Six médias appellent à la vigilance démocratique !

Six médias appellent à la vigilance démocratique

Le droit à l'information, à la libre expression et à la libre critique, ainsi qu'à la diversité des opinions est une liberté publique fondamentale. C'est un droit des citoyens et non pas un privilège des journalistes: sans information libre, sans une presse indépendante et pluraliste, il ne saurait y avoir d'authentique délibération démocratique.
[ ... ]
Tous ensemble, défendons la liberté de l'information! Nous vous donnons rendez-vous, vendredi 30 janvier, au Théâtre du Châtelet, à Paris.
Charlie Hebdo, Les Inrockuptibles, Marianne, Mediapart, Le Nouvel Observateur, Rue 89,
avec le soutien de Reporters sans frontières.
- Prochoix, la revue pour le droit de choisir, dirigée par Caroline Fourest et Fiammetta Venner

The 44th President !

President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

And today he can get to work and begin to fulfill the promise to repair what a rampant playpen has broken. The road is one, with thought, to justice for all, freedom, social responsibility, caring, cooperation, light.

Hopeful Congratulations !

As this day begins, I would just like to wish Barack Obama success as he is inaugurated 44th President of the United States and perserverence in upholding principles of justice, international cooperation, and human rights as he assumes the duties of that office.

Close It ! Close IT ! CLOSE IT !

An essential task for President Obama to begin tackling immediately after the Inauguration!

The New York Times, January 17, 2009, Editorial
Closing Guantánamo

In a long series of valedictory speeches and interviews, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been crowing about Guantánamo Bay, secret prisons and abusive interrogations, claiming they met the highest legal standards and that no prisoner had been tortured. Fortunately, the truth broke through the noise, in the words of some of the very people ordered to carry out the policies.

In an interview in The Washington Post, Susan Crawford, the retired judge who runs the military tribunals at Guantánamo, said that harsh interrogation methods had endangered the life of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi national accused of planning to take part in the 9/11 attacks. Authorized by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, they included sustained isolation, nudity and prolonged exposure to the cold.
“We tortured Qahtani,” Judge Crawford said, adding that she was therefore unable to prosecute a man who seemed to pose a real threat to the United States.
Judge Crawford was not the only one speaking out. Major David Frakt of the Air Force Reserve, who was assigned to defend another Guantánamo prisoner, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that he and all the other defense lawyers in the system consider the tribunals “unfair, rigged” and unconstitutional. He noted that his client’s prosecutor resigned to protest the lack of evidence in the case.
That is the real nature of Mr. Bush’s grotesque legacy: abuse and torture at an outlaw prison where hundreds of men — many of whom did nothing — have been held for years without real evidence or charges. And truly dangerous men were treated so badly that it may be impossible to bring them to justice.

It will be hard enough to close down Guantánamo as Barack Obama has vowed to do, but the legal burdens Mr. Bush is dumping on his successor are much greater.

[ ... ]

We recognize that this is a daunting agenda, and that to succeed, Mr. Obama’s White House, Justice Department and Pentagon will also have to rebuild demoralized legal divisions where professionals were replaced with apparatchiks whose mission was to twist the law to justify their masters’ decisions.
This work is essential to restoring the rule of law. It is essential to restoring this country’s reputation around the world. And it is essential to restoring Americans’ faith in themselves and in their government. That is the only way to move forward.

This is necessary for a restoration of American ideals and for renewed conformity with those of the enlightened world: LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL !

Beautiful Vulnerability

Suspendus (critique), Théâtre de Nesles à Paris - Les Trois Coups

La beauté des vulnérables
Traiter d’un sujet aussi grave que le mal-être et le désarroi face au sida, avec une philanthropie pleine d’espérance et de poésie, tel est le projet de « Suspendus » de Franck-Olivier Laferrère. Un très beau texte à entendre au Théâtre de Nesle.
L’histoire se passe dans un petit village de Provence. Jean-François (Jean-Claude Falet), la soixantaine, partage sa vie entre ses parents qui vivent à deux pas, son jardin, ses regrets de l’homme qu’il a aimé mais n’a pu accompagner dans les derniers jours de sa maladie, la maladie… et l’accueil de jeunes plombés à qui il offre un havre pour se reconstruire. Et voici que déboule Louise (Héléna Soubeyrand), du haut de ses vingt ans, déjà aigrie, meurtrie tout autant par le virus qu’elle a chopé que par la désillusion d’un idéal et d’un amour qu’elle n’a su rencontrer.
[ ... ]
Cette pièce fait se rencontrer deux êtres recroquevillés qui s’ouvrent l’un à l’autre, exposent leurs fêlures, dévoilent leur histoire. Parce qu’ils se rendent accessibles l’un à l’autre, ils rendent possible une rencontre et une parole authentiques. Ils s’ouvrent à la vie, s’ancrent, s’épaulent.
Olivier Pradel
Les Trois Coups

IN MEMORIAM - 90 YEARS AGO TODAY

THE MURDER OF ROSA LUXEMBURG AND KARL LIEBKNECHT
On January 15, 1919 - 90 years ago today - Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were arrested by Berlin Freicorps troops, interrogated and tortured in their headquarters in the Hotel Eden, across the street from the "Elephant Gate" to the Berlin Zoo, drug across the street into the Tiergarten Park and murdered, Liebknecht with three extremely shortrange shots, and thrown into the canal there.
They were both committed to human rights, social welfare, and freedom for all, extremely internationalist, and were deemed a clear threat to the ultranationalistic elements rising to become the Nazi murderers of Europe. Their murder was the beginning of the downfall of the first democracy in Germany. Their memory later often misused by the GDR's SED central party, Rosa Luxemburg's slogan - "Freedom is always the freedom of someone with a different opinion" - was long forbidden, and its reappearance at demonstrations in 1988/89 marked the beginning of the end of the GDR and the people's rejection of limitations on their rights.

Die Ermordung von Rosa Luxemburg und Karl Liebknecht
Am 15. Januar 1919 - vor genau 90 Jahren - Freikorpssoldaten der Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division verschleppten Rosa Luxemburg und Karl Liebknecht in das Hauptquartier des Freikorps im Hotel Eden in Berlin, wo sie sie verhörten und schwer mißhandelten. Dann erschossen sie Liebknecht im Tiergarten mit drei Schüssen aus nächster Nähe, ermordete Luxemburg ebenfalls und warfen Leiche in den Landwehrkanal.

"Freedom is always the freedom of someone with a different opinion!"

"Freiheit ist immer Freiheit des Andersdenkenden!"

NIE VERGESSEN!

NEVER FORGET!

EU Seeks Cross-Border Recognition of Gay Civil Unions and Marriages

Today, the European Parliament passed, with a vote of 401 representatives voting yes, 220 no, and 67 abstaining, a report calling for progress on basic human rights in member countries in several areas, including excesses in the fight against terrorism, CIA activities in the EU, women's reproductive rights, living wills, discrimination against Roma, immigration and integration, regional languages, and homosexual rights.
The latter is the particular subject of this posting, although I indeed welcome the entire initiative. Excerpts from the EU Parliament Press Release follow in three languages:

Same-sex couples: partnerships should be recognised

The House calls on Member States to take legislative action to overcome discrimination experienced by same-sex couples by recognising such relationships. Member States with legislation on same-sex partnerships are invited to recognise provisions with similar effects adopted by others.

