Protestors demand sanctions against Lukashenka

Pro-democracy campaigners outside the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels where EU foreign ministers were meeting to decide on sanctions against President Lukashenka of Belarus.

Protests and the role of social media (BBC video)

Less talk, more action: Belgians take to the streets to demand a government

Protesters march in Brussels to demand a government. The protesters in the Belgian capital numbered in the tens of thousands. Belgium has been without a government for seven months and holds Europe's record for the length of time it has been without government.

Parliamentarians in Protest

Green Party members of the European Parliament protested over a controversial new media law which came into effect in Hungary on 1 January during the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday, 19 January, 2011. Copyright DP.

Fifty years after the assasination of Lumumba, protesters demand justice

Photo by Agnes at Intal.be

The Tunisian uprising in Brussels

Jubilation at the stock exchange

Conquering lions of Tunisia

The finger of blame

Yes they did!

The placard that says it all

Estonia joins crisis hit eurozone and hopes for the best

Most surveys put support for Estonia's entry into the crisis-hit eurozone at around 50pc, with almost 40pc opposed. 

Estonia adopted the European single currency at midnight, ringing in 2011 as the 17th member of the eurozone, a bloc threatened by bailouts in Greece and Ireland and debt woes in Portugal and Spain. 

As a spectacular fireworks show lit up the sky over Tallinn, the 2004 Baltic EU entrant of 1.3 million which broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 bade a reluctant farewell to its kroon, adopted in 1992 to replace the Soviet ruble. 

While the centre-right government of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has championed the switch to the euro as economic good sense despite the eurozone's turmoil, replacing Estonia's highly symbolic kroon has received a muted welcome among average Estonians. 

"Estonia is the poorest country in the eurozone, so we have a lot of things to do also now after the goal of reaching the eurozone has been accomplished," Mr Ansip said hailing the historic moment. 

Joblessness shot up to nearly 20pc this year as Estonia's economy struggled to recover from a recession that saw GDP shrink by some 14pc last year. GDP is expected to expand by 2.5pc this year and 4.2pc in 2011, according to Estonia's central bank. 

More from The Telegraph / AFP... 

People pass by an anti-euro currency poster in Tallinn, Estonia, as the tiny country becomes the first former Soviet republic to adopt the euro at midnight. Photo: AP

Ivory Coast / Belarus, Africa / Europe

Stolen elections and dictators for leaders are not unique to Africa, as the media would often have us believe. While I’m angered and embarrassed by the situation in the Ivory Coast, as well as worried about friends in the country (though glad that ECOWAS has seen fit to take swift punitive action against Gbagbo), and hot on the heels of this disgrace comes the news (thanks again to Wikileaks), that wanted Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir has stolen $9bn dollars of his people’s money, let’s not forget that today in Belarus presidential ‘elections’ are being held, that is to say, the 're-election' of Europe’s last dictator, Alexander Lukashenka. While he has been careful to give the polls a semblance of plurality, it’s a foregone conclusion that Lukashenka will once again be president of the former Soviet state, as he has been since 1994.

Amnesty International has published its key concerns about human rights in Belarus in the run up to the elections. “The human rights of people in Belarus are routinely abused by the state. Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest are not respected. Human rights defenders are harassed. We have serious concerns about unfair trials and the use of torture in detention. This is all the more worrying because Belarus is the only country in Europe still to retain the death penalty,” said Amnesty international UK Director Kate Allen.

See below a video from Al Jazeera.



**UPDATE - EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS, 20 December
Question mark over EU policy after Belarus election violence

Worse than expected violence on the streets of Minsk following presidential elections on Sunday (19 December) have placed a question mark over EU's new policy of engagement with Belarus.

The union in October again suspended a travel ban on President Aleskander Luksahenko and 35 top officials originally imposed after a post-election crackdown in 2006 in the hope that better relations would pull the administration closer to EU standards and interests.

A stream of EU VIPs have also travelled to the region in recent months, dangling the prospect of up to €3 billion in aid if the election goes off well.

But Mr Lukashenko on Sunday evening responded by sending riot police to attack a huge crowd of between 20,000 and 40,000 protesters which gathered in the capital's central Independence Square to call for him to step down or at the least to hold a second round in the vote.


