This is mainly an experimentation with soft bodies using toxi’s verlet springs. The data refers to the evolution of the top 4 maritime empires of the XIX and XX centuries by extent. The visual emphasis is on their decline.

More on that project can be found here.

The Top 10 Craziest Things Ever Said During a U.N. Speech

David Mitchell:

If academic endeavour had always been vetted in advance for practicality, we wouldn’t have the aeroplane or the iPhone, just a better mammoth trap.

Richard Laming

It is ironic that the people who complain most about the complexity of the treaty are the very same people who would complain if it was simple,…

Vaclav Klaus

The train carrying the treaty is going so fast and it’s so far that it can’t be stopped or returned, no matter how much some of us would want that.

Silvio Berlusconi

“I’m doing what I do with a sense of sacrifice. I don’t really like it. Not at all,” (…) “Very often there is a lot of dirty dealing; there is really the gutter press, worse than that, the shameless and sickly. It’s a difficult life to be responsible for leading the government in a country like Italy.”

“I never made any gaffes, not even one, every gaffe is invented by the newspapers.”

American official (asked about Cameron’s ECR group in the EP)

I do not see any upsides in the new grouping. I can only see downsides. In life it is normally best to do things when they have an upside.

Neil MacFarlane

We may be living post-historically. Russia is not.

Russia Today

Opposition candidates will get the right to lose elections.

Mark Danner

If Everybody Knew, Who’s To Blame?

Timothy Garton Ash

Europe is nice, boring and irrelevant. In many ways this is a great achievement. (…) The whole of Europe today is Greater Switzerland.

Horst Schlämmer

HSP is conservative, liberal, left-wing and a bit ecological.

Francisco G. Basterra (El Pais)

Global Vote, local mindset.

Lykke Friis

The EU elections are like a European soccer championship played in each national league with aggregated results.

Evenimentul Zilei

Send in the Clowns.

NikOs

To the 57% of Europeans: Not voting and at the same time speaking about a democratic deficit in the EU is pure hypocrisy

Kainde Manji

Nick Griffin is now a migrant worker. I wonder if he appreciates the irony…

Senior Swedish diplomat (on enlargement)

…the EU integration process is a qualifying process not a negotiation

A diplomat

It is not a pretty sight to have prime ministers drafting texts

Jason O Mahony:

Could it be that it was impossible to negotiate such a document between such a diverse bunch of reformers, religious conservatives, and people who are, shall we say, a little too fond of the stiff right arm?

Martin Kotynek

Finde ein Problem, das nicht existiert. Mache einen Riesenwirbel darum. Gib vor, es gelöst zu haben. Lass Dich dafür feiern.

Christian Meier (kressreport)

Es gibt sehr, sehr wenig, sehr qualifizierte Berichterstattung über Europa.

Leonard Novy

All das ist nicht nur banal und inhaltsleer – das ist praktizierte Europaverachtung (…) es bleibt es im Wahlkampf bei pro-europäischen Lippenbekenntnissen, populistischer EU-Kritik oder nationalen Themen

Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti

Zu komplex, zu schwierig, nicht in zwei Sätzen zu erklären. (…) So lange die Relevanz von Europa nicht täglich deutlich wird, so lange nur die nationale Karte gespielt wird, so lange werden die Bürger sich auch nicht an die Urne bemühen.

In 2004 Barroso was a compromise candidate, in 2009 he is a compromised candidate.

Daily Mail’s Chief Leader Writer

We couldn’t report on what is going on in Europe, and no paper can because the readers won’t wear it. It is simply not conceivable that we would cover, for example, the European Parliament.

Martin Wolf (FT)

The UK has a strategic nightmare: it has a strong comparative advantage in the world’s most irresponsible industry.

Stefan Kornelius

Europa ist eine Zumutung, die man sich zu-muten muss.

Daniel W. Drezner

Many social scientists focus on the myriad structural reasons why things are the way they are.  Policymakers believe they can help shape the way things are.  The last thing they often want to hear is why their ideas won’t work.  And while scholars can often explain why an idea won’t work, they are often at a loss to offer a superior, politically viable alternative.

So what is eurotopics? (for those of you that have not come across the service…) -  eurotopics is a multi lingual daily press review of translated newspaper clippings  from around Europe with ambitious aims:

The daily press review allows Europe-wide access to debates and opinions, which media have so far carried out at a national level. In this way, euro|topics promotes transeuropean discussions and the development of new networks for media, cultural and political exchanges.

