European Politics

That happens here quite a bit .. every once in a while, New York calls out UN members guilty of various parking fines. Nothing worse than a group of people who think they are above the law the rest of us have to live by. I understand the need for diplomatic immunity, but these people just take it way too far.
 
Agreed. I think the UN, the EU etc. need to have serious discussion about diplomatic immunity and its limitations.

Has anyone watched the HBO series Blue Bloods by any chance? It's about a family who are all involved with NYPD and in the first series (which I started watching a few weeks ago) there's an episode in which the son of an Argentine diplomat is suspected of sexual assault but the diplomat won't revoke his son's immunity. The family are discussing diplomatic immunity over dinner and the police commissioner's daughter (a lawyer) says that it's not a perfect concept but it protects female diplomats in the Middle East from being punished for not dressing in the proper fashion, which is fair enough. Refusing to pay rent and parking tickets is extremely petty and the bills should be sent straight to the home country's government in my opinion.
 
This scene is really clunky and boring, so rather than write it to be interesting, here's tits!
 
I get the feeling HBO (and Showtime) and to a lesser extent cable shows put stuff in because they can and they use that to separate themselves with the over the air stations that cannot. I am cool with nudity/swearing/whatever in a show IF it makes sense to the show/movie. But to show tits just to show tits is stupid ... I can see plenty of them on the internet if I want to
 
I find it interesting that nobody here seems to care for what is happening in the Ukraine right now.
 
There's not a whole lot of coverage in British media. In fact, I'm digging through BBC news to find anything at all.
 
It's been on Channel 4 news quite a bit. But then, Channel 4 do tend to cover international issues, when they choose to cover them, in far more detail than the BBC.
 
Perun said:
I find it interesting that nobody here seems to care for what is happening in the Ukraine right now.
Click to expand...
I've been following the news but didn't think of posting here. The last I heard was about a journalist who was beaten up terribly. After that It is a bit silent in the last few days(?)


Here follows an update on the economical crisis in Europe. I remember a huge rather pessimistic post you made about the crisis (or was it even the EU or Europe in general?), but I can't find it anymore. Anyway, the tide has turned:

The economical crisis in Europe is over, according to Van Rompuy, President of the European Council.
In the whole eurozone, apart from Cyprus and Serbia, economical growth can be seen. Also in nations that were hit the heaviest, Spain and Greece, there are better perspectives.

Haven't found an English language source yet, but he came with this on Belgian television:
http://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/73441-van-rompuy-de-crisis-voorbij
 
Last edited:
I know this is going to sound annoyingly bleak to you, but I heard the words the crisis is over this year already. Not concerning the Euro crisis, but the NSA scandal... two months before they found out Merkel's cell was tapped. I'm sorry.
 
Dozens of innocent people die in terrorist attacks in Volgograd, and what's top news in Germany? The hospitalisation of Michael Schumacher. Disgusting!
 
I'm really getting pissed off now, there's hourly updates on Schumacher's condition, news reporters get paid to sound grave and shed tears, just because he's not a dirty Ruskie, it seems. Fuck the media, I'm out of this game.
 
Honestly, I'm not surprised by this coverage. And knowing the cynic that you are, you shouldn't be either.
1. Schumacher is German.
2. He's a celebrity and this means public attention, i.e. audience/traffic.
3. There is probably not much info that can be trusted regarding the Volgograd bombing.
4. Journalism was about truth decades ago. These days, it's just PR and money.

I'm not saying they are right but that's just the world we live in.
 
Last edited:
Of course I'm not surprised. I'm still angry, though. I got momentarily worked up because I had turned on the TV and there was a news flash saying "the condition of Schumacher is still critical", and no word about the dead Russians. The people who died in Volgograd this morning were people like you and me, on their way to work or to bring their children to school. Just trying to live their lives. I can't help but feel compassion for them. I felt genuinely sad when I read the news this morning. The fact that their president is a terrible person doesn't mean they deserved to become the victims of hate crimes. Schumacher crashed in an area that was marked off-pist for a reason. And his profession is risk. Of course, as a human being, I wish him well, but no more or less than anybody else, really.

Thing is, Merkel has been reported to voice her sympathies to the Schumacher family, but not a single word has been said by any major politician about the people of Volgograd. I know that the German president has cancelled his visit to Sotchi, and I know that Khodorkovsky got political asylum in Germany, so the German-Russian relations are at a very low point at the moment. But this is the precise moment to let the world know that democratic governments know how to distinguish between a government and the people it rules.

Of course, this is not the first time this is happening and that I get angry about it. But it's so very blatant at the moment, and there is not a hint of self-criticism there. None at all. There are journalists who are in the business because they consider it their profession, and their duty to inform. I would at least expect those to make a between-the-lines statement or a little nudge, but there is nothing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top