Syrian Chatter

 Back in 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel went onto the Sunday night public forum show....the Anne Will Show....to say that 70-percent of Syrians in Germany....want to return to their homeland as soon as the war is over.

A fair number of Germans remember this, and occasionally it comes up....in a negative way.

Around  this time.....2015/2016....I was taking German language classes...with most classes filled with 30-to-50 percent Syrians.

It came to be a interesting topic in the class...with the majority of Syrians over the age of forty....absolutely set on leaving Germany and returning home (probably 90-percent of them).   But the crowd under age 30? Well....it was probably 90-percent set staying.

Logic to this?   No matter how you sold living Damascus....Wiesbaden won out on safety, transportation, job-potential, and living standards.

My gut feeling at the time? The civil conflict would likely continue, and you'd be looking at five to ten years before it ended.   The longer it took....the more likely they'd stay.

Merkel wasn't wrong.....she probably saw the war ending in a year or two.  She simply judged all Syrians feeling home-sick and wanting to return. 

Drinking Chatter

 Sat and read a piece from Focus....two days ago....alcohol consumption/alcoholics per region in Germany.  You can read the article....here.

Gazing at the map....the least drinking state in Germany....oddly enough....is the Pfalz (I wouldn't have said that).

The heavy consumption states?  Mostly eastern states (old DDR), Bremen, and Berlin-City.

Bavaria?  Mostly average consumption (I would have said otherwise).

Any reason for wide display of numbers?  I'd suggest that where you have higher unemployment....you have higher drinking rates. 

Drinking rates less than the 1960s/1970s? From my  prospective...1978/1979....Germans were mostly drinking only beer, with wine and cocktails being far second.  Data says....around 1979 to 1985...the peak for  consumption was 'hit' and Germans were consuming less.

Oddly, Germans drink more today, than in the 1960s....but less than early 1980s.

The one thing you notice....especially in smaller rural villages....village pubs/gasthauses have disappeared.   Even in my village....which had three pubs through the 1980s....is down to one single drinking establishment today.

Where Money Matters In Spain?

 One of my favorite countries for vacations....is Spain.

I saw this graphic chart today.  So the way to read this....the more red the region....the lesser-income levels you should expect.  The more blue....the  more that money flows through the region.

So the crappy region?  Well....SW-wise, it's the Andalusian area....which is popular with tourists but produces very little.

The NE region?  Industry, agriculture, and commerce.

Is Spain basically two to four regions tied together....mostly by language and nothing else?  Well....you might ponder upon that idea. 

1 Jan 2026: Germany: 5 Things

 1. New Years Eve went off in my village, without police sirens, or ambulances. Elsewhere....not so safe.

Explosion at some ski-resort in Switzerland....several dead.  Two dead in Berlin (18-year olds)....attempting to make  home-made fireworks.

2.  2nd bank box robbery?  Well...out of Bonn....two boxes were broken into....significant amount of gold coins/bars taken.

3.  N-TV news item....2023 numbers....over 1-million Germans had some form of alcohol rehab during that year.

4. I watched the ZDF (public TV, Channel 2) New Year's eve program last night. First year it was ever  done in Hamburg.  Outdoors....on the harbor....max of maybe 9k folks. Awful cold....drizzle....camera would try to show people, but at time I thought there were fewer than 3,000 watching the show.

5. Some effort.....trying to create a way for you to walk into a German train-station....hand over your bags as you travel to Frankfurt's Airport, and the bag is sent onto the airline terminal automatically. Airlines think it's a great idea....Bahn folks aren't happy over it. 

This Gelsenkirchen Bank Break-In

 The most obvious questions:

1.  Is it normal for Germans to have a bank 'box'? 

Not that normal.   If you have items of value....silver/gold  coins, bitcoin passwords, etc....then it makes sense.

2. A lot of the customers in this case were Turks?

News reports suggest 75-percent. 

3.  Did Turkish business owners stash unreported money into their boxes?

Well....yeah, that is a possibility.  If you ran some operation heavily dependent upon cash, you might have gone to the bank box weekly and stashed several thousand Euro.  It wouldn't shock me if some folks lost over 100,000 Euro.

4.  The bank in incredible trouble? 

No....the police will clear them of responsibility....once consumers show proof of valuable items...the insurance company will pay them off (figure six months).  The folks who had cash....into the tens of thousands (or more)....they will never get their sum back.

5.  Trust in banks takes a hit?

Across the nation....probably over a quarter-million of people who have bank boxes.....are now wondering about their safety/security.  In January, I expect a lot of people to go and buy a safe for their basement.

6.  The robbers?

Rumor has it....the German police are eyeballing clan gangs in the Netherlands. 

