Where Begins Violence? Daring A Deconstruction

Preventing injustice especially if it contains violence against weaker ones isn't a quixoticly mystified habit. It should be the natural reflex of each and everyone who follows the principles of human rights. No one is obliged or even able to collect all the crimes of violence which are happening - tragically too many are still committed. Therefore we tend to focus on a special sort of violence or a certain region where it occurs or a certain class endangered through it hoping for the time every single coordination group reports the successfull and lasting victory over violence so finally only the reasons causing it have to be fought.

Being a threatening tool of sway and usurpating power violence has some kind of fundament where it's gonna built up throughout human history. The armed force a regime for example uses against his own people to suppress a freedom movement belongs to the most unscrupulous ones cause it threatens the existence of the rulers' status quo, in nearly all cases lording over the population with the help of a corrupt, elitist minority embedded in the right positions. It's a coordinated and instrumentalized violence we, the representants of basic human rights, feel to fight against with all possibilities given to us. Same applies for oppression of minorities, religious groups, social underprivileged, elder generations, women, children .. and the closest circle consisting of work colleagues, fellows, friends and family members.

No one's getting full credibility demanding the end of violence against a certain group while beating his own children under the label of education. Real non-violence leaves the most effective impression exemplifying it to the others through one's own life. And real non-violent behavior contains also the historic compromise to tolerate - without supporting it - violent measures of rebellious fractures and/or third parties to prevent a humanitarian disaster including in the worst case a genocide. Was Rwanda preventable? Or Hama before? Barely, inter alia due to the development status of mass technologies in '82 and their global spread in '94. But today in each corner of our planet individuals are provided with handycams and smartphones, nearly always connected to the web and for this reason able to watch and record tendencies towards mass murder or similar cruelties.

Ok, I'm sure the overwhelming majority of us is not beating their kids for a bad school grade or their wives for coming home too late - my glass stays half-full.  But what about the more or less subtle forms of violence in our daily lives we are in the meantime mainly unconsciously exposed to?

Example 1: queues. Under the 'first comes first serves' aspect to be regarded as a source of subtle violent outbreaks - fascinatingly short after another cashier has opened. Sub-genre ski lift: an extraordinary place to study mass behavior. Not only if classic ski riders and boarders collide. Cross category bumper-to-bumper traffic jam: a place where every involved one's patience is been proven. Except to the last genre no lethal cases reportedly known by now.

Example 2: road traffic. No cliché, insightful reality, at least in Germany. The moment even truly peaceful natures becoming kind of taking everything a bit too serious - too fast, too slow, why is this douchebag in front of me turning to the left while blinking to the right etcetera etcetera. A tendency to aggression and therefore possible violent consequences. Lethal cases on a high level even if the yearly's collision rate is reduced to the proven cases of aggressivity.

Example 3: administrative offices. The number of violent assaults committed by frustrated applicants has increased in the last years. A disturbing trend where the civil servant is reduced to her or his position in the mind of the perpetrator. First cases causing severe injuries reported. Some offices have reacted now 'demilitarizing' work places and bureaus by keeping sharp, combustible or heavy objects out of the clients' reach.

Example 4: train and metro stations. Victims are mainly no longer individuals becoming 'ones of those' regarded as welcomed outlet for the exploding cocktail of reflected anger and frustration and boredom. Lethal cases in alarming regularity reported in the last years.

Of course acts of solidarity and togetherness are happening in the foresited places too; the readiness to help others is more than mentioning it worth, but the shadow of the deeds of some who've lost temporarily their self control will always subduct the energy of the good actions, even if they appear several times more, like the drop of oil which is able to contamine a huge ammount of drinking water.

Everything's linked up and many of it has to be discovered or simply brought back into the minds. The subtle violence is like the seedling while the mental and physical violence's expressed through the blades of grass ranking visibly up. We all want soon a non-violent world? Then we have to sharpen our view for the complete spectre of violence. Every attempt to end it in its' subtle forms is an attempt to scotch it. And every successful counter measure preventing or defeating it is like extracting the next level of violence the oxygen.

