Category: Uncategorized

Business: It’s probably the term derived from the verb, “busy”, which means, at least, to be very wrapped up in work.

I have gone through quite a number of businesses, that is places of work, which happened willy nilly: While studying I had to work my way through it – and took care of my kid.

We all know – or at least some of us do – that “business” is an entirely different matter from being ‘just’ busy.

“Lay-offs” are a term connected to the darker side of it. Since they mean, letting people go in large numbers due to corporate issues.

To think though that you have been hired on false pretenses and also let go after such and such an amount of time, without previous knowledge, yet planned in advance – is still a sort of higher level, rather a low point, not to say, an abyss of falseness and abuse.

I tend to be loyal, hard-working and also have a good and very good quality output. Numerous references say that. I am – also referenced multiple times – a good colleague.

To feel (ab)used this way feels disgusting, actually. Yet, there are a few comforts in all the darkness of this situation:

• • I know a couple of people who haven’t yet handed over the whole of their conscience at the door…
  • I also know a couple of people who care about me as a person enough to support me.

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
(Nelson Mandela)

The former president of the United States of America, Trump, has been found guilty by the jury on all 34 counts of the indictment. At last. It has been known for many years that he is neither a nice person nor a responsible one. To say the least. The proof was presented before a court of law. And a still working legal system of a democracy — even if flawed now and again — did judge based on the evidence and found him guilty.

There were currents and counter-currents, and over the past months and especially years, considering other mistrials altogether, it was not impossible to fear that he might go free.

Of course, as is always the case in politics, he does not act alone or ‘walk alone’. That’s the particular perfidy of the whole situation of past and present: He has powerful people with huge amounts of money at their disposal  behind him who like the fact that he appears to be almost dumb  – at least simple. But that’s part of the facade. All the information about him shows that he may not be highly educated – but he is no simpleton either. Just completely warped not to say crooked in his outlook. “Healthy in mind and (comparatively?) healthy in body…”
Whenever you deal with people, more or less criminal, it’s wise to remember that as long as they are not insane they are fully responsible for their actions, their deeds and their speeches, any and every word they use.

Every human being of sound mind has the  capacity for good or evil. It’s a choice. He chose evil.

He knows quite well what he is doing and he is fine with the fact that he is also a front – for all those who think similarly and have the same interests ‘at heart’.

He has caused thousands if not millions of people pain and suffering before, during, and after his presidency. If you study his biography you will find out more.

My aim posting these things is to let my voice be heard. Because, due to my upbringing and convictions this is what I can do: speak up. Make sure that evil is known – and stopped with the legal means of a democracy that differentiates between judiciary, executive and legislative.

Let it be enough to say today: It’s a great relief.

Source, The Washington Post: Donald Trump found guilty on all counts in New York hush money trial

Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

(Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird”/”Wer die Nachtigall stört”, ©1960, 1988: Harper Lee)

“Eines Tages sagte Atticus zu Jem: “Es wäre mir lieber, wenn Du auf Blechdosen schießen würdest, aber ich weiß, Du wirst Dich an Vögel heran machen. Schieße auf so viele Blauhäher, wie Du willst, wenn Du sie triffst, aber es ist eine Sünde, eine Nachtigall zu töten.” Das war das einzige Mal, dass ich Atticus sagen hörte, dass etwas eine Sünde sei, darum sprach ich mit Miss Maudie darüber.
“Dein Vater hat recht”, sagte sie. “Nachtigallen tun nur das eine, sie machen Musik für uns, zur Freude. Sie fressen sich nicht durch die Gärten der Leute, nisten nicht in den Maisspeichern, sie tun nichts außer sich das Herz für uns aus dem Leibe zu singen. Darum ist es eine Sünde, eine Nachtigall zu töten.”

(Meine Übersetzung, nach deutscher Ursprungsübersetzung, “Nachtigall”.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trED-PFrIVQ

(English song lyrics below)

This song sends a thrill down my spine every time I listen to it… When I was still a girl this German contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 won second place. It was the times before internet was wide-spread. I learned about it by chance at the time. It continues to be one of my favourites – because in spite of an apparent lightness in manner – its message is more than you would expect.

Find the English lyrics side by side with the German original farther down.  Even at the time I started to realize that – just as the song points out in fine, clear words – life often is about role-playing: In business, in diplomacy, in politics – and in so-called everyday life, we sometimes hide what is inside in order to prove ourselves. Or protect the finer feelings or scars of the past.

It is only human.
The idea being: Do not judge harshly – some apparently hardened business man or clown may just be hiding pain – and to be careful with judgement is one of the social graces. As a human being.