Raving ravens
By 2013 Mrs von der Leyen wants to treble the number of available nursery places to 750,000, covering one-third of Germany's under-threes. That, she argues, will make it easier for mothers to work, and encourage them to have more children: Germany has the lowest birth rate in rich Europe, with 1.3 children per woman compared with 1.9 in France and 1.8 in Sweden. The birth rate among
Dutch writer Margriet de Moor looks at Islam in the light of Europe and Europe in the light of Islam.
Earlier this year, I visited the famous basilica of Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris. I admired the magnificent tombs and funerary monuments of the kings and queens of France, including that of Charles Martel ("the hammer"), whose victory over the invading Muslim armies near Poitiers in 732 AD is traditionally held to have halted the Islamization of Europe.[1] Stepping out of the basilica, I walked a hundred yards across the Place Victor Hugo to the main commercial street, which was thronged with local shoppers of Arab and African origin, including many women wearing the hijab. I caught myself thinking: So the Muslims have won the Battle of Poitiers after all! Won it not by force of arms, but by peaceful immigration and fertility.
Professors of international relations counsel the leaders of today and mold the policymakers of tomorrow. But what do they think about the most pressing foreign-policy issues facing the United States? In our second exclusive survey, FP steps inside the ivory tower.
Speaking of the Turks, a vocational college in Hamburg, Germany, is offering a new certificate class, "Meat Processing with Döner Kebab Production Specialization."
There were two developments this week in Europe's battle with declining birthrates and aging populations. In Germany, the government just raised the retirement age to 67:
Following up on news today that the government of Turkey has blocked YouTube (Link), an anonymous Turkish BoingBoing reader shares some background:
The court-ordered YouTube block in Turkey this week (background posts: 1, 2, 3) resulted from an international flame war between videoblogging trolls in Greece and Turkey. First, a YouTube user, presumably Greek, uploaded a homegrown videomontage called "Kemal Gay Turk." The clip (since removed, possibly by YouTube/Google) questioned the masculinity of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey.
Unemployment and political disenfranchisement have created a generation of frustrated, angry young men in the Middle East. Now there's another reason why young men from Morocco to Iran are becoming even more frustrated and fed up.
US Continues to Get Low Marks
Views of China, Russia, France Down Sharply
Europe and Japan Viewed Most Positively
RSS for user "lpetting"
Raving ravens By 2013 Mrs von der Leyen wants to treble the number of available nursery places to 750,000, covering one-third of Germany's under-threes. That, she argues, will make it easier for mothers to work, and encourage them to have more children: Germany has the lowest birth rate in rich Europe, with 1.3 children per woman compared with 1.9 in France and 1.8 in Sweden. The birth rate among
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