Friday, December 22, 2006

Piergiorgio Welby
Piergiorgio Welby is dead. He died because his physicians honoured his clear will to end his life that had become intolerable for him in the natural course of degenerative disease of the neuromuscular system for which there is no cure so far. They cut off the artificial ventilation that had maintained his failing respiration.
Conventional medical ethics demand the maintenance of life support as long as a patient ist not brain-dead, on the basis of the assumption that a cure for the disease responsible for the failure of physiological functions might be available in a foreseeable future. In the conscious patient with a chronic condition which steadily continues to deteriorate, the situation is different. Even if there is non cure in sight, some, but not all patients with similar conditions are able to adapt to their situation (tetraplegics, but also some persons with degenerative neuromuscular disease, such as famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking). What if a patient is uncapable in the long run to cope mentally with her/his condition? Is it correct to view the decision to commit suicide per se as the result of a pathological process that could be treated successfully, e.g. depression?
Where are the limits of coercion that can be used in order to maintain life when a fully conscious person, capable of reasoning, clearly declares that she/he is no longer willing to undergo the treatment imposed by the failure of her/his physiological functions? Where is the line between a treatement that is lived as torture by the patient and the obligation of the health care provider to respect
codified ethics and legal rules?
These questions are now raised in Italy and will produce a useful debate on the responsibility of legislators in medical and bio-ethics, as well as the responsibility of the individual health care provider and the freedom of choice of the conscious patient. The outcome of the debate will show us if respect for the individual person is strong enough to block attempts by fundamentalist religious authorities and political movements to enforce therapies that eventually become equivalents of torture.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Le jugement de Tripoli - Une "affaire Calas" en Libye?
Le jugement de Tripoli (cinq infirmières bulgares et un médecin palestinien condammnés à la mort pour le présumé crime d'avoir infecté des enfants d'un hôpital de Bengasi avec le HIV) évoque la mémoire de l'accusation lancée par Voltaire auf 18e siècle au sujet de l'affaire Calas à Toulouse. On espère pour ces condamnés mais aussi pour la Libye toute entière l'entrée en scène d'un Voltaire autochthone qui aurait le courage de défier les perversion du système judiciare en place et de faire corriger ce jugement catastrophique.
Claudio Magris and the "Lumpenbürgertum"

Claudio Magris, in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (december 20, 2006), has an interesting definition for the followers of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi:
"Lumpenbürgertum". The term is apparently derived from "Lumpenproletariat" (Russian:
Люмпенпролетариата), which in classical Marxist terminology describes the dispossessed masses "without class consciousness", which are therefore considered as useless for the systematic buildup of a revolutionary movement. The terminology suggested by Claudio Magris deserves some reflexion: first, the perception of the "Lumpenbürgertum" as a mass without "class consciousness" may be biased. The followers of Silvio Berlusconi are proud to consider themselves as the elite of postmodern liberalism, even if their conception of liberalism may be closer to mafiose ethics than to classical liberal thinking.
On the other hand, from a post-communist and post-fascist point of view, the masses may very well serve a revolutionary cause, but in a quite different way than Marx thought.
The "Lumpenproletariat" and the "Lumpenbürgertum" or "Lumpenbourgeoisie"
(Russian: ЛюмпенБуржуазии ) has been useful on various occasions during the 20th century for the orchestration of "coups d'état" (German: Staatsstreich, Spanish: golpe, Italian: colpo di stato). A colleague of Claudio Magris, Curzio Malaparte,
described the technique of the coup d'état in his famous book "tecnica del colpo di stato" back in 1931. The author describes the power struggle within the Russian revolution that led to Stalin's dictatorial regime, the methods used by Mussolini to get into control of Italy, and predicts the success of Hitler in Germany. At that time Malaparte is convinced that Hitler is a "particularly intelligent communist". The book has been published first in France, and then in Vienna, to be immediately forbidden in fascist Italy and in Nazi Germany. It is still recommended for those who like to look at history from different angles.
A modern edition of "tecnica del colpo di stato" has been published under the direction of the actual chief of the historical service of the Foreign Office (servizio storico del ministero degli esteri) of the Repubblica Italiana, Francesco Perfetti, at Mondadori, in 2003.
If we combine the terminology of Claudio Magris with the Malaparte's observations, the conclusion that Silvio Berlusconi has been (or still is) an admirer of Malaparte's tecnica del colpo di stato and that his most important personal success may be to have awakened the consciousness of his fellow citizens of the possibility of a colpo di stato within the framework of a democracy...

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Will Swiss physicians opt for the health care kolkhoz?
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ reports today that the Swiss Medical Federation FMH has decided not to take sides in the vote on the socialist health insurance initiative due next spring.
By leaving the decision to the members, the FMH abandons definitely the defense of the liberal traditions of the medical profession. It is evident that one of the central motives for doctors to opt for a centralized federal health insurance scheme is their growing anger about the unreliable, inconstant and mostly aggressive politics of the various social insurance companies active in Switzerland under the umbrella of heavy federal and cantonal legislation.
Another probable motive is a change of paradigm in the autostereotype of the medical profession. Many young physicians no longer can imagine to engage in an independent and entrepreneurial professional activity.
Once they leave the hospital environment where they have become accustomed to be employees - mostly at an age where they are married with children and anxiously avoid professional reiks, they are often seduced by the possibility of entering into a so-called "tiers payant" relationship with the social insurance companies, under a contract where there is no need to ask payment from their patients, an where they can relay on payment by the insurance company. The tradition of the "tiers garant" system that had strengthened the relationship between primary care (and specialized) physicians and their patients by allowing direct comparison between price and performance, with payback by the insurance company to the patent has become shaky. It was the "tiers garant" method that allowed direct control of price and quality by the client, but since this system no longer exists in hospital treatment, young physicians are no longer prepared to enforce it.
As an economic editorial in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung a year ago said: "Before WTO, the Federal Constution had to guarantee the health of the farming profession, after WTO the Constitution might have to guarantee the health of the medical profession..."
Back in the Soviet Union, independent farmers, the so-called kulaks, were forced into the kolkhoz system of collective farming. It is one of the paradoxes of our era, that twenty years after the downfall of the Soviet system, Swiss farmers seriously prepare temselves to find their economic niche under the conditions of globalisation, and Swiss physicians increasingly lean toward collectivistic solutions of the healthcare system.
The crucial question is whether a majority of physicians will be tempted to seek shelter under an umbrella that would be a late imitation of the NHS in Britain, at a time when even in countries with a longstanding socialist tradition, there is a continuous shift away from state-controlled financing of the health care system.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Minarets in Switzerland - Grey Wolves and Grey Bears


The debate on whether minarets are good or bad in Switzerland should
not be left to the extreme right of both Turkey and Switzerland

A legal row over the permission to build a minaret between a
Turkish Cultural Association which is said to be related to the
extreme right nationalist group "Grey Wolves" and the local political
authorities of the municipality of Wangen near Olten in the Swiss-
German Canton Solothurn has now evolved into a major subject for a
group of political activists within the Swiss People's Party, to be used in the federal parliamentary election year 2007.
The major arguments brought forward against minarets in Switzerland are the
following:

a) Minarets could transform traditional architectural
structures, often protected historical monuments, among them, and
particularly prominent, churches, some of them built even more than
1200 years ago. Minarets would present a menace to the cultural
tradition of the country. This argument is most strongly present in
the Italian-speaking Canton of Ticino with it's impressive
"Campanile" with their characteristic stone roofs, often standing
alone beside a rather modest basilica or chapel. Resistance against the constructions of minarets is strong here on the aforementionned grounds

b) Minarets should not be permitted because they represent the
religious fundamentalism, aggressivity and intolerance that has been associated lately with the Muslim world in general, as a consequence of the rhetoric of fundamentalist groups within Islam. This argument is probably the one most often brought forward

c) the minaret of Wangen is considered to be a religious pretext for implanting
extremist, probably terrorism-prone political organization. This is the argument used by the local opponents to the project.

d) A mosque is a Mosque even without a minaret (in fact there are historical mosques without the characteristic stiletto type minaret, e.g. in Africa, as the picture of a Sankore mosque in Timbuktu shows)



Source: Road to Timbuktu
http://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi5/5_wondr6.htm

The real problem lies in the nature of the exponents of both sides.
The Turkish nationalist extreme right (the Grey Wolves) has been
known for decades for it's violence-prone rhetoric and behavior.
On the opposite side, in Switzerland, Ulrich Schlüer, member of the group most active in the fight against minarets (the "Egerkinger Gruppe") - let us call them
"Grey Bears" - has been known for years for his inflammatory
nationalist rhetoric. This type of rhetoric rhetoric easily creates an
atmosphere of confrontation where words facilitate the use of fists by frustrated citizens, and eventually of knives, guns and/or explosives, which in turn would justify heavy police intervention.
In the long term, an authoritarian regime , e.g. of the type of Mr
Putin's ideal: "Dictatorship of the Law", might be the consequence.
It is not known if Mr Schlüer has ever been to the Middle East or
to Northern Ireland, where there is overwhelming evidence for the
devastating consequences of a systematic build-up of violence through
violent rhetoric. It is difficult to imagine that Mr Schlüer really
desires this type of political climate in Switzerland, but the public still
waits for a formal dementi.

