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'In continental news...'
with G. RHYDIAN MORGAN
in Knockaboy, EIRE
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
A Speedy Recovery
Bad Zwischenahn, Germany, now has a particularly novel form of breakdown
recovery.
When the driver of a car lost control of the vehicle, veered through a meadow and
plunged headlong into a two metre (six and a half feet) deep ditch, the
bodybuilders from the local gym took a break from their usual training routine to
help.
A police spokesman told the Reuters News Agency, “They dropped their sweat
towels and water bottles and ran over the road to the crash site. They then heaved
the car out.” The procedure apparently took no more than a couple of minutes, and
the happy hapless driver joined them in the bar of the fitness studio, and bought
them all an energy drink for their trouble.
Rumours that the men are going to start their own ‘green’ recovery firm are
unconfirmed.
La Justice Poetique, non?
The scandal-hit French bank Société Générale has revealed that owing to a failure
to read the small print, the bank’s insurance policy is unlikely to cover any significant
portion of the losses announced last month.
Attributed to rogue trading by a solitary junior employee, the losses of €4.9 billion
(£3.5 billion) were insured against fraud; but the amount the bank can receive is, in
this case, negligible.
"There is an insurance in the case of fraud but its amounts are capped and
completely marginal compared with the amount of the fraud," analysts heard from
finance director Frederic Oudea.
It seems then that the banking giant shares the same plight as all the people who
take out one of those insurance policies on financial products to cover the remotest
eventuality, only to find numerous exceptions, and when it does pay, it pays out a
pittance.
Breeders and bitches
In a judgment given Monday, Stockholm's appeals court found a kennel owner guilty
of discrimination, when she refused to sell a puppy to a lesbian woman.
The court ordered the breeder to pay a 20,000 kroner (€2,300) fine, saying in its
ruling that kennel owner, 51-year-old Anette Sjoeholm, was guilty of "discrimination
in the form of harassment." The decision upholds the finding of the lower court in
2006.
The claimant, Smila Bergstroem, had contacted Ms. Sjoeholm to purchase one of the
puppies advertised; but when she let it slip that she lived with another woman,
Sjoeholm had refused to go through with the sale. The kennel owner reportedly
made it clear to Bergstroem that she did not trust homosexuals, telling her she had
read that transvestites sexually abused animals.
The court gave no opinion of Ms Sjoeholm’s confusion of cross-dressing with being
gay.
All right in Ireland?
A senior Irish politician has voiced the opinion that the nation should consider giving
up driving on the left in order to reduce accidents by foreigners accustomed to right
side motoring.
Donie Cassidy, the leader of Ireland's upper chamber, the Senate, cited Sweden –
which moved to the right in 1967 – as an example of a country that made the
switch decades after most of Europe.
"We have all of these people coming in from Europe and from America and (because
of) the roads that they are used to driving on in their own countries it is a huge
difficulty when they start driving here," Cassidy told public broadcaster RTE. "I know
when I go to America it takes me five or six days to adjust."
As another remedy, Cassidy suggested in the Senate on Thursday that people from
countries driving on the right should observe a 50 mile (80 km) per hour speed limit,
compared with speeds up to 120 km permitted for Irish drivers.
The AA, the country’s premier motoring group said the idea was “completely
impractical.”
Rules and Reg.s
Serbia’s Health Ministry looks after more than just medical matters as new rules
issued by the department illustrate.
In measures designed to improve patient care in the nation’s hospitals, there will
henceforth be a ban on gossiping, grumpiness and rudeness. The new rules,
posted on the ministry’s website, advise staff that they are not aloud to criticise
either their superiors or their hospital, and that the acceptance of gifts in return for
their services is not permitted.
There had previously been a problem with staff accepting gifts as bribes for better
attention, or even treatment. "There need to be ground rules for decency," a
ministry spokesman said.
A ban on miniskirts is also in place.
© lizardmagazine.com, 2008
G. Rhydian Morgan's round-up of all the essential news from Europe appears every
Tuesday on The Lizard.
