Update

Not really a new post, just for reference really.

I had an enquiry as to whether I am alive - the answer is "yes". 

My financial situation has improved as I have pension rights and earn an average of 1,000 Euro per month from my freelance translation activities. And my wife is still working (and has managed to survive the reduction in staff at her company following the Covid-19 outbreak).

I became a naturalised German citizen on January 2nd, 2019 (my response to the Brexit nonsense). 

My opinions on most issues remain unchanged.

I have edited the blog to check for dead links and commented accordingly. It is sad that some of them (very informative links which were factually based and provided you with a lot of information) are no longer available, possibly the saddest loss being a link covering most of the facts on Hitler's early life and his attitudes to certain issues. Quite why it was removed (death of the author?) is a good question.

I have also added a few comments which refer to incorrect predictions on my part - at times I can be too pessimistic. Good things do occasionally happen, people do see sense (but sadly not in the case of Brexit). 

I have also deleted two posts which were not well written and were obviously flawed.

I also noticed that a warning about sensitive material has appeared. As this blog hardly ever touches on the subject of pornography (usually the reason for this warning appearing), I can only assume that it is driven by my religious scepticism and the fact, as an atheist, that I dare to criticise religions. ALL religions. None of them have a rational basis relating to scientific fact and none should expect to get off lightly. See the bit on my profile which has been there as long as the blog has existed which reads: "believe what you want as long as you do harm to nobody else, I reserve the right to dismiss all beliefs as superstitious nonsense with no basis in reality".

There is no logic in saying that by criticising any particular religion you are being racist. None whatsoever. I have had friends and colleagues of all different skin colours. I have heard obnoxious views from some people of all different skin colours as well. Fortunately, in all cases, they are a minority. Though sometimes obviously dangerous.

If we learn the lessons of history, we should be discouraging extremism in all its forms, whether ultraconservative religious beliefs or ultraconservative nationalist movements or dictatorial communism - and don't believe for a minute that anarchism could possibly work either, it would only lead to a survival of the fittest scenario. 

Sadly this doesn't appear to be the direction in which the world is heading. As an old man I will probably avoid seeing the consequences of this, but I am deeply concerned for the future of the world's young people at the moment. There doesn't seem much about which to be positive.

Final comment. I have produced a load of items on various issues since I stopped writing on this blog. If anyone is interested in reading some or all of them, place a comment at the end of this article with somewhere I can contact you. Comments are always monitored and only published if they will not cause offence (i.e. no obscene or provocatively racist language is allowed), so a comment containing an email address will also not be published. 

Reflections on the UK voting to leave the EU - Q&A

Q: I thought that this blog was dead?
A: It is, but this is a one-off as the matter deserves comment.

Q: So what is your opinion of the vote?
A: Pretty much what I expected (figures based upon the last time I saw them) - 48% intelligent, 52% stupid. I actually thought that 45% intelligent, 55% stupid was more likely. Reading the opinion polls occasionally over the past few weeks this has seemed the probable outcome.

Q: But you don't live in the UK any more so you are not affected ....
A: 
1. My British pension rights make up 40% of my income. They are paid in Sterling. The pound has plunged this morning, and its future recovery cannot be guaranteed, which cuts my already limited income even further. The amount of work I get for the translation work has been 20% down this year as well (sounds like a recession is setting in possibly).
2. Long-term my residence rights in an EU country are open to review which was not previously the case.
3. My wife's residential status as a non-EU national is also open to review as she has been able to live here as the spouse of an EU national. 
4. When the exit is complete, my pension would become a non-EU pension and hence subject to higher tax rates. This isn't just me. If the same happens in Spain imagine the lot of British pensioners who moved there as the climate is better for their health, imagine the problems.

Q: So what do you make of the vote?
A: Do I make the comment that it is a victory for parochial, insular xenophobia, over a more open-minded, liberal culture? And people obviously do not care that much about unemployment any more, as it is bound to rise, sharply, according to any orthodox economic model. If you don't believe that check out the opinion of the Reuters economic correspondent a few months ago and the article in the Münchner Merkur a couple of weeks ago. 
And for those who think that Britain can negotiate a favourable package with the EU (like the Norwegians and Swiss have - for which they pay substantial sums of money incidentally), think again. The German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble (the man who stared down the Greeks during the Euro crisis and did not blink), said quite clearly last week that if the UK leaves there will be no special privileges. You had them, you abandoned them, you don't get them back. And as Nigel Farage's UKIP is seen in Germany as being similar to the bumptious (and often very nasty) upstart AfD (who are loathed in Berlin), Farage would be advised to keep away.
The UK will become its own market with 60 million people, rather than part of a market of 450 million people. Companies like HBSC, BT, Hitachi and Nissan have already made noises about potential job cuts, many more will likely follow. The figure could, at a worst estimate be over a million job losses. I saw the mass unemployment in the North of England in the 1980s, I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

Q: Nigel Farage doesn't think that it will happen ....
A: Snake oil salesman who doesn't live in the real world. All I heard from him was something along the lines of "we're British, we'll find a way". Sorry but blind, foolish, empty, immature, insubstantial patriotism does not pay the bills! 

Q: You don't sound very patriotic ....
A: You have read this blog and what I said about patriotism. Go and read Al Franken's recent comment about American patriotism for another interesting answer to that question.
The fact remains that I have more in common with German, Dutch and French IT specialists than I have with stockbrokers or traders or property speculators or even accountants and lawyers from the English Home Counties. I belong in Europe, most of my contacts have come from my professional surroundings and not because people share a certain passport.
I doubt whether there is a single place on this planet where I could live happily alongside the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson - we think along totally different lines. And having to live a certain way because they are the elite and I am just one of their serfs, no thank you.
The UK will become like a large jail and you cannot leave anymore as they have removed your rights to work as an EU citizen, so heading off to find work in Holland or Germany is out of the question. So even if there is mass unemployment in the aftermath of their attack of grotesque nationalism, you will be stuck! 
You are here to be slaves to the mega-rich speculators and the ultranationalist elitist morons and live in near poverty (and huge amounts of unpayable debt), now stop complaining, and no, you can’t leave!

