Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo

A wonderful decision for peace and human rights was made today as the Nobel Peace Prize Committee decided to award the prize this year to

Liu Xiaobo

China is now attempting to prevent its inhabitants (I refrain from calling then citizens) from learning of this wonderful honor for a Chinese dissident fighting for the rights of all Chinese people in that so-called People's Republic of commando capitalists.
He has been imprisoned again since the end of last year, and his wife received the news, is now herself subject to Chinese efforts to prevent her from communicating with the press. Ms. Liu told Agence France Presse, "I strongly ask that the Chinese government release Liu Xiaobo. I want to thank everyone for supporting Liu Xiaobo. I want to thank the Nobel committee, Vaclav Havel, the Dalai Lama and all those people that have supported Liu Xiaobo." Later, she told Reuters, "They are forcing me to leave Beijing. They want me to go to Liaoning to see Xiaobo. They want to distance me from the media."

Here is the FINAL STATEMENT Liu Xiaobo published on December 23, 2009, before he was imprisoned once more:

June 1989 was the major turning point in my 50 years on life’s road. Before that, I was a member of the first group of students after restoration of the college entrance examination after the Cultural Revolution (1977); my career was s smooth ride from undergraduate to grad student through to Ph.D.
After graduation I stayed on as a lecturer at Beijing Normal University. On the podium, I was a popular teacher, well received by students. I was at the same time a public intellectual. In the 1980s I published articles and books that created an impact, was frequently invited to speak in various places, and was invited to go abroad to Europe and the U.S. as a visiting scholar. What I required of myself was: both as a person and in my writing, I had to live with honesty, responsibility and dignity.
Subsequently, because I had returned from the U.S. to take part in the 1989 movement, I was imprisoned for “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement to crime,” losing the platform which was my passion; I was never again allowed publish or speak in public in China. Simply for expressing divergent political views and taking part in a peaceful and democratic movement, a teacher loses his podium, a writer loses the right to publish, and a public intellectual loses the chance to speak publicly, which is a sad thing, both for myself as an individual, and for China after three decades of reform and opening up.
Thinking about it, my most dramatic experiences after June Fourth have all linked with courts; the two opportunities I had to speak in public have been provided by trials held in the People’s Intermediate Court in Beijing, one in January 1991 and one now. Although the charges on each occasion were different, they were in essence the same, both being crimes of expression.
Twenty years on, the innocent souls of June Fourth do not yet rest in peace, and I, who had been drawn into the path of dissidence by the passions of June Fourth, after leaving the Qincheng Prison in 1991, lost in the right to speak openly in my own country, and could only do so through overseas media, and hence was monitored for many years; placed under surveillance (May 1995 – January 1996); educated through labor (October 1996 – October 1999), and now once again am thrust into the dock by enemies in the regime.
But I still want to tell the regime that deprives me of my freedom, I stand by the belief I expressed twenty years ago in my “June Second Hunger Strike Declaration” — I have no enemies, and no hatred. None of the police who have monitored, arrested and interrogated me, the prosecutors who prosecuted me, or the judges who sentence me, are my enemies. While I’m unable to accept your surveillance, arrest, prosecution or sentencing, I respect your professions and personalities, including Zhang Rongge and Pan Xueqing who act for the prosecution at present. I was aware of your respect and sincerity in your interrogation of me on December 3.
For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy. I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.
As we all know, reform and opening up brought about development of the state and change in society. In my view, it began with abandoning “taking class struggle as the key link,” which had been the ruling principle of the Mao era. We committed ourselves instead to economic development and social harmony. The process of abandoning the “philosophy of struggle” was one of gradually diluting the mentality of enmity, eliminating the psychology of hatred, and pressing out the “wolf’s milk” in which our humanity had been steeped. It was this process that provided a relaxed environment for the reform and opening up at home and abroad, for the restoration of mutual love between people, and soft humane soil for the peaceful coexistence of different values and different interests, and thus provided the explosion of popular creativity and the rehabilitation of warmheartedness with incentives consistent with human nature.
Externally abandoning “anti-imperialism and anti-revisionism,” and internally, abandoning “class struggle” may be called the basic premise of the continuance of China’s reform and opening up to this day. The market orientation of the economy; the cultural trend toward diversity; and the gradual change of order to the rule of law, all benefited from the dilution of this mentality of enmity. Even in the political field, where progress is slowest, dilution of the mentality of enmity also made political power ever more tolerant of diversity in society, the intensity persecution of dissidents has declined substantially, and characterization of the 1989 movement has changed from an “instigated rebellion” to a “political upheaval.”
The dilution of the mentality of enmity made the political power gradually accept the universality of human rights. In 1998, the Chinese government promised the world it would sign the the two international human rights conventions of the U.N., marking China’s recognition of universal human rights standards; in 2004, the National People’s Congress for the first time inscribed into the constitution that “the state respects and safeguards human rights,” signaling that human rights had become one of the fundamental principles of the rule of law. In the meantime, the present regime also proposed “putting people first” and “creating a harmonious society,” which signaled progress in the Party’s concept of rule.
This macro-level progress was discernible as well in my own experiences since being arrested.
While I insist on my innocence, and that the accusations against me are unconstitutional, in the year and more since I lost my freedom, I’ve experienced two places of detention, four pretrial police officers, three prosecutors and two judges. In their handling of the case, there has been no lack of respect, no time overruns and no forced confessions. Their calm and rational attitude has over and again demonstrated goodwill. I was transferred on June 23 from the residential surveillance to Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Detention Center No. 1, known as “Beikan.” I saw progress in surveillance in the six months I spent there.
I spent time in the old Beikan (Banbuqiao) in 1996, and compared with the Beikan of a decade ago, there has been great improvement in the hardware of facilities and software of management.
In particular, Beikan’s innovative humane management based on respecting the rights and dignity of detainees, implementing more flexible management of the will be flexible to the detainees words and deeds, embodied in the Warm broadcast and Repentance, the music played before meals, and when waking up and going to sleep, gave detainees feelings of dignity and warmth, stimulating their consciousness of keeping order in their cells and opposing the warders sense of themselves as lords of the jail, detainees, providing not only a humanized living environment, but greatly improved the detainees’ environment and mindset for litigation, I had close contact with Liu Zhen, in charge of my cell. People feel warmed by his respect and care for detainees, reflected in the management of every detail, and permeating his every word and deed. Getting to know the sincere, honest, responsible, goodhearted Liu Zhen really was a piece of good luck for me in Beikan.
Political beliefs are based on such convictions and personal experiences; I firmly believe that China’s political progress will never stop, and I’m full of optimistic expectations of freedom coming to China in the future, because no force can block the human desire for freedom. China will eventually become a country of the rule of law in which human rights are supreme. I’m also looking forward to such progress being reflected in the trial of this case, and look forward to the full court’s just verdict — one that can stand the test of history.
Ask me what has been my most fortunate experience of the past two decades, and I’d say it was gaining the selfless love of my wife, Liu Xia. She cannot be present in the courtroom today, but I still want to tell you, sweetheart, that I’m confident that your love for me will be as
always. Over the years, in my non-free life, our love has contained bitterness imposed by the external environment, but is boundless in afterthought. I am sentenced to a visible prison while you are waiting in an invisible one. Your love is sunlight that transcends prison walls and bars, stroking every inch of my skin, warming my every cell, letting me maintain my inner calm, magnanimous and bright, so that every minute in prison is full of meaning. But my love for you is full of guilt and regret, sometimes heavy enough hobble my steps. I am a hard stone in the wilderness, putting up with the pummeling of raging storms, and too cold for anyone to dare touch. But my love is hard, sharp, and can penetrate any obstacles. Even if I am crushed into powder, I will embrace you with the ashes.
Given your love, sweetheart, I would face my forthcoming trial calmly, with no regrets about my choice and looking forward to tomorrow optimistically. I look forward to my country being a land of free expression, where all citizens’ speeches are treated the same; here, different values, ideas, beliefs, political views… both compete with each other and coexist peacefully; here, majority and minority opinions will be given equal guarantees, in particular, political views different from those in power will be fully respected and protected; here, all political views will be spread in the sunlight for the people to choose; all citizens will be able to express their political views without fear, and will never be politically persecuted for voicing dissent; I hope to be the last victim of China’s endless literary inquisition, and that after this no one else will ever be jailed for their speech.
Freedom of expression is the basis of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth. To block freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, to strangle humanity and to suppress the truth.
I do not feel guilty for following my constitutional right to freedom of expression, for fulfilling my social responsibility as a Chinese citizen. Even if accused of it, I would have no complaints. Thank you!

