The war on terror, launched after the attacks of the WTC and the Pentagon, has a tremendous impact on the daily life of people. Among other things, it allows the US government to scare the people every once in a while. Some call it even brain-washing. Among them is Zbigniew Brezinski, the national security adviser to Jimmy Carter. This weekend, an article from him was published in the Washington Post in which he criticizes this rather inefficient war, where some odd places in the middle of nowhere get more money from the Homeland Security Department for anti-terror measures than the big cities (makes sense, since the enemy certainly has more interest in the rural US, where he can kill lots of corn plants and cows than in the big cities, where millions are contributing to the biggest GDP in the world...).

One product of the war on terror, I find particularly funny: The national database of possible targets. It lists all kinds of targets, which are prone for terrorist attacks. According to Brezinski, the number of entries grew from 160 in 2003 to some 300,000 in 2006. But what exactly consider the responsible civil servants worth saving? Well, among other things, there are 25 golf courses (just imagine one of the grossly overpaid managers in this country gets hit by a bomb), 159 cruise ships, 1,305 casinos (one would not want to renounce gambling, when the world goes under...), 163 water parks (according to the data shown by Al Gore, large parts of Florida would be flooded in the worst case of global warming. It certainly makes more sense to invest lots of money to protect water parks in the war on terror instead of launching an effective war on global warming) and - this is really my favorite - 34 Coca-Cola bottlers and distributors. Imagine what a disaster this would be, if Coca-Cola would not be able to deliver its products to some areas in the country after the terrorists (Pepsi Cola or the Anti-Capitalists, perhaps?) have attacked? One starts to wonder, what the purpose of this database really is: is it the answer of a terrified country to be prepared in case another terrorist attack happens or is it yet another example on how the administration is setting up mechanisms to funneling lots of money into the hands of party contributors? The question, of course, does not have an answer, or I certainly do not have it. In any case, it is a terrific example what can be achieved with effective lobbying. Cheers.

Interested to read the article in the Post? Terrorized-by-War-on-Terror (pdf, 86 KB)

The ingredients for a succesful plan to close down Washington DC are less sophisticated than one might think. They do not consist of anything illegal. Nor does it require any skill that are usually attributed to terrorists. It however requires some good connections to the top authorities, if you want to be able to time the deployment of your plan. The only thing you need is water in the proper physical state and the right temperature. Welcome to the snow season in Washington DC.

The storms are usually announced days in advance, and usually quite acurately, thus making the weather a major topic in news and everday conversations. One would think that the city has enough time to get prepared. However, every Washingtonian knows quite well what will hapen, if more than a few snowflakes hit the ground: chaos will take over. Schools will be closed, offices will announce a late start of work and streets will be a mess, filled with snow and ill-equped cares driven by snow-inexperienced drivers. The normal reaction before such an event: people run to the stores and stock up on milk, bread and water, leaving the shelves bare in grocery stores. Who knows how long the chaos will last. Listening to people, it is the same scenario every single time. The city authorities always seem to be unable to deal with snow. It seems odd. I am living in the capital of the richest country in the world, yet the authorities of Washington do not seem to be able to afford the necessary equipment to clear the streets and sidewalks during winter, even though the city gets an average of 40 cm of snow per winter.

Mid Februray, the capital of the free world* was hit by an ice storm. Within a few hours, the city was covered with a 3 cm layer of ice. The city was one big mess. Since Seba and I rely on the metro, we decided to go to work, assuming that the world underground would be ok (our office was closed for the day, since most of our co-workers rely on cars). Unfortunately, metro was also suffering from the weather. A blocked train on the way caused a huge delay. Our trip on the redline from Union Station to Friendship Heights usually takes about 20 minutes. During rush hour, trains run every three minutes. Not on that day, though. It took us an hour for four stations. Six more to go. At that point, the typical, inapprehensible voice of the driver informed us passengers that we had to change to a shuttle bus. Following this announcement, we had to do some thinking. The streets are a mess. How long will the shuttle bus have to get us where we wanted to go? Well, we decided to have a coffee at Union station on the way back and opted to stay home, after all. The next day I learnt in the Post that the city, accordiing to its mayor Adrian Fenty, "did a pretty good job" in cleaning the streets. Really? I do not know how big the uproar would have been in Bern, if the city would have done the same job... But, and that is truly amazing, people stayed calm and accepted the situation without grumbling and complaining. Maybe it is the patience of people here that allows the city to create an inevitable chaos, while in many other cities, in this country and elsewhere, such a behavior could jeopardize the political future of a major.

