It was sunny day in San José downtown. 29.4 Celsius degrees. I live in the capital of Costa Rica, a small city surrounded by green mountains and volcanoes. The news report said that there is a manifestation of illegal taxi drivers, known as “porteadores”, and a chaotic traffic-flow as a result. I was planning to go to the German Embassy today, but I have decided to postpone it for tomorrow (even with that protest could be interesting to photograph).

My list has a lot of bureaucratic “things-to-do” in queue. I have only 21 days left (einundzwanzig Tage) to go and I am quite sure I have enough time to complete it. However, my head has a lot of questions: Some of them regarding my future life there, in Leipzig and Berlin, mixing with other doubts about my present (or previous) life here. My “things-to-do” list does not only include papers and procedures. There are personal appointments, parties, family dinners and coffee chats. It is not easy to move from one continent to another. I am a little bit exhausted.

Maybe that is why my most-desired plan is to go to the beach. Costa Rica has two wonderful oceans and I would like to spend some days just lying in the sand, drinking a beer and enjoying the view while I get suntanned. This little country is lucky: Both coasts, the Pacific and the Caribbean, are just two or three hours away. I feel I have to say goodbye to my beloved sea, at least for a while. I think I need to absorb all the available solar energy to help me to survive the first European winter of my life…

Today, the Universidad de Costa Rica has celebrated its first week of lessons of this year. I used to work as a professor and radio producer there. The festival included cultural and artistic activities around the campus. Indeed, some of my friends organized a concert with some rock, punk, ska and garage bands. The music was great. The students were enjoying the beats and dancing while I was there taking some photographs. I will miss my campus.

Photography, for me, is the best way to know about something or someone. I often remember this quote from André Kertész: “The camera is my tool. Through it I give a reason to everything around me”. I hope my camera would help me to answer my questions and to silence my fears. What will I photograph in Europe? What kind of manifestations and social struggles am I going to find? What kind of faces, buildings, landscapes? It is a mystery, sometimes I feel a little scared, but I truly love that feeling of delving into a new place.

It is an odd experience, no doubt, listening to Arabic while reading the subtitles in German, realizing you can understand everything you are reading, when, in fact, you should be understanding this spoken language, the second spoken language of your homeland.

No one could believe that an Israeli audience will stand in line to see an Arab-spoken film. But we do, even here in Germany. So it was yesterday in Ajami’s premiere in Berlin – Israel’s third Oscar nominated film in a row. Maybe this one, developed as a collaboration between two friends, an Israeli and a Palestinian, will take the coveted statue home, to the streets of Jaffa. It would be ideal wouldn’t it? plus – it’s a damn fine film.

It’s not an easy film to watch – but what’s there to be seen is visible without any 3D glasses. All you have to do is open your eyes.

The last few days have been really strenuous with the work but also very great as I bond more with my german colleagues and get to know them better. It has been a time of helping out each other and coming closer.

I got hold of a complete set of used furniture for a fair price from one of the Professors in the linguistics department who was shifting to another city and giving away his furniture. For moving them into my new house, I needed help. My colleagues at the lab suggested me to hire a wagon from the University which was quite a cheap and sensible option – about 5 euros per hour and a small security deposit fee of 10 euros.

lars, me, daniel and philip

Then we (myself, Philip, Daniel and Lars) got on the job one Friday evening after finishing work at the lab. Philip offered to drive and the wagon was really huge and just about enough to fit in all the stuff. The moving was a really a back breaking job. I thanked them a lot and felt very grateful to have got such helpful colleagues.

The next week Philip had 2 things to worry about – an impending quarterly report on his work and a literature seminar. He asked me if I could help and I was glad to help him back in some way and we exchanged our seminars and so I had to do mine in short notice but I managed, since I had to present my Masters thesis project and I was quite confident about it. This took some pressure off Philip and he was quite thankful.

Over the next 3 years I would be needing help in many instances from different people and also helping others and working together, since there is nothing that could be achieved by someone all by himself and without depending on help from different people and more so for a PhD..

The end of the week was celebrated with a small party at Maurice’s WG where we made burgers and also had a deep discussion of vegetarianism, religious beliefs etc. since I don’t eat meat and they had got particularly for me, a vegetable-based burger filling. That was quite thoughtful of them!

