At the Freetime Fair: Freiburg (Satis Shroff)

Went to the Past-time Fair in Freiburg. It was drizzling outside but inside it was full of people. The cft freizeitmesse seems to be a hit: caravan and outdoor, motorrad weekend, modelbau, ferienmesse and fit-for-life.(Satis Shroff). Here are some impressions..

                               She was selling trips to Tyrole (Austria) and her dirndl looked attractive

                                                             Fruits galore: all dried to savour

                                                                   A caravan holiday

                                                              Freetime activities

                                                                Sleeping berth in the caravan

                                                                    A caravan frontseat

                                                                    Karavan Waschbecken

                                                                             

                                                                       Schwarzwaldbueb

                                                                    Faucet without an end..

                                                             Schwarzwald tourism in medieval clothes

German Flair for Camping, Freetime and Travel (Satis Shroff)

This was a fair with different themes that were brought under a hat. There was something of interest for everyone: freetime, tourism, fitness and health.

You could see travel cars, caravans in all shapes and sizes, camping gear, tents and accessoires, clothes for occasions, garden furniture, even diving-suits, aqualungs and book galore. I just read this afternoon at my dentist’s that Rosamunde Pilcher isn’t in demand in Germany anymore and the publisher (Surkampf) didn’t know what to do with her books. Rosa just doesn’t sell, was his lamento.

Back to the caravans: you could see people going in and out of the four-wheeled and six-wheeled products on display. Motorbikes with systems, music-anlage, cameras mounted behind the bikes, bluetooth and navigation---all in one. There was even a discount. You could get a caravan for 30,000 euros.

What do you do after work?  A lot of Germans want to have more time for their hobbies according to the Research Institute Forsa which carried out a survey with the theme ‘Good Resolutions for 2012.’ In Germany we have 4 hours and 3 minutes of freetime at our disposal per day. The youth and pensioners have 5 hours of freetime but the parents of children under 17 have only three hours.

What do we Germans do with our freetime? A survey says that since 25 years watching TV is the favourite pastime in Germany. Another high rate is reached by talking over the phone (91%), listening to music (89%), reading newspapers (79%) and excursions with the family (72%).

Last year we, Germany, booked 70 million trips around the world at a record of 61 billion euros. We just love to travel. This year the bookings are expected to be even higher.

People from Baden and Württemberg travel a great deal in comparison to other Germans. The favourite haunts seem to be Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. As far as beach-holidays are concerned, Bavaria leads the field. Destinations abroad are: Spain with Mallorca as the legendary ‘Teutinic Grill,’ then bella Italy, Turkey and Austria. A third of the Germans remain in their own Länder. Last year, the average expenditure of German tourists was 1020 euros per person for an average of 12,5 days.

Another theme was ‘Fit for Life’ and the area Freiburg and South Baden, which are known for their health centres and spas, were well represented. The tendency is to rename hospitals which are called Krankenhäuser in German, for the name ‘Krankenhaus’ evokes a house where you get sick and not healthy. A health center sounds much better and gives the patient the impression that he or she’ll be on his or her feet again. The university klinik Freiburg featured medical professors and physicians who delivered talks on: arthrosis, burn-out syndrome, pain-therapies. A big mock-up version of the human lung was on display and you could walk in and observe the pathological changes in the bronchioles.

Since the German population’s getting old, the Bundesverband 50 Plus was selling their offers to people in the autumn and winter of their lives.

When three Germans get together they create an association (verein) goes the adage, and the vereins were there presenting sports-events with the floor-ball, zumba, taekwondo, inviting the visitors to take part.

‘Nature for all’ was another theme for people with and without handicaps.

Is it true that divers can kiss longer? Nik Linder and his wife Bianka were out to break their own world Guiness record in underwater kissing for 12 minutes and 19 seconds. The two run the Diving Center Freiburg.