LIU XIAOBO

is a human very deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In all humility, I, too, congratulate him and urge CHINA to release him from prison and restore him to full rights and allow him to publish, speak, and travel ... something that country must also allow all of it's citizens, so that they may be considered citizens.

Here the Nobel Peace Prize announcement:

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2010

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the "fraternity between nations" of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will.

Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the world's second largest economy; hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened.

China's new status must entail increased responsibility. China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights. Article 35 of China's constitution lays down that "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration". In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens.

For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China which was published on the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 10th of December 2008. The following year, Liu was sentenced to eleven years in prison and two years' deprivation of political rights for
“inciting subversion of state power". Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China's own constitution and fundamental human rights.

The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China.

Oslo, October 8, 2010

"The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 - Press Release". Nobelprize.org. 8 Oct 2010 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2010/press.html

And how the Chinese attempt to prevent Liu's wife from speaking to the press after the announcement:

Les journalistes ne peuvent approcher la femme de Liu Xiaobo
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L'opposant chinois Liu Xiaobo reçoit le prix Nobel de la paix 2010

Friedensnobelpreis 2010
Menschenrechtler in China nach Auszeichnung Lius festgenommen
"Dass Liu Xiaobo den Friedensnobelpreis erhält, empört Peking. Nun gab es erste Festnahmen. Die Frau Lius hat Peking verlassen. Unklar ist, ob sie dazu gezwungen wurde."
Report from Die Zeit.

It Really Does Get Better !

For any gay kids worried about how their life will develop, check out this video and the channel to provide support. "It Gets Better"
And Detlef and I are another testimony about how absolutely fantastic a life of love can be.

Twenty Years

Yes, today is the 2oth anniversary of German unification. Since midnight, 20 years ago, the GDR ceased to exist and became part and parcel of the FRG under the already existing constitution. And 20 years + of freedom to travel back and forth within this my home city of Berlin is worth celebrating, as is all the other progress that has been made.
Now, let us hope that no new enemies and slogans are used to block the people from thinking, let us hope that solidarity remains the highest principle of the social fabric of this country, let us hope that those who have more do not envy those who have less, and let us hope that those who govern do not forget who the people are they work for!

Happy Birthday, Germany...

Und, Herrn Bundespräsidenten Wulff, ich bedanke mich für Ihre Rede heute zur Einheit. Thank you for this statement, among others, in your thoughtful speech. Here the link to the speech in full, in deutscher Sprache.

Ein freiheitliches Land wie unseres - es lebt von Vielfalt, es lebt von unterschiedlichen Lebensentwürfen, es lebt von Aufgeschlossenheit für neue Ideen. Sonst kann es nicht bestehen. Zu viel Gleichheit erstickt die eigene Anstrengung und ist nur um den Preis der Unfreiheit zu haben. Das Land muss Verschiedenheit aushalten. Es muss sie wollen. Aber: Zu große Unterschiede gefährden den Zusammenhalt. Daraus folgt für mich: Vielfalt schätzen, Risse in unserer Gesellschaft schließen - das bewahrt vor Illusionen, das schafft echten Zusammenhalt.

Yes, the Federal President's speech on the 2oth anniversary of Germany positively surprised me; I am quite willing to compliment him for it.

Stop Fanaticism !

Put an end, please, finally, to fanaticism and the ranting of fanatics. The best method to halt them is to speak openly, freely, without tabus and without hatred, always in the defense of liberty and always against the coopting of the word liberty to shroud efforts to limit the freedom of others.

This is not about any particular religion, ideology, political party, but about fanatics - people who have ceased to think and simply utter phrases learned by rote that are no longer reflected. If you do not THINK, you are NOT free!

Today in Berlin, the rabble-rousing fanatic from Holland, Wilders, who would like to forbid only one religion, Islam, for its fanaticism, is to appear at a "secret" site to give a speech. Hopefully no one will make it besides those protesting against his simplistic one-sided view of the world. Would he be as adamant about the fundamentalist activities of Christians, Jews, Mormons, Janes? Or has he simply smelled the dirty backside of power, the way up through the intestines of the thoughtless masses he tries to thrill, to reach and take over their brains once and for all? Who will he put on his list for expulsion next? A thoughtful German-language analysis of his rhetoric is to be found in Die Zeit.

Oh, but that all would simply begin to think, and then all this religious, political, ideological fanaticism would disappear. Thinking means questioning. The answers are by far less important.

And for today, here is a link to find the way to oppose the "secret" speech by the crutch of the new Dutch government. (What a shame for The Netherlands!)

Democracy Is Loud!

Flemming Rose, announcing the publication of his 499-page book Tyranny of Silence on the publication of the 12 Mohammed caricatures in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten yesterday, quite pertinently, poignantly, and accurately expressed what the whole business is about: "Words should be answered with words. That's all we have in a democracy, and if we give that up, we will be locked in a tyranny of silence."

