Why we all should love France

No, you won't be Rickroll'd into anything here, but "never gonna give [you] up" seems to be the motto of French workers, even when facing the worldwide economic crisis. Not only do they lock managers in their offices, now some of them also threaten to blow up a car supplies factory if they don't get redemption payments. Apart from the fact that violence (or the threat of using violence) is "the last refuge of the incompetent" - it gives me hope to read that there are still some people out there who have the guts and will to fight for a more just world, even against overwhelming opposition. When the revolution comes - it will start in France.

Wahlkarten

Die Grünen haben überdurchschnittlich viele Stimmen von Wahlkartenwählern erhalten - wie bei anderen Wahlen auch. FPÖ und BZÖ waren beide im Vergleich zur "normalen" Wahl teils weit unter ihrem Schnitt. Legitimer Schluß: Menschen, denen die Ausübung ihres demokratischen Grundrechts wirklich wichtig ist, wählen bevorzugt Parteien aus dem Zentrum und links davon. Oder, provokant: Wer ein Demokrat ist, lässt Mölzer, Stadler, Strache und Co. rechts liegen.

Geek, Nerd, etc.

Since it popped up in a discussion recently, I'd like to point out my personal view on the Geek vs. Nerd topic:

A Geek is a person who is fascinated by technical stuff - computers, mathematics, physics, chemistry, electronics, you-name-it. Still, a Geek is able to participate in hour-long conversations (even with the other sex) without including any of these favourite topics. You may want to see thinkgeek.com to get an impression.

A Nerd on the other hand is inept of any kind of social life, conversation, or contact with members of the other sex. While still maintaining the interest in above-mentioned topics, s/he often does not excel at them either. A collection of Nerd thoughts can be found at bash.org - you have been warned.

Wahlbefehl / Call to Vote

Wer nicht zur EU-Wahl geht, hat für 5 Jahre das Recht verspielt, sich über die "undemokratische" EU und die "mangelnde Mitbestimmung" und sonstige populistischen Unterstellungen aufzuregen.

Whoever doesn't vote in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament has lost the right to complain about a "lack of democracy" or "lack of co-determination" and similar populistic resentments for the next 5 years.

Wahlkabine.at

Die netten Leute von wahlkabine.at bescheinigen mir 236 Übereinstimmungspunkte mit den Grünen, 195 mit den mir bis dato unbekannten JuLis, 145 mit der KPÖ, 36 mit der SPÖ und 7 mit der ÖVP. Danach wird es düster - HPM kommt auf -23, die FPÖ auf -90 und die Bienenzüchter gar auf -136. Hach, was soll ich nur wählen....

Culture Beat

Nein, nicht die, die 1993 "Mr. Vain" rausgebracht haben.
Sondern unser Mosaic-Projekt "Culture Beat" - die Planung hat begonnen. Worum gehts? Verschiedene Kulturen in einer Stadt, deren Hintergründe, Reibungspunkte, Gemeinsamkeiten, und natürlich um eine gehörige Portion ASK, experiental learning, CISV, etc...

Let's make money

This is an order:
Watch "Let's make money".
Change your way of thinking.

Elections

So, here we are - two days until we elect our new parliament. It was nice to see the last parlamentary discussion, and even nicer to see (and read about) TV "duels"; decided? Not really... but on Sunday in the morning, I'll walk over to my townhall, and put an X for one of the parties. A small note though...

BZÖ in reply to a question concerning suits made at the constitutional court against the new police and surveillance law: "Decisions of the Constitutional Court have to be accepted [...]." A very funny statement for a party which has Jörg Haider as their boss, who refuses to accept several Constitutional Court rulings concerning bi-lingual traffic (place-name) signs in Carinthia for several years now...

Tourists! Proper food for you!

Watching the "usual" habit of tourists visiting my beautiful hometown (see above), they tend to ignore the gastronomial offers Salzburg has. Japanese go to sushi restaurants, Italians to the closest Pizzeria or Ristorante Italiano, Chinese restaurants are full of Asian people, and our visitors from the US and GB tend to fall into the fast-food trap.

