Monthly Archives: May 2005

Andorre, null point, or…

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Monaco is voting!

We were going to write something inevitably snarky about the Eurovision song contest (Hello from Minsk!) but Manolo’s Shoe Blog has pictures that are worth many, (Three points for Malta!) many, many thousands of words. (Good evening Amsterdam! Hello Kiev! This is the Netherlands calling!)

They’re here (Our twelve points go to … Turkey!)

here (Good evening Rejkyavik!)

and here (Latvia three points!).

Good thing it only happens (Moldova eight points!) once a year.

(Bon soir Bruxelles!)

(Thank you Finland!!)

UPDATE: Greece is the word.

UPDATE 2: Yushchenko presents the award. Even a cheesy show can have a cool moment. Thank goodness he wasn’t wearing an orange tuxedo.

Kosovo’s ‘Glowing Progress’

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In the light of what went on around yesterday’s post, I find the following report incredible:

“Kosovo’s U.N. governor will tell the U.N. Security Council next week the disputed province has made major progress on security and minority rights, in a report that could mark the beginning of the end of the province’s uncertain status.

In the report, seen by Reuters ahead of its presentation in New York on May 27, Kosovo’s U.N. governor Soren Jessen-Petersen, a Danish diplomat, details “significant progress” over the past three months on all eight “benchmarks.”

These are democracy standards set by the West as a condition for opening talks on whether the protectorate ultimately becomes independent, as its 90 percent Albanian majority demands, or remains nominally part of Serbia, as Belgrade insists.

Now either the Independent report about the absence of security of minority rights was false (in which case the article was even more absurd) or – more probably – the UN governor, not having read the Independent’s account of the state of things, is giving the clean bill of health in order to move things on, since the staus quo obviously cannot continue indefinitely.

Perhaps the key is to be found here: “The United States and
European Union want the talks to start in the autumn, to head off any risk of fresh violence from Albanians impatient to close the final chapter in the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia which led to war in Kosovo in 1998-99.”

This may be, and pragmatism does dictate that something should be done, but should we really be fooling ourselves that ‘major progress has been made’ if it in fact hasn’t.

Mounting Tensions in Iraq

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This is becoming more and more preoccupying:

Thousands of Shiites, many waving Islam’s holy book over their heads, protested the U.S. presence in
Iraq on Friday after the detention of several supporters of a radical cleric, while Sunnis shut down places of worship elsewhere in a show of anger over alleged sectarian violence against the minority.

Again, this is crying out for a much longer post.

French Economic Slowdown Puts More Pressure on May 29

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French economic growth slowed more than expected in the first quarter and this is bound to have a negative impact on yesterdays ‘big push’ to win support for the ‘yes’ in the European constitution referendum. Gross domestic product in what is Europe’s third-largest economy grew January -March by only 0.2%. This compares with the October-December period, when it expanded by a revised 0.7%.
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German President Criticises UK ‘Stereotypes’

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After the sorry incident of the Independent ‘racism scare’ yesterday, I really have to say I can sympathise with Germans who are getting tired of being treated as if they were all ‘Hitlers Children’.

“Germany’s federal president Horst K?hler called on the British people on Thursday to drop their “stereotypical” and “negative” views of Germany, in comments that look likely to revive debate on problems in British/German relations”….”Germans have a bigger affinity to Britain than the other way round,” he said. In unusually outspoken comments, he added: “I fear that German stereotypes in Britain are largely negative. Britain should take a more open view of Germany.” He criticised British schools for focusing only on the Nazi period when they taught German history..

Sometime I would write a longer post on all this. I am not sure that all German stereotypes in the UK are as negative as K?hler fears. Unless things have changed a lot recently there was always a tremendous regard for German craftsmanship, and efficiency. In the 70’s and 80’s the German model of social compact was extensively admired: Ralph Dahrendorf was brought in to head the LSE, for example.

This is why I was so jumpy about one commentator confusing the Telegraph with the Independent yesterday. I think maybe there were two schools of attitudes: those more on the right – like the Spectator and the Telegraph, who keep harping on about the nazi past, and those like the guardian, independent, economist, who have certainly all at one time or another been admirers of the ‘social economy’. That was why I was so shocked by the Independent yesterday. But then again there is the anglo-phobia to be found in continental Europe (although this is more likely to be found in France than in Germany). As I said, maybe one day a longer post…

Meantime the IMF’s Rodrigo Rato

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Former government colleague of Jos? Maria Aznar, and now International Monetary Fund managing director, Rodrigo Rato has also been voicing opinions today.

In an interview given to the Spanish magazine Expansion, he says:

A 48-hour limit would push the eurozone in ‘the opposite direction’ from the rest of the world. ‘It is sending the wrong message…. ‘I don’t know what social model they are defending by stopping people doing more’…. ‘There is not an alternative to the US as the engine for growth’

He also reiterated his view that the European Central Bank should be ready to cut interest rates if signs of ‘greater weakness’ emerge. The ECB has ruled out such a reduction.

It seems that outside the ECB there is a growing consensus that we might see a rate cut before year’s end.

Meanwhile the bond markets continue to price in a cut

The 10-year bund yield reached 3.27 percent two days ago, the lowest ever for Germany’s benchmark. Yields, which move inversely to prices, fell amid evidence European economic growth is faltering.

Chavez On Aznar

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I recently posted on Afoe about the frivolous ways in which people tend to throw around the N*Z* word these days. Latest on the list is Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called former Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar a “fascist,” saying Aznar once told him to forget about the poor nations of the world. Chavez recalled late Thursday that Aznar had urged him to get on “the train of the future” and distance himself from Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

Chavez, who met Thursday with Spanish Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jesus Caldera, said he once asked Aznar what he thought of the situation of poor African countries and Haiti. “He told me, ‘Forget about them, those nations missed the train of history. They are condemned to disappear.'” recalled Chavez, saying such ideas remind one of Adolf Hitler. “He is a true fascist. That is the thinking of this gentleman who continues attacking us over there,” said Chavez, who also called Aznar an “imbecile.”

Obviously I am not privy to what Aznar may or may not have said, once upon a time to Chavez. What I do know – despite the fact I have very little respect for Aznar – is that he is no fascist. Neither for that matter is Chavez. Indeed the clip Spanish TV showed of Aznar criticising Chavez publicly was a model of reasonableness.

What is far less clear is what Caldera is doing in Venezuela, and why Zapatero has occupied his time selling arms to Chavez.