As Germany and Europe celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall military skirmishes have once more broken out between and North and South Korea, this time at sea. The border between the two states is still one of the most dangerous in the world, but how long that will last is unsure, writes the daily Die Presse. "As Europe commemorates with thanks the reunification of the continent, the Korean border town of Panmunjom is the scene of a ghastly daily spectacle. Martial South Korean border guards wearing sunglasses face off with grim North Koreans in a game of Cold War. The entire border is a death strip with machine gun nests, minefields and barbed wire. Is there hope for a reunification of the two Koreas? Unlikely. All the neighbouring states as well as the US have interests in maintaining the status quo. And reunification would be far more expensive for South Korea than it was for Germany. But 1989 taught the world that history is unpredictable." (11/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Thomas Seifert

The exchange of fire is likely to provoke only a minor dispute, but the possibility of a new Korean war is always present, the daily Diário de Notícias writes: "The escalation in tensions will no doubt remain on a verbal level. Neither of the two countries is interested in a conflict and two other minor sea battles ended in the past [1999 and 2002] without it coming to a major armed confrontation. But as North and South Korea are both heavily militarised and the Korean War between 1950 and 1953 ended without a peace treaty a new war could break out at any time. North Korea's nuclear programme increases this risk. … A solution to the Korean problem, which would be comparable with the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany, can only be achieved through dialogue. But a normalisation would require a certain opening up on the part of North Korea. This, however, seems to go against the nature of the regime. Only its Chinese ally could one day persuade North Korea to take such a step." (11/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Asia, » China

The fact that Pyongyang did not resort to the usual militaristic rhetoric after the latest skirmish in the Yellow Sea leads the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to presume that there is more to the clash than a mere unforeseen incident: "If North Korean leader Kim Jong-il wanted to send out a message with the clash then it is primarily directed to those at home. The most probable addressee is the military, which is widely considered as the true locus of power in the ruined state. In recent times North Korea had sent various conciliatory signals to the world. For the most stubborn minds in Pyongyang - all of whom are widely believed to wear uniforms - constructive behavior is only a sign of weakness. And demonstrating weakness must be avoided at all cost. This message from Pyongyang is worrying." (11/11/2009)

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Together with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will take part in today's celebrations in Paris marking the end of World War I. The commemoration points the way forward for Europe, writes the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "This is a unique event, an extraordinary symbol of the never-ending process of German-French reconciliation. ... More than a historical gesture, this is also the demonstration of a political will, a sign to the partners of Europe that after their initial indecisiveness and differences of opinion, Merkel and Sarkozy are now travelling the path of their predecessors. ... This is a necessary choice, be it dictated by the logic of realpolitik or the profound conviction that only by deepening the German-French dialogue can the partners further the cause of European integration and guarantee the stability of the old continent." (11/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Giampiero Martinotti

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a controversial figure even in his own country, is today visiting the Netherlands. In the daily De Volkskrant the representatives of Jewish organisations which are critical of Lieberman call on The Hague to dissociate itself from his radical nationalist statements: "On several occasions in the past The Netherlands … has said it wants to play an active and 'positive' role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. … But Lieberman's statements make it clear that he has no intention of adhering to the international conditions for a peace process. … If the Dutch government doesn't officially distance itself from Lieberman's extreme nationalist views as it has done in similar cases with other countries, our nation will lose its credibility on defending human rights and upholding international justice." (11/11/2009)

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Lithuania has long been suspected of having harboured a secret CIA prison. News portal Delfi, however, sees little hope of a parliamentary commission being successful in its inquiry into the matter: "Former presidents, heads of government and foreign ministers will be questioned, they'll pay a visit to the directors of the secret services and other security forces, and perhaps a couple of people on the street will be consulted. But in the end they will reach the conclusion that there never was a CIA prison in Lithuania. So what's the point of the inquiry? … The investigators in Poland and Romania didn't find anything even though there were many more indications of the existence of such prisons there and even evidence pointing to concrete authorities and places. … But if such a centre ever existed in Lithuania those involved will have been bound to secrecy and anyone who knows anything won't tell." (11/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Jurgis Jurgelis

Romania's desire to join the EU was for a long time the motor which drove social progress in the country, the daily Adevărul writes. But the paper complains that since its EU accession Romania has lacked a common project "which has a higher goal than the battle for power. We have joined Nato and the European Union and now we have no more dreams left. … The political class knows that there's no referee and it doesn't have to play by the rules. It no longer assumes responsibility nor tries to guide the people. … We need to talk about other things now. For example a new economic model for Romania which transforms our obsolete agriculture into a cash cow. Isn't it absurd that we import 70 percent of our foodstuffs? … Politics shouldn't be just a series of soap operas served to us on a daily basis by the campaign channels. Politics means visions, consequences and the power to mobilise people. We had such moments on our way into the EU. This spirit needs to be revived." (11/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Agriculture, » Economic Policy, » Europe, » Romania
All available articles from » Ion M. Ionita

The capitalist ethic praises competition as the consumer's friend and benefactor: global compeition gives us all we need at affordable prices. Think again, writes Roussos Vranas in the left-liberal daily Ta Nea: "Capital market liberalisation has made life more difficult. As a result of privatisation in the energy, transport and other sectors, services have worsened and prices have risen. Of the 30,000 postal jobs in Germany in 1990 only 13,000 remain, and the goal is to cut them by half once again. There are no longer any post offices in Spanish rural areas, and the postal service no longer delivers letters or packages to houses more than 250 metres from a major road. ... After 2002, when the conservatives and socialists started liberalising the energy sector, the price for one megawatt hour rose from 32 euros in 2004 to 84 euros in 2007. ... And let's not forget the liberalisation of the transport market. The price for the privitisation of British Rail was numerous accidents and dozens of deaths." (11/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Roussos Vranas

