by Michael Winkler |
At
the beginning of today’s e-mail I would like to start with the content of the
latest newsletter from the French news service Réseau Voltaire (www.reseauvoltaire.net)
which I received yesterday morning. The original message (at the end of the
entire e-Mail) is in French – a friend from Paris has been so kind to
translate the content for me (which I try to re-translate into English):
In
an interview, which will be published in the New Yorker, the President of
Pakistan declared, that he doesn’t believe anymore, that Ossama Bin Laden was
the wirepuller of the attacks on September 11th. “I don’t think,
that it is possible, that Ossama Bin Laden could have done that from the
mountains. Perhaps he was the sponsor, the financial supporter, the motivating
power. But those, who committed the crime, were much more modern. I don’t
think, that he was the brain or the deviser. This was someone else.”, said
President Musharraf.
On
October 4, 2001, the Pakistani Government declared that they were convinced of
the guilt of Ossama Bin Laden based on documents which they had been given from
US authorities. General Musharraf
was, along with George
W. Bush and Tony Blair, one of the three bosses of the coalition which waged the
war in Afghanistan. Pakistan limited its support to the logistics of the
military operations though.
Well,
important to me was beside the main statement, that the President of Pakistan
doesn’t believe that Bin Laden was the main suspect, in particular the
paragraph “...based on documents which they had been given from US
authorities …”. … Everybody can imagine whatever one wants to. But I am quite
excited who will be the next to make a statement. To avoid further revelations I
guess, only a war à la “Wag the Dog” could help the USA. But a real war is
always “better” – the military industry earns much more than the film
industry. Iraq is “under construction”. Anyway, even if Iraq has invited the
military inspectors – Washington is sure about one thing: “the Evil” is
always faster.
I
would like to continue the unfinished e-Mail “Money & Economy” and have
thus to postpone the e-Mail regarding “Germany & America” again.
Last
time I concluded with the following question:
Where are we then, if we have reached – after a long drought – just the
level before the last big market crash?
The
already mentioned economical scandals (Enron, WorldCom, Xerox etc.) in the US
are likely only the tip of the iceberg. In Germany it is almost the same, even
if the methods are less criminal and the dimensions are less drastic. A nice
article you can find in the “Manager Magazine” – title: “Appearances are
deceiving“ (Link: http://www.manager-magazin.de/geld/artikel/0,2828,193613,00.html - only in German)
What
does all that mean for Capitalism? What happened to its meta-layer “Money”,
which is above and behind all things? Was it given too much value? That this is
apparently like that and that the majority of human mankind has been influenced
by that, we can realise day by day. We complain or wonder about if some products
(e.g. coffee, petrol, meat etc. etc.) get constantly more expansive or cheaper
and forget about the fact, that one had to pay for the same products 3 or 5
times more 40 years ago. Money was originally invented to disestablish barter
trade and to give things a comparable value. That the relations are no relations
anymore we can see more and more often (sport, art, stock exchange etc.). For
the “big” in this world it is a fun to afford things which cost the money
that is the same as the gross domestic product of Ethiopia (2000: approx. 6.3
Billion US$). Perhaps one may ask, how people live there and from what they
live, … if they still live.
And
then maybe you will recognise, that your standard of living is not necessarily
related to your quality of living. One should really look at it plainly from
time to time, that money is not just a figure on your account, but a thing to
afford other things which are important. But this already raises another topic:
“What is important in life?” and even much more decisive “What is really
important in life?”
Well,
however, today I went to my bank for the first time in two months time. The big
A0 advertisements “77 % yield return” were gone. Instead of that there was a
modest A4 sheet on the desk “Invest conservatively”: “Short-term – 2
weeks holiday, medium term – Your dream car, long-term – Your own house”.
It is so easy to be “conservative” J
I
wish you a nice and sunny weekend, Yours Michael.
You
may forward this e-mail to people you know – I don’t mind that at all.
PS:
To add something to the topic „relation & dimension“: „The budget for
defence of the USA for 2003 is reported to be raised at 11 % to in all 379
Billion US$ [which is more than 60 times the GDP of Ethiopia]. Most of the money
will not be used for anti-terror-related issues but for big armament projects,
which had been in peril to fail before the Bush government came to power.”
(Link: http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/12299/1.html)
MUSHARRAF NE CROIT PLUS À LA THÈSE BEN LADEN
(Réseau Voltaire - 07/08/02) Dans une interview a
paraître dans le New-Yorker, le président du Pakistan déclare ne plus croire
qu¹Oussama Ben Laden ait été le commanditaire des attentats du 11 septembre.
" Je ne pense pas qu¹il soit possible qu¹Oussama ait pu faire ça depuis
les montagnes (Š) Il était peut-être le sponsor, le financier, la force de
motivation. Mais ceux qui ont perpétré cela était bien plus modernes (Š) Je
ne pense pas qu¹il ait été le cerveau ou le planificateur. C¹était quelqu¹un
d¹autre " a indiqué le président Musharraf.
Le 4 octobre 2001, le gouvernement pakistanais s¹était
déclaré convaincu par les documents transmis par les autorités US de la
culpabilité d¹Oussama Ben Laden. Le général Musharraf avait été, aux côtés
de George W. Bush et de Tony Blair, l¹un des trois chefs de la Coalition
globale qui conduisit la
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