*Interestingly, this term is still used today by some US citizens to refer to their country. This seems strange. The repeated intrusion of the US government into the privacy and freedom of its citizens seems to me a major infringement of the freedom. Yet, it has done little harm (except that it might have contributed to the incredible low support for W). In many European countries early elections would have been called for, if the government would have taped phones and reading e-mails of law abiding citizens. Here it is different. Apparently, the war on terror justifies any means and the usually highly defended bill of rights seem to have lost its importance..

There are certain things in life, where privacy does not really matter all that much. Riding a train or going to the movies would feel strange, if there would not be other people around; at least when one is in a good mood. The same is true when enjoying dinner at a nice restaurant (in case that privacy matters, it is probably wise to hire a chef for rent and stay at home...). Then there are activities, where one prefers to be secretive, for example when entering the PIN into the ATM in the corner of a busy 7elven. I would also assume that many speakers do not want that their conversations are overheard.

However, there is one inevitable need of a human being, where privacy would mean a lot, yet, where privacy is not respected at all in this country: the toilet. Have you ever used a toilet in the US? For whatever reason they are built in a way that allows you to hear things you just don't want to hear. And if worst comes to worse (like in the bathroom in my office), you even see through the cracks right into the face of the person trying to relive himself (I assume the same is possible in a ladies bathroom, but I have not seen any from the inside yet...) or even better that very face is reflected in the mirror in front of the door, because the toilet is placed right behind that malicious crack that is left between the front wall and the door. Every other door would of course close tightly. Yet, this feature is not wanted for the toilet door. So every time I am washing my hands, I want to avoid eye contact with the one that is sitting right behind me. Of course, the same is true, when I am the one sitting there, desperately hoping that the man is quick and leaves me alone to mind my business.

The door's only purpose seems to be to prevent other people seeing the private parts. Other than that, there is no privacy foreseen, as the doors usually start at about 40 cm above ground (my goodness! What kind of underwear is he wearing???) and end about 1m 40 cm later (Hmm, looking at that haircut, it must be Jim who just gave enough reason to call for the biogas attack squad...). I do not want to know, what those tall basketball players can or rather have to see, when they walk by such standard US toilet booths. I really don't. But, at least at the office, these constructions have a positive side effect: they help me to burn some extra calories. Why? Because the bathroom on the third floor is considerably less used than the one on the ground floor... So my dear friends in Europe: enjoy the privacy in a place where it matters a lot. And the next time you sit there and meditate: just think of how privileged you are sitting there all by yourself and not a sole is watching... ;-)

Democracy is good.
And some think it is so good that it needs to be spread over the entire world. Whether a country wants it or not. In particular the current president of the USA and his close followers think this way. Strangely enough, it is literally in front of their door, where an anomaly of the US democracy is still in place more than 225 years after the declaration of independence.

One person, one vote. Not in the US.
I was quite surprised when I learnt about this not so long ago. You have three types of citizens in this country: you have the large majority. They life somewhere in one of the 50 states that make up the second word in the country's name. The can vote for Congress and they pay federal taxes. Then there are the inhabitants of the US territories, e.g. Puerto Rico. They cannot vote and thus do not pay federal taxes. Makes sense, doesn't it? And then at the end of the latter there are the Washingtonians. They do have a representative in the House of Representatives (comparable to the "Nationalrat" in Switzerland), but this person is not allowed to vote. However, the Washingtonians enjoy the pleasure to pay federal taxes, which are used to preach Democracy elsewhere. But that is not all. Congress (representatives from all corners of this country, except Washington DC) have the constitutional duty to oversee the activities in Washington. Theoretically, Congress could enact any kind of law in the Disctrict, and its citizens would simply have to swallow it.

