Krigeren

The #PANE FAQ.

2009-03-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

The #Pane Faq is to Follow Shortly.

What is #pane?

2009-03-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

#Pane stands for Promotional and Networking Experiment. If successful it will be renamed the Promotional and Networking Experience.

The events are hosted by Twittering, a twitter group on LinkedIn. The goal of the event is for Twittering members to support one another in promotion* and networking.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1834430

The following is the first post ever for the #PANE event posted by Twittering founder Shane Murray http://twitter.com/krigeren

#PANE EVENT TONIGHT!!!! Sunday, March 8th, 2009.

Tonight is the first Ever, PANE (Promotion and Networking Experiment) online twitter event. Its ad hoc and rushed, but hey, its an experiment!

It is occuring at:

20:00 EST. Easten Standard Time, USA.
01:00 Central European Time CET
17:00 Pacific Standart Time. PST. USA
11:00 Australian Eastern Daylight Time. AEDT This is Monday mornign for those in Australia. Try to do it for you at a better time next time.

1. Guidelines. Lets all meet up on linkedin tonight at the specified times. If you are attending please reply here and put your link in, i.e.,. http://twitter.com/krigeren That way we can add you to our tweetdeck "twittering" group. (hope you all have one) and we will be able to easy follow one another.

2. Please post a disscussion topic or article here on Twittering. Or link one you like. Then Link that article to the main group link: please use this one. http://bit.ly/10l0ow

For example I am big on the P0NTUS article so I will tweet this:

"Cool, the first twitter comic book I know of, see the discussion on my twittering group on #linkedin http://bit.ly/10l0ow #potus #P0TUS"

3. When we see each others posts we all retweet them, RT.

4. Now we don't want to spam so if we all limit it to three postings in an hour each plus all of the retweets I think that is acceptable. However, we can reply and chat with one another as much as we want, which I think will be very cool.

I hope to see many people there tonight/today/tommorow. I have to run to the store now but will be back in an hour to clarify if there are any questions.

Kind Regards,

Shane

*Promotion is about educating, informing, and sharing about new ways professionals can use twitter. PANE does not support not advocate direct marketing campaigns, typified, by a "call to action" and a sign up form that leads to people receiving spam.

#Virgin Words

2009-03-07T19:00:00.001-08:00

In an unrepentant act of nerdom I started the subject on twitter. #virginwords. Yes, of all tweeple I coined that subject first on twitter (sounds of bugles and trumpets playing...in my head).

What are #virginwords?

They are words that have never been used on twitter before (and unlikely to be used frequently again).

I do my tweet in this format....

#virginword fysigunkus def. A person who lacks curiosity. (Poor Bugger).

With the part in quotes my snide commentary.

I started this because I like to improve my volcabulary and I am a big fan of words.

You can find words never used by plugging in the word in a search on twitter. And if nothing appears its a virgin word.

Please feel free to make your own history and post a new #virginword on twitter.

Celebrating the Eclectic: Twitter as an equalizer.

2009-03-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

When I was 12, circa 1984, I had my C-64 and Hayes 1200 Modem. I was part of the diggerati of that era, we spoke with a lexicon few outside our clique could understand. We knew we were cutting edge, misunderstood, and we would and did change the world. It was strictly non-commercial and the commercialism that existed supported the alternative culture rather than alienated it.

Fast forward to the 1990’s and the Internet revolution began, SSDD, early on it was just pioneers, the quality of information was very high and so were the people. When the Internet went to the masses the signal to noise ratio became so high finding quality was information was difficult at best.

Twitter, is an equalizer, allowing the user to set their own levels and filters to customize their signals. WOW! We are putting the power back in the hands of the people again! Twitter changes the game and gives people more freedom to choose, lets hope en masse they make the right choice.

I like to put a concept with a face and here are some personal examples of people I follow who celebrate the eclectic.

@knealemann http://twitter.com/knealemann http://onemann.blogspot.com/
Many people claim to be a social media expert. Kneale Mann IS a social media expert and guide for new social media users. His tell it like it is style and insights I highly value.

