You can always change this.

You must have heard about the ratification process of LT. At the time of the writing, most countries 26 out of 28, the Irish included (they had a second go and said OK), had approved=ratified the treaty. Italy is just depositing the documents, so we have one and only remaining country. (Now, there is some talk about Åland, but let’s keep it out of business, no pun intended).

The last one is the Czech Republic. Can you now use the best of your imagination, and tell us all, what is the real reason?

Can a reasoning of the 2008 US democratic presidential candidate go like this:

If I announce a woman as my vice-president, it will be too much to bear for most of the voters in this conservative country. I would not win then. Therefore, I select some rather conservative (although democratic) guy to be my vice.

What do you think? What goes in his head?

The board behind the current Elections of the Representative Council of the Student Union spent great efforts convincing people to go voting. For example, it was possible to vote electronically in advance.

One thing that made me wonder for a while, however, was the motivation presented on the advertisement flier: “ONLY BY VOTING YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE”/”VAIN ÄÄNESTÄMÄLLÄ SINULLA ON MAHDOLLISUUS VAIKUTTAA”. I am no language fascist, but don’t you also feel that thinking about people as having no other option to make a difference is a bit misguiding?

According to “Koski S.: Development in Africa through Governance and Partnership. Formin, Finland, 2005″, an international partnership does not exist between Africa and Europe, as stated by all (76, civil servants, civil society, intergovernmental organizations) interviewees from Ethiopia and Kenya. Instead, concealed motive and national interests guide Europeans. Obstacles to develop the partnership were seen in the colonial history, in the inequalities in technological development, and political and financial power.

Is that really a surprise? So, after a decade (or decades?) of ‘we thought we are partners’, we have ‘well, who thought we are partners?’. How can any development happen without working closely together? Oh my.

During the November 2006, it will be 17 years since the fall of communism in Czech (and Slovak that time) republic and in the whole block of countries under the Soviet-thumb. In all the countries, the communists reformed, changed their name, and have publicly apologized for the committed atrocities. In many countries they dissolved into some type of socialist-, left-wing parties.

In Czech republic of these days, there is a political party called Czech and Moravian (!) Communist Party. According to the law passed in 1993, the Communist party of Czechoslovakia, the original organization of the current Czech communists, was a criminal organization (but has not been banned). The current communists got 12.8% of votes in last elections, falling from 18.5% in 2002. That is, whole communist electorate gave a vote to a criminal party. Yes, the Czech have not faced up to their history. As an example, the leader of the communists has been elected as one of the vice-heads of the parliament.

Talking about the recent elections, both leftist and right+center parties got same (100 and 100) number of mandates in the parliament, while the civic party won, socialists finished second. Since 1989, it has been a matter of pride of the government not to rely on the votes of the communists MPs. All other parties promised to their voters not to cooperate with communists and, oh my Stalin, not in any case take them into government. Typical schizophrenia of the post-communist country, since same communists permitted the current president to get elected, and socialist government used their votes to pass several laws.

It has turned out that in the stalemate 100:100 situation, there cannot be a government not supported by the votes of commies. First attempt of the winner failed (a coalition of the non-leftist parties). Politics is a conflict resolution process, so to resolve this conflict the leader of Christian democrats (center) joins with the leader of socialists to compile a government. Since together they cannot get the required 101 votes, on whom do they plan to rely? On the very same people who promised not to.

To finish this introduction into the current political Czech, we observe that the leader of the Christians has been forced to resign. Thus, while the stalemate continues, and while the leaders of the democratic parties make fools out of themselves, there is one party that has not been taken into negotiations, and whose voters are laughing. Guess which is it.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.
Read more »

Passengers angry.
Drivers on strike.
Transportation threatened.
Passengers angry.

Trash starts to smell.
Luckily it’s winter,
so it does not smell that bad.

Employers met.
Salaries raised.
Part-timers kicked.
Drivers go happy.

Where to get money?
Let’s increase prices.
Let’s decrease shifts.
No part-timers.

Passengers angry.