tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47726287162917010572024-03-13T11:58:08.393-07:00Ze Liberty RoninUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-79298600451022954952011-11-03T22:35:00.000-07:002011-11-04T04:20:14.503-07:00Guy Sorman sur la tragédie grecque<span style="color:#3333ff;"><a href="http://gsorman.typepad.com/guy_sorman/2011/11/les-hell%C3%A8nes-sont-tomb%C3%A9s-sur-la-t%C3%AAte.html">Les hellènes sont tombés sur la tête</a> </span><span style="color:#000000;">et <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2011/eon1004gs.html">Greek mythology</a>. </span><br />.<br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671013418236063170" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMQvNos2jXV5dHQkzIFWsfR1iQajJVaISArY5MKZcJXhm4u3KP-TlK0ykFJXdOEr7pRytrWYKgQEcn4e0PoUogkr1-ZVMEO1R7v68IVwKNfjj_yM7OG0Ij1PG5sdaqx1aMy-zsGR9p3c/s320/milliards.jpg" /><br /><br />Angela, do you have 110 billions to give him? What don't you give him instead of waging war.<br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-50911873655236674782011-11-03T22:22:00.000-07:002011-11-04T04:30:00.657-07:00Quand la Chine l'aidera... L'Europe s'en repentira<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG-ek9VKVQ6pRyTYou6SUd009OfslZbqu6E9ew1_4sKy1zvLUViG2aRd3rc3fGWUTo6l3o917bi2kvJemieeQTETxAge4tAb20kq8O42eKHI-elj8JdZQUwd-L6hQXyhBLP4oARyTMcgo/s1600/Euro-chinois-150x115.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 115px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671012976029311522" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG-ek9VKVQ6pRyTYou6SUd009OfslZbqu6E9ew1_4sKy1zvLUViG2aRd3rc3fGWUTo6l3o917bi2kvJemieeQTETxAge4tAb20kq8O42eKHI-elj8JdZQUwd-L6hQXyhBLP4oARyTMcgo/s320/Euro-chinois-150x115.jpg" /></a> <br /><div>Publié sur <a href="http://www.unmondelibre.org/Quintin_Adali_UE_FESF_011112">Un Monde Libre</a>, <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=cometh-the-hour-to-occupy-brussels-2011-11-02">Hürriyet Daily News</a> (in ze langue of Shakespeare) et <a href="http://www.contrepoints.org/2011/11/03/53734-quand-la-chine-l%e2%80%99aidera-l%e2%80%99europe-s%e2%80%99en-repentira">Contre Points</a>. </div><br /><div>.<br />Le battage médiatique a consacré le sommet européen de la semaine dernière, comme beaucoup avant lui, de réunion de la « dernière chance ». Pour sortir de ce vortex de dette souveraine auto-infligée, l'élite européenne imbue de théorie keynésienne, insiste sur le fait que nous devons engager davantage de dette et devons avoir un plan de grande taille. Est-ce la solution? Le mécanisme de sauvetage proposé (FESF) n’est pas seulement antidémocratique, comme les Grecs vont nous le rappeler par référendum après le revirement de Papandréou. Il est fondé sur le soutien financier du Parti communiste chinois. Si c’est cela la route vers l'intégration, nous ferions bien d’occuper Bruxelles dès maintenant!<br />.<br />Le dernier plan a été vendu comme le « triomphe de la politique sur les marchés ». Ajoutant sa voix au concert en faveur de toujours davantage d’intervention publique, l'influent philosophe constructiviste Jürgen Habermas professe que « L'UE ne peut s'affirmer contre la spéculation financière que si elle obtient les compétences politiques de guidage » (Le Monde, 25/10/2011). (1) Eh bien, « guidage » dans le monde réel s’est toujours traduit par la centralisation de la prise de décision et moins de liberté. L'UE réelle envisage maintenant d'entrer dans la centralisation.<br />.<br />Le mécanisme de renflouement à effet de levier va accumuler plus de compétences pour faire face à la dette souveraine et pour faire la « police » derrière les gouvernements dépensiers. En d'autres termes, les technocrates seront habilités à passer les budgets en revue avant leur soumission aux parlements élus des pays de la zone. Comme certains observateurs le soulignent avec justesse, les parlements nationaux ne contrôleront plus les fonctions les plus essentielles du gouvernement : les décisions en matière de fiscalité et de dépenses publiques. (2) </div><br /><div>.</div><br /><div>Combiné à un gouvernement économique centralisé sous le « guidage » du président non-élu de l'UE pour relancer les économies en stagnation, le plan de sauvetage jugé nécessaire pour enrayer la crise de la dette, retire aux Etats membres et à leurs citoyens un élément central de leur souveraineté (Point 26.4 de l’accord). La politique sans souveraineté peut-elle marcher ? Elle a échoué en Union soviétique.<br />.<br />Les tenants de la centralisation (l’intégration) pointent du doigt le mauvais travail des gouvernements des PIGS en matière de finances publiques comme la justification impérieuse d'une action centralisée. On choisit encore une fois le chemin de davantage de pouvoirs supranationaux, malgré les échecs patents du processus d’intégration « toujours plus étroite », afin de promouvoir une croissance soutenue. Au lendemain du sommet certains prédisaient que le mécanisme ne fera pas long feu . Pour le professeur Pascal Salin, tenant de l'école autrichienne d’économie, le FESF n'est pas la solution parce qu'il récompense la mauvaise gestion et le renforcement de l'intervention du gouvernement. Un tel système, soutient-il, ne fait que créer plus d'instabilité et doit être combattu. (3)<br />.<br />Ironie de l'Histoire, l'UE a envoyé son envoyé spécial « ès-sauvetage » à Pékin pour demander (quémander?) à la Chine d’investir dans ses obligations « de stabilité » : une étape hautement symbolique. (4) Jadis, la CEE se tenait fière, indépendante, libre et prospère face au le bloc communiste « non libre ». Aujourd’hui l’expérimentation social-démocrate en perdition a besoin d'aide des mandarins communistes chinois qui ont appris une chose ou deux du « monde libre ». L’investissement ne sera accordé que s’il est sage et profitable, et non au nom de toute notion floue de solidarité redistributive socialiste à l'échelle mondiale.<br />.<br />En 2011, l'UE est sur le point d’effectuer le grand bond en… arrière dans le monde connu de l’antilibéral et de l’antidémocratique. Si le soutien de la Chine se matérialisait, cela serait avec de nombreuses conditions et scellerait de facto l'entrée du Parti communiste dans le système émergent post-démocratique de la gouvernance européenne. L'ironie, mais jusqu’à quel point ?</div><br /><div>.</div><br /><div>Le président Mao doit joyeusement se retourner dans sa tombe. Un ancien camarade, le président Barroso, se tenait à l’apex de l'Euro-Léviathan et annonçait fièrement que « dans ces moments les plus difficiles [ou intéressants ?], nous pouvons nous unir ». En effet. Mais l'unité sans la liberté économique est le certificat de décès d'une Union Européenne libre et démocratique.<br />.<br />Mais qui sait ? On nous avait annoncé que nos dirigeants avaient mis fin à la crise, que le monde avait été sauvé par cet accord de la dernière heure. Pourtant, l'intrigue de l'UE se complique avec la possibilité désormais donnée au peuple grec (par le premier Ministre grec) de faire entendre sa voix lors d’un référendum. Espérons que la mort lente de la démocratie européenne sera stoppée là où tout a commencé, à Athènes.<br />.<br />(1) <a title="http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2011/10/25/rendons-l-europe-plus-democratique_1593497_3232.html#ens_id="" href="http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2011/10/25/rendons-l-europe-plus-dem...">http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2011/10/25/rendons-l-europe-plus-dem...</a><br />(2) <a title="http://unmondelibre.org/Video_Salin_UE_271011" href="http://unmondelibre.org/Video_Salin_UE_271011">http://unmondelibre.org/Video_Salin_UE_271011</a><br />(3) <a title="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8857533/This-was-the-week-that-European-democracy-died.html" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8857533/This-was-the-...">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8857533/This-was-the-...</a><br />(4) <a title="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8857165/Eurozone-rescue-fund-tries-to-tempt-China-with-bonds-issued-in-yuan.html" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8857165/Eurozone-rescue-fund-tries-to-tempt-China-with-bonds-issued-in-yuan.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8857165/Eurozone-rescue-fund-tries-to-tempt-China-with-bonds-issued-in-yuan.html</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-38486516704364557192011-10-20T00:11:00.000-07:002011-10-20T00:45:08.339-07:00La Fayette, héros des deux mondes<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYJ1nNlQBNNmgF5gmqbIQIdXTv4vPKKB_wb0sE5rpITQxQygUsLAl12oDqJ0qGqdkAoFSpkXtNmpu-okbKtErKKbMWBeqdk6cMhMuJlY-VsYKouChqgmjrCcszJDJb-QfivAkImFhX2w4/s1600/lafayette-218x300.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 218px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5665470916421732546" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYJ1nNlQBNNmgF5gmqbIQIdXTv4vPKKB_wb0sE5rpITQxQygUsLAl12oDqJ0qGqdkAoFSpkXtNmpu-okbKtErKKbMWBeqdk6cMhMuJlY-VsYKouChqgmjrCcszJDJb-QfivAkImFhX2w4/s320/lafayette-218x300.jpg" /></a> On se plaint parfois du fait que la France manque de grands symboles historiques ou de figures emblématiques capables d’unir les Français par delà leurs divisions. Pourtant dans l’histoire moderne, il y a un homme qui transcende les partis et les querelles idéologiques et cet homme, c’est le marquis de La Fayette.<br /><br /><div><br /><div>Lire la suite de l'aticle de Damien Theiller sur <a href="http://www.contrepoints.org/2011/10/20/51399-la-fayette-heros-des-deux-mondes">ContrePoints.org</a>. Ou encore celui de Jacques Le Guenin pour en savoir plus sur <a href="http://www.contrepoints.org/2011/08/27/42385-la-fayette-inlassable-champion-de-la-liberte">La Fayette, inlassable champion de la liberté</a>.</div><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOtUfiCPu-NrYiRvbfDZETT1Y2O218-wnBjxPclFZ7vKu3BAmnP_5Yh28-VCoDsNbW7gGh-FIm1_oP08RFpxonje2HweKdSa7O8zVsq2XRWS0X80W7PiWBvAI7ZMODqvX179huCo2OtZo/s1600/hermione.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5665476962466842546" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOtUfiCPu-NrYiRvbfDZETT1Y2O218-wnBjxPclFZ7vKu3BAmnP_5Yh28-VCoDsNbW7gGh-FIm1_oP08RFpxonje2HweKdSa7O8zVsq2XRWS0X80W7PiWBvAI7ZMODqvX179huCo2OtZo/s320/hermione.jpg" /></a>Ou encore en anglais ce post de <a href="http://zelibertyronin.blogspot.com/2009/07/lhermione-liberty-frigate.html">ze liberty ronin</a> sur la réplique de la frégate Hermione en construction à La Rochelle.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-85620111326720752792011-09-25T05:55:00.000-07:002011-11-03T22:21:07.332-07:00Some trivial questions on European pursuits<div align="left">Published in <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=some-trivial-questions-about-european-pursuits-2011-10-23">Hürriyet Daily News</a></div><br /><div align="left">.<img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 259px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663622851525285618" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvICQ4CQclh9GZHR-zNpxlemx_OoOKq7lQbqPepdgHn76rAmnpuhVQWv9bHJt-kQvVniQuAS0UeWHv_8_-hyKFGvg5pHm7YnOVf7YC7mZy5oGovXPAJkha3ApQzcKaIWeGOZAOYf8WeWk/s320/Crise-Euro-Nicolas-Sarkozy-Angela-Merkel-1024x830.jpg" /></div><br /><br /><div align="center">Angela, m'fraid we are stuck again. By Réné le Honzec (<a href="http://www.contrepoints.org/2011/09/10/45132-crise-de-leuro">Contre Points.org</a>)</div><br /><div align="left">.</div><br /><div align="left">Once upon a time there was much ado about Eurobarometers, especially when the results of the European Commission’s opinion polls would indicate trends of Euro-love (pro-integration). These were the "BC" days (Before Crisis). Not surprisingly with the current Euro-mess and growing Euro-wrath, no-one in Brussels is keen to “take the temperature” of disgruntled publics…<br />.<br />To fill the silence and provide some comic relief, here is a quiz. Find out how much you can laugh about Europe’s predicament. If this totally predicted mess was not so tragic it would be funny.<br />.<br />Q – If you disagree about the bailouts what can you do?<br />a) Blame the “Anglo-Saxon in Chief” Cameron for doing nothing.<br />b) Pray that the disenchanted German electorate will be heard. No-one else is.<br />c) Get together with many millions of taxpayers to waste time with the citizens’ initiative.<br />d) Watch Euronews to be reassured that all is well in the “ever-closer, fairer and greener” Europe.<br />.<br />Q- When will the democratic deficit be resolved?<br />a) Forget it. Euro-apparatchiks enjoy being disconnected from the citizenry.<br />b) When subsidized pigs fly.<br />c) “More democratic and transparent” is something Russian politicians must be.<br />d) Happiness is to be a travelling MEP working for the nomadic European Parliament.<br />.<br />Q- What caused the sovereign debt crisis?<br />a) Mother earth because capitalism upset her.<br />b) Irresponsible politicians for sustaining the unsustainable welfare state.<br />c) Perfidious rating agencies because they exposed the truth.<br />d) Global warming.<br />.<br />Q- Do you think that Europe is a “force for good” influencing the world with soft power?<br />a) Possibly. Napoleon invaded Egypt to free its people from autocratic rule.<br />b) Yes. France and Britain are using air power to bring freedom to the Libyans.<br />c) Absolutely. According to Euronews.<br />d) Not really. Its protectionist barriers are hard to penetrate.<br />.<br />Q- When Council President Van Rompuy addressed the UN General Assembly in a historic (first) speech he repeated some key points twice. Why?<br />a) To increase his charisma after being called a bank clerk without any.<br />b) He is an unelected unaccountable president who can say what the hell he wants.<br />c) The peoples of Europe never get it.<br />d) As the president of the presidents, he should emphasize the state of the dis-union.<br />.<br />Q- Turkey cannot become a member of the EU because:<br />a) It meets the Maastricht criteria.<br />b) It has a liberal economy growing at the rate of 10%.<br />c) Turkish MEPs would outdo others in Brussels' Byzantine corridors of power.<br />d) Sarkozy wants Communist China to buy Greek debt.<br />.<br />Q- Should the EU have a Robin Hood tax?<br />a) Yes. Tax everything. Sodas, financial transactions, fat, CO2 emission, love…<br />b) No. Robin Hood was Anglo-Saxon.<br />c) Bad idea. Europe’s financial sector will lose out to Asia.<br />d) Not sure. It looks green on the outside but is probably red inside.<br />.<br />Q- Do you approve of the IMF policies towards Europe.<br />a) Yes. Somebody needs to teach Greek politicians basic maths.<br />b) No. The French are turning the institution into a global Ministère des Finances.<br />c) Bad idea. The institution is located in Anglo-Saxonia.<br />d) Not sure. Liberalizing its economy could be detrimental to the lobbying sector.<br />.<br />Q- Should the blowing up of party balloons by children be regulated?<br />a) Yes. A directive on this critical issue is long overdue.<br />b) No. As long as they blow up balloons with the EU flag.<br />c) Not sure. Eurocrats may have more important things to do these days.<br />d) Don’t care.<br />.<br />Q- EU institutions should have more powers because:<br />a) Europe has more than 400 cheeses.<br />b) Barroso is a Maoist revolutionary who thinks he is the €uropean Ch€ Gu€vara.<br />c) Its civil servants have three months of paid holidays.<br />d) It is an empire. Get over it!</div><br /><br /><div align="left"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-81623996627635365692011-06-25T08:27:00.000-07:002011-06-25T08:33:59.982-07:00Why the Arab world should embrace economic liberalismEarly last year, European politicians were assuring the public that Greece would not require a bailout. One year on, the same cure is seemingly to be prescribed to the sickest man of Europe. For its southern neighborhood, the union is also mulling the same medicine: more aid. While the political uprisings continue to unravel, the economic revolutions must be urgently prepared and pursued. In the Caucasus, Georgia has implemented some of the most radical libertarian-inspired reforms. A few lessons could be learned.