The blog is off to Switzerland for a couple of weeks, and what with broken limbs and tricky connections will likely be posting more sporadically for a bit.
This blog´s archive, however, is full of penetrating insights well worth checking out in the meantime..
Switzerland
Saturday, February 26, 2005
"Is that a gun in your pocket...?" Mandy's Chinese Disembargo
Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner, again signals his desire to sell China arms. Having described the arms embargo, imposed after the Tianamen Square massacre, as "anachronistic", Mandy now tells the Chinese that it would be so much easier to consummate the lifting of the embargo if China could show some willingness in the matter of human rights.
Not as a condition of lifting the embargo, mind. The Chinese need not fear that Mandy means any of this. What Mandy has in mind is purely cosmetic, purely for the purposes of spin, to help sell this shameful measure to the world.
EUbusiness - EU trade chief urges more evidence from China on arms ban, market status
Not as a condition of lifting the embargo, mind. The Chinese need not fear that Mandy means any of this. What Mandy has in mind is purely cosmetic, purely for the purposes of spin, to help sell this shameful measure to the world.
EUbusiness - EU trade chief urges more evidence from China on arms ban, market status
The Curse of Von Esens (I) : Hervé Gaymard
The Curse of Von Esens strikes (see French Lessons in Cohabitation):
Hervé Gaymard, the wealthy French Financial Minister preaching frugality but living at the taxpayer's expense in a huge apartment in the best part of Paris, has resigned.
Times Online - World
Hervé Gaymard, the wealthy French Financial Minister preaching frugality but living at the taxpayer's expense in a huge apartment in the best part of Paris, has resigned.
Times Online - World
German Visa Scandal (III): End of the Line for Fischer?
Joschka Fischer, Germany´s Green Foreign Minister, has lost his place at the top of the "Most Important Politician" ranking for the first time in three years, as the implications of the so-called "Visa Scandal" start to take effect.
As we wrote here last week, Fischer´s ideologically-correct, highly relaxed immigration policy resulted in hundreds of thousands of eastern European illegal immigrants entering the European Union. Up until now, it looked as though Fischer´s personal popularity might see him through. But the latest "Politbarometer" (from Germany's ZDF channel) shows that he has lost his place to the opposition CDU's Christian Wulff, Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.
It seems Germany may finally be tiring of its favourite son, whose personal predilections and developments so closely embody the nation's own. Fischer's youth was spent as a street-fighting peacenik, a policeman-beating anti-Establishmentarian. The Green party he helped found was to be an "anti-party", positioning itself as detached from mainstream "corrupt" politics. When Fischer became a minister, he ostentatiously continued to wear sneakers 'n sweaters into parliament. Like so many of his countrymen, part of him is a corpulent Feinschmecker (epicure), the other an austere, marathon-running fitness freak. He's been divorced four times and his current girlfriend, 28 years his junior, is young enough to be his granddaughter.
But despite his obvious fondness for the trappings of power, and his seamless shift from sneakers to pinstripes, his role as German Foreign Minister has protected him from political unpleasantness, or association with unpopular policies. He has been free to strike idealist pacifist poses on behalf of "World Peace", attitudes which are still so loved by pacifist-minded Germans. And somehow he can combine moral superiority of this sort with the stated wish to sell more arms to China and not be laughed out of court.
Many among Europe's political elite, of course, are up to their necks in such contradictions. But it may be that voters are beginning to see through them and their limitations. The more so in the wake of President Bush's European visit and the small green shoots of success of his policies.
That's what seems to be happening in Germany right now as far as Fischer and his Greens are concerned, anyway. At the very least, it'll prove a big vote-loser for the SPD/Green coalition in the upcoming regional elections in North Rhine Westphalia. At the other extreme, Fischer could be forced to resign and this would spell the end of the current German government.
ZDF.de - Fischer verliert Spitzenplatz auf Top Ten Liste
As we wrote here last week, Fischer´s ideologically-correct, highly relaxed immigration policy resulted in hundreds of thousands of eastern European illegal immigrants entering the European Union. Up until now, it looked as though Fischer´s personal popularity might see him through. But the latest "Politbarometer" (from Germany's ZDF channel) shows that he has lost his place to the opposition CDU's Christian Wulff, Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.
It seems Germany may finally be tiring of its favourite son, whose personal predilections and developments so closely embody the nation's own. Fischer's youth was spent as a street-fighting peacenik, a policeman-beating anti-Establishmentarian. The Green party he helped found was to be an "anti-party", positioning itself as detached from mainstream "corrupt" politics. When Fischer became a minister, he ostentatiously continued to wear sneakers 'n sweaters into parliament. Like so many of his countrymen, part of him is a corpulent Feinschmecker (epicure), the other an austere, marathon-running fitness freak. He's been divorced four times and his current girlfriend, 28 years his junior, is young enough to be his granddaughter.
