EU-DIGEST

Look to 1792 for economic lessons

Alexander Hamilton’s handling of the panic of 1792 provides lessons for today’s economic turmoil, a financial historian said at the March 13 "Romano Lecture". “If you have a really good leader in a crisis, the leader acts boldly,” Richard Sylla told an audience at the Anderson Center Chamber Hall. “You don’t waver and you don’t change your mind. You want to keep the banks lending.”

Labels: Financial Crises, History

The Dutch and Their Muslims - working and living together

Historically the Netherlands has always been closely associated with Muslims. At the end of 1930 the Kingdom of the Netherlands had a total population of 85 million people. Nine million living in the Netherlands and 75 million living in what is now Indonesia. Of these 75 million inhabitants there were 56 million Muslims. The Dutch consequently learned a lot about coexisting with Muslims. To review this interesting history there will be a dinner and special lecture on April 11, starting at 18.30 in the Dialog Academy, Rochussenstreet 221, Rotterdam. The lecture entitled "the Dutch and their Muslims" will be by Professor Emeritus Karel Steenbrink of the University of Utrecht. For reservations and further information please contact Mrs. Iris Creemers at info@dialoogacademie.nl , or call +31- (0)10-4257533"

Labels: EU, History, Muslims, The Netherlands

Britain: The European power: a review of Brendan Simms book

Dr. Simms’ most important conclusion in his book Three Victories and a Defeat: The rise and fall of the First British Empire, 1714-1783: "It is only through exercising influence on the continent of which Britain is a part—today meaning the European Union—that the United Kingdom can effectively exercise global power. Extrapolated, it is only by gaining greater leverage over the nascent European government in Brussels that British interests can be protected, defended and extended in partnership with other Europeans, particularly Germany, France, Poland and the Netherlands. Moreover, given the rapid rise of China, the aggressive re-emergence of Russia and the infiltration of Islamism into the rimlands around the European Union, it is only through pooling power and compentences at the European level that Britons and other Europeans will be able to protect themselves and shape the world of tomorrow. The real guardians of British—and of course, European—interests are not therefore the globalists, Eurosceptics and the Europhobes, but the Europeanists. Three Victories and a Defeat ends with a powerful statement, which contemporary Britons would do well to remember (pointer: Brussels is located in the middle of Flanders).

Britain’s security depended on maintaining her “ramparts” in Europe. It was there, in Germany and Flanders, in the “counterscarp” of England, that Britain’s fate would be decided, always had been and always would be.

Labels: Britain, EU, History

the Havhingsten-fra-Glendalough

For the complete report from IOL click on this link

Denmark - Ship on voyage after a thousand years

An 11th-century Viking longship that has been reconstructed to its original condition will soon depart on a seven-week voyage from Denmark across the North Sea to her home port of Dublin, powered only by her sails. The Havhingsten fra Glendalough (The Sea Stallion from Glendalough) is the largest Viking warship ever rebuilt.

On July 1 the vessel will leave the Danish port of Roskilde, which served as the Vikings' flourishing political and commercial centre from the 9th to the 12th century. After a 44-day and 900-nautical-mile crossing using only its huge square sail, the longship and its 65 crew will reach Ireland, where it was originally built in 1040 in the Glendalough forest.

Labels: Council of Europe, Denmark, History, Ireland, Vikings

The history at the end of history - by Francis Fukuyama

"Democratic transitions need to be driven by societies that want democracy, and since the latter requires institutions, it is usually a fairly long and drawn out process.

Outside powers like the US can often help in this process by the example they set as politically and economically successful societies. They can also provide funding, advice, technical assistance, and yes, occasionally military force to help the process along. But coercive regime change was never the key to democratic transition."

Labels: History, Peace, US, War

Spain's Prado museum unveils spacious new extension

The Prado museum unveiled a modernist new annex of red brick, granite, oak and marble Saturday, giving a first look at sorely needed exhibition space for one of Spain's main tourist attractions. Designed by architect Rafael Moneo, the new space offers visitors plenty of natural light and blends in discreetly with the original gallery built in the early 19th century.

The sober addition completes the first phase of the planned expansion of the Prado, which is considered to have the world's richest store of pre-20th-century masters, including Velazquez, Rubens, El Greco and Goya.

Labels: Culture, EU, History, Spain

INTERVIEW: German philosopher Habermas calls for EU referendum - by Matthias Hoenig and Eva- Maria McCormack Mar

Hamburg - German philosopher Juergen Habermas Tuesday called for a EU-wide referendum in which citizens across the bloc should decide whether the EU should have a directly elected president, as well as a foreign minister and an independent financial basis. In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Rome treaties which marked the foundation of the EU, he said Europe's governments should 'dare democracy' and hold a referendum on the future of the bloc, to be scheduled together with the 2008 European parliamentary elections. Previous attempts to consolidate the European institutions had not failed due to the opposition of the people in Europe, said the philosopher and sociologist, who has received worldwide acclaim for his critical theory of rationality 'In most countries of the continent there are sleeping majorities in favour of further consolidation of the EU,' said Habermas.

'The deeper reason for the paralysis in the dynamics of integration is that different governments are governed by different targets in regards to the EU,' he said. Rather than putting the real question of what the bloc ultimately should be to the test, the national governments were avoiding the conflict that is to be expected in this crucial issue, he said. Note EU-Digest: Twentieth-century German philosopher Jürgen Habermas attacked the belief that modern scientific knowledge and research are objective and value-free. Habermas argued that reason and science have become tools of domination, rather than emancipating humans from myth, suspicion, and tyranny.

Labels: EU, History, Integration, Philosophy, Political

Barcelona - Making of a modernist capital - by Clare Henry

Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí to Dali at New York’s Metropolitan Museum is a revelation. Well-focused, often spectacular, always informative, this show of 300 exhibits covering the half-century from 1888 to 1939 starts with a bang – haunting Blue Period Picasso, gritty Modernista oils, elegant Symbolist sculpture – and closes with powerful studies for “Guernica” and a group of celebrated works by that great 20th-century trio: Miró, Dali and Picasso.

In between, a rich mix of pictures, decorative art, graphic design, jewellery, sculpture, ceramics, art nouveau furniture, unfamiliar Gaudí artifacts and period photos provide a broad window on the arts created during this period. It all came to a crunching halt in 1939 with the birth of Franco’s fascist regime, although as any visitor to Barcelona today will know, the city has since recovered its dynamism.The exhibition is organised into nine thematic sections.‘Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí to Dali’ is at the Metropolitan Museum, New York until June 3. Tel

Labels: Art, History

Europe's view of the colonies - by Swati Pandey

Retained by none other than Sir Walter Raleigh, John White first traveled to North America in 1585, landing on the shores of what is now North Carolina. In a series of watercolors, he opened up the New World: Algonquin Indians and their villages, the local flora and fauna. White became, in effect, the eyes of the British empire, influencing how Europe saw the unexplored land.

Beginning March 15, the British Museum in London will exhibit more than 70 of White's paintings to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, at Jamestown in Virginia.

Labels: History

Labels: History, Integration