During the wars in Former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo) systematic mutual destruction of cultural heritage was
an important method of "cultural genocide", as the images below of two destroyed churches in Vukovar (Croatia),of two mosques in Stolac (Bosnia) and of the title page of a book on "Spiritual Genocide" testify:




























These destructions are the concrete results of a longterm, unrestrained, uninterrupted and systematic mutual discriminatory discourse



A reminder: In Zurich-Balgrist,a mosque with a minaret that had been built 43 years ago lies peacefully next to the evangelic-reformed (protestant) church.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Swiss Think Tanks Speak Out
In a Thursday, 30 November 2006 "Ideas Fair" at Technopark Zurich, the Swiss political think tanks Avenir Suisse (i.e. "Swiss Future", group headed by Thomas HELD) and Liberales Institut(Robert NEF), together with a dozen groups with similar activities, presented their concepts for initiating political and economical reform in Switzerland. Among the central subjects discussed was the question why Switzerland is so much behind schedule - in contrast to many countries in Europe with a heavy socialist tradition - when it comes to break down state monopolies.
It was found that the multi-layer federalist system demands extremely fine-tuned long-term campaigning in order to win the confidence of voters. Political analyst Claude Longchamps pointed to example of the popular vote in 2004 on stem cell legislation - the most liberal in Europe - for the sometimes excellent results of a more technically than politically inspired campaigning. Martine Brunschwig-Graf, a liberal Congresswoman from Geneva, called for a serious effort to define liberalism as a "state of the mind" and for more encouragement for individual citizen to take risks, to succeed or to fail without beeing punished by rigid regulations.
There were calls for serene optimism for the national elections of 2007 among warnings of a slow but inexorable decline of the welfare state into general depression. It was a meeting that clearly showed the enormous difficulties to implement change in a system full of perfectly interconnected stakeholders on every possible level of political decisionmaking.
One participant privately talked of "Leibeigenschaft im Sozialstaat" ("wellfare state slavery")...
Ποντίφικα επίσκεψη στην Κωνσταντινούπολη - Papa İstanbul trafiğini kilitledi
The following text has been found on the Turkish TV Channel ATV

Papa 16. Benedict'in İstanbul'u ziyareti sırasında yolların güvenlik nedeniyle kapatılması vatandaşa zor anlar yaşattı Tam anlamıyla arapsaçına dönen trafikte araçlarında uzun süre mahsur kalan İstanbullular saatler sonra yollarına devam edebildi












Simultaneously, Greek National TV reports as follows:

Είκοσι εφτά χρόνια μετά την τελευταία Ποντίφικα επίσκεψη στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, ο Πάπας Βενέδικτος ΙΣΤ έγινε θερμά δεκτός στο Φανάρι από τον Οικουμενικό Πατριάρχη Βαρθολομαίο. Σε μια ιστορική στιγμή για την πολυπόθητη ενότητα των εκκλησιών, οι κορυφαίοι πνευματικοί ηγέτες εκατομμυρίων πιστών συναντήθηκαν στην έδρα του Οικουμενικού Θρόνου. Προηγουμένως οι δυο θρησκευτικοί ηγέτες παρακολούθησαν μαζί τη δοξολογία στον Πατριαρχικό Ναό του Αγίου Γεωργίου, προσκύνησαν από κοινού τα λείψανα των Αγίων Γρηγορίου του Θεολόγου και Ιωάννου του Χρυσοστόμου, και αντάλλαξαν θερμούς λόγους με την ευκαιρία του ιστορικού γεγονότος



Some 27 years after the last time a Pontiff had visited Istanbul, once known as Constantinople, Pope Benedict XVI was warmly welcomed Wednesday evening in Phanar by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew-"first among equals" of the leaders of the Orthodox Christian churches. In a landmark moment for the much-anticipated reconciliation of the two Churches, the spiritual leaders of millions of Christians held talks at the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Earlier, they had attended a mass at the Patriarchal Church of St. George, bowed to the holy relics of Saints John Chrysostom and Gregory and exchanged warm greetings on the occasion of such a momentous event.


It is comforting to see that for Turkey, the papal visit caused more problems on a practical (traffic) level than on religious grounds, whereas the relationship between
East and West Rome appeared to be more complex. The english translation of the Greek text contains a description of the Orthodox Patriarch which is not mentionned in the original: "first among equals". Has the english translation been manipulated for the use of those who do not understand Greek, in order to mark the difference of hierarchical status of the two church leaders?

Whatever the reasons for these linguistic contorsions, the most impressing phenomenon during the formal meeting, as shown on Greek TV, was the contrast between the impressive and wellarticulated, musical voice of Patriarch Batholomew and the thin voice and heavy German accent in the response (in English) of the Pope.

Monday, November 27, 2006

A fabulous blog with a great name for our french speaking visitors: espace holbein
pour nos visiteurs francophones: un blog fabuleux portant un grand nom qui vaut la visite: espace holbein

Sunday, November 26, 2006

"Ausgebürgert" - Eine kulturelle Massenblutung"
Deutscher Text des Post von 2006, auf ausdrücklichen Wunsch aus den Reihen der Blogger-Gemeinde übersetzt von Osservatore Profano



















In Nazi-Deutschland war rassische Reinheit das Kriterium für die Ausgrenzung, die Verfolgung und schliesslich die Vernichtung der Juden. Nach dem 2.Weltkrieg, wurde rassische Reinheit durch ideologische Reinheit ersetzt. Ethnische Reinheit erschien als Kriterium auf dem Balkan nach 1989. Religion ist das dominierende Ausgrenzungs-Kriterium geworden nach dem 11.September 2000. Die verzweifelte Suche nach "objektiven" Kriterien für die Ausgrenzung von Individuen und Gruppen scheint ein charakteristisches Phänomen in politischen Systemen zu sein, die in Auflösung begriffen sind. Hinter einer Nebelwand wechselnder Ideologien stehen häufig wirtschaftliche Motive. Das einfache Konzept des Klassenkampfes nach Karl Marx ist in 150 Jahren praktischer Experimente mit den Massen verfeinert und restrukturiert worden und erscheint dann zum Erstaunen jeder neuen Generation in einer neuen Maske.
Um die kulturelle Massenblutung, welche die Ausgrenzung aufgrund ideologischer Kriterien in der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, der DDR, ausgelöst hat, zu illustriere, zeige ich im Folgenden eine Liste von Künstlern, denen ihre Staatsbürgerschaft durch die DDR-Regierung in der Zeit zwischen 1949 und 1989, also bis zum Fall der Berliner Mauer, aberkannt wurde.
Sie stammt aus dem Katalog einer am Albertinum Dresden und 1991 in der Kleinen Deichtorhalle Hamburg veranstalteten Ausstellung, herausgegeben von Werner Schmidt bei Aragon, ISBN 3-87024-160-8.
Die Illustrationen dieses Blogs sind Werke von Klaus Staeck, einem der prominentesten Ausgebürgerten der untenstehenden Liste (http://www.klaus.staeck.de).
Klaus Staeck hat seine ätzende Kritik adn sozialer und politischer Heuchelei und Ungerechtigkeit nie aufgegeben und ist auch nach dem Verlassen der DDR in Westdeutschland ein unabhängiger "agent provocateur" geblieben. Sein Fall zeigt dass ausgebürgerte Künstler nicht automatisch in ihrer neuen Umgebung willkommen geheissen werden, aber selbst deren unwillkommenste Provokation ist ein wichtiger Beitrag zur kulturellen Entwicklung einer freien Gesellschaft.






"Ausgebürgert" - A Cultural Hemorrhage






In Nazi Germany, racial purity was the criterion for exclusion, prosecution and finally annihilation of the Jews. After World War II, racial purity was replaced by ideological purity. Ethnic purity appeared as a criterion in the Balkans after 1989. Religion has become the dominant discrimination criterion after September 11. The desperate search for "objective" criteria for the exclusion of individuals and groups appears to be characteristic phenomenon in disintegrating political systems. Behind the curtain of changing ideologies, economical reasons are most often present. The simplistic concept of class struggle defined by Karl Marx has been refined and restructured in 150 years of practical mass experiments and continues to reappear to the astonishment of the next generation under a new mask.
To illustrate the cultural hemorrhage that exclusion on ideological criteria caused to the former German Democratic Republic, here is a list of artists stripped of their citizenship by the GDR government between 1949 to 1989, i.e. until the downfall of the Berlin Wall.

It has been drawn from the catalogue of an exposition organized at the Albertinum Dresden and in 1991 at the Kleine Deichtorhalle Hamburg, edited by Werner Schmidt and published at Argon, ISBN 3-87024-160-8.

The Illustrations of this blog post are works of Klaus Staeck, one of the most prominent expatriates listed below ( http://www.klaus.staeck.de ). Klaus Staeck has never abandoned his acid criticism of social and political hypocrisy and injustice and has continued to be an independent "agent provocateur" in West Germany, after having abandoned the GDR in 1956. His case shows that expatriate artists are not automatically wellcome in their new environment, but even their most unwellcome provocation are an important contribution to cultural development of a free society.


