Tuesday, February 19, 2013

New legislation will curb binge drinking holidays

Fact is that countries with less developed alcohol culture have difficulties housing Danish tourists - mostly youth tourists - who have been educated in partying by reality series like "Paradise Hotel" and "The Kings". Our parliament has been concerned by the lack of responsibility from Travel Agencies, foreign Hotels and authorities who by use of aggressive marketing has sold various destinations as the perfect destination for a binge drinking holiday.

The new marketing laws will ban use of photos with partying or happy youth if the expected target group is below 18 because smiles and joy is considered equal binge drinking.

The cost of these changes in legislation will be loss of estimated 500-1,000 jobs within the travel industry, but if Denmark keeps 10,000 youth from leaving the country for an entire week jobs is expected to be created in other businesses. Secondly the risk of ethnical polluting will also be lowered. Ethnical polluting has caused a rise in crime in Denmark for the last 20-30 years so the outcome of the laws could be positive.

For some of the travel destinations youths have used the laws means that re-branding is necessary. Countries like Bulgaria and the Czech Republic which have sold themselves as binge drinking destinations will lose their business entirely and will have to start over with their marketing.

The laws brings Denmark a unique chance for our country to raise a generation who are less influences by foreign cultures leaving them to be influenced by our superior culture only. While 10,000 students will lose out of traveling abroad starting year 2014 the long-term consequences look bright.

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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Camilla Broe awarded DKK 701,362.11 in compesation

Camilla Broe who was cleared of all charges after she had spent two years in prison in both Denmark and the United States was awarded DKK 701,362.11 in compensation for the time spent in Danish prisons while she was waiting for her extradition case to be solved.

It has turned out to be a hard lesson learned for the Danish society when corrupted authorities abroad fabricate charges against Danes. The department of justice should have read the charges and should have reached the same conclusion as the court in Miami ended up doing a year later.

But somehow they managed to do an absolutely poor job translating the charges to Danish.

The case had widespread consequences. When India approached Denmark so they could get the author and humanitarian Niels Holck extradited the court knew in advance that foreign authorities in general lie so they decided that no extradition could take place to India. A country like Nigeria who likes to try a Danish journalist who has exposed their corruption decided no even try having the Journalist Mads Brugger extradited because the viewpoint of court system in Denmark has been known in other countries.

Due to the fact that she originally entered the United States as an exchange student her case also caught the attention of adviser organizations for parents considering sending their children abroad for a year abroad. She became an icon like Amanda Knox, who was framed for a murder by a prosecutor convicted of abusing office and Louise Woodward convicted of a murder many years back but was cleared by the advancement in forensic research.

The compensation does only cover her time spent in Danish jails. If she wants to receive compensation for her time spent unjustly in the United States she has to sue them over there. Unfortunately conducting a case in that country demands a lot of money she doesn't have, so it would be unlikely.

We must all hope that this long saga in justice is over. The lessons learned are that if you want safety and a fair court system where you live then you have to remain in Denmark.

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Friday, February 15, 2013

Prague is a violet place for tourists

News about arrests and attacks on Danish tourists has reached Denmark. The country which has seen better times when it was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire lacks obvious security for Tourists. For the last decade the city has been advertised as a party capital due to lack of culture and points of interest leaving the only option to market it as the place to party 24-7.

For many parents it might seem just as safe to let the children party in Prague as in parts of Copenhagen like Norrebro known to be a place where you can be killed just 10 minutes after arriving to it like an Italian tourist experienced some years back. But remember that the police don't speak Danish down there. The use of ethnical profiling which have lowered crime the last 10 years in Denmark is not used to the advantage of the children down there.

It seems that the tourist industry has no support from the local authorities. It puts the entire business at risk and a choosing the Czech republic and Prague as holiday destination might be too risky in the future.

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