This must be a sad day for Vladimir Putin´s German friend, former chancellor and present chairman of the board of the Nord Stream pipeline, Gerhard Schröder. The left leaning jury members, who had decided to reward former German based KGB agent Putin with the (at least previously) highly esteemed Quadriga Prize, have now announced that he will NOT be given the prize. Only a few days ago, the jury members were still clinging to their unbelievably stupid choice, but the growing criticism finally made them think again.
Read the entire article in Der Spiegel (in German) here
... a Hobbesian world, where life for far more people is ‘nasty, brutish, and short’
Holly- and Bollywood film directors have recently been complaining about the lack of good script writers, particularly with regard to horror movies. Without scary enough scripts, no horror blockbusters!
No need to despair anymore, dear directors! Help is on its way. An hitherto unknown new British horror screen writer has produced the first outline of what many people think will be the horror movie of the century:
... a Hobbesian world, where life for far more people is ‘nasty, brutish, and short’.
Imagine a state on the brink of dissolution. Fresh water supplies, scant to begin with, are critically low. Crop yields are down. Failing harvests are the norm, not the exception. The country’s staple grain no longer grows well.
Unyielding poverty and inadequate sewerage mean disease tears through towns and cities. Outside the population centres, things are hardly better. Arable land is turning to dust, as the desert claims what was once fertile land.
Desperate people take desperate measures. Instability is now a national problem; soon it will be a regional one. Migrants surge outwards, searching for survival.
‘The twenty-first century will see a fight for resources, and Russia should not be defeated in this fight ... NATO has sensed where the wind comes from. It comes from the North.’ (Russian ambassador)
Many countries will be tempted to raise their defences against fleeing people. Barriers that will undermine a liberal world order that has served Britain well. This is the nightmare scenario.
The British Council is finally going to stop wasting money on useless climate change programmes, which do not have anything to do with its real purpose.
Instead the BC will "focus on its core business areas of arts, English and education and society",saysAnne Wozcencraft, BS:s acting director of education and society.
This is, of course, something British taxpayers welcome, and rightly so. Why should British taxpayers finance expensive world wide eco-tourism like this?:
Over 35 Climate Champions from 16 Countries (Northern Ireland, Ireland, UK, USA, Finland, Slovenia, Japan, Greece, Bangladesh, Norway, Sweden, Uganda, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and India) will come together at the Third International Climate Champions Camp in Goa, India from 15 – 21 January 2011. At the camp, these Climate Champions will be exposed to various facets of the fragile ecosystem of Goa and will get the opportunity to learn, network, share and better understand local impacts to this ecosystem due to Climate Change.
They will be interacting with the local scientific, technical and social experts and will also be visiting scientific Institutions like the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and Goa Science Centre
The British Council´s " International Climate Champions" programme is only a small part of the megalomaniac BC "Climate Generation" project. A major beneficiary of the programme is Dr. R. Pachauri´s TERI:
International Climate Champions is a youth oriented programme run by the British Council in partnership with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). This programme is part of British Council's global project called 'Climate Generation' which is delivered through a network of Climate Champions across 60 countries and eight Regions.
No wonder, Pachauri thinks that the Climate Champions programme is a great idea:
However, the sensible decision to cut the expensive climate change programmes has - not surprisingly - been criticized by a group of greenie artists and authors:
A group of some of Britain's best-known authors and artists has condemned the British Council's "extraordinary" decision to all but end its groundbreaking international work on climate change and demanded the decision be reconsidered.
Neither is it a surprise that a minister in David Cameron´s "green" government also is joining the critics:
The move has also been criticised by Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) minister Jeremy Browne who, in a letter leaked to the Guardian, admonished the council's chief executive for his apparent "termination" of one of the council's "success stories".
One must hope that the British Council stands by its decision to focus on its core activities, in spite of the pressure from the alarmists in the artist community and the Foreign Office (which probably would do well to focus on its own core activities - not climate change). UK tax payers - as indeed tax payers in many other countries - are hit by severe government imposed austerity measures. It is an outrage that their money is used to finance wasteful eco-tourism in the name of bogus human caused global warming.
