Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I Did Promise to Avoid Political Commentary, and I Shall...

...but from time to time, I still plan to point out items I consider important.

If you live in Europe or America and you value your country, here's the future planned for you, presented by the German Foreign Minister addressing the Brookings Institute on January 20.

To give examples of why this is important for you to know, below are a few excerpts from the speech, together with the minute and seconds where you can find them on this recording.  Beware euphemism.



14:04 First we have to fix the flaws in the Eurozone’s construction. When setting it up shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we were not able to go all the way and create a political union side-by-side with the economic and monetary union. It took awhile for the consequences of this failure to become apparent, because we enjoyed a decade of low interest rates and strong economic growth, especially in southern Eurozone lenders.

31:25 It would be wrong to deny that there are different visions of what Europe should be. There are those who do not want an open, tolerant, and integrated Europe; there are those who stress the differences by their ethnics of religious rather than what unites us. [Yes, this is what Minister said, word for word.]  They are advocating a fortress Europe. This is a vision that we need to oppose forcibly. The re-nationalization in a time of globalization is a dangerous concept; and this is a message to whom it may concern.

32:55 Our European model of shared sovereignty can be an inspiration in a globalized world in need of order.

35:16 We stand firmly together in confronting Iran’s increasingly dangerous course, and for us, like for many of you, the security of Israel is raison d'ĂȘtre. The European Union will put into place a new and very substantial round of sanctions this coming Monday to forcefully make the point that Iran’s behavior in the nuclear issue is unacceptable and a danger to world peace. 35:50

37:00 Possibly the most important common task of all will be to restore the legitimacy and viability of our economic model. The proper regulation of the global financial system is still unfinished business. We have to continue to work on it together and in the G-20 framework. This includes making sure that the IMF has what it takes to play its crucial role in the global system.

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