Nobody likes paying taxes. Almost all advanced countries charge relatively high corporate and personal income taxes.

Sure, Governments waste money – but taxes are necessary for building our complex modern infrastructures – and also fulfil the many demands of modern citizens as well.

Most countries use dynamic income taxes: lower rates for low income and higher ones for the rich.

According to this site American pay between 15-35% Income Tax – which is hardly the highest rate. Those evil Socialist Swedes pay up to 57% and even the more capitalistic minded Brits pay up to 40%.

Most important: the Americans DON’T have VAT – something almost all other countries have.

Click image for a closer look.

Even more important: most of the American Taxes are used to pay for so called "Defence" (the biggest and gigantic Pentagon budget). Americans could save a lot of money by shrinking that budget …

Have a look at the graphic above taken from Der Spiegel. It shows you in simple terms that the US has the biggest military budget, even compared to Giants like China and ALL the European Nations combined.

If you want to have a big ass military than don’t complain about high taxes – Stealth Bombers, gazillion of foreign military basis, two wars and the largest nuke arsenal in the world simply cost A LOT OF TAX MONEY.

No I don’t celebrate "Weihnachten" nor do I care about the religion or consumerism behind it. But I like the Winter Solstice – good to know that the sun is reborn (and not the Son is Born).

But it is a great time to be charitable and reflect on your own fortunes. If you can read this you …

1. have an education
2. have a roof over your head
3. some spare time (you are not working right now)
4. money to afford electricity
5. a computer
6. and broadband

So you are pretty rich compared to billions of other less fortunate fellow humans.

No need to fake humility or consternation – enjoy and celebrate that you are so lucky and that you can indulge so many luxuries of life!

BBC News: Bangladesh seeks 15% of any UN climate fund

It’s not just Bangladesh – many Developing Nations  want some huge amounts of money to "get into climate change".

It is obviously easy to point the finger at the rich polluters like the US and Europe – and ask them to cough up money for change.

But Developing Nations have often been blatantly ignorant about the "Green Message" banging at their doors and growing their own economies in a smart and sustainable way.

Many of these Nations have also received Million and Billions of Dollars and Euros of Foreign Aid – and have squandered them …

And there is the old ugly Elephant of Overpopulation still in the room: especially countries like Bangladesh have failed to curb population growth to a sustainable level.

It might be a cynical thing to point out – but every new mouth to feed makes the problem worse – and this is hardly a problem created by pollution from rich nations.

Sure we "rich people" in the West are too blame for much – but not for everything. And Developing Nations should get smarter and more independent in their own development.

Click image to learn about the full horror of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

I heard many times that our oceans are badly polluted – but this THING really is as impressive as it is a HUGE shame for us humans.

Compared to garbage on land it’s much harder to get rid off. But most of all: nobody feels responsible, because every small piece of land belongs to a country. But the Oceans belong to everybody and nobody – so we give a shit about it’s decline and pollution …

In a global market a diploma no longer guarantees your job security and a bright future. A graduate from China or India will do your white collar job as good as an expensive youngster from the USA or Europe.

It’s easy to blame the money lenders, bankers, stock brokers and other fat cats, but what kind of economic system is not "evil"?

Barter systems only work on a small scale and communism (as charming as it sounds to share everything with everyone) simply doesn’t scale up and is simply unfair to those who work hard.

Plus the financial markets are needed for a modern economy.

Protestors and especially anti-globalization activists should look at the details and not simply blabber angrily against the "system".

Criminal activity and excessive inbreeding of financial products are bad – no doubt about it. But lending is a good thing, stock markets help companies and workers, venture capitalists help new ideas to get off the ground.

It’s all about balance: money markets need sensible direction as well as social systems do. Neither should be allowed to run amok.

Good citizen and good government should understand the need for both. It’s of no use to protest against failures when it’s too late – especially when you enjoy the fruits of "rich overblown markets" before.

BBC News: Somali Pirates Q&A

The American’s have successfully rescued one of their own. Hurray! But the battle isn’t over – far from it

Sure, more military ships certainly makes the business of piracy harder for the Somalis, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem: poverty in a failed state.

