An international crisis

In addition to all the other suspect material produced by the media during the war in Lebanon, not least "Qanagate" and the Beirut bombing photo doctoring, first reported by Little Green Footballs (which now has a comprehensive list of links on the top of the page), we also now have the fake ambulance incident, superbly analysed by Zombietime, with a shorter article here.

And, to add to that, we have the Reuters Land Rover saga, the one that was supposed to have been hit by Israeli missiles. Well, Ynet News has reported on the superb debunking done by Confederate Yankee (and here), demonstrating that, whatever did hit the vehicle, it was not a missile.

All of this, and much, much more points to a crisis is journalism – which is much deeper than these headline issues indicate – as we have tried to show in our other posts, for instance here.

However, you really must give it to the international edition of the Helsingin Sanomat. It has put its finger on a far more serious crisis, which could have massive international ramifications and shake the European Union to its very core.

Sent to us by one of the blog's new friends, Fred Fry International, the report tells us that the European Chemicals Agency (ECA), which is scheduled to begin operations in Helsinki from 2007, is under threat – from a serious shortage of high-class rental housing. This could possibly delay the start of operation.

It seems that the seconded Eurocrats, unused to slumming it in distant lands, are demanding high-class furnished apartments which are currently not easy to come by. There is simply no high-class rental housing market in Finland and the 40 employees of the ECA already in place (with another 300 to come) are seriously unhappy.

Although the office building has already been rented - the former headquarters of the Eläke-Varma insurance company in downtown Helsinki (pictured) – it looks as if the Finnish government may have to be enlisted to help the poor, deprived Eurocrats if the ECA project is to get underway on time.

You have to admit it – this is really worrying. Or perhaps it is just another reason why we find it so very hard to take the EU seriously.

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