Market Day

Today is Tuesday and the street market around the corner from my house is in full swing by now. All the vendors are lined up with their various goods ranging from vegetables, grains, cheap clothing, and various regional specialties and cheeses. Sometimes there is nothing better than to take a stroll through before it gets to crowded, before the vegetable mongers yell their prices at you, and just take everything in. My personal favorites are the cheese stands, there are usually two and one of them specializes in Austrian Bergkäse, and then the Dutch Licorice stand. Oh, I should of course mention the italian stand with all the fresh pastas.

Today I have to go apply for new jobs. Not the kind of jobs I really want, but more the kind of jobs that I can actually obtain for the summer months: cafe work or kitchen assistant positions. Its not what I wanted to be doing at this point but it seems like it is the only answer at the moment. So then I´ll print out a few CV´s and be on my way. Maybe I will walk through the market as well.

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Health Care reform: morning thoughts

I don´t know at what time they voted. I was asleep at that point. I have no idea if there is a live stream where you can watch the voting process. I probably should have stayed up to watch it but I had a good feeling about it so I thought well I´ll sleep on it. We got it. After all these years and all this waiting, finally there is some real reform going on. Its not perfect and its not as far as it could be, but its a step in the right direction. I send out a sincere thank you to all the people who made this happen.

Now to the other side... I have been reading about the protests taking place outside the capital. At what point is it ok to call anyone a nigger or a faggot? I am not going to sit here and pretend that I didn´t believe these right wing tea partiers capable of this type of behavior, and the fact that it happened is just further proof of the kind of people that are involved in that movement. As for the republican media, claiming its socialism or communism or whatever their flavor of the month is: you are so blind, so ignorant, and beyond anything else so stupid that you don´t even know what those things are. To the Republican party: this is your chance to win over America. Go out there and tell the people how you want to make sure they are only a disease away from bankruptcy and that honestly you could care less about them. If you win a massive landslide in November it will be a sad day in a country that is actually starting to move forward again after stagnating for so long. I sincerely hope voters will see the truth about your party once and for all.

Anyways today is a day of celebration!

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Amid the waves and sun

I don´t know how to begin this. At times I struggle to fully realize my own thoughts and find that I fall back to the land of cliches. A land from where it is hard to recover one´s poise. I will try, I will struggle, I will let these thoughts loose, I will let them grow.

An island group. An isolated island group somewhere in the middle of the pacific. A population of natives with a very structured society. A society that put a great emphasis on their greatest resource: the ocean. A society that strove to be as close to the ocean and all its gifts as possible. Perhaps in this day of Avatar and Dances with Wolves there is nothing easier than to over-romanticize an indigenous group, to make them seem more enlightened than their evil conquerors, to make them seem closer to nature. I don´t deny this may be the case, but let me have this limb and we´ll see if it will hold the weight I place on it.

Once upon a time there was island people whose love for the sea was evident even to the first European eyes. Captain Cook noted in his notes that the Hawaiians rode waves on pieces of wood. Once upon a time there was an island people who didn´t have Christianity and to the Christian world this meant only one thing: they were in need of missionaries. Indeed the missionaries came and they even fought amongst themselves to the point that the catholic priests were persecuted under instructions from the calvinist missionaries. At this point we have not even arrived at the lowest point of this story. The missionaries could not leave the people as they were. The missionaries felt the Hawaiians were lazy and so they did everything they could to destroy their ocean loving culture. They discouraged them from surfing the waves, an action that had kept them healthy and fit. They did what they thought would be good for them: tried to turn them into images of protestantism. Then the United States took its first step towards becoming an empire and seized the islands. This was only the beginning of the decline.

Amid all the chaos, there were those who clung to the old ways and despite the influx of outsiders, the dietary changes that wreaked havoc on the native population, and the colonialism that took place they kept the old traditions around. The person whose name is most evoked for bringing back the art of surfing is Duke Kahanamoku and perhaps it was his simple love of the ocean that helped most in the revival. There were many others of course who struggled to bring back to the islands what the people had lost and I will say from my visit that there is still have a long way to go to restore all that was lost. All my respect goes out to those men and women who love those islands and are trying to restore the ecosystems and culture.

Big Week and Champions League

Given the current situation in the United States, I will be willing to say that Obama´s presidency and the Democratic party are both at stake over health care. They are gambling with high stakes, but if they want to get something done then this is how it has to be. The Republicans are trying to frame a vote for health care as political suicide. They are hopefully smarter than to really believe that. It is important to remember to beware of friendly republicans offering advice. I have talked about health care reform a lot on this blog. Its an issue that I care a lot about, an issue that is too big to be ignored the way the republican party will do if they win this one. Any democrat who doesn´t vote for this bill will lose my vote. I will instead vote for the green party if this bill is dropped. To any lawmakers reading this, as unlikely as that is, it is better to be voted out for doing something(and something important at that) than to be voted out for being a coward(in hopes of saving your seat) and enforcing an awful status quo.

