Categoria: works, projects, publications

War, Modesty and Good Life

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, general, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, projects, publications

Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem—in my opinion—to characterize our age.
(from Einstein, Albert: “The Common Language of Science”, a broadcast for Science, Conference, London, 28 September 1941. Published in Advancement of Science, London, Vol. 2, No. 5. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions [1954])

As in discussions on Greece the metaphor “from tanks to banks” had been used frequently, it may be of some interest then to look back at another war, where tanks, bombs and furious invasion attacks played a role, an attack on at least two countries: Vietnam and the United States of Northern America itself, undermining any kind of legitimacy, but also and with it its own integrity.

There is one passage in the

Remarks at the University of Kansas made by Robert F. Kennedy on March 18, 1968 

And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us, as individuals and citizens this year. But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction – purpose and dignity – that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product – if we judge the United States of America by that – that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in world. From the beginning our proudest boast has been the promise of Jefferson, that we, here in this country would be the best hope of mankind. And now, as we look at the war in Vietnam, we wonder if we still hold a decent respect for the opinions of mankind and whether the opinion maintained a descent respect for us or whether like Athens of old, we will forfeit sympathy and support, and ultimately our very security, in the single-minded pursuit of our own goals and our own objectives. I do not want, and I do believe that most Americans do not want, to sell out America’s interest to simply withdraw – to raise the white flag of surrender in Vietnam – that would be unacceptable to us as a people, and unacceptable to us as a country. But I am concerned about the course of action that we are presently following in South Vietnam. I am concerned, I am concerned about the fact that this has been made America’s War. It was said, a number of years ago that this is “their war” “this is the war of the South Vietnamese” that “we can help them, but we can’t win it for them” but over the period of the last three years we have made the war and the struggle in South Vietnam our war, and I think that’s unacceptable.  I don’t accept the idea that this is just a military action, that this is just a military effort, and every time we have had difficulties in South Vietnam and Southeast Asia we have had only one response, we have had only one way to deal with it – month after month – year after year we have dealt with it in only on way and that’s to send more military men and increase our military power and I don’t think that’s what the kind of a struggle that it is in Southeast Asia.

He quotes William Allen White – and White’s remark should be guideline for all, still and especially today when countries of the capitalist core force for the sake of their pure power ambition others to maintain an economic strategy that is unsustainable, unreasonable and serves only one interest: further establishing and maintaining central power — the power of the one percent. We clearly saw another time that all these negotiations had not been about reason and appeals. In the Greek case,

The only weapons they could bring to the negotiating table were reason, logic and European solidarity. But apparently we will live in a Europe were none of those things mean anything.

So what did White say then? Here you are:

“If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all their youthful vim and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow.”

This may be about riots, literally. But in any case, it definitely means to look for more radical answers to the current challenges – going beyond what we know for decades.
Kennedy’s reference to

mere accumulation of material things

can and to often is read as notion of changing values, asking all of us to change behaviour and move towards the appreciation of non-material values. In this context it is too often referred to modesty, suggested as means against supposed greed. The question, however, is that we have to look at some more fundamental issues which is suggested as five giant tensions:

  • the overproduction of goods and the turn of goods into ‘bads’
  • societal abundance versus inequality of access
  • abundance of knowledge and its misdirection towards skills
  • the individualisation of problems and their emergence as societal threat
  • the complexity of government and the limited scope of governance.

It may be another, hopefully not too modest proposal, not referring to overcoming the crises and their immediate devastating consequences today; but to think today about politics that help to avoid that we just move further from one crisis to another. There is no point to strive for growth where we produce already too much; there is no point in creating material wealth if there is enough that can be distributed; there is no point in creating faster computers and new IT-bases technologies that undermine developing wisdom to properly use it and making use of the results; there is no point in saving individuals to strangulate them afterwards; and their is no point in setting up more and more committees, consultations dcc as long as we do not find a way to legitimate them democratically and do not allow “stakeholders” to act based the money and power they have in form of private resources.
All this is not about greed, it is about combatting the objective laws of an economy that is embedded in a wrong society: a modernity that is plagued by the

Eclipse of Reason 

as Max Horkheimner titled his book from 1947
I presented this outline recently on the Conference of the Annual Conference of the Chinese Social Policy Association (the presentation will soon be online on youtube) and in various papers of which the publication will be announced here. In one or another way it is surely also reflected already in several contributors that are accessible on the researchgate-site.

