The Bear and the Bee

Winchester

2011-03-20T21:23:00.000+01:00

So we’ve just moved into our new home in Winchester. It is an old row house on three levels and conveniently located in the middle of town. While not absolutely gorgeous, it does have some charm and some decorative features, as well as honey coloured floor boards and a garden, albeit in need of some love, out the back.

I initially thought that it was quite a bit bigger than our apartment in Germany, but by the time the furniture was delivered, the space available seemed to have shrunk. And at this point I don’t quite know where we are going to put all our stuff, especially when another 40 boxes arrive from Australia. Compared with Germany and the US, the key thing we are missing is a basement in which to store miscellaneous junk and bikes. It actually feels as though we have gone through progressive stages of shrinkage during our moves and have now reached a terminus: a small row house with no basement or garage.

Aside from space issues though, the main thing that I am noticing is just how pleasant this move feels. Everyone speaks English and I don’t have to feel like a goose whenever I head out to a store to buy a widget. We have a car which dramatically simplifies buying supplies and transport in general – no more riding ten kilometers to simply replace a portable hard drive. English culture is also very similar to Australian and having a completely separate, well appointed, cottage to which we can escape at the end of the day is just brilliant.

I’m crossing my fingers that this all lasts….

Huckle Cottage

2011-03-20T21:21:00.000+01:00

Last week we moved we moved out of our apartment in Rostock, packed our bags and took a one-way flight to England. We are now staying in a really lovely cottage on the edge of the New Forest, about 30 minutes Southwest from Winchester, while we wait for our furniture, clothes and our other possessions to arrive from Germany.

As moves go, this one really wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have to worry about working whilst moving, we had planned out the move months in advance, and had already done a first visit to rent a house, get a mobile phone and open a bank account. We even, luxury of luxuries, had the moving company pack our stuff for us. Of course, things still happen, so our move was leavened with Brienna getting quite sick (bronchitis, we think), and a certain amount of inevitable grumpiness all-around, but frankly, we got off pretty lightly.

And sitting out in a gorgeous little cottage near Fordingbridge, in a very cozy living room with a roaring open fire is not at all a bad way to start off life in a new country. It also gives me time to get used to living in England, which while great, is simply something I never had in my vague set of life goals.

From what we have seen so far, the New Forest mostly seems to consist of low rolling hills, mostly covered in gorse and holly, with wild, or at least un-owned, ponies a very common sight. The actual forest part of the park looks the most intriguing to me, with almost prehistoric looking trees, shrouded in mist, although we haven’t ventured into them yet. I did take Aralyn and Caeden on walk into another small forest near our cottage, and that was a blast. We wandered around looking for sprites and animals and got utterly muddy, my fault for not bringing wellingtons along, not that we had any given we arrived with only two suitcases.

Sunset

2011-02-09T22:15:00.004+01:00

While we were in Australia over the holidays we had some amazing sunsets from the back of my parent's house in Castlemaine.

Obviously, heading off to the antipodes during the middle of the Northern winter is quite a contrast in weather. Fortunately, though it wasn't nearly as bad as being in Wisconsin.

Ireland's Financial Crisis

2011-02-09T22:09:00.003+01:00

This is, by far, the best explanation I've read of Ireland's financial crisis. The Irish government and regulators were completely asleep, with the result that they've utterly bankrupted their nation. I almost wish I believed in God, so that there would be hell waiting for those responsible.

Home

2011-02-08T20:02:00.003+01:00

When I was little we would often make trips up to Sydney to see our extended family. It was almost always fun, from being spoiled by the grandparents to playing with our cousins, who conveniently owned a swimming pool. I am very grateful that my parents took us there so regularly, as it meant that both my brother and I built a good, enduring connection with our cousins.

But, being a homebody by nature, there was nothing like seeing the telecom tower on top of Black Mountain as you started to drive back down into the Canberra valley. It meant we were home.

Faces

2011-02-07T14:22:00.007+01:00

Caeden really likes to make funny faces. It is something he picked up at Waldermarhof as he definitely didn't get it at home. It is sometimes annoying, but also sometimes downright hilarious, and although we don't want him doing it all the time, it is very hard to not smile at some of his antics.

I took these photos at Dickson Swimming Pool in Canberra over the summer. My brother and I went there with dad during our summer holidays so it was just great to do the same thing with Aralyn and Caeden.

Right now Caeden is going through a hyper-verbal phase and just does not stop talking. He's a kind of fun mix of solo, hands-on, engineering curiosity with extreme, left-handed and left-brained loquaciousness during dinner time.

Countdown

2011-02-06T20:45:00.010+01:00

We are now in the last few weeks of living in Rostock before we head off to Winchester. As normal, after living here for two or so years this place feels like home, despite the fact that I still cannot speak German. Aralyn and Caeden definitely feel that Rostock is home and I am wondering how they will feel once they realize that we are not coming back, at least not permanently.

I am really going to miss this little town by the Baltic. I've made some very close friends here and its been a really interesting and beautiful place to spend some time. There's something wild, unspoilt and wonderful about the stormy Baltic coast, even if it often feels as though you are living in the middle of cloud.

Aralyn had her last day of school last Friday and it was so poignant to watch all the goodbyes with her friends. We gave Frau P a gorgeous big hydrangea and little potted flowers to Frau S, Frau R and Frau ? as well as to Aralyn's friends I and F. F gave Aralyn two beautiful stuffed elephants that she and her mother had made as gifts for Aralyn and Caeden. The entire class made a goodbye poster, with each child contributing a paper hand and photo covered in good wishes that was then stuck to the poster. I think this was all orchestrated while we were on holiday in Australia over the Christmas break.

I brought my camera and, in an expected turn of good luck, managed to take photos of nearly all of Aralyn's friends. Here she is with I, her best friend:

Here is Frau P and Frau S with Aralyn. Both were lovely teachers and we are all going to miss them. I really liked their little classroom: it was well organized and structured, but full of love, fun and laughter.

Here F and L are lifting Aralyn up. Being one of the smallest kids, her friends were often giving her friendly lifts along with hugs.

And here's Aralyn with a group of friends, including E, who really took Aralyn under her wing when she started school. It was a really great way for her to start school and I think it helped make her feel very welcome.

And here's Aralyn and M.

Brienna and I are thinking of coming back to Rostock in August and I hope we do. It would be great for Aralyn and Caeden to practice their German, and really wonderful to see our friends again.

Germany and the Financial Crisis

2010-12-26T12:26:00.001+01:00

While there have been ups and downs, in general I have liked living in Germany for the last two-and-a-half years. I’ve made some great friends and seen more of Europe than I had ever seen before. It has also been fascinating to compare my experiences living in Australia and the US, with that of living in Germany. Mostly I have been really impressed. Germany seems to be well run and well governed, the trains, roads and airports are all modern, the countryside gorgeous and driving around I am always astounded at how many futuristic wind turbines you see.

We moved over to Germany just before the global financial crisis struck and, in general, Germany seems to have fared quite well. Credit is much harder to get in Germany and nearly everyone I know either has no credit cards or is forced to pay them off monthly. There also seems to have been a much smaller housing bubble, possibly because it is just more common, and quite acceptable, to rent. The German system to deal with unemployment, Kurzarbeit, seems to have been extremely well thought out and I like the ideas underpinning the system. People work hard and take their jobs seriously, but they also have a lot of fun, at least around where I live.

So it is not surprising that the German government has not been easily influenced by the US government in terms of stimulus spending, nor particularly backwards in terms of declaring the German economic model to be a success.

However, there are a couple of flies in this particular ointment. A number of them have been discussed in the newspapers, such as whether the German model is actually transferable to other countries, and what would happen if it indeed it was attempted widely, but one that doesn’t get mentioned is the role of the German banks in facilitating property bubbles across Europe.

Ireland is one of the countries that did have a huge property bubble, and has had a correspondingly devastating economic readjustment. And while it appears that the Irish government badly managed, the state was nonetheless running a surplus and did not have a significant amount of debt. All that changed though when the newly insolvent private banks (that had financed the unsustainable property developments) had their debts guaranteed by the Irish government. Virtually overnight, the Irish people assumed the debts of failed investors and banks, as it was somehow deemed critical that investors ought not to be liable for the risks that they took in search of private profit.

Kevin O'Rourke writes about this in his Letter from Dublin at Euro Intelligence and Paul Krugman has written a lot comparing Iceland, where no such guarantees were made, with Ireland. Not surprisingly, Iceland is now doing substantially better than Ireland.

The part that caught my eye in O'Rourke’s article is how EU officials effectively told the Irish government that the owners of the Irish property debt should not be liable for their loses, and would be made whole by the people of Ireland. I actually can’t get my head around how the Irish government actually agreed to this, if indeed they had a choice. After all, it is the responsibility of the government to look after the interests of the people, not the investors that would surely not have shared their expected, private, profits. At some point in the future it will be interesting to read an inside scoop of exactly how this was all negotiated, what was threatened and what was offered.

And who exactly are the owners of the Irish property debt? If the situation in Greece is any guide, German and French banks will account for the majority of the proportion, although I have not yet seen any articles on this topic. And, as with Greece, a very obvious question that arises is what on earth were the solid, conservative German banks doing lending so much money for such shaky property deals? Did they actually do due diligence? Or where they so caught up in the frenzy for market share that by the time that they realized their actual position, that to pull back would have undermined their own financial footing?

Ultimately, what it looks like to me is that the Irish people are being forced to repay German and French banks to preserve their financial future. Now, if one or two large German and French banks collapsed due to bad debts in Greece, Ireland, Portugal or Spain, the economic results could be truly horrendous, so I can certainly see that perspective. And no doubt, a lot of policy makers and bankers in Berlin and Paris are desperately hoping that with time the property market comes back, some portion of bad debt becomes good and that the fiscal position of banks and European Governments edges back into the black. I just can’t escape the feeling that the system has gone horribly wrong if so much pain has to be inflicted on the Irish people, as well as many others – to save German and French banks.

Christmas Party

2010-12-17T20:11:00.010+01:00

The MPI had a Christmas party this year, and for once I was not travelling and able to go. It was quite a lot of fun, at least as can be had with two cherubs in tow and some degree of responsibility to try and maintain. It was also a great chance to grab some shots of the different folks at the MPI. The photo below shows Brienna with J.

The photo below shows N on the left and D on the right, I'm not sure about the woman in the middle. Brienna has done a lot of work with N on various projects and thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration - hopefully it can continue when we head over to the UK.

The photo below shows D with her husband F and their cute little girl. They are from Mexico and I had an interesting, if sad conversation with F about the "War on Drugs" and its effects on their country. Sadly, I can't really see how the situation in Mexico can really improve until this absurd "war" ends, which at the present time is nowhere in sight.

And of course, no Christmas party would be complete with a visit from der Weihnachtsmann, in this case, D. D, and his wife I, have been a really great addition to the social scene, organizing a bunch of fun gatherings at their place, including a Halloween party where D had the most amazing tiger costume. I think it took Aralyn at least five to minutes to really understand that it was D underneath the stripes, whiskers and tail. This time she wasn't so easily taken in.

Boehner Tears

2010-12-16T22:36:00.003+01:00

So the incoming US Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH), cried on a recent interview on 60 Minutes. Gail Collins at the NYT, among others, make all the obvious points and give the guy a well deserved shellacking, all of which I heartily agree with. But the point that really intrigues me is whether or not he really means it, and if so, how on earth does he square it with what his actual voting record. I think to some extent this is the core of my fascination with American politics: how do people say one thing, yet vote in ways that run utterly counter to their stated interests and goals?

When asked why he choked up on election night, Boehner replied:

"Talking, trying to talk about the fact that I've been chasing the American dream my whole career," Boehner said.

"Some things, there are some things that are very difficult to talk about. Family, kids -- I can't go to a school anymore, I used to go to a lot of schools. You see all these little kids running around, can't talk about it," Boehner said. "Making sure that these kids have a shot at the American dream, like I did, is important."

Given that his twenty-year voting record appears to be largely devoid of sympathy for working class Americans, you would think that he would be suffering from some degree of cognitive dissonance at the very least.

But perhaps this is just the nature of the US political machine: vicious competition, enormous power and privilege for the victor, and an almost requisite sublimation of your originals goals in order to succeed. Certainly it wouldn't pay to think too hard outside the bubble of accepted thought or to let your mind ponder whether the general Republican orthodoxy was actually achieving what you "know" it is, out there in the real world.

Pretend Helicopter

2010-12-16T22:08:00.007+01:00

Caeden is coming along in literal leaps and bounds. He's getting bigger and stronger, and after two and a half years in Germany, moves seamlessly between German and English. I honestly think that he is equally at home in both languages which has me quite green with envy.

His art projects have also gone up a notch in terms of complexity. His Pretend Helicopter painting below features a handsome red fire engine, with the pretend helicopter invisible, but according to him, very clearly present, in the sky above.

Freundin

2010-12-16T21:57:00.004+01:00

Watching your child making a good friend is just a great experience as a parent. Aralyn is a little shy and because so much of her play is imaginative, featuring detailed stories and characters, it seems that she doesn't always easily connect with other children. She has definitely bonded with I though, another little girl from the same class at school, and it is simply great to watch them play and grow together. Having to tear her away from this sweet little friendship is going to be one of the worst parts of moving to England.

School Girl

2010-12-13T11:41:00.016+01:00

One of the more exciting and wonderful things to have happened this year was Aralyn starting school. In Germany, starting school is regarded as a big milestone for a child, and there are some really sweet traditions to mark the occasion.

One thing that I particularly liked was the welcome ceremony, conducted on the weekend before the first day of school. All the pupils' families were invited, and in front of the crowd the principal individually welcomed each student to the school. The children also got to see their classrooms and meet their teachers, and there were some productions put on by the older children for the throng. It just felt really good to see everyone so excited about their children starting school, to see such an enthusiasm for education.

Having a child start school also gave me an almost tangible feeling of community. A number of our neighbors and friends gave Aralyn little packets of sweets or presents to mark the event. There is just something very solid and good and right about traditions like this, honoring the importance of learning.

On Monday, the very first day, Aralyn and I walked down the street to school together. Aralyn was carrying her Schultüte, a cone shaped basket carrying school supplies, sweets and other little things that Brienna had bought for her. You can see it in the picture below taken on her first day of school.

