Oktober 19, 2012
Does Europe become „Vasallistan“ – starting from Greece?

Part 1 + link to part 2 here - Deutsch hier

The one writing here “recently has heard from many young people, with whom he is networked in Afghanistan, how big the fear of 2014 is – the withdrawal of NATO troops.
And  - NATO is speaking once more of a “change of strategy”. When this continues like that, in 2014 a new catastrophe will hit the country – the next war of War- and Landlords – this time armed even much better. “ 42

Soon the author of these lines receives a mail: “…today’s message from A.: “ I’m in Afghanistan, but am hidden. I don’t have any contact with nobody. Because of the threats I’ve lost my family and I don’t have any idea about them” … . These are the results of “our” Peace mission. A sad story. I don’t know any more, how I could help him.”

The one writing here again addresses these and the following words to the close friend – the friar at Kabul :
“The big ignorance obverse the Afghans – I have always noted that, when I was working there.
Once I told “my engineers” – if Germany after WW2 had been treated the way, Afghanistan was treated still 8 yeaars after the invasion – in the 1960s we would have had a new war in Central Europe – most likely soon also over and above.
It cannot be, that the West there is acting lacking any responsibility!
What is still left there from humanism and charity, when they let everything go down the drain!

In my passport Kabul is my place of residence.
I’m ashamed of it being a German passport.
If I hadn’t noted this increasingly rankly performing fascism globally in these last years – I would immediately ask for political asylum at another place.
Because – here people should know best, what it means, when more and more dominos fall and the sound of battle is growing louder and louder.
Because – in effect it was Obama’s undoing, Merkel (ultimately and irrevocably?) committed with her silly “saving=austerity dogma”.
That was the ultimate weapon of Tea-Party-fascists against the US-American people.
When this is continuing like that, dear brother – then – good night.” –
That way he assails the poor spiritual brother.

The first sentence – one is increasingly more tempted to insert the Greeks and other Southern European peoples instead of the Afghans.
Ignorance is the sister of stupidity and cowardice – and – irresponsibility.
How long do the chancellor and her technically aswoon executors stand that?

The following reply of the spiritual brother – his words sound exhausted.
The answer from the one writing here:

“Dear brother,
of course I know, that you – particularly you yourself are living and working in Afghanistan since quite a long time and – I admire your work and your staying power.
Whenever I told people here about you, they listened attentively. Because – ultimately judgment day over Afghanistan and the Afghans has already been long time ago – the verdict has already been handed down.
Nobody has put it in a nutshell the way Ulli Ladurner did that in his ZEIT-article in late September 2010: “They are Incapable for Democracy! – The West Denounces the Afghans and Detracts from his own Failure (- his own Breakdown).” 6 – I absolutely wanted to get to know him and Can Mereyfrom dpa – German Press Agency, located in Delhi – there in Afghanistan and both have become close friends of mine. Ulli has had quite some trouble as a freelancer at the ZEIT for still gaining something after that article was edited.
You’re talking about thousands of containers of nuclear waste, the Russians have drowned in the Northern Sea. In our propaganda press though it’s not mentioned any more, how much oil is spilling the Gulf of Mexico everyday, because the drill hole of the Deepwater Horizon could never completely be closed and – the true radiation datas from Fukushima are as well almost completely kept secret in Western media as well.
ALL OF THEM are plundering and despoiling the planet – Mother Earth – the Americans first of all ( the Chinese, we not any less at all – all of us).
But – everybody’s just pointing a finger on the others.
Nothing is done for changing – for improving things.

Well – you’ve experienced all of them – all three totalitarian systems there in Afghanistan – the Soviets and their invasion, that gave the Warsaw Pact some 12 more years, the Taliban with their perverted interpretation of the Qur’an – now the West.
Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker and some others predicted that subtle dictatorship, which now steers us into recession or downfall long time ago.
The crazy thing about it is – Miss Merkel there is almost powerless – we’re quasi observing the implosion of the Pax Americana in real time and – we must prevent, that it becomes an explosion.

Your personal bottom lines – I deeply respect and honor them. But I have given life to two kids, I have sent into that world.
Every father – parents, who love their kids want, that they are well – that they will have chances for living a good and fulfilled life.
This isn’t guaranteed since long time.
Germany goes the most extreme way in fulfilling an ideological agenda – as it has always done within the last 90 years.
A Mafia leadership, where everything bit by bit is destroyed, what also my parents have built up with many others.
Education and experience are unconditionally punished in such a system.
Or – do you think I gained some money here in Germany after my job was cancelled in Kabul?
Most doors, I knocked on (gently, but certainly decided) weren’t even opened a bit – others were just closed in my face.
But – no particular case.

Insofar – the Armageddon, you’re describing – there will be more and more people standing up against it – they are already doing that.
It won’t be easy, but – we just have inherited that world from our children – for once quoting that phrase.
There’s a lot of truth in that – and – some incentive.

Embracing you heartily and -
With not any less cordial regards to your brothers – sf”

At another point he yet had written:
“My books regarding that – weak point analysis of the hitherto existing procedure there (in Afghanistan) and development of pilot projects with precise assessment of demands – as I could study all that for 1 ½ years on-site – not even one publishing house had the courage to edit that yet. 
Entrepreneurial risk versus Peaceful initiatives for enabling a broad discussion –
in Neoliberalism always the entrepreneurial doubt wins –
the improvement of living conditions there – rebuilding concepts between socio-economical analysis and Engineering sciences – nobody there is interested into that.
Thus – let them just be at war with one another – or – does one even not think that far any more?

Well – I suppose, we have to be afraid, that the ones, deciding there don’t even think that far any more.”


Notes:
6               http://www.zeit.de/2010/39/P-Meinungsleiter-Afghanistan
 - just German
7               http://www.perlentaucher.de/buch/can-merey/die-afghanische-misere.html - also just German - The book by Can Merey “The Afghan Misery” was edited in September 2008  - just at the time, when things moved more and more significantly towards decline. Told my colleagues from the UK and the US at Kabul about the brilliant analysis, contacted the publishing house - it rested a provincial thing - like everything there within the “international community”, that couldn’t compete with the urgence of needs at a war zone since 30 years.
42     http://anyarchitectsandengineers.tumblr.com/post/9678332168/afghanistan-indicator-for-the-system-decadence-4   and http://anyarchitectsandengineers.tumblr.com/post/9756911297/afghanistan-indicator-for-the-system-decadence-5 


„Vasallistan“ – Greece and the Primacy of Economics here



Oktober 17, 2012
Wird Europa – von Griechenland ausgehend zu „Vasallistan“?

1. Artikel, 2. hier

Der hier Schreibende – er hat „zuletzt von vielen jungen Menschen, mit denen er in Afghanistan vernetzt ist gehört, wie groß die Angst vor 2014 – dem Truppenabzug der NATO ist.
Und  - die NATO redet vom xten “Strategiewechsel”. Wenn das so weitergeht, dann wird es 2014 eine weitere Katastrophe für das Land geben - den nächsten Krieg der War-/ Landlords - diesmal viel besser ausgerüstet.“ 42

Bald erreicht den Verfasser dieser Zeilen dies: „…die heutige Nachricht von A.: “Ich in Afghanistan aber geheim. 
Mit niemandem habe ich Kontakt. 
Ich habe wegen der Bedrohungen meine Familie verloren und habe keine Ahnung über sie”….. 
das sind die Ergebnisse “unserer” Friedensmission. Traurig. Ich weiss nicht mehr wie ich ihm helfen könnte.“

Der hier Schreibende richtet diese und folgende Worte erneut an den befreundeten Ordensbruder in Kabul:
„Die große Ignoranz gegenüber den Afghanen - ich habe das auch vor Ort immer angemerkt.
Zu “meinen Ingenieuren” habe ich einmal gesagt - wäre Deutschland nach WK 2 so behandelt worden wie Afghanistan 8 Jahre nach der Invasion - in den 1960ern hätten wir wieder Krieg gehabt in Mitteleuropa - wahrscheinlich bald auch darüber hinaus.
Es kann doch nicht sein, dass sich der Westen so verantwortungslos da verhält!
Was ist dort noch von Humanismus und Nächstenliebe geblieben, wenn man alles den Bach herunterlaufen lässt!

