A friendly webmaster of a Fantasy e-magazine I've had dealings with asked me if I wanted to attend the Divergent II - Insurgent - premiere tonight at the Sony Center in Berlin. The two main parts' actors and the director would appear on the "red carpet".

The latter turned out to be a number of dark-grey crumbly-plastic mats fenced off on almost all sides. Jealously guarded by men & 2 women in darkish anoraks. It was pretty cold.

A good thousand young girls were pressed against the fences on either side - some bore placards like "we are not genetically damaged".

After many premiere ticket holders passed by - some walking works of art, others ordinary/grinning/gloating - a limousine rolled up. The stars came out. Very late. By now my bones were touching "frozen" (this time no metaphorical adjective).

Lots of screeching by the fans. Endless babbling by a Pro-7 moderator, camera-man & cable holders in tow. Shailene - and "Theeooo!" - on the big screen in the middle distance, scrabbling signatures as-fast-as-they-can on anything papery held toward them.

Then holding each other's waist on the "stage" - a low platform with a movie poster behind them, showing them in black, glass shards flying, big guns in their hands. The lady star has dropped her warming jacket & glows yellow-white in a totally inappropriate double-slit long-sleeved gown. Inappropriate not due to its sexiness, but due to the much-too-cold late winter chill.

He is gracious, smiles. She even more so, just gliding through this brainlessly bright & loud rigidly-orchestrated ritual. That has nothing to do with the cinema-watching experience of that thing, the film, which is being "celebrated" here.

I'm not allowed to photograph, but slip in a wobbly snap or two. Of course both of them come no nearer than 5 metres before they veer off, one after the other. A quick signing splurge opposite for the young adult female fans who have been waiting & yearning for longer than icy me. Then whoosh - into the yawning cinema entrance. And gone.

Those fans were the best reason to try this weird wake out tonight. Dedicated. Determined. Divergent.

Pan focus across a cold ocean, a snow-blown continent away: Our foreign minister, whose surname means something like "stone dairy farmer", happened to mention that the recent letter to Iran's government, signed by almost half the US senate, was foolish & probably destructive. Behind this opinion of his stand his boss, Mrs. Merkel - and probably about 90% or more of the German populace.

Yet one of the signees, a certain senior war veteran, who once ran for president next to a ditzy Northern brunette, took the opportunity to rail at that German guy. Implying Germans are weak - and cowardly, not standing up to Putin in Crimea & Ukraine in general. Not sending in troops & cash & armour to show those pesky Ruskies who's boss.

Well, I don't like Putin, at all. I don't usually root for our foreign minister much, either, because he's done some ruthlessly heartless things in the past concerning one or other German Guantanamo detainee.

But this time, I beg to differ, Mr. McCain! And stand solidly behind my representative to the world. US-American methods of "resolution" have hardly ever helped anyone in particular in the last 2 decades or so - in fact, they've aggravated things & people, caused countless deaths by mechanical proxy & other means, i.a. blown back hotly, mortally, into the US, at least once. It's time the currently rabid bark-up-every-tree Republicans, that you seem to be a part of, shut up & got sent back to the kennel. Stop embarrassing what little is left of US prestige in the world. Let diplomacy, with a lot of hard work & negotiation put in i.a. by that very minister & his boss, take hold.

Give non-US-"regulated" peace a chance.