7.  The numbers of value 'stolen' reliable?

Well....NO.  If you were a business owner and stashing 2,000 Euro weekly into a box....you won't admit your 150,000 Euro 'stash' to the banks or the police. 

Stress Chatter

I sat this AM...watching N-TV news here in Germany....curious news item came up.

So....mental illnesses comes up as a topic.  Here in Germany....numbers are increasing dramatically for mental issues, and apparently leading to significantly longer periods of absence from work than most other illnesses. 

Curiously.....the Linke Party (far-left)  is talking about a mandate being necessary....by the federal government....to respond with an anti-stress regulation.  Yes....another regulation of some type.

Evidence?  The number of sick days due to mental illness has more than doubled in Germany since 2014. This comes from a study done by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to a parliamentary request from the Linke Party.

The data says....German women were absent from work for a total of 87.55 million days in 2024 due to mental and behavioral disorders. 

They compared against a period...ten years ago....the figure was 43.51 million days. For men, the number of days absent due to mental illness was lower at 60.39 million in 2024. However, the increase for men was even more dramatic: in 2014, they were absent for only 26.88 million days.

My question....exactly how would you wrote some regulation for less stress?  Having been at both 'ends'.....worker and manager....I can understand the stress issue to some degree. But writing some forty-page regulation and hoping it cuts/resolves stress?

The likely German 'cure'?  Create some massive 'stress' agency....mandate stress-meters to be worn by employees, and mandate offices to have de-stress cats/dogs?

To be honest....if you mandated fewer office meetings (like a limit of 10 minutes a week)....mandated a 3-day weekend at least once a month....identified stress-creating managers....and gave a 90-minute lunch which had a 15-minute 'walk' built into it....probably would cut half of all stress out.

31 Dec 2025: Germany: 6 Things

 1.  From that break-in of the Gelsenkirchen bank vault....it now appears that 75-percent of the 3,000 customers with losses....were Turks.  Not sure if the break-in guys knew this fact or not.  

2.  Targeted murder attempt....Dusseldorf.....taxi passenger was shot multiple times in the middle of Düsseldorf (still alive at this  point).  Guy is some type of Dutch social media influencer.

Minimum of ten shots fired.  Other people in the car....unharmed.

Sounds like a mafia-hit job.

3.  I watched Sunday night....German series...'Schwarzes Gold'.  Six-part series....ARD (Channel 1, public TV)....they ran the first four 45-minute pieces on Sunday night.  I have to say....good fictional  piece...early 1900s Germany....oil-boom and soap-opera-like story.

I watched the final two episodes last night via media-tech library.

Curiously....lot of Germans tuned in for the first part (45 minutes long)....no commercial break....then they (the network) launched into episode two....with around 5-percent of the viewership flipping the channel (leaving the movie).   Episode three went the same way.....episode four went the same way.

Worth watching if you find it.

4.  Doctor suggestion going up.....charging consumers 3 Euro each time they visit their clinic/local Doc.  You would pay at the desk  (in cash).

Not selling well as a concept.  I doubt that it's adapted.

5.  Environment Minister Schneider (SPD) has come out strongly in favor of banning disposable e-cigarettes. 

Reason?  He says that the devices are dangerous and harmful to the environment. Consumer and environmental protection groups support his position. 

Something that the CDU-CSU folks would support?  No one says much.

6.  Curious rumor.....EU/UK....talking of a deal where if Russia/Ukraine sign a peace deal....Europeans would volunteer 15,000 troops to be a 'peace-monitor-group'.

Next EU 'Invention'?

I paused over this story today....that the EU says it will introduce a digital payments infrastructure/creature to replace Visa/Mastercard and Apple/Google Pay.

What they hint at.....zero fees and be 100-percent European-only. 

Then the same authority said....it will in some fashion....prevent companies and people having to pay 2-to-3 percent of transactions to process business payments.

I paused  over this....you have to have some type of FEE....for the person/user or the commercial operation, or business....to cover the cost of transactions.  The EU simply saying there would be NO fee?  I don't think they grasp how these things work.

This should  have been identified already 20 years ago to think about?  Yeah, that's my chief problem.....the EU is always ten to twenty years behind on resolving things.  

Hint: Elon spoke up a week or two ago....he was originally thinking of a Tesla-style cellphone, but instead has gone to a personal individual device....simply a screen which would 'talk' to a cloud server to move information to your hand.  XAI would accomplish what you need...whether calling for a pizza, asking for a friend's communication number, getting the police to your site, or playing some tune. Likely to be delivered by the end of 2027 (if you ask me).  The EU reaction?  Probably freaked out, wanting the Apps zeroized (the problem is...no App on the phone will exit).