July 3, 2008. Liberal leader expresses dismay at socialist populism over Lisbon Treaty.

On the margins of an ALDE Group meeting in Tallinn yesterday, European Liberal Democrat Leader, Graham Watson, met Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip to discuss the future of the Lisbon Treaty in light of the Irish referendum and recent unhelpful remarks by European socialists (notably PASOK President George A. Papandreou and Austrian Chancellor Gusenbauer) demanding referendums on changes to the Treaty.

“Recent moves by Socialist leaders to make all EU treaty changes dependent on national referenda is at best irresponsible and at worst - an ill-conceived bow to populist pressure. Pawning the solution to the treaty stalemate is a bid to court eurosceptic voters which makes us all hostages to fortune” said Watson after the meeting. “The Irish rejected the Treaty, so it is right that their Government be invited to come back with an alternative solution to the dilemma we now face. Their task will not be assisted by such unilateral declarations.”

Watson went on to praise Estonia’s constructive role in Europe and the country’s Liberal economic model combining a flexible labour market and strict fiscal policies.

We saw His “Replika” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1976, and himself, and excerpts from his work on Dante, at La Mama that year. When we visited years later Warshaw, we made it as an important part of that visit to see his Teatr Studio, in that Stalinist Wedding-Cake of a building in the “Palace of Culture.”

Also, reading his obituary, we understand a little better his background. He was born in Rzeszow, a place we visited to see the ruins of what was once a tremendous Rabbinic Court. Though not Jewish, Szaina, with a name that might have shown Jewish influence, knew because of his youth experiences about the terrible loss, not only to Jewry, but to Poland itself. After the war he studied theater in Krakow - the main city of what was once Western Galizzia. A place full of memories from what was once a flourishing Jewish culture center. Though Nazis destroyed the Synagogues and killed the people, they did not touch the tomb of the Remuh - Rabbi Moshe Iserless - that survived thus, and is still to be seen with the 400 year old tree that sprouted from under the tombstone. Even the Catholics in town regard the place as holly - so no-one, not even the Nazis, dared to destroy that part of the cemetery that was the center of the Jewish part of town.

Five Catholic Priests, Professors at the Jagelonian University, established a Hebraic studies department in this city that had no Jews left. It was for the locals to study Hebrew in order to try to revive some of the past glory. When I visited there for a three week stay with a group of students from NYU, one of the professors gave me a new book that was a compilation of the archives of the old Krakow headquarter of the local Bnei Brith organization. I delivered the material to the Washington DC headquarters. It is these Professors that helped create a row of Jewish style restaurant in that Kazimiresz part of town - on the Street where there are the remains of the Remuh. The local Poles played there Jewish Klezmer music. I was one evening astonished seeing Elie Wiesel “Kibitzing” a game of chess in one of these restaurants - the one called Ariel.

The theater revival had also to do with an attempt at revival of the Jewish culture. Krakow has thus what was seen as a strong innovative streak of theater. Very dark in its content but quite lively and spirited in the way it is staged. It was this sort of theater, some based in Krakow and some in Warshaw, that brought into existence the modern theater of the seventies. Grotowski, Kantor, Sjaina were very different pillars of this phenomenon.

The obituary also mentions the town of Nowa Hutta, and Sjaina’s Teatr Ludowy. We were there, and what was even more interesting, at a festival in Krakow, I remember a performing visit from that place. Another theater was Crikot.

So, please read the obituary, and be inspired that from all that darkness sprouted unbelievable art. This was the pain that had to find an outlet - and if you like it or not - that was real theater and real self sacrificing performance.
People like Ellen Stewart and Richard Schechner can still testify to the spirit of these people that were active in the 60s and 70s, and left their influence on the modern stage. As it is extremely well described in the obituary - theater is not about words but about acting. Szaina knew to bring out that pain with nearly no words altogether - and he communicated that pain directly to our hearts. Surely, later on others wrote and staged pieces with more wording, but the Grotowsky method has become part of theater education. In our review of the “Persians” at Sienna college in Albany, New York, I was aware that Dr. Mahmood Karimi Hakak, an Iranian, had studied with Richard Schechner, and thus introduced some of the elements of stage design that originated with this sort of theater.