I have been a regular reader for several years and eurotopics has been an incredibly useful took to stay on top of European debates and discover new interesting topics. Indeed it is one of the few email newsletters I actually read on a daily basis!

PS: As you have 3 votes for the Grimme Online Awards check out the online radio byte.fm (vote here) It is a nice alternative radio station far away from any format radio approach with lots ot thematic shows and great music.  In a way, byte.fm is  radio how it should be!

… And I did not get paid to write this post nor did anyone ask me for a favour…

And still, looking at the crowds passing by, catching glimpses of their conversations (in all languages you can imagine), made me wonder what is the real purpose of all this, and if that purpose is achieved. In my naivety, I would imagine that the aim of putting up such a “show” should be trying to get closer to the citizen and trying to get the citizen interested in what the EU and its various institutions are doing. Well, while the first issue (getting closer to the citizen) might be achieved, at least at a physical level (i.e. people do step in the premises of the institutions), the second one is much more tricky and, in any case, much more unlikely to be achieved in one day, be it even Europe Day.

Nevertheless, as part of the larger aim of communicating Europe and as part of the campaign for the European Parliament elections that has just started, I was expecting the event to be a bit more meaningful from the point of view of content. Taking advantage of the varied crowd that was present, the MEPs could have used the Open Day for campaigning, for showing their face to the public and inviting them to debates. Instead, the only MEPs present at the debate were Belgian, while all the others are probably already campaigning in their home constituencies, which is, truth be said, more effective in term of vote- gathering than speaking  to a (packed) Hemicycle to an audience that is unlikely and/ or unable to vote for them. That much for a European public sphere, European idea and European citizenship…

Outside the Hemicycle, however, people were getting what they came for: colourful balloons from all political groups, that seemed to have arrived to the (correct) conclusion that giving out goodies is far more attractive to the public than trying to explain political programmes. Another fashionable feature this year were quizzes. Wherever you turned to, everyone (and I mean it almost literally: everyone) was taking a quiz. That is how some people ended up with 5 colorful umbrellas…and that’s about it. Why, one would say? Aren’t quizzes an intellectual thing to do? Well, not in this case, they aren’t. The winners only needed a light version of common sense, patience to queue and a few spare smiles to offer to the organisers when asking for help. EU? What EU? A…we’re in a European institution…right…Well, then Long Live the EU, as long as it puts on this show yearly and we all leave with our colourful goodies.

So why am I so negative about it? Everyone seemed to be enjoying, a festive feeling was in the air…It’s probably a mixture of disappointment in the way the event was treated by both sides: on the one hand, the way people (who were arguably on a trip to discover the EU institutions) dismissed any informative material, as nothing but papers they would never read anyway; on the other hand, the way the institutions themselves designed the Open Day: it is, undoubtedly, far easier to “get closer to the citizens” by not mentioning much about the EU but offering a bit of circus for one day a year; the question that comes to my mind now, and should definitely appear in the self-assessment of the event, is: after they all happily leave the “marketplace”, having gathered all the items they came for, will anyone feel more enlightened on EU issues or would they even remember what the blue, red or green on their new (free!) bottle opener stands for?

And still, I am looking forward to next year’s celebrations, which will probably end up organsied after exactly the same blueprint. It is, after all, a successful event, people say. Good example of institutional inertia…

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“Entropa”, as the project is called, is a joint creation by 27 artists, one from each Member State, each of them depicting their country by means of commonly used stereotypes. The Czech artist David Černý, who conceptualised the project, managed in this way to extract the stereotypes from their natural context (the us/others dychotomy), “internalise” them through the visions of the local artists and put them together only to symbolise the impossible match. A messed-up map of Europe, where the rigurously drawn geographical borders become unbridgeable gaps, and where mental barriers are created through stereotypes. The installation might seem utterly non-esthetical and unfitted; but, baring in mind its purpose as a warning, isn’t it just the way it should look?

The concept behind the installation is summarised by Milena Vicenová, the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the European Union:

The freedom of art as an extension of the freedom of speech is the core value of democracy. There are many barriers to integration and cooperation in Europe. Stereotypes are such barriers. When we point out the stereotypes we begin demolishing them. Making fun of prejudice destroys it most efficiently.