I still had a few more things to buy and bedding material was one of them. At IKEA (where household goods are normally bought) I learnt many new words while trying to shop for bedding.

Last Friday, I made a sudden plan to go to the Schüco Arena here in Bielefeld with my colleague Thomas to watch a match between Bielefeld and Duisburg. I was looking forward to a personal first time experience of the german passion for football in the Stehplätze among the cheering crowds, where most of the action takes place, as informed by Thomas, who has no interest to sit quietly in the Sitzplätze seats.. It was a great experience to cheer among the fan crowds of the home team, and although sadly we lost the match 1:2, it was a wonderful experience overall

Both the teams were equally good and were trying to reclaim their positions in the first Bundesliga, as informed by Thomas.

thomas with his daughters and friend

I am looking forward to more fun as I get absorbed into this Arbeitsgruppe and work together as one with the people here.

.

Das sind keine Geschichten, das sind reale LEBEN, von realen Menschen.

• Der ägyptische Blogger Karim Amer wurde zu vier Jahren Haft verurteilt.
• Bewaffnete Männer haben einem Bewohner von Lomas del Poleo im mexikanischen Bundesstaat Chihuahua gedroht, ihn zu töten.
• Der iranische Studentenführer Majid Tavakkoli ist in einem unfairen Gerichtsverfahren zu acht Jahren und sechs Monaten Haft verurteilt worden.

Who cares: Wem eigentlich ist es wichtig?

Kann man überhaupt den Menschen helfen, die in einem  ganz anderen Teil der Welt sind?

Sagt man, dass man nicht helfen kann – irrt man sich, das wird von Amnesty international auch mehrmals bewiesen und zwar bei der Arbeit, Mitwirkung, Mithilfe. An dieser Stelle sollte man aber die aktiven von den passiven Menschen unterscheiden.

Im Bereich Menschensolidarität unterscheidet man noch die Gruppe von Menschen, die die Gefühle der Anderen verstehen, die die Fähigkeit, sich in die Einstellung anderer Menschen einzufühlen besitzen, also emphatisch sind. (vgl. Duden – Das Fremdwörterbuch). Machen aber nicht immer etwas um die Situation zu ändern. Allein mitfühlen und mitleiden hilft leider nicht weiter. Etwas zu machen, heißt aber aktiv zu sein.

Aktive Menschen sehen die Möglichkeit das Leben zu beeinflussen, das Leben selbst ist anders, wenn man daran aktiv teilnimmt. Schließt man aber die Augen vor Ungerechtigkeit, vor Rechteverletzung – wird davon die Welt nicht besser, eher dunkler sein.

“Schmerz-blinde”, nenne man die Menschen, die sich von Mitwirkung zurückhalten, mit dem Motto: “Das betrifft mich nicht, also überlasse ich dem Feld jemandem”.

Amnesty international aus der Nähe: aktive empathische Menschen

Erstmals fragte ich mich was genau Amnesty International tut erst am 23. und 24. Januar an der Uni Göttingen, wo die Veranstaltung von sozial engagierten Organisationen stattgefunden hat. Am Stand von Amnesty International konnte man eine Petition unterschreiben, die das Leben der Menschen positiv beeinflussen könnte. Ich finde aber gut, das ich nach dem Unterschreiben kontaktiert wurde und zum regionalen Treffen eingeladen wurde, wo ich viel mehr von der Organisation erfahren konnte.

Sehe Video Kampf gegen Ungerechtigkeit

Yes we can: Zusammen kann man viel!

Man hat hier eine ganze Palette von verschiedenen Aktionen, von Kinoabenden, Vorlesungen, öffentlichen Veranstaltungen bis zu Newsletters, Artikeln, Rechtlichen Briefen. Hier funktioniert es aber alles etwas anders: Echter Kampf passiert bürokratisch auf dem Papier, langsam aber vorwärts. Mit Petitionsunterschrift, einem Brief oder einer E-Mail trägt man dazu bei, die Situation von akut bedrohten Menschen zu bessern.

