small-m

Denmark:

Denmark slides in affluence ranking
14.07.2008

OECD figures show Denmark’s GDP has been overtaken by other countries.
Denmark fell to 11th place in May 2008 from 7th place in 1996 in terms of gross domestic product per capita, adjusted for purchasing power, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Although Denmark has had a strong economy, falling unemployment and rising private consumption, its GDP per capita was overtaken by Canada, Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands in the period from 1996 to 2008.
The OECD also sees economic growth in Denmark reaching only one percent a year from 2010 to 2014 - the lowest growth rate among the organisation’s 30 member states. This means that Denmark’s GDP growth will be overtaken by Sweden and Britain.
‘There is a very large group who could be active in the labour market, but who receive transfer incomes because they are ill or on early retirement, or who receive other welfare benefits,’ said Jens Lundsgaard, who heads the OECD’s office for Denmark and Sweden.
‘This means that the overall number of people available for work is not as high as we believe. In addition, we don’t work as many hours as in other countries.’ Productivity is also comparatively low, he added. (mdl)

Finland:

Half a Million People in Finland Feel Discrimination
Published 11.07.2008, 18.27 (updated 11.07.2008, 18.2

Over half a million people in Finland have experienced discrimination, according to a Eurobarometer study. Some 15 percent of the population says they were discriminated against last year.
Discrimination due to age and gender was the most widespread. A large portion of ethnic minorities also felt discriminated against.
Nearly two-thirds of Finns say they know their rights if they are discriminated against. Throughout the EU, that number was on average just one-third.
Finns also say they are satisfied with government’s programmes to prevent discrimination. Nearly two-thirds say the government does enough to stop discrimination. Again, in the EU, that number was just one-third.

Neighbourly Feelings Don’t Extend to Roma

The poll also asked respondents how they would feel if a member of an ethnic minority moved next door. A large number of Finns say they would be disturbed if a member of the Roma community became their neighbour.
However, according to the research, Finns are more often friends or acquaintances with Roma than EU citizens are on average. In addition, nearly half of Finns have an acquaintance who is an immigrant or a member of an ethnic minority. Throughout the EU, that number is slightly higher — or 55 percent of the population.
Seventy percent of Finns have friends or acquaintances with different religions or beliefs. That number in the EU is 60 percent. Some 1,000 people in Finland participated in the survey carried out in February-March of this year.

Netherlands:

Survey backs Dutch only in public
Monday 14 July 2008

Some 66% of the native Dutch think people who live in the Netherlands should only speak Dutch on the street, according to a survey by MCA Communicatie for De Pers newspaper.
Men are keener on Dutch than women: 76% of men think other languages should be ruled out, compared with 56% of women.
The paper does not make it clear if people think speaking Dutch should be enforced by law, or that it is simply preferable.
The paper says ‘the good news’ is that younger immigrants are more in favour of speaking Dutch on the streets than their parents. Nevertheless, the large majority of newcomers think they should be free to speak which ever language they like, De Pers says.
Meanwhile, the Volkskrant reports that special classes at primary school for children who need help with Dutch are proving a success. The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam began experimenting with the extra classes two years ago.
‘Children whose Dutch is not well-developed are followed by it their entire school career,’ said The Hague’s education executive Sander Dekker. ‘These classes are a first-class way of dealing with that.’

Norway:

Researcher urges more complaining in Norway
First published: 14 Jul 2008, 16:30

Norwegians often criticize themselves for being too quick to complain when they don’t receive the goods or services they expect. Wrong, claims a Norwegian researcher. He doesn’t think his compatriots complain enough.
“It varies from branch to branch, but research shows that more than 80 percent of (Norwegians) don’t complain when they’re dissatisified with something,” Bård Tronvoll, a lecturer at the College of Hedmark, told newspaper Aftenposten.
That’s too bad, Tronvoll maintains, because complaints can be positive. “By making it easy for customers to complain, companies can learn what’s wrong and use the opportunity to make it right,” said Tronvoll, who holds a doctorate degree in the subject of service.
Foreigners in Norway may tend to agree with Tronvoll. While Norwegians often accuse each other of complaining and never being satisfied — here’s even an expression for it, en kulture of sutring (a culture of whining) — outsiders often have a different impression.
Many of Aftenposten’s non-Norwegian readers, for example, have sent in comments over the years, bemoaning “Norwegian passivity.” Norwegians, they claim, merely accept everything from the country’s high prices, to the varying quality of produce in the market to the huge role the state plays in many aspects of human life.
“Sometimes I want to want to scream to my fellow shoppers in the grocery store, ‘why do you put up with this??’” wrote one immigrant from the US who had moved to a town on Norway’s southern coast a few years ago and was still reeling from the effects of sticker shock combined with a limited variety of goods on offer and poor, often unfriendly, service at the cash register.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, after all, and honest feedback from customers can boost business, Tronvoll believes.
“If customers don’t have a means of effectively complaining, they’ll simply be dissatisfied and have a poor impression of the business,” he said. “And they’ll pass on that impression to others.”
A recent survey conducted by research firm Synovate for an organization that promotes higher levels of service, HSMAI, found that the retail and travel branches scored slightly higher than the bank and indsurance branch and much higher than public services and the high tech/telecoms branches. But none of them scored much better than average.
“That’s not good enough, and there’s no excuse for it,” said Per Morten Hoff, secretary general of the information technology association IKT-Norge.
As Ingunn Hofseth of HSMAI put it: “Complaints aren’t a problem, it’s how they’re handled,” she said. “And here in Norway, we have a lot to learn.”

Sweden:

Study: violence increasing on streets of Stockholm
Published: 15 Jul 08 08:42 CET

Street violence in Stockholm is rising, according to a study by Stockholm South General Hospital (Södersjukhuset).
The study is based on data gathered over several years on patients admitted to the hospital’s emergency room.
“We have more injuries resulting from violence than we have heart attacks, and we have the most heart attacks of any hospital in the entire country,” said the hospital’s Sören Sanz, who authored the report, to Sveriges Radio.
While the study also reveals that there are fewer patients being admitted with knife and gunshot wounds, that doesn’t necessarily indicate that Stockholm’s streets are any less violent.
Rather than firearms and knives, attackers instead cut their victims with broken bottles, or kick them violently.
Kicking wounds have increased roughly six-fold since 2000, now accounting for nearly 45 percent of emergency room admissions due to violent injuries.

