Machiavelli and Erdogan

Machiavelli in his book "The Prince", advises to set as a temporary administrator of a new acquired state a ruthless man. This ruthless man will crush any opposition. After the opposition is crushed, the prince can dispose (kill/imprison him) of the ruthless administrator and he will be hailed as a good and kind ruler who saved the people from a blood thirsty tyranny.
I think Erdogan made the same think with ISIS.
He allowed them to thrive, by not stopping the trade with stolen oil and guns.Then he tried to enter in Syria and Irak, to save oppressed people and to be hailed as a saviour.
Maybe he is doing the same thing with the coup.
Crushing the coup can be seen as a gesture that he will defend the liberty of the people.
What I expect to see is that the Erdogan party to be armed to prevent further military coup, a kind of "Iranian Revolutionary Guard" a la Turque.

The Brexit is good for EU

The split of Great Britain from European Union can be a good thing for EU because it is creating a challenger for Bruxelles bureaucracy.
If till now the EU official were complacent and they thought that no country will split from the Union. Now they will have to prove that governance is better than national governance.
On the long term they had to reform themselves to survive.
But on the short term they will punish UK, in order to discourage other splits.
I am worry about Great Britain. If they didn't succeed to impose in a  500 millions inhabitants market, how they will succeed alone ?
Now they don't have any more British empire as a cushion.
Even Australia and Canada are orbiting around USA.
India is independent.
African countries are attracted by China.
Brexit remembers me about another British blunder: "Made in Germany" trade mark.
In the late XIX , early XX century, British industry was heavily competed by the German one.
In order to rally in the defence of the national industry, the patriotism of British subjects, the British government enacted the obligation of producers to imprint on their products the country of manufacturing. The side effect was that people were seeking now products "Made in Germany" without giving a second look at the products "Made in England",because they felt that they were of better quality,

The parochial thinking that led to Brexit is not new in Britain:
A Scottish woman who travelled in Romania at the end of XIX century noticed that english products were missing from Romanian stores, being replaced with French and German products.
The few clothes catalogue that arrived in Romania were in Imperial Units, making the ordering of the products impossible.
One Bulgarian importer of British agricultural machines, asked the producer to change the colour of its products from gray to more cheerful colours to make them more appealing to the customers. He was refused.
No wonder that the empire collapsed, in early XX century.

Educam copiii pentru prostie?

Niste elevi care se pregateau pentru BAC la istorie, m-au intrebat de ce a inceput al doilea razboi mondial. Ma intreb cat de prost pregatita este profesoara lor daca nu a stiut sa e explice lucru asta. M-am uitat pe ghidul lor care trebuia sa-i ajute la BAC: o colectie de date puse gramada care nu explica istoria. Wikipedia este de 100X mai buna.
Educatia romaneasca este orientata pentru trecut examane. Se dau niste examene, toate cartile sunt facute pentru a memeora niste date si a trece examenele.
Nu se explica si nu se urmareste ca elevul sa plece cu ceva util din liceu.
Suntem romani pentru ca avem o istorie comuna, daca tinerii uita istoria, natia dispare.
Neintelegand istoria, oamenii vor fi manipulati de orice fituica cu mare tiraj sau de orice site cu trafic mare.

Valoarea unei natii sta in oamenii ei

Am auzit la TVR pledoaria lui Plesu pentru a da bani pentru a cumpara "Cumintenia Pamantului":
"Trebuie sa ne recumperam valorile".
Cat de valoroasa este statuia pentru un flamand,un analfabet, un bolnav care are nevoie de tratament, niste soldati care au nevoie de arme mai bune?
Valoarea este data de cerere si oferta si cultura nu face exceptie.
Valoare culturii a crescut in timpul dictaturii deoarece oferta era slaba.
In Romania cererea petru o astfel de statuie este mica.  Avem probleme mai grave de rezolvat, inclusiv in cultura, unde sunt monumente care se distrug desi este nevoie de mai putini bani pentru ele decat pentru aceasta piatra.
Cand vor fi mai putin flamanzi,vom 0 analfabeti, bolnavii vor avea tratamentul care trebuie atunci si oamenii vor avea timp de cultura si cererea va fi mai mare si niste viitori Brancusi vor putea sa se dedice exclusiv sculpturii.
Cultura este un lux, pe care si-l permit numai tarile bogate, asta a inteles si regele soldat Friedrich Wilhelm I al Prusiei care si-a vandut colectiile de arta pentru a-si construi o armata care i-a dat posibilitatea fiului sau Friedrich der Grosse, sa faca din micul principat o putere europeana, care va deveni mai apoi nuclelul viitoarei Germanii.
Departe de noi sa intelegem cum functioneaza cu adevarat niste tari de succes, la noi se cultiva in continuare formele fara fond,dupa cum se plangea si Titu Maiorescu in secolul 19.