Somalia has been plagued by civil war for a long time, it doesn’t have a stable economy nor government.

Just like in Afghanistan and Darfur the world community didn’t care or didn’t do much to stop the rot.

But this is the 21st century and even people in shitty places can buy disrupt the sensitive flow of goods.

Rebuilding Somalia will be equally nasty then pacifying Afghanistan. But ignoring the problem or bombing these people won’t make the pirates or poverty go away.

Today we are constantly bombarded by messages and new initiatives to save the environment, the green turtle of south Peru and other more esoteric causes. There are gazillion initiatives and groups out there trying to bring “awareness” to us ignorant consumers.

But you hardly hear people talking and caring about the growing millions of jobless people. Bing out of work is still a big social stigma and almost always a personal tragedy, especially when kids are involved.

Here in socialist & communist Europe most people benefit from our strong social networks – paid for by our high taxes. Unemployment benefits obviously help a lot, but there still is the psychological and social impact. Only a few groups care about these fellow humans and their problems. A good unemployed citizen is meant to help himself and find a new job quickly.

But it’s often not that easy. Most people who have been goo employees are often not very good organizing and motivating themselves. And being rejected is always a blow to the psyche.

In times of an economical downturn we need to include everybody and include those who are not as fortunate as those with a steady job.

The Anti-Everything-Coalition currently wrecking London’s City district is a coalition of many groups. So it’s no surprise that their message(s) are a bit mixed up.

Overall I find a lack of alternative concepts appalling and disappointing. Some want less globalization. Some want more fair trade. Some want no capitalism. Some want justice.

Well we can’t turn the clocks back. More justice is always a good thing, but first we have to agree on what "just" means. And the good thing about globalization is that you can live in almost any country you like (like North Korea). The other good thing in democratic countries is, that you can start a lobby group or join a political party to create "change" my dear protestors.

Once you join real political work you’ll find out that most people don’t want change at all – just perfect security and a nanny state that keeps them "happy".

Protests and the will for political change "infects" most people when the situation is already bad. We need better ways of hitting the streets when it’s too late – we need more active and engaged citizens who watch politicians, companies and other (lazy) citizens as well.

America still is the biggest Hyperpower, but thanks to Dick and George it has lost most of it’s international gravitas. I expect Obama to be very busy trying to fix the biggest problems without really changing much in his first year in office.

I just hope that he won’t punished for his visions and attitude like Jimmy Carter was. Remember: President Carter installed a Solar Panel on the White House – and el Doofus Ronald Reagan had it removed.

Change is needed – now more then thirty years ago.

BBC News: India battles diabetes ‘epidemic’

It’s ironic: finally many nations can feed their masses and develop a "healthy" middle class segment in their societies.

But with more food also come more problems. Many developing suddenly face problems like obesity, heart attacks and diabetes.

Especially junk food proves to be as devastating in these developing nations as it is in rich ones.

We are used that the Americans are the most wasteful and resource devouring nation on earth. But China is currently overtaking the Americans being number one in so many things: pollution, energy and food consumption.

China’s hunger for concrete, oil, milk and so many other commodities has raised prices and shifted the markets focus to Asia. (India’s rising middle class is also developing a growing appetite.)

It certainly is a great opportunity for other nations to supply the needs of China, but especially with the growing environmental problems the Asian huge hunger for almost everything is more a threat than an opportunity.

But neither the west, nor the far east are really willing to slow down or make serious efforts to cut down their energy, pollution and food appetites.

China defends it’s hunger with the necessity of upgrading it’s vast country up to western standards. And how can the west demand from China not to modernize?

BBC News Special: Global financial crises

So all the rescue packages are a done deal, the credit crunch can hopefully “healed” before it gets even worse. Everybody is a state of shock, repentance or high alert.

But have we learnt anything? And are we all to blame?

Read the rest of this entry »

Once again a good insight what’s happening in the Middle East – and how it is affected by the Financial Crises.

Amazingly to me we seem to learnt very little or nothing from the oil crises of 1973. Especially because in the 1980’s the oil prices went down like a rock and everything seemed fine.

