South African Arrogance: Better than the Measly Remainder

South Africa's most prominent vlogger Khaya talks about how strange and ignorant it is for him, as a South African, to be talking about visiting "Africa" when leaving South Africa for any other African country.

Thought-provoking stuff:

As Namibians (and by the way ex-South Africans for anybody older than 19) , we know exactly what he is talking about ...

Obama in Nazi Concentration Camp: Reminder also to some African leaders

Flanked by Nobel peace price winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Obama visited the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in eastern Germany yesterday.

Obama listened to Wiesel's recollections of camp life. He laid a white rose at a memorial plaque for the camp's more than 56,000 victims before taking a tour of its barracks and crematorium (check this photo gallery).

"Incomprehension, horror: there is no word to describe the terrible things that happened to so many people in this camp and in other concentration and death camps," Merkel said. "I bow before all the victims."

Obama condemned the "ignorant and hateful" rhetoric of those who deny the Holocaust (as he did in Cairo already) and added: "This place is the ultimate rebuke of those thoughts – a reminder of our duty to confront those who tell lies about our history."

Exactly, let this fact not be forgotten. Obama's rebuke to Holocaust denial is also a timely reminder to all those African bigwigs, who, as a result of their lingering antisemitism, have no squanders to flirt with Nazi ideology and thoughts.

For instance Mugabe, who noted in a speech in 2003 that he had been compared to the former Nazi leader in the British press, and said he was ready to embrace such a role. "This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources," he said. "If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold."

Mugabe, you put shame on Africa.

German Exhibit of Corpses having Sex causes Scandal -- with Her on Top!

The controversial scientist Gunther von Hagens and his plastination exhibitions triggered another media scandal in Germany today. The 64-year-old plastinator, who invented his own method of preserving living tissue, loves controversy to stir interest in his shows (which made him rich). 

His representation of a pregnant woman with an opened uterus caused outrage in 2001. Now he topped even that and broke the ultimate taboo. The latest addition to his "Körperwelten & Der Zyklus des Lebens" exhibition ("Bodyworlds and the Cycle of Life"),  which opened at Berlin’s Postbahnhof today, is a display of two corpses having sex! 

He's on his back, she's sitting on top of him facing away. The couple is copulating in front of mirrored wall under a massive chandelier as if they were having fun in a luxury brothel. 

Von Hagens explained: "Death and sex are both taboo. I bring them together. Death belongs to life. And no sex, no life!". Well, fuck, no arguing with that! 

Even before the doors opened for the first visitors, politicians across the board called for the exhibit, "The act of floating", to be removed from the exhibition. Obviously, this is not going to happen, not in Germany. Furthermore, the two copulating corpses are in a completely separated room, guarded by security, children under 16 are not allowed to enter, and large signs around the entrance declare the ban.

Von Hagens says that all body donors had signed documents before their deaths declaring that they had no objections to end up as plastinations in intimate poses. Ever wondered what kind of people agree to this? Believe it or not, the exact details of the two lovers having sex as corpses are publicly known. The Bild Zeitung, Germany's largest tabloid, published the details. 

The woman hailed from Munich and was only 58 when she died of lung cancer in October 2007. Just as her "lover", she was strong smoker. Before her death, she gave von Hagens the explicit permission to put her body on display as part of an "aesthetic sex scene".  The woman cited a special reason for this exotic wish: "I lost my big love very early, and promised him on his deathbed to live my life to the fullest and be happy with a new partner". Since she did not succeed at accomplishing that, she decided to have a fulfilled sex life, after life!

The 51-year-old male part is from Mainz  in Rhineland-Palatinate and died in February 2007 -- of lung cancer, of course! He was a passionate soccer player -- the plastinate even shows a healed tibia fracture. In his written donor consent he stated: "I think Gunther von Hagens is a great artist! I don't mind if he puts me on display or cuts me into slices. He can do with me what he wants."

Well, what is stranger now: Pre or post life German sex? Just ignore what Amazon thinks about Germanic sex ... :-)

Namibia in the German Press: Taste of African Gemütlichkeit

An article by the dpa, the German press agency, about Germans in Namibia, which appeared in almost every German newspaper (for example, check the identical versions on n-tv.de or Spiegel.de), was now translated by "The Local". 

The article focusses about how Namibia has become (strangely) popular in Germany in recent years and how German tourists flock to Namibia in search of that African adventure with the German touch. Check the highlights here.

• Namibia: a taste of old-fashioned African Gemütlichkeit
  - The Local, 28. April 2009

A Kudu antelope strolls into the bar - no, this isn't the start to a lame joke, it's merely a normal day on the Elisenheim guest farm in Namibia.

Elsewhere, a small springbok is playing with dogs and children. Korn schnapps, beer and burgers are going down well in the Bacchus Tavern between the desert dunes and the Atlantic coast. On the lonely savanna and desert tracks, the speed limit is 100 kmh. Gleaming snowy peaks turn out to be mountains of salt.

...

The former German colony of Namibia has become an attractive destination for German tourists and expats looking for a new home offering a touch of Teutonic Gemütlichkeit - or hospitality.

...

Namibia offers many surprises to visitors and, because of its past as the colony German Southwest Africa, it to this days still bears several Germanic hallmarks. 

The country has become a worthwhile destination for tourists looking for an African adventure without the stress and mass safaris of its neighbours. But it's also a popular choice for immigrants from Germany looking to integrate with the local German community.

...