Eurovision: Romania's moment of silence

Romanian Television had for years debts to EBU the organizer of Eurovision.
Suddenly the EBU requests the 16 millions dollars debts or Romania will not be present. Romanian Television is bankrupt and it cannot pay.
This silenced the song "A moment of silence"of the artist Ovidiu Anton.
You will remark that the song is revolutionary and can inspire some people in France,UK,Germany,Belgium,Spain,Greece where the social tensions are increasing, and the political elite is losing ground.

Warning: sharks and terrorists

Acording to Russia Today the german news paper Bild, warn us that terrorists can attack people on italian or spanish beaches.
It seems that the terrorist will infiltrate as african salesmen, and put bombs on beaches, or they will shoot people as they did in Tunisia.
I think that the beaches can be defended, Israel has beaches and I didn't heard on any attack on the beach.
Anyway lets suppose the worst happens:
You are naked on the beach and a terrorist is aproaching you with a gun.
What you do?
Run in water and swim away underwater. The bullets lose their energy in a dense liquid as water. See the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzm_yyl13yo

Game of chicken

Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany bowed to the will Turk president Erdogan and allowed prosecution of comedian Jan Boehmermann for insulting the turkish president.

The Chancellor of Germany swerved aside last year when president Putin invaded Crimeea.

Angela Merkel is constantly avoiding conflict.

The base of the submission is conflict avoidance. The lions listen to the tamer's whip because they avoid conflict not because they are weak and the tamer strong.

We listen to our bosses not because they can beat us but because we want to avoid a conflict that can finish bad for us.

The human race it seems started as a matriarchy, Pharaoh's married their sister because the power was transmitted from mother to daughter. Some populations from remote Tibet and Tuareg from Sahara, are still ruled by matriarchs.

But now the patriarchy in the rule, even in most democratic countries, the politics is a boy's game, in which from time to time a brilliant woman has success.
Why?
The answer is in the Agela Merkel''s actions:
She is superior to Erdogan and Putin as education.( Erdogan was footbal player, Putin was a KGB officer, while she was a physics researcher.)
She is a better ruler than both. Germany didn't had internal unrest till the arrival of Syrian refugees. Turkey has problems with kurds. Russia with every nation that they occupied, mainly with muslims.
She stayed 11 years in power in a democracy where you cannot use force to intimidate opponents as in Russia, or close down newspaper and block youtube as in Turkey.
She is modest and doesn't have dreams of grandeur as Putin the Tzar of Soviet Union and Erdogan the Sultan of the new Turkish empire.
She is a leader of an economic power, in which citizens from both Turkey and Russia want to emigrate.
Yet, she makes concessions to both leaders.
Males play often the game of chicken. One classic case is when 2 men drive one toward each other in a collision course, and the one who swerves is "chicken" and lost status and respect of the spectators.
The best example is in movie "Rebel without a cause" with James Dean.
When 2 men compete the level of testosterone rises and the most rational thinker can be attracted in a deadly game.
Also in this game, being rational doesn't pay off. If you see a drunk men driving the other car, you will swerve, you cannot intimidate an irrational man.
The chicken game is game of guts, the most irrational and determined opponents wins.
Image now a chicken game between a man and a woman.
The man emboldened by testosterone, will forge ahead, while the woman thinking about future deadly consequences will swerve.
Angela Merkel swerved when Putin entered in Crimea because she thought at long term consequences on the German economy.
She swerved again,when Erdogan requested punishment for the German comedian, because she doesn't want to break relationship with ally that can keep millions of Syrians arriving in Germany.

History is a long list of wars, or chicken games between different groups.
Who swerved, or avoided a confrontation lost, not only that battle but also the future battles because they send the message that they do what ever it takes to avoid war, and they attracted other enemies who wanted their land and women.
Because women are tend to avoid conflict the most they swerved most and the matriarchy has lost ground in face of patriarchy.
The chicken game is fatal for both sides, and the only rational choice is to not playing it or both players to swerve.
If the women would ruled the empires from beginning of XX century we would not have WWI, because one of women leader would swerve, in that particular game of chicken.

The terrorism is a game of chicken between state and terrorists.
The terrorists as in a classic game of chicken show that they are irrational, (they behead hostages and destroy monuments) in hope that the government will swerve and make concessions.
The government must show it efficiency and ruthless, in order to discourage terrorist from taking action.

How to gain a game of chicken ?
Don't enter in a game of chicken. The game of chicken is a game of status. Go somewhere where the status is not important.
Make sure that the opponent that doesn't swerves gets a heavy loss if he wins.
For example: the Moldavian light cavalry in the Battle of Grunwald, run away in forest when they met Teutonic knights. The Teutonic knights believing that they won this "chicken game" they follow them in the forest were were butchered by hidden Moldavian forces.