Hinoto-Chan!

June 2009.

I arrived in the Hostel in Jena. Trying to search a new flat in the town, i am studying in.

There i found two people, i ahd a pretty good connection right away. Nedal from Israel, and Hitomi from Japan.

Well and saearching a flat in Jena is something like an impossible task! We decided to move in together, in a flat in Weimar, a town 30 Kilometres away from Jena. In August 2009, we moved in our very own flat. We had a fourth flatmate, Ariadne, who we had met in the same Hostel back then.

It was wonderful. Still i love thinking about our discussions, where Hitomi and me, were talking about everyone and his mother. Where we were exchanging thoughts, fears, hopes for the future. there was barely an issue left out.

Yes of course, there were some problems, but most of the time, i loved living with those guys. I still burst out of laughing about the moment i entered the kitchen, and suddenly started coughing. Because Hitomi was cooking her soup. A soup, which consists of a while ginger root on one litre of soup! I still laugh about when she tried to say that she want to get Onions when she get kids (Wenn ich groß bin, will ich mal Zwiebeln haben). Though she was trying to say that she want twins in german: Zwillinge). This very second, i thought i must die, due to all this laughing!

Hitomi was there for me, when i had problems, she was there for me, when i needed someone to talk to, but no one was. During the year we lived together, Hitomi grew to be my little sister, who i loved a very lot.

I hate the day, Hitomi left for Japan again,for finishing her studies in there. Just two months, ago, she graduated. And right after that, she came to visit germany, Jena again. The times i have seen her, were really, REALLY good. I loved to see my sister again, talking to her. DAMN, I really missed that girl! I was happy to hear, that she is really fine. Found a job after her graduation, found a person, she is about to fall in love. Finally, she got what she deserved all those years!

Hitomi, my sister, I hope somehow you will be reading this.

But still, i want you to know anyway that: I love you Inoto-San, and the time i spent with you and Nedal in Weimar, i had some of the happiest i ever had. THANK YOU!

Update 2011-03-16 0:45 GMT: Luckily i got message from her. She was inline in IM a short time and she is fine. It is good to know that she is still good. Maybe i should stop, being that pessimistic! Although it is not easy, especially with so many sad and depressing news lately.

Has the world gone mad?

Let me tell you, it has!

Okay... where to start.. where to start?

Well the best would be, we begin at the begining of the year 2011.

The Tunese population, freed themselves without using any violence. Tunisia now finally is free from decades of oppression.

This peaceful revolt made the egyptian population bold. After years of oppression, corruption and lies from the government towards the people, egypt has gone mad, angry and very furious. Inspired by the Tunisian revolt, they started their own revolt. The dead of Khaled Said marked pretty much the beginning of the revolt. I started following the whole incident, and Al Jazeera became a perfect source for getting informations the latest and newest developements. Yes, i do have a good friend, who lives in Cairo, but due to family matters, he was not taking part in this uprising, so i was glad, that i do not have to worry about him.

I was very glad the day, Hosni Mubarak Stepped back, the world seemed in order, and it seemed that social Justice prevailed.

It was not only Tunisia and Egypt which had a huge uprising for freedom and democracy, but by far it was the biggest, and most successful ones, we can only hope, that the other countries will get their Justice soon.

It took no long time, until i got word over Al Jazeera about the situation in Lybia. It was outrageous, this is a genocide.. it is still going on, ut the more i see about this crisis, the more i am sure about one thing: Lybia is no Tunisia, Lybia is no Egypt.

The "protesters" just seem to well armed, too well prepared for having a spontaneous uprising like in the countries, surrounding lybia. Nevertheless, the reaction of Muhammad Gadaffi is very bad. It MUST be condemned by everyone, being in favor of freedom.

But as people, being far away from Lybia, we have not much chances to watch. Nothing more, watch and spread information.

As if all this wouldnt be enough, shit gone lose in Japan (sorry for the choice of words, but...). A huge earthquake, Richter-Scale 8.6 occured... followed by a huge Tsunami wave. I have someone in Japan, i hold very, very dear, and i care about a lot. The time, waiting for her, getting word that she is okay, nearly killed me, and really strained on my nerves a lot. Fortunatelly, she is okay and nothing happened to er. Heck she didnt even knew about this, until she turned on the news!

