But not since Marie Antoinette was supposed to have leaned from a Versailles palace window and suggested that the breadless peasants eat cake can leaders have demonstrated such insensitivity to daily hardship than at the luxury Windsor hotel on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
They have told their people to tighten their belts for lean times ahead, but you feared for presidential and prime ministerial girdles after the chance to tuck into further dishes including milk-fed lamb, roasted lamb with cepes, and black truffle with emulsion sauce. Finally there was a "fantasy" dessert, a special cheese selection accompanied by lavender honey and caramelised nuts, while coffee came with candied fruits and vegetables.
Leaders cleverly skated around global water shortages by choosing from five different wines and liqueurs.
Special Interest Glance
On June 8, 1967, US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty was suddenly and brutally attacked on the high seas in international waters by the air and naval forces of Israel. The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that this was an American ship.
A Portuguese newspaper has reported on something the American corporate media remains cowardly complicit about and dare not even mention - this week's confab of nearly 200 of the world's most influential powerbrokers in Chantilly Virginia for the 2008 Bilderberg Group meeting.





























