Not happy with Sarkozy

PARIS- Boy, they DO NOT like President Sarkozy here. He is, how shall I say? Reviled? Yeah. That would be close. They see him as looking out only for the rich. Kind of a French Margaret Thatcher. Or....a George Bush. If George Bush had any intellectual curiosity.

Why do they not like him? Well, the French are very set in their ways. And change comes slowly here if at all. They are of the opinion that if it ain't broken, why break it? And some things are sacrosanct. Like vacations. And short work weeks. And that for the most part, shops are closed on Sunday. Seems reasonable. President Sarkozy wants to change that.

So tomorrow, there is going to be a big protest march and a 24 hour transport strike. Why? Well, according to the IHT, the strikes are "aimed at pressing the government to support workers better during the economic crisis."

But if you talk to the folks on the street, it is also a protest against Sarkozy. They just don't like the guy.

You have to remember that France is really close to socialism. They would probably deny it, but what else can you call a country that has short work weeks, national health and a government that supports workers in every possible way. If it sounds like ze duck....

But if this is socialism, then the US needs to learn a few things. Life is good here.

There IS a Docteur in the house!

PARIS -- So, arrived in Paris a few days ago. Maybe more. Not sure, as I was SICKER THAN A DOG and have lost all concept of time. No kidding. Seriously sick. So sick I'm looking for the emergency room.

Luckily, our friends here say, "no problem, we'll call a Doctor and he will come to you."

Pause. OK, long pause while our tiny American brains try to understand the simple sentence, "he will come to you." You know how a dog tilts its head when it doesn't understand something? That was us.

"What," we said.... "like...a...house call?"Imagine that. A Doctor? Actually coming to your house? The term house call stirred a distant memory. Maybe it was just a long lost Marcus Welby episode. We weren't sure. But we were about to witness something lost to the sands of time. A visit to your house by a doctor.

I realize this blog is mostly for political stuff, but you know what? Medical care is a political and a human right. And the Europeans take this sort of thing for granted.

Yes, Doctors still make house calls here. They actually come to see you where you live. Into your bedroom. Truly remarkable.

This is something that America needs to change. Doctors need to "get" the fact that they serve the sick and the needy, not just the rich and wealthy hypochondriacs. They need to get out of their offices, and go see how people actually live. I'm sure they will be able to prescribe a better treatment if they are able to see how people live.

There is something so basic and so natural about a Doctor making a house call. It's time that the American medical business get back to basics. And house calls are a great place to start.

Geithner Twitters from G20 Finance Conference in UK

#Nice flight on the way over. Had my own plane. Very cool being Treasury Secretary.
#Arrive at venue. Head over to welcome dinner. Unbelievable. It's a cash bar. Clearly Brits are trying to set the tone.
#Central Bank governors are drinking heavily. Not a good sign.
# Eastern Europeans buying lots of rounds. I get it, but doubt it will help.
#Getting ready for breakfast meeting. Still hung over from last night. Why do the English fry their tomatoes?
#Pretty solemn group for breakfast. Everyone subdued. Could use some bloody marys to lift spirits

Is it warm in here or is it just me?

LONDON - Not sure if you all were paying attention to what was being said at at the global conference on climate change in Copenhagen that just ended, but here is the statement they released:

"The climate system is already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived. Rapid, sustained and effective mitigation based on global and regional actions is required to avoid dangerous climate change."

Now I'll grant you that that doesn't really sound like a call to arms, but hey, they're scientists. They deal in facts, not hyperbole. But if you read a little deeper into the piece in Britain's Independent newspaper, there was a quote from Lord Stern that didn't pull any punches. He warned of:

"Extended conflict, social disruption, war essentially, over much of the world, for many decades."

War? Over much of the world? For many decades?

Sure. When the oceans rise we lose coastlines. People will have to move. Probably by the hundreds of millions. Into your neighborhood. Onto your street. Probably lead to a few arguments.

But again, this all abstract. I mean, how will it impact you personally? I know I will be deeply affected because there are golf courses in low lying areas of Florida and Hilton Head I will never get to play because of man's inability to change. And if that isn't a call to action, I don't know what is.

Yes, I'm kidding. Sort of.

