As I am studying Philosophy, I couldn’t resist to share this study that analyses the mathematical and verbal aptitudes of students in different courses and reaches – inter alia – the following conclusion: “Philosophers are the smartest humanists, physicists the smartest scientists, economists the smartest social scientists.”
I hope I will be able to live up to these high expectations. And no, I don’t see any chance of me studying Physics next. Economics maybe.
In a recent post, I had already wondered how Iran’s government would react to an Iranian chess player losing the world record in simultaneous chess to an Israeli player.
Well, now we know how Iran’s sports administration has handled a similar case: An Iranian weightlifter, Hossein Khodadadi was banned from the sport for life for standing next to an Israeli athlete during the playing of the Israeli national anthem. At the World Masters Weightlifting Championships held in Poland, Mr Khodadadi scored the second place behind
Israeli weightlifter Sergio Britva. As the respective silver and gold medal winners (bronze went to Germany) Mr Khodadadi and Mr Britva stood next to each other on the podium.
As you see in the video below [or rather on YouTube because I don’t know how to properly embed a video], Mr Khodadadi was clearly puzzled when the Israeli sportsman reached out his hand to congratulate him. He decided to refuse the handshake, but indicated a brief salute and remained standing for Israel’s national anthem, Hatikvah. No blame from my part for Mr Khodadadi personally, who surely knew that he was facing some tough questions upon returning home.
And the questions came indeed: Several Iranian media reported that this was the first time since 1979 that an Iranian athlete had directly competed against an Israeli. Mr Khodadadi had to point out that he had attended the ceremony in civilian attire and with flip-flops instead of the official dress, and that he only did not withdraw himself from the ceremony because otherwise the Iranian team would have forfeited all its medals.
Still, Mr Khodadadi and Mir Rasool Raisi, the head of the Iranian weightlifting team were subsequently banned by the Iranian government from all sport activities for life.
How sad is it that the Iranian regime’s zealous anti-Israel stance goes so far as to deny the basic principles of sportsmanship and to not only disrespect other countries’ athletes but to even punish its own? I don’t think Mr Britva would have had any problem, had Mr Khodadadi won.
This is a Christmas blog I wrote several years ago. I guess I have become calmer in the meantime. I still don’t like Christmas, but now I just ignore it. So, I wouldn’t write any longer what you will read below, definitely not in these harsh words. But some of the thoughts are still valid.
Why I hate Christmas
Yes, I actually hate it.
I would prefer to simply ignore it, because I usually respect everybody’s way of life and everybody’s ideas. But unfortunately, all these Christmas-junkies are making it impossible for me to ignore it: Wherever I go, whomever I meet, in every e-mail I read, it mentions something like “Merry Christmas”.
The problem is: I don’t believe in it. I am neither a Christian, nor do I believe in any other hokus-pokus-God-persons who allegedly let their children die brutally to make a point.
So, my natural response is: “Thank you, but I don’t believe in Christmas.” – Honest, but still polite, wouldn’t you think? – Hell NO, people look at me as if I was a terrorist! As if I was advocating the end of civilization.
Usually, I am then requested to justify my non-belief, which I find very silly, because one would assume that whoever strongly believes that a child was born without its Mom having been banged by her boyfriend, is the one who has to justify their very silly beliefs.But anyway, I do not want to discuss religion today. After all, it’s a belief and not a science. BUT I want to be left alone with it, PLEASE! Please go to your churches and celebrate it. Sing and praise the lord (for whatever?) in your home. Do it all day long if you have nothing useful to do, like going to school, having a job, or educating yourself.
But leave the rest of us alone!– Why do I have to listen to these ugly songs everywhere?
They make me puke!– Why do I continue to get Christmas cards and greetings although I am open about my atheist attitude?
Don’t you feel bad that you can’t even call me or write me without using a silly festival of an obscure religion as a pretense?– Why are you lighting everything up as if you wanted to attract aliens from far-away galaxies?
What a waste of energy. And even the last farmer in the farthest forest should have heard about energy conservation.– Why is everybody in such a rush to buy presents?
We all know why: Because you suckers feel guilty because somebody else is giving you something and you think you ought to hand out bribes in return. Most presents are then thrown away or idly sit there, because the recipient doesn’t know what to do with it because he didn’t ask for it in the first place.