Opposition candidate Vladimir Neklyaev was injured in the clash

Sixty-four-year-old opposition candidate Vladimir Neklyayev was knocked unconscious in the street by masked men, taken to hospital and then abducted from his hospital bed by plain clothes officers who locked his wife in an adjoining room, wrapped him in a blanket and took him away. His whereabouts were unknown on Monday morning.
More…

Greek chaos amid general strike and austerity protests

The former Greek development minister Costis Hatzidakis, centre, was attacked by protesters in Athens. AP.

Greece descended into chaos on Wednesday, as thousands took to the streets to protest against a new wave of austerity cuts amid a nationwide walkout and an attack on the former Greek transport minister.
The Telegraph

The facts and figures from Bloomberg here and here.

Teflon Silvio - Berlusconi survives two no-confidence votes

But riots break out in Rome. Hooded protesters set up flaming barricades as police baton-charge demonstrators in several parts of capital's historic centre. Violent clashes have left 50 police officers and at least 40 protesters injured.
More from The Guardian and video below.

Kosovo holds historic election as division persists

Kosovo is holding its first parliamentary election since unilaterally declaring independence from Serbia almost three years ago.

The ethnic Albanian majority and small Serb minority remain largely estranged, more than a decade after a Nato-led conflict broke Belgrade's control.

Serbia has not recognised Kosovo's independence and most Serbs are expected to boycott the elections.

The EU says the election is important for Kosovo's hopes of entry.

During the campaign, institutionalised corruption and the dire state of Kosovo's economy have consistently topped lists of voter concerns.

More from BBC...

Below from Al Jazeera:

Related: Wikileaks cables: Kosovo sliding towards partition, Washington told

WikiLeaks cables: Pope wanted Muslim Turkey kept out of EU

A WikiLeaks cable reports that Pope Benedict XVI, seen here being received by Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara in 2006, 'might prefer to see Turkey develop a special relationship short of EU membership'. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/AFP/Getty Images

The pope is responsible for the Vatican's growing hostility towards Turkey joining the EU, previously secret cables sent from the US embassy to the Holy See in Rome claim.

In 2004 Cardinal Ratzinger, the future pope, spoke out against letting a Muslim state join, although at the time the Vatican was formally neutral on the question.

The Vatican's acting foreign minister, Monsignor Pietro Parolin, responded by telling US diplomats that Ratzinger's comments were his own rather than the official Vatican position.

The cable released by WikiLeaks shows that Ratzinger was the leading voice behind the Holy See's unsuccessful drive to secure a reference to Europe's "Christian roots" in the EU constitution. The US diplomat noted that Ratzinger "clearly understands that allowing a Muslim country into the EU would further weaken his case for Europe's Christian foundations".

More...

More financial folly from the Commission

So this year's EU Development Days have come to an end after two days of roundtables, conferences, seminars, workshops and discussions involving heads of state, diplomats, officials, development experts and interested members of the public. According to the Commission, 6,000 delegates attended the event and were treated to, among other things, a fashion show, a music concert and theatre productions. The cost for this affair? Rumoured to be in the region of two million euro. Money that would have been better spent in actual development, no doubt.

This latest financial folly comes just weeks after a similar ill-conceived exercise to mark the EU Year Against Poverty in which thousands of free branded t-shirts were handed out to all and sundry outside the Parliament. The t-shirts were given away free, which is worth reiterating, because they weren't given in exchange for signing up to receiving more information about poverty in the EU or for pledging to help combat inequalities. No, the communications 'experts' responsible for such profligacy clearly have a complete disregard for the cardinal rule of communications campaigns: what do you want people to do NOT what do you want them to know. However much, or little, the branded t-shirts cost to produce, again, surely it's money that would have been better spent actually combatting poverty as opposed to promoting it!

In this age of austerity, surely the powers-that-be at the Commission could come up with more cost-effective ways for getting their messages out and engaging the public in a meaningful way. The key is not to throw money at comms campaigns but rather to inject a bit of common sense in to them. EC Comms Watch continues...

The people versus Paul Kagame

Men blow vuvuzelas as they gather outside the Square conventre centre to protest against the visit of Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame to the EU Development Days in Brussels, Monday, 6 December, 2010. Photo from AP.

Europe's missing millions: listen now

Click here to listen

Over the last seven years, the European Union has paid out billions of Euros in grants designed to revitalise Europe's poorest regions.

But an investigation for File on 4 has revealed the extent to which these payments are open to widespread fraud, abuse and mismanagement.

