Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay and Adobe CC, my graphics
These days the papers published by and by in the US about molestation and abuse of minors are disturbing. Alas, it’s not the first time such cruelties occur, they are no specialty of the US and as such the reasons are manifold. The scientific research is well-advanced. I’d like to propose some ideas and measures on how to deal with all of it.
Remember the cruel fact too, that sensations have to be sold by media, ‘social’ or otherwise.
Historically, too the more ghoulish, the better.
In former centuries it was ballad singers on street corners with large wall posters.
A sad truth too: People involved will get some PR… it’s been proven too, that sensations often sell better than any sympathy campaign…
Make sure not to consume all of it just because it’s there. Take time off of news and channels.
These things have reasons partly in the world we live in: Men are supposed to be rich, famous and powerful. Additionally what is also called ‘bodily ‘love” they are supposed to have lots of.
At the same time their ego may suffer from self-doubts, often severely. An apparent solution to warped minds is this kind of behaviour, especially when doing it in networks: Apparently boosts self-confidence and also makes them money.
Remember too, that such occurrences are not the norm! Not even the majority. The good people are more!
Also know – or check – that the numbers in penal offence statistics as well as crime in general for many years have been decreasing! It’s those news and ‘social’ media that can make it appear otherwise.
What we can do is around us, every day: Treat people around us with respect, friendliness and love.
Because anything we do, we can do right here and now, where we are. That’s where we can do the most good!
This is that famous proverb, supposed to be African:
If many little people in many little places do many little things – they can change the face of the earth!
Iran’s history for over two centuries now has been determined by its resources, above all: Oil. The ‘black gold’ that since industrialization has been the most coveted resource of all. Iran has lots of it. And it is the largest oil recovering industry of the world.
The present government is cruel internally. The rules and regulations are restrictive and deny basic human rights to all, especially to women.
It is the dreadful choice of ‘hell or high water’: All foreign powers since the 18th century, especially then-Russia, the Soviet Union and now Russia again, France, Great Britain and a little later the USA tried constantly to grab hold over Iran’s politics and thus its oil. Its resources are rich, such as gas, but oil exists in abundance.
And can be extracted with ease, the modern facilities in place.
During the reign of the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a few very rich profited and lived in luxury, a thin layer of the society’s strata that over here are called the middle and upper middle classes also lived a fairly wealthy and quiet life.
But there was no freedom of arts, press or opinion. The Savak, the shah’s secret service was present everywhere. Would someone try and criticize the shah’s politics openly, they would rather quickly find themselves in prison, the Evin prison close to Tehran to this day is world in-famous for the cruel conditions and torture of political prisoners. It was founded during the shah’s reign.
To boot, oil at the time was basically in the hands of the US, sold to them at dumping prices, the shah lived and reigned from their grace. And they removed support when the uprisings began to become huge in 1978 and 1979.
The larger part of the Iranian population at the time, though, not only lived in the country. They were poor to starvation point, and uneducated, many were not even able to read or write.
For decades they tried to make it known and finally protested so often and in such large groups that the shah finally had to leave. That was in 1979. It enabled Ayatollah Khomeini to come back, who had had to flee the country some years previously.
He seemed to promise freedom, finally: Freedom of thoughts and ideas, of press and a more just distribution of the country’s wealth. Many a fine journalist and educated intellectual was taken in at the time.
But as soon as the government was instated, any and all ‘enemies’ of the Islamic Revolution and the ‘Islamic Republic’ were hunted down and killed or imprisoned. The freedom of opinion or press or basic human rights were denied again. Ancient Islamic laws were reinstated and especially the restrictions for women in terms of clothing, education and choice of profession were made much worse again.
A few hopes had been attached to leaders in the late 1990s and early 2000s but in vain. Some few lessened limitations were soon to be tightened again.
It is over 40 years now. The third generation of young people are living under harsh restrictions.
Yet, the international community, above all the USA to this day constantly put Iran under pressure:
Especially the Trump administration has in both its times in office committed about every political misdemeanour possible:
The contracts in regard to the control of uranium enrichment that had been reached after over 10 years of negotiation have been cancelled by Trump during his first stay in office. At the same time severe limitations and restrictions to trade and international business have been imposed upon Iran. They are not only still in place but tightened every now and again.
Making the living conditions inside the country so much worse.
