What do we stand on, rely on…

…?

Sometimes it feels that every human being in this world is walking, time and again, through a hallway, across a yard, along a street, running on a football pitch, sitting in a class room or seminar, sweating at the workplace, dancing on a party, where she has a label on the forehead and a spotlight on them cast by the million eyes staring, doubting, judging. Sometimes it feels that no human being can be free, can be herself, no matter which refuge she searches. And why is that? What is it that we base our actions on?

Are there inviolable values? Those that are true on the pitch, in the classroom, in the streets and hallways, the gyms and busstops. The world of the pitches and hallways, classrooms and train stations, market and workplaces poses questions to us everyday. And there surely are different ways to rationalize over the answers we can give. Nothing is as simple and clear as the first glance suggests and that is the problem with the labels on our foreheads: they seem to give clearity, simplicity. Every day we have to make up our minds and decide if something is good or bad, right or wrong. Do I accept money from someone who does wrong? Do I accept alcohol as a “thank you” as part of NGO etikett. Do I buy from industries that exploit? Do I speak up to stereotypes? Do I buy a ticket for the metro or pay some cent for the public toilet? Do I taste a grape in the shop? Do I leave the shit of my dog when none is around? Those are few of the questions the world holds ready time and again. And then there are even more complex ones, involving the behavior and actions of other human beings.

What do we stand on to find and give answers?

Some don’t even given answers, don’t make up their mind, ignore, forget. Others try to blur the lines. For those who try to get away i silence and with bowed head there are two quotes: 

Poem attributed to Martin Niemöller:

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

NOFX:

“First they put away the dealers,
keep our kids safe and off the street.
Then they put away the prostitutes,
keep married men cloistered at home.

Then they shooed away the bums,
then they beat and bashed the queers,
turned away asylum-seekers,
fed us suspicions and fears.
We didn’t raise our voice,
we didn’t make a fuss.
It’s funny there was no one left to notice
when they came for us.”

For those who blurr the lines there is another one:

The Perishers

“One may think we’re alright
But we need pills to sleep at night
We need lies to make it through the day
We’re not okay…

One may think we’re doing fine
But if I had to lay it on the line
We’re losing ground with every passing day
We’re not okay…”

A lie is still a lie. In all the hallways, gyms, NGOs, classrooms busstops, petrol stations, in all those streets of life there is and always will be “the right thing to do”.

Choices…

…

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…

…

IN!

Who said that abstaining is uncool?

- abstaining from meat and animal products;

- abstaining from tobacco and other drugs that the uncool smoke;

- abstaining from alcohol ;

Being sober in today’s society is like being a long distance runner. Sometimes you feel the rush and the excitement of the enterprise you have embarked on and the steps flow easily. You seem to be running with seven-miles-boots; at other times your legs feel heavy, you are not running but walking, and you wonder why you don’t just stop; but: you always keep going… like a long distance runner. And with every step you take, some kind of hope to reach the goal, or simply to enjoy the wind of running in your hair, returns. And as it returns, other runners join, you take up speed again – until another hill comes, or puddles of alcohol on the street… but you never stop running. You are a long distance runner.

a long distance runner

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=promoe+long+distance+runner&search_type=&aq=4&oq=promoe

Sobriety is in!

03/10/1990…

…

is the date when the divided Germany was united. It is ever since then the National Day of Germany – a holiday for all.

I am reading German newspapers. 03/10/2008 is today. But I started to wonder about the date… Today it should be the 18th aniversary of the re-unification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

However, there is NO sign at all in the four best quality newspapers.

It surprises me. I find it noteworthy, having on mind the National Days of Norway, France or USA, for instance.

In the German newspapers there is not one German flag; not one headline; no sign at all.

I don’t even mind. I just want to say, that Germany has a Nazi – problem – which is not getting smaller. But the society as a whole is so far from being nationalistic, that it is not even patriotic.

I like it.

The true re-unification has to be implemented in fair wages and equal opportunities for people from the Eastern part. I don’t think that waving a black-red-gold piece of cloth is big help in this.

training in rain…

…

Örebro has a nice athletic stadium, on the area of the university. Today I went there to train “pass 33″ and to play some basketball afterwards. When I went to the stadium, the sun was shining and it was warm. You can guess, that during the training rain started falling – not cats and dogs – but still rain.

There were many people training in the stadium. I think I saw three trainings groups of young boys and girls and one group of older men. They were all running different distances on the track. Afterall, it is Olympia – time to be inspired.

It feels nice, somehow. The rain connected us all, made our training more special and us fellows in fate. I like such moments. They make me smile. However, the significant moment I experienced when I was done with “pass 33″ and headed for the basketball court: I perceived three young boys, kids really. They had garden tools with them. And they were, of course, discussing who should use them.

Small boys, in rain. They were jumping into the long jump sand. Small boys, in rain, jumping into wet sand, with their own tools to make the sand plain again.

