Storm calm

But that's not the contribution I was talking about in glowing terms. Correct. I'm currently working on a post that started out as a comment on my application to have the costs of taking my own carer to hospital covered. As is so often the case when I'm in my writing tunnel, one idea after another came to me as I was writing. And so the 5,000 or so words from the past 48 hours ended up in the book I'm writing.

But although I write a lot more prose in my book and it is sometimes more of a business thriller with murder and without manslaughter, I would still like to write a small part of it in my blog. As a taster of what's to come. A teaser, if you like. And the part about the AOK rejecting my application is more relevant than ever. It's only really starting now. So it has to go in my diary somehow. If my lawsuits against the AOK, the claim for damages against AOK employees and a fundamental rights lawsuit against laws that I believe are unlawful don't move me and have to go in my diary, what will? To bridge the waiting time, I have written this short article. But somehow it also turned into a good 4,500 words.

Destiny. Just a moment. Your destiny or my destiny? Both our fates? Do you believe in fate? Or is fate just to happen to be in the universe where exactly what you were both thinking about happens? According to the theory of inflation, it is possible that this will happen. And, at the same time, it's also inevitable that it will happen. According to the theory, there is also a universe in which the AOK approves all applications in the same way. Hard to imagine, but that's the way it is with infinity. An idea that humans cannot comprehend. Okay, I'll stop already, this isn't a course on quantum physics.

Well, to be honest, the more I think about the lawsuits and the more I write about them, the more bored I get with the whole topic. It's really crass, with legal costs I'm taking a six-figure risk. And it bores me, or rather, it frustrates me. I'm not interested. And nothing else. The legal situation sucks. The AOK employees I deal with show zero integrity. A quality that is more important to me than loyalty. One day they tell you how much they're on your side, how good everything is and how great you're doing with your life. The next day, they send you a registered letter saying that after an intensive four-week discussion, they found a loophole in the law that means you have to pay the €50,000 in care costs for your time in hospital yourself. Not a single line of sympathy. Not a single word about it in the subsequent email correspondence. Except in the rejection of the second application. It starts with "we've already told you".

That sucks. Is that how our healthcare system works? Is that how my own health insurance works, to which I pay the statutory maximum rate month after month, year after year? Despite a 90% severe disability, I don't claim on my disability insurance, but continue to work for my old company. And accordingly I pay more income tax than most people earn gross, so I'm the taxman's favourite. I also pay the highest health insurance and long-term care insurance contributions you can possibly pay. It costs me over a thousand euros a month. Don't you believe that?

I was the health insurance company's favourite, so to speak. Was. Because then I got ill.

As the disease progressed, the costs of necessary treatments, aids and care increased. And that made me feel like a burden. Whether it's the stair caterpillar, the e-wheelchair or sterile gloves, everything is rejected on principle. Can you say that? Is that allowed? I have written evidence to prove it. It's not something I made up. I didn't choose the illness either. I can accept it and live better than most "healthy" people who rush to the office every day for a stressful job they don't like. I like what I do. To be honest, I like a lot of what I do today better than I used to. Nature conservation and species protection, I don't know how much goes into it. After spending on nappies and shit like that, it's the biggest chunk. Four figures a month. Enough with the self-congratulation. But goddammit, I didn't choose to need 1:1 care. It doesn't matter where I am. At home, in hospital or in the ambulance on the way there.

There really are better things than never being alone. If you don't have sex anymore, it's not because you don't have a partner. No, quite the opposite. Because there's always one person too many and you can't get into the mood. Of course, dear AOK, if a carer is even with you during sex and therefore no woman wants to have sex with you, then you can assume with a clear conscience that 1:1 care is actually necessary, even during a four-week stay in hospital. Perhaps I should have written that on their stupid (because it turned out to be irrelevant four weeks after submitting the application) questionnaire. Is that necessary? No, dear AOK, I just love it when a carer is always looking over my shoulder during sex, which is totally stressful and why no woman wants to fuck me anymore. I'm probably just imagining it. At least that's the impression I get when I read the letters from the till. Whether 1:1 is really necessary. Why did your own expert from the medical service say that? One wonders.

