Homeschooling, Adult Education & Gang Crackdowns in Denmark: LWID S1E5

In this episode, hear Journalist Wizzi Magnussen and Founder of Last Week in Denmark, Narcis George Matache present this week's newsletter headlines, a political over and deep dive into some of the below topics.

Topics covered include: 

• Interest rate increase
• Inflation is stabilizing
• Tax increase for people living in Frederiksberg
• 1200 nurses from Iran
• Official apology from the government
• You can continue to buy cans without pant / deposit from the border stores
• Homeschooling is attracting Germans to Denmark
• 360 million DKK for adult education
• The war against gangs intensifies 
• Property assessments

and more...

Produced by Wizmedia.

https://www.the-intl.com/issue

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🎵 Music,Jack Leatherbarrow @ Wizmedia: https://wiz-media.co.uk/

Transcript

Wizzy: Welcome to the Last Week in Denmark podcast. I'm your host, Wizzi Magnussen, and I'm here with founder of Last Week in Denmark, Narcis, to discuss this week's news and offer you extra insight into what's been happening and how it could affect you. Now, let's jump in. Welcome back to the microphone, Narcis. So what's new in the world of Last Week in Denmark?

Narcis: Well, we actually started to get out in the world, out and about, right? We have already been to three events in Aalborg, the Diversity Evening at the Zoo and the International Fair North Denmark, both, by the way, organized by the International House North Denmark, which is quite an active institution in terms of helping internationals be more part of the Danish society. To be honest, the response has been quite good. We know that there are a lot of people out there who are simply not on social media or they're using social media just to chat with their friends or family so that we cannot really target them through any sort of ads. So meeting them face to face allows us to reach people that we will not be normally able to reach. So it was definitely a good thing to be there. At least 100 more people joined our subscriber family and we're looking forward to continue doing this. We're gonna go to Kolding on the 21st of September. We'll be in Copenhagen 22-23 September. Odense and Herning also on 23 of September. So you'll be able to see us all around the country next week. So don't, don't be shy, come and meet us at the Welcome September events around the country. So I would say that's, that's one thing that we have done this week.

Wizzi: I'll have to look out for you when I'm in Odense because my husband's doing a half marathon there. I think while you're there, same weekend that you're there. So I have to come say hi.

Narcis: Nåh, nice. That could be something. So basically that's one of the things, is that we started to get out and so that people see us and meet with us. But also probably have you seen that we are playing a game of investment? Have you seen something about that?

Wizzi: Yeah, we, we spoke about it on last week's show, didn't we? The  investment game where you can win an electric car.

Narcis: Exactly. And so far we have our own league, Last Week in Denmark. More than almost 300 players, I think so far have subscribed to our league because we also, besides the electric car, we're also fighting for our own, let's just say prize in the league. And I see that already in the first couple of days because right now in the weekend, obviously it's closed, so there's no movements on the, on the stock market. But so far we have had someone who managed to earn 27,000 kronas in the very last couple of days. So it's like, okay, that's a, that's a good person. But it's funny how easily you can, one day be up to plus 16,000, next day back to zero.

Wizzi: I guess that's the way, the way it works, isn't it? And what, what you need to learn if you're gonna play it.

Narcis: Yeah, you just have to be active and actually keep an eye on how your actions go. You could actually just, you know, once a week when the stock market closes, look at the, how the week has gone and make assessments for what you should do next, basically. And it will also be a good idea to read what our contributor Andrea is writing on it. There's always a weekly column at the end of the newsletter while this game is on. So I recommend you to read it if you, if you, if you haven't yet. But I'm curious, have you decided to play?

Wizzi: No, I haven't decided not to play. But am I too late? Can people still play now?

Narcis: Yes, people can still join to play. As you see, it's in, in one day you can make 60,000 or you can lose everything. So to be honest, it will be an open, open game even until the very last day. People can still join and they can still win. It's very hard to maintain gains from one week to another. So it will be more of a survival game, to be honest, to get a feeling of it until the very last weeks. And then in the last week, last two weeks, probably, it will get intensive because that's when you had time to, okay, what does it work, what came out, what came down, where should I put my bets on the last two weeks? And that's when it's when it's going to be. Of course you could still get some extra money. For example, I ended the week with 15 kronas plus.

Wizzi: Wow, don't spend it all at once.

