Middle East versus Ukraine: Many in Mideast see hypocrisy in Western embrace of Ukraine

Within days of the Russian invasion, Western countries invoked international law, imposed crippling sanctions, began welcoming refugees with open arms and cheered on Ukraine’s armed resistance.

The response has elicited outrage across the Middle East, where many see a glaring double standard in how the West responds to international conflicts.

Read more at: Many in Mideast see hypocrisy in Western embrace of Ukraine | AP News

The Netherlands: Should the Dutch ‘Black Pete’ tradition be abolished?

Many children in the Netherlands have grown up with the image of Black Pete, a helper for St Nicholas, an equivalent of Santa Claus.

The character is highly controversial, as the figure is usually portrayed by a white person wearing blackface makeup with exaggerated lips and an afro wig

Note EU-Digest: Indeed quite controversial. This has been a centuries old tradional Childrens celebration, before it became a racial issue. Amazing that the people promoting this as a racial issue have no qualms with the flagrant human rights violations of Saudi Arabia and many other countries around the world?

Read more at: Should the Dutch ‘Black Pete’ tradition be abolished? | Netherlands | Al Jazeera

Finland, World Leader in working around challenges

What could the U.S. learn from Finland’s stellar example for its own many challenges?

Read more at:
https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-finland-society-healthcare-taxation-social-mobility-gender-equality-sanna-marin/

France - Terrorism - Strasbourg : Trump uses terror attack in France to push U.S. border wall even though no terrorists have ever entered US via US-Mexico Border

President Trump on Wednesday seemed to suggest the deadly shooting at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, is evidence that the United States needs stronger border security.

“Another very bad terror attack in France,” Trump tweeted. “We are going to strengthen our borders even more. Chuck and Nancy must give us the votes to get additional Border Security!”

Witnesses said the gunman, identified by police as 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, yelled out “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire, killing at least two people and wounding seven others. Police believe Chekatt, a Strasbourg native, may have become radicalized while in jail.

Trump’s tweet came a day after he clashed with Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi over funding for border security measures — including the president’s long-promised wall along the U.S. southern border — during a contentious Oval Office meeting.

The president said he is willing to shut down the government if Democrats don’t appropriate funding for his proposal to provide $5 billion for a wall along the Mexico border next year.

At one point during their exchange, the president suggested — without evidence — that “10 terrorists” were recently apprehended trying to enter the United States.

Records show this another of Trump's many untruths - because records show no terrorists have come through the US  Southern border.

Read more: Trump uses terror attack in France to push U.S. border wall - AOL News

U.S. academic achievement lags that of many other countries

How do U.S. students compare with their peers around the world? Recently released data from international math and science assessments indicate that U.S. students continue to rank around the middle of the pack, and behind many other advanced industrial nations.

One of the biggest cross-national tests is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which every three years measures reading ability, math and science literacy and other key skills among 15-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries. The most recent PISA results, from 2015, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, the U.S. ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.

Younger American students fare somewhat better on a similar cross-national assessment, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. That study, known as TIMSS, has tested students in grades four and eight every four years since 1995. In the most recent tests, from 2015, 10 countries (out of 48 total) had statistically higher average fourth-grade math scores than the U.S., while seven countries had higher average science scores. In the eighth-grade tests, seven out of 37 countries had statistically higher average math scores than the U.S., and seven had higher science scores.

For the complete report: U.S. academic achievement lags that of many other countries | Pew Research Center

The Netherlands - Sex Education: Worried about your teenage daughter? Move to the Netherlands - by Peggy Orenstein

 There's a solution for parents concerned about their daughters' sex lives: Move to the Netherlands.

OK, maybe that's not the most practical advice. Perhaps, though, we can move a little of the Netherlands here. Because the Dutch seem to have it all figured out.

While we in the United States have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, they have among the lowest. Our teen birth rate is eight times higher than theirs, and our teen abortion rate is 1.7 times higher.

