You do it!

You've for sure heard that things are more simple when you do this or that when it is about the -Do it yourself- thing. 

Industry has our money, now they want our time. So they created those new concept of- let the people do the work and call it  "Lifestyle". 

Ikea does it with big success. Many others too, like when you look for things to build something at home or plant in the garden. 

The spots on TV tell you it is easier and you will also keep money. 

Well the truth is, nothings is easier and you'll lose more money then you are aware of. 

Your flight is cheap, but then the hidden cost makes the fly expensive as before but then nowadays you do the most work too. You book by yourself, you check in by yourself, you print out the tickets at your home and even in hotels more and more check in by themselves. The companies tell us that all this also is going faster. But that's a lie. Just look closer how much time you spent home, waiting to leave your baggage or you even pay for not waiting to come into the plane. You have the work and the hotel, the companies will thank you for that as you spare them millions of Dollars. Yes, you even pay for the work you do. 

At the Baumarkt the handyman has to buy all the stuff to build up is house, his garage and a lot more, even the building instructions. The spots showed you how easy it is, as even kids can do it in the spot. Usually the work itself is all but easy and you maybe need also a doctor or minimum some aid as you are not a professional. There are differences between a professional and you. That's why there is division of labor. 

But we seem to not care and prefer listen to the spots we see or read in newspapers and so on. Actually this -Do it yourself- thing is not new and surprisingly still functional. 

They just got other names and other pictures and is labeled as -Lifestyle- and a -must have- thing. 

We are living in a time where everything should be updated and upgraded. All has to be on max and speeded up and be under control. As it makes your life more easy. 

Does it? Does your new watch really help you? Does it help to know how much you have to train, how your pulse is and bloodsucker? Or is this a machine controlling you? Are you the one who decide what to do in your life or is it already the industry? Many products have been made "just" for you and we give out all our data. They know next to all of us and can make us believe we want this and that. 

Why would we buy so many clothes and food which is not good for us or the nature? Why would we be blind on both eyes if not because we have been fooled. 

How then can we know, we live the way we want and are not being used to spare money, like when we celebrate a day of - let's all clean together our streets for one day- it's something good for you and for the others too, but the truth is we do work which cost a lot of money for free. We even believe we do it because of us, not because we have been told so- but sadly we have. 

How far we have come can we see as one time Nestlé had a Miao- O-Maten, an automat which gives out pet food for free, if you make a sound like a cat into the microphone. This microphone was not to reach standing up, no, you had to kneel or bow. 

Did the machine like the sound, then you got a free sample of the food. And people did. Just for a fucking sample they have been standing, sitting in dirt. That is sadomasochistic. 

But we are far into this. We buy all the products to get all the Lifestyle. We pay for each machine to be able to buy with our mobile, to sign contract with e-legitimations. Yes our mobiles are now able to check in, to show our ways and even get the blood pressure. We can do much more and we gladly buy all that we need for this and for the time and services. We are apes.

Sharing is caring is the next level. Killing jobs as we like to have things cheaper and forget what it is for, unpaid work. We share also our problems with the computers, as they come out not 100% ready and we are happy to help each other. And our computers are telling us it is our fault when something went wrong. 

So are we still free as we believe?

But even sharing has changed it's face. It means no longer I give something and enjoy my help or your joy, no it means when I give, you have to give back same or similar. It is now all about money or what things are worth. Question is, how much worth is your life in this race?

Now we have a lot of those self service. It sounds so good and just for us, for a modern human, for our short, but precious time.  

And the self service makes people happy, gives them a feeling of being strong and they get a positive feeling. Actually most don't like the self service, but that is the paradox. The perception of time is to keep in mind. Waiting for the waiter seems longer then get your meal by yourself and standing in the queue.

Another thing is the tailoring- the feeling that something is made just for you, something is special. You can e.g. choose the colour for your sport shoes and more at Nike per internet. This is work and time but people take it as an advantage. 

Actually people would prefer the machines then to wait. Why? We have the feeling of having things better under control. But is that the case? 

Do we have things under control if a machine we have installed next to our plants tells us via app what to do? Like- give me water, give me more light, give me fertilizer, need less light, it's to hot...?

Should this augured of our life not better be not in use! Things went the natural way before, why not now? 

And the idea of a smart home. Is it really that smart to have such a home? Not to mention the costs.

Critics of such are often bashed down with the words that all is free and nobody has to do it and all is for more freedom. Is it? Are we that free to do as we want in this upgrading world? Can we stay spontaneous? Is it not already that our every day life is planed by the world around us? The products we buy are more and more special and set us more and more in dependence and slavery. 