GLACIAL WHISPERS (Satis Shroff) - Literary Fiction Poetry - poverty, hinduism, himalayan

GLACIAL WHISPERS (Satis Shroff) - Literary Fiction Poetry - poverty, hinduism, himalayan

The Promise of Shangri La (Satis Shroff, Freiburg-Kappel) - Poetry Poetry - heaven, goal, longing

The Promise of Shangri La (Satis Shroff, Freiburg-Kappel) - Poetry Poetry - heaven, goal, longing

Bookreview: Irene NemirovskyFire in the Blood - Literary Fiction Book Review -

Bookreview: Irene NemirovskyFire in the Blood - Literary Fiction Book Review -

The European Environment and Freiburg (Satis Shroff)

Die European Environment Foundation (Satis Shroff)

Die European Environment Foundation wurde im Herbst 2011 gegründet. Ziel dieser nach Schweizer Recht registrierten Stiftung ist es, den Dialog aller Disziplinen der Umweltpolitik der europäischen Staaten zu fördern, ihnen Impulse zu geben und einen positiv begleitenden, vertrauensbildenden, kommunikationsfördernden und forschungsanregenden Austausch in Europa anzustoßen. Zwölf namhafte Persönlichkeiten der internationalen Umweltbewegung konnten als Kuratoren der Stiftung gewonnen werden. Den Kuratoriumsvorsitz hat Prof. Eicke R. Weber, Leiter des Fraunhofer Instituts für solare Energiesysteme ISE, inne. Gründer der Stiftung sind Bernd Dallmann,Geschäftsführer der Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co.KG (FWTM), und Rolf Hiller, Mitbegründer der FHE Windkraft GmbH und der STP Windkraft GmbH.

Mit 600 Milliarden US-Dollar den Wandel schaffen

Freiburger Konvent fordert vergleichbare Pro-Kopf-Werte bei Energie, Emissionen, Wasser, Flächen- und Ressourcenverbrauch 63 Umweltpreisträger aus 37 Nationen unterzeichneten heute beim ersten Internationalen Umweltkonvent in Freiburg zum Jahrestag von Fukushima einen dringenden Appell an die UN-Nachhaltigkeitskonferenz in Rio de Janeiro. Sie werden sich in Zukunft jährlich in Freiburg treffen, um den Fortschritt in diesen Fragen zu verfolgen und positive Beispiele des Wandels aufzuzeigen, um den Innovationsprozess voranzubringen.

Freiburg, 10. März 2012 – Der Freiburger Appell zum Handeln enthält 63 Unterschriften von Umweltpreisträgern aus aller Welt. Sie alle waren nach Freiburg gekommen, um im Konzerthaus beim ersten Umweltkonvent der „European Environment Foundation“ eine gemeinsame Erklärung abzugeben – im Vorfeld der im Juni in Rio de Janeiro stattfindenden Konferenz der Vereinten Nationen über nachhaltige Entwicklung.

In der Erklärung mit dem Titel „Freiburg Call for Action - Declaration on Rio+20 of International Environmental Laureates“ formulierten die 63 Umweltpreisträger in einer Acht-Punkte-Resolution folgende Forderungen:

Unter der Überschrift „Pioneers of change“ werden die Handenden auf allen Ebenen der Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft aufgefordert, „Pioniere des Wandels“ und erfolgreicher Innovationen zu werden. Unter „Global Budgets“ wird die globale Mittelverteilung und Ausrichtung internationaler Programme und Vereinbarungen mit dem Ziel der einheitlichen Pro-Kopf-Werte bei Energie, Emissionen, Wasser sowie Flächen- und Ressourcenverbrauch gefordert. In der Rubrik „Green Economy“ wird gesagt, dass die Marktwirtschaft die flexibelste und erfolgreichste Wirtschaftsform ist. Sie bedarf jedoch klarer staatlicher und internationaler Rahmenbedingungen: Einbeziehung externer Umwelt- und Gesundheitskosten (Verursacherprinzip), konsequente Berücksichtigung des Vorsorgeprinzips, Abbau umweltschädigender Subventionen, Förderung nachhaltiger Technologien, Beschränkung der Geldwirtschaft auf ihre traditionelle Aufgabe und das Verbot der Spekulation auf Rohstoffe und Kurs-Entwicklungen sowie die Einführung einer Tobin-Steuer auf Finanztransaktionen.