Overall, her first half-year at the Jenaplan school has been excellent. She has made some great friends, the teachers are loving, attentive and amazingly organized, the classrooms and facilities are virtually brand new, and there are even two Australian lizards as class fauna. The class has also gone on lots of field trips and excursions, and being Germans, they've also gone on some fairly long walks and get lots of exercise, at least in good weather.

The only frustrating thing about the Jenaplan system so far is that I am not sure that the mentoring system works exactly as it is supposed. The older children are meant to mentor the younger children and help them with their mathematics. However, I get the sense that if I hadn't regularly focused Aralyn on completing a section of her maths book a day, as well as explaining and going over the techniques, that she wouldn't have progressed nearly as far as she has. On the other hand, this could also just be her dreaminess, a trait she inherited from her father.

We got there in the end, and Aralyn has just finished her first maths book, shown below for posterity. And fundamentally, something must be going right - Aralyn was very proud to have finished the first one, and super excited seeing me pick up the next workbook.

We have also spent a lot of time at home focusing on reading English, as Aralyn's instruction at school is in German, and uses the learning-to-read by writing method. Even though Aralyn loves stories and has an amazingly vivid and rich creative world, she initially balked at reading. Basically, we just had to keep at it, day-after-day, working through the different learn-to-read series that we'd purchased before we moved from the States.

Given that Aralyn has finished all 64 pages of Green Eggs and Ham, it feels like we've made solid progress. And of course, Dr Seuss is a genius, his books being full of surreal whimsy. There's nothing better than sitting on a couch with your kids, laughing together at the craziness in a book, and hopefully, getting them excited to read another one.

Saturday Night Massacre

2010-12-12T21:33:00.003+01:00

We had some fun this weekend making some G-People. At least until one of them went berserk. The results weren't pretty...

Ozeaneum

2010-12-12T10:45:00.004+01:00

The Stralsund Ozeaneum is a really great museum, although given that I haven't visited that many aquariums, I may not be the best judge. We have visited as a family twice, and when Brienna was in the US for a recent conference, Aralyn and I visited again.

Like Rostock, Stralsund is an old Hanseatic trading city, with gorgeous old buildings and tall churches. However, we've really only visited the Ozeaneum and driven through the city on the way to Rügen.

Ironically for an aquarium, I most love the hall containing life-size models of whales, with no water in sight. It was put together in conjunction with Greenpeace and features a blue whale, the largest animal to have ever existed on the planet, a humpback and sperm whale as well as an orca. To add to the atmosphere, the hall is somewhat darkened and the roof has water imagery projected onto it to give the illusion that you are under water. The best way to take it all in is to use the recliners on the floor so you can relax, gaze up and just wonder at the size and beauty of these creatures. After all, you are never going to get this close or have this kind of view of a real blue whale.

Christmas

2010-12-10T19:53:00.005+01:00

Christmas is rapidly approaching, and I really need to get cracking and buy a bunch of presents for friends and family. I am never particularly good at doing this, one of my (somewhat embarrassingly long list of) minor faults and personality quirks. And however much Christmas brings out my inner misanthrope, it is ultimately hard not to get caught up in the seasonal merriment and general cheer, and of course, the wine does help.

A strong practicing Christian I am definitely not, but the choral music and carols can also be a delightful part of the whole Christmas season, especially if you can get to a snow-covered, historical church with a talented choir. The Christmas carols, choral music and religious celebrations are part of my cultural background, even if I happen to be an atheist.

So although the War on Christmas is mostly a trope, it seems misguided to ban the singing of Christmas carols in schools, as happened recently in the US and a while ago in the UK. I understand that some children in these schools may not be Christian, and may be Jewish, Muslim or non-religious, but carols are part of Western cultural history, and serve a purpose beyond the religious. Wouldn't a simple "opt-out" be sufficient if some children didn't want to sing one or more particular song? Another simple approach would be to incorporate celebrations, music or festivals from other faiths, in addition to the traditionally Christian ones.

Although I am not a conservative and not particularly fond of tradition for its own sake, this approach to dealing with a diversity of opinion and tradition just seems wrong. In the West right now you are likely to meet and interact with people from different backgrounds so we might as well learn something about other cultures and religions, while still celebrating our own heritage.

Dopey Thought Award

2010-12-10T19:06:00.004+01:00

I don't really have any problems with the local food push, vegans or vegetarians, and given the choice, would probably choose the free-range animal product if I noticed it in the supermarket. However, given that there are too many people living in appalling circumstances, it just doesn't capture my attention, although I am glad that there are activists out there.

James McWilliams, an Associate Professor of history at Texas State University, is clearly one such activist passionate about animal welfare. His article in the Atlantic Monthly attempts to work through the issues here, but boiled down I'd summarize it as:

Factory farms are bad
Free-range farms are better
Either way, we eat the animal
Factory farms and free-range are therefore merely gradations on a scale of cruelty

Seriously, that's about the extent of it. To use an analogy, I guess McWilliams wouldn't support palliative care for someone with a terminal illness, after all, they are going to die anyway. McWilliams also doesn't address the implication of his logic, which is that any farming - and eating - of animals is morally unacceptable.

To quote one of McWilliams best passages:

Farm animals have a sense of individual identity within time and space. They are beings with potential. To kill them is to erase that potential. It is to deny them a future of attempting to seek pleasure. It is to erase all the natural preconditions for happiness that a free-range farm works so hard to approximate. It is, in essence, to do them the gravest harm.

He is correct that eating an animal does indeed do it the gravest of harm. It's fundamentally hard to escape that one, at least until the entire human population turns vegetarian. But until that happy day arrives, I'd suggest that free-range farming is a far better way to grow cows, pigs and other animals and is worth separating out from factory farming.

Winter

2010-12-08T19:28:00.006+01:00

It is Winter again, and we've had a good serving of snow. The trees and parks look stunning, which more than makes up for the nip in the air. There's something romantic about walking around mist swirled forests, crunching fresh snow underfoot. And given that the roads and footpaths can be icy and treacherous, we do spend more time walking and looking around, and less time hurrying and zipping around on bicycles.

The photo above is of the park near us, just outside the old city walls. The photo below shows Caeden bundled up with my gym gear, camera case and, of course, his various security blankets, all shoehorned into our kid Croozer. It's the fastest, easiest and safest way to get around an icy city right now. It can also be a lot of fun, walking through the streets, counting to a hundred in English with the munch-kins, although we do get an odd look sometimes.

Weihnachtsmarkt

2010-12-07T19:32:00.008+01:00

Advent started a bit over a week ago, so the local Weihnachtsmarkt is in full swing. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Rostock runs through Kröpeliner Straße, from the old Kröpeliner Tor on one side to Neuer Markt and Steintor at the other end. As with many of the festivals in Rostock, the center of gravity downtown is in the square in front of the beautiful old Rostock University.

My favorite part is the Historischer Weihnachtsmarkt, which features stalls owned by folks with an interest in handmade arts and crafts. There's something wonderful about strolling around this part of the market, nestled up against the medieval Rostock city walls, especially at night with a hot, steaming mug of Glühwein warming your hands.

Walking through the market today I started thinking about about all the myriad, complicated arrangements that go into making the Rostock Weihnachtsmarkt happen. Within one to two days, some eighty or ninety different stalls, really small sheds or booths, are delivered and decorated, before being loaded with all sorts of goods, some made locally and many made on the other side of the world. Each item of decoration, each item for sale has passed through many hands from its original design, creation or manufacture before finally being individually set out for display here, in a small town in North Germany, on the Baltic Coast.

In the scheme of things, the Rostock Weihnachtsmarkt is a very small event. Yet, given all the sour political and economic news at present, it is reassuring to watch thousands of people come together to produce such a complex production, involving so many different and unconnected groups, and to have it go off relatively smoothly. To have it appear, and in a few more weeks, disappear overnight, like clockwork.

It is also reassuring to think about all the hundreds of thousands of transactions that must have gone into producing the market, from hotels rooms booked and meals and drinks ordered, to the purchasing of the wine to make the Glühwein in my hands. Almost all of these transactions would have been done in good faith, and while conducted profitably, would have been of mutual benefit and just part of normal day-to-day life, utterly unremarkable.

Of course, in this sense the whole German economy and society is like the Rostock Weihnachtsmarkt, just immensely larger and more complex and taking place every day of the year. While I love reading newspapers and the sour news of the day, these countless, unremarkable and invariably good-faith interactions don't make news, even though they are far more real and immediate than anything that I've read in a newspaper in a long time.

Magical

2010-01-04T06:00:00.002+01:00

On Sunday evening we had a lovely dinner and evening with M and D, and their two children. Aralyn's German had improved and this time around got on really well with their oldest daughter who is exactly the same age. Caeden also had a lot of fun and, as usual, they didn't want to leave. Brienna and I also had a great evening, with interesting discussion, champagne and wine aplenty.

Being without a car, we had to walk the two kilometer return trip home, and being in a somewhat whimsical and tipsy mood, we decided to take a detour through a very snowy Linden Park to see if we could catch a glimpse of a fairy or two.

And being in the beautiful, snow covered woods at night, crunching through fresh white snow under soft, orange-glowing clouds, was just magical. There were a few other couples out enjoying the evening, so we could pretend to see fairies in the distance, flitting between the trees. One or two couples were also taking photographs, and the camera flashes in the dark woods looked just like magical spells being cast.

Aralyn was enchanted, eagerly looking around, and straining to hear fairies as we stopped to listen every so often. Caeden didn't quite appreciate all the magic, and told me later that he was a little scared, although at the time he just sat there quietly peering through the trees. I don't think either child had been out at night in a park or forest before, and given that Caeden is only two and a half, it must have been a bit confronting for the little chap, even if he was snug in his chariot, bundled up in fleece.

Snow

2010-01-03T13:31:00.005+01:00

We got a lovely helping of snow over the weekend. Given that we were all in travel recovery mode, it was just perfect for us. We could be snug inside looking at the beautiful winter world outside as well as spending time outside building snow critters. The shot below is of us and our attempt at building a snow man. And yes, we need practice.

Here's another photo of Caeden seeing as he looks a little goofy above.

Texas

2010-01-02T22:32:00.004+01:00

We had Christmas in Texas this year, with all the obvious benefits of blue sky, warmer weather and grand parent assistance for holiday child care. But I must admit that I didn’t plan on mild culture shock after living in Germany for a year and a half. Although I hadn’t quite realized it, I guess I now think that living in apartments and riding a bicycle everywhere as more or less normal. It is after all what I’ve done every day since we moved.

However, my German definition of normal is definitely not normal in Texas. Brienna’s parents have a lovely, large house in a suburb just north of San Antonio. To get anywhere at all from there you have to drive. The distances are simply too great to be done on foot and it would be frankly dangerous, as well as unpleasant, to ride a bicycle.

Fortunately there is a simply gargantuan supermarket that appears to sell just about everything, including groceries, televisions, BBQ equipment, mattresses, wedding dresses and massages about a ten minute drive away. Going virtually anyplace else seems to require getting onto the 281 freeway, which during the holiday period at least, has turned into a clogged stretch of automotive hell.

Coming at this situation with fresh eyes, I have to say my initial response is not a favorable one. The number of over-sized trucks and SUVs is ridiculous, it is impossible to walk anyplace, the freeways and housing development are generally ugly and I am just plain puzzled as to why anyone would want to live this way. I mean its one thing to be able to drive a nice car, but if you can’t even get around in it, even that one last attenuated redeeming feature evaporates.

Of course, the irony for me is that in many ways the social infrastructure of Texas is relatively close to that of Australia. After all, no one in Australia wants to live in an apartment and pretty much every Australian family has one to two cars. It is just what you do.

2010

2010-01-02T22:17:00.004+01:00

Happy New Year!

Well, sort of. Our new year celebrations were not exactly dynamic. Having just flown back into Germany from Texas with both cherubs in tow, we weren't the most alive of folks. We actually went to bed at around 8 o'clock and slept for something like 12-14 hours. Fortunately, Aralyn's and Caeden's body clocks must have been just as out of sync as ours were, and they also both slept in to 10:30 or so.

We made up for it on the next night when we went out to the fireworks at Warnemunde. Rostock city very kindly has two celebrations: one for the night itself at midnight and a second at 6pm the next night for families. The photo below is one of the many that we took that night with our new camera.

This is now our second New Year's celebration in Rostock and I still cannot quite wrap my head around the fact that I live in Germany. It is also hard to wrap my brain around all that has happened in the last year and yet it all went by so very fast. And I am pretty sure that 2010 will be just as much fun, and will unfortunately disappear just as fast.

Aralyn and Caeden

2010-01-02T21:57:00.005+01:00

It is really quite amazing how time slips by so quietly and so quickly. Caeden will be turning three in only a few months and Aralyn is nearly five and a half. The photo below shows them on our couch in the living room playing together for the camera.

Caeden is really starting to talk a lot, after a late start, and I am periodically stunned at Aralyn's memory and language skills. Yesterday were talking about an upcoming visit to M's place for dinner on Sunday evening and Aralyn asked about their cat. Our last visit was about a year ago and I don't believe that we discussed their cat at all since.

It is also really wonderful to watch Aralyn and Caeden bonding and playing together. They often talk in German to each other, most of which completely goes over my poor monolingual head. And of course, as with most siblings, they are usually either having a ball together, or one of them is busy tormenting the other.

Canberra Sprawl

2009-11-27T10:50:00.003+01:00

Australia is on the pointy end of global warming. Many Australian cities are experiencing long spells of exceptionally hot weather, diasterous bush fires have been raging and fresh water is in short supply, with many dams and reservoirs at historically low levels. In a continent that is already very dry the long term direction of the weather is alarming.

Given the potential impact on Australia of global warming, it is particularly depressing to read that Canberra has decided to continue sprawling out and build some 15 more suburbs. Although I don't agree, the reasoning behind the development is not hard to understand. House prices in Canberra are ridiculously high and there is ample land on which to build new houses relatively cheaply. Moreover, there is probably extremely strong demand for more housing stock, and most likely strong demand for the typical Australian home: the three bedroom, wood framed, brick veneer bungalow in the suburbs.

