Today, we are all Ségolène!

Today, the French people elected Mr. Nicolas Sarcozy, a conservative, to be a new French president, for the next five years. He got about 53% of the votes, and Ms. Ségolène Royal, a socialist candidate, got 47% of the votes.

Whenever a new elections bring some change in the world’s key countries, which France undoubtedly is, for the last several years, I have an impression that no good results are to be expected for the world. Looks like the new generation of conservative politicians are reviving national sentiments, which they like to call “traditional values”. In Europe, conservatives usually bring closing of the country for the immigrants, decline in European integration, neoconservative policies with a bit of racial flavour.

Court Denies Access to Justice: Yes, Guantanamo Again…

I decided to put this post in the “International law” category, but also in the “World politics”, because of my sincere opinion that this is far from being simply matter for international lawyers to discuss, but that this is for a long time a political issue par excellence. Yesterday, an US federal Court of Appeals decided that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear any habeas corpus appeal by any of the Guantanamo detainees.

When I read a decision in it’s integral version, I will give my “precious legalistic opinion” on this, but for the time being, I want to share that in my opinion, this is just another outrageous decision that goes against fundamental civilized values American society is built on.

Sladjana

In 1992, during the armed conflict in Bosnia, corridor between the two parts of the territory of the Bosnian Serb Republic was cut by enemy forces. The hospital in Banjaluka, the capital of Serbian Republic, had a shortage of oxygen for incubators. The shipment of the oxygen was sent from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, but could not reach the destination. Enemy forces did not allow the transport of the shipment through the corridor, with explanation they wanted to prevent weapons to be smuggled along with the shipment. Because of the same doubts, the UN peace forces did not allow the transport of the shipment. 12 babies died in the hospital that horrible night. One baby, Sladjana, did survive…

A year ago, more than 13 years after, Sladjana passed on. During these 13 years, she had numerous health problems because of the lack of oxygen in the first hours of her life. 14 months before she died, she was diagnosed to have cancer of bones.

My New York Days

New York is a great city. Capital of the world. Every nation and every language have at least one representative here. All of them live in peace and harmony. New York is a project which proofs that it is possible. Cosmopolitan spirit? Yes, for sure! Life here is completely different from the way of life I used to see in Europe. I used to think how my life would probably be completely different if I was living and studied here. One could say that the sole fact that I was thinking about that, might be a sign that I regret I didn’t. Those who know me would probably confirm that I do regret. If you ask me, well, I am not sure.