Summary of articles in Billed Bladet #17, 2010.
Written by Ulrik Ulriksen and Ken Richter.
It was back to work for Mary after the celebrations in connection with the birthday of QMII.
As patron of the Mary Foundation, she visited the Anna Wulff kindergarten in Copenhagen. The kindergarten has like many, if not most kindergartens in Denmark, adopted the free for bullying concept that was pioneered in Australia. And Mary was to see how the concept is implemented in practice in the attempt to eradicate bullying altogether. (*) She interacted with the children, chatted with them, admired the drawings they had made and watched them dance.
Our reporter, Ulrik Ulriksen has surpassed himself in his description of Mary’s outfit, and I quote: “She was casually dressed but still extremely elegant when she as a mix of gentle/soft cotton-girl and Queensland country-girl made her entrance at the kindergarten”.
Our correspondent in the west, Ken Richter, covered Mary’s visit to Vejle Fjord, where a rehabilitation centre for children with heart afflictions is located. She went out wilt a number of children, on their route through what is called the Heart Lane. That’s about an hours walk through the woods around the centre.
And if you think the children can just stroll along while texting away on their mobiles, you are mistaken. The entire body is supposed to be exercised. So Mary swung her arms as eagerly as any of the children. – Well, in fact more eagerly!
(*) Perhaps as a consequence of the free for bullying project there has been an added focus on bullying on workplaces in Denmark. That’s a real problem, costing the society as a whole a lot. Not only in regards to the psychological and human effects, but also in the number of days people are sick from work and not least how people are thriving at work, which again influence the production/efficiency of a workplace.
At my work we introduced an unofficial anti-bullying policy some years ago. Those who bullied and couldn’t figure out that times had changed are long gone.
I believe such a policy will be mandatory on all workplaces within ten years.