Politicians, tz tz tz!!!

The article “Shelby County job positions and salaries, 6663 of them at a cost of $275 million” written by watchdog and published on February 25, 2008 is about salaries that politicians in Shelby County receive. As the title says, 6663 workers get $275 million. Furthermore, these people have 13 weeks in one year off for “vacations, acations, sick days, personnel days, holidays and bonus days” which basically means that they are allowed to miss 25% of one year. There is no other job in the world where one can miss 25% of the year. Due to this fact, the government needs more worker to get the work done. In Germany, we have similar rates. Politicians get very high salaries and even if they retire after a short amount of years they get a high pension. Moreover, the German administration in the government spends way to much money on bureaucracy issues. There are 100 forms that have to be filled out to change the smallest things. The point is that the money the government wastes on bureaucracy could be invested to improve several social issues. I am angry because there is tax money which could be used vicely but it is wasted on unimportant things. The politicians always complain that they have not enough money to reach their goals but if they would use the money that they have more efficient they would not have such problems.

PILOT Program

The article “THE COST OF PILOTS IN MEMPHIS AND SHELBY COUNTY! WHO BENEFITS? WHO PICKS UP THE DIFFERENCE?” written by watchdog is about the program PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes). This program uses a lot of tax money in order to pay different people who work for shelby county. This people received $ 48 Mil in the year 2006 but nobodies nows if they used the money for its purpose – to support the poor homeowners. In Germany there was a similar case where politicians used tax money which should be spend on public youth organization to pay the holidays for their families. When politicians do these kind of things I ask myself why the became politicians. The coal for them should be to improve the situation in their country and not to make things worse. In Germany people have to sware that they will serve the German folk when they enter the parliament; is their word nothing word anymore in these days? What is going on in the mind of these people? Sometimes I got the impression that in todays world just selffishnesss and greed are the only important values. Why is that? From my point of view, there should be more independent comitions which supervise the politians and what they do.

The article “THE COST OF PILOTS IN MEMPHIS AND SHELBY COUNTY! WHO BENEFITS? WHO PICKS UP THE DIFFERENCE?” written by watchdog is about the program PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes). This program uses a lot of tax money in order to pay different people who work for shelby county. This people received $ 48 Mil in the year 2006 but nobodies nows if they used the money for its purpose – to support the poor homeowners. In Germany there was a similar case where politicians used tax money which should be spend on public youth organization to pay the holidays for their families. When politicians do these kind of things I ask myself why the became politicians. The coal for them should be to improve the situation in their country and not to make things worse. In Germany people have to sware that they will serve the German folk when they enter the parliament; is their word nothing word anymore in these days? What is going on in the mind of these people? Sometimes I got the impression that in todays world just selffishnesss and greed are the only important values. Why is that? From my point of view, there should be more independent comitions which supervise the politians and what they do.

When I was five years old, I have been to Tansania in Africa. It was the nicest holiday of my entire life. We spend the whole summer break there. We had a very nice hotel and the food was so delishious. My parents and me went to a safari, to a village were people made carvings, on a glass boat trip, to a crocodile farm, and many other exciting places. We spend a lot of time on the nice beach and the incredibel huge pool area. One day, my parents and me left the hotel to go for a walk. Then I saw a child who lost one arm. It was my age and sleeping under a newspaper. When we came closer, I recognized that this child was looking for leftovers in a trash can. This child had a fly in his eye and several wounds all over his body. At that point, I did not understand why this child was sleeping outdoors and looking for leftovers in a trash can. Why was not he with his parents in a nice hotel enjoying the nice foot and the huge pool area? When I was five years old, I did not really understand it but I knew that this was wrong. I was enjoying my life more than ever before and this child tried to survive on the street. I was looking at this child the whole time and child was looking at me, my nice clothe and the ice in my hand. When we passed this child he was reaching with his one arm to me. I did not have any money but I gave him my ice. When we left this child behind us, it was not the child that started crying, it was me. I was so sad than never again in my life.

Today I have been to a concert in the Music Building. They have their own concert hall, called “Harris.” I have to watch four concerts and write concert reviews about them for my Music Appreciation class. The name of the concert was “Contemporary Chamber Players.” I did not know what “chamber players” do so I decided to attend this concert. This decision was probably my biggest mistake in the last two month (2 month ago I decided to take music appreciation). They started the concert with a 15 minutes guitar solo; the guitar imitated strange noises which hurt in my ears with a computer noise background. I told myself to calm down and to be open minded for “new” styles and genres that I am not familiar with. I wanted to give them a chance after this horrible start. But then they played noises that did not include any rhythm or melody with an entire orchestra. I was so annoying. That was no music, from my point of view. I heard a lot of weird stuff in my life but that was something special. After one hour of this torture they took a 15 minutes break in which I tried to come back to earth from that weird planet where they might like this music. I hoped that they would try something different in the second half of this concert but they did not. Their performance was so interesting, enjoyable, entertaining and “special” that I fell asleep after seven minutes. I could not stand it anymore. I know that that was disrespectful but I did not do it on purpose. The honest truth is that this was the most horrible concert I have ever been to. I am sorry to be so direct but I will not give these guys a nice critique if they do not deserve it. I am sure that they are all very good musicians but their style or their genre should be outlawed!