Europe always had higher taxes on petrol, so we naturally built and drove smaller cars. The US went “el gigante” as usual and feel in love with SUVs, Hummers and other thirsty vehicles.

So from 1973 to 2008 we wasted precious THIRTYFIVE years to seriously reduce our global consumption and develop alternatives. It is simply amazing how much time we wasted fiddling around with small stuff instead of pushing ahead.

The idea of peak oil (maximum production followed by gradual decline) is hardly new itself – a certain Mister King Hubbert published this very idea in 1956. And that oil isn’t a renewable resource has been bloody obvious since we built cars.

Once again: it is shocking that all these high-tech countries like USA, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, etc. have so little to show so little progress in terms of energy independence.

Germany is currently world leader in solar and wind energy, but we hardly use these technologies. Instead all industrial nations talk about using extensively atomic power. But it is once again a short term solution, since the world’s reserve of plutonium ain’t that big either.

It all comes down to money, not intelligence or logic in the end. We could have done more, but we didn’t. We still are doing not enough. We will only speed up our development when the price of petrol rises even higher and our laziness will become unaffordable.

But I am seriously afraid that we won’t even react than. Instead we simply “agree” with lesser comfort and don’t mind millions of people starving, because oil is also important for food production.

Cultures and civilizations are not very good in reacting to slow changes and threats. They simply adapt without overcoming the threat.

So peak oil might also imply peak civilization – unless some egghead saves our global asses from decline with a brilliant invention. But our culture won’t be the first nor the last to maybe disappear, slowly rott or “sleep away” …

One of the first consequences of the ever rising petrol prices will be new speed limits. High speed means more fuel and more money. But the new slowness won’t be limited to transportation.

We will have to look for new lifestyles and "speeds" to live our lifes, because personal mobility will be reduced and more costly. Also industrial production and today’s speed economy will be more resource and time conscious.

We will be looking for more sustainable production methods and longer product cycles – so we need longer lasting goods – therefore speedy consumerism will slow down as well.

"Overpopulation refers to when an organism’s numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat."

I would love to see some hardcore numbers how many inhabitants our "habitat" can support in an sustainable way?

Our oil reserves won’t last much longer and within fifty years our petrol based lifestyle and food production will simply collapse, because the supply won’t last. At least it seems production rates already can’t keep up with demand.

But we all as a world community have to figure out how many people this planet can support – so we can plan and adjust. We will need to once again have to look seriously on family planing, productions numbers and available resources – but in a scientific way.

More? Overpopulation @ Wikipedia

Wow, isn’t it a shame that all these huge organization, these gazillions of governments and agencies didn’t do anything to PREVENT the current crisis?

I remember several articles last year warning that the bio fuel boom will drive food prices up and that our wheat and rice reserves are emptying fast.

Most governments are not spending too much brainpower to prevent such predictable human disasters. What a shame!

Here is a HIGHLY recommended article about the current food production and distribution system and how it needs to be adopted for a better future.

Worldwide food prices are on the rise – sometimes up to 20-30%! While people in rich countries will still be able to fill their bellies – in many poorer nations many will face hunger. In China and the Philippines for example Governments tried to reassure consumers that they won’t face any shortages and prices won’t continue to sky rocket. Famous last words.

And it’s not just developing and poor nations facing problems. In Italy the price for pasta has risen up to 30%. And pasta is certainly not a luxury food.

Have we hit the “sound barrier” for human (over) population? Is the current industrial food production sustainable with higher and higher oil prices and more and more serious damage to the environment?

Maybe we are facing food riot?

Finally the boss of the American Federal Reserve confronts reality -and uses the dreaded ‘R’-Word.

How much more obvious does American decline to be to get Washington and the public to act?

The US Dollar is weaker then the Canadian Dollar.

The Euro has eclipsed the Dollar and stands good chances to become the dominant currency for reserves.

The US infrastructure is crumbling and underfunded.

The middle class is slowly disappearing, instead tent cities are appearing.

Even Wall Street and big banks are in serious trouble.

