Author: Christopher-Dorset

It seems as if the political consensus of the past few years has started, rather dramatically, unravel. Germany has seen the rise of its minor parties to prominence — the Greens have become a force to be reckoned with, as had the FDP before its implosion under the rather less than able guidance of its leader Guido “Dorothy” Westerwelle. What has often been overlooked in Merkel’s current travails is that her party’s share of power has largely remained stable. Her main opposition, the SPD, have been hit even harder. Schröder, for all his numerous flaws, was a powerful leader and no one has been able to follow in his footsteps since he moved on to his spiritual home, Russia.

The question is if the CDU will be able to do much better when Merkel is inevitably pushed out of the way. The overall quality of her party’s leadership has been in drastic decline over the past year with most of the biggest stars either entering retirement (do they read the writing on the wall?) or were forced by circumstances to resign. With an absence of able leadership from either main party and with minor parties, especially on the left (the Communists have also eaten well into the SPD’s former voting bloc), Germany’s future politics appear stagnant and decidedly bland as Grand Coalitions between the two dinosaurs of German politics. (Naturally, these would be dominated by the CDU as they have been holding up better)

The USA is entering its own period of paralysis. The Republicans, now holding a strong majority in the House, have been able to mercifully put the brakes on Obama’s agenda. Lacking control of the Senate, however, little has been accomplished. Though it appears likely that the Republicans will control both the House and the Senate next year, there is still a question of whether or not Obama will be able to hold on or not. While there are new stars rising on the American right, no one has risen high enough to be president and the current lot of candidates are lacklustre on all fronts. Should Obama be re-elected (God Forbid) the chances of achieving much is virtually nil.

This is partially the result of the failure of the centre to hold the ground fiscally or morally. In more moderate times spending and liabilities grew increasingly out of control, the pollies increasingly detached from voters. The Democrats have grown ever harder to the left, the Republicans ever harder tot he right — the centre simply collapsed as supporters of both parties grew increasingly hostile to yielding ground to each other. Comments from Australia would be appreciated.

Paragraphs added at the request of the Bear.

In my school boy days I often heard instructors singing the praises of Mohandes Gandhi, something which always left me with a degree of uncertainty. There was simply too much praise heaped on him, yet little to no scrutiny was placed in less savoury aspects of his life or personality. My suspicions were confirmed after reading Richard Shenkman’s “Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of World History” in which Gandhi was finally scrutinised and I learnt why he had two names — as well as the fact that he gave “Mohatma”, “great man”, to himself! Always having been sceptical of those who have been their own best friends and greatest admirers it made my quietly comfortable in my questioning of it all. Recently a new book as been published with even more damning information about Gandhi — some of which I had already learnt, other bits of it quite new. To avoid being repetitive I will simply attach a link to the article written about said book and let you read that there.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8410318/Mahatma-Gandhi-racist-and-bisexual-claims-new-book.html

Today the German regions of Rheinland-Pfalz (my home Bundesland) and Baden-Wuerttemberg (my grandmother’s home Bundesland, a place where I spent a great deal of time in my youth) had regional elections. For the uninitiated, the upper house of Germany’s parliament is composed of members appointed by regional parliaments in proportion to the population of the regions so this has national ramifications. Rheinland-Pfalz tends to be fairly centrist and independent. It has produced a number of centre-right Minister Presidents as well as centre-left, even when national politics were in favour of Merkel’s centre-right coalition. That in today’s climate it chose to retain its Social Democrat/Green coalition is no surprise. The shock came from Baden-Wuerttemberg where, for the first time, the Greens will have a Minister President and form a coalition with the Social Democrats. For those in the UK think of the Greens becoming the dominant party in Oxfordshire and forming a government with Labour. For those in the USA think of the Greens governing with Democrat allies in Utah.

Just to make you all a little jealous, and to relieve my own urban-based stress, I will tell you a little about my plans for the summer. Soon after courses end at university I will fly to Minnesota for just under a week and go on a road trip throughout the Minnesota/Iowa/South Dakota region after which I will return to California for a week in order to prepare for my Japanese language final exam. A few days after that I will fly to Hong Kong with a leg in Macau before heading off to the Shanghai region for 2 1/2 weeks. After that, it will be back to rural California for about a week before flying to Montana for a month. Then it is back to rural California for two weeks before returning to the urban grind, grit, and disorder of San Francisco.

Six years ago my aunt sent me a handbag from Germany to use. It has served my purposes very well,
though the time has come for a new one. The poor bag is filthy, stained, scratched up, and is missing the pull for the main compartment. As I have upgraded my main pen and pencil, courtesy of our own furry-arsed mustelid, I have chosen to upgrade that as well. I have placed the order for it and hope to receive it before the end of my spring holiday.

It was a year ago when, at about this time, I was sitting on a bench in Tokyo watching the ducks circling in a pond. Tokyo, a hectic city with seemingly more people per block than the combined population of New Zealand and its West Island, Australia, maintained a sort of quiet order through it all. For all that was going around, the city was clean and the people unbelievably polite/pleasant. Once, at a train station WC with a long queue, a man told me to follow him… He lead me to a loo without a queue saying that, while designed for the disabled, could be used by anyone. Most Japanese would not use it even if they were dancing the bladder jig. It was in Japan where I would stay up all night and sing karaoke before heading to a ramen shop for a 4 AM bowl of soup. All the way through the Japanese were impeccable in every way. Even the customer service at convenience stores exceeded that found in high-end German and US stores. Japan now is in a bad way. Today I spoke with two old friends who are now back home in Japan. Both are carrying on stoically, eager to get back to their regular lives. It is hard for me to discuss it, perhaps because I am also so thoroughly disgusted with the media and how they handle this. Over a million have no access to fresh water yet when packages of bottled water are brought, no one takes more than they absolutely need. The people are not looting, the people are not rioting. Even in this hell, the people are doing their best to carry on as well as possible.

I have this version on CD as well.

Declensions. The word will bring many of the poor sods who thought that it would be a good idea to study the German language to the verge of tears as nightmares rush back to the front of conciousness. That adjectives have declensions is seemingly a moot point because it is a moot point. There are two languages, however, that bring this to a new level — Japanese and Korean. Both languages are fascinating, both languages are incredibly rewarding. In both languages adjectives not only have declensions, but are conjugated as well. Yes, the Koreans and Japanese both conjugate adjectives. This detail would shock a classmate of mine, a Swiss man who thought that my reference to studying the conjugation of these adjectives was quite risible and might prove that I was slightly defective intellectually. Despite having his ego spared a few seconds of bruising by my having initially referenced a list of verb conjugations, I would quickly crush his chocolate-munching, clock-making pride by quickly finding a list of ways to conjugate Japanese adjectives. This is one of the many unique, at times frustrating, aspects of studying the Japanese language. It is really not clear why it is not, it is only known that it is done. As with many things Japanese, and by extension Korean, it is best to leave it as unknown and not question it too much as it will cause one to lose any remaining shred of sanity. It is what it is, the language requires what it requires.

“This life is what you make it. Not matter what, you’re going to mess up sometimes, it’s a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you’re going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends – they’ll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything – they’re your true best friends. Don’t let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they’ll come and go too. And babe, I hate to say it, most of them – actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can’t give up because if you give up, you’ll never find your soul mate. You’ll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don’t, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life’s a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.”

Marilyn Monroe