Anerkennung von gleichgeschlechtlichen Partnerschaften

Das Recht gleichgeschlechtlicher Paare auf Freizügigkeit innerhalb der EU solle unter den gleichen Bedingungen Anwendung finden, wie dies in Bezug auf heterosexuelle Paare der Fall sei. Das Parlament fordert diejenigen Mitgliedstaaten, die Rechtsvorschriften hinsichtlich gleichgeschlechtlicher Partnerschaften erlassen haben, auf, die von anderen Mitgliedstaaten angenommenen Bestimmungen, die ähnliche Auswirkungen haben, anzuerkennen und Leitlinien für die gegenseitige Anerkennung der bestehenden Rechtsvorschriften in den Mitgliedstaaten festzulegen.

Diskriminierende Bemerkungen in Bezug auf Homosexuelle, die religiöse Würdenträger sowie Persönlichkeiten des sozialen Lebens und Politiker äußern, schürten Hass und Gewalt. Daher fordert das EP die jeweils verantwortlichen Gremien auf, diese Äußerungen zu verurteilen, und unterstützt zugleich "voll und ganz" die französische Initiative zur weltweiten Entkriminalisierung der Homosexualität; Homosexualität ist in 91 Ländern nach wie vor eine Straftat und in einigen Fällen sogar ein Kapitalverbrechen.

Couples homosexuels

Dans ce rapport, le Parlement appelle les Etats membres à prendre des mesures législatives contre la discrimination dont sont victimes les couples du même sexe, et à en reconnaitre les unions. Les Etats membres disposant d'une législation en matière de mariage homosexuel sont invités à reconnaître les unions équivalentes existant dans d'autres Etats membres.

HOORAY FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS PARLIAMENT !

Yes, Time to DO Something - Finally

I for one just want to see EVERY effort made EVERY day as diligently as possible to bring about the closure of Guantánamo and ALL other illegal detention centers as quickly as possible. The announcement of a pending executive order is merely the first, but an important, step towards restoring JUSTICE and the rule of law in the United States and bringing the United States back into accordance with recognized international law!
With this, President Obama can begin to prove that he meant what he said during the campaign ...

Obama’s Plan to Close Prison at Guantánamo May Take Year - NYTimes.com

President-elect Barack Obama plans to issue an executive order on his first full day in office directing the closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, people briefed by Obama transition officials said Monday.
But experts say it is likely to take many months, perhaps as long as a year, to empty the prison that has drawn international criticism since it received its first prisoners seven years ago this week. One transition official said the new administration expected that it would take several months to transfer some of the remaining 248 prisoners to other countries, decide how to try suspects and deal with the many other legal challenges posed by closing the camp.

Time Travellers can also speak English...

I just got back from the Firing Range Center. Botched some at first (tired, short of breath), and then I was precise. Some American poet or other, I've forgotten which, once wrote these two lines: "a nice quite paradise / over the shambles". That's my state of mind when I'm training. Up there, if I manage to think as little as possible, there's blue sky, luminous quiet. Down below, exlosions and tears.

I focus on the word "word". I see it over there in my sights. It's breathing a little, growing; that's what I aim at, what I want to hit and pierce WORD. Add a single letter and you get WORLD. In French you'd have MOT and MORT. I fire at the world, I fire at death. Just a little joke, but it helps. My neighbor in the stand, Viva, congratulates me for hitting the target. I don't know anything about what she does, nor does she know what I do. We just smile at each other. That's enough.

[My own English rendition of the two paragraphs Sollers chose to represent his new novel on the back cover of the nrf Gallimard edition which has just appeared, as I noted a couple of posts down. Perhaps the translation will need revision after I have read the whole work, but this is what you get without knowing the context. A cover blurb you could call this, but one directly from the narrative. I hope it might make more people in the English speaking realm aware that French culture is far from dead and that they might be missing something when publishers don't offer them such works in translation. Your only hope: Learn French !]

By the way, "some American poet" is Ezra Pound and those verses are the 49th and 50th from Canto CXVI (1969), one of the last of his Cantos. I don't know why Pound was immediately my idea, but after only a little research I was able to verify it. Perhaps that's part of the power of Sollers' writing! (And Pound's!)

"Suspendus"

In a new play running in Paris by Franck-Olivier Laferrère, life is suspended, the characters just hanging on...
Here, the "trailer" for the production in Théâtre de Nesle from January 7 through February 14. If you're in Paris, take advantage of the chance to see it !

Suspendus Bande-Annonce
envoyé par Cid-Errant

TIME TRAVELLERS !

Just out and received today, the long awaited and already highly praised new "novel" by Philippe Sollers:

Les Voyageurs du Temps

Here's the short excerpt taken from page 18 which Sollers himself chose for the back cover:

« Je viens du Centre de tir. Quelques bavures pour commencer (fatigue, souffle court), et puis précision. Je ne sais plus quel poète américain a écrit ces deux vers : “Paradis calme/Au-dessus du carnage”. C’est mon état d’esprit à l’entraînement. En haut, si j’arrive à penser le moins possible, ciel, bleu, calme, lumineux. En bas, explosions et larmes.
Je me concentre sur le mot “mot”. Je le vois là-bas, dans la ligne de mire. Il respire un peu, il grandit, c’est lui que je vise, que je veux toucher et trouer. MOT. Avec une lettre de plus, c’est MORT. En anglais, ça ferait WORD et WORLD. Je tire sur la mort, je tire sur le monde. Petite plaisanterie, mais qui fait du bien. Ma voisine de stand, Viva, me félicite d’avoir mis dans le mille. Je ne sais rien de ses activités, ni elle des miennes. On se sourit, ça suffit. »

A Trial to Look Forward To !

Sollers devant la Justice
- Par Grégoire Leménager (Billet du jour / Nouvel Observateur)

Avec ses petits trafics d'influence et ses tropismes avoués pour le maoïsme, le sadisme, le papisme, le tabagisme et autres sollersismes, il agace si bien son monde depuis tant d'années que cela devait finir par arriver: un tribunal se réunira le 29 janvier prochain pour juger le fondateur de «Tel Quel». Des témoignages accablants auraient été rassemblés. De quoi accuser Sollers «d'attentat à la sûreté de l'esprit, d'association de bienfaiteurs en vue d'une action culturiste et d'atteintes aux bonnes mœurs».
[...] pour inaugurer une série qui aura vocation à «promouvoir les livres et les écrivains, en attirant aussi l'attention sur de jeunes auteurs» [...] «L'idée du ‘‘Livre en procès'' est née en septembre dernier, dans un café, pour répondre à ceux qui prétendent que la culture française est moribonde. Tous les trimestres, un nouvel accusé comparaîtra, mais ce pourra aussi être un thème: la rentrée littéraire, par exemple, où l'on pourrait consacrer une minute à chaque livre pour en démonter le système».

I hope they record it on all possible internet video channels. An author defending his work against charges of "attacking mental security and conspiring to form a group of benefactors for culturist activities and attacks on good morals". This will be a brilliant day for all interested in the human mind and what it is capable of thinking! This could become the best series of tribunals ever!

