Category: Politics

My naive opinion on the current strategy for dealing with Russia

Maybe Cold War organizations like NATO don’t see it, as their people are indoctrinated by the need for a unified strategy against a common enemy (keep Russia out, Germany down and the United States in).

But the world has changed since 1989.

Whenever the Soviet Union was stubborn, it was also predictable. Today’s Russia is not predictable. It is and has been pushing its real goals in a rather subtle way (even if you think the Georgian crisis was not subtle, the real Russian goal is). You can no longer just contain Russia. Neither can you easily engage with them. You need to ‘negotiate’ your relationship with it.

By kicking Russia out of treaties and organizations, all you will achieve is that Russia will start doing business with individual European countries rather than with the European Union. Which means different market rules will play. Less control over mutual interests in Europe: more competition among the individual European countries over Russia’s resources and market, sharper differences between Western -and Eastern Europe.

In the long run the result of that will be a split of Europe into Western -and Eastern Europe. This would be followed by a decline of Western power over Eastern European countries. Strategically seen, this would be a perfect outcome for Russia. A dream come true, for them.

Without the wealthy Western Europe, both the economy and industry of many of Eastern Europe’s countries are still underdeveloped and not yet ready to compete, on their own, against three major economic powers. As a result would Eastern Europe become yet another unstable region in the World.

Russia conducting the Orchestra of opposition politics in those countries, and Russian media influence, will for many sound like an answer to their dissatisfactions.

I think it’s for that reason that keeping Eastern Europe within the group called “Europe”, is something you want to strive for. A split with Western Europe would inevitably mean major influence from Russia in these Eastern European countries and regions.

It’s in fact already taking place here and there. If you take off your by propaganda blinded glasses and go look for the facts, you’ll see.

My own naive proposal

Russia’s regime is doomed the moment the Russian elite looses its European legitimacy. Russia’s future wealth depends on Europe’s willingness to continue doing business with them. This business must be in both directions. Just selling gas yet remaining isolated from the World markets means that for example your currency can easily be devaluated outside of your borders. Meaning that you are selling your resources too cheap or that the actual price that you got for it depends on the politics of other nations (like petrodollars). Replace currency with any other valuable resource located within your own borders.

The Russian elite who keep people like Vladimir Putin in power are the same people who are doing business selling Russian gas to Europe. If we want a peaceful world, we can seize the opportunity of doing business with these Russian elites to convince them of at least certain of European’s values. Values like free markets. Especially as we integrate our European businesses into Russia and especially if Russian elites start seeing the benefits of that (wealth), will European values further influence Russian politics.

If we kick them out of our organizations, they’ll just continue doing business with individual European countries. Making it harder to keep Europe united. They very well know that Europe needs energy. They know individual European countries will continue buying gas from Russia.

It would be insane because if we don’t, China will. And then China instead will get a strategic partnership with Russia. Pushing their values and culture. Rising new economies are the circumstances of today. Containment is not an answer to changed circumstances.

Europeans want a multipolar World, right? This is the opportunity to have Russia, China, United States and Europe as different economic powers (I simplified it, I of course know there are more economic centers).

My naive conclusion

A new kind of World is coming towards us. Although the history book on the shelve is always repeating itself, all we can do is learn from the past.

Learning however, is not the same as maintaining a strategy designed for completely different past circumstances. We are called humans because unlike many other species we can intelligently adapt ourselves. Let’s consume that capability.

In order to succeed as a people, as a nation and as a culture you have to synchronize your strategy with today’s circumstances.

It’s our time and our generation, to cope with them.

Notwithstanding that (it smells like) the United State’s propaganda machine is trying hard to control our European media once more, let’s try to get as much information from both sides of the story this time.

I thought that since U.S. is supporting Georgia there would be some control over the situation in South Ossetia and that there would be a peaceful solution to the conflict. But what is happening there now it’s not just war, but war crimes. George Bush and [Georgian president] Mikhail Saakashvili should answer to the crimes that are being committed – the killing of innocent people, running over by tanks of children and women, throwing grenades into cellars where people are hiding,

— Joe Mestas. A United States citizen in the conflict zone, according to Russia Today [video footage].

As this conflict escalates both sides are as usual trying to politically involve the European Union. I think Europe should restrain from supporting Georgia as it clearly committed war crimes. I’m quite certain we will soon see hard proof of this coming from the Russians. Proof that will be ten times more accurate than an idiot like Colin Powell throwing away his career and credibility a few years ago.

The European population wont support supporting a war criminal. Hanging our European flag in your office while doing a speech on World Television, is ridiculous and didn’t convince serious people in Europe at all.

Militarily seen, it’s a not even a question: You can’t fight Russians a few kilometers from their own border. It would mean a military humiliation.

Europe is not a war continent anymore. If you want lasting peace with Europe, the only way is by doing business with us. Supplying us with what we need (which in case of Russia is energy in the form of gas), buying from us what you need (which in case of Russia are European investments in their country and culture).

