The Head of the National Institute of Health at the time, Dr. Anthony Fauci, esteemed scientist, dared to speak up: Against the present president of the US who is famous for his desperate need for acquiescence and attention. The Administration in the Oval Office at the time for a long time just denied any threat by a virus – or a pandemic.
When it finally started reacting, measures were too little and often too late. Deaths would have been prevented. Dire emergency rooms’ bottlenecks, with triage occurring repeatedly: That method so dreaded by doctors and staff, when for lack of facilities and personnel you have to chose whom to treat first, with too many patients on the brink of death.
That was the reality in the US at the time. Now, the president ‘shortly’ to leave office needs any kind of reason to safe what is left of his threadbare reputation: A scoundrel found guilty in a court of law of the US on 34 counts, a cruel and greedy ‘potentate’ who tried almost everything in the book, even figured in the Epstein papers…
This would be scraping the barrel, if he hadn’t already, this president whose name I rather avoid naming. Actually dragging such a scientist into court, a hearing; and then holding him in contempt.
The ‘GOP’, the acronym spelling ‘grand old party’ for decades wasn’t so grand anyway, when you think whom they support, whom they made president; or what they stand for. But this is indeed one more low point proving the principle:
Cannot be trusted. With anything.
If it wasn’t so painfully embarrassing for a society that has so much to offer in terms of art, science, music and literature – it would be hilarious.
Christopher Street Day in Berlin: Attacked. One more attack on a peaceful gathering. There seems to be a suspect. It’s early days yet. Again, once more apparently motivated by extremist ideas, whatever the exact political conviction. We as an open and democratic, peaceful and diverse society, who know a thing or two about integration by this time, will not take this lying down.
I’ve been around people from all walks of life and from almost any part of the world you could imagine: All continents, many different languages and convictions, political or religious or otherwise.
But, one thing emerges equally and at once: People with hearts and minds for the essentials in life cannot do such a thing.
My heart goes out to all who were affected, losing loved ones in the middle of life! And the wounded: May they rise again, stronger than before and healthy in mind and body.
There are still people around with grudges. Or those who feel left out. Or those who were actually mistreated. But whoever or whatever reason, this is a NO GO.
I for one will always hold up my ideas, my beliefs and the knowledge that only together we are strong enough to defeat the bullies and greedy and misguided people of this world. Because:
Images by 경복 김, Mumtaha Tabassum and Barbara A Lane from Pixabay; my arrangement
When the USA decide on making war, they are adamant. That’s a fine quality in many respects. Yet, in war…? Or making it…? Why, really? After the attacks on the twin towers the US declared war on half the world. That attack was a tragic and cruel occurrence. But it does not provide any justification for shunning international law.
On the contrary: Laws are there for all of the community. In ancient Greece Socrates, the philosopher proved it by accepting a rule that was common then – and drinking the poison from a cup he could have avoided, as a punishment. He died.
When something goes wrong, the US are the first to claim their right, their benefit… the ‘rights’ of the NATO members, for example; that is they ask for and actually pressurize the others to spend more on their annual defense budget, 5% instead of 3%, as only happened around 1.5 years ago.
But: How often did – and do – the US to this day act cruelly against other nations? Without consulting anything but their own foreign interests? What about Japan?
The first and last time ever that nuclear weapons were used in a war. As a testing ground, more or less.
The tests of nuclear weapons in the archipelagos of Bikini they used, to spare their own country? The Bikini islands feel the consequences to this day. So nice and small and quiet and right there… easy to use.
Usage. Benefit. Profit.
That are the pillars of the US-American society and have been since their founding.
The weapons producing industry is the most important, influential and powerful there. And they benefit from NATO members ordering.
In 2003 the war on Iraq was started: “Weapons of mass destruction”, so the official message, apparently had to be recovered. Since Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein had apparently accumulated them breaking international agreements they had to be made safe.
To this day, those weapons weren’t found. That’s official. None.
Saddam Hussein originally had been instated with US support. He was their ‘vassal’ in a country that also has huge reservoirs of oil and gas. When he started to become too independent, war was declared. Eventually he was found and killed.
The oil wells burned for years after that. The country is devastated.
Any old lie will do.