What is the motivation for the USs meddling, the constant pointing of fingers, threatening and blaming Iran alternatively?
Easy to figure out really: No one would lift a finger very probably, if Iran wasn’t so rich in resources.
Iran and Persia to this day for a lot of fine reasons ring in people’s ears with wonders and a thousands of years’ old culture, reaching far back beyond Islam’s advent.
If anything, a free government and political culture of its own, unmolested by outside powers will be Iran’s salvation.
‘Iron Man’ is the name for a triathlon considered to be the hardest to stay the course or win, of all, annually taking place on Hawaii. Thus the name. Yet, as so often is the case, there is more to it than meets the eye: To be an ‘iron man’, a hard, muscular ‘hero-type’ of man seems still to be an ideal especially for men to attain.
What can easily be forgotten is the other side to human existence: The finer senses. The fact that human beings do not just consist of a number of muscles to be trained and displayed and used in a competition.
Humans have brains and hearts. The heart showing by beating faster, breath going stronger, what we feel and what often if not always starts in the brain: Emotions, passion, fear, joy, or excitement.
Those who say they are never afraid, are either dumb – or they lie. (NB)
Fear is one of those emotions that is never to be expected of the ‘iron man’, the hero, the ‘guy’. Always be cool and calm and collected, that’s the way to go – in patriarchy.
A comedian some years ago put it like this, too: “Anything men ever did in the course of human history was done to attract females.”
I believe he may be right…
That mistaken idea even some women still retain today – heroism showing itself like this: that men never should be sensitive, afraid, or vulnerable, is a great pity and a loss to our world.
Because many a hero was born for fear of being considered ‘too weak’. And the mistaken run for that ultimate goal, the ultimate ‘iron man’-medal can result in figures such as Trump or Putin: More power, more ‘say-so’, even inducing more fear in others.
To ‘cut a figure’, as the old phrase so nicely puts it.
I think that two things deserve our attention much more:
The men that actually take it on themselves to have a family and care for them. Teach their children that a man is more than just a ‘six pack’…
In general, face our prejudices and presumptions with some courage – and start to realize that neither men nor women ‘need’ to match all those criteria so often part of the cheaper type of movie or advertisement:
Always ‘cool, calm and collected’, always ‘happy, healthy and wealthy’… is just too much to expect.
Let’s start to be more human again. Although these thoughts and ideas have been raised before, being different, being an ‘artistic type’, or just being sensitive, still too often is considered unusual.
And still to this day the ‘hounds’ are called and let loose on those who represent in effect about one quarter of any human community: People very aware of the finer senses.
In other words as well: Let’s teach tolerance* to our children and grandchildren, respect for all those trying to make the world more colourful, interesting or just a little more joyful.
* “tolerancenoun (ACCEPTANCE)
willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them”
(Cambridge Dictionary, Online version)
Connecting… To others, feel connected and welcome. The basics of human existence, the basic needs and sorrows and joys.
Knowing about them inside yourself makes your ‘heart’ ‘clairvoyant’: You start to see the other’s pain, their joys, their sorrows, you understand – and you can relate to them in new ways – and find new solutions to old problems.
People are like icebergs, rarely is everything visible at once. It’s a fact that we all know to be true, at least more or less: Especially in business, it’s a common idea that one should be always competent, never make mistakes…, always be fit and never lack enthusiasm. Perhaps even smile, if you can, to show that you are happy.
That means many people, even if half-consciously, behave that way; because we learn early in life from our surroundings, namely parents, family, friends and later kindergarten and school, and so on.
But sometimes people start realizing at some point that there is “more to it than meets the eye”.
Human beings have fine sensors especially as children about what is accepted behaviour and what is not. Therefore starting with early childhood they adapt to what is expected. Thus culture and personal background are decisive aspects of what makes for the personality you meet one day around your workplace. And the personality you are.
The hidden emotions and less accepted tendencies, a yearning, to fulfill an inner need for something else – love perhaps, passion, adventure – can be strong. The self-control usually is too.
Looking Beyond the Image
If we take into account that any culture in this world imposes limitations on people’s behaviour which are basics for that self-control preventing them from speaking up – we will start to be able to look beyond the image. Relate to the true human being behind the business personality.
