12 August 2018

Perburuan harta karun di Sorb Lusatia



 Tomaš Kappa / Ralph Th. Kappler  


Perburuan Harta Karin di Sorb Lusatia 






Seribu tahun kita bersaudara saling menahan diri. Kamu, Kamu menahan diri karena napasku, aku menahan diri karena amarahmu
(Heinrich Heine, „An Edon“)





Melalui tulisan ini kami ingin menceritakan sejarah rahasia Jerman. Sorbia dikenal oleh seni tradisionalnya. Akan tetapi hak azasi penduduknya dilanggar. Seperti diungkapkan pembawa berita MDR, sejumlah besar tanah adat dan pedesaan di Lausitz hancur karena kebijakan penambangan batu bara muda sejak jaman Nazi. Sorbia adalah suku bangsa Slavik terkecil dan golongan minoritas di Jerman yang tinggal di tanah Lausitz yang mencakup negara Brandenburg dan Sachsen. Orang-orang Sorbia telah bercocok tanam dan tinggal di Lausitz sejak lebih dari 16 abad. Oleh karena tekanan pemerintah Jerman, mereka harus meninggalkan budaya dan identitas Slavik mereka. Konstitusi Jerman sampai saat ini menekankan peraturan yang memungkinkan pengambil alihan paksa rumah dan lahan. Peraturan-peraturan ini ditetapkan sejak jaman politik perang Hittler. Kebijakan ini disembunyikan secara sistematis dari dunia luar. Tidak cukup di situ, sejak beberapa tahun belakangan perusahaan negara Swedia Vattenfall berkontribusi menghancurkan kebudayaan Sorbia. Jadi kami adalah saksi dari skandal, di mana perusahaan tersebut mengambil untung dari celah kebijakan masa Nazi. Karena hanya melalui kebijakan tersebut mereka bisa mengambil alih lahan di Sorbia dan mengusahakan pertambangan batu bara muda mereka di Lausitz.






Lusatia briefing at Foreign Press Association, London May 2002
(Jan Nuk, Domowina Chairman, left / Tomaš Kappa / Ralph Thomas Kappler, centre)







„Seperempat tanah kami direbut melalui lobi batu bara. Sorbia tersudut tembok.” Peringatan Jan Nuk, pemimpin himpunan bangsa Sorbia Domowina di hadapan asosiasi pers mancanegara London. Untungnya tidak lama kemudian terbuka pintu Buckingham Palace bagi perwakilan Sorbia. Pada peringatan 50 tahun pemerintahan ratu Elizabeth kedua 2002 Sorbia berkesempatan mempersembahkan hadiah pertama kali kepada sang ratu. Pada kesempatan itulah pertama kalinya Sorbia hadir di ibukota Inggris sejak perang dunia kedua. Pada 1946, di London, Sorbia pernah gagal berkampanye untuk bergabung dengan Ceko. Sejak setengah milenium sebelumnya bangsa Sorbia bercocok tanam di Lausitz. Lausitz atau Lužica dalam bahasa Sorbia berarti tanah  kaya air atau juga dikenal sebagai “First Nation”. Lausitz sejak lama dikenal karena kaya akan harta karunnya. Seperti emas, platina, tembaga dan logam tanah jarang. Harta karun ini menjadi berkat bagi pelobi batu bara karena lemahnya hukum yamg mengatur hak tambang di daerah ini. Namun seberkah cahaya muncul di depan mata. Tidak lama kemudian usaha Sorbia memberntuk parlemen mandiri berhasil melalui pendirian SERBSKI SEJMIK. Stanislav Tillich menjadi perdana menteri pertama Sorbia. Musisi band Silbermond berbicara bahasa Sorbia. Melalui “brilianten Stars” seperti Daniel Brühl dan Robert Stadlober dan lewat film KRABAT dari 20th Century Fox membuktikan bahwa KRABAT sebagai cerita kemerdekaan Sorbia dari Měrćin Nowak-Njechorński.




