By Beatrice Jeschek
This article was written for The Kathmandu Post (click here for the ePaper link, page 10 in FEATURES) and first published 15/10/2011.
This article was written for The Kathmandu Post (click here for the ePaper link, page 10 in FEATURES) and first published 15/10/2011.
By Beatrice Jeschek
This photo was first published on the 8./9. of October 2011 in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
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Coal ninjas in Nalaikh, Mongolia. Photo: Beatrice Jeschek |
This photo was first published on the 8./9. of October 2011 in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
This is a French translation of my article "Trapped in the Open Centre" for OWNI.fr and published on 6/4/2011 (click here for the link).
This article was written for The Kathmandu Post (click here for the ePaper link, page 1 in FEATURES) and first published 05/03/2011.
This article was written for The Kathmandu Post (click here for the ePaper link, page 1 WORLD) and first published 29/01/2011 on ekantipur.com.
See below the online version with implemented links:
By Beatrice Jeschek
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| Designers in the 'Topf & Sons' planning office, 1940 © Thüringisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Weimar |
On January 27, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the city of Erfurt in Germany inaugurated a place dedicated to tell the history of one of the darkest symbols of the Nazi regime – the Auschwitz ovens.
It is a dark chapter for any German to open. Anyone walking along the former company grounds in Sorbenweg in Erfurt must feel the shadows of the past. It is here where the innovative heads of “Topf & Sons”, once market leader for the construction of incineration ovens for crematoria, used their talents to build machines effective enough to erase the outcome of mass killings.
It started in the 19th century and led to the crematoria of Auschwitz-Birkenau – where more than 1,100,000 men, women and children lost their lives. From the spring of 1942 and onward, this concentration camp became the largest site for the murder of Jews brought here under the Nazi plan for their extermination.The story of the company “Topf & Sons” fascinates in a morbid manner.
A patent for killing
The killing and disposal of the corpses was carried out continuously, systematically and inexpensively in a manner which economized on fuel and left as little evidence behind as possible.
In 1942, carried on by full knowledge and witness of the practices of mass murder at Auschwitz, “Topf & Sons” applied for a patent for a “continuous-operation corpse incineration oven for mass use”.In response to the demands of Nazi Germany’s paramilitary organization “SS”, the company management, engineers and fitters supplied not only incineration ovens for the disposal of murdered human beings – they also perfected the gas chambers.
A patent that may shock even those familiar with the technical aspect of the Holocaust. The urging question lying underneath is how a perfectly normal company ended up as the employing engineers of Hitler’s “final solution”.
Was profit the driving factor? Ideology?
As from January 27, the traveling exhibition “Engineers of the ‘Final Solution’: Topf & Sons – Builders of the Auschwitz Ovens” is supposed to give answers right where all these plans and documents on how to finalize Hitler Germany’s mass killings originated.Thinking about the Auschwitz ovens shocks. It even physically hurts. Thus, silence around the technical proceedings and its inventors is the most common reaction.
After all, the opening date has been chosen wisely as it marks the anniversary of the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and therefore designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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| 'Topf & Sons' crematory ovens at Buchenwald concentration camp, 1943 |
Critical memorial
The first steps towards displaying a profile of the builders of the Auschwitz ovens were taken already in 2005 in Berlin. It then found its way throughout Europe. Presently, the exhibition is being expanded, updated and adapted for permanent display in Erfurt.
Single voices in the German press highlight the effect an exhibition like this may have on the international debate.
The divergent aspect here is that this new Place of Remembrance in Erfurt is the first to be so strongly dedicated to the mechanics of the Nazi death camps, the builders of the Auschwitz ovens.Not only does it show abroad how critical Germany is with its past. That is a given. Moreover, it initiates an attempt to clear the view on the role technology plays in modern society.
Technology per se can’t be bad, can it?Actually, the brand name of the “Topf & Sons” drafting machines was “ISIS” – making reference to the ancient Egyptian goddess who offered protection to all who “invented something useful for mankind.”
According to the exhibition’s website, there is proof enough to say that the “Topf & Sons” engineers, “entirely of their own accord”, invented more efficient facilities for the disposal of more and more human beings.
“With their construction designs, they hastened to remain far ahead of the demands made by the SS. The personal and economic advantages they gained for their efforts were modest – too modest to explain their great commitment,” the website reads. The proportion of the concentration camp business of the total sales of the company was only about two percent.