Denmark:

Poll: ban outdoor smoking
07.07.2008

The nation that up until a few years ago had one of the most relaxed attitudes towards smoking is now ready to force smokers even further into a corner. 
After resisting smoking bans while other European and North American implemented increasingly strict restrictions on lighting up indoors, Danes are ready to enact bans against outdoor smoking in public places, according to a poll carried out by weekly publication Mandag Morgen.
Nearly a year after a national ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces - including bars and restaurants - went into effect, the poll found 46 percent of Danes favour a ban against smoking in outdoor areas such as sidewalk cafés. Thirty-six percent said they were against such a measure.
Concerns about the effects of second-hand smoke were the primary reason many supported the ban.
Inge Hanustrup Clemmensen of the Danish Cancer Society said that even though studies show second-hand smoke present a health hazard, an outdoor smoking ban was neither practical nor necessary.
‘I’d rather see people show courtesy and not smoke in places where there are a lot of people gathered. The poll shows that people don’t want to be bothered by smoke outside, and it would be best if it became a custom that you just don’t expose others to second-hand smoke.’
Fact file | Smoking in Denmark
- The most recent revisions to laws against smoking in indoor public places went into effect on 15 August 2007.

- Smoking is banned in the vast majority of indoor public spaces

- The 2007 law specifically names workplaces, hospitals, schools, childcare centres and taxis as areas where smoking is not permitted

- Bars measuring less than 40m2 that do not serve food are exempt from the ban

- According to recent estimates 25 percent of Danes over 13 years smoke every day

- 12,000 Danes die annually from smoking-related illnesses (km)

Finland:

Food Costs Rising at Far Beyond European Average
Published 05.07.2008, 18.51

The cost of food in Finland has risen far more in the past year than the European average. Groceries are nearly ten percent more expensive than a year ago, while the European average has risen only by 6.4 percent.
Only a year ago consumers in Finland felt relief that food costs were rising far slower than in the rest of Europe. Now costs have leapt by 9.5 percent.
The rising price tag on dairy and meat products has been the biggest factor in the overall rise in food costs. For example, the cost of Edam cheese has increased by around 20 percent and the cost of fat-free milk by 25 percent.
A joint of beef is now a fifth more expensive, and wheat flour is more than 40 percent more expensive than a year ago.

Prices Driving Inflation

Statistics Finland development director Ilkka Lehtinen says that the rising cost of food is responsible for a third of the inflation experienced in Finland.
“For a long time the effect of food on inflation was minimal, almost nonexistent, but now the situation is far different than it has been in many years,” says Lehtinen.
But experts cannot agree on exactly why the cost of food has risen so quickly in the past year. One factor in certainly the rising cost of fuel, which is used in abundance to produce any food in such a relatively cold climate. But this alone doesn’t account for the increases.
Some experts believe that retailers have upped prices to increase their own profit margin, other blame the industry producers. Taxation on food is also higher in Finland than the European average.

Netherlands:

Donald Duck tops student’s reading list
Tuesday 08 July 2008

One in ten Dutch students reads the weekly comic Donald Duck, making it the most popular magazine among college and university goers, according to research by marketing bureau StudentServices.
When they are not enjoying Donald’s adventures, students spend three hours a day watching television and five and a half hours on the internet, the research shows, according to news agency ANP.
The research also shows that sme 40% of female and 52% of male students still live at home. They spend between 25.5 and 27 hours a week studying and 10 hours a week working. Some 71% of the 1,775 students polled say they are never overdrawn and 64% have not borrowed money to be able to study.

Norway:

Immigrants keep Oslo going
First published: 07 Jul 2008, 14:38

New figures from the City of Oslo indicate that every fourth resident of Norway’s capital has a non-Norwegian background. They may have come from Sweden, the USA, Vietnam or Gambia, and they’re playing an important role in the job market and the culture.
“Without the immigrants who work hard and do a great job, we could just forget trying to keep the restaurant branch going,” said the boss of the company canteen at the large German industrial concern Siemens.
Of the 10 persons working in Siemens’ canteen, for example, only two were born in Norway. The others come from Denmark, Sweden, Pakistan, Mexico, Gambia, Turkey, Morocco and Kosovo. All contend that they don’t really think about the international diversity.
“But we do talk a bit about the countries we come from, said Yaya Jallow Olsen from Gambia.
“And we laugh a lot together and have fun on the job,” added Lene Halstvedt from Denmark.
“We learn a lot from each other,” confirmed Yonus Kaplan from Turkey.
New data from the city and state statistics bureau SSB shows that of Oslo’s 560,484 residents, 137,878 are immigrants. That’s up from 85,550 in 1998, when the city had a population of 499,693 and immigrants made up 17 percent, not the 24.5 percent today.
The largest single immigrant group continues to be from Pakistan, with 20,313 living in Oslo. Next in line is Somalia, with 9,708 immigrants and Sweden, with 7,462. Other countries with relatively large immigrant groups in Oslo include Sri Lanka, Poland, Iraq, Turkey, Vietnam, Iran and Denmark. Eastern Europeans as a whole make up nearly as large a group of immigrants as those from Pakistan, with 19,721 registered as living in Oslo.
Foreigners also make up a fairly large portion of the population in Stavanger, where many expatriates are working in the oil and offshore industries.
Erling Lae, head of Oslo’s Municipal Executive Board, is pleased with the amount of foreigners in the capital. “When every fourth resident has a foreign background, I ask myself what the city would look like if they weren’t here,” Lae told newspaper Aften. “Oslo would have been in a deep crisis.
“It doesn’t matter where they’re coming from, but that they’re doing well and have a job. And most do.”

Sweden:

House prices ‘will keep falling’
Published: 8 Jul 08 10:18 CET

House prices are set to continue falling in many parts of Sweden during the autumn, according to a new report from mortgage lender SBAB. Apartments and houses in Gothenburg and Malmö will fall in value during the third quarter, while prices in Stockholm are set to remain stable, the report says.
The dampened housing market means that the difference between asking prices and sale prices will get smaller and that homes will take longer to sell.
Real estate agents blame the fall in prices on the large number of homes for sale combined with weak demand. Further rises in interest rates from the Riksbank could lead to a further fall in demand.
“Estate agents are expecting the housing market to remain weak in the third quarter. The time it takes to sell, which has already become significantly longer, is expected to get longer still. Bidding on properties is also expected to continue to get weaker, particularly in Stockholm,” wrote Tor Borg, SBAB analyst, in a statement.
SBAB based its report on a survey of 220 estate agents taken between 9th and 23rd June.