The stereotype installation shows in a very figurative manner German highways, France strikes, Italian football, as well as Dracula in Romania and IKEA in Sweden. A more political approach, mirroring the debates on Europe, was taken in the case of UK and Czech Republic. The UK is missing from the installation; its physical absence symbolises the negative attitude the British are seen as having towards the EU. Another stereotype. And what better prejudice can represent the Czech Republic in a European context than President Klaus and his controversial ideas? Diversity issues and tolerance are also touched upon in the cases of The Netherlands and Poland. A presentation of the project and each of its 27 components can be found here.

Critics complain about the dimensions of the installation and the noise it makes (and it only starts “living” on 15 January!). Even though one might argue if its place is in the Council building or rather in a museum, the idea behind the installation and especially its non-abstract nature are an appropriate starting point for European debates on barrier and borders constructed through national(ist) perceptions. In order to reach out beyond the Council bureaucrats and stir a real European debate, the installation (which only weighs 8 tones) should tour the marketplaces of (medium-sized) towns across the EU.

An exclusive photo of the installation:

and the “French – German axis”:

Update 13.1.2009: Now it is getting interesting: Conceptual art at its best. As a Czech Newspaper revealed today David Cerny fooled the art and the political world. There are no 27 artists, all CVs are invented by the artist himself and it was only him that created the installation. Basically the debate around the project is also part of the installation. Art and discourse are one.

Now, of course this has political implications: Did the Czech EU Presidency know about this? Apparently Cerny signed a contract to work with 27 artist on the piece…did he breach the contract or was the Czech Government aware of it? (Hat-tip: Coulisses de Bruxelles) According to Reuters the artist said he had deceived the government: “We knew the truth would come out. But before that we wanted to find out if Europe is able to laugh at itself,” Cerny said. Interesting detail of the story is also that apparently no tax money was used for the art project and all costs were covered by the artist himself! And I agree with Bruno Waterfield (who also has more details!) that this story ain’t over yet.

Update 16.1.2009: Mission accomplished as controversy continued: Bulgaria demanded to remove the Bulgarian piece of the installation, the Czech presidency apologized (good speech here). Don’t understand why Czerny also thinks he has to apologize… And the installation started its own “life”, so watch the video:

Entropa: Czech artist David Cerny speaks out

“Every state needs its own Balkan”

With this words philosopher Slavoj Žižek started his lecture on ideology and the fall of state borders. The lecture was given in Italian Gorizia which was until 2007 a border town with Slovenia and is a well known habitat of Italians and Slovenes. From this point of view, the place for discussing such a topic could not be better. Žižek, “the superstar” appeared in front of the fully packed theatre in his typical, a bit nervous manner and made us think about today’s presence of borders. Having in mind a Europe without boundaries, he pointed towards the difference between the physical and mental presence of borders. The latter is more difficult to remove and is usually transferred from one generation to another in a process known as mental mapping . ‘Balkan’ in the European mental perception presents ‘the other’. However, ‘Balkan’ is nowhere, if we approach it from the position that no one wants to belong to it. But at the same time every state needs its own ‘Balkan’ for dividing itself from the others.

The geographical category has been even more intensively labeled as a scapegoat after the last conflicts, often wrongly presented as perpetual, unforgettable clashes between different ethnic groups. The situation was in a false way presented in Kusturica’s Underground, where the former state is shown as a place of passions, alcohol and sexual desires. The place where memories rule and ancient hatreds exist. Žižek negates this with the idea that people that were involved in a conflict were also able to forget about past events and continue to trade and exchange goods regardless of the crimes committed. He claims that the reasons for the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia should be sought in a crisis of legitimacy of leading party nomenclature after the death of Tito and not in a hypocritical apolitical plot of the Underground and its picturesque simplifications of the carnival state. However, the time for the carnival arose latter, with the rule of Milošević which, under a totalitarian surface established a situation in which everything was allowed.

Slavoj Žižek

Žižek claims: “What we need today is not more understanding, but more distance.” Physical borders fell too fast and societies have not been culturally prepared for such a proximity which can result in clashes and reactions. In this sense, he negates a liberal idea of multiculturalism and he rather advocated his position with the image of “the house with many floors in which people live together but not necessarily interact”.

The lecture was concluded in a rather worrying tone. Under the illusion that the borders are disappearing, they are actually rapidly growing. State of emergencies keep appearing in political discourses (e.g. Italy in July 2008) and this should be taken into consideration very carefully. The globe is more dangerous than ever before. Not in a typical old way, but with the presence of biotechnology, ecological catastrophies and similar issues, more sensibility is needed if we don’t want to live in a total misery in the next 30 or 50 years.

