Vagabond reporters

Morgenavisen Jyllands Posten,  July 28th 2001

by Christian Thye-Petersen

Translated summary written by Christoffer Holmsteen
 <tvindalert@aol.com>

The following is a brief summary of the article in Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands Posten, part of a series of the adventures of JP's
Vagabonds hitchhiking around Denmark.

Hitchhiking in Holstebro in the west of Denmark, one of the biggest cities in
the vicinity of TVIND in Ulfborg, the JP reporters are picked up by three
young men in a white Mercedes. The three are Olivier from Paris, Mark
from Sunderland and Christian from Amager, Copenhagen. The Mercedes belongs to the principal of the Traveling High school (DRH).

The Vagabonds are invited to spend the night at TVIND, which they do. Here
they meet the students and teachers, who give their own opinions on the
problems facing the organization right now.

Christian Madsen is an 18-year old young guy from Copenhagen, the Danish
capital. Here he was involved in a lot of trouble. At TVIND, he says, he's
finally found peace.  He's hoping to get to go to Africa for 6 months.

Olivier Grisard is from Paris. There he was a social worker, very unhappy with
his situation. At 26 he has just returned from 6 months in Africa with TVIND.
He wants to join the teachers group (TG), and go back to Africa as a
project leader, to fight HIV. He has no trouble adjusting himself to shared
time and economy. He has read all the reports of the negative side to TVIND.
He tells the Vagabonds that he's seen all the good TVIND has done. You never
read about that in the press, he says.

Anna Hoas has been a member of the teachers group for a while.   She is from
Gotland in Sweden. She decided to leave the monotonous life back home, to come to TVIND to make a difference. She was in Brazil to investigate the social conditions of women. And after having joined TG in Norway, and later
transferred to Denmark, she is with TVIND for life. She proclaims that the
theory (of education) that Mogens Amdi Petersen created, will ensure TVIND's
existence forever.

All the hardship created by the authorities consisting of special laws,
lawsuits and searches against the organization has been, at times, very tough,
Anna acknowledges. And something that really annoys her is, that while she can speak for hours about the wonders of TVIND, when pausing for questions, the first question is always: Where's Amdi?

It is with Amdi like with all others of the teachers group, Anna contends,
Maybe we won't see each other for a few years, and then we run into each
other during some work-weekend. "Oh, are you here?", we'll say to each other. "What are you doing these days? Oh, you're in India now, I thought you were in Mozambique."  It's like that.

Steen Conradsen, a well-known and influential member for many years of the
teachers group, describes how he's seen TVIND described (in the media) for
many years:  "In the 70s we were the communistic commune, training guerilla
soldiers in the fields. In the 80s we were the sect, brainwashing people, and
in the 90s it is the economy of the teachers group that is (was, red.) being
focused on"

It is the hope of Steen Conradsen that the current case will end up in court.
There/'s nothing to it, he claims.

But Steen admits that a great pressure is being applied to TVIND. Basically,
he believes, strong forces in society want to eliminate them.  But it is a fightagainst windmills, he insists.  Many are against us while many are also with us. We have a good school with a good theory ofeducation, so good that people are still supporting us. We see that when social-workers, municipalities, parents and all the other authorities still believe, that it is a good idea to send people to a TVIND-institution.

[In reality Steen Conradsen here points to the core of a continuing problem in
the fight against TVIND, and their questionable tactics. It has for many years
been a matter of great contradiction, the actions of the Danish government,
parliament andj udicial system, compared to that of many local municipalities. While the former have been fighting against TVIND for years, and while many of the latter have voiced great concerns over TVIND moving into their areas, the latter, even those towns and municipalities of politically conservative majority, have continued,and still does, to send their troubled youths to TVIND's schools. Considering that the TVIND solution costs often only half of other, professional alternatives, it has always been an easy choice. And who cares about these youths, anyway, the message seems to be. So in reality, while officially fighting TVIND with all they have, the Danish authorities are at the same time supplying TVIND with an invaluable moral and, very importantly, financial validation. : Authors comments].

The original article can be read, in Danish, at Morgenavisen Jyllands Posten's homepage at http://www.jp.dk/ .   The newspaper has for years been one of the most active in their investigations of TVIND.

Christoffer Holmsteen   <tvindalert@aol.com>