Hans Kramladen

Links moved / Links verschoben / Переместил ссылки

2010-09-15T11:26:00.004+02:00

I moved all links to language related blogs to my etymology blog "Etymolist".
Ich habe alle Links mit Sprachblogs auf mein Etymologie-Blog "Etymolist" verschoben.
Я переместил все ссылки к языковым блогам на мой этимолгический блог "Etymolist".

Ein Werk kommt ans Licht

2010-02-16T03:03:00.004+01:00

(This is a story I wrote in 1999. It's inspired by a Borges story - who can guess, which one? / Diese Geschichte habe ich 1999 geschrieben, inspiriert durch eine Kurzgeschichte von Borges. Wer rät, welche es ist?)

Ich bin allein. Niemand ist hier um mich in dieser Einöde. In dieser kalten Höhle, weit von jedem Herdfeuer, lebe nur ich. Niemand, der zu mir spricht; niemand, zu dem ich sprechen kann. Daher spreche ich zu mir selbst, das ist am besten. Ein Gedanke reiht sich an den anderen, in einer langen, ungestörten, brillanten Kette von Einfällen, in die sich niemand störend einmischt.
Oft kommt es vor, dass ein Gedanke sich in einen anderen verwandelt, dann in einen weiteren, der sich wieder verwandelt, dann eine wieder neue Gestalt annimmt, sich in sein Gegenteil verkehrt, dann grübele ich über den Widerspruch; endlich löse ich ihn auf, kehre in einer weiteren Windung auf die alte Bahn meiner Gedanken zurück; verfolge den Gedanken weiter, wie er sich hierhin und dorthin biegt; und oft, sehr oft, kehrt der Gedanke wieder an seinen Ursprung zurück, dann bin ich zufrieden.
Es heißt oft, dass das Leben ein Kreis ist. Das ist soweit wahr, dass die Dinge oft wieder zu einem wichtigen Punkt zurückkehren. Aber diese Bahn ist kein geometrisch glatter Kreis, nein, diese Bahn gleicht einer goldenen Kette, die kreuz und quer durch einen Saal gezogen und um Säulen gewickelt wurde und deren Enden dann wieder zusammengebunden wurden. Ich habe das hier in meiner Höhle versucht: ich habe eine Kette um einen Pfeiler gewickelt und sie dann von einem Ende zum anderen gezogen. Oh, wie viele Windungen ergibt das! Wie oft kann man die Richtung wechseln! Wie verwickelt wird das Ergebnis! Ich musste oft genug auf der Hut sein, dass ich mich nicht selbst in meine eigenen Windungen verwickelte.
Diese Kette ist mir das Liebste aus meinem Schatz, da sie mich ständig an meine Aufgabe erinnert. Ich bin an diese Aufgabe gebunden. Ich lebe hier allein, in meiner Einöde, weil ich meine Aufgabe erfüllen muss. Die Menschen nennen diese Ort Gritaheidr. Aber Menschen kommen nicht oft hierher. Das ist der Grund, warum ich diesen Ort zu meinem Aufenthalt erwählt habe. Die Gesellschaft von Menschen ist mir ein Greuel. Dieses Gehetze und Gewimmel, dieser Lärm und diese Gier nach irdischen Gütern, diese Gier! Alle jagen nach dem Blut der Schlange, nach dem roten, gefrorenen Schimmer, der sie reich macht - reich, bis es ihnen jemand raubt oder sie selber es vergeuden. Oh, wie wenig schätzen und achten sie, wonach sie doch so sehr jagen! Kaum haben sie es gefunden, so geben sie es wieder hin, für Tand und wertlosen Plunder, verschwenden es, um groß zu erscheinen in den Augen der Welt, um sich die Gesellschaft von ihresgleichen zu erkaufen, um sich am Glücksspiel oder am roten Wein zu berauschen!
Wie klein, wie lächerlich! Zu vergänglich ist der Ruhm der Welt, als dass es sich lohnen würde, die Schönheit des Beständigen dagegen einzutauschen. Und wie man diese Schönheit für die Gesellschaft von Menschen opfern kann, ist mir ein Rätsel; diese Reinheit, diese Klarheit, diesen Glanz hinzugeben für Lärm und Schmutz - zeigt dies nicht, dass diese Gier der Menschen nichts ist, als Wahnsinn und Verblendung?
Und was will ich mit Wein, wenn ich die Milch der Schlange trinken kann? Wenn ich mich berauschen kann am Schimmer der Pokale, der Münzen, der Ringe, Armbänder und Ketten? Oh Narren, Narren, die ihr hängt an der Vergänglichkeit der Welt, die ihr den Schimmer der Ewigkeit nicht seht!
Dies nun ist meine Aufgabe - diesen Schatz zu bewahren vor der Gier der Menschen. Auf dass niemand komme, um ihn zu beflecken; auf dass niemand auseinander reiße, was doch zusammengehört; auf das kein Auge sehe, was doch nur Gier weckt. Ihr seht, ich schütze nicht nur das Reine vor der Besudelung; ich schütze auch euch vor eurer eigenen Gier. Mir ist sie fremd. Ich lebe hier, einsam und allein. Mein Leben ist schlicht: mein Lager ist der nackte Fels, mein Trunk das Wasser, das aus den Spalten rinnt, meine Speise das Getier der Heide. Wenig brauche ich, denn ich lebe für meine Aufgabe.
