Why Switzerland is still very special: Sovereignty of the people, Freedom of parliament, Gender Ratio in the Government and Rumantsch Grischun
The international echoes to the failed reelection of Swiss People's Party leader
Cristoph Bocher as a member of the Federal Council (the Swiss government) by the federal two chamber parliament show hwo difficult it is to understand the Swiss Federal Constitution for those who are not familiar with the rules of direct democracy.
In fact, the federal parliament is free to choose as members of the government any person that is considered fit to fulfill the difficult task of being a member of he executive and a representative of the major political movements present in the country. The Swiss government is in a certain way a technocratic government, and one of Christoph Blocher's is main objectives was to transform it into a political one.
If his party now is crying loudly about treason of the will of the electorate, it is neglecting the important fact that Switzerland is in the unique position to guarantee the sovereignty of the people in two ways: a) in electing a parliament and b) in correcting the acts of parliament and government by popular initiatives and popular referenda. By limiting the exertion of power by the people to these two channels, the Swiss Constitution guarantees a certain stability in the decission-making pocess by parliament and government. While in most parliamentary democracies,
the paricipation of the people in policy-making is limited to the parliamentary elections, the results of which determinate the acts of the government, the Swiss electorate can interfere throughout the electoral cycle with the decisions of both parliament and government. Christoph Blocher's claim to reinforce direct democracy
by asking for a majority government has not been accepte by the majority of the parliament, and, as a recent public poll published today by the Sunday press has shown,his non-election is being accepted by a majority of the public (which is not identical with the electorate in a population where one third is non Swiss and where only about 5 in ten citizens are actively participating in the political decision-making (popular votes, elections).
One important aspect of the non-election of Christoph Blocher risks to be neglected:
by electing Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the parliament has produced an important gender shift within the government: three out of seven ministers now are women, and if the Federal Chancellor, Ms. Casanova (the secretary general and speaker of the government) is included in the gender count during the ministerial rounds, the gender ratio is now 1:1.
Another special feature of the new government: Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf and Ms. Casanova are both natives of the Canton of Grisons and fluent in the fourth national language: Rumantsch Grischun.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Thursday, November 08, 2007
A secret baptism for king Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud?
When the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques met Pope Benedict in Rome, the two men might have discussed a text written by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini(Pope Pius II) back in 1461 to sultan Mehmet II. The "Epistula ad Mahometan" was published in 1483, 10 years after the death of Pius II and it remains unclear whether it had been sent to Mehmet II.
The most important element of the letter, however, was the offer of the crown of the Holy Roman Empire to Mehmet in exchange for his baptism.
The letter is rich in argumentations concerning the relationship between religion and political power and is an example of the modernity of Piccolomini, a man who had turned to celibacy only late in his life - at age 44 - and had widely travelled Europe before becoming Pope (as one of his works, "De Europa", a geographical, political and cultural account of his obervations, testifies).
If the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques was aware of this particular historical record of policy-making of the Holy See is not known, but it would be most interesting to know what the two men actually discussed: special conditions for the Vatican in terms of Dollars per barrel Saudi Arabian crude oil or permissions for catholic nuns to drive cars in Saudi Arabia on the condition that they they wear their veil in a correct way?
One thing is clear: according to Vaticanic tradition it will take at least two generations before the contents of the meeting will be published, and the Saudi side has little interest in a mediatic discussion of the vent. It could once again stir bad feelings against the king in fundamentalist circles.
One thing is clear so far: religion is back on the political agenda, as THE ECONOMIST correctly stated last week. Agnostics will face difficult times in the near future. Outspoken atheism might become the last safe haven for those who are not willing to kiss the ring of the Pope or to travel to Mecca for the Hadj.
When the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques met Pope Benedict in Rome, the two men might have discussed a text written by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini(Pope Pius II) back in 1461 to sultan Mehmet II. The "Epistula ad Mahometan" was published in 1483, 10 years after the death of Pius II and it remains unclear whether it had been sent to Mehmet II.
The most important element of the letter, however, was the offer of the crown of the Holy Roman Empire to Mehmet in exchange for his baptism.
The letter is rich in argumentations concerning the relationship between religion and political power and is an example of the modernity of Piccolomini, a man who had turned to celibacy only late in his life - at age 44 - and had widely travelled Europe before becoming Pope (as one of his works, "De Europa", a geographical, political and cultural account of his obervations, testifies).
If the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques was aware of this particular historical record of policy-making of the Holy See is not known, but it would be most interesting to know what the two men actually discussed: special conditions for the Vatican in terms of Dollars per barrel Saudi Arabian crude oil or permissions for catholic nuns to drive cars in Saudi Arabia on the condition that they they wear their veil in a correct way?
One thing is clear: according to Vaticanic tradition it will take at least two generations before the contents of the meeting will be published, and the Saudi side has little interest in a mediatic discussion of the vent. It could once again stir bad feelings against the king in fundamentalist circles.
One thing is clear so far: religion is back on the political agenda, as THE ECONOMIST correctly stated last week. Agnostics will face difficult times in the near future. Outspoken atheism might become the last safe haven for those who are not willing to kiss the ring of the Pope or to travel to Mecca for the Hadj.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Iconographic Impressions from Switzerland - 90 years after the Russian Revolution
"Bolshevik" Boris Michailovich Kustodiev 1920
Museo dei Uffici Florence
Right Wing Bolshevism in Swiss Weekly "Weltwoche"
B.M. Kustodiev Selfs Portrait of the Artist 1912
El Redemptor on Corcovado Brazil
Blocher on the Uetliberg, 2007
Anne Applebaum Author of "Propaganda und Realität" Copyright Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2007
"Bolshevik" Boris Michailovich Kustodiev 1920
Museo dei Uffici Florence
Right Wing Bolshevism in Swiss Weekly "Weltwoche"
B.M. Kustodiev Selfs Portrait of the Artist 1912
El Redemptor on Corcovado Brazil
Blocher on the Uetliberg, 2007
Anne Applebaum Author of "Propaganda und Realität" Copyright Neue Zürcher Zeitung 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
What Emilio Lussu (1890-1975) may teach us
Emilio Lussu was born in Armungia near Cagliari (Sardinia) in 1890. After having finished his law studies, he fought as infantry officer in the Sassari Brigade during World War I, distinguishing himself both for his bravery and his humane leadership qualities.
After the war, together with comrades from his Army Brigade, he founded the federalist and autonomist party "Partito Sardo di Azione". Elected to the Italian Parliament in 1921, he was a keen observer and a fierce opponent of the rising fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini. He became famous for his account of the political developments in Italy from 1921 to 1929: "Marcia su Roma e Dintorni" (March to Rome and surroundings) first published in Paris in 1933 (reprints by Einaudi in 1945 and 2003).A German edition is also available: Marsch auf Rom und Umgebung, Verlag Folio, Bozen 2007..
After repeated attempts to his life by fascist groups, he had eventually been attacked in his Cagliari appartment and during this episode had shot one of the aggressors. After an imprisonment of a year and a process that ended in his acquitment for self-defense, he had been deported to the Aeolian Island of Lipari, from where he was able to flee to France. In 1936, while being treated for tuberculosis at the Sanatorium of Clavadel near Davos (Switzerland), he wrote a vivid account of his experiences during the war in the trenches of Northern Italy: "Un Anno sul Altipiano" (A Year on the High Plateau). In his forword, he wonders why nobody seems to be ready to remember what happened between 1914 and 1918.
After 1933, he lived in Paris with his wife, Joyce, where he became one of the antifascist movementGiustizia e Libertà.
In 1940, after the defeat of the French army by Nazi Germany, the couple fled to Toulouse, then to Marseille and eventually to Lisbon. From 1940 to July 1943 he developped important underground diplomatic activities, trying to coordinate the activities of the Italian emigration with the geopolitical and strategical interests of Britain and the U.S.A., from Lisbon, Malta, London and New York. We owe him an account of these adventurous years in "Diplomazia clandestina" (Quaderni Del Ponte, La Nuova Italia Editrice, Firenze 1956)
In postwar Italy, Emilio Lussu served as a minister in the first cabinet of De
Gasperi and was elected to the Senate during several legislation periods. He died in 1975.
Why should one read Emilio Lussu's account of the rise of fascism in Italy of 1933(Marcia su Roma e Dintorni)today?
His account on the political events in Italy is written in a straightforward but elegant prose, with a sarcastic, sometimes fatalistic tone.
It is full of vivid observations of the weakness of his contemporaries and their excuses for giving up their political principles and entering the fascist party for fear of messing their professional carreers and their social life.
The reader of Lussu's account will know that there are important differences between Hitler's Third Reich and Italy under Mussolini: while Germany's working classes in their majority where favorable to the regime as a result of generous salarial and rent policy and while the German opposition was systematically neutralized and physically liquidated by the regime,a fragile balance between the formally intact constitutional monarchy and the Duce developped in Italy, and civil society never vanished completely, the fascists being unable to win the unconditional support of the working class.
This fragile balance eventually became the main reason for Italy's narrow escape from the role of aggressor to victim at the end of the war.
Finally, the reader of Lussus text will be able to contemplate today's political scenery in Italy and to draw comparisons with political trends of recent years both in other European countries and in Switzerland.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
"Church" is a Trademark
Though I am a protestant both by tradition and by free choice (baptized evangelical-reformed), I can fully understand why the Roman Catholic Church is firm in the defense of it's status as "church". This is a question of trademark protection.
The most dangerous challenge that the Roman Catholic Church faces these days does not come from individualistic Lutherans, Calvinists or Zwinglians, but from Scientology with it's perfect financial management.
In a very clever move, the Vatican has enlarged it's trademark protection to the orthodox churches in Russia, Byelorus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East.
This partial exception to the Roman monopoly is aimed at easing the renewed tensions between Eastern and Western Christianism that had been fuelled by the activities by Roman Catholicm missionaries in Russia after the fall of the Soviet System.
No wonder if Chinese who want to be baptized tend to turn to become Lutherans rather than Roman Catholics - they will be safe from institutional constraints and will face less problems of trademark protection.
Though I am a protestant both by tradition and by free choice (baptized evangelical-reformed), I can fully understand why the Roman Catholic Church is firm in the defense of it's status as "church". This is a question of trademark protection.
The most dangerous challenge that the Roman Catholic Church faces these days does not come from individualistic Lutherans, Calvinists or Zwinglians, but from Scientology with it's perfect financial management.
In a very clever move, the Vatican has enlarged it's trademark protection to the orthodox churches in Russia, Byelorus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East.
This partial exception to the Roman monopoly is aimed at easing the renewed tensions between Eastern and Western Christianism that had been fuelled by the activities by Roman Catholicm missionaries in Russia after the fall of the Soviet System.
No wonder if Chinese who want to be baptized tend to turn to become Lutherans rather than Roman Catholics - they will be safe from institutional constraints and will face less problems of trademark protection.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Fooling around with the Law
Image to the Left: Honoré Daumier
Image to the Right: Christoph Blocher Copyright Dan Cermak
Foolish things are happening these days in Switzerland. Only a few days after a popular inititiave launched by the Swiss People's Party demanding for the introduction of a detailed list into the Federal Constitution of criminal offenses that would automatically lead to expulsion of foreigners from the country, the Federal Supreme Court has decided that it is unlawful to demand tax deductions for funding political parties. The case that had been brought before the court was provoked by two tax payers in the Canton of Zurich that had formally asked a tax deduction for a donation to a political party which they never had made.