I understand why these new suburbs are being built. Nonetheless, I find the fact that Canberra has simply decided to follow existing practice and build hundreds or thousands of new, single family homes to be depressing. Every new house built will require one or two cars to move the inhabitants from home to work and back again. The folks living there will have to drive to their local supermarket, drive to schools near and far to drop off and pick up their children, and drive to the doctor and dentist. Every house will have its own relatively inefficient heating and air conditioning system that will ultimately come at the cost of burning coal for power.

Are there no other models that Canberra could adopt? The Dutch and Germans seem to be able to organize compact, high-density cities and towns where a very large percentage of the population can, and do, commute by bike and public transport. I live in Germany, don't own a car, ride a bicycle to drop off my children at daycare and walk to pick up my groceries. It is actually very pleasant, although I do miss driving and enjoy the odd times that I get to rent a car. Moreover, the measures that Germany is implementing to reduce CO2 emissions are quite impressive, ranging from substantial fuel taxes and energy taxes through to aggressive implementation of wind power across the country.

So what is going on in Australia? Australia is certainly rich enough to effect change and is already feeling the affects of global warming. If nothing else, I would have thought the fact that one of Australia's leading exports is coal, invariably destined to be burnt in Chinese power plants, would have induced a certain amount of chagrin and concern for doing the right thing as far as possible domestically. So, do Australians think that the Canberra development model is just fine? The Australian dream of a separate house, backyard and multiple cars certainly seems alive and well. The problem however, is that even if every inhabitant of these new suburbs eats organically, grows their own vegetables, cycles to work once or twice a week, carpools or uses park and drive stations, Australia is not going to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted per person.

That Canberra is continuing to follow the standard Australian model of development in late 2009, over a decade after Kyoto, is utterly depressing. It strikes me as an almost wilful failure to acknowledge reality and a profound failure of imagination and will. Can Canberrans only conceive of brand new suburbs as the way to house a growing population? Is this how Australia is going to rise to the challenge of global warming? I would have liked to have thought of Canberra, and Australia generally, as a place of innovation, of being concerned with the challenges of the 21st Century and having the guts to deal with them. But I guess I was mistaken about the Australian character: "she'll be right" seems to have considerable precedence over honesty and guts, even if it is going to hurt our own grandchildren.

Afghanistan

2009-11-07T22:47:00.003+01:00

So there is a debate in the US and Europe right now about Afghanistan, and what policy NATO and the UN should pursue. In the US I get the feeling that the debate is somewhat more acute for a number of factors that are interesting in themselves. In any case, much of the debate seems to swirl around whether more US or European forces should be sent into Afghanistan, in the hope that more security can be provided for the civilian population and that the recent Taliban gains can be reversed.

On the other side of the argument are various parties, including some American Republicans and Democrats, along with a fair proportion of the US and European public who are arguing that after eight years enough is enough, and it is time to withdraw.

I feel really torn on this debate, as both sides have strong arguments. Obviously, this is a case of choosing the least bad option, but even viewed from that angle I still can't get my head around a good way to evaluate the choices. Given the size and remoteness of Afghanistan, the forbidding terrain, language and religious barriers, lack of unifying institutions, lack of rule of law, corruption, drug-based economy and a host of other factors, keeping NATO forces in the country seems utterly ludicrous.

Yet, if the NATO forces withdraw, it seems reasonable to believe that the Taleban are highly likely to resume control over the country by force. The obvious worst case, which is by no means a remote possibility, is that a Taliban victory in Afghanistan could potentially destablize Pakistan right next door, and that is a potential nightmare scenario.

I tend to think that keeping such a large troop presence in Afghanistan will have to end at some point, and given that the situation on the ground is not improving, we may as well withdraw sooner than later. But, as I said, I would hate to have to make this particular agonizing call. For what I believe it ultimately means is that we will be consigning the country to the Taliban, which is not a pleasant thought.

But what really gets my goat is when really well informed commentators, including people like Glenn Greenwald, ignore the likely outcome of the withdrawal of NATO forces. I find it highly doubtful that the Afghan people or their leadership will come together and "work it out" as he said in a recent interview on MSNBC. I can see a great many strong reasons to withdraw our troops, but we should at least honestly acknowledge what the likely outcome and cost of that withdrawal will be.

Ambition

2009-11-07T21:58:00.000+01:00

One of the good sides of getting older is that you sometimes come to learn things about yourself that were always kind of there, hidden away in the background, but that never quite made it into conscious thought.

One of the things that I am learning is that I am just not that ambitious, at least not as defined by the usual meaning of the word. Although nice worldly goods are pleasant, and I certainly wouldn't be happy living in a complete dump, I just don't desire a huge mansion, shiny new car or high-profile job. Cars depreciate, big houses aren't necessarily filled with joy and a high-profile job would likely be high-stress and extremely busy, all of which just leaves me feeling cold.

I like having time with my family, time to myself to think and wonder, and time to spend with friends. I wish I had more time to write silly blog entries and sit in churches and wonder at history. I only get one chance to live my life, and I don't want to turn sixty or seventy and realize that I spent most of my adult life in an office, chasing promotions or more money, to the detriment of my family and my life.

Apart from my fascination with technology, I guess this is one reason why I like software as an area in which to work. It allows you to specialize, be competent and committed to good work, to work hard yet still able to go home in the evening to relax, while nonetheless earning reasonably good money.

The things for which I now do harbor ambition are much more intangible. I really want my children to have as many opportunities as possible. I want to be surrounded by family and friends and community. I want to listen to music, think and be intellectually engaged. I want to be able to contribute in a direct and meaningful way to society and the community.

In many ways, this is simply what I have always wanted and who I have always been. It has just taken me a while to realize just how important it is for me. And for a very social person who nonetheless finds it hard to make friends, I've never really had enough of a social network for my taste, despite having made many great friends over the years.

Caeden

2009-04-20T06:42:00.000+02:00

This is an old photo of Caeden, but it is also one of my favorites. It really captures his blue eyes, and the blue in the photo makes them even more striking. I also love his crazy hair, which captures how he often looks pretty well.

I find it totally crazy that he is coming up to his second birthday. It seems like he was a baby just the other day. And even though I am glad that he is getting older, and stronger and more independent, it is also bittersweet. It is kind of fun having a little baby, and I very much doubt that we'll be having another one.

IQ

2009-04-18T20:01:00.000+02:00

I really like this opinion piece from Kristof in the Times. That a child's IQ is highly dependent on the environment in which they are raised makes a great deal of sense to me. Frankly though, it is sad that this article still needs to be published, as though this is not bloody obvious. It is also serves as reminder as to how difficult it will be to help to children in disadvantaged situations, as well as how critical this is.

And now that I get to closely watch and observe my own children growing up, the malleability of IQ really makes intuitive sense to me. Brienna and I basically surround Aralyn and Caeden will stimulating and enriching experiences, loads of love, praise and encouragement, and with as few limits as possible. Our children don't get parked in front of a TV, instead they get their mum and dad questioning and talking with them, reading books and twisting their tongues into knots with strange and long words. And that's when they aren't in day care having to learn a whole different language or out at the zoo looking at the elephants.

So regardless of how smart, or not, Aralyn and Caeden end up, they will at least have been given every opportunity to grown and learn. But not every kid gets the same environment, nor two loving parents, nor the same stability that allows our kids to relax, be happy and just have fun exploring and playing in their little world.

To a large extent, if children grow up in difficult circumstances there is no way the state can make for up this deficit. You simply cannot have a school make up for the years of enriching experiences that you get in families when they work well. Up to this point I think that conservatives, with their theoretical focus on families, have a point.

But articles like Kristof's point out a challenge for the US. For many children in impoverished inner cities or rural areas, not only are their families failing them, but society is as well. It is now clear that intensive, dedicated, early education programs and high quality education can make a huge difference in children's lives. Unfortunately however, in practice, children in these situations often end up in extremely poor performing schools. Obama wrote about much of this in his books and it would be wonderful if, despite all the current crises, at least some progress gets made in this area.

Kid Art

2009-04-17T20:28:00.007+02:00

I am sure that all parent have much the same thoughts when their children bring their latest artistic creations home, beaming with pride. "Look what I did today daddy!". The first thoughts that flash through your head are usually curiosity about the item itself coupled with satisfaction that your kid is proud of their work and obviously had a fun day.

But these thoughts are fairly quickly followed by a kind of groan, and a sadness, over what to do with this latest item. Usually it joins the heap in their portfolio, really a box in a corner of their room, or gets hung up somewhere. But how long do you keep this stuff? Do you take it with you when you move? That seems kind of crazy, but it also seems kind of heartless to just through it out.

So, why not share it on the web, so that everyone can get the same joy? Or perhaps more accurately, Aralyn and Caeden's grandparents can admire the handiwork of their grandchildren, and everyone can just move on to the next post. Of course, it also means that Aralyn and Caeden, if they ever wanted to, could go and look back and what they did years later.

So, in this spirit, here are some pieces by Aralyn. Caeden isn't producing too much right now, but I'll post his creations as well. Enjoy!

The item below is a beluga whale swimming around. Aralyn seems to have fallen in love with belugas ever since we actually saw one at the gorgeous Chicago Aquarium.

And lastly, here is a maze that Aralyn developed herself, and then got Brienna to solve. She's moved from solving mazes to making them for others:

Easter

2009-04-15T20:54:00.004+02:00

Well, we finally got a vacation worth its name, and it was just gorgeous. The clouds rolled away, the sun came out, and while the water remained a chilly 5 degrees, warm air gently blew in.

Given that in Europe you automatically get a four day weekend over Easter, we rented a car and took off to explore the local beaches and countryside. We spent two days in Prerow, one in Ahrenshoop and another day in Nienhagen. The photo above is of the coast near Nienhagen. All three spots were really lovely, with pristine beaches nestled behind forests, and old fashioned thatched roofed houses in abundance.

Given that Caeden is two and is somewhat high maintenance, our days fell into a pattern pretty quickly. We got up, drove to our destination, wandered around for a little bit and found a nice restaurant, and when Caeden fell asleep, ate a gloriously relaxing lunch. Aralyn often drew or read books, while Brienna and I took turns reading. For us, or maybe myself in particular, there is almost nothing better than the combination of interesting reading material (in my case LRBs courtesy of a good friend), beer or wine, good food, and an hour or two of relatively undisturbed free time. I get positively dreamy just thinking about it.

After lunch we headed for the beach, and splashed, paddled, explored and sun bathed. Aralyn finally got rid of the circles under her eyes and almost immediately started turning brown. Caeden's fair skin mostly managed to avoid getting burnt and both children had a blast. Who wouldn't, with a whole beach to explore, sand to dig and adventures to have?

The Lines a German Won't Cross

2009-04-15T06:21:00.000+02:00

This is a fun little article in the New York Times Magazine by Nicolas Kulish about the power of rules and conformity in Germany. The main thrust of the article is that Germany is generally very well run, and that Germans tend to deeply internalize and live their lives according to the law. If there was ever a society that best exemplified the rule of law, it would have to be Germany.

I like the central example Kulish used of the swimming pool, with a line demarcating the shoe and no shoe areas. That this line was treated with respect, despite any mechanism for enforcement, seemed to Kulish to exemplify how Germans approached rules and laws. This example also brings back my own similar, and happy, memories of swimming in Ribnitz-Damgarten, a beautiful pool just a bit outside of Rostock.

I have somewhat conflicted thoughts about this whole thing. Perhaps I just think too much, but literally every time I come to a dratted street crossing, I come face to face with this phenomenon. You will likely have a cluster of Germans patiently waiting for the light to change, and do I step into line and follow their lead, or do I follow my own instincts and just cross?

It seems to me that unthinkingly following all rules has some rather obvious downsides. But these particular rules just cover street crossings, are designed for safety, and are not particularly objectionable. They probably even save lives. Nonetheless, my usual pattern of behavior is to make sure it is safe to cross, then make sure there are no police around, and finally, follow my gut instinct and just cross the damn street.

Why do I have such a hard time following these basic German road rules? I am fully aware that I am a visitor and that this is not my country, and that I really ought to follow the German way of doing things. But given my Australian and American background, and a certain irreverence for authority, I just can't look at any empty street and wait patiently. It is not in my genes.

Ice Bridge Ruptures in Antarctic

2009-04-07T06:37:00.004+02:00

Another article, this time by the BBC, reporting more bad news on the global warming front. Sebastian pointed this one out, so I figured I write a little about it too. Apparently the collapse is not good news as it is both an example of the rapid changes in the Antarctic as well as possibly making it easier for the glaciers and other ice flows now on land to move into the sea, possibly affecting sea levels.

Following from that thought, and regarding sea levels, it is paragraph near the end that really gets me:

Such acceleration effects were not included by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when it made its latest projections on likely future sea level rise. Its 2007 assessment said ice dynamics were poorly understood.

I must admit that I hate reading things like this. It is just scary when, as often happens, you read about a previous worst case output or warming scenario, followed by the statement that actual CO2 output or whatever was dramatically greater again.

East Germans Face Their Accusers

2009-04-06T06:39:00.001+02:00

This old article, "East Germans Face Their Accusers", about former East Germans dealing with the communist legacy is still very good reading. Depressingly, the evil that people can do to one another appears to have a deep well spring of creativity.

The Wall Street Journal

2009-04-06T05:41:00.005+02:00

The Wall Street Journal is an interesting paper. The news inside the paper is generally first-rate, with often very insightful, original and well written articles. The opinion pages, however, are another story entirely. Given the Journal's reach, prestige, and audience, the editorial page occupies a preeminent position within conservative American political discourse. In this sense, it is intellectually interesting to read their stuff, to observe which issues are discussed and how, as well as the silences when issues are ignored or glossed over.

"Is This The End Of Capitalism", by Daniel Henninger, is a good example. That I generally agree with the point he is trying to make is ironic, but largely beside the point. What I think is interesting in this article is how it sets out a conservative view of the housing bubble and the resulting financial crisis.

This conservative view is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it glosses any involvement of conservative principles or actors in the creation of the crisis. Actual agency by the Bush administration, Congress, the US Federal Reserve Bank, financial banks and insurance firms seems to be missing. Instead, we have a housing "blob" that ate the world, with private banks and insurance as passive victims.

