Sclerotic, Old Europe: a Myth · 28 October 2007, 09:56 CET by Charles Vermeulen
In ‘Europe’s "blue card" plan. Not the ace in the pack’ a small article in this week’s The Economist the weekly explains why only ‘a paltry 1.7%’ of the EU’s workforce are highly qualified non-Europeans whereas in the US more than 3% of the employed population are highly skilled foreigners, in Canada more than 7% and in Australia even more than 10% and the blue card probably won’t fix this. First of all, because ‘many European governments’ will religiously guard their migration policies against EU attempts to harmonise them. Secondly, because European economies aren’t attractive enough. That is, ’(a)s long as those economies remain relatively undynamic, the most talented (especially English-speakers) will use their wits to look for work elsewhere’. Unfortunately the magazine underpins neither this thesis nor its diagnosis of the current state of the European economy. By ‘undynamic’, however, I assume it especially refers to the Rhinelandic, European welfare state, which it probably perceives as a drag on the EU economy.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled ‘5 Myths About Sick Old Europe’, however, Steven Hill shows that the European economy is actually doing pretty well and that its welfare state shouldn’t be conceived as an impediment to growth and dynamics, but, on the contrary, as a system that is ‘geared toward keeping everyone healthy and working’, ‘an ingenious framework in which the economy finances the social system to support families and employees in an age of globalized capitalism that threatens to turn us all into internationally disposable workers’. Click here to read how Hill pitches into this and four other ‘myths about sick old Europe’.
blue card,
china,
competitiveness,
eu,
europe,
old europe,
rhineland,
steven hill,
welfare state
Plea for more European Cooperation · 6 August 2007, 14:39 CET by Charles Vermeulen
In an interview in M (August 2007, pages 10-13), Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad’s monthly, British politician / diplomat Paddy Ashdown states that the United States will turn into a disconcerted and inward-looking country after withdrawing from Iraq. What does this mean for Europe? Ashdown provides the opponents for more European integration in the fields of foreign policy and defence with something to chew on:
(Note that I had to translate Ashdown’s words from Dutch into English, while the Dutch version of his words is in turn a translation from English into Dutch, because, unfortunately, the Dutch version was the only version that was available to me.)
ashdown,
china,
europe,
european cooperation,
european integration,
paddy ashdown,
russia
On Africa's Growing Geopolitical Importance · 16 June 2007, 14:18 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Instability in the Middle East which threatens to spill over to Africa, ‘resource nationalism’ in Russia and South America, the growing importance of Africa’s west coast oil fields to Europe and the U.S. and China’s rising presence in the region – all compell the U.S. to form a new Africa strategy in which oil and counter-terrorism will be the key components and which will culminate in the establishment of Africom, a unified military command for Africa that must be operational before mid-2008. Read more about it in Christopher Thompson’s ‘The Scramble for Africa’s Oil’, a report in the New Statesman.
africa,
africa strategy,
africom,
china,
europe,
oil,
resource nationalism,
russia,
united states
On Populism in the Netherlands · 23 April 2007, 20:38 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Two interesting statements both dealing with populism in the Netherlands I came upon in respectively last Saturday’s edition of Dutch newspaper NRC handelsblad and in Dutch weekly newsmagazine De Groene Amsterdammer (April 20, 2007, number 16, ‘Het Journalistendrama’, pages 24-26):
To start with, a statement by Bas Heijne in his column in NRC Handelsblad. In it Heijne argues that further European integration requires that nationalism, which is going through a rebirth in the Netherlands, shouldn’t be repressed but instead should be given some space. For nationalists and populists only gain from attempts to thwart them, from what he calls ‘the mysophobia of a not understanding elite which deems every trace of nationalism a form of treachery and every form of regionalism a form of backwardness’.
Secondly, a statement by Pieter van Os. According to Van Os the following rethoric figure of speech has become popular in the Netherlands lately: ‘It might be that everybody says B, but I say A, although only few would impugn A. That is: take a fashionable stance and then claim that you’re brave enough to do so, against the stream.’
bas heijne,
european integration,
nationalism,
netherlands,
pieter van os,
populism
On China's Role in International Trade · 26 October 2006, 19:45 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Today I came upon two interesting reports which both seem to underline once more China’s role in international trade. To start with a recent survey by Loyens & Loeff, ‘an independent full service law firm with integrated corporate law and tax practices’ based in the Benelux, which showed that Chinese investors ‘favour Europe for expansion (60%) over the United States (43%) and Asia (29%) and that ’[w]ithin Europe, the preferred countries are the Netherlands and Germany (22%), followed by France (18%) and Belgium-Luxembourg (16%)’. Furthermore, it appeared from the survey that ‘Chinese investors hope primarily to acquire distribution networks and access to new markets’.
