This time it's Taiwan.

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Riga, not Paris!

Hallo aus Riga! Ja, ich weiß. Eigentlich sollte ich jetzt in Paris sein. Stattdessen bin ich im Paris des Ostens oder dem Bangkok des Baltikums - man hat viele Namen für die Hauptstadt Lettlands gefunden.

Wie hat es mich hierhin verschlagen? Für die auf dem Schlauch: Ich drehe gerade eine Reportage für den WDR, das ist der Preis für den boundless Award (zwei Einträge weiter unten). Eigentlich hätte ich nach zwei Wochen Köln nach Paris, doch eine andere Teilnehmerin wollte unbedingt nach Frankreich - also hab ich nicht nein gesagt zu diesem Tausch.

Hier bin ich also Riga. Am Flughafen hat mich Gatis abgeholt, der der Projekt Manager ist und mir bis nächsten Samstag zu Seite steht und alles organisiert, was ich so brauchen könnte. Das war gestern erstmal ein gutes Bier. Da hat mich dann auch schon der erste Schlag getroffen, nämlich wie verflixt teuer Lettland ist. Man glaubt es kaum, aber der lettische Lats ist eineinhalb mal so viel wert wie der Euro und so überlegt man sich das mit den Keksen im Supermarkt besser zweimal. Mein Mittagessen gestern hat also umgerechnet stolze 18 € gekostet und beinhaltete eigentlich bloß ein kleines Sandwich und ein Bier.

Ok, ok ich gestehe. Es mag an der Gegend liegen, schließlich bin ich hier (im Gegensatz zu Köln) in ein Vier Sterne Hotel eingebucht und genieße meinen Riesen-HD-TV und meine Badewanne. Mein 5 Quadratmeterbett verlockt zu jeder Tageszeit zum Schönheitsschlaf - den brauch ich auch, denn ab morgen tauch ich in eine noch viel fremdere Welt ein: Die Rigaer Modeszene.

Schließlich ist das Thema meiner Reportage die lettische Modedesignerin Keta Gutmane, die in einer alten Fabrik mit vielen anderen Künstlern ihr Studio hat und natürlich auch in einer Band singt, wie jeder der heute cool und angesagt sein will :) Ob das so der absolute Hammer wird, will ich auch noch nicht sagen, aber nun wir sind ja erst am ersten Tag.

Morgen lerne ich auch mein Team kennen und werd mich dann mal im Ton angeben üben, schließlich wollen Kameramann, Tontechniker, Übersetzerin, Recherchehilfe und Fahrer wissen, was sie tun sollen. Es sollte übrigens gut werden, weil das lettische Fernsehen, will das hier senden :)

Ich wünsche euch eine gute Zeit und verabschiede mich aus dem bezaubernden, Art-Deco Riga

Foto-Ausstellung im Ballroom

Liebe Freunde,

Danke, dass ihr während unserer Reise immer fleißig unseren Blog gelesen habt und unsere Fotos angeguckt habt. Wir müssen uns bei euch entschuldigen, denn die besten Aufnahmen haben wir euch stets vorenthalten - wohlwissend, dass wir gerne eine Ausstellung machen würden.

Nun zeigen wir einen Monat lang im Ballroom (Landshuterstraße 20) Bilder aus aller Welt. Es würde uns sehr freuen, wenn ihr die Zeit finden würdet im März die Ausstellung zu besuchen. Der Ballroom öffnet übrigens täglich um 15 Uhr.

Wir bieten auch gerne kleine Führungen an, wenn ihr eine Gruppe findet (vll. Klassen, SMV, Jugengruppen) - Hauptaugenmerk wäre dann auf den Möglichkeiten ins Ausland zu gehen und euren Plänen. Wir denken, dass wir da vielleicht den ein oder anderen Tipp geben könnten.

Bitte einfach eine Mail an thomas.koesters@hausimschilf.de -

Wir laden euch alle herzlich ein zu einer kleinen Eröffnungsfeier am Sonntag, den 2. März im Ballroom ab 20 Uhr.

Danke und bis dann!

Liebe Grüße
Saskia & Thomas

awarded by UNESCO

Thomas' movie "Noa and Ahlam - Two Girls From Israel" was awarded the boundless Media Contest 2007 of UNESCO, the COPEAM and EBU. The documentary was shot in the end of 2006 and shows the Jewish girl Noa and the Muslim girl Ahlam, who spend one year together in Germany.

In tense dialogues they describe their lives at home and in the foreign country. They did not know each other before, but - unnecessarily to say - they get along fine. They are opposite to the puppets-in-suits in political talkshows, they are bright and authentic characters in a very strange play, which is their life.

A bombing in your favorite fast-food restaurant, rockets blasting beside your father's car, dreams of travelling far far away and the first thougts on a long road to become a great philosopher - Ahlam and Noa are full of ideas and feelings, hopefully this movie gives a glimpse on those two amazing girls.