If we bring things together, we can easily see another interesting point in the remarks by Kennedy, and linked to the devastating war:

we have made the war and the struggle … our war

And this is cum grano salis happening today: the bank-war is not about the interest of the rational functioning of an economy that serves people but it is about an economic system that serves itself, not disembedded, but embedded in a global society that serves the minority living in their gated communities … — an economy of financial markets where money is self-serving instead of being a means that keeps the economy spinning, a society where finally everybody establishes his/her own gated community: asking others to be good, without seeing that this individualist strive is exactly the spade that digs the grave in which we all will end.

Unfortunately those who are ending sooner in the grave are those who still maintain not just the ideas of

reason, logic and … solidarity

but who try to live it in there daily life instead of pompous declarations.

Two Dreams and One Nightmare

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, thoughts on life and its philosophy, works, projects, publications

Well, hesitating (again) if there is any use in writing, as actually the facts are clear and thus little if anything can be added – perhaps a personal rant, and then of course the Beckett’ian danger is coming with it: 

I tried to groan, Help! Help! But the tone that came out was that of polite conversation

Still, having decided to write I want to begin with two dreams – though seeing them as dreams may be in itself questionable[1] and it may be better if we talk about two claimed visions and gospels.

THE FIRST DREAM[2]

Well, the one is surely about a gospel, nearly literally

“Laudato si’, mi’ Signore” – “

” Praise be to you, my Lord”

– these are the words standing at the beginning of the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of The Holy Father Francis on Care for Our Common Home

There is much to be said, finally we are talking about a document of 184 pages. And though most of it is not much more than a long lament, extending the praise of the Lord to the world and mother earth, there is also something said about this Common House highlighting that it is the responsibility of all of us. And the old vision is taken up: we are talking about the need of profound changes needed when it comes to

lifestyles, models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today govern societies.

– thus already said in the Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus from 1991.

It is somewhat striking that the lament then translates into establishing a tension between individual behaviour and technical possibilities and ‘technical wrongdoing’ on the one hand and the celebration of the common good.
Sure, there is some general sentiment, highlighting that

[w]e are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to com- bating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.

And indeed it is highlighted that

the abandonment and neglect also experienced by some rural populations which lack access to essential services and where some workers are reduced to conditions of servitude, without rights or even the hope of a more dignified life.

And it is also emphasised:

Let us allow the invisible forces of the market to regulate the economy, and consider their impact on society and nature as collateral damage. In the absence of objective truths or sound principles other than the satisfaction of our own desires and immediate needs, what limits can be placed on human trafficking, organized crime, the drug trade, commerce in blood diamonds and the fur of endangered species? Is it not the same relativistic logic which justifies buying the organs of the poor for resale or use in experimentation, or eliminating children because they are not what their parents wanted? This same “use and throw away” logic generates so much waste, because of the disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary.

However, when the letter turns to concrete steps the ‘systemic character’ seems to be forgotten.

It is indeed remarkable that Francis highlighted on another occasion, with respect to the Evangelii Gaudium

The only specific quote I used was the one regarding the “trickle-down theories” which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and social inclusiveness in the world. The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefitting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger nothing ever comes out for the poor. This was the only reference to a specific theory. I was not, I repeat, speaking from a technical point of view but according to the Church’s social doctrine. This does not mean being a Marxist.

It may be considered that exactly this lack, not as matter of (non-)Marxism but as matter of engaged reference to real discussions and power-questions and their scientific reflection is highly problematic. In a way it turns another statement of the pontiff against himself, namely the statement he made in Asunción on the 11th of July:

Ideologies end badly, and are useless. They relate to people in ways that are either incomplete, unhealthy, or evil. Ideologies do not embrace a people. You just have to look at the last century. What was the result of ideologies? Dictatorships, in every case. Always think to the people, never stop thinking about the good of the people. A sharp critic of ideologies was once told: “Yes, but these men and women are well intentioned and want to help the people”. The critic replied, “Yes of course, everything for the people, but nothing with the people”. Such are ideologies.

This may well be true even if he aims on the 180 degree turn, leaving everything to the people, including, with a bizarre twist poverty bay taking refuge in the preaching and living of Assisi, strangely taken up by Evo Morales

THE SECOND DREAM

Are we then, taking it from there, not living in a modern society, in a capitalist society with certain rules, and even democratic claims and standards? This is the danger of general statements and appeals: forgetting about the realities

– The one harsh reality is that the common house is only possessed by ‘the one percent’ and the praise of poverty easily translates into the praise of exclusion, though it surely is not meant by him.

