By example

An article from the original Finland's Ovi magazine

It sounds ironic that Syria is building a nuclear reactor, especially after finding out that North Korea is helping them. It’s coming as a bigger irony if you remember all the fuss about Saddam’s nuclear reactor and the WMD and the continuation with Iran and its cleric dictators. After literally screwing Iraq, this American administration had to compromise on many levels with North Korea to find out in the end that they are selling nuclear knowledge to anybody who will declare anti-American feelings and be willing to pay the high cost of the work to be done. However, more and more countries are trying to get nuclear knowledge with doubtful aims - I’m not saying that Syria is trying to create nuclear missiles, but, then again, can you trust them?

But, who can you trust? Look what happens in general with all these WMD, there are whole groups of really highly-educated scientists working in multi-billion laboratories to discover and produce new viruses that kill humans instead of putting all this effort and money into discovering vaccines and cures for viruses that already exist and kill thousands year after year. Why would they stop in front of creating another bomb?

I grew up in the '60s when naively they were teaching us at schools how to 'duck and cover' in a case of a nuclear war, as if you had any chance of survival hiding behind a concrete wall; we were acting just like the ostrich that buries her head in the sand, and I feel that nothing has changed today. During that period we were all balancing dangerously on the horror of who may pull the trigger first and we are doing exactly the same today with only one difference.

Back then there were only two players, now there are tens with some independents fooling around as well. Syria and Iran don’t do anything different to what this American administration was trying to do by putting missiles around Russia. A Russia that wants to solve too many problems before starting playing war games again and it may sound very simplistic but this is a golden chance to stop all these dangerous games.

I do understand the connection between war and economics and I do sense the games behind the oil prices but obviously some don’t see the reality. The reality has people forced into rebelling violently because they cannot get the basics anymore, because while we are talking about missile umbrellas there are people who can't afford a plate of rice and they start looting markets to survive. Over the last few months, incidents such as those in Russia are appearing more on the news. So instead of trying to help the 85% unemployed Palestinians, the hopeless people of Zimbabwe and the starving people of Argentina we talk about the danger of Syria building a nuclear reactor and its future possibility of creating nuclear bombs.

How long will it take for us to learn that humanity lives by example? With nearly 3.5 million homeless, nearly 1% of the population and 40% of them children, the only thing we hear from George W. Bush’s administration is more money for security, more money for a still unexplained invasion, more money for a continuing and unexcused occupation. When George W. Bush is talking about democracy while drinking with the Pakistani dictator Musharraf and when laboratories in USA are doing research for more lethal viruses in a case somebody else finds them first, when every American administration the last thirty years covers Israel for having all kind of WMD, including nuclear bombs, why should North Korea and Syria act differently? The USA shows every understanding when Turkey is talking about a nuclear reactor but they have none for the neighboring Syria?

Actually, all these things make you feel really stupid; it is as though every American administration wishes for Syria to create a nuclear bomb so they have a good excuse for more money from Congress to create more powerful and better bombs, more viruses and more destruction. Syria has a dictatorship, not much different from Pakistan, yet Musharraf is a good guy and Asad is a bad guy. However, having seen what each of them did for their country Bashar al-Asad has been a much better Syrian than Musharraf will ever be a good Pakistani.

Syria has every right in energy and producing energy, just like Pakistan with its nuclear reactors and just like Iran and its nuclear reactors. If, in the end, they are going to use them to create nuclear bombs it’s like everybody else, in this balance of horror Pakistan needs nuclear bombs for India, North Korea for South Korea, USA for Russia and Syria with Iran for Israel, which apparently already has one.

Unfortunately for all of them there is one enemy they cannot vanquish with nuclear bombs, it is the starving people who have already started rebelling and when the 3.5 million will be 5 million then they will start rebelling inside the USA also!

Turkish hopes

From the Ovi magazine

Perhaps all these, often difficult to understand, actions of the Turkish establishment and their army will be proved constructive for Turkey’s future one day. Turkey today, whether they want to admit it or not, is somehow the continuation of the Ottoman Empire and this is natural. One of the strong points of this period was the complicated but capable bureaucracy that gradually became a ruling factor for the empire. Very cleverly, Kemal, the founder of Turkey as we know her today, kept this establishment and made it part of the new Turkish democracy.

