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?
an unnoticed tragedy…
October 8, 2008
…
in Burma…
again:
After the tropical storm Nargis that hit the country – literally – with its full blow and also after the heavy riots and massacres against Burmese monks earlier this year, the media coverage was huge. And thus the people from the Western hemisphere got to see for a little while the disastrous conditions people in Burma are living in.They got to see a military junta which exploits its population.
All that was in the news. Pictures were travelling the world round.
Today, however, we don’t hear anything anymore about Burma. Or, have you?
We might soon start believing that everything is better there now, that things are improving – if we even remember “Burma”, of course.
The sad thing is: the army in Burma is attacking the population. The army is attacking now the region in southern Burma, on the border to Thailand, since one week. This region is the new “home” to many refugees who flew from the catastrophe of Nargis. It is a fertile region. And, many international organizations are running their aid projects in just that region of Burma, because of its peaceful atmosphere – so far.
The interest fo the military junta has grown: the southern border region is highly fertile, has huge corn fields and also huge araeas of expensive luxury wood. Thus the Junta has 500 soldiers burning down corn fields and schools in order to scare away the people from this region. The military steals the food reserves and they attack aid projects – like new build schools and hospitals, a small factory for the production of hygienic articles for children or a company to produce green vegetables for school kids. The military is attacking, for the first time not only the coe regions of Burma, but also the periphery ones.
And the military has learned: While it was beating men to death before, systematically raping women and leaving children to starvation, it is now much more “discreet”. The Junta does not want to attract negative media coverage anymore.
But the Burmese people are still crying for help. And the international organizations are crying out for help. They all cry in vain. Without bloody death, rape and other evil the pictures from Burma are just not shocking enough, yet. Therefore Burma does not get attention.
And for me this is a global humanitarian crisis.
It is true, there is a lot to discuss related to this blog entry – for instance about regimes, who are designed to provide and maintain safety and peace for its members (see Hobbes), but who happen to exploit and kill its population. But the debate must be about the crisis or the on-going catastrophe that is simply not perceived.
We must never forget the Burmas, Darfurs, Ruandas… Never!
hard rain project…
September 30, 2008
This photo makes me cry…
Often we say, to see the world purely, we need to look at it like children do.
children often give us grown ups hope; why are we stealing their hope?
But if we dolike in this picture: Where did the hope vanish?
Have you ever asked yourself what it would cost to defeat the hunger in the world?
More than Two Million human beings live on less than One Dollar per day. Every day there die 30.000 children. All over the world there are 860 Million human beings undernurished – that is almost twice as many as the populatn in the EU.
What would it cost to help them? How could we help them?
SIPRI has found an answer.
SIPRI is the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. They calculated that it would need 20 Billion € to defeat hunger in the world. 20 Billion Euro.
In 2007 – according to the SIPRI Annual Report - the states of the world spend 858 Billion € for armement and military. 858 Bllion Euro.
20 Billion versus 858 Billion €…
Is this a small scandal or a big contradiction? Or have we reached dimensions that ordinary categories in an ordinary blogg cannot reflect any longer?
And I reflect: In the dawn of Iraq invasion, there were millions people on the streets in Rio, NY, Sydney, Berlin, Tokio… They were painting, screaming, carrying the NO to war into the world. Millions of people want peace – all over the world.
So, I wonder: How can decision – makers seriously defend that they spend 858 Billion € for armement and military? 858 Billion Euro, that equals expenses of 202 Dollars per person of 6.5 Billion earth inhabitants.
Who is going to ask decision – makers that? Who elected them (since the majority of costs from democratic systems) for that? Who?
Put down the guns!
Defeat hunger – and a major reason for conflicts and thus war will be extinguished!
Put down the guns and lift humanity!
sources:
the small scandals and the big contradictions…
July 4, 2008
…
this world, my world, your world, our world suffers from the small scandals, that happen day by day, that pass us by, unnoticed.
Unnoticed because this world, me, you, we are in a hurry all too often, in the hurry of life. Therefore in this blogg I take a breath, try to hold on and maybe even try to rewind.
What was this again? What happened there? What did they say and what actually did they do? The questions to get hold of the small scandals. The questions to excavate the big contradictions.
…
small scandals and big contradictions and people who are too hurried, too busy, too tired to look closely, watch carefully, listen attentively, feel boundlessly, think critically…
I am going to try and take a breath for a moment in my haste through this life, a breath in my haste of life.
A moment to think critical;
A moment to reflect on this, mine, your, our injust world;
A moment to try, to try and paint a bigger picture then they would want to let us see; But who are they? We?
A moment to question – the reflections above and moreover to question the obvious;
A moment – yes – to bring a drop of truth to a bigger public, but first of all to my world – this world, your world, our world. For, and this I hold high, if I affect my life, I can affect yours. Do you want me to?
A moment to excavate the negative – the lies “they” build, the information “they” faked or held back, the manipulations of us people; “They” is for instance the IOC who wants to have “green games” and even more shocking “peoples’ games” in Beijing – the capital of China – 2008. Where is the truth here?
A moment can contain a lot, the birth of a child, the crashing of cars, the song of a bird, the raindrop on a green morning leave, a smile in the crowded street… and in this spirit a moment of breath here will contain the hope to fight the negative, for it has to be brought to light, so that it can be overcome.
A moment – eventually – to overcome helplessness, passivity, fear, anger, the small scandals, dissappontment, the big contradictions, an Injust World, this injust world, my injust world, your injust world, our …