I believe it is time we talk about this before we do the next step in upgrading. 

Let's look closer what really is helpful and what is a hidden way to control us and make us the way the industry and politic wants us to have. Before we become machines without being aware of that, I believe we should wake up. 

Love & light

Why are disabled still second class?

How come disabled people are still second class people? 

Just now in Great Britain politic decided to cut the weekly money transfer to help survive the dayly life, with 30 Pounds. 

In Germany the AfD, a fashist party, now being more and more part of politic has in its agenda the cut of nearly all help for disabled people and want them also in prison if they are hard to handle like when they have a mental illness. 

Why is it that people think you must be stupid or not healthy in your mind when it is about people with MS and other body diseases or when they sit in a wheelchair because they maybe had an accident? Why is there still so less understanding about dementia?

I know long time ago, like hundred years ago, human kind did not knew better, but today, we should. Especially in the western world. How many science do you need to believe that? How many great examples do you need? I mean take Beethoven, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, John Nash or Hawking.... and all those around you... you mostly don't see or only on youtube maybe.

Why then so many think a disabled man can't be part of society? Why do so many think they can't work or help or even teach us a thing or two?

They are not lazy, they do not need some extra, they don't want something special, they just want the same as you. A life, respect and being part of all of us. 

Even when they need a lot of help, they help us to learn much about ourself. To be calm, to trust, to see and understand, to feel and not forget how vulnerable we are and that sometimes those "sick" people are stronger then the healthy one.  

Most of those disabled people would like to live on their own and have enough money so the need for extra help would be not necessary. But as it is because they are second hand people, they have less chances to learn proberly, to work the way they could and so they earn as less as possible. 

I remember very well that in the GDR (East Germany) disabled people got not many jobs to do. A human who had hearing problems got the choice of 20 different jobs and all but one was to work at a machine and do each day the same two task. 

If you could only understand that they can more then you let them, they would give. 

Yes there are those who will always be in need of someone to watch over them. 

But we are humans. What makes us better if we do not cherish our weak parts. We are all worth the same. We should all know that but we don't. 

I believe it is our duty to help the disabled people as a society. Then we would also watch our language more as we often use words wich discriminate the disbabled, as those words classify them worth less, sometimes worth nothing. 

Isn't it all a point of view? A man who is heard of hearing can work as good as you do, maybe even better, but that human is not at all automatically stupid, just because he hears less. A mental ill can produce dishes good as anyone else. Why then give them not a chance? Why do we already give the disabled children the feeling of being an outsider, not much worth and give them a much lesser chance? Yes, it all starts there. 

I am not saying we should take them as china and do all to compromise the illness. I believe that disabled people have to also go into the crowd and try to come in (not meaning: fit it). 

As a human hard of hearing by myself I know I can try to tell people to speak more clearly, or just more slow, but I know in the everyday life I have to expect that they don't do, as simple many forget, so I have to find a way to connect and if needed I must tell them, must please them to say things again or different. 

Disabled people are not helpless, if you teach them that they can do more then they believed.  

I say this as many parents of disabled children are a reason why they are quite helpless alone. My mother always thought me to do the things by myself. She sad, if you want it, then go ahead, find a way, just do. If you fail after all, then I can take a look and maybe help out. 

I am very grateful for that.

And by the way, a disabled person may be strong but if someone tells us in a negative way or just in fun why we can't what we can't, it hurts. 

It's like when I don't understand a second or third time, I get to hear like- what's wrong, are you hearing badder, is your aid off... but I simple do not understand sometimes and it's not my fault and so yes it hurts, it's a weak part as I feel disqualified, thought I know people don't mean that rude or mean. But it hurts.

That's the same with people who have dementia. They get hurt when you talk to them that way and when you believe they don't want to work with you, but the truth is, they simply can't, thought they try and are ashame in the same time. 

Feeling of being a second class is never a nice feeling and many should know that, but forget that when it is about disabled people. Sadly, for many it seems a fact that disabled means hopeless, just work and a thing you want to avoid seeing, as it shows you (unaware of that fact are the most) that you could be that person, it can be your future. 

No wonder many are so surprised if it happend to them and ask themself- why me?! But that question comes because it is seen as something negative. 

So put a little love in your heart and read about disabled people, get to know them, ask them about their lifes, what they feel, want and can. Help them to achieve as much as possible and make them be part of us. Watch your words and remember we are humans, we can help,  we know, we learn, we can understand, a gift only we humans have.. so let's use it!