Check your sources. Refer to books in libraries written by respected authors of the field. Check more than one important and traditional newspaper of (reasonably) working democracies.
Iran? It’s got oil. It’s got the largest oil recovery industry in the world. Uranium enrichment control contracts were in full working order until 2018, when Trump and his ‘cohorts’ cancelled them. But: the government in place since the revolution of 1979 did not succumb to US pressure.
Regarding their internal affairs that government was a poor example of a dictatorship ‘dressed’ as democracy, including all legal pressure, limitations and punishment as well as control into the bargain typical for such systems.
But let’s remember: The last shah had been instated by the US too. He sold oil to them at dumping prices. When the literally hungry and ‘huddled’ masses rose in the country, his power waned. Finally even his downfall and flight from the country was supported by the US.
The people of Iran are of a peaceful and also proud mindset. If attacked, they fight to the last. They always did. They do not sell out their country for cheap bargains to anyone.
Looking at history as well as present ideas you can be pretty sure of that.
This completely unnecessary war has to be stopped.
War: a means to an end. Indeed, often it’s more than one end only. In this case there are several:
Sell weapons (for the industry, the providers of supplies…), make a profit – or two.
Get your hands on the oil in the country: The US need oil. Iran has it, in abundance. Additionally, it’s got the largest oil recovery industry in the world.
Distract attention from severe internal problems, such as Epstein papers in the US.
Or the waning support for a president and his administration who seem to ‘lose it’ – not just once or twice, but regularly.
A president, who’s also a criminal, ruled guilty on 34 counts in front of a US legal court of law, for bribery, corruption and molestation.
The ever increasing drug problems of a society that far too long advocated the always handy pills – and the always ‘working human’.
It would be a wise man to get proper counselling well in advance – and act accordingly. But then: Whenever did the current president prove to be wise…?
He has been proven to have committed about any felony in the book… This war is a shame and a crime. Nothing else and nothing in between.
‘Leverage’: A nice term almost, when you think of old pumps that would bring water to the surface and into a home. A lever sometimes used to do the ‘pumping’… Exactly that is part of it when you think of getting or having “leverage” in negotiations: One or the other party to an intended deal being able to put pressure on. For their own good.
That’s what this war and the occasional recent (apparent?) ‘flares’ of attacks to break that truce indicate:
Remind each other of the respective position. Let’s remember that it was the US who started this. Internal affairs in Iran haven’t been anything easy to think of – or ‘write home about’; quite to the contrary. But this is not about that government, let’s remember that too.
It’s about oil, Iran having the largest oil recovery industry in the world(!).
About a country, the US of A, whose population looks to the car as something almost like a body appendage: indispensable. Therefore petrol must be cheap. Which in turn means oil has to be cheap too and keep flowing in…
Especially with a president and his ‘coworkers’, his ‘entourage’, or cue-givers…, who refuse to look into a future of being less dependent on fossil fuels, which in the long run could make it better for all: Better water, air and less dependency on ‘any old’ oil well.
Let’s also keep in mind that negotiations take time. Which this president hasn’t got anymore, really: His second term in office is running out. If he wants to leave any kind of legacy beyond the recall of court actions, Epstein papers and worse, he has to make haste.
In the case of Iran that is one thing to better avoid. Haste.
I love that old culture, reaching back thousands of years, into a rich and also troubled history. Full of poetry and wisdom and art.
Three crucial and very striking aspects of many people I had the joy to learn to know better in a comparatively long life are these:
perseverance
patience
pride
That also has its roots in the history of the country: For a couple of thousands of years and to this day being at the heart of a region that always was the turnstile to all cultures you can think of, far east, west and near east.
The free flow of all that’s good in mankind’s history and mind into and through this country, of languages, arts and influences of knowledge and wisdom – together with the resilience built up over troublesome landscapes with hot, forbidding deserts, constant threats by neighbours attacking and earthquakes into the bargain – have created a ‘fellowship’ almost of a people who at their best will neither give in to blackmail or extortion, and will keep their calm, their pride and their preparedness for reasonable offers to the last.
A wise man will look for good counsel. But some people are not wise enough.
Hopefully this shameful war will end sooner rather than later to make room for negotiations – that will need patience and real offerings.
