Those who want a break from all the introspection over terrorism could do worse than let their minds run free on the implications of what is happening in China and India, or puzzle about holiday destinations now that the euro is going down while some other destinations are evidently seeing the value of their money rise.

Mala leche (nothing to do with the CAP) we would probably call it here in Spain, bad blood (again not connected with mad cows) might be the English expression. We’re all off to Singapore apparently, and the fair ground side-show seems to be up and running. On this one I’m impartial, I’m being very pc and rooting for Madrid. Results known tomorrow.

“I think the Paris stadium is a wonderful stadium. I really like going there to watch rugby but unfortunately rugby is not part of the Olympics”

“I think that to deserve victory you have to respect the Olympic spirit and demonstrate fair play…..One good thing about the Stade de France is that it exists”

“The only thing they have done for European agriculture is ‘mad cow (disease)…”You can’t trust people who have such lousy cooking” labelling British cooking the worst in Europe apart from that of Finland. (No, this wasn’t Berlusconi ).

Paris is the bookies’ favourite at 4-9 right now.

A few days back I had a post, Iraq’s Legacy, which dealt with the issue of whether or not the continuing Iraq war was in fact serving to increase the level of international terrorism, and whether at the end of the day we might not be left with a bigger headache than the one we started out with. During the ensuing debate in comments we had a kind of guided tour round a lot of the associated issues, including the one of when you might, and might not, negotiate with terrorists. Well today we have this news, which also helps us put the heroic efforts of Spain’s current government to bring Eta to the negotiating table and away from guns into some sort of perspective. (Zapatero struggles on regardless, despite intense criiticism from the opposition Partido Popular, and despite the ongoing efforts of Eta itself to make life as difficult as it can for him).

All those ‘O’s and ‘C’s, I just couldn’t resist it. So what the hell is this one about. Well, something quite important really. They are oil companies, and one of them is in China. Brad Setser has a great post on it. The issue is what China is starting to do with all those surplus dollars and euros she is accumulating:

“One of China’s largest state-controlled oil companies made a $18.5 billion unsolicited bid Thursday for Unocal, signaling the first big takeover battle by a Chinese company for an American corporation. The bold bid, by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation ( CNOOC), may be a watershed in Chinese corporate behavior, and it demonstrates the increasing influence on Asia of Wall Street’s bare-knuckled takeover tactics.

The offer is also the latest symbol of China’s growing economic power and of the soaring ambitions of its corporate giants, particularly when it comes to the energy resources it needs desperately to continue feeding its rapid growth.”

Politically incorrect as ever, Samuel Brittan asks an interesting question in today’s FT: have we got it wrong on China. Have Western leaders so obsessed themselves with the need to lecture China on what they should be doing with the Renminbi that we are missing a historic opportunity to put pressure on them about human rights and democracy issues?

“Western statesmen have every duty to remind Chinese leaders of their still appalling human rights record ? from the Tiananmen Square massacre to the occupation of Tibet and the continued veneration of Chairman Mao, who has been exposed as a killer on the level of Hitler and Stalin.

Unfortunately, they have gone quiet on these issues and have instead lectured the Chinese on the need to revalue the renminbi. It is not as if China were making a mess of its economy. On the contrary, it has a higher growth rate than any country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. And, far from appealing for handouts from the west, it is one of the main sources of the financial inflows sustaining the US economy“.

This issue has, I think, been obvious for some time now.

“A new classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Qaeda’s early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.

The assessment, completed last month and circulated among government agencies, was described in recent days by several Congressional and intelligence officials. The officials said it made clear that the war was likely to produce a dangerous legacy by dispersing to other countries Iraqi and foreign combatants more adept and better organized than they were before the conflict.”

Which makes the problems raised in this post all the more preoccupying.