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STOP PRESS!! Have you tried the YouTube Playlist featuring all of my compositions for the TRANSFORMATES? Here it is:

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This week I have added a couple of articles to the Alpine Press section of the website. As usual these are about subjects which have received a lot of attention in the Alps but which I feel deserve more exposure to the international community. The original news sources were mainly not in English and therefore I have interpreted the issues and added some more background information for this English Language website.

This first article addresses an issue which has received a huge amount of attention in Germany. The excitement arose when a regional court in Cologne decided that the religious circumcision of a young boy by a doctor was illegal. This ruling led to uproar by the religions which consider circumcision to be integral to their faith and have been practicing this for thousands of years. If the ruling in Cologne were to be adopted throughout Germany it could effectively outlaw fundamental Jewish and Islamic religious practices and those people who continue to use or support them. My article explains the background and the current status in much more detail and can be found using the link below:

Article: Jews and Muslims Unite Against German Court Ruling that religious Circumcision is a ‘Bodily Injury’ (“The Worst Attack on Jewish Life in Germany Since the Holocaust”) can be found here

My second article for the week is actually a report about three different stories which were featured in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in the last couple of days. Although these are about issues of tremendous public interest and concern I can not recall them being featured in a single English language newspaper. For this reason I felt it important to bring these heart wrenching stories to your attention. You may find yourself becoming overcome by emotion but when dealing with such issues but please be assured this is only to be expected.

These stories focus on animal emergencies. In one case the emergency is caused by the animals and their attacks on innocent people. In the other two cases the animals are the victims and the stories describe how the heroic alpine emergency services came to their rescue. They are stories of people and animals working together for the common good.

With these animal stories I have tried to introduce you to some of the interesting places where the incidents took place and I have included videos to wet your ‘touristic’ appetite. In one article I have included a video of the animal in question. This is a horse, but not any old horse. If you have never seen a horse disco dancing to the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ hits you may well find this video to be a life changing experience.

The name of the article provides a clue about the incidents described. If you would like to discover more (and hopefully be entertained) please use the link below:

Article: Animal Emergencies and Horror Stories: Buzzards Attack Joggers, Horse Nearly Drowns in Poo, Ducklings Down the Drain can be found here

At the moment the weather here in the Alps is competing with the English Summer ‘Olympics’ weather; in other words it is raining in buckets. Having gone to so much trouble in recent blogs (here and here) to describe some of the terrible things that can happen when you are struck by lightning I am erring on the side of caution and staying indoors. Therefore there are not too many pictures this week, just a couple of shots of my favourite tree. I took these pictures from my alpine office window during the Spring. If the view from the window is nice staying inside is not such a great trauma.

I hope you find the articles interesting (and also find the animal stories fun). If you have any comments or recommendations please do not hesitate to let me know using the box below.

Have a great week!

Chris Duggleby