If a Thesis was a home.

If a thesis was a home then the executive summary would be the door and the front of the house, with everything looking orderly and presentable. The introduction would be the front hall where the company (reader) takes off their coats and shoes to stay a while. The background chapter would be the living room where the host (author) makes the company feel at home and where they can see all the interesting books the host has read and nice pictures on the walls. The methods section is like the kitchen where one can see how everything is being done and the Results chapter is the dinner. The discussion and conclusions might be the bedrooms, since this is where the company must linger overnight to really get to know the home and the host better. The Appendix is definately the closets throughout the house where you are NOT SUPPOSE TO LOOK!

More musings about writing a thesis...I told you I lived in it these days!

Last Blog-cast from Stuttgart!

After going through 10,000 hurdles of red tape to get to stay here (University of Stuttgart, Township of Vaihingen, State of Baden-Württemberg, German Federal Government, Student Coopertative Residence, German National Pension Fund, University of Waterloo to name a few...). Today I had to go through some red tape to leave! Apparently my rental agreement stated that I was staying until the end of August, 2006. When I arrived in September I apparently signed a contract that I didn't look over very carefully...must have been the jet lag or the fact that I DIDN'T SPEAK GERMAN VERY WELL!

So they told me "You can't go".
I said "I'm going".
They said "Ok, but it's going to cost you 325 Euros".
I said "Fine, I'll argue another day when I don't have to submit a report to my supervisor while writing my thesis and travelling to Karlsruhe".

Jetzt auf Deutsch...
Sie haben gesagt "Du kannst nicht gehen".
Ich habe gesagt "Ich gehe".
Sie haben gesagt "Ok, aber es wird dich 325 Euros kosten".
Ich habe gesagt "Klar, ich werde mit der Hausmeister sprechen ein andere Tag wann ich müß nicht so viel erledigen wie heute."

So I guess they love me here, because they didn't want me to leave!

As my family and friends back in Canada know already, what's there not to love!

Pictures from the Last week in Stuttgart

Looking South West Towards Stuttgart from the Tower in Schwäbisch Hall

Sabine

Schwäbisch Hall nestled in a limestone Canyon in North east Baden-Würtemberg

The Last Days of Life in Stuttgart....

Well, time is winding down here in Stugitown. As I reflect on the last 3 months it feels more like a year as I sometimes have experienced or learned more things in a minute than an hour of life at home. I think the famous German pop singer Julie said it best "Sekunde werden Stunden" (seconds become hours). I love Stuttgart for its uniqueness, its hills and forests and their pride in the Mercedes Benz (a very good car) and Fantasische Vier (the fantastic 4) a crazy German Hip Hop band.

Inspite of some difficulties wrapping up my masters Thesis, I have come to fully appreciate the input (ok it's called criticism in the real world) of the Professors at U of Waterloo. The work has kept me on a tight leash here, but also made me focus and discipline myself, which is not bad, and made me really appreciate my friends here who make efforts to rescue me from my "arbeiters Gefängniss" (worker's prison). I have come to always more (immer mehr... I can't remember how to translate into English?) appreciate my family in Muskoka, Canada, who have looked out for me in many ways.

It is true that it is often in the hard times that we learn to have a sense of humor, the importance of friends and family, and make the greatest memories of all! If this sounds meloncholic I blame my Russian and Polish friends here for influencing me. For me, it is also in hard times that I learn to pray to God. So I thank Him for giving me such a great place to stay for a while and friends that have invited me into their homes and villages, introduced me to their families, and made great meals. To the people (in Hamburg and in France mostly) that I didn't get to visit this time, thank you for your invitations, I would have loved to visit every one of you for a week each (by then you might kick me out)!

Merry Christmas!

Cheers from the Canadian!

What do I do at the University of Stuttgart?

It has been asked several times "what am I doing in Germany anyway?" Other than travelling around and visiting friends and working of my thesis corrections this fall, I also have a day job. This is working on part of a big EU project called GLOWA (they love the acronyms here). I am responsible for incorporating huge (200,000 + lines !) amounts of data from Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Austria into one database and creating useful and attractive maps of certain "nutrients" in the groundwater of the Danube River. Very exciting! At the end of the project now, it is much more interesting at the beginning. I have found my travels around southern Germany have helped me understand the geology and societal uses of the land, which in turn helps in understanding why certain chemistry patterns persist in the groundwater of certain regions.

And you thought I was just playing here!

ROAD TRIP to Strasbourg II!

When one goes to France you have to where one of these hats.

This is what Jen looked like when she saw me again.

But things settled down after a few cups of Glühwein at the Noel de Marche.

Life around Baden-Württemberg, Thanksgiving, and Jutta's Birthday in Tennenbronn

Chilling out at my favourite bar in Stuttgart, Encheladas.