Indeed,

[i]n some places, rural and urban alike, the privatization of certain spaces has restricted people’s access to places of particular beauty.

– The return to the medieval is toped now by European governments that recently went further back – it is not about beauty but about the brute force, betraying democratic rules, but also the command of enlightenment and its quest for rationality – indeed, they crucified him: Alexis and with the person they sacrificed exactly those rights that had been just mentioned.

In fact, the common home ‘belongs’ to the one percent and this one percent is not following its claimed rules of a ‘rational economy with an invisible hand’; instead it is based on a very visible hand, that denies the meaning of any rationality, even the IMFIMF now highlighting that the ‘victory’ is an expensive fixation of failure, making a sustainable development impossible – taken everything together making clear that negotiations had not been to any degree touched by a notion of respect and rationality as experience shows:

It’s not that it didn’t go down well – it’s that there was point blank refusal to engage in economic arguments. Point blank. … You put forward an argument that you’ve really worked on – to make sure it’s logically coherent – and you’re just faced with blank stares. It is as if you haven’t spoken. What you say is independent of what they say. You might as well have sung the Swedish national anthem – you’d have got the same reply. And that’s startling, for somebody who’s used to academic debate. … The other side always engages. Well there was no engagement at all. It was not even annoyance, it was as if one had not spoken.

The only rationale had been the strangulation, strangulation even of top-level people if they are not fitting into their scheme.
Indeed,

the name of that game was deterrence. In plain English, make the terms of any deal with any rebellious, indebted, government in Europe so tough – almost unacceptable – that nobody in their right mind would ever dare challenge the status quo ever again. And while one is at it, make sure that everybody else understands that the terms of the agreement – like the one recently foisted on the Greeks – is seen for what it is: unconditional surrender.

and the reality had been characterised by Yanis in clear words:

The recent Euro Summit is indeed nothing short of the culmination of a coup. In 1967 it was the tanks that foreign powers used to end Greek democracy. In my interview with Philip Adams, on ABC Radio National’s LNL, I claimed that in 2015 another coup was staged by foreign powers using, instead of tanks, Greece’s banks. Perhaps the main economic difference is that, whereas in 1967 Greece’s public property was not targeted, in 2015 the powers behind the coup demanded the handing over of all remaining public assets, so that they would be put into the servicing of our unpayble, unsustainable debt.

What remains – amongst others? Debt not paid by Germany after WWII; no flourishing landscapes in the former GDR as they had been promised. But the humiliation of not only the people of Greece, but of those people of Europe who really have (had) a democratic vision.

The governors said and claimed they would have a dream of a Europe for all; in fact they confirmed a fortress, using banks instead of tanks and building fences as in Hungary, where the water the water is not ‘protecting’ the wealth of the few, right as said in Mathew 25:29

For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.

And they will happily take and distribute amongst themselves a we see here and here too.

What remains – amongst others? There are five giant tensions:

  • the overproduction of goods and the turn of goods into ‘bads’
  • societal abundance versus inequality of access
  • abundance of knowledge and its misdirection towards skills
  • the individualisation of problems and their emergence as societal threat
  • the complexity of government and the limited scope of governance

It is not ideology but simple necessity to tackle them by clearly looking at the responsible individuals and the underlying structures. Really arriving at a common home means that still some should leave, and these are not the people, ‘disappearing in poverty and humility’ but those who pull at the one side of the strings by one or another kind of force.

Sure, as it had been said

We should not think that political efforts or the force of law will be sufficient to prevent actions which affect the environment because, when the culture itself is corrupt and objective truth and universally valid principles are no longer upheld, then laws can only be seen as arbitrary impositions or obstacles to be avoided.

But, equally sure is that the principle of Matthew will not be overcome by hope and retreat in joy as long as we face a

Dirty War for Europe’s Integrity & Soul

The challenge for us – as economists, social philosophers and even more so as people – is to think thoroughly about the alternative[3]

  • between an economy that is without values, i.e. that is disembedded and only following the value of reproduction – the paradox being that this means pure self-destruction
  • and a value system that finds its joy in retreat from reality.

If there is any truth in the common home, the

thinking about the good of the people

has to be made a reality an economy of, and not for the people.

