Dear Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder,

Dear Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder,

Let's not waste time. There are far too many documents marked private from the Bush Cheney Administration. If you start at the top with Cheney, you can clear up a lot of stuff more efficiently and you will appear to be treating the small and big guys even-handedly for a change.

Readers, if you want Holder to start at the top, sign on here.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/investigate_cheney/?rc=dems_071409


Yours,

Kevin Stoda

Genius and Hard Work for the Planet Goes Unrewarded in the World of Crony Capitalism and Crony Governance

Genius and Hard Work for the Planet Goes Unrewarded in the World of Crony Capitalism and Crony Governance

By Kevin Stoda, Germany


Gregor Czisch of Kassel, Germany worked almost a decade producing one of the most amazingly forward-looking and clear-thinking piecess of research any PhD student on the planet could ever be expected to produce.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2105061,00.html

In seven years, he produced a work that is the equivalent five or more doctoral theses for many others in his field. Now, Czisch’s work is the basis for the 400 billion dollar North African Energy project, known as Desertec.

http://www.desertec.org/

—i.e. the largest European and African energy development project undertaken. Yet, most of the time, Dr. Gregor Czisch is unemployed.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/gregor-czisch/3/96a/757

As a child, Gregor had not done well in school, so he put his hand to farming. Finally by the 1990s, Czisch had backed into the academic world of physics and engineering after finding work on a environmentally friendly farm to repetitive for him.

The goal of his dissertation was to use or take examples of existing technologies and prove mathematically that simply by placing regenerative energy plants on the specific geographic locations on the planet where they are the most effective or efficient, the entire continent of Europe could be supplied for about what it now pays out in energy costs on traditional petroleum and nuclear energy plants.

These regenerative plants included wind energy wherever the most wind is to be found on the planet, such as in Siberia, or solar energy where the sun shines the most on the planet, like in North Africa or the Arabian peninsula. Moreover, if there is geothermal opportunities, like in Iceland, geothermal energy is naturally the power plant source of choice.

http://www.claverton-energy.com/european-supergrid-hvdc-interconnector-expert-dr-gregor-czisch-gives-information-about-iceland-hydro-and-geothermal.html

Next, after figuring up the costs of optimal regenerative plants, Czisch needed to also calculate the costs of bringing that energy from these far-away points to the various cities and countries on the European continent—again by using existing technologies. By the time he was finished calculating and rechecking his calculations, Czisch had proven that Europe could, indeed, be taken care of through usage of existing alternative energy technology at a cost of about 4.65 cents per kilowatt of energy.

Czisch proposed his project and all its potential to Siemens back in 2006 but got turned down as Siemens was more interested in investing in nuclear power. Now, however, Siemens is showing great interested in the mega solar project Desertec, which had played a less significant role in Czisch’s final pages of research findings

http://www.desertec.org/en/concept/studies/

For this reason, although many of Czisch’s dreams are related to or wrapped up in what has now come to be known as Desertec megaproject, he is still very critical of the current 400 billion dollar project. This is because it totally neglects wind energy, which he saw as being an even cheaper source of energy than solar energy for many parts of the European continent.

http://www.risoe.dk/rispubl/reports/ris-r-1608_186-195.pdf

According to Felix Rohrbeck, who wrote a recent article in DIE ZEIT newspaper on Czisch and his research activies, entitled “The Uncompromising Visionary”, Gregor Czisch had celebrated his dissertation a few years ago with a toast in which he said, “The proof that an intercontinental regenerative energy network can take care of Europe is at hand. Now, it is up to the politicians and the economists to get to work [on the project.]”

]Rohrbeck then note, “But, they [governments and economic leaders] are giving themselves a lot of time.”

Besides being uncompromising with the facts, his dissertation advisor Dr. Juergen Schmid, notes that Czisch cannot be bribed into accepting the party line. For example, after his promotion, Schmid had helped get the new Dr. Czisch a seat on a government committee to work on environmental policy in Germany a few years back. Czisch claimed the figures the committee were using were inaccurate. Soon, Czisch found himself again out of work.

Hey, Planet Earth, does anyone want to hire this guy? I think the earth needs more uncompromising visionaries, don’t you?



NOTE

Rohrbeck, Felix, “Krompomissloser Visonaer”, DIE ZEIT, (29) Sonntag, 9. Juli 2009, p.20

WHY COGNITIVE and EPISTEMIC REGIME THEORISTS PREDICT that CHINA, INDIA, BRAZIL, and other large developing states will join the Kyoto Global Warming R

WHY COGNITIVE and EPISTEMIC REGIME THEORISTS PREDICT that CHINA, INDIA, BRAZIL, and other large developing states will join the Kyoto Global Warming Regime

By Kevin Stoda, Europe


At the G-8 Summit in Italy last week, many observers were disappointed when India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico did not commit themselves to targeting Co2 and other gas reductions along as they had been asked to do by many signatory states of Kyoto Climate Control treaty. It surely would have been helpful to the entire planet if these other five key developing states had done more than orally recognize that global warming is as a reality and that they are part- and parcel of the problem, too.

Steffan Bauer and Carmen Richerzhagen in a 2007 article entitled “Pent-Up Demand, Development and Climate Change” call lands, like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa “anchor” states. Most regime or hegemony theorists would call these same states either regional hegemons or centers of various regional regimes.

Stephen Krasner in 1983 defined “regimes” as “principles, norms, rules, and decision making procedures around which actor expectations converge in a given issue-area.” Like the concept of capitalism (i.e. a term which is so elastic as to allow conservatives, neo-liberals, and socialists to have their own different description of what capitalism should look like), regime theory has been embraced by almost every part of the political-economic perspective, as well, in terms of explaining how international organizations and systems form, grow, and wane. Further, neo-marxists and cogntivists have also adopted the language of regime theory in describing how regional communities along with their common norms of behavior develop over time.

Using the prism of regime theory (and setting aside hegemonic theory), Bauer and Richerzhagen focus on what they call “anchor states” within regimes or regional communities of states and developing peoples. In using their terminology, an “anchor state” may function similar to any large body in the universe whose gravity, magnetism, radioactivity, and energy are pulling or pushing other state and regional actors or organizations into their common norms and activities. In their article, Bauer and Richerzhagen focus specifically on the “anchor states” of China, India, and Brazil—nations which have lots of good reasons to join the Kyoto Climate Control Regime.

On the other hand, I should note, in a different article, Richerzhagen and Imme Scholz appropriately reported in 2008 that “so far China’s climate-relevant actions have not been influenced by climate considerations. Potential emission reductions are mainly a by-product of measures embedded in energy and transport policies aimed at cutting energy costs and increasing energy security.” The same critique, however, goes for many of the other developing anchor states worldwide.
Nonetheless, according to Bauer and Richerzhagen, the world’s climate warming regime is where the roles of anchor states will increasingly stand out over the coming years. Bauer and Richerzhagen explain that “ideally, these anchor states will play locomotive roles by which the activities and targets of the regime will be created and become global norms.”

NOTE: To some degree, South Africa is the best example of a state which already carries out a very clear role as both international and regional norm and target leader in terms of developments on the African subcontinent. However, it is the country on the planet furthest demographically from any other OECD state and has, therefore, not played a dominant role in the global warming regime’s development as a regional actor, partner, nor leader.

CHINA

Since China is expected to be surpassing the United States in a few short years as Green House Gas Producer #1 on the planet, China has a particular global burden to carry—not just as leader of developing states—but on behalf of the entire planet. In short, whether the entire planet comes to meet anti-global warming targets in the next years and decades will likely be the result of how major Asian state actors, like China, India, Russia, and Indonesia evolve to become stronger (or weak) members of the Climate Control regime.

The Pacific coastal emphasis of China’s phenomenal current development projects, i.e. over the last three decades, has created a situation whereby Chinese coastal region is filled with megacities. Such coastal megacities are in line to be extremely adversely affected by both rising sea levels and climate changes.
Moreover, as many of China’s rural non-coastal regions are still vastly underdeveloped, the stream of 100s of millions of Chinese moving to the mega-cities is simply going to increase for the next decade. Therefore, coastal flooding and climate changes leading to typhoons and other major storm will thus effectively soak both the poorest and richest in China.

On the one hand, this pressure from Mother Earth’s changing climatic forces should lead to more-and-more concern by Chinese elite and their bureaucrats for the plight of the Chinese people, i.e. as the planet is expected to warm by 1 ½ to 2 degrees by 2050 (and more thereafter if global greenhouse gases are not soon capped and reduced annually across the planet). On the other hand, the poorer desert regions of China could become even more adversely affected by the oncoming climate changes—leading to greater desertification and loss of habit in many rural and former agricultural areas. This, in turn, might hence lead to even more increase migration to the Eastern Coast of the Communist-controlled state.

In short, even thought the Chinese government has not fully responded to nor reacted to the increasing threats of climate change, it is not likely that the Chinese leadership will be able to ignore the threat to stability for much longer. Similarly, the climate changes affecting China will likely cause China and in neighboring regions to face conflicts due to the increased intra-state migrations caused by climate an topographical change.

Already, China has increasingly begun importing grains and other food stuffs. This affects productions in neighboring states. Meanwhile, changes in climate will certainly lead to agricultural shortfalls in China—at least until the agricultural producers comprehend which crop varieties will soon need to be planted as the climate changes and China’s pent-up demand for further development in food production are transformed to meet the regions’ evolving physically transforming geography.

INDIA and SOUTH ASIA

Likewise, India, with its historical dependence on annual monsoon seasons for its agricultural production is another Asian coastal country threatened by an increase in climate change. Flooding and loss of coastal agriculture and tourism industries due to sea level rise is another worrisome reality for India as the planet face the hottest century since man began keeping track.

Great wealth along the coast, like in Mumbai and Calcutta or Trivandrum, will simply go lost if the sea rises. However, in all likelihood, it will be India’s poorest who will be hurt most by global climate warming and change. This is because India’s agricultural sector is still heavily dependent on family farming and on extended family help from sometimes-landless-peasants on the farms.

The deserts in India also are likely to grow with increasing regional warmth, and flooding may destroy parts of the millennium-old ways of life disappear with glaciers in the Himalayas. That is, erosion and further aridification of mountainous areas seem to be very likely in coming years.

In neighboring Bangladesh and Pakistan, similar climate stress is also predictable. With a great amount of Bangladesh’s coast at sea level, there will be great pressures for further emigration to India and to neighboring states. This will cause intergovernmental and possible small wars for the Bangladeshi government. That is, increasing emigration is certain to cause problems with all regional states in South and Southeast Asia in the near future due to climate warming and potential sea rise.

Both Sri Lanka and Myanmar also suffer from bad developmental practice and civil war. The increasing environmental threats seem not to be on the top of the governments worries. However, like a tsunami, rising temperatures and rising seawater will effect these lands, too.

BRAZIL and INDONESIA

Both Brazil and Indonesia play dual roles concerning the solutions and problems related to greenhouse gases and actions to reduce global warming. On the one hand, both countries provide a large number of so-called “climate sinks”, which are their tropical rain forests which can and do take-in greenhouse gases, such as Co2. However, these forests are also where some of the poorest peoples on the planet live and survive.

The need for more equitable development in the rain forest regions is extremely important for the whole planet at this junction. International assistance and investment is likely to continue to come from OECD lands, but monitoring on the ground of both development and protection of these forests is a national responsibility, which both countries need still need to improve on so as to secure a more future sense of national and regional stability. Otherwise, topsoil will disappear and lands will become deforested. Finally, migration will be heavier.
Moreover, deforestation would further hurt development potential in both countries, in terms of tourism and diversified agriculture. Erosion in both countries has already been bad for the past several decades but could get worse through further underdevelopment and deforestation.

Worse still, both Indonesia and Brazil are geographically lands with heavy overdevelopment on their coastlines. This means that sea rises will affect the most industrialized parts of these countries--as well as tourism and the wealthiest investment or productive neighborhoods. Moreover, in terms of storms and cyclones, climate changes will hurt the urban dwellers greatly—potentially stopping or severely stunting urban growth as the Katarina Hurricane did to the Caribbean underbelly of the USA over these past 5 years.

Brazil already has trouble expanding its agricultural production due to its current population growth—as well as the loss of good arable land due to storms, desertification , and erosion. In short, further damage from global climate warming is not something that any Brazilian government can afford (in terms of making the country more sustainable for either its own investors or for any other long term improvement for its poorer populace).

Indonesia lacks “living space” for many of its urban dwellers already. Growth in population will likely force future peoples on the archipelago to move to formerly underdeveloped regions. However, as Indonesia is made up of many islands, land will likely be disappearing into the sea as the sea rises in coming decades if global warming is not stabilized soon.

On the other hand, in contrast to the United States of America, the Brazilian government has always shown a strong interest in the environmental- and developmental issues related to global warming. In this context, Brazil has set an example for China, India, and Indonesia. The saving of the Amazon Rainforest and fighting global warming has been part of the national government’s policy for over a decade. This has likely reduced the overall threat to the rainforest system of the Amazons to some degree. Alas, this has not been the case at the local and state level in (federal) Brazil. Enforcement has often been lax across much of the federation—as has been the case for enforcement of laws on the books to protect the environment in Indonesia.

WHAT DO ALL THESE “ANCHOR STATES” HAVE IN COMMON, STILL?

One important thing that OECD nations have to offer all of these developing Anchor states, including South Africa, is in the area of partnerships for technology transfers concerning further developments in efficiency, alternative energy production, and in environmental protection. This concept of major technological transfer partnerships was part- and parcel of the Kyoto Protocol from the beginning.

In summary, Kyoto’s man offer to non-signatory states starting in 1998 has been (1) its offer to help increased the number of climate sinks on the planet and (2) its intent to increase the transfer of anti-global-warming technologies. In other words, from the beginning, the Annex 1 signatories of Kyoto were interested in recruiting as soon as possible all corners of the globe to become more fully involved in the fight against global warming through all kinds of incentives and transfers.

Now-a-decade later, China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, and Mexico are all very anxious to have more technology and technical know-how related to conservation of energy and for replacing green house gas causing technologies through development and use of cleaner models of production, transportation, etc.
The catch is that these developing lands do not want to stop developing and modernizing at the highest optimal rate over the next decades.

This does not mean that these large “anchor states”, like China and India, want a free lunch, but that they want to be part of a global warming regime if they can both enjoy the goods of development while at the same time implementing the various global (and regional) anti-global warming targets on energy- and gas emission over the coming years and decades.

In short, they are looking for partnerships, which is something that developed nations should be able to offer them—even at this very moment in history, i.e. before even newer anti-global warming technologies are invented.

WE DON’T NEED TO WAIT! GET CHINA AND INDIA INVOLVED NOW!

In short, both the USA and Australia are likely to fully join the Climate Control regime in the next years—POSSIBLY without signing the Kyoto Treaty or its successor TREATY. This is because the peoples have been educated and the project is clear to intragovernmental actors and scientists. The anchor states will join, too, in this project if the OECD states work hard (and quickly) to create partnerships with these large developing lands.

A model already exists. Just today a huge European consortium (supported by EU governments) and North African regimes have signed an agreement to produce in North Africa solar energy for Europe in decades in the future. This DESERTEC project will cost at least 400 billion dollars, but the project is historic and doable. The European project is described thus. “The Desertec plan requires a new grid of high-voltage transmission lines from the Maghreb desert to Europe. No new technology needs to be developed, according to Hans Müller-Steinhagen, who works at the German Aerospace Center and has researched the feasibility of Desertec for Germany's Environment Ministry. The idea has existed for years, but the high cost of building the infrastructure has kept investors away.”

More than that particular project is historic here. The precedent for such a technological transfer and partnership is one that various regional anchor states, like China and India are willing to work with each other, OECD lands, and neighboring states on right away.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,630699,00.html

Similarly, the USA and Mexico could work together on such vast projects. Why can’t Australia and Indonesia take on a similar partnership? What about eventually South Africa, Namibia and all their neighbors? Surely they can get involved.

COGNITIVE REGIME THEORY

Cognitive and Epistemic regime theorists believe that power-plays and putting-oneself-first are not always the best way for cooperation to take place internationally, in order to solve multinational problems. They also feel that short-term costs of the free market do not always provide the best incentives (if there are no common beliefs, norms, and common education concerning the facts). This is why education and educational transfers are important among key governmental and civic actors. We have seen these educational, research, and civic actors making the world well aware of the effects of global warming over the past 12 years or more.

Now, by 2009, the facts about our warming planet are becoming more well-known and more commonly understood than every before. Not only intra-governmental panels, like the IPCC (Inter Panel on Climate Change) have been actively educating government officials and congressmen, but the internet has been spawning a global understanding among individuals, groups, news media, and nation states. These stakeholders in great unison in America and elsewhere now all finally give-a-damn about global warming and what-its-effects-on-us will be.

[The Bush-Cheney regime had tried to fudge for nearly a decade the facts, but Americans as a whole have been very concerned despite the misinformation fed to them.] Likewise, China, India and other anchor states cannot ignore the data and information accessable on the internet and in their daily papers. Even the most rural peoples have noted that something is up with their climate.

Being educated about the problem is the first step. Now the world has the potential for decades of common action on this issue if global partnerships are formed by OECD lands with developing countries to get alternative energy on the table for them (and if technological transfers take place which reduce overall greenhouse gas production).

Let’s get on with it—Planet Earth--start acting in partnership on this anti-global warming project now!!


NOTES

Bauer, Steffan & Richerzhagen, Carmen (2007), “NACHOLENDE ENTWICKLUNG UND KLIMAWANDEL”, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 47/2007, pp. 20-26.

Stoda, Kevin (1998), Hybrid Regime Theory, http://www.geocities.com/eslkevin/kyoto.html

WHICH CAPITALIST PATH WILL WIN OUT? ASIAN AUTOCRATIC? EUROPEAN CONTINENTAL? or AMERICAN-BRITISH? or Other New Regional models??

WHICH CAPITALIST PATH WILL WIN OUT? ASIAN AUTOCRATIC? EUROPEAN CONTINENTAL? or AMERICAN-BRITISH? or Other New Regional models??



By Kevin Stoda , Europe



Reflections upon the end of the so-called Pure Market Antidote to political-economic-and socialized management of societies have been heavy since American home markets began tearing the stock and financial markets of the planet apart in 2006. In the title of this article of mine, I am asking what kind of modes of capitalism will come to dominate over the following decades.



According to Cordt Schnibben, in his LOB DER GIER (“In Praise of Greed” in English), his research among even the more extreme left wing parties in Germany, capitalism is still the only game in town. The German Link Party’s theorists, such as the Marxist Sahra Wagenknecht, is quoted as saying that the social market economic practices of Germany have something to offer to capitalism. Her party can contribute to this—but in the absence of a non-Chinese real-functioning communism, almost no one in Germany is suggesting that capitalism be thrown out with the dirty wash.



However, the world now faces essentially at least three flavors of capitalism to choose from. Schnibben claims there is, first, the relatively free and wide open form of capitalist market promoted by the American-British cartel. Next, over in Asia, Russia , Singapore , and China are offering strongly autocratic versions of capitalism, with heavy emphasis on central control—even state-security having a strong role in controlling major parts of the economy. In contrast, from France to Germany and throughout central and northern Europe a more social-market oriented capitalism still holds the sway today.



Those are the three models Cordt Schnibben sees dominating and simultaneously competing with one another in the decades ahead.



http://www.reporter-forum.de/fileadmin/reporterforum/Workshop_09_Texte/Lob_der_Gier.pdf



Our present world is suddenly filled with Keynsian-, social market-, and Asian Confucian capitalists--all with plans for how the state will control the market. This all has suddenly become extremely essential because the most recent super bubbles in the financial sectors have damaged free-market economic practices worldwide. Capitalism is now seen as a “highly complicated machine”, which can only be controlled with mechanisms that sovereign states—and state-like bodies, such as the European Union, the WTO, NAFTA, the World Bank and the IMF—have at their disposal.



The bottom-line for the now-out-of-favor Milton Freedman-style of economists (and national politicians) is that there will always be crises in capitalism, but how much state control and how to apply that state involvement is still the key question?



The reason that free-market economists will be out-of-favor for decades to come is that the emperors new clothes in this decade have demonstrated: Capitalism is characterized by an irrational world of behaviors and trends which can and do run amok when not properly under the thumb of watchful regimes and officials with power and sway. Run-amok stampedes and bubbles that explode and leave more than chewing gum on all our faces is a losing prescription for societies and investors who seek some sense of security in the short-, medium-, and long terms.



The sad-turn-around in economic theory and practice in the USA since 2007 has brought this famous phrase back to haunt so-called American Keynesians.: “AMERICAN SOCIALISM = CORPORATIONS SOCIALIZE THEIR LOSSES”.



This is certainly not traditionally, the kind of socialism that German Free Democrats or Social Democrats support when they talk about social market capitalism. On the other hand, the large coalition government in Germany under Angela Merkel has bailed out Germany ’s biggest banks as America did. However, the difference is that the Social Market capitalist approach is focusing on social and family stability, i.e. trying to keep as many jobs (often) as long as possible—and paying for education for the masses to get retrained and hone new skills in an ever changing global economy. For this reason, when it came to helping out large auto manufacturers, the German parliament and government have been very actively giving money away to keep productions up and jobs at home. The auto-recycling program has been a hit in Germany —even though it helps mostly only the middle-and wealthier classes and does next to nothing to help middle and small firms succeed. Now, with tax reductions aimed at allowing all (even the poor) to keep more money at home this year, the social market economy is prepared to promote both spending and savings.



In contrast, American firms, like General Motors—which has been no “worse-managed” than Citibank and other financial institutions over the past few decades—had to beg for help from the USA federal government. In short, production of goods and the keeping jobs in the USA is still not on the big-list of things-to-do for the Obama administration.



Worse still, I read recently that European bullet train producers from Spain to Germany are courting American government officials to buy their products and know-how, in order to help get America out of the gas-guzzling mess (and out of its dependency on Middle East Oil) it has been in for over half a century. The question is: Mr. Obama, why not assign General Motors and other firms to build up Americans fast railways instead of sending government moneys abroad? In short, the American-British Keynesian Capitalist model has not yet gotten back up to steam after the collapse of the free market faith state over the past three years. Meanwhile jobless rates continue to rise as Obama claims prosperity is just around the corner.

Meanwhile, China ’s official website has this to say about trends in capitalism and in America . “This is to say that the pragmatic people of the United States do not in fact adhere stubbornly to any particular ideology. President Obama’s reforms readily remind one of the words spoken by Deng Xiao-ping in the 1990’s: ‘the market is not the same as Capitalism, Capitalism also contains planning, and Socialism can also contain markets.’ Today, however, the actions of the United States also demonstrate that state-ownership is not the same as Socialism, and Capitalism can also accommodate state-ownership.”

Wong Chong, who translated this government statement, also added the following point (in apparent agreement with the Chinese regime), “The greatest reminder that U.S. socialist undertakings provide us with is this: there is nothing which exclusively belongs to Socialism, and there is nothing which exclusively belongs to Capitalism. Certain ideas belong to all of humanity, and certain values are shared in common by humanity. Just as Premier Wen Jia-bao said: ‘Democracy, rule of law, freedom, human rights, equality and universal love - these are not the exclusive possessions of capitalism. These are the products of civilization that have been jointly formed throughout the world over a long history, and are the values which humanity pursues in common.”

http://chinanewswrap.com/2009/06/25/in-2009-can-china-alone-save-capitalism/

Interestingly, this summary article by Wong Chong is entitled: “In 2009, can China alone Save Capitalism?” Meanwhile, Schnibben notes that China ’s command capitalist economy is still growing at a rate of 7.5% (although the world has been used to double or triple those growth numbers over the past decade).

http://www.iisd.ca/publications_resources/sust_devt.htm

Interestingly, two Asian countries are taking on Germany’s dominance in the sustainable energy sector—i.e. a sector Germany has increasingly supported as a national policy since the 1990s after committing itself to leave the atomic energy production market. The two new upstarts are the South Korean and the Chinese governments who have seen fit to use this economic crisis to increase sustainable practices and alternative or clean energy production. South Korea and China , with their focus on energy savings and sustainability, are joining Japan , which had previously for decades invested too heavily primarily only in the atomic energy sector.

http://www.co2-handel.de/article184_8900.html

The explanatory model by Schnibben, in his LOB DER GIER, of essentially three brands of capitalism functioning simultaneously on planet earth as of 2009, however, breaks down at this point. This is because there are now converging activities between all three capital economic regimes in the area so fighting global warming and promoting sustainable energy practices—which, in turn, bring more security to all regimes involved. In short, both global warming and global economic crises still need more global, rather than regime specific responses.

This convergence appears true even though no breakthrough occurred in the July 2009 G-8 meetings discussions with China , India , Mexico , Brazil , and South Africa in an attempt to try and get these large developing states to committing themselves to halving their production of Green House Warming Gases by 2050. Why? Well, at that meeting, each of those five large developing (non-OECD) states agreed that they have played a role in global warming, especially over the past 12 years since the Kyoto Treaty was signed (i.e. in January 1998).

This anti-Global Warming regime will continue to involve a lot of nation states and regional regime management of the political economic economies in every corner of the planet. Meanwhile, because the United States under Barack Obama and most large corporations and banks in America are set to try, meet, and eventually exceed global warming gases reduction commitments for decades to come. This means that common goals in economic management can and will be coordinated worldwide in coming decades.

Perhaps, the world will indeed have a multiplicity of capitalistic models functioning over the next-half century, but with common core beliefs, education, research, and values in the system, (whether we are talking about energy, sustainable practices, or political economic development) the need for more universal agreement on some issues is certainly essential for man’s long-term survival on this planet.

REVIEW OF DER SPIEGEL’S “The Dark Continent: Hitler’s Holocaust Helpers”

REVIEW OF DER SPIEGEL’S “The Dark Continent: Hitler’s Holocaust Helpers”

By Kevin Stoda, Germany


A few weeks ago, I received an email from a former colleague who lives with his family northwest of Gdansk, Poland. He had let me know that Poles had been upset by a three-part DER SPIEGEL article from early May 2009. The first piece had been entitled, “THE DARK CONTINENT: HITLERS HOLOCAUST HELPERS”. I had just finished reading the articles myself and was not quite certain what all the hoopla in Poland might be about. I explained to my friend that the piece’s title was just a play on two famous non-fiction works of the past decade.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,625824,00.html


The first reference in the 3-part article’s title was to Mark Mazower’s (1999) work, DARK CONTINENT: 20th CENTURY EUROPE. The second reference was to Daniel Goldhagen’s provocative HITLER’S WILLING EXECUTIONERS (1997). The former book focuses on the wars of primarily the first half of the 20th century which left up to 100 million dead and hundreds millions more displaced or temporarily homeless. This book by Mazower sets the stage historically for explaining why Europeans have worked so hard since mid-century to create what has become a relatively peaceful continent, especially through the development of trade and friendships via organizations, like the European Union and City-to-City exchange programs.

http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/mazower.html

The latter reference, i.e. to Goldhagen’s book entitled HITLER’S WILLING EXECUTIONERS, had come out around the time that the last major WWII memory debate was erupting across Germany and Austria in the late 1990s. (Germany has had a series of national memory dates starting in the 1960s, when the youth movement first charged their parents of collusion, perpetuating fascism, and other war crimes. The mid- to late 1990s was the period when exhibitions and public debate in Germany finally took on the false legends of the German military’s supposed relative innocence under SA and later SS control in the 1930s and 1940s.

http://www.h-net.org/~german/discuss/goldhagen/

Much of this German Military history debate occurred from roughly 1995 through 2000 and was carried in German newspapers as protests against exhibitions on the subject took place across the Bundesrepublik. Goldhagen’s HITLER’S WILLING EXECUTIONERS (1996) was thus a well-timed publication for this Wehrmacht discussion in Germany as the nation, its people, and its parliament were debating the role of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents in supporting Hitler, the Nazis, the SS, and their policies throughout Europe during the 12 darkest years in German history.

http://www.h-net.org/~german/discuss/other/wehrmacht.htm

A traveling exhibition of the German Wehrmacht had set off discussion starting in 1995, and soon ( in the ensuing years) neo-Nazi marches and even bombing attacks reverberated across Germany and Austria.

Since that half-decade of wide-ranging debate took place in Germany and in Hitler’s homeland, Austria over ten years ago, many Germans have taken time to note (with a critical eye and a continuing sense of defensiveness) towards history that the German fore-fathers did not act alone in the nearly two dozen European states, where the Nazi leadership carried out the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity. Many historians agree and note that Germany has actually handled discussions and acted on historical responsibilities while, in grave contrast, peoples and states of both Eastern and Western Europe, who had actually joined in the diabolic fray against Jews, gypsies, communists, homosexuals, mentally and physically-challenged victims, have not owned upt to their crimes during the years of occupation and war..

I had just read the three part article from Der Spiegel on this theme in German as I wrote to my friend that Poland had actually been less of a target by the Spiegel authors than what one might otherwise expect from an article talking about Nazis Willing Helpers. For example, I told him, at least twice in the three articles, the various Spiegel staff writers noted that over 125,000 Poles had helped Jews to survive the Holocaust—i.e. at very great risk to themselves.

The Ukrainian born, Ivan Demjanjuk, had sparked the recent Spiegel publication this past Spring. Demjanjuk had been deported with great press attention from the United States for trial in Germany less than two weeks earlier. Demjanjuk, Ukrainian-born, had “served as a guard in Flossenbürg concentration camp until shortly before the end of World War II. He had been transferred there from the SS death camp in Sobibor in present-day Poland. He was Ukrainian, and he was a Travniki, one of the 5,000 men who helped Germany's Nazi regime commit the crime of the millennium -- the murder of all the Jews in Europe, the ‘Final Solution.” Demjanjuk faces in German courts now the charges of helping kill 29,000 Jews at Sobibor alone.



FROM NORWAY TO FRANCE TO ROMANIA, ITALY AND BALTICS

Although Demjanjuk probably certainly needs to be perceived of partially as “just a cog in the machine” of Hitler and his SS’s genocide projects, the trial of Demjanjuk is likely set to be the last major war crimes trial in Germany. Der Spiegel staff has simply thus sought to raise the leftover issues, which they see other European states--including several states already partners in the European Union--have swept under the carpet for 7 decades-too-many already.

The Spiegel writers note, “it's already clear that this last big Nazi trial in Germany will be a deeply extraordinary one because it will for the first time put the foreign perpetrators in the spotlight of world publicity. They are men who have until now received surprisingly little attention -- Ukrainian gendarmes and Latvian auxiliary police, Romanian soldiers or Hungarian railway workers. Polish farmers, Dutch land registry officials, French mayors, Norwegian ministers, Italian soldiers -- they all took part in Germany's Holocaust.”

“Dieter Pohl of the German Institute for Contemporary History estimate that more than 200,000 non-Germans -- about as many as Germans and Austrians – ‘prepared, carried out and assisted in acts of murder.’ And often they were every bit as cold-blooded as Hitler's henchmen.” However, what such a statement fails to remind readers is that many of the Nazi “helpers” in Eastern Europe had already faced two or more years of Soviet occupation and persecution before the German military showed up and persuaded them to join their at-the-time-apparently-winning campaign.

Nonetheless, the Spiegel authors do hint at such explanations several times. Such a comments don’t relinquish guilt of any of the perpetrators, but it does place the perpetrator’s activities in much clearer context. In short, the peoples of the Ukraine, Belorussia, and the Balkan states had already suffered enough to be considered victims of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorders) when they were offered a chance to show they supported their new German occupiers, e.g. in some cases they chose to join perpetrators rather than to languish or die in a prison themselves. .

On the other hand, the Spiegel authors also report: “Historian Feliks Tych estimates that some 125,000 Poles rescued Jews without being paid for their services. [So] It's clear that the perpetrators always made up a small minority of their respective population. But the Germans relied on that minority. The SS, police and the army lacked the manpower to search the vast areas where the Nazi leadership planned to kill all people of Jewish origin. Across the 4,000 kilometers stretching from Brittany in western France to the Caucasus, the Nazis were bent on hunting down their victims, deporting them to extermination camps or to local murder sites, preventing escapes, digging mass graves and then carrying out their bloody handiwork.”

The main point for Der Spiegel authors of “THE DARK CONTINENT: HITLERS HOLOCAUST HELPERS” seems to be that in “the killing fields of Eastern Europe, there were up to 10 local helpers for every German policeman. The ratio is similar in the extermination camps. Not in Auschwitz, which was run almost entirely by Germans, but in Belzec (600,000 killed), Treblinka (900,000 deaths) or in Demjanjuk's Sobibor. There, a handful of SS members were assisted by some . . . Travniki men.”

Travniki was the training camp in Poland for camp guards, set up in the early 1940s by Nazi leadership. Travniki was especially set up by the SS leadership for creating the most violent- and conscious-less helpers of the SS for the various death camps (and work camps) across the continent. Demjanjuk was among those trained at Travniki.


WAS THE HOLOCAUST A PAN-EUROPEAN PROJECT?

Despite the extensive brainwashing involved in the training of some of the SS helpers, it is clear that far too many Europeans did help in the Nazi’s projects or crimes against humanity. (Naturally, a similar helpfulness was found in Germany and Austria of the 1930s. This is what Goldhagen had focused on in his book, HITLER’S WILLING EXECUTIONERS. ) The Spiegel staff concluded the first of their three-part article by noting that the “stupefying number of victims raises disturbing questions, and Berlin historian Götz Aly already started asking them a few years ago: Was the so-called Final Solution in fact a ‘European project that cannot be explained solely by the special circumstances of German history?’”

Jewish researchers, writing with similar criticisms of most of the different European states in the 1930s through mid-1940s, have come to similar conclusions to Götz Aly. According to the Spiegel authors in the second-part of THE DARK CONTINENT, “Since 1945 the countries invaded and ravaged by Hitler's armies have seen themselves as victims -- which they doubtless were, with their vast numbers of dead. That makes it all the more painful to concede that many compatriots aided the German perpetrators.” Specifically, in “Latvia, local assistance was greater than anywhere else. According to the American historian Raul Hilberg, the Latvians had the highest proportion of Nazi helpers. The Danes are at the other end of the scale. When the deportation of Denmark's Jews was about to begin in 1943, large parts of the population helped Jews to escape to Sweden or hid them. Some 98 percent of Denmark's 7,500 Jews survived World War II. By contrast, only nine percent of the Dutch Jews survived.”

