Klickt! Uns! Reich!

Gut, ok. Ihr seid keine Massenkonsumenten, sondern besondere Menschen. Ja, und genau darum geht's hier. Denn nun gibt's eine tolle Gelegenheit für Online-Einkäufer nebenbei Gutes zu tun. Und ganz nebenbei auch noch unsere unterfinanzierte aber total wichtige, tolle, gute, sinnvolle Arbeit in einem innovativen gemeinnützigen Verein zu unterstützen. Indem Ihr Euch nämlich ganz einfach den tollen auf's philippinenbüro zugeschnittenen Toolbar von clicks4charity.de runterladet:



Spenden kostet hier nämlich garnix. Und das funktioniert so:

1. Ihr kauft was im Internet ein
2. Der Onlineshop zahlt dafür eine kleine Provision, ohne das sich der Einkaufspreis erhöht (Die Provision ist teilweise ziemlich gut, es bringt also was...).
3. Das philippinenbüro profitiert von der Provision

Mehr Infos gibt's bei clicks4charity.de (bitte benutzt aber den Toolbar hier auf dem Blog, wenn Ihr uns unterstützen wollt...)

Das ganze sieht dann so aus:


Ich kann Euch schon hören - "Seelenverkäufer" ... "Konsumsklaverei" ... etcpp. Aber glaubt mir, wir machen uns hier jeden Tag tonnenweise Gedanken um politische Morde, Landreform, böse Bergbauprojekte und Kredit-, Reis- und Wirtschaftskrisen und irgendwoher muss die Kohle ja kommen. Also - bitte installieren. Aber im Zweifelsfall trotzdem beim kleinen Tante Emma Laden um die Ecke einkaufen gehen. Denn sonst gibt's den irgendwann auch nicht mehr...

Old/Nutcase vs. Young/Knowledgeable

It's three weeks until the US elections. According to my sources, there were 204 people reading this blog from the US in the last three weeks - the largest number of readers I have in any country. Now, if another 204 people become little rickety rockets over the next three weeks, enlightening discussions with merry laughter and awkward smiles, the future should look bright!
This is therefore just for you US Americans - straight from my heart to yours, understandable for any hockey-mum, everyday-joe, countryclub-hipster, wrestling-couchster or fastfood-conservative:

Please, don't vote for McCain/Palin and do vote for Obama/Biden next month. You will have to make up your mind between old/nutcase and young/knowledgeable. I know that can be hard, but do try and do vote. It will feel very liberating and hence truely American, I promise. It would make a difference to us, i.e. the world, if you did that --- for us, God and America. It would be as grand of you as what you did in Vietnam or Iraq, only much, much nicer.

You're maybe still unsure, but let me tell you this: If you're scared of someone because somebody else is talking about him or her in a kind of scary way, you are actually scared of the one doing the scary talk. Most of the time.

Just watch this video...

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War in Mindanao

I recently discovered a very good documentary by Al Jazeera about the current crisis in Mindanao on Youtube. I think it gives a very good picture of some of the current threats to peace: It includes a situationer, as well as interviews with civilians, NGOs, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim of the MILF and Gen. Esperon of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. It is 22 Minutes long and you can find it

Here (Part 1)

and here (Part 2)


Nothanks, Philippine Daily Inquirer, for the strange cartoon above you published in early August...

Critical Moments

Bush warning over bail-out delay
US President George W Bush has warned the global climate is at a “critical moment” and vowed to get his climate change rescue plan through Congress. He said the consequences would be “painful and lasting” if the $700bn (£380bn) deal was not passed.

Bush warning over bail-out delay
US President George W Bush has warned the level of global inequality is at a “critical moment” and vowed to get his wealth distribution rescue plan through Congress. He said the consequences would be “painful and lasting” if the $700bn (£380bn) deal was not passed.

Bush warning over bail-out delay
US President George W Bush has warned the level of AIDS/HIV, tuberculosis and malaria prevalence is at a “critical moment” and vowed to get his human security rescue plan through Congress. He said the consequences would be “painful and lasting” if the $700bn (£380bn) deal was not passed.