Sehe Video The power of Signature

Heutzutage wird also die Rüstung mehr und mehr wissensorientiert, also je mehr man seine Rechte kennt, desto mehr Kraft hat man* (gilt aber nicht in jedem Land). Um in einen Kampf für Menschen einzutreten braucht man enorme Motivation und mehrere Kompetenzen, ist echte Heldentat. Unter Held wird jmd. verstanden, der sich mit Unerschrockenheit und Mut einer schweren Aufgabe stellt, eine ungewöhnliche Tat vollbringt, die ihm Bewunderung einträgt (vgl. 2000 Dudenverlag, Sat Wolf, Bayern). Also ist nicht jeder für ähnliche Leistungen geeignet, in den Kampf gegen die Ungerechtigkeit zu treten. Für nervenschwache Leute ist solche Tätigkeit natürlich ausgeschlossen.

Die Hauptfunktionen von Amnesty international sind die Rechte des Menschen selbst Menschen zu erklären, und denen, die sich an diese Rechte nicht halten verschiedenartig zu erklären wie man sich benehmen muss. Es schien mir auch interessant die Kooperation von Organisation mit Hochschulgruppen, Polizei, Bibliothek, Frauenschutzorganisationen und ähnliche Einrichtungen.

Es ist aber schwierig die Welt zur Veränderungen zu zwingen, allein schafft man das nie, da soll mehrere Leute mitmachen. Deshalb sind Einsteiger jederzeit willkommen, egal aus welchem Land, mit welcher Hintergrund, Hauptsache – aktiv, empatisch, mitwirkend.

Mehr unter: Amnesty.de

So, after a rather long break I have now made time to write down my next article. Firstly, I wish all the readers a warm and prosperous new year 2010, though ‘warm’ is a word that is currently least applicable in Germany. Yesterday the mercury sunk to -10 degrees, which is something everyone has got used to here but what made things worse was a terrible wind that blows the snow and sends it crashing onto your face.. It makes you feel that there is nothing so beautiful or pleasant about the snow. Yes, its beautiful to look at and enjoy when it just starts to fall, but from the last week of December, snow is something you wouldn’t want to see in the morning when you try to get ready and go to work.

The Winterdienst is constantly at work with their special type of vehicles that clears the snow from the front while spilling grit (a mixture of sand and rock salt, granular in nature, used to improve friction) from behind. The trees look ghostly with their withered branches and snow covered trunks. Life is nowhere to be seen outside, everyone is safely tucked in the comfort of the room heaters, as early as 6 p.m. I can remember, in the summer there used to be daylight till around 9 pm and cafes do good business with their beautiful chairs and tables put outside and people enjoying a relaxing drink, or cakes and coffee and a chat with friends till as late as 10 pm. What an extreme contrast one can find here!

I would like to add to this post an interesting bit of info. Anyone going to Nuremberg, should not forget to check out the Deutsche Bahn museum there. I had come here with my friend Harish (from Heidelberg).

It’s a commendable effort to have put together the real train carriages, engines, machinery and interesting models that depict the history of the railways that span more 150 years. Almost everything is covered here, and one can learn a lot – the founding of the German railway system with help from the British inventor George Stephenson, how it was developed during the time of the kings, the Eisenbahn before the war, the crucial role played by the railways during the war, the crash of the economy and the railways after the war , the separate entities Bundesbahn of west and Reichsbahn of the east were united and later its rebuilding, modernization into the DB AG of today – everything. From the humble carriage to the Inter City Express the german railways have come a long way. One can also learn about signals and communication systems, engines and their functioning, how the King’s royal carriage looked like, the important people involved in the development of the railways and so on.

The first steam hauled Bavarian Ludwig Railway was run from this very same city on a distance of 6 km from Nuremberg to Fuerth. Stephenson had sent his assistant to help the businessmen George Platner and Johannes Scharrer in the initiation and construction of the railway line. The Englishman was too amazed to see that the concept of railways was still in its infancy in Germany while Britain was already many years forward and he felt he was back by almost half a century. He expressed these feelings to his German associates, in whatever little German he could talk. It was mostly a mix of English, German and Germanized English words and at the end he closed by asking something about the Bahnhof (railway station). Scharrer remarked (obviously astounded at that confusing mix of languages) , “Ich habe nur ‘Bahnhof ‘ verstanden!” . (“ I just understood ‘railway station’”.)