Over 136 destroyed Lusatian villages - by Coal Strip Mining






136 Desa yang Hilang


Werner Domain dan istrinya adalah penghuni terakhir desa Horno. Pasangan pensiunan ini menolak tawaran kompensasi lahan sampai akhir hidupnya. Mereka berdua berumur lebih dari 70 tahun dan membangun sendiri pohon Linden di depan rumah mereka ketika polusi tambang batu bara menelan tanah mereka. Horno ditinggalkan dan hancur tampak seperti bekas perang. 136 desa hancur di Jerman, negara yang terkenal oleh teknologi dan keahlian ekologinya, di kawah pertambangan batu bara. Demikian pula penghapusan etnik Sorbia dipercepat. Di portal
www.verschwundene-orte.de anda bisa menemukan nama-nama tempat dalam bahasa Sorbia, seperti Publik, Bukowina, Horno, Barak, Rowna dan Lacoma.




Girl from Sorbian Lusatia (Foto by Iwajla Klinke)




Meraka adalah gema dari dunia yang hilang oleh penambangan batu bara. Horno dihacurkan oleh perusahaan energi Swedia Vattenfall, meskipun di sana tidak ditemukan cukup batu bara untuk mengambil untung. Pada saat ini daerah Sorbia terancam punah. Lausitzer Bergbau AG secara halus mengungkapkan bahwa mereka beroperasi di lahan sebesar 750 kilometer persegi. Dengan demikian mereka telah merusak lahan sebesar kota Hamburg. Professor Joachim Katzur, pemimpin Institut Penelitian Lahan Pasca Pertambangan menjelaskan pada sebuah diskusi ZEIT secara lebih jelas. Sebenarnya Lausitzer Bergbau AG merusak 4 kali besar lahan apabila kerusakan akibat pencemaran sungai ke daerah lain diperhitungkan. Dengan demikian 3000 kilometer persegi lahan subur di Lausitz dikorbankan demi lobi pertambangan batu bara. Lahan 3000 kilometer persegi berarti lebih besar dari besar lahan Luxemburg atau kira-kira setengah besar lahan Palestina. Sementara Lausitz sendiri kira-kira sebesar Belgia. Ribuan kilometer persegi lahan subur di Jerman dihancurkan oleh pertambangan batu bara muda. Kerusakan akibat perbuatan manusia ini menyebabkan perubahan kondisi permukaan tanah yang paling drastis sejak jaman es.





Kampanye batu bara bersih


„Bila kita benar-benar ingin menyelamatkan iklim, kita haru secepat mungkin meniggalkan batu bara“, tuntut Claudia Kempfert dar Institut Penelitian Ekonomi. Karena efisiensinya sangat rendah, batu bara menghasilkan terlalu banyak gas rumah kaca, seperti CO2 yang sangat berbahaya bagi iklim. Akan tetapi kali ini kampanye untuk klima harus menelan kekalahan. "Carbon Capture & Storage" adalah istilah buatan Vattenfall, RWE Co. Tujuan teknik uji coba ini adalah untuk mengurangi emisi CO2 melalui penimbunan bawah tanah. “CCS adalah alat untuk memblokir investasi untuk sumber energi terbaharui, melalui konspirasi oligarki”, pendapat ahli Ekologi  dari partai Hijau Astrid Schneider. Pada sebuah Forum di Sachsen, ahli dari Vattenfall Hubertus Altmann mengaku di depan parlemen bahwa teknologi CCS baru bisa diaplikasikan pertama kali pertengahan dekade depan.