First '09 Wednesday

In the headlines:

• Natural gas pipelines from Russia to the rest of Europe through the Ukraine enable the latter to snub the former's demand for payment and contracts for natural gas delivery by filching from the transit pipelines what was supposed to go to Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, etc.
• Most of western Europe is cold and snow covered.
• Many Palestinians are dying in the Gaza Strip because of a few idiotic Palestinians blindly firing rockets at Israel which responds with typically over-reactive, if necessary, massive bombardment to protect the lives of Israelis and stop radical Hamas. Daniel Barenboim of the Staatsoper Berlin, with his Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra Divan, is one of the few these days to stress the obvious: these people MUST live together. As he puts it: it is their blessing or their curse; which is up to them to decide.
• Knut likes the weather in Berlin these days.
• Adolf Merckle, a German billionaire, has killed himself as a result of speculation losses in the course of the financial crisis, relevant only because this loss (of life and money) affects his gigantic corporate empire of pharmaceutical and building material firms.
• Europe wonders why Obama is saying nothing about the current Israel-Gaza Strip conflict; a few recall that he is not yet president.
• The governing CDU-CSU-SPD coalition in Germany is nearing agreement on a second economic recovery package of some €50 billion, mostly with infrastructure investment measures and some tax relief and social insurance payment reductions, coupled however with a legal requirement to avoid deficit spending under normal economic conditions.
• The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra will hold two concerts in the Berlin Staatsoper next Monday to replace the concerts for the opening of this year's tour scheduled in Cairo and Katar, but canceled because of the current situation in Gaza. Daniel Barenboim conducts. The first is already sold out.
• Putin is visiting Berlin next week for the first time as Premier.
• Tourists continue to flock to Berlin, setting another record last year, and I for one seem to encounter hardly anyone else on the 100 or 200 buses in the city.
• Most shops here are offering sales with huge discounts on almost everything.

I suggest smiles, negotiations, recognition of common humanity, more cultural activities, refraint from violence as good means to ensure a good year.

The End COULD Be a New Beginning...

Take the time to read these two articles in full. The madness of the Wall Street casino and the fatal agony caused by forgetting everything and everyone for money, profit, return MAY provide us a chance to recenter mankind's thinking on what is good for the human race!

Op-Ed Contributors - The End of the Financial World as We Know It - NYTimes.com

Incredibly, intelligent people the world over remain willing to lend us money and even listen to our advice; they appear not to have realized the full extent of our madness. We have at least a brief chance to cure ourselves. But first we need to ask: of what? ...
The Madoff scandal echoes a deeper absence inside our financial system, which has been undermined not merely by bad behavior but by the lack of checks and balances to discourage it. “Greed” doesn’t cut it as a satisfying explanation for the current financial crisis. Greed was necessary but insufficient; in any case, we are as likely to eliminate greed from our national character as we are lust and envy. The fixable problem isn’t the greed of the few but the misaligned interests of the many. ...

Op-Ed Contributors - How to Repair a Broken Financial World - NYTimes.com

Stop making big regulatory decisions with long-term consequences based on their short-term effect on stock prices. ...
End the official status of the rating agencies. Given their performance it’s hard to believe credit rating agencies are still around. There’s no question that the world is worse off for the existence of companies like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. There should be a rule against issuers paying for ratings. Either investors should pay for them privately or, if public ratings are deemed essential, they should be publicly provided.
Regulate credit-default swaps. ... The most critical role for regulation is to make sure that the sellers of risk have the capital to support their bets.
Impose new capital requirements on banks. ... Another good solution to the too-big-to-fail problem is to break up any institution that becomes too big to fail.
Close the revolving door between the S.E.C. and Wall Street. ... As it happens, the most critical job, chief of enforcement, now has a perfect candidate, a civic-minded former investor with firsthand experience of the S.E.C.’s ineptitude: Harry Markopolos.
The funny thing is, there’s nothing all that radical about most of these changes. A disinterested person would probably wonder why many of them had not been made long ago. A committee of people whose financial interests are somehow bound up with Wall Street is a different matter.

Another name for this could be "A Modest Proposal", but this time not ironic and certainly more likely to help eliminate hunger and poverty for the masses.

Let's get started.

(Another hint for assistance: F.D.Roosevelt's FIRST Inaugural Address, from 1933. When you read or hear that today, you will surely notice how little has changed (or was changed back after the reforms FDR introduced to protect people against business).)

Reading TINA while waiting TINA in print

Here you can peruse some literature you'll hardly find elsewhere.

Get your own - Open publication

And it's enjoyably edifying!

A Year for The People !

Let's all make PEOPLE, humanity, the focal point this year, not profits or business or stocks, but PEOPLE, humanity in all its creative potential, people in all their needs and ability to share with each other to fulfill the needs of all, people, with all their rights and respect for the rights of one another, people in a great expression of solidarity for humanity, humanity in its unique ability to think, to consider, to reflect on being there, here and now, and on the responsibility we alone bear for the condition of the so beautiful world we inhabit, for the thoughts that we alone can think. Let us think and every day and everywhere promote peace and well-being for all people.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

MAKE IT HAPPY !

: the new year, the one about to begin, 2009 -
a new president for the US who at least understands what justice and human rights mean
20 years of free passage from east to west and west to east in Berlin and all of Germany
in only a few days, the new novel by Ph.Sollers, Voyageurs du Temps
13 years with my beloved Detti
such enthusiasm for reading and writing as never before
the sunshine and the intense winter-blue sky outside this very window

YES, there is plenty of cause to be HAPPY !
So, happy new year to everyone.
Bonne année nouvelle!
Frohes Neujahr.

Consider and be, consider being, be considerate, be the custodian of Being, HAPPILY !

Happiness Is Free

Happiness
Glück
bonheur
felicità
è / est / ist / is
only for the few who can enjoy what is free.
nur für die wenigen, die das Billige genießen können.
seulement pour les rares qui peuvent jouir sans payer.
per la minorità della gioia senza denari.

Le bonheur selon dante - Eden caché - Philippe Sollers

En réalité, personne ne veut du paradis parce qu'il est gratuit. La joie, le bonheur, l'amour sont gratuits. Un amour qui n'est pas gratuit n'est pas de l'amour. C'est la raison pour laquelle le bonheur réel ne peut être que farouchement clandestin dans un monde livré au calcul. Dante, dans sa jeunesse, a commencé par un coup de foudre, il termine sa «Comédie» par une fulguration illuminante. Maintenant, si la proposition «L'amour meut le soleil et les autres étoiles» vous est indifférente, ou si vous préférez, à ce sujet, hausser les épaules ou ricaner, libre à vous. Ce n'est ici que la réaction d'un petit fini qui a peur de l'infini. Le bonheur fait peur, il est très lourd à porter et à vivre. Il passe même pour une imbécillité, alors qu'il est la raison et l'intelligence mêmes. Comme l'a dit un excellent auteur, en renversant une proposition courante : «Pour vivre cachés, vivons heureux». Le bonheur rend invisible. C'est la grâce qu'il faut se souhaiter.

- Philippe Sollers
Le Nouvel Observateur - Nº2303 SEMAINE DU JEUDI 23 Décembre 2008

Dante's interpretation of JOY as Sollers once again patiently explains it. Above only the last few lines of an exquisite essay.
Consider, and BE happily, happy !

Pope Pompously Puffing - But Humans Can Think !

Maledictus proves had evil sounds pouring from the mouth of a robed pontifex, attacking gays as destructive of creation and the work of a god. (Were that the case, then fundamentalists would have no chance. Unfortunately, many of them are still on the road to a theocracy in a hell-car.)

Pour le Pape, l'homosexualité est coupable de détruire l'oeuvre de Dieu
-Prochoix, la revue pour le droit de choisir, dirigée par Caroline Fourest et Fiammetta Venner

Benoît XVI n'est pas prêt de renoncer à son rôle de pape ultra-conservateur puisqu'il a de nouveau attaqué l'homosexualité lors de son traditionnel discours de Noël. Benoît XVI y a expliqué que l'homme doit «se protéger lui-même contre sa propre destruction» citant à cet effet l'homosexualité :
«Tout ce que l'on désigne communément par le terme d'émancipation de l'identité de genre, se traduit en définitive par l'émancipation par l'homme de la création et de son
créateur». Le Pape a donc accusé l'homme d'être coupable de vouloir «se faire seul et disposer seul de ce qui le concerne». S'appuyant comme à l'accoutumée sur les dogmes pour pilonner le rationalisme, le pape a conclu qu'en agissant ainsi l'homme «vit contre la vérité et contre son créateur».
Les propos de Benoît XVI ont soulevé un tollé auprès des chrétiens chez qui le pape ne fait guère l'unanimité.

