click on the picture: (c) Harm
Bengen, www.harmbengen.de
Real and unreal ones.
Carpe diem!
Thursday, 11 April 2013
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Willy Brandt († 08.10.1992)
I have tried!
Listening to all this media crap today, those endless lies and all kinds of red herrings, flooded with mainstream's latest propaganda makes me reminisce about the times when politicians were leaders, thought leaders, forward thinkers that (always!) gave speeches that one had to work on; often chew on; but at all times trying to take one through the mist towards the truth.
Willy Brandt had to have his last speech read to the delegates of the SPD convention by Hans-Jochen Vogel in September 1992; the last sentence read:
„Nichts kommt von selbst. Und nur wenig ist von Dauer. Darum – besinnt Euch auf Eure Kraft und darauf, dass jede Zeit eigene Antworten will und man auf ihrer Höhe zu sein hat, wenn Gutes bewirkt werden soll.“"Nothing happens by itself. And only very little is permanent - hence, bethink your power and the fact that every time wants its own answers; and that one has to keep pace with time if good shall be done."
I very much doubt any politician in charge today has managed to keep pace with time; they all keep pace with mainstream, no doubt, with mainstream setting the standards with its alleged but confounded ideas of creating free markets for free people while it is nothing else but a bonanza for the very rich to become very richer - assisted by the many want-to-be-rich-or-at-least-part-of-it - while the huge rest falls to pieces and poverty. What a stupid idea! What a lousy way of leading. Does anybody still believe there shall good be done?
When QE was the last resort they promised to watch inflation to not kick in; now they forge statistics, fiat money every bloody day and want to deflate the currency at any price; they skim the savers, install capital controls that they will never be able to lift again but let the big ones run offshore; when offshore leaks mainstream is already there and takes its silencium. And as all do everything at the same time, in parallel, deflation is global with us all riding on the same corkscrew - no cork, though.
I have tried! is my loose translation of Mr. Brandt's words on his gravestone: Man hat sich bemüht!
I would like to add
Nichts bleibt wie es ist!
Nothing stays the same!
Carpe diem!
P.S. See below, funny, even in German (at 0.31 to 1.00): Willy Brandt's three-questions-three-one-word-answers-interview - he was offended by the fact that German TV had offered him a mere 90 seconds to talk about the first French-German Consultations, 1971, which he thought was way too short - those 90 seconds - for such an important meeting: they had had to discuss currency relations, FF/DM, by the way!
Would any of today's politicians let the chance pass to bla-bla-bla for 90 seconds!
Friday, 5 April 2013
It reeks of storm!
Do you smell it?
I do not think I do:
I really do. It rather stinks; it is going to be one of those storms described as perfect. Perfect because things are
starting to fall into place that we expected to eventually fall but not all at
once.
I could live with bad management, lousy and/or corrupt
managers being punished like it finally seems
to happen with RBS
and HBOS’ so called former
bosses. Whether in the end any of those heroes will ever really get punished -
I doubt it. See the Libor
scandal! What scandal you might ask? True: that law-breaking insolence is dealt with behind those thick curtains that
protect today’s banksters’ offices from any light; just in case Deutsche Bank and
others set up provisions,
some hundred million Euro, measurements in return reducing their tax load and buying them off. But, that
scam will end without further consequences except for them trying harder, next time.
That Offshore
Leak might be a different story; for one there is not much about that in
British media, yet * ; may be that is because there are many off-shore
paradises, money wise in this case, that speak English, some very close, and many are somehow related
to thee Queen, thee Commonwealth and thee City? Mind you, we are told it
involved 170 countries and 120.000 letterbox-companies. Mind boggling that
amount of data going back 30 years and as much as this needs to be dealt with ** –
I am afraid this could be a financial and social tsunami. What if the Queen and
the Camerons are part of this, or even Tony and George? What if Putin, Merkel,
Hollande and Berlusconi plus Sarkozy needed to be arrested and put into the
same jail cell? Well, guess somebody would notice and put Madame Merkel into
the female block.
Watch the suicide and emigrant lists of those 170 countries … and do not believe a minute that any criminal or immoral aspect of all this will be put into any bankster's basket; evil to him who evil thinks and while all banks offer sophisticated off-shore services it is the stupid customer that gets caught, eventually.
