l have decided to reproduce the attached article specifically for the mannerisms that the newly appointed EU President Herman Van Rompuy has described himself as possessing in order that those that read it may find any agreement, or otherwise disagreement, with the comments that l have made relative to the article in question.For beginners, there is nothing at all that is at all startling about this article except for the fact that Herman Van Rompuy himself has mentioned that he considers himself to be a saint in his native Belgium.
Now that may sound like quite an innocent sort of a statement, when it is taken in the contrast with the Bible Prophecies there maybe some quite serious consequences relative to it, even though it sounds naive enough.
That either sounds to me like he thinks a great deal of himself or he honestly does consider himself to be a saint or a God like type of figure alive, and walking here on the earth?
If that were the case then there may be a possibility of him being either the False Prophet or the Antichrist, with the former being the more likelihood of the two suggested scenarios.
l make this statement mostly because he has described himself in a manner that seems to indicate that he has been somewhat downtrodden all of his life or that he is as meek as a lamb just as the prophecies of Revelation Chapter 13 said would be the case relative to the False Prophet.
If that is the case then we could then more than likely consider his side kick as being the EU Commission President, Jose Manuel Barrasso as being the Antichrist?
Although l still get the distinct impression that there is some form of power play that is being acted out between the two aforementioned figures and either one of these two could yet still prove to be the Antichrist, only time will tell which way that is going to work out even if either one of the two names mentioned above are as l suggested they may be?
After having read the article what do the readers of these comments think of that evaluation?
Quote: At Europe’s Helm, a Steady Hand With Little Pomp
WHEN a visit to the United Nations was cancelled abruptly last month, the European Union’s new president, Herman Van Rompuy, headed instead for somewhere he says he feels really at home: Affligem Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the countryside here, founded in 1062.
Mr. Van Rompuy spent a day in a simple room, attending services and eating in a cavernous hall where monks listen to readings from a library of 70,000 books. And he also likes the beer, one of Belgium’s most famous, now brewed under license from the monks.
At 62, Mr. Van Rompuy (pronounced ROM-poi) is suddenly a prominent man, the head of the council of 27 government leaders who make up the real spine of the European Union. It is a task requiring subtlety, manipulation and the ability to cajole everyone from big countries and small — with combustible personalities like President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and more stolid sorts like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, none of them with small egos — to agree on agendas and policies.
He got good marks for handling the leaders during Europe’s existential crisis this year over Greek debt and the crash of the euro. “If the euro zone had fallen apart,” he said in a long interview in his office here, “it would have been the end of the European Union.”
A Roman Catholic, Mr. Van Rompuy often seems to be fighting to conquer the sin of pride — in his manner, his dress (he favors brown) and his lack of affectation. But it is a struggle he sometimes loses. He is a man who feels inferior, it can be said, to few, and he is convinced that the modest and back-room fashion in which he is guiding Europe — and quietly expanding his influence — is the only possible way to do it.
Asked if he saw himself as “maître d’ ” to the heads of government, Mr. Van Rompuy bristles. He has been called a “gray mouse” too, he said, and “a damp rag” by one British legislator. “All my career it’s been like that. But there are those who know better and have another opinion.”
Then he laughs a little and says: “I’m a saint in Belgium these days!”
Those who wanted a major charismatic figure to speak for Europe — Tony Blair openly campaigned for the job — were making a grave error, Mr. Van Rompuy said.
“Trying to be the first man in Europe and no one else around you would be a real catastrophe,” he said. “If you want to be the president of Europe with a high profile, you immediately come into conflict with other European institutions and member states. There are nuances, of course, depending on your ego, but there is only one way to do it: with a mixture of leadership and giving others the way to play their role.”
He said: “I call myself a facilitator.” Then he said: “You cannot govern Europe against the member states.”
MR. VAN ROMPUY, an economist and former center-right prime minister of Belgium, is more or less the antithesis of the modern politician, about as far from Mr. Blair or Mr. Sarkozy as possible. He has been married for 33 years to a biologist, and he has four children and two grandsons.
Bookish and unassuming, he writes haikus, utters no sound bites, spins little and seems happy to discuss how he lost his faith in God at 12, as he prepared for communion, and then suddenly regained it in his mid-20s. “I fell in love, and it is a lifelong love story,” he said.
“I regularly ask myself what happened,” he said. “But faith is not a question of rational arguments.”
He is a classic European Christian Democrat, who keeps his religion out of politics but believes in ethics and social justice. He was even, he admits, a rabid republican as a teenager, wanting to dump the Belgian monarchy, but he had a strong relationship with King Baudouin I and now with King Albert II, “so I left my republican ideas a long time ago.”
Most strikingly, he insists he never wanted most of the top jobs he has held, presenting his rise as a series of unfortunate but unavoidable political accidents. When he was pressed to become the president of the European Council, he had led Belgium for less than a year and was virtually unknown abroad.
But since he left the post of prime minister, Belgium has lurched from crisis to crisis, still without a stable government. And he has impressed many with his handling of the euro crisis, his managing of deep French-German differences and his ability to extend his influence in a manner that has sometimes threatened the European Commission and its president, José Manuel Barroso.
Mr. Van Rompuy stands out because he seems to have a modest but coherent strategy for the European Union. Without revitalizing its economy, he argues, Europe cannot afford its cherished way of life, and national leaders must take collective responsibility for the larger economy, and not just their own. He has played an important role in efforts to toughen rules governing the euro, so that national economies are more tightly monitored and wayward nations face sanctions.
“His overall approach is one of solid intellectual analysis and modesty about what he can achieve,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a research institute. “He has analysed where Europe is and where it needs to go. He doesn’t always get his way, but he is respected by many heads of government.” End of Quote
