God of Carnage!

I wouldn't consider myself the most culturally interested person in the world. Nevertheless, over the last few years I have developed a certain passion for going to the theatre. From time to time when there is a play that sounds interesting or thrilling or whatever I buy tickets and ask one of my friends or family members to join me. 

As I was looking through the plays of this season in October, I stumbled across a play called "Der Gott des Gemetzels" (in English: "God of Carnage"). If you keep asking yourself why you have the feeling of already knowing the title - in 2011 the film directed by Roman Polansky was released, starring Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz.

I must admit that I hadn't seen the film when I looked through this season's programme but as I knew the content I was really excited about it. I absolutely wanted to know what the play would be like and so I bought three tickets - one for each, my cousin, my sister and me. The premiere of the play took place on a Thursday evening in the theatre of Graz and I have to tell you that it was simply excellent. For me it was one of the best plays I have ever seen.

In case you have never heard of neither the film, nor the play I want to tell you shortly about the content: The whole play takes place in the living room of a French couple. You think that's weird? Of course it is,  but it makes the whole story even more interesting. 

There are two couples who want to sort out a struggle that had taken place between their two boys. One struck out at the other one with a stick and smashed two of his incisors.

At the beginning of the story the two couples sit in the living room in a "well mannered way". As a spectator you get the impression that both couples try to maintain their facade by trying to keep polite and friendly even though everyone feels extremely uncomfortable in this situation. The mother of the boy who injured the other one first tries to stick to her friendliness although the other woman insists on the fact that her poor little child was hurt intentionally. After a few minutes the whole situation starts to change direction and step by step you are able to see what the four adults truly think of each other and their facade slowly vanishes. The situation gets worse and worse and finally escalates: The two couples insult each other, the couples among themselves start to strongly argue and both, the two husbands and the two wives lose their temper. Everybody shouts at each other and loses control. 

What really made the play extraordinary was the Performance of the four actors.  I couldn't say which one played the best because all of them were simply brilliant.
The man with the bold, father of the injured son, first tried to act as a mediator and did everything to make the others feel comfortable, but in the course of the play you were able to observe how he lost his temper and showed his true personality. He became choleric and cruel man, who didn't show any regret or sympathy for any kind of creature. He further made clear that marriage is like a cage for him and that he and his wife have huge problems. She herself tried to maintain her composure for a very long time but finally suffered a nervous breakdown.

The play was brilliant and in the end I didn't know whether I should laugh or be upset or surprised. It was amazingly funny and thrilling at the same time.
I am convinced that of course all the people in the audience had much fun watching the play but at the same time I hope that it also made a lot of them think about their behaviour and their strong whish not to show any weakness. At least it had this effect on me. After the play I kept asking myself if it really is that way in reality. Don't we all try to maintain a special facade and try to give everyone around us the impression of us leading a "perfect" life? And if yes, what is the sense in doing so? Is there one?

19 years of companionship

I know we weren't supposed to write a post about our cat and just show thousands of photos. But that's not what I'm going to do, I'm going to tell you about 19 years of companionship.

As I was a little child of three years, I shared the room with my sister who is three years older than me. One evening when we were already lying in bed and our mother was sitting beside us, my father came home and knocked on our door. We weren't suspecting anything in particular because he often worked until late. But when the door opened we were more than surpised because our father held something small, really really small, in his hands. It suddenly moved and that was the moment when my sister and I realised that it was a little cat! We couldn't hide our excitement and jumped out of our beds because we wanted to have a closer look at the little thing our father had just sat down on one of the beds. It was so extremely sweet and immediately started to purr. For the four of us there wasn't any question about how to name our little cat, the purring had made it clear - Schnurli would be part of our lives from that day on.

And well, she was a part of our lives. A part that was so important to me that I can't imagine a life without her. Cats are not like dogs. They are a bit stubborn, or at least our cat was that way. She could be so sweet lying next to me while I was sleeping, or learning, but when she had enough, she just ran away from me without any reason. She also was a bit shy. If she heard the tiniest noise of an unknown voice she was the first one to run in the opposite direction and hide somewhere safe.
It is strange, but she was just always there. Even if her meowing was sometimes nail-biting and her inability to decide whether to go out into the garden or stay inside the house was really difficult to handle sometimes, she could be really funny. Then she hid behind a chair or behind the door and when I walked by she jumped out of her hiding place and I shrieked.

Anyway.
19 years is a very long time. 133 years for a cat. That's a lot.

Dirty chocolate

Chocolate. I absolutely love chocolate and therefore can't understand that there are people out there in this world who don't like chocolate. This is beyond my imagination because I really can't resist chocolate - a reason that made me think twice before watching the film "Schmutzige Schokolade II". It's a documentary that shows the Danish journalist Miki Misrati revealing the very bad conditions under which cocoa is harvested for the production of the chocolate we eat every day. 

 

Since it was revealed that the chocolate industry (mainly Nestlé and other big companies) is involved with child slavery in the Ivory coast, the big companies have been trying to clean their image and started campaigns promoting their social projects in cocoa planting regions. They claim to fight trafficking and child labour by building schools, hospitals and providing the workers of cocoa plantations with trainings to become responsible and successful workers at the same time. 

The film shows the Danish journalist trying to visit the Ivory Coast (one of the main cocoa producers) but the embassy refuses his entry until he has an invitation (from the chocolate industry) which turns out to be impossible. That is why Miki travels to Ghana, the neighbouring country, and manages to get a Ghanaian friend of him visiting the already above mentioned social projects in the Ivory Coast. 

Even after the first few minutes of the film it got clear that yes, the chocolate industry TRIES to fight trafficking and child labour by building schools and so on, BUT not successfully. None of the projects chosen to visit by random were really working. There were pictures of the outer walls of school buildings that were built years ago, but then left to go to rack and ruin. Furthermore there were little kids, not older than maybe eight, working with bayonets, something that is forbidden by law. All these projects, praised by the chocolate industry, are for absolutely nothing because the man in the film couldn't find any successful project. 

Although it's nothing new that there is child labour in our world and that there are really bad working conditions for a large number of people in some countries, I got a more than bad feeling after watching the film. It made me again realise that you can't trust in every certificate on a bar of chocolate. Of course a certificate is better than none but you really have to inform yourself about the conditions attached to it.

After having watched the film I'm not going to stop eating chocolate but one thing I know is that even though a Fairtrade chocolate (of course you can't be sure if there is absolutely no child labour, but at least Fairtrade only cooperates with small cocoa farmers and seems trustworthy) may cost a little bit more, but these euro is 100 per cent worth the investment.