In a desperate attempt to convince a sceptical public the Estonian under-secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Aare Järvan, has published an article in Postimees on the possible impact of Euro entry on the economy of Estonia. In a classic piece of self deception he claims optimistically that “through joining the ‘euro-zone’ we [Estonia] will have a real possibility for the first time, to participate in the decision-making process concerning the continent’s monetary policy”.

Well I suppose Estonia will participate, but it will have no influence. Why does the good under-secretary think that one voice – and a very small voice at that – would have any influence? All he has to do is to look at the damage single interest rates have been doing to significantly larger countries and economies like Ireland and Portugal to realise the level of participation the Estonians will have in Euro zone decisions.

This week Belgian television is showing a 25-second animation movie (click here to see video) in which the village of the Smurfs, the blue characters created by the late Belgian cartoonist Peyo, is annihilated by bombs. The short movie is part of a campaign by Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, to raise funds for former child soldiers in Burundi. So as not to upset children the movie will only be shown on television after nine pm, though last week it was shown in the main evening news, thus upsetting quite a few children. The movie concludes with the message “Don’t let war affect the lives of children.” That, however, is exactly what last week’s showing did.

According to Philippe Henon, a spokesman for Unicef Belgium, the movie is aimed at adults but is definitely meant to shock because, as he explained, traditional images of suffering in Third World war zones have lost their power to move television viewers. That is why Unicef is committing large-scale smurficide now.

What is a week without yet another enviro-scare piece from the eco-loons among us? This week it is the REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) Directive, again:

"Every family member is contaminated with a cocktail of at least 18 different man-made chemicals, many found in everyday consumer goods," the World Wildlife Foundation [pdf] said. 'How much more evidence is needed before industry and European politicians accept that these hazardous chemicals cannot be adequately controlled?' said Karl Wagner, director of the WWF's DetoX campaign. [...]

This website is drawing flak from some people in the Netherlands because Fox News columnist John Gibson referred to our story about the Dutchman “marrying” two women. Gibson’s column is said to be an example of “braindead Holland bashing from neo-conservative quarters,” in which we are implicated because the “Fox demagogue” was inspired by our story in his argument that Holland is a moral cesspit.

John Gibson was writing about a case which is a hot news item in the US at the moment: the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba last May. The girl was allegedly left drugged on a beach by a young Dutchman, one Joran van der Sloot, after abusing her. Van der Sloot, the last person to see Natalee alive, was detained but later released by the Dutch authorities. This has drawn considerable American criticism.

One country seems bent on attaining the goals of the EU’s Lisbon Agenda. That country is China. As the Financial Times wrote last Saturday:

Within five years China will be investing a higher proportion of its gross domestic product in research and development than the European Union, as more western companies move their R&D eastwards, the European Commission fears.

Janez Potocnik, EU commissioner for research, warned: “The Chinese trend is extremely clear. If the trend continues, they [China] will catch us up in 2009 or 2010. The conditions for R&D in some emerging markets like China are improving and it is obvious that they [European companies] are transferring some of their investments there.”

If one is to believe the self-created haze of the media when it comes to healthcare the Europeans are pampered from cradle to grave while the vast majority of US citizens are:

• Sick and dying
• Lacking health insurance (implying a lack of actual healthcare)
• Denied access to any form of healthcare
• Being carted to a hospital every 15 minutes
• One nanosecond away from a catastrophic health emergency at all times

In his report on the anti-American hate lyrics of the Belgian songwriter Raymond van het Groenewoud Luc Van Braekel made the point that “more and more, it seems that racist or semi-racist expressions are punished when they originate from popular culture or from right-wing politicians and are directed against muslims, Arabs or Africans, but that similar expressions remain unpunished when they come from 'progressive' artists and leftist intellectuals and are directed against the Americans, the British or the Dutch”.  

The sequel to this story proves him right. Quite a few people were indignant at the liberties taken by Mr. van het Groenewoud in his song “Down with America”. Flemish pro-Americans and American expats living in Belgium accused him of xenophobia. There were discussions on radio and TV and a number of people felt so insulted that they lodged complaints against him with the Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism, an institution which has been mandated by the government to defend those targeted by hate speech before the courts.

Here I am in Washington DC during a week that might perhaps be the most decisive of George W. Bush’s presidency. The President has nominated his friend and White House counsel Harriet Miers as justice for the Supreme Court. If Ms. Miers turns out to be what the president says she is she will tip the balance in the Supreme Court towards less judicial activism, thereby returning the legislative powers to where they belong: with the legislature instead of the judiciary. If she is not, however, Bush will have missed a historic opportunity. Some are already talking of the "Miers Misstep."

Pat Buchanan and Bill Kristol are both very critical of the decision to nominate Miers. One does not often find Buchanan and Kristol in unison these days, but regarding Miers they share feelings of disappointment. "I am disappointed, depressed and demoralized," Kristol said when he heard of Miers' nomination. Buchanan stressed that Miers does not qualify for the job and called on conservatives to fight Bush's decision.

I met my friend John O’Sullivan yesterday, together with another colleague, Geoffrey Smith, an editorial writer and columnist of The (London) Times in the 1980s. We had not met for almost a decade but had barely started talking before we agreed about a feeling that the three of us share: anti-Americanism in Europe is far more widespread and deeper than ever before. Is the war in Iraq to blame for this? I am not so sure. At the root of the conflict, I think, is the cultural war for the soul of the West. By the “West” I mean America and Europe. I have never seen America and Europe as two opposing entities. To me America is more European than Europe, while Europe needs to find its American roots in order to become fully European again. I have even toyed with the idea of establishing a “Society for American Values in Europe” (SAVE) in order to save the European soul and the European values.

Tomorrow I am off to spend a week in America. I am one of those Europeans who regularly go there – I try to do so at least once a year – to “refuel.” I am convinced that deep down America is much more “European” than Europe is today. American culture is closer to that of mediaeval European society from which it organically evolved, while Europe was perverted by the spirit of the French Revolution.