In meinem Pass ist Kabul mein Wohnort.
Ich schäme mich, dass der Pass ein deutscher Pass ist.
Hätte ich nicht überall weltweit in den letzten Jahren diesen immer unverhohlener auftretenden Faschismus erlebt - ich würde sofort woanders politisches Asyl versuchen zu erhalten.
Denn  - hier müsste man es eigentlich am besten wissen, was es bedeutet, wenn immer mehr Dominosteine fallen und der Gefechtslärm immer lauter wird. 
Denn - eigentlich hat Merkel mit ihrem dummen “Sparwahn= Austeritätsdogma” Obama (endgültig?) das Genick gebrochen.
Das war die letzte Waffe der Tea-Party-Faschisten gegen das US-Volk.
Wenn das so weitergeht, lieber Bruder - dann - gute Nacht.“ - 
so bestürmt er den armen geistlichen Bruder.

Den ersten Satz – man kann dort immer mehr Griechen und andere Völker Südeuropas einsetzen statt Afghanen.
Ignoranz ist die Schwester von Dummheit und Feigheit – und – Verantwortungslosigkeit.
Wie lange halten die Kanzlerin und ihre eigentlich ohnmächtigen Vollstrecker das durch?

Die folgende Antwort des geistlichen Bruders - seine Worte klingen müde.
Die Antwort des hier Schreibenden dann:

„Lieber Bruder,
natürlich weiß ich, dass Ihr - Du ganz besonders - schon lange in Afghanistan lebt und arbeitet und - ich bewundere Eure Arbeit und Euer Durchhaltevermögen.
Immer, wenn ich von Euch hier erzählt habe, haben die Leute aufgehorcht. Denn - letztlich sind die Urteile über Afghanistan und die Afghanen schon lange gesprochen.
Keiner hat dies so gut auf den Punkt gebracht wie Ulli Ladurner in seinem ZEIT-Artikel von Ende September 2010: ” Die können keine Demokratie ! - Der Westen denunziert die Afghanen und lenkt vom eigenen Versagen ab.” 6- Ihn und Can Merey 7 von der dpa in Delhi wollte ich unbedingt in Af kennenlernen - sie sind beide sehr gute Freunde von mir geworden. Ulli hat nach diesem Artikel lange Zeit als freier Journalist bei der ZEIT Schwierigkeiten gehabt, noch etwas zu verdienen.

Du sprichst von tausenden Containern Atommüll, die die Russen im Nordmeer versenkt haben. 
In unserer Propagandapresse jedoch wird nicht mehr darüber berichtet, wie viel Öl noch täglich in den Golf von Mexico sprudelt aus dem nie ganz geschlossenen Bohrloch der Deepwater Horizon und - die wahren Strahlenwerte von Fukushima werden auch in westlichen Medien quasi verschwiegen.
ALLE rauben und plündern den Planeten - Mutter Erde aus - die Amerikaner zu allererst
(die Chinesen, wir nicht minder - alle). 
Aber - man zeigt nur noch mit dem Finger auf andere.
Nichts wird getan, um die Dinge zu bessern.

Nun - Du hast alle erlebt - alle drei totalitären Systeme dort in Afghanistan - die Sowjets und ihre Invasion, die dem Warschauer Pakt noch 12 Jahre gegeben hat,
die Taliban mit ihrer perversen Auslegung des Koran - jetzt den Westen. 
Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker und mancher andere haben diese subtile Diktatur, die uns jetzt in die Rezession oder den Untergang steuert schon lange vorhergesehen.
Das Verrückte ist - Frau Merkel ist da eigentlich auch machtlos - wir beobachten quasi in Echtzeit die Implosion der Pax Americana und - müssen verhindern, dass sie eine Explosion wird.

Deine persönlichen Schlussfolgerungen - ich respektiere und achte sie zutiefst. Ich jedoch habe zwei Kindern hier in diese Welt gesetzt.
Jeder Vater - Eltern, die ihre Kinder lieben, wollen, dass es diesen besser geht - dass die Kinder Chancen haben auf ein gutes und erfülltes Leben.
Das ist schon lange nicht mehr gewährleistet.
Deutschland geht wie immer in den letzten 90 Jahren den extremsten Weg bei der Erfüllung einer ideologischen Agenda.
Eine Mafiaherrschaft, in der alles langsam vernichtet wird, was auch meine Eltern mit aufgebaut haben.
Bildung und Erfahrung wird in einem solchen System bedingungslos abgestraft.
Oder - denkst Du ich habe hier in Deutschland nach meiner Kündigung in Kabul Geld verdient?
Die meisten Türen, an die ich (freundlich, aber bestimmt) angeklopft habe wurden gar nicht erst geöffnet - andere wurden mir vor der Nase zugeschlagen.
Aber - kein Einzelfall.

Insofern - das Armageddon, das Du beschreibst - es werden mehr und mehr Menschen dagegen aufstehen - das tun sie schon.
Es wird nicht einfach werden, aber - wir haben diese Welt von unseren Kindern geerbt, um hier einmal diesen Spruch zu zitieren.
Darin steckt viel Wahrheit - und ein Ansporn.

Es umarmt Dich ganz herzlich und - 
mit nicht minder herzlichen Grüßen an Deine Mitbrüder – sf“

An anderer Stelle hatte er noch geschrieben:
„Meine Bücher dazu - Schwachstellenanalyse des bisherigen Procederes dort (in Afghanistan) und Entwicklung von Pilotprojekten mit genauer Bedarfsermittlung - konnte ich ja selbst vor Ort 1 1/2 Jahre machen dort - kein einziger Verleger hat bisher den Mut gehabt, das zu verlegen. Unternehmerisches Risiko vs. Friedensinitiativen zur breiten Diskussion - im Neoliberalismus siegt immer der unternehmerische Zweifel - die Verbesserungen der Lebensbedingungen dort - Aufbaukonzepte zwischen Sozioökonomie und Ingenieurswissenschaften - das interessiert da keinen. 
Also - lass sie sich doch bekriegen - oder - denkt man schon nicht einmal mehr so weit?

Ja - es ist zu befürchten, dass man nicht mehr so weit denkt.“


Anmerkungen:

6              http://www.zeit.de/2010/39/P-Meinungsleiter-Afghanistan
7               http://www.perlentaucher.de/buch/can-merey/die-afghanische-misere.html

42 http://anyarchitectsandengineers.tumblr.com/post/8252800874/afghanistan-gradmesser-fuer-die-system-dekadenz-4  und http://anyarchitectsandengineers.tumblr.com/post/8291917781/afghanistan-gradmesser-fuer-die-system-dekadenz-5

„Vasallistan“ – Griechenland und das Primat des Ökonomischen hier

September 1, 2011
Afghanistan – Indicator for the (System-) Decadence-4

1989 and afterwards – in Afghanistan and - in Kabul
(Part 1/ PremisePart 2 , Part 3  - Deutsches Original hier )

After the withdrawal of the protecting power a weak state normally collapses. There’s no civil society and no protective legislative force as foundations of a community, which could be called stabilized or manifested in any kind. Patronage systems, which are archaically structured and that way are rooted in the community have been eradicated beforehand by the protecting power, which soon turned to become an occupying power. These structures to be called democratically legitimated within the local tribal system have been smashed in an active or rather undermined in a passive way – according to the kind and the degree of  the intervention or infiltration.
“Surface lamination” and adequate elimination of existing archaically, deeply in the community rooted patronage systems, caused by the lack of basic knowledge of time and space of politically and military active persons aren’t exceptional in these cases – they are a general rule. That way soon the protectors, acting with a completely unilateral mentally ideological approach and wanting to simply impose their “ideas” and “values” on the place and its people turn to become occupants in those moments, when people experience and live through this alienation and ignorance and start to suffer under these pains physically as much as mentally. The “alien patron” becomes a dark and gloomy invader into the privacy  of local people, who get degraded to subordinate subjects, but - who at least enjoy some kind of “home field advantage”. His own modest life at that place and in these times – and the life of his family regarded as solemn hopeful perspective, reaching into the future, that somehow enables his own survival in his descendants is endangered by the strange intruder.
In the moment of withdrawal of an occupying power, which has been dismantled in such a way mostly by itself, thus – its own incapacity the legal and power vacuum of a system of assigned local governors , that has been protected by all active and passive means before comes more and more significantly to light. The maelstrom, resulting from that vacuum soon causes the implosion of the political system. Therein all mechanisms for protecting the community – the society in a state weakened in such a way likewise implode. The citizen gets pounded between the frontlines. His life – and its value is estimated according to his stand – his social class – thus also first of all according to his possessions. In most rather weak states on the Southern hemisphere the lives of 95 and more per cent of the population haven’t got any kind of value any more in these moments of complete anaphylaxis.

