Naivität

• Die internationale Medien (EU Observer & NZZ) haben Deutschlands butterweiche Position auf- und angegriffen. Ich bin jetzt mal gespannt, ob die deutschen Medien da auch kritisch darüber berichten werden, oder ob der deutsche Außenpolitik Konsens Kritik und negative Aspekte wieder mal (1, 2 & 3) verschweigt.
  


• Aus dem EU Observer:
  "Under the scheme, an EU member state – in order to fill its labour gap – would temporarily hire non-EU workers, as long as they respect the key condition and return to their home country after their contracts expire.
  
  "The idea is that people come and work in the EU for a couple of months, then return home and later come again," one EU official explained."
  
  Behaupten wir mal ganz theoretisch ein Mitgliedsland (Deutschland zB), würde Arbeiter aus einem anderen Land (die Türkei um bei einem möglichst abstrakten Modell zu bleiben) als Gastarbeiter anwerben, ob die wohl alle irgendwann wieder nach Hause gehen würden?

Le Vicomte de Bragelonne I

Quand j'étais un jeune adolescent, j'étais obsédé avec d'Artagnan et ses amis. Je crois que je lisais Les Trois Mousquetaire et Vingt Ans après au moins cinq ou six fois. Or, quand j'ai vu à Paris qu'il y avait une troisième livre sur cette histoire je l'ai acheté tout de suite. Ca c'était en été de 2006 en fait, quand je travaillais à Paris, et un ans avant que je suis venu faire Erasmus là-bas. J'éssayais de lire Le Vicomte à l'époque mais j'n ai pas réussi, parce que le vocabulaire était trop dur pour moi, en plus Dumas utilise le Passé Simple, Passé Antérieur et Subjonct if souvent, lesquels je ne connaisas pas du tout (il faut admettre que même si mon francais s'a amélioré, je ne suis pas encore capable de former ces trois temps, mais je me promets de bosser au-dessus). Aujourd'hui le livre n'était plus trop difficile, bien sûr, je ne comprenais pas tout - comme dans Les Bienveillantes les déscriptions de nature ou des batîments étaient le pus difficile - et parce que je n'aime pas lire avec une dictionaire à côté de moi - je l'éssayais plusieurs fois, le résultat pour moi ce que j'arrête à lire, parce que je déteste chercher pour les mots dedans tout le temps - je suis sûr qu'il y avait beaucoup des choses qui m'ont passé.

Mais, ce bouquin est un d'eux qui on déteste à arreter à lire. Je continuais plusieurs fois quand j'aurais dû dormir déjà. Je ne vais pas dire grande chose sur quoi ce livre s'agît. Je suis sûr que tout le monde connait d'Artagnan, Porthos, Aramis et Athoas. Ils sont plus agée, le fils d'Athos est très important aussi, mais sauf ca, il n'y a pas une grande différence en qualité et suspense en comparasion avec les premiers deux. Le seul problème ce qu'il y a trois livres qui compose Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, j'ai déjà fait la command e pour le deuxième, mais je ne sais pas quand c'arrivera, et hier soir quand j'ai fini le premier tier, j'étais vraiment faché que je pouvais continuer tout de suite avec le deuxième.

Race & The NBA

I've already discussed the study by two economists that empirically prove that there is a racial bias in foul calls by white and black referees respectively. The NBA of course denounced this and offered up an apparently ridiculous - from an academic point of view - study (check the input box by Tom Jolly the NY Times sports editor) to counter this. It is hard if not impossible to simply discount the findings of Wolfers and Price considering they analyzed 13 seasons, adjusted their results to role player, all stars and the such, all in all a very sound piece of work as it seems (I haven't obviously read it, but that's how most everyone not directly associated with the NBA portrays it).

Yet, John Hollinger discards it on the notion that playing a black player when a white officiating crew presides for 48 minutes instead of a white one, results in a foul call increase of only a negligible increase of 2.5 to 4.5%. Assuming that a team plays with an all black line-up this of course would imply a rise in foul calls against that team of 12.5 to 22.5%, which makes the word negligible sound doubtful already. Also, even if one considers the results of the study to be so low as to not hold any importance for the outcome of games - which I doubt - the basic premise that - subconscious - racism on the part of the referees is persistent. Hollinger excuses that by explaining that 'refs are human too, after all, and when they step on the court they unwittingly bring their life experiences and values with them.' The logical conclusion here being that life experiences and values of white referees necessarily have a racist edge to them, because otherwise how would the statistical correlation be explained? Finally, even if the statistical numbers are low that of course changes a players' behaviour anyway. Someone with two fouls will play defense differently or may not even be on the court anymore than someone who only has one in the first or second quarter of a game.

A friend of mine brings a more valid argument to the table which argues that white players less so than black players are considered defensive specialists resulting in black players such as Marion, Camby or Bowen being called for fouls more often than white shooters such as Kapono, Korver or Stojakovic. On the first and second all-defensive team for the 2006/2007 season there is not one white player he offers as further proof of this theory. While I agree with the general premise of this argument I wonder whether it could not be turned around. From my own experience of being a rather bad defender - and a slightly better offensive player - I would argue that a guy such as Kyle Korver trying to defend against the opposing team's small forward (say LeBron James) is going to rack up more fouls than Bruce Bowen doing the same thing. Obviously both of these arguments do not have any statistical back-up, just some food for thought.

Lastly in my big race and the NBA entry (hope I have not chased away the female half of my 4 daily readers with this), Richard Lapchick explains on ESPN that the NBA's big picture actually is really pretty when compared to the other major leagues in the USA. According to a study done by him (and Horacio Ruiz and Marina Bustamante) 75% of NBA players are black, 36% of all referees are either black or latino, 40% of the head coaches, 15% of team vice-presidents are black, 34% of professionals in the league office were minorities and the NBA also has the only black CEOs (5) and presidents (2) in professional sports. Also of course Robert Johnson is the only black owner of a franchise in American professional sports. While all this implies that the NBA is a front-runner in regard to integration when compared to the NFL or MLB, I have to differ with the view that it shows a pretty picture. Take a simple look at the amount of players and compare it with the rest of the numbers, especially the number of head coaches (and presidents too I believe) since most of these used to be players themselves. To me, this makes clear that basketball is (and will continue to be) a sports played by blacks (I wonder how high the percentage of of black players would be if you only included Americans) and controlled by whites (I am not even claiming that this is due to inherent racism or anything like that, probably is more related to the economic realities of racial life in the USA, am just stating a fact that I feel Lapchick is misrepresenting).

Blair en francais

Oui, quelq'un écrivait ca pour lui probablement. Oui, son accent est aussi fort, que même moi je le remarque. Oui, il l'avait exercé sans doute plusieurs fois. Mais, il parle francais mieux que beaucoup de ses - plus jeunes - compatriotes n'importe quelque langues. Il parle mieux que notre ancien chancelier, Schröder, se pouvait exprimer en anglais. Et surtout, il essaie de faire quelque chose qui existe pas assez dans la société européenne pour l'instant. Il s'adresse à un autre peuple, dans une autre langue, il essaie d'avoir une dialogue intra-européenne. Est-ce que vous pouvez imaginez Chirac ou Merkel s'adressent au peuple francais/allemand dans l'autre langue respectivement? Je trouve ca - notamment si on prête attention à son age - remarquable.

Istanbul

Ich hatte Orhan Pamuks Istanbul von meinem Vater geschenkt bekommen, kurz bevor ich dort ein langes Wochenende verbrachte. Die Stadt war sehr eindrucksvoll und deswegen freute ich mich sehr auf das Buch. Ich muß ganz ehrlich eingestehen, daß ich am Anfang nicht so beeindruckt war. Der Nobelliteraturpresiträger erzählt in seinem Roman die Geschichte seiner Heimatstadt anhand seiner eigenen Lebensgeschichte, sowie parallel dazu durch Berichte, welche andere Schriftsteller über Istanbul verfassten - hier sowohl türkische als auch westeuropäische. Ich würde fast behaupten, daß man das Buch nur schlecht als Roman bezeichnen kann. Es gibt keine kohärente zusammenhängende Geschichte, vielmehr erscheinen die Kapitel als Ansammlung von Essays, welche sich alle mit Istanbul und zum Teil mit Pamuks Kindheit befassen, aber es gibt kaum Stringenz zwischen den Erzählteilen.

Aber, je weiter ich las, desto mehr gefiel mir das Buch. Die literatische Geschichtsstunde Istanbuls - Flaubert und Twain sind nur zwei der Autoren, welche Pamuk zitiert und fast die einzigen die ich (wirklich) kannte - war faszinierend und auch die Beschreibung der Entscheidung, welche Pamuk als 20jähriger treffen mußte, ob er sein Studium abbrechen solle und Künstler - Schriftsteller oder sogar Maler - werden solle, wird fesselnd dargestellt.

Letzten Endes kann ich zusammenfassend sagen, daß ich das Buch im Prinzip eigentlich jedem empfehlen würde. Die einzige Bedingung wäre vielleicht, das der- oder diejenige vorher kurz nach Istanbul sollte. Viele der architektonischen und geographischen Beschreibungen waren für mich bereits verwirrend, ohne je da gewesen zu sein, erscheinen sind diese unmöglich zu verstehen.

Ein letzter negativer Punkt ist das 'hünzü'-Konzept, welches laut Pamuk die Schwermütigkeit, die Lethargie, das Trarige ist, welches die Einwohner von Istanbul seit Jahrhunderten geprägt hat. Teilweise bedingt durch den Abstieg des Osmanischen Reiches und darauffolgenden tiefen Fall in eine arme Obskurität. Pamuk behauptet, daß dieses Konzept nur für Menschen, die in Konstantinopel gewohnt hätten zugänglich wäre und dies mag stimmen, ich kann es nicht beurteilen. Aber, ich finde, wenn man einen Text schreibt und dabei auf ein solches Konzept zurückgreift bedarf es einer stärkeren Argumentation dahinter, mir ging es nicht vollkommen auf, ich konnte es nur sehr bedingt nachvollziehen. Dies könnte natürlich auch meine Beschränktheit sein, falls noch jemand dieses Werk gelesen hat, würde ich insofern weitere Erklärungen dankend entgegen nehmen.

