Lahore is an ever-growing urban agglomeration between 11 – 15 million inhabitants: the number 15 was given when we tried to travel to one of the many suburbs at ‘Bahria Town’ on Sunday: in vain! Continue reading
Lahore August 2022
Lahore is Pakistan’s second largest city, afterKarachi.
It is great fun commuting by auto-Rikshaw taxis (so-called ‚ChingChi‘, named after Chinese manufacturer Qingqi). Seated in rapid 3-seaters, I have not yet seen major accidents here that happen between cars, trucks and a motorized Rickshaw that replaced the earlier pulled Rickshaw. Continue reading
Women’s UEFA Cup Finals 2022
Here in Lahore, Pakistan, rarely anybody notices that women in Europe and all over the world play football. It is a pity that games here are mainly followed by the news.
Source: jeffrey-f-lin-Utexy-Jxa4kl-unspash.jpg
Germany’s recent assault on women in European football has its roots, see https://www.dw.com/en/euro-2022-whats-holding-women-coaches-back/a-62371045
For Europe as such, not much better, see https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62238520 – wishing great summer days in and around Berlin with #berlinsights
Lahore Berlin July 2022
Lahore, not Berlin these days, tells the story of its Walled City around the Fort of Moghul times. Today, this small downtown place hosts some 200 000 inhabitants of
a total of 12 million living in Lahore.
…
Tourists are of course rare in this heat of 35 – 44 C in July 2022.
The donkey is no longer there since Holy Ramadan has its sacrifices …
Potsdamer Platz Encounters
Walking with my friend Ayshe whom I had met via NGOs in the field of migration and refuge at Freiwilligen-Agency Berlin Kreuzberg, the story of Berlin’s 1st ‘Ampel’, installed in 1924, refers to the traffic light system of former times. This is as new to her as the entire build-up around cinematic events along Berlinale: https://www.berlinstadtservice.de/xinh/Verkehrsampel_Potsdamer_Platz.html.
We both agreed that the ‘Walk of Stars’ in the middle path crossing Potsdamerstr. looks lousily abandoned – unlike the exhibition these days around “Die Deutschen des 21. Jahrhunderts” :-) = worth walking along and enjoying Potsdamer Platz this way!
Funny though true: how to do business with Germans? CEFE.net says it all
https://cefe.net/2022/04/25/how-to-do-business-with-germans/
Freiflächen in Berlin: 20
https://berlin-global-ausstellung.de/freiflaechen/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=NL22KW18&utm_medium=email
Berliner Rassismus pur: eine Begegnung am 26.04.2022
… die arme Alma … hätte ich sie doch retten können heute morgen!
Die junge Frau aus dem westafrikanischen Guinea, unterwegs zum Deutschkurs nach Berlin – Mitte, kam nicht weiter auf dem langen Weg von Friedrichshagen am Müggelsee – wo sie nie sein wollte – warum?
Ein älterer weisser Mann stellt sich ihr in den Weg, spuckt ihr ins Gesicht und das einzige Wort, das Alma verstehen kann, ist “… AUSLÄNDER” … der ‘Monsieur’, wie sie ihn höflich bezeichnet, war offensichtlich völlig außer sich.
Wovor? Warum? Alma ist ein schöne, groß gewachsene und mutige Afrikanerin, die fliehen mußte, aus ihrer Heimat, in der sie als Frau nicht geschützt war. Mehr dazu später, heute erstmal dies:
Alma, vor Angst und Verzweiflung, kehrt nach Hause zurück, mit dem Deutsch ist es jetzt grad erstmal vorbei … in welchem Land, welcher Stadt leben wir denn?
Ich wende mich an die sozialen Versorgungsstellen, in der Hoffnung, etwas für Alma
Beschützendes zu finden … da wo sie jetzt lebt, bewege man sich besser nicht mit
anderer als weißer Hautfarbe = Berliner Rassismus pur, o.a. ‘pur&dur’.
s.a. https://www.dw.com/de/wie-sieht-das-leben-f%C3%BCr-schwarze-menschen-in-deutschland-wirklich-aus/a-53545185
#berlinsights is under shock.
Do Berlin plans turn into ‘Sky Scraper’ Nightmares at Gleisdreieck? April jokes or ‘7 bridges’ to walk?
The Gleisdreieck blog refers to the Berlin newspaper ‘Tagesspiegel’on April 01, 2022, where coalition parties put into question towers for business and administration of 90 meters hight, planned at a time of up to 100 000 empty flats in Berlin, back in 2005. Civil society and local communities appear in disfavour of an area that would be sealed for car parks several storeys under the soil, damaging the park’s ecological function of cooling and airing the city. This is why the coalition contract now foresees the following:
” … the urban concept is being analysed for current clima-political tasks with a view to allow for building and housing, in due course. …” – so how to go about this challenge?
– According to the Left party, one should abandon the entire project altogether.
– The Green party opts for an enlargened park, with its Southern front towards the former postal Station to remain.
A short explanation on the 2005 city concept highlights the compensation regime that has led to this status of not deciding: it says that if the opportunity to use property stakes for construction is not used, Vivivco (or its subsequent property owner) would be able to claim indemnity along §§ 42 ff. BauGB.
The Green party further indicates possible compensation of the owner of the property, falling back to the country of Berlin as the signatory party to Vivico. The Berlin Senate does not want to address such claims, since this would be a project by the municipality in charge of any planning failures. The local municipality, however, says the development plan could eventually be fixed for the Southern part of the deal by the end of 2022, as long as there are no other grounds for decision. Having said this, such decision would need to be met at Berlin country level.
The company in charge of planning and implementing all tower ideas since 2014 (the CORPO project development GmbH) claims itself sure of victory, with no further changes forseen, according to the newspaper (Tagesspiegel).
Source: https://www.facebook.com/matthias.bauer.351/posts/5173327322689643?notif_id=1649103491406275¬if_t=close_friend_activity&ref=notif
Berlin Staatsbibliothek Potsdamer Str.
https://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/ The entire buildiung is being refurbished, sooner or later, at present all is in a status of being praperd for renovation, in German it sounds serious: “Grundinstandsetzung” will only start in 2023, let alone when works will end, deifinitely not before 2025!
https://www.bbr.bund.de/BBR/DE/Bauprojekte/Berlin/Kultur/Staatsbibliothek/Potsdamerstr/GIS/Grundinstandsetzung.html