Obviously, European anti-Semitism played an evident role in the lives and actions of some--or even many--of the volunteers. Spiegel staff explain: “In the 1930s, anti-Semitism grew across Europe because the upheaval after World War I and the global economic crisis had unsettled people. In Eastern Europe, the tendency to regard Jews as scapegoats and to try and exclude them from the job market was especially strong. In Hungary, Jews were banned from public office at the end of the 1930s and were forbidden to work in a large number of professions. Romania voluntarily adopted Nazi Germany's racist and anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws. In Poland, many universities restricted access for Jewish students.”

On the other hand, Spiegel writers--and many modern European historians--note that there is no clear profile to the minds and activities of the various perpetrators. Some perpetrators were anti-Semitic. Some were not. Some were bureaucrats, some soldiers, some wealthy, some well-educated while others were poor and under-educated.

All-in-all, “ [i]t's hard to determine what motivated people to kill. Often nationalism or anti-Semitism were just excuses. During the war, no one had to go hungry in Germany, but living conditions in Eastern Europe were squalid. ‘For the Germans, 300 Jews meant 300 enemies of humanity. For the Lithuanians they meant 300 pairs of trousers and 300 pairs of boots,’ says one eyewitness. That was greed on a personal level. But it also featured on a collective level. In France, 96 percent of aryanized companies remained in French hands. The Hungarian government used the assets seized from Jews to extend its pension system and reduce inflation.”

Some of the Spiegel staff are particularly hard on the countries of Western Europe, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and France. They wrote, “Some 29,000 Jews from Belgium were murdered, many after being denounced in return for cash. Denunciations also happened in the Netherlands and France. Local authorities obediently paved the way for the deportation of Jews and later said they hadn't suspected what fate the Jews faced. That excuse was used by henchmen, opportunists and pen-pushing bureaucrats -- a category of perpetrator that was denied for a long time after the war in France as the country sought to build a myth that the entire French people had been involved in the heroic resistance.”


IN CONCLUSION: Rules of War and War Crimes

In short, only a few European states, like Denmark, are spared condemnation by most Jewish and German historians for the tendency of their peoples to side with the perpetrators of crimes against humanity--rather than the victims.

This tendency to side with the winning side during a war is true for many in the midst of any long term occupation or war, especially if the perpetrators are ruthless and have guns. People find all kinds of supporting arguments not to openly resist the occupiers.

I state all this because Robert McNamara passed away last week. Do you remember him? In the 1960s they used to call the Vietnam War, “McNamara’s War”.

Only decades later did McNamara confess that what he had been involved in with during both WWII with Japan bombings and in the Vietnam War again might truly be called war crimes—i.e. that is, if America had been the loser in WWII and if Vietnamese forces had captured him in the 1960s.

If you don’t believe me, watch the classic war documentary, THE FOG OF WAR!!

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/7/vietnam_war_architect_robert_mcnamara_dies
In Errol Morris’ Documentary, “THE FOG OF WAR” McNamara stated clearly, “I don’t fault Truman for dropping the nuclear bomb. The US-Japanese War was one of the most brutal wars in all of human history. Kamikaze pilots, suicide—Unbelievable. What one can criticize is that the human race prior to that time--and today--has not really grappled with what are called the rules of war. Was there a rule then that says you should bomb, shouldn’t kill, shouldn’t burn to death 100,000 civilians in a night? Lemay said if we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he’s right. He, and I’d say I, were behaving as war criminals. Lemay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”

So, in a sense, Der Spiegel writers do have a point in criticizing other lands, their people, and their memories of war, crimes, and occupation.

Many people are called war criminals and prosecuted only when they are on the losing side in a war. Meanwhile, others are never prosecuted as perpetrators of war-crimes because they are never arrested, prosecuted--and if they do not lose the war.

However, humanity, its victims, and I would really appreciate it if peoples and families of perpetrators would admit to the crimes and apologize in their history books and museums for the crimes of theirs--and of their forefathers.



NOTES

Germany Relied on Outside Help in the Monstrous Murder Project,
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,625824-3,00.html

“Hitler’s European Holocaust Helpers”,
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,625824,00.html

“Many Foreign Helpers Acted Voluntarily”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,625824-2,00.html
“Vietnam War Architect Robert McNamara Dies”
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/7/vietnam_war_architect_robert_mcnamara_dies

Dear Congressmen Blunt, Well, I have had to live outside the USA most of my adult life due to bad health care for single adult males in the USA.

Dear Congressmen Blunt,

Well, I have had to live outside the USA most of my adult life due to bad health care for single adult males in the USA. Germany's system is alot like the one you are talking about. Check it out. It has lots of problems, too.

I recommend medicaid for all as common standard and then you can reform the system from there.

Kevin Stoda

http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-not-explore-australian-model-now.html

July 10, 2009

Mr. Kevin Stoda
902 Pennel
Carl Junction, MO 64834

Dear Kevin:

Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts regarding health care reform. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.

As the chairman of the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group, I am actively working with my colleagues to come up with new, innovative ideas to reform our health care system. We need to expand access to health care and lower costs to make it more affordable. America deserves a health care system with a variety of quality choices, as opposed to government-rationed care. Choices should be made by the American people in consultation with the doctors they trust, not by big government.

There is a big difference between a government-run plan and a government-organized plan. When the government is allowed to compete with private plans, it soon crowds out the competition. Instead, we should look to programs such as Medicare Part D as an example of the government playing an effective role as an organizer, not a competitor.

For the reasons outlined above, I am committed to market-based solutions for the health care system that promote competition and innovation. I appreciate your thoughts and will keep them in mind as the working group moves forward. Again, thank you for contacting me. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincere regards,

Roy Blunt
Member of Congress

RDB:mk

3 BIG PARADIGMS (HOLDOVERS from Cheney-Bush, et. al.) that OBAMA NEEDS to THROW OUT

3 BIG PARADIGMS (HOLDOVERS from Cheney-Bush, et. al.) that OBAMA NEEDS to THROW OUT



By Kevin Stoda, Europe



Back in autumn 2007, long before Americans had any idea that Barack Obama would become our current USA President and commit himself to endless war in Pakistan and Afghanistan , I wrote an article entitled “THE CAMBODIAZATION OF PAKISTAN ROLLS ON--AS ARABS IN THE MIDDLE EAST CONTINUE TO RIDICULE U.S. ATTITUDE ON DEMOCRACY”. In that article, I warned that Afghanistan would become a much longer war if the USA continued attacking within Pakistan and sending more U.S. military trainers in.



Such an approach would likely prolong the USA ’s involvement in the region for another decade (or two), i.e. as the U.S.A. ’s attacks on Laos and Cambodia did in the mid-1960s.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alone_071121_the_cambodiazation_o.htm



I also emphasized in that same article that the USA is not any more welcome in Pakistan than it was in Vietnam , Cambodia nor Laos . “This is partially because the local Pakistani populace generally sees heavy U.S. military presence there as a quasi-American-colonialization of the Pakistani status quo.” I think many other historians are worried about the current trends in South Asia as well. Russia is even facetiously helping the USA fly in more equipment and troops in to Afghanistan than ever—following Obama’s recent summit in Moscow. ( Moscow is thinking, “Sure, we will help the Americans have another Vietnam in Afghanistan —just like we did.”)



Recently, the Historians Against the War (HAW) emailed me a round table report from their January evaluation of the Cheney Bush years. At that round table event many famous historians, like Alice KesslerHarris and Barbara Weinstein spoke on their overall evaluation of the 2001-2009 era (i.e. an era of horror and grave regret). Among them was the foreign affairs historian Vijay Prashad, who noted that since Carter, every single U.S. president has continued to follow a flawed-but-similar foreign policy approach to Southwest Asia, the Himalayan–Stans, and most of the planet (outside Western Europe). More specifically, Prashed claims that three basically misguided beliefs lead to the continuing American travesty and underdevelopment of more democratic politics in Asia .



In the meantime, Prashed holds out a bit of hope for Obama´s domestic programs, but due to his many mainstream presidential paradigms he has simply accepted from 5 prior presidents, Obama appears to be currently only fit to repeat the sins, crimes, and misguided activities of his presidential predecessors.





3 LOUSY PARADIGMS OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY 1979-2009



Prashed explained at the round table of HAW, “… I’m going to talk a little bit against the idea of presidential time—looking at U.S. history through the era of one presidential time—and suggest that even though we might be agreed on the personal stupidity of George Bush, the continuities between, say, Carter onward, are quite astounding on the level of foreign policy--though not domestic policy. So I would like to lay out a narrative of the continuity against the question of presidential time.”



Prashed then looked first at what-might-have-been, i.e. had the many Non-Aligned states in the world of the Cold War not suddenly capitulated to Debtor Capitalism in the late 1970s and 1980s. The Marxist historian Prashed speaks proudly of the far-sighted Fidel Castro who called an important summit of the Non-Aligned states in New Delhi in 1983, e.g. just as many Latin American states, from Mexico to Argentina were threatening to stop paying on their bad debts incurred during the first of many financial bubbles.



These early financial bubbles had grown up between 1972 and 1982 as the result of the first and second oil shocks. These bubbles were produced as huge amounts of petro-dollars in reserve at New York and London banks, e.g. where Middle Eastern Oil Sheikhs preferred to stuff their currency, arose. This situation of having too much money on hand led to a sense of crises for the bankers. This feeling of crises had led Citibank and other New York and London financiers to head to Latin America, Africa, and Asia knocking on doors and handing out money to be paid back later at usury rates.



In the wake of the first of a subsequent thirty-year-long series of financial bubbles, Castro had appropriately warned the poorer Non-Aligned states of the planet that “we are under attack from the International Monetary Fund, we are under attack from the advanced capitalist countries, who are in the middle of a problem.” Castro advised the 170 underdeveloped lands of the globe to unite and fight off the slavery offered them in the name of national debt and pro-West development. Castro, according to Prashed, then called for an international strike against debt payments and servicing. Castro claimed “we are creating out of our hard work to build our national infrastructure to create mutual trade, and not to send debt servicing back to the advanced industrial countries to get them out of their slump.”



Naturally, Castro was not listened to.



By the end of the 1980s , the world’s economy was in a mess as both (1) social democratic states were giving up on their commitments to the poorer and middle classes and as (2) even national revolutionary regimes in most every corner of the planet had joined by the same late 1980s--or early 1990s—the parade of peoples marching and lining up for the IMF, massive debts, overdependence on trade, and the GATT/WTO.



According to Prashed, the resulting decline in commitments by national states around the globe to their own people’s social and democratic development starting from the 1970s onward subsequently led to the rise of radical fundamentalist religious groups gaining political, economic, and social ground everywhere on the planet in a few short years. That is, in the absence of a high level of concern and commitment to the welfare-of-all as ürpscribed by trickledown economists of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (and the Bush-Cheney era), many rightwing extremist groups soon took over the social development roles abandoned by many of these same regimes and sectarian groups and unions went out of favor as they had no power to return favors without socio-economic progress.



Paradigm Number One, which is the You-do-it-my-way-or-Get-out-of-the-way paradigm, is certainly the first paradigm that Obama needs to toss out when approaching most of the globe and the peoples of sovereign states, like Pakistan , who do not want him their lobbing missiles or flying drones. This paradigm demands that the world do things the American president’s way (and his supporting cast of wealthy interest groups)—or get out of the way. The approach may sound like a W. Bush or Ronald Reagan view of the planet, but Carter, Clinton and apparently Obama were (and are) the types of American leaders who (do and) did continue to emphasize the WTO’s-World Order (and the IMF-Chicago School of Economics) as the primary foreign policy approach to political-economic development abroad.



Carter was the first President to do so after Watergate by claiming the petroleum-filled peninsula of Arabia to be America ’s backyard to development in his address, which came to be known as the Carter Doctrine. This doctrine committed the U.S.A. to oppose political development in the region and to promote radical jihadism in Afghanistan and Pakistan . The Carter Doctrine approach to the Middle East eventually ruined any chance that the USA would be seen as an honest broker in the region—even though the Soviet Union had begun pulling out of the Middle East around the Israel , Egypt , and Lebanon region by 1972 already.



The second paradigm failure, which Obama appears to have also fully embraced, is to continue to fail to call off the right wing jihadists and to stop supporting the underdevelopment of social welfare seeking societies of citizens who are not on the radical right fringe of society and religion. Instead he, like Bush and Cheney, is not willing to speak truth to Israel and others in the Middle East . Prashed, author of THE DARKER NATIONS: A PEOPLE´S HISTORY OF THE THIRD WORLD (The New Press), properly notes that Hamas, the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, and dozens of other extremist groups have won favor in their societies by fighting for the commonweal. That is, after fighting well in Afghanistan in the 1980s, they went home and joined movements to provide care and insurance, i.e. where the regions poor often have had no one to turn to in an age of Neo-Liberal and Neo-Conservative economics. Prashed points out that the group which bombed and attacked Mumbai last November 2008 (coming out of Pakistan ) is Lashkar-al-Taiba, which is a largely popularly supported movement that provides health care for hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of Pakistanis each year.



No wonder Pakistan can’t shut the Lashkar-al-Taiba down!



Recall, according to Pradesh, that until the 1970s, there were many non-sectarian groups operated in Pakistan helping the poor. Following Pakistan ’s fuller embrace of World Bank and IMF rules in the 1970s and 1980s, the poorest Pakistanis had to find support in their stricter and traditional religious sects, who had centuries of collateral and connections saved up. A similar story enveloped Algeria and other nation states in the same decades.



Until now, Obama has not even thought of pulling out of Afghanistan and failing to really work on development of social and human potential in Asia —instead of investing in things that go BOOM. A similar, non-military, approach is needed throughout Asia but Obama seems to be blind to the faults in his paradigms and keeps the door open for so-called good jihadists to join or rejoin governance by offering up guns or blind hope—instead of real help of develop. Obama´s group of jihadists includes Likud party members who shoot premiers in Israel or who blindly support the bombing-the-hell-out of Gaza—e.g. breaking every international law on the books—as well as those jihadists who have joined governments in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia.



When will Obama understand that if he bombs the-hell-out-of Afghanistan and Pakistan , more jihadists will grow out of the walls and caves of the Himalayas ? Until we, Americans, are ready to decontaminate a region by really helping a society instead of bombing it (because we can’t control it), American foreign policy will never grow up and we will continue to waste our children’s future on making war today and tomorrow.



The third paradigm of Washington ’s last 6 presidents, i.e. a paradigm--which like the other two--needs to be tossed out the window, is described by Vijay Prashed as the American leadership’s instinct to constantly “disregard its own rule(s)” and playing favorites or turning on friends on-the-spur of the moment. In short, it is a world paradigm where often friendships outside America ’s small group of favored friends (like the U.K. , Germany and Israel ) are cheap or not taken seriously.



Prashed explains this American Let´s-pick-and-choose-and-pick-and-choose-again-our friends worldview as follows: Suppose “you have a mass base, suddenly Washington is your pal, Washington wants you to win an election, you’re going to lose the election. Why? Because everybody understands Washington ’s structural role in their social mal-development, and we have to recognize that.”



One fact is unclear. When we switch our friends so freely, why do we constantly stand so close to Israel ? How have the Israelis built peace in the Middle East lately?



Make them earn our love!



However, picking and choosing friends is perceived otherwise as a random act by non-Americans viewing American foreign behavior over decades. These non-Americans worldwide find that American support is dictated only by what the U.S. feels to be its interest or flavor of the month or year.



The bottom line for Vijay Pradesh and Historians Against War is that making more war in Afghanistan and Pakistan is just the same old line (filled with the same paradigms) we have been getting as rhetoric for three decades.



We need to demand that Obama throw out the weight of bad paradigms and get America out of the war making game. Next we need to get out of the supporting-extremist (and create more jihadists) game. Finally, let our global partners (not only the OECD states)— i.e. some 190-plus nations—grow up and develop economically, democratically, and socially.

WHY ARE NOT OBAMA, PUTIN, & MEDVEDEV NOT TELLING CHINA: “Quit Persecuting and Killing the Uyghurs, Your Own People!”??? By Kevin Stoda, Germany

WHY ARE NOT OBAMA, PUTIN, & MEDVEDEV NOT TELLING CHINA: “Quit Persecuting and Killing the Uyghurs, Your Own People!”???

By Kevin Stoda, Germany

I must admit that in Germany (and in all of the EU), the public leadership speaking out against the recent massacres against Uyghurs in Xinjiang has been close to zero. In the USA, the same story seems to be enfolding. In short, people and government leaders are much more interested in the burial of Michael Jackson than they are in the deaths and false-arrest of hundreds--and thousands--of ethnic Chinese. However, since Russia neighbors China and because Obama is visiting there, I think the world can and must expect the two governments of the USA and Russia to tell China, “Enough is Enough!”.

Meanwhile, the silence in Russia and Eruope is deafening. I note that even the Uyghur news websites have been totally shut down somehow. Try this link!

http://www.uyghurnews.com/

Imagine if the Tibetan websites were simply shutdown in such an easy manner. Long before the shut-down, in April of 2009 in fact, according to the Uyghur News, “Obama and Hu [Head of China]appear to have deferred the question of human rights, one of the greatest points of friction between the two sides. ‘The two sides agreed to resume the human rights dialogue as soon as possible,’ the White House statement said. China did not immediately confirm the details of the U.S. announcement.”

Meanwhile, amongst the worldwide press silence and the U.S. government’s silence, Democracy Now (DN) finally noted very clearly this morning, “New protests have erupted in China’s western Xinjiang region, two days after at least 156 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades. On Tuesday, some 200 ethnic Uyghurs–mostly women–took to the streets to protest over the mass arrest of more than 1,400 people following Sunday’s clashes. Later, hundreds of ethnic Han Chinese marched through the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. The two sides blame each other for the outbreak of violence.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/7/uyghur_protests_widen_as_xinjiang_unrest
Nury Turkel was invited on DN to finally give a Uyghur condemnation and to call for a proper world-wide rebuke of the Chinese attacks on Uyghurs. DN’s Amy Goodman began the interview by noting, “New protests have erupted in China’s western Xinjiang region, two days after at least 156 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades. On Tuesday, some 200 ethnic Uyghurs, who are a Muslim minority, took to the streets to protest over the mass arrest of more than 1,400 people following Sunday’s clashes. The protesters–mostly women and children–were surrounded by riot police armed with rifles and tear gas. Later, hundreds of ethnic Han Chinese marched through the streets of Urumqi–the capital of Xinjiang province–armed with clubs and machetes, smashing shops and stalls belonging to Uyghurs. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowds. The two sides blame each other for the outbreak of violence. Officials say 156 people–mostly ethnic Han Chinese–died in Sunday’s violence. Uyghurs groups say many more have died, claiming 90 percent of the dead are Uyghurs. The Uyghur demonstrators say they had been demanding justice for two Uyghurs killed last month in a fight with Han Chinese at a toy factory in southeastern China. Chinese authorities have tried to crack down on dissent since Sunday’s protests, carrying out mass arrests, restricting media access and cutting off cell phone and internet services. For more we are joined by Nury Turkel, a Uyghur American Attorney. He is the co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and past president of the Uyghur American Association.”

Nury Turkel describes the Uyghurs as the forgotten Tibetans of China. “The Uyghurs are the other Tibetans that you never have heard of. The Uyghurs are ethnically a Turkic people. They speak a language that is similar to the one spoken in the Uzbekistan and all the way to Black Sea region of Turkey or Central Turkey. The Uyghurs historically have been a very politically active people in the region. They have had their own Uyghur empire throughout history. In the modern memory they had two short-lived Republics, known as East Turkistan Republic. The first one was established in 1933, the second one was established in 1944. The second one was destroyed mainly by Stalin’s aim to collaborate with the Chinese, firing the most prominent Uyghur leaders. They were killed on their way to negotiate the final status with the Chinese. Five of the most prominent leaders of the Uyghur Republic killed in a mysterious air crash in 1949 in Kazakhstan airspace, on their way to negotiate the final status of East Turkistan with the Chinese. Ever since, the Uyghurs fall into the Chinese communist regime. Today, the Uyghurs feel that they live in an open prison.”

Instead of being seen as persecuted peoples, almost the entire world looks at the Uyghurs as a handful of unfairly kidnapped peoples from Afghanistan who were then taken to Guantanamo over half a decade ago by USA forces. In the interview, Turkel considered the ignorance and unfair fear worldwide that the USA Guantanamo arrests and other kidnapping of Uyghurs. “The Uyghurs, specially, particularly after 9/11, the Uyghurs have been pressured in all fronts. The Uyghurs literally lost any thing that they had, even their native language and their own cultural heritage that they had been proudly been adhering to. The economic pressure, social pressure, political pressure, made the Uyghurs feel they had been suffocated by the communist regime. Today in their society, the Uyghurs do not have the right to worship, the right to fair employment, do not have the right to enjoy their cultural heritage. The women and children under 18 years old, and even retired government workers are not allowed to participate in any religious activities. The Uyghur language has been banned in higher education system. They imposed Chinese language based education system. Despite economic boom in China, the experience the highest unemployment rate, and the Chinese government openly discourages and discriminates—discourages Uyghurs applying to high paid positions. And also, the job advertisements, if you look at them openly discouraged the Uyghurs to apply for certain types of high paid jobs in the society.”

Finally, the lawyer Nury Turkel summarized the cultural clashes in China today, “Several years ago, Chinese government started this program bringing the Uyghurs into inner Chinese city, that includes women, from the countryside, to locate them in countries all around Chinese coastal cities. Today, you can find Uyghur workers in factories manufactures, making Nike sneakers and in some toy factories. This particular one is very large factory located in Guangdong Province where the have roughly around 800 Uyghur workers from a southern city of Kashgar . One of the disgruntled Chinese workers post a message claiming that two Uyghur men raped a Chinese woman, which turned out to be false. Triggered a mob and local Han Chinese workers to attack the Uyghur workers at night. And the government reported only two deaths, but based on the Radio Free Asia reporting after the interview of two of the injured Uyghurs, the number is much larger than that. As we speak today, more than 400 Uyghur workers previously worked for this toy factory had been locked up in an undisclosed location. The claim is the government is protecting their safety. If the government is protecting their safety, they should be allowed to be returned home to Kashgar. The government is obviously not allows them to do that. Also, the local Guangdong provincial government failed to exercise its obligation to investigate the criminal act. This Radio Free Asia report also indicates the security guards for the manufacturer allowed outside mobs to come in with clubs and lead tubes to beat up the Uyghur workers, including women. So, this is unacceptable to any standard. The Uyghurs in Urumqi could not accept this brutal act against the Uyghur workers who were from the countryside of the Uyghur region, who simply just want to earn some money and go back. Another displeasure the Uyghurs have expressed is, back in 1949, the Han Chinese population only three percent. But now reached over 45%, the Han Chinese are still coming. They can work, they and get all types of loans, they can get all types of government high-paid positions, where as poor Uyghurs cannot even work in peacefully go on with their lives in a manufacturing, minimum paid jobs in Guangdong Province. This created a natural resentment. Not only to the Uyghurs inside China, the worldwide Uyghur community is outraged. Several hundred Uyghurs tried to make a living in a factory where millions and millions of Chinese still keep coming and taking over and making the Uyghurs second class citizens in their own land.”

The bottom line for me as a world citizen is that the Uyghurs need not simply be either the butt of bad jokes in the USA, e.g. by President Obama, nor are they to be feared unfairly as terrorists worldwide.

The Chinese are paying sometimes for such propaganda but are getting it now free from all corners—from Germany to Ho Chi Minh City..

Op-Ed News and Other new sources in the USA and in Europe need to see that the Chinese bullying of world opinion ends now. HELP THE UYGHURS!!!! SPEAK OUT!!!!

GERMAN FOREIGN AND INTERNAL MINISTRIES KEPT MY WIFE FROM ENJOYING THE ELTON JOHN CONCERT IN WIESBADEN WITH ME

GERMAN FOREIGN AND INTERNAL MINISTRIES KEPT MY WIFE FROM ENJOYING THE ELTON JOHN CONCERT IN WIESBADEN WITH ME

By Kevin Stoda, Germany


The open-air concert started with the powerful melody, chords, and rhythms from the opening of Elton John’s YELLOW BRICK ROAD album. Naturally that music took me back to my Junior High Days in Kansas. (We, in Kansas are partial to anything that has to do with the WIZARD OF OZ.) The sounds of the YELLOW BRICK ROAD album echoed among the longest set of building columns in Europe, located at the Kurhaus, where I had settled in at the start of Elton John’s concert at 8pm near the Bowling Green in Wiesbaden on June 30, 2009. Naturally, I immediately sent my wife an SMS in Kuwait telling her where I was and what I was up to. Later, I called her in Kuwait and tried to share the music with her.

http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/06/dancing-cubana-in-ring-church-wiesbaden.html

My wife’s name is Maria Victoria M. Baradero and she has worked the last 8 years in Kuwait. We have known each other for years but only decided in early autumn last year to commit ourselves to the rest of our lives together. This occurred just about the time I received a call from Germany inviting me to consider moving here and working. I had asked her if she wanted to be part of my life and whether she, too, would like to go and live in Europe—rather than work six days a week in the deserts of Arabi.

By the way, for nearly 20 years I had wanted to return to Central Europe to live and teach. I also wanted to travel with my Victoria and show her the beautiful world of Europe and its cultures—which I consider my second home—and the home of my family’s ancestors. I felt and feel that we can live a fun and low impact (on green-house gas producing) lifestyle in Europe because of the great public transportation systems there—i.e. rather than returning to the USA and trying our luck this 2009. Besides, my youngest sister is moving to work in Germany this summer, too.

GERMAN KEEPS CALLING THE STODA’S BACK

It is likely that from present-day Saxony or Thuringen in modern Germany where my great-great grandfather Friederich Stoda came to the New World from. He was originally named von Stade. However, like many emigrants around the world, his name’s spelling was changed during the migration or arrival in the Promised Land of the USA. Friederich Stoda’s story is quite sketchy. American history records only that Friederich died of ailments contracted during the U.S. Civil War, when he fought on the side of the North with Wisconsin unit. America was simply his chosen home. You see, he seems to have given up on Germany getting better on its own. The time of Friederichs arrival in the USA in the late 1840s certainly seems to have been related to the increasing Diaspora of Germanic peoples emigrating from Central Europe. This mass emigration occurred in the mid 19th centuru after the clear widespread defeat of democrats and democracy movements, which occurred after the failures of the continental Revolutions of 1848-9.

150 Years later (in January 2009), I (Kevin Anthony Stoda, who is fluent in German) arrived for the third time in two generations in Central Europe to try and eek out a living in Germany with my new bride. After some struggle, in March of this same year I received my German work visa and quickly had Maria Victoria, my soul mate and wife, go to the German Embassy in Kuwait and apply to come to Germany on a spousal visa.

I really anticipated only a little opposition to the visa. This was expected due to the fact that Maria Victoria and I had only gotten married in a civil ceremony in late December in Kuwait—despite knowing one another since 2005. However, because the European Union clearly supports the uniting of spouses under its current visa system, I hadn’t anticipate German officials trying to both use and abuse use every obstacle they could think of in order to keep my poor bride, Maria Victoria, from getting to know the Land of My Grandfathers—i.e. Germany.


Things began to go wrong right away.


First, in April the German Embassy in Kuwait misplaced my wife’s application for a visa. The application was found and it eventually arrived in Wiesbaden--over five weeks later. Next the Interior Ministries at the local visa processing office in Wiesbaden began to peck on the application and play games with our hearts, minds, and souls. First, the Wiesbaden officials had the nerve to question the validity of our Kuwait marriage certificate although it had more than the required stamps and names on it—and on the additional translated versions of that wedding document. This questioning of my marriage’s authenticity went on for several weeks before I finally contacted the Kuwait Embassy in Germany and told them that local German officials did not accept wedding certificates from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Justice.

http://www.opednews.com/populum/print_friendly.php?p=Marriage-Integration-and-by-ALONE-090511-656.html

Next, the same local Interior Ministry Officials in Wiesbaden raised an arcane claim that I did not have nor earn enough money to take care of my wife in Germany. Eventually, the local Wiesbaden officials claimed in writing that I was “about 200 dollars shy” in earning local currency each month in Germany to take care of my wife. These same officials refused to note that in addition to my salary I receive an annual annuity from my late father of over 300 dollars a month (and share rent-income with siblings members as well as receive other support in housing money through my firm each and every month.) Finally, as a very clear sign that injustice and double jeopardy are rampant in German governance and bureaucracy, this same interior ministry office in Wiesbaden also determined in mid-May to immediately begin taxing me each and every month an extra 400 dollars.

Why?

This 400 dollar additional tax is because I am currently living as a single, i.e. living alone and without a wife. That means single people pay more taxes than married couples in Germany.

Wait a Minute!

I said, “Wait, you are the very same ministry keeping my wife out of Germany (by refusing to giver her a visa)—and you have the NERVE to soak me with unfair taxes, i.e. as though I am single or an unmarried person in Germany?” In America, that would be double jeopardy, which is a crime against a citizen.


Finally…

Finally, exactly seven days before Elton John arrived to give his concert in Wiesbaden this June, the local Integration and Immigration Offices in the city of Wiesbaden decided to officially claim in a very-very questionable final decision that I (Kevin Anthony Stoda) do not have enough money for my wife—despite the fact that I currently fully support my wife’s living expenses in Kuwait at a rate of well over 360 to 480 Euros per month—i.e. more than twice the 147 Euros per month that this same Tax and Interior Ministry’s civil servants in Wiesbaden, Germany claim “that I still need to earn each month” to bring my wife here.

What’s worse still?

What is even worse is that yesterday the German Embassy in Kuwait told my wife (and I pray it was stated to her in error) that my poor wife, Maria Victoria, is not allowed again to apply to come for another full year.

Another year of Forced Separation and Unfair/Illegal Taxation by German Officials

In summary, the Interior Ministry of Germany will (1) continue to keep forcing me--under false pretexts—to pay a “single person” tax of nearly 400 dollars a month and (2) maintain a forced separation for me from my wife, i.e. living on separate continents, for quite a long time.

Finally, (3) my wife was thus banned tonight from enjoying the Elton John Concert tonight in Wiesbaden tonight.

Can I (and my wife) demand an apology and justice here, Deutschland? ???Meanwhile, Elton, please, sing me a sad song.

“Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain
And ironing out the rough spots
Is the hardest part when memories remain
And it's times like these when we all need to hear the radio
`Cause from the lips of some old singer
We can share the troubles we already know

Turn them on, turn them on
Turn on those sad songs
When all hope is gone
Why don't you tune in and turn them on

They reach into your room
Just feel their gentle touch
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much

If someone else is suffering enough to write it down
When every single word makes sense
Then it's easier to have those songs around”

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/e/elton+john/sad+song_20184709.html

an article from Narco News providing background about the political pr

ALERT #4 - Military Coup in Honduras
June 29, 2009

A Bit of Background: below, an article from Narco News providing background about the political process in Honduras that resulted in the coup and the extensive links the military coup leaders have to the United States military establishment, including the School of the Americas

[CONTACT: a, Annie Bird (Rights Action co-director), annie@rightsaction.org, 011-502-5005-1530; in North America, Grahame Russell (Rights Action co-director), 1-860-751-4285, info@rightsaction.org]

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RIGHTS ACTION Commentary:

As this terrible, typical story unfolds, keep in mind:

the fear of the Honduran oligarchy and military is real participatory democracy
the oligarchy and military that have orchestrated the coup are the same people that have long had and continue to have extensive military ties to the USA, and extensive business and financial ties with the USA and Canada
for decades, they have tightly controlled an effectively non-democratic, two-party state that defends their interests, on the backs of and at the expense of the human rights and well-being of their own population, Honduras being one of the most impoverished and exploited countries in the Americas
their fear is not the non-binding June 28 opinion poll, that President Mel Zelaya was enabling, but the ground-swell movement of Honduran people and community based organizations that were pushing for and participating in this process
since Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras, Nicaragua and parts of Guatemala in 1998, Rights Action has supported a number of amazing grassroots campesino and indigenous organizations that continue to work tirelessly for real democracy in Honduras. Leaders of these groups, like COPINH, are now in hiding and being targeted for repression
this struggle for real democracy in Honduras is not over by a long shot
WHAT TO DO: see below

To get on/ off Rights Action's email list: http://www.rightsaction.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=3/

Please re-distribute this info all around

* * *

COUP IN HONDURAS
http://mywordismyweapon.blogspot.com/
Posted by Kristin Bricker, Sunday, June 28, 2009

The following is an article I wrote for Narco News. For up-to-the-minute information on the coup in Honduras, go to narconews.com

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS-TRAINED MILITARY DETAINS AND EXPELS DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED PRESIDENT ZELAYA

Early this morning approximately 200 Honduran soldiers arrived at President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya's residence, reportedly fired four shots, and detained the President. Zelaya told TeleSUR that the soldiers took him to an air force base and put him on a plane to Costa Rica.

Zelaya told TeleSUR from San Jose, Costa Rica, "They threatened to shoot me." Honduras' ambassador to the Organization of American States, Carlos Sosa Coello, reports that the president has been beaten up.

Zelaya told TeleSUR that he doesn't believe it was regular soldiers who kidnapped him. "I have been the victim of a kidnapping carried out by a group of Honduran soldiers. I don't think the Army is supporting this sort of action. I think this is a vicious plot planned by elites. Elite who only want to keep the country isolated and in extreme poverty."

Zelaya fears for the safety of his family, who remains in Honduras. He pleaded with TeleSUR viewers to seek a way to "have a dialogue with these soldiers so that they don't harm my family, so that they don't shoot anybody. We can settle our differences through dialogue."

The anti-Zelaya President of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, has declared himself interim president of Honduras. On the Friday before the coup, Zelaya called Micheletti "a pathetic, second-class congressman who got that job because of me, because I gave you space within my political current."

Zelaya informed TeleSUR that he has not requested asylum in Costa Rica, and that he will return to Honduras as its president to complete his term, which expires in 2010.

