DLTQ.org

On Thursday night Danish television channel DR had another of those stories that is bound to put a dent on the public image of a few individuals. In the programme Taskforce one rather well-known Danish real estate agent named Preben Scheel is first caught threatening a Filippino au-pair, saying “I will soon talk about you to a few friends. They are bad people. They will pick you up, is that what you want?”, and then when the journalist calls him about it, he claims that she was the one threatening him. Another danish man, more public this time, Claus Bretton-Meyer, is found out on sharing his au-pair with another family and doing a few other illegal things.

Of course, this is a lovely news story: Rich men abuse poor (but often university-educated) young women from the Philippines. And of course the politicans react on friday, but I am not impressed so far. The social-democratic party wants the immigration authorities to do more checks - but what will this help? As I wrote elsewhere today, many of these filippino au-pairs are simply too afraid to talk - they don’t want to be sent home too early.

So, maybe Claus Bretton-Meyer will quickly call Burson-Marsteller or another “brand management” crisis company. Or maybe he will just call a lawyer, they will figure out that “nothing sticks”, and after the usual period of hype over this issue, it will all cool down until Next Time when the TV can offer you an Exclusive Insight into the horrible conditions some of the au-pairs are working under.

I feel sick.