i never made it to a speech of jörg haider, even if i always planned to so. the mystery of populism interests me ever since. how is it possible to manipulate people nowadays, especially in a country like austria, having such a dark recent xenophobian history?! today i "took the chance" to watch h. c. strache - the current leader of the freedom party - in linz, to witness directly. and what i saw, was first of all fulfilling my unsubstantial expectations, and secondly making me afraid. a guy (with exceptional rhetorical skills) - presenting himself as a cartoon figure, cleaning austria from foreign dirt - is cautioning against the islamisation of this country, using sentence like this: "willst du eine wohnung haben, musst du nur ein kopftuch tragen." ("if you search for an appartment, you just have to wear a headscarf.") and i'm finding myself in a jeering crowd, switching off its last working brain cells. back in time, and i start trembling.