Just back from a thought-inspiring week's break in the middle Rhine valley - and a reminder of the achievements of Hildegard of Bingen, Field Marshall Blucher and Johannes Gutenberg. Last year I was able to comment on those of Martin Luther and Friedrich Ebert.
Three points for reflection
1. Does Damscheid (beautiful village in the Rhein-Hunsruck-Kreis, population 640) need a Mayor and, if so, what follows from that decision?
2. In entities where the political tradition is of one where what is not permitted is forbidden, how easy is it for open and competitive market economies to emerge?
3. What are the consequences for 21st century Europe of the fact that Germany was Europe's battlefield for so many centuries?
More on these in the coming posts - and the link to the idea of a true union of peoples
Introduction
About me
Books I've enjoyed recently...
- "On the beach" - Neville Shute (his gripping cold war novel about the last survivors on the planet - in Melbourne - of a nuclear exchange in the Northern hemisphere. One of the few books which, once started, you really can't put down. The film version - more soap opera than a real challenge to complacency - lacks the same sense of impending doom)
- "The road to serfdom" - Friedrich Hayek (deserves a periodic re-read to remind us that in a totalitarian societies the tyranny is the point of everything, not just an unfortunate by-product)
- "People like us - Misrepresenting the Middle East" - Joris Luyendijk (A Dutch journalist's reflections on five years in the Middle East - reminding us that "Syria is not a country with an army but an army with a country"
- "Occupational hazards" - Rory Stewart MP (the on the ground story of his time as a Deputy Provincial Governor in post-Saddam Iraq)
- "The end of the Party" - Andrew Rawnsley (the definitive word on the catastrophe of New Labour)
- "Off message" - Bob Marshall-Andrews (memoirs - you don't have to agree with everything he says to enjoy this book)
- "Elizabeth's spymaster" - Robert Hutchinson (the life of Sir Francis Walsingham and the dilemmas of keeping England safe from domestic and foreign threat)
- "When a crocodile eats the sun" - Peter Godwin (a personal family account of the unfolding tragedy in Zimbabwe)
- "Spin" - Martin Sixsmith (a novel(?) about New Labour)
- "The shadow of the sun" (wise perspectives on Africa from the late Polish foreign correspondent Ryszard Kapuscinski)
- "Out of my comfort zone" - Steve Waugh's autobiography (as good a book on management and career management as I've read for a long time)
- "Fantasy Island" - Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson (on Tony Blair's legacy and the UK's unbalanced economy)
- "Murder in Amsterdam" - Ian Buruma (on the murder of Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh)
Must see...
- "Tinker,Tailor,Soldier,Spy" ("Spooks" 1970s style, though I can' t see Sir Harry swimming in the lake in Hyde Park....)
- "Dr Strangelove" (needs no introduction as the classic Cold War black comedy)
- Any episode of "Spooks" (essential viewing for anyone in public decision making)
- "Hotel Rwanda" (a reminder that genocide has touched recent history)
- "The lives of others" (a reminder of what the Stasi were like - a counterweight to the (also outstanding) "Goodbye Lenin")
If you like this site, try....
Recently published
- "Smart public service delivery in a cold economic climate" by Michael Burnett in "Driving Public Sector Excellence" (available from www.epsa2011.eu)
- Competitive Dialogue - A practical guide by Michael Burnett (available from www.eipa.eu)
- Public-Private Partnerships - A decision maker's guide by Michael Burnett (available from www.eipa.eu)
