Diplomatic Faux Pas

The Obama administration made the decision to withdraw from the highly controversial program to establish military presence in Poland and Czech Republic in form of a ballistic missile shield. The program was officially described as a protection against missiles launched from Iran, but a brief look at the map would have everyone scratching their heads, where those missiles were to be directed. Norway? Finland?
The bottom line is that the program was a tough one to sell and even tougher one to implement, given the lack of the actual proved technology to successfully shot down an active missile. Not to mention the proximity of a former rival and still a military superpower to those planned military installations. Russia from the very beginning was protesting those plans and described them as targeted against them. I have to admit, that I would agree with the Russians on this one. Again, you don't have to take my word for it, just look at the map.

So the plans are no more, the Russians are more happy, the Americans probably even too. So what do the Poles and the Czechs think? As you can imagine, they are not very thrilled. Had the entire situation been handled more diplomatically, perhaps the big disappointment and some anger could have been prevented. But it was exactly the way the announcement was handled, that sparked a lot of negative voices in both Poland and the Czech Republic against the decision and the United States in general. The call was made in the middle of the night, disregarding entirely the time difference, by Hilary Clinton to both prime ministers of the two countries. The Prime minister of Poland, actually refused to take that call and went back to sleep, having his Minister of Foreign Affairs respond to it. I actually think it wasn't a bad idea, given that he knew what the phone call was all about. But the time of the call wasn't really the worst part, it was the date. The announcement was given on September 17th. Little known date on this part of the Atlantic, but in Europe, especially in Poland, it was the date of the invasion of Russia against Poland in a plot with Hitler to wipe out Poland from the map of Europe once again, and effectively support the Nazi Germay in the Second World War.

Pretty ironic coincidence, pretty sad for people in Poland, and very much a diplomatic faux pas. How long more will Polish and Czech troops stay in Iraq and Afghanistan now?

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0

Streatching the Global Trade Muscle

The recent US announcement about an order to impose tariff on Chinese produced tires has little to no consequence to the US-China relations.
First of only, the United States has used it's right to do so. One of the conditions put in place before China could join the World Trade Organization was that it had to accept that the United States could impose such tariffs basically on any of the Chinese imports if it perceive is as a threat. So there you have it.
The Chinese, despite, some protests to the new tariff filed with the WTO, do not have in their best interest damaging the rest of the trade that's going on between the two countries. Neither does the US for that matter.
With China being the largest holder of US international debt, the cooperation between the two countries should be anything but smooth. Further tariffs are unlikely.
So what was the move for, you may ask. It appears thought as the move was to improve the image of President Obama among the US workers, unions and general public. It's all about saving local jobs after all. The fact that only several thousands of jobs are being saved is not really emphasized that much. If the US was to continue on that path, it could destabilize the world financial market. And for the country like United States, just about getting ready to get out of a bad recession, it's the last thing it would want.
In summary, it's simply politics as usual.

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0

70th Anniversary of the World War II

Today is the exact 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the World War II. A lot of the world as we know it has been shaped by the events that occurred 70 years ago. To this day countries, nations and individuals struggle with the memories, need for forgiveness and tragic memories.
The war started in Poland, to be exact in the little town of Westerplatte, which is now the suburbs of Gdansk ( Danzig). The first shots were fired by the German battleship that came with a "friendly" visit to Gdansk and was parked with its guns overlooking the coast. Gdansk at that time was a free town, administered independently from Polish and German authorities, much like Vatican is today. Yet it was surrounded by Polish territory. You can go today to Westerplatte and see the beautiful magnificent monument in memory of those who fought and died there on that day.
The bravery of those who were unsuspectingly attacked and protected the small Polish military post in Westerplatte is probably best visualized by the fact that the Germans allowed the Polish soldiers who finally gave up the fight to surrender with their white weapons on. It was considered an honorable surrender and it was a sign of honoring the defeated by the aggressors. Unfortunately, throughout the rest of the war, that honor was lost.
Today, in Westerplatte, the leaders of over 20 countries that were involved in the war are gathering together to commemorate those who died and the events that took place. In a remarkable scene of unity and forgiveness the leaders of Poland, Germany and Russian are standing side by side, paying their respects. Although we heard it over and over again throughout the history, it's one of those phrases describing wars that deserves repeating no matter what: Let's hope it never happens again.

category: Europe | posted by: Norbert | comments: 1

Logic Behind the Health Care Protests

I found a great article that describes very well the logic that drives a lot of the protestors of the proposed health care reform. It doesn't apply to all of the protestors and there is for sure a great number of people who are genuinely unsatisfied with the way things are turning in this country.
Needless to say, the amount of misinformation often fabricated by those who have a stake in maintaining the status quo, falls on a fruitful ground and often flourishes on its own. Let's take the "birthers" movement or however you call those gathered around that idea. It has been verified over and over again, that President Obama was born in the United States, and yet the "birthers" are chanting their mantra, like their ears were blocked completely from facts.
The quote that resonates with me after reading the entire article is the following:
"... elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests."
The rest is very worth reading.