<br />.<br />Faced with a paradigmatic shift in the Arab world, the European Union must now translate its lofty promise of “solidarity to the peoples” into action. A review of its Neighbourhood Policy is currently taking place but the joint declaration on the “Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean” provides some clues. The new relation is to be based on the principle of “more for more.” The idea is that in return for more democracy and reforms, states receive more money. If the new external aid euro-buzz sounds like conditionality reloaded, it is because it is.<br />.<br /><em>The EU principle of ‘more of the same’.</em><br />.<br />Momentous times warrant momentous thinking. Unfortunately, whether dealing with internal or external problems, the European leadership is hopelessly stuck in a path dependency of “more of the same.” To most ordinary people it is counterintuitive to address a problem by adding to it. Not to our politicians who cure sovereign debt with more debt, solve failed bailouts with more bailouts.<br />.<br />For the past 50 years, development policies have followed the same pattern. An estimated $500 billion of international aid has been disbursed in Africa to little effect for the prosperity or freedom of its peoples. Budgets for North Africa and the Middle East have consistently increased without the cycle of poverty and oppression being broken. With more money on offer, there is little incentive for local politicians to think beyond the “foreign aid-ism” box. Old development habits die hard.<br />.<br /><em>Alleviating the broke European man burden.</em><br /><br />Paraphrasing Professor Easterly, the time may have come for Europe to rid itself of its “white man burden” of “feel good” but mostly ineffective and counterproductive development assistance.<br />.<br />As policy expert Nicu Popescu notes, the ongoing review should prompt a wider debate. The option of less aid should be explored. Why are countries like the BRIC busy shopping for expensive European technology still receiving public money? Does it make sense for bankrupt countries to help others by incurring more debt? The United Kingdom took the radical step to cut its own international development budget to many emerging economies. Development has gone on for the simple reason that aid is not a determinant factor.<br />.<br />The idea of cutting aid is not new. However, it is controversial in equal measure to international bureaucracies and aid-dependent local state apparatus. Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo has been a vocal advocate of no aid at all in “Dead aid: why aid is not working and why there is a better way for Africa” (2009). To European development luminaries, her radical thinking and proven free-market solutions are pure heresy. Oblivious to the failure of their “softer” often opaque and mostly ineffective top-down approach, “more of the same” is what they continue to advise.<br />.<br /><em>Radical libertarian reforms work.</em><br />.<br />Yet a shock therapy of deregulation, liberalization and rule of law is precisely the medicine the Arab world must urgently take to meet the aspirations of a jobless disgruntled youth. For the economist Guy Sorman, it is imperative for the region to move away from statist economies to free market societies based on property rights, the right to entrepreneurship and competition. Only with this second revolution – not more aid – will the hope of millions to be lifted out of mass poverty will materialize (The City, “Egypt’s unborn revolution,” 18/02/2001).<br />.<br />Looking east, not north could inspire reformist-minded Arab leaders to be bold.<br />.<br />In her first book “Why Georgia has succeeded” (2011), Russian economist Larisa Burakova maps the course of the country’s economic revolution. Under the stewardship of Kakha Bendukidze (Minister for Reform coordination, 2004-2008), Georgia has transited from a statist economy stifled by a corrupt state bureaucracy and red tape into one of the most successful post-Soviet economies. The spectacular increase in economic freedoms (12th in 2011 World Bank, “doing business index”) has generated economic growth (6.4 percent, 2011) and more prosperity. A few years only after the 2003 Rose Revolution, this feat is truly remarkable. The author argues that this success bears testimony to the idea that radical liberal economic reforms, if well handled, can work anywhere.<br />.<br />There is no such thing as an ideal or painless transition model but only fools can ignore what works and what doesn’t. European leaders would be well advised to take a few lessons in “Bendunomics.”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-34623728576176651252011-04-08T02:37:00.000-07:002011-04-30T22:24:53.239-07:00Earth hour: for Japan and progress keep your lights onArticle published in <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=earth-hour-for-japan-and-progress-keep-your-lights-on-2011-03-16"><span style="color:#cc0000;">Hurriyet Daily News</span> </a>(TR) and <a href="http://www.unmondelibre.org/Quintin-Adali_Earth_Hour_250311">Un Monde Libre </a>(FR).<br /><br /><br /><p>Japan’s struggle with the aftermath of a natural disaster has created an odious kind of green chain reaction. The priesthood of the cult of “Mother Earth” (Gaia) is back with a vengeance and scaremongering tactics. The “avatar-esque” personification of the planet in the article by Mr. Semih İdiz (March 14, 2011) is evidence of this phenomenon. Apparently, "Mother Earth demands respect.” This incantation is directed at us, the blighted human-consumers who buy cars, use electric coffee machines and want to keep warm in the freezing winters as we live out our global-warming doomsday scenario.</p><br /><p>That a healthy debate should arise on the safety of nuclear power, disaster preparedness and alternative energy sources is right. But that the disaster afflicting Japan be used by some politicians and journalists to connect the embattled thesis of global warming reloaded as “climate change” with geological events and their nuclear aftermaths is disgraceful. To claim that humans are not heeding “warnings” and have therefore brought upon themselves the destructive powers of a “merciless mother nature” is grotesque.</p><br /><p>Judging by the flurry of commentaries by the bien pensant intellectual and political class, James Lovelock's controversial “theory of Gaia” which posits that the Earth is a “single living organism” (and Man a "disease" killing the planet) is alive and well outside the “deep ecology” movement. Never mind that many scientists view it as little more than a neo-pagan new age religion, even the Brussels bureaucracy is seizing the moment to preach its simplistic “green truth” by making a spurious connection between climate change and the Japan earthquake. On March 11, the European Economic and Social Council published on its website an official statement that concluded, “Mother Nature has again given us a sign.” </p><br /><p>The skeptical climate-change blogger Vincent Benard nails the argument in a damning post (Objectif Liberte, March 12, 2011): “How dare they [Ils ont ose] link the earthquake to climate change!” He asks inter alia the inconvenient question of why it has not even occurred to European Economic and Social Committee Staff that this disaster demonstrates a simple truth. Billions of public funds are being thrown in the pursuit of the anti-carbon chimera, in turn diverting limited financial resources from the search for solutions to the very real problems populations are confronted by.</p><br /><p>“Surely coal thermal plants ought to no longer be seen as an unreasonable option notably in seismic areas even with their CO2 emissions?” Benard ponders. That would be rational, but sadly with global warming rationality and science have fallen prey to politicization and “cultishness.”</p><br /><br /><p>So how can the highly paid president of a consultative body – arguably one the most useless institutions of the ever-growing Euro-bureaucracy – cross the Rubicon to enter the realm of green cultishness? Well, to put it simply, it is all about “believing and belonging,” about being seen as a friend of the "good guys," the earthly “Navi” people of Planet Brussels, namely the tribe of green lobbyists.</p><br /><br /><p>Of course, the European Union is not quite like the utopian planet of Pandora. So aside from “communing with mother nature,” the neo-Navis are kept busy by green greed. The friends of Gaia have many friends in the Brussels bureaucracy. As the International Policy Network study “the Friends of the EU" (March 2010) revealed, green advocacy groups like Friends of the Earth, Birdlife or WWF (the so-called big 8 or 10) receive plenty of funds to lobby for more funds and provide environmental expertise to the commission. It is a self-serving circle. Nothing, not even the debt crisis, appears to be able to slow the EU green-spending spree. If anything the Japan crisis should trigger a new euro-funding wave.</p><br /><br /><p>Nuclear power is not risk free but the fact is also that political ecology is having a profound impact on global governance and policy-making in Europe in particular, whether we like it or not. As the above-mentioned report concludes, “sponsoring the narrow interests of such NGOs undermined the democratic process.” No matter, European politicians have embraced the green dogma with gusto. None more so than Nicolas Sarkozy. One should be grateful for the timely Arab uprising because France was prepared to help Gadhafi’s regime “go green" with "cleaner" energy (read: construction of a nuclear plant). It is also time for the French government to face some tough and necessary questions over its all-out nuclear policy at home (80 percent of electricity production).</p><br /><br /><p>A democratic debate is vital but it must be based on reason, not cultishness. In the meantime, implying that the victims of a natural disaster in one of the most technologically advanced countries are in some way “paying for their sins of progress and materialism” is pure nonsense. It is also unbecoming while shattered communities are battling to cope, displaced families trying to piece together their lives and grieving the death of their loved ones. </p><br /><br /><p>On March 26, the modern day followers of Gaia will also demand with renewed fervor that darkness be celebrated by having us switch off our lights to join in their absurd ritualistic global communion against progress: the Earth Hour. I will keep my lights on in memory of those who perished, out of respect for the extraordinary courage and dignity of the Japanese people in the face of a national disaster, for their contribution to human progress with cars, technology and a unique culture.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-39100515269841760812011-02-13T03:49:00.000-08:002011-02-13T04:06:02.562-08:00Tunisia uprising: "ethical Europe" has no clothes.Article published in Turkish newspaper, <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=tunisia-uprising-ethical-europe-has-no-clothes-2011-02-01">Hurriyet Daily News</a> and <a href="http://www.unmondelibre.org/Quintin-Adali_UE_Tunisie_080211">Un Monde Libre</a>.<br />.<br />The moral standing of the European Union in its Mediterranean neighborhood is taking a serious blow. Events in Tunisia – and now Egypt – have caught its leadership by surprise. The overthrow by a popular uprising of a corrupt and authoritarian leader supported for years by European leaders showed that “ethical Europe” has no clothes. The moment is opportune for a liberated Tunisia to reset its relationship with the EU.<br />.<br />To those who believe in freedom and democracy, the revolution unfolding in Tunisia has been heart-warming news. How it was received in Brussels is anybody’s guess. Suddenly, the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime, the “example for the region,” the “important and reliable partner of Europe” – to quote Stefan Fule, the Czech commissioner for enlargement and neighborhood policy – was being challenged. “Jasmine” revolutionaries were pouring onto Tunisian – but also European streets – to demand freedom and democracy.<br /><br /><strong>The shambles of conditionality.</strong><br /><br />The bloc must face up to the fact that until the revolution, its policies in Tunisia had hardly been the “force for good” bureaucrats like to trumpet about. Rather, as human rights activists have often stated, they had helped maintain the status quo. Brussels' decision last year to pursue “advanced status” talks even emboldened the regime to suppress dissent further. Direct contacts between local NGOs and European institutions were criminalized. European leaders' “business as usual” attitude with the man most Tunisians called a “dictator” made a mockery of EU human rights rhetoric and conditionality.<br />.<br />Development aid and trade agreements are theoretically conditional to the fulfillment of “political and economic conditions.” So-called “conditionality clauses” are included in all agreements with third parties. But why bother? Studies have shown that conditionality is irrelevant in both countries that with existing strong democratic constituencies and in autocratically-ruled states. Be it in Tunisia or in Egypt – or for that matter in Europe – most politicians have only paid lip-service to it. For oppressed peoples of the continent, it has been a bad joke.<br /><br /><strong>Illiberal EU and France.</strong><br />.<br />If the response of the “Lisbon-ized” EU was meek – a knee-jerk reaction of aid for elections – the initial silence of Paris was deafening. For days after the popular uprising, the French executive remained embarrassingly mute. In the National Assembly, Foreign Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie was asked to account for the incoherence of the government's foreign policy in Africa. How could the country ask for the respect of democracy in Ivory Coast while simultaneously supporting the dictatorship of President Ben Ali. Indeed that is the question, and also the answer why the EU could never really have any coherence of its own.<br />.<br />When it comes to EU-Africa relations, the common foreign policy is more often than not “steered” behind Brussels’ “closed doors” by former colonial powers. Powerful administrations with privileged contacts with local politicians ensure the continuation of their prevalent role in policy-making. With enlargement to 27 states, decision-making has become overly complicated and its tell-tale of the lowest common denominator seems to have sunk lower. On sensitive topics, tension quickly flares. In the case of Tunisia, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables revealed the deep division between member states. While Germany and the United Kingdom favored a tougher approach, other key states (France) were reluctant to criticize the regime. But in the end, no pressure was applied.<br />.<br /><strong>Appeasement does not foster stability.</strong><br />.<br />Since Sept. 11, 2001, keeping political stability in the region has been the linchpin of Europe’s security policy, whatever the cost to democratization. In the light of recent dramatic developments, it is clear that its “soft” engagement with “model autocrats” has failed. Rethinking relations with its southern neighborhood is urgent.<br />.<br />For France that will not be easy. Emmanuel Martin, a researcher at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, argues that the root of the problem is deep. Behind the discourse of “de rigueur” liberty and fraternity, the French political class has remained highly suspicious of individual liberties and profoundly anti-liberal. “La Françafrique,” a mafia-like system of economic and political cooperation based on state monopolies, economic dirigisme and statism, has fed on this reality. The promise made by Nicolas Sarkozy that the country would be on the side of the peoples of Africa has yet to be fulfilled. Last September, the French ambassador to Senegal resigned in protest.<br />.