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Good Obama, Bad Obama

Another Obama Diplomatic Faux Pas: Kicks Sarkozy To The Curb In Favor Of Former Prez Chirac

From AOL News:

French press outlets are reporting on another foreign policy gaffe committed by the Obama Administration. President Obama recently sent a letter to French President Jacques Chirac (French) expressing Obama’s desire “work together…to build a safer world.” It’s a nice sentiment. The only problem is that Chirac has not been president of France for over two years. The current French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is not a fan of Obama’s foreign policy plans, especially in regard to Iran, and now is reported to be upset by the president’s outreach to his predecessor.

The snub is the third in a string of recent foreign policy missteps by the Administration. In the first, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a symbolic “reset” button, which was meant as a lighthearted ice-breaker from the new Administration to the former foe. But the humor fell flat when Lavrov informed Clinton that the gift was emblazoned with the Russian word for “overcharge,” not reset. Next came the disastrous visit by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier this month. British officials were reportedly taken back by the Obama Administration’s refusal to adhere to standard protocol, declining a joint press conference, and hastily scheduling a brief Oval Office appearance of the two leaders. That was followed by revelation of the president’s embarassingly minimalist gift to Brown, a set of 25 DVDs of classic American films. The DVDs were coded to play only in North America, making them virtually useless to the leader of America’s greatest ally. Now, the Obama Administration has apprently angered the president of France.

The Obama Administration may be too preoccupied with handling the economic downturn here at home to pay much attention to foreign policy courtesies. But American administrations are expected to be able to manage multiple tasks at once. Thus far, the White House has been neglecting foreign policy, as the mistakes show, after promising during the campaign to rekindle ties with America’s allies abroad. The president would be well advised to spend more of his time tending to relationships with foreign leaders before his Administration’s early clumsiness becomes an international liability.

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Government At Work: Another Monument To Failure

The Local:

A pair of stone-age boats, thought to be the oldest in Europe, have been allowed to rot in a partially collapsed shed while the northern German regional archaeology authorities stood by broke and helpless, it emerged this week.

The two 7,000-year-old wooden boats and a third one thought to be around 6,000 years old, were hailed as a sensation when they were found during construction work on the Baltic coast near Stralsund in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern seven years ago.

But now they are effectively ruined, after a lack of funds resulted in them being stored inappropriately. “It is a loss for Germany if not for the whole world,” said Andreas Grüger, director of the Stralsund historical museum.

The boats had been entrusted to the Authorities for Culture and Preservation of Ancient Monuments in Schwerin for restoration and conservation. But Michael Bednorz, head of the State Office admitted that financial difficulties meant that they were kept in a shed instead of an appropriate space.

“The log boats are only an example for our problems,” he said.

“They are a drastic illustration of what happens when the regional authorities cannot fulfil their obligations.”

Although much damage was inflicted during the first two years of storage, they were then further damaged when the shed they were stored in partially collapsed in 2004. Yet still they were not moved to safety.

The state office’s storage facilities have less than a good reputation – mice have chewed up ancient documents in the main archive mice while a water leakage destroyed precious artefacts in another depot.

The remains of the boats have now been sent to the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin where students are planning to investigate the extent of the damage and draw up a plan to save at least fragments.

Silence is Golden