What Europe can do about this conflict would be to decrease the amount of European investment in Russia. Just stopping the gas supplies from Russia would probably destroy Germany’s economy in a few months and would that way drastically weaken any kind of power Europe has. This is not the kind of stuff that we want (in Europe), and we are not naive enough (anymore) to be convinced that this is what should be done.

My conclusion is that the rest of the world better stops hoping that Europe will help a Georgian war criminal.

Although I know that I shouldn’t drag the U.S. in this conflict, I’m quite confident that behind the scenes it’s pretty obvious that this is Russia showing its newly gained might to the U.S.

The New World Order line that the Bush administration seems to have tried by falsely promising to support Georgia if Georgia would send troops to Iraq turned out to be a foolish one.Then again, we are getting used to foolish U.S. strategy with Cheney and Bush trying to play poker with the rest of the World.

As a result Russia has a moral ground to do what they are doing (in the end, they had a peacekeeping mandate over the region). The United States can only watch and suffer as Easter European countries will now have learned that all what Bush senior had build up as political trust, is now unveiled as pure U.S. rubbish.

That is likely going to be the end conclusion of the foreign policy of the administration that has ruled the U.S. for the last decade. That all the achievements of Bush senior will have been flushed through the toilet.

Russia is and will keep gaining power. China is and will keep growing its economy and energy consumption. Iran is and will keep gaining more power over the Middle East (the U.S.’s propaganda about their nuclear weapons programs is among the weakest I have ever received). Etcetera.

In a curious way a New World Order is forming indeed. Regretfully for the Neoconservatives they will most likely not play the role of World Leaders. At least not as a coherent group.

I blame their own incompetence for that.

Their “New World Order”-meme was both strategically and diplomatically supported by weak people. They played poker while the game on the table was Chess. And they lost.

The money they did win turned out to be printed by the Federal Reserve as it was needed. That inflated the Dollar and is increasing the gap between rich and poor in their own country. Meanwhile it enriched the super elite involved in the war machine while the sons of poorer patriotic families got sent to the battle ground.

The man in the streets in the United States is paying for all this.

I think this new conflict in Georgia wont be the last thing we’ll see as a result of the poker and Chess games of 200n.

ps. Planet.gnome picks the categories it wants to syndicate from my blog. I don’t send blog items to planet.gnome myself. Instead, planet.gnome picks them. I have a category specifically dedicated to technology. This item is specifically not categorized in a technical category. Don’t blame me for political content on planet.gnome.

This blog item was done for the sole reason of pissing off some people.

Obviously, European Youtube users didn’t ask for their youtube usage to be handed over to Viacom Inc.. Who knows what Viacom will do with this highly private data (which contains highly detailed information about people’s interests such as the videos they watch, the various topics they are interested in, and so on)?

I only hope that enough Europeans will formally protest at their country’s privacy agencies and/or at the European institutions. Although, I fear it won’t matter anymore as privacy nowadays has become far less important than Britney Spears or Paris Hilton.

Anyway, please find the contact details for Belgium here.

A few days ago I made a completely correct analysis of how the Schuko standard for power sockets and plugs, used on the continent of Europe, is superior to the British BS1363 standard.

Today I noticed the fruits of our hard work of trying to convert the British people to the fine uses and traditions of the people who live on the European continent. I saw a carton “Gezeefde Tomaten / Purée de Tomates” at a supermarket in Durham UK.

Just like how politics in Belgium work we have started applying the principle of divide and conqueror: instead of using their native language English, we are now sending them products with dual language branding and descriptions. Just like in our own country. This introduces doubt about their English identity. To divide you first need to generate fear and doubt (Am I really English? I’m not Welsh either? Maybe I’m Dutch? Maybe French!! Wouh!). Then you conqueror them by telling them, with a soft voice:

No no, you are Europe.

Works great! Just make them believe those Belgian “Purée de Tomates or Gezeefde Tomaten” are good. Once they grasped that, tell them: “but the tomatoes and the brand itself (Valfrutta) actually comes from Italy”. That’ll completely confuse them! Then relax them by softly putting your hand on their forehead and say: you are European, don’t be afraid child.

ps. Dear people who don’t live in Europe: this post is sarcasm, irony, a joke.

We receive messages like this quite frequently:

Please only post in English on planet gnome or at least make non-english posts contain english translations.

If you don’t wish that posts like this are syndicated, please have the planet gnome administrator (jdub) pull a certain tag from your blog.

Thanks for understanding.

Note that Jeff Waugh (maintainer of planet-gnome) has indicated several times that he wants planet-gnome to be a window into the world, work and lives of GNOME hackers and contributors (top-right of the site). That includes “lives”, not just “work”, and for that reason planet-gnome does not filter based on tags like “GNOME”.

This however means that you get to read the personal blogs of the people who are syndicated. Very often they asked specifically about the use of non-English languages and about the fact that content is not always going to be related to GNOME at all. Very often it has been pointed out that is precisely the very idea of planet-gnome.

This means that planet-gnome is meant to have posts in different languages, is meant to have posts that are not about GNOME at all. If that’s not comfortable for you, then please either read another website or install filters.