Everything is semantics of course, but the truth is that Kemal created a state example for the Middle East and the Arab countries and perhaps he looks like a dictator from our side. However, he was a huge step from the Sultan to a President and all that during the times the Ottoman Empire was losing, not only the occupied lands, but also any power and influence on the international scene shrinking to a small country between west and east often balancing between powers and interests.

As I said, everything is semantics and the idea of democracy at the end of the nineteenth century has very little to do with the very same concept at the beginning of the twenty-first century - it was much more a country at the crossroads between Europe and the Arab world, in a surrounding where religion can hold back progress, unreachable places with parts still living in different centuries, some even in the dark ages. Kemal created a circular state with European behavior and orientation understanding that Turkey could not be estranged from her past and traditions, which often meant that he had to use force and naturally nationalism became one of his weapons to keep the country united.

And that was fine for the beginning of the twentieth century but it cannot work at the beginning of the twenty-first century, especially with things changing so fast in the area and the geopolitical interests of the powers shifting from one place to the other or changing; Turkey is one of the countries that paid for these changes. Having borders with the old mighty communist Russia for a great part of the twentieth century became one of the defense points for the Americans and the Americans wanted the state to be governed not by an anti-communist government, but, according to the '50s dogma, by extreme-right governments, keeping any left voices shut. Apparently the Americans often used Turkey as a banana dictatorship often mixing with the internal affairs to a scary level, especially through the army.

The army played a huge role for Kemal - he was an army man himself, after all - and the army became his stronghold to establish and to preserve his work and the western style of democracy he was dreaming. However, during the years after the death of Kemal the Turkish army evolved just like the Mafia. They became the establishment controlling the bureaucracy and, in extent, the state behind the curtain, which is something often called the deep state.

As I said earlier, they evolved just like Mafia because in the '80s they began laundering all these funds they were secretly getting from the government and from abroad – remember it was one of the strongholds against the expansion of communism south-east with borders with Russia, so secret services and ‘institutes’ were sending a lot, literally, a lot of money. In the '8os came the time to invest this money, it was good timing as well and the army gradually got involved with civilian businesses, with investments that amounted to billions of dollars and profits that escalated in the millions. So now the army, except Kemal’s dream, had other interests to protect as well and they did so in any possible way, such as imprisoning, torturing and killing. The Kurds and the communists were always the good excuse until the mayor of Istanbul became a force they couldn’t stop.

Erdogan was part of the establishment and, simultaneously, he was at the edge of the circular state, a faithful Muslim and proven democrat politician who had great support from the people, people who had got tired of corrupt politicians, so corrupt that some of them, despite their positions in the government, were dealing with drugs and arms sales. Erdogan somehow took them by surprise, they used all the tricks to stop him and he survived to become prime minister with many hopes to be the next president and, to their greatest surprise, he seems to be the only one who can make Kemal’s dream reality. Erdogan put Turkey literally on the European map with their application to become a full membership in the EU - their only hope is also their nemesis.

Things have definitely changed in the west after 9-11, but somehow the west has to show tolerance to the Muslim world and Erdogan became the best way to do it. By defending and supporting a 'west friendly' Muslim politician, the west proves tolerance and makes the Turkish army feel even more uncomfortable and Erdogan is cleverly using it to advance towards the army and return them to where they really belong, their barracks. It is time to strip them from all their civilian involvements and return the state to where it really belongs. As odd as it might sound, the only hope for democracy in Turkey is Erdogan and, as crazy it might sound, the man is Turkey’s only chance to keep the country away from the religious freaks that are expanding fast from the Middle East with a …little help from Iran!

How bizarre!

From the Ovi magazine

Dancing the moondance

Michael Jackson sees his career ending and his name vanishing from all the must-invite lists but his music is still popular to all kinds of life as a sea lion proves.