Back to the homepage
with G. RHYDIAN MORGAN
in Knockaboy, EIRE
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
A Speedy Recovery
Bad Zwischenahn, Germany, now has a particularly novel form of breakdown
recovery.
When the driver of a car lost control of the vehicle, veered through a meadow and
plunged headlong into a two metre (six and a half feet) deep ditch, the
bodybuilders from the local gym took a break from their usual training routine to
help.
A police spokesman told the Reuters News Agency, “They dropped their sweat
towels and water bottles and ran over the road to the crash site. They then heaved
the car out.” The procedure apparently took no more than a couple of minutes, and
the happy hapless driver joined them in the bar of the fitness studio, and bought
them all an energy drink for their trouble.
Rumours that the men are going to start their own ‘green’ recovery firm are
unconfirmed.
La Justice Poetique, non?
The scandal-hit French bank Société Générale has revealed that owing to a failure
to read the small print, the bank’s insurance policy is unlikely to cover any significant
portion of the losses announced last month.
Attributed to rogue trading by a solitary junior employee, the losses of €4.9 billion
(£3.5 billion) were insured against fraud; but the amount the bank can receive is, in
this case, negligible.
"There is an insurance in the case of fraud but its amounts are capped and
completely marginal compared with the amount of the fraud," analysts heard from
finance director Frederic Oudea.
It seems then that the banking giant shares the same plight as all the people who
take out one of those insurance policies on financial products to cover the remotest
eventuality, only to find numerous exceptions, and when it does pay, it pays out a
pittance.
Breeders and bitches
In a judgment given Monday, Stockholm's appeals court found a kennel owner guilty
of discrimination, when she refused to sell a puppy to a lesbian woman.
The court ordered the breeder to pay a 20,000 kroner (€2,300) fine, saying in its
ruling that kennel owner, 51-year-old Anette Sjoeholm, was guilty of "discrimination
in the form of harassment." The decision upholds the finding of the lower court in
2006.
The claimant, Smila Bergstroem, had contacted Ms. Sjoeholm to purchase one of the
puppies advertised; but when she let it slip that she lived with another woman,
Sjoeholm had refused to go through with the sale. The kennel owner reportedly
made it clear to Bergstroem that she did not trust homosexuals, telling her she had
read that transvestites sexually abused animals.
The court gave no opinion of Ms Sjoeholm’s confusion of cross-dressing with being
gay.
All right in Ireland?
A senior Irish politician has voiced the opinion that the nation should consider giving
up driving on the left in order to reduce accidents by foreigners accustomed to right
side motoring.
Donie Cassidy, the leader of Ireland's upper chamber, the Senate, cited Sweden –
which moved to the right in 1967 – as an example of a country that made the
switch decades after most of Europe.
"We have all of these people coming in from Europe and from America and (because
of) the roads that they are used to driving on in their own countries it is a huge
difficulty when they start driving here," Cassidy told public broadcaster RTE. "I know
when I go to America it takes me five or six days to adjust."
As another remedy, Cassidy suggested in the Senate on Thursday that people from
countries driving on the right should observe a 50 mile (80 km) per hour speed limit,
compared with speeds up to 120 km permitted for Irish drivers.
The AA, the country’s premier motoring group said the idea was “completely
impractical.”
Rules and Reg.s
Serbia’s Health Ministry looks after more than just medical matters as new rules
issued by the department illustrate.
In measures designed to improve patient care in the nation’s hospitals, there will
henceforth be a ban on gossiping, grumpiness and rudeness. The new rules,
posted on the ministry’s website, advise staff that they are not aloud to criticise
either their superiors or their hospital, and that the acceptance of gifts in return for
their services is not permitted.
There had previously been a problem with staff accepting gifts as bribes for better
attention, or even treatment. "There need to be ground rules for decency," a
ministry spokesman said.
A ban on miniskirts is also in place.
© lizardmagazine.com, 2008
G. Rhydian Morgan's round-up of all the essential news from Europe appears every
Tuesday on The Lizard.
Back to the homepage
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