Living a complete non-violent life on all ranks and levels means neither an overburdening life as an enlighted devotee nor is it unrealistic. By focussing the awareness in every direction containing the potential for violence and by perceiving subtle violence as precise as perilous one we may soon be able to resist every seduction acting (un)consciously violent. No longer playing (un)willingly the 'Master And Servant' game. No longer feeding the beast instead of fighting it.

Maybe together with the consquent elimination of violence out of the homes, the neighborhood, the environment and finally the whole world the moral courage may increase again. Violent orientated human beings rely on the percentage of silencers and those looking away. The bigger the group of individuals becoming in a life threatening situation impassive the better for the delinquents. Tragical consequence of a growing lack of moral courage are situations in which minors broken into ice or fallen into seas hadn't been rescued although several dozens adults were standing around not able to react in the right moment. Even if our first emotions are beyond comprehension - one of the explanations for the phenomenon of the sudden collective inactivity is the decrease of the courage to stand up for one's beliefs.

And if anyone needs now still an argument: non-violence never hurts. Doesn't mean that a non-violent actor doesn't risk getting hurt through an attack of an offender unwilling to unarmed dialogue. Coming into the terrain of self defense. An own post worth ..

Hajj 2011 - Bilder Einer Pilgerreise

Der Fernsehapparat läuft bei mir gelegentlich im Hintergrund, während ich schreibe oder Grafiken gestalte. Stört in dem Fall nicht, da ich ebenfalls Bestandteil einer polykommunikativen Generation bin, der imstande ist, durch parallele Wahrnehmung den einen oder anderen Konzentrationsknoten seines jeweiligen Hauptaufgabenbereichs auflösen zu können. So auch gestern am frühen Abend, als Pro 7 sein Wissensformat Galileo - benannt nach einem grossen italienischen Entdecker - auszustrahlen begann.

Es folgte eine gut halbstündige Reportage über die diesjährige Hajj, die Pilgerfahrt an die Heiligen Stätten in und um Mekka. Dem Reporterteam ist es tatsächlich gelungen, Aufnahmen während der Reise drehen zu dürfen - auch wenn das kurzfristige Drehverbot im inneren des Heiligen Bezirks um die Kaaba beinahe schon zu auffällig dokumentiert sein mag, einziger Kritikpunkt meinerseits.

Die Intensität der Bilder ist wirklich beeindruckend und vermittelt selbst dem Betrachter, der sich bis dato noch nicht wirklich mit der Religion des Islam beschäftigt hat, gerade durch das subjektive Erleben des Reporters, der hauptsächlich als Pilger denn als Berichterstatter unterwegs war, gemeinsam mit den objektiven Aufnahmen 'hinter den Kulissen' - Organisation, Sicherheit, Logistik etc. - einen durchaus klaren und dennoch nicht zu aufdringlichen, wohlmöglich entweihenden Einblick in den spirituellen Höhepunkt eines jeden Muslim.

Wissen beseitigt Ängste und Unsicherheiten, die ihrerseits fatale Missverständnisse auslösen können. Um den Mythos des Zweifels auflösen zu können, muss allerdings genau hingeschaut werden, und das bedeutet präzise abzuwägen zwischen den notwendigen Bildern und Informationen, die Aufklärung garantieren und den überflüssigen Bildern und Informationen, die entweder zuweit in den Privatbereich eines oder mehrerer Individuen hineinragen oder die das Heilige Innere einer Glaubens- oder Überzeugungsgemeinschaft zu entweihen drohen.

