Cuba… moments

A friend recently described my facial expression with the following sentence, I will post it in the original german and I think its really flattering!

“…den total entspannten, mit einem weichen lächeln auf das antlitz gezeichnet, in vollendeter zufriedenheit mit sich selbst und der welt, an einem strahlenden morgen, irgendwo mitten auf dem kubanischen eiland auf der fahrt gen süden in einem völlig demontierten zugabteil das unter anderem nach exkrementen gestunken hat, dass es kaum auszuhalten war…”

the translation is is that even on an old demolishd overheated train, travelling towards Santiago the Cuba and after 14 hours without sleep and next to a smelly toilett, I am a happy and smiley person. 🙂

G8 summit 2007– At worlds end

Another G8 meeting, this time its Germany! The big players meet in a seaside spa, called Heiligendamm – to talk about Global warming, poverty in Africa and Globalisation. The summit lasts for about 3 days and costs about 100 Millon Euros. If I am correct that makes 385 Euros for every second of those three days. When big players like George Bush, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin meet somewhere, you can bet that a lot of folks are going to show up to protest against them, which is actually one of the main reasons why this summit has such a big price tag.

Sealing of the property and having 16.000 police officers protect the most powerfull men and woman can’t be done on the cheap. If the summit would last for a year, it would cost around 12 Billion Euros (12.000.000.000), about 16 times the German government plans to invest in development aid for 2008. Thank God it only lasts for three days.