 After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops this kind of vacuum is growing in Afghanistan. Powerful and – still well equipped feudal lords stream with their equally well equipped troops to Kabul for safeguarding the centralized power – and their own part of that.
Similar to Sicily in the 19th century, where feudal landlords threatened by impoverishment and loss of power unite with criminals for saving and further on keeping their power and their wealth and that way found something, that commonly is called Mafia the feudal landlords here now surround themselves again with fellowmen. The fact, that there are still enough weapons in the country – American and other Western arms on this side of the Mujahedin, who fought against the Soviets – Chinese and Soviet – finally weapons from all over the world makes everything much easier for the landlords, who now turn to become warlords. Together they have resisted the invaders – now it’s time to fight for a piece of the action. That herein always new coalitions are shaped and the change of flags – switching sides according to the own benefits is part of the game – that is quite evident in such a kind of conflict, which because of recent amount of weapons and still guaranteed floods of arms of any kind to come to the country soon then grows into a decent war. 

In Kabul the short-termed Prime minister to come soon from the Islamic Party Hizb-i-Islami commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been supported for a long time by the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in his fight against the Soviets keeps the position on the city walls high above the South of town. Rockets, fired by his fighters shall keep the troop’s movements especially of President Rabbani underneath in check. There, in the Old Town and around the Arg -  the government district, that has been built by Amir Abdur Rahman, the iron king, who united Afghanistan after the second Anglo-Afghan war in the 1880s and south-west from that – towards Darulaman district other warlords and Rabbani’s troops keep the population in check.
Darulaman is the town extension from the 1929s, which culminates in the “Afghan Reichstag “ – Darulaman Palace. This monumental final point and climax of that city extension has been constructed in a huge education and development program under the leadership of French and German architects and engineers. The rockets, mostly fired from the shoulders lacking any targeted precision cause a lot of “collateral damage” amongst the people and the buildings. Grimly lead fights in the streets and houses care for the rest. More than 60 % of the Old Town and of Darulaman District get destroyed. The human suffering  - how many people die or get crippled on the streets and in their houses – that’s not to measure at all. As already mentioned before – nobody cares anyway. 

Insofar the Taliban as a new power to install law and order 1996 are welcome by most parts of the depleted population of Kabul and other urban centers. Finally people can safely cross the streets again. Finally law and order are ruling again, safeguarding a minimum level of security and protection.
A strange kind of Afghan – insofar inverse protectionism emerges. The war torn country gets internationally isolated. Just Saudi-Arabia, some Gulf-states and Pakistan acknowledge the Taliban-Regime.
Between 1996 and 2001 the country disappears as producer from the World drug market.

Images 31-36  photos taken by the author

 

August 30, 2011
Afghanistan – Indicator for the (System-) Decadence-2

A short rapid review – straight forward: 
(Part 1/ Premise here - Deutsches Original hier)

 1955 Afghanistan went bankrupt. A request for help addressed at the US was turned down. Krushchev and Bulganin immediately appealed to help the country located at the southern border of Muslim Soviet Republics.
They started to deal with many infrastructural problems. They built the highest tunnel of the world – leading through the Salang. By that way later the tanks got transported from Tajikistan to Afghanistan – to Kabul. 
They donated a concrete housing factory to Kabul. 7000 people got employed there. 

They dealt with the immigration problems of Kabul and started to develop a master plan, which foresaw overbuilding the whole town following the Soviet model – based on the heritage of the Athens Charter. 4  The first two quarters of residential buildings consisting of prefabricated concrete slabs were named Macrorayon I und II – the same way other quarters of the same construction type got named at  Smolensk, Perm, Novosibirsk or Wladiwostok (or as well at Berlin-Marzahn or Halle-Neustadt)5Today these quarters host eminently respectable addresses – some of the town’s top choice quarters to live there. They also built the first sewage treatment plant in Afghanistan there.

The Old Town with its rural, traditional mud- / adobe-buildings, which particularly within the unification of Afghanistan in the 1880s had lived an urban prosperity got overall planned as well but remained to the greatest possible extent untouched by the clear-cut of the master plan, that got modified in different phases according to the city’s growth prospects.


In the early 1970s – at the height of cold war there was an invisible dividing line running through Afghanistan. South of Kabul the US were building roads and were taking action in improving poor infrastructure. Helmand also belonged to the US-protectorate – far out from the world public. The province of Helmand sustains the most fertile soil in Afghanistan – the richest opium-harvests are to be expected here.
Underneath are the presumably greatest Uranium resources in Central Asia, which got already mapped at cold war times.
At the end of the 1970s the resistance against the strangers, who more and more are perceived as occupants is growing more and more. They drink vodka and they even interdict many Afghans reading and even owning a Qur’an – and praying. The occupants, who furthermore try to  expel all ideal values out of the local subjects in the manner of master racists and that way want to commit them by force to disdainful materialism. The phenomenon of Islamism is growing to a further expanding movement, that also threatens to spread out into the Central Asian Soviet Republics Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and also other Republics – such as Chechnya.
Concerning power-political interests there’s nothing else for the central government of the Soviet Union in Moscow but the invasion in 1979 for accordingly quenching the blazing fire. They deploy a vassal regime at Kabul for keeping the resistance together with them under control. Only by these means the periphery of the Empire can be kept under control in the medium term.
The cold war enemy  - NATO does indeed protest vehemently against the invasion at Christmas 1979. Lately they continue with cold-war politics and support increasingly the resistance against the Soviets on the material and logistical field – they deliver arms to single Mujahedin- fighters for the equipment of their troops and their fellowmen in the fight against the system enemy – the occupants.

In the Western, the capitalist world the movement of so called “Neo-Liberalism” more and more prevails. Traced back to an interpretation of some aspects taken from the work of Adam Smith markets should let be regulated by the “magical hand.” Precondition for that is actually, that the individual, per se defined as Homo economicus – that every single human being has enough money, that enables him to participate at – and to influence the market action.
The phenomenon of Islamism isn’t perceived as a threat in the West – after all the system enemy and cold war opponent gets dragged deeper and deeper into a hot proxy war. Just at Panjshir Valley north east from Kabul Ahmed Shah Massoud fights back the Soviets with their stodgy tanks 13 times. Panjshir Valley becomes a gigantic Soviet tank graveyard.

Simultaneously the last phase of the nuclear arms race, which already has started in the 1970s in line with NATO’s double track decision becomes more and more sustainably noticeable. The military industrial complex of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact states slackens visibly. Efficiency decreases and – in single states in Europe the resistance against the Soviet power, that is sensed increasingly as an occupation power is uprising. People also in the West acclaim the strikes in Poland – the foundation of the Solidarnosc-Trade Union there and their leader Lech Walesa. 
In spring 1989 troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan. In the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev has proclaimed the politics of Glasnost and Perestroika. The country – the whole system comes to know a humbling defeat in Afghanistan. Particularly morally the Soviet Union, the world power is massively damaged. Economically the Soviet system is marching towards its ruin as well. Soviet communism has turned to paralyzed – even solidified party cadre socialism and is incapable to move towards any kind of transformation – to bring up the adequate energy, that would be essential for starting real reform processes. The “ isolated revolution without the masses” 5 finds it equivalence in the system’s incapacity regarding any change or transformation. Mediation and communication of these necessities opposite to the masses – the people trapped in the system fail. Freedom of speech, which has been achieved in the course of Glasnost doesn’t find an economical counterpart. The people rest imprisoned in a solidified apparatus – the corrupt system, that never really reached the masses – the people.

