission and 7iber.com

He also encouraged Jordanians to continue discussing the topic on different forums:

The discussion can continue - either on this site, on 7iber.com or on some of the other bloggers site as on Roba’s which have drawn a large number of comments (some aggressive) on Arab stereotyping. Unfortunately I didn’t notice this until today

On the same day of the event, blogger Roba Al-Assi, posted a video clip of a song by Lebanese Pop singer Jad Shwery, in which he tackles stereotypes about Arabs in his own way:

Roba wrote:

This song is the funniest […] ever.
Really funny. Wonder if it manages to break stereotypes anywhere.
I love the disclaimer in the beginning “Every individual that has participated in the following video is an Arab.” Wow.

The post spurred an interesting debate about how one should or should not tackle these stereotypes. Here are a few of the comments that were left on the post:

tarik
April 16, 2009 @ 2:15 pm

Ummmm…. interesting? (and you know what I mean when I say interesting, Roba)
So in his (sad) attempt to remove labels off Arabs, this dude has actually used every stereotype in the book and applied them to Arabs?!
So the west will accept us more when they see that we do botox and drugs?
And if being an Arab is such a big deal, then why isn’t he singing this in Arabic?
It’s so sad it’s hilarious!

Revelation
April 16, 2009 @ 3:27 pm

Bloody rocks! love it…. he made a point that dude…. i know quite few who live like that :) …. as the Americans say “Good Job!”… now need to wait for the arab - metallica =)
Cheers for sharin…

Ne3mat
April 16, 2009 @ 7:06 pm

Cute! But how come the Iranians do not resort to having TV orgies to prove their worth to the world? This video is another proof of westernized Arabs retardation. Instead of making our point through democracy and science and technology and culture, we show the world we we can get naked on camera. We have a totally screwed up priorities. NO wonder Arab youth seem to look up more and more to Iran. and that scares […] Arab regimes. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against this video, but separate from the other tracks, it proves we are not just a bunch of fanatics, but the rest are simply sleazy when we are not running around yelling Allahu Akbar [God is Great]. I really miss substance and moderation, something we seem to be awfully lacking.

Hareega
April 16, 2009 @ 5:13 pm

it’s not going to breal the popular sterotype that whoever is named JAd Shwairi is mentally retarded.
But the clip is well-made, and will be well-received

As I am writing these lines the Ultra Runner Jesper Olsen from World Run II is crossing the Ramtha border control (hopefully without too much hassle) and entering Jordan. Jesper will be running through Jordan from today and is planning to exit to Egypt on the day before Christmas the 24th of December.

From December 18th to 24th, 2008, the Danish ultra runner Mr. Jesper Olsen will run through Jordan. He is completing the World Run II Project: The North - South Run, which is the world’s longest non-stop run, aiming at completing a distance of 40.000 km passing through four continents in three years. The run began in Nordkapp, Norway, July 1st 2008 and the finish point in New Foundland, Canada, is expected to be reached by the end of 2010. When arriving in Jordan Jesper Olsen will already have completed more than 8000 km of running.

Having met Jesper tonight I can say he feels fit and very welcome in Jordan. Passing the Ramtha border was a piece of cake - he was officially saluted “Ahlan wa Sahlan” by a small detachment in uniform and received various maps.

Today Jesper ended up just outside Amman on Jordan Street. Tomorrow he and Ammar Sabbah together with other Amman Road Runners will run to JRTV for a live interview on Ammar’s show “Beiti” on Jordan television and then continue towards the south. Other runners should feel free to join. Both Jordan Times and Jad’s blog wrote about the World Run Project. It is a truly unique and enormous project and for once something that is far away from politics.

Specifically, the Danish Newspaper Publishers Association are frustrated that Google News in Denmark wants to list and link to articles of Danish newspapers without paying them royalties.

Danish blogger, Peter Svarre writes, “AAAARRRRGH!” upon reading arguments against Google News.

I don’t really know whether I am in a state of shock, despair or outright frustrated rage, but after reading an article in Politiken I just realized that the traditional Danish media or at least the editorial board of [newspaper] Berlingske Tidende seems to have understood nothing and learned nothing of the last five years development on the Internet. What seems to be common sense and ordinary street knowledge for media and advertising people in New York is apparently exotic, dangerous, and threatening lore to the established Danish Media industry.

There was a similar dispute in Belgium in 2006-7, when newspapers there took Google News to court and according to Finfacts threatened to fine them €1 million a day if they kept linking. In Denmark, there are also precedents. In 2002, the Danish Newspaper Publishers Association took a Danish web company, Newsbooster, to court for emailing links to news articles to their customers. Newsbooster was forced to shut down.

Blogger Ricco Førgaard at Fiskeben.dk [Da] said in May:

Det er tydeligt, at disse såkaldte medier ikke har forstået en pind og ikke er kommet ud af 1994 endnu. De har ikke forstået, at det er trafikken på hjemmesiden, som sælger de (irriterende) reklamer, som efter sigende skal være med til at financiere nyhederne.

