Archive for the ‘Sad Vienna’ Category

Bier und das MQ

Wir wollen eine Bring-Your-Own-Beer Trinkaktion im Hof des Museumsquartiers
veranstalten. Dazu müssen wir Leute und die Presse mobilisieren.

­ ORT/ZEIT: Samstag, 20. Juni 2009, 18.00-18.05 Uhr. Innenhof des
Museumsquartiers (Museumsplatz 1/5, 1070 Wien).

­ VORGEHENSWEISE: Ab 18 Uhr wird 5 Minuten lang während des Trinkens
regelmäßig laut zugeprostet!

­ ZIELGRUPPE: Alle, die ein Interesse daran haben, ihre mitgebrachten
Getränke weiterhin im MQ trinken zu dürfen.

­ GRUND: Das MQ ist ein öffentlicher Platz und wird mit unseren
Steuergeldern finanziert, im Jahr 2005 mit ca. 11 Mio. Euro. Wir sehen
nicht ein, wieso wir dazu gezwungen werden sollten, das Bier vor Ort zu
kaufen!

Es haben sich schon mindestens 2 facebook-gruppen gegründet und es gibt ein
geplantes protestereignis:

http://bringyourbeer.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=89218829570

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=96081236267

Just another victim

As the story of Mike Brennan unfolds, which I am pretty sure you know very well by now, I have the strangest feeling that if you are  a foreigner in this country who is not from the USA, the UK, etc.,  you are f*cked. Seriously.

Just by looking at the number of victims before Mr. Brennan, they shared the same thing–they were all black and all of them came from Africa. Their voices were too low for the whole society to hear. Though Mr. Brennan’s case has created a buzz surrounding this awful incident, the Viennese Police’s “apology” is half-hearted.

The simple question “Is there racism in Viennese Police” from last week’s “Club 2” was left unanswered by the head of the police. Instead we heard propaganda and beating-around-the bush declarations that they are doing their best to combat it. True, they are doing their job but why they cannot accept is that there are bad apples in the force and somehow racism exists in the structure.

Someone told me I would have a difficulty if I were an African woman. Hearing it was not easy to digest but I understood where he was coming from.  I believed him. It is not easy to be a black person in Austria. It is not easy to be a black person in the US. It is not easy to be a black person in Asia.

But over the years, I’ve been seeing a pattern on how Blacks and Latinos are portrayed in the world of videogames and Japanese animation.

The pattern that I had noticed where how Blacks were portrayed and it carried onto other fighting games. Blacks were usually portrayed as brainless boxers and wrestlers. To add a bit of diversity there were Blacks portrayed as kickboxers and capioerists. But that got pretty old after awhile, yet the Japanese still continued to portray Blacks in that fashion. That was how they stereotyped Blacks.

And if we believe the Biber article that came out weeks ago, the blacks belong at the bottom  of the ethnic hierarchy of Ausländer in Vienna.

Wieder mal die beliebte „Neger raus“-Schmiererei in der U-Bahn entdeckt? Wenn ja,  muss der „Autor“ dieser Kritzelei nicht unbedingt ein „echter“ Österreicher sein. Bei den Jugos und Türken sind die Schwarzen in der „ethnischen Hierarchie“ ganz unten angesiedelt. „Der Schwarze“ lebt ohne Papiere hier, Asylstatus abgelaufen. Er dealt mit Drogen aller Art, am Urban Loritz Platz, vorm Flex und am Karlsplatz. Sonst sitzt ist er mit seiner Gang im Volksgarten, raucht einen Ofen und macht fette Schwaboweiber an. Aufenthaltsvisum gegen Riesenschwanz, da kriegt jeder was er will.

Could it happen to Barack Obama too? Haderer has the answer. (Link via Biber)

Police brutality and Barack Obama

Sad Vienna: Neon Kunze

neon-kunze.jpg

Location: Wehrgasse, 5th district.

Oh, sad Vienna

I want to cry.

sad-vienna-1.jpg

The Weinviertel, The Gemütlichkeit and The Dirt

In 1999 25 year old Nigerian, Marcus Omofuma, was killed during a forced deportation in Austria. He was handcuffed, chained and his mouth closed with adhesive tape by the three escorting policemen who claimed that the other passengers of the deporting Balkans Air flight should not be disturbed. Marcus Omofuma suffocated.

The Marcus Omofuma memorial, which was created and paid for by the sculptor Ulrike Truger, reminds of the violence against Omofuma. The stone was put up next to the opera building in Vienna without official approval and was therefore supposed to be taken down. However, in collaboration with the Green Party, a place for it was found between Mariahilferstra§e and Museumsquartier.

Currently the Weinviertel (a part of Lower Austria) is presenting its products and touristic services between Mariahilferstra§e and Museumsquartier — around the Omofuma memorial. A kinda surreal situation. The Gemütlichkeit and Fortress Austria. It’s like Weinseligkeit.

gemuetlichkeit-omofuma.jpg

They also have a representation of Lower Austrian “Amethystwelt Maissau” (“the largest opencast amethyst vein in the world”).
Children can stir in dirt to find amethysts.
What a sad setting.

schatzgraeberfeld.jpg

Austrian tourist industry. You rule.

Land der Berge, Land der Neurotiker?

“He wanted to spare his family a shame.”

Or himself, the murderer? I wonder what he was thinking when he killed his own family brutally by ax.

The 39-year-old man, identified only as Reinhard S. by police at a news conference here, turned himself in in the early hours of Wednesday, saying: “The bodies of my dead wife and child are lying in my flat.”

Sources 1&2

According to the authorities the reason for this hideous crime is financial.

But is it only the issue of money? Nothing is known about the man except that he worked as a PR consultant, his wife a government employee. How about his relationship to his dead wife, his deceased parents and father-in-law?

In less than a month after the family drama in Amstetten Austria is again hogging the headlines with another crime such as this.

Once again, the Austrian reputation is in question. What is happening to this country? The suspect doesn’t typify the usual image of a killer. Neighbours talked about the normality of the family: middle class, the husband and wife are both academics, a growing child, a house situated in the so-called noble district, Wien Hietzing or the 13th District. The neighbours didn’t notice anything that could disturb this harmony.

Now they know that there is something wrong. Everything is only facade.

Saddest train station entrance

You can find the saddest train station entrance in Vienna @ Matzleinsdorfer Platz.

Please inhale its sadness and write some dark wave songs.

matzleinsdorf-sad.jpg

(I will not discuss this!)

Sad quasi-art

I added a new categroy, “Sad Vienna”.

And this is really sad.
A lonely Hundertwasser column @ Vienna International Airport.

sad-hundertwasser.jpg

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