Further, as the UN deals now with the question of what is Genocide, and we just had an event at the UN on the topic on June 26th, with the UnderSecretary-General Kiyotaka Akasaka making the opening introduction, it should indeed be considered as educational imperative the viewing of the filmed performance of Szajna’s Replika, as he suggested himself.

From:    climate at joanneum.at
Subject: Workshop Announcement & Call for Proposals: Climate Change in South-Eastern European Countries III

Workshop “Climate Change in South-Eastern European Countries III: Causes, Impacts, Solutions ” on the 18th and 19th September 2008 in Graz, Austria.

The objectives of the workshop are specifically:
• to strengthen and improve the multidisciplinary approach to
climate change related issues
• to generate ideas for joint research projects
• to meet potential research partners

For more information about the workshop please visit the website:
 http://www.joanneum.at/climate/Workshop%…

For participation, researchers are encouraged to prepare either or both …
•Abstracts for presentations for this year’s workshop’s topics
•Proposals / outlines of ideas for joint research projects (for the purpose of coordination)
… by 28th July 2008 to  climate at joanneum.at(Cornelia Sterner).

Kind regards,
Daniel Steiner and Cornelia Sterner

Budapest to house EU Techonology Institute - the Europe’s answer to MIT.
RENATA GOLDIROVA, June 19, 2008 EUobserver/Brusells.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Hungary’s capital, Budapest, has been selected to house the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the union’s flagship project to boost innovation, research and higher education.

On Wednesday (18 June), ministers in charge of competitiveness met in Brussels to put an end to the wrangling over the institute’s seat. Last month, they failed to agree due to a Polish veto on the matter.

Slovene education minister Mojca Kucler - who was responsible for steering the dossier through the European Council, which represents EU states - praised “efforts invested by member states for the common good of the EU” and described the institute as “a special milestone in the European research policy”.

The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has also welcomed the ministerial deal, saying that the EIT will add to Europe’s capacity to bridge the innovation gap with its major competitors, the US and Japan.

In 2006, the 27-nation EU invested 1.85 percent of GDP into research and development, far from its 2010 goal of three percent. By contrast, the US spends around 2.7 percent.

According to EU education commissioner Jan Figel, the work of the institute would be organised through so-called knowledge and innovation communities - partnerships of universities, research organisations and companies.

The commission believes that such networks could help transform education and research and attract bright young brains from within and beyond Europe.

“It is not going to be one dot on the map,” Mr Figel told EUobserver, referring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which inspired the EIT concept. “We offer co-operation so the EU becomes more innovative,” he said.

Budapest was the only applicant able to meet the two criteria set by ministers - that the winner should be a “new” member state and not already be home to an EU agency.

But regarding the latter point, EU diplomats feared Poland’s behaviour at the negotiation table.

The country, also bidding for seat, had previously threatened not to withdraw its own application, unless it won some level of participation. It wanted, for example, the new institute’s governing board to meet in the Polish city of Wroclaw, one diplomat told EUobserver.

Besides Budapest and Wroclaw, three other applicants were keen to host the administrative headquarters of the institute - Germany’s Jena, Spain’s Sant Cugat del Valles, while Slovak capital Bratislava joined forces with Vienna in launching a cross-border bid.

The Budapest-based institute will operate with a total budget of €2.37 billion from 2008-2013, with €308.7 million of that coming from EU coffers. The rest of the monies are supposed to come from public and private partners as well as from the new institute’s own activities.

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We hope that, for the sake of coherence, the Budapest headquarters of EIT will find ways to cooperate with the Bratislava-Vienna group also. The Wroclaw push seemed out of place and was rather a clear effort at grand-standing.
We realize that  the City of Wroclaw is involved in such issues as the organisation of a European Citizens’ Forum (over two days) entitled: Towards a Europe of solidarity, but we insist that an EIT will have to deal with such technical issues as the development of technologies in view of changes that will have to happen because of global warming/climate change.  The institute will need laboratories and not just talk-estivals. Poland seems to have misread this intent.

EU moving to scrap Cuba sanctions
PHILIPPA RUNNER, for the EUobserver, June 11, 2008.

EU states are nearing a deal to permanently lift sanctions on Cuba despite protests from human rights activists and hundreds of political prisoners remaining in jail.