For a look at another of my roomates from Glen Forrest in Waterloo check out http://jendrik.blogspot.com/. This is a very high quality, professional blog, like everything Jendrik does.

House in Tübingen

Bebenhausen monestary near Tübingen

More monestary, I think this place is about 500 years old or so

Hiking in the nature reserve park behind the monestary. The sign says "Glaube mir, Du wirst mehr in Wäldern finden, als in Büchern. Bäume und Tiere werden Dich lehren, was kein Lehrmeister Dir zu hören gibt." or "Believe me, you will find more in forests than in books. Trees and animals will teach you, what no schoolmaster will tell you". They guy that said that was Bernhard von Clairaux in 1153.

Ken and Holly, our hosts for an awesome American Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie!

It was a very multicultural night with 20 or so people from the international masters program (WAREM) here at Uni Stuttgart. People in this picture are from England, Mexico, Poland, Germany and me, Canada.

Philip and Elawise

Molly the Bulldog

Strasbourg by night

Wolfgang and Katerina. We had some drinks in a several hundred year old pub.

Christian

Part of the Christmas Market in Stuttgart involves an extensive model train set up.

Tennenbronn. (sounds like "Tannenbaum" which is the word for Christmas Tree).

Jutta's home village.

Topfschlag is a popular kids game that we played. I felt like an idiot looking around for a tin pot somewhere under peoples chairs.

Jutta is trying to find a pot somewhere in the room where presents are hid underneath.

Hurray she found it!

Santa Claus visits Tennenbronn early this year.

Schamberg Castle near Tennenbronn where we did some climbing in the rain.

Response to Ole

I don’t want to interrupt the flow of nice pictures either, but I have some questions and maybe I am looking for a break from writing my thesis. Please let me know if this offends or even worse, bores anyone, and I will go back to posting bad poetry and nice pictures. I should also add that this opinions expressed in the this article do not reflect my country, family, University, romates, friends, old work places, ex-girlfriends etc...

As you can tell, I was having some fun with an idea. I was also genuinely interested in what a legal war would look like. In his response (http://nilsole.blogspot.com/) Ole proposes that a majority court decision would uphold a legal war if the offending country did not convince the majority of judges of their innocence. I assumed that rather than simply convincing popular opinion, they would have to convince a group of judges, like the Superior Court system in Canada, who would be responsible to interpret the law rather than appealing to popular opinion. However, that law would have to be formed by some sort of world-wide democratic system to start with.

The problem I see with democracy on a world-scale (UN) is that many people do not trust big governments. The country with the most experience (500+ years) in democracy in the world, Switzerland with their 8 million people, rarely chooses to be part of bigger governing bodies. Perhaps this is because democracy would not work at such a scale, or would work much differently. The government of the most populous country in the world, China (1.3 billion), is strongly opposed to democracy. And although India (the second most populous country at 1.1 billion) does have democracy it also has a stringent kaste system which works to keep order even when people are dying from lack of food and clean water.

That said, it is commendable how quickly and smoothly the European Union has been formed to its present state. When I was living in Leipzig and travelling around Europe during the introduction of Euro (2001-2002) it was surprising for me how fast incremental steps were being made towards a unified European governing body because the various peoples in Europe have such different cultures, languages and histories from one another. So if anyone has earned the right to advocate big democracy and be heard today it would be Europeans!

But still, all too often even within one western country certain areas do not feel represented properly. For examples look at the recent history of French speaking Quebec in Canada, who has their own federal separatist party representing only Quebec! This party frequently ends up forming the official opposition party (second most popular party) responsible for keeping the elected party (usually the liberals) accountable to the desires of all Canadians. Newfoundlanders in eastern Canada still complain loudly that they have been disadvantaged ever since joining Canada in 1948. The United States has examples of this too (Civil War, 1861), as in many other modern countries where part of the country has threatened to secede.

So my question is this:
If it is difficult to make democracy work on a country scale, who thinks it is such a good idea on a world-scale? And why?

To be clear about my position, I love democracy and want to make it work. I have lived in a former communist country and seen the effects it has on silencing views opposing “the party” and discouraging free thought and free discussion like in this essay. For myself I will always work towards a society where every individual has a say through referendums, education and voting.

I have an question! What is a Legal War?

Since I have been living in Germany I hear more than the usual, North American level of criticism of George W. Bush’s actions in invading Iraq. I first realized the German position shortly after September 11, 2001, while at a party at the University of Constance, in the south west corner of Germany on the border with Switzerland. A political science student was emphatically lecturing me on the dangers of America invading Afganistan without waiting for the consensus of the United Nations. Later I also recognized this also a popular French opinion. I don’t like politics too much; I don’t like hearing all the lies behind the real reasons leaders of countries do things. Nor am I going to criticize either side (European or American) because I think they’re both right on many points, the Europeans are right to be nervous about a trigger happy crusading America, and America has perspectives and interests to look out for at home.


