TS - The World

Hey!

I think I will move my blog to the following address since this one is starting to annoy me with the errors it has: http://neoglobe.wordpress.com/ As soon as I'm all set there (like importing blogs) I will also write my comments about last night's election.

Have a nice day :)

You think you lived in a country with equal rights? Read the article and think again!

Arbeitgeber Kirche: Angestellte in Gottes Hand

There seems to be a problem with the background of the comment link. I will prbably change the template. Thus there might be different layouts of the blog. Whatever will work best since I think Google's templates are kind of boring...

Problem: other templates have problems with pictures, too... *sigh*

The dilemma of “school shootings”

Why put the term “school shootings” in quotation marks? The term was defined some years ago, I guess after two crazy lunatics shot a lot of people, including themselves, at Columbine High School, Columbine, MI. But maybe earlier, I’m not sure. Mostly school shootings were “shootings”. However, last week there was an incident that was a bit different. It wasn’t a shooting, it was rather a “school axing” and “school Molotov cocktailing”, which happened in Ansbach, Bavaria, Germany. “School assassination” or at least “attempted school assassination” would fit much better here. Fortunately there was another difference to past incidents. Nobody died, or at least has died yet. A girl who was hit in the head by an axe is still in coma, as is the committer of these horrible acts (I don’t know about the third girl who is still in the hospital, too). To be honest, I hope all three survive. I hope the girls survive, preferably with the ability to fully heal, so they can enjoy life, or at least what will be left. And the other one so he can await a trial and atone for his crimes.

But that’s not up to me. And it’s not the goal of my post. It’s rather about searching for reasons and ranting about the media. This immediately brings me to my first point: media coverage of the event. Not one day passed before the picture of the guy (let’s call him “guy”) was shown everywhere again: TV, Internet, you name it. The problem I have with this is: he had been captured already. There is absolutely no need of posting his picture since nobody was searching for him anymore. When will the media realize that for most of these people exactly this picture is their goal? Even though most won’t be able to feel this moment of glory anymore, but they die with the thought of being covered for the next week. It is already proven that the guy looked up to the past school shootings and the murderers. I wonder why they were like a role model to him? He hated people, was left out by others and this was his chance to become famous. He might have even be loved by others who planned the next school assassination if he had killed enough people and died as a martyr. Therefore, to the media: PLEASE STOP POSTING THOSE DAMN PICTURES AND EVEN NAMES OF THESE IDIOTS!

It doesn’t have anything to do with his looks or name: what is more important is searching and then solving the reasons and something I have missed for a long time: victim protection or compensation. At the moment everybody is talking about the guy, barely anybody about the victims and what consequences this act will have on their future. If the girls are lucky they will completely heal PHYSICALLY. But there’s another side to a human being: the psychological aspect. They will NEVER EVER completely heal in this area. No matter how many psychologists will care for them and how good they might me. Some victims even think that it was their fault that they got injured or almost killed. Others might think that it was their fault that they couldn’t protect their friends. Depression can be the result. My hope is that this will not be the case. But where can you find this aspect of the event? Yes, they are covering that psychologists go to the school and that there are voluntary school activities. But still: I still have the impression that the guy is covered more than these victims. Another aspect is compensation. Hopefully, insurance companies will pay the victims every cent of their rehabilitation. But what comes after that? Maybe there is nerve damage and they might not be able to do the job they wished to do. What is then? I doubt insurance companies will pay the money for the job they wished to practise. I know that these last sentences are pure speculation and even catastrophizing. But it’s still possible. Moreover, I know that no money will be able to heal wounds but what good will a prison sentence do to the victims? They know that they can’t be attacked by him for the next 10 years (MAYBE forever), but will constantly be afraid that something like this might happen somewhere else again. Again: victim protection and compensation is very problematic, but nobody is really talking about that *sigh* (OK, this paragraph was kind of unstructured and probably too speculative, but these are my thoughts).