Katherina Albert, Gerhardt Andrées, Helmut Apmann, Tina Apmann, Kerstin Arnold, Adline Assmann, Dorothe Aurich, Hermann Bachmann, Frank Badur, Ulrich Baehr, Meinhard Bärmich, Elfriede Bätz, Gerhard Bätz, Jan Bammes, Petra Bammes, Tina Bara, Ulrich Barnickel, Margarete Bartens, Friedrich Bartel, Dorte Bartky, Kurt Bartsch, Georg Baselitz, Martin Bauss, Gabriele Bechtle, Herbert Beck, Olaf Beck, Jan Bontjes van Beek, Norbert Behnk, Bernd Benedix, Karl-Heinz Benndorf, Peter Berndt, Dieter Otto Berschinski, Gert H.E. Beyer, Barbara Berthold-Metselaar, Bernd Bieder, Karlheinz Biederbick, Bärbel Biskop,
Christine Blei, Andreas Bliemel, Christine Bliemel, Michael Blumhagen, Hans-Joachim Bober, Andreas Boeckh, Hildegard Böhm, Rudolf Böhm, Maritta Böhme, Michael Böhme, Hanns Bönnighausen, Bernhard Bos, Bernhard Boeske, Peter Böttcher, Rainer Bonar (Lietzke), Thomas Gerd Bonfert, Hartmut Bonk, Harro Boos, Reinhard Boos, Jürgen Bordanowicz, Christian Brachwitz, Gottfried Bräunling, Hans-Otto Brambach, Heidi Brambach, Werner Brand, Andreas Brandt, Lutz Werner Brandt, Petra-Brandt-Herrmann,
Hans Breker a.k.a. Hans van Breek (his brother Arno Breker was a sciulptor cherished by the Nazis), Annette Brömsel, Hans Brosch, Dietrich Brüning, Astrid Büttner, Bernd Büttner, Dietmar Büttner, Kurt Bunge, Ernst Bursche, Barbara Cain, Detlef Carsten,
Rolf Christiansen, Vera Marie van Claer-Crodel, Matthias Creuziger, Carl Crodel, Christine Damerau, Lutz Dammbeck, Jonas Dangschat,Andreas Deckhardt, Michael Dehnert, Dagmar Denning, Klaus Dennhardt, Hans Holger Dettmann, Christina Diapari, Reinhard Dickel, Gunna Diehl, Helmut Diehl, Rolf Diess, Paul-Uwe Dietzsch, Dagmar Dimitroff,
Heinz Dinter, Susanne Doberschütz, Volker Döring, Martin Domke, Dottore (Wolfgang H. Lehmann), Dieter Dressler, Karl-Heinz Droste, Harald Eberlein, Rainer Tobias Ebert, Siegfried Eck, Albrecht Ecke, Andreas Eckardt,Friedrich Einhoff, Ulrich Eisenfeld, Klaus Elle, Margit Emmrich, Monika Engelhardt, Claudia Esch-Kenkel, Irina Esser,
Ulrich Ewald, Dorothea Eymess, Dirk Gerald Fabrian, Thomas Feldmann, Sabine-Feldtner-Horwarth, Conrad Felixmüller (1897-1974, member of the "Dresdner Sezession 1919", 40 of his works had been shown at the exposition "Entartete Kunst" in 1933), Henryk Fiedler, Karin Fiedler, Lutz Fiedler, Günter Firit, Birgit Fischer,
Heribert Fischer-Geising, Michael Flade, Marlis Flaig, Thomas Florschuetz, Christel Föllmer, Günter Föllmer, Ulrich Follmer, Sabine Franek-Koch, Thomas Franke, Antje Freiheit, Wolfgang Freitag, Fridolin Frenzel, Sofie Frenzel, Achim Freyer, Ilona Freyer, Lutz Friedel, Hartmut Friedrich, Jürgen Friedrich, Michael Friedrich, Georg Frietzsche, Norbert Fritsch, Horst Frörich, Elke Frühauf, Rainer Funck, Jürgen Gäbler, Harald Gallasch, Ginas Gass, Thomas Gatzemeier, Johannes Gebhardt, Eva Maria Geisler, Irino Georgio, Joseph Gerats, Siegfried Gerhardt, Joachim Gessner, Helmut Ginevra Weidenbach, Art Glöckner, Reinhard Glöde, Werner Goehle, Johann Görke, Erwin Görlach, Gerhard Görner, Christian Goetze, Ekkeland (Ekkehard) Götze, Eberhard Geier,
Hubertus von der Goltz, Ludwig Gosewitz, Detlef Gosselck, Jörg Gottschalk, Jürgen Gottschalk, Dietrich Grabas, Peter Grämer, Jürgen Grafe, Gotthard Graubner, Herbert Greif, Jürgen Grenzemann, Matthias Grimm, Raimund Gross, Helene Brigitte Grossmann,Hans Hendrik Grimmling, Reinhard Grütz,Traute Gruner, Andreas Grunert, Waldemar Grzimek, Otto Günther, Werner Günther, Hannelore Gutt, Ingo Haas, Jürgen Gustav Haase, Heinz Hadelich, Christina Hänsel, Claus Hänsel, Ingrid Hagedorn, Heidemarie Hagen, Reiner Hahn, Monika Hamann, Dieter Hanisch, Gudrun Hanisch, Monika Hanske, Natalie Harder, Ulrich Hartenstein, Claus Hartmann, Gertrud Hartmann, Horst Hartmann, Linde Hartmann, Manfred Hartmann, Ulrich Hartung, Reinhard Harz, Sigrid Haun, Florian Havemann (son of physicist Robert Havemann), Joachi Hawlik, Markus Hawlik, Bernhard Heiliger,Wolf Heinecke, Barbara Heinisch, Holm Heinke, Claudia Heinrich, Sabine Heinrich, Gerhard Helwig, Andreas Hentshel, Sibille Hentschel, Otto Herbig, Peter Hermann, Georg Herold, Marita Herold, Jürgen Herrmann, Peter Herrmann, Rolf Heym, Christine Hielscher, Elke Hildebrandt, Gero Hilliger, Hasso Hinke, Matthias Hintz, Barbara Hinz,Gabriele Hirsch, Gerhard Hoehme, Claus Hösselbarth, Anne Hoffmann, Bernd Hoffmann, Frank Hoffmann, Irene Hoffmann, Jörg Hoffmann, Hans Hoffmann-Lederer, Brunhild Hoffmann-Monnerjahn, Otto Hofmann, Rudolf Hofmann, Jean-Paul Hogère, Iris Hohlbein, Rüdiger Hohlbein, Matthias-Hohl-Stein, Ute Hoinkis,
Matthias Hollefreund, Georg Honerla, Barbara Honigmann, Georg Hornung, Ebergard Hückstädt, Regina Hückstädt, Ute Hünninger, Uta Hunninger, Harry Huster, Inge Jaeger-Linthoff, Wilhelm Jaeger, Jutta Jaehngen, Helmut Jagusch, Roland Jahn, Helga Jahnke, Kari Jarusch, Michael Jastram, Jürgen Jentzsch, Thomas Joachim, Peter Junghanss, Rudolf Kämmer, Sabine Kahane-Noll, Susanne Kahl, Dietrich Kahnert, Matthias Kaiser, Thomas Kaminksy, Ludwiga Kammerer, Detlev Karsten, Lilo Karsten, Thomas Karsten, Sabine Kauker, Stefan Kayser, Hans Kazzer, Andreas Kehler, Claudia Kenkel, Wolfgang Kenkel, Ralf Kerbach, Ina Kerkhoff, Georg Kern a.k.a. Georg Baselitz, Jürgen Kessler, Matthias Kessler, Lutz Ketscher, Stefanie Ketzscher, Jens Kilian, Hermann Kirchberger (1905-1983), Herbert Kitzel, Mareile Kitzel, Dieter Klass, Christa Klatt, Hans J.Kleinhammes, Peter Klube, Gustav Kluge, Hans-Dieter Kluge, Ulrich Knispel, Hans-Joachim Knobloch, Wolfgang Knorr, Ruth Koban, Peter Kober, Rolf König, Hans Körnig, Lisbeth Körnig, Wolfgang Koethe, Lutz Kommalein, Thomas Koppenhagen, Andreas Kopylowski-White, Dieter Koswig, Peter Kothe, k Passant (Stefan Kayser), Wera Krafft, Günter Kraska, Klaus-Dieter Krause, Rainer Krienke, Rainer Kriester, Peter Krüger, Eckehard Krummel,Ulrich Kubiak, Brigitte Kühlewind, Kattrin Kühn, Renate Kühn, Henning Kürschner, Manfred Küster, Ursula Küster, Volker Küster, Gebhard Kütbach, Fridun Kuhle, Wolfgang Kuhle, Joachim Kuhlmann, Alois Kuhn, Hans-Jürgen Kummer, Steffen Kunert, Susanne Kunjappu-Jellinek, Dieter Kunz, Ludwig Kunze, Helmut Lander, Fred Lang, Wilfried Lange, Johannes Lebek,Gottfried Legler, Wolfgang G.Lehmann (a.k.a. Dottore), Helge Leiberg, Lutz Leibner, Udo Lenkisch,
Rudolf Leonhard (Born 1910, exiled in 1955. Had been been denounced by a colleague after a professional dispute with Conrad Felixmüller), Sabine Lessig, Andreas Leupold, Matthias Leupold, Via Lewnadowsky, Werner Lichtner-Aix, André Liebscher,
Frank Rainer Liebscher, Hans-Jürgen Linge, Sabine Linge, Hans-Michael Linke, Karin Lobedann, Jutta Löffler, Christian Löser, Christian Löwenstein, Roger Loewig, Manfred Lohse, Peter Lohse, Rainer Luck, Thomas Ludwig, Wolfgang Ludwig, Lusici (Dietrich Schade), Renate Maak-Voigt, Jutta de Maizière, Wilfried Manthei, Georg Manthey, Horst de Marées (1896-1988), Ruth Markmann, Bernd Markowsky, Gerhard Markwald, Klaus-Reinhardt Marx, Willi Mathay, Friederike May, Claudia May Barthel, Günter Meck, Wilfried Meder, Gert Meier, Thomas Meinicke, Walther Meinig (1902-1987), Annemone Meisel, Eckardt Meisel, Jürgen Mesik, Christian Mewes, Fritz Meyer, Winfried Mikolajczyk, Dietmar Milke, Karl-Heinz Moeller, Steffi Mönich, Gerhard Moll, Sabine Molter, Gisela Moritz, Klaus Moritz, Astrid Mosch, Christiana Mucha, Andreas J.Müller,Frank Müller, Frithjof Müller, Knut Müller, Marion Müller, Thomas Müller, Ursula Müller, Brigitte Narasimhan-Bundtzen, Carla Naumann, Dieter Naumann, Dieter Nentwig, Jutta Nentwig, Karin Nenz, Hans Neubert, Martin Neufert, Sabine Neumann,
Thomas Neumann, Werner Neumeister, Emilia Nikolowa-Beier, Wolfgang Nieblich, Dieter Noack, Hans Noll, Barbara Nonnenbruch, Jörg Olberg, Karl Oppermann, Gerd Otto, Günter Otto, Helmut Otto, Ulrich Otto, Joachim Palm, Gottfried Pank, Ullrich Pannendorf, Thomas Pantke, Karl Papesch, Eva Paul, Thorsten Paul, Siegfried Paulhardt, A.R.Penck (Ealf Winkler), Gerhard Petri, Werner Petzold, Hans-Christian Pfeiler, Ulrich Pietzsch, Karin Plessing, Heinz Plier, Ruth Plier, PLON (Jürgen Jentzsch), Klaus Poche, Sieghard Pohl, Dieter Pohlers, Nora (Doris) Pollatschek-Jeitner, Walter Pomikalko, Maria Sibylla Ponizil, Christine Prinz (Christine Hänsel), Friedrike Prusky, Günther Prusky, Wolf Raimann, Sigrid Reeckmann, Thea Reichardt, WernerReifarth, Andreas Reinhardt, Wolfgang Reinke, Günter Reinz, Peter Rensch, Annegret Richter, Gerd Richter, Gerhard Richter, Jürgen Richter, Rolf Richter, Roswitha Richter, Bernd Ringel, Hildegard Risch, Horst Ritzert, Christian Roeckenschuss, Frank Rödel, Karl Rödel (1907-1982), Karl-Hermann Roehricht, Leoni Roehricht, Harald Röhrig, Martina Röhrig, Ralf-Peter Rösner, Gerhard Rohn, Cornelia Rohne, Joh.-Christian Rost, Gudrun Roth, Valentin Rothmaler, Rotraut, Reinhard Roy, Eve Rub, Frank Rub, Frank Ruckhäberle, Siegfried Rudolf, Fritz Rübbert, Angelika Rübesamen, Gisela Rüger, Thomas Rug, Ekkehard Ruthenberg, Ellen Sachtleben, Barbara Sander, Ernemann F.Sander, Eberhard Sasse, Gertraud Schaar, Dietrich Schade, Karlheinz Schäfer, Emanuel Scharfenberg, Bernd Schaudinnus, Udo Scheel, Wolfram Adalbert Scheffler, Hans-Jürgen Scheib, Ursula Scheib, Lothar Schelhorn, Linde Scheller-Freudenberg, Bernd Scheubert, Einar Schleef, Christine Schlegel, Cornelia Schleime, Gil Schlesinger, Bernd Schlothauer, Alfred Schmidt, Inge Schmidt, Peter-Michael Schmidt,Peter Schmiedel, Torsten Schneider, Gisela Schnelle, Helmut Schobbert, Doris Schober, Hans Georg Schöne, Eugen Schönbeck, Jörg Schötzau, Petra Schötzau, Wolfgang Scholz, Ute Schreiber, Ernst Schroeder, Annette Schröter, Erasmus Schröter, Jochen Schröter, Peter Schubert, Werner Schubert-Deister, Jens Schubring,
Ernst Schütte (1890-1951), Frank Schult, Hans-Joachim Schulze, Joachim-Fritz Schultze, Brigitte Schuster, Rolf Schuster, Eckardt Schwandt, Petra Schwandt, Oliver Schwarz, Vera Schwelgin, Eberhard Schwenk, Eva Schwimmer, Karl-Henning Seemann, Hans-Joachim Seidel, Jan Seifert, Gustav Seitz (1906-1969), Elisabeth Selle, Gertraud Senf, Roger David Servais, Waltraud Servais, Hans-Martin Sewez, Eva Sickert, Doris Sidor, Henryk Sidor, Georg Siebert, Gerdt Marian Siewert, Frank Silberbach, Klaus Simon, Gerald Sippel, Tatjana Sitte-Schaarschmidt, Sibylle Sommer, Kristina Sonnenberg, Hans Speidel, Hans Sperschneider, Ragna Sperschneider, Klaus Staeck,




