But most interesting was how much coverage this conference received. Now, granted it is early Saturday morning here in London, but a Google News search for Copenhagen only brings up European/Asian newspapers, wire services and a few cable outfits. The whole first page has no hits for American newspapers other than the New York Times. None. And that can't be good.

Like I said, is it warm in here, or is it just me?

Silence!

Greetings from London.

I'm here ahead of the G20 conference scheduled for April 12th. The Finance Ministers are here for the weekend for a warm up event. I, of course, am looking for any kind of G20 swag, but so far, nothing. Not even a t-shirt sighting that says, "My Finance Minister went to the G20 conference in London and all he came away with was this lousy t-shirt."

Speaking of London...

Disturbing piece in the IHT this morning by Christopher Walker who is the Director of Studies at Freedom House.

It's a scary piece and you should read the whole thing. But you're busy, and clicking on the link is a lot of work, so here are the first four graphs to get you started.

How are a few extraordinarily wealthy individuals from the most senior ranks of the world's most brutally repressive societies succeeding in muzzling free speech on major international issues? The unlikely answer is, simply, by "visiting" London.

In a dangerous twist of globalization, these litigants are taking the illiberal standards of environments hostile to free expression and projecting them into those countries that permit free and open inquiry. And more disturbing is that the preferred tool they are using to stifle the work of investigative journalists, researchers and publishers is English law.

An increasing number of well-heeled litigants - libel tourists - are using England's plaintiff-friendly libel laws to silence critics. Unlike American law, which sets a high bar for libel lawsuits, English common law puts the burden of proof on the defendant, who can be hit with enormous damages and legal costs.

To make matters worse, English courts have demonstrated a tendency to accept jurisdiction in these cases even when the plaintiff's connection to England appears wafer-thin. As a result, London has earned the dubious distinction of "libel capital of the world."

See? I told you it was scary. Now go read the rest of it. Please.

And while I am on the subject of censorship or just about spreading information in general that might not be to someone's liking....here is another piece in the IHT, that should make you shake your head.

Parwez Kambakhsh, a student journalist in Afghanistan was sentenced to 20 years in prison for "blasphemy after accusations that he wrote and distributed an article about the role of women in Islam."

Hey, he got off easy. The first time they sentenced him to death! 20 years was the result after they appealed the death sentence to the Supreme Court!

And he says that he didn't write the piece, he just downloaded it from the Internet. That damn pesky Internet.

But wait...there's more. More? Yes. Tuesday night, Javed Ahmad, a journalist in Afghanistan for Canadian television was gunned down.

So is there a point to this dreary post? Yup. Journalism is a tough gig. Getting the truth out is getting harder every day. In London they silence you with wigs and lawyers, in the wilds of Afghanistan they use a Kalashnikov. Different approaches, same result.

What...? So, sue me.

Coincidence????

Let's see.... China starts a minor diplomatic row with the US Navy....to ....to......anyone? Bueller?

How about to draw media attention away from the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama leaving Tibet?

Ah you gotta love the subtlety. And it worked. While there is a lot of media stuff about Tibet today....there has been a lot more about the US Navy ship that has been harassed.

You know the folks at Burson-Marsteller are kvelling.

Tell me why I don't like Mondays

Good morning.

Where to begin? OK...let's start in the Middle East. The Saudis are kinky. I'm sorry, but that's the only way to describe the CNN story about the the woman who was sentenced to 40 lashes for 'mingling.' Yes, you read it correctly, she is going to be whipped for 'mingling.' But it gets better. Apparently the Religious Police entered a house and found a woman with two unrelated men. One of the men "told the policeman that he had the right to be there, because Sawadi had breast-fed him as a baby and was therefore considered to be a son to her." The religious police didn't buy this logic and thus the sentence. I wonder if there is leather involved?

Next up...China.

According to the BBC, the National People's Congress has heard Parliament Chief Wu Bangguo declare that China will never have a western style democracy. No way. Uh unh. Nyet. Nix. Nein. They are being particularly hard line these days because a couple of anniversaries are looming: the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square and the 50th anniversary of the riots in Tibet that forced the Dalai Lama into exile. Just a reminder that the Chinese, as the Clash so eloquently once said, are still and will always be "working on the clampdown."

