Choices…
November 19, 2008
…
Have you tried to reflect choices? Or before doing that: Have you tried to break down everything you do or not do to the moment when you chose just that?
There is so much fear in this world because people are overwhelmed by the amount of choices they have to face and take, every day a million times.
Have you tried to reflect your choices?
I am asking myself this question. Often. Not always – although that is how it has to be. To reflect every choice. To base very single choice on a value – not an interest; A value. (but that will be another thought)
Yesterday I got to know that a person I know from the sobriety movement started drinking. That person made a choice. It is a choice I can respect. And I can understand it. And yet, I am not happy about it.
My despair is not based on the fact that one person now is not sober anymore, that there is one more person opening and emptying that bottle of beer.
I don’t think that drinking/ not drinking, just like eating meat/ not eating meat/ consuming/ not consuming is so much about us, about an individual choice – and how we think that this choice makes our life appear/ or feel – like in the case of my the girl. I think she chose to start drinking to get a different feeling about her life. SHe felt she needed to change something, to feel different about herself, I think. And clearly, the choice to empty bottles of beer marks a change.
Some time ago, I engaged very intensely into convincing people to join sobriety. I am not doing that anymore. For I realized that it is not about the bottle of beer (if it is only about the substance) that the girl (e.g.) opens on a Wednesday evening. I could not care less.
However, there is one fact and that refers to the choices we make: drinking alcohol is not just drinking a liquid, a substance that does something to and in our bodies (neither is drinking coca cola for instance!) – and thus it is not just about the feeling that we want to create for our lives (to make a change/ to present us differently/ to feel better/ differently about ourselves) If a substance – maybe water, or onion juice – could achieve that…
The core of the thought is: If the girl, or anyone else drinks alcohol he-she gives money (because that is how the market economy works) to the alcohol industry. And that means that you give support and even power (because that is how capitalism seems to functions) to them in exploiting Africans, lying to Asiens and Europeans, just for more profit (this goes for other industries, too: tobacco, coffe, car…).
Of this you have to be aware when making the choice to empty a bottle of beer. I mean, therefore we are homo sapiens, with intelligence and awareness and all those fancy gadgets that evolution gave us.
That is why nobody should drink. Nobody should smoke. Nobody should eat meat. Nobody should have mahagony furniture. Nobody should have three mobile phones. obody should drie a car going on gas. Nobody should have diamonds around the neck…
I believe that If we ould start reflecting about the consequences of our actions (like drinking that bottle of beer), about where the resources for what we are consuming (like that bottle of beer) come from, who produces what we are consuming and what our consumption (of that bottle of beer) might cause to those, I think many choices would be different. I hope they would!
If you drink one glass – 500ml – of beer, you are consuming at the same time 800 litres of water. If you know, where the material of your beer comes from, where it was brewed and all that, you might know where those 800 (!) litres of water are missing. How does it then influence to know, that in many areas of the world – not only in Africa – people die because of the lack of water (our planet consists to 75% of water), people wage war for water, your decision to drink that 500ml of beer? Knowing that the 5€ you pay for that bottle of beer go to an industry that “earns” a yearly revenue of 605 000 000 000€ (2006) – how does that influence your choice?
These refelctions one can do when buying bananas, shampoo, a vacuum cleaner, football shoes, running shorts…
There are so many choices every day. And there lies so much in every single choice. It is here, where real power is hidden. It seems to be hidden well.
Sobriety is…
November 13, 2008
…
in!
And stylish!
I just read through the new Active webpage. I think that it looks great. And I also think that it has many good functions with a lot of potential.
I hope that this webpage will become a strong tool for Active to promote this organizations as it is – and as it should be seen by millions of Europeans:
the only European youth organization dealing with alcohol policy from a coherent approach and with a bigger perspective, linking alcohol issues to global problems/ issues of Human Rights/ Children Rights, a democratic society, tolerance and intercultural understanding, youth empowerment – and fun.
Sobriety is stylish!
And it is IN!
