An impromptu protest at the German Defense Ministry demanding that Guttenberg step down. "Resignation = Progress" reads the sign: photo DPA via Der Spiegel
The shoes say it all!!
February 28, 2011New French Foreign Minister moves quickly to rectify Sarkozy’s blunders
February 28, 2011
Alliot-Marie: Image via Wikipedia
Sarkozy has always given me the impression of being rather condescending with former colonies and of running a foreign policy based almost entirely on short-term economic benefit. The French Government – as most others – has been caught completely unprepared by the upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East. But Sarkozy and his ministers have been particularly inept with Tunisia and Egypt and to some extent with Morocco and Libya.
Foreign Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie was stupid enough not only to accept air travel and holidays from Ben Ali’s friends but also to actually offer French support for the Tunisian security services when the demonstrations first began. Alliot-Marie’s partner, Patrick Ollier is also accused of using his close relationship with Muammar Gaddafi to secure French arms deals with Libya. He remains in the cabinet in charge of parliamentary affairs but she has now been sacked by Sarkozy. The Prime Minister, Francois Fillon who also accepted free holidays paid for by Mubarak remains in place.
Sarkozy also found another scapegoat in Pierre Menat the Ambassador in Tunis and sacked him as well. His replacement – the brash and arrogant Boris Boillon – then went and endeared himself to the Tunisians by immediately throwing a tantrum and calling the Tunisian press “stupid” at a press briefing on his arrival. Naturally the video found its way to You Tube ( 2:40 into the video). The Tunisians demanded his removal and he was forced to apologise.
“I say I am sorry, I regret my words, I was stupid,” Ambassador Boris Boillon said over state television. “I ask for the forgiveness of all Tunisians.” Tunisians are deeply suspicious of former colonial ruler France’s role in supporting Ben Ali, who ran the North African country repressively for more than 20 years.
Sarkozy is known for not caring much for diplomats while diplomats consider him impulsive and an amateur:
Mr Sarkozy has been criticised for several years over the way his government has run foreign policy. Critics accuse him of riding roughshod over foreign service chiefs at the Quai d’Orsay while keeping key decisions in the hands of his Chief of Staff Claude Gueant.
Last week an open letter from a group of diplomats, published in the newspaper Le Monde, slammed the “amateurism” and “impulsiveness” of Mr Sarkozy’s policy. Former ambassador Jean-Christophe Rufin criticised the “damage” done to France’s image. “Contrary to the announcements trumpeted for the past three years, Europe is powerless, Africa escapes us, the Mediterranean will not talk to us, China has tamed us and Washington ignores us!” wrote the diplomats.
The letter was seen as a response to Mr Sarkozy’s claims that his ambassadors in Arab capitals had failed to foresee the North African unrest.
It is now the more sober Alain Juppe, the former French prime minister, who will be given the job of restoring France’s diplomatic credibility as the country’s new foreign minister. He will seek to ensure France takes the right approach to the pro-democracy movement.
And, significantly, Mr Sarkozy is moving Claude Gueant, his wing-man for years and the driver of his foreign policy, to be interior minister – a move seen as a concession to Alain Juppe, who will want to run foreign affairs his way.
The new Foreign Minister Alain Juppe is now moving fast to try and rectify a string of blunders and to try and restore some cohesion to French foreign policy.
Now comes a French move to win hearts and minds in the new Libya: the first consignment of humanitarian aid. The two planes France sent to the eastern city of Benghazi carried doctors, nurses, medicine and medical equipment to ease the pressure on hospitals in the east of Libya.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon hailed “the beginning of a massive operation of humanitarian support for the populations of the liberated territories. And you will have seen that France was in the forefront of the decisions taken to sanction Col Gaddafi,” he said. “We were the ones who called on the European Council to adopt a joint position on this matter.”
The French moves are a start and almost forced on them since the writing is already on the wall. Whether Alain Juppe will be able to inject a measure of principle into French foreign policy and lift it up from the level of the pig-trough remains to be seen.
