FREIBURGER ZEITGEISTLITERATURE (Satis Shroff)

GARY SHTEYNGART: melancholic slapstick failuchka (Satis Shroff)   The room in the Altwiehre Bahnhof was full and a bearded American author of Jewish-Russian descent, a professor of creative writing from Columbia University, walked in and took his place behind the table with the microphones and a silly, old lamp. ‘It’s great to be back in Freiburg,’ he said and realized that he actually didn’t see his audience. He put the table-lamp aside and said,’ Now I see you.’ He brought out some photographs from his memoir ‘Little Failure’ and said, ‘ The photos are the best thing in the book. Here’s a snap of me: ‘boy with a toy car.’ So how do you become a writer? He said Brooklyn is full of writers. He went on to imitate Robbie Williams’ ‘Good Morning Vietnam,’ except this time it was ‘Good Evening, Leningrad.’ You know, my grandma said, ‘Hey, you wanna be a writer? For every page you write you’ll get a cheese. Russian cheese.’ Then he went on to tell a story...

GERMANY: Unity, Justice and Freedom (Satis Shroff) The Federal President Joachim Gauck 75, said that the integration of refugees is a bigger task than the re-union of Germany. He encouraged the Germans to accept this challenge in a speech on the occasion of Germany’s Day of Unity. Asylum Law: Chancellor Merkel (CDU) refused to lower the high standards of the Asylum Law, which hasn’t in any way been touched. What is necessary is a speeding-up of the asylum procedure. Even the SPD doesn’t desire any changes to be made in the Asylum Law of the country, but what the SPD is demanding from the Chancellor is to admit that Germany’s powers are limited in the refugee crisis, and that this influx of refugees can’t go on. It has already almost reached the million mark, which makes it impossible to take in more people. In this regard, the EU wants to work cooperatively with Turkey to curb the flight of the refugees to Europe, according to which Turkey should control its border with...

Can Laughter Get You Into Trouble? (Satis Shroff) Children and grown ups in Europe, Africa, Asia and the USA are linked with this common mirth and joy of laughter across the Atlantic, for we all laugh within or without.     A group of ladies who claim they were ejected from California’s Napa Valley wine train for ‘laughing while black’ are to file a $11m racial discrimination lawsuit against the train company. The reason they want to sue the company is not for money but to raise awareness that racism was still rife across American society.   Lisa Renee Johnson, one of the book group members, chronicled the incident on Twitter using the hashtag #laughingwhileblack, and they belonged to the Sistahs of Reading Edge book club. The group comprised 10 African American members and a white female member. The ages of the ladies were from 50 to 85.   The Brit laughs decently because his society is like a straight-jacket with its social norms and values...

THE GURKHAS by Byron Farwell      “ Review: The World Beyond the Mountains (Satis Shroff) Byron Farwell: The Gurkhas, Penguin 1985, London, 317 pages, ISBN o-14-007569-0 ‘The Gurkhas’ is a history of the finest infantrymen in the world who come from a country where ‘It is better to die than to be a coward,’ and where most bear the name Bahadur, which means ‘courageous,’ and who carry out their mission with the help of the deadly, curved kukris. ‘Ayo Gurkhali!’ Here come the Gurkhas! Is a battlecry that makes their enemies in battle wince, and sometimes abandon their weapons to save their dear lives. Younghusband marched unopposed into Lhasa on August 3, 1904 with his Gurkhas. During the Falkland War the Argentines fled when they realized that they were being outflanked by the Gurkhas. Byron Farwell narrative about the Gurkha battalions and their military engagements are enhanced by citations from the books on the same, making it a jolly reading material. T...