Amerikanische Begegnungen

A deepest cut

Sun, 25 May 2008 10:39:40 +0100

This is the end of my travel log (not of my weblog, of course). I travelled 32 cities in 12 states. And I took my trip as some sort of roadwork which enabled me to meet wonderful people, visit interesting places, receive a very diverse impression of the U.S. as an assembly of cultures, traditions and lifestyles. One part of this roadwork is done now. But there is still a construction site left that will remain part of my life. Not in terms of bricks and mortar that have to be smoothed out but in terms of observation and contemplation.

When I look back to all the experiences and observations that shaped my stay in the USA I realize quite clearly that there is a part of this country with a landscape that really changes your perception. The vast and harsh dimension of the sandy plain and the rocky bens of the Texas Mountain Trail reduce the point of view of the observer to a thin line: the horizon. Below and above the horizon a space dilates. And in between there is this sharp line of perception that reduces the observer's point of view to a single deep cut into endlessness.

What opens up below and above is a range of thoughts, insights and feelings that can pave their way into ones mind and awareness and spread out in a room that might have never been opened up like this before. Below this horizon there is a history of experiences, encounters, thoughts and feelings that suddenly become clear and sharpen in their outline and relevance. Some become prevalent, some are disguised as marginal. And there also emerges another space above the horizon where you can compose your reflections to new patterns, build connections between people and things never related before.

What happens in these moments? The observer's point of view is concentrated on the thin line of the horizon and freed from all distractions. As a deep cut trough the differences of past and future it reduces the complexity of the present. In some moments this can be a frightening experience, a sad one sometimes as well. But it might also be an extraordinary auspicious moment in life.

I liked this experience very much. It was like turning off the auto focus of my mind and brain that normally helps me to locate the tasks and challenges of daily life routine without wasting too much energy (and therefore sometimes also distracts me from detecting the periphery that might even be more interesting and challenging). In any case it's a unique moment of reflection that becomes part of the space below and above the deepest cut.

This is it. This will remain. And this opens up doors that appear along the way of life. I will have to decide whether to pass or bypass them. And in the first place ...

... which door ... ?

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

The end of the 'can do' myth

Wed, 21 May 2008 09:12:21 +0100

Observing the U.S. as a German I will even as a member of the after World War II generation always remember how the USA helped to re-establish Germany (at least the Western part of it). The Marshall plan comes to ones mind as well as the airlift to the airport Berlin Tempelhof that Berlin now finally manages to close in spite of all its historic meaning. These things among others contributed to the myth of a country that can fix problems and will always play a leadership role in the world.

After two months of travelling providing for me the opportunity to talk to a lot of Americans and to learn what they think of their own country I have realized: It might not even be the image of the USA which suffered most by the Bush administration as well as a sometimes awkward, sometimes rule breaking public diplomacy. It's the self perception of the American people that was disarranged and shattered in many ways.

That is reflected in the polls. PEW Research Center reports that the approval rate for the federal government gets a decade low of 37 percent. Concurrently President Bush's approval rating reaches an all-time low of 27 percent and only 22 percent of the population are satisfied with how the things are going in the country. Translation: Two third of the American people think that their country is on the wrong track. Wow!

There might be three major reasons for that I have learned about in the plenty of conversations I had for the last two months.

The Iraq war. With a death toll of more than 4.000 people and no end in sight most Americans have understood that something went wrong out there. Listening to Hillary Clinton promising that she will bring the troops back in six weeks after having taken presidency a lot of listeners just raise their eyebrows. There is no exit plan. And secretly everybody knows: there won't be one at short sight. This war has scattered a big portion of optimism of the American people and it has ruined a big part of the ideal of freedom and democracy that has always been linked to the U.S. Because the Bush administration violated constitutional rights in a variety of ways and issued rules that allowed a treatment of a person - be it a suspect, a prisoner or a terrorist - that amounts to torture by pretty much any definition except the Bush administration's.

The economic decline. A lot of people are hit by the mortgage crisis and have left their homes because they are simply no longer able to pay the rates. And economy doesn't seem to catch up soon. The Dollar has lost its position as lead currency and the necessary infrastructure investments are postponed. After a visit to Europe and Asia these weeks the author Thomas Friedman describes his observations in an article for The New York Times: "If all Americans could compare Berlin's luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II."