<br />Europe and Tunisia are bonded together by history and geography and need each other. But right now, Tunisians could do without hot “eurocratic” air. The foreign policy chief's declaration affirming the “solidarity of the EU with the Tunisian people” was just that. Unfortunately, with a protectionist union struggling with a democratic deficit, a disunited foreign policy, institutional turf wars, economic recession and an unresolved debt crisis, change anyone can believe in is misguided hope.<br />.<br />Tunisians have now the opportunity to take ownership of their country’s political and economic reforms. Hard times lie ahead but, “yes, they can” walk the bumpy democratization road with their heads held high. We, the freer peoples of Europe, can be thankful for the lesson in courage and dignity given.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-72123373264226773032011-01-05T08:12:00.000-08:002011-02-13T03:49:29.090-08:00The bEUROcratic Leviathan risingArticle published in French on <a href="http://www.unmondelibre.org/Quintin-Adali_UE_141012">Un Monde Libre.org</a> and in the University of Portsmouth student newspaper, Pugwash News, anniversary issue No 50.<br />.<br />During the recent Bielarussian presidential elections, the EU flag was flown as a symbol of freedom and democracy. In Europe, it is being burnt by angry demonstrators. With the sovereign debt crisis gathering pace on the bloc's periphery, austerity measures of payfreeze and other cuts starting to bite, EU civil servants and politicians enjoyed a very festive season indeed. Our supranational ruling class fêted on a bonanza of payrises and bonuses. What austerity at the centre of the “empire” as Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso referred to the EU... In the “promised Euroland” some have truly become “more equal than others”.<br />.<br />The EU often complains that it is “unjustly” accused of being out of touch. Recent decisions can only reinforce the perception that the euro-elite is now in orbit. The Supreme Parliament of our post-democratic polity awarded itself a nice little Xmas present. In 2011, MEPs will pocket around €100,000 of tax free expenses (pay hike and perks). While promising more accountability and transparency to the Euro-toiling masses, they will not be required to provide any proof of expenditure! "Doublespeak" à la EU....<br />.<br />More disconcerting news from the “fairy kingdom of Luxembourg where the European Court of Justice rules supreme without a ‘supremacy’ clause’” as American scholar E. Stein famously remarked. The judiciary annulled the Council decision curtailing the 3.7% pay-rise of EU civil servants. From a legal standpoint, the Court merely applied EU law. Struggling taxpayers across Europe will have to pay. 46,000 civil servants (including ECJ judges) are poised to receive their frozen pay-rise plus interests pending new rules. A Happy New year to them!<br />.<br />We, citizens of Europe, are all equal but some are more equal than others. In the subsidized farm that the EU has become, one cannot help but think that the “pigs” are living in Brussels. Shocked by the Orwellian metaphor? Think again.<br />.<br />At the centre of the EU empire, the neo-gosplanners are planning for more 10-year-plans (the 2020 Agenda) unable to review their failing integrationist momentum course. To save the Euro, the bloc nudges towards the establishment of a centralized economic government and to carry out this impossible mission, an economic governance Czar, Council president Herman Van Rompuy, is to be anointed. In the meantime, anger is pouring onto the streets and the governments of the PIGS are fighting for their political survival.<br />.<br />In the late 1980s, the political vision of the single currency driven by Jacques Delors, a socialist now acting as a “wise man” of integration, prevailed. It is worth recalling that the final endorsement of the Delors Report by the member states took place against a background of extraordinary events: the fall of Communism. The quantum leap of integration (1991 Maastricht Treaty establishing the union) is therefore linked to the desintegration of the Soviet Empire. The old French fears of a powerful neighbour provided additional diplomatic momentum for the Monetary Union.<br />.<br />Realists would argue that the Euro was the political price Germany had to pay for reunification. In 2010, its taxpayers are bearing the financial cost of the debt mess. The question is: for how long?<br />.<br />Whatever form the rescue or control mechanism eventually takes, it will imply more bureaucracy to enforce convergence on 27 divergent economies. The parallel with the centrally planned economies of the former Soviet bloc and their eventual failure to deliver prosperity is pertinent. Grand centralizing bureaucratic schemes eventually fail and in the process dwarf individual freedoms. Have we not learnt the lesson? Evidently not.<br />.<br />The quasi-authoritarian technocratic measures imposed by the troika (IMF-EC-ECB) are undermining popular sovereignty, i.e. who rules. As a recent survey revealed, 56% of Irish people believe that by accepting the bailouts, their country has surrendered political independence. Eurosceptics have long argued that the Brussels elite are actively seeking to replace sovereignty by bureaucracy, voters by experts. As the rejection and eventual adoption of the European Constitution in all but name amply demonstrated, popular sovereignty is deeply unpopular with the European leadership. To illustrate the arrogance of our new “vanguard”, suffice it to recall the comment made by former Labour Commissioner Neil Kinnock in the aftermaths the referendum in 2005. The French “non” said he, was “the triumph of ignorance"....<br />.<br />How ironic that the European Union now fighting for its survival would owe so much to the demise of another supranational utopia; the Soviet Union with its own kind of highly centralized supranational state apparatus and privileged elite. In a thought-provoking essay, "The Soviet Roots of European integration” (2004), former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky explains how socialist ideas have gradually transformed a successful economic area (EEC) into a new bureaucratic hegemon. Food for thought.<br />.<br />Of course, the “post-democratic” Union is constituted by democratic states enjoying high standards of political freedom. To Bielarussian democrats, the EU represents a beacon of freedom. But everything is relative. In fortress Europe, it is no longer possible to ignore the obvious. The on-going surrender of sovereign rights to a self-serving nomenklatura is a step towards the establishment of a supranational economic government, and a bEUROcratic Leviathan. In 1944, Austrian economist F.A. Hayek called it the “Road to Serfdom”.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-2666665483687703822010-10-26T06:23:00.000-07:002010-11-01T08:20:26.226-07:00Reforme des retraites: carton rouge pour la gauche.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizCJJ_CkGxPTLDo1FxhiX4wxnyhqwmvCpXLEa-3fbfZBJAm8K-vgwHv2IeIJIgiApS4yEiq2uC_l5jS4-wu9ZpQM2volbZH50ILhS23MNl0G6ecA-PH5IqM4CNO_ryoj8tC0HWqQmM2zU/s1600/greve.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533059061475929810" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 221px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 166px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizCJJ_CkGxPTLDo1FxhiX4wxnyhqwmvCpXLEa-3fbfZBJAm8K-vgwHv2IeIJIgiApS4yEiq2uC_l5jS4-wu9ZpQM2volbZH50ILhS23MNl0G6ecA-PH5IqM4CNO_ryoj8tC0HWqQmM2zU/s400/greve.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDw_6MDIWw8ea6asi0yZBTF2ukZTIgNi_kWNv2gzigrKaPhfqElMAeSjo4Yd4kNxf0wc6ftGXyUq8Dli7maidlegzYwp-N66B9IEGjcG3PTIxkPV5ISaJRpjoCadK0VoXxI6RwWppEJuk/s1600/greve.jpg"></a>Article published in <a href="http://www.unmondelibre.org/Quintin-Adali_retraites_greves_291010">UnMondeLibre</a> (France), <a href="http://www.3hhareketi.com/blog/21-hur-yorum/1698-fransiz-soluna-kirmizi-kart">3Hs </a>(Turkiye). In la langue de Shakespeare(shortened version) in France's largest English language paper (November issue), called funnily enough, <a href="http://www.thefrenchpaper.com/">theFrenchPaper</a>. Finally in the University of Portsmouth students newspaper, Pugwash News.<br />.</div><div>English version, The French Paper.</div><div>.<br />In the name of “solidarité”, a vocal minority of “grèvistes” (strikers) appears to be prepared to fight to the bitter end to prevent the government doing the right thing, namely reforming the pension system. While there was plenty of solidarity in evidence in Chile with the whole nation pulling together behind its “33”, what we are witnessing on French streets is a flurry of irresponsibility and selfishness. In a well-rehearsed action plan, two million or so of my compatriots are once again taking the country hostage in their latest attempt to save a floundering model of welfare state. </div><div>.</div><div>Since the shameful fiasco of the national football team, you could be forgiven for thinking that the French love to wallow in endless strikes. But just as most fans were disgusted by the attitude of the striking players, private sector employees are unimpressed by the repeated strikes of public sector workers (1/5 of the labour force). The international media is predictably painting the French with a broad brush, a nation of demonstrators. The other side of the argument – let’s call it the “other France” - rarely features in programmes presumably because "l'autre France" rarely demonstrates. The stories of the hard-working entrepreneur-boulangers and artisans, innovating small family enterprises struggling to remain competitive despite one of the highest burden of taxation in the developed world do not have the same news appeal. But they are many untold tales of real solidarity between bosses and workers reaching compromises to try and save together their livelihood. Unions do not approve.</div><div>.</div><div>Impervious to the fate of the “other France”, members of the unions (8% of the work force) have been joined by a minority of politicized high school students steeped in the same cult of job-for-life and “acquis sociaux” (none-reviewable social rights), the sacred cows of the Left. Ironically the teenagers' prospects of finding work are being curtailed by the very system their parents are trying to keep in place. With youth unemployment at a record 23%, a sizeable number of them after graduating will be seeking employment across the Channel in the more flexible British labour market. Until then, they add oil to the fire by mindlessly, and sometimes violently, protesting against all-things liberal (and Anglo-Saxon).</div><div>.</div><div>The democratic choice of the people is inexorably vanishing in the commotion created by the latest wave of street protests. Polls can be made to say anything. The much quoted “support” to the strikers is probably more an expression of the people's belief in the right to protest as a cornerstone of democracy than anything else. Other polls have shown that a majority understand that action must be taken to avoid a Greek-like tragedy. For those who want to see, the right to strike is now blatantly being abused and used as an undemocratic tool for a few to reverse a democratic decision (pension reform law) with street coercion.</div><div>.</div><div>Amazingly, Martine Aubry, the General Secretary of the Socialist Party seems unperturbed by the abyssal social security deficit and the mounting sovereign debt. Having recently celebrated her 60th birthday, she could lead by example and retire. But the great architect of the economically disastrous 35-hour-working-week fights on and continues to enjoy the privileges bequeathed on our politico-administrative nomenclature. The fact that politicians can hold several electoral mandates – and salaries – is an absolute scandal but it is a gravy train few, be it on the Left or the Right, would like to see stop at some “austerity” station. Needless to say, they are not bound by a compulsory retirement age. </div><div>.</div><div>Are radical self-imposed austerity measures “à la Cameron” plausible? Not really. To the government's credit, reforms to change a damaging culture of welfare benefit-dependency have been introduced but it will take more than modest politically correct steps to have any real impact. As to meaningful cuts to France’s sprawling administration, dream on. Half of the members of the French Parliament are civil servants so serious reforms are more likely to be imposed by the EU - read Germany - or forced upon any government by the “evil” market and its credit rating agencies (looming downgrading). </div><div>.</div><div>Oil shortages are looming too and violence could spread to the suburbs. While the Left backs the workers of state-owned refineries' against privatization, the “other France” can only hope that the government will stand firm and show the kind of resolve Margaret Thatcher exhibited in the 1980s when the coal miners' strike threatened the British economy. The behaviour of our “équipe nationale” was a disgrace and deeply hurt the nation's pride. The irresponsibility of union leaders and their political masters is no less disgraceful. The consequences for the fragile recovery and the future could be far-reaching.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-74888945159921944302010-09-02T06:51:00.001-07:002010-10-28T04:40:17.760-07:00Brussels Declaration, 28 August 2010 at the first European Libertarian Students Summit<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Zfe0OmHmGXm12POiCOLbiuaSIXHSoKXIEGmTSAtHV69nw2USBKi4r6ng_Vk7Nu7xLHxtIfRH8zIwwKqDl3TqLKDVGs8yX24SruI5Z_cB5Ip-8moxGehhLjl2GhRz7TROevDoEp5O6lA/s1600/ELSS_August210.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533060144866390466" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Zfe0OmHmGXm12POiCOLbiuaSIXHSoKXIEGmTSAtHV69nw2USBKi4r6ng_Vk7Nu7xLHxtIfRH8zIwwKqDl3TqLKDVGs8yX24SruI5Z_cB5Ip-8moxGehhLjl2GhRz7TROevDoEp5O6lA/s400/ELSS_August210.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1akIa5dg2n-GpeSpvO2TuNCAJspSB_p_RWTpQRvj17wqjs8afWnwrF36eawruipBJSbWMNd7BK2X_qTSrGvVKwnf-Kj69Ac3VaUpypHUSczZ72IQK_Y2fvLc4lKrXdOgEbQOr4qcApR8/s1600/Brussels+Declaration_28august2010_ELSS+001.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5512313743881605698" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 291px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1akIa5dg2n-GpeSpvO2TuNCAJspSB_p_RWTpQRvj17wqjs8afWnwrF36eawruipBJSbWMNd7BK2X_qTSrGvVKwnf-Kj69Ac3VaUpypHUSczZ72IQK_Y2fvLc4lKrXdOgEbQOr4qcApR8/s400/Brussels+Declaration_28august2010_ELSS+001.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-47520089246014145862010-08-14T10:54:00.000-07:002010-09-09T11:36:36.837-07:00From democratic deficit to “Avatar” Euro-democracy.Published in <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=from-democratic-deficit-to-8220avatar8221-euro-democracy-2010-08-16"><span style="color:#ff0000;">Hürriyet Daily News</span></a>, <a href="http://www.unmondelibre.org/Quintin-Adali_EU_Avatars_180810"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Un Monde Libre</span></a> and <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/en/pa/parliament-launch-second-life-style-online-assembly-news-496949"><span style="color:#ffcc00;">EurActiv-ated</span></a>.<br />Also published in a slightly different version in <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/virtual-european-reality/article1690587/"><span style="color:#666600;">The Globe and Mail</span> </a>(Can.), <a href="http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_eu28_08-28-10_QDJLV58_v12.2982738.html"><span style="color:#6666cc;">The Providence Journal</span></a> (USA) and <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/virtual-european-reality/article1690587/"><span style="color:#993399;">The Australian</span> </a>(comme son nom l'indique).<br /><br />.<br />The summer period is always an ideal time for administrations and legislatures to introduce unpopular measures or launch ridiculous projects. Enter “Citzalia”, a simulation game or the European Parliament’s newest communication tool. When you thought things could not get more disconnected from reality, they literally got more “virtual”. Soon citizen-avatars will be able to experience “democracy in action” in virtual reality. The democratic deficit has not been seriously addressed but the EU may be about to enter a new dimension: virtual democracy.