Jean Ziegler on “a murderous world-order”

In a newspaper article, the Swiss sociologist and correspondent for the UN-human rights-commission Jean Ziegler (picture) calls the present world order “murderous” (*). I like to repeat his points here:
Ziegler calls Ceuta and Melilla the “two last European colonies in Africa”. And he asks for the reasons why so many people from far-away- regions like Congo flee to the Mediterranean sea. Why do poor villagers save all the little money they have, get it together and give it to one, two or three of their young people who will try their best to make it to Europe?

Everyday (!) die a 100000 people on hunger. The World Food report of the FAO says that last year 856 million people were permanently undernourished, while today´s world-agriculture could nourish 12 billion people without any problem (and at the moment we are “only” 6.2 billion people in the world). That is the reason why Ziegler calls the actual world order “murderous” and “absurd”. Most of the undernourished people live in Asia, but regarded proportionally, Africa has the greatest problem: 34 % of the African people are undernourished. What are the reasons?

As the most important of a number of “complex” reasons, Ziegler names the “absurd agriculture- and dumping-politics of the industrialised countries” who spent more than 349 billion dollars for subsidies in 2004. He gives an concrete example for the results. If you visit the market in Dakar (Senegal), the biggest market in West Africa, you will find that European vegetables and fruits will cost averagely only one third of the local products – a fact that means the destruction of the African agricultures. The USA pay each year 5 billion dollars to their own cotton industry that led to a breakdown of the world-prices for cotton in 2003. So, hundred thousands of African families lost their income.

But is corruption in the “third-world”-countries not the real problem? Yes, certainly corruption is a problem, but it occurs because these countries are very instable and that is a result of the exploitation by colonialism and capitalism. Now the debts of the 122 “developing countries” (around 4.8 billion people) are around 2100 billion dollars. With such a high amount of debts these countries do not have many possibilities for social investments.

Since the breakdown of the Soviet-Union in 1991, world trade increased three times higher than before. But wealth is concentrated more and more in the hands of few. In 2004, the largest 500 transcontinental groups of companies controlled more than 52 % of the world´s gross international product. The power and influence of these companies, Ziegler calls bigger than any king or pope had in the past. This process of “a feudalisation of the world” takes place in a time when (at first time in history) we already possess the material instruments to guarantee every person in the world a certain standard of living.


(*) in die tageszeitung; Oct./21/2005; p. 11.

About German colonialism in Namibia

If one thinks about colonialism, the first powers to blame are normally Britain, France, Spain and Portugal. In a second row, there are Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy and Germany. The German colonialism lasted a relatively short period (1884-1919), but maybe can be regarded as the opening of a new chapter in German history - a very sad and barbaric chapter that ended only in 1945 (the democratic years of the Weimarian Republic are a glimpse of light, but they are overshadowned by the actions of the right-wing elites in military and industry). The German colonies were not so many, compared with those of the nations mentioned at first: Tansania, Namibia, Cameroon, Togo, a part of New Guinea (at those days called "Kaiser Wilhelms-Land") and some islands in the Pacific.
If one reads Uwe Timm´s book "Morenga" one gets the impression that German colonialism was much more brutal and primitive than the British´s. Maybe such comparisons are senseless, because each form of colonialism and exploitation is terrible, but one can see that the British had learned to rule through a more "liberal" way of indirect economic force, while the Germans focussed still on direct militarical suppression - especially after the uprisings that led to colonial wars in Namibia and Tansania between 1904 and 1907.

"Morenga" by Uwe Timm is a documentary novel about the time of the war in Namibia that combines facts (diary entries, newspaper articles, military reports) and fiction (narrations of some single protagonists). The story sets in 1904, the year when the uprising of the Herero and Nama began. Gottschalk, a veterinary surgeon in the German army, is a naive guy who does not ask too many questions, but changes through the development of the book. After discussions with his comrade Wenstrup he starts reflecting himself and is more sensible in perceving his environment.
He learns to see his own people through the eyes of the suppressed: the rituals and the discipline of the German soldiers, their chauvinist and technocratic talking now appear more and more ridiculous and senseless to him. Before Wenstrup flees the troop, he hands Gottschalk a book by the Russian anarchist Kropotkin about "mutual help".
Should Gottschalk follow Wenstrup who wanted to join the partisans? He hesitates, but gets more and more alienated from the German colonialists. How could he practice "mutual help" while standing on the wrong side?