Oh, ihr könnt mich einen Heiligen nennen, eine Engel gar - ihr wisst selbst, dass ihr euch irren würdet. Wer will, mag meine Askese bewundern, mir bedeutet Bewunderung der Menschen ebenso wenig wie ihr Abscheu. Das sind menschliche Torheiten. Abscheu beweist, dass ihr nicht alles versteht, Bewunderung, dass ihr nicht alles wisst. So wisset - niemand, der lebt, ist ohne Laster, niemand, der lebt, ist ohne Schuld. Auch ich trage eine Schuld.
Als ich jung war, jung wie die Welt, da lebte ich nicht allein. Mein Vater war ein Hexenmeister, wie ihn die Welt seither nicht mehr gesehen hat. Sogar die Götter beneideten ihn, denn er besaß mehr Wissen, als einem Geschöpf geziemt. Seine Künste trugen diesen Schatz zusammen, der ebenso unvergleichlich ist, wie seine Kunst.
Als ich jung war, spielte ich mit diesem blitzenden Gold, bewegte mich durch Haufen von Ringen und Münzen, in denen sich mein glänzender, geschmeidiger Körper spiegelte. Das Leben war eine Lust. Stundenlang weilte ich in diesen glänzenden Hallen, ließ mich vom Glanz der Kleinode berauschen - blitzendes Gold, rote Ringe, lange, schwere Ketten...
Oh Vater! Warum ließt du dich von menschlicher Gier hinreißen? Warum konntest du nicht dem Wunsch widerstehen, ein Großer in dieser vergänglichen Welt zu sein? Warum musstest du gleißen und prahlen mit dem, was verschwiegen werden soll, weggeben, was bewahrt werden soll, der Welt zeigen, was keines Menschen Auge sehen soll? Das Laster hatte ihn in seiner Gewalt und um ihn vor seiner Sünde zu bewahren, musste ich selbst eine Sünde begehen. So lud ich Schuld auf mich.
Noch immer sehe ich seine Augen vor mir, als er begriff, dass ich ihn töten würde. Er verstand nicht, dass ich keine Wahl hatte; er dachte, dass mich dieselbe Gier trieb, wie ihn.
Ich bereue nicht die Tat. Ich bereue, dass er mich nicht verstand. Wenn er mich verstanden hätte, dann hätte ich ihn nicht töten müssen. Seitdem bin ich allein mit seinem Schatz. Nie wieder soll er die Gier der Menschen wecken. Unversehrt soll er hier liegen und ich werde ihn bewachen, bis mein Ende kommt.
Welche Freude bleibt mir? Oh, ich kann durch die Hallen meiner Höhle wandern, die Juwelen meines Schatzes bewundern, in denen der Glanz meines Leibes wiederscheint. Geschmeidig gleite ich über Haufen von Ringen und Münzen, krieche unter Ketten hindurch, meinen muskulösen Leib liebkosen kühle Kleinodien. Oh, welche Lust, die frische Kühle der Schlangenmilch zu spüren, in ihr liegend sich hin- und herzudrehen, sich zu biegen, sich zu wälzen, zu fühlen, unter mir liegen Berge und Berge von Schönheit! Zu sehen, wie sich der Glanz meines Leibes verbindet mit dem Glanz des Goldes, sich verstärkt, wächst und wächst, bis ich die Augen schließen muss vor meinem eigenen Licht!
Oh, ich drehe mich, winde mich, bewege mich vorwärts und rückwärts, nach rechts und links, nach oben und unten, mein kräftiger, biegsamer Körper lässt das Gold klingen...
Ach, nicht lange mehr wird mein Werk bewahrt werden. Im Augenblick seines Todes hat mein Vater mich verflucht. Damals verstand ich ihn nicht. Sein Fluch war, dass ich mein Schicksal erfahren sollte. Nun weiß ich, wie schwer es ist, zu wissen, was wird. Früher liebte ich es, das Licht der Sterne auf meinen Schatz fallen zu lassen. In der Kühle der Nacht lag ich auf dem kühlen Gold im milchigen Licht. Oft träumte ich, dass mein Schatz sich bewegte, die Ringe rollten, die Berge von Kleinodien hoben und senkten sich, die Ketten krochen darüber hinweg, und auf allem lag ich, mein glänzender, kräftiger Leib hielt alles beieinander, und ich war das schimmernde Juwel an der Spitze der Krone.
Doch dann begannen die Sterne, zu mir zu sprechen. Sie sprachen in schweren Träumen. Ich träumte von einer Schmiede, dunkel und kalt, in der jäh ein Feuer entflammte. In diesem Feuer wuchs ein Schwert, aus kaltem, glänzenden Stahl, so scharf, so spitz, und die Runen sagten mir, das es Gram hieß. Oh, wie beißend der Anblick des harten Metalls! Dann träumte ich von schuppigen Panzern, die in zwei Hälften gehackt werden - dieser Schmerz!
Ich weiß, meine Stunde ist nah. Mein Schatz wird befleckt und entweiht, und mein Leben wird dahingehen; vergebens habe ich Schuld auf mich geladen. Niemand wird mehr Schönheit und Reinheit bewahren, menschliche Gier wird befriedigt werden. Ein habsüchtiger Totschläger wird diese unermessliche Schönheit auseinander reißen und an andere Menschen verschwenden und dafür wird er Siegfried, der Held genannt werden. Aber ich, der sein Leben dafür geopfert hat, die Menschen vor sich selbst zu schützen, werde Untier genannt werden, Fafnir, die greuliche Schlange.
Nicht mehr lange bin ich allein. Schwertwasser wird fließen, Schlangenmilch beflecken. Dann wird diese Höhle leer sein. Doch vorher werde ich meinen Fluch ausstoßen, im letzten Atemzug, und ich weiß: Der wird kommen, der mein Werk vollendet.