<br /><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftnref1"></a><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftnref2"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3vYYPvTI6BS-NnBCRI46uuySGCLmAbFP9gF3YXSNJ2BbRj5DTMyBaF7SpVs3tnbgIDfvWc1hlZp9hQpU-Mfuh8R-3Mdv34RwIJcyHg2psmuCYgMIslLjyX6aa6SqYuiwnmfSZewL02M8/s1600/eu-flag+in+tatters.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 125px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508165484567584962" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3vYYPvTI6BS-NnBCRI46uuySGCLmAbFP9gF3YXSNJ2BbRj5DTMyBaF7SpVs3tnbgIDfvWc1hlZp9hQpU-Mfuh8R-3Mdv34RwIJcyHg2psmuCYgMIslLjyX6aa6SqYuiwnmfSZewL02M8/s200/eu-flag+in+tatters.jpg" /></a>After the failure of its on-line TV “Europarl” (C-span à la EU), the Parliament is preparing to launch “Citzalia”, an educational "platform" described as a “3D world that captures the essence of the European Parliament”. Thus through “role play” and “social networking”, citizen-avatars will have the opportunity to walk the corridors of the Brussels’ nebulous power, and interact with MEP-avatars <a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftn1" target="_blank">[1]</a>. British journalist Christopher Booker was quick to spot the irony and drew a parallel with the situation in the UK under the present coalition. “We walk around, network, debate issues of the day, even propose legislation. But as with that computer game, it is an empty charade”<a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftn2" target="_blank">[2]</a> (Daily Telegraph, 7/08/2010).<br /><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftnref3"></a>Presumably the point - at 275,000€ - is to shed some light on the terribly important role of the EU legislature without which there would be no democracy worth talking about. With record low participation in the last parliamentary elections (2009, 43%), things are getting desperate. Frankly, the thought of citizen-avatars unleashed in the virtual corridors of power to try and figure out the “co-decision” legislative process is dizzying. Good luck to them with the arcane complexity of consultations between the Commission, the Council, the Parliament and the culture of deals behind the proverbial “closed doors”. Under the Lisbon treaty, a new consultation procedure with the 27 national legislatures (the so-called “Barroso initiative”)<a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftn3" target="_blank">[3]</a> should add to the bureaucratic fun.<br /><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftnref4"></a>Exposing the boring, poorly attended and entirely “managed” nature of debates in the hemicycle would be in the interest of transparency. Not to mention the outrageous nomadicity of the Parliament’s “democratic” business with its epic shuttling between Strasbourg and Brussels (annual cost, €200 million). But too much “realism” might confuse citizen-avatars who once back in the real world, would be entirely justified to question their MEPs - if they can find them. So the virtual experience is most certainly “idealized”. For the Euro-élite, the line between information and propaganda is not just “thin”, it is more often than not virtually invisible. The report by the Swedish think tank Timbro, “the European Union’s burden”, accuses the EU of “creating a propaganda machine” (EU Observer, 29/07/2009)<a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftn4" target="_blank">[4]</a>.<br /><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftnref5"></a>The Lisbon Treaty “Citizens’ Initiative” (Article 11) should feature prominently in a compensatory sort of way. On planet Europe, the initiative purporting to enhance citizens’ participation by enabling them to propose legislation is hopelessly bogged down in red tape and controversy. It is slowly but surely being, well, bureaucratized to the point of meaninglessness. The unelected Commission is the sole arbiter in determining what constitutes a valid or “silly” proposal. The truth is that elected representatives are confined to a “rubber-stamping” job with the right to throw occasional “delaying tantrums” to earn their credentials as the guardians of EU “democracy”. The German Financial Times described the screening process as an example of “managed democracy” <a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftn5" target="_blank">[5]</a> (03/04/2010), a term one normally associates with Russia.<br /><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftnref6"></a>Forget the citizen-avatar. To really learn how it works, there should be an option for using a lobbyist-avatar. After all, interest groups are ideally suited for the European multi-layered, consensus-driven polity. Take the environmental policy sphere. It is hardly the utopian Navi community of planet Pandora. Behind the official discourse of “greening our economy” and “saving future generations” (and closed doors), lobbies are very active. But not just to save us from eco-Armageddon. The friends of Gaia have many friends in Brussels who allocate funds to them. As the International Policy Network study “the Friends of the EU”<a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftn6" target="_blank">[6]</a> (8/03/2010) highlights, green advocacy groups are subsidized to lobby for more funds and provide expertise. This self-serving cycle undermines the democratic process.<br /><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftnref7"></a>“Managed” democracy, virtual or real, is a risky business. Citizens - like avatars - can be unpredictable and uncommonly ungrateful. In Europe, the propensity of the former to rebel by giving the wrong answer (No-votes or abstentions) to the unique brand of “yes-only-democracy” is amply demonstrated. The game designers insist that there will be no censorship <a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftn7" target="_blank">[7]</a> (The Guardian, 06/08/2010). So maybe a formula for a freer Europe might actually emerge from a silly idea because in the real EU, all we get is more of the same old democratic deficit.<br /><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftn1"></a><a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftnref1" target="_blank">[1]</a> <a href="http://blog.citzalia.eu/about-citzalia/" target="_blank">http://blog.citzalia.eu/about-citzalia/</a><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftn2"></a><a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftnref2" target="_blank">[2]</a> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7932343/We-are-given-virtual-democracy-in-exchange-for-real-power.html" target="_blank">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7932343/We-are-given-virtual-democracy-in-exchange-for-real-power.html</a><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftn3"></a><a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftnref3" target="_blank">[3]</a> <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/treaty-opens-eu-door-national-parliaments/article-187888" target="_blank">http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/treaty-opens-eu-door-national-parliaments/article-187888</a><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftn4"></a><a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftnref4" target="_blank">[4]</a> <a href="http://euobserver.com/883/28505" target="_blank">http://euobserver.com/883/28505</a><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftn5"></a><a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftnref5" target="_blank">[5]</a> <a href="http://www.ftd.de/politik/europa/:lissabon-vertrag-gelenkte-demokratie-in-der-eu/50095937.html#utm_source=rss2&utm_medium=rss_feed&utm_campaign=/" target="_blank">http://www.ftd.de/politik/europa/:lissabon-vertrag-gelenkte-demokratie-in-der-eu/50095937.html#utm_source=rss2&utm_medium=rss_feed&utm_campaign=/</a><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftn6"></a><a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftnref6" target="_blank">[6]</a> <a href="http://www.policynetwork.net/accountability/publication/friends-eu" target="_blank">http://www.policynetwork.net/accountability/publication/friends-eu</a><br /><a name="12a6cb183669d4ad__ftn7"></a><a href="http://uk.mc297.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=123397249&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+martyn++knight+&abids=16777968#_ftnref7" target="_blank">[7]</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/06/eu-parliament-role-playing-game-online" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/06/eu-parliament-role-playing-game-online</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-36419155634255265832010-05-05T02:00:00.000-07:002010-05-20T07:42:49.068-07:00Rescuing Europe from its politiciansIn 1993 Alan Milward posited the controversial thesis that the EU had rescued the nation state. To survive, he argued, Europe would need to integrate more. With Greece on the “brink of the abyss”, reviewing the integrationist assumptions is now an urgent necessity. Since the completion of the single market (early 1990s), the construction of the European social and economic model or “way” has been pursued by politicians and ideologues without regards to the cost. Sovereign debt now threatens the Union in an unprecedented way. Yet whether the unfolding crisis will act as a catalyst for change is the million-Euro question.<br />.<br />Deriding the Anglo-Saxon model (limited government and free market economy) has been the favourite pastime of our élite on all sides. Nowadays, no-one is gloating. Bill Emmott (Times, April 30, 2010) puts it like it is: “Europe’s economy is the sick man of the world”. This year, “Schuman Day” was a more sombre occasion. Still, reflecting on the past is crucial to understand what went wrong. Indeed, Post-WWII integration into a single market was undeniably a success story. The basic economic assumption of the European model of regional economic integration was liberal (free trade, deregulation and small government), and it delivered what the peoples of the founding nations had expected of it; prosperity and peace.<br />.<br />In 2010 alarm bells are ringing across Europe with sovereign debt threatening to unravel the success of the early decades. How did we get here? To cut a long story short, from the Maastricht Treaty (1992) onwards, the European political class could not resist the sirens of “social” Europe or to be more precise “socialist” Europe (growth of big government, the welfare state and statism). In the noughties, the establishment of the single currency with the ECB policy of “strong Euro” led politicians to succumb to the folly of growth and development through borrowing. Preaching the saviour, more protectionist welfare state has become the electoral mantra resulting in Europe being run à la socialiste, and on credit (future generations would pay the bill!).<br />.<br />Since the first signs of scepticism appeared in the publics (late 1990s) culminating in the rejection of the Constitution in 2005, the EU leadership’s response has invariably been the same; more integration. This process has now fossilized into a dogma. Pushing for more centralised decision-making powers, a more social and overtly less liberal Europe has become the prevailing political discourse. The rise of the unsustainable welfare (member) state has been unstoppable. The Greek disaster should be seen in this context. While irresponsible and corrupt politicians should be held to account, it is evident that the mess has been enabled by the Post-Maastricht “European way” as framed by socialist-minded “éminence grises” (Jacques Delors, Tony Blair or philosophers like Juergen Habermas, to name but a few). Paradoxically, the idea of big-government has been embraced by right-wing politicians too.<br />.<br />The EU “way” (which incidentally includes turning a blind eye on Greek deceptions and probably many others) has created havoc. Europe’s economy has lost its competitive edge and now faces tough competition from emerging countries. Growth is near-zero, unemployment is high and citizens disillusioned. Predictably, the European Commission’s plan for the future (2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth) calls for the creation of a more “social market”. Like the previous one, it is destined to fail. The Lisbon Treaty is likely to act as a roadmap for this utopia as well as a straight-jacket preventing any flexibility. Gone is the pragmatism of the early years.<br />.<br />French economist Guy Sorman warns that dealing with the Greek debt without addressing its fundamental cause will miss the mark. The author of “Economics Does Not Lie” opines that the rescue package can only be a palliative. In his opinion, the most pressing issue for politicians is to confront and end the current “strategy of decline”. More dogmatic integration (economic governance, regulation) would be counterproductive. However breaking out of the dominant socialist (statist) ideological mind-set which guides the élite to resort to more of the same policies, will require courage and leadership. In this regard, one can only welcome the resurgence of the British Conservative Party. At least, a healthy doze of scepticism will act like medicine for the "sick EU patient".<br />.<br />If one needed a reminder of how completely alienated from society and its realities the Euro-political class is, the recent drama of the volcanic ash-cloud provides a perfect illustration. The rigid bureaucratic and chaotic political response which led to huge economic loss, was a striking example of poor leadership compounded by a paralyzing culture of risk-aversion. As journalist Yulia Latynina aptly observed, bureaucrats had proved "more harmful than volcanoes” (Moscow Times, April 20, 2010). While the EU political élite huffed and puffed, the Russian Presidential plane bringing Dmitri Medvedev for the funerals of the Polish President landed in Krakow without a glitch . The leadership of the Union was conspicuous by its absence.<br />.<br />Right now, politicians could prove more dangerous than Greek economic woes. The painful truth for our élite is that their decisions have led Europe on a path to economic decline. It is high time to bite the bullet and change course. To start with, citizens must be engaged with more than personality cult of the founding father and “what-Europe-has-done-for-us” brochures and rhetoric. The pretence that the EU can afford the social(ist) model it is purporting to download across the continent must be dropped, or more disillusionment (and anger spilling on the streets) will be fostered.<br />.<br />Verbose sermons of solidarity and unity professed in official receptions and academic circles are aloof words spoken on the deck of the ship battered by howling winds. The markets and the increasingly Euro-sceptic electorates are no longer listening. The EU needs to go back to its wealth-creation way, and it needs it fast.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-64511176016853688482010-04-05T11:57:00.001-07:002010-04-05T17:18:20.402-07:00The EU Easter egg....<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtRBZqTPcE0vQAZqHGPnwqOZJvY87grnXIia6_mXDaD3zS6UF_ImoTqmjKAOBW7b92VNjnE1LvnFusEuKI_n_tZzRIejVhTReBTMeRQ_viY_FgUyfJ7Z8kFvnjkLqmkZPAno2dL_GjY4/s1600/002.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 291px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456729921224024530" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtRBZqTPcE0vQAZqHGPnwqOZJvY87grnXIia6_mXDaD3zS6UF_ImoTqmjKAOBW7b92VNjnE1LvnFusEuKI_n_tZzRIejVhTReBTMeRQ_viY_FgUyfJ7Z8kFvnjkLqmkZPAno2dL_GjY4/s400/002.jpg" /></a> The chicks are: the new President of the European Council and High Representative for foreign affairs... </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-29283286318097964312010-04-02T04:07:00.000-07:002010-04-07T11:34:09.994-07:00Eco-cultishness and the petition threatening la liberté!