Marelles: European Politics

Happy 2012

2012-01-18T11:02:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year! OK, it is horribly late... But I wish you all a pleasant new year 2012. I especially wish it to be better than 2011, which was an execrable year in so many ways. New year means new good resolutions. This apple is there as a symbol of sound(er) eating and healthy diet... Enjoy! Tweet

Two Party System

2011-10-07T17:34:00.004+02:00

Democracy (as understood in the Western concept of the word) has existed in all kinds of ways and institutional constructions. All of these constructions have included the idea that one of the fundamental rights of the citizens was to organize themselves in political structures conveniently called "parties". Gathering of people interested in the same ideas, as well as vehicles for the personal

European solidarity?

2011-10-06T14:33:00.000+02:00

Greece, the land where democracy was invented, entered the European Union in 1981. While we Europeans are all confronted to the worst existential crisis since the Rome treaty, Greece has taken the brunt of it. I am using the word "existential" on purpose, to avoid "economic". Indeed, I want to prove, by use of the Greek example, that the crisis we are currently experiencing is only economic in

Security Council

2011-10-05T08:06:00.001+02:00

So yesterday, Russia and China vetoed a very mild United Nations resolution including sanctions threats on Syria. The resolution was a typical concoction by Western countries, aimed at the Syrian military regime. Nothing too harsh, mind you, not just to appease Moscow and Beijing, but also for reasons linked to the complex Syrian internal mix-up as well as the regional maze of interests. Yet,

Graphic changes

2011-10-04T11:37:00.000+02:00

This week, i have decided to work on my blog again. I am happy to see that Blogger added all kinds of new features. One of the most important for me is the possibility to add fixed pages to it (like with WordPress). This way, I don't need to maintain two different sites any more (the old fixed one and the blog). So from now on, you will be able to discover my photography work on display by

Google+

2011-07-15T12:10:00.003+02:00

Dear readers, I discovered Google+ a couple of days ago, thanks to my good friend Draz. I have to say that I am quite impressed by Page's team work on this. I know, one should not compare it to Facebook, because it was not intended to compete with it. Yeah, right... It does a lot of stuff that Facebook does not do too well, or similar stuff but slightly better. To be completely honest, it also

Dutch Army plans revisited

2011-03-17T09:48:00.005+01:00

Tweet Dear readers, My girlfriend had a funny remark this morning about the Dutch armed forces. Apparently, the new defence budget of the Netherlands includes no replacement for its tanks or transport helicopters. She said: "what is the point of a modern army without tanks? They really should get rid of it completely if they can't do it seriously". I had to laugh but to give her the point. I

Revolution extended

2011-03-01T14:49:00.004+01:00

Tweet Dear readers, It is a weakness of traditional media and particularly TV stations to select and filter information in a way which will hold in a traditional 25 minutes news bulletin. Unfortunately, this means that most channels and even newspapers will simply let some important pieces fall from the prime time news. This get even worse when there is abundance of events. No time was a better

Europe and the Middle-East revolution

2011-02-22T10:27:00.003+01:00

Dear readers, After this very long pause in writing, I have been motivated by the Middle-East revolutions to put out this new piece. The main reason was my total disgust feeling when watching the reaction of European institutions and European countries to the insurrection. I am not going to elaborate too much, but suffice to say that these reactions have varied from worried indifference to the

Denuclearization

2010-04-23T09:45:00.003+02:00

Dear readers, The BBC reports that Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's chief, declared that NATO should retain nuclear capacities as long as there would be rogue regimes and terrorists threatening the Alliance. He added that such threats also made a serious anti-missile defense system all the more important. While I completely agree with mister Rasmussen's second statement, the first one is, to say

Blacksmiths of Lebanon offline?

2010-01-21T21:42:00.002+01:00

Dear readers,Looks like the website Blacksmiths of Lebanon has gone into hiding. Strangely, it is now an invitation only site. That sounds bizarre for te rather outspoken collective of Lebanese bloggers behind the site. If anyone has news about these gentlemen, please comment. I am actually a little bit worried.

2009 Review before 2010 wishes

2009-12-31T12:26:00.002+01:00

Dear readers, I have been a very bad blogger in 2009, inflicting only a couple of blog posts on you. I am very ashamed of this, so I decided to finish this year with something useful. So for all of you living in Rotterdam, Dutchies of Alochtones, here is a couple of tips from my 2009 experience to use in 2010 (and some shameful publicity for some friends of mine). * Restaurant (classic): Met de

Will we pluck the chicken or kill it?

