The Zoll

The Zoll office of Germany....is the customs department.

Typically, an American (usually in the military) would run across the Zoll in three circumstances....at least in the old days.

First, when you arrived at the Frankfurt airport (or Stuttgart, or Berlin).....you had the Zoll folks at the end of the baggage area, and there was this ten-percent chance of them asking to review your baggage and personal belongings.  Their aim?  If you had over $10,000, beef products of an illegal nature, drugs, lots of fake watches for resale, a dozen cartons of smokes, or anything that violated the import rules....then you got stuck for an hour with the customs folks.  It usually meant a fine, and a tax.

Second, around once a year.....you'd enter the commissary or BX....to discover some Zoll guy standing there and asking for your ID card.  If you were a retiree....he'd ask for the red card (woe be until you if you didn't bring it or didn't have it).  They might occasionally walk the parking lot and just ask folks for their receipt and their ID.

The biggest violation episode was always the Germans who used to use the facilities and never get carded.  Back in the 1980s....you'd always hear of Germans who worked on base and bought beef at the commissary.  Retirees visiting Germany were always a big deal because they weren't supposed to be there unless they got the red card.

Third, at entry points leading into or out of Germany.....the Zoll folks would set up roadblocks.  This usually turned into an interesting episode.  Germans with hidden cash.....like to make a once-a-year trip to their Swiss or Luxembourg bank....would find the roadblock about 100 meters before the border, and the Zoll guys would be curious about the 30,000 Euro on the guy's possession.  This usually mean confiscation and an appearance in court.

Entering into Germany?  They'd ask to examine your trunk, your bags, and add up what you bought.  I was impressed once....almost five miles into Germany after leaving Luxembourg....I encountered the Zoll guys around some curve....standing in the middle of road.  Naturally, they demanded to view my car.  My wife's Luxembourg smokes were in the vehicle.....they sell for thirty percent less than the Germans....but with the two of us.....we met the limited scale of allocation, and were 'dismissed' as legal.  I should note, they counted the coffee cans (same limits), and the booze bottles (same limits).  Several countries around Germany sell items for less....enjoying profits from the Germans (Austria sells smokes for roughly twenty-five percent less than Germany).

Why bring this up?  Well.....there's now a fourth way that you might encounter the Zoll folks.  You see....they've grasped how many folks walk through and get out of the Frankfurt airport, with violations.  So, they set up roadblocks within a mile or two....of the airport.

They stop you....ask to review your contents, and start to challenge where you bough these items.  Bought a laptop while on vacation in Canada?  Well....you avoided the German VAT, and that's just not right.  So you get taxed on some highway about a mile outside of the Frankfurt airport.  Bought a new fancy camera?  Same deal.

You can imagine the shock.....you flew in and somehow made it through customs....with no issues.  You get into the car, and think....now, I'm safe.  And the truth is....no, you aren't.

I'll take a humble guess that folks will wise up over this, and if they do bring in some untaxed item....they will merely walk out the front door of the airport....go down the escalator, and jump on a subway car into Mainz or Frankfurt to meet their connection.

If some FEDEX-like operation was smart....they'd open up a shop there and take items for delivery to some guy's apartment in Trier or Koln....rather than risk Zoll issues.

How often do Germans violate Zoll?  It's best not to bring this up.  My humble guess is that most everyone over a twenty-year period....travel beyond Europe....and buy something of an illegal nature.

I went to Corfu this past summer, and found some great leather belts, with brand-names on them.  The odds they were real brand-name belts?  Well....I'll just say I suspect some Chinese guys did some great imitation work.

So, as you travel and counter the Zoll folks....just remember....it's all for a worthy cause....the tax revenue system.  Without us.....there's no autobahns, libraries, or paved walking trails in the midst of a wilderness.

The Cinema

Long ago.....there were two types of movie theaters.  There was the regular place that had popcorn, sodas, candy, and featured cowboy westerns and mobster movies.  The other one?  A cinema.  This typically meant wine, glacier water, oversized seats, and movies with odd twists and usually featured some French actress that fell in love with a fake Italian count with a glass eye.

You went to a cinema for upscale company, a boring movie, and the thrill of being different than the other ninety-five percent of people who desired a cowboy, space alien, or Jerry Lewis-comedy.  Yeah, the cinema crowd paid more for their tickets.  Yeah, they paid fifty percent more than you should for the glass of champagne.  And yeah, they generally forgot the entire theme of the movie within sixteen minutes after they walked out of the theater.

Generally, cinema experiences came and died out in the US.  You might find an old-fashioned cinema in New York City....maybe Miami and forty other big-scale cities.  For the most part....cinema has died out in the US.

Germany?  Well....there's probably five or six big-name cinemas still thriving across the country.  And there's probably another hundred that split between the two themes and try to bring the cinema experience to the intellectuals of Germany....ever how remote they are from real society.

Why does this topic come up?  Well....Wiesbaden is in the midst of a 'passage-renovation' in mid-town.  A passage is typically a small mall of sorts....built into a small building....with a couple of cafes, restaurants, and upscale stores.  Small would be the appropriate word to use with passage.....with total fronts rarely going above thirty.

What the city will attempt to do....is build this roof-top cinema on this passage building.  What they say....it'll be 400 seats between three rooms on the roof.  The seats will be plush and oversized.  No sodas or popcorn....strictly bubbly drinks and such.  The cost factor?  Fifteen Euro per movie ($20).

The features of such a cinema?  One can only guess......French love stories between a countess and a duke.....an Italian opera of sorts with weepy stories over failed vineyard operations....and some Scandinavian story featuring a drunk lobster fisherman and his third wife, Vicky, from Wales....who meet a stranger from Amsterdam who sings country-and-western tunes.  

Will they fill the seats nightly?  Well....this is a year away from start-up and it'll consume at least two years (probably more) to build and renovate.  Maybe they can get four hundred seats filled on a Saturday night.  The rest of the week?  I'd have my doubts if they can get in forty people.  Maybe if they advertise and note that Count Karl will be among the attendees, or some promi-pop singer from Mannheim will be in the audience.....maybe it'll draw more folks.

A slam by me over cinema movies?  No.  We need outlets like this to tell woeful French tales.  I don't mind sub-title movies.....the scripting tends to make sense without all the terrible accent business.  And to be honest here.....it's nice to see rich intellectual stories about some Italian duchess who fell for the wrong guy...four times in a row....proving that intellectuals are just as dopey about making good decisions as the regular folks.