On Medieblogger, Lars K Jensen quotes [Da] from a recent email discussion on the mailing list of the Danish Online News Association (DONA), where the chief legal adviser from the Danish Union of Journalists, Anne Louise Schelin, responded to a question about the official rules for citation and linking.

Schelin advised, that one should never link to anything but a website's homepage, even in an email to colleagues about a specific article. The only redeeming factor would be whether a link could be considered “loyal,” she said, referring to a Danish court case between two real estate websites from 2006.

Others on the mailing list vehemently disagreed. One called it “nonsense from the fax generation”. Blog editor of Politiken newspaper, Kim Elmose published his response in his personal blog Mediehack, calling the resistance to deep linking counter productive, and pointed to the irony that most Danish journalists use Google News as a tool themselves.

Lars K Jensen asks in Medieblogger:

Tilbage sidder jeg med spørgsmålet: Hvad er et illoyalt link? Hvem definerer, hvornår et link er loyalt eller illoyalt?

Et link er vel et link?

* Photo above of Danish newspapers is by Jacob Bøtter on Flickr.

Transparency International, Donzella writes about her country's ranking, in Arabic:

Let’s have a look at my own country, Denmark that once again topped the ranking of non-corrupt countries. There are a number of reasons for that. First, and foremost, the Danish society has through the years developed a widespread culture against corruption. Starting in the 17th century, corruption was made a criminal offense and enforced rather strictly. The next major achievement came during the 1920’s where a code on public servants that guaranteed a reasonable salary, job security and pension in particular for the lower echelons was adopted, and corruption laws came under review. Today, it is morally and utterly unacceptable to provide or receive anything that could resemble corruption. An example - trying to bribe your way out of a speeding ticket or into a construction permit will certainly get you an extra criminal charge on your neck.

Where does this leave Jordan? The Kingdom ranked 47 in the TI ranking, which is actually not that bad, and a 10% improvement compared to last year’s ranking. I have not firsthand witnessed any kind of corruption in Jordan, but I have, like everyone in the country, heard of possible incidents either directly or from press and reports. And I don’t think Jordan has a choice. Like the other small resource-deprived countries on top of the list there is only one way to become a wealthy Rule-of-Law country and that is to beat corruption, whether in the form of political vote-buying or in its domestic form of wasta.

In the end, it boils down to a change in culture towards rewarding merits instead of socioeconomic ties, and creating more transparency in public affairs. Some serious steps have been taken already, a number of them with Danish support. The establishment of the anti-corruption commission, training of law enforcement and the ombudsman bureau are examples but the real long term hurdle will be changing the culture of favoritism.

More on the Ambassador's view on fighting corruption here.

Meanwhile, Lina Ejeilat, a student at Columbia School of Journalism, writes about her experience in New York City:

I’m sitting outside the Journalism School building, working on my pitch for the New Media Masters project while watching some kids playing on the lawn and enjoying the gorgeous Fall weather. This campus just feels like a park sometimes.

A tiny mouse just passed by. I got so used to these by now, and they’re a much more tolerable sight than the big rats you occasionally see crossing the subway rails. Those are some of the rare moments where I actually miss Amman’s stray cats. You don’t see stray cats on the streets here, but I’d take cats any day over rats and mice.

But this doesn’t make me love New York City any less. One of the amazing things about this place is that it takes you in as one of its own very quickly. Just give yourself one week of living here and you no longer feel like a foreigner. You get on the subway and you see people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds imaginable. No one is too different in New York. It’s a city of sub-cultures, and whatever your niche, you can be sure to find enough like-minded people who share your interest

One of our main classes at Columbia this semester is “Writing and Reporting I”, and what basically happens is that you are assigned a beat to cover - a neighborhood that you report and write stories on all through the semester. My beat is Red Hook, in Brooklyn, and I find the place so fascinating and interesting. In a way I feel that beat reporting enriches my experience of New York, because I get to explore aspects that I would’ve probably not explored otherwise.

More from Lina, here.

And finally Naseem Tarawneh addresses the impact of the global economic crisis on Jordan:

Of all the things Jordanians tend to talk about, it is simply interesting to see the global financial crisis rank first in coffee-house conversations. Some are arguing that this is the “end of America”, while others are looking at it from a more personal perspective: how will something that is so global affect Jordanians? Will banks hold back on loans? Will the Dinar continue to sink to the pegged-anchor that is the American dollar? Will the crisis induce prolonged inflation? Will purchasing power take a plunge?

More or less, the conversation in Jordan seems to be driven back to that debate of how sustainable this economy is with its growing reliance on Gulf-driven development projects. It’s funny how Jordanians tend to be very tangible when it comes to this debate; they want to see the end-game, the final result of such projects. It seems hundreds of them are announced but few of them unfold, or so the general perception holds and that is typically the argument for the opposition. All of these projects do take a lot of time and the fact that their source of funding comes from the Gulf does not mean they’ll be constructed at the same pace of Gulf-based construction.

More on Naseem's opinion on the Jordanian economy, here.