Click here to watch the YouTube video

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Falling asleep in the court of crimes against humanity

The former president of Peru Alberto Fujimori fell asleep during the court against him for crimes against humanity. Naturally the judge stopped the court for as long Mr. Fujimori needed it to wake up and they continued when they made sure that he was awake and able to watch the proceedings.

There are no witnesses to tell if he was loud, while sleeping but drooling is a possibility!

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Boomerangs return in zero gravity

Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, on board the International Space Station, has proved that a boomerang returns to the person throwing it even in the zero-gravity conditions of space.

The boomerang experiment showed that when one is thrown in zero gravity, it follows almost the same trajectory as it would if thrown on Earth. If thrown with sufficient force, the boomerang will return to the person who threw it, again matching results on Earth. According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Doi held and threw a boomerang using the standard technique during the experiment, which he conducted during free time Tuesday in the U.S. Destiny laboratory on the ISS.

The experiment was suggested by Yasuhiro Togai, of Osaka Prefecture, who won an international boomerang-throwing competition in 2006. The results differed to predictions made by Togai, who expected a boomerang thrown in zero gravity to fly in a spiral path, rising above the head of the person who threw it. Togai said, "I greatly appreciate it because it has answered my long-held question."

Let’s see what else we are going to throw in space! At least this time it was not garbage!

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Closed cause of lack of customers

One of the oldest …hotels in Hamburg the hotel Luxor is closing down due to lack of customers! The owner of the brothel, Ms Merret, aged 59, said that this is the end of her ones popular place, she was too tired to continue and business is really going back. She added that her place used to occupy ten to twelve girls while nowadays there is hardly work for four!

The business started in the beginning to 1948 from her late father-in-law and it has always been the …family business. She ended saying that her business was special popular between British and Japanese but that was mainly in ‘60s and early ‘70s when the Hamburg port was the European commercial center.

I was thinking for no comment but it is …hard work to keep a brothel!

Olympic race to the White House

An article from the Ovi magazine

Olympic race to the White House

An article from the Ovi magazine

Here it is again… something about Barack Obama that makes me stop and think, ‘What did he say?’ This time it was all about the Beijing Olympic Games and his call for President George W. Bush not to go to China for the Opening Ceremony. The news was everywhere and some agencies even had a ‘Breaking News’ warning, yet Obama was not the first, nor the second and he wasn’t even the thousandth to say so! So what's the big deal?

Do you know what’s makes it stranger? The fact that Hillary Clinton had said exactly the same just days before and nobody said much, it was sort of, fine, Hillary says not to go and who gives a damn! Actually, Hillary was one of the first to talk about it, without going to extremes of course and also began talking about a boycott, which was well before people started organizing demonstrations in San Francisco and before Obama found out that Tibet must be free, since China violates any sense of human rights.

However, in this issue there is one side we all keep forgetting. It is not George W. Bush to blame for Beijing organizing the Olympic Games; I’m saying that because we are nearly blaming even the weather changes on him, the man is a menace and it will take years for Americans to recover from his presidency, but he’s not responsible for everything. Those responsible for this decision are not Merkel, Sarkozy or Berlusconi, but the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC is responsible for the fact that a country with no respect at all for Olympic values is going to host the Olympic Games and this is exactly what we often forget to mention. Their responsibility expands dramatically from no respect to what they represent to the doping increase in the Olympic Games, yet all they say is just poor excuses.

I think that history will mention the name Jacques Rogge as the man who assassinated the Olympic Games; he’s the world’s assassin in the sense that the man got money to kill this constitution. For him the value of television rights, adverts, promoted products are worth more than the values of freedom, peace and friendship, basically the Olympic values!

In the Ancient Olympics the important thing was to participate, but for the Modern Olympics Mr. Rogge believes that the most important thing is to make superhuman records that bring adverts. For Mr. Rogge it didn’t matter how many people are getting killed, how many people are tortured in camps for opposing the state, it doesn’t matter how many people suffer every day; for Mr. Rogge the only thing that matters is how much.

