Welcome back to another week in the frosty lands (with a dazzle of snow). We hope you had a nice holiday break. 🙂 A perfect ending for the first quarter of the year.
In the first days of April, the story of the Red Sea battle between a Danish warship and Houthi military drones (sent from Yemen) was revealed. Although the warship managed to take down four of the drones and avert further attacks on civilian ships, it showed terrible vulnerabilities in the Danish navy, as the defense system failed to respond (it could not actually deploy the anti-aircraft missiles) and the guns used afterwards were found to have faulty shells (half of them detonated too fast, not hitting their target). In the aftermath, the warship was called home and the chief of the armed forces was fired. You can see this video where the brave Marines from the warship took down the drones.
The warship situation triggered a whole debate about the chaos in the military defense, especially with war looming in the East. Not so long ago, we had the scandal with the warships that patrol the Arctic waters (which couldn’t use their guns) and now there are issues with the delivery of the defense weapons system acquired from Israel (it will be a year delayed and one billion DKK more expensive). Hopefully, the billions Denmark invests in defense will make such stories a thing of the past.
In more internal news, we have decided to send a bit of love for the development of our sister editions (Romanian, Polish, Spanish, Italian, Turkish). These are mainly translations of the English edition with native content aimed at the community they are serving. We start with the Polish edition by encouraging Polish-speakers to also follow the Polish edition. Otherwise, if you have a Polish-speaking co-worker, neighbor, friend, collaborator, etc., please let them know that a newsletter aimed at their community exists. We are grateful for your time and effort!
Further on, a call to current and future entrepreneurs in Denmark: If you want more free business courses in English, you need to let your municipality’s business department know. They can request Iværksætterdanmark (Entrepreneur Denmark) to organize such a course. For example, if you live in Aalborg, you can contact Business Aalborg and let them know that you would like such an opportunity in your municipality.
Thank you for reading Last Week in Denmark!
Word of the Week
Byrådsmedlem = Council member. In the smaller municipalities, it is called “kommunalbestyrelsesmedlem,” and in Copenhagen, “borgerrepræsentant.” At the local elections, a certain number of council members, based on population, are elected in the City Council. What’s cool about Denmark is that you can vote directly for the council member you want to represent your interests.