There are some significant demographic differences that affect those numbers: We are a more diverse nation than Holland, with higher rates of childhood poverty, fewer social welfare guarantees and more social conservatives.

ere's a solution for parents concerned about their daughters' sex lives: Move to the Netherlands.
OK, maybe that's not the most practical advice. Perhaps, though, we can move a little of the Netherlands here. Because the Dutch seem to have it all figured out.

While we in the United States have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, they have among the lowest. Our teen birth rate is eight times higher than theirs, and our teen abortion rate is 1.7 times higher.

There are some significant demographic differences that affect those numbers: We are a more diverse nation than Holland, with higher rates of childhood poverty, fewer social welfare guarantees and more social conservatives.

Yet, even when controlling for all that, the difference holds. Consider a study comparing the early sexual experiences of 400 randomly chosen American and Dutch women at two similar colleges — nearly all white, all middle class, with similar religious backgrounds. So, apples to apples.

The American girls had become sexually active at a younger age than the Dutch, had had more encounters with more partners and were less likely to use birth control. They were more likely to say they'd had first intercourse because of “opportunity” or pressure from friends or partners.

In subsequent interviews with some of the participants, the Americans described interactions that were “driven by hormones,” in which boys determined relationships, male pleasure was prioritized and reciprocity was rare.

As for the Dutch girls, their early sexual activity took place in loving, respectful relationships in which they communicated openly with their partners (whom they said they knew “very well”) about what felt good and what didn't, about how “far” they wanted to go, and about what kind of protection they would need along the way.

They reported more comfort with their bodies and their desires than the Americans and were more in touch with their own pleasure.

Here's their secret: The Dutch girls said that teachers and doctors had talked candidly to them about sex, pleasure and the importance of a loving relationship. More than that, though, there was a stark difference in how their parents approached those topics. The American girls' moms had focused on the potential risks and dangers of sex, while their dads, if they said anything at all, stuck to lame jokes. Dutch parents, by contrast, had talked to their daughters from an early age about both the joys and responsibilities of intimacy.

As a result, one Dutch girl said she told her mother immediately after her first intercourse, “because we talk very open[ly] about this. My friend's mother also asked me how it was, if I had an orgasm and if he had one.”

The attitudes of the two nations weren't always so far apart. According to Amy Schalet, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, in the late 1960s the Dutch — like Americans — roundly disapproved of premarital sex. The sexual revolution transformed attitudes in both countries, but, whereas American parents and policymakers responded by treating teen sex as a health crisis, the Dutch went another way: They consciously embraced it as natural, though requiring proper guidance.

Their government made pelvic exams, birth control and abortion free to anyone under 22, with no requirements for parental consent.

By the 1990s, when Americans were shoveling millions into the maw of useless abstinence-only education, Dutch teachers (and parents) were busy discussing the positive aspects of sex and relationships, as well as anatomy, reproduction, disease prevention, contraception and abortion. They emphasized respect for self and others in intimate encounters, and openly addressed masturbation, oral sex, homosexuality and orgasm.

When a Dutch national poll found that most teenagers still believed that boys should be the more active partner during sex, the government added “interaction” skills to its sex ed curricula, such as how to let “the other person know exactly what feels good” and how to set boundaries.

Yet, even when controlling for all that, the difference holds. Consider a study comparing the early sexual experiences of 400 randomly chosen American and Dutch women at two similar colleges — nearly all white, all middle class, with similar religious backgrounds. So, apples to apples.

The American girls had become sexually active at a younger age than the Dutch, had had more encounters with more partners and were less likely to use birth control. They were more likely to say they'd had first intercourse because of “opportunity” or pressure from friends or partners.

In subsequent interviews with some of the participants, the Americans described interactions that were “driven by hormones,” in which boys determined relationships, male pleasure was prioritized and reciprocity was rare.

As for the Dutch girls, their early sexual activity took place in loving, respectful relationships in which they communicated openly with their partners (whom they said they knew “very well”) about what felt good and what didn't, about how “far” they wanted to go, and about what kind of protection they would need along the way.

