One day before the second September 11th after the WTC attacks CNN was discussing the legacy of this black day in human history. The discussion was part of a weeklong series about the issue. Members were American students and students of the American University in Lebanon, a country still suffering wounds of a deadly civil war. They together should discuss the image the world has today about the USA. After two wars it changed fundamentely.
After some time the discussion leader was asking the members, what are the reasons for failed countries like Iran. Interesting: In his eyes Iran is a failed country. Is this really true? It is true that the Iranian state is a Theocracy, means the leaders are religious (at least they say it, but it looks like that they are very ordinary politicians like we know them even from Germany). It is true that women have not the full rights like the men. It is true that the government is supporting terrorist groups like the Hamas in Israel. It is not clear, but it looks like that the regime is trying to build nuclear weapons. Is this the reason enough to call Iran a failed country?
To show that this is unjust in my eyes, I want to compare Iran with the mighty USA. The US government was never a true theocracy but still now the christian believe is very important to all administrations. The Bush team is even doing a step back. Till the 60's negroes had not the full rights in the US. Like the women in Iran they were people second class. US administrations often supported groups in different countries, which used as well terrorism to reach their aims. For example the Contra movement in Nicaragua, the Mujahedin in Afghanistan, the Chilenian military dictatorship (interesting thing is that the military took over control as well on a September 11th) and the Shah in Iran. And like so much other countries US development huge arsenals of ABC weapons to defend their system. There is nearly no difference between the US and Iran. There is only a difference in evolution. This means there is no reason to call Iran a failed country as long the USA has not failed. When I was travelling in Iran, I felt myself always safe. Okay, my passport was stolen, but this could happen in a lot of countries. People were very friendly and open minded. Some of them were religious. Okay, not christian but religious. For sure the country is underdeveloped in a lot of parts but it is working.
As long US is not talking with Iran a lot of Americans have no impression how this country is really looking like, how the people are. So they will think always that in this country brutal religious leaders are surpressing the people. For sure a lot of people make no difference between the Taliban Afghanistan and Iran. If this misleading picture will be not corrected by the countries leaders the result will be again war. After the Rumsfeld mess in Iraq the Western societies should now, that this is not only tragical for a lot of people on both sides, it is as well very expensive. And at least money language understands nowadays nearly everyone.

Wann hörte ich zum letzten mal Musik? Über das Wochenende ein wenig Qntal (die kommen übrigens am 17. Oktober im Club Extra, Zürich zusammen mit Rosa Crux) aber ansonsten scheint das musische Interesse verflogen. Woran liegt es? Etwa an fehlender Innovation? Sind es den Tauschbörsen? Weil es immer schwerer wird, CD's am Computer anzuhören? Don't know. Aber dieser in der aktuellen c't mal wieder beschriebenen Kleinkrieg zwischen Hörer und Produzent geht mir langsam am Hintern vorbei. Die letzten Lieder wurden alle auf Vinyl gekauft. Warum sollte man sich auch einen seelenlosen Silberling kaufen. Er ist genausowenig pflegeleicht wie eine Platte und mit einem Kopierschutz schwinden sämtliche Vorteile dahin. Dazu kommt dieses ewige Gedudel von der Qualität einer Hollywood-Fortsetzung. Who cares about. Unkultig! Uninteressant! Da ist es schon gut, dass man die Kopie verbieten will. Ist sowieso reine Energieverschwendung.

Man hüte sich davor, auf andere Kulturen herunterzuschauen. Dazu haben wir noch nicht die nötige moralische Qualifikation. Wieso nicht? Der DFB zeigt warum!

Since some days a very interesting Google search makes a career in the Net. If You type in "Weapons of mass destruction" and search with luck ("I'm feeling lucky" button) when You end up on this page. It is quit funny to read the text. And there are no preferences. For us "old Europeans" the very opportunistic way to deal with the problem was mentioned. This / our behaviour due the conflict was not really helpful. Finally everyone is happy that the bastard Saddam Hussein is not in charge anymore. Would have "old Europe" done the decision our companies would still sell the weapons with them this fucking bastard would torture and kill his enemies. This confrontation was really unnecessary and hopefully Germany is learning a little bit. Elections should be won with deeds and not with idiotic bashing.