But despite his obvious fondness for the trappings of power, and his seamless shift from sneakers to pinstripes, his role as German Foreign Minister has protected him from political unpleasantness, or association with unpopular policies. He has been free to strike idealist pacifist poses on behalf of "World Peace", attitudes which are still so loved by pacifist-minded Germans. And somehow he can combine moral superiority of this sort with the stated wish to sell more arms to China and not be laughed out of court.
Many among Europe's political elite, of course, are up to their necks in such contradictions. But it may be that voters are beginning to see through them and their limitations. The more so in the wake of President Bush's European visit and the small green shoots of success of his policies.
That's what seems to be happening in Germany right now as far as Fischer and his Greens are concerned, anyway. At the very least, it'll prove a big vote-loser for the SPD/Green coalition in the upcoming regional elections in North Rhine Westphalia. At the other extreme, Fischer could be forced to resign and this would spell the end of the current German government.
ZDF.de - Fischer verliert Spitzenplatz auf Top Ten Liste
Friday, February 25, 2005
The President´s Glove
The blog´s etiquette correspondent draws our attention to a dolorous faux pas in Bratislava. It seems there's been a spot of one-sided gloved handshaking going on in that quarter, with the US President failing to remove said item whilst greeting his Slovak hosts Ivan Gasparovic and Mikulas Dzurinda. Understandably, dismay has been widespread and vocal.
This blog is a bit of a stickler for etiquette and feudal form. Indeed it is one of the leading European authorities on how to tip one's hat to the grocer before the toast to the Queen and suchlike quandaries.
So here is our ex cathedra pronouncement: The fault is with the hosts, who should have put their gloves back on when they saw the President´s "what should I do with my gloves?" dilemma. Doing so would have put their guest at his ease, which is etiquette´s overriding concern on such occasions. A copy of my Handbook of How to Win With Your Gloves On is winging its way over to Ivan and Mikulas even as we speak.
This blog is a bit of a stickler for etiquette and feudal form. Indeed it is one of the leading European authorities on how to tip one's hat to the grocer before the toast to the Queen and suchlike quandaries.
So here is our ex cathedra pronouncement: The fault is with the hosts, who should have put their gloves back on when they saw the President´s "what should I do with my gloves?" dilemma. Doing so would have put their guest at his ease, which is etiquette´s overriding concern on such occasions. A copy of my Handbook of How to Win With Your Gloves On is winging its way over to Ivan and Mikulas even as we speak.
New Sorrellism : "At Least Less Worse"
Sir Martin Sorrell, speaking about communications group WPP's 2004 performance in Europe, said that it was "at least less worse" than the previous year.
An excellent new Sorrellism (from Esens' Lexicograph: "Sorrellism : gnomic utterance about economy capable of multiplicit interpretation") to join his "bath shaped recession" of two years back.
Sorrell´s bath turned out to be a lot longer than conventional baths, certainly as far as Europe went. But his "prognostications" for the coming year, despite its being an odd-numbered year with neither summer Olympics nor US elections to boost adspend, are quietly positive. That´s good. Europe badly needs to get out of the doldrums of miniscule growth, and advertising is the economy´s weathervane in that respect.
An excellent new Sorrellism (from Esens' Lexicograph: "Sorrellism : gnomic utterance about economy capable of multiplicit interpretation") to join his "bath shaped recession" of two years back.
Sorrell´s bath turned out to be a lot longer than conventional baths, certainly as far as Europe went. But his "prognostications" for the coming year, despite its being an odd-numbered year with neither summer Olympics nor US elections to boost adspend, are quietly positive. That´s good. Europe badly needs to get out of the doldrums of miniscule growth, and advertising is the economy´s weathervane in that respect.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Last Chinese Sex Slave Dies
Zhu Qiaomei, the last surviving "comfort woman", or sex slave used by Japanese troops during WWII, died in Shanghai last Sunday aged 96.
She never got a single yen´s worth of compensation from the Japanese, Xinhuanet reports.
Xinhua - English
She never got a single yen´s worth of compensation from the Japanese, Xinhuanet reports.
Xinhua - English
Germany Would Pay to Kill Pact Off
A month back we wrote how the EU Stability Pact was effectively dead, but that it was hanging on in a kind of suspended animation as no-one could be found brave enough to pull the trigger and declare it dead.