Further, the idea that conservative principles or financial deregulation may have played a key role is not even hinted at. There is something utterly disingenuous about this given the key role the Journal played in pushing these agendas. Instead we get pablum like this:

In a normal environment, the problems revealed by the crisis in mortgage finance would produce fixes relevant to the problem, such as resetting the ratios of assets to capital for banks and hedge funds, or telling the gnomes of finance to rethink mark-to-market and the uptick rule. More energetic reformers might consider Gary Becker's suggestion that as financial institutions expand in size, their capital requirements tighten, so that compulsive eaters like Citigroup can fit inside their capital base.

There are numerous other points that could be made in this paragraph, but Henninger chooses not to discuss the real reforms necessary and instead puts in some relatively mild points so as to not offend the sensibilities of his readers or his editorial page superiors. You can't critique the conservative brand too much I guess.

But the really galling thing for me is that the American citizens are the ones really being suckered here, yet seem to warrant nary a mention. After all, the US taxpayers are the ones who have to foot the bill for the stimulus package, to pay for the bailout of AIG, the recapitalization of the financial system as well as taking on prime responsibility for the toxic debt created by the financial system in the first place.

NATO

2009-04-05T19:40:00.004+02:00

So there was a NATO summit in Strasbourg last week. This being the 21st Century and France, there were a series of protests. It looks like the protests turned quite violent, with a couple of hotels and a supermarket set on fire.

I find this all a little hard to comprehend. The protests in London against the G20 meeting almost make sense in comparison. At least with the G20 meeting there is something dramatic to protest: millions of people are now unemployed, and many will be struggling to make ends meet, let alone the millions of people in the developing world who will face severe hardship, because of the greed of a few thousand captains of industry. But what exactly are the NATO protesters protesting?

The BLOCK NATO group seems to be one of the main groups, but I cannot get much sense from their web site, beyond an interest in peace and a visceral reaction to what they term a "war alliance". There doesn't seem to be much to explain or argue their position on their website, though perhaps I missed it.

To be honest, this all just strikes me as pathetic, sad and uninformed. One of the more wonderful things to have happened in my lifetime has been the collapse of the Soviet Union and the escape of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and many other countries from Russian influence. And the military guarantee of NATO membership provided to these countries is to my mind the core foundation underpinning this freedom.

Moreover, several of the key historical reasons that NATO actually became a strong military alliance include the blockade of Berlin and North Korean invasion of South Vietnam. What exactly would these protesters have had their governments actually do when confronted with these situations?

It is not as though I disagree with their desired ends. I too would far prefer more peace in the world, and frankly would rather our political leadership spent their time dealing with global warming, poverty or other myriad issues.

But evil does exist, with Stalin and the early USSR being particularly good examples, and there is a practical matter of what exactly to do about that. The Kremlin seems quite happy right now to deploy rather brutal means to ensure favorable political arrangements within its' zone of 'privileged interest' as described by Medvedev. Given this, I would very much like to know how Block NATO would propose to help Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia maintain real independence from the Russian bear right next door.

Children

2009-04-03T09:55:00.003+02:00

What a simple and sweet article. It is so refreshing to read things like this after the debacle of the last two Bush administrations.

Having a daughter makes this a more compelling article for me, and it raises a point that I think about every so often. Specifically, how do you raise your children so that they are confident, curious, but still have just enough street smarts to not get themselves into too much trouble?

To a certain extent, I think the modern world is easier for girls. There are no boundaries, no limitations; just a world to explore, and in our privileged situation, opportunities and life to seize.

Boys, ironically enough, seem more complex. What does masculinity mean in the 21st century? How do you raise boys who are thoughtful and kind, and yet still boys? When I was a boy I was never into team sports or rough housing and given that I grew up in sports mad Australia, the result was that I had a somewhat conflicted relationship with my own masculinity. Ultimately, I became very confident and comfortable in my own skin, but it is a topic about which I still wonder at times.

But perhaps I am just too old school and this just really isn't an issue anymore. Indeed, while I did ponder these thoughts earlier when Caeden was just a baby, I find that as he slowly turns into a happy, boisterous little boy, that it all seems rather natural and easy. We wrestle on the bed, read books and he leads me around the house by a finger, demanding that I sit down and play trains or cars with him.

Every so often though, I can't help but say a short prayer, of the secular humanist form, thanking God that I am doing this now, and not in some decade before, when we can all just be ourselves.

Caeden's Finger

2009-03-31T22:32:00.008+02:00

So last week and the week before were not Caeden's best. We had had a great weekend at a beautiful swimming pool, but while there he got a graze on one of his fingers. It bled a little, but it basically looked superficial and we didn't think much of it. Unfortunately, when he went to day care during the following week it became infected with streptococcus.

The poor little guy had to have his whole arm bandaged up to help prevent the infection from spreading, as well as all sorts of ointments and antibiotics. It wasn't one of our better parenting moments. In any case, Caeden didn't seem to mind too much. After all, having a cast did give him something with which to bop his sister's head.

So, given in the last couple of weeks Caeden has had Scarlet Fever, a streptococcus infection and a seemingly limitless supply of catarrh, we are hoping to turn a page with spring.

Communism Lives

2009-03-31T21:51:00.007+02:00

One of the fascinating things about living in Rostock is that we are surrounded by monuments to a failed communist past. The photo here shows the workers united, facing the future in the East. It is right next to the extremely modern Max Planck offices, and not too far away from rusting, communist-era shipyards that have now been mostly dismantled. A few huge cranes looming over the Warnow are the most obvious reminder of the past and the many thousands of people who used to work here, building ships for the GDR.

But perhaps the most fascinating thing for me is that there are some people who still seem to think that communism was a sound idea, albeit implemented badly. I actually had a discussion in a pub a few weeks ago where we debated this specific idea. My fellow debater, S, was a very nice American PhD student studying aspects of Russian society, so I guess she counts as an educated opinion.

To a certain extent, I am not really that surprised that this opinion lingers. After all, for most Australians or Americans, the events that took place in Russia and Germany and so many other countries were far away and a long time ago. I also think that many people have a visceral dislike of capitalism, and a yearning for there to be some sort of alternative system. Given the disastrous current economic disaster, let alone the many other shortfalls of capitalism, it is hard not to be somewhat sympathetic to this train of thought.

However, to actually think that communism is still a fine idea in the early 21st Century boggles my mind. To me, the evil is built into the original core idea of communism itself. The notion that there will be a revolution, where a subset of society, the bourgeoisie, will be essentially declared non-persons and swept away is profoundly wrong. Are all of the bourgeoisie monsters? Do they all deserve to die or to be sent into exile? Really? And how is this to be judged?

Further, what exactly does communism mean? The sheer nonsense that one reads about this makes one's head swim. Theoretically, the state is supposed to simply wither away. Yet how will schools and roads and hospitals all get built without a state? Did people really understand how silly this was when they were fighting and dying for it? I am honestly not quite sure whether to laugh or cry when I think about it.

Free speech, religion and global warming

2009-03-31T21:42:00.002+02:00

Sebastian wrote a nice article that I've put below in its' near entirety. He echoes my own thoughts nicely. At some point I'll put my own thoughts down about this as I think this is a fascinating topic. I'd also bet that it is going to be a significant, recurring issue in this century.

On Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution that urges members to adopt laws outlawing criticism of religions (read about it here, here, and here).

Now, let's put aside my personal views about religion, and let's just try to analyse this in a pragmatical way (which it won't be, as I am biased anyway).

"Defamation of religious is a serious affront to human dignity leading to a restriction on the freedom of their adherents and incitement to religious violence," the adopted text read, adding that "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism."

This is wrong. Deeply so. Most sensible countries got rid of blasphemy laws a very long time ago (or never had them, Belgium for instance). A religion is not a person. It doesn't have feelings. It doesn't have an opinion. It cannot be offended, nor defamed. I feel like we have just warped 200 years backwards. Defamation of religion is very different from say, racism. Religion is something you can choose, race is something you are. You can believe there is a god and still not follow him. To deny someone their race is to deny their existence, hardly the same as calling them a fool for their choice in following a deity.

In the Reuters article I linked to above (second link), a representative of Canada says:

"It is individuals who have rights, not religions," Ottawa's representative told the body. "Canada believes that to extend (the notion of) defamation beyond its proper scope would jeopardize the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of expression on religious subjects."

Which makes me feel a bit more better, but still. Making laws to let religious intolerance run rampant is equivalent to committing violence in the name of religion.

I do understand that this is just a UN Forum that passed this non-binding text, as opposed to the UN General Assembly. In other words, you simply have a few guys saying "We think this might be a good idea", but it doesn't change the fact that once again, a lot of countries preferred restricting their power through boycotting the vote, rather than speak up and yell "NO". Why?

I believe that this resolution is aimed at least in part at secular attacks on religion. As Gandhi said, "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Atheists have been given the short shrift for a very long time now. First they were burned at the stake, then persecuted, and now they're gradually gaining mainstream acceptance now. We've gone from Bush the Elder claiming that atheists should be considered neither citizens nor patriots to Obama including non-believers in his inauguration speech. Perhaps in my lifetime, it'll be politically feasible for an atheist to hold an elected office.

It's no wonder that the religious old guard is running scared.

Ann Arbor

2009-03-29T21:49:00.004+02:00

So right now my thoughts are somewhat occupied with our house in Ann Arbor. Given that we are living in Germany, we are obviously not living in it and have rented it out. We tried to sell it, but as luck would have it, we managed to time our departure with the end of the housing boom in the US.

This was the first house that I had ever owned, so I am pretty sentimental about it. It is also the house where Aralyn first lived when she was a baby, the house where she learned to walk, the house where we lived when Brienna did her PhD, the house where we shared a lot of wonderful moments with friends and family.

Ann Arbor was a really lovely little place to spend five years or so. I never thought that I would ever live in the Mid-West of America, but I am glad that I did. It meant that I got to explore Detroit, got to live in the American heartland and, even if vicariously, got to experience a little bit of one of America's great public universities.

Global Warming Reaction

2009-02-19T20:47:00.002+01:00

Looks like Sebastian doesn't quite agree with my recent posts on global warming. I'll post a response when I've thought a bit, and have some time. Check out his post if you have five minutes and see what you think.

Our Local Stasi

2009-02-19T20:32:00.007+01:00

Turns out the Stasi had their local headquarters and apartment building just a few doors down from our place. It is actually just behind where the old synagogue was before it got burnt down by the Nazis. Wandering around the place you can still see the old guard posts near the entrances, now all boarded up, but not yet torn down.

The photo below shows the apartment building that used to house the Stasi officials. There's actually a pretty neat mural just below that I'll also post when I manage to get a photo without cars parked in front of it.

The building itself is the largest around and clearly stands out, looming over the old city. I like the contrast between the photo, with the clear blue sky background and how many of the locals probably felt about it before the collapse of East Germany. I imagine that that area was probably actively avoided by a great many folks.

I find it personally difficult to reconcile the fact that the Stasi were one of the largest and most repressive secret police organizations within the communist world with the apparent high opinion that East Germans have of their former government, but perhaps that is just my snarky American attitude coming out.

Egyptian Freed

2009-02-19T06:46:00.006+01:00

Now I am not normally paranoid, but let me get this straight. The Washington Post publishes an editorial suggesting that before Obama meets with Mubarak, the president (dictator would be a more accurate term) of Egypt, it would be nice to see some sort of progress on the human rights front.

I have no idea whether the Post was commenting on diplomatic outreaches that were already occurring, or whether Mubarak, or one of his deputies, decided this was a jolly good idea after the article was printed. But, a couple of days after that editorial came out, lo and behold, the suggested 'bone' was thrown.

As much as I detested George W. Bush, he did put his finger upon a thorny issue. Specifically, how should the US handle dictators that happen to dovetail nicely with the American geopolitical strategy? Saudi Arabia and Egypt would be the two best examples of countries whose leadership is both nicely aligned with US interests, yet happen to be utterly undemocratic.

It will be quite interesting to watch how the Obama administration handles this particular issue. And while this is thoroughly excellent news for Ayman Nour and his family, it is far from clear this means anything at all substantial for Egyptians in general.

Happy Tree People

2009-02-19T06:13:00.004+01:00

So this photo is of my brother Mitchell and his lovely little daughter Alice. They are currently living in Melbourne, Australia.

The most painful part of living outside of your home country is that it is hard to stay in touch with friends and family. I have yet to meet Alice, who is coming up to one. We are planning to head back to Australia for Christmas at the end of this year, but that still seems very, very far away.

History and Memory

2009-02-18T22:00:00.001+01:00

I found this short article in the Economist to be quite fascinating. It is on one of those topics that I have randomly pondered about a bit: how does history get taught in schools in post-communist countries? I've always thought it would be difficult to teach the history honestly and openly, given that the collapse of communism is so recent.

Evidently this is the case, and as a result youngsters are getting confusing messages:

The ignorance is unevenly spread. Young western Germans know more of East Germany’s history. In Bavaria just 39% of schoolchildren had “little or very little” knowledge; in Brandenburg 72% were ill-informed. A third of eastern German students thought that Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt, two western giants, actually governed the east. The same proportion judge West Germany’s political system to have been the better; two-thirds of westerners do. Such differences persist even among children of western and eastern parents who attend the same Berlin schools.

Given that one-third of west German students think that the East Germany political system was superior, it is perhaps not surprising that two-thirds of east German students have the same thought. But nonetheless, I find this to be somewhat shocking.

But perhaps I am being too harsh. Perhaps many of these students have families for whom the East German system worked. Perhaps many of them had parents or teachers who did not understand the inefficient or unsustainable nature of the East German system. After all, I would guess that this information was not common knowledge. The context is also critical: this is Germany, and I can't really see much potential harm as these misconceptions are worked out over time. Indeed, I have some faith that this will be worked out as there is a public space where it can be worked out, through peaceful debate and discussion.

This is not the case though in other post-Communist countries such as Russia where such debates are not encouraged. Russia is a fascinating case when thinking about history and memory, and its effects on politics. How do Russians think about the Communist times? How does it get taught in schools? I can easily imagine that Putin would want to put the best possible gloss on these times, but what does that mean for Russian society?

Reading about Russia under Putin's leadership is not particularly pleasant. Under Putin corruption has become endemic, the state is being run by mafia related groups, an already feeble rule of law has been asphyxiated and the Kremlin has worked hard to centralize control over economic activity. And I cannot but think that part of the explanation for the general acceptance of this is a collective societal amnesia.