Angus Stickler tracks how money has gone astray across the 27 member states and asks why funding continues in regions with proven records of corruption and fraud. Throughout the EU there is evidence that money has been wasted or even stolen. In Southern Italy, money has gone to Mafia-controlled construction companies and bogus energy projects. Across the EU expensive projects lie unused and unfit for purpose, despite receiving funding of millions of Euros.

The EU has created its own anti-fraud agency, OLAF, to stop these abuses, but are critics right when they claim it's underfunded and ineffective?

File on 4/Bureau of Investigative Journalism co-production.

Producer: Gail Champion Editor: David Ross.

Journal d'une femme du Kosovo

As-tu oublié Sarajevo ?

I've just come back from a performance of Journal d'une femme du Kosovo (Diary of a Kosovan Woman), a production by Konitza, a Brussels-based Albanian organisation named after the writer, Faik Konitza promoting Albanian arts and culture. The play was at a tiny community theatre in Evere, a suburb of Brussels, and there's just one word that comes to mind when describing the production: powerful.

Based on the diary of Sevdije Ahmeti, Journal tells the story of women during the Kosovo war of the 1990s. A simple set with a screen backdrop projecting images of suffering caused by conflict around the world was the pefect stage for a captivating performance by actress, Anila Dervishi and musician, Afzim Jahja who, together had the audience gripped with their compelling, stripped down performances.

Journal needs to be seen by more people. It's a timely reminder of the atrocities that have been committed in recent history and is deserving of wider notice and acclaim for all the right reasons in a time of so much wrong.

Photo timeline: Europe's protests

Student protests: national walkout live

Students march in protest in Glasgow, Scotland Photograph: David Moir/Reuters

From The Guardian's live blog:

• Thousands of university students in tuition fees protest
• Schoolchildren around the country join day of action
• Violent scenes in London as police 'kettle' protesters
• Disorder as students disperse from protest
• Follow live updates here

Glad to see that people in the UK have finally woken up and caught up with rest of Europe...
And in Portugal a national strike against budget cuts brought the country to a standstill. More here.

The Hungarian Revolution: Erich Lessing at BELvue

In 1956, Austrian-born Magnum photographer, Erich Lessing used his camera to capture the unfolding events of the Hungarian revolution in the streets of Budapest, unintentionally producing an important historical document. The BELvue Museum is showing a collection of the photographer's images along with more contemporary photographs from subsequent generations of East-European and Balkan artists who registered their own personal, often more nihilistic, view of the world. The (im)potence of the image depicts the new Europe from the post-war period but also that, in process of enlargement, of the men and women that were born there at that time and are still living and working in the region.

Background
Budapest 1956. The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, was an anti-Soviet revolt in Hungary lasting from 23 October to 4 November 1956. The revolt was suppressed by Soviet troops, and to a much smaller degree the Hungarian ÁVH ('State Protection Authority'). Anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000 Hungarian rebels and 7,000 Soviet troops were killed, thousands more were wounded, and nearly a quarter of a million left the country as refugees.The beginning of the deStalinisation period in Hungary favoured the development of an opposition movement, particularly among students and intellectuals. Imre NAGY who was called in as Prime Minister had obtained the demand of Soviet troops being withdrawn. He became submerged by the spread of the insurrectional movement in Budapest and the provinces. Abolishing the 'unique' party system on the 13 October 1956 he demanded Hungary's withdrawal of the Warsaw Pact and neutrality. Armed insurrection started in the streets on 24 October until the Soviet troops occupied Budapest, on 1 November 1956, and crushed the movement.

The Empire of Light by Rene Magritte

Been to the wonderful Magritte Museum twice now and this remains the standout piece, a brilliantly luminous play on night and day, dark and light that has yet to cease to amaze me.

"Everything that we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see, but it is impossible. Humans hide their secrets too well..."

Aung San Suu Kyi: Free At Last

Work's handiwork at the European Parliament. You wouldn't believe how long it took for my colleague to have that wording agreed... SMDH!

Parc Cinquantenaire on a Summer's Day

Parc Cinquantenaire on a Summer's Day, originally uploaded by brusselsbelle.

