“Sven-Göran Eriksson, confronted with arguably Europe's weakest qualifying group, has a problem; it is the same one that afflicted Jacques Santini, the France coach at the time, before Euro 2004. Not that there are no easy matches at international level; rather, there are no hard ones. In qualifying for the 2004 European Championship finals, France faced a group not of death, but of sun-block, comprising Slovenia, Israel, Cyprus and Malta, which they duly won by ten points, averaging 3.6 goals per game. We all know what happened next.” KnowsHardProblemNextGamesEasyGoalLevelsSunHappenedGroupsFootballTenEuropeFinalsInternationalIsraelCoachesBlockFranceSoccerRanAnalysisChampionshipEuroQualifyingCyprusMalta Author:Martin Samuel
“This going into Europe will not turn out to be the thrilling mutual exchange supposed. It is more like nine middle-aged couples with failing marriages meeting in a darkened bedroom in a Brussels hotel for a group grope.” TurnsFailingGroupsMiddleCoupleEuropeMeetingsNineHotelMutualBedroomThrillingMiddle AgedBrussels Author:E. P. Thompson
“Protestants are the more segmented group. Mainline churches - you have problems in the U.S., Europe, the Scottish Church, the Dutch Protestant Church, the state church in Norway. The evangelicals have been pro Israel, but a major effort is to bring them in on the Palestinian side. A huge problem and the problems are rising.” Has BeensStatesProblemSidesChurchEffortGroupsHugeMajorsEuropeIsraelRisingPalestinianProtestantsScottishDutchNorway Author:Manfred Gerstenfeld
“Well, I think here there is some money gathered, especially in Europe, through the web, through connection to a network. I mean, imagine that in Brussels there is only one person, one single person, which is monitoring the traffic that goes on on the internet for the jihadist groups. In Strasbourg there are two people. So I mean you can imagine how easy it is to raise money through the net.” PeopleThinkingWellsMeanPersonsTwoEasyImagineGroupsGoes OnInternetEuropeConnectionsRaisesImagine ThatTrafficSingle PersonMonitoringBrussels Author:Loretta Napoleoni
“What interested me the most was that when I [traveled to Europe] I knew what Joseph Beuys was doing, he knew what I was doing, and we both, we just started to talk. How did I know what Daniel Buren was doing, and to an extent, he knew exactly what I was doing? How did everybody know? It's an interesting thing. I'm still fascinated by it because, why is it now, with the Internet and everything else, you get whole groups of artists who have chosen to be regional? They really are only with the people they went to school with.” PeopleKnowsStillsWholeSchoolArtistInterestingGroupsInternetEuropeChosenFascinatedTraveledInteresting Things Author:Lawrence Weiner
“How many young people, how many young people of our Europe, whom we have left empty of ideals, who do not have work... they take drugs, alcohol, or go there to enlist in fundamentalist groups.” PeopleYoungLeftGroupsDrugEuropeIdealsEmptyAlcoholFundamentalist Author:Pope Francis
“I have criticized it [Europe], but I repeat: we keep 40 percent of our gold and foreign currency reserves in euros, we are not interested in the collapse of the Eurozone, but I do not rule out the possibility of decisions being made that would consolidate a group of countries equal in economic development and this, in my opinion, will lead to a consolidation of the euro. But there can also be some interim decisions in order to keep the present number of members of the Eurozone unchanged.” MadeCountryOrderDecisionNumbersOpinionGroupsEconomicPossibilityDevelopmentEqualMembersPercentEuropeGoldRepeatsCollapseNot InterestedCurrencyReservesEuroEconomic DevelopmentConsolidationEurozoneInterim Author:Vladimir Putin
“The U.S. and, to a certain extent, countries in Europe as well, have experienced growing inequality within their population for decades - a small group of people own the lion's share of the wealth. Populists take advantage of this, and their policies are extremely hard to predict. And this has serious consequences. Companies shy away from risk, postponing their investment decisions in times of uncertainty, the stock markets get nervous and unemployment threatens to increase.” PeopleWellsCountryHardCertainWealthDecisionCompanyGrowingRiskGroupsSharePolicySeriousConsequenceEuropeAdvantageIncreaseInvestmentPopulationDecadesNervousInequalityUncertaintyShyLionsUnemploymentSmall GroupsPopulistPostponing Author:Nicholas Bloom
“America did not need to be discovered because quite simply America had the American-Indians. There were whole groups of people that already lived there including very developed societies such as the Incas, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. But then came the European vision that saw the conquest as a source of advanced growth away from medieval Europe. The new revolutionary bourgeois trend formed a new perspective on what was democracy that they saw as an improvement to the democracy of ancient Greece.” PeopleNeedsWholeAmericaGrowthVisionDemocracySawsGroupsSourcePerspectiveEuropeIncludingAncientImprovementRevolutionaryTrendsConquestGreeceMedievalBourgeoisNew PerspectiveAncient GreeceMayansMedieval EuropeIncas Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“There is a theory going around that the U.S.A. was and still is a gigantic Masonic plot under the ultimate control of the group known as the Illuminati. It is difficult to look for long at the strange single eye crowning the pyramid which is found on every dollar bill and not begin to believe the story, a little. Too many anarchists in 19th-century Europe—Bakunin, Proudhon, Salverio Friscia—were Masons for it to be pure chance. Lovers of global conspiracy, not all of them Catholic, can count on the Masons for a few good shivers and voids when all else fails.” BelieveLooksLittlesLongStillsStoriesEyeFoundDifficultChanceKnownFailingGroupsCenturyStrangeTheoryLoversPureEuropeUltimateCatholicBillsDollarsPlotVoidConspiracyAnarchistPyramids19th CenturyShiverMasonsMasonicDollar BillsWhen All Else FailsSingle Eye Author:Thomas Pynchon