I’m not planning to change my personal blog because planet-gnome doesn’t use my categories. Although I agree with and like its policies, I didn’t decide them. Please don’t complain to the non-English speaking blog writers who are syndicated on planet-gnome.

Online version of the Interview that Miguel recently referred to.

Regretfully, they removed the EBay article, so I can’t link to it. This was the original text:

Kingdom in several (3) parts, can be bought as a whole ( not recommended), can be bought in parts.

I. Flanders

highly traficated and very heterogeneous architecture (as well art nouveau as spanish hacienda style) , hard working people understanding American english ( due to an overdose of episodes of Dallas), catholic but not fanatic. Be aware some Flemish ( not to confond with Amish) are ‘ practiserende Vlamingen’ and you recognise them easily by their Lion Flags (hand model or life size flag). As a whole easy to govern provided that you dont cut mobile phone traffic or television broadcasting. If you do so you will see what. Oh yes, in possesion of a seaside (50 kilometres) and flashpilars ( ‘flitspalen’). What to say, when you meet them: it is the one and the other ( ‘t is t’ een en t’ander) in case of emergency, Say it is not true ( Zeg dat het niet waar is) in all other circumstances.

II. Brussels

Lively village with nineteen lord mayors and a government on top. The real Babylon with several coexisting minorities.Nice realestate taken by National, Regional and European institutions.Still opportunities in the Bois de la Cambre for de luxe flats. Possibility to establish farming facilities both on Grand Place, De Brouckère, Place Rogier and on the Boulevards ( contact mr. Pascal Smet). What to say when meeting with a Brussels subject: Hello good morning (Zeg, draag ik soms iets van U. Quoi tu veut ma photo!)

III. Wallonia

First become member of Parti Socialiste which makes it easier in many ways to establish your situation. Has plenty of water ( sometimes sparkling), tons of old iron, acres of woods, several homebrews, ingenious shipptraffic ( The Pending Slope of Roncquiers), The Shape head quarters (tax fee cigarettes!) and German speaking backyard. In general the Wallons are more philosophical and relaxed guys then the Flemish. Plenty of opportunities but find out yourself. What to say if you bump into a Wallon: Hide the Flemish are there!

So you see there is plenty of choice. Beware there is a 300 billion of National Debt which has still to be divided under the three, but that wil be fixed soon after the Duchess Valley Talks ( het beraad van Hertoginnendal).

Free premium: the king and his court ( costs not included)

Hey Damien, why not make Brussels a purely European city not belonging to either the Flemish or the Walloon parts of Belgium? To me that sounds like the current actual situation already anyway.

I’m with you on Europe though. But I’m not for a United States of Europe modeled after the United States of America. The member states of the European Union have enormous cultural differences. They need their own leadership and have their own priorities to successfully serve their citizens.

I don’t think that centralization of power leads to more democracy (or, better living standards. As I sometimes question whether “democracy” in its current form actually serves the population well). Cooperation, however, could and should be strengthened. Perhaps have a much better way to get a consensus by all member states over the world’s problems?

Problems such as the energy crisis that we’ll most certainly face in about 15 to 20 years when the world will run out of oil, the increasingly alarming state of global warming, Kyoto protocol agreements, a strictly peacekeeping military force that would empower an organization like the United Nations to act without neoconservative-guided policies during conflicts, a court system that brings justice to victims of war crimes and puts war criminals in jail (not just hang them, using a fake trail. A real, serious and fair trial is very important for the significance of the verdict. Read Jan Wouters‘s books on the subject). Even if that is a politician of a wealthy Western country. Perhaps Europe could indeed unify a bit more on education, science and scientific research? Maybe… maybe not.

I don’t want a United States of Europe to rule over each and every aspect of citizenship in all the current European countries. To give an example: in some countries a ban to hunt foxes might mean that a large amount of farmers will see their animals getting killed? In Belgium, however, we might want to protect the species? In one European country perhaps the citizens need more railroads and trains, whereas in the other there is a high emphasis on traffic over highways and doesn’t it make a lot of sense to put extra taxes on truck drivers (or would such regulation bring the economy of that region to its knees).

In one country social security is important, in another there might be other priorities or there is perhaps a different system already in place that has served people for ages (although I do think social security is a top priority, I don’t believe it should be a stupid Belgian like me who should decide for another country whether or not they need it). Why change this? Because some people want a huge monolithic Europe? As if those people in Brussels know better than the local politicians of countries? I don’t think they do.

So yes, let’s do Europe and let’s make it significant. But let’s not hurry too much. Let’s give it time and see what works, rather than making the same mistakes that another country is making today. I don’t believe we would do it a lot better. In fact, our European culture of wars teaches us our countries didn’t do any better in the past.

Does that mean that Belgium should not take care of its current problems, because maybe in a few decades we’ll have a Utopian European something? I don’t think so. Let the Belgian voters speak, and let the Belgian politicians act based on that. Today.

Edit: crap, now that I wrote this piece of opinion, I realize that I’m going to get eaten by the politic lions of the blogging world. Heh, too late now :-\