The rampant and entrenched fear of euroblivion for the common currency and for Europe's economic and political future relevance seems to me rife with dishonest and expedient bursts of fright. The currency union, many skeptics and hand-wringers argue, was conceived with errors, primarily citing that the push for economic integration without political alignment was too naive.
On the surface, that is a compelling argument but maybe that also smacks a bit of sophistry: Greece and Spain may not have the same tax regime and collecting mechanisms as Germany or France, nor perhaps the exact same philosophy when it comes to maintaining social programs, but I think that peace, cooperation, and willingness to participate in the EU parliament and abide by those rules does suggest a good degree of coming together politically. Differences that are not mutually exclusive, even in the context of the shared euro, and there is no politics or policies incompatible with the whole of the community. And granted financial inequalities glossed over made it possible for some nations to secure more and more cheap credit, but all that virtual money is created in a vacuum, betting on making good on outrageous debts, without the backing of property or manpower hours behind it—on both sides. Now these ledgers threaten a renewed stripping of that varnish, moves to create inequalities artificially and enhance competition. I am sure there was greed all around and not all players had the purest of intentions, but the goal of the EU was not this inversion. The fear that is visited on the economies and governments of Europe is not only a diversion-tactic and is going to spur the change that will safeguard these ideals, but rather help vouchsafe the lenders and usurers who've exhausted the opportunities elsewhere. Responsibility, fairness and stability are not fast-moving commodities.
Monday 2 January 2012
specie
catagories: economic policy, Europe, labour, philosophy
Saturday 31 December 2011
never brought to mind or party likes it's the year 1932
Franรงois the head is certainly ready to party. Daily Mail writer Dominick Sandbrooke presents an interesting, though rather bleak and depressing, article paralleling the political and economic framework of the year to come with that dark period eighty years ago.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ซ๐ท, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐, economic policy, foreign policy, philosophy, revolution
siss boom bah!
Aside from the risk it could pose at such heights to aircraft, apparently the second-stage ignition is unreliable and as likely to fire off the rocket another forty metres horizontally or straight back into the ground. Though such revelry is tolerated only at New Year’s, maybe the practice ought to be expanded, as a way to keep the middle-distance of the sky free of the coming aerial drone race, when corporations and law-enforcement, encouraged by drone-manufacturers, get in on the patrolling, and there are traffic-control drones, meter-maid drones, news reporter drones, ambulance-chasing drones, etc. I hope such patrols don’t come with the new year, but maybe the booms, bangs and bams can chase away those bad portents too. In the meantime, we’ll celebrate and have some fun. Happy New Year! PfRC wรผnscht allen ein besonders frohes neues Jahr und guten Rutsch!
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ฅธ, holidays and observances
Thursday 29 December 2011
like disco lemonade
catagories: ๐ฌ, ๐ถ, ๐ก, holidays and observances
year end fall-in or out with the old
The archivists and historians are tasked with giving a thoughtful and complete recollection of the year’s file, and here are a few events (by no means complete or exhaustive) that I thought were particularly noteworthy, from the vantage point of the calendar:
January – The revolutionary movement that would become known as the "Arab Spring" began in earnest with escalating civil unrest in Tunisia that lead to the abdication of the country’s long-time ruler. The movement grew and more tyrants were toppled—including Egypt and Libya, like the cavalcade of caricatures from Phil Collins' Land of Confusion music-video, making deposits, regional and elsewhere nervous—on either extreme, either charitable or more prone to crack-down on insurrection, and squarely saddling the freedom fighters with the responsibilities of democratic governance.
April – A monstrous storm system battered extensive parts of the US south and mid-west—all as part of the year that seemingly broke the weather, extensive flooding follows. The American military is deployed to the border with Mexico, partially in response to increased incidents of gang violence seeping into the US. NATO forces aid Libyan rebels in overthrowing Qaddhafi, cornering him and supporters to a few strongholds.
May – A team of US Special Forces locate and kill Osama bin Laden in a compound in Pakistan. The US dollar continues to lose value against global currencies as the repercussions of the burst housing market are still being realized. The EU, amid ongoing financial coming-clean and protests against austerity measures from Spain, Greece and Italy, approved a prophylactic bailout loan for Portugal, to staunch the panic. Drought conditions not seen in two decades cause widespread famine throughout Africa. Queen Elizabeth II makes the first official visit of the monarchy to the Republic of Ireland since independence was declared. The latest in a series of predicted raptures did not occur.
June – Tension grows stemming from street protests in the UK, Spain and Greece over proposed economic austerity measures, including cuts in social services and raising the retirement age, meant to balance national budgets. Hundreds of extrasolar planets are being discovered, piquing the imagination and broadening scientific horizons. Unemployment and stagnant business growth continue to haunt the United States, as insults are swapped as aspirants are preparing for the presidential election session.
July – NASA and the US government retire the Space Shuttle programme, hoping that, laissez faire, private industry will close the science chasm that has left Russia and ESA scrambling to service. Norway was visited by a horrific domestic terrorist attack. There were bouts of courage and bravery in this tragedy, which was not perpetrated by the usual suspects, religious radicals that fit the profile of our stereotypes, but rather by a lone individual trying to punctuate his conservative and xenophobic ideas. Europe’s lurching towards more socially conservative platforms became a much discussed topic, in response to the earlier best-seller status of a tract assaulting integration by Thilo Sarrazin, the pronouncement by Angela Merkel herself that "multi-culti" has failed, and the killing spree by a band of neo-nazis that went under the radar and all but unnoticed for months among other emerging trends.
October – The UN announced that the world’s population has just surpassed seven billion people. Credit rating agencies continue their reign of terror, nudging markets this way and that with their verdicts on credit-worthiness. Italian Wikipedia shuts down in response to proposed changes in national copyright and fair-use laws that would severely curtail how the site could operate—prescient of a similar maneuver later in the US to denude the internet. The UK is gently sidling away from EU participation over fear-mongering of German overlordship, and this creep will express itself later with more heated exchanges and a repairing towards nationalism and protectionism.
November – Greece and Italy get new leadership over failed stewardship of their economies. Before resigning, Silvio Berlusconi releases a record album of himself crooning love songs. Thousands of students descend on London, angered over tuition hikes. Other Britons shudder over the first steps in privatization of public health care schemes. Police in New York forcibly clear Occupy Wall Street protesters after months of rallies, but the movement has spread to urban-centres world wide. Doctors and engineers develop a 3-D bone scaffold printer to help patients with broken bones in emergency situations.
catagories: ๐บ๐ธ, ๐, ๐ก, ๐ญ, ๐ฅธ, holidays and observances, Middle East, networking and blogging, revolution, Wikipedia
Wednesday 28 December 2011
orchestra baobab
There are a lot of traditional uses for the plant's seeds and produce, but the fruit apparently has an acquired taste and even local lore has it that the gods were so revolted by the taste that they cursed the tree to grow topsy-turvy, crooked and ratty.
catagories: ๐ต, environment, lifestyle