The Industrial-Military-Complex has worked in the past – but only because it employed massive amounts of people. Today’s streamlined and outsourced manufacturing no longer is a benefit to the American masses (only to the stockholders).

Who is to blame? A lazy US congress, a very bad President, the huge American deficit, the expensive war in Iraq and the total lack of good oversight of the financial markets and big business.

I wonder if most Americans will ever understand how long the Bush legacy, deficit and his idiotic war will burden their lives?

Earth Day is one of these new holidays that give me the creeps. They always have a good intention behind them, to raise awareness and hopefully get people to do something.

Instead it’s a humiliating reminder that 99,9% of our fellow humans don’t care or simply don’t know what’s going on.

I personally would prefer if some great catastrophe would wipe out a big city or kill a million people – MAYBE then everyday would be Earth Day?

In China air pollution kills at least 100.000 people a year. But this number hardly registers when your population is over 1.000.000.000.

Don’t forget: 22nd of April is Earth Day! Either kill someone to reduce the human stress on our planet or do something nice for mother nature …

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution we have squeezed more and more yield out of the ground – and poured more and more dirty chemical into it.

Soil quality and pollution is a serious problem in almost any country. Plus climate change also has a strong influence on soil quality.

Our crops suck the nutrients out of the soil, it takes nature some time to ‘recharge’ the ground. We invented new way to speed up the process by using fertilizers – which include oil as one of it’s ingredient. So food production and oil are directly linked – not just for transportation.

This is taken from a great article from Dale Allen Pfeiffer:

In the United States, 400 gallons of oil equivalents are expended annually to feed each American (as of data provided in 1994).⁷ Agricultural energy consumption is broken down as follows:

• · 31% for the manufacture of inorganic fertilizer
• · 19% for the operation of field machinery
• · 16% for transportation
• · 13% for irrigation
• · 08% for raising livestock (not including livestock feed)
• · 05% for crop drying
• · 05% for pesticide production
• · 08% miscellaneous

The modern way of chemical farming seems unsustainable to many – organic farming is better for the soil to ‘recharge’ itself and yield better produce.

So we face a serious combination of problems here: lower soil quality calls for more fertilizers – which will increase production prices, oil is already expensive so more fertilizer means more oil will be needed for food production – which again raises global oil prices.

Feed me loads of oil! Feed me yummy soil!

A small side note: we also use loads of fertilizer to produce biofuels – so in a matter of speaking we put oil in the ground to grow oil. Sure we get more out of the ground than we put in – but it is still an odd mechanism.

Since oil is a finite resource we should seriously push and make organic farming mandatory. We need sustainable ways of producing HUGE amounts of food for all six billion of us.

According to new research 30% of our planets usable land is used for growing food for humans. This is a HUGE number – I didn’t expect to be so high.

So it’s no surprise that so many species go extinct since we are eating up all the space and create more and more farmland to produce food and now biofuels. Plus we need space for our exploding cities and infrastructure …

Once again I think the real problem here is overpopulation. Too many humans needing too much space.

Documentary / 1 hour 22 minutes / by Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack

Oil is – like so many natural resources – only available in a limited supply. And with all limited resources we will reach an ‘ extraction / production peak’ – which means less of it will be available after that point.

Many scientists and oil people think that we have either reached or soon will reach peak oil. This is of course very bitter, because our global industrial society is just really starting to take off in many big countries like India, Brazil and China.

Watch this documentary to learn more about peak oil and it’s consequences.

More? Official Website

Business magazines like the great Economist already talked about a weak economy last year – and also about the chance for a recession. Sure, some indicators in the US showing signs of weakness, but overall the global economy is running quite nice.

The burst of the credit bubble was a nasty event, but still not big enough to bring the whole economic system down.

But the real  ‘panic’ started once the presidential candidates used the ‘R’ fear to get votes. Now everybody started talking and most of all worrying about a ‘Recession’.

Stock Brokers are like sheep in any other profession- they easily panic and follow the herd. Although the economy didn’t really crash or some nasty event like 9/11 happened they panicked.

The American economy might be a bit wobbly, bit it’s not bad. The rest of the world is running quite nicely – so can we please stop that panic and WORK on a better economy instead of crashing it?