Over 136 destroyed villages - Strip Mining by Vattenfall in Lusatia






Pemburu Harta karun di bawah Bendera Panama


Di tanah Sorbia tersimpan logam berharga bernilai miliaran Euro, termasuk di antaranya emas, platina, perak, seng dan lebih dari 2,7 juta ton bijih tembaga. Menurut harga pasar, 1 ton tembaga bisa mencapai harga 10.000 Euro. KSL Kupferschiefer GmbH berusaha mendapat hak tambang di Lausitz. KSL didominasi oleh skema Matrjoschka. Karena Kupferschiefer GmbH adalah anak perusahaan Minera S.A, sebuah perusahaan tambang Panama yang juga merupakan anak perusahaan dari Inmet Mining dari Kanada. Inmet Mining dipimpin oleh ahli geologi Aachen, CEO Jochen Tilk. Sehingga publik mempertanyakan transparasi kontraknya. Idealnya, dari perburuan harta karun ini tidak hanya menguntungkan bagi mereka yang bekerja di sektor ini, tapi juga dirasakaan oleh penduduk setempat, antara lain misalnya melalui investasi di pendidikan, terutama di perguruan tinggi di Lausitz dan lembaga bahasa Sorbia-Jerman WITAJ. Menurut pengganti Nuk, David Statnik, „ Apabila hak tambang untuk batu bara, tembaga, emas atau platina diberikan kepada perusahaan besar, maka di lausitz harus diberlakukan pajak kontribusi daerah tiap ton logam yang digali sebagaimana diberlakukan di Ruhrgebiet“. Dengan demikian dana bisa mengalir ke Infrastruktur, proyek bahasa Sorbia dan perguruan tinggi lokal, sehingga penduduk lokal Sorbia-Jerman bisa bekerja dan terbuka sektor usaha yang tanggap masa depan.






Setelah Diktator hanya Demokrasi yang diatur


Lebih dari ratusan tahun Sorbia dijajah. Mereka dilarang memelihara anjing atau kuda. Apabila ada sedikit masa damai diikuti tekanan asimilasi. Ribuan keluarga Sorbia dipaksa dijermankan. Sebuah kejadian kunci berlangsung pada tahun 939. Pada waktu itu Markgraf Gero berkuasa. Kekuasaanya diperoleh melalui sebuah perjamuan berdarah. Melalui tipu muslihat dia mengundang 30 penguasa Sorbia untuk dibantai. “Lalu bagaimana dengan saat ini? Setelah dua dekade Revolusi damai (Persatuan Jerman) tidak ada kejelasan untuk hak menentukan nasib sendiri untuk Sorbia. Kami orang Sorbia dianggap orang asing”. Tuduh Benedikt Dyrlich. Sebagai pemimpin Himpunan Seniman Sorbia dia mengkritik minimnya kebebasan berorganisasi di Sorbia. Sementara itu payung perhimpunan Sorbia Domowina masih memakai struktur peniggalan DDR. Markus Meckel memahami persoalan ini. Beliau melibatkan diri dalam Diskusi dua tambah empat (kedua Jerman dan 4 negara pemenang perang) sebagai menteri luar negeri pertama dan terakhir DDR. Ironisnya tidak lama kemudian beliau menyadari „Sorbia hanya bisa makmur bila mengelola mandiri harta karunnya sebagai „First Nation“. Akan tetapi ketika menteri dalam negeri Schäuble mempertanyakan kejelasannya pada kontrak persatuan, Meckel tidak berminat. Kontrak Persatuan dirasa Meckel bukan persoalannya. Begitu pula pertanyaan tabu birokrat DDR mengenai kepemilikan lahan di Sorbia. Karena sampai saat ini siapa yang berhak atas lahan tersebut tidak jelas. Begitu pula legitimasi hak tambang yang dikeluarkan.

Bicara adalah Emas


Marka Macijowa, pemimpin percetakan nasional Sorbia, mendalami usaha konservasi bahasa Sorbia. “Bahasa Sorbia hanya bisa bertahan. Apabila orang tua mewariskannya pada anak-anak. Dan juga apabila Jerman menghormati identitas Sorbia”, peringatan Macijowa. Sementara ini Sorbia mengikat kontak di Berlin, London dan Brussel. Jerzy Buzek adalah pencetus Konferensi Internasional Musik Sorbia. Pada masa mudanya Buzek mengorganisasi gerakan bawah tanah Solidarnosz di Schlesien. Saat ini beliau menjabat president parlemen di Brussel. Bantuan bisa saja datang dari pihak tak terduga. Calon komisaris Agraris Dacian Ciolos dari Romania sedang menrumuskan kembali peraturan pertanian EU. Rumusan berikutnya seharusnya lebih terdesentralisasi dan ramah lingkungan. Apabila rumusan ini hanya sebagian diterima pun bisa berarti awal baru yang berkelanjutan bagi Lausitz. Sejak lebih dari 16 abad orang bicara dan menyanyi dalam bahasa Sorbia di Lausitz. Akan tetapi perampokan oleh tambang batu bara merusak tanah ini, yang semestinya dikelola Sorbia.