Q: But they will tell you that British people don’t go and work in other EU countries.
A: Total BS! I have met dozens working in IT in Germany and Holland over the years, met several engineers and construction workers on planes between Manchester and Munich and between Humberside and Amsterdam going to their jobs in Germany and Holland, and in a couple of cases Denmark and Austria. 
Anyway, the advantages are obvious.
The opportunity to go and work in countries like Germany and the Netherlands has been an enriching experience for me – not in terms of income, but definitely in terms of experience. It opens your mind to see how others think, operate, work, and pass their leisure hours. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. The chance to live and work in Paris and Amsterdam, Munich and Cologne, and, of course Frankfurt – some of the world’s great cities, all rich and worthwhile experiences. Compare the likes of Stoke Poges or Henley on Thames? No thanks! Fascinating and thriving major city or massively overpriced, utterly boring backwater – the choice for me is obvious!
Like it or not, the generation coming through in the UK better prepare themselves for working in the South-East of England with all its parochial insular attitudes and outrageously high accommodation prices. Not much else will be available (well you can always flip burgers in Burnley or Halifax maybe), and the door to the opportunity of working in the rest of Europe will be shut! Time for most UK universities to close down their Modern Language departments? Yet more unemployment .... But who needs to learn French and German if your chances to use them are going to be extremely restricted?  
I am seriously sad for the young people in the UK who are now at an age where they want to travel, learn languages and try out living somewhere else (as was the case with me when I was 18). Given the way that doors are being closed upon them, the opportunities will be scarce. But never mind, you can always do a Farage and wave your passport at people and feel superior. That is what the majority (well 52% at the last count) of the people in the UK obviously want, so it is that or be a pariah! 
After all, it’s always the fault of the foreigners! The British never ever do or get anything wrong, do they????

Q: You don't sound very patriotic!
A: I was thinking the other day of the British nationals whom I admire. People like Sir Isaac Newton in his day, the brilliant Stephen Hawking in ours. There are a lot of them. I also have a lot of time for every one of the 48% of the British nationals who voted sensibly for the UK to stay in the EU.
There are many good people out there.
What though is notable about Newton and Hawking is that their innovative thinking has produced solutions that are universal in application. They are not restricted by national boundaries and can be applied anywhere on the globe. Their thinking also assists research carried out everywhere which helps all to progress and is not subject to polemical constraints that can hold us back - among them nationalism and dogmatic religion.
Hawking has worked with scientists from other countries, and so have many other leading British scientists. The concern has arisen that if the UK left the EU scientific progress in the country could be hindered (see the adverts in the media in recent weeks from members of the scientific community). These concerns are very real and should have been heeded.   

Q: But isn't immigration a serious concern?  
A: You shouldn't go to another country and claim benefits. Cameron had already agreed upon action to stop that. 
I think though that many people here are confusing two different types of immigration. Economic (non-Muslim) immigration from countries like Poland and Romania. And Muslim immigration.
My opinion with regard to the economic migration from Eastern Europe dates back to my longstanding criticism of the way that matters were handled following the fall of Communism. 
Whereas in the aftermath of World War Two Western Europe had the Marshall Plan, and we got rapid growth and nearly full employment - and a substantial rise in prosperity across the board - following the events of 1989 Eastern Europe got neoliberalism, a few wealthy oligarchs, mass unemployment and widescale poverty! I visited Hungary myself in 1996 and saw some wretched examples of what people's lives had become. Young married women working on the streets as prostitutes as there was little work available for them and their husbands. Sad!
So with regard to these economic migrants:
Can you blame anybody for leaving somewhere where there is mass unemployment and few prospects of things ever getting better? Some people in the UK obviously have short memories. In both 1991 and 1996 I moved to the Netherlands in the hope of finding a job in line with my experience and my qualifications. Go back to the UK and the mass unemployment and the total lack of prospects in the North of England (the Thatcher years and those following them were devastating for highly qualified people like myself)? Moving to the South of England was financially out of the question, and anyway it was a cultural wilderness. 
I wasn't alone in moving to Europe to find work either. The problem is not the economic migration, it is the scourge of unemployment and underemployment across vast swathes of Europe, even including parts of the UK which took a battering when the City of London gamblers lost fortunes in the 2008 crash! Meanwhile does anyone want to persuade me that it is impossible to manufacture electric razors anywhere in Europe? Try finding one made in Europe for sale in Germany as I did a couple of years ago. You don't want something made in China? Grow a beard!
And back to Farage again. As for his telling people that being British "we will find a way" ... 
Like we did under his beloved Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s? Unemployment was standing at 18% in Manchester when I left in 1988, and higher than that in Liverpool, Newcastle and Middlesbrough. While all Farage's buddies were gambling huge sums of money in order to make fortunes on the London Stock Exchange (and often surrepetitiously hiding their losses!)  .... that he didn't hear about such numbers shouldn't be so surprising! Some of us had to look elsewhere for work - see above!
And if this sharp rise in unemployment should (and probably will!) happen again following the departure from the EU???? Where are people supposed to go then? We have heard a lot of promises about jobs not disappearing, but nothing but vague comments about how they will be created!
Meanwhile there are the often loathed Muslim immigrants. The radicals are of course a problem (well I agree, Islam is a diabolical load of pre-medieval nonsense based upon a warmongering prophet and a non-existent deity, of this there is no doubt, but if they keep their beliefs to themselves within their own homes and do not disturb anyone else, where would the problem be?).
Take a quick look at Britain's Muslim immigrants. Where do they come from? Particularly the terrorist fringe. 
Will closing the door on the EU mean an end to Muslim immigration?
It wouldn't have kept the Emwazis out and their murderous son (aka "Jihadi John") - from Kuwait, a British Commonwealth country, not in the EU! 
It would have not kept the thugs who murdered Lee Rigby out - from Nigeria, a British Commonwealth country, not in the EU!
It would not have kept out the well-known rabble-rousing imam and alleged terrorist supporter, Anjem Choudary, out - born in the UK to a father from Pakistan, a British Commonwealth country, not in the EU!
In fact the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the UK have only ever known 1 EU country, and that is the UK! 
Britain did not sign the Schengen Agreement and guards its own borders, so it is down to British security personnel to keep any dubious individuals out. It has banned the likes of white ultraconservative politicians like Geert Wilders, it should be perfectly capable of keeping out foreign Muslim terrorists even from the EU.
Once in a while a criminal like Mohamed Abrini might get into the country on a forged passport - that could happen coming from anywhere, not just the EU!
The problem with Britain's Muslim problem though is primarily a British issue. There are according to one poll 30% of young British Muslims who think that these terrorist attacks are justified. So what do you do with them? As their grandparents came from Pakistan some 50 years ago (in many instances), you simply send them back to Pakistan?
I can just see the Pakistanis falling over themselves to accept thousands of people who have never even set foot in the country, because of whom their grandfathers were. People who may never even have heard of Peshawar or Lahore and speak English with an East End, West Midlands, or Yorkshire accent.
And they are potentially a load of terrorists or at least supporters? Pakistan has its hands full with these already. You seriously expect them to agree to accept these individuals? 
The fact remains that the only place on earth where such people are welcome is the so-called Islamic State, and that is gradually being destroyed (thankfully!).
So any other ideas what you do with them?
This isn't a strictly British problem either. The Dutch and Belgians have groups who would just love to throw out their ethnic "Moroccan" population. Many people in France want to do the same to their "Algerian" population. The fact that Morocco and Algeria do not want them back isn't a problem?
One of the questions with the UK though seems to be "Europe" stopping them kicking people out. The first question that arises is how did Qattada, and the well-known Al-Qaeda terrorist, Bary, ever get asylum in the UK in the first place? 
There are then the questions of exactly who stopped the extradition (in Qattada's case it was actually the British High Court!). The European body blocking the extraditions in most instances is the European Court of Human Rights, a product of the European Council, not the European Union. The UK having left the EU will still actually be subject to the European Court of Human Rights as it will not have not left the European Council.
In other words, the issue has been confused, whether through ignorance or deceit.
Then finally there is the question of the refugees from Syria and Iraq.
For some reason (possibly anxiety, possibly malicious propaganda), the fate of the refugees evokes a different response in Europe from what it does in the UK. In Germany they are mainly seen as unfortunate people fleeing a gruesome war and suffering many travails (even drowning in the Mediterranean) in order to escape.
In the UK they seem to be all pictured as potential terrorists! Which is nonsense.
Germany now is keeping out any Algerians and Moroccans who tried to slip in with the refugees (as not genuine refugees), which is sensible. There are occasional flashpoints in the accommodation provided for these unfortunate people between young men, but more of a criminal than a terrorist nature.
The idea is eventually, when the war in Syria and Iraq comes to an end (which could be a few years), they will all go home. It is a pity that the UK is so antagonistic to people in such need, but hardly surprising given the leadership of movements like the UKIP, who love to bend the facts for their own advantage.

