29 oktober 2019 On 15 October 2019 the French President Macron blocked the start of negotiations with the candidates North-macedonia and Albania that should lead to their admission to the European Union. He was criticized by many, included by the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who called it a historic mistake. Overall Macron […]
Monthly archives: October 2019
29. Turkey, the Kurds and Syria
16 oktober 2019 Last week Turkey invaded Syria to elimate the threat posed by an autonomous Syrian-Kurdish region and to resettle a certain part of its 3,5 million Syrian (?) refugees. Hereby some key points for consideration and central questions. 1°) Turkey says it looks for a solution for its 3,5 million refugees and wants […]
28. Are the Thirties back again ?
14 oktober 2019 An important question which is often asked nowadays is whether our times are a copy of the Thirties. The answer I believe is No for 80% and Yes for 20%. It is a clear and loud “No” because in the Thirties of the previous century Europeans concluded to exterminate a part of […]
27. Dutch – Het economisch effect van migratie
11 oktober 2019 Op 18 mei 2018 schreef De Tijd dat (toenmalig) Minister van Financien Johan Van Overtveldt aan de NBB gevraagd had om de economisch impact van migratie te berekenen. Zou iemand daar nog iets over gehoord hebben ? Zou de NBB nog aan het rekenen zijn ?
26. Abiy Ahmed – Nobel Peace Prize 2019
11 oktober 2019 On 11 October 2019 the Nobel Prize Committee awarded the Nobel Prize for peace to Abiy Ahmed, who is Prime Minister of Ethiopia since April 2018. He received the prize because in his short period as Prime Minister he succeeded in making peace with Eritrea, thereby ending a war that lasted 20 […]
25. Arend Lijphart – On consensus democracy
9 oktober 2019 Arend Lijphart is a political scientist. Central in his work is the distinction between majoritarian democracy (MD) and consociational democracy (CD). To be clear : in both kinds of democracy a majority is required but in a CD the ambition is to have more than a majority; The ambition is to have […]