Danish book republishes Prophet Muhammad cartoons

Perhaps reading the account of what happened after the paper published the political cartoons would help remind us what freedom of expression and thought is all about and help us to get more people to use words and art and refrain from employing weapons and violence!

Better Literature

Strange, isn't it, that the best literature is most often the target of attempted book banning. If you have not yet read any of the classics on the list of English-language works challenged, you have missed some of the greatest literature of all times. Then go on to read works in other languages and be happy that your native censors cannot decipher them. People attempt to ban books because they fear ideas. I fear iconoclasts and people who seek to perpetrate violence against ideas and the people who have, read, or share them. Read a banned book today: it's good for you.

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 25−October 2, 2010

Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Ulysses, by James Joyce
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
1984, by George Orwell
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Native Son, by Richard Wright
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
Women in Love, by DH Lawrence
The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Source: American Library Association; follow the link to see how recent some of these moves are and how alarming the reasons given.

How Old Are You?

The year of your birth gives NO information whatsoever about your age ; so many of those born in years chronologically following my own are, despite their misinformed counting of years, older than I will ever be. Think, and you are young. Be, individually, and you are young.

Philippe Sollers once again hit the nail on the head. Look at the self-proclaimed "young man" seated opposite him, compare both, and you, too, will realize how senile that youngster is and how much younger Sollers remains.

« Qui est quelqu’un dans tout ça, voilà ma question. S’il y a quelqu’un, quel qu’il soit, c’est vraiment quelqu’un de jeune. »

Perhaps Before It's Too Late ?

REINVENTING FIRE
"Reinventing Fire™ has two main goals: to create a clear and practical vision of a fossil-fuel-free future for the United States, backed up by quantitative analysis, and to map a pathway to achieve that future, led largely by business."

How Beautiful Is Liberty !

Happy is he who as Ulysees has traveled and recognized how beautiful liberty is.


Georges Brassens : Heureux Qui Comme Ulysse

Heureux qui comme Ulysse
A fait un beau voyage.
Heureux qui comme Ulysse
A vu cent paysages

Et puis a retrouvé
Après maintes traversées
Le pays des vertes années

Par un petit matin d'été
Quand le soleil vous chante au cœur
Qu'elle est belle la liberté, la liberté

Quand on est mieux ici qu'ailleurs
Quand un ami fait le bonheur
Qu'elle est belle la liberté, la liberté

Avec le soleil et le vent
Avec la pluie et le beau temps
On vivait bien content
Mon cheval, ma Provence et moi
Mon cheval, ma Provence et moi

Heureux qui comme Ulysse
A fait un beau voyage
Heureux qui comme Ulysse
A vu cent paysages
Et puis a retrouvé
Après maintes traversées
Le pays des vertes années

Par un joli matin d'été
Quand le soleil vous chante au coeur
Qu'elle est belle la liberté, la liberté

Quand c'en est fini des malheurs
Quand un ami sèche vos pleurs
Qu'elle est belle la liberté, la liberté

Battu de soleil et de vent
Perdu au milieu des étangs
On vivra bien content
Mon cheval, ma Camargue et moi
Mon cheval, ma Camargue et moi...

The Tenth !

What are we fighting for?

On Religion - Muslim Prayer Room Was Part of Life at Twin Towers - NYTimes.com

...
Over the next few days, noticing some fellow Muslims on the job, Mr. Abdus-Salaam voiced an equally essential question: “So where do you pray at?” And so he learned about the Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the south tower.
He went there regularly in the months to come, first doing the ablution known as wudu in a washroom fitted for cleansing hands, face and feet, and then facing toward Mecca to intone the salat prayer. On any given day, Mr. Abdus-Salaam’s companions in the prayer room might include financial analysts, carpenters, receptionists, secretaries and ironworkers. There were American natives, immigrants who had earned citizenship, visitors conducting international business — the whole Muslim spectrum of nationality and race.
Leaping down the stairs on Sept. 11, 2001, when he had been installing ceiling speakers for a reinsurance company on the 49th floor, Mr. Abdus-Salaam had a brief, panicked thought. He didn’t see any of the Muslims he recognized from the prayer room. Where were they? Had they managed to evacuate?
He staggered out to the gathering place at Broadway and Vesey. From that corner, he watched the south tower collapse, to be followed soon by the north one. Somewhere in the smoking, burning mountain of rubble lay whatever remained of the prayer room, and also of some of the Muslims who had used it.

So open up the pearly gates, cause if we keep on as in recent weeks, then Arlo Guthrie was right, and "we're all gonna die."

A Way for Two

There is a way, a way for two,
Who hold each other's hands.
There is a dream, a dream for two,
Who, blue-eyed, count the stars.

When time has come, and years have gone,
They wander through the night.
When storms have come, and rivers flood,
They smile through rain-pearled lips.

Where bells have rung, and bombs have sung,
Their souls merge with their hearts.
Where whores have tricked, and muggers won,
Their cheeks and faces touch.

Lovers sing and lovers cry and lovers sigh,
But hearts still sing and mouths can laugh, when love is in their eye.

-Richard Gardner

In Memoriam

Never forget ...

9 11

... what religious hatred can do!

Think!

Restored Colonnade at Alte Nationalgalerie

CORRESPONDANCES
La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles;
L'homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles
Qui l'observent avec des regards familiers.

Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent
Dans une ténébreuse et profonde unité,
Vaste comme la nuit et comme la clarté,
Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se répondent.

Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'ènfants,
Doux commeles hautbois, verts comme les prairies
– Et d'autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants,

Ayant l'expansion des choses infinies,
Comme l'ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l'encens,
Qui chantent les transports de l'esprit et des sens.

-- Charles Baudelaire

Jewels !

LES BIJOUX

de Charles Baudelaire

La très-chère était nue, et, connaissant mon coeur,
Elle n'avait gardé que ses bijoux sonores,
Dont le riche attirail lui donnait l'air vainqueur
Qu'ont dans leurs jours heureux les esclaves des Mores.

Quand il jette en dansant son bruit vif et moqueur,
Ce monde rayonnant de métal et de pierre
Me ravit en extase, et j'aime avec fureur
Les choses où le son se mêle à la lumière.

Elle était donc couchée et se laissait aimer,
Et du haut du divan elle souriait d'aise
A mon amour profond et doux comme la mer,
Qui vers elle montait comme vers sa falaise.

Les yeux fixés sur moi, comme un tigre dompté,
D'un air vague et rêveur elle essayait des poses,
Et la candeur unie à la lubricité
Donnait un charme neuf à ses métamorphoses.

