Europol, the EU´s police agency, co-ordinating Eurowide efforts against international terrorism and other crimes, has been without a chief for 6 months now.
There are deep-seated differences between the candidates and the EU is torn between them. The French are adamant that a job of this nature can only be performed by a Frenchman. The Germans, meanwhile, argue that a German would be the best suited for the job. In Italy, supporters of an Italian candidacy point to Italy´s long history of success in exporting international crime. The Spanish, on the other hand, with comparable success in the Inquisition arena, see Spain as the womb of counter-terrorist expertise.
How can such ideological differences be overcome? This blog proposes an intensive programme of miscegenation as the only fertile solution. We Europeans need to breed more, anyway, if we don´t want to come under sharia law in the next few years, and see institutions like Europol replaced with committees of mullahs.
EUobserver.com
Friday, February 18, 2005
Net Closing in on Fischer: Visa Scandal
Hundreds of thousands of criminals and prostitutes flooded into Europe thanks to Joschka Fischer´s insistence to allow virtually anyone who wanted to entry on visitors´ visas.
The scandal (see Visa Scandal Enmeshes Ficher 8 Feb) has been front page news for weeks, but Fischer´s personal popularity, and his slippery avoidance of making public comment on the particulars (other than the vague acceptance of "political responsibility") may still see him through. Either way, it will liven up the regional elections in Schleswig-Holstein (this weekend) and Nordrhein-Westphalen (this May).
Whether the weak opposition parties can make something out of it - given their inability to get much political traction even out of 5 million unemployed Germans - remains to be seen.
NZZ:? Joschka Fischers Befragung verz?gert sichInternational 2005 02 18 09 02
The scandal (see Visa Scandal Enmeshes Ficher 8 Feb) has been front page news for weeks, but Fischer´s personal popularity, and his slippery avoidance of making public comment on the particulars (other than the vague acceptance of "political responsibility") may still see him through. Either way, it will liven up the regional elections in Schleswig-Holstein (this weekend) and Nordrhein-Westphalen (this May).
Whether the weak opposition parties can make something out of it - given their inability to get much political traction even out of 5 million unemployed Germans - remains to be seen.
NZZ:? Joschka Fischers Befragung verz?gert sichInternational 2005 02 18 09 02
Unacceptable: the High Priests of Kyoto
Juergen Trittin, the Green Environment Minister from Germany, rebukes the USA for not joining efforts to save the climate:
"It is unacceptable to me and for the climate," he says.
It always amazes me that politicians clearly at a loss to deal with basic human matters like unemployment and immigration become so Messianic and dogmatic when it comes to the climate, something they have absolutely no control over at all. The idea that a dim, ineffectual fellow like Trittin can speak on behalf of the climate is laughable. But many people seem attracted to this sort of self-righteous posing.
The Kyoto Protocol itself is what is unacceptable, an example of our modern-day fetishisation of the ineffable. It should be resisted by all reasonable men.
EUbusiness - Germany scolds US, calls for dramatic EU cut in carbon pollution
"It is unacceptable to me and for the climate," he says.
It always amazes me that politicians clearly at a loss to deal with basic human matters like unemployment and immigration become so Messianic and dogmatic when it comes to the climate, something they have absolutely no control over at all. The idea that a dim, ineffectual fellow like Trittin can speak on behalf of the climate is laughable. But many people seem attracted to this sort of self-righteous posing.
The Kyoto Protocol itself is what is unacceptable, an example of our modern-day fetishisation of the ineffable. It should be resisted by all reasonable men.
EUbusiness - Germany scolds US, calls for dramatic EU cut in carbon pollution
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Bush in Brussels
Preparations are underway for President Bush´s visit to Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
The initial impression is one of comic-opera type manoeuvres behind the scenes. Only a handful of EU leaders will be granted time to speak during the 90 minutes Bush will be spending with them. This has understandably upset those not invited, even if, au fond, everyone is delighted because 90 minutes with Bush is much more than they´d normally get.
EUobserver.com
The initial impression is one of comic-opera type manoeuvres behind the scenes. Only a handful of EU leaders will be granted time to speak during the 90 minutes Bush will be spending with them. This has understandably upset those not invited, even if, au fond, everyone is delighted because 90 minutes with Bush is much more than they´d normally get.