Rolf Staeck, Brigitte Stamm, Annette Stams, Reinhard Stangl, Katja-Regina Staps, Klaus Staps, Wolfgang Stark, Fritz Stehwien, Hans Stein, Volker Stelzmann, Holle Stentzel, Hildegund Stibenz, Otto Stich, Falk-Ullrich Stiller, Gabriele Stirl, Max Jürgen Stock, Dagmar Stoev, Elmar Stolinski, Rainer Stoltz, Stefan Stolze, Horst Strempel,
Else Sturm-Lindner, Darja Süssbier, Wolfgang Sulek, Peter Sykora, Rolf Szymanski, TERK, Sabine Teucher, Wolfgang Teucher, Ines-Thate Keler, Christiane Theise, Norbert Thiel, Gudrun Thiele, Susanne Tischewski, Bärbel Töpfer, Peter Töpfer, Enzo Toffolutti, Hans Tombrock, Petra Trautwein, Carl Friedrich Treber, Max Treizschke,
Gero Troike, Günther Uecker, Conrad Ufer (Joachim, geb. Conrad), Gerhard Ullmann,
Günter Ullmann, Peter Umlauf, Detlef Uttikal, René Vinke, Karl-Heinz Viol, Nora Vocke, Klaus Völker, Klaus Vogelsang, Herbert Volwahsen, Thomas Wachweger, Michael Wackwitz, Katharina Wagner, Kurt Wallstab, Pan Walther, Annette Wandrer, Gerd Wandrer, Rainer Weber, Peter Wegner, Dieter Weidenbach, Gustav Weiss, Ute Weiss-Leder, Erich Wellhöfer, Ekhard Werner, Gerd Werner, Herd Hermann Werner, Thomas Wetzel, Margot Wiener-Wendschuh (born 1927, father Holocaust victim, herself target of antisemitic agitation in RDA from 1951 on), Monika Wilimzig (born Hanske),
Brigitte Willbarth, Ralf Winkler (a.ka. A.R.Penck), Dieter Winzer, Kurt Woelke, Manfred Woitischek, Christina Wolfgramm, Franziska Wosnitza, Klaus von Woyski, Luise Monika Wünsche, Ralph Wünsche, Andreas Zausch, Heidemarie Zehmisch (born Garde) Beate Zeiss, Dieter Zöllner, Heiko Zolchow, Sabine Zotter, Michael Zschocher.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

"Ausbürgern" (stripping of citizenship): Stalinist and Nazi methods of social control reinvented by Swiss right-wing populists

Osservatore Profano, in a recent blog (From gender discrimination to gender war), reported on a gang rape of a 13 year old school girl in Switzerland, as an example for aggressive behaviour in male adolescents. Now, as media reports on the sociological background of the involved gang have shown, a majority of them are Swiss citizen of East European origin and appear to be poorly integrated. The Swiss People's Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei SVP) of the Canton of Zurich, in an newspaper ad published today, demands the stripping of the Swiss citizenship forcitizen of foreign origin who show criminal behaviour, as one of several political measures to stop adolescent violence. According to SVP, "adolescent violence has a name - it is synonymous to criminality by foreigners".
Criminal behaviour by poorly integrated foreigners from countries with atavistic moral codes left over from pre-industrial, pre-modern times is a real problem of growing importance, not only in Switzerland. Improving methods for integration of foreigners has been a central subject recently, in political discussions throughout our country, on the local level as well as on the level of federal legislation and authorities.
But while naming the problem, analyzing the underlying mechanisms and preparing and implementing measures (prevention, criminal investigation, prosecution, regular trials and execution of penalties) are desirable and necessary, the idea to strip individuals with aberrant and/or criminal behaviour of their citizenship is a totalitarian method used e.g. by the staunchly stalinist authorities of the German Democratic Republic(RDA). During nearly 40 years, it was current practice in the RDA to strip artists who did not comply to the rules imposed by the regime of their citizenship. One of the most prominent victims of the RDA's tradition of dumping unruly citizens was German singer and poet Wolf Biermann.
Far from being an invention of the post-war communist regime in Berlin-East, stripping of citizenship had been used as a method of systematic reprisal by both the Soviets and the Nazis regime during the Thirties To strip a person of her citizenship was part of the preparatory scheme of the Holocaust.
Among the expatriates from Nazi Germany stripped of their citizenship: author Bertolt Brecht, theater director Erwin Piscator and Thomas Mann's children Erika and Klaus.

Dumping unwanted citizens may be an economic way to get rid of social problems, according to the old proverb that says: "Aus den Augen, aus dem Sinn" - "Out of sight, out of mind". This may be useful for a demented single person in serious difficulty, but it is an inappropriate method for a modern state. Dumping citizens is comparable to dumping toxic waste on African shores (see earlier blog post by Osservatore Profano).
Royalism and Socialism - A Contradiction?
To the astonishment of many profesional observers, Ségolène Royal has emerged as the queen of the socialist camp in France. The conservative views on family values expressed by this unmarried mother of four and compagnon of party chief François Hollande have won the confidence of an impressing majority of 61% of the party electorate. If she had been married in a traditional way to François Hollande, she
might have been considered an alien because of her husband's unfamiliar family name, but "Royal" appears to be an excellent trademark these days in socialist circles. Why is there no contradiction between socialism and royalism? History teaches us that monarchs have always tended to suppress individual initiatives and preferred to venture into what is called "Les grands projets". François Mitterand was the perfect incarnation of this monarcho-socialist approach to political power, and his "grands projets", from the "Grand Arche de la Défense" to the "Bibliothèque Nationale" are proof of the quest for "grandeur de la nation", for representation.

















