New Zealand is expiriencing a power crises right now. During the summer rain was a non-frequent guest Down Under. The hydro power stations have not much water left for generating electricity. New Zealands power demand is backened to a very high percentage by hydro power. The missing rain showed up that this dependency could be a problem. Our commissioning of the Taranaki CCPP was watched carefully by newspapers, radio stations and TV. Spots were made to show the people how to save energy. Doing my 10 percent means, everyone should try to use 10 percent less electrical energy.
Energy crises are quit common to underdevelopped countries. There power failures are frequent like thunderstorms. It is something new to a country like NZ. The people are facing the risk that the grid is shutting down non-essential parts if the power demand is too high. It looks like that NZ is one of the first countries who is doing a lecture: Energy is not something which is coming out of the outlet. It is coming from a power plant and it needs to be converted from something. How New Zealand and the privatised energy companies will solve this problem is something I don't know yet but one thing is clear: Wasting energy is not cool. It could be getting a problem. NZ is facing it and for the inhabitants it is for sure not easy to adapt as quickly as they have to.

Before we arrived in New Zealand a historical event happened. The Alinghi crew defeated New Zealand's crew in the famous America's Cup sailing competition (Official homepage). It was said that some people in New Zealand were quit pissed about the fact, that Switzerland has beaten the proud sailing nation. It must be said that the victory was double-edged: Most of the crew was coming from New Zealand. Everything was international in the Alinghi team. It could be doubted that the language on the boat was Swiss German. But the sponsor was Swiss and nowadays this counts.
The impact on New Zealand was quit big. On the official pages You can read that the government is now supporting Team New Zealand to get the Cup back. They are afraid that the loss will mean as well a financial crack for New Zealand.
All this made it a little bit dainty to re-commissioning the Taranaki CCPP. The turbine is manufactured by an original Swiss company, parts of the crew are coming from the Alps country and the customer crew is coming from NZ. But the safety introduction made it very soon clear. No additional safety equipment to the safety helmet, glasses and boots was needed. The German speaking people on site were treated like always and if there was a fight when it was about megawatts. The sign in the control room "Swiss made" indicated that there is still proudness about the turbines' roots and the flags near the front door made it every morning quit clear: No adversaries, partners!

Anyway: Why fight? The Alinghi crew was partly coming from New Zealand and the Taranaki farmers are partly coming from Switzerland. So lets say Alinghi Ahoi like it was written in the Swiss Coffee Club and wait for a tensive fight for the Cup next time.

When I was leaving the school and I was applying for my first job the world looked fine. Economy was prospering and there was a lot of stuff to do. But this dream of a new just world was a short one and like always everything came different. Nowadays it looks like that we are in some sort of crises. For me a point is now reached to think about my relationship to all this. Like a lot of Germans I was very critical about the development in the US and I very often I opposed the war in Iraq. I'm still disappointed about the new role of the money in our society today. But why I'm fighting a system which gives me at least the chance to oppose it? That gives me the possibility to try something else. If I don't want I don't have to do it. If I don't like the oil companies than I don't have to use their stuff. Means I don't have to pay money for their products. If I don't like Microsoft when I don't need to use their products. In the other case I have to agree with their terms.
It is all to easy to adapt the new lifestyle which is very comfortable. But if I do it, I should not complain about it. I must be careful. To be conservative is the easiest way to oppose and I think I was conservative. But it is useless to do so. Means I have to learn again to swim. To swim in the world of the real new economy. This is the only way to change something in the system.
Today I reat again some lines of the new Banks Book Dead Air and I realized that we have something we should be happy about: Freedom. It makes no sense to attack this freedom because we don't like some noses. We have to fight for it and make sure that the freedom will spread to all parts of the world.
Freedom is something which has several lines of confrontation. We must aware of this. I must be aware of this.

Allenortens wird heftig darüber diskutiert, wie schnell man denn jezt wirklich fahren darf. Dabei unterliegen die Strassen-Formula-One-Fahrer meistens. Hier 30, dort 20, ab und zu mal 50 oder wenn wirklich einmal alle Stricke reissen dürfen 100. Was die Strassen sicher macht stösst zumeist auf wenig Gegenliebe bei Autoherstellern (wie kann man ein Auto mit 320 top speed in einem Land verkaufen, wo man maximal 120 fahren darf), bei Treibstoffproduzenten (wir brauchen ein 3-Liter-Auto: 3-Liter-Hubraum ist schon okay, oder?) oder bei Autohaltern (wieviel Toleranz haben nochmals die Lichtschranken?). Doch gibt es Lichtblicke für die genannten Personenkreise.

Die Regierung in Neuseeland hat reagiert und auf diversen Strassen ein sehr tolerantes Speed Limit eingeführt. Da könnte sich Deutschland eigentlich ein Beispiel nehmen. Doch halt. Natürlich stösst so etwas nicht überall auf Gegenliebe. Fragt sich doch der Radarwarnhersteller: Wie soll ich jetzt bloss meine eh nutzlosen Kästchen unter die Leute bringen.