I've written several essays about Islam, the West and our supposedly shared Greco-Roman heritage. One part of this legacy which we definitely didn't share was secular Roman law. Here is what Norman Davies says in his monumental book Europe: A History, page 173: "It is often said that Roman law is one of the pillars of European civilization. And so, indeed, it is. Latin lex means 'the bond', 'that which binds'. The same idea underlies that other keystone of Roman legality, the pactum or 'contract'. Once freely agreed by two parties, whether for commercial, matrimonial, or political purposes, the conditions of the contract bind the parties to observe it. As the Romans knew, the rule of law ensures sound government, commercial confidence, and orderly society."

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George Handlery about the week that was. The balmy era of peace, unilateralism and the blizzard of reality. Walking on water and secular sainthood. What to worry about? Behind Communist revivals. Is it anti-Russian to reject Stalinism? A Queen, Logic and Gay Pride. Shy success = a crime sounds good and how it supports poverty.

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Stalin had lost his pipe, and ordered his police chief to investigate the matter, so goes one old anti-Stalin joke. After some time, however, the Soviet leader discovered it under the sofa, and called him back. On being told of its discovery, the chief remarked, “This is impossible! Three people have already confessed to this crime!” This joke – though not particularly funny – illustrates two points of relevance here: (1) the police of the USSR were politicized, and (2) that even in private, people under Stalin feared to criticize him directly.

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The night that changed the world

This serial essay started with the assumption that Barack Hussein Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States would accelerate the creation of a multicultural supra-state encompassing all the countries founded and developed by whites. This entity, that I called Meccania, would be an ideological extension of the European Union, suppressing and diluting its white majority, its original civilization and its civic freedoms while force-flooding its territories with ever more black, brown and Muslim minorities, and increasing state control over all areas of life.

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Eric Zemmour, a French journalist who writes for Le Figaro, is at the center of a storm of controversy following comments he made on television November 13. Zemmour, born in Paris, is from a family of Jewish Berbers who left Algeria after the Algerian war. Zemmour’s main point was that there are different races distinguishable by skin color. Both the French paper press and the blogosphere have had a field day with this story, accusing him of resurrecting the Nazi theory of race, of being a “Lepeniste”, of making comments that emit a nauseating odor, of being a promoter of ethnic separationism, of triggering a “civil war” between Jews, blacks, and Arabs, of expressing the malaise of French “Negrophobes”, of seeking a return of “a white France”, etc...

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This afternoon, all the journalists have been primed to say, the British Government will cut taxes and increase spending. The alleged purpose of this is to prevent a deep recession. The real purpose, there can be no doubt, is to win the next general election for Labour – and, since the Conservatives remain as useless as ever, it may well work. I will, however, discuss the alleged purpose. Politics aside, it will be about as catastrophic a response to our current troubles as can be imagined.

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This poster from the French government is aimed at reassuring young people who are "discovering" themselves that there is no difference between homosexuality and heterosexuality. It reads:

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George Handlery about the week that was. An advance for the President of Hope? The end of the Zionist conspiracy. Katyn, once more. What “it cannot happen” guarantees. Flee from information into the underbrush of fads. Old terrorists do not fade away, they dive under.
 
1. The new American President stands to benefit from a period during which, exploiting his universal popularity, diplomatically much will be possible. A number of old positions that allegedly prevented settlements can now be given up. The claim can be made that the new and uncompromised President of Hope has changed all equations. This makes it for the US side and her opposite possible to abandon hither hard positions that might have played to a home audience without having a chance on the interstate level. For the old deadlock Bush can be made responsible and, therefore, old positions can be surrendered without loss of face. In the case of those “hostiles” who secretly feel that they have painted themselves into a corner this will bring results. However, the genuine hard-liners will miss the chance as they try to harness the new wind that blows to further their cause.

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Geographically Turkey is not a European state, apart from the tiny northwestern edge of the country. Last October, however, Turkey was elected for a two-year term in the United Nations security council by winning one of the two non-permanent seats set aside for European countries. While the other candidate, Austria, barely won the required two-thirds majority, Turkey won its seat hands down. In the UN, Turkey belongs to the regional group of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG).

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Art has been much in the news of late, perhaps surprisingly considering the economic downturn. But, then, perhaps it is in such times that we turn our gaze to larger than life depictions. The ancients sort their gods before the onset of war, and no doubt most of us have regained some courage on seeing the portrait of a great thinker, leader, or saint, or the depiction of some virtue.

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Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has just unveiled Spain’s latest contribution to fostering global peace and security. No, his government will not be sending more troops to help rebuild Afghanistan. And no, Spain will not be providing more vaccines to help needy children in Africa. Instead, the Zapatero government is the proud sponsor of a lavish decorative ceiling at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva.

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A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of Obamania. The old continent is engaged in a collective swoon as a result of the election of Barack Obama as American president. The president elect’s every move and decision is the subject of slavish and adulatory reporting in the European press: will Obama continue to use a BlackBerry? What dog will the Obamas buy for the White House? What sort of armoured car will he travel in? People are giving private parties in European capitals to celebrate Obama’s election, while the new president has been invited to address the European Parliament and even to attend a European Union summit in April.

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Are we still living in a democracy? As an elected politician I am probably expected to say that we are. But are we?

Two years ago, in January 2007, Roman Herzog, the former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, caused quite a stir when in an op-ed article (Welt Am Sonntag, 14 January 2007) he wrote that democracy in his country is virtually non-existent since the European Union (EU) has stealthily eaten away all the national parliament’s powers.

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The French nationalist Right, as opposed to the establishment Right represented by Nicolas Sarkozy, has been splintering off from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National for years. The latest open act of mutiny against the FN comes from Carl Lang, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), who has announced he will introduce his own list, in opposition to that of Marine Le Pen, in the upcoming European Parliamentary elections scheduled for June 2009.

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George Handlery about the week that was. The replacement of America as the superpower. Being nice with bad guys is dangerous. Ignored conflicts do not just “fade away”. The vicissitudes of making American foreign policy. Iran and Obama. Uncle to the rescue. Is Lithuania protesting too much?

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