Posts
10/07/2005
Blogs & Medienkritik
Eigentlich interessiert mich das Thema ja nicht wirklich so sehr, aber ich nehme doch erstaunt zur Kenntnis, dass die Schweizer Blogosphäre die am Freitag in der Medienbeilage der NZZ veröffentlichten beiden (!) guten (!!) Artikel zum Thema offenbar gerade nicht zur Kenntnis genommen hat. Vielleicht hilft dieser Eintrag ja - sofern er überhaupt gelesen wird ... und überhaupt bin ich froh, dass ich das BBQ abgesagt habe, wenn ich so nach draussen schaue!
Sobriety
Here (German) is an excellent text, advocating sobriety in the face of terrorism, if it were at all possible. The sobriety advocated is of a rational kind, seeing that the risk of being the victim of a terrorist act is much smaller than that of being involved in a traffic accident for instance. However, sobriety must not become indolence towards victims, once the inevitable happened. And yet, the repeat use of the subjunctive indicates the author's awareness of the danger involved in that approach: cynicism.
What can we do in the face of the terrorist threat? The political response by the authorities is one thing of course, althought the strategies chosen are open to debate, and must remain so by all means. Seeing that the new breed of terrorism is perpetrated by loosely, maybe even only ideologically connected cells instead of a hierarchical organisation with a command & control infrastructure that can be destroyed, I wonder whether there is a proportionate citizen response that is not subject to the dangers of vigilantism. I suppose vigilance & loyalty towards open societies may have a particularly appropriate place for instance in immigrant groups where fundamentalism & extremism can thrive if unchecked. For the rest, it is trying to remain sober, of course, and engaging those in debate who mistakenly think that terrorism is the weapon of the weak against the strong - it is the rage of the angry against the defenceless and innocent. "It is an evil means to an evil end." (Sir Jonathan Sacks)
What can we do in the face of the terrorist threat? The political response by the authorities is one thing of course, althought the strategies chosen are open to debate, and must remain so by all means. Seeing that the new breed of terrorism is perpetrated by loosely, maybe even only ideologically connected cells instead of a hierarchical organisation with a command & control infrastructure that can be destroyed, I wonder whether there is a proportionate citizen response that is not subject to the dangers of vigilantism. I suppose vigilance & loyalty towards open societies may have a particularly appropriate place for instance in immigrant groups where fundamentalism & extremism can thrive if unchecked. For the rest, it is trying to remain sober, of course, and engaging those in debate who mistakenly think that terrorism is the weapon of the weak against the strong - it is the rage of the angry against the defenceless and innocent. "It is an evil means to an evil end." (Sir Jonathan Sacks)
Die Verrohung der Seele
"Dummheit entsteht aus der Trägheit des Gehirns, Bosheit aus der Trägheit des Herzens. Das Böse ist nicht ein Mangel an Gutem. Es ist eine Möglichkeit, die Menschen jederzeit gegeben ist. Und da Indolenz der Normalzustand des Gattungswesens ist, liegt das Böse stets näher als die Mühsal der Tugend. Es ist ein treuherziger Irrtum, Akte des Quälens und Tötens hinterliessen bei den Mordbrennern eine tiefe Wunde, die sorgsam kuriert werden müsste. Dass Täter von einem Trauma befreit werden müssten, gehört zu den Illusionen der therapeutischen Gesellschaft. Sie erträgt die Erkenntnis nicht, dass Verbrecher ohne bleibende Schäden weiterzuleben pflegen."
Der ausgezeichnete Artikel von Wolfgang Sofsky steht im Zusammenhang mit Srebrenica und ist nur Abonnenten der Weltwoche zugänglich.
Der ausgezeichnete Artikel von Wolfgang Sofsky steht im Zusammenhang mit Srebrenica und ist nur Abonnenten der Weltwoche zugänglich.
08/07/2005
Neugier, Geschwätzigkeit & Gedächtnis
Hier gibt's einen lesenswerten kleinen Essay über's bloggen, der sich durch seine - ja, ich sage es so - literarische Qualität wohltuend von den meisten bisherigen Artikeln zum Thema abhebt.
Since we're in the business of curiousity & garrulity, read this calm report about how Londoners cope the day after.
Since we're in the business of curiousity & garrulity, read this calm report about how Londoners cope the day after.
