Category: dignity

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“By Hook or By Crook”: The Extortion Machinery Called Trump-Administration

German flag in a gold circle, suspended from an air born heart shape by a fine chain.

(Image by Alexey Hulsov from Pixabay)

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?

WHO IS IT, BONDING WITH PUTIN IN RUSSIA FOR PRACTICALLY A DECADE NOW?

TO WHAT END?

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.

Thanks to all who come by here and who care!

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“Smile and the World Will Smile With You” – or: The Smile of Asia

Four pictures of smiling people
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:

Smile – and the world will smile with you.

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All the Same…? – or: Views and Perspectives – or: Thinking Outside the Box

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.

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War – Power – Power-play – Power-balance or: No Time for Denying the Obvious

Image of a cloud in the sky at dusk, with sunlight behind it.
Image by lmaresz from Pixabay

War is no destiny. War is not dealt us by any type of gods to check our resilience or our heroism.
War is man-made by those that crave power, want to protect it or even more so,  protect the money involved.

Conflicts are a natural part of human life. Wars are not.

The present power blocks we see are not really new. New is the leader-of-state-type the US have engaged to do their dirty work:
Someone who likes it, who already is starting to prepare his ultimate leadership as dictator, king or emperor and someone also, who uses threats and fear as means to ‘make deals’. He has publicly admitted, nay, praised himself that: A ‘deal-maker’.

At present the most urgent need many see and have is ensuring peace.

To deny the obvious, namely that the maps we can see make Ukraine an encroachment onto Russian territory, if they should join the NATO, is childish.

Image of NATO member states and installations around East of Europe, including Ukraine and its border with Russia.
Image screenshot of NATO’s own website, all options checked. Taken at: 23-11-2025_05-50-47 local time (UTC+1)

Ukraine is a country with people, a history and pride.
But they also are people who want to live, to have peace, to stop seeing their cities and villages go up in flames. Bury their dead and weep each and every day over their lost loved ones.

Even more so, Palestine and the Palestinians, same way the majority of Israeli people do!

The majority of Israelis publicly declares even on Social Media such as LinkedIn their lack of support for the politics Netanyahu has applied from the start:

He was known as so-called hardliner from day one.
He had made the situation for Palestinians impossible for them by forcefully moving Israeli settlers there. Gaza-strip and the West Bank had been assigned to Palestinians to live in peace. To this day the official acknowledgement of Palestine as a state is not complete.

Additionally, it is recorded fact that his support in parliament and from voters was waning. So he started a war.

Attacking again under any pretext? Shame on him.

Peace needs to be negotiated, when we want to stop wars. Sometimes that can take time. But to deny the obvious or to refuse to negotiate properly is a sign of ulterior motives.

War needs to stop.

This is the simple truth:
Whatever your colour, creed or conviction, you are not supposed to either kill, torture or bother other people. Period.

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War and Peace: Patriarchy in Full Swing – When the Image of ‘The Man’ and Apparent History Get in the Way of Reason

‘A real man’, ‘a hulk’, ‘the hero’, ‘the fighter’ – the words and phrases are numerous, sometimes there seems no end to the ideas of what men should be like.

“Always cool, calm and collected.” “Women and children, the sick and the elderly to be saved first.”

What does that do to men’s minds? To some, at least, raised with the full brunt of this concept?

That a man is to be powerful, reigns the creation, the earth, and everything in it – including women.

‘His woman’. ‘His wife’.

For centuries that was understood: A woman is her father’s and later her husband’s ‘ward’, in modern terms that was in effect the legal ruling. She did not own anything, even when she worked or inherited money.

Comfort. A fine word. It evokes all kinds of images if we come to think of it. And men so long had to be the providers. Providers of food, shelter and – comfort.

Because, this indeed can be too much: Because, indeed, this is not human!

Every human being feels lonely at times, yearns for closeness, warmth and comfort.

But men are supposed to feel and be always superhuman? Strong, knowledgeable? The last resort?

It’s not possible to always feel that way. But when no one tells them so – how would they know?

And sick minds can be born by the almost schizophrenic concept: Be kind, understanding and calm. But also be brutal and a fighter and always in control of the situation.

Schizophrenia is associated with sickness. But at the outset it means a ‘divided brain’. Thinking and feeling are at odds. And if that cannot be resolved, we find cruelty and (near) madness in deeds and – online activities…

Let’s remember that war is just a phenomenon based on this image. Based on the idea of sovereignty and wealth being the most important and most attractive traits in a man.

These are images, concepts and they are not human. We do not need images. We need human beings in this world.

