I expected to see Sweden get high marks for its treatment and policies related to immigrants. Especially in a year where there has been alot of information published on how they are doing such a good job with welcoming Iraqi immigrants in particular. But as a Portuguese citizen, not to mention a global citizen, I […]

At a dinner debate organised by Friends of Europe and General Motors Europe on 16 October, EU Commission official Paul Hodson reacted to the Doornbosch-Steenblik report published for the Round Table on Sustainable Development of the OECD (the report is NOT an officially endorsed OECD document BTW). In their study “Biofuels, is the cure worse… » read more

Some of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s public utterances understandably worry Beijing. What will be the changes in Sino-French relations as result of Sarkozy succeeding the Sinophile, Jacques Chirac?Concern is expressed about French President Sarkozy’s pro-American policy and greater pragmatism in his attitude towards China. Sarkozy’s absolute priority is domestic reform and everything he says and… » read more

One of the great things about claiming to be a China expert is that no-one will categorically refute what you say. China is the source of many contradictory and confusing conclusions. The western media report that either China is on the verge of imminent collapse or on the brink of economic and political dominance. China… » read more

One of the great things about claiming to be a China expert is that no-one will categorically refute what you say. China is the source of many contradictory and confusing conclusions. The western media report that either China is on the verge of imminent collapse or on the brink of economic and political dominance. China… » read more

It was to be expected that some of the usual climate change deniers would be pretty upset when Al Gore and the IPCC scientists were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. My price for the most grotesque reaction goes to the Competitive Enterprise Institute which accused Gore of creating “global instability and political strife,… » read more

Conversion of arable land to produce biofuels should be forbidden for five years, until science has made enough progress to create “second-generation” biofuels. This is the recommendation of a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. See Swissinfo for more on this story. Science Magazine Nature also has an editorial questioning corn-based biofuels (”Kill king… » read more

this is the beginning of an unknown journey for me. i hope that you find i have something worthwhile to say and that you will bear with me until I professionalise my blogging. stanley crossick

In a joint press conference on 10 October, EU Commission Vice-President Verheugen and research commissioner Potocnik presented two new initiatives to accelerate research and development of hydrogen cars. A uniform EU-wide market approval system and a new public-private partnership (the “Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative“) with a financial EU contribution of 470 million… » read more

The Energy Bulletin ran an excellent blog post on Tuesday which raised my eyebrows. I hope that some of our EU China connaisseurs would react to it. The post written by David DuByne, who teaches business English in China, states that the Chinese government is preparing to shift from being an export-driven economy to becoming a… » read more

I have not made up my mind yet which US Presidential candiate I would vote for if I were an American citizen. Of course,  in election campaigns big promises are cheap and therefore it needs quite a bit of analysis what business interest ties the candidates have to be able to predict their real behaviour once… » read more

Finland is the world’s greenest country and Swedisch capital Stockholm the best city to live in, according to a study by environmental economist Matthew Kahn published in Readers’ Digest. The study is based on data from two original sources: the UN 2006 Human Development Index and the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index. Measuring welfare beyond GDP seems to… » read more

A useful plug-in, particularly for giving structure to long posts. Installing this plug in essentially adds a second row of editing buttons to your write page, allowing you to: apply the ’standard styles’ to paragraphs (heading 1 … heading 6, plus 1-2 others) apply styles such as superscript and subscript, font colour, etc. insert horizontal… » read more

As mentioned in Getting Started, we recommend that you install the PressIt Bookmarket, which makes creating posts based on stuff you come across on the web very easily. You can install it incredibly easily (a simple ‘right click’) from the bottom of the Write Page. Once installed, it works like this: you’re browsing the web… » read more