Introduction | 1-13 | 14-26 | 27-39 | 40-52
Internationale Editie | 1-13 | 14-26
1. Powerwoman
18 May 2005
We all would like to live according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as brothers and sisters on this beautiful planet. But, it is impossible to live as equals with dignity as long as women have no political rights. Hence, I am elated that women in Kuwait can vote and stand in the next elections in order to change the paternalistic Muslim society from within itself.
This major development is a result of the consistent pressure from the Bush administration on its Middle East allies, to bring reform by arguing that political stagnation fuels terrorism. Still, the fight must not end as we also live in paternalistic societies in which men especially are trained to think in binary terms: good or bad, right or wrong, heaven or hell, black or white, etc. This results in us not understanding crucial information necessary to participating in the infinite spectrum of human thought and feelings.
Hopefully this monumental swing in Kuwait will encourage women elsewhere to embrace politics, because it’s time.
2. Labman
8 June 2005
Our Congress signaled the end of mankind with their approval of the easing of restrictions on stem cell research on human embryos. These developments are not science fiction anymore. For a long time now, we’ve come to accept artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization by humans, and the cloning and creation of new organisms through cell fusion technology in a variety of plants, animals and
bacterial cells.
I am against those new developments, although I am not against science! Therefore, I will try to launch a bill to discourage this development by advocating the prosecution of companies, governments and people throughout the world when a labman (laboratory-created man) dies. Guilty of death through guilt — as an unnatural born labman will, by definition, die an unnatural dead.
In answer to the new bill, we should start to register the DNA of newborns and their parents in order to determine labmen, and we should think about the rights and duties labmen should have. For example, do they have the right to education, Social Security, health care, etc?
3. Woodenheads
13 June 2005
It is amazing that the Dutch woodenheads torpedoed the new European constitution. Because nobody expected this dramatic rightwing move, as the Netherlands were not only the founders of European Union in 1951
but also the draftsman of the very important Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Which transformed the European Union from a pure Economic Community into a more social and environmental community.
Beside that the timing was perfect as the new structure simplified negotiations with the former East-European countries after the collapse of the Sovjet Union in 1991.With as result that 25 European member states and 450 million citizens now life in peace, security, stability and prosperity, which are the main goals of the European Union.
But the woodenheads behind their dikes seems to be afraid now for the price they have to pay for it.
4. Who is next
1 July 2005
Between 1980 and 2005, the number of registrations in Chinese courses more than quadrupled, from 11,400 to 46,500, making it the third most popular foreign language course in U.S. colleges after French and Spanish. Even I can write and read Chinese now. Besides, I adopted a Pan-Asian name /.\| which means Rainbow. However, I am really surprised about the latest developments as I and most analists expected China to follow the Japanese growth model of increasingly autonomous growth instead of taking over complete foreign companies in the U.S. and Europe.
However, we have to realize that this is just the beginning as in 2015 the majority of websites will be published in Chinese. So whether you like it or not, just follow me and millions of American citizens and start to learn Chinese now, so you’ll be able to find your way on the world wide web in the years to come.
5. Imagine
7 July 2005
Over the last few days, I have been trying to imagine how the world would look if 911 had never happened. The billions of dollars we have spent since 911 could instead have been spent on people and planet which come together with peace in order to bring prosperity.
Since President Woodrow Wilson’s War Message from April 2, 1917 and his Fourteen Points from 8 January, 1918 , the US has spent billions on peacekeeping. These messages are the main reason Wilson earned the Nobel Peace Prize and citizens from all over the world want to live in the US.
The US however forgets to invest in people and planet. It is now time for Bush to show at the G8 meeting in England that he is capable of bringing prosperity.
6. KillerSweet
7 Augustus 2005
It is amazing that this newspaper doesn’t write anything about the latest news that the no-calorie sweetener aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, Canderel, etc, encourages weight gain (Obesity Research) and causes leukemia and lymphomas (Ramazzini Institute). It is one of the most pervasive forms of corporate negligence in the history of the industrial revolution as also revealed in the film “Sweet Misery”.
It also explains the recently established link between rising soft drink popularity and obesity rates in the US and other parts of the world. More so, you will find this KillerSweet not only in soft drinks, but also in 9,000 other food products, like chewing gums, yogurts, desserts, children’s medicines and toothpaste.
So if the FDA can’t stop this KillerSweet from poisoning millions throughout the world then we should do it ourselves.
7. One way
30 November 2005
On November 8, 2001, two days after G.W. Bush shocked the world with his threat: “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror” at an antiterrorism summit in Warsaw, he addressed before representatives of firemen, law enforcement officers, postal workers in Atlanta and billions throughout the world his “one way to defeat terrorism”.
For his words: “One way to defeat terrorism is to show the world the true values of America through the gathering momentum of a million acts of responsibility and decency and service.“ he almost received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 (like my all time favorite president Thomas Woodrow Wilson who received the Nobel Peace Prize 85 years earlier after launching his Fourteen Points Peace Program to Congress in October 1918).