[1] It is questionable as for instance the so-called European Social Model always had been a bit about a fig leaf for what had been foreseeable for a while

[2] See as well my notes on the Vatican Spring:

[3] see also my forthcoming works: The Silent Revolution Reaching Society – Outlining a New Analytical Perspective; Precarity – Outlining a New Analytical Perspective; Social Policy Development in the International Context – Social Investment or a New Social Treatise?; Social Policy Development in the International Context – From Contract to Treaty? And Employment Crisis or Crisis of Employment

What an end?

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, works, projects, publications

There are and will be many declarations, statements and analyses on the outcome of the negotiations against Greece. Hamlet came to my mind – how thought of suicide, and I titled
The sad victory of injusticeThere had been much written about the EU and the core character of the project – the debate not least of the so-called European Social Model. I also contributed myself, for instance under the tile: 
The European Social Model – Chimera or Core of the EU?

If there had been anything like it, (not alone) the German government death-sentenced it’d other now!

Instead of fundamentally reconsidering the path, taking a new approach to centre the project on people’s and peoples’ everyday’s life, instead of moving towards radical rethinking growth and thinking about the economic side on a possible end of the crisis of the productive system (see here and here , instead of fundamentally acknowledging precarity as matter of

The Silent Revolution Reaching Society 

allowing

Outlining a New Analytical Perspective 

(forthcoming) and rethinking

Social Policy Development in the International Context

and looking at the question of

Social Investment or a New Social Treatise? (forthcoming)

the institutions dealt a deathblow to Greece and in general to what some saw as European idea: solidarity, justice, democracy and solidarity. 

History will name the murderers of Europeans and Europe!

Indeed,

A senior official in the room believed that Germany was now the country that appeared to be acting in bad faith — no longer the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras. 

Indeed, as Alexis said,

Greece needs radical reforms in favor of social forces, and against the oligarchy that have led to the country’s current state. And this commitment to this new effort begins tomorrow.

We all need such reforms – this we should strive for it together!!

the new winter

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, works, projects, publications

Sure, much can be said about the reform that is known under the title

La buona scuola
and there may well be some positive aspects.
However, there is definitely a very good reason to populate today the squares and streets of Italy, in protest against the reforms.
Without going into detail, one aspect of the government measures is the precarisation of the position of teachers as the law
 prevede tra le altre cose l’assunzione di circa 100mila insegnanti precari
Interestingly precari translates easily into temporary.
  • if I hear teachers, talking about the situation at schools
  • if I listen to young people, talking about the situation after having left school or university and
  • if if I look at the various aspects of my current work, preparing the workshop on precarity, organised by TRANSFORM,
I can only hope that the protest reaches a level that urges politicians (and actually not only here in Italy) to move beyond temporary measures.
One point that is frightening: starting with precarisation of the teachers’ positions at school has the “side effect” of normalisation, of brainwashing, making young people think and accept that the lack of security is the only thing that can be taken for granted …
… Much remains to be done, though it may well be that it is not the reestablishment of old securities within societies that are characterised by extrem inequality. Instead …

She sang the heavenly lullaby,
The old song of abnegation,
By which the people, this giant fool,
Is lulled from its lamentation.

I know the tune, I know the words,
I also know every author;
I know they secretly drank wine,
While publicly preaching water.

A new song, a better song,
My friends will be my aim!
We should, right now on earth,

A kingdom of heaven proclaim.
Truth not only to be considered in Heine’s Germany

humiliation?

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, works, projects, publications

It may be that, it is worse: an inhumane strategic orientation when it comes to the EU’s understanding and defining of  problems.

The dramatic developments in the south of the European Union are obvious – the signals of humans drowning tine sea cannot be overlooked, even if the European Commissions website is not too impressed by the problem. Today (21/42015) presents news under the headlines of
  • EU acts on illegal fishing
  • TTIP to boost small enterprises
  • Commission opens google antitrust proceedings
And the priorities are named as
  • Jobs, Growth and Investment
  • Digital Single Market
  • Energy Union and Climate
Something is leading from the main page to the topic migration – and we read
Objectives

