by Michael Felten,* Germany
(16 March 2024) In Germany, more and more voices are criticising the global school performance study PISA and its consequences. In February 2024, for example, the German Philologists’ Association suggested withdrawing from this process altogether. Among the well-known critics is Rainer Kaenders,** the top maths teacher trainer at the University of Bonn.
Speech by Jürgen Rose,* Germany
Dear participants,
dear friends of peace!
(9 March 2024) It is a great honour that so many of you have come here today to set an example for peace in the world, even though it takes a lot of energy and courage to stand up in these times of omnipresent and all-encompassing war and claims of victory and raise your voices against the mass murder on the “killing fields” of this world. Especially as people like us are often bluntly defamed as “shoddy pacifists” by numerous political and journalistic claqueurs of war, who conversely would probably be most aptly dubbed “rogue militants”.
by Rainer Schopf,* Germany
(9 March 2024) Fredrik Heffermehl was born in Norway and studied in Oslo and New York. As a lawyer and author, he has written numerous books, given lectures, and campaigned for the legacy of Alfred Nobel. He was a staunch critic of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which in his opinion often failed to fulfil Nobel’s will when awarding the Nobel Peace Prize.
by Shelly Steinberg, Germany
(9 March 2024) (Edit.) At this year’s Berlinale, an international film festival, the documentary film “No Other Land” was honoured with the Berlinale Documentary Film Award. The film deals with the expulsion of Palestinians in the West Bank. In his acceptance speech, the Palestinian co-director, Basel Adra, said: “It is very difficult for me to celebrate when tens of thousands of my people in Gaza are being slaughtered by Israel.” He demanded that Germany should not supply any more weapons to Israel. Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham spoke of “apartheid” in the West Bank. The audience applauded. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) then raised the accusation of “disgusting open anti-Semitism”. In her letter to Mrs Roth, Shelly Steinberg rejects this accusation and characterises it.
by Carl Bossard,* Switzerland
(23 February 2024) First, educational authority is frowned upon, and then it returns to the classroom, labelled with the attribute of the “new”. This is happening through the back door and via a private institute. Educator Carl Bossard writes about the slalom course of an elementary concept.
by Marita Brune-Koch
(16 February 2024) For almost two months now, farmers have been protesting on Germany’s streets against the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to make ends meet with their farms. In the beginning, the major protests were very prominent in the media. Suddenly they disappeared – not the protests, which continued, but the reports in the media. They were replaced by an omnipresent coverage of the demonstrations “against far-right”. This is quite contrary to the fact that farmers from many European countries are united in their protest: reports are reaching us from the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy, and Poland, but in the public media and the mainstream press we hear and read virtually nothing about it. Obviously, this tactic is not enough; the protests still seem too dangerous for those in power. So, they are being helped along with a tried and tested means: with the label “right-wing” the farmers are now to be divided and silenced.