The real hero of the story is Jacob Morenga (see the picture above), the leader of the freedom fighters. When Gottschalk asks him why he still leads this war that he could never win, why he would rather die than to give up, Morenga answers: "By that we can all stay human beings - us and you."

In 1907 Gottschalk returns to Germany, the only solution he found was in a new of perceiving the world, in a new way of creating language. He is learning from the poetic Nama-language that he managed to speak. Having a thousand new found words to name and describe the sky, the desert, the clouds, the stones - being not parted from nature.
Gottschalk´s answer is radical in some way, but does not have any political impact, of course. Some weeks later, Morenga is shot. The war ends with the enslavement of the surving Namibian people - those who were not killed in the fightings, had not been expelled to the desert or died during the bad conditions as prisoners in concentration camps. More than 50%(!) of the Namibians (more than 70000 people) died during these years..

After the first world war, Namibia fell to South Africa and the rascist regime continued until 1990 when Namibia gained finally independence. The Namibian people had to wait for 100 years, until a German official asked them to "forgive our guilt" (development minister Mrs. Wiescorek-Zeul in August 2004) ...

... you can´t say we never tried

Wow, the first time in its history, Germany has a female chancellor. This is a kind of normalisation in the modern world that wants to break with the patriarchal traditions. Maggie Thatcher has made it in the UK, Indira Gandhi in India. But still the examples for female presidents and prime ministers are rare. Some Asian countries have already elected female heads of the state (beside India there are also Pakistan, Israel, Banghladesh, Sri Lanka, Phillipines..) - but the western countries still need to improve here ..

About Angela Merkel´s coalition nobody here is really excited - it is critized both from the left and the liberalists for making to many compromises - but OK, why not?, let them try..
Merkel (called "Angie"), her party and a big part of the media had surely dreamed of a better result in the elections. Maybe it was not the best idea to play the Rolling Stones´ song "Angie" in her election campaigns. Also the Stones were not amused, regarding their song to be misused in that way.
I like this song and English is not my mother tongue, but was it such a good idea to take it for an election campaign? Maybe the Christian Democrats did not really understand the text:



"Angie, Angie, when will those clouds all disappear?
Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here?
With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats
You can't say we're satisfied
But Angie, Angie, you can't say we never tried
Angie, you're beautiful, but ain't it time we said good-bye?
Angie, I still love you, remember all those nights we cried?
All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke
Let me whisper in your ear:
Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here?

Oh, Angie, don't you weep, all your kisses still taste sweet
I hate that sadness in your eyes
But Angie, Angie, ain't it time we said good-bye?
With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats
You can't say we're satisfied
But Angie, I still love you, baby
Ev'rywhere I look I see your eyes
There ain't a woman that comes close to you
Come on Baby, dry your eyes
But Angie, Angie, ain't it good to be alive?
Angie, Angie, they can't say we never tried".

(Jagger/Richards; from the album "Goat`s head soup", 1973).

the run for the castle

It is just like a run for castle walls. Inside the castle, there live the greedy folks. People who do not want to share their wealth with others, who are afraid of the people outside that come with self-made ladders to climb up the walls. But the people inside do not realize that they are living in an old people´s home, a ghetto of ignorance they have chosen...

I am talking about the run for the European Union. Poor people from central African countries who have left their homes and see their only perspective in finding a job in Europe, have made up for a long and hard journey, thousand kilometres through the wide desert. Finally reaching the mediterranean coast, they still have not reached their goal. Taking the ship by night (for not getting caught by the sea police), ships that are so often overcrowded with people and sink easily within storms, is a risky adventure.

