Comment du jour

More pictures of the Parisian Manifs...

















The French Communist Party (PCF) is naturally a player in the protests.

















Here a demonstrator with a Sarko mask marches in the 5th disrict.

Comment du Jour

French Lessons







The French are used to a pleasant lifestyle, cushioned by beaucoup benefits, and why not? But this lifestyle comes at a high economic price and is now challenged by the rising cost of the entitlements and naturally whose going to be taxed pay for them?

So when the center-right government of Nicolas Sarkozy dared to do the necessary;
namely raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, the Citizens took to the barricades or at least to marching on the boulevards of Paris and other French cities in protest. General strikes have gripped France over retirement.

Just imagine having to work an extra two years? Inhuman! Millions have taken to the streets in Manifestations, Manifs, to protest the harshness of enduring the 35 hour work week an additional two years. .

Entitlements form part of a near sacred pact between the people and the French State. Woe to any government who tries to tinker with or even timidly change any of these benefits. Chirac tried years ago and backed off. Now facing massive government deficits and the millstone of entitlement spending, Sarkozy has tried to tackle the unsustainable elements of the social-welfare state.

The Manifs, while huge, mostly have been in good nature; with the exception of some provoked violence in suburbs and Lyon. Public sector unions have been joined by oil refinery workers to literally try to shut down France. To a degree they have succeeded.

Schoolchildren some as young as 12 years old are marching on the streets frightfully worried about at what age they will have to retire!! Get real, it’s called a day off from school, nice Autumn weather, and the chance to relive the days 1968 (sic).

While most of the marchers are decent people who have been frightened by the impending budget cuts, many are manipulated by the Socialist Party and a blizzard of hard-left organizations. The foreign media is deliberately blind to the predominance of the CGT unions as a leading force behind many of the protests. CGT was the traditional communist union confederation until the 1990’s. The CGT is well organized, hyper-motivated, and focused at stopping Sarkozy’s reforms.

It’s simplistic to assume these protests and problems are something “over there” and a symptom of Gallic grouchiness. Indeed there are many French lessons for America to learn as well

Comment du Jour

Germany, Portugal Win Security Council Seats




United Nations—In a surprising if not totally unexpected development, both Germany and Portugal won two-year stints on the UN Security Council. In the General Assembly’s annual election for the five non-permanent positions on the Council, three countries were vying for two seats—Canada, Germany, and Portugal.

Given its long standing reputation as a “global good guy” for foreign aid and multilateral development, Canada was a clear favorite for one slot, despite some yammering on the sidelines about Ottawa cutting some assistance and being too close to Washington.

Equally Germany one of the world’s largest humanitarian donors and third largest contributor to the UN budget seemed to have an inside track. Add the consistent and focused lobbying by the German Mission to the UN to explain Berlin’s position, and it appeared that the two winners would be Canada and Germany.

Portugal, a small Iberian country with a shaky socialist economy and far less political clout to being to the table looked to be a loser. Yet again many UN delegations are more “comfortable” with little Portugal. But despair not. Manuel Barosso, current EU chief and former Portuguese Prime Minister, was going to play hardball and not let Lisbon’s chance fall by the wayside. Portugal last did a two year stint on the Council in the late 1990’s.

Then came the ballot. The full 192 member General Assembly was voting and a candidate needed two-thirds support to win. Germany won in the first ballot—not surprising. Then the game got interesting. The second vote saw Portugal and Canada face-off—and Canada then graciously step aside to allow Portugal to win the seat which she did with 150 votes.

So the winners are Germany and Portugal for Europe, replacing Austria and Turkey. Other regional seats were unopposed with South Africa running and winning the African seat (see what a successful World Cup can do?), Colombia getting South America, and India the Asian seat.

Here’s what few have noticed. Come 2011 the fifteen member Security Council will reflect the BRIC combinations so many economists are enchanted with. Namely Brazil, Russia, India and China are now among the members, along with other permanent players such as France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Comment du Jour

Some Common Sense at UN Debate....




United Nations—In the midst of a fractious and sometimes near farcical General Assembly debate, there a have been surprisingly candid and common sense comments from the marble rostrum of the United Nations. Though the perennial political, economic, security and humanitarian themes have characterized discussions, all seemingly packaged in a predictable and set-piece presentation, some speakers added new and interesting angles to the discussions.

As in the past, Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus brought a wealth of common sense to the Assembly. Addressing the global economic crisis, Klaus left the near universal script by stating, that many countries wrongly assume that the current crisis “was a failure of markets and that the right way out of it is more regulation of markets. This is a mistaken assumption.”

Klaus a respected economist by training advised, “It is not possible to prevent any future crisis by implementing substantial , market damaging macroeconomic and regulatory government interventions as is the case now. It is only possible to destroy markets and together with them the chances for economic growth and prosperity in both developed and developing countries.”

He stated with conviction, “The solution doesn’t lie in more bureaucracy, either in creating new governmental and supranational agencies, or in aiming at global governance of the world economy.” His remarks hold as much resonance and reason in the UN as they have for the USA where an overbearing federal government in Washington has its fingers in every enterprise and its hands on the scales of commerce.

Opposing some calls for economic protectionism, Klaus stressed, “Developing countries should not be prevented from economic growth. They need access to foreign markets and they need free trade.” Certainly the poorer countries can prosper by global growth as a rising tide lifts all boats.

