May. A whole bunch of great rock-stars around me have their birthday this month, and of course I am included. But then in April a few of the rock-stars in my life were in for throwing a party, playing the guitar or just being their normal fun-loving creatures… That said, I thought I would write up a bit as to what I have been up to in the past months, looked at my calendar and my censor said loud and clear that that is a no-go.

The Bernese city parliament is now a bee hive of rock-stars and other performers, and my good friend (1) Claude Longchamp lets those of us who read German taste a bit of his wit about the metropolis. Erik Mozsa is going to Amsterdam for fun and games – they call it school – and Manuel Widmer is going to take his place in the city parliament. However Jimy Hofer has already been warming up his seat since January and it could be that the best show in town is to be had at the Rathaus on thursday evenings when the Stadrat has a session.

There are the newspapers that I do not subscribe to, and read when drinking a coffee, preferably at the Parterre, and that I am obliged to scan on a regular basis, and then there are the other newspapers that I read during the breaks at the WTI library. One columnists for the IHT and NYT that I regularly like to read is Nicholas Kristof (3) as he usually writes the kind of stuff that I like reading, and my guess may be that… oh no, I am not going down that road.

I did want to tell you that I will be returning to the Bernese city parliament after five months of absence and strangely enough per se not missing it. I will however miss my colleague Anastasia Falkner (2) who I am succeeding, and whose shoes I can’t possibly fill. I still think that local politics are important; I still do not have any ambition for a higher political office; I still hang around the world of international negotiation; I am still fascinated by the political process; I am still writing but not always here.

Being a rock-star is just in, even the scientists are joining the bandwagon. Being cool is totally out, it is so last year… this year… I don’t have a clue!

footnotes

(1) A friend is someone with whom I drink beer at least once a year. A good friend is somebody with whom I occasionally have a good argument.

(2) For the benefit of those relations who do not read German, Anastasia is a Swiss investigating judge or district attorney with a great liberal mind.

(3) You can follow Nicholas Kristof on Twitter, and if you don’t know what that is, that is fine too, buy the newspaper.