Sunday 4 December 2011

x-mas pageant

I am such a miser with my change (coins)--which belong in Piggy Bank and are not to be spent even if it means breaking large bills over a few cents--sometimes that it makes the coins (and their chain of custody) that I do spend and the circumstances particularly memorable. This use of specie is nearly exclusively in the form of giving, to the accordion-playing busker, the church poor box or like the euro I donated to some kid, dressed as an elf, who surprised me by rattling a can right behind me and asked if I would help starving children in Africa. I knew precisely what change I had on me, returned earlier in the day (coins never, ever go undeposited in my pockets longer than a day) by a stately little old lady at a flea-market for a medallion I got from the Film and Theatre Trade Association of Hessen (Wirtschaftsverband Filmtheater Hessen), awarded to a member for over twenty years of faithful service, as indicated on the obverse.
All of a sudden, when I gave away one coin, which I was glad to do, I was a little sad about the other one I had got. I didn't think about it at the time, but the guild medallion had probably been awarded to the stately little old lady. "Hi, I’m Gertie and I do hair and makeup." As I was imagining her life story—and she did look like a theatre-type, I was wandering through a crowded Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt) and admiring the decorations, under more unusual circumstances. The visitors were already voluntarily kettled amongst the stands of ornaments, candles and Glรผhwein (Wassail, mulled-wine) but this gathering was also audience to a troupe, a parade of protestors, demonstrating against fascism and capitalism, who were accompanied by hundreds of affable Polizei in riot gear that guarded their route, restricting the Christmas shoppers to one street block by block. The security (though there was no violence behind the message and rage) made the evening a strange game of chess, finding one's path again against the demonstrators. Maybe Gertie was glad for the exchange as well, and though I guess I won’t ever know the exact provenance, I'll continue to treasure that little token and trade.

archive photos

The weather, though usually more changeable in Germany, seems to have settled, to have idled in a decidedly unfestive state, more like the Winter weather one has to endure after the holidays are over with and Spring is too far off. Last year, by now there was already a blanket of snow that was a daily struggle until March. H and I have decked our place out with some Christmas ornaments but have yet to get a tree and with the wind and the rain, there is pressure to do so before it gets too late. I have noticed that this year, lots of people seem to be parking their Christbรคumen on their terraces. That seemed a little sad to me at first, but I guess if one has the view to enjoy it, especially under the auspices of more seasonable precipitation, that would be OK.
We have really run out of space for a tree as well, and in the meantime trying to puzzle out the interior real-estate. Summer did end with a heralding of the change into Autumn and Winter, and after we had ceremoniously cut back the geraniums, I noticed a lone little green nub, which seemed very sad and unfair. I pried out the jumble of roots around it and transplanted it in the kitchen, where it seems it might sprout and grow for next year.

Friday 2 December 2011

booster-shot

Distinction are being made between the sovereign debt crisis in the Euro zone countries and the real economy, the market place. And while I agree that difference does merit attention, since after all orderly, responsible commerce and healthy and gainful employment are quite separate from the untold trillions in virtual currency shifting accounts and balance-sheets. Maybe the meaningless scale of indebtedness and indenturedness does not translate to inflation, at least at human proportions. And maybe a second infusion of cheap US dollars (to service, pay the interest on close-held and strewn about obligations) won't denigrate funds world-wide, making the real economy and resources too dear. Or was this follow-up flooding by the central banks a distraction and delay, which won't be without negative consequences? A billion dollar bill must be a pretty flimsy and filmy thing, were it ever available in hard-copy, nearly transparent and feeble. I'm not sure about these strategies, but I am ever baffled by the credence put in the enthusiasm or skepticism of barons, magnates, bankers, investors and other underwriters. Managing money ought to be regarded no differently than marshalling any other resource--water, trash, electricity, fuel--and compensated accordingly, not rewarded for creating more money out money.
Too much incentive has been levied against this sleight-of-hand, and this great gossipy game of Mah-Jongg (no offense against Mah-Jongg players, which is more social, honest, challenging and philosophical) is only about creating wealth from wealth and is not producing anything of real utility. I cannot gauge the nascent inflation in America, and do hope that the spheres of facetious debt (genuine but hardly authentic obligations often coerced and cultured) and finance and business have a stream to brook before mixing, but more over I hope that this line of thinking is not just a noble-lie to keep the public disengaged and unaware, secure in their jobs and purchasing-power--speaking of the German public, of course--or dangling optimistic messages while in reality, everything is getting more and more diluted.