Many Germans have made Namibia their new home in recent years. They are following in the footsteps of their fellow countrymen, who a century ago and more settled in the region when it was still a colony of the Kaiser. The territory later came under the administration of neighbouring South Africa until Namibia became independent in 1990.

Holidaying on a ranch for tourists or a hunting farm in the country is becoming more and more popular. The mix of relaxation, solitude without hardship and adventure outside of national parks and luxury camps has special appeal. Almost all livestock farmers in Namibia have now discovered tourism as a second source of income. Guests laze by swimming pools between palms and flowering hibiscus. Activities include horse riding, hikes to caves, animal tracking, meeting local peoples and desert safaris.

...

“Namibia is ideal for travelers new to Africa”, explains Ernst Sauber, a neighbour of the Schulze-Neuhoffs. “The country is stable and relatively safe. Roads, hotels and lodges are good by African standards, and the landscape and the wildlife are diverse and appealing.” The head of the neighbouring BüllsPort farm 40 kilometres away is a third-generation settler: his grandfather came from Schleswig-Holstein. 

...

Those who want to meet witnesses of German-African history and experience real German Gemütlichkeit for a couple of days are well catered for in nearby Swakopmund. The town currently has 40,000 inhabitants and was formerly an important port for immigrants from Germany and for the colonial administration. 

The sea is raw; the wind whips up waves and spray. Clean streets and neat houses, many of them in the colonial style, characterise the town centre. The desert begins at the town’s edge.

Bratwurst, smoked port and sauerkraut are savoured by locals and tourists alike in the Swakopmund Butchery, run by German-Namibian couple Katja and Gero Düvel. The two master butchers speak Afrikaans, English and German with their customers. Katja, from Meerane in Saxony, met Gero in Bavaria.

Gero has German roots, grew up on his parents’ farm near Windhoek and has also worked in Düsseldorf. Their store is in a good neighbourhood in the historic centre of the town. Nearby are the Eagle Pharmacy, Ankerplatz Supermarket and the Town Hall, in smartly renovated buildings, as well as the German doctor Rüdiger Moisel’s practice.

...

Seeing and being seen is important at Nice in Mozart Street, where the country's elite sip prosecco and red wine or enjoy an oryx steak. The modern restaurant and bar also has a specalised school for fine cuisine, where young Namibians are trained.

“The country needs more of its own people in senior positions,” says Stephan Brückner, whose grandparents emigrated from Germany. The 43-year-old manager, who also studied in Berlin, points to the full bar and says: “More and more of the population has money. That’s very encouraging for the future of Namibia.”

Yeah, the Germans in Namibia do contribute to a modern, non-racist Namibia.

60 years Human Rights -- featuring Ahmadinejad

A great motive by leading German ad agency Scholz & Friends to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declararation of Human Rights last year. The ad was featured at the award ceremony 2009 of the Art Directors Club of Germany in Berlin over the weekend.

Greetings to you, Mr. Islam-Fascist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad!

There are so many more politicians I could think of ....

German Mao Condom ad campaign: Chinese outrage uncalled for

A German condom campaign showing Hitler, Bin Laden and revolutionary leader Mao Zedong as human spermatozoids has sparked ferocious protests from China.

China's official media and bloggers called for the makers of the advert to apologise to China. Apparently advertising agency Grey Worldwide, which made the safe sex advert for Doc Morris Pharmacies, already sent a letter of apology to the Chinese consulate in Frankfurt, as the "The Global Times" newspaper claimed.

Looking at the adverts, I wonder why.

The Chinese are mistaken to think the last motive depicts the man under whose regime between 40 and 70 million were killed.

It is just Princess Leia!

German Amazon Hack: Even German sexuality is not that weird

The other day I had blogged about the Anglo-American presumption that Germanic sexuality was, to say the least, problematic. This rumour has now been buttressed by solid evidence on Amazon Germany -- or so it seems!

As Rene Seifert discovered yesterday, Amazon book searches have been returning amazing results for the last couple of days. For instance, if you look for the term "Sachbuch", which is the completely harmless German word for non-fiction or general books, Amazon.de delivers the following results -- and believe me, seeing is believing (and the results had to be preserved for eternity with the following screenshots):




This is preposterous, I really keeled over with laughter. The first entry, the handbook for fisting talks about pre-cautions, responsibility, and trust. Number 3 is about alcoholism, number 4 is a handbook for anal sex with tips and tricks for enjoyable anal pleasures, number 5 a book about wanking professionally. Number 7, "The power of shitting", explains der twelve mantras of shitting, while number 8 talks about doing it for the first time -- anally. Number 9 explains the details of prostate message, apparently the male G-spot!

Believe me, this is a hack -- even Germans aren't that (fucking) strange ... :-) ... and so focused on having weird sex.

The mechanism of the hack are still unclear. It seems to be linked to the tagging functionality on Amazon. As you can see on the screenshots, related search terms suggested by Amazon are "PC vernetzen" (linking computers) and "Ratgeber" (guides), which deliver the same strange results. Amazon Germany still has not provided any feedback about the issue.

The connection to the recent story in the US that had contagiously spread around the Twittersphere under the hashtag #amazonfail is obvious. In what some initially speculated to be a homophobic new expurgation policy, Amazon.com had removed hundreds of gay and lesbian themed books from its sales rating system, effectively concealing these books from online shoppers. But the affair seems to have been a technical glitch.

The German Amazon fail does not seem to be a technical glitch, but more a manipulation of the social tools on Amazon, which are so important to the company and the success of Amazon in the first place. So do expect some kind of reaction by Amazon.

I will keep you posted (only after I enjoyed the power of shitting -- lol).