Do not travel with medication

A 37 year old Danish women suffering from pain due to a work injury was sentenced to 5 years in jail because she tried to smuggle medication into Indonesia.

In Denmark Cannabis are recognized to be used to reduce pain. Instead of smoking the drugs which drugusers do, pills with only the active drug can be ingested.

However in other less developed countries they are not aware of the usefulness of the drugs, so such pills are illegal.

The Danish woman must have known this as she had sallowed the container for the drugs.

It is not possible to warn enough against traveling to less developed countries like Indonesia where modern medical treatment continue to not to be recognized.

Beside the laws forbidding modern medication please remember that there also continue to be risk of terrorism as three young women lost their lives in the bali bombings. Also the police is corrupt. Even if you don't smuggle drugs you can be accused to smuggle if you don't pay the local police off like it did happen to the Australian supermodel Michelle Leslie.

Regardless of the fact that the Danish woman did commit an error by taking modern medicaition to a less developed culture, we fear that she will be forced to worship false Gods like pagans. It was also something the Australian supermodel was forced to.

Sources:

• Dansker skal fem år i indonesisk fængsel for smugling (Politiken, In Danish)


• 2002 Bali bombings (Wikipedia)


• Michelle Leslie (Wikipedia)

If you want your stuff protected against tourists, then write a sign

A Danish student accidently broke a rock at some kind of ruin down in Rome. For some reason the local population saw this rock at something special and he may risk a fine if the school has neglected the task of providing their students with a good insurance.

We can only ask why they didn't set a sign up not to touch the rocks. In Denmark we did choose to protect the Jelling Stones behind glas because some paint got on them.

It is not a nice way to treat guest - students who came to their country to learn about their culture.

The Danish schools should avoid Italy as the population seem to hostile against foreigners in general. American Exchange student organizations have already lawyered up in response to the Amanda Knox case where a young student was held on false charges for 3 years based on the fantasy of a convicted State Attorney.

The Danish schools should follow the example of the US organizations if they want to continue to travel to Italy. Otherwise the family of the students should demand that their school refrain from traveling down there.

Source:

• Dansk elev smadrer antikvitet i Rom (TV2 Nyhederne, In Danish)


• Danneggia il foro romano denunciato studente danese (La Repubblica, November 3, 2011)

United States - don't save your ship

Some years ago when the authorities wanted to demonstrate their power the captain of a Danish coaster was arrested because the US Coast Guard claimed that he maneuvered his ship right into the patrol boat.

However every expert in modern shipping could see that it was poor seamanship on the behalf of the US Coast Guard which caused the episode.

All there was to say about the jail was that it suffered from poor sanitation conditions. Maybe because they wanted to break the jailed Dane and because he wanted to leave the United States alive rather than seeking justice and risk death, his lawyers hired by the Danish Trade Union made a deal.

The Trade Union backed the Danish Captain all the way and today most Danish ships don't sail under the Danish flag when entering the seas controlled by the United States and the crew are often dispensable foreigners because unfair treatment by the authorities is expected.

If you are working onboard a ship remember that the US Coast Guard holds a grudge against Danish sailors.

Sources:
Dansk kaptajn løslades i USA, TV2 Nyhederne
VILLY OG SØFARTENS LEDERE I MEDIERNE, Søfartens Ledere
Fængslet kaptajn fornærmede USA, Kristlig Dagblad

Thailand - extortion by the authorities

The Wikipedia article about the Royal Thai Police include a number of cases where the police has engaged in actions which resemples extortion.

One of the cases include a 15 Danish boy who were victims by people trying to fake an accident in order to receive compensation. However they timed the move wrong and a man got killed in the accident. He was using a boat children even down to 10 use on holidays in Thailand.

The Thai police dropped the case but not before his family had to pay a large sum. The close ties between the group behind the scam and the police should be warning enough for every Dane to stay away from Thailand.

Sources:
15-årige Kristian fange i Thailand, Dansk Thai Website
Royal Thai Police, Wikipedia

When the police is corrupt you stand no chances

This is a special post as there are no Danes involved. However it could be of interest for exchange students and tourists thinking of visiting Bolivia

We have just learned that Col. Milton Sánchez Pantoja who was responsible for the arrest of 3 woman from Norway has been arrested for drug trafficing. The very same charge which were brought against the Norwegian women.

2 of the women are serving what is basically a life sentence considering the primitive conditions in the jail. There are no television or just cells of similar standard as even one of the toughest prisons in Norway - Halden prison - can present.