Another example of Hollywood stars acting as "useful idiots":
The photos of Hollywood stars have been plastered all over the city for weeks, Dustin Hoffman looking down on Nikitsky Bulvar, Woody Allen and Steven Seagal, paired together on a billboard for probably the first time ever, on the Garden Ring. This Saturday and Sunday the stars actually came together, apart from an absent Hoffman, at an event organized by the controversial charity Federation fund at a specially constructed outdoor stage at a closed-off Vorobyovy Gory, where Seagal danced, actor Kevin Costner played guitar and Woody Allen the clarinet before signing a black Hummer. It was that kind of event. The gala did not have the surreality of the Federation fund’s previous celebrity event, a night in St. Petersburg where Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sang “Blueberry Hill” as Sharon Stone and Goldie Hawn, among other celebrities, watched on fawningly. Dionne Warwick, Francis Ford Coppola, Sophia Loren, Andy Garcia and Isabella Rossellini were among the others who flew in despite recent accusations that the fund is more focused on publicity than raising money as well as a worrying lack of transparency.
Charity director Vladimir Kiselyov has said the fund does not raise money but links donors to hospitals. However, Russian media reported that many of the hospitals listed on the fund’s site do not have any connection with the fund. Kiselyov said the charity has donated more than $12 million to hospitals. None of this has gone down well with many charities who have fought in the last decade to build trust among a cynical public suspicious of charity. The fund’s reluctance to release documents and its aversion to transparency goes against the basic principles of modern Russian charities, they say. “Without documents these words do not mean anything,” said Yekaterina Bermant, director of the Children’s Hearts charity. “All our reputations are at risk, those who worked for years and got respect of the people.”
Could this save humanity from catastrophic global warminng?
Old American Standard Afwall with Low Consumption Flush Valve Replacement
The Telegraph´s alarmist environment correspondent Louise Gray reports that the UK Government´s climate change adviser, Lord Krebs (Chair of the Adaptation Sub Committee), has invented a new, revolutionary way of fighting global warming:
Water saving devices in the toilet will help UK fight climate change says Government adviser
Households should be encouraged to fit nozzles on taps and put water saving devices in the toilet, the Government’s climate change adviser has warned.
Lord Krebs called for water meters to be installed in all homes over the next decade. He also said water companies and Governments agencies should be offering more advice on water saving devices. This can include fitting aerator nozzles to taps and putting a “hippo” or other deplacement device in the toilet to reduce flush. Households can also fit rain water butts, fix dripping taps and fit a water efficient shower head.
PS This should be good news for the enviro-fundamentalists. Even if the successor to the Kyoto agreement goes down the drain, it will be amply compensated by the new British innovation for fighting global warming ....
Today´s news from Brussels is that EU has declared war on credit ratings agencies. The charge of the EU heavy brigade was led by a number of top eurocrats:
CommissionerMichel Barnier: The commissioner in charge of the EU's single market, French politician Michel Barnier, alternately sneered and threatened the three big agencies who dominate 90% of the ratings industry: Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch.
--- Barnier said he would announce "stiff measures" in November aimed at taming the power of the agencies.
CommissionerViviane Reading: His remarks followed a broadside on Monday from fellow commissioner Viviane Reding, who said the ratings agencies' "cartel" should be "smashed up" as they were seeking to determine the fate of Europe and its single currency.
The President of the CommissionJosé Manuel Barroso:
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said the bloc was looking at getting away from its reliance on the mainly U.S.-based ratings companies and weighing possibilities for legal redress.
The European Union is now considering to ban rating agencies from doing what they are supposed to do:
On Monday, EU market regulation commissioner Michel Barnier suggested banning credit rating agencies from assessing countries under EU-IMF bailout programmes. In addition, the EU commission is working on regulation to increase transparency and competition between the credit rating agencies' market, which is dominated by just three players.
It also suggested that a rival European agency could be created.
This blog has obtained a top secret copy of the soon to be announced official EU credit ratings agency´s first test ratings for Greece, Ireland and Portugal. For comparison, we have added the ratings of the three American (anti-European) ratings agencies.
