We're All Going To Die

'We're All Gonna Die - 100meters of existence' - By Simon Hoegsberg
Click here to see the full slide show

This image is 100 meters long. There are 178 people in the Picture, all shot in the course of 20 days from the same spot on a railroad bridge on Warschauer Strasse in Berlin in the Summer 2007.

"It’s meant to point out that life is beautiful, and unless we open up to each other instead of keeping our longings, hopes and experiences to ourselves we’ll fall into the grave with a lot of valuable information and love that we never got around to sharing with the people we’re in touch with. I believe that it is meaningful to let the thought that we’re going to die into our heads once in a while because it brings into perspective what we’re actually doing with the life we’ve been given." - says Simon in an interview with Digital Photography School

The camera used for the project was a Canon 1D Mark II, and the lens a Canon 400mm. The post processing was done in Photoshop.

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In Berlin

After 9 months I am again in Berlin to attend a conference. I have neglected the blog for long because of lack of time. I don't have roaming and the local SIM I bought do not have internet connection. So it was not possible to update via phone.

Its great to revisit all the places and to do things I have missed during my 3 years in Berlin. Will be posting pictures soon.

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Customer Service

When you live in the age of customer service systems run by call centers and automated email/contact form systems you can be in deep trouble some times.

The ISP I used in Berlin sent me via email the bill for internet usage for September in advance. It will be automatically deducted from my bank account although the contract has been cancelled in June, effective July and I was told then that there will be no extra fee for termination of contact (it was not binding) because I am leaving the country. I tried to contact them by replying to the mail, but it was an auto mailer, they have informed me to login to my account with them and file my queries in the appropriate category. Well I never had to use that account in last 3 years so I did not have a password. I tried to retrieve the password which was immediately sent by snail mail (instead of email) to my residence address where I do not live anymore.

It was so frustrating as I found from their site that there was no other email address to contact them. And I know about their call center (my previous experience was 6 minutes to reach the correct person) so did not risk an expensive ISD call. I contacted a friend in Berlin who did the queries for me and found out that they have sent a letter to my address after I left Germany asking for proof that I am leaving Germany - otherwise they will deduct the next month's payment. Well I left in July, they have cashed in August's payment and have no right to ask for September's. And it seems now that the only way to communicate with them is via snail mail - and how frustrating is that?

Will you ever be satisfied with a customer service?

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Good Bye Germany

It has been an interesting experience living in Europe for the last three years. In less than 12 hours we will be moving on. Next stop Jakarta, Indonesia; where my new home will be for the next couple of years. New country, new challenges. I can't wait to share my experiences.

The summary of the last three years is that I enjoyed this study break, spent more time with my daughter (which was not possible during my last full time job), blogged more and ventured into the world of working online and I used the time to travel a lot. Europe gives you the opportunity of visa less borders (saving you time and hassle), quick and inexpensive travel through highways or train and of course budget airlines. In last three years I went to London six times for my study. I visited many countries in Europe except the Scandinavian ones.

I actually remained as a perpetual visitor in Berlin. Being based in Berlin (because of my family) I studied in UK and worked online, so my contact with the Germans were minimal. My internship in German Bundestag for two months and my attempt to get enrolled in the Humboldt University were the other highlights of my stay in Berlin.

I drove about 50000km in last three years and my longest was Berlin to Paris (1100km) in 14 hours. Another record was crossing four countries in a day - Koblenz -Luxembourg -through Belgium- Maastricht-Berlin. Europe's great highways made that possible.

Berlin, is one of the most livable cities in Europe. Its green, its inexpensive comparing to other capitals in Europe and its really a great city to explore and taste its different flavors; from historical buildings to modern architecture, from ghettos in Kreuzberg to mansions in Schwanenwerder, I can go on and on. Perhaps I will write a book someday.

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Ein Sommernachtstraum

Today I watched one adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the 'Schaubuehne Am Lehniner Platz' Theatre in Berlin. The name of the German version is Ein Sommernachtstraum.

Its a collaboration between Director Thomas Ostermeier and Choreographer Constanza Macras and the brochure boasted "its an evening about loss of identity and sex."