One of the women escaped back home before the trial could start and she is facing a show trial where the authorities may be forced to convict her of something so they won't meet too much opposition if they try to exchange the 2 woman out of Bolivia before they die due to the poor sanitary conditions in the jail.

Was this a basic setup by the authorities to catch attention so they could smuggle their good out of the country? It could very well be the case.

When the police force in a country is corrupt, none are safe. Please avoid Bolivia at all cost.

Top Bolivian Official Is Arrested and Sent to U.S. on Drug Charges (New York Times, February 27, 2011
Halden Prison - Norwegian homepage
Tror på frifinnelse for lillesandskvinnen About the women who managed to escape from Bolivia

In the footsteps of the Mirabal sisters

Early this year we learned that a young Danish woman had been detained by the authorities in the Dominican republic. In a time where even good god-fearing Christians are detained and expelled from both Haiti and the Dominican republic the official charge doesn't matter.

This young Danish woman who now is at risk of following in the footsteps of the Mirabal sisters may not even survive long enough so she can participate in the show-trial which is expected to take place sometime in the future.

We must all pray that the Danish government can intervene and demand her extradited or at least bribe her free as they did with the Danish woman in Cambodia.

References:
Ung dansk kvinde fængslet for narkosmugling i Mellemamerika, Politiken, March 13, 2010

Cuts due to lack of funding

Unfortunately the economically situation have forced us to cut back in costs.

You will still be able to find us by mail at this postal address:

Institute for dissemination of Danish culture and information
441B Soldraget
5000 Odense C
Denmark

but we are closing our webpage.

Our government has presented a 2020-plan where no money have been allocated for information projects serving educating the world about our sensible culture. It leaves us no room for continuing our work at the present level of activity, so it is with sadness that we have to implement the new structure.

Tourists are defenceless i New Zealand

The brother of one of our patriots who fell in the line of Duty in Afghanistan only a few days before Christmas in 2008 were jailed in New Zealand for trying to defend himself in a local bar brawl.

We all remember the sad day in 2008 where terrorist took the lives of no less than three servicemen, among them the brother of the convicted backpacker. The loss had a huge impact on his family in Denmark who were left behind.

Without being able to find peace in life the brother left his home traveling as a backpacker while trying to regain control in his life.

It was on this journey he saw the fight between a Dutch tourist and a local man. Still traumatized by the loss, he stepped in to protect the other tourist. A Dutchman he might have met at the hostel.

For this he now got a month in jail which can only be contributed to a court system favoring locals and shunning outsiders.

It is difficult to tell if the general hostility Danes in many part of the world experience due to our battle against the morale supply lines of terrorism fought with tools like the cartoon war did play a part in this harsh conviction. New Zealand seems not to have contributed to the involvement of air forces in Afghanistan so it seems that they don't want to be a part in the war on terrorism at all.

Was his conviction a condemnation of the nations fighting this war rather than a result of the individual act? It is hard to say.

We will pray that he returns to Denmark safely and he will get help from the RCT once he return home.

But with the question of New Zealands stand in the war against terrorism not answered, the only advice to Danish tourists in general must be not to visit this country.

Source:
Pair jailed for street beating, The Southland Times, April 19, 2011
Mindeord for Jacob Moe Jensen, Sebastian La Cour Holm & Benjamin D.S. Rasmussen, by Flemming Leer, Denmark Online, December 21, 2008

Beware of New Zealand

In the latest case a Danish backpacker who intervened to rescue another tourist from locals ended up being convicted of assault.

Playing home field in a court matters and also to consider is the fact that Denmark is at war several places in the world fighting terrorism. While New Zealand must be considered to be on the same side as a nation, individuals might not share the politics.

Being a tourist outside Denmark is not the smartest move and we must recommend that Danes avoid countries like New Zealand right now.

Source:
Jail term 'inevitable' for backpackers (The Southland Times, April 5, 2011)

Not xenophobia - victim of cruel nature

So far three students have lost their lives during skiing holidays. Also this year we were not spared of such tragedies. For the second year in a row a young Dane lost his life at Bad Gastein.

How is it that we continue to lose such young lives who have not lived long enough so they could fulfill their potential. Can anything be blamed on the local population?

The answer is no. In fact it is important the the students continue to travel as they do and socialize as they have done until now because we are talking about losing a vital part of conducting their social lives if they stopped to travel to Austria.

They need to be prepared to the customs of the Friday bars at their future job once they are graduating the schools.

