Flagge zeigen

dlandfanartikel.jpg

Eben beim Stöbern im Werkzeugkatalog gefunden: die Autoflagge und Sitzauflage in Nationalfarben zur Kenntlichmachung temporären Freudentums.
Ein für mich exemplarisches Beispiel dafür, dass es in Dland diesen kaputten National”stolz” gibt, der nur bei sportlichen Ereignissen in Erscheinung tritt und sonst tunlichst vermieden wird, um “bloss nicht negativ aufzufallen”. Oder irre ich mich da?

Für TCKs (third culture kids) wie mich und viele meiner Leser hier sicherlich eine Zwickmühle, da man im Gegensatz zu den Briten, deren Union Jack sogar als Marketingprodukt auf einem Rover Mini plaziert wird, gerne auch bekunden würde, wo die Herkunft festzumachen ist und bei der Erwähnung des Wortes Deutschland im Ausland nicht nur Mercedes-Benz, Hitler und Beckenbauer & Klinsmann hören möchte. Und die nicht vermeidbare Frage, wieso sich die Menschen in Dland 60 Jahre nach Kriegsende immer noch so schwer damit tun, einen nach außen erkennbaren Bezug zu Dland zu bekunden, auf den sie vielleicht nicht unbedingt stolz sind, sich dessen aber auch nicht schämen müssen.

Oder um es mit den Worten von Carlo Schmid zu sagen: “Eine Nation ist nämlich etwas anderes als eine bloße Bevölkerung und sogar etwas anderes als das, was man zu Recht unter “Volk” versteht. Nation ist kein Wachstumsprodukt, sondern ein Produkt des Willens, Nation zu sein”.
Manchmal, so erscheint es mir, ist der Sport Fussball der einzig gemeinsame Nenner, auf den man sich international einigen kann.

Raphael

vlcsnap-466890.jpg

…the man was killed here before, by cutted with this pangas into pieces. I got the job because he was killed.

When I hear some robbery, I can just go sloooowly, now will be waiting becos what is needed: don’t shoot him if he is out of the fence. What is needed, you wait him enter in the fence, and then you can shoot him. Inside of the fence.

And if you are heeero, you can even leave him after getting in the fence, you can even leave him and then you wait till you know what he needs to do. Maybe to run with the car, or to take the tyre of the car, or to broke the door to find where’s the cash – then you caaan: shot him.

Therefore, you must be ready for fight.

There’s something to this man called Raphael, a man working as an askari (night guard) protecting the National Fishing Institute in Hubert Saupert’s award-winning documentary “Darwin’s nightmare” (as mentioned earlier), that still fascinates me. What exactly is it? His low and soft voice I’ve seen with so many other askaris before? I don’t know.
What I do know, though, is that this is the best documentary I’ve seen by far.

vlcsnap-476431.jpg

Simba mwenda kimya ndiye mla nyama.

that’s why it’s on 5th position…

Rob: What if I was doing something that can’t be cancelled?
Laura: Rob, what are you ever doing that can’t be cancelled?

Sometimes I wonder whether Nick Hornby ever tried blogging – and what the world would have lost then.

My very own spontaneous TOP5 list of things I prefer doing instead of concentrating on some important papers I actually need to finish soon:

5. cleaning the flat & bathroom
4. cooking
3. watching a movie I’ve had on my list for ages but never came ’round to watch it (time! time is SO precious these days…)
2. playing the guitar
1. blogging

Update: the paper is done and I am wondering how John Cusack could possibly end up in my blog. I mean, look, that man….doesn’t he look like Dustin Hoffman? ‘nyways, High Fidelity is a good story and the movie is nice too. Makes me think of Kevin Smith’s “Clerks“, though, as well as other “i wasn’t even supposed to be here today“+”the soundtrack of our lives and loves”-stories….

el mejor amigo del hombre es el libro…

I am looking forward to buying a notebook (laptop) with the following criteria:

  • CPU Pentium M Centrino 1,7 GHz or better
  • HDD min 80 GB (100 GB)
  • 1024 MB RAM
  • decent graphics card (ATI & Co.)
  • WLAN b/g, Bluetooth, IR, modem, 10/100 NIC
  • built-in WEBCAM (!)
  • double-layer DVD burner
  • USB, (COM), PP, Firewire
  • battery runtime of at least 4hrs
  • decent keyboard with a normal RETURN key
  • built-in SD/MMCard drive
  • disengageable trackpad
  • max. weight ~ 3kg
  • …and a built-in MIC!