HONDURAN MEDIA SHUT DOWN

Radio Es Lo De Menos, an independent radio station reporting from Honduras, issued a press release before its power was cut. The press release states that several cabinet members have been detained, and there are arrest warrants out for other cabinet members as well as leaders of social organizations. It calls on the international community to hold protests outside Honduran embassies and consulates.

TeleSUR reports that the soldiers have also arrested the Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan ambassadors to Honduras, as well as Chancellor Patricia Rodas. The Venezuelan ambassador told TeleSUR that the soldiers beat him during the kidnapping. La Prensa reports that soldiers have detained at least one pro-Zelaya mayor, San Pedro Sula's Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri.

Cell phones are reportedly no longer working in Honduras. The power has been cut in at least some parts of the country, disabling independent media and state television stations for the time being. Before the state televisions went off the air, Channel 8 managed to communicate to its viewers, "It appears as though the soldiers are coming here." Seconds before it went off the air, Channel 8 told citizens to gather in the Plaza de la Libertad. Channel 8 appears to have been taken over by the military, but it is still not transmitting.

Honduras' privately owned Channel 12 and Channel 11 are showing classic soccer clips.

SOLDIERS BLOCK OPINION POLL

Soldiers have also moved to block the opinion poll that sparked the coup. Today Hondurans were supposed to register their opinion in a non-binding poll that asked them, "Do you think that the November 2009 general elections should include a fourth ballot box in order to make a decision about the creation of a National Constitutional Assembly that would approve a new Constitution?" The poll would have had no legal weight.

In the town of Trujillo, soldiers have taken the streets and are not allowing citizens to vote in the opinion poll. In Santa Rosa, soldiers reportedly under the orders of the Federal Prosecutors Office have seized ballot boxes from schools and public places. Soldiers seized ballot boxes in Dulce Nombre Copan as well, but citizens have gone to the military base to take them back again. In Santa Barbara, La Prensa reports that the opinion poll is going on as planned, with no interference thus far from the military.

Soldiers are also carrying out operations on the country's major highways, according to La Prensa. The situation could get ugly on the highways, as La Prensa reports that peasants from the Guadalupe Carney community have taken over some highways.

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS CONNECTION

The crisis in Honduras began when the military refused to distribute ballot boxes for the opinion poll in a new Constitution. President Zelaya fired the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez, who refused to step down. The heads of all branches of the Honduran armed forces quit in solidarity with Vasquez. Vasquez, however, refused to step down, bolstered by support in Congress and a Supreme Court ruling that reinstated him. Vasquez remains in control of the armed forces.

Vasquez, along with other military leaders, graduated from the United States' infamous School of the Americas (SOA). According to a School of the Americas Watch database compiled from information obtained from the US government, Vasquez studied in the SOA at least twice: once in 1976 and again in 1984.

The head of the Air Force, Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, studied in the School of the Americas in 1996. The Air Force has been a central protagonist in the Honduran crisis. When the military refused to distribute the ballot boxes for the opinion poll, the ballot boxes were stored on an Air Force base until citizens accompanied by Zelaya rescued them. Zelaya reports that after soldiers kidnapped him, they took him to an Air Force base, where he was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.

Congressman Joseph Kennedy has stated, "The U.S. Army School of the Americas...is a school that has run more dictators than any other school in the history of the world."

The School of the Americas has a long, tortured history in Honduras. According to School of the Americas Watch, "In 1975, SOA Graduate General Juan Melgar Castro became the military dictator of Honduras. From 1980-1982 the dictatorial Honduran regime was headed by yet another SOA graduate, Policarpo Paz Garcia, who intensified repression and murder by Battalion 3-16, one of the most feared death squads in all of Latin America (founded by Honduran SOA graduates with the help of Argentine SOA graduates)."

Honduran Gen. Humberto Regalado Hernandez was inducted into the SOA's Hall of Fame. School of the Americas Watch notes that he was a four-time graduate. As head of the armed forces, he refused to take action against soldiers involved in the Battalion 3-16 death squad.

School of the Americas Watch points out that this is not the first time the SOA has been involved in Latin American coups. "In April 2002, the democratically elected Chavez government of Venezuela was briefly overthrown, and the School of the Americas-trained Efrain Vasquez Velasco, ex-army commander, and Gen. Ramirez Poveda, were key players in the coup attempt."

According to School of the Americas Watch, "Over its 58 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counter-insurgency techniques, sniper skills, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Colombia, with over 10,000 troops trained at the school, is the SOA's largest customer. Colombia currently has the worst human rights record in Latin America."

* * *

FUNDS ARE NEEDED FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND LEGAL DEFENSE WORK. Make tax deductible donations to Rights Action and mail to:
UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CANADA: 552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm

CONTACT YOUR OWN MEDIA, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, SENATORS, MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT, TO DEMAND:

a return of the constitutional government
no recognition, whatsoever, of this military coup and the Congressional appointed ‘de facto’ government of Roberto Michelletti
respect for safety and human rights of all Hondurans
justice and reparations for the illegal actions and rights violations committed during this illegal coup

WO SIND STAeRKE ANWAeLTE IN DEUTSCHLAND? Who will protect people who could integrate well into German society from being torn asunder

WO SIND STAeRKE ANWAeLTE IN DEUTSCHLAND? Who will protect people who could integrate well into German society from being torn asunder by Apparently arbitrary and Racist practices?



By Kevin Stoda





I believe the current practices relating to approving Spousal Visas in Germany based on wage earnings of one spouse are currently breaking both European Law and the Declaration of Human Rights. Part 1 of my case. Where are lawyers, like the recommended Matthias Reinbacher?



Part 1 of my case.







Dear Einwohner- und Integrationsamt Wiesbaden. Aussenminister und Innenminister Deutschlands,





Ich hebe den Einrecht hier in Wiesbaden, Hessen, und Deutschland, die Entscheidung von dem Ausshuss (Komittees mit XXXXXXXX ) zum sofortigen Ueberprufung.



Ich empfehle Ihnen bzw. die Frau Maria Victoria M. Baradero den Rechtswege einzuhalten, d.h. auf euer Ablehnungsschreiben auf Ihr Visum dmnaechst hin zu remonstrieren und den Remonstrationsbescheid mit Protokoll mir einzusenden.



Bis jetzt habe ich weder den ersten noch den zweitene Bescheid pro Post behalten, in diesem sollte ich den Enthält eine Rechtsbehelfsbelehrung bekommen, auch mit dem Hinweis, wo und innerhalb welcher Frist die Antragstellerin und Ihr Mann im Wiesbaden eventuelle klagen kann. Bis jetzt habe ich seit eine Woche nur einen einzigen Email und keinen Protokollbeweis des nun-in-Frage-gestellt Ausschusses bekommen.



Mittlerweile, ich als Ehemann von Frau Baradero leide sehr von der Entscheidiung der Einwohnemeldeamt in Mai 2009 mich auf Klasse 1 statt auf Klasse 3, obwohl Sie den einzigen Ausshchuss der im Weg dem Klasse 3 fuer mich und meine Frau Bardadero steht. Ich bitte daher auch, dass der Einwohnermeldeamt sofort diese Steuerklassificakation ueberprueft. Die finanzielle Untersechiede zwischen die zwei Steuer Klassen bildet sich eine grosserer (beinahe 260 Euro im Monat) und wichtigerer Finanziella unterschied fuer mich und meine Familie als die 147,12 Eure die den Frau Pluemacher in ihre Schreibung von 23. Juni betoent hat.



Um es die Gruende fuer meine Befindungen bis jetzt weiterzuerklaeren, bittle lesen Sie mal meine Erklaerung von heute.




Schreib mir, Lesern und Anwaelte(Innen) wer was Recht bei mir und Meine Frau tun will.

Ihr,



Kevin Stoda

Oranienstr.62

Wiesbaden 65185

BIG MEAT TO TAKE RANCHERS HOME FOR HIS PROTESTS ON BEHALF OF OTHERS!!!

BIG MEAT TO TAKE RANCHERS HOME FOR HIS PROTESTS ON BEHALF OF OTHERS!!!
Via Kevin Stoda in Germany from Rady Ananda in the USA

American Farmers and German Farmer Supporters need to Read this!!! Deutschland, Lies bitte und Tun was Recht ist, den Herrn Schumacher in Suddakota gegen Tyson zu Hilfen!!!!!em>

I was asked to post this to German (and American) Readers by Rady Ananda. Auf Deutche--Deutschland lies bitte und tun was Recht ist den bauern Herrn Schumacher in Suddakota gegen Tyson.The news in COALITION OF THE OBVIOUS from Rady Amanda notes. http://cotocrew.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/big-meat-to-seize-ranchers-home-tyson-vs-herman-schumacher/#comments

MARSHALLS SIDE WITH TYSON IN UNFAIR TACTIC

Directed by court order obtained by Tyson, the U.S. Marshals Service on June 11, 2009, posted a No Trespassing sign and Warning on the front door of the home of South Dakota rancher and cattle feeder Herman Schumacher. Tyson obtained a judgment against Schumacher because he tried to protect his fellow cattle producers by stopping Tyson from violating the Packers and Stockyards Act. A federal jury unanimously sided with Schumacher, but then a three-judge panel for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the jury’s decision. So, in a bizarre twist, Schumacher must now pay Tyson $15,881.38 or Tyson will seize his home.

The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (PSA) was established to protect family farmers and ranchers against unfair and deceptive practices by the highly concentrated meatpackers. In 2006, both the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that USDA had failed for nearly a decade to properly enforce the PSA. As a result, anticompetitive practices and anti-trust actions by the concentrated meatpackers have gone unrestrained, causing hundreds of thousands of cattle producers to exit the industry.

During the prolonged non-enforcement of the PSA, USDA implemented a new price reporting requirement, but made a horrendous mistake. Over a six-week period, from April 2, 2001, to May 11, 2001, USDA miscalculated beef values and underreported those values to the public. It was widely believed that Tyson and the other two largest meatpackers – Cargill Meat Solutions, d/b/a Excel Corporation (Excel), and Swift & Co. (Swift), now JBS Swift – knew that beef values were being underreported and were purposely underbidding the actual value of cattle. Prices paid for Schumacher’s and other cattle feeders’ cattle were forced lower during this period, causing producers to lose millions of dollars in income. USDA refused to take any action to correct this injustice.

But Schumacher and two other cattle feeders, Mike Callicrate and Roger Koch, stepped to the plate in 2002 to do what USDA refused to do – they filed a lawsuit to enforce producers’ rights under the PSA. They did this as a class action case to ensure that every U.S. producer harmed by the packers could recover their lost income. And they won! The federal judge in the case stated in 2006:

“The jury carefully found that defendants (Tyson, Excel, and Swift) knew of the USDA reporting errors on April 24, 2001, and took advantage of such knowledge thereafter…There is no dispute that the jury found defendants liable for damages for violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act.”

The jury awarded $9.25 million to the class of cattle producers harmed by the packers. Schumacher estimated that he and the other cattle feeders in the class would each receive about $40 for each head of cattle sold while the packers were driving cattle prices lower.

On Friday, Schumacher held a press conference at his home:
Yesterday, R-CALF released a statement asking the nation’s largest meatpacker to behave morally and rescind seizure of Schumacher’s home:

Billings, Mont. – On the day R-CALF USA conducted its June 26, 2009 news conference before a crowd of about 150 in the small town of Herreid, S.D., to highlight Tyson Fresh Meat’s seizure of the home of Herreid, S.D., rancher and cattle feeder Herman Schumacher, Tyson faxed R-CALF USA a complaint letter.

Tyson Senior Group Vice President for Fresh Meats James Lochner complained that R-CALF USA had “twisted the facts in its recent press announcements on the boxed beef pricing litigation that occurred in South Dakota.” Lochner’s letter also informs R-CALF USA that Tyson intends to proceed in its action to seize Schumacher’s home, and Tyson attempts to justify its action on the basis that Schumacher would do the same to Tyson if the outcome of the price manipulation case had turned out differently.
R-CALF USA fired a letter back to Tyson informing Lochner that he has erroneously cited an 18-month-old news release from the group, which was not a part of any of R-CALF USA’s announcements for the news conference held to highlight Tyson’s current action of retaliation against Schumacher. R-CALF USA’s letter explains that Lochner’s error demonstrates that Tyson and R-CALF USA have long had “different views regarding what constitutes a competitive cattle market.”

But, R-CALF USA’s letter is hardly a defense against Tyson’s criticisms. Instead, it is an appeal to Tyson to attain a higher moral standard. The group’s letter states in part:

R-CALF USA does not contest Tyson’s right to seize and sell Schumacher’s home. However, R-CALF USA believes there is a higher, moral imperative that should govern the outcome of this controversy. It is fundamentally wrong for Tyson to seize the modest home of Herman Schumacher after Tyson’s actions were found to have financially harmed Schumacher and other cattle producers in the amount of $9.25 million. The fact that an appellate court shielded Tyson from any obligation to make Schumacher and other cattle producers whole even after it was found to have engaged in conduct prohibited by the Packers and Stockyards Act does not absolve Tyson of this higher, moral responsibility.

The letter further states, “R-CALF USA respectfully requests that Tyson immediately withdraw its judgment against Herman Schumacher and its ongoing legal action to seize Schumacher’s home.”

R-CALF USA also asks Lochner to let the organization know whether Tyson will agree to the requested withdrawal by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Monday, June 29, 2009, so that R-CALF USA will know whether it needs to begin preparing for the forced sale of Schumacher’s home, which is expected to occur on or after July 1, 2009.



Originally posted at Food Freedom, with editorial contributions by Rady Ananda.

ODE TO California and DON HENLEY: “There's a hole in the world tonight”

ODE TO California and DON HENLEY: “There's a hole in the world tonight”
By Kevin Stoda, in Germany (a LAND busy hollowing out its Middle Class, too)

“There's a hole in the world tonight” is a song on the radio this evening. It is a song by Don Henley, and it tells listeners:

“There's a hole in the world tonight
There's a cloud of fear and sorrow
There's a hole in the world tonight
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.”

http://www.kovideo.net/lyrics/e/Eagles/Hole-In-The-World.html

At first that refrain reminded me of the Cold War days when we all thought we would never make it to the end of each decade without a pair of red balloons leading accidentally to a 3rd World War--and probably annihilation of mankind in a tit-for-tat war.

Only with the rise in the last few years of a nuclear amok North Korea (led by a schizoid movie freak) have I had to have such a nightmare lately, what about you? [I’m, however, not currently too worried about the Islamic bomb of Iran as Pakistan was the first Islamic nation to have a nuclear bomb. They—the Pakistanis--, however, are more interested in responding to a Hindu bomb from neighboring India. Could it be that Iranian leaders only want a bomb to detour Israel? Think about it. Or let the nightmares roll.]

Then I became aware of the fact that another prominent refrain in the Henley text, “There's a hole in the world tonight” was:

“They say that anger is just love disappointed
They say that love is just a state of mind.
But all this fighting over who is anointed,
Oh, how can people be so blind?”

I thus became aware that Henley was referring to the religious and cultural wars—rather than worrying about the weapon technology that would take us to Armageddon or Paradise—or limbo. Henley might likely be talking about the fight in America over who is a real Christian or he might be talking about the world wide Christian vs. Islam vs. Jew vs. Hindu vs. Sikh vs. Buddhist wars concerning the determination of the ultimate deity--and destiny of man before the heavens and how man should treat his fellow man on earth. In short, the song is only a bit of a correction from his song from a decade (or two) ago on “The Garden of Allah”—whereby Satan plays the main role.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Allah_(building)

The Garden of Alla was actually “a single mansion at 8080 Sunset Boulevard, built in 1919. It became notorious for the wild parties allegedly related to” homosexuality and flagrant abuses of public decency standards—even in 1920s Hollywood. The name was later changed to the “Garden of Allah”.

According to Henley, in his tune of the same name, the Devil makes a grand entry into the life of those 1920 Californians of the Garden of Alla—compare that with a California today which is currently shaking through economic and government turmoil comparative to a 7 on the Richter scale. As Satan jumps out of his limousine on a hot California Day to party at the Gardens he says:

“"Nice car.........
I love those Bavarians.....so meticulous
Y'know, I remember a time when things were a lot more fun around here
When good was good and evil was evil
Before things got so.......fuzzy
Yeah, I was once a golden boy like you
And I was summoned to the halls of power in the heavenly court
And I dined with the deities who looked upon me with favor
For my talents; my creativity
We sat beneath the palms in the warm afternoon
And drank the wine with Fitzgerald and Huxley
They pawned a biting phrase
From tongues hot with blood
And drained their pens of bitter ink
Vainly reaching for the bottle full of empty Edens
Branded specially for the ones
Who had come with great expectations
To the perfumed halls of Allah
For their time in the sun
We were stokin' the fires
And oilin' up the machinery
Until the gods found out we had ideas of our own"

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/don+henley/the+garden+of+allah_20042041.html

Then Satan switched into the wild 1980s or 1990s--and recent early W. Bush presidency--with the thoughts about the gullibility of the people on Earth. Henley then jumps in with these points:

“And the war was coming
The earth was shaking
And there was no more room
In the Garden of Allah”

Notwithstanding rumors and facts of war, Americans kept putting up facades to realities and economic/social vulnerabilities throughout the past several decades. In short, image became everything in America at the turn of (and beginning of) the 21st Century. Satan then spoke up in the Garden of Allah and sang:

“Today I made and appearance downtown
I am an expert witness, because I say I am
And I said, 'Gentleman....and I use that word loosely...I will testify for you
I'm a gun for hire, I'm a saint, I'm a liar
Because there are no facts, there is no truth, just data to be manipulated
I can get you any result you like....what's it worth to ya?
Because there is no wrong, there is no right
And I sleep very well at night
No shame, no solution
No remorse, no retribution
Just people selling t-shirts
just opportunity to participate in this pathetic little circus
And winning, winning, winning' "
It was a pretty big year for predators
The marketplace was on a roll
And the land of opportunity”

By the way, I didn’t personally ever hear Don Henley’s song about the Devil and the Garden of Allah until I picked up a greatest hits album of his in “a bucket CD bin” in the City Center supermarket in Dubai in the millennium year of 2000—just as the whole world was being bedazzled by the investment opportunities in the Islamic Disneyland Dubai of this same decade.

Let’s reiterate what Henley was singing to the friends of Reagan, Bush and Cheney—and their faith concerning the unlimited wonders of free market capitalism, especially in lands where labor (especially foreign born labor) had few rights—like Kansas, the UAE, China, Kuwait, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Such an arrogant capitalism of the wealthiest soon

“[s]pawned a whole new breed of men without souls
This year, notoriety got all confused with fame”

No wonder Islam and other religious fanatics can fall back so easily on misguided extremist interpretations of events when the Middle Classes have been wiped out—and only extremes remain---in many countries across Europe, North America and Asia.
Now, Henley writes in his more recent song about “a hole in heaven”:

“There's a cloud of fear and sorrow
There's a hole in the world tonight
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.
….
Oh, they tell me there's a place over yonder
Cool water running through the burning sand
Until we learn to love one another,
We will never reach the Promised Land.”

The message for those architects who have squelched the Middle and Lower Classes dreams by taxing the poor (and middle class) while allowing the rich, connected, and powerful to run amok behind visions of war with Satan are indeed what Henley needs to warn them and all about:

“There's a hole in the world tonight,
There's a cloud of fear and sorrow
There's a hole in the world tonight
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.”

Remember that the next time you want to lead a jihad or want to take off on a crusade!!!!!

NO MALICE—I JUST WANT “GLUECK” OR HAPPINESS

NO MALICE—I JUST WANT “GLUECK” OR HAPPINESS

By Kevin A. Stoda, Germany


The German word for both good luck and happiness is “glueck”.

In a famous scene from the Broadway musical and film, Fiddler on the Roof, the tailor, named Motel Kamzoil, presses the main protagonist, Tevya, with his hearts desire. This young tailor, who wishes to marry Tevya’s oldest daughter, states flatly, “Even a poor tailor has the right to some Happiness.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067093/

Tevya is impressed by the thought and finally agrees with the young mans pursuit of happiness, i.e. a life together with his soul mate.

In the weeks before, Maria Victoria M. Baradero and I got married late last year in Kuwait, we had watched the film, Fiddler on the Roof. That particular line --“Even a poor _xxx____ has the right to some Happiness”—is in many a national constitution and in the declaration of universal human rights.

It is a phrase that will remain true for both of us, Maria Victoria and I,—although we have already experienced luck and happiness together (and with many friends in our lives).

Currently, however, we--Maria Victoria and I--remain stranded on two different continents. Just yesterday, the Wiesbadener Integration (Immigration) Bureau turned down our (Maria Victoria’s and my) request to bring Maria Victoria here to Germany on a spousal visa. The grounds for the refusal here in Wiesbaden are not strong at all and indicate that German officials today continue to simply follow procedure without considering logically or without calling into questions the procedures or “due process” which they employ.


NO MALICE

Despite what I have written in the past about bureaucrats in America, in Germany, or Kuwait, I do not hold malice against individual officials. I am more tempted to have anger towards the German immigration system, which does not allow for logical and humane consideration of a claim, i.e. in order to pave the way to individual and group happiness. The absence of this logic and humanness is especially clearly missing in my case because the entire continent in which Germany is embedded, i.e. the European Union, would not appear to support the strict and inflexible procedures in place as they are Germany.

That is, if any German civil servant would choose to call in question the current procedures in place in Germany, they would soon be revamped. Here is a good metaphor for the situation in civil service in Germany and elsewhere in 2009:

On my birthday, May 9th , my mother had sent me a funny card. On the cover are two men on board a cruise ship. The man on the left in a blue Hawaiian shirt is looking out to a small island with a single palm tree. On the small island is a man with long hair and lengthy beard. This man has no clothes on and reminds one of Robinson Crusoe. This man on the deserted isle is jumping up and down and waiving his arms wildly—he is quite obviously calling out for help and attention.

A shark is swimming between him and the large cruise ship.

The man with the Hawaiian shirt is drinking a pina colada with a tiny pink umbrella in it. The man next to him on board the ship is bespectacled and is wearing a white cruise ship cap along with a nametag for the passengers to know his rank and title. The cluesless tourist in the Hawaiian shirt asks, “What’s with that guy?”

The ship captain on his right, wearing the red coat, states flatly, “I have no idea. Every month we pass by here, he goes nuts!”

Obliviousness is the constant state of bureaucracy—in Germany or outside of Germany. However, the individuals on board such a mammoth bureaucratic ship should, in fact, be thinking and humane enough to respond to the call for rescue of the abandoned refugee on a deserted isle. Don’t you agree?

Quite obviously, happiness or the right to pursue happiness is not being guaranteed to all in countries and is not in practice in Germany nor across the globe.

Inside the birthday card from my mom was this important reminder: “It’s your birthday. Get all the attention you can.” I have taken that advice and have been sharing Victoria’s and my story on-line in order to get attention for our situation of a divided heaven and earth, i.e. a division which affects our pursuit of happiness on this big blue ball.


WE HAVE BEEN WAITING

In the meantime, my aunt in Missouri has sent me another card this last month. On this card’s cover from my aunt is written: “Congratulations to the Bride and Groom”.

Inside the card is printed:

“With warm congratulations
To a very special pair.
May your day be filled
With happy memories
For both of you to share.

May the coming years continue
To hold the promise of a life
Filled with lasting joy and
Happiness for you.”

My concerned aunt added in her own hand, “I have been waiting until the 2 of you are together to send a card but decided it has been much too long. You may be needing and anniversary card before that happens. (I HOPE NOT).”

I hope not, too, but it has already been six months--and bureaucrats are not yet rising up out of their comfortable chairs to help us (Victoria and I) to obtain our RIGHT TO HAPPINESS.


NOTES

Stoda, Kevin, “DANCING CUBANA IN THE RING CHURCH WIESBADEN—AND TRYING TO ROMANCE MY WIFE LONG DISTANCE”, http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/

Stoda, Kevin, “Dear Chancellor Merkel”
http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/dear-readers-of-wordpress-blogs-and-chancellor-of-germany-angela-merkel/

Stoda, Kevin, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VICTORIA!!”
http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-birthday-victoria.html

Stoda, Kevin, “Just Married”,
http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/01/just-married.html

Stoda, Kevin, “Marriage, Integration, and Immigration Policy —Modern Bureaucracy Reflecting the Worst”, http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/05/marriage-integration-and-immigration.html

Stoda, Kevin, “MY BIG FAT KUWAITI, FILIPINO, INDIAN, & AMERICAN WEDDING: March 8, 2009”, http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-big-fat-kuwaiti-filipino-indian.html

Stoda, Kevin, “A SET OF DOCUMENTS TO THE INACTION OF STATE DEPARTMENT, CONSULATE & GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN USA CONSULATES—why racism is not fought in Germany by USA consulates while it is in Kuwait?”
http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/06/set-of-documents-to-inaction-of-state.html

GOLDMAN SACHS AND OTHER BANKS STILL BAMBOOZLING AMERICAN TAXPAYERS AND GOVERNMENT

GOLDMAN SACHS AND OTHER BANKS STILL BAMBOOZLING AMERICAN TAXPAYERS AND GOVERNMENT



By Kevin Stoda



In an interview with Amy Goodman on the topic of the record-setting bonuses going to Goldman Sachs heads this year, Nomi Prins talked about several other major boondoggles in 2009 that are costing USA taxpayers trillions--which could otherwise be used to help millions of small borrowers who have been screwed by national banks and lenders over the past decade. The interview on DEMOCRACY NOW on Monday June 22 opened with the statement: “The Guardian newspaper reports staff at Goldman Sachs can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm’s 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms. We speak to Nomi Prins, a former managing director for Goldman Sachs in New York , about the possible record bonuses, President Obama’s proposed reforms of the financial regulatory system and the The Big Bank Bailout Payback Bamboozle.´”



Nomi Prins notes that the banking industry is afraid of the most important part of the president’s package to regulate banks and financial firms. Prins, who is the author of the forthcoming book, It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street, has notice in response to recent Obama proposals, “It is high time there is some agency in Washington that is on par with the SEC or the Fed or other regulatory bodies, if this agency can be given that kind of enforcement and power. The agency that would look at mortgage loans being more transparent and safer for individuals, potentially capping credit cards, and most importantly, making sure that the banks who issue the loans and who also package them up and sell them globally and make tons of money on it actually have to keep some of those loans and some of those packages on their own books, so if there are losses, they get hit with the losses—that’s the part that the banking industry has gone up in arms about. This one agency is the part that the Wall Street banks have been most upset about, which is why we know that it could be the best part of his proposal, if it gets the play and the enforcement capabilities it deserves. But it’s going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight.”



In the same interview on DEMOCRACY NOW, Nomi Prins, who recently wrote in MOTHER JONES magazine on Obama’s proposals in an article called “Obama’s New Economic Plan: The Good, the Bad and the Weak,” has also shared: “The bigger amount of money that has gone to Goldman has come through $12.9 billion from the AIG bailout that went straight to Goldman, its biggest counterparty; $28 billion worth of FDIC-backed guaranteed debt, meaning the FDIC put up a program last fall, and it said, “For banks that deal with consumers”—not banks that deal with multibillion-dollar companies or investors, but people—“we will provide guarantees for debt,” which means that those companies can raise debt to help consumers cheaply. Goldman said, ´Alright, fine, we’ll take some of that.` And they took $28 billion worth of that, and they have up to $35 billion that they can take under the FDIC program that was never meant for a company like Goldman Sachs. In addition, there is a ton of money, there are trillions of dollars at the Fed, not all of that went to Goldman, but that has secretly gone to a number of banks in the system, of which Goldman is one, for which the Fed refuses to disclose any information or any detail, which also goes into this. So when Goldman says—has the nerve to say, feels entitled to say—that it’s going to pay its bankers record bonuses after the travesty that it and other banks have created in the markets, it is on the back of federal subsidies that effectively come from our pockets.”



Prins, who used to work for Goldman Sachs, then noted in a DN interview this past Monday that the U.S. Federal Bank is stonewalling in sharing on much information on these manipulative lenders (i.e. Americans most political powerful banks and shareholders in the U.S. Fed itself). “The entire spectrum of media has tried to get information from the Fed on these loans, and the Fed has basically said—and Bernanke has said this to the Senate and to the House—that this would actually be dangerous. It would be dangerous to give this information out, because somehow if people knew, it would create some larger catastrophic situation. The reality is, we kind of know who these banks are. The bigger banks have the tightest relationship with the Fed. They actually own portions of the Fed, because they actually own shares in the Fed. They have an incredibly symbiotic relationship. And they’ve gotten trillions of dollars of subsidies. We don’t know what the Fed won’t say. The Fed hasn’t been made to say.” That is, the US media, including Bloomberg and THE NATION magazine have been blacked out of gaining access to a lot of the wheelings and dealings of the Fed this year.”



I urge readers to check out the DN interview with Prins on Monday´s Broadcast and to read Prins´ other articles:



Prins, Nomi, “Obama’s New Economic Plan: The Good, the Bad and the Weak,” http://www.motherjones.com/bailout/2009/06/financial-regulation-good-bad-very-ugly



“Report: Goldman Sachs on Pace to Pay Out Record Bonuses this Year”, http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/22/report_goldman_sachs_on_pace_to

DANCING CUBANA IN THE RING CHURCH WIESBADEN —AND TRYING TO ROMANCE MY WIFE LONG DISTANCE

DANCING CUBANA IN THE RING CHURCH WIESBADEN —AND TRYING TO ROMANCE MY WIFE LONG DISTANCE



By Kevin Stoda, Germany



OK, I tried to be romantic!



Last Saturday night I wandered up the Kaiser Friedrich street from my flat to the Ring Church in Wiesbaden .



http://www.ringkirche.de/?Bilder





This church had recently been renovated, and at 8pm Saturday June 20th a band from Cuba was playing in the evangelical church’s sanctuary. The group, “Los 4 del Son”, that was playing that night is a four-member house-band from old-town Havana ’s bar, “La Bodega del Medio”.



http://www.los-4-del-son.com/cuba_2.htm



The Cuban group has been touring on-and-off in Germany and in other lands in Europe for the past seven to eight years. The band, “Los 4 del Son”, plays a huge variety of musical genres of Cuba in interpreting both modern and traditional tunes. Their repertoire includes salsa, meringue, bachata, and son, but often interprets popular music as well, for example, tunes from Carlos Santana.



Because of the variety of their music, the band, “Los 4 del Son”, is quite popular in the old town of Havana , but it has certainly also been popular in-and-around Wiesbaden and Frankfurt this past year as well.



http://www.zaplive.tv/web/wodanhalle-tv?streamId=wodanhalle-tv%2Fbd846221-3284-429a-9476-cb6b4b1380b8



For me, what was most fascinating about my visit to a musical evening at the famed Ring Church in Wiesbaden on Saturday night was that within the first minutes of music the audience in the church aisles were swaying.



http://english.wiesbaden.de/frame.php?menue=/living_in_wiesbaden/churches/menue.php&content=/leben_wi/religion/kirchen_ev/ringkirche.php



By the second song, two or three members had moved to the front of the church and were dancing in front of the podiums at the alter where the band was playing.



By the third song, people were getting up in the aisles and dancing.



By the fourth tune, I …



TRYING TO BE ROMANTIC


I had been drumming on the church bench and tapping my foot for some time.



As people got up to dance in the beautiful traditional stone church in Wiesbaden that Saturday night, romance and rhythm filled the air. People of all ages were up dancing in the aisles, in front of the sanctuary, and in the back rows of the sanctuary.



I soon decided I would send my wife in Kuwait an SMS. The SMS stated, “Baby, I am in a big old church in Germany and there is a Cuban band playing away. I want you to hear and enjoy this music with me. Pick up the phone when I call and listen in.”



Naturally, with the throbbing Latin beats and singing--echoing in the beautifully renovated sanctuary--, I realized I would not be able to communicate well with my wife, but as the German bureaucrats in Wiesbaden have kept me separated from my wife for most of the past 6 months, I really wanted her to share this special evening and experience with me.



http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/divided-heaven-revisited-in-none-too-different-personal-context/



I then dialed my wife’s (Maria Victoria) cell phone number in Kuwait about one minute later. The cell phone rang and rang.



Finally, it appeared to me that the phone call had been picked up because the second and minute counter for cell phone calls began to click away or register on my cell phone.



The music was fun. I tried to whisper into the phone some romantic words as the volume in the sanctuary increased to a fervid tempo. Slowly, I could stand it no more. I, too, got up and moved to the area of the room in front of the place where a pulpit still stood to the side of the musicians. The audience laughed. They (the audience) laughed—not because I was dancing by myself (others were dancing by themselves, too) but because I was dancing with my cell phone held up to my lips and whispering into it, i.e. as I tried to communicate my love and desire to enjoy this music and this night’s experience together with my wife located thousands of miles away in the Middle East, i.e. where public dancing between males and females is not accepted.



Finally, after six minutes of this procedure—and with me still doing salsa steps on the floor--, I looked at my phone’s minute counter. Next, I went ahead and switched off my phone—but I continued dancing. In the next break in music, though, I sent my wife another message asking her if she had enjoyed the music.



INTERMISSION WITH “Los 4 de Son”



During the intermission, I went back and drank wine and ate peanuts with one of the members of the band. We chatted in Spanish as I reflected that I had not danced so much to Latino music since I had lived in Mexico over seven years earlier.



This Maringa musician was from the Western Part of Cuba . His name was Wilver. He and I talked about his family at first, and then I eventually shared that my wife was far away from me, too, because for nearly six months I had not been able to help her get a visa to come and join me in Germany from Kuwait, where we had married in December 2008.



Soon, I added, “I had called my wife on the phone while you, ´Los 4 del Son´, were playing music so that my wife in Kuwait could enjoy the music and possibly dance to the music, too.”



Wilver nodded in full approval, “I had seen you. Yes, that--dancing with one’s wife--is something a man (separated from his wife for so long ) ought to do (even over the phone).”





AFTER INTERMISSION



A few minutes later, Wilver, his partners, and the other spectators were all back out on the floor of the Ring Church sanctuary and the music was taking off once again. Suddenly, I received and SMS. It was from Maria Victoria. In it she said, “Sorry, Honey, I was watching the film, AUSTRALIA , at our friends´ Jay and Sonia. So, I missed your call (to dance).”



