Elastic Credibility
Remember Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi Minister of Information? He was ridiculed during the Iraq war (2003) for making statements like ‘The Cruise missiles do not frighten anyone. We are catching them like fish in a river‘, ‘The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies‘, ‘Iraq is a country that promotes freedom‘ and ‘There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!‘*. Something I read today reminded me of him.
Aussi aujourd’hui, les francais et le ‘non’. C’est un grand surprise (!)**. I can thoroughly recommend Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century by Mark Leonard, which I read a few weeks ago. Despite the title Mark makes very clear where he feels the EU, now the world’s largest economy, succeeds and where it will fail. Federalism, presidents and foreign ministers are things he is not only against, but predicts will simply not come about because they would fail to serve any useful function. Plus of course most of us (even a la France) simply don’t want them. Duh.
I’m still in Auckland, staying in The Brown Kiwi. It’s raining a lot, I’m doing dull temping jobs and I’ve just had a very short, sharp cold (all those years in London has made my immune system rapid and thorough). Sydney is definitely beckoning.
*Actually one of these quotes is not Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, but an appropriately altered quote from George W Bush. See if you can tell which.
**Je suis tres desole pour moi francais tres mal