But with Sarkozy’s approval ratings at less than 30% and a difficult presidential election coming up in 2012, his amateurish impulsiveness and his quest for short-term gains may prevent foreign policy from being about anything else.
Berlusconi the stallion – bunga bunga girls terrified of catching AIDS
February 28, 2011The Telegraph provides further smutty details about Berlusconi and his bunga bunga parties.
And one wonders how the glories of Italian civilisation ended up with this uncouth lout. But he follows in the footsteps of Mussolini.
The women who attended parties hosted by Silvio Berlusconi were terrified of contracting Aids and other sexually-transmitted diseases from him, according to evidence gathered by Milan prosecutors.
The claims, based on text messages sent between the women, cast further doubt on the Italian prime minister’s insistence that the “bunga bunga” parties at his villas in Milan and Sardinia were nothing more than light-hearted dinners filled with jokes and songs.
According to evidence submitted by prosecutors, several women last year exchanged text messages in which they expressed their relief after medical tests cleared them of any sexually transmitted diseases.
“Have you done it? Is everything okay?” asked one unidentified woman in a message sent on Jan 8 2010. “All ok. White blood cells ok, there is no AIDS.” “Did you have any doubts?” the first woman then asked. “Well you know when someone goes to bed with 80 women, you never know in life,” the second woman responded.
Model Barbara Guerra complained to a friend about the car she received from the prime minister. “I am furious because yesterday that girl arrived with a Mini Cooper he gave her in July and he gave me a Smart car in June. Now I swear I am going to ask him for another car.”
In wiretaps recorded between October and December last year, there were also complaints about the prime minister’s stamina. “He is up all night till 4am. He doesn’t sleep so he can stay up all night with one after the other”.
“There are 20-year-old girls there who are destroyed, they are dead, and me too. Also because I am much older, and I am 45 years younger than him.”………
I cannot resist this picture of another prize winning Berlusconi – the stallion. At least this Danish Berlusconi is not lacking in class or elegance.
Danish bred and Oldenburg branded and licensed stallion Berlusconi (by Belissimo M x Florestan x Donnerhall) Photo Ridehesten.com
The Danish bred and Oldenburg branded and licensed stallion Berlusconi stood out in the 35-day Stallion Performance Test, which completed at Stable BM in Lemvig, Denmark, on 10 February 2011. The chestnut Belissimo M x Florestan x Donnerhall offspring scored the highest total of 861,5 points.
“Essence of a Manager” now available on-line
February 28, 2011The print edition of my book “Essence of a Manager” is due out later in March but is available for on-line reading from today at Springer.
Springer Science+Business Media
Essence of a Manager
Pillai, Krishna
1st Edition., 2011, XIV, 175 p., Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-642-17580-0
Due: February 2011
Comments / reviews are very welcome here.
Vostok 3KA-2 Soviet space capsule from 1961 to be auctioned at Sotheby’s
February 28, 2011Before blasting the first human into space in 1961, the Soviet Union fired off one last test flight of the tiny capsule that would carry Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on his historic mission.
The test capsule, Vostok 3KA-2, still scorched from re-entry, will be sold at Sotheby’s in New York on April 12, the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight. Sotheby’s, which is displaying the capsule at its New York headquarters ahead of the sale, estimates it will fetch between $2 million to $10 million.
Vostok 3KA-2, one of three Vostok space capsules produced for Yuri Gagarin's historic space flight. On March 23, 1961, it took a test flight for 115 minutes with a dummy and a dog onboard: image csp.co.jp
The Vostok space program, conceived by the architect of the Soviet space program Sergei Korolev, first made history by blasting two dogs, Belka and Strelka, into space — the first animals to survive the voyage in 1960.
The capsule’s spherical cabin, no more than 2.5 meters (8 feet) in diameter and made of aluminum alloy, was then adapted to carry humans.
Just weeks before Gagarin’s mission, in a final test flight the capsule carried a life-size cosmonaut mannequin and a dog named Zvezdochka.
