Football, politics etc

So it's now time of the European Championships. Since Estonian football officially sucks so much that even geese could probably beat us, I'm rooting for Holland. Obviously :P

I have a feeling that the Dutch have a "sour grapes" relationship with football. They tend to do well enough but haven't won anything major since 1988. This has been enhanced even more in the past 2 years when the new Dutch national team's coach has been heavily critisized (or so I hear, I really haven't been paying much attention up until the day before yesterday) for picking very young inexperienced players instead of already famous players. He is now vindicated - the young and by now experienced - Dutch team beat the World Champions the Italians in their first game of the turnament 3-0. Now, admittedly, the Italians were probably taken a bit by surprise and then lost morale... but still.

What I found really wonderful about that match was how NICE everyone was, especially compared to the Spain-Russia and Sweden-Greece games yesterday where you could cut animosity with a knife, so to speak.




another EC, this time the European Commission has accepted yet another directive (still needs to pass in the European Parliament) which caused quite a buzz in the office yesterday because it allows people to work 60 hours a week.

Now, people hear that and go "no way, I'm NOT doing that". But in fact the law, after reading the original one from 2003 and the agreed amendments, is actually very reasonable. It says that a standard working week is a maximum 48 hours INCLUDING overtime. In some cases it is possible to opt out - for example if the nature of the job requires constant presence, such as on drilling platforms or when on call - and in THAT case, and only with the written consent of the employee is it allowed to work at a maximum of 60 hours a week. It also betters the condition of temp workers *raises hand* where now the temps are eligible for full contracts after 3 months instead of 6 as before.



On another note, the Irish are voting on the Lisbon treaty soon. crap crappidy crap crap. If they say no, then the EU will be floundering about for another 3-5 years while Russia and US pick it apart state by state, playing one against the other. What the EU as an entity really needs is a unified foreign policy and that just isn't happening until the union is more, well, unified. I understand that a lot of the "old" EU countries are afraid of being outshouted by the "eastern bloc". Ok, fine, but why did they accept us in the first place then? did they really expect us to sit tight ans shut up while they auction our freedoms off to Russia yet again? what a load of hypocricy!

Breathe

Point is, I wish some of the oldies (you know which ones I mean) could get over their latent 19th-century-imperialistic thinking and settle themselves into the 21st century. If we are to be a union,we should be a strong one. One that upholds the uniqueness of each member state but shows a unified front to the rest of the world.