The art of Diplomacy. The wrong end of the stick?

DIPLOMACY: statesmanship, international negotiation, statecraft, tact, artfulness, craft, delicacy, discretion, finesse, savoir-faire, skill, and subtlety.

DIPLOMAT: negotiator, conciliator, go-between, mediator, moderator, politician, public relations expert, tactician.

DIPLOMATIC: tactful, adept, discreet, polite, politic, prudent, sensitive, subtle.

The above adjective and 2 nouns sum up the subtle meanings of diplomacy. Antonyms include: awkwardness, clumsiness, ineptness, tactlessness, thoughtlessness. - Impolitic, insensitive, rude, tactless, thoughtless, undiplomatic, unsubtle.
American Diplomats, and some others, have got the wrong end of the stick. They appear to be doing the exact opposite of what diplomacy requires, and they still expect to be loved?!

Julian takes on the U S of A

It takes some guts to take on an entire nation single handedly, the most powerful nation in the world!
Julian Assange, an Australian, launched his not -for - profit whistle blowing media organisation Wikileaks in 2006 to bring important information to the public. Wikileaks slogan is, "We open Governments". He has no home, he stays with friends around the world, dyes his hair, always pays by cash, lives in airports, constantly on the alert, he moves in the shadows. He has received several awards notably The International Award for exposing extra judicial assassinations in Kenya. The Americans label him an anti -American agitator of the worst kind, and suggest he endangers the lives of countless individuals. they would wouldn't they? Assange offered the White House and Pentagon an opportunity to redact material to protect innocent lives , but this was rebuffed at every stage, thus Wikileaks has chosen to pursue its own redactions. Governments are afraid. They prefer to live under a stone where they can hide their worst excesses. Comments about Putin, Merkel, Sarkozy, etc, may be embarrassing, but are to be expected, don't we all harbor variations on these thoughts? It's the larger cover ups, the corruption, the cruelty, the criminality that should be exposed, dragging this into the light is what Julian Assange and Wikileaks is all about. "You're a greater man than I am Gunga Din". Rudyard Kipling 1892.

Ed Miliband goes for ' The Squeezed Middle'.

Edward Miliband the new leader of the soon to be renewed New Labour party has decided to plump for the 'Squeezed Middle'. The trouble is, that he seems uncertain where the 'Squeezed Middle' actually is. With his left wing family background one would think he'd be plumping for the 'Squeezed Bottom', but being, of course, an ambitious career politician he aims for the greater number of voters. While he was baby cooing, changing nappies these last weeks in his fashionable London house he will have been conducting high powered breakfast think tanks over the toast and marmalade, formulating those 'magic words' 'the Squeezed Middle'! How hard was that?
Politicians are so disingenuous aren't they? - Margaret Thatcher's 'This lady's not for turning' she thought was a triumphant phrase, Macmillan's 'You've never had it so good' only managed to infuriate everyone, Tebbitt's 'Get on Your Bike' was an extreme turn off. Tony Blair, that cheap two-faced vaudeville act and his 'Peoples' Princess' was sick making. Now we have the slogan 'Big Society' from Cameron (who should know better), and most recently Mr. Milibands's incomprehensible (even to him) 'Squeezed Middle'. Politicians are so disingenuous aren't they? How stupid do they really think we are? Remember, Ed's just a new stag on the block.

Our happiness? Politicians only pretend to care.

The Greek word 'eudaimonia' is often translated as meaning 'happiness', 'joy', or human flourishing', - The art of being able to compromise with the real world, free from anxiety. The path to 'eudaimonia' was 'ataraxia', and 'ataraxia' means equilibrium. To attain this state one must have control over one's emotions. Diverging philosophies, the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Sceptics wrestled with the art of 'how to live well'. In his Essays, the wise French man Michel de Montaigne lays out quite clearly his methods for living a 'good life'. "We should have wife, children, goods, and above all health, if we can: but we must not bind ourselves to them so strongly that our happiness depends on them. We must reserve a back shop all our own...."
The society we live in now disavows almost every aspect of Stoicism, Epicureanism, and scepticism. We have to have even more discipline in our lives if we wish to 'reserve the back shop for ourselves' that Montaigne sought in the 16th century. We are 24/24 bombarded with the gruesome details of an outside world, we cannot escape. But escape we must. We must try to step back if we are ever to achieve even a modicum of happiness.
Politicians say they are interested in our happiness, they seek our vote. Politicians and happiness just don't mix!

The Euro - who wants it?