I must say I am amazed by the choreography and musical skills of the drama group. However in reality it was a mixture of Hard rock, opera, classical, improvised music, dance, acrobatics, choreography, strip tease, nudity, slangs, dialogues in multiple languages including Chinese, Italian, German, English and all in all it was hard to digest. Shakespeare was little present in the whole act, may be I got lost in translation.

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Waiting at Standsted

My flight back to Berlin is delayed for about 1:30 hours. Waiting in Stansted Airport...doodling. Didn't know that this airport had a past.

During World War II Stansted Mountfitchet Airfield was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force as a bomber airfield and as a major maintenance depot. Although the official name was Stansted Mountfitchet, the base was known as simply Stansted in both written and spoken form.

Bought the new James Bond novel 'Devil May Care'. It has been written by Sebastian Faulks as Ian Fleming. I bet this will be rendered in a movie in 3 years time.

Gotta check out.. my purchased one hour time is up! See ya all later.

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Berlin from the sky

(Bühne Wuhlheide - Photo courtesy MorgenPost)

The winter this year has been intense and there were more cold days in a month than average. Check how Berlin has transformed as seen from the sky.

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Berlin is going Wi-fi

After years of debate the German parliament paved the way for a free wifi network in Berlin city. The network will be within the S-Bahn-Ring (or the green zone) and will offer free for all surfing. The antennas will be posted on the traffic light posts. Guess I will have to look for the warchalking marks in the street soon.

Sony Center, one of the few places in Berlin where there is free wifi

Still today free wifi options in Berlin are limited. There is of course the T-online hotspots everywhere which charges in 24 hours what I pay for a month at home. To tackle this a network of bandwidth sharing called freifunk emerged in Germany which let registered users to use free wifi if they share their home network. I wish we could see something like this in Dhaka.

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Berlin Freeze

'Freeze Berlin' by Flickr user really nothing and used under a creative commons licence.

Last Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 15:00 a flashmob of thousands of people gathered in Berlin Alexanderplatz and stood still for five long minutes.

Readers Edition reported that no official reason was known why people just stopped. Nobody demonstrated or questioned each other. It happened spontaneously as planned by corresponding social networking groups in StudiVZ & Facebook. Perhaps its just replicating the phenomena people are witnessing elsewhere.

Here is a video of the proceedings:

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Picture of the day

The difference of temperature between the two worlds...in and out of the house. Just to remind the readers that in many places in the world people do not have the luxury to live in a warm cocoon and are prone to the natural extremes.

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Berlin!!!! Wishing a peaceful and prosperous 2009 for everyone.

Image by Hyunlab

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Merry Christmas Everyone

Christmas market in Gendarmenmarkt

Christmas lighting in Arkaden, Potsdamer Platz

Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz

Christmas Market, Europa Center

Das Schloss

Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe), Kurfurstendam

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Festival of lights

The Berlin Festival of lights is closing in a couple of days. Look at these pictures in Flickr which looks more impressive than what you see being there in person.

Here are more night scenes from Berlin and around the world.

(Image: Gendarmenmarkt by leonwpp used under a creative commons license)

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Picture of the Day

Berliner Dom

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Image of the day

IFA 2008 consumer electronic exposition full of high tech and illusions.

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Image of the day

The Federal Chancellor office in Berlin

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Obama in Berlin - Speech and video

Barack Obama was here in Berlin speaking to a massive audience in front of Siegessäule (victory column).

He talked about future foreign policy of America, arms control and unity with Europe in fights against terrorism. His speech was populist I should say touching all the recent problems in the world; he also mentioned Bangladesh once. Some excerpts:

Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

One CNN commenter commented that this has never happened for any other US president candidate. While Obama is rallying in foreign countries, McCain is busy holding meeting in small US town halls.

Here is the full text of the speech. And here is the video:



Barack Obama Berlin Speech - Part One



Barack Obama Berlin Speech - Part Two



Barack Obama Berlin Speech - Part Three

Update: The Gateway Pundit reminds - Obama talks about lifting a child In Bangladesh from poverty... John McCain already did.

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Hitler in today's Germany

During my stay in Germany I have visited in many museums, memorials and a concentration camp, one thing is missing in these deliberately is the prominent display of Hitler's image. I haven't seen any statue or portrait anywhere. Hitler's real bunker was discovered years ago but it has not been converted to any museum for public display.

