The Greater Middle East laying before the Himalaya mountain range in Central Asia. How come we don’t know anything about that part of the world but we know what Heidi and Spencer are doing right now? What the freaking hell. It’s so wrong and annoying and… just lame. Or is that just me?

I’ve read two novels set in said region and a travel book about different countries of the Greater Middle East. Currently, I am reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin which is an astounding read explaining how Mortenson built over 60 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 25,000 children, including 14,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before. Said he, “you can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change”.

My mom was actually the one who pointed out to me that I’ve been subconsciously interested in the Greater Middle East; reading books and watching shows on televison. Granted, the books I’ve read so far are not many and certainly not enough to even begin to portray the area in the right light, cover all its history and political conflicts. Obviously not.

I think, I’m also more interested in the people there and the culture. All we ever hear is about Western countries intruding and how the war is processing and that women are oppressed (except in a handful of major cities), kids don’t have schools, religion is an extremely important factor, the winters are rough and so forth - which are all interesting things to know in itself - but we never hear about the people who maybe live out of reach of the war - yet still terrified and influenced by its aftermath.

More importantly, we never hear about anything in detail or about everyday life and we can never be sure whether what we hear or read is actually true, or still true. It seems as though no source is qualified enough to deliver actual information without shaping and forming it to their own preference.

It’s enraging.

Countries such as Pakistan, Aghanistan and Kazakhstan which are of course well-known around the globe for mostly awful reasons and the lesser-known small countries in between are incredibly interesting and fascinating to me.

I’ll be in Dortmund tomorrow because my friend N has to go there for a study/apprentice interview and I’ll be her Shoulder To Cry On and there’s a huge bookstore there that I just love. I could spend days in there and I’m just going to look through the rows and rows of pretty new books and endulge in the New Book Smell until she gets back from her Lunch With The Boss. I’m going to try and see if they have more books on Central Asia there, and not just typical travel books. Also, I’m going to try not to come up with Capitalized Names For Certain Phrases anymore.

Picture source: here. 

Germany just beat Turkey 3:2 and thereby made it to the Euro 2008 final! As with the World Cup of ‘06, Germany is going to be soccer crazy for the next few days.

More than 500,000 people watched the game at Berlin’s fanmile right n front of the Brandenburg Gate last night, forming the largest public viewing area worldwide - again, just like during the world cup.

With all the Turkish people living in Germany, there have been reports about how this game wouldn’t go over without violence, how fans would attack each other and whatnot. So far, the Turkish seem to be great about not winning this game, though.

This is so amazing, oh - my - God. Soccer really is the best sport there is, all these emotions and everything - just wow.

Next stop: the final, against either Spain or Russia on Sunday.

Also: more on my trip to Maastricht and Aachen tomorrow.

Picture source: here.

Stop killing off whales for economic purposes. Stop killing them the way you do, stop making them suffer so much before they are, then, finally released by death. Stop killing off an animal that is so much more beautiful, so much more dignified, so much more important than you and who’s existence on this planet is so much more justified than yours.

Stop arresting those who try their everything to keep you from committing such irreversible crimes and doing such irreversible damage. They are not in the wrong, those (corruptively involved in) killing whales are and consequently they need to be brought to trial.

Under no circumstances is what you are doing considered okay.

Just fucking stop.

Everybody go here to find out more about two Greenpeace activists that have been arrested for exposing a whale meat scandal and see what you can do to help. Go here to write to Japan’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister - it’s the least one can do and it only takes a second.

Nothing about commercial whaling in Japan is okay but going so far as to arrest those who still have some sense - God, it makes me so mad.

It just makes me so, so mad.

Picture source: here. The whale pictured above is not the type of whale that’s commonly hunted in Japan.