This week is Champions League again and its going to be a glorious two days. Tonight I will try to watch Chelsea take on Inter Milan in London. The Germans are all supporting Chelsea due to the fact that their national team captain plays for them. I do like Inter Milan´s coach Jose Mourinho, but all the same I give Chelsea the win on this one and the progression to the next round. On Wednesday Barcelona hosts Stuttgart and I don´t really have to explain who the Germans are going to be cheering for in this case. My head tells me Barcelona wins and I would like that, but Stuttgart haven´t come this far only to back down. It could be a close one. My hope though is that Ibrahimovic gets it together and has a masterful game. It would be fun to see him back in his fall form once again.

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and here comes Monday

It was a nice little weekend if I do say so myself. I managed to not read too much news, and spent my time doing things that are more fun. Such as watching Bundesliga and the last two movies of Stieg Larsson´s Millenium trilogy. Good stuff. Now its Monday again and while I did work five hours last night in pure madness at a swing concert in a pizzeria, I am feeling ready to go.

About the swing concert. The band playing was Old Fish and the location was Ron Telesky Canadian Pizza. I have never seen a venue so packed in my life and people were still outside trying to get in. We had to stop baking during the bands sets, but that didn´t matter because during the breaks everyone was consuming massive amounts of beer. The experience of working there reminds me more and more of Fatih Akin´s amazing 2010 film Soul Kitchen. I love it!

To other things...

Paul Ryan, the new posterboy for the GOP, has his ideas cut to ribbons by the CBO and its not pretty. Nor is the fact that the republican parties "new ideas" are just going to increase the deficit. Lovely, but oh wait aren´t they the party that got us here in the first place. Another Randite bites the dust.

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Random Honeymoon Photos

Thursdays

I just finished Günter Grass´novel My Century and while I cannot say that it is one of his better works, I would say that it was worth the read for anyone interested in German history. Its a bit fiction and a bit history as every year of the 20th century is essentially two to three pages in a voice of someone who explains what they see as the biggest event and how they experienced it. My favorite is the professor explaining to his class about the student revolt of 1968 and about "that writer with the walrus mustache who´d sold out to the Social Democrats." Living in Berlin of course makes one painfully aware of 68 for the most obvious reason that Dutschke was active and assasinated here.

Sometimes it becomes easy to walk through Berlin and be deluded by the festive atmosphere and forget all the things that have taken place here. Some good, some awful. Many of those who became martyr´s for different causes have their names on streets here such Rosa-Luxembourg str. or Rudi Dutschke str. Or how about the protests against the shah a few years before 68 when the police stood by and watched the pro-Iranians beat the leftists with wooden sticks. Times have changed haven´t they?

I am trying to write a paper about my thoughts after reading Rand´s Atlas Shrugged, but that is difficult because while time has marched on and the vision she had has never materialized, it remains difficult to determine how she would respond to the world as it is today. I am also working on applications for jobs. There is nothing worse than writing job applications.

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Making Change Happen

During my no-so-far-back-days in grad school I had this class that I really didn´t like. It was called Make Change Happen, and while its easy to dislike hard classes, this one was supposed to be more practical. The goal was to come up with a project that would change the world in some way: it could be at the local level or it could reach higher than that. My teammate for this project was already eyeing a thesis on building codes in Sweden and so since she already had some knowledge on the topic, we took on the building codes in Lund County, Sweden. We submitted a citizen´s proposal complete with our reasons and a social theory background drawing on Rawlsian concepts of inter-generational justice. Our proposal passed. Granted the green party came up with a better idea that would have been more rigid, and which both my teammate and I would have preferred. We didn´t let that bother us so much because we had gotten something done. We had made that change even if it was just a baby step in a certain direction.

Health care reform in the United States. Its not the bill I want, but if I was in the house of representatives, I would vote for it. A baby step in the right direction is better than a status quo that hurts a lot of people. As for people being against it I have two things to say about that: a. do they really know that much about it (who are their sources?) and b. even if people aren´t gung-ho about something does not mean we shouldn´t improve on something that desperately needs it.

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Sunday Thoughts: Politics to Swedish National Football Team

Sunday, Sunday in Berlin. The sun was there to greet me this morning and then by lunch time it had hidden itself behind the cloud ceiling that is the ever present reminder that winter is not quite gone yet. I am thinking about things. Some things, and most certainly not all things.

Terrorist trials. In the US there is some strange idea that the terrorists should not be tried in civilian courts as this may somehow lead to them being found innocent. Does the US government not have enough evidence to convict them? What does that say about all the money spent on these wars so far? Have these same courts not convicted terrorists, both foreign and domestic, in the past? I am guessing that the alternative option is to try the "terrorists" in some kind of military tribunal that has yet to be fully legalized? Apparently the great United States has some kind of court system that is inadequate for justice to be served. What does this mean for conservatives who are so quick to defend all parts of the US? Does a military tribunal guarantee an automatic conviction? If such is the case, then how is justice being served. I thought the US was supposed to be better than these scummy terrorists.