My humble view.

Ten Things About Wiesbaden

Remember....I don't write the blog for the benefit of Germans.....I write toward Americans.  So this is one of those odd pieces where I basically introduce you to Wiesbaden.  So the ten things that you ought to know about the city of Wiesbaden:

First, Wiesbaden is a fairly big town....278,000 people (and still growing).  Course, you have to take this with a note or two.  To reach 278k....this includes suburbs....which connect via a forest or woods, and onto an adjacent village.  So the only way that they reach this....is by moving the city limits further and further out.  You could be a village four miles outside of the city urban area...with a fairly big forest between you and them.....and you'd still be considered part of Wiesbaden.

Reaching 300,000?  I'd take a humble guess and say by 2040....the city will reach this point.  A big town?  No.  It's not what you'd classify as a metropolitan type city.

Second.  For better or worse....it's an area that developed originally by the Romans.  They came....discovered the warm springs, the wine, and the fair climate.  There were various "tribes" that settled the area way before the Romans....but they are the ones who brought commercial activity and made them realize the impact of being a spa town.  There's no gladiator-type events or Roman-days for Wiesbaden...mostly because they've gone past that point in a major way.

Third. Foreigners influence the city a great deal.  The Romans came to influence them.  The Franks came to influence them.  The French came to influence them.  The English came to influence them.  The Russians, the Austrians, the Swiss, the Dutch, the Turks, the Egyptians, the rich Saudis, and so on.  Now since 1945....even the Americans came.  Even Elvis came to influence them.

The Kur Park area, the casino, and the upscale hotels in the region....have drawn people for an awful long time.  Folks used to come for weeks and months, for some type of 'recovery'.  They spoiled themselves with the hot springs, good wine, and exceptional food.  And they paid a fair sum of money to be pampered.

The influence of this capital....over a thousand-odd years.....is seen as you walk around the city today.  If it looks clean, neat, tidy and organized.....it's because they had the money to do so.

There's roughly five thousand Americans in the local community, and they are part of the overall community.  Yeah....they bring diverse menu requests like burgers, pizza, and steak to local restaurants.

Fourth. As much as people in Wiesbaden like to talk about themselves....their survival and growth....is dependent on two other communities: Mainz and Frankfurt.  Both within a fifteen minute drive from the end of the city.  Mainz has the major university and 200,000 residents.  Mainz also has several major business operations and industrial companies.  Frankfurt?  It's the Wall Street of Germany, and most of these upscale bankers and investors.....live in Wiesbaden.

Folks in Wiesbaden will slam Mainz folks....mostly in jest.  The Frankfurt folks will talk of the snobs of Wiesbaden, but it's mostly in jest.

The significance of Wiesbaden would only be half as much....without the two adjoining cities.

Fifth.  The river matters to some degree.  Without the Rhein....there's no barge traffic....no castles on the hills....and likely no wine trade.  I'd be the first to admit that Wiesbaden has almost no harbor facilities (Mainz got the majority in the deal).  But the river has an impact on trade, commerce, and tourism.

Sixth.  Some might argue on this....but Jews prior to 1940 brought business commerce into the city.  At the peak, in 1925....there were around 3,000 Jews in the city.  They were a strong segment of the business community and commerce.  To some degree....they helped bring organization into the chaos of business operations in the early part of the last century.

Seventh.  Restaurants are a major part of the city of Wiesbaden.  TravelAdvisor will tell you that there 433 cafes and restaurants in town....as a minimum.  By the time you consider the extended neighborhoods, the cafes, bakery-coffee shops, and imbas stands....there's likely to be closer to 700 possible places to eat.

Every ethnic possibility of food can be found.  If you were desiring heavily upon some Italian dish or pizza....there's probably over one hundred shops or restaurants to pick from.

Costs from from a 2.99 Euro Currywurst plate, to a couple hundred Euro for a star-chef gourmet meal for two at a fancy spot within the city.

Eigth.  Apple wine is the preferred drink of just about the whole town of Wiesbaden.  Yeah, they will drink a good beer  on occasion, and they've got ten thousand wine labels from the twenty-mile circle around Wiesbaden to pick from.  But apple wine is the preferred drink.

Sweet or just plain sour....take your pick.  Some of the locals might even drink sixty gallons of the stuff on a yearly basis.

Ninth.  Fests occur on a weekly basis with Wiesbaden or the forty towns surrounding it.  Everyone celebrates something....fifty-two weeks out of the year.  This means rich and fatty food, plenty of beer and wine, and a traffic jam or two every single weekend.

Tenth.  Residents of Wiesbaden have built the city into a place that they admire.  There's hardly a city in Germany that has a city park system as extensive as Wiesbaden.  For entertainment, from opera to rock music.....there's something going on nightly.  Art, culture, comedy, and life are pulsating within the city.   On a cold day in December in the midst of town....you could stand there and listen to some Peruvian guys play wind instruments for an hour.  Strange art objects get put up yearly....demanding your attention and curiosity.  Good fashion and bad fashion can somehow occupy the same spaces of the trendy part of Wiesbaden to hang out.

If you wanted to toss Manhattan, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow, Miami, Berlin, and Istanbul into the same mix of things.....this is probably what you'd end up with.  No tall buildings.....but no massive traffic jams.  No massive corruption episodes, but no sixty-million Euro water fountains.

Passionate or absorbed with Wiesbaden?  No.  There's some great history, some dramatic moments, an enjoyable closed-in city, and no real urban crime like you'd see in most cities.  It is....what it is.

The Chinese-German Gimmick

If you shop around in Germany.....you come to realize that the discount grocery chains (REWE, Real, etc)....offer up coupons. The more you buy....the more coupons you get.

So they have a program going for six months at a time.....you collect forty-odd stamps on one sheet, and you get to buy something that typically costs a fair amount....at a much-reduced rate.

Naturally, Germans flock to something like this.

Last night....HR did their weekly MEX episode, and kinda exposed the whole gimmick.

The deal always involves a name-brand item.  Real's recent gimmick was a high-class named cooking ware deal.  The manufacturing company is German, and the cooking ware were items that folks would really appreciate....especially at twenty to twenty-five Euro....instead of the normal sixty-to-ninety Euro.

