If I could be honest with mysef and the world, I would have to own up to being stung by an imaginary virus that has left me in a frozen state of being. I am alive, I breathe, I eat and my body functions. My mind refuses to cooperate. There is nothing in this world that this mind comprehends. But the really important question is whether virus sting. Why is it that I am left with is the impression of having been stung by a virus?
So a Wiffle is nothing that we use in this corner of the woods! Around here nobody plays Wiffle ball, but we European are fond of other games. The Irish are a lot all of their own and some of my good friends originated in Ireland, but what puzzles me is that none of them live in the place of origin. So, the Irish voted on the Lisbon treaty and a NIET came out. After reading this article in The Economist I wonder what it is that the result of this referendum reflects. Was it just a vote on how good the campaign on either side was? Is this to be interpreted that politics has reduced to marketing?
Now, if that is so, and marketing being a close relative of propaganda, I do wonder what has gone wrong and if people unhappy with the present state of affairs in our governments have much to complain about. After all, if marketing of ideas is the fine art of selling anything with superficial and inane arguments appealing to the brain dead, then if you are unhappy by the fact that you get a lame government serving all purposes but that of the community and society, then think again.
Right here in good old federal Switzerland – not even a member of the EU – there is one very popular political party that overspends any other political party to impose their ill advised programs and ideology on a population that has not quite yet abandoned the exercise of thinking critically. There is hope, nonetheless the Swiss voters are often seduced by the oversimplification and appeal of the sugar coated polemics coloured with racism and discrimination in all their ugly variations including the nationalism one. We all know that a diet with too much sugar is not healthy.
My apologies go to fine art, there is no fine art in what is propaganda or marketing. Propaganda is nothing fine, nor is there art in deceiving and misleading the masses with inane argumentation. We used to call this lies, or in the case of political activity, it is called propaganda.
I hope I am wrong about something here.
Yesterday I had the good fortune of listening in on Ron Abbegglen, General Secretary of the NEBS/NOMES interviewing Swiss Senator Dick Marty at the café of the Federal Parliament in Berne. Dick Marty is also a member of the Council of Europe. The interview will appear in their print newsletter europa.ch. I was there to take photos, and since we decided on shooting after the interview, I sat and listened to the interview. First the Senator asked us if we wanted a coffee and then proceeded to serve us the coffee before I even realized what was going on. It was the first time in my life that I have been served a coffee by a Senator. Dick Marty is that kind of man, he is the kind of politician that knows the difference between values and interests, and in my opinion, there are very few of those.
If you are interested in human rights and what is going on in Europe, then I recommend that you read this interview. europa.ch can be downloaded as PDF file. I do not know when it will be published.
public man 