Description
This is a tribute to a man who was the author's neighbour for many years. The author has named him Leonidas the Great for this book. That was not his real name, but it suits him well and expresses what an unusual and very special person he was. Leonidas was not particularly attractive; he looked like a typical Greek, even though he was not one. He was neither loud nor domineering, but he had a natural authority and spoke in a soft voice. He came from somewhere in the Mediterranean region. He seemed to have enjoyed a first-class education and culture, which in turn was certainly an expression of his high social standing. His fate, which the author was able to share at times, did not always seem to have been very happy, even if it appeared otherwise. He actually had everything one could wish for, he was intelligent and apparently he was also wealthy. Why he chose Germany in particular to settle down here - no one knows. He did not find happiness here. However, this book could serve as a warning to any young person considering moving to a country where superficiality is the main concern of society. This book could also serve those who have retained their faith in the culture of their fathers, which is widespread in Northern Europe, and their critical thinking. Born in 1949, he grew up in France and graduated from an elite French university for industrial engineers. After moving to Germany, he studied economics, sociology, political science, philosophy and ethics. In the field of philosophy, he was strongly influenced by the philosophy and teachings of Zarathustra, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Rabelais, Michel de Montaigne, Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Aquinas, Ibn Khaldun, Niccolo Machiavelli, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried W. Leibniz, Auguste Comte, Arthur Schopenhauer, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Karl Marx, Henri Bergson, Karl Popper, Karl Jaspers, and Erich Fromm. In the field of economics, he was strongly influenced by post-Keynesians and behavioural economists. He is highly critical of the teachings of Milton Friedman, the Chicago Boys, the Frederick School and Friedrich A. Hayek. His professional career first took him to an international organisation, where he worked for five years as a project controller for major water projects, mainly in Africa, and thanks to this, he was able to get to know a large number of countries and their leaders. He then worked for many years for a European organisation and several international consulting firms. He considers himself a critic of current globalisation and has been strongly committed to water management and economics issues since 1974. These experiences have given him a deep understanding of geopolitical issues and enabled him to assess current political developments, particularly in the context of economic interdependencies. Since his retirement, he has been living a secluded life in Bonn and working as a writer. In his publications, he focuses primarily on the pressing social, economic and political issues of our time, as well as water management. To date, he has published numerous works on politics and geopolitics, society and economics. Other key topics include health, identity, racism, the environment, migration, water management, Africa, demographic development and alternative economic systems such as anti-fragility economics. He has also published several short stories and fairy tales.