The gimmick here?  Well...this German high quality company....has a deal with a Chinese manufacturer....who makes the same items but slightly different.  The name will be on the item, and the box will almost be the same.....but quality-wise....it's NOT the same quality.  Naturally, the German would be standing there and saying...the company name is on the item....it must be German-quality.  Well....it's not.

The Chinese guys have figured an inside way of buying into a German company.....getting examples of the product....reproducing it but making it slightly different....then selling it into REWE or Real stores for their coupon sales.

Two years ago....my wife got all peppy about some coupon sales here, and bought me a nice Swiss-quality suitcase.  It had a Swiss-symbol on the side, and was regarded as high quality.  Hundreds of thousands of Germans that summer....collected the coupon stamps....and bought their cases.  The truth?  Well....these were all Chinese-made.  Maybe it was higher quality than the typical Chinese suitcase....but it wasn't Swiss-quality.  The thing is....the real Swiss case....would have been at least two hundred Euro.  So my wife got it for roughly thirty Euro.  She was proud of the deal.  I was happy enough with the travel case.  But the truth?  It's a nice two-star case made in China under a Swiss name.

All of this brings me to the gimmick world of German shop coupons.  Everybody is getting into this, and being creative about it.  Even if you don't want this stuff....you collect the coupons....buy items....and give them as gifts to your friend, neighbor, or associate.  Germans are addicted to "deals", and this is bluntly.....a deal.

German Pension Reform (2014)

Most Germans would tell you....that pension reform is a everlasting topic at the Bundestag.  Year after year....there's talk of pension reform, with various bells, whistles, and gimmicks.  Some are designed to be chatted about....some get serious consideration before folks know the price tag....and some actually make it all the way to completion.

So, this week....the newest German pension reform package was put up for consideration.  The Bundestag will chat about it, and see what support can be found.

The pieces?

First, there's the issue of the two classes of German mothers.  For some odd reason around two decades ago....the Germans decided to reward mothers (new mothers) extra time as a bonus for being mothers.  This deal was tied to a woman who worked....took time off.....then returned.  These women were all peppy and happy over the change.  The mothers who came prior to this date?  No bonus time.  You can guess the indignation and hostile feelings that brewed over the past decade.

So, this part of the reform....would bring the 'old mothers' up into the stage of the 'new mothers', and everyone would be equal.  Naturally....all women like this idea.  Naturally, the budget guys at the Bundestag hate this deal because of added cost.

Second, the retirement gate for full pension would be set up for forty-five years of contribution.  This means....if you did start working at 16 (like a fair number of Germans do)....then you'd retire at age 61.  You can imagine the guys sitting around and suddenly realizing that they did start early in life, and now?  Man, you could be fully retired and guzzling Becks beer in the backyard in a year or two.

Naturally, the older folks in Germany are really peppy over this idea, and think its great.  The budget guys?  They hate it.

Third.  There's a piece to the package which would address some perceived unfairness over medical retirement and likely increase it by some percentage.  This feature is the least talked-about element of reform.  Under the present system.....if you got into a serious accident, and were never able to work again....your pension would kick in....but it just wouldn't be as great if you had made it to sixty-five years old.  Almost everyone agrees....this needs reform badly.  Again, the budget folks hate it.

Total cost of this new package on top of the present package?  It's around 160 billion Euro to pay for it from now to 2030.

While everyone thinks the reforms would be great....especially the journalists talking up the deal.....there's this odd factor of taxes.  You'd have to invent taxes to  cover 2014 to 2030....that takes 160 billion Euro out of public's hands.  Yeah, they'd spend the money as they retired.....but you'd have to take a Euro here, and ten Euro there....to reach the extra money required.

The chances of this passing?  Well....there's some issues.  First, Europeans have been listening to Merkel talk austerity for the past four years.  This reform is anything BUT austerity.  So most other countries will hate it.  Germans?  They'd love the idea of being retired at age 62.  The older mothers would love getting their deal as the same for new mothers.

I suspect it'll pass.  And in five years....Germans will be grumbling to a major level....over new taxes invented out of thin air.  Hostile and angry?  Well....yeah.  But that's nothing new in Germany.

The Wiesbaden Anglican Church

I occasionally blog on the history of Wiesbaden, which is always in the making.

Down on Frankfurter Strasse....maybe one block from the main bus drop-off point of downtown Wiesbaden.....right next to the Warmer Damm Park area....is the St Augustine Church.

A grand building of sorts.....built in 1865.  The backers of the operation?  British folks who were a bit dedicated to Anglican Church of England.  Why build in Wiesbaden?  Well....it was a spa town of the mid-1800s, where rich folks came....stayed a month or two for 'recovery', and in those days.....rich folks would sponsor such building projects with ease.

If you walk around town, you get to a point of noticing various denominational buildings....which were part up around during the 1850s to the 1914 period.  Some don't match up with local religious groups....but they were accepted.  You have to remember.....Wiesbaden grew because it accepted one key group of folks....the rich.  And as much money as you wanted to toss into the city....it just felt inclined to accept you.

Times have come to a tough period.  Rich British folks, with religious needs.....aren't coming anymore.  There's no cash flow from within the isle.  So there's talk today of the church being put up for sale....by mid-Feb of this year.

Shock of course.....has come out over the episode.  The roof leaks.  The electrical outlets that do exist in the building....are questionable and need updating.  Heat?  What exists in the structure....is marginal.  Upgrading and renovating?  The local minister is quoted in the Wiesbaden Kourier at noting 500,000 Euro ($650,000) for a basic renovation requirement.

I kinda suspect that the estimate is low, and by the time you figure heating (probably solar), and a massive update on the roof.....it's bound to be closer to two million Euro.

The issues?  Well....it's historic.  You probably can't change much of the look.  Parking?  Non-existent.  Adjacent to the street?  Quiet so.  Remaking for another church?  Zero chance.

Who would buy it?  Probably someone wanting to convert it into a restaurant.  I've noted a couple of efforts now where older churches were converted, and made for interesting dining experiences.  It's near the downtown area, and likely is large enough to be a decent dining area.

The bid?  I'm curious what the place will bring.  With the work necessary.....I just don't see it selling for more than a million.  The real estate or just the land itself?  Probably worth ten million.  Lots of folks would want it for a upscale condo building or such.  But I doubt that the city would allow the building to be torn down.

Just one of those odd structural episodes in Wiesbaden.

