Sharing public cuts

In Denmark we have some boarding schools called "Efterskoler". They are not as strict as boarding schools abroad or at least so I am told.

But they do offer a some alternative lifestyle suited for those in our society who wants Danes to forget their social heritage and position themselves to a more globalized world where traditions and social standings in every of our small communities are forgotten and erased.

But do we not have a thousand year old culture which we need to deliver knowledge about to our children before they go out and make their impact on the world. How can we give them good tradition Danish values when we back out of the parenting role before time and leave it to some closed boarding school environment to give our children our values and learn our firm standards of character?

I fear that they are left without essential parts of their social heritage if they leave the family unit too soon. Denmark is a society where social heritage matters even up to the royal family. The result is peace and low crime when people in general know what they can make of life and how important it is to act properly because you know that your children will not be born equal with the rest of the children but they will start out from the level in our society you have achieved.

The youth culture of a country must never been equal with being confined in a boarding school where their individual character is shaved off so they can fit in the enclosed group at all cost. We need people who have a social heritage which stand out, so they can be leaders rather than just anonymous followers. You cannot create a peer group leader; you can only find the individual.

Some Danish firms use a lot of money trying to build the careers of their employees. It is a fatal mistake. Team-building based on sharing a single glass of wine or a beer Friday afternoon is the only thing which works. Luckily most firms realize that.

The families can learn from the firms. They can keep their children in the local schools. They can improve the social status of their child by hosting parties at home instead letting the children hang around in the cities. They can cooperate with volunteers in biker clubs who host parties for the local youth now where most of the parties hosted by schools or the authorizes has been targeted against minorities in the society which practice a more restricted form of partying.

The government has realized that the numbers of teenagers attending the boarding schools are too high and it has proven to be too costly for our society. They have introduced cuts and of course the boarding schools are protesting. It is a shameful form of marketing because the reason for the cuts is not ideology. It is necessary because Denmark almost singlehanded has decided to pay the debts of countries like Greece for no reason. We in Denmark all have to bear our burden. The boarding schools should take responsibility instead. It would certainly suit them.

They are complaining about risk of losing clients. They should not fear. The authorities in a lot of towns have troubled teenagers which they can ship to the boarding schools instead of the juvenile halls. There are parents who originally wanted to ship their children off to some third world country where they could be teach into submission by the use of corporal punishment which is forbidden in Denmark and therefore under watch by the social services. They can use the boarding schools instead. So where is the possible lack of students?

I had a son in one of these boarding schools, which you can read something about if you two years back. It was a terrible ordeal for both him and me as parent, which I wish for no other parent to relive.

Therefore consider me biased, but I truly believe that we all have to bear the burden our politicians have put upon us - also the boarding schools.

Why it is hard to adjust being an immigrant

I moved to this country, now best known for their cartoons 10 years ago.

I learned their language. I allowed my family to adjust to their strange costums.

Now I feel beaten somehow.

First example:

I have a lot of kids - alot. It have never been a problem before, but suddenly new seatbeltsrules came into action. The government demanded that every child in the car should have their own seat belt.

I need three cars to transport my children!

I know that ethnic Danes only have about 2 children. I regards this new law as a racist invention to target the mobility of us immigrants.

Second example:

I choosed Denmark because of their high standard of education. First of all danish students have a team spirit like I have never seen anywhere before and I have travelled the world.

They use a term called "hygge" where they sit together and drink a few beer - even children down to 12-13 year of age as I have seen them sitting in parks and along beaches. In fact it is an old tradition for the parents to introduce their child to alcohol at an age of 14 when the child is confirmed. (With Gods approval so to say).

So the youth drink and socialize. They start to care for each other. In a drunken state they confide to each other, so when they put a team together they know what both the strength and weakness are for each team-member, but the boss also know what the employees think about him and it doesn't need to be positive. Even a negative view can be useful because then there are not time wasted on cover-ups and lies.

So I allowed my son to socialize with the Danish youth and he showed good results. So good in fact that I gave up a job offer in the States, because they couldn't offer schools with similar standard.

The the disaster happened. My son "borrowed" my car and the social worker decided (due to my status as a foreigner) that my son should attend a school in the other end of the country. (Denmark have very few juvenile facilities. The authorities use the so-called "continuation school" for punishment instead of jail and it works because Danes regards everyone being born more than 20 kilometers away as "strangers", which all the community should be looking for. Some of the parents of my colleagues have moved to another part of Denmark and even their children are regarded as strangers (It is for some reason worse if you move from East to West. Sealand is called the "Devil Island" by people in Jutland.)

So my son ended up in Jutland and he suffered, but as I told him "Do the crime, do the time". I don't know if 10 months away from home for driving without licence is a harsh punishment in other countries, but all I would have gotten as adult was a fine.

All that brought our familiy closer together. He is very lonely because our lawyer recommended that he sould avoid as much contact as possible because in criminal enviroment they exchange knowledge, which can result in a life of crime. Now a new problem has arised. He is a smoker and it is legal because Denmark have a 16 year limit on tobacco purchase.

But the government are thinking of changing this to 18 years and the school don't want to have tobacco on their property, he is suffering. We have been meeting with the authorities about a pardon, so he can return home where we can buy him tobacco and our hopes are up. But somehow I feel betrayed.

Legal access to alcohol and tobacco for my kids was something I moved to Denmark for. They had so much success with this approach.

In fact in Denmark it is normal that the kids committing crimes are the kids, who don't drink.

I thought that I had found a free country. Now I am in doubt.