By intentionally making a false statement in their tax declaration, the two citizens were able to bring their cause to all levels of cantonal and federal judicial authorities. Their abuse of the law produced a paradoxical result: while the Canton of Zurich intends to increase the amount of tax-deducible donations to political parties, the Federal Court prohibits it, explaining that political parties are of no use for the common wealth. Without political parties, a democratic society cannot function properly, and Switzerland has been fortunate enough to avoid state funding of political parties so far...
It was the privilege of the Swiss People's Party to continuously undermine the confidence of the citizens in our political system and into the judiciary, but now it seems that our Supreme Court has caught the deconstruction virus, too...
Image to the Left: Honoré Daumier
Image to the Right: Christoph Blocher Copyright Dan Cermak
Foolish things are happening these days in Switzerland. Only a few days after a popular inititiave launched by the Swiss People's Party demanding for the introduction of a detailed list into the Federal Constitution of criminal offenses that would automatically lead to expulsion of foreigners from the country, the Federal Supreme Court has decided that it is unlawful to demand tax deductions for funding political parties. The case that had been brought before the court was provoked by two tax payers in the Canton of Zurich that had formally asked a tax deduction for a donation to a political party which they never had made.
By intentionally making a false statement in their tax declaration, the two citizens were able to bring their cause to all levels of cantonal and federal judicial authorities. Their abuse of the law produced a paradoxical result: while the Canton of Zurich intends to increase the amount of tax-deducible donations to political parties, the Federal Court prohibits it, explaining that political parties are of no use for the common wealth. Without political parties, a democratic society cannot function properly, and Switzerland has been fortunate enough to avoid state funding of political parties so far...
It was the privilege of the Swiss People's Party to continuously undermine the confidence of the citizens in our political system and into the judiciary, but now it seems that our Supreme Court has caught the deconstruction virus, too...
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Fooling around with the Constitution
In it's never ending quest for the applause of citizens frustrated and estranged by the problems of migration, the Swiss People's Party has launched a popular initiative which demands an amendment to the constitution that explicitly describes the criteria for expulsion on unwanted foreigners. By doing so, the party contradicts it's own critera of reducing the inference of the state in "things in particular" and violates the principle of restricting issues to be treated in the Constitution. Fooling around with the Constitution: a bad omen for politics under a domination of the Swiss People's Party in the near future
In it's never ending quest for the applause of citizens frustrated and estranged by the problems of migration, the Swiss People's Party has launched a popular initiative which demands an amendment to the constitution that explicitly describes the criteria for expulsion on unwanted foreigners. By doing so, the party contradicts it's own critera of reducing the inference of the state in "things in particular" and violates the principle of restricting issues to be treated in the Constitution. Fooling around with the Constitution: a bad omen for politics under a domination of the Swiss People's Party in the near future
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The discreet charm of latent fascism
When UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) chairman Marcel Ospel, in a discussion with economists in Basel last week declared that he considered the Swiss People's Party as the most competent and trustworthy political party in Switzerland in terms of economic policies, his remark earned mixed applause. One of the leading figures of that party, Christoph Blocher, now Minister of Justice of the Swiss Confederation, has been known for years for his inflammatory rhetoric style mixing talk of economic liberalism and xenophoby with the intention to bring elements of the extreme right onto his bandwagon. The recent success of Nicolas Sarcozy in the French presidential elections has been built on a similar rhetoric: praise of the nation's "grandeur", mixed with a more ot less subtle xenophobia and a call for economic reforms under a strong central government.
A heated discussion on Marcel Ospel's stance was launched on the Swiss Blog http://www.arlesheimreloaded.ch, and it came to an abrupt stop decided by the blog master when on some posts the term "national socialism" was used to define certain emerging trends in Swiss politics.
In recent years, there have been reciprocal accusations between the Swiss Social Democrativ Party (SP) and the SVP of "national socialist" behaviour, without arousing much interest by the electorate until recently.
But by the fact that radical nationalist and xenophobic movements are en vogue again in post-communist Eastern Europe and that the rhetoric of the Western European Right is getting tougher in terms of discimination against foreigners, the interest in the origins of national socialism (Germany) and fascism (Italy) has been awakened once again.
The National Socialist Movement, as ist existed in Germany between 1933 and 1945, used for it's image a specific blend of promises of economic growth, an exaggerated role for the nation (built on racial criteria) and social justice based on the exlusion and eventually extermination of those who did not comply with he rules or where considered as unworthy by racial criteria. The Soviet system, on the other hand, used social class as central criterion for the exclusion from economic and political life, and for eventual liquidation of persons of bourgeois origin.
After the downfall of the Third Reich, race was no longer a criterion for exclusion, liquidation, annihilation, but the struggle of the classes according to Marx and Engels continued to be considered as the single most important motor for progress of society on the road towards socialism.
After the downfall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was at first a period of complete desorientation. From the chaos that followed the collapse, a new class of entrepreneurs emerged in the Russian Federation, the so-called oligarchs, who took control of the economy and tried to do the same in politics.
President Boris Yeltsin, uncapable of controlling a systen that had rund wild, passed his power to a brilliant, healthy (and tough) young lawyer, Vladimit Putin, brought up within the Soviet System, and who had made his carreer in the KGB.
Since his arrival to power, Putin systematically has reverted the chaotic and unstructured political and economic freedom that Russia had known for less than ten years by what he called "the Dictatorship of the Law". The oligarchs were driven into exile or jailed and the central government succeeded brilliantly in bringing economic decision power back again under it's control.
To regain the confidence of the estranged population, the colours of Putin's rethoric have turned more and more nationalistic, culminating in the restoration of the national anthem of the former Soviet Union created in 1944.
The objectives of this nationalistic trend are evident: to strengthen the defenses of the population against globalisation, in the interest of economic elites that actively participate in the process of gobalization while instrumentalizing the xenophobic reflexes of the masses for their own interests. The "Dictatorship of the Law" is the mechanism by which the new ruling class finds it's legitimation in the confrontation with the classical left. By actively supporting the xenophobic tendencies within society, the ruling elite successfully reduces the risk of an active participation of "foreigners" in the national economy.
The result is a new form of National Socialism in the mask of what might be called "patriotic free market economy". No wonder that those who consider liberalism as a philosophical and political struggle for freedom in terms of market economy, but siumultaneously an attitude that does not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, religion of gender, are the natural enemies of the new "patriotic" movements that call themselves "liberal".
The leaders of the Swiss People's Party know exactly what they do when selling their perfect mixture of talk on free market economy and a monopoly over the most important national symbols: the flag, the folks sports such as "Schwingen" and "Hornussen" and last but not least Swiss country music.
When UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) chairman Marcel Ospel, in a discussion with economists in Basel last week declared that he considered the Swiss People's Party as the most competent and trustworthy political party in Switzerland in terms of economic policies, his remark earned mixed applause. One of the leading figures of that party, Christoph Blocher, now Minister of Justice of the Swiss Confederation, has been known for years for his inflammatory rhetoric style mixing talk of economic liberalism and xenophoby with the intention to bring elements of the extreme right onto his bandwagon. The recent success of Nicolas Sarcozy in the French presidential elections has been built on a similar rhetoric: praise of the nation's "grandeur", mixed with a more ot less subtle xenophobia and a call for economic reforms under a strong central government.
A heated discussion on Marcel Ospel's stance was launched on the Swiss Blog http://www.arlesheimreloaded.ch, and it came to an abrupt stop decided by the blog master when on some posts the term "national socialism" was used to define certain emerging trends in Swiss politics.
In recent years, there have been reciprocal accusations between the Swiss Social Democrativ Party (SP) and the SVP of "national socialist" behaviour, without arousing much interest by the electorate until recently.
But by the fact that radical nationalist and xenophobic movements are en vogue again in post-communist Eastern Europe and that the rhetoric of the Western European Right is getting tougher in terms of discimination against foreigners, the interest in the origins of national socialism (Germany) and fascism (Italy) has been awakened once again.
The National Socialist Movement, as ist existed in Germany between 1933 and 1945, used for it's image a specific blend of promises of economic growth, an exaggerated role for the nation (built on racial criteria) and social justice based on the exlusion and eventually extermination of those who did not comply with he rules or where considered as unworthy by racial criteria. The Soviet system, on the other hand, used social class as central criterion for the exclusion from economic and political life, and for eventual liquidation of persons of bourgeois origin.
After the downfall of the Third Reich, race was no longer a criterion for exclusion, liquidation, annihilation, but the struggle of the classes according to Marx and Engels continued to be considered as the single most important motor for progress of society on the road towards socialism.
After the downfall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was at first a period of complete desorientation. From the chaos that followed the collapse, a new class of entrepreneurs emerged in the Russian Federation, the so-called oligarchs, who took control of the economy and tried to do the same in politics.
President Boris Yeltsin, uncapable of controlling a systen that had rund wild, passed his power to a brilliant, healthy (and tough) young lawyer, Vladimit Putin, brought up within the Soviet System, and who had made his carreer in the KGB.
Since his arrival to power, Putin systematically has reverted the chaotic and unstructured political and economic freedom that Russia had known for less than ten years by what he called "the Dictatorship of the Law". The oligarchs were driven into exile or jailed and the central government succeeded brilliantly in bringing economic decision power back again under it's control.
To regain the confidence of the estranged population, the colours of Putin's rethoric have turned more and more nationalistic, culminating in the restoration of the national anthem of the former Soviet Union created in 1944.
The objectives of this nationalistic trend are evident: to strengthen the defenses of the population against globalisation, in the interest of economic elites that actively participate in the process of gobalization while instrumentalizing the xenophobic reflexes of the masses for their own interests. The "Dictatorship of the Law" is the mechanism by which the new ruling class finds it's legitimation in the confrontation with the classical left. By actively supporting the xenophobic tendencies within society, the ruling elite successfully reduces the risk of an active participation of "foreigners" in the national economy.
The result is a new form of National Socialism in the mask of what might be called "patriotic free market economy". No wonder that those who consider liberalism as a philosophical and political struggle for freedom in terms of market economy, but siumultaneously an attitude that does not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, religion of gender, are the natural enemies of the new "patriotic" movements that call themselves "liberal".
The leaders of the Swiss People's Party know exactly what they do when selling their perfect mixture of talk on free market economy and a monopoly over the most important national symbols: the flag, the folks sports such as "Schwingen" and "Hornussen" and last but not least Swiss country music.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Eco-Socialist Conservatism - The Cultural Conundrum of Basel
The Basel City Music Hall as it looks today and will look for another 20 years
The City Music Hall Project by Zaha HADID that the voters of Basel rejected on June 17, 2007
The city of Basel is proud of it's international image as a strongpoint of art and it is home to an internationally reknowned Music Academy. At the same time, this city, where two of the most important global players of the pharmaceutical industry, ROCHE and NOVARTIS, have their headquarters, is victim of a permanent loss of permanent residents which are able and/or willing to influence it's political fortunes. More to this, the city is the capital of one of the most tiny Cantons of Switzerland, Basel-Stadt, with a population of under 200,000 and it's socio-demographic structures shows a continuous trend towards old age and migrants.
Less than half of the inhabitants are active citizen, and the have clearly shown their political orientation toward socialism and ecology by electing parliament and a government which is dominated by the left and the (left-leaning) greens.
It is no wonder therefore that a project to replace the city music hall by a new building conceived by Zara Hadid has lost popular support in a vote on state subsidies for the construction site, with a more than 60 percent majority.