Buckingham Palace Gates open for Sorb Delegation - Jan Nuk, Tomaš Kappa (2002)





Pada resepsi di istana Buckingham, Jan Nuk dan penulis mempersembahkan sebuah buku biru berjudul “Dwe Lubosci Ja Mam – Dua cinta ada padaku”: Soneta Shakespeare dalam bahasa Sorbia. Bersasarkan kata filsuf Peter Sloterdijk, jerman dan Sorbia harus belajar hidup berdampingan. Bagaimana caranya akan menjadi harta tak ternilai harganya. Lausitz bisa menjadi kosmopolitan energi bersih, yang ironisnya akan menguntungkan Jerman juga. Pada akhir hidupnya ayah seing memakai bahasa Sorbia. Setalah wafat ditemukan pesan di atas meja ruang keluarga, sebagaimana disiapkan untuk ditemukan. Di sana tertulis "Witajci k nam" dan di baris bawahnya tertulis dalam bahasa Sorbia: "Semoga selamat kembali pulang".
















* Article "Schatzjagd im Sorbenland”, Treasure Hunt in Lusatia," published
  by Pogrom-Magazine of the "Society for Threatened Peoples - Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker“, Ralph Th. Kappler / Tomaš Kappa,  Göttingen 2012
 



*  Press Release: Sorbian Delegation at the London based Foreign Press Association
   Joint statement of HALO ENERGY and DOMOWINA, London 2002 

   https://independent.academia.edu/RalphThomasKappler


* Sorb EU Memorandum to EU-President José Manuel Barroso,
   Sorbisches EU Memorandum an EU Präsident 
José Manuel Barroso,
   
Brussels / Budyšin / Bautzen, 7th of June 2012   

   https://independent.academia.edu/RalphThomasKappler



* Ralph Th. Kappler / Tomaš Kappa founded the 
HALO ENERGY 
  CleanTech communications network in 2002 in London.

  https://www.halo-energy.com


Distributed by HALO ENERGY



Web: https://www.halo-energy.com




MORE INFORMATION  ON SORBIAN LUSATIA




Institucije | Institutionen | Institutions
Ludowe nakładnistwo Domowina/
Domowina-Verlag Bautzen/
Domowina People's press


Łužiska Alianca – Lusatia Alliance - Lausitzer Allianz












Kubłanje & šule | Bildung & Schulen | Education & schools





Towarstwa & organizacije | Vereine & Organisationen | Associations





  