War is no solution. War is not destiny. War is not inevitable. War is not in our nature.

Conflicts are. But they can be solved if we really want to.

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“One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer” – Or: How To Judge – or Not…?

A table in a laboratory sowing several tubes, small glass bottles and testing equipment for chemical substances.
Image free via freepik.com (no AI involved)

In science you make a rule from thousands of occurrences of the same phenomenon… if it is the same. There are strict rules for creating new or even corrected rules in science. The same is true for the law, legislation and courts of law: In order to be sure of what you do or say, you have to be very careful of your facts, and your witnesses, if any.

That’s why in everyday life you meet so many people who judge often based on – almost nothing: One day, one situation, one occurrence, even a chance correlation of two events – and ‘lo and behold’ they make up a story about people, a place – or they pass judgement.

It’s easy that way: Passing judgement, on others. It makes you feel fine(r) about yourself. And you can stop worrying about your own shortcomings…

Well, it depends, of course. Because not everybody is the same.

Even the bible, a book full of wisdom, if you know how to read it, has that, already, Matthew, 7, 3:

“3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (King James Version)

“3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (New International Version)

There’s the idea that two events occurring at the same time can be made into a story… such as a stork flying across the sky while a baby is born… Makes it – what?

“Storks bring babies…?”

Are you quite sure…?

Drawing of a smiling stork flying past carrying a baby inside a folded cloth in his beak.
Image free via Ecosia filtered search, Creative commons
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Peeping Toms – and Marys? – ‘Devices and Desires’…

Two pictures, an eye peeping from behind a hole in a wallpaper and the photo of a nightclub sign advertising a peep show
Images by Kev and Tumisu from Pixabay, my graphics

The ‘peeping Tom’ for generations has described aptly what I am about to deal with here: The secretly watching male, who’s too dumb for a vivid imagination and too cheap for spending money on the ‘real thing’:
The male (and female?) person who watches others using any kind of device, in the analogue days telescopes or binoculars, to catch at least glimpses of those others in ‘private states’:
Any stage of undress, close encounters of the private and loving kind they miss out on themselves so sadly…

Perhaps it is no coincidence that ‘a Tom’ is also short for a roving male cat…

It is sometimes sad, sometimes rather annoying, when you realize them being about – and often just plain ridiculous and proof of very small minds.

They are not using the – especially these days – ample means and opportunities that often are even sold cheap online; not using the human imagination based perhaps on tales or books or even movies to make their own ‘reality’…

Woody Allen let one of his characters put it nicely in his comedy “Bullets over Broadway”: ‘reality is for those who cannot make their own.’

These days I presume, with so-called – in this respect – equality of the sexes around – women might be ‘peeping’ too; but that is a guess.

Just as in former centuries (married) men used to boast about their ‘adventures’, the nice term ‘swaggering’ makes it even clearer; while women were the ‘true gentlemen’, who relished in silence, even though from necessity rather than want…

To this day, the statistics in these matters especially are hard to determine and not easily published. Not all that is loudest is the most of any kind – nor right….

The right to privacy is a human right and apart from an invasion into the privacy of those that are watched, it’s a punishable offence…

Still, to put not too fine a point to it… all those who read this and start thinking: Perhaps new ways can be found, anyway:
There are those that seem to be the natural counterpart of peeping Toms or Marys: the exhibitionists…

So, inhibited masses, unite!

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Never Assume or: Appearances Can Be (Very) Deceptive or: The Art of (Not) Judging Your Peers

Image of a blue natural crystal stone, grown into a multi-faceted shape.
Image by Alana Jordan from Pixabay

Knowing your fellow man – or woman. In theory it is easy: Just talk to them – or look at them and you know. Right?

Wrong.

We only understand and really recognize what we have seen before. Of course, there are universal truths. Yet, there are also differences in detail.

They depend on experience. On discretion someone may have learned in the course of a lifetime…

I for one for example have learnt to be very careful with what – or whom – I talk about. Usually, that is.

So easily people actually jump to conclusions.
In those conclusions there are just as much ‘wish(es) father to the thought’ as the quote from Shakespeare goes; as well as ideas based on often culturally or individually dependent views and perspectives involved.

So, a wolf would expect a wolf to behave like one. Yet, when there’s a sheep inside – or a fox maybe, or a hare, or a squirrel, or a bear… or a bit of all of them:
What is the conclusion then?

When we want to know about people the first order is: Patience!

Although many of us conclude about basics of another human being inside of seconds, we still should keep an open mind:

So often, appearances can be deceptive.