One of the most extensive shocks was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans. Why is that? Because the other drivers of decay in self -confidence are either related to foreign, i.e. exterior politics or to influencing factors that are not just or not directly combined with the creative power of the U.S. themselves. Katrina and its aftermath were.

The victims of the Hurricane and the floods could have been saved. But they weren't. The people from New Orleans could have been helped. But they weren't. Instead people were kept in the Superdome for almost five days without food and water, not knowing what would happen to them. New Orleans could have been rebuilt and the displaced people brought back to their homes. But that didn't happen. The Federal Government screwed the whole crisis management up in an unbelievable way. That's what can be heard today very often. The people in New Orleans speak up telling it, others don't. Why not?

This disaster - man made not a natural one - holds up a mirror every day that shows a reflection of the U.S. a lot of people don't want to see. They don't want to cope with the cognition that it were their country's own people that were left on their own. They don't want to face the fact that Katrina not only wiped out New Orleans but also the myth of the 'can do' country. America could fix it. That was held true for a long time. Iraq did quite a damage to this image. But it's different to fail in a country far away than to fail in the midst of one's own country.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Keep on trying

Mon, 19 May 2008 14:26:07 +0100

There are so many opportunities, various routes we can take, diverse buttons we can press to initiate a process that might take us where we want to get to. But we can never foresee where we will wind up. This is a lesson for the simplifying-their-life kind of guys as well as for the control freaks. Life can't be controlled. The only thing we might partly be in control of is our reactions to things that happen. And even this can be questioned for various reasons.

The most simply way to experience this is trying to access the fitness center in the UN Millenium Plaza Hotel in New York. During my last stay I had learned that I have to take one of the two elevators on the right hand side, not the two on the left hand side. This morning I gladly remembered this and pressed the 'down' button.

Of course, the left elevator stopped and the door opened. There was nobody in there. So I waited until the door closed again and the elevator would assumingly have left on its way to some other floor. Then I pressed the ‚down' button again. The same elevator opened again. As there was no other person requesting this elevator, it just obstinately stayed on my floor and kept all the other elevators from stopping.

I have often wondered how much logistics and software have to be implemented in these elevator systems. Today I have learned: This whole thing has to be planned very accurately and obviously in this hotel they didn't deliberate this problem to all extends. I went on with this procedure for quite a while and started to become desperate.

Then I developed the idea to outsmart this left elevator. As the door opened again I went in, pressed 'lobby' and went out again. Now the elevator was finally gone. I smiled. I pressed the 'down' button once more and was extremely convinced that one of the two right elevators would stop now. Don't even think of it. Instead the second elevator on the left opened and out stepped a room maid. '"This is the 36th floor" she said. "I know" I helplessly called. "I am staying on this floor for quite a while now, but I want to go to the fitness center." "You have to take one of the elevators on the right" she said. I almost fainted. "I KNOW", I screamed, "but they just won't stop for me. What am I supposed to do???"

"Keep on trying", the room maid said, smiled, and disappeared into the same elevator she had stepped out before. What a sage advice that does not only apply for coping with elevators but for coping with life.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Hitting the road of globalization (5)

Sun, 18 May 2008 13:49:55 +0100

There was this song by "Dance to Trance" in 1998 which was called "Power of the American Natives". It's not exactly the musical quality of this song that made me remember it these days but a visit to the Navajo Nation - the Indian settlement that embraces parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. With approximately 250.000 inhabitants it is the largest Indian tribe in the U.S.

The federally recognized tribe got the land 1868 as a compensation for the historical trauma of displacement and brutal suppression. They maintain a good relationship with the federal government - no less but also no more. "The tribes talk to us, they don't trust us. Which is a reasonable approach considering history" says Bill Hume, Director of Planning and Policy in the office of the Governor of New Mexico.

Driving through parts of the land it becomes pretty obvious that this is one of the very poor parts of the U.S. And maybe the one least globalized. This was the only region I travelled where you couldn't find a Starbucks coffee (though there was McDonalds).

The statistics emphasize this impression: With a poverty rate of 40 percent, one third of the population without electricity and an unemployment rate that is said to be around 50 percent (some observers estimate it up to 80 percent) it is probably not a region people would imagine as their preferred place to stay.

And that's not what makes the Indians stay. They want to preserve their heritage and culture. Therefore they were given this land as well as the right of self-governance (secured by several treaties with the federal government). The Nation has a an 88 member popularly-elected council located in window rock. Visiting the council in session we can observe: the blessings of new technology have arrived: Most of the council members listen to their President while at the same time surfing the Web.

