Summary of articles in Billed Bladet #25, 2018.
Written by Karina Didriksen & Ulrik Ulriksen.
For the past week or so there has been an annual "folkemøde = people's/public meeting" on the island of Bornholm. I think it can be translated to something like a "political fair". I.e. a "the politicians meet the people, for discussions."
That has now taken place each early summer for some years now.
There has been some criticism for the event being elitist.
The timing is before the summer holiday season, so only those really interested will take time off from work to attend.
Bornholm is out of the way for most Danes, and it's more expensive going to Bornholm for me than it would be for me to go to New York for a few days!
So that means you have to spend quite a bit of money to even go there, which again rules out a large number of ordinary Danes.
So the meeting is in the eyes of ordinary people seen as a meeting where the politicians meet well-off retirees and higher-educated and as such people who earn well. - So how much of a "people's meeting" it really is, is perhaps debatable.
But the press coverage is very high, which is why every politician want to Bornholm go there!
But let's go the DRF. Along with politicians and press a number of organizations also descend on Bornholm in order to benefit from the many politicians and the press coverage. Some of these organizations are affiliated with the DRF and it was in that capacity Joachim and our Marie went to the island for a couple of days.
Joachim helped put focus on agriculture, the Diabetes Association and the Home Guard.
While Marie, who attracted more cameras, focused on DanChurchAid, The AIDS Foundation, the Civil Defense and the Ministry for the Environment and Foodstuff.
This year DanChurchAid focus on clearing landmines, so Marie was kitted up and issued and mine-sweeper. - No helmet though, we were after all supposed to see her.
She told our reporter: "DanChurchAid to a huge effort and help with prosthetics and help people to get on with their lives. Because when the damage is done, what do you do then?
I have always had a great inteerst in relief work and I have read a lot about it. It is of course a different matter when you are in these countries, but for me it's natural to want to help and to see the reality - and especially going back to Denmark to tell about how it is.
I tell my children a lot and show many photos and explain what's on the photos. Children can understand much more than we think and they also want to the stories."
One of Marie's pet-issues is food-waste. - With good reason, because way too much otherwise good food is wasted here in DK every year. And there is good household economy in reducing waste. Not to mention how beneficial it is for the environment.
And this is where Marie met the Ministry of Environment and Foodstuff.
Marie stood in a tent with a chef demonstrating and explaining how to use every leftover possible. Some of the more fortunate present also got to taste the results.
Marie explained that she is pretty stern at home, both in regards to use leftovers and in feeding it to her children. There is no "dear mother" here! When the children are served leftovers, they have to eat it, period!
Fortunately that isn't a big problem since they are brought up that way.
Frederik also visited Bornholm. After having inaugurated Campus Bornholm, which will house the higher forms of education on the island, he headed a number of local politicians to the political fair on bicycles. Some of the politicians looked natural on a cycle - others did not...
Frederik focused on meeting and thanking the many volunteers behind this political fair.
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