This funny incident was played in a short movie clip detailing the founding of the german railway. I am describing this here because, it reminded me about my german classes and I think I have now found the origin of the german phrase “Ich habe nur Bahnhof verstanden”. We came across this phrase during our classes and our teacher said that it’s a phrase mostly used by students when they don’t understand anything in a lecture and find everything vague and unclear, they remark that all I could understand was railway station! Meaning he couldn’t understand a word. We didn’t know the origin of this phrase then, but I think it should be from here in this incident in 1835.

Ok, till next time and be careful while walking in the snow, I just had my first slip yesterday!

It’s all a question of wanting I guess. No no not of wanting, of waiting. Like of wanting or waiting to leave and come back and remembering who you were while remaining who you are. Your self will never leave you, so why should you worry? Well you do worry. You worry because you always leave something behind, and yet you’re going somewhere new. Somewhere new and appealing, but will you not miss the old? The old memories and miseries and clashes and get togethers and waitings. Each flight is like full of hope and past and future and dellusion. Dellusion.

You thought about staying next to my shoulder. Yesterday.

IT

All those things which you left behind. You had already lost them before forgetting them, remember?
Airports then, airports are like the space of no time. The in-between space of your ear, the very only and exclusive space where the present is not perceived, rare species. Otherwise, mind you, otherwise I’m a believer. A believer in the present and a skeptic, per extension, since I’m extreme, as far as the past and the future are concerned. The past and the future only exist if one thinks about them, their existence being completely dependant upon thinking. Thinking, then, thinking needs to take place at a certain moment, now, at present, so I assume that the present is the only thing that exists, the only human construct which is close enough to reality as to be an independent entity and whose ability to change, what defines it, makes it appear almost real. I refuse to believe that the past and the future exist if one does not perceive or think about them. And perception, once again, is present-bound. So, no present? Then no past, no future. Relativity lover.

You’ll think about staying within my temple. Tomorrow.

IS

All those things that you are getting now, you feel them? Too late to perceive them. On your toes.
But airports. Airports are the exception. They’re like the line in the middle, the fine thread where you stand without knowing whether you’ll fall to the left or to the right, upward or backward. Like the unique piece of land where the present does not count. No wonder that airports are human-made, artificial. The present then, the present moment might as well go on strike there, so unwelcome that it is. It is precisely for this reason, because the present at airports is no wanted guest, that decisions are best made there. Because they constitute the only reachable isle where your decisions are not biased or minuciously guided by your present perception of things but rather by past events or future opportunities. Wanna be rational? Then go to an airport and decide there. And yet, I am convinced of it. I am telling you, don’t you dare not think present.

Because I am leaving you. Today.

NOW

One usually falls backwards.
A shame.

Sehr verehrte Leserinnen und Leser,
Liebe Constipendiaten,
Am vergangenem Sonntag, bin ich eben in der Vandalen-Ausstellung im Badischen Landesmuseum zu Karlsruhe, quondam Residenz der Großherzöge des Landes, gewesen.
Es war wirklich schön und empfehlenswert. Eine gute Museographie, schöne Exponate und eine ruhige Atmosphäre. Es ist ja so unangenehm wenn man von kleinen „vandalischen“ Rentner oder Erstklässler überrumpelt wird. Oder noch schlimmer, wenn ein Faux-pas in Richtung des Meisterstückes (zum Ehren des Obligationenrechts lassen Sie uns „Eichen am Wasser“ von J. I. van Ruisdael als Beispiel nehmen) eine Legion Museumswächter in Bewegung setzt. Hier war das nicht der Fall. Die Cafeteria war zwar halbwegs gut, aber immerhin ein Mittagsessen wert. Schön fand ich, dass die Weihnachtsblumen,so mexikanisch wie diese „Lederblumen“ ( „Cuitlaxochitl“ ) sind, von der selben Farbe waren, wie die Wände der Ausstellung: dunkelrot.
Kaiserporträts, barbarische Waffen, römische Münzen, frühchristliche Stelen und nordafirkanische Mosiaken ermöglichen einen Einblick in diesem kurzlebenden Reich des Geisimer und seines Volkes auf karthaginesischem Gebiet. Eine schöne Völker- und Kulturgemenge.
Gerade, dass die ehemaligen Hirten und Krieger Pommerns, plötzlich auf der Heimat Tertullians landeten, war eigentlich schon merkwürdig. Kunst,-, Religions-, Zivil,- und Militärgeschichte fanden dort, in dieser Erdflecke in dieser Zeit mannigfaltige Angelpunkte. Aus rechtshistorischer Perpektive waren die Albertini Täfelchen natürlich die Kronexponate der Ausstellung. Es sind Zederntafälchen, die über die Rechtsgeschäfte einer verarmten Familie in einem Latifund am Rande der Wüste im 5. Jhr. berichten. Von daher, sind sie ein bißchen traurig im Vergleich zu anderen lateinischen Urkunden, wie etwa die Tafeln aus Herculaneum.
Arius, für den Gott der Sohn nicht genauso göttlich war wie Gott der Vater ist;der Bischof Wulfila, der die Bibel ins Gotische übersetzte; Belisarius, der treue Soldat Justinians, und viele andere Gestalten grüßten den Touristen.
So darf ich mich, von Ihnen und Euch allen für dieses Jahr verabschieden. Ich wünsche Sie und Euch allen frohe Weihnachten.