Meanwhile Deng Xiaoping, who has been reappointed yet during Mao’s lifetime has displayed the motto, that the Chinese way wasn’t a way towards capitalism or liberalism, but a way of reforms. “What we understand by ‘reforms’ is something different, which is still subject of an ongoing discussion” he says yet in May 1989. 6
When shortly thereafter the student protests on Tiananmen Square in Beijing and other – primarily student protests movements, which especially in the south of the Middle Kingdom are supported by broad parts of the population are broken down bloodily, the Chinese communist party reacts immediately: Western luxury goods, that could only be bought in so called „Friendship-Stores“ are being transferred to state-owned „Department-Stores“ and are available there by „People’s money“ – Renminbi. Soon then the Yuan – Renminbi becomes a conditioned internationally convertible currency – the second – the “shadow currency-system” of the FEC - „Foreign Exchange Currency“ becomes redundant. Already in 1992 then Deng says in Shenzhen, one of the most dynamic and most expansive special economic areas located in front of the gates of Hongkong which is still a British Crown Colony at that time, “that the biggest danger threatening China doesn’t come from the right, but from the left wing opposition, opposing the ongoing liberalization of the economy, for which the innovation of the local stock market could serve as a good example.” Further on he declares, “ that inequalities are of functional importance for growth rates and insofar private accumulation of wealth wasn’t accusable but worthy of praise: ‘Becoming rich is a great thing’” 7

The economic liberalization process in Zhonghuo – the Middle Kingdom and the limited personal freedom – the freedom of speech of the citizen, who gets more and more defined as Homo Economicus are standing in diametrical and irreconcilable opposition. 
As a migrant worker, leaving the peasant estate of his rural community, which has been stamped by Confucianism from time immemorial for working at the glittering urban centers of the new world power he will never be able to reach the little finger of the “magical hand”.  The Chinese countrywoman, whose feet are liberated from the rigorous wraps of her stand since very short time and who now produces Western export consumer goods in shifts of 12 and more hours – she will never arrive at a position, that would enable her a market participation as well. From a distance she might occasionally look over to her country’s glittering new creations of wealth during the rarely enacted pauses for recreation - letting her view glide from the hostel on the factory site on the outskirts of the metropolis to its center. 
More and more she will sense, that also at this place in the immediate range of vision the goods produced by her and her many fellow sufferers serve exclusively for the pleasure of the upper class located there. Soon she will know that – she will see images of Chinese people living in luxury and – she will look down to her feet confusedly and remember the rigorous tight wraps around her Grandmother’s feet. Then she will see her granny’s painful facial expression making some arduous tiny steps on the muddy soil of that miserable farmstead – standing there in her village from time immemorial.

Notes:
4       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens_Charter
5       http://www.manuel-friedrich.de/ab/Sozistadt.pdf  and http://www.timo-cyriax.de/uni/geo/Innere_Stadtzentren_Staatskapitalismus_Kommunismus_Sozialismus.pdf   (only German)
6       Two Revolutions – facing the Historical Balance of the Revolutions in China and the Soviet Union; author: Perry Anderson - – Lettre International 89, Berlin 2010, P. 55 (only German)
7        Two Revolutions – l.c. – P.63 – see also – The Tiananmen Papers, New York 2001, Public affairs; author.: L. Zhang, A. Nathan, P. Link
8       Two Revolutions – l.c. – P.63

Images 23-30:  photos taken by the author

 

August 23, 2011
What else is going to be destroyed - besides the Central Asian Bridge ?

The German warship and its mindless steersmen (and women) – bangsters –
me, us – and the Afghan Misery - Some more introductive words - 4  
( Links to Part 1,  Part 2 and Part 3 )

As we’re now in the last phase before the Euro crash and there are more and more people in precarious working and salary conditions – hidden in a very refined way here in Germany – it’s easy to foresee, what will happen in case of the Crash: In Germany, the country, where “austerity” and many special tricks for faking unemployment rates related to that come from with the Euro Crash more and more people will get squeezed into the “One-Euro-Job market”1 (One Euro per hour).  This “market” offers – in official terms “working opportunities with additional expenses compensation” – with other words – in reality it is a “compensated slave market”, where bankrupt entrepreneurs can push their stuff into the wrecked state welfare system for subsidizing slave workers. And – there are quite many “underpaid genius” amongst those, looking for that doubtful safe harbor – which actually looks already much more like Pearl Harbor on December 8th , 1941 than a really safe place.   
What will happen, if most Germans will rest like lemmings in front of the barrels of AK 47s, MG3s, M60s or -  whatever is used nowadays for threatening our people?
With the next emergency chute packages to be sent to Greece and to Spain or Portugal  -wherever the cashflow for covering the interest rates for the European Central Bank at Brussels has to go to and stockmarkets breaking down the scenery in Germany will be like that:
Shopkeepers and other businessmen and –women - entrepreneurs will tell their stuff, that they need to cancel their employees’ contracts and – that this was essential for keeping the job and for not going bankrupt – for “day x after the crisis”. And – they will promise to keep them busy on basis of the “subsidized slaveholder market”  - the One-Euro-Job-market for that “day x” . And - the government will tell us, that now WE even need to work harder for building up the Euro as THEIR failed symbol of European identity again. As Germans are living under this iron fist  - the iron fist of austerity and stagnant salaries despite of rising inflation since more than a decade this shock wave hopefully won’t get accepted. But - there are still many people, who will act like the “Deutscher Michel” . And  - there will be entrepreneurs – not temporary and latent, but – permanent sociopaths who will resist. They were charmed to the max by corrupt administrations on all levels of the StasiBND 2.011 system, where many examples of another archetype of German obedience are sitting -  “The Good Soldier Svejk” 3. As this guy potentially is both  - a hack as much as a mastermind, who’s able to dupe and even to outmaneuver those commanding him  - there’s some hope, that the sleeping “Michel” 2 might wake up – even before the crash – the breakdown might take place – starting from midst September with the climax towards the end of September – maybe also a bit later – towards the midst of October 2011. I’m not an oracle - just a man with a brain and a bit of a mind. 


The threat of using the German army for interior tasks was already spoken out and the change of “constitution” for making that possible already happened. I’ve seen paranoid soldiers at some places. It doesn’t matter, where they come from. Will German soldiers shoot their own people ? If there’s one dead citizen, not wearing guns – shot by police forces or by soldiers – cities will boil and more cars than ever will burn. And – soon another German terrorist fraction might evolve from that – like the Red Army fraction (RAF) 4 after 1968 student rebellions. Nobody wants that – neither politicians, nor the people. And – just some months ago the German army was changed towards a professional army – before – we used to have the draft. After WW2 the German army was rebuilt with the ideal of “The Civilian in Uniform” 5. As I already said – I’ve seen paranoid soldiers – but – I’ve seen and – I’ve talked with many more very smart and clever brothers and sisters in arms - US and UK marines as much as Germans in Kabul and Italians in Herat. It’s something completely different, if you’re asked to shoot your own people or – if you’re misled by bureaucrats, who don’t have a clue of people on the ground – whether they are in their own country or in Afghanistan and that way you get more and more paranoid. 
And – I dare say – the German army is still rooted in the civil society.
“Austerity” is at the end of the day an anti-Keynes and anti-Humanity program of bangsters reigning a corrupt market just focused on cash. Dollar and Euro bills then become more and more worthless damp cloth with numbers on them.
European Governments – especially the most influential “big leaders” – Sarkozy and Merkel – the whole financial dictatorship located in Brussels -  they have failed in creating and invigorating a European identity. And – all parties are still as slow as many people elsewhere in their way of thinking in fixed left-right, black-white schemes. Many, many alternative and integrative European concepts have been ignored by the media and the political mainstream all the time. But – they do exist. If political leaders really wanted to unite Europe – why didn’t they force bi- and trilingual programs – for example – setting the target, that in 2015  70 % of Europeans should be able to use three European languages ? Instead now Merkel and Sarkozy even try to establish a European Central Government  - just trying to serve their clients – but none of the people at all 6.
The way of leadership, they and their clients prosecute in the end leads “a Neoliberal Society” directly from the “Neo-feudal”- to the “Neo-Slaveholder-Society”. As we are free people – born free and supposed to raise our kids as free people as well and – wanting them to be free in a free World – we also want to die as free humans. 


