15th July, 2019: “Go back…” – these words have been used by some individuals in connection with refugees and migrants. However, if the president of the US says them, it becomes a sort of legitimising template for others. “Well, that’s what the president said, so I can also say it.” This then goes way beyond the freedom of speech. So, the effect of the same words is entirely larger when they come from the top. Everything a president says, becomes important because he is the president. We may call this “power” (with a lot of simplification). History has shown what can happen, if the people of a country are misled by their leader. Suddenly, there is a licence for what otherwise would be simply illegal. A very dangerous playing field indeed.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/741827580/go-back-where-you-came-from-the-long-rhetorical-roots-of-trump-s-racist-tweets

5th August, 2019 Today I hate to see that my worst fears are confirmed. No doubt, there is a measured responsibility of the leadership for what happened in El Paso and Dayton. You simply cannot talk as a leader in the same way you would talk as an ordinary person. 29 people are dead now because of the missing gun law review and because of the loose tongue of the leadership.

Letter from JANA Partners & CalSTRS to Apple, Inc.

A very worthwhile read for any parents of children with smartphones.

How social networks destroy the very foundation of democracy:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43465968

“The reporter posed as a Sri Lankan businessman wanting to influence a local election.

Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix was apparently filmed giving examples of how his firm could discredit political rivals by arranging various smear campaigns, including setting up encounters with prostitutes and staging situations in which apparent bribery could be caught on camera.”

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/05/meet-the-real-alexander-nix-an-interview-with-the-notorious-former-head-of-cambridge-analytica/

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48364817

“But then Facebook changed its algorithm – how it decides what to put in front of us. When social media is a big part of your life, an algorithm change can come as a shock.

Leah’s content was being shown to fewer people, and her comics started to get fewer likes.”

It is actually a scene from Novosibirsk, Russia where highly toxic chemicals from a coal-fired power station have coloured the water of a lake to look like a beach on the Maldive islands.

Of course, one must think about the presented data and not fall victim to fast conclusions. Countries with large surface areas and low populations are not necessarily big polluters.

www.facebook.com/1578640155687393/posts/2293823557502379

 

Well, I felt a bit stupid at Alex Podolinsky’s funeral yesterday. It was a well-composed and thoughtful funeral. I knew of Alex because he created & built the Ghilgai Steiner school (http://ghilgai.com.au/) which was and is very important to us. And yet, I never spoke a word with Alex and chances are, that I never met him in person. My knowledge of what Alex did and who he actually was, can only be called “fragmented”. The thing is: I don’t really know why in 28+ years I never met Alex in person. And there I was yesterday – at his funeral gathering, where his life was celebrated so beautifully. Alex had helped and influenced local farmers in somewhat miraculous ways – or should I better say “natural ways” – using bio-dynamic principles and methods. Alex was acquainted early in his life with the work of Rudolf Steiner – an Austrian-German philosopher, engineer, scientist – in short: a polymath. Alex must have had a much more thorough introduction to Steiner’s work and hence was able to use the gained wisdom in many different ways – especially in the field of agriculture by using Steiner’s bio-dynamic approach in Australia where he farmed in Powelltown, taught and inspired others.

Video recorded a Alex’s funeral celebration in Powelltown on 9th July, 2019

http://www.demeter.org.au

A Short Glimpse on Rudolf Steiner

As an engineering student, Rudolf Steiner one day saw a book in a bookshop which attracted his attention so much, that he finally bought it. It was Emanuel Kant’s famous book “Critique of pure reason”. As the young Steiner had absolutely no time left owing to his studies, he ended up taking the pages of the book out and pasted them into one of his study books so as to be able to read it during a class that did not require his attention. No wonder, Steiner later did not pursue and engineering career…. Well, Alex did apparently exactly the same during his graphology university studies according to his daughter Katrina. He also did not pursue a career in graphology after obtaining his degree.

My encounter with Steiner’s work

I was about 28 years old when my German landlady took me to open lectures in the local Waldorf Schule (Steiner School) in South-West Germany. I absorbed the talks like a sponge and I still have the notes I made then. It was the time when I began to learn how to “really live”, if you know what I mean.

From Kahlil Gibran’s classic book “The Prophet”:

And tell me, people of Orphalese, what have you in 
these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors?
     Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?
     Have you rememberances, the glimmering arches that span 
the summits of the mind?
     Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things 
fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?
     Tell me, have you these in your houses?
     Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, 
that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then 
becomes a host, and then a master?