EUobserver.com
Bono Beats Pope to Clinch Nobel Nomination
Apparently the Nobel committee objected to the Pope´s "conservative moral teachings".
Entertainment News Article | Reuters.co.uk
Entertainment News Article | Reuters.co.uk
"...trashing our culture and libelling our past."
Charles Moore writes a beautiful meditation on what will be lost when hunting is banned in the UK tomorrow.
Telegraph Opinion Tomorrow hunting is banned: this injustice cannot endure
Telegraph Opinion Tomorrow hunting is banned: this injustice cannot endure
The Eiffel Target
It´s not just in Hollywood movies that the Eiffel Tower gets blown away - at least, not if a couple of those Islamist installation artists (see Dadaist Death post 27 Jan below) start getting green lights for their productions:
The Eiffel Tower was one of the many targets in the fanatics´ sights in France, officials said yesterday. The information came from three Algerians detained on January 11th in an investigation into armed Islamic support for the Chechen rebels.
Yahoo! News - Officials: Militants Targeted Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower was one of the many targets in the fanatics´ sights in France, officials said yesterday. The information came from three Algerians detained on January 11th in an investigation into armed Islamic support for the Chechen rebels.
Yahoo! News - Officials: Militants Targeted Eiffel Tower
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism and Intolerance Remain, says Council of Europe
To no-one´s surprise, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a taxpayer-funded body, says that racism is still alive and kicking in Europe. The ECRI today publishes reports on the racist state-of-play in France, Austria, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia and Turkey.
It is a sign of our decadence that something everyone knows to be true needs to be confirmed, at great expense, by a public body, which tells us of its "continuing grounds for concern" and the pressing need for its work to continue.
These wretched reports have only one function: to act as an alibi for politicians who wish it to be known they care about racism and would love to do something, if only someone would tell them what.
Council of Europe: Reports on racism in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, ?the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and Turkey
It is a sign of our decadence that something everyone knows to be true needs to be confirmed, at great expense, by a public body, which tells us of its "continuing grounds for concern" and the pressing need for its work to continue.
These wretched reports have only one function: to act as an alibi for politicians who wish it to be known they care about racism and would love to do something, if only someone would tell them what.
Council of Europe: Reports on racism in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, ?the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and Turkey
Hunting Banned in UK from Friday
This morning hunting campaigners lost their last chance to stop the ban on hunting with dogs, which will now go ahead as of Friday.
It is a great victory for urban anti-hunting activists and for the class warriors who still thrive at a senior level within the Labour government.
The losers - apart from the ancient hunts and their many followers - are foxes, which will henceforth be killed more cruelly and less efficiently, and the beagles and other hounds who chased them, many of whom will have to be put down.
Another case of unintended consequences - the hunt ban gained much well-meaning support from people feeling that it was cruel to hunt, people who would be horrified to learn that their good intentions have served only to make life worse for foxes and, sadly, impossible for beagles.
Guardian Unlimited Special reports Court of appeal backs hunt ban
It is a great victory for urban anti-hunting activists and for the class warriors who still thrive at a senior level within the Labour government.
The losers - apart from the ancient hunts and their many followers - are foxes, which will henceforth be killed more cruelly and less efficiently, and the beagles and other hounds who chased them, many of whom will have to be put down.
Another case of unintended consequences - the hunt ban gained much well-meaning support from people feeling that it was cruel to hunt, people who would be horrified to learn that their good intentions have served only to make life worse for foxes and, sadly, impossible for beagles.
Guardian Unlimited Special reports Court of appeal backs hunt ban
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
France: 100 years´ Separation Church & State
The celebrations began yesterday, low-key, and haunted by the realisation that the measure was introduced at a time before Islam was a fact of French life.
Le Monde.fr : Cent ans apr?s, la loi sur la la?cit? est l'enjeu de nouveaux d?bats
Le Monde.fr : Cent ans apr?s, la loi sur la la?cit? est l'enjeu de nouveaux d?bats
Monday, February 14, 2005
Germany´s Interesting Plans for NATO
The Germany government´s odd approach to international politics came to the fore again over the weekend. Peter Struck, Chancellor Schroeder´s messenger at the Munich Conference for Peace, was clearly uncomfortable with his master´s message. Struck had been no more in the loop on these interesting plans than NATO´s Secretary General or any of the other NATO partners. He´s only the Defence Minister, after all.
