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

YouTube Banned In:

Armenia, China, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and recently Turkey. These are the countries that ban the popular video-sharing social networking web site owned by Google. Pakistan and Turkey are the most surprising positions on that list. Both countries are democratic and both don't really have oppressive regimes. I have not investigated the reasons behind Pakistan's decision, but in Turkey, government's decision was a clear censorship of information coming from the internet. Other than being very ineffective, it puts criticism on Turkey especially with their aspirations to join the European Union. Looks like Greece won't be Turkey's only problem to overcome before they can be invited to the club.

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

Iceland For Sale

The collapse of the three major Iceland banks initiated the biggest banking collapse in one country in the economic history. Then the stock market in Iceland went down 90%. Couple that with the rapid decline in value of the currency and the recipe for economic disaster is ready.
But wait, did somebody say a crisis creates opportunity? Iceland was offered for sale on eBay. The listing got close to 100 bids and check out some of the questions bidders were asking:

• Do you offer volcano/earthquake insurance?
• Is it possible that my payment will be frozen?
• Will you accept C.O.D. as a form of payment?

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

Kosovo - February 17 Independence Day

"It's Sunday. A Bosnian Serb assassinates a known political figure in the town of Sarajevo, a capital of Bosnia and Hercegovina, just a few hundred miles from Kosovo. It later turns out that the motive was strictly political and the objective was for one of the provinces to break away and gain independence. The assassination was backed by the Serbian military officers."

This short paragraph may seem like a brief news announcement you could hear lately on TV or read about in the newspaper. Things have gotten really unstable in the Balkans again especially after Kosovo declared its independence on February 17, 2008. The province of Kosovo is inhabited by the Albanian majority with a few hundred thousands of Serbs living in enclaves. Up until the declaration it has been part of Serbia and is by many Serbs considered an integral and indeed historically very important part of their country. Kosovo, as an independent country, is still to be acknowledged by the majority of the international community, but it already has the support of most of European Union countries as well as strong backing of the United States. Serbia's stand on the issue is strongly supported by Russia and China, to mention the biggest powers. It seems like the only reason we haven't seen a break of a new military conflict in the Balkans yet, is the fact that the NATO troops are still protecting the newly independent state. It looks like they may need to stay there for a while. There have been massive protests of Serbs oposing Kosovo's independence all throughout Serbia including violent demonstration in the border regions.

The first paragraph of this article is not actually current news. It was however big news but not in February of 2008, but in June of 1914. The known political figure was the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his assassination has led directly to the outbreak of the First World War. Over 40 million people died including hundreds of thousands of American troops and the whole continent of Europe was in the state of war for 4 devastating years.

The Balkans have a history of being a fruitful ground for regional and international conflicts. The declaration of independence of Kosovo should be handled very carefully by the international community. Otherwise things could easily get out of control and who knows what could happen next.

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

Free Kosovo - divided Europe

The United Europe idea is being challenged again. Even though Serbia is not yet part of the European Union, there are not so distant plans to invite them to the EU. For the moment a reverse process seems to be in action. It looks like Kosovo, currently part of Serbia, is getting ready to declare its independence over this holiday season. Despite protest from the Serbian government and Russia, the separation will most likely take place within the next couple of weeks. Kosovo is inhabited mostly by Albanians (90%) and only about 10% of the population are Serbs. After the military conflicts in the Balkans in the nineties, the international community has every reason to be concerned about such a move. What actually enables Kosovo to go ahead and separate from Serbia is a large military presence on NATO peace-keeping forces in that region. Additionally in light of recent development, the European Union has decided to send a few hundreds of policemen into Kosovo to support the international peace-keeping effort.
The future of the European Union is questioned by some analysts. Main reason is the national and ethnic identity confrontations which lead to many tragic outcomes in the past. Since its creation the European Union has been extremely careful about protecting the rights of national and ethnic minorities. Despite those efforts, it seems like groups that have enough resources; support and often courage try to break away. Even today, at the very heart of the EU, in Belgium, the north of the country (Flanders) wants to separate from the southern part (Wallonia). Czechoslovakia had to split into Czech Republic and Slovakia before each was invited to join the EU. The Union is definitely moving forward from political and economic point of view, but the separatist movements in some of the member and neighboring countries cut right into the heart of the idea that united Europe in the first place.

source: BBC News

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

Prime Minister Putin

It is now almost certain that Putin will become the Prime Minister of Russia after the next year's presidential election. He announced publicly on Monday that if the people of Russia chose Medvedev for the next president, he will be ready to change the title. He already has the endorsement of Mr. Medvedev, just like Medvedev has previously been endorsed by Putin. Right now it looks like nothing would be able to change that course. Russia doesn't have a strong enough opposition to challenge the status quo. The policy of Putin's government has prevented anybody from gaining significant political support. Things are being run hard handed centrally from Kremlin by a narrow group of people all loyal to the current president.
Is this a good thing for Russia? Things have definitely improved for the Russians over the last decade. The country was able to pay off it's international debt, people enjoy higher incomes. I think the question people should ask is whether things could improve even more had the political system been fully transparent and democratic. Russia remains a major international power player and nobody has the resources to openly interfere with its domestic situation. It would be a political and most likely an economic death sentence. For now all hope that things will develop towards a positive direction for the people in Russia rests mainly in the hands of NGO's and other non-state organizations. Unsurprisingly, those political actors are under a very careful eye and scrutiny of Putin's governing system.

source: International Herald Tribune

category: Europe | posted by: Norbert | comments: 4

Putin - the next move

The biggest question after the victory of United Russia party in the December 2nd parliamentary election is now what the next step for Putin is. Some speculate he may change the constitution to allow himself run for another term in the office. Others say he will simply increase the power of the Prime Minister and become one, after his presidential term expires. One way or the other it does not look like he is going to step down from being the head of Russia. In politics hardly anything ever happens without a reason. As things seemed to be carefully thought out in Russia, coincidentally, in another part of the world, but in a country with similar democracy issues, people were expressing their opinion about their confidence in Mr. Hugo Chavez. He also wants to keep the power in his hands after his second and last presidential term expires. The people in Venezuela voted and they said he cannot be a president any more, no changes to the constitution. Should this come as a surprise? Unless things happen for a reason, unless Mr. Chavez already predicted that and he has a plan for that. Personally I would not be surprised. The only sure thing is that we will learn soon what both of the leaders will do.

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

Polish Twins

Poland has had an unprecedented situation for the last couple of years. The two main political offices of the country: President and Prime Minister have been occupied by twin brothers: Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski respectively. This has been unheard of in our modern times. As amusing as the situation may seem to the outsiders, it has produces a rather negative impact on polish domestic and international politics. A good argument supporting that was October parliamentary elections. The Law and Justice, the Kaczynski party, lost and had to give up the Prime Minister post. Although Lech Kaczynski still remains the president until December 2010, he has been criticized by many for his lack of international relations skills. He definitely does not have the open personality of previous president of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski (1995-2005). Mr. Kwasniewski was publicly viewed as a great ambassador of Polish interest abroad. During his presidency Poland joined both NATO and the European Union. As far as domestic affairs are concerned it still remains to be seen how the new political situation in Poland will develop. Donald Tusk, the new Prime Minister, has been a devoted critic of the Kaczynski doctrine and now they are on the same side of the border when it comes to governing the country. Fortunately for Poland and Poles the economy is doing great. Pretty much all of the economic indicator are better than those in other Western European countries. Poland remains to be a safe and stable economic environment.

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