I find that really bitter. I would have every reason to be angry or upset. But I don't have the energy for that. Which I'm quite happy about. It's not worth wasting precious time on it. Because... There's always something to do. It just depends on what issues you're dealing with. And me, I seem to have a soft spot for difficult cases with no end in sight. Nature and species conservation. Best example, again.

PETA Germany has been in existence for 30 years. It is often ridiculed for being "too unrealistic" and "too radical". I would say it's a question of point of view. Am I enlightened, honest, do I face the facts and am I prepared to honestly accept the consequences? Then the demands appear in a completely different light.

I would like to do a little test with you. Of course, it only makes sense if you are honest with yourself. I lied to myself for four decades and convinced myself that I was eating meat from happy farms. And from a slaughterhouse that pays attention to animal welfare. Today, when I say this, I realise for myself what nonsense I'm talking. The word "husbandry" excludes the word "happy". The word "slaughter" ... You get the idea. Oh, two T-shirts from my shop come to mind. They fit like a glove. And if I have to emphasise this as an advertisement - do I have to?

Would you like to give me a huge treat? Then take a look around my shop and rate a few of my items. That helps sales enormously. And well, I really have to start selling something. Non-profit and protecting trees and saving animals are all cool. But I pay for everything privately. The shop itself doesn't cover its costs. So, if you want to buy something, I won't say no and the rainforest in Peru will be happy. Because every item sold directly finances the purchase and permanent protection of one square metre of rainforest in Peru.

Even a small greeting card for a few euros is produced sustainably and conserves one square metre of our rainforest.

Wilderness International, to whom we donated €7,554 last year to protect our Canadian rainforest, take care of everything, from the notarised purchase to local educational work on nature and species conservation to protection by local rangers. What a great team. Oh crap, I have to reply to them too. I wanted to do that, but I was missing a few numbers. Then I went to hospital. And then I was hospitalised again, I was barely home for a weekend. And after I was back home, right, I was hospitalised again. What a fucked-up life. Enough moaning. Get in there. Let's go shopping, now. There are things you can actually wear in everyday life.

Today I see clearly. And think clearly. Face the facts. No one can deny that the currywurst contains a sentient creature that has been torn to pieces. What kind of caveman came up with such a barbaric idea anyway? Were there Nazis back then?

But ten years ago, I threw the steak on the barbecue and proudly told everyone that this piece of the finest muscle meat came from a happy cow. Yes, that's how it was. I'm not really daft. In fact, I'm probably comparatively clever. Nevertheless, it took me over 40 years to realise, or rather to admit to myself, that I was wrong. Never underestimate the power of denial. I don't know what else to say. I don't have any other explanation for it. I just didn't want to see it because I wasn't prepared to subordinate my megalomaniacal, selfish desire for meat to the welfare of the animals.

And to be fair, I wasn't told that free-range hens are never outside when I bought eggs from an organic farm because they stay pregnant in their nests. They are inside, of course. Especially as the chickens don't move anyway out of sheer claustrophobia and panic unless they absolutely have to. They just sleep in their own faeces. That's what mother sows do. No, not because they are pigs, but because we humans have robbed them of their space. Before humans came along, pigs were super clean animals. A pig would never, ever, ever sleep where it urinates. They only do that when humans force them to. But hey, weren't we just talking about chickens?

Yes, and more importantly, the poor hens have to lay an egg every two to three days. Otherwise they are turned into pet cat food and chicken soup. Fact. The "production" of animal pet food is a billion-dollar business. Absurd. And a difficult subject. But I only learnt all this when I started to deal with it intensively every day. I mean, how perverse is that really? In the wild, they don't lay an egg two or three times a week, no, five eggs a year. If they fuck like crazy, maybe ten. It's crazy how blind I was, how blind I wanted to be.

Yes, I guess that's how it was back then. In other words, I understand if you call me a weirdo right away. Nevertheless, I would be delighted if you read to the end and give me your thoughts. Feel free to write your thoughts in the comments. I'm really curious to see how you see it.