Q: So you see no positives in the situation, allowng for a difference of opinion maybe?
A: It is always an intelligent response to listen to points of view and then respond with reason, not with emotion or excess zeal. But how do you respond to the unreasonable using propaganda as a tool?
I will throw two quotes at you. One from the great British writer and reasoner, Dr Samuel Johnson, a man who carefully analysed issues (with reason - you wish you could say the same was the case for his namesake in the past few weeks):
"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel".
Not the only comment that he made on the subject incidentally, and some in-depth reading of his opinions on the subject (google "Samuel Johnson" "Patriotism") is well worth the effort given the current circumstances.
And also very relevant to the current situation is a quote from the German writer and journalist (and often a man of considerable wit, though that does not apply here), Kurt Tucholsky in 1931 when the dark shadows were gradually emerging over his country:
"Denn nichts ist schwerer und nichts erfordert mehr Charakter, als sich in offenen Gegensatz zu seiner Zeit zu befinden und laut zu sagen: "Nein"!  
("For nothing is more difficult and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in open opposition to one's time and to say loudly: "No!").
Tucholsky died in difficult circumstances in exile. I can see the same happening to me (though I am not even half the person that Tucholsky was). Here though he was undoubtedly right. Better a minority of one (or many for that matter) and be right than to submit to the herd mentality which is undoubtedly mistaken (as that vote was on Thursday!). And remember that eventually Tucholsky was on the right side of history, even though sadly he did not live to see that!

Q: So what happens to you now? Becoming a German national?
A: I started down that road, but it is expensive given my limited income, and despite working as a translator, I still need to pass a language test. That requires 6 hours on a Saturday on a specified date, and I am not 22 years old any more, so keeping my concentration going for all that time would be a problem. There is the possibility that tiredness might set in and I might not do myself justice.

Q: So?
A: Things look pretty bleak. My wife has ideas upon buying a property in her home country (Thailand) and moving there, but it would be out in the back and beyond (a bit like the UK will be when it finally leaves the EU). She also needs to find a job out there in line with her qualifications (degrees in Botany don't seem to get you much these days though) as I cannot guarantee to be around forever. Taking out a mortgage is risky IMHO. 
I wish that I could look at life with more certaintly, but as stupid is winning out over intelligent, and parochial is defeating open-minded in much of the world at the moment, there isn't a lot of reason to be optimistic.

Q: Well thanks for your time and good luck anyway.
A: Thanks, I could do with some.

A final goodbye and accelerating the end

Dedicated to JB. Sadly missed. The UK needed and needs people with your brainpower, commitment, open-mindedness and understanding. And intelligence. And the ability to get into people's faces with your arguments, particularly the chronic conservatives and the British nationalists. To die at a relatively young age as you did .... tragic (and I never use that word lightly).

I have said goodbye to my readers before. This time it is definite. There will be no return. Given that the world was already moving in  the wrong direction and the movement in that direction has rapidly accelerated in recent months .... and given the limited scope of my readership and my desire to get people to look at the issues in detail rather than skimming over the top .... Let's say we are going nowhere with this. I have said all that I think needs saying. If people in the world are stupid enough to want to bow down to the Caliph of the Islamic State ("agree with me or I will have your head chopped off") or King Rupert of Adelaide ("everyone ought to be a patriot, now what nationality am I now and where is my actual fiefdom, and ooh, I am not a national of that country but does anyone care or take notice?") .....