The capsule completed one orbit, re-entered the earth’s atmosphere and landed in a snow-filled gully near the Soviet town of Izhvesk, paving the way for Gagarin historic mission in an exact copy of the capsule.
60 ships trapped in Baltic Sea Ice on Sunday: 5 icebreakers at work
February 28, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Swedish Radio reports that some 60 vessels were trapped in the Baltic sea ice yesterday and that 5 icebreakers are working feverishly to clear their paths. The ships are trapped in the southern section of the Gulf of Bothnia known as “Bottenhavet”.
This problematic situation was not helped by the strong southerly winds which compressed the ice sheet. To the north of Sundsvall, ships cannot proceed without icebreaker assistance.
Most ships trapped on Sunday are now free but some yet have problems and are waiting for assistance from icebreakers.
“At all ports north of Sundsvall, it remains very difficult ” says
Johny Lindvall at FMA Icebreaking.
Last weekend 250 000 square kilometers of the Baltic Sea was covered with ice, which according to SMHI was the largest area covered by ice since the winter of 1986-87.
The Swedish Maritime Administration warns:
The strong winds that we have had the last couple of days has resulted in a severe ice situation, mainly in the northern part of the Sea of Bothnia. This makes it hard to predict how long time each individual assistance will take.
Ice breaking vessels and their activities:
Ale: Assisting/supervising the traffic on Lake Vänern. Atle: During the evening/night assisting Red Spirit from Karlsborg to Haraholmen and then Salsa out from Haraholmen. Frej: Now assisting a convoy of four southbound ships , that were stuck on the finnish side, over to the channel that has opened up on the swedish side. Ymer: Assisting/supervising the traffic in Ålands Sea Baltica: Visit in shipyard Scandica: Assisting and supervising the traffic in Kalmar Sound. Fyrbyggaren: Assisting/supervising in Bay of Havringe. Balder Viking: On her way with a convoy to Ornskoldsvik and Holmsund. Tor Viking: Breaking loose Merwborg and then assist her to Holmsund. Vidar Viking: Assisting/supervising on the northern Baltic Proper, Bay of Havringe and Landsort.
Ice levels in Bottenhavet are the most widespread since 1987. Photo Swedish Coast Guard
Summa cum fraude: Now shoe waving to show contempt for Guttenberg
February 27, 2011The German academic world is finally reacting to the Googleberg affaire. A demonstration was held in Berlin on Saturday and an open letter to Angela Merkel has been signed by more than 15,000 academics (as of Sunday noon).
Shoe waving as a means of showing contempt is spreading. It was very evident at the demonstration in Berlin on Saturday 26th February against Guttenberg and his fraudulent ways and against Angela Merkel for keeping him in his job.
Several hundred demonstrators protested in Berlin on 26th February 2011 against the fact that Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg simply copied parts of his doctoral thesis and therefore lost his PhD but still remains in his job as Defence Minister. Summa cum fraude was the poster in reference to the very lax standards of University of Bayreuth in awarding him a PhD with “Summa cum laude” for his plagiarised thesis.
"Summa cum fraude": Photo: DAPD
Shoe waving showing contempt for Guttenberg: photo DAPD
Professor Debora Weber-Wulff writes on her blog:
German scientists and doctoral students are signing an open letter to the German Chancellor by the droves. There are some 7000 (over 15,153 on Sunday at noon -ed) signatures as of Feb. 26, 2011. Since I didn’t go to the demonstration in Berlin this afternoon, I will offer this translation:
Dear Chancellor Merkel,
As doctoral students we have been following the current discussion about the plagiarism accusations against the Minister of Defense, Mr. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. We are shocked and do not understand what is happening. We have the impression that you are trying everything in your power to keep a minister in your cabinet who still insists that he did not knowingly deceive in his doctoral thesis, despite massive evidence to the contrary.
With this course of action, the German government and the members of parliament from the coalition [of CDU, CSU and FDP] damage not only themselves, but much more.