Christmas Over, Year Fading, Thinkers Die ...

And the kids had fun with their uncles again yesterday at their grandma's, so much fun that we got no photos of that (no hands free) only of the aftermath once all were gone and things were quieting down again.

And the year is fading and a great man has died, a great writer of the English language for the stage, a ready commentator of the malaise of our age.
HARALD PINTER was a man of brave words and critical judgement. His plays are essential to thinking the condition of man. His Nobel Prize Speech blasted the bushbaby playpen with all the appropriate epithets. At least Mr. Pinter lived long enough to see that the US was ready to reject the playpen and make a go with change. It would, however, have been good to have his critical voice still to accompany critically whatever path Obama will walk.
Thank you, Mr. Pinter, for enriching our world! You were a Christmas present for so many of us for so long!

Kids at Christmas

Yesterday at Heiko & Steffi's, the kids got a pack of toys etc. from Santa, who came and left while we were all singing "Jingle Bells"! (Yes, Lea is already learning English in the 1st grade and requested this one herself, had Steffi copy the music and lyrics for everyone.)
Today we're off to Edith's for traditional Christmas dinner at noon. The kids will be there also, which is a good thing, because, yesterday evening as we were leaving, I told Malte, who looked unhappy that everyone was leaving, just to pack his suitcase and come along. Well, as I was putting on my shoes, he disappeared and came back with his little travel case packed full of toy animals, cars, and his new farm tractor, ready to go with us. Only because we promised we would see him today at Edith's, and that he could bring his suitcase with him, as it was already packed, and that his dad, who'd had to go to work the late shift, would be glad to find him there in the morning and then come with him and Steffi and Lea, only then did he smile and agree to wait to see us today.
So, we have to go play and eat some more!

[This slideshow includes the previous holiday photos,
will contain those from today as well,
as soon as we're back and upload them.]

German Holidaily Report

Though today nervous exam candidates performed their best under my monitoring eyes and for my discriminating ears, yesterday saw us doing the family thing at Detlef's dad's with the latter's wife, her son and his girlfriend, Detlef's brother and his wife and their kids, and yours truly.

And so, below are a few choice photos to document the event, the method chosen this year to enable quick information access for all sides of the ocean.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Rights !

In a First, Gay Rights Are Pressed at the U.N.
The New York Times, by NEIL MACFARQUHAR, December 18, 2008

UNITED NATIONS — An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other “deplorable acts.”
The United States refused to support the nonbinding measure, as did Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Holy See’s observer mission issued a statement saying that the declaration “challenges existing human rights norms.”
The declaration, sponsored by France with broad support in Europe and Latin America, condemned human rights violations based on homophobia, saying such measures run counter to the
universal declaration of human rights.
“How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?” said Rama Yade, the French state secretary for human rights, noting that homosexuality is banned in nearly 80 countries and subject to the death penalty in at least six.

Click on this map to be able to zoom in on information about the stand of gay rights in various countries around the world.

Homosexualité : deux tiers des pays du monde refusent un appel à la dépénalisation universelle
LEMONDE.FR avec AFP 19.12.08

C'est une simple déclaration, mais elle suscite un vent de fronde. Jeudi 18 décembre aux Nations unies, un appel historique à la dépénalisation universelle de l'homosexualité a été lancé par un tiers des pays du monde, sans parvenir à obtenir le soutien de certains poids lourds de l'organisation. Plusieurs Etats arabes, mais également le Vatican, les Etats-Unis, la Russie ou la Chine se sont ainsi opposés au texte présenté devant l'Assemblée générale, dont Rama Yade, secrétaire d'Etat française aux droits de l'homme, est l'une des inspiratrices.
N'engageant que ses signataires, cette "déclaration politique" ne revêt aucun caractère contraignant. Notamment signée par tous les pays de l'Union européenne, le Brésil, Israël et le Japon, elle place la question des droits des homosexuels, lesbiennes, bisexuels et transgenres à l'ordre du jour de l'Assemblée de l'ONU et se fonde sur le principe d'universalité des droits de l'homme, consacré dans la déclaration
universelle de ces droits. Il réaffirme encore "le principe de non-discrimination qui exige que les droits de l'homme s'appliquent de la même manière à chaque être humain, indépendamment de l'orientation sexuelle ou de l'identité de genre".
"En ce XXIe siècle, comment accepter que des personnes soient pourchassées, emprisonnées, torturées et exécutées en raison de leur orientation sexuelle ?", a lancé Rama Yade, après la lecture de l'appel, qualifiant d'"historique" l'initiative des "66".

All countries should finally sign this recognition of rights. The US can show a new direction under Obama and leave the Vatican and other fundamentalist "states" with the mud and muck of hatred on their faces!

Finally Barcelona's in Berlin

And Woody Allen provides an insight into American psyches once more while providing us with true entertainment. (As usual, we were the only ones in the cinema who laughed, but, well, globalization, you know...)

This is the official trailer, cause a movie at Christmas time is always a good idea.

Scheduling the Holidays

• Today - fitness training already and now free to do whatever
• Tomorrow - Coffee & cake, then supper with Rosi & Berni (Detlef's dad) and their kids with partners etc. (fourth Advent, semi-traditional)
• Monday/Tuesday - work days - I'm the examinations board (easy for me)
• Wednesday - Christmas Eve with Steffi & Heiko (Detlef's brother) and their kids and all the family that pulls in (children's free-for-all)
• Thursday - Christmas Day #1 (Germany has two) - Holiday lunch/dinner at Edith's with her friend (traditional)
• Friday - Christmas Day #2 - Time with Berlin friends (uncomplicated)
• Weekend - rest (and at least by then more fitness training)

Details as they occur.

Attack Back Against Those Who Attack You

Onu, nuovo attacco Vaticano alla Francia "Abbatte la differenza uomo-donna" - esteri - Repubblica.it:

CITTA' DEL VATICANO - Il Vaticano torna a lanciare strali contro la mozione che la Francia ha presentato alle Nazioni Unite contro il perseguimento penale dell'omosessualità in vigore in diversi Paesi del mondo. In realtà, afferma l'Osservatore Romano in una nota intitolata 'Difesa dei diritti e ideologia', l'obiettivo non è quello di tutelare diritti fondamentali ma affermare
l'identità di genere che supera la differenza biologica uomo-donna e stabilisce che gli orientamenti sessuali sono frutto della cultura. Da qui la strada è aperta, per il quotidiano della Santa Sede, al matrimonio fra persone dello stesso sesso e all'adozione dei bambini da parte delle coppie gay così come alla procreazione assistita, tutto in base a un concetto astratto di individuo.

I hope the Vatican is absolutely right about all the implications of the UN declaration against discrimination and repression of gays in all countries! That is precisely the reason to be IN FAVOR of it! Rights to homosexuals everywhere NOW! (The Church has had enough money and enough time, now it's OUR TURN!)

Fun Videos - One French, One German

Watch this little French literary film! It's absolutely bearable! It's a silent film. You needn't speak French to understand it. It's called "Folding TINA 2".

TINA: pliage TINA 2 (suite et fin)

You could also call it awesome. Es ist toll, super, wunderbÄr! Formidablement authentique!

And then watch the satirical review of the year 2008, German and international, with a cast of stars you will recognize most of wherever you come from.

