1. Trump stars
2. See Ancient Greek Music Accurately Reconstructed for the First Time
3. YOU ARE NOT ORIGINAL OR CREATIVE ON INSTAGRAM - kinda sucks, right?
4. It wasn’t just hate. Fascism offered robust social welfare
5. "Rozenberg wanted to find a way to highlight the gender biases embedded in architectural terms learned by technology, to make it easier to produce "post-gender architecture". - switch off your BS detector
6. The Chinese broadcaster quoted Turkish economist Emre Alkin: “Stability for the Turkish Lira will come from cooperation with valuable countries like China ..."
Posts mit dem Label turkey werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label turkey werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
8/13/2018
4/19/2017
The Council of Europe on Turkey’s constitutional referendum and Schäuble in 2014
Elections and referenda can be a fickle thing in the European Union of Doom. If the results are deemed wrong, heckling sets in and it can lead to downright threats when you are a German politician.
Statement of the Council of Europe On Turkey’s constitutional referendum: an unlevel playing field
Flashback to Greece 2014:
Wolfgang Schäuble, in 2014 when the sides in the Greek election did have equal opportunities as the international observers concluded. All the technical aspects of the process were well administered, voters were provided with impartial information about key aspects of the political parties, and limitations on fundamental freedoms were non existent, had this to say about a democratic election in a country under the siege of the Troika.
Mr Schaeuble warned that things could become difficult if Greece took a "different path".
"New elections change nothing about the agreements that the Greek government has entered into," the eurozone's most powerful finance minister added. "Any new government must stick to the contractual agreements of its predecessors."
Statement of the Council of Europe On Turkey’s constitutional referendum: an unlevel playing field
The 16 April constitutional referendum in Turkey was contested on an unlevel playing field, and the two sides in the campaign did not have equal opportunities, the international observers concluded in a statement released today. While the technical aspects of the process were well administered, voters were not provided with impartial information about key aspects of the reform, and limitations on fundamental freedoms had a negative effect, the statement says.
“The referendum took place in a political environment in which fundamental freedoms essential to a genuinely democratic process were curtailed under the state of emergency, and the two sides did not have equal opportunities to make their case to the voters,” said Tana de Zulueta, Head of the ODIHR limited election observation mission. “
Flashback to Greece 2014:
Wolfgang Schäuble, in 2014 when the sides in the Greek election did have equal opportunities as the international observers concluded. All the technical aspects of the process were well administered, voters were provided with impartial information about key aspects of the political parties, and limitations on fundamental freedoms were non existent, had this to say about a democratic election in a country under the siege of the Troika.
Mr Schaeuble warned that things could become difficult if Greece took a "different path".
"New elections change nothing about the agreements that the Greek government has entered into," the eurozone's most powerful finance minister added. "Any new government must stick to the contractual agreements of its predecessors."
3/07/2016
Soccer - EU : Turkey 0 : 4 after overtime. Ahmet Davutoğlu scores hat trick, Merkel own goal
Mostly bland match in Brussels dominated by Turkish squad. Dominant player from the start Ahmet Davutoğlu. Again overweight player Merkel put the EU team in turmoil with trade-mark blunders topping it off with an own goal. Roaring laughter from Austrian fans.
10/19/2015
10/18/2015
This world will be uncomfortable for the Germans, who for the sake of the euro will find themselves having to survive without the ‘Europe’ to which they had once looked to provide them with a safe dwelling place
On the occasion of Merkel in Turkey, the refugees influx, the killing of Schengen, the new immigration laws in Germany, the Dachau transit camps, a rogue deal with a country that up to weeks ago was deemed unsuitable to be a member of the EU, this excerpt quite catches it.
wolfgang streeck
WHY THE EURO DIVIDES EUROPE
A new system?
It has been a long time since we last heard positive arguments for the single currency, whether political or economic. The only grounds adduced by the defenders of the status quo against the abandonment of what Polanyi would doubtless have called a ‘frivolous experiment’ is that the consequences of a breakup, though not foreseeable, would be worse than a continuation of what has become a permanent institutional crisis. Underlying this is probably the fear of the European political class that voters might present them with the bill for having casually placed the prosperity and peaceful coexistence of the continent at risk.
Yet the costs of dismantling the single currency cannot survive much longer as an argument in favour of its continuation. The Northern hope of escaping from the current predicament with a one-off payment — or even a one-off deflation to bring about structural reform in the South — will evaporate, as surely as Southern hopes for long-term support for social structures ill-suited to a hard-currency regime. Meanwhile, the notion that a pan-European democracy might spring up out of the European Parliament and somehow ride to the rescue will turn out to be an illusion—and the longer the wait, the greater the disillusionment. Less feasible still is the dream of achieving such a democracy by dint of letting the Eurozone crisis drag on until ‘the pain’ becomes too great— not so much the economic pain in the South as the moral and political anguish in the North, above all in Germany.