Einwanderung

Falls Ihr jemals in eine Diskussion über Immigration verwickelt werden solltet, lest diesen Text. Das Argument ist im Prinzip, daß Einwanderer im Durchschnitt mehr Unternehmen gründen (Intel, Google und Ebay werden als Beispiele für die USA benannt, in Deutschland sind damit wohl eher Restaurants und Lebensmittelläden gemeint) und dadurch das BIP steigern und Jobs schaffen. Außerdem ermöglichen sie den Einstieg qualifizierter Personnen (Frauen vor allem) in den Beruf durch niedrige Löhne in Dienstleistungsjobs (Haushaltshilfen, Kindermädchen...). Letztlich geben Einwanderer vor allem am Anfang einen hohen Prozentsatz ihres Einkommens aus, eine hohe Konsumnachfrage mit all seinen Effekten (höherer BIP, mehr Jobs) folgt. Abschließend würde ich gerne mal wissen, was eigentlich diese andauernde Nennung von Kreuzberg (oder auch Neuköllns) als Symbol der gescheiterten Integration soll. Ich wohne hier (in Kreuzberg) und hatte nie irgendein Problem, wo ich mich unwohl fühle sind eher Bezirke wie Lichtenberg, Marzahn und Hohenschönhausen mit ihren hohen Glatzenanteilen, ist da die Integration auch gescheitert?

It seems that I am one of the people 'who think they should run the country.' While the list is of course way too business centred, it is quite funny.

le 6 mai

Je lisais le NY Times et LeMonde commenter sur le débat entre Sarko et Ségo hier, je dois avouer que je l'aurais aimé regarder. Mais, j'étais dans un café pour le foot avec mon père. Tant pis. Je crains en tout cas que Sarko gagnera. Sa position sur l'immigration surtout et la façon comme il piquait les votes de Le Pen m'inquiètent. Mais oui, je peux même pas voter en tout cas.

Sarko & the NBA

Si vous ne savez pas encore pour qui voter, peut-être ca vous intéressez (je les trouve un peu trop populiste parfois).

An independent study has established that there is a racial bias in NBA refereeing. White referees (who are the majority) discriminating black players and black referees (a minority and less pronounced) discriminating white players. John Hollinger counters these finds based on the little impact they have on a game ('a black player will [only] rack up approximately 0.16 added fouls per 48 minutes). While his (Hollinger's) argument does make sense, there seems to be no counter argument towards the fact that this racial bias exists. Quite shocking, even if the effects are more or less negligible.

Le Non

Ich hatte vor 2 Semestern ein Seminar über den EU-Verfassungsvertrag und wollte damals in den Semesterferien eine Hausarbeit über das gescheiterte Referendum in Frankreich schreiben. Ich schaffte es irgendwie nie diese Arbeit zu schreiben und hatte mir dann versprochen sie in Frankreich zu schreiben und dem Professor mit dem Argument, daß ich französische Literatur benötigt hätte, noch zu geben. Lange Rede, kurzer Sinn, am Mittwoch (oder Dienstag) gehe ich in seine Sprechstunde und gucke was dabei herauskommt, die Arbeit könnt Ihr Euch hier runterladen falls Interesse besteht. Nur als kleine Warnung, es gibt relativ viele Zitate auf französisch.

Les Bienveillantes

Alors, je finissais enfin le livre que je commencais après Der Jakubijân-Bau et j'ai fait cette entrée le 28 février. Ca veut dire que je lisais Les Bienvillantes presque deux mois. Eux entre vous qui me connaisent savent que je lis vraiment plus rapide que ca normalement. Mais cette livre a 894 pages et - bien sûr si vous voulez - c'est tous en francais. Je crois que je comprenais 70% à 80% du bouquin, évidemment il y avait les joue du mot que je loupais, les descriptions de la campagne ou des villes étaient assez difficile à comprende et même les situations violentes avec tous ces détails ne sont pas facile à appréhender. Mais quand même je peux déjà dire que j'aimais m'immerser dans ce livre. Ca, pas seulement parce que c'etait mon première oeuvre litterature francaise que j'avais lu, mais surtout parce que j'aimais bien le lire. Il y aura beaucoup de critique, mais je le recommends pour tous le monde quand même.

L'écrivain est un americain qui est grandi en France, habite en Espagne et est marié avec une Belge. Il décrit l'histoire d'un officier de SS, de sa perspective en fait. Je veux éviter d'éxaminer trop des détails, premièrement parce que ca vous ennuyerait et deuxièmement parce que si vous avez pas encore lu ce livre je le recommande et pour cette raison il ne faut pas détailler trop d'évents. Quand même je dois décrire certains choses qui peut-être vous ne voulez pas savoir avant lire le bouquin.

La critique (et tout ca est sur une haute niveau parce que encore j'aimais lire ca, mais enfin je suis une personne très critiquante):

• L'avantage d'être allemand avec ce livre ce qu'il utilise les phrases et noms allemands assez souvent. Mais, il y a un problème avec ca aussi, il y a trop de faute en allemand. À mon avis ca c'est vraiment gênant. Est-ce qu'il n'y avait pas un lecteur pour faire une correction? La question pour moi ce s'il y a les fautes comme ca dans la langue, est-ce que ca c'est la même chose avec les détails historique? Je lisais une critique dans le Zeit qui disait que il est soigneux historiquement, mais je suis pas sûr si je le crois, seulement parce que les fautes sur une place impliquent les fautes un peu partout normalement.


• J'avais l'impression que Littel avait peur de sa courage (un proverbe allemand ca, acune idée si ca s'est traduit) un peu. Oui, il décrit tous d'un point de vue d'un officier allemand, quelqu'un convaincu de ce qu'il fait, sans regrette même 50 ans après, mais lui, l'officier, dans un certain sens il garde son honneur touts les temps. Il critique la facon de tuer de ses collègues toujours. Il ne perds jamais son contrôle sur soi-même (en regard des juifs en tout cas). Et surtout, il travaille dans les sectors de SS tout les temps ou il travaille pour améliorer la situation des juifs. Même s'il le fait seulement pour fortifier l'éffort de guerre, enfin il est indisputable qu'il ne travaille pas à tuer les gens (juifs ou tsigane) mais pour améliorer leur situation. Je trouvais ca un peu décevant, s'on écrivait un roman sur un officer comme ca, faudrait-il pas d'aller jusqu'au sommet?


• En plus, je trouvais que Littel n'illumine pas assez certains aspects de la philosophie d'aue (le protagonist). Il y a beaucoup des situations ou Aue explique ce qu'il pense ou pourquoi certain chose serait important pour le national-socialisme, mais à mon avis plusieurs points ne sont jamais éxpliqué. Par exemple la position d'Hitler comme le Führer, ou pourquoi tuer tout les juifs serait nécessaire, ou comme Aue arrange d'être homosexuel un Nazi convaincu au même temps.

Il y avait d'autre chose que je n'aimais pas, mais honnêtement, exprimé tout ca en francais est vraiment complique, je veux même pas savoir combien de faute il y a dans mon blog d'aujourd'hui seulement. En tout cas je continuerai à lire en francais et je cherche les autres livre intéressant, s'il y a quelqu'un avec une idée ca serait sympa. Un dernier mot sur Les Bienveillantes s'il y a quelqu'un entre vous qui a lu ca, il serait vraiment sympa de rencontrer et discuter sur ca un peu.

Being Jewish 3

I've worn my Yarmulka for a week now and my experiment's original time frame is coming to an end (I haven't yet decided whether I will prolong it for the first week of classes which start tomorrow in order to have a bigger sample and exposure to more people). So far I have not heard one outright antisemitic comment. Yet, two people have commented in a rude manner that at least implicitely made a negative attitude towards jews obvious.

In the store right near my house, the shopkeeper rather incredously asked me: "Is that a Jew hat?" I responded affirmitavily and no real further conversation took place. In the second incident a baldheaded guy in the company of a dude in a German national football jersey uttered to his friend: "That's is a Jew!"

In both cases it was not so much what was so said, but the way in which the word Jew was pronounced, that made clear that these guys had a very negative opinion of Jews. Still, it seems clear that antisemitism is less openly pronounced as I thought it would be up front.

One important aspect should be mentioned though, one that a friend of mine made me aware of: Most people seem simply not to know that a yarmulka is part of the jewish religion. If this is true, and I definitely have come to the conclusion that it is, then of course the experiment has not so much led to the aforementioned conclusion, but rather has failed due to a lack of knowledge on the part of its - unknowning - subjects.

Le Bild francais

Je ne lisais rien sur ca dans les journaux allemands mais apparemment essayera Springer d'établir un quotidien en France. À mon avis ca serait vraiment une raison pour s'inquiéter. Pas seulement parce qu'on parle sur Springer ici - et si vous ne savez pas quoi ce nom veut dire en allemand je le décrirerais par le nom Volksverdummung, en francais peut-être 'faire con la population générale' - mais surtout parce que il sont déjà établi un quotidien en Pologne qui maintenant et devenu le plus grand là-bas. Si il réussissait en France aussi, ca voudrait dire que la même compagnie dominerait dans les trois pays d'Europe centrale les plus grands. Plus court, j'espère que ca ne marchera pas.

Kurt Vonnegut & la élection presidentielle

Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday, may he rest in peace. I encourage all of you - including myself who hasn't read anything by him in a while - to pick up a novel by him.

