On January 1, 2006, Austria will
assume the presidency of the European Union. In that role, Austria will
be chairing meetings of the Council of the EU and European Council, as
well as most working groups and COREPER, the committee of Member
States' Ambassadors to the European Union.
Arlington County may be one of the
smallest counties in the United States, but it is far from
insignificant in its efforts to support an innovation- and
technology-based economy. The county covers about 26 miles
directly across the Potomac River from Washington DC. It was originally
part of the nation’s capital but, in 1846, the portion that today
constitutes Arlington County was restored to the Commonwealth of
Virginia. Arlington’s geographic shape constitutes the left-hand corner
of the diamond that made up the original District of Columbia.
An expert in an unlikely place
Few
Austrians would be able to locate the Nicobar Islands on a map of the
world. You cannot blame them: After all, Austria’s colonial adventures
on the Nicobar Islands are not a subject widely taught in Austrian
schools. This apparent lack of interest makes it all the more
astonishing that the world’s leading expert on the Nicobarese, the
inhabitants of the aforementioned island group, works at the Institute
of Social Ecology, a research institute based in Vienna, 5000 miles
away from the subjects of his research. But what’s even more amazing is
that this researcher, who is originally from India, came all the way to
Vienna unaware that there was one very good reason to carry out his
research in Vienna.
Dr. Simron Jit Singh, a modest man, would
likely bristle at the suggestion that he is the world’s leading expert
on one of the two indigenous tribes that live in the Nicobar Islands.
But his recently published book on the Nicobar Islands and the cultural
choices that the Nicobarese face in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami
will certainly establish him as one of the world’s foremost experts on
the Nicobarese.
January 1, 2006, is just a few days
away. The closer we get to the takeoff of the Austrian EU Presidency,
the more we are focusing our ambitions on service. The term “ambition”
is potentially ambiguous, but EU rhetoric is fond of glossing things
over, at the risk of sometimes missing the link to real life. Austria’s
goal when holding the chair of the EU for six months is not a
saving-the-planet sort of ambition. It’s simply – Service.
with expert contribution on The Avian Fluby Canice Nolan
People are reminded of SARS, BSE, and foot-and-mouth disease when
seeing Avian Influenza hitting the headlines of media from the New York Times, to Time Magazine, the National Geographic, and Business Week. Even Foreign Affairs
is covered with articles on “The next pandemic.” President Bush made
news when he announced an “International Partnership on Avian and
Pandemic Influenza” at the UN summit in New York in September 2005.
Few
Austrians would be able to locate the Nicobar Islands on a map of the
world. You cannot blame them: After all, Austria’s colonial adventures
on the Nicobar Islands are not a subject widely taught in Austrian
schools. This apparent lack of interest makes it all the more
astonishing that the world’s leading expert on the Nicobarese, the
inhabitants of the aforementioned island group, works at the Institute
of Social Ecology, a research institute based in Vienna, 5000 miles
away from the subjects of his research. But what’s even more amazing is
that this researcher, who is originally from India, came all the way to
Vienna unaware that there was one very good reason to carry out his
research in Vienna.