“The time could be right because of changes undertaken by Cuba’s new leadership,” an EU diplomat told Reuters ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers on the topic on June 16. “Sanctions could possibly be lifted…we are working on finding the exact formula,” another diplomat said.

The EU is seeking ways to work with the new regime in Cuba .

The EU froze high-level diplomatic relations with Havana in 2003 after the jailing of 75 dissidents and the execution of three people trying to flee to the US. The EU measures were temporarily suspended in 2005 and are reviewed every six months.

The shift in climate comes after president Raoul Castro took over from his brother Fidel in February, lifting restrictions on islanders buying mobile phones and computers and giving more room for political debate.

In a sign of the times, leading dissident Hector Palacios on Tuesday told AP that he plans to return from exile to Cuba to resume opposition work as he no longer fears arrest. “Change is going to happen,” Mr Palacios said.

The European Commission and Spain are leading the push to end EU sanctions for good to encourage further reforms. But the Czech Republic wants rules obliging future EU delegations to raise human rights concerns and meet opposition groups.

Opposition NGO Agenda for Transition in an open letter to Brussels on Tuesday said that a premature sanctions move would “punish” pro-democracy activists, who continue to face beatings and intimidation with over 200 prisoners of conscience still behind bars.

“What the [Cuban] government wants is for the opposition to be ignored so it can continue its human rights violations without even a single rebuke from the European Union,” the letter said, AFP reports.

A joint message from the EU-US summit in Slovenia on Tuesday saw the two powers “urge the [Cuban] government to…demonstrate its commitment [to civil rights charters] by unconditionally releasing all political prisoners.”

EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also said on the fringe of the Slovenia event that “human rights issues are very important ones and there are still a lot of political detainees there.”

But the US, which has enforced a crippling trade embargo on Cuba since 1962, is taking a tougher line by calling for a mass release of the prisoners before relations can improve.

“If the Castro administration really is different, the first way to show that difference to the world is to free the political prisoners,” US president George Bush said in his post-summit speech. {The Government of the Czech Republic can be counted upon to represent the interests of the present US Administration at the EU meeting}

From:  Neil.Bird at joanneum.at
Subject: SB 28 IETA Side Event: LULUCF in a post 2012 agreement: Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 11-13.00

SB 28 IETA SIDE EVENT: LULUCF - the inclusion of forrestry in GHG emissions’ agreements - IN A POST-2012 CO2 Reductions’ AGREEMENT
Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 11-13.00
Venue: Bingo Room

This Side Event presents the results of a workshop in Graz in April 2008 organized by JOANNEUM RESEARCH and CLIMATE STRATEGIES. The aim of the workshop was to develop strategic advice for the negotiations on how LULUCF rules for Annex I countries could change in a post 2012 Climate Agreement in order to fix existing problems, minimize unintended effects, and create a better functioning framework. The Side Event will present ideas produced in four areas: approaches to achieving fuller LULUCF accounting, inclusion of harvested wood products, accounting for forest and peatland degradation, and factoring out of indirect and natural effects.

Presentations:

Accounting approaches - Murray Ward, Global Climate Change Consultancy (GTripleC), New Zealand
Harvested wood products - Sebastian Rueter, Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institut (vTI), Germany
Forest and peatland degradation - Chris Henschel, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
Factoring out - Bernhard Schlamadinger, Climate Strategies, UK

————————–

JI LULUCF- A testing ground for post-2012 CDM methodologies (organized by QUEST - JIFor)
Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 18:00-20:00
Venue: MoT, TRAM

JI LULUCF projects can be more than just A/R ! By developing demonstration projects in Russia and Romania QUEST-JIFor analyses policy/methodological issues of JI LULUCF and GIS which may facilitate project development in JI countries. As well, these demonstration projects may serve as examples of potential non-A/R LULUCF projects such as reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) and improved forest management (IFM).

Presentations:

What is QUEST doing? - Wolfgang Knorr, University of Bristol
Why is QUEST doing this? - Martin Burian, GFA Envest
What is the QUEST - JIFor delivering?

