April 21, 2010

There is nothing better than spring in Zürich! Why would I ever want to move somewhere else? This was a beautiful day for a picnic in the Irchel-park, kreis 6.

We had a very quiet week end in Zürich, and in most parts of Europe for that matter. There were no planes in the sky, no noise and no white stripes! The Icelandic volcano Eyafjallajökull is having an eruption and sending out an ash cloud that has spread across Europe and that is paralyzing the air traffic. Since last Thursday 75% of the European planes where grounded. Everyone is talking about a disaster, especially for the airlines of course, and for travelers. I do feel sorry about all these people that are stuck in transit or that can't get home to their families and of course it is hard for the economy if the airlines go bankrupt but still I wouldn't call the a disaster. The earthquake in Haiti was a disaster, this is rather a very interesting and fascinating thing that is happening right now. We are being reminded that we are only small ants on this powerful globe and even though we have the impression that we are in control, we are still dependent on the grace of mother earth and she is doing to us whatever she pleases. It is also such a crazy lifestyle we are having at the moment, we are traveling to the four corners of the world for holidays and go for quick weekends to London, Paris and New York. It was chocking to see how many of my own friends were directly touched by the grounding. Maybe it is good for us to take a step back and think about what we are actually doing to our planet, it would be interesting to see how much CO2 we saved during these 5 days.

I just heard about an interesting study showing that very conservative and religious people have lower IQ than liberal, atheistic people. I can't help but to think of my own favorite christian Taliban, Sarah Palin. Now she wants to turn the U.S. into an official christian nation.

April 14, 2010

A gray day in a gray part of town, Neu-Oerlikon, kreis 11.

They've been talking about it for weeks now but there seems to be a never ending stream of new cases coming up every day all over the world. I'm of course talking about the child abuses within the catholic church. The Vatican must now have lost the very last inch of credibility that was left after the election of the last pope. I don't now what is worse, all these years where these cases were covered up or the ridiculous attempt of the pope's "right hand" to blame it on homosexuality. I fear that this institution has now lost it's last chance to keep up with the evolving society and that now even the most devoted believers must realize that their faith cannot be represented by a bunch of pathetic left-overs from the Spanish inquisition hiding behind the thick walls of the Vatican.

Today in Switzerland, the stock-owners of UBS voted against the discharge of the management of year 2007. This means that it would be possible to press charges against Marcel Ospel and the other management guys responsible for the many lost billions and the tax troubles with the US and that then paid themselves other billions of bonuses for their "good work". I think that we are many here is Switzerland that agrees that these guys belong in prison and not on the golf courts, however, it might be hard to accuse them for more than extreme incompetence which is not yet a crime.

April 7, 2010

Taking the highway along the lake of Zürich in direction of Chur destination Pfäffikon, Schwyz. This is really the most beautiful time of the year when it is green in the valleys but the mountains are still white.

War, war, war, it is so far away but with the media coverage still so close. During the week a video from 2007 was released showing American soldiers firing at unarmed Iraqi civilians from a helicopter as if they were part of a video game. It is so awful to watch and so easy to judge these soldiers from our sofas, but what do we know? What kind of person was the guy sitting in the helicopter urging for permission to shoot? Was he evil and thirsty of blood or was he scared and stressed believing that he did the right thing? Would he have acted the same way when he just arrived in Iraq or has he been destroyed by spending time in such an environment? There is a song I really like by Rise Against called Hero of War that paints an interesting picture of the soldiers going to war. In the song a guy goes away as a patriot believing that he will be a hero but when he meets the reality of war he does things he never thought he was capable of and the glory he strive for never comes.

In wars there are rules, or are there? Obama just tried to add a few rules to war saying that the US is allowed to use nuclear weapons on a country that possess the same arms. The rule makes total sense and one can only hope that will encourage nations not to develop more weapons of mass destruction but honetstly, who really believes in this promise? War swipes away all sense of morality and no country follows any rules once they're confronted with a hostile situation. Torture was also prohibited, wasn't it?