Summary of article in Billed Bladet #38, 2017.
Written by our New York reporter Ulrik Ulriksen
Mary has been pretty busy in New York and our reporter has tried to hang on more or less out of breath, it seems...
Ulrik Ulriksen caught up with Mary shortly after she arrived in New York and here he asked her how it feels to be an international voice for for women in need.
Mary: "Why, all voices count, so the important thing now is that we continue talk aloud about the challenges women and girls face world wide and what needs to be done. It's very striking that we simply have to work together. We must create new and innovative partnerships and find new solutions in order to solve those problems for women and girls. We've come far, but there is still a very long way to go".
Q: What's Your hope for the future in regards to the rights of women and girls?
M: "We have to be optimistic... we must. But as said before it takes a lot. I do however believe in a bigger and bigger motion towards creating larger and untraditional partnerships that can really lift and implement and set the scale, so that we reach more and more women (*) and can move faster than we do now. Because it cannot be tomorrow - it has to be today".
Mary was accompanied by the PM, Lars Løkke, during most of her trip. While Mary focused on women's rights, the PM focused more on environmental sound solutions to the current climate changes. Which the frequent and stronger hurricanes in the Caribbian is an example of. (**)
Mary has been appointed as an "influencer" for the Deliver for Good campaign, which spreads the UN world-aim with focus on rights of women and girls. That campaign has been launched by the Women Deliver, which Mary has already been very heavily involved in. And while being a very political issue, Mary has the total backing of the Parliament and speaks officially on behalf of not only for herself personally but politically on behalf Denmark.
As the PM, Lars Løkke, said: "The Crown Princess is hugely dedicated in people. And she's always attending the UN general assemblies, because she is committed to the cause of children and women.
And Brownsville is an example of that. It is a neighborhood which face somewhat more difficult problems that average. The Crown Princess has a heart, which beats for that and that's why she's here. It makes a big impression on people".
And with that we go to the New York part called Brownsville. Which is very much a poor black ghetto to be blunt. Here a Danish chef, Claus Meyer, has set up a project aimed at ex-cons, who at a restaurant (there are very few restaurants in Brownsville!) learn to cook, serve and run a restaurant over a period of a number of months. It is of course nothing more than a very basic training, but it provides ex-cons with an alternative and at least a basic knowledge of how to run an eatery. Enabling them to either open one themselves or seem employment within the trade. Claus Meyer has had a similar project running back in DK for hardened criminals, with some success actually. Criminals get older too and have children and dad being in prison all the time isn't perfect the ideal image of a family-life. Nor for criminals...
Hence the project The Melting Pot Foundation.
Claus Meyer himself has established a viable business for himself, so he does know what is talking about.
So Mary and Lars Løkke, visited the Brownsville Community Culinary Center. - Here the flowergirl in the shape of five year old Skarlett was waiting in her fine princess-dress, looking absolutely adorable. The PM couldn't resist her either and took a snapshot of her, prior to Mary arriving. Skarlett told our reporter: "The dress has been sewn for me".
After having said hello to Skarlett and been shown around, the whole party was invited for a full course dinner.
Two hours later Mary sat at another table. She and the PM had been invited to dinner at the residence of the Danish UN-ambassador. (***)
At the dinner Mary wore a blouse by Hugo Boss and shoes by Gianvito Rosso.
Apart from attending meetings in UN-regi, Mary as usual also helped promoting local Danish businesses. In this case a new store in Soho, owned by Shamballa Jewels. ON the occasion Mary wore a wristband by Shamballa. The Shamballa Royal gold-wristband with Argyle pink diamonds.
(*) Africa, south of Sahara, has been suggested as the place where the next huge gender revolution will take place, and take place over the next 25 years. That is the result of the mobile-phone revolution that is taking place there.
Basically you have to be pretty poor and pretty remote if you as an African don't have a phone. With more and more smart phones and being online. Girls, it's after all mostly teenagers today, can see, read and hear for themselves about women's rights and conditions elsewhere in the world. They can excersize their influence over the phone and be reached over the phone.
Apps are now routinely used in regards to pregnancies, prevention, healthcare and so and so on. Much of it has been covered here on TRF.
An average eighteen year old girl, who has never been more than 50 km away from her Masai-village, let alone been to big cities like Nairobi, are now being faster and better informed through her network of friends and family in a way that was totally science fiction just a generation ago.
So unless you cut the mobile signals in Africa, which few politicians would be willing to, let alone dare do, the information-revolution is spreading like wildfire in Africa. And of course that will have gender-political consequences.
(**) We can debate how environmental-friendly the current Danish government is. But green solutions and green technology is serious money! And DK is up there, and creating a lot of income in exporting know-how and technology. - DK is today using the same amount of resources on energy as we did some 45 years ago, while at the same time doubling our production, economy and wealth quite a number of times over since then. And at the same time having been self-sufficient with energy for at least a couple of decades by now.
So energy-efficient solutions are not only great for the polar bears, but saves trainloads of money. And those who don't get on the train now are left hopelessly behind.
The current plan is that 50% of our energy consumption will come from fossil-free sources by 2030 here in DK.
The current government is dragging its feet a bit in this respect IMO. And that's IMO a shortsighted policy.
Countries like Norway and in particular Germany are literally on the verge of discarding petrol and diesel-driven cars within the next 20 years. And once Germany is well on the way, the rest of Europe will follow.
(***) Normally a head of state visiting another country will drop by to say hi to the local head of state, in this case President Trump. But when visiting heads are visiting permanent international assemblies, like UN, or the EU Parliament or NATO and similar international organizations, such formalities are dispensed with. - That does not include international summits however. here it's still customary for visiting heads of states to pay their respect the host nation's head of state.