@AaronQFu http://twitter.com/AaronQFu http://evolvingchoice.com/
Aaron has a fantastic blog about corporate social responsibility and comments frequently on sustainability. Any corporation interested in improving their social responsibility programs could learn a lot from AaronQFu.

@DivaOfLove http://twitter.com/DivaOfLove http://queenofrelationships.com/
The Queen of Relationships tells us “Love just isn’t that simple” well, for her maybe it is, she provides concrete tips on how to find and keep love. Her down to earth and common sense approach is refreshing and light hearted. A great pick me up read

What is #FollowFriday?

2009-03-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

Follow Friday is a Twitter tradition started by Micah Baldwin @micah http://twitter.com/micah

By adding users in your twitter post you are telling your followers you recommend these people, for example your post may look like,

“#followfriday @LostinSweden @Raiha @knealemann @Burre83 @tweetmeetup @neuroscott @kcarpentier77 @DrAnthony @MichelleNeujahr”

Micah Baldwin explains the significance of #followfriday in a recent response to a fellow twitter user “I think #followfriday is a great example of an accellerated crowdsourced recommendation engine. So yes, it has that potential.” I wholeheartedly concur and add that this is a great example of user driven innovation which rapidly reaches market adoption via a community consensus that says “Hey, this is a great idea!”.

For those who may not know the # represents a “hashtag” which are used to identify a topic on twitter. Thereby, if you add # in front of a word you make a topic that is easy to search, for example, #followfriday.

Try adding a hashtag in front of your favorite searches and the difference in the results may surprise you. People who put the hash in front are specifically telling other twitter users this is the subject of their tweet rather than just using a word in a sentence.

Have a great #followfriday and in the spirit of healthy networking if you found this article helpful don’t hesitate to add @krigeren to your next #followfriday post.

Twitter on Linkedin?

2009-03-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

A member PM'ed me a question that I thought it would be useful to share with the whole group....

Question? Can I add twitter to my linked in account?

Answer....Sort of.

You can add the "Company Buzz" application to LinkedIn (The applicaitons link is on the left hand LinkedIn menu bar).

Company Buzz is powered by twitter! So instead of adding companies you can add twitter users, for example, krigeren, and follow all of them. Now, company buzz has the option to appear on your profile, and it does for me, however it does not show any content. So the point is sort of lost because all you can do with this is look at it yourself.

Jenna Papakalos, at her webpage mentioned this method last year, http://bit.ly/tijCl , but apparently LinkedIn does not want twitters on it's site so they seem to have done something to disable it.

I added wordpress and the typepad apps as well, you can add twitter to both of these. However, only your main posts appear on linked in not the sidebar posts. It's not much of a stretch for someone to modify their wordpress or typepad for twitter tweets to appear as the main topic and thereby, appearing in LinkedIn, I just don't think LinkedIn would be too happy about that.

To Auto-Respond or not?

2009-03-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

I use a service called tweetlater ( www.tweetlater.com ) its free and it allows me to schedule my tweets througout the day rather than post then one right after the other.

Tweetlater also offers the feature of auto-responding to people who start to follow you. Personally, if someone starts following me I don't find it a must to respond. To me, a personal response is best, followed by no response, and last and least useful an autoresponse.

To me twitter is a professional tool but it's being used by individuals and I want to treat them as such not as just another follower.

Anyone have any thoughts on when an auto-response is useful?

How to make twitter more effective for you.

2009-03-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

Twitter alone is like managing 100's of ticker tape machines running at the same time. The more you scale with twitter the greater the problem becomes.

Therefore, one is better taking a management approach to twitter early on.

I use tweetdeck ( www.tweetdeck.com and it's free) to manage my live communication, my followers and those I am following, and most searches.

I find people I want to follow by their interests. For example, in the TweetDeck search function running for sustainability and telepresence. When someone tweets with either one of those words they could potentially be interesting for me to follow. I quickly scan their profile and website and add them if I feel we can benefit one another.

Right after adding a person I go to my groups in Tweetdeck and add them to either my sustainability or telepresence group.

