Princeton

Nach genau einem Jahr in den USA war es Zeit für das Auslandstreffen der Studienstiftung: 160 Stipendiaten trafen sich für ein interessantes, leider total verregnetes Wochenende in Princeton.

Nach einer staugeplagten siebenstündigen Autofahrt zusammen mit drei anderen Stiftis aus Boston erreichten wir gerade noch rechtzeitig zum Eröffnungsvortrag den wunderschönen Campus der Eliteuniversität Princeton.
Ein Jahr USA kann den Blick der Dinge schon verändern, doch beim Thema "Die US-Wahl aus europäischer Perspektive" zeigte sich doch die unabänderliche rein europäische Meinung. Zitate wie "Sarah Palin kennt sich mit der Außenpolitik aus, weil sie von ihrem Küchenfenster in Alaska nach Russland schauen kann" garnierten einen sehr interessanten Vortrag und legten genau die richtige Grundlage für das spätere Fernsehduell der beiden Präsidentschaftskandidaten.

Dank des großzügigen Sponsorings der Boston Consulting Group verbrachten wir die Nächte in der edlen Präsidentschaftssuite des Nassau Inn.

Nach einem Workshop zum Thema "China - die akademische Herausforderung" und einer ins-Wasser-gefallenen Kanutour (ich machte stattdessen eine Campus Führung mit) fand der Höhepunkt des Wochenendes statt: das formal Dinner.

Abschiedsvortrag am Sonntag morgen war "Heimat - Ist das ein Problem?", doch leider erfuhr ich nur aufs Neue, dass ich mit der Argumentationsweise und Vortragstechnik von Geisteswissenschaftlern (einfaches Vorlesen der vorher konstruierten Bandwurm-Sätze) kaum etwas anfangen kann.
Doch in einem muss ich schon zustimmen: Die Heimat ist eine Baustelle, ständigen Veränderungen unterworfen, doch erhalten bleibt sie immer.
Aber meine Heimat mache ich nicht unbedingt an dem Land Deutschland (oder meinetwegen auch Bayern) fest, sondern an den Menschen, die mir dort so unendlich viel bedeuten.

Nach einer Toll-Station-sei-Dank erneut ziemlich langen Autofahrt endete ein spannendes, sehr interessantes super Studienstiftungswochenende.

Wahlkampf

Ein ganz normales Schaufenster eines Buchladens:

.... da werden sogar Kinder instrumentalisiert. Klar, Mama und Papa, also potentielle Wähler, lesens ja vor.

Washington DC Day 2

my favorite pictures
the best scenery
and a sunset of course!

Washington DC Day 1

After 9 hours in a train I finally arrived in Washington DC.
Union Station itself is already a beautiful building.....



but it was only the start of two days full of sunshine and breathtaking architecture.
After the first day, I had the impression of a very unreal city consisting of one monument next to the other, with some reflecting ponds in between so that you can see each of the buildings twice.


The White House

Graves until the horizon at Arlington National Cemetery.... each stone belongs to one soldier of the US army and maybe his wife (her name is listed on the backside of the stone!).
During my hours at the cemetery I saw the funeral of a soldier, first in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where one of his comrades played the trumpet and later when his tomb covered with the American flag was torn by four horses - soldiers and family walking behind.





What else did I experience:
- a guided tour of the Capital
- a debate in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate
- a quick look at the Library of Congress, a very impressive building full of marble and gold
- the view over the city from the top of Washington Memorial
- White House
- Lincoln Memorial
- Pentagon and Pentagon Memorial (opened just 10 days ago for the victims of 9/11)
- Georgetown, a beautiful part of the city somehow similar to Cambridge with historic houses and a beautiful University Campus
- Potomac River and the Japanese Cherry Tree Trail
- Headquarters of NIH (National Institute of Health) with my friend Pere, a science journalist I first met in Boston now working for NIH, as guide
and a lot lot more.

Rakan's War

Original article from Boston Globe (February 26th, 2006):

This is a story about a boy, and a war. About hatred and healing, pain and longing. About redemption, or the dream of it. About going home, even when home is just about the most dangerous place on earth. But mostly it's about a boy. His name is Rakan. He is 12 years old. He got shot in Iraq. And was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital.......

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/26/26rakanart/

Original article from Boston Globe (August 3rd, 2008):

We were standing on a dusty road in Mosul, Dr. Larry Ronan and I, and he had just left us.

It was January 2006 and this boy named Rakan had driven away in an Opel sedan identical to the one he was riding in when his life changed forever a year before, and so we stood there, with this odd mix of hope and apprehension, and waved goodbye.

Rakan Hassan had been shot and paralyzed, his parents killed, when American soldiers panicked and opened fire on the family car as it sped toward them in the fading light of dusk. Ronan and other doctors and therapists in Boston had put Rakan back together, and I had watched the whole process, to write about it, and then we brought Rakan back to the war zone where he was nearly killed because that was what Rakan and his family wanted.

As we waved, and the car driven by Rakan's brother-in-law disappeared into the dust, Larry Ronan must have felt what I was feeling because he put his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said, "Don't worry. We'll see him again."

We never did.

Rakan Hassan, the boy whose life Larry Ronan saved, the boy I sat with most days for five months, the boy who became my sons' friend, the boy who touched anybody and everybody he met, was killed in June when a bomb exploded at his family's home in Mosul. He was 14 years old.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/08/03/the_end_of_rakans_war/

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