• Ensuring that all EU countries apply asylum rules in the same manner, by fully implementing the common European asylum system (CEAS).
• Enforcing EU laws penalising human traffickers vigorously.
• Protecting our external borders better by increasing the budget of the European border agency Frontex.
• Cooperating more closely with non EU countries to smooth repatriation of irregular migrants.
• Promoting the legal migration of persons with skills needed in Europe, through a review of the ‘Blue Card’ legislation.
And all this is stated:
  • while the threat for people who are desperately struggle to survive are actually running into a death trap
  • after just one day ago the walls of the fortress Europe had been strengthened, and we find the outline of what we can expect:
Ten points
• Reinforce the Joint Operations in the Mediterranean, namely Triton and Poseidon, by increasing the financial resources and the number of assets. We will also extend their operational area, allowing us to intervene further, within the mandate of Frontex;
• A systematic effort to capture and destroy vessels used by the smugglers. The positive results obtained with the Atalanta operation should inspire us to similar operations against smugglers in the Mediterranean;
• EUROPOL, FRONTEX, EASO and EUROJUST will meet regularly and work closely to gather information on smugglers modus operandi, to trace their funds and to assist in their investigation;
• EASO to deploy teams in Italy and Greece for joint processing of asylum applications;
• Member States to ensure fingerprinting of all migrants;
• Consider options for an emergency relocation mechanism;
• A EU wide voluntary pilot project on resettlement, offering a number of places to persons in need of protection;
• Establish a new return programme for rapid return of irregular migrants coordinated by Frontex from frontline Member States;
• Engagement with countries surrounding Libya through a joined effort between the Commission and the EEAS; initiatives in Niger have to be stepped up.
• Deploy Immigration Liaison Officers (ILO) in key third countries, to gather intelligence on migratory flows and strengthen the role of the EU Delegations.
It is a kind of war – and though there is no easy solution at hand, there is surely the need to think more thoroughly in terms of opening borders and minds instead of opening the routes to war.
I wrote a small piece (in German language) on this topic in the book that is currently released:

“Kriege im 21. Jahrhundert.
Neue Herausforderungen der Friedensbewegung”,
herausgegeben von Rudolph Bauer,
mit Beiträgen von der Antikriegskonferenz Berlin2014
Annweiler am Trifels: Sonnenberg Verlag 2015
(= Friedenspolitische Reihe: Bd. 01)
ISBN 978-3-933264-77-0
374 Seiten, Euro 19.80
Bestelllink:
http://sonnenbergverlag.de/index.php?section=buecher&menulinks=buecher&menuauswahl=5

Comparison, differences and how do we find out where we want to go together

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, joys - what we usually take for it, Peter's Log, social quality, works, projects, publications

What comes first to your mind when you compare Berlin with Moscow?

This had been the question asked by a Dutch colleague – and my prompt reply had been something like:

How can I and why should I compare apples and a piece of furniture?

These two places are really so hugely different that any comparison must end up in misunderstandings, wrong formulations and misleading prompts.

Sure, it is about two settlements and they are located in two different nation states. But in actual fact, even these general placeholders are somewhat misleading.

From the Grundrisse we know that

[t]he concrete is concrete because it is the concentration of many determinations, hence unity of the diverse. It appears in the process of thinking, therefore, as a process of concentration, as a result, not as a point of departure, even though it is the point of departure in reality and hence also the point of departure for observation [Anschauung] and conception. Along the first path the full conception was evaporated to yield an abstract determination; along the second, the abstract determinations lead towards a reproduction of the concrete by way of thought.

It is worthwhile to think another time about this statement in the context of comparing different cities, places as diverse as Amsterdam, Berlin and Moscow.

And it is worthwhile too to briefly mention that the colleague also said during the short time we could talk about the misleading perception: not individual people make history, but complex settings and arrangements are constitutive – providing, sharing spaces within which individuals act, but even then they do not act as mere individuals, even if they are outstanding figures of history”.

Travelling to and through different cities has frequently a bit of the déjà-vu experience: one thinks one knows and is still not entirely sure. In such a case of returning to in any case large cities – even if the figures are quite different:[1]

Amsterdam

Population (municipality, May 2014; urban and metro, May 2014; Randstad, 2011)

Municipality 813.562

Density 4,908/km2 (12,710/sq mi)

Berlin

Population (December 2014)[1]

City 3,562,166

Density 4,000/km2 (10,000/sq mi)

Moscow

Population (2010 Census)

Total 11,503,501

Rank 1st

Density 4,581.24/km2 (11,865.4/sq mi)

Urban 100%

Rural 0

– the likelihood of coming to different areas is quite high. And also the likelihood of perceiving the areas, one visited before, in different ways is remarkable: with the time one can go deeper into things, can explore the details one overlooked on earlier occasions.