The people of Basel are used to be well served by their industry's corporate taxes but are not ready to invest in projects of cultural infrastructure.
The most intriguing feature of the phenomenon is the counterproductive behaviour of the representatives of the arts: there is no such thing as solidarity between art,
theater and music. The fatal blow was dealt to the project from within the art scene from a famous sculptor: Bettina Eichin, the author of the sitting statue of Helvetia on the Mittlere Rheinbrücke
Eichin, a fervent environmental activist, stated in a letter to the editor of the local newspaper "Basler Zeitung" that HADID's Casino would contribute to the warming of 3° Centigrade of the city atmosphere because of it's aluminium façade.
Those Basel citizen who did not like the architectural aspect of the project were pleased: finally somebody had explained to them that city concert halls contribute to gobal warming.
The Basel City Music Hall as it looks today and will look for another 20 years
The City Music Hall Project by Zaha HADID that the voters of Basel rejected on June 17, 2007
The city of Basel is proud of it's international image as a strongpoint of art and it is home to an internationally reknowned Music Academy. At the same time, this city, where two of the most important global players of the pharmaceutical industry, ROCHE and NOVARTIS, have their headquarters, is victim of a permanent loss of permanent residents which are able and/or willing to influence it's political fortunes. More to this, the city is the capital of one of the most tiny Cantons of Switzerland, Basel-Stadt, with a population of under 200,000 and it's socio-demographic structures shows a continuous trend towards old age and migrants.
Less than half of the inhabitants are active citizen, and the have clearly shown their political orientation toward socialism and ecology by electing parliament and a government which is dominated by the left and the (left-leaning) greens.
It is no wonder therefore that a project to replace the city music hall by a new building conceived by Zara Hadid has lost popular support in a vote on state subsidies for the construction site, with a more than 60 percent majority.
The people of Basel are used to be well served by their industry's corporate taxes but are not ready to invest in projects of cultural infrastructure.
The most intriguing feature of the phenomenon is the counterproductive behaviour of the representatives of the arts: there is no such thing as solidarity between art,
theater and music. The fatal blow was dealt to the project from within the art scene from a famous sculptor: Bettina Eichin, the author of the sitting statue of Helvetia on the Mittlere Rheinbrücke
Eichin, a fervent environmental activist, stated in a letter to the editor of the local newspaper "Basler Zeitung" that HADID's Casino would contribute to the warming of 3° Centigrade of the city atmosphere because of it's aluminium façade.
Those Basel citizen who did not like the architectural aspect of the project were pleased: finally somebody had explained to them that city concert halls contribute to gobal warming.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
alpa gun - a German Rapper tells us how it is to be a Foreigner - or as the British would have said half a century ago - an Alien
A useful insight into the soul of all those who are in fact "Ausländer" wherever they may live, in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Britain, France or Italy...
An English translation will follow
Die meisten Mitbürger ohne Deutschen Pass arbeiten
seit Jahrzehnten in Deutschland viele sind hier
geboren und aufgewachsen
Das Jahr 1961 ist das Entscheidene Stich Jahr
Fast alle Ausländer die in diesem Jahrhundert nach
Deutschland kommen tun dies um Hier zu arbeiten
Ich bin hier geborn und werd hier draußen alt
ich bin ein Tuerke mit unbefristetem aufenthalt
du brauchst nicht so zu gucken homo weil ich schwarze
haare habe oder
es war nicht leicht hier das sind 26 harte jahre
und unsre eltern haben das geld gebraucht
sie haben hier geackert und ne neue welt gebaut
vater wurde schikaniert als wär er ein terrorist
deswegen leb ich heute da wo das härteste ghetto ist
da wo nur kurden, russen, araber und Tuerken wohnen
da wo die menschen kämpfen müssen für ein bisschen
lohn
euch geht es gut da oben
doch wir habens hier unten schwer
für euch sind wir kanacks und wir müssen trotzdem in
die bundeswehr
ich bin kein faschist ich bin hier nur so aufgewachsen
wenn ich drüben in osten bin kenn ich auch ein paar
glatzen
wir sind hier zu hause es wird zeit dass ihr es heute
rafft
fast jeder von uns auf der straße hat 'n deutschen
pass
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch ich bin hier geboren oder
zu viele sind heute im knast nur aus manchen ist was
geworden
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
wir habens hier nicht leicht gehabt
die straße im ghetto hat noch niemanden reich gemacht
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch berlin ist mein zu hause, meine heimat, meine
stadt
hier kriegst du auch mal auf die schnauze
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch für euch bin ich kanacke
trotzdem bin ich hier und leb unter der deutschen
flagge
rechtlich gesehen sind sie deutsche, aber sie bleiben
fremde denn von ihren kumpels unterscheiden sie sich
durch ihre sprache und ihren glauben
jahh..hier gibt es viele banden und zu viele drauf
gänger
ja es stimmt die meisten von denen sind AUSLÄNDER
jahh..guck jeder zweite von uns und viertel ist
vorbestraft
du machst auf gangsta doch keiner an deinem dorf ist
hart
früher war alles anders ich hab auch abgezogen
und so manche gute freunde von mir wurden abgeschoben
oder
ich weiß man hat kein grund und nicht das recht
jemanden anzugreifen
doch sie finden immer wieder ein grund dich anzuzeigen
und heute ist es so dass wir uns gegenseitig schlagen
es hat sich viel geändert es ist nicht mehr wie vor 30
jahren
damals hielten wir noch mehr zusammen und waren gegen
nazis
jetzt hast du beef mit leuten die du hier jeden tag
siehst
doch in mein bezirk sind wir wie eine familie
ich wohne gerne schöneberg weil ich hier alle liebe
ich kann nicht weg hier weil ich die gegend brauche
guck berlin ist meine heimat berlin ist unser zuhause
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch ich bin hier geboren
zu viele sind heute im knast nur aus manchen ist was
geworden
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
wir habens hier nicht leicht gehabt
die straße im ghetto hat noch niemanden reich gemacht
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch berlin ist mein zu hause, meine heimat, meine
stadt
hier kriegst du auch mal auf die schnauze
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch für euch bin ich kanacke
canim trotzdem bin ich hier und leb unter der
deutschen flagge
ihr müsst mir glauben der umgang mit euch ist gar
nicht leicht
ihr schmeißt uns auf ein haufen und sagt wir sind alle
gleich
ich hab mich oft geschlagen doch mein bruder wollte
nicht so sein
trotzdem kommt er wegen sein aussehen in keine disco
rein
Tuerken töten für ehre und drehen auch krumme dinger
und manche deutsche machen lieber sex mit kleinen
kindern
nicht jeder von uns würde mit koks oder hero dealen
ich sag doch auch nicht jeder deutsche ist gestört und
Pädophil
es ist wie eine rebe mit großen und kleinen trauben
wenn eine schlecht ist heißt es nicht das gleich alle
verfault sind
wir mussten kämpfen und haben nie was von euch gewollt
nder
ihr sollt nur wissen wir sind auch ein teil vom
deutschen volk
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch ich bin hier geboren zu viele sind heute im knast
nur aus manchen ist was geworden
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
wir habens hier nicht leicht gehabt
die straße im ghetto hat noch niemanden reich gemacht
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch berlin ist mein zu hause, meine heimat, meine
stadt
hier kriegst du auch mal auf die schnauze
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch für euch bin ich kanacke
trotzdem bin ich hier und leb unter der deutschen
flagge
ICH BIN EIN AUSLÄNDER
für alle AUSLÄNDER und für alle DEUTSCHEN..
alpa gun
A useful insight into the soul of all those who are in fact "Ausländer" wherever they may live, in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Britain, France or Italy...
An English translation will follow
Die meisten Mitbürger ohne Deutschen Pass arbeiten
seit Jahrzehnten in Deutschland viele sind hier
geboren und aufgewachsen
Das Jahr 1961 ist das Entscheidene Stich Jahr
Fast alle Ausländer die in diesem Jahrhundert nach
Deutschland kommen tun dies um Hier zu arbeiten
Ich bin hier geborn und werd hier draußen alt
ich bin ein Tuerke mit unbefristetem aufenthalt
du brauchst nicht so zu gucken homo weil ich schwarze
haare habe oder
es war nicht leicht hier das sind 26 harte jahre
und unsre eltern haben das geld gebraucht
sie haben hier geackert und ne neue welt gebaut
vater wurde schikaniert als wär er ein terrorist
deswegen leb ich heute da wo das härteste ghetto ist
da wo nur kurden, russen, araber und Tuerken wohnen
da wo die menschen kämpfen müssen für ein bisschen
lohn
euch geht es gut da oben
doch wir habens hier unten schwer
für euch sind wir kanacks und wir müssen trotzdem in
die bundeswehr
ich bin kein faschist ich bin hier nur so aufgewachsen
wenn ich drüben in osten bin kenn ich auch ein paar
glatzen
wir sind hier zu hause es wird zeit dass ihr es heute
rafft
fast jeder von uns auf der straße hat 'n deutschen
pass
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch ich bin hier geboren oder
zu viele sind heute im knast nur aus manchen ist was
geworden
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
wir habens hier nicht leicht gehabt
die straße im ghetto hat noch niemanden reich gemacht
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch berlin ist mein zu hause, meine heimat, meine
stadt
hier kriegst du auch mal auf die schnauze
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch für euch bin ich kanacke
trotzdem bin ich hier und leb unter der deutschen
flagge
rechtlich gesehen sind sie deutsche, aber sie bleiben
fremde denn von ihren kumpels unterscheiden sie sich
durch ihre sprache und ihren glauben
jahh..hier gibt es viele banden und zu viele drauf
gänger
ja es stimmt die meisten von denen sind AUSLÄNDER
jahh..guck jeder zweite von uns und viertel ist
vorbestraft
du machst auf gangsta doch keiner an deinem dorf ist
hart
früher war alles anders ich hab auch abgezogen
und so manche gute freunde von mir wurden abgeschoben
oder
ich weiß man hat kein grund und nicht das recht
jemanden anzugreifen
doch sie finden immer wieder ein grund dich anzuzeigen
und heute ist es so dass wir uns gegenseitig schlagen
es hat sich viel geändert es ist nicht mehr wie vor 30
jahren
damals hielten wir noch mehr zusammen und waren gegen
nazis
jetzt hast du beef mit leuten die du hier jeden tag
siehst
doch in mein bezirk sind wir wie eine familie
ich wohne gerne schöneberg weil ich hier alle liebe
ich kann nicht weg hier weil ich die gegend brauche
guck berlin ist meine heimat berlin ist unser zuhause
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch ich bin hier geboren
zu viele sind heute im knast nur aus manchen ist was
geworden
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
wir habens hier nicht leicht gehabt
die straße im ghetto hat noch niemanden reich gemacht
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch berlin ist mein zu hause, meine heimat, meine
stadt
hier kriegst du auch mal auf die schnauze
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch für euch bin ich kanacke
canim trotzdem bin ich hier und leb unter der
deutschen flagge
ihr müsst mir glauben der umgang mit euch ist gar
nicht leicht
ihr schmeißt uns auf ein haufen und sagt wir sind alle
gleich
ich hab mich oft geschlagen doch mein bruder wollte
nicht so sein
trotzdem kommt er wegen sein aussehen in keine disco
rein
Tuerken töten für ehre und drehen auch krumme dinger
und manche deutsche machen lieber sex mit kleinen
kindern
nicht jeder von uns würde mit koks oder hero dealen
ich sag doch auch nicht jeder deutsche ist gestört und
Pädophil
es ist wie eine rebe mit großen und kleinen trauben
wenn eine schlecht ist heißt es nicht das gleich alle
verfault sind
wir mussten kämpfen und haben nie was von euch gewollt
nder
ihr sollt nur wissen wir sind auch ein teil vom
deutschen volk
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch ich bin hier geboren zu viele sind heute im knast
nur aus manchen ist was geworden
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
wir habens hier nicht leicht gehabt
die straße im ghetto hat noch niemanden reich gemacht
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch berlin ist mein zu hause, meine heimat, meine
stadt
hier kriegst du auch mal auf die schnauze
ich bin ein AUSLÄNDER
doch für euch bin ich kanacke
trotzdem bin ich hier und leb unter der deutschen
flagge
ICH BIN EIN AUSLÄNDER
für alle AUSLÄNDER und für alle DEUTSCHEN..
alpa gun
Sunday, May 06, 2007
SARKOZY élu président de la République Française - va-t-il pouvoir tenir ses promesses?