Daniel Goleman in his bestselling book called it “EQ”: Emotional Intelligence, the ability to realize the emotional side to any human thought and reaction. He states it clearly that science did eventually prove what has been part of literature, music and stories for as long as mankind exists:
Emotions are the basics and central. Without them we become incapable to decide – anything.
That’s how heart and brain are connected – in a nutshell.
Statistics show too that 1 among a 100 people will speak up or contact someone when they have a problem or an issue. Therefore, looking at the small numbers in this respect can be crucial.
That’s why I use this blog to post about perhaps unusual subjects – to some of my readers. In the hopes that one or the other of them finds realization and perhaps even consolation in the fact that they are not alone with those thoughts, ideas or puzzles of human existence.
Understanding our emotions and relate to others better that way, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put this way in “The Little Prince”:
“Here is my secret. It is very simple: you only truly see with your heart.
What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”
It’s obvious: Greenland didn’t ‘work’… now it’s back to Iran, again? How in the world do you sleep at night and look into the mirror in the morning, Mr Trump?
Again the scare tactics to get people to succumb to your type of deal conditions? ‘What the he…l?’ This is not your earth, not your and your followers’ planet.
Simply and truly. It’s obvious too that in view of the internal affairs you deign to handle in your usual cruel manner; Minnesota comes to mind; promises you probably have made to the large industries in the US, especially those producing weapons. You need any distraction from those affairs, come hell or high water.
In German for people like you there is a fine term: This urge is called “Großmannssucht”: The dire need to feel tall and important. “Craving for status”. It would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so shameful.
For years you have tortured half the world (at least) with your threats, bullying and tantrums. We all know that you literally stop at nothing.
Once more Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” comes to mind: a young and sweet-faced man who starts a promising career and then just commits about every crime in the book, because he believes that such a life could make him happy. Which it doesn’t.
After a sort of magical transformation, so for many years his appearance does not change from that young, innocent face, the story ends with him one day looking into that special mirror once more; after many years he sees his face in the actual state nature intended for such people:
The horror strikes him so suddenly that he dies on the spot.
The staff and neighbours running in to help are horror stricken too and do not recognize him for quite some time.
Mr Trump, be aware the international community is strong and they are more. Get your act together and stop these charades.
Author’s Note: Politics around oil for over two centuries now are at the top of all policies that countries and their leaders observe since the need for fuels made from fossils arose ever more strongly.
One prominent centre of attention since that time was – and still is – Iran: The world’s largest industry for mining and marketing oil, it’s been part of the US’s foreign strategic policies for more than a century as well.
The last shah of Iran was put there by their support. He was made to leave when he became unable to control the starving people.
The government after that, cruel and dreadful as far as internal affairs go, has been able so far to resist the attempts at bullying them into subservience.
Iran has a culture that reaches thousands of years into the past, far beyond any more recent religious ideas.
That culture and its strongholds deserve saving. And the people of Iran to be in their own right and possession of the natural resources. Instead of under the order of a government headed by someone like the current US-president.
AI, so it appears, saves time: Let it summarize a longer text for you which you do not have the time to read in full. Let it make (‘generate’ = Gen AI) a little image you could use in an online blog post. Even let it create whole (short) videos to use for posting and sharing online…
Well, so far the theory.
Yet, as so often is the case, theory and practice are not the same thing at all.
You can use AI for all of the above these days. But the fact remains that AI is not really intelligent. The term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ suggests it, of course. But that’s a marketing term. Using ‘create’ as a term makes it appear as if… there was actually something creative.
Because, what AI does is reuse already known material and re-assemble in a likely manner.
How Do I Know?
As a technical writer by profession I documented AI successfully. The US-agency Gartner mentioned that documentation specially in their Magic Quadrant on Metadata Applications in 2019.
Since then I also have tested all the popular AI tools you can use for such tasks online and offline, such as ChatGPT, Le Chat, Claude, ‘Copilot(s)’ or a plugin called AMP.
In technical writing you could use these as a sort of optimization tool. Once your text is ready, let the AI go through it and optimize according to standards.
But in technical documentation as such, content creation or creation of visual material, AI is not really helpful.
Why?
You need a good idea of where you want to go with this, of what you actually need.
You then need to write a prompt for your AI tool to have it generate what you want.
When the output is available, you need to check, for facts, for correctness of representation, for quality.
Very often the first few attempts fail because AI will just re-use already known data for the patterns to find and re-assemble.
