new series of articles: the kitchen

I'm happy to announce a new series of articles on www.johann-strube.org; "the kitchen." As this place become more and more a central part of my life in the last year - territorially as well as mentally - it seemed logical to write about it.Actually I planned to set up a subblog for that. But since that appears to be technically impossible with wordpress, I'll just weave this new series into my general stream of consciousness, that is blog. Just click on "the kitchen" among the categories on the right, and you'll find all the corresponding entries. All right, then.So why writing about "the kitchen." The kitchen for me is more than just a room. It's the space where raw food is being processed into something edible, hopefully enjoyable and sometimes inspiring. As even the richest among us have to eat and as the quality of what we ingest to a great extent determines the quality of our lives, we better treat the kitchen and its activities with fair respect. Moreover, it's also often the place, where people come together to eat, sit and have a good time. Therefore, it serves an important social function and satisfies another vital need.It's rather interesting, that my enthusiasm to cook was mostly lifted during my time in Iceland; in a country with a very limited range of fresh, organic, inspiring groceries. However, it was part of my job for the fantastic record label bedroom community, to meet the high culinary demands of amazing musicians, engineers etc. almost everyday with just these limited options. So I was forced to creativity.On the other hand, I was part of a unique community of international students, couchsurfers and hosts, activists and artist, where mostly vegan, sometimes skipped dinners served for the main social venue.Whereas "cooking in Iceland" is worth an own series of articles, I will also cover other culinary treats and habits I discover along my journeys, handy tips and recipes for the everyday-cuisine, thoughts about where our food actually comes from and more semi-intellectual meta-musing about the sense of the kitchen like this very first entry.I hope you'll enjoy it and your meal. Verði þér að góðu!

financial crisis leads to a shift to the left in Iceland

Yesterday, general elections in Iceland took place. Good news, for several reasons. First of all, with Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the first openly gay politician in the world was elected as the head of state. This is another step forward in the social acceptance of gays.Secondly, the left parties - Samfylkingin (the Social Democratic Allegiance)  and Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð (the left-green movement) - won the overall majority in the Alþingi, the oldest running parliament in the world. Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn, the Independence Party who stands for the neoliberal policy with led into the devastating financial crisis. With a increase of 5 seats, the Greens were the big winner of the elections. Congratulations.These results are very interesting, as the Icelandic elections are the first general elections in a western European country in the light of the financial crisis.  Though the impact of Iceland on European politics are clearly limited, one hopes, that these results marks a turning point. That people realise, that the conservative parties in Europe, who stands for radical open markets messed up both economy and environment. And that the only reasonable conclusion is to vote for parties, which advocate sustainability.So there's hope for coming election, like for the EP in June or the German Bundestag in September