But this time it was a bit different. Surprisingly, the most annoying issue surrounding my move has been the UK banks. (And I am not talking about the financial super crisis… and Gordon Browns rescue plans for the banks and himself).

The situation is as follows: I am a postgraduate research student with a studentship (= regular income for the banks, right?) and I am a EU citizen. What do I need? - Basically a cheap (preferably free) current account with a debit card that I can use everywhere in Europe. Since I will be travelling a lot, it would also be good to be able to use the debit card without any fee abroad. You might ask yourself how I came up with these specification? Well basically that is the kind of account I have in Germany. As you can see, I neither need a flexible overdraft scheme nor a proper credit card.

So what happened? Innocent as I am I walked into several high street banks and told them my story. I expected to be treated as a normal student (we are all Europeans, right?) and I expected to be offered a student account (which is usually free of charge and comes with a couple of freebies). But instead I was offered either an “international account” (for “only” £5 -7 a month!) or a cash account (free but usually given to teenagers, so the debit card is not really accepted everywhere).

So what is the problem? I don’t have a credit history in the UK! And I suppose because the UK has not joined the Euro they also do not accept credit histories from other European countries. OK, fair enough, but actually I would be flexible on that as I do not need a flexible overdraft scheme. What actually struck me most about it are two things: The inflexibility of the banks (since I always thought the financial sector is more flexible in the UK than elsewhere in Europe) and the absolute absence of any “European” rule. Basically for the bank it does not make a difference whether somebody is a EU citizen or comes from a country in Africa or South East Asia.  Needless to say that most banks charge huge fees on anything that happens abroad (withdrawals, purchases, transfers). I assume that all this is connected to not being a member of the Eurozone…?

In the end, I decided for one of the “teenager accounts” and I am planning to get another account next year with a different bank (because then I will have credit history…although having no overdraft scheme makes it a bit difficult to prove that). Another proof that something is not working properly here is the following. I have to wait for ONE week to get the account number and TWO weeks for the debit card. Every other bank in every other country (even Belgium!) I used so far was much quicker… I expected to get the number immediately and the card 3-4 days later…

And I really had to laugh while waiting at one of the banks. The TV showed Gordon Brown explaining the financial crisis and that the motto of most brokers is ”My word is my bond”… It obviously only applies to brokers and not to customers.

PS: And while we are at it: Another issue that is clearly discriminatory is the issue of Research Council Studentships. You do not need to be British to get one but you must prove that you have been a UK resident (which is funny because there is no registration process….) for three years. At first sight that sounds like a reasonable thing but just think a bit further: British citizen would also be excluded if they decided to study in another EU country for their Bachelor. But the rule is not fair here: British citizens can always claim to have lived at their parents address for these three years…  So who is excluded from the whole scheme? EU citizens (that is Non-British) that on paper are supposed to have the same rights everywhere in the EU! Well of course it is also against the whole idea of making Europe the “most innovative knowledge based society”… but that is already the story of another blog post, I suppose.

Update 25/10/2007: So after 1 week I got my account number, after almost 2 weeks my debit card. I even got my activation code for the Internet banking. However, the PIN code for the debit card is still missing. After reading through the letter I learnt that I had to “activate” my debit card either online or by returning a letter. So after “activating” my online banking account (with the “online activation code”) I was really happy that the “activation” of the debit card actually worked online! So hopefully they will send also the PIN soon since without it the card is pretty useless. Then I had this crazy idea to actually “use” the online banking since I had “activated” it. So, I found out that I needed to order a “card reader” which I somehow expected since they did not send me any online PIN numbers … but the next surprise came immediately: It can take up to 15 days to deliver this card reader!!!

So, the only way that I actually can get my money is queuing at the cashier in a branch of the bank…. (I don’t think I have ever done that in my life…)

I have not yet given up hope as it might be the problem of this particular bank. However, I think this is just ridicolous and not acceptable. It basically can take more than a month until a bank account is fully functioning (+ all the other restrictions I have to live with!)…

Just to put that into perspective: I lived in Belgium, Germany (both famous for bureaucracy) and Romania (known for not being quite as efficient as the rest of Europe), but in all of these countries this whole process of opening a bank account (with debit and credit card, online banking and telephone banking) takes no longer than 3-4 days!

