Tuesday, October 29, 2002
EU row between Blair and Chirac overshadows Convention plans
In the aftermath of the EU summit in Brussels this weekend, the french President Chirac and the english prime minister Blair disagree forcefully on the common agricultural policy (CAP), which should be reduced according to the English and Dutch. Germany and France showed again the strength of the French German axis in EU power play. But Blair is right stating that CAP reform is "inevitable". The axis is also right that CAP money will benefit the newly entering East European countries.
+ Chirac furious after row with Blair
+ Chirac-Blair dispute mars EU convention
Monday, October 28, 2002
European researchers: Planting trees will not stop climate change
Planting trees is not the remedy against climate change, as proposed in the Kyoto protocol.
Are the Americans right after all in not signing the treaty?
+ Tree farms won't halt climate change
+ CARBOEUROPE- A cluster of projects to understand and quantify the carbon balance of Europe
+ Convention on Climate Change
Arts & Letters Daily is back again
Arts & Letters Daily is bought by the Chronicle of Higher Education and is back on air, on the net.
very nice news!
Arts & Letters Daily to Resume Publication After Purchase by The Chronicle
Finland first, Holland fourth and North- Korea last in the first worldwide press freedom index
Reporters Without Borders is publishing the first worldwide press freedom index
The first worldwide index of press freedom has some surprises for Western democracies. The United States ranks below Costa Rica and Italy scores lower than Benin. The five countries with least press freedom are North Korea, China, Burma, Turkmenistan and Bhutan.
press freedom index
EU Convention President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing presents first draft constitution
Today the EU Convention President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing will present the first draft of a European Constitution. One of his proposals is to rename the Union to "United Europe".
It sounds like United States. Will the proposed constitution also create a strong federal state, and will the European countries go along?
The first reaction will be crucial. Will it be positive, or will they burn Valéry Giscard d'Estaing down? Or will they be polite and negative, or something in between, something that is in fact not a real reaction, but evasion into technicalities ... a European political habit, so irritating for its people.
+ EU 'constitution' to be unveiled
+ European Convention
+ Giscard proposes EU citizenship EurActive
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing will chat tonight 28/10
Giscard d'Estaing will have a chat session tonight on the EU Constitution from 20.00 hours till 21.30.
+ The European Convention: time to take stock
Sunday, October 27, 2002
Ilse dreigt nieuwsvoorziening van ANP te verliezen
Emerce meldde vrijdag dat Ilse naar de rechter stapt om te voorkomen dat het ANP haar afsluit van nieuws voor Nu.nl.
Het ANP maakt bezwaar tegen de Newsfeed service die Nu.nl aanbiedt. Zij beschouwt deze service als het illegaal doorleveren van haar producten. Ilse snapt niet waarom het ANP er nu ineens bezwaar tegen maakt, want de service bestaat al meer dan een jaar.
The Amsterdam Post heeft naar aanleiding van dit bericht haar Newsfeed pagina aangepast en de haar tot nu toe onbekende dienst van Nu.nl aan de pagina toegevoegd.
+ Ilse in kort geding tegen ANP
+ The Amsterdam Post Newsfeed
Friday, October 25, 2002
Washington sniper caught
Members of the sniper investigation task force arrested the suspected Washington sniper, John Allen Muhammad, just after 3:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday 24/10/02, near a roadside rest stop in Maryland.
John Allen Muhammad is a former soldier who served in the Gulfwar and a converted Muslim. It is not yet clear if he murdered with a political motive. Though it is likely more than a possibility.
If it is true it shows again that a simple terror plan, well executed, can lead a city to come to a halt. On the other hand it is encouraging that the police has been able to catch the killer relatively quickly.
It is to early for a sigh of relieve. You only have to imagine not one, but a bunch of snipers, working in secret coordinated action.
American Muslim organizations have spoken of their anxiety of a "backlash" against Muslims. They emphasize that this is not the Muslim way.
Instead, they will have to ask themselves why it is that a crazy men like John Allen Muhammad are in the first place attracted to the Muslim faith.
+ Seized gun is sniper murder weapon BBC Online
+ Sniper attacks: a trail of terror CNN
+ Muslims fear sniper arrests could trigger backlash CNN
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
Constitutional batllefield drawn
The debate about the EU constitution is getting heated up.
The British government puts forward a proposal for a "anti"- federal constitution. Giving limited power to Brussels, leaving the main bulk of power to national governments.
