I'm living much less under a rock these days than I'd like. Because, well. Things going on in the world and so on.

So. In case it has passed you by (for instance because you live abroad, and don't get German-centric news): The CDU (the "black party") has made a "Kleine Anfrage" which is basically an information request. That is their right, and it's a perfectly normal thing to do if you want to know something, or get some current numbers.

However... the way that they worded it, and the things they ask, it reeks of trying to intimidate a number of organisations that were active in the protests against the CDU vote together with the AfD. It's basically a thinly veiled threat of "we will cut your funding and discredit you because you did this". 

There's a few things about this. Once, that's just not how you do things. Apart from the fact that any democratic party should be happy about people rising up to defend the democratic system, making a sort of roundhouse kick like this (which will get a lot of people working in the offices quite busy) and not even researching the individual organisations a bit on whether they are actually considered as "gemeinnützig" or not... well. 

Discrediting networks that are doing research to help with renewable resources, sustainable farming, reducing food waste, animal rights, the protection of the environment, and educating people about right-wing extremism? That sounds like they are using the opportunity to try and get rid of everyone and everything that is criticising them for stuff that, yes, the black-led government or the governments with high black involvement have done.

Which means that quite a lot of people are now pissed, and the black party has not done anything to improve their image (which wasn't too good from the start if your viewpoints include anything like gender equality or social justice or environmental concerns). 

The good news: In contrast to what the Kleine Anfrage implies, a lot of the organisations listed don't actually get any money from the state. So they can't cut their funding. 

The other good news: We now have a handy list of organisations to support. So if you're curious, or if you would like to, say, send the equivalent of a coffee to one of them each month... here you go. 

• CORRECTIV gGmbH (https://correctiv.org/)
• Omas gegen Rechts Deutschland e. V. (www.omas-gegen-rechts.org/)
• Campact e. V. (www.campact.de/) 
• Attac Trägervereins e. V. (www.attac.de/) 
• Amadeu Antonio Stiftung (www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/) 
• Peta Deutschland e. V. (www.peta.de) 
• Animal Rights Watch e. V. (www.ariwa.org)
• Foodwatch e. V. (www.foodwatch.org/) 
• Deutsche Umwelthilfe e. V. (https://duh.de/)
• Agora Agrar gGmbH (www.agora-agrar.de/)
• Agora Energiewende gGmbH (www.agora-energiewende.de/)
• Greenpeace e. V. (www.greenpeace.de/)
• BUND e. V. (www.bund.net/)
• Netzwerk Recherche e. V. (https://netzwerkrecherche.org/) 
• Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen e. V. (https://neuemedienmacher.de/)
• Delta1 gGmbH mit Anlaufstelle Green Culture (www.greenculture.info) und Aktionsnetzwerks Nachhaltigkeit (https://aktionsnetzwerk-nachhaltigkeit.de)

Always remember: Every little bit helps. Or, as it was once said during the pre-election campaigns here: Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Time to take a look at what we can do. Because yes, we can do things. Even if you don't have money, and even if you don't have much energy left these days, there are things you can do.

The easiest, cheapest, ridiculously small but still powerful thing that everyone of us can make happen every day: Smile. Give somebody you don't know at all a smile, out there on the streets, in the supermarket, in the bus, in the elevator. You already make a little change right then, right there. If you want to challenge yourself, make it three smiles each day. Bonus points if it's someone often forgotten or overlooked - a bus driver. The cleaning lady. A supermarket cashier. You'll make their day a little brighter, and yours as well. 

One step up - say thank you to people. Write a note to a politician working for democratic causes, speaking up against unjustice, and say "Thank you for your work". They will be frustrated, too, and may be struggling, so hearing something positive will help them. You can also say thank you to the driver as you're exiting the bus, or when you see a cleaner doing their job. In a time where rifts between people are purposefully made bigger and bigger to tear us apart and make us easier to suppress and rule, acts of kindness and friendliness will help to get us closer again, and to not forget we are all humans.

If you have a little money to spare, go look for an NGO you can support. In Germany, CDU/CSU is now trying to intimidate the organisations that organised demonstrations against right-wing extremists and fascism, trying to discredit them and maybe stop their state support. (Spoiler: They usually only get money for specific projects, typically to support democracy, and have to list what the money was spent for - so it's not like they are handed a bunch of money with a "here you go, have fun".) Pick one of them - a research platform, some group pointing out extremist tendencies, an organisation buying up land to turn into nature reserves, a group (including a small local group) working to slow down climate change and protect nature. Donate to them, preferably a running donation every month. It does not need to be much, if you can spare a fiver each month (which is, depending on where you buy it, about a large coffee) - it already helps more than you'd imagine, especially if many of us do that now. 