Socialists easily succomb to the seductive charm of "grand projets", to the phenotypical equality that monarchism seems to provide. In tiny Switzerland, the turbulent history of the Canton of Neuchâtel, a one-time Prussian duchy that became a full member of the Swiss Confederation as late as 1857, after several attempts to maintain monarchist rule between 1814 and 1856, the affinity between socialists and royalists
was evident throughout the conflict. Even in the late 20th century, modern socialist "Neuchâtelois" were proud to evoke their royalist traditions in private conversations.
Intelligent socialist leaders never touch monarchist privileges, and the "grand projets" are their "opium for the people".
This socialist support for "grandeur" is one of the fundamental problems of classical liberalism. Once socialist majorities are established, it is extremely difficult to fight them because of the visibility of big public spending for "grand projets". Liberals who are brave enough to oppose the most extravagant "grand projets" easily become victims of media critique for lacking the sense for representation by the state that appears to be "good for everyone",
Ségolène Royal's chances to be elected are therefore linked to her capacity to give a sense of "grandeur" to the nation's ego much more than to her political concepts or to her gender. Senior right-wing condottiere Le Pen, still a possible presidential candidate for the extreme right, used to make Jeanne d'Arc

















his point of reference in France's glorious history, but Mme Ségolène clad in shimmering Royal Armour could easily overshadow "La Pucelle".
If she wins, public spending on "grand projets" certainly will not suffer...
On the other hand, if the winner is Nicolas Sarkozy, chances for abandoning the quest for "grandeur de la nation" are minimal.To be elected, Sarkozy needs the support of the entire Gaullist establishment, and who would be fool enough to deny to the late General Charles de Gaulle the honour of being a "republican monarch".

Thursday, November 23, 2006

The condom question - is the Vatican ready to kick the habit of adoration of a rubber fetish?
According to recent media leaks from the Vatican, the Pope is considering to lift the ban on the use of condoms for those married heterosexual couples where one partner is HIV-positive, as a means to reduce the danger of infection for the healthy partner. Who would benefit from such a gracefully offered minimal exception from the general rule? The answer is as simple as it is cruel:
wealthy people living in developped countries with excellent public health systems which garantee the availability of clinical pathology resources, testing for HIV-status plus determination of HIV viral load at regular intervals, support financing of antiviral drugs, provide professional counselling and therapeutic outcome measurements etc.etc.
For the rest of the world, nil.
To the profane observer, the fact that the Vatican considers the absence of sexual activities not directly linked to procreation as the only irrefutable proof of human purity produces a depressive effect, to say the least. Ironically, the obstinate prosecution of the condom as material representation of evil by theological dignitaries of male sex is nothing short of fetishism. It might be helpful for the credibility of the Catholic Church and the Christian Oecumene as a whole, if the CEO of the most successful global player in the faith industry could persuade his subordinates (or vice versa) to kick the habit of paradoxical adoration of the rubber fetish...

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Downgrading the Male - from Gender Discrimination to Gender War?
Filelefteros has never made a secret of his gender: male. But reading the Sunday, November 19, 2006 edition of the "NZZ am Sonntag", the author of this blog has become aware of a conflict that may become one of the most virulent subjects of disussion soon.
To cite only a selection olf subjects treated in the Swiss sunday newspaper:

1. The question why a male leopard killed his longtime female partner in a surprise
attack at the "Dählhölzli" zoo of Swiss federal capital Berne















2. a discussion on the role of a surplus of men in a population in violent behaviour (e.g. in the Palestinian territories)

3. An analysis of the recent case of repeated gang rape of a 13 year old school girl by a group of at least 12 school boys aged 15 to 18 in Zurich, videotaped by one of the presumed aggressants on a cellular phone. One of the key elements brought forward in the analysis: at high school level, male youths tend to be outperformed by girls who are better motivated to sit down, to learn and to comply with educational demands and objectives, while their male classmates see their perspective for the future dwindling and tend to recur to violent behaviour which is enhanced by peer group pressure

4. The proposal of a parliamentary committee for a fundamental change in Swiss federal legislation on family names which would permit the choice of a child's name exclusively to the mother if no agreement was reached by both parents

5. The fact that in the person of Ségolène Royal, a female candidate for the presidency was nominated for the first time in the history of the "République Française", amidst acid remarks by defeated male contenders like former ministers Jack Lang, Laurent Fabius and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and to the apparent irritation of Royal's partner and father of her 4 children, Socialist party chief François Hollande.






But even more symptomatic perhaps is the fact that this nomination earned the immediate cordial applause of Swiss socialist party chief Hans Jürg Fehr and harsh critique by the (male) chief of Swiss socialist youth organization.

The central questions that arises from such subjects are the following: is the gender balance of our society, instead of following it's course of elimination of gender discrimination, shifting from authoritarian male dominated structures to towards another, female domination? Are policy makers and legislators aware of the impact of a fundamental swing in gender relations? Will males be able to adapt to this swing? Will males become more violence-prone in such a process? What will be the role of religious communities in the process?

One thing is clear: the election of a female president in France would represent a major step away from the institutional discrimination against women that had started with the French Revolution, as documented by the suppression of the movement of Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793)- cf. Textes fondateurs des droits humains - and ended a period of relative freedom of (upper class) women during the age of enlightenment les Femmes de l'Ancien Régime>
and never ended throughout the 19th century despite pictorial documents telling another story


Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863): La liberté guidant le peuple, 1830. Paris, Musée du Louvre

There is a fine line between gender discrimination and equal rights.The challenge which our society faces is to be aware of that line.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Mutual Extinction?

The never-ending violence between the state of Israel and it's neighbours, the Palestinians, carries the risk of mutual extinction of two nations that could contibute to economic prosperity and cultural enrichment of the Middle East and of the entire Mediterranean. Looking at contributing factors to the continuing inability of both the government of Israel and the Palestinian authority to reach durable bilateral agreements, financial support by third parties emerges as first line elements. The motives for this support for one or the other side are multiple: friendship, religious attachment, fundamentalism, geopolitical power play etc. etc... How much time would it take for the Israelis and the Palestinians to reach agreements on the most important issues for their respective populations if there were no financial support from the United States, the oil-producing Arab countries, from religious communities or the United Nations? Osservatore Profano's guess: One year.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Circumstantial Evidence - What History Can Learn from Art
From an article published in Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag, November 5, 2006*

Piero della Francesca 1453 Galleria Nazionale Urbino











Bernd Roeck is professor of history at Zurich University.
His research focus is on visual arts as testimonials of historical events and on the methodology of extracting historical data from works of art. In a new book:
Mörder, Maler und Mäzene - Piero della Francescas "Geisselung" (Murderers, Painters and Maecenes - "The Flagellation" by Piero della Francesca. A criminal story from the history of art) Eine kunsthistorische Kriminalgeschichte, München 2006, he presents his analysis of the parallel stories told by Piero della Francesca on his famous painting.
Roeck has been able to identify the three persons in the right foreground of the painting. The bare-foot person clad in red (young duke Oddantonio di Montefeltro) as the victim of a brutal murder committed about ten years before the creation of the painting, and the two other persons being the masterminds behind that crime, commissioned by Oddantonio's successor and half-brother, Federico.
There have been numerous interpretations of this painting before, but the painstaking analysis of Roeck offers the most convincing interpretation so far.

A wonderful example of modern iconographical analysis. Are we ready to read the visual evidence that is brought before us from day to day b the media with the same devotion to careful scrutiny for hidden messages?


* P.S. A more detailed description of Bernd Roeck's analysis has been published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ on October 4, 2006:

Quod licet bovi non licet Iovi - What politicians can learn from Borat a.k.a Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen is a comedian by profession and he seems to be able to earn his life by exercising it, at least one could guess so according to the reactions to his film "Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan".
As a global yard fool, he shows no respect for any religious or national sensitivities and apparently is spraying his sarcasm in a quite even way over the Jewish, the Christian and the Muslim communities.
Politicians must be able to play roles, sometimes even comic roles, in order to be elected, but in general, they cannot use the method of Sacha Baron because they would offend their own constituency doing so. The problem with politicians fooling around is that they are taken quite seriously by their own folks when they occasionally insult other parties or their front personnel, and that their adversaries react accordingly. The result is a buildup of verbal injuries that can easily turn violent, with the consequences that history has shown us in abundance.
An ancient latin proverb said: "Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi" (what is licit for
Jupiter (God) is inadmissible for an ox).
The recent row in Switzerland over Justice Minister Christoph Blocher's remarks in Turkey concerning Federal legislation against racism is a good illustration for the inadequacy of the latin proverb for our times. Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian, the jester, is in the position of the ox and it is probably absolutely okay to let him
fool around. If racist and/or nationalist phrases are uttered at pubs by uneducated people who do not know better, this may be considered a variant of normal behaviour under the influence of alcohol.
But if the same type of rhetoric is used by politicians, it's effect will be what
German Law after World War II has defined as "Volksverhetzung" (incitement to hatred)in the Criminal Law Code (Strafgesetzbuch or StGB) § 130, a criminal offense prosecuted by law.
In Switzerland, this type of legislation was introduced only lately, in 1995,
in Art. 261bis 1 of the Criminal Law Code