Cassandra Wilson on Tavis Smiley

Christopher Hitchens: 'You have to choose your future regrets'

From today's Observer

In June Christopher Hitchens, the hard-drinking polemicist and atheist, met his toughest opponent yet when he was diagnosed with cancer. The question on many lips was: would his illness alter his beliefs – on Iraq, on Islam, on God? At home in Washington, with a large glass of Johnnie Walker to hand, he responds with characteristic combativeness

Currently reading Hitch 22: A Memoir... Update to follow.

Book club - The Fry Chronicles

The verdict on Stephen Fry's The Fry Chronicles was a respectable 7 out of 10.

The general consensus was that while the memoirs were an enjoyable read, even with the verbose language, they were somewhat lacking in substance. Fry's chronicles were in need of being placed in more of a social and historical context. As it is, from reading the book, it appears as though his life was lived in a vacuum in which the major events of the Eighties didn't really affect him, glossed over as they were. Perhaps they didn't and he does say that he has no real interest in politics and this is evident in the book.

That said, the non-Brits in the group said the memoirs gave them a good insight into the British class system and that Fry's self-awareness and various insecurities/neuroses made them look at the privileged in a less judgemental way, finding sympathy where previously there was none.

Everyone was in agreement that the ending left the reader wanting more, the cliffhanger a teasing appetiser for the next instalment of Fry's life story which, hopefully, we won't have to wait another thirteen years for.

Overall, an entertaining read from the all-round entertainer.
Next up, Norwegian novelist Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses.

Thank you to the fantastic staff at Le Cercles des Voyageurs for welcoming and accommodating us in the wonderfully atmospheric bibliotheque.

Smiley & West on the US midterm elections

Antonio Negri - A Revolt That Never Ends

Cafe Rits continued its stimulating Philosophers on Screen series with a screening of A Revolt That Never Ends, a documentary by German filmmaker, Christian Beetz about the influential Italian philosopher and academic Antonio Negri.

The film profiles the controversial life and times of the university professor, philosopher, militant, prisoner, refugee, and 'enemy of the state.' It traces Negri's roots in the history of radical left-wing movements in Italy during the Sixties and Seventies, illustrated through archival footage of workers' strikes, factory occupations, terrorist actions, violent street confrontations, political repression, and government trials of dissidents.

The striking thing about this film, shot five years ago, is the parallel between today's economic crisis, and its fallout, with what happened in Italy (and Greece) more than three decades ago. It puts me in mind of Hegel's quote on history: "What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it” (Danke schön Alex!) and Marx's "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

I may not agree with some of Negri's ideology but where this film succeeds is in getting the viewer to think about the issues and put today's circumstances in a broader, historical context.

Michael Cunningham at Passaporta

I spent a wonderful evening in the company of Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham, me and about ninety others, at Passaporta in Rue Antoine Dansaert. Cunningham read from his latest work, By Nightfall and engaged in an enlightening and honest discussion with Belgian TV and radio presenter, Chantal Pattyn, who made an excellent interlocutor.

Cunningham spoke about the practice of writing, literature, music, art and politics, highlighting the intersection between the various forms, and was engagingly refreshing. His reading and talk inspired me to buy By Nightfall, which he kindly signed for me, and I have since begun reading my first book of fiction in many, many years. So far, so good.

By Nightful is proving to be unputdownable. Economical with language but rich in tension, character and dialogue, it reminds me of why I've avoided fiction for so long, purely selfish reasons, of course. Reading good fiction highlights my own limitations as a writer and leaves me in awe of just how gifted certain writers are, a skill that you're born with, a natural talent that can't be taught. Because of this, fiction has often stifled me rather than inspired me.

Great storytellers, fiction and non-fiction, are needed now more than ever, in these uncertain times, to provide us with a source of much-needed escapism and/or to chronicle our unprecedented struggles - social, political and economic - in narrative form. I left Michael Cunningham's talk in admiration of his talent but encouraged to develop my own.

Another fantastic event from the team at Passaporta. The date of next year's festival is already in the diary!

Michael Cunningham is the author of the novels A Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood, The Hours (winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award & Pulitzer Prize), and Specimen Days. He lives in New York.

Update - video from the event

Home..?

Saint Catherine's Church in Brussels

Smiley & West on the Iraq double standard

Tavis makes some interesting, thought-provoking points. For example: "I think that, again, as I have watched this the media has been more titillated by the leaks than by the deaths (of 66,000 Iraqi civilians, including women and children, exposed by Wikileaks)."
Do you agree? Listen below.