All those young Israeli who serve in the army must have been irritated for a long time: their orthodox friends had the privilege not to wear a uniform. While the regular Israeli have to endure years of training, running, sweating and shooting, the privileged ones were able to stay home and pray for their country instead of guarding the boarders. Now a new law forces them to take off their orthodox clothes and spend time under the arms. I cannot imagine one of them becoming a member of...

The Geneva conference on Syria has finished in a compromise that is unacceptable. It leaves it to the Syrians to solve their internal problems. What? It asks the parties -the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition- to negotiate about a new government. Not excluding Mr. Assad himself, thanks to the insistence of Russia. What do the creative politicians gathered in Geneva had in mind? A little party with murderers and torturers on one side of the floor and the freedom fighters on the other waiting to be invited...

De kranten raken niet uitgeschreven over de toekomst van de euro. En dat terwijl er maar één oplossing is: een centrale Europese bank, in Frankfurt, die alle andere semi-centrale banken aanstuurt, controleert en helpt. Net als in de Verenigde Staten. Daar is elke staat verantwoordelijk voor zijn eigen begroting, maar als de nood aan de man is (Californie, Florida) dan springt de FED in. Eén munt betekent ook één directie en één set regelgevingen. Eén munt betekent één hoofdcoach die ook het functioneren van de banken in alle...

If you read the papers you will think this cannot be true, but it is. Iranians don't disapprove of the US, and certainly not of the American people. They do disapprove of the sanctions that diminish their business and make prices rise sky high. These sanctions are a result of the lack of transparency the Iranian authorities deploy on their nuclear ambitions. Nuclear weapons, that are or are not being developed as I write, could threaten the region and especially Israel, America's long time ally. As long as...

Spanje gaat dezer dagen eindelijk met de billen bloot: premier Rajoy -tot nu toe even emotieloos en flets als zijn evenbeeld in het Madame Tussaud museum, zoals El Pais hem onlangs beschreef- heeft eindelijk zelf toegegeven dat de Spaanse banken aan de rand van de afgrond bungelen, om niet te zeggen al over de rand zijn. Dat betekent dat de EU weer 130 miljard euro of meer kan gaan storten. Na Griekenland nu Spanje en morgen Italie. Dat kan Euopa niet trekken, tenzij er miljarden euros worden bijgedrukt....

Het Sloveense Portoroz staat niet bekend om zijn schoonheid, wel om zijn twintig casino’s die de Italiaanse en Oostenrijkse gokkers moeten aantrekken. Monsterlijk grote hotels herbergen naast spelers vooral gammele gasten die de helende bronwateren komen opzoeken. ER zouden volgens de gidsen prachtige stranden liggen, maar we vinden slechts betonnen boulevards met trappetjes naar het water waar je op kiezelstenen trapt. Het past helemaal bij de grote illusie die hier wordt verkocht van een grandeur die niet eens vervlogen is, maar nooit bestaan heeft. Drie kilometer verderop is...

Montenegro, what’s in a name? Steep mountains, not so hospitable villages, deep gorges, black knights, spooky ruins, dark history. The former royal family of Petrovic (last king was Nicolas), has been living in Paris, banned from home. It has taken possession of one of its palaces recently, but the Montenegrins don’t want their king back, while orderly democracy doesn’t seem to be an option either. On the contrary, it is lack of transparency that brings the lazy Montenegrins at least a little prosperity, thanks to the Serbian investors...

When I tell Greeks that I am travelling to Albania, they smile warily. This attitude doesn’t turn out to meet with reality. Not only is the Albanian Riviera very much worth a visit, with its idyllic and unspoiled bays a paradise for sailors, but the little money the Greek are earning they owe to their Northern neighbours. Banks, Construction and Insurance companies and car dealers do lots of business with the three million plus inhabitants who are still trying to get over decades of communist dictatorship. Many Albanians...

In Greece the road signs to Istanbul are still mentioning Constantinople. This is part of a systematic teasing program, meant to irritate the Turkish neighbors and that has been going on since 1923, when the Turkish leader Ataturk decided to confiscate a considerable amount of Greek territory. Driving to the Greek-Turkish border one sees more of this irritation: 70.000 Greek soldiers are protecting the country against a Turkish 'invasion', an operation that is costing this bankrupt nation more than a bilion Euro a year. The whole border crossing...

Travelling through Greece these days helps you to differentiate between the news in the media and the reality lived by the Greek people themselves. Except for the big cities, Athens and Thessaloniki (where half of the whole population of only 11 million live), the crisis is not considered a reason for panick. Nor is the economical disaster a reason to start moving. 'Greece has seen centuries of wars, its fields are drenched in blood, whole regions burned, and it has survived it all' , says Apostolos Kosmopoulos (real...