Satirischer Jahresrückblick 2008

von zdf

including

Song and dance numbers, bushbaby, Angie, Obama, Stevie Wonder, the German Army in Afghanistan, old bin L the renegade, Kotz-Koch, and tips on how to survive the economic crisis.

Restore the Rule of Law in the U.S. - Justice for All, Torture for None!

It is essential that the playpen be closed and sealed once and for all and its policies dumped into the deep blue sea before they drown what is left of democracy, liberty, and justice in our world!

Editorial - The Torture Report - NYTimes.com

Most Americans have long known that the horrors of Abu Ghraib were not the work of a few low-ranking sociopaths. All but President Bush’s most unquestioning supporters recognized the chain of unprincipled decisions that led to the abuse, torture and death in prisons run by the American military and intelligence services.
Now, a bipartisan report by the Senate Armed Services Committee has made what amounts to a strong case for bringing criminal charges against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; his legal counsel, William J. Haynes; and potentially other top officials, including the former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.
The report shows how actions by these men “led directly” to what happened at Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan, in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in secret C.I.A. prisons.
It said these top officials, charged with defending the Constitution and America’s standing in the world, methodically introduced interrogation practices based on illegal tortures devised by Chinese agents during the Korean War. Until the Bush administration, their only use in the United States was to train soldiers to resist what might be done to them if they were captured by a lawless enemy.
The officials then issued legally and morally bankrupt documents to justify their actions, starting with a presidential order saying that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners of the “war on terror” — the first time any democratic nation had unilaterally
reinterpreted the conventions.
[...]
Mr. Obama should consider proposals from groups like Human Rights Watch and the Brennan Center for Justice to appoint an independent panel to look into these and other egregious violations of the law. Like the 9/11 commission, it would examine in depth the decisions on prisoner treatment, as well as warrantless wiretapping, that eroded the rule of law and violated Americans’ most basic rights. Unless the nation and its leaders know precisely what went wrong in the last seven years, it will be impossible to fix it and make sure those terrible mistakes are not repeated.
We expect Mr. Obama to keep the promise he made over and over in the campaign — to cheering crowds at campaign rallies and in other places, including our office in New York. He said one of his first acts as president would be to order a review of all of Mr. Bush’s executive orders and reverse those that eroded civil liberties and the rule of law.
That job will fall to Eric Holder, a veteran prosecutor who has been chosen as attorney general, and Gregory Craig, a lawyer with extensive national security experience who has been selected as Mr. Obama’s White House counsel.
A good place for them to start would be to reverse Mr. Bush’s disastrous order of Feb. 7, 2002, declaring that the United States was no longer legally committed to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

ACT ACCORDING TO PRINCIPLE - JUSTICE IS NOT A MATTER FOR PLAYPENALERS!

Chain-Gang Reasoning for the Playpen !

The Senate Intelligence Committee has reported on Chainy's involvement in torture approval and misleading of the US public and the world after 9/11 and for the Iraq war; the culprit himself remains playpen typically unapologetic, arrogantly maintaining his role of father knows best.
Watch the disturbing interview with ABC from the 15th, which includes the following zinger quote on using "harsh interrogation methods", i.e. torture: “I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the [Central Intelligence] Agency, in effect, came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do.. And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it.”
Another reason to feel relieved that the playpen will be closed down forever in a month.

No to a Few ...

NO to sciencelesstology! (You know what bunch of loons in a sect I mean.)

No to Cruising Tom! (You know what grinning front man I mean.)

No to a bad film with a bad premiere to make a bad position of a bad sect with a bad performance by a has-been actor seem like resistance.

No to his new film Valkyrie ! (German title: Operation Walküre)

No to fundamentalists of all sorts. (You know plenty and I mean them all.)

So DON'T go to see SciencelesstOfficerCruise's film! (By now you surely know what I mean, or check the papers, any papers, even the scandal sheets.)

Read instead a book about those few honorable people who plotted to murder the dictator-warmonger of the Third Reich (you know who I mean) and, unfortunately for Germany, themselves, and the world, failed and were executed. Von Stauffenberg was an upright resister, Cruising Tom is a fundamentalist propagandist!

BushBabyShoes

"These shoes are made for walking ...

... and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these shoes are gonna walk all over you."

It will be REALLY nice when the playpen is finally closed and the world can get serious again!

Being Gay Is A Human Right !

Document - United Nations: General assembly to address sexual orientation and gender identity - Statement affirms promise of Universal Declaration of Human Rights Amnesty International:

"The draft statement condemns violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also condemns killings and executions, torture, arbitrary arrest, and deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights on those grounds."

The statement proposed for adoption in the UN General Assembly, supported by ALL EU countries:

1 - We reaffirm the principle of universality of human rights, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whose 60th anniversary is celebrated this year, Article 1 of which proclaims that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”;
2 - We reaffirm that everyone is entitled to the enjoyment of human rights without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, as set out in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 2 of the International Covenants on Civil and Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as in article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
3 - We reaffirm the principle of non-discrimination which requires that human rights apply equally to every human being regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity;
4 - We are deeply concerned by violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms based on sexual orientation or gender identity;
5 - We are also disturbed that violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatisation and prejudice are directed against persons in all countries in the world because of sexual orientation or gender identity, and that these practices undermine the integrity and dignity of those subjected to these abuses;
6 - We condemn the human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity wherever they occur, in particular the use of the death penalty on this ground, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the practice of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary arrest or detention and deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to health;
7 - We recall the statement in 2006 before the Human Rights Council by fifty four countries requesting the President of the Council to provide an opportunity, at an appropriate future session of the Council, for discussing these violations;
8 - We commend the attention paid to these issues by special procedures of the Human Rights Council and treaty bodies and encourage them to continue to integrate consideration of human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity within their relevant mandates;
9 - We welcome the adoption of Resolution AG/RES. 2435 (XXXVIII-O/08) on “Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity” by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States during its 38th session in 3 June 2008 *;
10 - We call upon all States and relevant international human rights mechanisms to commit to promote and protect human rights of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity;
11 - We urge States to take all the necessary measures, in particular legislative or administrative, to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention.
12 - We urge States to ensure that human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity are investigated and perpetrators held accountable and brought to justice;
13 - We urge States to ensure adequate protection of human rights defenders, and remove obstacles which prevent them from carrying out their work on issues of human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity.

*OASAG/RES. 2435 (XXXVIII-O/08) HUMAN RIGHTS, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, AND GENDER IDENTITY (Adopted at the fourth plenary session, held on June 3, 2008)
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, REAFFIRMING: That the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in that Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status; That the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man establishes that every human being has the right to life, liberty, and the security of the person; CONSIDERING that the OAS Charter proclaims that the historic mission of America is to offer to man a land of liberty and a favorable environment for the development of his personality and the realization of his just aspirations; REAFFIRMING the principles of universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of human rights; and TAKING NOTE with concern acts of violence and related human rights violations perpetrated against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity,
RESOLVES:
1. To express concern about acts of violence and related human rights violations committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
2. To request that the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs (CAJP) include on its agenda, before the thirty-ninth regular session of the General Assembly, the topic of “Human rights, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
3. To request the Permanent Council to report to the General Assembly at its thirty-ninth regular session on the implementation of this resolution, the execution of which shall be subject to the resources allocated in the program-budget of the Organization and other resources.

Lighting Up the World !

See the Amnesty International site on the commemoration ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, for example.

And never forget to utter your opinion on whatever you wish to!

Human Rights Day 2008

Human Rights Day 2008:

"On this Human Rights Day, it is my hope that we will all act on our collective responsibility to uphold the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. We can only honour the towering vision of that inspiring document when its principles are fully applied everywhere, for everyone."
-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Important Anniversary

Tomorrow, December 10, is the sixtieth anniversary of the proclamation of the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here the link to find this important document in ALL languages.
May this birthday remind us all to do everything possible and necessary to implement and secure these rights everywhere!