Bei „Sicherung der Welternährung“ fordern die Autoren u.a. die Modernisierung der Subsistenzlandwirtschaft, die primär der Eigenversorgung dient und damit außerhalb des monetären Kreislaufs einer Volkswirtschaft bleibt, den Abbau der ungleichen Landverteilung und die Nutzung von Biomasse nur soweit, wie sie nicht mit der Ernährung von Menschen konkurriert. Im Abschnitt „Förderung nachhaltiger Technologien und Technologietransfer“ liegt der Fokus auf den Zielen Energieeffizienz, erneuerbare Energien, Ressourceneffizienz, nachhaltiger Lebensmittelversorgung sowie der Verzicht auf Risikotechnologien wie Atomkraft und Gentechnik. Als positives Beispiel wird die Photovoltaik genannt: Sie ist global einsetzbar, netzunabhängig, verursacht keine Brennstoffkosten. „Stopp der Vernichtung natürlicher Ressourcen“ heißt es in einem weiteren Absatz. Hier sagen die Unterzeichner, dass die Vernichtung von Wald und der Verlust landwirtschaftlicher Flächen mittlerweile dramatische Auswirkungen hat. Ein „Wiederaufbau“ dieser Ressourcen ist kaum möglich. Im Abschnitt „Green Security Finanzierungsprogramm“ fordern die Preisträger ein Budget in Höhe der Hälfte zur Finanzierung nachhaltiger Maßnahmen. Am Schluss der Deklaration fordern die 63 Umweltpreisträger „Reformen der UN im Bereich Umwelt/Nachhaltigkeit“. Der internationale Umweltschutz und nachhaltige Entwicklungen, so die Unterzeichner, müssen in den Vereinten Nationen einen vergleichbaren Rang wie etwa die Gesundheits-, Ernährungs- oder Arbeitspolitik bekommen.

Die European Environment Foundation wurde im Herbst 2011 gegründet. Ziel dieser nach Schweizer Recht registrierten Stiftung ist es, den Dialog aller Disziplinen der Umweltpolitik der europäischen Staaten zu fördern, ihnen Impulse zu geben und einen positiv begleitenden, vertrauensbildenden, kommunikationsfördernden und forschungsanregenden Austausch in Europa anzustoßen. Zwölf namhafte Persönlichkeiten der internationalen Umweltbewegung konnten als Kuratoren der Stiftung gewonnen werden. Den Kuratoriumsvorsitz hat Prof. Eicke R. Weber, Leiter des Fraunhofer Instituts für solare Energiesysteme ISE, inne. Gründer der Stiftung sind Bernd Dallmann,Geschäftsführer der Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co.KG (FWTM), und Rolf Hiller, Mitbegründer der FHE Windkraft GmbH und der STP Windkraft GmbH.

Rural Excellence Journalism Award (Satis Shroff)

PRESS PELEASE 

Applications Open for Badri-Kul Rural Excellence Journalism Award by Nepal-America Journalists Association (NEAJA)  
 
Kathmandu, February 23, 2012- Applications are open for the Badri-Kul Rural Excellence Journalism Award instituted by the Nepal-America Journalists Association (NEAJA) to honor a journalist or a media organization exclusively devoted to economic, social and cultural reform in rural areas and playing important role in mass awareness.
 
The award of NRs. 1,11,111.11 was established by NEAJA last year.
 
The application process in Nepal is being coordinated by Media Foundation (MF). Applications should arrive at the MF office, Shanti Marg, Bhatbhateni 40, PO Box 9824, Kathmandu by March 15, 2012. Details on the application process are available on the MF Website at www.media-foundation.org.
 