A comparison of death cases by skin cancer reported in Scandinavia countries like Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden from year 1997 to 2005:

Death rate by skin cancer per 100 000 population:

Death caused by C43-C44 Melanoma and other malignant neoplasms of skin in Denmark from year 1981 to 2005:

Source: Statistic Denmark

Denmark:

More find work after loss of social security
24.06.2008

New rules introduced last year have forced more people into finding work after they lost their right to social security
A third of social security recipients, who lost their right to payments after a rule change, have now found work. Another 45 percent who lost their benefits are currently job seeking, according to a new study from the National Centre for Social Research and the Institute of Governmental Research.
The social security rules for married couples changed in April 2007. Couples where both partners were receiving social security payments had to have 300 hours of employment in the past two years, or risk one of them losing their benefits.
The new rule hit many immigrant families hard, with people born outside of Denmark making up 95 percent of those who lost their payments. Almost 700 people have lost their right to social security since last year.
However, the researchers feel that the rule change has helped some immigrant women to look for work outside of the home.
‘Many have been cut off from the workplace because of cultural reasons, but not all have chosen it to be so. For some immigrant women the 300-hours rule has been an argument that they can use over their partner,’ said Kræn Blume Jensen from the Institute of Governmental Research.
Even though a third of those affected have now found work some feel that the other two thirds are being abandoned by the social system, especially those who cannot work the 300 hours due to ill health.
‘Social politics in Denmark has always helped those who have been sick and unable to work. With the 300-hours rule, we are doing the opposite and pulling the economic security net from beneath them,’ said Bettina Post from the Association of Social Workers to public broadcaster DR.
The consequences for families where social security payments are taken away from one person, who is already unable to work, can be very serious. Over half had to borrow money from family and friends.
‘They don’t pay, what they can refrain from paying and some are cutting it very close when it comes to affording rent, electricity, gas and phone bills,’ said Henning Bach, a member of the research team to DR. (kr)

Finland:

Shoplifting Hits Record Levels
Published 24.06.2008, 06.50

Police received a record number of reports of incidents of shoplifting last year, writes the newspaper Aamulehti.
According to Aamulehti, police received 45 000 reports of thefts from shops and shoplifting. In addition, large numbers of attempted thefts were handled by shops without involving the authorities.
The value of goods stolen is estimated in excess of one hundred million euros. The most common items taken by shoplifters are perfumes, expensive items of clothing, and electronics goods. Beer is also a favourite with Finnish shoplifters.
The report says that the number of incidents of theft from shops has risen by a quarter over the past decade. A retailers’ association working group is currently considering whether retailers can prevent additional crimes by identifying previous offenders to their colleagues and preventing them from entering shops.

Netherlands:

Paternal leave on political agenda
Tuesday 24 June 2008

MPs will today debate a proposal by green party GroenLinks to increase the statutory paternity leave following the birth of a new baby from two days to two weeks.
MPs are evenly divided on the issue; the ruling Christian Democrats and ChristenUnie are opposed, alongside the Liberals (VVD). The left-of-centre parties and D66 back the plan.
The Volkskrant reports that the nine MPs of the anti-immigration PVV hold the key and are not revealing their voting intentions.
Employers are against the extra leave for new fathers, saying it will cost them € 200m a year.

Norway:

Poor English skills plague politicians, and their listeners
First published: 24 Jun 2008, 11:43

Some top Norwegian politicians speak such poor English that they risk losing influence as they stumble through prepared speeches or try to express themselves to foreigners, claims a professor at the University of Oslo. He thinks it’s downright embarrassing.
Bernt Hagtvedt, a professor of political science at the University of Oslo, is tired of listening to Norwegian politicians speak broken English when addressing foreign audiences.
Hagtvedt is convinced that their lack of English proficiency damages Norway’s effectiveness in putting forth its positions on important international issues.
“When their grammar, nuances and vocabulary are so deficient that it adversely affects understanding, we have a problem,” Hagtvedt told NRK on its national morning radio broadcast.
He claimed that even though children in Norway are taught English in the schools, it’s “a problem that many Norwegians think they are fluent in English,” when they’re not.
“We speak a simple English, with 700-800 words we know,” Hagtvedt said. “And we don’t even try to pronounce them correctly.”
He called Norwegians’ lack of English proficiency “an illustration of a general laziness in Norway. We’re not concerned with standards, and have no interest in striving for anything beyond what we already know.”
Asked whether he gets embarrassed when he hears Norwegian politicians speak, he responded with an immediate “Yes!”
Hagtvedt said it’s “abundantly clear that we must improve knowledge of English in the schools. And we should expect that broadcasters, politicians and other top government officials work on their English.”
Some have. Many, including former cabinet minister Anne Enger Lahnstein when she was in office, have attended language schools in England. And several politicians over the years have exhibited an impressive command of English (former foreign aid minister Hilde Frafjord Johnsen comes to mind) and several other languages as well. Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, for example, can move seemingly effortlessly from Norwegian to English to French.
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik was thoroughly embarrassed after he spoke of writing in his “day book” (a literal translation of the Norwegian word for diary, dagbok) after meeting former US President Bill Clinton.
“It’s clear that language is power,” said Hagtvedt. “My simple point is, ‘work on it!’”

Sweden:

Study: Swedish teens ‘more stressed out’ at school
Published: 24 Jun 08 12:19 CET

Swedish 15-year-olds feel more pressure in school than their counterparts in other countries.
In addition, fewer Swedish 15-year-olds say that they like going to school compared with youth elsewhere.

And Swedish young people also report suffering from headaches and feeling down to a greater extent than those of a comparable age in other countries.

The findings come from a study carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) which looked at the health and well-being of young people in 41 industrialized countries.

The Swedish study included in the report was presented by the Swedish National Institute of Public Health (SNIPH) two years ago.

The comparison shows that Swedish children feel rather well overall, but the situation for 15-year-olds deviates from the pattern, which is a cause for concern.

“It is to a large extent the 15-year-old girls which report that being stressed out and not feeling well. The situation looks similar in other countries. One explanation could be that the girls feel greater demands on them to do their schoolwork, while at the same time feeling the pressure of demands on their appearance and demands that they maintain their social relationships,” said Lilly Eriksson, an investigator with SNIPH.

“The study shows that younger Swedish children feel better than the average of similar aged children in other countries. Swedish 11-year-olds are clearly better than the average in other countries and 13-year-olds are also in good shape,” said Eriksson.