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Preamble
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, therefore,
The General Assembly,
Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme
Préambule
Considérant que la reconnaissance de la dignité inhérente à tous les membres de la famille humaine et de leurs droits égaux et inaliénables constitue le fondement de la liberté, de la justice et de la paix dans le monde,
Considérant que la méconnaissance et le mépris des droits de l'homme ont conduit à des actes de barbarie qui révoltent la conscience de l'humanité et que l'avènement d'un monde où les êtres humains seront libres de parler et de croire, libérés de la terreur et de la misère, a été proclamé comme la plus haute aspiration de l'homme,
Considérant qu'il est essentiel que les droits de l'homme soient protégés par un régime de droit pour que l'homme ne soit pas contraint, en suprême recours, à la révolte contre la tyrannie et l'oppression,
Considérant qu'il est essentiel d'encourager le développement de relations amicales entre nations,
Considérant que dans la Charte les peuples des Nations Unies ont proclamé à nouveau leur foi dans les droits fondamentaux de l'homme, dans la dignité et la valeur de la personne humaine, dans l'égalité des droits des hommes et des femmes, et qu'ils se sont déclarés résolus à favoriser le progrès social et à instaurer de meilleures conditions de vie dans une liberté plus grande,
Considérant que les Etats Membres se sont engagés à assurer, en coopération avec l'Organisation des Nations Unies, le respect universel et effectif des droits de l'homme et des libertés fondamentales,
Considérant qu'une conception commune de ces droits et libertés est de la plus haute importance pour remplir pleinement cet engagement,
L'Assemblée générale
Proclame la présente Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme comme l'idéal commun à atteindre par tous les peuples et toutes les nations afin que tous les individus et tous les organes de la société, ayant cette Déclaration constamment à l'esprit, s'efforcent, par l'enseignement et l'éducation, de développer le respect de ces droits et libertés et d'en assurer, par des mesures progressives d'ordre national et international, la reconnaissance et l'application universelles et effectives, tant parmi les populations des Etats Membres eux-mêmes que parmi celles des territoires placés sous leur juridiction.

Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte
PRÄAMBEL
Da die Anerkennung der angeborenen Würde und der gleichen und unveräußerlichen Rechte aller Mitglieder der Gemeinschaft der Menschen die Grundlage von Freiheit, Gerechtigkeit und Frieden in der Welt bildet,
da die Nichtanerkennung und Verachtung der Menschenrechte zu Akten der Barbarei geführt haben, die das Gewissen der Menschheit mit Empörung erfüllen, und da verkündet worden ist, daß einer Welt, in der die Menschen Rede- und Glaubensfreiheit und Freiheit von Furcht und Not genießen, das höchste Streben des Menschen gilt,
da es notwendig ist, die Menschenrechte durch die Herrschaft des Rechtes zu schützen, damit der Mensch nicht gezwungen wird, als letztes Mittel zum Aufstand gegen Tyrannei und Unterdrückung zu greifen,
da es notwendig ist, die Entwicklung freundschaftlicher Beziehungen zwischen den Nationen zu fördern,
da die Völker der Vereinten Nationen in der Charta ihren Glauben an die grundlegenden Menschenrechte, an die Würde und den Wert der menschlichen Person und an die Gleichberechtigung von Mann und Frau erneut bekräftigt und beschlossen haben, den sozialen Fortschritt und bessere Lebensbedingungen in größerer Freiheit zu fördern,
da die Mitgliedstaaten sich verpflichtet haben, in Zusammenarbeit mit den Vereinten Nationen auf die allgemeine Achtung und Einhaltung der Menschenrechte und Grundfreiheiten hinzuwirken,
da ein gemeinsames Verständnis dieser Rechte und Freiheiten von größter Wichtigkeit für
die volle Erfüllung dieser Verpflichtung ist,
verkündet die
Generalversammlung
diese Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte als das von allen Völkern und Nationen zu erreichende gemeinsame Ideal, damit jeder einzelne und alle Organe der Gesellschaft sich diese Erklärung stets gegenwärtig halten und sich bemühen, durch Unterricht und Erziehung die Achtung vor diesen Rechten und Freiheiten zu fördern und durch fortschreitende nationale und internationale Maßnahmen ihre allgemeine und tatsächliche Anerkennung und Einhaltung durch die Bevölkerung der Mitgliedstaaten selbst wie auch durch die Bevölkerung der ihrer Hoheitsgewalt unterstehenden Gebiete zu gewährleisten.

Wirsing-Roulade

Wirsing is Savoy cabbage, something between turnip greens and spinach, with sturdy leaves which enables you (or in this case the wonderful Berlin mom Edith) to make roulade (rolls with spiced groundbeef inside) of them. Add tasty veggies, spices etc. for a sauce to simmer them in forever and eat them with potatoes.

You can enjoy them until you're ready to pop and then keep eating, as we did yesterday for lunch. A great visit in Köpenick and a great cook. A feast!

The Snow Is Attempting To Do Something

Since the morning post, two down, it has been snowing on and off, flurry like, but not to much avail, as the streets melt it as fast as it falls. Perhaps it looks nice in the forests around and in town, but today provided no chance to check.

But plastic is over!

Perhaps more snow will fall tonight and tomorrow will be a white wonderland on the way to my ending group's last session in the morning.

L'Infini 105

Wonderful to have already received this latest issue of a quarterly publication full of thought and language at their best!

Here the link to the Sollers site with full table of contents and links to some of the articles included. Worth clicking, worth reading, worth spending time with!

Where's the Snow?

I keep asking that question, because they keep threatening it will come and I'd love to see a lot of it, but, well, it just hasn't amounted to much of anything here yet. We did have those couple of mornings of white dusting, but it was all mush and melt before we ever made it out the door with a camera.
U.S. friends and family are all ranting about their Thanksgiving festivities, and I'm glad they had fun, but we are just patiently working on until the real holidays come. Tomorrow I'm seeing one class off on their last day with my usual final difficult program mixing Mother Goose and Shakespeare, will however regale them as well with 'Twas the Night Before...
Next week the next-to-the-last session before Xmas with another group of English afficionados followed by the final one the week thereafter and two days of monitoring written and assessing oral exam performance for another group's international certification diploma at the beginning of Christmas week.
All not such a load, hardly any stress, and all the more importantly, I've almost finished with the magnus opus on plastics (thermo, engineering, etc.), intend to kill it off today, as it is truly one of the most boring things ever written in any language. And I've had to deal with it in TWO.

By the way: I'm pleased about O's selection of Hillary for Sec. of State, had always hoped they would finally come around and work together. He can keep her in the right direction and she can use her mettle where it counts.

Enough procrastination: I must return to the plastics, test to distinguish them at this point, and wrap up the whole thing before it renders me incapable of touching a plastic bag, a keyboard, or any of the nearly all other things made of that stuff. Give me paper, metal, wood, glass, flesh. And give me real words!

Here It's Christmas Markets

And while NYC had the Macy's Parade, in Berlin, countless Weihnachtsmärkte have opened, as this report from Ukrainian TV on youtube demonstrates with shots of several of them. So, Advent has opened .... and international is the least you can say about this season here.

Turkey No,

No bloated stomach, no extra food, no holiday, but today's Friday and we have the weekend, too.
And a parrot chatting on your shoulder is far more enjoyable than a turkey grumbling in your belly.
All the best to family and friends....
And don't forget: thankfulness has to do with thoughtfulness: consider, think, and be joyful that you are alive!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day and fun listening to NPR's debunking of some myths about who ate what with whom and when on that first thanksgiving.

