Monday 7 May 2012

du contrat social

Through honeymoon speculation is already enough—from all sides—to dampen the mood, French President-Elect Franรงois Hollande, neither unknown nor unseasoned, is certainly promising to be exciting and surprising. The petty tyrants of business have already passed judgement, and while I genuinely believe that Hollande does not care about the drift of opinion or the promissory notes of campaign, his declaration that the financial system is his true adversary and not antagonists with more conservative beliefs may cause some critics and short-term market-watchers to condemn him as a caricature socialist, I don’t think that this individual is one to dismiss. Hollande is not an anti-business radical, and perhaps with the support of a broad collation domestically and beyond the borders of France, his platform and priorities could restore an essential balance, which in the long-term, as opposed to the daily fluctuations and appraisals that drive so much of the markets and profiteers seeking to skim what’s possible in the short-term, could create a more stable economic environment through personal achievement and initiative—and quality of life should always trump the profits of the few.

Concomitant Sunday voting in Schleswig-Holstein and parliamentary elections in Greece had the common theme of a shift in power and attitude driven by debt and so trepidation that the new regime won't be held responsible for the mistakes of those unseated.  Meanwhile, Russia swore in its once-and-future king.  Economically, Hollande is not only advocating the creation of European credit rating agencies independent of the valuations and biases of the American financial empire, running zero deficits, and introducing a tax-regime is progressive without being disruptive to competition and employment (plus assistance for small business), he is also advocating greater alliances with Germany, pooling the better part of competition and eliminating redundancies. Something necessary that no one else has been bold enough to campaign on too is the segregation of financial institutions, allowing no savings and loan to venture into investments—which propelled the financial crisis in the first place and whose break-up made be able to help undo some of the asceticism (fiscal austerity measures) offered up, like restoring the retirement age and hiring more public-sector workers. His long term relationship with former French presidential hopeful, Sรฉgolรจne Royal, who stared down arch-conservatives back in 2007, suggests that he has more than a bit of fortitude and probably won’t let these pledges be forgotten. Parallel, and with a strong mandate from the voters, his social platform seems innovative and redresses some of the anti-social backwardness that has been institutionalised of late—significantly, bringing about equality in marriage, reforming immigration policy, diversifying energy sources away from nuclear power, and protecting and promoting France’s varied regional languages, like Gallo, Gascon, Picard, Provenรงal, Asatian, Languedoc and Breton, and no longer insisting on monoglot French. Allegiance and accomplishment are not being tossed aside, but I suspect there will be some interesting developments for France and the European Union under new leadership.

ways and means or checks and balances

Immovable opposition to changes and supplementing US domestic policy by members of the Republic, not limited to principles and ideological differences but also even bound by childish and treasonous oaths that supplant duties to the democratic process and law, have resulted in untenable social reforms that came into force as defanged half-measures. Universal healthcare for America, transparency and fairness in lending-practices, jobs revitalization, education initiatives, equitable taxation, promotion of green-industry are all excellent ideas whose time has come, but impatience and impertinence are making social programmes into empty shells of bureaucracy and targets for criticism.
Like some king in exile, however, the prohibition on cooperation and meaningful compromise has created a strange and dangerous inverted arrangement where the only powers afforded to the president are those of foreign missions. Absent a venue to affect change at home, abroad emissaries attempt to terraform the world in a way most sympathetic to American interests, but pressing the adoption of international treaties is not a tool for pressing social reform domestically, and even the most high-minded efforts are being returned as something twisted and unrecognizable and possibly even more dangerous. America does not possess the largess for its ambassadors to move unchecked, and though there is no Republican opposition to Obama in the business of envoys, there are certainly competing interests. There have been the boomerang antics of the internet intellectual property protection, and though attempts for universal application have failed, the shape it took when it finally returned to the States was more opaque and rigid, the president denied even his voice in demanding more protections for privacy be put into place.
The same goes with the proliferation of the US-style security and surveillance mentality, which has become the chief export of this honourary consul. The intent behind Battlefield Earth, expanding the definitions of war and rules of engagement, was for the defense of the Republic and was not meant to be a civic apparatus or a desperate wedge for enacting unpopular or previously rejected legislation, but perhaps when there is no other outlet, the domestic aspects of laws express themselves awkwardly in diplomatic circles. Obama has not turned to ombudsmen to unblock politics, but seemingly frustrated and unheeded in his political backyard, he is being portrayed eagerly as taking on loop-holes (punitive and selective) rather than what he is doing in fact by working in the slow and imperfect framework of creativity, democracy and dialogue.

Thursday 3 May 2012

sanctuary

The diplomatic tensions between the US and China are rising over the yet unclear deportment of a vocal dissident. I am not sure what to think about this. I do not know enough about the situation to be able to penetrate broader judgments that span from unwise meddling to enshrining basic human rights.
 It is exceedingly difficult to assay the situation, especially when all parties are not exactly forthcoming. I was encouraged at first that the US State Department seemed to fake left and then indicate that it might not kowtow to other pressures and more practical considerations. I feel sympathy for this activist and his family and their grander cause, which surely touches a billion souls, but at the same time I have to wonder how it might play out if the situation were reversed. Months ago, there was an international outcry over the detention of a provocative artists and many politicians plied their resources into gaining his freedom, but just as countries resign at the futility of opposing American policy—pointedly demands for the sharing of flight manifests and financial transactions with the US Department of Homeland Security at the risk of being labelled a rogue nation or merely going-along-getting-along through secret deals for very public treaties—that would bring down all the wrath that can be mustered on malingers. How would American react to China railing against the detention of a figure like Bradley Manning, the Wikileaks informant who has been tossed in an oubliette somewhere—much less extracting him with an ambassadorial cavalry? What constitutes an internal-affair, and can the determination be made in the face of hypocrisy?

juicy JUICE

The European Space Agency are committing their resources over the next decade to the development of a billion euro project to explore the Jovian system and its distinct, exotic clutch of satellites. The mission, tentatively called JUICE for JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer, will venture to the giant world and study the large Galilean moons, diverse and stranger yet though the sample of alien worlds is rather limited for humans, to see what secrets might lie just beneath the surfaces of Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto.

