SUMMARY:January marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, but there is growing concern throughout Europe that anti-Semitism is on the rise. Historically tolerant Denmark, for example, has seen a resurgence of neo-Nazi groups opposed to immigration. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Denmark, where he met a Jewish Auschwitz survivor worried about her family amid the hate.
SUMMARY: The Copenhagen Jazz Festival ends this weekend in Denmark's capital. The organizers claim it's the world's biggest such event. Some musicians from the U.S. express envy that this quintessential American genre now thrives abroad, thanks to Danish government investment. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on why the city's jazz is attracting international attention.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): The Copenhagen Jazz Festival ends this weekend in Denmark’s capital. The organizers claim it’s the world’s biggest such event, and that Denmark has now become the epicenter of global jazz.
Some of the American musicians there express envy that this quintessential American music now thrives abroad, thanks to Danish government investment.
Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant is based in Copenhagen and he brings us all that Danish jazz.
MALCOLM BRABANT, special correspondent:The streets and squares are alive to the sound of improvisation, as the city stages 1,400 concerts in 10 days, leading to claims that Copenhagen is now the jazz capital of the world.
SUMMARY: Denmark tops a United Nations poll as the happiest nation on Earth. Is it because Danes pay taxes to get free health care, education and generous unemployment? Or is it a Scandinavian genetic predisposition? Or is it a myth? Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):Universal health care, free university education, and generous unemployment benefits, are these the keys to happiness? They are all offered in Denmark, the Nordic country Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders says the United States should look to as a model.
Once again this year, Denmark tops a United Nations poll as the Happiest Nation on Earth. But is this really true?
From Copenhagen, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant investigates.
MALCOLM BRABANT (NewsHour): A happy accident of geography, being born in a country whose safety net offers protection from cradle to grave.
SARAH EGESKOV, Attorney: On a day like this, it's obvious we are gathered with our friends and family to celebrate this little baby, so it's a wonderful day. And in the bigger picture, we live in a great society with a health care system and free education.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Christening their daughter Kaya (ph), attorney Sarah Egeskov and her partner, Claes, hope their state of bliss will leap a generation.
CLAES RASMUSSEN, Financial Adviser: We try to give her some of the same values that we have today and hope for her that she will have the same freedom of speech and freedom of beliefs.
SARAH EGESKOV: And a safe childhood.
CLAES RASMUSSEN: Yes.
SARAH EGESKOV: I don't think we thought about anything evil or threatening through our childhoods, and I hope we can give the same to our daughters.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Pastor Pernille Oestrem's church is in Copenhagen's most racially diverse district. She worries that some of her immigrant parishioners do not enjoy the same level of happiness as ethnic Danes, and she regards it as her mission to try to spread the joy.
PERNILLE OESTREM, Pastor, St. Stefan Church:We don't have any wars and the crime is low. And we can let our children walk to school in the morning by themselves when they're quite young. We don't have to drive them because of drive-by shootings or something like that. That means a lot, that we think we're going to be 90 and have great-great-great-grandchildren.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Danes pay more income tax than any other nationality, earn over $55,000, and the tax rate hits more than 60 percent, but, according to happiness expert Meik Wiking, Danes don’t mind.
MEIK WIKING, CEO, The Happiness Research Institute: Just take free access to health care, free access to university education, quite generous benefits if you lose your job. Just those three things mean that a lot of people around the world, if they don’t have access to them, will experience unhappiness. And since the welfare state takes care of that, we increase the bottom.
MALCOLM BRABANT:What about the high levels of taxes that people have to pay?
MEIK WIKING: Well it’s true, it’s really high levels. But I think what’s more interesting is that the really high level of support for the for high taxes. If you ask Danes, are you happily paying your taxes, nine out of 10 will say yes.
That last comment, Danes are happy to pay the high tax BECAUSE THEY GET THEIR MONEY'S WORTH. Something that conservative Republicans will deny.
SUMMARY: Denmark, like other European nations, is struggling to stop its citizens from joining the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations in Syria. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Copenhagen on the story of a young man who left his home country to fight for the militant group, and how his mother is urging the government to do more to stem the tide of extremism.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Finally tonight: combating extremism in Europe.
Denmark is often referred to as the happiest place on earth, but its sense of peace and serenity was shell-shocked earlier this year when an Islamic extremist shot and killed two people in Copenhagen. The country, like other European nations, is struggling to stop its citizens from joining the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations in Syria.
NewsHour special correspondent Malcolm Brabant caught up with one devastated mother who is urging the government to do more to stop the tide of extremism.
(from video) Right now, I’m just looking for more videos to see if I can get any knowledge about my boy.
MALCOLM BRABANT, Special Correspondent: Karolina Dam’s worst fear came true in the cruelest way. An Islamic State death notice on Facebook alerted her to news that her eighteen-year-old son, Lukas, had been killed in an American airstrike on the Syria-Turkey border.
KAROLINA DAM, Mother of Lukas Dam: I need peace and quiet now. I need to get on. I need — I don’t want him dead. But I need — I need to know things. And I don’t know if he’s alive. I don’t know if he’s in jail or if ISIS has killed him. I don’t know anything. It’s hard. You can’t sleep. I wake up with nightmares everywhere.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
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