Pour fêter son 100e anniversaire !

On November 28, he will turn 100 years old, the anthropologist and literary beacon Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Le Figaro - Livres : Lévi-Strauss, de l'Amazonie au Collège de France:

Un jour, peut-être dira-t-on du XXe siècle qu'il fut celui de Lévi-Strauss. Non seulement parce que celui-ci y vécut la quasi-intégralité de sa vie mais surtout parce que son œuvre a changé notre regard sur ceux que nous appelions, il y a seulement quelques décennies, les «sauvages». Après Montaigne, est-il un penseur qui a plus contribué que lui à comprendre l'humanité avec d'autres lunettes que celles de la seule raison occidentale ?

Entretiens croisés sur Claude Lévi-Strauss

Stéphane Martin: "Pour remonter à plus loin, j'ai lu 'Tristes Tropiques' pour la première fois quand j'avais treize ans, et ça a illuminé mon univers. Ça m'a donné le goût des voyages, le goût de l'autre, de connaître l'autre, un autre monde que celui dans lequel je suis né."

Les 100 ans de Claude Lévi-Strauss, par Dominique Dhombres

Claude Lévi-Strauss aura 100 ans le 28 novembre. France 5 devançait un peu cet anniversaire en diffusant, lundi 24 novembre, l'étonnant film de l'ethnologue brésilien Marcelo Fortaleza Flores sur le séjour de l'intéressé en 1938 auprès des Indiens Nambikwara, en Amazonie. Claude Lévi-Strauss a passé plusieurs années au Brésil, de 1935 à 1939. Il consacre aux Nambikwara plusieurs chapitres de Tristes Tropiques, l'ouvrage inclassable, paru en 1955, qui l'a rendu célèbre.
Claude Lévi-Strauss voulait écrire un roman. Il a vite renoncé, mais a gardé le titre qu'il avait en tête. La mélancolie et l'humour dominent dans ce curieux hybride de compte rendu de voyage, d'essai philosophique et de récit initiatique. "Une expédition ethnographique dans le
Brésil central se prépare au carrefour Réaumur-Sébastopol. On y trouve réunis les grossistes en articles de couture et de mode ; c'est là qu'on peut espérer découvrir les produits propres à satisfaire les goûts difficiles des Indiens", écrit-il.

Making the BBC Good

May Gore Vidal continue to thrive, enjoy improved health, and appear more often on television of the English speaking variety so as to raise its quality, as he does each time he speaks on the bube tube. May he continue to write and observe the americana on which he so trenchantly comments and which he so thoroughly comprehends. There are many who rightly fear his intellect and perspicacity; I welcome it and revel in his every turn of phrase. May those he sears with his remarks vanish long before he does!

This Promise Must Be Kept !

“As President, I will close Guantánamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions”– Barack Obama, 8/1/07

Closing this facility which is in violation of ALL law and principles of justice would be an act in harmony with the demands on the President-Elect I made in my posting of November 7th. Amidst the financial crisis still threatening the world, we must not lose sight of the greater issues that decide whether we maintain human society and thought or merely become expressions of bank accounts and salaries.
I maintain my humanity and am not a mere number. Stand up for justice everywhere!
And below, the video from ACLU summarizing the horror of Guantánamo and the necessity of closing it. The difficulty of what to do with the inmates may not justify its continuation. Those with no homeland to be returned to or that accepts them must be granted living facilities elsewhere OR charged for a crime in a constitutional court of law.

Close GITMO and End Military Commissions !

News to Like

It's a pleasure to give some links and summaries to some really positive developments reported in the NYTimes and elsewhere, stories that are already bettering the image of the US in Europe and reaping praise that America can indeed resume good defense of human and civil rights and restore justice to its proper position stage center!

Judge Declares Five Detainees Held Illegally
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: November 21, 2008
A federal judge ordered the release of five Algerian men held at Guantánamo Bay for nearly seven years.

Clinton Is Said to Accept Offer of Secretary of State Position
By PETER BAKER and HELENE COOPER
Published: November 22, 2008
Two confidants said Hillary Rodham Clinton will give up her Senate seat and accept the nomination for secretary of state after talks with the president-elect about her role.

Activists Seek to Tie ‘Milk’ to a Campaign for Gay Rights
By MICHAEL CIEPLY
Published: November 22, 2008
The release of “Milk,” a film that portrays gay rights battles of 30 years ago, is being complicated by a new culture war over homosexual marriage.

The struggle goes on!

And Obama continues to think to prepare to help...

Eating Chilli With an Old Friend

She's back from her exile in Karlsruhe, actually she's been back for more than a month, but her move and her company's move, which prompted hers back to the Berlin she left to take the job a few years back, had so monopolized our dear friend's time and energy that we had not yet been able to get together, until yesterday.

And that was to help her with one tiny aspect of her move, getting her old or her new second-hand computer up and running before the telephone company comes on Thursday to hook up her phone and dsl connection. You'd think it'd be easy, but, as she confirmed with various stories as examples, it turned out to be typical of the whole move, her company's and hers.

The old computer had gotten some quirks and she couldn't resolve them, so first move files to a usb stick. OK. Then start up the new second-hand one from some friend: American profiles on that one prevented it from operating properly with her German keyboard, and it didn't have some programs she had on the other. So, fix it, open the cd drawer to alter the profile and guess what. The drawer just won't open. Makes it as useful as the proverbial screen-doored submarine!

All right: clean up the old one. All done, super, then virus check: clean. Then make sure it has a socket for a LAN cable so she can use it for the DSL connection. Surprise: it's so old it doesn't have such a socket! So today she's off to buy a new computer, which was not in the plan, but now proves necessary.

Anyhow, she had made an enormous pot of chilli for Detlef & me for coming to fix her computer, and we got to eat it anyway and heard the stories to prove that this little problem was really only minor.

(The following are mere pithy summaries)

THE REFRIGERATOR STORY
Since July her 2-year-old fridge has been heating instead of cooling. Under guarantee still, it was serviced several times by the company to no avail. Then not being able to fix it, they refused to replace it. The whole thing is going to court, even though her guarantee is iron-clad and the lawyer says it's an open and shut case. He costs nothing, cause she has legal insurance. The fridge company has left her without a fridge for nearly half a year and she had to bring it to Berlin with her even though she is to have a new one in her place here, cause the lawyer told her to.

THE OPEN SPACE STORY
Her firm has dispensed with wall and evidently with any facilitating of work in the new headquarters here. There's a central printer-copy-fax-scanner-machine for her "community" of more than 30 staff members of all echelons sitting cheek and jowl with aisles through the desks instead of corridors, and you have to run to it and log in for it to print whatever you sent to it, wait, then go back to your desk. But the coffee machines are good, all agree: they even make latte macchiato!

THE BUILT-IN KITCHEN STORY
Nothing has arrived yet, though it was all ordered months ago for October 1, no oven, range, sink, counter tops, washer, dryer, dishwasher, new fridge. Every call produces a new promise of coming soon, now by the end of November.

THE DEPOSIT STORY
The landlord of her old apartment, given plenty of notice but apparently unable to rent the place anew, is now playing games about her deposit even though she's paid double rent for October and November. Now a lawyer has to go with her to turn in the keys and do a walk-through with her to ensure that she gets her deposit back. Till now that landlord had always claimed that there'd never be a problem about anything, just don't worry.

The only thing that make's her life possible is that she can use her former husband's place just around the corner until hers is finally completed as he's out of town and won't be back til early January.