I have not figured out how to make tweetdeck do an advanced location search. So, I just do that search in the standard twitter search. I want to know what's going on locally and twitter is great for that. So, I enter Malmo in the location function and all people near me show up. I then add several, and then go over to Tweetdeck and update it, then add them to my Malmo group.

Right now I am only at a few hundred followers and it's very effecient. Not sure how it will scale when it hits a few thousand. So any input there is greatly appreciated.

The Twitter Less Travelled. Rare words have a way of finding rare people.

2009-03-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid I would go to the library and spend hours reading through the OED (Oxford English Dictionary). The OED consists of almost one book the size of a large dictionary per LETTER. The great thing about the OED is it tells the historical usage of a word and how the word evolved over time, a words etymology.

Being a bit cynical we live in an age where no time before have so many people written so much read by so few. Considering the protuberance of verbosity en masse it amazes me how many words have not been been used on twitter.

How do I know if words have not been used on twitter? Well, I simply search for them and if nothing comes up then I know it has never been posted before.
Who does not like to do something first? So I take it upon myself to post the words "blazing a new trail" if you will.

For example,

Here is an example of my twitter.

"Virgin Twitter Words. E - ecclesiarchy ecclesioclastic ecclesiolatry ecclesiophobia ecdysiophile echinoproctous eidolism eleutherophillist"

Why would I do this? What's the point in posting rare words that no one uses and will even have less of a chance to search for?

1. Personally, I find people who are litterate to be kindred spirits. Therefore, by posting rare words I am sending invitations to unknown receipients who will receive the invitation at an unknown date.

2. It's a bit fun of a fun way to find people. For example, often, I will find just one or two previous uses of obscure words on twitter, and I wonder, why did that person use festinate rather than hurry? That chap could be interesting to follow, and more often than not such people, to have something worthwhile to say.

3. It is a fun way to improve the vocabulary of my children and I.

Happy Twittering,
Shane

Going Local! Meeting Tweeple with Tweetmeetup.com

2009-03-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in knowing who is around you and what is going on in your area a great way to stay in touch is by using Twitter advanced search ( http://search.twitter.com/advanced )

I live in Malmö, Sweden. To find people in my area I type in the Places field “Near this place” Malmö and since I like to connect with other expats I select English in the “Written in” field under “Words”.

The search retrieves a list of people twittering in English in or near Malmö. From this list I then view profiles and add those people I find interesting. I do this every few days to find new people.

In order to manage all of the people I am following I use TweetDeck www.tweetdeck.com and create groups. For my Malmö people I have a group called Malmö.

By following what’s going on locally via twitter I feel I am connecting with my city in a new and useful way, it’s a great experience and redefines and creates new value for pull media.

Where it all starts to get interesting is when twitter meets real life. People who start tweeting each other locally want to meet up. Even better is there is an organization that facilitates these “tweetmeetups”.

Currently in Sweden and soon expanding throughout Scandinavia tweetmeetup.com ( www.tweetmeeetup.com ) provides the tools for organizing real life events.

If you are interested in attending a real life tweet event or hosting one please visit www.tweetmeetup.com . You can also contact the founders of TweetMeetup on twitter by going to their about page www.tweetmeetup.com/about/ or adding them directly from the following links below.

Sharjeel Ahmed. http://twitter.com/sharj
Raiha Buchanan. http://twitter.com/Raiha
Johan Burell. http://twitter.com/Burre83
Fredrik Broman http://twitter.com/frebro

Happy Twittering and here’s to meeting more tweeple in real life!

An Introduction to Sustainability. Part I.

2009-03-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

Forward. We live in a world of finite resources. We all know of humankinds impact on the environment in non-sustainable ways such as overfishing and dwindling supplies of oil in light of increased demands.

Sustainability as a concept is all about finding ways to satisfy consumer demand for the long term while reducing, negating, or ideally improving production and consumption in terms of their impact on the environment.

Environmental Sustainability or Environmentally Sustainable Production and Consumption is really about making sure as a planet we can keep on increasing our standards of living not only now, but in the long term for future generations.

What is a sustainable product?

1. The Materials the Product is made from. What is it made from? Is it made from wood coming from a certified managed forest, where that forest still manages to support a diverse and prospering ecosystem? The wood as the material for the product can be considered sustainable as long as the forest is managed properly.