Eine Form der Entmythologisierung, die ich einem Privatsender in der Form  nicht zugetraut hätte. Vor allem durch einen besonderen Umstand, der mir als Respektsbezeugung der Thematik im allgemeinen sowie der Religion des Islam im speziellen vorkam:

Der komplette Beitrag wurde ohne eine einzige Werbeunterbrechung ausgestrahlt.

http://www.prosieben.de/tv/galileo/videos/clip/241789-mekka-auf-den-spuren-des-propheten-1.2978138/ 

Zugegeben, eine derartige Reportage hätte ich aus dem Bauch heraus eher unseren kulturtragenden Sendern wie ARTE oder 3Sat zugetraut, doch im nachhinein bin ich mir nicht sicher, ob ihnen ein besserer Bericht gelungen wäre. Pro 7 erreicht als Privatanbieter mit dem Schwerpunkt auf Unterhaltung ein breiter gestreutes Publikum und hat es in der Tat geschafft, einen ausgewogenen Beitrag mit dem nötigen Fingerspitzengefühl auszustrahlen.

To Intervene Or Not To Intervene ..

.. that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer, The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles .. (From Hamlet 3/1 by W Shakespeare)

Many steps have been taken by the international community to condemn the disgraceful violence committed by the regime forces, to demand an immediate ceasefire including the withdrawal of the army and especially the shabiha and in the meantime to deny Bashar al-Assads' legitimacy to rule the country any longer.

But even after the Arab League's last decision to approve widespread economical sanctions the Syrian regime appears on the surface unimpressed and speaks however from "an invitation for foreign intervention instead of a call to avoid one .."  ( http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/11/20111127143750187116.html ) .. but aren't sanctions like account freezes and travel bans en masse imposed by foreign countries (yes, Syria is Arab League; no, Arab League is not Syria) also kind of interventions? The armed or military option is ultima ratio if the situation is escalating in a form the majority (or a courageous minority) who can't tolerate it any longer. One fundamental idea has toujours to be concidered: keeping civilians out of combat operations, protecting and in the case of emergency evacuating them.

A buffer zone might be the only halfway realistic start-up now after all the slaps of ignorance the regime dished out in the last months as only answer on appeals, addresses, condemnations, protocols and in the end also resolutions. With it the borderline from non-violent to armed intervention will be also passed. The question is: are parts of the international community ready to take the responsibility for the possible consequences of repelling the opponent and gaining terrain?

Fact is the situation urges in the meantime urgent measures to stop the regime forces'  never-ending random killing and to prevent a possible humanitarian catastrophe in the cold light of the upcoming winter. That's the moment when the moral issue's putted on the table for all supporters of unarmed resistance. 'We haven't used all our effortible measures .. there must be still some .. give us time to think about it -"

Stop.

Hadn't we time enough to witness day for day despiteous atrocities in the name of an elitist minority who's writing the catalogue of crimes against humanity anew? 3.000, 4.000, in the worst case more then 10.000 have lost their lives during the more than eight months continuing slowmotion genocide.

When is a heap a heap? Are 3 a heap? Or 9? Maybe 18? 20? In the case of Syria meanwhile 30 or 45?  The Assad regime uses this paradox cold-blooded and systematically to nebulize the collective deception. What an outcry if 4.000 civilians will be killed at once, a dimension reminding on the Hama massacre of 1982 with estimated eight times more of it. On the other side the journalistic sapiency 'one victim's a tragedy, many victims are a statistic' plays a role to pendle the "ideal" daily number of martyrs.

Systematically.

It can't be coincidence that each day a certain number of killed civilians is sadly to be counted. All the children, even the newborn lying on their mothers shoulder, all the women, all the older ones are evidence that the regime ordered the randomly appearing killing, better known as:

Murdering.

The Free Syrian Army has to be supported militarically and logistically to create such a buffer zone. They are no 'rag tag rebels' (what the Libyan Freedom Fighters also wasn't, au contraire ..), all of them had until the moment of their defection an effective military instruction (the Syrian regime's praising the professionality of its' army not often enough). Them must be given the chance to oppose against the regime forces if it has to be with armed support.