Zu Guttenberg has had to distance himself a number of times from statements he has made about his dissertation. The Internet community has with an unparalleled effort managed to demonstrate numerous incidents of clear plagiarism in Mr. zu Guttenberg’s dissertation. The evidence can be openly seen and checked by anyone. It should not surprise anyone that experts in plagiarism are united in the opinion that this is not just a few “embarassing errors”. This is massive, systematic deception.
Zu Guttenberg copied large portions of his dissertation from various sources – apparently with great ambition – and did not name those sources in order to obtain a doctoral title that he used for, among other things, election advertising. The University of Bayreuth did not address this issue of deception [when revoking the doctorate].In the face of the extent and amount of plagiarism found, it should be as clear to you as it is to us that at the end of an exact investigation by the university, only one result will be possible with respect to the intent to deceive on the part of the minister. This cannot be done unknowingly.
Calling the deception a deception has nothing to do with the minister belonging to a particular political party. We would also demand that politicians from opposing parties step down, if they had given their word of honor that the work was only their own, except for sources as noted, and had plagiarized in the same manner.
On February 23, 2011 Mr. zu Guttenberg stated that he only wants to be judged by his performance as Minister of Defense. He alluded to a phrase you had used when you said that you did not hire him as a research assistant.
This makes a mockery of all the research assistants and doctoral students who honestly endeavor to contribute to the advancement of science. This makes it sound as if obtaining a doctoral title by fraud is just a trivial offense and that the academic word of honor is meaningless in everyday life.
When following the rules of good scientific practice it is not just a question of footnotes, trivialities that can safely be neglected in the face of the larger political problems of the day. This is the foundation of our work and our trustworthiness. We strive in our own work, according to the best of our knowledge and conscience, to reach this high goal at all times. When we fail, we run the risk – and rightly so – of being expelled from the university.
Most of us teach younger students. It is often our job to teach them the basics of good scientific practice. We insist that the students be exact at all times, correctly quoting and clearly noting all help that was used. We don’t do this because we are fanatics about footnotes or because we live in an ivory tower and know nothing about real life. It is our intention to pass on the understanding that scientific progress – and with it progress for society as a whole – is only possible when we can depend on the honesty of the scientific community.When our students violate these precepts, we grade their efforts as unsatisfactory. On repeated violation, as a rule we try to expel them. Those who have been expelled are denied access to numerous career opportunities – and rightly so – even for jobs that are much less in need of personal integrity then the office of the Minister of Defense.
We may be old-fashioned and are spouting outdated conservative values when we are of the opinion that values such as veracity and a sense of responsibility should also be valid outside of the scientific community. Mr zu Guttenberg seemed to be of this same opinion until very recently.
Research contributes a valuable service to the development of society. Honest and innovative science is the foundation of the prosperity of our country. When it is no longer an important value to protect ideas in our society, then we have gambled away our future. We don’t expect thankfulness for our scientific work, but we expect respect, we expect that our work be taken seriously. By handling the case of zu Guttenberg as a trifle, Germany’s position in world science, its credibility as the “Land of Ideas”, suffers.
Maybe you consider our contributions to society as being negligible. In that case, we kindly request that in the future you refrain from referring to Germany as the “Republic of Education and Culture”, as you often proclaim.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned [at the time of translation]
3242 doctoral students
1817 persons with doctorates
2579 other supporters
(Updated ticker of Germans signing the open letter here)
I have no great faith in the level of integrity of European politicians. I cannot see that any principles of ethics or integrity will have any impact on Angela Merkel’s decisions. She will get rid of Guttenberg if – and only if – she feels that he will be more of a liability rather than an asset in the March elections.
The end is nigh for Gaddafi: Galyna Kolotnytska has returned to Ukraine
February 27, 2011According to Svenska Dagbladet, Galyna Kolotnytska who was Gaddafi’s personal nurse has landed in Ukraine along with 120 other Ukrainians.