Official EU credit rating agency:
Greece AAA- Ireland AAA Portugal AAA
Moody´s, Standard & Poor´s, Fitch (compilation):
Greece
CCC
(Junk)
Ireland
Ba1(Junk)
Portugal
Ba2-
(Junk)
As can be seen, according to the objective and trustworthy new official EU ratings agency, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the credit worthiness of euro group members Greece, Ireland and Portugal. All recent problems have been caused by speculators relying on the totally false ratings provided by foreign agencies.The euro is still the most stable currency in the world. President Barroso and Commissioner Barnier are said to be extremely pleased with the new test ratings.
It is likely that the new agency will be located in Athens, although Barroso is known to have favoured Lissabon.
The Greek government already has a site for the new EU ratings agency
When the official truth has descended on the financial world, the European Union will again be able to fully concentrate on fighting (imaginary) human caused global warming and American-led shale gas exploration in Europe, a source in the Commission told this blog today.
Piebalgs in the Pacific - He who pays the piper calls the tune.
In March this blog highlighted EU Commissioner Andris Piebalgs´s grand tour of the Pacific islands, where he was preaching bogus EU climate change propaganda for the native peoples of these "sinking islands". There is reason to pay attention to one more aspect of the Commissioner´s journey:
Pacific island states on the frontline of climate change are to receive €90m (£76m) in EU cash for climate-related projects in return for siding with the European bloc at international climate negotiations. The European Union’s development commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, headed to Vanuatu Wednesday to unveil funding for climate-related projects. The funding comprises redirected resources, according to the European Commission, and will back projects such as mangrove replanting, watershed reforestation, rainwater harvesting, soil retention, raising of infrastructure, disaster preparedness and moving hospitals to higher ground. The cash may appear small in EU terms, but represents as much as 19.5% of the nominal GDP of Vanuatu, and more than 12 times the GDP of the Pacific Islands Forum’s poorest member, Niue. Such an injection of cash does not come without strings attached however. Piebalgs is to make the funding announcement at a high-level climate conference on Vanuatu organised by the European commission where the he will present an EU-Pacific action plan for the island states to sign. The document requires the states to embrace “joint positions on the international stage” as part of a “stronger Pacific-EU political dialogue on climate change”. Climate negotiations have been at a stalemate with only moderate advances made since the global UN conference in Copenhagen in 2009, as Western countries try to convince the developing world to commit to binding emissions reductions. Since 2009, the EU has revamped its climate diplomacy strategy, with France and the UK dispatched to try to pry some African states away from what Brussels officials describe as an “awkward squad” of refusenik nations. Germany has been tasked with the Pacific. Isaac Valero-Ladron, the EU’s climate spokesman, said that the bloc has had a lot of success in the region, which contains countries with some of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. “If we put money on the table, it really creates a constructive atmosphere and good policies.”
Previously the EU climate change bribery has been disclosed in the Wikileaks cables:
In a cable about a conversation with European Union climate boss Connie Hedegaard, the prospect of bribing nations to support the agenda was revealed even more clearly, though this time, it was the EU making suggestions. Hedegaard wanted to know, first of all, if the United States would need to engage in "creative accounting" to meet its climate-financing pledges.
Next, EU climate chief Hedegaard “suggested the AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States) countries ‘could be our best allies’ given their need for financing,” according to the cable. And indeed, given the AOSIS’ vocal and aggressive demands for more money, the analysis is probably correct.
The European Union never misses an opportunity to position itself as the "global leader in the combat against climate change". The unelected, overpaid eurocrats, like Piebalgs, travel all over the world in order to spread this false message of " climate leadership" (often reminding others about the failings of the US in this regard).
However, myth and reality seldom meet, particularly when it comes to the European Union:
The reality is that the EU (with several members in dire straits economically) is spending hundreds of millions of taxpayers´ euros in order to bribe poor countries to join its bogus crusade against (illusory) human caused global warming. Some eurocrats even seem to take pride in this bribery: “If we put money on the table, it really creates a constructive atmosphere and good policies”. (In Brussels they seem to know the message of the old saying "He who pays the piper calls the tune").
It is easy to understand why poor countries, like Vanuatu, are going along with the EU climate corruption; who would say no to free money (worth almost 20% of the country´s GDP)? But it is more difficult to understand why European taxpayers should accept this corruption and enormous waste of money.
And just imagine what an uproar there would be in the leftist and liberal media, if a private company would be caught bribing foreign governments! But when the EU and its unelected bureaucrats do it, nobody seems to care.