The Trip to Hell Story

In my youth, around the summer of 1985, the base recreation center at Ramstein offered up a neat tour....five days at Costa Brava, Spain.  It's about 90 minutes south of the French border....on the Med.  At the time, it was roughly 220 DM (which today would equate to about $130).  This got you a bus ride, four nights in the 2-star hotel, and a breakfast for the four mornings.

For a naive guy like myself....I didn't realize the add-ons.  For example....if you wanted a higher-class three-star hotel....it was another $50.  If you wanted the wine tour on day two....it was $12.  If you wanted the bullfight trip on day three, it was $35.  The real tour....with everything added up, with food money and beverage funding....would have been closer to $300 for five days.  That was 1995 costs.

So I signed up for the "trip to hell".  The bus leaves on Friday night at midnight.  Half the folks meeting up at the pick-up site....had an abundance of wine and booze.  So they drank heavily for the first three hours, and the bus didn't quiet down until 3AM.  Naturally two or three folks got sick.....threw up either in the aisle or in the bathroom of the bus.  That funny smell that lingered?  Well....you just had to get used to that.

Along about 7AM, we were deep into France and stopped at some roadside gas station cafe.  You had to pay in French money....but they'd accept German marks or US dollars.....it's just that the exchange rate was lousy (as much as the food choice).  I think I paid around five bucks for a Coke and a candybar.

Somewhere around 1PM on Saturday afternoon....roughly 13 hours into the trip....we finally started to enter the area.  We stopped at the three-star hotel where everyone except me and two other folks....got off.  It was a nice-looking hotel.

The bus drove on for half-a-mile and the tour lady dumped us at some corner, and we had to walk a hundred feet to our little hotel....a marginal two-star.  The room consisted of one wood chair.....a crappy old bed (with a 15-year old mattress), a lamp, and a window which looked out onto another building (maybe five feet away).  There was no AC, no air circulation, and I think the temp at 2PM was around 94 degrees.

Breakfast at the hotel consisted of one cup of coffee....two Spanish pastry items, and a couple pieces of fruit.  A bottle of funny tasting water ran around a buck per bottle.

By the next morning....I'd come to realize this was a lousy trip.  It only got worse.

The wine tour on the second day?  Well.....they basically drove us around for 45 minutes in some rural area.....then dumped us at a local flea market for two hours.  We mostly stood there....wondering what the heck we needed to do at some flea market.  When they picked us up....we were all fairly thirsty.  So onto the wine tour.  Basically.....we got some ticket to enter the place, and sip little small shot glasses for an hour.  They expected us (Americans) to buy two or three bottles of wine after we'd tasted some.  Well.....we mostly took to a shot-a-minute strategy.....tasting around sixty wines in sixty minutes.  Even with a shot-glass....you can get pretty loaded....if you briskly march through the place.  It's safe to say that most of the tour group was fairly loaded after leaving the wine tour.

Day three?  Some trip to the Barcelona bull fight stadium.  It was around 95 degrees, and the key word of advice as we got off the bus.....be here twenty minutes after the last bull fight.....or we leave you behind.  Well...I got separated from the group, got there at twenty-four minutes after the fight, and missed the dang bus.  I then learned that most Spaniards don't speak English, and you need know where the local train station is.....to get back to the hotel (forty miles away).

By mid-morning on the fifth day....we were done and on the bus.  Several folks were heavily sun-burned and suffering terribly.  Some folks had gotten into love arguments with their beloved while on the tour, and weren't willing to sit with them on the way back.

My funds?  Well....I pretty much spent every single penny I had on me, and kinda wondered where the money went.

Why this comes up now?  Well....the spring bus travel booklets are coming out, and I ended up with a bus tour package in my mailbox.  I naturally surveyed the package and found this neat tour to Costa Brava.  The cost?  229 Euro (roughly $300, twice what I paid in 1995).  The extras?  Oh, they put them in there and let you know.

The deal?  Well....you can only get a three-star hotel.  I guess the tour guys learned it's best not to even offer a two-star deal.  So, what you get?  The hotel for four nights, a full-up breakfast for each day, a dinner each evening, and some option tours (which all cost money).  You can figure....for five days....you need to spend a total of 500 Euro (for the travel package, beverages, food, and tour-options).  That basically covers five lousy days on a bus tour.  That's around $650....or double what it was in 1984.

Part of me would like to go back to Costa Brava....because of lessons learned (I'd skip all the optional tours).  Part of me says it'd be awful foolish to ever step on a five-day bus tour ever again.  The crazy thing?  It's probably ten bucks now at a French rest stop for a lousy Coke and a candy bar.

An Airport of Rare Type

In 1927, the Germans went to work at the outer boundary of Berlin, and built up Templehof Airport.  In it's day...it was a work of wonder.  It was one of the first airports in the world with a connection via an underground subway.....to the city nearby.

The runways?  Two....both around six thousand feet long.

The simple history?  The original use was related to the Knights Templar....going back to the mid-ages.  So, it's kinda holy in some fashion.

In the 1930s....the Nazis came along and made it a big deal to enhance the airport.  By 1940....there were almost a hundred flights a day operating out of the airport, with half considered international in nature.  It was by the basic definition....one of the busiest airports in the world.

While damaged in WW II.....the runways were repaired and made functional again.  In 1948, it was turned into the greatest rescue effort of all time....flying tons of coal, food and fuel into a blockaded city.  Planes landed in a matter of seconds....positioned themselves at key points....unloaded in a matter of minutes, and took to the sky.  The survival of Berlin....depended on an airport of unusual character and capability.  It delivered what was necessary.

Today?  It sits for the most part.  There's a debate in Berlin....what to do with it.  Some want it converted into apartment and business center real estate.  Some want it to remain 'as-is'.  Some want it to become a museum of sorts, and a large green park for that part of the city.

It's a significant part of Berlin's history over the past century.  It's hard to say how folks will react on this.  Political folks are lined up to charge ahead....but it's too sharply divided to say anything is concrete in nature.  Most airports outlive their usefulness....and simply get replaced....then torn down.  This one?  The last thing on Earth I can see....is that you'd want to tear it down.  But we've never had something like this to happen before.  An airport as valuable as the Great Wall of China?  Yeah.

If Captain Kirk Had Been German

This is a blog that might draw debate and analysis.  I don't write to be agreeable or disagreeable with people.  I tend to write....to suggest that minds be open and ponder.  In this case....what would life be like with an Enterprise run by a German Captain Kirk?