The alternative is to climb up the fences (walls) of the Spanish "exclaves" Ceuta or Melilla. And surely the sheer existence of Spanish towns on the moroccan ground is a huge scandal itself! It seems like nobody is asking today, why these towns still belong to a European country. The Spanish had occupied them in the 15th/16th century - and that´s it.. What would the Indian people say, if Pondicherry would still be under French rule (and one must ask further why Gibraltar is still under British rule)?

These days, Melilla is gaining sad fame. Every night hundreds of people run with their ladders towards the fences, trying to get to Europe (although they are still on the African continent). Maybe some of them will make it. Most of them will be send back by the police (and are often treated badly after they have injured themselves because of their falling from the fence).
And what is Spain going to do? Sending more policemen to Melilla and making the fence higher..

After the fall of the Berlin wall, the European people should know that the existence of walls are no solutions, but a part of the whole problem itself. Europe is still repressing its own colonial history!

Joschka Fischer finding himself - going where to?

Joschka Fischer is surely one of the very few politicians who are both very successful in the international arena and who did never finish college.

Hence never been regularly registered in an university, he nevertheless studied the theories of politics and society and engaged in the student-protest-movement of 1968. He gained his life as a photographer or taxi-driver, but interested more in radical politics, became the typical street-fighting man of these years: demonstrations, occupations of empty houses, political agitation in factories were the most important jobs for the people in the “Sponti”-movement. He has also been arrested for some days.

Disillusioned by the activities of the RAF-terrorists, he turned to become the most influential “realist” in the new founded Green-party. He was the pragmatist in a movement that was build up by more or less radical idealists (called “fundamentalists”): ecologists, pacifists, feminists, leftists, opponents of the nuclear-industry.. Some of the average Germans were shocked by the long-haired, bearded people wearing woollen pullovers and criticising the western welfare-societies.
Fischer became minister of environment in Hessen and provoked the public by wearing jeans and sport sneakers in the parliament (today, you can find these shoes in a glass vitrine somewhere), calling the federal president an “asshole” in a very polite way (“Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch.”).

In the 1990s Fischer changed again. He now became an ascetic running marathons – he lost 35 kilos weight (the kilos would return later after he wrote a book called “The long run to myself”). He said good-bye to the more radical positions, was criticised in his own party for favouring international military activities, such as the NATO´s in the Kosovo.
As foreign minister since 1998 he became the most popular German politician who gained both national and international respect. Without him, the Socialdemocrats and Greens would not have won the elections in 2002 again.

After the elections 2 weeks back he surprisingly announced to retire from his leading position in the party. Now, people are speculating about his further plans – maybe he wants to continue his career in the European parliament (or in the UNO). In my eyes, he is still the best politician that we have here – and in his own words he is “the last rock´ n´roller in German politics”..

Wer ist Tenzin Tsundue?

von Ramana Siddharth [1]


Das erste Mal habe ich von Tenzin Tsundue gehört, als mir ein tibetischer Freund vor anderthalb Jahren ein Buch mit Tsundues Gedichten gab [2]. Die Bemerkungen des Herausgebers zu diesem Buch beginnen mit diesen Worten: „Tenzin Tsundue ist verrückt. Er hat kein Geld, keine Arbeit, keine offizielle Position, kein Haus, keine Besitztümer, aber ist höllisch besessen vom Schreiben und seinem Aktivismus für ein freies Tibet.“ Starke Worte. Ich erinnere mich, das Buch verschlungen zu haben, mit dem Eindruck, dass es leidenschaftlich geschrieben sei – und dann nicht mehr daran gedacht zu haben.