<div align="left">In France, the "debate" on climate change has taken a turn for the worse. A petition signed by 410 scientists (mostly involved in climate research) was presented to the Minister of Education and Research, Madame Pécresse, asking for more political support for the global warming thesis as postulated by the IPCC. And even more astonishingly, requesting the government to "take action" against two climate sceptic scientists; former minister Dr. Claude Allègre and Professeur Vincent Courtillot whose views were expressed in recently published books (see below). </div><div align="left">.</div><div align="left">The signatories feel that these dissenting scientific opinions are discrediting the supreme seriousness of their own work. The mind boggles.<br />.</div><div align="left">What kind of "action" is not clear. Science by decree? Criminalization of the denial-dissent of IPCC climate truth ? Internment in psychiatric hospitals for those "deranged" scientists? Et pourquoi pas un goulag climatique? The methods used by <a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Denissovitch_Lyssenko">Trofim Lyssenko </a>to impose his scientific truth under Stalin spring to mind.... But je m'égare - I digress. La France is not ze Soviet Union. </div><div align="left">.</div><div align="left">Of course not. But eco-intolerence amongst environment activists, scientists and greened politicians is becoming a real threat to freedom of speech and scholarship. After the former socialist minister Michel Rocard's comment, namely that the decision to scrap the carbon tax was a "crime against humanity" - oui, je répète un "crime contre l'humanité"! - we have now scientists requesting government's intervention against climate-sceptic thinking and research. </div><div align="left">.</div><div align="left">What this is about is an attempt by a group of interested climatologists defending the thesis of man-made global warming, to discredit the work of scientists who dissent. The "niet" of the latter to climate alarmism hype does not go down well with the former, namely the self-appointed priesthood of Gaia .... Behind the carefully crafted text (accessible in <a href="http://sciences.blogs.liberation.fr/home/2010/04/climat-400-scientifiques-signent-contre-claude-all%C3%A8gre.html"><span style="color:#990000;">article in Libération</span></a> ), it appears that the objective of "alarmist scientists" (two are members of the IPCC-GIEC) is to see the UN "absolute climate truth" protected by the State, and the publication of dissenting research/opinions vetted. <br />. </div><div align="left">Why? Because these climatologists live from climate alarmism - massive public funds allocated to it - and in the wake of the various climate-gates, scepticism among the publics has risen hence potentially threatening their jobs and could undermine the "climate business" (See post on ze blog <a href="http://www.objectifliberte.fr/2010/04/climategate-whitewash-et-histoire-de-tres-gros-sous.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fobjectifliberte+%28Objectif+Libert%C3%A9%29"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Objectif Liberté</span></a>). Fearing that research budgets might melt away faster than polar ice-caps, our "endangered" climatologists strike back!<br />.<br />For more on this latest twist français in the culte de Gaïa, climate alarmism et autres réchauffismes liberticides, read this excellent post by <span style="color:#cc0000;">Jean-Michel Bélouve</span> author of "La Servitude Climatique" (see below) in the <a href="http://www.lecri.fr/2010/04/01/petition-contre-allegre-et-courtillot-les-climatologues-francais-perdent-tout-sens-de-la-mesure/13478"><span style="color:#999900;">Cri du Contribuable</span>.</a>: Petition against Allègre and Courtillot: French climatologists are losing it" (Les climatologues français perdent tout sens de la mesure). The author points notably to the fact that the two French "other thinker"-scientists are not alone. Many more have not endorsed the so-called IPCC "scientific consensus"! He notably recalls the <a href="http://sepp.org/policy%20declarations/heidelberg_appeal.html">1992 Heidelberg Appeal </a>signed by 4,000 scientists (including 70 nobel prize winners) who inter alia voiced concern about the intrusion of ideology in science (Earth Summit in Rio).<br />. </div><div align="left">Answering the accusations that his work is not peer-reviewed, Prof. Courtillot puts his record straight in <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2010/04/03/vincent-courtillot-repond-a-ses-detracteurs_1328441_3244.html"><span style="color:#cc6600;">Le Monde</span></a>. and <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/environnement/2010/04/02/01029-20100402ARTFIG00729-le-giec-n-est-pas-le-garant-de-la-verite-scientifique-.php">Le Figaro</a>. He notes inter alia: <em><span style="color:#999900;">"It is the mechanism of the IPCC I am criticical of. I maintain that even with many more scientists, such a system cannot possibly garantee to tell the 'scientific truth'</span></em>. </div><div align="left">.</div><div align="left">Also see the <a href="http://www.electron-economy.org/ext/http://lemytheclimatique.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/lettre-ouverte-aux-signataires-de-l%E2%80%99appel-%C2%AB-ethique-scientifique-et-sciences-du-climat-%C2%BB/">"lettre ouverte"</a> by the mathematician Benoît Rittaud ("Le mythe climatique", see below). His critique hits the nail. The implications of this démarche for state intervention - if acted upon by public authorities - against two scientists are serious; introduction of political censorship of scientific work, infringement of freedom of speech and thought. </div><div align="left">.</div><div align="left">Douce France, cher pays de mon enfance et des droits de l'Homme... Quid la liberté d'expression et de penser? Pauvre science! With <a href="http://www.lph-asso.fr/"><span style="color:#666600;">Liberté pour l'Histoire</span></a> historians have been fighting against state edicted historical truths (lois mémorielles). It now looks like minority view scientists might be forced to do the same "pour la Science".... Aux armes citoyens!<br />.</div><div align="left">That climatologists would resort to this kind of "trick" is deeply troubling. Frankly, this latest épisode climatique begs the question of whether the French "rechauffiste" brigade is not actually prepared to go down the road of green authoritarianism. It is a sad day for our democracy....</div><div align="left">.<br />"Pour rire it's tax free", enjoy the caricature très drôle of a French climate lesson created by <a href="http://renelehonzecbandesdessinees.com/accueil/index.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">Yann Goap</span></a> for the <span style="color:#999900;"><a href="http://www.pensee-unique.fr/"><span style="color:#339999;">blog "Pensée-unique"</span></a> </span>. In the front row, two GIEC-IPCC children-scientists (a Dr. Pachauri or le breton Hervé le Treut?) snitching on their dissenting classmate-scientists (Courtillot and Allègre). The teacher is Madame la Ministre and the leçon is - in franglais - "In réchauffisme we trust" (In warmism we trust). The language used in French is childish and would translate in something like "Mistress, they are pestering us...."<br />.<br /></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 211px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455509388656939202" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbk29ZQYQuA2p90f_AsjEjB2WZOKSJuVIdYIMu78gYNAW303sZCggDyuP-NUBNGAItbp0bQJs2yuuCENb6h_EqiQYIf87O5mgQYBtHSJ3VfKxscaGkDrmU3YeicL9UMI5mTt5dU_2n0bY/s400/caricature-jean-martin-300x211.jpg" /><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="color:#000000;">Ce à quoi on pourrait répondre (answer) en français de cour de maternelle: </span></span><span style="color:#990000;">Maîkresse, yaka lire queske les bonomes verts veules pas qu'on sêt!</span> <p align="left">Loosely translated in good franglais this means: read what <span style="color:#006600;">les druides verts</span> do not want you to know en français. </p><p align="left">Dr. Claude Allègre: <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/Limposture-climatique-Ou-fausse-%C3%A9cologie/dp/2259209858/ref=pd_sim_b_4"><span style="color:#996633;">L'imposture climatique où la fausse écologie.</span></a></p><p align="left">Benoît Rittaud : <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/Mythe-climatique-Beno%C3%AEt-Rittaud/dp/2021011321/ref=pd_sim_b_2"><span style="color:#336666;">Le mythe climatique</span></a>.</p><p align="left">Professeur Vincent Courtillot: <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/Nouveau-Voyage-au-centre-Terre/dp/2738119395"><span style="color:#cc0000;">Notre voyage au centre de la Terre</span></a><span style="color:#cc0000;">.</span></p><p align="left">Jean-Michel Bélouve: <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/Servitude-Climatique-changement-climatique-Business/dp/2953563202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270211458&sr=1-1"><span style="color:#999900;">La servitude climatique: changement climatique business et politique</span></a>.</p><p align="left">Dr. Emmanuel Martin: <a href="http://www.unmondelibre.org/blog/?p=110">Un Monde Libre </a></p><p align="left">Le blog de Vincent Bénard: <a href="http://www.objectifliberte.fr/dossier-rechauffement-climatique.html"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Objectif Liberté, dossiers et gazette du "réchauffement" climatique</span></a>.</p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">Nananèèèère</span> (so haha see)..</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-75310566339452011762010-03-29T08:56:00.000-07:002010-04-30T05:52:49.140-07:00Earth Hour: the tyranny of Gaïa?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiruqYEynZZqxfzkaJ2YEljxgv1NRR_WOdseTUGCytf_TXBoSRBzlunjEpidTLEw_Cl1Wf27tayN5NBa1KCmLJhx4WUD8IUfk2pgiTYzHdSQeVcLQyrR0P7LhmYUSbi57ilBOWg44FKack/s1600/UoPortsmouth_PugwashNews_No40.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 291px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465912169732934754" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiruqYEynZZqxfzkaJ2YEljxgv1NRR_WOdseTUGCytf_TXBoSRBzlunjEpidTLEw_Cl1Wf27tayN5NBa1KCmLJhx4WUD8IUfk2pgiTYzHdSQeVcLQyrR0P7LhmYUSbi57ilBOWg44FKack/s400/UoPortsmouth_PugwashNews_No40.jpg" /></a><br /><div><br />Version longue:<br /><br />Before 1972 (first European environmental action plan), there was darkness in Europe. The nation-state, its citizenry and industries were blighted, selfish polluters not paying due care to “Mother Earth” (Gaïa) and its creatures. And then there was light, green light that is, switched on permanently by a common environmental policy (Single European Act, 1987). Or so goes the official tale. Curiously with the Earth Hour, the friends of Gaïa were asking us to celebrate darkness again, quite literally by switching off our lights for an hour in an absurd ritualistic global communion against progress.<br />.<br />The organiser of this initiative, the World Wildlife Fund trumpeted success. In France the national electricity company EDF observed a mere 1% decrease in electricity consumption, a situation that can surely best be explained by the fact that only the modern day followers of the cult of Gaïa - the “greens” - and, their new priesthood - NGOs, experts, politicians - heeded the call. Environmentalists have been influenced by James Lovelock’s “theory of Gaïa” which claims that the earth is a single living organism. Unperturbed by the fact that many scientists view it as little more than a neo-pagan new age religion, environmentalism regards Man and modernity (notably energy production and consumption) as a “disease killing the planet”.<br />.<br />The controversial hypothesis has influenced the “deep ecology” movement and is a foundation stone of political ecology in the Western world. It has had a profound impact on governance and policy-making in Europe. As academics like to point out, the environmental policy is the perfect example of Jean Monnet’s neo-functionalist method of integration through “spill-over” in other sectors. Hence the green policy has “stealthily” grown in size and is now on its 6th Environmental Action Programme (2002-2012). Addressing climate change, nature and biodiversity, environment and health, natural resources and waste, it basically permeates all aspects of policy-making, and by implication, of our lives.<br />.<br />Apparently we should only be grateful. Questioning the scientific or moral foundation of green economic integration and cultishness is considered politically incorrect. If you do, you are treated as barking mad or ignorant. When your “scepticism” comes out of the closet, you fall into the category of the “bag guys” or deniers. The “good guys”, namely the green experts are a bit like the Navi people in Avatar. They “commune” with Mother Nature and know best. Armed with the absolute Truth, they preach the cult of Gaïa in its less extreme form through policies, laws, campaigns and by resorting to climate alarmism to impose their “noble” cause on the masses.<br />.<br />Of course, the European Union is not the utopian planet of Pandora. Behind the official discourse of “legacy to future generations”, (green) greed, power and interests play an important part. Organisations like the WWF are friends with big corporations. Greening one's conscience has a price: donations. The friends of Gaïa also have many friends in Brussels and receive public funds (EU budget) whether taxpayers approve or not. As the recent International Policy Network study <a href="http://www.policynetwork.net/accountability/publication/friends-eu"><span style="color:#cc0000;">“the Friends of the EU"</span></a> revealed, green advocacy groups like Friends of the Earth, Birdlife or WWF (the so-called big 8 or 10) receive plenty of funds to lobby for more funds and provide environmental expertise to the Commission. The researchers concluded that “sponsoring the narrow interests of such NGOs undermined the democratic process”.<br />.<br />Politicians have embraced the green dogma with gusto. When the French government recently scrapped its carbon tax plan, the socialist politician Michel Rocard crossed a verbal Rubicon by calling this decision a “crime against humanity”. The proposed tax promoted by environmentalist leaders with no democratic mandate is in fact opposed by a majority of people (59%). The Secretary of State for ecology declared herself “distraught” by the setback, prompting some bloggers to comment that too much ecology on one’s mind could be a mental health hazard... Rest assured that the proposal will be pursued with a vengeance at supranational level in one form or another. The proverbial democratic deficit of the EU has served Gaïa well.<br /><div><br />.<br /><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 213px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454338534744716002" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhegl-aDUNNRSkqCfSkrvYXlapS66IsyiY-NMcuvc7tvnuY5RvM1f7ieS_J7fwo7mfQVt-76zmo-NfI7E22Xh_rYVQP8iaVr50uRNGtQ8qbQoLSIbkeT9AZDceQrSBkPohL8GTM3MoIS8c/s320/claude+motocross.jpg" />Eco-cultishness is relentless. A friend of mine (No. 34 left) is passionate about off-road motor biking and takes part in amateur races in rural Brittany. His idea of a fun time keeps the local bike shop in business. On racing weekends, the villages burst into life with competitors and support team-families. It is festive, noisy and definitely not carbon-emission free. These armour-clad, mostly middle-aged male weekend-bikers stand accused by the local “écolos” of riding the planet to eco-Armageddon. The green fundamentalists call for a ban but the slow regulation of this activity out of existence is the most likely outcome. The friends of Gaïa with friends in the EU can avail themselves of eco-directives they lobbied for and helped draft. The quasi sacred 1979 Birds Directive springs to mind. Surely there must be a few feathered creatures they could find and whose rights are infringed.<br />.