ESA will be supporting many other missions and research-projects in the interim, like expanding the International Space Station and diving into the dynamics of the Sun, and this meanwhile is a long time, more than a decade projected out with a travel time of eight years. It is rocket science and while I can only imagine the planning necessary to ensure a successful execution and timing (since with limited propulsion, the launch of space probes requires the coordination and cooperation of the gravity and alignment of the moons and planets for an extra tug and to reduce resistance), exploration at a pace that’s not propelled by threat or competition could become a bigger barrier to public interest than the complexities of the science. It is exciting and maybe the wait will be outpaced, boxed-in by advancing technologies in media res, but it is oddly responsible and mature burden that astronomers take on, like thinking about retirement, and becomes an instant legacy at the moment it is launched—an artefact tunneling through space and time, like the lighthouse beacons from the stars themselves that speak of the escaping past but not of the present or the more classic rides at amusement parks. Like the waltz of the epicycles, I suppose science has its measured pace too and will reveal discoveries and hopeful inspire throughout.

Wednesday 2 May 2012

bookplate special

The always beautiful and superb Bibliodyssey is presenting a collection of vintage bookplatesex libris, from the Latin for “from the books of...” and I thought that this label from the library of one William Livermore Kingman with the humble motto “I am but a Gatherer and Disposer of Other Men's Stuff” was a brilliant, steam-punk mission statement for blogging in general. Most of these examples date from the turn of the last century, and I wonder with such things as detestable electronic water-marks and embedded captioning whether people still create their own personal stamps. I can recall while I was at university going through a phase with woodcutting and pasting my mark in my book collection. Most of the time, the end results amounted to experimenting with different fonts and the playful, pun-motto of my alma mater: Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque or I make free men out of children by means of books and a balance.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

maying

Though the day will not pass without celebration and demonstration and maybe riots, in more than eighty countries around the world, there is no need for a general strike as 1. May is a national holiday. And although the roots of the of many popular movements can be traced back to upheaval and abusive working conditions in America, the International Workers’ Day itself a commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, the US has seemingly for some time been peddling a smear campaign against a workers’ holiday and the striving for social justice that it represents, no to mention the older rites and traditions of the cross-quarter event. With the onset of Cold War polarization, the first of May across the Atlantic became known as “Americanization Day,” after having already established a separate labor day in order to minimize connotations with lurking Communists and Anarchists. Well before the threat of Soviet expansion was considered eliminated, the US dropped this celebration of manifest destiny, by name, in favour of calling it instead—and still to this day—“Loyalty Day.”

gerrymander or mayor mccheese

Perhaps the recent media disclosure that in fact Americans respect their own ideal of German prowess, engineering and discipline (irrespective of what kind of magical or wishful thinking that is) is more like the kiss of death—hitching the tenor and fatalism of American politics to how Germany and the current government carry on to handle an undulating, interest waxing and waning, crisis in the economic sector married to more profound and long-term questions of European identity, peace and cooperation.

The polygamist US is strange in courting another marriage of convenience with a partner that’s very coy and mutable: Germany either, as the hinge for the US election, represents deft leadership and resolve or Germany is the Bรผrgermeister of Euro-Town, the focus of the Red Scare rhetoric that was an early theme in the campaign—that European style governance was not working in Europe and certainly would not work in the States, and strident scolding from the President and monetary policy-setters about how Germany needed to act, not to mention the volleys from the credit rating agencies were landing on all sides. It’s like as if one was playing Battleship and the grid is all red-hits except for a Germany-shaped cut-out. I don’t think Germany wants the responsibility (in the rarified air of the democratic process) of king-maker or empire-wrecker, nor agrees to the dire hysterics of the moment, whether regarded through American eyes as a bulwark of self-control or as a Welfare Queen. Such is the statecraft of blame and deflection. Despite frustration and desperation, no one, from Germany and France, whose smugness may be a media construct, to Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the rest have given up on their native talents and resources. Yanked on stage and ordered to dance, one would think that global financial maneuvering was old-hat for some of the designated trouble-economies. Borders have been re-drawn, crossing-wires or supplanting the signs of the Zodiac with one’s own corporate constellations. Certainly any of these countries have the sophistication, wherewithal and frame to play and win besides, this is not the top draw in Europe. There is also not the delineation of the Free and Imperial City of Detroit, the Principality of California or the Most Serene Republic of the Mississippi for market comparison. Inflated and artificial divisions press the attention of the public to this side show and away from the native resources that America sorely lacks. Instead of trying to affect a cultural and productive remedy, US political antagonists are yoking their prospects to a very cosmopolitan cause that is not Europe’s first priority.