Denmark:

Foreign students working more than studying
16.06.2008 
 
Foreign students are foregoing agreed educational courses in favour of work.
The Education Ministry is concerned that young people from foreign countries are using educational stays in Denmark as a pretence to find work in Denmark.
Education Minister Bertel Haarder told Politiken newspaper that his ministry and the Immigration Service are beginning to investigate charges that students are working more than they are studying.
The two organisations are currently carrying out 600 spot checks on different educational institutions to see if the students are attending their classes.
‘The foreign students must attend to their studies, otherwise they have received their residence permits under false pretences,’ said Haarder.
The number of non-EU students in Denmark increased from 5,043 in 2006 to 6,031 in 2007, and many of these students are working so much that they do not have time for their studies, according to Politiken.
One of the schools under investigation is the Selandia school in Slagelse. One teacher there said students who do attend are often asleep because they come straight from working night shifts. In the latest class of foreign students from Selandia to take an exam, only four out of 39 passed. Selandia does not impose compulsory attendance on its students.
Haarder said that the schools have a responsibility to their students to make sure that they attend to their studies, regardless of whether attendance is compulsory.
‘It is unacceptable if an educational institution thinks it can just admit students, demand money from them and not care if they attend their classes or fail exams. In that case we will strip them of their right to offer educational programs.’
International students from the EU/EEA can work unlimited hours while studying. Other foreign students can work a maximum of 15 hours per week during school term and full-time during the summer months. (kr)

Finland:

Young Finns Are Indifferent Voters
Published 17.06.2008, 11.19

The generation of Finns born during or after the 1970s exercises the right to vote significantly less often than their older countrymen. A new doctoral dissertation sees it as a permanent trend.
Traditionally, younger voters are less likely to be active at the polls than their elders. According to Hanna Wass, the author of a doctoral dissertation released on Tuesday, there are a number of reasons for the politically passive behaviour of younger voters.
“They have gone through their social upbringing and grown up at a time when voting was in decline even among older voters. They got a message that voting is no longer all that important,” says Wass.

No longer seen as a duty

Unlike their elders, the younger generation doesn’t see voting as a civic duty. As they grow older, they are not becoming more active voters. The decision not to exercise the right to vote is a relatively permanent one.
As actively voting generations are replaced by less active generations, the fall in voter turnout is expected to continue.
Staying away from the polls can easily become a vicious circle. The young feel that issues important to them are ignored in elections, and by not voting they may be ensuring that their interests continue to be ignored.
There is a danger that growing numbers of the young become politically passive and shut out of the political decision-making process. Hanna Wass believes that active voting by the young could be increased by making the political playing field more attractive.
“Politics and participation in society should be spoken of a lot and in the most interesting way possible. The young should be given the opportunity to experience really making a difference. Election campaigns should also bring up issues of real interest to the young,” says Hanna Wass.

Netherlands: you mean the others are not?

Millions on performance-related pay
Tuesday 17 June 2008

Some two million Dutch workers now have some sort of performance-related pay, according to research for the FNV-affiliated general workers union.
Most get the extra cash in the form of a bonus or a 13th month’s salary. Chemical and food industry workers get the biggest bonuses, says the research quoted in De Pers.

Norway:

Thousands more cops needed
First published: 16 Jun 2008, 12:38

Noway is going to need nearly 4,000 more police officers over the next decade, to keep up with population growth and a rising crime rate.
Police Director Ingelin Killengreen was due to deliver a report on staffing needs to the Justice Ministry on Monday. In it, she notes that Norway’s population is expected to grow not least through immigration, and that poses new challenges.
There are now 460,000 immigrants living in Norway, mostly from Sweden and other European countries but also from the Americas, Asia and Africa. The total number of immigrants in Norway is expected to rise to 1,050,000 by 2020, with two-thirds coming from western nations and one third from eastern European nations and developing countries.
Since the police handle immigration cases on behalf of the immigration agency, more staffing will be needed. It also will be needed to tackle a rising crime rate and ongoing domestic migration from the countryside to the cities.
“We must be prepared to receive immigrants in a way that also will help prevent crime better than we manage today,” Killengreen said. “We need more police with immigrant background themselves, and experts with more insight into foreign cultures.”
Killengreen wants 2,700 more police officers in uniform and 1,000 plainclothes cops on the beat. Justice Minister Knut Storberget welcome the police report and called the needs a “sober and realistic analysis” of crime in Norway and how to deal with it.

Sweden:

Swedish rape stats rise
Published: 16 Jun 08 14:50 CET

The number of reported rapes in Sweden has risen sharply in the last ten years, according to a new survey by Brå, the Swedish national council for crime prevention.
The report highlights other interesting statistics about the changing face of rape crime in Sweden.
Victims and rapists are less likely to know each other well and there have been less so-called random attack rapes in the last ten years.
The number of reported rapes on people over the age of 15 years has doubled since ten years ago. Around 3,500 rapes were reported in 2007.
According to the crime prevention council, rapes reported most occurred between people of no or little acquaintance. This type of rape has risen by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006.
“Rape is one of the most violating crimes against a person. The last decade has seen strong opinions voiced against men’s violence towards women, and the law regarding sexual offences has been reworked several times.
“A change in the law also means that many more of the more minor sexual assaults are now considered a crime and are being reported. As a result, more rapes are reported, which is positive”, said Jan Andersson, director general of Brå in a statement.
The law was changed in 2005 so that criminal actions that had once been classified as sexual assault or sexual abuse are now judged as rape. This also goes some way toward explaining the rise in rape statistics.
Reported rapes where the parties concerned don’t know each other often occur in a private home which doesn’t belong to either victim or rapist. The growing prevalence of this type of rape is not only due to an increase in reported rapes, but also to a change in people’s lifestyles.
According to Klara Hradilova Selin of Brå, it should also be taken into account that “a more active night life and a flurry of internet dating websites enable contacts, often for purely sexual reasons”.
The number of random rape attacks by a stranger has diminished to just one in ten. And whilst fewer people are seriously injured during rape, more victims seek medical care afterwards.
The stats for rapes between people in a close relation has diminished by 12 percent and make up 17 percent of all reported rapes. However, these type of rapes are usually not reported because the victims are often in an abusive relationship and do not dare to report the crime.
There has been a rise in the number of rapes with several perpetrators, but according to Brå, this is not synonymous with so-called ‘gang-bangs’.
Brå’s definition of group rape assumes that several people are involved, but not necessarily all at the same time or that everyone in the group has committed rape. For example, one person might have been the victim of several assaults in one evening.
“The greatest rise of this type of rape has taken place between 2004 and 2006 and this could be explained by the new legislation which now categorizes minor assaults as rape too”, says Klara Hradilova Selin of Brå.
Brå maintains that the crime of rape is particularly difficult to assess and analyze. Most sex crimes are never discovered because victims feel so violated that they do not dare to report the crime to the police, friends or family.
Brå’s study took a random selection of reported rapes from between the years 2004 and 2006 and compared the data to material from Brå’s earlier study for the years between 1995 and 2000.