Emigration will not really help anybody to avoid that
global currency
battle, now entering an unknown dimension with Japan going berserk. As a
measurement of last resort they are printing vast, vast, vast sums of money –
mind you, that’s hitting return after punching in 12 or 15 zeros behind a 1 or a two or actually any figure and that not only once but monthly from now on – fiat money the
easiest way, ever - to buy back their own crap; recycling, snow-balling, ponzi-ing? Government bonds and then dump them in a bin, or the worst bank, if that’s
the better name for it. That is the most daring monetary experiment of modern
times as The
Telegraph titled this flooding the market with YEN; the idea is to massively devalue
the currency for exports (jobs!) to grow fast and furious, to force-inject
inflation into what is a deflating economy and hope for nobody else following
that pattern.
That’s hopeless, stupid! What BO and BSB do for the
greenback in the US, why Merkel insists on a EURO agitated by the PIIGS’ and french stress to keep it soft, DC and GO want to do in the
UK; strengthen UK exports by weakening the Pound or rather vice versa; woau! How much of that export strength is left? I
believe proper schooling, training, apprenticeships worth the title, dual
education plus on-going, extensive studies and education would do much
better! Want an example?
While discussing Passiv Haus Standard during this year’s ecobuild seminars and the installation of a MVHR, a mechanical ventilation system including heat recovery, UK experts explained coram publico that this would make things too complicated, too difficult a gadget for the average British tenant/owner to cope with.Sorry? Hellooow!? Such a system includes a ventilator and a mechanical heat exchanger controlled by three or four buttons to press – basta.
Frightening; and
insulting: why would the average middle-European be able to cope with that kind
of high tech while the British … ?
Or, this very likely is the early result of adding the word vitiosus to this circulus
of cuts and savings into schools, training, education? Next step will be to forbid knife and fork endangering the hungry!
Apropos weak: how much does a weak Pound buy? We import more
than 50% of our energy and, while you might like it cold, more than 50% of our
food! Do you like strict diets? This year we might even have to import much more, or do you see UK
potatoes growing with the coldest March on record?
Just for another record: in general terms importing means we have to pay in a foreign currency after swapping Pound into $, € or ¥ where, please note, the last stands for the YEN but also for the YUAN!
Just for another record: in general terms importing means we have to pay in a foreign currency after swapping Pound into $, € or ¥ where, please note, the last stands for the YEN but also for the YUAN!
China is boosting
its defence spending by almost 11% - this year! Obviously China has the funds,
hardly any debts and something to prepare for or against? It is also growing
its agriculture and
pumping a lot of money into renewables.
Funny, isn’t it? We are cutting any incentives, we are discussing silly bedroom taxes for the poorest and
whether to install Casinos
in Cyprus to save its economy, Merkel’s Euro and Schaeuble’s regime - while China
prepares for its future. They might not value human life as high as we are rumoured to do, but then...
Well - the
Euro! Really, I wanted to avoid that criminal rubbish; it is still alive; rather,
it is not disconnected, yet, from life supporting but until lately utterly illegal
instruments such as bad banks, bail-outs and bail-ins, and the on-going … here we are again:
money printing.
A pity they cannot print jobs. Unemployment in the EU rates
are soaring, even the official ones, the ones that lack continuity and belief:
Spain 26.3%, Portugal 17.5% Italy 11.6%, Greece 26.4%;
that’s the overall one.
But our future even looks more difficult and much darker:
Spain 55.7%, Portugal
38.2%, Italy 37.8%, Greece 58.4%, France 26.2%; the official figures for
those between 18 and 24 years old. Official! And what kind of jobs does the rest have?
Low-paid ones, un-trained ones, picking tomatoes or serving beer to poor tourists? How many of them all have gone through any
decent apprenticeship and can base their lives on the founds of a sustainable
education?
Source: www.querschuesse.de
Shows unemployment of the 18-24 in countries…
Please see Greece, Griechenland!
30% when it entered EURO-Casino!
You could call it the Euro’s unemployment bomb - until it explodes; no wonder DC
and GO think, why should they put any money and effort into a dying market of people needing
training and education?
Guess what, at least car sales show some sympathy:
Spain minus 13.9%, France minus 16.4%, Austria minus 19.9%,
Finland minus 58.6%, Germany minus 17.1, Netherlands minus 31.4, and in
addition Japan minus 16.7, Brazil minus 4.7%. So, really, how long can we be
happy and proud on headlines like UK car
sale rise for 12th consecutive month? And what is the base of
this rise, how are they paid for, those cars, and how long do they or does this
last?
