Religious Diversity

After a long time I write again, also because some people mentioned that I haven't been writing for a long time.

When I was still in Prague, one day I left the building of the Philosophical Faculty -- and outside there stood a huge Chanukiyah (the candle holder for the 8 resp. 9 Chanukah candles). It must have been between December 16 and December 23, 2006, because then was Chanukah 5767 (Chanukah 5768 will be December 5 to December 8, 2007, if I got everything right).

I have never ever before seen publicly installed a sign for religious holidays other than Christian ones. Doing this means to acknowledge that there is more than one religion practiced in (our) society. And that means to acknowledge reality instead of saying things like, "cathedrals have to be higher than mosques." ("Bei aller Toleranz -- Kathedralen müssen größer sein als Moscheen" -- sound bite Edmund Stoiber, former minister-president of Bavaria, 09/21/2007 or sooner, see here and elsewhere; though that's not the only bullshit -- not in Frankfurt's sense -- he has been saying).

I liked this very much, because it shows that there are people with other religions than the majority and that they are part of (our) society, too. And I think that's how a society which views itself as tolerant, liberal and secular, should deal with religions: Either each is treated with ignorance, which means no trees, stars, angels, Santas and other stuff in the public sphere and publicly-paid-for X-mas and other holidays. Or each is treated with the same attentiveness, which means that we will have all the Christian gewgaw on X-mas and carnival etc., but Jewish candelabras for Chanukah and decorated streets during Ramadan and so on, too. I would prefer the latter because it means that we realize that our fellow citizens are celebrating. It shows that we are interested in them and in what's important for them. That would be much better for society as a whole than showing everybody that we want a homogeneous society even though we are always praising diversity and personal choice. That is like saying: "Don't bother us with your being different."

One problem is that this leaves us atheists out because we don't have any holidays we could celebrate. The same goes for the Pastafarians (as far as I know) because until now they don't have any holidays, either.

[2009/11/26 I got a commentary from someone to this post. But he only send a link to his blog where you can see some semi-nudes. Which is simply boring and bland. So I didn't published it.]

I won in a Prize Competition!

Today I got a prize I won in a prize competition at the Historikertag. I had already forgotten that I took part in it. The question was about the statue in the haven in Konstanz: It's the Imperia, the prostitute which during the Council of Constance has been the mistress of both the king/imperator and the pope. There is a nice book about her in czech by Antonín Polách: Mezi cisarem a papezem. But I won the german version of the book Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox, which was the basis for Oliver Stone's Film. So I probably don't need to buy an other book during my stay in Prague, for I have to finish "Mezi cisarem a papezem" and if that's done I will start with "Alexander" and I'm only here until the end of february.

Borat

Yesterday I went to the cinema to see "Borat" and I laughed a lot, though I think it only seems funny in Europe. I was a bit disappointed with the end of the film, because the jokes would apparently evoke disgust, anger and so forth. I liked the scences, where Borat discusses some topics with "decent" people and thus made them say stupid things.
Interesting is that the kazakh village from the film is actual located in Romania, a country which is preparing to enter the EC. Although the film is funny and seems to be politically on the right side, the producers are to blame for betraying the people of the romanian village Glod (see for example the article in Wikipedia).