Les élections en France sont presque là - ici les dernier sondages - et moi j'ai acune idée pour qui je voterai. Mais LeMonde offre 19 questions et après ils donnent un avis de quel programme on est proche. Pour moi la plus haute était Dominique Voynet (des Verts) avec 10 points qui je ne connaissais même pas avant. Après elle j'avais José Bové et Olivier Besancenot (LCR) les deux avec neuf points.

Voynet c'est probablement assez réalistique, seulement parce que je vote pour les Verts en Allemagne presque tout les temps. Mais Bové (plus) et Besancenot (mois) m'ennervent un peu. Bové pour moi est un populiste complétement ridicule (même si je comprends contre quoi il agit). Besancenot est plus serieux mais quand même je crois que ses idées enfin sont utopians et sur un certain dégre contribue à faire les gens croire que certains choses sont possible qui ne sont pas. (J'espère qu'il y a pas trop de faute dans ces phrases et qu'on le comprends encore, mon prochain cours de francais commence mardi, alors, je m'améliorerais, j'espère.)

Day 2

The second day of my Kippa experiment came and went yesterday and the - positively - surprising thing is how little actually happens. I sat at the river reading the newspaper (a canal actually but whatever) and afterwards played some ball around the corner from my place (quite surprising how well that thing stays up there with the help of some hairpins). I live in Kreuzberg which if you mention it to people from outside of Berlin is quite a hotspot of immigration and perceived criminality - not that I ever had any problems here. Accordingly there were about 40% Germans and 60% foreigners on the court (the foreigners are German mostly too of course even if they might not have a passport their German skills make quite clear that they were born or at least grew up here). Nobody said one thing (even if some dude walking on a court with a Kippa is, well, not quite ordinary here (never have seen that actually not even in the US)). I got a couple of weird looks, but nothing was said and the looks weren't even negative just kind of weirded-out. One of our games (we won like five in a row and thus ran the court for a while) was against a group of gangsters (I assume you know what I mean with that term, their illegal activities probably do not go further than smoking pot every once in a while, but the attitude is what I mean), whom we beat soundly (good fun that always) who clearly fell in the category of kids with an immigration background and educational problems. Yet, again, nothing was said. Nothing.

All in all, so far so good, I'll be wearing this for another five days maybe and keep all of my interested readers up to date.

Being Jewish

So, I've started my experiment of being Jewish in Germany by wearing a Kippah now. I will wear this skullcap every time I leave the house for at least a week now. Honestly, I was disappointed by the beginning of this exercise though. Apart from stupid jokes by my friends I didn't hear one comment all evening. I did have the impression that some people - mostly punks or other blatantly left-wing guys - smiled at me more than they usually would have. It will be interesting how this will develop and I am kind of excited about it, but so far the experiment has been rather uneventful, which - considering I am trying to see how antisemitic German society - is good news.

UNC

Question of the day:

What do Michael Jordan, Rasheed Wallace, Henrik Rödl, Ademola Okulaja, Jerry Stackhouse, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison have in common?

They all attended the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Now you might wonder why you should care, or even why I care. Well, quite easy, I can happily announce that so will I. I finally received my official acceptance email yesterday evening and thus will definitely study political science in North Carolina for one year. I cannot honestly even begin to describe how exciting this is for me.

European Solidarity

Ulrich Speck and Timothy Ash call for European solidarity in the face of Iranian aggression - the capture of 15 British soldiers. I wholeheartedly agree. I am sick and tired of the Europeans' lacking unity in regard to foreign policy. Whether it be the Iraq War or the American Missile Systems in Eastern Europe. If we really want to talk about the EU as a proper political institution then now is the time to defend our European soldiers by a unified reaction (such as a common boycott of relations and the threat of immediate economical repercussions) pronounced by the current EU leader (Frau Merkel). This situation really is calling for European solidarity. Otherwise one really has to wonder what the point of the CFSP (Common Foreign and Security Policy) is. Or what the point of a European army would be.

Antiamerikanismus & la France

I've been really busy (and lazy) and also have been reading a 800 page french novel and for these reasons haven't written anything on here in a while. I am sorry for all my faithful readers (all three of you). Just a really quick entry today, I'll try to be better again.

• La France elle a un grand, grand problème. Si une situation comme un contrôle de billets peux développer dans une bataille avec la police assez rapidement et dans Paris (j'habitais jusqu'à côté), je crois que c'est clair qu'il y a une fissure sociale plus profonde que jamais. (1,2)



• Germany decidedly has an anti-americanism problem. People mix up justified criticism of US policy, stereotypes and condesendence with plain hatred. Pretty much every American who's been living in Germany for a while (and most of those speak German quite well) suffer under it. I find it embarrassing. Am not going to go into detail on this, as I don't have the time for a well argumented piece, but here is a quite polemic article from the Spiegel about it and also a more scientific text from The Chronicle Review.

Iraq

I realize this is my third post of the day, but I had prepared the book entry at home and this one is simply too good to pass up on.

Foreign Policy has created a ranking of the Top 10 winners of the Third Gulf War.
Here we go:

1. Iran
2. Moqtada al-Sadr
3. Al-Qaeda
4. Samuel Huntington
5. China
6. Arab Dictators
7. The Price of Oil
8. The United Nations
9. Old Europe
10. Israel

You can only read some of the articles for free (and you need to be registered for some, check www.bugmenot.com), so I cannot validate some of the selections which I don't quite understand (Israel? When Iran is the top winner?).

All in all, good job Mr Bush, Mr Cheney, Mr Rumsfeld.

Antisemitismus

Im Ruhwald Park (das ist am Spandauer Damm in der Nähe vom Wasserturm, für diejenigen von Euch, die diesen Park nicht kennen, meine Grundschule liegt direkt auf der anderen Straßenseite) ist in der Nacht zum Sonntag ein jüdischer Kindergarten verwüstet worden. Im Ruhwald Park! Der jüdische Kindergarten befindet sich anscheinend in der Villa in welcher früher Freunde von mir in den Hort gingen. Irgendwie hat mich das sehr geschockt, das ist so nah, da habe ich früher gewohnt. Ich war so oft im Ruhwald Park Basketball spielen, auf dem Spielplatz, Fahrrad fahren, rodeln. Ich habe da regelmäßig Kindergeburtstage gefeiert!

Der Vorsitzende der jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin, Gideon Joffe, 'hat [deswegen] gutwillige Menschen aufgefordert, einen "Kippa-Test" zu machen, um das tägliche Bedrohungsgefühl eines in Deutschland lebenden Juden nachempfinden zu können. "Nicht-Juden sollten sich einfach mal eine Kippa (kreisförmige Kopfbedeckung, die Red.) auf den Kopf setzen oder einen Davidstern an die Kette hängen" (aus der FR).

Genau das werde ich machen, ich habe Herrn Joffe bereits eine Email geschrieben, weil ich keine Ahnung habe, wo man eigentlich eine Kippa herbekommt (oder wie die dann auf dem Kopf hält), hoffe, daß er (naja, seine Sekretärin) mir in den nächsten Tage antwortet und dann bin ich mal sehr gespannt darauf was passieren wird.

Der Jakubijân-Bau

Ich habe Der Jakubijân-Bau von Alaa al-Aswani wieder einmal relativ schnell durch gelesen, zwei Tage brauchte ich glaube ich, aber ich habe halt nicht so sonderlich viel zu tun momentan. Das Buch war ein Geschenk (Danke Sarah) und - soweit ich mich erinnere - der erste Roman aus dem arabischen Raum (Ägypten um genau zu sein), welchen ich je gelesen habe.

Al-Aswani erzählt die Geschichten der Bewohner eines großen Apartmentkomplexes in Kairo. Oben auf dem Dach wohnen die armen Bewohner, in den Wohnungen weiter unten befinden sich die Mitglieder der Mittel- und Oberschicht. Es wird die Geschichte erzählt eines erfolgreichen, schwulen Journalisten, dessen armer und verheiratete
Liebhaber, eines Parlamentsabgeordneten, der sich selber zu einem Amt schummelt und dann trotzdem weiter gehorchen muß, eines Mädchens, welches bedingt durch ihre Armheit sexuell ausgenutzt wird, eines jungen Mannes, welcher sich radikalisiert durch seine Unterdrückung und die Beleidigungen, welche er erfährt, und, und, und.

Ich fand das ganze unglaublich fesselnd, man mußte sich anfangs ein wenig daran
gewöhnen, daß alle zwei oder drei Seiten der Protagonist wechselte aber nach einer Weile, sobald mit den wichtigsten Figuren ein wenig vertraut ist, erscheint dieser ständige Wechsel sogar sehr angenehm. Mein einziges Problem mit den Geschichten war, daß die meisten von ihnen absolut desillusionierend endeten. Ich kann zwar mit billigen Happy-Ends nicht allzu viel antun, aber viele dieser Menschen erlitten
dann doch sehr grausame Schicksale. Nichtsdestotrotz, ein sehr empfehlenswertes Buch.

The Crossing

The Crossing is Cormac McCarthy's second book that I've read and similar to the Coetzee book which I will discuss on Monday I have to say that I liked it a lot better than the respective first one. Maybe one has to get accustomed to a writes of a certain stature before one can really enjoy his writing (I remember that Faulkner As I Lay Dying did not please me all that much either when I first read it), whatever the reason, this McCarthy novel was really good. It had certain parts in Spanish that I only partly understood and some of the dream-like philosophical sequences were a little too abstract for me - I sometimes wonder whether that is just me, or whether the reader is supposed to understand these, help on this would be welcome - but the general story line made it a really good read.