There is plenty of relevant material on this blog where we ought to be headed and why we got in the mess in the first place. Study it at leisure and think how you can plan to make the future better. I would recommend also an organisation called Avaaz which continues to agitate worldwide for a lot of worthwhile causes.

Anyway this is post number 512. 2 to the power 9 - that pleases the arithmetician in my brain (in my soul? Fine - please locate where the soul lies in my anatomy and I will accept the concept. It is as silly as telling people to look in their heart - in my case they will find that the plumbing changed in 2008. One only wishes that the way of running the world economy had changed in 2008, but, as stated above, the world has been moving in the wrong direction for a long time. Where madness prevails give the keys of the asylum back to the lunatics, or in the case of the UKIP/EXP give the keys to the new set of lunatics).

Germany is pretty quiet at the moment. There are a few stories of more idiots heading off to serve the Caliph of the Islamic State, a few about some of them coming back disillusioned, but that is not front page stuff any more. Even the stories of a few going to fight for the Kurds came and went.

The economy is chugging along. Unemployment is still far too high, but does anyone notice? Any currency crisis stories have faded into the mist. In fact the big story this week is whether Germany should make euthanasia more easily available.

Frankly I do not see this as a question that needs answering. Life as such has to have some quality, some purpose, some enjoyment. Lying in a terminally ill state offers any of these? Well if there were hope of a miracle cure?

Outside the realms of the mythical religious wheeler-dealers ("liars" might be an appropriate word) there is precious very little of that. Your chance of winning the big prize in the lottery is actually higher than finding this miracle cure. And for how much longer do you want to live anyway, frail and surviving purely for the sake of survival. Ugh!

Old age is not enjoyable. Losing a lot of your faculties is not enjoyable. Fighting to keep yourself together tends eventually to be a losing battle. It is one thing to lose your life at a relatively young age and there is so much you could still do, it is another entirely when you have done everything that there is to do and you are in a state of permanent decline. In my opinion, keeping the terminally ill alive for the sake of survival itself amounts to sadism.

Of course for the relatives it is not easy. I know that from experience. I was heartbroken when my father died, and unhappy but resigned when my mother died 12 years later. But there was an inevitability in both cases and it was better not to see them suffer (my mother's death was sudden, my father's scarcely three days after falling ill for the last time). Their memories and the good times together remain with me, and I shall always be thankful for whom they were and what they did for me.

But I also want to remember them as healthy and strong and purposeful and in the prime of life. After a certain point you can no longer have that, nor can it be restored with some magic elixir.

In my own case my life now is nowt like as good as it was in the 2 best years of my life (actually 27 months between September 1994 and November 1996 inclusive). But my faculties are still mainly intact, and someone loves me beyond comprehension, so .... But when things decline to the point when this is no longer the case I hope that she will understand and let me go. I too want to be remembered as healthy and strong .... and intellectually sharp and combative.

I am animal, not vegetable, and I do not wish at any point to turn into the latter. So with a polite smile you whisper goodbye and disappear into the great void. An endless, peaceful sleep. Which sounds a pleasant thought - in fact a far more pleasant thought than the awful state into which the world has currently descended!

So this is Shariah Law? Glamorous martyrdom? EU PR gaffes. And EU immigration policy

1. So this is Shariah Law?

Firstly excuse the spelling of Shariah if you think it should be spelt differently (without the "h"? With an apostrophe?). I will take what I find on the Internet and recently there has been a tendency to spell it thus.

A few weeks ago, after a western hostage had been dutifully beheaded by a thug with an East London accent, I heard a comment from one of Anjem Choudary's mates (henchmen?) along the lines of "Muslims need to live under the Shariah" usw usw.

Most of us living in the rest of the world who are not Muslims might be interested to know what is different in this respect from what we know ourselves (my experiences are based principally upon western culture, with some knowledge of how things are done in Thailand - NB).

So now we have a template as to what apparently is involved and what is allowed. From IS/ISIS/ISIL - Shariah Law in action:

1. Bank robbery. Rob a bank in Frankfurt, Milwaukee, even Tokyo and Bangkok, and you have committed a criminal offence. And can expect to be punished accordingly.
One of the reasons why IS/ISIS/ISIL is capable of expensive recruitment (unemployed in Europe? We can offer you all this filthy lucre to fight for and with us!), and can purchase more weapons to go with those that they have taken from the disintegrating Syrian and Iraqi armed forces, is the fact that they looted the central bank in Mosul. Read the following

 http://www.businessinsider.com/430m-looted-from-mosuls-central-bank-2014-6

This money belongs to someone else. I may not like capitalism all that much, but stealing from a bank to fund other causes is still illegal in most societies (if you stole it to save the habitats of the tiger or the mountain gorilla for example - a worthy cause if there ever was one - it would still, unfortunately, be illegal). Any intention of giving it back? I haven't heard of any. Any criticism of this from their apologists (Choudary's henchmen, or Michael the jihadist from Gladbeck usw)? I haven't heard any. I therefore assume that under Shariah Law this is legal?

2. Kidnapping. The Western hostages are obvious examples. There are though plenty of local citizens who have also been taken away and gained far less publicity from the (Western) media. The objective is usually to gain a substantial ransom to be used for the same purpose as given above (purchase of weapons usw). Try this in Europe? Example: in the Netherlands in 1983 the chairman of the Heineken Brewing Company was kidnapped. And held for a ransom of 35 million Guilders (app. €16 million). The ransom was paid, the criminals were caught and jailed. As yet I have heard of nobody within IS/ISIS/ISIL or among its apologists condemning this practice or stating that it is an illegal activity. All is apparently fair in love and war and Shariah Law.