Narcis: That's a gain and I was able to reinvest it. So next week I have a little bit more in actions. So yes, you could accrue a little bit if you start from the beginning. But it's not too late for people to join. It's a long way.

Wizzi: And how do people, how do people listening to this join if they don't know where to go to join yet?

Narcis: They simply go to the newsletter and they press on the link that we put in there, Aktiespil. So it should be easy.

Wizzi: Fantastic. Now moving on. Narcis, can you please talk us through some of the newsletter headlines for this week and introduce what we will be covering on today's episode?

Narcis: Yes. Well, if you look at this week's editions of Last Week in Denmark, you can see titles like, well, there is another interest rate increase, the 10th one actually in a row with 0.25%, which is a great news for people who have lots of money in their bank account because now a lot of banks are being pushed to actually increase interest and give you money for the fact that you're parking your money with them. While it sucks for people who have loans, especially home loans, because obviously they will have to pay more in their rates. Also the inflation is stabilizing at 2.4%. So it should be, we should be back to normal. I guess a lot of, I see a lot of stores are kind of coming out with signals that, hey, we have reduced price for 150 products or food in general has become cheaper. So, so we are, we are close to be out of the inflation crisis. And that's why I think the, the banks, well, then the European Central Bank and the Danish National Bank decided to give one last interest rate increase just to push the inflation, maybe under 2% if possible. But 2% is perfectly fine for an inflation. You can also see it about the tax increase for people living in Frederiksberg. So I don't know if you live in Frederiksberg or in that area.

Wizzi: But no, I'm in, I'm in Sydhavn.

Narcis: Okay. Because they will have to pay 1.1% more from their salary as a municipal tax, while the people in Copenhagen will have to pay less, minus 0.1% from their salary to the municipal tax. It's an interesting way of Copenhagen municipality to bully the smaller municipality around them. When they have to rise, they will just lower. So basically to convince people to move from one way to, one place to the other. But yeah, it's interesting to see how municipalities in Denmark compete through the municipal tax because in the end, every municipality in Denmark has a different municipal tax. So depending on where you live in Denmark, you pay less or more to the local government.

Wizzi: That's interesting. I saw on a group, I think it was the expats in Copenhagen group, somebody was investigating Frederiksberg and saying what's it like to live there? So this would be an interesting bit of news for them. Watch out. It's, the tax is increasing, but in.

Narcis: The same time Frederiksberg still even with this increase, it's one of the top five lowest tax, municipal taxes in Denmark because Frederiksberg has been a 100 years conservative municipality. So they had the lowest municipal tax for, for, for decades. And that's why a lot of people moved in there actually, because of that. So this tax increase, because now it's a social democrat run city, it was necessary, it was unavoidable. But still it doesn't make Frederiksberg less attractive yet, I would say. If we are to continue looking at the titles, you can see there's 1200 nurses from Iran that have arrived to Denmark in the last five years, which is great. But unfortunately most of them are not yet in the system because language learning takes forever. So a lot of them are either waiting or they, like in a municipality like Vejle, they got a chance to work as health assistant. It's like someone who doesn't have a nurse education, at least until they, because they have to support themselves while they learn Danish. So it's better to have a job than to not have anything at all. But I'm happy that there is, there is any, there are, there is health stuff coming to Denmark regardless from where it's good for all of us overall. Then there is official apology from the government. The government called for the people that used to be in institutions between 1933 and 1980, of course, who still alive to give them an official apology because the state really failed in that regard in those decades. They institutionalised a lot of people kind of forcefully because of either physical or mental disabilities, but also because of violent background. And a lot of them got sterilized because of that due to the eugenic politics from back then. So it was quite of a dark chapter of Denmark, I would say. So the government gave an official apology to those who had to face the violence in the institutions back then. You can read more on the on the newsletter. And then there was a big discussion about the cans that you can buy without pants from the border stores. You know, sometimes people go to Germany to the border to say, buy cheaper products somehow and they actually get lots of beer without pant. You probably have seen those around lying in the nature. The Danish Business Authority, they wanted to, they kind of sue the European Commission so that they force the border stores to put German pant because Germany also has a pant system. It's just they don't put it on the products that are meant to be sold towards Denmark. But they wanted to force people to still pay pant and, you know, take those cans back to Germany whenever they go back to shopping there. But unfortunately, European Court of Justice said, no, you cannot force Germany to do that. So we will continue unfortunately seeing lots of German cans lying around because nobody has any interest in picking them up and throwing them away, which is a sad situation. But yeah, that's just how it is. But in terms of what we're going to discuss today, it's mostly about school, homeschooling, adult education, and then we will touch a little bit on gangs, healthcare and property.