He also warned that the UN itself “should not haven an all-encompassing agenda. It should not turn away from political topics and towards ‘scientific’ ones. The UN is not here to determine what science is but to engage its member states in a rational, reasoned debate about political issues.” In a clear slap at the “global warming” crowd which has now evolved into the “climate change” lobby, President Klaus stated clearly, “the most harmful political debate we have been witnessing in the last couple of years is about climate and global warming.”

In comments which surprised many onlookers President Klaus asserted, “The UN’s role is not to push for global governance and to play the central role in it. The UN exists primarily to enhance friendly relations among its members and to look for solutions to problems which can’t be confined to national boundaries.”

Comment du Jour

20th Anniversary of German Unity

1990-2010


On October 3rd, 1990, Germany was re-unified in peace and freedom.

The long shadow of the divide, symbolized by the Berlin Wall, but frozen in the Cold War between West and East, suddenly disappeared. The government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl quite unexpectedly would play political midwife to unity between the communist "German Democratic Republic" in the East and the free Federal Republic in the West.

Of the international players, the United States played perhaps the key role in the transition from a divided Germany into a re-united one. "I'm deeply convinced that there was a very limited window of opportunity," German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth said recently in Washington,"And I must give credit to President George H.W. Bush because he was the first international leader who saw that this was a unique opportunity. (...) When we had to overcome serious obstacles, it was the US which came to our aid."

Let's face it. The Soviets who occupied the GDR and served as its political protector, did not wish to see a United Germany, period. The United Kingdom was decidedly nervous. So was France to a lesser degree. Each of these countries, including the USA were among the post WWII occupation powers.

But he fall of the Berlin Wall the year before, he collapse of communism in the GDR and most of Middle Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary) opened the floodgates of freedom. Germany would have it too.

But's let's not forget that just a few years earlier when President Ronald Reagan spoke in Berlin and called on the Soviet leader "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this Wall," most people laughed across the political classes in Europe. But Reagan was right and a few years later he was proven so.


In November 1989 when the Joshua Trumpet sounded and the Wall in Berlin came tumbling down, German Unification came a step closer. The aspiration, some would say the impossible dream, of German Unity in peace and freedom became a reality.

Thank You Ronald Reagan and Helmut Kohl!

Comment du Jour

Georgia on My Mind...

United Nations—Two years after an invasion, the threat of annihilation and partial occupation by neighboring Russia, the small but spunky Georgian Republic has not only survived but thrived and succeeded against all odds. That was the upbeat assessment of Georgia’s once-embattled President Mikheil Saakashvili in an impressive and stirring address before the UN General Assembly.

“Today, Georgia is back,” Saakashvili extolled in the sonorous Assembly hall; “Georgia is back, first as a laboratory for political reform and social transformation. More than ever we are committed to the promise at the heart of the Rose Revolution, to turn a failed state into a modern European one.”

The 2008 Summer War between Russia and Georgia thrust the small land into world headlines. International support both by the Bush Administration to safeguard Georgia’s fragile sovereignty and from French President Nicolas Sarkozy who brokered a ceasefire before the situation totally spun out of the control, were equally crucial in the nervous days of August.


“A New Iron Curtain” illegally divides our country,” he conceded, before imploring to assembled delegates, “It is noticeable that despite enormous pressure and multiple threats from Moscow, not a single former soviet republic has recognized this dismemberment of Georgia. it shows that the former captive nations of the Soviet times became strong independent states that can determine their own policies.”


Strategically situated on the crossroads of Europe and Asia and historically shadowed by competing power interests, (Russia, Turkey, Iran) and courted by the USA, Georgia wishes to firmly anchor its social and political future to the West. In its bid to become an active player in Europe and join NATO in the future, Georgia has dispatched almost 1,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to serve in the multinational mission. This ancient Christian nation, with the St. George Cross on its national flag, aspires to join the European Union and NATO.

Georgia’s president called on the international community to stay committed and secure peace not only in Georgia but the entire unstable Caucasian region. But most importantly, President Mikheil Saakashvili implored, “I personally want Russia as a partner and not as an enemy.” This aspiration may remain his biggest challenge.

Comment du Jour

Iran Leader Breaks Bizarre "Sound Barrier" in UN Speech

United Nations--

In a bizarre and rambling rant before the sonorous UN General Assembly afternoon session, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad broke the political sound barrier by raising a number of crackpot conspiracy theories concerning the September 11, 2001 attacks on America.

In what can only be described as a new level of political pornography from the Iranian leader, Ahmadinejad suggested the theory “that some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order to save the Zionist regime.” He added “The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view.”

Speaking before a hall that was perhaps only two-thirds full at the onset, Ahmadinejad’s comments then triggered an immediate walkout by over thirty delegations from the Assembly hall; the USA, Britain, Canada, most Europeans, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Costa Rica. Delegations from Venezuela and Angola, in clear view of your correspondent, stayed put.

In a speech mixing religiosity, radicalism and rant, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran equally predicted variously the “demise of capitalism,” described nuclear energy as a “cheap and heavenly gift,” and extolled “Nuclear energy for all, Nuclear weapons for none.” He stressed Iran remains ready for a dialogue on nuclear issues.

Ahmadinejad’s speech of 35 minutes was followed by tepid and restrained applause.