Archive for category Politics
Ireland votes Yes
So Ireland voted Yes in second referendum about the Lisbon treaty (link). The first time the said No but that was accepted by the politicians. Does that mean that their can be a third vote? Maybe one because not enough people voted or not enough people voted Yes?
Do I hear somebody say; Fraud?
Privacy of Europeans is sold
The European Commission has decided that the US should have access to transaction data of Europeans on the Swift network. Nobody asked the national parliaments, nobody asked the European parliament. Who is being screwed?
Member of Parliament resigns over past as environmental activist
This week Wijnand Duyvendak resigned as member of the Dutch Parliament. The reason was an upcoming publication of his book in which Wijnand revealed his past as environmental activist. He admitted to have been involved with the burglary of the Ministry of Economic affairs in which documents were removed about the plans to build new nuclear facilities. Something he had always denied. He is also brought in relationship with the publication of private addresses of top government officials and the call to harass these people. At the addresses of the officials windows were broken, gasoline were poured into the houses and cars damaged.
Wijnand was surprised about the level of uproar his revelations resulted in.
Yes, very surprising, and very surprising that you think you can get away with it and make a buck on the side with the publication of a book about it.
Dutch Government ratifies the Lisbon treaty
The Dutch government decided to ratify the Lisbon treaty. Last time the Dutch population said No against the “new European constitution” in a referendum. This time the government and parliament decided not to ask the Dutch people and stuff it down our throat.
Europe: Germany has to reconsider its position
Peter Gauweiler, member of the German Bundestag has asked the German Bundesverfassungsgericht (the highest legal council in Germany) to review the Lisbon treaty and decide whether it is legal yes or no. Peter Gauweiler thinks the treaty is not in line with German democratic principles. Experts think he has a good chance on success.
China says it will meet Dalai Lama’s representative – International Herald Tribune
This sounds like good news.
Is China getting the message?
China says it will meet Dalai Lama’s representative – International Herald Tribune
Mugabe rival ‘clear victor’
Finally, the BBC news reports that Mugabe rival was the ‘clear victor’ of the ellections. Something we allready knew.
The Olympic flame
Today the Olympic flame was shown in Paris. The flame was extinguished three times before it was rushed to the relay’s endpoint [link to BBC article].
I don’t think it will change the method of economic imperialism used by the Chinese government. Maybe it will make them more careful but it won’t change them.
Free Tibet campaign
What is happening in Tibet right now reminds me of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. If we are now carefull this will be just another example of China’s imperialisme and how it steps on human rights.
BBC NEWS | Politics | UK bans non-EU unskilled workers
It looks like to UK is introducing Dutch (Verdonk) like measures.
Do national payment systems get another chance?
The EU’s antitrust chief Neelie Kroes warned banks on Monday that a new payment system should not be allowed to cut down choice or increase costs for customers.
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Kroes suggested that national card payment schemes should be encouraged to join the SEPA scheme because that would introduce and increase competition to the benefit of merchants and customers.
The EU competition commissioner said she was working hard to wrap up an ongoing antitrust case against MasterCard Inc. The European Commission last year charged the credit card provider with illegal price fixing for setting the fees retailers must pay for accepting MasterCard and Maestro branded cards, saying this limits competition between banks who use the xservice.
“We want this decision to provide the industry with a solid competition analysis of the MIF as applied by MasterCard,” she said.
Kroes earlier signaled that Visa may also face further trouble ahead. In 2002 it won a temporary exemption from EU antitrust rules that allowed it to strike deals on interchange fees with banks that it might usually compete with.
This exemption expires at the end of the year and Kroes said in October that she was unlikely to simply extend it, warning that she had “the feeling that something should be done.”
Regulators have criticized the high level of these fees, saying card networks like Visa, MasterCard and American Express have failed to explain why they need to charge so much for handling payments.
This could mean that national systems could get another chance. Good!
Dutch Identity
The WRR (Scientific Council for Government Policy) recently presented the result of a study about the Dutch Identity. The report, entitled “Identification with the Netherlands”, was presented to the public by princess Maxima, the wife of the Dutch crown prince. Central point in her speech was the conclusion that “the typical Dutch identity” does not exist and cannot be captured in one dimensional characterizations.
Unfortunately, the report also made a connection between Dutch Identity and having more than one passport, something which I think is not related.
What is an Identity? Is it the common habits of a group of people, the language, the food they eat, the history they share, their religion? Yes and No. Identity is something you feel part off or you feel related to.
Just make the suggestion to a Dutchman that the Netherlands should be disbanded and made a province of Germany. Then you will see what the Dutch identity is.
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