The little town of “Pérouges”, 42 km away from Lyon, was completely rebuilt in the 20th century. This gem of medieval architecture protected by its city walls and situated on top of hill, can be best discovered in the course of its winding roads that are bordered by old houses. Producers often chose the typical scenery of Pérouges for historic
Travel guides are an important device. They are good for orientation on-site. They deliver important information on budget hotels, on shopping malls and hip restaurants. Sometimes, however, they can do even more: they initiate the encouter with (the own) history and therefore with the past. The changeful German-French history seems to be particular present in the Alsace. Already in 357
The trompe l’oeil on the house wall in Rue de la Martinière displays famous citizens of Lyon. It shows amongst others the Roman Emperor Claudius, the inventor of the weaving loom Joseph-Marie Jacquard, Laurent Mourguet, the inventor of buffoon “Guignol”, André-Marie Ampère, the inventors of the cinema Auguste and Louis Lumière, the architect Tony Garnier, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (“the little
Oh all that I know There’s nothing here to run from Cause here Everybody here’s got somebody to lean on Coldplay sing about a ‘beautiful world’ in their song “Don’t panic”. Germany experiences its first spring weekend. Yesterday temperatures almost 20 degrees Celsius for the first time this year and also today a gentle breeze dominated through the day. A
Minister of the Interior Friedrich seems to have a mission for his tenure: the crusade against Muslim none-integrable citizens of Germany. Already upon his taking over of the ministery almost exactly one year ago he chanted that “Islam does not belong to Germany – historically seen”. At that time he replied to a comment by former Federal President Christian Wulff.
[nggallery id=52] The announcement of a „panel discussion with the human rights commissioner of the federal government Markus Löning“ intrigued me. I noticed positively that representatives of Syria and Tunisia would be part of the discussion. Next to Markus Löning, Matthias Katzer (Amnesty International), Dr. Sadiqu Al-Mousllie (member of the Syrian National Council) and Chaouki Ben Attia (Head of the
Is freedom a question of money or decency? After the failure of the UN-Resolution last friday and the reasons given for the decision that China and Russia consider the economic ties towards the Syrian Regime as more important than the daily victims of the struggle for freedom against Assad’s dictatorship, lack of understanding might be the nicest feeling one can
The final plea of Ulrich Kienzles closing an interesting, entertaining evening resonates: “It is for the first time that an Arabian idea “Kefaya – enough” finds its way into the world. From Tunisia, via Egypt and Lybia to Israel, Spain and Greece, where young people likewise protested against their governments. And if one wants to you can file the “Occupy
In preparation of my doctoral thesis on discourse and intercultural education I came across the methodology of ethnographic content analysis on the one hand and a research document titled “Peering Beneath the Veil: An Ethnographic Content Analysis of Islam as Portrayed on The 700 Club Following the September 11th Attacks” by Eric Gormly on the other hand. Discourse analysis is
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.