As it seemed, the designers in the drafting rooms were proud of finding innovative solutions for specific customers. And from 1939 onwards, the company’s specialized furnace construction department worked most intensively for the “SS”, a very specific customer.As if it was supposed to add “inspiration”, the windows of the company’s technical departments even afforded an unobstructed view of the Ettersberg, a mountain near Weimar where the Buchenwald concentration camp was located.
The ending
After the war, the “Topf & Sons” company management as well as the involved employees denied all charges of guilt and responsibility for the crimes.
In 1945, Ludwig and Ernst Wolfgang Topf, owners and managing directors of the family business in the third generation, escaped any charges. Ludwig committed suicide, Ernst Wolfgang fled to the Western occupied zones and could not return after the Soviet army became the occupying force in Erfurt. Legal proceedings against him were suspended.
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| Ernst-Wolfgang and Ludwig Topf, 1938 |
A year later, in 1946, the engineers Kurt Prüfer, Fritz Sander, Karl Schultze and Gustav Braun were arrested by the Soviet army. Sander died the same year of heart failure. In 1948, his three colleagues were sentenced in Moscow to twenty-five years in a penal colony for assisting the SS in committing genocide.
“Half-Jews” and proclaimed communists were among the staff. “Topf & Sons”, and this is maybe what critical memorial actually means, was not just a grey company, building without faces.The builders of the Auschwitz ovens were not even Nazi fanatics. They were real people, smart inventors, pulled by ambitions of serving the state.
A lot of morally challenging material shows up – “Topf & Sons” fits in Nazi Germany as a normal company with normal people. The lack of humanity towards “natural enemies” of the national community was enough to create accomplices in mass murder.
Fact is, the psychology of providing the technical grounds for mass killings has many facets, and some of these are displayed in the exhibition.
For more information on the permanent exhibition click here.
By Beatrice Jeschek
They see burning as their one way out of poverty, forced marriages or other kinds of unbearable cruelties life has to offer: Afghan women choose matches and cooking fuel to escape their faiths.
When divorce and an independent life appear to be unthinkable, it seems to empower these women in the only way they know.
In her article called “For Afghan Wives, a Desperate, Fiery Way Out”, Alissa J. Rubin opens a powerful window for the Western readership to see how day-to-day life in Afghanistan scars women for life – so intensely, that they see no healing, no escape other than erasing these open wounds by setting themselves on fire.
The following gives fragments of Rubin's article (cited) and evaluates the situation for Afghan women under the aspect of suppressed cultural taboos.
Burning is personal
How desperate one must be feeling when committing suicide? Even more so when deliberately turning oneself to the cruel fire death?
Women might consider jumping from a roof top but are worried they would only break her leg. Mistakenly, they think when setting themselves on fire, all will be over.
Burning in Afghanistan has many faces. One of them belongs to Farzana (pictured above, left) who spoke to Rubin in Afghanistan.
The burn victim told Rubin that she felt such pain in her heart and very angry at her husband and her mother-in-law. The feelings seemed to have overwhelmed her. So, she took the matches and lit herself.
The numbers reveal less than the stories of the patients.
Stories as told by Rubin paint a dark picture of day-to-day life for Afghan women. We may not be able to add some colour, or to change the picture. But we can try to break the silence and draw attention towards the issue, which national authorities tend to ignore or underestimate.
In Afghanistan it is shameful to admit to have troubles at home. Also, mental illness often goes undiagnosed or untreated. According to Rubin who talked to the hospital staff Ms. Zada probably suffered from depression.
Victims of honour
“If you run away from home, you may be raped or put in jail and then sent home and then what will happen to you?” asked Rachel Reid, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who tracks violence against women.
Honour killings as described in an article by Stephanie Victoria Schmitt in The Kosmo tell a whole different side of the same story. If a woman ever returns from a getaway, she risks to be shot or stabbed by her own family. Women and girls are still stoned to death.
What happens when a woman burns herself and survives?
Rubin argues "she might be relegated to a grinding Cinderella existence while her abusive husband marries another, untainted woman."
Even in this case, most Afghan women do not react. Divorce is not a common option.
This article was first published 09/11/2010 on maltastar.com.
