A rice grain of observation from a corner of Northern Europe
Do you know the story about how to test if the rice is cooked? You take one grain, and see if it is tender, there is no need to test every single grain. I thought about this concept, as I decided to dig into the local news and find out if there were any lessons around.
Ready to shut down Russian gas Denmark has never been as dependent on Russian gas as right now - but the Ørsted director is ready to stop imports immediately if the politicians ask him to.
Comment: The above fits with the green plans, the recent boost in the activities of the XR (Extinction Rebellion) campaign, while the headlines say we have only 8 years left, or if the temperature rises 1.5 degrees there will be irreparable damage, or nature has to be more wild otherwise there is damage to the environment.
On the same topic:
Ørsted's billion flow to Gazprom creates commotion: 'Take responsibility and tear the contract apart'
Ørsted CEO speaks out about putting billions at Putin's Gazprom: 'It is an absurd situation'
Until the end of 2030, Ørsted is obliged to buy large quantities of gas from Russian Gazprom with close connections to Vladimir Putin. If top manager Mads Nipper closes the tap with his own hands, he risks smashing the Danish energy giant without hitting the Russian war machine, the director says.
Comment: The Danes could end up in an economic situation not unlike what Ukraine has experienced for 30+ years. Those who qualify for being true pathocrats will be unable to hide, but will the people realize.
Cars full of young Ukrainians leave Denmark: 'I know I will go to heaven - and the Russians will go to hell'
Comment: Many of these will be farmhands, so how that is going to play out, or will they just employ refugees?
Ukraine's ambassador has a hard time keeping tight about Danish arms deliveries: Here I want to be ... uh ... quiet [...]
But believe me, the Danish government is delivering more than they said yesterday. And we really appreciate that. We have much more that they will deliver in the coming days.
They work fast and they coordinate their help with other NATO and EU allies.
- But believe me, at this point
I just want to make sure that Denmark is our true and good friend, and they help.
So Danish weapons in Ukraine?
- Here I want to be… uh… quiet. But again:
Denmark is on our side, by all means, replied the ambassador, who also said that he has asked Denmark for military assistance.
Comment: Denmark has been a strong supporter of the Euromaidan and all that happened since. Below is a comment from the Liberal party, they now want to change the name of the street where the Russian embassy is located. This way of thinking is like Ukraine post Euromaidan.
V-politician on 'Ukrainegade' proposal: 'There is no reason to beat cold water in the blood. On the contrary.'
The Liberal politician Jens-Kristian Lütken has submitted a resolution to the Technical and Environmental Committee in the City of Copenhagen to change the name of the street where the Russian embassy is located to Ukrainegade [Ukraine street] instead of Kristianiagade. The Social Democrats in Copenhagen point out that this cannot be done in a jiffy.
Next is Maria Krarup, a Danish politician, former embassy staff at the DK embassy in Moscow, who has a degree in Russian, and has visited the country. She is
a member of parliament, who is fluent in Russian and can see the situation with some nuances. She has worked at the Danish embassy in Moscow and has served as an officer in the army. She is not in favor of the war, however there is little openness for any discussion. A satirical column this morning, to ridicule her and prime her audience before she appears on TV tonight, shows her picture and spins a story:
Comment: While, I don't mind satire in general, the above is very telling of the level of the local discussion. In preparation for her talk, she wanted local information from Russia.
Free flow of information and freedom of expression?
Maria Krarup, wanted to access official Russian medias to find out what they say, and was frustrated to find access from her location has been closed and gave a few sites as examples. I tried the exercise and of course the Kremlin is not available. But several news agencies, as she claimed, are also not:
And tass.ru:
An error occurred.
Sorry, the page you are looking for is currently unavailable.
Please try again later.
If you are the system administrator of this resource then you should check the
error log for details.
Request id: 696ef5e840462584752fcc574ef2737e
Server IP: 82.202.190.72
Client IP: 109.70.100.77
Time: 2022-02-28T15:46:55+03:00
Config id: 29
Faithfully yours, nginx.