Is it a coincidence that VW is creating new
jobs, outside the EU?
It becomes apparent that Mr Neo and Mrs. Lib have not only
allowed all those jobs to be exported to – mainly – China;
any kind of job machine has been given up for nothing,
for free. This is the third time I add this video… I think it should now read 2020, not
2030:
My respect, China. Age must help in becoming wiser.
While Gobi Dessert is growing steadily, 28% of Chinese
landmass is dessert-like area, anyway, and China buying all kinds of land
worldwide, we are all in for increasingly bad weathers; if you thought that
cold lately would tell us Global Warming has had it then I would recommend to
come to senses and title the problem Climate
Change. And that’s what it is.
The rate of changes multiplied by the level of ignorance in
solving any of our problems is unbelievable; we are presented with scientific results by crowds of scientists
from all over the world, they describe the problems we face, we see and in many cases feel those; we do understand most of them but we are
unwilling or incapable of addressing and solving them; or, even worse, we wilfully ignore them all for all kinds of stupid, bad and criminal reasons; that makes it
easy for the storm to become that perfect storm.
I can smell it.
I can smell it.
Carpe diem!
* … might be that they all need time; similar to
the big fish on Cyprus when Putin took two days to decide whether he would
support Cyprus or rather give his friends and soon-to-be-friends time to visit
those London branches of the Cyprus banks to sort out their accounts just in
time…
** ... we will see capital control mechanisms installed like we had them before 1985, no question.
Thursday, 21 March 2013
At last a letter...
for you George and Dick! And Tony!
A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran
To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Thomas Young
I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.
I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.
I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.
Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.
I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.
I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.
I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.
My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.
Carpe diem!
To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Thomas Young
I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.
I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.
I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.
Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.
I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.
I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.
I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.
My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.
Carpe diem!
Saturday, 17 November 2012
The Ship of Fools...
... lost and last?
The helmsman lies, the captain is fully drunk
the machinist lost in his nagging lethargy.
The crew a bunch of dirty crooks,
the radio coward too scared to morse SOS,
hobgoblin in command of this ship of fools,
full speed ahead and tack the reef1
...
Reinhard Mey – Ship of Fools – Das Narrenschiff
Mercury falls, the signs indicating storm,
Bloody diggling and nagging from the command tower
And dull grinding sounds roll from the machine.
And rolling and pounding and heavy sea,
The on board the chapel plays "Humbataeterae",
And a mad laughter penetrates from the latrine.
The charge is putridly, the papers fictitious,
The bilge pumps leaky and the section walls blocked,
The hatches far open and all alarm bells ring.
The waves hit head high in the loading bay
And St Elms fire licks from the bay deck,
Yet nobody on board can read the signs!
The first mate lies, the captain is drunk
And the machinist sunk into a dull lethargy
The crew just loud perjured rascals,
The radio operator too cowardly to send an SOS
Kobolds are leading the fool's ship
Full steam ahead for the Reef!
On the horizon the signs of the time create lightning
Baseness and greed and vanity.
On the bridge numskulls gawk and romp about.
In the murky deep the sharp serrated shark fishes,
Bringing his catch in the dry, along the tax,
On the sand bank, with the well known treasure island.
The other money launderers and pimps who are already waiting
Brothel king, play machine baron,
In the bright light, nobody is to be in the darkness
In the banana republic, even the president
Has lost shame and knows no scruples,
Dresses up with the tax thief in the suite.
The first mate lies, the captain is drunk
And the machinist sunk into a dull lethargy
The crew just loud perjured rascals,
The radio operator too cowardly to send an SOS
Kobolds are leading the fool's ship
Full steam ahead for the Reef!
One has made himself smooth, one has positioned.
All high ideals have been damaged,
And the big rebel, who did not become too tired to argue,
Mutates to a servile, poisoned gnome
And sings lamb like devout before the bad old man in Rome
His songs, for truth: Times are changing!
Once young savages are pliant, devout and tame,
Bought, anaesthetised and wing lame,
With little velvet paws traded for the once so sharp claws.
And futile old men present perky to themselves
Always with a lot of too young women on the upper deck,
That warm their floppy limbs and spoon feed them with pre-chewed food.
The first mate lies, the captain is drunk
And the machinist sunk into a dull lethargy
The crew just loud perjured rascals,
The radio operator too cowardly to send an SOS
Kobolds are leading the fool's ship
Full steam ahead for the Reef!