Back from Poland: (Different) Views on European History

I'm back from Poland (Auschwitz, Krakow, salt mine Wieliczka). It was a great trip, thanks to Eva and Michal (?), and trying to come back to the Czech Republik was a real, funny adventure.
It was interesting how other nations are looking at the same history: We are together in the EC, we are neighbours, but how we assess certain events etc., what we think crucial is rather different. I like to comment on some things that struck me.
On Friday, the 24th of November, we arrived at Auschwitz and had a guided tour through the two (part) camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau (more about Auschwitz). Our tour guide was very good and it was interesting to see Auschwitz through the eyes of a member of the victims of the Germans (in this case Polish). In Germany the answer to the question how much the german people could have known is often or (nearly) all the time that they haven't and couldn't have known anything. In Poland the answers is they could have and they should have. I think it's right that the Germans didn't know -- because they didn't wanted to. They could have known a lot more if they had started to think: There were articles in the german newspapers about the concentration camps in Germany. These surely didn't tell everything, though enough for one who knew the Nazis -- and every German knew the Nazis. The Germans knew what happend to the Nazis' opponents, they knew that it was the Nazis (or their forerunners) that started the terror in the Weimar Republic. Saying one couldn't have known is a lie. It's right that one couldn't have known everything, but one could have known enough (my grandfather for example read "Mein Kampf" before 1933 and said, that Hitler wants war).
What else struck me was that in the salt mine the guide said, that in Poland Pilsudski is a national hero whereas in other countries (not only in Germany) he is regarded as autocratic. I will and can not evaluate this, it's just something I noticed.
There was an other point that showed how different the same event appears to the different people: the new (german) pope. I learned that for (some) people it was -- and is -- a real problem that Josef Ratzinger has been a member of the Hitlerjugend. The discussion about this took in Germany not very long whereas it seems to be still prevailing for example in Poland (but I can't say this for sure because I have been there only for a very short time). May be it's because we think different about what it meant or why one has been in the Hitlerjugend. If one doesn't know that being in the Hitlerjugend was compulsory and not joining in could have lead to problems (like in Ratzingers case) one has to think that everyone who joined the Hitlerjugend was a staunch Nazi. I think we can compare the Hitlerjugend in this regard with the socialist youths in the former socialist countries. There may have been more people unsolicited in the Hitlerjugend than in the socialist youths but there were as well people who didn't want to but kind of had to go to the Hitlerjugend.
I don't want to show that Ratzinger is a good pope or that Germans can be pope, too; I'm not even interested in the pope as such (I don't understand why anyone thinks a pope is necessary or why anyone needs a pope); I only think one should be fair towards the person one is evaluating -- even if he/she is a/the pope.

The Sweet-hearted Czechs

A very strang "behaviour" of "THE" czech people struck me. I decided to do something good and healthy to me, so I went to a supermarket to buy some juice. BUT: Nearly every juice one can buy in a czech supermarket containes sugar. So I had to buy juice from Germany or Austria. Than I went to buy some ham. And the ham contained -- guess what -- sugar, too. There are umpteen kinds of ham there and only one of them does NOT contain sugar. I know the Czechs love sweet things and I understand that one doesn't like sour juice -- but sugar at ham?? Dear Czechs, you are nice and decent people, I love your language, you have a rich history and a rich culture. But that's no excuse for putting sugar to ham. And when you stop this, please, stop also putting sugar into juice. If one wants this stuff with sugar, he can put it there himself.

Legal Alien in Prague

After pilgrimaging to the alien's police for the third time I've been finally accepted and got a paper about it. I don't understand, why they set up alien's polices at all (not only the Czechs but the Germans and others, too), if their only job is to keep foreign people from staying legally in the particular country: If they want the people not being legal in their country why don't they just leave them alone instead of wasting their time with obliging them to spend their time with ineffective bureaucratic things. They could save so much money, which they could use so much better elsewhere.

The Arrival

After a day on the train I arrived on Tuesday 26.09.2006 in Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic, the place that will be my home for almost half a year. And here -- finally -- it's summer, in contrast to what it was like in Konstanz. I afforded a cab -- for a horrendous charge. Next time I use public transport.
I went to the students hostel, where I was to spend the first night in a 6-bed-room, where eventually stayed at least 8 persons.
Later that evening I have been invited to a nice dinner by my lessor to-be. So I found a room outside the students hostel on my first day.
The entire next day was filled with registering for the students hostel (3 hours), moving to an other room (2 beds), registering at the ministry and the university.
On 1. October I left the students hostel and moved into my own room, only 5 minutes from metro OR tram, and not a quarter of an hour walking through the dark after going a long way by metro AND tram.