TIME May 30, 2011

What makes powerful man act like pigs?

TIME magazine goes all out in capturing the two most important political sex scandals of the last week, the arrest of Dominique Strauss Kahn and former Governor of California/actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The difference is that DSK (as Dominique Strauss-Kahn is called in France) is named is not a classic American family values Virtuecrat. America has notorious examples of public or political figures that preach family values during daytime. To name just two of them: Evangelic pastor Ted Haggard vocally opposing same sex marriage while at the same time purchasing meth and gay male escort massages and John Edwards, who fathered child with his mistress (a member of his presidential campaign team in 2008). America has a long history of electing compromised man (Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton).

For an hilarious misconduct Matrix see: http://www.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2072663,00.html

The French case of Dominique Strauss Kahn is typical for France. According to writer Elaine Sciolino (who’s book “ La seduction” will be published next June), powerful French men have treated sex as a right and used it as a weapon. In France, a new tendency is that women are finally talking about what has happened to them and what they should do about sexual harassment.

TIME asks the question what makes powerful man act so crazy, but doesn’t really answer it. It does however have a valuable lesson. What matters is not prudishness, but prudence, a sense that public figures should be discouraged of destroying themselves publically. Even more important is the principle all powerful man should have : “ Power is a privilege not to be abused”.

Happy 70th, Bob!

Although being born in the early eighties, sixties music and pop-culture has always been the main influence in my upbringing. Because of my dad, child-hood memories are filled with sounds from the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and stories about those days of political hope (the Kennedy’s and the civil right movement ) and a certain cultural revolution in 1968.

But somehow, one of the biggest icons of that particular decade is missing from that rich variety of influences. And I’m not quite sure why. Ok, I admit I’ve heard some songs of him on the Concert for Bangladesh album by George Harrison. And yes it’s true, I can sing along a verse or two from Knocking on Heavens Door and Blowin’ in the Wind’ but that probably has something to do with a cover by Guns ‘n Roses and a movie called Forrest Gump (both from the nineties).

Reading this week’s issue of Rolling Stone Magazine (issue 1131, May 26, 2011) has changed all of this. With an impressive cover-article of 24(!) pages selecting his 70 best songs, RS Magazine pays tribute to Bob Dylan turning 70. Also, his old and new peers (the likes of Keith Richards, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Chris Martin & Lenny Kravitz) express their feelings about some of his songs, explaining what they’ve meant to them (both personally and professionally). I’ve immediately made a ‘Rolling Stone Bob Dylan’-playlist on Spotify and for two days now I’m exploring his wonderful tunes by reading the article and listening to the songs at the same time. Surprisingly, not all the songs are from the sixties. Ever since, every decade is blessed with a couple of Dylan gems. On top of the 70 best songs, the article even gives us the greatest Dylan covers of all time, making it a definitive Dylan collection.

Happy 70th, Bob! Thank you for giving us all those wonderful songs.

(And a special thank you to Rolling Stone Magazine for introducing me to the world of Dylan.)

TIME May 23, 2011

TIME’s cover story explains the love-hate relationship the US has with Pakistan. After the Osama bin Laden assassination has provoked a lot of criticism from US government officials, including the president. Still the awkward truth remains: the US needs Pakistan. They need them to peel the Taliban away from Al-Qaida, they need them to negotiate in Afghanistan. The US will need to show Pakistan that their friendship is still real.

As usual TIME builds to next year’s election. the right tone by stating that Obama has also created a potential problem for himself. By depriving himself of the Republicans idiocies regarding his birth certificate and answering to the complaints that he’s not tough on terrorism (through the assassination of Osama bin Laden), the focus is back on one of the weakpoints of the Obama presidency: the economy. The potential Republican candidates have dropped one-liners of the presidents deficit policy that are widely supported throughout the United States of America.

Obama could lose the election if he keeps playing in the Republican field: the national deficit. Obama needs some, easy to understand, economic successes. He must remind the people that it was him who cut their taxes and cut their Medicare drug bills.

International successes are important to a president, but elections can be lost on economic issues. Jimmy Carter brought Israel and Egypt together, George Bush Sr. had beaten Sadam Hussein. Both were beaten by a fragile economy.

On the other hand, Obama’s potential contenders, from Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich to Mitt Romney, all have doubtful trackrecords to claim the Republican nomination and be serious contender.

TIME May 9, 2011

Two articles should be highlighted in this week’s TIME magazine.

The first one draws an interesting parallel between current US skyrocketing debt and Egyptian national debt that rose from 3 million to a 100 million dollars, around the year 1875. What followed was a lesson in how quickly debt can compromise a nation's sovereignty. In 1875 the cash-strapped khedive of Egypt, sold it’s stake in the Suez canal company to the British, who acquired the financial and geopolitical crown jewel at the distressed price of £4 million. After World War II, Great Britain itself was in enormous debt with the US which forced them (under encouragement of US president Eisenhower) to sell the Suez canal shares back to the Egyptians.

Today the US is dependant of China’s willingness to finance it’s current debt. Writer Maurice R. Greenberg addresses this problem by stating that China could use its financial muscle against the U.S., just as the U.S. used its muscle against Britain. This could for example occur in diplomatic conflicts with Taiwan where instead of threatening with war, China could use their financial power by announcing sales of US treasuries.

The second one takes a close look at the enormous amount of drug addicts in Afghanistan. People always talk about demand creating supply but forget that supply creates demand. That is what is happening in Afghanistan. The head of the U.N. office of drugs and crime in Afghanistan calls it ‘ the coca cola effect’ . The U.N. predicts that next year Afghanistan farmers will plant even more opium poppy in the next year.