I recently wrote to Loz Kaye, the leader of the UK Pirate Party, to congratulate him and his party on their brother’s and sister’s victory in Berlin. I pointed out that in Europe they were at a cross roads. As they grow in maturity and power as a political party, something yet to occur in the UK, it will become harder to talk to and work with supporters in other political parties. There is a mature balancing act to be taken in advancing their ideas, most of which I agree with, and winning political power. In my mind, they have to find a route between supporting the growth of broad campaigning groups such as the ORG or building their own organisation. There is a tendency in both the Liberal Democrats and the British Trotskyist movement to consider each new party member a victory for the cause. Both parties often win these cadres at the cost of those they create, dispirited by defeat who give up on politics. Each person who gives up on politics and hope is a loss to democracy, and we are not winning. …
Rainbows in Berlin
Berlin, that other potential capital of Europe has voted today, and Chancellor Merkel’s ConDem alliance has not done well. This follows the election of a Social Democrat led government in Denmark earlier this week. Is Northern Europe turning left? German Wave, aka Deutsche Welle reports the Berlin results here. …
Europe’s largest supercomputer
The Forshung Julich phase two super computer, now Europe’s largest, had its formal opening session last week and Mark Hamiltion, Sun VP who leads our HPC team went to visit them, and recorded it on his blog, in a couple of articles dated as at the end of May, because it runs on Sun. He wrote three articles, several of them with lots of pictures. …
Dave’s European Trip
I undertook a European trip, visiting Sun staff in Sweden and Italy. I posted a travelogue style couple of blogs in my sun/oracle blog some of which I reposted here in July 2016. I report on my travel experiences, lingering too long on the airports. I also reflect on some aspects of doing business in Italy. …