Well.....Captain Kirk would have various rule books to draw decisions upon.  No decision would be done off the cuff, or just as a bluff to some Romulan evil princess who is about to destroy all of society.  If X happens....the rule book would dictate what Kirk does.  No discussions.

Captain Kirk would have a calendar on his desk to note all of the leave periods of his various members.  Such and such ensign would demand two weeks in the summer and two weeks in the fall.  Sulu would be demanding four weeks at a time.  At least an hour out of the month would be demanded to sit and argue with people over why sixteen percent of the crew choose the same week in March, and forty-nine percent chose the same week in July.

Captain Kirk would only operate the Enterprise at maximum capacity if Scotty signed the certificate that it was worthy of such status.  The 'give-her-all-you-got' order would be non-existent.

Captain Kirk would only allow Bahn-approved toilet paper on the ship, and it'd be one of the top ten things that crew members would whine about.

Captain Kirk would only have proceeded to be recognized as Captain...after receiving his PhD from some highly recognized German university, and if he were a Ohio State graduate....he'd never rise about ensign.

Captain Kirk would be continually worried that some BILD reporter or Stern journalist would write up a critical news article on him or his ship.  There's be continual efforts to sneak a Frankfurt newspaper reporter onboard....to get the good stuff on how bad the ship efficiently operates.

Captain Kirk would not accept any non-German beers on board....saying they were impure, and not of satisfactory quality.

Captain Kirk's crew would continually question the menu of the ship.....demanding more vegan meals and bio-type vegetables.

Captain Kirk's ship....the Enterprise....would be inspected every two years by TUV....and usually fail the initial inspection.  Scotty would reeve up the numbers.....turn off some filter systems....and fake enough to get the TUV guy to pass the ship.

Captain Kirk would endorse and emphasis ISO 9000 standards.  Every deck, every hallway, every cabinet, and every storage locker....would be noted with contents, flow charts, and descriptions.  At least sixteen members of the crew would be audit members....working twelve-hour days to ensure they met standards.

Captain Kirk would allow fasching to occur, to only awaken hours later to find the entire ship in disarray from the festive occasion, numerous members too drunk to fight the evil of the galaxy, and too many fake uniforms being noted around the ship.

Captain Kirk would allow promi dinner episodes on board the Enterprise....to discover that Spock actually was a lousy cook, and McCoy tended to use mostly cheap booze in every single dish.

Captain Kirk would allow three hundred tons of statues on the ship, to meet Star Fleet's standard on intellectual art displays.   Most would be naked women on horseback, which usually drew interest from the Romulans as they visited.

Captain Kirk would allow a sexually diverse crew....which meant a bondage bar on the sixth level, a freaky sex shop on level four, and a lesbian cowboy bar on level sixteen (where Scotty would dress as a gal just to get in and sip booze quietly).

Captain Kirk would occasionally go off to some jungle camp in Australia....as part of some promi event for Star Fleet, and do stupid things for eight days until he got voted off the resort camp.

Finally, Captain Kirk would rebuild the Enterprise bigger, stronger, and bolder....after each destruction episode.  Which he'd typically respond when questioned about the terrible waste of state and Star Fleet funding.....that which cannot kill you....can only make you stronger.

The Alsatian Parking in Wiesbaden

If you travel around Wiesbaden, and get over onto the west end of town....along Klarenthaler Strasse....heading out of town....there's this big unpaved parking lot.  Big enough for roughly three hundred vehicles....it is a 'mess' that most of the locals would like to fix. It's gravel and dirt....with potholes big enough to shove a six-pack of beer into.

With all the resources that Wiesbaden has.....you'd think that the city would have taken the parking lot a decade or two ago.....and paved it with just plain asphalt.  For some reason....they've avoided addressing the lot....up until the last year or two.

So a research project was started....with University of Mainz students doing the numbers collection and analysis.  The locals use the open lot....but a number of commuter folks use the lot as well.  Since it's free.....no one says much....except they are fairly unhappy at the lack of organization, and the lack of asphalt.

A deal was put up....to entice someone to build a underground parking garage.  The emphasis I think....was to make the cars literally disappear, and to make the top appear as a nice tidy GREEN park.  Landscaping was a key feature that you'd have to contend with.

Well....in the end....only one company showed much interest.  But the deeper they got into discussions and this significant commitment to landscaping....the less thrilled the company was.  From reporting in the local press....I get the impression that the company wanted the city to fund a fair portion of the project.  Another issue was the complaint from the local neighborhood.....they wanted guaranteed parking in this deal.  They didn't say free, but they'd like for this to be pretty low-cost.  Currently, the lot is totally open and free.

If you had to pick a German city with major parking issues....Wiesbaden is it. Around two dozen-odd public parking garages exist in Wiesbaden.  The city operates a bus system which is used by city residents to a great extent.  No trolley cars or subways in Wiesbaden....just buses.  For business operations that exist in the city.....commuters from the outlying region are in a difficult spot.  The city never has put emphasis into larger (free) parking lots on the exterior boundary with public transportation taking you the last mile or two.

Free street parking is something that the city survives upon, and grumbles about on a continual basis.  You'd think that they'd put some effort into bike trails within the city (like Paderborn).....but that's a topic for 2040 or beyond.  The possibility of light-rail finally being introduced?  Maybe by 2020, there might be one line in existence for the city, but it's still a topic of discussion.

So when you hear of the Alsatian Platz....you can just imagine a big dirt and gravel lot, with no organization of sorts, and three hundred cars crammed into it.  Yeah, it's something you'd imagine in Louisiana....not Germany.

Sunday Night with Ed

Last night featured the Gunther Jauch talk show on Channel One (ARD).  Of all the German political chat shows.....this one is the biggest draw for the German population.  Part of this is the long history of the time-slot, and part is Mr Jauch who is considered the "Larry King" of German interviewers.  He brings on the right guests....asks the right questions.....and brings the topics down to the regular guy on the street.  A fair number of these German political chat shows are for the intellectual type view......the Sunday night show is designed for everyone.

So last night.....came the latest German interview with NSA's guy....Edward Snowden.  NDR....one of the German public channels....somehow got a request in and did a decent interview of the guy...sitting in Moscow.