And suddenly an argument becomes visible at least to tolerate a military measure to prevent further crimes against humanity ..

In Syria.

This is not the Star Trek world where intervention in foreign systems is stricktly forbidden. This is planet Earth, and we are one unique system called humans.

Welcome To Helalaland

This year brought us not only a global strive for freedom as to be seen in the remaining oppressive rulerships and monocracies or the occupied territories. It brought us also in another form together, learning about other believers' religious views. Be it the Buddhism of the Tibetans in their struggle for independence even as well as the Christian Orthodoxy of the Belarusians which are facing at the moment arrest for praying in open spaces.

The Islam was here in Europe always watched with a grain of concern about a latent aggressivity. Fact is that a radical minority still acts in words and deeds and through a generalization the whole religion is to be blamed for. Some parts of the Christian rooted Western societies regard it as a 'general threat' to their own values and life principles. But most of them are simply forgetting about their concerns that the Christian religion a) had a real bad period in the times of the colonialisation urging many native tribes to confess on Jesus Christ and the Bible or to face the certain death and b) radical Christians have always played a more or less active role as a fundamentalist minority.

It's a well balanced scale of respect and tolerance that allows you to get as Non-Muslim in contact with the world of Mohammed The Prophet. If you visit a mosque you certainly won't do that bare-naked or with your shoes on. Same it is vice versa: inadequate behavior in a Roman-Catholic church won't be accepted at all like loud conversation and flashlight shooting during the prayers. What is 'harram' to a Muslim mustn't be forbidden for us. But the respect demands from us to avoid 'harram' in the presence of a Muslim. It's our entry ticket in their world and we shouldn't be presumptuous to expect the same from them regarding our own liberties which are - let us be honest - partial offending to other religions, not only the Islam.

Modern Christianity is waving proudly the banner of Aufklärung due to the theological-philosophical developments mainly of the last century. Our thinktanks, mainly the reformed protestants, have deconstructed the Christian fundament and built it again up. But some streamings - let's call them the retro-extremists - have closed their eyes to the necessary tolerance interacting with other religions. They focus their newly formulated belief under the umbrella of fear and mistrust. In times of the great global get-together an alarming and also dangerous attitude. Main target of those retro-extremists are not agnostics or tribal rooted sects: they see the biggest threat in the confrontation with the Islam.

If we take a closer look to the progression the Muslim society is now heading to mainly due to the Arab Spring it appears somehow as if we are looking in a mirror. Similarities aren't all but incidentally. I like to pick up three examples to demonstrate my point of view:

First, the role of the women in the modern Muslim society. The uprising in Yemen for example is also led by a group of strong, courageous and very resilient women from all classes including mothers as well as young academics. Their constant thrive for freedom and a new political era under usage of strictly non-violent methods in one of the poorest countries in the region was appreciated with the Nobel peace price this year for Tawakkol Karman. Those women don't let themselves reduce on their headscarf. But that doesn't mean that they rebel against the Holy Book of the Quran. They simply rise up against antiquated conceptions of patriarchy. Sounds that somehow familiar to us? Of course it does, from the Sufragette movement to modern feminism the discussions about equal rights for women are meanwhile a natural part of our social life. The biggest trap we could step in is to conclude an incompability of the women's rights with the principles of the Islam. Some of the retro-extremists rely upon this Manicheism due to their lack of tolerance and understanding.

A closer look on Tunisia leads me to the second example. Tunisians were the first who toppled their dictator and now they're having their first free elected parliament. Hue and cry started among the Islamophobes when the election victory of Ennahda was announced. Fears of an islamization and therefore radicalization circled around the lobby of worriers. But they all forgot two evident things to implement in their concerns. The Tunisian society is in comparison to the Egyptians for example generally conservative orientated. And Ennahda is the political branch of a moderate Islam comparable to the Christ-Conservative parties in Europe. Nobody would implicate Germany's Christian Democratic Union in fundamentalist radicalization. The same should apply to Ennahda.

