vendredi, 25 juillet 2008

YES WE WANT!

Let’s hope that those who had expressed concerns about Obama Barack's lack of international experience have listened to the Berlin speech of the US presidential candidate. In front of a crowd of some 100,000, Obama did not give in to the temptation of a rock star show, but delivered an almost historical speech drawing a picture of a better, safer and peaceful world for all and re-defining the position of the USA in the world if he wins the elections.

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samedi, 14 juin 2008

IRELAND SAYS “NO” TO PLAN B, BUT DON’T WORRY, WE STILL HAVE PLAN C, PLAN D AND PLAN E

8b02d72fb48a43df049c2fd2c15ffb86.jpgSince the days of Shakespeare, drama is at home in English speaking countries. So it was almost pathetic that the results of the Irish referendum about the Lisbon Treaty were announced on Friday 13th. And Friday 13th might turn out to Elm Street for Euro technocrats. Ireland has rejected the Lisbon Treaty and since the Treaty must be signed by all 27 member states of the EU, it can be considered as clinically dead. Bad news, since the Lisbon Treaty was already “Plan B” for the Treaty for a European Constitution, which had been rejected by the French and the Dutch.

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jeudi, 24 avril 2008

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, STOP THE OLYMPIC FLAME

e4e4e3b976438e341abe5f960473b18c.jpgNow, this is getting really weird. The Olympic flame is crossing the world and everywhere, it needs to be protected from protesters who do not wish to support these Olympic Games in a country which is oppressing Tibet and systematically violating human rights. However, it seems ridiculous when Chinese leaders talk about “a pure sports event” which should not be mixed up with politics. This truly is a great lesson from a country which, for political reasons, has boycotted Olympic Games for 30 years. Remember, China protested against the participation of Taiwan, claiming that Taiwan belonged to China. So, the champion of the political Olympic boycott tells us that all this is not political.

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mardi, 26 février 2008

GERMANY: REGIONAL ELECTIONS IN HAMBURG – THE LEFT IS SCARED TO HELL BY THE LEFT

575ef5f8e74cb548296d6873204a9d63.jpgRegional elections in Germany always have a national significance, since the heads of the regional governments (Länder) sit in the Bundesrat, the second German legislative chamber. This week-end, on of the smallest German Bundesländer, Hamburg, voted and the results are stunning.

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mardi, 12 février 2008

RECEP ERDOGAN POURS OIL IN THE FIRE OF RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS

a877f28d32c0a23265c5dcbe8d0a3080.jpgThe reason for Recep Erdogan’s visit to Germany was sad. During the recent carnival period, a house in Ludwigshafen (south-west of Germany), where Turkish families lived, burnt down and left nine Turkish persons dead. While the Turkish media explained a racist and xenophobe background of this disaster to their readers, German authorities conduct a very transparent investigation allowing Turkish officials to supervise their work. For the time being, the reason for this deadly fire remains unclear.

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mercredi, 16 janvier 2008

L’ALLEMAGNE OU LA TENTATION DES (NOUVEAUX) CAMPS

3af65a639d58205b4fa916148d6aa175.jpgLa violence juvénile bat de son plein en Allemagne. Derniers épisodes en date, un conducteur de tram agressé, à Francfort, par des délinquants mineurs, quatre autres incidents extrêmement violents en seulement deux semaines, à Munich. Dans la plupart des cas, à l'origine des débordements violents, des jeunes issus de l'immigration, sorte de réplique ou presque des échauffourées de banlieues françaises ou anglaises (Brixton).

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dimanche, 06 janvier 2008

LA FRACTION ARMEE ROUGE (RAF) REFAIT SON APPARITION SUR LA SCENE POLITIQUE ET JUDICIAIRE ALLEMANDE

925d074754458ece6aa5b2085b62c011.jpgEn Allemagne, chacun croyait le Deutscher Herbst, terminé depuis les années 1980. Cet «automne allemand» où à la violence de la RAF (Fraction armée rouge) répondait une forme de panique étatique conduisant tout citoyen ou presque à être potentiellement suspecté de terrorisme ou de soutien à ce dernier. Bannis, donc les mauvais temps de la suspicion d’Etat, des détentions abusives et de certaines indélicatesses judiciares ? Sans doute non. La Cour fédérale allemande de justice a en effet annoncé jeudi avoir émis des mandats de détention provisoire contre Brigitte Mohnhaupt, Knut Folkerts et Christian Klar, trois anciens membres du groupe armé d’extrême gauche. Objectif déclaré : éclaircir les circonstances d'un attentat commis 30 ans en arrière et plus particulièrement d’exiger des prévenus d’identifier le tireur sous les balles duquel tomba le procureur général Siegfried Buback, en avril 1977.

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vendredi, 04 janvier 2008

OBAMA OR CLINTON? HUCKABEE!

a08843809611768693798406e7589719.jpgFor many months, the two most asked questions raised in the US presidential elections were „Is America ready for a woman in the White House?“ and „Is America ready for an Afro-American in the White House?“. Somehow, the question of the next president of the USA was reduced to the duel between Obama and Clinton. While Barack Obama outscored his competitors on the Democratic side in Iowa by scoring 38% in this strange Iowa caucus grass-roots democratic process, pushing Hillary Clinton (29%) back to the third place, even behind John Edwards (30%), the presidential race has seen another major surprise in Iowa, the state where the last three primaries gave a very exact idea of the two nominees for the final race. This main surprise is Mike Huckabee, who actually won 17 of the 33 grand voters who will represent Iowa in the final stage of the elections. Huckabee, not very much known to the US public and a former senator of Arkansas, stands for rather conservative, religious values and might be the answer of the American people to the two questions raised at the beginning of the campaign.

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vendredi, 21 décembre 2007

THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE BECOME A REALITY



When last night hundreds of people gathered on the bridge between Frankfurt/Oder (Germany) and Slubice (Poland) and elsewhere along the German-Polish border, they celebrated a historical event: the final opening of the border. As from today, 24 countries belong to what is called the “Schengen space”, which means that citizens from these countries can freely cross borders without a border control. This is a major step towards a united Europe and finally a step towards the European integration of the “new” European countries such as Lithonia, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic or Hungary. Historically spoken, this opening ends the former European format of “West” and “East” to create a new European map. Theoretically, a citizen from, say Tallin in Estonia, can now travel to Algeciras, Spain, without being bothered when crossing the borders.

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lundi, 19 novembre 2007

IRAN AND VENEZUELA DON’T WANT US DOLLAR ANYMORE

f00aaf1a3de76e26e5a87948f62a4f4f.jpgIranian president Mahmud Ahmadinedschad and Venezuelian president Hugo Chavez are not exactly what one would call friends of the United States of America. At the current OPEC conference in Riyad (Saudi-Arabia), the two declared that they are not longer willing to trade “valuable oil against worthless paper”, meaning the weak green buck which is generally blamed for the sky-rocketing prices of the barrel which traded today around 95 dollars the barrel.

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