An interesting detail for the slow pace of Swiss legislation on such subjects is the date of the ratification of the convention on the prevention of genocide of 1948

this convention was ratified by Switzerland in the year 2000.
If the Swiss are reluctant to restrict the freedom of thought and of speech through international conventions of little practical value (even Sudan, with it's notorious repression and genocidal activities against parts of it's population, has ratified the convention on the repression of genocide), it would be wise for our politicians to avoid fooling around and be aware that nowadays "quod licet bovi non licet Iovi", i.e. that political leaders should avoid to behave like brawlers in the pub.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Switzerland at War with Herself
It is interesting to observe - as Osservatore Profano does - the war (so far of words) which has erupted in Switzerland about the role of our country in international relations. While Switzerland appears to be a point of reference for many smaller countries even in the third world, our country has yet to find out a) if our active contributions to world politics are really significant and b) which fields of activity we choose. Justice minister Blocher's adventurous remarks on visit to Turkey have been followed by a visit of foreign minister Calmy-Rey to China, with the intention to sign an accord of understanding, the success of which had been questioned by her colleagues even before she departed and again at her return. Now, a group of mainly left-wing politicians from Basel has come to the conclusion that it is capable of bringing the conflict between Turks and Kurds to an end. At the same time, an ecological activist, Martin Vosseler, tries to cross the Atlantic on a solar-powered Catamaran, firmly convinced that he is the one and only person capable of teaching ecological ethics to the United States.
If the Swiss pharmaceutical industry has proved to be good at manufacturing and selling drugs worldwide, a new form of global business is being launched by Swiss citizens who feel the urgent need to preach the gospel of righteousness worldwide. The conflict between these two types of global players is then projected on the local level of politics, resulting in bizarre "ready made" coalitions and fissures within the political spectrum.
Sigmund Freud e l'Osservatore Profano

Gli atti sintomatici, di una incredibile varietà sia negli individui sani che nei nevrotici, meritano il nostro interessamento per più di un motivo. Essi forniscono al medico delle preziose indicazioni che gli permettono d'orientarsi nel cumulo di circostanze nuove o ancora poco note e rivelano all'osservatore profano tutto ciò che desidera sapere e qualche volta anche di più di quel che vorrebbe. Chi sa servirsi di queste indicazioni deve, all'occorrenza, procedere come faceva il re Salomone che, secondo la leggenda, comprendeva il linguaggio degli animali.

della pagina web: aforismi e pensieri di Freud(a cura di Diego Fusaro)

The German original text and an English translation will follow

Monday, October 30, 2006

Mas Acà del Màs Allà - A Music Lesson from Oaxaca
While riot police are occupying the Southern Mexican state capital Oaxaca after months of unrest and violence over teachers walkouts and protests, a small group of adolescent musicians from the tiny Mixe community
Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec in the Western part of that same state is currently marching the streets of the city of Basel, together with a brass band from the Basel region, U Brass, thus forming a "Pompes funèbres" Orchestra in a unique festival called DIESSEITS VOM JENSEITS(on this side from beyond) which combines contemporary music and folk music from both rural Mexico and from Switzerland, on the subject of death in their respective cultural traditions.
The whole enterprise started three years ago when by actress/singer Désirée Meiser and her team of the "railway station for new music" or GARE DU NORD in Basel, Switzerland, had the idea to launch a composer workshop for contemporary musicians from both Mexico and Switzerland. It turned out to become a major binational cultural event. With the participation of artits such as composer Gualtiero Dazzi and writer Francisco Serrano , high quality musical and operatic productions are presented. The subject of the festival is further treated in depth by an exhibition of antique folk art from Mexico and contributions to the "Dia de la Muerte" celebrations by contemporary Mexican sculptors.

But the most surprising phenomenon of the festival is the earnest and professionalism of the youthful Banda de Filarmonia CECAM of Tlahuitoltepec These young musicians have no problem to switch from their local tunes with their intricate rhythms to a Gloria by Schubert.
It is a lesson in education and culture of the highest possible level from one of the most remote and poorest regions of Central America

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Switzerland's trouble with political bipolarism
Switzerland is confronted with growing dissatisfaction over it's political structures and processes. Traditional decisionmaking by popular referendum on legislation passed through the federal parliament and/or popular vote on initiatives has proved to bring on efficient and sustainable results with respect to economic wisdom, but legislation on important subjects such as reform of the health care system or social security has lagged behind recent political, economic and demographic changes.
The cause for this slowdown of the political process lies principally in the interferences between the range of action and of responsibilities of local (cantonal) and federal legislation which systematically dilute the responsibility on both levels of government. The so-called concordance government formed by the four major parties which has become polarized by the presence of very outspoken representatives of the left (foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey from the Social Democrats)and the right(minister of justice Christoph Blocher of the Swiss People's Party) within the seven member federal government. There is no formal coalition contract between the parties which participate in the government, but a shaky consensus on major subjects which allows the key players to criticize their colleagues in an increasingly rude way. The Pan-European trend towards a bipolar politial landscape has not helped most European countries because of the narrrow majorities that can be won under the specific conditions which differ from the American modal of bipolarism which is centered on the person of the president. As a result, coalition governments of the type of Germany's actual "Grosse Koalition" become major roadblocks to political action and legislatory reform. The Swiss system has worked well as long as the members of the government refrained from political activism and concentrated their effort on the task of managing their ministries without interfering with others (in Swiss terminology "departments") of extremely divers dimensions: e.g. the relatively small and lean department of Justice and the enormous department of the Interior which has to deal with social security, health care and culture).
With growing mediocracy, the visibility of government members has dramatically increased over the last few years, and their narcissistic performance has stirred up a public debate over which one of the government members is the weakest - i.e. the one with the lowest number of public statements and appearances.
Justice minister Christoph Blocher, an entrepreneur turned politician with an extremely nationalist credo seasoned with talk of market economy and liberalism,
would like to lead the political right toward bipolarism but his poisonous and vulgar rhetoric is not suited for audiences that adhere to more open concepts of state and nation, on the other hand. The political left, on the other hand, tries to monopolize
social subjects as well as an open-minded foreign policy and to lure the liberal electorate into it's centralist, interventionist camp.
The "Freie Demokratische Partei" FDP, heirs of the founding fathers of the modern federal state in mid 19th century, are desperately seeking to get away from a chronically low profile and dwindling electorate.
Since the members of the government are not eo ipso the formal or informal leaders of their respective parties (exception: People's Party Christoph Blocher), and are
elected by the two chambers of parliament according to a formula which respects proportions of relative strength of their parties- the so-called "Zauberformel" or magician's formula), the results of the 2007 elections will probably see a great debate about bipolarism and a new form of concordance and/or coalition, with an uncertain issue.
Most probably, voters will force parliament to make tough decisions on the composition of the government in terms of party representation and of human resources. One of the consequences will be that Switzerland, despite the nationalistic rhetoric of the People's Party, will resemble more to other European democracies than to itself.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

The Bastard of Istanbul
Osservatore Profano's latest post was centered on the question of reliable partners for Europe in the near future. The saturday, October 28, 2006 issue of Neue Zürcher Zeitung has an interesting answer to part of that question. It reports on Elif Shafak's novel "The Bastard of Istanbul" and the fact that the author has explicitly addressed some of the most controversial subjects in Turkey's political orientation, i.e. language policy and the historical workup of the Armenian question.
Elif Shafak, who lives in Istanbul and Tucson, Arizona, where she teaches gender studies an interculturality, was asked about the reactions to her new novel in an outside Turkey. According to the report in Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the reactions throughout Turkey have been positive in general, most "hate mails" to the authors are from Turks living abroad. Thus, the reaction to Shafak's book reflect both the apparent capacity for introspection within Turkey and the identity problems of migrants.
Instead of a question, Osservatore Profano should like to extend an invitation to fellow bloggers today to read Elif Shafak's "Bastard of Istanbul"

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Tough Choices for a Europe desperately looking for reliable partners

Europe faces tough choices these days. The Economist asks: "Will Europe loose Turkey?", and recent top level talks on energy policy with Russia have produced fears of being one day held hostage through dependence on Russian energy deliveries. There is no particular affection in Western Europe neither for Turkey nor for Russia, but the emotional uproar caused by the discussion whether Turkey should recognize the genocide on the Armenians has been much more important than the one caused by the slow and systematic erosion of the legal prerequisites for a functional market economy and a Western style democracy in Russia.
Therefore, Europeans should ask themselves which one of their most important neighbours is more trustworthy: Turkey or Russia? If European strategies are based on religious
paradigms, the answer would be: Russia, because it is a country with a Christian tradition. If European strategies are based on geographical and geo-strategical assumptions, then the accent should be on a strong and sustainable cooperation between the countries around the Mediterranean, the "mare nostrum" as the Romans used to call it. To achieve political stability and sustainable economic growth in this
region, full cooperation of Turkey is needed. Turkey is the only country in the Eastern basin of the Mediterranean with a functional relationship to Israel despite it's Islamic background and Turkey is one of the most important motors of political innovation and transformation in the islamic world. The most important argument for a stable and trustful relationship between Europe and Turkey is the simple fact that Turkey is not and will never be a superpower and therefore does not represent a threat to Europe.
Furthermore, a Turkey oriented toward Western Europe without regret could come to the conclusion that it should reach out in a friendly gesture to it's neighbours in the East, Georgia and Armenia, both in need of the development of stable and fruitful relationships on the Southern slopes of the Caucasus.

What is your opininion on Europe's tough choices?