Also the European People's Party (EPP) presented a constitution, giving more power to the Commission.
The Germans are sending their heavy weight strategist minister Joschka Fischer to the Convention as delegate. This move will upgrade the status of the Convention. The question is now if more ministers of foreign affairs will join Fischer?
+ Joschka Fischer to represent German government at EU Convention
+ Britain presents anti-federalist EU constitution
+ EU People's Party proposes EU constitution
Monday, October 21, 2002
Peace activist Mient Jan Faber is in favor of embedded US military action
Former Dutch Peace activist Mient Jan Faber is in favor of embedded US military action against Iraq. Faber is general- secretary of the IKV (IKV - Interchurch Peace Council Netherlands). He is a well known peace activist, establishing his name protesting against the deployment of Cruise Missiles in Europe in 1980/82.
He disagrees openly with the Council of Churches. The Council wrote a letter to the Dutch government, asking to rethink military action against Iraq, because the unknown consequences of a major conflict might set the region in flames, according to the Council of Churches.
Faber is in favor of a regime change in Iraq. American military action might be the only way a realistic regime change would be possible. He stresses that efforts to bring about such a change already lasted at least ten years, without any success.
He said he is in regularly contact with Iraqi opposition groups. Their desire is a regime change, even by US military action.
He stresses that a US military action must be taken place with the support of the main regional powers and of the UN security council.
Mient Jan Faber is the first in the peace activist to break ranks and commit himself to the inevitability of war to remove a brutal dictator.
IKV-standpuntbepaling inzake Irak
Sunday, October 20, 2002
Kaplan and Middle East Pagan Power play
Once Europeans were Christians and liked to play chess with the world as the chess board. Outwitting each other in a deadly serious game of force and power.
In our days Europe ceased to be Christian, and at the same time their foreign policy seemed to be based on morals, diplomacy, international law and talk. Because Europeans have changed, they think the world has changed.
In his recent Atlantic article Kaplan paints in rough strikes the future of the middle east after an American power play based on force.
He might be realistic. The remaining question is if it is possible in present day international politics to foresee all the future moves, like a chessmaster does.
Aren't Europeans not idly hoping for the one impossible move that checkmates all enemies? Or does that one move demands the strong hand of force and violence we don't want to be responsible for?
Achieving an altered Iranian foreign policy would be vindication enough for dismantling the regime in Iraq. This would undermine the Iranian-supported Hizbollah, in Lebanon, on Israel's northern border; would remove a strategic missile threat to Israel; and would prod Syria toward moderation. And it would allow for the creation of an informal, non-Arab alliance of the Near Eastern periphery, to include Iran, Israel, Turkey, and Eritrea. The Turks already have a military alliance with Israel. The Eritreans, whose long war with the formerly Marxist Ethiopia has inculcated in them a spirit of monastic isolation from their immediate neighbors, have also been developing strong ties to Israel. Eritrea has a secularized population and offers a strategic location with good port facilities near the Bab el Mandeb Strait. All of this would help to provide a supportive context for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. A problem with the peace plan envisioned by President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in the summer of 2000, was that coming so soon after Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, it was perceived by many Arabs as an act of weakness rather than of strength. That is why Israel must be seen to improve its strategic position before it can again offer such a pullback.
Latest book by Kaplan:
Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos...
A Post-Saddam Scenario
Iraq could become America's primary staging ground in the Middle East. And the greatest beneficial effect could come next door, in Iran
The Atlantic Online
Call Their Bluff By Charles Krauthammer The Washington Post
The State of Nature
Why Europeans don't want a foreign policy Goldberg file National Review
Friday, October 18, 2002
Prodi criticizes Euro stability pact
EU President of the Commission Romano Prodi criticized yesterday in the French newspaper Le Monde the stability pact. The financial markets reacted immediately. The Euro fell in late trading yesterday in New York one dollarcent to 97.20.
In the Le Monde interview (see below) Prodi doubts if the stability pact is a realistic policy instrument to navigate the economic policies of the EU members. One authority that would have the power to decide on budgets and fiscal policy would be able to implement a more intelligent policy, one that is not rigid. The Stability pact is compared a "stupid" kind of policy instrument. But it is the only one that is there at the moment. A single authority with enough power and prestige simply isn't there.
The convention should find a way to make a truly EU political- economic policy possible.