Mr. Rogge and his Olympic Committee are so deep in corruption and bribery that even Mugabe looks like an angel in front of them. That’s the reality and that’s who should be blamed, the people who actually handed the Olympic Games to China and, yes, the Olympic Games have had dark moments before, such as Hitler’s Olympics in 1938 and Brezhnev’s Olympics in 1980!

I have the feeling that I slipped from what I started saying with this article. The majority of people have felt from the beginning that there are a lot of issues with this Olympics and it is natural for them to expect their representatives to express exactly these worries. However, you see the Olympics are such a big thing and, despite those dark moments, they do unite ordinary people. Over the past few days we have seen these ordinary people uniting and it has been following the route of the Olympic torch. It began in Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics, followed by Athens, Paris and London, and now it is in San Francisco. People are demonstrating their opposition to the Beijing regime and their will to help for a free Tibet; and that somehow brought the politicians in.

Hillary reacted far before the torch ever reached American soil. She understood exactly what was going on and she sensed what the people were expecting from her. Obama, from his side, was waiting till the torch reached America to see how American people would react and the preparation in San Francisco showed him the way for the announcement he later did.

From the beginning of this race, not the Olympics, but the one for the White House, I keep having this weird sense when it comes to Barack Obama. Fine, he says some very good things; fine, he is photogenic and really intelligent; but why when he says something do the media drum all the way? Why, when he comes third or fourth, does it become a big issue and when Hillary says it first then it is in small letters at the bottom of the news?

For days we been hearing about Hillary’s tax returns, but have you ever heard about Obama’s tax returns? I’m sorry for the sarcasm but I have the feeling that there is a …doping problem in this race to the White House!

Doping kills sport

An article from the Ovi magazine

What happened these days in Greek sport is not new, it is not that it never happened before and it is not that it will never happen again. Unfortunately, it will happen again in Greece, it will happen again everywhere in the world and the responsibility doesn’t stand only on the athletes, if you could call them like that, but on all of us, from the governments to the people who watch sport events on television.

Eleven weightlifters from the Greek national and Olympic team were caught by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and we must realize that this is not a dark moment for the Greek weightlifters but a dark era for the international sports that started in 1952 in Helsinki. Of course there is no proof but everybody involved knows that in Helsinki this embarrassing moment for international sport began and it went on becoming darker and darker.

And now we are months before the Beijing Olympics and apart from all the other issues that kill the Olympic values, doping is the one that will kill the Olympic Games if nobody does something and the Olympic Ccommittee has proved that they are the less abled to do anything about it. They are the ones who have turned the Olympic Games into gigantic money machine. And the athletes? To my opinion they are the victims and they are victims that endanger their lives, most of them have a dramatic end, young and embarrassed regretting their ten minutes in glory and missing the real life.

But let’s start first with the athletes. Just like the Canadian Ben Johnson – does anybody still remember him? – they are young kids with poor backgrounds and no future opportunities; their only chance is either to become rock stars or successful athletes. In the beginning it is just vitamins that help and then it is ‘don’t ask, just swallow!’ Yes these kids are responsible but their responsibility is the smallest in the pyramid. The worst part of it is that these kids pay the outcome; all these medicines and steroids kill! It’s not just a word, they literally kill these people, they die from cancer, they die young and suffering till the last moment. Regrets? Of course, too many but when it is too late!

Then it comes to the trainers and the coaches. They are not into sports; they are businessmen, drug dealers. Very few of them are the innocent and the innocent ones are poor, you can see them. The others know! And don’t stop to the classic athletes. What makes you think that football, basketball, rugby, baseball makes any difference? How it happens the last few years to have so many incidents of heart attacks inside the sports fields? Because they dope them like horses and their hearts cannot stand it.

The states. Of course the states are part of it, they give the money to all the national teams and they are after the metals. Does anybody remember the East German national teams? Women that looked like men from the steroids. It was important the bloody – literally bloody – gold medal for the state. It is important the bloody gold medal for Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, it is important for the Turkish politician. And yes, they know and they don’t care as long many medals will come. Even the most democratic governments are able to give a blind eye and accept any kind of excuses just to turn their back to reality. The Greek government did so a few years ago with Thanou and Kenderis with the result nobody to know the truth. The state made them heroes and they didn’t dare say the truth. Didn’t the Americans do the same with Marion Jones?