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Georgia On My Mind - Back in the USSR?
The word POGROM existed before the Russian Revolution, disappeared during the Soviet Era and appears to make a brillant comeback under Vladmir Putin. In the 19th century,
POGROMS were targeted mainly at Jews, in post-modern, post-communist neo-tzarist Russia new ethnic entities have replaced the Jews. The Chechens, still a very fashionable target because of their islamic identity, are now conceding the top place to fellow Non-Russians from the Western slope of Caucasus, the Georgians.
Osservatore Profano's question:
Was the real (prophetic) meaning of the Beatle's song: "Georgia On My Mind - Back TO the USSR" instead of "IN the USSR"?

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Mediocracy and the pandemic of authoritarianism

These days, tiny Switzerland offers "fish bowl" experience for the observation of the passage of power from classical political authority to the media, the emergence of a "mediocracy".
On a popular Late Night show on State TV called ARENA, the discussion about Justice minister Christoph Blocher's critical remarks on Swiss federal antiracism legislation during a visit to Turkey (see "Kemal Atatürk and Switzerland") had taken place without the participation of representatives of the "Grand Old Party" of Switzerland, the Free Democratic Party,FDP. The president of FDP, Fulvio Pelli, later fustigated the media for echoing premeditated provocations by the far right Justice minister. The consequence of his remarks has now become a full scale fox hunt for his head and for the party itself. It appears that even in a traditionally stable political system like Switzerland, political parties no longer are free to follow a coherent strategical line without risking to be undone by the media, and that political raiders like Christoph Blocher can blow up subjects of minor importance on the scale of political and economic priorities at will, with full support of the media.
In ancient Greece, this degenerated form of direct democracy was called "ostrakismòs" (ostracism) and it lead a) to mediocrity and b) to tyranny.

It might be interesting for the reader who is not fully familiar with present time Swiss politics that Christoph Blocher in 1981 (then a member of the Federal House of Representatives - Nationalrat) declared that the military dictatorship in Turkey was the only possible solution in the fight against terrorism...
These remarks are fully compatible with Blocher's later political record, and they strongly support Osservatore Profano's impression that we live in an emerging pandemia of highly infective authoritarianism, the origins of which can be found in Beijing, with a route of spread to Russia and some Republics of the former Soviet Empire. More recently smaller pockets of infection have been identified in various parts of Europe, e.g. Poland. Contrary to the emerging pandemia of Avian Flu where there is a strategic plan developped and imolemented by the World Health Organization and it's national partner organizations, no internationally acknowledged center of competence is at hand for controlling the pandemia of authoritarianism.

What will be the role of the blogosphere in this context?
Will it contribute to the trend to mediocrity and ostracism in a mediocratic system?

Friday, October 13, 2006

Pope, Orwell and NEWSPEAK - a supplement

Osservatore Profano apologizes for having omitted in the blog on Pope Benedict XVI and George Orwell a key element that is necessary to understand the relation between present day communication concepts and George Orwell's "1984":

One of the most remarkable accomplishments of the regime described in "1984" was the fact that sources of information such as newspapers were reedited and republished regularly in order to avoid any contradiction between historical events and judgements on those events and present-day interests of the authorities.
Osservatore Profano wanted to stress the similarity between the reediting of declarations made by the present Pope and the techniques of disinformation used by the regime of "1984".

For an in depth discussion of these questions, it may be useful to quote the English historian Lord Acton, a Catholic and a Liberal,fierce opponent to the principle of infallibility of the Pope adopted at the first Vatican Council: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely..." (in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887)

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Pope Benedict XVI and George Orwell
48 years ago, in 1948, George Orwell published his famous novel "1984".
Few people have read the book but almost everybody nowadays is familiar with the title of a popular reality TV programme: "BIG BROTHER" - in "1984" the term was used for the dictator in control of the totalitarian society of the future depicted by Orwell.
Still fewer people are aware of the term "NEWSPEAK", the official language of the Orwellian society which was designed to invert the content and meaning of words into their contrary. In 1947 - one year before the publication of "1984" - philologist Viktor Klemperer had published his analysis of "LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii" (The language of the Third Reich). The same author later undertook a similar effort for "LQI - Lingua Quarti Imperii" (the language of the "Fourth Reich",i.e. the socialist German Democratic Republic) but these texts as well as Klemperers diaries during and after the war were never published until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The Vatican has published a new version of Pope Benedict's Regensburg conference (see my blog on "Ownership of Reason, Faith - and of God?" September 14, 2006), adding short remarks signalling a certain distance of the speaker from his citation of Manuel Palaeologus concerning the prophet Muhammad.

Osservatore Profano, asks:
1) Has Pope Benedict XVI never had the opportunity to read "1984"?
2) If Yes, Osservatore Profano should like to beg His Holyness pardon for having
suspected the Vatican of using "NEWSPEAK" as part of it's communication concept
3) If No, then WHY must the Vatican's communication concept use "NEWSPEAK"

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

State of the Art - Art of State

To Polish philosopher Wladislaw Tatarkiewicz, we owe a 3 volume history of aesthetics, and a three-part disjunctive definition of art as "A construction of forms or a reproduction of things or an expression of experiences capable of producing delinght or emotions or shock"
A recent initiative by young Swis artists, http://www.kunstfreiheit.ch, adresses the question of whether copyright legislation and freedom of art are compatible.
In fact, modern copyright legislation tends to be more prohibitive than permissive when it comes to commercial aspects of art production. Besides the fact that (post)modern art is in perpetual conflict with cultural traditions and therefore tends to confirm Tatarkiewicz's definition, another aspect of aesthetics in the tradition of Baumgarten (philosophy of perception) merits to be studied: the question whether politics are a form of art. George W.Bush's grotesque scenario of political organization of the world under American leadership, Pope Benedict's "Stubengelehrten" approach to interreligious dialogue, the destruction of the Buddha statues by the Talibans of Afghanistan, and last but not least Al Qaeda's activities from 09/11 to Madrid and London, present time political activties seem to correspond more and more to the Tatarkiewicz definition of art than to the serious search of solutions for practical problems that are the traditional basis of politics.
In this perspective, copyright legislation will some day help politicians declare their activities as works of art, on the ground that they have been able to provoke delight, emotion and shock...

Monday, October 02, 2006

Kemal Atatürk and Switzerland
80 years ago, Turkey adopted the Swiss Code of Civil Law (a.k.a Zivilgesetzbuch, ZGB).
After a serious diplomatic row last year between Turkey and Switzerland over the responsability of the emerging Turkish Republic in the expulsion and death of several hundred thousand native Armenians, Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher will now visit Ankara to take part in the commemoration of the adoption of Swiss ZGB by Turkey. Kemal Atatürk was known as a autocratic ruler who not only ordered the creation of modern Turkisch language by academic linguistic specialists, but, and this may be more significant for the actual situation, forbade the use of the veil (chador)in parliament, universities and colleges. Swiss justice minister Blocher is himself well known for his autocratic tendencies. The fact that he has outmanoeuvered his female colleague, the social democratic minister of foreign affairs, Micheline Calmy-Rey on this journey, may add to his gratification that he will be able to pay tribute to another great autocrat. The only problem for him might be the fact that on the board of the joint Swiss Turkish Foundation for the study of the relations between the two countries, some of the fiercest oponents of his own policy are active. For details on the activities of the Foundation and it's board, see our link to "Stiftung Forschungsstelle Schweiz-Türkei"
Switzerland, in addition to the commemoration of the successful export of her civil law 80 years ago, will be able to expose her intern contradictions at the Ankara commemoration.
Will this later help Switzerland to develop more moderation when it comes to discussions on intercultural relations, migration, integration etc.?
And could this help the Turks themeselves to overcome their own internal conflicts?

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Why do we love Shostakovich?

Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was born on September 25,1906 in St.Petersburg.
The centenary of his birth represents an opportunity to rediscover his complete work, but also an invitation to learn about the extremely difficult conditions under which it has been created. On January 28, 1936, the PRAVDA published a critical comment on the successful composer, then 29 years old, under the title "chaos instead of music". Stalin had decided that Soviet culture had to serve the regime and had to be produced according to the principles of "socialist realism". Thousands of artists where confronted not only with a fundamental critique of their work, but with the concrete risk of physical liquidation. Thousands died in Sibirian labour camps or were executed, on the ground of the suspicion that they were part of a Trotzkyist counterrevolution (e.g. actor/director Vsevolod Meyerhold or film critic Aleksander Arosev, author of "Le Cinéma en URSS" , VOKS 1935)
Foreigners, such as the "brigade May", a group of German and Swiss avantgarde architects that had come to the Soviet Union to help build the "Socialist City", had to leave the country (among them Margarethe Schütte-Lihotsky of Vienna and Hans Schmidt of Basel).
Shostakovich survived by adapting his work to the demands of Stalin, but he had to live, from 1936 on, under the continuous threat to become the target of prosecutionn like so many of his friends.
Now, as the late Swiss composer Jacques Wildberger is cited in an article written by
Marco Frei in todays "Neue Zeitung Zeitung" Nr.221:65 under the title "tragikomische Maskenspiele eines Gottesnarren", Shostakovich changed his composition style into an "absurd too much". Some specialists of Shostakovich describe a hidden (ironizing) message between the lines of Shostakovich compositions befor, during and after World War II.
Paradoxically, it seems that the most appreciated and most frequently interpreted works of Shostakovich to this day are the works created after 1937, according to the
rules imposed by the dictator Stalin.
Why is this so? Are we becoming Stalinists again without knowing it? Are we too naïve to understand the irony in the bombastic sound blasts that end his symphonies?
Or are we sensitive enough to discover the hidden message of a composer whose life was filled with fear...?



Friday, September 15, 2006

Recommended Reading for insights into "pre-hellenistic" (or "pre-European") philosophical traditions:

Indus Churning: Indian and Islamic philosophy

Thursday, September 14, 2006

On the Ownership of Reason, Faith - and of God?