Yesterday I read in a headline that animals should be given basic rights by law. So things like the right to a self-determined life, or to life in general, the right to freedom, things like that. Just let it sink in. As an uncompromising animal rights activist, I am of course in favour of this. I have denounced often enough that the current case law is even shittier than the RISG and IPReG combined. We urgently need to change that. A basic animal law ("TGG") focussed on the needs of animals could quickly help to solve the problem.

But do we even want that? That would be the end of the "farm" animal industry. If animals could not be kept in captivity, exploited or killed, of course, this would not only eliminate all consumption of meat, sausage, ham and similar products. This would result in a huge oxtail. The first things that spring to mind are milk and eggs. But animal products are found in so many more products that you don't necessarily think of straight away.

Who thinks of toothpaste, cigarettes and condoms when they think of animal products? So blatant, where (unnecessarily) all animal fats, fragrances, whatever are processed. Fragrances and colourings, there was something. Perfume is often based on animal extracts. And colours, I don't even want to think about it. From sepia in jeans and shellac in wall paint to spider blood in jelly babies, there is little that humans have not utilised. Why? Trivial. Isn't it always about money? Exploiting animals is, as things stand today, legally permissible and cheaper than any other form of "production". Animal welfare does not exist in the industry. There is no animal welfare law. Neither in Germany nor in the EU. Which is of little use anyway due to the lack of Europe-wide investigating authorities. The Animals' Angels are already struggling to keep up and even German courts are ruling in a way that makes me ashamed to be human. I'll be sure to write something about that too.

At this point, a nutcase like me raises his hand and says hey, animals need basic rights. If you now say that's too blatant... that would mean, conversely, that animals don't need basic rights. There is no such thing as "a bit of slaughter". Either I'm allowed to kill animals to make toothpaste, steak and condoms, or I'm not. It's a bit like the animal welfare cent. That's bullshit, seriously. Selling sentient animals for €5.78 per kilo of minced meat is bad. Current price in the Munich V-Markt. But for €5.79, animal welfare is suddenly guaranteed, as the German government's animal welfare label proudly suggests. And people believe it because it's the government's seal of approval. And if we can't believe Father State, well then, we can also vote for the AfD. Of course not. That was sarcasm. Please don't vote for the AfD here. I don't like right-wingers on my blog. I'm currently writing and researching an article on the AfD. A bottomless pit. So blatant. The world is so fucked up. We're digressing.

So where does the cent actually go? In better husbandry regulations? So it's no longer really shit but just pretty shit. Or in real animal welfare, awareness-raising work and education from an early age? Something that would have a lasting effect. What is 0.08 cent per burger supposed to change? And the consumer isn't even prepared to spend that little bit more in favour of better husbandry conditions and immediately rebels. Cheap meat seems to be firmly anchored in our culture.

The German Bundestag has set the agricultural budget at 6.9 billion euros in the 2024 budget. The competence network for livestock farming (the so-called "Borchert Commission") has put the annual revenue required by the animal welfare cent at 3 to 5 billion. That's a great estimate, but don't believe any statistics that you haven't falsified yourself.

To make it even more political than it already is and - just to put the size (or the "smallness") in perspective - according to the Federal Foreign Office, Germany has so far invested 14 billion euros a year in war aid in Ukraine. Invested in the war against Russia. Invested. Invested. Well then. It's a good investment when we also imported 40% more Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the EU last year than before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian gas for 5.3 billion euros, to put a figure on it. I can't find any valid figures on how much of this goes exclusively to Germany. But it doesn't matter in my world. In for a penny, in for a pound. In my world, as I understand it, there is no such thing as "playing a little war". Either you take part in the war or you don't. And Germany is participating and financing both sides. That is a measurable fact, not my opinion.

