Der Bund Switzerland PERHAPS THE western mediators have acted for too long as if there were a political

Der Bund

Switzerland
PERHAPS THE western mediators have acted for too long as if there were a political solution for the various Balkan conflicts. Nato’s compromise solution in Kosovo – autonomy but for the moment no independence for Kosovo – is at best supported by the Kosovo Liberation Army for tactical reasons. And the second round of Kosovo negotiations will end without a political solution. At best, it will succeed in forcing a ceasefire – but then only if Nato doesn’t put its credibility at risk with empty threats.uThe Goldsboro News ArgusUSKOSOVO HAS not asked the Nato countries to send troops. If Nato took it upon itself to insert troops there, it would amount to meddling in a country’s internal affairs. The pact should not be allowed to do that.We must not get into a position of having our whittled-down military scattered throughout the world.

We have nothing at stake in Kosovo and we don’t belong there.uThe HeraldScotlandTHE DIPLOMATIC failure in negotiating peace exemplifies the dilemma of the two basic positions: the disparate national interests within and outside international organisations, and the declared consensus within those international organisations. If this dilemma is not resolved, the imposition of force to counter force becomes the only option, provided that it is undertaken in such a way as to be proportionate, yet achieve its objectives, namely the arrest of the heinous crimes and resultant instability which threatens a larger conflagration (Mladen Grbin). IT’S ALL very confusing, and if I were a West Midlands schoolgirl sent home to change my micro-skirt for something more appropriate (a serge gym-slip over a pair of navy-blue gym knickers, perhaps) I’d probably feel outraged Think about it. For the last six months we’ve had Ginger Spice – sorry, Miss Geri Halliwell, as she prefers to be called these days – shoved down our throats as a role model for teenagers. She champions all sorts of good causes and travels the world as one of the new breed of United Nations goodwill showbiz ambassadors, advising bush women in the Kalahari how to dig wells. When she’s interviewed by Jenni Murray on Woman’s Hour she wears a silver-black business suit and talks a lot about empowerment, but what everyone, especially schoolgirls and the UN goodwill ambassador selection board, remembers most about Ginger Spice is that famous Union Jack mini-dress under which you could see not merely the gusset of her navy-blue gym knickers but also the Cash’s name tape stitched into the waistband.
“If a miniskirt can get Geri Halliwell a job at the UN, why shouldn’t it do the same for me, Miss Beale?” I hear clever schoolgirls up and down the land enquire; to which only the bravest headmistress would reply: “Because you haven’t got the legs, dear.”Mind you, it was pretty brave of Barbara O’Connor, headteacher of Dormston School in Sedgley, to send 22 girls home Schoolgirls en masse are a terrifying species.

I speak from personal experience, having, many years ago, worked as a supply teacher in West Ham. I was supposed to teach English literature but for some mysterious reason they had me down for embroidery, a science about which I know little Not that it mattered much. I spent more time breaking up scissor-and-needle fights between various classroom factions than teaching lazy daisy stitch.Where the admirable and clearly well-intentioned Miss O’Connor went wrong was in equating the length of a gym-slip with some of its sex appeal. Believe me, Miss O’Connor, there is absolutely no connection Gym-slips, irrespective of their length, are sexy. Why else do you suppose a restaurant in the City called School Dinners, where the waitresses wore pigtails, gym-slips and black stockings, did so well? They weren’t mini-skirted gym-slips, either, just the regular knee-length jobs like the ones I used to wear at my convent.