I am happy to announce that my commentary about “Sex and the City 2″ is going to be published in the next issue of EMMA, the most renown feministic magazine in German speaking countries.
As announced on the Website:
“Alice Schwarzer hat für die nächste EMMA einen Kommentar zur Sache von Ana Tajder in Wien bestellt – und das Resultat begeistert uns EMMAs alle sehr.”
14 companies on Austrian stock exchange paid their share holders €2,3 Billion for the year 2008, the crisis year which cost millions of people their jobs, savings, homes, quality of life. And in which governments paid billions of tax-payers money to save banks/businesses which are again making profits that flow into someone else’s pockets.
This amount makes out 4 payment rounds for 410.000 employees at those very same companies. But these employees are still being fired or made to work “Kurzzeitarbeit” – basically working a bit less for much less money.
All together ¾ of earnings are being paid out instead of invested or kept in the company. Every second company paid more to the share-holders in the crisis year 2008 than a year before.
Noticing anything wrong?
Last week, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader resigned out of the blue, leaving his obligations towards the country and its citizens from one minute to the other. He escaped the sinking ship, many commented. Just like that. Now he is resting on his luxury yacht.
Bush destroyed a whole country of 27 millions inhabitants, killed hundreds of thousands (some estimate million) of people, all under pretence that proved to be false and just to occupy the oil fields (which were sold out to foreign investors last week). And as a reward, he is now happily retired on a ranch in Texas.
The investment bankers who invented toxic derivates and created the crisis which took millions of jobs and destroyed lives of millions of people are stealing again (look at what is happening with the oil price). The only punishment for the created crisis was sending Madoff to prison for 150 years. This was obviously just a symbolic act – other hundreds of thousands of same thieves are still stealing and earning their million-dollar bonuses.
Why is it that if I go and steal or destroy someone’s home and kill their family, I would immediately end in a prison? And those who do the same crime, but on a much larger scale get rewarded?
How can it be that the politicians, the ones who should serve and protect us, are the only group of people with a total immunity? Why are there absolutely no consequences to their wrong-doing? Shouldn’t they be the ones who should be especially critically observed and especially punished if they betrayed the people who elected them and gave them power? Why are we accepting this? When I start a job, I sign a contract – if I am not fulfilling what I promised to or if I am stealing from the company that I signed a contract with, they will fire me, even prosecute me. Why do we treat our leaders differently?
What happened to the promised regulations of the financial markets? Where were the protesters at the G8? Why are we not able to get up and force the change? Are we already totally lobotomised?
Yeah, summer is here, let’s enjoy it. After all, we have more interesting topics to thing about. For instance, what did MJ look like when he died?
Sorry, I just can’t help it. Especially since Big Eye’s “if you can see love, there is love” which I did like. Well, there must be love if I cut paprika and this is what I see. Now that we almost have had a whole love salad on this blog, I promise to stop with heart-shaped food. Unless something really fantastic appears in my fridge. Like a heart-shaped cucumber.
………………….
And here some highlights from my today’s channel skipping between NTV (German CNN), Euronews and CNN. Some of which have warmed up my lefty heart (as my editor at The Vienna Review would say):
Obama’s Stimulus Package: The House is set to vote tomorrow. The guy really wants to put $825 billion into government investments to provide jobs (and someone protested when I said that his inauguration speech sounded socialistic)
Review Globalisation I: USA, the big uncle of free trade, starts protectionism and asks Americans to “Buy American”
Review Globalisation II: British workers protest for British jobs
Review Globalisation III: Germany so spoiled by it’s immense exports that it is wondering “what now?” as exports are due to stall because of the crisis and new protectionist wave. Yeah, what now?
UK loses $5 billion due to two (2!) days of snow: Come on! What a sissy country is that?
First Iranian satellite in space: And now we should worry about an Iranian flying saucer? Well, someone still has to explain to me why one country is allowed to have weapons, especially if it is already guilty for millions of deaths, and the other one not.
Porn Airs During Super Bowl: Just as Cardinals’ superstar Larry Fitzgerald watched himself sprint into the end zone on the stadium’s Jumbotron during Sunday’s Super Bowl, 10 seconds of eye-popping pornographic imagery “flashed” across the screens of those watching at home.
And now, let me go back to the beginning: “if you see sex, there is sex”.
In this grey world I can only conclude – yeepii for porn!
Here my favourite banner after “Jump you fuckers” on Wall Street in November (see 6 Dec. 2008). It really needs no further comment.
I just read a fantastic description for year 2008:
This was a year with a never-ending “Pffffffffffffff” sound.
(by Christoph Winder in Der Standard)
Although this was an exciting year, with my book and my articles coming out and this unexpected (and bombastic) proof that the system is not healthy and needs to be changed – I didn’t like it. I am happy that it is almost over and am looking forward to a brilliant 2009. I’ll just ignore the speculations about the recession….. It all virtual, anyway.
You know what? There are so many things I am going to miss when all of this is over.
First, I am going to miss Sarah! She is a great inspiration for my oh-so-beloved sexy librarian style. I am going to miss the nest on her head and this incredible $22,000 face. She made me want to buy a new lipstick every day and dig out that pencil skirt and high heels, long forgotten since I left the business world! And she made me wear my glasses proudly. Yep, it works. Plus, with Sarah gone, my stomach muscles are going to go. Who am I going to laugh about?
I am going to miss Cindy! Every time I see Cindy, her hair is blonder and her face stiffer and I think she cannot do any other movement anymore than nod her head and throw those weird “applaud or I’m going to take my bazooka out” looks around. While Sarah is my hero in style and humour, Cindy is my hero in robotics. This woman has spent past seven (or so) months standing behind her husband, nodding! Wooow! So Stepford wives do exist?!
I am not going to miss McCain because I just feel sorry for this man. He urgently needs to retire and take a long, long, very long rest. When retired, he will have all time in the world to teach his wife some other movements apart from nodding. Probably just needs to be oiled a bit.
I am going to miss Obama! This big charmer, whose voice already sounds more familiar than my dad’s – because I hear him talk more often than I hear my dad talk. Once the campaign is over, the “charming” part is over – Obama will start “doing”. Remember that smile, maybe you will not see it after 4.11. There’s not much to smile about when you have to clean up the mess in that country. Let’s see what this will do to his personality. But whatever it does – we’ll see and hear much less of him.
I am going to miss SNL.
And jeez, if I am going to miss all of that, how do people in the
Ugh, greetings to Kafka.
And suddenly, we are all trying to understand the billions and the trillions. $ billion is a € milliarde, a $ trillion is a € billion. And if you are not confused yet, try understanding how much they really are. If a billion is a million millions then how much is a trillion? Now try putting zeroes to those numbers. Not lost yet? Try to imagine how much all the governments around the world have put into saving the economy:
G8 – The Fiasco of Change
Saturday, June 26th, 2010G8 summit has finished today. Conclusion: the financial transaction tax as proposed by the EU has been rejected. Also, we should restraint the public spending and reduce our budgets. In plain English: While rich continues being freed of paying taxes tax while getting richer, we get to save on schools, pensions, medical care, infrastructure, and other.
Great. Have we learned nothing from the financial crisis? Bravo, politicians. (Why don’t we just get rid of them?)
Please note that the news about the rejection of the transaction taxis is quite hard to find. G8 concluding that they are angry of Iran and N. Korea is so much more important.
P.S. What about the change Obama was promising? Anybody seen it?
Tags: Capitalism, Commentary, Crisis, System
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