— via Fefe & Jana

• Milk, eggs and cheese are pretty cheap in Germany compared to the other 26 countries; meat is 20% more expensive, though (only Denmark and Austria have higher meat prices).
• Food and non-alcoholic drinks in Poland are 36% cheaper than EU average, Denmark is 39% above the average.
• You can get cigarettes in Bulgaria for half of the average EU price, Irish smokers pay more than 5 times as much.
• Alcohol costs 70% more than average in Finland and Ireland, Germany is pretty cheap with 30% below average.

I’m pretty sure that Norway would just completely outprice every country on most categories … but it’s not a member of the EU.

(1)
What you might not know is that Oil Drilling in Offshore Areas has been quite a topic in the United States. There was a “longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast, from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean” (source).

I say was. Because Barack Obama decided that this moratorium is really not necessary anymore.

New York Times, 31st of March 2010, in an article called “Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time”:

Drilling there has been strongly opposed by officials from both political parties in Alabama and Florida who fear damage to coastlines, fisheries, popular beaches and wildlife.

Right.

(2)
The “accident” has happened. An interesting fact is that there is a very easy way to avoid such a catrastrophe: relief wells. In Canada, these wells are required by law.

Businessweek offers an explanation:

The relief well aims to intercept the damaged hole at an angle thousands of feet below the seabed and permanently close it with heavy mud and cement.

The final solution BP offers now is exactly that: to drill a relief well. Unfortunately, this is a very complicated procedure, especially when things have gone so terribly wrong already. BP hopes they could be finished by August.

The company has made very active lobbyism to avoid the necessity of these relief wells in the United States – and was successful. Dave Levinthal, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, said in an interview with Reuters:

“Make no mistake: BP ranks among the most powerful corporate forces in U.S. politics. It donates hundreds of thousands of dollars every election cycle through its employees and political action committee and is routinely a seven- or eight-figure federal lobbying powerhouse each year.”

To give an example for the year 2008, there have been donations of $37.000 to members of the House Energy Committee and over $100.000 to members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee (dealing with security issues facing the nation’s oil supply). BP spent $15.9 million on lobbying in 2009.

It worked.

(3)
Some pretty … intense photographs.

They ran a two minutes story about the video Wikileaks released that day:

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. For further information please visit the special project website www.collateralmurder.com.

Finally, Wikileaks has reached the German mass media. I consider it one of the most important democratic tools the internet currently offers, and am very happy that it has been mentioned in the Tagesthemen.

What is Wikileaks?

• Scroll down on their website, and “Click here to make a secure submission.” That’s the main thing about Wikileaks.
• Wikileaks gives people the opportunity to publish documents they think are important for the public – anonymously. We have seen courts all over the world forcing newspapers and other media to disclose their sources in the last years, Wikileaks is trying to fill this gap.
• 10 questions on Wikileaks on CPJ blog (Committee to protect journalists)
• ForeignPolicy wrote an article called “Is This the Future of Journalism? Why Wikileaks matters.”
• A post I wrote a couple of months ago about Wikileaks leaking a document written by the British Ministry of Defence giving advice on how to stop documents leaking onto the internet

WikiLeaks is an organization protecting internal dissidents, whistleblowers, journalists and bloggers who face legal or other threats related to publishing. Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes [...], we are of assistance to people of all nations who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources. We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies.

If you are going to spend a bit of money on charity projects this year, consider giving $10 to Wikileaks. They accept no other funding than private donations, since they want to stay absolutely incorruptable and transparent.

(2) Why there is beauty in architecture
I have not seen anything like that before … take yourself 12 minutes, relax, get a cup of tea and a blanket, and watch this. Please.
And after you realize that this is nearly 100% rendered (this is not filmed, it was created with a computer), I hope you’re as amazed as I am.

(3) Why the FDP reduces hotel taxes
Germany has financial problems – like most other countries really. We started doing better until the big recession hit us a couple of months ago. I don’t want to go into the details very much, but the point is: there is an ongoing debate whether to make more debt and spend lots of money in order to get the economy going again, or whether we have to save money because our debts are already fairly high. The FDP (the “liberal” party), currently governing Germany together with the Christian Parties (CDU & CSU), had a clear message before the election: they wanted to simplify the system by erasing exceptions, especially regarding the tax system.
What they did – together with the Christian Parties – a couple of weeks back left nearly all Germans flabbergasted: the taxes for hotels in Germany were reduced from 19% to 7%. This had not been discussed previously, was simply decided upon, and is nothing else than introducing a new exception to the tax system.
A couple of weeks later, we know now that the FDP received a donation of 1.100.000 Euro in the year 2009 by “Substantia AG”. This company is owned by August Baron von Finck, one of the richest Germans – and his familiy is heavily involved in “Mövenpick Group”, a company which runs 14 hotels in Germany.
By the way: it was the biggest sum ever donated to the FDP.
EDIT: Oh well, the CSU (part of the Christian Coalition, situated only in Bavaria) also received a donation from Substantia AG, shortly before the election in Bavaria 2008. The sum was 820.000 Euro. And it also turns out: FDP and CSU were the ones pushing the bill.
EDIT: Right … the CDU also received money, around 100.000 Euro. Same donator, obviously.
(Source: Spiegel.de)

(4) Why we don’t believe in change
NYTimes reported on a decision of a federal appeals court panel last Tuesday:

[the court] … strongly backed the powers of the government to hold Guantánamo detainees and other noncitizens suspected of committing terrorist acts. In a sweeping opinion, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the presidential war power to detain those suspected of terrorism is not limited even by international law of war.

(via Fefe & Basti)