Wednesday, May 30, 2007

8 Gs in a Fenced-In Playpen

For 12.6 million euros the Berlin government has built an impenetrable fence around a place at the Baltic shore whose name translates as "holy dam" to create a gigantic fortified playpen for angie and the bushbaby and putin and the lapdog blair and prodi and sarko and a guy from canada and somebody from japan, oh, and a smiling rights-trampler from china to come to no decision in, attend some glamorous banquets, smile at the cameras, ignore the protesters, and all of them with no intention of doing anything of any consequence - except maybe to agree to build more impenetrable barriers to protect themselves against terrorists. They can wrap themselves in barbed wire and call that the outside and claim to have fenced in everything dangerous.
But the climate will continue to deteriorate, the poor to starve, the migrants to move, the fundamentalists to threaten, and freedom to diminish.
Even a teleconference would have been too great an expense for the little these 8+ leaders are about to agree not to agree on and "announce" after a summit of no height whatsoever, but it would certainly have been more appropriate and less expensive. €12.6 million would treat a lot of severely ill people, feed a lot of starving children, employ a lot of jobless, etc., etc....
The circus is certainly not worth the expense, the effort, or the curbing of civil rights entailed.
And the whole area has been sealed off to humanity, as of today, until the fiasco ends on June 8-9.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Another birthday

Here's where we went for a walk in the morning:

Rummelsburger Bucht

And one shot of me there, too:

Here's where Detlef took me out to eat for lunch:

Hausvogteiplatz 11
Thai, Asian / Fusion
The three Good Time Restaurants have independently developed a good reputation for Thai food amongst Berliners - pretty amazing considering that a new Thai restaurant opens here every eight seconds. Little surprise really as the food quality here is high. All fruit and vegetables are flown-in daily and prepared and cooked traditionally by experienced chefs. Half the menu is also Indonesian - a refreshing mix-up for the Berlin gastronomy scene. Meals range from 12€ - 18€, lunch is cheaper. The fresh juices also give you a taste of the tropics. Hausvogteiplatz 11, Mitte, U2 Hausvogteiplatz.
And here's what we saw in the theater in the evening in Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater:

von Friedrich Schiller
Die Liebesgeschichte von Ferdinand und Luise ist von Beginn an eine Problembeziehung: Er ist adlig, reich und macht Karriere. Sie ist bürgerlich, arm und fromm.Luise sieht das Unheil heraufziehen, doch Ferdinand klammert sich blind an seine Utopie der alles besiegenden Liebe – und wird so zum gefundenen Opfer für die Neider und Intriganten, die ihn mit Lady Milford, der Konkubine des Fürsten, verkuppeln wollen. Kann man sich dieser Welt und dem Druck der Gewalt moralisch erwehren? Mit Luise stellt Schiller diese Frage und lässt die anderen Figuren des Stücks Antwort geben – das die nicht schön ausfällt, ist kein Wunder. An ein Wunder aber grenzt die moderne Klarheit und pathetische Eindringlichkeit von Schillers ausufernder Sprache: ein Klassiker, der noch heute wütend macht. Präsidentin von Walter: Ruth Reinecke, Ferdinand: Florian Stetter, Hofmarschall von Kalb: Michael Klammer, Lady Milford: Hilke Altefrohne, Wurm: Ronald Kukulies, Miller: Robert Kuchenbuch, Luise: Hanna Eichel, Ein Kammerdiener: Michael Klammer, Regie -Florian Fiedler, Bühne -Annette Riedel, Kostüme -Selina Peyer, Dramaturgie -Ludwig Haugk
A wonderful day.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

G8 : DOA

Sadly enough, the playpen is again flaunting international discussion and rejecting in advance G8 agreements on substantial efforts to keep our planet hospitable to life as we know it. Perhaps they should avoid some climate damaging emissions and just all stay home, talk on the telephone, and exchange thoughts by e-mail. A joint tele-conference would be enough to announce their failure to achieve anything worthwhile for mankind and his environment. (And aid to Africa will probably succumb to their summit party as well.)