Medije | Medien | Media 







RUNJEWONLINE.info - Swobodny online-magacin 
Upper Sorbian free online-magazine


Wikipedija - hornjoserbsce Wikipedia - obersorbisch 

HALO ENERGY

15 April 2018

Wider die Kriegshetze

Wider die Kriegshetze - Es is höchste Zeit Mal prinzipiell zu werden. Es gibt keine Bürgerpflicht, der Anti-Russischen Kriegspropaganda Folge zu leisten. Auch das Grundgesetz sagt das Gegenteil. Wie SPD-Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier heute in der Wochenzeitung Die ZEIT erklärte, wird die Dauerhetze gegen Russen und Russland nun zu einer existentiellen Angelegenheit für Deutschland und Europa. Als Europäischer Bürger, Charlottenburger SPD-Mitglied und Lausitzer Sorbe bin ich aufgerufen, nun entgegen meiner Gewohnheiten Mal prinzipiell zu werden: Ich weise die im Kern nur Britisch-Amerikanischen Propaganda Fabrikationen entschieden zurück. Und das als Freund des anderen Amerikas, als Freund Londons. Es gibt keine Bürgerpflicht, einer unverantwortlichen Kriegspropaganda aufzusitzen. In den UK-US Agenturen glaubt man offensichtlich das mit “Gift, Gift, Gift” Gezeter am ehesten Stimmungen aufzuwiegeln sind und deshalb bekommt das Publikum “Gift, Gift, Gift” Geschichten aufgetischt. Wie schon in den tiefsten und finstersten Abgründen des Mittelalters. Das letzte Mal, dass ich mich so prinzipiell positionierte, war gegenüber DDR-Militärs, die uns zwingen wollten, mit simulierten Massenvernichtungswaffen Angriffe auf das freie Westberlin zu trainieren. Das war 1986 und bereits kurz danach war die totalitäre DDR-Spuktruppe abgetreten und abgetaucht. 




Ralph Th. Kappler - Tomaš Kappa, Forum "StadtVision Berlin 2022", Foto by Andrew Grauman



6 April 2018

Germany should not extradite the twice elected Catalan President

Germany should not extradite the twice elected Catalan President. The German arrest of the twice elected Catalan President is political persecution by Spain. As a Lusatian Sorb and German citizen, I support the peaceful Catalan struggle for more self-determination in the EU. As Lusatian Sorbs we do not forget the solidarity and hospitality of Catalan and Basque representatives at the EFA European Minority Congress of the EU-Parliament in Santiago de Compostela. The Government of Spain, however, seems to pervert fundamental legal principles. Today, a local Northern German court released Charles Puigdemont thereby strengthening the rule of law and European democracy. Europe can only be strong with vibrant regions. The nation state will not be abolished only by some minorities practicing their fundamental rights. The Sorbs are the smallest Slavonic nation and a minority within Germany living in a region called Lusatia. They cultivated Lusatia and have been living there for over 1,600 years, always under German pressure to give up their own Slavonic culture. More information here: Report on Lusatia "Treasure hunt in Lusatia"  / Enclosed also a earlier statement of the Lusatia Alliance. Přećelnje strowi, Ralph Th. Kappler / Tomaš Kappa



Alliance of Lusatian Sorbs demands swift release of Charles Puigdemont

With dismay we have received the news that German authorities have arrested the twice elected Catalan President Puigdemont. This arrest is based on a judiciary that is unworthy of European policy making. And whose origin lies in a lack of political will for democracy and the recognition of the fundamental freedoms of the peoples of Europe. Germany is thus only the carrier of Spain's dictatorial machinations and lacks any diplomatic sensitivity. Especially Germany with its past would have the duty to show the European partners positive standards in dealing with minorities and smaller nations. Unfortunately, against the background of our own Lusatian experience with German oppression, we must fear that this is more than the mere execution of a European arrest warrant. It also does not bode well for the minorities living in Germany, if German authorities do not promptly switch to a more democracy-oriented diplomacy for Catalonia and Spain. The German actions will be measured - and it is therefore that we strongly demand the immediate release of President Charles Puigdemont and a robust start of mediation talks with the Spanish Government, the EU-Institutions and Catalonia! Łužyska Alianca - http://www.lausitzer-allianz.org )





Santiago de Compostela, Spain, February 2014 - The European Free Alliance (EFA) condemned as a member party of the EU Parliament the destruction of Lusatia due to relentless open cast brown coal mining. The declaration was submitted by Tomaš Kappa / Ralph Th. Kappler at the EFA General Assembly in order to save the Sorbian settlement area. The Federal Government of Germany was urged by EFA (www.e-f-a.org) to respect the rights of Lusatian Sorbs.




It’s Time for Self-Determination’, amidst the build up to independence referendums and European elections, the European Free Alliance (EFA) held as a member party of the EU Parliament in February 2014 its General Assembly in Santiago de Compostela, in Spain.








Treasure hunt in Lusatia


Tomaš Kappa / Ralph Th. Kappler




"A thousand years and longer we have lived like dear brothers. 