Le nouveau président de la République Française a héritéd'un pays dans un profond désarroi. S'il peut se féliciter de la majorité claire qu'il a obtenu dans le second tour de l'élection face à une Ségolène Royal de plus en plus émotive, aggressive et en même temps chancellante dans la phase terminale, il va être hanté par le spectre des expectations qu'il a nourri dans les rangs de l'extrème droite. Va-t-il pouvoir se libérer de l'hypothèque que ses déclarations plus encourageante vis-à-vis des exigences l'extrème droite représenten pour lui. A gauche, il n'y a pour l'instant peu de risque pour le nouveau patron de l'Elysée, L'envie de faire la grève se trouve fortement amoindrie, et il faudra beaucoup d'effort pour guérir les blessures des déchirements intérieurs dans les rangs des socialistes.
De toute façon, il ne faut pas perdre des yeux le candidat qui a fini troisième au premier tour des élections présidentielle, François Bayrou, et qui très probablement va faire un effort considérable pour se retrouver avec un groupe parlamentaire UDF fort à l'Assemblée après les élections législatives de l'été.
La chance pour les centristes de modifier non seulement la ligne de tir de l'UMP, mais aussi bien celle de la gauche dans la bonne direction, c.à.d. l'ouverture d'abord sur l'Union Européennes puis sur le marché nord-américain et mondial.
Le nouveau président de la République Française a héritéd'un pays dans un profond désarroi. S'il peut se féliciter de la majorité claire qu'il a obtenu dans le second tour de l'élection face à une Ségolène Royal de plus en plus émotive, aggressive et en même temps chancellante dans la phase terminale, il va être hanté par le spectre des expectations qu'il a nourri dans les rangs de l'extrème droite. Va-t-il pouvoir se libérer de l'hypothèque que ses déclarations plus encourageante vis-à-vis des exigences l'extrème droite représenten pour lui. A gauche, il n'y a pour l'instant peu de risque pour le nouveau patron de l'Elysée, L'envie de faire la grève se trouve fortement amoindrie, et il faudra beaucoup d'effort pour guérir les blessures des déchirements intérieurs dans les rangs des socialistes.
De toute façon, il ne faut pas perdre des yeux le candidat qui a fini troisième au premier tour des élections présidentielle, François Bayrou, et qui très probablement va faire un effort considérable pour se retrouver avec un groupe parlamentaire UDF fort à l'Assemblée après les élections législatives de l'été.
La chance pour les centristes de modifier non seulement la ligne de tir de l'UMP, mais aussi bien celle de la gauche dans la bonne direction, c.à.d. l'ouverture d'abord sur l'Union Européennes puis sur le marché nord-américain et mondial.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Poland reinvents the witch hunt
La Pologne réinvente la chasse aux sorcières
Once upon a time witch hunts and immolation of witches were a strong tradition in continental Europe.
In Switzerland, the last criminal process process for alleged sorcery took place in the Canton of Glaris in 1782 against Anna Göldi (born 1734). Despite the efforts of a qualified defense lawyer and nation-wide support by members of the scientific and political elite, Anna Göldi was found guilty and executed by the sword.
The witch hunt that the Kaczynski brothers have engaged in will most probably not lead to capital punishment, but it will destroy the carreer and the professional outlook for thousands of members of the academe of a country that is a full member of the European Union, for the simple reason that all civil servants are asked to declare that they have never had had any kind of coperation with the communist regime. Tadeusz Masowiecki is among them and he had the courage not to sign that declaration.
In addition to my congratulations on the occasion of his 80th birthday, I add my best wishes to him for his civil courage and civil desobedience. Hopefully his example will be followed by many.
Il y avait, en Europe, dans un lointain passé, une tradition très forte de chasser et d'immoler des sorcières.
En Suisse, le dernier procès pour sorcellerie a été ouvert en 1782 dans le Canton de Glaris, contre Anna Göldi. Malgré une défense compétente et des interventions en faveur de l'accusée par des membres de l'élite scientifique et politique du pays, Anna Göldi a été trouvée coupable de sorcellerie sur la fille de son employeur , condamnée et exécutée à l'épée.
Il est fort improbable que la chasse aux sorcières dans laquelle se sont engagés récemment les jumeaux Kaczynski va se solder par une peine capitale, mais elle pourrait détruire la carrière et les chances de réusssite professionelle de bon nombre de membres de la communauté académique de la Pologne, donc dans un pays qui membre à part entière de l'Union Européenne, pour la simple raison que toutes les personnes employées dans le service public sont obligé de déclarer, par écrit et sous sermon, de ne jamais avoir été en contact avec les services secret de l'ancien régime communiste, sous peine de perdre leur poste.
Mr. Masowiecki et parmi eux et il a osé refuser de signer.
En plus des cordiaux voeux que j'avais formulé lors de son quatre-vingtième annversaire tout récemment,j'aimerais lui présenter mes sincères félications pour son courage et sa désobéissance civique, tout en espérant que son example soit suivi par un grand nombre de personnes.
La Pologne réinvente la chasse aux sorcières
Once upon a time witch hunts and immolation of witches were a strong tradition in continental Europe.
In Switzerland, the last criminal process process for alleged sorcery took place in the Canton of Glaris in 1782 against Anna Göldi (born 1734). Despite the efforts of a qualified defense lawyer and nation-wide support by members of the scientific and political elite, Anna Göldi was found guilty and executed by the sword.
The witch hunt that the Kaczynski brothers have engaged in will most probably not lead to capital punishment, but it will destroy the carreer and the professional outlook for thousands of members of the academe of a country that is a full member of the European Union, for the simple reason that all civil servants are asked to declare that they have never had had any kind of coperation with the communist regime. Tadeusz Masowiecki is among them and he had the courage not to sign that declaration.
In addition to my congratulations on the occasion of his 80th birthday, I add my best wishes to him for his civil courage and civil desobedience. Hopefully his example will be followed by many.
Il y avait, en Europe, dans un lointain passé, une tradition très forte de chasser et d'immoler des sorcières.
En Suisse, le dernier procès pour sorcellerie a été ouvert en 1782 dans le Canton de Glaris, contre Anna Göldi. Malgré une défense compétente et des interventions en faveur de l'accusée par des membres de l'élite scientifique et politique du pays, Anna Göldi a été trouvée coupable de sorcellerie sur la fille de son employeur , condamnée et exécutée à l'épée.
Il est fort improbable que la chasse aux sorcières dans laquelle se sont engagés récemment les jumeaux Kaczynski va se solder par une peine capitale, mais elle pourrait détruire la carrière et les chances de réusssite professionelle de bon nombre de membres de la communauté académique de la Pologne, donc dans un pays qui membre à part entière de l'Union Européenne, pour la simple raison que toutes les personnes employées dans le service public sont obligé de déclarer, par écrit et sous sermon, de ne jamais avoir été en contact avec les services secret de l'ancien régime communiste, sous peine de perdre leur poste.
Mr. Masowiecki et parmi eux et il a osé refuser de signer.
En plus des cordiaux voeux que j'avais formulé lors de son quatre-vingtième annversaire tout récemment,j'aimerais lui présenter mes sincères félications pour son courage et sa désobéissance civique, tout en espérant que son example soit suivi par un grand nombre de personnes.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
L'avenir du mouvement libéral dans les mains de François Bayrou
Tout l'avenir de la survie d'une formation libérale dans le sens propre du terme en France dépend maintenant des capacités intellectuelles et de la force morale de François Bayrou. Va-t-il vendre sa peau à Sarkozy pour un siège au gouvernement, va-t-il tomber sous le charme de Ségolène Royal, le risque et gigantesque. Il pourra perdre ses électeurs en se déclarant en faveur d'un des deux candidats victorieux au premier tour, mais aussi bien en rejetant d'emblée un soutien d'un des deux candidats. La question cruciale, c'est l'ordre de grandeur des pertes de l'UDF pertes lors des élections législatives. Sie le parti et son chef résistent à la temptation de joindre l'un des deux camps du bipôle, il gardent une chance considérable de former un groupe UDF fort au parlement qui pourra s'imposer de façon significative dans l'hémicycle et faire bousculer certaines législations dans la bonne direction. Tout dépendra de la force morale des électeurs UDF et de leur chef, François Bayroud, face à la guillotine (ou des chants de sirènes) du bipolarisme.
En ce qui concerne les libéraux en Suisse le résultat de l'UDF aux législatives en France sera de bonne ou de mauvaise augure pour eux. Mutatis mutandis ils se trouvent dans le même dilemme. Si on veut être optimiste, on peut considérer qu'il y a un réservoir d'électeurs à esprit libéral (qu'il faudra convaincre qu'ils ont raison de l'être et de voter en conséquence) proche de 20 % en France, et pourquoi pas en Suisse?
Tout l'avenir de la survie d'une formation libérale dans le sens propre du terme en France dépend maintenant des capacités intellectuelles et de la force morale de François Bayrou. Va-t-il vendre sa peau à Sarkozy pour un siège au gouvernement, va-t-il tomber sous le charme de Ségolène Royal, le risque et gigantesque. Il pourra perdre ses électeurs en se déclarant en faveur d'un des deux candidats victorieux au premier tour, mais aussi bien en rejetant d'emblée un soutien d'un des deux candidats. La question cruciale, c'est l'ordre de grandeur des pertes de l'UDF pertes lors des élections législatives. Sie le parti et son chef résistent à la temptation de joindre l'un des deux camps du bipôle, il gardent une chance considérable de former un groupe UDF fort au parlement qui pourra s'imposer de façon significative dans l'hémicycle et faire bousculer certaines législations dans la bonne direction. Tout dépendra de la force morale des électeurs UDF et de leur chef, François Bayroud, face à la guillotine (ou des chants de sirènes) du bipolarisme.