Bush warning over bail-out delay
US President George W Bush has warned the level of human rights protection is at a “critical moment” and vowed to get his rescue plan for human rights defenders and victims through Congress. He said the consequences would be “painful and lasting” if the $700bn (£380bn) deal was not passed.

"Bush warning over bail-out delay
US President George W Bush has warned the US economy is at a "critical moment", and vowed to get his Wall Street rescue plan through Congress. He said the consequences would be "painful and lasting" if the $700bn (£380bn) deal rejected by the US House of Representatives was not passed."
www.bbc.co.uk, Sept 30, 2008

Danke, Gymnasium Bensheim, für die gute Grafik.

Hotel Paradis

Manila is large, loud, smelly and hot. There’s just so much life packed and crammed into this place, you feel like its fermenting, constantly brewing futures, fortunes and fate. Its population is young, hence active and constantly communicating, be it in terms of career, pastime or survival. There is so much life here, that it does not let itself be digitally managed as, say, in London, Frankfurt or Paris. Urban management here seems mostly manual – I watched a traffic police officer yesterday who was physically struggling with the waves and waves of cars, jeepneys, tricycles and people breaking into a crossing – despite working traffic lights. I recently spend a lot of time on public transport and I cannot stop looking at people. I try to imagine their lives, or at least something about them. What a snag that I don’t speak tagalog! On the other hand this allows me to listen to conversations and contextualise, like I’m dubbing brief sketches I make up of people.
If you take the MRT from Cubao to Manila, you can change train lines between Recto and D. Jose stations. These two stations are connected by a totally fenced in skyway through an urban slum area. It feels like a zoo, like a catwalk, like a prison and I had a strange feeling of segregation, like one gets by looking through fortified glass barriers at international airports – you can see the flights to Atlanta, Tokio or Sydney, but you cannot take them.
This was when I saw that sign – “Hotel Paradis – Sound proof wall!!”. Obviously one urban slum dweller had picked it up from somewhere and was now making a point to all those hurriedly passing upon business or pleasure through the skyway. Or at least so I'd like to think. Maybe he is just getting paid by the said hotel...

Climate Change "Expert" John Coleman

Have you heard of global warming? Are you concerned about it, maybe scared about what kind of world your children will be growing up in, the issues your grandchildren will have to lobby and campaign for?
As with every serious political problem, there are people who can just make it vanish. John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel and a former TV weather presenter is one of those, and apparently he finds an audience, happily listening to his talking magic. Click on the link above and you find an intriguing interview with him. Climate change is "a total myth" in his world and "20 years from now, I will be the one laughing," he says. That may well be an evil, sardonic laugh and I don't want to be anywhere close when he launches it. I wonder why people like him get any airtime at all - I might as well say the earth is revolving around planet Jupiter or Mel Gibson is an unperturbed person with great respect for religious differences...

Ronald McDonald's New Child Care Strategy

Everywhere, 30 April 2008. Ronald McDonald has launched a global campaign against children unsatisfied with their Kid's Meal Package. "Children need to learn who's boss. They cannot grow up thinking that costumer satisfaction is key to success. Studies have repeatedly shown that underachievement is often linked to unconformity and children cannot grow up just wanting more and more. We have decided to take action - children who don't like our food, or who think our toys are not fun or save, well, they need a good and hard hiding, like in the old days," a clown-faced spokesperson was quoted saying. According to Ronald McDonald, big business have to put their foot down in the current global financial crisis and show who's really running the show. Counter-strategies also include educational activities, such as the one shown in the picture above. "We would like to expand our educational strategy to areas such as making children work for their food, like they do in Africa, and then we would like to include women into our activities for gender sensitivity training. People need to know that each penny donated to the McDonalds charity reaches the target group hard and fast. Though there are still some legal issues we have to take a look at we expect our character building capacity to expand by about 18% this year, so we're really chuffed."