Monday, April 11, 2005
Odds and Ends- corrected.
Time to catch up on a few things since the last post:
First, a great big Daily Demarche DOH!
We owe a BIG apology to Dave at The Glittering Eye, I somehow failed to link to his first installment on the China Project- a great piece on the ticking time bombs developing in China right now, with the promise of follow on pieces to come. For any of you who might not have seen this piece on the first go around I highly reccomend it. Dave- sorry again. [Of course I would forget to link to the one blogger who said it appeared that I put this project together "without breaking a sweat."]
The China Project continues to roll along- it has taken on a life of it's own now! Here is the latest batch of links, sorry for the delay in getting some of these out:
TigerHawk brings us "Crouching Tiger, Swimming Dragon" - in which he touches on the oft referred to (in our comments section) China/India issue.
Heavy Handed Politics has a few pieces involving China and the region up now, here, here and here.
Total Information Awareness also has his China, Part II post up.
A Guy in Pajamas is still working on his post, but provides a great link to Riding Sun, another Yankee expat in the Land of the Rising Sun offering insights on Sino-Japanese relations- especially these three posts: Textbook example, Japan's past vs. China's present and Taiwanese politicians getting the picture.
Finally, Mad Minerva has an updated piece on China's inability to win new Japanese friends.
Solomon sent me a link to this crazy posting regarding the comparative work habits of American and French diplomats in Germany in the closing years of the 1930's:
I shall never forget the amused contempt a Frenchman expressed about the habits of American diplomats. He pointed out that in his Embassy in Berlin, the entire staff had to be in the office at nine in the morning or before, compile a complete survey of the morning press, and be ready at nine-thirty for a conference with the Ambassador who himself was at work at nine. When my father first came to Berlin, long in the habit of regular hours and conscientious work, he went to the office every day at nine o'clock. After a month or two he gave up, because not one of his staff members could be located in the building.
All I have to say is that either the French diplo's were not very good reporting officers, or nobody was bothering to read what they wrote. (See Paris, 1943 for details.)
Speaking of Germany, Heard Here has a great piece up from the weekend:
I think it is time to get out. Lock, stock and barrel. Iraq? No, Germany. We spend millions of dollars in the German economy because of our presence there with military and support troops. Originally the troops were there to help protect the Allied countries against the possibility of Soviet aggression. We spent thousand of lives destroying the Nazi war machine, freeing most of Europe from occupation and then untold billions rebuilding Germany and Europe after the devastation of that war. Because of our past actions in the Cold War, the Berlin Wall came down and Germany was re-united and many Eastern Block countries are now democratic, with more becoming so.
While I don't expect the Germans to make a field trip to France anytime soon they will at least be able to continue to come to America via the visa waiver program once biometric passport requirements take effect- not something many of their neighbors can say.
That completes the round up, thanks for all the e-mails over the weekend and to all the participants and commenters on the China pieces. (End of post)4/11/2005 01:45:00 PM posted by Dr. Demarche
First, a great big Daily Demarche DOH!
We owe a BIG apology to Dave at The Glittering Eye, I somehow failed to link to his first installment on the China Project- a great piece on the ticking time bombs developing in China right now, with the promise of follow on pieces to come. For any of you who might not have seen this piece on the first go around I highly reccomend it. Dave- sorry again. [Of course I would forget to link to the one blogger who said it appeared that I put this project together "without breaking a sweat."]
The China Project continues to roll along- it has taken on a life of it's own now! Here is the latest batch of links, sorry for the delay in getting some of these out:
TigerHawk brings us "Crouching Tiger, Swimming Dragon" - in which he touches on the oft referred to (in our comments section) China/India issue.
Heavy Handed Politics has a few pieces involving China and the region up now, here, here and here.
Total Information Awareness also has his China, Part II post up.
A Guy in Pajamas is still working on his post, but provides a great link to Riding Sun, another Yankee expat in the Land of the Rising Sun offering insights on Sino-Japanese relations- especially these three posts: Textbook example, Japan's past vs. China's present and Taiwanese politicians getting the picture.
Finally, Mad Minerva has an updated piece on China's inability to win new Japanese friends.
Solomon sent me a link to this crazy posting regarding the comparative work habits of American and French diplomats in Germany in the closing years of the 1930's:
I shall never forget the amused contempt a Frenchman expressed about the habits of American diplomats. He pointed out that in his Embassy in Berlin, the entire staff had to be in the office at nine in the morning or before, compile a complete survey of the morning press, and be ready at nine-thirty for a conference with the Ambassador who himself was at work at nine. When my father first came to Berlin, long in the habit of regular hours and conscientious work, he went to the office every day at nine o'clock. After a month or two he gave up, because not one of his staff members could be located in the building.
All I have to say is that either the French diplo's were not very good reporting officers, or nobody was bothering to read what they wrote. (See Paris, 1943 for details.)
Speaking of Germany, Heard Here has a great piece up from the weekend:
I think it is time to get out. Lock, stock and barrel. Iraq? No, Germany. We spend millions of dollars in the German economy because of our presence there with military and support troops. Originally the troops were there to help protect the Allied countries against the possibility of Soviet aggression. We spent thousand of lives destroying the Nazi war machine, freeing most of Europe from occupation and then untold billions rebuilding Germany and Europe after the devastation of that war. Because of our past actions in the Cold War, the Berlin Wall came down and Germany was re-united and many Eastern Block countries are now democratic, with more becoming so.
While I don't expect the Germans to make a field trip to France anytime soon they will at least be able to continue to come to America via the visa waiver program once biometric passport requirements take effect- not something many of their neighbors can say.
That completes the round up, thanks for all the e-mails over the weekend and to all the participants and commenters on the China pieces. (End of post)
