Social issues

Commentary

Switzerland – where to?

Germany ready for war again – 80 years after Nuremberg

by Thomas Scherr*

(21 August 2026) Opinions about “Russia” and “Putin” are shaped by the media and mass psychology. Everyone now “knows” what they are supposed to think.

In Germany, public sentiment is – once again – being whipped up to the point of war hysteria. Top-down. “Putin is on the verge of reaching Berlin”. It is not the level-headed voices, but the hysterical ones that are being echoed in the media. This is exactly what has happened before… It smells of war.

As the new school year begins

Why freedom needs a foundation

by Carl Bossard*

(14 August 2026) (Journal21) As the new school year begins, attention turns to new skills, digital opportunities and the demands of a changing world. Yet before children can think for themselves, make judgements and take on responsibility, they need something more fundamental: a foundation. Freedom grows out of experience, guidance and trust.

German self-congratulation in Kyiv

Heading for suicide alongside Ukraine

by Uli Gellermann*

(7 August 2026) In the Kyiv metro, one can read German self-congratulation on advertising space: under the headline “Razom” (meaning “Together” in English), the German government is running a poster campaign promoting the vast quantities of weapons and money it is investing in Ukraine’s war against Russia.

Infectious disease hype...

... is about creating markets, not real health threats

by David Bell,* USA

(31 July 2026) The theme of impending doom and a desperate search for missing panaceas is aimed at wealthy countries, which makes the real difference. Even if a few eventually die, vast tranches of taxpayer dollars can still be offloaded to Pharma, and investors make a killing before such metrics become clear.
Book review: “Diary from Gaza”

“We cannot say we didn’t know.”

A child psychologist’s account of her work in Gaza

by Georg Koch*

(3 July 2026) Katrin Blatz Brubakk is a German-Norwegian child psychologist who specialises in trauma. Since 2014, she has been deployed repeatedly by “Médecins Sans Frontières” to various locations. Gaza was her first mission directly in a war zone. Consequently, the rules had to be strictly adhered to:

“Never go outside the walls without being accompanied by a security guard.” – “Always wear the white vest of Médecins Sans Frontières.” – “Never stray more than 50 metres from the road.”
Assange Archive

Why physical archives matter in an age of disappearing truth

“Who controls the past controls the future.” – George Orwell

by “Julian Assange Archive e.V.”

(3 July 2026) (CH-S) In 2024, the fearless Australian investigative journalist Julian Assange was released from Belmarsh Prison in London. He had exposed US war crimes. Since 2010, the year of his unlawful arrest, people around the world had worked tirelessly to ensure that he was not forgotten. They stood outside embassies and courts, organised protests, wrote letters, held vigils and continued to speak out about his “case” even after it had all but disappeared from the public eye.