A few random thoughts about the events of the past week.
Cricket
Probably most of you were scratching your heads wondering where my sudden love of cricket has sprung from. Well, I've been playing cricket here in Stuttgart since last year as a social sport, largely run by the Indian postdoc in our department, Sreeraj. Every Friday we took over the nearby Kindergarten's soccer pitch, setting up our cardboard wickets and playing 4-a-side until light halts play. It's been fun, and on several occasions we have attracted a rather bemused audience of locals, some of which wonder if we're playing a strange form of baseball.
Conversation for the past month has inevitably turned to the cricket world cup in the West Indies, with predictions of a stunning India-Australia final being made. Unfortunately, India looks likely to return home next week, whereas the competition keeps on going for a month (it is cricket, after all). A more serious dampener, however, has been the suspected murder of the Pakistani coach. The mystery surrounding his death has cast a terrible shadow over the competition. I find it hard to take so much enjoyment from following the scores when I reflect upon the evidence that for some it is life or death.
NSW Votes
As a former New South Welshman, I've been following the progress of the state elections with more than passing interest. It's the first time I've followed an Australian election from overseas, and I found it quite an interesting spectator sport. A good warm up for November (?) when we have the federal elections (in which I am not voting). Anyway, the NSW results are now in, and the Iemma government has been returned with a workable majority in the lower house, although I'm not sure the ALP did so well in the upper house. At any rate, the re-election of the government had seemed a foregone conclusion for some time now.
It's likely that political hacks will study Iemma's strategy for years to come, and for its cunning cynicism it deserves our grudging respect. No one disputes that NSW is in a mess - transport, education, and health show serious failings, not to mention water! - and that the Carr government must shoulder most of the blame. Even Iemma's campaign more-or-less acknowledged this, with the inspiring slogan "More to do, but heading in the right direction". So how to seek re-election? Paint yourself as a breath of fresh air, and run against your party's record. Oh, and pour lots of money into promoting your policies through "public service ads" and add a nice dollop of attack ads aimed at the inexperienced opposition - right out of John "the Rat" Howard's playbook.
I'm not suggesting that the Liberals could do a better job, or that Peter Debnam could make a better premier. His inability to make any meaningful political capital out of the government's failings was pathetic, and sympathy votes don't win elections. Don't count on NSW enteirng a utopian period of centre-left government either - NSW will probably continue to bumble along with a creaking infrastructure, underfunded schools and substandard hospitals. You can read all this in the SMH online. What is for me most infuriating, and also worrying, is the triumph of "spin" that this represents - the "story" presented to the public is what wins elections, and if the story is compelling enough the (contrary) facts can be damned. What we have to be concerned about is that this kind of election could become the norm. After all, politicians will follow electoral strategies that keep them elected. This would be a catastrophe for Australia - as we face up to the existential environmental challenges that blight our land, we desperately need bold leadership, not the talentless party apparatchiks that fill our houses of parliament.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Cricket Bats of Justice!
For all those not aware (i.e. the world minus any country not (once) in the Commonwealth and maybe also the Netherlands) the Cricket World Cup is currently being played in the West Indies. Clearly not even in Germany am I immune to the cricket fever - I'll happily admit that I followed the India vs Bangladesh and Ireland vs Pakistan matches last night to their nail-biting conclusions. In about a month when the whole thing winds up I'll wonder what all the fuss was about. But there are some on this planet for whom cricket fever is clearly a chronic condition. People, for example, who might purchase a comic book about a cricketer with superhero powers. Wow - flaming cricket bats! Aren't normal cricket bats scary enough when wielded by an armour-clad crime-fighter?
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The cycling season starts!

Not wanting to stress my legs, atrophied as they are from 4 months of sloth, I decided to stick by the river Neckar, which flows through Stuttgart. Within the city itself, the river isn't what you would call a selling point. As the rivers in Germany are practically a highway system, there is a considerable amount of industry located on it's banks, and this is frankly ugly to look at. A little out of the city, however, and you find the character of the river changes for the better. The river has carved some very steep valleys, even cliffs, which more recently have been covered in dry-stone terraced vineyards. The light brown colour of the stones and the still-bare vines produced a remarkable sensation of aridity, quite at odds with the river flowing in front of them.
Perhaps the oxygen wasn't making it to my brain, but I found the sensation of cycling along the river very strange - away from the ocean, it's not often that I am close to such a large body of water. Somehow it was not entirely comfortable, maybe I felt a little claustrophobic caught between the river and the cliffs. So as lunchtime approached I climbed out of the valley. I ate my sandwiches just beside the trees on the right in the photo at the top. Not a bad spot for lunch, eh?
Correctly reading my cycling map, which I still regard as nothing less than a miracle, after lunch I made my way to a scenic view just above the little village of Hessingheim. As you can see from the photo below, it was certainly worth the effort, and subsequent blundering about in the forest trying to find a road while also trying not to get bogged. Note that on the right-hand side you can see a lock for barges; also note that the steep slope just above this is covered in terraced vineyards.