Et son bras et sa jambe, et sa cuisse et ses reins,
Polis comme de l'huile, onduleux comme un cygne,
Passaient devant mes yeux clairvoyants et sereins;
Et son ventre et ses seins, ces grappes de ma vigne,

S'avançaient, plus câlins que les anges du mal,
Pour troubler le repos où mon âme était mise,
Et pour la déranger du rocher de cristal
Où, calme et solitaire, elle s'était assise.

Je croyais voir unis par un nouveau dessin
Les hanches de l'Antiope au buste d'un imberbe,
Tant sa taille faisait ressortir son bassin !
Sur ce teint fauve et brun le fard était superbe !

— Et la lampe s'étant résignée à mourir,
Comme le foyer seul illuminait la chambre,
Chaque fois qu'il poussait un flamboyant soupir,
Il inondait de sang cette peau couleur d'ambre.

Freiheitstrunken !

Do NOT burn books anywhere any time. NEVER burn ANY book anywhere. Between the covers of a book are word-thoughts on paper; you can burn the paper and the covers, but to burn the thoughts you soon will go after the people who think, and that leads to the horrors of mental enslavement and physical torture and extermination.

DO NOT BURN BOOKS !

Berlin's Bebelplatz, between the State Opera and the Law School Building of Humbold University and across Unter den Linden from that university's main building, was the site of one of the most horrifying book burnings, on May 10, 1933. Nazi Propaganda Minister of the Third Reich, Joseph Goebbels gave the "ceremonial" speech as a crowd of mostly student (!) followers tossed heaps of books into a bonfire in the middle of the square. At at least 21 other universities (!) there were simultaneous book burnings that evening. The Nazis had plastered cities and towns with posters calling for the burning of books on their "black list": Thomas Mann, Karl Marx, Heinrich Mann, Hegel, Alfred Döblin, Heinrich Heine anything they considered "ungerman". The declared purpose was to rid the country of the "dangers" of "Jewish smut" and other "improper" literature.

A certain pastor in Gainsville, Florida, should receive an all expenses paid trip to the memorial now in place at Bebelplatz, be forced to read ALL the books on the list the Nazis created (see the site Verbrannte Bücher), and reminded of the all-too-true statement on the plaque at the memorial:

"Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." In English: That was only a prelude; where they burn books, they end up burning people.

The quotation is from Heinrich Heine's Almansor. Eine Tragödie, 1821. In his play, these lines are a response to the burning of the Koran by Christian Crusaders during the conquest of Granada;they are later used by Heine himself to refer to the medieval nonsense at work at a book burning at a Wartburg festival in Germany in 1817.

PROTECT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION!

STOP BURNING BOOKS!

STOP BURNING PEOPLE!

THINK AND DISCUSS INSTEAD OF BLINDLY "BELIEVING"!

Iran is Officially Murdering Gays !

Iran must STOP !
stop stoning "adultresses"
stop hanging homosexuals
stop curtailing human rights
stop censoring speech and all other means of expression

Stop NOW !


Il a 18 ans et il va être pendu - Prochoix, la revue pour le droit de choisir

Après Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condamnée à la lapidation pour adultère, l'Iran persiste et signe en condamnant à la pendaison un jeune homme soupçonné d'homosexualité. Les écrivains Philippe Besson et Gilles Leroy publient cet appel, rejoints par Jonathan Littell, Camille Laurens, Dominique Blanc, Alfredo Arias, Chantal Thomas, Arthur Dreyfus, Claude Lanzmann, Viviane Forrester, Marie Ndiaye, Atiq Rahimi, Isabelle Gallimard, Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens, Catherine Cusset, Benoît Legemble, Christophe Girard, André Glucksmann, Caroline Fourest, Alain Jakubowicz, Mathieu Vidard, Valentine Goby, Stéphane Bern, Christophe Hondelatte, Marilù Marini, Colette Kerber, Pascale Kramer, Arnaud Cathrine, Clara Dupont-Monod, Vincent Josse, Bertrand Delanoë.

Ebrahim Hamidi a dix-huit ans et il va mourir. Dans son pays, l'Iran, il a été reconnu coupable d'un crime abominé, de ceux qui condamnent à la pendaison. Ebrahim Hamidi serait homosexuel. Donc il doit mourir. Car si les juges de Téhéran n'hésitent pas à vouer à la lapidation une femme accusée d'adultère, ils livrent également au bourreau l'homme soupçonné de dormir dans le même lit que son semblable.

Cette seule perspective suffirait à nous horrifier, tant elle est contraire à la notion même d'humanité et nous laisse imaginer la terreur dans laquelle vivent les homosexuels iraniens, obligés de se taire, de mentir, de nier leur identité.

L'accusation aurait été montée de toutes pièces à la suite d'une rixe banale, les dénonciations faites par des tiers emprisonnés l'auraient été au prix de promesses de remise en liberté, les aveux d'Ebrahim extorqués sous la torture. Au cours de son procès, l'accusé n'a pas eu droit à la moindre représentation légale. Quant au verdict, il a été prononcé par un magistrat qui s'en est remis à son propre jugement, procédure utilisée lorsqu'il n'existe pas de preuve formelle. Le mois dernier, en un rebondissement spectaculaire, la « victime » présumée d'Ebrahim Hamidi a reconnu avoir porté contre lui de fausses accusations sous la pression de ses parents.
On pourrait croire que cette rétractation a entraîné l'annulation de la sentence. Pas du tout. Ebrahim Hamidi est toujours coupable, d'un « crime » qu'il n'a pas commis. Est-il homosexuel ou non ? Qu'importe. Il doit mourir.

Il le doit, pour que tous les « vrais homosexuels » continuent de se dissimuler et de subir la terreur en silence. Il le doit, pour qu'on comprenne que la justice iranienne ne peut pas se tromper. Et il va mourir, si nous ne nous mobilisons pas. Si nous ne réveillons pas les consciences. Si nous ne crions pas haut et fort et partout que cette condamnation est insupportable et qu'elle doit être cassée.
- jeudi 2 septembre 2010
-- Reproduction autorisée avec mention de la source : © http://www.prochoix.org/

Teen Faces Execution in Iran
By Michelle Garcia
"An 18-year-old Iranian is facing execution after being sentenced for sexually assaulting another man.
The sentence was handed down for Ebrahim Hamidi on June 21 by a provincial court, despite two rejections from the Iranian supreme court for the sentence. Gay Middle East calls the case against Hamidi "vague" and "unspecified" and says there is no evidence that Hamidi is gay, nor that he committed the crime.
According to the report, Hamidi's attorney has gone into hiding after a warrant for his arrest was issued. The execution has no set date and can happen at any time. "

Brief Tribute to a New Citizen of the Planet Earth

Kaeden Christopher Price was born yesterday at 5:oo pm, weighs 8 lbs. and is already 20 inches tall.

May his world know ever more peace, ever more tolerance, ever more justice, ever more thoughtfulness, ever more humaneness, ever more hope and charity and love.

