Author Archives: Doug Merrill

About Doug Merrill

Freelance journalist based in Tbilisi, following stints in Atlanta, Budapest, Munich, Warsaw and Washington. Worked for a German think tank, discovered it was incompatible with repaying US student loans. Spent two years in financial markets. Bicycled from Vilnius to Tallinn. Climbed highest mountains in two Alpine countries (the easy ones, though). American center-left, with strong yellow dog tendencies. Arrived in the Caucasus two weeks before its latest war.

Night. Dogs. Not Barking.

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It’s still not certain who will lead the government in Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. Neither the Social Democrat-Green coalition nor the Christian Democrat-Free Democrat coalition won a majority of seats in the election this past Sunday, and talks on all manner of variants are continuing.

What’s certain is that the far-right NPD — which had attracted international attention with electoral gains in the state of Saxony, with a demonstrative desertion of the legislative chambers when the Saxon government commemorated the liberation of Auschwitz, and with backing a protest in Dresden on the anniversary of the city’s destruction in a firebomb raid — is nowhere to be seen. Not present in the legislature. Not playing any role whatsoever in the state.

Watch for a similar non-event after elections in North Rhine-Westfalia, Germany’s most populous state, on May 22 of this year.

Ray Bradbury

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Through a series of stupidities, when I moved from Washington to Germany, I lost a fair number of books. Several hundred, I think, but it’s a little too sad to count them up. There was, and still may be, a list I made when packing.

An indulgent winter evening’s thought is which one I would most like to have now. It changes, of course, with time, but the one I would most like to lay my hands on is one that I never read.
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Sticking Up for Old Nazis

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File this one under “What are they thinking?”

The German newspaper whose web site really could be better organized reports today that the Foreign Ministry’s internal magazine no longer publishes obituaries for diplomats who, during their lifetime, were members of the Nazi party.

I’m not sure why this is controversial, but apparently the FAZ thinks it is front-page news. (Links are not practical, but search for “Fischers Gedenkpraxis.)
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A Note …

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Upon Reading the First Ninth of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle

It is a Frolick, a Cornucopia of interesting things, a narrative of the discovery of the calculus, scientific feuds, dissection, Religious Dissent, changing fashions in art, the return of comedy to the English stage, computation, coinage, banking and much, much more. One of the Leading Characters, Daniel Waterhous, is a bit of a Forrest Gump of history, accidentally giving New York its name here, helping the young Benjamin Franklin there, keeping Isaac Newton alive as an undergrad, and so forth.

It’s not particularly a Novel, certainly not all that interested in character and personality. As a friend of mine once remarked about Patrick O’Brian, history drives the plot, rather than artistic concerns. This makes it appear a bit haphazard at times, and Stephenson is also prone to winks at the audience (there is a demo of a computer) that strike me as forced.

More interesting, however, is the Argument of the Work: That the Baroque period is the birth of modern Europe. The Wars of Religion have given way to dynastic and territorial concerns. Alchemy is fading, outshone by Natural Philosophy. Paper money is on its way in, along with joint stock companies and global markets. England’s Glorious Revolution (a Dutch invasion) will put paid to Divine Right, at least in that part of the continent, completing Cromwell’s work. Christendom is being replaced by Europe.

In politics, the Argument is not bad. By convention, the Peace of Westfalia is the beginning of the modern state system, particularly the notions of sovereignty and non-interference. (These are eroding today, but that’s another story entirely.) While that’s a bit before the story begins, the period that Stephenson is writing about is the time when the system comes together. We’ll see how the Argument holds up over the next 2700 pages.
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The Torygraph Comes Through, or

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The Return of the ?berpimp?

In things German, I usually check the Daily Telegraph several times before believing what they write, much less quoting them. But this story falls into a particular category, known in journalistic jargon as “too good to check.” (Thanks, Atrios.)

Update: I think this is fiction, or at the very least “sexed up.” That hasn’t stopped the discussion from spreading. See notes at the end of the posting.
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Not Perfect But Good

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The debate on the constitution is getting feisty. It’s clear that, at least among our readers, the constitutional treaty has fervent detractors.

