Celebrating bureaucracy?
— Foot in mouth: another clumsy Commission communication.”
Opponents of the European Union are fond of pointing out what they see as the three grand negatives: democratic deficit, lack of transparency and unwieldy bureaucracy.
Brussels certainly doesn’t do itself any favours with the famously poor quality of its communications, particularly when it makes the occasional, but always highly visible foot-in-mouth blunder.
Take the banner above, seen recently on the Charlemagne Building next to Rue de la Loi-Wetstraat. Announcing the EU’s Sustainable Energy Week, it looks inocuous enough from a distance, but these are the people who brought us Entropa.
Detractors who perceive the European process as expensive, bureaucratic and agonisingly slow need simply take a closer look:
Twist the words of this strapline and you have all the ammunition you need!
See also:
Entropa: one vision of Europe
When artist David Černý was commissioned to produce a work marking the Czech EU presidency, the result was embarassing!
- Originally published: 5 Mar 2009 in Humour
Green credentials
Governments, global corporations and green issues: reflections on an environmental protest in Brussels.
- Originally published: 13 Jul 2010 in Editorial
Do you want advice with that?
Free motivational messages with my morning coffee.
- Originally published: 15 Jul 2011 in Humour
Something to do with Lotharingia
Following the Maas-Meuse into the old kingdom of Charlemagne.
- Originally published: 24 Aug 2008 in Europe
Democracy is deaf
After Tony Blair’s appearance before the Iraq Inquiry in the UK, a few thoughts on the growing distance between politics and the people.
- Originally published: 30 Jan 2010 in Editorial
Who you gonna call?
Hello you, I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name. In fact, I am a consultant working in user experience and information design.
I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.
I'm originally from Yorkshire, England but nowadays I live in Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Black Albert.
Shameless self-promotion
Over a year in the making, Dopeology.org is my latest personal project: a topology of doping in thirty years of European pro road cycling.
I collected information from thousands of sources, then I modelled and published it via a lightweight user interface.
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