Eurovision Song Contest sets political statement

Yesterday Conchita Wurst from Austria won the Eurovision Song Contest, a huge music celebration in Europe. Once a year every country can send an artist to represent her country at the Song Contest. It gives everyone the chance to hear music they might never heard otherwise. Winning this competition in 1976 was huge for Abba, because afterwards they had an amazing and very successful career. Their songs are still heard and they are some sort of role models for everyone taking part these days.

We are like ballons - colorful and unique
and wanna be free.
pic by gwaar

But it is not only about the music anymore. Sure, music connects people. They can sing in their own language, and you don't have to understand every word to understand what they sing about. The Eurovision Song Contest unites Europe in the most positive way. And this year it also sets a political statement.

The winner comes from Austria and is a guy, dressed like a girl but having a beard. His actual name is Thomas Neuwirth, who is an Austrian singer and drag artist. What looks strange at first has a good reason why he does it like that. Because it doesn't matter the way you look or who you are, as long as you simply be yourself.

He has called himself Conchita Wurst, because there is a German saying that goes "es ist wurst" which means "it doesn't matter". So what does it mean that he/she won this? That it is okay to be you, and you will be loved for being who you are. There will always be people who try to put you down. But if there is anyone out there calling you ugly, she will be the ugly one. Because ugly is an attitude, it's someone who doesn't want to accept other people but are only self-centered.

Everyone is beautiful. Your beauty lies within you. 

When I ask people who they think is beautiful they always name girls like Heidi Klum or any other top model (I don't really know many models because i don't like that business that reduces everyone to her looks). Actually I always wonder why people mostly care about someone's eyes or body or whatever. It is when I read magazines or some forums on the internet and the same people discuss the same things over and over again. No matter what is on TV, it is mostly about how someone's dressed and looked instead of writing about what she said. That must be the reason some "celebrities" like the Kardashians exist in the media.

Why did we become people who mostly care about the hair, makeup, body, etc and also drive ourselves crazy by thinking we aren't perfect the way we are? Why do we reduce people to how they look? Imagine the show "The voice" was real life, and you only hear a person's voice, and then think about if you wanna get to know her or not, and after that decision you see her face, would you think differently about her than just seeing her? The character of a person is much more important. But no one sees anyone's character. The clothes you wear, gives strangers a first impression of who you might be. She then thinks of other guys she met who looked similar than you and so put you into some sort of box. It is based on our experience what we see in people. It is caused by evolution and good to prevent us from people who could harm us. But it also can let us being prejudiced against some people, when there is no reason to be. We only see what we wanna see and close our eyes for what is really there.

Have a look at the video below. Maybe close your eyes and just listen to Conchita's voice and then watch her. The eyes are the biggest liars, we can see more clearly with our heart. So back to her winning the ESC yesterday: Europe accepts people no matter what. And that is good. Because if there is one thing we all want, it's freedom. And how do we become free? When we get the chance to be who we are and being accepted for that. And this makes someone really beautiful: when she dares to be herself and also accepts and respects others for being who they are.

Form a unit

Today is in Germany the 'Tag der Deutschen Einheit', which means 'Day of the German Unity', the national holiday. It's a big and important day, because the two parts of Germany came back together after so many years. When in 1989 the Berlin Wall opened, many people from the East came to the West and vice versa. It was a touching moment, and though I was only one year old when that happened, I saw so often the scenes afterwards on TV.

I also saw when the Wall was built, and the politician Walter Ulbricht said, that no one had the intention to build a wall. But it was built. It was like you opened a window and saw your neighbors and one day later you could only see bricks. Maybe your mother lived across the street, but you couldn't visit her because of the wall that covered the entire road. I mean it wasn't easy back then, and I am happy that I live now.

The future's in the air, I can feel it everywhere, 

Blowing with the wind of change

from the song 'Wind of Change' by the Scorpions 

Some parts of the Wall still stand in Berlin as a memory, and in some souvenir shops there you can buy parts of the wall. It's interesting because you can still feel all the history that is in this city. You can still visit Checkpoint Charlie, some things didn't change. It has all the charm from the past, the future and the here and now. So if you want to visit Germany, make sure you won't miss Berlin.

Forming a unit, being back together. That's what the Germans celebrate today. Being separated led to many differences, as the Eastern part couldn't do that much, and hadn't got as much as the Western part like food or possibilities to choose where to go on vacation. So the differences grew bigger, and it was like two different countries. But in their hearts they were still together. Maybe no one would have admitted that, but you noticed that it was true when the Wall opened.

