This evening I decided to ride home through the woods and over the fields - instead of cycling besides the streets - in order to come down from a long working day. I passed an old barn in the middle of nowhere. Last year in autumn I read an advertisement on this barn's door: reserve your St. Martin's goose now! Today there I saw a huge enclosement with some dozens of geese eating, walking over the green grass or just lying in the evening sun.
As I am a vegetarian and I really love animals, my first though was: Damn! Those poor geese won't live to see this winter or next spring. Not considering reality for a moment I really wanted to save them... perhaps by buying all the future St. Martin's roast geese until they are still alive. But where to keep a bunch of goose?
The second thought was then: these geese are somehow lucky - compared to other geese vegetating in narrow, dirty boxes perhaps even fattened in order to kill them soon to produce foie gras. Compared to them those geese I saw have a short but species-appropriate life.
And in my point of view this goose story is only an example of so many things in life that have two sides: a sad one and a lucky one. A serious and an easy one. - The art is to recognise both and to decide which one is the more powerful for oneself.
Do you have any thoughts on this topic you want to share?
Showing posts with label the world. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the world. Show all posts
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
An anecdote about the German post system
Yesterday I went to the local post office in order to send a registered mail to a lockbox. Nothing thrilling so far....
... but: the lockbox of the receiver is in the same town where I posted the letter, more precisely: it is in the room right next to the post office.
So, while paying the postage I pointed out that the letter is addressed to a lockbox in the same town... and if it may be possible to transfer it right into the lockbox standing behind the next wall. Unfortunately it wasn't!
As it was not too urgent, I decided to track the letter via internet instead of starting to argue with the post office clerk. This morning, I did not trust my own eyes: our good, old, unbelievable flexible, efficient and eco-friendly German post system transferred the letter to the "next" logistics center (which is round about 30km away) and back just for dropping the letter into the lockbox... only 5 steps away. This nearly made me lost for words!
... but: the lockbox of the receiver is in the same town where I posted the letter, more precisely: it is in the room right next to the post office.
So, while paying the postage I pointed out that the letter is addressed to a lockbox in the same town... and if it may be possible to transfer it right into the lockbox standing behind the next wall. Unfortunately it wasn't!
As it was not too urgent, I decided to track the letter via internet instead of starting to argue with the post office clerk. This morning, I did not trust my own eyes: our good, old, unbelievable flexible, efficient and eco-friendly German post system transferred the letter to the "next" logistics center (which is round about 30km away) and back just for dropping the letter into the lockbox... only 5 steps away. This nearly made me lost for words!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
As there is so much about Iran, the protest and ...
... especially Neda on the news and in the web these days, I thought about writing... or not writing about it again here.
But the article I read yesterday on spiegel (a german news magazine) led me to the blog of my favorite writer, Paulo Coelho. There he shows the BBC's interview with Arash Hejazi, the man who tried to rescue Neda when she was shot. Coelho recognised Hejazi in the first video of neda that was on the web and contacted him by e-mail.
As this interview was so touching, I really had to tell someone about it - to spread that piece of information! I have so much respect for those two people, communicating to the world what Coelho saw the Hejazi went through. Hopefully this courage will somehow have a positive effect for the people in Iran.
But the article I read yesterday on spiegel (a german news magazine) led me to the blog of my favorite writer, Paulo Coelho. There he shows the BBC's interview with Arash Hejazi, the man who tried to rescue Neda when she was shot. Coelho recognised Hejazi in the first video of neda that was on the web and contacted him by e-mail.
As this interview was so touching, I really had to tell someone about it - to spread that piece of information! I have so much respect for those two people, communicating to the world what Coelho saw the Hejazi went through. Hopefully this courage will somehow have a positive effect for the people in Iran.
Friday, January 30, 2009
"Don't work, just sell your soul" or "terror theme park for managers"
A 24 year old british guy wanted to sell his soul on ebay [EN] in order to make money without really working for it. While reading this I really had to look in my calendar twice just to make sure that I didn't miss April 1st. Damn, it's January 30th! But this article was not enough.
The other topic that hit my eye is about the World Economic Forum in Davos. There the UNO provides a kind of special entertainment for managers: a terror theme park where the managers can get a slight feeling of being taken hostage, walking through a (simulated) mine field or living in a tent for refugees. I think it is macabre seeing those people e.g. sitting in a tent for refugees - wealthy, well-dressed and healthy people voluntarily playing refugees for some minutes. On the other side there are poor, haggard and often ill people who are really refugees. They are sitting in the same tents for weeks, months or even years with no alternative. For me that's embarrassing. And sometimes I ask myself, how crazy the world will get at all. How about you? What do you think about these news, especially the second one?
The other topic that hit my eye is about the World Economic Forum in Davos. There the UNO provides a kind of special entertainment for managers: a terror theme park where the managers can get a slight feeling of being taken hostage, walking through a (simulated) mine field or living in a tent for refugees. I think it is macabre seeing those people e.g. sitting in a tent for refugees - wealthy, well-dressed and healthy people voluntarily playing refugees for some minutes. On the other side there are poor, haggard and often ill people who are really refugees. They are sitting in the same tents for weeks, months or even years with no alternative. For me that's embarrassing. And sometimes I ask myself, how crazy the world will get at all. How about you? What do you think about these news, especially the second one?
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