Re: Czech President Says Europeans "Living In a Dream World" Of Long Vacations & Welfare

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Arnold Wolfcastle) wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> http://washingtontimes.com/world/20031124-110833-1781r.htm

I've replied to this tosh in another thread, but I'll repeat it here,
including the bits that our posturing poster left out......

 By Arnaud de Borchgrave
> THE WASHINGTON TIMES
>      
>     Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Europeans are living in a "dream
> world" of welfare and long vacations and have yet to realize "they are
> not moving toward some sort of nirvana." 

Now...sit up in the back of the class, and pay attention! This is an
opinion piece by Vaclav Klaus. Who? Well, Mr. Klaus has an interesting
pedigree. Partly educated in the United States, a disciple of Friedman
and the infamous Chicago School, and a famous free-market airhead. A
man who constributed to the political disintegration of Czechosovakia,
a
political foe of Vaclav Havel, ambitious and arrogant beyond
measure....And that's for starters.....

>     The Czech Republic is a candidate for European Union membership,
> but Mr. Klaus, who was elected president in February, made clear in an
> interview his distaste for the organization. 

So what's new? He always has been a Eurosceptic. It reminds me of the
old parson who was asked about 'sin' and replied that he was 'agin
it'.

>     However, he conceded during a visit to Washington last week that
> "the political unification of Europe" is now in "an accelerated
> process ... in all aspects and in all respects." 

You don't say! (As you quaint colonials put it.)

>     Mr. Klaus said the movement toward a single political entity of 25
> European nations "will not change until people start thinking and
> realizing they are not moving toward some sort of nirvana." 

   Well......I don't know that anyone thinks of the E.U. in
these terms...

>     The Czech president remains convinced that "you cannot have
> democratic accountability in anything bigger than a nation state." 

On past performance this should read "I can't get away with as much in
the new dispensation."

>     Asked whether he could see the nation-state disappearing, Mr.
> Klaus replied, "That could well be the case, [but] it remains to be
> seen whether it will be the nominal disappearance or the real
> disappearance. 
>     "We could see the scaffolding of a nation-state that would retain
> a president and similar institutions, but with virtually zero
> influence," he said "That's my forecast. And it's not a reassuring
> vision of the future." 

Well....I, for one, find it very reassuring. But probably not in my
lifetime...

>     Last week, the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg released a
> 400-page report that found "systematic problems, over-estimations,
> faulty transactions, significant errors and other shortcomings" in the
> EU budget. 
>     EU auditors could vouch for only 10 percent of the $120 billion
> the bloc spent in 2002. It was the ninth successive year the auditors
> were unable to certify the budget as a whole.

  The E.U. is very new. Things will improve with time. (And greater
transparency, with direct control of the executive by the European
Parliament. But Mr. Klause's fiefdom will lose out.)
 
>     Europeans have not yet faced up to such "serious underlying
> issues," Mr. Klaus said, because "they are still in the dream world of
> welfare, long vacations, guaranteed high pensions and cradle-to-grave
> social security."

Whoa! How did we move from common garden corruption and bureacracy to
this topic? And what does this have to do with the price of fish?

>     The biggest challenge for the Czech Republic, Mr. Klaus said, is
> to avoid falling into the trap of "a new form of collectivism." Asked
> whether he meant a new form of neo-Marxism, he said, "Absolutely not,
> but I see other sectors endangering free societies.

Yes, that's a free-market airhead speaking...
 
>     "The enemies of free societies today are those who want to burden
> us down again with layer upon layer of regulations," Mr. Klaus said. 
>     "We had that in communist times. But now if you look at all the
> new rules and regulations of EU membership, layered bureaucracy is
> staging a comeback." 

THe E.U. acquis is not gosplan writ large. He knows that. Most
European economists know that. But he is being disingenuous...as he
usually is...

>     The European Union's 30,000 bureaucrats 

For the size of the organisation, that's remarkably small...far
smaller than the bureaucracies of most member states....

have produced some 80,000
> pages of regulations that the Czech Republic and the other applicants
> for EU membership will have to adopt. 

And the irony is that the greater part of these regulations are
intended to guarantee a 'level playing field' or a free market!

>     Mr. Klaus dismissed anti-Americanism in Europe, which he sees as
> "more a reflection of American anti-Europeanism than European
> anti-Americanism." 

It's not anti-Americanism per se. It's mainly anti- George Bush...

>     He said those who organize demonstrations in Europe are a tiny
> minority of the population. "The majority doesn't care to
> demonstrate."

Yes...but does he read the opinion polls? Probably not...
 
>     Asked about the U.S.-led war on terrorism, Mr. Klaus said, "It is
> quite normal that the principal targets of al Qaeda are the U.S. and
> the UK, as they have taken the lead to do something about those who
> launch the terrorist attacks.

They attacked the wrong country, but...well, who cares?
 
>     "We understand the fragility and vulnerability of today's world
> and we know these attacks are coming close to us, but as someone from
> a small country, I have a tendency to take domestic issues first and
> then look at the external ones." 

That's true. Vaclav Klaus wants to push his economic ideas down Czech
throats whether they like it or not...

And then the tone starts to change.....

>     The Czech Republic is one of 33 nations with troops in Iraq, but
> Mr. Klaus has been critical of the postwar transition to an Iraqi
> civilian government. 
>     "My concern was always what to do after the end of the war because
> I know something about the transition from a totalitarian regime to a
> free society," he said. "This cannot be done by soldiers, or by
> foreigners. 

And we can all agree with that, for once.

>     "After we won back our freedom at the end of the Cold War, there
> was a proposal to bring back Czechs who had escaped to Western
> countries and make up a new government of those people who had been
> living in free countries. 
>     "Those who had lived the tragic communist experience said no to
> the idea of foreigners organizing our transition back to freedom. We
> said we had to do this ourselves without outside influence dictating
> what we should do." 

Exactly.

> 
>     ? Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor at large of The Washington Times,
> is also editor at large of United Press International. 

I hope that this is not typical of the standard of reporting European
affairs in American serious papers.

Dr. Barry Worthington