A young man from New Mexico repeatedly travels into Mexico and is confronted with a society that is far more violent and less modern than the one that he comes from. The novel takes place during the 1st World War, so modernity has made its inroads already, yet Billy, the protagonist, is a representative of the past, someone who has not really gotten used to cars, airplanes or even basic legal issues (like death certificates or burial licenses). As one can imagine the novel is not a happy one, it does not even provide any kind of closure (whether negative or positive) in the end, yet it was a very thought-provoking book and I can only recommend it to anyone.

I should probably add that I am in general a big fan of stories on the beginning of modernity and how people dealt (or did not) with it, if you are not, this book might not be worth it for you after all.

Schande

Ich hatte von J.M. Coetzee schon irgendwann mal ein Buch gelesen, an welches ich mich nur dunkel erinnern kann, als ich dann bei meinen Großeltern Schande rumliegen sah und nicht viel zutun hatte, schlug ich es auf und las innerhalb eines Tages durch - ehrlicherweise las ich ein wneig zu schnell, weil ich am Anfang noch dachte, ich könnte es nicht mitnehmen und deswegen soweit als möglich noch bei meinen Großeltern kommen wollte. In meiner Erinnerung war ich von dem ersten Coetzee Buch nicht so begeistert gewesen, ich muß aber eingestehen, daß mich dieses fesselte.
Es geht um einen Professor der eine Beziehung mit einer Studentin anfängt und deswegen sich aufs Land auf die Farm seiner Tochter zurückziehen muß. Obwohl es zeitweise schwierig ist nachvollziehen, warum der Protagonist sich verhält wie er es tut, ist die Geschichte eine die man kaum absetzen kann. Der einzige Punkt der mich enttäuschte, war das Ende, der Professor vollzieht in einer gewissen Weise eine Wende, realisiert sein fortgeschrittenes Alter und scheint sich damit zufrieden zu geben. Dieser Wandel wurde in meinen Augen aber ncht vernünftig begründet, auch wenn er sich am Ende einem Lebensweg verschrieben hat, welcher am Anfang des Buches noch unmöglich für ihn gewesen wäre, scheint dieser Wandel nicht vollkommen nachvollziehbar, sein Lernprozess wird dem Leser gegenüber nicht wirklich abgeschlossen, sondern ein Teil desselben einfach übersprungen.

Political Leanings

If you are fearing (or hoping) to entertain some neoconservative notions, check out this test by the Christian Science Monitor. You have to answer 10 questions on foreign policy and then are grouped into the typical foreign policy belief groups (isolationists, liberals, realists and neocons). Not all that surprisingly I ended up a liberal (alongside Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter).

Ruther B. Hayes

I know this is getting old, I realize all everyone in Europe seems to do is bash the current US-administration. Yet, let me get this straight one more time. Since 9/11, the US has invaded Afghanistan, where the Taliban have still not been defeated and while something called a democracy is in placed every second (personal estimate) deputy in the parliament is a war-criminal. They have also invaded Iraq causing (if not directly) the death of over 500,000 people and leading to the re-emergence of Iran as an unopposed regional power. This latter invasion has crippled American military might as far as that any threat against Sudan (Darfur!), Iran, Syria or North Korea rings hollow. Well, no one said the War on Terror was going to be easy, but check out what the NY Times has to say about Al-Qaida:

Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counter terrorism officials.

American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan.

How do you spell miserable failure again? I don't think even Ruther B. Hayes will be able to compete with this administration in the long run. Five years after the worst attack on American soil, after billions of money spent, thousands of deaths, a changed - more multi-polar - world has come about and shouldn't there be something to show for the 43nd POTUS? Something, anything?

Je fais rire le monde ... mais le monde me fait pleurer!

Ali Akbar viens de Pakistan et maintenant il travail dans le quartier autour Sant-Germain-de-Près. Là, il vends Le Monde tout le jour. Il est assez connu dans ce quartier parce que il est sociable et surtout parce que il est un originial. Par exemple il écrit les titres imaginaire pour son journal tout le temps (Ca y est! Ca y est! La retraite à 35, c'est décidé!). Moi je le crossais tout le dimance quand je travaillais dans mon bar à Odeon. Il était pot avec mon collègue et on bavardait avec lui un peu tout le temps. Quand je découvrais qu'il avait écris une autobiographie je l'ai acheté.
Le livre n'était pas mal. Bien sûr, ce n'est pas la haute culture, mais sa vie était compliqué et assez intéressant. Il est né en Pakistan et il raconte dans le livre comme il arrivait à vendre les journal à Paris. Peut-être si l'on ne connait pas ce n'est pas vraiment la paine, mais pour moi, ca marchait bien.

The Reivers

Can I even say anything about Faulkner anymore? I love the way he phrases his sentences. I love his stories, his protagonists who in all their faults are so human. While the Reivers is not up to par to classics such as Absalom, Absalom it is nevertheless a great book and in the opus of virtually every other author would have to be considered a classic. A boy, a black servant and a white no-good steal a car and go off to Memphis. I have to admit that I prefer it when Faulkner deals with subjects that lie further in the past than 1905 - the time when this novel is set. Nonetheless, I can only preach to anyone who has never read Faulkner to get one of his books. I read this one in about 3-4 days and thoroughly enjoyed it.

:07 seconds or less

I got :07 seconds or less - My Season on the Bench with Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns by Jack McCallum as a late birthday/christmas combo present (danke, Christoph). I read it the last couple of days now on my commute into the city. Upfront I have to admit that I usually haven't enjoyed sports books all that much, they are often not that well written and contain nothing really new. A sport is something to watch or play but not really to write about (except as in a recount of facts). Also, the title is kind of misleading as it is not really the season that McCallum discusses but rather the playoffs.

Yet, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It does of course help that I liked that Suns team and their style of basketball, but I found it interesting in general to see the inner workings of a team like that. How some players coast, how some players need more psychological attention. How other players have a precarious ego. How some play their heart out only to stay in the league. You normally don't consider players as a person, they are just an image on a screen. You judge how they play but you never consider how they got there or what they do after the game. Also, the tactical side is something undervalued by a gut player (not a compliment that) like me, crazy really how much planning goes into all this (not that that was something new really, but the book made me more (or again) aware of it). All in all definitely recommandable for anyone looking for an easy and quick read.

Porte de la Paix céleste

Oui, parfois je lis un livre lequel n'est pas de René Goscinny. Ce fois, c'était de Shan Sa. Elle une écrivaine chinoise qui habite en France et écrit en francaise. Je lisait un livre d'elle avant (La joueuse de Go) en allemand, et je l'aimais. Sa sujet est la Chine. Cette histoire raconte comment une fille qui organisait les protestes d'étudiants en 1989 fuit Beijing après le gouvernement avait terminé les manifestations avec l'aide de l'armée. Au même temps elle décrit l'officier qui est responsable pour l'attraper. Lui, il lit le journal de la fille et lentement commence à ses séparer de sa croyance à la Parti communiste. Le livre est assez court (même pas 150 pages), mais il me captivait vraiment. En comparaison avec La joueuse de Go je le trouvais mois fort, mais avec une livre aussi fort comme La joueuse ca ce n'est pas vraiment negative. Si vous lisez en francais et la ne connaissez pas, vas-y, l'achetez.

Samuel Huntington

I had to read The Hispanic Challenge by Samuel Huntington for a class on immigration in Paris and I've been wanting to post something on that for a while now. Finally have found the time to do so.

The basic argument that this famed scholar is proposing (The Clash of Civilizations should be a name most people have heard before) is that the current - Hispanic - immigration into the US is unprecedented (in numbers and social impact) and that these new immigrants unlike their predecessors in the 19th and early 20th century don't integrate themselves.

I was really shocked by his essay. A scholar as renowned, teaching at Harvard, only one of the elite universities in the world, basically argued completely incoherent and unscientific. While Huntington never actually can be put on the spot for being xenophobic, his lack of arguments coupled with the general sentiments he expresses certainly imply that he is thinking in that manner.

A couple of examples:

• "Will the United States remain a country with a [...] core Anglo-Protestant culture?"
  It seems clear that he cannot refer to pop culture here as the dominant strain in American pop music over the 20th century has been of Afro-American descent, whether it be Jazz, Blues, Rock n Roll, Soul or Hip Hop. Yet, even when focusing on high culture, it seems to me that Jewish or black contributions (Harlem Renaissance anybody?) are completely ignored.


• "The extent [...] of this immigration differ fundamentally from those of previous immigration."
  I beg to differ, right now for every 1000 US-citizens there are 1,5 Mexicans living in the US. From 1840 to 1850 there were 3,6 Irish per 1000 US-citizens, from 1840 to 1890 more Germans than currently Mexicans and from 1901 to 1910 more Russians, Italians and Austro-Hungarians.


• "English language use and fluency for first - and second - generation Mexicans thus seem to follow the pattern common to past immigrants."
  "The [...] nature of this immigration differ fundamentally from those of previous immigration."
  Sorry for the double double quotation. Do I even need to comment any further? Seems like Huntington can't really draw a connection between his statistics and the way he would like to perceive things."


• After he has admitted that language assimilation is actually similar to earlier immigrant groups he goes on to claim that "if the second generation does not reject Spanish outright, the third generation is also likely to be bilingual, and fluency in both languages is likely to become institutionalized." So, if the second generation (which according to his own numbers does not really speak Spanish all that well) does not refuse any contact with Spanish whatsoever, the third generation will be fluent and so will their children, grand-children and so on. Anyone care to explain the logic behind this to me?


• Finally, he reverts to a very clever idea to mask some of his more distasteful sentiments. He quotes Mexicans about Mexicans and thus gets away with expressing opinions such as that "almost no one in the Mexican community" "believes in 'education and hard work.'"


• More fundamentally, Huntington never even explains to the reader why bilingualism would be something so inherently bad that it needs to be challenged in order to preserve the American "political integrity."

