Two more things I like
Two more things I like about travelling: BBC World on TV, that distinctive jingle of theirs reminds me of hotels around the world as I watch it every morning; Number 2, free copies of the International Herald Tribune or the Financial Times, both great newspapers I never take the time to read back home. Given all the press about the Germans and the Americans falling out (?) I thought this article tackled it well: Quentin Peel: Value of America’s allies.
“Yet from a European perspective there can be absolutely no doubting the fundamentally pro-American stance of the present German government. Mr Fischer may have been a 1968 radical, but he has been converted. He faced down the deep-seated pacifism in his own party to back US action in Kosovo and send German soldiers to the Balkans and Afghanistan to keep the peace. He is both a committed European integrationist and an Atlanticist. He is also the most popular politician in Germany. In April Mr Fischer delivered a ringing tribute to President George W. Bush’s father for the part he played in driving the process of German unification. The US presence in Europe was “indispensable to Germany”, he declared, “regardless of the fact that the EU is increasingly developing into a self-confident, independent player”. But he added: “Americans and Europeans share the same values, but do not always have the same political reflexes.” That should not be seen as a fault. But if “Americans tend to emphasise the military side of things, and the Europeans the political, this is at times unfortunately misunderstood and overplayed by both sides.”