The Olympic Committee, this is a laughable topic. The Olympic committee and especially their directors live the high life for life. Royal treatment, private planes and luxurious holidays. The Olympic spirit for them starts and ends with the money they get from the adverts and the money are billions of dollars. They don’t give a damn if China is using like slavery child labor, their problem is how many are going to watch the Olympic Games on television and how many adverts they are going to have. And they know, the president of the Olympic Committee Mr. Rogge despite all the things he says he knows and he is equally guilty.

And then it comes to us, to all of us who just watch the games, all the games without any profit just for the fun of it. They trained us to watch them and expect the records without thinking. Without thinking that 100 meters in less than eight seconds is not normal, is not even logical. They trained us to believe that we watch all these events for the records and not for the joy of it.

Do you know what the major Olympic value is? To participate not to win! That’s why in the ancient times the winner just got a laurel. A wreath made from an olive branch that symbolized in ancient times peace. Is the record going to replace the excitement of the healthy competition? Does it mean anything for us if the athlete makes ten, or eleven even fifteen seconds? We are not chronometers, we just see men and women compete, time is for the chronometers.

All the athletes take drugs and I’m sorry to say it but this is my strong believe. I cannot accept anymore all these records, are not logical. There are two reasons we don’t know and we cannot prove that they all take drugs, either these drugs are ‘legal’ or they are not traceable yet! Nothing else. And they are two solutions, either the drugs any kind of drugs are forbidden or everybody can get them for free, it doesn’t matter anyway. In the first case we all must work together; the second case means the end of sports but it goes there anyway if we continue like we are now.

Hungary Report

A euro-reporter from the Ovi magazine

Coalition is 'at risk'

"If reforms are not proceeding, there is no point left for the SzDSz to remain within the government coalition," Alliance of Free Democrats (SzDSz) president János Kóka said. The ultimatum-sounding words were triggered by several statements from senior Socialist Party (MSzP) officials, who demanded the healthcare reform should be reconsidered, and, if necessary, withdrawn.

Most explicit was the MSzP’s parliamentary party leader, Ildikó Lendvai, who said it may well be a possibility to keep all healthcare funds 100% state-owned. “Nobody wants this country to pay for the political risk that resulted from the initiators of the referendums,” she explained referring to international reaction to the Mar 9 referendum, and the threat from leading opposition party Fidesz of more referenda to come.

US-based credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade Hungary from “stable” to “negative” will, according to Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, “cost the country several billion forints.”

The debate over the healthcare reform, which was passed by Parliament twice, because President László Sólyom refused to sign it first time round, has been revived because of another referendum threat from Fidesz. “Why queue twice for a slap on the face? Why run head on into the wall twice?” opposition Fidesz party leader Viktor Orbán asked in a TV talk show, referring to a new. The results, Orbán predicted, would be just as devastating for the government as those of Mar 9 had been.

Fidesz is demanding that the government withdraw the healthcare reform which allows private capital and market competition into state-run healthcare. If the government does so, Fidesz will withdraw its referendum initiative, the party says, as it would abolish the government’s bill anyway. Analysts note that this continuous threat from Fidesz to overturn government decisions via referenda hugely increases political risks in the country, causing severe financial damage and, in the long run, might make governing the country for any party virtually impossible. Although, one day after the referendum, the PM was adamant that he would not restructure his government, two weeks later MSzP sources are saying otherwise. According to anonymous Socialist sources quoted by Hungarian daily Népszabadság, several scenarios have been drawn up, depending on the reaction of the junior coalition member.

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Hungary recognizes Kosovo

Hungary, along with two other countries that neighbor Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria, recognized the independent state of Kosovo. Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hasn’t officially announced the fact, but did release a previously prepared statement that all but does.“Hungary, Bulgaria and Croatia continue to support efforts by the European Union and NATO to create stability and democratic institutions in Kosovo; meanwhile Kosovo’s institutions should guarantee a multi-ethnic state based on the principles of democracy and a constitutional state, which guarantee rights to the Serbian community and to other ethnicities, including their participation in those institutions,” the common statement of the three countries said.