When Paul Krugman edited his famous article “Triumph and Tragedy of the Euro” 7 in the International Herald Tribune on January 14th 2011 there was still some time left for reforms – reforms, he was urgently asking for European “leaders” from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.  Now they’ve gone too far in cheating their people.
Now – the only way forward is the (R) Evolution.
But - those, who by thwarting any progress tried to maintain their own and their clients power – what can we do to finally make their deaf ears listen to us ? 
Well – “Germans to the front” – as I heard it a couple of days ago, running up a ramp towards a bridge, crossing the Rhine here ?  I didn’t find the guy, who was shouting there – a well dressed Muslim family  - three ladies and two schoolkids and  - two of the three ladies pushing strollers just came down the ramp, when I wanted to enter the bridge.  Maybe it was this peaceful image that had caused the despair of that guy. The mob like that, running the scene – that would be a catastrophe. What can we do ?

Will people be willing to listen - to act in a respectful way towards their counterpart ?  
I used to transform a quote of Rosa Luxemburg 8 - German Revolutionary at the times of WW1 - saying that freedom is always the freedom of the dissident - “Respect is always the respect for the experience, the other one has gained.” 
A very rare thing to find these days. It was quite hard for me - a man of 47 years, I dare say - well educated - architect and urban planner, speaking a couple of languages - to explain even to my parents, that the world nowadays is a different one than the world 40 years ago. Was very hard to explain them, that it wasn’t completely my fault, that “the system” had spit me out.

And - who’s listening - who’s caring about kids any more ? There was another quote of the “Sponti-movement” - following 1968 student rebellions here: “You’ve got no chance - go for it !” - Later it was Punk, saying “No Future” and - “we’re the ones, our parents warned us against.” Now it’s altogether - and - I’m an indignant as much as the guys on Puerta del Sol in Madrid and Placa Cataluniya in Barcelona, in Chile and the Free Gaza Youth kids in Gaza, knowing, that my own kids won’t have a chance in a system of barbarianism and cannibalism - such as their father, who always protected his teams in pretty doubtful hierarchies against people, who weren’t able to listen. And – whose false kind of pride prevented, that they would pose the right – the smart questions, that could enable us to move on together – without looking for the victim – the pawn to be sacrificed. The way leading to empathy instead of homophobia.
And – saying that – I hope, I mustn’t emphasize, that I know, that I’m not an angel – that I’m just a human being sharing his ideas and his experience here, knowing, that he as a human being will always make mistakes – but – knowing as well, that only by letting these happen and working on them there’s a chance of growing. And- I’m writing my phd without having got a doctoral advisor – using the start-up money from the unemployment agency for building up my business for some bread, salt, butter and water – and some fruit. The system only offers me its bottom. Buckminister Fullers quote: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”? 9 is mostly addressed to the young these days – they are requested to get inspired by those wise words, but - what about the elders, who don’t seem to be willing to learn – also perhaps from their own kids ? 

What - if nobody listens to your new models, cause everybody’s out for quick and unilateral - black and white solutions ?
The other day I told my Mom, that she always had said to me that one won’t get gifts for granted from the others - I replied - “Well - that’s right. I know that and - I always had to work hard to get through many hassles. And - I always tried to be fair. But - today we’re one step further - today everything is taken away from us.”
Tackling the big challenges, humanity is facing here on mother Earth we have to be smarter, greener, healthier and happier – the way, Edward Glaeser describes Cities as our greatest inventions in “Triumph of the City” 10. And – that way all of us will also become richer.
But – for going there - we also have to keep in mind, what Richard Sennett is saying in “The Craftsman”:  “To do good work means to be keen, to research and to learn from inclarities.”  11
And  - we have to get listened to – as a minimum of respect. Will corrupt and weak politicians and their clients and followers be able to do that – will they be able to work with us on building Jeremy Rifkin’s  “Empathic Civilisation”  12 - on working on building that ?
Or - will they try once more thwarting everything ?
Are they in the position any more for doing that ?
German political leaders – the two highest posts  (another pretty doubtful hierarchy – sometimes people vote for their judges and hangmen – happened more than once in history)  - those two persons didn’t give birth to any children – they - and we missed quite a lot - what will other political leaders tell their children, what they had done against the decline of it all ?

We should invite them soon to listen to us – but – we won’t wait for too long.

Notes:
1          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_opportunities_with_additional_expenses_compensation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartz_concept
2          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutscher_Michel
3          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_Švejk
4          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction
5          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundeswehr
6          http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/16/merkel-sarkozy-eurozone-government_n_928436.html
7          http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-188574926.html
8          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Luxemburg
9          http://www.ted.com/conversations/4973/how_can_we_cultivate_courageou.html#.Tk19Cc1-_oE.facebook
10        Edward Glaeser – „Triumph of the City – How our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer,     Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier“ ; © 2011 Edward Glaeser, The Penguin Press, USA
11        The Craftsman – German: Handwerk - Richard Sennett; German  Edition: ©2008 Berlin Verlag GmbH, Berlin, P. 71 – transl. sf
12        The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis http://www.amazon.de/Empathic-Civilization-Global-Consciousness-Crisis/dp/1585427659/ref=pd_cp_b_1 - here there’s also a long interview with the author about that book and his thesis : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQN_13KawUw&feature=player_embedded and an RSA- animate : http://anyarchitectsandengineers.tumblr.com/post/9207193071/weweregods-rsa-animate-video-of-the-day-the

All images 8-17: photos by the author

August 21, 2011
Us – Europe – Germany – the North Americas - and the Afghan Misery

“Austerity” – and other German recipes from economical witchcraft pharmacies for saving and hailing the World - Some more introductive words -2  (Part 1 from yesterday is to be found here)

Facing the misery of other people – perhaps – like in that case - a whole country and then – after deciding to start something as ambitious as “rebuilding that country” and “helping people up –enabling them to help themselves” we first have to look on us – on the state we`re in in that  key moment, where others still pretend, that WE have arrived at the “end of history”. The question is – of whose history ?

 The Bushists in the US and their allies – their puppets and lapdogs elsewhere already had referred a lot to “thoughts and ideas” of Carl Schmitt (I wouldn’t call him a philosopher – the last great German Philosopher got mad  - he got broken by his own despair about his conceptions and – his misgivings already many years before Schmitt). Schmitt instead was called “The Crown Jurist of the Third Reich” 1 . Now with “austerity” another recipe of German origin is  spreading its way all over Western countries and their threatened declining economies. 
Fact is, that German Neo-Conservatives are reigning with the iron fist of that thwarting recipe since a decade. It’s taken from the lowest drawers with the black skull on yellow ground in their economical witchcraft pharmacy. Now – with the Euro-Crash in front of German political leaders’ ignorant foreheads these recipes get tightened all over the place. Thus, the threat of the collision of this event with multiple other moments we’re facing these days is quite big:
-     We’re facing the sizzling Chinese economy getting close to overheating – because of rising inflation the pot has to boil still on high temperature – with the water table bubbling in the pot sinking – soon the pot will be empty and will catch fire.
-     Rising inflation in China is causing all those events, the Communist Party leaders are fearing most – the riots, we’re facing these days from many exploited migrant workers in “the Middle Kingdom” 2, which is threatened to loose its core – its center - and
-     incredible real estate bubbles 3 bursting there and
-     the threat of illiquidity of the US-economy does increase enormously.
-     (Not to mention the outburst of rage in the Middle East – and Israel’s backyard war on Gaza this time - which is actually the lighted match these days – and other packed matchboxes and working striking surfaces are moving closer to each other).
-     WW 3 ante portas ?

