currents and fuses

well… nothing political this time. It is more about my home and the electric appliances in it. On Saturay we had a blackout for a minute or two. As the power came back, it obviously came back with all force… so the fuseswitch which connects the water boiler with the circuit was inflamed and stopped working. The result was, that we had no hot water. So I decided not to wait for the electriacian because the possibility that he can do it better than anyone else goes against zero. I bought a new fuseswitch and started to intall it. Of coure I removed all fuses which were in charge for the bathroom. I thought. I did not have in mind, that some of the sockets in the bathroom are connected with another room. Good for me that I never trust electric stuff and used a tong with plastic handle. The tong with the plastic handle shortly after had a free flight through the bathroom and I felt the shock right up to my shoulder. But there it stopped. Thanks to the plastic handle and the fuse of the guest room, which was rejected as a result.

But obviously this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Combined with the never ending noise, the fuckin’ barking dog of our neighbors and the general struggle in this country with all its problems and the detoriating perceived security, I have the strong feeling that I need a vacation. Urgently. Or I need Master Yoda to teach me the higher skills of contemplation and relaxation….

copy paste

Once again it happend that I stumbled upon a “share” on Facebook. People are told to cough in case of a heart attack. And people who study at an University share this without spending a second thinking about it.

Folks! There is more information in the world than could actually be true. Therefore not every information is an information. Sometimes it helps to use the grey thing between the ears for its original purpose: to think! And once someone used it, it might turn out as a bad idea to share everything to tell the world how much knowledge one has…

Revolution

…or at least something similar.

5 students are on hunger strike now and many others are camping in front of the main entrance of the university. Each day since the 27.02.2012 we have demonstrations now on campus.

The front between the GUC administration and the students is tougher than ever before. How this situation could happen is quite obvious. If there was any other option is a different question. So the GUC administration adressed the parents of the students and not the students themselves. The GUC admin suspended all students for one week from teaching because of security issues. (There was a video on youtube showing a person throwing a fuel can against the gates of the GUC). And the overall impression for me is, that the admin sees the students more as an enemy than as an equal partner for discussion.

On the other hand… most of the students do not join the protests but do proceed with their normal activity. Some of the them are afraid but most of them do only want to learn and are not interested in politics and some of them support the admin as well.

It is difficult as a german university, with german values, in a changing country like Egypt. There are fears, that too open discussions about everything may lead to an outcome, that nobody wants, that the students are separated in different groups of interest with no possibility to find an agreement.

But it happens everythere in Egypt. And why should it stop at the universitys? Normally the universitys are the first, now they switch the light off.