Shop locally, if you can. Support your local farmers and small businesses. Think about what you need before you buy - especially if it's from one of the big companies that make a lot of profit exploiting their workers. (Nestlé would be one of the huge corporations of, hm, debatable ethnicity.) Look if there's a thrift shop near you where you can donate stuff you don't need anymore that is still good to use, or a "free to a new home" distribution centre. Maybe you can even set up one yourself - a shelf with some kind of weather protection above it would already do.

You want to do more? You have time to spare but not money? Get active yourself. Helpers, supporters, everyone can pitch in with something. Setting up logistics for meetings, and tearing down. Handing out flyers (or stuffing them into mailboxes). Even if you're an introvert, there will be something you can do to help, without exposing yourself. You can also call your representatives and ask specific questions. If you're not up to calling, you can send a letter. (If you put a small coin in there, it cannot be put into the shredder unopened, so even if it does not get read, it will cause some nuisance.)

Germans are currently sending cups to Merz in an act of protest against things he said. Nobody knows what that will amount to, but it's something you can do, and it's at least fun. (And you can finally get rid of that ugly cup...)

If you're more extroverted you can talk to people. Listen to their concerns. Connect with neighbours and friends, build yourself a network that can lift you up when you are down. Talk to people outside of your bubble - maybe you can find a point that you agree on, and work from there. Maybe you can find a solution for a small problem in your area. 

And the most important thing: Don't give up now. We still have a chance. No matter where you are, there still is a chance. But if we stop fighting, if we stop advocating... we will definitely lose.

If you like, make a note here in the comments on what you're planning to do - or your ideas for other things that can make a difference!

Things going on here? 
The cat is asleep on the bed - and today there were no complaints before she snuggled down (I had remembered to make the bed after she'd gotten up in the morning...)

The test knit that I have on the needles is almost finished. I'm mending the knee area of my bouldering trousers. We've started pruning the willow fence. I have eaten too much chocolate today.

I'm also wondering for how long my current computer will hold out - apparently it's not Windows-11-compatible due to some security chip being too old. And no, I am not planning to repace a perfectly fine, working computer right now. Grr.

What else is happening? While we are in political limbo right now (negotiations will happen, but of course they are not public), there's an initiative sending cups to Friedrich Merz as a kind of creative protest. Why? Because in his speech on the evening before election day, he lost it and insulted the people out on the streets demonstrating against fascism... using the German saying that "die haben nicht alle Tassen im Schrank" (they don't have all the cups in the cupboard). Because a lot of people felt offended by this, and are also quite firmly of the opinion that if there is a lack of cups in any cabinet, it's not in the protester's cupboards, but more probably in somebody else's... he's getting cups in the post now.

You can find some more about that if you go on Instagram and look for #merztasse - here's a random example: 

Well. Hopefully it will help. And we also happen to have a few cups more that we don't use... so they will make their way to Berlin soon, too.

One of the interesting topics that come up again and again is the diversity of German dialects - which, I once read somewhere, can be so far apart linguistically that they are actually different languages. 

I grew up in Franconia, and thus know the Franconian dialect.  Which sounds very, very different from what you can hear here, which is the Cologne dialect.

(And a really wonderful project, by the way! It's a song to get people to vote. There's original subtitles in German and Kölsch - and yes, they are quite necessary for some bits for Germans, too - but the automatic English translation is, unfortunately, quite shitty...)

There's horrible news about an attack on a demonstrating mass of people today in Munich. It was not a demo against the far right, but a protest against too-low wages - and still. A car was driven into the marching people from behind, with several partly badly injured people as a result.

And I would not be surprised at all if the man doing this had been paid, or been promised payment, by the right-wing extremists. Something like that, ten days before elections, when the right-wing party has done their best to fuel hate and fear regarding anybody not having a pure German pedigree? It stinks. To me, it reeks of something behind the bushes here. 

It will be an interesting ten days until the elections now, and I would not be surprised if that flavours all the rest of the debates massively. It's horrible, in so many ways.

So. Excuse me if I will not blog tomorrow, I will be off on a demo (against the far right, because acts like this are still not a reason to make Germany Nazireich 2.0). 

And please keep your fingers crossed for sanity in our land. 