What we and the Nobel Prize Organization did not know that G.W. Bush one way statement did in fact mean that suspects would get a one-way ticket to hell in US-military or CIA detention- and torture camps like Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Irak and secret prisons in eight countries throughout the world.
8. Trying to understand …
8 December 2005
For more then a year now I am trying to understand what motivates mostly rich and intelligent young people from good families to kill innocent people, becoming a Muslim suicide killer or – as they call themselves – a martyr of a Holy war.
After an extensive study I found out that Musab ibn Umayr, an intelligent and rich young boy from the anti Islamic Quraysh tribe, became one of Muhammed’s warriors at the age of ten, after he was recruited by the self proclaimed prophet Muhammed who became Muslim at the age of 40.
In a fight against the Quarysh forces, Musab ibn Umayr became the patron saint of suicide killers as he threw himself upon his own people with the Quran in one hand and his sword in the other, repeatedly shouting the words: “Muhammad is only a Messenger of God. Messengers have passed away before him.”. After the fight, the words of this child became the most important suicide killers’ verse of the Quran (verse: Surah Al-i `Imran 3:144).
9. The Black Cat
14 December 2005
“For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not –and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul.”
These are the first words of the short story ‘The Black Cat’ by Edgar Allen Poe, 1843, which I herewith quote in remembrance of Stanley Tookie Williams. An amazing writer who has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace and Literature Prize for his children’s books that warn young people about the pitfalls of joining a gang and exposes them to alternatives.
Nevertheless, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger terminated Mr. Williams because he never showed redemption for killing four people in 1979. Which is absurd, as Williams always maintained innocence of the crimes he was accused of during his 25 years in death row.
10. We have to remain
23 December 2005 (USA TODAY)
We have to remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more. In order to bring peace, freedom and security to the Iraqi people who lived in scarcity and fear, under a dictator who has brought them nothing but war, and misery, and torture.
Their lives and freedom mattered little to Saddam Hussein, but I know that Iraqi lives and freedom matter greatly to us. But we need more unconditional help and less criticism to establish an atmosphere of safety, in which responsible, reform-minded local leaders can build lasting institutions of freedom.
And the world should know that the coalition of willing is a farce because many of the nations in the coalition formed for the 2003 invasion of Iraq still receive substantial aid packages and trade benefits from us in return for their support.
11. Invisible children
31 December 2005
I am disappointed that this newspaper didn´t pay any attention to Unicef’s latest report the State Of The World’s Children 2006 which coincides with the beginning of Unicef’s 60th year.
This report pays attention to the millions of invisible children who can´t enjoy childhood, health, education, equality and protection due to the lack or loss of formal identification; inadequate State protection for children without parental care; the exploitation of children through trafficking and forced labour; and premature entry of children into adult roles such as marriage, hazardous labour and combat.
We, media, politicians, entrepreneurs and citizens throughout the world, can give those children a future if we really focus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which 189 countries adopted in 2000. The MDG set quantitative targets to address extreme poverty and hunger, child and maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS and other diseases, while promoting universal primary education, gender equality, environmental sustainability and a global partnership for development by 2015.
12. Bye, bye Mr. Eavesdropper
5 January 2005
For 2 years now I am living in the US and I am surprised that nobody seems to know that NSA continuously records the majority of all voice- , fax and e-mail communications and filters them with key words (the same way that Google works on the Internet). Analysts only have to type “terrorist”
or “impeach Bush” to pull communications of people using those words.
The SYSTEM, based at Fort Meade in Maryland, was built after World War II to intercept private and commercial communications – not military – to glean vital information in the Cold War at that time, nowadays on terrorism. ISDN and DSL for example have built in tapping devices based on the international CCITT protocol and mobile phones are mini-tracking devices, giving their owners whereabouts at any time.
In Europe it was already a big scandal because the SYSTEM didn’t violate just the privacy of Americans, but also (for decades) the privacy of Europeans. In the US it will probably become an even bigger scandal because of the worse damage control by the Bush Administration.
13. Love, fear and hope
14 January 2005
I love nuclear energy because it is clean, powerfull and so cheap that we can easily connect the whole world. At the same time I am afraid of nuclear weapons and an ultimate energy war.
That’s why we should develop the Russian blueprint of “the closed cycle” in order to reprocess uranium waste. Otherwise we will definitely get an energy war about the last bit of uranium. Especially now, Iran is realizing their own nuclear program and IAEA estimation that in 2020: An art odyssey Asia will have more nuclear power plants than the US. This IAEA assessments also feeds the
expectation that Asia will not only dominate the 21st century economically, but ultimately also politically (read military).
The US Atomic Energy Commission however rejected “the closed cycle” because they calculated that it is cheaper to stockpile the spent nuclear fuel itself than to reprocess the waste products. So let’s hope that the other declared nuclear states: Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel will follow the US because in that case they all have to eat their own nuclear bombs to provide energy at the end.