You, you endure that I breathe. And I endure your rage" 
(Heinrich Heine "An Edom")




This is a story about Germany’s biggest secret and a scandal, its treatment of the Sorbian people. They are allowed to perform their folk-dances for German crowds. Yet, despite their minority rights and despite Lusatia’s abundant mineral riches, the German authorities continue to close down Sorbian schools and kindergartens. AGermany’s State television station MDR revealed recently, irreplaceable landscapes and many Sorb villages have been and continue to be destroyed on the basis of a Nazi law. The Sorbs are the smallest Slavonic nation and a national minority within Germany living in a region called Lusatia. They cultivated Lusatia and have been living there for over 1,500 years, always under German pressure to give up their own Slavonic culture.     
                                 
This Nazi law which was never eliminated, has made it possible to confiscate privately owned houses and commercial properties in Lusatia on a huge scale up to the present day. The original purpose of the law was to feed Hitler’s war machine with the brown-coal of Lusatia. The present German government has allowed the Swedish State energy trust, Vattenfall, to use it to destroy an area in Lusatia the size of Luxemburg.




Lusatia briefing at Foreign Press Association, London May 2002
(Jan Nuk, Domowina Chairman, left / Tomas Kappa/ Ralph Thomas Kappler, centre)



The German authorities have systematically hidden this abuse of Sorb lands, culture and property from the public view. The role-model State of Sweden profits from this abuse and from this Nazi expropriation law. It is only by threatening forced expropriation, that Vattenfall is able to blackmail the Sorbs living there to leave their homes and land. This alone enables the Swedish State company to expand its brown-coal mining at the expense of both the beautiful landscapes and of the people living there.



                                     



"A quarter of our entire nation has been forced to leave our homelands by the mining lobby. We Sorbs are being forced over the cliff", warned Jan Nuk, chairman of the Sorbian umbrella organisation, Domowina, through the Foreign Press Association in London. Shortly afterwards, the gates of Buckingham Palace opened for Sorbian representatives. Sorbs brought the first foreign gift to London during the "Golden Jubilee" of Queen Elizabeth II. Sorbs have not campaigned in the British capital since the end of WW II. In 1946 they tried, in vain, to lobby in London for Lusatia to join with Czechoslovakia.

Up to this day Lusatia is located in the federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony. Lusatia is blessed with the largest gold, copper and rare earth resources in Germany. Despite its natural riches it is continually denigrated as a supposedly undeveloped region by the coal-mining lobby. However the region suffers mainly from a lack of courageous policies. Even twenty years after the collapse of the communist regime, Sorbs have no legitimate democratic representation of their own. 

There are also signs of hope. The SERBSKI SEJMIK tried to become the first grass roots movement towards a Sorbian parliament. Stanislav Tillich is the first Minister President of Sorbian origin. Musicians of the cult band Silbermond speak Sorbian. The 20th Century Fox studios distributed the KRABAT film, which featured renowned German stars such as Daniel Brühl and Robert Stadlober. However, the German film-makers failed to mention that the bestseller KRABAT was originally a Sorbian epic freedom story, published by Měrćin Nowak-Njechorński.


Girl from Sorbian Lusatia (Foto by Iwajla Klinke)


       
      136 obliterated villages 

      Werner Domain and his wife were the last inhabitants of the Sorbian village of Horno. The seventy year old, retired couple tried to withstand the ongoing intimidation of mining operators. They managed to plant a linden tree in front of their house while giant coal excavators approached amidst deafening noise and clouds of dust. By then, Horno was already deserted and destroyed as if by war.

136 villages disappeared in Lusatian lignite coal craters, right in the heart of Germany.  Germany, the self-proclaimed green technology and eco-champion! These brutal actions accelerated the dissolution of the Sorbian people. On the Internet site www.verschwundene-orte.de one can find the melodious names of destroyed Sorbian villages such as Publik, Bukovina, Horno, Barak, Rovno or Lacoma. 