Finally I will bring a very strong image into the minds I've seen several times now in Syria. The Assad regime strays since months sectarian fears as one of their propaganda lies to maintain their murderous rulership. Christians and Alawi Muslims should feel threatened by the possible coming into power of the Sunni majority. But the reality in Homs and other cities speaks a different language: prominent Alawis are joining the protests in Sunni districts. Muslims are praying together with Christians. Somehow a déja vu regarding similar images here in the recent. France may try to ban the Niqab, Geert Wilders may lament in the Netherlands about too many Muslims in the country - in the end the pictures of a community which has overcome the stereotypes of segregation will remain in our minds. A quite remarkable example for that is the continuing work on a successful integration of the Turkish community in Germany. Sure, not all works well and some differences still have to be discussed but the general tendency is a big point for integration instead of assimilation.

Extreme situations are bringing people from different religions together instead of dividing them. In normal situation it takes a bit more self-motivation stepping towards each other. Especially in these times of digital globalization it is possible to be connected with other cultures and therefore also other religions even without leaving our country. Open-hearted tolerance is the first step approaching each other. The second is the respect for the vis-à-vis' opinion.

The Islam isn't the big threat a minority among us wants to make us believe. The understanding for that can only grow in the direct confrontation with the world and the views of the Muslims, not through closing the eyes or watching away. And isn't it much more exiting to learn about others together with them instead of defending the borders of the own picket fence against imaginary threats?

Arguing Against Actual Concerns About A Post-Assad Syria

It is in the nature or every idea or intention to be confronted sooner or later with doubts or concerns, from those who invented it to prove its feasibility or from those who are generally worrying or having serious interests to prevent its realization.

Even the idea of freedom is exposed to it, mainly the lobby of the last ones mentioned above trying to do everything to maintain the status quo: rulers who fear to lose their power, serving commanders of security forces facing warrants after a regime's toppled, loyal elites who are afraid to lose their privileges, other restrictive governments who are worried about the glooming spark of change which may reach their own people and the silent ones who believe a regime change may bear more risks than advantages.

The fast end of Ben Ali's regime in Tunisia has strengthened the revolutionary movements in the whole region. The fall of Egypt's unregenerate Mubarak showed that we haven't witnessed only a one hit wonder. The stressful liberation of Libya marked again the inevitability of a tyrant's fate, his decline. But in the meantime other dictators have precisely noticed the events around them and began to counterattack with a very dirty but efficient weapon: buying time.

Ali Saleh is presenting himself unfortunately as the master of this tactic. At the expense of the resilient but nevertheless suffering Yemenis he runs a disgraceful zigzag course through the minefield of international diplomacy. Countless times he offered to sign contracts which granted a transitional period or even his personal immunity revoking his announcements the next day or finding other reasons not to follow the mediated road map.

Assad is doing the same in Syria with the difference that his attempts to crackdown the uprising against him are much more bloodier. The Syrian state his father built up is one of the most complex restrictive systems: numerous secret services and intelligence units are observing each and everyone, not even high ranking regime loyals are excepted from their surveillance. In this climate of fear and mistrust the dynastic rulers felt being safe from any form of social succussion.

Until this year.

The Syrians saw their chance to tear down their own iron curtain and to present the world outside what really happens in their country. Encouraged through the Arab Spring they decided to put the regime to an end. The price of their courageous movement is indeed very high up to now. Assads army and security forces are killing daily several dozens civilians including children appearing more randomly than planned but nevertheless systematically. The list of crimes against humanity is in the meantime too long to list it up here.