There are so many notebooks on the market, however, most of the good ones (read: good deals) lack a built-in ~50 cents microphone. Can you imagine? Even my old Acer Travelmate 513T of 1999 had a built-in mic…

Any recommendations? I thought of a Samsung X20, but these ASUS A6V/A7V notebooks are also nice…hmm…

im Metronom

1. Die Ansagen im Metronom zwischen UE und Gö sollten eigentlich mal von Dittsche gesprochen werden. Ma soagn, nä?
2. Ich brauche dringend ein Notebook, um unterwegs arbeiten oder aber mit 3. mithalten zu können…
3. Die Welt, so scheint es, besteht an einem Cebit Sonntag abend aus einer lustigen Horde von Informatikern, die man meist an ihren langen dürren Fingerchen erkennt, welche sie entweder in fast schon spastischer Haltung von sich strecken oder aber eifrig auf einem PDA herumfuchteln und Solitaire spielen. Natürlich gibt es auch dickere Informatiker – diese erkennt man dann meist an ihrem unvorteilhaften (da sperrigen) Rucksack. …die alle ganz tolles Spielzeug dabei haben!

Nein, ich war nicht auf der Cebit. Nur im gleichen Zug :-)

06-02-024.jpg 06-02-023.jpg

…dazu der passende Soundtrack: Eagle – It Was A Lovely Parade (mp3, 1,4MB)

International Women’s Day

…is an important occasion around the world to remind everyone of the following facts:

  • About 25,000 brides are burned to death each year in India because of insufficient dowries. The groom’s family will set the bride on fire, presenting it as an accident or suicide. The groom is then free to remarry.
  • In a number of countries, women who have been raped are sometimes killed by their own families to preserve the family’s honor. Honor killings have been reported in Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other Persian Gulf countries.
  • According to the World Health Organization, 85 million to 115 million girls and women have undergone some form of female genital mutilation. Today, this practice is carried out in 28 African countries, despite the fact that it is outlawed in a number of these nations.
  • Rape as a weapon of war has been used in Chiapas, Mexico, Rwanda, Kuwait, Haiti, Colombia, Yugoslavia, Darfur and elsewhere.
  • ……(the list goes on and on)…

All of this happening on the same globe we’re all living on.

AOB: Bembeya Jazz National – mami wata :-)

Gschafdlhuawarei

liliputbairisch.jpg

"Mei, oder noch intensiver ja mei bzw. o mei, o mei ist wörtlich nicht einfach zu übersetzen. Von ausschlaggebender Bedeutung ist auch hier die Betonung:
Ein kurz gesprochenes ja mei bedeutet wenig Interesse an einer Sache. Ein gedehntes ja mei mit steigender Stimmhöhe schon erfreutes Erstaunen und ein seufzendes ja mei bzw. ein o mei, o mei, gar noch mit entsprechender Geste, höchste Anteilnahme.
Norddeutsche benötigen dagegen meist einen Wortschwall, um ihre Gefühle so differenziert ausdrücken zu können."

Öha?

Wi Norddüütschen verleert jo mennichmol nich so veel Woer un goht oft grodlinig op dat wat wi vörhebbt op dol:
Mi Deern, di kunn ik leev hebben!!

Pfiaddi!

Interesting to note that the word "BIA" (beer) is the same in Kiswahili & Bavarian – which might explain why there are so many bavarian tourists in Kenya, eh? ;-)

tumaini?

Look what I’ve found in the basement the other day:
blueprint.jpg
a “blueprint for a new Kenya, Post Election Action Arogramme (PEAP)”

An interesting paper, issued with the help of the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation in 1992 in Nairobi, which summarizes some interesting facts and data as of 1992 – and on which the former regional director of FNF Kenya got expelled from the country. Sure, a document that played a role in Kenyas democratisation process at some point – and the initial starting point to this blog entry today…

Now, 14 years later, Kenya has experienced a major shift from something I call “the Kartasi era” to “the simu ya mkononi era”.
We’ve witnessed a lot of change, people advancing in so many ways and especially this breakup spirit right after the last elections in 2002 that made a lot of KTs reconsider their own coming home and thus reducing the brain drain.

There was hope that things might change to the better.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 – a wall that separated two parts of Germany for more than 28 years – the people in Germany soon realized that next to that hope for a much desired change, they needed to learn how to get along after all those years of separation and ideological distance.
Kenya (I think) experiences a similar fate: mixing the difficult past of colonial rule and a single party system with a new challenge of globalization and internal conflicts. Accepting diversity within the country and using this huge potential to sustain stability.
No one ever assumed this would become an easy task. And no one expects drastic change within a few days.

However, there’s this issue of politicians vs. leaders; business(wo)men vs. civil servants that keeps on coming up:

Be it Kenya or Germany – I think what we need are dedicated leaders that restore faith and hope and make us believe in the system again. Because if not, the world(s) will continue breaking up into little pieces and the only bigger social net we’ll have then is the Internet.

Where and who are those leaders of tomorrow?