I didn't come here to become a crippled autist, nor to react to your comments like a desillusioned cynicist (rabid dog on the beach). Fuck that shit. I wrote some comments about KOS (and I still can't figure out what the EU equivalent is) and got no response, even raised some questions on behalf of your poorly written and commented MackyDee article- never got an answer, and you may Google the rest...What is wrong with you? Are you all hooked up to the beauty of eternal mathematical formulas? Your open constant cynicism, (snark, snark; snark... or do you need links(?), plus the high brow cultural wanna-be elitism, no Fast Food please) is not going to be a winning formula in order to become protagonists in the European struggle for the best ideas. (Your occasional input of good statistics apart). I see no protagonism here. Its just cynical words spoken on the theatre balcony of politics.

In the past we have already been discussing UK press articles about the English people's fine sense of humour and their funny attitude toward all things foreign. I think that time has come that we (continentals) openly admit our shortcomings and finally start to work on developing our wit. It won't be easy, but there's always hope.

We need a course on English humour. And a good one.

So, let's start with an aspect where English humour seems to be strongest: With WAR Humour!

You will all remember that the UK press gave FUNNY names to Iraqi ministers at the beginning of the invasion. One minister became "Chemical Ali" (he was the guy with the Weapons of Mass Destruction) and another became "Comical Ali" - that was the Iraqi Information Minister, who said all those outrageously humourous things.

OK then. Let us begin the course on fine English humour and read again what Comical Ali told the international press three years ago.

Please sit comfortably, relax - and LAUGH (oh, it is so funny)!

"No one received them with roses. They were received with bombs, shoes and bullets. Now, the game has been exposed. Awe will backfire on them. This is the boa snake. We will extend it further and cut it in the appropriate way.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

I would like to clarify a simple fact here: How can you lay siege to a whole country? Who is really under siege now? Baghdad cannot be besieged. Al-Nasiriyah cannot be besieged. Basra cannot be besieged.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

Iraqi fighters in Umm Qasr are giving the hordes of American and Brtish mercenaries the taste of definite death. We have drawn them into a quagmire and they will never get out of it.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

My feelings - as usual - we will slaughter them all.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

No, I am not scared and neither should you be!
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

Now even the American command is under siege. We are hitting it from the north, east, south and west. We chase them here and they chase us there. But at the end we are the people who are laying siege to them. And it is not them who are besieging us.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

Their tanks will become their tombs.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

The simple fact is this: they are foreigners inside a country which has rejected them. Therefore, these foreigners wherever they go or travel they will be rained down with bullets from everyone. Attacks by members of the resistance will only go up.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

The United Nations [is] a place for prostitution under the feet of Americans.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

These flops are hitting places which are mainly civilian. Their strikes against Baghdad increase proportionally with their failures on the war front.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

They are superpower of villains. They are superpower of Al Capone.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

They [the Americans] are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. They will surrender, it is they who will surrender.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

The Americans are the people who are under siege. This is what should be understood here: Faltering forces of infidels cannot just enter a country of 26 million people and lay besiege to them!
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

Today, the tide has turned, we are destroying them.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

W. Bush, this man is a war criminal, and we will see that he is brought to trial.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

Washington has thrown their soldiers on the fire.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

We are in control, they are in a state of hysteria. Losers, they think that by killing civilians and trying to distort the feelings of the people they will win. I think they will not win, those bastards.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

We blocked them inside the city. Their rear is blocked.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

We will push those crooks, those mercenaries back into the swamp.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

We will welcome them with bullets and shoes."
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

When we were making the law, when we were writing the literature and the mathematics the grandfathers of Blair and little Bush were scratching around in caves.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

Yesterday, we slaughtered them and we will continue to slaughter them."
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

Did you enjoy the first lesson and have a jolly good laugh? Well, I thought so. That was sooo funny, was it not!?

Do you want more? Okay, the series on fine English humour and how to improve our poor continental wit level will be continued soon...

Six European and South American intellectuals analyse the process of neoliberal word massaging, the inversion of meanings and how it creates new societal realities.

Public tv at it's best!

  http://www.vive.gob.ve/

So, reforms don't work, right?

After all those months of doing de-construction work of the elite press we all seem to agree that the global neoliberal power grab project has hit the cliffs! And hard.

Bush's dream to reshape the Arab world lies in shatters. Aznar has been voted out of office. Berlusconi is licking his wounds and just lost two consecutive elections. Blair has become a lame duck. Chirac has fallen silent. The Polish Prime Minister (whatever his name is) utters absurdities like: The ongoing process of mutual understanding between European nations must be founded on Christian Catholic principles. Merkel has lost her messianic free market zeal and has been tamed by 'Locust Alerted' vice - chancellor Müntefehring.

Well, what are we wasting our time then and continue to spend our precious LIFE energies in debunking yet ANOTHER neoliberal sham project?

A che pro?

Neoliberalism is dead in the water. Look to New Orleans, Bagdad, Kabul, or - nearer to home - to the shabby hospitals in the UK, the wrecked Berlusconi economy in Italy, the unemployment situation in France's banlieues, the haemorraging of towns in the former DDR, the cluelessness of the wanna - be - tough - on - immigration politicians in Holland.

Und so weiter.

The greed driven arrogance of the neoliberal free marketeers has peaked three years ago when Colin Powell lied to the entire world community on live tv at the UN Security Council and Bush proclaimed his nation's alledged supremacy with the two words: Let's roll! invading Iraq.

Since then things have dramatically changed. Bagdad, New Orleans, Kabul, and ...see above!

So, enough already. We have done our job - and a good job it was indead - to help to change the political climate.

Now the time has come to look forward, to come out and to grasp the opinion leadership in our countries and to lead Europe with a fresh and positive vision!

It is our turn now to propose an audacious, new and revolutionary project. No bean telling please!

Where do we begin? Are their still folks around who have experienced the liberating spirit of being protagonists, of being revolutionary subjects, who dare to imagine a new world order?

I propose a crash course in acquiring the (much needed) beauty of revolutionary energy and sentiment. Emotions that are so powerfull to - first - make you weep! And then gain the confidence to change the world.

Let's start with this here:

link
[video] THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED