Donald Trump and the cold war

He most probably won’t, but everyone who ever heard of Donald Trump may have had thought about what happens if Trump gets elected president. Maybe even a few of his supporters. This article asks the “what if” question and scratches along some issues that made the rise of Trump-superstar even possible. Concluding from Trumps behaviour and his claims, which seem to follow no reasoning but his own mood, it seems unpredictable what Trump will do next. However, a picture can be drawn of a future where Trump is American president from this very unpredictability if we apply the paradigms of modern capitalism. These may be arguable but for an outlook on things they shall serve as basic premises of political […]

Frauke Petry ringt nach Antworten...

Doch weder hier sind substanzielle Ansätze zu hören, noch schafft Petry es, sich von Hassrednern zu distanzieren. Man bekommt Petry nicht wenigstens zum Eingeständnis fehlendem Anstands. Subtrahiert man ihre (zum Teil berechtigte) Wut auf das System, bleibt doch nur eine durchschnittliche Politikerin, formatlos wie jene, gegen welche sie wettert - gefährlich wie jene, die dogmatisch-ultranational ihren Haß ausgießen.

Eminem's letztes Rap-Battle nach Shakespeare

The movie 8 Mile, which chronicles the rise of aspiring rapper Jimmy ‘B-Rabbit’ Smith (played by Eminem), has been translated into over 15 languages including Russian, Dutch and Japa- nese. Noticeably absent from this list is Elizabethan- Era English (EEE), the language used by William Shakespeare. From a commercial perspective, this omission is perfectly understandable, as there seems to be few native EEE speakers alive today. How- ever, from an historical and academic perspective, this omission is unfortunate, as Shakespeare’s works have often been compared to rap lyrics (Brock 2009, Bradley and duBois 2011, Lars 2012, Akala 2012), and a recent analysis lists Shakespeare as having the 15th most unique vocabulary among rappers (Daniels 2014). Thus it would be interesting […]

Ponderings of an immigrant

I come from a country half around the world from New Zealand. And I became a resident because I work in information technology. It is a branch I do not like too much as it shows its bad sides nowadays, where people create portals that make them rich while others do work for them on low wages (Amazon, Uber ... just to name a few).The IT industry is currently the best example for neo liberalism or "turbo capitalism" that overlays its values on social life - you know, the sort of values that put money into the center of all things. What does this have to do with immigration? Well, in Germany (the country on the other hemisphere) there have been […]