bush in philadelphia

two days after obama's visit in philly, president bush was in town. he was even waving at us. the white thing in the car are his gloves.

every time i see the policemen it makes me laugh.

obama in philadelphia

yesterday, obama was in philly. i waited for him but then i had to work - so i missed him.

people waiting for him

closed streets

v. putin - president of germany

john mccain calls vladimir putin the president of germany. the video is from february 2007 but somehow it occurred not until now.

kaczynski bro's

yes! early elections in poland. it's time for the twins to go.

bulls run in spain

i like traditions. that is just something, i cannot understand.

"They don't know what they're doing; bulls can kill," said Ruben Munoz, 24, from Madrid, who has run with the bulls during each of the last five years. "I do it for the adrenaline and because I feel liberated." (source: cnn).

aha. *bigquestionmarkinmyhead* do you feel liberated with bulls behind you who might kill you? i don't see where the fun is torturing animals. and the 10,000 spectators are not better - they're waiting for the first person who gets gored (a few hours ago it was an australian man).
today was the first day of the "festival" and already more thn 100 people were injured. since 1924 13 people have died. i don't want to know how many have been injured during that time and how many bulls were killed. stupid tradition.

running of the bulls in pictures

*grumble*

i love animals and i'd like to have a dog if i would live in a house in the countryside. but
a) i have no money for a dog
b) i live in a flat
c) i live in a city
and i just hate it when all green areas in the city, which are actually for the stressed city-people, are full with dog sh*. ok, accept it.

i can understand elderly people who have lost their partner and want somebody to live with them. they buy a dog. ok, accept it.

now my neighbours bought a dog (they are young!) although it's forbidden in our flats to have a dog. ok, accept it.
that dog is still so small that he sometimes comes through the small chink which is between our balconies. ok, accept it.
but today he came through the chink again and sh* on our balcony! not ok!
why can't those ignorant affluent-industrialized-nation-people (i am including myself here) put their money into something else than a dog? with that money they could feed a child somewhere else...

g8 summit

1000 injured people (50% policemen, 50% protesters) after the g8 demonstrations in rostock (germany) yesterday. is this really necessary?

old fashioned church fellow

according to walter mixa, a german bishop, women who give their children to a kindergarten because they want to work are also "birth-giving machines" (see an earlier post here). it's always the same old story: women who work are callous and cruel mothers. what a freak he is. this just can't be true. his pension will look rather small if women don't work anymore and stay at home. germany has an enormous child problem like japan and many other western countries (due to the one child policy and male preference china will have a problem soon, too), everybody knows that. in germany, it is due to the incompatibility of work and children, just because there are not enough child care offers, no child care facilities - no children. now the government intends to increase the number of facilities so that women can make career and have a baby. and this old, discriminating man is against it. for him self-fulfilment of women is a sociopolitical scandal. i can't believe it. what an intellectual splendid achievement - welcome to the 19th century. i guess he's never heard of early education and the studies that it's not important how much time you spend with your child, it's the intensity of time which counts. and just an addition: imo, it is completely understandable that some women/men would like to stay with their beloved baby for the whole first six years but on the other hand, there are those you love their job and can't live without it and those, who are a single parent and are just forced to work - and the latter shouldn't be discriminated.
by the way, i loved kindergarten as a child and i loved working there as an adult!!

watch out

...the serial kisser can be everywhere!

handball world champs II

hooray again, germany beat france today! anyway, it was a nice match (not as boring as i thought it would be), only watching football in an english pub is even more fun. i don’t know any of the guys but good and hard game, boys! welcome to the finals against poland or denmark! as a symbol of my sympathy for the french, i draw a handball with the french colours – how sweet is that? if anyone should be interested – it was drawn with landscape soft pastels.
hey, even our president showed up with a handball-scarf around his neck and said that he played handball in former times and grinned like a chesire cat when germany shot a goal. what a nice president we have – i like him, well, he’s more likeable than our chancellor who has no charisma at all! however, i think that presidents are always more popular than chancellors, aren’t they?