Goodbye To My Mama - A.Prairie.Home.Companion.

She wouldn't have needed the strange subtitles, but the sound quality is good, so, one day later, this is for mama's birthday, Rose Tyson Gardner, August 30, 1926 - April 21, 2007.

Divine Destiny is Diabolically Destructive

Anyone claiming his/her country is on a divine mission should be watched closely to prevent him/her from ever achieving any power anywhere or having any influence on anyone in power anywhere!

A good example was the "Restoring Honor" rally on August 28.

Glenn Beck: Televangelist

The Beck crowd ... had all the trappings of a reconstituted, 21st Century Christian Coalition. While political signs were banned from the event, the marshals didn't seem to object to the two
enormous crucifixes some people brought to the front of the crowd. Lots of the people in attendance appeared deeply religious. A Boy Scout troop leader from New Hampshire was wearing a scout hat that identified him as "Elder Delevan," as in Mormon church elder. Joan DeMasi, 79, from Warwick, Rhode Island, told me that she had been drawn to the rally by "God–and Glenn Beck." She said she was tired of "people not saluting the flag and not believing in God." So from her perspective, "Restoring Honor" was simply "incredible." Whether the rest of the tea party movement will share such a glowing assessment remains to be
seen.

Beck on Top
The talk-show host's 'Restoring Honor' rally was about one thing: him.
Almost no one who attended Saturday’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall seems able to cogently explain what, exactly, took place. Was it a thinly disguised political rally? A triumph of Made in America inspirational treacle? A modern-day religious revival? When probed by reporters, happy participants and skeptical observers alike struggled to make sense of the prayerful parade that saw Tony LaRussa, Sarah Palin, and Eveda King take turns at a podium between prerecorded voiceovers about crossroads, awakenings, and miracles. Yet there was one message that the afternoon’s emotional emcee managed to get across with unmistakable clarity: Glenn Beck is still a major force to be reckoned with, and has every
intention of staying one.

************

*Remember what Mark Twain said about faith meaning to believe in what you know ain't right.

Lighthouse

The lighthouse perched on the Dornbusch rise on our beloved island of Hiddensee blinked us a farewell as our cruise ship sailed off into the night from Rügen to return to Kiel this morning. Now we're home and filled with enjoyment and elation!

Baltic Cruise

The first day out of Kiel was at sea, we roamed the ship and never had a boring moment, are still on Tuesday finding new nooks and crannies to sit or look that we hadn't discovered before.
Riga was covered with a guided walking tour of the old town, and our guide Aja could explain everything. It is a beautiful town, even if the landing was at a lumberyard dock.
Tallin was the third day, and we "did" it on our own. It is even more beautiful than Riga, has a Russian Orthodox cathedral where the worship and standing ceremony evidently never stops. The only thing ugly was a strange concrete bunker like step construction from the foot of the old town's hill out to the harbor. No one wanted to explain it to us, until the vendor of juniper boxes at the ship was willing to talk about it in English. It was an over-dimensioned concert hall built by the Soviets that no one liked and that was abandonned with independence. The massive concrete is too expensive, till now, for anyone to invest in demolition.
St. Petersburg is glorious, if faded at the edges. The first day, with a walking tour, was tiring, as it is vastly laid out. Our guide Anja was an extremely proud St. Petersburger and set a walking pace nearing a trot, but otherwise we would have never covered everything in the allotted time. She was also our guide on the second day for a boat tour through the canals and on the grand river Neva, as well as to the original fortress of Peter the Great, where the Church of Peter and Paul stands with its long gilded spire and all Czars since Peter are buried.
Helsinki is ok, small, we've already walked it, quaint, some nice buildings, a beautiful main square with a giant Lutheran cathedral, but we are already back at 10:30 am local time on the ship and I'm trying to take the time to organize photos for further upload and to make these first notes about our cruise.



To sum it up: WE ARE HAVING A FABULOUS AND LUXURIOUS TIME!
(The photos of the ship scattered in among the sightseeing pix and the sunsets and sunrises from ship board might give you a hint...)

The Walled City

When I first arrived in this wonderful city of Berlin, my destination was only one half of the city, West Berlin, technically belonging to no country but comprised of the three occupation zones of the Western Powers, France, Great Britain, and the United States. The inhabitants of West Berlin were actually not citizens of any country, were provided diplomatic services abroad by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, its "provisional capital" in Bonn.

Having heard of the Wall before arrival, having even seen pictures of it, I went to see it within my first few days here, specifically at Potsdamer Platz. The picture from the postcard of that time shows a view of the Wall, begun on this day in 1961, from there across no-man's land and Leipziger Platz to the eastern part of the city.

In East Berlin, technically the fourth occupied zone under control of the USSR, but made capital and part and portion of the German Democratic Republic with Soviet approval despite Western Allies protest, the inhabitants were citizens of the GDR, although this actually violated the occupation status of Berlin as a whole, and were subject to all provisions this entailed. They had to serve in the draft army, the Volksarmee, and could "watch" the government of the country with all its ministries and offices in East Berlin.

Inhabitants of West Berlin were not allowed to be in the Bundeswehr, the army of West Germany, and many West German boys "fled" to West Berlin to avoid the draft there. When, for example, elections to the presidency of the BRD were held in the Reichstag in West Berlin, the Soviets protested loudly, even sending jet fighters to razz the assembly in low-altitude flights or to break the sound barrier overhead.

My husband Detlef grew up on the "east" side of the Wall, and we would probably never have met, certainly not have been able to establish a common life, had that wall not come down in November of 1989.

The little red chip standing below the picture is the one piece of the Wall I hacked out at precisely the location of the photo, at Potsdamer Platz. Its color is from the graffiti that covered the western side of the wall, in stark contrast to the blank white of the other side, to make it easier to see any who might attempt to get over it. Don't forget that there were TWO walls: the "outer" or "western" one here in the foreground and the "inner" or "eastern" one on the far side of the mined and patrolled no-man's land in the distance on this picture.

The Wall was an attempt to separate people for ideology; its fall an example of people overcoming barriers; its absence is the presence of my life in love with Detlef.

In Berlin I feel and relish the absence of that Wall every minute of every day. That absence is a freedom hard to describe if you never experienced the hassles trying to "cross" at the checkpoints; hassles nothing in comparison with what the inhabitants of the East faced, usually not allowed to cross at all!

And now Detlef and I simply ride the number 200 bus across Potsdamer Platz, right through what was no-man's land, piercing both "sides" of the now absent Wall. Here, too, was where I first walked across after the opening of the Wall in November, 1989. The first place I saw the Wall with my own eyes is the first place I crossed back and forth once a makeshift opening was created there. It is now one of the central points of our life in Berlin.