Robert Frost:“We come to college to get over our littlemindness.“ From my point of view, Frost is totally right because that is exactly what I am doing right now in this class. We discuss serious problems in the world which affect the area in that I live, Memphis, and how they contribute to our area. This class wants to teach me that most issues are very complex and that most of the time it is very difficult to decide which side is right and which is wrong. It is the same in college in general. My professors want me to become a person who is able to work by himself and create his own ideas. They want me to create my own opinion on several issues and that I am able to state my opinion. In college, one discusses a lot of issues that one was not probably aware of before. College education also tries not only to help students to create awareness but also take action. Being aware of a problem is the first step of finding a solution and trying to change something. Frost was a vice man that knew what he was talking about and this statement points out what college and, in my view, life is all about.

Yesterday was Valentine’s day and my girlfriend an me spend 30 minutes on the phone. She lives in Germany and I live hear in Memphis so it is very tough to keep the contact. This is the biggest challenge in my life! I love this girl and she loves me, too, but a long distance relationship from on side of the world to the other is still not easy. I send her a card for Valentine’s day and so did she but both cards did not reach their place of destination. Her letter was to heavy so it was send back to her and I send my card to late so it did not reach her on time. These are the smaller problems that we have to face. But there are also good news. She will come in march and visit me for three weeks. I am already so excited about her coming to Memphis. I will show her the entire city, the university, graceland, the zoo etc. We will have so much fun. When we have been together in Germany it was normal for us that we saw us every day. Now we are happy if we can talk on the phone two or three times a week. What I want to say is that many people do not know how lucky they are and do not appreciate things anymore. I want you guys to think about other people when you start complaining about everything. Think about other people who are in so much worse positions than we are and than thank God that we have such a nice life!

I found this article under the Memphis blog, named “Eighteen and out.” It was about the last school shooting and that a nineteen year old man was involved. The author wants that people who are older than 18 years should not be allowed to go to a regular school anymore because they have a negative influence on the other pupils. In my view that is not the problem of the school shootings. The problems of the school shootings are more complex. It is the entire life situation of the youth and their families, our society and the way our politicians approach problems. Our politicians try to solve problems the easy way. If a tragedy took place they find a guy who is the scapegoat very fast and the problem is solved for the politicians. But sometimes problems are more complex and cannot be solved by just changing one small thing. We have to improve the entire situation and the living conditions of our people. If the family of this nineteen year old man would not have to live from minimum wage than his mother could sometimes talk about values with him because she might be sometimes at home and not 10 hours a day at work. If this nineteen year old “killer” would be equipped with values by his parents than he would probably not join a gang, sell drugs and shoot other kids. It is a problem of an entire society and not just a problem of age!

Propaganda

In the essay about propaganda, that we have to read for the class on this Thursday the author explained different techniques of how to use propaganda. The author defined the term “propaganda,” named issues where it is used, how it is used and by whom it is used. This essay was really interesting for me because I could find a lot of techniques that the author described in the movies of Michael Moore that I have to review. Moore uses these techniques to influence and to convince his spectator for a higher goal – make the United States a better place on earth. In my view, it is borderline to use propaganda because it is such a heavily convincing tool. There is no law that prohibits propaganda because we have freedom of speech and opinion but it is not easy to handle all this propaganda that tries to influence us every day. I think that one has to differentiate between “good” and “bad” propaganda. People like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, and Michael Moore use/d propaganda for a “good” goal but there were/are also tyrants, dictators and radical religious groups such as Adolf Hitler, Sadam Hussein, and Al Quaida who abuse/d this powerful tool. One cannot prevent to be influenced by other people or organizations but it is our duty to keep our eyes open. It is not always a bad thing to be influenced by others but we have to use our own mind to decide what is right and what is wrong.

What shall we do about shootings in Memphis City Schools?

