Today is my last day at work. Next week I am leaving Dublin and moving to Amsterdam. I have decided the best option, for me, is to burrow deeper into the eurozone.

Money is a sign of Poverty - Culture Saying

That's a beautiful song by Joan Manuel Serrat. Yes, the ending is wry, but you can always go back to the beginning... ;)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Apparently - born on this day was Voltaire, who said:

"L'homme est libre au moment qu'il veut l'être."

Finland in 60 seconds. My voiceover.

You can't be me, I'm taken

Going to work this morning, I walk to the station, and get to a cross-street. I'm halfway across when a car turns into it from the main road. The idiot almost hits me, but can't see any mistake in himself, and hits the car horn. I shake my head and walk on. But the guy stops again after five meters, is shouting something from behind closed windows and gesticulates wildly, so I look back at him, gesticulate "what the...?". But he drives away, still shouting unintelligibly, so I just show the finger. But ten seconds later, I hear he stopped again and jumped out from the car, and is shouting abuse towards me...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Now, who will be the first to guess what language that is? ;-)

"Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. - Galbraith"

PARIS - Former presidential candidate Segolene Royal will square off against Martine Aubry, the architect of France's 35-hour work week, in a runoff Friday after opposition Socialists remained divided in a vote for a new leader.

...
Delanoe has bowed out and is backing Aubry, 58, the mayor of Lille and daughter of former European Commission president Jacques Delors for the post.

One of Royal's fiercest foes, Aubry is pushing a platform that calls for anchoring the party firmly to the left. She also received backing for the runoff from 41-year-old Hamon, who called on his supporters to vote "massively" for her.

The infighting has left most commentators wondering whether the party of late president Francois Mitterrand can overcome its divisions and become a governing force in time for 2012.

"One thing is certain: the current Socialist Party needs to go back to the drawing board," commented the leftist Liberation newspaper.

"The winner will have to come in with a big broom, create a new programme for a party that has lost its voice at a time of economic crisis and remobilise distraught members who now openly express their despair," it wrote.

http://www.expatica.com/fr/articles/news/Divided-Socialists-face-runoff-vote-for-new-leader.html

The fireworks have fizzled out, 4,000 lobster shells are being scraped into the bins, and Lily Allen's probably reaching for the paracetamol - but, she won't be the only person in Dubai with a hangover today. Yesterday saw the opening of the Atlantis Palm Jumeirah Beach, yet another flash new architectural marvel in Dubai, augmented by yet another onslaught of superlatives, celebrities, and headlines across the world.

Come this morning, it's not just the champagne that's gone flat. It has finally happened: the Dubai bubble has burst. Architecture-spotters like myself have looked on in amazement, or rather incredulity, at the way the tiny emirate has continued to unveil ever grander construction projects - taller skyscrapers, huger hotels, vaster artificial islands - in apparent defiance of the global credit crunch.

Now, that crunch has hit home. This week's Architect's Journal reports that "architects and developers in Dubai are freezing recruitment and making redundancies as the emirate's real-estate market begins to crumble." Large developers in Dubai are laying off staff, including Emaar the company behind the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest structure, the magazine reports. Other headline-grabbing projects like the Palm Deira, the next artificial island planned off the coast, are on hold indefinitely, and foreign architects and construction specialists out there, such as RMJM and Ramboll Whitbyird, are making staff cuts or freezing recruitment as a result, says the AJ.

 Skilled immigrant workers may soon find it easier to obtain long-term resident status in the European Union.

21 November 2008

STRASBOURG - The European Parliament on Thursday backed a "blue card" scheme for skilled immigrant workers, while stressing it should be open only to the most qualified applicants.

...

The inspiration for the programme comes from the US green card system, which gives immigrants long-term resident status.

However, members of the parliament called for the salary bar to be set higher than foreseen by the 27 EU member states.

...
With the consultative vote out of the way, the path is now clear for the creation of the European blue card scheme, a fact welcomed by French socialist EU deputy Roselyne Lefrancois, who stressed that only 1.2 percent of highly qualified foreign workers chose the EU.

...
The "blue card," which takes its name from the main colour of the EU flag, would entitle highly qualified third country nationals to a series of rights in any of the 27 EU nations.

A fast-track system would be set up to allow such workers to enter the bloc

• they could stay for an initial period of two years which would be renewable
  
• and obtain longer-term residence status more quickly.

Later, they would be able to work in a second member state under certain conditions.

The commission, the EU's executive body, is aware that it is entering a sensitive area of national policy, with many member states experiencing a surge in immigration from both within and outside the Union.

http://www.expatica.com/fr/articles/news/EU-parliament-backs-blue-card-scheme-.html

Chavez in song: Venezuela vote has live soundtrack

By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer
 Nov 19

CARACAS, Venezuela - Sunday's elections in Venezuela will be a key test for President Hugo Chavez a year after voters defeated his effort to change the constitution, and the socialist leader isn't missing a beat as he campaigns for his allies.

Breaking into song at rallies, Chavez draws applause and occasional laughter from his red-clad supporters. One of his favorites is a folkloric ode he sings to a 19th-century rebel leader he claims as his great-grandfather. It appears on a compact disc released last week by the ruling party titled "Songs for the Battle."

With a cover image of a clenched fist raised in the air, the CD also includes "Militants With Chavez," a reggae-rap track that samples the president's speeches; and "Comrade" by Ali Alejandro Primera, the nephew of late singer-songwriter Ali Primera, a musical icon among Venezuela's leftists in the 1960s.

Radio jingles and blaring sound trucks are time-tested campaign tools in Latin America, and Chavez opponents also are joining in, with thumping speakers at campaign stops where sympathizers swing their hips to lyrics that promote candidates and ridicule opponents.

Artists on both sides of Venezuela's political divide say music is being used as a campaign tool more than ever.

Yahoo news

(Also known as 'Happy Birthday!') :)

Are Big Bonuses Counterproductive?

Does exceptional pay encourage exceptional effort?:

What's the Value of a Big Bonus?, by Dan Ariely, Commentary, NY Times: By withholding bonuses from their top executives, Goldman Sachs and UBS may soften negative reaction from Congress and the public... But will they also suffer because their executives, lacking the motivation that big bonuses are thought to provide, will not do their jobs well? ...[D]oesn't the promise of a big bonus push people to work to the best of their ability?

To look at this question, three colleagues and I conducted an experiment. We presented 87 participants with an array of tasks that demanded attention, memory, concentration and creativity. ... We promised them payment if they performed the tasks exceptionally well. About a third of the subjects were told they'd be given a small bonus, another third were promised a medium-level bonus, and the last third could earn a high bonus.

We did this study in India, where the cost of living is relatively low so that we could pay people amounts that were substantial to them but still within our research budget. ...

What would you expect the results to be? When we posed this question to a group of business students, they said they expected performance to improve with the amount of the reward. But this was not what we found. The people offered medium bonuses performed no better, or worse, than those offered low bonuses. But what was most interesting was that the group offered the biggest bonus did worse than the other two groups across all the tasks.

Peyote Bill is my new boss, apparently.  (Woohoo!)  Going to Commerce.

NY Fed President Tim Geithner apparently heads to Treasury.  Mediocre pick, but, even though I don't share the netroots' hatred of Summers, Geithner is probably the superior of the two.  And he doesn't come with Summers's Biden-esque foot-in-mouth disease.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

Enric

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude