£100m to be invested to get commuters on two wheels

Good News for cyclists:

Disappearing into a broom cupboard with a sweaty red face and wearing Lycra shorts, only to reappear moments later in a suit, but still with a sweaty red face, is a daily ritual for many cycle commuters.

(The Times 20 June 2008)

German Community celebrates victory in the Zeitgeist

Deutschland 3, Portugal 2

Just a little quote from The Times of 20th June.

Germany won thanks in the main to a pair of free headers, from Miroslav Klose and Michael Ballack, and because the midfield areas previously dominated by the magician Deco were suddenly filled with strapping great Teutons, who imposed their presence on this game from the start. They can play a bit, too, as the build-up to the first goal demonstrated, and while the scoreline suggests that Portugal were within touching distance of a place in the last four, the reality is that Germany were by far the better team and were in charge from the start.

Interesting phone call

Caller: Is Richard Wilson the person who is dealing with your water coolers?

Receptionist: Richard Wilson is the president of the organisation.

Caller: Oh!

Receptionist (Not realising that he should have put the phone down up by now): We are actually moving in a couple of weeks so there is no need for new water coolers.

Caller (insisting): Oh, that’s good, what kind of water coolers do you have?

Receptionist: Hold on, I transfer you. What company are you calling from?

Caller: The Water Cooler Company.

Receptionist: And the name of this company?

Caller: The Water Cooler Company.

Receptionist (thinking): You may as well call it bollocks, mate. (Saying:) Oh, that’s the name. That’s easy to remember. Hold on…

The Brits are really a pragmatic people

Minutes after seeing the first sunlight, and be it 10 degrees, they put on their shorts and flip flops. Ban smoking in pubs, they have a fag outside in the rain. No one complains. And when you tell them not to drink in the tube? Well, they have a party the night before the ban comes into place - for starters.

Saturday night saw Liverpool Street Station overcrowded due to hundreds of people partying on the last day before the drinking ban.

Police were hopelessly understaffed and powerless against the mostly joyful party people. Well, some got arrested...



The Circle Line seemed the perfect venue for many.





The last pints were downed just minutes before midnight.





And he's the one to blame. New London Mayor Boris Johnson.






Not everybody was amused though and only saw "devastation" and "chaos". One question remains though was it a demonstration or celebration?

Comment on “Debt in the afternoon: bullfighting staggers into crisis”, The Guradian 12th May 2008

Many thanks to Graham Keeley for today’s article regarding the decline of the bullfighting industry (“Debt in the afternoon: bullfighting staggers into crisis”). It reveals that the industry, behind the all the PR spin, is facing huge financial problems and will eventually collapse.

Bullfighting is nothing more than a cruel pastime that is indeed unpopular among Spaniards – but it is also a red rag to tourists. Eighty-nine per cent of the British citizens would never visit a bullfight while on holiday (ComRes poll commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports, April 2008).

We have to ask ourselves why this spectacle is kept alive through millions of EU subsidies financed by the taxpayer.

That's the last bus gone...

Taken on Waterloo Bridge on a Sunday night in November 2007. Won third place in the Guardian weekend photo competition inpictures (17th May 2008).

Comments on "Matador meets his match in bullring" in The Daily Telegraph 7th May 2008

Looking at the spectacular photos on page 16 of today’s Telegraph (Matador meets his match in bullring) one may get the idea that bullfighting is an acrobatic performance or a fair encounter between man and bull. This is not the case. The bull has no chance of “winning” - even if as shown in the photos it gores the matador. The bull dies after a long and very painful struggle.

The main reason why the pictured matador was not severely injured is that the bull was drugged, had its horns shaved which severely damaged its sense of orientation and had its neck muscles cut which made it impossible to raise its head.

Bullfighting is nothing more than a cruel past time that is unpopular among Spaniards and tourists. Seventy-two per cent of Spaniards have no interest in bullfighting according to a 2006 Gallup poll. Consequently the national station RTVE stopped live broadcasts of bullfights last August. Eighty-nine per cent of the British citizens would never visit a bullfight while on holiday (ComRes poll commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports, April 2008).

Bullfighting remains a cruel and unnecessary spectacle that has no place in a modern society. Sign the world wide pledge never to visit bullfighting.

A disastrous result, but...

...we will survive!

Todesstrafe - aussnahmsweise eine positive Notiz

Selten genug, dass es etwas Positives über die Todesstrafe zu berichten gibt. Da es aber nun der Fall ist:

4. TODESSTRAFE WELTWEIT AUF DEM RÜCKZUG

Im Jahr 2007 hat ai 1.252 Hinrichtungen in 24 Ländern dokumentiert.
Gegen mindestens 3.347 Menschen in 51 Ländern wurde ein Todesurteil
ausgesprochen. "Das Gros der Hinrichtungen geht auf das Konto einer
Handvoll Staaten, und China 'gewinnt' diese makabre Disziplin auch im
Jahr vor den Olympischen Spielen", sagte Oliver Hendrich von ai zur
Veröffentlichung der Todesstrafenstatistik für 2007.
http://www2.amnesty.de/internet/deall.nsf/windexde/AR2008016

87-year-old former Luftwaffe bomber says sorry

An 87-year-old German who bombed Bath in WWII came back to say sorry. He met a man whose grandparents were killed in the raid. Watch this amazing story that may move you to tears.

Be warned, this man is dangerous!

Why? Let's look at the facts.