She had announced to her daughter last Friday that she would be returning from Tripoli after 9 years in Libya.
Galyna Kolotnytska : Photo scanpix
Political earthquake spreading and claims Tunisian PM and French Foreign Minister
February 27, 2011The earthquakes that are ripping across the political foundations of North Africa and the Middle East are producing an uncharted landscape which is still changing everyday. The after-shocks continue in Tunisia where it all started and new shocks were felt in Oman today. In Libya, Gaddafi is increasingly isolated and further shocks will no doubt be felt. The speed of propagation is stunning and beyond anything predicted by “domino theories” and the directions of movement are quite unpredictable. That Egypt’s Mubarak would fall in 18 days is hard to believe. That his departure did not produce a long period of chaos is even more remarkable. That Saudi Arabia could be vulnerable at all seems ridiculous on the surface but the events in Bahrain and today in Oman suggest that the sand under the House of Saud is highly unstable and could be susceptible to very sudden shifts.
The consequences will be felt far outside the immediate region and not least in the old colonial powers of France and Italy and the UK. All the so-called defenders of freedom and democracy who -on the grounds of stability – continued to support the string of repressive dictators will have to devise new policies. The new found revolt against the corruption in North Africa and the Arabian peninsula will create new stresses in Europe and the US where the “establishments” have all been complicit in the corrupt practices and especially in the sale of defence equipment and in the extraction and refining of oil. How to continue supporting absolute monarchs and dictators in some countries while supporting the establishment of democratic institutions in others is going to be particularly challenging for the US.
French Foreign Minister Alliot-Marie quits over Tunisia
Embattled French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has announced her resignation after weeks of criticism over her contacts with the former Tunisian regime. But in announcing her resignation, she said she had committed no wrongdoing.
A veteran conservative politician and cabinet minister, she had been in her new job for just three months. She was heavily criticised for initially offering French help to quell the uprising in Tunisia. Subsequent revelations about her and her family’s links to the regime of former President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, and the fact that she had taken a Christmas holiday in Tunisia during the uprising made her position increasingly untenable.
Tunisians celebrate prime minister’s ouster
Less than a minute after Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned Sunday in a speech on national television, the massive crowd filling this city’s Casbah Square suddenly halted the angry chants that had continued around the clock for days. There was silence, and then cheers, chants and circles of ecstatic dancing.
For the second time in as many months, the people of Tunisia had toppled their government, and now their chant changed to “the act is done, the rest is yet to come.”
Ghannouchi, 69, quit because he had been unable to overcome his past as part of fallen president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s government, and the peaceful demonstrations that forced Ben Ali out had turned violent and police seemed unable to control the crowds, according to activists in several newly formed political parties.
Libya protesters control Zawiyah
Forces loyal to the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have surrounded the city of Zawiyah, where anti-government protesters are bracing for an attack. Men opposed to Gaddafi were patrolling the streets of the city 50km from the capital on Sunday, saying they had seized weapons and even tanks which they would use to defend themselves.
Ezeldina, a Zawiyah resident, told Al Jazeera that people in the city had raided some military camps.
“We are expecting an attack at any moment,” he said. “We are forming rotating watchgroups, guarding the neighbourhood.” Police stations and government offices inside the city have been torched and anti-Gaddafi graffiti painted of walls. Hundreds of protesters in the city centre chanted “Gaddafi Out”. Some stood on top of a captured tank, while others crowded around an anti-aircraft gun. Women stood on top of buildings cheering on the men in the crowd below.
An effigy of Gaddafi hung from a light pole in the main square.
A group of foreign journalists were driven to Zawiyah by Libyan authorities on Sunday to show that forces loyal to Gaddafi still held the town. But once there, it was evident that the protesters were in control.
Protests turn violent in Oman port
Thousands of Omani youths confronted police in the industrial port of Sohar on Sunday after witnesses reported that two protesters had been killed in clashes with the security forces. The small Gulf state, a close ally of the UK, is the latest country to be rocked by the wave of youth-driven democracy movements that have spread through the region since the fall of the Tunisian and Egyptian leaders.