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| © Lynsey Addario for The New York Times |
They see burning as their one way out of poverty, forced marriages or other kinds of unbearable cruelties life has to offer: Afghan women choose matches and cooking fuel to escape their faiths.
When divorce and an independent life appear to be unthinkable, it seems to empower these women in the only way they know.
In her article called “For Afghan Wives, a Desperate, Fiery Way Out”, Alissa J. Rubin opens a powerful window for the Western readership to see how day-to-day life in Afghanistan scars women for life – so intensely, that they see no healing, no escape other than erasing these open wounds by setting themselves on fire.
The following gives fragments of Rubin's article (cited) and evaluates the situation for Afghan women under the aspect of suppressed cultural taboos.
Burning is personal
How desperate one must be feeling when committing suicide? Even more so when deliberately turning oneself to the cruel fire death?
Women might consider jumping from a roof top but are worried they would only break her leg. Mistakenly, they think when setting themselves on fire, all will be over.
 |
© Lynsey Addario for The New York Times |
"Defiant and depressed, she went into the yard. She handed her husband their 9-month-old daughter so the baby would not see her mother burning. Then she poured cooking fuel on herself," the author continues."Engaged at 8 and married at 12, Farzana resorted to setting herself on fire when her father-in-law belittled her, saying she was not brave enough to do so. She was 17 and had endured years of beatings and abuse from her husband and his family," Rubin spins her story.
The burn victim told Rubin that she felt such pain in her heart and very angry at her husband and her mother-in-law. The feelings seemed to have overwhelmed her. So, she took the matches and lit herself.
Burning, Rubin argues, is a common form of suicide in Afghanistan, partly because the tools to do it are so readily available. Through early October, 75 women arrived with burns at the Herat hospital — most self-inflicted, others only made to look that way. That is up nearly 30 percent from last year.“I thought of running away from that house, but then I thought: what will happen to the name of my family?” Farzana said. “No one in our family has asked for divorce. So how can I be the first?”
The numbers reveal less than the stories of the patients.
Stories as told by Rubin paint a dark picture of day-to-day life for Afghan women. We may not be able to add some colour, or to change the picture. But we can try to break the silence and draw attention towards the issue, which national authorities tend to ignore or underestimate.
In Afghanistan it is shameful to admit to have troubles at home. Also, mental illness often goes undiagnosed or untreated. According to Rubin who talked to the hospital staff Ms. Zada probably suffered from depression.
There is little chance for education, little choice about whom a woman marries, no choice at all about her role in her own house. Her primary job is to serve her husband’s family. Outside that world, she is an outcast.The choices for Afghan women are extraordinarily restricted: Their family equals fate.
Victims of honour
“If you run away from home, you may be raped or put in jail and then sent home and then what will happen to you?” asked Rachel Reid, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who tracks violence against women.
Honour killings as described in an article by Stephanie Victoria Schmitt in The Kosmo tell a whole different side of the same story. If a woman ever returns from a getaway, she risks to be shot or stabbed by her own family. Women and girls are still stoned to death.
What happens when a woman burns herself and survives?
Rubin argues "she might be relegated to a grinding Cinderella existence while her abusive husband marries another, untainted woman."
Doctors cited two recent cases where women were beaten by their husbands or in-laws, lost consciousness and awoke in the hospital to find themselves burned because they had been shoved in an oven or set on fire.The most sinister burn cases are often actually homicides masquerading as suicides, doctors, nurses and human rights workers have revealed.
Even in this case, most Afghan women do not react. Divorce is not a common option.
This article was first published 09/11/2010 on maltastar.com.
By Beatrice Jeschek
More than two hundred children have been exposed to lead dust and died of poisoning in northern Nigeria. They had worked as child laborers in gold mines.
The UN office for the Organization of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) yesterday reported about the deaths of several hundred people since the beginning of this year in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara. More than 300 people have died from lead poisoning, two-thirds of them children.
“These poisonings are due to traditional gold-prospecting methods”, said Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA spokeswoman in Geneva. A further 18.000 individuals may be affected, she added.
In Nigeria, small amounts of gold are extracted from lead-rich ores. In order to extract the gold, the lead is crushed and dried. Consequentially, the resulting dust contains deadly amounts of lead, which contaminates tools, earth and water the workers use.