Good things come to those who wait
Over the course of time, some elements of a local government were introduced in Washington DC. Since 1973, the city has a City Council, which serves as the legislative branch of the local government. Yet, all its laws are subject to approval by Congress. The House and the Senate both have standing committees, which are responsible for the oversight of the District of Columbia. However, it is not really a privilege to serve on those committees, as there are no merits to gain. Since senators and representatives want to impress their constituents in order to get re-elected, they have little interest to do a good job overseeing the lawmakers in DC, where they cannot gain any votes. This leads to interesting developments. Washington has one of the toughest gun laws in the country. Hand guns are illegal in this city, and long guns need to be registered. Much to the disliking of conservative Republicans, though, who believe this is a violation of the second amendment of the US constitution. In two attempts so far, they tried to get away with this law. Without success. A funny thought that a Representative from Texas could influence the laws in Washington. It is about as scary as the notion that Christoph Mörgeli or any other of the ultra-conservative gnomes of the Swiss Peoples Party could actively influence the law making in Bern...

History gets forgotten easily
The lack of representation of the colonialists in the British parliament led to the independence war in 1775, which eventually led to the founding of the US. Yet, the same unfair treatment that led to independence is still imposed on the citizens of the District of Columbia in 2007. And this nation is continuously preaching the values of democracy around the globe? Well, wouldn't it make sense to clean in front of the own door first? Indeed it does. The new Mayor of Washington, Adrian Fenty, announced a march to the Capitol on April 16 and a bill to give Washingtonians a full representation in the US Congress is underway. Maybe the Democrats, controlling both houses of Congress, might finally rectify this anomaly in the US political system.

Postscriptum
The flags were flown at half-mast for 30 days. This is not a coincidence. It's the law. According to Wikipedia, the following rules apply:

• For thirty days after the death of a current or former president.
• For ten days after the death of a current vice president, chief justice, or speaker of the House of Representatives.
• From the day of death until interment of an associate justice of the Supreme Court, a secretary of an executive or military department, a former vice president, or the governor of a state, territory, or possession.
• On the day of death and the following day for a member of Congress- i.e. a senator, a representative, a delegate, or the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico.
• On Memorial Day until noon.
• Upon presidential proclamation, which have included: the remembrance of the 9/11 attacks, the death of Pope John Paul II, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the death of Coretta Scott King.

If you want to know more about the half-mast rules in the US and other countries, go to Wikipedia

Only two things are certain in a life of a human being: paying taxes and death. That, I guess, is old news. As for the latter, not all people get the same attention when they leave their earthly existence behind. This, admittedly not really mind-boggling detection struck me one morning when I walked from my Capitol Hills home to the Union Station Metro stop on the Red line. Listening to the "Echo der Zeit" podcast, I suddenly realized that the flags decorating the Union Station were on half-mast. ??? Did I miss something in this morning’s edition of the Post? Oops. Of course. Former President Gerald Ford died after spending 93 years and 165 days on our planet. While I learnt recently that Jewish tradition requires a funeral within 24 hours after the death of a person, it is a whole different matter for a former President. The 38th president died on 26 December and he was buried on 3 January. In between the body of the late president was flown from California to Washington, where he arrived in a special convoy on 30 December and was brought to the Capitol. Curious how this would work, I joined several hundred bystanders at Constitution Avenue to watch the convoy, which was announced for 18:15. Well, at 18:30 they closed the usually busy Constitution. All of a sudden it was quiet. No SUV or Prius (the latter, a hybrid car, can be seen by the dozens on the roads in DC) would coast down the 6-lane road that leads from the Obelisk to Capitol. Only an occasional siren of a police car sounded through the night. A rather strange atmosphere. At about 18:50, we could see the convoy coming down the Avenue. Numerous cars filled with military and other seemingly important people passed by, headed and followed by about a dozen policemen on motorbikes that made an incredible noise. "That was it?" I thought after the procession vanished around the curve down the road. But in which of those cars was the casket? Did I miss it while fumbling with my camera? They would not possibly transport the body in one of the numerous SUV's in the convoy??? Hmm. Since no one around me thought it was time to leave, I decided to wait as well. Again it was quiet. With the wind I would hear the generator of a nearby hot dog stand every once in a while. (I mean, how can you survive such an event without food? The Asian vendor must have had a very busy evening. Usually, there are hardly any pedestrians in this area at that time.) Another 15 minutes passed. People stayed in the cold and waited. And then, a second convoy drove down the road. Among the cars were two hearses. Aha. I guess I did not miss the attraction of the evening after all. Constitution Avenue was back to normal five minutes later. Now, was the time for people to say good-bye to their former leader, who not only ended the Vietnam War but also pardoned President Nixon, whom he succeeded after the Watergate scandal. The pardon at that time was not perceived very well... According to the Washington Post, they expected waiting times for up to 6 hours for people who wanted to see the closed casket inside the Capitol. Well, that was too much for me. I left that part to the natives. On Tuesday, 2 January, the remains of Gerald Ford were again moved. This time he was brought to Washington Cathedral, the gothic monument built over the course of 83 years (!) from 1907 to 1990 (!!!). An apparently very moving memorial service was held. Since I do not have a TV (this will soon make me an outcast, as I will never be able to talk about the latest soaps and talk shows...), I missed it completely. The same day, he was then flown to Michigan, where he was eventually buried in the family grave on Wednesday, 3 January 2007. Quite a journey, wouldn’t you think? At some point I was musing how different we deal with the death of Federal Counselors in Switzerland. A State Funeral? Several days of official mourning? Viewing times in the Federal Parliament Building? Tears from Bill Clinton? Not that I can remember. It was really interesting to follow the press coverage (my main source is currently the Washington Post, or simply the Post), how strong the pride of the US Americans for their leaders is and how much they value certain rituals and ceremonies. Protocol took over the city life, at least of the official part of Washington. To come back to my life-changing findings, here is another one. Death comes at the most unexpected moment. I wasn't bothered all that much. For the new mayor of DC, the 34 old Adrian Fenty, son of an Afro-American father and a white woman (they own Washington's equivalent of Ryffel running in Bern), it was slightly different, as he planned to have his inauguration festivities during those days. The fast decider acted again quickly and moved everything by one week. I wonder, how happy he made the people, who had to deal with this decision... I hope they did not have to rely on the US Postal Service, because they did not deliver any mail on Tuesday, as W* declared this day as a national day of mourning in remembrance of Gerald Ford (no such decision was taken when the 3000th soldier was killed in Iraq in late December...). Well, with a few days delay, Fenty took over the leadership of my temporary hometown. Somehow, I find that guy exciting: he is very young (born in 72), he seems to have tons of ideas on how to make life better in this city and he seems to be very close to the people. The expectations towards him are high. He is an achiever. Hence, he already announced several very concrete measures he wants to take. The first one will be to take over control of the schools in the District of Columbia. Apparently, the city spends an incredible amount of money per student, while the results are way below the national average. People are not happy with the schools, to say the least. To the question, why he is starting so quickly with changes, Fenty answered that he had six years to develop many ideas. Now is his chance to put them into reality. Well, as a marathon runner, he certainly brings a certain amount of endurance into his job.

