European Solidarity

Ulrich Speck and Timothy Ash call for European solidarity in the face of Iranian aggression - the capture of 15 British soldiers. I wholeheartedly agree. I am sick and tired of the Europeans' lacking unity in regard to foreign policy. Whether it be the Iraq War or the American Missile Systems in Eastern Europe. If we really want to talk about the EU as a proper political institution then now is the time to defend our European soldiers by a unified reaction (such as a common boycott of relations and the threat of immediate economical repercussions) pronounced by the current EU leader (Frau Merkel). This situation really is calling for European solidarity. Otherwise one really has to wonder what the point of the CFSP (Common Foreign and Security Policy) is. Or what the point of a European army would be.

Antiamerikanismus & la France

I've been really busy (and lazy) and also have been reading a 800 page french novel and for these reasons haven't written anything on here in a while. I am sorry for all my faithful readers (all three of you). Just a really quick entry today, I'll try to be better again.

• La France elle a un grand, grand problème. Si une situation comme un contrôle de billets peux développer dans une bataille avec la police assez rapidement et dans Paris (j'habitais jusqu'à côté), je crois que c'est clair qu'il y a une fissure sociale plus profonde que jamais. (1,2)



• Germany decidedly has an anti-americanism problem. People mix up justified criticism of US policy, stereotypes and condesendence with plain hatred. Pretty much every American who's been living in Germany for a while (and most of those speak German quite well) suffer under it. I find it embarrassing. Am not going to go into detail on this, as I don't have the time for a well argumented piece, but here is a quite polemic article from the Spiegel about it and also a more scientific text from The Chronicle Review.