They arm against the enemy, an enemy that has been here for a long time
He has his hand on your throat, standing behind you.
In protection of the paragraphs he mixes marked maps.
Everybody can see it, but everybody looks away,
And the shady character emerges from his hiding place
And crosses fire before all eyes in the kindergarten.
The lookout shouts from the highest mast: End of time in sight!
As petrified as they are they hear him not.
They move like lemmings in mindless hordes.
It is, as if all have lost their minds,
Itself to the fall and to the purge committed,
And a willo' the wisp became their beacon.
The first mate lies, the captain is drunk
And the machinist sunk into a dull lethargy
The crew just loud perjured rascals,
The radio operator too cowardly to send an SOS
Kobolds are leading the fool's ship
Full steam ahead for the Reef!
Here the German original: Das Narrenschiff
Das Quecksilber fällt, die Zeichen stehen auf Sturm,
nur blödes Kichern und Keifen vom Kommandoturm
und ein dumpfes Mahlen grollt aus der Maschine.
Und rollen und Stampfen und schwere See,
die Bordkapelle spielt „Humbatäterä",
und ein irres Lachen dringt aus der Latrine.
Die Ladung ist faul, die Papiere fingiert,d
die Lenzpumpen leck und die Schotten blockiert,
die Luken weit offen und alle Alarmglocken läuten.
Die Seen schlagen mannshoch in den Laderaum
und Elmsfeuer züngeln vom Ladebaum,
doch keiner an Bord vermag die Zeichen zu deuten!
Der Steuermann lügt, der Kapitän ist betrunken
und der Maschinist in dumpfe Lethargie versunken,
die Mannschaft lauter meineidige Halunken,
der Funker zu feig' um SOS zu funken.
Klabautermann führt das Narrenschiff
volle Fahrt voraus und Kurs auf's Riff.
Am Horizont wetterleuchten die Zeichen der Zeit:
Niedertracht und Raffsucht und Eitelkeit.
Auf der Brücke tummeln sich Tölpel und Einfaltspinsel.
Im Trüben fischt der scharfgezahnte Hai,
bringt seinen Fang ins Trockne, an der Steuer vorbei,
auf die Sandbank, bei der wohlbekannten Schatzinsel.
Die andern Zuhälter und Geldwäscher, die warten schon,
Bordellkönig, Spielautomatenbaron,
im hellen Licht, niemand muß sich im Dunkeln rumdrücken
in der Bananenrepublik, wo selbst der Präsident
die Scham verloren hat und keine Skrupel kennt,
sich mit dem Steuerdieb im Gefolge zu schmücken.
Der Steuermann lügt, der Kapitän ist betrunken
und der Maschinist in dumpfe Lethargie versunken,
die Mannschaft lauter meineidige Halunken,
der Funker zu feig' um SOS zu funken.
Klabautermann führt das Narrenschiff
volle Fahrt voraus und Kurs auf's Riff.
Man hat sich glatt gemacht, man hat sich arrangiert.
All die hohen Ideale sind havariert,
und der große Rebell, der nicht müd' wurde zu streiten,
mutiert zu einem servilen, gift'gen Gnom
und singt lammfromm vor dem schlimmen alten Mann in Rom
seine Lieder, fürwahr: Es ändern sich die Zeiten!
Einst junge Wilde sind gefügig, fromm und zahm,
gekauft, narkotisiert und flügellahm,
tauschen Samtpfötchen für die einst so scharfen Klauen.
Und eitle Greise präsentier'n sich keck
mit immer viel zu jungen Frauen auf dem Oberdeck,
die ihre schlaffen Glieder wärmen und ihnen das Essen vorkauen.
Der Steuermann lügt, der Kapitän ist betrunken
und der Maschinist in dumpfe Lethargie versunken,
die Mannschaft lauter meineidige Halunken,
der Funker zu feig' um SOS zu funken.
Klabautermann führt das Narrenschiff
volle Fahrt voraus und Kurs auf's Riff.
Sie rüsten gegen den Feind, doch der Feind ist längst hier.
Er hat die Hand an deiner Gurgel, er steht hinter dir.
Im Schutz der Paragraphen mischt er die gezinkten Karten.
Jeder kann es sehen, aber alle sehen weg,
und der Dunkelmann kommt aus seinem Versteck
und dealt unter aller Augen vor dem Kindergarten.