3. Cold-blooded murder. In Germany if you are a Salafist you are allowed (surprisingly) to practise your faith and preach the undertaking of any activities that might appear dangerous in the extreme to the community at large, provided that you do not carry these activities out to the detriment of that same community. The same applies (freedom of belief, freedom of speech) in most Western countries, and for that matter in Thailand - in a primarily Buddhist country you can practise Christianity or Islam, or proclaim yourself to be an atheist. I also believe that this applies in Japan.
Try practising freedom of belief/freedom of speech in IS/ISIS/ISIL controlled Iraq/Syria. Thousands of people have been executed (using the most primitive, barbaric methods possible) for this very act. Essentially this is cold-blooded murder. As was the execution of the two American journalists and two British aid workers whose only crime was to carry the wrong passport.

4. Rape. Anyone anywhere where I have been has a "lowest of the low" attitude when it comes to dealing with rapists (apart from a few American conservative commentators who think that the victims were asking for it, but that is an exceptionally small number of idiots). The widespread rape of Yazidi women by IS/ISIS/ISIL "warriors" has been investigated and widely reported. As the Yazidis are simply regarded as "infidels", rape is apparently not to be condemned. Really???? This is Shariah Law? Again?
As I would personally suggest that ANY rapist whatsoever (a strong male forcing himself upon an unwilling woman who does not have the strength to resist) should be jailed for life no matter what the circumstances, and I can even see an argument for castration of the rapist (provided you are sure that you did not get the wrong man) .....

5. Murdering people allegedly for adultery. Strange that you can murder or rape someone for being an infidel, but that any woman who has been allegedly unfaithful to her husband can be stoned to death? Not according to Shariah Law apparently. See the recent video that IS/ISIS/ISIL have issued. They have obviously grown tired of showing foreigners being beheaded so one of the latest thrillers for its desperately sick viewing public is a young woman being stoned to death. Her father, incidentally, was one of the people throwing the stones. No greater love has a father for his child?

6. Enslavement. Apparently it is possible, instead of crucifying or beheading your unfortunate opponents (or raping, or after raping, "infidel" women) it is possible to sell them as slaves.
All those in the Western world who have been wringing their hands over the activities of the slavers in the establishment of empires around the globe have obviously been following the wrong religion. Obviously Shariah Law is what we needed for a clear conscience.

I accept that some people in the "Muslim World" may be upset by this section. Nonetheless it is down to you to prove me wrong, to prove that IS/ISIS/ISIL is a criminal organisation and that its apologists don't know what they are talking about. And quickly!

Meanwhile on the evidence available, I would suggest that we stick with civil law and not subscribe to this load of pre-medieval BS! For the good of the community at large and not to satisfy the whims of a few criminal fanatics!

2. Glamorous martyrdom


I was reading a story this week about one poor unfortunate young man who was persuaded to go to  fight in Syria, where he could die a glamorous martyr's death. Glamorous BS!!!! 

Wars are dirty - all wars are dirty, and this one even more so than most. Dying in a war by taking a bullet between the eyes .... Yes, but it does not always happen like that.

Let us assume that you are billeted somewhere close to a war zone. An old building serving as momentary HQ with rudimentary facilities, tacky uncomfortable beds, but a place where you can stay before and after undertaking all the activities described in the first part of this article. 

One of your number is so proud of what you are doing, he even sticks an IS/ISIS/ISIL flag on the roof. Which is noted by reconnaissance from the US coalition forces. 

So you have just put your copy of the Koran on the bedside table after checking that you got all the activities described in the first section of this piece correct (particularly the rape of the infidel women), when you hear a noise overhead.

It couldn't be a Saudi or a Jordanian bomber, surely?

You are sitting up in bed, scarcely 2 seconds have passed, and suddenly there is a loud bang and a massive crash of parts of the building around you. If you had been lying down your head might have been crushed by a lump of concrete. So quick, so smooth - a true martyr's death.

Nope. Instead it has landed in such a way that it has inflicted a solid glancing blow beneath your neck and has shattered vertebrae in your back. You have fallen back on the bed, you want to shout out in pain, but your vocal chords seem totally numbed. You want to move your arms, your legs, but due to the damage in your spinal cord, they will not move. You are paralysed. The pain is horrific and all that seems capable of movement - your eyebrows.

Nobody comes to offer help. There is shouting and screaming all round, and the smell of blood and death. All round.

It takes all of 189 minutes. You cannot stand the pain, the end cannot come soon enough, but it will not come. And the atmosphere deteriorates by the second.

And after more than 3 hours of suffering and paralysis, your last throes start to appear, and suddenly you have the horrible realisation that there is no sign of Allah, the 72 virgins are not appearing before you - all there is total darkness for the last seconds, and then all awareness fades away into void.

Yep, very glamorous, eh?   

Maybe a digression at this point, but still relevant. Assume one of these young men with European passports has gone to fight for IS/ISIS/ISIL and expects to die a martyr's death, but instead suffers only serious injury (loss of limbs, permanent paralysis usw), who should pay for any medical treatment required by the aforesaid individual? And as a German taxpayer can I withhold any contribution to such, as I am opposed to helping in these circumstances!

3. EU PR gaffes

OK, matters nearer home.

I am still, for the moment, a British passport holder (update January 14th, 2022 - still the case but since become a naturalised German citizen on January 2nd, 2019, and hence a dual national, invariably I use my German passport). No big deal, nationality is not important to me (and if I ever get kidnapped by Islamic thugs, I hope that they will take note of that - that said I also think that Islam is a load of superstitious nonsense, though if you want to practise it peacefully, please do so).

Anyway, as many of you will know I am committed to the European Union, and I personally do not wish to see the UK leave.

You would seriously think that some of the leading members of the EU Commission would think the same and avoid diplomatic tiffs with the UK.

Nope. This week we have had two unseemly incidents which will give the Europhobes and their silly friends in the UK media even more unneeded ammunition.

Apparently the UK has been presented with a bill for millions of Euro. How it ever got this far .... Somewhere has goofed. Seriously!!!! This could not have been dealt with far more gradually? Far earlier? And far more diplomatically????

One of the major noises that you hear from the Europhobes is that the EU is far too expensive. OK, try arguing against that argument at the moment! How to lose an argument without trying? For supporters of the EU like myself this is really frustrating, and it makes you extremely angry!

