Holistic Solutions

A think tank established for the creation of “closed, holistic systems.”

Economic Models a la Denmark

by Yasha Melanie Husain, Director, Holistic Solutions Think Tank, www.closedholisticsystems.com

September 27, 2013

Before and after I wrote the article, 'Worldfocus' in Denmark: A People's Green Energy Model, in April 2010, and posted it to my writer's site, I reviewed the recent history of the economic model in Denmark, in the last 60 years. What I found was an early drive toward distributed energy, starting well before the oil crisis of the 1970s, and reaching to the 21st century. The beautiful history of achieving distributed energy, and empowering local entrepreneurs, however, may be endangered, if investment firms and too powerful of banks take over the role of energy reform combined with development, that has been more organic, and homespun.


The many years of progress in Denmark featured the growth of an amazing company, Vestas, which produces wind turbines, and saw a growth in verifiable, self sustainable communities, that are increasingly environmentally responsible, and uplifted, economically, and emotionally.


I wrote:


Worldfocus, airing on PBS, chose to run a half-hour special report on Friday night, “Green Energy in Denmark,” highlighting stories about these everyday people: farmers, artists, individual residents of a small Danish island, a businessman part of one of wind energy's greatest success stories, to show that Danes achieved energy independence and financial security, without making remarkable changes to their lifestyle.

Certainly, the stories reported by Worldfocus' John Larson, appeared to be about unsung heroes who just prefer let the world come see what they've done and how progressive it is versus seeking to broadcast the gains made, and by government and business entities, too.

But these unsung heroes, and others like them, into the future, may be at risk of losing their economic security if the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement don't protect the nature of Denmark's earlier distributed energy planning, in which minimalist and equitable subsidies, or governmental supports, and business relations, a reflection of the Denmark model at the time, only enhanced a mushrooming of independent and community-oriented economic growth and environmental revivalism.

The trade agreements must follow a dictum that protects individual sovereignty of individuals, nations and the world. It must protect, at once, the world's environment, and also its individual nation-states, and their beliefs, and individuals, and their needs.

There are reports that laws of nations may actually be bypassed by the current legalese in these agreements, this doesn't support a notion of international sovereignty based upon national sovereignty, which has been the means to a democratic and more economic and just world.

We shouldn't move away from the progress of the Denmark economic model, on the one hand, it has been a shining light for countries to follow, though under-reported and too little understood. There's less to read about the country's modern economic model of the 20th century today, online, than there was to read about it in 2010, by the way. So we need to focus on a positive and progressive recent history. On the other hand, remarkably, we shan't move away from the long-held tradition of democratic law protecting these enlightening business and proprietorship rights.

Why would the current trade agreements being proposed ever have the potential to overwrite, in one example, American law, as Ed from the Ed Show on MSNBC reported on September 26, 2013? American law may need to be reviewed if it is the reason for the embarrassment, but I sincerely doubt there is a problem with American law, for it's democratic through and through, and supports a generally free market and individual rights, but it is not overwritten by any individual or corporate rights. More likely, there has been a mishap in the writing of potentially overarching trade talks.

My only hope in this short-term to which the Ed Show has referred is that people ask that their rights be protected, and all of our governmental leaders protect individuals, now, and ensure the trade agreements, that will be signed and ongoing into the future, don't usurp democratic notions and law that ensure socioeconomics which are increasingly just.








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Yasha Melanie Husain. Copyright 2013-14.