The Nigerian authorities have stopped the work in illegal gold mines and started the evacuation of some of the contaminated areas.
A five-member team of environmental emergency specialists arrived on Monday in Abuja, the capital.
According to the UN News Center, the team will spend several weeks taking samples of soil and drinking water and analyzing them. One of their tasks will also be to devise recommendations on how to clean up pollution from lead, mercury and copper.
This article was first published 22/09/2010 on maltastar.com.
The UN office for the Organization of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) yesterday reported about the deaths of several hundred people since the beginning of this year in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara. More than 300 people have died from lead poisoning, two-thirds of them children.
“These poisonings are due to traditional gold-prospecting methods”, said Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA spokeswoman in Geneva. A further 18.000 individuals may be affected, she added.
In Nigeria, small amounts of gold are extracted from lead-rich ores. In order to extract the gold, the lead is crushed and dried. Consequentially, the resulting dust contains deadly amounts of lead, which contaminates tools, earth and water the workers use.
The Nigerian authorities have stopped the work in illegal gold mines and started the evacuation of some of the contaminated areas.
A five-member team of environmental emergency specialists arrived on Monday in Abuja, the capital.
According to the UN News Center, the team will spend several weeks taking samples of soil and drinking water and analyzing them. One of their tasks will also be to devise recommendations on how to clean up pollution from lead, mercury and copper.
This article was first published 22/09/2010 on maltastar.com.
By Beatrice Jeschek
Every third Afghan entitled to vote did actually vote in the parliamentary elections last week. The people have shown courage.
Political experts announced just before the election in Afghanistan that there would be no choice as known in a Western-style democracy. During the election, pessimistic voices were proven right in their criticism.
Once again, people kept on cheating. Taliban kidnapped candidates and election workers. Insurgents attacked polling stations with rockets, killing more than 40 people.
A rocket which insurgents in Kabul fired at the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Forced (ISAF), missed its target.
The Afghans have shown courage. Corrupt politicians, an incompetent judiciary and occasionally powerless security forces were no reason for this one third of the population to dismiss democracy. This is more than one could have expected from this election.
U.N. officials on the other hand alerted it would be too early to call the election a success. There were serious concerns about fraud (cf. Afghan election in 2009).
This article was first published 20/09/2010 on maltastar.com.
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| © Omar Sobhani/Reuters |
Every third Afghan entitled to vote did actually vote in the parliamentary elections last week. The people have shown courage.
Political experts announced just before the election in Afghanistan that there would be no choice as known in a Western-style democracy. During the election, pessimistic voices were proven right in their criticism.
Once again, people kept on cheating. Taliban kidnapped candidates and election workers. Insurgents attacked polling stations with rockets, killing more than 40 people.
A rocket which insurgents in Kabul fired at the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Forced (ISAF), missed its target.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, praised in a statement the tenacity of the estimated 4 million people who turned out to vote amid “significant security challenges”.However, the insurgents could not prevent that 32 percent of the Afghan people voted. Despite the threats of the Taliban, despite the generally poor security situation which led to the closing down of approximately 1500 polling stations – one of three made use of his or her right to vote.
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| Female voters in Mazar-e-Scharif |
U.N. officials on the other hand alerted it would be too early to call the election a success. There were serious concerns about fraud (cf. Afghan election in 2009).
Final results of the Afghan election are expected at the end of October."It is now up to the Afghan electoral bodies, the Independent Election Commission and the Complaints Commission, to complete their job," said Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, in a statement.
This article was first published 20/09/2010 on maltastar.com.
By Beatrice Jeschek
It is a double change of perspective. A Taiwanese video displays a grotesque irony towards the planned mosque near ground zero and recent anti-Muslim incidents in the US.
What makes this one special?
For one, it is animated. Secondly, it shows a domino effect of scaremongering that started in the Western mainstream news.
It looks like a brilliant move of the Hong Kong-based "Next Media Animation" owned by billionaire tycoon Jimmy Lai. His Chinese media grasp news items and animate them. This way they do not need to buy footage and at the same time can push an incident into a certain light. One famous clip shows Tiger Woods’ car crash and dispute with his wife. It generated 2,5 million hits on YouTube.
Their latest version displays recent events surrounding the controversial mosque planned in New York City. The graphic nature makes it possible: Even non-Chinese speakers can easily follow.
