The End of the World

In December 2012 the Mayan Calendar comes to an end. After 12.000 years there is no next day. The end of the world as many say.  Since many years, scientists are searching for the right place to be at on the last month of this year. The safest place on earth. Some say it is Africa, others say it is in Asia. We are doomed. December 2011 was the last new years eve. The last Christmas. There is no 2013. Is this really the case?  Or do we have certain doom thinkers in our midst. People who feel the need to give us fear.

Who are these people to tell about the complete destruction of our planet?  What moves these men to convince us from the bad times we are going to meet. Based on what knowledge? Does it mean that all the uprisings and revolutions in the Arab world are of no use? Or the Slavic Spring, which is happening today as well. Russia, Hungary, Slovenia and Romania. All people united to take back what was stolen from us. Freedom and Dignity. Is it a waste of time or the beginning of a new era?

With the millennium we entered the Aquarius Era. After more than 2100 years we arrived in a time of consciousness. Combined with the end of a 12.000 year old era we are definitely going to see total change. A time to stand up and to realise we let our leaders controlling us way too long. We followed like dependent sheep. Like slaves. The last convulsions of these policy makers are sending fear among us. Climate disasters and Global terrorist attacks. Governments are using their last efforts to get us back in line.

The uprising in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The occupy movements all over America and Europe.  Never in history it was on such a large-scale as it is today. Never ever so many nations are united to show their leaders that we don’t take it anymore.  The time has come. To give back the world to its people.

A turning point: Welcome to a new world. Welcome to our world.

Who is to Blame?

Still many people around the world have a problem with Germany due to the Second World War. Young generations in Germany blamed for something their grandparents did. How many jokes do exist all over the world about germans? Especially in West Europe. How often, young germans need to defend themselves in discussions about an era of horror? A discussion they don’t even want be  involved at but unfortunately they have no choice or else they are accused of Nazism.

From 1933 till 1945 the Nazis of Germany aimed for a totalitarian system and an empire that covers the world. The Third Reich (Realm or Empire). Adolf Hitler wanted to follow the footsteps of the Holy Roman Empire leaders from Germany, the First Reich. Not to confuse with the ancient Roman Empire. The Second Reich was the Hohenzollern Germany, installed after the Franco – Prussian war of 1870 till 1871. It was Arthur Muller van den Bruck who mentioned the Third Reich already in one of his books in 1923. Muller was probably a great example to Hitler. The Nazis brought an end to the Weimar Republic, a parliamentary democracy established in Germany after the First World War.

The Second World War became hell on earth. Hitler knew how to deal with the misery in Germany after World War I. He promised the nation jobs, a great economy and a powerful country with an important role in the world. This is exactly what he did but not as many had expected. Hitler wanted his Third Reich at all costs. He blamed the jews for the poverty of many germans. He had a strong frustration against these people for their successes in business. Jews always knew how to make money from nothing. They knew how to survive and how to take care of their families. For Hitler this was a good opportunity to put the blame on them and this made him popular by all these Germans living in a hopeless situation. After having his war machinery at a high level he conquered Europe in no time with his Blitzkrieg (Lighting war). The  European people suffered for five years long. Six million jews murdered as well over a million people of other groups like gipsies, polish but as well people with another beliefs. In these five years 47 million civilians died before the allied forces from the West and the East ended the bloodiest war the world has ever experienced.

The first postwar Chancellor of Germany, Konrad Adenauer realised in what situation Germany was in after the Third Reich collapsed. It was his duty to bring Germany back. To find a way to pay the debts and at the same time to increase the economy. The toughest job ever for a politician. He knew well what Hitler did in Europe and how many people suffered under this regime. It was the  4th Chancellor Willy Brandt who showed the pain and quilt from the German people and kneeled on december 7th 1970 for a monument in Poland for all the victims and cried. A turning point for many polish people. They believed the good intentions of this man. A new relation was born and thanks to the Marshall Plan,an aid program by the USA, to build a new Europe, people could start to look forward and to see future opportunities for them and their families.