<br />European NGOs, like the migrating birds they care so-much about, are not stopped by borders. Driven by a missionary spirit, they are fighting to impose “sustainable development” in the name of Gaïa everywhere possible. In Ethiopia for example, a “coalition of the irresponsible” (NGOs including WWF) is campaigning to stop the government’s project to build the Gibe III dam which would bring progress to millions. In a recent <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/printable/8339/"><span style="color:#999900;">article, </span></a>Nathalie Rothschild, the editor of Spiked-online, makes a compelling case against “green madness”. She notes that “the needs of the Africans are clearly not a priority for environmentalists. … They are more concerned about preserving the biodiversity of the Omo river than lifting its people out of abject poverty”. In 2010, 70pc of Ethiopians are still unable to switch on a light and the friends of Gaïa would like it to stay that way.<br />.<br />Environmental protection and nature conservation should be based on reason, not cultishness. I kept my lights on during "Earth Hour" and celebrated human achievement, progress and the pursuit of happiness in all its forms.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-54978492136142165302010-03-26T07:51:00.000-07:002010-04-01T00:37:08.682-07:00The French elections that changed nothing.French people take democracy seriously when there is a stake and a sense that their ballots will make a difference. Politics is endlessly debated with passion, especially over good food. But for the second round of regional elections, half of the electorate chose - again - to linger over lunch. In the search for explanations for this mediocre turnout, pundits are invoking the usual suspects, i.e. the rise of the left and a sanction against the ruling party (UMP). No one seems to be considering that many voters might have found it more rational not to vote to elect councillors whose job it is to oversee a decentralised bureaucracy with reduced fiscal powers and plagued, like the rest of the State, with worrying levels of debt.<br />.<br />The facts are compelling. 21 of the 22 metropolitan regional councils now have left-leaning majorities (Parti Socialiste and Europe Ecologie). The overall results (including the resurgence of the far-right Front National) are clearly humiliating for the UMP but it should not be forgotten that they also mirror those of the 2004 regional ballot. Using a rugby analogy on the weekend the national team had won the six-nation-tournament, analysts were quick to point out that the Left with its electoral tsunami had not succeeded in “converting the try” in the 2007 presidential elections. The leaders of the victorious side, Martine Aubry (PS) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (EE) are jubilant. But no-one is fooled, least of all the electorate, who know too well that in a highly centralised state like France, the real power lies at the centre, Paris.<br />.<br />Still, regions matter and the socialists love them. Since their introduction in the current form during the Mitterrand years (1984 Law on decentralisation, 1986 first direct elections), the Left has been the dominant force of this extra layer of the proverbial French administrative “mille-feuilles” (like the cake, with many layers). Regions have acquired competences in the fields of economic development, education, transport and culture. Over the years as budget expanded and local taxes increased, the Regional Council has become a nexus of considerable power and influence. In a region like <a href="http://www.bretagne.fr/jcms/j_6/accueil"><span style="color:#006600;">Bretagne </span></a>(Brittany) with a strong sense of cultural identity the President presides over a deliberative assembly of 83 councillors and a small executive. Importantly, he administers a budget of €1.1 billion (2009, population of 3.1 million) supported in this task by a large bureaucracy, namely 3500 agents spread across the four departments. The state-appointed regional governor (Préfet) nevertheless remains in law the most powerful authority.<br />.<br />France is a rich patchwork of cultures but historically regionalism has never sat comfortably with the Jacobin tradition. With the creation of the regions, critics have observed that the State has only paid lip-service to decentralisation by simply inserting another costly layer of administration, effectively co-opting local political élite into the national political class. For the economist Emmanuel Martin, the regions illustrate the root-problem of the French style decentralisation. He argues that the model has had to counter excessive centralising forces which in turn led to the establishment of a jungle of local spendthrift fiefdoms with no real fiscal or budgetary responsibilities. The mounting debt of French regions - €25 billion by 2012 - has the Fitch Ratings agency worried (1). Ultimately regions are only accountable to their pay-master, Paris, not to the citizens. From a rational choice theory perspective, it makes sense not to vote.<br />.<br />For all the democratic hullabaloo (at a cost of €136 million), many would agree that under the supremely absurd system of “cumul des mandats” which sees politicians holding several elective mandate complete with the cumulative sum of privileges and remunerations, regional elections matter more to the political class than to the citizens. As journalist Yvan Stefanovitch puts it in his thought-provoking book <a href="http://www.irefeurope.org/content/la-caste-des-500-enqu%C3%AAte-sur-les-princes-de-la-r%C3%A9publique"><span style="color:#ff0000;">“La Caste des 500: Enquête sur les Princes de la République”,</span> </a>France is ruled by a caste of 500 professional politicians who, be it in their local fiefdoms or at national level, exercise quasi regal powers and live well at the State's expense. Every six years, the “new feudal lords" (an expression borrowed from the essayist Roland Hureaux see "<span style="color:#ff6600;">L</span><a href="http://www.libertepolitique.com/l-espace-librairie/2624-roland-hureauxles-nouveaux-faux-le-contresens-de-la-dntralisation"><span style="color:#ff6600;">es nouveaux féodaux. Le contresens de la décentralisation")</span> </a>joust for the control of local administrations and a well-established system of clientelism<br />.<br />The Socialist Party Secretary General - the Soviet Union collapsed but not the socialist utopia and its paraphernalia - Martine Aubry is a prominent member of the French nomenklatura. The daughter of former socialist and federalist commissioner Jacques Delors, she sponsored inter alia the economically disastrous 35-hour-week law. On promises of safeguarding the social acquis, saving the public services and redistributing a lot of solidarity, she has made a credible political comeback. How resorting to more statist policies will help resolve the ominous deficit and debt is not clear. While disaffected voters abstained, the SP’s traditional support base (employees of the state sector, 1/5 of the labour force and workers) massively mobilised during the elections. The all-powerful unions with their well-rehearsed disruptive capacity can be trusted to launch public sector demonstrations to obtain concessions from a ruling majority weakened by an electoral "Bérézina" (defeat).<br />.<br />Ironically, although elected on a platform of liberal reforms with notably promises to downsize the state and create a favourable environment for the private sector, Nicolas Sarkozy has championed more state intervention in the economy and extravagant public spending (2009 stimulus plan: €39.1 billion. 2010 state loan: €35 billion). In the meantime, unemployment has continued to rise. The ruling party's political discourse is not socialist but by and large, its policies have maintained “l’état providence” (Nanny-state), the very model hailed by the Left. In France, be it at the regional or national level, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (2)<br />.<br /><br />(1) Journal des Finances, 22 March 2010 <a href="http://www.jdf.com/indices/2010/03/22/02003-20100322ARTJDF00036-la-dette-des-regions-francaises-sous-surveillance-.php">http://www.jdf.com/indices/2010/03/22/02003-20100322ARTJDF00036-la-dette-des-regions-francaises-sous-surveillance-.php</a><br />(2) "The more things change, the more they stay the same"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-19007527468475877282010-03-10T12:33:00.000-08:002010-03-10T12:36:21.935-08:00Guy Sorman sur la catastrophe keynésienneLa <a href="http://gsorman.typepad.com/guy_sorman/2010/03/comment-les-etats-d%C3%A9truisent-leuro.html"><span style="color:#ff0000;">catastrophe keynésienne</span></a> vu par Sorman. A lire.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-57751043409233944872010-02-22T17:19:00.000-08:002010-04-02T12:44:00.679-07:00Lettre ouverte: M. Putine muselle les libertésLettre ouverte dans Le Monde de citoyens russes.<br />.<br />Dans les capitales européennes, des dirigeants épris de liberté annoncent fièrement une nouvelle ère de coopération avec la Russie. A Berlin, on se vante d'une "relation spéciale" avec Moscou tout en progressant sur de gigantesques projets énergétiques avec le monopole gazier Gazprom. A Rome, Silvio berlusconi rentre d'un voyage à Saint-Pétersbourg, où il a fêté le 59e anniversaire de son "ami"Vladimir Poutine. Et, à Paris, les négociations avancent sur la vente de navires de classe Mistral, porte-hélicoptères ultramodernes..... <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/opinions/article/2010/02/18/m-poutine-muselle-les-libertes_1307884_3232.html">More.</a><br />.<br />In the field of cutlure, the <a href="http://www.france-russie2010.com/"><span style="color:#000099;">year of Russia in France and of France in Russia</span></a> (<a href="http://www.russia-france2010.ru/"><span style="color:#ff0000;">en russe</span></a>).<br /><br />The "mistral" is a strong southerly thermal wind blowing in the south of France. Quite unpredictable and treacherous for sailors.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-57566191260229265402010-02-19T11:29:00.000-08:002010-03-15T04:40:12.876-07:00European Tea Party Movement. It's happening!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuJUBtpjDR7She9PA1wiUsPfPItv_CsmwC0TdwU1ln503gW8AN9aMOv747o_wNKeUjuBnGkb09e6LmPUeDa9OH-Pi3i8WL5oBq_0iG_IQRzh6rHNXu5k4KfGCmfqc6FWWtPOeFXLFISQ/s1600-h/euroteaparty.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440041983308464738" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuJUBtpjDR7She9PA1wiUsPfPItv_CsmwC0TdwU1ln503gW8AN9aMOv747o_wNKeUjuBnGkb09e6LmPUeDa9OH-Pi3i8WL5oBq_0iG_IQRzh6rHNXu5k4KfGCmfqc6FWWtPOeFXLFISQ/s320/euroteaparty.jpg" /></a> Tea bags are being dumped in European waters too. The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/10/AR2010021002453.html">Washington Times</a> made a call for such a movement to start. In fact it had already started in various countries, including in the UK! I am aware of two events taking place in London and Portsmouth last November (below Portsmouth, pre-Flopenhagen ). <div></div><div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440044724381757570" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmQd5gLOGB3nq3-wWJT1NXF1Gp6xdzbg1-XcClWTLL2woNchmeOc6_oJ86Im-PPAS9X37PDrHLYA6Z-VCriuhW2D0BLAuG26w-0UUrsUtdLRFY98NwpQhoSFPzn0bGwob0yTMRjg6ABT4/s200/portsmouth+tea+party+nov+2009.jpg" /></div><br />Tea Partiers have started to mobilise across the continent and on the net (a Facebook group and a <a href="http://euroteaparty.freedomrules.org/"><span style="color:#993300;">Euro-Tea Party website</span></a>). How far this will go is unclear but as the debt crisis in Greece deepens and more bad news appears every day (UK's debt could surpass Greece's. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7267283/Britains-debt-set-to-be-higher-than-that-of-Greece.html">Daily Telegraph</a>), anger is brewing... Time for a cuppa! In England everything starts with a cup of tea. <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100027693/what-could-be-more-british-than-a-tea-party/"><span style="color:#cc9933;">What could be more British than a tea party</span> </a>as Daniel Hannan MEP puts it!<br />.<br />Previous post on tea partying. <a href="http://zelibertyronin.blogspot.com/2009/04/let-them-dump-tea-or-eat-cake.html"><span style="color:#990000;">Let them eat cake. Or dump tea</span></a>!<br /><div></div><div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-92176852567901038292010-02-15T03:59:00.000-08:002010-03-10T12:18:10.011-08:00Atlas Shrugged Europe?The article appears in <a href="http://www.unmondelibre.org/blog/?p=21"><span style="color:#990000;">Un Monde Libre - blog post -</span></a>, <a href="http://africanliberty.org/node/993"><span style="color:#993300;">African Liberty</span></a> and <span style="color:#ff0000;"><a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=atlas-shrugged-europe-2010-02-21">Hürriyet Daily News</a></span>.<br />.<br />With the financial crisis hitting the American real economy and government’s spending (and debt) reaching unprecedented levels, sales of “Atlas Shrugged”, the 1957 novel by Russian-born author Ayn Rand have surged (1). In welfare Europe, this hymn to individualism and laissez-faire capitalism has mostly been dismissed by the intellectual class as Anglo-Saxon “rant” or just “fantasy”. Looking at Greece’s fiscal turmoil, mounting sovereign debt, near-zero growth rates across the bloc and the risk of social unrest spreading, one has to wonder if the prophecy described in the novel has not come true.<br />.<br />Cato scholar and economist Daniel J. Mitchell argues convincingly that Greece may well have turned into the real-world version of Atlas Shrugged. The burden of the public sector on the economy is such that “the job creators and wealth generators have given up and/or moved their money out of the country”(<a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/02/10/maybe-greece-should-go-bankrupt/" target="_blank">http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/02/10/maybe-greece-should-go-bankrupt/</a>).The public sector and interest groups like farmers have grown so powerful that reforms of the bloated civil service (1/4 of labour force) have never seriously been contemplated by successive governments. But it is time for reckoning for the Hellenic Republic has ironically turned into the sick man of Europe (debt of 125% of GDP). In the meantime Turkey’s economy while also experiencing hardtimes, is expected to grow by 3 to 5% this year. Furthermore its public finances have been brought under control and now meet theMaastricht criteria (2009, debt of 40% of GDP).<br />.<br />The problem for the Union is that its waiting room is full of patients. Every new election brings renewed promises of reform of big government but rhetoric rarely translates into the kind of bold action necessary to address the problem. In France which also runs a record deficit (€1,500 billion) and whose debt is estimated at 80% of GDP (and rising), reformist agendas are hampered by unions prepared tofight to the bitter end to keep their privileges. President Sarkozy’s mediatized support to Premier Papandreou and his austerity plan was truly a case of the “sick aiding the sick”. Of course no-one wants to see the Balkan state - and other patients of the PIIGS club - descend into full-blown economic collapse but rewarding it for its failings with a bail-out could be equally damaging. The European leadership is naturally cautious and jittery. And so are the markets hardly reassured by the vagueness of political statements and the lack of details on a possible rescue package (2).<br />.<br />To the relief of most politicians, the debate in the mainstream media has shifted from Greece’s blatant lies and evident responsibility in this mess to accusations of “immoral” speculation against the Euro. The market - capitalism - has once again become the “convenient”culprit. Commenting on the US, Stephen Moore opined that "The current economic strategy is right out of Atlas Shrugged. The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you" (<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html">Wall Street Journal, Jan. 9, 2010</a>). Well, the Franco-German directoire is mulling over the idea of experimenting along those lines with an “incompetent” member state. It is a dangerous precedent and raises issues of legality.