Ironically, Detlef's mom's birthday is also August 13th; and thanks to the Fall of the Wall 21 years ago after it had stood for 28, Detlef and I along with his brother and his wife and kids and some of her friends will celebrate Edith's birthday in a riverside restaurant in the Köpenick district of Berlin this evening. There is family unity and no wall to hinder celebration, as she once experienced when she was not allowed to attend a celebration of her sister's in Bavaria. So then, this is a lesson in birthdays!

The birthday of a Wall is to be commemorated only now that it has fallen as a reminder never to allow infringement of freedom. And the birthday of my dear mother-in-law is a celebration of the joys of humans able to love and overcome boundaries.



Never forget!

Courage Campaign: RIGHTS are Right !

A fundamental right is to be upheld for all!
Listen to the idiots fascists from Fox try to maintain securing rights is some sort of dictatorship and Ted Olson set them straight. The MAJORITY may NOT deny RIGHTS to any MINORITY. Perhaps FOX, too, will one day learn that SUCH would be dictatorship; guaranteeing rights to minorities is the sine qua non of democracy.

Courage Campaign Sign our "thank you" card to Ted Olson, David Boies, and AFER

Good News for Germany = Bad News for the Tigerente!

The Button Merkel and the Westernwave have finally, with their impossibly incompetent and socially cold policies, moved their parties down into the basement of public opinion as the German electorate awakens to the fact that neoliberal economics may help bankers and the rich, but not the population in general or the country as a whole. The shift in the polls holds out great hope, as state elections loom next year!

Sonntagsfrage ‹ Bundesweit ‹ Umfragen & Analysen ‹ Infratest dimap
05.08.10
Union: 31%
SPD: 31%
FDP: 5%
Linke: 10%
Grüne: 17%
Sonstige: 6%

Which would provide a parliamentary majority for SPD-Green and perhaps nudge Germany into the Twenty-First Century again!

With Liberty and Justice For All !

May the new Supreme Court Justice, Justice Kagan, have success in her obligation to ensure justice under the law equally for all and to uphold the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

Morning Music

To accompany whatever you're reading and/or writing at the moment, your thoughts, your love, your yearning...

Leise flehen meine Lieder
durch die Nacht zu dir;
in den stillen Hain hernieder,
...Liebchen, komm zu mir!
Flüsternd schlanke Wipfel rauschen
in des Mondes Licht;
des Verräters feindlich Lauschen
fürchte, Holde, nicht.

Hörst die Nachtigallen schlagen?
Ach! sie flehen dich,
mit der Töne süssen Klagen
flehen sie für mich.

Sie verstehn des Busens Sehnen,
kennen Liebesschmerz,
rühren mit den Silbertönen
jedes weiche Herz.

Laß auch dir die Brust bewegen,
Liebchen, höre mich!
Bebend harr' ich dir entgegen!
Komm, beglücke mich!

No Revolution Without Dancing

Who else remembers this fantastic series from the open channel on Manhattan cable TV in the late 1970's? If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution!

I continue to adhere to that principle, as a princple-less principle, that I want to dance at the revolution or miss it. May I also dedicate this odd post to Christa Wolf and her poignant and wise new book Stadt der Engel, oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud. If you care to think, read that book and rewatch the episodes of IICDYCKYR. Experiments are worth it; learning is perhaps the ultimate goal.

And from ME no recognition for the church!

Catholic Church will ‘never’ recognise gay marriage, bishop tells Cameron - from Pink News - all the latest gay news from the gay community - Pink News

A Scottish bishop has written to prime minister David Cameron to tell him that the Catholic Church will 'never' recognise marriage for gay couples.
The Bishop of Paisley, Philip Tartaglia, was responding to reports that campaigners and some Scottish MPs are pushing for the Scottish government to open debate on the issue.
The bishop told the Herald that his letter said the church would never recognise same-sex marriage, even the government eventually enacts legislation to allow it.

I have no need of their recognition, am able to relish in the legal recognition I have, while demanding more equality, and will certainly always deny such an organization any recognition whatever eternally, for now and ever more!

Fencing in the Banks!

The US has finally done it, Europe must follow suit, Germany must rein in the banker-cynics here, and the priority of humans before financial gains must be strongly reasserted everywhere. Even if the US reform could go further, it is a first major step and a warning signal to the speculators who think numbers are more important than people!

A Beautiful Wish ...

... that I'm passing on from my dear cousin Mary Ann to everyone who happens to stumble onto this page! Let life be good, consider that life is good, smile, and be happy in being!

Justice for All - July 4th

Evidence must be considered and those not guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt released. That is the American Way, justice under the Enlightenment, the tradition of democracy shared by so many free countries. And it is what Obama promised - to end the injustice of the bushbaby playpen!

Appeals Court Sides With Detainee - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has sided with a Guantánamo prisoner whose case prompted a major internal argument among Obama administration legal advisers last year over how broadly to define terrorism suspects who may be detained without trial.
...
“The government presented no direct evidence of actual communication between Bensayah and any Al Qaeda member, much less evidence suggesting Bensayah communicated with” anyone else to facilitate travel by an Al Qaeda member, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg wrote in a 17-page opinion that was declassified late last week. Parts of the ruling were censored by the government.
...
The uncertainty about his travel history, the judge wrote, “at most undermines Bensayah’s own credibility; no account of his whereabouts ties him to Al Qaeda or suggests he facilitated anyone’s travel during that time. These ‘questions’ in no way demonstrate that Bensayah had ties to and facilitated travel for Al Qaeda in 2001.”

The Best Fourth of July Picnic ...

... is simply right here at home with Detlef, both of us now rehabilitating from our surgeries and on the way to unimpeded life again!

Koko apparently snapped this photo during our evening meal yesterday!

Productively transgressive...

...is all REAL literature.

Childlike, childish, the writer experiences fright, wonder, enthusiasm, must share that, whatever the threat of punishment he may face for daring to express such extreme emotion! And transgression may seem evil, dangerous, is forbidden, is necessary for art.

Love When There's Little Sleep

While Detlef's in the hospital, and probably next week when I am, neither of us gets very much sleep, I, too, think how our love wins, prevails, and know that dawn will bring us there again, and dawn comes VERY early at this time of year.
Listen to the wonderful Placido Domingo render these thoughts, enjoy beauty, think of love, think, and love!

Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che fremono d'amore
e di speranza.

Ma il mio mistero e chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun sapra!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diro
quando la luce splendera!

Ed il mio bacio sciogliera il silenzio
che ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun sapra!...
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincero!
vincero, vincero!

None must sleep! None must sleep!
And you, too, Princess,
in your cold room,
gaze at the stars
which tremble with love
and hope!

But my mystery is locked within me,
no-one shall know my name!
No, no, I shall say it as my mouth
meets yours when the dawn is breaking!