"It must be admitted that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" Vladimir Putin, German Quadriga Prize laureate
Another day, another sign of the sad reality of contemporary Germany:
Vladmir Putin, Russia´s autocratic ruler and former third rate KGB spy, is to receive one of the most prestigious German awards, the Quadriga prize.
The award, which is given by a Berlin-based organization called Werkstatt Deutschland, honors "personalities and projects whose thoughts and acts are built on values," according to its website. Recipients are "role models who are committed to enlightenment, commitment and welfare."
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which obtained internal documents relating to the prize, the Quadriga Prize committee wrote of Putin that he possesses "calculability paired with staying power," and that he has created stability for Russia "through the interplay of prosperity, economics and identity."
Fortunately there are some sane voices in Germany, who are not pleased with the choice of Putin, although it is too late to do anything about it:
Ruprecht Polenz, the chairman of the German parliament's foreign affairs committee and a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, said that while Putin may have helped his country to advance economically, the same did not hold true for democracy and human rights. "I don't think it is a good idea," Polenz told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. "Putin has only further developed Russia economically. He hasn't pushed things forward in terms of the rule of law or human rights." Polenz said he saw no effort on Putin's part to halt disturbing developments "that even President Dmitry Medvedev has described as legal nihilism." "One could ironically suggest that former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who described Putin as a 'flawless democrat,' give the laudatory speech," Polenz added. Schröder maintained very close ties to Putin. After leaving office as chancellor, Schröder became a member of the board for a gas pipeline project that will deliver Russian gas directly to Germany.
Herr Polenz credits Putin for advancing his country economically. But even that is not true. On the contrary, the only people Putin has really advanced and enriched, are the thugs that form his closest circle of allies.
Shame on Germany for rewarding one of the worst autocrats of our time!
Russia and its government controlled Gazprom energy company are increasingly worried about the coming shale gas revolution in Eastern Europe - particularly in Poland.
Here is why: One way that Russia has reasserted its influence in Central and Eastern Europe is through it's energy export policy. The natural gas pipelines that were built in the 1980s, (over the objections of the Reagan administration) have made large parts of Europe dependent on Russia's natural gas. In places like Ukraine and Belarus Russia has not hesitated to use gas supplies to reward its friends and punish its enemies. In Ukraine, in 2005-2006 Kremlin bosses cut the gas flow in order to put pressure on leaders in Kiev who were moving towards friendly relations with the West. Poland is, to put it mildly, not a historic friend of Russia's. The leaders in the Kremlin have long resented the fact that in order to sell natural gas to Germany and to other places in Western Europe they have to pay transit fees to the government in Warsaw. Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, has recently been building an underwater gas pipeline that will bypass Poland and pump the gas directly from Russia to Germany. If Germany suddenly can buy gas from Poland, the economic justification of this under-the-Baltic pipeline becomes problematic . At the very least, the project will take many more years to pay for itself than it would if Russian natural gas did not have to compete with Polish natural gas for the German market. Russia has a history of responding violently when its energy interests are challenged. The oil pipeline that bypasses Russia by going through the Republic of Georgia and Turkey and sending oil directly from Azerbaijan and Central Asia to the Mediterranean, certainly angered Moscow and was part of the motivation for the Georgia-Russia war of 2008.
Russia has long regarded Poland as within its economic sphere of influence and Moscow is less than happy that Warsaw is looking west rather than east for help. American companies have already crossed Gazprom’s plans for expansion in Norway and Azerbaijan and the Russian Minister for Natural Resources, Yuri Trutnev, has called shale gas “a problem.” Russia’s Gazprom, the biggest natural gas producer in the world and the owner of one sixth of known global gas deposits, has tried to downplay the importance of shale gas in the past, but has recently joined the rush to find its own.
And it is not only Poland that is intent on breaking the dependency on Russian gas:
Ukraine is stepping up efforts to attract billion-dollar investments and expertise from the world’s largest energy companies, hoping they can diversify energy supplies for an economy that is being squeezed by increasingly expensive fuel imports from its main supplier, Russia.
On July 6, Ukraine’s government formally launched a tender in which it asked potential investors to prepare feasibility studies on construction of the nation’s first liquefied natural gas plant.
