The funniest, and maybe most useful, is from last weekend’s Financial Times. Always wondered how to max your hand luggage? – Here is the solutionn – the Dutch version of ‘wearable luggage’. This is a coat into which you can put up to 10kg of luggage and later (e.g. after check-in) fold into a bag. Very handy for flying with hand luggage only! Find out more at their website www.jaktogo.com. (Note that they are selling with 25% discounts until end of October).

Spiegel Online ran a nice article (unfortunately only in German) on how the freak travellers (backpackers) minimise the weight of their luggage. The bottom line is to buy a scale. But not the one you think. We are talking about the ones you normally use for food or letters etc., i.e. one to measure the 50 grams some stuff weighs too much. More in this (how to pack) and this article (how to spread in your backpack).

Read this blog if you consider a longer stay-over in an airport (or an overnighter). Nice reviews of experiences of sleeping over in various airports world wide. A particularly relevant read for Ryanair & co travellers. – My Facebook agreement with Manila having been voted the world’s worst airport has created a debate among friends, and it turns out that some Asian airports have probably not (yet?) received the (negative) attention they deserve. But Manila is a seriously crappy airport, with no proper connections between the four terminals and clueless staff all around. Point made.

One of the first things you read in any travel guide about Singapore is its focus on food. Or should I say obsession? Given the lack of what us westerners would regard as classical or traditional culture, this special place Singapore is surely building some of its culture around food. And food comes in many particular ways here. Lesson one: food (like so many other products here) is not big here because it is grown in Singapore but because locals (and probably even more immigrants) have been skilled to make the best of varieties of influence from all around the south east asian region (and beyond). Thanks to these diverse cultural influences food is big here. And it is diverse. You can probably generalise and say that the Singaporean kitchen is composed of the same ethnic influence as its society overall: Chinese, Malaysian and Indian. On top of that you have the hard-to-avoid American kitchen (McDo…) and more and more global and western options – or mixes of all the above.

Lesson two: food is cheap – and delicious. The best place to dive into the Singaporean cuisine is a local food market, or Hawker (see my local one on the picture). These are government-owned (very socialist-a-like) food courts in most residential areas where a diversity of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian shops offer their specialities for 2-4 S$ (1-2 Euro). These shops are run mostly by immigrants who work for 10 hours or more – every day of the week. Besides quick and reasonably good food you can have fresh (!) fruit cocktails for 1.50 S$ (less than a Euro). With these places all over the city, you can really survive with two daily meals there – on 5 Euro a day. But not only these food courts display the traditional ethnic diversity of Singapore, even at my university canteen on Bukit Timah Campus (NUS), you have at least a Chinese and Indian option for food at the same price. I only wonder why no western-style food is sold in the Hawker? Is that because the Hawker managers want to preserve the traditional/founding three ethnic’s food or because westerners do not go to Hawkers because it is too “cheap” for them?

Obviously food is not limited to Hawkers or exclusive restaurants (beyond my budget). Every shopping mall (of which there are too many here already) has either a whole floor or at least parts dedicated to eating. One such excellent eating opportunity (food republic) is in one of the main shopping malls on Orchard Road, the main shopping street. Even there a meal would not cost more than 10 S$ – and the food they keep on display looks just too nice to get away without trying it out! However, a few hundred metres away on the other side of Orchard Road is Taster Food in the basement of the Paragon shopping mall. This place has possibly the best dumplings in town. My lunch of today is on display in the left. Two rounds of dumplings (6 pieces each) plus this fantastic side dish cost me 25 S$. All in all, I feel like I am just starting to appreciate food in Singapore. There are still so many places on the list.

It would all be a little too good if there were not some concerns about food additives and GMOs here. When you arrive here with your innocent European mind, you do not even think about these things. However, certain standards of food quality we seem to have achieved (or do not worry about anymore) either by law or convention in Europe, are simply not universal. The other day, a fellow student scared me by saying that friends of hers who frequently went to Adam’s Food court (next to where we live) lost hair much quicker (due to food additives). Apparently the use of food additives is widely spread in particular in cheaper places like food courts. The other day I had an interesting conversation about this with the manager of the university canteen. He told me that you cannot produce meals of the price range 2-3 S$ at the university without food additives. Buying sauces and spices to create a similar taste effect would bring prices up to 4-5 S$ and the university administration apparently wants to keep prices down to maintain canteen food “affordable” for students (remember we are talking about Singapore students whose parents should on average have equal net incomes as German or British families). However, he said that they are using less food additives than before (whatever that means!). He also mentioned that he recognises that foreign students are quite sensitive on the issue and he would offer pre-ordered food for these (to the higher price). I suggested he might at least inform students about food additives and also enquire about GMO content in his supplies. The fact that this was not even a concern for a canteen manager (let alone all his chefs I talked to) was a little frightening. Let us see what information he has for me next week – and if I can find enough fellow students to change the choice. And after the canteen Adam’s Food court is next on my list. Why eat unhealthy when you  can enjoy the great cuisine with no concerns for your own well-being?