Salvage Operation

2010-02-16T02:56:00.003+01:00

My next post (after a hiatus of 8 months) consists of a short story from my now defunct Geocities page. The content is all in German.

Continuity?

2009-05-22T21:48:00.005+02:00

This blog is about when I find things, not about when they happen. Sorry, but you'll have to get used to that. Christopher Hitchens, as usual mixing up the essential with the circumstantial, notices life through the lense of literature, making his own quirky sense of it. Spengler would have liked this (the fact, not the sentiment):

If there was one thing on which I would have wagered a good deal, it was the impossibility of Britain’s ever again being governed by a waistcoated charmer from that particular school. Yet here we are 70 years on, and the British Conservatives are led by an old Etonian named David Cameron, who was also a member of a Brideshead-type dining club at Oxford. And all the indications are that he could oust “New Labour” from power. I dare say you could call that promising.

Mr. Grumpy Future was always convinced that British democracy was a charade played by the Etonian elites for public consumption*1). I, for my part, go with this quote from Conolly:

In spite of the slow conversion of progressive ideas into the fact of history, the Dark Ages have a way of coming back. Civilisation—the world of affection and reason and freedom and justice—is a luxury which must be fought for, as dangerous to possess as an oil-field or an unlucky diamond.

What can I do? I'm a child of my times!

*1) Note added June 16th: Just in case anyone gets me wrong, I think Spengler's conception of English democracy was already barely tenable when he wrote "Decline of the West". The 20th century opened even the top jobs to a much wider range of backgrounds. But, as we see, that doesn't mean that someone of the old elites will never again get a chance.

Another Take on Growing Old

2009-03-10T20:10:00.002+01:00

Life's Calendar.

Have you read the bible?

2009-03-03T14:02:00.006+01:00

Mr. Plotz has (at least the Old Testament). After outlining the reasons why everybody living in our Western culture ought to have read it (a notion on which I fully agree, the Bible is the clue to so many parts of our culture), he describes the results for his faith:

You notice that I haven't said anything about belief. I began the Bible as a hopeful, but indifferent, agnostic. I wished for a God, but I didn't really care. I leave the Bible as a hopeless and angry agnostic. I'm brokenhearted about God.

After reading about the genocides, the plagues, the murders, the mass enslavements, the ruthless vengeance for minor sins (or none at all), and all that smiting—every bit of it directly performed, authorized, or approved by God—I can only conclude that the God of the Hebrew Bible, if He existed, was awful, cruel, and capricious. He gives us moments of beauty—such sublime beauty and grace!—but taken as a whole, He is no God I want to obey and no God I can love.

...

Unfortunately, this line of reasoning seems to leave me with several unappealing options: 1) believing in no god; 2) believing in the awful, vindictive God of the Bible; or 3) believing in some vague "creator" who is not remotely attached to the events of the Bible, who didn't really do any of the deeds ascribed to Him in the book and thus can't be held responsible for them.

My background is different (my parents were vaguely Christian, and I have oscillated between vague belief, agnosticism and atheism in my youth), but I feel with Mr. Plotz, and the option I chose is No. 1. If you believe in God's existence, you don't have this option, so I'd be interested to know how believers get around this problem (if they notice it at all).