Gunter took the guy who did the interview....along with a Green political figure who believes in the Ed story entirely, a Pirate Party VIP who supports the anti-NSA slant, a BILD journalist who lays out the firm middle ground (the NSA is good and bad, for obvious reasons), and John Kornblum (former US ambassador to Berlin, a banker of sorts, and a fairly wise guy on the world).

The three anti-NSA talkers did a fair job for roughly the first half of the show.  The audience tended to clap on their key points.

Somewhere around the half-way point of the show.....the BILD journalist and Kornblum start to lay out facts and establish some decent arguments.  The key point?  There were two.  As Kornblum points out.....to think that Merkel is the one and only political figure that might be entwined into this collection effort.....is a joke.  Dozens, hundreds, thousands.....was the emphasis.  And the second key point.....as he accurately points out.....in ten years, this sort of spying will be considered child's play.

I have yet to see some reality from German journalists on the topic of the ease of people being spied upon.  A German 14-year old kid in Trier....could easily bug the apartments of his six neighbors.

The same kid could hack into four-hundred personal email accounts from the various folks in Trier.

The same kid could build his own personal drone, and monitor the city twenty-four hours a day.

The same kid could build a bugging device and put it into the mayor's office.

The same kid could swipe the pin numbers to fourteen bank accounts in one hour while sitting on a park bench next to an apartment building.

The same kid could put a GPS-tracker onto the car of a Green Party official and note where they go during a normal week.

The same kid could take a bahn ticket....reproduce a fake ticket....and travel first-class from Frankfurt to Berlin every single day.

The same kid could hack into the DSDS 'search-for-teenie-singer-contest' and screw up the numbers enough to allow four marginal singers to make it into the quarter-finals.

The same kid could create a bogus bank account in Luxembourg for Chancellor Merkel....load the account with three hundred million Euro.....and make everyone suddenly think that Merkel herself has a secret bank account outside of the country.

The same kid could wipe out the entire email server system of Germany's top ten newspapers.

The same kid could take down the power grid for Frankfurt for sixty minutes.....just for entertainment purposes.

Not that I suggest that there is such a kid....but to think that the big bad NSA is the only creature of evil out there, and wiping them out would 'save-the-world'.....is entirely bogus.  On this, Kornblum is absolutely correct.  The Germans are missing the big picture.  Technology has delivered a wonderful thing that we all use daily....and some would use the same technology for great evil.  We seem to overlook that fact.

As for Ed's pitch and delivery?  Ed is a geek with a naive sense of the world around him.  Ed's never dealt with any jihad characters.  For Ed, it's a world of terrible things which NSA has stumbled into, and only Ed can fix the wrongs....bringing the world back into a ethical sense of purity.  For some reason.....I'm just not putting money on Ed's argument.

Limburg Update

Months have passed since the Limburg Catholic Church episode. News out of the media today indicates that the Catholic Church select committee to audit the thirty-one million Euro renovation project is finished.

To bring you up to speed.  The Catholic Church in Limburg (about thirty minutes north of Wiesbaden).....had a bishop in charge of the local church and the region.  There's a property across from the church....which has several support buildings and a residence for the Bishop.  There was a decision made to renovate a part of the church, and a major part of the residence area.  The residence area?  It's about 1.5 times the size of a NFL playing field....so it's not a major estate with luxury pools, tennis courts, etc.

I've never heard what the original plan was....nor do I think anyone in Limburg really knew the original content of the original plan.  When everything was completed....this past summer (2013)....the bill came to thirty-one million Euro...a shocker to most folks who looked at the size of the 'compound', and the extent of work done.

Over-paid?  Yeah, there were several items noted....from dining tables to a bathtub of six-star quality.  The church stepped in and sent the bishop off for 'recovery' (my word, not theirs).  He hinted that he'd like to come back to the old job.  Well....that won't happen.

So the public in Limburg is fairly upset with the mess.  I suspect if the bill had been five million Euro....they would have still gotten fussy about this.

Typically, in order to make it all appear normal.....you'd break up a project, and do one or two pieces at a time.  Over the course of five years....you'd spend the thirty-one million....but in chunks of a million here....a million there, and the public would just agree with this.

Onto the audit committee.  The news media says that this group of priests and audit managers....have assessed the whole thing, and agree that it was all legit.  Yeah.....no deceit....no corruption.....no issues.  Shocker?  Yeah, I think when this gets out onto the streets of Limburg tomorrow....it will trigger people to ask for prosecutor review of the audit committee.

You can imagine how this plays out.  Most prosecutors lack construction background, project management expertise, and budget control training.  So, he'll have to ask the state to help him (financially of course), and let him hire another audit committee...under German state control.  Some state folks will pause here and ask where exactly this will all lead and try to limit this mess.

By May, I'd expect some state audit committee to arrive and spend six months reviewing all the documents and questioning the construction company (under oath).  They may find a shocking construction site, with roofs likely leaking, and pipes in badly need of replacement.

Toward the end of 2014, I'd expect the second audit to come mostly around to agree with the first audit, with some minor issues and maybe a couple million Euro in question-marks.  Acceptance in Limburg?  No.  And this might even beg for a federal audit team by the end of 2014.  An audit of an audit of an audit?

Yeah.  That's how bad things might get.

So, to the final detail of the news media update.  Things are bad enough now with hostility....that the Catholic Church is thinking seriously of slanting the Limburg area to be no longer ranked as a bishop's territory, and just group the city and it's church under Trier or Mainz.  They'd just get a priest....not a bishop.....as their head guy.  Management would come from some guy down the road.

You can pause and ponder over this.  What need would you have for the newly renovated compound?  Zero. Other than the residence....but a priest wouldn't rate for these type of digs.  So I suspect the end-plan would be to package the newly renovated compound....to sell.  Who would pay twenty-odd million for this compound in the most expensive part of Limburg?  I'm not sure.  I'm not even sure that they could get twenty-odd million for the property.

It'd make for fairly swanky property for some ultra-rich singer who wanted a nice house....support facility for his private studio.....and a party place for friends.

How would the locals react?  They'd be hostile over the ranking deal....the loss of the Bishop position....and the gimmick of selling the property.  But at this point.....there's nothing much to gain or lose.  Just my humble opinion.

Gimmick Green

I will occasionally point out stupid things that pop up daily in Europe (not always Germany as the culprit).

