За един нов поглед над културата
20 Dec
For a New View on Culture (Valery Poshtarov)
5 Dec
TEDxBG Program
http://www.tedxbg.org/program/
Event numero Uno: January 10, 2010
Passion for Learning:
28 Nov
“Wie im Himmel” – Beautiful
Gabriella’s Song – As It Is In Heaven/ Så som i Himmelen
Py Bäckman
Helen Sjöholm
It is now that my life is mine
I’ve got this short time on earth
And my longing has brought me here
All I lacked and all I gained
And yet it’s the way that I chose
My trust was far beyond words
That has shown me a little bit
Of the heaven I’ve never found
I want to feel I’m alive
All my living days
I will live as I desire
I want to feel I’m alive
Knowing I was good enough
I have never lost who I was
I have only left it sleeping
Maybe I never had a choice
Just the will to stay alive
All I want is to be happy
Being who I am
To be strong and to be free
To see day arise from night
I am here and my life is only mine
And the heaven I thought was there
I’ll discover it there somewhere
I want to feel that I’ve lived my life!
28 Nov
Amerikanische Nahost Politik
“Dabei springt kein Friedensnobelpreis heraus”, soll Vorgänger George W. Bush gleich zu Anfang seiner ersten Amtszeit gespottet haben, um das heikle Thema dann für mehrere Jahre auf die Seite zu legen. Sein Nachfolger hat den Friedensnobelpreis schon in der Tasche, bevor er überhaupt in die dornigen Details der Unruheregion eingestiegen ist. Und egal, was sich das Nobelkomitee in Oslo mit seiner Entscheidung erträumt hat, der Spielraum der westlichen Supermacht ist vor Ort bisweilen frappierend gering – so das übereinstimmende Fazit mehrerer langjähriger Nahostberater des Weißen Hauses. Trotzdem krönen sie alle ihre politisch-analytischen Rückblicke auf die letzten beiden Jahrzehnte mit Ratschlägen an die neue Administration (…)
(…) Dennoch plädieren alle Autoren am Ende ihrer Bücher dafür, dass der neue Chef im Weißen Haus den Nahostkonflikt wieder ganz oben auf seine außenpolitische Agenda setzt. Allerdings sollten die USA künftig ausgewogener agieren, israelischem Fehlverhalten genauso entschieden entgegentreten wie palästinensischem. Auch die übrigen arabischen Staaten müssten stärker in die Friedenssuche eingebunden werden – eine Strategie, die sich mit Obamas Rede in Kairo und seiner Forderung eines israelischen Siedlungsstopps bereits in ersten Zügen abzeichnet. Am Ende sollte der amerikanische Präsident der Weltöffentlichkeit dann zentrale Prinzipien für einen tragfähigen Friedensvertrag vorlegen, welche den Friedenswilligen auf beiden Seiten eine Perspektive bieten und den Palästinensern einen glaubwürdigen Weg zu einem eigenen Staat. Vielleicht könnten die Vereinigten Staaten dann doch noch die Lösung schaffen, schreibt Miller, “zusammen mit mutigen und entschlossenen Arabern und Israelis – und mit einer Riesenportion Glück”.”
Muhammed ElBaradei’s perspective (in English) Audio and Text
from Willy Brandt Lecture 2009 (Humboldt Universität)
14 Nov
Will you teach your kids how to read?
What would happen if I never taught my children how to read? Would they be doomed in society? What if I only taught them how to read music notes? Or only taught them the important things in life by “putting a lot of hours” into them?

Two Sisters
The joy of sharing what you know with someone in person seems to be taken away from us by textbooks. This guy knows all the fact about this. The other one read a book that challenges those same thoughts. Much of their communication ends up being about proving a point by showing how book-smart they are. We all do it. To me, such communication has no real point.
Where does learning lead when the human factor is taken away? Yes, as humans we can memorize well, but purely being able to spew out facts is no proof for internalization or understanding. We are taught to read in order to be more efficient because learning directly person to person is too cumbersome and time-consuming. We are taught how to read in order to become better machines for production…of thoughts that cannot really elevate us beyond the dogma for which we have come up with them.
I am thankful that I can read music notes, even if I take months to be able to learn a piece well. But in reality this has nothing to do with being a good musician. Maybe “the West” should learn more from the Eastern ways of teaching. All those societies that are still “developing” are able to teach music and dance without the strict adherence to rules. A lack of rules equals a crippled Western Classical Music tradition. Maybe this does not “produce” a performance every evening at the Opera of Vienna, but the lack of music notes may actually lead to real teaching.
12 Nov
Apply to be a KIVA Fellow (2010)
Listed as one of the New York Times Magazine’s “top ideas of 2006,” Kiva.org is
the first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to
lend directly to an entrepreneur in the developing world.
youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWgAEJE1FuM
The Kiva Fellows Program offers individuals a rare opportunity to travel abroad
and work directly with a Microfinance Institution. You will be the key link
between Kiva, the microfinance institutions and the entrepreneurs- chronicling
the lives of the working poor and assisting the microfinance institutions to
maximize their relationship with Kiva.
Volunteer internships last 10 weeks to one year in the field. Placements are
available in: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Eastern
Europe and Central Asia (EECA) and the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA).
Qualifications:
Kiva Fellows seeks volunteers with:
* Fluent language skills in Spanish, French, Russian, Cebuano, Hindi, Arabic,
Vietnamese, Khmer, Bahasa Indonesian, Portuguese, Bengali, Dari, Pashto,
Swahili, Singhalese, Tamil, Urdu, Cantonese/Mandarin, Nepali, Bosnian,
Mongolian and Bulgarian.
* Backgrounds in economics, finance, consulting and international development.
Overseas experience, ideally in a developing country.
* Excellent writing abilities, knowledge of various web applications, problem
solving skills, a high level of self motivation / flexibility and the ability
to fundraise for their trip.
Deadlines and Training Dates:
| KF11 – February 1, 2010 | May 17-21, 2010, San Francisco | June 1-7, 2010 August 1-7, 2010 |
| KF12 – June 1, 2010 | September 13-17, 2010, San Francisco | October 1-7, 20010 December 1-7, 2010 |
To apply, go to: www.kiva.org/fellows. For questions not addressed in the FAQ,
contact: kivafellows@kiva.org.
7 Nov
Wish List (Must Pick When Santa Claus Comes)
*hiking boots
*skiing boots
*winter boots
*trekking poles
*harness
*Semi-professional Camera (with a wide-range lens)
*car
*beading materials
-small binoculars






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