New HIV infection cases diagnosed by man sex with man (MSM) and heterosexual contact, percentage (%) in Denmark from year 1997 to 2006:

Year : MSM Cases ( % MSM )
1997 — 112 ( 38.9 )
1998 — 70 ( 35.2 )
1999 — 94 ( 32.9 )
2000 — 75 ( 29.4 )
2001 — 99 ( 30.8 )
2002 — 94 ( 32.2 )
2003 — 101 ( 39.0 )
2004 — 150 ( 48.7 )
2005 — 127 ( 44.9 )
2006 — 105 ( 42.9 )

Year: Heterosexual ( % Heterosexual )
1997 — 122 ( 42.4 )
1998 — 92 ( 46.2 )
1999 — 149 ( 52.1 )
2000 — 137 ( 53.7 )
2001 — 144 ( 44.9 )
2002 — 145 ( 49.7 )
2003 — 122 ( 47.1 )
2004 — 129 ( 41.9 )
2005 — 117 ( 41.3 )
2006 — 121 ( 49.4 )

Sources:
1. WHO - European health for all database (HFA-DB)
2. Europe - HIV

Denmark:

Copenhagen Consensus: vitamins are best investment
02.06.2008

If you had an extra $75 billion to spend on eliminating the world’s problems, where would you put it? Fighting disease? Stopping climate change? Or providing better education?
That question was put to leading economists taking part in the Copenhagen Consensus last week.
Fighting childhood malnutrition with vitamin supplements and fortifying foods with essentials such as iron came out tops.
Developing easier trade links between all countries was also highly recommended.
The idea behind the CC is to help prioritise the world’s limited economic funds and resources to get the best results.
The economic experts, including five Nobel prize winners, discussed 10 challenge areas where economic priority would make the biggest impact. Areas included malnutrition, global warming, trade and climate change.
The experts ranked the solutions to these challenges in order of the best possible results. As with the first CC in 2004, climate change ranked close to the bottom of the list in terms of return on investment.
Some 140 million children lack essential vitamins according to the CC analysis. The proposal before the CC was to increase the amount of vitamin A and zinc supplements available to undernourished children.
A member of the expert panel and Nobel Laureate Douglass C North said that there is a clear benefit for recommending this solution in the fight against malnutrition.
‘It has immediate and important consequences for improving the wellbeing of poor people around the world - that’s why it should be our number one priority.’ (KR)

Finland:

New Safety Guidelines for Daycare Centres
Published 03.06.2008, 10.14

The Ministry of Health and Social Services disclosed new safety regulations for daycare centres on Tuesday.
The joint directives from the Ministry and the Centre for Research and Development of Welfare and Health are intended to help child care centres prevent risk and to develop safety plans to help manage crisis situations.
The guidelines map out plans to deal with cases such as illness, accidents, food handling, hygiene, kidnapping and the disappearance of children as well as the risk posed by low staff levels.
The new safety regulations were laid out in a set of proposals drawn up by a special working group.

Netherlands:

Alternative healing gains in popularity
Monday 02 June 2008

The number of people seeking treatment from alternative therapists such as homeopaths, acupuncturists and paranormal healers went up by 7% in 2007, says national statistics agency CBS.
Some 9% of women and 5% of men use alternative therapies. Most are aged 45 to 65.

Norway:

Traffic deaths soar, experts blame reckless driving
First published: 02 Jun 2008, 12:51

Deaths caused by traffic accidents in Norway are up 50 percent so far this year, even before the summer driving season gets underway. Speedsters, most often young men, have become a potentially lethal menace on the road.
An organization dedicated to improving road safety, Trygg Trafikk, has asked for and received an emergency meeting with both police and state highway officials this week, reports news bureau NTB.
A total of 106 traffic fatalities have been registered since January 1, and that’s considered “ominous, since we know that the most fatalities occur in June, July and August,” said Kristin Øyen of Trygg Trafikk.
Odd Reidar Humlegård of the state police is also worried about the trend. He noted that many of the fatal accidents have involved high speed or intoxication or both.
“We’ve been seizing drivers’ licenses and catching more speedsters than ever before,” Humlegård told Aftenposten.no. But not even a recent rash of especially gruesome accidents, widely reported in Norwegian media, has proved a deterrent.
Humlegård confirmed Trygg Trafikk’s concern that increasing numbers of motorists are simply driving too fast. “We’ve seen speeds of as much as 160 kilometres an hour in an 80 zone, and we’re worried about what they (the guilty motorists) are thinking,” Humlegård said. “It’s as if they don’t understand what danger they’re putting themselves and others into.”
Many of those driving way too fast are young men, and fully 11 of the traffic fatalities in May alone were youth, both male and female, aged 15 to 24. They included passengers in cars driven by reckless motorists.
The police plan to significantly boost highway patrols this summer, and many of the patrol cars will be unmarked.

Sweden:

Equal treatment eludes female PhDs
Published: 3 Jun 08 07:05 CET

More and more women are starting post-graduate research at Swedish colleges and universities, only to find they face a bitter reality in comparison to their male colleagues.
A news study from Sweden’s National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket) shows that one in four women working toward a PhD in Sweden experiences negative treatment due to their gender.
Only 6 percent of men feel they’ve faced the same situation.
Circumstances are worst for women pursuing doctorate degrees in jurisprudence, law, social science, and veterinary medicine, where answers given by those questioned for the report are often disheartening.
Primarily teachers or advisors are responsible for the negative treatment.
The higher education agency first investigated the situation for doctoral candidates five years ago.
At the time, researchers emphasized their position of dependence relative to their advisors.
“My biggest worry is that not so much has happened,” said the agency’s head Anders Flodtröm to the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
The agency has been criticized earlier that a high number of those who advise PhD students are men. Even if more women join the ranks of advisors, the field is still dominated by men.
Nine percent of female PhD candidates in the report state that they have been sexually harassed. But only 2 percent of their male colleagues report being subjected to “an unwelcome advance of a sexual nature”.