But staying on topic victim protection: this time preventive. One reason why the Carolinum, the school the school assassination took place at, wasn’t safer is because of a nice law or organisation we have in this nice yet extremely, stupidly bureaucratized country: GEZ, Gebühreneintreibungszentrale. An organisation that takes money from the public for a device that might be able to receive radio signals which could be used to watch or listen to ARD, ZDF and their affiliates, the TV/ radio stations which are governed by public law. The managers of the Carolinum wanted to install a school shooting alarm. However, the problem was that these devices would have worked with radio waves and therefore would have cost the school a lot of money. A publicly-funded body needs to pay a different publicly-funded body. HOW F***ING RIDICULOUS IS THAT??? The school couldn’t pay for these fees and therefore didn’t install these devices. They could have prevented a lot. But no, our stupid laws prevents more security. Oh wait, no they don’t: We are secure, because the BKA (the German CIA) can read our e-mails, text messages and prevent any such actions: This school axing is just a figment of our imagination! WE ARE SAFE… aren’t we?

So instead of a school shooting/ assassination alarm the other alarm the school had was triggered. What was the other alarm? Fire alarm. And guess what: The guy threw Molotov cocktails (burning things!) into classrooms so the students and teachers would come out. He waited for students in the hallways so he could axe them. So much more could’ve happened. Oh, praised be our security!

As an end to this post I will put some comments of users to an article on focus.de (http://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/ansbach-aerzte-kaempfen-um-leben-von-zwei-maedchen_aid_436641.html) which pretty much resemble my opinion and also gave me the idea for this post:

kuki63:
Dumm für jene
welche die Wurzel alles Übel an allen Amokläufen bei den Sportschützen und ihren gefährlichen Waffen sehen. Was sollte jetzt geschehen ? Alle Äxte und leeren Flaschen verbieten, so das von denen keine Gefahr mehr ausgehen kann. Das Problem ist immer der Täter und nicht die jeweilige Waffe die er benützt. Das Problem sind überforderte Kinder und zuviel von ihren Kindern fordernde Eltern. Das Problem sind mobbende Mitmenschen und eine Erziehung welche die selbstverwirklichten Eltern zu gerne der Strasse überlassen.

paral:
Die üblichen Verdächtigen
Grausigerweise können jetzt diejenigen recht haben, die behaupten, dass Amokläufe nie auszuschließen sind. Nun werden alltägliche Gebrauchsgegenstände zur Waffe, was in Sportschützen- und Jägerkreisen zur Verteidigung der ständigen Vorwürfe gegen Waffen in Privatbesitz schon immer vorgebracht wurde. Jetzt ist es an der Zeit, endlich nach den wahren Ursachen zu forschen. Eine nicht unerhebliche Rolle, wenn nicht gar der Auslöser, ist ständiges und aggressives Mobbing (früher Hänseleien genannt). Jetzt werden sie Farbe bekennen müssen, die Mobber. Ihre Rolle wurde in Erfurt und Winnenden überhaupt nicht beleuchtet. Doch es gibt nur einen Schuldigen, der der die Tat verübte. Jeder ist für seine Taten letzten Endes persönlich verantwortlich.

Greg6712:
Amok Berichterstattung.
Es ist erwiesen, daß Berichte über Suizide die Nachahmung unterstützen. Das ist seit Jahrhunderten bekannt, spätestens seit "Goethe: Das Leiden des jungen Werther.". Sollte die Berichterstattung über Amok Läufe nicht ähnlich wie über Suizide schlicht eingestellt werden?

Lostmind:
Die Politik
wird es sich jetzt wieder einfach machen. Killerspiele sind bestimmt schuld und das Elternhaus. Dabei ist es die von der Politik geformte Gesellschaft, bei denen für die Jugend an Vorbildern mangelt. Ein Kind kommt nie schlecht auf wie Welt sondern wird so gemacht.



Have a safe day, everybody :)

see my comment to the "Schäuble Unser" post... now you know what my opinion about the CDU is...

Dear Children,

The good Lord sees everything,
The good Lord hears everything,
The good Lord knows everything,
Thus let us pray together:

Our Father in the wheelchair,
hallowed be your name,
May your fourth reich come.
Your will be done,
in foreign and domestic affairs.
Give us today our daily trojan horse,
and always suppose our guilt,
as we denounce
those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
but deliver us from evil.
For our genetic data
and the surveillance state
and data retention are yours
now and for ever.

Amen.



I so love it!

Last night was the TV Debate between the "chancellor candidates" Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Angela Merkel. Why the quotation marks? Let's be honest: Merkel will become chancellor again since Steini doesn't really have a chance of becoming it with approval ratings around 20-25% for his party. But this is not what this blog will be about.