Leaving aside that these are so different cities, the one point springing to my mind is that these are not only spaces, settlements but histories – and as much as history does not repeat itself, histories cannot be compared. The concrete is still entailed in the generalisation.

Berlin – a city which had been the platform for an black-haired Austrian gnome to start his March to secure global rule of the “Arian race”, starting racing with tanks towards east, after conquering the submissive west.

Amsterdam, giving in and accepting the new ruler more or less like several other European countries.

Moscow, the at that time blossoming metropolis, developing its own identity, to some extent against the former zarist complement – and with this the new identity of an entirely new state.

The one still refusing the responsibility of the predecessors, refusing to pay their debts, still not completely accepting the fact that many knew about the human dramas their “government” caused in the concentration camps, while the other is still thinking about the loss of most likely nearly 30,000,000 people in the Great Patriotic War.

The one morning, while leaving the hotel to a short walk I see the wires, spanning between the large buildings, offering accommodation for so many: they remind of the efforts of the electrification and industrialisation of a country that – at the time – only recently got rid of the joke of the zarist regime, standing against the old metropolis: in the one case the administrative centre of a “hegemone of the past and the future”: the old Prussian power, aiming on gaining superiority in and over Europe, and the claimant of the thousand year long empire. In the other case the old trade metropolis, which surely lost its glamour of the colonial times (sure, Auke know well about some strange places that still do exist as witnesses of those times…., though it managed well to rescue part of it and translate it into some kind of sedated modernity in the most amiable way.

This kind of light and likely drowsiness (I know, a pardox)  is surely difficult to find in a city with a population of over ten million, though the walk along the river, or large lake in the middle of the still dormant city is most pleasant, and the large alleys offer some compensation for the otherwise densely populated “sleep-cities”.

Marks of orientation – it is always catching my consideration how we actually find the ways – something that surely changed fundamentally, first with the common use of street maps, then again with the common use of the GPS. But it changed also in another way: the marks are something that is remarkable.

Looking at Berlin, it is surely relevant that it is (as nearly all larger conglomerations) a merger of different villages but also a place that still carries its marks from having been a city of two countries.

And Amsterdam is still characterised by the way it integrated socio-natural conditions (the channels) and the social hierarchy (going from the central “Single” over the “Herengracht”, positioning the Keizer to the margin, and the Princes even further out – the latter surely a specific form of translating the words:

give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God

– the nobility left in some memorable places of history, and god outside …

Moscow then, somewhat torn between the two dimensions: height and width: the height needed for the permanently increasing population and the width not least accepted to maintain some spaces.

These spaces consist of some of the old areas, and of the parks and park-like areas as for instance the one I mentioned a bit earlier or the area around the Moscow State University Lomonosov , reaching to sparrows hill – I remember well the time of an earlier stay when I lived in the old Lomonosov building and enjoyed the area every morning while I had been jogging.

There is something special when it comes to Moscow though it may be special just for me as some years ago, when I had been collected from the university building, from where we walked to the All Russian Centre, the driver said:

Things changed so much. Several years ago we could find our orientation by holding on to enterprises, chimneys, industrial sites – today these orientation marks are shopping centres, usually all with the same names of international chain stores …

And there is something else I am getting aware every day now, when leaving the metro on the way home at the Домодедовская – it has its name from Domodedovo International Airport. And there is a metal relief pointing this out … – and there are huge posters, telling us what to buy, which shops are close …, hardly allowing us to remain attentive for the reliefs …

We do not recognise many of these areas on the first occasion – not least after a long drive from the airport which directs our thinking towards seize, i.e. quantity, but time allows switching to quality: the small details we usually miss while dashing across airports, over the highways and along the alleys, the quantity that occurs with “pure reproduction”, which seems to be more a matter of being reproduced, pushing aside considerations about where we want to move and how we actively produce, even if this is, when seen relationally, also very much a matter of reproduction.

The Auchan, media market, Electrolux and bmercuditoydas – BMW, MERCEDES, AUDI, TOYOTA, SCODA, MERCEDES, AUDI, TOYOTA, SCODA – gained already dominance.