Horno was destroyed by the Swedish state-owned energy company Vattenfall, although there was no exploitable coal under this village. Vattenfall took over almost the entire East German energy infrastructure during the fall of communism. This was no coincidence, since some of the most prominent East German politicians made a swift career under these lobbying wings. Sweden was also one of the main western trade partners and technology suppliers to the East German communist regime. Today, Vattenfall sponsors Sorbian communications and education infrastructures, which undermines Sorbian self-representation. The Lusatian mining company Laubag announced euphemistically, that they had “appropriated” more than 750 square kilometres of land. What they actually did through this massive land excavation was to destroy an area the size of the City State Hamburg. Prof. Joachim Katzur, head of the Institute for Mining Redevelopment, goes even further in a ZEIT interview: "Actually, the Lusatian mining operators have affected four times as much land, if we also count the land where the flow of below ground water is disturbed."

Thus over 3000 square kilometres of fertile urban Lusatian land were sacrificed to relentless coal mining. 3000 square kilometres of affected land is more than the size of Luxembourg and half the size of the Palestinian territories. The size of Lusatia as a whole is comparable to the size of the EU country Belgium. In Germany thousands of square kilometres of fertile land has disappeared in open cast lignite mining craters. This man-made intervention into nature is the biggest transformation of the earth's surface since the last ice age. 




Over 130 destroyed villages - Strip Mining by Vattenfall in Lusatia



       Fairy tales about clean coal 


      "If we take the global climate change seriously, we need to steer away from lignite coal as quickly as possible", said Claudia Kempfert of the German Institute for Economic Research. Due to its low efficiency and huge greenhouse gas emissions, lignite coal is extremely damaging to the climate. We are now losing more than just the struggle for climate protection. Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) is just a PR buzz word invented by Vattenfall, RWE & Co. The proclaimed aim of this experimental technique is the reduction of CO2 emissions and their underground storage. 

"CCS is in fact a tool to block investments in renewable energy technologies and thus to cement oligarchic fossil power structures," the energy expert of the Green Party, Astrid Schneider, explained. In Saxony, a parliamentary hearing failed recently to make the case for CCS. Vattenfall expert, Hubertus Altmann, admitted in Parliament that the CCS technology can not be industrially applied before the middle of the next decade, if at all.



Lusatian Village - Associated Press AP



        Matryoshka principle 

       Precious metals worth billions such as gold, platinum, silver, zinc and more than 2.7 million tons of copper shale were discovered in Lusatia. World market prices of up to 10,000 € can be reached for a single ton of copper. The Kupferschiefer KSL GmbH applied for mining rights in Lusatia. However, KSL operates under a murky Matryoshka principle. KSL is merely a subsidiary of the Panamanian Minera SA. Minera SA is in fact a subsidiary of the Canadian Inmet Mining. And Inmet Mining is headed by a German geologist from Aachen, its CEO, Jochen Tilk. Only citizen participation can provide contract transparency. And the Lusatian treasure hunt would find some sort of happy ending, if besides providing jobs and profits, substantial investments were to flow into the region’s educational system, universities and Sorbian language programs. Nuk’s successor, David Statnik, demands: "If mining rights are granted to companies for coal, copper or gold, they should have to invest in Lusatia as much as they would have to in Bavaria or North Rhine Westphalia.”



     Nazism,Communism and now imposed Democracy

     Sorbs were suppressed for centuries. They were forbidden to use their language. They weren't even allowed to keep dogs or horses. After a brief heyday during the period of Enlightenment, the brutal German assimilation pressure returned. Thousands of Lusatian families were forcibly Germanized. A key event dates back to the year 939, when German Count Gero advanced his martial career by inviting thirty Sorbian princes to a feast and assassinating them on the spot. In this way, Gero beheaded the Slav resistance against German land robbery.



What is the situation today? "Even after over two decades of the peaceful revolution, we have no self-determination rights as Sorbs. Sorbs are still ruled by others," Benedikt Dyrlich complains. As chairman of the Sorbian Artists’ Federation, he criticises the lack of Sorbian representation in their own homeland. The Sorbian umbrella organisation Domowina is still entangled in a GDR-like inertia and top down politics.