Why animating the mosque debate?
The debate around a planned mosque in New York City, known as the “Cordoba House” or “51Park Project”, just two blocks from ground zero, has reached a peak.
Conservatives argue it would be an unreasonable demand for the families of the 9/11 victims to build a mosque so close to the former World Trade Center. After all, the assassins of more than 2700 people back in 2001 confessed to act in the name of Islam.
The initiators of the Islamic center feel misunderstood. Their “Cordoba House” would serve peace purposes and the thought of religious tolerance. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam who promotes the building of the mosque in New York City, adjudged the 9/11 tragedy multiple times. Also, representatives of the “September Eleventh Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow” spoke on US TV in support about the “51Park Project”.
The Taiwanese Next Media Animation chooses yet another perspective. With grotesque irony they bring to screen how they interpret the debate around the “Cordoba House”.
This goes beyond the funny fact of animation. It leads to another scaremongering outside the Western mainstream media, by adding fuel to prejudices against the West.
The debate is controversial for a reason. The Taiwanese Next Media group represents hereby only one way of interpretation. After all, animated “puppets” leave an extreme freedom of how to display reality.
See the video below:
This article was first published 01/09/2010 on maltastar.com.
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| Pedestrians in Manhattan in front of the building in question to be replaced by the controversial mosque © Spencer Platt/Getty Images |
It is a double change of perspective. A Taiwanese video displays a grotesque irony towards the planned mosque near ground zero and recent anti-Muslim incidents in the US.
What makes this one special?
For one, it is animated. Secondly, it shows a domino effect of scaremongering that started in the Western mainstream news.
It looks like a brilliant move of the Hong Kong-based "Next Media Animation" owned by billionaire tycoon Jimmy Lai. His Chinese media grasp news items and animate them. This way they do not need to buy footage and at the same time can push an incident into a certain light. One famous clip shows Tiger Woods’ car crash and dispute with his wife. It generated 2,5 million hits on YouTube.
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| Screenshot of "Next Media Animation" newscasters |
Why animating the mosque debate?
The debate around a planned mosque in New York City, known as the “Cordoba House” or “51Park Project”, just two blocks from ground zero, has reached a peak.
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| Screenshot of the "Cordoba House" |
Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice President candidate of 2008, declared on her facebook page that it would be “a stab in the heart of the families” to “build a mosque at ground zero”.
Pro-mosque debaters call this angle narrow-minded. It would push a process of scaremongering by mixing peaceful Muslims with Islamist terrorists. Some even use the word “islamophobic”.(False exaggeration begins here: No one intends to build a mosque AT ground zero.)
The initiators of the Islamic center feel misunderstood. Their “Cordoba House” would serve peace purposes and the thought of religious tolerance. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam who promotes the building of the mosque in New York City, adjudged the 9/11 tragedy multiple times. Also, representatives of the “September Eleventh Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow” spoke on US TV in support about the “51Park Project”.
The domino effect of scaremongeringThese are just two different angles from within the Western mainstream news debate. US President Obama seems to be caught in between them, although generally supporting freedom of religion.
The Taiwanese Next Media Animation chooses yet another perspective. With grotesque irony they bring to screen how they interpret the debate around the “Cordoba House”.
They show a scaremongering that started in the US: A fistful of anti-Muslim incidents and conspiracy theories, among them US president Obama as a secret Muslim. In displaying a one-sided debate – picking out the worst anti-Muslim rumors in the US – they create an image of a hateful America.They animate a picture of a US that at best only tolerates Muslims.
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| Animated video (screenshot) |
The debate is controversial for a reason. The Taiwanese Next Media group represents hereby only one way of interpretation. After all, animated “puppets” leave an extreme freedom of how to display reality.
See the video below:
By Beatrice Jeschek
The truth spreads after three weeks: Members of two armed groups raped at least 150 women in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN confirms.
The figures vary to as much as 179 women who were raped by between two and six men. Their children and husbands were forced to watch. Medical and psychological help is much needed and provided, reported the humanitarian group of the International Medical Corps (IMC).
The insurgents are said to belong to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group of ethnic Hutu fighters linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Together with the local militia known as the Mai-Mai Cheka they blocked the main road that connected the village of Bunangiri with the world.