Les vacances du petit Nicolas

Oui, je sais, c'est un peu trop, mais je lisais un autre Petit Nicolas. En fait je suis en train de réfléchir, si je m'acheterai le nouveau aussi. Je vais pas dire plus sur ca, sauf que je l'aimais encore et que je le lisais dans un après-mid. Mon prochain livre en francais sera un peu plus difficile, promis.

The Senate

A couple of words about me.
I am currently in Frankfurt and am working for the HSFK here. I am doing research on decision making in regard to defense affairs in the USA after the end of the Cold War. As part of this work I have to read a lot of biographies of Senators, because of that I stumble over interesting tidbits on American politics every once in a while. I will take advantage of this and post them here. Have fun.

• In the USA (all except three states currently) the governor names a replacement Senator in case the incumbent retires or dies. Thus, when Senator Frank Murkowski retired the Governor of Alaska named a new Senator. The only problem with this, the new governor was good ol' Frank and the new Senator his daughter, Lisa Murkowski.


• Apparently (this was new to me) there is a clause somewhere that says that any (1) senator can block any law anonymously (yes, you read that correctly). When Barrack Obama and Tom Coburn introduced The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (nomen est omen in regard to the content of this bill: "with an easily searchable database of the name and amount of every federal grant, contract or award of $25,000 or more") exactly this happened. By now it has been uncovered that Ted Stevens (Alaska again) is the culprit here. Can't really see anything less obvious you could do - short of admitting - to make everyone aware of what kind of politician you are.


• I kind of like McCain, his hero story is just too good, and I don't judge extramarital affairs either, but dumping his wife after he came back from the war because she "she had become 4 inches shorter, gained weight, and had to use crutches to walk" (because of some kind of sickness) seems so heartless to me, it is incredible.


• Don't we all love our hypocritical right wing Christians. I personally, am a big fan. Tim Hutchinson in his time in the Senate was a winner of the Christian Coalition’s Friend of the Family award, he also is a baptist preacher and was one of the leaders on the Christian right in the Republican party. Good thing then that he divorced his wife of 29 years in order to copulate with his congressional aide. I am sure Archangel Michael (or was it Gabriel?) will account for his missionary attempts when measuring his sins on judgement day.


• Joe Lieberman I never liked but I found out that he went down to Mississippi for several weeks in 1963 in order to help African-American register to vote. That impressed me, white people, black people, purple people, whoever tried that back then stood a good chance of returning to the North in a casket.


• And a quote from Max Cleland an Ex-Senator from Arkansas and Vietnam Veteran:
  "The president has declared 'major combat over' and sent a message to every terrorist, 'Bring them on.' As a result, he has lost more people in his war than his father did in his and there is no end in sight [...] Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President. Sorry you didn't go when you had the chance."


• Finally, if you want to check out some of the most intriguing story lines of Congress in 2006, check out this and if you are as surprised at the existence of a White Panther Party as I was, read up on it

Flags of our Fathers

Need to do some catching up here again, seems to be the story line of this blog, catching up that is.

Flags of our Fathers was written by James Bradley in cooperation with Ron Powers and has recently been turned into a movie by Clint Eastwood (a movie which I still haven't managed to watch). It tells the story of the men in the famous picture taken on Iwo Jima. The author (Bradley) is the son of one of the men in the picture. Of the six visible (more or less at least) in the image, three died over the next couple of days while the other three returned to the USA to a hero's welcome, because the image had become the most iconic one of the war.

The Pentagon tried to utilize these new heroes and ordered the three surviving men to come and appear on the 7th Bond Tour (in order to collect money for the last efforts in the Pacific theatre). The men had a hard time to deal with this new-found fame. Ira Hayes (a Pimo-Indian who was later the subject of a Johnny Cash song), developed a drinking habit that he was never able to shake again (he died an alcohol related death only a couple of years later). Rene Gagnon never managed to combine his status as a hero directly after the war and his job as a janitor only months after that, he never was able to rise out of his low-income and repeatedly tried and failed to benefit from his war-time status in some way. Jack Bradley finally, while having a successful career as the owner of a funeral home, never (literally) talked to his children or wife about neither his war experiences nor the advertisement tour he was obliged to go on.

While these traumatic events after the war might be the most interesting aspects of the book, about two thirds of it are dedicated to the run-up of Iwo Jima and finally the fateful attack on that deserted island. Considering I was (and still am) quite the ignorant in regard to the Asian War theatre, I liked obtaining some more information on this chapter of World War II. Plus, Bradley and Powers while no Faulkner (a stalwart of my author descriptions I guess) manage to portray the slaughter, the misery, the foolishness, the cruelty of this battle quite well. It is shocking to read what happened there, while none of the details were really new, usually I view them with a certain emotional distance due to the simple fact that I do not have any connection to any of the protagonists (the soldiers). The book made me overcome this (whether that is something positive remains to be answered, yet it was the case).

It honestly has been a while since I read this book plus I am not the most emotionally stable person right now, thus my incoherent entry, but I would definitely recommend the book for anyone interested in history, even if Bradley sometimes lets a little too much emotionally charged sentimality run wild.

Dance With The Devil

Immortal Technique - Dance With The Devil

In order to finally catch up with the books I've read over my vacation, I'll just include the last two in one entry.

Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff is the first one. I read it on the flight back to France after I had gotten it as a christmas present. The basic premise of the book is how to argue with a Republican. According to Lakoff frames that are used in public discourse dominate the debate more so than facts do. Thus, a debate about tax relief will always put a Democratic partisan at a disadvantage simply because the word relief already implies that taxes are something inherently bad that need to be treated similarly to a sickness. In order to win any kind of public discussion it is accordingly of the utmost importance that positive progressive frames are formed. Without these, Democrats cannot win any elections in the near future. I am usually quite sceptic about these ideas that the form in a way is more important then the package. I feel that a democracy should strive to have an enlightened population that forms its decision based on the facts presented to them. Somekind of Homo Oeconomicus modell. Yet, this book made me doubt myself a little. I realize that most people aren't as informed as they should be and that these people can easily be swayed to vote for one party or another by simple catchy headlines, it seems likely that in order to win any kind of election one needs to adhere to these modus operandis. All in all Lakoff makes a very good case for his argument and I would completely recommend his book for anyone interested in political discourse. One negative point, in the later chapters Lakoff tries himself at some political analysis as well, where I found him to be weaker, most likely simply because he leaves his usual field of studies (he is a linguist after all).

The second book was a little less intelligent made for an entertaining read though, similarly to the Terry Pratchett novel I discussed a couple of days ago, Tony Hillerman's Skeleton Man belongs to the genre of easily accesible books that one can read in one sitting. Hillerman writes crime novels that take place in the area of the Four Corner Reservation, his heroes are officers of the Navajo Tribal Police and he is always good for a thrilling crime novel. Definitely one of the most enjoyable bestseller writers of the day I know.

Top 10 of 2006

Following my personal Top 10 of records published in 2006:

10 - Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Is there anything new that I could potentially say about Mr Zimmermann? I doubt it, simply fact that the greatest American poet of the 20th century has produced a new album warrants a spot in the Top 10.

9 - Dr John - Mercernary
Dr. John covering Johnny Mercer. Mac Rebennack has published typically New Orleans albums in the last couple of years and all of them are good. His voice coupled with the typical New Orleans piano and the brass in the back work every time.

8 - Van Morrison - Pay The Devil
Van the Man goes country. With three Hank Williams covers, the most American Irish ever shows just how far he has immersed himself in American music. Great Album.

7 - Solomon Burke - Nashville
And another Soul crooner exploring the country route. Burke had already recorded the odd country tune before (and Southern Soul and Country have been perpetually close anyway). I would call this the best traditional Country album of the year and it definitely should have been up there in the Country charts (only made it to 55 though as modern country simply is too washed up and poppy nowadays).

6 - Aaron Neville - Bring It On Home
I usually don't really like Aaron's solo work (the Neville Brothers' stuff is great), his voice is too soft and his material and back up to much geared for the Easy Listening market, but this one is simply amazing. The subtitle is The Soul Classics giving it the impression of a compilation, but Neville has decided to re-rerecord classics by Sam Cooke, The Stable Singers et al. I wish he would always sing like this.

5 - Charlie Musselwhite - Delta Hardware
I hadn't really known this guy before, had him down as just another mediocre white Blues singer. In fact he is far better and this is easily the best blues album of the year. Nomen est omen, this is pure delta material, nothing extravagant, nothing fancy, no Fat Possum-like electronic experiments. Just the good stuff.

4 - Neil Young - Living With War
As above my opinion of Neil Young hadn't been to high before (too experimental a folkie for me that dude) and I wonder how this album will sound in 10 years when all this furor about the current US-administration has quieted down. Yet, right now this is a great album, a running commentary on politics in the vein of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers, a blunt attack on the misuse of power by Bush and his cabinet set to rocky music.

3 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Last Man Standing
If I calculated an age average of the singers on this list here it would probably not bode too well for my standing for younger readers of my blog (meaning everyone), but what can I do, the music is just so much better. As most older legends do at some point Jerry Lee has recorded a duets album, these sometimes are quite sad affairs with older geniuses coupled with young pop guys in order to prop up sales delivering songs that suck. This is not the case here, not at all, most of the co-singers are older stars in their own right (Buddy Guy, Little Richard, Keith Richards...notable exceptions are Toby Keith and Kid Rock) and Jerry Lee dominates all of them. Wonderful Rock N Roll album.

2 - Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome
Bruce Springsteen definitely is too much of a Classic Rock kind of guy for me. Decent and everything, just doesn't really work for me this Stadium Rock stuff. This is different. Covering Seeger songs (and thus again a political statement considering Seeger's well-documented left-wing history) Springsteen and band sound as if they just got together one saturday night at his house and recorded these songs for fun. You can hear how much fun they had playing this stuff, good ol'timin' stuff.