But innovation does not necessarily mean improvement. One of the sources of income - the most important one indeed - is gaming. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act from 1988 provided the right to the Indians to operate gaming. First seen as a real opportunity to develop their economy it became quickly clear that gaming is not just a blessing but also a burden. As there is a steady income stream from gaming a lot of young people don't even think of education and striving for a good job.

And that is what makes the future of this tribal nation uncertain. The talented young people leave for education. And even if they want to come back they can't. There are no jobs, no facilities and no business opportunities. What we can observe in the Navajo Nation is a dying diversity. It might take 50 more years but sometime in future it will probably become a nation without a people.

The poverty is one reason for that. Another one is hidden in the bureaucratic governance structures that have produced a mixture of very little private enterprise, poor economic incentives and a lack of entrepreneurial effort. Against this background we were not even really surprised by reading in the newspaper the next day that the Navajo government is planning to set up a new legislative building for 50 million US$.

In case of the Indians diversity is at stake. But diversity is not only about cherishing cultural heritage. It's also about real politics and priorities.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Fruit Bureau of Investigation

Sat, 17 May 2008 04:36:16 +0100

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" - or yourself from the candidate of an election campaign. When I first tried to enter a Barack Obama campaign event in the pavilion of Headwaters Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I almost ended up at the entrance because of one single apple. A nice looking one, not at all dangerous at first sight (and my survival ration after a day of driving and solely eating pretzels again).

This apple was in my bag which was inspected closely by a female F.B.I agent. When she found the apple she said: "I am not supposed to let you take fruit in here." I also hadn't thought I was actually supposed to take fruit in. I had just thought it wouldn't be a problem. But it was one of the bigger ones. The apple was supposed to stay out. So was I.

I started to bargain with the woman trying to tell how important this apple was to me and that I would swear not to throw it at Barack Obama nor do anything else endangering other people (which was not difficult to promise because I am such a bad pitcher that I wouldn't have hit the candidate while standing right in front of him). She had no mercy (women are often much more merciless than men by the way). Finally she agreed upon me leaving the apple under the table of her search activity. It was an agreement filled with disgust and impatience on her side.

After Obama had spoken and the event was over I passed the entrance again and saw my apple was still under the table. I wanted to take it but the agent first refused. I already regret not to have put a name tag on the apple before leaving it under the table when she got distracted by searching my bag for the second time. It was on the table and so she thought somebody wanted to take it into the pavilion instead of taking it out. In this moment I rescued the apple. At the same time the agent found a very small nail file in my bag she had overlooked before. I expected something very serious to happen now. But the woman just put it back into my bag. I COULD HAVE TAKEN THE NAIL FILE IN while having been forced to leave the apple!

This is just a little proof that some prejudices are just true: Women don't care about food. But they are full of understanding when it comes to cosmetics and nail care.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Hitting the road of globalization (4)

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:15:11 +0100

The 'You'-people
When you stroll along the streets of New Orleans you might happen to pass a small Christian community with a nice church. Right beside the church on a brick wall you see a large board with the names of 210 people written on it.

he first row was printed the further names are added in handwriting with a marker. These are the names of the New Orleans murder victims of 2007.

It is an unsettling observation, especially because most of the names mention African-American males between 18 and 30. Somebody must have hung the board there. It was the pastor of the community. And he can well explain why he and his team did so. "People have to notice that this crime rate is outrages", he tells. "That's why we have put the board out there." During the first days the people of the neighbourhood got upset. They didn't want to be obviously linked to crime and murder. Then the attitude of a lot of people slowly started to change. Mothers of murder victims approached the priest and thanked him because finally her dead sons were given a name. They became publicly visible through this act of witnessing the pastor enabled by putting out this board.

What did it tell to the community? "Poverty is the prime engine behind violence", the priest explains, "coming along with the total disruption of the patterns of cultural and social life in this city". This disruption has started early when the Interstate was build and the white people could move out to the nice suburbs to live there and commute into the city for work while the Blacks got stuck. And it experienced a final big boost through Hurricane Katrina. "A lot of people in this city feel abandoned", farther Luis says. And those who do not feel alike don't want to become part of this. "They make them them, not us." They exclude and thereby segregate. And so they pretend that this violence is restricted to a special group of people who does it to themselves and it is their problem.