It is not surprising that, as a pacifist and avowed conscientious objector, I have my doubts as to whether war aid totalling 14 billion euros a year is appropriate when we are simultaneously financing the other side and do not have 3 to 5 billion left over in our own country, with which we could end domestic animal suffering according to the German government. Of course we can't, the whole country would have to go vegan. Not going to happen. But neither will we end the war by supplying more and more weapons to Ukraine. So the comparison fits again. And just look at the scale. We are paying three to five times as much in taxpayers' money for a war that is not even ours - okay, that may be open to debate - than the animals are worth to us. The animal welfare cent is not even a tax, but a product-related levy that is only paid by those who consume certain types of meat. I don't understand why only for some animal species anyway. Is the life of a hen less valuable than the life of a cow? I bet the chicken sees it differently. Why not just apply it to all animal products? Just make the packet of fags a cent more expensive. It doesn't affect everyone, but only the consumers of animal products. If you eat a healthy diet, aka vegan, you pay nothing and also save the health insurance company money. Measurement, not my opinion. And what an irony of fate that the pacifist has chosen a female army officer as his partner. It just occurred to me and I wanted to get rid of it.

But the situation is serious. The situation in the livestock industry is so terrible that I can't find the right words.

I'm going to steal a picture from the PETA Germany media centre. Simply because there are countless such photos from German stables and nobody can say that the sows from their butcher were slaughtered happily. Yeah, no. That's what I used to say when I brought liver cassettes to the office for breakfast. My butcher still slaughters them himself. Yes. Good for him. Apart from the fact that the sow is certainly delighted to end up pureed in the oven, it still comes from somewhere. And that's just the way it is in Germany:

Every single day looks like this. Never different. And if we travel a little further back in time, the sow was conceived somewhere. And that's when you realise what actually not only complies with German legal regulations, but even exceeds them. So, I cried when I saw Robert Mark Lehmann's report on this topic for Mission Erde e.V. I cried the first time I saw it. I cried the first time. I cried the second time. I cried the third time I watched it with a friend. We managed 38 minutes out of 1:50 hours. Then we had to stop and haven't watched it again since. The images were too blatant. The idea that we're part of this system is too blatant. Sounds trite, bland and exaggerated, yes, of course. But that's just because it's easier to label it as "doesn't apply to me" than to change your own actions. It just doesn't change the facts. That's just the way it looks in a German model pig farm:

You can find the full report, from which I got the pictures, here: https://youtu.be/L4XFCuFbiOY

So what exactly do we do with this new knowledge? This is the rule. Not the exception. Pigs nibble and gnaw at the stall bars. They have a tremendous nest-building instinct. But because there is nothing to build a nest on, they spend their whole lives chewing on the only thing there is. Metal. And on their own children. If one doesn't manage to crawl out of mum's faeces immediately after birth before its siblings break its legs or eat it alive out of boredom and stress, the mother spares the little one further suffering. She bites off the piglet's head. Under these normal circumstances, this is the best thing that could have happened to this small, sentient, thinking creature.

This practice is commonplace. Of course, it contradicts the Animal Welfare Act. But only the ""Animal Welfare Act, not the "Farm" Animal Welfare Act. It's called speciesism. Our head of state Markus Söder can demonstrate this well. He recently published a video with him on a dog sled and titled the video "Dog Love". I already said 15 years ago that Söder is a stupid idiot. I mean the stupid part literally. I don't think he realises what he's doing wrong and what the consequences are. Killing animals is becoming a cultural asset. Like whaling in so many countries. The latest negative award from PETA won't change him either.

Not change, yes, probably not. It was tried four years ago as an April Fool's joke. Unfortunately, it had no effect on Markus. But it was still funny.

The current campaign has probably had no effect on Mr Söder either. It doesn't have to. It is enough for you to think about his words and draw the consequences for yourself.

Markus Söder has often proven that he is not an animal lover: In the past, for example, he has claimed that meat and sausages are "practically constitutional" in Bavaria. He also claimed that life without bratwurst is "pointless" and that tofu sausage and veggie burgers are "pointless and tasteless". He thus impressively demonstrates that he cares very little about the cruel suffering and unnecessary death of pigs and other animals. Last but not least, Söder is also clearly in favour of killing wolves. PETA writes. Markus, you stupid git, switch on your brain. You're old enough. Animals are not there for your personal amusement or to satisfy your unnatural carnal desires. I write in anticipation of the next injunction. No, not from him. That came from someone else. Correction, they came. I won. Twice. Back to the topic. Meat and sausage in the constitution, he's out of his depth. You know I'm paralysed except for my eyes and I write everything with my eyes. Damn it, every single word is carefully chosen. When I write that animals need a basic right, then I believe that animals need a basic right. A right to life comes first. And not that a pig's life sucks even before birth, until death and beyond. Is it even possible to treat living beings with less dignity than we humans do?