Wizzi: Fantastic. Now, today we won't have time to cover all of the above headlines in depth, but do remember it's all in the newsletter. So do subscribe if you haven't already and enjoy the full stories direct to your inbox every Sunday. You can click the link in this showdescription to subscribe today and keep up to date with what's happening in Denmark. Now, before we move into a deeper dive segment of the show and take an intricate look at schools, Narcis, would you like to take us through our political overview?

Narcis: Yes, the biggest discussion actually on the political side I would say this week about the biggest discussions, like two of them, I would say, it's about who should pay for the green transition in agriculture. One...basically the Liberals, Venstre, they would like that customers, consumers like us should pay when we buy food at the counter, right? We should pay the extra for the, for that. While most of the other parties would like that the farmers pay the, let's just say, carbon emissions tax on the on the agricultural produce. So yeah, that's a debate, who should bear the cost of a green transition? And yeah, it's all about where do you want to situate yourself? Should we spread the cost to the population or should we have the farmers pay for it? Because in the end, it's all about taking a position here. Then the other big discussion is the fact that there is a big rebellion within the Social Democrat party inside of it, because the whole discussion about making even more tax cuts, you know, so it's not enough that they already announced some tax cuts for next year. They want to make extra ones just because they found this extra money in the budget. But as you probably have seen, the local government has to close schools, has to close bus routes. The regional governments now are forced to cut 2.5 billion in spending for people with disabilities, for health care. And that's not fun. So all of these local and regional leaders of the party are now going into extreme gear to pressure the Prime Minister to give up at least on the extra tax cuts, if not on the ones already announced and give a little bit more to the local level. Because for the Social Democrats has always been welfare or tax cuts. And it seems that right now the Prime Minister would like to have both. But it's really hard to have both, to be honest, in terms of money available. And just to mention two quick things. There's a new right wing party. So if you are against climate change and you don't believe in it, and you were like, oh, in the last hundred years, it only increased it one degree, what's the big scare? There is a party for you now. And also, if you don't believe in vaccines and you believe that they will turn into a mushy mushroom once you get one, then there is this party is right for you. There's a home for people like that. So go and find your peers in this new party. Yeah, that's kind of the purpose of the party, I would say.

Wizzi: Okay. Okay. Next up on today's show is our Deep Dive segment. This is where we discuss some of the big stories of the week. Narcis, what would you like to discuss first?

Narcis: Well, homeschooling, because I don't know if people are aware that in Denmark we have 10 years of compulsory education, but not 10 years of compulsory schooling, which means that you as a parent have, it's your choice how you want to educate your children. You have to do it. There is some controls regarding it, but it's not, you're not forced to put them in a public school, you're not forced to put them in a private school. We talked in the previous episodes about all these private and independent schools that you could take your children through, but you can also homeschool. So if you, for whatever reason, are home and you want to spend more time with your children and you're capable of schooling them, then homeschooling is definitely an option for you. What's great about it is that you can teach them in the language, in your native language. There's actually programs for homeschooling, for homeschools, just call them like that so that they can also learn Danish. So all the children from homeschools meet once a week or something to have Danish classes. But otherwise that's a way around. So if you are still on a waiting list in a private school, like, we know that the private school In Aalborg is 250 people waiting there. And you have the capacity to homeschool your children in your native language, and that's what you want, that you can. You can definitely do that. And actually, because of homeschooling, lots of Germans are moving to Denmark. There's more than a couple hundred families that moved in the past, past three years to Denmark, especially to a, to be able to homeschool their children. Because in Germany it's not allowed. They cannot do that, but it's allowed in Denmark. So the three municipalities at the border, they got to benefit from, yeah, from, from this opportunity because they get a lot more new people coming here.

Wizzi: And does the government or does the municipality itself, wherever you live, provide sort of homeschooling guidelines for people? Is there anything online where people can access, you know, curriculums that they should be teaching or guidelines, you know, that kind of thing?