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 26, 2007; Page A09

U.S. officials have raised a second round of unusually bluntly worded objections to a proposed global-warming declaration that Germany prepared for next month's Group of Eight summit, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Representatives from the world's leading industrial nations met the past two days in Heiligendamm, Germany, to negotiate over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposed statement, which calls for limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Bush administration officials, who raised similar objections in April, rejected the idea of setting mandatory emissions targets as well as language calling for G-8 nations to raise overall energy efficiencies by 20 percent by 2020. With less than two weeks remaining, said sources familiar with the talks, the climate document is the only unresolved issue in the statements the world leaders are expected to sign at the June 6-8 summit.
"The U.S. still has serious, fundamental concerns about this draft statement," a paper dated May 14 states. "The treatment of climate change runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to. . . . We have tried to 'tread lightly' but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position."

Monday, May 21, 2007

It's entirely up to us...

«Auf uns kommt es an, [...] ob wir die Sterblichen sein können, die wir sind, nämlich die, die im Zuspruch des Seins stehen. Nur solche Wesen vermögen zu sterben, d.h. den Tod als Tod zu übernehmen.»
[MH: Der Satz vom Grund, S. 209]

It is up to us whether or not we can be the mortals we are, namely, the ones standing in Being's comforting-addressing ascription. Only such human-selves are capable of dying, i.e. of taking on death as death. [my own translation]

One month ago today, the Countess gathered her life together into a collected graceful completion.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Tired ...

... and glad not to have to do anything today!
... and glad the wolf is out of the meadow!
... and glad the sun is shining!
... and ready just to doze off with a good book.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Wolfing Down Everything In Sight

The amazingly voracious WOLF of the bushbaby playpen is willing to resign the position for which he never had any competence and with which he was rewarded for designing the playpenal farce in Iraq, yes, willing to resign, due to his nepotistic self-serving and crony-serving personnel actions at the World Bank, but only if the Board, that, with the exception of the bushbaby and his chainy master, want him out because of his unethical actions first agree to proclaim that he has done nothing wrong.
Caught with his hand in the cookie jar, the wolf cries out, "Tell the world I've never touched a cookie, never ever, and then I'll take my hand out of the cookie jar."

See the links below for details:

The New York Times
Washington
Wolfowitz Said to Push for Deal to Quit
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: May 17, 2007

Paul D. Wolfowitz wants to be cleared of wrongdoing before he resigns as the World Bank’s president.

REUTERS 17 May 2007
Wolfowitz, under a cloud over his handling of a raise and promotion for his companion, refused to bow to heavy European pressure to resign as he sought to clear his name in talks with the bank's board over a possible exit strategy.
"Mr. Wolfowitz will not resign under this cloud and he will rather put this matter to a full (board) vote than to capitulate on his integrity," his lawyer Robert Bennett told Reuters on Wednesday.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Inaugural Address of M. Nicolas SARKOZY, Président de la République Française

Allocution de M. Nicolas SARKOZY, Président de la République, à l'occasion de la cérémonie d’installation
"Je ferai de la défense des droits de l'homme et de la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique les priorités de l'action diplomatique de la France dans le monde."

At the linked site, video and audio transmissions of the speech are also available. Whatever one thought before the election, we should all carefully listen to this speech in order to know exactly what was said and to what one may in future hold this new president accountable.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Which is greater ... ?

Here, once more, my own stab at a quick translation of a short passage from Heidegger, this time from volume 67 of his complete works, "Metaphyicis and Nihilism", the appendix with his own annotations to the second major essay in this volume (The Essential-Being of Nihilism), part I, number 5. In this entry, first my English, then my French version, and only then the original German, since I have the feeling, sometimes, that people don't read them if I begin with the German ... But they should !
I.5. Thinking's Estranging — a being-historical momentary glimpse
What is greater today —
unwillingness towards thinking
or displeasure in thinking
or misdirection in thinking
or fear of thinking
or incapacity to think (whereby personal inablity to engage in thought processes is not meant)
or are indeed all equally great because they are the same?
The consequence of an omission of the truth of Being — the dis-liking of Being.