Now, not that I don't like a quick Bic Mac meal, or some spring rolls myself once in a while - but when I'm abroad, I try to grasp all the parts of the culture, not just some nice buildings or museums. Austrian cuisine is renowned for its richness, tradition, cultural multitude and tastefulness. The choice of restaurants is wide, from a simple Gulasch to Hirschsteak in Preiselbeerkruste - pick what you like!

Next time you are in a foreign country, look into your guide and search for a restaurant to your liking. One that offers local cuisine. Try it! (And you can grab a quick hamburger after going out at nights still...)

For Salzburg, let me give you some suggestions:

• Zipfer Bräuhaus (opposite Kollegienkirche, Universitätsplatz)
• Gasthaus Wilder Mann (Getreidegasse)
• Zum fidelen Affen (Priesterhausgasse)
• Stiegl Keller (Festungsberg)
• Müllner Bräustübl (Augustiner Bräu)
• Gasthof Alter Fuchs (Linzer Gasse)
• ...
  

Dear Spanish Church: shut up!

"Por que no te callas" asked King Juan Carlos, and the same question goes to the Spanish bishops - why don't you shut up?

If there's one thing that we all seemed to have learned not only from recent and more oriental events, but also from our own history is that church and politics don't mix well - or, more precisely, whenever they do it ends in disaster. Now, I understand that the fear of losing power drives the Spanish bishops into condemning Zapatero, but hey!, swallow it, it's not your job to intervene in the political life of the state.

Otherwise, we could just as well go back to the middle ages, couldn't we?!

So schmeckt der Winter

Ok, in 2 Monaten kräht kein Hahn mehr nach Frau Dr. Winter (FPÖ), die im grazer Wahlkampf derart ausfallend über den Religionsgründer des islamischen Glaubens hergefallen ist. Viel schockierender als diese maßlose Dummheit (deren Folgen hoffentlich nicht allzu schlimm sein werden - vermutlich sind die Betroffenen vernünftiger als Frau Winter) ist, mit welcher Selbstverständlichkeit das blaubraune Klüngel sich diese Aussagen aneignet, wiederholt und rechtfertigt.

Eine Diskussion über die Vermischung unserer Alltagskulturen ist sicher angebracht - unter der Voraussetzung, diese als gegeben zu akzeptieren, und im gegenseitigen Respekt und mit Rücksicht auf die Bedürfnisse aller damit umzugehen. Interkultureller Dialog passiert nicht mehr in Projekten, Konferenzen, politischen Treffen, in Vereinen und zwischen Interessensgruppen. Interkultureller Dialog passiert vor unserer Haustür, und wir lernen besser, damit umzugehen und ihn zu meistern; denn in einer Welt, die immer kleiner wird und immer weiter zusammenwächst wird dieser Dialog zum Überlebenskriterium für das Individuum.

Insofern besteht ja vielleicht noch Hoffnung für das dritte Lager - in ein paar Jahrzehnten hat es sich entweder wegevolutioniert, oder dazugelernt. Ich tendiere ja zu ersterer Möglichkeit...

Movie: Lions for Lambs

Who would have thought? A movie that makes you think from the very first minute til hours after you have seen it... Patriotism at its best, not the "negative" association one may have with it, but what it really means - fighting for the sake of your country, for its political system, for its people, for control over its leaders; questioning everything, deciding, making the right choices, admitting mistakes (or not...).

A definite must-see for everyone who grew tired of the US flag waving in the background while 11 men walk shoulder by shoulder saving the world!

The fawlty tower of Pisa

Discuss all you want about methods, questions and interpretations - the current PISA test shows that Austria (and its school system) suffers from several diseases; a lack of integration (how else would migrants of the 2nd generation be even worse in their results than ones from the 1st generation?), a lack of equality between "upper" and "lower" class, a lack of supporting courses for both highly intelligent and struggling pupils.

