Archiv der Kategorie: oddly enough

compulsory reading, Iraq, oddly enough, US Politics

The Psychology Of WMDs

Salon.com’s Louise Witt is wondering why America is in collective denial that [someone in] the Bush administration knowingly “sexed up” the WMD charges against Saddam Hussein, as the administration is now admitting itself –

“[f]inally, on Monday, the White House admitted the president relied on inaccurate, incomplete information for that crucial passage of his State of the Union address.” [this is referring to the President’s claim that Iraq was about to aquire radioactive material from Niger]

She asks why lying is perceived as bad in some cases – and she uses the obvious Clinton impeachment example – while most people will accept it without problems in other cases. She chooses an interesting and helpful angle to analyse this question: behavioral psychology, a scientific discipline that is predominantly occupied with exploring the limits of human information processing and decision making abilities. Obviously, she can only allude to some of the insights such a perspective has to offer for the problem at hand. But these allusions are well worth reading.

Here’s a part of Ms Witt’s article I found particularly interesting –

“When Gustave Gilbert, a psychologist who interviewed the Nuremberg prisoners, talked to Hermann Goering, the former leader of the Third Reich’s Luftwaffe, Goering volunteered that it was relatively easy to persuade a populace to go to war.

As quoted in Gilbert’s book “Nuremberg Diary,” Goering said: “It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Gilbert disagreed with Goering’s analysis. “There is one difference,” he answered. “In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”

But Goering held his ground: “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Of course, such a statement has to be read as carefully as possible. It certainly does not add any truth to the recently rather popular, strange comparison of George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler.

But it does indicate that even liberal democracies could be heading in a dangerous direction. Especially when fear is calling the shots in most people’s brains.

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oddly enough

Sommerloch.

Sorry for the recent lack of updates… my very own “Sommerloch” – “summer-hole” -, meaning lack of real news in July and early August.

I thought this year there was not going to be a big one in Germany, given the economic situation and the government’s reform agenda. Well, I might have been wrong.

Usually, the fact that nothing is really happening during the summer in conjunction with the fact that many journalists prefer to hang out in beer gardens, too, but nonetheless have to fill papers and airtime means that some bullshit story becomes blown up to an unbearable extent by free riders looking for some publicity.

Goodies from the past include a runaway Crocodile named “Sammy” terrorising a lake, and some Bavarian politician jokingly floating the idea of Germany buying the Spanish Island of Mallorca, as it is half German during the summer anyway. Of course, that would have probably lead to another war with HM the Queen, whose subjects tend to occupy the Island’s other half. So after filling “Bild” templates for a couple of days, the joke was silently buried. Usually, a single story won’t carry the day for the entire two months – as attention spans are invertedly proportional to the amount of time spent in beer gardens. But sometimes, those responsible for filling airtime and pages are just lucky…

Like right now, when the Italian Prime Minister’s Nazi slur is offering plenty of opportunity for all interested, mostly unknown, parties, to get some longed for publicity. Take the case of the previously invisible Italian Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for tourism (of all things!), Stefano Stefani (Lega Nord), who evidently thought that he had use the opportunity to utter something “nazi-esque” quickly, as long the fire was still burning.

So last Friday, he complained in a letter to Lega Nord’s party paper “La Padania” about uniform, “super/hypernationalistic blonds who loudly invade Italy’s beaches” [reader Hans Ze Beeman mentioned this in his comment to the previous post.] He also said Germany itself was “drunk with inflated self-importance.”

Inflated self-importance – he probably knows what he is talking about. The Austrian paper “Der Standard” has translated his article into German, should you care. I haven’t found an English version on the net yet, and I don’t think translating his remarks is worth my own precious beer garden time…

Translated or not, supernationalistic or hypernationalistic (the papers aren’t quite certain as far as the translation goes, and super [supra?] nationalistic rings a different bell in my head), the blonds and Schulzes, the Godfathers and publicity free riders on either side of the Alps are liekly going to stay with us for the forseeable future.

It’s just too good a show.