The Security Council was and still is a good idea – but it no longer reflects the global status. After WW2 the US, Soviet Union, France, Britain and China  reflected the world’s powers at that time.

But not today.

India und Brazil have been lobbying hard for a permanent seat – so did Germany and Japan as big spenders for the UN.

Europe is already over represented by France and Britain. I think ONE seat for the whole of the EU would be enough. Africa should also get it’s own permanent seat. Since India and China represented such a huge slice of the population – they also should get a seat each. Although I must say that neither China nor India have been big supporters of international progress – they have been too busy to get their own countries ahead. Although India has sent many troops to international missions.

It would be great progress if this important international forum would reflect the realities of 2008 and not 1950.

More? Wikipedia entry and a BBC discussion if India should get a permanent seat – some nice comments in there.

BBC 4 / documentary / 3 episodes each ca. 1 hour

This is what I would consider basic knowledge or better say insight what happened in recent history.

I can recommend watching all parts – but number 2 is especially important, because it shows that Racism was one of the driving forces in America that swapped over to Europe (again) in a scientific disguise and supported the old idea of the Masterrace, which suited the Nazis perfectly.

Part 1: The Philosophy of Racism

Beginning by assessing the implications of the relationship between Europe, Africa and the Americas in the 15th century, it considers how racist ideas and practices developed in key religious and secular institutions, and how they showed up in writings by European philosophers Aristotle and Immanuel Kant.

Part 2: Scientific Racism

Looking at Scientific Racism, invented during the 19th century, an ideology that drew on now discredited practices such as phrenology and provided an ideological justification for racism and slavery. These theories ultimately led to eugenics and Nazi racial policies of the master race. Some upsetting scenes.

Part 3: Modern and colonial Racism

The third and final episode of Racism: A History examines the impact of racism in the 20th Century. By 1900, European colonial expansion had reached deep into the heart of Africa. Under the rule of King Leopold II, The Belgian Congo was turned into a vast rubber plantation.

Men, women and children who failed to gather their latex quotas would have their limbs dismembered. The country became the scene of one of the century’s greatest racial genocides, as an estimated 10 million Africans perished under colonial rule.

Most people think that the atomic holocaust has gone away. Quite to the contrary. The nuclear powers have still way too many big crackers – so much firepower to kill us all several times over.

Russia and the USA both are planning to update their nuclear arsenal. China, Pakistan and India are new powers and constantly building new nukes. France and Britain certainly will upgrade their arsenal sometime.

Some of the nukes in service range from modern land- and submarine-based ICBM warheads to bombs dropped from planes and smaller so called tactical nukes.

Both Russia and the US have many old nukes and delivery system, so I don’t think that all 20.000 of them are operational. And modern ICBM carry several warheads at once.

China has LESS than 500 nukes  so far.

I didn’t include North Korea, because I couldn’t find any ‘good’ numbers. But I doubt they have more than 10-20.

This may sound cynical: I would say that up to 100 warheads for smaller nuclear powers are ‘understandable’ as a deterrent. Everything over 500 is madness. The US and Russia (plus China and India) as huge countries and powers should be ‘happy’ with about 2000 each …

You also have to understand that keeping up an atomic force costs a lot of money: security, training, inspections and plus warning and delivery systems.

Congratulations to Saudi Arabia, Russia and Hugo – you are even richer now. For the rest of the world it means higher costs for petrol, food, travel and goods.

Only in the last 25 years the oil prices exploded – thanks for wars, embargos and greater demands. Visit this website to learn more about the development of the oil prices since WWII. Very interesting!

China, America and Europe are trying hard to keep their influence in Africa. But the continent itself seems at war with itself. While many backwards Asian countries have made the leap into the 21st century – Africa seems plagued by it’s own old problems: superstition, backward social concepts, corruption, tribalism and slavery. Africa loved to complain about the white man fucking the continent. These days Africa abuses itself.

But cultural and political evolution is painful. It was painful for Europe and why should Africa be any different. It is of course very nauseating to watch progress from a "higher" and richer point of view.

