Whodunnit?

Praised be my laziness. It has its advantages. :) When Sunday I happened to read the first news of the bomb attack in Istanbul I intended to write a post but didn't as I was pretty sure that one of the many Turkish 'opinion-tellers' soon would get close to what I am thinking, and thus save me lots of time*.
And, voilà:

It did not take much time for Turkish officials, and even less time for the Turkish media, to put the blame of Sunday evening's deadly blasts on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, terrorist gang. The explosions in Istanbul killed at least 17 people -- five of them children -- and wounded scores of others. Although Istanbul Governor Muammer Güler stressed that investigations were ongoing, he also said the blasts appeared to have been the work of the PKK. It also did not take much for the PKK gang to issue a denial. The pro-PKK Kurdish news agency, Fırat, quoted Zübeyir Aydar, one of the senior chieftains of the gang, as saying that the PKK “has nothing to do with this event … this cannot be linked to the PKK.”

Irrespective of who might actually be behind the deadly Sunday evening attacks, I am confident that sooner or later one of those creative prosecutors – who have successfully demonstrated their rather superb skill in literature with the 2,455-page “Ergenekon indictment” masterpiece – will find a way of incorporating this tragedy among the heinous crimes they believe a cocktail of hardcore leftists, Maoists, Kemalists, patriots, nationalists, ultra-nationalists and fascists have committed with the aim and intention of disrupting public peace and order, creating conditions for a military takeover, or provoking a national outburst and thus getting rid of the elected government of the country.
Full article here.

* Saturday evening I had asked a friend in Turkey to translate a sequence in a Hurriyet article about the 'Ergenekon affair'. She did, after following introducing words which now do again let me chuckle:

You don't mean all 2455 pages but only this article hm? :)
Believe me these silly plays are not worth your giving time.

Well, at least sometimes ...

Is maith an sgathan súil charad.

The eye of a friend is a good looking-glass.

Thanks for the lecture, Mr. Pausch

Life.

Since it is not granted to us to live long,
let us transmit to posterity
some memorial that we have at least lived.
Plinius the Younger, Letters

Yesterday while we were celebrating the 84th birthday of my mother(-in-law), Professor Randy Pausch died.

There's much I could write; even wish to write, but why when (almost) everything can be put into six words?

Thanks for the lecture, Mr. Pausch.

More hype than substance

I wonder why so many people who live in fear of the pest would be delighted of the cholera.

Didn't they listen to Mr. Obama's speech(es)? Don't they care who are the self-styled (?) saviour's advisors?

Once, now and tomorrow

War is the statesman’s game, the priest’s delight,
The lawyer’s jest, the hired assassin’s trade,
And to those royal murderers whose mean thrones
Are bought by crimes of treachery and gore,
The bread they eat, the staff on which they lean.

Krieg ist des Staatsmanns Spiel, des Priesters Lust,
Des Richters Scherz, das Handwerk des feilen Meuchlers,
Und für die gekrönten Mordbuben, deren Throne
Durch Verrat und Blut und Frevel jeder Art erkauft,
Ihr täglich Brot, die Stütze ihrer Macht.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab, Canto IV

Praise of taciturnity

Binn béal 'na chomhnuidhe.

The mouth that speaks not is sweet to hear.

:)

The peace of the night.

Habermas on a "post-secular' society

“Tolerance” is of course not only a question of enacting and applying laws; it must be practiced in everyday life. Tolerance means that believers of one faith and another and non-believers must mutually concede one another the right to those convictions, practices and ways of living that they themselves reject. This concession must be supported by a shared basis of mutual recognition from which repugnant dissonances can be overcome. The required kind of recognition must not be confused with an appreciation of an alien culture and way of living, or of rejected convictions and practices (n18). We need tolerance only vis-à-vis worldviews that we consider wrong and vis-à-vis habits that we do not like. Therefore, the basis of recognition is not the esteem for this or that property or achievement, but the awareness of the fact that the other one is a member of an inclusive community of citizens with equal rights, in which each is accountable to everybody else for her political contributions (n19).

Extract from an essay* presented by Jürgen Habermas at the Istanbul Seminars organized by Reset Dialogues on Civilizations in Istanbul from June 2nd to the 6th 2008.

* A "post-secular" society - what does that mean?



On a personal note:
I intended to offer my Turkish readers a link, so that they could read this essay in their language. To my surprise and regret I could not find one.

It would make sense if the organisators of a 'Dialogue on Civilisations' taking place in Istanbul made the effort to let translate such contributions into Turkish, wouldn't it?

Obama in Wales: Ich bin ein ...

As everybody knows this year the people of Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom are to decide who will become the next President of the U.S.A..

This is why Mr Obama is travelling a lot these days, meeting Mr. Karzai, the US-proconsul* in Kabul, Mr. ... oh well, you will know his program.

What you perhaps wouldn't know: It is rumoured that Mr. Obama, by following an advice of the great strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski will not speak in front of the rotten Victory Column in Berlin, but give his eely eloquence a platform in Anglesey.