When the Chancellor’s Official Spokesman, Bela Anda, hinted that Gerhard Schroeder might consider cancelling his already planned private trip to Italy if he were not welcome, “Bild”, Germany’s most important tabloid, took the opportunity to try to prove its clout by keeping Gerhard in Germany, which, in return, has led Mr. Stefano to invite him to his own house at lake Garda to show his remarks did exempt at least certain Germans of his criticism – the Chancellor, for example – or his wife, who accidentally hails from Frankfurt… but then again, who knows. They are separated, according to Der Standard.

At a press conference yesterday, he boldly refused to regret his remarks, even in light of mounting criticism by scared tourism managers. But he did manage to say at least something helpful, albeit rather self defeating – in his very own opinion, Germans are intelligent enough to not to listen to an Italian Parliamentary Undersecretary’s rants when it comes to making decisions about their holidays.

Well, of course, normally no one would listen to him. That’s exactly why he wrote this article right now, when there was still a chance of someone picking up the story. So the consequences are not entirely clear, although very likely neglectable. They probably to some extent depend on the time German journalists want to spend in the sun.

However, Gerhard Schroeder for one seems to be “doing the Hanibal” this summer, given that the Junior Minister’s superior, and the Italian forign minister, have both officially regretted his subordinate’s remarks (see The Scotsman).

So there’s still a change there will be pictures of Schroeder invading an Italian beach with died blond hair, wearing camouflage Bermuda shorts and a European/German flagged t-shirt, firing from a pump-water-gun…

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German Politics, oddly enough

Berlusconi apologizes. Or Not.

From the Guardian. Berlusconi apologized to Gerhard Schroeder (who was not exactly offended by him, but had demanded a formal apology).

“Italy’s billionaire prime minister Silvio Berlusconi last night expressed regret for his Nazi jibe against a German MEP, in a bid to end a serious diplomatic stand-off between the two countries just as Italy takes over the European Union presidency. The German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, who had demanded a full and formal apology, told a news conference in Berlin: “He expressed regret for the choice of this expression and comparison. I explained to him that as far as I am concerned this ends the affair.”

And regarding the Italian tv coverage of Wednesday’s incident:

“In Italy, state television’s evening news programme TG1 dubbed over the prime minister’s voice as he delivered his offending “joke”. “TG1 shuts its ears and hides European gaffe,” said the left-leaning daily Repubblica. The chiefs of the three state television channels, which are all indirectly controlled by Mr Berlusconi, were called for questioning next week by a parliamentary broadcasting commission.”

Update: Silvio Berlusconie today not only stole my “Hogan’s Heroes” joke and used it in a press conference, he also stated that he did in fact not apologize to Gerhard Schroeder. I guess this is like when the US and China had to find a word that meant “apology” in Chinese and “regret” in English after that US spy-plane had to land in China following a collision with a chinese fighter aircraft sent to intercept the reconaissance operation, back in 2001. C’mon people, you just have to love diplomats for their never ending efforts to build bridges so politicians can have their cake, and eat it, too.

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German Politics, media, oddly enough

Italian Press Review.

The Guardian has compiled and translated a nice collection of commentary from today’s Italian newspapers regarding Berlusconi’s loosing his cool. It’s quite interesting to see the constrasting perception of reality – compare yourself (the Guardian has more quotes):

La Repubblica (left-leaning) Editorial

“As Silvio Berlusconi drifts tragically further each day, yesterday he crashed into Europe, propelled by his lack of culture, his bravura that is so popular in Italy, flexing his muscles, for lack of competence, and incapable of responding to accusations over his howling conflict of interests. … Yesterday can be considered the official date of the beginning of the decline of Il Cavaliere. But also, the result is extremely bitter for our country, which is paying an unjust and disproportionate price for Berlusconi’s errors and personality.”

La Stampa(centre) Editorial

“A joke can ruin everything. He should not have opened the way for endless poisonous polemics with a joke that was so twisted in its irony that it was incomprehensible.”

