Jan Steinmetz

Yesterday Jan Steinmetz visited Middelfart, a small town on Fyn, where he gave a lecture about the American – Canadian friends. He is a Danish correspondent that works for the Danish TV-station called TV2. He said that he loves his job and really wants to renew his contract once the current one expires. One of the reasons he loves his job so much is the social feeling. He told us that he almost 24/7 is followed be his photographers and that he shares not only victories but also sorrows with them.

  His job is also very unpredictable. A few days before he was about to start work he was on a vacation in Cape Town when his boss suddenly calls and asks how long it will take him to fly to Washington because the day after Obama was going to publish the healthcare reform. Jan was a bit confused, but it turns out the correspondent before him had to fly home to Denmark. So Jan jumped on the first and best plane to the US. Because as Jan said yesterday: it wouldn’t look good if DR had a news reporter analyzing the reform half an hour before TV2-news especially if TV2 didn’t have a reporter at all.

  When they realized Jan would never make it to Washington in time, they decided to record the transmission on a ruff in New York.  

  And when 33 mineworkers was about to be pulled up from the whole they had been trapped in for the last two months, Jan had to go to a 50 year birthday. He called his boss, but like all most all boss’ he said he didn’t care, as long as he stud in front of the mine when they where recued. So Jan decided to gamble… He went to Denmark Saturday morning to go to this birthday and took a plane the next morning. When he arrived to Chile, there were over 2000 journalists. But he was there when they started to rescue the mineworkers. He said it was amazing to be in the center of something so big and to know the whole world was watching while they all were sharing the same thought. And I think it is amazing how much he is willing to do for his job.

  This is just a few of the fascinating things Jan has experienced in his two years in America.  But when you ask him: what is your mission? He says that he wants to show the world the small cities that might not share the same opinions as the big cities. He says that America is only represented by the big cities because they are the one with the ‘’right’’ opinions.

  Jan gave us a new understanding about the situation in the US. And he did it in a very exciting way where most people would have lost us. Politic can be a very boring topic to talk about, especially if it is politic from another country. But Jan showed us clips from the news where Americans in the small cities think that Obama is a shity president. He told us how the republicans are willing to do anything so Obama can’t make any progress, just so they have a chance of winning the next election. How can a country with such big power be so selfish, just to get what they want? That is really something to think about. 

- Camilla Hendriksen 2.d