This is one story of the 'you' people in the USA. People who are regarded as belonging to a different group than oneself ("you people are different from us"). People who are expected to behave differently ("you people always do these things"). People who are patronized by others instead of helped ("you people have to ..."). It seems to be a story of the 'you' people, but it is also the story of the 'we' people. We all suffer from violence and crime and disintegration. Our community does as well as our society.

One of the captions of the civil rights movement in the U.S. goes: "Movements do not begin with movements. Movements begin with individuals." That is as true today as it was decades ago. It's not a story about the 'you' people, it's one about the 'we' people who have to be addressed.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Let's talk about the inexpressible

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:19:45 +0100

There were times when pickpockets and loose women were regarded as likely bad for one's health, reputation and overall existence. Since then things have supposedly changed a bit and become more liberal - in terms of sexual relations. This might turn out as a theoretical assumption in some parts of the USA. I have tried (without crossing lines of course ...).

First of all it depends on a body culture that does not perceive the naked as something frightful in principle. Here the problem starts. Try to let a small child play naked on the beaches of San Francisco (!) It won't take long till somebody will have called the police urging you to dress the child (you better get dressed yourself before they arrive, otherwise it might become expensive or at least a bigger hassle).

Second, try to use a sauna (if you find one at all) not wearing a bathing suit (it's more healthy not to do so, because you are supposed to sweat which is much easier if not wrapped in a plastic cloth). You will feel like the major cast in a film about outlaws and sometimes even treated as such.

What's going on? As I visited Harvard I sat in a Peet's coffee having my afternoon double shot latte and reading the New York Times Magazine. Inside a big story on Ivy League students abstaining from sex before marriage. I heard and read about that before. What struck me was that these were the intelligent young people at the best universities who voted for abstinence. I have always regarded a decent experience in this delicate but important part of life as a necessary part of personal development and life learning. But for some people this seems to be a weird attitude.

Strolling along the shelves of the Harvard Book Store I found a book about bad sex, pretending to tell about the better ways of doing it. At least somebody seems to read about it, I thought. Then I took a closer look. The book was about not making mistakes, providing patronizing advice by the elder ones: "We did it, so you won't have to." I got it! It's not about avoiding mistakes. It's about avoiding a mined field in the first place.

I haven't bought the book by the way. I sometimes prefer to stick to cultural differences.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Happy to let you know that you'll be gentrified

Tue, 13 May 2008 01:16:45 +0100

After 23 years they will shuffle off their mortal coil - tells a postcard one of the waiters at Restaurant Florent in New York's Meatpacking district hands out to the customers who haven't heard yet.

The neighbourhood once poor and known for its slaughterhouses and packing plants has become one of the most popular neighbourhoods - the in place of New York's dining, wining and nightclub scene.

In the 1990ths the process of transformation has started with some high end fashion boutiques, followed by fancy restaurants and lofts for the upper class people who were fed up with living in SoHo (which already went through this transformation process some earlier years and got a boring place to live in for those people always looking to be the first in the last place to make it last as a first place).

When Florent Morellet opened his restaurant at 69, Gansevoort Street, he was thrilled by the verve that swayed the Meatpacking district and though didn't heed the fashion calls. "I decided to open a restaurant that if possible didn't need any design; a place that was already in existence, and looked as though it had been, and would, be there forever," he writes in a supplement to ‚The Villager' on the 20th birthday of his restaurant in 2005. Eating at this place you can observe that he succeeded. There is plenty of atmosphere emerging from the staff and the customers, eating and chatting, and maintained by the idea of what happens at an original community place: a bunch of interesting people creating an atmosphere. Not a fashioned ambience trying to attract people.

Finally, this was not enough. Money drives. And that's especially true for New York. After having struggled for years Florent has to give up end of June, The rent has quadrupled (from 15.000 $ to 60.000 $ per month) in the wake of the rising Meatpacking district as New York's in place.

His restaurant has become a metaphor for a process that is discussed widely among sociologist with lots of emotions and intellectual engagement on all sides of the argumentation thread: the gentrification. The term describes a process in which deteriorated neighbourhoods attract different kinds of investments so that more and more middle and upper class people move in, houses are renovated and sold or rented for much higher prices. The whole neighbourhood and its parts increase in market value. And as one frequent result the former residents have to leave. They can no longer afford a living there.