The system of Germany was to work hard to build up the country and to understand what they have caused in Europe. New generations learned in schools what happened exactly in World War II and they learned to deal with it. They also learned to deal with the discriminatory feelings of other nations against them but they worked hard and since the millennium they are proud being German again. They wave their flags at big sports events and believe in what their country stands for. They have learned from the past and dealt with the guilt for many decades. Something many countries still didn’t do.

Two years after WWII, the Netherlands murdered many opponents in Indonesia, a colony until 1949 to reinstall the dutch monarchy after the Japanese left in 1945. Until today this history is still not mentioned in schoolbooks and the official apologies from the government came in 2011. Many generations in the Netherlands don’t know anything about this genocide. In England, children learn about the once so powerful United Kingdom and its pride but what do they know exactly about the cruelties the army caused in Ireland, Scotland and many countries overseas? Or Austria, a country what finds it hard to talk about their dictatorial era from 1933 till 1938. The chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss ruled the nation as a dictator until it was annexed by Nazi Germany. What about Italy? About ten years ago I drove down to Naples and at a gas station you could buy busts of Mussolini, a war criminal and friend of Hitler. We have many more examples about countries who are afraid until today to deal with the horrors their grandparents caused to millions of innocent people.

Polluting Hybrid and Electric Vehicles

If you believe the commercials we will have no more CO2 emissions on the roads. No one would even mind living near a highway. You do not have to cough each time you open your balcony door and not to cope with engine noise anymore. Isn’t that wonderful? Last year I went with my family one day at the Zoo and when entering the parking lot I could see a free spot. I parked my petrol car and before we get out I see a sign: “Only for hybrid vehicles”. Look, that’s a nice service of the zoo. Thus, you are encouraged to buy a clean car. It took another ten minutes before I had parked our car.

But how clean is such a hybrid or electric car really? The hybrid car has a small combustion engine that becomes active when the batteries are low or when the accelerator is pressed significantly. For example, on the highway.  Therefore, you create a higher fuel consumption and  therefore emissions no longer meet your expectations. The later version is able to activate the battery to smooth out these high rotations.Yes, I admit, in the town it is very quiet and emission is 0.0. Be careful of pedestrians and cyclists though. They might not hear you coming.

I’ve had the pleasure  to drive in a 100% electric car. The car is completely silent and you think: “It can’t get cleaner? One drawback I found when you release the gas. The car reduces immediately.” On a small road near Utrecht, I had the release gas release for some cyclists. I drove less than two meters behind them but they didn’t hear me. Shall I just honk the horn? No, I am a social guy and before you know they run en mass from the road. Why don’t these cars have funny ringtones? You can decide if you have a standard sound or that of a Formula 1 car. Ah thank God! One has seen me. After their astonishing looks they mad way. Somewhat embarrassed, I slowly passed. Let’s hope I will not meet them again on my return.

Back to beginning. Is a hybrid or electric car really much cleaner? The owner of the car can say: I have an environment friendly car. But if we were looking at the process. Lets take the Prius as an example. The huge amount of batteries that these cars need are produced in Canada. Personally I would not want to live in the vicinity of that plant. Then the logistics of the batteries to the factories of Toyota. Large ships and trucks. Production of the cars is perhaps the least polluting. Watch the video Toyota Life Cycle of Prius and consider if Al Gore has the right intentions.

And what happens to the hybrid and electric cars when they are depreciated? Where do they leave all these batteries? It is certain that at least 5% of the battery can’t be recycled. So it must be stored somewhere. Underground or on the bottom of the ocean? The current hybrid or electric car owners is not even the worst. What if we all drive such a car?

Conclusion: A new clean diesel car is probably over the whole line a lot cleaner than hybrid or electric car.

Useful links:

http://wikicars.org/en/Reasons_Not_to_Buy_a_Hybrid_Car_%28yet%29

facebook fail by Patrick O’Brien

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Censorship, insecure data, design solutions for problems that don’t exist, fixing things that aren’t broken, constantly altered or hidden settings . . .  to list only a few of the problems inflicted by this arrogant monster.

Enough!

We now have a viable alternative — no censorship, no filtering of our news feed, no limits on the number of friends or connections we may have, open to the public (readers are not required to open an account just to read our content) full control over who can read or comment on our posts, full control over what content does or does not appear in our feeds. If your photographs are important, this service fully integrates with Picasa for editing. We can also edit our posts should we wish.

