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Was heisst denn das? Als bekennender Asterix-Fan und nur-Lateiner müsste ich wohl sagen: Weiss ich auch nicht, das ist Griechisch (Die Trabantenstadt, S. 15)! Aber die NZZ hilft uns grosszügig weiter. Solche Bücher müsste man zu lesen die Musse haben!
Eine Variation zum Thema geht aus diesem erstaunlichen Weblog-Eintrag (englisch) hervor.
30/06/2004
Freiheitlicher Imperialismus?
In diesem Postscriptum zu seinem im Frühling 2002 in Foreign Affairs erschienenen Artikel verteidigt der Autor Sebastian Mallaby seine Auffassung, dass trotz der kläglichen Leistung der US Administration im Irak die Rolle des wohlwollenden Imperialisten unverändert ihre Berechtigung hat.
Ich kann dem nur beipflichten. Diese Sichtweise passt auch ohne weiteres zur modernen Sicht des Völkerrechts, auf deren Beschreibung ich in diesem Eintrag hingewiesen habe. Warum sollte es nicht einen humanistischen Imperialismus geben? Die brisante Frage nach dem Wer? ist damit aber selbstverständlich nicht beantwortet ... vielleicht könnten auch NGOs von der Statur einer De Klerk Stiftung eine Rolle spielen?
Ich kann dem nur beipflichten. Diese Sichtweise passt auch ohne weiteres zur modernen Sicht des Völkerrechts, auf deren Beschreibung ich in diesem Eintrag hingewiesen habe. Warum sollte es nicht einen humanistischen Imperialismus geben? Die brisante Frage nach dem Wer? ist damit aber selbstverständlich nicht beantwortet ... vielleicht könnten auch NGOs von der Statur einer De Klerk Stiftung eine Rolle spielen?
29/06/2004
London trip recap
Finally, I have caught up with stuff, so I can actually give you the promised summary! The essence first: I've had a great weekend!
Saturday morning had me evacuated from this earthquake ridden country at an ungodly hour. I was pleasantly surprised that I was actually able to help Joe set up his Mac after arrival. From there, straight to Over-Seas House to get rid of my stuff and on to Birbeck college for the Lunch reception. Great speech by Sir Malcom Rifkind - very entertaining with a serious core. Rhetoric at its best!
The program continued with a flight on London Eye. Fine way to spend half an hour and get some spectacular views of the place. Back to Over-Seas House to get changed and on to Westminster Palace where the evening reception with Dinner in the Churchill Room started at 7pm. Another fine speech by Tam Dalyell, MP, Rector of the University, giving us some anecdotal evidence that he was indeed Father of the House, what with him being in Parliament together with Winston Churchill, whose bust was carefully watching over him. And thus endeth the day - all too soon!
Here are some pictures of that day. And if you wonder about my telegramme style: I've been reading the diaries of Samuel Pepys again, who incidentally discovered the joys of "a Cupp of Tee (a China drink of which I never had drank before)" on the notable day of September 25, 1660.
Anyway, that out of the way, I met up with Joel and Paul on Sunday, two friends from Masson Hall at Edinburgh University. We had fun discussing Joel's plans for early retirement (he turned 31 recently!) and set a date for a Masson Hall reunion in June 2005 - mark the agenda! All that over some pints of Guinness of course.
Later in the evening, I decided to to something cultural and found the Gala Concert on at the Royal Albert Hall. They were just inaugurating the rebuilt organ (with 9999 pipes!) and Boy! was that ever a concert. It felt a bit like a mini version of the last night of the Proms, what with Pomp & Circumstances and the crowd singing Land of Hope & Glory. Very atmospherical! There were other sundry classical All time Greatest Hits, such as Bach's Toccata con Fuga, Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony (did you know that the musical theme from Babe, the Gallant Pig was taken from there?!), Widor's Toccata (enhanced!) and - unmistakably - Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (aka the theme from 2001). Great fun was had! If it works, I'll also post a little bootlegged video capture on the sidebar for your short enjoyment. Oh, and thanks to Linda for inviting me to an excellent Stalls seat for essentially half the price. Hopefully, they will be able to sort out the low frequency hum which is rather annoying during the more quiet parts - fortunately there weren't many of those! Most intriguing by the way that - evidently - the RAH employs a "Light Jockey" of sorts who modifies the light composition ever so slightly in line with the mood of the music. True professionalism, I suppose ...
