liberal arts or oh the huge manatees

Former foreign correspondent of London’s Financial Times, Robert Cottrell, has been sharing and celebrating his transition, gradually then unabashedly, from a daily producer of copy to a voracious consumer of it, on his website called The Browser. I was delighted to discover such a resource, which is a very discriminating connoisseur of writing worth reading without being fussy, particular about the source or subject. This careful and enthusiastic curating has gone on for some years now, and I hope regularly perusing the recommendations can impart the discipline that I wish matched my curiosity.

wildfire

The spreading discoveries of horse and donkey meat in samples of processed foods in discount supermarkets does not only represent a revolting betrayal and a call for consumers who either seek out the greatest apparent bargains out of thrift or out of necessity to re-evaluate trust and priorities. Shoppers who are not patronizing their local butchers and farmers’ markets, though left with some reliable alternatives at grocery stores, have to wonder what sort of institutionalization in Europe make cheap food no good deals.

It turns out uncovering some substitute, some mystery meat is not very surprising, but represents a definite departure and a dissonance for Europe’s regular reputation for food integrity and insisting on provenance and chain-of-custody. All produce, fruits and vegetables, are clearly marked with their country and farm of origin; eggs are individually numbered and sometimes bear a bar-code; regional specialties are according special rights and no counterfeit could claim the same designation, despite allowable gimmicks and self-promotion. Once food is processed, however, all such labeling becomes voluntary. If not fresh or raw, frozen “beef” or a pre-washed mixed salad in a bag, there was formerly no requirement to disclose the origin of the ingredients, though misrepresentation was something not tolerated, as well. It seems a little bit inconceivable, considering the prominent labeling that one can choice from on cartons of store-bought pizza and other Fertiggeriche, which usually come at a premium, and sometimes one cannot avoid taking a certain risk, when dining out or at a cafeteria (Mensa), but legislation is underway to close this disturbing loop-hole.

across the pond

While the media focus on European economic policies and tax accords from the perspective of the States seems more preoccupied with the potential spillage and knock-on effects of the proposed Tobin Tax, a levy on financial transactions and market trades, the burgeoning talk of a trans-Atlantic Free-Trade-Agreement, urged by both the US administration and European commission president seems an idea comfortably, tantalizingly far away.

Though it is probably true, for both optimists and pessimists, that reaching any kind of meaningful and functional compromise, aligning US and EU standards on safety, quality and transparency, can only be achieved in a receding distant future, displaced by politics and protectionism (by those current players who would be excluded, too), the notion and the will for such an arrangement is not a Fata Morgana that one can never meet. Naïvely, perhaps, but not without hope as there have been plenty of examples of Bridges to Nowhere over trade and tariffs, like the bickering over the aerospace giants or the fact that one cannot purchase a Silver Lady in the States but embassies of genetically modified organisms, untested drugs and wage inequity are equally unwelcomed, the mutual benefits have been articulated, of substantial increases for the gross domestic products of European nations through fewer administrative and process barriers and greater job security for American export industries.
Those sound positive on balance, but I fear that consumer protections will suffer through compromise. Instead of meeting half-way or adopting the more stringent standards of one partner, existing safeguards, like employment rights, food labeling requirements, safety standards and protection for the environment and livestock will be relaxed, diluted in order to meet industry imposed milestones. I hope that this is not the case, because risking health and security is no lubricant for trade, and to prevent these attitudes from prevailing, one cannot take the stance that procrastination and off-putting is acceptable, any more than in the here and now surrendering one’s sovereignty and self-determination to creditors is.

extraterritoriality or bridges and islands

As I was completing some of the bureaucratic tasks to settle into my new job, I found it a little ironic that the special vehicle registration office (Kfz-Zulassungsbehörde) for the Hessian state capital of Wiesbaden was located in a particularly contentious former exclave, the borough of Mainz-Kastel and probably the least allied location for a function peculiar to state authorities.
 I knew that there was a certain patriotic tug-of-war between the state capitals, facing each other on opposite sides of the Rhine, but I did not know about the details or history at first. In Roman times with the founding of the frontier fortifications at Mogonticum (Mainz, Mayence), the empire first crossed the Rhine at this point of land with a bridgehead established at Kastel, with first a wooden bridge in the year 11 BC and then a permanent stone structure in the year 71 AD.
The modern Theodor-Heuss Brücke was built in the same spot. A triumphal arch dedicated to the memory of Roman general Germanicus, who nonetheless was unable to penetrate far into Germany except via a narrow corridor of control hugging the Main and the Danube to just outside of Regensburg (Limes Germanicus, the German limits or frontier), stood here until probably the early Renaissance.

Mainz-Kastel existed as an enclave of the Rhineland-Palatinate (historically, itself a district, an exclave, of the non-contiguous Kingdom of Prussia, et al.) inside the municipality of Wiesbaden (the Grand Duchy of Hessen), with some notable interruptions, until the end of World War II. When mapping out the zones of occupation, and subsequent formation of the new federal states of Germany, the Allied forces decided that the border for the French and the American sectors would be drawn by the river, and it became administratively easier to realign Mainz-Kastel with Hessen. In the end, the historical feuding is mostly in fun, I think, and in keeping with the spirit of Karnival and the Fasching season.