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.

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?

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...

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

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