--- Ukraine has decided that it needs western capital and technology to develop its potentially large shale gas reserves. Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TNK-BP are among companies said to be eyeing exploration and production licenses. Late last month, Vadim Chuprun, deputy energy minister, said “ExxonMobil, Halliburton, ConocoPhillips, Shell and other companies” have “responded to our proposals
After Croatia, Gazprom might lose another European customer – Bulgaria, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported today. The newspaper cites the Bulgarian minister of economy and energy Traicho Traikov.
According to Traikov the Bulgarian government intends to cancel the long-term contracts with Gazprom within 2-3 years. Bulgaria would decrease the quantities of Russian gas it buys from current 2 bn to 500 mn. cub meters annually. The country would rely on local gas output near the town of Lovech, as well as on future shale gas exploration near Novi Pazar, Kommersant further said.
Washington backs Lithuania's bid for energy independence, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday in the Baltic nation, which relies entirely on Cold War master Russia for its gas.
"We strongly support Lithuania's energy independence strategy, which includes regional development of nuclear power, liquefied natural gas, unconventional oil and gas, as well as gas and electricity links between the Baltic States and the rest of the European Union," Clinton told journalists. Experts estimate that Lithuania has sufficient reserves of gas trapped in shale – rock containing hydrocarbons – to cover its needs for between 30 and 50 years.
Adding to Russia´s problems is the fact that China is no more willing to pay exorbitant prices for Russian gas, because the Chinese know that they will soon be able to get their own shale gas:
Russia insists the gas glut is temporary. It has tried to fight back by pushing gas sales to China. But now those talks are stalled over price thanks to Beijing's discovery that—guess what?—China back home may have the biggest shale potential of all. And the hits will keep on coming, upending a high-price dynamic and European dependency that have suited Russia very well (and, admittedly, also suited some of its customers, especially German utilities).
Russia and Gazprom are actively lobbying against shale gas exploration in the EU, joining forces with various enviro-fundamentalist NGO´s and parties, who are basically against all energy sources, except wind and solar. The Russians are here counting on assistance particularly from Germany, a country now almost totally dominated by the radical green ideology. Germany has also invested a lot of money and prestige in the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the profitability of which is seriously endangered, if and when it is going to be possible to buy gas from neighbouring Poland.
However, it is not likely that the Eastern European countries are going to allow the anti-shale gas lobby to prevent the coming shale gas revolution in Europe. Poland and the other countries with potential shale gas resources will not - and rightly so - accept a Europe-wide ban or moratorium on shale gas exploration. Russia and Gazprom will have to rethink their strategy. The days when they were able to wage "energy war" in Europe are gone, hopefully for ever.
Inside Russia reports about about some possible progress in the Sergei Magnitsky case (the anti-corruption lawyer who exposed a major scam after which he was tortured and killed in a Russian prison):
The Russian lawyer who once worked for a U.S. investment fund died after a brutal beating from prison guards, the presidential council on human rights confirmed last week. Investigators, prison doctors, prosecutors and judges are all responsible for the death of the Hermitage Capital fund lawyer, the Presidential Council on Human Rights also found. Their findings have international implications, as the case is seen as another litmus test for how the Kremlin can handle cases of alleged official corruption and abuses of power. In death, Magnitsky has become an international cause celebre: The 37-year-old lawyer died alone in prison in November 2009. He had accused officials of tax fraud before his arrest..
--- Describing the findings of the presidential council, observers have cautiously said that “the ice has been broken.” Every major television channel reported on the conclusions reached by the human rights defenders after previously ignoring the Magnitsky case. “The fact that the Magnitsky case is being reviewed at this level offers a chance that somebody will be punished, although I’m afraid that not everyone will be,” Yevgeny Arkhipov, the president of the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights, told the Kommersant newspaper.
At first sight this seems like good news, but probably even cautious optimism is to expect too much. We all know the power of the corrupted security services mafia in Russia. When their people are involved - and they are in this case - the real culprits will most certainly go unpunished.
Carbon taxes, "huge lifestyle changes", a "shift from a hoarding and competitive mindset" to one based on "radical, inclusive interdependence" are the central tenets of Sallie McFague´s alarmist "theology". The Christian message of hope and love has been replaced by doomsday prophecies
It appears that there is a concerted effort by some enviro-fundamentalists to use the international fame of the Dalai Lama for spreading alarmist global warming propaganda.