Zeitlos? Forever true? Вечное?

2009-03-03T09:54:00.016+01:00

Beim Blättern in unserer Anthologie deutscher Gedichte stoße ich vorgestern auf diesen Sinnspruch von Schiller ("Erwartung und Erfüllung", 1796):

In den Ozean schifft mit tausend Masten der Jüngling,
Still, auf gerettetem Boot treibt in den Hafen der Greis.

Gestern abend höre ich eine Sampler-CD meiner Tochter und stoße auf das hier:

Ich bin kein großer Freund von Karel Gotts Gesang - der Mann könnte wahrscheinlich "Highway to Hell" schnulzig klingen lassen, wenn er sowas singen würde - und auch Hiphop und Rap lassen mich meistens kalt, aber diese Mischung hat etwas, auch wenn der Text von Klischees strotzt.
Der Grund? Es geht um dasselbe, den Gegensatz zwischen Kraft und Aufbruch in der Jugend, Schwäche und Resignation im Alter. Irgendwann kommt das auf alle von uns zu, wenn uns Gevatter Hein nicht davor bewahrt. Das weiß auch meine russische Lieblingsband DDT:

Ты уехал за счастьем и вернулся просто седым ("Ты не один", ДДТ)

("Du fuhrst fort auf der Suche nach dem Glück und kamst bloß grauhaarig zurück", aus "Ty ne odin").

Und was bringt man auf dem geretteten Boot in den Hafen? Die Erinnerung und die Menschen, die du in deinem Leben um dich geschart hast. Wir hoffen, dass das möglichst viele sind:

Die Träume mögen bei jedem anders sein und es müssen ja auch nicht unbedingt hundert Enkel werden, aber "Alle kommen vorbei, ich brauch nie rauszugehn" ist doch eine schöne Vorstellung.
Wenn noch jemand da sein wird, der unsere zeitgenössischen Sprachen beherrscht, werden diese Gedanken noch in hunderten und tausenden von Jahren verständlich sein. Ob die Form dann auch noch dem Zeitgeschmack entsprechen wird, ist eher zweifelhaft; Schillers prägnanter Sinnspruch hat da sicher größere Chancen als die vorgestellten musikalischen Beiträge. Aber jedes Lied, jedes Gedicht über die immerwährende condition humaine ist ein Schritt zur Unsterblichkeit.

Перевод или подлинник? / Translation or original?

2009-02-20T11:34:00.007+01:00

Вчера вечером, листая афоризмы Лихтенберга, я увидел рядом стоящего "Героя нашего времени" на немецком, и я просто не мог вспоминать, читал ли я эту книгу в переводе или в подлиннике? У меня на книжной полке и подлинник, и перевод, и только, когда я заглянул в послесловие немецкого издания, я убедился, что именно читал перевод. У меня так и бывает с беседами - я их вспоминаю на другом языке, чем том, на котором они на самом деле проводились.

Yesterday, while browsing Lichtenberg's Aphorisms, the German translation of Lermontov's "A Hero of our Times" caught my eye and I could't remember whether I read that book in German or in the Russian original; I've got both on my book shelve. Only after I checked the afterword I was sure that I indeed read that novel in translation. Something similar happens to me with conversations - I frequently remember them in another language than the one they were actually held in.

Measuring Billy Joel

2009-01-27T11:39:00.005+01:00

The first time I came across an article dismissing Billy Joel I was just surprised. Now it happened again, and I must say I'm still surprised. I know that Billy Joel has pretensions to be more than a pop singer and I also find his attempts to be a socially critical chronicler of his age a bit ridiculous ("We didn't start the fire", anyone?), but does this really make him the "Worst Pop Singer Ever"? There are certainly much, much worse pop singers out there. Well, maybe I'm just angry because I really like "Piano Man" and "Always a Woman". But who cares whether "Always a Woman" echoes Dylan? We definitely could need more singers copying themes (and schemes) from Bob.

Die Vermessenheit der Vermessung (A note on Kehlmann "Measuring the World")

2009-01-07T16:31:00.006+01:00

Ein weiteres Weihnachtsgeschenk war Daniel Kehlmanns "Die Vermessung der Welt". Es gibt dazu genug im Internet (z. B. diese Besprechung und dieses Interview), also nur eine kurze Bemerkung - das Buch lässt sich gut lesen und ist intelligent geschrieben, aber es ist mit Vorsicht zu geniessen, da es historisch falsche Behauptungen enthält und die Hauptprotagonisten - Gauß und Alexander v. Humboldt - zu Karikaturen verzerrt.

If you come across Daniel Kehlmann's "Measuring the world" (I got it as a Christmas present), enjoy reading it, but if you're interested in Gauss or Humboldt, better read a biography - the characters are distorted to illustrate points about life, knowledge, and Germanness Kehlmann wants to make, and for that reason he also takes liberties with the facts.