They reported more comfort with their bodies and their desires than the Americans and were more in touch with their own pleasure.

Here's their secret: The Dutch girls said that teachers and doctors had talked candidly to them about sex, pleasure and the importance of a loving relationship. More than that, though, there was a stark difference in how their parents approached those topics. The American girls' moms had focused on the potential risks and dangers of sex, while their dads, if they said anything at all, stuck to lame jokes. Dutch parents, by contrast, had talked to their daughters from an early age about both the joys and responsibilities of intimacy.

As a result, one Dutch girl said she told her mother immediately after her first intercourse, “because we talk very open[ly] about this. My friend's mother also asked me how it was, if I had an orgasm and if he had one.”

The attitudes of the two nations weren't always so far apart. According to Amy Schalet, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, in the late 1960s the Dutch — like Americans — roundly disapproved of premarital sex. The sexual revolution transformed attitudes in both countries, but, whereas American parents and policymakers responded by treating teen sex as a health crisis, the Dutch went another way: They consciously embraced it as natural, though requiring proper guidance.

 Their government made pelvic exams, birth control and abortion free to anyone under 22, with no requirements for parental consent.

By the 1990s, when Americans were shoveling millions into the maw of useless abstinence-only education, Dutch teachers (and parents) were busy discussing the positive aspects of sex and relationships, as well as anatomy, reproduction, disease prevention, contraception and abortion.

They emphasized respect for self and others in intimate encounters, and openly addressed masturbation, oral sex, homosexuality and orgasm. When a Dutch national poll found that most teenagers still believed that boys should be the more active partner during sex, the government added “interaction” skills to its sex ed curricula, such as how to let “the other person know exactly what feels good” and how to set boundaries.

Dutch teens, on the other hand, remain closely connected to parents, growing up in an atmosphere of gezelligheid, which Schalet translates loosely as “cozy togetherness.” Parents and teens are expected to discuss the children's psychological and emotional development, including their burgeoning sexual drives. As part of that,

Dutch parents permit co-ed sleepovers, which are rare in the U.S. except in the most progressive circles. A full two-thirds of Dutch teens 15 to 17 with a steady boyfriend or girlfriend report that the person was welcome to spend the night in their bedrooms.

That's not to say that it's a free-for-all over there. Quite the opposite: The Dutch actively discourage promiscuity in their children, teaching that sex should emerge from a loving relationship.

Negotiating the ground rules for sleepovers, while not always easy (parents admit to a period of “adjustment” and some embarrassment), provides yet another opportunity to exert influence, reinforce ethics and emphasize the need for protection.

And you can't really argue with the results.

Read more: Worried about your teenage daughter? Move to the Netherlands - LA Times

Welfare US Spends Far More on Social Welfare Than Most European Nations - by Robert Rector

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual poverty report. Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. has a small social welfare system and far more poverty compared with other affluent nations.

But noted liberal scholars Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, and Timothy Smeeding challenge such simplistic ideas in their book “Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader?”

Garfinkel and his colleagues examine social welfare spending and poverty in rich nations. They define social welfare as having five components: health care spending, education spending, cash retirement benefits, other government cash transfers such as unemployment insurance and the earned-income tax credit (EITC), and non-cash aid such as food stamps and public housing.

The authors find that in the U.S., social welfare spending differs from that in other affluent countries because it draws heavily on both public and private resources. By contrast, in Europe, government controls most of the resources and benefits. For example, in the U.S., government health care spending is targeted to elderly and low-income persons; the American middle and working classes rely primarily on employer-provided health insurance.

The U.S. government health care system is, therefore, more redistributive than the systems of most other developed nations.

Elderly middle-class Americans are also more likely to have private pensions than are Europeans. Middle-class parents in the U.S. pay for much of the cost of their children’s post-secondary education; in Europe, the government pays. Overall, in Europe, the upper middle class is heavily dependent on government benefits; in the U.S., it relies much more on its own resources.