This week....the EU met and a commission came out with the new country targets for greenhouse gases.  The new emission sheet?  Well....it had a curious waiver of sorts built into it.  After 2020 (just six years away)....there is no more of the country-by-country numbers that everyone was always fearful of violating or being labeled as a failure.

The new gimmick?  There's a target, and you just try to meet that target.  No bad-boy lists or public display of negative numbers or failed emissions.

Why the change?  Most everyone is waking up and realizing that the marvelous success stories they had after Kyoto....were mostly because they had gone onto infrastructure improvements in the 1970s and 1980s.  Older plants from the 1940s and 1950s....were being shut down, and most of the plants built in the 1980s/1990s....were a delightful help at the right moment.

Now?  The only way to jump-start another infrastructure period and better emission controls...would rely upon two methods.

Method one.....you punish everyone and tax them for violating emission's goals.  That means more hefty taxes on top of what they already pay.  If you wanted inflation issues and economic dark times....this would be the way to go.

Method two.....you tax folks more and demand infrastructure changes which lead into higher costs for everyone, and lighten the pocketbook of regular workers.

Both methods mean serious economic consequences.  Over the last decade....folks have gotten smarter and figured out most of the gimmicks.  They aren't happy about spiraling inflation, or hefty taxes, or higher utility bills.  Folks tend to vote down political parties now that support such tactics.

So the EU commission did the next best thing.  They talked up the evils of emissions.  They put some numbers down, and talked of the success of fighting emissions to the press.  And they left everyone a backdoor to exit where nothing has to be met.  The news media and environmental folks will talk of the great things from the EU commission, and how they've saved the planet once again.

Gimmick by gimmick....the system works....in a failed sort of way.  And we appreciate that.

The Frank Discussion

It always amazes me when you sit and look at "ownership" of people or legends in Europe.  If a writer wakes up and decides to write a bio-piece on some legendary figure.....the foundation or family in control of the estate.....always wants to get into the business, and ensure their property is characterized the right way.  If the writer cooperates....fine.  If he deviates from the persona and starts lay out a more rough or upsetting character.....it usually turns into a bitter public fight.

This week....the Anne Frank story got dragged up here in Germany.  It'll be seventy years since the Dutch Jewish teenager died in a concentration camp.  Course, being the 'magic' seventy.....means that someone has to do a TV movie or regular movie over Anne Frank.

Currently.....three folks are moving toward a movie.

The issue at hand?  One of the three....ZDF (the state-run German network).....elected to do the piece without cooperating with the Frank family or the Anne Frank Fund (some Swiss guys who own the publishing rights to the book).  Naturally....both the fund and family are visibly upset because they didn't have veto power over the script or the telling of the story.  There's also the possibility that both expected some pay-off of sorts......as a member of the ZDF team telling this story.  I would rather believe that financial reasons weren't part of the discussion.....but these days.....you just can't tell.

The other two folks working on Frank productions?  They invited both the Anne Frank Fund and family to be part of the process.  No one says that they had veto power over the script or got anything special out of this.....just that they were cooperating.

The intention of ZDF's efforts?  They've recently (over the past five years) begun to do a number of stories over the war from a civilians prospective and that of a Jew.  From my own humble opinion.....I'd say that they are producing some quality movie pieces of the 1930s and the war.....even-handed for the most part, and doing fair coverage to the true stories that occurred.

Maybe this will simply all pass, with no real notice by the public.  The curious thing.....in one single year....three major movie productions of Anne Frank.  You'd sit and ponder over the possibility that various critics will sit and watch all three.....back-to-back......and provide some twenty-page critical reviews.  Yeah, stranger things have occurred in the past.

Local Investigation

Three or four miles down the road from me....is Sonnenberg.  It's half-way to Wiesbaden.

In the past week or two....cops have come out with various public statements and noted a possible murder of a local guy there in Sonnenberg.  The problem is....while they have blood, and a missing old guy....there's no body.  They actually have a prime suspect, but he's not talking.  And no, there's no blood apparently in the car of the prime suspect, but there is blood in the old guy's house....which leads cops into a circle.

The old guy?  Rainer Muller.  Single guy....I guess in his sixties.  He has a dog....which is the interesting tie-in of this second guy.  After Muller disappears....the younger guy appears at a local animal shelter and turns the dog in....claiming the owner has gone off on his yearly trip to Switzerland for an extended period....and won't be coming back soon (or so the story goes).  Cops find the dog, and that leads them onto the second guy.

You'd think....if the younger guy had murdered this guy.....the last thing on Earth that you'd do....is turn the dog in and have your image memorized by the dog shelter boss.  Yet, this guy was stupid enough to do that?  Or he turned the dog in as requested and just didn't figure it mattered much.

Cops have been holding the younger guy now for weeks.  The trouble is.....nothing really ties the guy into the case except turning the dog in.  The blood stains?  All in the old guy's house....but nowhere else.

This past weekend.....cops used HR (the local state-run channel) to note the mystery and ask folks if they remember anything from around 16 August.  Yeah, it's virtually an impossible thing for anybody to remember some particular car, person or event.....six months later.  But the cops are basically at the end of this search, with nothing much left they can prove.

The second guy?  Well....this is an interesting thing, he lives in Niederhausen.  If you draw a map for hiking purposes.....it's a straight line from one village to the other.....and it passes through where i usually hike.  The odds that I met up with this old guy or young guy back in July and August?  Well....it kinda makes me wonder.  Three or four hikes a week....all along the same walking area.

Might the younger guy have no involvement....other than the dog?  Yeah, that's a fair possibility.  They simply may have known each other....end of the story.  Any video of the Wiesbaden train station to show the guy leaving for Switzerland?  Strangely enough....no.  At least not yet.  The number of trains leaving out?  Forty a day would leave Wiesbaden for Frankfurt....where at least four trains a day would venture south toward Switzerland.

I kinda noted all of this to the wife.  She says I've been watching too much Tatort (the Sunday night crime series show).  Well....she might be right.

My Thirty Minutes at the Kassel Calden International Airport

 Sunday afternoon, I happened to pass by Kassel Calden International Airport...roughly 2.3 hours driving north of Frankfurt.  It's listed as one of the top twenty-three airports in Germany.

In 2013, the airport finally opened, and made headline news.  Roughly 240 million Euro ($300 million dollars) was spent on it.  The old runway was around 4,300-odd feet long and there was no commercial use for it.  The local political folks rigged up the system....got the massive pot of money, built a fair sized terminal, lengthen the runway to roughly 8,500 ft, and made it capable of handling most aircraft in the world. Then they opened the airport up....only to discover virtually no one wanted to run commercial airlines out of this airport in the middle of nowhere.

