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8. desember 2005
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Gerhard Schröder, no longer Chancellor of Germany, is enjoying his retirement by improving his English skills on the countryside in Wales.
He enrolled for private tuition at Park House, run by Charles and Ann Jackson, who for 20 years have been helping anyone from students to high-powered businessmen.
He also took the time to enjoy a taste of a great British tradition - a trip to the pub, where in the absence of German beer, he stuck to wine.
Charles Jackson says the former chancellor has been a good student.
"It's been a great privilege," he said. "He was an excellent student. He was very relaxed, very charming and great fun."
I suspect quite a few Germans would be surprised.
11:14:21 PM 
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Iran's nutcase president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at it again. In an interview in Iran's Arab language satellite channel Al-Alam, he first raised doubts about the holocaust.
In Ahmadinejad's interview, he referred to the Holocaust as a matter of belief, and raised the issue of revisionist historians -- who attempt to establish that figures on the number of Jews killed by the Nazis are wildly exaggerated -- being prosecuted in Europe.
"Is it not true that European countries insist that they committed a Jewish genocide? They say that Hitler burned millions of Jews in furnaces... and exiled them," he said.
"Then because the Jews have been oppressed during the Second World War, therefore they (the Europeans) have to support the occupying regime of Qods (Jerusalem). We do not accept this."
The Holocaust was Nazi Germany's systematic slaughter of an estimated six million Jews between 1933 and 1945.
Official Iranian media frequently carry sympathetic interviews with Holocaust revisionists, and the regime itself also refuses to recognise Israel.
After conceding the holocaust only for sake of argument, Ahmadinejad went on to suggest that Israel should be moved to Europe.
"You believe the Jews were oppressed, why should the Palestinian Muslims have to pay the price?" he asked in an interview with Iranian state television's Arabic-language satellite channel, Al-Alam.
"You oppressed them, so give a part of Europe to the Zionist regime so they can establish any government they want. We would support it," he said, according to a transcript of his original Farsi-language comments given to AFP.
"So, Germany and Austria, come and give one, two or any number of your provinces to the Zionist regime so they can create a country there... and the problem will be solved at its root," he said.
"Why do they insist on imposing themselves on other powers and creating a tumour so there is always tension and conflict?"
Not too long ago, he said Israel should be wiped off the map. These new statements are also met with loud condemnations.
PS: The Reuters article about the same statement makes the president's denial of the holocaust even more explicit.
"Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
"Although we don't accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?" he said.
As far as I know, no European state supports Israel's claim to all of Jerusalem, but I guess that is pretty much beside the point. In the dream world of extremists like Ahmadinejad, the entire Middle East would be judenfrei.
10:43:59 PM
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Jonathan Finer notes in the Washington Post that Iraqi parties that previously boycotted elections are now embracing slick election advertising as well as good old fashioned smear campaigns, all go get their representatives into the new parliament.
Evidence of political evolution is plastered all over Baghdad's normally drab concrete blast walls and hung on lampposts at nearly every major intersection: large, colorful, graphically appealing posters conveying a wide variety of punchy messages. [...]
In one 30-second spot, a smartly dressed and smiling Allawi -- normally known for his brusque demeanor -- is shown seated on a stool in a dimly lit studio. "My faith is in Iraq," he tells the camera, to underscore his secularism.
Even the arrival of American-style negative campaigning is evidence of a growing political sophistication, the election trainers said. In recent days posters have started to appear in Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in north Baghdad, bearing the slogan "vote for the Baathist slate," along with a composite photograph of a face -- half Allawi's and half Hussein's. Allawi was a member of Hussein's Baath Party until the mid-1970s, when he joined Iraq's opposition.
It's amusing he thinks Americans invented, or even cornered the market on, negative campaigning. In fact, it originated in the early neolithic age, in the running for chief between Thak and Gruk, but that's another story.
6:25:25 PM
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Saddam's old intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who stands accused of crimes against humanity alongside his boss, is complaining bitterly about the treatment he has received in custody.
"We were detained by one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet it was only after four months in detention that they gave me cigarettes," said Barzan, charged with crimes against humanity.
"And then they were of the worst quality in the world."
Where are you, Amnesty International? It's not like you to ignore this obvious example of sinister torture by the American occupation powers.
6:11:01 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.01.2006; 00:10:44.
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