The dubious Vancouver theologian Sallie McFague, author of A New Climate for Theology: God, the World and Global Warming, is one of the climate cultists, who is intent on brainwashing the Tibetan religious leader in order to use him in her doomsday scaremongering:
When the Dalai Lama calls, some Christians are eager to respond.
That's the case for Vancouver School of Theology theologian Sallie McFague, who jetted off this week to a high-level forum on the environmental crisis with famous Buddhists and noted scientists.
In an interview for the Vancouver Sun, McFague reveals her real motive for joining forces with the Tibetan religious leader:
The Dalai Lama is a very powerful pan-religious figure. Talk about having a bully-pulpit. His impact is huge," McFague said, explaining the Buddhist spiritual leader has a rare international moral authority that goes far beyond those with political power or military might. The first step for McFague, who moved to Vancouver in 2000 after three decades at the prestigious Vanderbilt Divinity School in Tennessee, is to take part this weekend in a preconference in Colorado with some other Dalai Lama-endorsed specialists in spirituality, environment and science.
Others warmists, who participate in the "Dalai Lama indoctrination" project are:
well-known Buddhist philosopher-monk Matthieu Ricard; best-selling brain science authorDaniel Goleman; Zen ecologist-anthropologist Joan Halifax, and Jonathan Patz, a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
(Donna Laframboise has some useful information on the "noted scientist" Patzhere)
Here is the message McFague (78) tries to sell to the aging Dalai Lama:
More people need to see that "we have to cough it up, in terms of money" to protect the Earth and all its inhabitants. Among other things, she would like to see governments introduce more carbon taxes (similar to the one in B.C.) as well as cap and trade programs.
--- When McFague gets the chance to confer with Buddhist philosophers, scientists and the Dalai Lama during this year's dialogue, she will also be talking about the need for more people to make a commitment to the "huge lifestyle changes" she says are necessary to combat global warming.
McFague is concerned political and corporate leaders have stopped trying to "mitigate" the damage caused by climate change and are simply trying to "adapt" to it. "The real tragedy is the lack of willpower."Since climate change is complex, she's afraid the desperately needed responses society needs to make will come only when "the disaster is too far gone."To raise awareness of the crisis, McFague will urge the Dalai Lama and his followers to inspire others to shift from belief to action through several means, including what she calls "voluntary poverty."
She would like to see more people move away from the "conventional model" of individual self-fulfillment, which is based on building up more possessions and prestige, to an emphasis on "the universal self."
She hopes the Dalai Lama and those who admire him will come to endorse the Christian spiritual ideal she calls "self-emptying," which could shift cultures from a hoarding and competitive mindset to one based on "radical, inclusive interdependence." To drive home her spiritual point to the Dalai Lama about the kind of paradigm shift needed to overcome climate-change inaction and denial, McFague said she will in part rely on the teachings of Paul, the key apostle of Jesus.Unlike the ancient Greek philosophers, who taught that when people know what is morally good they will inevitably do good, self-reflective Paul warned the opposite is what often happens:"We know the good, but we don't do it."
No doubt Patz, Ricard and Goleman are also going to do their best in order to get the Dalai Lama to join the alarmist crusade against "inaction and denial".
One must hope that there are at least a couple reasonable people among the Dalai Lama´s advisers, who could warn him about these false prophets.
PS
Here is an example of what Buddhist philosopher-monkMatthieu Ricard thinks about global warming and how the world should be governed:
The present approach to climate change and other pressing challenges of our times--disarmament, controlling the greed of unregulated free-market--is similar to that of tribes fighting over the ownership of a sinking ship, a burning forest, or a time bomb. At Copenhagen, they have gotten it to go their way, for now. The heads of state behaved like chiefs of very big tribes. Some might be wiser than others, but they have little power over the other tribes and sometimes not even over their own tribe. Transnational institutions can only tackle global issues. In a global world such as ours, heads of states should act more like provincial governors taking care of local affairs. They should defer to a transnational authority when the whole world is at stake. No one seems to be willing to work like that. Fine. Enjoy your last swim. (Again one of those utopian socialists, who would like to have a world government, presumable with people like themselves as the self-chosen leaders)
Ireland AAA
