On February 6th, just when I thought it was actually possible to escape the ?German reform debate? for only a couple of days, on the way from the slopes to the fireplace, Gerhard Schroeder hit back through the airwaves. A coalition of campaigning regional party establishment and the inevitable loony lefties had apparently won their war of attrition against the Chancellor. Reforming Germany is not just hard. It is harder.
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Monthly Archives: February 2004
The EU and Zimbabwe
A search for “Zimbabwe” on A Fistful of Euros currently yields:
No pages were found containing “zimbabwe”.
Not for much longer.
See the reports here and here respectively:
The EU is to increase the number of top Zimbabwean officials facing targeted sanctions by the end of February.
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The EU imposed travel sanctions on Mugabe’s regime in February 2002 [owing] to repression and human rights abuses associated with elections and the chaotic land reform programme.
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A scientist describes Saturn’s moon Titan as potentially looking ‘a bit like Sweden’. No comment is available from the Swedes at this time, but Norwegian comedians are reportedly working overtime
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A Guardian Q&A on the working rights citizens of the 10 accession countries will have in the 15 current members of the EU
At least no one can accuse me of being knee-jerk pro-French
My goodness, talking about the headscarf law has brought up some interesting discussion on the blogs. It appears that my mistake was to think that this was ever about improving the lives of Muslim girls. From the responses there is one thing that is clear – this law is about legislating conformity.
For example, from Lilli Marleen:
So who is wetting their pants about what French do in their schools and Germany – hopefully – will do soon after? The girls can go to school, all they have to do is to behave like anyone else.
I’m sure that will make a stirring addition to the EU constitution: You have the right to be just like everyone else, especially if you’re under age. Any failure to take advantage of this right will be punished in the law. It is exactly this sentiment that leads people to think xenophobia towards non-Europeans is a deep seated problem.
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The first jackpot – ?15million – in the EuroMillions lottery was won by someone who bought their ticket in France, the BBC reports
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Kofi Annan will have the power to set the final terms for a referendum on the reunification of Cyprus raising real hopes that the island could be reunified before it joins the EU
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Der Spiegel only seems to have some of the facts about the pretender to the British throne. I have some more information on it here from when the news came out in Britain in January.
Yoghurt scones
Over at normblog, which is where I more usually hang out, there is a character variously known as WotN and Wife of the Norm, and who is known in her own right as Ad?le. With a name like that she could be French but isn’t, and yet I feel it’s admissible to bring her over here to A Fistful of Euros, she being Ad?le, and having a grave accent over the ‘e’ in her name. Getting to the point, now – and not before time – Ad?le noticed a recipe for yoghurt scones linked to on The Daily Bread by Jackie D, and originating with Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini; Clotilde who surely does gain entry to A Fistful of Euros, being as she is, I am told, authentically French; and so she – Ad?le, that is, not Clotilde, not Jackie – made us some of these scones today. And I had two of them, and most excellent they were. I can do no better than to quote Jackie:
[They] are unbelievably light, moist, and airy, with a very slight sweetness.
Not that Jackie had any of the scones Ad?le baked. She did not. But she somehow knew. It’s like with a map, a recipe. Anyway, what Jackie says is what I thought. Nice scones. Try ’em.
Stardust
Yesterday I woke up and opened my front door to find a guy sitting on our garden wall playing a harmonica. Well, not in fact. Was it in a dream, then? No, not that either. It was a thought that just came into my head as I woke up and I lay there contemplating the day ahead. What could it mean?
By the end of the day I knew. I was playing Artie Shaw later and came to his rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Stardust’. That’s as recorded in Hollywood on October 7, 1940, and included on this collection. You only gotta listen to it and you know. According to The Rough Guide to Jazz:
[it’s] arguably… the greatest-ever version of “Stardust”, with Billy Butterfield plus Shaw’s incomparable clarinet chorus.
Greatest ever? Maybe it is. But maybe it also isn’t. Because there’s also the version by Nat King Cole – the one here.
I’m not saying which is the better. Same song but two different ballgames, both brilliant. It would be like trying to compare horses and Saturdays.
And the guy on my garden wall playing the harmonica? You might get to see him sitting on your garden wall if you don’t make time to listen to these two versions of ‘Stardust’.