And my kiss will break the silence
which makes you mine!

(No-one shall know his name,
and we, alas, shall die!)

Vanish, o night!
Fade, stars!
At dawn I shall win!

Longest Day - Shortest Night - of the Year

Where else? With Detlef in the hospital after his arm and leg break (arm in a cast, leg operated to insert a plate with screws to the thigh bone)...

Spring Video for the Beginning of Summer

... and walking subjects one to less calamitous results than biking ...

Sonia Brex - Fruehling in Berlin from Jean de Oliveira on Vimeo.

... love to Detlef up on the Hedwigshöhe ...

(and thanks to Erich for sharing this video)

Tigerente Plummets !

Merkel und Westerwelle stürzen ab - ZDF.de

Now that's good news, fits with the WM loss today somehow, which also doesn't allow the Chief Button Popper and Westernwave to hope for a distracted population. Now lets move on to kicking out all their plans if not all their ministers and try to move this country forward again, with concern for the less well off and a demand for responsibility from the well-to-do and the financial institutions so cynically grinning through the crisis!

Video report on same in this link...

A Reason to LIKE the World Cup

I'd've never thought anyone could give me a good reason to praise the mania surrounding the World Soccer Cup, but The Nation has done so. So now I'm a fan from the farthest sidelines who'll watch as few games as possible but praise it to every conservative I encounter anywhere!

Glenn Beck's Blues: Why the Far Right Hates the World Cup The Nation

“It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us,” yipped the Prom King of new right, Glenn Beck. “It doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn’t matter how many bars open early, it doesn’t matter how many beer commercials they run, we don’t want the World Cup, we don’t like the World Cup, we don’t like soccer, we want nothing to do with it.”

Brief Reminder to the Greedy

All of you who are so greedy - BP, investment banks, hedge funds, FDP members - are cordially invited to read and take as warning:

Canto VII of Dante's Inferno !

It's ok if you read it in translation: the message will be clear nonetheless, though the utter horror awaiting you is lyrically better expressed in the original. Probably, though, as greedy as you are, you will turn to some summary of contents: there, too, the message should get you.

You are doomed!

To the 4th Circle of Hell!

Beauty of Word and Sound

Cecilia Bartoli

Gauck !

That's all one needs to say about the choices offered for the next Federal President of Germany:

GAUCK

About the alternative, Die Zeit says it all:

Wulffs Kür führt vom Chaos zum Stillstand

Deutschland braucht aber nicht nur eine Führung, die sich nicht ständig selbst zerfleischt. Es braucht politische Anstöße. In Afghanistan sterben deutsche Soldaten in einem Krieg, den niemand hinreichend erklären kann. Das Vertrauen der Bürger in Markt und Staat zerbröselt. Das Wohlstandsversprechen, welches das Land zusammenhielt: Es könnte bald nicht mehr gelten. Was verbindet uns stattdessen? Diese Fragen müssen bald beantwortet werden. Zuvor allerdings muss sie jemand stellen.


Kann Wulff das? Ein Präsident wächst mit seinem Amt. Nicht ausgeschlossen, dass er doch die richtigen Themen und den richtigen Ton findet. Aber wenn, ist es Zufall. Zu den großen gesellschaftlichen Fragen hatte Wulff bisher so wenig zu sagen wie die Berliner Koalition selbst.

So elect someone with stature: Gauck!

Warum Gauck die bessere Wahl wäre als Wulff

The Others Should Resign

Nach heftiger Kritik: Bundespräsident Köhler tritt zurück - Hintergründe - Politik - FAZ.NET

Now it's more than overdue that the other incompetents with real governing power resign! Köhler was one of the few with even a milligram of sense in his head, though his tongue could never quite wrap itself around a coherent thought. But the Tigerentenregierung headed by Chancellorette Merkel and Outdoors Minister Westernwave wouldn't recognize a coherent thought if it stood up in front of them and barked, which is probably the real reason for the resignation of the Federal President. He knows that those clowns haven't a clue what he's talking about, even when he does, and that the country would be better off with a completely new team at the helm! After all, there are a few issues that really need attending to...

Can't help it, I like it.

Congratulations to Lena for her win for Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest yesterday evening (with the friendly advice to ditch the strange accent she sings with). All in all, this edition of the contest was of much better quality than the previous several, and now there's a reason to watch again.
So, here's the official video of her doing her number:

Good News from Malawi!

Malawi frees jailed gay couple World news guardian.co.uk

A gay couple sentenced to serve 14 years in jail in Malawi have been pardoned and released after their country's president met the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.
Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, were tried and found guilty of sodomy and indecency earlier this month in a move that sparked international condemnation.
But after talking with Ban today, Malawi's president, Bingu wa Mutharika, announced the pair would be freed. "These boys committed a crime against our culture, our religion and our laws," he said after the meeting, at the southern African country's State House. "However, as the head of state, I hereby pardon them and therefore ask for their immediate release with no conditions.
"I have done this on humanitarian grounds, but this does not mean that I support this."
Ban, who is due to address Malawi's national assembly later, is expected to ask legislators to change the nation's laws on homosexuality.
Monjeza and Chimbalanga were arrested two days after they made a public commitment to marriage in a symbolic ceremony at the hotel where Chimbalanga worked as a janitor in late December. They were the first same-sex couple in Malawi to seek marriage.
Passing sentence on them on 20 May, the magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa said: "I will give you a ... sentence so that the public [will] be protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example."
The pair were then separated. Sent to prisons more than 40 miles apart, they had little hope of maintaining contact.
High-profile figures who spoke out in support of them include the singer Elton John, the British campaigner Peter Tatchell, of the gay and lesbian human rights group OutRage, and the pop star Madonna, who adopted a child from Malawi. Amnesty International also called the sentences an "outrage".
In South Africa, the new human rights organisation Section27 called on the president, Jacob Zuma, to apply pressure on Malawi through the Southern African Development Community.

This is an instance of the United Nations and its General Secretary doing their job correctly for the promotion of human rights worldwide! Thank you, Mr. Ban Ki-moon!

Keep Moving and Gain More Support

Defense secretary addresses concerns over repeal of ban on gays in military

Step by step, the US is moving into today and looking at tomorrow!

The New York Times
As ‘Don’t Ask’ Fades, Military Faces Thorny Practical Issues

Will openly gay service members be placed in separate housing, as the commandant of the Marine Corps has advocated? What benefits, if any, will partners or spouses of homosexual service members be accorded? Will all military units be required to treat homosexuals the same? And what training will heterosexual officers and enlisted troops receive to prepare them to serve with openly gay soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines?
...
Many service members interviewed this week said they knew homosexuals in the military and did not mind serving alongside them.
“If you trust a soldier with your life, that’s what is most important, not being gay,” said Specialist Kevin Garcia of the Army, who has done two tours in Iraq and is now stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

Get real and get ready to respect people as people. When it's about soldiering, gay or straight, what's important is who's pointing a gun at whom and why!

