Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 7 2022

Dear friends of Kobel's Art Week,

Germany has a new Federal President, who is the old one. Because he can only be re-elected once, he is now allowed to inspire us and give us good ideas for 5 more years. He usually does this so quietly and considerately that you don't even notice he's there. Regardless of whether Corona is changing the world, the speechlessness between the USA and Russia is leading the world further to the brink of war, art is acting less and less as a unifying element between disinformed peoples, or education is falling by the wayside due to misguided linguistic dictatorship - his comments are staid, righteous, sometimes humorous, but they don't even scare the arsonists. Even when he calls Putin by name and glosses over Biden's adminitration.

Mother tongue is apparently automatically a violation of the AGG (General Equal Opportunities Act) in the eyes of the Algorythm, which assists the German Employment Agency in checking job advertisements, and leads to the advertisement being blocked. Reason: "The formulation "accent-free language skills" or "mother tongue" indicates a person's ethnic origin, not so much the extent of their language skills". Only people for whom the genus determines the sexus can think that, which, according to linguists, it does not. By the way, the search was for:" You speak English and German almost like your mother tongue" - what ethnic origin is that supposed to be? In any case, one should not be surprised if right-wing circles gain popularity because righteous men and, unfortunately, women think they can create a more peaceful world with gender-appropriate language and legislation that abolishes all forms of exclusion. This falls more into the category of well meant is not necessarily well done.

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza and her son Borja are looking forward to almost 100 million euros over the next 15 years. 6.5 million a year will flow in their direction so that 330 loans will continue to be available to the Thyssen-Bornemisza State Museum in Madrid. Maybe the Madrileneans will copy the Valentine's Day idea of the Museum Belvedere in Vienna and make Mata Mua by Gauguin an NFT with 50,000 pieces at 2,000 euros each, then they'll have the rent back in before they've spent it. In any case, there seems to be enough money in circulation for third-rate things.

One country has just declared compulsory vaccination against Corona, the next is considering doing the same as Denmark, and no one dares to quote Heidegger in this context: "Life is a being to death". After all, the man was on the wrong side for far too long, so even such simple existentialist thoughts cannot be brought into one's own coordinates. On the other hand, death is the realisation of life's risk - and many insurers like to make bets on that, hoping that the mortality tables are calculated correctly. And with the right risk selection, one can then earn real money. Strange thoughts at the beginning of a week at the end of which hopefully peace still reigns in Europe.

I wish you a courageous week full of encouraging experiences.

Stephan Zilkens and the team of Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH in Cologne and Solothurn