1 - Hank Williams III - Straight To Hell
And finally someone under 40 on this list. May I introduce the son of Hank Williams Jr, the grandson of Hank Williams himself. Can anyone think of a more pressing heritage as a singer? His third (studio) album of Country music and it is his best. Aggressive, hard-rocking Country that keeps the Outlaw tradition going. None of that soft, bland Nashville BS, neither the flag-waving Toby Keith kind. My only problem is that I can never decide whether I like the hard rockers or the slow crooning songs better. Get it!

C.S. Lewis

I watched the Chronicles of Narnia on my computer a while ago and really liked that movie - even if it was for kids. When someone told me that the movie was based on an English classic series of books for children I decided to read those. All in all there are eight novels in the series, I've read three of them by now and will not start any of the other ones. The Lion, the With and the Wardrobe, The Magician's Nephew, and Prince Caspian were all decent enough. In fact, the first one I really liked, but they were all just a little bit too similar to each other. This - of course - might have been due to the fact that they are children novels after all. I did enjoy the three though, only shouldn't have read them as fast after another as I did. The premise is that there are multiple worlds and that entries into one filled with witches, kings, and dwarfs exist for us to be found. Followingly, a changing number of kids enter that fantasy world and experience adventures which lead to them restoring, establishing, founding a good and just kingdom. Recommendation in regard to this series has to be differentiated. If you have a son, daughter, nephew, whatever of a certain age, go for it and read the book yourself as well. Just don't buy it for yourself only.

The Sea Wolf

I finished The Sea Wolf by Jack London (god, I love having vacations like this, where I can finally read a lot again) as well. It had been a really long time since I had read something by London (the last time I probably was about 12) and I had forgotten what a good writer he is. If I scrape up my memories of literature theory correctly (and I suck at that, I only like reading books really) London was part of a movement called Naturalism (as opposed to Realism), which means you have an outsider coming into a closed society and populated by savages or at least men (nearly always men) with a deeper connection to nature than the ones in the civilized world. These stories usually end with the death of the characters in the portrayed societies.

This basic groundwork holds true in The Sea Wolf as well. Hump, as he is later known, is a literary critic and gentleman that by accident ends up on a ship headed to Japan in order to do seal hunting. This ship - the Ghost - is dominated by its captain - Wolf Larsen - who rules over his crew with a harsh hand and ensures his position with pure violence. Hump in the course of the story is transformed from a civilized weakling into a man that takes actions on his own and in the end actually dares to stand up to Wolf Larsen himself. Interestingly - and quite untypically for such a novel I believe - enough a woman enters the picture as well, making a love interest the centre of the conflict between Larsen and Hump. I do not want to go any further into the story or its ending, I warmly recommand this as lecture for anyone.

Thud!

I actually finished four books before I ever touched this one and I've already reviewed them as well, but I wrote those entries on my laptop and I have no internet connection on that one right now, so they will be up here Wednesday only when I get back to Paris.

With prices as low as they are here and an exchange rate as favourable as the current Euro-Dollar one, I've bought myself three books over the last week, one of those was Thud! by Terry Pratchett. Apart from Karl May Terry Pratchett (Tony Hillerman would be close behind I think) is the author by whom I have the most books. This does not necessarily reflect his exact position on my favorite authors list though. Basically, he is a good, fun, quick read, that I enjoy every time but that one does not really have to reread or cherish for a long time. His books could be called a more sarcastic Harry Potter with social critique. Pratchett recounts the adventures on a world called Discworld, which is populated by dwarfs, vampires, trolls and other fantastic creatures. Yet, what differentiates him from other authors of this genre is that his writing is dominated by a very dry - British I guess - sarcastic humor. He portrays human beings (and other not so human beings) with all their lusts and desires out in the open and not hidden behind a curtain of civilization. His descriptions ridicule wars, racism and virtually every other deplorable human activity.

Thud! tells of a possible troll and dwarf battle breaking out because of the anniversary of another troll and dwarf battle hundreds of years ago. Our hero - Sam Vimes, commander of the guard - is trying his best to prevent this from happening. Let this be enough about the actual story, I can definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to spend an entertaining 4-5 hour read (depending on your reading speed obviously, I am relatively fast I think).

Nur Die Schatten Bleiben

Ich las Nur die Schatten bleiben von Thomas T. Blatt ohne Pause irgendwo zwischen Paris und Toronto auf meinem Flug in die USA. Weil ich am Anfang fand es sei schwierig in das Buch hineinzufinden, war ich nach einiger Zeit vollkommen darin versunken. Blatt beschreibt den Aufstand im Vernichtungslager Sobibor der zur Flucht von ueber 300 Haeftlingen fuehrte. Dieser Aufstand und die darauf folgende Massenflucht war der einzige - erfolgreiche - dieser Groessenordnung in den Vernichtungslagern der Nazis. Es wurden fast alle SS-Aufseher sowie einige der ukrainischen Hilfstruppen getoetet. Blatt war selber zwar in die Vorbereitungen involviert und auch an diesen beteiligt spielt aber keine besonders grosse Rolle bei weder der Plannung noch der Ausfuehrung. Nichtsdestotrotz ist sein Buch ein faszinierendes Dokument. Blatt beschreibt sein Leben im besetzten Polen, den Beginn der Verfolgung, die Kolloboration seiner polnischen Mitbuerger, die Grausamkeit der deutschen Besatzer. Diese Beschreibung haelt Blatt aber auf einem sehr emotionsarmen Niveau und gerade dies kommt seinem Buch zugute. Die Tatsache, dass er ohne Hass, ohne Ausdruck von Emotionen die Ereignisse erzaehlt, verleihen ihnen eine groessere Wirkung, weil gerade dadurch ihre Unnatuerlichkeit staerker betont wird.

Ich kann dieses Buch nur empfehlen fuer alle historisch interessierte Menschen. Viele Aspekte der abartigen deutschen Vergangenheit werden einem erst durch eine solche Beschreibung klar. Dies sind zwar keine wirklich neuen Dinge, die man erfaehrt, aber sie werden von einer anderen Seite (eher qualitativ und episodenhaft als quantitativ und allgemein) dargestellt. So wird die Zusammensetzung des Vernichtungslagers aufgezeigt, wo Jude natuerlich nicht Jude ist, sondern Deutscher, Hollaender oder Pole. Diese Gruppen konkurrieren auch untereinander (ein aufgedeckter Fluchtplan der polnischen Haeftlinge wird den Hollaendern in die Schuhe geschoben, welche darauf hin alle vergast werden) und die im Vernichtungslager arbeitenden Haeftlinge unterstuetzen die Arbeit der deutschen Moerder, in dem sie neu ankommenden Opfern gegenueber den Eindruck erwecken sich in einem akzeptablen Arbeitslager zu befinden (dies natuerlich unter konstater Todesdrohung sich selbst gegenueber). Die Geldgier der polnischen Landbevoelkerung, welche die fluechtenden Juden bis auf das Hemd ausnehmen und dann trotzdem noch umbringen, ist schockierend. Die mangelnde Solidaritaet der Insassen untereinander ist erschreckend (wenn auch erklaerlich), nach der erfolgreichen Flucht setzen sich die ehemaligen russischen Soldaten mit den erbeuteten Waffen von den anderen Fluechtlingen ab, opfern diese im Prinzip um die eigenen Chancen zu erhoehen.

Ich koennte weitere dieser Episoden beschreiben, aber insgesamt bleibt wohl nur zu sagen, dass dieses Buch schockierend und grausam ist, wenn es auch nie die Ebene des rein faktischen Beschreibens verlaesst und seine 8,95 mehr als wert war. Kaufts Euch...

Der kleine Frieden im Großen Krieg

Ich hatte Michael Juergs Der kleine Frieden im Großen Krieg bereits vor einiger Zeit fertig gelesen gehabt, war aber irgendwie danach die ganze Zeit zu beschaeftigt bzw zu wenig zu Hause um darueber schfreiben zu koennen. Es geht in dem Buch um einen unausgehandelten Waffenstillstand zwischen - hauptsaechlich - deutschen und englischen Soldaten an der Westfront Deutschlands 1914. Auf beiden Seiten wurde versucht diesen Waffenstillstand - und die einhergehende Fraternisierung inklusive gemeinsamen Fussballspielens - herunterzuspielen und Offiziere beider Seiten sorgten dafuer, dass es keine langfristigen Effekte dieser anarchistischen, basisdemokratischen Aktionen gab. Im Prinzip wurde auf beiden Seiten Befehlsverweigerung ausgeuebt, um wenigstens an Weihnachten seine Ruhe haben zu koennen. Es gab konzertierte Aktionen, wo in Anwesenheit von Offizieren der Feind - pro-forma und moeglichst hoch ueber dessen Stellungen hinaus - beschossen wurde, nur um sobald diese verschwunden waren, wieder mit den Gegnern zu palavieren, zu trinken, zu rauchen. Alles in allem also eine unglaublich herzerwaermende Geschichte ueber eine nationenuebergreifende Verbruederung gerichtet gegen die sie ausnutuzenden von ihnen profitierenden Offiziere und Oberklassenmitglieder in der jeweiligen Heimat.

Ich fand diese Geschichte, wie jeder dieses Basisaufstaende ohne grossen Organisierungsgrad von oben (siehe Deutschland 1918/1919) schon immer faszinierend und hatte mir deswegen dieses Buch gekauft, muss nun aber leider sagen, dass mich dieses entaeuschte. Es ist als Sachbuch geschrieben, was als solches ja nicht negativ sein muss, und beschreibt anekdotenhaft die Ereignisse an der damaligen Westfront von Belgien bis zur Schweiz. Hierin liegt auch gleich das Problem, da es zu wenig Informationen ueber die damaligen Ereignisse gibt (die Zeugen sind tot, Briefe nicht mehr vorhanden, Berichterstattung wurde unterdrueckt), bleibt dem Autor nichts anderes uebrig als das wenige, was an Detailwissen vorhanden ist hintereinander aufzulisten. Dadurch verliert das Buch jede Kohaerenz.