 For now arriving at a better understanding of the consequences of “austerity” we have to look at Greece, where the people were forced for the first time now in that pre-crash phase to “tighten their belts” in that way – telling them, that there weren’t any alternatives – mostly by Eurocrits from Brussels – of course – mainly moved into that direction by Berlin and Paris – the main countries of what Donald Rumsfeld called “Old Europe” – and – where they really appreciate Rumsfeld’s quote a lot in their action.
Experienced sociologists and political scientists – even more progressive economists then already emphasized, that for building up these strict saving limits at least five years would be necessary – for doing that in a peaceful manner, without destroying the social basis – the foundations of society and that way causing poverty and maximum exploitation – unrest and – civil war. 

 The Greeks, the Portuguese, the Spaniards – they all have one thing in common – they deliberated themselves very late from fascist dictatorships in the 1970s – older people are paranoid by the memory of that – most younger people don’t have anything to loose any more anyway. And – the Irish – the most Mediterranean Northerners – (just great people – love them) – they more or less overwhelmed their basic conflict between Catholics and Protestants with “New Economy” rising – after 1989. Thus – people everywhere in these countries have a lot of bad feelings about dictatorships and suppression – but also about unrest and war – all that they still feel in their bones – their memories – their family histories. It frightens many people to death there, that these times could return – perhaps even in a more evil manner.
I won’t mention Italy as another key country here now – that wonderful place where the lemons blossom and its people – I’ll return to that more often later.

 Germans  - our “leaders” have always in the 20th century followed ideologies to the max - they were the most cruel fascists as nazis, they were the severest and most obedient communists as stasi spies in the East and - nowadays they are the most pretentious “Neo-Liberals” - thinking, that the markets will be ruled by the “Magical Hand” - thus - denying any kind of responsibility for their action - their leadership. And – abusing this lack of transparency caused by that they are erecting their kind of “Mafiagarchy” – a very German kind of that. Thus – they are opening the backspaces for all kind of deals between the political façade and entrepreneurial dictatorship – misinforming people by more and more censored media and – playing the “business as usual” comedy for their citizens. “Everything’s fine”  -  “everything’s stable” – that’s the leitmotif of that totalitarian message system for people to pay the bills of authoritarian and incapable politicians. Nowadays we’re facing StasiBND 2.011 and – we have to prevent StasiBND 2.012 to be prepared these days. 


3        Kids in Kabul’s Old Town burning rubbish on a “Maidan area” – urban wasteland caused by the civil war 1990-96, where about 60 % of town got destroyed – especially there in these exposed old quarters.    

In Germany salaries are stagnant since more than 10 years. My branch – architecture and urban planning - got already totally destroyed last ten years - in my county – one of the 16 Federal Lands or provinces or states here in Germany 5 we got 17 million inhabitants and as many architects as in the whole of France with 65 million inhabitants. A benefit for “entrepreneurs” (the French word G.W. Bush was missing once) for lowering salaries on deregulated markets since more than a decade.

This development, which now is taking place in many other branches as well continues to destroy the basis of any democratic society - the middle class. And it’s proceeding with an incredibly ignorant force. Most Germans instead are paranoid these days – mostly because of their collective memory, having faced the most accurate and refined ways of erecting dictatorships – many others are just watching and turning around – business as usual – stability – of their currency and their wealth is the reigning principle. Whatever it might cause. Still there’s about ten per cent of the population profiting from the system.

 Insofar – what I’m writing here also contains a warning  - and an appeal to the people in the US and the UK. The subprime Crisis in 2008 hit man people in your countries hard – much harder than many people here in Central Europe can imagine. Many of you have lost everything and perhaps you just regained a modest kind of wealth and lifestyle again in the last three years. Maybe you just got up on your knees again. Many of your kids instead know, that they don’t have to loose anything – and – they fear, that you – and them soon might get robbed again. And – many people – Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, who did their jobs understanding that as a humanitarian act – working there with their own deep faith into Democracy and the values of our countries – people like Bradley Manning - Buddhika Jayamaha, Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier, Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy, the seven who edited “The Iraq War as we see it” four years ago in the NYT 7 or – Mike Prysner 8 – and – I would even add Stan McChrystal here – the dismissed General from Afghanistan, who once was overstretched and then – perhaps with his blood sugar a bit low was trapped with some bad words about DC administrative leaders and a Rolling Stone Reporter catching those up -  we all know better - we all have seen – and experienced more - working at and behind the frontlines.

“Austerity” can only be accomplished by tough threats. 
We should try to prevent the decline – the destruction of our democracies – together – by all means of civil disobedience – of peaceful protest – until the very end we should take action and unite and fight back – without any arms – just with our physical and mental presence -  for creating a better World for our kids – and us – wherever we are – and – wherever we want to be.


4        Girl’s in Kabul’s Old Town – Murad Khane – a quarter – a place, that will be mentioned more often here – the smaller sister of the girl on the right jumping over the fire.



Notes:
1          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schmitt
2          http://roarmag.org/2011/08/thousands-of-chinese-revolt-against-state-authority/
3          http://anyarchitectsandengineers.tumblr.com/post/7074884271/climateadaptation-heads-up-china-just
4          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesnachrichtendienst
5          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_Germany
6          http://www.bradleymanning.org/
7          http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19iht-ediraq.1.7168564.html?pagewanted=1
8          http://anyarchitectsandengineers.tumblr.com/post/7334880945/buffleheadcabin-we-need-to-wake-up-and-realize
9          http://jackson.yale.edu/general-stanley-mcchrystal-us-army-ret-joins-yale-faculty-senior-fellow-jackson-institute-global-af-0  and - http://www.businessinsider.com/will-america-turn-to-stan-mcchrytsal-2011-8     

Images 3 and 4 - photos taken by the author

April 27, 2011
Düsseldorf 2011 – Stadtentwicklungskonzept 2020+ - Anspruch und Wirklichkeit

Die Landeshauptstadt Nordrhein-Westfalens, des bevölkerungsreichsten Landes der Bundesrepublik Deutschland stellt sich im Frühjahr 2011 als blühende, weltoffene Metropole dar. „Stadttraktiv“ – so lautet das Motto, unter dem sich die Stadt mittels ihrer Werbekampagne auch und besonders im Internet präsentiert.1

Das „Stadtentwicklungskonzept 2020+“ des Stadtplanungsamtes der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf wird mit den optimistischen Überschriften „Wachstum fördern, Zukunft gestalten – Beiträge zur Stadtplanung und Stadtentwicklung in Düsseldorf“ untertitelt. Das Titelbild der 230 Seiten starken Expertise stellt mittig vor graublauem Hintergrund das hellblaue Band des Rheines und den ihn primär rechtsrheinisch flankierenden Düsseldorfer Stadtgrundriss dar. 