Some 30 kilometers away was the UN military mission (MONUSCO), unaware of the circumstances.
A bloody war has raged in Congo for many years. Rebels of diverse groups fight against the government, militias plunder villages, soldiers carry out acts of vengeance and bandits assault refugees. As always, women and children suffer the most. From a distant and analytical point of view, the incident of gang rape comes across as not at all surprising. Exactly that is so cruel about it.
The dark figure of unreported rape cases is supposed to be very high.
When the UN peacekeepers are withdrawn as planned – in recent months already 1700 soldiers to meet an agreement with the government in Congo to end the mission – the fight against sexual abuse in the DRC will get even harder to win, argues Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict.
The Rape of Kivu: A Report by “En France 24” from December 2007 on the long-lasting problem of rape in Kivu (the region where the recent rapes happened):
This article was first published 25/08/2010 on maltastar.com.
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| © Walter Astrada/AFP/Getty Images |
The figures vary to as much as 179 women who were raped by between two and six men. Their children and husbands were forced to watch. Medical and psychological help is much needed and provided, reported the humanitarian group of the International Medical Corps (IMC).
The insurgents are said to belong to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group of ethnic Hutu fighters linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Together with the local militia known as the Mai-Mai Cheka they blocked the main road that connected the village of Bunangiri with the world.
Some 30 kilometers away was the UN military mission (MONUSCO), unaware of the circumstances.
A bloody war has raged in Congo for many years. Rebels of diverse groups fight against the government, militias plunder villages, soldiers carry out acts of vengeance and bandits assault refugees. As always, women and children suffer the most. From a distant and analytical point of view, the incident of gang rape comes across as not at all surprising. Exactly that is so cruel about it.
Many civilians are on the run, constantly. Getting to the cities is the light of hope to them. Consequentially, hospitals break under the weight of people.It is an asymmetric war in the DRC, which deforms the meaning of democracy to the extreme. Lightly armed soldiers fight against each other, so the area of destruction moves.
The dark figure of unreported rape cases is supposed to be very high.
It is part of the military strategy to demonstrate power. Women lose their babies by this violent act of humiliation; not even underage girls are safe (see video below). The husbands do not know any other way as to cast their beloved out. A scar from rape is for lifetime in the DRC.According to the UN population fund, more than 8000 women were raped in the provinces of North Kivu (where the village of Bunangiri is situated) and South Kivu. And this is just the number for last year.
When the UN peacekeepers are withdrawn as planned – in recent months already 1700 soldiers to meet an agreement with the government in Congo to end the mission – the fight against sexual abuse in the DRC will get even harder to win, argues Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict.
The Rape of Kivu: A Report by “En France 24” from December 2007 on the long-lasting problem of rape in Kivu (the region where the recent rapes happened):
This article was first published 25/08/2010 on maltastar.com.
By Beatrice Jeschek
Europe’s potential as a magic flying carpet of member-states fails to take coordinated height. In a world shaped by the US and China, this means loosing ground for effective global policy.
Europe was scarred by Copenhagen. It doesn’t take an expert with a magnifying glass to see the wound caused by the COP15 last December in the Danish capital. Negotiations failed dramatically with the two global giants – the US and China – fading completely alongside the possibilities of acting quickly in the face of the challenge (as were they both buried six feet under the same earth they are trying to save).
The European Union found itself in a circle of global friends, but equality needed to be earned and bought, despite the common good of the end result. This doesn’t just hurt Europe’s pride.
How carefully have we tried to satisfy the Euro-sceptics with the tasty themes of unification? One spoonful of political integration here, one spoonful of open borders there. Then, another one of a single currency - only to see Britain, and the “no-Euro-in-my-wallet” countries Sweden and Denmark spit it out and instead dig their claws even deeper into their well-known bank notes of the Queen.
In 2010, the same sceptics might still be sitting on their high throne, only now they are being fed well with the Lisbon Treaty, arduously put together by its 27 member states. Today they might look at Brussels, and actually smile. Imagine the hesitant smile of a true sceptic who now admits to at least some success in developing a shared community.
What is the best way out of a state bankruptcy without infecting the spirit of the Euro-zone?