Sex, Drugs, Rock’n'Roll…
November 13, 2008
…
is the headline of the biggest focus story on www.web.de (my e-mail account provider) today. It reads there:
“What would the world be without stars? For sure it would miss some scandals – and it would be more boring. Of drug excesses and sex videos – the most embarassing celebs.” And then we can click on Britney Spears photos…
The world would be boring without Britney Spears and all the other unimportant people?
It is so ironic that I just wrote a blog entry about Congo, the war there, about a mother with four young kids who are and will forever be disabled because they were not fed, about child labour – due to financial and fashion and whatsoever interest of the Western world…
But someone seems to think that Britney SPears is important reality. Of course she is – as mother to her kids, as daughter of her mum… But she and many others are really not as singers of stupid, empty songs… I think their scandals are only pseudo-scandals and they take away the focus from the real, the big scandals.
The world would be much more exciting without celebrities and their alcohol addiction.
Did you know…
November 13, 2008
…
that there is war in Congo?
Do you know what it is about?
As usually there is an official story and there is a true story. But which is which.
Yesterday I read the official story in Die Zeit: that paramilitaries lead by a war-lord called Nkunda destroy village after village in Congo, because they protect the need to protect the local Tutsi population.
After the war (and genocide) in Rwanda, the Hutu mass murderers fled into Congo. Nkunda has to protect the Tutsi from them now.
That’s a lie! (I read this lie in a newspaper version in Die Zeit yesterday. And I felt informed. Not everything made sense to me, though: Why does a war lord “protect” a population by burning down villages, slaughtering people, raping women, seizing military bases…? The article claimed that he would enrich himself and his troops by rubbing the villages. Rubbing a Congoloese village? How rich can you get?)
The true story here – with sources from International Crisis Group and United Nations:
I searched more: Since pictures do not lie (at least if we watch with open minds): http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-36749.html#backToArticle=589546
Clicking on the webpages of the accused companies is also exciting: They all have items like “sustainable development”, “sustainable economic growth”, nice notions like “you believe, we achieve”…
see:
http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/
http://www.standardchartered.com/about-us/en/index.html
http://www.debeers.com/page/home
http://www.debeersgroup.com/en/
http://www.adiamondisforever.com/
De Beers (http://www.debeersgroup.com/en/Inside-De-Beers/Overview-and-Principles/) has even this slogan on its webpage: Build Trust: We will always listen first, then act with openess, honesty, and integrity so that our relationships flourish.”
Why are there even in the media that spread the “official story” rather than the true reports about children mining diamonds in inconceivable conditions?
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1417/63/
Why does Kanye West sing about the same problem?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhJ2iPPA3nA
That is the slogan of De Beers: “A Diamond Is Forever.” A human life is not… Is it worth less?
November, 9th…
November 9, 2008
…
in Germany a historical date, a date with significance for the world…
Today 70 years ago, on November 9th 1938, the Nationalsocialists set synagogues all over Germany on fire. The catastrophe before the catastrophe.
More than 1,400 houses of God were burning. And also shops and stores owned by Jewish citizens were destroyed. The night from 9th to 10th of November 1938 marks the beginning of the systematic terror against Jews in Europe.
The night of broken glass – it is called. After which no Jew could feels safe any longer in the streets.
70 years later: How far have we come?
Yes we can…
November 5, 2008
…
yes, we did!
We do!
(Since it seems to be appropriate for today)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6O7T2khSX0
It feels incredibly good to watch that movie.
It feels incredibly good to see those people.
It feels incredibly good to see the faces of the passers-by.
It feels so incredibly good to watch that activity and to somehow try to understand it meaning.
Active like this – it rocks!
Sobriety is in – or what?
And that is the beauty about Active, that it is not “only” about sobriety, abstaining, not drinking… NO! It is about inclusion/ exclusion and tolerance/ intolerance and democractic attitudes and respect for Human Rights and a lot of more respect.
And then we go out, and we tell it! The world has to know this!
(and since Obama won today – remember: “Yes We Can!” - I am so enthusiastic to say: The world has to know this! The world has to join this!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6O7T2khSX0
It feels so good!