Having read "The Reader"

2009-01-06T15:13:00.003+01:00

I put the book on my Christmas wish list, and Santa acted accordingly. So now I know I was wrong as well - the real reason why Michael isn't able to build lasting relationships with women is simply that he cannot get over Hanna, even after he finds out what she has done. In the book, he not only doesn't turn down one-night stands, he even marries and has a daughter, but the marriage ends in divorce for the simple reason that his wife cannot compete with his memories of Hanna, a problem shared by all the girl friends he has afterwards. There is guilt and agonising, as well as phases of total emotional numbness, after Michael discovers Hanna's past, but the book is never as simple as "I can't have any woman any more because I slept with a Nazi". I cannot tell whether the film or its reviewer are guilty of this over-simplification, but it doesn't do justice to the book. In any case, I recommend reading it.

Guilt & Trust

2008-12-16T11:09:00.004+01:00

I normally don't talk about books or films I haven't read. But I came across this review of the film version of "The Reader", and I really was puzzled by the reviewer's seeming lack of understanding:

Maybe I'm lacking in moral complexity (or maybe this is a uniquely German story that translates poorly to an American context), but The Reader's central problem (which seems reducible to "I shagged a Nazi") strikes me as a bogus one.
If Michael can say, truthfully, that he knew nothing about his lover's past, doesn't that effectively absolve him of guilt? A lifetime of Fiennes-ian brooding seems a steep price to pay for one summer of unwitting fascistic congress. And even if Michael can't help but feel haunted by his fling, shouldn't others (like the Holocaust survivor he confronts near the end of the film, played by Lena Olin) let him off the hook? Why on earth should a horny teenage boy have to abstain from sex with a willing blond goddess on the off chance she might be SS?

Just by reading the review, it is clear that we're not talking about a one-night stand, but about a relationship enduring a summer long that was deep and meaningful for Michael, even if perhaps not for Hanna. Without having read the book or seen the film, I would assume that Michael's problem is not so much guilt, but disappointment and loss of trust, especially in his own feelings - how could he fall in love with a woman who did such unspeakable deeds? How can he be sure that the next woman he falls in love with, or he simply is attracted to, doesn't hide a hideous character behind a beautiful face?
Even if Michael's reaction, to reject all deeper relationships with women, may still seem exaggerated, I think it's much easier to understand as based on loss of trust and confidence in his own ability to correctly assess other people's character, than as based on guilt by association. It's a feeling probably known to many people who, after the excesses of the 20th century, had to find out that a loved person had perpetrated crimes against humanity in the past.

Apocalypse broken

2008-09-21T23:38:00.003+02:00

The LHC doesn't create a black hole, it breaks down. That's comforting.
Kein schwarzes Loch heute, der LHC ist leider kaputt. Das ist doch beruhigend.
Люди ожидали худшего, а получилось как всегда.

Personal Progress

2008-08-14T22:44:00.003+02:00

Now Cyrillic shows on my website. It shows what a newbie I am - to me, even the Windows "edit your web site in Word" function is helpful. Embarassing.
The only thing that's more embarassing is that I added a poetry section. Don't worry, it's only for bad poems.

My web site

2008-08-11T00:21:00.007+02:00

So I got myself a geocities web site to dump my longer writings on. Now I just need to see how I get Cyrillic working there... I started with a piece of fiction (in German) I wrote in, I think, 1999. Prizes to who guesses first which short story was the inspiration.

Geocities? Ja, ich wollte einfach was schnelles, um längere Texte abzulegen. Ich weiß nicht, ob das eine gute Idee war - Kyrillisch funktioniert z. B. schon mal nicht. Liegt wahrscheinlich daran, dass ich so ein Web-Analphabet bin. Für den Anfang eine Kurzgeschichte, die ich so um 1999 geschrieben habe. Wer rät, welche Kurzgeschichte mich dazu inspiriert hat?

Есть у меня теперь сайт на geocities. Пока там ничего особенного нет - кириллица не работает и там только рассказ на немецком.

Blasts from the 80s

2008-07-25T12:53:00.004+02:00

Zwei Erinnerungen an die 80er in zwei Tagen - ist das ein Signal, dass ich alt werde?

Alternative lives

2008-04-24T04:42:00.006+02:00

Was ist exotischer - in einem Computerspiel zu leben oder ein Jahr im Libanon?
What's more strange - to live in a computer game, or a year in Lebanon?
Что более странно, жить в компьютерной игре или год в Ливане? Решите сами.

Lawrence

2008-02-16T19:54:00.006+01:00

I'll start reading "Seven pillars of wisdom" now.
As "Lawrence of Arabia" is one of my favourite films of all times, I wanted to note that down, before I write anything stupid under the influence of that book (the edition I'm reading has an introduction by one Angus Calder quoting modernist literature and trench warfare guilt - sheesh, couldn't you just say that Lawrence was a great bastard who had fun doing desert warfare?)

