this article is total crap and a belittlement of the nazi period ... to compare the (racist) treatment of refugees in Denmark with a German concentration camp (whose purpose was the extermination of all of its inmates) is rubbish ... and the stuff about the health system (which despite neo-liberal counter-reforms still is of a better quality and cheaper than the British NHS) and taxi prises is simply wrong

There's plenty of extremist governments in power where the state is nominally a democracy - but that surely is not a sufficient reason for good people to leave their homeland. In fact by leaving, one runs away from the problem, rather than confronting it as one should. I presume in Denmark at least - same as Italy and the US for the time being - it is still safe to do so.

Could you provide some references on foreign medical assistance and the rate of crime? That would help this piece enormously.

This chimes with what a friend told me who has spent time there over the last two years, he could see it changing into just another neoliberal illusion of democracy. The things he liked were more often than not under attack from the right wingers. It's a damn shame.

"what reminds of a German concentration camp from world war two. When
Germany was ruled by Adolf Hitler"
have you idea what the Hitler "camp" were???
Stupid idiot learn first then write

The Holocaust and Shoah did not begin with the death camps, rather it began with the systematic denial of civil and social and human rights to minorities on the basis of their supposed ethnicity or nationality; political belief, collective identity, religious faith, sexual orientation & so on. Millions of citizens were systematically denied rights, stripped of their property, held without trial, transported, withheld from counsel or family, put to endentured or slave labour, subject to experimentation, maintained on subsistence diets & then at least six million were murdered.

That is we all agree quite a unique occurence in history if all elements of a process which lasted for more than a decade are considered as part of one whole. But we know that each and every element had already been applied in European history, throughout Europe, without exceptions, since at least the 12th century. What marked out the Holocaust and Shoah was its efficiency and scale made possible through infrastructure of industry, the demands of a war economy and in no small part the organisational possibilities offered by IBM.

So -

Legolander's metaphor might not be 100% correct in detail nor even 33% correct but there is still substance & to a generation whose main complaint may be that their parents voted Blair and to whom the world before colour TV let alone Internet is as gloamy as a murky grimoire - the comparison is a heartfelt one which belies some truths. In 21st Europe and in Denmark, humans are stripped of their civil and social and human rights on the basis of their supposed ethnicity or nationality, they are held without trial, they are transported and held in abeyance of counsel and familial contact.

Denmark is ruled by a right wing faction whose loyalty to Bush is infamous and clashes with the generation who remember not the Wilsons, are now legendary and have singed the magic cloak of Christiania - we all can picture the Ungdomshuset riots now in our mind's eye before we picture happy 60's free love in Copenhagen and daisy chains.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungdomshuset
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania

the Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen cannot be prosecuted for the war in Iraq, the High Court of Denmark ruled on Wednesday 11 April 2005 - despite the efforts of an umbrella group called the “Danish Constitution Committee of 2003”, a group of 26 plaintiffs who believed parliamentary resolution B118 of 21 March 2003 to be in breach of the Danish constitution. For one thing, the Danish campaign in Iraq has been taking place under the leadership of officers of the United States’ armed forces and therefore, in the view of the plaintiffs, involves cession of sovereignty.

______________"Danish Cartoons"_____________

2 words which almost need no metaphor or simile and indeed they were provocatively bereft of either. Yet Danish society encouraged by its government saw fit to reissue them at a later date which may be contrasted to the decision of the Swedish state to take far-right websites offline for reproducing the Jylland Post images. It was quite incredible how the Danish lost their global sales of butter at just the same time that their flag was burnt all over the world and became recognisable to millions. We might call that "negative national brand imaging".

____________"the Danish Secret Service"______________

the first members of the "coalition of the willing" to be reported to act outside of boundaries, to torture, kill, main and rape were in indeed the Danes. Later attempts to investigate the behaviour of the Danish secret service in Iraq led with official stifling and international outrage by journalists
(c/f danish link :  http://www.berlingske.dk/indland/artikel:aid=763420/ english report IFJ .
 http://www.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-raises-alarm-over-western-attacks-on-whistleblowers-and-investigative-journalism--

___________ Bush's "go & visit Gitmo" quip _________________

President Bush celebrated his 2005 birthday with Rasmussen in Copenhagen, who presented him with a birthday present and a cake shaped like a Texan cowboy. At the obligatory press conference held afterward, President Bush offered his thanks to Rasmussen. `Thanks for the cake. I can strongly recommend the Danish birthday cake to everyone,' said Bush.....The US president ensured the prime minister and the gathered journalists that prisoners at Guantanamo were treated humanely. `I would suggest buying an airplane ticket and going down to take a look,' said the US president.

curiously, we have on record information, despite the prison sentences issued against whistle blowers in Denmark, which shows that representatives of the Danish secret service did get flights to Gitmo to do their bit of interrogation. As did indeed Aznar's. & all in that period between 11/1/02 (The opening of the camp) and the declaration of war on Iraq.
______________________________________________________

Danish info sites for Tolerance, Refugees, Asylum seekers & migrants :

SOS mod Racisme
 http://www.sosmodracisme.dk

Academy for Migration Studies in Denmark (AMID)
 http://www.amid.dk

Amnesty International
 http://www.amnesty.dk

Dansk Flygtningehjælp
 http://www.flygtning.dk

Documentation on race discrimination.
 http://www.drcenter.dk

ENAR (European Network Against Racism)
 http://www.enar-eu.org

EVA's ARK. Women's Intercultural Forum
 http://www.evasark.dk

Flygtningenævnet
 http://www.fln.dk

Foreningen for Etnisk Ligestilling
 http://www.etniskligestilling.dk


IDFAD (Indvandrer-Dansk Forening for Antidiskrimination)
 http://www.idfad.org

Minority party (former political party gained no seats -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_Party_(Denmark)  http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoritetspartiet
 http://www.minoritetspartiet.dk
miXeurope
 http://www.mixeurope.dk
Video center for Integration – Randers
 http://www.vicir.dk

The Battle for Ungdomshuset - The Movie

Danish:
 http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/12/625.shtml

English:
 http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/12/633.shtml

German:
 http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/12/629.shtml

Videoen at Youtube:

Danish:
 http://youtube.com/watch?v=1QPp2b56cjY

English:
 http://youtube.com/watch?v=PcdbeTKnx5s

German:
 http://youtube.com/watch?v=zSWOpD09HT8

_________________________________________________

It is a difficult thing to criticise your country and state if one still considers oneself (and has been indoctrinated or brought up to consider oneself) a part of a collective entity which justifies the sentiments of nation, patria and at their worst jingoism. But is often a very necessary step to class identity without which there can be no class war. (The first step is to know which side you're on). & if one continues to live amongst that collective entity which considers itself a nation or extended and somehow unique group of humanity which justifies its laws, state, police, flags and army - then your criticism when they are voiced should be respected.

Well done Legolander! olé!
I won't go near your country : do me a favour and stay away from ireland ;-) you can come and live in Barcelona - but it's no picnic either. The Katalalalanders have their woes too.