This text is somewhat related to one of my older essays, about the history of cacao and chocolate. When I was younger, I was once told that regularly practiced cannibalism didn't exist in any society in modern times. This was a racist, colonialist lie invented by prejudiced Europeans. One example would be the former cannibal dubbed "Friday" and converted to Christianity in Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. As I grow older and wiser and investigate things for myself, I see how wrong this claim was.

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German Spectator is a regular survey of German mainstream media coverage of politics, religion and society, as well as of foreign policy, especially toward Europe and the United States.
 
Georgian Crisis Spurs German Identity Crisis
 
The Russian invasion of Georgia has opened yet another chapter in Germany’s decades-long self-identity crisis. German media are chock-full of armchair analyses that ponder whether Germany’s destiny lies with her “natural” partner, the Russian-led East, or with the “unnatural” American-led West…or perhaps somewhere safely in between. Myriad pseudo-introspective commentators are also advising readers on the role Germany could or should or may or may not have in resolving the conflict in Georgia.

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Perhaps the most revealing remark made during the crisis over South Ossetia was that by the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who attacked Russia in very strong terms for having reverted to “a 19th century approach to politics”.
 
Milliband’s hatred of Russia is built into his political DNA. His grandfather, Samuel Miliband, was a Warsaw-born Communist who famously fought in the Red Army but who then left the Soviet Union for Belgium when Stalin became top dog in Moscow. As a lifelong Trotskyite and supporter of world revolution, Miliband was disgusted by Stalin’s decision to create socialism in one country alone and by his de facto restoration of Great Russian nationalism.

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George Handlery about the week that was. Courses in terrorism might lead to pacifism. Accepting Jihad or being a racist. Sanctions should not anger the aggressor. The dangers of overreaction and under reacting. Atrocities pay. Are we in a process of strategic re-alignment? Fact and fiction: are only the rich getting richer?
 
1. Here a hilarious but also revealing tidbit from a small booklet “Die letzten Tage Europas/The Last Days of Europe” by H. M. Broder. Germany’s Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries finds it mistaken to prosecute individuals for having attended terrorist training camps. She feels that someone who participates in the program might react with a personal decision to renounce violence. (Such a person might even become a Quaker.) Later she altered her position. One should only punish those who take the course in order to become subsequently active. Broder concludes that, apparently, “one cannot know at the outset whether someone lets himself be trained as a terrorist because the Berlitz course in Esperanto at home was filled or because he simply wishes to measure up to his mother-in-law.” The sanctions for participation in terrorist training are therefore limited. An exception seems to be possible if someone enrolling sends Ms Zypries an affidavit. It should affirm that the enrollee not only wants training in terrorism but also intends to put the skills to be gained to practical use. No wonder that the book got the title it has.

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Carnage

Between Roppongi and Akasaka – the two fanciest precints in Tokyo -- there lies a somnolent spot, curiously underutilized for this, among the most expensive acres of land anywhere in the world. It’s the residence of a long-dead Japanese soldier, crouching under a shroud of weeping cherry trees in the shadow of Japan’s tallest and most fabulous building, the Midtown Project.

The opulent Midtown Project has a motto: “Introducing Japan’s newest significance to the world.” But right next to it, in this austere, smallish house built in 1902 with a red-brick stable and a compact garden, Japan’s oldest significance to the world may be found.

For Tom Cruise was not the last samurai. General Maresuke Nogi was.

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Many French websites have commented on the latest educational goals of Minister of Education Xavier Darcos, goals that should not really surprise anyone. Yet, every time I read such things I am shocked despite myself.

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George Handlery about the week that was. The Ossetes and the Abkhaz are saved: who will now save them from Russia? Order in the Caucasus not by kicking ass but by crushing skulls. Excuses regarding sanctions: we are prepared do anything to be able to do nothing. A brilliant insight: some terrorist trainees might become Quakers. The „Dictator‘s tantrum #3.

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The rise of the political class, a form of technocratic managemental breed of suited emissaries of the god risk avoidance and nudging paternalism wallers so well defined by Peter Oborne in his magisterial Triumph of the Political Class has left western liberal post-democracies with virtually nobody to whom one can support, or at the very least trust.

All decisions are compromisable, all positions changeable. Nothing is quite what it seems.

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Both Le Salon Beige and Yves Daoudal have reports on the decision by the administrative appeals court of Versailles to allow a mosque to be built in Montreuil. The original court decision in 2007 banning the construction came about as a result of a suit brought by the MNR (National Republican Movement), the right-wing political party led by Bruno Mégret, who has since retired from politics. That decision has now been overturned:

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The cross-party Joint Committee on Human Rights has said that there should be a new Bill of Rights [pdf] (or Bill of rights and Freedoms) for the United Kingdom, which will apply to both citizens and non-citizens. It will, it is suggested, draw on the “UK’s distinctive [legal] traditions” (p. 42, No. 146), and set out certain rights, such as the right to trial by jury, right to administrative justice, and right to equality (p. 38).

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I recently wrote an essay regarding how the Council of Europe, in close cooperation with the European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League and other Islamic organizations, are working to combat "Islamophobia" in Europe by all means necessary. Now the French blog Galliawatch takes a look at the CoE as well. This should be considered required reading for all those numerous people who still stubbornly dismiss Eurabia as a "conspiracy theory." The CoE and the EU are implementing policies aimed to rewrite school textbooks throughout the European continent in order to provide a positive and non-threatening view of Islam. They are thus indoctrinating our children to accept Islam.

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If anybody hasn't seen the magnificent Peter Sellars film about the day that the Grand Duchy of Fenwick invaded the US and won, then they should. Alternatively they could also follow the extraordinary goings on on the tiny Åland islands.
 
These semi-autonomous islands first came to prominence during the ratification procedure of the European Constitution when they went to the wall to allow themselves the right to continue chewing on Snus – a strange tobacco teabag enjoyed by some of our Scandic friends. The point being that Snus is banned throughout the EU, except in Sweden where a derogation was granted. The people of the Åland islands are pretty Swedish, particularly when it comes to Snus.

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What Mikheil Saakashvili began at his discretion, Vladimir Putin ends at his pleasure. The Russians have called a halt to their offensive in Georgia, and none too soon for the Georgians. What remains is the postwar settlement, and the American part in it.

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Two months ago, the Irish held a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. We all now know how it ended. One of the elements in the run-up to that referendum was the Irish concern for their abortion laws. The Irish have an abortion legislation that doesn't fit in the minds of most liberal journalists. They also thought that the Treaty of Lisbon could liberalize it against their will. That is why the Irish voted "No," some argue, even after so many explicit promises by politicians that there was absolutely no reason to worry. On 26 July, the Court of Justice of the European Communities (Ecj) proved the Irish right: National law is subordinate to whatever is ruled on the European level. As a consequence, the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen found himself in trouble: after the ECJ ruling in the Metock case the Danish immigration legislation is now completely void and worthless.

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America’s stake in the Caucasus war just went up.

In the past 24 hours, the Russians launched offensive operations beyond the secessionist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, marking a dramatic expansion in their war aims — well beyond the putative casus bellum of protecting Russian citizens. (It should be recalled that these “citizens” are Abkhaz and Ossetian locals who were issued Russian passports without, for the most part, ever setting foot in Russia.)

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