I ended the day by cycling back upstream to Marbach, as I could get onto the suburban train system here. Marbach is one of those impeccably preserved towns you sometimes find in Europe, the old quarter still snug inside the square perimeter of the medieval walls. It's big claim to fame, however, is that Schiller happened to be born there. Alas, I was content not to spend too much time loitering about the old town - there is a fine line between charming and twee, and for me Marbach crossed it - too many pastel pinks and blues, too many impossibly intricate potted flower arrangements. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.
All in all, I managed roughly 35km. My legs probably couldn't have taken all that much more, let alone my posterior. Dehydration is also an issue - I'll have to make a conscious effort to drink more on these outings. However, a few more of these weekend trips and cycling to and from work should set me in good stead for the major bike holidays I'm planning this year. Stay posted.

Friday, March 9, 2007
Der Fliegender Zirkus
The world is an amazing place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR7RHgdVTCg
The translation isn't perfect - its cakes and coffee not buttered scones. But the general drift remains the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR7RHgdVTCg
The translation isn't perfect - its cakes and coffee not buttered scones. But the general drift remains the same.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Finding Old Stuttgart
On the last weekend of February I found the old city of Stuttgart. It is well hidden, and many people undoubtedly pass through this city without ever knowing about it.
You can reach the old city by walking through the forests just behind my house. It isn't long, and I could describe the way, but all you need to know is that you must climb up the small hill known as the Birkenkopf, overlooking south Stuttgart. Walking along the winding path to the top of the hill, you'll only know that you're going the right way if you had cared to stop and read the modest monument at the bottom. As you reach the summit, you immediately see the old city before you - and underneath you as well. You're standing right on top of it.
The Birkenkopf has always been a small hill in Stuttgart, standing roughly 450 metres above sea level - before the last world war. As a centre of German industry, Stuttgart was subject to a very heavy aerial bombardment by the Anglo-American air forces. The result was that Stuttgart lay as rubble in 1945 - rubble that had to be cleared away to begin the postwar reconstruction efforts. One of the places they decided to dump this rubble was on top of the Birkenkopf, raising it's height by 50 metres or so.
You can reach the old city by walking through the forests just behind my house. It isn't long, and I could describe the way, but all you need to know is that you must climb up the small hill known as the Birkenkopf, overlooking south Stuttgart. Walking along the winding path to the top of the hill, you'll only know that you're going the right way if you had cared to stop and read the modest monument at the bottom. As you reach the summit, you immediately see the old city before you - and underneath you as well. You're standing right on top of it.
The Birkenkopf has always been a small hill in Stuttgart, standing roughly 450 metres above sea level - before the last world war. As a centre of German industry, Stuttgart was subject to a very heavy aerial bombardment by the Anglo-American air forces. The result was that Stuttgart lay as rubble in 1945 - rubble that had to be cleared away to begin the postwar reconstruction efforts. One of the places they decided to dump this rubble was on top of the Birkenkopf, raising it's height by 50 metres or so.
To walk to the top of the Birkenkopf is a sobering experience. The only time you realize what you are standing on is when you see the detritus of a broken city scattered in mounds on the summit. Stacked on top of each other you recognize first a reinforced concrete column, then elegant masonry from what must have been an impressive dwelling, then a portion of a red brick wall. Once people lived in these buildings - considered themselves lucky about the good view from the window, wished for a bedroom that got the morning sun in winter, thought about whether they would paint or wallpaper their dining room. You can't avoid the unanswerable question about what happened to them.
When I left home to walk to the old city it was overcast. By the time I reached the summit, a driving rain had set in. I huddled against some old wall and used it to shield myself, as I looked down upon the new city of Stuttgart below me.
To start at the beginning...
It has been my intention to start a blog since shortly after I arrived here in Germany. With anything that may be put off to another day, however, more important things can always be found to attend to first.
The spur to this action came last summer (or winter, depending on the perspective) when I was visiting Australia. I was somewhat dismayed to find that my life in Stuttgart remained largely a mystery to most of my family and friends. Not particularly surprising, given my poor record in returning correspondence. Since returning home, I have realized that too frequently I am either too busy or too tired to truly compose a decent message to you in an email. I now feel that the blog is the most practical way to reach you all.
But I don't want this to be just an extended travelogue about my life in Stuttgart. This was part of my reluctance to start the blog in the first place - what to write here? I've decided that anything goes. I'll write about my thoughts on a particular news story, a walk in the forest behind my house, the weather, how much I dislike it when people bring their large dogs onto the buses here - I see no bounds to my subjects except those imposed by common decency.
With this preamble, let the blogging commence!
The spur to this action came last summer (or winter, depending on the perspective) when I was visiting Australia. I was somewhat dismayed to find that my life in Stuttgart remained largely a mystery to most of my family and friends. Not particularly surprising, given my poor record in returning correspondence. Since returning home, I have realized that too frequently I am either too busy or too tired to truly compose a decent message to you in an email. I now feel that the blog is the most practical way to reach you all.
But I don't want this to be just an extended travelogue about my life in Stuttgart. This was part of my reluctance to start the blog in the first place - what to write here? I've decided that anything goes. I'll write about my thoughts on a particular news story, a walk in the forest behind my house, the weather, how much I dislike it when people bring their large dogs onto the buses here - I see no bounds to my subjects except those imposed by common decency.
With this preamble, let the blogging commence!
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