07/07/2005
Blood, toil, tears & sweat
The dust has settled and the carnage is tallied. My heartfelt condolences go to the families of the victims of today's attack on London, and my best wishes to those who have been hurt. May they get well soon. As for the rest, suffice it to say that they picked the wrong target. It's time to quote Sir Winston Churchill again:
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
this is the biz
My previous post was about time travel. I am just back from a time journey of a different kind - the rather discreet Bank for International Settlements, an international organisation banking for central banks, is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary by means of a public exhibition which entails a guided tour around the very recently refurbished "public" (i.e. for those few people who normally have access to the building) area. And that's where the time journey bit kicks in: Although the interior redesign has been done by our local world champions Herzog & de Meuron who evidently do not even need a website, it has been done in an absolutely horrible gentrified 70ies style! This may please some of the good folk over at Wallpaper*, but certainly not me. I wonder whether this is indicative of central bankers' retro oriented taste, or, contrarily, of their being at the avant garde - I hope it's the former!
OK, that much for rambling. Otherwise, the exhibition is surprisingly good. There is a comprehensive section on the institution's long & complex history which does not spare the difficult wartime period, including for example the Czech gold affair which is documented with the original transfer files. Following the timeline, it is easy to see how the BIS adjusted from the rigid world of central banks under the gold standard via the highly secretive regime of the Bretton Woods system to today's free flotation of exchange rates. The change is easy to see now, but it was probably not easy to accomplish at the time. Today, the BIS has completely relinquished its incumbent rôle as clearing house for German war reparations and operates as a highly liquid commercial bank serving central banks as well as a discreet meeting point for central bankers and provider & facilitator of research into financial system stability & regulation (hence Basel II).
There is also a section describing today's financial system and the BIS' rôle in trying to maintain its stability, but naturally this can only really scratch the surface of this highly technical matter. The evidently fundamentalist people who were distributing flyers voicing their opposition to the BIS probably haven't even gone so far as to try & understand what it's all about. Their critique is really quite out of proportion and thus almost comical, especially since they apply double standards themselves: They accuse the BIS of lack of public accountability & transparency, but they don't sign their flyer and just give us no_biz@gmx.ch as a point of contact - rather cowardly, I'd say.
Personally, I am happy to have the BIS in Basle and would still be a proud stockowner if those stocks held by the general public hadn't been bought out at a very healthy profit back in 2001 ... thanks for that, too! If you want to go & see the exhibition, you'd better hurry - it only lasts until Tuesday, July 12th.
OK, that much for rambling. Otherwise, the exhibition is surprisingly good. There is a comprehensive section on the institution's long & complex history which does not spare the difficult wartime period, including for example the Czech gold affair which is documented with the original transfer files. Following the timeline, it is easy to see how the BIS adjusted from the rigid world of central banks under the gold standard via the highly secretive regime of the Bretton Woods system to today's free flotation of exchange rates. The change is easy to see now, but it was probably not easy to accomplish at the time. Today, the BIS has completely relinquished its incumbent rôle as clearing house for German war reparations and operates as a highly liquid commercial bank serving central banks as well as a discreet meeting point for central bankers and provider & facilitator of research into financial system stability & regulation (hence Basel II).
There is also a section describing today's financial system and the BIS' rôle in trying to maintain its stability, but naturally this can only really scratch the surface of this highly technical matter. The evidently fundamentalist people who were distributing flyers voicing their opposition to the BIS probably haven't even gone so far as to try & understand what it's all about. Their critique is really quite out of proportion and thus almost comical, especially since they apply double standards themselves: They accuse the BIS of lack of public accountability & transparency, but they don't sign their flyer and just give us no_biz@gmx.ch as a point of contact - rather cowardly, I'd say.
Personally, I am happy to have the BIS in Basle and would still be a proud stockowner if those stocks held by the general public hadn't been bought out at a very healthy profit back in 2001 ... thanks for that, too! If you want to go & see the exhibition, you'd better hurry - it only lasts until Tuesday, July 12th.
06/07/2005
Free will & the grandpa paradoxon
If you're interested in science fiction, quantum physics &c, then you've certainly come across the brain wracking grandfather paradoxon arising out of the concept of time travel: A time traveller could go back in time and kill his own grandfather, thereby preventing his own subsequent conception.
Here is a quantum mechanical, thus somewhat technical paper (via NZZ) that introduces an interesting solution to this paradoxon which also impinges on the free will vs. determinism debate. For the philosophical bits, cut right through the equations to section V (p. 10): (...) it is perfectly logical to assume that one has many choices and that one is free to take any one of them. Until
a choice is taken, the future is not determined. However, once a choice is taken, and it leads to a particular future, it was inevitable. It could not have been otherwise. The boundary conditions that the future events happen as they already have, guarantees that they must have been prepared for in the past. So, looking backwards, the world is deterministic. However, looking forwards, the future is probabilistic. Good!