Now the time has come for the poor Pact to be put out of its misery. Germany has become so frustrated at breaking the Pact four successive times that it is actually prepared to bribe the European Commission to kill it off. The bribe on the table is 0.14% of Germany´s gross national income.
Let´s see if the Commission picks it up.
EUobserver.com
Now the time has come for the poor Pact to be put out of its misery. Germany has become so frustrated at breaking the Pact four successive times that it is actually prepared to bribe the European Commission to kill it off. The bribe on the table is 0.14% of Germany´s gross national income.
Let´s see if the Commission picks it up.
EUobserver.com
The Ethics of Murder
We wrote last week about the murder of Hatun Sürücü - killed, apparently by her brother, for being "too German" and rejecting the marriage arranged for her.
Pupils at her school, we wrote, welcomed the murder and saw it as an entirely reasonable punishment. Now the Berlin-based CDU party wants to force these pupils to go on courses of ethics and philosophy.
Well, at least they're trying to engage with the problem. But they might have done better to compel the pupils to contemplate the life of the man who gave their school its name - Thomas More.
More knew all about ethics and faithfulness and, for that matter, being murdered for mixing them up the wrong way. His master, Henry VIII, was titled the "Defender of the Faith" by the Pope. But that didn't inhibit the monarch from cutting off More's head for failing to smooth the way for Henry´s first divorce. Moral qualms led More to the scaffold.
The lessons? Take your pick: - Sometimes it's better not to condemn unethical faithlessness. Sometimes ethics can lead you into trouble. Sometimes it´s better to go with the flow. Or - a martyr´s death awaits the morally steadfast.
We very much doubt the CDU's ethics and philosophy programme will inculcate such values, helpful as they might be for the murderous Muslim pupils. But it is criminally naive to pretend that a horror of murder can best be taught in a philosophy course! The uses to which Nietzsche has been put are surely warning enough. The pupils are much likelier to learn that there are no easy answers, in the realm of abstract contemplation as on earth, and this, as a result, will confirm them in their approval of the primitive and barbaric murder.
The well-meant ethics and philosophy courses, inasmuch as they teach the children anything practical, will furnish them with the semantic ingenuity to justify any amount of unspeakable, unChristian cruelties.
St Thomas More will be looking down on all of this with a quizzical, half-amused eye.
Pupils at her school, we wrote, welcomed the murder and saw it as an entirely reasonable punishment. Now the Berlin-based CDU party wants to force these pupils to go on courses of ethics and philosophy.
Well, at least they're trying to engage with the problem. But they might have done better to compel the pupils to contemplate the life of the man who gave their school its name - Thomas More.
More knew all about ethics and faithfulness and, for that matter, being murdered for mixing them up the wrong way. His master, Henry VIII, was titled the "Defender of the Faith" by the Pope. But that didn't inhibit the monarch from cutting off More's head for failing to smooth the way for Henry´s first divorce. Moral qualms led More to the scaffold.
The lessons? Take your pick: - Sometimes it's better not to condemn unethical faithlessness. Sometimes ethics can lead you into trouble. Sometimes it´s better to go with the flow. Or - a martyr´s death awaits the morally steadfast.
We very much doubt the CDU's ethics and philosophy programme will inculcate such values, helpful as they might be for the murderous Muslim pupils. But it is criminally naive to pretend that a horror of murder can best be taught in a philosophy course! The uses to which Nietzsche has been put are surely warning enough. The pupils are much likelier to learn that there are no easy answers, in the realm of abstract contemplation as on earth, and this, as a result, will confirm them in their approval of the primitive and barbaric murder.
The well-meant ethics and philosophy courses, inasmuch as they teach the children anything practical, will furnish them with the semantic ingenuity to justify any amount of unspeakable, unChristian cruelties.
St Thomas More will be looking down on all of this with a quizzical, half-amused eye.
Bush Supporters in Mainz
Good to see that, despite everything, freedom of speech thrives in Germany and that the vastly outnumbered but determined group of pro-Bush demonstrators managed to make their point effectively.
The much larger numbers of rentacrowd protesters and Greenpeace activists in Mainz, in contrast, seem to be just going through the motions, these days. Opposition to the spread of democracy, which is how Bush has effectively positioned it, isn't a stance that will change politics in Europe or the US. And Western "oppositionism" - opposition for the sake of opposition - is a mere decadence, made possible by the security and comfort we enjoy in the West.
The plucky pro-Bush demonstrators, on the other hand, showed grit in standing up for an unpopular course, which is clearly one they believe in.
