The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat  The problem with the Euro is that it treats a country like Greece as if it is the same as Germany in terms of its economy, politics, culture and other aspects of its social fabric. We know very well that this is not the case as countries and cultures acquire ways of doing things in their own way. Greece cannot be turned into Germany, Germany cannot be turned into Greece and yet the single currency euro tries to do just that. Since 2008, Greece's economy has gone down 25%, loosing millions of jobs, forcing citizens to emigrate, pension schemes to collapse, loss of sovereignty and directly leading to the rise of ultra right and ultra left wing political parties. Germany is widely blamed by the Greek for their country's problems. People of Greece invoke second world war and occupation by Nazi Germany as an earlier example of German belligerence . Greeks argue that what Germans did militarily during the second world war , they are now doing to ...

IN THE centre of Sarajevo, Bosnia ’s capital, a gleaming piece of Arabic script adorns the top of a new building. This is the logo of Al Jazeera, the Qatari network that has changed the face of television news since it was founded 15 years ago. Inside the building, carpenters and technicians are putting the finishing touches to the offices. But this is not just another foreign bureau. Al Jazeera’s Balkan service goes live on November 11th. This will be the second foreign-language station the network has opened, after Al Jazeera English in 2006. But what language is it? Journalists will be broadcasting in “their” language, say station bosses. This tongue used to be called Serbo-Croatian ; now it goes by a number of names: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian or Montenegrin. (Think New Zealand, Scottish and American versions of English.) The target audience for the channel will be the former Serbo-Croatian speaking regions of the ex-Yugoslavia. But plenty of Macedonians and Slovenes understand...

BOSNIA, scream some hysterical headlines, is on the brink of a new war. It is not. But it is deeply troubled. This month has seen the highest level diplomacy since the end of the war in 1995, in an attempt to break a deadlock that has paralysed its government for three years. The initial omens are not good. Unless a deal is struck soon, notes Zlatko Lagumdzija, an opposition leader, everyone can forget about serious change until after next year’s elections. The Dayton accords, which ended the Bosnian war, formalised the division of the country into two parts: a Serb entity and a federation of Croats and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims). Until 2006 the country was slowly becoming more functional. But since then progress has halted; the two entities cannot agree, for example, on who should own state property. Bosniaks in Sarajevo want a more centralised state. Serbs in Banja Luka want more autonomy, or even full independence. The European Union wants to shut the office of the high representati...