And from the evil of the witches who blow into knots.

And from the evil of the witches who blow into knots.

and from the evil of the witches, who blow on knots,

and from the evil of the witches, who blow on knots,

then on top of it they have a brew of boiling water,

then on top of it they have a brew of boiling water,

On top of it they shall have a brew of boiling water,

On top of it they shall have a brew of boiling water,

Then, on top of it, they will have a brew of boiling liquid.

Then, on top of it, they will have a brew of boiling liquid.

Then on top of it they will have a brew of boiling water.

Then on top of it they will have a brew of boiling water.

Not a metaphorical one, the way we use it today, but a literal magic spell associated with witches and gypsies and to some extent, Celtic magic.

I brew up to about 30 liters of tea at a time, and then while it's still hot, add a couple of kilos of sugar.

And there's something dangerous about glamour throughout most of history. When the witches cast a magic spell on you, it was not in your self interest it was to get you to act against your interest.

Rising income inequality is hardly limited to emerging markets, but their combination of open corruption and pervasive inequities creates a toxic brew that is undermining support for reforms that would strengthen and consolidate their economic gains.

Some see the hand of what remains of the Communist Party behind this. The Party has moved far from its old Leninist ideals, as it seeks support nowadays through a witch s brew of Russian nationalism, hyper orthodox Christianity, and state Stalinism.

This bizarre brew appears to have been concocted in an effort to reconcile the irreconcilable the current yearning for democracy with Russia s despotic past. But, like any muddle, it is succeeding only in confusing Russians about themselves and their country.

When incomprehension no longer produces new heights of prosperity, but rather economic collapse and failure, it is not surprising that it turns to anger. Finding out who is to blame becomes more and more like the late medieval and early modern search for witches a way of making sense of a disorderly and hostile universe.

If I were to ask all of you to try and come up with a brand of coffee a type of coffee, a brew that made all of you happy, and then I asked you to rate that coffee, the average score in this room for coffee would be about 60 on a scale of 0 to 100.

This brew oversimplification of civic engagement, idealization of the expert, fragmentation of knowledge, emphasis on technical mastery, neutrality as a condition of academic integrity is toxic when it comes to pursuing the vital connections between education and the public good, between intellectual integrity and human freedom, which were at the heart of the challenge posed to and by my European colleagues.

Given the high hopes that preceded ascension to the EU, and the stingy attitude of the Union to its new members, it should not surprise anyone if an anti European reaction soon starts to brew in these countries. So the cure is as bad as the disease discrimination against the new members creates political problems of its own for the Union.