In a simplified way, the “Greek tragedy” places Europe in the burning spotlight of the global economical network. Europe’s and the world’s best interest do actually converge at some point, because decisions made in terms of the international sphere also safeguard the continent’s peace, economy and democracy. Backlashes like the global financial crisis or the failure of the world climate conference seek out and affect the most innocent pieces of the earth like Africa.
How can Europe influence global policy like the US and China do?
The European nations can then focus on the goals as a unified force: To become a global leader for development strategies, including the favourite role as the “good cop” in climate change policy. At the WTO meeting in Geneva, the G20 summit in Toronto, the UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals, as well as at the next UN climate conference in Mexico, Europe can prove this year that the Lisbon Treaty has been the right start to shape global policy after all.
“Let the carpet fly” could be a catchy slogan to promote the idea of political integrity within the colourful “rag rug” of the European Union. Print it on stickers, spray the walls with it. Awake Europe’s citizens of their numbness, and tell them how sweet it could be to give global politics a pinch of the
European spirit.
This article was written 29/03/2010 for the Nico Colchester Journalism Fellowship.
Europe was scarred by Copenhagen. It doesn’t take an expert with a magnifying glass to see the wound caused by the COP15 last December in the Danish capital. Negotiations failed dramatically with the two global giants – the US and China – fading completely alongside the possibilities of acting quickly in the face of the challenge (as were they both buried six feet under the same earth they are trying to save).
The European Union found itself in a circle of global friends, but equality needed to be earned and bought, despite the common good of the end result. This doesn’t just hurt Europe’s pride.
Europe clearly didn’t manage to apply its potential power. One might identify the problem as a lack of unification from within.When important content drowns in the Pacific, it hurts effective global policy.
How carefully have we tried to satisfy the Euro-sceptics with the tasty themes of unification? One spoonful of political integration here, one spoonful of open borders there. Then, another one of a single currency - only to see Britain, and the “no-Euro-in-my-wallet” countries Sweden and Denmark spit it out and instead dig their claws even deeper into their well-known bank notes of the Queen.
In 2010, the same sceptics might still be sitting on their high throne, only now they are being fed well with the Lisbon Treaty, arduously put together by its 27 member states. Today they might look at Brussels, and actually smile. Imagine the hesitant smile of a true sceptic who now admits to at least some success in developing a shared community.
And Europe is smart. “Erasmus” is a line in the CVs of many European students (180.000 each year) that covers memories of a blessed dive into a neighbour country’s cultural heart. Obviously, to feel European will last longer than just one semester. This way, the EU is breeding loyal future leaders who will be close to the idea of one Europe, ready to act confidently on the international stage. In their “Erasmus Mundus Masters” scheme, the EU created a masterpiece of tight relations between Europe and the world. Academically, this is the best unification thinkable.Today, it cannot be denied, the European Union appears to be a beautifully knotted rag rug of states.
In a global world shaped by the US and China, the Lisbon Treaty wasn’t really the big bang for the evolution of Europe’s power after all. Right now, the question of unification is hidden behind the greater issues of economic stability and efficacy, with the recent “Greek tragedy” within the currency community itself at its core. Here, a Greece in debt crisis stands out as the “runner in the carpet” of Merkel, Barroso & Co.Still, this political harmony seems to be unable to leave the differences behind. If the EU is to fully realise its power and fly with the Chinese dragon and Obama’s charm it needs to speak in one voice.
What is the best way out of a state bankruptcy without infecting the spirit of the Euro-zone?
Their debt crisis has even been a hide-and-seek, unsuitable for a full-grown state: “Give me a loan besieged with interest, dear shark, but don’t tell my European family”.The export mastering Germans, who figuratively hide their filled savings stocking in the last corner of the little garden shanty, will need to play the maharajah with a warning finger held up right in the face of Greece, which on the contrary is lavishing money as if there was no tomorrow.
In a simplified way, the “Greek tragedy” places Europe in the burning spotlight of the global economical network. Europe’s and the world’s best interest do actually converge at some point, because decisions made in terms of the international sphere also safeguard the continent’s peace, economy and democracy. Backlashes like the global financial crisis or the failure of the world climate conference seek out and affect the most innocent pieces of the earth like Africa.