During his recent journey to Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI held a lecture at the University of Regensburg,the text of which is on display at the Vatican's website.
It's content can be summarized as follows:

a. (Christian) theology is a scientific discipline equal in it's quality to the natural sciences
b. (Christian) theological reasoning is anchored in Greek philosophy, and thus a European achievement, whereas modern scientific reasoning, starting with the Reformation, has been "dehellenized", and therefore has lost it's roots
c. (Christian) theology postulates that God acts always according to "logos" (reason, meaning, ger. Vernunft, fr. raison)
d. In contrast to Christian Faith, Islam considers God as being completely transcendental, above and free of the realm of reason
e. The (European) concept of reason as outlined above does not permit conversion to faith by force

These are fascinating thought, and they have been presented in elegant rhetorical
phrasing.

But there remain some burning questions:

The Pope explicitly criticized the right (or the obligation) to convert non-believers to faith by force according to the Q'ran, on the ground of reason.
Now, history teaches us that during the reconquista, the Muslim and Jewish population of Spain has been converted to (catholic) Christianism by crude force and the same occurred to the indigenous populations of South America, by troups of Christian faith, accompanied and tutored by catholic priests. Critical voices within the Church were (e.g. Bartolomeo de las Casas)existed, but it took several hundred years before
the critique of colonial mission was seriously addressed.
The central question remains how reasoning, anchored in an uninterrupted theological tradition for more than two thousand years, explain this attitude? The answer: it is the reason (and the arrogance) of power.
What is the role of the Catholic Church in the balance of power? According to Pope Benedict XVI, the Church is the only legitimate guardian of reason, has the capacity to appopriate itself the idea of God by subjecting it to reason (as defined above) and through this connection, the Church has acquired the exclusive "ownership" of the only possible reasonable concept of God...
To become a shareholder of the reasonable concept of God, you have to behave reasonably within the framework of the Church and to obey to it's teachings.

Pope Benedict XVI once more demonstrates the incredible perfection and the internal logic of his global enterprise called Catholic Church. In the logic of the CEO and Chairman of God's Enterprise, non-Catholic Christian believers, can at best trade derivatives of reason and of faith...


Is English (still) a Foreign Language in Switzerland?
L'Anglais peut-il (encore) être considéré comme une langue étrangère?
Ist Englisch (noch) eine Fremdsprache in der Schweiz?

La Suisse est le pays des contradictions organisées. Une bataille acharnée est actuellement en cours entre les différents cantons de langue allemande pour déterminer quelle doit être la première langue étrangère a être enseignée à l'école primaire.
Pour comprendre ce qui se passe, il faut savoir que l'instruction publique a toujours été et reste à ce jour un domaine de souveraineté des 26 cantons dans ce pays hyperfédéraliste.
Ce qui est particulièrement intéressant, c'est le fossé qui s'est créé le 13 septembre 2006 entre les deux (demi-)cantons de Bâle-Ville et de Bâle-Campagne sur fond de la décision du parlement cantonal (Grand Conseil) de Bâle-Ville (37 kilomètres carrés, 170,000 habitants) d'introduire d'abord le Français, puis l'Anglais, et du gouvernement de Bâle-Campagne (capitale: Liestal, située 25 km à l'Est de la ville de Bâle) d'introduire d'abord l'Anglais, puis le Français.
Si le parlement de Bâle-Campagne suit son gouvernement, un élève e 8 ans dont les parents commettront l'erreur de changer de domicile entre les deux cantons pendanrt la période critique, risque de perdre ou bien une année de Français ou d'Anglais.
Peut importe, ce phénomène correspond parfaitement à l'image caricatural que le grand écrivain suisse Gottfried Keller avait dressé au 19ème siècle de son pays dans ses oeuvres (Seldwyla, Martin Salander).

Mais il y a une question de fond plus importante encore: peut-on considérer la langue anglaise comme langue étrangère dans un monde où elle sert de plus en plus de base élémentaire de communication (science, informatique, technique etc.).
L'Anglais a bien sûr des qualités culturelles indéniables. Mais si on n'est pas aveugle, il faut savoir que nos enfants commencent à parler l'Angalis dès qu'il savent se servir d'un quelconque gadget technique.
Si on veut donc enseigner une langue qui s'insère dans un contexte culturel (et régional) il faut tout d'abord s'occuper des voisins. Et pour les cantons qui forment
la Confédération Helvétique, ces voisins parlent d'abord Allemand, Français,Italien et Romanche. La lingua franca Anglais ne peut plus être considérée comme langue étrangère...

English Abstract:

Switzerland is the land of organized contradictions. The educational system is under the sovereignty of the 26 cantons. Considerable efforts have been undertaken by the cantonal governments to reduce the differences between the 26 school systems without giving up their educational sovereignty. These efforts have only recently produced a program for harmonization of curricula which is called HARMOS and which has been supported by a popular vote for a modification of the federal constitution earlier this year. Now, the cantons are obliged to coordinate their curricula within the borders of the linguistic regions (German, French, Italian and Romanche).
This taks has lead to grotsque disputes these days, since the German-speaking cantons
are not unanimous about the question whether English or French should be taught as the first foreign language. The author of these lines puts the question into a context, where English is considered first as an international technical communication tool, a lingua franca that should be learned as soon as children are able to manage technical gadgets, i.e. at kindergarten age. English may be as important as French or German or Italian etc. as a cultural language, but if cultural traditions and neighbourhood relations are considered important - as is the case in multilingual Switzerland, it might be more important to learn the (foreign) language of the direct neighbours prior to cultural English.
Hopefully, the discussion just opened in Switzerland will give us new insights
on the importance of language skills and the best modaities to teach and to learn them.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

What does the loss of children do to their parents?

Swiss Radio may be an old-fashioned medium with little impact, but it offers some great features on fascinating subjects. One such feature has been today's interview by senior literary moderator Hans Ulrich Probst of Italian writer Chiara Palazzolo on her novel published in Italy in 2003 "I bambini sono tornati" (Piemme, ISBN 8838472157), now available in a German translation "Die Kinder sind wieder da" (Bertelsmann, Munich, ISBN 3570009076).

In her novel, Palazzolo describes the torment of a young couple living in Calabria, Italy, after the accidental killing of their two children by a rowdy car driver, and the different modes of coping of the mother and the father. The process of mourning and coping is narrowly linked to and influenced by the local cultural background with it's omertà (the law of silence)...

The impression of the scenery and the psychological plot of the book was enhanced by Hans Ulrich Probst's technique of presenting the text with an acoustic overlay: The simultaneous lecture of the italian original by the Italian author in person and the German translation by actress Susanne Marie Wrage.
For those who would like to listen to the feature,check out the links Radio DRS2

Let's close for once with a recommendation instead of a question:
Chiara Palazzolo should be encouraged to publish her text in as many languages as possible.
The problems it addresses are far from comforting, but they might be helpful in the process of coping for parents who mourn the loss of their children worldwide

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Dress Code, Tolerance, Intolerance and Free Thought

Dress Codes have been a great tradition for at least three centuries in Europe, and black has prevailed from the conservative ultra-catholic elite of Spain to the protestant parish priests of Northern Europe. Housewives and nuns had to cover their heads with what we might now describe as chador in rural areas of Europe until lately.
Now, these dress codes did not prevent the development of free thought, free speech,
trade, constitutional law or democracy, and it can be taken for granted that those who helped shape the content of modernity (Hume, Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire etc.) had no problem complying with the dress code of their time.

In recent times, nudity or relative nudity (depending on climatic conditions) have taken the lead in Western dress code. Within less than two generations,traditional dress and behavioural codes have been swept away. Is this proof of decadence and debauchery considered specific for Western societies as many religious authorities
claim?

Looking at what happened about 90 years ago in a tiny village called Ascona on the shores of Lago Maggiore (one of big alpine lakes of Northern Italy, the waters of which are shared by the Swiss Canton of Ticino and the Italian regions of Piemonte and Lombardy),we may reconsider the function of nudity for the development of modern societies.

During the first decade of the 20th century, the devotedly catholic citizens of Ascona saw the arrival of a bunch of young people from wealthy German and Belgian families who settled on a nearby hill called Monte Verità ("Hill of Truth"),
started to walk around stark naked and to talk about "return to nature" (according to what they interpreted as the teachings of Swiss philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau).
The Monte Verità colony was in fact a precursor of the Hippie movement in California , nearly sixty years later.

Thanks to the solid commercial talents of the Asconese, the initial clash of the cultures was followed by the development of Ascona into a tourist resort which it has remained since, being transformed slowly into a kind of "Swiss little Florida", with a population made up predominantly by elderly retired people from the German-speaking part of Switzerland and Germany. Nudity is no longer needed to maintain the attraction of the place.

Returning to the question of the importance of a dress code for culture in general, it is interesting to speculate if the strict dress code of the actual Iranian regime imposed predominantly on women - interestingly, men are encouraged to wear open shirts displaying their hairy chests without restriction - will in the long term enhance the development of free thought, free speech, free debate on controversial subjects, including the encouragement of scientific scrutiny of ascred scriptures
without risk of capital punishment, respect for the religious beliefs of others etc.etc.
If this speculation had a minimal chance of turning into reality, should then Western societies reconsider their own dress codes in order to restore the respect of the muslim world for their culture and thereby increase the chances for mutual respect and tolerance? Or should we staunchly refuse to cover the bellies of our female adolescents with a minimum of textile material, as proof of our freedom?
Would a reduction of large scale public nudity restore our self-confidence or would it be a sign of weakness in the intercultural debate on values?
Osservatore Profano has no answer to this question, and this is why it appears on this blog...