Germany

Friday November 8, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 8, 2019

Western Order Reels on Berlin Wall Anniversary

June 19, 2018

The stage is set at the Brandenburg Gate, the dignitaries are assembling — but 30 years on, is there much cause to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall?

The iconic moment of 1989 crowned a year of revolution that toppled communist regimes across the Soviet bloc, marking the end of the Cold War and the start of a hopeful new era.

The global divisions caused by the 1991 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq stopped that in its tracks. Optimism quickly turned to cynicism, economic boom to bust, and electorates began to look for new answers.

June 9, 2018

Today, the western liberal order that prevailed in 1989 is crumbling. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is resurgent, communist China is the world’s second-biggest economy, and the U.S. under Donald Trump openly scorns multilateralism, belittles NATO and calls the European Union a foe.

But even as the west looks spent, it’s too early to administer the last rites.

The global climate emergency upends politics as we know it and represents a chance for the west to lead, even if Greta Thunberg complains it’s not enough. Europe is a green energy powerhouse. Environmental concerns top the EU’s agenda. Germany’s Green party is vying for first place in opinion polls.

A Green chancellor of Europe’s dominant country: Few could have imagined that in 1989. (Financial Post)

In 1989, a suggestion was drawn in my comic strip Alas & Alack that Donald Trump would buy the Berlin Wall. Interesting prophesy on how history would eventually play out with a future U.S. President and his penchant for walls and keeping people divided.


 

Wednesday September 23, 2015

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday September 23, 2015 This is the refugee debate we ought to be having Dieter Zetsche surprised attendees of the Frankfurt auto show recently when he interrupted a presentation to opine on the 800,000 Syrian refugees that are expected to flood into Germany this year. The mustachioed chairman of Daimler AG, which makes Mercedes luxury cars, suggested the influx of asylum seekers could Òhelp foster another economic miracleÓ by offsetting the challenges posed by the countryÕs rapidly aging population. Zetsche went on to say the carmaker would help pay for housing for migrants in Stuttgart, while rival Volkswagen, not to be outdone, said it would find them trainee jobs. In Canada, by contrast, politicians have failed to draw a similar link between accepting large numbers of Syrian refugees and the potential for future economic growth, despite being in the midst of a federal election where economic matters are said to be top of mind among voters. Instead, the debate is focused narrowly on the need to balance humanitarian assistance with national security concernsÑnot that the number being talked about would have much of an economic impact anyway. The Harper governmentÕs promise to take another look at its policy, following significant public outcry, only resulted in a commitment to speed up by 15 months the resettlement of 10,000 Syrians, not accept more of them. Meanwhile, Tom MulcairÕs NDP has proposed bringing 10,000 refugees into the country by the end of this year, while Justin TrudeauÕs Liberals have promised to bring in 25,000 by January. It all raises an obvious question: Are we not only missing out on the chance to help those in desperate need, but a historic economic opportunity, too? (Continued: MacLeans) http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/this-is-the-refugee-debate-we-ought-to-be-having/ Germany, migrants, refugees, Syria, Europe, Volkswagen, automobile, emissions, stan

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 23, 2015

This is the refugee debate we ought to be having

Dieter Zetsche surprised attendees of the Frankfurt auto show recently when he interrupted a presentation to opine on the 800,000 Syrian refugees that are expected to flood into Germany this year. The mustachioed chairman of Daimler AG, which makes Mercedes luxury cars, suggested the influx of asylum seekers could “help foster another economic miracle” by offsetting the challenges posed by the country’s rapidly aging population. Zetsche went on to say the carmaker would help pay for housing for migrants in Stuttgart, while rival Volkswagen, not to be outdone, said it would find them trainee jobs.

In Canada, by contrast, politicians have failed to draw a similar link between accepting large numbers of Syrian refugees and the potential for future economic growth, despite being in the midst of a federal election where economic matters are said to be top of mind among voters.

Instead, the debate is focused narrowly on the need to balance humanitarian assistance with national security concerns—not that the number being talked about would have much of an economic impact anyway. The Harper government’s promise to take another look at its policy, following significant public outcry, only resulted in a commitment to speed up by 15 months the resettlement of 10,000 Syrians, not accept more of them. Meanwhile, Tom Mulcair’s NDP has proposed bringing 10,000 refugees into the country by the end of this year, while Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have promised to bring in 25,000 by January.

It all raises an obvious question: Are we not only missing out on the chance to help those in desperate need, but a historic economic opportunity, too? (Continued: MacLeans)

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Tuesday, February 10, 2015Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Angela Merkel meets Obama, set for private briefing with Stephen Harper

For Sale from the MacKayCartoons BoutiqueGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Ottawa later today to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper an update on her frenzied transatlantic shuttle diplomacy on the Ukraine crisis.

