It’s interesting that Emmanuel’s remarks about biased statistics about the French economy in Anglophone publications led to some comments trying to asses the extent to which France is perceived as “the other”, at least as far as “the West” is concerned. There have always been claims about a natural rivalry of the two main “universalist” [...]

Was it just a little more than two years ago that we were slightly agog that the Bush administration was pushing Paul Wolfowitz to lead the World Bank? Indeed it was.
Since then, you may have heard, things at 18th and H Streets have not gone swimmingly. Downright pear-shaped of late. By my count, his Galbraith [...]

On the day following Israel’s national holocaust memorial day, writing in Haaretz, Fania Oz-Salzberger reminds both Israelis and Europeans that, for centuries, Jewish history has been an enriching element of European history. Concerned about the effect of class trips of “roudy groups” of Israeli teenagers to Auschwitz, she recommends trips to Spain instead -
Take the [...]

The Independent’s John Lichfield, writing about Nicolas Sarkozy:
His ideas are based on two simple but accurate diagnoses of France’s economic decline in the past 30 years.
First, France does not work enough. Young people enter the workforce late; experienced people retire early; the standard working week is now just 35 hours. France works an average of [...]

Yet again. Here’s what the BBC has to say in its updated-for-the-upcoming-elections online background article about France:
But France’s economy has grown more slowly than any other developed country in the world. In 2006, its 2% growth was the worst in Europe.
Well, sorry to beat a late parrot, but one year does not a trend make: [...]

Saw this in the news the other day:
Kosovo official escapes death
13 April 2007 | 09:31 | Source: Reuters
PRIŠTINA — Head of Kosovo Telecommunications Agency (KTA) Anton Berisha was the target of a mortar attack on Thursday, a police source said.
“The car was hit by a mortar bomb. A Kosovo police officer is injured. [...]

My comments on the French election posters, which appeared in bulk last weekend with the formal beginning of the campaign, after which strict equal-access rules apply…
The ruling principle is the difference between those who want to be elected, and those for which the style of candidacy is most important.
Those who want to be elected are [...]

Just back from a trip to France, where this quote in a book on the history of Libé struck me:
Le Tiers-Monde commence en banlieue!
The Third World begins in the suburbs, in other words. This was 1972 or thereabouts, and it was a slogan of the very far Left.
Curiously, the same notion is still [...]

Well, sort of. But don’t be scared, gentle readers, I’m not torturing you with a video of myself watching Edward Hugh watching Alex Harrowell watching me watching Edward, thus entirely disregarding the possible value of such a video for media theorists and social psychologists as well as the fact that all the cool kids are [...]

Montenegro initialed a Stabilization and Association Pact with the EU on March 15. That’s a step on the road to EU candidacy.
Nobody outside the Balkans noticed. Even inside the Balkans, nobody got too excited. Montenegro is a small and rather poor country, and EU membership is still years away. Hell, all [...]