Since I am writing my movie review about the movie “Bowling for Columbine” by Michael Moore, the issues Columbine massacre and gun control are very interesting for me. Today, I found the article “What do we do about guns in school?” by “Common At”, posted on February 11, 2008 on the Memphis blogs “Commentaries.” In the last seven days, there were two shootings in Memphis city schools. The author recommended that there should not be any reaction, at all. In contrast to the author, one of the school board members suggested that the schools should be shut down until metal detectors are installed and on alert. In my view, both reactions are exaggerated. Come on “Common At,” do you really think that doing nothing will help anybody? There were two school shootings in less than a week in just one city and you suggest doing nothing??? Doing nothing helped Adolf Hitler to keep the power in Germany but it will not help to prevent shootings in school. On the other hand, closing all schools down is also exaggerated because keeping the students dumb will not prevent school shootings, as well. I suggest to search for the reasons of the shootings and to change these circumstances. Why is it so easy for a child in America to get a gun??? In my opinion, the selling of guns should be much more restricted by the government and there should be more efficient laws of gun control so younger people/kids are not able to get guns that easy. Furthermore, I suggest that physiologists should talk to these kids that shoot and find out the reasons for their reaction. In my opinion, the reasons would be single parents, poverty, drugs, discrimination, racism, peer pressure and the list goes on and on… In order to prevent these problems, fundamental changes in the entire American society have to be made which is not that easy than just put metal detectors in schools. Social problems have to be solved to prevent these shootings!!!

Yesterday I watched the two movies “Sicko” and “Bowling for Columbine” by Michael Moore. I already watched “Bowling for Columbine” before and Michael Moore definitely influenced me and the way I think about the issues that are addressed in these movies. In my view, Michael Moore is an outstanding director and documentary film producer. He uses various items, such as music, personal stories, emotions, logos, pathos, and ethos to influence and convince his audience or spectators. In today’s world, it is very rare that movies are made about important local and global issues that affect everybody and which are big problems. Moore does not shrink from criticizing the American system and government, plus, he expresses his view about certain critical issues such as the health care system (in Sicko) or the arms craziness of the Americans in his movies. Moore does not care what other people might think about him and he is prepared to fight for his view and the right to express his own opinion in public. He is a person who tries to better the America that we are all living in and to open the eyes of many American citizens. These are all reasons why I admire him.

This morning I read in “The Daily helmsman” that Robert Dozier, forward of the Memphis tiger basketball team is two weeks suspended from playing basketball. On Sunday morning at 3:30 a.m., Dozier followed his ex-girlfriend downtown and slapped her two times in the face. Besides that it is a scandal that a man hits a woman and that Dozier should feel ashamed, he also jeopardized carelessly the success of his team. Furthermore, in general nobody should hit another person! If somebody has to hit another person to convey or to punish this person is weak and not really blessed with intelligence. Anyways, now that we are number one in the nation we need every player more than ever to stay on top and win the NCAA tournament. With his ruthless behaviour, Dozier also damaged immense the image of his team and the entire university. Dozier should be aware of the fact that he as a very successful student-athlete is a public figure and that he represents his team and The University of Memphis. As this public figure it should be clear for him that his actions, positive or negative, have consequences. He is not in the position to lapse like he did on the weekend without serious consequences. Next time before one of our athletes do something stupid which affects all other students they should think about their actions and what consequences they might have.

In this blog, I am referring to a post from “watchdog,” posted on January 23, 2008 which is about the salaries that the past city councils receive. According to watchdog, the city council left Memphis a $ 6 Mil bill, plus $ 1.5 Mil every year. Due to the fact that in 2001 a pension resolution was passed which said that every elected or appointed person has the right to retire early if this person served for 12 years no matter how old this person might be or what kind of living standard this person might have. We as Memphis citizens are paying their pensions by paying our taxes. In my view, that is a scandal. Who else in a free market is able to retire after 12 years in a certain job and gets health insurance and pension? This is not fair to all the other hard-working Memphian out there who go every day to work until they are seventy or even older. Who gives these politicians the right to receive all this money? - The politicians decide by themselves that they should receive all this money and that is a scandal!!! The politicians make decisions which ensure their income even after they retire early.

I am usually a person that tries to understand the other person’s point of view and to put myself into his or her position to be able to reproduce their train of thought. But sometimes I catch myself by doing what Wendy described in the exercise for today’s blogs, I just shut down and stop listening. Sometimes, I just shut down because I think that my oponents views are so unrealistic or not relevant but sometimes I tend to shut down because I already focus on a contra argument in my head. That I stop listening because I am thinking about my own counter arguments happened to me a lot more since I am in the United States because I have still trouble to speak fluently and correctly so I tend to verbalize the sentences and arguments in my head before I speak them out loud. This causes me to lose focus on what my conversation partner has to say.
One time, I heared Jorge W. Bush defending himself because of the intervetion into the Iraq and I just stopped listening during one sentence because I already had manifested my own point of view about this issue. I could not stand him and his excuses with the weapons of mass destructions that were never found. Even after five years he still used this argument and never said in public that one of the main reasons was that the United States had to intervent to maintain their oil demand. It was like “an elephant in the room” but nobody talked about it. When Bush gave his speech that were my only thoughts and I got angry listening to him so I just stopped listening. I was already thinking about 100 counter arguments. I still think that the military intervention from the United States into the Iraq was a big mistake but I think that the common citizen is not able to understand all the reasons for that war and that the “oil issue” was just one of them. Today, I think that I should have given him another chance to defend himself because I could have probably found out another reason, which might be not so obvious, why this war is taking place.