The NEAJA award committee will select the final winner from among three names recommended by the selection committee in Nepal.
 
The award will be given in the first week of May 2012 during the third NEAJA general convention in New York.

Badri-Kul Rural Excellence Journalism Award

It is our pleasure to inform you that we are now receiving applications for the first Nepal America Journalists’ Association Badri-Kul Memorial Rural Excellence Journalism Award (NMEA)-2011. This award is exclusively dedicated to those journalists or non-profit media institutions that have made significant contribution to rural journalism in Nepal. The total reward purse for the award is NRs.1,11,111.11. The award will be presented to the winner during the third General Convention of NEAJA to be held on the first weekend of May 2012 in New York.

Following are the guidelines for the applicants to be eligible for the Award:

1. Award recipient must be a Nepali citizen.

2. News media or the non-profit media organization (herein referred to as institution) applying for the award must be registered with the Nepal Government.

3. Such Institutions should be based and be working in rural areas (outside Kathmandu valley and other major townships) of Nepal.

4. Applicant should not be the member of any political party, and the institution must not be affiliated with any political party.

5. If applicant is an individual journalist his/her articles or audio/visual news reports must be published or broadcast through the media between January 1st of 2011 and December 31, 2011. This may not apply for non-profit organizations. However, such institutions may include their progress reports of the year 2011 while submitting their applications for the award.

6. The Award will go to an individual journalist or journalists or an institution whose works must have a direct impact to the socio-economic sector (including but not limited to education, health, agriculture, technology, environment, business and industries, and other imperative social issues) of rural areas of Nepal and must have helped uplift the life of people in those areas.

7. NMEA Award winner/s will be announced by March 30, 2012. The NMEA award winning journalist/s or institution will be notified formally and would be pursued for Visa to the USA. However, the winner should commit to NEAJA that he/she would return to Nepal before the expiry of the VISA.

8. Please send in your application letter along with your resume, progress reports (for institution), or three news samples published or broadcast between January 1st 2011 and December 31, 2011, and a brief note (not more than 500 words) outlining what impact your news pieces had on the community you covered and how the issues were addressed or resolved, by January 30, 2012 to:

Media Foundation Nepal, Email: info@media-foundation.org, 2 Shanti marga, Bhatbhateni 40, P. O. Box: 9824, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Review: The Inheritance of Loss (Satis Shroff)

'My characters are purely fictional,' says Kiran Desai. In her book (The Inheritance of Loss) she has tried to do exactly that, namely to capture her own knowledge about what it means to travel between East and West, and to examine the lives of migrants who are forced to hypocrisy, angst of being nabbed, and have biographies that have gaps, and whose lives are constructed with lies, where trust and faith in someone is impossible, as in the case of Sai and Gyan.

Migration is a sword with sharp blades on both sides. The feeling of loss when one leaves one'smatribhumi is just as intensive and dreadful as having to leave a foreign home, due to deportation, when one doesn't have the green-card or Aufenthaltserlaubnis. Everyone copes with such situations differently. Some don't have coping solutions and it becomes a traumatic experience for the rest of one's life. Some pull up their socks, keep a stiff upper-lip and begin elsewhere.

The problem of illegal migration hasn't been solved in the USA, Britain, France, Germany and other European countries. It is an open secret that the illegal migrants are used as cheap laborers according to the hire-and-fire principle, for these people belong to the underclass. In the USA it's chic to have Hispanics as baby-sitters, just as Eastern Bloc women are used by German families to do the household chores. Nepalis work under miserable conditions in India as darwans, chowkidars, cheap security personnel and the Indians have the same arrogance as the British colonialists. The judge, Lola and Noni are stereotypes, but such people do exist. It's not all fantasy. I'm sure the Gurkhas looking after photo-model Claudia Schiffer and singer Seal's house and guarding the palace of the Sultan of Brunei are well paid and contented, in comparison to other people in Nepal and the Indian sub-continent.

