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Topic: What's Going on in Europe (Read 255854 times)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #150 –
Quote from: Frenzie on


:yes: That sounds a lot more like what I was thinking, but I didn't want to overshoot on a topic on which I'm fairly ignorant.

Why not?
It doesn't stop the rest of us.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #151 –
Europe and in particular the EU is a mess. The organisation is as corrupt as Hell. For years now auditors have not been able to clear the books. If this was a company or business you would be in trouble but they get away with it. France tends to like the bits that suit and those they don't are ignored with little penalty. The Euro as a currency is in one big mess too. I cannot blame that Dutch politician for wanting out  and there are those in France who think the same. It has a jolly image as far as the successful Germans are concerned but not for anyone else. I just want my country out the damn thing.

Meanwhile the argument continues, countries are straining and they cannot solve the currency matter at all and sems to be going on for ever. At least we kept the pound and thankful for that. Europe is okay for a holiday (I will be back in the Netherlands this year) but as a super politcal state - nah, forget it.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #152 –
Plain & simple it's Socialism that's all to blame.......

Politicians all offer free this & thats in hopes it will ensure them political longevity.

If it does (it always has), these same politicians offer more & more, creating a never slowing public dependency.

When they start to run out of money to pay for it,  in the end they end up with less people to pay into the economy than they have to pay out to, they dupe their more profitable neighbors into 'lending' them money to grease their local 'dependents' more & more.

Well, that's Europe in a nutshell --- the USA too --- Socialized Governments are getting deeper, & deeper, & deeper into debt ..... They are running out of 'other peoples money' & eventually there won't be anyone left to borrow from, leaving their monitory systems in a shambles, & once stable currencies virtually worthless. 

Governments will begin to implode, & the dependent masses will eventually burn what's left all to hell for sure!

Some people question why I am,  & so many of my American brothers are,  so into guns .... well think about it ... it's about that time that guns will offer the only bargaining power & pathway to survival.

Who's got 'em might just survive, & those without 'em it's curtains .... there's only the curb of destitution.

Socialism, meant to save all mankind in the eyes of some, will go down in history as 'almost' making civilization extinct.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #153 –
Well I suppose it is Socialism that is to blame in America? Over 40 million poor an army that you cannot afford, military everywhere, ordinary wages hardly moving unlike the top of the tree where income rockets by hundreds of percent. Dare say it is a special American type of Socialism!
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #154 –
Quote from: rjhowie on

Well I suppose it is Socialism that is to blame in America? Over 40 million poor an army that you cannot afford, military everywhere, ordinary wages hardly moving unlike the top of the tree where income rockets by hundreds of percent. Dare say it is a special American type of Socialism!



We're not as efficient at self-destruction as Europe is, so we're miles behind you guys in our brand of socialism, thank God!

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #155 –
Road deaths per million inhabitants 2002 and 2012

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #156 –
Colours of motorway signs

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #157 –
Belief "there is a God"



Belief "there is some sort of spirit or life force"



No belief in "any sort of spirit, God or life force"


Source: Religion in Europe (Eurobarometer 2010)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #159 –
They go with God. According to this poll 95% of the Turks and Maltese believe in a God, followed by 90% for the Cypriots and Romanians. On the other side 16% of Estonians, 19% of Czechs, and 23% of Swedes believe in a God.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #161 –
Svensk, from svea(r), a tribe, then a kingdom that eventually took over what is now Sweden (and a lot more during its imperial age). It went from this yellow territory:


into this:



and back again into something more lagom today.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #162 –
I was asking about the English word "swede". Is Sweden the motherland of swede?:)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #163 –
Kålrot ("cabbage root"). It is eaten more in Scandinavia than most other places, though I suspect they eat less than they used to. Too bad, that's a nice vegetable.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #165 –
Slovenians and Croatians are funny. Maybe Croatians go to Slovenia just because of loads of Bulgarians coming in at the time of vacation.:idea:

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #166 –
It could have been a better map. It only shows which country is the #1 (top) destination, which typically is a neighbour.

The total in- and outflow of tourists to all countries by quantity and percentage might have been better. On the other hand a #1 map has the advantage of simplicity and clarity.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #167 –
You seem somehow obsessed with maps, Jax, aren't you?
You'd better tell us if spring is going on in Europe. Are there maps showing not weather but, say, phenological changing flow? Birds copulating or such sort?:)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #170 –
Quote from: jax on

Road deaths per million inhabitants 2002 and 2012


Why Sweden has so few road deaths

Quote from: The Economist
LAST year 264 people died in road crashes in Sweden, a record low. Although the number of cars in circulation and the number of miles driven have both doubled since 1970, the number of road deaths has fallen by four-fifths during the same period. With only three of every 100,000 Swedes dying on the roads each year, compared with 5.5 per 100,000 across the European Union, 11.4 in America and 40 in the Dominican Republic, which has the world's deadliest traffic, Sweden’s roads have become the world’s safest. Other places such as New York City are now trying to copy its success. How has Sweden done it?

Since reaching a peak in road deaths in the 1970s, rich countries have become much better at reducing the number of traffic accidents. (Poor countries, by contrast, have seen an increasing death toll, as car sales have accelerated.) In 1997 the Swedish parliament wrote into law a "Vision Zero" plan, promising to eliminate road fatalities and injuries altogether. "We simply do not accept any deaths or injuries on our roads," says Hans Berg of the national transport agency. Swedes believe—and are now proving—that they can have mobility and safety at the same time.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #171 –
This man, Jax, is a graph maniac.
He doesn't live in this world but somewhere inside his horrendous charts.
All of them wrong.
A matter of attitude.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #172 –
Maybe he was rubbish with geography at school and is proud to have caught up?
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #173 –
Meanwhile we had a bizarre reoccurring event here: Elections to the EU parliament.

For several diverse reasons, the population at large have no clue what that body is for. Correspondingly, in all countries the participation in these elections is lower than on any other. Instead of getting someone elected to make good decisions for us, in these elections we "send politicians to Brussels". The cynical interpretation of this is that we give our vote to the politician to get rid of him/her.

The so-called EU constitution reinforces a confused impression: Different from any normal parliament, this jolly body of ladies and gentlemen doesn't really decide any legislation. Rather, they may provide some topics of discussion for other supranational bodies who actually decide on directives and policies.

Looking at/hearing about the speeches held at the parliament, I always got the impression that the place is perfectly interchangeable with OSCE meetings. Whether the impression is right or wrong, it's not helping to make sense of anything.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #174 –
 I'd like to see the current EU Parliament scrapped for as you say few people know or care who is in it. (~ 30% turnout in the UK for example). Instead I'd prefer a a new parliament, made up of elected members of national "parliaments" take their place, paid for at national level. and having duties at both National and European level . . .  So they would have some work to do.  They should be nominated by their national parties and reflect the political balance in their own country.

The European Parliament's decisions should need approval by national parliaments for application in their own country, and, except for designated issues, have the right of veto.

About 1 EMP per 4 million people?  Just 1 for the mini countries?

. . .   And they can scrap this nonsense business of having the EU Parliament in both Strasburg and Brussels.