And then there was the spat over Cameron's immigration proposals. José Manuel Barroso, the shortly to retire Head of the European Commission, made some loud and very critical noises about the proposals. Meanwhile Angela Merkel threatened to veto them.

All well and good, I do not know exactly what is in Cameron's proposals, but for once I find myself sympathising with him (we are strange allies, but anyway).

The UK is not a member of the Schengen Agreement. I do not see why the EU should have any say in British immigration policy. You cannot get into the UK without a great deal of hassle, and the neo-Fascist fringe spreads many hateful (and very probably inaccurate) rumours about illegal immigration, so it should not be surprising if Cameron has to take a tough stand - if only for local consumption.

The fact remains though that this definitely looks like the EU unnecessarily interfering in a member's internal affairs. Which just damages its mediocre reputation there even further. Which brings me to ....

4. EU immigration policy   


This results from an email interchange yesterday with a friend now based in the Netherlands.

Copied directly from the mail that I sent him are my views on immigration requirements for the EU (from outside, not internally) at the moment and there are also some pertinent comments about the problems that will be faced for those people who have moved from the UK to other EU countries and potential problems they will face if the UK does leave (as, SADLY, it almost inevitably will!).

Please read and consider (I shall make no further comments for now):

 "I can actually see, in purely economic terms, an argument for having a complete moratorium on immigration to the EU from outside for say 5 years. And yes, that does include the USA! Unemployment across the EU is over 11%, there is plenty of room to offer any opportunities as internal immigration, and the talent should be there and available. When the economy starts to improve this can be re-examined. Exceptions could be made for marriage (but not arranged marriages). And there could be other considerations.

As for what happens to those of us who have moved - this really is going to be an issue to address - the most notable instances aren't the 115,000 of us in Germany, it is going to be pensioners who have retired to Spain for the warmer climate. If they are in the same situation that I am, they would find that as non-EU citizens their pensions would be taxed which is not currently the case, and the UK part would cease to be indexed-linked. A double whammy if there ever was one.

Worth also noting is the fact that there are nearly 3 times as many Germans living in the UK as UK residents in Germany .... Prepare for a polite version of ethnic cleansing from the UK?".  

Postscript (January 12th, 2022): the number of British citizens living in Germany has now been reduced to 91,000 from the 115,000 given above. At the same time this may be counterbalanced by the more than 36,000 British nationals (such as myself) who have become naturalised German citizens since the idiot xenophobes in the UK pushed Brexit through.

Meanwhile Michael, the jihadist from Gladbeck, followed the way of quite a few of the European morons who thought that the Islamic State would be some sort of paradise (the ultimately absurd delusion, right?) - including at least one of Shamima Begum's friends, Sally Jones, Samra Kesinovic,  Sabina Selimovic et al - by dying in a far-off place in unpleasant circumstances.

As for those asking. Shamima Begum, her husband (Yago Riedijk, a Dutch convert to Islam who must be some type of moron) and anyone other Europeans being held by the SDF in Syria, should be handed over to the Iraqi or Syrian authorities and put on trial according to the law of the land.

Rather like drug smugglers in Singapore are tried and punished there, so all these individuals should be tried according to the legal procedures of where their activities took place, judged whether their actions were illegal or not, and punished accordingly or released. 

Would you want a foreign national committing a crime in your country and then being able to run off home where the legal system might take a different view of how criminal the event was?

The French, in particular, have got this right! At the last count there were 11 individuals with French nationality on Death Row in Iraq for criminal activities involving ISIS/ISIL/IS. What were they doing there in Iraq in the first place? And don't tell me that they were tourists. And given how ISIS/ISIL/IS dealt with individuals who broke their "laws", they can surely not complain!

Pacifism, Salafists, Jihadis and Takfiris, moderate Muslims, and understanding the Kurds

1. Pacifism

Apart from those hell-bent upon being warriors (and quite a few such people currently in the Middle East and the Ukraine, and maybe Nigeria and the Congo fit that description), for most people on the planet the concept of living in peace sounds a great idea.

We could then also get on with resolving the economic issues that affect us all - thankfully war is not a feature of the lives of many at the moment, particularly in Europe.

The problem remains though that the concept of war is never far away (in Europe again, check the several thousand young men with European passports who have headed off to fight in Syria - one wishes that if they are going to do that they would go to fight for the Kurds against IS/ISIS/ISIL and not the reverse as seems to be case).

I recall several conversations with committed pacifists over the years. My view is that we would all prefer pacifism over all the alternatives, but you have to live in the real world and that is not possible. When met with scepticism (the usual response), I would produce my pet question:

"So what do you do when Hitler's tanks are standing outside your front door?".

This is actually a bit late - summat should have been done much earlier. Hitler's tanks are outside the front door? Not much can be done now ....

Ask the people of Raqqa, which apparently was one of the most liberal cities in Syria before the brutes of IS/ISIS/ISIL arrived and turned it into their stronghold - the sort of place which even the Taliban would find severe.

There has to be a way of resisting Fascism - be it standard European Fascism or the Islamic Fascism emanating from the likes of IS/ISIS/ISIL (and check out the parallels between Hitlerian Fascism and the structures & practices of IS/ISIS/ISIL - including a sort of Islamic Gestapo).

Simple non-cooperation and hoping that they will go away will, sadly, not work. All the time anyway. We can admire what Gandhi and Aung San Suu Kyi achieved, but resistance like that to what is on offer from the extreme Fascistic forces to be faced out there will simply be swept aside - violently and without the slightest consideration for your opinions.

2. Salafists, Jihadis and Takfiris

I was informed the other day that my criticism of Salafists was maybe unfair, and I should instead be referring to Takfiris. The latter should be mentioned in this context for the dehumanised brutes that they are, but I am still not convinced that I am wrong about the Salafists either.