But even setting aside the private sector, the U.S. still has a very large social welfare system. In fact, among affluent nations, the U.S. has the third highest level of per capita government social welfare spending. This is striking, given that government spending in the U.S.  is more tightly targeted to benefit the poor and elderly.

When private-sector contributions to retirement, health care, and education are added to the count, social welfare spending in the U.S. dwarfs that of other nations. In fact, social welfare spending per capita in the U.S. rises to nearly twice the European average. As Garfinkel, et al. conclude:

For those who believe the absolute size of the US welfare state is small, the data presented … [in the book] are shocking and constitute a wake up call. Once health and education benefits are counted, real per capita social welfare in the United States is larger than in almost all other countries!

Only one nation (Norway) spends more per person than the U.S. spends.

How much of this spending reaches the poor? The left often claims that the U.S has a far higher poverty rate than other developed nations have. These claims are based on a “relative poverty” standard, in which being “poor” is defined as having an income below 50 percent of the national median. Since the median income in the United States is substantially higher than the median income in most European countries, these comparisons establish a higher hurdle for escaping from “poverty” in the U.S. than is found elsewhere.

Read more: US Spends Far More on Social Welfare Than Most European Nations

Schoolsystems; the Netherlands and the U.S. Both a big challenge being Gifted

There is no such thing as pre-K in the Netherlands, but there is 'peuterspeelzaal' where I child can go the day he turns 2. The child usually goes there one morning and one afternoon every week.There are also 'special peuterspeelzalen' where children go to, who need more attention.

They usually go 4 half days every week to the 'special peuterspeelzaal'. Parents have to pay a small amount of money, based on their salary. Who earns more, pays more.

In the Netherlands you go to the 'basisschool' the day you turn 4. Children stay at that same school untill they are about 12. Parents only pay parental contribution every year. This is a small amount that the schools usually spents on trips, special days, small presents, etc. The exact amount varies by school, but is mostly less then 50 euro's (about 70 dollars)
.
After the basisschool you go to the 'voortgezet onderwijs / middelbare school'. Depending on the level of education you go to, you will spent about 4-6 years at this school. The middelbare school has VMBO (4 different possibilities), HAVO and VWO. Parents have to pay school fees (for P.E. clothes, dictionaries etc.)   and parental contribution.

After the middelbare school you can go to the Middelbaar Beroeps Onderwijs (also known as MBO), to the Hoger Beroeps Onderwijs (also known as HBO) or to a University. 

 As a student in the Netherlands you can get study funding from the government. There is a based scholarship, a supplementary scholarship and a loan. The amount you will get depends on a lot of factors, such as: level of education, living at home or not, income of parents and siblings that already get a scholarship) Parents pay for MBO (from the day their child turns 18) about 1065 euro per year (1500 dollar), plus about 500-1000 euro for books etc. For HBO 1835 euro per year, plus 1000 euro for books.

And for university about 1835 euro per year statutory and institution tuition, which the university can determine. This depends on the university you go to and on the study you choose. (This variates from 6000-25.000 euro).

Read more: Schoolsystems; the Netherlands and the U.S. Both a big challenge being Gifted. | Dutch Alien Lands in the U.S.

GDP: Map of U.S. States Compared to countries with similar GDP- by Dan Kedmey

How does the U.S. economy measure up to the rest of the world? You could find out by poring over a table of GDP figures, or you could get a snap perspective from this map, which renames every U.S. state according to a country with a matching GDP.

One million Rhode Islanders have as much wealth as 15 million Guatemalans. Texas has an economy the size of Australia’s. And New York has met its match, Mexico.

The map from economist Mark J. Perry at the American Enterprise Institute puts America’s $16 trillion GDP in perspective. “The map and these statistics help remind us of the enormity of the economic powerhouse we live in,” Perry writes, at least to the 4% of the world’s population that lives there.