Thursday 1 December 2011

the other shoe

What is going on with the United States of America and its legislative foundry? I realize that partisans like news that validates their own tastes and worries and reporting is prone to exaggeration, but the States have lately taken on these strange airs with all the busy, bossy tyranny of a domineering and wicked step-sister. Maybe it is the throes and rattle of a collapsing empire and dynasty, desperate and clawing--but undeniably and unequivocally, America seems to be assaulting those freedoms and achievements that made it relevant (if not great) with a perverted prejudice and uncertain prospects. It all sounds unreal.  At the behest of the entertainment industry, it was revealed that America was intent on denuding the internet, making it a very difficult to publish original work or sample the creations of others without establishing an onerous chain-of-custody and provenance except for those artists whom are already discovered and can afford the up-keep of membership and registry. Next, in quick succession, the US is considering broadening the definition of battlefield to cover the whole folksy Homeland, this front just added to the Global War on Terrorism a few months after it was deemed acceptable that America's Cyber-Command could launch an offensive fight and respond not in kind to virtual threats but answer them with real-world guns and bullets. These creeping powers of the military and the all-encompassing playing field would allow for detention of anyone anywhere without trial or due process for an unlimited period of time, not just American citizens in America.
The last and latest insult is the natural consequence of unrelenting attacks on the arts and sciences in the States but is now assuming its final form with the failure of the Congressional Super-Committee to trim the government budget. I suspect that no one had much faith that the Super-Committee would succeed, so some analysts saying that the failure was a good fiscal outcome as automatic reductions have been put into motion is not a very genuine endorsement. Perhaps brute enforcement will force some choices and some discipline but programs targeted on contingency of this breakdown are, besides social programs, funding for art programs and research and development. Squandered inspiration and neglected imagination are intolerable wastes, and these proposals, in triplicate, even if overstated, are dangerous and would generate little in return, regardless who champions them. What gain, anticipated and delivered, could even begin to replace what's been lost? The torment in the end, like an overbearing and favoured step-sister however, may be just as listless and a paper-tiger as the tormentor.

metonymy

After a year and a half in the receivership of a caretaker government, Belgium is finally set to form a coalition, permanent regime. Political and cultural contention meant that the Low Country surpassed civil war-torn Cameroon and occupied Iraq for the modern record of operating without a proper elected government. Now, for the first time since the 1960s, the liberal and social-democratic parties have joined together under the leadership of a prime-minister from the French-speaking region of Wallonia. I think that this is a big accomplishment and wish the Belgian people continued success in their affairs, but it is a bit strange how the daily business of politics limped along over the past five-hundred days in a self-described power-vacuum towards this notorious record given that in Brussels there is already super-imposed seat of the European Union and those vested powers and a perfectly good royal family and given that the outcome of elections and party-partnerships will never please everyone. There are significant divides and cloying for representation between the Francophone Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemish, and politicians are generally disappointing. Belgium's perseverance to secure a proper government sort of reminds me of the biblical Israelites insistence on a human ruler out of king-envy and peer-pressure. Maybe it was a bit awkward to tell their neighbours that their king was God. The Israelites got some very good and wise secular leaders but were eventually tuned into the fact that earthly leadership was prone to error. Now that Belgium is not just Brussels, as the EU capital, hopefully the political loggerheads can be navigated and place more emphasis on unity rather than division.