Katja Gelinsky’s Peculiar America, Pt. 3

Posted on by

It’s time to play the Gelinsky game, in which one of Germany’s leading newspapers confirms prejudices about the United States, not by making things up, of course, but through slanted selection of stories. Here are seven headlines from Wednesday’s news flow in the US. Which two stories were chosen for Thursday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung? (Answer below the fold, and for fairness I’ve excluded stories that would be clearly covered by the other reporter in the bureau.)

1. Mass[achusetts] Bill Requires Health Coverage
2. Theme Park-Like Camp for Cub Scouts Built on Old Disney Site
3. DHS [Department of Homeland Security] Spokesman Is Accused of Soliciting Teen Online
4. Hurricane Forecast: Calmer Than ’05
5. Majority of 32 Wisconsin Towns Vote for Iraq Pullout
6. CDC: Kids, men are fatter; women’s obesity peaking
7. Rivers Near Cresting Threaten Minn[esota] Town
Continue reading →

Flexicurity – a working model for Europe?

Posted on by

Before moving in to the nitty-gritty of flexicurity; what it is and whether it can work as a universal European labour market model I should take the time to thank the AFOE team for allowing me a spell as a guest-writer here at the blog in the coming two weeks. In terms of presentation my name is Claus Vistesen and I am a Danish student at the BLC program at Copenhagen Business School. For further info I invite you to visit my personal blog Alpha.Sources, which deals with a wide range of topics of my interest.

There is a lot of talk and flurry at the moment about labour market reforms in Europe, notably in France, but also Germany has been struggling with how to reform the labour market and here as well as here.

Looking to the north we find the Nordic countries who seemingly have the best of two worlds; low uemployment coupled with a high degree of security but what is it exactly that the Nordic countries are doing, and could others potentially follow their example?
Continue reading →

The idealism of neocons

Posted on by

Sadly, No!: What’s The Phrase I’m Looking For?

The real concern to neocons is that the democracy in question is pro- or anti-American (or -Israel). And whatever new excuse they come up with to finesse their latest instance of double standard-bearing with regard to democracies, it will rest on the same nationalist underpinning as the Kirkpatrick Doctrine, disguised with a new false distinction (maybe the new “authoritarian vs totalitarian dictatorships” will be “liberal vs. illiberal democracies”).

One thing is certain: what is guaranteed to continue is neoconservative war-mongering.

Although in the days of detente neoconservatives often attacked Henry Kissinger (and always from the Right; he was never quite bloodthirsty enough for them, which is all you really need to know), they greatly resemble him in basic morality. The essential difference between neoconservatism and Kissingerian realism is not due to some high-minded idealism of the former, but rather due to neoconservatism’s greater love of aggression and its gift for manufacturing intellectual veneer. If Kissingerian realism can be described as pragmatically amoral, neoconservatism can be defined as aggressively immoral[.]

Changing Colors

Posted on by

The CDU in Baden-Wuerttemberg is conducting negotiations with the Greens in that state to decide if the two parties should form a coalition government. If they do, it will be the first “black-green” coalition at the state level, and another sign of fluidity in Germany’s post-reunification party politics.

Update: Maybe next time. The CDU and FDP will, according to reports today, continue the coalition that has run the southwest for the last 10 years. Germany changes slowly.
Continue reading →

How not to govern

Posted on by

European Tribune – How not to govern

But what is certain is that these decisions make a mockery of our institutions. It undermines the rule of law (“ignore the laws we pass”), it shows that thos government is such a lameduck that legitimacy for negotiations must come from the outside (the UMPparty), it turns the prime minister (for being sidelined for a junior minister) and the president (for being unable to get rid of his reckless prime minister) into objects of ridicule, and it shows, if ever proof was ever needed, that the interests of France are the last thing on these people’s minds, who are focused only on their personal prospects at the next election, still a year away.

Take Me Out

Posted on by

Once upon a time, before it became the Paris edition of the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune published its late sports editor Dick Roraback’s ode to baseball’s opening day each year.

Under the fold, “The Crack of the Bat.”

(The fifth stanza is current again, after reflecting a bygone age for more than three decades. The Buc and the Nat refer to the Pittsburgh Pirates [buccaneers] and the Washington Nationals. In 1971, major league baseball left Washington, not returning until last season when the relocated Montreal Expos became the new Nationals. The fields in the stanza, Forbes and Griffith, are long gone. Forbes’ replacement is also gone, and Griffith’s replacement’s replacement is moving from drawing board to construction site this year.)
Continue reading →

Dutch (in)tolerance

Posted on by

Dutch shocklog Retecool has posted an entry containing a link to an episode of the BBC’s Hard Talk in which Stephen Sackur is grilling Dutch right-wing MP Geert Wilders, founder of Group Wilders and the new Party of Freedom.

You can watch the episode by clicking here (RealPlayer, 23 minutes). Before you click, please read what’s below the fold first.
Continue reading →

Greatness, Andante

Posted on by

Two years ago, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung began publishing a series of 50 great novels from the 20th century. It’s a good list, and I’ve been slowly reading my way through it. Emphasis on slowly. The newspaper never planned on keeping the editions in print indefinitely, and indeed, the smartly designed and inexpensive (EUR 4.90!) hardbacks are officially out of print. (The series’ original home page is now 404, just to add to the indignity.) The Sueddeutsche has followed up with series of popular music (mostly mediocre because of rights issues), children’s books (inviting, but not yet inviting enough for me to actually buy one) and now mysteries (a genre I tend not to read much of).

I’ve been writing capsule reviews periodically as I make my way — shortest to longest as a general rule — through the list. It’s been a while since the last installment, so here goes.
Continue reading →