Caramblogage

Society has become so accelerated now that any real-world experience is exploited almost immediately, given the commercial imperative ... This sentence set me thinking. It would set anyone thinking, especially after two weeks of intensive dissection of the highly esoteric texts of one Marshall MCLuhan, one of the most famous media critics and philosophers that the sixties have brought forth- ut my private surveys on the Berlin U and S bahn have shown that, even though people seem to be fundamentally aware of what he has said (the medium is the message...), no-one seems to actually kow the man. Which is fine by me. The two weeks I spent with marshall were very interesting. They forced me to actually dig very deep into his texts to understand what the man was writing, but once I had understood what he had written, it became a process of reaffirming my position on this planet and towards other people, the media and the world in general. During that time, I held a short talk about on...

The other day, I was overjoyed while listening to the radio. The BBC, to be more precise. Amongst all the wars and explosions and job losses and elections and SpacshipOne winning the Ansari X-Prize, a name that was like unto music to my egocentric nervous system was uttered. "and now our corresponent Karam (i suppose, for that is how you would usually spell the name) Allan reports from...." I was piqued, especially when hearing a woman reporting. Now Caram is one of those strange names like Dominique that can be applied to both the male and the female of the species, but to that day I had yet to hear of a woman bearing it. So thank you, BBC, for expanding my cultural horizon more than you already have, and giving me the opportunity to reconsider my position in the world as is related to my name.

Recently, on a cinema outing to the Potsdamer Platz, a friend of mine and myself came accross a most heartening form of rebellion. Several temporary stands had been set up at various locations around the Plaza, in the Cinemas and the adjacent mall. The were manned and womaned by anti-Bush campaigners who were trying to get American Expats living in Berlin (of which there must be about ten- 15 thousand) to register for their voice to be heard in the upcoming presidential elections from across the Atlantic. Very motivated and very energetic, passers- by who fit the profile of a possible American (which is everyone) whether they had regiostered to vote. Their problem in this case was not voter apathy, for the stands were rather well visited (though not as well as the MOMA exhibition, which we had gone to before), but the lack of Americans attending. I counted many Germans with an interest in getting rid of George Dubya, quite a few tourists (some of them were American, but they vote...