And now, the Berlusconi Press…

Il Giornale (owned by Berlusconi family) Editorial

“Berlusconi did well to react to the insolent man who insulted him, the Italian government, its ministers, and all of us. He did excellently, in his own way, with his own style and in his own time.”

Libero (owned by former editor of Il Giornale) Editorial

“Berlusconi should not give in to the pressures that will surely come in the coming hours. Maybe Schulz is not a Kapo (concentration camp guard), but he is a villain. And villains deserve not only irony but contempt.”

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German Politics, oddly enough

From Bad To Worse?

In a press conference after yesterday’s Parliamentary session, MEP Martin Schulz told the press that he had been told that Mr Berlusconi had allegedly instructed his television channels to ignore his insulting remarks.

I don’t if that is true, I haven’t heard any other source in relation to this matter. Personally, I doubt it. I doubt that someone with Berlusconi’s tactical abilities would be as stupid as not too understand that instructing his channels not to report about his Nazi slur would make a bad situation much, much worse.

But then again, history is full of ill-fated arrogance.

PS.: Among all the outrage about Berlusconi, The Independent mentions how Martin Schulz is likely going to benefit from his fifteen minuted of worldwide fame –

“For Martin Schulz, the MEP who drew the wrath of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, yesterday was a political coup beyond his wildest dreams. For months Mr Schulz, a loyal supporter of Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, has been campaigning unofficially to become the leader of the socialist group of MEPs after the next European elections (he is now vice-president). Little could stand him in better stead than to be attacked so publicly and crudely by Mr Berlusconi.”

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compulsory reading, German Politics, oddly enough

Schultz, and Schulz

Schultz, and Schulz

Maybe Silvio Berlusconi had an overdose of the 1960s American tv series “Hogan’s Heroes“, in which a stereotypically imbecile Tscherman POW camp guard named Hans Schultz (played by John Banner) is the prime target of allied humour. Maybe he is just bad with German surnames and somehow mixed up Schultz with Schulz while not actually trying to offend the vice chairman of the socialist Parliamentary group in the European Parliament, German MEP Martin Schulz, by saying – according to the Guardian –

“Mr Schulz, I know there is in Italy a man producing a film on the Nazi concentration camps. I would like to suggest you for the role of leader. You’d be perfect.”

Or maybe he did try to insult Mr Schulz. Mr Berlusconi was given the opportunity to retract his statement but refused to do so, even in light of MEPs shouting in the usually rather calm chamber. The row was caused by Mr Schulz wondering about the political effects of Mr Berlusconi’s media empire which, in conjunction with political control over RAI gives him a 80-90% share of mind in the Italian television market.

Welcome to Berlusconia.

I suppose a lot of people expected some sort of scandal along the way, but few will have expected it already on day two of the current six-month Italian Presidency of the European Union. One really has to wonder why he lost himself like this – he may be in control of televised opinion and the parliamentary majority in Italy and this may keep him from being criminally punished for the stuff he did to become what he became – but Europe is a different ballgame. The unique, and admittedly questionable, Italian balance of power, should have prompted him to keep as low a profile on the European stage as possible and silently manage affairs in a way that would somehow placate critics.

His presidency would have been severely scrutinized anyway – and rightly so – but following this start, he will either be forced to stay under deck entirely or face vocal critisicm every time he will open his mouth. Either way, his presidency will be ineffetive.

Mr Schulz’ reaction following today’s incident is probably an accurate reflection of many MEPs’ opinion – (quote according to the Guardian)

“My respect for the victims of fascism will not permit me to deal with that kind of claim at all … It is very difficult for me to accept that a council president [Mr Berlusconi] should be exercising this office at all when he comes out with this kind of statement.”

Well, we know he will. It’s bad timing, sure. But while he can’t do much damage to the EU, the amount of criticism he is likely to face in the coming months is likely going to strain his stand in Italy, too.

So maybe, one day, we will be able to say that, first, he lost his cool…

Update: Spiegel online reports that Berlusconi, speaking to the conservative Parliamentary party at the EP, stated that he was sorry “in case he had hurt the feelings of the German people.”