En ce qui concerne les libéraux en Suisse le résultat de l'UDF aux législatives en France sera de bonne ou de mauvaise augure pour eux. Mutatis mutandis ils se trouvent dans le même dilemme. Si on veut être optimiste, on peut considérer qu'il y a un réservoir d'électeurs à esprit libéral (qu'il faudra convaincre qu'ils ont raison de l'être et de voter en conséquence) proche de 20 % en France, et pourquoi pas en Suisse?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Happy Birthday Mr Mazowiecki
Portrait Photography 2001 by Maciej Plewinski, Krakow, Poland
http://www.plewinski.com/
Dear Mr Mazowiecki
You are one of the most distinguished political thinkers and political leaders of our times, and it cannot be stressed enough that not only you have been, as Rudolf Stamm notes on page 7 of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of April 17, 2007: "The Spiritus Rector of Solidarnosc" but that you have lent your intellectual and moral power, after your successful term as Poland's first post-communist prime minister in 1989 and 1990, to one of the most difficult humanitarian mandates of the last decade of the 20th century:
as envoy of the United Nations from 1991 to 1995 in Bosnia torn apart by a cruel fratricidal war. More to that: you had the courage to step back and to declare that you did this not so much because you were tired but in order to protest against the political class of Western Europe that did systematically scotomize these disastrous events which have left deep wounds in the Balkans that will last for decades to come.
Your recent engagement against growing ultra-nationalist extremism in your own country at an age where others would sit back to contemplate the world with contempt but without telling their fellow citizens about their thoughts and their feelings, merits our full admiration.
With my best wishes for many years to come, for fine health and good spirits
Osservatore Profano
Portrait Photography 2001 by Maciej Plewinski, Krakow, Poland
http://www.plewinski.com/
Dear Mr Mazowiecki
You are one of the most distinguished political thinkers and political leaders of our times, and it cannot be stressed enough that not only you have been, as Rudolf Stamm notes on page 7 of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of April 17, 2007: "The Spiritus Rector of Solidarnosc" but that you have lent your intellectual and moral power, after your successful term as Poland's first post-communist prime minister in 1989 and 1990, to one of the most difficult humanitarian mandates of the last decade of the 20th century:
as envoy of the United Nations from 1991 to 1995 in Bosnia torn apart by a cruel fratricidal war. More to that: you had the courage to step back and to declare that you did this not so much because you were tired but in order to protest against the political class of Western Europe that did systematically scotomize these disastrous events which have left deep wounds in the Balkans that will last for decades to come.
Your recent engagement against growing ultra-nationalist extremism in your own country at an age where others would sit back to contemplate the world with contempt but without telling their fellow citizens about their thoughts and their feelings, merits our full admiration.
With my best wishes for many years to come, for fine health and good spirits
Osservatore Profano
Sunday, April 15, 2007
EURO 08 and UEFA - from m***y-l********g to political power play
Will the VAT revenue gradient between Austria and Switzerland ring the final bell to Swiss federal income taxation?
Football (soccer) organizations such as FIFA and UEFA are well known for their m***y-l*******ng capacities and m***a-like behaviour, but the latest knews concerning the VAT(value added tax, MwSt / Mehrwertsteuer) revenues of both Austria and Switzerland, the two organizing nations of the EURO 08, show the potential of the football organizations to come out in the open of political power play. According to a report of the Sunday edition of the Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ am Sonntag), UEFA will sell tickets for the same price in both Austria and Switzerland despite the fact that the Austrian State imposes a 20% VAT whch will generate an estimated revenue of about 10 millions Euros, while the Swiss Confederation -on the basis of a VAT of only 2,4%, will earn only about 0.8 million Euros. Switzerland will have to spend more than 55 million Euros in taxpayer's money for the EURO 08 contest.
Three questions arise:
a) How stupid have the Swiss authorities been in their negotiations with the UEFA
to accept costs of more than 50 millions Euro to be covered by income taxes,
without looking at their partners in Austria
a) Why have EURO 08 visitors in Switzerland to pay the same price per ticket
as their Austrian neighbours without an effect on the burden of the EURO 08
infrastructure and service costs on their state budget?
c) What will be the effect of this incredible mess on the image Swiss
income tax payers will have of he wisdom of their government and parliament?
It may well be that football will become - more than ever before - an important element of the political powerplay and that the UEFA's ball tricks may make understand the Swiss that it would be proof of their collective intelligence to liquidate the overdue federal income tax in favor of a reasonable VAT.
Maybe finance minister Merz, a clever man who does his tricks behind the backs of his media-hungry colleagues such as Blocher, Couchepin and Calmy-Rey, will be pleased to read the NZZ am Sonntag report.
Two images representing violent behaviour on the football field published in the first version of this post have been eliminated
after warnings by a fellow (professional) blogger that they might provoke legal action by the football associations mentionned above.
The Editor
Will the VAT revenue gradient between Austria and Switzerland ring the final bell to Swiss federal income taxation?
Football (soccer) organizations such as FIFA and UEFA are well known for their m***y-l*******ng capacities and m***a-like behaviour, but the latest knews concerning the VAT(value added tax, MwSt / Mehrwertsteuer) revenues of both Austria and Switzerland, the two organizing nations of the EURO 08, show the potential of the football organizations to come out in the open of political power play. According to a report of the Sunday edition of the Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ am Sonntag), UEFA will sell tickets for the same price in both Austria and Switzerland despite the fact that the Austrian State imposes a 20% VAT whch will generate an estimated revenue of about 10 millions Euros, while the Swiss Confederation -on the basis of a VAT of only 2,4%, will earn only about 0.8 million Euros. Switzerland will have to spend more than 55 million Euros in taxpayer's money for the EURO 08 contest.
Three questions arise:
a) How stupid have the Swiss authorities been in their negotiations with the UEFA
to accept costs of more than 50 millions Euro to be covered by income taxes,
without looking at their partners in Austria
a) Why have EURO 08 visitors in Switzerland to pay the same price per ticket
as their Austrian neighbours without an effect on the burden of the EURO 08
infrastructure and service costs on their state budget?
c) What will be the effect of this incredible mess on the image Swiss
income tax payers will have of he wisdom of their government and parliament?
It may well be that football will become - more than ever before - an important element of the political powerplay and that the UEFA's ball tricks may make understand the Swiss that it would be proof of their collective intelligence to liquidate the overdue federal income tax in favor of a reasonable VAT.
Maybe finance minister Merz, a clever man who does his tricks behind the backs of his media-hungry colleagues such as Blocher, Couchepin and Calmy-Rey, will be pleased to read the NZZ am Sonntag report.
Two images representing violent behaviour on the football field published in the first version of this post have been eliminated
after warnings by a fellow (professional) blogger that they might provoke legal action by the football associations mentionned above.
The Editor
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Darfur - Jihad perverted
From a strictly religious standpoint, the killing of the Christian and or animist population of Southern Sudan could be interpreted as part of the obligation of pious Muslims to fight the infidels. But there is now enough evidence that religious zeal is not the principal motive for the activities of the milices supported by the government in Khartum in Darfur.The fossile fuel and mineral resources below the surface are the most important one, and no one knows who will finally take profit from the dirty work of the milices. All this might be trivial if there was not the silence with which religious authorities and intellectuals in the islamic world ahve reacted to the Darfur tragedy so far.
It would greatly enhance the credibility of the religious and intellectual elite of the muslim community if it's most prominent exponents could decide to take action against the Khartum government, beyond the closed circles of the United Nations. No doubt, the victims of the United States war against Iraq and the sufferings of the Chechen population on the hand of Russia both contribute greatly to a desire for revenge throughout the Muslim community, but this is a different story, this is Africa, a continent that has already suffered too much from foreign domination, be it
slavery, colonial or postcolonial oppression, a continent without defense.
A strong word from Muslim leaders on Darfur is overdue.
From a strictly religious standpoint, the killing of the Christian and or animist population of Southern Sudan could be interpreted as part of the obligation of pious Muslims to fight the infidels. But there is now enough evidence that religious zeal is not the principal motive for the activities of the milices supported by the government in Khartum in Darfur.The fossile fuel and mineral resources below the surface are the most important one, and no one knows who will finally take profit from the dirty work of the milices. All this might be trivial if there was not the silence with which religious authorities and intellectuals in the islamic world ahve reacted to the Darfur tragedy so far.
It would greatly enhance the credibility of the religious and intellectual elite of the muslim community if it's most prominent exponents could decide to take action against the Khartum government, beyond the closed circles of the United Nations. No doubt, the victims of the United States war against Iraq and the sufferings of the Chechen population on the hand of Russia both contribute greatly to a desire for revenge throughout the Muslim community, but this is a different story, this is Africa, a continent that has already suffered too much from foreign domination, be it
slavery, colonial or postcolonial oppression, a continent without defense.
A strong word from Muslim leaders on Darfur is overdue.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
"Monarchie bananière" et "Cheval noir"
Aujourd'hui, la Neue Zürcher Zeitung décrit François Bayrou comme "cheval noir" qui aurait échappé au propriétaire de son écurie, l'UDF (seul mouvement libéral de la France) et plus particulièrement à l'ancien Président de la République, Giscard d'Estaing. Il y a deux raisons pour Giscard de se fâcher contre le "cheval noir":
a) Etant ENArque lui-même,il y lui-même toujours été un membre proéminent de la "monarchie bananière" apostrophiée hier sur France Culture par la Verte Corinne Lepage (dont ont peu admirer le courage du soutenir un libéral et d'afficher sa conviction qu'écologiee et économie de marché ne sont pas en contradiction irréparable)
b) Bayrou propose un projet simplifié pour la Constitution Européenne dont Giscard a été le père spirituel...
Vous trouverez les sites web de Bayrou et de Corinne Lepage dans la liste des liens.
"Banana Monarchy" and "Black Horse"
Yesterday, on French radio station "France Culture", a refreshing interview with one of the less known dozens of candidates for the French presidential election, Corinne Lepage. This outspoken lady has already made public her preference for the liberal François Bayrou who at present is classified third in the presidential race behind the official big party candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal.
While openly addressing ecological subjects, she refuses to accept the wide-spread view that market economy and ecological objectives are incompatible. Why does she take sides at this early stage of the campaign`with a liberal outsider? She explains that France has become a "banana monarchy" which means that the power centers of the state are in the hands of an extremely restricted and inbred elite of men and women who have started their carreer as students at the ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration), the so-called "Enarchs", with little or no contact with the economic and societal reality of the population.
Her programme is worth reading even for those who do not share her views on nuclear power plants. You will find it along with the one of François Bayrou on the link list.
Today, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung describes François Bayrou as "Black Horse" escaping control by his owner (former French President Giscard d'Estaing and the "Union pour la Démocratie Française UDF", the only serious liberal movement in France). It is clear that Giscard d'Estaing ist angry about the "black horse" for two simple reasons:
a) Giscard has always been a prominent "ENArque" and member of the "banana monarchy" nomenclatura, and
b) Bayrou is suggesting a new, simplified project for the European Constitution the core programme of which had been masterminded by Giscard himself...
Aujourd'hui, la Neue Zürcher Zeitung décrit François Bayrou comme "cheval noir" qui aurait échappé au propriétaire de son écurie, l'UDF (seul mouvement libéral de la France) et plus particulièrement à l'ancien Président de la République, Giscard d'Estaing. Il y a deux raisons pour Giscard de se fâcher contre le "cheval noir":
a) Etant ENArque lui-même,il y lui-même toujours été un membre proéminent de la "monarchie bananière" apostrophiée hier sur France Culture par la Verte Corinne Lepage (dont ont peu admirer le courage du soutenir un libéral et d'afficher sa conviction qu'écologiee et économie de marché ne sont pas en contradiction irréparable)
b) Bayrou propose un projet simplifié pour la Constitution Européenne dont Giscard a été le père spirituel...
Vous trouverez les sites web de Bayrou et de Corinne Lepage dans la liste des liens.
