Tag: European Union

Greece: “Oh, yeah?  What happened to our WWII reparations, Nazi gold thieves?”

Germany: “Fuck you, Greek deceivers, swindlers, beguilers, double-dealers, fraudsters, scammers, dupers, impostors, peculators, embezzlers, cheats.”

Thus, by first gently and graciously grooming one another’s perceived character flaws, without excessively slavish preening, the negotiations can grind directly into the brass tacks.

It’s called finesse.

Original article, by Julie Hyland, via World Socialist Web Site:

A series of strikes are underway in Greece in advance of a planned general strike involving both the public and private sectors on February 24.

Beginning on Tuesday, workers in the finance ministry and customs officials began several days of strike action in protest against the social democratic PASOK government’s imposition of austerity measures.

crossposted from My Left Wing

Earlier this month, the BBC covered a growing debate in the UK on its defense stance, and in particular on its £10b ($16.5b at current FX rates) program to build two aircraft carriers displacing about 70,000 tons … over three times the size of their current “cruiser” carriers, and larger than anything but the ~100,000 ton US behemoths.

The BBC said, with its typical understatement:

But it is not just that. Perhaps more than any weapons except nuclear ones, aircraft carriers tend to be seen as a statement of how a country views its military role in the world. And therein lies a lot of the controversy which seems to surround them.

Bringing back to my mind the question … who exactly are the EU planning to invade?

 

Wasting no time acting upon the Althingi vote, Reuters reports Iceland hands in application to join EU.

“The (Icelandic) ambassador to Sweden has met with the secretary of state and has handed in to him the application of accession to the EU,” said Urdur Gunnarsdottir.

Iceland’s formal application letter (pdf) states, “The Government of Iceland has the honour to present hereby, in conformity with Article 49 of the Treaty of European Union, the application of the Republic of Iceland for membership of the European Union.”

Yesterday, Iceland’s parliament, the Althingi, voted to start membership talks with the European Union. The vote was 33-28 with two members abstaining. ForexTV reported the vote was seen as a victory for Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, “who has been pushing for joining the EU and the adoption of the euro as the recession-hit country’s currency.”

Original article, a series of news reports, via Socialist Worker (UK):

Here’s the subtitle:

Across Europe there is a growing rebellion against attempts to make ordinary people pay for the economic crisis. Socialist Worker reports on the protests that have swept Greece, Italy and Germany in the past week

Some of the worst of humanity, serial bomb blasts in the Indian city of Jaipur, killing 80, injuring 200:

Asia Times Online attempts to analyze the event, including the possibility that this is state-sponsored terrorism used as a type of cheap negotiation tactic.

Straight from the pages of Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper.

Twilight Zone / Cut short By Gideon Levy

Here’s a short excerpt:

And to all Israelis, al-Adam says: “Our neighbors are not the Europeans or the Americans. You are our neighbors and we have to watch out for one another. We’re living here and not hurting anyone. For years I brought up my children to live together [with Israelis], telling them we have to live together, and now they don’t believe me anymore.” The farmer says these things while standing amid the ruins of his land, which he had worked and nurtured for two years, having transformed the rocky ground into fruit orchards and fields of vegetables and grains. But it was short-lived: A few weeks ago, bulldozers dispatched by the Civil Administration showed up and destroyed all of his fields and his neighbors’. There went the grapevines and the young fruit trees – all uprooted. The magnificent terraces al-Adam had built were destroyed along with the wells they had dug. Just a few days before Tu Bishvat, Jewish Arbor Day, Israel showed them just how much regard it really has for trees.

The European Union had provided generous aid to these farmers in Beit Ula as part of an extensive development project covering almost 100 dunams (25 acres). The farmers invested their own money and much toil in the project, but in the end, all it took was a few hours of work by the Civil Administration’s bulldozers – accompanied by foreign workers hired as an auxiliary destructive force for Israel – to trample it into oblivion.

It’s not your average Israel vs. Palestine story and it’s heartbreaking.

Just go read it. You’ll understand.

(hat’tip Cranky Old Bitch)