We left Geleen for the Rheinland and the Mosel Valley. We will stay at Cochem along the Mosel, at Gästehaus Ravené in the Ravené Strasse. The view from our room offers us a perfect sight of the Reichsburg Cochem.

We were able to get a lift from someone, returning from an initial trip to Poznan, Poland. They had explored investment conditions for a distribution center in the Poznan – Gorsow region in Poland. At 11.30 am the MG happened to drive by and stop in front of our apartment, right at the moment that I was about to call them once more and check if they could find it. The hundred and fifty kilometers on the Polish side of the borders had taken them about two and a half hours. I could vividly imagine the road conditions, as they had been three years ago in Lezcyca, Poland. The roads in this small town were littered with potholes, while the highway that ran along the center of town was no wider than a two-way, two lanes road. This would be a major concern for any investments to be made, prolonging time-to-market, therefore shortening speed-to-market, and increasing the frequency of repairs and the replacement of material. Nevertheless, Poland was still a very attractive partner, although capitalist producers already today start looking for alternative locations in Ukraine, where labor is even cheaper. Today, we would be saving money though, and we would be cruising the German Autobahn in a BMW-technology based MG. Continue reading →

Having read the first chapter of Uwe Kieling’s “Berlin, Bauten und Baumeister,� I now clearly feel to own a better understanding of the origin and development of the twin city Berlin-Cölln. And by understanding, I have found a deeper sense for the new city of Berlin. Of course, I cannot identify with the guilt and victimization whose scars this city bears, but a stranger’s sense of penetrating appears now to settle. I now, am eager to go out and discover the remnants of this early history, to see what once was called the Fishermarket, to see the once swarming Molkenmarkt.

We start today’s tour from Jannowitz Brücke, where Stralauertor once rose. From here, you could oversee the city wall and the Spree, cutting through the heart of the dual city, up to the Mühlendamm. Because the locks are now located before the quay at the Mühlendamm Brücke, you still get a sense for the livelihood on the water, that was the source of richness of this city. Ships and boats are docked at the quay, the former New Fisher’s Market. North from here, also now you see the western towers of the Nicolaikirche, further away is still the Marienkirche. Continue reading →

We take the S42 counter clockwise to Frankfurter Allee station. When one leaves the Frankfurter Allee U-Bahnhof and turns down the picturesque alley to Frankfurter Allee, with its flower shops and Imbisses hidden in the arcades, the mobile Imbiss at the corner and the foreign bouquet sellers under the U-Bahn tunnel, one may find it easier to believe wandering down the hillside alleys of a Mediterranean town, than so far up north as Berlin, above all former communist Berlin. It is hard to find my way instinctively when I am around for the first place, and we punctually turn the wrong way of where we ought to be heading.

At Jessner Straße I realize my mistake Continue reading →

Today, we just hang around the Sony Center, posting Joe Jaffe’s story “Fisherman Reuven�, making use of the public hotspot. The Sony Center is a great showcase for modern life, how life will be like in about ten years from now. With public hotspots, mobile phones, public squares, iMax cinemas, high-tech, life will take a tremendous step forwards. Volkswagen has a virtual showroom, where one can take virtual testdrives, Sony has here its Sony Style shop and of course offers the free public access to the web, the latest movies play at the iMax, while offices, living spaces and entertainment are all centered around the central square. It’s the modern city architecture perfectionized here.

(The militaristic agenda of our curators)
We went to the Deutsches Historisches Museum (DHM) at the Museum Insel and walked from the Alexanderplatz, along the Rotes Rathaus, the Neptunbrunnen again, pass the Schlossbrücke, the Berliner Dom and the Palast der Republik. The Zeughaus today turns out to have free entry. It is a little bit unclear, where the entrance to the exhibition is. We walk along the Schlüter courtyard, which is covered by a new glass dome, and end up in the basement of the new wing, designed by Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei.