2009-08-21T11:21:00.005+02:00

Dear readers,I have listened with disgust to many of the comments made in the UK and in the Netherlands about the so-called Icesave deal. This is a nasty piece of chauvinistic bullshit if there is one. Let's go back to the facts. In 2007 and 2008, many Dutch and British citizens (as well as most Icelandic people) subscribed to Landbanski saving accounts which were proposing extraordinary returns,

Android Review

2009-08-19T11:37:00.006+02:00

Dear readers,As some of you might now, I got myself a new mobile phone while renewing my phone subscription. After long and careful consideration about which phone was on offer by my provider, as well as my own budget (which is as usual on the tight side), I decided to go for the much touted HTC G2 "Hero". The important thing about this phone is not just the specifications, but the operating

There Is Honor Amongst Thieves

2009-08-17T13:54:00.002+02:00

Dear readers,I read this morning that Mikhail Khodorovski has refused to request the pardon of Dimitri Medvedev, as hinted by the current Russian President. Khodorovski is doing an 8 year jail term in Russia for alleged tax evasion and he is being currently tried for a second set of fraud and embezzlement accusations. This second set is just as likely to end up in a conviction and a maximum 20

Sarkozy Speech in Le Havre

2009-07-21T13:06:00.004+02:00

Dear readers,As you are probably aware of, if you have followed this blog from the beginning (poor you), I am interested in maritime transport, from a professional point of view. I have worked in various positions for maritime companies or suppliers and I am still currently employed by a container shipping line.So I had quite some expectations about the much touted new French policy regarding the

Mauritania election "fair"?

2009-07-20T15:15:00.005+02:00

Dear readers,I have been following the Mauritanian elections, both via the BBC site and the excellent analysis from The Moor Next Door. So I have been a bit surprised by Le Monde latest reaction to the very expected "victory" of putschist General Ould Abdel Aziz. Of course, Le Monde simply and factually quotes a civil servant of the Quay d'Orsay (French Foreign Office) and adds together the

Thou Shalt Not Kill

2009-07-14T13:33:00.004+02:00

Dear readers,If the Senate hearings of Sonia Sotomayor weren't in full proceedings, the other piece of news which would be on top of the US and not just international press would be the new Cheney scandal. Apparently, Dick Cheney would have prevented or delayed disclosure of a CIA program to send assassination teams against specific Al Qaeda targets. The whole problem is not the killings, from a

The Witcher review

2009-07-12T17:25:00.003+02:00

Dear readers,Because it is Sunday and I have no energy left for a clever article, here is a review of a video game I am currently playing: The Witcher. Before anyone complains about this review, please have a look at this other blog: Terminally Incoherent, and particularly these posts, to which I subscribe entirely. Let's face it, I consider Morrowind (TES III, by Bethesda Softworks) to be the

Ireland will vote on Lisbon in October... again

2009-07-09T10:21:00.006+02:00

Dear readers,The Irish government just declared that a new referendum will be hold on the Lisbon Treaty in October this year. Although this time, analysts and polls suggest that the yes should win, the Irish Ministries in charge have left nothing to chance. Most interestingly, they have provided a website to explain the treaty in plain and understandable English. This is, I think, a great move.

Google Takes on the fight

2009-07-08T12:08:00.005+02:00

Dear readers,Google announced yesterday on its blog the launching of a "new OS", on the netbook market segment. The name of this Android bigger brother is Google Chrome OS. I could not ignore this, as it touches some of my favourite topics: computers, software, gaming and also economics. But first a couple of comments: Google clearly aims at Microsoft quasi monopoly (although on the netbook

So far so near

2009-07-08T10:47:00.003+02:00

I have been away far too long from this blog. It is not that I have nothing to say, it is just that I have so little time.Anyway, I am back from a good French holidays. Two weeks in family, having quality time, relaxing and generally enjoying good summer weather and the countryside.I am going to start posting again about Europe soon. I might also from time to time drop in some rants about my

Global Voices Advocacy

2009-05-13T07:39:00.002+02:00

Dear readers,This blogger has always been a big fan of Global Voices, an initative promoting blogging in different languages and different regions. Zemanta is a campaign to help special causes to blogger.I vote for Global Voices Advocacy, because I think it is a major tool and organisation in the fight for freedom of expression. Freedom of expression gets more and more threatened all over the

Libertas lies, Libertas lies, Libertas is American

2009-04-19T13:20:00.004+02:00

Dear readers,I have been away for a while. Sorry about that. I'll try to be more regular, although I would make no promise. This post is a reaction to something I noticed while recently using Google Reader. I was reading feeds from Slate, the Democrat's US news website when I realized what was the advertisement joined to each post (provided by Google Ad and in Dutch). Because it was about

European marine defence

2008-10-24T09:17:00.000+02:00

Dear readers,As you probably know, Europe has no defence forces, stricto sensu, and of course even less of a navy. Of course, the European Union website will tell you otherwise, and I am aware of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CSFP). But such a policy is very deceptive in its name as well as its definition. First, it is not really as common as it says it is, and, second, it is more an