Daily Archives: October 7, 2011

‘The wrong Syrian died’

October 7, 2011 2:09 pm by FT

By Lina Saigol

Steve Jobs: Hero of the Arab spring. Or so say the tweeting foot soldiers of the unrest sweeping the region.

Their (somewhat tenuous) accolade is thanks to the biological father of the visionary co-founder and former chief executive of Apple who died on Wednesday, aged 56, being Syrian.

Abdel-Fattah Jandali, 81, was born in Homs, Syria’s third largest city and epicentre of the seven-month uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

A former professor of political science, Mr Jandali put Mr Jobs up for adoption because his girlfriend’s father was extremely conservative and would not let him marry her. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Middle East |

Gideon Rachman The euro crisis viewed from Holland

October 7, 2011 12:06 pm by Gideon Rachman

There is so much focus on whether Germany will “do the right thing” on the euro-crisis that it is easy to forget that there are other big creditor nations in the euro-zone whose actions also matter a lot. Take the Netherlands: yesterday the Dutch parliament did the “right thing” by voting to approve expanded powers and money for the EFSF, the European bail-out fund. But that famous “Dutch tolerance” seems to be nearing snapping point on the euro. Last night, I had dinner with some Dutch decisionmakers in Amsterdam. This is what they said. Read more

Posted in Europe |