political/politisches political/politisches

Obama deserves another award

Barack Obama will be awarded with the Nobel prize, the Norwegian nobel-committee  declared today. That's nice for him, but may I ask why? Neither Guantanamo has been closed, nor is there piece in Afghanistan or between Israel and Palestine. It doesn't seem that the United State will insist on a powerful climate regime at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen nor does the turn of the G8 into a G20 mean a strengthening of the United Nations. Obama is still the leader of the biggest and most powerful army in the world and of a country which still exercise the death penalty like almost no other country (apart from China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan). To sum up, the short reign of Obama is not yet characterised by peace.To be honest, Obama certainly raised hope for a better and peaceful world all over the globe. Moreover, he seem to be very committed in many fields regarding multi-polar diplomacy and climate change, but he can't proof any success. Let's hope that his award with the Nobel prize will support him in his ongoing struggles with the congress.However, this day proofs again, that Obama deserves one prize most of all: The award for the most overrated politician in the world.

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political/politisches political/politisches

Spread the word on the national budget

The expectations were enormous, as Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States of America. Not only his spunky agenda was a cause for. During his election campaign, he enthused millions of Americans (and beyond) to support him. He launched the biggest political movement on the Internet ever. Thus, he was expected and he promised, to lead the governance of the White House to a new age of transparency and communication.As the German online news portal Spiegel Online reports, he wasn't able to keep his word until now. Faced with the reality of data protection regulations, his team couldn't find a way to make use of the millions of addresses they collected during the election campaign.In my opinion, this is quite a good thing. It is own thing, to move the masses for a campaign, for a change. But it's another matter, to spam them with callings, to spread the word on the national budget.

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political/politisches political/politisches

climate summits successful: industrialised countries protected from climate protection

No final declaration at the climate conference in Poznan, masses of exception at the climate summit in Brussels. I have the feeling, that all the environment ministers and heads of states look at climate summits and treaties as an event to minimise the consequences of climate change: In a sense of reducing the cost of climate protection programmes. In their eyes, climate protection means to protect the industry against stricter restrictions.All in all, their three kinds of politicians: Those who say, climate protection is unnecessary and acting like this and are in charge. These group are called the ignorants and is represented by dinosaurs such as Vladimir Putin or George Bush. You see, this species dies out.The second type of politician makes outstanding speeches on global and generation justice and promise ambitious measures but act like the first group (which means blocking climate protection) and is in power. The queen of these wanna-be-world-savers is Angela Merkel followed by an armada of successful politicians and lobbyists. This group is called the opportunists.The last group is marked by the same outstanding speeches like the opportunists (mostly more ambitious), but have no power to change anything. This group is represented by a million individuals and called the green movement.At this point, the only hope for a new international climate policy is that Barack Obama will be the first representative of a fourth type of politicians.

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