w o r d s

Early in the morning on August 13, 1961, workers began tearing up the cobblestone and asphalt along the sector boundaries across Berlin. They began erecting concrete pillars and barbed-wire barricades, while units of the the Volkspolizei - the People’s Police - kept the angry people in the eastern sector in check with machine guns.

The residents of West Berlin watched these events with shocked disbelief. The mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt, ordered an emergency session of the West Berlin City Senate and issued an appeal to the international community to stop the division of their city and country by the Stalinists. The government of West Germany in Bonn, under then-chancellor Adenauer, appealed to the West-Germans to stay calm and not to provoke any incidents.

For the East German Stalinist government under Walter Ulbricht, sealing off West Berlin was the final effort to stop the exodus of farmers and workers from the “Farmer’s and Worker’s State.” In the preceding months they had fortified the border between the two German states. As they began surrounding West Berlin with barbed wire, they were plugging the last hole through which thousands of people fled to the West every day. The 24 hours preceding the start of the construction of the Berlin Wall, 2,400 people had registered in the refugee camp in Berlin -Marienfelde alone. Up to that day, almost 2.5 million people had fled the Stalinist regime in East Germany.

The fortified border between East and West Germany, including the Wall surrounding Berlin, cost the lives of hundreds of people in the next 28 years. On November 9, 1989, the East German government started opening the border and allowing some travel of East Germans to the West. In the next two days, thousands of East Germans rushed to the border, and in West Berlin some started applying sledgehammers to the concrete barriers. On November 11, the first concrete segment of the Wall fell, and the border posts were overrun by East Germans. This was the end of the Wall, and the beginning of the end of the divided Germany.

[Source: Chronik der Mauer (in Geman)]

“I saw that everybody looked so terrible, just like they came from hell,” she said. “No one was talking. No one was screaming.”
Hiroshima Survivor Recalls Devastation The Washington Post, July 16, 2005 (quoting Hiroshima survivor Shigeko Sasamori, 73)

60 years ago today, the first nuclear explosion began the age of the atom bomb. On August 6 and August 9 that same year, 100,000 people died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It’s about time. Germany is finally ready to dedicate a major memorial to the victims of the Nazi regime: the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe today joins Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Museum and many other places of remembrance. In plain view of the Reichstag building, where the German parliament deliberates in the heart of Berlin, this memorial contributes to the important task of keeping alive the memory of those dark years and the shameful, horrific persecution and butchery of millions of innocent people, perpetrated supposedly “in the name of the German people.”

We will not forget.

We must fight hatred and terror today, and we must stop the violence perpetrated on the innocent today. We must speak out for the rights of every human to live in peace and dignity. To be able to do that we must be able to face the horror of the past.

When I left Germany 11 years ago I spent the last night at my Grandfather’s. He lived near Frankfurt and my flight left early in the morning, so he was going to drive me to the airport. My grandfather was of old Prussian stock, stubborn, proud and very conservative. I had never heard him talk much about the war; It was very clear he was very bitter about it. Years ago, my mom told me, he had written down his war experiences, but one night, in a fit of depression, he burned the papers.

So that night, in 1994, I was very surprised when, over a bottle of Bergsträsser wine, he began talking about the war. He reminisced about his adventures in arctic Norway, the march on Paris, the brutal east front and the heat of North Africa. He told me about run-ins with the SS he had had. He spoke of the Nazis with what seemed genuine disgust. He complained that those young, reckless SS officers had no respect for the values of the German Reichswehr, he said he was committed to. And he spoke of the horror of war, and the death and destruction the Reichswehr and the other armies spread across Europe.

My Grandfather’s war stories that night may have been shaky on historical accuracy, but they were an honest reflection of this old man’s desire, almost 50 years after the German surrender, to find some value, some meaning in this horrible experience. And maybe even to extract some honor or dignity from the defeat. This was the voice of an old man who was wallowing in self-pity, who never learned to move forward, never learned from the trauma in his life, and pass on lessons from his experience to a new generation. But it was also the voice of a generation buried under historical shame, crushing defeat and personal tragedy.

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As painful as it is … remember!

The hollow wail of the traditional Jewish shofar cut through the air of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in southern Poland on Thursday, signaling the start of a huge march in memory of the Holocaust.

Some 20,000 people from around the world, Jews and non-Jews, set off under grey skies on Thursday to make their way from the main camp to Birkenau, where at least 1.1 million men, women and children, most of them Jews, were exterminated by the Nazis.
March of Living Marks Holocaust - Deutsche Welle

So the Catholic Church selected Joseph Ratzinger as Pope today. Oh well, that’ll ensure one more world power broker will remain stuck in the dark ages. Congratulations!