Read more: GDP Map of U.S. States Compared to World | TIME.com

Should Europe Emulate the US? - by Jean Pisani-Ferry

Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist and blogger, recently summarized diverging transatlantic trends as follows: “Better here, worse there.” It is a shocking observation: as recently as in 2009, European politicians and commentators lambasted the US for being at the root of the financial turmoil and hailed the euro for protecting the continent from it.

Unfortunately for Europe’s boosters, the facts are unambiguous. According to the European Commission, US per capita GDP is expected to return to its 2007 level next year, whereas it is expected to remain 3% below that level in the eurozone.

Likewise, unemployment was roughly the same on both sides of the Atlantic in 2009-2010, but it is now almost four percentage points lower in the US. Capital expenditure in the US is recovering more strongly, and exports are picking up. Even inflation is likely to be lower in America than in Europe this year.

The one area where Europe is posting better results is public finances. In 2012, the aggregate fiscal deficit in the eurozone is expected to be slightly above 3% of GDP, compared to more than 8% in the US.

There are two competing explanations for Europe’s relative malaise. One is the claim that Europe is paying the price of misguided austerity. The other is that the US, too, will eventually face its day of fiscal reckoning, and that Europe had no choice but to start it earlier: as the euro crisis demonstrates, things would have been worse had austerity been postponed.

There is truth in both views, but both overlook an important part of the story. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the US and Europe (including the United Kingdom) adopted opposite strategies. President Barack Obama’s administration and the US Federal Reserve gave priority to healing the private sector. After expeditiously restoring confidence in the banks by forcing them to undergo severe stress tests, they gave households time to repair their balance sheets. The task for economic policy was to compensate for the resulting shortfall in private demand until households eventually recovered. Fiscal consolidation was put on hold (although some did occur, owing to the balanced-budget rules of most US states), and monetary policy was geared toward flattening the yield curve.

Europe, by contrast, put early emphasis on restoring fiscal sustainability, but neglected its private-sector maladies. As early as the second half of 2009 – that is, before bond markets got nervous – policymakers’ top priority was to find the exit from fiscal stimulus. Private-sector problems were overlooked on the way out. Banks, for example, were said to be in good shape, whereas several were barely solvent. Households were assumed to be ready to consume, although, in Spain and elsewhere, many were over-indebted. And labor-hoarding was encouraged at the expense of productivity and profitability.

As a result, Europe emerged from the recession with too many zombie banks, wounded households, and struggling companies. In Germany, the private economy was fit enough to recover, but this was less true in southern Europe or even France.

The UK, which has not suffered directly from the euro crisis, is an interesting test, for it also followed the European strategy. Instead of the productivity surge experienced in the US, it has gone through a sort of productivity holiday, with serious consequences. The Bank of England’s latest Inflation Report reckons that UK productivity is 10% below pre-crisis trends, owing to low investment and a slowdown of the Schumpeterian process of creative destruction. As in continental Europe, productivity has suffered from a combination of insufficient profitability and dysfunctional capital markets. Unit labor costs have risen, and potential output growth has fallen.

Neglect of the private sector has left Europe in a sad quandary. On the supply side, permanently lower output makes fiscal adjustment even more compulsory; but, on the demand side, a weak private economy lacks the resilience needed to weather fiscal retrenchment.

At this stage, struggling European countries evidently cannot afford to put public-sector adjustment on hold to concentrate on private-sector balance sheets. Nor should they take inspiration from America’s “fiscal cliff” theater. Nonetheless, the US approach holds three lessons.

CommentsFirst, banking-sector repair should be policymakers’ top priority wherever it has not been completed. Second, the pace of consolidation should remain moderate as long as private demand remains constrained by deleveraging or credit restrictions. Finally, attention should be paid to the balance between fiscal tightening and supply-side reforms: whenever appropriate, more priority should be given to the latter than has been the case so far.

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/why-america-s-economy-is-recovering-faster-than-europe-s-by-jean-pis