For personal reasons

You might have noticed that the Middle East Messenger kept quiet somehow during the recent weeks. No new posts. The last one was dated November 4th, 2011 – on my birthday. One day before my birthday my father was taken to the hospital. Once again. But this time it was different. Unfortunately, he did not survive this stay in hospital.

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Azulejos

Under the name Azulejo one understands a mosaic made of quadratic, colourful painted and ceramic tile, that has its origin in Spain and Portugal and it thus made there. These weather-proof tiles are an integral part in the cityscape of those countries and are applied to public buildings, monuments, facades and churches, but also as decoration for walls. Often old

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Prix Pictet: to die or to freeze?

Upon a visit to the Botanical Garden of Madrid I came across a very interesting exhibition resp. prize by chance: the Swiss made Prix Pictet. According to the foundation’s website, the prize “has a unique mandate – to use the power of photography to communicate vital messages to a global audience. The goal is to uncover art of the highest

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Volvo Ocean Race: Team Abu Dhabi scores

Team Abu Dhabi could achieve a customed prelude at the “In-Port Racing” in Alicante. The race of October, 29th, 2011 marked the beginning of the “Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012“. Many enthusiastic spectators watched the exciting sailing duel on the Mediterranean when the “black falcon” of Abu Dhabi emanated as the winner from the race. Elegantly and sovereignly Team Abu Dhabi

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Confusion

In these days there is so much going on that one does not really know how to asses the whole thing: Gaddafi is dead, the Americans withdraw their troops from the Iraq, the Iran is was accused of attempted murder on the saudi-arabian ambassador to the US, in Europe and the States people protest against the power of banks and

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Changes

Changes

On friday the Berliner Compagnie premiered the play “Things are as bad as they look” at the Brunswieck Brunsviga. The play, subtitled “climatic disaster with music” is not only about the construction of a coal-burning power plant or more precisely about the legal hindrance of the same, but also about the destiny of a refugee. The refugee Ibrahim, who dared

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Unveiled?

The question why people do what they do never goes out of fashion. Possibly, it will never be completely answered. No matter from what perspective this question can always be asked anew and will continue in gaining in importance. In school already we had to battle against content analysis or tried to explain what is behind the works of famous

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Unconvenient truth

These days there is much contradictory to be read or to be heard in the news. Such as the question, whether the Revolution in the Arab World should be hailed or feared in the West. It has been a while that the revolting youth movement has widened its sphere of influence. Protests are reaching from Tunisia via Egypt to Spain,

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Revolution at record speed: did spring give way to winter?

Until the end it does not become apparent what Correspondent Dietmar Ossenberg and his team want to put over with their documentary “The fragile dream – the Orient after the revolution”. The title already could be the key to the documentary’s statement: “Nice try but were all attempts in vain?” It is a pity that already at this point one

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A brief summerdelight or hindsight?

Being a professional observer of the teacher’s scene I have subscribed to various corresponding mailing-lists. Yesterday I was lucky to learn that the oft-quoted summer slump bears also positive news from time to time. The „Lehrer-Online“ Newsletter made use of exactly this „sun slump“ (referring to the rainy summer 2011), to point out to some interesting intercultural projects. The discovery

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