Denmark:

Students scorn science subjects
21.05.2008

A report shows that Denmark will be lacking medical and science professionals in the future unless more secondary school students choose science subjects.
Decreasing numbers of students choosing science subjects in schools will result in fewer doctors, nurses and scientists in the future, according to an Education Ministry report.
The most popular subjects among secondary school students are social studies, while the sciences have experienced a declining interest among the nation’s teenagers with only 31 percent of those starting in secondary school this year choosing science subjects.
A secondary school reform plan was implemented three years ago where the goal was to strengthen the sciences.
Education Minister Bertel Haarder placed responsibility for the development on the lack of political support in parliament. However, Peter Kuhlman, chairman of the association for secondary school principals, thinks otherwise.
According to Kuhlman, the problem lay in students having to choose the direction of their secondary school curriculum during their time in primary schools. Kuhlman said it was possible students needed to wait until they started secondary school before choosing the direction of their studies.
The present procedure means that pupils in primary schools must decide to concentrate on languages or maths during the first year of secondary school, and they must follow that line for the duration of secondary schooling. (LYT)

Finland:

More Fathers Taking Paternity Leave
Published 26.05.2008, 17.07 (updated 26.05.2008, 20.31)

New fathers in Finland are taking paternity leave more frequently. According to the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela), the number of men who stay home to care for their children has risen by one-quarter over the past ten years.
Six perecent of paid parental leave days are now taken by dads.
Last year, 51,200 fathers were granted parental leave support, an increase of 26 percent from 1998. During the same period, the number of mothers taking the support increased by just two percent.
Kela has tried to encourage fathers to use paternity leave by improving benefits and flexibility of leave. Parental support is paid to either the mother or father, depending on which parent stays home to care for the child.

Netherlands:

More cash for minority college students
Tuesday 27 May 2008

Education minister Ronald Plasterk is to give five hbo colleges in the Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Utrecht a total of €4m to try to boost the results of students with an ethnic minority background.
The funding will rise to €17m a year by 2011. Statistics show that students with a Turkish, Moroccan or Surinamese background have a high drop-out rate.

Norway:

Protesters rage against gasoline prices at the pump
First published: 23 May 2008, 15:54

A widespread, grass-roots protest has broken out in Norway against high prices for gasoline and diesel. Even though much of the pump price is the result of taxes, the oil companies are getting the blame.
Norwegians are now paying more than NOK 13 a litre (nearly USD 11 a gallon) for gasoline in many markets, and that’s likely to rise.
Market analyst Torbjørn Kjus at DnB Markets told newspaper Dagbladet that he expects oil prices, which hit USD 135 a barrel this week, to hit USD 200 a barrel. That would translate to nearly NOK 17 a litre for gasoline (USD 13.60 a gallon).
Motorists aren’t happy. More than 67,000 took part in an organized protest via the Internet this week, making threats that they’d boycott Norway’s two largest gasoline station chains, Statoil and Shell. They also signed petitions calling for lower prices, and the threatened boycott action was spreading quickly via e-mail.
Norway’s gasoline prices became the highest in Europe this week, somewhat ironic since Norway is an oil-producing nation. But government policies have always aimed to discourage use of private cars in Norway by heavily taxing the cars themselves and the gasoline they need to operate.
While gasoline prices have risen in line with rising oil prices – which mostly benefit Norway’s economy – the brunt of the per-litre price remains the taxes imposed by the state.

Sweden:

More international students choose Swedish universities
Published: 26 May 08 12:02 CET

The last academic year was the first time that the number of international students registered at Swedish universities and colleges topped the number of Swedes studying abroad.
The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (Högskolverket) sees the trend as a problem.
“International experience is part of the competence needed for the labour market into which students will enter. It is ever more global and [studying abroad] is an experience people will come to miss,” said University Chancellor Anders Flodström, who heads the agency.
The flood of students in and out of Sweden has increased steadily over the last several decades. But in recent years, fewer Swedes have applied to study abroad.
And after compiling statistics from the 2006-2007 academic year, the Agency for Higher Education found for the first time that were more international students studying in Sweden than there were Swedes studying abroad, nearly 28,000 compared to 25,600.
Compared to the previous academic year, the number of international students in Sweden increased by nine percent, while the number of Swedes studying in other countries dropped by two percent.
However, the number of Swedes studying abroad has remained relatively constant—at around 26,000—for the last ten years.
Meanwhile, the number of international students as a percentage of the overall higher education student body population in Sweden has more than doubled in the last ten years, from 3.1 percent to 7.3 percent.
In addition to students losing out on valuable contacts and experience in a more globalized economy, Flodström sees a number of other possible problems.
Compared with students from other countries, Swedes more often choose to complete their entire education abroad.
“I can imagine that this may lead to the labour market losing accomplished Swedes who decide to stay overseas when they begin their careers. It’s a sort of brain-drain,” he said.
During the 2006-2007 academic year, the vast majority of Swedish students—around 20,000—arranged their own study abroad experience. The remainder of around 6,000 studied abroad in some form of pre-existing exchange program, with nearly half participating in the European Erasmus program.

Denmark:

Language tough for Danish children, too
20.05.2008

The Danish language is a mouthful for the nation’s small children learning to speak their mother tongue.
Foreigners aren’t the only ones who have a hard time learning the Danish language. A new study shows that Danish small children are slower than toddlers in other countries at picking up their native language’s nuances, reports MetroXpress newspaper.
The study, conducted by the University of Southern Denmark’s Centre for Child Language, showed that Danish children on average have a vocabulary of only 80 words at the age of 15 months. Conversely, Swedish children at the same age can handle 130 words, while Croatian toddlers have mastered up to 200.
‘The research shows that by the age of two, Danish children are nearly up to speed,’ said study leader Dorthe Bleses. ‘But it’s good to be aware of the challenge, as some children need to hear words and phrases several times before they get it right.’
According to the study, the primary reason Danish children lag behind in language comprehension is because single words are difficult to extract from Danish’s slurring together of words in sentences. Danish is also one of the languages with the most vowel sounds, which leads to a ‘mushier’ pronunciation of words in everyday conversation.
‘It’s more difficult for a Danish child to figure out where the holes are in a sentence - where one word stops and a new one starts,’ said Bleses. ‘In Swedish the distinction is much clearer.’
The study examined languages in 18 countries, the results of which will be published in an upcoming edition of Cambridge University’s Journal of Child Language. (RC)

Finland:

Shoplifting Hit Record High in 2007
Published 19.05.2008, 08.40

Shoplifting hit a record high last year in Finland, reports the newspaper Keskisuomalainen. Police say that over 45,000 cases of shoplifting and petty theft occurred last year. The number has grown by 25 percent in ten years, and is 77 percent higher than 20 years ago. Some 16 percent of thieves were minors last year.
According to police, self-service shops have made shoplifting easier. However, improved surveillance has led to an increase in apprehending thieves.