The merry go-round

Its funny how life can turn out at times, just when you think, that you are very busy and cannot afford to waste time, you end up indulging in some activities which are not only time consuming but fun. This week marked our last lecture and the beginning of revision for exams scheduled for Friday on the 11^th of December, the first real exams. So despite the expectations of being busy bodies in preparation for the exams, a sample of the class (me included) decided to clear off our heads by visiting the Christmas market. December is a great month in the sense that as it ushers the Christmas celebration, however it also marks the beginning of real winter with temperatures plunging below 10 degrees, which may not be fun. Despite that, I was excited at the prospect of waking up to a snowy morning, but was disappointed to wake up to showers.

This was my first visit to the fair having missed on the previous fair held in early November. The running theme at the market was the medieval era, it was therefore fun to watch the stalls with owners dressed in the old traditional attires reminiscent of that age. There were several delicacies appealing to the eyes and the taste buds but pocket unfriendly, such as pommes, sweets, chocolates not forgetting the wurst. Several activities ranging from magical tricks to merry go-rounds were also part of the occasion. Perhaps the most common activity observed that we also participated in was the consumption of the frothy liquid glühwein to get rid of the biting cold. The only problem was that I had taken the wrong shoes with thin soles; hence the drink did not help much as my feet were growing numb and the only activity that could keep them warm was constant feet movement.

part of the class consuming gluhwein

One of the striking stalls that we visited was the one dealing in potions, there were whole range of potions but the most common one, which had lots of buyers, was the love potion, the question is do they really work? Well the answer to that question was to try out the potions, which I did not, so the question remains unanswered. The fun part of the whole exercise was to see the true personalities expressed, giving an indication of just how pressure can modify personality. We took some fun pictures that will forever remain etched in our minds as moments that really count. I cannot honestly trade the time we spent at the market with studying time for in those few hours we spent together my mind was truly relaxed and refreshed synonymous with the saying all work and no play. I cannot wait for Christmas to come and despite the biting cold I would really like to experience some real snowy weather, which would be my first encounter with snow.

In der Zeit vor Weihnachten gibt es ja eigentlich diverse Ablenkungsmöglichkeiten, die einem erlauben, kurz mal eine Lernpause noch zu genießen!
Das erste Mal auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt: immer wierder ein schönes Erlebnis (na gut, es ist das zweite Mal, aber immerhin…;-) Der Glühwein löst festliche Erinnerungen aus, die Schupfnudeln und Bratwürste riecht man über den ganzen Rathausplatz und nie sonst im Jahr schmeckt ein heißer Crepe so süß und lecker wie beim ersten Besuch auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt!
In jedem Laden wird man gezwungen sich seine Zeit zu nehmen und sich die ganzen Dekorationen und alles, was ihnen sonst noch so zur Stimmungsgestaltung einfällt, zu bewundern. Obwohl es mir oft ein bisschen viel ist und es alles auch schon etwas früh im Jahr beginnt, kann man sich trotzdem nicht sattsehen an den weihnachtlichen Farben.
Und um einen schönen Abend dann noch zu krönen, passt dann noch ein schöner Kinofilm super rein, wenn man sich nach längrem Außenaufenthalt auf einen warmen Kinosaal freun kann (auch wenn es ja jetzt noch nicht soooo kalt ist
Es macht natürlich alles die Arbeit nicht weniger, denn die wartet beim nach Hause kommen leider immer noch auf dem Schreibtisch, aber immerhin hat man dann neue Kraft geschöpft fürs nächste Testat!

