ich habe noch einen koffer in berlin

We are on vacation for the long weekend, and this time to the capital, to explore the strata of this multilayered, storied city.  Stay tuned to our little trave blog for upcoming developments.  For now, we have arrived in a shabby-chic hotel in the quarter of old Moabit, just beyond the buildings of parliment.  This area, bizarrely, was originally settled by French Hugonauts fleeing religious persecution.  One of their first enterprises after arriving was a venture for silk cultivation, but the Chinese white mulberry tree would not grow in the sandy soil of Berlin, which are the only trees that silkworms will spin their cocoons on, so they had to find another way to support their new community.

plagiat or creative-commons

Amid continuing controversies over German troop presence in Afghanistan, the debate over ending universal conscription, the state of affairs on board the navy's training tall ship, the Minister of Defense is facing a more personal embarrassment and crisis of integrity. Legal scholars stumbled across some tell-tale passages from the Minister's 2006 doctorial dissertation comparing and contrasting the constitutional (Verfassung) systems and processes of America and Europe that strongly indicate academic dishonesty and plagiarism. With all the other debates going on in the ministry and tensions all around, one has to wonder about the timing of the this curious audit--possibly meant as a character-assassination that withers more credibility.

If the Minister did cheat a little, then he deserves to lose his doctor-title regardless of whether it was a vanity degree for someone already entrenched in the halls of government and even if originality and due-credit are not mainstays of any government.  Such behaviour should not be condoned but it should neither unsettle confidence in itself--not all embarrassments and skeletons are outed through leaks.  It surprises me though with all the warnings against it from the same learned councils that say Wikipedia is not an acceptable source or scans term papers line by line against the sum total of human knowledge--that is, at least what is committed to the internet, or sends out publication manuals and style guides with every text book shipment to reinforce the importance of proper and full citations. Considering all that is recycled and repackaged, maybe the Minister's dissertation was a fitting homage to old wine in new bottles.

operation paperclip or grand moff tarkin

A Finnish film producer has teamed with partners in Germany and Australia to pose the audience with the alternative, speculative time-line, in which surviving members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party escape to the dark side of the Moon after the fall of the Third Reich. After decades of nursing defeat on their lunar colony, the space villains plot a spectacular re-conquest of the Earth in contemporary 2018. This dark comedy and  science-fiction amalgam, which bears some similarity with the adventures and exploits of Baron von Münchausen, seems bold in essaying a heretofore unexplored extreme conclusion of pioneering rocketry and mad ambition. The sillier side of the project, however, is the makers' hope that the movie will be financed almost exclusively by donation, crowd-funding by fans. That makes the whole premise seems too familiar--like that of Mel Brooks' The Producers. No one has tried to make an utter flop in quite awhile, though I imagine that wrestling shining success from surpassing tastelessness is a bigger surprise than to be let down by mediocrity or tepid reception.

trial of the pyx

Bad-mouthing the US economy and fiscal policy was more enjoyable when the state of the rest of the world was pretty much on the same level, and similar underlying challenges looked to be insurmountable for recovery. A global economic downturn, implosion promised to be just that—global, altering the landscape and brining about change. And while there may be still systemic problems plaguing trade, corporate favouritism and influence, misguided consumption, and any number of confidence-tricks and market-flipping, it seems a lot of the prophets of gloom are very quick to take back their criticism of capitalism and its fully articulated cachet of accessories. It is mostly a hollow business. Before someone was clever and shrewd enough to convince kingdoms that they could mortgage their debts for cash (bonds) and investors were dull enough to buy it, financing was all done with real assets and the backers exacted political capital, grace-and-favour, instead of just moribund obligations.

No extra money was minted because of the risk of inflation and devaluation. Presently, however, there is a situation, a collusion, wherein all these things are possible: influence is trafficked with the debt and quantitative easing is another lever to pull in many markets. Talk of the deficit can be a charged and a malleable topic. In its unprocessed form, the US federal deficit is simply the ratio of government income versus outlays, and though arguable, when people discuss the deficit, they are really talking about the US economy, which are really separate things. Though unsustainable in the long term or as a permanent state, a negative balance of payments can promote tangible improvements for the public and not solely for corporate welfare. A budget shortfall has not yet been turned into an investment instrument the way bonds have, except in the sense of bailout-pie, but it can be for the public good, nonetheless, and government exists only to serve its people. Other governments, whose agendas are not quite so beholden to special-interest, polarizing messages and commercial sooth-sayers, do not dismiss running deficits but approach the matter with more measured responses. As long as someone is buying, it is a sovereign prerogative to allow spending to outstrip receipts for the sake of providing for its citizens. The debate becomes charged when the comparison, talk of the economy in general, is lost to household economics and sacrifices are presented in the same way as a balanced checkbook. Symbolic cutbacks because of unflinching focus on a single economic indicator will accomplish little and probably result in more acute pain.

