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First Thoughts
Views on current affairs
This page is a container for my personal first thoughts on current events.
The List
- 10.12.03 | Blocher is elected
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I am excited. Christoph Blocher has been elected as "Bundesrat" today.
Please refer to my "first thought" of 19.10.03 for further comments.
Pandora's box is opened. Let's see what's coming out of it! Will Blocher stumble over his many inconsistencies? Or will he suddenly start to make sense? Will he destroy the Swiss way of subtle and slow democracy?
- 07.11.03 | The US hero Jessica Lynch tells us the truth
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Towards the official end of the war in Iraq, the US and other media have spread the great propaganda story of a heroic US soldier Jessica Lynch, who was saved from the evil Iraqis.
Today she is beginning to share her view on the events (e.g. in the NY Times). She seems to disagree on some of the relevant points that were claimed by the official US miltary media mafia...
- 31.10.03 | Update: NZZ: "Atemberaubendes Tempo der US-Wirtschaft"
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Please refer to my "first thought" on 11.09.03. The US economy is now harvesting...
Is it too simplistic of me to see a connection between the billions of US$ of investments (...into war-related industries at the expense of the national debt) and the "breathtaking Speed" of the US economy?
- 23.10.03 | China Rising
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I was told the Chinese are a very enterpreneurial and bold people.
The country currently appears in every newspaper, the economy seems to be booming, and they have sent a human into orbit. The originally communistic government seems to be loosening up their tight grip on the economy - and therefore are digging their grave.
Was Communism a lid on that hyperactive population of this vast country which is now about to be torn off?
Will the government be able to keep in control?
Will internal turmoil slow down the speed of development of China on the global Stage?
- 23.10.03 | Update: Donors' Conference in Madrid
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Please refer to step four in my "first thought" on 11.09.03. The US is now collecting the money...
- 19.10.03 | Christoph Blocher is running for Bundesrat
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Finally, the moment of truth is coming up: Christoph Blocher, SVP, is running for Bundesrat (Swiss governing council of 7 members).
I want him to be elected. Not because I share his values or politics, but because I want him to finally prove he is different from those he always and constantly complains about. For years now, he has refused to run for Bundesrat. To me, that was pure cowardice.
Though I am not sure he will actually be elected, I would love to see him taking part in real politics.
- 19.10.03 | Vote for parliament of 2003
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I am afraid this is another step away from the unique Swiss "Konkordanzpolitik" (politics of compromise - as opposed to "government/opposition").
The parties in the middle are loosing their seats in parliament to the right (SVP) and the left (SP, Grüne).
I am very curious to see where this will lead us to. New ways of handling public issues will evolve. Let's try to get a grip of it as soon as possible to get our concerns solved our way.
- 15.09.03 | WTO Meeting in Cancun - has failed!
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The World is evolving. The conference has ended without consensus.
My first thought of 10.09.03 is in effect.
Let's watch the further development!
- 11.09.03 | US vs. UN in Iraq
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This is the move intended by the US:
- Invade Iraq - without the UN's consent
- Assign all big "reconstruction projects" to American companies (especially ironic: they are pushing to build a mobile phone network based on the American, yet technically very outdated, incompatible and poor CDMA standard. Think of the consequences for all related equipment and the future possibilties for the Iraqi telecom...)
- Assign a (puppet?) government
- Tell the UN members that they should "participate" in the rebuilding efforts - by paying for the projects given to US companies!
The end result of this strategy is (besides destroying so much added value and giving a huge financial and economical boost to all the cronies in the arms industry) a great stream of money flowing from other countries into the US economy.
In discussions, this has been my assumption for several months now, and I was hoping I was too cynical and pessimistic. But they are actually doing it (see here for instance).
- 10.09.03 | WTO Meeting in Cancun
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I believe this WTO meeting in Cancun is more twisted than the reports and opinions suggest. I am not convinced the WTO should be abolished, as the protesters demand it.
It appears that the developing countries are starting to realize they get stronger when they join forces against the EU, Japan, and the US. So the big concern really starts to be the environmental situation, which tends to be the major looser in any economic agreement.
I hope the respective lobbies and protesters and representatives will be strong enough...
- 09.09.03 | SCO vs. Linux
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SCO is the new name of one of the companies holding copyrights on some UNIX versions. Now, they are arguing that the open source Linux code contains parts from their copyrighted UNIX. This has been going on for quite a while, yet SCO has not disclosed any proof of its case whatsoever.
What seems to be a normal lawsuit, is just another attempt by Microsoft to push away its most fearsome enemy - the open source movement. It is a fact that Microsoft has invested several millions of dollars as "license fees" to SCO.
By attracting as much publicity as possible with vague allegations, they gain the biggest impact on those they are most afraid would switch to open source - top managers who don't know much about technology, but a lot more about lawsuits. Create an atmosphere of fear, and they will not dare to move away from "safe" Microsoft.
- 08.09.03 | Bush and 87 Billions
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Today, Bush is asking for 87 Billion US$ for the war on terror.
Who is this money going to? Safety and security cannot be bought as such. These billions are going into the very pockets of real people...
- 08.09.03 (old opinion) | Udai and Qusai
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On July 22nd, 2003, the big news was the killing of Saddam Hussein's "horrible sons" Udai and Qusai.
It seems to me that not enough people have reflected on the fact that the army of one country enters another country's borders and blindly executes relatives of a former politician - albeit a dictator. No trial, no discussions. What about the idea of a constitutional state?
Be they even the most cruel human beings - as the media told me - there should still be some form of predefined process to handle them.
- 08.09.03 (old opinion) | The War in Iraq is over for Switzerland
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On April 16th, 2003, the Swiss government declared the war in Iraq as being over (see here).
Funny thing it is September 03 and American and British soldiers are still being killed, and even the US government had not declared it as over at the time.
But again, Switzerland makes money on things you need to wage wars - be it dealing with stolen gold or providing others with weapon technology.