Markus Meckel is well-versed in the matter. He became the first freely elected East German Foreign Minister. And as such he participated in the 2plus4 negotiations with the WW II victorious powers. Recently, Meckel ironically remarked in Brussels: "Perhaps Sorbs would be better off, if, as First Nation, they made themselves a bit more independent with their abundant mineral resources." Meckel became evasive when asked about shortfalls in the carelessly patched German Unification Treaty. Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, patched this treaty hastily together with a “hot needle” and with Stasi-tolerated East German politicians. As Foreign Minister, “this Unification Treaty was not really my cup of tea”, Meckel said.

Thus, the question of who owns the ancestral Sorbian lands is still the focal topic which was neglected also by East German bureaucrats. Who are the rightful owners of the Lusatian land and its natural resources? This crucial question about the legitimacy of the hastily awarded excavation rights remains unanswered to this day.


Sorbian Wendish village Horno - destroyed by Vattenfall (Foto Gerard Petit)





      Silence is death, speech is gold



     Marka Macijowa, head of the Sorbian National Publishing House, focuses on the ground work of Sorbian-German language education. "The Sorbian language will only survive if parents pass it on to their children. Germans, on the other hand, must learn to discover and respect the Sorbian culture as an enriching aspect of their own culture”, Macijowa demands. Meanwhile, Sorbs have also established political links to Berlin, Prague and Brussels. The President of the EU Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, agreed to become the patron of this year's International Conference on Sorbian Music in Cottbus. As a young man Buzek organised the Polish Solidarity movement in Silesia from the political underground.



Help could also come from another source. Agricultural Commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, from Rumania is currently restructuring EU agriculture. His aim is to decentralize European agriculture and to make it greener. If these EU reforms are only partially implemented, it would be a sustainable policy push for the Lusatian region. For over sixteen centuries Sorbian has been spoken and sung in the Lužica region. Ruthless coal exploitation is now destroying the landscape from which the Sorbian culture emerged. 



Buckingham Palace Gates open for Sorb Delegation - Jan Nuk, Tomaš Kappa (2002)

At the reception in Buckingham Palace Jan Nuk and the author handed over a small blue-bound book entitled "Dwe Lubosci Ja Mam - Two loves I have in me”. Shakespeare's sonnets in Sorbian. Also, with the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk in mind, one could say, that Germans and Sorbs now must together learn to practise the techniques of joint survival. This know-how of joint survival is certainly the most substantial and yet undiscovered Lusatian treasure. Lusatia could still rise to become a cosmopolitan CleanTech country. Ironically, also the German majority would benefit from this change.



Only towards the end of his life did my father speak Sorbian again. After he passed away, I found a receipt slip on his coffee table. His living room appeared to have been tidied up as if he were expecting a visitor shortly. On this slip father had written just two sentences: "Witajci k nam" (warmest welcome) and below, also in Sorbian: "Blessings to whom who returns home”.







* Article "Schatzjagd im Sorbenland”, Treasure Hunt in Lusatia," published
  by Pogrom-Magazine of the "Society for Threatened Peoples –   Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker“, Ralph Th. Kappler / Tomaš Kappa,  Göttingen 2012
 


*  Press Release: Sorbian Delegation at the London based Foreign Press Association
   Joint statement of HALO ENERGY and DOMOWINA, London 2002 

   https://independent.academia.edu/RalphThomasKappler


* Sorbian Wendish EU Memorandum to EU-President José Manuel Barroso,
   Sorbisches EU Memorandum an EU Präsident 
José Manuel Barroso,
   
Brussels / Budyšin / Bautzen, 7th of June 2012   

   https://independent.academia.edu/RalphThomasKappler


* Ralph Th. Kappler / Tomaš Kappa founded the 
HALO ENERGY 
  CleanTech communications network in 2002 in London. 



Distributed by HALO ENERGY


Web: https://www.halo-energy.com




  
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