just the lyrics of a song that i remebered when i saw a great pic - taken by a real nice friend

http://public.fotki.com/artistech/my_favorites/aftermath.html



Das weiche Wasser ...

Europa hatte zweimal Krieg,
der dritte wird der letzte sein.
Gib bloß nicht auf, gib nicht klein bei,
das weiche Wasser bricht den Stein

Es reißt die schwersten Mauern ein,
und sind wir schwach, und sind wir klein,
wir wollen wie das Wasser sein,
das weiche Wasser bricht den Stein

Die Rüstung sitzt am Tisch der Welt
und Kinder, die vor Hunger schrein,
für Waffen fließt das große Geld:
Doch weiches Wasser bricht den Stein

Komm feiern wir ein Friedensfest
und zeigen, wie sich's leben läßt.
Mensch! Menschen können Menschen sein:
Das weiche Wasser bricht den Stein





translation:

europe had two times war
the third one will be the last
don't give up, don't give in
the soft water breaks the rock

it tears down the heaviest walls
and even we may be weak and small
we wanna be like the water
the soft water breaks the rock

the armament sits at the table of the world
and (with) children who cry with hunger
the big money is flowing for weapons
but soft water breaks rocks

come let us celebrate peace
and show how to live, "mensch"!
humans can be human (e)/(s)
the soft water breaks the rock


music and lyrics:
Text Dieter Dehm
Hans Sanders
Stefan Hakenberg
Musik Dieter Dehm
Hans Sanders
Stefan Hakenberg

new orleans
beautiful
city of music
history
black culture

i pray for you

new orleans
beautiful
whose eyes i never saw
rhythm never breathed
and who i love anyway

i pray for you

for you
beautiful people
who didnt have the same the luck
as the lugage of their neighbours
which got out in cars

i pray for you

for you ten thousand in the dome
moms with kids, aged ones, poor ones
with no food, water, toilets, airco
so many thousands
depending on one structure

i pray for you

for you old streets and houses
with blues in your veins
soil drenched with tears
of sadness and laughter
and swinging funerals

i pray for you

for you with the big car with airco
and your smiling president
too greedy to sign kyoto treaty
dancing around the golden calf
blowing pollution into gods nostrils

i pray for you

for you New Orleans
beautiful dancing city
dancing with the death
to the drums of the storm
and the rhythm of the water

i pray for you!




peace
napomo

http://public.fotki.com/napomo/mainfolder/themesseasons_and/new_orleans/

The Military Mentality by Albert Einstein, 1947


It seems to me that the decisive point in the situation lies in the fact that the problem before us cannot be viewed as an isolated one. First of all, one may pose the following question: from now on institutions for learning and research will more and more have to be supported by grants from the state, since, for various reasons, private sources will not suffice. Is it at all reasonable that the distribution of the funds raised for these purposes from the taxpayer should be entrusted to the military? To this question every prudent person will certainly answer: "No!" For it is evident that the difficult task of the most beneficent distribution should be placed in the hands of people whose training and life's work give proof that they know something about science and scholarship.

If reasonable people, nevertheless, favor military agencies for the distribution of a major part of the available funds, the reason for this lies in the fact that they subordinate cultural concerns to their general political outlook. We must then focus our attention on these practical political viewpoints, their origins and their implications. In doing so we shall soon recognize that the problem here under discussion is but one of many, and can only be fully estimated and properly adjudged when placed in a broader framework.

The tendencies we have mentioned are something new for America. They arose when, under the influence of the two World Wars and the consequent concentration of all forces on a military goal, a predominantly military mentality developed, which with the almost sudden victory became even more accentuated. The characteristic feature of this mentality is that people place the importance of what Bertrand Russell so tellingly terms "naked power" far above all other factors which affect the relations between peoples. The Germans, misled by Bismarck's successes in particular, underwent just such a transformation of their mentality--in consequences of which they were entirely ruined in less than a hundred years.

I must frankly confess that the foreign policy of the United States since the termination of hostilities has reminded me, sometimes irresistibly, of the attitude of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II, and I know that, independent of me, this analogy has most painfully occurred to others as well. It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc.) are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts--in short, the psychological factors--are considered as unimportant and secondary. Herein lies a certain resemblance to Marxism, at least in so far as its theoretical side alone is kept in view. The individual is degraded to a mere instrument; he becomes "human material." The normal ends of human aspiration vanish with such a viewpoint. Instead, the military mentality raises "naked power" as a goal in itself--one of the strangest illusions to which men can succumb.

In our time the military mentality is still more dangerous than formerly because the offensive weapons have become much more powerful than the defensive ones. Therefore it leads, by necessity, to preventative war. The general insecurity that goes hand in hand with this results in the sacrifice of the citizen's civil rights to the supposed welfare of the state. Political witch-hunting, controls of all sorts (e.g., control of teaching and research, of the press, and so forth) appear inevitable, and for this reason do not encounter that popular resistance, which, were it not for the military mentaility, would provide a protection. A reappraisal of all values gradually takes place in so far as everything that does not clearly serve the utopian ends is regarded and treated as inferior.

I see no other way out of prevailing conditions than a far-seeing, honest, and courageous policy with the aim of establishing security on supranational foundations. Let us hope that men will be found, sufficient in number and moral force, to guide the nation on this path so long as a leading role is imposed on her by external circumstances. Then problems such as have been discussed here will cease to exist.

There is this beautiful seagul, hovering since two minutes right above my skylight ... shiny white feathers enlightend by the sun - against a clear blue sky .... only a few yards away from me ... darn, it's the one out of 4 skylights that I didn't clean (so hard to reach) ... I think she knows and I hear her giggle ;) ... it's a Laurus Ridibundus - a laughing gul!