Secondly, I came upon a report published today by Voice of America according to which China has stated that it ‘is negotiating as many as 2,500 trade deals with some 40 African nations ahead of a Sino-African summit in Beijing next week’. The report also pointed to the fact that ‘China is looking to [Africa] as a source of energy, new markets and investment opportunities’, but ‘unlike with the U.S. or the European Union, China buys from Africa far more than it sells’.
africa,
beijing,
china,
europe,
germany,
international trade,
loyens & loeff,
netherlands,
sino-african summit,
united states
Terrorism and the US invasion of Iraq · 16 January 2006, 21:34 CET by Charles Vermeulen
In an interview with Paul Bremer in the last week’s Monday edition of the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad the former ‘the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority’ was asked whether the war in Iraq fostered terrorism. According to Bremer this question illustrates the lack of understanding in Europe of ‘the new terrorism’, which confronts the US with muslim terrorists who want to kill Americans by the thousands. This implies that the US cannot wait for the next terrorist attack; they have to act before they’re attacked. Failing to see this is caused by Europe’s standstill. Europe isn’t aware of this new threat and therefore it has a problem. By disqualifying Europe and its efforts to counter terrorism again a representative of the Bush government tries to distract the public’s attention from the fact that it has never been proven that Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks were somehow supported by the regime of Saddam Hussein.
9/11,
al-qaeda,
bremer,
coalition provisional authority,
europe,
iraq,
paul bremer,
saddam hussein,
terrorism
EU Protectionism against Chinese Textile · 4 September 2005, 07:34 CET by Charles Vermeulen
In the yesterday edition of Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok warns the European Union member states not to lapse in protectionism, referring to the conflict about textile between China and the EU. For eventually protectionism will destroy ‘economic welfare’. [NRC Handelsblad, Friday, September 9, 2005, ‘De rest van de wereld wacht echt niet op de EU’ (‘The rest of the world really won’t wait for the EU’), page 9.]
One day earlier Pierre Lano, member of the board of directors of FEBELTEX, an organization representing the Belgian textile industry, raised the opposite point of view that there is no question of free trade between China and the EU too as long as Chinese textile is mainly produced by subsidized enterprices. This, among other things, makes import quotas on Chinese textile only wise, according to Lano. [NRC Handelsblad, Thursday, September 8, 2005, ‘Wees niet blind voor Chinese draak’ (‘Don’t be blind for Chinese dragon’), page 8.]
china,
chinese textile,
eu,
european union,
febeltex,
free trade,
import quotas,
pierre lano
Eager to Start on Second Term · 21 January 2005, 14:21 CET by Charles Vermeulen
It’s been somewhat more than a year ago that neoconservative Robert Kagan described the balance of power between the United States and Europe as follows in his ‘Of Paradise and Power. America and Europe in the New World Order’ (New York 2003):
Next week Condoleezza Rice will be confirmed as Secretary of State in the second Bush administration. During a hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations last Tuesday she stated the following:
And:
Nobody will contend that Europe now suddenly is a military great power. But the idea that America is powerful enough to realize its strategic and ideologically inspired ambitions under its own steam, appears to be an expensive, neoconservative miscalculation. Not for those who have the Iraq debacle on their conscience, however. Yesterday they eagerly started on George W. Bush’s second term.
america,
bush,
condoleezza rice,
europe,
european union,
george bush,
iraq,
kagan,
neoconservative,
president bush,
robert kagan,
united states
Patrick J. Geary on Nations and Nationalism · 21 October 2004, 10:58 CET by Charles Vermeulen
Reading Patrick J. Geary’s The Myth of Nations. The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton and Oxford 2002) I came upon the following paragraph, which I thought worthwhile quoting, because it so adequately summerizes a view on nations and nationalism which is common coin among sociologists, anthropologists and also among lots of historians nowadays and which deserves far more attention in this in which violent nationalism and xenophobia are still omnipresent:
ethnic nationalism,
europe,
geary,
nationalism,
patrick j. geary,
pseudoscience,
xenophobia