The news agency Izvestia
https://iz.ru
403 - Forbidden . That’s an error.
Client does not have access rights to the content so server is rejecting to give proper response. That’s all we know.
The first channel:
https://www.1tv.ru/ is also down, and probably many others.
Comment: The above trend is one step more than under Covid...
Volunteering to fight in Ukraine - but of course...
Denmark to allow citizens to fight in Ukraine
Copenhagen has said that Danes are free to “contribute directly” to the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine
Copenhagen has revealed it will allow Danish nationals to join the international military force Kiev plans to set up to aid its own military in the conflict with Russia.
“It’s a choice that anyone can make. This goes for all Ukrainians who live here, but also for others who think they can contribute directly to the conflict,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a press conference on Sunday.
“There is nothing at first sight that would legally prevent someone from going to Ukraine to participate in the conflict, on the Ukrainian side,” Frederiksen added. Earlier, the PM took part in a massive protest against Moscow’s operation in front of the Russian embassy in Copenhagen, telling the crowd that
“it is all of you and all of Europe who are threatened by Russia.”
It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of Ukraine’s International Legion of Territorial Defense, which would make it possible for foreigners to join its ranks and fight alongside the Ukrainian military against Russian and Donbass forces.
Comment: Last time, Danes were on the Eastern front seriously fighting Russia-or the Soviet Union at least, was with Hitlers armies. In the first week of
January 2020, I made a series of posts about this topic and in this
post, you can see some of the posters they used to advertise for volunteers. For posters from other countries, try
this.
We fight for European Freedom and Culture
One poster in the collection, the only that mentioning "European values" resonates with the current verbal propaganda like, "European values", "freedom and democracy". The whole title of the poster is:
"We fight for European Freedom and Culture - Fight with Waffen-SS"
Another from France has this appeal:
"Europe" to be on the move against Bolshevism.
Is symbolism reappearing 80 years since the deployment of Free Corps Denmark to Djemansk?
On May 8, 1942, exactly three years before the general liberation of Europe, 1000 volunteers from Free Corps Denmark were ordered to the frontline at Demyansk near Novgorod to reinforce SS Division Totenkopf.
Now in 2022, will volunteers go to Ukraine to support those aligned with Azov:
More symbolism: 200 Danish soldiers and two F-16 are to be deployed in Estonia in early March. A very small gesture, but again symbolic, since the Danish flag, according to legend fell in Estonia, in present day Tallinn in 1219.
Also in WWII, units with Danish volunteers were active in Estonia, as this poster indicates:
"Narva 1219, A symbol. 1944. Also today, a front against the East"
After WWII, those who had participated got two years in prison without discussion, although they had been promised they could return without a problem to their jobs in the military if they had been given temporary leave. Later all discussion was closed, and they existed in small groups here and there. Their history has been forgotten, although about, 7800 went and 3980 died according to German sources, that include the 2000 ethnic Germans that were Danes by nationality. The Danish sources mention 6000 and 1750 died. (The ethic Germans were not counted?) Russian sources claim 11,000. Who shall we believe?
Hypothesis? Are a few Danish men so ballistic in the rhetoric against Russia because of women?
From engagement, I had to learn harshness the hard way, although I was and remained polite and elaborate in my answers. I sense the explanation for some is that they are married or in a relationship, where it is a matter of courtesy to respect and honor the feelings of their partner for the ideology she or her family is fond of. At least that is one possible explanation. And just now, I learned the admins of the group, I had the experience with, paused it due to "the tone". Another group I had joined a long time ago was made private this morning, as FB police had complained about the tone and the admins had no choice than to make it private or face the risk of permanent closure. What this means is that it is much more difficult to find alternative view points, because previously open groups get cordoned off. In the current climate, it may actually be safer. A few of these people even claim to be pacifists, but they speak like they are most ready to physically harm people who dare to disagree with them. It is a paradox. One guy pointed it out, and was not understood.
That was my rice grain of observation. Now I'm wondering if attempts to denazify Ukraine helps other countries to decide what they want to be.