I came across this excellent article the other day and it is well worth reading for those who want a guide to what is happening in the Middle East and the groups involved.

http://www.el-baghdadi.com/index.php/articles/129-analysis-of-islamistjihadist-fears-in-syria

As this was written in January 2013, I am not sure whether the author would now acknowledge that events have changed. What happened to the Yazidi communities in Iraq, for example, makes it sound that there are indeed Takfiris in Iraq and Syria. His Twitter comment in 2012 on what could happen - with Syria becoming a magnet  for jihadis - was though frighteningly and uncannily accurate.

3. Moderate Muslims

Apparently there was a very noisy debate on American television in the last couple of weeks in which the actor Ben Affleck took comedian (and anti-religious atheist), Bill Maher and writer (and atheist intellectual), Sam Harris to task over the latter's contention that Islam is inherently oppressive, and pointed out that the majority of Muslims are moderates and not extremists.

For what seemed a loud debate (apparently), there seems to be a shortfall in the argument here. It can be argued that both are actually correct. Looking at Germany where I live, there some 3 to 4 million Muslims, of whom only 6,000 are followers of Salafist thinking and some 400 - 600 (out of 3 to 4 million, work out the percentage) are fighting for Jihad for IS/ISIS/ISIL (and then see also my previous article where I pointed out the comment from one journalist here that many have gone more in search of adventure and have received substantial financial incentives to do so, which for unemployed young men with few prospects must also be a factor).

Logically this must mean that the majority here are moderates - in fact the voices of opposition to IS/ISIS/ISIL from many leading figures in the Muslim community (including various imams in the mosques here) have made this opposition very clear. Islam, they insist, is a religion of peace.

Then there is the flip side of the coin. In the past couple of weeks there are the cases of a young man who was sent back to Turkey (he is 22 and has not lived there since he was 2) by a Bavarian court as too dangerous to be allowed to stay here (including threats to kill his own parents if they did not adopt the more radical form of Islam) and that of a white German convert who this week threatened to kill Angela Merkel, and announced that "we" have been waiting for this moment for 1400 years (he will be in his 30s at most, so it isn't possible for him to have been waiting for 1400 years, but anyway ....), and Muslims in Germany, Austria and Switzerland should head off to Syria to fight for IS/ISIS/ISIL.

The point about these last two cases is that they are getting their information from the Koran - literalist, violent and dominant (as Sam Harris would point out). This is not the religion of peace but of unadulterated violence in the form of jihad. The majority of Muslims may not see this, but the book in question already allows for this. Harris's comments about polls upon support for putting people to death for apostasy in countries like Indonesia and Pakistan should also be taken into account here.

In other words, the picture is confused. I have personally no doubt (and I met several German Muslims of both genders on a course which I was attending in 2010-2011) that the vast majority are moderate - but sometimes the less attractive, uncivilised, brutalised side of the belief system is exposed. And needs to be contained.

It is also worth noting that many of the victims of IS/ISIS/ISIL in Syria and Iraq are themselves Muslims. And in fact Sunni Muslims (Sunnis killing Shias, and vice versa (to a lesser extent) has an unfortunate historical context, but Sunnis killing Sunnis?). As is the case with the Kurds ....

4. Understanding the Kurds

The Kurds have been agitating for an independent homeland for many years. They have been spread over a number of countries across the Middle East (Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran notably) for many years.

They are not Arabs nor Turks. They have some relationship to the Iranians but are not that friendly with them. It is to be noted though that, as stated above, that they are Sunni Muslims. As there are four schools of belief within Sunni Islam, it would take someone with more expertise than myself to explain the differences between the type of Sunni Islam practised by the Kurds and how it differs from that practised by IS/ISIS/ISIL, but you can be fairly certain that the differences are substantial.

IS/ISIS/ISIL have been rampaging through Iraq and Syria killing anyone who falls foul of their definition of Islam, and quite why one set of Sunni Muslims is currently engaged in virtually a war to the death with another set of Sunni Muslims in and around the city of Kobane ..... That would need greater expertise than I can offer. Any contribution to understanding this situation better will be appreciated.

Postscript (January 12th, 2022): unfortunately the above link no longer works. Which is a shame as lucid explanations of this kind are not easy to find elsewhere.

On holy warriors and non-words

I have this German news channel available on the new computer - I didn't ask for it, it was just there when I bought it, and it occasionally it flashes up intros to some interesting and informative articles.

Yesterday it produced the four-word header (accompanied by the usual grotesque image of some idiot in military fatigues) "Belgien will Gotteskrieger stoppen".

Translation? Not actually as easy as you might think. "Belgium wants to stop" .... that bit is easy.

"Gotteskrieger"? Literally "warriors (or fighters) for God". Sounds like the Christian missionaries who head off to Asia to persuade Buddhists that Christianity is the true path to follow (IMHO if owt it should be the other way round, but anyway ....). Can't be that surely - why the cretin in the military fatigues? For example?

So .... where's the moronic jihadist Islamic connection? 

"Gotteskrieger" is actually a word that has appeared in German in recent years - this is not a word with a longstanding history. Let me quote the ever-reliable Wikipedia (cough, splutter!):

"Mit Gotteskrieger werden Menschen bezeichnet, die Kriege oder allgemein Waffengewalt befürworten, um den Einfluss ihrer Religion auszubauen, zu festigen oder zu verteidigen"

Translation (I should charge you for this, but I am feeling generous today!):

"The word Gotteskrieger refers to people who support war or the general use of armed force in order to expand, consolidate or defend the influence of their religion".

In other words dangerous maniacs/morons/cretins who believe in enforcing people to submit to their silly superstitious beliefs by (very) violent means.

You would think that the Belgians would actually be glad to get rid of these people, provided that they never came back (alive anyway). Of course at the same time you do not want to encourage people to leave if they are going to involve themselves abroad in activities such as kidnapping, rape and murder (including the beheading of anyone who works for a charity organisation committed to helping people). Assuming, that is, that they are not going to start conducting such activities at home (and that, I am afraid, is probably only a matter of time - some moron speaking German with a Sächsisch accent was encouraging this on the Internet 'tother day).

Anyway back to Gotteskrieger.

The common usage of the word started, apparently, during the Afghan War (the recent one, not those that the British managed to lose in the 19th century). 