Das zweite nervende, war die missionarische Art und Weise in der Juergs die Geschichte erzaehlt. Ich bin zwar vollkommen seiner Meinung, dass dieser Friede eine gewisse historische Relevanz in bezug auf Klassenpositionen besitzt und ein klarer Fall von internationaler Solidaritaet war (schade eigentlich, dass das eine solch abgedroschene Phrase ist heutzutage), aber die Tatsache, dass er es fuer noetig haelt mir diesen revolutionaeren Aspekt andauernd vor die Nase zu halten und in manigfaltigen Versionen klarzumachen wie wichtig dieser ist, fuehrte letzten Endes dazu, dass ich nur noch genervt war. Ein Sachbuch in meinen Augen, sollte versuchen es dem leser zu erlauben selber seine Meinung zu formen. Das der Autor die seine darzeigt ist als solches kein Problem, aber bitte nicht andauernd und vor allem nicht so missionarisch.

Wuerde ich dieses Buch empfehlen? Nein. Es gibt wohl noch einige englische Buecher ueber das gleiche Thema (auf welche Juergs auch desoefteren verweist) und ich denke diese waeren wahrscheinlich eine bessere Idee fuer jemanden unter Euch, der sich fuer das Thema interessiert.

(Tut mir leid wegen der vielen Fehler heute, ich bin in Florida, es ist viel zu warm um drinnen zu sitzen, der Rechner hat eine komische Tastatur und ausserdem rennen hier im Hintergrund zu viel Leute rum, als dass ich mich richtig konzentrieren koennte.)

Le Vent

Georges Brassens

American politics is so corny sometimes, it is unbelievable, check out Barak Obama (one of the two biggest candidates for the Democratic nomination as of right now - the other one being Hillary Clinton - for those of you who don't keep up with American politics as obsessively as I do) doing a skit right before Monday Night Football. Can anyone imagine Merkel, Chirac or Blair doing something like that? I am not even claiming this is inherently negative, just bizarre for a European like me who is used to public leaders trying to be stately and nothing else (meaning no humour - and I exclude Blair here, don't know enough about British behaviour to really judge this).

I Don't Want To Be A Wheel No More

Bobby Mitchell - I Don't Want To Be A Wheel No More

I read Coral Bell's Twilight of the Unipolar World in preparation for my interview in Berlin for a scholarship in the USA. In what amounts to the biggest disappointment of my professional/academic career, I did not get a place in that program (don't even ask how I disappointed I am, but 'tant pis' as the French would say, have to move on). Point is, I read that article a couple of times. At the time it was published (in the winter of 2005) it had caused quite an uproar partly related to the fact that it was published in the American Interest a journal published by men mostly quite close to the neoconservative sphere. For them to publish an article as gloomy (for the USA) as Bell's seemed revolutionary.

Basically the Australian author argues that the US has 20 years remaining to form the basis for any kind of future they want to have in world affairs. After that, power will be diluted too much. I think there is no doubt that the general premise is solid (even if 20 years might be 10 years too few) and cannot be argued. The problem is that, after having detailed this outlook, Bell goes on to describe population increases in China and India, but also in Indonesia, Pakistan and other East-Asian countries, only to then - all of a sudden - focus on the EU as the future biggest adversary to the USA. He claims that a change in government in the UK (based on a highly unlikely - in my eyes - collaboration between the Liberals and Labour) would result in an ever looser union and the accesion of Russia. This new EU would then be one of the biggest and most important world powers and competitor to American influence.

While - being the fervent European that I am - I could not be further from argueing that the EU will develop into a major player in the international field, the idea developed in Twilight of the Unipolar World of how this is supposed to go about seems ridicolous to me. I see no way that Russia will join the EU anytime soon (and definitely not in the next 20-30 years necessary for this prophecy to have anykind of relevance considering Bell's own time schedule), plus the premise that the UK will give up its traditional close ties to the US lacks any kind of evidence and is based solely on a shaky hypothesis (that of a coalition between Labour and Liberals). Plus, Bell completey ignores the rise of these East-Asian powers that he himself details in the beginning of his essay.

Sweet Home Chicago

With Robert Lockwood Jr one of the last truly old Bluesmen has passed away tuesday.
Sweet Home Chicago

I very much doubt this got a lot of coverage outside of France but I find it rather interesting, Ségolène Royal (one of the two possible next French Presidents) has declared that according to her Iran should not have even the right to a civilian atomic program. If she is elected (still a big if, but right now I'd say she is the most likely candidate) that would really worsen any chance of an agreement with Iran ever being possible.

You Don't Miss Your Water

William Bell - You Don't Miss Your Water

Es scheint als habe endlich eine deutsche Zeitung sich der Polizistenausbildung in Afghanistan angenommen, leider ein Springerblatt, aber wenigstens der eine Qualitätstitel des Hauses. Wenn diese Andeutungen wirklich zutreffen sollten, wäre dies ein Riesenskandal, weil es die komplette Anti-Militär-Komponente der Deutschen Argumentation zusammenbrechen lassen würde. Ich kann weiterhin nicht nachvollziehen, warum hier nicht mehr darüber berichtet wird. Wahrscheinlich ist es nicht sexy genug als Thema.

Also, two subjects related to the misnomer of the millennium (it is young, I know) the War on Terror. Apparently the US had been kidnapping innocent (and not so innocent, but that is not really the point here) citizens from all over the world before 9/11 ever took place. Friendly governments (like the German one) were informed of this distasteful practise and aided actively or passively (by ignoring the misdeeds committed on their territory). How is anyone ever supposed to believe that the West is not a bunch of hypocritical cronies where the it is the law and the people that rule if these things keep on happening?

The American government has paid $ 2 Million and given an official excuse to a man who was mistakenly arrested in the follow-up to the bombings of Madrid. The CIA did kidnap a German citizen in Macedonia and kept him in prison in Afghanistan for 6 months. He was tortured and mistreated there and when they finally realized he only had a similar sounding name to an Al Qaida suspect, they dumped him in Albania to fend for himself from there. Now, in this case the American government does not even acknowledge - officially - that this took place, let alone give that man some kind of recompensation. Really makes one question whether there is any kind of morality left outside of the rhetoric one in the American administration. So sad, for a country with such a magnificient past of creating and defending liberty and democratic institutions (even if they always have been faulty).

All Along The Watchtower

Robert Zimmermann - All Along The Watchtower
This obscure 20th century singer might just be one of the most influential - and best - poets of the English Language ever.

Angela Merkel apparently read my blog and thus decided to respond to my criticism of German foreign policy. According to her the German presence in (North-)Afghanistan is actually examplary and supposedly slowly becomes a model for other nations. With this she refers to the mixture of military and civilian methods deployed at the same time. She avoids the question of whether the military should be utilized as well though (right now the German army is really just a show force in Afghanistan not hurting anyone (including opium traders and growers for example)) and more importantly I can still find no reference in German papers or her speech to the scathing criticism of Germany's civilian efforts. Namely - as I've wrote before - the training of police officers supposedly has been lacking in quality. While I agree with her that a reliance on military options only would be folly, I also would be really interested to know whether this German nation building is really of bad quality. Anyone that sees anything about any of this anywhere. Tell me.

Run On For A Long Time

The Blind Boys of Alabama - Run On For A Long Time
I've posted this song before I know, this is a different version though, taken from one of the best albums of the millennium.

Lebanon is heading down a worrisome trail it seems. Hezbollah is completely discrediting itself as a political actor right now and seems intent to force Syrian dominance back into the picture. On a related note James Baker (as co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group supposed to propose a reversal of tactics in Iraq) has proposed talks with Syria and Iran (Blair already sent one of his senior advisor to Damascus), I never really tied these two together and actually endorse Baker's proposal (and still do to some degree), but a really interesting take on the affair in the Opinion Journal sheds a different light on this.

Basically the author is afraid that Realists like Baker (and the rest of the Bush I cronies) will sell out Lebanon in order to achieve some kind of stabilization in Iraq (which they apparently already did in the first (or second depending on the way you count) Gulf War). That of course would not be acceptable. Lebanon is actually a (semi-)democracy and needs to be kept clean of too much influence by Syria and Iran.

Goin' Down South

Kenny Brown - Goin' Down South

Check out Nate Robinson blocking Yao.

I have never been one of those left-wing ideologists who bash Israel and claim that suicide attacks on discos or buses are legitimate means of self-defense. Yet, having said that, I have to admit that Israel is acting disgraceful at times. They are continuously violating the UN-solution on Lebanon by flying into Lebanon air space. They flew in provocatively close to a German battle ship and French tank positions both send there to guard the peace. Now, the NY Times writes that Israeli officials are cheating private Palestinian property owners out of their rights by simply not acknowledging that the land occupied by the Tsahal had been private property before. If peace ever really is to come to that region both sides need to start acting just.

Sorry about the corny ending there, but sometimes it really as simple and sugary.

The Hunch (Hasil Adkins)

Hasil Adkins - The Hunch

For some reason West Virginia is the stomping ground of a lot of really bizarre characters (Jesco White would be one example). These guys seceded from Virginia after that state's secession from the Union if that is not showcasing their 'otherness' I don't know what is. Now, here is the craziest of them all, the late, great Hasil Adkins:

If You ain't never seen nobody do the Hunch you ain't seen my woman and I declare son you never will see her, 'cause I ain't got one.


