Social issues

Good morning in the “Brave New World”

The media are failing as a guarantor of democracy

by Thomas Scherr*

(29 March 2024)We live in a bubble. A medial bubble. In a media bubble of the “Western values”. We now know almost nothing about the world around us. Maybe the weather report is still correct. But even there we can expect “extreme weather”, “heat waves” and “…the hottest winter/spring/summer/autumn since 1970/1950/1900 or since measurements began …”. Temperature information, pollen reports and information about wind direction are approximately correct. That's it. This situation is all the more bitter because we have to be well informed in the face of a worsening world situation.

Abolition of cash = abolition of sovereignty

by Marita Brune-Koch

(22 March 2024) It is so convenient to pay with your card, to carry out all your banking transactions from home, to pay on the train or bus with an application. As part of the anti-Covid measures, we were taught that we should make even small payments without cash, since this was more hygienic. Why still use cash? In fact, we are facing strong attempts at the national and international level to eliminate cash. When looking at it more closely, we see that these efforts are not really aimed at the comfort and security of citizens.
PISA-Results

Critisism is getting louder

Everyone wants to do well in PISA, as if that were good education policy

by Michael Felten,* Germany

(16 March 2024) In Germany, more and more voices are criticising the global school performance study PISA and its consequences. In February 2024, for example, the German Philologists’ Association suggested withdrawing from this process altogether. Among the well-known critics is Rainer Kaenders,** the top maths teacher trainer at the University of Bonn.

Warmongers unwanted!

Speech by Jürgen Rose,* Germany

Dear participants,
dear friends of peace!

(9 March 2024) It is a great honour that so many of you have come here today to set an example for peace in the world, even though it takes a lot of energy and courage to stand up in these times of omnipresent and all-encompassing war and claims of victory and raise your voices against the mass murder on the “killing fields” of this world. Especially as people like us are often bluntly defamed as “shoddy pacifists” by numerous political and journalistic claqueurs of war, who conversely would probably be most aptly dubbed “rogue militants”.

Fredrik Heffermehl – Fighter for the ethics of the Nobel Peace Prize

(11 November 1938 – 23 December 2023)

by Rainer Schopf,* Germany

(9 March 2024) Fredrik Heffermehl was born in Norway and studied in Oslo and New York. As a lawyer and author, he has written numerous books, given lectures, and campaigned for the legacy of Alfred Nobel. He was a staunch critic of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which in his opinion often failed to fulfil Nobel’s will when awarding the Nobel Peace Prize.

Accusation of anti-Semitism against the Berlinale

Open letter to Claudia Roth, German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media

by Shelly Steinberg, Germany

(9 March 2024) (Edit.) At this year’s Berlinale, an international film festival, the documentary film “No Other Land” was honoured with the Berlinale Documentary Film Award. The film deals with the expulsion of Palestinians in the West Bank. In his acceptance speech, the Palestinian co-director, Basel Adra, said: “It is very difficult for me to celebrate when tens of thousands of my people in Gaza are being slaughtered by Israel.” He demanded that Germany should not supply any more weapons to Israel. Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham spoke of “apartheid” in the West Bank. The audience applauded. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) then raised the accusation of “disgusting open anti-Semitism”. In her letter to Mrs Roth, Shelly Steinberg rejects this accusation and characterises it.