I.5. Le Déconcertant du penser — aperçu aître-historique
Qu'est-ce qui est aujourd'hui plus grand —
la malveillance envers le penser
ou le déplaisir de penser ou le mal-diriger du penser
ou la peur de penser
ou l'incapacité de penser (ce qui ne veut pas dire une impuissance personnelle au processus de penser)
ou est-ce que tous sont en fait aussi grand en tant qu'ils sont le même?
La conséquence d'une omission de la vérité de l'Être — le ne-pas-aimer-l'Être.


« I.5. Das Befremdliche des Denkens
seinsgeschichtlicher Augenblick

Was ist heute größer —
das Mißwollen gegen das Denken
oder das Mißvergnügen am Denken
oder die Mißleitung im Denken
oder die Angst vor dem Denken
oder das Unvermögen zum Denken (womit nicht die persönliche Unfähigkeit zur Denktätigkeit gemeint ist)
oder sind gar alle gleich groß, weil sie das Selbe sind?
Die Folge eines Auslassen der Wahrheit des Seins — das Un-mögen des Seins.
»

[MH: GA, Bd.67, S.262]

Friday, May 11, 2007

If you don't know the words...

... you can still sing along with this group of jubilant nuns. Let music reign!

And credit is due here, for sharing this with me, to the Lady-in-Waiting and to her friend in her choral group who put her onto it.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Au ministère de l'identité nationale

La chronique de Philippe SOLLERS
Le journal du mois
Paru dans le JDD, Lundi 30 Avril 2007
>Le mauvais rêve du mois dernier continue. Après mon interrogatoire éprouvant au ministère de l'Identité nationale, me voici maintenant convoqué au ministère du Contrôle génétique. Le nouveau président de la République française, Nicolas Sarkozy, vient de l'inaugurer, et ça va chauffer.

Restore Habeas Corpus!

The New York Times
Editorial
The Democrats’ Pledge
Published: May 9, 2007
[...] let’s be clear. There is nothing “conservative” or “tough on terrorism” in selectively stripping people of their rights. [...]
Democratic leaders must make promised measures to restore habeas corpus a priority and members of both parties must vote on principle, not out of fear of attack ads.

Solidarity with Warsaw's CSD 2007

Warschauer Pakt 2007 – Solidaritätsaktion für den CSD in Warschau
Die Initiative Warschauer Pakt 2007 wird auch in diesem Jahr die „Parade der Gleichheit" aktiv unterstützen. Die Parade wird am 19. Mai 2007 in Warschau stattfinden. Nähere Informationen werden fortlaufend hier sowie auf der polnisch/deutschen Website der Veranstalter veröffentlicht. Aktuelle Stimmungsbilder und praktische Infos (zum Beispiel wo es T-Shirts für die Demo gibt) findet sich auf unserem WarschauerPakt-Blog.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Le duel BHL-Glucksmann

Le duel BHL-Glucksmann
Bernard-Henri Lévy (for Royal) and André Glucksmann (for Sarkozy) debate the issues at stake, and one can hope they will continue to exert influence with their voices now that the vote has gone to Sarko.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Warm in the Sun

Here, it is warm and sunny and we have friends to meet who also need some support, one in a relationship crisis, others amidst trauma therapy, and we hope to have a nice walk in the countryside...
Time to share, and glad we are together to do so!

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

With Memories...

The Countess securely in our memories, we have traversed the Atlantic once again and returned to our home, spoken with my dear sister, whose truck made it full of untattered packages back along her land route and whose voice attracted the responsive attention of our parrot. In days to come, correspondence must begin with all those who held us close in their feelings. And here it is blooming spring, sunny, bright, with baby shoes from other decades and other geographic coordinates now on our shelves, things that belonged elsewhere are now with us at home here.
And today is our eleventh anniversary!

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Saying Goodbye to Chicora Chicks at Court

This is truly caring and affection!

Long Live The Chicks of Chicora Court!