<br />.<br />It is widely acknowledged that public opinions are against the idea of bearing the burden of risks. The Brussels-based think tank Open Europe asked the "inconvenient" question (June 2009) and found that “70 percent of German voters were opposed to using taxpayer funds to bailout countries in financial difficulties such as Ireland or Greece.” (3) Its recent study - <a href="http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/greecebailout.pdf"><span style="color:#ff6600;">A Greek bail-out: is it legally possible and what will it cost taxpayers. Feb. 2010</span></a> - warns that “a bailout would involve massive political and economic risks. To try to convince taxpayers in one country of the need for them to pay for the mistakes of a government in another country – which they cannot vote out of office – is a massively difficult task. For most people it is simply unreasonable and fundamentally undemocratic to make taxpayers liable in this way.” In other words, the sounder option would be for Greece to sort its problems by itself, even if it means defaulting.<br />.<br />Greece has been on the receiving end of a lot of solidarity (EU funds). In 2010, it apparently expects more as a “right”. For a majority of the Greek demos, the European budget is a - German - cow to be milked. But let’s be honest, they are not alone. Paraphrasing 19th Century French liberal economist Frédéric Bastiat, most people see the EU - like the state - as "a great fiction through which everyone is trying to live at the expense of everyone else". The comment made by a demonstrator in Athens sums it up. “We gave the world democracy” said the civil servant “and we expect the European Union to support us” (IHT February 11, 2010). The truth is that some taxpayers on the giving end of solidarity are starting to ask themselves a more relevant question. What has Greece done for them since 1981? For now the "tragedy" of lies and irresponsibility and its risks for the Union remain theoretical. But time is running out, and the Hellenes' legacy to Europe for the 21st Century could ultimately be one of less prosperity and a lot of bitterness.<br />.<br />For the proponents of bigger EU government, the current crisis is an“opportunity” to push for more centralised powers and more regulations. In the new presidents-top-heavy institutional architecture, the most enthusiastic is Herman Van Rompuy who would like to see the European Council as the seat of economic governance. The “EU 2020 strategy” is starting to look like a blueprint for the establishment of a centrally-planned economy. Will the Commission be its Gosplan?<br />.<br />Fed up with the mounting cost of the “ever-closer union”, many Eurocitizens may be tempted to “do a John Galt” like the hero of Atlas Shrugged. Rebelling against the imposition of more sacrifice in the name of European solidarity might be the only choice left to them.<br />.<br />(1) The Guardian, March 10, 2009<br />(2) Daily Telegraph, Feb.12, 2010<br />(3) <a href="http://www.openeurope.org.uk/media-entre/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=117" target="_blank">http://www.openeurope.org.uk/media-entre/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=117</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-42425320595501109002010-01-16T03:56:00.000-08:002010-02-19T11:24:29.342-08:00From Brussels with more fudge of the theatrical kindThe new Europe is marching or, to be more precise, it is now “hearing”. Reference is made to the on-going hearing proceedings of commissioner-designates before the European Parliament. Having passed the written “test” (reply to some basic questions), nominees have been invited to take their "grand oral" (confirmation oral exam). Auditions can be watched on Europarl TV, the C-Span à la EU that no-one really watches - except EU watchers. Quid these proceedings? Democratic and transparent or just more fudge?<br />.<br />Eurobarometers, no-votes and low elections turn-outs have consistently indicated that the two actors (Commission and Parliament) now involved in the proceedings do not enjoy a high level of trust among the peoples. The failure of the ratification of the Constitution (2005) and its reappearance in the form of the Lisbon Treaty (a near identical document) without direct public consultation (except Ireland) further exposed a bureaucratic and political élite united in deep mistrust of the citizenry. As Professor Ian Ward put it in no uncertain terms; “the new Europe is fundamentally undemocratic” (1). Short on legitimacy and popular support, the élite needs to create its own legitimazing processes. Hence the mediatized “accountability” play now being performed between Brussels and Strasbourg with a script written by EU élite for the EU élite. A popular audience is not essential. Besides the populace has the Eurovision song contest.<br />.<br />Indeed for those with a taste for the theatrical, the "Barroso II" play has all the necessary ingredients. High flying rhetoric of values to be upheld and goodness to be bequeathed on citizens, twists in the plot and surprises. The latter came from Stefan Füle, the Czech nominee for enlargement and neighbourhood policy, with his stance in support of Turkey’s membership. In a bloc led by a Franco-German directoire, his honourable opinion on a sensitive issue will not influence policy-making a bit. Yes, in the EU size does matter. As the polity becomes more centralised, some member states are seemingly becoming “more equal”. A little drama was provided with two commissioner-designates (Lithuania and Bulgaria) flunking their audition. Tension, tit-for-tat exchanges between political groups and accusations of “witch hunt” ensued. Gripping. For the internal market portfolio Michel Barnier's solemn declaration to the MEPs that he would not take orders from Paris was so, well, moving.<br />.<br />After the politburo-esque appointments of the European Council president and foreign policy chief, few are happy in fortress EU. Behind the wall (the other Europe), the Kremlin is probably satisfied. Quizzed on the Ukraine-Russia gas crises, Baroness Ashton stated her determination to “put pressure” to ensure that the Moscow leadership saw “these issues in an economic way not a political one”. By its very nature, the “siloviki regime” (2) can only see it as both. The “securocrats” in charge have repeatedly demonstrated that they have little time for EU moralising, Sakharov prize winners (arrest of Lyudmila Alexeyeva of NGO Memorial), and that territorial integrity in its “near-abroad” (EU neighbourhood) is to be determined on its own terms. In the final analysis, a google search will yield more information on the bloc's foreign policy than the hearing. Type: “quiet diplomacy”, "soft power" or "energy dependency".<br />.<br />Most pundits have dismissed the process as largely ceremonial. It is also incredibly dull. The formula chosen for the proceedings has a lot to do with it. The “one minute for questioning” and “two for answers” format reflects the utterly “managed” nature of debates taking place in the European Parliament. A more adversarial process like the one used in the US Congress committee hearings might have given the publics a chance to experience the frisson of politics. But that is not the EU way of governance. Add to the equation, uninspiring orators (the quangocrat kind), technical subjects and interpretation, you have a recipe for boredom. Furtermore it is clear that the nominees’ grasp of issues pertaining to their portfolios cannot be seriously tested within such contraints. On the positive side, it provides EU watchers with a window to discover the candidates from nations other than theirs.<br />.<br />European citizens have not bothered to watch the carefully choreographed proceedings. Who can blame them? Some observers have dismissed the whole affair as a “stitch-up” between member states governments and the EP. Indeed nominees were carefully chosen to appease the main political groups. And so, for that matter, are the words chosen by the Commissioner-designates. Everything had to be "regulated", "greened" and "socialised". In truth, the hearings are a façade, a show for "public" consumption. No-one is trying very hard to dismiss this evidence. Yet few would admit that the real drama is taking place in the “behind-closed-doors" (wherever that is) so characteristic of the EU supranational decision and policy-making process. Thus rest assured that the consensus-building machine is now busy at work in that "public-free zone" where since the onset of European integration, a culture of “secrecy” has prevailed despite the rhetoric of "transparency”.<br />.<br />The more powerful Parliament is flexing its muscles. Will it seize this occasion to block the Commission and risk a political crisis after the Lisbon ratification saga? The final act will be played in Strasbourg. Whatever the dénouement, for the euroligarchy the full Lisbon-isation of Europe cannot come a moment too soon. Commissioners "designated" can therefore start looking forward to a mandate of hard work but also a lifestyle of privileges and high salaries (€20,000 monthly+ allowances) (3). Living in the EU bubble, they will enjoy the kind of isolation from the publics once experienced by the top echelon of the Soviet nomenklatura.<br />.<br />In times of crisis, eurocrats love to pontificate ad nauseam about the principle of solidarity (4). Let us see if the new "vanguard" can lead by example and show some towards the toiling masses by tightening their belts (dropping the controversial 3.7% pay-rise). But as the former Marxist activist and new foreign policy chief said, idealism is for the young.<br />.<br />(1) Ward Ian. A Critical Introduction to European Law, p. 19<br />(2) Illarionov Andrei. “The siloviki in charge”, Journal of Democracy, April 2009, Vol. 20, No 2<br />(3) Regulation No 422/67 EEC<br />(4) TEU, amended by Lisbon Treaty, consolidated version, preamble paragraph 6Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-62122670637079191282010-01-06T03:20:00.001-08:002010-01-06T16:08:56.847-08:00In defense of the Turkish Ministry of EnvironmentBelow find my letter to the editor of the Hurriyet Daily News in response to an <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=response-to-the-environment-ministry-2009-12-31">article</a> by Dr. Cengiz Aktar who has been consistantly criticizing the Turkish Ministry of Environment for not doing enough in Copenhagen. In the EU accession process, Turkey has just opened the environmental chapter and will need to incorporate all the "green acquis". The cost for Turkish taxpayers is estimated at €59 million. The chances of the EU letting Turkey in? Pretty slim indeed....<br />.<br />Here is my <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=letter-to-the-editor-2010-01-04">letter</a> (more like an Op-ed given its length).<br />.<br />With reference to the “Response to the Ministry of Environment” (Dec. 31, 2009), I believe the Turkish government is absolutely right to have kept a low key and pragmatic approach in Copenhagen. The performance by the French delegation (governmental and civil society) led by our now “hyper-green” president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was less than impressive. In fact, it was embarrassing and ended in failure – in my humble view, a blessing in fact.<br />.<br />Given that prior to the summit, the “Académie des Sciences” declared that there was no “scientific consensus” on climate change, this frantic push for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, agenda to control the climate (the 2 degree objective) by reducing CO2 emissions appeared all the more disconnected with reality.<br />.<br />For those who wanted to see, there was indeed something rotten in the Kingdom of Denmark. Many high profile politicians, activists and UN climate luminaries were so engulfed in their apocalypse rhetoric that they looked more like the high priests of a cult than the cool-headed deciders we need to address environmental issues in a sensible way. The inconvenient truth for experts is that the silent majority was relieved that the hysterically vocal green minority did not get its way at the conference.<br />.<br />Of course not everything about the climate change agenda is bad. But the more important question is whether “Climate warmism” (or change-ism) is really about science. Like the “response” to the Ministry of the Environment which makes some valid points, in the final analysis, it aims to support the establishment of a new order with globalized environmental economic “dirigisme.”<br />.<br />The cult of Gaïa, this not-so-new mysticism, is just a tool for the new collectivists. The letter further illustrates that there is never a shortage of “red-green,” profoundly anti-liberal leftist French intellectuals whose “deep thoughts” can always be mustered to fight capitalism.<br />In an interview to the newspaper Libération (Dec. 8, 2009), philosopher Michel Serre lamented that the “Biogée” – earth and life merged into one concept – had not been invited to the summit. We can all agree for the need to discuss measures to protect the environment but should “Gaïa” – or the “Biogée thing” – also sit at the negotiations table and add to the chaos of global governance?!<br />.<br />Not surprisingly, both the French and Turkish pro-climate press – the overwhelming majority – have chosen to ignore "inconvenient" news. In a recently-released study, Russian scientists (Institute for Economic Analysis) assert that the already compromised Hadley Centre and Climate Research Unit (University of East Anglia) “cherry-picked” temperature data from the vast Russian territory (only 25% of data used).<br />.<br />The report calls for the IPCC to recalculate temperature increase. This is not “flat-earthing” or a “skeptic’s rant” but what science should be about; reason, questioning, transparency, free and open debate. Unfortunately the UN “machin” will do the “climatically correct” thing, i.e. nothing.<br />.<br />In France the book by Jean-Michel Belouve (La servitude climatique; changement climatique, business et politique) is attracting more and more attention in spite of the media. It tells the tale of what the proponents of the global warming thesis do not want the general public to know. The “dirty” side of the lofty climate ideology in other words.<br /><br />Economic development and a measured approach to environmental issues is what will make Turkey a better place to live in for its citizens. Following the incantations of environmentalist gurus and green-red "warriors" as our government in France is doing is a sure recipe for less prosperity and freedom. Copenhagen has failed but it is not the end of the world. Mutlu Yıllar without eco-Armageddon!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-69082359106055095982010-01-02T11:01:00.000-08:002010-01-04T00:15:27.466-08:00Bloavezh Mad!A new year with less servitude and lots of happiness! As we say in Breizh (Bretagne), Bloavezh Mad!<br />.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyPp_TG3_Lp6R-szjqUy5OVNDXjYtccFxDakQUfwIxsDNrU5q1H7rdF5D5AZ_ZIPIZkRhO5OvqFrBEXjXIJ7xsLvkB4nGYjY3tNjPpsVwBZ94fL1CYDqgQRskFb9A2_UCina_qd-cNruo/s1600-h/DSCN2508.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422794633398336914" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyPp_TG3_Lp6R-szjqUy5OVNDXjYtccFxDakQUfwIxsDNrU5q1H7rdF5D5AZ_ZIPIZkRhO5OvqFrBEXjXIJ7xsLvkB4nGYjY3tNjPpsVwBZ94fL1CYDqgQRskFb9A2_UCina_qd-cNruo/s320/DSCN2508.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="center">Tokyo "Rainbow bridge" from Shinagawa<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-85802892724321116602009-12-30T13:03:00.000-08:002010-01-04T11:54:26.709-08:00Vœux de nouvel an climatiquement incorrectsLe Télégramme de Brest, Le Petit Bleu, Le Pays Malouin, Le Ouest France<br />.<br />Monsieur le Rédacteur en Chef,<br />.