Rather, I would like to comment on a popular phrase being thrown around in the media and on University campuses across Europe, Canada and America. This accusation is that the invasion of Iraq is an “Illegal War”. The fact such an accusation can be made strikes me as something atrocious because it implies that there would, under some circumstances be a legal war. What would a legal war look like anyway? A big country with lots of firepower rolls into a little one and holds up a court order saying “We are aloud to kill everyone of you that resists us”. I mean, what is the world coming to? Apparently some people, the UN included, believe it can say when it is legal for countries to kill each other and when it is not.


More likely however, since big countries just ignore the UN, these laws would protect a little country’s rights. What would this look like? Little country armed with horses and swords approaches bigger country’s borders and reads the UN’s order that this war is legal. The border guard pulls out his reading glasses and studies the international court order and says “well I was going to blow you guys away, but according to this order you are legally allowed to kill anyone who stands in your way”. He ponders for a few seconds looks around, embarrassed that he is now the bad guy when minutes before he was convince his cause was right. He says “if you would just give me a minute to deactivate the nuclear warhead aimed for you capital I will come back and then you can kill me and continue pillaging my country. I wouldn’t want to mess with the United Nations since our country has a policy of strict cooperation with the UN.”


But because a legal war implies that both sides are legally allowed to defend themselves, perhaps a legal war would look more like a soccer match, with the UN providing the referees. Kofi Annan, dressed in black and white, starts out the match between the two enemies ready to kill each other. “OK, now I want this to be a good clean match. Anyone using chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons will get an immediate red card and be kicked out of the game. As well this will be an equal opportunity war, women and minorities should be given equal time in the fight. And I don’t want to see you surrounding your men with women and children again Sadam! Each side will provide 12 months of maternity and paternity leave to all players. Up to a maximum of 15 sick days per year will be allowed to each player. Play will be halted during religious holidays; Easter, Christmas, Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Rakhi, Uposatha and Chairman Mao’s birthday. Wounded will receive adequate pensions and free tuition for their children to Universities. At the end of 1.5 years, the side with the most people left, that haven’t been lost to red cards, yellow cards, maternity leave, wounded, dead, retired or gone back to school to upgrade their education, will be declared the winner. Now let’s have a fair, safe war!”


I guess you would have the hooligans too, making up chants for each side; “Ai-O….. Ai-O Ai-O Ai-O…..”. You might need to hire a police force to control the fans. Maybe there would be trading allowed too, or a beginning of season draft pick, with the most promising young men or women going to the highest bidder. Of course, there would have to be UN subsidizing for poorer countries that couldn’t afford the best fighters. Or maybe the worst performing countries from the year before could get the first draft pick.


Seriously though, I think every war represents a failure of humanity to communicate and understand one another properly. In every conflict, all outside efforts possible should be made to bring peace through diplomacy and peace keeping forces, if invited. To say that one war is illegal, however, implies that there is such a thing as a legal war. Tragedies happen, but who decides when a war is legal or not? Such a statement teeters very close to a global tyranny that none of us would invite. Although war is a tragedy, it is sometimes the only way a people can defend themselves and live, or die, free. I hope that the people who believe they (or anyone else for them) can decide when a war is legal or not, never gain real power, because their rules, backed by military forces, would become too oppressive.


Unity, the core purpose of the United Nations, is an ideal, and something that all people should work towards. In reality it is hard work and sometimes goes backwards, but legislation and policing, alone, does not lead to unity. Through legislation you end up with an absurd and cruel concept that someone can say when a war is legal. Therefore you people that say that this war is illegal, consider carefully what you are saying. You could be shaping a governing body that will one day dictate that your fight is illegal when your turn to defend your freedom arrives.

Update

If anyone wants to talk to me I live in my master thesis these days.

In evenings you can find me in the Appendix. Mornings and afternoons somewhere between pages 30 and 110 renovating.

"I have created my own prison." (Creed)

You are welcome to visit, just don't comment on the chaos please. I'm aware of it!


Wenn jemand wolltet mit mir reden, ich wohne jetzt in mein Master Thesis.

Abends kannst du mich in der Appendix finden. Morgens und Nachmittags kannst du mich irgendwo inszwichen seite 30 und 110 erneuen.

"Ich habe mein eigenes Gefängnis gebaut". (Creed)

Ihr seit herzlich Willkommen um mir besuchen, aber bitte sagt nichts über das Chaos. Ich bin über es bewußt!