Kulturissimo_Janvier2018

Another year has

egun and I’m surely not the only one to

be shivering in my shoes and wonde-

ring what new atastrophe is going

to befall us hapless humans, and

our animals, in 2018. 7ill onald

Trump, the „mentally deranged

U- dotard“ andÉor „Little

Rocket Man“ spark off a nu-

clear conflict that will extin-

guish all life on the planet¶

Has the MDU-D already

lit the fuse of the time-

bomb in the Middle East,

with his „recognition“ of

erusalem as the „capi-

tal“ of Israel¶ Or will

disaster perhaps come

creeping in, as it did in

the 1Î0s, here in

urope¶ 7ill the -V

sweep back to power here

in Luxembourg¶ And who

can tell what the disastrous

contaminating effect on ot-

her countries will be of the ex-

treme right party, the

P&, doing so terrifyingly well in

last October’s legislative elections

and becoming a member of the coali-

tion overnment in Austria under

young &VP hancellor, -ebastian Kurz,

who lacks everything save ruthless ambiti-

on, and taking charge of the key areas of

Defence, Foreign policy and ome Af-

fairs¶ How will their protectionist, natio-

nalist policies affect Europe’s already dan-

gerously shaky and divided attitude to-

wards mmigrants¶ 7ill still reasonable

governments gradually, imperceptibly give

way under pressure and

oin in the swel-

ling European chorus calling for drastic

restrictions on immigration and the pena-

lization of asylum seekers¶ And in the U-,

how will Trump’s tacit recognition of the

u Klux Klan affect worsening race relati-

ons and discrimination against foreigners

Mexicans® in the U-¶ And what of his

equally misguided support for the „una-

lienable right“ to bear arms and the resul-

ting refusal to face down the powerful gun

obby: How many more massacres will

there be in North America this year¶ How

many more innocent humans must die,

not just in America but worldwide, before

the

asters of 7ar, the manufacturers and

exporters of arms in general and the Na-

tional Rifle Association in particular final-

ly assume some kind of human responsibi-

lity for their products and what is done

with them. Or before politicians worldwi-

utlaw, or at least make some serious

effort to control the production of the

arms that are used in the wars that make

the people flee and become refugees and

be thrown on the mercy of

oliticians in

Europe, who then have to cope with situa-

tions they cannot control, let along mas-

ter. It’s all so predictable and unstoppable

and depressingo Let’s take five on a

lighter note to wonder whether

ueen Eli-

zabeth will finally resign, or abdicate, or

do whatever queens do when they’re total-

ly pissed off with reigning over Brexitan-

nia, and face the horrifying threat of a

state visit by D. Trump. 7hen all

one wants to do is

etire to the

peace of one’s country resi-

dence, play with one’s corgis

and watch that video where

one parachutes down into

the Olympic ames besi-

de ames Bond¶

orry, can’t keep up the

levity. Have just re-

membered Erdogan.

7hat’s he up to now,

sounding off about

Austria’s anti-Islamic

stand on refugees¶

And what exactly are

his plans for

urkey in

the Middle East¶ At

the time of writing, the

-ultan seems to have

implicitly recognised

East erusalem as the ca-

pital of somewhere, by

proposing to open a consu-

late there. Our world is un-

dergoing a period of dange-

rous instability, of

npredictabi-

lity, of realignments, opportunist-

ic alliances and jostling power strug-

gles. In Europe, will the

isegrad roup

be joined by Austria and become a solid

bloc of five countries in the east¶ 7ill the

general lurch to the right leave any room

for the parties that still have some preten-

sion to social democracy¶ And

;

orldwi-

de, who will be end up allied with whom¶

The U-, Putin,

hina¶ 7hat will our

world look like this time next year¶ If it

were a film, it would have to be

-rated:

„ ontains scenes of extreme violence.

May cause distress to the sensitive.“ But

what can we do except worry¶ And keep

on feeding our birds, who are starving be-

cause homo self-named „sapiens“ is killing

off the insects they feed ono

esterday, sang the Beatles, all my trou-

bles seemed so far away. But that was half

a century ago. There was just as much

wrong with the world then, but we belie-

ved we could change it. Now, in 2018, we

are reduced to wondering how long it will

be before

ombies, aka bots and algo-

rithms, take over the world. Or whether

perhaps they already haveo

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N°164