I think it is ridiculous that Germany tries to shun its duty in Afghanistan by not deploying troops in the South, but even more outrageous is that it seems as if the training of the police is lacking in funding, manpower and quality. This does not seem to be focused on as much as it should be in German papers (even the taz does not mention it as far as I know), but if Germany has taken on an important job like the creation of an Afghan police force, then they need to do a better job of it, especially in the most important country in regard to nation building in the world right now. Plus, the argument of Germany as a civilian task force comes crushing down if the work provided in these areas is of low quality, they might as well fight in the South then (and should anyway if you ask me).

Jedae Tag

Big Zis - Jedae Tag
while not as exotic as Iraqi rap maybe, I do not know that much Swiss German rap either I have to admit (nor are there that many female rappers sadly enough)

• "We need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months," Mr. Levin said [...] [he] added, "The point of this is to signal to the Iraqis that the open-ended commitment is over and that they are going to have to solve their own problems."
  
  Mr. Levin will be the new Armed Services Committee chairman, replacing Mr. Warner, I should add. This I believe is just wrong, their problems are after all due to an American invasion. If they withdraw now, that means they will discredit American Foreign Policy over the next decade at least.
  
  I have to agree with Senator McCain on this one who "reiterated his stance that there were not enough American troops there." Even if the only thing these troops will achieve might be a stabilization through a de facto or actual splitting up of the country in three ethnic homogeneous parts.
  NYTimes



• "Religious rap songs play just as loudly on the streets of Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite slum in eastern Baghdad that is the heart of his [Moktada al-Sadr] support."
  
  Is there anything quite as impressive or complete as the global domination of rap?
  



• The audacity of professional sports teams to ask for funding of their arenas just confounds me. Whether in Germany (Bayern Munich's new arena) or in the USA, why should the general taxpayer help finance these teams? There is no sensible reason, none. So props to Seattle for turning the request by the Sonics down.
  NYTimes

Custer Died For Your Sins

Floyd Red Crow Westerman - Custer Died For Your Sins
He is probably best known for his role in Oliver Stone's Doors movie where he plays the - surprise, surprise - Indian Chief, but he was actually an Indian political activist, poet and singer.

I got frustrated with the progress in my latest French book so I got myself a rail-thin pocket book from the library here and read it through in two days. Only problem, it wasn't all that great. The book is entitled The Last of the Indian Wars and was written by Forbes Parkhill. It describes the tragic story of the American Indian (to quote Johnny Cash), specifically this deals with a group of Utes living in the Four Corner's area. One of them Tse-quit (Man-Who-Never-Cries) is accused of having murdered and robbed a Mexican shepherd. It is never satisfactorily answered whether this accusation is true or not, but the white settlers of the area seize the opportunity to chase all Indians from the desirable lands which they had occupied before. This in itself is of course nothing new, has actually occurred over and over again, even the methods employed (massacring everyone involved including women and children) do not surprise. What is striking about this event is really only the date. It all took place under the Wilson administration shortly before the outbreak (for the USA at least) of the 1st World War.

The way lawlessness still reigned when it came to Native-Americans' rights (Blacks' as well I guess, but that's a different subject) is quite shocking considering that Wilson's 14 points set a resounding - if unsuccessful - democratic example only two years later. In the end the single Indian prevails - Tse-quit is acquitted - but the Ute lose as they have been forced to live their homes already.

While this is a really interesting story the author sadly does not manage to keep his writing on par. Partly it makes the impression as if he only pasted newspaper articles, Indian folk tales and phrases condemning the white man's treatment of the red man together. While I agree with this condemnation it would have been amazing to read this captivating story of injustice, murder, and violence - no sex sorry - as a coherent story and not as simply a collection of badly connected sentences, paragraphs and chapters.

We Shall Overcome

The Jewish Young Folksinger - We Shall Overcome
A bit of Jewish support for the Civil Rights Struggle

I had to write a 6-page paper on Martin Luther King, Jr. and his role in the Civil Rights Movement. A really interesting topic and I really enjoyed my Monday which I spent in the library reading, in a one day sitting (diagonal I have to admit though), Ling's biography of King. Good stuff that. I hadn't really known all that much about the whole movement (just the typical collection of buzz- and keywords) but it is a really fascinating, just and - in the end, more or less - successful cause. Tuesday and Wednesday I spent writing my six pages and this morning I turned the essay in.

What can I say, I think this is one of the weakest papers I have ever written for a class. I am not quite sure why this is the case. Maybe I dislike the class too much (this bizarre French method of teaching without any interaction taking place can destroy pretty much any topic), feel too arrogant in there (some of those French guys in there have an atrocious command of the English language) or the question wasn't any good (Discuss the following statement: MLK was more a facilitator than an organizer), maybe I just didn't care enough because it seems highly unlikely that I will get any credit for any of this. Whatever the reason, crappy paper I believe, if you want to check it out anyway (or therefore), here you go.

Ain't That Good News

Sam Cooke - Ain't That Good News

I am intellectually a little bit too dead to concentrate on this or feel sufficiently happy (I read a MLK, Jr biography monday and wrote a 6 page paper on him in the last 48 hours). But this really is a stellar result:

• A clear majority in the House for the Democrats (over 30 seats) is certain


• A tie (meaning Cheney gives the Republicans the majority anyway) or even a one-seat majority is still possible in the Senate (depending on too close to call outcomes in Montana and Virginia)


• Nancy Pelosi most likely will become the first female Speaker of the House (slowly but surly preparing us for the female onslaught of Clinton, Royal and Merkel, get ready guys)


• Democrats are in possession of a majority of Governor positions as well now


• While Harold Ford did not become the first black Senator from the South since Reconstruction he did win 48% of the vote in Tennessee


• A ballot to ban abortion in South Dakota and thus prepare a legal challenge to Roe vs Wade has been soundly rejected


• With Keith Ellison a - converted - Muslim has been voted into the House


• Schwarzenegger was reelected, oh wait, they did? Damn Californians!

I only wish all of this would have come two years earlier, let's hope that the Democrats will now be able to proceed on a path more multilateral, more humanitarian, more social and more keen on environmental interests.

Locked Up

Akon - Locked Up
from a great sampler entitled In Prison - Afro-American Prison Music From Blues to HipHop

A Zeit article fleetingly mentioned the fact that the American base in Rammstein (or was it somewhere else? definitely somewhere in Germany anyway) has become the most important communication and commanding centre for the American military in regard to operations carried out in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. In a possible worst case scenario (Republicans defending their majorities in both the Senate and the House and another - Republican or not - President elected in 2008 who decides to act aggressively and unilaterally) I wonder what kind of implications this has on Germany's sovereignty.

I realize that this will not be an issue anytime in the near or foreseeable future, but let's face it, the presence of this command structure on German soil when the German public and its politicians do not support any of the policies carried out through this base is questioning Germany's grip on its own territory. Let's ignore for a minute the impossibility of offending the most powerful German ally and reflect on this only as a theoretical aspect of political thought. The completely sovereign nation Germany became again with reunification in 1990 does have total power over its territory. When one considers this I seriously wonder about Germany's sovereignty in regard to the fact that another nation is able to act counter to any political or popular will in Germany. I have not thought this through all that well, my day has been a little too challenging intellectually but I believe this is an interesting if disturbing train of thought.

This does not mean I would endorse an attempt to close these bases and forfeiting the contracts with the USA regarding these aspects (nor do I really know how these are phrased). I actually am of the opinion that the ramifications of any kind of act like this would be far more negative than any perceived positive impact could be. But that is Realpolitik and this post I consider to be more a political philosophy nature.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Kris Kristofferson - Sunday Morning Coming Down
The lyrics somehow seemed to fit my morning quite well.

I am usually not all that interested in this whole the emergence of China as an economic and political world power subject. But there was an article in yesterday's LeMonde that really caught my attention. I had not seen any mention of this in either the German, nor the American papers I consume, maybe I just hadn't seen it, maybe this is due to the French post-colonial aspirations in Africa. Whatever the reason, it was quite astonishing to read that the Chinese government is currently holding a conference with 48 (I repeat 48!, according to Wikipedia there are 61 in total) African dirigeants (prime ministers, presidents or brotherly leaders and guides of the revolution) in Beijing. Hu Jintao dubbed this an événement historique and definitelyly agree. In fact this is just crazy, China is really exerting itself in Africa and this I find is quite scary.

Why is this scary? Quite simple, to just give one example, look at Sudan. Everybody knows there is a genocide supported by the government taking place. So why does no one act on this? Yes, forces are stretched thin, the Americans can barely sustain their troop strength in Iraq, the rest of the West is busy in Lebanon, the Congo, Afghanistan and so on, but could one not at least impose sanctions against the Sudan? If one just tightens the economic screws a little the fallout in Khartoum would be massive and would definitely increase pressure on Al-Bashir to act against the crimes committed in Darfur. This is where China comes into the picture. Urgently in need of esourceses to further fuel their astonishing growth (and thus protect the Communist Party's grip on power, but that is another story that I will not get into right now) the Sudan is one of their biggest importers of oil. Now, China as a veto-power in the Security Council has and will block any attempt to force the Sudan into any kind of less murderous policy.

Notre principe dans nos relations avec les autres pays est de ne jamais chercher à imposer notre système social, notre mode de développement nos valeurs, ni notre idéologie. Basically what the Chinese in Africa are saying is that, we don't give a fuck how cruel or with what methods you govern your country, nor do we care how you came into power in the first place as long as you trade with us (translation of diplomatic French into plain English provided by yours truly). Disgusting that.

Two side notes to close this.

French companies have invested 25 billion Euro in Iran over the last fifteen years, wonder how that will influence the French stance on sanctions against Iran.

According to LeMonde Deval Patrick has decent chances of being elected governor of Massachusetts, that would make him the second (yes, second!) black governor ever (yes, ever!) elected in the United States. Also, something which I hadn't known either is that Barack Obama is the only black Senator currently holding office. What a sad state of affairs.