Gute Besserung!

2008-01-17T10:45:00.001+01:00

Sometimes, doing term papers is good for something - back during my Slavistic studies, I had to do one on a collection of short stories by Vassiliy Aksyonov, and since then I love his works and his style.
So I'm sad to see that he's been hospitalised after a stroke - I wish him a full and speedy recovery!
Meanwhile, if you know Russian, you can read his Alternative History novel "Остров Крым" ("The Island Of Crimea") online.

Иногда сочиняешь семинарные работы не зря - давным-давно, когда я учился славистике, мне задавали писать об одном сборнике рассказов Вассилия Аксёнова, и с тех пор я - поклонник его творчества.
Поэтому мне очень грустно узнавать, что он попал в больницу; желаю ему скорейшего выздоровления!
Может быть, это повод перечитать "Остров Крым"?

Putin continued / Путин - продолжнение

2007-12-11T18:12:00.000+01:00

Things move quickly - so it looks like it will be variant 2)?
If you want more from me on Russia, go to this board - it belongs to a blog that you ought to read if you don't just want to sit and wait for history to happen, but want some intelligent guesses at what the next millennium or so will bring.

Кажется, всё уже решено, и Рутин станет премьером, а не Белорусско-Российским президентом? А жаль, мне эта идея нравилась...
Здесь обсуждают не только Московскую политику, а также главные черты настоящего и даже будущего.

How Putin can become president again - Как Путин опять сможет стать президентом

2007-12-10T17:57:00.002+01:00

Everybody and their dog is speculating about how Putin will remain in power after his presidential term expires. He consistently has ruled out a third term, for which the Russian constitution would have to be changed. The main versions currently discussed by the pundits are:
1) Despite what he's saying, he will have the constitution changed if he's asked enough by the masses (I think this can be finally ruled out now that he's announced his support for Medvedev becoming his successor)
2) He'll become Prime Minister and either have the constitution changed to move power from the office of president to that of prime minister or have his successor step down in favour of himself after a fig leaf period, technically avoiding a third consecutive term.
3) He'll rule from behind the scenes, maybe taking over the management of an influential company like Gazprom.

The snag of both 2) and 3) is that he has to rely on his sucessor to adhere to whatever agreement was struck in advance and not to stab Putin in the back as soon as he passes on the keys of the Kremlin.

So, today I read something that made me think that Putin may consider a different option:

BELARUS DENIES REPORTS THAT UNION STATE CONSTITUTION WILL BE SIGNED SOON.
Pavel Lyohki, a spokesman for President Lukashenka, on December 7 denied media reports that Lukashenka and Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign the Constitutional Act of the Belarusian-Russian Union State during their mid-December meeting in Minsk, Belapan reported. Lyohki's statement contradicts reports aired by Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio that the presidents will soon sign the Constitutional Act. "This obscure information came as a surprise to Belarus," Lyohki said. "Since it appeared in the Russian media, I advise you to approach the Russian side for comment," he added. Pavel Borodin, Russia's state secretary for the Belarusian-Russian Union State, earlier said that the meeting between Lukashenka and Putin will focus on a draft of a Constitutional Act for the proposed union state.

In the twilight years of the Yeltsin administration, Belarussian president Lukashenko promoted the Belorussian-Russian Union; not only to save his economically declining country from bankruptcy, but also with the ambition to become Russian president by stealth. Putin never was a fan of this Union, although the Kremlin kept paying lip service to the Union as a final goal, and some Union institutions exist, largely unnoticed by the world.
So any movement here could be an indicator that Putin took a leaf out of Lukashenko's script - becoming Russian president again through the backdoor of the Union presidency.
After this idea came to me, I googled a bit and found a denial distributed by RIA - so if there's smoke, there may as well be a fire?

----

Вкратце (предполагаю, что вы все знаете версии насчёт того, как В. В. сможет оставаться у власти, "от и до"), я прочитал вышеуказанную заметку и думал - может быть, он пойдёт другим путём? У Александра Григорьевича с этим вариантом в своё время не получилось, но Путин, конечно, это - другое дело.
РИА уже отвергает этот вариант - значит, не один я набрел на эту мысль...

Primakov & King Hussein

2007-11-27T20:43:00.001+01:00

In my Primakov review I noted:

I was surprised about his positive assessment of Binyamin Netanyahu and his negative assessment of Shimon Peres, as this is the opposite one would have expected from a Soviet / Russian diplomat based on their political positions.