Then there’s an integration with documents. On Facebook we have “Notes” (whoopee) whereas the alternative gives us full integration with our desktop utilities for publication and presentation, plus a range of other services.

Need I go on?

Although it’s still in BETA, I recommend giving serious consideration to this alternative and I’m already in the process of migrating.

This is me:

●  Patrick O’Brien ~ Google Plus

For readers who are interested, or just starting out, here is a useful primmer:

● The complete guide to Google Plus

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Oh — and yes, you will soon be able to play games. Fun, fun, fun . . .

Is Europe ready for a revolution?

Since Mai 15 this year, young people are protesting all over Spain. In several other countries in Europe we have seen several groups of spanish students demonstrating as sympathy for their fellow countryman. About 45% the young people are without jobs. From the total labor force 20% is without jobs.

First of all, we should not compare this uprising with the revolutions in the Middle East and Africa. The people in these countries are fighting for freedom.They were suppressed for many years. Whole generations don’t know any better.

Or should we see the uprising in Spain as it is comparable with e.g. Tunisia? Is some cases we can. People are unhappy,they do not have a future perspective,no jobs and many of them are struggling everyday to make sure they can feed their families. They fear the future. Will they ever find dignity in a job? Will their children have an opportunity to study?

Another important element is fact that the security forces on plaza Cataluna in Barcelona shot with rubber bullets to clear the square. It started a few days ago by the riot police trying to undo the square from protestors by dragging them away or to use batons and the next phase was rubber bullets. What is next?

PM Zapatero  from the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) lost in the last elections on Sunday May 22. He could not save Spain from the economic crisis. Instead of helping the young people and to offer better circumstances, he gave billions to the banks. The same institutions who are responsible for the crisis in the country. Big winner of the elections is Partido Popular. A right-wing party. Usually these political parties always support huge capitalistic companies. Why did tha nation voted for them? Was it out of protest? Will this Partido Popular, tear Spain out of the crisis? To my honest opinion I would say:”No”. Keeping this in mind, we may assume that the protests will continue for a long time.

More potential countries for an uprise are: Portugal, Greece and ,England,Ireland and Italy. They are going down slowly to the same situation as Spain.

Now the security forces in Spain shoot with rubber bullets, it will only be a matter of time before newschannels will report  the first dead student. Than what?…..

……Yes, Europe is ready for a revolution.

Globalisation and food crises

If I hear the word globalisation it feels like a positive goal. The rich countries will share their wealth with the poor countries and businesses can invest all over the world and people will be a part of one world.

Unfortunately all of this is fake. The G20 promised a decrease of hunger by 50% in the year 2015. In fact more people are starving of hunger than before. The G8 promised to give $50 billion to aid in Africa. Only $1 billion was given while rich countries spend $1 billion every day for subsidies for their own agriculture.Every day. What is the impact on 3rd world countries? By these subsidies a lot of farmers can survive by overproducing and sell their products cheaper than the farmers in the poor countries.The rich countries export their products to these countries as well so local farmers can’t sell their products because the price is too high. A lot of the overproducing is rotting away in big warehouses across these “western” countries.

Fact: In rich countries 1/3 of the population is overweighted while in poor countries 1/3 is under weight.

Frank Beuken 17 Feb.2011

Turning point of civilisation

Silk Routes

 

A long time ago when in Europe there was nothing but a bunch of savage people, in Asia,The Middle East, Mediterranean and North East Africa there was a great civilization with a healthy trading economy and rich culture.

The first crusades started in the 11th century lead by the Franks and the holy Roman Empire. They overruled many islamic countries in the east and started to terrorize these nations,steal their possessions and their knowledge leaving these countries behind in poverty.

The silk routes started mainly in south east Asia with China as the center.

Now the economy of China and India is growing fast and the West is trying to control this growth by forcing these nations to play by their rules but they have learned from the past. The new Silky Road goes from China,India to Africa.

In the north of Africa people are fighting for their freedom and improvement of life.

Their economies,in the near future, will grow faster than the West what will be a turning point of civilization. Maybe in a number of decades,Europe and the US will be far behind.