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Aperçu of the Week:
"Remember the people who thought Greta Thunberg was 'hysterical'?"
(Christian Stöcker, Professor of Cognitive Psychology)
Bad News of the Week:
Every state enforces its laws. Those who violate them are prosecuted by the state. But what if the state itself doesn't obey laws? Does it just get away with it? This (justified) question was recently posed by a journalist from "Der Spiegel". And unfortunately, not just theoretically, but in practice. Because in the case of the climate protection law - of all things - the German state is precisely not abiding by its own laws.
The day before yesterday, the "Expert Council for Climate Issues" - appointed by the government, but nevertheless completely independent - took a close look at the current measures in the transport sector, one of the most important areas for achieving climate neutrality. Since significantly more greenhouse gases were emitted in this sector last year than required by the Climate Protection Act, the Federal Ministry of Transport had to launch so-called "emergency programs". So all is well? No, because the audit result of the Expert Council can be described as downright shocking.
The report's conclusion: The proposals are "already without sufficient ambition" to meet the climate target set for 2030, as stipulated in the Climate Protection Act. This is a scandal in two respects. First, because it gambles away our children's future. Which was the main reason why the Federal Constitutional Court had imposed a comprehensive climate protection law on the legislature. On the other hand, because this very legislator itself apparently does not care about its own laws. Therefore the first environmental protection organizations prepare already appropriate lawsuits. So do citizens or civic organizations really have to ensure that the state lives up to its most important tasks and meets its own standards?
Political projects over a longer period of time - such as a ban on taking on debt at the expense of future generations - are usually passed in legislative form. This is because the required majority in parliament gives them a broader basis and they also apply beyond the current term of government of a particular party or party constellation. They should therefore also be more binding than an agreement in a coalition contract. But when laws are barely worth the paper they are written on, it is no longer a state under the rule of law.
Good News of the Week:
For decades, Germans have carried around a historical guilt: National Socialism and its devastating effects on the European population. The sad highlight was and is the Holocaust or Shoah - the attempt to systematically exterminate an entire people. This continues to have a decisive influence on Germany's basic understanding: from coming to terms with the past in schools to the uncompromising ban on any fascist symbolism in everyday life to a special form of acceptance of responsibility for the state of Israel, not only in financial terms, the German population in the broadest sense lives constantly in awareness of its past.
As ever, there is light and shadow - on both sides. A recent example: at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian extremists. Which was not prevented by Germany, could be prevented (yes, there are parallels to the current discussion about anti-Semitism at the art exhibition documenta). Around the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the incident, there was an éclat. The relatives of the victims of that time want to be fobbed off "with a few thrown down bundles of money" was the official reason for the cancellation of their participation. They simply wanted more money from the German state, which gives the whole thing a stale aftertaste - after all, the fixation on money is part of the classic prejudice of the greedy Jew.
When a new Israeli ambassador to Germany was inaugurated at the end of the week, the public was prepared for the usual negative rhetoric: Germany must remain humble in the awareness of its eternal guilt, never raise its voice against Israeli actions, no matter how questionable, and always have blank checks ready. But things turned out quite differently: in his inaugural speech, Ron Prosor, who speaks German and whose father comes from Berlin, did not look back, but forward. Behind him stood six young people from Israel and Germany, whom he called true ambassadors - because the future belongs to the youth and their cooperation in a positive spirit must be supported. This can definitely be understood as a handout. Many thanks!
Personal happy moment of the week:
"Visiting friends" is my favorite headline about Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Economics and Climate Minister Robert Habeck's trip to Canada this week. For a whole three days - which is rare for heads of state - and without a detour to the USA - the first time ever. The result is also beautiful: a large-scale cooperation on green hydrogen. Just out of personal interest, after all I feel half Québecois and married to a whole one, any Canadian-German form of connection makes me happy.
I couldn't care less...
...about the political wrangling and mutual recriminations for the natural disaster on the Oder. This river flows through Poland, represents the border between Poland and Germany for 460 km and flows into the Baltic Sea. For weeks there has been a sudden fish kill of immense proportions. So far there are only speculations, partly illogical laboratory results, failing information chains between the countries and just a lot of finger-pointing. A covered-up chemical accident? An unexpected spread of an aggressive, invasive species of algae? A sudden rise in salinity as a result of water shortages? A leaching of fertilizers from agriculture? A result of heat waves when water levels are low? Probably it will be an unfortunate concatenation of various factors. So please focus on root cause research and create better foundations for preventing such phenomena in the future. And stop making assumptions and accusations in the media. You politicians are replaceable. A healthy ecosystem of the Oder is not.
As I write this...
...my wife visits the sheep of the neighboring farmer. On the way back from a neighbor, whose cats she will take care of during her two weeks of vacation. In the afternoon, on a bike ride, she has already helped horses to chase away flies from their faces. And thanked the cows in the pasture for the milk that complements her coffee every morning. By now, everyone here knows this strange French-Canadian woman who talks to all the animals. Probably she is a little crazy. And surely that's why she's a perfect match for me ;-)
Post Scriptum:
Elevated levels of cesium are still being detected in mushrooms from Bavarian forests. A consequence of the super-GAU at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1986, when a rainy easterly wind carried the fallout all the way to Bavaria. That's why people here are looking to Zaporizhzhya with concern. Yet another nuclear threat due to technical problems at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant. With six reactors, the plant is the largest in Europe. And for weeks it has been the scene of armed conflicts between Russian and Ukrainian troops. Nothing is known for sure, as none of the warring parties' sources can really be believed and still no team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been allowed into Zaporizhzhya. But one thing is certain: in the meantime, all four connections to the power grid have been severed. The issue here is not the removal of electrical energy supply, but conversely the stable operation of the cooling systems in the plant itself. This is independent of whether a reactor is running at full load or has been shut down to emergency mode - because, unfortunately, you can't simply shut down such a Pandora's box. Currently, the power supply is provided by a neighboring fossil-fuel power plant. Apparently no one knows how much is left in the tank.