The awarding ceremony was held on 22nd of November 2007 in Paris. Saskia and I took the chance to stroll around Champs-Elysees, Quartier Latin and all the other fancy districts of the city of love. The first night we spend in a luxurios hotel paid by France Television, with a view on Eiffel Tower (the second night we moved into a sweet little hostel fitting our budget). We were invited with the other winners from all over Europe to a reception at the foreign office of France, which resembles a palace and made it possible to us to save the entrance fee to Versaille. We spend the night slurping Champagne and having cocktails to the feet of Tour Eiffel. We did enjoy these moments of pride, yes. Next year there will be an academy in Cologne for all the winners. We will discuss the subjects of immigration and integration in Europe and we are then going to travel around Europe to shoot a new documentary. It will be shown on German television (WDR).

After we did move to a slightly less comfortable ho(s)tel, we did not stop enjoying Paris. This glorious city is that huge, not in square meters, but in elegance. You could never soak up everything in just four days. We came to love european cities, because they have everything and more. And Paris has it all: The metropolitan lifestyle, the neverending smell of spring, mystic backstreets, colossal buildings, stunning views, fairy-tale corners and marvelous food... is there any more colorful word? If yes, place it here, Paris is worth it.


http://www.shalom-munich.de/

finally its good...

After Russia gained some further attention by putting a flag deep in the water under the northpole ice, two other nations, Canada and Denmark, announced interest in the area. I am not sure how far you get with under water land-connections in the law of nations, but maybe there will be some solution after we found the oil and gas sources that are assumed to be situated there...

But why is the northpole suddenly of such big interest? Haven't there been sources all the time? Is it because the Russians put that flag down there? Or did all three have another idea in mind? Yes, there is something: global warming! It makes the northpole melt away - et voilá! It's cockaigne, you just get your buckets and skim all the black gold. Your chances are getting better every day, no ice, no problem, gold rush!

Hey wait! There was something - ah global warming. Wasn't that an issue some hippies couldn't stop talking about? Wasn't that the reason why the northpole is melting and isn't that somehow connected to oil? Wasn't that global warming and the melting a catastrophe for the whole world? Cannot remember.

Finally it is good that the Arctic is melting - so we get alot of oil. There is just this minor question about the ownership - maybe we will have some war about it. This or that way - first everyone will go on his own and destroy as much as he can and at the end we will sit down together on our helmets and cooperate to rebuild everything.

Maybe we should have some conference on the northpole. I mean ON the northpole, and during those hours we sit and talk there, we can argue whether it's getting warmer or not.

Sincerely, that is really getting on my balls (satire ends here): Putting national interests above an issue that is severe for all nations. How ignorant can one be to claim ownership of the northpole in order to get the oil out of it when it is the oil that makes the northpole melt? What misunderstanding of the sense of life is it to evoke conflicts above a disaster to mankind? Why still competition first and cooperation second?

Galerie der lebendigen Erinnerung

Ich weiß es ist spät, doch nun sind sie online, alle Bilder der Reise. Also eine Auswahl ...

Währenddessen überlegen Saskia und ich was wir mit dem Blog machen und vor allem wann wir es mal hinkriegen einen Fotoabend zu veranstalten...

Wir halten euch auf dem Laufenden.


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So now, it's late I know. But I only found time this night to update the pictures-section. Now there are all the photos online that you wanted to see...

Saskia and I are meditating about what to do with this blog, maybe we let it be, or we will make it live again. Further trips in mind and world could be an opportunity...

I like our blog, how about you?

power of acting

there was a documentary on german television this night. It was about a hebrew woman that married a palastinian man. She built a house for children in Dschenin, a refugee camp that is well known of the media.

The documentary was shot by her son, who was teaching theatre in this house. He recorded material when he started a group with the local schoolchildren. He spent 7 years with them. I do not remember why, but the jewish family left Dschenin and the mother died.

When he returned Dschenin was still a war torn place, just like in the time he started the project, but something changed. The kids of the theatre group had grown up - but when he arrived almost all of them were dead and when he left a few weeks later even the last one was killed in combat. Two of them did launch a suicide attack in Israel and killed four women.

The theatre teacher fought another fight long before. A fight for life. I saw these recordings of the boys acting. And I recognized this akward but brave behaviour when children try to be someone else, when they are acting.
I remember my students in Thailand. When I did invite them on stage, how some of them started to move and to make up a new world. It is like dreaming. It is amazing.

I saw all this amazement and this joy in those palastinian children's eyes. And when the teacher went back to the refugee camp Dschenin and showed the rest of the group a video tape of the performance, one says: "If we were still acting together, what joy we had. Look at us, we did laugh alot."

If we were still acting together ... and if my friend did not die in a suicide attack. Last week my friend Jan did ask me, how I wanted to change the people in the world. But I look at those boys that killed themselves and four women and I know that we do not need to change.
I see it when I look at them trying to be someone else. When they are in this play and as they are watching themselves. They have a good heart and they are martyr for a bad ideology.

There is both. Every actor knows how many things are hidden in our souls. It is not easy. But we have to accept it, that we do bad things although we are good. But I believe that there is no bad man or woman created by God.

Stop judging.