The Battle of Seelow Heights at the end of WWII is remembered as one of the bloodiest battles of a horrible war. Today, people from Russia, Poland and Germany joined in a solemn ceremony in Seelow, Brandenburg State. The speakers at the ceremony admonished their contemporaries to make every effort to instill in today’s youth tolerance, compassion and the love of peace. The head of the Brandenburg State government, Ministerpräsident Matthias Platzeck (Social Democratic Party), also called for increased efforts to stem the spread of nationalist extremism in Germany.

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The Kingdom of Bhutan posted a PDF of its draft constitution on the web. The constitutional commission solemnly enshrined in Article 9, section 2, promoting “those circumstances that will enable the successful pursuit of Gross National Happiness” as a principle of State Policy. In fact, the draft mentions “happiness” four times, including once in the Preamble and once in the National Anthem. My favorite feature, though, is the constitutional Right to Rest and Leisure (Article 9, Section 13). (via BoingBoing)

I am a big fan of the US Constitution but I do note that it does not mention “happiness” or “leisure” (neither do any of the amendments). Of course the Declaration of Independence of the “thirteen united States of America” famously pronounces that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Since 1776, this thought has been echoed in many a seminal document, but I think that Bhutan has contributed a truly novel adaptation of Jefferson’s famous words.

With pomp and circumstance Togo held the funeral for Gnassingbe Eyadema on Sunday.

A giant portrait of Eyadema, with the words “I will always be with you”, overlooked Lome’s marbled Palais des Congres building where dignitaries had gathered to receive the coffin.

Yes, he’ll remain with us as an example of the bad old times in post-colonial Africa. Good riddance to the scourge of Togo.

Eyadema treated Togo like his personal property. He and his French buddies sucked the country dry in his 38-year rule. He murdered Sylvanus Olympio, the first elected President of Togo, in the first coup in 1963. Over the years, Eyadema’s military regime imprisoned, tortured and “disappeared” hundreds of opposition activists (see AI reports).

Now there is hope that Togo can start joining many other African countries, like Ghana, Benin, Botswana, South Africa, on the path of democracy, human and civil rights, and ultimately stability and a broad and fair distribution of the country’s wealth. To be sure, getting there won’t be easy. There’s still the RTP and the generals - and Baby Eyadema - to deal with. But here is clearly an opportunity for the Togolese opposition to put them on the defensive.

In Salina, Kansas, at 2:49 pm ET Steve Fossett made aviation history when he touched down in his Global Flyer after a 25,000-mile (40,234 kilometer) around-the-globe voyage that took 67 hours and two minutes.

At least for Hunter S. Thompson it is. I just finished watching the movie for the 56243th time. God … Johnny did good! Goodbye to the crazy old man, the original blogger, gonzo journalist, whatever …. Peace be with you on your final trip.

And, Jesus!, this country needs another Malcolm X!

[UPDATE] HST’s May 1965 Hell’s Angels story in The Nation.

With regional powerhouse Nigeria in the lead, West African nations are increasing the pressure on Togo’s leadership, while an opposition rally in Lome is violently broken up by Togolese police.

OCHA IRIN and the BBC report that officials from ECOWAS and the African Union are denouncing the recent coup in Togo sharply. The tensions increased, when earlier today, Togolese officials diverted a plane carrying a delegation from Nigeria to Lome, and sent the delegation to the Eyadema stronghold Kara. instead, the plane turned around and landed in neighboring Benin.

Obasanjo’s official spokeswoman, Remi Oyo, told reporters:

As a result of this unfriendly and hostile action, President Obasanjo has advised the executive secretary of ECOWAS, Mr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, of his decision not to participate in the delegation of leaders who were supposed to visit Togo’s president.

The BBC also reports that protesters in Lome have been violently dispersed and a radio station was shut down by the government after broadcasting an interview with opposition leader Harry Olympio.

Seems to me that it is high time for Faure Eyadema to set a date for elections in the 60-day timeframe the original Togolese constitution provided, and to invite ECOWAS to assist with ensuring that such elections be free and fair.

President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo died yesterday at age 69. He was one of the original African dictators of the post-colonial era. This is his legacy in a nutshell:

Born to a peasant family in northern Togo, the young Sergeant Eyadema seized power in 1967 after staging one of Africa’s first coups soon after Togo won independence from France - an achievement noted and copied elsewhere.
BBC, Feb. 6, 2005

Sadly, Democracy in Togo, an ailing sapling under Eyadema, also suffered a “heart attack” when the military closed the borders and Army Chief of Staff Gen Zakari Nandja announced that the army had decided to hand power to son Faure Eyadema, 39. The African Union and the European Union denounced this Coup D’état.

Our thoughts are with our friends in Togo during these trying times.