Here You Have Him ... Denmark's Prime Minister

The boy behind the black-board is Denmark’s Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. All right, it was the Dutch painter Anton Pieck who made it, several decades ago, but right now, this is the Danish PM, in the corner, cornered. I have never been sent to the corner, not even detention, but those who have done something bad, and are punished this way … they do not always show regret, they do not see the seriousness of what they have done. That goes for the Danish PM right now. This past week he has kept himself busy accusing writers, politicians, journalists and others of not supporting him in the Mohammed cartoon matter. Far be it from him to look in the mirror. It seems that the consensus is that he has handled the situation wrongly, from day one.

The fact that he did not involve the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stands out like a sore thumb. The Foreign Minister was allowed to step in when the shit already had hit the fan, when it was irrevocably and absolutely too late to do any serious damage control. If that is because he seems to have no respect for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, why make him Minister at all…..? In politics, compromise is the key-word. When two parties (or more) form a government, you have to compromise in ways you don't care much for, but if you don't, the power will be in the hands of others. Fogh Rasmusen doesn't really handle power very well, at least not when the going gets tough. Right now, he is like a whining little boy.

Jyllands-posten is the name of the newspaper that first published the cartoons. You might like to know that the editors did actually refuse to talk to reporters from 60 minutes when they came over to do some investigating of their own. Freedom of speech or what? I would say there was serious gagging involved. We do after all live in a democracy. That means, among other things, that you are free to choose to take or not to take any consequences of your actions.

Back to the picture. It is a picture I have known since I was a child. My mother had this one and one more by Anton Pieck, had them framed and I am very glad they never got thrown out. She gave them to me when I moved away from home. Anton Pieck was born in Den Helder in The Netherlands in 1895. In 1987, I went to the Netherlands for a holiday, and among other places, we visited the fairy-tale park De Efteling in Kaatsheuvel. I had no idea it was Pieck who designed the park, and it turns out that he died later that same year. It is a wonderful place. www.efteling.com (Firefox no, Explorer ok.)