A commentary of a foreign observer about the Chancellor elections in Austria 2017.

(Español, Deutsch)

This weekend there will be elections in Austria to elect the chancellor. As in any other country, it won’t be easy to choose who will be representing the country internationally and have direct influence on our pockets. I can only give a neutral opinion without having the right and obligation to vote in the country where my sons were born.

An introduction to the candidates:

The reds from the socialist party (SPÖ) are represented by the current chancellor Christian Kern, who was not democratically elected but because of his contacts with the red party. The ex administrator of the Austrian Railways ÖBB was recruited by the red party in order to replace the resigning chancellor Werner Faymann, who stepped out  when he was no longer able to deal with the coalition partner. After a vacation, he restarted his career in a high position at the UN in parallel to his personal business. 

It is likely the previous experience as manager from a state company that is able to internationally compete with others that gives C. Kern some points in favour. With this experience he pursues a very socialist ideal, as its party requires him to do, to please the financial needs  of the working class of his country.This is an asset his opponents might lack. 

Sebastian Kurz, commands the turquoise party ÖVP. Since his arrival to the party he turned all upside down including the traditional black color of the party. He obtained unconditional support since the ÖVP had no other candidate to fill the boots of his also resigning vice-chancellor and party leader Reinhold Mitterlehner, who not being able to work together with the red party, decided to continue his career outside of politics (Seems to be difficult to work together as politician in Austria, there is little persevereance and big opposition).

Sebastian Kurz, being the stereotype of an ideal leader: tall, handsome and good speaker; heads the party still named the “blacks” because the media are still reluctant to refer the party as the “turquoise”. Unfortunately the propaganda of his party is similar, if not identical, to that of the right party FPÖ, which main argument for a better Austria is the reduction of immigration. The very short age of S. Kurz, to my opinion, is a disadvantage to exercise a job of such an importance (He is 31 years old). Nevertheless, S. Kurz learned quite well how to communicate (body and spoken language) to convince the masses and this helped him to position himself in his current and previous jobs as foreign and integration minister respectively.

Heinz Christian Strache, leads the blue right party FPÖ and as one of its main goals is to reduce “islamization” in Austria, being other problems, to my understanding, neglected in his agenda.

As an immigrant and self nominated “tolerant” I can only reject the presents that his campaign give away in the streets, although my kids would gladly take them. (photo: 

During the presidential elections, the FPÖ has demonstrated support in towns and small cities where, ironically, multiculturality is not really observed and the immigration rates are low enough compared to big cities such as Vienna. This unmasks the unnecessary fear to immigrants and refugees in some parts of Austria. 

The pink Neos are led by Matthias Strolz, from whose campaign I could mainly notice that he tends to get overly upset and resented the moment of sustaining a debate with other candidates. His style is likely not ideal for a chancellor of a republic.

If one wishes to choose a party with alternative ideas, maybe is the “green party” the one to elect. As its name indicates, they would of course take care of the environment as one of their priorities, however, they do not have much acceptation. The main candidate for the green party, Ulrike Lunacek, would likely be a good representant of Austria abroad, but she is not as popular as her party camerade Alexander van der Bellen who won in the last presidential elections (thanks to his election in the big cities, see previous figure).

This Sunday I can only impatiently wait to see the results and afterwards reproach or congratulate friends and colleages that were born in this colorful country. One thing is for sure, this election can’t be as bad as that in an english speaking country on the other side of the atlantic ocean.

