ad lib

The situation in North Africa and the Mid-East is still explosive, and despite progress won there is a distinct and present risk of recidivist tyrannies and back-sliding into chaos. Some protesters’ honeymoons have lost their sheen as police are doing their job of civil policing and concessions, sometimes meaningful, betimes empty, are being offered by leaders of a whole range of vested and divested authority.

People have been inspired towards revolution, though no oppression is exercised in quite the same way—Libya is a very different place than Egypt or Tunisia or Algeria or Jordan or Iran or Iraq or Yemen or Saudi Arabia—and though steady-state strife, disenfranchisement or even civil war is influenced by macroeconomic factors and policy-decisions that have left a younger population disaffected and without many opportunities for a commensurate career, aside from daily staples and small freedoms. Many observers seemed spooked by talk of civil war and the subsequent disruption to oil supplies and overall destabilization that would make it more difficult for carpetbagger corporations to operate there.

I hope that outsiders are not just wishing this away, support tepid at best, to keep cheap oil pumping and promote continued expansion opportunities to export Western luxuries and fast food franchises and to ensure that the standard of living stays low and not too much of the treasure and resources are retained and used in these places. Just like it is billed as a rarity to witness a revolt that was not under the ægis of the forces that spread freedom and democracy in the world, it is likewise billed as unusual to see a civil war starting, as most assume such regional conflicts have always been, some warring tribes in lands with borders jimmied out arbitrarily when the colonial powers moved on to pure mercantilism—and what of that blood and treasure in a decade not so well invested in Iraq as protests begin in Baghdad. Years of war and occupation have left the people with precious little left to loose, and makes the chance ripe to regain and reclaim what was once theirs without meddling, direct or tangential.

end-user error

I will readily admit that I can be very lazy when it comes to electronics and tend not to pay attention, constantly surprised by the extra features the camera or the DVD player is capable of, for example, and I am reluctant to ever touch the settings on the central heating. The controls, however not excusing me from my want just to bang on buttons until the desired result is achieved or not familiarizing myself duly with the protocol, do not seem to me simple, intuitive or logical. This one slightly overwhelming dial on the hot water tank makes me think of the instructions forward-thinking scientists designed for the Voyager spacecraft so that an alien intelligence could receive the messages from Earth, the star Sirius (*), the lunar phase (•), the base of the natural logarithm (℮) as it approaches the mass to energy equivalence (E)… What does it all mean?

berlin, du bist wunderschön

Bundestag

On the occasion of the travel industry trend merchants announcing that Germany has surpassed France as the preferred European tourist destination, I thought it was a good reason to hold a photo roundup from our vacation last week to the capital. 

Brandenburger Tor

While we were waiting to buy tickets to the observation deck of the fantastically retro-futuristic Fernsehturm at Alexanderplatz, there was a graphic display on how the TV tower compared to other tall structures with a view from around the world. 

Weltzeituhr, Alexanderplatz

All the listed sites from the Empire State Building to the Tokyo Sky Tree were charter members of some International Society for Tall Towers, which I though was some strange, bureaucratic and self-referential device (like the Institute for Wine Drinkery for one particular grocery store chain, which of course only recommends the store brands the chain sells and rates no outside vintages),

Fernsehturm with Neptunbrunnen

and that is what I think of these tourist rating bureaus. 

I am very glad that more people are appreciating Germany,

Siegessäule

though it is admittedly skewed a bit this year for Bavaria with the once a decade pilgrimmage to Oberammergau for the Passion Play this past Spring, but Berlin is not Paris or London and Paris and London is not Berlin, especially considering the affordable accessibility one has to all these fine things.

Gendarmenmarkt with Konzerthaus and Französische Dom

Berliner Olympic Stadium

Ishtar Gate on Museum Island

general zod

There is a certain cachet to arch-villains that the cadre of contemporary but quaking megalomaniacal leaders have failed to capture. I don't know if there is an annual gathering of the truly rotten and demonized heads of state, Leader and Guide of the Revolution, Dear Leader, Baby Doc, Protector of the People, Fidei Defensor, to coordinate and plan outright--or if such a summit falls under the guise of another. These bad guys are readily identifiable, like any well-drawn nemesis, and certainly have the tragic flaw of hubris. This much they are capitalizing on, not that the struggles and triumphs all around the world are some comic book adventure, but they, for one, do not admit to an equally matched opponent--which makes the revolution all the more impressive with the accumulated efforts of the people a more sturdy support than any super hero--and because or despite of this imbalance, these stubborn dictators are not the ultimate fonts of evil either.

Greed and rank hypocrisy of course punctuated their long reigns, but the source and inspiration and allowance surely lay elsewhere, just as the people draw their line in the sand, came to their tipping-point, not solely when this steady-state oppression became suddenly intolerable but also when outside pressures and influences made day-to-day existence even more of a struggle, exposure--the sieves of information, financial inversion that brought too much down on the markets, souks and bazaars. No outstanding credit is due, however.

princess kay of the milky way

There are many quaint and wonderful things that share the same constellation as the Dells in Wisconsin, including, hopefully the fortitude to not relent to corporate sponsored politics that would undermine the power and influence of workers' unions. Anything public and institutionalized, of course, can betray a spotted record, both in reality and in guided perceptions, and the produce of State employees is just as much exposed to scrutiny as the careless custody of funds and the plastic accounting of sophistry. Fighting for the venue to voice one's concerns is a bit more abstract than the actual workers' rights that might be later entertained, but this distinction is not lost on those who have stood with them, the solidarity of the region and the world and the politicians who have flagged due caution in fiscal-planning. Toppling entrenched and moribund regimes is a clear focus of rage and frustration, and though right to bargain and right to strike may be dressed down, dismissively--living in Europe, union actions and impetus are well-integrated components of any business and governance--that distinction is not lost either on those bravely fighting against bald and unmasked antagonists.

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.