EuroQuest This Week: Thinking Big!

To the right, a picture of a house flooded during the Dutch flood of 1953. A disaster that led to the creation of one of the great engineering marvels of the 20th century, the Delta Plan.

This week's EuroQuest theme is "Thinking Big".
Here's the rundown and you can even download the show in high quality at the bottom of this posting.

Segment 1 - Superpower Europe?
The EU can in no way compete with the US when it comes to military might. This is why Rob de Wijk has called for greater security and defense cooperation amongst European nations in a book called: "Europe the Superpower". Here he tells his ideas to Margreet Strijbos.
Click here to learn more about the Clingendael Institute.

Segment 2 - Strengthening Dutch Dikes
Around half of the Netherlands is under sea level, and as such, dike building and maintenance has always had the highest priority. Thijs Westerbeek reports on Dutch diking, starting his report on a dam that was so big it turned a saltwater sea into a freshwater lake.
Click here to learn more about the Delta Works

Segment 3 - France’s Manifesto City
Figures just published in France show the countryside is fast disappearing under concrete. But this is a tendency France’s top architects are determined to counter. And they’ve built a whole new model city to prove it. John Laurenson reports.

Segment 4 - Art Museum in Ceausescu Palace a Great Irony?
Ceaucescu’s Palace is considered to be one of the world’s most controversial monuments to megalomania. So, when the government decided to build the new Museum of Contemporary Art there, it created a small riot in local art circles. Jonathan Groubert reports from Bucharest.
Want to know more about the Palace? Check out the posting from November the 21st.

Please click here to download the full program in high quality.

Comments or violent dissent. As ever, you can leave them here below.

Letting the Past Catch Up

And we should let the past catch up with us. Case in point: Warsaw's massive Palace of Culture and Science. A prime example of Socialist Realist architecture that is so instantly recognizable in former Soviet satellites. It was a gift to Poland from Joseph Stalin. As a result, many were as ambivalent about it as Romanian's were about Ceaucescu's Palace (see post Nov. 21). Remember all those scenes from spy movies or newsreels of party gatherings in gigantic auditoriums? Warsaw's is here. When Pope John Paul II decided to make his move and give a speech in support of the Solidarity Labor Movement in the 80s, he did that in the square in front of this building, taking advantage of its obvious symbolism.

Once it dominated the city, but today it shares the skyline with modern steel and glass towers. This thing is, it's still a great building. And it has secrets waiting to be explored.

Did you know there's a Museum of Technology in there? It is massive and deceptive. At first I walked in fully expecting to see a laughable holdover from the socialist past. And indeed, I chuckled at the ancient, cracked display cases that must have looked outdated the day they were put up. The signs were stained, hand written Polish with the odd misspelled English word. But as I walked from room to room, I began to realize that this Museum had a rare and utterly complete collection of technologies. Oh yes, there was the requisite emphasis on factories, but in the form gigantic working scale models.

Another section boasted a collection of computers, from a Commodore 64 to a Kray supercomputer and socialist models totally unknown in the West. Strolling through a section on historical typewriters, I nearly whizzed past an enigma device, the German encoder/decoder so important during WWII.

Today they are opening a Museum of Communism. I can think of no more fitting place to let the past catch up.
You can hear more about it in last week's EuroQuest.

Realized I forgot to post the high quality download for last week's EuroQuest.
The theme: Letting the Past Catch Up

Segment 1 - British Public Service announcements
Does the public really need instructions on the proper operation of a handkerchief? The British government thought so back in 1945 and produced a film on that and other so-called public service matters. The British national archive has pooled together a number of these films and has placed them online. Want to see them for yourself? Click here.

2 - The Slovak Artist and Vincent van Gogh
Thousands of people have made pilgrimages to the house in Nuenen, where Vincent van Gogh grew up. But only one of them has actually met Vincent, in a way. Helene Michaud tells the weird and wonderful tale of the two Vincents.

Segment 3 - Warsaw Palace of Culture Revisited
The Palace of Culture in Warsaw, with its monstrous size and audacious architecture, is a tourist attraction and a moneymaker. But, as Michal Kubicki explains, it was a gift from Josef Stalin, meant to glorify socialism.

Please click here to download the program in high quality:

The Podcast of EuroQuest can be downloaded at:

PodNova
And the Yahoo Podcast Beta

As always, you can leave comments
below.

A Man in a Dress

Addendum!

You may recall my tirade about Ayaan Hirsi Ali's proposed script for "Submission 2" about the Muslim intolerance for homosexuals. At the time, I was rather annoyed that she singled out Mohammedeans for gay bashing.

Well, the Vatican has just announced that it will ban gays from the priesthood. The exact terms are those "who are actively homosexual, have deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called 'gay culture.'" If you wish to read more about it, here's a good article from the New York Times. The text in the original Italian can be found here.

So Ayaan, will we see the Pope in any future versions of "Submission"?

Disclaimer: We accept no responsibility for the content of outside sources.

Ceaucescu's Palace is Enormous!

As promised in this week's EuroQuest, a picture of the
palace.

