Karsten's last Logbook Entry - Back in Europe

An Inconvient Return

There is not even an image I would like to show. Its the absence of beauty. Kind of. A matter of taste, I suppose. On our Madagascar journey, I fell in love. Very. And to keep the powers of the universe in balance, I also unintentionally fell in hate.

Our last days in Madagascar rushed through. It became a hurry. Things we so desperately wanted to do were not possible in this short amount of time. Once in the plane, I got a last glimpse of what has become my life for two month. Rainforest on the one side. Klara on the other side. However, the inconvenience this time was no nexus of typical comedy situations commented by a much more civilized and intelligent kind of narcissistic victim. The actual inconvenience goes a little deeper...

Berlin, 25th of June. Airport. Raindrops glue to my glasses and distort my view. I feel alienated. Everything here is in order, systematized, over regulated. There are aluminum signs that tell parents that its their own responsibility if their kids get hurt when playing on public green space. While we've been to Madagascar, my car in Berlin got towed off because they started construction work in a parking area and my car touched the blocked zone, although it has never been an obstacle to the workers. That will cost me 170 €. Thats more than you've got to pay if you steal sth. in a supermarket or if you dodge paying the fare. I wanted to meet a friend in an open-air pub, but since it was too full that day, a greasy security guard refused to let me in if I don't call my friend via cell to pick me up at the entrance. My cell was not yet activated and handing out my bag or passport was no option for the stupid security poser. I went to a supermarket to get some fruit and accidentally ended up standing next to a fifty something discount chaser who was highly indignant at my whispered realization, that those apples come from New Zealand instead from within our own country. She indirectly but loudly called me a hysteric eco-minded spendthrift and bought these apples in defiance, not in need.



Things that recently make me become emotional

Luxury problems, isn't it? Where does our luxury come from? Even the poorest in Europe can afford an Android cell phone that is faster and more practical than any military supercomputer 12 years ago. If we wouldn't stab our mines and monocultures into the remaining islands of purity and legally enslave or banish people, our 81 Mio. country Germany wouldn't be able to have 120 Mio. signed in cell phones. The numbers are growing. Europe recently bought the coastlines of Madagascar as fishing grounds and now we overfish an area, that was meant to feed the poorest and ship it all around the planet into our cities. People are starving now. Wanna know where most of that fish goes to? No, not onto your dishes. We throw it away! Its rubbish! Just because the minimum durability date is slightly over due in their supermarket graves. Thats a fact, dammit. Our "freedom" is build upon the shoulders of millions of people who don't even have electricity. Our luxury is a parasitical effect of overexploitation. And there is yet no significant intent noticeable that our system is about to react upon this awareness we all usually have.

I mean, whats going on here? Aren't we supposed to work together and make us trust each other? We call it civilization, don't we? But we let others - call them the "evil corporations" - do the criminal acts and after, we pay them for it! And then continue to call them evil. Reminds me a little bit of the behavior of a miffy princess.

It appears to me that too much regulation leads to laziness of moral and mind. And heart. And too much luxury simply leads to arrogance. And ignorance. If you look at all of that mathematically, you will come to the point that our free peoples are heading to a dead end within the next thirty years. This is simply math. No need to play the idealist here. Pride comes before a fall.

I went to Madagascar in order to find out, what we change to safe that country and its wonderful nature. Now I come back and all I can realize is that we need to change ourselves.