 Abb.1 

Die mit einer dünnen mittelblauen Linie markierten Umrisse - die Stadtgrenzen sind jedoch nicht mit dem Grundriss – mit Häusern, Straßen, Parks, Gewässern und anderen abstrakten Zeichen, die so einen Stadtplan bilden gefüllt, sondern einzelne farbige Quadrate zeigen darin Insignien der Stadt – und wohl auch der Planung, die da eben auch dem Konzept 2020+ zugrunde gelegt wird. Die komplementär - rot und orangerot, mittel- und türkisblau, grün und gelbgrün -  leuchtend durchgefärbten quadratischen Fotos zeigen in sich überlagernden Bildausschnitten unter anderem die Landmarken der modernen Stadt. Die markante Steilheit des Drei-Scheiben-Hauses – des Thyssen-Hochhauses, das hier auch noch das ThyssenKrupp-Logo aus den Jahren der Jahrtausendwende trägt strukturiert den nördlich des sogenannten Rheinknies gelegenen Bildteil – dort, wo Derendorf, Golzheim, Stockum, Lohausen und Rath – also die nördlich vom Zentrum gelegenen Stadtteile liegen. Das elegante, von den Lokalmatadoren Hentrich, Petschnigg und Partner (HPP) entworfene und 1957 bis 1960 realisierte Haus wurde einst als eines der schönsten Hochhäuser der Welt bezeichnet und – die perspektivisch überhöhte Streckung der versetzten Wandscheiben erzeugt auch auf diesem Stadtbild eine gliedernde und markante Präsenz. Eine gleichfalls signifikante, strahlend weiß geputzte Siedlungszeile und ein Bildausschnitt von einem Kinderfest mit Ball spielenden Kindern und Jugendlichen und jungen Eltern auf dem Gustav-Gründgens-Platz vor der sanften Rundung des gleichfalls strahlend weißen Schauspielhauses bilden den nördlichen Abschluss des grün-blau-grau-roten Stadtbildes. Im Zentrum des den Stadtgrundriss überlagernden Bildes – an der Auswölbung des Rheinknies - dort, wo Bilk, Unterbilk, Hamm und der Hafen liegen stehen ein junger Mann und eine junge Frau im Büro – er trägt ein weißes Hemd und wendet dem Betrachter seinen breiten Rücken zu, die neben ihm im Profil stehend abgebildete junge Frau ist knapp zwei Köpfe kleiner als ihr vermeintlicher Chef. Sie trägt einen Rock und darüber gleichfalls eine weiße Bluse. Die Bildgrenze zum schlanken und steilen Profil des Drei-Scheiben-Hauses liegt im Bereich der Altstadt – am Hinterkopf des Büro-Vorgesetzten. Eine mit Graffiti versehene Wand – wahrscheinlich die Skate-Rampe auf dem Gustav-Gründgens-Platz zwischen Schauspielhaus und Drei-Scheiben-Haus wird da ganz kurz angerissen. Das blaue Band des Rheins indes zerschneidet das zentrale Bürobild – auf der gegenüberliegenden Seite stehen zwei andere junge Menschen - wahrscheinlich Mitarbeiter – ein junger Mann im dunklen Hemd oder Sakko wendet den Kopf zu einer blonden jungen Frau – diese blickt mit relativ starrer Miene und verschlossenem Mund den hinter Chef oder Teamleiter und Angestellten postierten Betrachter an. Der gesamte linksrheinische, auf Heerdt, Lörick, Ober- und Niederkassel gelegte Bildausschnitt wird durch den Hintergrund des zentralen Bürobildes mit diesen beiden Protagonisten bestimmt. Es scheint sich um ein junges Büroteam bei einer informellen Besprechung zu handeln – die Atmosphäre scheint vertraulich und diskret – gleichwohl zeichnen sich die scheinbar vordergründig flachen Hierarchien – auch im Geschlechterverhältnis deutlich und markant ab: Männer – insbesondere Vorgesetzte als Entscheidungsträger haben einen breiten, reinweißen Rücken – Frauen sind eher brave und ehrfürchtige – man ist geneigt, zu sagen - stumme Mitarbeiter.
Östlich vom zentralen Bürobild stellt der von einem erhöhten Standpunkt, gleichsam in Vogel- oder Hubschrauberperspektive betrachtete Fernsehturm am Rheinufer in abendlicher Beleuchtung eine weitere gliedernde Vertikale als Insignum des modernen Düsseldorf dar. Das über Flingern, Düsseltal und Mörsenbroich bis nach Eller, Vennhausen und Gerresheim gelegte Bild findet in Rath, an der nördlichen Stadtgrenze dort seine rot gefärbte Entsprechung mit zwei Beinpaaren. Von weißen Hosen bekleidet, die Füße in Höhe der Spitze des Fernsehturms abgestellt zeigen eine „Dame und ein Herr ohne Oberkörper“ – der ist jenseits der Stadtgrenze und also bildhaft abgeschnitten – dass man da in Düsseldorf „mit beiden Beinen im Leben steht“. Zum östlichen Stadtrand hin – nach Ludenberg und Hubbelrath die Balkonzeile – die Rückansicht einer weiteren weiß strahlenden zweigeschossigen Gartenstadtzeile, die sich in die Tiefe des grün durchgefärbten Bildraums erstreckt. Südlich der Dame im Rock  -südwestlich vom Fernsehturm werden Flehe, Reisholz und Holthausen mit der jugendlichen Düsseldorfer Stadtfigur – dem Radschläger übermalt, der dieses sein Rad auf einem Hinweisschild für einen den Kindern vorbehaltenen Spielplatz schlägt. Östlich davon, wieder eine Bildlinie als trennende Diagonale aufnehmend der geneigte Kopf einer jungen Frau in Dreiviertelfrontalansicht. Das Bild dieser Dame, das sich – wie alle anderen Bildquellen auch am oberen oder unteren Rande des Titelbildes komplett wiederfindet zeigt eine junge, gleichfalls hellhaarige Frau. Ihre randlose Brille, der vorgewölbte, nur zu einem Spalt geöffnete Mund, die schräge, ca. 15 ° geneigte Haltung des Oberkörpers, der entsprechend am Betrachter vorbei gehende, aus unter halb geschlossenen Lidern hervorlugende Blick, der Kopfhörer – das leichte Headset über den blond melierten, leicht gewellten Haaren, die zu einem Plisseestoffgeraffte Bluse -  leicht seidenmatt schimmernder Stoff mit eher zurückhaltendem Dekolleté -  die Lederkette darüber mit dem großen Herzanhänger – dies alles vermittelt einen spielerischen - aber professionellen, einen jugendlichen – aber seriösen und abgeklärten, einen kompetenten – aber lockeren, einen durchaus erotischen – aber nicht anzüglichen, eher spröden und zurückhaltenden Charme im Sinne von „Cool, hip und sexy sein“.
Dieses Benrath und Hassels überzeichnende Stadtbild wird im das dörfliche Urdenbach und Garath und Hellerhof im Süden überlagernden Bildausschnitt noch komplettiert: Im Sommerlicht hocken dort einige junge Leute zusammen und unterhalten sich – der Hinterkopf eines jungen Mannes mit lichtem Haupthaar im Vordergrund ist einem anderen kurzärmeligen jungen Mann mit dunklen Haaren und gleichfalls dunkler Sonnenbrille zugewandt, die Dame neben dem Kahlkopf im Vordergrund scheint die Freundin oder Lebens-(Abschnitts-)Gefährtin desselben zu sein und dreht ihre blonde, leicht gekräuselte Mähne gleichfalls zu dem Mann, dessen Augen hinter dem verdunkelten Glas verborgen sind und dessen Blick leicht am Betrachter vorbeizielt – weiter im Bildhintergrund steht ein anderer junger Mann – sein teilnahmsloser Blick gleitet über die Gruppe hinweg auf die andere Rheinseite hin und – im äußersten südöstlichen Zipfel von Hellerhof ist noch ein dunkles – womöglich gar ein dunkelhäutiges Profil im schattigen Bildvordergrund angerissen.
Düsseldorf ist also cool, jugendlich, frisch, sauber, hip, sexy, abgeklärt, spielerisch, nett, professionell, freundlich, seriös, kompetent, kreativ, tolerant und flexibel – eine Stadt, in der saubere und ehrliche Kommunikation gepflegt wird, in der junge Menschen als Partner leben und arbeiten – eine überaus attraktive Stadt – weltoffen, elegant, chic und - „stadttraktiv“ eben. Eine Stadt zudem, die immer wieder als hip bezeichnet wird – im Internet, bei irgendwelchen „Städterankings“ wird sie häufig als eine der attraktivsten und lebenswertesten Großstädte in Deutschland – gar weltweit gepriesen. Eine Stadt, die so ganz ohne jeglichen Makel – blühend weiß geradezu daher zu kommen scheint. Oder auch – wenn man dem Titel „Stadtentwicklunskonzept 2020+“ folgt – eine Stadt, deren Ziel es ist, so und nicht anders zu sein – oder eben – so, und nicht anders zu werden. Eine Stadt wie aus dem Bilderbuch – oder doch eher – eine Stadt, wie aus der Truman Show, jenem Film von Peter Weir aus den 1990ern, der eine amerikanische Stadt beschreibt, die die Kulisse für das Leben eines Serienhelden – des von Jim Carrey gespielten Versicherungsangestellten Truman Burbank bildet, der scheinbar als Einziger in dieser Stadt nicht weiß, dass er eigentlich nur eine Erfindung des Regisseurs ist und – dass die Stadt eben nur die Kulisse für einen Film ist, 
der da sein Leben abzubilden scheint ? 2