Here is a quantum mechanical, thus somewhat technical paper (via NZZ) that introduces an interesting solution to this paradoxon which also impinges on the free will vs. determinism debate. For the philosophical bits, cut right through the equations to section V (p. 10): (...) it is perfectly logical to assume that one has many choices and that one is free to take any one of them. Until
a choice is taken, the future is not determined. However, once a choice is taken, and it leads to a particular future, it was inevitable. It could not have been otherwise. The boundary conditions that the future events happen as they already have, guarantees that they must have been prepared for in the past. So, looking backwards, the world is deterministic. However, looking forwards, the future is probabilistic. Good!
03/07/2005
War of the Worlds
Yesterday, I went to see War of the Worlds with A & R. But I already forgot all about it, so only go see it if you want to have a 2 hours amnesic blank in your memory.
Trying to be a little bit more specific, the film doesn't add anything to what its Wellesian predecessor has already shown us about Wells' novel. It's really just an updated version with better special effects, contemporary gear, mediocre acting & a dysfunctional family story as an aside. Plus it probably brings the church of scientology a windfall of a million or two, so it's really quite redundant. The only positive is that its a rather authentic remake of a sci-fi classic which will probably give lots of teachers of English the opportunity of having a few low preparation intensity classes & a pleasant outing ...
Here is the famous 1938 wireless (i.e. radio!) broadcast by Orson Welles, which notoriously created a panic across the US because of its authenticity.
Trying to be a little bit more specific, the film doesn't add anything to what its Wellesian predecessor has already shown us about Wells' novel. It's really just an updated version with better special effects, contemporary gear, mediocre acting & a dysfunctional family story as an aside. Plus it probably brings the church of scientology a windfall of a million or two, so it's really quite redundant. The only positive is that its a rather authentic remake of a sci-fi classic which will probably give lots of teachers of English the opportunity of having a few low preparation intensity classes & a pleasant outing ...
Here is the famous 1938 wireless (i.e. radio!) broadcast by Orson Welles, which notoriously created a panic across the US because of its authenticity.
02/07/2005
McCall Smith
I have a bad habit when I am having dinner on my own - I like to read, especially when the food is not such that it occupies all my senses, as sadly was often the case in Madrid. So I studied the the latest edition of the University of Edinburgh Journal which has notably entered its 80th year of continuous publication. One article by Prof. Alexander McCall Smith caught my attention. McCall Smith is a professor of law at Edinburgh University, and being an alumnus of that proud faculty, I know him. I was not aware however of the fact that he has become a highly successful writer of crime fiction, and I resolved right there to read some of his lighter works.
In German literature, there is a sharp distinction between real, serious literatur (or E-Literatur, where E stands for earnest), which is debated by literary critics in the Literarisches Quartett, and then, there's the stuff people actually read (U-Literatur), if they feel so inclined at all. It's just an aside that the German book trade thinks it's necessary to maintain a price fixing cartel in order to sustain literary diversity - after all, people need to be told what's good by their editors.
McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club would fall right in between these categories. It's a wonderfully quirky & humane story about a young man falling from the gods in Edinburgh's Usher Hall, involving insider trading, whisky tasting at The Vaults and Isabel Dalhousie, the editor of The Journal of Applied Ethics as the heroïne amateur sleuth perfunctorily going into investigative mode. Her being a philosopher at heart, the reader is constantly treated to philosophical tangents & conundrums at every turn, and it's an entirely enjoyable experience! Have you ever heard of crime fiction going into some detail of Hume, Constant, Schönberg (I know), Kant (frequently!), Wittgenstein and others? The only real comparison I know is Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey stories, which I devoured during my time in Edinburgh. This is the same league, with a subtle sense of humour: In a purely philosophical sense, it must be very demanding to be German. Far better to be French (irresponsible and playful) or Greek (grave, but with a light touch). (...) If x, then y. But y? I highly recommend this!
In German literature, there is a sharp distinction between real, serious literatur (or E-Literatur, where E stands for earnest), which is debated by literary critics in the Literarisches Quartett, and then, there's the stuff people actually read (U-Literatur), if they feel so inclined at all. It's just an aside that the German book trade thinks it's necessary to maintain a price fixing cartel in order to sustain literary diversity - after all, people need to be told what's good by their editors.
McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club would fall right in between these categories. It's a wonderfully quirky & humane story about a young man falling from the gods in Edinburgh's Usher Hall, involving insider trading, whisky tasting at The Vaults and Isabel Dalhousie, the editor of The Journal of Applied Ethics as the heroïne amateur sleuth perfunctorily going into investigative mode. Her being a philosopher at heart, the reader is constantly treated to philosophical tangents & conundrums at every turn, and it's an entirely enjoyable experience! Have you ever heard of crime fiction going into some detail of Hume, Constant, Schönberg (I know), Kant (frequently!), Wittgenstein and others? The only real comparison I know is Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey stories, which I devoured during my time in Edinburgh. This is the same league, with a subtle sense of humour: In a purely philosophical sense, it must be very demanding to be German. Far better to be French (irresponsible and playful) or Greek (grave, but with a light touch). (...) If x, then y. But y? I highly recommend this!
Welcome back, Internet!
Yay! You may have been wondering what happened to me during the last few days, but then again, you probably haven't ... anyway: I've returned from London on Thursday to a thunderstorm & lightning striken house where much of the electr(on)ic infrastructure was/is out of order after a massive electric storm has hit during my absence. Right now, I've managed to come back online on a makeshift connection to the web until the repair man comes around on Monday. It's just one of those occasions where you realise how dependent on those modern amenities you have become!
So I guess I should try & catch up with a bit of posting. The London trip was very satisfactory all around. The garden reception at the friends of ROSL Arts was very pleasant, & I made some new acquaintances, who might eventually introduce me to the Lansdowne Club which looks quite attractive because of its 25m indoors pool (in central London!) and a snooker table. We'll see. The subsequent meetings also went very well I think, and I am looking forward to their follow ups.
The trip found its most instructive conclusion in a 2.5 hours visit to the new Churchill Museum. Let me just give you one important piece of advice before I go into more detail: give it more time than I did! Fortunately, I have already seen the Cabinet War Rooms before, so I could dash right through to the actual Churchill Museum, but even so, I was rather pressed for time. The museum is very comprehensive and has a lot of multimedia exhibits & modern technology. That's all very well, but if you really want to extract their message, then each piece takes quite a bit of time. Some of the user interfaces take a bit of getting used to as well. The museum's underground location, while not very visually attractive, certainly fosters concentration on the exhibition. Throughout, the mood is a bit oppressive, though, and the museum definitely lacks the grandeur of some of the other places in town. Let's just put it that way: Thanks to its location, the museum designers would have had a really hard time to succumb to the temptation of giving in to the personality cult surrounding Churchill. So they created a very factual, informative museum that does probably not fully reflect Churchill's emotional weight in the public perception. If you're interested in Churchill and haven't seen the Cabinett war rooms, then you'll have to give the museum at least a full afternoon. That way, the fairly steep entrance fee of £10 is justified, but I'd say there should be separate tickets.
So I guess I should try & catch up with a bit of posting. The London trip was very satisfactory all around. The garden reception at the friends of ROSL Arts was very pleasant, & I made some new acquaintances, who might eventually introduce me to the Lansdowne Club which looks quite attractive because of its 25m indoors pool (in central London!) and a snooker table. We'll see. The subsequent meetings also went very well I think, and I am looking forward to their follow ups.
The trip found its most instructive conclusion in a 2.5 hours visit to the new Churchill Museum. Let me just give you one important piece of advice before I go into more detail: give it more time than I did! Fortunately, I have already seen the Cabinet War Rooms before, so I could dash right through to the actual Churchill Museum, but even so, I was rather pressed for time. The museum is very comprehensive and has a lot of multimedia exhibits & modern technology. That's all very well, but if you really want to extract their message, then each piece takes quite a bit of time. Some of the user interfaces take a bit of getting used to as well. The museum's underground location, while not very visually attractive, certainly fosters concentration on the exhibition. Throughout, the mood is a bit oppressive, though, and the museum definitely lacks the grandeur of some of the other places in town. Let's just put it that way: Thanks to its location, the museum designers would have had a really hard time to succumb to the temptation of giving in to the personality cult surrounding Churchill. So they created a very factual, informative museum that does probably not fully reflect Churchill's emotional weight in the public perception. If you're interested in Churchill and haven't seen the Cabinett war rooms, then you'll have to give the museum at least a full afternoon. That way, the fairly steep entrance fee of £10 is justified, but I'd say there should be separate tickets.
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