After the debate I switched to ARD to Anne Will (wow, I do actually watch not only private tv stations). It was a really good hour I had watching the program since this time not the two sleeping pills of chancellor candidates were arguing but rather journalists and two politicians (Klaus Wowereit and Edmund Stoiber). Anne Will's team also put together a fictional debate between Stoiber and Wowereit. In the clip show they had a part of one of Stoiber's talks in which he mentioned mandatory language tests for children before they enter school.

Surprisingly, all of the big five parties, except Die Linke, supports the idea. I just wonder why it hasn't been realized in most of the states (I think NRW, Hesse and Bavaria are the only ones with such a system). I agree that it is very difficult to determine the performance of children in various situations since some children just don't like to talk in other places apart from home. However, since I dealt with a study about the success of Hauptschüler (children of our lowest education level) it becomes apparent what kind of issue these children have: lack of language competency. Many of them are immigrants and 20% of them don't speak German at home. Those are the ones with the biggest problems. It is also proven that your language competency (especially grammar and spelling) is a major factor in your future (no matter what branch of your career). If your language is good your chances in life become much higher.

Now wouldn't these language tests be helpful, especially for immigrant children who have barely been in Germany for a year or so and are required to understand lessons in German completely if they don't want to fail in school? Don't get me wrong: I don't want these people out of the country. Yet, I think aid programs would be really good for them: send them to language school for a year and then get them into school. In my opinion this would significantly decrease risks of them failing at schools and later having to choose the lowest education level and not have any chances in life. I think it's not about getting rid of these children or cast them out from our education. It is about giving them a real chance in life, a postponed one, but a much better chance than what they might face if it wasn't for such a test.

I don't know if the concept is meant for all children (also non-immigrant children). I am against formal tests where these children would be in a room with a person and has to talk to them. This would just put them under pressure and might result in more failings. However, I am for some sort of evaluation by educators and that they should document critical cases. Seemingly, this is the case in most states already and it is also the main criticism against such a formal test. I just wonder: why then do we still have so many children who are stuck on the lowest education level because somebody (whether it be the parents or educators) missed to teach them a good language early on in life...

Religious who might fear being trampled all over themselves: don't read it or argue reasonably, as I will probably fail to do so again ;)

Last night I saw two documentaries about 9/11... more or less. One of them was about fates of victims, the other focused more on the terrorists and their "CV". The first one was rather touching for a specific reason. They were talking about how people tried to escape the flames: by jumping out of the window. And some of the relatives even believed for some time that they would surely come to hell, since they committed suicide by jumping out of the window.

You know, I don't doubt that humankind was horrible even before religion arrived on this planet - if there was such a time (Faithful churchgoers probably doubt it). The issue I have is: did religion make matters better or worse? I think it's the latter.

What has religion done so far? Its purpose is probably to console people and show them the way to eternal salvation and happiness. Others say they console people concerning the evil of the world... which religions have caused. I wouldn't go as entirely supporting the second view but there's something to it. Despite humanitarian aids and all the great help some people give religion has also caused an incredible amount of pain and suffering: you think people are witches? Just burn 'em. Somebody says the earth isn't flat? HERESY! BURN HIM! Some people don't agree with you? Bur... no, just kill them all and start an entire crusade. To hell with those nonbelievers. Hell, those buggers even form a very powerful lobby in the US right now. Before every election Democrats have to pay attention that they won't completely endorse marriage for homosexuals or their Christian voters will turn their back on them.

Their missionaries complain about not being heard in other countries or even at home. Hello??? You are homophobes if you don't want to allow homosexuals their equal right. And some even say that gender is predetermined. Well, hurrah: What will you tell all of the intersexuals/hermaphrodites? "Your gender is pretermined, but God wasn't so sure about you... sorry"? I'm sick and tired of people saying "every challenge is a challenge from God and will help you to become a better human being". Great. I wish for these people that the Hindus or Buddhas (not sure which one of them it is) are right: That you will be reborn, preferrably as a rat that will have meds be tested on them or as a person in Africa who has to starve for days just to be able to drink dirty water after that or the most disgusting food just to fill a little part of your stomach.

But I'm getting a "little bit" off topic. Is religion all bad? NO!! Every religion probably has good teachings. However, there are also bad ones. "Kill/Cast out nonbelievers". Great. Teaching tolerance on one side and stating this on the other... ouch. But anyway, there are many great Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus etc. you name it. Fortunately, they skip the bad parts or take them as bad examples (even if the bad example comes from the Almighty himself), but there are also people who read and follow all of the teachings... or their interpretation... even though "cast out the nonbelievers" seems pretty clear to me. Focusing on Christianity: Sure, Jesus reversed most of the bad stuff and taught everlasting love. But there are soooo many people who rather stick to the Old Testament, sometimes also because they don't believe that that particular Jesus was the Christ.