Over to Mr Hamilton

The establishment of a Constitution, in time of profound peace, by the voluntary ocnsent of a whole people, is a PRODIGY, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety. I can reconcile it to no rules of prudence to let go the hold we now have, in so arduous an enterprise, upon seven out of the thirteen States, and after having passed over so considerable a part of the ground, to recommence the course. I dread the more the consequences of new attempts, because I know that POWERFUL INDIVIDUALS, in this and in other States, are enemies to a general national government in every possible shape.

So let us put one question on the table. If not this constitution, then what?

Can the current structure accommodate 25 members? What about 28 in three years’ time? And 33 or more over the next decade? Would another convention produce better results? Why? Or should the EU be scrapped altogether? Would this not have negative consequences?

Keeping Tabs on the Constitution

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The Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP) has put up a page detailing the steps on the way to ratification for the European constitution. Green, yellow and red lights mark the status in each country, and the chart can be viewed by country name or by ratification date. Unfortunately, the page is only available in a German version. (Full disclosure: I used to work at the CAP and still count a number of their projects as clients. But don’t think that means I will be able to persuade them to put up an English version.)

Fortunately, the Commission has done something roughly similar. Its page features an interactive map along with the expected list. The CAP’s commentary is more interesting, as might be expected. The Commission has also posted a version in French.

One of the CAP’s experts told me last week that the only significant problem for the constitution is the UK. Sentiments in France appear to be moving in favor of ratification. The other big and medium countries are also expected to have relatively easy paths toward ratification. And as for the smaller ones, well, it’s not like Malta would be truly missed if it opted to leave the Union.

But the UK is another matter. Not only politically and economically significant for the EU, but also home to one of the few fundamental debates about the Union. Normally this is a handicap, but in this case it will air essential issues in a way that probably hasn’t been done since the UK originally voted to join. This will probably be a real roller coaster ride.

Pink, Orange, Banana

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Neglected to note this at the time.

BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT PROMISES NO REVOLUTIONS. Alyaksandr Lukashenka said while attending an Orthodox Christmas service in the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Minsk on 7 January that there will be no revolutions in the country, Belapan reported on 8 January, quoting the presidential press service. Lukashenka’s assertion reportedly came in response to a letter from Orthodox clergy who called on him to preserve peace and stability in Belarus. “They draw my attention to what has happened in Ukraine,” Lukashenka said. “I want to assure you that our country, the generations that live in our state, have exhausted the limit of wars and revolutions. I ask you to remember this and not to return to this subject. There will be no pink, orange, or banana revolutions in Belarus.”

From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

I’m told that orange is an awfully, and perhaps dangerously, fashionable color in dreary Minsk this winter. No word yet on whether there has been an upsurge in people giving roses. (And absolutely no truth to the rumor that the film “Ray” has been banned because of the prominent role played by the song “Georgia on My Mind.”)

Next presidential election expected in 2006. More on how you can help as we become aware of it.

Orange Shadows

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How some of the siloviki went over to Yushchenko and, in their account, helped prevent a crackdown in Kiev on or around November. One of the reasons the orange revolution didn’t end in blood red.

Difficult to check, of course, and naturally the services want to ingratiate themselves with the new regime, but consistent in its outlines with what we were hearing at the time, too.

While wet snow fell on the rally in Independence Square, an undercover colonel from the Security Service of Ukraine, or S.B.U., moved among the protesters’ tents. He represented the successor agency to the K.G.B., but his mission, he said, was not against the protesters. It was to thwart the mobilizing troops. He warned opposition leaders that a crackdown was afoot.

Simultaneously, senior intelligence officials were madly working their secure telephones, in one instance cooperating with an army general to persuade the Interior Ministry to turn back.

The officials issued warnings, saying that using force against peaceful rallies was illegal and could lead to prosecution and that if ministry troops came to Kiev, the army and security services would defend civilians, said an opposition leader who witnessed some of the exchanges and Oleksander Galaka, head of the military’s intelligence service, the G.U.R., who made some of the calls.

Read the whole story before it disappears into pay-per-view.