Meine Armut kotzt mich an

The heading means something like "My poverty really sucks" or "my poverty makes me sick". A friend of mine says that when we meet every now and then for a coffee somewhere, a cake or a small breakfast. And the situation's usually like this: we exchange news, then complain about our lifes because what we want and what we can actually get are two completely different pair of shoes and as students of social science or fine arts we are totally aware this will stay like this for the rest of our lives unless we marry rich (her boyfriend is a teacher and i don't even have one) or we found a company (lacking capital, ideas mh maybe) or unless we are just incredibly lucky one day (not worth waiting, too many people do that). And yet i am totally aware that we ARE already lucky.

Karōshi (過労死^?), which can be translated literally from Japanese as "death from overwork", is occupational sudden death. Although this category has a significant count, Japan is one of the few countries^[which?] that reports it in the statistics as a separate category. [...] nowadays it it generally seen that woking six to seven days per week with more than 12 hours per day over the course of several years causes physical and psychological problems.

Today, several German media reported that before being edited, the government has "pimped"  the so called poverty report on Germany which is to be released in the upcoming days. Statements like "private property in Germany is very unequally distributed" have been crossed out or re-written in order to sound less - well, tragic? Poor? Because in fact, disparities have worsened and while the rich sollect more money so easily, the 52-year old single mother can't find a job anymore. Or she has to work for 3,75 Euros per hour.

Quicksilver, Roxy, Abercombie & Fitch, Tommy Hilfiger - this is not a collection of fancy fashion brands (well, it is, in some kind) these companies demonstrably work with suppliers in Bangladesh, Senegal, India, China or wherever, that let children work in their fabrics, more than 14,15 or 16 hours per day, so social security, a few minutes break, minimal wages. The so called Sumangali scheme of child labor where young women and men are hired and legally binded to e certain company over several years. They have to work there under the lowest conditions and only get paid at the end of their contract after several years. This happens because cool kids here, in Hamburg and x (substitute by a European or American city of your choice) wanna wear that stuff.

Last month, i was searching for a job after finishing my Master's degree at university, i have several internships in Germany and abroad, party studied in a transition country and have really good certificates - now i am working in a company which calles itself  a Start-Up - suggesting a lot of things but not that i will be barely able to live with my monthly salary without my parents' financial support.

So, i ask myself, and i ask you: what does it mean to be poor? And who is poor?

Some links for you:
Avoid - this is a plug in which you can install. while online shopping, it will not show you products which are produced by children's hands. And believe me, some of your favorite stores will be pretty empty suddenly.

Article on the German poverty report

Why poverty? - The German-French TV channel Arte has a whole week's programme dedicated to this questions, with a lot of interesting about African countries, living in China, Bob Geldorf and Bono, how globalisation works and more. Watch it online!

Brad Pitt's newest movie "Killing Them Softly" is a parable on American society today: "America is not a nation, America is a business". I will watch it next week.

HOPE, your money will be enough for you.
gkk

Lisbon

Nostalgia

typical Portuguese houses, with iron balconies and tiles on the front

break in the park. with friends and ice tea and pasteis de nata

"Au bonheur des dames" - for women's happiness: George Cloony (shopping center entrance)

Some reggae - Lisbon street music

Think about it

The perfect afternoon

The city has hundreds lovely views like this

Street of Saint Michael

Spending a lazy autumn-almost-winter Sunday at my place, watching the clouds passing by, doing some yoga, I think a lot about my travel to Portugal where i went early this summer. Lisbon really struck my with its loveliness, i learnt to love the Portuguese people, everything was simply so nice. My friend and I, we did couchsurfing over there for two days before heading further north for a surf camp. And not only did I dream about my then-surf-instructor last night (we were in Australia, the ocean full of dead fish and I tried to surf with a 1,40 meter bed matress...), I am mostly daydreaming about that days, missing the summer breeze, the waves, and the surfing.

Enjoy your Sunday,
gkk

LOVE - SEX - FRIENDSHIP

From: tumblr_m2dl96KY2X1qza249o1_400

New times, a new me

The ones who came here latey might have realized that I am currently kind of re-building this blog, trying to develop a new concept, finding its new identity. Or MY new identity. This touches issues such as which language shall i use (I'd opt for English because it widens the group of potential readers massively, plus i like to write in English; on the other hand - German will always be my mother tongue, i can be more specific and my German writing's definititely better. Also it might seem weird to German friends if i talk in English to them.). Let's see, maybe i even alternate between the two.

Well. I'm kinda back. Some new period in my life has started and i decided that I finally want to really invest time again to write here regularly. We will all see what comes out of this. What i can tell for sure by now is: it will contain a lot of lifestyle and zeitgeist shit in the sense that i will blog about things which cross my view in my daily life. It will be personal also, very personal sometimes maybe because i want to share something with you. I want to increase interaction. Not many of you comment on here (which in my eyes is also because you have to leave my blog and write in the Blogger-surface in order to comment - it annoys me A LOT) and the other reason is that i get a lot of feedback via other channels. Like friends calling me saying "hey i've read your blog". That is very nice actually (and please don't stop that) but i also want to bring some more life to this virtual place.

So for today i want to share my current "ohrwürmer" - the songs that are stuck in my head these days.

5. Cro - Easy
Yes, there's something like popular and trendy German hiphop again. And good one, too. I love his lyrics.

4. Asaf Avidan - One Day (Wankelmut Remix)
The clubbing-able remix of Israeli Asaf Avidan is just great. And he's so right. "One day maybe we'll be old and think of all the stories that we could have told" - don't let that happen! I love the passion and unchainedness of the pictures.

3. Seeed - Molotov / Wonderful life
Great band, great video, great songs. Writing one hymn after another for our crazy capital Berlin. The beat makes me move immediatly. Yesterday i was waiting in front of the traffic light to turn green and suddenly startet singing out loud "no need to run, no need to hide, it's a wonderful life" until realizing i'm in public and people stand next to me. I ran.

2. Billy Ray Cyrus - Don't break my heart
Thanks to my new American friend around here i sing that old country song. It's not bad, i actually like the song. The problems are the pictures in my head after watching the performance. This hair, the clothes, let alone his dancing...c'mon! And i learned it's the father of Miley Cyrus. And the worst thing probably is that he thinks he's a rocker. Bitch please!

1. Lykke li - I follow Rivers
jep, i know this is not very new. Indeed it has been on the stations over the summer. But somehow it hit me late and it hit me hard. It's in my head literally all the time, i sing it (=the two lines i know) all the time - while cooking, when i wake up, at the toilet, at work, everywhere. Sometimes i change my voice, either singing very high or low or whatever, probably not to bore myself too much haha. I want to get rid of it.

Stay tuned.
gkk

11/9

And I am sure not ven half of us Germans thought about it today...and it's a shame
 
Fall of the Berlin Wall



See you soon, from now on.
Word.

gkk

Life simplified