But it's not only an unequal confrontation between chanting protesters and heavy armed security forces in the streets of the Syrian cities, it's also a 'war of words' fought out between the revolutionaries and their growing number of supporters on the one side and the regime with their loyals, lobbyists and spokesmen on the other. Assad is still playing the cards of sectarianism, armed gangs and civil war phobias. Each one can be disproved, the sectarianism thesis for example through the images of Muslims and Christians praying together or the pictures of Alawis joining the resistance movements hand in hand with Sunnis. The armed gangs myth for example with the hilarious videos of Homsees throwing egg plants in a hand grenade style to demonstrate that their only weapons are vegetables. And the civil war concerns are spread from the regime to give itself the legitimization of their chosen crackdown measures mainly addressed to those who are dealing with their own fears about the future.

More difficult is it to object against theories about the time after Assad. Dealing only with scenarios it takes more than putting some facts on the table. Imagination is required and also a tool called comparison - even if some may now argue that certain situations aren't compatible at all, just in the case of Syria such a comparison may be useful to illustrate the complexity of the initial position.

The Syrian apparatus is more than the family Assad itself. The fall of the tyrant does not imply a complete change in all its' levels. The question is: what are the responsibles of the numerous secret services doing after the regime change? Contrary to the army the different Mukhabarat branches are following their own orders. In the best case they may be disband. But that won't happen from one day to the other. A difficult challenge for both the transitional and the elected new government. As assistance they possibly may rely upon the experiences Germany has made after the reunification with the former GDR secret service Staatssicherheit (Stasi). As central intelligence unit the Stasi collected all kind of informations about the GDR citizens having even the authority to arrest and charge regime opponents. The uncovering of the Stasi dossiers is more than twenty years after the decline of the GDR not fully completed. A similar, maybe more troublesome way the Syrians will have to go due to the fact that the Mukhabarat is a conglomerate of more than a dozen secret services.

The next question deals with the shabiha. In the moment the regime is toppled all their activities aren't backed up any longer and they become criminals. Some may surrender, some may try to hide themselves hoping that they will never be discovered, some may flee and some may resist becoming themselves underground fighters. Same applies to all the foreign mercenaries Hezbollah or the Iranian regime has sent to support Assad's crackdown measures. A lot of work for the common Syrian government but necessary to reinstall the public order in the streets and on the places. The people want to leave their homes going to school, work or shopping without risking their lives. The sooner this is guaranteed the more trust the civilians have in their new political system. Especially those fearing incertainty will be convinced from the right decision to bring down the old regime.

Finally a look at the elites. Profiting from the actual status quo they're swaying themselves in safety as long as the regime stays in power. But this safety is deceitful. Tyranny often grants the conservative ones special privileges. But when it comes to a showdown the tyrants will demand sacrifices even from those who felt longtime protected. Elites are mainly materialistic orientated. In the moment they are urged to decide between their properties and the idealist intention of their protectors even to perish with them the vast majority will search an exit - be it the arrangement with the new political class. Of course will those face justice who actively financed certain regime activities to suppress the population but many aren't in direct coherence to the executive forces. They pursue their own businesses only paying with their silent support for the rulership system.

Nobody can really predict how the distant future of a Syria without the Assad regime will look en detail. But through relieving concerns and fears the inevitable change comes more closer and the forthcoming tasks more visible.

Europe And The Euro

In the mid of the 90's our small continent which is correctly regarded a strange shaped appendix on the North-Western part of Asia was somehow on the peak of euphoria. The scars of the collapsed Eastern Block were fortunately not so deep that it had to take a decade or longer to heal rattled Europe and the flourishing new democracies began to pave their ways to a brighter future, freed from the yoke of communism and heading towards new gained liberty.

The Euro wasn't still invented and we all handled our different currencies by changing them for the actual currency rate what reminded us a bit being in a casino - the bank (better: the exchange office) always wins. The fees bothered us a bit but the curiosity to get known to each other was even bigger. I lived at that time in East Belgium near the Dutch border and I remember being fascinated from the culture and the architecture - to my own surprise the last one was mainly northern French style influenced. The street I lived was named after the Celtic cross in memory of the Irish soldiers who fought on the side of the allies in WWII against the German occupying forces. I always felt more being a European than a German.

