“Big Breasts & Wide Hips”, a book by the Nobel Prize winning Chinese author Mo Yan:
Big breasts and wide hips in Malta:
Big breasts and wide hips in my imagination:
My empty, questioning stare when I heard that this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature would go to the Chinese author Mo Yan showed me three things: that I don’t read enough books, that I don’t read enough literary supplements of newspapers and most importantly that my reading is still too much focused on the two sides of the North Atlantic.
I want to rectify this omission. Because many of Mo Yan’s books had already been translated into English (and German) even before winning the Nobel Prize, no obstacle and no excuse can abate my determination.
Counting on my esteemed readers’ experience, knowledge and literary taste, I kindly ask for your opinion: Which of Mo Yan’s novels should I read first to get an impression of his work?
Thank you very much for your vote and for your comments! Of course I will review the book here on my blog once I will have read it.
Too bad that my blog is censored in China, so that some of the most competent commentators won’t be able to participate.
If you are scared of taking a risk, if you give up before you start, if you think that it’s not worth the fight, if you back down out of fear and slip back into your comfortable life instead of pursuing your dreams, then I invite you to spend a few minutes to read about Malala Yousafzai.
Malala is a 14-year old girl in Pakistan who has been campaigning and fighting for girls’ rights to go to school and receive education. She does this in a part of Pakistan where the Taliban have banned girls from attending school. Malala started her activism when she was 11.
She has been threatened by the Taliban, but she decided to carry on, to go to school every day, to inspire other girls to do the same and to publicly speak out for women’s rights in a society in which this is dangerous. Very dangerous, as it should turn out.
Two days ago, Malala was shot by a Taliban gunman while she was on the way to school. She is currently in hospital, fighting for her life. (UPDATE: She survived.)
Watch this interview with Malala from last year to feel her contagious energy and spirit and conviction:
Now whenever you face a tough decision, remember this girl and ask yourself: Do you want to be less brave than a 14-year old girl?
Show trial in Ukraine:
Show trial in Russia:
Show trial in the Vatican:
Feel free to add more examples.
You know you have reached the level of world power when your flags get burned in the streets. America, step aside – here comes the EU.
Now if only the protesters in Greece could explain what they want to express by burning the EU flag: Do you want to leave the EU? Do you want to stop receiving funds from the EU which prevent the bankruptcy of the Greek state? Do you want to pay back all the funds you got since joining the EU? I am confused.
It is astonishing how quickly Germany regained a positive image in the world after starting two world wars, setting the whole continent of Europe on fire and attempting to exterminate the Jews of the world. Thanks to the Cold War and the economic growth after World War II, I have always felt that Germany was let off too easily and thus didn’t really have to face the tough questions all of its people – including my own grandparents – should have answered.
In parts of Brazil however, the image of Germany still seems to reflect its past. From an article in The Economist about prisons in Latin America:
The Primeiro Comando da Capital [Brazil’s most powerful gang] now controls most of São Paulo’s prisons … . It has a policy of non-communication with guards whom it calls “Germans” (meaning Nazis).
“We have not forgotten our history lessons.”
Last week I had a guest via Couchsurfing and we had very interesting discussions which we continued over dinner. Both the discussions and the dinner were however interrupted each time my guest’s phone made a beeping sound. He acknowledged that it was impolite, he apologized and then he replied to the text messages he had received.
I began to think that my guest was slightly addicted to phones, an opinion which was fostered when my own phone began to ring. As all of you who have my number know, I usually ignore my phone. More and more calls on my phone went unanswered and my guest became visibly nervous until he took my phone, handed it to me and begged me to answer it.
It is strange to me why people prioritize the message of somebody miles away over the person with whom one is sitting at the same table.
My recommendation for meals, cinemas, church services, romantic walks and any other gathering is to turn off your phones. When A and B meet, why should C be allowed to interrupt them? Especially if C can leave a message to which A or B can reply later.
For those however who are too addicted to turn off your phones, I suggest the following rules when meeting for lunch or dinner:
Charlie Wilson was a member of the US House of Representatives who in the 1980s lobbied intensively for arming the Afghan rebels against the Soviet Union. He personally secured a lot of the funding for the Afghan Mujahideen from the CIA and the US Department of Defense.
Mr Wilson was elected in Texas, in a constituency with probably not too many Afghans in it. He could have concentrated on tax 
policy, gun control or health reform. Yet he sensed that it was the right thing to help freedom fighters against a dictatorship. He did the right thing.
I wish the parliaments of North America and Europe would have members today who cared about the fight of the people of Syria against Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship. Where are the Charlie Wilsons of today?
Clint Eastwood arguing with an empty chair:
Mitt Romney having a debate with an empty podium:
“What is the story of this house?” That is what I wondered when I saw this majestic but derelict house withering away between the autumn foliage at Trakai in Lithuania.
Later that day I stumbled across another building which was no longer in use. It looked like a former schoolhouse or administrative building and provided a beautiful scene between the colourful trees.
The Happy Hermit 