2. The manufacturing processes.

a. Where does the energy come from to make the product? Is it wind or solar energy, then it’s sustainable.

b. What catalysts and consumables are used in producing the product? Are they sustainable? How is it packaged?

c. What waste is created in producing the product and what is done with it? Can the wate be recycled or consumed in a sustainable manner?

3. Transportation. Delivering the product
How does the product get from producer to consumer? If it’s via the internet and all the servers are powered from electric plants running on coal it’s not sustainable. If it’s a product being delivered by train that is powered by wind generated electricity then it could be a sustainable delivery method.

4. Use of the product.

Is the product used in a sustainable way? Could it be a fertilizer that degrades the ecosystem around it?

5. Disposal of the product?
What do people do with it when it’s no longer wanted? Does it end up in land fills perhaps polluting the neighboring ground water? Or is it recycled and reused?

In summary, the materials used, the manufacturing process, transportation, use and disposal of a products all contribute in determining how sustainable a product is. For the average consumer determining the sustainability rating of most products is not practically possible.

Part II of this article will take a look at several products and analyze and grade their sustainability.

Shane Murray is a Green Collar worker who has experience with Electric Vehicles (Th!nk Nordic) , Former Board Member of Odyssey Charter School, an Environmentally friendly school, Fundraising around Green Projects, and is now involved with telepresence initiatives, reducing the need for knowledge workers to travel.

From October Note on My FB Profile. Self Fullfilling Prophecy.

2009-03-05T04:48:00.000-08:00

Many industrial companies world wide have FROZEN their capital expenditures. By companies stopping the process of buying from one another on a massive scale a global recession starts to become a self fullfilling prophecy. The key is, no one knows what to do, therefore, the fear of making deciisions creeps in, meaning only bad or no decisions will be made (no leadership is often worse than mediocre leadership). Reality is meaningless and it boils down to perception or lack of it by global decision makers. The winners in all of this will those who know how to take advantage of fear. Great opportunities for those who like to ride the razors edge.

Fed Refuses to Release. From December.....

2009-03-05T04:44:00.001-08:00

This money is all going to finance companies owned by the ultra wealthy. This whole fund was created by the super rich to pay themselves back for the investment mistakes they made.

In turn the US taxpayer get's to pay the wealthy.

Why would the Fed want to reveal who is being paid off by hardworking taxpayers?

As long as the American people stay docile and let the rich fleece them their is no end in sight to this behavior.

Soup Lines, Free Loaves of Bread, 5 Pound Blocks of Cheese.

2009-03-05T04:43:00.001-08:00

I have come to find that my generation and younger, as a stereotype, is rife with highly talented people who believe they are self entitled and only have moderate amounts of drive. To expound, we are a generations who can change the world because the vast amount of resources surrounding us but many of us choose to be mediocre. Face it, when the revolution comes most of us deserve to be put against a wall and shot. Let the huddled masses of the third world replace us, because they can’t do any worse of a job than we are.

Honestly, I think a massive economic crunch is very healthy for the world. I hope we learn to steele ourselves from austere times…. It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. Imagine for a moment if the economies collapsed to a point where smarmy designers obsessed with ensuring there is some new meaningless plug in for face book or developing products for narcissists (Vertu, most items sold used in Saudi Arabia) actually must design products with utilitarian value; products that improve the state of the world. It’s a big doubt though, we love to kill with no pain (video games), socialize with others from the comfort of our couch, but when do we really hang our balls out on the chopping block…is’nt that what life really is all about?

A Stab in the Back.

2009-03-05T04:42:00.001-08:00

I have a friend here in Norway who I met over the holidays. He is a hard working upper middle class professional who does just about everything by the book. He is a man that has always struck me as someone who sets a good example for others and always seems to go that little extra not because he has to, he just feels it's his duty as a human to live a moral and solid life.

He shared a story about how his next door neighbor sold a house to an immigrant. And how that immigrant is going to add several apartments to the existing house and rent the house and the apartments out to refugees. Thereby, increasing the number of residents on a property from one family to four and destroying the view my friend currently has by an apartment building.
I have nothing against immigrants. I have been an immigrant three times myself in each of the Scandinavian countries.