What does a person feel and think when he or she goes from a rich western country to the East? And what happens when a poor Indian comes to the USA (land of plenty) or Germany (Schlaraffenland)? Is there always a feeling of loss? I've been living thirty years in Germany and I have met and seen and worked with migrants with biographies from Irak, Iran, Turkey, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Kosovo, Albania, Croatia and East Bloc countries. The worst part of it is that the Germans ignored the fact that it had already become, what they call 'ein Einwanderungsland.' They thought they'd invited only guest workers after World War II, with limited stay-permits, not realizing that they'd encouraged human beings with families and emotional ties, hopes and desires of a better future in the new Heimat with for their children and their grand-children. 

Kiran Desai flashes back and forth, between Kalimpong and New York, and she uses typical clich's and Indian stereotypes that have also been promoted by Bollywood. She's just as cynical and hilarious with her descriptions of fellow Indians in the diaspora, as she is when she describes the Gorkhalis in Darjeeling. Her portrait of the Nepalis in Darjeeling is rather biased, but what can one expect from a thirty-six year old Indian woman who has been pampered in India, England and the USA? Her knowledge of Kalimpong and Darjeeling sounds theoretical and her characters don't speak Nepali. She lets them speak Hindi, because she herself didn't bother to learn Nepali during her stay in Kalimpong. The depiction of a Gorkhali world might be true, as far as poverty is concerned, but she has no idea of the rich Nepali literature (Indra Bahadur Rai, Shiva Kumar Rai, Banira Giri to name a few), and folks music in the diaspora. 

Gyan's role was overdone, especially when Sai demands that he should feel ashamed of his and his family's poverty and so-called low descent. What is Gyan? Is he a Chettri, Bahun, Rai Tamang, or even a Newar? Describing a country, landscape is one thing, but creeping into the skins of the characters is another. The Gorkha characters remain shallow, like caricatures in Bollywood films, and she overdoes it with the dialogue between Sai and Gyan. 

For someone like me, who also went to school in Darjeeling, Kiran Desai's book was a pleasant journey into the past, where I still have fond memories of the Darjeeling Nepalis, their struggle for recognition and dignity among the peoples of the vast Indian subcontinent. I'm glad that peace prevails in the Darjeeling district, although I wish Subash Ghising had negotiated more funds from the central Indian government, and a university in Darjeeling. Gangtok (Sikkim) also does not have a university. The recognition of Nepali was a positive factor, but a university each for Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong would have given more Nepalis (pardon, Gorkhalis) the opportunity for higher education and better jobs, if not in the country, then abroad. To eat dal-bhat-tarkari at home and acquire MAs and PhDs within one's familiar confines would have immensely helped the Gorkhali men and women, even more than the recognition of Nepali. We can regard it as a small step towards progress. 

The description of Gyan's visit to Kathmandu was extremely superficial. Kathmandu is a world, a cosmos in itself, with its exquisite temples and pagodas and stupas and the culturally rich Newaris families from Lalitpur, Bhadgaon and Kathmandu.

Kiran is, and remains, a supercilious brown-memsahib, like the made-over English characters of Varindra Tarzie Vittachi's fiercely satirical book 'The Brown Sahibs' in her attitude towards Gorkhalis and the downtrodden of her own country. I can imagine that the Nepali author D.B. Gurung is piqued about Desai's portrayal of the Nepalis in Kalimpong as 'crook, dupe, cheat and lesser humans' and his own emotional rejoinder regarding the Bengalis as 'the hungry jackals from the plains of Calcutta.' Since D.B. Gurung is known for his poetic vein, perhaps he can treat the long standing problems between Indians and Nepalis, or as Desai puts it, Bengis and Neps, in his lyrical verses. But please, less of the vitriol and more of tolerance, because even a poet and novelist can make or break human relations. I, for my part, am for living together, despite our differences, for variety is the spice of life in these days of globalization. Vive la difference. 