The home of the Parliament and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ceaucescu's Palace was built at the expense of the Romanian people. It is second only to the Pentagon in size. Strongman Nicolae Ceauşescu literally razed a quarter of the city to create the space to build it and the open square of the Centru Civic. He bled the country to fund it's construction. Here's what "The Free Dictionary" has to say:

"There was no marble to be had for tombstones, because it was all going to build the palace and the Centru Civic. By 1984, despite high crop yield and food production, food rationing was introduced on a wide scale (the government promoted it as "a means to reduce obesity" and "rational eating"). Bread, milk, butter, cooking oil, sugar, pork, beef, chicken, and in some places even potatoes were rationed in most of Romania by 1989, with rations being made smaller every year (by 1989, a person could legally buy only 10 eggs per month, half to one loaf of bread per day, depending on the place of residence, or 500 grams of any kind of meat. "

To say nothing of the tens of thousands who lost their homes. Interestingly, in a non scientific survey on the streets of Bucharest, I could find almost no one who disliked it. Romanians seem to be concious of it's attraction to foreigners and have come to embrace it.

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Podcasting!!!!!!
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Ayaan? Submit!

Ayaan Hirsi Ali. There is no name in Dutch politics so well-known on the world stage today. To some she’s the brave, Islam renouncing, feminist heroine who faced down the fanatics that killed Dutch filmmaker/provocateur Theo van Gogh.

Just Google her name and see the endless hits. Together they made “Submission”, the short film that got Theo killed by a Dutch-born Muslim fanatic and made her one of this year’s "Time 100 Leaders and Revolutionaries". Now she’s at it again. In the wake of the French riots, the script for “Submission II” is ready. And this time…it’s gay. Yes, now she’s tackling the Muslim eye for the queer guy…and gal, for that matter. And this is a good thing, right? After all, it is only the Muslims of this world that have a problem with gays, right?

Oh wait, will Submission III be about the Pope? What about the 18 Anglican bishops who just sent a damning letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his support of homosexual vicars? That church is on the verge of a schism on the matter. I suppose George Bush will be making an appearance in “Submission IV” for suggesting a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. One can only hope that when Submission II does come, it will be somehow more even handed in its condemnation of condemnations.

As for me, I have one hope for the next film: that it will be less boring. The first one, as provocative and headline capturing as it was, would have had even more impact if you didn't nod out halfway through. Don’t take my word for it; judge for yourself at her party’s site. And if you happen to be handy at screenplays, I beg you to leave her some pointers.

As always, we take no responsibility for outside sources.

If you’d like to comment, you can do so below.

French Race Riots: A Comparison with the US

"There's a really close parallel to France," said Harris, who teaches political science at the University of New Mexico. "High unemployment, low family income, inferior education and training, inadequate housing, a great deal of hostility toward the police - we found that the level of hostility in the black sections of these cities was high enough that almost any random spark would set them off."

Writes Brian Knowlton in the International Herald Tribune this week. Regular listeners to EuroQuest know that, on the subject of the integration of minorities, I often make comparisons with the United States. Why? Because integration in the US seems to succeed where we here in Europe fail. However, when it comes to the French riots, and the root frustrations that seed them, the parallels with African Americans in the so-called urban housing projects seem pretty clear.

More on this subject from EQ tomorrow. In the meantime, the IHT article is worth a read.

Comments? You can leave there here below. And...

Disclaimer: Radio Netherlands is not responsible for the content of external Web sites!

EuroQuest This Week: Power!......and Fear

Jonathan Groubert was holiday last week, so......

This week's show was produced by Sarah Johnson Presented by Daniel Frankl and is all about power and fear.

At left, a day after London won the Olympic bid, the city was attacked.
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You can download the program here!

Segment 1 - London Fear Factor
Since the attacks on London, the terror threat has been a staple of the mainstream media. Richard Walker traveled to London to ask if our fears are being manipulated by those in power.

Segment 2 - Revolt of the Powerless in Turkey
The predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey is controlled by a system of powerful figures called Agars. And for centuries, the lives of villagers have been dominated by their ruling Agar. But as Dorian Jones reports that tradition is being seriously challenged.

Segment 3 - Taking the Fear out of Fillings
Ad de Jongh specializes in treating people who suffer from dental fear, and he’s also been training other young dentists how to deal with scared patients. Queenie Scholtes met Ad de Jongh in the Amsterdam medical center.

Segment 4 - Empowerment on wheels in London’s Tower Hamlets
The local Bengali community center Jagonari usually offers English lessons and a variety skills to help women improve their lives. But now there’s a new addition to the curriculum: a course in bicycling. Radio Netherlands Fiona Campbell stopped in to see the class at the center.

Podcasting:

We do it through iTunes as well as:

PodNova - We've jumped a couple of a thousand places here, thanks!!!!!

And the Yahoo Podcast Beta

And, as always, you can leave comments below.

EuroQuest Special Program on Minority Language Broadcasting

And now for something completly different....