Narcis: Basically, if you go to any municipality website, you go to their school department, there's like such a, yeah, line. You'll see that there is options for parents, and one of the options will be homeschooling. There is a general framework, guidelines on what is expected from the parents to, when they educate their children. And there's obviously control from the municipality once or twice a year to see, okay, are you actually doing this? Or it's bullshit, you know? And in the same time, you can keep the, you know, for the municipality, it's, it's a, it's money saved, right? So they don't have to pay for a school where your child has to go and be educated. So that's why they don't see it necessarily as a bad thing. Because in the end, we are living in a time of big savings in the education system. So homeschooling is not necessarily a bad thing in terms of economy. 

Wizzi: [inaudible]

Narcis:No, no worries. 

Wizzi: [inaudible]

Narcis: Yeah, it seems that the, the fact that a lot of people in the, especially that the new Minister of Education has a carpenter background. He's very much focused on, not so much necessarily on university education or on, you know, public, like public system education, but he's also a lot focused on adult education. And that's why this huge investment of 350, 360 million kronas in the next year. Because it seems we still have adults in Denmark who cannot write, read or who don't know how to use the IT systems, basic IT systems. So they cannot basically even use public service because of it. So in that direction, they want to bring those people up to date and they want to make all sorts of programs in that direction. But in the same time, part of this money are going towards labor market education. In Denmark we have this thing called AMU, where you, if you are low skilled or if you're skilled, but you would like to be even more skilled in your work, then there is an opportunity for you to, to go and take these courses. They can be from half a day to six weeks. If you're an unemployed, the job center will pay for it. But if you're employed, usually there is the company that you work for could access some funding and pay for it. Or you can pay for it yourself, of course, but subsidised, so you pay only like 10% of the real value of the course. It's a great way to get even more skills. So let's say that you would like to be a welder in a specialized way. That's where you could take that course. Or if you're a driver, but you would like to have a special permit that will allow you to take maybe even more dangerous goods, that's the place where you can go and do it and so on. There's over 3,000 different courses for almost every trade branch you can think of out there. And what I like about it is the fact that now they're also looking into making some of them in English. They started already to go in the direction of not having them only in Danish. And so if you go to the AMU website, you, you could easily find more courses in English or even in Danish, because to be honest, a lot of courses are practical. So even if they are in Danish, you do them in a laboratory or something, so you get to see while things are done. So you could easily, let's say, pass and still learn something there. So I'll still recommend to everyone to take a look at it. Of course. Hopefully with time, more and more courses will become in English. But for now, that's an opportunity for people to become more skilled, which also means more money, because the more skilled you are, the company has to pay more to keep you, right? What about you? Would you take an adult education course if you had to choose?

Wizzi: I mean, I went to university, so, I mean, I stopped after my degree. I didn't do a master's or anything. But if I wanted to change jobs, then, yeah, fine, I would look into adult education. But I'm not really very academic. I kind of like doing practical things and. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can't think of anything I'd want to do that isn't what I do already, to be honest, so. But I think it's a great opportunity for, for a lot of people who perhaps want to skill change or job change or improve their skills. Yeah, sure.

Narcis: Nice. Well, yeah, in my. In my case, to be honest, if I had to, to read you, probably I'll just go and get the, I don't know, a carpenter education. But not, not necessarily a carpenter education, but a course in carpentry, a specific course that will allow me to do certain something. Because in the end, to become an electrician or a carpenter, you still need to go to normal education. These are courses. I just want to make sure these are specialized courses that give you a certain skill. They are not full educations in one direction or another. But enough about adult education. You can read more in the newsletter. We can look a little bit at the war against gangs. I don't know. You're in Copenhagen. How does it feel to be under war?

Wizzi: Well, it's interesting because I actually had my mother and her partner come and visit me the weekend of the shooting in Christiania. And they were looking at the map and I said, it's a nice area, but you probably don't want to go visit it necessarily if you haven't got much time, you know, because it's quite a tourist attraction these days. And then I read on the Sunday that there'd been a shooting and I was like, God, I'm glad I didn't tell them to go and see it. Bit scary. Yeah.