auswanderlust

Senior leadership in France recently announced-- joining a public chorus of others, the UK, Germany and Australia-- the failure of multiculturalism (multi-culti, as the Germans say). It’s a grim pronouncement to make, but it is possible that concessions and accommodations have been proffered in ways that have erred in many circumstances on the side of neutrality in efforts to please everyone, which usually, inevitably, please no one.

Still, no one should throw up their hands in frustration and failure and repair to austere assimilation, quotas, or worse yet intolerance. What policies and practices might work better I don’t know. Such a series of declarations of malfunction, however, may betray a secondary, self-interested motive for Western governments’ ringing support for the budding reform movements in North Africa. For everyone’s sakes, fostering real development and support for improvement make opportunities more viable in these countries and make it possible for individuals and families to thrive without having to leave their homelands. Economic considerations are not the only driving-factors for immigration, but countries able to retain their domestic treasure and talent with the invitation to stay on are better positioned for growth and continued advances. Domestic tranquility, however, should never be an excuse to erect barriers and rescind the truly valuable elements of diversity and cultural exchanges.

renaissance or day of days

With less than three weeks of revolt, the Egyptian people have managed to overcome three decades of rule that smacked of tyranny and despotic under-achievement.  This is a monumental first step.  Though for many the joy and relief was also a fair mix of shock and surprise, to find that there was an alternative to the powers and the treatment that they had nearly become inured to.  Blossoming freedom and democracy, and not the sort foisted on people by some calvary on the charge, is a rare and precious thing, to be nurtured carefully.  The people have begun to remove the obstacles to their self-determination, and with awareness and support all around, I am sure that they will continue on the right path.

zagazig

There is a monumental battle of the wills happening in Egypt. There is also the creeping, crassest of attitudes circulating among a minority of casual observers, a fatigue, like the weariness that exculpated some people's consciences over natural disasters and other unseemly catastrophes. I have a lot of sympathy for the struggle and for the dangling disappointment and hope.

This standoff could go on and on.  Moreover, events like these really illustrate journalistic integrity, slacking vigilance or otherwise. The protest grounds are not necessarily over-crowded with the press, but those who are there are doing a good job and blurring the distinction between the aloofness of reporting and being in and of the moment, which along with citizen-journalism, transfixes the scene and admonishes us of the stakes and what is at issue. The bigger dilemma seems often bringing the reporting to the audience, and though there are virtually unlimited vehicles of delivery, it astounds me how much the media, the visible advertising space, shunts what's in depth off to the side, or when it is not even available in competitive formats. I understand such prime real estate is at a premium, but there is a demand for good coverage and due exposure. Further, events like this--maybe significantly and for the first time, also are very telling of who is in the know and who is brokering power. Predictions and speculation have been proved to be just that. Mostly, no one likes to claim influence-peddling or king-making in media res, but one is accustomed to attributing such abilities or at least intelligence, prescience to certain powers, despite proof of dwindling capital.

fusionen und übernahmen

The Deutsche Börse, the marketplace for the perhaps more familiar sounding DAX (Deutscher Aktien IndeX), is in acquisition talks to take over a controlling share of the New York Stock Exchange. Though the deal may inspire some resistance politically and with cartel-considerations, the impending sale seems to me like a last, desperate attempt to revitalize American stocks with a mortgage that is already over one's head, rather than a consolidating of power and control.

Like anything in large amounts, this concentration of trading certainly has impetus but the equally cavity-causing mob of debt and poisonous liabilities are likewise influential. Making financial hardships diffuse makes it more palatable and opaque. Together in a ten-billion euro quiver, some frantic business can gain legitimacy and even the appearance of value, besides in the swapping. A unified front for managing trades and protection for minority-interests in a monopoly are important and should be weighed against each other, but foremost, I believe, that the German titans of industry should take a close look at what they are committing to. Merging marketplaces makes former paying clients overseas into partners, scouts for new customers. Compared to the sedate and efficient, post-modern Star Trek look of the German Stock Exchange, the NYSE, noisy, crowded, and littered, looks like a scene one would find at the greyhound races.