Ein paar Tage später jedoch las ich eine Kolumne in der Tehelka-Zeitung mit dem Titel „Kein Kompromiss mit Tibet“ [3]. In dem mutigsten und leidenschaftlichsten Artikel, den ich je gelesen habe, verleiht Tsundue seiner Unzufriedenheit über die tibetische Exil-Regierung Ausdruck, da diese von ihrer ursprünglichen Haltung abgerückt sei und sich nun mit einem Autonomie-Status innerhalb des chinesischen Staates begnüge, anstatt komplette Freiheit von der chinesischen Besatzung einzufordern. Ich habe Tsundue daraufhin eine Mail geschickt, in der ich meinte, seine Regierung sei nur realistisch. Denn ich glaube, dass das chinesische Regime das barbarischste seit Hitlers Nazi-Diktatur in Deutschland ist.

Der chinesische Ministerpräsident Wen Jiabao ist zu Besuch in Indien. Tsundue wurde heute (am 10. April 2005) verhaftet als er von dem Dach eines Gebäudes des Indian Institute of Science aus protestierte, während der chinesische Staatschef dort gerade zu Wissenschaftlern sprach. Tsundue hielt vom Balkon des vierten Stocks aus eine Rede und befestigte dort ein „Free Tibet“-Banner. Das war nicht das erste Mal, das er zu solchen Maßnahmen gegriffen hat. Ein Abschnitt in den Erläuterungen von Tsundues Herausgeber bezieht sich auf ein Vorkommnis im Januar 2002 als „Er (Tsundue) ein Baugerüst bis zum 14. Stockwerk der Oberoi Towers in Mumbai erklomm, um eine Tibetische Nationalflagge und ein Banner zu entfalten, daß die Aufschrift ‚Free Tibet’ die Hotelfassade hinab zeigte. Chinas Staatspräsident Zhu Rongji befand sich in dem Hotel um eine Konferenz mit indischen Wirtschaftsmagnaten abzuhalten. Die Weltmedien berichten hiervon und indische Polizisten gratulierten ihm im Gefängnis dafür, dass er für seine Rechte eingetreten war“.

Tenzin Tsundue ist das Gesicht Tibets. Ich würde so weit gehen zu behaupten, dass er der tibetische Martin Luther King ist. Ich bin sehr um ihn besorgt. Er verfügt über die Kraft, die es braucht, um China zu unterwandern. Tatsächlich hat er in seinem kurzen Leben mehr für die Sache Tibets getan als die meisten Menschenrechtsorganisationen, Nationalisten oder globale Institutionen wie die UNO in Jahrzehnten. Ich bin sicher, dass die Chinesen genug von Tsundue haben, und daß sie zu jedem Mittel greifen werden (sogar indem sie Tsundue etwas antun), um den Tibetern eine Botschaft zu vermitteln. Im Moment kann ich nur für seine Sicherheit hoffen und beten, so wie es sicherlich alle gerechten Menschen tun würden. Allein durch die schiere Kraft seines Glaubens hat Tsundue den Traum von einem freien Tibet unwahrscheinlich gemacht – während dieser vor seinem Erscheinen in der Öffentlichkeit noch als völlig unmöglich erschienen war. Für alle diejenigen, die denken, ein einzelnes Individuum könne kaum etwas ausrichten ist Tsundue DAS klassische Beispiel für die Kraft des EINZELNEN. Ich sehe in ihm eine der Personen, die dem 21. Jahrhundert seine Gestalt geben werden.



[1] Der Autor Ramana Siddharth aus Madras/Indien veröffentlichte diesen Artikel zuerst in seinem Blog am 10.4.2005 auf Englisch. Später erschien der Artikel in einer Ausgabe des Tibetan World Magazine.
[2] Das Buch heisst „Kora“.
[3] Die Tehelka- Zeitung ist eine überregionale indische Zeitschrift, die zweimonatlich erscheint.

Hello everybody!

Welcome to my blog!

I´d like to begin with a German translation from a friend´s article: “Who is Tenzin Tsundue?” by Ramana Siddharth from Madras. This article now has been published by the Tibetan World Magazine. It was Siddharth who gave me the idea to start a blog. And when I first read this article, I thought that the German public should also know about Tenzin Tsundue.

If you do not understand the translated version, do not worry. Just have a look on Siddharth´s side: rssiddhartha.blogspot.com