Davids Medienkritik: Bushs Visit to Mainz: A Demonstration of Success: "http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1896936"
The much larger numbers of rentacrowd protesters and Greenpeace activists in Mainz, in contrast, seem to be just going through the motions, these days. Opposition to the spread of democracy, which is how Bush has effectively positioned it, isn't a stance that will change politics in Europe or the US. And Western "oppositionism" - opposition for the sake of opposition - is a mere decadence, made possible by the security and comfort we enjoy in the West.
The plucky pro-Bush demonstrators, on the other hand, showed grit in standing up for an unpopular course, which is clearly one they believe in.
Davids Medienkritik: Bushs Visit to Mainz: A Demonstration of Success: "http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1896936"
Harry Belafonte Savages Rumsfeld
Just as Germany and the US were wrapping up President Bush´s amicable visit, Harry Belafonte weighs in with a personal appeal to arrest and try Donald Rumsfeld for war crimes.
"As you know," he informs the German justice authorities, "I have been working for peace and freedom for a long time."
In light of this, he urges the immediate arrest of Donald Rumsfeld.
Were "Pinochet scams" of this sort to become accepted practice, all diplomatic intercourse between countries would soon grind to a halt, as their jails filled up with tit-for-tat "suspects". Right-minded, left-leaning celebrities like Harry, Bono, Richard Gere and Sting would have a field day, scavenging the globe for fresh victims to persecute with their pompous, self-regarding twaddle.
There is, of course, something highly attractive in this vision of politicians behind bars. Normally, this blog would support any move to cage them all, no matter how self-indulgent or foolish the justification might be. Anything for a laugh at politicians' expense, we say.
But Harry Belafonte has made the mistake of implying that Rumsfeld's arrest would bring peace and freedom to the world. I hate to say it, Harry, but it wouldn't do anything to foster the noble cause of peace - quite the reverse - it would just bring out a rash of tiresome Teutonic schadenfreude, and of course dollops of excellent publicity for whatever is the Belafonte Cause of the Week.
''Gegen Rumsfeld ermitteln!'' - sueddeutsche.de - Ausland
"As you know," he informs the German justice authorities, "I have been working for peace and freedom for a long time."
In light of this, he urges the immediate arrest of Donald Rumsfeld.
Were "Pinochet scams" of this sort to become accepted practice, all diplomatic intercourse between countries would soon grind to a halt, as their jails filled up with tit-for-tat "suspects". Right-minded, left-leaning celebrities like Harry, Bono, Richard Gere and Sting would have a field day, scavenging the globe for fresh victims to persecute with their pompous, self-regarding twaddle.
There is, of course, something highly attractive in this vision of politicians behind bars. Normally, this blog would support any move to cage them all, no matter how self-indulgent or foolish the justification might be. Anything for a laugh at politicians' expense, we say.
But Harry Belafonte has made the mistake of implying that Rumsfeld's arrest would bring peace and freedom to the world. I hate to say it, Harry, but it wouldn't do anything to foster the noble cause of peace - quite the reverse - it would just bring out a rash of tiresome Teutonic schadenfreude, and of course dollops of excellent publicity for whatever is the Belafonte Cause of the Week.
''Gegen Rumsfeld ermitteln!'' - sueddeutsche.de - Ausland
Red Ken Puts Boot In
"Red Ken" Livingstone, the Mayor of London, is a ferocious supporter of Palestinians and a boon companion of radical Islamic clerics. Despite all this, no-one seriously suspected him of anti-semitism. But now he's at the centre of a self-created anti-semitic storm.
Having compared a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard and a German war criminal, he has steadfastly refused to apologise for the offence he knows he has caused.
If this most politically-correct, socially aware of Londoners feels he can insult Jews with impunity, then something pretty fundamental has changed in the UK. And it's more than just voting patterns and Muslim immigration, which help to make Red Ken feel electorally secure.
Israel (with whose "fascist" actions Livingstone associated the journalist) has become an accepted target for open leftist contempt - contempt like Ken´s, of the most carefree, kneejerk sort.
Jerusalem Post Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World
Having compared a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard and a German war criminal, he has steadfastly refused to apologise for the offence he knows he has caused.
If this most politically-correct, socially aware of Londoners feels he can insult Jews with impunity, then something pretty fundamental has changed in the UK. And it's more than just voting patterns and Muslim immigration, which help to make Red Ken feel electorally secure.
Israel (with whose "fascist" actions Livingstone associated the journalist) has become an accepted target for open leftist contempt - contempt like Ken´s, of the most carefree, kneejerk sort.
Jerusalem Post Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World
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