Khrys weblog

This about Europe and the parliament. Some of you, especially if you are Finnish, might have received an email, about the fact that it costs some money to taxpayers when our representants have to travel from Brussels to Strasbourg on a regular basis.
You can visit the complainers main website here.

This website doesn’t give any more reason but the cost of this situation, ie: 200 million euros a year. If I count well, since there are over 500 million people living in Europe, that’s less than 50 cents per person and per year. Still, you may say, this is taxpayer’s money. Well, if they were drinking a bit less coktails everytime, we could save much more money than those 200 millions. If they were all actually working, it would surely save billions. A lot of them is just looking for more fame, or more power and more money. But how many are actually thinking about what they are supposed to do there ? I could go on with other irregularities and stupid spending, but I would like to make another point.
In that email I was talking about, it was basically said that the reason for Strasbourg still being a seat of European institutions is because France likes to show off … well, there might be a bit of that, but I think it would be a bit stupid.
I would like to remind a few things. At that time, the 6 members are : Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, Italy, Germany and France, the two last ones because of a true will to work together instead of fighting all the time, and the 3 first because they already learnt to work together as a team for some time.
It has been decided to separate the political powers in 3. In Strasbourg is the Parliament, deciding if a new law proposition is accepted, amended or vetoed. Strasbourg is a particular place : it is the main city of Alsace, a disputed region between France and Germany, where people had to suffer from the last 3 wars we had against each other. More than Luxembourg or Brussels, this city symbolize peace, reconciliation and partnership.
I don’t mind spending this money for people to remember.

After the success of the Swedish Piratpartiet, the French hoist the Jolly Roger, to fight the more than unfair copyright laws. It is called “Parti Pirate Francais”, and is lead by a math university teacher called HPK. You’ll find a English and a Spanish translation.

Apres le succes du Parti Pirate Suedois PiratPartiet, les Francais hissent le pavillon noir afin de combattre les plus qu’injustes lois DADSVI. Ca s’appelle le Parti Pirate Francais, et c’est un professeur de maths a l’universite qui l’a cree. Il se fait appeler HPK. Il y a egalement une traduction du site en Anglais et Espagnol.

PS: You can now see a ‘fin’ entry in the member list …
Vous noterez la presence d’une ligne ‘fin’ sur la page des membres a present …

You’re looking for good games ? free games that you don’t have to download anything ? what about web-browser based games ?

Since I played a few, I decided to make a review of them. Trying them is the best to make oneself’s opinion, but if you don’t have the time or the patience to do so, read this page and go for the one that sounds good to you !

It’s also available on the right hand side column —->

They did it !
Click on the pix to watch the video.

Some company make a lot of money. I mean, not just few thousands. I don’t even talk about millions. Some make billions of euros (profit minus expense), in just a quarter. This time, I won’t comment on how unfair they get so much money on our back, especially petrol companies (but have a look at their last results, you will be surprised). Even if after almost making us cry that their poor platforms got damaged in the storm and then shamelessly announce record profits. No. This time, I just had in mind the size of the figure.
Let’s say that a “poor” company makes 1 billion € / year.
Now, let’s take a good average salary, like 2000€ / month. Let’s admit that the poor company has this lack of luck of being located in France, or in the Nordics, or anywere the taxes are similar. This company would have to pay about 2000€ more /month, for the tax, the equipment, and other expenses. I believe it’s good average, but you can change it a little if you like, or compensate with the actual salary.
Now, for this guy, in a year, this company would pay : 12 * (2000 + 2000) = 48 000 in one year. Let’s add a nice complementary Christmas check of 2000€ to make the guy happy. 50 000€ / year.
One billion euros is 1 000 000 000€.
1 000 000 000 / 50 000 = 20 000, this means that such a company could employ 20 000 lucky guys with a (more than) decent salary.
And those 20 000 employees could make the company earn more money perhaps. And even if this company wish to invest in research or renewal of some machines, the investment usually don’t get over half the benefits. It doesn’t even get close to it.
That’s still 10 000 guys left. And that’s for Europe. Imagine Africa, India, or other places. I’m not communist, but I believe there should be some limits. Like somebody said:”you can’t earn millions in a honest fashion”.
Instead of that, I see such company firing people, rising prices, and making more money. But for what ? Who’s getting it ? only few guys ? Is there anything you can do with 10 billions that you can’t already do with 5 ?

:( have a good day.