I spent a bit of time trying to find an English equivalent. The recommended translation is "holy war". I actually do not like it - not as a concept, which is an accurate description, but as the word "Gott" ("God") is missing in English.

In German there is the obvious criticism - there is a word missing. It maybe takes an atheist to notice it, but in a land with a large number of them that should not be a problem. So the next line is for any Gotteskrieger reading this:

THERE IS NO GOD!!!!!

Repeat:

 THERE IS NO GOD!!!!!

There are plenty of other articles on this blog where I go into the issues regarding the issue of a God ("was that thunder? ****, it must be Thor riding his chariot again ...."). Go and read them. Then go and read Diderot, D'Holbach, Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, Michel Onfray usw .... (These are only books? So is the Koran - a 1500-year-old volume of myths and murderous methodology from a time when the world knew little science and had little understanding of humanity. We have moved on since that time. You haven't?). 

So if you go off and kidnap, rape and murder people as a Gotteskrieger, then you are delusional. The actual word for you is Straftäter!  New words like Gotteskrieger we do not need! (For non-German speakers "Straftäter" means "criminal"). 

If the word must exist we could place something like "sog." in front of it ("sogenannt" - "so-called" in English - with the appropriate adjectival ending), but for the vicious delusional maniacs who fit this term, that gives them too much credit. Really it needs a word like the equivalent of "alleged". Or "delusional" or "self-delusional" or "cretinous, self-delusional". I found loads of German possibilities - a native German would probably be able to find "le mot juste" and maybe construct one of those wonderful German compound nouns which could find its way eventually into Duden ....

And on the subject of compound nouns I came across "Unwort" this week. "Wort" in German means "word", "un" as in English indicates a negative. So my immediately translation for it was "non-word", although www.linguee.de, which I use quite frequently, suggested alternatives such as "misnomer" and "bad word". 

This is usually a word that has risen into public usage despite its seemingly previous non-existence and is questioned by the academics who watch over the progress of the language to prevent (or at least criticise) the arrival of such words into the language when they are apparently not needed. I am not sure whether they also object to the awful habit that they have here of just stealing the English equivalent - it would be better if they did.

Anyway they even have a jury which selects summat called the "Unwort des Jahres" (the non-word of the year). This has been selected each year since 1991. Gotteskrieger won the award in 2001. Merited, I would suggest.

Whether Unwörter should be stopped, on the other hand, I would question. Languages evolve. They have done so since language first appeared and will continue to do so. The classical Latin that I learned at school (from about 2,000 years ago - read Livy, Ovid and the like) had become a substantially different language in the Middle Ages when it was still in use. Foreign influences play a part, popular usage does also.

Between my student days in France in 1969-70 and my working there on and off between 1989 and 1993, there were obvious differences in the colloquial everyday French spoken, and even "Le Monde" seemed to have changed in its style. Languages often become richer due to the greater number of alternatives available, and German (with its ability to form compound nouns) has loads of interesting possibilities. And encourages bright, intelligent minds to experiment with concepts.

So really it is a question of the logic in place as to whether the word really deserves to be a word or a non-word - but Gotteskrieger is inexact and inaccurate in my opinion, and could easily be seen as a non-word for which a better alternative should be forthcoming. All suggestions welcome! 

Declaring a country's religious leanings

Several Muslims (usually (extreme) fundamentalists) have in recent times started talking about "Muslim countries" or "Muslim lands" - as in "The West should stop interfering in Muslim countries/lands" usw (corollary phrase - "and if you do we reserve the right to behead you, even (or especially!) if you are only there trying to help people in need).

Fine.

There are two sides to that coin.

Try Thailand. Thailand is theoretically a secular country with a massive Buddhist majority. 84% of the population are practising Buddhists. Assume Thailand imposed a law calling itself a "Buddhist country" - essentially outlawing the right to religious dissent, obliging the believers of other faiths to follow the creed at the risk of penalties (however severe).

Thailand's second biggest religious grouping comprises Muslims, mainly in the South of the country. What would they think of such an imposition? Would they like it? Would they like the idea of being forced to believe summat else or be executed for their faith (well, I suppose that they would hence become martyrs ....)?

Buddhism has the immense advantage over the jihadist version of Islam (not the Islam practised by most of its adherents or encouraged by its leading teachers, I would add) in that it believes in persuasion not force and finding the answers in yourself with the guidance of the teachings of the Buddha - not enforcement of a set of rules by people who think that they can impose regulations no matter how severe and how severely! Peace and understanding are the principal tools of Buddhist teaching, not imposition. Anything else is bad karma and needs to be discouraged.

Europe in turn could also look to its traditions and European countries could declare themselves "Christian" countries. Spain could bring back the inquisition (including the torture of non-believers), Portugal could bring back the auto-da-fe, the UK could reintroduce the burning of heretics at the stake. Muslims of course are heretics by the definition involved here, so prepare yourself for 3,000,000 pyres to be built to deal with the problem! I am not sure why my usual calm, quiet, unexcitable, intellectual personality is suddenly excited at the prospect of Anjem Choudary being burned at the stake, but anyway ......

Of course being an atheist I would have problems myself with this (though given the time it would take to deal with all the Muslims first, we would probably get leave while they dealt with the real problem). Staying in Germany would probably anyway make sense - some 40-odd percent of people here are atheists and agnostics, so there is strength in numbers. And again there are some 4 million Muslims to deal with first (starting with the 6,000 or so Salafists).

And the mention of Germany as a Christian country recalls the religious wars in the 17th century when Catholics and Protestants proved that "loving your neighbour" was definitely not a principle to follow if they were members of the other belief system!

The best answer to all this, of course, is live and let live. An end to this nonsense about "Muslim countries" and the like ("Christian countries", "Jewish countries", "Buddhist countries" would be just as bad - you just never seem to hear much about such!), an end to "apostasy" being a criminal offence anywhere in the world, the right of all individuals to dissent.

Some hope, particularly when you see what is happening in Syria at the moment - but that should be an objective to achieve, everywhere in the world in the 21st century. Die Zeiten des Mittelalters sind vorbei! ("The Middle Ages have gone" - nearest translation I can come up with!).