Half dead half alive I am back home and to daily Internet access, and today also celebrates the first day of the Polish EU presidency at the time Jerzy Buzek being the president of the European Parliament and Janusz Lewandowski the commissioner for financial programming and budget. What kind of challenges does the new presidency face? – Change of the understanding of the welfare state, […]

From 24 May 2011 I learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) at the Arabeya language school at Cairo. The teachers study at the Ain Shams University, and the method of teaching has worked on me – With three days I have learned the alphabet, some basic everyday phrases, the possessive pronoun, names of the World’s states […]

The book: Paul F. Diehl, Charlotte Ku, “The Dynamics of International Law” (Cambridge University Press, 2010) brings a new framework for analysis and a model for legal change and influence of normative change in international law indicating the systemic imbalance of international law. To my mind this book is probably offering the best academic solutions to […]

On 4 May 2011 (Latvian Independence Day) I came to Istanbul with the aim to attend the Weekend School organized by the Boğaziçi University Center for European Studies Student Forum (CESSF) (the university has  Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence) on the general topic: “Accession to the EU: Expectations and Realities” taking place from 5 to 7 May 2011.   5 May […]

Ynetnews at 3.05:  “Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived a NATO airstrike on Saturday night that killed his youngest son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren, a Libyan government spokesman said. Mussa Ibrahim said Saif al-Arab was a civilian and a student who had studied in Germany. He was 29 years old”.  Will Iran be the next […]

I think that many political and security problems would be solved in the world if Enlargement and Neighbourhood Commissioner Štefan Füle’s words: “European Union should offer its southern neighbours the chance to participate in its single market and join the European Economic Area” (referred by Euractiv) would come true. When I look at the Motion […]

I am trying to politically and ideologically analyse how could the Israelis understand the wish: “Happy Passover!” The wish “Happy passover” clearly reminds the Israelis their Exodus – when on the one hand the ancient Israelis were freed from slavery in Egypt (Exodus, Chapter 12), but on the other hand they were sent out of Egypt – the area they inhabited. […]