Should richer democratic countries intervene? Or has our intervention really made a GOOD difference? To be honest – I think we should trade and deal with Africa like with any other nation, we should respect their sovereign status (as stupid and bloody as it might get with Zimbabwe, Darfur or Rwanda). Africa has to stand up for itself.

The real trick question: how do we keep others from no longer interfering? Like in the case of China and their protection of the killer government?

Thanks to edosan for sending me this one.

The Christmas tree is labeled as a German invention. But who would have thought that Arab countries and the Chinese go mad for them? German consumers are currently facing a serious price hike, because ‘their’ trees are getting shipped or even flown out to "those foreigners".

So global consumerist culture trumps so called Christian traditions? Frohe Weihnachten …

The Economist has a great special this week about "The End of cheap Food" (essay and an article). Highly recommended.

There are several forces at work:

One is simply demand and supply. For years farmers in Europe have been over subsidized and told to use their lands to overproduce even more food. Now with need these extra capacities back. Since the production of biofuels is so heavily subsidized as well – demand has made it for example more lucrative to sell wheat for fuel production instead of making pasta (here some background on the state of Wheat production worldwide).

Most of all food production is distorted: for decades now poorer countries with an agricultural base had no chance of competing against European and American farmers – because they are heavily subsidized. Sometimes local production has been so damaged by the price difference that they had to close – so these poor countries actually had to import food they could have easily produced themselves.

What we need is curbed up production in all countries, less subsidies and more sensible production. It makes no sense to transport milk from Europe to China. That’s a lot of fuel wasted – fuel which gets more and more expensive.

Most companies just want to create a caring, green and socially responsible image. But FreeRice.com is so much better: it’s basically a word game to win something for the poor.

For each word you guess correct they donate 10 grains of rice. Doesn’t sound much – but so far it has been enough to feed 50.000 people for one day (see totals so far here).

I also like the educational effect for the ‘rich’ people. You get to train your brain and expand your vocabulary. Excellent!

Companies should support more ideas like that. And donating has hardly been more easier and fun than this …

Just in case you can’t show off your muscular body or titties or penis or butt … there is always your Turban – groar!

RateMyTurban.com – endless ours of fun.

This old, but still tragic events at the Spanish-Moroccan border just uncover an old truth: rich countries despise economic refugees. We Europeans can only thank nature for the Mediterranean sea – otherwise we would be ‘invaded’ by a gazillion Africans and Arabs.

Europe has tried to keep these people out – because we want to enjoy our privileged lifestyle quietly. Yeah, send them some development money and blankets when another earthquake or whatever happens. And some AIDS medicine.

The tragic is, that neither Europe nor the US has done enough to develop democratic nations ‘down there’ with a working economy. But Arabs and Africans haven’t done enough either. Corruption and cronyism are not imported ‘ideas’, but local failures. It doesn’t matter if rich Arabs rather buy at Harrods or African kings another wife, they fail their own people.

So Europe simply builds higher fences and flies those poor souls back to their shit holes. Lets hope that these people find a way to make their own nations worth staying there – and let’s also hope that Europe and the US get better at ‘helping’ these nations.

So far most of the help was a failure.

Germany had the ‘pleasure’ to be the first EU country to issue biometric passports – which will be the norm for the future. Around here there are hardly any protests against this, since personal ID cards (Personalausweis) are mandatory anyway – and these have been machine readable for a long time.

I think it’s pretty silly to talk about Big Brother and total tracking – since this has been possible for a long time. First it were credit cards that allowed a pretty good tracking of your habits and financial life and now finally cell phones are even better at tracking your every movement.

Most of all – we brave consumers – give our data to companies and providers like Google more or less freely. You can’t have a ‘trackless’ life anymore.

So any Police State or Fascist regime works without much technology – it depends on the people in power. Sure technology makes it easier, but technology doesn’t automatically lead to a tyrant regime. The Romans did pretty well without computers.

More? BBC articles and reference

China currently produces 70% of the world shoe market. Since it’s killing the shoe industry in Europe they are considering some sort of import tariff. No problem said shoe retailers in Europe – we then simply buy them someplace else – like India or Bangladesh. The lesson: it’s hard to protect your economic sphere against dumping – and even harder when the rest of the world lives and works on a very different and cheaper economic scale.