The story is served like a MacDonald's Big Mac for the modern reader, who has not much time, and there are multi-media distractions craving for his or her attention. As small morsels of information, like in a sit-com. I found the story-pace well timed and interesting, and she has a broad palette of problems that migrants face when they leave their homes, and when they return home. You can feel with Bijhu when he embraces his Papa in the end. A foreign-returned son, stripped of all his belongings. It was a terrific metaphor. I'm glad that there are women like Kiran Desai and Monica Ali (Brick Lane) who've traveled and experienced what it is like to be in the diaspora and try to capture the emotional and historical patterns in their lives as migrants. 

When you read the last page of the Desai's book you feel a bit dissatisfied because you wish that the unequal love affair between Gyan and Sai will go on and take a positive turn. There are so many Nepali-Indian couples who live happy conjugal lives with their families. I know at least three cases of Nepali women who're married to Bengalis. The Nepali women speak perfect Bengali, but their husbands don't speak Nepali, even though they live in Gorkhaland. They are proud that they can speak English instead. Nepali (Gorkhali or Khas Kura) is such a colorful and melodious language and we ought to listen to Sir Ralph Turner's when he says: 'Do not let your lovely language become the pale reflexion of a sanskritised Hindi.'

Dinesh Kafle calls Desai 'schizophrenic.' Well, when you talk with an Indian he always praises the achievements of India in terms of the second Silicon Valley (Bangalore), the Agni and Prithvi missiles, the increasing nuclear arsenal, the expanding armed forces etcetera. But, Gott sei dank, there are Indians, who like Gandhi, are humble, religious, practice humility, are poor, deprived, castless, untouchables and, nevertheless, human and full of empathy, clean in their souls and hearts, and regard this world as merely a maya, an illusion, an earthly spectacle to be seen and felt---without being attached. D. B. Gurung is wrong when he assumes that Desai seems 'unable to acclimatize herself to either the western milieu or her own home.' But where is her home? She's a rootless, creative jet-set gypsy, who calls India, England and USA her home. The gypsies (Sintis and Romas) were originally from India (Rajasthan), weren't they? 

Even V.S.Naipaul (Half a Life, The Mimic Men), J. M. Croatzee (Youth), Isabel Allende (The Stories of Eva Luna) and Prafulla Mohanti (Through Brown Eyes) haven't gone so far in their description of a race or nation the way Desai has in her book. What is missing in her writing is the intercultural competence. Instead of taking the trouble to learn Nepali and acquiring background knowledge about the tradition, religion, norms and values, culture and living style of the Gorkhalis in Darjeeling and the Nepalese in Nepal, and comparing it with her own Indian culture, and trying to seek what is common between the two cultures and moving towards peace, tolerance, reconciliation---she just remains adamant , like her protagonist Sai. She does not make an ethnic reflection, but goes on and on, with a jaundiced view, till the bitter end. The dialogue between Neps and Bengis, between Neps and other Indians (Beharis and Marwaris and others from the plains) or between the British and Indians cannot be described as successful intercultural dialogues. The dialogues are carried out the way it should not, because there's always a fear that one is different in terms of social and ethnic status, even between her two main protagonists: Sai and Gyan. There is no attempt to reveal the facts behind an alien in a new cultural environment, no accepting of the problems of identity and no engagement for equality and against discrimination.

If you're looking for frustrations-tolerance, empathy and solidarity with the Gorkhalis in the book, it's just not there. The characters necessary for intercultural interaction are joy in interaction with foreign cultures (not arrogance and egoism), consciousness of one's own culture, stress tolerance, tolerance of ambiguity, and bucketfuls of empathy. Had she shown empathy towards the Nepalis from Darjeeling and Kalimpong and made a happy-end love story between Gyan and Sai, the Nepalese would have greeted her with khadas and marigold malas. The way it is, she has only stirred a hornet's nest. Kiran just doesn't have empathy for Neps, despite the Booker Prize. Great women are judged by the way they treat the underprivileged and downtrodden. With 36 years, it's time for meditation and self-searching in Rishikesh, like the Beatles, I suppose.