at the mountain of madness

Der Spiegel reports on the jest and dreams of a reporter that may well be championed as a national cause, a shared-ambition in flat Netherlands. I guess the Dutch have a yearning for a bit of variety in landscape or maybe mountain-envy, as evinced by how they invade Germany and points beyond during every holiday season. This image is a just a mock-up but planning is underway to construct an artificial peak, some 2000 meters high in the Dutch countryside. The article has a terrifically day-dreamy tone and apparently such aspirations have really captured the imaginations of the Netherlands. It certainly seems that they could assay such a feat of engineering, since much of the territory of the country was reclaimed from the sea. A man-made mountain would certainly be a wonder, but maybe not so amenable to travel abroad and the Netherlands' own points of relative high stature.

sancta sedes

 Later in the month, H and I will have an audience with the Pope when Benedikt pays a visit to his native Germany--this time holding Mass in parts of the former East Germany, which he has not done before. I had RSVP’d quite some time ago when I first heard the news and was very excited to get the tickets in the mail. It was not, however, just a confirmation of our invitation but rather like a whole press package for the Pope Benedikt XVI Experience. 

I will have to do some studying on the saints and practice genuflexing so I'm not all off rhythm and get yelled at or remediated by the bishops.  We are not VIPs with a back-stage pass (at least I don't think so), but the lanyards, badges and electronic tickets are pretty neat and I am sure it will be quite a special and singular experience.

gold doubloons and pieces-of-eight

The other day the bank gave me a large denomination, virtually unspendable euro bill. I couldn't do much with this banknote, except carry it around like a mortgaged Monopoly property or a certificate of stock, since stores shun accepting it. It's strange that one of the most valuable pieces of currency is a bit reviled--gas stations and small shops with signs in their windows announcing their refusal before one even asks, and has garnered a bad reputation, along with the €500, as a facilitator of underworld, under-the-table and off-the-books transactions. Apparently, the largest concentration of these bills is in areas where the financial crisis has been perpetuated because, in part, inability to collect on tariffs and taxes and blackmarket trades.  I wonder what the career is like for money out of circulation: is it like that of the monolithic stone wheels of the Island of Yap?  I felt a little like a gangster myself, when in the end I had to take the Euro-Schein back to the bank in exchange for less ostentatious amounts.

statecraft or goodwill ambassador

A faction of the US congress is revisiting the idea of ransoming the UN and guide its outreach and peace-keeping initiatives through leveraging, withholding its contribution to the UN operating budget. Although not a very original idea and all parties have not gone without disputes and disagreements, the language of the threat is desperate and uncouth--and highly selective. The UN is not a world-government but rather a mechanism to ensure that no one's sovereignty infringes on the sovereignty of another, and by begrudging its dues and citing certain activities, paints the organization with some monstrous authority it is not laying claim to. Such a proposal, if it goes any further, could only court retribution and could not end well. It is humiliating enough when there is no spirit of cooperation and compromise and budgets are slashed for the arts, science, social services and stabilization in one's own backyard, and the US embassy should not be exporting that sort of ill-will and discouragement. America's balance of influence is waning, especially when exhausted over something as petty as a pre-election competency-hearing and slander, and may very well need some day the support of such institutions to protect it from itself and narrow-interests.