The global finance crisis is much about perspective. Personally, I’ve never invested much money, and couldn’t really imagine what it means for the USA to offer 700 billion dollars in their Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. Honestly spoken, I don’t believe anybody can imagine a sum so large… unless you divide it, say, by the number of people in this world. Roughly 100$ per human being. Compare this to another number, then: 55% of all people in the world earn less than this in a month.¹⁾ Surprising, isn’t it?

It’s sad that you get even worse numbers when you do the calculation for Switzerland. We’re currently supporting UBS with roughly 70 billion Swiss Francs. I wonder why we only asked for 3 billions (or 0.7% BNI) for development cooperation last summer…

Seen today in school,
written on some guy’s T-shirt.
Big smile on my face:

Haiku are easy
but they don’t always make sense
refrigerator

Yeah, it’s time for a new blog post. Many things have happened recently, so I think there might be something worth reading for you guys ;-)

Ich hab’ schon so viel davon gehört, und jetzt ist er endlich auf YouTube: mein Werbespot ;-) Danke shairaptor!

Aber seht selbst… bei 2:35 beginnts…

Letscht Wuche han i über Amsterdam brichtet und öich o biiläufig The Circle Ends vorgstellt. Sit dr uf d’Website ga lose? Das Wuchenend bin i ufene wiiteri Muschle gschtosse, und i bi sicher, wenn me se uftuet chäm e Perle use. I bi nämlech am Aarehüttefest gsi, und dert het Wombat gspielt…

Fägigi Musig im Stil vo Ska und Punk lost me doch gärn… doch i bi überrascht worde, wie tiefgründig die Lieder plötzlech worde si. Songs wie “Bombe” (dir chöit ne uf der Website ga lose) chöi eim richtig zum dänke bringe. Loset mau ine ine Vielfalt vo Bärndütsch, Punk, Änglisch, Rock, Französich, Ska…

Last week, I spent three days in Amsterdam and Haarlem. Debby had organised the trip, and together with her friend Mirjam we were three travellers. It was a wonderful time! Visits to the city we enjoyed along with a trip to the beach, nice evenings watching stars, and we had a great time with our hosts, the Linder Family (thanks a lot, should you read this post!)

Amsterdam: famous for canals, tulips, cannabis, bicicles, brick houses…

Fernweh… a word difficult to translate into English. Leo proposes “wanderlust” (as if that were English :-)) or “itchy feet”, but for me it’s more about dreaming, being a bit melancholic. That’s how I feel at the moment…

This weekend I travelled to rural Corgémont in the Jura, northwestern Switzerland. The reason for this trip: The scouting group of Boll-Stettlen’s annual summer camp. Walking towards the camping site, I could hear kids running around and see some tents shining through the trees. The team did quite an impressive job, building the largest tent out of 75 tarpaulins (square peaces of canvas, about 1.5m large). There was a game going on when I arrived. Children proudly told me they just traded a four-carat diamond against 80 units of gold, then run away with their treasures trying to avoid the robbers and complete their quest for resources…

Guess what?? was the subject of a mail that arrived about a month ago. Angie (from Mexico, but we met in Singapore) wrote me that she had been admitted for an internship in the Czech Republic. So she was doing her last preparations for a journey through Europe which would end near Prague and pass through… Switzerland! I almost couldn’t believe that we would see each other again so soon, but indeed it happend and we spent a nice weekend together.

One great thing about exchange years is that you get to know a lot of people from all over the world. Greater still if you can keep in touch. Some weeks ago I received a mail from Mei Kee. We had met at NTU because of her German course, and now she wrote me that she got into a summer study program in Stuttgart, Germany! From there it’s only a short distance to Zürich, so I had the honour to show this part of Switzerland to her and her friends…