Are they at fault? Hard to say... Some say karma is a b****. In this case you could say faith is a b****. You will not know before death (or you still won't know then) or God comes to you during life and gives you assignments for life or you just think that God comes to you despite it being just a figment of your imagination. Who knows. Anyway, the innocent and peaceful faithful one are then the ones who worry. Why did it have to come to the following sentence (or something like it): "My husband jumped out of the window. It made me sad for a long time since suicidal ones will surely come to hell, won't they?" This made me really sad. The woman and her family were terrified that they won't see their beloved one again. Whose fault is it? The preachers? The bible says nothing about suicide. Just murder (a planned taking of life... which kind of is suicide). Is it the preachers' fault since they teach that suicide is murder or is it religion's fault (which might have been invented by preachers) or God's fault because he missed to establish a widely-known distinction between different types of suicide? In the case of 9/11: Either you burn (or suffocate) to death or you jump. What would you choose? Of course, for some people there's always hope that they will be saved but in some cases it was already too late (despite not knowing that the towers would just crash). Either you suffocate to death or you're dead within 10 seconds in which you can mentally say good bye to your loved ones and God and then die without any physical pain or you can suffocate to death trying to think of your loved ones while fighting for air.

Anyway, it really shocked me. This young woman who just had to face the death of her husband now pondered whether he jumped. Because if he jumped he'd surely be in hell. In my opinion this woman has an extremely strong will. This double burden must have been horrible. Fortunately she doesn't fear her husband being in hell anymore since she hopes for God to be just and that He will see that those people who jumped only had two choices.

Indeed, religion is a really difficult topic but sometimes I really hoped some verses would have never made their way into the scriptures or at least clarified things more. Having faith but still having to interpret God's words, the preacher's words and your own thoughts can be too much for some.

Am I sorry for this blog? No. I just wish that religion could accomplish what it was REALLY meant to be (hopefully): to spread peace and help people accomplish a good life and salvation. But as Einstein said: Everything is relative, so is the term "good". However, I doubt we will ever have peace with religions on this earth since there are too many fundamentalists who really believe that nonbelievers must die and perish in hell. If God really exists this is my prayer for the world: Please make so people in bad situations won't give into the offers of fundamentalists and terrorists, please help us to establish peace among your people and please console those who fear hell because of suicide or other reasons. This earth is by far the most beautiful planet in the solar system. It doesn't deserve to be destroyed by blinded people or filled with people who are sad because they have to fear punishment, either for themselves or their loved ones. Thank you!

Finally... no, what is finally? Am I happy with the results of last week's state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Saarland. Partly.

Why I'm not happy:
- CDU is still the strongest party in all three states
- the Pirate Party only got 1.7% of the votes in Saxony

Why I'm happy:
- Thomas Jurk, top candidate of the SPD, resigned
- Dieter Althaus, FORMER Minister-President of Thuringia, resigned
- the Pirate Party doubled their votes compared to the election of the European Parliament.

What makes me most happy is that Dieter Althaus finally resigned. Why am I so mean, you ask? Well, think about the following facts:

He had to pay 33.000€ to the widower of the woman that died in a crash with Althaus. Is this just the usual favoring of famous people? A life is worth 33.000€??? Are you kidding me? What can this money buy? A nice tombstone, grave and the fees for the grave for the next 20 years? A child lost her mother and a father lost his wife in a crash that Althaus was responsible for. Indeed, it was only negligent killing, but hey. He still killed the woman.

Now, I guess we're used to "normal" people getting "paid" incredibly little money in the case of death, but the way Althaus staged his recovery, his prayers for the family and everything REALLY PISSED ME OFF!!! Instead of giving interviews to local and SERIOUS newspapers he chose the worst broadsheet he could: BILD. If an American reads it: Compare it with the crap "news" station Fox News. This way he tried for a fast political recovery, too. He wanted to be seen as a person who feels very sorry and who has learnt so much from it. What is there to learn? Can anyone tell me? How to stage a political comeback? How not to ski? How to have feelings at all? I don't know.

All I know is that I was relieved when I heard of his resignation.