A poverty of dignity, a wealth of rage

Read an interesting article by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times recently. He's talking about the motivation of young sunni muslims to become suicide bombers:

"[...] Islam has a long tradition of tolerating other religions, but only on the basis of the supremacy of Islam, not equality with Islam. Islam's self-identity is that it is the authentic and ideal expression of monotheism. Muslims are raised with the view that Islam is God 3.0, Christianity is God 2.0, Judaism is God 1.0 and Hinduism is God 0.0.
Part of what seems to be going on with these young Muslim males is that they are, on the one hand, tempted by secular Western society, and ashamed of being tempted.
On the other hand, they are humiliated by Western society because while Sunni Islamic civilization is supposed to be superior, its decision to ban the reform and reinterpretation of Islam since the 12th century has choked the spirit of innovation out of Muslim lands, and left the Islamic world less powerful, less economically developed, less technically advanced than God 2.0, 1.0 and 0.0.
"Some of these young Muslim men are tempted by a civilization they consider morally inferior, and they are humiliated by the fact that, while having been taught their faith is supreme, other civilizations seem to be doing much better," said Raymond Stock, the Cairo-based biographer of Naguib Mahfouz. "When the inner conflict becomes too great, some are turned by recruiters to seek the sick prestige of 'martyrdom' by fighting the allegedly unjust occupation of Muslim lands and the 'decadence' in our own." This is not about the poverty of money. This is about the poverty of dignity and the rage it can trigger. [...]"

Read the full article here. Any comments anyone?

Summer in Germany

The best time of the year to come visit Germany is definitely summer. So many wonderful things to do! Summer is beergardens, swimming in the lakes and getting a tan, having a barbecue at the lake or a friends place, hiking, biking, wine festivals in the vineyards, music festivals, eating tomatoes fresh from the garden, flowers on the fields,...



Spent a wonderful night at the Clingenburg (old castle) two days ago for Bertold Brecht's Dreigroschenoper. Such a wonderful setting to sit in the ruins of that castle under the sky and watch a play! Who wants to come visit?

About my surprise trip to Ireland

This week I spent time in Ireland. Quite a surprise, event to me! I wasn't planning to go there at all, in fact I was planning to be in Boston at night... Instead I stayed in Ireland for the first time in my life. Trying the Irish version of a Chinese restaurant (tea there is served with milk, and instead of a fortune cookie you get an After Eight), repairing my bag with some staples from the reception desk and being very grateful for the wonders of plastic money!

Ms. McNamara changed plans for me and made me practise my get-over-it-quick-skills this Tuesday. She had a look at me, let me wait outside, asked some questions, let me wait outside again, checked her computer, let me wait in her office this time, made some copies, let me wait again, this time apologizing for her computer working so slow... Finally she showed me the way to Irish immigrations and let me sit at Shannon airport with my ripped bag (guess Air Lingus staff wasn't very excited to get them out of their plane again). This left me with finding a place to stay for the night and researching the cheapest way to fly back home the next day.

Thank god there is Ryanair. Put me back on my 12 hour journey to Obernburg. When I put money in this vending machine at Düsseldorf train station and it just kept it without selling me a drink just made me laugh at this point, even more as the next train couldn't leave on time because a door wouldn't close...

Oh, the reason for all of that? Despite the information I got at the US Embassy in Frankfurt when I called them on their really cheap €1,85/Min visa hotline, you can't bridge the time between now and the application for a dependent visa later with a visit on a tourist visa. Wish I could find that lady in the Frankfurt embassy who told me otherwise... Could have saved about a thousand Euros.

Country music in Obernburg

Almost unbelievable! First, live music is not something you would ever come to see in Obernburg, then it's some real Country music, and I sit in a nice street cafe in the sun and listen to it! 2 Minutes from my parents place in this really small town in Germany.... so bizarre! Even weirder to sit in a place you randomly bump into 10 people, most of them you've known for years. By the time I come home my mom has already heard from someone, that I was sitting in that cafe with a friend. Nothing here stays secret, someone will always see what you do, who you talk to, what you buy, what you wear, etc... Parents here don't even need to ask their children what they've done, someone will always see something and talk... Smalltownlife is sooooooo different from New York!