So we wish her an end to these on-going sagas by Christmas so she can finally enjoy getting moved back to Berlin by the same company she had to leave it for. She surely deserves some peace of mind now....

And the chilli was as good as ever; plus she had brought me more of those special French notebooks with the unique ruled paper that you can only get there. (Karlsruhe is only a stone's throw from la RF.)

And we now believe she's back, cause we saw her, talked with her, and ate a meal she cooked and we are truly glad we can now get to see our dear friend more often.
So give her a break everybody, she's the best cook in Berlin and has a sense of fair play that is a gift to all who know her. She deserves fairness, too!

Let's Make These Fake Headlines Real !

I can only applaud the fake NYT issue yesterday, dated July 4, 2009, as a truly patriotic issue. If this much positive happens in the first six months of next year, the world will truly be a better place. Some excerpted examples are listed under the link(s) below, with which you can view the entire issue as well as download your very own PDF copy of it there too (via the permalink)! Preserve the word of hope and act to help fulfill the dream!

The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia:

Iraq War Ends
Troops to Return Immediately
By Jude Shinbin
Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom were brought to an unceremonious close today.
U.S. Army helicopters begin moving troops and equipment from Saddam Hussein's former Baghdad palace. (COURTESY ARMY.MIL)
Ex-Secretary Apologizes for W.M.D. Scare
300,000 Troops Never Faced Risk of Instant Obliteration
By Frank Larimore
Ex-Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice reassured soldiers that the Bush administration had known well before the invasion that Saddam Hussein lacked weapons of mass destruction.
Court Indicts Bush on High Treason Charge
By Bart Garzon
George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was indicted Monday on charges of high treason.

Society & Politics »
National Health Insurance Act Passes
The United States National Health Insurance Act is expected to be signed into law shortly.
Popular Pressure Ushers Recent Progressive Tilt
Grassroots advocacy the source of sweeping legislation, study says.
USA Patriot Act Repealed
The controversial USA PATRIOT Act was repealed by Congress by a vote of 99-1 in the Senate and 520 to 18 in the House.

The Crisis & What to Do About It

The Crisis & What to Do About It - The New York Review of Books
By George Soros

The salient feature of the current financial crisis is that it was not caused by some external shock like OPEC raising the price of oil or a particular country or financial institution defaulting. The crisis was generated by the financial system itself. This fact—that the defect was inherent in the system —contradicts the prevailing theory, which holds that financial markets tend toward equilibrium and that deviations from the equilibrium either occur in a random manner or are caused by some sudden external event to which markets have difficulty adjusting. The severity and amplitude of the crisis provides convincing evidence that there is something fundamentally wrong with this prevailing theory and with the approach to market regulation that has gone with it. To understand what has happened, and what should be done to avoid such a catastrophic crisis in the future, will require a new way of thinking about how markets work.

Perhaps it is worth taking the time to read this thoughtful piece in the NYRB!

A Fateful Date !

Today is one of those days to be ever remembered for many vital reasons, here the most important, the ones we should all recall:

November Revolution 1918 Novemberrevolution:
Maximilian von Baden announces the abdication of / verkündet die Abdankung von Kaiser Wilhelm II. Philipp Scheidemann proclaims from the Reichstag portal the "German Republic" / ruft vom Reichstagsgebäude aus die „deutsche Republik“ aus. At the same time / gleichzeitig verkündet vom Berliner Stadtschloss aus Karl Liebknecht proclaims from the Berlin City Palace the German / die deutsche Räterepublik.

Pogrom Night 1938 Reichspogromnacht:
Attacks on Jews and Jewish establishments, businesses, synagogues burned, police and fire department under orders only to protect non-Jewish property.
Übergriffen gegen Juden und jüdische Einrichtungen, Synagogen in Brand gesteckt, Polizei und Feuerwehr haben Weisung, nur nichtjüdisches Eigentum zu schützen.

Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989 Fall der Berliner Mauer

And, in 1957, the birth of my beloved sister TERRI !

Hiddensee Is Fantastic

one more photo to prove it

many more in the slide show below in the first Hiddensee post

Do Not Disappoint Us!

Here, dear Barack Obama, are the expectations, no, the demands, I consider essential for you to meet; and they are mere guidelines, not hurdles, thus leaving you much leeway to surprise me positively, to draw fresh tears of joy from my eyes:

• Continue always to think before acting or speaking and ever to display and explain, as you have so far again and again impressed me by doing, the intricacies of your process of conidering the matter at hand. That for you thought entails listening to other opinions, most intently to those far different from your own view, you have often proclaimed. I greatly admire this and consider it essential to the constant thinking I have here set down as my first demand on you.
• Justice, true justice, fairness, equal and universal civil and human rights must always be the guiding principle of your thoughts and actions. This demand is absolute and I will measure you and your governance by your efforts to attain and preserve freedom and justice for all, whoever they may be, and guaranteeing them all those same rights to think and express those thoughts as freely as I expect you to do yourself. No fiats, no privilege, no seclusion.
• Negotiate with other countries sincerely, openly, honestly, constantly to resolve the common problems facing mankind, to mediate, defuse, obviate conflicts between countries, peoples, regions, to enhance international governance, to respect and adhere to international law, to act in concert with international organizations composed of equal partners to take military actions as a last resort against those who refuse, ignore, violate negotiation in order to maintain world peace and the security and safety of individual countries and their citizens.
• Accept and encourage global authorities for all matters beyond the jurisdiction of any one country to ensure that global operators may not avoid laws and rules of a particular country by simply operating elsewhere. This means abiding by the decisions of such international organization.
• Promote mankind, the worth of each human on this earth, before any fiscal, business, monetary, diplomatic, or political goal. Man IS the measure!
• You will have understood, dear Barack Obama, that I expect, demand, you to adhere to and promote, indeed, Enlightenment and its principles against all forms of fundamentalist or absolutist or totalitarianizing ideology or religion, to shine ever more light into quotidian shadows in order to reveal and promote those principles of Enlightenment on which the US and all world partners for freedom, justice, and human rights are founded. As long as any one of us does not enjoy all human rights, no one of us can be secure in his own. This must never be forgotten.

Is that too much to demad of you, Barack Obama, my President-Elect? I think it is the least I have a right to expect of you.

Please do not disappoint me and all the rest of us.

Free At Last !

Yes, that's how I felt this morning here on our magic island when we turned on CNN to learn that Obama had hit 338 electoral votes; that's also how I feel now: FREE AT LAST ! We probably couldn't have slept at all if the indicators had been any different, and at 4am our time it was already looking good before the west coast came in.

[Hiddensee remains wonderful: new pix now in the slide show in the previous posting below.

From Hiddensee Herbst 2008

This one only to give a jubilant hello to a world with a decent US President-Elect.]

Hiddensee Between Halloween & Election Day

Nice easy arrival with perfect connections from tram to train to train to bus to ferry got us to the island around 3pm Saturday, our landlady Dorina waiting with smiles and the keys to the house we have all to ourselves this time (which also results in infrequent surfing online & blogging as the caretaker has also already left for the season and he had the wlan there, now we're sitting in a café). Went across the street to visit our old friends the Forkerts, who were the ones who used to take care of the house, but now they're at the stage that others must take care of them. Happy faces, though, for coffee & cake with them.
Fireplace heated up for the evening, we lounged around and went to a pitch black coast (cloudy) with ethereal lights of civilization glimmering on the horizons.
Rented bikes and rode to the north end of the island Sunday, today to the lighthouse and cliffs, and it's a WONDERFUL FOG here since dawn... only then was it briefly clear.
Below some selected pics, more as we get back over to the internet café.

AND VOTE FOR OBAMA TOMORROW!