Now, more than fifteen years later I have the feeling we are somehow on the brink. The origin idea of Europe - growing together and providing any kind of war among our nations - seems eclipsed. The Euro crisis has risen a new North-South gap between us, the language of our representatives has become more aggressive, the whole climate seems more sinister than ever.

But stop: are Europe and the Euro really inseparable from each other? It's useful to divide both for a better look on the different values they represent: Here we have Europe and the ability to feel as European. What means that even Portuguese as Greeks, Finns as Maltese are no foreigners anymore without disrespecting their national sovereignity and their culture. There we have a currency developped by financial experts and invented from banks to alleviate the transactions of the people and - the economy and business branches.

To make it clear: this is not a demand to abandon the Euro. The problems we are confronted with are a result of negligent finance policy. Nothing what can't be repaired if the right decisions are taken and  absolutely no comparison to other, more existential trouble spots around the globe like famine, tyranny, suppression or armed conflicts.

The Euro is an artificial product which has nothing to do with our intention to grow together overcoming old ressentiments. But the cold war fought out in the meantime on the round tables representatives and economists have called to manage guarantees, credit loans and austerity measures endangers our perception being what we are - citizens and most of all human beings.

Money isn't everything. Instead we should not forget what we have reached.

A Pre-Christmas Tale

"Hey! Here we are! Yes, exactly, the wonderful bright shining windows with our beautiful outlets! Look at us! As long as you like! That's wherefore we're made at this time. Only for you. Forget all your troubles, leave your worries behind, don't listen to all the disturbing news from everywhere around the planet, you can't help them all! Help us instead, spend your full awareness to our offers, think better about those you want to make happy buying them a present, this here is only a small assortment, come in and look around, we have nearly anything for everybody! .. What? .. You have no kids or nephews, not even a fiancee you may surprise with a shopped gift? Doesn't matter, reward yourself with something you always liked to have. No, get serious, everybody's missing something he never called his own before. Simply look deep inside of you: I bet there's some fancy stuff you've seen before in your imagination or some of our professional advertisements that'll make you happier than you are now. .. You say you're happy with all the things you have? .. Sorry, I don't believe you, you don't look to me like sort of an eremite or a monk! .. You what? You like to create something for yourself? You don't like the industrially produced stuff we're offering at you? Ok, ok - but even for creating you'll need some basic tools we're having already for you: pens, collar, scissors, multicolored paper, glittering self-adhesive stuff, whatever such home-made dudes as you need, come in, watch, find and buy it! .. No? Why not? .. Hey, I asked you something! .. Oh, you like to create something without buying anything for that .. one question: in what century you're living in? .. No, I don't wanna twit you, I believe in fact you wanna twit me! Look around: does it look like the third world to you? What the hell you think you're doing here? You were born and raised in a society of progress, man! And how do you believe is this progress guaranteed? Picking up flowers and smiling the whole day long? Forget it! Our progress engine runs only with the best fuel and that's consumption. Yes, you are the fuel provider, together with all the millions out there granting our economy every year new peaks and our top managers new provisions, this spiral will continue forever and ever .. don't interrupt me praising the consumers' philosophy with such needless terms like 'inequity' or 'injustice'! All you're here for is to spend the money you earn to companies like us so that we are able to present you next year same time new stuff you have to buy so that we etcetera etcetera. A circuit, you understand? Haven't they taught you that at school? Or have you only paid attention in such boring classes like literature or philosophy? The only philosophy which is for real is the philosophy of the market, got that? Hah? So, let's stop now this enerving discourse and go and buy something - hey, stop, the entrance is at the other side, where you wanna go? .. To the crowd there who occupies since weeks the place demanding a better and more fair world?!? No, hold on, don't do that, haven't I told you who we want you to be, to .. hey .. no!!! .. Darn, another one's lost! If this tendency's continuing I'm the one who's next year jobless! Maybe I should think about an alternative .. working as a protest banner?"