"Banana Monarchy" and "Black Horse"
Yesterday, on French radio station "France Culture", a refreshing interview with one of the less known dozens of candidates for the French presidential election, Corinne Lepage. This outspoken lady has already made public her preference for the liberal François Bayrou who at present is classified third in the presidential race behind the official big party candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal.
While openly addressing ecological subjects, she refuses to accept the wide-spread view that market economy and ecological objectives are incompatible. Why does she take sides at this early stage of the campaign`with a liberal outsider? She explains that France has become a "banana monarchy" which means that the power centers of the state are in the hands of an extremely restricted and inbred elite of men and women who have started their carreer as students at the ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration), the so-called "Enarchs", with little or no contact with the economic and societal reality of the population.
Her programme is worth reading even for those who do not share her views on nuclear power plants. You will find it along with the one of François Bayrou on the link list.
Today, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung describes François Bayrou as "Black Horse" escaping control by his owner (former French President Giscard d'Estaing and the "Union pour la Démocratie Française UDF", the only serious liberal movement in France). It is clear that Giscard d'Estaing ist angry about the "black horse" for two simple reasons:
a) Giscard has always been a prominent "ENArque" and member of the "banana monarchy" nomenclatura, and
b) Bayrou is suggesting a new, simplified project for the European Constitution the core programme of which had been masterminded by Giscard himself...
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Fortune-Building in Switzerland and the reinvention of dynasties of the Habsburg type
My post on Swiss Federal minister of justice Christoph Blocher and his critique of NOVARTIS CEO and chairman of the board Daniel Vasella has provoked interesting comments. An anonymous commentator whose text I will not publish in extenso for reasons of privacy protection writes to me:
"What astounds me about HBM (i.e. Henri B.Meier, former finance chief of ROCHE and HBM Partner AG, Zurich, respectively, see http://www.moneyhouse.ch/u/pub/hbm_partners_ag_CH-020.3.024.334-3.htm - the editor ), Ebner & Blocher: No one in this country is interested in the real origin of Blocher's fortune (it can quite obviously not be from EMS) and no one in this country seems to be interested in the origin of HBMs astronomical financial profits @ Roche back in the early nineties either, nor in the financial shambles he left, earlier this decade. ... Despite the vast amount of socialist oriented journalists, writing here. An omertà that reminds one of the Craxi Italy and of the former PM there, don't you think?"
My post on Swiss Federal minister of justice Christoph Blocher and his critique of NOVARTIS CEO and chairman of the board Daniel Vasella has provoked interesting comments. An anonymous commentator whose text I will not publish in extenso for reasons of privacy protection writes to me:
"What astounds me about HBM (i.e. Henri B.Meier, former finance chief of ROCHE and HBM Partner AG, Zurich, respectively, see http://www.moneyhouse.ch/u/pub/hbm_partners_ag_CH-020.3.024.334-3.htm - the editor ), Ebner & Blocher: No one in this country is interested in the real origin of Blocher's fortune (it can quite obviously not be from EMS) and no one in this country seems to be interested in the origin of HBMs astronomical financial profits @ Roche back in the early nineties either, nor in the financial shambles he left, earlier this decade. ... Despite the vast amount of socialist oriented journalists, writing here. An omertà that reminds one of the Craxi Italy and of the former PM there, don't you think?"
Monday, February 26, 2007
Blocher's U-turn from nationalism to stockholder (or national?) socialism
Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher is a fine strategist with a complete amnesia for his own entrepreneurial carreer. By attacking NOVARTIS CEO Daniel Vasella - in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag, February 25, 2007 - and presenting himself as an advocate for stockholder rights, he forgets how he himself did his tricks as a young poor farmer and son of a protestant clergyman to become first CEO of EMS Chemie, a fine-chemicals enterprise domciliated at Domat-Ems in the Canton of Grisons and then get complete control of what is now EMS-Chemie Holding and a vast financial empire which he handed over to his children when he was elected to the Swiss Federal Council. A fierce patriot with a perfect sensorium and rhetoric to allure the electorate from the extreme right , he uses his power as minister of justice to remodel the judicial system of Switzerland according to his own ideas, which always come as a surprise to those who do not know him. His newest U-turn, presented as an indirect critique of NOVARTIS boss Vasella, has been well designed to please the notoriously socalist electorate of the Canton of Basel-Stadt and to help his own Swiss People's Party (SVP) that has had a difficult stand in that tiny city-republic and headquarter of ROCHE and NOVARTIS so far.
It is far from certain if the notoriously minoritarian liberals will be able to stem the tide and prevent Blocher's party from sucking them up in the national parliamentary elections due in autumn 2007.
The fusion of nationalism and socialism, Blocher style, is well under way in Switzerland.
Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher is a fine strategist with a complete amnesia for his own entrepreneurial carreer. By attacking NOVARTIS CEO Daniel Vasella - in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag, February 25, 2007 - and presenting himself as an advocate for stockholder rights, he forgets how he himself did his tricks as a young poor farmer and son of a protestant clergyman to become first CEO of EMS Chemie, a fine-chemicals enterprise domciliated at Domat-Ems in the Canton of Grisons and then get complete control of what is now EMS-Chemie Holding and a vast financial empire which he handed over to his children when he was elected to the Swiss Federal Council. A fierce patriot with a perfect sensorium and rhetoric to allure the electorate from the extreme right , he uses his power as minister of justice to remodel the judicial system of Switzerland according to his own ideas, which always come as a surprise to those who do not know him. His newest U-turn, presented as an indirect critique of NOVARTIS boss Vasella, has been well designed to please the notoriously socalist electorate of the Canton of Basel-Stadt and to help his own Swiss People's Party (SVP) that has had a difficult stand in that tiny city-republic and headquarter of ROCHE and NOVARTIS so far.
It is far from certain if the notoriously minoritarian liberals will be able to stem the tide and prevent Blocher's party from sucking them up in the national parliamentary elections due in autumn 2007.
The fusion of nationalism and socialism, Blocher style, is well under way in Switzerland.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Muammar Al Gadhafi's Best Friends
are the Swiss. 50% of their importation of crude oil is from Libya. While the Swiss are bickering at each other over the question whether they will need nuclear power plants from 2020 on, they heat their homes and they drive their cars with fuel from a dictatorship of exemplary cruelty (see my post of december 12, 2006 on "le jugement de Tripoli")
A question: would a boycot of Libyan oil and the demand for oil from countries where the most basic human rights are respected fall into the category of racist, antiislamic ideologies?
Les meilleurs amis de Mouammar El Gaddafi
ce sont les Suisses. 50% de leurs importantions de pétrole brut proviennet de la Libye. Pendant qu'ils s'engueulent entre eux pour savoir s'ils auront besoin de centrales nucléaires à partir de l'an 2020, ils chauffent leurs maisons et ils conduisent leurs bagnoles avec du fuel qui provient d'une dictature d'une cruauté exemplaire (voir mon texte du 12 décembre 2006 "Le jugement de Tripoli...")
Une question: Un boycot du pétrole libyen et la demande d'importer du fuel de pays où les droits fondamentaux sont respectés tomberaient-il sous la catégorie d'une idéologie raciste ou antiislamique?
Die besten Freunde Muammar Al Gadhafis
sind die Schweizer. 50% ihrer Rohölimporte stammen aus Libyen. Während sie heftig darüber streiten, ob sie ab 2020 Kernkraftwerke benötigen werden, heizen sie
ihre Häuser und fahren sie ihre Wagen mit Sprit der aus einer Diktatur von exemplarischer Grausamkeit stammt (man vergleiche mit meinem Post vom 12.Dezember 2006 über den Prozess von Tripoli).
Eine Frage: müsste ein Boykott libyschen Erdöls und die Forderung, Öl aus Ländern zu importieten, in denen die fundamentalen Menschenrechte respektiert werden, alsAusdruck einer rassistischen oder antiislamischen Ideologie gewertet werden?
I migliori amici di Muammar El Gaddafi
sono i Svizzeri. Il 50 percento delle loro importazioni di petroglio crudo vengono dalla Libia. Mentre che litigano con grande intensità sul problema se avranno bisogno di centrali nucleari nel 2020, riscaldano i loro appartamenti e guidano le loro vetture con gasoglio o benzina che proviene da una dittarura di crudeltà straordinaria (cf. il mio post del 12 dicembre 2006 "le jugement de Tripoli...")
Una domanda: il fatto di domandare un boicotto dell'importazione di petroglio dalla Libia dovrebbe essere qualificato come l'espressione di un'ideologia razzista o antiislamica?
are the Swiss. 50% of their importation of crude oil is from Libya. While the Swiss are bickering at each other over the question whether they will need nuclear power plants from 2020 on, they heat their homes and they drive their cars with fuel from a dictatorship of exemplary cruelty (see my post of december 12, 2006 on "le jugement de Tripoli")
A question: would a boycot of Libyan oil and the demand for oil from countries where the most basic human rights are respected fall into the category of racist, antiislamic ideologies?
Les meilleurs amis de Mouammar El Gaddafi
ce sont les Suisses. 50% de leurs importantions de pétrole brut proviennet de la Libye. Pendant qu'ils s'engueulent entre eux pour savoir s'ils auront besoin de centrales nucléaires à partir de l'an 2020, ils chauffent leurs maisons et ils conduisent leurs bagnoles avec du fuel qui provient d'une dictature d'une cruauté exemplaire (voir mon texte du 12 décembre 2006 "Le jugement de Tripoli...")
Une question: Un boycot du pétrole libyen et la demande d'importer du fuel de pays où les droits fondamentaux sont respectés tomberaient-il sous la catégorie d'une idéologie raciste ou antiislamique?
Die besten Freunde Muammar Al Gadhafis
sind die Schweizer. 50% ihrer Rohölimporte stammen aus Libyen. Während sie heftig darüber streiten, ob sie ab 2020 Kernkraftwerke benötigen werden, heizen sie
ihre Häuser und fahren sie ihre Wagen mit Sprit der aus einer Diktatur von exemplarischer Grausamkeit stammt (man vergleiche mit meinem Post vom 12.Dezember 2006 über den Prozess von Tripoli).
Eine Frage: müsste ein Boykott libyschen Erdöls und die Forderung, Öl aus Ländern zu importieten, in denen die fundamentalen Menschenrechte respektiert werden, alsAusdruck einer rassistischen oder antiislamischen Ideologie gewertet werden?
I migliori amici di Muammar El Gaddafi
sono i Svizzeri. Il 50 percento delle loro importazioni di petroglio crudo vengono dalla Libia. Mentre che litigano con grande intensità sul problema se avranno bisogno di centrali nucleari nel 2020, riscaldano i loro appartamenti e guidano le loro vetture con gasoglio o benzina che proviene da una dittarura di crudeltà straordinaria (cf. il mio post del 12 dicembre 2006 "le jugement de Tripoli...")
Una domanda: il fatto di domandare un boicotto dell'importazione di petroglio dalla Libia dovrebbe essere qualificato come l'espressione di un'ideologia razzista o antiislamica?
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Quo usque tandem, Bertinotti, abutere patientia nostra?
The Italian Senate has failed to approve the foreign policy program of the government Prodi by 2 votes (158 instead of the 160 necessary for the qualified majority) and one again the responsible force behind this defeat is Bertinotti's Rifondazione Communista. Much as in the final crisis of the German Weimar Republic, a communist party that plays into the hands of the fascists. In Weimar, the communists - on order from Moscow - treated the social democrats as "Sozialfaschisten" and opened the way for Hitler's takeover. The most outrageous element this time is the fact that Romano Prodi's foreign policy has tried hard to redress the the mess initiated by Berlusconi's whole-hearted approval of the G.W.Bush's Iraq adventure, and to guarantee a say of Italy in the chorus of international concertation on security policies.