On the Monday, I just had a business meeting at Over-Seas House, a bit of shopping, another pleasant pint (and pizza) with Joe and a bit of adrenaline in the traffic jam to Heathrow airport. Surprisingly, I met a business acquaintance from Switzerland at Acton Town's Underground station - what's the chances of that! And we were also on the same plane back home, right on time for the aforementioned earthquake...
Saturday morning had me evacuated from this earthquake ridden country at an ungodly hour. I was pleasantly surprised that I was actually able to help Joe set up his Mac after arrival. From there, straight to Over-Seas House to get rid of my stuff and on to Birbeck college for the Lunch reception. Great speech by Sir Malcom Rifkind - very entertaining with a serious core. Rhetoric at its best!
The program continued with a flight on London Eye. Fine way to spend half an hour and get some spectacular views of the place. Back to Over-Seas House to get changed and on to Westminster Palace where the evening reception with Dinner in the Churchill Room started at 7pm. Another fine speech by Tam Dalyell, MP, Rector of the University, giving us some anecdotal evidence that he was indeed Father of the House, what with him being in Parliament together with Winston Churchill, whose bust was carefully watching over him. And thus endeth the day - all too soon!
Here are some pictures of that day. And if you wonder about my telegramme style: I've been reading the diaries of Samuel Pepys again, who incidentally discovered the joys of "a Cupp of Tee (a China drink of which I never had drank before)" on the notable day of September 25, 1660.
Anyway, that out of the way, I met up with Joel and Paul on Sunday, two friends from Masson Hall at Edinburgh University. We had fun discussing Joel's plans for early retirement (he turned 31 recently!) and set a date for a Masson Hall reunion in June 2005 - mark the agenda! All that over some pints of Guinness of course.
Later in the evening, I decided to to something cultural and found the Gala Concert on at the Royal Albert Hall. They were just inaugurating the rebuilt organ (with 9999 pipes!) and Boy! was that ever a concert. It felt a bit like a mini version of the last night of the Proms, what with Pomp & Circumstances and the crowd singing Land of Hope & Glory. Very atmospherical! There were other sundry classical All time Greatest Hits, such as Bach's Toccata con Fuga, Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony (did you know that the musical theme from Babe, the Gallant Pig was taken from there?!), Widor's Toccata (enhanced!) and - unmistakably - Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (aka the theme from 2001). Great fun was had! If it works, I'll also post a little bootlegged video capture on the sidebar for your short enjoyment. Oh, and thanks to Linda for inviting me to an excellent Stalls seat for essentially half the price. Hopefully, they will be able to sort out the low frequency hum which is rather annoying during the more quiet parts - fortunately there weren't many of those! Most intriguing by the way that - evidently - the RAH employs a "Light Jockey" of sorts who modifies the light composition ever so slightly in line with the mood of the music. True professionalism, I suppose ...
On the Monday, I just had a business meeting at Over-Seas House, a bit of shopping, another pleasant pint (and pizza) with Joe and a bit of adrenaline in the traffic jam to Heathrow airport. Surprisingly, I met a business acquaintance from Switzerland at Acton Town's Underground station - what's the chances of that! And we were also on the same plane back home, right on time for the aforementioned earthquake...
Statistics
This is a numbers orientated post!
First of all, I'd like to thank my loyal readers - it appears that there are quite o few of them out there! The daily average of visits stands at 42 for the current month, and the graph looks like this:
Even though I question the reliability of this statistic frequently (three times this month alone, to be precise), my trustworthy ISP (yep, that's you, Thomas) assures me that it is as reliable as they get. So, thanks!
Somewhat sadder is the fact that over 40% of last month's incoming search traffic has been looking for this particular post. I gather that they must have been quite disappointed by the absence of any graphic material, and I assure you that I will not tailor the content to suit search terms.
Finally, the earthquake. It has been confirmed to have been of a magnitude of 4.0, hence well above my estimate. But its epicenter was in Frick, so it was further away than the last one. I observe that the interval between the shocks is shortening, and their amplitudes are increasing. I am not an expert, not even a layman for that matter, and I do not want to be alarmist, but I don't like this one bit!
