In some regions of the world the greatest political misjudgment you are likely to make comes from not believing the impossible. A recent posting here was the outgrowth of a confrontation with the perversions of economic and political inequities that prevail in the country of the writer’s origins. The outrageous case to be presented now had its venue in Hungary. “Writing it up” is not to the writer’s taste. Acting is justified by the realization that right and wrong has no nationality. Without intending to attack the country of venue, the fact is that our origins enable us to access what outsiders often cannot. In such instances, silence is not a matter of patriotism but an act of connivance. Therefore, let it be stated here that specific cases can – and do in this instance – serve to illustrate a general problem. It is regrettable that, regardless of the outrage depicted, Hungary’s standards are in most respects better than those prevailing in her part of Europe.

There is a new series of books coming out of the American publishing house Encounter Books, calling itself Brief Encounters. The latest is this articulate polemic from Theodore Dalrymple and quite a blast of cold air it is.

He takes as his theme the way in which in today's world to be prejudiced in any way, or indeed to show discrimination has moved from being the epitome of civilisation to being nigh on the nadir of existence. This he firmly rejects.

Next week a conference will be held in Annapolis, the capital city of the American state of Maryland, in an attempt by the Bush Administration to achieve an ‘independent’ Palestinian state and Arab-Israeli ‘peace’.    Does this make sense from an American perspective, or even a Western perspective?   If history is any guide, it does not make much sense, but the American left and ‘Europe’ demand American “re-engagement”, and neither has been very much guided by history in recent times.    So, President Bush still hopes to score a foreign policy victory before his time is up, and Condoleezza Rice has diligently laid the groundwork.  The invitations have been sent out and, this weekend, several Arab governments are still trying to decide whether to attend or not at a senior level.

Last week, I attended a colloquium in Hungary on “Morality and expediency in politics.” Our group included political scientists, historians and philosophers. Most of them were Eastern Europeans; the majority were Hungarians. One evening, while having dinner in an expensive Budapest restaurant, the Hungarians at our table noticed that one of the former communist leaders of their country had entered the restaurant.

A quote from Jerry Gordon at American Congress for Truth, 11 November 2007

The October electoral victory [in Switzerland] of the right-wing SVP may bring shudders to the obsessively PC Eurabians, but it may explain a lot about why the grandson of the founder the Muslim Brotherhood, Tariq Ramadan decamped from Geneva – he is a Swiss-born citizen, to take a Professorship at Holland's prestigious University of Leiden.
 

A quote from The Daily Telegraph, 16 November 2007

Britain is experiencing unprecedented levels of immigration with more than half a million foreigners arriving to live here in a single year, new figures show. Last year, 510,000 foreign migrants came to the UK […]. At the same time 400,000 people, more than half of whom were British, emigrated. An exodus on this scale – amounting to one British citizen leaving the country every three minutes – has not been seen in the UK for almost 50 years. […]

A quote from Joshua Keating at the Foreign Policy blog, 15 November 2007

Europe's strength comes from the fact that it is not a nation but a “network that is bound together by laws and regulations,” a revolutionary development in political history. The Flemish-Walloon split is an ugly ghost of Europe’s past that, if it comes to pass, would put the lie to Europe’s supposed post-nationalist enlightenment. This is probably why Euro-skeptics like Paul Belien of the Brussels Journal seem so anxious for it to happen.

A quote from Swiss Info, 15 November 2007

Addressing a news conference in Bern on Wednesday, [Turkish diplomat Ömür] Orhun [the representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, an international organisation of the European countries plus Canada and the U.S.)], said the Swiss Muslim community was relatively better off as far as education and financial status were concerned, but there was a major issue regarding perception.

A quote from Father Michael Kempen, one of Belgium’s 73,000 German-speakers, at Reuters, 15 November 2007

[If Belgium falls apart] I wouldn't know where I belong anymore. I speak German and live in Wallonia, where shall I go to? To France, Germany, Luxembourg?

A quote from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Daily Telegraph, 15 November 2007

Mounting concern that Belgium could break apart after 157 days without a government has begun to hit the country's sovereign bonds, causing spreads to suddenly widen to the highest levels in five years. […] The spreads over German bonds have jumped from four to 17 as questions grow about the long-term status of Belgium's €278bn (£198bn) public debt. At 86pc of GDP, it is the third-highest burden in the eurozone after Greece and Italy.