Wird langsam so richtig unheimlich, wielange man morgens schlafen kann. Hoffe nur, dass man mal wieder auf Montage kommt. Dann hat es sich mit dem Lotterleben ;-)
Manch einer würde jedoch am besten sein ganzes Leben lang schlafen. Dann hätte es die anderen leichter. Z. B. so ein opportunistischer Depp wie der heute im Spiegel Online beschriebene Friedhelm Ost. Bei solchen Worten läuft einem ein ganz kalter Schauer über den Rücken. Da mag man gar nicht dran denken, wie die Kohl-Jungs andere Diktatoren weltweit hätschelten, während diese Tontaubenschiessen mit ihrer Bevölkerung spielten. Bleibt nur zu hoffen, dass dieser Auftritt Mr. Osts letzter war.

... ich bin verliebt. Aber bekanntlich gehören ja zwei dazu ;-)

Im neuen Spiegel wird die Sehnsucht vieler nach den alten Werten thematisiert. In den letzten Wochen hörte ich zudem von einigen Kumpels total neue Töne: Zurückschalten, Lust auf Natur, abschalten, Familie als etwas beständiges. Es scheint, als ob immer mehr Menschen dem neuen Turbo-Lebensstil den Rücken kehren. Ist das richtig oder handelt es sich um einen gefährlichen Retro-Trend? Was hat uns das Hochschalten gebracht? Viele neuen Gadgets. Computer mit ausgefeilter Software, fahrende Wunderwerke (Autos und Züge), Hightech-Natels, On-line Warenhäuser. Der Wohlstand ist gestiegen, gar keine Frage. Doch zu was für einen Preis? Software-Bugs in einer Anzahl, dass die Sicherheit schon bald in Frage gestellt sein wird, der Körper und Geist ständig auf 180, Informationsfluten, die ein Normalsterblicher einfach nicht mehr verarbeiten kann. Die Technik galopiert dem Menschen davon. Er kann sie nicht mehr vernünftig handeln, um kurz aufs Denglische zurückzugreifen. Der Mensch als solches ist noch nicht soweit. Er selbst muss sich durch Implantate und vielleicht einmal durch das Lösen von seinem Körper fertig machen für die "schöne neue" Welt. Doch zuerst muss er sich wieder besinnen. Er muss wieder damit beginnen, etwas richtig zu machen. In der Computer- und Softwareindustrie, die heute schon allgegenwärtig ist, wird das am ehesten deutlich. Man erinnere sich an die Ur-Homecomputer C64 und Amiga. Trotz technischer Barrieren war auf den Kisten viel möglich. Grund war die relative lange Reifezeit. Noch heute haben diese Veteranen ihre Fans. Noch immer wird mit ihnen gearbeitet. Viele werden verächtlich auf diese Retros herunterschauen, doch ihre Hybris wird von Tag zu Tag gefährlicher. Kein noch so einfaches Programm kommt ohne Bugs. Spricht man die Industrie darauf an, dann versteckt sie sich hinter Studien, die besagen, dass Software-Entwicklung ohne Bugs nicht möglich sei. Schaut man auf die Entwicklungszeit, dann haben sie wohl auch recht. Und genau hier muss sich etwas tun. Die Menschheit muss wieder vernünftig werden. Der Homo Sapiens muss sich klar werden, dass er einfach keinen Hochleistungschip in der Waffel hat, der ihn befähigt, die neuen Technologien innerhalb kürzester Zeit zu verstehen und bedienen zu können. Eigentlich muss er für die heutige Komplexität sogar viel mehr Zeit investieren. Und er muss mit seinen Artgenossen zusammenarbeiten.
Es bleibt nur zu hoffen, dass sich Mensch darauf besinnt. Tut er es nicht ... er hat gar keine andere Möglichkeit. Gutes Beispiel: Wachstum. Man muss sich ja nur eine Minute darüber Gedanken machen, was Wachstum bedeutet. Dann sollte auch der dämlichste Shareholder-Value-Maximizer erkennen, dass er auf dem Holzpfad ist. Und falls er es nicht tut, dann müssen wir ihm das deutlich machen.

Die Energielieferanten in Deutschland klagen mal wieder, sind aber ansonsten scheinbar noch recht ideenlos. Ganz klar eine Herausforderung die angegangen werden will, findet man in diesem FAZ-Online-Artikel. Das die Windrädchen problematisch sind steht ausser Frage. Doch wenn wir wollen, das auf diesem Planeten auch noch die nächsten Generationen ein anständiges Leben führen können, dann müssen wir die Energiefrage lösen. Dass das Geld und / oder Resourcen kostet bestreitet niemand. Aber genau das ist die Chance Deutschlands. Hier wird in absehbarer Zeit Bedarf an neuen Technologien bestehen und in Deutschland gibt es genug helle Köpfe, die sich darüber Gedanken machen wollen. Herausforderungen sind etwas Schönes und keine Last. Wir sollten für deren Lösungen leben. Das würde auch die Sinnfrage besser lösen als es jede Religion kann.