“Well, at least,” I thought “a romantic can’t be hurt for trying to reach out over the phone to his distant-loved-one.”



I continued to dance.


DANCING CUBANA IN THE RING CHURCH WIESBADEN —AND TRYING TO ROMANCE MY WIFE LONG DISTANCE



By Kevin Stoda, Germany



OK, I tried to be romantic!



Last Saturday night I wandered up the Kaiser Friedrich street from my flat to the Ring Church in Wiesbaden .



http://www.ringkirche.de/?Bilder





This church had recently been renovated, and at 8pm Saturday June 20th a band from Cuba was playing in the evangelical church’s sanctuary. The group, “Los 4 del Son”, that was playing that night is a four-member house-band from old-town Havana ’s bar, “La Bodega del Medio”.



http://www.los-4-del-son.com/cuba_2.htm



The Cuban group has been touring on-and-off in Germany and in other lands in Europe for the past seven to eight years. The band, “Los 4 del Son”, plays a huge variety of musical genres of Cuba in interpreting both modern and traditional tunes. Their repertoire includes salsa, meringue, bachata, and son, but often interprets popular music as well, for example, tunes from Carlos Santana.



Because of the variety of their music, the band, “Los 4 del Son”, is quite popular in the old town of Havana , but it has certainly also been popular in-and-around Wiesbaden and Frankfurt this past year as well.



http://www.zaplive.tv/web/wodanhalle-tv?streamId=wodanhalle-tv%2Fbd846221-3284-429a-9476-cb6b4b1380b8



For me, what was most fascinating about my visit to a musical evening at the famed Ring Church in Wiesbaden on Saturday night was that within the first minutes of music the audience in the church aisles were swaying.



http://english.wiesbaden.de/frame.php?menue=/living_in_wiesbaden/churches/menue.php&content=/leben_wi/religion/kirchen_ev/ringkirche.php



By the second song, two or three members had moved to the front of the church and were dancing in front of the podiums at the alter where the band was playing.



By the third song, people were getting up in the aisles and dancing.



By the fourth tune, I …



TRYING TO BE ROMANTIC



I had been drumming on the church bench and tapping my foot for some time.



As people got up to dance in the beautiful traditional stone church in Wiesbaden that Saturday night, romance and rhythm filled the air. People of all ages were up dancing in the aisles, in front of the sanctuary, and in the back rows of the sanctuary.



I soon decided I would send my wife in Kuwait an SMS. The SMS stated, “Baby, I am in a big old church in Germany and there is a Cuban band playing away. I want you to hear and enjoy this music with me. Pick up the phone when I call and listen in.”



Naturally, with the throbbing Latin beats and singing--echoing in the beautifully renovated sanctuary--, I realized I would not be able to communicate well with my wife, but as the German bureaucrats in Wiesbaden have kept me separated from my wife for most of the past 6 months, I really wanted her to share this special evening and experience with me.



http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/divided-heaven-revisited-in-none-too-different-personal-context/



I then dialed my wife’s (Maria Victoria) cell phone number in Kuwait about one minute later. The cell phone rang and rang.



Finally, it appeared to me that the phone call had been picked up because the second and minute counter for cell phone calls began to click away or register on my cell phone.



The music was fun. I tried to whisper into the phone some romantic words as the volume in the sanctuary increased to a fervid tempo. Slowly, I could stand it no more. I, too, got up and moved to the area of the room in front of the place where a pulpit still stood to the side of the musicians. The audience laughed. They (the audience) laughed—not because I was dancing by myself (others were dancing by themselves, too) but because I was dancing with my cell phone held up to my lips and whispering into it, i.e. as I tried to communicate my love and desire to enjoy this music and this night’s experience together with my wife located thousands of miles away in the Middle East, i.e. where public dancing between males and females is not accepted.



Finally, after six minutes of this procedure—and with me still doing salsa steps on the floor--, I looked at my phone’s minute counter. Next, I went ahead and switched off my phone—but I continued dancing. In the next break in music, though, I sent my wife another message asking her if she had enjoyed the music.



INTERMISSION WITH “Los 4 de Son”



During the intermission, I went back and drank wine and ate peanuts with one of the members of the band. We chatted in Spanish as I reflected that I had not danced so much to Latino music since I had lived in Mexico over seven years earlier.



This Maringa musician was from the Western Part of Cuba . His name was Wilver. He and I talked about his family at first, and then I eventually shared that my wife was far away from me, too, because for nearly six months I had not been able to help her get a visa to come and join me in Germany from Kuwait, where we had married in December 2008.



Soon, I added, “I had called my wife on the phone while you, ´Los 4 del Son´, were playing music so that my wife in Kuwait could enjoy the music and possibly dance to the music, too.”



Wilver nodded in full approval, “I had seen you. Yes, that--dancing with one’s wife--is something a man (separated from his wife for so long ) ought to do (even over the phone).”





AFTER INTERMISSION



A few minutes later, Wilver, his partners, and the other spectators were all back out on the floor of the Ring Church sanctuary and the music was taking off once again. Suddenly, I received and SMS. It was from Maria Victoria. In it she said, “Sorry, Honey, I was watching the film, AUSTRALIA , at our friends´ Jay and Sonia. So, I missed your call (to dance).”



“Well, at least,” I thought “a romantic can’t be hurt for trying to reach out over the phone to his distant-loved-one.”



I continued to dance.

DIVIDED HEAVEN: Revisited in None-too-Different Personal Context

DIVIDED HEAVEN: Revisited in None-too-Different Personal Context

By Kevin Stoda, in Germany


In 1963, the East German author Christa Wolf came of age with her DIVIDED HEAVEN ( Der Geteilte Himmel). In that novel, the Wolf’s title DIVIDE HEAVEN reflected the political and social experience and landscape of East and West Germans in the midst of Cold War Europe. Two years before the novel was published, Erich Honeker had been commissioned to build the Berlin Wall and other monstrous no-mans lands separating many West and East German families and lovers. In Wolf’s novel, the female main character, Rita (like the author Christa Wolf herself) makes a firm decision to stay in East Germany. Her lover, Manfred, however, successfully flees to the West in the early 1960s and sets out to achieve his dreams.

Manfred and Rita’s love relationship, which included barbed wires and walls dividing East and West Germany, was not a world or heaven of either main protagonist’s choosing. The Cold War was pure power politics played out initially in Central and Eastern Europe in 1945--and over the next 4 ½ decades elsewhere across the globe. The Cold War included humanistic and socialistic ideology—while most wars today involving terrorists seem to include ideologies of faiths and traditions—,however, the similarity of this world for cross-border lovers continues to be the same. The heavens and earth of this planet are divided. Moreover, other divisions in the world remain. There is the “Rich North vs. Poor South” division or “Rich West vs. former Soviet or Communist lands” divisions still visible in our economically strapped world of 2009, too.

I have been pondering the title of DIVIDE HEAVEN a lot recently—as ONCE again German bureaucrats have decided to build ever higher and higher into the heavens a wall between I and my wife—that is my lover and my friend, Maria Victoria (Stoda) Baradero, who has lived the last 7 years in Kuwait. I moved to Germany in January 2009 to seek a much better quality of life for my bride of 2008. (Perhaps here or elsewhere in the West, I can raise a family.) It appears fairly clear that once again Germany’s bureaucrats, have put in a lot of extra effort into stopping the flow of third world immigrants into the Mutterland over the past four to five years.

The fact that my wife’s visa has not been processed to date is part-and-parcel of the push to build new walls into the Heavens by German immigration officials.

The separation for my wife and I, however, has only been going on for nearly 6 months—but there is no end in sight to a web-like net or Catch-22 developed by German’s bureaucracy, who snidely claim that their immigration protocol fully based upon the Green Card rules of the USA, i.e. rules of my home country.

Unlike Rita and Manfred in Christa Wolf’s German classic, DIVIDED HEAVEN, my wife, Maria Victoria, never made a decision to stay behind in Kuwait for an endless period as the heroine Rita did. Nonetheless, it appears that currently for the duration in 2009 my wife’s and my heaven is certainly divided by politics of the last decade. This is apparently true whether we see heaven as something metaphorical or if we observe the heavens to include the sky in which jet planes fly from one continent to another. In short, my wife’s visa is in limbo. Just as Christa Wolf in the 1960s and 1970s, I dream and write of a better world or critique the real world on my computer as she did on her aging typewriter in an era when Cold War spies and state security police made her world so melancholy, i.e. a world of divided heavens.

If you or a loved one are (or have been) divided by the world’s arbitrary, religions political, economic, and social walls, speak up and share your story!!! Make your voice known.


NOTES

“The Quest for Christa Wolf”, http://www.signandsight.com/features/417.html

Stoda, Kevin, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VICTORIA!!”
http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-birthday-victoria.html

Stoda, Kevin, “Just Married”,
http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/01/just-married.html

Stoda, Kevin, “Marriage, Integration, and Immigration Policy —Modern Bureaucracy Reflecting the Worst”, http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/05/marriage-integration-and-immigration.html

Stoda, Kevin, “MY BIG FAT KUWAITI, FILIPINO, INDIAN, & AMERICAN WEDDING: March 8, 2009”, http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-big-fat-kuwaiti-filipino-indian.html

Stoda, Kevin, “A SET OF DOCUMENTS TO THE INACTION OF STATE DEPARTMENT, CONSULATE & GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN USA CONSULATES—why racism is not fought in Germany by USA consulates while it is in Kuwait?”
http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/06/set-of-documents-to-inaction-of-state.html

A SET OF DOCUMENTS TO THE INACTION OF STATE DEPARTMENT, CONSULATE & GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN USA CONSULATES—why racism is not fought in Germany by USA

A SET OF DOCUMENTS TO THE INACTION OF STATE DEPARTMENT, CONSULATE & GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN USA CONSULATES—why racism is not fought in Germany by USA consulates while it is in Kuwait?

Dear Readers,

In Kuwait and Germany, both countries in which I have lived for over five years each as an adult, I have observed a huge difference in how state department officials at how the different Embassy’s and different government offices handle requests by U.S. citizens for assistance or in how they have responded to racists or unfair policies of the local and national governments.

I write this so as to spur a discussion of how certain USA embassies and consulates or government officials handle cases similarly or differently.

The particular issue below is my personal one, but the responses or lack of responses do affect millions of Americans living or stationed abroad each year. (If the reader will review the official response to my enquiry, simply scroll down to the sample response from the consulate in Frankfurt below my letter of enquiry.)


MY EXAMPLE LETTER: Doc #1

Dear USA Consulate Germany and Kuwait,

I am a US citizen who has lived in Germany most of 2009. I received my full-employment visa in March 2009. Since then I have been trying to bring my wife over to Germany on a spousal Visa.

First, in April the German Embassy in Kuwait (where I met and married my wife, i.e. I worked there for 5 years) lost and delayed the visa application.

Second, in May the Einwohner- and Integrationsamt [local foreigners visa approval office] in Wiesbaden began to stall the visa application further. einwohner-und-integrationsamt@wiesbaden.de

The office first tried to claim that my wedding certificate from Kuwait 2008 was not acceptable in Germany. I contacted the Kuwaiti Embassy (and you in Frankfurt) and this got settled.

Soon, the Einwohner- and Integrationsamt in Wiesbaden in came up with another stall tactic. They claimed in a face-to-face meeting with me on Monday 25, 2009 that my salary of approximately 30,000 Euros per year was insufficient to bring my wife here. [30,000 Euros is over 42,000 dollars.]

I have done research and 30,000 Euros in year is more than sufficient for a married couple with children in any part of Germany or Central Europe.

I therefore am finding the policy or politics of the Einwohner- and Integrationsamt in Wiesbaden to be against the EU rules on the right of having one´s spouse join him.

Moreover, the practice is racist in all appearance because my wife is Filipina. Apparently she does not belong to one of the more desired nationalities for Germany.

However, in light of EU law on the right of a spouse to join her husband, the preference of Germany in delaying my wife’s visa for many months is just plane illegal--regardless of what nationality she is.

Please lodge a protest with the Einwohner- and Integrationsamt in Wiesbaden and with other state officials in Germany, i.e. whose area of responsibilities cover and oversea the reuniting of husband and wife on German soil. einwohner-und-integrationsamt@wiesbaden.de

Finally, I am writing you today because last night I received this SMS from my wife, Maria Victoria M. Baradero: "Sorry to tell you that my employer called and was very angry. He told me that if there is any penalty against him because of this delay, I will pay for it."

This a threat on my wife’s safety. The EU law says that Germany should allow my spouse to come and live with me and where I work in Wiesbaden. Please have them back up their own rights in practice.

Yours,

Kevin Stoda
Oranienstr. 62
Wiesbaden 65185

0611-4699954

01522-8996853


THE USA CONSULATE FRANKFURT ‘S RESPONSE TO MY LETTER: Doc #2

Dear Mr. Stoda:

While it is certainly disappointing to hear that you have encountered ongoing difficulties in your efforts to secure a German visa for your spouse, I must inform you that the Consulate is not in a position to intervene in private administrative or legal matters on behalf of American citizens overseas or their family members. We are explicitly prohibited by law from giving legal advice, or acting as agents or attorneys on behalf of private citizens before a foreign court or administrative body. Neither can we in any way seek to influence the outcome of foreign administrative or legal proceedings to which we are not a party.

Given your dissatisfaction with the way in which your case is currently being handled by the German authorities, and your concern that the administrative office in question may have overstepped their legal mandates, I strongly encourage you to discuss your case with an attorney and refer a complaint to the appropriate German administrative and/or criminal authorities if you and your attorney believe it is warranted. In an effort to assist you in this regard, I have attached a list of English-speaking attorneys practicing in Hessen.

In your correspondence, you did not indicate where your wife’s employer is located. Regardless, if you believe that she has been threatened in any way, I strongly advise that you or she report the threats to the appropriate local law enforcement authorities. Again, an attorney specialized in immigration or labor law may be assistance to you in this regard. If your wife’s employer is located in Kuwait, she may wish to inquire with the Philippines Embassy as to whether they can provide her with any specific advice regarding the legal status and rights of Filipino citizens in Kuwait. Should you wish to contact an attorney in Kuwait on our Embassy’s attorney list, it can be found at this link: http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/attorneys.html.

We wish you a satisfactory outcome in this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact us again if you believe we can be of further assistance within the parameters of U.S. law and regulation.

Sincerely,
Kathryn L. Flachsbart
American Citizen Services
U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt
Tel: 49-(0)69-7535-2516
Fax: 49-(0)69-7535-2252

POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION

Overall, I was not surprised by the response of the American Citizen Service Office in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Frankfurt Consulate functions under some-self made rules and possibly from understaffing which appear to limit its capacity to aid Americans in Germany to a “very great degree”.

By this “very great degree”, I mean that this sort of written response is about as much as Americans in Germany expect these days. Either the U.S. government has intentionally tied the hands of American officials in Germany and Europe or they are simply underfunded—or both.

However, in my case, the lack of help will simply lead to more stress between American officials and German officials in the future. For example, as I received the response from the American Citizen Service Office in Frankfurt, I was already sending the following message to the Hessen Television network. Friends of mine in Wiesbaden had lovingly indicated that I should contact the local newspapers, news TV, and even national dailies, like BILD ZEITUNG, to place my story.

The following is one such request for help in German. The article’s title is called (in English) HOW MUCH MUST SOMEONE EARN TO LIVE AND WORK [IN GERMANY]???? The only major difference in this letter to the Hessen TV network and what I had written the USA government was that I noted that I had done research in both Germany and in Austria and had discovered that in Graz, a city in Austria, the local officials only required substantially lower sum than in Germany a married couple (with no children) to have a spousal visa for the non-working partner--i.e. the sum require in Austria was less than 14,500 Euros in a year. Wiesbaden, Germany’s Einwohner- and Integrationsamt was requiring me to have more than double that.


WIE VIELE MUSS MANN DEN VERDIENEN??????: Doc #3


Ich bin Amerikaner und habe einen Visum, um in Deutschland zuarbeiten. Meine Frau bleibt aber schon seit beihnahe ein halbes Jahr im Ausland, da sie keinen Visum in Deutschland bis jetzt bekommen hat. Ich verdiene im Jahr um 30,000 Euro. Am 25. Mai 2009 war ich bei dem Einwohner- und Integrationsamt in Wiesbaden. Ich habe klar und deutlich gefragt, ob ich jedoch genug (30,000 im Jahr) verdiene um meine Frau hierher zubringen. Die Antwort von dem Einwohner- und Integrationsamt in Wiesbaden lautet, "Nein, Sie verdienen nicht genug."

Ich habe ueberall in Deutschland nachgefragt--beim AOK und Pfarrer in Kirchengemeinden. Sie meinte, dass viele Ehepaaren verdienen weniger als 30,000 Euros im Jahr. Mittlerweile einen Gemeinden in Graz Oestrich mir erzaehlt, dass man nur 1200 Euros in Monat verdienen soll um den Frau von Ausland mitzubringen--und alle nach Europaeischen Recht. Ich verdiene wesentlich mehr als jenes Gelhalts. Dazu habe meine Frau und ich keine Kindern.

Ich glaube, die Wahrheit ist, dass meine Frau aus den Filipinnen herkommt, einen von dem Unerwuenschtes Landes.

Der deutsch Botschaftler im Ausland mit dem ich regelmaessig Kontakt habe, meinte ich habe vollrecht die Frau zu mir ziehen zur koennen.

Aber in Wiesbaden von dem Einwohner- und Integrationsamt sitzen aud den Akten und machen seit einige Zeit keine Entscheidung. Ich meine; SIE sagen nichtmals "Nein" oder "Ja".

Nun bin ich sehr Unterdrueck gesetzt. Ich kann denn Drueck ihnen naeher erzaehlen, sobald Sie bei mir melden moechten.

Meine Kirchengmeindemitglieder in Wiesbaden haben mir heute empfohlen an Ihnen zu schreiben und mit dem "Leute Sollen Sich Beschweren" in Hessen zu sprechen.

Kevin Stoda
Oranienstr. 62
Wiesbaden 65185

handy 015228996853

0611-4699954


REPEAT: The only major difference in this letter to the Hessen TV network and what I had written the USA government was that I noted that I had done research in both Germany and in Austria and had discovered that in Graz, a city in Austria, the local officials only required substantially lower sum than in Germany a married couple (with no children) to have a spousal visa for the non-working partner--i.e. the sum require in Austria was less than 14,500 Euros in a year. Wiesbaden, Germany’s Einwohner- and Integrationsamt was requiring me to have more than double that.


LEUTE SOLLEN SICH BESCWHERDEN

By the way, the Hessen TV program “Leute Sollen Sich Beschwerden” [PEOPLE MAKE COMPLAINTS, which is usually about government bureaucrats] has already shown interest in my story. The focus of this station will hopefully be on getting my wife a visa and the lack of decisiveness in the Wiesbaden foreigners bureau (Einwohner- and Integrationsamt) in a manner that appears to be a racially motivated manner against Filipino wives. However, who-knows perhaps it will also directly or indirectly also turn to the fact that many U.S. citizens working in or stationed in Germany feel they get sufficiently less help than they should from the U.S. Embassies in Germany than in other lands.

I plan to contact the other news sources recommended by my concerned friends soon.

Why?

I am trying my best to settle this matter short of bringing a lawyer in. More lawyers involvement increases the need for bureaucracy and money—and I am coming to hate German and American bureaucracy more and more.

p.s. The Filipino Embassy in Germany never answered my request to help my wife and I to live together in the same country either. However, again, I found the over-bureaucratized Filipino embassy in Kuwait a bit more helpful in my past dealings and in its concerns for worker rights and needs of is citizens.

These four stories from Democracy Now today make me see that Obama has been replaced with a cyborg

These four stories from Democracy Now today make me see that Obama has been replaced with a cyborg.
When the CIA is more critical of Dick Cheney's fascism/terrorism promotion that the USA President something is wrong.
What other threads can be observed?

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/15/headlines#7

Obama Administration Urges Court to Toss Rendition Lawsuit
The Obama administration is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to allow a Boeing subsidiary to be sued over its roles in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration is urging the court to throw out the case citing the State Secrets Act. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit against Jeppesen International Trip Planning on behalf of five former prisoners. Jeppesen is accused of arranging at least seventy flights since 2001 as part of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. Ben Wizner of the ACLU said, “This is a watershed moment. There’s no mistake any longer…the Obama administration has now fully embraced the Bush administration’s shameful effort to immunize torturers and their enablers from any legal consequences for their actions.”

Judge Rules Jose Padilla Can Sue John Yoo over Torture
A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled Jose Padilla can sue former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo for coming up with the legal theories that justified his detention and torture. Padilla says he was repeatedly tortured while being held as an enemy combatant. Padilla, who is a US citizen, was held for forty-three months without charge in a Navy brig in South Carolina. US District Judge Jeffrey White said, quote, "Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct.”

CIA Fires Mitchell Jessen & Associates
CIA Director Leon Panetta has revealed the agency has fired Mitchell Jessen & Associates and other contractors connected to interrogations. Mitchell Jessen & Associates was run by two former military psychologists who helped design the CIA’s torture program. Panetta made the disclosure in an interview with The New Yorker magazine.

CIA Head Says Cheney Almost Wishing US Be Attacked Again
In the same interview, CIA Director Leon Panetta harshly criticized former Vice President Dick Cheney for questioning the Obama administration’s national security policies. Panetta said of Cheney, “it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that’s dangerous politics.”

Well, another thread is that we might need to replace a lot of people in Obama's administration with watchdogs with Panetta's bite.

Second, if Obama hasn't been replaced by a robot from the Dark Side, what can we do to get last years or four years ago OBAMA to return?

Third, helping Jose Padilla with his torture case would make the Obama Administration look better. Obama should side with him or his voice in the media--not with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, W. Bush etc.

REVISITING SOLZHENITSYN´S `The World Split Apart'—What do we know today, world?

REVISITING SOLZHENITSYN´S `The World Split Apart'—What do we know today, world?

By Alone


We have just passed June 8, the date on which in 1978 Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn gave a Jeremiadic speech at a Harvard Graduation. The speech was called: `The World Split Apart.' At the time, the speech caused quite a stir and aroused rejection in the USA, but not in Western Europe (to whom the speech also appears to have been directed). In contrast, Ronald Reagan used Jeremiadic oratory style often and was loved in America by many for it.

For some reviewers, such as Stoda and Dionisopoulos (2000), the reason why--in the late 1970s and early 1980s--Solzhenitsyn’s prophetic words were so ignored in the USA and pooh-poohed outright by many was because Solzhenitsyn was simply too new, i.e. an outsider to America. Solzhenitsyn had only been settled in a small town in Vermont for about 4 years when he was invited to give that Harvard address. Solzhenitsyn, despite using fairly well the common American jeremiad oratorical tradition was rejected, in short, because he was the wrong man to give it—not because he wasn’t correct or accurate in what he had to say.

On the other hand, Jimmy Carter, the U.S. president at the time, was also rejected in his day for discussing in public America’s “spiritual malaise” or crisis. On the other hand, some thirty-one years later Jimmy Carter is now a much more respected elders statesman of the world—every bit on par with Solzhenitsyn. If Carter would give such a jeremiad today, Carter would certainly receive a lot less criticism.

In a nutshell, was it the man or the message which stumbled in 1978´s America? And why should it matter today?

In many ways, the most obvious reason for the topicality of Solzhenitsyn’s has been the way the content he raised has continued to dominate the world over three subsequent decades. First of all, the speech outlines why fundamentalism needed to make a resurgence onto the world stage. Second, the speech asked the West to do more than go shopping in order to make the world a better or more livable (and just) place. Third, we need to analyze to what degree culture wars, led by extremists, like Al-Qaeda or demagogues like George W. Bush, still employ the same Jeremiadic propaganda to promote there cause. Finally, we need to find out why this sort of Jeremiadic message of Solzhenitsyn’s remains so appropriate and motivating in 2009, even for extremists as well as for moderates in the political and economic landscape.

PURITAN JEREMIAD

According to the American Heritage dictionary, a jeremiad is a “literary work or speech expressing a bitter lament or a righteous prophecy of doom”. The word jeremiad harkens to the biblical name of the prophet Jeremiah. The American style Jeremiad is considered the first manifestation of peculiarly North American literature.
According to Mark Stoda and George Dionisopoulos, in their work “Jeremiad at Harvard: Solzhenitsyn and `The World Split Apart´”, outlined the “Puritan jeremiad” of “consisting of a four-part sequence (Johannesen, 1985; Ritter, 1980). The minister would begin by calling the audience's attention to their deviation from the covenant. This was frequently accomplished by quoting directly from the text of the Hebrew prophets, usually Jeremiah. Secondly, the minister would review the current affliction suffered by the community, and remind them that the present suffering was God's response to their sinful violation of the covenant. The sequence next called for a detailed accounting of the people's sin, accompanied by exhortations to repent. `In fact, a minister's reputation for eloquence was often based upon the skill with which he could devise prognostications of a mounting disaster´ (Ritter, 1980, p. 158). The sermon finally predicted the withdrawal of God's wrath and the return of God's reward, in accordance with the covenant. There was hope for relief and promise of blessing only if they turned from their wicked ways. They were ´a people on probation. Having pleaded so long in vain, God was preparing to forsake them. ... But he was offering a last chance´ (Bercovitch, 1970, p. 28). The message of the jeremiad identified present inadequacies along with commensurate requisites for change, that would, in turn, bring the promise of a bright future.”

In short, an American jeremiad requires:
(1) The speaker to be a respected martyr or prophet recognized by the community,
(2) the ills of the community as they pertain to the breaking of a long held covenant must be the focus,
(3) the community must be called to repent after all these sins and their roots have been clarified, and
(4) a prediction for improved conditions must be made by returning to roots or to the recommitment to a covenant.

It is the fourth element, by the way, which is missing most of the time from the more European-style jeremiad speech. It is however, seldom missing from right wing fundamentalist religious zealot leaders, like Osama Bin Laden or right-wing evangelists on the radio in the USA.

Stoda and Dionisopoulos claim that Solzhenitsyn’s address followed the Puritanic jeremiad style very effectively. First of all, the “jeremiad casts the rhetor into the role of a prophet, acting as a kind of intermediary between a god-like authoritative message source and the intended audience. Received by the intermediary in the form of a revelation, it is then re-transmitted in the form of a proclamation of explanation and possible salvation for the intended audience.” Because of his persecution in the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn was seen as a martyr-like being in the West. That is, people listening to his speech recognized him as a living prophet.

Moreover, during his speech, Solzhenitsyn aimed his words at the entire Western World, which to a great degree included the Communist world from which he had come. This means Solzhenitsyn had standing to talk to all in the West. However, according to Stoda and Dionisopoulos, “The jeremiad requires that the speaker constitute the target audience as ´a people´ in a covenantial relationship with the divine. Listeners must acknowledge the existence of the covenant even as they recognize their violation of it, allowing the speaker to complete the form by shaming the audience into obedience.” Americans, dating back to the puritan day and to the start of the American dream, see themselves as a chosen or selected people before God with a covenant in history. This is likely why Americans felt much more spoken to by the prophetic voice of Solzhenitsyn than did any Western Europeans back in 1978.

Second, one of the illnesses which Solzhenitsyn identifies with the West is a lack of courage that comes with too much focus and practice in the world of striving for happiness, i.e. in the form of excess or gluttony. Related to this accusation is the decline in the focus by the West on the spiritual, e.g. our relationship in covenant before God while instead focusing on secular things. This has often led less courage people and leaders to seek out the status-quo--even if the status-quo is unjust, as in keeping dictators in office simply because they are easier to deal with than are democracies (for our large oil firms).

Moreover, a legalistic focus on the law in the West often leave those in charge of the courts, the statesman, and the lawyers as the definers of our rights. In this white political might makes right—with no common understandings of what justice actually means before an omniscient God. This means as long as the high courts can state it is OK to take over the property of another in the name of national security, Western citizens are expected to accept the courts decision. (In this way, the rise of the militia movement and all their fears of the federal state is indirectly predicted in Solzhenitsyn´s oratory. It also leads the way for a jeremiadic speaker, like Ronald Reagan to promise to protect the little people from the big-bad state wolf. In contrast, though to Solzhenitsyn, Reagan would focus on increasing state power and military spending at the same time he offered to protect the same little people from federal bullying.)

Third, as Stoda and Dionisopoulos explain, the “prophetic appeal of the jeremiad is based on the authority ascribed by both rhetor and audience to an acknowledged ´truth.´ This truth unites rhetor and audience within a shared universe of values which sanctifies the audience as a covenant people. It allows the prophet to dictate the nature of their transgression by reminding them of the rightness of the original path from which they have momentarily deviated, and point the way toward salvation through a stringent recommitment to these communal values.” However, “Solzhenitsyn's opening remarks hint that the underlying `truth` grounding his speech is elusive, inviting a quest for its re-discovery. This quest is toward a religious ´ancient truth,´ grounded in ´the heritage of the preceding one thousand years,´ and ´the moral heritage of Christian centuries´ . . . . Solzhenitsyn does not elaborate on the body of religious truths that provide the authority for his remarks, suggesting that he believes them to be self-evident. . . . He does, however, go into detail concerning the West's deviation from the enlightened path.”

Solzhenitsyn calls these misguided paths by various names, including modern man’s “anthropocentricity, with man seen as the center of all". Stoda and Dionisopoulos note that Solzhenitsyn “offers the expiation formula that is most in keeping with the genre: salvation can only be attained by a rededication to the principles outlined in the `truth` which grounds his jeremiad. He observes that in the `early democracies, as in the American democracy at the time of its birth, all individual human rights were granted on the ground that man is God's creature... freedom was given to the individual conditionally, in the assumption of his constant religious responsibility.` The present situation that has granted individuals `boundless freedom with no purpose` other than the `satisfaction of his whims` would have been inconceivable `two hundred or even fifty years ago` . . . .”

Finally, Solzhenitsyn notes that the “West must now return to this path from which it has deviated. It is time `to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.`” That is, as Stoda and Dionisopoulos emphasize, Solzhenitsyn “concludes by labeling the present moment for decision ´a major watershed in history´," demanding of us `a spiritual blaze, we shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life .... This ascension will be similar to climbing onto the next anthropologic stage. No one on earth has any other way left but—upward.´”


ABRAHAM LINCOLN-LIKE ORATORY

I feel that the Abraham Lincoln-like oratory by the sanguine Solzhenitsyn needs not to be totally embraced but dissected by present and future thinkers because the oratory is certainly used by all kinds of demagogues successfully because it enables the speaker to take a historical and quasi-religious journey with the audience--an audience who adores a speaker as being above-the-politics dominating in his day and time. Moreover, the content of the speech is fascinating—and still current.

One of the most stinging criticisms Solzhenitsyn is against the journalism and press he had witnessed in the West. Solzhenitsyn states, “The press, too, of course, enjoys the widest freedom. (I shall be using the word “press” to include all the media.) But what use does it make of it? Here again, the overriding concern is not to infringe on the letter of the law. There is no true moral responsibility for distortion or disproportion. What sort of responsibility does a journalist or a newspaper have to the readership or to history? If they have misled public opinion by inaccurate information or wrong conclusions, even if they have contributed to mistakes on a state level, do we know of any case of open regret voiced by the same journalist the same newspaper? No, this would damage sales. A nation may be worse for such a mistake, but the journalist always gets away with it. . . .” noted Solzhenitsyn.

Moreover, as “instant and credible information is required, it becomes necessary to resort to guesswork, rumors, and suppositions to fill in the voids, and none of them will ever be refuted; they settle into the reader’s memory. How many hasty, immature, superficial, and misleading judgments are expressed everyday, confusing readers, and then left hanging?” asked Solzhenitsyn.

At the time, Solzhenitsyn may have been focused upon the socialists and western liberals or conservative isolationists who may have wanted to neglect the needed criticism of human rights abuses in the Communist world. However, his critique of the Western press was certainly true in the run up to the war and occupation of Iraq in 2002 and 2003—and not just in the USA, but in dozens of lands, like the UK, the Netherlands, and Poland who made up the so-called coalition-of-the-willing.

NOTE: Even though media and internet have pluralized the institution of journalism, we have a long way to go.

Moreover, Rupert Murdoch’s cronies still own their jobs and their so-called press freedom as much today as they did in 2002 and 2003. In short, no leaders of the major media in the West in 2003 and 2004 took the step of calling day-in-and-day-out for front page headlines stating that the oncoming war with Iraq was certainly totally an unforgivable war crime by those Western regimes involved.

With such evident cowardice at the leadership level in the Western media (and even fascism amongst the media barons there), how can we expect less democratic regions of the globe, like Egypt, Palestine, Burma, Zimbabwe, Cuba, China, and Saudi Arabia to do any better?

COURAGE in a MULTIPOLAR WORLD—A WORLD SPLIT APART

In his speech, Solzhenitsyn insightfully indicated in 1978 that the Eastern Europe’s citizens were already underway and busy learning courage while the West had lost its way and preferred or accepted wolf’s who lied over leaders who looked people in the eye and told them the truth.

Solzhenitsyn was right. Instead of seeing great improvements in civic and moral education in the West over the past three decades, only in countries like Poland, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Burma, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic states, and the Soviet Union did the world witness between 1979-1992 heroic struggles and courage to reform a misshapen world. (Only the peace movement activities of millions in Western Europe in response to the Carter-Reagan Arms Buildup in the early 1980s demonstrated any great arousal in the West against its own status quo of excessive lifestyles and mediocre politics.)

Since this time, the world has often been called globalized—not split apart as Solzhenitsyn had predicted. However, in reality the world has remained multi-polar from the end of WWII onwards. This means, for example, that the worlds of people in the “Stans”—Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kurdistan etc. remain far off the Western radar screen—unless oil or jihad are talked about.

This means that Israel appears to be a Western nation if one looks at its neighbors but if one were to look at Israel more accurately, as Solzhenitsyn did in his address, one would have to question whether any state with such religious identity and fixations could truly be called western in identity.

Meanwhile, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Fiji, Burma, and Iran seem to be on their own paths on this planet even as the rest of their own continents seek to embrace some sort of new world order—with China possibly on top (for a while) in coming decades.

