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The Angryindian Interviews: Daniel Neun, Editor of Radio Utopie
Von The Angryindian | 14.November 2008
This is an interview I’ve wanted to do for a long time. If you haven’t heard of Radio Utopie, you’re missing out on one of the most intense independent political journals coming out of the EU. Editor and publisher Daniel Neun graciously took time out of his busy schedule to sit down and tell INN readers about his newsblog , blog-journalism and the future of personal political involvement. —————————————————
What inspired you to create Radio Utopie?
An old story. A long story. Well, let’s say it’s about a script a once wrote. “Utopie” is the German word for “utopia”. So this is all about a vision, so to speak. And of course the fact that I always wanted to run a radio, and always wanted to be a journalist, so I finally put pieces together.
Did you have any particular reservations concerning conservative mainstream political discourse when you began your web portal?
Yeah. I always hated them. When you grow up in the 80ies during this neverending postwar dead of West-Germany, in a small village near a small town, with two TV channels, just two radio stations you could listen to, one newspaper in town, no internet and a fat autocratic chancellor who rule this provincial country like an emperor calling everybody a communist just for having one good idea, you are chained to the urge for progress for a lifetime. You are not willing to go back there. You are just fed up with corruption, perjuries by politicians without any consequences, nazi thoughts, nazi behaviour, nazi talk, nazi lies, nazi faces and nazi politics. When I founded Radio Utopie in the beginning of 2007, my impression was that everybody in the free left (or social democratic left), every political progressive person and especially each and every God damn rotten mainstream journalist inside (and under) the corporate media was willing to go straight into a fascist police state again. All I wanted was to beat a lot of faces, as many as I could, by means that were in accordance with the Declaration of Human Rights. So I did my very best.
How did the international blogging community respond to your call for accountability from their elected officials?
Well, actually that surprised me. Everybody liked it. I received mails from Kurds (who told me that the devil was born in a non-kurdish ghetto of Istanbul), I received mails from Turkish people (who said that all Kurds are evil), I got messages from Sunni and Shia muslims who – guess what – distrust each other, I got a lot messages from Austria and Switzerland who actually almost felt relieved because there suddenly came other news from Berlin. I tell you – everybody, everywhere, they all want their elected or non-elected officials to be committed to their accountability, their promises and their duties. Because they act as if they were not – nowhere. These upper class and state guys just don´t care, in every county of the world. So everybody from main street likes the message, beyond any differences in culture, religion, political opinion, nation or ethnic background. And I deeply hope the rest doesn´t. Many blogs, even some from the right, copied and reprinted my stories, it´s still that way, and I enjoy it. Everytime I hear that word “double content” I always have to think about an ugly bouncer in front of an oasis in the middle of a huge desert who`s telling everybody creeping his way half-dead and thirsty he looks like as he would try to drink up the water.
What online sources of political news would you recommend to our readers?
Well, there are a few highlights to me, worldwide. Sudan Tribune – the best source of information in East Africa. http://sudantribune.com/
Think Progress – they have found out about this very hard to find respectable way of kickin ass. Only news from the USA. http://thinkprogress.org/
German Foreign Policy – the untold story, so to speak. http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/
Patriots Question 9/11 – no chance to demonise this. http://patriotsquestion911.com/survivors.html
Haaretz – a liberal paper in Israel is much more worth than any spyglass. http://haaretz.com/
ABYZ Links – Newspapers and News Media Guide. Adresses and links of news sources in every county of the world. Very, very useful. http://www.abyznewslinks.com/
For investigative (often both disturbing and important) research go to Global Research, http://www.globalresearch.ca/ History Commons, http://www.historycommons.org/ and if you just wanna surf around the media worldwide use Google News http://news.google.de/news?ned=us
20th Century German history is routinely used as a backdrop in discussions surrounding political extremism. How fair or unfair is that bias?
Well, it,s fair enough. These 12 years of Facism were sufficient to ruin an almost 1000 year old culture that had barely been involved in colonialism or agressive expansionism since the emerge of the first national state of Germany in 1871. This Imperial Era, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Empire founded by the Prussian Kingdom who conquered the small states and regions you now know as Germany, laid the foundation of two World Wars. Even after the Revolution in 1918 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Revolution_of_1918%E2%80%9319 – initiated by imperial soldiers, most people don`t know about this – the first German Republic (later known as the “Weimar Republic”) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic didn t have the chance to develop.
Pulverized between divided progressive socialist movements and parties (some of them anti-democratic communists), and confederated forces of conservatives, old imperial bureaucrats and the so-called “national socialists” of the Hitler Party (who received enormous support by big corporates and industry) the first Republic of Germans engulfed in civil war-like circumstances, boosted by an devastating economic crisis. But: it was the directly elected President, former World War I imperial general Paul von Hindenburg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg, who made Hitler a chancellor – NOT the German People. Actually the Nazis had suffered a serious defeat in the November 1932 elections. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_november_1932 Then, on November 19, 1932, twenty big industry leaders, well-off company owners and powerful bankers urged the German President, former general Hindenburg, to announce Hitler as new chancellor. Hindenburg first refuses. But on January 30, 1933, he finally agrees.
Hitler now is chancellor. But he still not has full executive and legislative power in his hand. What happens? On February 25 Hitler meets twenty-five mighty lobbyists and bankers. They offer him 3 million Reichsmark for his next election campaign, a huge amount of money at that time. Two days later the “Reichstag fire” destroys the building of German Parliament. A communist is blamed, the Communist Party gets banned. President Hindenburg enacts a certain state of emergency and overrides most fundamental civil rights of the German constitution. Political oppression, arrests without warrants and assassinations powers down the unions and oppositions. But on new elections on March 5 the NSDAP again fails to reach majority in German Parliament. It is to the Conservatives to finally obey to madness and dictatorship and to give Hitlers party the 2/3 majority to inforce the “Enabling Act”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_act
Sorry – had to tell this story. Almost noone fully knows about it outside Germany. So, yes, it is important to use this story, this history as as backdrop in discussions surrounding political extremism. Especially if it,s about governmental extremism.
Is anti-Arabism and Eurocentric xenophobia as much a problem in the EU as it is portrayed to be?
Absolutely not. As they ever were in still democratic societies anti-arabic, anti-muslim or any other racists are a corporate media hyped minority which is used for plans of inner and outer warfare by the military-industrial complex, globalist think tanks and totalitarian networks.
What is the future of Radio Utopie?
Great.
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