Picture of the tomb of Persian poet Hafez in Shiraz, 2019, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license
Germany’s situation is bad? Beg your pardon? We are getting along fine, taken all in all, thank you. Who started a war to divert attention from his legal problems? To finally be able to make Iran succumb to their terms because they need oil so urgently? After 2018, cancelling those uranium enrichment control contracts, without reason. (Link to New York Times report from 2018.)
Who pressured the whole of NATO into spending more on their annual on weapons in order to get the weapon’s industry in the US to calm down? 5% instead of 3%, all of NATO who didn’t already?
Since, most of NATO members buy there.
Whose economy has slumped for years? Where are thousands of people killed in the streets because that same weapons industry clings to that myth of the society needing its civilians be ‘under arms’, because the right to protect ‘house and home’ is ohhh, so important?
Who initiated the storming of Capitol Hill in 2021?
Whose universities are being threatened or actually cut off from fundings in order to get scientists to acknowledge one’s own world view?
To have more leverage, of course. To threaten people and scare them in their boots in order to get the ‘deals made’. Someone with no consideration for anyone but himself and the likes of him:
A bunch of self-centred, cruel and completely ruthless, wealthy, shameless crooks, in his own case already ruled guilty in front of a US court on 34 counts of bribery, corruption and molestation. Practically fleeing the shameful and horrifying truth of those Epstein papers.
SHAME ON YOU!
Author’s Note: This blog is not strictly kept along the lines and rules similar genres of text, such as commentaries in newspapers, are like. ‘Blog’ derives from ‘weblog’ originally, which in turn is based on the combination of the two words ‘web’ and ‘log’. The log being a book that recorded daily events on ships and was – and still is, as far as I know – mandatory to maintain.
‘Blogs’ therefore represent a category of entries or texts that usually are crisp, rather short and focus on the main subject primarily, often made to look like actual diaries and openly discussed thoughts.
In literature, one well-known genre is the fictitious ‘novel of letters’: A longer text or book made up of letters all written by the same person but creating the impression that several protagonists were involved at a time and wrote letters to each other, a careful ordering by fictitious dates included.
One of many famous examples in English literature is “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins, a high-towering author among many of that also rich English literary culture.
(Recommended too: This kind of novel saw a hype that showed already in the course of the 18th century. Try Henry Fielding’s satire “Shamela” for real good fun…another one of the greats.)
I write my posts sometimes, when angry and I also like to imagine that the person addressed might ‘click by’ one day. Even if they don’t, which in some cases could be highly unlikely, in theory, I use this platform to show all who care that such voices, who think and say similar words, are there. And the numbers of visitors seem to prove me right, to some extent.
Image: Radio Deutschlandfunk (Germany), “Nach einem Luftschlag auf eine Raffinerie in Teheran ging sogenannter Schwarzer Regen auf Teheran nieder (Bild vom 8.3.2026) (AFP / ATTA KENARE)”
Prices are rising… well, what would one expect. People are being killed. Now the ‘black rain‘ over Tehran is another step towards destruction. The region going up in flames. The country scarred already and becoming another Iraq…?
It’s good to see that they are starting to act again, NATO, EU: ‘Trump’s war’ is not his doing alone, of course.
As a ‘figure head’ he ‘works’ based on the interests behind him too: The industries, most importantly the one producing weapons. The population, who as a majority depend on their ‘way of life’, namely cars for moving across country in the USA, with cheapest prices of all… they trust that any president will observe this concept, this idea, and the government will take care of petrol.
War is no heroic deed of people doing the good thing. War is not only a ‘costly affair’… it always is part of a framework of interests and needs of those in power, those with money and those with ulterior motives. Such goals are not always easy to ‘dig down to’, define.
In the news we usually get the actual event. What we need to do is more reading, to get at the facts behind the ‘images’. Reliable sources. Remember that news have statements in them, which in turn are based on interests and needs and – very often also on diplomacy.
What also helps to understand the ‘goings-on’ behind the scenes, the real motives, is this age-old concept:
“Cui bono?” – “Who benefits?”
If you ask that about anything, it will get you farther in understanding.
This is no ‘piece of cake’, especially not for those being killed and wounded every day. Being scarred for life by health risks and cruelty and greed.