A strong Euro is only possible with the federalisation of the EU fiscal policies.
Parts of the Le Monde interview with Prodi:
Le ministre français de l'économie, Francis Mer, a dit que la politique budgétaire se décidait dans les capitales. Qu'en pensez-vous ?
Avec l'euro, si vous avez des divergences économiques entre les pays, il n'est pas possible de modifier les taux d'intérêt et de dévaluer la monnaie. Dans ce contexte, l'idée d'avoir des politiques économiques différentes est tout à fait folle. Quand vous avez la même monnaie, vous pouvez avoir des taux d'inflation différents pendant un an mais pas pendant trois ou quatre années. Le pacte de stabilité, c'est la façon d'être ensemble dans la même monnaie.
Le pacte de stabilité doit pouvoir évoluer avec la croissance ?
Mais nous avons proposé des flexibilités nouvelles [en reportant de 2004 à 2006 la date de l'équilibre des finances publiques, et en demandant en contrepartie aux Etats de réduire chaque année de 0,5 % du PIB leur déficit structurel]. Il n'est pas possible d'avoir des politiques divergentes. Je suis convaincu que la coordination des politiques économiques sera bientôt voulue par tous les Etats-membres.
Mais le réalisme d'aujourd'hui, c'est le pacte de stabilité. Nous l'avons rendu plus intelligent. Mais s'il n'y a pas de limite de 3 % des déficits publics, on ne pourra éviter les grands dérapages.
Avant l'euro, un pays peu rigoureux subissait une hausse des taux d'intérêt et risquait une dévaluation de sa monnaie. Aujourd'hui, où est le gendarme dans le système ?
C'est la coordination des politiques économiques, c'est le pacte de stabilité. C'est le minimum du minimum. Le pacte de stabilité est imparfait, c'est vrai, parce qu'il faut avoir un outil plus intelligent, et plus de flexibilité, mais vous savez bien que si nous voulons flexibilité et intelligence, il faut avoir l'autorité.
Vous l'avez ?
Non, c'est clair que non, personne n'a l'autorité. C'est le problème.
Les marchés financiers avaient plus d'autorité ?
Oui. Dans l'euro, il n'est pas logique d'avoir la direction sans avoir de guide pour la suivre. On ne peut pas avoir une Europe florissante, forte, en croissance, sans pouvoir ajuster ses décisions selon les moments. Je sais très bien que le pacte de stabilité est stupide, comme toutes les décisions qui sont rigides. Si on veut ajuster celles-ci, il faut avoir l'unanimité, et cela ne marche pas. Il ne suffit pas d'avoir l'intelligence, nous l'avons. Il faut aussi le pouvoir de décider.
+ Commission chief hints that pact is on last legs
+ "La France sera en minorité si elle n'est pas le levain de l'Europe"
"The Quiet American" changed after 911 into "The Unpatriotic American"
According to a New York Times report, the distributors of the Graham Green film adaptation "The Quiet American", starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, are finding major difficulties releasing the film after 911. Some say it is "Unpatriotic".
Miramax executives were among them. Audience reaction was O.K. on Sept. 10, said Harvey Weinstein, the Miramax co-chairman. "What freaked me out after the 10th was the 11th. I showed the film to some people and staff, and they said: 'Are you out of your mind? You can't release this now; it's unpatriotic. America has to be cohesive, and band together.' We were worried that nobody had the stomach for a movie about bad Americans anymore."
It shows clearly that the way we see the past is colored by the needs of the present day and the expected future.
The First comments on the film don't show this preoccupation with present day patriotism. Some are favorable on Caine achievement and sign him up for an Oscar. I can't wait to see it here in Amsterdam.
Films With War Themes Are Victims of Bad Timing NYT
The Quiet American IMDb
Dichters tonen medeleven en bezingen dode Prins
In navolging van de "dichter des Vaderlands" Gerrit Komrij voelden velen zich geroepen de vorige week overleden Prins Claus te bezingen. De dichters site www.epibreren.com verzamelde al het poëtisch werk.
In Memoriam Prins Claus Epibreren.com
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Dutch government resigns, new elections expected in december
The Dutch centre- right government resigns today after an ongoing row between two ministers of the List Pim Fortuyn. The millionaire Heinsbroek and the intellectual Bomhof were unable to give way to one another. The LPF was locked in a power struggle that finally culminated in two LPF ministers who could not trust each other.
