Miriam Courage

How to select the picture...

It was of course a very difficult process.  Torn between  the happy presentability of left-over cv photos and the come-hither potential of those photos taken in joyfully compromising situations I was forced to admit to myself that this is not going to be a sexy blog. Not for me the tales of swinging in Berlin (or at least not for you!) In the end I settled for the comforting thought that if it was good enough for Lenin it is certainly good enough for me.

I am getting increasingly annoyed with those French students these days. Damn them  and their ability to organise effective demonstrations! ( Or to use the Old English: Abreode hire angin!) That wonderful German newspaper Die Zeit ran a depressingly representative special on this at the weekend, contrasting the typically apathetic yet intriguingly named German student Lux with the far more attractive leader of the French student union. Needless to say she was a bit more  punchy about things in general.

The accompanying article described us as the  'precarious generation'. I get the feeling  that if our whole generation is precarious then the French are certainly not going to be the first to topple over the edge. Apparently the  German response to the uproar in France was to organise a strike of the internees. On a Saturday in order to cause minimum upset. I feel that this does not bode well for the revolutionary potential of the German youth.

On the other hand it might be unwise to place too much faith in an article that let itself be tempted by the expressive power of an extended metaphor based around chocolate spread. Apparently we children of the 80s and 90s have grown up in Nutella-land and are now ashamed to cry 'More Nutella'. Although I am more of a Marmite person myself (excuse the shameless product placement) I can follow the logic of this. Nonetheless I am not happy wth the general Nutella reference. I ask myself is this a valid contribution to the vital debate surrounding the future of our young people? Well, precisely. More importantly I am simply unable to identify with those who are shy to call for more luxurious spreads. Should I ever feel the urge for more Nutella I am confident that I will happily cry 'More Nutella, right now and be quick about it' without further hesitation. Maybe more general gluttony is what this country really needs...

How to get published!

Check, two, three, testing, testing... O the power, the pure joy of knowing that I am writing for a potentially infinite audience, never mind that likely readers will presumably be limited to Philipp, who is already suspiciously informed about my life and those of my random acquaintances sufficiently bored to google the names of random acquaintances in a pleasingly circular manner.

Today is certainly a great day for the internet community, no doubt about it. Obviously what the internet really needs is one more self-obsessed and self-confident blogger to set the world to rights with the use of dubious orthography, so here I go...

Apparently Ms Rice has urged Iraqi leaders to surge ahead with negotiations for creating a new government. Nothing surprising there then. More surprising, however, that the BBC has this running as the big headline of the hour. Is it really that fascinating when a politician makes the precise statement they could be expected to make in a given situation? In my opinion ( which is obviously the be all and end all of things at this particular cyber-address) they should have put the 'Pakistan to move Quake-hit City' in top billing. Surely this is a far more intriguing proposition. Not only does it offer scope for endless punnning concerning locomotion, it also raises interesting questions regarding what constitutes a city. If you take a city, destroy it and then rebuild a different set of houses in a different location under the same name to what extent is it still that city? Is it enough if it has the same name and inhabitants? More importantly, how do you refer to the former geographical location of the city- 'the city formerly known as Balakot'?