The name of the historic place is still subject to utmost confidentiality. Only Mr. Obama's most moving last words one of his many right hands was willing to divulge ex ante:

"Ich bin ein Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogocher."





* an administrator in a modern colony, dependency, or occupied area usually** with wide powers

** usually, dear readers, usually.

Maniacs won't die off

Prologue:
The title does not refer to Messrs. Ahamadinejahd, Berlusconi, Brzezinski, Bush, Cheney, Gadaffi, Hu, McCain, Mugabe, Obama, Pofalla, Putin, any scalpers, masters of Monsanto & Co., members of any sect, secret and/or surveillance service etc. etc..

However, in case any person mentioned above feels fancy to feel addressed by the title: Very welcome.

And in case anybody misses her/his name and/or the name of her/his organisation: Just let me know, and your name will immediately be added.

End of the beforegoing.

Actually, the title does nothing but mirror the dominating thought while I was reading this article.

Set book for good people

You are sure you'd never (be able to) commit atrocities? I am not.

[Hannah; sj] Arendt's phrase 'the banality of evil' continues to resonate because genocide has been unleashed around the world and torture and terrorism continue to be common features of our global landscape. We prefer to distance ourselves from such a fundamental truth, seeing the madness of evildoers and senseless violence of tyrants as dispositional characters within their personal makeup. Arendt's analysis was the first to deny this orientation by observing the fluidity with which social forces can prompt normal people to perform horrific acts.

One passage in Philip Zimbardo's book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how good people turn evil (the title of the German edition, published this month, reads: Der Luzifer-Effekt: Die Macht der Umstände und die Psychologie des Bösen.
Instead of writing a review, I do recommend by following the links above to develop your opinion on your own. One tip, though: don't miss the offered quotations; afterwards - the more in case you did not happen to hear about the Stanford Prison Experiment - you might like to visit Professor Zimbardo's homepage and afterwards hardly can await Monday morning so that you can hurry to the bookshop round the corner and order the book.

Yes, I am aware of that the effect would almost be the same were my recommendation addressed to the birds which right now are sleeping in the trees. :)
Who'd read such book, anyway?
Some scientists? - Fine.
Those who for almost all their life have been trying (sic!) to understand how (good?) people (get) turn(ed) evil? - Fine.
And who else? - Quite!
Or does anybody think that any leader(s) of any state will make "The Lucifer Effect" a set book for their people, at least for all those who want to join the armed forces?

The Peace of the Night!

Counterparts

Rather than reading this at Internation Musing, watching the voyeur in the photo made me think that there exists a certain likeness between anonymous commenters and burqa wearers.

Cage as Cage could

As everyone knows July 5th was 'Changing of the Tone' in Halberstadt. Just in case you happened not to be amongst those round about 1.000 connoisseurs in St Burchardi who all excitedly earwitnessed the thrilling moment, and therefore feel inconsolable: the spheric sound will not change until - remember, remember! - the 5th of November.
So when arriving on November 4th you will be able to kill two b ... ahem ... to hear two tones of the John-Cage-project ORGAN² ASLSP within 24 hours.

Well, and in cage case you can't get enough, what about booking one of the remaining 631 years? Personally, I intended to book the year 2525, but then I thought I should retreat in favour of Zager and Evans. Since I have been ranging between 2632 and 2320, the more as 2639 is already sold, but right now I think I shall ask them to offer 2640. I'd really like listening to the silence, after 639 years.



PS:
In honour of John Cage I have been writing this post though not as slowly as possible, but at least very very slowly.
And I am quite sure that not only those amongst you who can't read fast will appreciate my gesture.

PPS: For those who wish to buy one or more of the words above: There will soon be a price-list available.

PPPS: Solvent Omnium-lovers who wish to book one or more posts to be published from October onwards, with immediate effect can offer their bids. Just don't be shy - bid high.

Bitter for Mr. Vitter

As everybody knows 219 years ago a few French stormed the Bastille because they were sick to death of their king and wanted to get what they deserved. 15 years later they got an emperor.
For sure a grand reason for a national holiday.

I could go on and on praising the French and their (sic) revolution*, but ... sorry ... right now I wonder what has happened to the famous David Vitter, who almost exactly one year ago claimed 'he had asked for and received forgiveness from God and his wife - undoubtedly the greatest story for the past 2020 or even 10.000 years, which the BBC gave away though, by mentioning it in a subordinate clause.

Well, googling 'Vitters, prostitute ring, trial', and voilà ha ha ha ... so ho ho ho rry ... hardly ca ha ha han't write.

Help yourself.

Back? And? Isn't this a most touching photo? And wouldn't you say: Yes, this is undoubtedly an intelligently designed couple?

What I cannot entirely understand: As Mr. Vitters has already received forgiveness by Mr. and Mrs. God - and who would doubt his words? -, why would there be an earthly trial? Isn't God any longer boss in his own country?



*French Revolution: another term for replacing a king by an emperor