Introducing the document on Wednesday, foreign ministry state secretary Márta Fekszi Horváth also called on Serbia to ensure the safety of 350,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Vojvodina (Vajdaság), an autonomous province in northern Serbia near the Hungarian border.

Although the announcement surprised no one, diplomatic retaliation from Serbia was immediate. The truth is that Serbia feels so lonely in this Kosovo case and the same time would expect countries with major minority problems to understand better before the problem knocks their door.

What really happened in the NATO summit?

From the Ovi magazine

Forget Disney's hyphenless Pooh

An article from the Ovi magazine

There is only one way I want to start this review celebrating Winnie-the-Pooh and that is to accuse Disney of ripping the soul out of this lovable octogenarian teddy bear and profiteering from his famous gang of friends. I grew up watching Disney's 'hyphenless' incarnation and thoroughly enjoyed the cartoons, but my opinion has radically altered now I have read the original stories.

October 14th 2006 marked 80 years since Alan Alexander Milne published Winnie-the-Pooh, the first of two books that would firmly establish the bear in the hearts of all that would meet him. The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh contains A.A. Milne's first compilation of short stories, plus The House at Pooh Corner, which was published two years later in 1928 and introduced Tigger.

The two books, unlike Disney's animated versions, are written in a style that will make adults laugh more than the children, at whom they are aimed. Milne's use of language, the poetry ascribed to Pooh and the cynicism expressed by Eeyore are just a few examples of the adult-orientated material within the pages, but it simultaneously awakens the inner-child reminding us of our own childhood games, toys and teddy bears.

Both books are written as though Milne is narrating the story to Christopher Robin, his only son, and you begin to feel as though you are the one sat cross-legged listening intently to the "silly old bear's" adventures. Milne fires your imagination in such a way that you could almost smell the leaves in Hundred Acre Wood or a jar of honey in Pooh's house.

When I wrote that the language is directed at adult readers, I mean that the little asides and vocabulary that Milne injects into the text or puts into the mouths of his characters are beyond what most children would understand. In the first story (In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin), Pooh decides to use a balloon to float up to get honey from a beehive, but events take a wrong turn and the bees begin buzzing around the bear, who is pretending to be a cloud: "I think the bees suspect something!" The dry humour, the straight delivery by Pooh and the unlikely use of the word 'suspect' when used with bees just left me in pieces.

All the characters in the book develop strong personalities so quickly that you can't help but love them all. Piglet is effeminate and has a modest ego, plus, despite being a "Very Small Animal", he accompanies Pooh on many adventures and manages to do a Very Grand Thing. Milne loves capitalization to emphasise the fact that the characters are doing something almost for the first time, so it demands emphasis…a Very Clever Idea.

Returning to the adult theme, I believe that once you have read the books Eeyore will become your favourite character because his pessimistic, sarcastic, cynical and gloomy personality will just win you over. For example, when Roo and Tigger are stuck up a tree, Piglet helpfully suggests that by standing upon each other's shoulders, with Eeyore at the bottom, they may be able to reach the stranded pair, ""And if Eeyore's back snapped suddenly, then we could all laugh. Ha ha! Amusing in a quiet way," said Eeyore, "but not really helpful.""

A.A. Milne was a little bitter himself at forever being remembered as a children's author, especially after writing 25 plays and a number of other books, but he was not the only one to rue Winnie-the-Pooh. His son, Christopher Robin Milne, complained that his father had left him with 'empty fame' and Ernest Howard Shepard, the illustrator, felt that Pooh overshadowed his work. However, his illustrations give the book another dimension and give a soul to each of the characters; I particularly love his Piglet with his flappy ears.

If, like me, you have only experienced Disney's Winnie the Pooh, then it is time to inject the hyphens and the Milne back into this 81-year-old bear. Accompany him on an adventure with Rabbit, Roo, Kanga, Owl, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and Christopher Robin because it will make you feel like a child again…if not, then you will enjoy Winnie-the-Pooh's fantastic poetry.