I remembered how we used to imitate football players on our sandy football “field” or Jan Ullrich, as we biked through our village…

Those boys were doing triple jump. I guess imitating Christian Olsson, who carried the Swedish flag now, in Olympia’s openeing ceremony.

Hopp, step, jump, in rain, into wet sand… It’s Olympia – and the athletes there should be insoired by those small boys!

Sport is not entertainment. It should be!

Sport is this, small boys, jumping into wet sand, during rain, and each jump is a dream. Sport is not competition. Well, it should not be. For, does it matter in the end, who jumps further?

Sport is about dedication.

It is about being in the moment; being totally and fully in the present; when in our globalized time the future and the past seem to dictate our lives, sport can give this moment of being by oneself – like those small boys, in rain, wet sand, hopp-step-jump.

It is about getting to know your self. About smiling. In rain, even…

a house of red bricks…

…

Signalgatan is an insignificant street in Örebro. Örebro itself is significant, if that, only in Sweden. Signalgatan in Örebro is an insignificant street in the industry area on the edge of the town that is only known in Sweden. There is a house in Signalgatan. A house of red bricks. It stands solids and patient and peaceful but also a bit unnoticed. Although it is the only red-brick house in Signalgatan.

There leads are stone stairway up to the entrance door of the red-brick house. But this fact does not seem to impress, nor draw attention of the passers-by. Just a house of red bricks…

Anyway, not many people pass by. Even less come to visit.  And even less notice the house at all.

But all that does not change the fact, yes the fact, that from inside this house good is done, that inside this house good is done.  A house of red bricks, with stone stairs leading up to the entrance door, two floors inside and several offices. A house for all generations.

Events for young children took place and were planned there. Events that surely made a difference in their lives. Events that made childrens’ eyes smile for longer than a moment;

Events for old people took place, take place and are planned there. Old people who had once already given up, who had lost hope and who are now finding hope, in the walls of this house. A house of red bricks.

Events and actions, and sometimes just innocent free time activities of and for adolscents took, take and will take place in this house. Events fostering the hope to change the world. Events making young people feel that they belong.

Signalgatan, Örebro, a house of red bricks.

It is standing there, solid and serene and solemn. And it also stands there unnoticed and lonely, but peaceful. The world does not care for this house of red bricks.

The world does not care?

A big plastic bag, full of empty, stinking, provoking beer cans has been placed next to its stony stairs. Violence. Some more alcohol containers, leftovers and reminicents of a different world, are scattered all around.

The world outside and all around the house of red bricks might not understand. It doesn’t even have to. And it might not understand.

No matter how insignificant a house of red bricks, or a game, or a task or person, or an event might be. It still means something to someone. That is a truth. And even if it is impossible to comprehend. It never should be impossible to respect.

Respect for the smiling eyes of small children. Respect for the new found, never expected hope of the lost ones. Respect for the dreams and needs of young people.

Respect – for you never know what it means to others, this house of red bricks.

Beijing 2008…

…

2008, the year of the Olympic Games.

Beijing, world metropolis, capital of China and: host of the Olympic Games 2008. “Peoples Games”. “Green Games”. “One World One Dream”.

Beijing 2008

…

have you ever wondered what that stands for?

Does it stand for Zimbabwe? What do Zimbabwe and Beijing 2008 have in common, after all?

The plain answer is: interests.

The tyranny in Zimbabwe needs money, and most of all weapons, for its brutal fight against the opposition. Followers of Mugabe patrol through the country, raping, beating, killing relatives of members of the opposition. That leat to the retreat from the 2nd round of the Presidential Elections of Tvsangirai (Opposition leader) in fear of his own and his supporters’ deaths. Thousands of refugees urgently need to leave that country. Zimbabwe. Where the new president is the old tyrann.

The world knows about all that.

Is there anything we can do? Stand up and fight for respect of Human Rights?

Or are the Western politicians paralysed by their fear to lose in the comptetition for Africa’s rich resources when they stress the respect for Human Rights and democracy? A competition against China. Beijing 2008.

Here lies the connection: Zimababwe and Beijing 2008;

The EU and the USA say that the keys for the solution of Zimbabwe’s problems lie in Pretoria (capital of South Africa, neighbouring country) and Beijing (happiest city in 2008).

As a matter of fact, China is the most important economy partner of Zimbabwe. China, through credit infusions, keeps this regime alive. China, like in Sudan, has huge interests in Africa and it does not – in contrast to the EU – link its investments to respect for Human Rights, democratic institutions and other redundancies. Beijing 2008 needs resources. It needs employment for its millions of workers. It needs places to invest the new richness, in order to create alliances and dependencies – securing interest spheres.

Meanwhile, millions of people lose their homes, their belongings or their lives…

Soon, the Olympic Games will begin, under the motto: “One World One Dream”.

Beijing 2008 …  What dream is this?

 

source:

http://www.zeit.de/2008/27/kommentar-27