Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen Sundaymorning
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Politics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few words about the opening ceremony of the olympics in Beijng:

" Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met here Sunday morning with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, who attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on Friday night."

<snip> 

"the world had seen China's efforts in preparing for the Games and the opening ceremony was very successful.

    He said although he wasn't born when Helsinki hosted the Olympics, he knew the Games' significance to the Finnish people.

    "So I totally understand the significance of the Beijing Games to the Chinese people, and I firmly believe the Games will be a success," he said."

 

Will Estonians re-elect depression and awfulness?
Mood:  silly
Topic: Politics

Estonia will get a new president soon, hopefully. Next Monday the first round of elections will take place, and if it fails, the second round will be held in September.

Quite likely the sitting president, Arnold Rüütel, will get enough votes to go to the second round. He is the candidate of left-centrist parties in Estonia, where most of the ex-communists are influencing as well.

The younger generation is behind Estonian former foreign affairs minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves. And the younger generation also blogs. This fact made it possible to draw up a Google stunt, done before also to G.W.Bush. Namely, if you type into Google "miserable failure", the engine presents a couple of pictures of Bush and the first result is Bush's curriculum vitae.

Two parties in Estonia have got now the same annoyance: the word "masendav" (depressing) finds first the Estonian Centre Party and the word "kohutav" (awful) gives you first the Estonian People's Union. Both of them are leftist supporters of Rüütel.

 

Is Finlands presidential agenda a paranoid manifesto?
Mood:  d'oh
Now Playing: the Simpsons
Topic: Politics
Evgeny Morozov of Sharp and Sound calls the agenda that Finland has drafted for its six-month EU presidency 'The Paranoid Manifesto':
"Finland, embarking on a million little things but ducking the debate on big issues, has chosen the "overwork yourself to death—it will take your mind off all the important issues" track. "

and

"Whatever good initiatives the Finns might prepare, they will follow the fate of the service directive: prepared in good faith to tackle the EU's economic problems—and then eviscerated of any substance, to fit the needs of the member states."

and

"With pro-globalization presidencies like Finland's, for six months EU feels like Hong Kong. But then, when the big powers assume their laurels, everything returns to normal—and Europe is back to being Pyongyang.


Until the EU sets up a framework to replace the constitution, any efforts at real leadership by individual members will be wasted. The Finns would be wiser to drop their ambitions plans and use their workaholic zeal to fill in the legal vacuum left by the rejections of the constitution."

It's a good and informative read on the presidential role of Finland in the EU over the coming 6 months.

European Parliament Is Wasting Money
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: the Office
Topic: Politics
..Now there is a surprising headline.. ;)

As is commonly known within the European Parliament, it has become common practice to move the entire Parliament, all it's people, and a nearly complete office inventory from Brussels to Strasbourg EVERY MONTH for a couple of days.

The bill for this nomadic form of governing is roughly estimated to be about 200 million euro's per year, to be paid for by, ultimately, us taxpayers.

Several Euro Parliament members of different parties have now taken the initiative to end ths ridiculous waste of money; and for this they need 1 million people to sign their petition in order to put this topic on the agenda of the European Commission.

Within 2 days almost 25,000 autographs have been received, but this number should be 1 million, so please support this campaign by surfing to www.oneseat.eu, and sign the petition against this outrageous waste of money!

Free Europe Covers European Constitution Debate
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Politics

In the darkest days of the Cold War, in the early 1950s, the international broadcast station Radio Free Europe started broadcasting to the Soviet-occupied and Soviet-controlled countries of Europe. "Its mission was - and still is - 'simply to tell the truth'. "The broadcasts were to bring listeners objective news, discussion and commentary in order to give them the information they needed to form sound judgments about their situation and their aspirations for freedom and independence."

So, You Thought The European Consitution Was Dead, Did You? "Two years from now, the European constitution will be in force - certainly de facto and probably de jure, too. Never mind that 15 million Frenchmen and five million Hollanders voted against it. The Eurocrats have worked out a deft way of getting around them. Here's how they will do it." The dead EU Constitution rises to haunt again "The majority in the Finnish Parliament and all parties except a small minority of individuals want the EU Constitution now. We only heard one single voice of opposition during our visit: Timo Soini of the True Finns party. Everyone else was pleased with the Constitution, which I doubt most of them have even read."