Im Folgenden sollen hier also (Rechts- und Verfassungs-) Anspruch von Realität – den Menschen, den Bürgern der Stadt Düsseldorf in ihrer Vielheit und eben explizit – ihrer Bedürfnisse, ihrer Wünsche, ihrer Erwartungen – ihrer gegenwärtigen Hoffnungen – ihrer Sorgen und Nöte  – und damit auch ihrer Ängste und Befürchtungen für die Zukunft immer wieder anhand dieses „Stadtentwicklunskonzeptes 2020+“ und verschiedener Fallbeispiele dem (Rechts- und Verfassungs-) Anspruch von Planung gegenübergestellt werden.
Wie wirken einzelne Projektionen von „Wirklichkeit“ sich dabei aus – „auf dem Grund“ – auf dem Boden der vielschichtigen Realität (-en), die da Stadt und ihre Bürger in ihrer Gesamtheit und ihrer Vielschichtigkeit bilden? Wo also liegen Schnittmengen – wo liegen Berührungspunkte der verschiedenen Ebenen, in denen sich da Planung abspielt – mithin der Handlungsebenen, auf denen die verschiedenen Akteure von Planung sich bewegen? 
Planung -  um dies nochmals explizit voranzustellen -  Planung wird damit per se als Erzeugung von Realität betrachtet. Diese wird mittels der Projektion einer gegenwärtigen, aber natürlich auch aus vielen Bewegungen der Vergangenheit resultierenden Wirklichkeit erzeugt, die wiederum durch hypothetische, aus Beobachtung und/ oder – empirischer Forschung und entsprechender Analyse gewonnen wird und sie generiert somit ergo ihren Handlungsraum – mithin die Legitimität – also die Rechtschaffenheit ihres Tuns und Lassens – besser – der Handlungsspielraum der verschiedenen Akteure von Planung wird so entsprechend hergeleitet.  In diesem Zusammenhang ist jedoch gleichsam zu fragen: geschieht diese Definition des Handlungsspielraums von Akteuren im Bereich jedweder Planung von ihnen selbst oder – um entsprechend auf § 1 des Grundgesetzes der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zurückzukommen – wer ist da der Souverän, der da die (Staats-) Gewalt ausübt und somit ermächtigt ist, Planung von Zukunft wirksam in der Gegenwart zu gestalten ?
Wo indes also – um auf den vielmehr kleinteiligen Maßstab der Düsseldorfer Stadtplanung zurückzukommen – wo  wird da gar willkürliches Wunschdenken zugrunde gelegt und also – „Ausgrenzung“ und  - „Gentrifizierung“ quasi zum Werkzeug von Stadtplanung und eben – Stadtentwicklung – auf dem Grund, dem Boden der Realität und entsprechend durch das „Stadtentwicklunskonzept 2020+“ auch weithin legitimiert?  Und – wie sieht dies in kurz-, mittel- und langfristiger Hinsicht aus – wie wirkt sich dies aus im Stadt- und im Rechtsraum ?
Wo also wird da ein „Wunschbild vom Bürger“ – vom citoyen erzeugt und – zu welchem Anteil reflektiert dieses „Wunschbild“ die Realität welcher Teile der Bürgerschaft einer deutschen Großstadt im Jahre 2011  - wo und wie wird dieses gar zum Maßstab jeglicher Planung und - wie wirkt sich dies (stadt- und rechts-) räumlich aus ? Welche (planerischen) Werkzeuge setzt eine entsprechend ermächtigte Stadtplanung zur kurz-, mittel- und langfristigen Etablierung und Konsolidierung ihrer solchermaßen definierten Ziele ein ?
Anspruch und Wirklichkeit sind also hier immer wieder gegenüberzustellen und – die entsprechende Auswertung dieses Vergleiches soll mithin zu neuerlichen Zieldefinitionen führen. Dabei soll das Gesamtkonzept der Düsseldorfer Stadtentwicklung auch in der Relation zu vielerlei anderen Beispielen – aus der gegenwärtigen (Markt-) und Bedarfsanalyse von Staat und Gesellschaft – Kommune und Bürger im Euroraum 2011 heraus immer wieder neu verortet werden. Letztlich geht es also darum, zu verdeutlichen, wo wir stehen und – wo wir hingehen und – wo wir die ausgetretenen Trampelpfade verlassen und neue Wege ebnen sollten. Neue Wege, die vielleicht eher von wiedergefundenen Spuren flankiert werden – oder eben – wieder gefundene Spuren, die sich auf diesen Wegen finden und – die es zu entdecken und – zu lesen – also zu entschlüsseln gilt. 

Anmerkungen:
1       http://www.forumstadtmarketing.de/projekte-und-referenzen/alle
2       http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Truman_Show

Abbildungen:
1       http://www.duesseldorf.de/planung/veroeffentlichungen/020_stek_lang.pdf

 


 

April 27, 2011

Im Sommer 2010 kehrte ich nach eineinhalb Jahren Arbeit in Afghanistan - im Rahmen eines Regenerationsprojektes für einen Teil der Altstadt von Kabul mit einer britisch-amerikanischen NGO nach Deutschland, in meine Heimatstadt Düsseldorf zurück.

Bald darauf gründete ich ein Büro für Projektentwicklung - ANY Architects and Engineers. Hier dachte ich, alle Erfahrung einbringen zu können, die ich auf den verschiedenen Feldern von Architektur, Städtebau, anverwandten Ingenieurswissenschaften, Stadtbaugeschichte und anderen, daran angrenzenden Bereichen gesammelt habe.

Stadtsoziologische Feldforschung - Deutschland - Afghanistan” wurde bald dann zum Thema - auch für diesen Blog. Darunter werden folgende Schwerpunkte behandelt:

- die Stadtentwicklung im “Rechtsvakuum eines Nachkriegslandes” -
Standortvor- und -nachteile im Sinne der Typologisierung und - der Eigenlogik der Städte - Vergleichsstudien Kabul - Herat - Kandahar und - Großraum Düsseldorf - Köln - Ruhrgebiet 
zu Berlin und München und anderen Großräumen in Deutschland - 
Zentrum und Peripherie - Kern - Schale - Region - 
Analogien und zeitliche / räumliche Verschiebungen.

Klimaveränderungen hat es zweifelsohne immer gegeben. Die Beschleunigung vieler bisher nur eher marginal ursächlich geklärter Phänomene jedoch ist ein Fakt, dem wir nicht ausweichen können. Letztlich liegt also dem ganzen, hier bald dargebotenen Konzept meine Überzeugung zugrunde, dass “der Westen” als jene “globale Region”, die den Klimawandel in seinem langen Prozess der Industrialisierung massgeblich verursacht hat auch dafür verantwortlich ist, nachhaltige und zukunftstaugliche Lösungen für jeden anderen Ort auf dieser Welt zu entwickeln - jeden Ort also, der dem beschleunigten Druck und den daraus resultierenden Bedrohungen dezentralisierter industrieller Produktion ausgesetzt ist. Und - dass bei der Projektentwicklung mit örtlichen Nachbarschaften hier und dort auf Augenhöhe “Win-win-Situationen” für alle Beteiligten erzeugt werden können.  Das heißt entsprechend auch, dass alle in einen effizienten Prozess der “Heilung von Orten”, die da durch die vielen Nebenwirkungen der sogenannten “Globalisierung” in Mitleidenschaft gezogen werden eingebundenen Kräfte davon auch profitieren sollten.

Insofern sollte das Ideal der “Sozialen Stadt im Klimawandel” als Zielvorgabe auf pragmatische Art und Weise verfolgt werden - sowohl für “schrumpfende Städte” im “Norden”, als auch für explosionsartig wachsende “Megacities” im “Süden”. Dieses Ziel kann nur mittels der multiplen Wege flexibler Verhandlungen erreicht werden. Denn - wir teilen nun einmal eine gemeinsame Welt - eine gemeinsame Um- oder besser - Mitwelt und - wir leiden dadurch bedingt unter den selben Symptomen derselben Krankheiten - wo immer wir sind und - wo immer wir sein wollen.

Stefan Frischauf -  Düsseldorf, den 27. April 2011

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