The past week has seen some really wonderful moments happen in my workplace. To begin with, one of my colleagues was leaving as her contract comes to a close and she is moving to Munich for another job. She threw a party at the Kegelbahn (bowling alley) at a place called Tennenlohe near Erlangen. And it was an amazing experience overall. Around 15 of us turned up, all colleagues in the lab – students , research workers, secretaries  and also one of our profs.  The atmosphere was warm and good, the service from the alley managers was splendid . We had some Asian food ordered from a nearby restaurant. There was a round of drinks then and later we started to bowl. We grouped ourselves randomly into 2 different teams  and played different varieties of games against each other  and paused in between to take pictures, drink some more and had a lot of fun.

Later after an hour, only the youngsters were bowling while the elders had retired to the seats for a relaxed evening chat among themselves. I had 3 other guys in my team and we played against the other team many more different variants – the one I enjoyed the most was where each team  goes for a hit one after the other in their own alley, but try to avoid scoring 11 points or multiples of 11 (22, 33,etc.) the aim is to reach 100 before the other team. It was real fun when one team would reach up to 87 and then someone would hit and make just one pin fall , and bring their team score to 88. And they have to start from 0 again!

Then it was time for her to open her gifts – we had packed it in a big plastic barrel from our labs and filled it up mostly with some waste papers and stuff ( to build up the surprise). Actually it turned out that I was the one who got surprised – by the choice of gifts here – Bockwurst, Bier and Amazon gift vouchers!

We went on bowling again till little after midnight and then I took a bus along with my friends back home .

The earlier day I had cooked a popular Indian dish called dosa (which strangely never appears in any of the menus of the Indian restaurants in Germany) along with sambar (a side dish) in my office kitchen and shared with my colleagues. They found it great but I was surprised as they said they expected some thing more spicy. In my enthusiasm to adjust it according to their tastes, I had made the sambar  considerably weaker by gong a little easy on the masalas. Later, I added some more of the spices and set it right and we all enjoyed a great lunch. They were obviously no strangers to Indian cuisine I understood. Particularly, I enjoyed sharing it with our secretary Ingrid, who is always very curious to know more about India and would google extensively about  anything I would narrate her! She said she would remember the word ‘dosa’ by associating it with the german word ‘dose’ (a box) to do her search on google at home.

Earlier our lab group had taken a 1 day tour of Nuremberg which I had forgot to mention in the previous article. I enjoyed it a lot and we had a great day. I took my cycle along in the regional train and you have to pay for the cycle through a child ticket (costs half as the adult ticket). We checked out the interesting castle and towers of Nuremberg, caught up on its history in the city museum (called Fembo house) and then visited a traditional house brewery and were taken on a guided tour of the beer cellars underground, then had lunch at a traditional inn, visited the Albrecht Durer (medieval time artist famous for his printed works and self-portraits) museum and rounded up the day with a relaxing drink at a small pub. Nuremberg is an amazing city – almost 70% of the buildings destroyed in the World War 2 but today it has been restored to such an amazing level that one can really not believe this city was in total shambles 60 years  ago. The city wall that covers the entire span of the Old City runs many kms long and is one of the main icons of the city. The trams, underground train networks, magnificient buildings, supermarkets, amazingly resotred medieval time churches, houses and castle towers all tell a wonderful tale of human spirit. I was amazed how people have built this city back to its historical glory, yes Nuremberg was a very very important trade centre during the medieval times, and popularly remarked as the place where goods from all over the world can be bought or sold.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are very hectic at the lab with many of the Masters students turning up for the practical sessions and it gets a bit crowded. I work around this situation by turning up early for the lab and finish my work as much as possible and then staying at my office with the studies and other paper work while the practical session is on.  I also see the buses crowded with school students at around 7 – 7:30 in the morning.  Friday was a long day at work with my colleague Christine. On the weekend I completed 2 things long pending – cleaning my room and getting a hair-cut. I found out that Friseur (hair dresser) could also be sometimes spelt as Frisör.