Telephone Directory Brussels

What secrecy did for European procurement

In 27 directorates. That's almost three document management systems for each directorate that has them. They must have a hell of a time managing their documents. Because you can bet your life none of these document management systems talk to one another. Software suppliers design their systems so they don't talk to one another, so they can cream more money off the exchequer that would be better spent on educating school children about the dangers of unscrupulous software suppliers. In 10 directorates. That's nearly six different strategic perspectives in each directorate with a strategic system. With such severely schizophrenic directorates, God only knows how José Manuel Barroso manages to get a strategic view of them all. Even Stephen Hawking would fail to get grip of that lot. He can only think in 11 dimensions. Which companies, for example, have been getting paid for this waste? And for how long? How much did their sales people earn by pulling the wool over the eyes of the civil service? Into whose pockets did all this money go? Whoever they are, their pensions are probably more well endowed than the working-age income of those poor souls EC money is usually reserved to help.

The Wisdom of the Phone Book | The Brussels Journal

One will not likely find many people in the Boston phone book who would prefer to join the foreign army than their own in the event of a war between the United States and a foreign nation. In Europe, that certainty no longer exists.

Last week, my good friend David Brooks reminded us of a famous saying of the late Bill Buckley. As Buckley said, he would rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty.

There is usually more common sense, indeed wisdom, in the opinions of the common man than in the theories of intellectuals and even of professional politicians.

On opening the Brussels phone book and browsing through its first 2,000 names, however, one quickly realizes that to advocate Buckley's advice in contemporary Western Europe would lead to the installation of rulers with names reminiscent of Arabian Nights, names such as Aarab, Abbas, Abdel Kader, Abdellaoui, Al Mahi, Al Maghreb El Jadid, ...

The face of the old continent is changing faster than many realize and the repercussions are already being felt in Europe's elections. In many countries the Muslim vote is on the brink of tipping or has already tipped the electoral balance. Most immigration into Europe has been welfare immigration. Hence, it is no wonder that the immigrant vote favors the Left.

In the Netherlands, 70% of the immigrants participated in the 2006 Dutch general elections, with over 80% of them voting for the left. In the 2005 German general elections, 94% of the Germans of immigrant (mainly Turkish) origin voted for the parties of the left - Socialists, Greens or "Post"-Communists – who gained 51.1% of the national vote. In France, a country with over 10% Muslims, their electoral clout has become so important that even the far-right Front National tries to attract part of the Muslim vote.

The new generation of immigrant politicians cater for their fellow Muslims. They have little in common with the former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born immigrant who was a Muslim apostate advocating anti-islamic legislation. Ms Hirsi Ali left the Dutch parliament in 2006 and moved to the United States.

The telephone

The Telephone

Provides an introduction to the history and development of the telephone and explains how a telephone works.

The telephone

The telephone, an account of the phenomena of electricity, magnetism, and sound, as involved in its action. With directions for making a speaking telephone

The popular exhibitions of the speaking-telephone during the past six months, together with numerous newspaper articles, have created a widespread interest ...

The telephone, outlines of the development of transmitters and receivers

THE TELEPHONE. OUTLINES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSMITTERS AND RECEIVERS. CHAPTER I. SOUND. Any body which is emitting sound waves is in vibration, ...