Monday, 31 January 2011
Is the protest over in Egypt aka is the BBQ of secret documents over?
Interesting blog article in The Economist on the correlation between the length in time of the protest and the time it will take to destroy a fair amount of secret documents by the incumbent Egyptian government
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Fiscal austherity in the UK: TINA embarasses the government at Davos
The UK government faced a harder question time than expected about its fiscal austherity plan by journalists in the World Economics Forum at Davos. "Is there really no alternative" (TINA, a popular acronym among politicians in the UK) to a fiscal belt tightening in the UK?" is the hottest question by journalists. Paul Krugman suggested that the UK government is wrong-footed in his column in the New York Times some months ago. Has the message crossed the Atlantic? Should somebody place it in a bottle!? Or perhaps remind the UK government about what happens in the long run (see bullet point # 2 in the link) according to Mr J. M. Keynes!?
Saturday, 29 January 2011
2011 World Economic Forum in Davos: leaders and laggards
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, leader economy Germany sent the Chancellor Merkel to warn countries worldwide about another potential crisis . This is not a path breaking innovation, though it may not hurt re-emphasising that the crisis may not be over (repetita iuvant) and the German government stands in a good position to send reminders after credibly turning the domestic economy around. As per laggards, apperently Italy and its underperforming economy had little reputation to speak. Hence, a non-public meeting was instead organised to warn entrepreneurs of the risks that the country is running due to its poor governance and sluggish growth, as per a report in the Italian press . The Italian finance minister Tremonti had called a press conference and could not attend the meeting: correlation or causation!?
Immigration policy in the 21st century: a click in Italy and a random draw in the US
The fastest immigrants in applying for a residence permit in in Italy will get it next Monday . Is this aimed at making the immigration policy fair and efficient or instead at screening those immigrants with greatest talent for IT!? In the USA, one applies for permanent residence (Green Card) which is allocated by drawing randomly from the pool of all applicants. Is anyone possibly scared by randomisations in Italy? ... TBC
Big Bang 2, Pope said: "Priests should marry & be merry!
Documents from an archive in Germany show that Pope Ratzinger was in favour of marriage for priests in the '70s, as per a report in the Italian press . Was this totally unpredictable? Perhaps not if one reads about the long exchange of ideas by J. Ratzinger and H. Kuhn, fellows in theology studies. A summary of their disagreements is in a recent open letter by Kuhn to Catholic bishops worldwide
Blog big bang and democracy in Egypt!
I could not help starting a blog on the day in which Egypt fights to break the "Berlin wall" !
On the case, the US Department of State supports fundamental right of expression and assembly for all people. Michael Posner (Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor) calls on the Egyptian government to restore the Internet and cell-phone service
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