Blog = a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts

Hmmmm...I seem to not be getting this concept of blog. It has been a week of intense learning and I have summarized nothing. This is my attempt to capture a few select highlights now, and I recommit to more frequent updates going forward.

LAND OF LEGOS DAY ONE
I write today from the 2nd European city stint, Copenhagen. We had a light dinner of cheese and wine at a German Marshall Memorial Alum's home, Mads Carstensen. He's a lawyer for the Red Cross working on illegal immigration issues. Just 5% of the population in Denmark is non-Dane. Amazing. They have 5.4M people and if you ask them a question about how many are illegal or on drugs or unemployed, they cite a specific number. Conversation swirled around work place issues for the most part. Mads and his wife Mie recently had a baby so we talked about their generous welfare state and maternal/paternal leave which includes 8 weeks off before the baby for the mother and up to a year off after the baby depending on the circumstances, 6 months minimum. They joked that between their short work week of 37 hours, a ton of vacation and holidays, medical leave, sometimes employers don't recognize their employees. Despite this, Denmark is the European country with the strongest economy. More about Denmark in the ensuing days. I promise. Now I must go meet the Queen.

NATO LAND IN BRUSSELS
We had incredible access to VIPs at NATO and the learning were rich. Afghanistan and pending Kosovo succession from Serbia were the focus, including why both are of strategic importance to NATO and the European Union. The North Atlantic Treat Organization today looks very different from its original intent, a much broader "pod" of the international community. When asked if NATO could potentially step up involvement in Iraq, the response was basically, "you broke it, you fix it." The priority is Afghanistan and the comment was that stability there will be more difficult to achieve than Iraq. Later, a senior operations officer, a Brit, choked up during introductory statements ... "NATO needs America to operate ... leadership is key ... only as strong as weakest link and it's no good kicking the weak link down further ... have to bring them along with you." He's a strong Atlanticist and he is clearly disappointed in the current administration.

EUROCHILD MEETING
I met individually two women from this NGO that represents children's issues in multiple nations in Europe and beyond with a focus on European Union states as they are funded by the European Commission. We talked quite a bit about America's unique philanthropic sector and foundation investments and the true lack of giving in European culture and lack of tax incentives. We also talked quite a bit about the Roma population (known to us as "gypsies" and the tremendous discrimination. I wanted to get their take on the reasons why before heading to the Eastern European countries of Romania and Slovakia where the majority of children in institutions are Roma. More on this later, I'm certain.