Just stop the shopping frenzy and buy something useful for YOURSELF. You’ll have much more fun. AND you don’t need to do it between mid-December and 24th December. The stores are open in March and July as well!– Why do you cut Christmas trees to throw them away after two weeks?
Ok, I understand: It’s that old tradition of sacrificing life to please your Gods. Well, THANK YOU that you have at least come so far that you don’t do it with virgins and children anymore.– Why do you allow pedophiles to play with your children just because they dress in red and put on a fake beard so as not to be recognized by law enforcement?
Oh, I forgot: Molesting children has some tradition in the church…
As I said, I see it a bit more relaxed now, in line with my general liberal world-view. I even accept presents now and have put together a wishlist for you. :-)
Neda Agha-Soltan after being shot by Iranian police/paramilitary at a protest on 20 June 2009.
The documentary “For Neda” about the life and death of Iranian protester Neda Agha-Soltan, which I had the honour to play a small role in, won the Foreign Press Association Media Award 2010 in the category of TV feature/documentary. The two producers Antony Thomas and Saeed Kamali Dehghan also won the prize as Journalists of the Year.
Congratulations and thanks again for including me in the film!
What, WikiLeaks? The attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists? The hijackings of 11 September 2001? Pearl Harbour? Global warming?
No. This time, it is something far more sinister that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad is accused of: The Egyptian coast on the Red Sea has been plagued by shark attacks. In
“But it does look a bit Jewish, doesn’t it?”
one attack, a German tourist was killed.
How would authorities around the world react? They’d be concerned for swimmers’ and divers’ safety, they would close off beaches, they would go on boat patrols, they would maybe hunt for sharks (although that aggressive approach might be an over-reaction from an ecological point of view). – Not so in Egypt where the first instinct in any crisis is to resort to anti-Israeli reflexes: The governor of South Sinai, Muhammad Abdel Fadil Shousha, is quoted as saying: “What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark [in the sea] to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm.”
It speaks volumes about Egyptian society when government officials can utter such obvious nonsense and hope to find sympathetic listeners. The ludicrous theory was promptly spread by Egyptian state television. – Nobody seems to have taken into account that Israel has no interested in harming Egyptian tourism (many Israelis holiday in Sinai), that Israel shares the Red Sea coast at Eilat and would thus be exposed to the same sharks, and that the main threat to tourism is Egyptian home-grown terrorism.
To put this silly episode into a more serious context, it is symptomatic of Arab and/or Muslim anti-Israeli reflexes that I assume stem from a deeply rooted inferiority complex. Israel’s neighbours just cannot come to terms with the fact that this small country with a population of only 7 million and no natural resources has one of the most successful economies in the Middle East and a science record that would make anyone proud, and all of this while being surrounded by hostile countries that have repeatedly attacked Israel. – If Egyptians concentrate on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories instead of education and science, it will be centuries, not decades until they catch up.
“I was surprised that other countries even dared to compete with us. I hope they won’t repeat that mistake in 2018.”
Although I live in England, I am actually not sad about this country missing out on the opportunity to host another Football World Cup. Living in London, I am already annoyed with the daily dose of tourists, and I am dreading the prospects of the Olympics coming to town in 2 years. I certainly don’t need another global event that hikes up prices and overburdens public transport. I am also not convinced that host countries benefit economically from events like the World Cup or the Olympics.
But I was still a bit surprised by FIFA’s choice of Russia and Qatar as the two countries to host the Football World Cups in 2018 and 2022 respectively:
The candidates for 2018 were England, the Netherlands and Belgium with a joint bid, Spain and Portugal with a joint bid, and Russia. Five countries that are stable, peaceful democracies where the world could feel welcome in open societies with respect for human rights – and one country that is an autocracy at best and a mafia state at worst, where independent journalists routinely are targets of assassinations, where Stalinism is glorified, and a country that was engaged in a war with a neighbouring country just two years ago.
Given this choice, FIFA decided that Russia was the best place to do business to play football.
As if that had not been provocative enough, FIFA also already made the decision for the
“What did we win?”
2022 World Cup: Contestants were Australia, the USA, South Korea, Japan and Qatar. Four modern democracies with equal rights for their citizens – and one emirate without elections, where political parties are banned and members of “parliament” are all appointed by the Emir (who is not accountable to anyone). In February of this year, Qatar entered into a defence cooperation with Iran.