What I have heard that there are two concerns. One is that the Germans have a sort of collective guilt for what he did during the second world war (including the holocaust) and the other one is that he is also revered by the neo-nazis. Germany is one place where you can get prosecuted for carrying any sort of Nazi symbol (I know of a report which said an Indian women got into trouble for carrying Swastika like Hindu religious emblem in her locket). So any impersonation of Hitler is generally avoided.

When Madam Tussauds announced that they will be including Hitler's wax figure in their new branch in Berlin it created much debate. According to Der Spiegel:

Michael Braun, of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) told the Thursday edition of the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel it was "distasteful beyond comparison." Green politician Alice Ströver called the Hitler wax figure "tasteless, disgusting and in bad style."

And the inevitable had to happen:

On Saturday morning, just seconds after the new branch of Madame Tussauds wax museum opened its doors for the first time, a visitor brushed aside two security guards, jumped over the desk at which Hitler was sitting, and tore the Führer's head off.

The man, a 41-year-old from the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, was just the second visitor to enter the museum. "Never again war!" the man yelled as he attacked the wax figure.
(Der Spiegel)

That explains a lot about the public sentiments.

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Swimming in Berlin this summer

Berlin is a city of lakes. Berliner Zeitung has published an investigative report on the quality of approx. 40 bathing locations in Berlin and found out the following (click to enlarge):



(Hat tip: Bowlerised)

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Coexistence or no existence

I have read a brilliant oped in International Herald Tribune on the 60th anniversary of Israel. The writer, Daniel Barenboim is a pianist and conductor and the music director of the Staatskapelle Berlin. He discusses about Israel, Palestine and coexistence of two nations, zionism, socialism etc. Some excerpts:

After 1967 Israel turned very much toward the United States - not necessarily to its own advantage. The traditionalists said, "We will not give up the newly occupied territories." The religious Jews said, "These are not occupied but liberated, biblical territories." And with that the end of Socialism in Israel was sealed. Since then the conflict in the Middle East has been instrumentalized by world politics.

Many Israelis dream that when they wake up, the Palestinians will be gone, and the Palestinians dream that when they wake up, the Israelis will be gone. Both sides can no longer differentiate between dream and reality, and this is the psychological core of the problem.

Yes, the Jews had a right to their own state, and they had a right to this state. This demand was made even stronger by the Holocaust and the guilt of the Europeans after 1945. It is all too easily forgotten, however, that there was a moderate Zionism, there were people like Martin Buber who said from the beginning that the right to a Jewish state must be made acceptable to the existent population, the non-Jews. Militant Zionism, on the other hand, did not develop any further in its thinking. Even today, it is still based on a lie: that the land that the Jews settled was empty.

Today, many Israelis have no idea what it must feel like to be Palestinian - how it is to live in a city like Nablus, a prison for 180,000 people. What has become of the famous Jewish intellect here? I am not even speaking of justice or love. Why does one continue to feed the hate in the Gaza Strip?

There will never be a military solution. Two peoples are fighting over one and the same land. No matter how strong Israel becomes, there will always be insecurity and fear. The conflict is eating away at itself and at the Jewish soul, and it has been allowed to do so.

We wanted to own land that had never belonged to Jews and built settlements there. The Palestinians see this as imperialistic provocation, and rightly so. Their resistance is absolutely understandable - not the means they use to this end, not the violence nor the wanton inhumanity - but their "no."

We Israelis must finally find the courage to not react to this violence, the courage to stand by our history.

The Palestinians cannot expect that we should have been able to take care of anyone besides ourselves after the Holocaust; we had to survive. Now that we have done so, we must both look forward collectively.

Essentially, we are no further today than we were in 1947, when the United Nations voted to divide Palestine. Worse yet: in 1947 one could still imagine a binational state; sixty years later, this seems unthinkable. Today, people in Israel speak of separation, of divorce in respect to a two-state solution: What cynicism!

Some of these things are exaggerated by the media, but I do as I do because it drives me crazy to see how much injustice we Jews commit daily, and how much we endanger the future existence of Israel.

He is co-founder with Edward Said of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together Arab and Israeli musicians. And he has just become my personal hero.

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