Update: Henry Farell thinks Berlusconi could have given the EP the opportunity to stage an institutional power struggle –

“It’s also leading to a test of strength between the institutions of the EU. The President of the Socialist party in the Parliament, who is coincidentally Italian, is painting this as a grave crisis in Parliament-Council relations, saying that Berlusconi needs to issue a formal apology to the Parliament on behalf of the Council. If the Parliament gets this formal apology (don’t hold your breath), it’ll be a major precedent – the Parliament will have succeeded in holding the Council accountable for its actions – just like a normal Parliament does. Even if the Parliament doesn’t get its way, it will very likely try to push this as far as it can. The Parliament’s current President, Pat Cox, is the same guy who engineered the en-masse resignation of the European Commission some years back, when he was head of the European Liberals. Cox knows how to use political crises to augment Parliament’s powers.”

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almost a diary, oddly enough

Crime Scene Report

I’m just realising the following: It should be punishable by law to sell postcards but not stamps. As this problem persists all over the world, I suppose this crime would make a prime opportunity to test the efficiency of the International Criminal Court. Or am I the only one who suffers from stamp unavailability whenever I try to send postcards? I’m not kidding here. I just went through my “stuff” box and counted about 50 written and addressed postcards from all over the world which have never been sent for acute lack of local stamps. So if you ever expected to receive a postcard from me and never got one, this is probably why.

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oddly enough, Sport

Cap & Capper, part XXIV…

Oh my, they finally did it – again.

The British Parliament yesterday night voted in favour of an outright ban of foxhunting, or hunting with dogs. For those of you, my gentle readers, who don’t really have any idea what this is about, remember the Disney film “Cap & Capper”: In a nutshell, people who favour a ban on foxhunting want Cap & Capper to stay friends, those against hold that their friendship is an aberration of nature, the work of a screenplay writer on drugs, or both.

Of course, in real life, things are a bit more tricky than that, but – while I don’t fancy any kind of hunting – I never really understood the British obsession with foxhunting. Nonetheless, while working in Westminster, I was able to find out that there is hardly any other issue that divides the UK’s population as sharply as hunting with dogs.

Sure, one can rationalise this – it’s a problem that has something to do with the urban-rural cleavage, which translates into a conservative-progressive cleavage, which also somewhat translates into a Conservative-Labour cleavage. It has to do with the slightly anachronistic British obsession with “class” as a political category, and of course, it has to do with the abilities of professional single issue campaigners to dominate the political discourse – these people certainly know how to stage a postcard campaign.

I guess this kind of obsession for Gap & Capper is hard to understand for anyone not British – a bit like no one from the outside can really get the emotional way so many Americans talk about personal use of fireams, or how foreigners will have a hard time to understand seemingly rational Germans bizarre behavior when it comes to discussing general speed limits on the autobahn…

There have been a handful of votes on this issue in recent Parliamentary history – the Guardian has a nice timeline – but so far opposition by the House of Lords and government mediated compromises have prevented an outright ban of this, well, activity. But this time, it looks as though the Parliament Act will be invoked to sign the Commons bill into law even if the proposed ban is voted down in the Lords.

So now that Foxhunting could – really – be banned by 2005, the real question of the day is – what will become the next British national obsession?

Proposals welcome.

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Economics, German Politics, oddly enough

Too cocky indeed.

Just two links to articles in today’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung in this post. But since they are about Mr Cocky mentioned in the previous post I decided to put them here.

In the first article, Juergen Peters is described as failed missionary, while the second reports that some people in his union want to see his head on the block after IG Metall’s historic defeat.

You can tell the extent to which the climate in Germany has changed when the metal employer association’s chairman, Martin Kannegiesser, sees it fit to state that “breaking the unions’ neck” would be stupid (just like the chancellor did yesterday, not without displaying a certain smugness). Boy, they do enjoy their victory… :)

Let’s just hope that they won’t get too cocky now and remember that even wounded animals can still be quite dangerous…

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