Liz Cheney and her father are the worst things to happen to the world since McCarthy and his witch hunts. Remember how many lives that ruined in a "free" country where people were supposed to be able to believe what they wanted? These are two pathetic people being given too much attention. Keep America Safe sounds like some neo-fascist organization that even Orwell would have had trouble coming up with. Sometimes I imagine that humans learn from history and that we improve throughout the centuries. What I am learning is that this is not the case, human stupidity is unchanged by technology and by those who yearn to improve the world. Have a look around and smell the stupidity in the air: its growing.

Sometimes I get too into football. I begin to hope that the Swedish National Team will recapture its far gone glory days. The last couple of friendlies has proved the complete opposite: we have a bunch of players with limited talent who don´t seem to know how to play with heart. I know that could be harsh but that is my observation. There are lots of national teams that play only with heart, where the players realize that they only get a few chances to suceed in that environment and they take every chance seriously. Sweden on the other hand looks like a bunch of overpaid athletes continuosly underperforming. Well that is my Sunday.

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Freaky Friday´s second post...

I am supposed to be working on an application letter but the health care issues are forcing themselves into my head and I can think of little else. I am also aware that I am increasingly frustrated by all the lies and deceit that have been used against this bill. I am aware that there are interest groups who are against this bill for various reasons, and I don´t blame them for being against it: that is their ideological stand point and they are welcome to it.

What I cannot accept as being constructive is the lying or making up numbers that have nothing to do with reality to confuse and divide American taxpayers against this bill. Its easy to say that one party is evil in the United States, no matter what side of the divide one stands on. However, lets be honest both parties want the best for the country. Am I being a little too much Pollyannaesque here? Possibly, but I stand by that. The difference is that the parties have different ideas on how to achieve it. Neither vision is perfect. Politics and government will not fix everything. Neither will a pure free market. However if our discussions on these things would be policy related instead of fear mongering, we could elevate the debate and bring out the best in the nation instead of calling each other names.

All that aside its time for the elected majority party to do what they were voted in to do and what they have been for for the last half century: health care reform. Get it done!

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Lets push things forward

Health care, health care, health care. I voted for Obama to get this done. I voted for the democrats to get this done. I want it done. Stop bickering and get this thing through.

Interesting article about the wack-job patriot groups springing up in the US. When I read about these kinds of idiots I remember why I left the US and why I don´t have plans on going back. I don´t need to have these kinds of fools around. In the world today there are billions of idiots, but I will try to chose the ones I want to be surrounded with and its not a bunch of angry old white people who want to carry guns around like the wild west. People advocating conspiracy theories come across as individuals who don´t know how to use their brains beyond menial tasks like cooking food and using the restroom. Those of you involved in these kinds of things, pull your heads out of your asses and do some thinking. I am tired of a dialogue about politics crippled by right wingers who have no talking point but keep reguritating the word socialist and fascist interchangeably. Its bullshit and you know it.

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Thoughts on Rand and Atlas

I am somewhere past the middle point of Atlas Shrugged so while I am going to make some observations here, its worth noting that they are still in their infancy and will have to wait till I finish the book to mature.

What I really find interesting is Rand was an atheist and so in her book up until this point there is no mention of religion as part of the character´s lives. I wonder if the conservatives who see her works as so important are also atheists or if they ignore that part of her works (the lack of a higher being)? The other thing that I am really wondering about is that Rand takes a very high opinion of science and what those who work with it are capable of doing which compared to the loud screaming in the streets and online chat rooms about how scientists are just about their own agenda, is very different.

Her simple approach to characters that the heroine not be a loud mouth who tries to portray herself as a simple, average person stands in remarked contrast to the people who are the supposed champions of the free market today. I doubt that Rand would take a very high view of Beck or his fellow radio hosts, devoted fans that they are. I also doubt she would see any use in a politician like Palin who on a regular basis shows disdain for anyone who has attained higher education than herself while at the same time posing as an average person. Rand doesn´t think very highly of average people. The saviors of her world are the elite and not the masses. Interesting.

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Bring on the Week

Back at the desk looking for jobs. The mind-numbing, seemingly endless search for jobs.

Yesterday was Movie Night and the highlight had to be Lemon Tree. Its an Israeli film and I highly recommend it. Of course the problem I find with things that deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are that they are often quick to pick a side or to oversimplify a complex problem. With Lemon Tree, director Eran Riklis manages to focus mainly on the characters themselves and in the end tells a story whose ending while not the fairytale we want remains something all too real.

I also watched Canada win the gold medal in ice hockey at the winter Olympics in Vancouver. The US put up a great fight and they threw everything they had at the Canadians only to find it wasn´t quite enough. To read this article one would think Canada has taken back the mantel as greatest hockey nation in the world. I don´t really think they ever lost it. With a tournament this size, its often the case that the nation that has a group of players in peak form will win. This is also the reason that other super powers did so bad this Olympics. All this brings me to my final point which is that while these two sides seemed hot here and there is a lot of talk about Sochi 2014, it is important to remember that holding onto the gold is quite difficult.

All the same the US played with a lot of heart and they certainly deserved their silver medals though not a one of them looked happy to receive them.

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