The Canadian Press has learned Merkel’s supper-hour arrival in Ottawa for talks with Harper will allow the prime minister to receive a private briefing on the West’s renewed push to end the continued fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Monday November 17, 2014Ukraine’s military has been battling Russian-backed separatists since April in a conflict that the United Nations says has killed 5,300 people, a figure that has spiked in recent weeks.

Merkel was in Washington this morning for a previously scheduled meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, amid reports of a rift between the U.S. and Europe over whether to arm Ukraine’s military.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Merkel, Obama said Russian aggression against Ukraine has reinforced the unity of the U.S. and its partners in Europe and around the world. If Russia continues on its current course, he added, its political and economic isolation will worsen.

Obama said Russia has violated nearly every commitment it made in a previous deal reached in Minsk. He said instead of withdrawing troops, Russian forces have continued to operate in eastern Ukraine and to co-ordinate attacks.

He says Russia has sent in more tanks, heavy artillery and armoured personnel. Obama says separatists have seized more territory with Russia’s support. (Source: Toronto Star)

Wednesday July 30, 2014

Wednesday July 30, 2014Wednesday July 30, 2014

Germans concerned about CETA investor protection rules: Ambassador

Germany is concerned about the hotly-disputed investor protection measures in Canada-European trade talks, German Ambassador Werner Wnendt says, but adds it’s not likely to derail the five-year-old negotiations.

Wnendt said a German newspaper report that Berlin would not sign a Canada-EU pact containing an investor protection clause was premature and “is not the position of the German government.”

Monday, October 21, 2013“This is much too early at this point in time to say that because we still wait for the treaty as such as it’s been negotiated between the (European) Commission and the Canadian government,” he told CBC-TV Monday. “We haven’t seen the final proposal.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a tentative free-trade deal with the EU last October, but talks have yet to wrap up. Canada is hoping the next major hurdle in the negotiations can be cleared by September, with the two sides initialing a ready-to-be-approved agreement.

But rising European concerns about an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in the Canada-EU deal could put its eventual ratification in doubt.
The Canadian government is silent on the details of the talks, but business sources say the issue of how to resolve disputes between foreign corporations and governments under a future pact is the last outstanding element in the negotiations.

ISDS provisions allow multinational corporations that believe they are being treated unfairly to sue a government before a special tribunal rather than the normal court system. While business says such measures ensure investor security, opponents say they allow corporations to thwart government attempts to regulate on behalf of the public.

“There are concerns among Germans that such a clause may mean that eventually legislation will have to be changed in Germany and other European countries,” Wnendt said. “It is something that needs to be taken seriously by the government, of course, and that’s being discussed.” He said it will need to be addressed by the European Commission and the European people once the ready-to-be-approved agreement is signed.

NoEhHe noted that Germany believes special tribunals to adjudicate investor-state disputes are unnecessary in countries like Canada and those in Europe where the regular court systems are capable of handling such legal conflicts.

The Canadian government has dismissed the notion that ISDS issues might hold up the Canada-EU negotiations. “Excellent progress” is being made in the talks, a government spokesperson said.

But initialing the deal in September would be only one step in an approval process that could last another 18 months or longer. Besides being ratified in Ottawa, the Canada-EU pact, officially known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), will have to win final approval from the European Parliament, each of the 28 member states of the EU and the European Council, which brings together the heads of the 28 states and the European Commission president. (Source: Toronto Star)

Friday June 6 2014

Friday June 6 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 6 2014

Thousands of veterans, visitors mark 70th anniversary of D-Day

Ceremonies to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day are drawing thousands of visitors to the cemeteries, beaches and stone-walled villages of Normandy this week, including some of the few remaining survivors of the largest sea-borne invasion ever mounted.

World leaders and dignitaries including President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II will gather to honour the more than 150,000 American, British, Canadian and other Allied D-Day veterans who risked and gave their lives to defeat Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

For many visitors, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial with its 9,387 white marble tombstones on a bluff overlooking the site of the battle’s bloodiest fighting at Omaha Beach is the emotional centrepiece of pilgrimages to honour the tens of thousands of men killed on D-Day and the months of fighting afterward.

D-Day veteran Clair Martin, 93, said he’s come back to Omaha Beach three times in the last 70 years — “four if you count the time they were shooting at me.”

The San Diego, California resident landed on D-Day with the 29th Infantry Division and said he kept fighting until he reached the Elbe River in Germany the following April. “I praise God I made it and that we’ve never had another World War,” he said.

Ceremonies large and small are taking place across Normandy, ahead of an international summit on Friday in Ouistreham, a small port that was the site of a strategic battle on D-Day. French President Francois Hollande’s decision to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the official ceremony despite his exclusion from the G-7 summit in Brussels is being seen by some as justified recognition of the Soviet Union’s great sacrifice in defeating Hitler, but by others as a distraction given the West’s dispute with Russia over Ukraine.

With many D-Day veterans now in their 90s, this year’s anniversary has the added poignancy of being the last time that many of those who took part in the battle will be able to make the long journey back to Normandy and tell their stories. (Source: Toronto Star)