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He begged me to join, so I let him.

Friends, the Danish Puerto Rican Society is accepting new members. This is a sneak preview, because the website is still under construction and the t-shirts are still at the lab. Join now, so you can say you were a part of it from the beginning. Next step: world domination. And a hot launch party. Anyone with a tenuous connection to a Dane or a Puerto Rican can join. That means you.

I just hit Denmark after a weekend of rock and roll at the Immergut Festival in Germany. I actually slept in a tent twice, but I made sure to complain about it the whole time. Having always missed out on Roskilde Festival in Denmark, I’d like to pretend that I’ve now had an authentic music festival experience, but we had shiny green backstage passes which meant no teenagers, no kebabs, no pushing for first row, and lots of free beer. I think the real thing involves a lot more mud and slobbering. It was educative all the same. Just ask me to say something about music piracy in German.

The writers convention in Ankelohe made me really want to write a book about climate change. Instead I wrote a short summary about the whole thing for openDemocracy. And so, in spite of desperately little contact with the internet this week, it’s been a productive journey. Back in New York on June 4.

Behold, a lucid report on the Danish quest for world domination. And an interview with Sten Gade, a viking expert, and a guy from Christiania.

In his second article for openDemocracy, Ulf Hedetoft from Aalborg University and the Academy for Migration Studies in Denmark, examines the cartoon scandal in the wider context of Danish immigration politics, and chides the Danish media and government for being childish, self-righteous, and hypocritcal.

I meant to blog this a few days ago: Egyptian bloggers Freedom for Egyptians and Sand Monkey both say the cartoons were published in an Egyptian newspaper five months before the global brouhaha began. Nobody got mad when they did it. Right wing blogger Michael Turner has a list of theories for why Denmark, unlike Egypt, is a target right now, including their chairing the UN Counter Terrorism Committee. And is it only Danes who can see the funniness of the Buy Danish campaigns? I fear both sides in this battle are using us (and our cookies, pumps and valves) as mere pawns. Will anybody please buy me some lakrids now?