This is not to say that Putin is trying to recreate the communist, or really socialist, system exactly as it is existed before Gorbachev unwittingly pulled the plug. The means of government control and the economic structure have been updated and are now more subtle, but there are many similarities. But will these similarities be discussed and debated or repressed? Will students be encouraged to think through these issues and to think about better paths that may lie ahead? In Putin's Russia, I doubt that will be on the curriculum any time soon.

Conservatives and Global Warming

2009-02-17T15:49:00.005+01:00

David Brooks and George Will are arguably two of the most respected conservative newspaper pundits in the States. I like reading these guys as they are often a good read if you want a well reasoned conservative response to some issue. At times they dodge issues or slide into sophistry, but their columns are also quite often very interesting.

Unfortunately, I found both of their columns today to be quite depressing. Brooks decided to write a piece celebrating the fact that Americans seem to have no desire to live close to cities, but would rather live outside, in the exurbs, and commute. Brooks celebrates this, despite the fact that that structure is obviously dependent upon the car, and requires using huge amounts of energy to inefficiently move Americans between work, home, the supermarket and the mall.

George Will in his article seems to be echoing a theme that has come up recently: there really isn't any global warming at all, but rather global cooling. Actually, Will doesn't even argue that position: much like Brooks, he never seems to state his opinion at all. Instead, he just quotes other sources and other opinions, and avoids giving his own. One gets the feeling reading the piece that he doesn't think global warming is an issue, but then, it is hard to tell.

I guess it just doesn't strike me as fundamentally a conservative position to completely ignore our affect on the planet. We only have one, and many generations to come depend upon us taking care of it. And while there might be some room for error, it seems like the scientific opinion is pretty firmly pointing in one direction: the planet is warming and burning fossil fuels is the primary reason. It would be nice if American conservatives actually engaged with that issue, rather than pretending that it simply does not exist.

Carbon Tax

2009-02-17T06:47:00.003+01:00

More depressing, but far from surprising, news showing the clear political limits in the fight against global warming. A carbon tax would be the simplest, cleanest and most efficient way to start reducing the amount of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, it is simply politically untenable in the US, and probably most other places as well. Thinking about it, I reckon that you could almost use support for a carbon tax as a rough benchmark to measure how seriously a society or a polity is actually willing to combat global warming. And by that measure we have a long way to go.

Blue Sky

2009-02-16T20:24:00.002+01:00

It is amazing how long periods of cold, snowy and gray days can really make you yearn for some blue sky. We had a lovely day on the weekend, but things seemed to conspire to keep us indoors. So now its back to snow and slush and gray. Fortunately, there aren't too many more months to go till spring.

The photo above was taken by Layne on the frozen Baltic beach at Warnemunde, near the mouth of the Warnow. I have never been on a beach in a snowy winter before, and it is quite odd to walk on hard, frozen sand. It was also a beautiful day, with some folks sailing large powerful kites and the sun gently setting in the West.

Growing up, I never thought I'd ever live on the Baltic coast, it was just one of those things that didn't even occur. For an Australian, the Baltic really does seem like another world away. I just wish it had a little less cloud; there is something wonderful about walking in parks and forests with blue sky above.

Northern Territory

2009-02-15T14:43:00.004+01:00

My father just got back from a short stint as the temporary CEO of the Katherine West Health Board in the Australian Northern Territory (NT). The CEO had taken a break for a few months to spend some time in the South, and Alan was ideally suited to help out for a bit. The photo above shows most of the board members. My father, Alan, is the man in the middle with his arms clasped together.

There a lot of challenges in providing health care in remote, often Aboriginal, communities but the KWHB seems to be working well. The Federal Government has provided more funding recently, which has also helped increase health in areas of the NT.

There will probably always be a set of structural challenges in providing high quality health care in such a huge, rugged, country, but in that area at least, things seem to be moving in the right direction.

Worldview Humility Reaction

2009-02-15T14:10:00.009+01:00

Sebastian posted an interesting comment about my recent atheism post - and brings in Richard Dawkins into the discussion (Sebastian has his own cool blog here). As Sebastian points out, right now Dawkins is, for better or worse, probably the most high profile atheist out there. Unfortunately, he tends towards the annoyingly evangelical side of things.

I actually wonder why Dawkins is even bothering. The UK is one of the more secular places on the planet, and I have a hard time imagining that atheists are as truly disadvantaged as say, vegetarians, dyslexics, coal miners or recent immigrants from South Asia. I can't say that I really feel the need for either a support group or a political lobby, but whatever.

Oddly enough, I really did not intend to kick off such a long thread about atheism when I first commented on non-believing London buses. I've really enjoyed putting my thoughts down on this topic as it tends to clarify and distill my own flightly feelings, but I swear I am not picking arguments for the sheer joy of it.

When I get through a few other things I'll try to circle back and comment more on Dawkins. He is an interesting character and I should read his book. I also think Obama and his understanding of faith is quite interesting as well - but I need to finish his books first.

Broken Glass II

2009-02-15T13:48:00.004+01:00

I already commented on how someone had a attacked the synagogue basically next door to us. Well, it turns out that fifty yards down the road the Nazis burned to the ground a synagogue during Kristallnacht. This was back in November 1938, almost exactly 70 years ago.

Here is the plaque in front of the apartment building that now stands there.

I wonder how many people went to that synagogue, how many naming ceremonies there were, how many births and weddings celebrated? I wonder how someone could throw stones through a synagogue window within sight of this memorial.

Worldview Humility

2009-02-12T21:43:00.002+01:00

One of the things that I particularly like about atheism is that I think it is actually a humble worldview. At the core of atheism is the honest assessment that we just don't know what happens after death; that we just don't know much about a good many things. And importantly, part of atheism is the facing and acknowledgment of this reality.

In many ways I think this acknowledgment of these limits is inspiring. After all, it is the not knowing something that causes you to wonder and powers curiosity. It also encourages you to get out and experience life, to live life to the fullest.

Depending upon your perspective, however, there are also negative consequences. If you were likely to experience a lot of heartache and unrelieved hardship would you put up with it? I can see a lot of benefits of believing in heaven if your life on earth is hell. And to be brutally honest, I don't think a group of atheists would have survived the dark ages. Suicide would be a too appealing prospect compared to a life of unremitting toil and heartache.

This is why I think the evolutionary approach to understanding religious belief makes a lot of intuitive sense. Perhaps there's even an amusing irony in there: it may be thanks to many generations of believers who struggled through difficult times that I may now be a happy atheist.

Capitalism and Canada

2009-02-12T08:53:00.004+01:00

Fareed Zakaria has a new article in Newsweek that looks at Canadian banks and how they are faring compared to their American counterparts:

Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn't grown in size; the others have all shrunk.

So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada's more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.

I especially like the article because of the implicit point that this economic crisis is not a crisis of capitalism itself. Rather, as the article makes clear the American financial crisis and the collapsed housing bubble are far more directly related to the erosion of the financial regulatory system.

From what I can gather from reading and talking with my father, it sounds like Australian banks are also generally doing okay, again based on better regulation and substantially lower leverage ratios.

Time and space

2009-02-11T21:10:00.005+01:00

The Perelli's took this photo of us over the Christmas holidays about a month ago. It feels like it was just a week ago or so, but of course, it isn't. It is already mid-February and will soon be March. On the plus side, the days are starting to stay light much longer, and despite the snow on the ground, you can almost sense Spring coming. The sun's rays are starting to contain warmth and soon we'll be looking for the first early flowers to poke their heads out of the hibernating ground.

It is strange and sad to think that on the other side of the planet my home country is scorched, dessicated and burning. Some nearly 200 people have died in horrible bush fires in Victoria, just south of where my parents live, and just north of my brother in Melbourne. Sometimes being an atheist is not that great: it would be comforting to able to appeal to a higher power.

Economic Anxiety

2009-02-11T20:20:00.002+01:00

I really cannot get my head around the economic crisis. The numbers involved are so large that, as many people have remarked, they have become meaningless, like the number of stars in the galaxy. No one seems to really know what is going on, how long it will last or even whether we are through the worst of it.

While not normally an nervous person, if I think too much about this particular crisis I really can get myself anxious. So far we would seem to be fairly insulated from the effects being felt by millions of folks: both Brienna and I have jobs and seem likely keep them, we have plenty of time for our savings to gain some value again, we don't have any debt to speak of and are all in good health. But I feel like much that I thought I knew about finance, about how the world worked economically was illusion. I am left with the impression of skating over thin ice, feeling that at any moment we, our friends or family could plunge into the icy water below.

This video from TalkingPointsMemo, with Josh Marshall interviewing Joe Stiglitz, provides a good overview of the current situation and shadow play in the background. I also like this one. And although a few things in it don't make sense to me (money market accounts are not FDIC insured among others) it does give an insiders view of the magnitude of the issue.

Part of me worries that the worst is actually yet to come. Although millions of people have lost their jobs, there doesn't seem to be any particular reason this couldn't continue. The stimulus package continues to shrink and is still, according to Krugman, probably much smaller than it should be. I doubt that this will rival the Great Depression, but what reasons do I actually have to support that? There seem to be so many unknowns that it is hard to have any confidence that we aren't going to find something else that the Masters of the Universe forgot to mention to the rest of us.

That much of this crisis stems from the policies pursued by the Bush Administration, from the deliberate weakening of financial regulations for ideological reasons, leaves me just dumbfounded. I still cannot quite believe that Alan Greenspan, who draws a significant chunk of blame for this debacle, is not being more widely held in contempt in the States. How do these people sleep at night?

Beneath each statistic of unemployment in the US is a family and often children. Losing a job is no joke in the States, and right now what would be the chances of finding another one? If you did manage to find something, the chances of finding something with the same pay and conditions would have to be remote. That this is happening to millions of folks across the US is just as hard to fathom as the dollar figures for the various bailout packages.

One State

2009-02-10T09:50:00.012+01:00

Shimon Peres put down some thoughts today in the Washington Post about the importance of a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. His piece is in response to an increasing number of articles and commentary pointing out that the two-state solution is rapidly becoming obsolete. In this particular piece, Peres doesn't provide much argument; he basically just asserts the importance of a two-state solution:

Having personally witnessed the remarkable progress we have made with the Palestinian Authority in recent years, I believe that a two-state solution is not only the best resolution to this age-old conflict but one within our reach.

But is it really within reach? Like the many other pundits and writers, who hope, cajole or plead for some sort of resumption of peace negotiations aimed at creating a Palestinian state, he fails to actually address the question of whether it is really possible anymore.

There was an excellent story on 60 minutes a couple of weeks ago by Bob Simon (part 1 and part 2). As covered in depth in the story, it appears as though a tipping point may have been reached. There are now simply too many settlements and outposts and too many Jewish settlers resolutely determined to stay. When interviewed about it later, Bob Simon stated that in his view, history had simply passed the two-state solution by.

The graph below neatly and simply summarizes the situation by showing the number of West Bank settlers, increasing over time. This graph comes from the Peace Now website, which is worth checking out for the factual information that is otherwise hard to locate.

Importantly, at no point has the number of settlers decreased or even held stable. Under Labor and Likud governments, during peace negotiations and conflict, the number of settlements and settlers has steadily increased. It simply strikes me as surreal that Peres, who knows all about this, decides not to address it at all.

Nor does the evacuation of the Gaza settlements provide any real comfort. From my reading, I think there was a general recognition in the settler movement that Gaza was simply untenable, but the West Bank, Samaria, is another story entirely. I would not be at all surprised if there weren't some settlers that would be prepared to die rather than surrender the West Bank. After all, some of these folks, and obviously there are a minority, are prepared to live very roughly, in hostile territory, with their often young families. It takes deep faith, courage and determination to do this in the first place and I am very skeptical that they would simply uproot their lives if some politician in Tel Aviv told them to do so.

One of the reasons that I particularly like the 60 minutes interview is that it shows very clearly what happened when Olmert tried to evacuate just one tiny settlement outpost. The violence that was sparked was traumatic - and Olmert simply didn't try to remove any more.

It is also important to point out that the settler demographics are just one reason why the two-state solution is looking obsolete. The Israeli political structure itself, with the deal making power often being wielded by the far right groups, in itself could also preclude a two-state solution. This situation looks likely to reoccur after yesterdays election. Access to water, and especially the Jordan River, is another extremely complex issue that is fundamentally hard to solve. And critically, with every passing year the conflict becomes systemically harder and harder to solve.

So, increasingly I think that if writers or commentators are going to talk about a two-state solution, the onus ought to be on explaining why exactly they think it is feasible in a very concrete, practical way. I would very interested in hearing about how the settlers are going to be removed, and when for example. But then again, maybe these are questions that Peres would rather not think about.

America, The Rorschach Test

2009-02-09T20:17:00.004+01:00

One thing I like about having lived in the States is that gives you some perspective when reading articles about the place. Frequently, what people write about the States is actually far more revealing about themselves, in often completely unintentional ways, than it is about the US itself.

Take this op-ed in the New York Times. The writer Alaa Al Aswany offers a critique of America, and Obama in particular, for his silence on the recent fighting in Gaza. I guess one of his key quotes would be where he summarizes a variety of Egyptian opinion after the recent Gaza fighting:

I thus concluded that no matter how many envoys, speeches or interviews Mr. Obama offers to us, he will not win the hearts and minds of Egyptians until he takes up the injustice in the Middle East. I imagine the same holds true for much of the greater Muslim world.

You could crudely, but more or less accurately, summarize the article as arguing that (1) a lot of Egyptians like Obama, (2) America is not being fair in mediating the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and hence (3) Egyptians are not going to really trust the new administration until it starts addressing addressing injustice in the Middle East, specifically in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

I am often puzzled when I read articles like this. For starters, does the writer really understand American or Israeli politics? To simply say that the States should simply become a fair mediator in the conflict glosses an enormous amount of complexity as well as the limited amount of leverage that the new administration actually possesses. Alaa Al Aswany has lived in Chicago and should have some familiarity with this, but it doesn't come through in his article.

