between a rock and a hard place

That is exactly where Germany is at this very moment. It is taking the lead in finding a solution for the Opel (part of General Motors) car-assembly factories. Taking the lead, for the bigger part of those factories are in Germany. But in doing so it has put itself in a very uncomfortable position. The choices are :

• Going for a European solution. The chances of only factories in Germany closing are then rather big. That will not sit well with the German population. It might get Germany some European favours though.

• Going for a German solution. Closing down the factories outside Germany and concentrating the money (they are going to put 1.5 billion euros into the solution) on German jobs will probably be the most efficient solution. But there are European elections in a week. If Germany chooses for itself (even though it is the best solution for Opel) the disgust at Europe - especially in the countries where factories close - will only grow bigger.

It is lousy timing. If I was Angela Merkel, I'd haggle and stretch for another week, let the elections pass ... and then go for German efficiency. But that's my solution and I'm looking forward to hers ...

an inconvenient truth

I rediscovered the dvd this week. And re-watched the documentary. It is a good, clear, well-stated message and Mr. Gore hammers it home repeatedly. He is a politician, but in this case that only means he knows how to communicate.

It is extremely clear that the current president of the USA uses at least some of the same sources as the ones used by Mr. Gore in the past. A couple of the decisions taken today in Washington would perfectly fit in an addendum to the dvd. One can not help but feel it is too little ... too late and that eight critical years have been lost while Bush tried to police the world. Or maybe this last thing was just put in there by the bad-loser Gore ...

The main issue with the dvd's message is the one Mr. Gore also mentions in the documentary several times. Even though we know what is going on, even though none of the data is contested ... we are not really going to do anything, are we ?

So we lose the polar bears. So what ?

Yesterday very early in the morning, a thunderstorm hit Belgium. There were 30000 lightning discharges in just the 2 or 3 hours it took passing by. That is thirty-thousand. More than 15000 hit. Hail the size of big apples (and I mean big apples) fell in some places, destroying roofs and damaging cars. Only the hail is being called extra-ordinary. The lightning was labeled pretty unusual. Yes, right. I'm way over thirty now and I can remember earthquakes and heavy hail destroying a plastic roof at my home, a flooding that took out communication-lines for a week (not to mention the fact that we couldn't leave the village with the car) and more of such once-every-ten-years occurences. But I have never ever seen anything like what we had yesterday. Maybe its just bad luck ...

So maybe we are going to lose the pinguins on the other end as well. So what ?

Nuclear testing in Korea, global muscle-talk, local politicians fighting for their job in the upcoming elections (and making a mess of it), Frank Dewinne going to space for six months and pissing against the right-side front wheel of the truck before getting on board of the rocket (because Gagarin did the same), the song 'this nigger comes really hard' (and yes, that means exactly what you think it does) making it to hotshot of the week ...

So maybe we are going to lose the bigger part of The Netherlands and our own coastal area. So what ?

It is all just an inconvenient truth, is it not ? And those can safely be ignored.