Yes, I haven’t een blogging. I haven’t even a good excuse. Absence of unique excitement, though presence of multiple small excitements – none of which alone are enough to write about.
Christian sent some photos. He is in South America somewhere, possibly in Patagonia, or Tierra del Fuego. Vircarious excitement for me in the photographs from friends.
One of the first freelance jobs I got in Berlin was salvaging a website for Christian Ender. Over the past three years, I’ve looked after imdialog, taken care of two other sites for Christian, and he has become one of my good friends here. A couple of weeks ago he called me and explained he was being awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz for his work that these websites document over the past years.
Last Friday, he was awarded the medal by the Staatssekretär, and following that, a long lunch and many drinks with a large group of friends and family.
I am very happy for Christian to have all his work recognised — for Werner Bab and “Zeitabschnitte”, for Gunter Kroemer and “Bedrohtevölker” — and for him to receive the recognition he is due.
And at the end of the month, he departs for South America with a camera.
For some reason I decided to start using Twitter again — I suspect iPhone — and without any clear purpose thought to keep track of (some of) what I trawl through every day from the various news feeds I subscribe to. Certainly not a complete list… I wouldn’t even bore myself with that. (For those of you who like Twitter, I am here: francesdath)
Hannah Arendt And The Challenge Of Modernity: A Phenomenology Of Human Rights http://bit.ly/al0fTY
Publishing Bigotry: What Obligations Do We Have? http://bit.ly/ap8JfM
The Banksoniain #16 http://www.banksoniain.netfirms.com/banksoniain_16.pdf
From the Feuilletons (10/09/2010) http://www.signandsight.com/intodaysfeuilletons/2067.html
Insights From The Afghan Field http://www.currentintelligence.net/reviews/2010/9/6/insights-from-the-afghan-field.html
What Books on Afghanistan? http://easterncampaign.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/what-books-on-afghanistan/
Can we really say Wen is insincere? http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/09/10/7524/
You have failed us, Mr. Wen http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/09/09/7483/
William S. Burroughs’ Lost Graphic Novel Ah Pook Is Here Gets Exhumed http://bit.ly/99IVYd
Corruption in Afghanistan, Part DLXXII: Kabul Bank in Crisis http://bit.ly/bzJYzu
On Clean Energy, China Skirts Rules http://nyti.ms/crIV9P
If We Only Had Twelve Fingers http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/2010/09/if-we-only-had-twelve-fingers.html
Obama: I mean it — tax the rich http://bit.ly/d8mJZR
China’s Other Billion: Mud Houses in China’s Powerhouse http://bit.ly/aghJ9U
Being Jewish in Shanghai http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/09/being-jewish-in-shanghai-photos/62574/
Racist patriarchy in Israel, updated http://leninology.blogspot.com/2010/09/racist-patriarchy-in-israel-updated.html
‘Livelihood Issues’ http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/mirsky_09_10.html
Shenzhen Special Economic Zone celebrates 30 years
http://www.danwei.org/front_page_of_the_day/shenzhen_special_economic_zone.php
Hungary: Heterosexual Pride March http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/09/06/hungary-heterosexual-pride-march/
Thesis: That’s why they go to war http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2010/war
Book review: Goodbye to London – Radical Art and Politics in the Seventies http://bit.ly/9fBkhH
Awesome death spiral of a bizarre star http://bit.ly/crFrQH
Readin: GYP. http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003982.php
Thoughts on Inner Mongolia (內蒙古回顧) http://www.portraitofanlbx.com/2010/09/thoughts-on-inner-mongolia-內蒙古回顧/
Hu’s Shenzhen speech: the numbers http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/09/06/7383/
Israel: “Rape by deception” turns out to be brutal rape of a vulnerable and abused woman http://bit.ly/9tYI9q
Assigning a gender to be appealed
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/06/3004047.htm
Restrepo http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/09/05/restrepo/
One of the first sites I did as a freelancer was porting imdialog-ev.org from a dead cms into WordPress for photographer and documentary maker (and philosopher) Christian Ender. Imdialog! is a documentary project on Werner Bab, a Berliner Jew who was sent to Auschwitz in 1942. He survived there, as well as Mauthausen and Ebensee, to return to Berlin after the war.