So when someone tries to be more special it will mostly lead into nowhere. Everyone is special, but we all belong together, also in the world. War is never the right solution. We all want to live, we all want to interact with other human beings in a kind way. We all want to be respected for who and how we are. No one is better, no one is worse. Let's stop the war, and form a unit. That's what I hope for the whole world. That one day people will stop fighting, and appreciate the special gift of life.

Here is the song, which is the song of the German Unity, 'Wind of Change' by the Scorpions.

Two worlds

What is the most important thing in our life? Right: love. Nothing is more important than love because love made and makes us. There is not only one definition for love, one sentence can’t put in words what exactly it is. And that’s good. Because love is not just about a man and a woman, love is also the friendship between two people, the love for our parents, our kids. Even hate is some sort of love.

Everything started with love, our life started with love. The more love we receive, the more we can give and the happier we are. Love is free, like we are. We can choose who we love, what we love to wear, to eat, to drink, to see, to listen to. Love is what makes us, what surrounds us. We can show other people that we love them, and that’s what makes us stronger. Together we can reach so much more than on our own. We shouldn’t fight against each other, we need each other and we all have to know, that life is a precious gift that can be over way too soon and most when we least expect it. But when we live together, our weakness can become a strength, two people can do more things than a single person.

Besides love we also need freedom. Freedom for being ourselves. We don’t want to act, pretend to be someone else, we shouldn’t have to lie because we are afraid people wouldn’t like us the way we are. We want to be loved, we want to be expected, but we don’t wanna hide. We want to live the way we love to. No one should be judged about what or who they love or how they’re dressed. We should not lie, that’s in the Bible. But wouldn’t it be a lived lie, if we change the way we are, only that we get accepted?

When two worlds collide, that’s the start of a song by Amy MacDonald. These two worlds can be a mother and her child, a man and a woman, two men or women who love each other, brothers and sisters. They show their love, they change their life, become part of each other’s. The people who are close to us, the people we meet in life, these are the people who inspire us, who let us grow and makes us the persons we are right now.

And I believe that, when one day the time will come, and I have to close my eyes forever, that I won’t be completely gone. As long as the people I know and love, will keep on thinking about me. Because love is life. Love can’t be described with words. It has the power to survive everything. Because love has the freedom to be immortal and infinite.

Independent liberty

Today is the 4th of July - Independence Day. This is a big day for all the Americans on which they celebrate their independence. This let me think about the word itself. What does it mean to be free? Am I free? I mean not only Americans want to gain independent. We all want to be free. But are we actually?

A lot of things have changed in the past years, decades and centuries. And I have to admit that I am very grateful that I live these days than some years ago. Not just that women are not only housewives anymore, that they are also allowed now to do almost as much as men do. There are still some differences, e.g. in the payment, but most of all the two genders are equal.

I also like that people can be who they are. I mean in the Bible we can read that every person is the same and should be respected by the way he or she is and so do also respect others. This was long time ago a big problem and I guess for some guys it still is. If someone is a bit different or not like the average, people judge them for being not normal. Like some days ago when I have seen these Oreo pictures - thanks to Chris Whiting who tweeted that - and the comments of some people about it. Some really wrote just silly stuff which reminds me of how life would like have been some years ago. But in my mind we are civilized now, and I can’t imagine why some people still make such a big deal of something like that.

Every person is free to choose who they love. Of course it’s crazy to think about marrying a manga figure (manga = japanese comic book). I actually read an article on the internet about that some months ago. A grown up Japanese man wanted to marry his favorite manga character. That’s really overdone. But as long as you love another human being - I think it doesn’t matter how old he/she is (of course not an adult and a child, but I guess you know what I mean) or what gender he/she is - everything's fine. Love is so much more. Everyone should be free to choose and free to love.

Freedom gives us the opportunity to live the way we want to. Why should we change our life just because we don’t get accepted by other people? Every person lives only once and this life shouldn’t be wasted. Freedom means for me to do the things you like as long as you don’t harm others. Dare to be yourself. Live your life and not the life others want you to have or live because no one knows you better than you do.

What is freedom for you? Do you feel free? How do you celebrate the Fourth of July?


If you're interested, here is the site about the Oreo's: http://www.tickld.com/t/16149