Creative class accounting

It was American economist Richard Florida, who coined the term “creative class”. He described the phenomenon in his “Rise of the Creative Class”. Strategy-2020 by Vladimir Putin has introduced the term to Russian political science and economics. According to authors, it is the creative class that bears the innovative thinking and the entrepreneurship spirit. The hopes for the timely modernization are still pinned to it — deprived of that, Russia is destined to become yet another “third world” country.

What is to befall barrel and us?

Annual economic forum in St. Petersburg — pretentiously dubbed the “Russian Davos” — has come to an end. Neither its significance for the global economics, nor the ranks of the guests, nor the announced goals can match the Swiss ones, but peculiar aspects of it are crucial for our country.

RUSSIAN MARCH IN THE MIDDLE OF WARSAW?

Our glorious advance across the planet

Is dazzling, while noticed from afar

And Russian scriptures flaring on a granite

All over lavatory in Paris are

V. Vysotsky

EACH OF US IS A GREEK JEW

“Responding to the election of neo-Nazi MPs to the Greek parliament we proclaim in solidarity: ‘Each of us is a Greek Jew!’” We cannot reconcile with the fact that in Greece or any other country of our continent Gypsies or those of African descent have to fear for their very lives because of the sheer fact of being themselves”, — says the letter of European intellectuals,  published by several European newspapers. An occasion for such precaution was the Greek parliament elections, which took place on the May 6, this year. For the first time in the history an orthodox national-socialist party of Greece (Hrisi Avgi, which means Golden Dawn) got into the parliament with a result of 6.97%. Party holds Mein Kampf for the ideology, its logo looks suspiciously like swastika, party member greet each other with a notorious “Sieg”, only “Aryans by blood and Greeks by nationality” may be its members — and there goes all the appropriate Nazi bric-a-brac.

"CHURCH TITHE" IN EUROPE

27 May 2012, 06:25

Recent proposal by Vsevolod Chaplin to impose a “church tithe” in Russia caused more smiles than to protests, which have become the natural reaction to the initiatives of the Russian Orthodox Church chief PR-executive of late. Comments regarding the occasion may be reduced to a simple thesis that “we are about to find out the real number of true believers in Russia”. Having smiled with everyone else, I decided to peek at our European neighbors in order to understand how the educated European Union funds its churches (of which there are aplenty). Here I would like to share the results of my research with the progressive public.   

HUNGARY ON THE CURVE: WILL THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION «STRONGARM» ORBAN?

Sheer amount of reforms, which the current Hungarian government is engaged into, and, most of all, the volume of reformed economic and political institutions is unprecedented. Apart from Prime Minister Viktor Orban, no one, not even the members of his own government, seem to be aware of the complicated situation, which Hungary fetched itself in. The government is under tremendous pressure exerted by the international institutions. Orban awaits the IMF decision regarding the loan for Hungary with the strained attention — this loan may give the markets a positive signal.

QATAR: INFORMATION VACCUM AROUND THE «INFORMATION STATE»

About a week ago timid rumors about a failed coup in one of the most outstanding Arab states — Qatar — leaked to the outskirts of global information space. Its population is of match to a population of Udmurt Republic (federal subject of Russia) and makes about 1.700.000, but of late it has been laying claims for leadership within the renovated Gulf Cooperation Council, ousting the authority of Saudi Arabia.