The editorial team of Katoikos
Star Trek hero Dr Spock, in real life Leonard Nemoy, has left for other galaxies, this time for good. The actor died of chronic pulmonary disease in Los Angeles on 27 February 2015, at the age of 83. He starred in the original Star Trek series in the mid-1960s, as well as in several movies, including the recent two…
Paco de Lucia was born in a gypsy neighborhood of the Southern Spain city of Algeciras in 1947, in a poor environment, the youngest of five brothers. His father, a street sales man during the day and guitarist at night in popular balls, put a guitar in his hands when he was 6 and taught…
In the absence of any guiding ideology beyond the pursuit of money and power, which has come to be considered normal, alternative ideologies develop, mostly of the destructive, exclusivist and intolerant kind. These ideologies excite some young and often bright people that long for a sense of purpose and heroism in their lives. And they commit to them often sacrificing their lives and the lives of others.
The leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine agreed on Sunday, 8 February, to press ahead with the diplomatic initiative by Ms Merkel to ease the tension in Eastern Ukraine. Germany is convinced that even discussions of supplying weapons could escalate the fighting and encourage Ukraine in a war it could never win against a much stronger Russia. The German Chancellor defended her decision to maintain economic sanctions and avoid the use of force by referring to her own experience of waiting patiently for the Cold War to end. “I am surprised at how faint-hearted we are, and how quickly we lose courage,” she remarked.
Relations between the EU and Russia are at a particularly low point over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Since the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union this must be the time of highest tension between the major powers on the European continent. Talk of new sanctions on Russia and of providing military assistance to Ukraine by the West may exacerbate the situation without actually resolving it. A further cornered Russia may well become more authoritarian internally and aggressive externally. The EU would be wise to avoid that and find more constructive ways of engaging with its big eastern neighbor…
After a week of non-stop meetings by the Greek Prime Minister and his Finance Minister, Messrs Tsipras and Varoufakis, an apparent rift exists between Greece and Germany. With the ECB’s action to cut off the Greek banks from the ESM and instead use the ELA mechanism for liquidity, and Jeroen Dijselbloem’s outright rejection of a ‘bridge loan’, the situation is now at a standstill. While Greece sees the first demonstrations in support of its government, the current bailout programme ends on 28 February and Grexit re-enters the public discourse.
The streets of Budapest on Sunday, 1 February, were full of people demonstrating against their government. The policies of Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister, are widely seen as pro-Russian. The timing of the demonstration was also chosen to maximize the reach of their message, as Angela Merkel was expected in Hungary in order to address the government’s commitment to EU sanctions against Russia. Angela Merkel did arrive in Budapest on Monday, 2 February, and held a joint press conference after her talks with Orban. It did not look that their meeting had gone well.