Italy's new Catilina is a man with a classical educational background, Fausto Bertinotti, and he should well understand the quotation above...
The Italian Senate has failed to approve the foreign policy program of the government Prodi by 2 votes (158 instead of the 160 necessary for the qualified majority) and one again the responsible force behind this defeat is Bertinotti's Rifondazione Communista. Much as in the final crisis of the German Weimar Republic, a communist party that plays into the hands of the fascists. In Weimar, the communists - on order from Moscow - treated the social democrats as "Sozialfaschisten" and opened the way for Hitler's takeover. The most outrageous element this time is the fact that Romano Prodi's foreign policy has tried hard to redress the the mess initiated by Berlusconi's whole-hearted approval of the G.W.Bush's Iraq adventure, and to guarantee a say of Italy in the chorus of international concertation on security policies.
Italy's new Catilina is a man with a classical educational background, Fausto Bertinotti, and he should well understand the quotation above...
Thursday, February 15, 2007
More answers than questions this time?I am grateful to Epicure and Rossi for their answers.
Now here is my own position:
1. Q: Is spirituality compatible with modern scientific research?
A: Yes, as long as the person's spiritual disposition does not interfere with
his/her rational thinking, his/her honesty in methodological and technical
procedures and documentation of results, and his/her interpretation of
results. Spirituality in this case will have an influence on the motivation
of the researcher for a particular discipline or a specific research theme,
but the risk that it will interfere with the quality of the reserach is
comparable to the risk presented by financial support of research from private
enterprises or from state.
2. Q: Does spirituality interfere with the capacity to critical rational thinking?
A: No, if the conditions formulated in #1. are respected, i.e. the capacity
and readiness of the individal with a spiritual disposition to separate this
disposition and rational thinking
3. Q: Is spirituality necessary for religious orientation?
A: No. Religious orientation may be chosen on a purely rational basis or as a
means to reduce social and/or ethical conflicts in every-day life
4. Q: Is religion a technical substitute for lacking natural spirituality?
A: As a logical consequence of my answer to #3.: Yes, I am convinced that religion
may have this function, and that religious leaders consciously use and abuse
this element.
5. Q: Is spirituality compatible with atheism?
A: Yes, once again under the conditions described in #1. and #2. The conscious
self might decide to opt for atheism as an alternative to opting for a
religious orientation, and the spiritual disposition might be the
motivator to decide that way.
Now for Rossi's question on the importance of religion for liberal democracy:
My answer is clear: the history of modern democracies (e.g. the U.S.A.) have shown that religious orientations - and in particular multiple religious orientations, even those of sectarian character - might be helpful for the development of liberal democratic decision processes, for the simple reason that they can help people understand the impossibility to change and/or to homogenize personal religious feelings on a societal level, thus facilitating a dialogue "over the fences". In contrast to societies with heterogeneous religious communities, religious monopolies (e.g. Roman Catholicism or Islam) tend to heavily interfere with the development of liberal democratic structures.
This time, the answers seem to prevail over the questions raised. Hopefully to read more answers, and why not, more questions...
Osservatore Profano
Now here is my own position:
1. Q: Is spirituality compatible with modern scientific research?
A: Yes, as long as the person's spiritual disposition does not interfere with
his/her rational thinking, his/her honesty in methodological and technical
procedures and documentation of results, and his/her interpretation of
results. Spirituality in this case will have an influence on the motivation
of the researcher for a particular discipline or a specific research theme,
but the risk that it will interfere with the quality of the reserach is
comparable to the risk presented by financial support of research from private
enterprises or from state.
2. Q: Does spirituality interfere with the capacity to critical rational thinking?
A: No, if the conditions formulated in #1. are respected, i.e. the capacity
and readiness of the individal with a spiritual disposition to separate this
disposition and rational thinking
3. Q: Is spirituality necessary for religious orientation?
A: No. Religious orientation may be chosen on a purely rational basis or as a
means to reduce social and/or ethical conflicts in every-day life
4. Q: Is religion a technical substitute for lacking natural spirituality?
A: As a logical consequence of my answer to #3.: Yes, I am convinced that religion
may have this function, and that religious leaders consciously use and abuse
this element.
5. Q: Is spirituality compatible with atheism?
A: Yes, once again under the conditions described in #1. and #2. The conscious
self might decide to opt for atheism as an alternative to opting for a
religious orientation, and the spiritual disposition might be the
motivator to decide that way.
Now for Rossi's question on the importance of religion for liberal democracy:
My answer is clear: the history of modern democracies (e.g. the U.S.A.) have shown that religious orientations - and in particular multiple religious orientations, even those of sectarian character - might be helpful for the development of liberal democratic decision processes, for the simple reason that they can help people understand the impossibility to change and/or to homogenize personal religious feelings on a societal level, thus facilitating a dialogue "over the fences". In contrast to societies with heterogeneous religious communities, religious monopolies (e.g. Roman Catholicism or Islam) tend to heavily interfere with the development of liberal democratic structures.
This time, the answers seem to prevail over the questions raised. Hopefully to read more answers, and why not, more questions...
Osservatore Profano
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Monotheism, Atheism and Spirituality
In the Sunday edition of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ am Sonntag) two scientists,ther immunologist Beda M. Stadler, from the University of Berne, and the geneticist Dean Hamer, from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, explain their relationship to religion and spirituality.
Stadler asks for a "Coming Out" of atheists for the Swiss federal elections due in autumn 2007, in order to assure the liberty of scientific research that is constantly challenged by religious fundamentalists.
Hamer, author of a series of publications on genetic determination of behaviour
(e.g. "Rethinking Behaviour Genetics", Science vol. 298,5591:71-72/4 October 2002)
concentrates on the question of the interactions between religion and spirituality.
From the results of his research on the influence of gene VMAT2 on spirituality and the capability of "self transcendence" in individuals, Hamer concludes that spirituality might be a genetic trait useful for survival of the species, but he does not identify a direct link between religion and spirituality.
The central questions that emerges from the positions of both Stadler and Hamer is the following:
1. Is spirituality compatible with modern scientific research?
2. Does spirituality interfere with the capacity to critical rational thinking?
3. Is spirituality necessary for religious orientation?
4. Is religion a technical substitute for those lacking natural spirituality?
5. Is spirituality compatible with atheism?
Osservatore Profano cordially invites the blogger community to answer his questions
In the Sunday edition of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ am Sonntag) two scientists,ther immunologist Beda M. Stadler, from the University of Berne, and the geneticist Dean Hamer, from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, explain their relationship to religion and spirituality.
Stadler asks for a "Coming Out" of atheists for the Swiss federal elections due in autumn 2007, in order to assure the liberty of scientific research that is constantly challenged by religious fundamentalists.
Hamer, author of a series of publications on genetic determination of behaviour
(e.g. "Rethinking Behaviour Genetics", Science vol. 298,5591:71-72/4 October 2002)
concentrates on the question of the interactions between religion and spirituality.
From the results of his research on the influence of gene VMAT2 on spirituality and the capability of "self transcendence" in individuals, Hamer concludes that spirituality might be a genetic trait useful for survival of the species, but he does not identify a direct link between religion and spirituality.
The central questions that emerges from the positions of both Stadler and Hamer is the following:
1. Is spirituality compatible with modern scientific research?
2. Does spirituality interfere with the capacity to critical rational thinking?
3. Is spirituality necessary for religious orientation?
4. Is religion a technical substitute for those lacking natural spirituality?
5. Is spirituality compatible with atheism?
Osservatore Profano cordially invites the blogger community to answer his questions
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Roger Federer - the exception to the rule
Neither do I play tennis nor am I a tennis fan, but the phenomenon Roger Federer is worth a comment on this blog. This young man appears to be not only a fine technician and a complete athlete, he brings to the world of sports a rare blend of concentration, calm and fairness that demands admiration.
On the occasion of Roger Federer's victory in the Australian Open, Osservatore Profano makes an exception to his rule of continuous questioning and criticizing and extends his congratulations to this extraordinary sportsman.
Neither do I play tennis nor am I a tennis fan, but the phenomenon Roger Federer is worth a comment on this blog. This young man appears to be not only a fine technician and a complete athlete, he brings to the world of sports a rare blend of concentration, calm and fairness that demands admiration.
On the occasion of Roger Federer's victory in the Australian Open, Osservatore Profano makes an exception to his rule of continuous questioning and criticizing and extends his congratulations to this extraordinary sportsman.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
televison and postmodern fascism
When Swiss radio journalist Cornelia Cazis went on air on January 24, 2007 (DRS2) she asked about explanations for growing juvenile violence in Europe. She advanced verbal violence against young people as one important factor and, as an example, she quoted a remark of German Music Star juror Dieter Bohlen the night before on RTL2, as a nervous young contestant had completely failed her performance: "you not only look like shit, you also sing as if the sounds would come from another body opening.."
No wonder, Cornelia Cazis concluded, that young people, especially those who not particularly gifted, react to verbal injury with physical violence...
Remember Nancy Sinatra? "These boots are made for walking... and that's just what they'll do... one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you..."
When Swiss radio journalist Cornelia Cazis went on air on January 24, 2007 (DRS2) she asked about explanations for growing juvenile violence in Europe. She advanced verbal violence against young people as one important factor and, as an example, she quoted a remark of German Music Star juror Dieter Bohlen the night before on RTL2, as a nervous young contestant had completely failed her performance: "you not only look like shit, you also sing as if the sounds would come from another body opening.."
No wonder, Cornelia Cazis concluded, that young people, especially those who not particularly gifted, react to verbal injury with physical violence...
Remember Nancy Sinatra? "These boots are made for walking... and that's just what they'll do... one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you..."
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Religion and Collective Suicide
There seems to be a strange relationship between religion and the phenomenon of collective suicide. A singular illustration of this phenomenon is the growing trend to identify and to classify the major political forces in Mid Eastern conflicts in religious terms: "Shiites" and "Sunnites" and the growing acceptance of this extreme oversimplification by the media worldwide. The tragic civil war in Iraq, one of the countries most open to modern technology and science in the Sixties and Seventies of the 20th centuries in the area, ruined by a ruthless dictator and two wars (both with a geostrategical background) is now classified exclusively in religious terms, despite the fact that multiple political, sociological and demographical factors are involved that cannot be exlained by the religious background alone.
The class struggle of the 19th century, replaced by the "race struggle" in Nazi Germany has now turned into a "faith struggle" with the same release of (self-)destructive energy. Marxists would say that political use of racist and religious justifications for discrimination are "masquerades" of the class struggle, but this again is an over-simplification. Whatever the reasons for the changing of "masks"
from generation to generation, the most important feature of these phenomena is the fact that they are used to implant unrestrained hatred into the psyche of those who believe towards non-believers (or towards those who believe in a slightly different way)...
There seems to be a strange relationship between religion and the phenomenon of collective suicide. A singular illustration of this phenomenon is the growing trend to identify and to classify the major political forces in Mid Eastern conflicts in religious terms: "Shiites" and "Sunnites" and the growing acceptance of this extreme oversimplification by the media worldwide. The tragic civil war in Iraq, one of the countries most open to modern technology and science in the Sixties and Seventies of the 20th centuries in the area, ruined by a ruthless dictator and two wars (both with a geostrategical background) is now classified exclusively in religious terms, despite the fact that multiple political, sociological and demographical factors are involved that cannot be exlained by the religious background alone.