• Some amendments could allow Member States to create “graduated responses” against unauthorized file sharing, which would have many harmful consequences for civil liberties
• The notion of “lawful content” is a threat for civil liberties and the socio-economic development of the Internet.
• Amendment 34, if voted, can allow to harm privacy in the name of unauthorized file sharing.

Feel free to join the campaign that lobbies for a more open internet. All updates can be found here and as a RSS feed here. (everything is also available in French, German and Spanish). They also provide you with important lobbying advices for the remaining 24 hours before the vote: a very helpful example of a phone conversation with an MEP, a list of ‘incorrect’ arguments, and obviously some nice blog banners:

“Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers” writes William Deresiewicz in his article “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education“. The author makes quite some interesting points about what students learn in so called “elite universities”. Although he falls short of putting the problem in a wider social context, he nevertheless makes it clear that not everything is as perfect with these institutions as many (in Europe) want to believe.

It’s worth reading.

1. Great visions for the future of everything: yes.   – Policy details: no, not really.
2. Great rhetoric: yes.  – Great visuals for his campaign: yes, definitely.
3. Bush-bashing: no. – And a “Berlin surprise”: Oh yes please.

And what did we get? (You can read the transcript of the speech here)

1. What about “visions”: well, sort of. Barack Obama spoke about many global problems and a lot of shared responsibilities and the need for cooperation. Not more, not less. Of course freedom played a big role (George W. Bush would have said the same!). Also the importance of immigration is something Europe needs to learn! Interesting maybe the issue of nuclear disarmament. I haven’t heard any politician to call for that in the last decade or so. Of course he did not go into any detail (it is election campaign time! not a good time for details). However, the “big visionary moment” of the speech was missing. But considering what could have gone wrong with such a speech, I guess it was OK. But of course symbolism prevails over content in every election campaign…

2. What about “great rhetoric”: First of all, I think the rather short speech was well constructed. The second part was better than the beginning. But I also found that the family background did not really work (maybe he should have started with something else and talked about it later? ). I liked the idea of a “world citizen” (what do you expect with that blog name…?). The delivery was very professional but, again, the big moment was missing. BUT the visuals for the campaign were great (and eventually that matters at the moment): They can suggest that he is respected and hugely popular in Europe (the crowd of 200 000 was impressive, right? ) which might give him some foreign policy credibility in the US. But that depends on the spin of the campaign…

3) Obviously no Bush-bashing abroad which is unthinkable in the diplomatic world. So what about the “Berlin surprise”: Nothing really. Basically he used Ernst Reuter and the Berlin airlift for his speech trying to put it in context with globalisation and global challenges. Not a bad idea. But then again, since expectations were huge I doubt that he could have delivered a real “surprise”. Maybe next time…

Anything else?

Well, from a European perspective we can take note that he knows about the EU and he generally thinks highly of global institutions and international cooperation, which is good to know. But I think the really remarkable thing is the pure existence of this event, a kind of “globalisation of US election campaigning”. I think we will see similar events in the future! As somebody on German TV said “It seems that he is the candidate for the world presidency”.

Update: Here is the video of the speech:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAhb06Z8N1c]

Click here to watch the video.

(Hat tip to The Short Story Made Long)

Oh yes, and Bulgaria (more…) has even bigger problems …

(Hat tip: weltbeobachterin)

© Thomas Wizany

Update: For a more detailed analysis of the SPÖ’s new EU strategy check out the newly launched Euroblog Austria.

• Half of the reporters covering European affairs have been doing it for less than 5 years.
• Only 10% read EU blogs
• Many journalists say their audiences are interested in the EU but not well informed about it, and that journalists’ bosses are hardly any better informed than their readers, viewers and listeners.
• 43% of the polled journalists would like to learn more about “The balance of  power between EU institutions”, only 13% want to learn more about the Single Market, the budget and trade issues.
• A relative minority of journalists cover issues related to business regulation, fisheries, development and humanitarian aid.
• Almost half of the journalists produce one or more stories a day.
• What are the most important sources for story ideas? Blogs are seen by  3% as “very important”, by 4% as “often important”, 30% say Blogs are “sometimes important” and the majority of 63% say they are “not important”.
• European Institutions get quite good grades for the quality of the information they provide.
• Webcasts and podcasts as well as conference calls are relatively unimportant for EU journalists.
• The best communicator of European affairs is… the European Commission, but at the same time a solid majority of journalists surveyed feel it does a poor job of communicating with the public.

Click here for more results of the survey (pdf).