Now I find in an Economist review of a biography of the late Jordanian King Hussein that he had a similar assessment of these politicians:

Mr Shlaim concedes that the king was occasionally naive and impulsive, and could put too much store on personality and too little on ideology. On this score, his most grievous misjudgments were briefly to prefer the right-wing Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu, whom he seemed to back (perhaps even tipping the scales) against Shimon Peres, whom he did not trust, in the Israeli election of 1996;

As Primakov claims to have counted himself a friend of King Hussein, that similarity may not be accidental. It would be interesting to know who influenced whose opinion in that matter.

Harry Potter Epilogue

2007-11-24T18:00:00.002+01:00

Many people seemingly didn't like the Epilogue of HP 7. If you're among them, here's help courtesy of our shop - print out the letter quoted below, rip out JKR's epilogue, and glue this in:

To:
Malfoy, Griphook, and Blair
Attorneys at Law
Accredited at the Wizengamot
League Alley
London
Attn: Draco Malfoy

The Burrow, August 29th, 2016

Dear Draco,
As Harry and I told you on the occasion of our last encounter at the meeting of the Hogwarts Board of Trustees, I have a legal matter for your firm. You may be astonished that we turn to you with a muggle discrimination case, and not to our usual partners at Weasley, Wood, Dursley, & Lupin, especially as we haven't always seen eye-to-eye on muggle issues.
But this is a special case - the claimant is a relative of Harry's, and the claim is against Hogwarts, so we would like to avoid the possible conflict of interest. As you know, we're currently already having a sufficiently bad relationship with the Daily Prophet since we exposed that they still employ unpaid house elves in their cafeteria; they are only waiting for a chance to throw mud back at us.
Anyway, it's not just the experience of working with you on the Hogwarts Board of Trustees that makes me turn to you. We at HEMADL have been really impressed with your work on the Gringotts restitution case - forcing them to release the unclaimed treasures of the Death Eaters' victims to their legal heirs was no mean feat. The fact that you could produce both the original Death Eaters' killings records and the list of vaults belonging to the victims speaks for the thorough groundwork you've done to prepare your case. Of course, we cannot promise you anything comparable to your rumoured 25% commission in the case we want to refer to you.
In fact, this looks more like an ex-gratia case, as the claimant is an elderly lady who only has muggle money, and she wouldn't be able to afford Mr. Blair's rates. I must congratulate you on your success in getting him as a partner - your father's connections went beyond the Ministry of Magic at his time, I assume? In any case, having both a muggle and a goblin as partners evidently ensures that you fulfil our criteria for racial diversity.
Let's get on the case. The claimant had applied for Hogwarts unsuccessfully in her youth, being rejected for being a muggle without any wizarding talent by the late Albus Dumbledore (in accordance with the laws and regulations valid at that time). On hearing about the Muggles Non-Discrimination Act, she applied anew, only to be rejected again by Headmaster Flitwick for age reasons.
In our opinion, this age-based discrimination is in clear violation of the EU anti-discrimination directive. The wizengamot has previously ruled on the applicability of EU law to British wizards; after the U.K. acceded to the charter of human rights of the EU constitution, there is simply no excuse for the Hogwarts by-laws violating the pertinent EU directives.
So I assume that the case in itself will not pose any problems for you. Concerning the remuneration, let me say that I see it as a showcase for further cooperation. Besides our obvious partners like the Sirius Black foundation, you know that since the restitution case, we also have a seat on the Gringotts' board, and, obviously, the support of their new treasurer, so it ought to be possible to make them one of your accounts - actually, this would be positive PR for them, showing that they learnt their lesson and that there are no hard feelings. We also are aware that you have approached the "Quibbler", "Kreacher Katering", "Ollivander & Co.", "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes", and other companies belonging to Potter Holdings for business. Since Riddle Estates ended their business with you after you married a muggle girl, Ginny is ready to consider that (well, you know that Harry doesn't bother himself with business matters - being so busy with keeping the Godric's Hollow team in the Premier League and with the DA Defence Academy at Hogwarts). As you can see, there is potential to further both the goals of our society and your business interests.
I'm currently fetching Rose and Hugo from their vacations at their grandparents, but I'll be in town on September 1st, to accompany them to the Hogwarts train, and I assume you'll be there to accompany Scorpius. If you don't have any other plans, let's meet at "Luna's" for dinner to discuss this matter in more detail. Please also bring Paris - I always like to see her. You know that our side will have a match in Bulgaria, so Ron has to leave for Sofia in the afternoon, to continue his rivalry with Krum even as a coach - I wish they would learn from Harry and you how to get along like grown-ups. I'll bring Teddy Lupin instead - I like my own lawyer along when I'm dining with a lawyer, especially of your calibre!
Looking forwards to hear from you,
Yours truly,
Hermione Weasley
President
House-Elf & Muggle Anti-Discrimination League
Raddick Alley
London

Review of Evgenij Primakov, "Konfidendencial'no: Blizhnij Vostok na scene i za kulisami"