What I am amazed and astonished by is how would his local kommun allow for such a building to be built infringing on my friends property rights as well as de-valuing my friends property due to inviting the traditionally lowest socio-economic class in as neighbours right next door.

I mean, essentially anyone making a decent salary but not wealthy in Scandinavia ends up becoming a long term wage slave to the state, as the tendency seems to be that anyone making any real money in Scandinavia either finds numerous tax loopholes or sets up a domicile up in a second country. Whereas, the middleclass ends up being the easiest long term prey of the state because they simply are not able to avoid the taxes due to social and economic ties.

One would think for this indentured servitude that the government would at least attempt to protect it's middleclass and not make the same mistake America has made, by letting corporations via their politicos rob the middle class blind.

Instead, the Norwegian government has wilfully reduced the overall value of my friend’s property to a level which would take him four or five years of after tax savings to recuperate the loss.

First, I believe the cost of accepting refugees to a nation should be borne by the nation as a whole not any 1 man or targeted group of families as is the result in this case. Secondly, the erosion of the middle classes wealth in Scandinavia is something which must be fought against every step of the way. The middleclass form the backbone of the society and any harm to the middle classes threatens the Scandinavian way of life and is nothing short of a slippery slope towards wealth distribution models of the UK or the USA. Third, how can the Norwegian government sell out one of it’s own countrymen without duly compensating him, this action sets a very dangerous tone by demonstrating the will of the government is stronger than the will of the people, at no time did my friend have any formal role in the process other than that of protest. Where is the idea of Scandinavian consensus building within this process, it seems to taste more of a fascist regime forcing it’s boot down my friends throat.

How Green is Your Hamburger?

2009-03-05T04:32:00.000-08:00

I love a good Burger. In my hometown, Seattle, I grew up with Dicks Drive In. Small but delicious fresh burgers and fresh –not frozen- fries.

When I first moved to Sweden I was a bit disappointed in the Burger Selection. Driving along the interstates here about the only food option seemed to be McDonalds or hit and miss diners.

Recently, I discovered “Max” a Swedish Hamburger Chain. Their only location in Malmo is down town. With my recent move to the center of the city, getting rid of my cars, and going extreme green their location is just a 5 minute bicycle ride away from my front door.
My first experience was with a clean (much cleaner than the competition) no frills Swedish service. The burgers are cooked fresh, there is a selection of many types of buns, 15 different dipping sauces. The interior of the restraint has a very comfortable ambiance, Swedish music, plasma screens, soft colors, and all blended to be not too much of anything.

What amazed me was reading the menu while ordering. I mean the main menu above the cashiers. Next to every menu item is the amount of Co2 each item on the costs to produce. For example, The Ultimate Burger costs 1,8 KG of Co2 to produce.

Max compensates for the amount it pollutes by planting forests in Africa and using only Wind Power to generate their electricity.

As an American, one has to take a step back for a moment and look at Sweden for what it is. Max is a business, and Swedes want to deal with responsible corporate citizens and Max, a chain with only about 40 locations, has taken a major step to demonstrate their corporate responsibility. http://www.max.se/environment.aspx (In Swedish but the pictures tell the story).

Companies such as Max are heading in the right direction in terms of environmental sustainability. Sweden as a whole have educated their population to be conscience of how much they pollute and to take active steps to reduce their carbon footprint. America can learn so much from them! Oh, last but not least, in my humble opinion, their burgers taste much better than the McDonalds or Burger King!

What I hope to see in the future is not only the Co2 created by the production of consumer goods, but the sustainability factor of the products we are consuming. For example, how much of a car, television, or pineapple that cost the world in terms of using a resource that cannot be replaced? We as societies need to look at the whole logistics chain of products and determine their sustainability factor. I know Swedes would tend to buy products that are produced under sustainable conditions. To Swedes and myself I believe a sustainable product is a sign of quality thereby enhancing the perceived value of the product overall.