I feel like I'm out of words, and, well, running out of hope, looking at how political stuff here in Germany is going right now. The AfD with its horrible rhetoric has voted together with CDU (who were supposed to be a democratic party), and now said CDU is showing a face that's almost as ugly as that of the fascist right-wing extremists. They are using the same rhetorics as well.

So here we are, a few weeks before the elections 2025, and it feels more like we're in 1933 again. When I was a teen in school, we got to watch the play "Die Welle" (The Wave) in our local theatre. One of the big questions that arose in the discussions afterwards was - what would we have done? How would each of us have reacted, and acted? 

I never really thought there would come a day when I'd be able to find out. I am horrified, really, to see that so many people today are STILL considering to give their votes to those from the AfD, or the CDU/CSU. We're running into rampant fascism, and a replay of 1933 and the following years, if they are given control. 

Germany is my home country. I grew up here, and while there's a lot of not-so-spiffy stuff going on, I feel at home here - but I am seriously considering options to go somewhere else now if the right-wing parties take over. Because I don't want to see how everything goes crash and burn, and I also don't want to be a victim of said crashing and burning. (Yes, my name is not German. My father came to Germany as a child. And no, I have no intention of finding out whether the fascist would still generously consider that as "German enough" or if they'd prefer to send me off somewhere.)

So. If you are in Germany, and have the right to vote, please think carefully about where you make your crosses. There's always the Wahl-O-Mat if you'd like to see how the parties' aims line up (starting on February 6 for the upcoming elections), and now there's also the Real-O-Mat to show you how the parties' actual decisions and votes match or do not match with your opinions. 

And if you feel like protest voting, there are plenty of parties who have no chance to do a lot - like Volt, or even Die Linke. Or you might actually vote for the green party, who does have a chance to really turn things around, and who have been trying hard to keep things civil, and do a decent job at running the country while the FDP was busy with killing the government, and the black parties busy with trying to copy the fascists. 

Voting far right is not protest voting. It's democratic suicide. Please keep our country safe for everybody. Vote left, or green.

In case you're looking for a place to do a PhD with getting money, here might be something for you - providing you're not averse to metal and metalworking:

Newcastle University (UK) announces a call for a PhD scholarship on a project titled Technological choice and variability in prehistoric metalworking: a transdisciplinary investigation, funded by the AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership as a Collaborative Doctoral Award. The partner organisation is ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, STFC, UKRI.

Project Summary

This project investigates variability and social choice in prehistoric metalworking through an innovative transdisciplinary approach that integrates experimental archaeology, materials science, and a critical review of social studies on craft practice. The student will develop a novel understanding of artisan skill, sensory perception, communities of practice, and craft specialisation in prehistoric bronzeworking. The research will provide new insights into the social context of early European metallurgy, reassessing the enduring link between metallurgy and the rise of social complexity. Through this work, the student will acquire a unique transdisciplinary skillset that will significantly enhance their intellectual profile and employability.

Prospective candidates are advised to look at the full project proposal here: https://northernbridge.ac.uk/applyforastudentship/cda/

Value and duration of the award

Tuition fees paid at a rate equivalent to the UK home fee. For international students, Newcastle University will generously cover the difference between home and international fees through the university's Global Scholarships Scheme. Costs for relocating to the UK cannot be covered.

A yearly stipend paid in regular instalments. Awards increase every year, typically with inflation. As an indicator, the level for 2024/2025 is £19,237.

A contribution to research costs of £600 per annum. Additionally, award holders can apply to a Northern Bridge fund reserved to support primary research costs.

Duration of the award: 3.5 years full-time or 7 years part-time. Funding can be extended up to 4 years by undertaking a placement at the partner organisation or another non-higher-education institution. The maximum duration of a UK PhD is 4 years full-time (8 years part-time).

As one would expect for a PhD thing, you need to have a Master's degree in Archaeological science or something similar or an MSc in a relevant science degree, as well as some knowledge about metallurgy and materials. Bonus points if you are familiar with bronze casting and have experience there. In addition, the usual stuff for working together with other researchers (including interdisciplinary work), writing scientific papers etcetera (and of course the thesis), and working towards deadlines in the academic field.

If you think that might be something for you, go find out more on the official website at https://northernbridge.ac.uk/applyforastudentship/cda/ for details about everything (look under "recruiting programs" and scroll down, unless something else sounds even more like the thing for you). Deadline for your application according to the guidelines on that page is Monday 3^rd February 2025, midnight (UK time).