A tough choice, but FIFA thought that Qatar was the safest place to hide from an inquisitive press looking into FIFA corruption to play football.
Looking for a pattern here, this is what you have to consider if you are thinking of competing for the 2026 World Cup:
Sepp Blatter must be dreaming of an oil-rich country ruled by Nazis… But for 2026, maybe Iran or Zimbabwe will do.
When WikiLeaks announced last week that it would release hitherto secret communication between the US State Department and US embassies around the world, the levels of curiosity and anxiety were equally high. Overall though, the revelations might have bruised some egos and will certainly lead to more careful conversations at the next dinner parties, but we can’t say that the diplomatic world is in shock or that irreparable harm has been done.
So far, I have inferred three lessons:
Let me elaborate on the second and third point a bit: It becomes clear from the US embassy cables that the main concern of most states in the Middle East is being posed by the Iranian nuclear programme.
Let’s first examine Israel:
And then let’s have a look at the Arab states:
King Abdullah wants to “cut the head of the snake” but ends up holding hands.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz summed up the WikiLeaks with a nice headline: “Everybody hates Iran“. My own summary will attempt to be a bit more differentiated:
Durch das Leben in einer weltoffenen und multikulturellen Stadt wie London bin ich vielleicht etwas verwöhnt was den Umgang mit Minderheiten angeht, aber was ich diese Woche aus meiner deutschen Heimat vernehmen mußte, machte mich wirklich fassungslos:
Terrorgefahr?
Berlins Innensenator Ehrhart Körting weiß im ständigen Terrorkampf nicht mehr weiter und hat daher die alte Blockwart-Idee reaktiviert. Wörtlich sagte er: “Wenn wir in der Nachbarschaft irgendetwas wahrnehmen, dass da plötzlich drei etwas seltsam aussehende Menschen eingezogen sind, die sich nie blicken lassen oder ähnlich, und die nur Arabisch oder eine Fremdsprache sprechen, die wir nicht verstehen, dann sollte man glaube ich schon mal gucken, dass man die Behörden unterrichtet, was da los ist.”
An die ständige staatliche Panikmache mit Terrorwarnungen hat man sich ja schon gewöhnt. Ebenso leider an einen gewissen Level an Rassismus, der nicht zu tilgen ist. – Aber daß ein Innenminister die Furcht vor Terrorismus mit rassistischen Vorurteilen gegenüber einer Bevölkerungsgruppe in Zusammenhang bringt, das ist neu. Es ist volksverhetzend. Und es ist dumm und gefährlich:
Sind das die "seltsam aussehenden" Verdächtigen?
Gegen so einen Unsinn hilft nur der zivile Ungehorsam in Form massenhafter gegenseitiger Verdächtigungen unter Berufung auf Herrn Körting. Wenn der Polizeistaat alles wissen will, soll er die Informationen erhalten. Und dadurch hoffentlich lahmgelegt werden.
(For the English version of this article.)
Maybe I have gotten spoilt regarding respect for minorities and other cultures since moving to London, probably Europe’s most multi-cultural city. But what I heard this week from a German minister about some ethnic minorities was shocking even by German standards:
Speaking about the terror threat level which had been heightened once again, the interior minister of the state of Berlin, Mr Ehrhart Körting, said: “If we see something in our neighborhood, if suddenly three rather strange-looking people move in who try to keep out of sight and who only speak Arabic or another foreign language that we don’t understand, then I think one should make sure the authorities know what is going on.”
We have gotten used to panic about terrorism being fuelled by governments, we have unfortunately also gotten used to a certain level of racism, but as far as I am aware, this is the first time that a minister of the interior has linked the fear of terrorism with racist prejudices against one specific group.
This is both stupid and dangerous:
Are these the "strange-looking people" the security services are after?
If this kind of thinking will become acceptable or even mainstream in Germany, then it won’t be my country any longer. And I am certainly not inclined to return to a country where citizens are asked to spy and report on each other.
Isn’t it obvious that Prince William had been waiting with his engagement to Kate Middleton until the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled that prenuptial agreements are now also recognised by English courts? Smart guy.
The Happy Hermit 