That’s why you often see AI-generated images or videos that look strangely puppet-like, smoothed in all the wrong places or simply skewed.
Texts on the other hand will be somehow always ‘like that other one’.
The technology behind AI makes this practically an unavoidable scenario:
AI is based on algorithms: they are like chains of formulas. These formulas basically depend on probability, statistics and their patterns.
Once the AI’s framework is in place, it will be trained on certain data that fit its use case. The algorithms and their sequences may then be refined.
Finally the new data such as online databases is used to find more patterns, of the same or similar.
Therefore, you cannot replace humans with AI.
Because, in complex uses cases, these things take time. Because, anything you will let an AI generate will always remind you of something. It will sometimes appear a little lifeless, even strangely familiar. But it will never be unique. Never have that feel about it. And miss out on that ‘spark of inspiration’ that makes human intelligence so special.
Image by Sasin Tipchai, Yogendra Singh, Hữu Thanh Cái and Tri Le from Pixabay, my arrangement
The smile of Asia as a phrase has been used in advertising – too. But the actual fact is also that in many countries around the world, especially in the Near or Far East, as they are called, smiling at others you never even met before is a custom.
People from other parts of the world often feel charmed and after a while even puzzled by these smiles. Aren’t we friends, when we smile? Or at least close?
There’s another fine line that Rudyard Kipling, English ‘poet laureate’ and award-winning writer, used in his book “Kim”:
“The indifference of native crowds he was used to. But this strong loneliness among white men preyed on him.”
If you have once encountered and actually felt that atmosphere and met people from those parts, you will come to realize that he was right. It feels exactly that way. That sense of community and friendliness, acceptance of others as human beings can be heart-warming.
I am not originally from anywhere close to those parts. But I have lived with and learned from the Persian culture for the better part of my comparatively long live.
I have come to appreciate that feeling. It is based on the idea, that we of course would need to really meet, get to know the other person in order to be friends. But that as human beings we can be close, because we are similar in our needs and wishes and sorrows and joys; we need each other, in troubled times as well as in joyful times.
According to that nice saying too:
“Sorrow shared is sorrow halfed. Joy shared is doubled joy.”
It can help also to (again) understand that in spite of the advantages the individualism in Western countries has brought, it can make people lonely. The pandemic has increased and sharpened that.
Perhaps the ideas we see daily actually ‘thrown’ at us all around the clock (if we don’t filter them), online that is, about being ever more optimized, the ‘perfect person’, make it more difficult.
The daily live in Asia has developed over thousands of years, climate and living conditions as well as ancient philosophy and customs are part of it. We can learn that:
In 2016 it already was clear and being published by reliable sources: Trump and Putin were in close contact. Over the years numerous interviews and remarks, recorded of Trump too, made two things very clear:
He uses scare tactics to ‘make deals’. He proudly calls himself in front of cameras a ‘deal maker’.
But these also are facts:
The most powerful industry in the US is the one producing weapons.
The most needed resource in the US is oil, fuels from fossils, in general.
Now, perhaps even fighting for his life, this sorry excuse for a man called Trump uses any means in the book of cruelty and baseness to get his way.
The Ukraine war is welcome and even obviously one more cruelty that costs thousands of lives – to put NATO and the EU under pressure: Buy more weapons, raising their annual used on ‘protection’. Putin right behind it…
Tariffs raised purportedly to protect the US…
EU leaders have been called one after another to visit and ‘discuss’. The first to fall was Giorgia Meloni, Italy.
The first to go was Britain.
NATO seems at the mercy of the US, since they produce most of the weapons NATO-members so far buy – yet.
Trump has been known for bullying, corruption and bribery, as well as molestation in smaller contexts.
The Epstein papers are another instance and proof of that fact.
The only means to fight back is: Standing together. Because, the US depend on the EU just as much as the EU does.
The Office of United States Trade Representative states so itself in numbers, here.
Mr Trump has to be reminded of his ‘manners’ and the limits he comes off at.
This is no way to deal with a strong, international community. Period.
Anyone with the least bit of knowledge of recent history (past couple of decades) and the main characters involved knows: It’s not about anything but oil. And that sad excuse for a man being US-president who is not only fighting for his ‘job’, but also probably has to fulfill more or less secret promises to industry leaders. Rather less secret, I should think…
When we look into history these things can become clearer, since patterns emerge. It’s not about conspiracy theories but facts.