Meanwhile, the farcical- and horrible- but supposedly-short wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become quagmires and show that despite supposed globalization, our planet is far from being a single world order. Worse still, in Pakistan, the U.S.A. is facing another war, like in Vietnam or Korea or Iraq.

On the other hand, to some degree, places like Russia since 1992 have certainlz mostly been busy copying the worst vices of Western governments, media, and mafia as described by Solzhenitsyn in his speech. I am certain that if Solzhenitsyn were alive today to discuss the matter, he would certainly ask the West why it couldn’t have returned to its more moral roots sooner and built a better model for the ex-Soviet Russia to emulate.

Likewise, the currently successful or powerful China regime is not copying much—if anything-- of the best of western morals or democracy. China may, however, have its own important spin to provide the West in terms of how to handle crises, such as the economic one the world finds itself in. It may, for example, of its own wisdom and intelligence come to see the threat of global warming and the anomie in modern society to be of more internal concern and act sooner-than-anticipated on these perceived threats to Chinese society. However, only time will tell, and for now, the old model of the West—CONSUME; CONSUME; CONSUME—appears to continue to dominate in Eastern and South Asia, regions which are still trying to catch up to the Western model of consumption and fast-growth rather than buildings a more just and better world full of more opportunities for all.


NOTES




Bercovitch, S. (1978). The American jeremiad. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press.

Ritter, K. W. (1980). American political rhetoric and the jeremiad tradition: Presidential nomination acceptance addresses, 1960-1976. Central States Speech Journal, 31, 153-171.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich. `The World Split Apart.` given at Harvard Graduation June 8, 1978,
http://coolcalvary.com/home/documents/AWorldSplitApart.pdf

Stoda, Mark and Dionisopoulos, George, “Jeremiad at Harvard: Solzhenitsyn and `The World Split Apart.'” Western Journal of Communication; Winter2000, Vol. 64 Issue 1, p28+.

HOMESCHOOLING: VERBOTEN IN GERMANY STILL IN 2009

HOMESCHOOLING: VERBOTEN IN GERMANY STILL IN 2009

By Kevin Stoda, Wiesbaden, Germany

Two decades my cousin and his wife, Kim and Mark Stoda lived in Neu Isenburg south of Frankfurt. My cousin, Mark, had given up his career as a reconnaissance pilot in the air force in the mid 1980s in Germany after a decade of serving the US Air Force. Kim and Mark and their four children then started working full-time with a Christian organization called THE NAVIGATORS. Their goal was to help U.S. military families raise stronger Christian family’s. Many Americans living outside the USA are in a constant state of anomie and loss. They sought to serve and direct these many U.S. couples. Mark and Kim Stoda first worked in Scotland. After a few years they finally determined to return to Germany, where Mark had served a few years earlier.

http://www.navigators.org/us/

That was the late 1980s, the Cold War was still on and many U.S. troops were stationed in and around Frankfurt, Hessen with their families and children. The Stoda’s ministry with the Navigators and local military families went well in Neu Isenburg. Meanwhile, their two girls, twins (and the oldest of the Stoda kids), entered a German school in Neu Isenburg. One of the girls did quite well in the German language while the other did not.

After a full year of this, Mark and Kim invited the children’s grandmother, Dianne Stoda, to come over and home school the twins. Dianne had nearly 40 years of teaching experience in the state of Illinois. The girls really took off with homeschooling—learning more in a year than their German counterparts did in two. As the oldest Stoda boy was now ready to start school, Dianne and Kim taught him alongside the older girls, too.

VERBOTEN

Suddenly, after about six months of successful homeschooling for the kids, Mark and Kim were contacted by the local school in Neu Isenburg and were informed that home-schooling is against-the-law in Germany. In short, without knowing it, Mark and Kim had broken a German law. A discussion continued between Mark and Kim and the authorities through the spring, when they decided to send the kids back to the USA.

Well, to make a long story short, it was inconsequential to German authorities that one of the daughters had suffered significantly academically and socially in the German school system the year before. German law forbade any parent from taking a child out of school and trying to home school the child themselves—regardless of the years of teaching experience the homeschooling team might have.

Soon, the Stoda and their Navigators program for military personnel in and around Frankfurt was shut down by this intervention of the Hessen state due to the Stoda family’s homeschooling program of their kids. By April 1989, the Stoda clan were back stateside and starting over in California.

I share this story because home-schooling is still forbidden in Germany as of 2009.

Just recently, I came across an article from Birgitta von Lehm called THE FLEEING CLASSROOM (in German: DAS FLIEHENDE KLASSENZIMMER). Originally, vom Lehm’s article was published in the newspaper WELT AM SONNTAG on April 5, 2009. By the article, there is a huge photo of Juergen Dudek of Hessen alongside his seven children and spouse. The couple had been sentenced last year to three months jail for—you guessed it!!!—homeschooling their children.

http://www.welt.de/wams_print/article3505082/Das-fliehende-Klassenzimmer.html

Here is an excerpt of an article about homeschooling in Germany and America:
“Not long ago in America , the general public looked on home-schooling with distrust. These days, parents' rights to teach their own children have become so widely respected that a multitude of counties across the United States (not all, but many) offer flexible support to home-school families. Students might attend chemistry or physics classes at the high school and do the rest of their coursework at home. Only a handful of states have high regulation requirements for home-schoolers, and co-ops have cropped up in areas where homeschooling is popular. The same cannot be said of Germany. While the Berlin Wall came down 19 years ago this month, some old ideas about the state-management of children yet linger. German families who choose to home-school do so at their own risk. Rosemary and Jürgen Dudek were sentenced to 90 days in prison this July because they home-schooled their children. Other families have faced huge fines or have had their children taken from them.German parents Johannes and Cornelia Gorber finally won back full custody of their children earlier this month after welfare workers showed up in vans and took the children away to orphanages in January. It was a traumatic 10 months for the family as they fought to be together again.”
http://educatinggermany.7doves.com/?cat=104

Meanwhile, another German family from Swaben has fled to the USA in the past year and is seeking asylum. The family of Uwe Romeike, a strongly religious German, plans to continue to live in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee if the U.S. government allows the family to obtain asylum. Romeike claims that good values are not being taught in the German school system. “Uwe, a music teacher, says his choice to home school in Germany cost them expensive fines, months of harassment from the government and having their children taken.”

Uwe indirectly reminds the readers that over the centuries historically religious groups have had to flee various lands in order to achieve religious or educational freedom. In Uwe’s case his children had been taken. "’They took the children by force. They were very rude,’ Uwe says. [It's currently illegal to home school in Germany.] If the family had remained in the country, Romeike says the government could have tried to place his children in foster care.”




NO BIG FAN OF HOMESCHOOLING, BUT PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE CHOICE

Those who have read some of my blog articles in the past know that I am not the strongest fan of home schooling. I was educated to teach in public schools and think that public schools have more to offer than private schools. On the other hand, my cousins, Matt and June Hobson in the state of Washington, have raised two wonderful kids. The Hobsons have done so “mostly” by successfully homeschooling over the past two decades.

I say “mostly” because for the Hobsons (and for many other children and parents in America these days), the decision to home-school or to have children attend other forms of schooling has been a question of choice for several decades. Now, up to 1.5 million Americans are choosing homeschooling over private and public school education. In the case of the Hobson kids, both the boy and the girl chose on their own to enter the public school arena full-time during their high school years—and were encouraged in their choice by their parents. In short, homeschooling can be part of an education program for children. [It need not be a permanent state of affairs for children or family.]

Only one political party in Germany, the Free Democrats (FDP), supports home schooling. The FDP are currently in opposition to the German national government, but the FDP has done twice as well as usual in recent local- and European elections, so the FDP may be on the governing coalition by autumn 2009.

Patrick Meinhardt, education speaker for the FDP notes, “I don’t want to start writing up a lot of new rules for homeschooling. I imagine that as long as some state control over the curriculum and teacher training remains, home schooling should not be restricted any more.” In short, the FDP advocates using the laws on the books for private schools, in order to finally open the door to home-schooling in Germany.

The other German parties, however, generally oppose homeschooling more out of tradition and fear that the teachers and their materials will be substandard. However, another valid worry is the fear that Christian-, Muslim-, fascist-, or other fundamentalist groups will repress the children, especially female children. One Christian Democratic Union (one of the parties of the current German government) notes, “Imagine what Islamic fundamentalists could do here in German! The parents would run the home schools and the girls would never even learn to speak a word of German.”

In some ways, such an argument is a red herring as many of Germany’s youth and parents are not all that happy with the German education system, which has not been keeping up with the times in changes in demographics and work place needs. Home schooling could certainly be a free market means of forcing reforms in the system that Germany has yet to undergo in this millennium in terms of raising youth for the future.

JOHN BIRD AND JOHN FORTUNE ARE STILL DOMINATING THE LAUGHTER ALL THE WAY TO OUR POOR HOUSES—IF WE HAVE A HOUSE

JOHN BIRD AND JOHN FORTUNE ARE STILL DOMINATING THE LAUGHTER ALL THE WAY TO OUR POOR HOUSES—IF WE HAVE A HOUSE

By Kevin Stoda, Europe

In the past year comedians all over the world are satirically but accurately describing the problems of our economic system and how it has been encouraged to function for decades. Listen to John Bird and John Fortune’s explanations as they explained the system leading to the subprime mortgage crisis. They use the plausible language of economists and business to explain what kind of myths have developed to replace hard currency and investment products.

For example, hardheaded-stupidity is explained as the reason to bail out on banks. What???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJmTCYmo9g

The sad punch line in this great routine is that our pension fund—as well as our homes—suffer if we don’t bail out stupidity.

Spin is what has oiled the machinery of economics for far too long. Spin is what economic and business pundits are practicing. The two comedians, Bird and Fortune also explain the credit crunch we are facing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/oct/23/comedy-sketch-credit-crunch
Fortune and Bird tell truths as follows (cited and replayed/reported in The Guardian last autumn):

JF Yes. But isn't the real cause of this crisis the fact that for years the banks have been lending huge amounts of money to people who can't possibly pay it back?

JB That's very, very simplistic. A banker can't possibly know the circumstances of each individual borrower. I mean, if somebody comes for a mortgage, unknown to the bank he might have his grandfather living with him. And again, unknown to the bank, his grand-father might be incontinent. And then the borrower has to spend large chunks of his income on new underpants, on colostomy bags, on recarpeting the lounge every few weeks. And you see we have to come up with systems and ways of allowing for that.

JF And what systems have you come up with for that?

JB Well, our boffins have thought up some very complex financial instruments. Do you know what a collateralised debt obligation is?

JF No.

JB (Pause.) Do you know what a structured investment vehicle is?

JF No.

JB That's a pity, neither do I. Well, we have these things, these CDOs and SIVs and we put all the dodgy mortgages and the incontinent grandfathers in them. And then, hey presto, the credit rating agencies call them triple A.

In the past year comedian musicians like Merle Hazard have also become popular all over the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtcnXLDnXvs

Comedians and musicians, like Merle Hazard, become the common man’s survival tool—as we become depressed that our children and grandchildren are forced out of their homes—and forced to move into living in our sheds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fq2ga4HkGY

They hint at the bigwigs, like Meynard Keynes and Adam Smith, become common names at the table—even the Arthur Laffer curve makes a comeback as a laugher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8PwqQ5guYk&NR=1

Even Milton Friedman gets burnt to toast. Economic cycles and who flies free in booms and bust are discussed.

However, at some point the cartoons, the comics, and the funny tunes don’t come across so funny. Here is a description of deflation that is meant to scare you.

This storyline of cartoons is from ABC News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4wHVkuuy78&feature=related

However, Borat reminds us that part of economics is related to the concept of slavery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdp21zzu41Y&feature=related


Meanwhile, translations of the best and humorous are now available in German and French.

http://www.merlehazard.com/Merle_Hazard/INFLATION_OR_DEFLATION.html

Lets all sit down and laugh or cry our way home from the bank. Note that now there are special humor sessions at the national economists seminars and meetings. Here is work from Yorman Brauman at the AEA (American Economic Association) last month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9utlDdLhaTU

Brauman has been taking his PhD on the road for several years. Brauman’s 2007 explanation of ten secrets of economics is more than a bestseller.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9utlDdLhaTU

The dismal side of the social sciences—economics—has even been made into a comic book by Brauman and Grady Klein.

http://us.macmillan.com/thecartoonintroductiontoeconomics#biography

He began as a supply side economist. Now he just believes in low expectations and the laugher (laffer) curve—again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgB6mFmYEcM&NR=1

One final thought from Brauman is, “You may be an economist if you refuse to sell your children because you think they might be worth more later, you might be an economist.”

THE SHAME OF UNESCO? OR THE SHAME OF EXCLUSION FROM MEMORY?

THE SHAME OF UNESCO? OR THE SHAME OF EXCLUSION FROM MEMORY?

By Kevin Stoda, Germany

Nils Minkmar, a Saarland-born German and French writer & observer of political and social life in the modern world, wrote a stinging article against the likely promotion to UNESCO leadership of the Egyptian Culture Minister, Faruk Hosni.

Minkmar began his piece, DIE SCHANDE DERE UNESCO (The Shame of UNESCO),

http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/2009/05/25/unesco/

by asking the readership of European newspapers this last week of May 2009 if they knew:

(1) Who has questioned whether Israel had ever offered or contributed to civilization—regardless of epic in history discussed?
(2) Who has called Israel an inhuman culture—a racist, and bullying culture—based on a single principle, i.e. to steal land from others?
(3) Who has claimed in 1997—only to repeat it again and again in coming years—that all who seek to become friends of the bitter enemy Israel are enemies of his land?
(4) Who claims that all the world’s media is controlled or infiltrated by Jews?

According to Claude Lanzmann, Bernard-Henri Lévy und Elie Wiesel, the answer to all these questions appears to be Faruk Hosni.

In short, quite appropriately, Nils Minkmar is preemptively attacking any efforts to make Faruk Hosni the next General Director.

The interesting thing is that Minkmar is simply mimicking or restating the April 2009 call for opposition to the Hosni’s likely promotion led by Claude Lanzmann, Bernard-Henri Lévy und Elie Wiesel.

Preemption of such as an unchecked decision to promote Hosni to the position of UNESCO head is certainly appropriate if what Minkmar is saying is true.

MINKMAR, LANZMANN, LEVY, WIESEL –AND HOSNI?

The fact that this preemptive call for opposition to Faruk Hosni’s anticipated promotion in UNESCO comes from Israel.

However, I would partially wager that one likely reason why the world media has ignored Lanzmann, Lévy und Wiesel & their concern for a promotion of Hosni within UNESCO is that the world is tired of Israel making too many claims while not cleaning human rights & not evacuating settlements as promise, etc.

In short, sympathy for Israeli voices in the West are weaking as this decade comes to an end because little Israel keeps shaking up life throughout its neighborhood.

Too often the last decade Israeli leaders, Israeili press, Israeli military, Israeli diplomats, and writers have made demagogic claims about the inability of Arabs to govern, about Palestinians lack of humanity, while claiming its OK when Israel tortures and bombs out neighborhoods of women and children.

In short, the West is waiting for Israelis (and Arab neighbors) to take all the international dialogue to a new and more profitably peaceful level.

The recent Israeli spearheaded boycott of a major human rights conference under the UN in Switzerland recently was one of the results of such calling wolf at all corners—when the caller is sometimes a wolf as well. The USA and many European countries played along—but they see no need to dance every time Israeli voices sneeze on them—while never apologizing for its own crimes and stupid propaganda over the decades.

Any comments, Mr. Minkmar?

It could be for this same reason that the West is apparently not so excited about Mr. Hosni at the moment.

What do you think, Mr. Lanzmann, Mr. Lévy? Mr. Elie Wiesel?

What about any defense for Mr. Hosni? (Probably no defense—but he deserves his say, too, eh?)

I don’t hear any comments coming from anyone.

Why is the press so silent?



NOTES

Minkmar, Nils, FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINEN SONNTAGSZEITUNG, 24. Mai 2009, P. 34

KUWAIT, BROTHER AND SISTERS, WHERE ARTH THOU GOING?

KUWAIT, BROTHER AND SISTERS, WHERE ARTH THOU GOING?

By Kevin Stoda

Kuwait is a tiny land geographically. It is not any larger than Belgium, but with its Petrodollars, its national global investment fund, and its geographic location near the ancient Euphrates River and the modern states of Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait has great influence in its region.

Moreover, at times, Kuwait with both its money supply and occasional political suasion has had huge influence on two Bush administrations: George H. W. Bush, 1989-1993 and George W. Bush, 2001-2009.

Therefore, the USA-Kuwait relationship has played itself out influentially on the world stage for over two decades. The strong ability and know-how of political propaganda (some of propaganda was, of course, very well-founded in facts on the ground in terms of Iraqi’s military subjugation and mistreatment of Kuwaitis after its August 1990 invasion) by exiled Kuwaitis in North America and in Europe established in autumn 1990 through 1991 had enabled the members of the United Nations to come together in war- against Iraq.

Similarly, Kuwait in 2002-2003 gave the Bush regime pretty much carte blanche in its invasion of Iraq. It certainly influenced US banks in the intervening decade, too. Some of Kuwait’s citizens have since benefited greatly financially from the US military as large amounts of supplies (and large numbers of soldiers) from and to the US pass through Kuwait to Iraq and back each day.

Then as now, Kuwait has continued to demand war reparations from Iraq dating from 1990-1991--nearly two decades ago and long after Saddam Hussein has been ousted. NOTE: I do not begrudge Kuwait’s demand for obligations from the new Iraqi regime to be fulfilled before full- and good relationships between the two formerly warring neighbors can finally be realized. For example, Iraq and Kuwait definitely need to permanently (once and for all) fix their international borders in order for harmony to truly have a chance in the region.

I do think Kuwait, with its great monetary wealth (including nearly a trillion dollars in sovereign wealth funds), however, can do much more to rebuild Iraq and build a better, more just, and enjoyable life for all in the Gulf region.


PART OF THE PROBLEM

Naturally, one of the main problems in Kuwait has historically been the government’s inability to plan and think very far ahead. This results partially from the fairly weak constitutional design of the government and parliamentary relationship under a royal family’s direct and indirect control. One can thank the British for that—as the British protectorate of Kuwait had undermined democratic development from the 1910s through the 1950s.

This continuing constitutional crisis has led in the last five to seven years to five different national parliamentary elections—i.e. after the Prime Minister, who is always from the royal family had determined to arbbittrairly closed the Parliament. In short, the current turnover rate of elected Parliaments in Kuwait since the USA invaded Iraq in 2003 is approaching that rate of Italy in the immediate post-WWII era—whereby the Italian regime had nearly 45 governments in 45 years.

In turn, some of the problems in the parliament of Kuwait have had to do with the fact that money so obviously buys elections in Kuwait—to an even greater degree than in my homeland: the USA. This is partially the result of the fact that too many Kuwaiti families are super rich and can find little to do wisely with their money—due to bad social-economic training, poor education in terms of governance, and due to bad political policies in place to unfairly support particular businesses and government leaders over the past two decades. In other words, collecting political power and buying off Kuwaiti voters with vacations or medical holiday packages abroad has become a way of life for the politically addicted in Kuwait over the past few decades.


WOMEN ELECTED--FINALLY

Naturally, it was certainly a positive sign these past May 2009 elections to see that four Kuwaiti women were finally elected to the Kuwaiti National Assembly for the first time in the tiny state’s history. These 4 female victors are all considered wise Kuwaitis—and professionals in their fields. There names are: Thekra Al-Rasheedi, Rola Dashti, Fatma Hussein, and Maasouma Al-Mubarak.

However, disappointingly, none of these 4 women—nor numerous other intelligent female Kuwaitis have since been invited to take a role in the important cabinet positions, usually chosen directly by members of the Kuwaiti royal family.

The Education Ministry in Kuwait has the only female head currently, and this woman has been charged with flip-flopping on national policies in the past—as have almost all of the current Kuwaiti cabinet officials over the past few parliaments. This blowing in the wind has been the result of the fact that Kuwaiti parliamentarians and the cabinet ministry leaders don’t really trust each other. This has left the country with many ever-changing short-term decisions being made--and medium- or long-term flip-flopping staying on each Minister’s agenda.

It would appear that just as finally occurred in Italy in the 1990s, Kuwait needs to seriously look into a revision of its own constitution so that long-term planning and stability can be undertaken. Moreover, the fact is that less than 30% of the adult population in Kuwait are currently allowed to vote. This is because citizenship is essentially a blood citizenship in Kuwait. This means that businessmen and educated peoples who may have lived in Kuwait for three to four generations (but who are not married into traditional Kuwaiti families) have no voting stake in the government.

A similar problem, whereby huge numbers of the local population do not have either citizenship or voting rights, exists in all Arab states in the region, however, because a larger percentage of stakeholders have no voting right in Kuwait (in comparison to the neighboring Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Iran regimes), Kuwait’s elections are bereft with election fraud and vote buying that will be harder to get under control until the number of eligible voters is significantly larger to offset the costs of vote-buying.


PLURALISTIC THINKING IN KUWAIT

One of the many hopeful signs in Kuwait remains the fact that although the country is tiny, it constantly reveals a great variety of points of views in- and out- of the election cycle. This pluralism in thinking is revealed quite obviously in the country’s diverse newspapers. Along with eight Arabic dailies, Kuwait has three major English daily newspapers. Moreover, in these English papers, one often finds more variety in editorializing and reporting than you find in any German, British, or American newspaper.

For example, when I flew to Kuwait last week to visit my wife, I picked up a single KUWAIT TIMES (dated May 27, 2009) and observed on a single page the varying visions of the Kuwaiti authors writing in English these days. On page 5, i.e. the national news page, there were four quite different views sharing opinions about the recent elections and on pluralism in Kuwait, in general.

Muna a-Fuzai, one of my favorite writers, had written a piece entitled: “Political Future: Dreaming On . . .” al-Fuzai began, “Are we merely dreaming of a major overhaul to take place in the soon- to- be formed government? Are we seeking new faces or policies? What exactly are we looking for at this stage? Well, we need to be realistic about what to expect in the first place. I mean we should learn to look beyond our noses. Take a look at the great mix of new and old MP's who were chosen by Kuwaitis, men and women, on their own will. I recall the calls made by most candidates, to bring in reform.”

However, al-Fuzai was not sounding very confident as she wrote directly about these newly elected parliamentarians, “Now it is time for them to show us just that, minus the noise. I mean the use of unparliamentarily language, shouting, and displays of anger have not helped further our cause. Also, let's not be fooled into construing silence as a gesture of wisdom. Some who adhered to this policy couldn't usher in much- needed change. They turned every election win to their advantage and will continue to do so until death would force them to part ways. Why do some veterans still contest even after all these long years? I leave this to our political analysts to dissect because I can't find any logic in it.”

An article reprinted from the newspaper AL-QABAS on this same page 5 also asked warily in its title, “Will PM’s new Cabinet last?” These authors began by noting that the public is now relieved that finally women have representation in parliament. On the other hand, there is a “lingering” fear of the new cabinet and parliament failing again. However, these AL-QABAS authors remain hopeful that stability might reign as for the first time in several elections, the voters have chosen representatives of the people who seem prepared to support the emir’s cabinet rather than to charge it with crimes, fiscal irresponsibility or incompetence at every turn.

In contrast, on that same KUWAIT TIMES page, Nassir al-Abdaly makes a completely different prediction that the cabinet will continue to fail to comprehend “what’s going on around them”. The author continued himself saying, “The five previous cabinets have always believed that their ’foes’ formed an obstacle in [their] way of achieving development projects.” Al-Abdaly explains that these cabinets’ approach to criticism has been, “[f]or example, if they were criticized by Liberals, they would blame Islamists, and if they were criticized by Islamists, they would blame the Public party, and so on.”

Finally, since for the first time in several elections, liberal candidates did fairly well in this recent May 2009 Kuwaiti election, Dr. Ebtehal al-Khateeb gloats in his article entitled “Kuwaits are Liberal”. al-Khateeb charges the Salafists ( a group of an Islamist party) of being a simple minority in the country--whose voice needs to be reduced in the public sphere and media. “Kuwaitis are liberal …they are liberal with their respect of the other opinion, in their allowing others’ freedoms besides theirs, in their love for their religion without trying to impose it on others, in their rejection of using religion as a tool of threatening or enticement, in their evaluation of woman as a creative human-being and not a body for pleasure and hatching . . . .”

In short, the views on that single KUWAIT TIMES page portray a Kuwait full of pluralistic political engagement—regardless as to whether one is man or woman—or whether one is an Islamist or a liberal. There is certainly hope for Kuwait. Alas, Kuwaitis are currently the richest people on the planet—earning more per capita than the Swiss over the past two years. Therefore, Kuwait must put its government efforts into a higher gear and use its intelligence & great wealth to make a better and more peaceful Middle East and world.

I wish the new Kuwaiti regime all the best in 2009-2010 but I do not hold my breath until intelligent governance, more democratic developments, and national & social planning are improved and more firmly entrenched. This will require reforms that have not even been discussed in prior parliamentarian elections to take forum in Kuwait’s great newspapers and on national TV stations. This will require truly pluralistic participation in developing the land.

SUSTAINABLE VOTING & DEVELOPMENT--EUROPEANS ARE STILL EXPECTED TO ACT & VOTE PAROCHIALLY IN THESE 2009 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARIAN ELECTIONS

SUSTAINABLE VOTING & DEVELOPMENT--EUROPEANS ARE STILL EXPECTED TO ACT & VOTE PAROCHIALLY IN THESE 2009 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARIAN ELECTIONS

By Kevin Anthony Stoda, Germany


Two weeks ago, in Wiesbaden’s Courthouse, I heard a presentation on “A More Future-Enabled Germany”.

The presentation was very entertaining and to the point.

It was given by Michael Kopat of Wuppertal’s influential institute on SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN GERMANY & A GLOBALIZED WORLD. (In German it is called ZUKUENFTSFAEHIGES DEUTSCHLAND).

http://www.zukunftsfaehiges-deutschland.de/en/sustainable_germany/the_project/

This institute houses Friends of the Earth Germany, Bread for the Word (Brot fuer der Welt), Church Development Services, and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy.

Its SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, a report first printed in 1996 in Wuppertal , has since been called by Der Spiegel magazine the Bible for the sustainability and environmental movement in Germany.

Michael Kopat works with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy. He opened the presentation by noting that in Europe today, “Air Transport is already creating more air pollution and global warming than all the trucks on the continent.”

With this pointed charge, Kopat was targeting the nearby development of the Hessen government called the Frankfurt Airport expansion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a.Td6B2Iy2Kw&refer=germany

No-holds-barred is how Kopat approached the rest of the topics that evening. In his main points he intertwined improvements in democracy, environment, and sustainable development as Germans prepared to go to the June 7, 2009 European Parliamentary elections.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/elections2009/default.htm

Kopat stated, “Recurring inquiries prompted the decision in 2006 by publishers new and old to reissue ‘Sustainable Germany’. From the outset it was clear that this meant another liaison between development and environmental policy.”

Kopat noted that his institute is bringing out its newest report on “Sustainable Development” in Germany and the world at this very time.

“Based on new data it shall once again pose the question as to the meaning of sustainability for an industrialized country with international responsibility. Yet the new study is also a reaction to current undesirable developments, to the increasing demands made on the idea of sustainability and the tendencies to repeat the familiar mistakes made by industrialized countries elsewhere in the world. At the same time the study encourages active participation and will prove how easy it is to act in a sustainable manner.”

EUROPE, ARE YOU LISTENING?

“In some ways,” Kopat has noted, “there has certainly been progress in Europe and in various corners of the world since Rio 1992 in terms of awareness and commitment to fighting poverty and environmental catastrophe by nations in the north and south.”
http://www.zukunftsfaehiges-deutschland.de/en/sustainable_germany/the_study/foreword_by_the_publishers/

On the other hand, Kopat reports, the new “study ‘Sustainable Germany in a Globalised World’ challenges this idyllic stroll down ‘sustainable economic growth’ lane.”

This means: “The model of unlimited material growth in a physically limited world is outdated. The [newest] study takes a look at a fundamental change: what changes are necessary to make Germany fit for the future and capable of contributing its share to the world’s sustainability? What international and national rules and institutions are required; what changes are needed in politics, economy, consumption, products and lifestyle, at work and leisure, in technology, social co-existence and in our culture? The study stimulates, suggests, conceptualizes, and outlines visions. Thus the dimension of the task becomes apparent, as do the opportunities to become active; making the study a sober and critical book that still offers motivation for change.”

Over the evening, Kopat noted the following major points:

(1) The recent world peak in oil prices nearing $150 a barrel are not an aberration. The demand for fuel is still high and peak oil production has almost been reached worldwide. This means oil prices will put pressure on countries to move to more sustainable and environmentally energy products, but not necessarily at a fast enough speed--unless the masses of people who are concerned about the matter put significantly more pressure on their governments to act now.

(2) There is certainly the possibility that the environment in the long run will be helped by the oncoming higher-and-higher fuel prices, but with usage of coal by China, India and in the USA set to increase for the next decade, reduction in pollutants and greenhouse gases will not occur automatically. Again voters and taxpayers need to pressure on their governments to take action.

(3) One problem for the realization of the democratic desires of many people to obtain more sustainable development has been the huge amount of lobbying and propaganda moneys that global energy corporations have a their disposal. Again, citizens in Europe and around Europe must push to reduce the false information spun by the corporate world. The case of lobbies in the USA working against factual science findings over the past two decades is well known here in Europe. Moreover, lobbying capital and/or pressures on politicians must both be reduced.

(4) Although the older OECD countries of the world had been responsible for the majority of greenhouse gases prior to 1998, since that date many developing countries have surpassed the majority of OECD lands in terms of production of greenhouse gases. This means this is a global matter and Europe and other OECD lands need to be working hand-in-hand to reduce greenhouse gases and environmental damage in all of the developing lands, waterways, and breathable environments.

(5) All over Europe and the developing world, nations are using the wrong measures, such as GNP or stock markets, to measure economic growth and success. This skewed form of looking at public economy must be ended. An educated and democratic people need to demand better benchmarks or milestones, such as truer quality-of-life measures & sustainability indexes--or even simple things like measurable improvements in education and access to education and funding for the weaker in society. There is no need to focus only on making the rich richer, which has been the case for too many decades.

(6) Surveyed Germans have revealed again-and-again that making more money and buying more things does not make them any happier. A similar finding is evident around the globe. One reason for this is the increased pressure on overtime, on efficiency in production, and on getting both married partners into the workplace. These trends have all hurt the quality-of-life in developed and developing lands over the past five to six decades. This overemphasis on production and efficiency must be turned instead towards sustainable lifestyles & training. In addition measures of progress must again be applied differently by the governments and industries than has been the case to date. That is, new measures of success must become mainstreamed in the political economies of the world. Democracies must see to this. What about looking at success as the reduction of the numbers of hours one has to work while improving one’s quality-of-living and/or one’s humanistic education standards. Isn’t that a better set of goals?

(7) We already have so many energy-efficiency creating or obtaining methodologies and devices on the market. For example, heat pumps could help houses in Europe to save immensely--saving up to 90% of the heating cost in homes (if used with proper insulation practices & if instituted with the moneys being thrown at nuclear power by European regimes these days. Certainly, more solar- and other energy alternatives could be supported as well by the European governments if money wasn’t thrown away on wasteful large projects.

THE SLEEPING GIANT: ENERGY EFFICIENCY

By the way, Kopat calls energy efficiency the SLEEPING GIANT in Europe and North America. Imagine what would happen if the moneys used on traditional coal and fuel plants spent to improve energy efficiency nationally, European-wide, or worold-wide!!!!

One bumper sticker, Kopat saw a few years back, said it all.

Kopat described that the bumper sticker, which someone had placed on an SUV down the street from where he walked to work. The sticker stated: “A penis extension would do more for you than building and driving an SUV in order to show your manliness.”
Big corporations and big investors love to throw money at big projects, like big nuclear or coal power plants. Saving energy is for them and politicians not cool and a much more indirect way to make a profit.

Kopat knows that this sort of way of thinking and investing must be ended. Only a more democratic and aware European voting population can wean the continent of “the big machine” or “big project mentality” and related approaches to energy and sustainable development in Europe.

Kopat teased and challenged the largely German audience, “Look, the Dutch ride bicycles 20 times as often as Germans. That means they live healthier and they pollute less. We need to change the way we think and make decisions. This is why I gave up a family car ten years ago—and I haven’t looked back.”

THIS WEEKEND’S EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

There are various political parties in Germany and across Europe who do think like Michael Kopat of Wuppertal.

http://www.betterworldlinks.org/index.php?cat=3608

Besides the Greens Alliance of Europe,

http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/default/rubrik/6/6270.greensefa_org@en.htm

there are many smaller sustainability oriented parties such as BUESA, a party which focuses on international develop-for-all. It runs a campaign under the slogan, “Europe’s future lies in Africa.”

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F0CE4DD1F30E233A2575BC2A9619C946697D6CF

Kopat says Europeans must look at these ideas he has discussed (1) efficiency, (2) flexibility in labor, (3) comfort in lifestyle, (4) environmental friendliness, (5) overall true savings, and (5) fair trade before they vote or support any government or business leader on whatever project in the future.

Sadly, I and nearly 4 million others in Germany will not even be able to vote.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4306311,00.html

Worse still, in the UK and in other neighboring lands, many voters these 2009 European Parliamentary elections will use there votes simply to punish the present government—not even thinking much to the future of their country—let alone to the future of the world or the continent of Europe.

http://euobserver.com/883/28232

Likewise, Germans are going to use this election as a test case for signaling what they want their major parties to talk about for the September 2009 national elections--rather than worrying about the world in 2022 as Mr. Kopat does.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/features/article_1480597
.php/European_vote_a_test_case_for_Germanys_general_election__Feature__

Interestingly, it would likely be a red (socialist) and green alliance that could most likely end the current European Union deadlocks on constitution and social legislation.

http://www.theparliament.com/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/pes-leader-plays-down-prospects-of-red-green-alliance/

Who is Arminius or Hermann the Great?

Who is Arminius or Hermann the Great?


By Kevin Stoda, Germany



The husband of my cousin, Toni Lais, in Rochester , Minnesota makes leather helmets for reenactments of all sorts—from Medieval battles to Viking voyagers.