deutschland ist im finale bei der handball-weltmeisterschaft!

kar. snow

i am currently reading "snow", which was listed as one of the ten best books of 2004 by the new york times, written by the turkish author orhan pamuk. pamuk is the winner of the nobel prize in literature in 2006. in his writings, influenced by thomas mann, fyodor dostojewski and leo tolstoy, he usually touches upon modern western and radical islamic conflicts in turkey.

the content of the book: it is about the poet ka, who lived in german exile in frankfurt for many years and now comes to his hometown kars, a turkish provincial town, where strange suicides occur (religious girls killed themselves because they refused to take off their head scarves). the town is in the hands of islamists and they also want to win the upcoming elections. there are strong politico-religious tensions and suddenly, there's a military putsch - it's a fight between islamists and liberals and ka gets involved in this clash of different ideals. in between that, he re-meets his former beloved ipek and tries to convince her to go back to germany with him. but no one can leave the town because it's continuously snowing.

i read it in english because the german translation is supposed to be not very good.

pamuk is one of the few, who judges the mass killings of kurds and armenians in ww1 and who defends freedom of speech in turkey. therefore, he is publicly criticised and is offended with murder threats in turkey. in 2005, for instance, he was taken to law due to "insulting turkishness" but the case was dropped. why turkey dropped its charges against him, read here. his situation is similar to the one of hrant dink who has been recently murdered (19 january 2007) in istanbul. yesterday, pamuk cancelled a trip to germany in fear of his own life (yasin hayal, who organized the murder of dink, carried out a threat) which was not the first time as it happened before in 2005. more information in german. this is sad in view of the fact that he should have been rewarded honorary doctorate of the free university of berlin which shows how popular he is in europe (he already received the €25,000 peace prize of the german book trade for his literary work which is the most prestigious book prize in germany).

cologne, city of choconet's dreams

is anyone out there willing to go to the confectionary fair in cologne with choconet? could have gone there today but didn't know that it takes place at the moment. watched an ad on n-tv a few minutes ago and now CHOCONET WANTS CHOCOLATE because CHOCONET LOVES CHOCOLATE and there you can eats loads of it (not like in the cadbury factory in birmingham which choconet visited in december where you only get a few chocolate bars)!! More details for you: the ism (internationale süßwarenmesse) in cologne, germany, is the biggest and most important confectionary fair in the world where producers show you the newest kinds of CHOCOLATE, ICE CREAM, cacao, biscuits, confectioneries, pastries, munchies and so on. mmmhh, choconet can smell it, yummy sweet experiences for her tongue... yes, choconet agrees, ism - the future of sweets! but it's a pity that it only takes place till wednesday. :( anyway, cologne, i'm coming!

p.s. for all chinese people reading this: there will be a similar sweets fair in september in shanghai, china - the so called sniec - powered by ism. choconet is already looking forward to going to china in september. *lol*

by the way, china admitted to climate failings today (failed to make process on improving and protecting the environment, china produces most of the greenhouse gases in the world after the us). read the full article at the source.

ich will auf die süßwarenmesse!

childless societies

is today a good day for politicians all over the world telling women to get pregnant?

hakuo yanagisawa (*1935), japan's health minister and member of the conservative ldp, called women "birth-giving machines"! they should do their best to overcome this problem. needing 2.1 children to maintain population levels, they only have 1.26 children per women at the moment. just read that japan has the highest ratio of elderly to young people, wow, thought germany is on top of the list. *g* the japanese birth rate already shows a small rise at the moment, let's see if yanagisawa's speech further helps. for more information, see the website of the japanese ministry of health, labour and welfare.

another politician with similar ambitions is the russian president wladimir putin (*1952) who announced that the support of families is one the highest priorities of his politics due to a decreasingly dropped number of births. but mr putin, please don't forget all the other problems your country has got!