Carbon methodologies - Neil Bird, Joanneum Research
Social and environmental methodologies - Claudia Carter, Forest Research, UK
Panel Discussion - Impacts of non-A/R LULUCF Projects
Forest protection and improved management Daria Lugovaya - WWF Russia and Martin Burian - GFA Envest
Methodological and monitoring issues - Martin Schroeder - Tüv Süd
Fire suppression  - Allan Spessa - University of Reading
———————————–

For further information please contact Neil Bird,  neil.bird at joanneum.at

JOANNEUM RESEARCH
Institute for Energy Research
Elisabethstrasse 5
8010 Graz, Austria
Email:  neil.bird at joanneum.at
Website: http://www.joanneum.at/

A View From Prague - Nothing New - The Opinion Exposed is Europe Going Nuclear Despite Warnings.

By Zoltán Dujisin

PRAGUE, May 24 (IPS) - The EU seems to be backing nuclear energy as the response to global warming and gas dependency, but civic groups warn that safety and waste processing should be preconditions for the industry’s growth.

These issues were debated in Prague May 22-23 at the second European Nuclear Energy Forum, an EU (European Union) initiative to discuss opportunities and risks of nuclear energy.

Civic groups criticised their extremely low representation at the event, seen by them as a gathering of nuclear energy supporters lobbying the EU.

“There is no energy technology free of risks. We have to live with that and do our best choices among existing possibilities,” Ulla Birgitta Sirkeinen from the EU’s Economic and Social Committee, a consultative body, told participants. “This committee has the view that nuclear energy is needed.”

“We all share the (EU) objective of reducing greenhouse emissions by 20 percent by 2020,” Nicole Fontaine, a European Parliamentarian, told participants. “Although there are many solutions such as renewable energy, reality dictates we use nuclear energy, which covers 32 percent of European energy needs.

“It doesn’t have the greenhouse effect, and it allows ensuring security of supply,” she said, hinting at the high European dependency on Russian gas, to which many believe nuclear power could be an alternative.

The EU is the biggest nuclear energy generator in the world. owards nuclear energy.

Czech politicians, who named their country one of the leaders in the field, stressed that only nuclear power can ensure freedom and independence by reducing over-reliance on Russian gas.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek attacked “ideologically motivated” environmentalist groups for their negative stance on nuclear energy, and called nuclear waste treatment a “pseudo-problem” of a political, not technical nature.

Topolanek said the EU’s organisation of this conference was another sign of Brussels becoming favourably inclined towards nuclear power.
But the whole of the EU is not going nuclear, said Patricia Lorenz from Friends of the Earth. EU members such as Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Austria all have doubts about nuclear power.

“There is strong pressure at this conference from industry and political groups to give support for nuclear energy, and this is not legitimate, because many countries are not nuclear and the public is mostly against it,” Lorenz said.

While most participants spoke of how better to tackle “inevitable” increase in energy consumption, Lorenz believes the key lies in reducing consumption.

“No one wants to hear this because it means many changes in transport,” she told IPS. “But only when consumption goes down we can bring in renewables.

“No technology can maintain our level of consumption,” she added. “Not even nuclear: uranium will also run out in 40 or 50 years.”

Industry representatives seemed less concerned. “Renewable energy cannot provide us with basic electricity, and the question is politically important because lots of jobs are at stake,” Thomas Mock, head of the German association of energy intensive industry consumers told the conference.

Walter Hohlefelder from the German energy company E.ON seemed confident that controversies over nuclear energy could be minimised by harmonised safety rules, saying these would bring transparency and public acceptability.

Fontaine also said the harmonisation of rigorous safety standards was one of the objectives of the forum. A high-level group is expected to present a proposal to the EU Council in July.

But Andrej Stritar, acting chairman of the High Level Group on Nuclear Safety and Waste Management of the Council, suggested that enthusiasts of “nuclear renaissance” should “slow down and reconsider everything, especially issues of nuclear safety.”

But Electricite de France board member Bruno Lescoeur said “the barrel of oil costs 135 dollars, and it is urgent to act; the industry cannot wait for convergence to emerge on all subjects on the industry, it has to implement solutions quickly.”

Critics have claimed that efforts at harmonisation could be an excuse to lower standards. Lorenz also brought up the issue of liability. “Industry is protected against potential threats; it must be liable to pay for what happens,” she said.