First of all, I'd like to thank my loyal readers - it appears that there are quite o few of them out there! The daily average of visits stands at 42 for the current month, and the graph looks like this:
Even though I question the reliability of this statistic frequently (three times this month alone, to be precise), my trustworthy ISP (yep, that's you, Thomas) assures me that it is as reliable as they get. So, thanks!
Somewhat sadder is the fact that over 40% of last month's incoming search traffic has been looking for this particular post. I gather that they must have been quite disappointed by the absence of any graphic material, and I assure you that I will not tailor the content to suit search terms.
Finally, the earthquake. It has been confirmed to have been of a magnitude of 4.0, hence well above my estimate. But its epicenter was in Frick, so it was further away than the last one. I observe that the interval between the shocks is shortening, and their amplitudes are increasing. I am not an expert, not even a layman for that matter, and I do not want to be alarmist, but I don't like this one bit!
Unpleasant welcome ...
Just being home for less than three hours, the trouble starts again: another earthquake, although much lighter this time - being something of an expert now, I would say it was 3.4, but then again, the epicenter might have been further away. We'll see. The shock hit at 0143h. I am just hoping that this accumulation is not significant.
27/06/2004
London blogging
So you thought I wouldn't blog from London. Well, think again!
But I will definitely keep it short since I want to go out soon. Yesterday's alumni event at the House of Commons was phantastic. We had Dinner at the Churchill room and Father of the House Tam Dalyell gave us a great speech, even remembering bits of when he was in Parliament with Churchill (he's Father, after all ...) But more on that later, together with some pictures. Oh, and I forgot the even better speech given by Sir Malcom Rifkind at Birbeck College ...
Anyway, what I really wanted to do with this post is to congratulate Rosi and Christof on their grades at the Colour Design exams! What with the bet between Christof and I, it is a pity though that it wasn't quite the other way round, isn't it, Christof?! Enjoy the lots of time that you guys have at hand now. I am looking forward to your putting your newly acquired degrees to a lot of practical usage - if I can be of assistance, that much the better!
Regards from radiant (after yesterday's drizzle) London!
But I will definitely keep it short since I want to go out soon. Yesterday's alumni event at the House of Commons was phantastic. We had Dinner at the Churchill room and Father of the House Tam Dalyell gave us a great speech, even remembering bits of when he was in Parliament with Churchill (he's Father, after all ...) But more on that later, together with some pictures. Oh, and I forgot the even better speech given by Sir Malcom Rifkind at Birbeck College ...
Anyway, what I really wanted to do with this post is to congratulate Rosi and Christof on their grades at the Colour Design exams! What with the bet between Christof and I, it is a pity though that it wasn't quite the other way round, isn't it, Christof?! Enjoy the lots of time that you guys have at hand now. I am looking forward to your putting your newly acquired degrees to a lot of practical usage - if I can be of assistance, that much the better!
Regards from radiant (after yesterday's drizzle) London!
25/06/2004
Letzter Eintrag - für den Augenblick!
Morgen früh fliege ich bekanntlich nach London, und dort werde ich vermutlich nicht bloggen können. Montag nacht bin ich aber wieder zurück.
Inzwischen zwei Hinweise auf interessante Lektüre. Hier ist ein Aufsatz des Zürcher Völkerrechtsprofessors Daniel Thürer über die Komplexität modernen Völkerrechts. Darin nimmt er Stellung gegen die jüngste Hypothese von der faktischen Unterordnung des Völkerrechts unter die Interessen des Stärkeren. Differenziert ja, aber ob es ihm gelungen ist, die Hypothese zu widerlegen, überlasse ich jedem Leser.
Etwas unterhaltsamer dürfte dieses Buch über die Entschlüsselung der Matrix sein. Selbstverständlich handelt es sich dabei um die Filmtrilogie, die ich - wenig erstaunlich - hervorragend finde.
Inzwischen zwei Hinweise auf interessante Lektüre. Hier ist ein Aufsatz des Zürcher Völkerrechtsprofessors Daniel Thürer über die Komplexität modernen Völkerrechts. Darin nimmt er Stellung gegen die jüngste Hypothese von der faktischen Unterordnung des Völkerrechts unter die Interessen des Stärkeren. Differenziert ja, aber ob es ihm gelungen ist, die Hypothese zu widerlegen, überlasse ich jedem Leser.
