8.12.02024

Photo: meseno-Kinderhaus

Christmas

For some, Christmas is earlier than planned or intended this year, and for others, such an event is not taking place at all. For many business people at least, Christmas could last all year long, and some people are still waiting for Easter and Christmas to coincide. I'm sure some unions are already thinking about the possibility of employees going on holiday before Christmas and slowly returning to work after Easter - after all, a good work-life balance is essential, and with such demands, you can keep your own clientele happy. After all, the work is always done by others - and in times of AI, everything is done by itself, and seminar papers are now not only written but also corrected by, for example, ChatGPT.

Last Friday I was invited to the meseno Christmas party and was able to see their facilities for the evening. Later, as we sat together with a few employees, I almost felt like Christmas.

We all know since Ebenezer Scroogethat Christmas is a way of life and not a celebration — or at least it should be.

Ophthalmologist

Things are not going so well for one or two despots in Syria. The butcher and mass murderer so beloved by totalitarians Bashar al-Assad should be history in the Middle East. The Syrian Prime Minister Mohamed al-Jalali speaks of enabling an orderly transition — from the frying pan into the fire.

The Turks and Iranians are still there and will not allow their influence to be taken away. But at least the Russians seem to be temporarily saying goodbye to Syria, because it is currently a little easier to murder and rape in Ukraine.

The question of the day is the whereabouts of Bashar al-Assad, or rather his stolen billions of dollars. I wouldn't be surprised if there were soon one more ophthalmologist in Munich or even at Tegernsee.

However, some idealists believe that the whereabouts of around 100 Syrians who were expelled during the rule of Bashar al-Assad simply disappeared. But such poor people are still sought in vain in South America, for example.

My conclusion: if you're going to disappear, it's better to do so with a really fat bank account — at least then you can afford a dentist or even an eye doctor if you need to.

Wicked Little Letters

Who hasn't seen these little emails that come in by the hundreds and are usually full of obscenities? Today we no longer call these dirty little letters, but simply advertising, or more precisely SPAM.

In contrast to a good 100 years ago, this issue is no longer worth debating in parliaments, but is part of everyday life, part of the business practices of successful companies, which can certainly deduct the costs of their insults and harassment from their taxes, if they pay any at all.

Shortly after the end of the First World War, this was still an issue in the United Kingdom and not only occupied the press, but also, as mentioned, the people's representatives of the time. Thea Sharrock now turned into a small but fine film with the above title and also linked the whole thing to the theme of emancipation. It is fitting that in 1920, the time in which the film is set, the suffragettes also caused a bit of a stir in the male world.

The 2023 film “Wicked Little Letters” is therefore about these two issues that still concern the world today. Thea Sharrock However, unlike many of her colleagues, she manages to approach this topic in much greater depth than our own women's rights advocates could - sometimes it would help to simply look at the whole thing with a bit of humor.

In the small coastal town of Littlehampton, the residents receive the obscene letters that give the story its title and begin to search for the sender. Suspicion quickly falls on an outsider who probably did not conform to the moral standards of the time. Jessie Buckley shines in her role as Rose Gooding and she even strips naked in the right places, which should give her female counterparts something to think about, as they continue to prefer to show off their surgically enhanced body parts to the male world.

The counterpart takes over Olivia Colman as Edith Swan and I find it difficult to name one of the two actresses as the better one. But the other actresses are also good choices and complete the ensemble excellently; each of them would have deserved a mention.

In return, they degrade and this certainly from Thea Sharrock their male counterparts were all mere extras. With one exception, Timothy spall gives as Edward Swan a villain absolutely necessary for the plot; he embodies the old-fashioned male world perfectly and keeps us men — at least many of my generation, who actually Edward Swans great-grandchildren might be — the mirror.

Thea Sharrock has shown with her third film that she is not only a promising director, but is already one of the best.

My recommendation is clear, you have to see this film.

“No one should believe that with the fall of the dictatorship an ideal society will immediately appear.”

Gene Sharp (2012: 116)

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