Denmark: no more free school choice?

Free school choice to end
02.05.2008

A majority in Copenhagen’s city council are ready to put an end to parents’ ability to send their children to the school of their choice.
Free choice of city schools for primary and secondary school students will be a thing of the past if city council passes a new proposal to limit children to two or three local educational facilities, reports Berlingske Tidende newspaper.
Currently, parents may send their kids to any school lying within Copenhagen municipality. But a majority in city council are set to change that in the interests of furthering integration.
‘If we’re going to have a real community school, then everyone in the local districts should be represented,’ said Jan Andreasen, Social Democratic member of the city’s Children and Youth Committee. ‘Integration will only succeed if parents don’t flee from their local schools.’
Many parents of children with ethnic Danish background do not want to send their children to schools where many of the students are Muslim, while Muslim parents are often hesitant to break the pattern of sending their children to the same schools.
Parents’ organisation School and Society indicated it doesn’t believe that forced integration is a solution to the problem.
‘We already have a very large number of parents applying to send their kids to private schools and I think this proposal would just make the situation even worse,’ said the organisation’s president, Thomas Damkjær Petersen.
The proposal will be taken up in the Children and Youth Committee before being sent on to the Education Ministry, where its approval would mean a law change. (RC)

Finland:

Midwives Call for More Natural Births
Published 06.05.2008, 10.56 (updated 06.05.2008, 10.59)

All births in Finland are treated as though they are high-risk, according to the Federation of Finnish Midwives. The group says that Finland provides too many unnecessary caesarean sections, induced labours and epidurals.
In Finland, 70 percent of women giving birth for the first time receive an epidural, while 20 percent undergo a C-section. Meanwhile, half of all women receive an epidural. Just one decade ago, only around one-quarter of women underwent a C-section. Furthermore, hospitals vary considerably in their practices.
According to the federation, hospitals cater too much to patients.
“It’s unnecessary to administer an epidural to a mother who demands one when there is no medical reason to give it to her,” says the director of the federation, Terhi Virtanen.
“If an epidural is given too early, the birthing process can be halted. Then medications are needed to speed up the birth, which can lead to assisted suction deliveries and serious tears,” she adds.
Virtanen says women who have previously had C-sections are the most frequent recipients of the operation.
The federation has prepared a report on natural births. It says it hopes to work with physicians to compile recommendations for handling low risk births.

Netherlands:

Cabinet to tackle high baby death rate
Tuesday 06 May 2008

Health minister Ab Klink is working on plans to try to tackle the death rate for new born babies in the Netherlands, which some say is high among western European countries, the NRC reports on Tuesday.
‘Of every 1,000 babies, 13.4 die during the pregnancy or in the first month after birth,’ the paper says, quoting health council figures.
Klink is setting up a special committee which will be charged with reducing the baby death rate, the NRC says. In the meantime, he wants to involve social and healthcare groups in improving help to parents. The plans are contained in a concept letter which is circulating in medical circles.
Klink stressed that the Dutch tradition of encouraging home births was not at issue. ‘Far too many women, gynaecologists and researchers think it is a good institution,’ the paper quoted Klink as saying. ‘Home births cannot be regarded as being responsible for the higher baby death rate.’
In particular, Klink thinks improving prenatal care to immigrants and low-skilled households will bring positive results, the NRC says.

Norway:

Norwegians stump out cigs at record rate
First published: 05 May 2008, 12:45

In 1976, four out of 10 Norwegians smoked cigarettes daily. In 2007, the number had sunk to 2 out of 10.
“There’s no other country that has a faster rate of reducing smoking than Norway,” said Karl Erik Lund, a researcher in the Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research (SIRUS).
He attributes this to a combination of official campaigns, increasing restrictions and high taxes. But he also says the symbolic idea of smoking has “turned upside down – from positive to negative.”
More women than men smoke in Norway now. While 23 percent of women say they smoke daily, 21 percent of men say they do.
However, the amount of men who use snuff has been growing rapidly. Among men between 16 and 44 years, there has been a tripling of snuff use since 1985.
Lund also thinks the smoking numbers will continue to fall.
“There is nothing that indicates we have met the bottom of the smokers yet. The number of smokers will continue to go down in the years that come. It is natural to believe that we will come down towards the 5-10 percent level of daily smokers in Norway,” he said.

Sweden:

Swedish for Immigrants enrolment hits all time high
Published: 4 May 08 10:17 CET

65,222 students attended Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) courses in 2007. The highest number ever and 24 percent up on 2006.
The number of beginners starting SFI courses in the 2006/07 academic year was the highest since 1993/94 when 35,500 signed up.
Over 130 language groups were represented in the 2006/07 academic year. Arabic was the most common mother tongue, with over 20 percent of students speaking Arabic as a first language. Many of the languages were spoken by only a handful of students.
62 percent of the beginners who started SFI courses in 2004/05 passed one of their courses and of those almost half gained top grades.
The level of prior education varies greatly among SFI students. The Swedish Board of Education (Skolverket) reported in a memorandum that there is a close correlation between the basic education of students and success in the SFI course.
Those with Polish as a mother tongue typically had the highest number of years of basic school education with over 90 percent having a minimum of 10 years school education before signing up for the course. Only 20 percent of those of Somali origin had more than 10 years school education.
The Board’s statistics also indicated that younger students proved more successful than older and that there were clear differences among different language groups depending on the similarity of their mother tongue to Swedish.
The average age of SFI students in 2006/07 was 32-years-old and 57 percent of the students were women.
SFI courses were offered in 251 of Sweden’s 290 local authorities in 2006/07.

