<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar/14058325?origin\x3dhttp://croydonian.blogspot.com', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script>

Arnie for President?

Thursday, May 21, 2009
No, not the US of A, but Austria:

"People’s Party (ÖVP) Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich has prompted speculation California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could run as the party’s Austrian presidential candidate. Berlakovich said in an interview in today’s (Weds) edition of weekly magazine News: "Yes, I can readily imagine a Schwarzenegger candidacy." The minister, who visited California last week, added the governor was "an excellent and extremely-successful politician" and when asked if the ÖVP would ask Schwarzenegger to become its presidential candidate, Berlakovich said: "That is a question for the party leader".

Can't see it, frankly. Arnie was friendly with a former Austrian president.....

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

"Manners are the hypocrisy of a nation"

Monday, October 20, 2008
I cannot say that I greatly regret the demise of Jörg Haider, but Austrian politicians have been falling over themselves to appeal to his voters to praise rather than bury him:

"He was a remarkable person" and one should "pay tribute to him," was how Social Democratic Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer....Haider had had "an excellent feeling for what needs to be changed" in Austrian politics".

Heinz Fischer, the Social Democratic president, said Haider's death was a "human tragedy," and that he had been a "politician with great talents."

The ex-head of the Austrian Green Party, Alexander Van der Bellen, said Haider had been "an exceptional politician, highly qualified to inspire people and win [them] over."

The conservative People's Party vice chancellor Wilhelm Molterer said Haider hadn't minced his words, and therefore "deserves great respect."

The Social Democratic president of the Austrian parliament, Barbara Prammer, recognized the great political and life achievements of Haider, who helped shaped Austria's political landscape over the decades".


All quotes from the Jerusalem Post, bar the headline which is from Balzac.

What all of the above reminds me of is this antique sketch from Not the Nine O'Clock News, circa 1980 (good job I have total recall), fortunately preserved on Youtube.


Labels:

posted by Croydonian

What would Jan Sobieski think?

Monday, December 10, 2007
Vienna is in the midst of a bit of a Satanic Verses episode, because of this statue:

It is, obviously enough, a female nude sporting a headscarf. Mind you, it could be a balaclava... So far, so not enormously interesting. However, it is entitled 'Turkish Delight', and the Turks are not happy. At all.

What has happened to it is not entirely clear, as one report refers to it having been removed, and another to it having been knocked over:

"A statue of a nude woman donning a headscarf that was on exhibit at the premises of the Technical University in Karlsplatz in Vienna, Austria was removed by unknown people following adverse reactions. Turkish Ambassador to Vienna Selim Yenel said the sculpture was not damaged but only removed from its place". It might be a flawed translation, but that suggests to me that Yenel knows what happened through direct involvement, which rather oversteps the mark both in terms of practical art criticism and muscular diplomacy.

Meanwhile another paper notes the following: "A statue of a nude woman wearing only a headscarf was knocked down from its place in the garden of the Technical University of Vienna in Karlsplatz yesterday".

The mystery thickens somewhat, and one has to ask whether anyone would have paid any attention if the statue had had another name.

Meanwhile, Johnny Turk does seem exceptionally prickly at the moment, as "Maps showing so-called "Kurdistan" as including certain cities and areas of Turkey have been removed from the Kurdish traffic police cars and other official vehicles in northern Iraq".


(Polish king Jan Sobieski saved Turkish-besieged Vienna in 1683, if anyone did not get the reference, and was viewed at the time as having just saved Western Civilisation).

Labels: , ,

posted by Croydonian