One Brief Blog-Like Commentary

From Yahoo!News:

The United States sneered at plans by four European countries to create an autonomous European military command headquarters near Brussels separate from NATO (news - web sites), referring to the idea's proponents as "chocolate makers."

In unusually blunt language that drew surprised gasps from reporters, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher scoffed at Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg for continuing to support the proposal that they first introduced at a mini-summit in April.

He described the April meeting as one between "four countries that got together and had a little bitty summit" and then referred to them collectively as "the chocolate makers."

Observation: Britain and France are two European countries of roughly comparable power. Each has a 1.5 trillion dollar economy and high GDP per capitas. Each has a military force capable of global military deployments, with help. Each has nuclear weapons, and advanced military inustries. (France is home to the Airbus Consortium, unlike Britain, it has its own military aerospace industry, and the French-designed Ariane series of rockets is used by the ESA and dominates commercial space launches; but then, Britain has a somewhat stronger financial sector and a military not burdened by the transition away from conscription.)

Question: If the Dubya administration thinks that France is an insignificant power, what does it really think about Britain?

Supposition: Guess.

The Upcoming Upper Canadian Elections

An interesting post by the redoutable Ikram Saeed has brought my attention to the fact that Upper Canadians (sorry, Ontarians) are holding their provincial elections now. (As well, Kingston has its own municipal elections coming up.) I've picked up the requisite forms from the booths in Stauffer library, and I've only to fill them in.

I don't know who I'll vote for at the municipal level in Kingston--thoughts anyone?--but I suspect that if I vote provincially (if I'm qualified to vote, even; must check that out) I'd vote against the Tories. This isn't because of any deep-seated ideological animus against the Tories, though I was never a particular fan of Mike Harris. It's just because I feel that some sort of shift of government is a good idea, and it has been eight years since a party other than the Tories was in power in Ontario.

(Besides, as a good Atlantic Canadian I know full well the opportunities for low-level patronage. Maybe I should infiltrate myself into a party hierarchy?)

The question, I suppose, is who should I vote for. The NDP might be the natural choice for me, as a left-leaning student, except that a) I don't vote in order to salve my social conscience and b) the NDP isn't a particularly effective party in any case. (Witness the Bob Rae government in the early 1990s.) Most of the other, smaller parties--Greens, for instance--share these faults in spades. I suppose that the Liberals are the best alternative provincially.

[ARTICLE] On Two Asian Giants

From the archives of Foreign Policy magazine, the article "Can India Overtake China?", authored by Yasheng Huang and Tarun Khanna.

What’s the fastest route to economic development? Welcome foreign direct investment (FDI), says China, and most policy experts agree. But a comparison with long-time laggard India suggests that FDI is not the only path to prosperity. Indeed, India’s homegrown entrepreneurs may give it a long-term advantage over a China hamstrung by inefficient banks and capital markets.

( Read more... )

Foreign Policy is an excellent magazine, though in the current issue is an article by Fouad Ajami that urgently needed to be fisked.

There's also an interesting review of Emmanuel Todd's Après l'empire. (My review is here.)

The Day To Date

I phoned home when I got in, and it turns out that my remaining possessions waiting to be shipped--computer, clothes, and the rest--has just been shipped today. If I'm lucky, I'll get it Tuesday evening; if I'm unlucky, Wednesday. This is a Good Thing.

Where did I get in from? Well, at 8 o'clock I went down to the heart of the campus at University and Union in front of the Stauffer library to meet Phil, since Saturday evening (donair night) I'd left my kitbag at his apartment. Afterwards, I first went to the library to register for a seminar Friday (on using the library website) and then went down to Watson Hall on the level of the English Department.

There, I found out via QCard that I was registered for five courses in fall semester instead of four, including one course taken only by doctoral students and another offered only in winter. Since the latter, in particular, seemed inconvenient, I went back to my dorm room to fetch my registration sheet. On the way, I chatted with two of my dorm mates and had lunch with another, returning to Watson at 1.

After getting some stuff done on the computer, I went downtown. I bought some more books to fill my room, and some cleaning supplies to clean before my stuff got there. I got back to my down at 4 o'clock, stopping off at the Kingston office of the NDP to chat to the lonely woman working the desk and pick up some material (including a good pin regarding the need to cap tuition).

I'd thought about renting a fridge, but after seeing the scuzzy fridges offered for rent, seeing the three fridges (two large, one small) in the common room, and realizing that I'm sharing those fridges with dorm students who shouldn't be likely to pilfer my stuff, I've decided not to rent a fridge but use the common room facilities. If I encounter problems, I'll just buy a fridge new; apparently they have a good resale value.

I thought about going to a Queen's Queer meet-and-greet barbecue at the JDUC at 5 o'clock. I guess I've now decided against it. I will go for Phranc though, at 9 o'clock (a film about a Jewish lesbian folksinger making it big as a Tupperware saleswomen) and just have a small supper at the Grad Club.

Oh, and I'll be getting my stuff Tuesday or Wednesday. Did I mention that?