War between people and peoples.
Confrontation is not productive. It never was. But nowadays it is popular again. You see it in stupid commercial TV productions, at work and between producer and customer. I bought last week the Sonic Seducer magazine. There I found two pages dedicated to artists. They commented the actual trend to copy CDs instead to buy them. Some of them were not too bad but like Joachim Witt showed us radical opinions were as well part of their thoughts.
When I was young and I saw my first computer (a Commodore C64) most of the games were pirated. It was getting better with the Commodore Amiga. But as well games and software was not only bought. A big part of it was copied. The game producers had I tough time and they earned not too much. But the interesting thing is, that a lot of the guys are still in business. They were not stopping to be game programmers and doing the dishes in big hotels. Instead they built up an industry which is nowadays as powerful as the movies.
The technology was evolving itself. Industry brought us the CD which was said to be resistant against scratches (definitive a lie) and better sounding (still vinyl is in business because not everybody is believing this). The CD was sold 5 Euros over the price of a LP. In the beginning industry made the high production costs responsible for this but like taxes the prices were only going up. No problem for me. I have the money. But is this the case for everybody? That were the ordinary people thinking when they see the top stars flying in their own planes because they can afford it? In any case the time after the introduction of the CD are golden for producers and artists. But they forgot two things. First of all the decadent behaviours of some very successful artists gave the ordinary people the impression that not paying music is okay, because there must be enough money. The life style of for example Michael Jackson seemed to gave them right. The second thing was the evolution of technology. The CD was something final in their heads. There would be nothing after it. But like so often time proofed them wrong. Now they have to fight something new. And they try it again like in good old Amiga times. There a software studio published a really great game with the comment, that it will be the last, if the community is not willing to pay for it. It was the last game from this studio for the Amiga ... but it was not the last computer game.
This war fought with laws, copyrights and artificial restrictions was lost a long time ago. There must be new beginnings, new ideas, new concepts. The artists must evolve themselves. If this evolution is not successful the branch will extinct. This is nature in their most brutal form. This is capitalism!

Defeat is bitter. And often people are not seeing the positive behind it. They see only the fact that they have lost. People and countries are doing much to overcome defeats. Example Second World War Germany and its propaganda machine, Iraq, the Soviet Union, and so on. They all have something in common. They lying to themselves to minimize the defeat. Or they not mentioning what is in the end the same. The United Kingdom had as well some defeats in his history. One was the race to the south pole. One of my first idols, the Norwegian Amundsen, challanged the proud English Empire and won. Scott, the English guy, had died with his whole team on the way back to his homebase after he found the Norwegian flag at the south pole. The story is one for the dramas. I understand this. But what I'm not understanding is why Amundsen is the bad guy in this play. At least you have the impression after you visited the not so impressive Antarctic and Underwater World in Auckland. Scott is the hero. Amundsen? There was a Norwegian guy who reached the pole first, who challenged Scott, who was cheating (because it was said that Amundsen had no scientific interest in his mission and so he needed not too much stuff to carry around), finally who stole victory from the proud Kingdom. This is the impression you have as long you are not reading between the lines: Scott leaded his men like a platoon. Amundsen treated his guys as equals. Scott used Siberian ponies, Amundsen took dogs which proved great reliability under arctic conditions. Scott had more stuff with him, Amundsen less (I would say, this is under the circumstances not cheating but thinking). Amundsen has known the Inuit way of life and tried to adapt it. Scott was knowing the military stuff. For the British team it was a tragady but it was for sure not necessary. It shows again that the military way is not a good way. It is a stupid and idiotic kind to treat people. The officers think often they are superior to others (something you can easily see if you are talking with some retired German ones - my advice: Don't do it!) but finally they are nothing. They can not think, they can follow only commands and procedures. Like the nowadays cool Top Gun pilots sitting on their wings and looking at people like they are better. But finally they are only replacable because it is easy to give a machine commands and procedures and this will happen (the good thing is that maybe friendly fire will reduced a little bit, because the cowboy pilot with his mind in the beer glas and his finger on the trigger will vanish).
The race to the south pole showed it again who is really superior. They guy who can think and who is learning. Amundsen: One of my first heros. And this Antarctic World changes nothing: He will be a hero for me in the future as well. By the way: Amundsen not only conquered the south pole. His life is worth to be investigated. Believe me.