Narcis: It's a bit strange, right, in Denmark to have this feeling of that there could be areas that are a bit more dangerous than others. Like for me in Aalborg, it's very weird, to be honest. I, I cannot even think of a street. I will be afraid to walk at night in here or anywhere, to be honest, in general. But yeah, there is a reality that we have to face. Well, it's a reality for the Capital, to be honest, mainly, for you guys down there. I think it's because you're so close to Sweden, you, you got a bit of infected to their situation, I don't know. But yeah, the Pusher Street is closed. There is a war now between Hell's Angels and Loyal to Familia. And the government has come up with like 39 different recommendations. Well, not recommendation initiatives, legislative initiatives to kind of reduce or prevent young people going into gangs. Because to be honest, it is a young men's game. More than half of them are under 25. The average age is 26 anyway. So I wouldn't say anyone makes survives in a gang. It's older than 30. And there's a lot of teenagers, 15, 17, who are ready and fresh to join the, the gangs. They themselves are kind of like young criminals. It is a young men's game and the government is heavily targeting them. They're trying to reduce the possibility that a young person will go into a gang. If they're very poor and because of poverty they are being pushed into that. They want to create a system where 15 to 17 year olds could get this pocket money jobs from the municipality, where they will have to do something on their free time and get some money in exchange. Just to kind of keep them away from the alternatives of making money. They also made it a bit harder. So all the violence, let's just say punishments have been doubled. So it has become a little bit more expensive to be a criminal in Denmark, in the sense that if you get punished, you get double the punishment now. There is a debate about it on that because former gang members are saying that doubling the punishment will just make it more attractive because it's like a badge of honor. So people will be more inclined to do it. While the government thinks that it will be., it'll make more to push away from doing certain acts. So it's difficult here. Who is right? Is it the former gang members? Is it the government in their thinking? We'll have to wait and see how, how the war evolves. But right now the police has kind of closed all their homes or gathering spots, so they cannot go there. They turn this areas of Copenhagen into visitation zones, which means they can stop you at any moment and ask you to empty your pockets, your bag and so on without you have being able to say anything about it. You cannot really go out at night without a purpose. In those visitation zones, you need to have a purpose. Why are you here? Why are you on the way? You're not sleeping. So that's pretty much it in terms of gangs, I'm not concerned. I don't think it's such a big problem for Denmark. We are not where Sweden is. And I think the prime Minister is a bit pushing it, saying that, oh, we are turning into Sweden. Like I don't think we are there, to be honest. And I'm not afraid that we are going that direction. We have 6 million people and there's 1300 gang members.

Wizzi: So in the grand scheme of things, it's. It's not really many people, is it?

Narcis: No, it's not. But because it's a small country, you know, even one shooting becomes a big thing.

Wizzi: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Narcis: Yeah. And I think that'll be it. In terms of gangs, the last thing I would like to mention is property assessments. I know a lot of you who own a house or apartment have maybe looked at the new evaluations that have been out. There's this temporary evaluations because the government didn't have time to finish the proper ones. Unfortunately, if you go and look, many of you will be shocked because you'll see that the new valuation of the land under the house has become probably even bigger than the house itself. Especially if you live in a touristic area. At least one thing you shouldn't be concerned for next year is that next year you would not pay more tax than this year because even if the value of your land has increased, there will be a tax discount for you just to make sure you don't pay more until the real evaluation comes to you. So I just want to make sure that just because you see these huge numbers attached to your house, you don't have to now think about selling it. Especially don't sell it because that would be problematic and you shouldn't feel like, okay, now I have to take a loan or sell my car or whatever just to pay taxes. No, the, the, there is definitely the situation where you will have a tax discount and at least you'll not pay more than 2023. Some people might end up paying less. At least one in five will pay definitely less than 2023. But most of us will pay, will have on the paper to pay more, but the government will cover for the, for the extra. But that was it. From the. From the news this week, I would say, read the newsletter and yeah, see what's there.

Wizzi: Well, thank you for that. Thank you for joining me today, Narcis. Before we sign off, we would like to mention that we are open to inviting guests on this show on the Last Week in Denmark Podcast. If you would like to apply to be a guest on this podcast, please email your name, topic of expertise, and a summary of your experience on your chosen topic to hello@wizmedia.dk. It's W I Z M E D I A .dk. Thank you for tuning in today. Narcis, thank you. I hope you enjoyed our discussion.

Narcis: Yes, it was a lovely Sunday morning discussion.

Wizzi: We hope you found this podcast informative, interesting and of value. We'll be back next week on your favorite podcast platform. Just search Last Week in Denmark. Thank you very much for listening and goodbye for now.