2007-11-24T17:14:00.002+01:00

In different roles - as journalist, intelligence agent, and on diplomatic missions for the Soviet Union, as foreign minister and prime minister for the Russian Federation -, Evgenij Primakov has observed and participated in shaping Middle East politics over forty years. In the reviewed book, the title of which in translation means "Confidential: The Middle East on stage and behind the scenes", the author shares some of this experience with the reader.
It is not a history of the Middle East or of individual problems. The book is a collection of sketches on factors, problems, players, and events, like Arab Socialist Nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Soviet and American strategies in the region, the Lebanese Civil war, Arafat, Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi Kurds, nuclear weapons in the region.
None of these sketches aspire to present a full picture. Besides giving a short historical background, they heavily concentrate on the diplomatic background, especially the backdrop of the US-Soviet rivalry, on the Soviet involvement and positions in individual countries and conflicts, and on the activities of the author. Quite often the author skips a decade or two during which he was not involved and finishes the sketch with an assessment of the current situation, which therefore frequently comes a bit out of the blue, as readers must understand what happened in the meantime from a few sentences or supplement it from their own knowledge of the events.
As anybody who has observed Primakov would expect, the author shows all signs of having grown up and lived in the USSR as a loyal citizen. His terminology is still communist - he uses terms like "left deviation" or "petty-bourgeois revolutionary" without irony, "progressive" means "communist" or "socialist", Arab countries are labelled democracies if the local communist party is in power or at least allowed to be active.
But his communism seems more a case of habit than of ideological conviction. Overall, Primakov is a pragmatist who serves his country - first the USSR, now Russia. In this, he has made the transition to post-communist derzhavnik like many other Russians of his generation.
For that reason, one shouldn't expect too many surprises in this book. The author is still sometimes employed in diplomatic missions in the Middle East, and therefore he is not writing anything that could harm Russia's position in the region. A few bureaucratic scores are settled in the book, e.g. with a circle of people around Podgornyj, who didn't want to recognise that Sadat was turning Egypt from a Soviet client into an American client, but that considers cases at least thirty years ago that have no bearing on contemporary positions any more. Primakov also criticises those in the Soviet Union that wanted to work with the local communist parties to set up local client regimes; again, as the Arab communist parties were a failure almost everywhere, as no Communist regime was ever successfully established except in Southern Yemen, and as the communists were rivals to the Socialist Nationalists that became the usual allies of the USSR in the Arab world, this is not a terribly surprising or controversial point.
As I'm not a specialist on Middle East or on Soviet politics, it is hard for me to assess how much in this book is really new. The materials on the secret diplomatic contacts between the USSR and Israel in the seventies, when officially no diplomatic relations existed between these countries, seem certainly interesting, especially as Primakov, being the emissary, speaks from first-hand experience. At least for me the author's assessment of the Yom Kippur war - that Sadat was goaded into it by the Americans who wanted to improve his position in preparation for the later separate peace with Israel (and who were not amused when the Israelis tripped up their scheme by winning again) - was something I hadn't heard of before, which probably only shows how little I've read on that topic. Primakov's assessment of Saddam Hussein - that he believed until the last moments of his life that the Americans only wanted to teach him lessons, but would always leave him in (or, after his fall, put him back into) power because they needed a strong Iraq led by him as a counterweight to Iran - would explain a lot about his constant brinkmanship, and also would show how far from reality his mind had strayed. On the level of personalities, I was surprised about his positive assessment of Binyamin Netanyahu and his negative assessment of Shimon Peres, as this is the opposite one would have expected from a Soviet / Russian diplomat based on their political positions.
The book is interesting on several levels. It allows some insights into the debates going on inside Soviet foreign policy circles in the sixties to eighties. It shows the continuities between the Soviet and the Russian foreign policy approach in the Middle East. And there are many small stories and anecdotes from Primakov's personal experience that make the book more than a dry political treatise.

---
Евгений Примаков, "Конфиденциально: Ближний Восток на сцене и за кулисами", Москва, "Российская Газета", 2006

Eröffnung / Opening / Открытие

2007-11-24T15:36:00.000+01:00

Der Laden ist eröffnet. Er soll ein Ort sein, wo ich Dinge ausstellen werde, die ich mit anderen teilen möchte. Buchbesprechungen, Links, kleine Artikel - das hängt davon ab, ob etwas mein Interesse weckt und ob die Muse mich küsst. Mal sehen...

The shop is open. It's intended to be a place for showing things I want to share with others. Book reviews, links, short essays - depends on what awakens my interest and whether the muse is in a kissing mood. Let's see...

Лавочка открылась. Она должна быть место, где я могу выставлять вещи, которые я хочу делить с другими. Рецензии, ссылки, маленкие статьи - зависит от того, побудит ли что-нибудь мой интерес и даст ли муза поцелуй. Посмотрим...