The modern Anti-G8, Anti-WTO and Anti-Globalization movement is very mobile and well organized. These people travel all over the world to make their voices heard. Excellent!

May I suggest to you to fly to Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe next? These countries could use some real democratic protests and stone throwing. Make these governments realize their mistakes! The tickets are hardly more expensive then flying from London to Seattle or Genoa. I know you guys like to travel – I understand it’s for a good cause. Stone throwing is eco friendly, since it’s a sustainable form of violence. Stones get recycled.

A Saudi women – she can’t leave the house without a male, she can’t vote and she certainly can’t protest like you.

Saudi Arabia is still the richest and the most oppressive regime on this planet. Women’s rights are almost nonexistent. Saudi Arabia’s money supports terrorism all over the world. Saudi Arabian oils fuels global pollution. Plus Saudi Arabia sponsored terrorism – terrorism breeds war and causes even more waste of oil, dropped landmine’s …

Zimbabwe – or better say Mr Mugabe – basically plays the same stupid game like Mao/Stalin, trying to force his ideas onto a nation. But all he created is poverty and hunger on a grand scale. He could use some ‘green’ advice on how to build a functioning agricultural state. Why don’t you help your brothers and sisters down there with some protest advice and try to start a revolution there?

This is a HUGE smog cloud over China – any western protesters going there?

China – now there we have a colossal eco killer. The sky over China is so polluted you can see it in satellite pictures. According to the WHO about 100.000 Chinese citizens die from pollution each year. China’s industry could certainly use a lot of ‘green’ advice how to built an eco friendly industry and agriculture. Plus China is buying loads of assets in Africa – securing it’s share of resources – and they don’t care about any politics or human rights. They sell weapons whoever wants them and has something to trade.

So – next stop China, Saudi Arabia or Zimbabwe? I also recommend visits to Iran and North Korea.

Yeah, kick those criminal foreigners out of our beloved country!  

Swiss society is very conformist, conservative and very xenophobic. Although Switzerland is very rich it’s people are not big on sharing or international entanglement. Neutrality is obviously a national obsession – or rather a fanatical obsession not to get involved with anyone or anything.

So it’s no surprise that Switzerland is not part of the EU and loves it’s banking lifestyle so much that ripped of Jewish money has been held back for decades. Don’t get involved with those bloody foreigners.

I already have a bloody nose!

In a few days there is a general election in the land of Honey and Toblerone – and the rightwing SVP party seems to get at least 25% of the votes. That’s a huge in the political landscape, but shows the old Swiss conservative attitude.

Swiss cheese only for Swiss people!!!

Sure there is lots of protest – but it shows that in our complex times not only Americans are susceptible to hate and fear mongering a la Neocons. It works in any country.

Several hundred years of neutrality, too much Calvinism and isolation are a bad thing. Especially in our modern, fast moving and international world.  Wake up Switzerland: xenophobia won’t get you anywhere and you are a part of this planet if you like or not. Neither the Alps nor Swiss armyknife or stupid election promises won’t protect you from that …

One thing I hate about modern activists are their guilt tactics. Europeans and Americans ‘kill’ people in Africa, because we take away their resources.

First of all ‘guilt’ is not a very good motivation to help others. Guilt only creates anger and ignorance over time. We should CARE for our brothers and sisters in any country – but we should not feel guilt.

Second – we can’t disappear. Modern people consume a huge amount of resources. Sure you and I still can try to be a bit more modest and aware. Drive smaller cars, use public transport or buy only certain brands. But still our complex modern worlds need power for computers, commerce and traffic.

Third – we can only buy technologies that are on sales. To a certain amount we can vote with our wallets – and with tax. Yes, we developed countries still spent not enough money for better development, but we are not completely ignorant either.

Fourth – the ugly truth is that people die in shitty places all the time. Can we prevent every death? Nope. We can try to make living ‘nicer’ for all, but there is no remedy to the human tragedy.