* W or George Walker Bush, the guy who, as of today when the Democrats officially took over the majority in the new Congress, started living his worst nightmare: two years of fighting against the former opposition that hates his guts. The already lame duck will likely become lamer every day from now on... It can only improve the US image abroad...

Finally. My luggage was checked, including my bike, I survived the tough good-bye from my significant other without sobbing all that much and I managed not to put my passport in the checked luggage. Together with 160 other people, I sat in the United airlines flight 937 bound for Washington DC. Of course we were late as this flight has never left on time (thanks to "congestions in the airspace above Zurich..."). Eventually we made it to the runway and were about to take off - when suddenly the pilots noticed some lights in the cockpit, which, according to their judgment, should not be lit up. Oops. Back at the gate and after two hours in the plane waiting for the definite decision, we learnt that our flight was cancelled due to a leak in one of the engines... United we stood in line to get our new flights assigned. This opened up some interesting discussions with people, I would otherwise not have had. For example, I learnt that the French ski team members are selected in a rather peculiar way, as only a few villages in the French alps can qualify. Too bad if you are a good skier and life somewhere else. Eventually, I made it to the desk, where I had various options to choose from. I chose to go via New York with Swiss the next morning, which would prolong my stay on Swiss soil for another 8 hours and a half until we landed in JFK. Here I could test the easy going way of the Americans for the first time: I wanted to fly to another airport in Washington, as my original destination was quite inconvenient for David, my new next door neighbor, to pick me up. What I believed would be impossible actually was done after about an hour. It could have been even faster, but carrying two suitcases, a bike in a box, my carry on luggage and my bag was not a very efficient endeavor. Well, eventually I made it and arrived in Washington National Airport on 18 December, 2006, at 17:10. My adventure in the promised land would finally start. Without my bike, which missed the flight in New York. Again, that was not such a bad thing, as this led to a delivery at my front door on Capitol Hills, where my new home stands. Let's see, what experiences my time in DC will bring me, shall we?