The challenge is to take this as an opportunity for change - change of the system, but also change of mind and attitude, not only in the "concerned" groups and parties, but within the Austrians as a whole, to realize that education is not only something the state has to provide, but also something every single parent has to care about for the sake of their own children.

Complaining is not a solution, but part of the problem.

Austrian children only "average" in reading

Well, it seems like good news don't stop these days - we scored #20 out of 45 nations when it comes to reading comprehension in primary school.

No surprise, upper-class parents do a better job in teaching their children what school obviously doesn't (maybe because it's busy teaching basic manners - this leaving no time for more complicated thing, like basic calculus or reading, leave alone grammatically correct writing...), proving my point that it's parents who have to educate, or at least start to educate.

But with your "jamba sparabo", I am sure you don't need to actually understand what you are signing anyways....

¿Por que no te callas?

Man mag von Aznar halten was man will, desgleichen von König Juan Carlos, aber Herr Chavez hat es verdient dass ihm mal jemand "über die Goschn" fährt. Wer im Glashaus sitzt soll nicht mit Steinen werfen, und auch wenn der Linksruck in den südamerikanischen Staaten sicher eine gute Entwicklung ist, so herrschen dort doch viel mehr "diktatorische" Verhältnisse (wie oft wurde in der letzten Zeit eine Verfassung geändert, um Wiederwahlen zu ermöglichen?). Kritik an Personen in der politischen Öffentlichkeit ist angebracht, doch ein Dialog ist immer nur dort möglich, wo auch gegenseitiger Respekt vorhanden ist.

Vielleicht vermissen es Politiker ja, dass ihnen hin und wieder mal jemand sagt "Halt einfach die Goschn!"... fehlender Realitätsbezug in einer Welt der Diplomatie, wo alles nur mit dem Samthandschuh angefasst wird? - Insofern ist es noch beachtlicher, dass der spanische König die cojones hatte, auf die Äusserungen Chavez' mit undiplomatischer Gegenrede zu antworten.

Generell (hört mir zu!) wäre es mal wieder Zeit, sich den Nuhr in Erinnerung zu rufen:
"Wenn man keine Ahnung hat - einfach mal Fresse halten."

Teach your children - by being a role model to them

As if picking up the topic of my last post, (people party's) vice-chancellor Wilhelm Molterer said in an interview that parents should take more responsibility in educating their brood. Though hardly ever agreeing on anything that comes from the conservative-rightsided part of the Austrian political spectrum, this one I can only totally agree with.

Leaving "education" to schools only is irresponsible, stupid, lazy, and harms both the child and society. What you learn in school is formal education - knowledge - but what school cannot teach you is manners, respect, attitude, communication, interacting with other people, and socialization. Non-formal education (a thing I strongly believe in) is not something your teachers may give you. In schools, classes are too big, pupils too diverse in their personal development, and the knowledge part takes too much of precious school time to leave anything for something else.

This goes out to you, parents all over the world: laissez-faire has failed to educate your children, so has TV, Nintendo, the movies, and so will school if you give up all your responsibilities. Don't do this to your children - they will not thank you for ruining their social future, and neither will I, for they will ruin our society with their ignorance.

Lazy, fat and bored

Our kids are too fat... Well, we can blame anyone we want, but by doing so we neglect that after all, it is our responsibility. And with ours, I mean every single one of us. Responsibility of the individual to be aware of his nutrition, responsibility of the parents to watch for their children, teach them that good things aren't necessarily the things TV promotes, and that joy can result from other sources than TV and computer games, responsibility of society to get more "actively" involved in sports and recreation.

A general fault of our society (you may hear me talking more about this) is laziness. Maybe it's its biggest, maybe just one of many. Laziness is what causes "society diseases", depression, obesity, anorexia. Noone(*) is interested in anything but pursuit of laziness... and we take it with any price tag that comes attached.

(*) sorry for the generalization. should read: "the statistical majority of western countries citizen"