We need to prove that the international community is stronger holding out against one or another country and their selfish, incompetent and greedy ‘potentates’.
Majorities seem to be the thing… they are many, they are often loud (not always) and they seem to be everywhere… Really? With a little closer look, taking a different view – taking a step back and looking from the outside we may see more.
A crucial matter is that ‘thing’ humans have: They need to be part of something, of a group, a club, a family, a tribe; people, in short, they fit in with. At least to some extent.
But, since the dawn of time we were not all the same: Some people are gardeners, you might say, some are philosophers, some are mathematicians. Some are … you name it.
Another thing can be that at times people tend to feel irritated or self-conscious or intimidated when faced with new ideas and strange people.
So, belonging is a central aspect. It can become complex and sometimes even painful, when there seems a larger group of gardeners and a small group of philosophers, to stay with the examples. Both sides may feel challenged: One side because philosophers seem ‘strange’. The other because they ‘fit’ differently, elsewhere.
When we know about these facts – the idea that we cannot be all the same, that changing perspectives and recalling what is important in life, is crucial too, we may become able (again) to accept the new or strange idea.
Because we feel grounded in our own world view and still are able to integrate something else, something different. New.
That’s where joy can be found: Combine the old and the new into something fruitful and inspiring.
Images from the movie’s webpage and licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics – Documentary by John Houston, award-winning director, “Le There Be Light“, 1946
When you look into news and messages you will find that around war there still is a sort of halo or glow being created: As if it actually was about heroes, about being brave and strong and resilient in the face of adversity.
It’s not. It’s a means to an end. Sometimes more than one end.
Oil. Power. Money. … You name it.
Especially in these days, where more than half the world is online and rather better educated than ever before. Patterns of human behaviour are age-old and they repeat. But war is young in history, compared. And that’s a fact, stated by scientists and archaeologists of long standing.
Think of the hundreds of thousands of years that humans have been part of this planet.
Around ten thousand years are a pea on a hot plate in that respect.
There are a few very easy to follow arguments that support this view:
People who come back from war, alive, are scarred in their feelings and emotions, their souls, for the rest of their lives. One proof of that fact is shown with widely recognized precision and compassion in the documentary from 1946, created by John Houston about WW II soldiers, coming back.
But also in former times soldiers who came back would behave differently. Would be uneasy in everyday life and often become furious at any little thing. Turn to be alcoholics. The reports are legend. In literature and in chronicles.
In other words: If war was so natural, would people mind?
Again:
Conflicts are natural. Wars are not!
We can resolve conflicts, if we really want to, because there’s always another road.
Anyone watching the scenes that are public and published can state it that way: “More of the same.” It’s interesting to see that people behave the same way everywhere, just as Paul Watzlawick in his famous book called it:
“More of the same.”
He is a leading figure in communication science and has written standard works for the field.
The well-known, bestselling “The Situation is Hopeless but not Serious – The Pursuit of Unhappiness” was written with tongue in cheek, so it is the reverse of what you would expect. A tutorial how to do it right…to be happier. It’s revealing the patterns people repeat making themselves unhappy that way.
The patterns are there, not just in the book but in life – and in politics. Especially surprising it might seem as regards the war in Ukraine and the situation in Gaza.
Hellooo?
We do not need to repeat the ideas, statements and threats of the past 2 and 7 decades, respectively.
It is about dropping the ‘attitude’:
“Me (us) – always right.” and getting down to brass tacks. To the real thing. To negotiating instead of making a lot of noise. Or expecting the other, the person across from us to change just as by magic – because we suddenly decided that it would be the best way:
Just ‘let’ them give in…
It’s indeed almost as if people had taken some of the bad movies and fairy stories too seriously – and forgotten to consider the other person.
When you meet people in life they don’t behave according to your wishes – just because you tell them so.
No king will get that – and no dictator.
What you can do is: Learn!
Learn about humans, about the universal truths and the actual real things that make life fine – not bragging and boasting and ‘making it an act’.
But about community and the bigger picture, peace and – eventually kindness of hearts.
Because: That’s what real happiness is about. Sense of community – and kindness.
The great kings of the past still considered to be great were not the ones to make a lot of noise and war.
They were the ones to understand about people, that is, their subjects – and about life’s essentials.