One can interpret this as an urban renewal process. But it is often followed by segregation of groups of population in ‚ins' and 'outs'. The former mixed and often poor but creative people have gone. Upper class standardization moves in. When Florent opened up his restaurant as a place that „didn't need any design", a place that „looked as though it had been, and would be, there forever", he could have talked about the whole Meatpacking district. And he indeed exactly talked about this process of changing neighbourhoods that become a beauty spot, but very boring. Diversity is missing where the new generally displaces the long-established.

If a person dies we go trough the five stages of loss: from denial to acceptance. That's what they are doing at Florent till closing day. It will be the 28th of June, the day of acceptance. Walking along Gansevoort or other streets of the Meatpacking district I have to admit that I will probably stick to the fourth phase: depression.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Free me!

Sun, 11 May 2008 14:30:56 +0100

Didn't I write a book about how to reduce complexity in every day life? Didn't I write a whole chapter on how to cope with all these demands for making a choice and taking a decision?

And didn't I allude to all these crazy 'maximizers' of our current time trying to get hold of each and every information as well as each and every consumer product that is supposed to make life easier but instead incriminates us with handling all this stuff and stresses us while attempting to get rid of it again?

Yes, I did.

And did I learn from that?

No, I didn't.

Why do I have to be infected by this lousy virus of shopping greed each time I visit New York? Why am I thinking again and again that there is this one and only extraordinary jeans that I have to look for because it will change my life (t-shirts can not only changes lives but can change the world as I have learned from GAP these days)? And why am I not in the position to pass an 'Abercrombie & Fitch" store without entering it?

This is even more crazy because these store are consumer unfriendly. I try to look for some nice clothes but can't find them because the shop is almost completely dark. One can't even figure out the colour of the t-shirts or pullovers. Therefore I have to ask a sales clerk if the shirt is green or red (I am not color-blind by the way, it's really dark in there). He is very friendly and communicative, the only problem is: I can't here what he is telling me because the music is so loud. So I end up with a t-shirt that turns out to be light green instead of grey. Umpf.

I know that I won't be able to wear all these damned clothes because I can't wear more than one jeans and one t-shirt at the same time (normally). I know that I will have to pay for overweight at the airport on my way to the next city I am going to spend some days at (and after that again and again and again ...). I know that I will be about to freak out at Times Square trying to balance these shopping bags through crowds of people who couldn't care less about me and my shopping overload.

I want to be freed from desire and to get rid of this infectious shopping greed. So my next book will be about the „happiness of living naked - how a life without clothes simplifies your existence and traces back your life to the real things"). Maybe it's just this city that drives me crazy each time. I love it, I hate it and I know everything about it. And next time it'll be just the same again.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Hitting the road of globalization (3)

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:10:29 +0100

In his book „The world is flat" Thomas Friedman describes the changes and chances globalization and technology bring to all of us. I have thought about this flatness again and again travelling these days. Maybe not accurately the way Friedman meant it.

It's more like a metaphor for some other observation that repeatedly came to my mind: the visuals of globalization. I will try to specify what I mean:Looking at American towns, bigger cities as well as smaller villages, I am always thrown back to one single layer of perception. It's like a binary existence: something is there or is not there, a restaurant, a gas station, a hotel. You look at the façade that represents a function (eating, getting gas, sleeping) and that's it. No context, no aesthetics, no embedding in a social texture around it. It's just there.

If you want to grab a coffee you drive to a Starbucks, a building on a square right next to the interstate. There is no 'attitude of coffee life" around it, no aesthetic of drinking coffee in a surrounding that's made for that and no social pattern of people dropping by from school or on their way from the supermarket to meet others. It's having a coffee or not having it, that's what it's all about. And that is what I mean by the single layer of perception which sometimes deranges me. In Europe this sort of binary existence can rarely be found (and in New York, Boston or San Francisco it's different, too). It's not one layer, it's a bunch of complex and interwoven threats of social life that create and make up a place where one would have a coffee (why would I have one, whom will I meet there, do I like the place, why would I want to stay at this place ... ?).

The one layer perception has even a meta interpretation. There is often only this one single layer because there is not more than one way of representation (I am simplifying a little, I know ...). Starbucks is coffee, McDonalds is hamburgers, Kentucky Fried Chicken is chicken, Walmart is superstore, Taco Bell is Mexican food, CVS is pharmacy. The range of standardization and the reduction of brand variety in daily life are amazing, especially in rural and small town America (maybe indeed a reason for getting bitter ...). That's one result of the ongoing process of globalization. But: In the U.S. I sometimes ask myself whether it has ever been different.

