" Lilium Frankensteinaeus " ...

... is the name of the beauty to the left, grown and cultivated in the hospedaje " Royal Frankenstein ". Truly a real gem !

Peru

This BBC documentary was partly filmed near my current  residence of Cusco. It shows the amazing friendliness and hospitality of the population living in the highlands despite the harsh conditions they have to cope with. Furthermore it gives some insights, how a guinea pig is prepared for dinner or the breeding of the alpaca. Interesting indeed.
Sad news reached me recently. Jeff Powers, owner of one of Cusco´s premier waterholes, the " Norton Rat´s Tavern", passed away after sustaining grave injuries following an motorcycle accident near his home of Tarapoto in Northern- Peru. Jeff  is well known among bikers all over South America for riding a Norton " Commando " and his willingness to give useful advice and support.I will keep him in good commemoration.

Switzerland

Last week Switzerland had a referendum about the free movement of persons within the EU and the majority voted in favour of a more controlled migration, something that is common practice in most countries outside the EU. Now many EU politicians are not used anymore to sovereign decisions made by sovereign people of sovereign countries and started to howl in outrage. Right now the discussions mostly concern Bulgaria and Romania and i ask myself , whether it is a good thing when many of their brightest minds leave their countries instead of staying home trying to improve the economic situation. On the other hand lots of  have-nots immigrate in search of a better life, what is completely understandable, and try to abuse the German social system ( a trade licence for 5 Euro enables that), while others are willing to work in the low wage sector and therefore are saluted by the German economy, which will keep undercutting wages in some areas. Germany meanwhile is a gangster´s paradise,  partly because of the EU . Egbert Buelles was a German senior prosecutor for 30 years and in his book " Germany - Country Of Criminals " he describes his war against the organized crime, where he fought a losing battle against slave traders or organisations like the Camorra - open borders make their criminal mischief a lot easier. Now i am not xenophobic and prefer to live in a multicultural society, however the EU with their free movement of people comes with plenty of negatives. Writing of the EU i still want to mention the approaching EU-USA free trading zone, something Switzerland  neither likely has to deal with. I already can envision myself , how CEO´s of big US corporations rub their hands, who after they have wiped the floor with EU politicians  got the go-ahead to export all sorts of garbage like gen manipulated seeds or chlorine chicken into the EU. Should a EU country refuse the entry of some of these goods the manufacturer can sue the country in question for compensation and certainly we are looking at many millions of taxpayers Euros changing hands. Congrats to the Swiss for the outcome of their referendum and not being a part of the EU.

" You took the words right out of my mouth " ...

... is not only a great song by Meat Loaf, but also a line fitting nicely to a quote from Victoria Nuland, U.S. agent for Europe. In a telephone conversation with the U.S ambassador in the Ukraine she said : F*** the E.U. ! A slogan, who woke up chancellora Merkel out of her winter sleep ( " Absolutely unacceptable " ) and will pretty soon be popular on t-shirts and bumper stickers. In an earlier post i already mentioned , why i am strictly against the E.U. and the parlament elections in May are the next opportunity to put matters straight. If every country minds his own business according to its economic power, mentality and culture and they all live and trade peacefully together this is something i certainly prefer to becoming enslaved by a financial elite. Meanwhile the German constitutional court expressed concerns about the purchase of bonds by the EZB - i can help out there. Article 125 of the  Lisbon treaty from 2009 clearly states, that a Euro bailout fund is forbidden, however this is just another example, where the government breaches the law and unfortunately the constituitional court buckles under their and the EZB´s pressure.

World Beer Drinker´s Forum In Pilcopata

... discussing the simplicity of the Peruvian bar culture. No fancy decoration, no sports blaring flatscreens and no rip off merchants. Only a table, something to sit on along with a bottle of beer and everything is set up for a freaking good time.

Michael In The Slaughterhouse ?

Apologies for the insensitive title referring to the multiple Formula 1 racing champion Michael Schumacher, who is comatose after a skiing accident. However nowadays it is common practice, that people in that unfortunate situation are prematurely declared braindead and their devastated relatives urged to give permission for an organ donation. Since there is an shortage of organs there is an enormous, mostly illegal, market trading with them and full with unscrupulous characters. The medical system in general is in a pretty sorry state. Doctors have to swear an Hippocratic oath, imposing them to do the best they can in the patient`s interest and that seems to have become an meaningless ritual, because many of them rather care about tidy bonuses they receive from manufacturers, when they implant for example a certain number of hip joints. The result is a huge number of unnecessary surgerys, some of these even more ruining the health of patients, which are apparently perceived as mere soulless money spinners. There is no denying, that good health is the most valuable asset enabling us not getting in touch with the above mentioned folks.

Guitar Blues

Price tag ... for the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) - 690000.- Euro. ... for one week of Ronaldo´s football service - 288000.- $. ... for a square foot of a Park Avenue appartment in NYC - 270000.- $. ... for playing the blues - priceless.

Outlook For 2014

Mon Dieu, Air France preponed my flight to Paris en route to Lima and as things stand i will spend New Year's Eve sitting on Charles de Gaulles airport, a place not short with one star ratings. However i will get over it, since there is hardly a better way to start the new year with a lenghty timeout from the daily grind with another trip probably to Vietnam later on the cards. 2014 features two major events, the football World Cup and the EU parliament elections. The World Cup is something, more and more people get crazy about, proving a national identity is deeply engrained and thus a project like the EU has to do with geopolitics, the striving for power of a finance elite and is nothing the population will benefit from in the long run. The former Soviet Union flew apart as well as Yugoslavia, because people don't accept any longer to be under the thumb from another ethnic group. And now we Europeans want to do it the other way around, perhaps even worth want to be governed by those folks occupying the top floors of this terrifying building, the new European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt ? To my delight the number of EU sceptics is growing and i hope the elections reflect that.  Although i sometimes think i should ignore all these absurdities for a more jaunty life , looking away is of course not an option, especially not during the World Cup, when politicians like to pass laws behind our backs intending to get ahold of our hard earned. So i keep trying to get on terms with all that razmatazz, attempt to filter out what is true and what is manipulation and write my point of view here once in a while, hoping to give something to think about. As always cheers for visiting my blog and a great 2014.