Slovenly sophisticated ...

On an island of beauty such as this, where the sun shines all morning after tempting us between several downpours yesterday, sophistication is knowing how many layers to put on to go out when it's still cool in the morning and not worry if you already wore those things yesterday, or the day before.

Those bothered with such concerns may consider us verging on the slovenly, but they will never return to this island, and we have been here at least once a year every year for 14 and have no intention of stopping, or of shaving more often than necessary.

Now we have to ride our bikes north to the entrance to the Altbessin and hike down to the Vogelhäuschen, the bird watching hut-tower at the southern most point of that peninsula allowed to humans.

And we'll see if the wind pushes or pulls us.

Island Reality

This island is so much more than a possibility, with fog and sun and sand and cliffs and friends and smiles and skies so blue and hazes so dense you can't see the lighthouse yesterday that you climb up and oversee the whole island from today. Pictures will help, and the video of the whit-fire on Saturday.

The slide show will be expanded daily as we upload more photos from the days on the island.

Visiting Rosemary's Castle

Well, with Rudi & Renate, we did three local castles and a cloister yesterday, all within easy driving distance of Berlin, and were rewarded with the first day of brilliant sunshine in more than a week.
One of the castles has a fantastic restaurant in the courtyard, and there, in Burg Rabenstein, we enjoyed a superb lunch (and could play a natural wood xylophone on the way back down).
So you may all know what sort of place this was, here, in a quickly rendered translation of the text on the back of the postcard-sized admission ticket to climb to the top of the castle tower, is the legend of the castle.

The Legend of Rosemary

A knightly couple that once dwelled in the Castle "Rabenstein" had a daughter named Rosemary. One evening, on Saint John the Baptist's Day, she was sitting at her window looking towards the village of Raben and noticed how much fun the village youth were having playing games and dancing. The desire to take part in this joyful activity grew ever stronger in her breast. Rosemary put on simple clothes and sneaked off to the village and mixed in with the common people. She didn't notice how time passed. Suddenly, the clock struck midnight and the horns sounded from the tower of the castle. That meant that Rabenstein's gates were being closed. The maiden was shaken by fright and rushed back to the castle. But she came too late. Only after much pounding on the door was she let in by the tower guard, who of course reported the incident to the Knight. Rosemary's parents ordered her to appear in the chapel before them and all her ancestors. There, she was accused of serious misconduct and her punishment was pronounced. Rosemary was banned to the tower, invisible for everyone, and had to make twelve shirts from the linen given to her. Upon completion of the shirts, her misconduct would be atoned and she would be free again. However, she was only allowed to sew one stitch every fifty years, unless a bold young man managed to climb up the outside wall of the thirty-meter high tower without any aids whatsoever and unite with her.

Rosemary has now been sitting in the tower for hundreds of years, as young and beautiful as ever, though invisible, and wanders through the castle at midnight.

Once a year, in the night of St. John the Baptist's Day, Rosemary's ancestors arise and gather with her in the chapel to reproach her again and again for her misconduct.

We neither saw her nor tried to free her, but the steak béarnaise in her restaurant was delicious, the xylophone was fun, and the pictures below will show you how much fun you can have on a sunny May day visiting castles just west of Berlin.

Satire Perfect

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with ...
... a rabble rouser of incredible venom, slight intelligence, extreme foxiness, obtuse references, and extreme danger,
then watch this to free yourself from the beckon of beck:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
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Visionaries in Berlin

Three dimensionality recycled.

8 May 1945 : 65 Years of Liberation

Nicolas Sarkozy in Alsace
8 mai 1945 : Nicolas Sarkozy en Alsace pour "réparer une injustice" - LeMonde.fr

Nicolas Sarkozy a célébré les 65 ans de la victoire des alliés sur l'Allemagne nazie à Colmar, l'une des dernières villes françaises libérées, où il a rendu hommage aux "malgré nous", samedi 8 mai. Dans un discours d'une quinzaine de minutes, le chef de l'Etat est surtout revenu sur le sort des Alsaciens et Mosellans incorporés de force dans l'armée allemande. "Ceux qui n'ont rien fait pour empêcher cette ignominie perpétrée contre des citoyens français ont trahi les valeurs de la France, l'ont déshonorée. Vichy a trahi la France et l'a déshonorée."

Angela Merkel im Gespräch - Süddeutsche Zeitung
''Wir müssen sprachfähig sein über unsere Geschichte''

SZ: Frau Bundeskanzlerin, was bedeutet der 8. Mai 1945 für Sie?
Angela Merkel: Das Ende eines schrecklichen Krieges. Das Ende von millionenfachem Mord, des Holocaust. Damit ist der 8. Mai der Tag der Befreiung Deutschlands und Europas vom Nationalsozialismus.

Rosselini Continues to Seduce

And this link appears to be accessible in Europe, too! (With thanks to DarthR!)

Unification!

And along with Isabella, a little salute to the subversive surrealists of nearly 100 years ago. (Consider how modern you are today!)

Topography of Terror - Finally Opened!

Topographie des Terrors

As long as I have been here in Berlin, I have been visiting the grounds of the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais, where the Gestapo and SS had their "headquarters" for the organization of persecution and terror in Nazi Germany. The basement cells where people were held and tortured for the most absurd reasons were visible along the perimeter on my first visit there. Throughout the years there were various efforts to preserve what had come to light and construct some sort of exhibition space to document what happened here and to provide a roof to prevent the slow decay of those subsurface torture chambers.
Finally, yesterday, the new structure was inaugurated and the grounds once more made accessible to the public. Standing at one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall and across the street from Göhring's Luftwaffenministerium, now the German Finance Ministry, it is a must for anyone interested in history, so as not to forget the extremes of cruelty to man man is capable of.
In our age of rather generalized amnesia, this site of memory, recollection, commemoration, and thought is a welcome signal!
Take the time to visit when you are in Berlin.

Five Years Remembering

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin celebrated the fifth anniversary of its opening yesterday, and I would like to pay this small tribute to this effort to stamp into the heart of this city a suitably sustantial call on us all never to forget the horror of calculating humans rather than encouraging humans to think and live and love.

"Die Fabrikation von Leichen in Gaskammern und Vernichtungslagern" [MH GA 79, S.27] was not only murder, genocide, but indeed also the horrid robbery of the victims' very death, depriving them of their own "Tod ... das Gebirg des Seyns im Gedicht der Welt" [ibid., S.56] .

May this memorial massively restore at least to their memory a mount in the poem of the world.

A Fantastic Day !

Now with some photos of the day.