Reference from pictures:

1. Advertisement XXXLutz 2017

2. http://info-direkt.eu/2017/10/03/christian-kern-gibt-zu-ich-habe-enges-verhaeltnis-zu-soros/

3. https://www.news.at/_storage/asset/8128397/storage/newsat:key-visual/file/118943406/obersterreich-initiative-zusammensterreich-kurz.jpg

4. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz-Christian_Strache#/media/File:Heinz-Christian_Strache_2009_edited.jpg

5. http://relevant.at/system/galleries_562x377/upload/2/1/7/645775/2540042428597608_BLD_Online.jpg

6. http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/wahlen/bundespraesidenten_wahl/820251_Fotofinish-um-die-Hofburg-Wahlkarten-entscheiden.html https://media05.regionaut.meinbezirk.at/2013/09/09/5022826_web.jpg

7. https://media05.regionaut.meinbezirk.at/2013/09/09/5022826_web.jpg

8. http://images.derstandard.at/t/12/2017/07/17/lu.jpg

A lesson of time: From the Big Bang to human extinction.

Deutsch, Español

In the last two months I was able to learn with my eldest kid (4) about the universe, planets and dinosaurs; main subjects in his daily conversation. Reading his books and visiting (many times) museums I recalled what we all already know but not think deeply about its meaning: how old is our universe, why dinos died and what are we doing here.

We learned that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. To put it in numbers 13.700.000.000 years and that it all started with a big KaBoom! (Big Bang). Since then a lot has happened to put humans where we are now. What is interesting is that we are definitely new in the history of the universe and we still think however that we are central to it. Worsely, we defend blindly (even with our own lives) our selfish mythological beliefs about who created all things.

Why I say that we are the “new ones” here? Let’s pretend that the universe has exactly 100 years old, just like a healthy and attractive centenerian that seems will live much longer.

 At the age of 1 year (200 million years after the Big Bang) galaxies developed, but it is only at the age of 67 that the planet earth was formed (9150 million years after the Big Bang). At this stage the planet Earth was still very immature for living beings.

Multicellular organisms (Ediacara fauna)on Earth are estimated to have occurred around 13.08 billion years after the great explosion. Translated to our centenerian universe it means that only at the age of 95 life could arise on at least one of the trillion planets of our universe, in planet Earth.

Dinosaurs showed up 235 million years ago (at the age of 98 of our centenerian universe) and they ruled the Earth for not less than 160 million years (that’s about more than one day for our 100 year old universe).

The 5^th mass extinction of living beings on planet Earth took place 65 million years ago. Afterwards humans, as we know them, started to develop from apes (Hominoidea). Miss Universe is now 99 years and there are only 53 days to go for her 100 birthday.

Homo sapiens (humans) seem to appear 20 hours before the 100^th birthday of our centenerian universe (fossils were found in Morocco dating back to 300 thousand years ago. Link here).

  

The chronology of events in the Universe and in our planet is intensively studied, considered reliable and teached in school and university books. It is constantly updated and either proved correct by scientific methods or at least by mathematical approximations to which we don’t want to go much into detail (for more information please apply to the nearest Paleonthology, Astrophysics and/or Particle Physics course in your town). However, humans, right from their beginning, believed and still believe on supernatural and mythological forces that created the universe, earth and mankind. Each religion (although just few minutes old in the history of our centenarian universe) had, has and will have its own version of the origins; and their followers, as in the past, are not willing to accept other explanation than their own.

  

To our fortune, there are people in our planet who are not conformist with fairy tales and are curious enough to investigate and go deeper into the origin of things. Without them we would still believe that the Earth is flat, or that it is the center of the universe, or that humans were created from mud, or dust or corn or from a male human rib.

  

  

 It is worrying that we will almost for sure not be as long in this planet as dinosaurs were (160 million years). In our very young existence (300 thousand years) there are estimates pointing to human extinction to year 2600 if there are no changes in our climate policies and the current exponential population rise ¹ .

Based on these predictions, Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest physicists of our time, prompt us urgently to seek new worlds and colonize them if we want to avoid extinction in the near future.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/aug/09/stephen-hawking-human-race-colonise-space

For his whole lecture at the Starmus Festival 2017 (Norway) see here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpG5P6ugeeI

It’s a topic with many more questions that we might never be able to respond. For example:

What about the time before the Big Bang? Time does not count there?