Etwas unterhaltsamer dürfte dieses Buch über die Entschlüsselung der Matrix sein. Selbstverständlich handelt es sich dabei um die Filmtrilogie, die ich - wenig erstaunlich - hervorragend finde.
24/06/2004
The fun in blogging ...
Earlier I said that half the fun in blogging comes from Readers' comments. Well, they start to trickle in, if not publicly via the comments feature (please!), then through the relative privacy of email. Today, I have received a very kind email from their CEO, thanking me for mentioning Menssana Research Inc.. Don't worry, I don't think that Latin names in general and Menssana in particular are presumptuous - some of the firms dearest to me bear Latin names ...
Tutanchamun
Yesterday, I finally managed to see the Tutanchamun exhibition I mentioned earlier. It is impressive all right, although the circumstances didn't quite live up to my (very high) expectations. One particularly annoying point of criticism concerns the exhibition's website, of all things. Being a Mac user on Safari, the webshop doesn't work at all and only returns some unintelligible error messages. Using Internet Explorer you will get to a very cluttered webshop the sole purpose of which supposedly is to sell tickets. Simple, you think? Not there. One should think that UBS, the event sponsor, can do better than that.
Anyway, the EXHIBITION.
There were two impressions that hit me quite strongly.
First was the realisation how beautiful those objects are. Even though they have been made some five thousand years ago, they still stroke me as almost contemporary in their classical (that's definitely the wrong term, but I don't have a better one) design. Just amazing.
The second impression was a bit more subtle and might easily get lost in the multilingual clutter of guides and visitors. It is the distant whisper of power absolute, which those objects must have represented to their contemporaries. And now, disinterested high school kids are making merry around the Great Pharaoh's sarcophagus ... very much reminds me of Shelley's Ozymandias:
Anyway, the EXHIBITION.
There were two impressions that hit me quite strongly.
First was the realisation how beautiful those objects are. Even though they have been made some five thousand years ago, they still stroke me as almost contemporary in their classical (that's definitely the wrong term, but I don't have a better one) design. Just amazing.
The second impression was a bit more subtle and might easily get lost in the multilingual clutter of guides and visitors. It is the distant whisper of power absolute, which those objects must have represented to their contemporaries. And now, disinterested high school kids are making merry around the Great Pharaoh's sarcophagus ... very much reminds me of Shelley's Ozymandias:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
23/06/2004
Bilder, die die Schweiz bewegen ...
Dass ich ein Fussballbildchen auf meinem Weblog verewige, wird bestimmt einige Leser wundern, bin ich doch nicht eben für mein fussballerisches Engagement bekannt. Eigentlich geht's mir auch gar nicht um die Fussballerei, die Affäre könnte sich von mir aus auch beim Schwingen oder Hornussen ereignet haben.
Worum geht's? Offenbar hat ein Stürmer unserer Nationalelf bei der EM einen Spieler der gegnerischen Mannschaft bespuckt, was nicht nur den fundamentalsten Anstandsregeln widerspricht, sondern offenbar auch den UEFA Standards. Er bestreitet das im Einklang mit dem nationalen Fussballverband und wird temporär "freigesprochen", bis das Schweizer Fernsehen (sonst nicht eben berüchtigt für einen aggressiven Journalismus) Bilder (s. oben) veröffentlicht, die eigentlich keinen anderen Schluss zulassen, als dass gelogen worden sei. In der Folge setzt ein peinliches Gerangel jeder gegen jeden (und gegen die dolchbewehrten Medien, natürlich) ein.
Die Angelegenheit könnte mir eigentlich egaler nicht sein. Was aber nur noch peinlich und ärgerlich ist, ist die Tatsache, dass wieder einmal mehr offenbar wichtige Repräsentanten der Schweiz in unglaublich laienhafter Art und Weise Prioritäten setzen und kommunizieren (z.B. im Nachrichtenprogramm 10 vor 10 gestern). Ich hoffe und wünsche, dass in dieser Angelegenheit einige verantwortliche Köpfe rollen werden. Da aber das Fussball-Establishment ein kleiner, geschlossener Club sein dürfte, wird das wohl in gut-schweizerischer Manier nicht passieren.
Zum Glück interessiert mich Fussball nicht.
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