London bombs

I feel very angry. It's strange to be in Egypt and hear the news from London here. Even stranger to hear people have a feeling of "thank god it's hitting the west and not Egypt again". It shouldn't hit anyone anywhere!

Why does a human being believe that blowing up a bomb would do any good? How can you get motivated to kill innocent people? I know all the theories about it, but what overrides your own thinking and makes you be the person placing the bomb to actively make this happen? How do others influence you to believe it's necessary or helps your cause to do this? How can you not see that you're causing even more hate, that you're not helping to solve any problem? If you're able to pull this off, you must be intelligent enough to know what you're doing. I can't think of any good enough reason for it. Still waiting to hear from my friend Holger in London to see if he's fine...

From the Pyramids to Coptic Cairo

"The oldest Tourist attraction of the world" is one of the descriptions for the pyramids in my lonely planet... I've finally seen them today!!! Did all the touristy stuff, ride a camel around them, climb up to the kings room in the Cheops pyramid, visited the Sphinx, etc... It was amazing! On the way back I took the cheap way and found the bus back Downtown. 2 Egyptian pounds for an hour of driving through Cairo in an airconditioned bus - perfect sightseeing for really little money! Took the Metro out to coptic Cairo and thought I'm in another world again. One greek orthodox church next to the other, having a synagoge and a mosque almost next to them. In a place like that you can't believe that those three religions fought each other so much over the last centuries! It just looks peaceful and quiet there, old greek orthodox ladies in their long black robes look almost the same as some of the women here wearing the chador. Walking between those churches makes me think I've just travelled back in time at least 200 years. Cairo's really full of surprises!

Islamic Cairo

Cairo won my heart today! Spent a day close to the Al Azhar Mosque, the Khan Al Khalili and the street cafes in front of the Al Hussein Mosque. Great people watching and just feeling very lucky to be able to travel and see this! Sat in the courtyard of the Al Azhar Mosque for at least an hour, it was so peaceful there! What a great place to come to and enjoy some quietness and a breeze in the shade. Can't imagine how busy it must get here for the Friday prayer. Someone told me they have more than 4000 people come pray there at the same time. Strange, that the first thing I thought when hearing this is that this would be a perfect target. I guess that's what you get from living in NY when you pass through places like Penn Station or Times Square every single day.

Cairo

Heat, pollution, chaos on the streets, driving doesn't seem to have any rules, red lights are more a suggestion than a reason to stop, lanes are there, but nobody sticks to them, the honking horns are everywhere all the time, people speaking a language I don't understand, lots of veiled women, some wearing very sexy clothes and a veil, some not showing more than their eyes under large black clothes, beautifully decorated fruitstands, lots of smiling faces, big contrasts between rich and poor, the city never really slows down. The big road outside my window is crowded any time of the day. Wandering through the Egyptian Museum shows a different world, the mummies of old pharaos, clothes, jewellery, the golden mask of Tutankhamun, all his treasures... Can't wait to see the pyramids!

Felt very strange to watch the live8 concert here yesterday. For one because I sat in the house of one of the upper class families here in Egypt, knowing that poverty is not far from here. But also getting that feeling that the way western music stars act and dress must be percieved pretty awkward from a middle eastern perspective. Just a couple of hours earlier someone brought me a towel to get out of the water at the beach, because walking the 5 metres from the water to our sun umbrella in a bekini is unthinkable...

I really enjoy the freedom to move and act as a want being in the western world! Would love to wear a short skirt and a tank top. It's superhot in long trousers and half arm sleeves. Just still feels safer not to get stared at too much when walking on the streets alone...