But the most gob smacking aspect is that from Alaa Al Aswany's perspective, America's entire relationship with the Middle East, and somewhat more breathlessly, the entire Muslim world, can be boiled down to this single conflict. Really? And more importantly, should it? American aid to Egypt, over $30 billion since the mid 1970s; American involvement in ousting the Taliban in Afghanistan; American military support for Muslims in Kosovo and strong American support for Turkey are all irrelevant compared to this one issue.

I might happen to agree with Al Aswany's basic idea, that a more even-handed American approach to this conflict would be a good idea. But one of the more ugly side-effects of the Palestinian-Israel conflict is that it seems to suck up American time and energy that could theoretically be better applied to far worse conflicts, such as those in Sudan, Congo or Zimbabwe, where many, many more people are dying.

I would love to read something by Al Aswany on any of these topics: after all Sudan is actually next door to Egypt and Congo sits just below Sudan. The Arab League even has its headquarters in Cairo, though I haven't read much about pressure being applied on Sudan by Arab governments. But then again, I would hate to judge a country by just one aspect of their foreign policy.

Commuting Locavores

2009-02-09T19:36:00.004+01:00

So, I was pondering the locavore movement the other day. There are many reasons to eat locally grown food, including better taste, a greater sense of harmony with local seasons and apparently even better behaved bowels. But certainly one raison d'etre of the locavore movement is the desire to reduce the distance that food must travel from where it is grown to where it is consumed, hence reducing the amount of fossil fuels required for food production and transportation.

This makes a certain amount of intuitive sense, but does it really make sense when examined critically? I mean, I love the color and vibrancy of local markets as much as anyone, but on balance, I can't say that I really think they are even a part of a solution to global warming.

I also cannot resist thinking the snarky question about that what matters more, the distance that your food has travelled, mostly likely in bulk and in relatively efficient trucks, or the distance that the consumer travels on a daily basis, to and from work, and to and from their local market or Whole Foods, individually, in a generally inefficient car?

Sleeping Children

2009-02-08T21:09:00.002+01:00

Aralyn and Caeden are sleeping now after a busy day out swimming in a lovely indoor pool in Ribnitz-Damgarten. Living in gray and cold Rostock, there is something absolutely wonderful about spending the day nearly naked in a steamy, almost tropical, pool. Especially when you get to simultaneously look out onto frigid Baltic waters only a hundred meters away.

There is also something soft and warm and magical about sleeping children. I snapped this photo of Aralyn a few weeks ago when she was sleeping in our bed after Caeden decided to stay up late and party. Later, I picked her up and carried her back to her own bed, which is one of the many joys of being a dad.

Atheism Redux

2009-02-08T21:01:00.001+01:00

First off, Danny, thanks for your response. Although I really enjoyed all our discussions in the past, I feel like writing them down makes the arguments themselves much clearer and more interesting as we can get deeper into the issues.

So, reviewing your argument, you started off by differing with my interpretation of the definition of atheism. I then wrote in my second post that the first definition offered by dictionary.com that "the doctrine or belief that there is no God" was very much the strong form of atheism that denied God's existence. I never intended the first definition to be an example of weak atheism, founded on a lack of belief, as you might have been implying.

However, the second definition "disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings" supports my argument that atheism is an absence of belief, not a positive belief in the non-existence of a supreme being. Going further, the definition of disbelief as "the inability or refusal to believe or accept something as true" concurs exactly with the meaning of weak atheism.

Your quote is quite revealing: “an unbeliever has the proofs (of implicitly, Christianity's truth - my comments) and incurs the guilt of setting them aside”. Wouldn’t you agree that the logic of this quote is grounded in Christianity's truth, which I am setting aside? I am not surprised it is referred to in the definition but can you not see how I might object to that logical starting point?

So I believe that the first argument, that atheism can simply be the absence of belief, is supported by the dictionary.com definitions. If pushed, I would adopt this position as the safest and ultimately most sane response when discussing these issues with religious folks. I like this approach to atheism because it simply sets aside questions of belief, and provides no opening for arguments that atheism is just another belief or just another religion.

*****

Emily also kindly sent me an email related to this discussion suggesting that we clarify what we mean by God in this discussion. So, for the purposes of this discussion I would define God as being any one or more of the many gods and goddesses that have been worshiped by humanity in the last three or four millennia. I would include the contemporary Hindu gods such as Vishnu and Shiva, Norse gods such as Thor and Loki, the Roman gods and so on, as well as the God of the current three great monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

However, these gods and goddesses are just a subset of all entities for which there is no empirical evidence for their existence. And while there is a big difference between unicorns and the many gods and goddesses of the various people on earth, all of these entities share the common characteristic of lacking any scientific evidence demonstrating their existence. Indeed, it is one of their defining attributes: one must simply believe.

Circling back to the strong atheism argument, I thus think that the statement "there are no unicorns" is logically the same as "there is no God", and about as reasonable. If we enumerated all the current and past Gods and Goddesses, how many would a Christian be comfortable stating do not exist? And how many people today would think that such statements would be reasonable – akin to stating that unicorns do not exist?

Why exactly does the same logic not apply to the Christian God? For a Christian the answer is obvious. However, for me, and I would suggest for a disinterested observer of the discussion, the answer is not at all obvious.

I also don't think it matters that a great many more people believe in the Christian God or that Christianity is a much more enriching experience compared with a belief in unicorns. Just because millions, or even billions, of people believe something doesn't make it true. That would simply amount to taking the thinking behind the line "if I say it thrice then it is true" to the mathematical limit.

*****

The third argument I would make is based on Sebastian's interesting comment (check it out here). For me, one really interesting part of his email was where he pointed out that every society known has an associated religion or belief system. It appears to be impossible to be human and not have spiritual or religious thoughts.

There is a fascinating article in the latest New Scientist by Michael Brooks that addresses this point. He looks at a number of researchers and their work in trying to unravel the origin of religious belief. One of the key points in the article seems to be that not only are our minds are biologically receptive to religious belief, but that it may almost be the ‘default’ setting.

Having become a parent I can certainly see how this makes sense. Aralyn has had an entire imaginary pantheon of characters for sometime, and it would be simple for her to make a logical step to an imaginary, but powerful God. Such a belief would also be very comforting to her: she has struggled for some time to get her head around death (she came across this while watching the Lion King) which is really hard when you are only four. God would make this so much easier and simpler for her.

Mazing

2009-01-25T19:51:00.002+01:00

Aralyn has something of a maze habit, and she's getting pretty good at them. I don't quite understand it myself, but I think she has developed some sort of algorithm for solving them and likes applying it, again and again. Maybe there's something reassuring about being able to solve something regularly, and relatively easily, that's comforting; perhaps her little brain just likes the shapes and looking for patterns.

Anyway, this weekend I printed out a quite a tough one for her. I like to throw in twisters every now and again, just to keep her on her toes. We had to help her once or twice, but she still blew us away - take a look:

Family Formation and Congratulations

2009-01-25T19:20:00.009+01:00

One of the highlights of last week was that Social Forces sent Brienna a copy of their latest edition, featuring an article by her. Congratulations!

Inaugural Thoughts

2009-01-21T23:04:00.002+01:00

Barack Obama has just been inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States and I thought I'd put down some of my thoughts and feelings about this event.

There are so many meanings in this inauguration, so much history, so much joy and relief, so much hope and so many problems so desperately needing solutions that I find myself hesitating, not quite sure where to start. How does one think about history like this, when it is taking place in front of you?

But perhaps the best, most obvious starting point would be that America has just inaugurated its' first black president, the day after Martin Luther King Day. I find myself getting lost in just this thought. It brings up memories of Helen Arnold, our deeply religious, very lovely, eighty year old black next door neighbor in Ann Arbor. It makes me think of Marlene, another truly lovely friend, and her adopted black daughter and her grandchildren. That Obama is now the President must just bring pure joy to them and their families.

I also find it hard to comprehend just how far America has come in terms of race relations in such a relatively short span of time. I was born in 1971, just barely four years after laws banning interracial marriage had been overturned in the US and three years after Martin Luther King was assassinated. Having grown up in Australia, I don't feel the deep joy that many across America must be experiencing with Obama's inauguration, but it is hard not to empathize and to be inspired by not only his victory, but also by the manner in which he won.

Turning from those thoughts, of the many parts of Obama's speech that caught my ear, I particularly liked this one:

Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.

George Bush was seated quite close to Obama, and I wondered as I listened, what thoughts he had as he heard those words. Bush's face during much of the ceremony seemed tired and somewhat forlorn and I wonder if he suddenly felt regret at what he had put into motion, regret on hearing directly, loudly and up close a very possible prelude to history's final judgement on his presidency.

I also wonder if Bush, at the start of his term, had ever heard of the "rule of law". Certainly his actions as president don't suggest that he really understood the concept. Instead, it seems like his approach to the presidency was inspired more by Jack Bauer in the Fox series 24: do whatever you must to keep the homeland safe. I can almost understand that perspective and I certainly think it resonates with a lot of Americans, but it is also very shallow. A core strength of America (and Australia, Canada, and many other countries) is that deep in our souls, in ways that most of us do not even recognize or understand, we understand that no one is above the law, no one is entitled to break laws just for the sake of expediency.

And how do you even begin to think about "I, Barack Hussein Obama..."? How is it that a black American with a middle name of Hussein became president at this moment? I tend to think that American notions of exceptionalism, at least in terms of ideals, are overrated, but here I think I have to make an exception. In how many other countries could an extremely talented and gifted black man like Obama have been elected to the highest political office? I can't think of very many where it would even begin to be feasible. And to steal one of Obama's lines, how absolutely wonderful is it to see American living up to its' best self?

Although I am not an American and do not feel the exact same, bone deep, pride and joy as my American family and friends did with Obama's victory and inauguration, I came pretty close. Our little family watched the inauguration live on Brienna's laptop at our the dinner table in Rostock, Germany. Amidst the food, baby talk and toddler yowls, Brienna and I both had tears in our eyes watching the swearing in ceremony. As Brienna said later, it felt like she had suddenly gotten her wonderful nation, the best of America, back once more.

Obama's Inauguration Speech

2009-01-20T20:25:00.001+01:00

Obama's full inauguration speech is below:

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition. Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans. That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights. Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics. We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom. For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn. Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction. This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America. For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do. Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage. What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government. Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good. As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more. Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations.

We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you. For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all. For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate. Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true.

They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship. This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny. This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath. So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]." America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Worship

2009-01-19T19:48:00.009+01:00

So while I am thinking about my reply to Danny, I thought I'd write down something about my own thoughts about life and meaning. I've written this quickly, so I might have to come back and revisit certain sections, but I wanted to put something down.

The core of how I understand the world is very much based on a desire to face the world and life as it actually is, to understand and learn and explore as much as possible. To suck the marrow of life as the saying goes. And a critical part of that approach is honesty. Honesty in the sense trying to come up with the best, most valid, most logical explanations for all the things that we experience.

So, from my perspective, belief itself is the antithesis of what I was interested in for myself. I wanted to come up with my own understandings of the world that were founded in reason and science and were not based on the suspension of disbelief. I wanted a solid ground that was reproducible.

This is not to imply a lack of respect for religion or a failure to appreciate some of the amazing wonders that have been created in the name of God. Many people, some of the best people that I know, are deeply religious and I honor that. From my perspective, whatever meanings get you through life are fine by me. Indeed, who am I to judge, assuming that your beliefs do not affect me?

So if you wanted a specific set of terms, then humanism and rationalism seem to best describe how I approach and understand life. I really haven't read that much about these terms, nor do I know much about their history, so I may need to come back to this. To a large extent, I don't even like having to come up with a single term to describe my own outlook. It seems like such a process of simplification when so often one doesn't even know one's own mind.

To me there is so much in nature, in the universe to marvel at and to glory in that it is beyond comprehension. I have no way to conceive of the number of stars in just the Milky Way, which is just one minor galaxy. And photos of the earth, our one single precious fragile planet, just bring a sense of awe.

Love is other strand that I think is critical in our lives, and certainly in mine. Despite all our terrible failings and our faults, I like being human and I love our capacity for love and empathy and altruism. And I don't think I truly realized all that this meant until I had Aralyn and Caeden, until I saw all the different connections that we have with other people, and until I had realized how much I love community.

So I guess at base I like to think of us, of humanity, as being organically bound together and integrated with the cosmos. Matter is really just energy, and as I told Aralyn when trying to comfort her in a discussion about death, when we die we just turn back into energy. And there is something to glory about in that, to think that we are made up of matter that was once space dust, exploded stars and planets. That is something to worship I think.

More Agnostic Dissent

2009-01-19T05:44:00.002+01:00

Danny very kindly posted a great reply to my last post on agnosticism, which I put below:

You define atheism as:
"1. The doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2. Disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings."
You go on to argue a "weak form" of atheism: "absence of belief in God."

Where is the weak form, or passive disbelief in this definition? Certainly not definition 1. As for definition 2, the word disbelief describes an active, not passive sentiment.

The relevant definition of disbelief according to dictionary.com: "the inability or refusal to believe or to accept something as true." The definition page also includes this highly relevant aside from Websters, contrasting the word “unbelief” to “disbelief”: “One may be an unbeliever in Christianity from ignorance or want of inquiry; a unbeliever has the proofs before him, and incurs the guilt of setting them aside. Unbelief is usually open to conviction; disbelief is already convinced as to the falsity of that which it rejects.”

The whole issue boils down to semantics. I don’t think our sentiments are far apart.

Another comment of yours got me to reconsider one of the statements I casually tossed out before: that God is unknowable. This implies that it is in principle impossible to discern whether God exists or not. Now, while it is impossible to prove that God doesn't exist, it is not logically impossible to prove that God DOES exist. If some entity were to show up and start throwing around lightning bolts, raising the dead, ressurecting Michael Jackson's career (requiring both of the above), etc... only a hardened skeptic would continue to deny the possibility of a supernatural omniscient diety. But I require first-hand or verifiable -– preferably repeatable -- empirical evidence to even begin to admit God’s existence.

I still doubt whether we can ever know God on a scientific basis. Consider this theorem: If science could understand God, then by definition God wouldn’t be supernatural. And if God isn’t supernatural, well, then God just ain’t all he’s cracked up to be.

Can we ever know God on a non-scientific basis? Perhaps. But when we throw away science, what are we left with? Anything goes.