The exhibition we visit is called “Der Weltkrieg, 1914-1918 – Ereignis und Erinnerung.â€? It is remarkable that most artists and common people, who left accounts about the war, focus on the atrocities, each time these modern exhibitions succeed in aestheticizing the war by exhibiting the most sterile objects and relics. They show letters home, nice bundled and in weathered yellow paper, uniforms of the different factions, the optimism before the war with the gay smiles, the technically meticulous weaponry and scale models of the new battle field inventions, but only a rare graphic depiction of the horror, of which art is full. Did I miss something? It seems as if the curators of our times still follow a militaristic agenda. Continue reading →

Against the Assumption of Certainty
I object to the assumption of certainty, this is the main purpose of my ideology. My method is denial, which I intuitively apply to most of the conversations I engage in. This year, I must make a start with my writing career in English by finishing ‘Theombrotus’ and ‘The Rising of the Dough.’ These are in maturity early works, but they define an early impression where to my work is developing. My intellectual engagement is to diversity and chaos, and social commitment, in which the presence of order and homogeneity is not a contradiction, but an affirmation. After all, chaos without order cannot be chaos. Continue reading →

This morning, I awoke with good intention but with the same ill and exhausted weakness as before, during the past two weeks. I got up, took a bath and had breakfast, but felt myself getting weaker and emptier. I decided to take a nap again, until feeling rested, but instead fell into a deep sleep for a few hours. When awakened again, I still felt ill, but hoped that with fresh air and the exercise of a small excursion, I would feel refreshed. This, turned out to be the case.

Charlene and I jumped on the U8 to Wittenau, and got out at Alexander Platz. I immediately recognized the wide market, where before the hustlers played their ball tricks in the early nineties. They are now gone, the new hustlers now are the politicians of the new unified Germany. Continue reading →

Again, we stroll along the Karl Marx Straße until we reach the Rathaus Neukölln, where we need to register and obtain a “Anmeldungsbestätigung� from the “Bürgeramt.� I was told to obtain one by an employee of the Volksbank Verein, so for the sake of ease we enter the mill of bureaucracy with a glimpse of hope that it will be an experience and that it won’t be too bad, after all it concerns only a single, apparently simple procedure. At first, I enjoy the initial dealings with the red tape, asking which department to go to, explaining my situation and purpose, verifying the procedure I believe needing to follow. The hollow echo of my voice and footsteps resonate in the long corridors of the “Rathaus�.

At last, we reach the “Bürgeramtâ€? and walk into the passage where closed door after closed door the red tape procedures unfold. In the middle of the hallway, a door stands open and offers the gruesome sight of the “Warteraumâ€? in which ten lines of six wooden chairs are all occupied by mostly dark skinned, Turkish inhabitants, crowding the room, and at the high beeping sound of the electronic indicator, as number by number switches, look upward at the wall. I reluctantly choose my counter from “Anmeldeâ€?, “Bürgeramtâ€? and “Lohnsteuer.â€? Continue reading →

Today, I still felt feverish ill and the gray and cold day, wrapped me in a cold soft breath. I am out of breath every move I make, while my eyes sting every twenty minutes from exhaustion. A great stress must have released the tension in my body, which kept me running for so long. Its release was a signal for every germ residing in my system, to ravish unrestrained with free hand.

With joy in my heart, I went to pick up Charlene, who was arriving at Tegel Airport, from Frankfurt. I explored the S-Bahn and the U-8 line. The trains are clean and look brand new, with East-European design seats, and Western advertisements running on the silent dual screen TVs. I love to ride on the S-bahn above ground and view the city’s limits, to drive by the deserted looking Tempelhof Airport’s landing and take-off tracks, the living quarters with their ‘Höfe,’ the retracted window frames and the plastered facades.
Already, I am paving my path from my home at Mainzerstrasse to the U-Bahnhof Boddinstrasse, along the Nigerian internet and telephone center and the Penny Markt.
Too tired to leave home, I sleep for an hour in the early evening and write for a little, but my energy level is low, and my concentration weak. Continue reading →