It might be human to reduce the scale of choices one has to make every day. But I have to admit: I would rather do so because I am overwhelmed by the wide variety of opportunities to make a choice, not because there is pretty much none.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Old school politics

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:03:53 +0100

If I had been asked to create a movie set on: How will it look like when a presidential candidate visits a university, this would have been the story line: Young people with parents or relatives, local politicians and some other representatives sitting in an auditorium in such a nice and tidy university campus.

Wake Forest is the Truman Show for students and presidential candidates: You might loose track of whether this is real or you are unwillingly part of a big brother show on campus.

John McCain speaks about "Judical Philosophy". In fact he talks about the constitutional restraints on power which is a hot topic after eight years of a Bush administration violating laws and the constitution to whatever extend was needed right away. He is talking about checks and balances and how the boundaries are blurring these times with federal judges ruling on policy issues they are not supposed to decide upon. A president has to take care of the constitutional restraints. He wants to take care of them again he apparently wants to deliver to the audience. A convincing topic, not convincingly packaged.

Mc Cain is reading out a prepared and printed speech. He uses the teleprompter which makes him look like watching a tennis game always turning his head between the one on the left and the one on the right hand side. A journalist sitting at a desk in front of me surfs the web for the newest and most fancy fashion collections. Mc Cain is not fascinating, he lacks charisma. He seems to be a nice guy. I would probably let him spend an afternoon with my children at the zoo, but I wouldn't vote for him.

Even worse is how he is acknowledged by some of his endorsers on stage. The former solicitor Ted Olson, says: "I can introduce you to a real American hero. A man of character, unshakeable integrity and conservatism." These might be valuable characteristics of a person and a politician. But is this sort of heroism what the American people wish for their future and that of their country? It is old school politics McCain and his entourage represent.

Before the candidate enters the stage they play cover versions of "Nothing compares to you" (Sinead O'Connor) and "Take a chance on me" (Abba) - these horrible crazy keyboard driven degenerating pieces of originally good music that drive you nuts. Something fresh and authentic is needed here - maybe not just in terms of music.

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

GPS revenge

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:35:29 +0100

Here we go: the long and winding road might stay long and winding since Obama took North Carolina and Hillary managed to squeeze a plus of about 20.000 voters in her ballots to take Indiana.

It's a very exciting endgame (reminding indeed of the Beckett piece in various ways). So my co-fellow and friend Chak Hee from Korea and I have followed the different campaigns for several days.

Yesterday we first went to a McCain event in North Carolina in the early morning (more on that later) to move on after that to Raleigh-Durham, NC, where Obama was supposed to announce victory in the evening. My goodness, we did a lot of driving these days. Luckily we had the GPS supporting us and helping us to keep track of all the different venues, events and speeches, we experienced during the days.

On our tour to Raleigh the GPS got confused as well. We were going on a freeway, the road sign pointing us to Raleigh. But the device had apparently never heard of this freeway. So we watched the little pink car on the screen, representing our real vehicle, weirdly moving off-highway. It just wasn't able to catch up (probably due to some old software). So we decided to ignore it and went on.

The GPS turned out to be pretty obstinate and got angry at us. Over and over it told us to move somewhere else than we were supposed to go according to the street signs. I have never heard such an annoyed and abusive voice: "RECALCULATING" the woman's voice said repeatedly, sounding like: ‚You two little idiots are really going on my nervs! How often do I have to tell you that you are going the wrong direction, you imbeciles?' We nevertheless managed to arrive at the hotel.

Later that evening we wanted to join the Obama election party. We took the car to go there and entered the address into the GPS. It was dark, we didn't have a map. And we had no idea where we were going. So we had to rely on technology (bad feeling anyhow). After I while I thought, well, that's a pretty strange area to have a voters party. „Obama is having a party in the middle of nowhere", I joked and we were laughing.

Some minutes later we got stuck in a dead end street, in the middle of a residential neighbourhood, everything dark, nobody on the streets and a forest in front of us. „Arriving at final adress", the GPS said and went off. "I think it is getting back at us", Chak Hee said. "It's taking revenge because we ignored it the whole day." So we sat in the darkness both eagerly working on our PDA to access the internet and check the address. First finding: It was apparently wrong. Second finding: This wrong address was on Wikipedia. One more example you always have to double check everything that's on there. Third finding: The same wrong address was on the website of the University we were supposed to go to. Hmh ... Somebody should talk to the guy in charge for that.