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Where Amount of Money = Self-esteem or: The Tragedy of Profit as Life’s Basis…

Image of two people looking at money on a scale
Image courtesy freepik.com, free license

“Zum Golde drängt, am Golde hängt doch alles
ach, wir Armen.”
“Towards gold all push, all is suspended by,
oi, wey our souls.” (Gretchen, Goethe, Faust I, my translation).

It’s the quintessential phrase in regard to many people’s image of their own value, their idea of their self-esteem: “The more money I get, the higher salary I receive, the better person I am.”

I feel lucky personally not to have been raised by such standards: Our parents from early on made clear that things are like this in a system that is based on ‘capital’:
That due to the human phenomenon of a system pervading the whole of life over time, many people feel like that:
More money = more self-esteem.

But, perspective is key: If we get the chance to ask further and develop our thoughts we can rise above that rather cheap concept – and find ourselves more than the sum of our parts – or the money.

The only thing remaining and rather important, alas, is to watch out for all those that don’t – or haven’t realized this. At times I pity them for the emptiness their life must present.

But looking after ourselves and protecting us from greed and selfishness where present is still the order of the day – too.

All the happier I am when I meet with the good ones…

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Communication and Culture: Writing, Talking, Listening… – Tolerance can be Key

Image of two women and a man from different cultures, sitting in a public place and friendly talking and listening to each other
Image by Grand Ath Thariq Kusmara Gustav from Pixabay

“You just don’t understand!” – That’s the title of a book by a famous social sciences researcher. She writes in a manner everyone can understand about the difficulties that can arise when men and women talk to each other. It’s focused on the US-American, that is, to some extend Western society and culture.

Most of us know how different and thus difficult to understand the approaches and outlook on life can be between the sexes.
Even more so, when there are similar ideas around, living and working together, where expectations are yet different in detail.

The outlook, the perspective on life, and other people can be a crucial key to understanding each other.

There are people with a quiet and withdrawn everyday behaviour. Who think for themselves, take longer to finally speak about their thoughts; or exchange ideas.

Others rather like to talk soon to someone of like mind.

‘Like mind’: Wonderful words, in some ways.

The person who understands us without any drama or long discussions. Makes us feel welcome and at ease. Accepted. Because we understand each other easily, due to similar outlooks.
Like minds.

There is yet another very interesting and yet basic difference in communication between so called high-context and low-context cultures:

    • “High-context” means not so much a measure of better quality – it means that in order to properly understand what is said you have to know body language.
      The non-verbal messages that come with the words, the talk.
    • “Low-context” too, is not a measure of lower quality – it means that almost exclusively words are regarded as the whole ‘message’ of the speaker.  Facial expression or gestures are almost not taken into account. At least, not knowingly.

I have seen both: People who register every tone of voice or the lifting of an eyebrow in order to ‘decode’ the message.
And those who don’t. At all.

I also know how easily we all are mistaken in judging others: The famous story of the man with the hammer by Paul Watzlawick, a leading figure in communication studies, in his even more famous book: “The situation is hopeless but not serious” is ample proof of that way we all have at times to interpret others – willy nilly:

The man decides he needs to lend a hammer from his neighbour, thinks a while, remembers all kinds of apparent recent snides and strange looks, concluding a grudge, the other is harbouring against him – when he eventually reaches the door of the neighbour’s house, rings and the neighbour opens, screams to his face:
“You can well keep your hammer to yourself!”

Things can become more subtle than that, though: When we live in a close-knit community with some strict ideas on how to behave – it can happen that we become intolerant towards others.

A wonderful concept that can help a lot to more peace and peaceful coexistence:
“Tolerance”: “willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them” (Cambridge Dict., online version)

What can make tolerance so difficult is the fact that we so often are raised with the silent premise of: “if you are not for you are against me” – The unspoken effect inside being even a (temporarily) shaky self-confidence:
We look for someone to confirm our uneasiness, or our hurt feelings. To feel we are not wrong. But right, in feeling insulted or even hurt.

This ‘comes with the territory’: Many of us get a basic idea of ‘right and wrong’, sometimes strict parents or elders raising us with those ideas. And no explanations of – or more subtle views on – the how and the why.

Or the even less-easy-to-grab concept of being right – and the other person being right too… in their view of a situation.

That we will not lose a point or our position, our dignity, ‘face’, when we acknowledge the other’s perspective to be understandable.

But, that is the starting point of more peace and understanding:

Practicing tolerance.

Starting to learn about perspectives and (apart from legal or ethical considerations) about diversity of beliefs, outlooks – points of view.

And still retain our sense of self-esteem.

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