In his first year as US President Barack Obama has hugely improved the image of the United States in the world even though his efforts for dialogue and peaceful solutions has not been particularly successful, writes the business paper Hospodářské Noviny: "Afghanistan may well become Obama's Vietnam. The Taliban welcomed his unfortunate turn of phrase that America will not wage an interminable war in Afghanistan at any price. Firmer rhetoric concerning Moscow wouldn't do any harm either. Obama showed Moscow a more peaceful face than his predecessor, but he still hasn't been able to negotiate a new disarmament round under the Start treaty. Russia is proving an unreliable partner, even as far as putting more pressure on Iran goes." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Martin Ehl

The US president has done well in his first year in office, Der Standard comments, but the real assessment won't come until 2012. "In his first twelve months in office Obama had to tackle some unpopular issues. The healthcare reform and boosting troops in Afghanistan were among the topics that even Obama had trouble selling to the public. Then there was an 'enthusiasm gap', the phase of disenchantment any president would have trouble dealing with. ... In addition to Obama bashing the tradition of comparing presidents in Washington is in full swing these days in Washington. And the upshot is that only Ronald Reagan did worse than Obama in the polls after his first year in office. The Californian went on to win his re-election in 1984 by a large margin. There's nothing to say it won't be the same with Obama. Because for him, too, the final judgement doesn't come after a year in office but rather in 2012." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Christoph Prantner

One year after taking office Barack Obama faces the same problems he promised to solve while on the campaign trail, writes the daily Delo: "The capitalist system with its unbridled financial speculation, extreme social inequalities, submissiveness of politics to big business, mockery of workers' rights and murderous tragicomedy referred to by some as the best healthcare system in the world - none of this has changed. Even before he was elected Obama's adversaries were saying that although he was a sweet talker there was no evidence he could follow his words with deeds. ... But Obama would need the supernatural force of Baron Munchhausen to extract himself from the system he's part and parcel of." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Boris Cibej

After Barack Obama's first year as US president, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman urges him to take a tougher line against his critics in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "Mr. Obama didn't do what Ronald Reagan, who also faced a poor economy early in his administration, did - namely, shelter himself from criticism with a narrative that placed the blame on previous administrations. ... Whatever the reason, Mr. Obama has allowed the public to forget, with remarkable speed, that the economy's troubles didn't start on his watch. ... At this point Mr. Obama probably can't do much about job creation. He can, however, push hard on financial reform, and seek to put himself back on the right side of public anger by portraying Republicans as the enemies of reform - which they are. And meanwhile, Democrats have to do whatever it takes to enact a health care bill. Passing such a bill won't be their political salvation - but not passing a bill would surely be their political doom." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Paul Krugman

Dutch right-wing populist Geert Wilders will go on trial today, Wednesday, for inciting hatred and discrimination. The left-liberal daily De Volkskrant disapproves: "Wilders' statements are often way out of line. The growing approval they are encountering leads some people to want to fight him not only in the political, but also in the legal arena. That is not a good idea. In recent years the Netherlands has benefited from an open culture of debate, which has made visible the slumbering social unease and discontent. Despite the unpleasant, sometimes strident tone of the debate, it is nevertheless an achievement. Anyone who goes too far - something Wilders does on a regular basis - must first and foremost be answered by arguments. ... It is highly regrettable that now the illusion has been created that judges can decide over the social discourse." (20/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Integration, » Weltanschauung, » Netherlands

For the first time since the end of Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship Chile has a right-wing president once more. Sebastián Piñera won the runoff election with 52 percent of the vote on Sunday. The era of the centre-left opposition alliance Concertación has now come to an end, the daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes: "Combining liberal economic regulations with a social policy that benefits a broad section of the population is the recipe for success Piñera plans to adopt, with a few minor adjustments. The middle class is more focused on economic growth than the social safety nets it now no longer needs so much. Piñera, the richest man in the country, would be well advised to pay special attention to keeping the economy buoyant if he doesn't want to see his hopes dashed. His camp must also prove its political worth. … It's one thing to lure votes away from Concertación with concessions in the election campaign, but leading Chile's right into the modern age is quite another."    (19/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Nicoletta Wagner

The daily El País comments on the inquiries into the justifications given for the Iraq war in the Netherlands and the UK and calls for further investigation in Spain and Portugal: "The inquiries in the Netherlands and the UK are aimed at clarifying not just a scandal that affected previous governments but also what posed a serious threat to peace and international security and is now the source of many current problems; something that to be carried through made a mockery of the democratic procedures and internal controls. It won't be possible to get the full picture of what happened until other people responsible for one of the most useless and ill-conceived conflicts in many decades explain what they did and why they did it, like former head of government [José Maria] Aznar or the current president of the European Commission [José Manuel] Durão Barroso." (20/01/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom, » Spain, » Netherlands, » Portugal, » Iraq

Rumiana Jeleva yesterday withdrew her contentious candidacy for a post on the EU Commission. The daily Dnevnik says the Jeleva case highlights the shortcomings of the EU institutions when it comes to their staff-selection procedures: "Jeleva's personality along with her obvious contradictions on conflicts of interest and her lacking expertise have illustrated a considerable problem also affecting European institutions - the lack of mechanisms for the thorough examination of candidates for high-ranking EU posts. Investigating Jeleva's real estate assets and business connections proved an insurmountable hurdle for the powerful Berlaymont (the building that houses headquarters of the EU Commission). And the EU politicians cut an even more pathetic figure when they began passing on the case from one to another like a hot potato." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Dragomir Ivanov