Finally, we found the right address and had to go back about twelve miles. It turned out that the venue we wanted to go to was right next to our hotel. Well done ... When we arrived at the University Coliseum we could watch some policemen surveilling the deconstruction of the barriers. Apparently the party was over. I drove up to a group of handsome young blacks, stopping right beside them. "HELLO", I called trough my open side window, "we are late!". They all burst out in laughter. "Yes, you are", one of them said. "It was over about an hour ago."

When I was lying in my bed later on (after I had after all squeezed a glass of wine out of the waiter though the hotel bar was also closed when we arrived there) I watched the commentators only talking about one question: When and how will Hillary withdraw after these results? Trying to fall asleep this GPS came to my mind again and again. I was lost in reverie imagining it talking to Hillary. "RECALCULATING", it said. "Turn right and stay on route back home".

Das Blog zur Zukunft der Kommunikation:

Political park picnic

Wed, 07 May 2008 04:33:59 +0100

The boundaries between a politician and a pop star are blurring with every minute people in the park of Fort Wayne, Indiana, listen to Barack Obama speaking.

He looks serious, sometimes worried, but every now ant then a smile rushes over his face. And even the least impulse is approved by the audience with screaming and cheering. The Rolling Stones or Tom Jones wouldn't have done better.

Obama is a handsome guy, in good shape, moving with a feeling for his body on stage, the sleeves of his white shirt without a tie rolled up. He moves as if floating some inches above the panels of the construction that puts him above the heads of the most people so that everybody can see him.

He has to fight harder since his statement about small town America getting bitter and clinging to guns or religion and even more since his former pastor Jeremiah Wright attested to all his former remarks on race and politics in the U.S.. That proofed once more that you don't need an enemy if you really have a good friend. And Hillary proofs again and again that you do not need a Republican if you have a Democratic opponent.

Obama is in troubled waters. But it seems that he can walk these waters and still perform well. His moves are controlled but smooth. He doesn't fire the claims of his campaign at his audience. His words pour constantly out of his mouth, among them some little slips of the tongue, as if he would try to carefully embed the people in the park into his political program. This man is charismatic. He is convincing. And he seems authentic. A characteristic rarely found among politicians.

That also might be one of his handicaps in this campaign. He believes that U.S. politics have to change and argues in favour of a different political culture: "We have run a positive campaign!" he asserts several times in his speech (that is the only remark obviously pointed at Hillary Clinton). He wants it to come true that you can tell the truth and become president without muckraking. It might be that he will fall victim to his own wishes and assumptions. But listening to him and watching him speak I think: it's worth trying it.

His campaign could nevertheless care more about details. Standing on the stage for the TV cameras I can observe that they will rarely be able to shot Obama in a frontal perspective. He is talking to his audience and either nobody told him that he occasionally should turn to the media or he has just forgotten about it. The voters might be the ones that count for this Tuesday. But in a media driven society you always have to take into account that a bigger part of them won't be in the park but in front of the TV set at home.

At the rally for Hillary in Indianapolis I carefully scanned the audience and spotted ONE black woman (there were no black people at all at the Clinton event in Angola). At Obamas park picnic almost three quarters of the people attending are black. America is an integrated country? No, it still isn't. And becoming aware of this while listening to Obama, a person always addressed in the media as a black man with a white mother, never the other way round, I feel doubts. As a matter of fact America is ready for this kind of person as president: with a multinational, multicultural background, having lived trough the experiences of diversity in his own life. That's what the USA should be ready for because they need it desperately. Whether they are ready for a black president? I still can't tell.

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Hillary rocks

Tue, 06 May 2008 04:50:55 +0100

This May evening in Indianapolis is very cold. Temperatures have dropped more than ten degrees over the day - badly enough the big pre primary party will be an outside event in the White River State Park.

When I approach the greens the wind has gotten so strong than it suddenly blows off all the Hillary buttons from one table along the way. "When this once has got started it just goes off", a staff member smiles at me.This "she will - we will" party is aimed at definitely mobilizing the people of Indiana to go and vote on Tuesday. Hillary needs this win as Barack Obama is supposed to win North Carolina on the same day and needs it, too. Since everybody has to enjoy themselves meanwhile the party starts. John C. Mellencamp, a rock musician people of my age remember pretty well, has endorsed a rally for Hillary. A lot of other politicians, senators and congress men and women, TV stars and movie makers join the endorsement on stage. That's nice but very time consuming. And after one hour exposed to the cold wind I wish Hillary would appear pretty soon. She is the one the people are going be voting for, not the actress, no other congress members and not even Miss Indiana 2008 (though this might be a challenging decision for some of the guys on the ground).

