History in the making: Russia, America and NATO connect. Rich enough to be left of everything. Media, the Left and integrity. Violently for freedom. Saving the pigs. An EU dividend.
 
1. Russia, America and NATO. In terms of its potential, the agreement to pursue the creation of a joint system of missile defense and to handle Russia as an associate of NATO is truly of historical significance. The confirmation of success is still pending. Whether the actual performance in the general realm of cooperation will develop harmoniously, will determine whether what we saw has been a staged photo op or a genuine turning point.
 
Since the late 17th century, Russia is a major European power. Failed modernization outside the military area, the fall of the Czars, the rule of the Bolsheviks, then the collapse of the USSR have not changed this. Whatever system Russia had, its implications for European, and after 1945, Western, even global security, were considerable. For quite some time, Russia had cast herself into the role of the primary threat to stability. This function, even when depicted as expressing the “national interest”, has not been a necessity rooted in the genuine interests of that country.
 
After the collapse of the Soviet Union whose ideology committed her to an anti-Western course, new opportunities presented themselves to break profitably with a self-imposed tradition. At the same time, new challenges arose. One has been that the Kremlin might be tempted to pursue the goal to regain dominance. The practical expression of that would imply the resumption of the backward-looking instinct to rule Eurasia in opposition to the region’s peoples and states. The other hurdle to prevent Russia from easing herself into the modern world’s state system, in which she could participate without ruling it, came from the imperial past. The loss of the USSR’s “outer empire” could have given rise to politics expressing the naturally existing anti-Russian sentiments of the region’s peoples.
 
This writer’s first major piece in Hungarian had the title “The Russians and US”. It pleaded that a durable new beginning hinges on a number of conditions. The past’s victims need and can contribute to the process of making Russia democratic and progressive. The dividend: while playing her natural leading role, such a Russia might be a reliable associate and a good neighbor. Sensible realism demanded that, while not forgetting, the victims needed to forgive. In part, the content of the Russia of the future will be shaped by the comportment of her newly emancipated dependencies. It might be a significant indicator of the barriers that at the time 1989-90 no paper in Russia has been willing to carry the piece edited by a Magyar-speaking Soviet officer specialized in Hungarian affairs.
 
On the emerging path to integration, the new Lisbon agreement that provides for inclusion represents, at least formally, a major step ahead. Whether the path will widen into a paved road will depend on the internal system emerging during the process of Russia’s evolution. As in the case of all true great powers, Russia’s policy toward the world reflects to a high degree the quality of her internal order. Success in the economic, social, and especially in the sphere of democratization, will determine what Russia will want and how she will try to get it. Wherever you read this, you will have to live with the consequences of that.
 
2. An unintended coincidence. This comes from a local paper of Red-ruled Basle. To some the adjective should be, if pure logic is applied, a surprise. That city happens to be the location of a globally leading “cluster” of undertakings. A number of the world’s leading firms that specialize in chemistry and its medical derivates are located in Basle. As a result, that city and region became rich even by the standards of a highly successful national economy.
 
It is being reported that, the city’s governing council has committed itself to the practice of virtue. It proposes to do so by promising to fight all attempts to deport alien criminals.  Well, perhaps a community has to be destitute to want the redistribution of wealth.  Alternatively, it needs to be rich enough to be able to afford as an atonement knee-jerking do-goodism. (Those located between these extremes will pay the price.) This luxury has become part of a Champaign-guzzling armchair Socialist agenda. It is practiced in the name of the “toilers” as defined by bureaucrats, teachers, the arty crowd and the like. Here the American reader might be reminded of the case of Santa Monica, as in “The People’s Republic of… “.  Right next to this report of good tidings another, a rather usual, item got into print. It tells of the apprehension of two Romanian (Gypsy?) members of a criminal gang.
 
3. A good one. Attribute this item to be a derivate from having read Basle’s paper for a month. The publication got a new editor and renewed leadership. A shift from the left is in the cards. This provokes. A letter writer contributed this gem. He sincerely feels “only a leftist newspaperman can be an independent reporter.”
 
4. Freedom on the run. “Activists” sabotaged this morning’s issue of the Basler Zeitung (November 22). The other news is that the owner of the daily was to hold at the University a lecture regarding Media trends. The event had to be cancelled. The activists for the freedom of the press threatened violence. Just in time before the submission of “Duly Noted” comes this news. A rich liberal leftist has purchased the paper. The previous owner sold while bemoaning the terror of loud militants. The staff is delighted to continue its “independent” course.
 
5. More to make you smile. Animal rights activists have prevented a research institution from carrying out experiments on pigs. The porkers were turned over to the group’s custody. Soon thereafter, the rescued animals got sick. The action to save the pigs ended by their transfer to a slaughterhouse.
 
6. A logical consequence. The self-occupation army of Myanmar has the guns. The people of Burma are disarmed. This explains numerous questions. Myanmar and Burma are different tags that mark the same place. Any local applicability of the possible generalizations is proper and is, therefore, intended.
 
7. The insider’s EU dividend. There is a largely unpublicized benefit for the political class brought about as a dividend by the European Union as a superstate. Deficiencies that cause discontent among the led may be blamed on the Union. At the same time, Brussels itself is hardly subject to effective review and sanctions at the ballot box. For that, the bureaucratic tumor created by the political absent-mindedness of the herd, is too well shielded from Europe’s non-existing “people”.
 
8. Korea again. Ingenious explanations circulate that try explain the reason for North Korea’s growing aggressiveness. No one likes to admit that one explanation might be that the tactic works and is rewarded by donations. Second, the real problem is Chinese support. Is China prepared to live up to her claimed responsibilities as a leading power? Or is she conducting low-level war by proxy against East Asia’s non-communist states? The White House needs to cite Peking’s ambassador.