His name is Doug Lais.



You can see some of the variety of his helmets at this site:



http://www.leatherhelms.com/?202000001000



NOTE: I believe it is actually Doug, who is happily posing in his works of art on this advertisement.



According to one article, “Within 250 miles of Rochester , there are at least 10 fairs that go on during the summer. Most are single weekend shows. There’s one in Sioux Falls , one in Sioux City , Des Moines , the Amana Colonies, Wisconsin .”



Doug noted some time ago, “I do a few of them, but working and doing the fairs on weekends is a killer. This year I’m taking a sabbatical from the fairs. It burns up my vacation time, and I want to keep the marriage balanced.”



http://queue.typepad.com/renaissance_faires/garbcostumes/



That was old news.



Now, with 2009AD being the 2000th anniversary of Hermann (Arminius) the Great’s victory over three and a half Roman legions in the Battle against Varus, i.e. the Roman leader in charge of expanding the Roman advancement into the Germanic Realm in the time of Emperor Augustus, Doug Lais is being asked by popular demand to make Germanic helmets as well.



http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=26317



According to the article cited above, “Making a basic helmet takes Doug about eight hours, with additional time to add various components.”



Doug explains, “I use saddle skirting, thick cow hide, probably a quarter-inch or 3/16s thick.”



He elaborates, “I put the leather panels in water that’s almost boiling, and it softens it up. I throw it on a mold, and it hardens. It can take on a fairly complex shape. It’s really beautiful stuff when it dries in a curved shape.”


In order to, “sew the leather pieces together, Doug utilizes a 1920s or ’30s-era treadle sewing machine. He bought the treadle model purposefully, thinking someday he might haul it to fairs and demonstrate his craft.”


“I’m not good enough at it yet,” Doug confessed. “I don’t think they’d enjoy seeing the craftsmen swearing at his sewing machine. It’s certainly a long-lasting machine, though. It will last forever.”





ARMINIUS WHO???



Arminius was an ancient Germanic military hero whom some Germanic nationalists rediscovered in the 15th and 16th centuries.



These German-mythmakers soon began to appropriate Arminius´ tale in order to build up the mythological foundations of a modern Germanic state.



In doing so, these Germans heavily extrapolated Arminius tale from the rediscovered and translated histories known as “ Germania ” and “Annals”, written by first century Roman scholar Tacitus.



http://www.kalkriese-varusschlacht.de/en/varusschlacht-varus-battle-2-14/myth-hermann/the-myth-arminius-hermann.html



Interestingly, one legend of Arminius appropriation in Germany has claimed it was Martin Luther who had first translated the Roman name Arminius into German as “Hermann the Great” in the 16th Century.



However, this is probably only one of the many later myths created by romanticists and nationalists in Germany to portray some direct line to a Germanic hero dating to the age of the zenith of the Roman Empire .



Let me back up. In order to know who Arminius was one must know who his opponent in battle was, i.e. Varus.



Publius Quinctilius Varus was the Roman leader in charge of the Roman community along the Rhine River in what is today Germany from about 5a.d. till 9a.d.



Along the Rhine and Mosel rivers, the Romans had found many hot springs . This meant the Romans could live as civilized peoples and enjoy the hot baths there as they might have done if they were stationed in the Mediterranean area.



http://www.euratlas.com/Atlas/germany_rhine/treves_thermes.html



Even today, many street names in Wiesbaden , where I now live, bare the names of various Roman generals who were famous in the region.



http://english.wiesbaden.de/frame.php?menue=/thecity/specials/menue.php&content=/thecity/specials/content/history.php&werbeseite=/banner/Specials.php



According to the visitors´ center in Wiesbaden, “Around the years 6 to 15 A.D. the first earthen castle was built on the `Heathen’s Mountain`, between the Platter Straße and Kastellstraße, which was replaced under Emperor Domitian, starting around 83, by a stone castle. Under the cover of these fortifications a civilian settlement grew, which soon took on the character of a spa with its many warm springs, and was named after a local tribe ´Aquae Mattiacorum` (the waters of the Mattiacians).”



Varus had already become renowned in greater Syria and Asia for his ability to put down rebellions before he was sent to the Germanic corners of the European continent around the birth of Christ. Varus had personally even put down revolts for King Herod of Israel .



In short, Varus could be brutal.



More importantly, Varus also knew how to politically divide and conquer the peoples within the borders of the Roman Empire .



Interestingly, Armenius had not grown up as full-blooded or true-blue Germanic being. He had been trained himself from boyhood spent in Rome to serve the great empire.



In fact, Armenius, his father, and his brothers were all Roman citizens. His father and some of his brothers had served the Roman Empire for decades on the Rhine Valley and elsewhere.



Arminius was also recognized as a chief of the Cherusci, a group of Germanic tribes, and he fully was in the service of the Romans.



By the time of his surprise attack on Varus’ four Roman legions in the 9th year of the New Era, Arminius had already obtained both citizenship and equestrian rank—very high rank in the military in Roman imperial forces.



However, Arminius was reported to not be very happy. One report had it that a marriage offer of his had been snubbed.



Nonetheless, until the actual attack, Varus had pooh-poohed any seriousness in the rumors concerning the growing rage of his servant (or former-servant) Arminius.



Arminius´ marriage offer to a daughter of one Roman family had been turned down—apparently on racist grounds—about the time that Varus arrived in the German regions.



However, history has never truly revealed what exactly propelled Arminius to turn his back on his Roman identity forever and wage the soundest defeat a Roman army ever fell victim to.



Could it simply have been a sad ending to a love story?



Or was there something hidden in Arminius´ sudden animosity to Rome —something that has since disappeared to all of history?





THE BATTLE WITH VARUS or TEUTON FOREST



According to one museum situated near the 9th century battle scene of Arminius and Varus, Varus had spent the summer touring his part of the empire east and west of the Rhine River .



As was the custom, the Roman leader went from city to city and tribe to tribe during the year to hold court.



Varus had “travelled around and held court days regularly. The local tribes seemed to become accustomed to this slowly and many responded to this offer gladly. Not quite so popular was the topic `taxes´.”



http://www.kalkriese-varusschlacht.de/en/varusschlacht-varus-battle-2-14/historic-background-2-55/history-of-the-varus-battle.html



Just as in other parts of the Roman Empire , there were protests to the taxation of the Roman.



Nonetheless, after a summer of work, Varus was soon heading back for a winter’s rest (including a warm thermal bath) and apparently quite satisfied that the Germanic peoples were well under his control as the surprise attack occurred.



Within a few days of the onslaught, the Roman 17th, 18th and 19th legions had totally been decimated.



A portion of another remained. Meanwhile, Varus had already committed suicide in the wake of one of the greatest military defeats in Roman history.



Caesar Augustus´ plans to expand his Roman Empire well-to-the-East of the Rhine were stopped in their tracks forever.



http://www.germanyandafrica.diplo.de/Vertretung/pretoria__dz/en/__PR/2009__PR/05/05__Varusbattle,archiveCtx=2004826.html







MYSTERY OF ARMINIUS´ INTENTIONS AND AFTERMATH



Within less than a decade, Rome had replaced its lost legions on the Rhine .



In addition, politically speaking, Roman leaders on the Rhine and elsewhere continued to be quite deft for centuries in their ability to divide and conquer among the various Germanic peoples.



Arminius, himself, had been raised and trained for battle during his childhood and youth in the Rome , the capital of the Empire. This insight into thinking like a Roman had certainly led to his success in battle.



However, Arminius never successfully created strong alliances with any other substantial Germanic tribe. So, in some ways, his victory was short-lived. Moreover, Roman culture, clothing, and trade continued in the Germanic regions to the east of the Rhine and Elbe rivers.



Meanwhile, many German speaking peoples over the subsequent decade allied themselves time-and-again with the Roman legions and society on the Rhine in order to keep at bay still other Germanic and Slavic tribes East of the Rhine and the Elbe rivers.



In short, although many of the Germanic historians and poets of the 15th to the 20th century sought to find a fully-German hero in the figure of Arminius, there is little clear evidence that he was able to persuade many more Germanic tribes to join him in ousting the Romans from Germanic territories for any length of time.



Nor is it clear that Arminius rejected Roman culture.



It probably had never been Arminius´ intention to promote any Germanic identity above a Roman or tribal identity.



Arminius might simply have decided out of personal reasons—rather than national or tribal ones--to lead a most successful attack on the Roman Empire in 9a.d.



In turn, many Germanic peoples chose to accept Roman citizenship and the role of Rome as a protector in the region right up until the end of the 4th Century.



In short, Arminius was never clearly a symbol of Germanic emancipations or revolutionary German identity.



That was the case right up until the 19th Century, i.e. the age when the German Kaiser Wilhelm adopted Hermann the Great as his personal idol in the 1860s and 1870s as Germany rolled over its Danish, Austrian, and French foes in a succession of violent wars.



http://www.atlantic-times.com/archive_detail.php?recordID=1776



On the Rhine River today are numerous monuments which are dedicated to Germania or Hermann (Arminius) the Great.



All were built during the German Reich from 1870 to 1918.



http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&num=10&lr=lang_en&cr=&safe=images&q=arminius&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi



Ruedesheim and Koblenz have the largest such statues on the Rhine River .

http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/webpages/Niederwalddenkmal%20mit%20Ruedesheim.jpg



http://www.heimatsammlung.de/topo_unter/56_ab_02/images_01/koblenz-328.jpg



However, near Detmold and the Teuton Forest is the largest statue to Germania or Hermann the Great.



http://www.kvg-lippe.de/images/content/naturparkbus/hermannsdenkmal_klein.jpg



According to Klaus Koesters, “This Prussian-style nationalism culminated in 1875 with the inauguration of the Hermann Monument near Detmold . The statue was originally intended to serve as a reminder of the liberation and unity of Germany but after the foundation of the empire in 1871, it became a symbol of the victory over arch-enemy France and the accord reclaimed under Prussian rule in an empire that was supremely confident and ready to defend itself.”

Koesters continues, “When the Hermann Monument turned 50 in 1925, the political climate had undergone a complete transformation. The monument became a kind of pilgrimage site for nationalists who opposed democracy and the republic. Following the defeat of 1918, this movement interpreted the victory over the Romans as a new sign of hope that Germany could again be released from deep dishonor and misery. The mythical event was extracted from its context and put to the service of a subversive movement against the Treaty of Versailles, contemporary society and the democratic republic.”



Interestingly, although the Nazi-leader Adolf Hitler himself did not like the character of Arminius because Arminius had led a revolt against the fascist Roman Empire , many other National Socialists further re-appropriated the image of Arminius.

Koesters adds, “The National Socialist movement put yet another spin on the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest – the Third Reich was considered to be the terminus of the German story that began with the victorious Germanic tribes and their `virtues´ were held up as a model for the German race of the future. The idea of the ´racial purity` of the Germanic people, attested to by Tacitus, was used to disastrous effect as a murderous weapon against all those who could not be classified in this racial category.”



Naturally, 2000 years ago neither Arminius nor his local tribesmen could have imagined what their victory would have meant to peoples of different millennia.



http://www.archive.org/stream/epitomeofancient00ploeuoft/epitomeofancient00ploeuoft_djvu.txt



Nonetheless, the appropriation and misappropriation of the image of Arminius, Hermann, and Germania cannot be ignored by any lover of history and literary interpretation of history or art.



http://www.monumenta.com/2007/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=9&lang=en





2009—TOUR OF GERMANY



This summer is likely to be a great time to tour Germany and see how the nation wrestles with its Roman and Germanic past.



There will be various re-enactments of battles, such as the Battle of Varus.



http://www.imperium-konflikt-mythos.de/victoria/termine2009/?lang=en



In addition, three museums are cooperating and simultaneously holding major exhibitions on the Battle of Varus, the Romans and Germans in history, & the stories of their lives at the time of the battle.



Related to the focus on the pre- and post Roman Empire eras in Germany and Europe will be a further review at each museum of how appropriation and misappropriation of myth can and must be interpreted or understood in our drawing of meaning from history.



http://www.imperium-konflikt-mythos.de/varusschlacht/?lang=en



The Museum in Kalkriese near Osnabrueck is one of the first places I would stop.



http://www.kalkriese-varusschlacht.de/en/varusschlacht-varus-battle-2-14/myth-hermann/the-myth-arminius-hermann.html



There will be exhibition at both Kalkriese and at Detmold through October 2009 on the Myth of Arminius.



The Lippischelandes Museum in Detmold is near the largest Hermann Monument in Germany , which means that you can have a great outing in the Teuton Forest before you leave the area.



http://www.imperium-konflikt-mythos.de/ausstellung/mythos/



There are also replicas of Roman ships to be found this summer cruising and floating up and down the Elbe, Rhine, Danube and other famous rivers in Germany . One such ship is called “ Victoria ”.



http://www.imperium-konflikt-mythos.de/ausstellung/imperium/



The main display of Roman river- and sea shipping handwork will be in



http://www.imperium-konflikt-mythos.de/ausstellung/imperium/



Haltern am See, also in the Lippische Land region—i.e. again not far from Detmold , where the Germania Monument is to be found.



http://www.gut-rothensiek.de/images/Hermannsdenkmal.jpg

TAKING COMMUNION WITH JACKIE ROBINSON

TAKING COMMUNION WITH JACKIE ROBINSON



By Kevin Anthony Stoda, in preparation for June 11, 2009, the Feast of Corpus Christi





June 11, 2009 is the Feast of Corpus Christi . This is when some churches around the world focus on the act of communion and on the fact that God was willing to become man.



Sometimes we Christians cannot fully appreciate the humanity of Christ and what he suffered for our sins on the cross if we cannot think or meditate on even earthly heroes very often.



Once we find an earthly hero, we will—of course--need to multiply many times over the persistence and courage of that hero, i.e. some earthly being who continued in his mission even in the wake of pain, anguish, frustration, and greatest of obstacles.



In undertaking this particular thought-experiment about an earthly hero, we enable ourselves to come closer to understanding the meaning of the bread and wine on Sunday morn.





IN NEVER HAD IT MADE—JACKIE ROBINSON (1919-1972)



Two weeks ago, here in Wiesbaden Germany where many American forces have been stationed since 1945, I came across an ancient paperback of an authentic American hero. It was the autobiography of Jackie Robinson. The title of this work was simply: I NEVER HAD IT MADE. It was originally published the year of his death, 1972.



This self-titled narrative of this particular black American hero, Jackie Robinson, reminds us that Jesus, the Son of God, had also made a difficult choice to become a man.



Jesus would suffer and die for his decisions and along the way, there would be glimmers of doubt. Jesus certainly wanted to remind us in communion, “I never had it made—as I agreed to become a man as well as God.” (We Christians recognize the sacrifice of Christ in communion, i.e. Jesus had become a man to save us by suffering and dying for us.)



We know that men stumble and fall. There is never ever perfect sailing in a man’s life.



So, in a way, the title of a book called I NEVER HAD IT MADE could potentially refer to each one of us human beings.



Couldn’t it?



Perhaps, Jackie Robinson might disagree.



However, first, who was this man Jackie Robinson?





WHO WAS JACKIE ROBINSON?



Many Americans my age (or older) remember who Jackie Robinson was and what he represents in modern American history.



In 1947, two years after WWII had ended, Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play the sport of baseball in the until-then segregated major leagues of baseball in the USA .



That is to say, by 1945 Hitler’s Nazi Europe had been defeated, and Americans had begun to come home from war committed to make the playing fields of America more fair and just than had ever been the case before.



NOTE: In other words, throughout WWII America’s military armed forces—like American baseball—had been segregated.



There were white Air Force squadrons in WWII.



There were also black air force squadrons.



There was a Navajo Indian signals corp.



There were also Japanese American army regiments.



America was a relatively segregated country—i.e. in many ways not living up to its image, ideals, dreams, or passions.



As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be until the end of the decade, 1948, that President Harry S. Truman officially began desegregating the U.S. military forces. The last all-black unit, would, therefore, not be dissolved till 1954.



In the meantime, in the 1940s baseball was still considered America ’s national game or sport.



Yet, not all Americans had access to the sport.



For example, throughout the early 20th century, very few Native Americans or Hispanics had ever played major league baseball.



Certainly, no black man had ever been allowed to play in the Major Leagues of Baseball.



That was the case until later in the summer of 1945, the president (and general manager) of the national baseball team named the Brooklyn Dodgers invited Jackie Robinson to be the first black major league player.





THE INTERVIEW



In his autobiography, I NEVER HAD IT MADE, Jackie Robinson relates the story of that now-famous interview.



For me, as a lay leader in church, I am struck by how similar the conversation and questing of young Jackie Robinson might have been to that which Jesus might have faced from God, the Father, had he interviewed his own son, Jesus, prior to allowing him to become one of us—i.e. fully man.



That is, God wanted someone to carry out a most difficult mission to save the lost.



Normally, before sending anyone on a top-secretor special mission that soldier or agent is interviewed and briefed.



This is what happened to Jackie Robinson in August 1945.



The president of the Brooklyn Dodgers at that time was named Branch Rickey, who as a young college baseball coach in 1911 had had one black player on his Ohio Wesleyan baseball team. Since that time, i.e. for nearly 3 ½ decades, Branch Rickey had pondered a way to integrate blacks into the national game.



Rickey would call this lifelong project of his “the great experiment” or “the noble experiment”.



In order for this noble experiment to succeed, Rickey was looking for a very special athlete, hero—and/or man.



Jackie, sitting in Branch Rickey’s office in New York City that August 1945, was just getting over the shock of being asked to be the guinea pig in this grand experiment, i.e. the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century, when the interview or briefing began in full swing.





HERE IS WHAT JACKIE REMEMBERS OF THE INTERVIEW (pp. 39-42)



Jackie Robinson relates the following in his autobiography, I NEVER HAD IT MADE:



Abruptly, Mr. Rickey swung his swivel chair in my direction. . . . He pointed a finger at me.



“I know you are a good ballplayer,” he barked. “What I don’t know is whether you have the guts.”



I knew it was too good to be true. Here was a guy questioning my courage. That virtually amounted to him asking me if I was a coward. . . . I felt the heat coming to my cheeks. . . .



“I’ve investigated you thoroughly, Mr. Robinson,” Mr. Rickey said.



….



He (Rickey) had demanded and received more information and came to the conclusion that if I had been white, people would have said, “Here’s a guy who is a contender, a competitor,”



After that he(Rickey) had some grim words of warning. “We can’t fight our way through this, Robinson. We’ve got no army there is virtually nobody on our side. No owners, no umpires, very few newspapermen. And I am afraid that many fans will be hostile. We’ll be in a tough situation. We can win only if we can convince the world that I am doing this because you’re a great baseball player and a fine gentleman.”



“So there is more than playing,” he said. “I wish it meant only hits runs, and errors—only the things they put in the box score. Because you know—yes, you would know, Robinson, that a baseball box score is a democratic thing. It doesn’t tell how big you are, what church you attend, what color you are, or how your father voted in the last election.”



I interrupted, “But, it’s the box score that really counts—that and that alone, isn’t it?”



“It’s all that ought to count,” he replied. “But it isn’t. Maybe one of these days it will be all that counts. That is one of the reasons I’ve got you here, Robinson. If you are a good enough man, we can make this a start in the right direction. But let me tell you, it is going to take a whole lot of courage.”



He was back to the crossroads question again . . . .



“Have you got the guts to play no matter what happens?”



“I think I can play the game Mr. Rickey,” I said.



The next few minutes were tough. Branch Rickey had to make absolutely sure that I knew what I would face. Beanballs would be thrown at me. I would be called the kinds of names which would hurt and infuriate any man. I would be physically attacked. Could I take all this and control my temper, remain steadfastly loyal to the ultimate aim?



He knew I would have terrible problems and wanted me to know the extent of them before I agreed to the plan. . . . The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity, I looked at Mr. Rickey guardedly, and in that second I was looking at him not as a partner in a great experiment, but as the enemy—a white man. . . .





THE QUESTION--NOT TO FIGHT BACK?



“Mr. Rickey, “ I asked, “are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?”



I (Jackie) never will forget the way he exploded.



“Robinson,” he said, “I’m looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back.”



After that , Mr. Rickey continued his lecture on the kind of thing I’d be facing.



He not only told me about it but he acted out the part of a white player charging me, blaming me for the “accident” and calling me all kinds of foul racist names. He talked about my race, my parents, in a language that was almost unendurable.



“They will taunt you and goad you,” Mr. Rickey said. “They’ll do anything to make you react. They will try to provoke a race riot in the ballpark. This is the way to prove that a Negro should not be allowed in the major league. This is the way to frighten the fans and make them afraid to attend the games.”



. . . .



Suppose I was at shortstop. Another player comes down from first, stealing, flying in with spikes high, and cuts me on the leg. The white player laughs in my face.



“How do you like that, nigger boy?” he sneers.



Could I turn the other cheek?





JESUS AND THE SAME QUESTIONS



As we approach our weekly communion, please remember that communion, commitment and community are all related words in the world of bread and wine in commemoration in church or in fellowship with other Christians.



They--commitment, communion, commemoration, and community--all come together in the procedure of taking the bread and the wine as Jesus commanded us to do when he met with his disciples and prepared to be taken to the cross: He would be-



-abused psychologically through apparent loss of friends and apparent isolation

-abused through words of rejection



-abused through painful attacks on his body.



Surely, the Father Almighty, had asked his son Jesus the same question in the centuries before Jesus joined us here as a man on earth and played in the fields as a child and spoke as messenger before roaring crowds as an adult.



-Jesus, will you take that awful verbal abuse?



-Jesus, will you survive the sense of loss of friendships and growing personal isolation before the screaming masses?



-Jesus, will you take all those painful jabs of spikes, whippings, and other sources of horrendous physical pain?



-Jesus, will you remain true to the aims of this great experiment, i.e. to save the lost?



At communion we take the bread and wine which reminds us that Jesus was flesh and blood.



He was a man—our forerunner—who agreed to die for our sins.



By dying first--and then by rising from the grave--, Jesus was our great path breaker.



He made it possible for believers and disciples to take the path he blazed for us.



We can thus now follow Jesus to a heaven of many rooms.



We can enter the BIG LEAGUES OF OUR LORD.





FINAL NOTE—JESUS NEVER HAD IT MADE, EITHER, eh, Jackie?



Thanks, Jackie Robinson, for taking part in a great experiment to integrate America ’s national past time in the 1940s!



Jackie was certainly a great ballplayer and a great competitor—winning the Rookie of the Year award (1947) and the national leagues Most Valuable Player award (1949)--as well as helping take his team, the Dodgers, to the World Series six times in ten years.



Jackie, you blazed a path for so many others to follow and you began it all—even knowing it would be very painful/tortuous journey that would require great discipline and the need to turn the other cheek to the persecutors!!



However, the consequences would be worth it for all who would come after you.



We now have our first black U.S. President, Mr. Robinson. He has the unlikely name of Barack Obama.



You, Jackie, were part of that journey to bring America this far.



Thank you for your discipline, drive, and persistence—enduring all kinds of obstacles!



Meanwhile, as we take this communion of bread and wine, let us recommit ourselves to continuing to be disciplined--and committed to the ideas of Christ (our biggest hero) and to the perseverance of men who have shown us throughout the ages how to behave whenever the experiment is noble.



Certainly, integrating God and man in the life of Christ was the greatest and most noble experiment of all?--eh, Jackie?













NOTES



Robinson, Jackie. I NEVER HAD IT MADE. Greenwich , CT : Fawcett Crest Books, 1974.

Der Obama des Baseballs, http://www.zeit.de/online/2009/06/baseball-jackie-robinson-90jahre

FROM PRAYER TO DEMONSTRATION: HISTORY OF CHURCH IN EAST GERMANY IN 1980s IS STILL NEGLECTED in USA POLITICAL & HISTORICAL ANALYSES

FROM PRAYER TO DEMONSTRATION: HISTORY OF CHURCH IN EAST GERMANY IN 1980s IS STILL NEGLECTED in USA POLITICAL & HISTORICAL ANALYSES

By Kevin Stoda, Germany

During this 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, many in Germany are restudying the events of that age and reflecting on what it means in Germany and in the world today. This article focuses on two pastors involved in the Revolution of 1989/1990 in Eastern Germany


Both (East German born and raised) Rainer Eppelmann and Markus Meckel have lived out some extremely interesting biographies.

Eppelmann, a former pastor, was active for decades in the church in East Germany and suffered for his beliefs and strong stances.

For example, Eppelman opposed the East German Communist states military draft in the 1960s and served time in jail for this. In 1990, however, he suddenly found himself appointed as Defense Minister for the very last East German government.

Eppelmann changed the name of the office as well—he changed it to the Ministry of Defense and Disarmament. Eppelmann has since served in the parliament and for government for a United Germany several times over the past two decades.

NOTE: As far as I my research can demonstrate, there has never been any other government in history with a “Ministry to Defense and Disarmament”.

Similarly, Meckel, as a protestant minister was very active in the peace movement, conducted under the sanctuaries of the East German churches in the 1970s and 1980s.
Meckel became East Germany’s last foreign minister (Secretary of State) in 1990.

In the meantime, Meckel has been active in the Socialist party (SPD) of Germany and busy running the Foundation for Comprehending the History of the East Germany Society (Stiftung zur Aufarbeitung der DDR-Staat). He also has led working groups to improve Polish and German cooperation and reconciliation for years.

I came across one of those now-prevalent 20th Anniversary (of the Wall Opening up) interviews with Meckel and Eppelman recently.

I think it is very important to hear these two gentlemen in their own words because the American academic publishing industry has really missed out a lot on good and rigorous research on what took place in East Germany between the 1950s and 1989, i.e. when Germany’s first peaceful revolution in history succeeded in deposing a despotic regime.


THE REVOLUTION OF THE PASTORS

The title of the interview I read recently with Rainer Eppelmann and Markus Meckel was pulished in CHRISMON, a Christian monthly magazine.

The interview was entitled “Revolution of the Pastors”. The article came out in the May 2009 edition of the CHRISMON magazine.

http://www.chrismon.de/Begegnung.php


The interview began with typical “20th anniversary commemorative” questions for the 1989s, le.g. “Herr Meckel, could you have ever imagined that the East German (GDR) government would ever discontinue to exist?”

Markus Meckel admitted, “That is something which we had never considered. It was all about freedom when we founded the first peace groupings in East Germany. In February 1983 the first base communities were formed under the banner ‘Concrete Action for Peace’. We got to know each other and shared our phone numbers.[Only] with Michael Gorbachev did we gain a new perspective. Already, by 1987, I had had the feeling that Gorbachev wouldn’t let the tanks roll in. The question of unification was far from our minds as we thought that was far too unrealistic at the time.”

Rainer Eppelmann chimed in, “We wanted to make the GDR more humane and people friendlier. I had forbidden myself to even consider more than that possible. I had no idea why the Russians would be willing to pull 300,000 troops from our soil. After all, they had fought terribly hard to get there [during WWII] and it had cost them so much [in terms of lives]. All we were trying to do was to encourage the members of our communities [or fellowships]. However, these activities became more-and-more political as time went on, for example, in 1982 when Robert Havemann made the Berlin Appeal public.”

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/Chapter12Doc11Intro.pdf

Eppelmann continued, “In the [Berlin] appeal, with its many signature, we demanded to have a peace movement independent of the GDR government. Later, a qualitative leap in this process was made when we realized that we needed to found alternative groupings to the government, so that we could clearly challenge or question actions of the SED’s [East German Communist Party] leadership. However, in doing this we never once created any political party. That’s because whoever challenged the sacred-cow of the SED would have been prosecuted in court.”

Meckel explained, “The problem was that there was no long-standing tradition of opposition in East Germany. Until 1961, whoever was politically persecuted simply moved to the West. After the wall was built in 1961, the East German government simply rounded the discontented East Germans up and sold them to the West. Unlike in Poland, Czechoslavakia, and Hungary, we [in the GDR] suffered from a continuous brain drain of critical and alternative thinkers.”

I have to note here that during the 1970s and 1980s, West Germany actually paid money, i.e. a sort of ransom, to the East German government to take in dissidents from the SED regime.

Meckel, who was pastor in the small village of Vipperow in East Germany most of those decades, added, “Only with the Peace and Disarmament Movement [starting in the early 1980s] were opposition cells able to begin to create networks. In my town of Vipperow the project started rather banally. A man came alongside me one day and asked what I thought should be done against all the [nuclear] rockets. Since we couldn’t find any solution at the time in our short debate, we decided to set up a meeting later and discuss it further. Suddenly, 20 people showed up to talk about this particular issue.”

The interviewer asked, “Were they all church people?”

Meckel answered, “Not all of them. My superintendent was like many in the church at that time [in the East]. He looked at our meeting critically. The superintendent said, ‘Other pastors raise bees, but Meckel plays politic.” [Nevertheless], as the Ecumenical Council in Vancouver in 1983 officially started a ‘Conciliation Process for Justice, Peace, and Preservation of Species’, the Peace, Environment, and Human Rights groups inside the Evangelical Church [in East Germany] received wider recognition.”

Eppelmann noted, “The Superpowers put up more and more nuclear warheads. We thought: OH HEAVEN’S NO! How many times do you want to destroy the earth? Here we in [the tiny] East Germany found ourselves in the middle of a weapons buildup with a country [the USSR] which constantly pretending to be a peace dove nation. They blamed the Americans for the Pershing missiles but put more warheads on their SS-20s. Nevertheless, strategically speaking, this was our chance [in East Germany]—as long as we could operate and function under the banner of ‘Peace’, the powers-that-be could not touch us [in the church]. Soon, alongside peace, human rights and environment became a core focus of ours, as well.”

“Why did these peace groups mostly develop under [or near] the umbrella of the church?” asked the interviewer.

Eppelmann explained, “There was a law or principle in communist East Germany, whereby theoretically anyone could assemble and demonstrate. However, in practice, no one ever got such permission to assemble. The only exception to this rule was with the Church, which could hold its meetings whenever--and almost wherever—it wanted to.”

Meckel jumped in, “The State tried to restrict assemblies of the church to only activities of worship. However, we, the church determined what ‘worship services’ looked like. This is how artists, writers, and others marginalized by the government or society could find a voice in our meetings. Particularly, in November each year, this outreach and openness to meet was strongly emphasized by churches around East Germany.”

The interviewer finally asks, “Why were so many ministers of churches involved in the Revolution [in East Germany]?”

Meckel responded, “This is due to our educational training and different emphasis on the problems of individuals and their experiences in the East German society. As I was thrown out of school with the 10th grade, I had to study at a private school run by the church in order to eventually graduate by taking a GED-like exam in East Germany. This is why even as later I served as the nation’s Foreign Minister, my resume clearly shared for all to see that I had had 10th grade education. . . .[On the other hand, by] studying for 15 months outside of the regular school system, I had become a free man. That would not otherwise have been possible [for most in East Germany].”

Eppelmann noted, “ Only inside the Church could one practice speaking freely. This is why when a Round Table was created [in autumn 1989-1990 to work out and create a new society in East Germany], many people from churches were invited to take a seat. One other important thing was that being a minister or a worker in the church, one was able to gain some financial freedom and social freedoms from the state, which the average East German did not have access, too. This sense of security aided me in the 1960s when I went to jail [for my stand against being forced to do military service]. When the state might have put me in jail [in later decades] I thought in confidence of how the church would still both support and take care of my family.”


EPILOGUE

I am almost overwhelmed by the ever-present collective memory of Germany today, especially concerning the role of the church and churchmen in the Peaceful Revolution of 1989.

I am also overwhelmed by the amount of material on the subject in the German language while totally under-whelmed by the comparative lack of material in the English language in terms of books on the Church and the Revolution in East Germany.

This the lack of collective memory in the USA and in other lands, where I have studied 20th Century history and culture over the past three decades, needs to be improved--and improved quickly because many Americans and British peoples mis-learned from the collapse of communism in the late 1980s and 1990s.

This is one reason that the West continues to equate the endless war on terrorism with the endless cold-war—which I had grown up with as a child in America.

Many would-be historians and political economists in the USA and in the UK thought that Reagan’s nuclear arms build-up had forced the Soviet Union to cash in its chips.

Little analyses was made of what a strong peace movement in eastern Europe meant for peace in our time.

Moreover, far-right free-market capitalists mistook the sign of the age to be that Keynesian and Marxist political-economic criticism no longer had anything to offer (or even much appeal in the modern world). The claim was made that there was no alternative between Chicago school style free market capitalism and any other political-economic -ISM.

These academics and well-paid think-tanks read their tea leaves and failed to investigate the growth of freedom following the Helsinki accords in the mid-1970s and the historical tendency for Eastern and Central Europeans to always be on the look out for alternative paths and alternative solutions, i.e. of which Western Europe was only providing a glimpse of in the 1980s and 1990s.

People in the 1980s were simply looking for a public space which would allow them to develop more freely. Citizens were not looking to simply replace one dominant ideology of life and society for another one.

Increasingly, numerous books have come out in these past few years in Germany on the role of church and the church leadership’s (and meeting places’) relationship to the East German state in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

During these decades, churches gave space to many marginalized voices throughout Eastern Europe.

Three recent books on the topic include:

--FROM PRAYER TO DEMO (Vom Gebet Zur Demo in German) by Arnd Brummer
http://www.chrismonshop.de/item/49/1/0/232/vom-gebet-zur-demo.html# brought out from Chrismon Verlag
,
--THE WALL IS GONE (Die Mauer ist Weg in German) by Wolfgang Huber http://www.buchhandlung89.de/epages/61441600.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61441600/Products/9783938704844
also published from Chrismon Verlag

, and

--OUR REVOLUTION: THE HISTORY OF THE YEARs 1989-1990 (Unser Revolutions: Die geschichte der Jahre 1989/90 in German) by Ehrhart Neubert http://www.kas.de/proj/home/events/90/1/year-2009/month-1/veranstaltung_id-33869/index.html
from Piper Verlag.

These books are just some of the more recent works on the Church and State in the East Germany Republic during the period from 1945 through 1990.

MEANWHILE

In the USA, however, the focus has been strongly UPON how one can villain-ize the system of the former East German state.

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24118

This APPROACH of simply villain-ising East Germany and the lives of its peoples has left me and other Modern European historians feeling that U.S. historian- and political science leadership have continued to be muddled in cold warrior-like narrations.