Dutch Government collapses BBC Online
Nederlandse justitie luistert graag mee
In de Extra! van september een verhaal over de afluister praktijken van de Nederlandse justitie. De EO kwam ermee op de radio en geen enkele krant nam het over. Dan de Extra! maar. De 'echte' kranten hebben het te druk met het beluisteren van de onzin uit de LPF. Trouwens, het einde van deze club lijkt in zicht, nu het kabinet moedeloos het hoofd buigt voor ongein en egotripperij.
Extra!
Time for a little fun
Wallace and Gromit present new comic film material. The BBC as the scoop.
Wallace and Gromit
Meanwhile, the debate on the war goes on
Philosopher Rorty ads to the nays an eloquent piece defending the democracy of the west against its own leader, Bush.
Fighting Terrorism With Democracy
War preparations everywhere
As the war tension heightens, all sectors are preparing, especially the news media. Stratfor made a special site for its premium subscribers.
Stratfors War Diary
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Arts & Letters Daily stopped after bankruptcy
One of the first Weblogs ever, Arts & Letters Daily has stopped after the bankruptcy of its main sponsor University Business. On the 24th of October the website will be auctioned in New York.
Arts & Letters Daily has been a great source of intelligent, sometimes funny and always informative articles all over the English language space of the web. It is a pity it has to go.
Luckily, the editors move on to another site Philosophy & Literature .
+ Arts & Letters Daily
+ Philosophy & Literature
Wednesday, October 09, 2002
Ten more countries are set to enlarge the European Union
The division of Europe is coming to an end, thirteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The European Union is to incorporate the former communist countries of eastern Europe into its own state like structure. After long negotiations between the candidate countries and the EU Commission, the day has finally come to welcome those countries to become a member of the European political community. In the long run they will contribute considerably to the strength of the Union in economic terms.
If the Union will also be a political force in world affairs is still very doubtful. Even if the Convention will turn up with a good European constitution, it is doubtful if the central powers will adopt it. Centralizing power in Europe has been always very difficult.
The step by step approach of centralizing power in the last half century, since the treaty of Rome in 1956, has alienated the general public from the European project.
The fundamental question is, if the European convention can inspire the peoples of Europe toward more political awareness for the necessity of more political unity. The Convention has to design a state system that balances between centralizing and regionolising, therewith not forgetting the country governments.Will the vague principle of subsidiarity do the magic trick?
+ EU reaches expansion deal
BBC Online
+ EU set to open door to eastern enlargement
EurActive
Sunday, October 06, 2002
PvdA Leiderschapsrace van start
Vandaag is in Den Haag tijdens een PvdA partijbijeenkomst de leiderschaps race bij de Sociaal Democraten van strart gegaan.
Oudgediende Klaas de Vries neemt het op tegen de jonge Wouter Bos.
Deze laatste had de Volkskrant zo gek gekregen een campagne stuk getiteld "Alleen het resultaat telt" af te drukken.
Wouter Bos werd ik voor het eerst gewaar toen hij ineens Staatsecretaris voor belastingzaken werd. Toenmalig premier Kok presenteerde hem zeer trots en had er alle vertrouwen in dat het wel goed zou komen met Bos. Voor Melkert heeft hij veel meer moeite gedaan om het volk ervan te overtuigen dat hij een goede opvolger zou zijn.
Wouter Bos werd eigenlijk probleemloos door de Haagse goegemeente aanvaard. Hij ziet er dan ook veel knuffelbaarder uit. Wellicht is hij daarom zijn campagne begonnen met de slogan "Alleen het resultaat telt". Niet het leuke snoetje maar een verkiezingsoverwinning moet hij behalen. Iets wat niet al te moeilijk is na de afgang van de laatste verkiezingen naar 25 zetels.
Mijn fantasie sloeg vanmiddag na het lezen van zijn stuk op hol.
Bos heeft sterke kaarten en had die al vanaf zijn lancering door Kok als lid van het kabinet. Zou Kok toen al, vroeg ik mijzelf af, bedacht hebben dat hem opvolgen een onmogelijke taak zou zijn. Dat er zeker een groot zetel verlies aan zat te komen, wie erook de lijst aan zou voeren. Bos na hem lanceren zou dan waarschijnlijk al snel de ondergang van het jonge talent betekenen. Er ging Kok een licht op. Maak de verbeten, ambitieuse en niet af te stoppen Melkert lijsttrekken. Vrijwel zeker zal hij falen, waarna Bos de uiteengereten partij weer bijeen kan rapen en in lengte van dagen het moderne gezicht van de partij kan worden.