Maybe is our universe a part of another one, or one of many. And what would happen when two expanding universes encounter each other? (Likely total annihilation). In fact, a “Multiverse” is a possibility that is supported by the M-theorie (which I have no clue what is but astrophysicists might understand it)

Even if we don’t dissapear in the next thousand years, we might in few million years with the upcoming waves of mass extinction (as it happened before 440, 375, 250, 205 and 65 million years ago) or the possibility of a cooling down of the universe or an explosion of our sun among other astronomical catastrophes. Thinking of these we should probably aim to make a backup of all the information we generated in the last 300 thousand years. From “how to do fire” to “how to cook spaghetti” should be stored for future residents living in this or more likely in other planets.

Now, if you excuse me, I need to use my very limited time in this Earth for something else (My hopefully >80 years are just about 18 seconds time of our 100 year old Miss Universe).

Persistence of memory, Salvador Dalí 1931

References

1.       Hawking, Stephen. The Universe in a Nutshell. 2001

2.       The Museum or Natural History. Vienna, Austria. http://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/ 

Thoughts about a skirt. An open letter

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Dear mother,

I know that you got somehow worried about your 4 year old grandchild wanting to go with a skirt to the kindergarten. I believe there is no reason to be worried about it as you and I were just raised in a much more conservative environment than where your grandchild is. Maybe I was skeptical at the beginning when he insisted to wear a skirt and his soccer T-shirt, but I realized that equality of genders starts at home and even better if it starts while one is still a child. I am not saying that wearing a skirt is good or bad for children at this age, when innocence is the overall rule and “sexualism” is absolutely absent. But we have to understand that in the developed world there are places where male workers voluntarily wear skirts at work (link) just because they are more comfortable, and this does not necessarily compromise any sexual preference if this is the reason of your concern.

Train drivers in Sweden. Photo source http://infinitelegroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sweden-skirt-infinitelegroom-3.png

I do not have to mention that the typical dress for men in Scotland is a skirt, and I do not think there is a single lady in this world that will find less attractive or question the sexuality of Sean Connery if he is to be found walking around in his skirt.

Maybe your grandchild will flush or simply laugh about when I take his pictures out at his wedding showing him dressed with his Maya the bee skirt and his soccer T-shirt.

Through the eyes of his parents and those from many other people, this is just a phase that makes him even more sweet and innocent than what he already is. Something to respect about him is how he independently chooses and has the initiative to wear something like that. This power of choice was not inherited from his father who at this age was always a conformist and weak-minded when it was about making own-decisions.

How the parents of your grandchild think and accept this situation comes pretty much hand in hand with a very strong social movement to achieve equality of genders at all levels. There is increasing awareness in Europe (and hopefully all over the world) that women should be treated equally to men. For example, by getting paid for the same job as it is known that women are underpaid compared to male co-workers. This is unfair as we all know that in many instances it is women who “wear the trousers” (to put it in an understandable words that are still discriminatory) at work or home.

In this same line, a paid parental leave at work after a son or a daughter is born is mainly taken by women, with only few fathers daring to take this time off to take care of their kids.

From my side, I feel lucky when I am able to play the role of “housewife” (I did not found a valid equivalent word for the male counterpart and I find that offending). I do not only enjoy this time but I also believe that is the correct thing to do after typically mothers (and grandmothers)  have to be fully engaged taking care of the children, even at the expense of their own careers.

I hope I can thwart somehow this situation at home with a paid paternal leave that I was allowed to take thanks to the Austrian system and the good spirit of the company where I work. These two months are typical for fathers who stay at home but still much less compared to the invested time of mothers.

I hope I could clarify dear mother your thoughts and worries by explaining why your 4 year old grandchild and 37 year old child sometimes choose to wear the apron. Gender equality could be achieved already at very young or older ages. I also send you a big hug while I still can before your second grandchild wakes up and demands for his fruits that are not yet cut.

Your son.