Another 20 minutes pass, it has become dark now and I can't feel my fingers anymore not to speak of opening a pocket or using a camera without shivering so strongly that the picture looks like taken during an earth quake. I get a bit worried that she might loose Indiana just because most of her most loyal voters will be down with influenza and stay in bed coming Tuesday. Somebody on stage is telling us that America is in crisis. I'm in crisis, too. Hillary wants to fight global warming. I am in favour of global warming from this moment on. I terribly need global warming right away.

Then she appears. 90 minutes after the party started. We are the happier to see her now that she has come. I have really wondered that all these people in the audience have not been getting annoyed. Maybe it's because they are used to it. Maybe because it's worth it listening to Hillary. Though she is ill and can hardly speak she gives a wide ranged impression of her political knowledge and experience. She makes some very precise points about the gas prices and the role of the oil industry. She explains why she wants to go in a confrontation with China about trade and copyright law. And she argues reasonably against the 'no child is left behind' program as a bureaucratic and ineffective monster. That is appealing. That is clear. That shows that she is bright and ready to hit the ground on day one after the presidential elections. And these are supposed to be a various proofs for one of the campaign claims that Hillary is the one "to close the deal".

For me there is one doubt left. When the party goes on they play the song "Yes, she can change the world." After having listened to her one is inclined to believe it. BUT: If it takes her one and a half hours to get on stage, how long will it take her to change the world?

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Miss Bill? Vote Hill!

Mon, 05 May 2008 07:47:44 +0100

Early in the morning Bill Clinton must have started his travel to Angola. No, not the one in Africa, a little town right at the boarder of Indiana and Michigan.

The people of the state below this border are supposed to decide on Tuesday, 6th of May, who is going to be the Democrats candidate for the presidential election. Indiana will make a difference. Therefore it needs Bill to reveal, why Hillary has to be the one.People line up outside of the Angola Middleschool in East Maumee Street. When they finally have entered the sports hall, a room with occupancy of 1.000 people, it's full but not crowded. "If you look around there are empty seats all over the place", a man standing next to me tells a virtual listener. "I thought they would be turning people away." Apparently he anticipated more Bill-Fans.

When the Ex-President formerly also known as a candidate, appears on stage I have to admit: The people present manage to impose the impression that about 3.000 fans are in this coliseum, screaming and shouting.

Bill Clinton is fascinating. He is charming. He looks even better than when he was President. He is a real talent as a speaker. He has charisma. And apart from all the stories everybody has heard and read all over again - he just appears convincing and trustworthy. You want to believe that he knows what he is talking about. And in the first place: You want to listen to him.

And he knows how to address audiences in the right way. Of course, parts of his talks are stump speech, but he impressively adapts them to this middle age, slightly conservative, all white audience - political fine-tuning. "The middle class is under assault" is one of his first statements. Which says: 'YOU are under assault' - 'and Hillary is the saviour of the dishonoured on her way to rescue you and this god blessed town of Angola. He carefully and extensively addresses every issue that is of specific importance on the political agenda of these people. The Iraq war and the military ("I know that Indiana has more people in the National Guard than any other state!"), the economy and the job drain as a result of globalization ("She will bring manufacturing jobs back to America!") and the mortgage crises ("This is a crazy system and you are paying for it!").

"She proposes" is the most frequently heard beginning of a statement in his speech. And then he explains what Hillary proposes in terms of economy, military, war, jobs, trade, gas prices, health care, education and the financial markets. An impressive political agenda presented as a narration of the reawakening of America.

In the evening of the same day I hear Hillary talk in Indianapolis about the same topics. She is even more convincing in terms of facts and argumentation lines. But Bill will still be the one the people love more. Why? Because he is a performer on every stage of political and daily life. He is an excellent teacher in a course for "supportive spouses", be it in an election campaign, a business education seminar or even a slumber party.

In her own speech that evening Hillary asks the people of Indiana to look at this Primary as a hiring. "Who would you hire to change the economy, to provide health care for everybody, to bring back our troops in 60 days?" Of course, she hopes that they will hire her. The only question left is: Is this the matter? Or do the American people rather ask: "Whom do I want to invite to my barbecue party?" If this was true Bill would better do it again.

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