Kein Klimaschutz mit Kohle, Frau Merkel!

Follow the (oil) money

Money is a necessary but not sufficient condition for becoming President of the United States. John Edwards, who is sadly still dithering about who to support, also lost because he lacked money. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, went nowhere even though he had money. Lots of it. He spent some $35 million of his own cash - about 110,000 for each delegate he secured. But now he is history. - Talking of history: Whoever gets elected, will have a key role to play in fighting climate change. So one monetary fact of particular interest to my mind is how much money the fossil fuel giants are paying to whom. At least as far as Big Oil is concerned, you can now find out. Check out this excellent database. Let's hope that Obama, when elected, will not follow the oil money. In fact, I wish he would return the $ 15,000 he received from Exxon. May be you can ask him to do that, John Edwards, as a precondition for finally endorsing Obama ;-). Yes, you can!

A tribute to Tribu!

Jim Libiran is an impressive and very funny guy. He nearly gave the - very proper, humourless and German - Berlinale presenter a heart attack last night by arriving late to the after screening talk of Tribu. And then, he easily stole the show! - The movie itself is not the best you will ever see (it is his first full length feature film). But Tribu, filmed with real guns and real 'gangstas' from many rival groups, is more than a good movie. It is a social transformation project and a poetry workshop. Jim says he fell in love with Tondo's gangsta rap while trying to get riot footage for his journalist job. And he is right about the rap. The stuff is great. Really expressive, really creative, really poetic. My favourite line - which of course rhymes in Tagalog - was "I am like osteoporosis - bad to the bone." - That cinema like Jim Libiran's can exist is marvellous. That it has such a hard time as, for example, practically all cinemas in the Philippines are owned by one - shall we say, not very sympathetic - owner is the tragedy of our monopoly capitalist age. So, if Tribu comes your way: Watch it. And if anyone knows how to donate to independent film making collectives in the Philippines or elsewhere - let me know! We need this voice. We need this rap. We need this humour in the search for social change.

Schweinespiesser raus - Rettet den Chamissoplatz

Es gibt wenige Orte, die ich so liebe, wie den Chamissoplatz in Kreuzberg. Vor dem 'Matto' sitzen, auf den Platz schauen, Bier trinken. Das ist das gute Leben. Als der Platz mal wieder durchsaniert wurde dachte ich noch: Hier wird nichts schief gehen. Es gibt genug genossenschaftliche Wohnungen - der Platz wird nicht totsaniert werden. Aber ich habe mich (wohl) getaeuscht. Es wohnen jetzt offenschtlich soviele spiessige Idioten am Chamissoplatz, dass der lokale Bolzplatz (auf dem ich immer mal wieder gerne mitgekickt habe) wegen "Laermbelaestigung" nicht mehr staendig offen sein kein. Kein wirklich oeffentlicher Ort mehr ist. Laerm? Kinder? Pah. Zu diesem Unfug haben einige anstaendige Anwohner das passende Plakat (siehe Bild) verfasst. Ich moechte ihnen dafuer danken. Und komme gerne mal zum Krach machen vorbei. Diese neuen Nachbarn mit zu viel Geld und zu wenig Herz sollen ruhig wieder gehen. Wer Kinderlaerm nicht aushaelt ist unmenschlich. Basta. P.S. OH NEIN!!!! Das Matto ist nicht mehr! Lest die letzten Worte des unverwechselbaren Johann Georg Scharbach hier. Es mag uebertrieben sein. Aber mir treibt das Traenen in die Augen. Ein weiteres Stueck Berlin, das ich liebte, ist nicht mehr. "Vielleicht weil ich merke, dass der Kiez sich verändert, ein Kiez in dem Bolzplätze geschlossen, Jugendliche kriminalisiert werden, in dem immer mehr Leute sich aus ihren Löchern trauen, weil sie Bestätigung erfahren von Leuten, die hier her ziehen, sich hier einkaufen und einem die Luft zum atmen nehmen und den lebendigen Kiez langsam abwürgen?"

Naumann goes social ...

In 2003 I wrote an article for the European Social Forum dispelling the myth that Germany was all green and progressive. A Red-Green government I had personally elected - and re-elected - was doing well for renewables and on Iraq. But, sadly, it was also the most neoliberal government the country had ever seen. The government enforced reforms that hurt pensioners and the poor. The government actively intervened in the labour market and sped up the spread of insecure, low wage jobs (they have been on the rise ever since and reached a new peak in 2007). Corporate power over government was clear for all to see. The government did, for example, intervene heavily in Brussels for BASF to fight against progressive regulations on harmful chemicals. They also were the political wing of VW and other German car makers when it came to regulating cars. These issues persist today. Under a Merkel government, there is much talk of fighting climate change. But at the same time, the government viciously opposes stringent car emission standards for Europe. They do this for one simple reason: German car makers are out of touch. Their cars, however pretty, are too heavy and too big to be at all acceptable in a time of rapid, dangerous climate change. - What has changed though is the tune of a certain Mr. Naumann. Back in 2003, he was editing DIE ZEIT after serving the Schroeder government. Somehow he found the time to ridicule my analysis on opendemocracy.net. He was incensed enough to imply that I was a deluded communist and sounded like Engels (whose intellectual powers, I am forced to point out, I certainly do not match). - In my view, he misunderstood many of my arguments. But so be it. More interesting is the fact, that Mr. Naumann - currently running to be Mayor of Hamburg for the Social Democrats - is today echoing many of my sentiments. In a recent Tagesspiegel interview, he bemoans the fact that some 80,000 people in Hamburg are working for poverty wages; that hotels are paying 3,50 an hour and get away with it; that 11,000 people have so called "1 EURO jobs" (which his Schroeder government created) but lack a future and decent work. He is also calling for a minimum wage now. This can only be an acknowledgement that Germans - though they are working just as hard (and harder) as in 2003 - no longer have "access to decent wages" - in part due to Schroeder's neoliberal reforms (the very ones Naumann used to defend). But let bygones be bygones. The truth is: I welcome Naumann's conversion. I want a minimum wage and I want him to be the next Mayor of Hamburg (given the awful alternative of four more years of Ole von Beust). I expect him to stop the coal plant at Moorburg to prove that he is not Vattenfall's poodle. I hope that he will get a chance to create the more social and inclusive Hamburg he now talks about. I do have to wonder though: Would Engels back Naumann too? ;-)

Please endorse Obama, John

So, Edwards apparently took my advice ;-). He will quit the race for the White House. Fingers crossed that he will do so smartly. Fingers crossed he is busy doing a deal and will be endorsing Obama. Fingers crossed he will make sure that his spot on agenda of social justice and environmental protection is strengthened as the Obama-Hillary match continues. Watch this space.
P.S. Look how both Obama and Hillary are clearly trying to get John's support. And at this eloquent argument for why Edwards supporters should back Obama not Hillary.

Hell and High Water - Bush's climate "strategy"

I didn't sleep much last night. I was too excited to see if what my US colleagues had planned would work. And it did. Beautifully. They turned the Washington Monument into a monument to Bush's criminal do nothing legacy on climate change. They sent a clear message to the Major Emitters Meeting (MEM) happening today and tomorrow in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Bush administration hosting the first major climate meeting in 2008 is a bit of joke, really. It puts the fox in charge of the chickens. While Bush pretends to care about the climate he works hard to have useless voluntary pledges replace binding targets and real action - which we happen to need. It was 4.30am by the time the web story was done and I snuggled back into bed. But I did go to bed satisfied and pleased. And with wonderful images of an American icon turned into a Greenpeace billboard in my head. Have a look at more pictures here.