One more comment on your definition of agnostic.
The part of definition you provide of agnostic that resonates most with me is the notion “that human knowledge is limited to experience.” But that can’t be the whole story, can it? I would claim to know certain things I have never experienced. We rely on other’s experiences to help inform our understanding of the world. Humanity could hardly progress without that. Now, some people have had genuine religious experiences, in which they say (and believe) they have communed with God. Why do I reject the evidence of those experiences out of hand, but not the imputations of a scientist describing the moment after the Big Bang? I need to ponder that, and I pose that as a question for you, Brod.

As for your questions:
1. The Big Kahuna argument you suggest earlier seems correct. God: alleged all-powerful creator of the universe. Unicorn: Alleged horse with a horn sticking out of its head. God gives much of the population of the earth a reason to get up in the morning. Unicorns give much of the female 5-9 demographic a reason to stay up past bedtime. 'Nuff said.

2. The definition of atheist you cite is that it is the belief that there is NO God. So no, a Christian atheist seems impossible, as they do believe in A God, though not the God of other religions. Interesting idea, though.

Agnostic Dissent

2009-01-16T09:21:00.005+01:00

Danny posted a comment on my recent post on atheism, setting me straight on the difference between agnosticism and atheism. I remember a number of good discussions about this, sometimes involving whiskey, at his place with Emily and Brienna. He writes:

Agnostic is the term people use to describe your last sentiment. Alas, agnosticism is one of the less fashionable -isms.

Atheism is a belief system that has exactly as much logical validity (or empirical support) as theism, and can be executed with just as much arrogance.

It is not a sign of weakness to admin that one doesn't know the unknowable. In fact, to claim otherwise is by definition foolish. (How 'bout that for arrogance)

It is an interesting point and one I've heard a number of times from people. I don't really agree, so I thought I'd set out a response, this time sober and hence hopefully with a little more logic and thoughtfulness, and with a little less volume and bombast.

To start off, I will admit that many dictionaries perhaps give such a definition, but dictionaries don't give much space for a lot of philosophical nuance, and these are very contested terms. In any case, this being the internet after all, dictionary.com actually gives a different definition:

The doctrine or belief that there is no God.
disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

Which to my mind, neatly summarizes two of the main strands of thought that make up atheism. Wikipedia also has a good overview of all this, including the very complicated history of this term. But in short, it seems to me that atheism can either be a strong form, which includes the positive belief that there is no God, or a weak form that is essentially an absence of belief in God. I tend to side with the latter, simply because I think it makes more logical sense: who in their right mind goes about positing the non-existence of anything, God included, in a universe of unimaginable size?

I also tend to like the weak form of atheism because it closely matches the meaning of the word itself. Atheism to me implies that it is outside of any theistic system. I guess the best analogy would be the word amoral. You can talk about people or their actions being moral or immoral, but the actions of ants, for example, are neither, they are simply amoral. The notion of morality simply doesn't apply on an insect level: inserts possess neither consciousness nor free will. Tying this back to atheism, the term itself to me very simply means that it is entirely outside of any theistic system at all.

But lets consider the strong form of atheism as well for a moment. The statement that "I believe there is no God" might well be a leap of faith, but is it really comparable to the statement that "I believe there is a God"? After all, I will quite comfortably tell my children, as a statement of fact, that vampires, unicorns and martians do not exist. But I can't prove that. No one on Earth, in fact, can actually prove the positive non-existence of any of these things, and yet we would all feel quite comfortable saying similar things. Does God get some sort of special dispensation against this because he's, well, kind of bigger in a cosmic way?

Agnosticism is, I think, a wholly different animal. Again, from dictionary.com:

a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate case, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.

Wikipedia also gives a good overview. Based on this, agnosticism for me is about whether it is possible to know anything at all about God. Is he, or she, a knowable category or is God simply beyond all human conception?

This definition also has the advantage of according with what the word itself means. The term agnostic was coined by Huxley and is based on the Greek agnotos, meaning "not known" or "incapable of being known". Hence, and as Wikipedia points out, it would be an entirely logical position to be an agnostic Christian.

However, I don't seen any particular reason why God, if he or she exists, should be beyond all human conception. If we can study what happens in the first few seconds of the birth of the universe, why couldn't we conceivably figure out some way to study God eventually. I guess this is why I don't think of myself as an agnostic. Besides, and more tellingly, how do agnostics know that God is unknowable. That, in itself seems like a big leap of faith. From my perspective it seems like agnostics may have a positive belief that anything to do with God is beyond human conception. What is their basis for that?

I guess I have a couple of questions of my own back for Danny:

Should we draw a distinction between God and other mythological creatures, such as unicorns, or even earlier polytheistic beliefs? If so, why?
Given that Christians positively deny the 'truth' of other religions, does that make Christians also atheists (strong form) with respect to earlier or different religions, for example, the polytheistic Norse Gods?

Though perhaps those should wait until we can actually have another fun discussion in a pub somewhere, involving something alcoholic.

Life

2009-01-15T22:04:00.004+01:00

Rostock

2009-01-15T22:02:00.001+01:00

Rostock

2009-01-14T21:53:00.002+01:00

Again, image courtesy of Layne Perelli.

Capitalism ist Kaput

2009-01-14T21:44:00.001+01:00

One unfortunate feature of Germany, and especially the old East Germany, is persistently high unemployment. This was and is particularly sad in East Germany. When Communism collapsed, so did many of the old, inefficient and noncompetitive state owned enterprises, throwing their workers into unemployment.

Now, Germany is not the US, and losing your job does not mean that you lose health care for yourself or your family and the state does provide considerable benefits. But, however you look at it, losing your job is still going to be devastating and moreover it might be quite difficult to find another job, especially if your skills were based on obsolete technology or machinery.

Arguably however, there was no real way to move from the inefficient and unsustainable Communist style command economy to a more capitalistic system without a lot of state enterprises closing. The factories were too old, based on obsolete technology and simply depended upon state subsidies to remain operational. It all sounds very logical and sensible, but the hardship and pain this caused people and families as they had to deal with these changes was very real.

Many former Communist countries, from China through to Romania have had to deal with these changes in the last several decades. East Germany though had the unique good luck to have been dissolved entirely and integrated into its Western twin. West Germany invested heavily and funded the transformation and modernizations. Of all the former Communist countries, the old East Germany has probably had the easiest time adjusting to the new political and economic structures.

Which is perhaps why I find it so funny, and ironic, that one finds the odd sign around Rostock saying "Capitalism ist Kaput". Admittedly, this was spray painted on the outside of what was probably either some sort of anarchist share house or squat, but really!

Atheism

2009-01-14T20:26:00.004+01:00

Atheism seems to be a minor theme that has popped up more recently in the last year or so. There was a spate of books, with one of the leading being The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. My parents-in-law gave us a copy for last Christmas, though I have to admit that I haven't read it. I had a hard time finding the motivation I guess, already being an atheist. I also tend to prefer reading and looking at arguments with which I don't agree , rather than reading something that tries to convince me to become something I already am. It's just fundamentally more interesting.

Anyway, Dawkins popped again within the last week or so ago, leading the charge on atheism in the UK, by supporting an advertising campaign on public buses of all things. It seems a little overblown; the UK is already very secular and the Church of England seems to be on life-support, with dwindling church attendence rates.

However, one thing did catch my eye in the article about the non-believing buses. It was a quote from Dawkins about the term atheism itself. He pointed out that he didn't believe in unicorns, which made him, using parallel naming logic, an aunicornist; he also doesn't believe in martians, consequently also making him an an amartianist. It is a good critique of the term. In any case, it is a bad idea to be defined by that which you deny, no? Such a definition doesn't seem like a promising start if you want something founded on reason and logic.

Up till now though, I haven't come up with a non-lame alternative term. Humanist? Rationalist? Empiricist? Realist? I kind of like realist, as it confounds a number of other meanings of the term and also connotes some sort of connection to reality as opposed to mythology and faith.

But perhaps that's the wrong approach. Do we need a term? Why? After all, I am not positing the existence of a supreme being or any other mythological creature. I am accepting the contingency of life, and accepting that we only possess a thimble-full of error filled knowledge. I am not proposing something to make me feel better about that.

And no, just for the record, I don't think that being an atheist, if we have to use that term for the moment, involves denying the existence of God. I have a sneaking suspicion that some Jesuit theoretician somewhere came up with that self-defeating definition. It always struck me as being far more sensible to simply argue that just like martians, there was really no way to scientifically test for the existence of God. He's up there with flying pigs, unicorns and martians, smiling away.

Fairy Princess

2009-01-11T20:15:00.003+01:00

Up till now Aralyn has simply not been interested in princesses. All that hair brushing and waiting for princes hasn't appealed I guess. Perhaps "The Paper Bag Princess" had something to do with it. Perhaps Diego and all those animal rescues as well as The Lion King packed just the right amount of adrenalin to stimulate four year synapses.

In any case, a couple of weeks ago though things started to change a touch. Aralyn tried on a couple of princess outfits that had been presents but were up till now moldering away in a box. She even went in for the inherited ballet slippers, fairy wings and gorgeous pink fluffy tiara. Of course, there is only so much you can do in a tutu, so she turned back into a lion cub again about ten minutes later.

Broken glass

2009-01-11T08:06:00.006+01:00

We live on Augustenstrasse, two houses from a synagogue just down the street. The synagogue itself is somewhat subtle, with an unobtrusive Star of David imprinted on the glass above the front door, which is tucked into an alcove. I only realized that it was a synagogue when I noticed clumps of people speaking Russian outside every so often which caused me to look closer at the building. I thought about how bizarre the world was, with an Australian/American in old East Germany wondering at what stories these Russian Jews could tell.

I have only been inside a synagogue once, for a naming ceremony for a baby girl of two friends of ours, A and E, in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a really lovely ceremony, conducted in Hebrew, and just full of warm community spirit. In that instance, and from an outsiders perspective, there was something wonderful in being able to combine ethnicity and tradition with religion. A and E had only just arrived in town, but regardless of their specific views on religion, they felt very comfortable attending one of their local synagogues.

So seeing that someone had thrown rocks and smashed three or four windows of our local synagogue is chilling. I know these kinds of things happen all the time, across Europe and in the States, but it is always bracing when you see it. What is somewhat surreal is that we live in a nice part of town, an area where I feel thoroughly safe, and yet this happens. The fact that we are living in Germany, with all the concomitant historical overtones, is what finally renders this act so especially chilling.

You might not like what Israel is doing right now on the other side of the planet. You can construct a strong argument that even the Wall Street Journal will publish, that Israeli actions are war crimes. However, Germany is a democracy and there are many avenues for peacefully expressing your opinion, without attempting to intimidate the very small Jewish minority that may or may not even agree with Israeli actions.

Gaza III

2009-01-08T15:45:00.003+01:00

Roger Cohen has a great column in today's New York Times. If I was in his shoes I think I would also feel the same awful sadness and despair.

Rostock

2009-01-07T19:14:00.006+01:00

This is a picture of dune grass in Warnemunde just near the beach. The photo itself was taken by my father-in-law when we were all on a family outing to Warnemunde, which is that part of Rostock directly on the Baltic coast.

Rostock is where we are all living and working right now. The city itself is quite small and beautiful and is built around where the river Warnow runs into the Baltic. The shape of Warnow makes for a magnificant port, and hence the city is very old, having been used by the vikings, the Hanseatic trading league and no doubt many other travellers over the millenia.

Rostock was one of, if the not the prime, port for the old GDR, or East Germany. During the communist time, there was a large ship building industry here as well, although it rapidly fell apart in the early 1990s once the GDR collapsed.

I've had a few conversations with folks who were here in Rostock when all those changes took place. Perhaps not surprisingly, a great many people still reminisce about the Communist times, about the greater economic securty and, oddly enough, the meaning that the Communist system provided. Out of interest, I've pushed a few folks on whether there were any issues during those times, and I have yet to have anyone acknowledge anything really, other than simple limitations on overseas travel.

One young student who helped us move into our current apartment was, so far, the sole exception. I don't think he was old enough to have really experienced the Communist system, but he did tell me that his grandfather was shot and killed trying to escape. He just stated this calmly and fairly matter of factly. He didn't seem particularly bitter, and may have just accepted this as a fact as a part of family history.

It is really hard to grasp all the history surrounding us here in Rostock. The Allies destroyed this town during World War II with bombing raids, the Russian army moved through and occupied it and Communism was installed and collapsed. And this is only in the last half of the Twentieth Century. When I am in some of the gorgeous old churches here I sometimes wish that I could sit down with a column or a painting and have a conversation about all the things that it had witnessed and talk of things past.

Aralyn

2009-01-05T22:06:00.002+01:00

Berlin I

2009-01-05T20:21:00.007+01:00

Well, my family and I actually made it to Berlin in the holidays. Berlin is the one city in Europe that I really wanted to see. This is not to slight any other cities, it is just that for some reason this city resonates with me in much the same way that New York did when I was living in the States. Anyway, it was early Friday morning, we were bored and feeling spontaneous and adventurous. So, lets go see Berlin rapidly morphed from an idea to a mad frenzy of packing, planning and then racing to the train station.

However, it didn't quite work out as well as we were hoping. The train trip down to Berlin wasn't a disaster exactly, but Caeden certainly wasn't a happy camper and really didn't want to make our trip much fun. We did however do a lot of 'sploring', which basically meant walking literally the length and breadth of the train, smiling at myriad strangers as we wandered through the carriages and checking out every lavatory on the train to find a suitably clean one for my very particular daughter.

Things pretty much went downhill from there. The management company through which we booked an apartment at the last minute didn't get back to us (can't say I blame them, they were in Spain, probably enjoying a well deserved holiday just like we were trying to do) which meant that we were standing in the Berlin central train station (hauptbahnhof or HBF for short), coming up to munchkin dinner time, without a place to stay. As two people who use their brains to earn their bread, this was somewhat embarrassing. But no problem, and staying optimistic, we'll just give the apartment people some time and go check out the Reichstag and Bundestag in the meantime.

This is where we ran into the next major problem. It was absolutely freezing outside. I normally don't feel the cold that much, but I was cold in Berlin. And unfortunately, I think both kids where right there with me, shivering away in our thin pants (yes, flabbergastingly enough, we had actually decided not to bring the snow pants), with our little pink fingers slowly turning purple. We only lasted about 20 minutes or about 400 meters from the HBF before nixing that idea and trudging back.