This week's EuroQuest was a special program recorded live from from the cultural/political cafe "de Balie" in Amsterdam and was coproduced Radio Sweden. Together myself, Jonathan Groubert, and Radio Sweden's Azariah Kiros hosted a round table discussion focusing on the role of minority language public broadcasting in an increasingly ethnically polarized Europe.
We asked the questions,"Does Minority Broadcasting help or hinder integration and should the government pay for it?"
There are guests from the Netherlands and Sweden with a contribution by Radio Prague. You can download a high quality version of the program here:

http://download.omroep.nl/rnw/partners/smac/euroquest/euroquest_200545.html

Or check out the podcast on the right, by going to iTunes or by going to one of the sites listed below:

PodNova:
http://www.podnova.com/
more_directories/podfeeder/podfeedercom_podcasts/
news/radio_netherlands_euroquest/

And the Yahoo Podcast Beta:

http://podcasts.yahoo.com/search?p=euroquest&c=b

Let us know what you think of this week's departure from our standard format. Also, I'm currently in New York and formulating thoughts on the coverage here of the French riots. Will post in a couple of days.

Common European Values? Let’s create them! Part 2

With nothing other than geography in common, we need to create something to hold us together. We need to make membership to the European Union something valuable. Right now the currency of European credibility is simply too available and, therefore, too cheap. Letting in 10 member states in one go was simply too many. It frightened the older member states, they threw up labor barriers and this made the new EU members feel, justifiably, like second-class citizens. They have grown cynical and EU membership has lost value.

But we can fix this.

"Nothing pleaseth but rare accidents," said Shakespeare's hero Prince Hal in "Henry the IV, Part 1” as he revealed his plan to turn from rogue to hero, mend his loose-living ways and become the model king his father wished him to be. The EU, too, should make a transformation. Let the highest social, cultural and economic standards in the world become Common European Values.

One way of doing this is to increase the membership barriers. Not to keep the unwashed hordes out, but to increase the value of EU membership by making it difficult to achieve. It should, indeed, be an exclusive club where only the most developed nations, economically and socially, may join. Help acceding nations with structural funds and political aid, demand cultural change. Most importantly, don’t let any acceding state in until they’re ready.

This is already happening to certain extent. Brussels recently warned Bulgaria and Romania that their scheduled entry into the EU could be delayed unless they step up the fight against corruption. This is good for the EU and good for the Bulgarian and Romanian peoples, currently living under governments that have no political will to tackle the big issues. Well, now maybe they will.

In the end, this is the only way we can to it. We need to finally be brave enough to take that final step and turn a united Europe from a frightening idea into (oh boy!) a wished for ideal. As Prince Hal said, “When they seldom come, they wished for come”.

I'm off to New York for a week. Will post from there.
In the meantime, feel free to leave your own comments by quicking on the link below this line.

Common European Values? Let’s create them! Part 1

Oh boy.
This is the first official posting for the EuroBlog and we’re already in trouble.

This week’s EuroQuest asks what are European Values (hereafter to be known as EVs)? As if there is such a thing. As if we can collectively point to the map of the continent and say, “Yes, all the people who live in this part of the world believe in civil rights, open societies, the separation between church and state, secular humanist morals and the social welfare state.” This is simply not so.

Former EU Commission President Romano Prodi, bless him, went in search of EVs in 2002. He hired 12 great European thinkers and asked them to find this elusive thing called “European Identity.”
They failed.

In the end, one of the wise men said, “Every attempt to codify European values is inevitably confronted by a variety of diverging national, regional, ethnic, sectarian and social understandings”. In other words, we’re simply too different, in every way, to go around generalizing about what it means to be European. Look at the results of the French “Non” and the Dutch “Nee” to the European Constitution. If you can make the pro Europe Dutch say no, something has really gone wrong.

The “Atlas of European Values” is a comprehensive tome answering every question from which European country is the most secular, to which is the happiest. A brief glance through this book shows that the only generalization you can make about Europeans is that we are really, really different in every way.

So what are the consequences of this? Answer: If we can’t define our “Europeanness” from the inside out, we go around looking for someone to which we can compare ourselves. Luckily for us, the only remaining superpower in the world happens to be a federation of states laden with geographical, historical and religious differences: the US. Unfortunately for us, they patched up most their most serious differences about 140 or so years ago. America is a cohesive nation where most people speak the same language, watch the same TV and get the same cultural signals in schools that more or less offer the same curricula and teach the same ideas about civic values. Oh boy. We don’t do any of that. Blue state or red state, they all share the same sense that, as a nation, they share the same history and, more importantly, the same destiny. Double oh boy. “And if you come from somewhere else, don’t worry, we all are. We’ll make an American of you yet.” Triple oh boy.

It is not alarmist to say that we simply must get over our past and believe, as do the Americans, that Europe, whole and unified, is our version of manifest destiny. (But then without all that nasty killing of native cultures.) Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl once stated that the European Union is the difference between war and peace on the continent. I don’t often quote Kohl, but on this he’s dead right.

But I've got a way to fix this.
More on Friday!!!!!!

(By the way, you can comment on this posting by clicking just under this sentence.)