The class struggle of the 19th century, replaced by the "race struggle" in Nazi Germany has now turned into a "faith struggle" with the same release of (self-)destructive energy. Marxists would say that political use of racist and religious justifications for discrimination are "masquerades" of the class struggle, but this again is an over-simplification. Whatever the reasons for the changing of "masks"
from generation to generation, the most important feature of these phenomena is the fact that they are used to implant unrestrained hatred into the psyche of those who believe towards non-believers (or towards those who believe in a slightly different way)...
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Investigating the responsibility of late Pope John Pope II in the strange carreer of Stanislaw Wielgus
Copyright Maurizio Cattelan (1999) La Nona Ora
This hyperrealistic sculpture of the late Karol Woytila (Pope John Paul II) was created the same year Stanislaw Wielgus was named bishop of Plock (Plotzk)* by Pope John Paul II (a position Wielgus has held until his recent nomination as archbishop of Warsaw
The case of Stanislaw Wielgus shows the importance of a thorough workup of the political and theological reasons for his sudden downfall. There is little doubt that this man has been a loyal servant of both the late Karol Woytila (and his predecessor Jozef Glemp), in no way comparable to the sleeping mole Günther Guillaume that led to the downfall of German chancellor Willi Brandt. An ultraconservative throughout his carreer, Wielgus was probably the ideal go-between the communist regime and the growing power base of Karol Woytila and historical research will show if he has been a double-agent for both sides. The fact of the abrupt end of the carreer of an ultra-onservative cleric in Poland might be a signal of psychological hygiene in a country where transparency in power relationships has become possible nearly 20 years after the downfall of the socialist system in Eastern Europe - a historical evolution desired and actively supported by the catholic church of Poland - thanks to the integration of Poland into modern European relationships between church, state, media and science.
For the people of Poland it will be important to allow themselves a thorough scientific investigation of the mechanisms that a) have enabled the carreer of Stanislaw Wielgus and b) have led to the actual personal disaster.
Cf. Links:
a) Plock Official City Website (English Version)
b) Plotzk - An Ancient Jewish Community in Poland
On the history of the Jewish community of Plock which had existed from 1237 to 1941 when it was annihilated on March 1 (last vague of deportation during the Holocaust).
Copyright Maurizio Cattelan (1999) La Nona Ora
This hyperrealistic sculpture of the late Karol Woytila (Pope John Paul II) was created the same year Stanislaw Wielgus was named bishop of Plock (Plotzk)* by Pope John Paul II (a position Wielgus has held until his recent nomination as archbishop of Warsaw
The case of Stanislaw Wielgus shows the importance of a thorough workup of the political and theological reasons for his sudden downfall. There is little doubt that this man has been a loyal servant of both the late Karol Woytila (and his predecessor Jozef Glemp), in no way comparable to the sleeping mole Günther Guillaume that led to the downfall of German chancellor Willi Brandt. An ultraconservative throughout his carreer, Wielgus was probably the ideal go-between the communist regime and the growing power base of Karol Woytila and historical research will show if he has been a double-agent for both sides. The fact of the abrupt end of the carreer of an ultra-onservative cleric in Poland might be a signal of psychological hygiene in a country where transparency in power relationships has become possible nearly 20 years after the downfall of the socialist system in Eastern Europe - a historical evolution desired and actively supported by the catholic church of Poland - thanks to the integration of Poland into modern European relationships between church, state, media and science.
For the people of Poland it will be important to allow themselves a thorough scientific investigation of the mechanisms that a) have enabled the carreer of Stanislaw Wielgus and b) have led to the actual personal disaster.
Cf. Links:
a) Plock Official City Website (English Version)
b) Plotzk - An Ancient Jewish Community in Poland
On the history of the Jewish community of Plock which had existed from 1237 to 1941 when it was annihilated on March 1 (last vague of deportation during the Holocaust).
Monday, January 08, 2007
Le combat des reines - Calmy-Rey contre Royal
La présidente de la Confédération Suisse pour 2007 s'appelle Mme Micheline Calmy née Rey (en Espagnol, synonyme de "roi") et malgré le fait qu'elle soit socialiste, elle s'en est violemment prise à M. Montebourg, conseiller personnel de Mme Ségolène Royal, candidate socialiste à la présidence de la République Française, pour ses critiques du système fiscal suisse. Rey contre Royal, c'est un match qu'un peut considérer comme "un combat des reines". Ce terme a une signification toute particulière dans le Canton d'origine de Mme Calmy-Rey, le Valais, pays lourd de traditions paysannes et païennes. On dit qu'une partie de ce peuple montagnard, connu pour son esprit combattif et ses têtes dures, est issue de tribus berbères qui se seraient retirées dans les hautes vallées lors de la reconquête de l'Europe méridionale et des Alpes maritimes par les Chrétiens. Une des traditions importantes du Valais, à part la viticulture, c'est le "combat des reines", c.à.d. une série de concours entre vaches de la race d'Hérens (en Allemand "Eringer Vieh")qui sert à la sélection des cheffes de troupeau, avec une finale entre les plus fortes (les "reines") qui a lieu chaque année au moi d'avril.
Si on considère la controverse entre la reine socialiste helvétique et la reine socialiste française, les chances pour une victoire de la Valaisanne sont donc tout à fait réelles. Il y a pour ça non seulement une raison folklorique ou ethnopsychologique, mais une raison politique toute simple:
la France souffre depuis toujours de son centralisme à outrance, et l'appétit de l'Etat français de confisquer les biens des ces citoyens pour les redistribuer et pour décourager l'investissement privé n'est un secret our personne. On n'a pas oublié le cri de réprobation lorsque l'idole de la jeunessse des années soixante,
Johnny Halliday, a annoncé qu'il avait choisi la Suisse pour domicile pour des raisons fiscales. La France vivrait beaucoup plus heureuse et aurait beaucoup moins de difficultés d'investissements au niveau de l'infrastructure locale et de la ghettoisation de villes entières si elle se décidait de passer du centralisme bureaucratique à des solutions fédérales avec une compétition fiscale saine.
Il ne s'agit pas de glorifier le système ultrafédéraliste helvétique mais il faut admettre que la concurrence fiscale entre communes et Cantons a un effet très important sur la pensée économique des pouvoirs publics qui sont contraint à faire face à la perte de contribuables si elles n'arrivent pas à trouver un équilibre entre les besoins objectifs de la population et la charge fiscale. Le parti
socialiste suisse a fait, das le passé, et continue de le faire, des efforts considérables pour homogénéiser le régime fiscal, mais il risque d'être surpassé par des initiatives de la droite libérale qui tentent d'introduire une "flat tax" ou au moins und "flat rate tax" avec des taux d'imposition variant entre Communes et Cantons. Si la "reine" Micheline défend le fédéralisme helvétique, elle a une autre raison, plus simple. Elle aura, pour la présidence, besoin du Goodwill sait très des Cantons germanophones de Suisse occidentale (Zurich, Schaffhouse, Saint-Gall, Zoug, Grisons etc.) qui ont cultivés une aversion collective contre l'impéralisme et l'arrogance de la Grande Nation vis-à-vis des petits Suisses, depuis les temps de l'occupation française en 1798. On dirait qu'il persiste, en Suisse occidentale, une sorte d'esprit Vendéen de vengeance vis-à-vis du grand voisin.
Et une fois de plus, c'est une chance pour la petit nation de volonté à l'esprit "astérixien" au milieu de l'Europe de être habité non seulement par des germanophones, mais des francophones qui savent défendre leurs intérêts à la mode des vaches d'Hérens.
La présidente de la Confédération Suisse pour 2007 s'appelle Mme Micheline Calmy née Rey (en Espagnol, synonyme de "roi") et malgré le fait qu'elle soit socialiste, elle s'en est violemment prise à M. Montebourg, conseiller personnel de Mme Ségolène Royal, candidate socialiste à la présidence de la République Française, pour ses critiques du système fiscal suisse. Rey contre Royal, c'est un match qu'un peut considérer comme "un combat des reines". Ce terme a une signification toute particulière dans le Canton d'origine de Mme Calmy-Rey, le Valais, pays lourd de traditions paysannes et païennes. On dit qu'une partie de ce peuple montagnard, connu pour son esprit combattif et ses têtes dures, est issue de tribus berbères qui se seraient retirées dans les hautes vallées lors de la reconquête de l'Europe méridionale et des Alpes maritimes par les Chrétiens. Une des traditions importantes du Valais, à part la viticulture, c'est le "combat des reines", c.à.d. une série de concours entre vaches de la race d'Hérens (en Allemand "Eringer Vieh")qui sert à la sélection des cheffes de troupeau, avec une finale entre les plus fortes (les "reines") qui a lieu chaque année au moi d'avril.
Si on considère la controverse entre la reine socialiste helvétique et la reine socialiste française, les chances pour une victoire de la Valaisanne sont donc tout à fait réelles. Il y a pour ça non seulement une raison folklorique ou ethnopsychologique, mais une raison politique toute simple:
la France souffre depuis toujours de son centralisme à outrance, et l'appétit de l'Etat français de confisquer les biens des ces citoyens pour les redistribuer et pour décourager l'investissement privé n'est un secret our personne. On n'a pas oublié le cri de réprobation lorsque l'idole de la jeunessse des années soixante,
Johnny Halliday, a annoncé qu'il avait choisi la Suisse pour domicile pour des raisons fiscales. La France vivrait beaucoup plus heureuse et aurait beaucoup moins de difficultés d'investissements au niveau de l'infrastructure locale et de la ghettoisation de villes entières si elle se décidait de passer du centralisme bureaucratique à des solutions fédérales avec une compétition fiscale saine.
Il ne s'agit pas de glorifier le système ultrafédéraliste helvétique mais il faut admettre que la concurrence fiscale entre communes et Cantons a un effet très important sur la pensée économique des pouvoirs publics qui sont contraint à faire face à la perte de contribuables si elles n'arrivent pas à trouver un équilibre entre les besoins objectifs de la population et la charge fiscale. Le parti
socialiste suisse a fait, das le passé, et continue de le faire, des efforts considérables pour homogénéiser le régime fiscal, mais il risque d'être surpassé par des initiatives de la droite libérale qui tentent d'introduire une "flat tax" ou au moins und "flat rate tax" avec des taux d'imposition variant entre Communes et Cantons. Si la "reine" Micheline défend le fédéralisme helvétique, elle a une autre raison, plus simple. Elle aura, pour la présidence, besoin du Goodwill sait très des Cantons germanophones de Suisse occidentale (Zurich, Schaffhouse, Saint-Gall, Zoug, Grisons etc.) qui ont cultivés une aversion collective contre l'impéralisme et l'arrogance de la Grande Nation vis-à-vis des petits Suisses, depuis les temps de l'occupation française en 1798. On dirait qu'il persiste, en Suisse occidentale, une sorte d'esprit Vendéen de vengeance vis-à-vis du grand voisin.
Et une fois de plus, c'est une chance pour la petit nation de volonté à l'esprit "astérixien" au milieu de l'Europe de être habité non seulement par des germanophones, mais des francophones qui savent défendre leurs intérêts à la mode des vaches d'Hérens.
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