Let’s first consider what West Wing was: It was, no question, the the best (I say THE best) TV series ever! – It was so good not because it was about politics and that is what I like. No, it was good because it was smart, it had brilliantly-drawn characters with personality, excellent actors, it was realistic – and it had an intelligent but all-embracing humour. I am sure that we can find excellent actors and draw equivalent characters for an EU “13th floor” (as Conor calls it) series. But would we have the play writers to come up with dialogues and characters of such brilliance? In the end, I have not come across any European TV series that has impressed me so far…

I am sure public broadcasters in the EU with possible arte as a frontrunner would be happy to unite and prepare such a show. Moreover, the EU will surely make its MEDIA funds available for this – and the Commission, Parliament (and possibly less so the Council) would be happy to offer some insights and filming opportunities. So, all this should be set – if we only found the script writers!

Would this help to explain the EU?

Yes, I think very much so, if it was closely as intelligent as West Wing was. An overdrawn Delors or Barroso character as president, annoying Council presidencies and leaders from the EP would surely challenge the 13th floor team every day and offer sufficient material. There is enough crisis, both domestic and internationally, to offer stories and with its new-found powers in external relations there could even be some shady military/secret stuff going on. With all this, there is sufficient dynamism in the EU to make the 13th floor an exciting TV experience. Maybe this is exactly what is needed to explain the functioning of the machinery? – If timed well, it could even reveal the (recent) behind-the-doors selection of the current president and play a more democratic, primary-based selection of the next Commission President. If such were to happen in the 13th floor, this would not only bring light to the complexities of EU policy-making but also encourage debate towards the 2014 elections. What a difference this would make!?

My title suggestion would be Berlaymont by the way…

Picture from FCO/flickr with Creative Commons

Diese Woche hat die CDU endlich ihre Plakatmotive zur Bundestagswahl vorgestellt. Kaum überraschend für die CDU geht es einmal wieder vorrangig um Köpfe ihres bekannten Spitzenpersonals. Netzpolitik und andere haben sich zu Recht gleich über die provozierenden Gebote von “Freiheit und Sicherheit” vor Innenminister Wolfang Schäuble hergemacht. Ausgezeichnet ist in diesem Zusammenhang ihr Remix-Tool für einen veränderten Text über Schäuble.

Ich hab dies zum Anlass genommen, meine letzte Hoffnung für eine bessere Freiheitspolitik in einem Abschieben von Schäuble nach Brüssel auszudrücken und eröffne hiermit offiziell seine Kampagne “Ich bin der Überwachungs-Opa, schickt mich nach Europa”:

Was passierte also?

Am 23. Februar wurden in der Brüsseler Bibliotheque Solvay die Preise an die European Green Capitals Hamburg (für 2011) und Stockholm (für 2010) vergeben. Die Grüne Hamburger Umweltsenatorin nahm den Preis für ihre Stadt entgegen und im Hintergrund hängt neben der EU Flagge die DDR Fahne (s. BILD Bericht oder Hamburger Abendblatt). Den Kommissionsmitarbeitern ist der Fauxpas anscheinend schnell aufgefallen, so dass sie das Foto im Nachhinein für die eigene Website retuschiert haben.

Auch wenn BILD im Artikel klarstellt, dass es kein Fehler der Kommission war, da das Event von einer externen Agentur durchgeführt wurde, ist doch die Überschrift (“EU hisst DDR-Flagge”) eindeutig irreführend. Typisch BILD.

Auf Nachfrage bei Freunden, die in der Bibliotheque arbeiten, sind aber auch die Hausherren von Friends of Europe nicht für die Beflaggung verantwortlich gewesen sondern die externe Agentur. Mal sehen, ob sich noch herausfinden lässt, welche Agentur dies war… es wird natürlich hier veröffentlicht.

As much as I will try to improve my writing on this blog, I must admit that I have become a little unfaithful. I have started to blog about career perspectives for the LSE’s Finalists Blog and I will also try to share some thoughts about the EU budget on a new project called FollowTheMoney.eu. But whenever I feel that my comments on those blogs can also be interesting for my readers here, I shall notify you here.

But let’s call it a night – and a happy new year – with this great New Year’s card from our old family friend Ilja from Slovakia who reminds us of the great development of Slovakia joining the Euro by Januar 1st 2009.

Super Werbung der Frankfurter Rundschau!