Maar ach, een scenario, achteraf bedacht, voor een moment in het verleden, maar zou het niet door Kok's brein gezweefd kunnen hebben?
Friday, October 04, 2002
BBC Talks Hard with Tim Sebastian
Last week I discovered on the Amsterdam TV cable the BBC World channel. They must have put it on recently.
It is nice to view the news not only in CNN US style.
Best program until now is Hard Talk with Tim Sebastian. He interrogates his guests like an angry policeman. They do not get away with easy answers.
+ HARDtalk Website
+ BBC World
Havel speech on his goodbye tour as man of politics
A beautifully wise speech by a man made by history or perhaps a little history is made by him.
The warning voices of poets must be carefully listened to and taken very seriously, perhaps even more seriously than the voices of bankers or stock brokers. But at the same time, we cannot expect that the world—in the hands of poets—will suddenly be transformed into a poem.
And now, if you will allow me, I will at last try to gain some distance from myself and attempt to formulate three of my old certainties, or rather my old observations, that my time in the world of high politics has only confirmed:
(1) If humanity is to survive and avoid new catastrophes, then the global political order has to be accompanied by a sincere and mutual respect among the various spheres of civilization, culture, nations, or continents, and by honest efforts on their part to seek and find the values or basic moral imperatives they have in common, and to build them into the foundations of their coexistence in this globally connected world.
(2) Evil must be confronted in its womb and, if there is no other way to do it, then it has to be dealt with by the use of force. If the immensely sophisticated and expensive modern weaponry must be used, let it be used in a way that does not harm civilian populations. If this is not possible, then the billions spent on those weapons will be wasted.
(3) If we examine all the problems facing the world today, be they economic, social, ecological, or general problems of civilization, we will always —whether we want to or not—come up against the problem of whether a course of action is proper or not, or whether, from the long-term planetary point of view, it is responsible. The moral order and its sources, human rights and the sources of people's right to human rights, human responsibility and its origins, human conscience and the penetrating view of that from which nothing can be hidden with a curtain of noble words—these are, in my deepest convictions and in all my experience, the most important political themes of our time.
A Farewell to Politics By Václav Havel
Tuesday, October 01, 2002
The Roaring Nineties
Joseph Stiglitz is rewriting the economic history of the nineties.
The Atlantic
Are Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda Not Allies?
DANIEL BENJAMIN argues in the New York Times that Saddam and bin Laden can not be allies, because Saddam is a secular dictator and he fears the religious Al Qaeda movement.
I doubt this.
First there is the old rule that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend".
Second, Saddam used to be a secular leader, but in recent years he must have turned to Islam, Machiavellian or not. Proof: He used his own blood to make a hand written copy of the Koran. Yes, with his blood. Crazy? Yes, but he showed to a lot of people that he is committed with his life to the holy book. And has bin Laden not the same commitment?
Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda Are Not Allies
By DANIEL BENJAMIN
New York Times
Condoleezza Rice, the genius behind Bush's new security doctrine
Jackson Diehl of The Washington Post published in todays IHT a very nice analysis of the new security doctrine of the US administration.
A lot of Bush critics seem to deny that Blair and Bush are driven by their moral belief in democracy and freedom for all. Sometimes it is only achieved by removing the wicked by force.
Diehl writes:
The ambition is breathtaking: "We will work to translate this moment of influence," declares the doctrine, "into decades of peace, prosperity and liberty." It is, in short, a bold - and mostly brilliant - synthesis that conceivably could cause its author, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, to be remembered as the policymaker who defined a new era.
The problem for Bush, more than for Blair, is that he is associated with oil so much. A lot of people critical of the US suppose that on their actions against Saddam Hussein, the word OIL is written very large.
Rice produces a brilliant synthesis
Steun aan Ayaan Hirsi Ali ook op het Internet
Ayaan Hirsi Ali werd bedreigd met de dood na zich vrijelijk uit te spreken over de slechte situatie van Islam vrouwen. Van vele zijden wordt zij gesteund.
Op het internet is een speciale site ingericht waar men steun kan betuigen en waar publicaties over de affaire bijgehouden worden.
Steun Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Op dit werk is een Creative Commons Licentie van toepassing.