In their efforts to overcome the crisis the US will adopt the Italian model while Europe will go the way of the Japanese, economics professor Hans-Werner Sinn predicts in business paper Világgazdaság: "The first eleven months of the recession were as bad as the first eleven months of the Great Depression of 1929. … Many experts expect the US to play the Italian card: using inflation to reduce public debt and keeping the currency low to maintain international competitiveness. … This should lead to further devaluation of the dollar, boost demand for exports and make American imports more expensive. … The opposite is happening in Europe. … It's unlikely that Europe will play the Italian card. … On the contrary, it looks set to go the Japanese way. After its bank crisis in 1987/89 Japan suffered two decades of stagnation and deflation, with state debt increasing at an exorbitant rate. Avoiding such a scenario is the main task of Europe's economic policy in the coming years." (10/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Hans-Werner Sinn

The left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung suspects that the European Commission was secretly delighted when US carmaker General Motors stopped the sale of Opel to Magna last week: "Because there are Opel plants in several EU countries and consequently diverging national interests are at play here, the commissioners were suddenly in a situation where they couldn't please one without disgruntling the other. They were at pains to assure everyone that they would make sure any deal strictly adhered to the rules of Europe's single market but in reality they confined themselves to waiting to receive information about the sale. The one thing they wanted to avoid was having to approve the deal themselves. So the news that the US company General Motors itself had called off the sale of its European Opel plants to the Magna investors just before the contract was signed must have been received with a great sense of relief in Brussels. [EU Competition Commissioner Neelie] Kroes can now go on simply assuring everyone that she will only approve the new deal if it is in accordance with European competition laws."  (11/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » Europe, » U.S.
All available articles from » Cerstin Gammelin

Gheorghe Dinică, one of the most popular Romanian actors, died yesterday in Bucharest at 75. Dinică was loved not only for his acting, but also because he refused to curry favour with the Ceauşescu regime, the daily Gândul writes: "All of his film roles - diplomats, ministers, villains, gangsters, detectives, workers and bosses - came together to form a fresco that indirectly told the story of Romanian society, depicting at first the unrest of the new political movement after the war, then the construction of the communist regime and its settling of accounts with the past. Later it represented the unrest of yet another system change. ... After the revolution ... he could have become internationally successful. Several times he was on the verge of a European breakthrough when plays and films he acted in won prizes at major festivals. But the isolation of Romanian society blocked this path, as it had done for others of his generation." (11/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Cristina Modreanu

Twenty years after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe the time for a fundamental revision of its policy has come, writes jurist Matjaž Nahtigal in the daily Delo, noting that post-communist societies need to make marked progress in the coming years: "We should not forget that many other countries and regions in the world won't wait for us to wake up from our dogmatic slumber. Simply maintaining the current model, which is mainly based on standardised production and the increasingly difficult preservation of the welfare state won't be enough to secure access to a dynamic, creative and knowledge-based society. It is becoming increasingly clear that a radically different vision for development is needed to replace the one we have followed for the past 20 years. A vision that makes initiatives 'from the bottom' possible, that has a strong integrating effect and is more institutionally diversified." (11/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Matjaz Nahtigal

Media reports on the Fort Hood massacre in the US state of Texas often fail to mention the Islamic background of the perpetrator and his call "Allahu akbar - God is great". A dangerous trend, writes the daily Svenska Dagbladet: "Sometimes the media report this way because they ... don't want to encourage prejudice or step on Muslim toes. That's well-meant and seems like a fitting reaction since Muslims are often the subject of persecution. But in fact it's counterproductive. If I were Muslim I'd feel offended. Anyone who says that shouting 'Allahu akbar' is insignificant is also suggesting it's perfectly normal for Muslims to act in this way. But that happens not to be the case, as we all know. Normal Muslims are not Islamist murderers. The result of this 'well-meant' reporting is that readers are misled and respectable Muslims are lumped together with violent criminals. Isn't that what racists do?" (11/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Per Gudmondson

In an interview with the news magazine Wprost, the US sociologist and futurist Alvin Toffler rejects the idea of virtual chat rooms: "We dive into a strange world in which we lose ourselves unless we are able to filter the information. ... But I really want to meet these people. I want to have the possibility of seeing them, drinking a coffee with them. I reject the illusion offered by these portals and Internet forums. Because often we don't know who's sitting on the other side. The distance between the participants prevents these internet relationships from developing into something enduring. In a virtual chat  room we're like kids, and spend our whole time groping our way around in the fog. We know something, but we don't know everything." (11/11/2009)

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Latvia celebrates Lačplēša Diena (Lačplēša Day) today. On this date Latvians commemorate the country's fallen soldiers. But according to the conservative daily Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze most Latvians have no idea what the date means: "It's hardly surprising that so many Latvians don't know about Lačplēša Diena and attach no importance to it: this is a consequence of education and upbringing in our restored republic, or simply of our cultural policy. The goal is to raise Latvians to be members of an open and liberal society. This means that despite their deeply-entrenched Latvian traditions, people are also open to trends from abroad and celebrate for example Halloween or Valentine's Day, and of course more money can be made selling pumpkin masks and pink hearts. … In Latvia a whole generation has grown up that has learned about the history of its country from films, if at all." (11/11/2009)

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All available articles from » Elita Veidemane