***************

TV in the background, a song, or better to say a singers-competition. May be it is politically incorrect saying children instead of young women: girls singing about love and longing, though it is more about sexual lust and seduction, staring in the spotlight – though thoroughly enjoying it, incited by members of the jury and parents to compete – who is the best … . At least many of the songs are in English language – does it matter? Or in which way does it matter – indicating to be part of … well …

… another world. It is not least a bit about redefining participation: the socialisation of hyper-individualism: staring, competing, so different to singing in a choir, something many cannot do as it conflicts with the schedules of work, with the requirements of competitive thinking that harshly stands against just the joyfulness of both, the “aimless” singing of people gathering to express themselves with others, and the obliviousness of enjoying oneself as somebody who is content, content while feeling being part of the universe, not in a metaphysical sense, but in the understanding of appropriateness of the old fisherman who resisted accepting the Irony of the Rat as unavoidable rule of life.

The TV had been silent since some time – we had been sitting around the fire, looking up to the stars. Three people, academics, usually talking about development economics, globalisation and labour market policies – and frequently forgetting that all this is so much about such details as the joy of singing in a choir and gaining for oneself and for others – even if it is possibly “only” the gain of not burning out, not being tempted by drugs, not feeling alone when it comes to the point of needing somebody …, and not being open to fundamentalisms that comes along under so many different headscarves and varieties of temptations, replacing apples by Easter eggs and playing other tricks …

***************

– Surely, all this is something that, being stated with the full awareness of the ambiguity, especially on such a day where we celebrate here orthodox Easter and Gagarin-day ….

***************

Part of the points are elaborated in notes written in preparation of presentations here in Moscow at the Plekhanov university in cooperation with the All Russian Center for the analysis of Living Standards

  • Employment Crisis or Crisis of Employment
  • Eurasia – Potentials for taking a strategic role for sustainable sociability

 ******************************

[1]            In the following taken from Wikipedia – 12/04/15

law versus justice

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, works, projects, publications

Part of the report presented yesterday:

The day after he formed a government, Kenny cut his own pay by 6.6 per cent from €214,187 to €200,000 along with the pay of the Tánaiste and all other ministers.

Under the Haddington Road Agreement in July 2013, Kenny’s pay dropped to €185,350 under the wide-ranging public sector pay cuts for higher earners.
…

Enda Kenny was speaking at the launch of the government’s Low Pay Commission which will examine the scope for increasing the current minimum wage of €8.65.
(O’Connell, Hugh, February 26th, 2015: Enda Kenny thinks he’s ‘very much’ worth his €185k salary; in: TheJournal dot ie; 05.03.15)

Irelands social policy and law

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in works, projects, publications

Development of Social Policy in Ireland 2014-15. Report to the Max Planck Institute to Social Law and Social Policy. Department for foreign and international Social Law, Munich

Peter Herrmann

Rom, end of March 2015

Centrally dealing with the recent development in the area of social legislation, it focuses on poverty and exclusion and also the field of migration/asylum. In a more general perspective it provides a sound overview of the (supposed) post-austerity development, suggesting that the success is located within the tension between external pressures (Troika) and the suggested “opportunity” to restructure national policies (using the the pressure as excuse).
The price that had to be paid, had been divided between three “bearers”:

• Inequality
• re-structuraion
• externalisation

This analysis brings the analysis of legal perspectives in close connection with the political-economy and sociology of the country.

The report is written in German language.

Entwicklungen Irischer Sozialpolitik 2014-15. Bericht an das Max Planck Institut für Sozialrecht und Sozialpolitik – Abteilung für Ausländisches und Internationales Sozialrecht, München,

Peter Herrmann

Rom, Ende Maerz 2015

Frühere Berichte wurden veroeffentlicht in der ZIAS

Entwicklungen Irischer Sozialpolitik 2012-13; in: Zeitschrift für  ausländisches und internationales Arbeits- und Sozialrecht (ZIAS). Institut für Arbeitsrecht und Arbeitsbeziehungen in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft; Ulrich Becker/Rolf Birk; Max-Planck-Institut für Sozialrecht und Sozialpolitik/Ulrich Becker; Heidelberg: C.F.Mueller Verlag, Huehtig Jehle Rehm; volume 28; 1/2014; Heidelberg 2014; 68-94

siehe auch:
Irish Social Policy – the Celtic Tiger without Soul (Irische Sozialpolitik – der keltische Tiger hat keine Seele); in: Zeitschrift fuer auslaendisches und internationales Arbeits- und Sozialrecht (ZIAS). Institut fuer Arbeitsrecht und Arbeitsbeziehungen in der Europaeischen Gemeinschaft/Rolf Birk; Max-Planck-Institut fuer auslaendisches und internationales Sozialrecht/Ulrich Becker; Heidelberg: C.F.Mueller Verlag, Huehtig Jehle Rehm; volume 18; 3/2004; Heidelberg 2004: 216-242 – immer nicht interessant als Hintergrund fuer die Krisenanalyse heute.

