From Third World to First The Singapore Story pdfdrive com

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after he retired as chancellor. Kohl, on the other hand, has been described by
the media as dull and uninspiring. This led many to underestimate him. When he
first came to power, no one expected him to become the longest-serving German
chancellor since Bismarck. When I got to know him better, beneath the outward
bulk and apparent clumsiness I discovered a good mind with keen political
instinct. He was a strong character, resolute and consistent in pursuing his
objectives. His great vision enabled him to come to terms with Germany’s past
and he was determined that the past would never again be repeated. Hence his
single-minded pursuit of the European Monetary Union (EMU) which he
referred to as a question of war and peace. He believed the Euro would make the
process of European integration irreversible.

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Kohl lost the election in September 1998. He will go down in history as a
great German who reunified Germany and as a greater European who wanted
Germany as part of a supranational Europe to avoid the disastrous European
wars of the last century. He consolidated Franco-German ties and set the Euro
for a successful launch on 1 January 1999, despite much scepticism and
opposition. The Euro weakened against the US dollar in its first year, but if it
eventually succeeds, Kohl’s contribution to European unity will have been
historic. His admission that he had managed secret donations to his party that
should have been declared cannot diminish his contribution to Germany and the
European Union.
French leaders impressed me by the quality of their intellect and political
analysis. They had a greater ability than the Germans to project themselves onto
the world stage, making use of the resources of the Germans in the European
Community. A reunited Germany would challenge this arrangement. But
Chancellor Kohl knew too well the fears that could be aroused if Germany
appeared to throw its weight.
One serious obstacle to European cohesion and unity is the absence of a
common language. Schmidt spoke to Giscard in English and told me they could
establish a close rapport. Mitterrand and Chirac communicated with Kohl
through an interpreter. I have always found it difficult to feel the texture of
another person’s mind when an interpreter stood in between. Schmidt, Giscard
and Chirac all spoke to me in English and I could feel the grain of their thinking
better than with Mitterrand and Kohl, who spoke through interpreters. When I
had to wait for interpreters to tell me what they said, it was more difficult to read
their body language. When a person speaks in English, even if it is not
grammatical or idiomatic, I get the feel of the way his mind works. His pauses
and hesitations in the middle of a sentence sometimes change the nuance of a
sentence; an interpreter would have smoothed out these pauses and given me the
substance without the wrinkles that would indicate his reservations. Until the
Europeans settle on a common language, they cannot equal the uniformity and
the benefits of scale that America enjoys. Every EU country teaches English as
the second language. None is prepared to give up its language for English or any
other language. EU engineers and managers will therefore not be so easily
interchangeable as Americans when working on major projects.
French aspirations to have their language as one of the leading languages of

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international diplomacy have had to yield to pragmatism. By the late 1980s
French speakers at international conferences began to speak in English for
greater impact on the international audience. With the Internet, the supremacy of
the English language can be ignored only at a heavy price. It is common in the
1990s to listen to French and German CEOs having discussions in English.

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