Tuesday 6 December 2011

top bonitรคt oder ansteckungsgefahr

The bullying, nannying antics of the credit-rating agencies have threatened to downgrade (toppling the Top Bonitรคt, rating, of some 15 euro zone members) en masse the core countries of the shared-currency, not that Greece and others are peripheral but the financial machinery has already dismissed them. I kept belabouring these rather predictable developments, in hopes, that the insanity of it all is just a bit more apparent or, if already manifest, at least not taken as custom or as inescapable. The machinations of the confidence tricksters and assessors of gullibility, however, are forcing one's hand, perhaps too hastily down one strait, which removes serious deliberation to the speculators that would gamble on the failure of the whole enterprise. Collectively, we are leaning on France and Germany for leadership but the characteristics of good and effective governance did not suddenly become important commodities only when the monetary wherewithal of Europe was thrown into question.   It is extortion and it seems as if the credit-rating agencies and the markets have already made up their minds.  There's no honour in kow-towing to the bullies and taking their remedies without question, but maybe the menace of higher interest-rates, usury for past borrowing, might change the way people owe and how they owe--after all, too much easy credit and thoughtless debt helped create this mess to begin with--and that discipline, not austerity, might not be such a welcome shift for the lenders.

Monday 5 December 2011

vindaloo

This picture was not properly setup, but I wanted to capture the latest chef-surprise in case it turned out good and my camera has a setting specifically to capture images of food, "Saturation is higher to make food look more appetizing," which is an under-utilized feature. I tried making a broccoli curry and improvised a little and voila:

Broccoli Curry with Garbanzo Beans and Cranberries
  • One small bunch of broccoli chopped into small pieces (about 2 cups)
  • 2 tea-spoons Hot Madras Curry Powder (or less to taste)
  • 1 can of Garbanzo Beans
  • A few handfuls of dried cranberries or raisins
  • 1 ⅔ cups of couscous
For four servings, cook the broccoli in a large sauce pan (big enough for all the ingredients) over medium heat in olive oil for approximately five minutes, tossing and then add curry powder. After mixing, combine the garbanzo beans and the cranberries. Continue stirring when adding 2 cups of water or vegetable broth and about a teaspoon of salt. Cover but stir occasionally until the mixture comes to a boil. Then pour in the couscous and stir until the dish just reaches boiling again, then cover and remove from heat. Wait five minutes for the couscous to absorb the water, then fluff with a fork and serve.

  • fรผr 4 Personen, Etwa 500 gram Brokkoli, fein geschnittenen
  • mit 2 Teelรถffel scharfes Currypulver abschmecken
  • 1 Dose Kichererbsen
  • einige Handvolle getrockneten Preiselbeeren oder Rosinen
  • 400 mL Kuskus (und 500 mL Wasser oder Gemรผsebrรผhe dafรผr)
Der Brokkoli kochen in ร–l in der Pfanne fรผr etwa 5 Minuten und mit Currypulver wรผrzen. Alles erhitzen und zum Schluss die Kichererbsen und die Preiselbeeren dazugeben. AnschlieรŸend die Wasser oder Brรผhe mite in bissen Salz hineingeben. Die Pfanne zudecken und einmal aufkochen lassen. Nun den Kuskus hinzugeben und vom Feuer nehmen. Das Kuskus kocht (unter dem Deckel) fรผr etwa 5 Minuten. Wenn das Essen fertig ist, vorsichtig mit einer Gabel durchziehen, servieren und genieรŸen.

Sunday 4 December 2011

sopapilla oder net neutralitรคt

Though SOPA, the bill in the US Congress that would outlaw parody, sampling and originality has nothing to do with anti-piracy measures and the opponents of the bill certainly are not endorsing common-sense copyright infringement and respect intellectual property and artistic integrity, a Swiss government commissioned study (auf Deutsch, en franรงais, in Italiano, ed tar la rumantscha but with the story and analysis on the excellent and astonishing Boing Boing) is providing a refreshing counterpoint to the dishonest hysterics and censorship budding up elsewhere. Our friends in Switzerland discovered that casual downloading was not harming the industry and actually spurred sales for movie and concert tickets and well as media in many cases. The results of this study actually are helping to enforce the framework of laws safe-guarding individual privacy in the Confederation, including limiting internet service providers' ability to keep logs on users' activity and other questionable forms of tattling.

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.