A German Salafist Muslim Group (Salafists generally considered an extremist variant of Islam) is causing controversy with a plan to distribute some 25 million German language Korans. That something specific could even be done about this is not clear given the strength of German freedom of expression laws, but this
Continue readingTag: Germany
Sketchy Thoughts: Armed Confrontation in West Germany in the 1970s and 1980s
La Belle Epoque(1984 Wellington, metro Charlevoix)Saturday, June 30, 1PM traduction anglais-français disponible After the surge of protest that was the sixties, all around the world radicals were drawn to new forms of action and experiments in an attempt to cope with the movement’s ebb. In West Germany, the armed struggle
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Two Men Who Changed The World, And Two Men Who Didn’t
“The problems of Canada are not problems caused by Canada, they are the effects of the foreigner causes, the communists and the Jews.” The crowd of men encircling the speaker at the Montreal public house were fixated with the unquestionable certainty the wirey Adrien Arcand embodied. “It is not from
Continue readingImpolitical: Statesman at work
Well this seems to have gone well, what with the takeaway platitudes of agreement between Hollande and Harper about the need for growth and for there to be stability in order to have growth. But wait! “After Harper meets socialist president, Tories take ‘sumptuous’ Europe to task.” Well, I’m sure
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: Fire and Flames, Black Blocs, and Militant Resistance
On KPFA’s Letters and Politics show featured an interview with Gabriel Kuhn, on the subject of the West German Autonomen, and the book Fire and Flames (which Kuhn translated into english). i have mirrored the interview here; it is well worth listening to. i found his comments on the evolution
Continue readingThings Are Good: Germany Achieves 50% of Power Consumption from Renewable Sources
Germany continues to show the rest of the industrialized world how to be economical successful thanks to sound energy policy. This past week the country achieved a symbolic victory in their campaign to be a more efficient country and had 50% of the energy consumed come from renewable energy sources.
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: May 28 in Montreal: Fire and Flames Book Launch
“Earlier, many of us saw themselves as anarchists, Spontis, or communists, while some had vague, individual ideas about a liberated life. Then we all became Autonome.” Monday, May 28 at 7PMLa Belle Epoque1984 Wellington Black blocs, squats, riots and urban guerillas – but also base groups in the factories, “free spaces”, antinuclear occupations,
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: From The Memory Vault: Autonomous Theses 1981
From Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist movement, recently published by PM Press: In 1981, some autonomous activists who attended a meeting in Padua, Italy, formulated eight theses that tried to capture the most common characteristics of the diverse crowd of activists that had begun to call
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Europe Remains "A Question of War and Peace"
Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl warns today’s crop of European leaders not to forget the lessons of Europe’s bloody past. “The current discussion in Europe and the crisis in Greece mustn’t lead us to lose sight of or even question or retreat from the goal of a united Europe,” Kohl
Continue readingthe reeves report: Saving Solar Power in Germany
German Solar Park. For most of the past winter, Germany’s 1.1 million solar power systems that crisscross the country have sat relatively idle. Overcast skies and a relative lack of sunshine has meant the powerful solar-generating system has produced little energy, forcing Germany to import electricity from nuclear power plants
Continue readingThings Are Good: Over 50% of Germany’s Renewable Energy Production Owned by People
Consumer-ready renewable energy can destabilize the traditional energy utility structure in a similar way to how the internet destabilized a lot of other old school industries. This is a good thing because it makes the production of resources (be it knowledge or energy or physical goods) more democratic and resilient
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Still Not Sure The World Has Gone Mad?
Well then how ’bout this? Investors paying a premium to lend money to Germany. That’s right, negative interest. The auction of six-month German government bills on Monday produced a negative interest rate. Even the Federal Finance Agency, which manages Germany’s debt, was astonished. “That has never happened before,” said a
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Interesting Stuff In Gay History: Cinema
Gay-themed films are pretty commonplace nowadays. Nearly every major city (metropolis, if you will) has a GLBT film festival, and pictures that would previously have been restricted to exactly these sort of venues have slowly found their way into mainstream cinemas. Some, like Brokeback Mountain and Milk, are Oscar-winning successes.
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Cancelling the Greek Referendum and Angela Merkel’s Steely Focus
Two final thoughts today on the Greek crisis: 1) Under immense political pressure from within his own party, the opposition, and the EU – i.e., Germany – Papandreou was forced to cancel the referendum. But the basic idea was a good one: he knew Germany…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The similarities between debt crises and currency crises
During the nineties, the predominant form of economic crisis that could hit a nation was the currency crisis whereby the value of a countries currency drops precipitously. Most infamously was the Asian financial crisis, whose effects rolled around the…
Continue readingArt Threat: 3D Hitler photo album launched in Germany
“The Face of the Dictatorship: the Third Reich in 3D” contains roughly 100 images of the dictator shot in 3D, originally used as Nazi propaganda beginning in 1936.
Continue readinggay persons of color: Over 20,000 pages of Roman Catholic sexual abuse evidence delivered to ICC
Several boxes containing over 20,000 pages of evidence were delivered to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Tuesday in The Hague in a move to begin an investigation of Pope Benedict XVI (pictured above) and three cardinals – Angelo Sodano, Tarcisio…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: WikiLeaks: Germany’s Solar Pullback Underway?
An interesting, and unclassified perspective on the German political landscape two years ago. Feed In Tariffs are responsible for Germany leading the world in solar PV technology and adoption. Ontario recently cut their FIT for solar. In Germany, electricity customers pay a surcharge to help fund the excellent rates paid to solar power adopters. The […]
Co2 Art: German Nuclear Shutdown Will Cost 9,000-11,000 Jobs, New Dangers of Nuclear
Is the world already too dependent on nuclear power?
Germany’s decision to shut down nuclear power generation years early, following the earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan this March, will result in up to 11,000 job losses at E.ON, the country’s…
Continue readingChina leads spending on green energy
“Global investment in renewable energy jumped 32 per cent in 2010, to a record $211 billion,” reads the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011 report. The report, commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), revealed that f…
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