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The annual G8 summit starts today at the Lough Erne Resort, in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Here’s a brief summary of this year’s agenda. The infographics below are courtesy of the G8 UK Presidency, you can visit their Flickr account clicking the pictures. The free trade agreement between the EU and the US is on the EU’s table for some time now, and the UK Presidency also declared trade advancement one of the most pressing issues. What makes this discussion interesting is the UK’s possible estarngement from the EU. President Obama already said that in the case of the UK leaving…
Critics of the group come not just from political and diplomatic circles. From the end of the 1990s anti-globalization demonstrations has become the regular accompaniment of the summit. Besides asserting their opinions it occured that protesters attempted to stand in the way of attendees of the summit, or took other measures in trying to disorient the event. Most memorably during the 2001 Genoa summit, the protests turned violent and resulted in the death of a demonstrator and the injury of about 70 more. For this reason mainly, ever since 2001 there is an explicit intention to hold the meetings in…
Summer is here!!! Have I mentioned already how summer is my favorite time of the year? I love the kind of heat waves that seem to make everyone else around me suffer. I’m sorry, I just do. And now, one of those heat waves is approaching Hungary, so this is my time! I know, I am always told I should move to some distant part of the world where tempretures and moisture are constantly through the roof. My hair would be a mess all the time, but I would be happy! 🙂 Do you have any suggestions where I should…
The G8 heads of states/governments come together each year to discuss current major domestic and global issues. There are lower level ministerial meetings of the G8 several times a year, where foreign ministers, finance ministers, environment ministers meet to discuss issues in their respectable areas. Decisions of the heads of governments of the G8 or its ministerial meetings are notable for taking place within the group instead of other major international forums. Many of those decisions remain decisions without real results though. Since the end of the 90s there were such commintments to fight against global poverty, fight diseases including…
The first G6 meeing in 1975 was preceded by several less formal meetings. These first summits’ prelude was the oil crisis and economic recession of the early 70s. Big industrial countries first came together to discuss solutions to those. The wealth of the 8 wealthiest countries of the world are taken into account by their net wealth instead of GDPs. If we check recent figures of several economic indicators we find that the G8 doesn’t represent the wealthiest nations adequatly anymore.          Still notable that the summed GDPs of the G8 countries add…
The annual G8 summit is about to kick off on Monday, so I thought I would do a few educational/informational posts about the G8 in general and about this year’s meeting in particular. So this is the first one in a series, watch out for the rest in the coming days. The G8 summit is held annually to gather eight world leaders in order to discuss current economic and political issues affecting their countries and the world. G8 stands for the Group of 8, that is, the eight most prosperous countries of the world. Almost. To be more specific, G8=G7+1….
Busy, busy, busy week… While this was a very eventful week in terms of world affairs, in my corner of the world the historic floods along the river Danube take over all the news these days. Fortunately in Hungary it is not as bad as in some parts of Germany and the Czech Republic, but most of all it is due to the hard work of both professional people and volunteers who come to work day and night not just from the affected areas but all over the country. I wish all the strenght and persevarence to all those along…
todaysdocument: Normandy Invasion, 1944From the Moving Images Relating to Coast Guard Activities series. See our past D-Day posts, including Eisenhower’s Order of the Day, and his hastily drafted “in case of failure” note, and a detailed sketch of a typical Platoon Leader in full battle dress.
This year’s theme of World Environment Day is an issue very close to my heart. I was brought up with a very serious view on food waste. My grandmother always made us think about food almost as sacred. She used to remind us that there may come a time with a lack of food to eat, so we should remember this every time we are about to throw out something. And that I did. In fact to this day I feel bad every time I have to throw out even just a small piece of bread. Many times I am…
June is my favorite month of the year! With the longest daylight hours, the hot weather (which I hope will arrive in Hungary soon), all the great outdoor events – concerts and festivals, and so on. Reading outdoors until like 9 p.m. on long June nights used to be my favorite thing in the world! I have great expectations for this month and also some good ideas and plans for this blog that I hope you’ll like! Until then, here’s what I have today: On world affairs: GuĂ©henno: lifting European arms embargo on Syrian rebels ‘backfired’ Yes, the decision did…