More likely than a headlong rush into pan-European democracy is that the national polities will fall prey to aggressively nationalist parties. The only remaining supporters of euro-led integration, apart from politicians fearful of losing their seats, will be the middle classes of the South, who dream of achieving a social-democratic consumer paradise on the coat-tails of Northern capitalism, even as this implodes; and the Northern export industries, which want to preserve the credit-financed consumption of the Southerners as long as possible, together with the competitive advantages of an undervalued pan-European currency. However, if convergence in any real sense is definitively ruled out, and the full extent of the need for regular redistributive cash injections becomes evident, the current situation will no longer be sustainable in electoral terms, even in Germany.
As Merkel headed to Turkey to forge a deal with a dictator with the sole intention of keeping her country "safe" fromnefarious welfare-seekers refugees this last paragraph rings all the more true. Creating a EU Gitmo is worth a couple of billions euros and further perks.
The most plausible scenario for the Europe of the near and not-so-near future is one of growing economic disparities—and of increasing political and cultural hostility between its peoples, as they find themselves flanked by technocratic attempts to undermine democracy on the one side, and the rise of new nationalist parties on the other. These will seize the opportunity to declare themselves the authentic champions of the growing number of so-called losers of modernization, who feel they have been abandoned by a social democracy that has embraced the market and globalization. Furthermore, this world, which lives under the constant threat of possible repetitions of 2008, will be especially uncomfortable for the Germans, who for the sake of the euro will find themselves having to survive without the ‘Europe’ to which they had once looked to provide them with a safe dwelling place, surrounded by well-disposed neighbours.
wolfgang streeck
WHY THE EURO DIVIDES EUROPE
A new system?
It has been a long time since we last heard positive arguments for the single currency, whether political or economic. The only grounds adduced by the defenders of the status quo against the abandonment of what Polanyi would doubtless have called a ‘frivolous experiment’ is that the consequences of a breakup, though not foreseeable, would be worse than a continuation of what has become a permanent institutional crisis. Underlying this is probably the fear of the European political class that voters might present them with the bill for having casually placed the prosperity and peaceful coexistence of the continent at risk.
Yet the costs of dismantling the single currency cannot survive much longer as an argument in favour of its continuation. The Northern hope of escaping from the current predicament with a one-off payment — or even a one-off deflation to bring about structural reform in the South — will evaporate, as surely as Southern hopes for long-term support for social structures ill-suited to a hard-currency regime. Meanwhile, the notion that a pan-European democracy might spring up out of the European Parliament and somehow ride to the rescue will turn out to be an illusion—and the longer the wait, the greater the disillusionment. Less feasible still is the dream of achieving such a democracy by dint of letting the Eurozone crisis drag on until ‘the pain’ becomes too great— not so much the economic pain in the South as the moral and political anguish in the North, above all in Germany.
More likely than a headlong rush into pan-European democracy is that the national polities will fall prey to aggressively nationalist parties. The only remaining supporters of euro-led integration, apart from politicians fearful of losing their seats, will be the middle classes of the South, who dream of achieving a social-democratic consumer paradise on the coat-tails of Northern capitalism, even as this implodes; and the Northern export industries, which want to preserve the credit-financed consumption of the Southerners as long as possible, together with the competitive advantages of an undervalued pan-European currency. However, if convergence in any real sense is definitively ruled out, and the full extent of the need for regular redistributive cash injections becomes evident, the current situation will no longer be sustainable in electoral terms, even in Germany.
As Merkel headed to Turkey to forge a deal with a dictator with the sole intention of keeping her country "safe" from
The most plausible scenario for the Europe of the near and not-so-near future is one of growing economic disparities—and of increasing political and cultural hostility between its peoples, as they find themselves flanked by technocratic attempts to undermine democracy on the one side, and the rise of new nationalist parties on the other. These will seize the opportunity to declare themselves the authentic champions of the growing number of so-called losers of modernization, who feel they have been abandoned by a social democracy that has embraced the market and globalization. Furthermore, this world, which lives under the constant threat of possible repetitions of 2008, will be especially uncomfortable for the Germans, who for the sake of the euro will find themselves having to survive without the ‘Europe’ to which they had once looked to provide them with a safe dwelling place, surrounded by well-disposed neighbours.
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