<br />De retour au pays pour les fêtes de Noël, je constate que notre classe politique toutes tendances confondues analyse Copenhague en termes négatifs. Dans les journaux tout le monde est d'accord et répète le même message comme au temps de la Pravda des Soviets. La charmante capitale danoise, une des villes les plus eco-friendly de la planète, serait en passe de devenir synonyme de fiasco, de honte, de débâcle. En bref de Bérézina. Comme la bataille du même nom (une rivière en Russie) pour la Grande Armée (1812), le souvenir de la conférence restera graver dans les esprits des écologistes comme un traumatisme. Le parallèle me parait intéressant car la défaite des uns est toujours la victoire des autres. En ce début d'année 2010, je me sens profondément russe si l'on peut dire, et me réjouie de la déroute de l'idéologie réchauffiste !<br />.<br />Parler de “gavage” climatique en période de ripailles est un peu facile. C'est surtout politiquement incorrect. Outre-Manche où je réside comme ici, la vérité qui dérange le plus c'est que la fin du sommet et de sa «surmédiatisation » ont été accueilli avec soulagement par la majorité silencieuse. Le catastrophisme écologique n'a pas marché. Les citoyens restent dubitatifs alors que les politiques continuent de jouer les passionarias du climat. L'eurodéputée Corinne Lepage se lamente de l'échec de l'Europe et fustige dirigeants politiques et économiques (Le Monde, 23 décembre 2009). Comment prendre de tels propos au sérieux lorsque l'intéressée qui critique les “méchants” lobbies commerciaux, se fait la porte-parole du “gentil” lobby écologique de l'économie dirigiste verte que Bruxelles souhaite tant imposer! La solution préconisée (plus de pouvoirs aux institutions européennes) reviendrait à agrandir le trou déjà béant du déficit démocratique européen. Réjouissons nous plutôt que l'UE ait raté son premier test de l’aire de Lisbonne et que les appels à plus de « supranationalité » soient restés lettre morte.<br />.<br />Les idéologues anticapitalistes camouflés en vert ont raté leur coup d'état dans le bunker gris comme le remarque avec esprit l'essayiste Guy Sorman. La pyramide climatique renversée qui repose en fait sur une poignée de fonctionnaires onusiens et de scientifiques (une cinquantaine) est apparue bien fragile à Copenhague. Il y avait bien quelque chose de pourri dans le Royaume du Danemark - la conférence elle-même avec son bilan carbone record ! En fait, c'est l'ensemble de l'édifice climatique construit par quelques hommes dont les intérêts vont bien au delà de ceux des "générations futures" qui doit être revu. Le réchauffisme n'a pas rapporté que des images au gourou du GIEC, le Dr. Pachauri ainsi qu'à son compère américain Al Gore, "the green millionnaire". Il serait grand temps d'ouvrir la matriochka climatique onusienne. On y trouvera certainement autre chose que de l'altruisme et des bons sentiments. Pour mieux comprendre les enjeux, lire absolument "<a href="http://www.belouve.fr/">La servitude climatique : changement climatique, business et politique</a>" de Jean-Michel Belouve.<br />.<br />Nos hommes politiques et ONGs menés par notre président sauveur-généralissime tous unis sous l'étendard de la "vertitude" étaient donc partis va-t-en-guerre contre le réchauffement de la planète pour assurer la survie de l'humanité. Comme la Grande Armée de Napoléon, ils sont rentrés au pays dans le froid sans gloire. Personne n'a remarqué lors de cette retraite en ordre dispersé que l’<a href="http://www.iea.ru/article/kioto_order/15.12.2009.pdf">étude </a>de l'institut de recherche moscovite, l’Institute of Economic Analysis, révélait que les centres britanniques Hadley et CRU déjà impliqués dans le « climategate » (le scandale des courriels) n'auraient en fait utilisé que 25% des données de température du vaste territoire russe. Tiens un autre bidouillage ? Inutile d'attendre que le GIEC refasse ses calculs. Tout le monde l’a compris maintenant, le brouhaha climatique c'est avant tout une histoire de gros sous et de politique. La grande perdante c'est la science, la vraie, celle qui demande transparence, scepticisme, débat et liberté d'expression.<br />.<br />Quelle insulte pour l'humanité toute entière qui n'a eu cesse de maîtriser la nature et de s'adapter que de vouloir faire croire qu’une augmentation de température de deux degrés puisse conduire à la fin du monde, l’éco-Armageddon ! Quel gaspillage aussi. Les ressources disponibles devraient être utilisées pour résoudre les problèmes environnementaux existants. Pourtant c'est une bulle financière qui est en train d'être gonflée (celle du carbon trading) et l’Europe prêche le protectionnisme vert mettant en danger le développement des pays pauvres. Tout ceci est absurde et dangereux. A Copenhague on l’a échappé belle. Des mesures contraignantes - un traité - auraient sonné le glas du progrès et de la liberté. Les historiens français ont du se battre contre les lois mémorielles liberticides. Les scientifiques et les citoyens devront eux aussi se défendre contre la clique écolo-politico-climatique qui ne recule devant rien pour imposer sa vérité. La liberté pour la science c'est la liberté pour tous!<br />.<br />Le vrai danger n’est donc pas le climat qui change depuis 4 milliards d'années sans que les hommes de sciences n'en comprennent encore toutes les causes mais la prise de pouvoir par une minorité au nom d'une idéologie et moralité environnementaliste. Selon notre gourou national Nicolas Hulot, à Copenhague c'est la démocratie qui aurait échouée (Journal du Dimanche, 20 décembre 2009). Sur ce point il est en parfait accord avec le grand "démocrate" Hugo Chavez. Si la fin - la révolution environnementalisme - justifie les moyens, on peut craindre le pire. Méfions-nous donc des tendances totalitaires de notre intelligentsia rouge devenue verte et des journalistes qui n'osent plus la critique. Et la taxe carbone dans tout ça, une autre bérézina? Dans sa grande sagesse, le Conseil constitutionnel l’a annulée et tant pis si cette décision a laissé au vice-président du GIEC, Jean Jouzel, "un arrière goût de déception" (Le Télégramme, 30 décembre 2009). Qu'une majorité de français s'y oppose n'interpelle malheureusement personne dans les hautes sphères politico-climatiques. Cette entente pragmatique entre le gouvernement qui a besoin de remplir les caisses vides de l’Etat et la minorité écologiste qui veut imposer son diktat vert à la majorité est une grande fourberie.<br />.<br />Mes résolutions pour la nouvelle année sont donc climatiquement incorrectes puisqu'elles sont raisonnables. Soutenir le développement économique moteur de la prospérité et d’un environnement plus propre. Continuer à protéger la nature avec des gestes "verts" dictés par ma conscience. Refuser d'être réduite à une empreinte carbone. Ne pas me soumettre au règne du climatiquement correct. Dire «niet » à l'"oppression climatique" par la peur, au dirigisme écologique et au culte sacrificiel de la déesse Gaia (la terre mère), ce «nouveau» collectivisme mystique. Jamais les paroles de l'écrivain et philosophe russe Ayn Rand n'ont eu autant de pertinence aussi je lui laisse le mot de la fin: <em>“Il va sans dire que lorsqu’on évoque un sacrifice, il y a toujours quelqu’un pour récolter les offrandes sacrificielles… L’homme qui vous parle de sacrifice parle d’esclaves et de maîtres, et il a l’intention d’être le maître”.</em><br />.<br />Sur la Côte d’Emeraude en 2010 soyons heureux et libre. Bloavezh Mad!<br />.<br />Veuillez agréer, Monsieur le Rédacteur en Chef, l'expression de ma plus haute considération.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772628716291701057.post-37850921863542053922009-12-19T09:22:00.000-08:002010-02-15T12:49:34.288-08:00Copenhagen failed but it is not the end of the world.<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTTcbdi8beOJANbWeeZZx9_TwJ4cKZ0SKy3KkurGdbwhzS30yAUhCkiW9g3gxTlLjOnKValZGbDePjR7qTuMSzIUSIHm2OloLmydeKa1qQCm_QKWsxaAXwKZLCzIIVPoi3aa6Jeg9vOGs/s1600-h/UoPortsmouth_PugwashNews_No35+001.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438574579198827778" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTTcbdi8beOJANbWeeZZx9_TwJ4cKZ0SKy3KkurGdbwhzS30yAUhCkiW9g3gxTlLjOnKValZGbDePjR7qTuMSzIUSIHm2OloLmydeKa1qQCm_QKWsxaAXwKZLCzIIVPoi3aa6Jeg9vOGs/s320/UoPortsmouth_PugwashNews_No35+001.jpg" /></a><span style="color:#cc0000;">University of Portsmouth (UK) students newspaper<br /></span>.<br /><div align="left">Do we need more “climate summiteering"? If Copenhagen is a barometer of where global governance is at, the answer is obvious. The conference was shambolic. Too much global hubris was bound to lead to nowhere. It did with global-esque proportions and we have now "climate conflict" to add to the long list of climate issues. The "climate bubble" has burst, or at least deflated, leaving the world more disunited than before. As conference garbage is being recycled, polar bears costumes put away for the inevitable next climate pow-wow, it is time to cool it and reflect. It is also time to be positive because it is not the end of the world.<br />.<br />Pointing fingers at the hosts for poor management is hypocritical. The eco-friendly Nordic nation took upon itself to organise a planetary event with the most fatuous of aim; saving humanity from eco-Armageddon. The bar was set so high that mundane issues of accreditation cards and queuing up in freezing temperatures were bound to heat up excited minds. In fairness to the organisers, theirs was a mammoth task. 192 official delegations, thousands of lawyers, lobbyists, activists, journalists and climate tourists had descended upon the capital. Everybody who was a “climate somebody” - famous or anonymous - was there, eager to be seen, filmed and heard. Handling the “touch-and-go” influx of world leaders on tight schedules, inflated egos and diverging agendas while keeping an eye on climate warriors, hooded trouble-makers, benevolent demonstrators and, the far more sinister potential threat of terrorism, was never going to be easy. The problem is elsewhere.<br />.<br />Reporting live from Copenhagen, a French radio correspondent was critical of the “Danish government's agenda”. The summit could be best described as a “clash of agendas”. Green millionnaire Al Gore came with his carbon trading agenda while poor countries came with "climate justice". Greenpeace with a lot of "climate banners". Behind the world leaders' "climate zeal" lies the naked truth of national interests. To explain President Sarkozy's newly found “vertitude” (green attitude), one needs to look at his many agendas. Hugging Brazilian trees and President Lula da Silva before the conference was primarily a trade-agenda stunt. In the declared war on fossil fuel-generated power, the state-sponsored nuclear industry stands to win a lot. But until lucrative deals are signed, something needs to be done about the state deficit (€1,500 billion). "Climate taxation" is the government's weapon of choice. Some analysts put his eagerness down to resurgent Gallic anti-Americanism, and an attempt at re-invigorating French clout in Africa now wallowing in Obamania. A lot of the "hyper-climatehood" is meant for home consumption too. With upcoming regional elections, the ruling party (UMP) needs to be in a position to counter the rise of the "climate left" (red gone green).<br />.<br />Predictably after weeks of "climate overload", most people are experiencing “climate fatigue”. In the absence of CO2 propaganda, one is strangely left with the realization that for two weeks, “Big Climate brother” had been watching and intruding into our lives. Indeed escaping the eco-moralising disseminated from the moral heights of the summit's bunker and relayed by cheerleading media, was simply impossible. Putting the kettle on for a hot brew suddenly felt like a crime. "Thou shall feel guilty" was the message. According to British journalist Christopher Booker, this is precisely the point. Scaring the populace with "climate alarmism" is how a few can impose their diktat on the rest - and naturally profit from it. Hungarian-born education expert Frank Furedi warns that governments are going down the road of turning kids into "Orwellian eco-spies" (<a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7830/">http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7830/</a>). The fine line between raising environmental consciousness and indoctrination through fear has been crossed.<br />.<br />At times, politicians, activists and UN climate luminaries appeared so engulfed in their apocalypse rhetoric that they looked more like the high priests of a cult than the cool-headed deciders we need to address environmental issues in a sensible way. The UN "climate machin" is an unstoppable train, busy justifying its existence, hiding its "climate tricks" and fittingly driven by a railways engineer Dr. K. Pachauri. Unfortunately bad ideas never die and "climate hype" is now big business. While "climate chaos" was making the headlines, the outcome of the big bang summit was eventually decided by a few leaders. What was the background show (conference) all about one might ask? Outside the bunker in the EU, sovereign debt is mounting, economies stagnating and societies are more fragmented than ever. The prospect of social unrest is very real but leaders keep on pledging money they do not have.<br />.<br />Emerging economies need more development and freer trade, not hand-outs. Europe proposes protectionism of the green kind. "A disastrous idea" says the London-based International Policy Network (IPN) as it will hit poor countries the hardest. Failed international aid is to be revisited into a vague "climate fund". For corrupt recipient governments, this is heart-warming news because the cash will keep coming. For disappointed young activists, a word of comfort. Even with a non-binding agreement, there will be enough jobs for the "climate boys". Why worry then? “Climate crime”, warns Europol, is rising and already costing taxpayers dearly. Soon it will cost lives and those deaths will not be caused by the climate changing - it has been doing so for 4 billion years - but by decisions taken by a handful of people. The list of bad ideas goes on. The British PM with his "meilleur ami" from across the Channel now wants to turn the Union into a global "climate police" (post-conference proposal for a new agency equipped to "snitch" on countries suspected of non-compliance). Soon perhaps UN "climate-enforcing" operations...<br />.<br />Finally there is the central but clearly inconvenient question of the science upon which decisions are being taken. IPCC truth followers and opportunist politicians accuse “other thinkers” - scientists, economists, ordinary folks who dissent - of endangering the survival of humanity. In short of being heretics. This is profoundly disturbing. Yet hope is not completely lost that reason and science may prevail. The French “Academie des Sciences” quietly announced before the summit that there is no scientific consensus on global warming. More voices of reason continue to rise above the politically correct climate brouhaha. The Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) suggests that the British climate research institutes (HadleyCRUT and CRU) have “cherry-picked” (Again?!) temperature data of the vast Russian territory. Given that 75% of available data was not used, the <a href="http://www.iea.ru/article/kioto_order/15.12.2009.pdf">report </a>calls for the IPCC to recalculate temperature increase. This is not “flat-earthing” or “sceptic rant” but what science should be about; reason, questioning, transparency, free and open debate.<br />.<br />To end on a note of optimism, the failure of Copenhagen is in fact a blessing. By putting themselves under the spotlight, the proponents of warmism stood with no clothes for the whole world to see. The climate change agenda is all about high politics and (carbon) money dressed in a lofty moral garb. Is it essentially anti-freedom and anti-progress. Predictably the IPCC will blame politicians for the failed talks and hope to pursue its illiberal agenda unchallenged. We have seen it all before. When the UN fails it huffs and puffs. Then nothing. Or rather business as usual. It too must be held to account, and "climate resignations" should be tendered. The world is not short of talent and new thinking is clearly needed. In the meantime, we can now all get on with life on earth and look forward to the new year without eco-Armageddon.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0