Unprecedented unrest in northern Oman marks an escalation of civil protest in the oil-rich Gulf, sparking fears of further contagion in a region whose oil reserves are vital to the global economy.
The flare-up follows rising tensions in Bahrain, where pro-democracy protests have shaken the country for the past two weeks, prompting other states such as Saudi Arabia to offer citizens billions of dollars worth of benefits in an attempt to ward off unrest.
Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said, Oman’s ruler, reshuffled the cabinet at the weekend. But this failed to placate the protesters in central Sohar. “We want all these ministers to go,” said one demonstrator. “They are thieves.”
Protest marches fill Bahrain capital as pressure mounts on rulers
Thousands of protesters streamed through Bahrain’s diplomatic area and other sites Sunday, chanting against the country’s king and rejecting his appeals for talks to end the tiny Gulf nation’s nearly two-week-old crisis.
At least three processions paralyzed parts of the capital, Manama, and appeared to reflect a growing defiance of calls by Bahrain’s rulers to hold talks to ease the increasingly bitter showdown in the strategic island nation, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.
“No dialogue until the regime is gone,” marchers chanted as they moved through the highly protected zone of embassies and diplomatic compounds. No violence was reported.
Other marchers shouted slogans to oust Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and plastered fences with flyers denouncing security forces for attacks that have killed seven people since the first protests Feb. 14 inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt.
Plagiarism was standard practice for Guttenberg
February 27, 2011Guttenberg has given up his PhD and the University of Bayreuth has now rescinded it after the Googleberg affaire. But it seems that for Guttenberg plagiarism is a long standing and regular habit and not just an opportunistic effort for his PhD and certainly not the unwitting mistake he claims it was.
"zu Googleberg" the Copycat Minister: photo DPA
Der Spiegel carries an article about the moral bankruptcy in Germany and reports on the discovery by the Gutenplag Wiki that he had plagiarised also in 2004.
The GuttenPlag Wiki website also found a 29-page analysis from 2004 that Guttenberg, then a representative in the German parliament, wrote for the Hanns Seidel Foundation. According to the site, the document contains passages that have been taken from other sources with minimal changes and not attributed. A spokesperson from Guttenberg’s legislative office told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the case involved an “editorial text” and not an academic one, and pointed out that the sources were all listed in an attached literature review.
Meanwhile, Bild published a survey Thursday in which 87 percent of the respondents said they believed Guttenberg should stay in office. More than 260,000 people called and faxed in to the toll line. The headline on the newspaper’s front page Thursday was “Yes, we stand behind Guttenberg!” However, on Friday, an ongoing online poll on the newspaper’s website found that 57 percent of the more than 680,000 surveyed wanted Guttenberg to step down.
Jürgen Trittin, floor leader of the Green Party, on Thursday spoke of a “dirty deal” between Guttenberg and Axel Springer AG, which owns Bild. It was announced this week that the newspaper will be a major recipient of new advertising that the government is planning to help with recruitment for the German military, the Bundeswehr, which is soon to become a volunteer army. A spokesman for the media company told SPIEGEL ONLINE this week that the editorial offices only learned of the advertising campaign from the media on Thursday, after the telephone poll.
Critics also pointed out that the tabloid in the past also defended Guttenberg’s controversial trip to Afghanistan in December with his wife Stephanie, which was decried as a publicity stunt by his opponents.
Ther are other writings by Guttenberg that are being criticised. Even Angela Merkel may have to back away from the support she has been giving to her Defence Minister to exploit his popularity before the impending local elections.
Guttenberg’s star with Merkel could more likely be tarnished by what a report said she regarded as an “only very rudimentary and poorly-considered basis for decisions about reform of the Bundeswehr.”
Der Spiegel reported at the weekend that criticism of his work at the Defence Ministry from the Chancellery was much harsher than previously thought.
