Editor’s Letter 1601

It’s been a long time I had this white screen in front of me and did not know what to write – too much was going on all over the world and I didn’t know where to start, plus I was emotionally very agitated. But everything comes to an end, and so does this blank screen.

The world is upside down, it seems that we have forgotten what really matters so we let ourselves being dragged into agony, selfishness and egoism by never ending filtered news about crisis, war and terrorism resulting in refugees invading our oh so perfect world. Long forgotten are the times when we really had reason to think so, after the second World War there were millions of people dragged out of their homes forced to flee to wherever they had a better future. Most of Europe suffered a severe aftermath with the economy laying in pieces and it was onto the people to step by step, stone by stone, rebuild what had been destroyed.

The ongoing instability in countries like Syria and Northern Africa leaves people no chance but to leave everything behind, mostly men but also endless whole families that pack what they can carry to start a hell of a trip in order to be able to find a place where they can live in peace. They spend a fortune to pay some shady human trafficker to get them over the Mediterranean Sea only to find out that they are not very welcome wherever they arrive.

Some people say those refugees should stay at home to wait and then rebuild their country when things are calming down. The problem with that thinking is that it is not a war they fight to defend themselves against a foreign enemy – they got the enemy within themselves. And the real reason behind those wars has economical and political roots, caused by countries that have an interest in destabilization. As there is no end in sight because the different parties are deeply antagonized and each one is convinced that his solution is the only one suitable. The worst wars on this planet have been started out of religious reasons, and there is no religion that hasn’t got blood on its hands. If you add economical expansion to this you got a lethal cocktail that has only one outcome – terror. The War on Terror is nothing else than the Terror of War, let’s not forget this, ever.

Only because we still depend on fossile resources like oil, coal and gas most of those conflicts arouse, and the companies behind it control most of the governments of our First World, exploiting resources wherever they can with whatever technique they can come up with. The latest frenzy is Fracking, who the hell can seriuosly think pumping a cocktail of highly toxic substances under high pressure into the ground to milk even the last drop of oil would not cause a chain reaction resulting in polluted ground water and wasted land wherever they got to do it? The Arabs right now are dumping the price for a barrel of oil on purpose to end such techniques, risking their own economic welfare knowing they got enough money to overcome most of their competitors. They did so already in the late 80’s resulting in bankruptcy of more than 30% of all the other oil producing companies. And, if I remember right, just before the millennium ended we got told that oil would last no longer than 25 more years. So where is all the oil coming from?

The big manufacturers of transportation already have their alternative solutions but they hold it back because it all worked so perfectly for the whole conglomerate, resulting in as-high-as-possible profits for their owners and shareholders. Come on, there are cars driving on saltwater (look here), hydrogen, solar-powered cars or hybrid solutions that finally get more and more attention, so what are we waiting for? Other solutions like Biofuel only result in an accelerated deforestation of our rainforests creating monocultures destroying whole landscapes including the complete flora and fauna.

To not dig deeper into this – which is endless anyway – let me say the following: The destabilization of countries like Syria is based on economical interests not of Syria itself but of leading countries trying to get their hands on resources and shortcuts to threaten other competing countries from their neighbourhood.

So it is our duty to help those refugees wherever we can, most of them will happily go back to their home country when things have calmed down to start rebuilding their homes.