I believe, companies that do not live up to being responsible corporate citizens will find it increasingly difficult to justify their existence regardless of what they produce. Companies such as Max, Toyota, and Novo Nordisk are leading the way.

A gift on Christmas Eve

2009-03-05T03:46:00.000-08:00

Today is Christmas Eve. Here in Norway it’s the day where we open all of our presents after dinner. Lately my oldest son Liam has been asking a lot of question about god and religion perhaps, due to religion is a current unit of inquiry at his school. Tonight Liam and I sat down and watched Bill Maher’s Religulous. I think we both came to the consensus that a lot of life involves saving people from themselves and considering people can be sometimes just so plain dumb that’s it’s no easy task.

I tried explaining to Liam that when my great grandfather was alive they had the classics and a shared if not common language of discourse via those classics. How my grandfather’s same lingua franca was James Joyce and Walt Whitman. My father’s generation had Kerouac and the beatniks. I read a bit from all the above and was biography crazy…..Patton, Rockwell, Trump, Iacoca, Moshe Dayan, Brian fucking Bosworth, can you believe that, I was 15 or 16 and received Brian Bosworth’s bio as a gift and actually read it,WTF?.

Today we live in a fragmented world. What is my son’s generation’s lingua franca? Pokeman, WOW, The Boondocks? Often parents fail to see the world through their child’s eyes… I could be guilty. However, each time we watch idiocracy I warn Liam of his generations impending doom, that we are all button pushers and that someone, somewhere is figuring out how to ensure we all remain content lab rats, keeping the experiments going as long as we get our cheese.

I can only encourage him to continually tell the world to F*ck itself via challenging the status quo, bringing forth new ideas, and putting his stamp on the world on his own terms. Of course, I can’t tell him these things now directly…rather it’s that continual process of challenging him, testing him…. trying to give your kids that one elusive gift… To make them not only smart but wise, defined as, a smart person learns from their own mistakes whereas, a wise person learns from the mistakes of others. I see real progress with Liam this year in those terms, as for Magnus (3 years old)….well, I am just glad that he understands he should not eat the yellow snow.

Fatherhood.

2009-03-05T03:43:00.000-08:00

I like being a parent. First I am blessed with two handsome and intelligent boys. Second, it's an adventure in personal development seeing their growth is quite dependant upon my wife and I, and I like the challenge. However.....as they reach their teenage years I realize that rolle I play will fade.

Rather than accept the demise of the patriarch as the primary influence as my boys grow older...I rather...write eloquent speeches on leadership, responsibility, and other tales desinged to galvanize a boy into a man. These speeches will be of such eloquence they will make a Hells Angel cry and will be a standard of both young children and the old, each viewing my spoken prose as words to live by.

Yet, to the teenage boy, the period in a man's life where they acte as lycanthropes.....prowling in the night to the tune of pan...forgetting during the day what transpired in their revelry........my words will neither make sense nor will their legs loan the time to their ears to listen.

Knowing the defeat in this battle of my life is certain, therefore it begs the question of insanity to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome......but the draw of fatherhood is to strong...failure seems to be demoted to it's commander.....duty.

Danish Hospitality

2009-03-05T03:36:00.000-08:00

Danish Hospitality...What's your opinion?

Mariano Anthony Davies of CEO at The International Institute of Written Oxford English ApS and a member of the Expat Advisory Board posted the following questions on another forum and I thought I would repost them here. I look forward to hearing other’s opinions.

Hospitality is a universal concept. However, the expression and understanding of hospitality is to a greater extent dependent upon national cultural baggage.

Discussion Issue: To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Do Danes feel that they are hospitable? What do expats feel? Are there certain trends about which one can generalise in relation to the Danish experience and expression of hospitality? What do you think?

My Response:

I believe hospitality is a learned behaviour, therefore, I would place a certain yet undefined weight on a given societies influence upon reinforcing their own interpretation of a hospitable norm.

I posit, the concept of “Hygge”, is the umbrella that hospitality, for the most part, falls under for many Danes. To paraphrase an unknown author “Hygge” consists of the four C’s – comradeship, conviviality, cosiness and - most important of all – Carlsberg. Generally, during work hours I feel Hygge is on idle, yet I notice it in the small things, such as always being offered coffee, or how there is a high degree of respect for one another’s opinion regardless of station.