It was in the interests of France and Germany to lock themselves and subsequently a number of other ill fated smaller European countries into the restrictive and binding currency - the Euro. The idea was originally muted as early as 1929 by Gustav Stresemann but it wasn't until 1989 that France extracted German commitment to reunification, and then President Delors put forward a three point plan which laid out the path to the EMU. The euro was finally launched Jan 1 1999, and became legal tender Jan 1 2002 when it replaced the old national currencies. 12 of 15 European countries are now members.
Greece succeeded in getting clearance to join the euro on Jan 1 2001 by faking its deficit figures. 4 Smaller countries have joined 2005-2009, and Estonia is likely to join 2011.
Ireland joined Jan 1 2005. It is predominantly Ireland and Greece who are now feeling the strain due to the effects of bad economy and bad monetary policies. Ireland and Greece may leave the euro in 2011. Spain, Portugal and Belgium are also in trouble! The wonderful dream for joint European currency was an idea probably sketched out on the back of an envelope by a politician. It would enmesh countries who had totally differing ways of doing things, totally different cultures. It was a ridiculous dream. At first Greece and Ireland had plenty of money to spare, in fact they were awash with money.They behaved like children in a sweetie shop, corruption was rife,and now all the money has gone! Britain is deeply embroiled in the fate of the euro, so we are having to bail out Ireland - (at the moment). Germany ploughs ahead calling the shots, dragging the French poodle behind it. France's moment will come! They too have, and are, spending far far too much on their 'State' systems. What a relief Britain didn't join the Euro, - several of our politicians wanted to, including the 2 Clarkes. Anyway, we now have our own set of serious financial problems, largely due to a profligate Newlabour government who failed, under Brown to keep their eye on expenditure. Labour always leave the country in debt. This time they've done it good and proper!
I suggest a kindly action Britain could make to Greece. Return the Elgin Marbles forthwith! Neil Macgregor are you listening?!
As for Ireland, we are loaning them cash, couldn't the wealthy Irish in the great USofA be magnanimous and hand over money to help out, after all they were quick enough to do this when they wanted a unified Ireland.
Apologies for this blog, am no economist!

Blame Margaret Thatcher, then Newlabour

The trains are in a mess. Too many cars on the road. People don't want to travel in buses - except the needy and oaps who get their tickets free. Today we hear that there is going to be an increase in rolling stock - well - by 2019.
That grossly self serving man John Prescott promised, as minister of transport, to get things fixed. He would put the show on the road and public transport would be reborn! Railways would be brought back into public ownership, and oh, transport would be again as if Margaret Thatcher had never existed. Of course nothing of the sort has happened, and a succession of labour transport ministers have muddled along with the same increasingly complicated, incompetent, schizophrenic overcrowded and ultra expensive system. Are we to be saddled with high speed rail or not? We don't know. We know we can't afford it, and could it go the same way as the ill fated tram system in Edinburgh? Probably.
New labour promised the moon (they were all fake promises), now the coalition under the boot of the lobbyists promise other Shangrilas! A nationally owned well run integrated transport system shouldn't be too much to ask for. But when is the good of the British People ever taken into consideration?! Always too many vested interests barking in the wings. As long as mps and dignitaries can travel around in their chauffeur driven limousines, their first class train and upgraded plane seats, they will never experience the horrors of our 'public' transport system. If we could only turn the clock back to the days of a state run railway system. It wasn't perfect but it belonged to us, and we all had a stake in improving it. Margaret Thatcher has a lot to answer for!

THE wedding gets tiresomer and tiresomer

Not into December yet and we are already being bombarded with inane news about the lovey dovey royals! They are to be married in Westminster Cathedral we hear. Cost will be about £5bn! How can a wedding possibly cost as much as 5bn?! I find this sum an obscene amount to spend on a wedding. AND, because it will take place on April 29th and the nation will be given a bank holiday near Easter (so that we can drink in the pageantry!) businesses will be closed for all but 3 days between April 22nd and May2nd. We must be living in a fool's paradise. The country has hit the buffers, the cupboard is bare, and we will be contributing a massive sum that we can't afford, to a marriage that will probably go the way of most marriages, down the drain. But fear not, Mr.and Mrs. Middleton,- the bride's parents, are going to chip in. I wonder how much of the £5bn they will be coughing up? Perhaps the dress and the cake? Today is the 24th of November, cheer up, only 5 months to go!
This wedding is going to get a whole lot more tiresome before it's over, such a consolation that the Prince and his fiancee are going to take complete control. You bet they are.