Calling for outside consultants to define a new role for NATO sounds like standard-issue political blether, but is actually an embarrassing faux pas which badly exposes the German government´s incoherence on international matters. A consultative process is already underway at NATO, as both Donald Rumsfeld and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO´s chief, pointed out.
To undermine NATO whilst angling for a German seat on the UN´s Security Council seems to be Schroeder´s current tactic. But he has alienated a number of key players in executing it - as Rumsfeld´s jocular reactions to Struck´s speech showed. Germany now finds itself in a strange position. It needs to build bridges - not beyond the wit of a Joschka Fischer, who, if he survives the current visa scandal, will have a big budget with which to impress doubters.
But Germany needs to build more than bridges. It needs to define its own international role far more urgently than NATO does. Its current diplomatic line - probably deriving more from lazy incompetence and bungling than from any master-plan - needs to be recast, fast. There is an inconsistency between Germany´s UN ambitions and its desire to undermine NATO in favour of an EU-based trans-Atlantic talking shop. One doubts Joscka Fischer is quite the man to reconcile this. He is wounded by the visa scandal, and is wedded to a very 1970s view of world politics. But he can´t easily be sacked, and there is no obvious candidate to succeed him as Foreign Minister.
In the meantime, Germany´s interesting plans for NATO will be dumped, and everyone will have forgotten about them by the end of the week.
Calling for outside consultants to define a new role for NATO sounds like standard-issue political blether, but is actually an embarrassing faux pas which badly exposes the German government´s incoherence on international matters. A consultative process is already underway at NATO, as both Donald Rumsfeld and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO´s chief, pointed out.
To undermine NATO whilst angling for a German seat on the UN´s Security Council seems to be Schroeder´s current tactic. But he has alienated a number of key players in executing it - as Rumsfeld´s jocular reactions to Struck´s speech showed. Germany now finds itself in a strange position. It needs to build bridges - not beyond the wit of a Joschka Fischer, who, if he survives the current visa scandal, will have a big budget with which to impress doubters.
But Germany needs to build more than bridges. It needs to define its own international role far more urgently than NATO does. Its current diplomatic line - probably deriving more from lazy incompetence and bungling than from any master-plan - needs to be recast, fast. There is an inconsistency between Germany´s UN ambitions and its desire to undermine NATO in favour of an EU-based trans-Atlantic talking shop. One doubts Joscka Fischer is quite the man to reconcile this. He is wounded by the visa scandal, and is wedded to a very 1970s view of world politics. But he can´t easily be sacked, and there is no obvious candidate to succeed him as Foreign Minister.
In the meantime, Germany´s interesting plans for NATO will be dumped, and everyone will have forgotten about them by the end of the week.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
"No Tears for Krauts..."
"No Tears for Krauts" is the motto of the hard-left demonstrators who believe that mourning German victims of World War II is to mourn the passing of Nazism.
These folks will be in Dresden today - the 60th anniversary of the Allied firebombing of the city - seeking to disrupt the remembrance of the dead. More specifically, they want to disrupt the neo-Nazi NPD´s remembrance of the dead.
One would normally support almost any effort to oppose the drivelling neo-Nazis. But "No tears for Krauts" sticks in the craw.
It would be difficult to conceive of a confrontation more irrelevant than that between the neo-Nazis and the "No Tears for Krauts" gang. Both groups are politicising an event they do not fully understand. Both groups are playing with history and the memories of people whose fate has become a kind of political football. And mainstream German politicians are utterly clueless on this topic, unable to give a proper lead.
That will be left to the people of Dresden. The silent majority, in this case, will prevail, and will honour the dead with dignity.
These folks will be in Dresden today - the 60th anniversary of the Allied firebombing of the city - seeking to disrupt the remembrance of the dead. More specifically, they want to disrupt the neo-Nazi NPD´s remembrance of the dead.
One would normally support almost any effort to oppose the drivelling neo-Nazis. But "No tears for Krauts" sticks in the craw.
It would be difficult to conceive of a confrontation more irrelevant than that between the neo-Nazis and the "No Tears for Krauts" gang. Both groups are politicising an event they do not fully understand. Both groups are playing with history and the memories of people whose fate has become a kind of political football. And mainstream German politicians are utterly clueless on this topic, unable to give a proper lead.
That will be left to the people of Dresden. The silent majority, in this case, will prevail, and will honour the dead with dignity.
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