The danish youth learn from Camilla Broe

This week the newspaper 24 published an article where it was revealed that the number of youth and young adults studying abroad had dropped rapidly.

No wonder as the horrors of the showtrial against Camilla Broe reach us. On the day of her first hearing she spent 13 hours in restraints.

Normally only minors are shackled in the courts of Florida but they still consider her to be the drug lord responsible for the import of 106,000 ecstacy pills. Maybe it is a marketing stunt from the side of DEA only, but transporting her across Miami escorted by not fewer than 6 police cars seems to be a little over the hill considering that the Danish police let her hold a press conference in Copenhagen and she was escorted to the plane not even cuffed.

The Danish youth considering being an exchange student are met with the same concerns our soldiers bound for Afghanistan face. Not only does the family have to fear that something could happen to their young relative during the time abroad, now they also have to fear that the stay could have life long impact on their lives once they return to Denmark. Suddenly they risk to be torn out of their lives regardless if they have live to the letter of the law for decades.

As we know from high profile case like Amanda Knox and Louise Woodward, exchange students are often the first to pick when crime appear where they study. An exchange student will always experience difficulties to adapt to local customs, so they stick out. It happened to Louise Woodward, which now are cleared by modern forensic. It is happening to Amanda Knox.

How it used to be so that once the exchange student returns home the risk is over. That is why cars used by firms often were sold once they returned from a trip abroad. A ticket for speeding could wait the next time the car crossed the border again. But several thousand people have lost their lives since the European Union made it possible to collect fines when the motorist has returned home. The same goes for the case against Camilla Broe. It shows that former exchange students cannot sleep a single night the rest of their lives without fear.

Seen in that retrospect it is better for teenagers considering a year as an exchange student not to go. The fact that families take greater responsibility for the future of their children promise greather times for the country of Denmark.