LOVE & LIGHT

Fukushima

Five years ago Japan got it's super crisis. Three times. The strongest earthquake of its history, a ten meter high Tsunami and because of this the catastrophic incident the destroy of the nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi.

Five years later and things are all but done and over.

Over 2000 deads in results of the disaster till today. 

In the Fukushima City the radiation exposure is still much higher then before. 

2010 it was 0,04 mikrovisert per hour. After the breakdown it went up to 2,74 in 2011 and is today on the level of 0,20. Munich has 0,12 these days, just to have something to compare.

After all 164 200 people had to be evacuated. Still about 99 800 cannot go back and most of them will never do in their lifetime. 

The structure of families have changed as a result too. Today around that whole area are living 14% less children, but 9% more old people. 

Of course another result is that tourist stay away. Not only around the Fukushima area (-65% less tourists). In all of Japan it was felt a -35% downfall of numbers. Thought these days it is better again and tourists are coming back. 

One of the biggest problems is that the agriculture lost a lot of potential and trust and of course fishing companies got into trouble. And as we remember, Tesco the owner told us 2013 that 300 metric tons radioactive contaminated water is going down the river into the ocean, each day and still this is going on. 

Depite the closing of the last active nuclear power reactor in Japan in 2012, they decided to open them again and in 2015 three are producing again, thought the electricity price went up 34 % compared to the time before the catasthrophe happend. 

Scary it is when we think about that. But another truth is, politic has help to create this and money is still the reason for all this and more. 

The fishes in the ocean have now a higher radiation exposure as it is healthy for them and us and animlas around Japan and mostly those who live in the water have been damaged in their Genetic but we are still discovering the results of long time. 

Have we learned about this? No we haven't. Money makes the world go round and so media have not spoken much about that, especially in the United states. While in Europe we got to know about that far earlier and more the truth about the whole thing, though Tesco the owner waited quite a very long time before the official reaction took place. As always it was and is a -hide all possible things- game.

May we be remind tomorrow and after that this can happen again and be worse and we already have been near that a several time since. Do we need that risk? Is that future?

I will also send out my thoughts for those who died and those who have been left over to stay alive and find a new way to survive and get on with life. 

Love & Light

International womens day...

Thinking about that day always leaves me to memories how we did celebrate when I was a child. I am grown in the GDR, which does not exist anymore. There each 8. march was an important day and not the mothers day. The ideology has it that all are equal, but reality was different. Equality was for sure better then in the other countries, but women had not been equal to man and never got the chance to the highes position in a job. They got a day of in each month for housecleaning and things like that, but never did the man. 

But as a child you don't see that as clear and do what your teacher says to surprise your mother and other women with gifts. Mostly flower, mostly the red carnations, as they has not been another choice to be true. Some times we made things like oven cloths or similar, thought they have been not that nice and I am grateful all those women never showed this to us, always the smile, always a thank you. They knew far to well that children don't understand the need of the celebration of womens day, what it really meant. 

Now I know and wonder. What do we celebrate? Did we come far? Did we succeed? Do we have equality? Women can vote in many countries but not in all. Women are allowed to work and learn in many countries but not in all. Women are treaten as same is still in no country the case, only with some people. Women earn the same salary as man- no, in no country is this the case. Yes, in some jobs they do and also bit more but even the women stars fail to get equality.

Women can choose to have children is also something which is only a reality in some countries. 

But it did get better, just in very small steps. 

Man help women with the children. Mostly not the case, just in some countries with democracy. It is still the duty of a women to care for children, but then in some countries where the sharia law is the case, women have no right after the marriage and after a divorce about themself, their children or over money. They are second class people. 

It is still the case that women cannot wear the cloths they want as man say they are the victim of womens sexuality when they stand alone on the street, when they show their beautyful face, when they wear short cloths. They are victimes and therfrore must and cannot let it be to rape women, to beat women, to hate women, to torment them. That's why they have to wear as much untill you see only a tend over them and even then they are like a wild animal for many man if they travel alone. 

Crazy.. and sad and...

It is still more important how you look as a girl and women than what you do, what you know and how you can be part of this wonderful world. 

But the look is a reason for man to treat them without respect, no matter what they do. Women do provoke with their look they say but it is man who cannot show respect and see that they are humans like them. Still if a women raise her voice she is seen as a bitch. If the women is young, she must be stupid. If the women is older but refused to act like that, she gets bashed and bullied. If a women these days enjoys sex, she is a tramp and if she refuse - she is frigid. And if a women loves a women she just has not found the "right" man. 