Memphis vs. Vanderbild
This weekend, the Memphis men’s Tennis team played in Nashville against Vanderbild. On Sunday at one o’clock, we played a team from the South Eastern Conference and they were the big favorites. Last year, we lost to them 7:0. This Sunday, we started pretty good in the doubles but after 30 minutes we were on all three double courts on break down. The tigers kept fighting, showed great energy and gave everything but finally we lost all three doubles. Afer doubles, our coach gave a motivating speech and encouraged us to “go out there and have some fun,” and “play as hard as you can.” I was really fired up after that speech and I wanted to win so badly that I was kind of tight. My arm was not relaxt and I could not swing fast, hard and normal. I tried so hard that, in fact, I played worse because my entire body was so tight. I was swinging fast but the ball did not move faster and I did not know what was going on. In contrast, my oponent was totally relaxt, he played really well and relaxt like he would not be nervous at all. I did not understand what was going on and before I could figure out why I was playing so bad the match was already over. I lost 6:2 6:1 against Vanderbild’s number two player. My team mates fought hard but after five and a half hours we were just able to win one match. That was a bad day for the Memphis tigers but there are not only great days where you play your best tennis and everything works. You have to get along with these situations and the person who is able to deal best with this tough chanllenges will be the winner. What I want to tell you with this story is that I will never give up. Yes, I had a bad day last week but this Sunday I will go out there and try as hard as I can again!

several rankings, for instance, “the best city for young professionals,” or “what’s your favorite city.” This person was wandering why Memphis was never mentioned in these rankings published by the “Forbe’s Magazine.” I mean, at the moment we have the number one basketball team in the country. How is it possible that we are not even mentioned in a ranking for a city for young professionals? We have the number one draft player for the NBA called Derik Rose and some more players who have the potential to play in the NBA, too. In my view, this magazine did not mention Memphis because of other facts that have nothing to do with sport. I did some research and I found out that Memphis has the 3rd highest crime rate in the United States and the most overweight citizens. Perhaps, these facts influenced the judges and make them ignore Memphis when it came to our positive sides, such as sports. I hope my views help you to find out why Memphis is discriminated in these statistics and I hope that we will be mentioned in 2008 as the number one basketball in the nation!!!

Democracy?

The article posted by “watchdog” on January 24, 2008 criticizes the current situation of Memphis voter’s society. In his blog, he argues that the citizens of Shelby County do not have the right to vote their own Sheriff, Tax Assessor, Trustee, Register and County Clerk because the major appoints all these important jobs. This right gives the major too much power, according to “watchdog.” In my opinion, it is very important that in a democracy the people have the power and not one person that rules over the citizens. If there is just one person who is allowed to decide everything and appoint just his own supporters there will never be any opposition and this political system comes closer to a local dictatorship than to a democracy. Opposition is one of the most important basics of democracy, and the will of the citizens should be represented by the politics and not the will of a single politician/”dictator.” I share “watchdog’s” opinion that people have to act, I appreciate that he reacts with this petition and I support his idea 110%. There should be more people like him who are not ignorant and who have the courage to take action and fight for the basic rights of every citizen in a democracy.

Class Struggle???

The article “Decline is the new Groth (?),” written by Santo published on February 13, 2007 inspired me because a few German institution, for instance, the “Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art.” From my point of view, this movement away from the big cities to the nice and comfortable suburbs is a movement which exists for years. The richer people tend to leave the big cities and move to the family friendly suburbs, such as Germantown in Memphis, because they think that the city is more dangerous. If this movement will go on for the next years, one day all poor people will live in the big cities which will fall more and more into despair except some big companies in which rich people invest. Imagine an America where all minorities such as African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians etc. live in the cities/downtown and all the privileged, white and rich Americans live in the nice suburbs. It will become even more dangerous for the richer people to go into the city because the minorities will envy these people and also want to get some of their wealth. But the problem is that the rich people would have still to come into the cities to buy food and other goods because they will not be produced or sold in the suburbs. This movement makes the increasing cap between rich and poor and the two class society in America even more visible. A solid middle class tends to disappear in the American society which creates anger, frustration, crime, and many more problems because the class struggle that America had in the time of the industrialization will come back. Politicians have to act to encounter this movement or a civil war is not far away anymore. This might sound exaggerated but it is closer than everybody thinks.