Ramadan

Today is the first day of Ramadan, which means that millions of people all over the world will refrain not only from any food or water, but from any worldly pleasure, too. That makes it pretty much like Lent. But it's not only about starving oneself or about any perverted pleasure of torturing oneself like that. It's about raising awareness for how lucky we actually are, for how spoiled we are considering how much time we spend whining. And especially when we think about the endless people worldwide living through a horrible situation just like in east Africa.
I'll be honest: I feel like starving now and I don't like it. I love food and I often eat quite something.
And even though I could eat a whole cow, knowing that I will end up eating in the evening makes so much more bearable.
BUT: What about people who just don't know? What about all the people who do not even have a proper meal to complain about? Muslim or not, Ramadan or Lent or whatever, we all should consider ourselves a bit more lucky. But more importantly: We all should help others feeling lucky, too.
Happy Ramadan.

Donation

I'm a potential organ donor. I carry the card allowing the removal of my organs in the case of my death with me every day. Oddly, I received a lot of criticism for it. The reason for this is mistrust and mostly everyone is mistrusted.
Especially aid organisations. These certain people always claim to be willing to donate in order to help the needy, the victims of natural catastrophes in particular. But that's mostly it, just that. No real donation happens, nothing more than sympathy is the result. And they justify this by questioning how much of their donation actually goes to the needy, which is a totally understandable concern.
BUT: By not donating at all, the needy eventually won't receive any help. So even if only 1% of your donation is actually donated, you will have made a difference!
That's why I beg you to help the people of Africa, living through a horrible famine these days.

Picture taken by Colin Crowley for Ssave the Children

Save the Children - Umi's Recovery

Thanks for reading this. I hope it helped you to do the right thing.

Prejudice

Since I'm part of an ethnic AND religious minority, I'm fully aware of how wrong prejudices are. Often I can understand what causes such thinking and sometimes I won't even blame people thinking that way.
BUT: What on earth causes justifies me, a victim of prejudice myself, to have prejudices against others???
That's just not right, it's plain wrong.
I realized it last week. I was about to buy a second hand tablet-pc and I got in touch with one German engineer (I know that from his automatic e-mail signature) and one rather young Russian with a barely any complete sentence and a rather heavy accent on the phone. Even though the price was the same for both, both objects had some pros and some cons for them (be it accessories or the location where to pick it up), I still refused to call the Russian a second time... only for my damn prejudices!
This is just wrong. And that's why I'll call him now.

Trench Work

Turks are often to be found doing the hard manual labor which is physically exhausting and mostly not too healthy. Reason for this is partly the lag of some major education. But that would apply for many Germans too and you still won't see as many of them doing that kind of work.
It's not that Turks are that dilligent and that Germans are the lazy ones (the degree of education would look much different then), but one thing is for sure: Turks are often not only responsible for themselves but for their family as well. That alone forces them to earn some money somehow. In addition to that they just do whatever needs to be done.
I just think that it's not right to look down on cab drivers, construction workers or on people being self-employed or working for street-cleaning.

Social Status

This is a tough topic.
Because it's not only about hard facts. It's mainly about the individual perception of the social status of different groups of our society. In this case it's about cars.
The current cliché goes like this: Germans do not care much about aesthetics, the engine should run well and it should be safe to drive that car, that's all.
However for Turks applies this: The car should solely represent how rich they are.
Both clichés are obviously absurd. But like any cliché, I guess there is true aspect to it.
What's more important though, is the reason for such an attitude.
My wild guess is this: The Turks, migrating majorly to Germany since 1961, came here for only one reason: money. And money was the only way to measure how successful they were. Because they mostly came from rural regions of Turkey they had similar levels of education (which was pretty low) and similar skills.
And thinking rationally about it: there might be no better way to show off your well-being through something else than a car. Not everybody gets to see your house, even fewer people get to see it from the inside. Not everybody might notice your watch and only very few could appreciate your choice of fashion.
But a car is something you could be seen with every day. Many peope will notice, especially if it's a new and expensive car. And that's why cars are so popular. It's that easy.

Mercedes-Benz by bihabik.deviantart.com

I would love to own a car like this myself, but I can already say this for sure: it would be such a waste to spend money on something like this. Because even a minor scratch would be horrible! I would not be able to enjoy driving a car like this because I would be just too cautious...

Perception of Art

Talking art is difficult enough, especially for someone who's not too knowledgeable in this area.
But it's interesting enough that some folks consider even video games as art. Why not though?
Video games were never made exclusively for kids (I actually think that only a rather small part of them were designed for kids, but well).
But either way, with video games maturing over time (Pong is going to celebrate it's 40th anniversary next year) it's only natural to see a few games with more depth from time to time (form my perspective, recent games like that are Heavy Rain, Flower and maybe even L.A. Noire).
What's most important though is to stay open-minded and at least try not to approach such things with biases. It's not that I can fully comprehend someone's view on any given thing, but that does not mean that it's nonsense, so I'll just keep my mouth shut. We all should try that at some point.

Languages

I speak four languages: 2 of them fluently of which I consider one my native language, one fairly and one rudimentarily. I'm trying to make sure that I'm able to speak all four fluently, especially Turkish which I only speak mediocre.
The reason why I especially want to improve my Turkish skills is because I consider myself Turkish, even though I was born in Berlin, Germany and speak German fluently. In addition to that, I consider Germany my homeland.
I just wonder if and to what extend my native language determins my identity.