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International Politics

Trying to make sense of a crazy world, with limited success mostly
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AndyinPA
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International Politics

#1

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eu ... story.html
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Tuesday with the European Union’s two presidents, but an awkward moment when the woman among them was left standing caused a bit of a diplomatic stir.

A video of the leaders assembled in an ornate meeting room in Ankara showed Erdogan and European Council President Charles Michel settling themselves into gilded chairs, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared unsure of where she was expected to sit.

Von der Leyen stood staring at them, gestured with her right hand and appeared to say “um” or “ehm.”

She was ultimately offered a beige couch about 12 feet away, opposite Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who occupies a lower-status rank in typical diplomatic protocol.

Von der Leyen “was clearly surprised and that is something which you can see from the video,” her spokesman Eric Mamer said Wednesday, confirming the displeasure of the leader who is the first woman to hold her role. She “should have been seated in exactly the same manner as the president of the European Council and the Turkish president.”
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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AndyinPA
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Re: International Politics

#2

Post by AndyinPA »

https://hungarytoday.hu/karacsony-fudan ... nstration/
“The Fudan University affair is our first step in retaking Hungary from those in power,” Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said at a demonstration against the establishment of a local campus of China’s Fudan University in front of Parliament on Saturday.

Karácsony, who is running in the opposition’s prime ministerial primary, vowed to block the establishment of the Fudan University campus and to take action on any issue in which the government “favours the privileged 1 percent over the 99 percent”.

“The biggest problem in Hungary today are those in power who don’t have any moral goals,” the mayor said.

“The Fudan affair is [ruling] Fidesz’s final and complete moral suicide,” he said. He said this issue proved that “every word of theirs is a lie” and that “nothing is sacred to them”.
Sounds depressingly familiar. We are not alone in dealing with the oligarchs and fascists.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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raison de arizona
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Re: International Politics

#3

Post by raison de arizona »

AndyinPA wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:31 am https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eu ... story.html
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Tuesday with the European Union’s two presidents, but an awkward moment when the woman among them was left standing caused a bit of a diplomatic stir.

A video of the leaders assembled in an ornate meeting room in Ankara showed Erdogan and European Council President Charles Michel settling themselves into gilded chairs, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared unsure of where she was expected to sit.

Von der Leyen stood staring at them, gestured with her right hand and appeared to say “um” or “ehm.”

She was ultimately offered a beige couch about 12 feet away, opposite Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who occupies a lower-status rank in typical diplomatic protocol.

Von der Leyen “was clearly surprised and that is something which you can see from the video,” her spokesman Eric Mamer said Wednesday, confirming the displeasure of the leader who is the first woman to hold her role. She “should have been seated in exactly the same manner as the president of the European Council and the Turkish president.”
Erdogan is a douche bag, but Michel should have offered Von der Leyen his chair and not sat there like a complete cad.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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sugar magnolia
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Re: International Politics

#4

Post by sugar magnolia »

That's why I could never succeed at a diplomatic career. I'd have turned around and walked out.

Whoever planned the meeting didn't do a very good job either, if they didn't have enough chairs in the right places. I thought this sort of thing was choreographed down to the last detail.
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RTH10260
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Re: International Politics

#5

Post by RTH10260 »

Note: this is stale news from back in April.
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Volkonski
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International Politics

#6

Post by Volkonski »

AFP News Agency
@AFP@mediastodon.com
Croatia on Sunday switched its currency to the euro and entered Europe's borderless zone -- two steps Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic called a "historic moment" for his country that joined the European Union nearly a decade ago ▶️ https://u.afp.com/igBo
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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RTH10260
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International Politics

#7

Post by RTH10260 »

:o that is a yuuuge blunder and mistake - according the Brexit supporters the EU and the Eurozone is at the brink of collapse - any day now :lol:

:twisted:
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Sam the Centipede
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International Politics

#8

Post by Sam the Centipede »

RTH10260 wrote: Sun Jan 01, 2023 12:48 pm :o that is a yuuuge blunder and mistake - according the Brexit supporters the EU and the Eurozone is at the brink of collapse - any day now :lol:

:twisted:
Ya think the Croats considered switching to the pound sterling? No? Me neither. :biggrin:
Off Topic
lOne hilarious proposal during the early part of the UK's Brexit debacle was hearing Brexiters suggest in all seriousness that Ireland should also leave the EU and join in all the imagined benefits: no need to look for pots of gold hidden by leprechauns at the end of rainbows when riches would be raining on all in the EU-less economic paradise that would ensue! As I recall the reaction of Irish politicians was similar to a parent dealing with their child babbling nonsense, a fond smile and amused indifference.
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International Politics

#9

Post by Frater I*I »

Sam the Centipede wrote: Sun Jan 01, 2023 1:51 pm
Off Topic
lOne hilarious proposal during the early part of the UK's Brexit debacle was hearing Brexiters suggest in all seriousness that Ireland should also leave the EU and join in all the imagined benefits: no need to look for pots of gold hidden by leprechauns at the end of rainbows when riches would be raining on all in the EU-less economic paradise that would ensue! As I recall the reaction of Irish politicians was similar to a parent dealing with their child babbling nonsense, a fond smile and amused indifference.
Or as they say in the SE US, "Bless their heart"....
"He sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see, He tries to tell me what I put inside of me
He's got the answers to ease my curiosity, He dreamed a god up and called it Christianity"

Trent Reznor
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