The most famous Dane!

A few months ago I argued in this post that most people outside Europe don't know any Danes. They know about LEGO, but they don't know it's Danish. They know some of H.C. Andersens fairy tales, but they don't know he was Danish (or gay).

But I finally found a famous Dane who is VERY famous in the U.S general public. His name is Morten Andersen and he plays football (american football). Aperantly,he is about to break the all time record of scoring points. That's pretty cool, to have a Dane holding that record. Then we would be known for something else besides cartoons.

The ironic part is, that nobody in Denmark knows who he is.

I'm seeing Denmark EVERYWHERE (in Kiev)

I'm getting used to explaining people what Denmark is. That goes for both Ukrainians and Americans. Most people knows it a country, but nobody knows where it is and who we are. Those who DO know something about Denmark usually mentions the Muhammad Crisis (that's the Americans) or they mention the soccer match from 1985 where Denmark beat The Soviet Union 4-2 (that's the Ukrainians). Biggest profiles from that match were Michael Laudrup from Denmark and goalie Desejev from Soviet.

Anyway, TODAY walking home on Gorkova Street, I suddenly saw a new shop called "Dan Mark", which is almost Danish for Denmark. Royal Danish Shop the sign says above the door. That's pretty cool. 100% owned by a Ukrainian by the way.

So what are they selling? Clothes! Very symptomatic, they sell the classical Danish brands, and not the trendy brands that are VERY popular in Asia.

It's a cool shop. Lot's of Danish flags. Hope they make it.



I think this is more a coincidence. But in the top left corner of this Ukrainian business journal, it says "Denn Mark". Strange.

A typical magazine. Mixed Roman and Cyrillic letters.

DotComeBack for online media

I like this logo. It's one of the new newspapers in Denmark's online version. The domain name is pretty cool too. Directly translated it would be newspaper.com.

Notice the "BETA" sign. For those of you who are not familiar with all the hype around the online industry, BETA means that this service is not completely finished yet but apparently good enough for us to use it.

I like BETA's. They give an insight in tomorrows trends. But in this case... I mean: BETA NEWS? What is that? News that hasn't happened yet? Test news maybe? News that'll change? Come on! It's a do over :-)

www.avisen.dk

Or check this out: http://e-avis.avisen.dk/index.php

Santa Claus has retired

It's both sad and true. Santa Claus has lost his funding for his non-profit business. Since World War II, children could send a letter to Santa, and he would always reply. Sometimes a reply with a small gift. I remember that from when I was a child.

But now, the post office in Greenland (YES, that's where he lives), has stopped helping Santa replying all of those letters from hopeful young children.

Why would anybody do something that cruel? Well, the Greenland (or Nuuk) municipal said they wanted to spend the money on something else in stead, and I'm sure they can find something.

But COME ON. This is just plain stupid. I think Greenland has just gotten used to Denmark paying all their bills. Denmark actually owns Greenland or something, but we are not really profiting from that partnership (I guess we expect to find some oil under the ice one day). In stead of looking at all those money from Denmark as support money, they should look at it as venture capital and start doing some business!

It's pretty simple. Parents (we) are stupid. They would rather pay $50 for a stupid toy knowing that the tots would rather play with the laundry or anything from the top drawers in the kitchen. I GUARANTEE that there's plenty of parents who would gladly pay $10 for a reply letter from Santa. What's the alternative. Should we tell our children that Santa died?

The Danes do it again

I don't think there's ANYTHING you can't do in Denmark.

www.speedbandits.dk

I think this displays the innovation power of the Danes, and I don't think anybody ever again will wonder why the Muhammed Cartoons was published in a DANISH newspaper.

Danish Christmas Party

The Danish Christmas is loaded with traditions. Most of them are about food - lot's of pig and lots of schnapps.
Luckily there's a Danish community of about 50 people in Kiev, and some of them hosted a traditional Danish Christmas party last weekend.

Take a look at this mighty feast


We had to leave the party early though. A surprise party for Dorit (just had her birthday) was planned at Arena. She really was surprised, and all her girlfriends with husbands were there to celebrate. Here's a picture. I'll post some more pictures from that event later.

We have one more Christmas party in December, and next Saturday we are going to our very first Thanksgiving with 8-10 American families. This should be fun. From what they tell me, Thanksgiving is all about eating - just like a Danish Christmas party.

New Muhammad crisis

This is an ad from one of the largest shopping centers in DK. The joke would be lost in translation if I tried translate it to English, so this is only for my Danish readers (which is about 56% of you).

Famous Danes

Yesterday we had dinner with an American couple who couldn't name a single Dane they ever heard about!!!

Well, here it is, the list of famous Danes: Famous Danes according to Google

It's funny that high profiles like Brigitte Nielsen, Bjørn Lomborg and Whigfield (yes, WHIGFIELD) are ranked higher than any of our royalties.

Back in DK for team building

This is me and a ranger (Carsten Mørk). It seems that he is trying to teach me something about teamwork, but I can't really remember.


Anyway, I was back in DK for a team building thing with the company. Great weekend! A lot of new faces. Must have been 20-25 people I didn't know because they started after I left for Ukraine. This company is GROWING!!!