After a fairly functional dinner (don't ask), we found a very helpful information woman who recommended and booked another apartment for us. Great! So off we set, straight out of the frying pan and into the fire. We took an S-bahn to the stop and then proceeded walking to our apartment. That was another mistake: if you don't know the area that well, it's late at night and you have small children, I recommend taking a taxi. But anyway, we walked and walked. And after a little while I noticed one of the biggest sex shops I think I have ever seen. I mean I don't normally take note of these places, but this was almost the size of an American big box store. And then I noticed another one, about the same size across the street. About that time I realised that we had wandered into a mini red light district, late at night with two children in tow. Again, no big deal, it still felt safe and I am definitely not on the moralistic side of things. I also saw a small hotel right next to the sex shop, and the proximity of the two did raise a question mark in my mind, but again, no big deal. It certainly wasn't a place I'd want to sleep in though.

Anyway, we took a long detour to get to the other side of the main street, got onto our street and then started schlepping up the street to find the apartment. After about 20 minutes (remember, it is freezing out there) and encouraging poor Aralyn to keep up with her completely nutty parents, we make the horrible realization that we long ago passed number 14. The kind woman at the HBF help desk had highlighted the road, so we assumed that she meant go to the end, but she must have meant it is somewhere along this road, but I'm not exactly sure where. So, nothing for it but to turn around and trudge back. About this point, visions out of a Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich began flashing before me.

Eventually we got back to the main road, and I began to feel a certain sense of dread. And sure enough, as we slowly but surely tracked down number 14, we got closer and closer to the hotel right next to the sex shop. When we finally got inside it, talked to the suitably dubious proprietors and got into our room, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Of course there wasn't a crib so Caeden had loads of fun running around when we was supposed to be sleeping, and I think that was the highlight of his day.

I finally pulled the plug the next morning. It was just too cold and too unfair on the little ones. We wanted to go to Legoland, but unfortunately I didn't think it was worth freezing the children into ice blocks to do it. Funnily enough, once we were all resigned to heading back home in defeat we actually had a wonderful meal in a classy restaurant (with Caeden sleeping!) and an almost pleasant trip back home. Irony I guess.

So, I am really looking forward to my next trip to Berlin, sometime when it is warm and when we can stay in a somewhat more salubrious establishment. I'll keep you posted.

Gaza II

2009-01-05T20:02:00.004+01:00

Juan Cole has a very good historical summary of the conflict and how it has evolved from the early conventional wars into terrorism and micro-wars. Juan Cole is an interesting chap: he has an almost unsurpassed detailed knowledge the various issues that he discusses that makes it hard for neo-conservatives to debate his positions. I am not sure I agree with everything of his that he has written, but he is always interesting reading.

Andrew Sullivan has an analysis of the Israeli attack on Gaza from a just war perspective. The bottom line: the Israeli attack is not defensible using that particular theory. I'd have to say I agree.

Lastly, Gideon Levy has a very sad and thoughtful piece in Haaretz. Bizarrely enough, when I was young I secretly wished my family had been Jewish (anyone familar with 1980's Canberra Australia and the associated cultural desert might sympathize) and to some extent identified with the challenges and struggles of Israel. But now, how would I feel if I actually was Jewish? I think I would share most of Levy's sad and despairing feelings.

Russian Miasma

2009-01-04T19:41:00.003+01:00

Masha Lipman has another op-ed in the Washington Post today. He writes quite interesting articles and op-eds about Russia fairly regularly, and this one is no exception. The basic thrust of Lipman's op-ed is that the foundations of the current Russian political structure rest on high oil prices. High oil prices have provided the Russian elite with plenty of lucrative opportunities whilst simultaneously allowing Putin to provide social support to the less wealthy. In return, Putin has taken a more-or-less free hand in running the country.

Lipman correctly identifies a key flaw with this approach: what happens when oil prices crash like they have now? What then? To some extent this may be a temporary issue: I am sure in the not-too distant future oil prices will rise again and Putin's prefered method of governance will again become financially feasible. Of course, oil will run out at some point, but I doubt anyone is giving that particular issue much thought.

But what is happening to Russian society in the meantime? Russia used to be moving towards some sort of democracy, where political power could (potentially) be transferred to another party through (relatively) peaceful means. In gathering power to himself personally and in weakening governing institutions it would appear to make any type of peaceful transistion of power much more problematic and potentially destabilizing.

There is a theme in work by Russia specialists, area studies and legal folks to focus on the rule of law, and I can't say that I am surprised. It strikes me as a really critical and interesting area of work. Although most Australians or Americans would look completely baffled if you mention "rule of law" to them, it is bedded deep within our societies and souls and is an invisible source of strength for Western societies.

Arguably however, the notion of the rule of law is simply not deeply embedded within the current Russian polity or economy. Putin's government itself seems to consider the law as a cudgel to be used on opponents, rather than something that ought to be obeyed. This deficit, and Putin's apparent complete lack of interest in correcting it, looks to me as a left over cancer from the Communist era that is infecting everything moving forward.

There seems to be a very deep irony at work here. Putin, who seems to be trying with all his might to reforge a Great Russia, is, by the very policies he is putting in place, literally undermining any chance of longer term Russian economic and political success. He might be very popular now, but I wonder how things will look in another ten or twenty years.

Caeden

2009-01-04T19:39:00.002+01:00

The Cold War, Global Warming and Hope

2009-01-04T07:56:00.004+01:00

The end of the Cold War and the collapse of Communism in the early 1990s were critically important historical turning points. I remember growing up in the 1980s and debating with friends whether or not a nuclear war was likely, and if so, what we'd do. On reflection now, I am very glad my own children won't have to worry about that particular issue nearly as much as I did.

Thinking about the Cold War also helps me to put global warming issue into perspective. Yes, it is still a monumental global challenge, but at least it is a challenge for all of the world, that will only really be resolved when the different governments actually come together to co-operate, peacefully. Just as importantly, the difference between a nuclear holocaust and global warming is quite stark, as are the time frames with which we can attempt to mitigate and prevent such outcomes.

This is a different argument than that made this morning by James Lee. He argues the fairly obvious argument that global warming may lead to greater scarcity of resources, large scale migrations and other affects that are thus likely to lead to increased conflict.

While not necessarily disagreeing with Lee's analysis, I think it is also important to point out the extent to which global warming will also serve to bind humanity together. We will all rise or fall together on this issue. Nearly all nations on earth will be affected by rising sea levels and the acidification of the oceans. Even if it takes humanity much longer than it ought, with more tragically preventable consequent damage, and yes, with Lee's concomitant conflict, ultimately, if humanity deals successfully with global warming, more than just that the resolution of that one issue will have been achieved. This would be perhaps my first source of hope that global warming will ultimately be addressed in a meaningful way.

It is also very important to note how amazingly rapidly public opinion on global warming has shifted around the world. I am not convinced that we face scientific problem in global warming as much as we face a political and social problem. The key to solving those impediments is changing public opinion. And on this front, to have gone from a complete lack of public interest and knowledge to where we are today in less than 10-15 years, gives me my second source of hope.

Shirin Ebadi

2009-01-02T07:24:00.003+01:00

Two great columns in the New York Times today. Paul Krugman writes about the failure of the Republican model of political dominance with a focus on the ugly implicit racial messages. I agree with everything he writes and I must admit I have never quite understood how quite a few black Americans, including people like Colin Powell, would be willing to sign up with such a party.

I also liked this editorial in the Times. Iran is not the world threat that many make it out to be, but neither is the current regime particularly pleasant. Anytime a regime needs to shut down and intimidate unarmed human rights workers you know something is wrong. I would add that a single brave and hardworking woman should not be a threat to any government, regardless of what she said, but clearly that isn't the case. What does it tell you about the Iranian regime that it feels the need to squelch such a tiny flame of independent thought and compassion?

New Years 2009

2009-01-01T21:30:00.000+01:00

Gaza

2009-01-01T11:41:00.000+01:00

The renewed fighting in Gaza is getting lots of coverage in the press and in the blogosphere. It really is awful to read about all about it, and there is something especially awful in the complete predictability of it.

Andrew Sullivan has a good summary of various reactions and opinions across the political spectrum. The vast majority of commentators spend time discussing the reasons why this particular burst of fighting occurred, or what exactly the US, or other states, should try to do about it.

One thing that is not discussed very often though is the degree to which other countries or states can actually have any significant influence. On the Hamas side, my thoughts are that there probably is a fair amount of leverage that could be exerted by Iran or Syria if they wished to do so. Everything I have read suggests that Hamas, much like Hezbollah, receives a large amount of its funding from Iran. However, is it really in Iran's interests right now to have this particular set of hostilities resolved easily or smoothly?

On the Israeli side though, I actually wonder how much leverage the US and other actors ultimately possess. Yes, the US provides billions of dollars of aid, materiel and technology transfers, but is this usable leverage? Could the US even attempt to use this support as a bargaining chip to force Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank as many people seem to believe ought to happen?

Frankly, I believe that on this particular issue, the Americans have lost control of their own foreign policy. AIPAC and other pro-Isreali lobby groups in Washington are incredibly smart operators and the cost for any member of the Senate or the House of Representatives to oppose aid to Israel is generally to high. The president has a lot more room to maneouver and perhaps Obama has some ideas here: he certainly can't do any worse than Bush.

The conventional wisdom is that the US will have to broker any final deal between the Palestinians and the Israelis. I would add an addendum to that, which would be that any final peace will only occur once the Israeli population really wants peace and is willing to confront the radical Zionists who make up the core of the settlers in the West Bank. From my reading of the situation this is not yet the case. There is something in the core of the Israeli soul that still dreams of a Greater Israel, and to confront that shadow side and the settler movement, seems like a step for which the Israeli people are not yet ready.

This is not, by any means, to exonerate the PLO or Hamas for their own unique and destructive contribution to the current political quagmire. Many writers have catalogued these in considerable detail. However, in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict it is Israel that occupies the land and has the overwhelming military advantage. To be blunt, they won the wars and hence hold most of the cards when it comes to negotiating any peace treaty.

If you put this altogether, especially given the current situation of settlements in the West Bank, I'd have to say I am pessimisstic on this particular issue being resolved any time soon. Nor do I have any confidence that any US administration, even one headed by Obama, will be able to do much to alter the fundamental dynamics that have taken hold of this conflict.

2000W

2009-01-01T08:29:00.000+01:00

Global warming is one issue in which I am particularly intrigued. In much the same way that the Cold War was one of the defining threats for the second half of the 20th century, I believe that global warming is likely to be one of the few, if not the, key theme of the 21st century. As Ross Garnaut depressingly wrote in his White Paper for the Australian government, global warming is a truly diabolical policy problem without easy solutions.

Many talented writers and thinkers have written a lot about the challenges of global warming. A lot has also been written about the need to reduce our carbon output on a personal basis. One question that doesn't seem to get nearly as much attention however, is how much carbon, or how much energy, we should be using in total.

Reading through the many suggestions on the web, along with Gore's advice on what we should be doing (changing light bulbs, growing vegetables, winterizing houses, car pooling etc), I can't help but thinking fine, these are good suggestions that ought to be done, but are they enough? More simply, if everyone in the developed world actually did this, would it actually make any difference? Sure, at some level there would be less carbon going into the atmosphere, but would it be enough? Would it be anything more than a statistical blip on an otherwise straight line of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations?

Moreover, could some of these suggestions actually be confusing people about the scale of change that will actually have to take place? Looking over some of the facts involved: that passenger cars are a substantial proportion of CO2 output in the transportation sector, the fact that residential heating and cooling requires enormous amounts of power seems to me to demand a more systemic and structural response than simply growing vegetables in your back garden. In fact, maybe everyone having their own backyard with all the associated logistics and transportation thereby required, is a key part of the problem.

The 2000 Watt society seems to me to be a step in the right direction. At least they have come up with a target level of energy use, rather than a list of suggestions on how to reduce your carbon footprint. Are there better measures? I'd really love to hear about alternative proposals. Perhaps it would be better to simply measure the total carbon output, but a few issues with that approach come to mind.

The implications of coming up with a energy use target are particularly interesting. How would you live within 2000W on a daily basis? It really isn't much energy at all when you think about it: using a single 75W light bulb for 10 hours equates to 750W for just a single light source. What would be the effect on society and the economy? How could we adapt our cities, transportation links, food production systems to achieve the necessary power reductions? These are some of the topics that I think are particularly fascinating.

Last Minute Irony

2008-12-31T21:33:00.000+01:00

I nearly forgot this particular gem from the Washington Times. I don't actually read this paper, but I somehow tripped across it, probably from the Drudge Report. Anyway, it is one of those articles where the irony of the position being argued by the writer somehow seems to escape their notice.

In this particular instance Qaddafi (Gaddafi?), the Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution in Libya, is criticizing NATO for enlarging to the Russia border. Somehow missing the irony, Qaddafi chooses to base his argument on the notion of non-interference. The fact that many states bordering Russia, such as Estonia, Lavia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine were desperate for NATO membership precisely to avoid Russian interference is somehow forgotten. Frankly, that these countries achieved independence from Russia and had this status guaranteed by NATO is one of the wonderful things to have come out of the fall of Communism.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-31T08:50:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Brienna, Layne, Diantha and I are all safely ensconced inside our nice warm and cozy apartment. Outside in Rostock there is the regular beat and thump of fireworks exploding into life and colour. Unfortunately we can't see too much given the position of the apartment, but it still feels festive and joyous. The champaign awaits in the fridge.

Looking back, it has been quite a crazy year. To some extent I will be happy when it is over, with all its moving and packing, stress and culture shock. On the other hand, in many ways this year has also been wonderful. I finally got back in touch with some very old wonderful friends and also spent time exploring London, the Netherlands, Paris and Kiev.

It was also a year when I got to fulfill another dream of mine by living in Europe. We are now based in Rostock, which, despite its reputation for neo-nazis, is actually a wonderful little town close to the Baltic Sea in North Germany. Moving here with two little children from the States was quite the undertaking, but now that it is done, we are looking forward to exploring Germany and Europe in the coming year.

Anyways, the champaign is calling. Here's to the new year! May you and your family have a happy and healthy 2009.