So the Tunisian protests did light the beacon for more Middle Eastern Nations: protests have started in Egypt and Yemen, too, and as always there are massive police forces trying to oppress those people demonstrating for freedom and democracy. Egyptian authorities even shut down internet access and mobile phone networks, curfew is also in place, but the protests continue.

Secret US embassy cables sent from Cairo in the past two years reveal that the Obama administration wanted to maintain a close political and military relationship with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, who is now facing a popular uprising.

I guess the same goes for Germany, too: satisfactory trade relations always require fraternisation with the respective rulers, hence there’s no support for the protesters neither from the US nor from German State Department, but nevertheless I do hope that their fight for social justice and Human Rights in their countries will prevail.

Seems that the Tunisians are really getting rid off Zine el Abidine ben Ali’s corrupt and brutal political regime. The Tunisian uprising is the first time in recent history in which an Arab public rather than a political rival or foreign invader has managed to oust a dictator. I just hope that what happened in Tunisia will hopefully be a domino for other countries, too.

All my respect goes to the brave and dignified people of Tunisia who are standing against ben Ali’s regime and its henchmen!

So this is the understanding of politics of Germany’s conservatives: police violence against peaceful protesters in Stuttgart.

What’s happening there is simply a disgrace for every democratic society: citizens are protesting peacefully against a megalomaniac and sumptuous project that’s going to destroy a beautiful part of the city, and all of sudden children, old people and harmless campaigners get beaten up and violated by teargas and water cannons. Seems that Thatcherism is raising its ugly head again -- this time in Germany’s South.

I do hope that the people of Baden-Württemberg will remember that treatment of citizen concerns at the next federal state elections!

The only answer to China's oppression of the Tibetean people would be:

1. Cessation of all trade relations between Europe and China
2. Boykott of the Olympic Games 2008 in Peking

It's time for any European politician to show which side we're on: either support a nation's struggle for self-determination and democracy, or forget about freedom and democracy in the name of market globalisation!

Please support campaigns for Free Tibet at http://www.freetibet.org/ or http://www.tibet.org/.