Reaching stage of production: Environmental Democracy – New Challenges

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in social quality, works, projects, publications

The book with a contribution on New Challenges in the context of Environmental Democracy is now reaching the final stage of production.

Editors of the book titled

公众环境参与的国际经验 (The International Experience of Enviornmental Participation)

are Ka Lin and Haoran Lv.

From the introduction to my contribution 环境民主——新的挑战 (Environmental Democracy – New Challenges)

One may assume that the ongoing problems about sustainability are the lack of a clear definition; however, we may say that the actual problem is not the lack of such a definition itself but the claim that we need such description. Einstein supposedly said ‘the environment is everything that isn’t me’ (Einstein, 1931). The debate over the definition invites us to imagine and accept the multiple dimensions of the environmental issues. At least the following are seen as essential for the present context, namely the discussion of environmental democracy:

  • it is a matter of the organic nature
  • it is concerned with the inorganic, i.e. human-made surrounding
  • it is about the people around us, and with this a matter of the social itself
  • and not least it is about how we as human beings relate to this environment.

One important further moment at the outset is the necessity of distinguishing between the environment itself and environmental issues, understood as perception of and dealing with issues that concern the environment.

However, crucially important is the fundamental and widening process of disembedding and dichotomization. For the current subject, the following are the most decisive dimensions:

  • the constitution of human existence as centre, thus establishing (and following) the rule from the biblical order defined in Genesis 1/28 which states: ‘fill the earth and subdue it’ (the roots being Christianity and capitalism)
  • the subsequent separation of human beings and human existence from nature (the roots being Christian and Cartesian thinking)
  • the juxtaposing of individuals and society (the roots being Western enlightenment and the [in part] subsequent utilitarianism)
  • and finally the disembedding of the economy and economic processes from the social and societal processes (analysed by Karl Polanyi)

Against this background we have to highlight some fundamental shortcomings of the concept of environmental democracy. Such critique will be based in a very short presentation of the main lines of the understanding as they are defined by the Summit in Rio and the Aarhus Declaration.

Truth and Salt

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, works, projects, publications

It is good – only human beings as such are relevant …. — … at least this is what the statistics suggest.

I am just working on a report about recent developments in Ireland and looking at the CSO-figures for migrants. The table on the Components of the annual population change, 1987 – 2014 provides the figures for
  • Births
  • Deaths
  • Natural increase
  • Immigrants
  • Emigrants
  • Net migration
  • Population change
  • Population
Now, if it would be really this way
ONLY HUMAN BEINGS COUNT
 
independent of their status, religion … etc. it would be great.
If, as in reality there is surely a difference between well-off immigrants obtaining secure jobs, migrants who are desperately searching for work and refugees who are ending up in so-called Direct Provision (see on the latter for instance Herrmann, Peter/Dorrity, Claire: Racism – the State’s Fear of Loosing Control Over the Own Citizens; in: Okyayuz, Mehmet /Herrmann, Peter (eds.): Migration – Global Processes Caught in National Answers; Vienna: WVFS, 2014). And it surely would be honest though not to include but at least it make directly visible those who are refused entry before they even arrive – as we learn from the INIS-website
Deportations/Removals from the State. Approximately, 2,360 persons were deported/removed from the State in 2014. This figure comprises some 2,147 persons who were refused entry into the State at ports of entry and were returned to the place from where they had come. In addition, 111 failed asylum seekers and illegal migrants were deported from the State, 87 EU nationals were returned to their countries of origin on foot of an EU Removal Order and 17 asylum seekers were transferred under the Dublin Regulation to the EU member stated in which they first applied for asylum.
And with the famous grain of truth the same can be applied for emigrants: there is a difference between those who are – for different reasons – “forced” and those who leave voluntary – and in both cases the question is again: where do they end up.
The grain of truth – the Latin expression reads cum grano salis, the grain of salt. And this salt is what gives the special taste to the soup. That may also be applied when it comes to statistics …. Leaving the details out, means denying the colour and taste: be it the adventurous and exotic pleasures of the privileged or the blood and mordant sweat of those who loose their freedom and possibly lifes.