Der Ausguck ruft vom höchsten Mast: Endzeit in Sicht!
Doch sie sind wie versteinert und sie hören ihn nicht.
Sie zieh'n wie Lemminge in willenlosen Horden.
Es ist, als hätten alle den Verstand verlor'n,
sich zum Niedergang und zum Verfall verschwor'n,
und ein Irrlicht ist ihr Leuchtfeuer geworden.
Der Steuermann lügt, der Kapitän ist betrunken
und der Maschinist in dumpfe Lethargie versunken,
die Mannschaft lauter meineidige Halunken,
der Funker zu feig' um SOS zu funken.
Klabautermann führt das Narrenschiff
volle Fahrt voraus und Kurs auf's Riff.
Carpe diem!
I am sorry for those of you who do not understand German; you would be listening to a precise description of us fools on one of those lost last ships...
The helmsman lies, the captain is fully drunk
the machinist lost in his nagging lethargy.
The crew a bunch of dirty crooks,
the radio coward too scared to morse SOS,
hobgoblin in command of this ship of fools,
full speed ahead and tack the reef1
...
Found this translation in the web, admitted, it is not an easy task to put Reinhard Mey's verses following his message into another language:
Reinhard Mey – Ship of Fools – Das Narrenschiff
Mercury falls, the signs indicating storm,
Bloody diggling and nagging from the command tower
And dull grinding sounds roll from the machine.
And rolling and pounding and heavy sea,
The on board the chapel plays "Humbataeterae",
And a mad laughter penetrates from the latrine.
The charge is putridly, the papers fictitious,
The bilge pumps leaky and the section walls blocked,
The hatches far open and all alarm bells ring.
The waves hit head high in the loading bay
And St Elms fire licks from the bay deck,
Yet nobody on board can read the signs!
The first mate lies, the captain is drunk
And the machinist sunk into a dull lethargy
The crew just loud perjured rascals,
The radio operator too cowardly to send an SOS
Kobolds are leading the fool's ship
Full steam ahead for the Reef!
On the horizon the signs of the time create lightning
Baseness and greed and vanity.
On the bridge numskulls gawk and romp about.
In the murky deep the sharp serrated shark fishes,
Bringing his catch in the dry, along the tax,
On the sand bank, with the well known treasure island.
The other money launderers and pimps who are already waiting
Brothel king, play machine baron,
In the bright light, nobody is to be in the darkness
In the banana republic, even the president
Has lost shame and knows no scruples,
Dresses up with the tax thief in the suite.
The first mate lies, the captain is drunk
And the machinist sunk into a dull lethargy
The crew just loud perjured rascals,
The radio operator too cowardly to send an SOS
Kobolds are leading the fool's ship
Full steam ahead for the Reef!
One has made himself smooth, one has positioned.
All high ideals have been damaged,
And the big rebel, who did not become too tired to argue,
Mutates to a servile, poisoned gnome
And sings lamb like devout before the bad old man in Rome
His songs, for truth: Times are changing!
Once young savages are pliant, devout and tame,
Bought, anaesthetised and wing lame,
With little velvet paws traded for the once so sharp claws.
And futile old men present perky to themselves
Always with a lot of too young women on the upper deck,
That warm their floppy limbs and spoon feed them with pre-chewed food.
The first mate lies, the captain is drunk
And the machinist sunk into a dull lethargy
The crew just loud perjured rascals,
The radio operator too cowardly to send an SOS
Kobolds are leading the fool's ship
Full steam ahead for the Reef!
They arm against the enemy, an enemy that has been here for a long time
He has his hand on your throat, standing behind you.
In protection of the paragraphs he mixes marked maps.
Everybody can see it, but everybody looks away,
And the shady character emerges from his hiding place
And crosses fire before all eyes in the kindergarten.
The lookout shouts from the highest mast: End of time in sight!
As petrified as they are they hear him not.
They move like lemmings in mindless hordes.
It is, as if all have lost their minds,
Itself to the fall and to the purge committed,
And a willo' the wisp became their beacon.
The first mate lies, the captain is drunk
And the machinist sunk into a dull lethargy
The crew just loud perjured rascals,
The radio operator too cowardly to send an SOS
Kobolds are leading the fool's ship
Full steam ahead for the Reef!
Here the German original: Das Narrenschiff
Das Quecksilber fällt, die Zeichen stehen auf Sturm,
nur blödes Kichern und Keifen vom Kommandoturm
und ein dumpfes Mahlen grollt aus der Maschine.