This particular cold-war narration has been detrimental to peacemaking in the USA because the U.S. experience of people-power has been forgotten under narrations of military power and economic power.

There are almost no books in the English speaking world that correct the biases in the old- and worn- cold war narrations.

NOTE: On the one hand, I must admit that there have been some good journal articles and on-line web reviews of the era of Revolution in East Germany, which reveal that some historians in North America do recognize that the role of church (and others working among the institution of the Church) from the 1960s onwards, in fact, had enabled democracy--and a more global & peace consciousness movement--to expand at a very fast rate by the late 1980s.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-53869119.html


Nevertheless, book-length works are generally lacking. Only a few autobiographical works, like Dr. Mark Jantzen’s, THE WRONG SIDE OF THE WALL are the exception.

American historians and political scientists should come to Europe and interview the revolutionaries of the 1980s now—or they will pass away—and American mis-narration of the end of the Cold War will continue to dominate in North America and the UK for decades to come.

This false narration will promote more wars an military posturing than our world can afford in order to solve real social, environmental, peace and justice issues over the next century.

GERMANY IN THE MIDST OF CHANGE: NEW GERMANS FROM 113 LANDS WHILE THOUSANDS LEAVE THEIR HOMELAND, “DEUTCHLAND”

GERMANY IN THE MIDST OF CHANGE: NEW GERMANS FROM 113 LANDS WHILE THOUSANDS LEAVE THEIR HOMELAND, “DEUTCHLAND”

By Kevin Stoda, Germany

Buried in the Frankfurter Allgemein Zeitung (a popular and well written German newspaper known to readers as the FAZ) on May 27, 2009, there were a pair of articles that shared the schizophrenic approach to a demographic crises that Germany has been witnessing these past decade.

The first tiny article included a picture of women and children from four or more continents in line to be sworn in as new citizens of Germany.

The title on the blurb above this piece was “1218 Germans from 113 Countries” [“1218 Deutsche aus 113 Laender” in German].

This article, “1218 Germans from 113 Countries”, started by noting that the Frankfurter International Choir sang a beautiful welcome in German with the tune “Fruende, die Ihr Seid Gekommen” [or “Friends, You Have Arrived”] .

To these friendly words, the 1218 New Germans were sworn in during a single ceremony this May 2009.

All these new Germans had had to give up their citizenship as the Oberburgermeisterin (Grand Mayor) of Frankfurt, Petra Roth, welcomed them as full citizens in their new homeland. This giving up of one’s citizenship is not something to be undertaken lightly. It is like putting all your hopes and money into a single roll of the dice.

The Grand Mayor Roth thanked these new Germans for their solidarity and their trust in the German Federal Republic and the city of Frankfurt in Hessen.

Several new immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Turkey are quoted in the article. For example, the “New German” from Egypt noted that he appreciated the freedom and better life the country of Germany offered him and his family.

A lot has changed in Germany since I lived here in the 1980s. At that time, the German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, had claimed that Germany was not a country for émigrés.

Now, Germany of 2009 is quite another place, especially with its multicultural cities. They are much more cosmopolitan than was the case 25 years ago, i.e. when one needed to have German blood in order to be welcomed into the German fold.

Naturally, there has been backlash in Germany to this oncoming growth in émigrés over the past decade since the German citizenship laws have changed.

However, émigrés are happy to continue to move to Germany, where first wars in the 1910s and again in 1940s had left its population decimated. Next, the relatively quick post-war baby-boom was followed by decades of fairly low birthrate (i.e. since the 1960s and birth control) in Germany.

In the last few years, there has been an increasing interest by the German government in making the land a more children-friendly-place, but decades of underdevelopment in the areas of childcare, child education, adult integration, and children development programs--as well as shortfalls in support for families and married couples--have left the German youth population underdeveloped as well.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1836769,00.html


EMIGRATING GERMANS COSTING GERMANY BILLIONS

On the other hand, almost on the same page as the article (noted above) in FAZ (dated May 27, 2009) concerning the new Germans from 113 lands being sworn in on a single day in Frankfurt was another contradictory message.

In the title of another article on the opposite page of the FAZ, one reads “Emigration Wave Costs Germany Billions” [ in German: “Auswanderunswelle kostet Deutschland Milliarden”] .

http://www.economicsuk.com/blog/000016.html


This other article claims that since 2003, some 180,000 people have left the German Federal Republic.

Most have moved to other OECD lands.

The author of this piece, Roland Preuss, writes that “alone in 2008 three thousand doctors left the country”.

Meanwhile, several worried German immigration institutes state that if even 1 out of every 3 of these same medical doctors fails to return to Germany some day 1.1 billion dollars in income will have permanently left the country by the time these same medics pass away.

As well, in 2007 alone some 55,000 Germans left the country to work elsewhere. Many are skilled personnel.

Disappointingly, the same article called “Emigration Wave Costs Germany Billions” ends with a paragraph noting that Germany’s civil servants are advocating that the emigration of Germans be balanced out with an attempt to persuade equally qualified applicants from around the world to enter and live in Germany.

http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/migrations100.html

This is clearly only a small part of the real problem that Germany faces demographically and economically if the nation state does not change its ways—and soon.


WHY DISAPPOINTING?

This is APPROACH, which focuses only on trying to replace the older German population which is emigrating from Germany, is disappointing because currently Germany has done a poor job of integrating many of its newest immigrants.

What would be the likely success if Germany did increase the number of well-educated and highly trained immigrants to replace those Germans who are leaving the land for good.

http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Reden/DE/2008/05/bm_bundestagsrede_migrationsbericht.html?nn=104128


In the land of Hessen, where the city of Frankfurt is located, the children of immigrants do substantially less well in the German school systems than do the more ancient German nationals or third generations of German immigrants have.

Moreover, their parents tend to have lower incomes than their native-German-born counterparts.

http://german.berkeley.edu/mg/News/index.php?category=3

What is more disturbing is that the new immigrants have, as a whole, more children. Nearly 33% of all children in Hessen have at least one parent who is a second or first generation immigrant.

This means that the new immigrants’ children are becoming more numerous, but at the same time are not able to fill the roles in society requiring advanced education because the schools, educational system, and society are failing them.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,493888,00.html



WORK ON INTEGRATION NOW, GERMANY!

I believe the German civil service and various bureaucracies need to pull out all stops to better integrate foreigners before trying to replace them with more jobs from abroad.

The traditional German family is hardly aware of the troubles that new immigrants are facing but German government officials and think-tanks need to do better.

In short, (1) failures in integration practices, and (2) many German’s personal feelings of being uncomfortable in society, or (3) a growing feeling that one is under-appreciated in society appear to me to be the real problems leading to ever-more emigrating Germans.

http://www.bildungsserver.de/zeigen_e.html?seite=4383

This understanding includes native born Germans as well as immigrant Germans deciding to leave Germany to try their luck elsewhere.

To date, Germans have simply shrugged their shoulders and have assumed that new immigrants who have decided to move on to America, Britain or Canada had always had those lands in view or in their dreams.

However, this is shrugging-of-the-shoulders approach to the situation shows no insight (no analysis) into what conditions in Germany are which cause both native born émigrés and new immigrant German émigrés.

Could they have common issues with the failure of German bureaucrats and educators to improve overall quality of life at a rate commensurate with the demographic needs of balance in population over many decades?.

One of the problems new German youth face in school certainly includes the 3-tiered school system—which is still preferred and practices in most regions of Germany.

This system may have worked well in the past when Germany was playing catch-up in development on the world stage, but it is not doing well except in building elite families and classes of people with others being treated as outsiders—based on how far along they make it in the 3-tiered school project. (Germany doesn’t even allow home schooling as an alternative or temporary support for troubled youth.)

http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/bst/en/media/xcms_bst_dms_24483_24484_2.pdf

In the meantime, universities are not student-friendly in terms of providing timely courses and competent instructors. Many people who have struggled through the 3-tiered school system are not even welcomed into the university system of some German states at all. (Worse, many universities are still under-budgeted and over bureaucratized.)

Thinking outside of the box in terms of schooling and integration is needed if Germany is not to face a demographic disaster within the next few decades.

David Smith notes, “Germany is facing the biggest decline in population, certainly in Europe. Germany’s ageing population interacts worryingly with its generous state pensions system, implying a rising fiscal burden in the future.”

Germany doesn’t have much time as a demographic time bomb is ticking.

It’s bureaucratic planners and democratically elected leaders need to ask for help from other OECD countries, such as the UK, the USA or Canada who have had more success in integrating and making foreign born peoples more welcome.

Perhaps a people-friendlier bureaucracy and government planning emphasis on family and lifelong education in the home would help all of us living in Germany in the meantime.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VICTORIA!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VICTORIA!!

By Kevin in Germany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ph_locator_map_palawan.png

Many of you have followed my wife (Maria Victoria) and my adventures since 2008. This adventure included a civil wedding in Kuwait on the last day of that year and a big, fun church wedding in Kuwait this past spring. (Click on the link to the wedding description at this wordpress.com line of my blog.)

http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/my-big-fat-kuwaiti-filipino-indian-american-wedding-march-8-2009/

Today is my wife’s, Maria Victoria (Baradero) Stoda, birthday.

http://www.worldtrip.de/Asien/Philippinen/Puerto_Princesa_1/puerto_princesa_1.html

I flew to Kuwait to visit my wife this past week—with the original week with the intention of bringing her to Germany to join me, my home, my church, my work, and my life here. (I already have her enrolled in a German course.) Alas, the Integration Office in Wiesbaden and other German officials have to-date unhappily and apparently unfairly delayed her visa.

At least I could take her out for dinner and be with Maria Victoria (Vik) at the time of her birthday. (Pray that the civil servants in Wiesbaden act as soon as possible on Vik’s visa.)

Maria was raised on Palawan Island of the Philippines. It is an island where many languages and dialects are spoken at homes, so Tagalong is known and used wisely to help peoples to get along with one another.

“Palawan's almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) of irregular coastline are dotted with 1,780 islands and islets, rocky coves, and sugar-white sandy beaches. It also harbors a vast stretch of virgin forests that carpet its chain of mountain ranges. The mountain heights average 3,500 feet (1,100 m) in altitude, with the highest peak rising to 6,843 feet (2,086 m) at Mount Matalingahan. The vast mountain areas are the source of valuable timber. The terrain is a mix of coastal plain, craggy foothills, valley deltas, and heavy forest interspersed with riverine arteries that serve as irrigation.” [Wikipedia]

http://www.palawan.gov.ph/

Palawan is on the western edge of the Philippines and is in the shape of a dagger pointing towards the Malaysia. It is the third longest island of the nation state with the most islands in the world. It is also considered by National Geographic to be one of the most beautiful islands in all of Southeast Asia for tourists to visit.

http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/2007/11/destinations-rated/east-and-southeast-asia-text/4

Chinese immigrations, dating over 2000 years ago, was followed by Malay and Borneo immigrations to the island in the centuries prior to arrival of the Spanish five centuries ago.

In short, there is a lot of mixed culture there, including new immigrants from across the Philippines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan

Victoria’s father and mother came from Negros, another island group a days boat journey from Palawan and near the central part of the Philippines. So, Maria Victoria spoke several languages growing up on Palawan.

Dear Victoria, I am wishing you again a happy new year on this birth date of yours. I look forward to you coming to Germany soon and encouraging all who live here with your positive energy and charm.

Remember the Love of the Lord on this day:

"In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy dwelling.” Exodus 15:13

Meanwhile, I Corinthians 13:4-7:

“ 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

I am committed to work on this all.

Love,

Kevin

About Aung San Suu Kyi, Meditator and Teacher

About Aung San Suu Kyi, Meditator and Teacher

ALICE WALKER


Source: http://www.alicewalkersblog.com/, May 21, 2009

To paraphrase our beloved James Baldwin: the world is held together, really the world is held together by the love and compassion and clarity of thought of a very few individuals. Though this idea may be frightening, the world being in such distress, it is also comforting.

At least there are a few people who can be counted on to lead us in a proper direction for survival as humans, and for thriving as a species. Aung San Suu Kyi is at the top of the list. That is really the reason she is jailed and on her way to being imprisoned in Insein Prison, in Burma, where conditions are notoriously horrific and from which inmates often emerge, if indeed they do emerge alive, broken and in need of things like wheelchairs. What can we do?

My parents grew up in a society very much like Burma’s, in the Southern United States of North America. Repression of every kind, for people of color, was the order of the day. They taught their children to hold an inner dignity as the highest possible sign of human development, and they taught us to believe in education. These are things that, when I traveled in Burma recently, I recognized immediately in the Burmese people. These people, like the Palestinians who suffer a fate remarkably similar to theirs under Israeli occupation, are holding a sacred thread, not unlike the thread of Ariadne, which we can use, if we lend our whole selves to the effort, to lead us out of the labyrinth of confusion, and away from the people eating Minotaur that has turned out to be human greed. It is as astonishing as it is fascinating to see so clearly that it is our own greed that is eating us.

In Burma it is the greed of a faceless mob of generals who dream up ways every day to further ransack and impoverish the Burmese population and the land of Burma itself. Selling its precious woods, gems and minerals, and routinely enslaving its people to work on “public projects” designed to enrich those in power. I am sure the Junta viewed a recent film made in Burma by unbelievably courageous journalists, journalists with cameras, called Burma VJ: Report from a Closed Country that thoroughly exposes their implacable brutality. In graphic detail it shows the relentless attempt by the Generals to dominate and destroy the Burmese people. It depicts the soul stirring solidarity of common people with the monks and nuns who rise in defense of them, and the slaughter of monks whose very chants, as they’re bludgeoned or shot down, remind the Burmese people of their non-negotiable belief in Non-Harming. This is one of the places I suggest we start: viewing and widely distributing and discussing this film. From the point of view that everyone on earth is Burmese. Greed knows no nationality or boundary, and if we wait for things to change in Burma of their own accord, we will have abandoned what is most threatened in all of us: our human dignity and our freedom to pursue the life we choose for ourselves; in other words, democracy. Indeed, true democracy is what Americans, from all the Americas, are working toward. Largely because of centuries of greed and theft, we are far from the goal.

When I returned from Burma in February 2009, I wrote a long letter to Aung San Suu Kyi. I understood she might never see it; the point was to send it as a postcard for the world to read, for those who knew nothing or little of her situation, of Burma’s situation, to have a quick study in preparation for the struggle to free her and to give her country back to her, and to the people who love it. As an offering to a contemporary view of a tiny part of Burma, by a North American, that I was able to grasp in less than two weeks, I offer this letter/postcard to anyone who wishes to read it.

There is also an Aung San Suu Kyi webpage where one can find suggestions for actions. There is a petition that asks the United Nations to intervene. There are suggestions for places to contact and people to write. I personally feel we as a world have almost passed the following point, but I will offer it: It is time for people to descend en masse in places like Burma and Palestine and to …. Well, show up. Do I know how to get hundreds and thousands of people on this journey? No, I don’t. But somebody does; it has been done before. People showed up en masse in Mississippi decades ago, and changed the direction of the world. Without the Mississippi struggle there would be no Obama, for starters; there would be no possibility of Americans, black and white, feeling the freedom and joy in each other’s being that is so frequently the most pleasant and astounding surprise of the recent quarter century.

What makes Aung San Suu Kyi so very special – and Buddhists will yawn – is that she is a meditator. This means her mind is well trained to grasp the implications of actions, especially violent ones, too many of our world leaders seem clueless about. They talk about annihilating, obliterating, beggaring, starving, impoverishing, raping and pillaging other human beings as if this behavior has no consequences to themselves or to those they represent. This is an incredibly antique way of looking at our problems: that we can bomb them away. War is a dead end, literally. And, what is more, we simply can’t afford it. Not morally, and not financially. How long will it take the citizens of the United States, one wonders, to recognize that the house their country bombed in Iraq is the same one they were living in until it was foreclosed? We see, if we care to look, that everything really is connected, and, not only connected, it is the same thing. Aung San Suu Kyi gets this, which is why she renounces violence in the face of one of the most violent regimes in the world, while at the same time not condemning those who, driven to desperate measures by their mistreatment by the regime, resort to violence in an attempt to defend themselves.

I can’t think of anything more important than Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle, which she is waging so brilliantly. She has proved she is not afraid of death, and one feels imprisonment will be to her - as being jailed was for Martin Luther King - simply part of a necessary pilgrimage of the soul. I am not as concerned about her, to be honest, as I am about the rest of us. We need Aung San Suu Kyi. We need her example of integrity, courage, a raging and revolutionary loving kindness that has kept her steady in her long years under house arrest. It is amazing to think of the discipline she has taught herself over these years: to see through the masks of even the most brutal dictators, and to discern the confused, unwell, frightened persons behind the masks. To say, even after years of house arrest: I would hope one day to be friends. I would sit down and talk with them.

This is a rare being. But not too rare for this world. It was this world and the Burmese culture and life in India and England, and her own special spirit that produced her. A spirit, for all its rareness, not of “heaven” but of Earth. Reading her thoughts one finds nothing vaporous or otherworldly; she is among the most practical of people. Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma are world treasures; if we lose them, we lose knowledge of a human capacity for wisdom, and an instinct for understanding our human responsibility for the gift of life, that will mean we may never know what, on this endlessly giving and radiant planet, a planet that bows to us every single day, we are doing here.

It is up to the citizens of the world to free Aung San Suu Kyi and all Burma’s political prisoners, as well as the country of Burma itself. Our governments, bogged down with the accumulated mistakes of the past, and burdened by their own entanglement in greed, are not likely to be sufficient help, even when they are willing. We must remember as we look about the planet at people like ourselves who are oppressed and discouraged, that we are the majority. Sometimes the feeling of being very small in so large a scheme of suffering hinders us. But, take heart. Before the ice at the polar caps completely melts and we are all submerged, along with our dreams, we can do a lot. Especially if we can commit to do even a little. Once someone pointed out to Sojourner Truth how insignificant she was; a black person, a woman, recently enslaved. To paraphrase her acerbic rejoinder: If I’m only a flea on the back of the stubbornest mule on earth, by God I intend to keep him scratching.

That we can do. Somebody who reads this, perhaps in China, Cambodia, Thailand or Burma, will know how to be a flea on the backs of the Generals in Rangoon. Somebody in Washington, D.C. may know how to do this. Each of us must find our own mule. Meanwhile, we cheer you on!

With metta, and in Solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Brave People of Burma, especially the monks and the journalists!

---------------
Alice Walker is an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and activist. Her most famous novel, The Color Purple, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1983. ©2009 by Alice Walker
Source: http://www.alicewalkersblog.com/


Please visit our websites
Buddhist Relief Mission: http://www.brelief.org/
Sri Lanka reports: http://www.brelief.org/reports/

MEMORIAL TRAIN—AND HOW TRAIN STATION IN WIESBADEN BECOMES CONFRONTATION GROUND BETWEEN THE BUNDESBAHN AND ITS NAZI REICHSBAHN ERA PAST

MEMORIAL TRAIN—AND HOW TRAIN STATION IN WIESBADEN BECOMES CONFRONTATION GROUND BETWEEN THE BUNDESBAHN AND ITS NAZI REICHSBAHN ERA PAST

By Kevin Stoda, Germany

Since Sunday May 24 2009 on platform 5 in Wiesbaden’s train station is found the confrontation ground for the TRAIN TO REMEMBERING (Zug zur Ernnerung) in Hessen, Germany.

http://www.zug-der-erinnerung.eu/

I visited the train on Sunday and was struck myself by the lack of advertising and lack of awareness for the TRAIN TO REMEMBERING. The train is a decades-long response to the fact that it took the German Railway system (Bundesbahn) over 4 decades to even admit it had earned well under the Nazis.

The TRAIN TO REMEMBERING has visited hundreds of cities in Germany over the past two years and the intention is that it will continue to travel throughout Germany until, the German Railway and city train stations across the land recognize the war guilt NAZI burden that remains since 1945.

1985 was the first time that the Bundesbahn even recognized it had made a mistake by not reaching out to the millions of slavery and holocaust victims which the Reichs Ministry for Transportation and the Reichsbahn took part in from 1937 and 1945. In tows like Wuppertal and Bielefeld commemorations have been placed at or around the outside of train stations.

However, in other locations, such as in Darmstadt, it too decades for the Bundesbahn to agree to any memorial being placed at the station to the victims of deportation and genocide.

The primary recognition that the Bundesbahn of Germany needs to do is to make it clear that the transportation projects and ongoing greed for Nazi transportation moneys led the leadership of the Ministry of Transport and the Reichsbahn to pursue and earn billions of Reichsmarks transporting Holocaust victims and factory slaves for the Third Reich.

A COVERUP VIDEO

Until this past year, one could go to the website of the German Bundesbahn and see a memorial film from 1985 that showed how poorly the Bundesbahn was dealing with any war guilt and its image. That particular video is part of what visitors at the TRAIN TO REMEMBERING can see--along with stories & photos of young gypsy, Jews, and Slavic children who were forced to ride to their deaths on the rails to Hell under the Nazi regime.
What I most noticed from that old DB (Deutschbahn) video is that every segment started with the refrain that the end of WWII had seen the poor Reichsbahn left with over 8,000,000,000 reichsmark in damages.

The focus in that propaganda film and on the rise of the Bundesbahn in subsequent decades glosses over the fact that the Reichsbahn had helped make a lot of the know-how possible in terms of how to build and rebuild a European transport network possible. The Reichsbahn had shown how to make money and improve a transport network which was having the Hell supposedly bombed out of it from Allie sorties.


INSIDE THE TRAIN (ZUG)

The entrance area to the train cars of TRAIN TO REMEMBERING reveals suitcases on the platform. The suitcases have names of victims of the racist policies of the Nazi regime and those who followed its leadership from 1933 through 1945 in what is now mostly known as Germany, Poland, and Austria.

Inside there is also a sign with the names of 172 children deported from the station I Wiesbaden

However, victims were from all over the continent,too.

There were the escape trains for Jewish children across Europe fleeing to the UK and Scandinavia in the early 1930s. These were called KINDERTRANSPORT TRAINS.

Moreover, there were forced expulsions of thousands of Jews en masse at the Polish borders in the year before the war really kicked off in September of 1939.

All-in-all, there were estimated up to be up to 20 to 30 million victims of the Nazi racist policies (and slave labor policies for factories) who were transported on the Reichsbahn in the late 1930s and 1940s.

Some were transported several times across the continent before they eventually succumbed to death due to overwork or were simply murdered.

Interestingly and sadly, the step-son of the Reichsbahn is the Bundesbahn (DB) and each month the Bundesbahn charges the founders and promoters of this memorial train some 14,000 Euros to transport and permit the exposition of the TRAIN TO REMEMBERING to be shown to schools and the general public.

April’s bill is for over 15,000 Euros.

http://www.zug-der-erinnerung.eu/aktuell.html#vergessen


Therefore, it is probably appropriate that rather than focusing solely on the victims of the Reichsbahn trains to death and labor camps around the continent, the promoters of the TRAIN TO REMEMBERING provide a whole car of the train for the realization of how hard it has been to even reach the stage of public discourse and confrontation with the Deutschebundesbahn (DB) has permitted and indirectly supported commemoration of the criminality of the Reichsbahn and Reichstransport leadership of the Nazi Era.

For example, up until 1985 the Bundesbahn in Essen Germany had a conference room with a bust of Julius Doerpmueller who was not freed until 1949 from the Americans and their allies in the ENTNAZIFICATION Process. (He was released with misgivings because he refused to repent at all for his acts.) Doerpmueller was the head of the Reichsbahn.for the war effort.

This man, Doerpmueller had joined the Nazi leadership in the late 1930s and was seen as an opportunist by most of his countrymen. He therefore oversaw the logistics and implementation of the ENDLOESUNG (Final Solution) for the Jewish Question.

Many Germans use the DB (train often) and many are not happy with the national train service not helping to finance memorials to the Train Transports of the Nazi era.

Here is a link (in German which reflects the disappointment and discontent of some of the Germans who have visited the exhibition in southern Germany.

http://www.zug-der-erinnerung.eu/appelle.html

I hope that public pressure can get behind a more helpful approach to commemoration by the relatively wealthy (DB) German train system. Children who ride trains often will surely be able to relate to the stories of the Holocaust and other anti-human activities by visiting such a train.

http://www.zug-der-erinnerung.eu/generationen.html

NOTE: The DB is planning to go public on the stock exchange in the near future, by the way.

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

The Deutschbahn or German Railway is one of the better run and more profitable railways in the world, yet, little is done to have its train stations or its leadership recognize any linkages in memory related to the Holocaust or slave labor under the Nazi Regime in the 1930s and 1940s. A train is in Wiebaden to help raise awareness among children and general public this week. The dots need to be connected.

KEVIN STODA--On-Line Independent Senator Candidate for Kansas in 2010--Suggests Closing Guantanamo Immediately and Moving it to Ft. Benning , Georgia

KEVIN STODA--On-Line Independent Senator Candidate for Kansas in 2010--Suggests Closing Guantanamo Immediately and Moving it to Ft. Benning , Georgia , Home of the Infamous School of the Americas



By Yours-Truly





The former online presidential candidate from Kansas (KEVIN ANTHONY STODA), who before the Iowa Caucus in January 2008 demanded that the U.S. government (1) freeze all housing foreclosures and (2) reduce draconian penalties and fees on banks, has another great suggestion.





AMERICA, RECOGNIZE BAD WORLDWIDE SYMBOLS



As of May 21, 2009, Kevin Stoda has appropriately been publically advocating



--a move of the Guantanamo Prison

--to Ft. Benning , Georgia , where the infamous SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS (SOA) WATCH has been located for decades.



http://www.soaw.org/type.php?type=8



SOA WATCH has described the history of America ’s SOA projects, “Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the `biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.` The SOA, frequently dubbed the ` School of Assassins ` has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.”



THE PROPOSAL



In an e-mail to SOA Watch yesterday, U.S. Senate candidate KEVIN ANTHONY Stoda of Kansas , wrote the following:



“Why not move the trials from Guantanamo to the School of Americas´ location in Fort Benning and close them all down at the same time?”



Ft. Benning, Georgia has been the location of the school for 3 decades or more.



“Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, `disappeared,` massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins .”



Kevin Stoda believes that the moving of all trials and terrorists to Ft. Benning is therefore the most appropriate place on the North American continent.



GREAT IDEA



One fundraiser for SOA WATCH responded, “That's a great idea! That way those responsible for torture and crimes against humanity could get put on trial at the same time.”



On-line candidate Kevin Stoda believes that by linking both Guantanamo Prison in Cuba and Ft. Benning´s SOA activities is the most appropriate way to say to the world that (1) America is cleaning house and (2) opening questions of terror and prosecution to greater public introspection at a location where militarism and torture have been directly and indirectly promoted by various USA regimes for decades.



Meanwhile, Stoda calls on President Obama to support the McGovern Bill to close the SOA facility in Ft. Benning .



http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=96



Already nearly 130 congressmen support the McGovern Bill to close Ft. Benning´s activities in current and former SOA activities.



http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=1567



The closure of Ft. Benning´s most infamous training project will make North and Americans breath a sigh of relief.

Stoda noted that he personally had gotten to know that one Guatemalan victim, named Hurtado, of the SOA school training (and its torture and kidnapping tradition).



Stoda specifically recalls, “Luckily, in Dr. Hurtado´s specific case of being kidnapped by former SOA-trained military officers, both Kansas Representatives and Kansas Senators back in 1982 had intervened in Guatemalan governments management of terror and dirty war--and had luckily negotiated Dr. Hurtado´s release.”



Kevin Stoda says the country needs Senators, like Nancy Kassebaum who stood up back then for human rights.



Stoda asks that his opponents, Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, join President Obama in closing down Guantanamo Prison as well as the School of Americas . “They both should introduce a bill to match HR 1707 in the Senate before this month is out.”

According to SOA Watch, here (below) are those representatives who currently support the McGovern bill.



Cosponsors of HR 1707
125 + McGovern

Rep Ackerman, Gary L. [NY-5]

Rep Allen, Thomas H. [ME-1]

Rep Altmire, Jason [PA-4]

Rep Baca, Joe [CA-43]

Rep Baird, Brian [WA-3]

Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2]

Rep Bean, Melissa L. [IL-8]

Rep Biggert, Judy [IL-13]

Rep Bishop, Timothy H. [NY-1]

Rep Blumenauer, Earl [OR-3]

Rep Boucher, Rick [VA-9]

Rep Brady, Robert A. [PA-1]

Rep Braley, Bruce L. [IA-1]

Rep Capps, Lois [CA-23]

Rep Capuano, Michael E. [MA-8]

Rep Carnahan, Russ [MO-3]

Rep Carson, Julia [IN-7]

Rep Clarke, Yvette D. [NY-11]

Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1]

Rep Cleaver, Emanuel [MO-5]

Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9]

Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14]

Rep Costello, Jerry F. [IL-12]

Rep Crowley, Joseph [NY-7]

Rep Cummings, Elijah E. [MD-7]

Rep Davis, Danny K. [IL-7]

Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [OR-4]

Rep DeGette, Diana [CO-1]

Rep Delahunt, William D. [MA-10]

Rep DeLauro, Rosa L. [CT-3]

Rep Doggett, Lloyd [TX-25]

Rep Doyle, Michael F. [PA-14]

Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5]

Rep Emanuel, Rahm [IL-5]

Rep Eshoo, Anna G. [CA-14]

Rep Farr, Sam [CA-17]

Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2]

Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51]

Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4]

Rep Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [NY-20]

Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7]

Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. [IL-4]

Rep Hare, Phil [IL-17]

Rep Higgins, Brian [NY-27]

Rep Hill, Baron P. [IN-9]

Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22]

Rep Holt, Rush D. [NJ-12]

Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15]

Rep Hooley, Darlene [OR-5]

Rep Inslee, Jay [WA-1]

Rep Israel , Steve [NY-2]

Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [IL-2]

Rep Johnson, Eddie Bernice [TX-30]

Rep Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [GA-4]

Rep Kagen, Steve, M.D. [WI-8]

Rep Kaptur, Marcy [OH-9]

Rep Kennedy, Patrick J. [RI-1]

Rep Kildee, Dale E. [MI-5]

Rep Kilpatrick, Carolyn C. [MI-13]

Rep Kind, Ron [WI-3]

Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10]

Rep LaHood, Ray [IL-18]

Rep Lantos, Tom [CA-12]

Rep Larsen, Rick [WA-2]

Rep Larson, John B. [CT-1]

Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9]

Rep Levin, Sander M. [MI-12]

Rep Lewis, John [GA-5]

Rep Loebsack, David [IA-2]

Rep Lofgren, Zoe [CA-16]

Rep Lowey, Nita M. [NY-18]

Rep Lynch, Stephen F. [MA-9]

Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. [NY-14]

Rep Markey, Edward J. [MA-7]

Rep Matsui, Doris O. [CA-5]

Rep McCollum, Betty [MN-4]

Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7]

Rep McNerney, Jerry [CA-11]

Rep McNulty, Michael R. [NY-21]

Rep Meehan, Martin T. [MA-5]

Rep Michaud, Michael H. [ME-2]

Rep Miller, George [CA-7]

Rep Moore, Dennis [KS-3]

Rep Moore, Gwen [WI-4]

Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8]

Rep Moran, Jerry [KS-1]

Rep Nadler, Jerrold [NY-8]

Rep Oberstar, James L. [MN-8]

Rep Olver, John W. [MA-1]

Rep Pallone, Frank, Jr. [NJ-6]

Rep Pascrell, Bill, Jr. [NJ-8]

Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4]

Rep Paul, Ron [TX-14]

Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10]

Rep Petri, Thomas E. [WI-6]

Rep Platts, Todd Russell [PA-19]

Rep Price, David E. [NC-4]

Rep Rothman, Steven R. [NJ-9]

Rep Rush, Bobby L. [IL-1]

Rep Ryan, Tim [OH-17]

Rep Sanchez, Linda T. [CA-39]

Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9]

Rep Serrano, Jose E. [NY-16]

Rep Shays, Christopher [CT-4]

Rep Slaughter, Louise McIntosh [NY-28]

Rep Solis, Hilda L. [CA-32]

Rep Speier, Jackie [CA-12]

Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13]

Rep Sutton, Betty [OH-13]

Rep Tierney, John F. [MA-6]

Rep Udall, Tom [NM-3]

Rep Van Hollen, Chris [MD-8]

Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. [NY-12]

Rep Walsh, James T. [NY-25]

Rep Walz, Timothy J. [MN-1]

Rep Waters, Maxine [CA-35]

Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33]

Rep Waxman, Henry A. [CA-30]

Rep Weiner, Anthony D. [NY-9]

Rep Welch, Peter [VT]

Rep Wexler, Robert [FL-19]

Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6]

Rep Wu, David [OR-1]

Rep Wynn, Albert Russell [MD-4]

Rep Yarmuth, John A. [KY-3]





Kevin Stoda notes that some Kansas representatives are on the list. However, “it is shameful” he says that very few Kansas and Midwestern representatives have joined in supporting the HR 1707.

An Active-Museum and How Oral, Aural, and Visual Memory Are Taught and Can Empower Peoples By Kevin Stoda, Wiesbaden Germany

An Active-Museum and How Oral, Aural, and Visual Memory Are Taught and Can Empower Peoples


By Kevin Stoda, Wiesbaden Germany

I visited a traveling exhibition on Anne Frank at the Oranien-Memorial Church in Beibrich-Wiesbaden last month.


http://www.annefrank-wiesbaden.de/index.php?file=kop2.php


The traveling exhibition on Anne Frank is part of a many-month’s-long focus on improving educational delivery in schools, training, and in encouraging research related to the holocaust in the city of Wiesbaden.

http://www.medienzentrum-wiesbaden.de/index.php?menuid=0&reporeid=100

Wiesbaden is one of many cities where the local Nazi regime and supporters burnt down the Synagogues and tried to erase memory of Jews in local history during the 1930s and 1940s.

One facet of the focus on Jewish persecution in Wiesbaden area has been the leadership of the Active-Museum (Aktiven Museum in Spiegelgasse), situated in Spiegel Street.

The Active Museum is actually located in one of the oldest Jewish meeting buildings left in the region.