So. Now that you are a reader of my blog and have understood it up to this point - otherwise see the comments below. Please - you're obviously smarter than our Prime Minister. So, to put it this way, not everything is bad about Markus. He certainly has his good points, he just shows shit in public. Maybe it's an occupational disease. It's the same with Lauterbach and Spahn in particular. They're not deliberately making my life and the lives of other people affected - sometimes only days - a living hell until certain death. They are simply too stupid to understand the consequences of their actions. Because anything else would mean that they are deliberately torturing people. Which in turn would be a violation of the Basic Law. I'm really having a hard time complaining. I'm not saying that in addition to two social law suits against the AOK, a civil law suit for damages against AOK employees and a constitutional law suit, I'm also preparing a constitutional law suit, but maybe I'm also preparing a constitutional law suit. I have nothing else to do except save the world. My goodness, I like myself today.

It's a shame that so much money that was earmarked for nature and species conservation is now being channelled into fucked-up legal disputes. I'm talking to so many people in my bubble at the moment, I really enjoy creating ideas that others then implement for me to make the world a little better. I would do it myself, but, long story. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the bio on my blog. Wink smiley.

Let's imagine for a moment that I win the lawsuits... and the AOK covers the costs of the nursing service in the hospital, which should be around €53,000 - and I don't have to pay anything, because the other side then bears the full risk of the legal costs, i.e. court costs, lawyers' fees, things like that. AOK Bayern pays out my care service as planned. And I only lose a hundred nerve cells in the meantime...

Would it be morally reprehensible to say that if the AOK covers the costs, then I will donate the same amount to nature and species conservation projects and organisations? Well, if my nursing service wants €53,000 for the time I spend in hospital, then I'll donate another €53,000. Is that blackmail? Or can I not do that, is that too blatant? I'm not saying that I'm planning to donate €53,000. But maybe I'm planning to donate €53,000 because the dispute isn't about money, it's just about justice. Wouldn't that be cool? I'd have to find the money first, though, so prepare yourself for the most insane fundraising campaign Facebook has ever seen. Back to the seriousness of the truth. Brain cells broken. Spahn, Lauterbach. Söder becomes a vegan. Söder sees meat and sausage as a basic right. Animals have no basic rights. Shit

Killing methods, shitty husbandry, shitty rearing, shitty breeding, shitty "farm" animal industry. It all sucks. Everything in the livestock industry is simply bad. And the root of all evil is man. If there was no demand for animal products, the entire industry would quickly cease to exist. You don't have to be a student to understand the direct connection. Politicians are not to blame, farmers are not to blame. The only one to blame is the consumer, who demands animal products.

Do you have a pet? A dog perhaps? Is it part of the family, yes? Or cats? I don't like house cats. For reasons. But this isn't about me and my opinion. I'm vegan, you don't need to convince me. So, would you like to imagine someone treating your pet like you saw in the photos above? No? A ge, just say your pet should have a right to live intact? A fundamental right, so to speak.

And where do you draw the line? Already with your pet? With chickens? Pigs, cattle? What about your horse, addressed to my equestrian friends. I don't need to exclude myself, I'm more active in this area than most people realise.

It always comes down to the same thing. The easiest way is to ignore it. Lying to myself, that's what I did for years. Okay, and there was a lot I just didn't know. Despite all my commitments, a lot of things remained hidden from me. And seriously, who made their company climate-neutral 15 years ago? And yet, until recently, I thought that free-range chickens lived outside. They just don't. I wasn't aware of that. Fortunately, you no longer have that excuse. You've got me and everything you need to know is handed to you on a silver platter.

So the only thing left to do is to deliberately ignore it and continue to lie to myself, as I did for four decades - man, that sucks and I really have a blatant reparation complex - or opt for a vegan lifestyle. There aren't many other options. Well, you could already be vegan. I think that's good. Thank you!