Following reactions to these risks, one might ask wholeheartedly the question if there is a neat solution that works like magical dust for 27 single egos (some bigger than the others) in order to turn them into a unified flying carpet.No one can hide anymore, not even the Euro-sceptics as mentioned above on their high throne of “See, we didn’t want this in the first place”. It’s too late. Now, in facing risks all together the opportunities are lying right in front of the European Union.
How can Europe influence global policy like the US and China do?
Europe (with an impressive GPD of 18 billion US Dollar which is ¼ more than the US and three times more than China) has to take a united stand in world policy. This could be achieved through a solid combination of both member state and EU-institution influence in order to keep the European carpet together – it cannot be done through biases of centralism or nationalism.It can’t be that Obama rails against China’s national monetary policy, while the Chinese blaspheme about the US Dollar (which weakens their Yuang) in order to export cheerfully, and Europe just stares at both, confused.
The European nations can then focus on the goals as a unified force: To become a global leader for development strategies, including the favourite role as the “good cop” in climate change policy. At the WTO meeting in Geneva, the G20 summit in Toronto, the UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals, as well as at the next UN climate conference in Mexico, Europe can prove this year that the Lisbon Treaty has been the right start to shape global policy after all.
“Let the carpet fly” could be a catchy slogan to promote the idea of political integrity within the colourful “rag rug” of the European Union. Print it on stickers, spray the walls with it. Awake Europe’s citizens of their numbness, and tell them how sweet it could be to give global politics a pinch of the
European spirit.
This article was written 29/03/2010 for the Nico Colchester Journalism Fellowship.
By Beatrice Jeschek
What connects Y2K and swine flu? Beatrice Jeschek delivers thoughts about having risk for breakfast and the morality behind reporting it.
An advantage in reporting the present of swine flu (and its vaccine) lies in the possibility to reflect about communicating it. Then, the swine flu scare is not only about the facts behind health care risk. It becomes a question about the structures and fears that lie behind it.
This article was first published 20/01/2010 on thekosmo.org.
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| 'cdc e-health' via flickr |
What connects Y2K and swine flu? Beatrice Jeschek delivers thoughts about having risk for breakfast and the morality behind reporting it.
Reporting risk is a risk in itself
There is a fine line between creating panics and delivering solid information. Compared to war journalism the reporting of risks can be very abstract, because it is fuelled with scientific expertise. War creates a picture in everyone’s head. Bleeding wounds, bomb explosions. Anything. The Y2K threat might leave people with a nothing but a question mark.
There might be no war in risk reporting, but there is a shooting behind every risk. I call it the moral shooting in risk reporting.
Let’s go back to the final cut of the 20th century. The so-called Y2K case shows how far new technology already has affected the perception of risks. The link to cute robots like R2D2 is not that far. Only here, at the end of the millennium, the inability of computers to read dates beyond 1999 threatened to turn January the 1st 2000 into a nerd’s nightmare.
Microprocessors were reported to cause aircrafts falling from the skies, nuclear power plant meltdowns, savings and pensions’ blanks, a breakdown in communication leading to shortage of food, again causing riots and – finally, the breakdown of a society who created the risk in the first place.
Denis Dutton, a New Zealand professor of philosophy, explores these apocalyptic themes right at the beginning of another changing decade, now at 2009/10. The International Harald Tribune is his stage. In his view, every risk is unnecessarily packed with end-time horrors. Comments however blame him for mixing factual risks like global warming or swine flu with a technological breakdown that never happened.
True, the quality of risks can differ a lot. It is nevertheless quite astonishing that a computer software problem can lead to religious assumptions about God’s punishment of mankind, who ironically created this risk itself.
Even a technological problem, then, appears to be as much a factual as a moral risk for society.
Yesterday’s Y2K is today’s swine flue
Risk does not only change its character in reporting. It also reappears on the media stage in different themes. Every year there is a range of risks listed with the same ambiguity of moral and factual specifics.
So, the core of a factual risk appears every time again in its moral twin. It is fed by people’s fear and the elitist evaluation of it. If we want to, we can have our daily risk for breakfast.
In other words, yesterday’s Y2K is today’s swine flu.
Very subtly, risks leave their grounds for factual imminence and turn into a value discussion. How should one behave then becomes the turning question.
Dutton might not divide accurately between the qualities of factual risks. However, he points his academic fingers towards something more important: The heavy entanglement between morality and risk.
This article was first published 20/01/2010 on thekosmo.org.
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