Mr Berlusconi will be the next Italian Prime Minister. For the third time since 1994. His personal assets are estimated to be $11bn making him the richest Italian. He is the founder of Finivnest which is among Italy's top ten companies. Through Fininvest Mr Berlusconi who is also the company's main shareholder ownes two national newspapers, several magazines, three private TV channels, a film production company, a banking and insurance company and Italy's top football club AC Milan.

Furthermore his coalition partners are a separatist, Umberto Bossi, leader of the Lega Nord and a Neo-fascist, Gianfranco Fini of the Alleanza Nazionale, the former MSI-DN who supported Mussolini.

Would it be far fetched to say that the UK or indeed any other country in the world would allow a, say Gordon Brown, owner of Chealsea FC, ITV, Channel 4, The Times and The Independent, Miramax Films and Lloyds TSB who collaborates with Nick Griffin and a more aggressive version of Alex Salmond to rule its country?

Oh, and did I mention that Berlusconi had to defend himself in court six times against corruption charges?

Nice of Mr Coyle to admit that GMD is not justified. Philip Coyle is not just some former member of the US administration. From 1994 to 2001 he was was assistant secretary of defense and director, Operational Test and Evaluation in the DoD and "principal advisor to the secretary of defense on test and evaluation". He is now a senior advisor for the Centre for Defense Information.

The Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security Program was quick to assist Coyle. Lisbeth Gronlund, UCSUSA's co-director told the same Congressional hearing "the US was no closer to being able to effectively defend against long-range ballistic missiles than it was 25 years ago".

Nato to back US missile defence

Although it never was a real obstacle in the superpower's pursuit of invulnerability the official announcement still shocks me. But since even Putin signalled understanding and thinks a compromise in possible, I have given up all hope that this monster can be put on mothballs.

But don't say I didn't warn you: A ground based missile defence or similar systems are neither justified nor technically feasible.

Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

John Betjeman, 1937

A beautiful day

On my way to the station I thought that it might have been a bad idea to go for a walk on the coast. It started raining. Determined to see the cliffs and the seaside this Easter Monday I got on the Brighton train.

When I eventually arrived in Seaford and took the bus the Seven Sisters Country Park the sky was grey and it was cold. At first I was skeptical but had a gut feeling that I would have a beautiful day.

And I did! Never mind the weather! I had rain, a bit of snow and hail and about half an hour of sunshine. But the fantastic view, the sound of the waves and the sheer fact to be at the seaside was the best reward I could think of. Well, almost. It was amazing to see how many people were out there. Even a family with some sort of outdoor pram climbed the muddy hills.

Major construction works over Easter!

It is pure coincidence that the 100th post since I have started this blog is about the country I have chosen as my home. But maybe it is not that surprising that it covers one of the many peculiarities that I have encountered since my arrival in November 2005.

Earlier this week I had the idea of going on a day trip to York. I felt encouraged when I found out that the train only took two hours one way. That was London-York though. The return trip was almost twice as long. I can understand that the trains in the evening are not as frequent as during the day. But why would they take four hours instead of two? There can't be that many detours...

Today I read on the BBC website that train travellers will face major disruptions over the Easter weekend due to major construction works on "most of the key routes". Again, understandable that the system needs upgrading and repairing. But why on earth would you do this over one of the busiest travel periodes of the year. This is insane!

Stierkampf gibts doch hier gar nicht!

In diesem Monat erschien mein Artikel in der Zeitschrift Das Recht der Tiere. Er stellt die Stierkampfkampagne den deutschen Lesern vor und erläutert, warum das grausige Spektakel eben doch ein Thema für Deutsche ist.
Ein Auszug:
"Wieso seid ihr gegen Stierkampf? Den gibts bei uns doch gar nicht. Warum soll ich mich dagegen engagieren?" Das waren Fragen, die uns Leute gestellt haben, als wir vor rund zwei Jahren unsere Stierkampfkampagne in Großbritannien gestartet haben.

Dass Stierkampf ein Thema für Briten - genau wie für Deutsche ist - wird indes schnell klar, wenn man sich die Zahlen ansieht. Briten und Deutsche liefern sich beim Spanienurlaub ein Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen: Fast 14 Millionen britische und rund 10 Millionen deutsche Touristen verbrachten 2007 ihren Urlaub im Stierkampfland Nummer eins."

Bullfighting UK

If there was anyone who believed that bullfighting was an actual fair fight between man and bull, Paul Lewis’s article “Olé! Salford's matador back in action at 65”, 17th March, delivers a perfect rebuttal. There is no danger of death or serious injury for a 65 year old with a quadruple heart bypass and artificial knee because the “fight” is seriously rigged.

The bull’s horns are regularly shaved making it loose its sense of orientation. Once in the arena lances are driven into the bull’s back and neck muscles, which weaken it further and prevents it being able to raise its head. Men on foot then stab harpoons into its back. This all happens before the matador takes action. To put it bluntly, bullfighting is as dangerous to the matador as is crown green bowls to the player.

Ich fühl mich so leer, ich fühl mich Brandenburg

Wer sagt, die Deutschen hätten keinen Humour, der kennt Rainald Grebe nicht. Das Problem dabei ist, dass die, die das behaupten, der deutschen Sprache meist nicht mächtig sind. Folglich können sie Rainald Grebes Witze nicht verstehen. Schade. Sie verpassen sehr viel.

Allen anderen sei gesagt, dass er es wunderbar versteht, mit Vorurteilen vieler Art zu spielen und sie lächerlich zu machen. Die Vorzüge Brandenburgs, die Landeshymne Thürigens oder das Loblied auf die Beziehungen 30jähriger Paare in Berlin Mitte versteht er auf eine sehr erfrischende Art... ach, guckst euch halt einfach an!