IB

So if you are, you might camp outsie St. Francisco`s Moscone centre, where Steve Jobs will hold his annual keynote on tuesday morning. What he is gonna say? Check it out…

I`ve just read an article in the german weakend issue of the „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“, that deals with the question, whether turkish teacher should be allowed to wear „head cloth“ or not. New energy to this long term debate came some days ago, when germany`s president Johannes Rau claimed the right of every civilian to wear the religous symbols he wants to. Different german politicians, among them chancellor Schroeder, considered, that the „head cloth“ is no symbol of peace and freedom like the crucifix, but for some of repression, and were therefore not comparable. Interesting to know is the fact, that President Rau comes from Wuppertal, a small town in central germany, where the catholic church is quite strong. Rau himself is a member of a small group of a „free church“ and by that very well known to the feeling of surpression. But it`s not only a german problem: take France, for instance, where Mr. Chirac has just put through a law against teachers and students with „head cloth“: It was against the laicistic view of the republic, to missuse the religous freedom of France. Will there be european-wide discussion in the future?

This is the ultiamte „how-to“ on converting your wishes for 2004 into reality…

Who was the most influential European? Quite interesting discussion can be found here. If you ask me, it was Willy Brandt, showing to the world, that living in peace is no question of different countries themselves, but of the respect against the human being itself.

Being not very convincing, David Beckham rejects rumours about Roman Abramovic (owner of englands actual No. 3 FC Chelsea) plans to buy half of the Real team. It seems, that money makes goals! Poor soccer…

Welcome to 2004, an welcome for a new round of discussions about our european structure in the future. A good article about that can be found here, (try Babelfish for translation) written by the former president of the szeck republic Mr. Havel. In short it deals with the question, of how new EU-countries like Latvia, Turkey or Estonia, and the „old europe“ can fit togehter in one organisation. Will it be a form of „United States of Europe“? It is very important to have in mind, that these countries were dependent on a sovjet-union-system for centuries, an now want to be independent in an ideological way. So, there must be a common economical structure among european countries, but it seems to be very difficult to find a universal „self-understanding“ in a social point of view. I think it is more important in this context, to create something new, than adobt the USA as a model. Maybe there won`t be the USE (United States of Europe) but some kind of LSE (Liberal states of Europe).

I`ve just read a very interesting article in the „Wirtschaftswoche“, dealing with the question of what will happen to our economy 2004 in germany, and why our history plays a very important role in there: in 1972, when there was full employment, and every employee could choose whether he wanted to work in his company or in another, there were nearly no hierarchically structures within the companies. Just because there was enough work, and everybody could tell his boss: Hey, I`m unlucky, I`ll change the company! Thats true freedom! Nowadays everybody is moaning about bad feelings at work. We should stop that, and give some of our material freedom for our immaterial freedom! It`s more important to be happy, than earning several Euros more per month. Lets go, and work 40 hours, let`s go and take 10% less wages, and there will be no one left on the street. That´s my wish for 2004. Learning from the past, gaining more freedom: Wirtschaftswunder, Part 2.

Blow away your prejudices, and go playing golf! And check out Naturalborngolfers.com. A fantastic flash site, that really motivates to get your iron 6 out of the cellar, go into the next park, and play the game. But remember, safety first!

Finally they did it: fastcompany brought us a list of 20 companies changing the world. And guess what? These are not the big players. They are differently small businesses. The essence of their study: Get away with all of these stupid barriers! See a problem, and solve it. Thats it!