Recent events made me pick up the topic as described below. Here is a history of these events:

• Event A) Just before the Wiener Linien (Viennese public transport operator) redesign of line 1 and 2 (they used to go in circles clockwise and counterclockwise around the Ring) came into effect, the trams driver made an announcement he thought would be a brilliant joke to tell on the last ride of the line 2. I am not going to recite every bit he said; that, you can watch on youtube. He basically shouted in a mocking Hitler voice that the place, that they were going to circle one last time, was a historical place where historical moments happened. Then he ended the announcement with “Sieg Heil” (Hail Victory), a common pro-Nazi greeting, similar to “Heil Hitler.” After being confronted by someone (thank you very much, Mister) he said he was “sorry” and claimed it was a “joke” and asked the passengers for confirmation. Confirmation he did not get to an entire degree (and that fact disgusted me as well). — Well, Wiener Linien fired the Nazi tram driver the day after. Good to know, isn’t it?
• Event B) Austrian’s third national council’s president has been voted Martin Graf. Not only he openly supports a right-extremest fraternity, called Olympia but also does not deny the connection of the fraternity activities to violence promoting ideology.

Event A and B made me come to a conclusion C: Austria has a funny (funny as in weird) understanding of its past.

The ÖVP (right wing) demands new elections and jumps off the coalition board with the left-wing SPÖ. Here is a quote of an ORF article on the reliefing news that the drama finally came to an end today. One question, what have ÖVP and SPÖ done so far? Right, they only kept fighting about who was hindering the other.

FPÖ als lachender Dritter. [...] Vom Regierungsstreit habe vor allem die FPÖ profitiert, die sich “als Protestpartei” präsentiere und mit ihrer “Schwarz-Weiß-Malerei viele erreicht, denen das Geschehen ohnehin zu komplex ist”, so Palme. via ORF article .

Rough translation: FPÖ as the laughing 3rd. [...] The FPÖ, who presented themselves as the “protest party” and reached out with their black-and-white thinking to those who think happenings are too complex anyway, had cashed in on the fights in the administration by ÖVP and SPÖ, said Palme.

So here’s the thing for the upcoming election. People don’t seem to care too much about politics right now, so they are just going to vote for the party who addresses them the most. Black-and-white thinking, if you ask me, does not qualify as reasonable resource. People also happen to not think about the decisions they make in life. So, keep in mind that pretty much everyone gets to vote. Intelligent and dumb.

You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public. Scott Adams, The Dilbert Future US cartoonist (1957 - )

Looks like the quote could also be changed to “You can never underestimate the stupidity of FPÖ voters.” I don’t mention BZÖ on purpose. Har Har…

Usually I try to keep politic thoughts out of this blog, but I couldn’t help…

As much as we enjoy our convenient, “advanced” technologies nowadays, we shouldn’t just continue without thinking of consequences. The consequences can be huge and affect our lives. Taking a step backwards in development like giving up driving cars and other “conveniences” carrying a fully packed carbon emissions heavy rucksack will be a pain for us, who know what life looked like without coping with the huge consequences that will take action in years from now.

Drive one day less and look how much carbon monoxide you’ll keep out of the air as we breathe · That’s what the Chinese says, in case you’re wondering · via frederiksamuel.com

The 70th anniversary of the Annexation of Austria to Hitler-Germany was the occasion for a memorial event on Heldenplatz. This place, like no other, requires a lot of explanation for people who do not fully comprehend the history of Austrian national-socialism. Last Christmas break I realized how big of an issue this place is when I hosted some friends from CA.

Picture by premshree on flickr.com

Being in an “All-English” working environment, reading something like this just feels like fingernails scratching on a chalk board (This link answers all your questions about running fingernails down a board — I had to add some eduactional value to this blog entry).

Anyhoo, our ex-Vizekanzler der “blue-black-government” wrote the following “application” seeking for some job abroad, because (as he said) “the world in Vorarlberg is too small.”

Wer kann sich noch erinnern? Damals im BRG hat uns der liebe Gusi versprochen, dass die Abschaffung der Studiengebüren das erste sei, was er als Kanzler tun würde, und das ist er ja nun, nicht? Oder ist er nur weiterhin vom lieben Wolfi geleitet und Rot-Schwarz ist vielmeht Schwarz-Rot, oder gar noch immer Schwarz-Orange.