All posts by Richard

Politics

Turn up for the books…

“Jobbik Party, Csanad Szegedi was notorious for his incendiary comments on Jews: He accused them of “buying up” the country, railed about the “Jewishness” of the political elite and claimed Jews were desecrating national symbols.

Then came a revelation that knocked him off his perch as ultra-nationalist standard-bearer: Szegedi himself is a Jew.”

Hungary Far-Right Leader Discovers Jewish Roots – NYTimes.com.

UK

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being British…

“Britain’s lack of a future orientation has much to do with an arbitrary and defensive relationship to its history, as displayed this last week. The past haunts us like a Warner Bros.-licensed specter, but even these ghosts are more substantial than our tenuous grip on where we come from. The opening ceremony showed us a Britain where the past is not so much another country, but a Neverland where visions of tomorrow slip further out of reach.”

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being British – Boing Boing.

Politics

Learning From Norway’s Tragedy…

Did you ever get the feeling that there are only a couple of adult countries left?

“Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s reaction was unequivocal. He declared that Norway’s strongest weapon in responding to this was to employ more openness and more democracy.

Norwegians took up his call. Neither politicians nor the media turned it into a partisan political issue. The public reacted with grief but did not call for extraordinary measures. And the state chose to prosecute Brevik in an ordinary public court with full media coverage.”

Learning From Norway’s Tragedy – NYTimes.com.