Women are often working these day, but if they expect community care for children, they are called selfish, even in Germany. Maybe some man take off a year for the new born, but that is seldom. 

If women still stands up for their rights they get beaten, called unfeminine and aggressive and even badder. But if they don't stand up for themself they are called weak and stupid and all is their own fault. 

The play with those make them feel guilty is against women, when they do what they want and can, when they show it is all possible what they think and need, is a long and wrong play. 

So man have to learn a lot, no- mankind has to learn a lot. Equality comes not just like that. Mothers and fathers have to teach their boys and girls about equality. Society has to avoid clichés like girl is pink and boy is blue. 

Yes I know parents who try really their best to give their kids the choice they feel they want to make and they really try to teach their children, that they can do whatever they like as long all gets respect. They even try to make the childrens room neutral or just colorful but avoid clichés. But it is hard when uncle and grandmother lives up to the cliché, even when the parents have told them to let this be. But nevertheless mothers and fathers, teachers of each gender have to tell, have to teach the children, that all are equal and should be treaten alike and that empathy and love and helping each other is the right way. 

We can only change the way we treat us when we start changing ourself and let our children grow in/ with the right mind. All man have to respect women, but all women too. 

Equality does not mean to make it likewise, it means all have the same chance and possibility. It means not to tell each other that someone is weak because of its sex, gender, if the person has breasts or of the sexuality or the knowledge they have. 

Yes it is about power that the rights are still not the way it should be, that women are worth less and have harder to get education. Politic is one reason, religion is another one, the wanting of seeings things just black and white as the world is more and multidimentional and complex- is another one. 

They therefore say that ecomomy will break if women gets payed the same, which is untrue. And yes, a war is more easy to have with stupid people and with fear it is easier to lead people. It is also easier to tell them what they want so they can keep the power and make sure they don't ask, don't see, don't realize the truth behind. 

We do not celebrate the success, but we have to take this day as a reminder. A reminder that it is our choice with words and the way we act. Just take a look at yourself. How you call women, how you treat them and how you think about them. 

Love & Light

Jonathans Hope- a book

Yes, reading is still on the list these days and thank god, also those who still write new books. 

Hans M. Hirschi is one of them. He already wrote a couple of books and like with so many other authors you may not have heard about him yet. But you will after this post and you will also read one or two of his books for sure. He wrote non fiction first but then and now is also writing fiction, novels and one of his novels is- Jonathans Hope-. 

I finally had the chance and time to read this book and here is what I think....

A story about a young boy, abandoned from his own parents and next to dead when he sees a light in the beginning of the afternoon, while searching for a place to survive another night in the wood. 

What a dramatic start and this goes on. You'll read about heartbreak and pain, about love and being lost and about finding the right words. 

What makes this reading interesting is that the characters are allowed to grow and they get near your heart so fast, that it can hurt. 

The story has no waste in its way of telling and goes fort but even the view is not only to see from the main characters. The writer give us the gift to also see the world through the eyes of the others character without making the story stop or going slow. 

There is even a long loving making of those two main characters which is written in a way that it does not feel weird or painful. It even is not written like in a cliché.

And there are ups and downs in what the life of these people in the book are going through. 

Drama at is best I would say and just with this book H.M. Hirschi is for sure the queen of drama writing. 

Thought drama tend to not being realistic and that's another surprise while reading the book. It all feels very realistic, even the twist, the change in storyline and how the characters act. 

Thought in the last chapters the author put in a little sparkle, glitter and then some more speed into the story which otherwise seems to be already finished. This could maybe feel for some a bit strange and out of the way as the way the author writes changes too a bit but then, you get drawn to the story again so fast that you don't realise how you suddently could stand at the end of the line. 

You will have your tears, your laughters and your heart beating faster. 

The whole story is very intense, thought it is just a small book, but weights heavy. Sometimes it is hard to even read and this is not because of the style of writing, it is the story going on. Containing a couple of tabus we are not used to talk or read about.

You also will get one or two moments thinking about your own vision you have on people and how much we use to just touch the surface. 

Jonathans Hope by Hans M Hirschi is a book I can recommend but must warn that it is not an easy going story, or just a love story with a bit of drama. It is powerful, intens, captivating and will touch you inside and maybe trigger one or two memories you choose to hide. It is a book well written and at the end gives you hope for the fact that there is always a way to get through, if not for each of us, but for some. The ghost of the past will always last, but we can always smile, even when it is with a crying eye. You'll do this after you have read this book. 

Love & Light