Hygge turned up a few notches is frequent laughter spent with close friends and in some cases even acquaintances. Living optimal Hygge is to feel a sense of togetherness and feeling content. Although Danes tend to be modest, under this framework, I believe Danes feel quite hospitable.

Expats feelings towards Danish hospitality are more difficult to gauge. The less countries an expat has lived in and the further their culture is from the Danes the more difficult an Expat will have identifying and classifying the Danish interpretation of hospitality. From personal and shared experiences I have noticed the first jaunt to a foreign country for the Expat is generally focused on adapting to a host of norms, rules, and often language barriers which in toll can be a bit overwhelming.

The conflict with familiar long-lived frames of reference vs. new and alien frames of reference can cause the new expat to experience cognitive dissonance leading to side effects of confirmation bias, the denial of disconfirming evidence, and other ego defense mechanisms. Thereby, further alienating the expat from adapting and understanding the host culture.

From experience, when coming to a new country I know if I feel in my comfort zone than I am doing something wrong. Engaging the locals, reaching out, connecting are a must if the Expat is to successfully integrate with the host nation. Often these attempts will fail, go un-noticed, and in some cases even be unappreciated. However, as Babe Ruth said “each strike brings me closer to the next home run”. Once the expat has overcome these challenges and able to see a nation for what it is rather than what they wish it would be, they then sit in the unique and sage like role of being able to be on both sides of the looking glass at the same time.

Personally, I am an optimist. I believe it is important to look past the culture and into the person, for we as humans all have the possibility to share a common denominator, to quote Emily Post:

“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” Emily Post, Etiquette.

I find such manners and hospitality in Danes often more so than other Nordic cultures, the trick is knowing how to look for it.

Dual Citizenship

2009-03-05T03:32:00.000-08:00

My response to One Man, One Vote (http://expatindenmark.com/blog/default.aspx)

Some countries, Sweden, have no practical exams to become a citizen; the Swedish just send a person a piece of paper with no pomp and circumstance.

In America, there is a test with questions such as these,

How many stripes are there on the U.S. Flag?

Who is the chief justice of the Supreme Court today?

In what year was the Constitution written?

I have heard it takes about half a day to study for it, practically speaking, more of a language test than anything. At the US citizenship ceremony people are sworn in as citizens, they are given cake, and most seem pretty happy about it, often bringing family and friends.

For Ireland, one must have an Irish grandparent or parent and they are granted citizenship without much effort.

All three of these countries allow multiple citizenships, in the case of the US, they do not encourage it formally. There are at least 90 other nations that do allow dual citizenship.

I believe having multiple citizenships is quite handy as it allows one to have a much more flexible life and creates more opportunities. For example, my children are dual citizens allowing them access to the US and EU job and education markets at their whim. As a parent why would I not want to give them as many options as possible?

Personally, I am an internationalist, I believe that the world is made stronger by allowing people to more freely communicate and exchange ideas outside of their national confines. I think the idea that we are obligated to the nation we are born in, which we as individuals had no choice in the matter, is a quite odd thought, in the sense, to be obligated to a land without choice seems to me to be some sort of indentured servitude.

For similar reasons that’s why I send my kids to international school. I find, universally, national education systems indoctrinate children with a good deal of propaganda designed to cause children to believe in a given countries perspective on the world, when what I really want is for my children to develop their own perspectives.

To be more precise, Rousseau and Voltaire, to name a few were both great influences upon French and US democratic foundations. However, today if we practically look at France and the US their interpretation of democracy is vastly different. I want my kids to be able to see the differences from an objective point of view.

On the other hand, I would never give up my US citizenship to gain a new one. For better or for worse, I am American; if the Army called me tomorrow I would go and serve (although I don’t know what good I would do). I fear if Denmark continues with a single citizenship policy it will only attract people who have nothing to lose by giving up their old citizenship. Frankly speaking, the highly talented expats that Denmark so desperately wants are already turned off by such factors as high taxes, difficulty integrating,