Facts are, and have been as long as the industrial revolution and cars as well as factories clamored for ever more oil and gasoline and petrol and… you name it – especially in the US – that this dire need of fuels triggered all kinds of wars and pushy international behaviour.
Fuels made from fossils, in short.
It’s shameful to watch how the second time in office makes this person even more ruthless, reckless and actually disgusting.
I know a lot about Iran, I love that old, wonderful culture and language. I know how much the people there suffer from the internal affairs a regime of apparently religiously motivated clerical leadership creates for them in severe restraints to personal freedom and denial of the basic human rights.
Yet, there are signs that since threats don’t work with Iran’s regime and international support is strong, triggering uprisings is the next step a country like the US famous for its ruthless interventions and conquering when to their advantage, ‘protecting their interests’ (‘dohhh’…in foreign countries??) – will stoop to.
Let’s be very aware: Even with more enlightened and very capable leaders at the top the US usually looked out for their own monetary and resources’ needs – not those of others. Look at confirmed chronicles and stories, Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, South-America (Chile, Columbia, Nicaragua/Iran…you name any, literally any of them, they consider South America to be their ‘backyard’), Irak, now Venezuela; it’s criminal. Period.
The first to condemn when also to their advantage the last to pull back; almost all the time, with a few fine leaders as exceptions.
The CIA as well as other secret services are part of the system: They determine the knowledge that will be handed down to any new president as soon as he’s inaugurated. (I feel for them sometimes: They all turn grey on top inside of days, after that…)
Iran now: It’s ‘bang full’ of oil and other natural resources. So, after cancelling the contracts for control of uranium enrichment without cause and then bullying and threatening for a couple of years and then realizing that there’s EU, UNO and even some NATO members to be reckoned with – they now try again differently?
The CIA was involved when the last Shah was ‘sent packing’: He had become unable to control the starving masses who saw him and his entourage live in luxury while they weren’t even able to read. The so-called White Revolution was ‘too little too late’. The Islamic Revolution for the past four decades removed Iran’s oil for discount prices from their reach.
The US’s own oil deposits are not nearly enough to feed that greed. That dire need: Keep ‘promises’ and keep US population on the road, because the car is their (second) best-loved device, right after weapons, so it seems.
I beg the pardon of the good ones; but the smart ones over there know what I mean.
Again, be very wary of a country like the US who literally use any means – especially with this ‘leader’ – to reach their self-centered goals.
Author’s Note: The idea of people feeling threatened by all kinds of things, making up conspiracy theories to fit their particular view of the world, is wide-spread. Especially these days. Yet:
There are historical facts known at the respective university departments too. Which can be found in books you can find in all major libraries.
I know that too, because I studied the subject. I received my M.A. degree for English, US-American and Persian language, literature and culture almost 20 years ago, from a well-known university in Germany.
I feel dedicated to the concept of being careful about your facts.
I summarize things here that can be found in more detail elsewhere.
But some things that happen at the moment have reasons that can only be guessed at, this very moment.
The intelligent guesses we can make stem from all those historical facts and the patterns that emerge over time, because it’s the same thing over and over again.
Bluntly put: It’s just too obvious but partners of NATO are not free to say so in front of cameras. The contracts we are bound to as members of NATO and other alliances compel people to keep quiet in public.
That’s why historical documents are so important for a deeper understanding: They show what at the time had been handled behind the scenes as well.
Screenshot of the news item on New York Times website, taken at 03-01-2026_12-15-05, local time, UTC+1
Today the US strike against Venezuela and its president, Maduro, has been reported. Again, the same patterns repeat: Venezuela is known for oil and gold; additionally, the latest government there was not one to easily stoop to US-influence or orders…
And Donald Trump’s ‘star’ in the US was sinking fast the past couple of weeks, if not months. Now he emerges apparently strong and – additionally – some weapons storage places have been lightened of their burden to make room for more.
“Selling it for all it’s worth.” Sensations make the news. Even here. All one can do is hold back and ignore.
Except when cruelty and plain aggressiveness and greed reign – once more. This has nothing to do with heroism. It’s pure cover-up and greed. Perhaps even desperation.
Shame, shame, shame: Shame on you, Donald Trump and all who are with you. Using money and inherited influence, cruelty and greed to make the headlines.