Christmas Sports

As ever i stayed clear of the Christmas shopping frenzy and rather thought about , how to take ol' Fred Done of Betfred to the cleaners with his Goals Galore, where both teams have to score. After some number crunching i came up with the following games : Gillingham v Leyton Orient / Huddersfield v Derby / Middlesbrough v Burnley / Bradford v Rotherham and Port Vale v Notts County @ odds of 17*** Only 8 of 10 teams scored, so Fred got away unscathed. Now over to the sport of Kings. Also on December, 26th the King George VI Chase takes place in Kempton. You could make a case for every runner in this top class field, why he could win the race, however my preference is for the striking grey Al Ferof (FR). He missed last season due an injury, but ran excellent in an recent race and seems to be back at his best. He definitely has, what it takes to win the chase and i am pretty happy with the early odds of 5 i got at Ladbrokes.*** 3rd

Putin

Like him or loathe him - i for my part have some sympathy for the Russian president and not only for granting asylum to Edward Snowden. To me democracy becomes more and more a mockery, when elected toothless and wishy-washy politicians of debt stricken countries or Barack Obama, who let us know he is good in killing people, then behaves like a silly teenager and is good friends with Wall Street , have nothing to oppose the financial power of global corporations. Here in Germany i can observe their influence day in, day out and in this scenario i certainly prefer Putin with his "controlled" democracy, than some CEO, who only cares about profits and is not squeamish with his methods. This anecdote shows Wladimir Putin has also a good sense of humor : He once invited Angela Merkel """over to the Kreml and knowing of her fear of dogs he let his puppy in to greet the flinching guest too.

""" Angela Merkel was just confirmed as the German chancellor for four more years and she swore to do her best to keep any damage away from the German people. Maybe this video shows her true attitude towards Germany and that Alexander Dibelius, a high ranked Goldmann Sachs associate, is her advisor speaks volumes as well.

Rwanda

Intriguing news from Rwanda, a country infamous for the Tutsi genocide in 1994. For quite a while now plastic bags are banned there and upon arrival at Kigali airport, luggage is searched and they are taken away, when found. That is a far cry from the weatern throwaway society, where micoscopical small plastic pieces can even be detected in toothpaste or cosmetics. These pieces eventually show up in waterbodies, where they are a menace to the flora and fauna and it is about time Rwanda is taken as an role model in this subject.

Art

That nightmare in orange to the left is called " balloon dog " and was auctioned at Christie's in New York for ... 2,50 $ or perhaps a tenner ? Nope, some unknown bidder dished out 55 million US $ to purchase it and i would assume he is a member of the champagne society, earned his fortune effortless and never experienced the joy of dollars earned with own hands. Creator of that botch is Jeff Koons, who came to prominence with a relationship to Cicciolina. He also once tried to erect a work of art of unparalleled ugliness here in Hamburg, however the plan could be thwarted. Anyway, let's hope Champagne Charlie has a big enough basement to stash that thing away for good.

The Grand Coalition

Once again our fellow politicians from the CDU and SPD parties were busy with themselves for several weeks now, but eventually came to grips to form a coalition by sorting out disagreements and without a noteworthy opposition. The contract comprises 185 pages and this higly recommended video explains , what's it all about. The other video below has a speech by Edmund Stoiber ( CSU ) set to music, unfortunately without subtitles. And if you haven't cried "enough" yet here is a double featuring chancellora Angela Merkel. At least as laughing stock she is useful.

" Those, who were elected do not decide and those, who decide were not elected " - H. Seehofer (CSU) -

Fashion

Last week Germany played a friendly football match versus Italy and while the Italians were dressed as usual in blue, the Germans displayed the outfit pictured on the left instead of white shirts with black shorts. So while the Italians take some pride in tradition ( blue is the color of their former kingdom ) and call their team the " Squadra Azzurra " the German team rather looked like the "Squadra Spaghetti Pomodoro". My only explanation is, that the very affluent German Football Association ( DFB ) along with Adidas expect the simple minded, flag waving football fan to rush to the store and cough up a lot of money for it, hence for the DFB tradition means next to nothing, while commerce is the name of the game - as usual.

Punting For The Philippines

After having watched the aftermath of typhoon " Haiyan ", who struck the Philippine islands with enormous force i organised a fundraiser to collect a little bit of money. I have two bets for the weekend and should they be successful i will donate the profits entirely to an aid organisation and hope others with some change sitting in their Paypal account will chip in as well. 1.) TAP NIGHT to win the Paddy Power Gold Cup Chase on Saturday, Nov.16. Trained by Lucinda Russell and ridden by champ A. P. McCoy i expect a bold show in this wide open contest. Betfair offers odds @ 13 2.) World Cup Qualifier UKRAINE - FRANCE on Friday,Nov. 15. Both teams under immense pressure and will focus on defense, so i believe in a 0:0 correct halftime score @ 2.40 *** Tap Night ran okay, just wasn't good enough. However the second bet was successful and left me with a profit i will donate to an aid organisation.