This is a really interesting article in the Times about Georgia, the Ukraine and NATO. Well reported and worth a read.
The real meat comes at the end of the article. It really is about the Germans and the Americans getting pissed off at each other about NATO membership for both countries. The Germans have dug in their heels and pretty much said, no way. But the Bush Administration, being petulant to the very end, is looking for a back door. Typical.
I don't have much to add, as everyone knows where I stand: having both countries in NATO is a bad idea. I'm glad the Germans are doing their best to prevent it from happening, but it does show that their is a growing rift between the US and Germany. And that I don't like to see. Alas, it's probably a part of an inevitable shift away from American hegemony. It'll still take a few decades to play out, but it's started.
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I will ask my student about this this week, for her views.
Germany and China - my students - tell me work so very much harder than we do here. No surprise.
But even office accountants, like my student - work 12 hours a day or more and have no time either for hobbies, the gym, or a family, if the worker is a woman. A few workers can work part time, which is 4 hours a day, in order to raise a family.
My students love the combination of work and lifestyle we enjoy here, and are a bit saddened by having to go back to work, work, work, work.
Off topic. Sorry.
I will also ask my Russian student, now in NYC, about this. She was of the opinion back in August that the Georgia/Russia problem was all Georgia's fault. Not surprising, her belief, even though she'd been in Paris for more than a decade.
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