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Category Archives: Syria
One Hundred Years Ago, Lawrence of Arabia killed the Railroad – March 1923: Transjordan
Zur deutschen Fassung. Not quite a hundred, but still more than thirty years ago, I was in Australia as an exchange student. I don’t think I have ever told stories from that time, because back then, we still took pictures … Continue reading
Posted in History, Iran, Islam, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Technology, Travel, UK, World War I
Tagged Australia, Iraq, Lebanon, train, Turkey
5 Comments
Random Thoughts (13)
Where exactly is the line between the Near East, the Middle East and the Far East? I am so old-school, when I am in a remote location, I miss newspapers more than the internet. I have never received as many … Continue reading
Random Thoughts (12)
If you have doubts about humanity, listen to this podcast about a hospital in Israel treating wounded and sick Syrians. I wouldn’t have thought that many people read articles as long as the one about my decision to return to … Continue reading
Sean Spicer explains Gas Chambers
Pro tip: if you want to make historical comparisons, read a bit about history before you do so. Saying about Hitler that “he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing” displays … Continue reading
Posted in France, History, Holocaust, Military, Politics, Syria, USA, World War II
Tagged Buchenwald, Hitler, Nazis, Sean Spicer
4 Comments
How Social Media made the World better
Two cities walk into a bar. Says Srebrenica: “I was so unlucky that my massacre already took place in 1995. A few years later, and the internet would have saved us. My people could have alerted the world about the … Continue reading
Posted in History, Human Rights, Military, Politics, Serbia, Syria, Technology, Travel
Tagged Aleppo, Human Rights, internet, Media, Srebrenica, Twitter
13 Comments
Random Thoughts (5)
When Donald Trump praises his pick for Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, as “the closest thing to General George Patton we have”, does he refer to the mistreatment of soldiers or to Patton’s antisemitism? After my story about the Peruvian girl, … Continue reading
Easily Confused (60) Dehumanization
Dehumanization of Jews in Nazi propaganda: (Source: Der Giftpilz by Ernst Hiemer, published in Germany in 1938.) Dehumanization of Syrian refugees by Donald Trump: All that reading of Nazi literature really left its mark.
Posted in History, Holocaust, Politics, Syria, USA
Tagged Donald Trump, Nazis, refugees
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How far can you get by train?
Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Artikels. One of my readers wrote that he had been wondering how far he could get if he took his local commuter train and continued traveling with no other means of transport than the railway. As a train enthusiast, … Continue reading
The end of Gary Johnson
Even worse than not knowing a city that has been in the news for the past five years (and a city so famous and historically important that you might have heard of it in high school) is the naive suggestion that … Continue reading
A Party for Bashar al-Assad
Dictator, mass murderer, war criminal. That’s Bashar al-Assad. In a European capital city, a celebration is held in his honor. That’s freedom of speech. Thus observed by me in Budapest in April 2015, on “Heroes’ Square” fittingly, between the Palace of Art and … Continue reading
The Happy Hermit 