The activist also pointed to one of the most contentious issues. “There is no solution for waste; industry is not coping well with this problem and is not really trying. The de facto solution has been to export to Russia, and this will remain the solution.”

Lorenz said “it is not possible to find an effective way to treat nuclear waste; they proved it themselves by not coming up with anything. There is no affordable technology for the amounts of waste involved.” The EU generates 40,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste a year.

But there are enough optimists around at the political level. “There will be a feasible solution within a short period, I believe, in the development of science and of humankind,” János Toth, president of the energy section of the European Economic and Social Committee told IPS. “If you look back in history, all energy sources have progressed, solutions have always been found.” (END/2008)

________________________________________________________________

This and all “other news” issues can be found at http://www.other-net.info/index.php

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Those interested can look up on www.SustainabiliTank.info what Czech President Claus said on his visits to the US - to the UN headquarters and with right wing America. The issue is an old one.

Maximizing social change on a global scale
Rick Ulfik, Founder and Executive Director „We the World“,
May 21st 2008, UN Headquarters

The UN Youth and Student Association of Austria (www.afa.at) came May 21, 2008 to the UN headquarters in New York, as part of the “Sustainable Future Campaign” (www.sustainable futurecampaign.com), for a working lunch on the topic “Maximizing social Change on a Global Scale.”

The Key Note Speaker was Rick Ulfik, Founder and Executive Director “We the World”  www.weheworld.org)

Josef Manti from Austria was the Spokesman for the Sustainable Future Campaign.

• Creation of awareness of the policy needed for communities to support sustainable development
• Analysis of sustainable development and its regional, national and international impacts
• Sensitization of opinion leaders and the general public for the concern the United Nations maintains on the issue of sustainable development.
• Support of the UN Millennium Development Goals

Next planned event will be held in Vienna, May 27, 2008 with the Austrian Federal Minister for Science and Research, Dr. Jahannes Hahn:

Sustainable Science
Johannes HAHN, Federal Minister for Science and Research of the Republic of Austria
May 27th 2008, Rechtsanwaltskanzlei Eustacchio & Schaar, Vienna

In the US, there exists a US Partnership towards a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. This partnership talks of a Global Commons Organization pursuing “Inspired Futures Campaign.”
and an Inter-Generational Partnership fot Livable Futures.

The Youth came up with a whole series of potential partnerships and we post the material that was distributed:

It was heartening to hear from the speaker: “We have to ask ourselves how to behave so we have less impact on the environment in use of energy, on the economy, the environment - it is about the possibility for everybody to do something.” The atmosphere was of enlightened hope - this until a lady covered with Islamic headdress, sitting at the front table with two similarly covered ladies, complained about those in Africa that are hungry while the developed countries try to put them to work in a colonial system. Rick Ulfick took this as something that shows us the urgency of the overhang of the tipping points. The food riots and the fact that COSCO in the US also had to ration the sale of rice.

I felt that the direction the comments by the lady may have taken to mean that the problem of hunger in Africa are the biofuels, so I felt compelled to remark that this has rather to do with the fact that people have lost the incentive to grow their food and that the case of Malawi proved the point that a country can get from basket case to exporter of grains in just 3 years. What made me even less impressed by that Islamic intervention was the fact that when the meeting proceeded presenting further positive points, they simply got up and left. I hope that the young Austrians understood that they just witnessed an oil interest point that is part of the UN problems.

I was happy to hear Rick intone: “Inspire, Inform, Involve” and explain that if you organize a concert, people will come to hear the music, and you have the chance also to tell about the critical issues, and they will be inspired to act.

Final countdown for housing of European technology institute.

April 28, 2008, By Renata Goldirova from Brussels for the EUobserver:

The final countdown has begun on where to place the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the EU’s flagship innovation and education project, as the official application deadline expired at the end of last week.

Four applicants are keen to host the administrative headquarters of the institute - Hungary’s capital, Budapest, the Polish city of Wroclaw, Spain’s Sant Cugat del Valles, while Slovak capital Bratislava has joined forces with Austria’s Vienna in launching a cross-border bid.

The EIT is meant to bridge the innovation gap between the 27-nation EU and its major rivals, the US and Japan.

In practice, it should result in a network of universities, research centres and companies in order to transform education and research while developing comme