But a few hours later, the next shock: several atom reactors in Japan are o the brink of collapsing. If the technicians will fail to keep the reactors stable, this could easily end in a huge desaster... Chernobyl style!

With the one difference, that Chernobyl back then, wasnt that crowded like Japan is. I really hope nothing will happen, and the reactors will hold. Else, this will be really bad.

I got some rest.. but while getting the rest, a thought occured to me, and havent got off me, for a long time. for keeping the reactors stable, technicians had to release some pressure, so nuclear air got released. And since some of the people, i really love, life not that far away, in Indonesia, i got really shocked!

The following hours, i was at the brink of a nervous collapse. I mean, some of the most beloved people, the love of my life amongst them (who is the one person responsible for me, keeping my sanity, while hell seems to break lose all over the world) , living a few thousand kilometres away, could be threatened by a cloud of nuclear waste!

I started to gather as much info as possible. I studied how to take 'precaution' (in how far you can take precaution in a desaster like this) and informed myself about Potassium iodide. How it works, how to take and to get it, the risks, almost everything i found on it. While doing this, i started gathering more information on a second issue: the weather.

Sure, back in school, i learned how to read weather and IR maps of satelites. But most of it i already forgot, so i had to begin from zero. First problem there: if you need to search information for that, you wuill find like a million websites, selling you a full service, but the actual maps, i needed. After 3 hours, i found a map, i could use for this. And i was able to analize it.

'Fortunatelly', the wind is going to east, so not indonesia, but theWest coast of USA is in danger with that. It may sound selfish, but i was reliefed, after finding this out, and i felt like the weight of the whole last weeks, started to wear off me. I felt that tired and everything. As a conclusion, i decided to stop covering the news once again, for staying sane.

Because unless the other crises this year, there, a lot of people i care a lot about, were involved and endangered. Still, my friend in Japan, is not safe from the nuclear thread. I only can hope for the best!

to be continued, for sure! .......

http://swampalmanac.com/blog/the-world-wide-protest-map/

More informations on the uprisings all over the world: http://swampalmanac.com

UPDATE 03:40 GMT: cctv (chinese channel) says that Honshu jolted by magnitude 6.0 aftershock. Kyushu island volcano erupts again shooting gas and ash 4,000 metres into the sky

I say no further... the worls HAS gone crazy!

The Dalai Lama's Instructions for life:

- Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
- When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
- Follow the three R's:
- Respect for self.
- Respect for others.
- Responsibility for all your actions.
- Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
- Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
- Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
- When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
- Spend some time alone everyday.
- Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
- Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
- Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
- A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
- In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
- Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
- Be gentle with the earth.
- Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
- Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
- Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
- Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon!

Times are changing...

... and so are persons, motives, places, looks and everything.

In life nearly nothing stays constant! So is my reason for blogging.
First i started out with this blog as a "personal diary" because i have many people all over the world, i'd like to keep in touch with.. i was blogging for letting people know how i felt. Later the motive was changing more or less to issues, I have been thinking about, but was not able to speak about to most of my friends - whatever the reasons were.
Well and since a pretty while i have been changing myself. There were certain events in this last year, which changed my way of thinking and a lot more...

This is the main reason for removing the personal related Informations in this blog!
I still want to inform. But not only my friends. I want to share
certain views and thoughts about certain events - mostly politics and the worlds situation mixed with some of my own philosophy (thats why the name and place-change)- to a wider circle of persons. So if you know persons, who could be interested in the things and views i have been writing about lately, i would be happy about every new reader, because the purpose of this blog is not just, to let my beloved know my views, but everyone who is interested!

I hope you like the new design and some of the few changes i have been making everywhere ;)

By the way: If you have a different opinion, or you want to agree etc, etc, you always can comment on the issues. I think the greatest thing about blogging, is that its not just one way like the news. No it works both ways, i can get feedback as well!
And... well lets face it: i am not always right either, so critics are welcome as well, as long as they are somewhat logic.

so please:

enjoy dear reader!

-Paul Scharf-

(yes this is the last time i give away private informations to everyone reading. most of the followers know me on a personal level anyway... i hope this would change somehow anyway.)