Und rollen und Stampfen und schwere See,
die Bordkapelle spielt „Humbatäterä",
und ein irres Lachen dringt aus der Latrine.
Die Ladung ist faul, die Papiere fingiert,d
die Lenzpumpen leck und die Schotten blockiert,
die Luken weit offen und alle Alarmglocken läuten.
Die Seen schlagen mannshoch in den Laderaum
und Elmsfeuer züngeln vom Ladebaum,
doch keiner an Bord vermag die Zeichen zu deuten!
Der Steuermann lügt, der Kapitän ist betrunken
und der Maschinist in dumpfe Lethargie versunken,
die Mannschaft lauter meineidige Halunken,
der Funker zu feig' um SOS zu funken.
Klabautermann führt das Narrenschiff
volle Fahrt voraus und Kurs auf's Riff.
Am Horizont wetterleuchten die Zeichen der Zeit:
Niedertracht und Raffsucht und Eitelkeit.
Auf der Brücke tummeln sich Tölpel und Einfaltspinsel.
Im Trüben fischt der scharfgezahnte Hai,
bringt seinen Fang ins Trockne, an der Steuer vorbei,
auf die Sandbank, bei der wohlbekannten Schatzinsel.
Die andern Zuhälter und Geldwäscher, die warten schon,
Bordellkönig, Spielautomatenbaron,
im hellen Licht, niemand muß sich im Dunkeln rumdrücken
in der Bananenrepublik, wo selbst der Präsident
die Scham verloren hat und keine Skrupel kennt,
sich mit dem Steuerdieb im Gefolge zu schmücken.
Der Steuermann lügt, der Kapitän ist betrunken
und der Maschinist in dumpfe Lethargie versunken,
die Mannschaft lauter meineidige Halunken,
der Funker zu feig' um SOS zu funken.
Klabautermann führt das Narrenschiff
volle Fahrt voraus und Kurs auf's Riff.
Man hat sich glatt gemacht, man hat sich arrangiert.
All die hohen Ideale sind havariert,
und der große Rebell, der nicht müd' wurde zu streiten,
mutiert zu einem servilen, gift'gen Gnom
und singt lammfromm vor dem schlimmen alten Mann in Rom
seine Lieder, fürwahr: Es ändern sich die Zeiten!
Einst junge Wilde sind gefügig, fromm und zahm,
gekauft, narkotisiert und flügellahm,
tauschen Samtpfötchen für die einst so scharfen Klauen.
Und eitle Greise präsentier'n sich keck
mit immer viel zu jungen Frauen auf dem Oberdeck,
die ihre schlaffen Glieder wärmen und ihnen das Essen vorkauen.
Der Steuermann lügt, der Kapitän ist betrunken
und der Maschinist in dumpfe Lethargie versunken,
die Mannschaft lauter meineidige Halunken,
der Funker zu feig' um SOS zu funken.
Klabautermann führt das Narrenschiff
volle Fahrt voraus und Kurs auf's Riff.
Sie rüsten gegen den Feind, doch der Feind ist längst hier.
Er hat die Hand an deiner Gurgel, er steht hinter dir.
Im Schutz der Paragraphen mischt er die gezinkten Karten.
Jeder kann es sehen, aber alle sehen weg,
und der Dunkelmann kommt aus seinem Versteck
und dealt unter aller Augen vor dem Kindergarten.
Der Ausguck ruft vom höchsten Mast: Endzeit in Sicht!
Doch sie sind wie versteinert und sie hören ihn nicht.
Sie zieh'n wie Lemminge in willenlosen Horden.
Es ist, als hätten alle den Verstand verlor'n,
sich zum Niedergang und zum Verfall verschwor'n,
und ein Irrlicht ist ihr Leuchtfeuer geworden.
Der Steuermann lügt, der Kapitän ist betrunken
und der Maschinist in dumpfe Lethargie versunken,
die Mannschaft lauter meineidige Halunken,
der Funker zu feig' um SOS zu funken.
Klabautermann führt das Narrenschiff
volle Fahrt voraus und Kurs auf's Riff.
Carpe diem!
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Passive Passion...
... a summary of what is PassivHaus
Passive Passion trailer from Charlie Hoxie on Vimeo.
You can watch the full video here.
Carpe diem!
You can watch the full video here.
Carpe diem!
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