Over in Europe...

The New York Times had an op-ed piece on Saturday about the sub prime issue in Eastern Europe. It's not a pretty read. But essentially, those Eastern European nations that I wrote about a last week are deeply in the hole, and looking for a bailout from their western European cousins. This is the one paragraph that stood out:

The debt crisis in Eastern Europe is much more than an economic problem. The wrenching decline in the standard of living caused by this crisis is provoking social unrest. American subprime borrowers who have had their houses foreclosed on are not — at least not yet — rioting in the streets. Workers in Eastern Europe are. The roots of democracy in the region are not deep and the specter of right-wing nationalism remains a threat. (emphasis in bold is mine)

Oh yeah. And it's just Monday. I wonder if that job as towel boy at the Marriott in Hawaii is still available.

The fix is in...maybe

So the tribunal to investigate the 2005 assassination of Lebanese President Rafik Hariri has finally gotten under way in the Netherlands. And golly gee wilikers, this should be interesting political theater.

Why you ask?

Well for one thing, it couldn't come at a worse time. Syria is slowly emerging from it's international isolation and starting to dialogue with the US. Unfortunately, the evidence seems to point to the involvement of Bashar al-Assad and his brother. This is not good. Why? Becasue we need them to keep a lid on Hezbollah and keep things calm in Lebanon and make nice noises toward Israel. So trying to arrest the President of Syria might be a tad awkward.

The Atlantic had a great piece in last December's issue by Joshua Hammer that reads like fiction, but it's not. I highly recomend you read it.

Here are a couple of highlights:

Since the summer of 2005, the Monteverde has been at the center of one of the world’s most sensitive criminal investigations. Inside, a team of about 200 people from nearly two dozen nations—forensics experts, DNA specialists, telecommunications analysts—has been sifting through evidence relating to the assassination of Hariri, one of the Middle East’s best-known and most influential politicians.

Though only preliminary, the report found “probable cause to believe that the decision to assassinate [Hariri] could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials.” The highest-ranking officials implicated were Asef Shawkhat (Assad’s brother-in-law and the head of Syria’s military intelligence department) and Maher al-Assad (Assad’s younger brother and the head of the presidential guard). Assad has continued to deny any Syrian role in Hariri’s killing.

That's not good.

...last March, King Abdullah II of Jordan was reported to be pushing for a deal with Assad—“the most astounding plea bargain of all time,” U.S. Senator Arlen Specter called it—that would grant the Syrian president immunity from prosecution in exchange for a pledge to rein in Hezbollah and Hamas.

Wheelin' and dealin' at the highest levels. Like I said, this is going to be an interesting show. There is a lot at stake. Will justice be served? Or will there be a wink and a nudge? Stay tuned.

Money Changes Everything

Oh sure. When the cold war ended and the Iron Curtain came down in 1989 and 1990, the countries that escaped the Soviet sphere of influence were greeted with open arms. "Oh yeah, come home to the EU.".... or...."Hey great to have you back!" or "Yeah, we're all one big family over here."

But a few weeks ago, a few of the econ types looked up from the staggering economic damage that was wreaking havoc on Western European economies and looked eastward. Suddenly everyone gulped. Well...they did more than gulp, but I am trying to maintain a sense of decorum here. It was one of those "uh oh" moments. They did a few quick calculations and figured out that if things were this bad in Western Europe, then things were really really bad further east.

How bad?

According to the Voice of America, "Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany urged the European Union to show solidarity by establishing a support fund of about $240 billion to help failing economies in Eastern Europe." And when Angela Merkel heard that number, she passed milk through her nose. Because initially, they thought number might be somewhere around $30 billion.

Yes indeed, now everyone is pedaling backward so fast, they look like clowns on unicycles in the main ring at Ringling Brothers.

Mr. Ferenc warned that if the Western European countries didn't bail them out it would be like raising an "economic iron curtain." To which Sarkozy said, "Hey...you guys would do that? Really? Well OK. We'll give you the material to build it. Free. No kidding. I'll even send Carla Bruni in a bikini to cut the ribbon at the opening."

One big family indeed.

As Cyndi Lauper sang.... money changes everything.