Christian documented Werner’s journey through the camps in Zeitabschnitte des Werner Bab, which has been shown across Germany in schools and around the world accompanied by Werner, who would speak on his experiences.
Werner died on 31st July, aged 86.
DEUTSCH
In den Abendstunden des 31. Juli 2010 ist Werner Bab plötzlich und unerwartet friedlich eingeschlafen, wenige Wochen vor seinem 86. Geburtstag.
Die letzten fünf Jahren engagierte sich Werner Bab unermüdlich und warb für Demokratie, Toleranz und Völkerverständigung.
Mit seiner lebensbejahenden und positiven Einstellung stand er in über 150 Gesprächen vor über 20.000 Schülern als Zeitzeuge zur Verfügung.
Offen beantwortete Werner Bab die gestellten Fragen zu seinen Erlebnissen als Häftling in den Konzentrationslagern Auschwitz, Mauthausen und Ebensee, um vor den Folgen totalitärer Regime zu warnen.
Um dieses Engagement zu unterstützen wurde der Verein „imdialog!e.V.“ gegründet, welcher nun aufgelöst wird.
Diese Internetseite, das hier bereitgestellte Gäste- und Gedenkbuch sowie die in 19 Sprachen untertitelte Dokumentation „Zeitabschnitte des Werner Bab“ werden in Erinnerung an Werner Babs Wirken weiter aufrechterhalten.
In stiller Trauer,
Christian Ender
Im August 2010
ENGLISH
On the evening of July 31, 2010, Werner Bab passed away peacefully. His death was sudden and unexpected, just a few weeks before his 86th birthday.
During the past five years, Werner Bab worked tirelessly toward democracy, tolerance and international understanding.
With his optimistic and positive attitude to life, he shared his experiences of the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Ebensee, answering questions from more than 20,000 students in over 150 discussions. His aim was to warn people of the consequences of a totalitarian regime.
In order to support this endeavour, the “imdialog!e.V.” association was founded, which has now been dissolved.
The Internet site www.imdialog-ev.org as well as the guest and remembrance book will continue to be maintained to honour the memory of Werner Bab and his achievements.
On this site, one may also request free of charge the complete documentary “Zeitabschnitte des Werner Bab” (“Time Intervals of Werner Bab”). This documentary has been subtitled in 19 languages.
In deepest sympathy,
Christian Ender
August, 2010
Some uppity group called with a bad name, Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan have decided the world would be a better place if the characters for ‘Jew’ were not 猶太, you tai, which they’ve taken the liberty of extracting the radicals from and coming up with something like ‘parsimonious monkey’.
The whole thing blew up in the Taipei Times almost a month ago (still keeping to my strict regime of blogging long after anything is old news), and got covered in The Jerusalem Post also. It got really interesting though when Language Hat, a blog for linguistic geeks got hold of it, and the comments are still going strong.
Absolutely worth an hour reading if you get all wet and slippery over etymology and sinology, and enjoy laughing your arse off at the kind of people like Peacetime (sounds like decaffeinated coffee substitute) who don’t quite get that tearing a character back to its roots doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about it. The same kind of people who bludgeon 危机 crisis into its components and get “crisis = danger + opportunity’. Which Language Hat also have fun with.
south american penguin
christian ender & verdienstkreuz
Christian mit der Staatssekretär
Christian und Verdienstkreuz
werner bab
reading: hanna arendt – eichmann in jerusalem
reading: hanna arendt – eichmann and the holocaust
fiona mcgregor – strange museums
primo levi – if not now, when?
juedisches museum berlin – 1
juedisches museum berlin – 2
juedisches museum berlin – 3
juedisches museum berlin – 4
juedisches museum berlin – 5
juedisches museum berlin – 6
juedisches museum berlin – 7
juedisches museum berlin – 8
juedisches museum berlin – 9
juedisches museum berlin – 10
juedisches museum berlin – 11
juedisches museum berlin – 12
juedisches museum berlin – 13
juedisches museum berlin – 14
juedisches museum berlin – 15
juedisches museum berlin – 16