Note: The title of the combined archive-, research-, library-, exhibition-, and educational training center as the “Active Museum Speigelgasse” (AMS) is intended ironically.

That is, most museums have been historically seen as a passive place where history was to be observed. (This compares with history as retold through books.)

This museum wanted to be different, i.e. very active and encouraging people to be more involved in history and memory.

http://www.am-spiegelgasse.de/

One way that the Active Museum meets its goals is by working closely with the artist Gunter Demnig’s Stolperstein project.

http://www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/memorials/stolpersteine/

The Stolperstein (“Stumbling Stones” in German.) is a reflection of more than a movement of artistic memoralization of political, individual, religious, and social memory in a lively and active way.

http://holocaust.hklaw.com/essays/2007/20072F.htm

Alexandra Larson has experienced and written about “stumbling stones”, which she had come to know very personally on a recent visit of hers to Germany.

“Imagine a peaceful walk that is suddenly interrupted by a stumble on a stone in the middle of the pathway. Notice the small bronze plaque embedded in the stone. It reads:
Here resided
Erna Jungbluth
born Abraham
in year 1895
Deported
Theresienstadt
Survivor.
Erna Jungbluth was my great-grandmother. Her stone is placed in the middle of the sidewalk in front of her parent’s house. The stumble and the slight throb in your toe from the encounter with the protruding stone are small echos of the past pain of the victims of the Holocaust. These stumbling stones, or “Stolpersteine,” are scattered throughout the sidewalks of Germany, immortalizing the Jewish people who were ripped from their homes during WWII. Stolpersteine are small bronze plaques placed about half an inch above the sidewalk in front of the houses of Holocaust victims. These stones were designed and installed by Gunter Demnig from Germany in 2004. He said “they are to warn against (forgetting) the cruelties committed by the Nazis against their fellow-citizens” (Stolpersteine). I believe these cruelties were allowed to come to pass because of the physical and emotional detachment of the world towards the victims of the Holocaust. In order to prevent further genocide, detachment and desensitization must be replaced with compassion and action.”

STUMBLING STONES IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD IN WIESBADEN

Just around the corner of my own flat in Wiesbaden, on Friederich Ring IN FRONT of housenumber 80 exist three such tiny square bronzed Stolpersteine (Stumbling Stones).

The stones tell me [and anyone who happens upon them] of three members of the Kahn family who had lived here.

The father’s stone shares in German: ”Here lived Julius Kahn, [born] J8 1901, Deported 1942, Lublin Majdenek, murdered 28.8.1942”.

The mother’s stone states: “Here lived Erna Kahn, Born J8 1908, Deported 1942, killed in Sobibor”.

Finally, we see, “Here lived Lure Kahn, J8 1933, Deported 1942. Lublin, murdered 1942 in Sobibor.”

http://www.deathcamps.org/sobibor/


Once I had learned what Stolpersteine were back at a historical lecture at the end January of this year, I have found dozens of such shiny memorial stones throughout the city of Wiesbaden.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/NEED-FOR-RELIGIOUS-SELF-RE-by-ALONE-090213-278.html


HEARING ORAL NARRATIONS AT HOME SITES of VICTIMS

Finally, I decided to take part in a tour of some of the Stumbling Stones in Wiesbaden.

Almost every week this time of year, the Active Museum in Wiesbaden is offering tours of various Stolpersteine in the city.

On Sunday May 17, 2009, I took a tour of the footprints of history and story of victims of the Holocaust in the Westend Section of town.

The center part of the Westend neighborhood in Wiesbaden is one of the older neighborhoods in the city. Upon entering it, one immediately notices that there were a large number of stores run by peoples from Arab lands, Turkey, the Balkans, India, and Eastern Europe. Looking around the neighborhood, I also observed peoples from both Africa and the Americas as well.

That Sunday afternoon some 22 visitors, including myself, showed up the Community Center Georg Buch. Inside was a short slide show for first-time tourists of Stolperstein tours of the city. On the slides, viewed photos of the stone placement ceremonies over the past several years.

Schools have been active in this.

Visitors of related Holocaust victims from Wiesbaden have arrived from the USA, the UK, Israel in recent years to take part in such history—i.e. making the history much more alive.

It became clear by the accents of some of those attending that I was not the only foreigner in the group that afternoon. There were some Eastern Europeans and Turkish visitors, too.

Shortly, after a quarter-past-two, we headed out of the center to visit the “first family” Baum.

This Baum family had three members killed in the Holocaust. We were shown pictures of the family—including some members who had managed to survive the persecution of the Nazis.

The Baums had lived at Weissenburg Street 6. They had lived there for half a century.

They had run the children’s clothing store at one of the snazziest corners of town. They had done financially quite well till the Nazis took over.

The matriarch, Emile Baum, survived in Teresienstadt till 1944.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/terezin.html

However, both her daughter and son-in-law were dead in Auschwitz by 1942.

We then moved a few houses up the street on the same side of the block to Weissenburg Street 10.

SEVEN STUMBLING STONES

Here we found seven tiny Stumbling Stones, reminding us that the Rosner family had lived here until they were forced into ghetto-like buildings late in the 1930s.

In the period around the horrible burning of synagogues in 1938, the father in the house had actually managed to flee with two sons to Antwerp, Belgium.

These two Rosner sons later made it to Israel, however, the father was recaptured in Belgium after the Germans invaded in 1940. The father, too, then was soon killed in a camp--as his daughters and wives would shortly do.

At this address, we were shown many photos collected from the surviving sons.

The tour audience observed at Weissenburg Street 10, a very poor housing situation for the era. The Rosners were not wealthy and had done financially poorly in the decade before the Nazis had taken over.


We also learned that once Jewish children were no longer permitted to go to public schools in the 1930s, the Wiesbaden Jewish community had created their own school on Mainzer Street, where a large Walmart-like store is now located.

One of the photos showed more than a dozen Jewish boys and girls in shorts and t-shirts who had taken part in a sports competition with a similar Jewish school in Darmstadt.

Only one of those dozen children in the photo actually survived the war.


THE FOCUS ON PLACE AND EVENTS WITH NARRATION

Since the 1970s and 1980s, German educators have focused on getting local students across the country doing first hand research and oral histories of the Holocaust and WWII.

http://www.goethe.de/ges/pok/dos/dos/ern/lag/en2295070.htm

The Stumbling Stone movement is part of this.

As we interested visitors moved through the neighborhood to five more locations where Jews who were killed in the Holocaust had once lived, we were provided at times photos or copies of letters and postcards from those who had lived there.

Such stories are gathered as part-and-parcel to the Stumbling Stone project. The idea, as envisioned by the grounders of the movement, is that before any bronzed stone is placed, school children and adult researchers need to undertake intensive research over the history of the affected Jewish family.

This means that history is narrated very authentically in the place where history was lived.

Photos and regalia are sought out overe months and years on end.

Our guide this very day shared his relationship to affected family members of victims of the Shoah in this neighborhood.

It was clear that the guide and historian had developed these relationships over decades of research at places such as the Active Museum.


WHAT? No PHOTOS?

It was, therefore, very disconcerting when, for example, sometimes no pictures of the victims could be found after years of research.

In short, although their stories could be shared on the place or location where the victims had once lived and carried out their daily activities (shopping, playing children’s games, etc.), it was depressing that we came to recognize that too often photos of many Holocaust children victims had never been made or had disappeared with their parents.

In short, unlike Anne Frank, who was born in nearby Frankfurt but whose family had fled to Amsterdam in 1933, there are no photos of many of the smallest victims of the Holocaust here in Wiesbaden and elsewhere.

Nonetheless, it is certainly and honor to have given the victims voices and names through such on-site visits of Holocaust victims’ home sites and old neighborhoods in Wiesbaden.


“THE STOCK CHILDREN MEMORIAL” PLACE

We stopped at the location on Wallram Street where the Stock Family had lived.

For we Wiesbaden residents, the names of these Shoah victims were already well-known. This is because in Wiesbaden’s center is a cul-de-sac name Stock Siblings’ Place with a bus stop on the main East to West road.

At the location is a memorial made specifically to memorialize all those children-victims of the Holocaust. It is named after the faceless Stock children.

It is at Wallram Street 31 that we find that the Stock family--and another Family Straus--had always lived crammed into a poor man’s neck-of-the-woods in Wiesbaden.

In short, many of the victims of the holocaust were poor—even before the Nazis took over. The family was jammed into an attic in a backroom upstairs apartment even before brownshirts took over the landscape of all of Germany.

On the other hand, many Jews had been shop owners—including owners of a butcher shop on Wellritzer Street 16.

Here it was reported that the father, Moritz, of “the second” Baum Family (we had visited that day) who lived at this address was one of the first victims of the holocaust in the neighborhood of Jews.

It was reported to us that in Wiesbaden 10% of the butchers in the early 1930s were Jewish and the Baum family in Wellritzer Street had relatives running a total of five such establishments—all which were very hard hit by the Jewish boycotts after 1933.

The guide noted that the other butchers had enjoyed the disappearance of their competition with a demonstration of horror.


At one point, all of the Jewish butchers were rounded up and marched through the city. When they arrived at the police station, they were harshly beaten.

Moritz Baum was shot fleeing his beating at the police station.

Our group of historical tourists is shown a picture of the father-less family a year or so later.

As in many of the photos, the boys in the Father-less Baum photo are wearing the classic navy uniform that German boys of an earlier era war—i.e. before the brownshirts and Hitler youth programs were formed.


DOGS AND GARBAGE CANS?—DISRESPECT?

Two negative views of this insightful tour are left in my memory.

First, at one of the locations, we arrived to find seven Stolpersteine covered in dog shit.

That was at Hellmund Street 52.

I grabbed a newspaper from the tattered street and cleaned up the scene as the guide stated, “That is horrible. . . . and you missed a spot.”

We looked around and found no clue of anti-semitism in the neighborhood’s graffiti filled walls.

Perhaps it was an anti-Semitic German Shepherd or St. Bernard.???

Later, at Bertram Street 21, the group led by the Active Museum’s volunteer guide discovered that a garbage dumpster now covered up the Stumbling Stone of Chaja Keh (born Berglas).

Chaja keh had fled with her husband and family to Belgium in 1939, but she was captured and died soon thereafter in a concentration camp.

Again, it did not seem to be a sign of disrespect that the Stolpersteine had been covered up by the local facility’s manager.

The dumpster was now empty and had likely been placed there away from the street by the garbage. They had likely not seen the bronze stone. They had simply made room so that pedestrians would not have to walk around the large garbage container.


A GYPSY TWIST

All along our tour, Arabs, Turks, Croats, Africans, and peoples of other nationalities or regions of the globe were interested in what our tour of tiny stone memorials to Jewish victims of the Holocaust was doing--as we made our way through the Westend.

Some knew what we up to, i.e. especially those who lived in buildings behind the Stolpersteine. Some had to ask to pass through as we blocked the door.

Others had only a vague ide--or no idea at all.

As our group began to disband for the afternoon a youth came up to me and asked what we were doing. I explained about the stones, but he seemed to have barely any interest.

However, suddenly a woman whom was wearing a nice Sunday dress in white and brown came up to me.

???

I realized that I had seen her in Hellmund Street.

???

She had been standing near us, too, in Wellritzer Street.

This woman, too, asked what we were up to.

I started to explain again to her in detail what we had been up to as a tour.

I explained in German that we had been interested in following the steps of some of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust who had once lived here in Wiesbaden.

This Eastern European woman then spoke to me in very good German. “We are gypsies. You know what that means, don’t you?”

http://www.geocities.com/~patrin/sinti-roma.htm


The woman continued, “My mother continues to suffer to this very day because of what the Nazi Germans did to her family.”

http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/PEOPLE/VictRoma.htm


“We have never gotten a penny from the German government. The government has given us nothing.”

http://www.holocaust-trc.org/sinti.htm


Finally, the women asked, ”Do you know how to help us get what we deserve from the government?”

I looked around.

The guide (and all other members of the group I had been with for the previous two hours) were gone.

I explained, “I am just “somewhat”of a historian and am new here in Wiesbaden. . . . However, perhaps someone at the Active Museum in Spiegelgasse could help? I gave her a brochure of our tour with telephone, fax and email to the Active Museum.”

I then encouraged her to follow up.


MY FOLLOW UP

I then decided to look some help up on the internet.

http://www.soros.org/initiatives/eu/articles_publications/publications/eumap_roma_20040121

A 2004 report notes: “The first ever report specifically analyzing the situation of Sinti and Roma women in Germany has found that women of this minority group face intersectional discrimination, cumulating the effects of both gender and ethnic or racial discrimination.”

“According to the report's conclusions, Sinti and Roma women in Germany are clearly disadvantaged in a number of key areas such as education, employment, health care, and participation in public and political life, and have not enjoyed the progress that other German women have achieved in recent years. Foreign Romani women are particularly disadvantaged.”

I then wrote several e-mails to the Active Museum in Spiegel Street.*


It sounds like the Active Museum in Wiesbaden might still need to expand its work into recognizing the other victims of Nazism in their midst to this date. Otherwise, it is doing an important job in integrating culture, memory, history, and education into the lives of the Wiesbaden, German community.



*To geschichte-erinnerung@am-spiegelgasse.de


Aktiven Museum Speigelbild,

Gestern habe ich an einem Stolpersteintur im Westend teilgenommen, aber anschliessend hat eine (Sinti/Romer )Frau gefragt, ob Jemand ihnen hilfen koennen.

Ich wende Sie an Ihnen.

Die Frau hat erklaert, dass seit 1946 ist ihr Familien aus Polen hierher ausgeewandert.

Sie meinte, dass Der Regierung hat ihrer Familie nichts gegeben, obwohl ihre Mutter noch von der Verfolgung sehr leidet.

Ihr,

Kevin A. Stoda
Oranienstr. 62
Wiesbaden 68185

GRAN TORINO HITS EUROPEAN THEATERS BY STORM: IN BIEBRICH CASTLE 2009

GRAN TORINO HITS EUROPEAN THEATERS BY STORM: IN BIEBRICH CASTLE 2009

By Kevin Stoda, Germany

German cinema is raving about the somewhat forgotten (in the USA-only) 2008 film GRAN TORINO from Clint Eastwood.

http://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/99782-Gran-Torino.html

The world is craving films about more average and genuine American lives—and believe it or not, the dysfunctional families in a former-big-gas-guzzling-car manufacturing boomtown in Michigan offer such an insight of (view of) America!

This thirst for good and more genuine stories, i.e. which reflect the width and breadth of the American experience, especially in our economic-shell-shocked age, is very strong around the globe.

Particularly, the racist wars with Muslims and Arabs have spawned this interest in the American saga of multicultural and multi-generational integration.

I went to the early showing of the film, GRAN TORINO, last night at Castle Biebrich. [Yes, this movie theater is really a nice castle on the Rhine River where classic films are studied on a regular basis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiesbaden-Biebrich
]

This particular 6:30pm showing was the premier of the English language version (with German subtitles) of GRAN TORINO in Germany.

http://www.filme-im-schloss.de/


The movie room in the third floor of the giant castle was filled when I went in. The German crowd awaiting at 9:00 the second showing of GRAND TORINO was absolutely overflowing the hallway. (I’m sure some folks had to be turned away.)

As a slow rain fell, I reflected on what I had just seen in the Castle Biebrich in Germany about life in Michigan-America 2008-2009 through the lens of Clint Eastwood (and cohorts) as the water bounced off my umbrella and I wandered in the evening light of the castle gardens.

http://monikas-country-living-in-the-city.blogspot.com/2007/09/palace-garden-schlopark-in-wiesbaden.html


MICHIGAN CONNECTIONS

According to internet blurbs, the plot of the film GRAN TORINO goes as follows.

“The story follows Walt Kowalski, a recently widowed Korean War veteran, and examines his attitude to his neighbors, [including] a Hmong family. After Kowalski’s young neighbor, Thao tries to steal his Gran Torino and a Hmong gang attacks Thao for failing, Kowalalski reluctantly forms a relationship with the family.”

Such a blurb doesn’t tell you that the film is also an educational film on how to teach new settlers in America to try an integrate in a positive way.

Nor do most Americans know that the 2008 film has been the highest grossing Clint Eastwood film of all time worldwide—beating out the Academy Award winning MILLION DOLLAR BABY.

The end of this film, GRAN TORINO, finds a dead protagonist, played by Clint Eastwood, singing a tune as the young Hmong-American hero, Thao, begins (1) to drive the Gran Torino along Lake Michigan and (2) to live out the American dream that the racist old man has opened him up to him--through the old racist’s mentoring in the realm of how to live in and make it in macho-old-run-down Michigan, especially in economically troubled times.

That is, in an age when gangs offer more hope to young Hmongs and minority males than most of the rest of their slice of the American dream-pi actually appears to do so.

HMONG CONNECTIONS

The racist old foul-mouthed man whom Eastwood plays had not even known that Hmongs were among the Montagnards or hill tribes in Vietnam, Laos and China who had fought against the Viet Cong on behalf of the U.S. in the Vietnam War.

http://www.jefflindsay.com/hmong.shtml

Interestingly, the story of the Hmongs in USA history remains mostly unknown in MOST OF America and elsewhere, TOO.
Jeffrey Lindsay notes, “The Hmong [in Southeast Asia] apparently were told that they could bravely fight for the U.S. because the United States would always be there to protect them should local communists turn on the Hmong. It was a relationship of trust, but Hmong trust in the US would be sadly misplaced.”
Lindsay continues, “In 1963 the Kennedy Administration had the CIA increase the secret Hmong army in Laos to 20,000 soldiers. Significant battles occurred as the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao occupied major areas in northern Laos in 1964. Meanwhile, the US began a secret air war in Laos. By 1968, US pilots would be doing 300 dangerous sorties a day to battle many thousands of Communist troops. Hmong soldiers rescued many American pilots who were shot down. Sometimes dozens of Hmong would die in order to rescue one American pilot. Over 100 Hmong pilots were recruited and trained by the US, and they ran mission after mission until they were all killed. Hmong courage seemed to know no bounds in the fight for freedom. But sadly, much of the fighting seems to have been in vain.”
Finally, “[a]fter taking over Laos in 1975, the Pathet Lao Communists stated that they would wipe out the Hmong. A Vietnamese broadcast apparently called for genocide against them. From 1976 to 1979, there were credible reports of chemical warfare used against Hmong villages. The world tried to ignore these reports, and some influential voices in the United States tried to discredit the evidence, claiming that the "yellow rain" that had been used to kill Hmong people was just natural bee feces, not a chemical toxin. By the time overwhelming evidence had been gathered to shatter the "bee feces" theory, the media no longer seemed interested in exploring charges of genocide by Communist forces.”

I, myself, learned only whom Hmongs were when I went to teach in urban Kansas City, Kansas in the mid-1980s. I came to know through my educational training at that time that most of the Hmong males and youth were not integrating well.
Because the Hmong had never had even had their own written language at the end of the Vietnam War (1975), integrating the hill tribe Hmongs into the greater American saga was, in some ways, like trying to reintegrate stone-age culture into a modern educational setting.

It was unfair situation for most of the youth (who had depended historically on their ancestors and ancestor’s learning to guide them), and the U.S. as a whole certainly has done a bad job of educating and integrating the Hmong population into American society over the last 4 decades.

Left to sink or swim, Hmong could only fall back onto family support and tribal traditions (leading to a preference for gangs among many male youth)—or simply sink.
According to Lindsay., “The United States, recognizing the sacrifice made by Hmong soldiers to fight for the U.S., began accepting Hmong refugees into the United States in December of 1975. By 1990, about 100,000 refugees had entered the United States. Today approximately 250,000 Hmong are in the U.S., and a similar number still live in Laos. Over 5 million Hmong people are in Southern China, also under Communist rule.”

So, in the 2008 film, set in a run-down part of Michigan, it is no surprise that Hmong characters (and other such Southeast Asian immigrants) have not done as well as other Asian Americans in integrating or succeeding in American society.
The film, GRAN TORINO, introduces a global audience to the food habits, social problems, and Hmong culture for the first time.

As the world has spent nearly 300 million dollars viewing the film over the last 6 months, I would say the world is interested in the integration story of America.

AMERICAN CONNECTION ON WAY HOME

In the film, GRAN TORINO, Walt Kowalski is a Korean War veteran who still hates himself for some of the horrors he inflicted on others in an Asian war over five decades earlier. This film is ever-in-the-present though. In this way, Kowalski never reveals a flash-back of those scenes that haunt him and make him unable to deal with death—whether it is his own death or the death of his wife.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_alone_071028_vietnam_today_and_am.htm
Kowalski does share one poignant line, though.

Kowalski basically tells a priest, “It is not those horrible things or killings you did [in war] because you were ordered to which haunt [you], it is those horrible things you have done without being told to do them.”
This is a poignant thought, eh?

Too often we (as peace makers) try to awaken guilt for crimes committed by soldiers—regardless as to whether these soldiers are from fascist lands, communist-run countries, or very mentally-confused Islamic tribes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8039257.stm

The killing guilt is, though, the kind of guilt we have when we know that no demagogue, officer or fascist ordered us to commit them.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Former_Powell_aide_says_Bush_Cheney_0510.html
This guilt might even include the sense of guilt in building weapons (by our own firms) for some of us if that is the case.

http://www.knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=Monsanto_Company

Such a sense of guilt can not be corrected in any straight-forward way because there are so many internal and psychological cover-ups of our own guilt that none of our friends or family may ever scratch the surface or help us transcend the sense of guilt for non-acting to stop violence before it happened(s).

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/01/theater/review-theater-a-dead-jewish-mother-and-layers-of-guilt.html
This means are unwillingness to go to jail to stop war.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/07/cia-analysts-willing-to-go-to-jail-to-ensure-nies-release/
This means that our willingness to take a chance and help-the-other will mean us having to take a bullet for the other.

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/391113
The film GRAN TORINO’s storyline and critical self-reflection handles this theme ‘of taking a bullet” to some great degree and shows why Clint Eastwood’s films are getting better as he ages--and is no longer allowing the rest of the world dictate his narration.

In short, the ugly-nasty-mouthed-hero Kowalski (also from a family of polish immigrants a century earlier) handles the concept of suicide attack better than many characters in most other films of any similar genre.

http://www.answers.com/topic/in-the-line-of-fire

Finally, as the USA military complex is still at war and soldiers will continue to be sent in to do suicide raids and attacks, we should all ponder the reality of it all and ask whether we follow orders or act on (and through) our own conviction, too.
I hope some Arab and Muslim viewers understand what the underlying message is and see that unnecessarily wounding the innocent in war is a loser, too. That is certainly an indirect but important message from the film.

MICHIGAN CONNECTION again
After a long wait at a rainy bus stop not far from the gardens of Biebrich Castle last night, I was able to catch a ride back to my home near the train station.
It was still pouring down as I rushed up the street to my flat in Oranien Street. (The Oranien family had built Biebrich Castle orgiginally.)

http://www.wiesbaden.de/loader.php?menue=/die_stadt/kultur/menue.php&content=/die_stadt/kultur/film/filme_im_schloss_aktuell.php

Suddenly a thirty-year-old black man stopped me, talked to me, and begged for money. He offered me his watch and coat in return for twenty or thirty Euros.
As the rain poured down, the man shared, “I have been all over town today but I don’t speak much German. I havr just been to the Red Cross at the military base, where he had used to be employed as contractor.”

http://www.wiesbaden.army.mil/sites/local/default.asp

The man explained that he had been laid-off when there was a cut-back in work several months back. He had been promised a few more jobs, but each time, different contractors with more seniority had gotten the work.

In other words, for several months, the man had been out of work.
This man was from Michigan—yep, just like the characters in the film I had just watched in Biebrich Castle. (You know, the film GRAN TORINO about isolated fringe types in the American culture 2008-2009.)

This American shared that he had been kicked out of his apartment that very morning and his suitcases were hidden under bushes in a town west of Biebrich—called Shierstein.

He couldn’t speak much German, he said, but he needed money and help to make it to Frankfurt where the U.S. Consulate had a place to stay for orphaned contractors like himself.

I told the young man that the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt is closed till Monday.
Nonetheless, this man assured me that he had contacted the USA Consulate and their was a place where he could go and they could help him to stay a bit until a plane ticket could be found to send him back to Michigan, i.e. with the Consulate’s assistance.

http://germany.usembassy.gov/acs/index.html
I wondered aloud, “Do I have the word SUCKER planted on my forehead?”

I pondered whether to invite the guy back to my house.

I also began to look at the watch the man had offered me in lieu of some cash.
The man said he planned to head with his stuff to Frankfurt as soon as he had enough money to get a taxi to take his belongings from the town of Shierstein-- i.e. not far from Biebrich,--and back to the main Wiesbaden train station.
I had only about 30 Euros--and a bit of change--in my pocket.

As the rain poured down, the man said he planned to simply walk back to Shierstein, get himself something to eat, take a taxi to the train station, and then go on a train into Frankfurt.

I thought and calculated, “It is 10 o’clock on a Friday night in Germany. All that would cost about 30 or 40 Euros.”

Still worrying about being played for a sucker, I agreed to take the man’s watch and give him 30 Euros. (NOTE: I have needed a watch for some time but have usually gotten by for a half a year with a cell-phone clock.)

I turned away after praying for the guy.

After about 50 meters, I looked at the black man from Michigan as he trudged up the Biebricher Road.

That Michigan man did not stop walking and take a bus as I had anticipated him doing if he was just tricking me out of my money.

Instead, he passed the bus stop.

Then, in the rain, the young man continued his walk up the road as though he was on a great mission, which would take him on a circuitous but safe route in a few hours to Shierstein.

“Hopefully, [if that is where he is meant to be], the broke man would be on a plane back to Michigan in a few days, “ I thought.
Who knows?

At least I’ve got a Nike Watch.

CASINO CONNECTION*

WE ALL have a chance in our lives to take a chance on others.
I don’t mean that other readers should be reckless enough to chance throwing money away at or on beggars from foreign lands as I possibly did last night
On the other hand, I believe, “At least taking a thirty-euro chance on this apparently homeless thirty-year-old Michiganite is better than throwing my money away in a casino. There, in the casino, my chance to help someone is none once the money is gone.”*

The main character in GRAN TORINO had rolled the dice, too,--i.e. on a young man who had try to steal his own car from him.

What chance are you going to take on humanity today?

What kind of mentoring can you offer young people today?

What kind of hopeful and helpful life do you want to live out?

These are other things that the world wants to know from/about America in 2009.

Such films are what life is full of….. aren’t they, America?
__________________________________________________________________
*Casino is the current Germany metaphor for the incompetent/misleading form of capitalism that dominated in the world over the past two decades or more. Read this article for more clarification. http://www.opednews.com/articles/LOT-LOTTO-AND-CASINO-CAP-by-ALONE-090223-957.html

WHY IS THE NEW WHITEHOUSE RESIDENT NOT CLEANING HOUSE?

WHY IS THE NEW WHITEHOUSE RESIDENT NOT CLEANING HOUSE?

By Kevin Stoda, Germany

I could start this article by talking about how the Whitehouse has failed to encourage Congress to even consider a more universal health care system, including consideration of either (1) single-payer or (2) the highly ranked Australian system.

http://www.opednews.com/populum/print_friendly.php?p=12899

I could start this article by writing about the way, the Obama Whitehouse has failed to oversee the prosecution of war crimes during the Bush-Cheney Administration (2001-2009), especially in the area of demanding and supporting torture and cruelty.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/14/former_fbi_interrogator_ex_state_dept

I could ridicule and ask why the Obama administration is not closing down Gitmo in a timely fashion as promised. (Moreover, reports of continuing torture techniques and practices continue there and in various semi-secret U.S.-stateside prisons. Some of these techniques in the USA and have in the past led to homicides as well as suicides.)

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/14/former_fbi_interrogator_ex_state_dept

I could go on-and-on about Obama’s expansion and extension of war making powers and practices in the White House after publicly stating for many years that he is against perpetuating the American War nightmares of the Bush-era.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/02/13/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4801483.shtml

I could note that Obama is just spinning and hyping the story often.

http://odeo.com/episodes/24456416-Beijing-Tops-Obama-s-Spin

For example, the recent arguments Obama has posted on his decision to hide photos of torture has clearly been hiding the fact that other documents are being hidden and held from those human rights supporters and legal experts clearly legally seeking to find out who ordered what torture techniques lead to murder, etc.

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/05/13/report-obama-will-not-release-detainee-photos/

John Sifton has said on Democracy Now, “Well, the photographs are obviously very important, but they’re just one side of the coin. There are large amounts of CIA internal documents from the inspector general’s report that the CIA prepared about detainee abuse. There’s a lot of stuff there, a lot of material that Obama can consider releasing. The photographs, obviously, are very important. It’s good that we’re paying attention to them. But the real evidence that shows the way these techniques spread and the involvement of senior Bush administration officials, that’s not photographs. Those are memos. Those are CIA cables from black sites to Langley, notes from meetings between Langley and the White House, things like that.”

I just don’t have too much time for Obama till he gets some of these issues right.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/apr/24/first-100-days-obamas-promises-broken/

Others citizens and governments world-wide are keeping tabs on Obama’s shortfalls and excessive spending on bad banks while failing to save many U.S. jobs in the automobile industry.

http://atr.org/obamas-first-days-higher-spending-more-a3167

For example, the inability of Obama to get the German state to accept no more Gitmo prisoners is likely linked to his turn around on investigating the crimes of the previous administration.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/19-9

Why should Germany and the European Union pick up the mess that Obama refuses to clean up himself?


ONLY GOOD NEWS

The only good news is that the birds (who should be) in the cages—the ex-USA President and VP—are starting to sing.

http://www.truthout.org/article/us-general-accuses-bush-administration-war-crimes

For example, Dick Cheney recently admitted that both he and President George Bush were aware of the methods and had approved the torture techniques and other war crimes or crimes against human rights and dignity.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/14/once_behind_the_scenes_dick_cheney

This means that American legal experts and human rights experts can now ask District Attorneys across America to arrest those men—and their supporters like Rice and Rumsfeld. Get work, guys!

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/on-us-duty-to-prosecute-war-crimes.html

It is predicted that a war crimes trial for Dick Cheney would likely be the shortest in history.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Turley_Obama_get_low_grade_on_0324.html


I know I need to get to w….

Ooops, one more thought.

http://www.opednews.com/Poll/Should-individual-CIA-agen-by-ALONE-090419-138.html


FOOD FOR THOUGHT

http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?contentid=6604

Michael Pollen, author of IN DEFENSE OF FOOD: AN EATERS MANIFESTO, wrote a letter to Barack Obama as the nation’s-farmer-in chief. Pollen basically stated:

“The most salient point is simply, you are not going to be able to tackle either the healthcare crisis or climate change unless you look at our food system. In the case of climate change, food is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases, the way we’re growing food, the way we’re processing it and the way we’re eating. And the healthcare crisis, as I’ve talked about. So we need to address it. It’s really the shadow issue over these other two issues.”

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/14/omnivores_dilemma_author_michael_pollans_new


Eat healthy, Mr. President, you need to start eating better and thinking more clearly--and connecting the dots shown to you by Mr. Pollen and I—and millions of other dissatisfied folks around the world.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.e36a67d49c1127a8c17cc38ed4a4c27e.211&show_article=1

Now, I really need to get to wo…….

Big Thoughts for Today: Shared by Howard Zinn to Barack Obama this date in History

THIS SPEECH and Rhetoric CARRIED OUT ON DEMOCRACY NOW TODAY needs NO COMMENT.

Obama does need to change his mindset on anything from acting like a terrorist to opposing the American will on healthcare for all.

Please read or listen to these words.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/13/howard_zinn_i_wish_obama_would

HOWARD ZINN: I wish President Obama would listen carefully to Martin Luther King. I’m sure he pays verbal homage, as everyone does, to Martin Luther King, but he ought to think before he sends missiles over Pakistan, before he agrees to this bloated military budget, before he sends troops to Afghanistan, before he opposes the single-payer system, which you talked about earlier in your program. He ought to ask, “What would Martin Luther King do? And what would Martin Luther King say?” And if he only listened to King, he would be a very different president than he’s turning out to be so far. I think we ought to hold Obama to his promise to be different and bold and to make change. So far, he hasn’t come through on that promise.

AMY GOODMAN: When Barack Obama was running for president, asked in the debates who would MLK endorse, who would Dr. King endorse, he said, “None of us.”

HOWARD ZINN: Yeah, that’s true, because King believed—and this actually is one of the themes of our people’s history, is that you cannot depend on presidents, and you cannot depend on elections and voting to solve your problems. People themselves, organizing, demonstrating, clamoring, they are the only ones who can push the President and push Congress into change. And that’s what we have to do now with Obama. We have to point to what Obama said in the course of the campaign, when he said we not only have to get out of Iraq, we have to get out of the mindset that brought us into Iraq. Obama, himself, has not gotten out of that mindset yet. And I think we, the people, have to speak to him about that.

AMY GOODMAN: How?

HOWARD ZINN: Well, these people that I saw on your program earlier who were demonstrating for the single-payer health system, which Obama is very, very reluctant to endorse, they were doing what needs to be done. They were committing acts of civil disobedience. They were going into offices where they were told to leave, and they wouldn’t leave. They were doing what we were doing during the movement against the war in Vietnam. They were doing what the black movement was doing in the South. And this is what we will need. We will need demonstrative acts which dramatize the fact that our government is not responding to what the people need and what the people want.

AMY GOODMAN: What’s the alternative to war with Afghanistan and Pakistan?

HOWARD ZINN: Well, the alternative to war is to send food and medicine. I was with a taxi driver from Afghanistan, and I always start up a conversation with taxi drivers, because they know more than most news commentators. And so—not you. I’m not talking about you, Amy, of course. But he was from Afghanistan. And I said, “What do you think about Obama sending more troops to Afghanistan?” I didn’t tell him what my position was. He said, “We don’t need troops.” He said, “We need food and medicine.”

We ought to stop thinking that we must have military solutions to the problems that we face in the world. The solutions that we need are the solutions of dealing with sickness and disease and hunger. That’s fundamental. If you want to end terrorism—

AMY GOODMAN: I’m telling you, the great historian, you have five seconds.

HOWARD ZINN: If you want to end terrorism, you have to stop being terrorists, which is what war is.