HIV cases reported from year 1990 to 2006 in Denmark:

Year — Total Cases / Cases per 100 000 population
1990 — 139 / 0.02
1991 — 327 / 0.06
1992 — 336 / 6.00
1993 — 325 / 6.17
1994 — 318 / 6.09
1995 — 307 / 5.87
1996 — 258 / 4.88
1997 — 288 / 5.39
1998 — 199 / 3.73
1999 — 286 / 5.35
2000 — 255 / 4.66
2001 — 321 / 5.87
2002 — 292 / 5.33
2003 — 259 / 4.82
2004 — 308 / 5.67
2005 — 283 / 5.02
2006 — 245 / 4.15

Source:
1. WHO Regional Office for Europe - CISID

Denmark:

Study: Danes well paid
25.04.2008 
 
A new study shows that Danes leave poor paying jobs in record time compared to other countries.
Denmark is one of the countries in the world where the least number of citizens have low incomes, shows a new study.
According to the study, Denmark has a record high minimum wage in comparison to the other countries in the study.
‘In fact, our minimum wage corresponds to the median wage in the US,’ said professor Niels Westergaard-Nielsen, project manager of the study. ‘Approximately 50 percent of Americans earn less than, or just as much as a Danish worker on minimum wage.’
The study, conducted by researchers from Copenhagen Business School and Århus University, also indicated that Danes left poor paying jobs in record time.
Only France matched Denmark in terms of workers quickly switching from a lower income job to a better one. Countries such as the Netherlands, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom were also included in the survey.
‘We’re talking about two world records - at least two international high scores, since these are some of the world’s strongest nations we’re comparing ourselves with,’ said Westergaard-Nielsen.
He also pointed out that most low income positions were generally held by students who were on their way into the job market. And once they finished their studies, they tended to move onto better paid jobs.
However, Westergaard-Nielsen said that the high salary levels here could affect the country’s competitiveness and force Denmark to outsource much of its production to countries where labour costs were substantially lower.
He also said that five percent of the country’s gross national product was used for maintaining the social safety net on the labour market, which was the highest level of the world. (LYT)

Finland:

Drug Patients Take Hospital Beds from the Elderly
Published 28.04.2008, 10.26

The number of patients receiving treatment for drug abuse in health centres and hospitals has increased in recent years. The rising demand for beds has meant that senior citizens have not had access to the care they need.
According to a report in the Keskisuomalainen newspaper, figures recently released by Centre for Research and Development of Welfare and Health, STAKES, indicate that in 2006 health centres and hospitals treated more than 21,000 Finns for drug abuse. The majority of patients admitted for such treatment were in the 21 - 64 year old age group.
At the same time increasing numbers of senior citizens seeking treatment at hospitals and health centres have had to queue for beds. At the state level, rehabilitating patients have also commanded most of the beds available since the year 2004.
However, the situation is variable across larger cities. In many cities, the demand for places for drug rehabilitation has been declining. Exceptions to this trend include Kuopio and Jyväskylä, where the demand has been growing. In Espoo the number of beds devoted for drug rehabilitation has also been on the increase.

Netherlands:

White Dutch kids play together
Monday 28 April 2008

Only one in 10 white Dutch children play with children of other nationalities when playing outside, according to research published today.
But over one-third of ethnic minority children play in mixed groups, says the children’s play lobby group OMO.

Norway:

99 out of 100 thieves go free
First published: 28 Apr 2008, 11:37

A new report by the justice minister, Knut Storberget, shows that 99.2 percent of all serious robberies on the streets of Oslo are never solved.
Last year, 11,033 crimes were reported, but just 80 were solved.
And the wave of robberies is increasing rapidly. Yesterday 33 people were the victims of serious crimes in Oslo. In the first three months of 2008, serious robberies in public places have increased by 10 percent.
Many city officials blame the increase in crime on begging and prostitution by people from other lands, mostly Eastern Europe.
A ban on begging in the streets was lifted in 2005.
But while the criminals go free, the politicians and police argue about what can be done. City Council head Erling Lae has sent a letter to the justice minister asking that “pågående” (insistent, or aggressive) begging and prostitution be forbidden.
“Beggers with Eastern European ethnic backgrounds represent a far more aggressive and insistent begging behavior than we have previously been accustomed to. There are also strong indications that they are behind much of the criminality in the form of pickpockets, break-ins, and shop robberies,” wrote Lae.

Sweden:

High school students ignorant of their geography
Published: 26 Apr 08 12:27 CET

High school students in Umeå were unable to name Finland’s capital city in a recent survey which showed an alarming ignorance of basic geography.
Students from Umeå University in the north of Sweden interviewed 200 high school students aged 17-19-years-old on their geography skills.
More than 68 percent responded that they do no know where the European Union has its headquarters, 75 percent could not place Teheran in Iran and 96 percent could not name two Swedish national parks.
“This is the level of knowledge on which they will then make their decisions,” said dismayed student Christian Lund to Västerbottens-Kuriren.
Lund wonders how the students will later be able to develop their opinions in democratic and societal issues such as the environment, sustainable development and politics without some basic knowledge of geography.
The results of the study will be sent to schools minister, Jan Björklund.

Denmark:

Organ donor rules increase death count
22.04.2008

While its Nordic neighbours have improved their donor transplant figures a growing number of Danes die waiting for a new organ.
As long as it is up to Danes themselves to sign up to be organ donors, Denmark’s figures for people who die on waiting lists will continue to rise.
A new study from organ procurement co-operative Scandiatransplant shows that Denmark lags far behind its neighbours in saving lives through organ transplants, with waiting lists that are much longer than its Nordic neighbours.
And the reason, according to both Scandiatransplant and numerous medical experts, is the country’s donor volunteer programme.
In Finland, Sweden and Norway, adult citizens are automatically registered as organ donors and must themselves contact the authorities if they wish to be taken off the donor list. In Denmark, citizens must sign up to be organ donors - and often do not.
‘Donor number are increasing in the other countries while it is falling in Denmark,’ Preben Kirkegaard, liver surgeon at University State Hospital, told Berlingske Tidende newspaper. ‘And a larger donor pool is crucial if we’re going to make a dent in the waiting lists.’
The number of Danes who die waiting for a lung, for example, is equal to that of all three other Nordic countries combined. Those countries have also reduced their organ transplant waiting times while in Denmark the period continues to grow longer.
And the lack of donors is glaringly obvious in the number of organs Denmark imports and sends out to other countries for transplants. Hearts are a prime example, as between 2000 and 2006 Denmark received 44 hearts from foreign countries while exporting only six.
The Nordic countries successes were based on the Spanish model of the self opt-out, instituted some years ago. And instead of using millions on advertising campaigns to lure donors, Spain created a central governmental agency to handle all the nation’s transplant activities. The country now leads the world in the number of potential organ donors.
Yet despite the alarming figures here in Denmark, a Berlingske Research survey indicated that 10 out of 13 members of parliament’s health care committee are against changing the volunteer donor rules. (RC)

Finland:

Report: Depression Costs Society 1bn a Year
Published 17.04.2008, 18.36

The costs of clinical depression to Finnish society are higher than previously thought — about one billion euros annually,