One month after the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Joseph E. Stiglitz reflects in the business paper Világgazdaság on alternative strategies for facing the climate crisis: "The real failure was that there was no agreement about how to achieve the lofty goal of saving the planet, no agreement about reductions in carbon emissions, no agreement on how to share the burden, and no agreement on help for developing countries. Even the commitment of the accord to provide amounts approaching 30 billion dollars for the period 2010-2012 for adaptation and mitigation appears paltry next to the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been doled out to the banks in the bailouts of 2008-2009. ... Perhaps it is time to try another approach: a commitment by each country to raise the price of emissions ... to an agreed level, say, 80 dollars per ton. Countries could use the revenues as an alternative to other taxes - it makes much more sense to tax bad things than good things." (19/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Joseph E. Stiglitz

With an eye to the earthquake in Haiti the columnist Roussos Vranas criticises in the left-liberal daily Ta Nea the role of some NGOs in catastrophe areas: "When a crisis breaks out the humanitarian organisations are on the scene even before the journalists. But are they really NGOs? Oxfam, one of the biggest NGOs, receives 25 percent of its funds from the British government and the EU. And 46 percent of the Nobel Prize-winning organisation Doctors Without Borders' funding comes from the state. In fact many of these organisations serve as mediators for governments which prefer to 'wash' their foreign aid money through these organisations in which they wield considerable influence. ... Most professional helpers rely on donations from big business. These organisations spend ten percent of their budgets on marketing and advertising. The humanitarian aid remains in the dark and huge sums are lost along the way. And many promises get no further than the paper they're written on." (19/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Roussos Vranas

US food products giant Kraft has purchased the British chocolate company Cadbury. Will Kraft do a good job of managing this long-established company? British daily The Independent asks: "Cadbury has in the past been a company without a sufficiently clear objective; it became a hodge-podge of brands rather living on its reputation. But in recent years it has lifted its game and is currently well-managed. Kraft has had only three years since it fully emerged from the Philip Morris umbrella and has yet to prove itself. I hope I am wrong in my instinct that it will make a mess of this purchase. The one really big lesson of all giant cross-border takeovers is that it is very hard to predict whether they will succeed. BMW ought surely to have been able to make a success of its takeover of Rover, just as Daimler-Benz should have succeeded at Chrysler. Both failed." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Hamish McRae

After being staged in Romania and Germany, the play The Last Day of the Ceauşescus is now being staged in Switzerland. The play takes place during the Romanian revolution and deals among other things with the trial of dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena on December 25, 1989. The weekly paper Revista 22 writes: "The accuracy of detail in the room where the trial was held is spine-chilling. As soon as the actors have taken their place on stage the chess game starts. Twenty years later this three dimensional visualisation of those last moments is frightening to watch. Everything that is said, each tone, each gesture, is a mirror image that all Romanians are familiar with. Added to that are images that the camera never shot, which give a lugubrious vision of those bygone days whose consequences can still be felt today. ... This documentary play on the Ceauşescus has opened a lively debate, while the institutions that should be leading the discussion remain silent. With The Last Day of the Ceauşescus, Romanian society has finally started coming to terms with itself." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Ioana Moldovan

The image of humans in James Cameron's new film Avatar leads to a sort of new heathen adoration of nature, writes Maria Hasselgren, spokesperson of the Catholic Church in Sweden, in the blog Newsmill. Hasselgren invokes Pope Benedict XVI, who has often spoken out in favour of protecting nature from humans: "The Church has always refused to view nature as inherently divine. This would be a threat to human value, because if nature and animals had the same value as humans, human value would be lessened. That however does not mean that animals and nature may be misused. Creation must be used, not abused. A human who harms animals acts wrongly." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Maria Hasselgren

An EU data protection group wants search engines to be obliged to delete user information after a maximum of six months. US company Microsoft has now become the first to say it will delete the user's Internet Protocol address as soon as a search query is made. In the BasicThinking Blog André Vatter analyses the reasons for this sudden change in tone: "For one thing the subject of data protection is booming ... and marketing strategists are discovering that development in this area can be a profitable way for companies to profile themselves. The EU itself provides the second reason. The Article 29 Working Group, the body that drew up the new rules, can only make recommendations. It is the sole prerogative of the data protection authorities in the individual countries to impose sanctions (including prison sentences). This has never happened in the past, which is why Google and Yahoo! are taking their time adjusting to the reforms. But since the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect the EU Commission for the first time has the power to impose punishment independently. Microsoft's precipitated obedience is aimed at taking the wind out of these ambitions' sails." (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » André Vatter

In Spain the ban on smoking will extend to all bars and restaurants on July 1, 2010. Juan Bas writes the fag a letter of farewell: "Dear friend, true companion, we've been together now for 38 years, ever since I stole my first Piper menthol cigarette from the bookcase where my mother had hidden it. ... But dear comrade, I believe now the moment has come to turn my back on you, to leave you, and to say goodbye forever. ... You have given me much, but I would be loath for you to take from me everything I have, and far prefer to bear with me fond memories of you. I know you will protest, maybe even call me night and day. Because you won't want to put an end to it and turn a new leaf. Maybe in a moment of weakness I will follow your siren's call. But believe me, I will do my utmost to resist the urge, and put my energy in the one thing that can set us free: strength of will. Farewell, my friend. And one last thing: you've been getting more expensive by the day!" (20/01/2010)

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All available articles from » Juan Bas