source: ISN Zurich

category: US domestic | posted by: Norbert | comments: 1

Quote - Leader

"Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position."
- Brian Tracy

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 1

Afghanistan - White Phosphorus Use

Anyone who still doubts that the Taliban is on the rise in Afghanistan and the border region of Pakistan should learn about one of the recetn attacks (July 4, 2009) that the Taliban paramilitaries launched on a small US outpost in Paktika province (Eastern Afghanistan).
The US troop station was a scene of an intensive and sudden attack. The US soldiers were not only outnumbered but were faced with rockets, mortars and artillery projected phosphorus, not to mention light arms. The coalition forces were saved by an air strike that dispersed the attackers, but the scene was left with 2 US solders dead and several others wounded. The use of phosphorus is especially alarming. I can't recall hearing about any such attackers attempted before by the Taliban. It is an indication that they are able to acquire ever more sophisticated weaponry.

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0

Health Care Reform Protests

Health Care Reform is a tough issue for all of us here in the Unites States. We don't want to wait in long lines to get to the specialists, we don't want to lose the coverage for some trivial reason and we also do not want to pay too much for a good health insurance plan. On top of that there are justified concerns about the possibility of government's direct involvement into how the whole health insurance system will work in the future.
That's why I think we should have an opportunity to discuss this issue openly. Not only on TV and radio talk shows, but give everyone a chance to meet with their congressional representatives and hear all the pros and cons. Unfortunately there seems to be an organized effort on part of the conservatives and those who strongly oppose the Obama administration to undermine this whole debate. Lot's of accusations have been made on who stands behind those organized efforts, and it seems like at least some of them are legitimate.
One of the leaders behind those organized efforts is Mr. Rick Scott, a former hospital CEO. He is using his own money and founding from his supporters to run the Conservatives for Patient's Rights movement. He and his supporters are strongly opposing the proposed health care reform put together by the Obama administration. One thing everyone should know about Mr. Scott is that the company that he founded and worked for for many years was fined 1.7 billion dollars in fines, after an investigation into it's illegal practices of over billing state and federal health plans. That is not a mistake, the figure is 1 point seven billion, with a "b", in fines. That is by far the largest fine ever imposed on hospitals. The question I cannot seem to find reasonable answer for is, why do people follow someone who stole that much money from the government, from us, from our tax money???

source: CNN

category: US domestic | posted by: Norbert | comments: 2

Presidential Race - Tough Competition

This will be a bit of political humor. If you ever question the motives of some of the candidates that run for the presidential office, regardless of the country, you will like this. Here is a quote from Nurlan Motuev one of the presidential candidates in the recent presidential election in Kyrgyzstan. He was among the few candidates that were trying to compete with the incumbent President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

"Our programs are largely similar [when commenting on Bakiyev's program], and we don't have anything to argue about. We are like allies who have no disagreements between them. Moreover, I wouldn't want to distract him from his duties."

How nice of him. Bakiyev ultimately won, but it just makes you wonder why that other guy run in the firs place, why wasted his money, time and who knows what else.

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0

Nuclear Club

All over the world people have mixed feelings about the use of atomic energy for both civilian and military purposes. It is very likely though that weather we like it or not, nuclear energy will gradually replace coal and gas as the main sources of energy. There simply isn't enough traditional natural energy resources to fuel the growing world economy. Unless we can figure out how to conquer the renewable resources more effectively and economically, nuclear power plants are the future. Military use is a whole different story and I hope that the world will be able to stop the spread of such weapons. Here is a brief look at some of the statistics:

• 436 - number of operational nuclear power plants in the world
• 31 - number of counties with nuclear power plants
• 104 - number of power plants in the United States
• 59 - number of power plants in France
• 53 - number of power plants in Japan
• China, India, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan - developing countries with nuclear power plants
• 15% of global energy production comes from nuclear power plants
• Westinhouse/Toshiba (US/Japan), Areva (France), Atomenergoprom (Russia) - three companies dominating the market when it comes to supplying civilian energy technology
• URENCO (Great Britain/Germany/The Netherlands), EURODIF (France), the US Enrichment Corporation and TENEX (Russia) - share about 95% of the world supply market for enriched uranium
• 5 - the number of countries that have nuclear powered submarines in their navy (United States, Russia, France, United Kingdom, China and India)

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0

Keeping an Eye on Burma

If you think that trading raw uranium for weapons seems like a recipe for disaster, watch closely what has been happening in Burma. The United States has been pretty silent about the tragedies that have been happening there. This Asian country, formerly knows as Myanmar, is famous for using child soldiers, hunting down ethnic minorities, sex and narcotics trafficking and its paranoid leader. Recently it became even more famous for its tightening relationship with North Korea. It is that country that Burma is accused of exporting raw uranium to. And that's just the stuff that N. Korean badly wants and can't get easily on the open market. So the relationship is growing stronger and with both countries having open access to the ocean, it gives them a relatively easy way to trade.

category: Internatioanl | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0