The benefits of civil aviation

It is one of the most modern and fashionable ways to travel and move about. Instead of getting into the car and going where it is nice at the weekend, even low-paid employees treat themselves to a weekend visit to London for shopping or Mallorca for a quick swim in the Mediterranian. Holidays are much cheaper anyway if you go on an all-inclusive holiday to Turkey or the Dominican Republic. So what?

Airports proudly announce constant increases in passenger figures and turnover, airlines sell out bargains of 19€-flights to who-knows-where, and if you refuse or just cut down on flying, you seem to be a kill-joy.

Have you ever imagined to live near one of these busy airports? I don´t have to imagine, I do. It´s a nightmarish experience if you can tell the age of the pilot in the cockpit when the aircraft hovers over your head and your ears go deaf with the noise from the engines. It´s not funny to be awakened in the middle of the night by aircraft taking off or landing and feeling shattered for the rest of the day because you couldn´t go back to sleep. Not to mention the fumes these monsters emit with every overflight.

Politicians and airport officials stay relaxed. The chosen few have to suffer for the benefits of the majority. Any lawnmower, they tell us, or the street or railway nearby emit more noise than an aircraft over your head. Well... how long do you use your lawnmower? Are you allowed and willing to use it at night? Or at noontime? Every city street is protected by speed limits at least it night for reasons of noise abatement. No chance for near-airport residents.

If we all would be willing to slow down life a bit, we would need only a fraction of flights. It would bring us nearer to the ideal which Mahatma Ghandi described this way:

"There is more to life than constantly increasing its speed."

This certainly would mean less profits for airports and airlines all over the world. But who cares?

Christian religion as a school subject?

A few weeks ago, a poll took place in Berlin about the introduction of Christion religion as a school subject. The initiators was an initiative of the Catholic and Protestant churches together with some VIPs, such as the tv moderator of "How to become a Millionaire", who is very popular in Germany. The idea was to be able to choose between the official subject Ethics and Chistian religion as an official subject.

The local Berlin government started a campaign against the introduction, and the initiative for the introduction of Christian religion failed in the end. There were only few people interested in the poll, and those who were voted against.

Religion combines historic facts, ethic rules, opposes violence in every day life and teaches understanding of other religions. It has nothing to do with fundamentalistic belief and old-fashioned ideas. It stands in the tradition of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King. So why not teaching youngsters about these ideas?

In Germany, there is a split going throught the country between north and south. In the southern federal states, religion is a normal school subject as Mathematics or languages, and there is no choice. Everybody has to take Catholic religion, no matter of his or her faith. In the rest of Germany, students and parents can choose, and it is only in Berlin that there is no choice between Ethics and Religion. Especially in Germany´s east, religion is classed as outdated. That is even though the churches in the former German Democratic Republic had a large part in criticising and finally doing away with the communist government. People forget fast.

Imagine the United States without its Christian roots or Great Britain without its Christian traditions. Certainly, a lot of ugly developments like crusades and slavery could have been avoided, but what about charity in the name of the churches?

Amongst my colleagues, the opinion is clear, and I am the absolute minority. Everybody is talking about tolerance, nowadays. Only, it doesn´t seem to apply to tose who think it worth believing in something else but consumption, superstition and the overestimation of the self and one´s own life and ideas.

That´s what every religion s about: Humility, the consciousness that men can´t influence everything and only live up to their own interests.