The young man lost his life because he fell off a cliff when returning to his hotel after a long night of afterskiing. Nothing much could have been done to prevent it as the conditions in the area are of a dangerous nature due to the staff working in the area. The danger was known in advance.

But a death is still a death. It is a terrible loss for his family. A solution could be that parents in larger number accompanied the students on the holiday and volunteered as night owls in Austria so they could see to that the students returned safely to their hotels.

May lives be spared in the future

Sources:
Danske Dion faldt 30 meter ned og døde (BT, March 11, 2011)
Tidligere elev: - Det er et farligt sted (Ekstra Bladet, March 11, 2011)
Body of missing Dane found (Austrian Times, March 1, 2010)

This must be the last year

Once again people cannot settle by enjoying the good money they earn by having Danes visiting.

They want the Danes to buy a lot of alcohol and then they expect the Danes to throw it out and drink milk instead so they don't have to take the consequences. The people living around Les Arcs are angry because their sales come with a cost. What kind of business doesn't cost connected to the sale.

It has to stop at some point. All the young Danes do are partying while they travel. It is quite normal. In fact the Sun spoke of a cultural difference hitting Brits as xenophobia when they visited countries in the Middle East.

The solution is clear. We need to create a party holliday area where the young people can go and enjoy their holliday. They are working on such a solution down at Falster. Maybe next the youth traveling abroad for holidays or to take a course down in Marienlyst where the new party aread it built.

References:
1.700 danske unge 'larmer som dyr' og raserer skisportssted, by Andreas Lindqvist, Politiken, February 19, 2011 (article in Danish)
»Når man samler 1.700 unge, går det jo ikke stille af sig«>, by Andreas Lindqvist, Politiken, February 20, 2011 (article in Danish)
Boozy Brits go wild in Dubai, by Nick Carter, The Sun, 12. july 2008
Marielyst skal være det nye Sunny Beach, by Marta Gramstrup, Folketidende, 13. februar 2011(article in Danish)

A computer virus can lead to your arrest if you travel abroad

According to several websites a computer specialist named Kai Lundstroem Pedersen has been arrested in the United States on the charges of distributing child pornography.

Recent analyses of his computer have revealed that his laptop and work computer was used as a bot. Not even the internal computer security teams at his workspace - the city hall in the town of Randers - had caught the illegal traffic despite their monitoring of all employees 24/7.

His colleges had no suspicion of his activities. Not surprisingly taken into account that the illegal traffic most likely came through a small program - called a Bot - hidden in the operative system on his computers.

Unfortunately most anti-virus programs cannot offer 100 percent protection and while the employees and their work on the computers are monitored 24/7, the computers themselves are not monitored in the same ways as it is expected that the security programs should be able to handle all problems on their own.

It is however not the case. In the town of Hilleroed the entire system crashed and work including emails was lost because the servers were only monitored during work hours.

His colleges know him as a good man with honest values. They are shocked over his arrest.

Kai Lundstroem Pedersen is therefore not a victim of xenophobia against Danes. He is a victim of technology left unsupervised. He has not been fired from his work. He is only suspended because he didn't show up for work after his holiday. He had no reason to suspect that a pedophile did use his computer through a hidden VPN-tunnel.

The security firm working for his employer has been denied access to his computer as the Danish police has confiscated the computer due the wish of maintaining a good relationship between Denmark and the United States. Therefore it has not been possible to determine how the Bot got installed on his computer. Unfortunately it means that others could be a risk.

If you use a computer at your work the advice is not to travel abroad.

Even when the criminal act was done by another, the IP-number used for the crime could be yours and then you are arrested.

Update september 2011: Forced to plea guilty by the fact that the trafic came from his computer despite the fact that an internal investigation by his employer has revealed that he hadn't committed the criminal acts in person, he now risk between 15 and 30 years of prison.

He could be returned to Denmark as early as in 7 years to serve out his sentence because US normally expell prisoners once they have served half their time. In reality he would be freed the moment he sets foot on Danish soil as the act is considered to result in a prison term of 4 years if he had been convicted in Denmark.

What seem strange is that he didn't take an Alford plea, because the Danish investigation did clear him, but perhaps he didn't know about this option because he couldn't afford a lawyer. Justice in the US is equal the ability to finance your defense.

References:
Randers Kommune chokeret over børnesex (Jylland-Posten)
Dane arrested in Stony Brook (The Times Record)
DANISH MAN ARRESTED IN NEW YORK, CHARGED WITH DISTRIBUTING CHILD PORN Justice.gov