I got there on a Sunday afternoon....to find the parking lot full of roughly thirty cars.  Parking is free.....which matters in this case.  The parked cars?   All local folks who've come over to have a coffee....walk through the interior, and marvel at the fancy nature of the small airport which cost them 240 million Euro.

To be honest, it's NOT in Kassel.  It's in Calden, which is a ten-minute drive out the side of Kassel.  Calden?  Well....it's a small town with a couple of banks, a gas station or two, several pubs, two grocery operations, and 7,000 folks.  The general appearance of Calden is a farming town in the middle of nowhere.  Autobahn connection?  You'd have to drive at least fifteen minutes in either two directions....to hit the nearest entry point.  My general advice.....don't drive into Kassel, and then maneuver through Kassel to reach the airport.

The previous runway wasn't much to talk about.  It was mostly a place where guys parked their private planes for a cheap price, and learned how to fly.

There was some belief that "if you built it....they would come".  The political folks felt that a small airport would get into the summer vacation business, and cheap airlines would love the cheap nature of parking there.  The deal currently is no airlines operate during the winter months.....while one airline operates a direct trip to a coast town in Turkey twice a week, and a direct run out to some Spanish isle twice a week, during spring and summer.  Otherwise, nothing goes on at the airport.

Security and support staff?  Well....they have to keep the airport generally open.  So there's a welcome guy, a coffee shop operation (two folks), at least four cops or customs folks there for seven days a week.  I'd guess a clean-up crew comes out daily, and some maintenance guy fixes broken lights, while a landscaping crew mows acres and acres of grass.  

The rental car shops?  Well.....two exist and I'm guessing each have two or three cars parked there....but no one comes by to rent much of anything.  Both shops were deserted when I walked through.

It is a fancy upscale airport by all standards.  I'd guess there are two gates (A and B).  On an average summer day, there might be two-hundred-and-fifty folks who transit through (going or coming)....to some vacation paradise.

A waste of money?  Yeah.  Maybe in twenty years....as folks might develop this into a major tourist hub, with a dozen flights a day in the spring and summer.  Right now?  It's just a nice big parking lot, with a nicely heated interior, and a nice coffee shop serving decent three-star coffee.  If you happen to venture through Kassel and want to look at the top five sights of the local area....sadly, this would probably be one of them.

Getting Down On ADAC

ADAC is the German Automobile Association.  One of the top ten things you do.....upon arrival in Germany....is sign up for ADAC coverage.  I forget the precise amount.....but it's around twenty-five-odd Euro for a year.  Your coverage gets you this: a phonecall away from a mechanic coming to rescue your car, a monthly magazine covering dozens of travel tips and test results, and a lobbyists of sorts in favor of the common car owner or traveler.

ADAC has been around since cars arrived on the scene in Germany....it's a hundred years old almost.  ADAC has built up this legendary status.....one of the most trusted sources of car information.  ADAC does dozens of tests per year on reliability, tires, windshields, fuel consumption, new models, etc.  When Germans engage you on travel topics involving cars....they are generally quoting ADAC, and have absolute trust in the information and statistics given.

Well....it's come to light.....that ADAC manipulates their data and tests.  If they want a certain slant on a test and the numbers weren't enough.....they make up numbers.  How much and how often?  They won't precisely say.  It might be a single test a year.....it might be every single test.  How long as this slant been going on?  They won't say precisely.

So this has kinda dampened the spirit of most Germans.  The most trusted source on cars?  Bad data?  That would be like the Channel One (ARD) news team being accused of corrupt information.  You just couldn't quote from them anymore.

What happens right now?  ADAC says they will uncover what they can, and clear up the matter.  The tests and statistics?  They will continue.....although you can't be too trusting of the facts given by them.  State legal action?  If you slanted the data and slammed some companies tires.....rating them less than one or two other folks?  Well....you could take this into court and sue for damages.  ADAC is probably a bit scared that hundreds of millions could be at risk.

I'm of the mind that ADAC will continue on.  Their CEO will likely be fired at some point, and some new ethical guy will arrive.  The trust business probably went down two notches, and it might take twenty years for them to re-establish themselves as 'honest'.  As for the fake reports?  I guess they just disappear....with all the statistics they collected over the past two or three decades.  Interesting....a vast treasure trove of info.....which you can't trust if you were a historian looking over their data a hundred years from now.  

My Day

I spent today at a German stock-holders meeting....in Paderborn (three hours north of Frankfurt).  The company?  Wincor-Nixdorf.  They do ATM machines, hardware for banks, and software for finance control.

It was a curious meeting.  The company clears a good profit, and pays a decent dividend.  It sells for around fifty Euro a share, and the dividend for the past year is awful close to two percent.

It was a happy meeting by most standards.  The CEO can brag a bit.  Numbers are ok, etc.

There are two curious things.

First, we had some nut who got up at the end (they allow share-holders to say stuff....if they want), and there was a guy who claimed the company was supporting Steffi Graff's dad (former German tennis legend).  Bogus stuff, but you have to allow any nut to speak.

Second, the guys predicted this oddball trend.  A cashless society is not that far off.  The need for ATM machine?  Well....in two or three decades....it might be a lot less machines in existence.  Folks will start using smart-phones, and cash will be used less and less.  He pointed out....the US is the only country left which uses checks for a fair amount....which means a special device to read and validate checks, which Nixdorf sells.

The negative of the whole meeting?  It was a lousy lunch.....some soup deal with bread.  I'd give them two stars on that.  But hey.....at least they aren't wasting a ton of money on food for the stock-holders.

The "Our Friends" Speech

It was a curious episode as Germans sat down and watched the President Obama speech on his modification of the NSA rules.

First, you kind of noted after several minutes....that the room was filled with Obama appointees and executives who work under the current Administration.  It's hard to say if this was just a public meeting that they'd attend (rare that they'd all be in one room), or it was designed to show everyone is in agreement.

Second, what the President said for the changes....was that executive action was the tool of use.  No laws to change.  No treaties to be signed.  This tends to mean that if something happens and he wants the rules to secretly or quietly change.....they just will.

Third, the general comment which struck most Germans, and was noted heavily by the German media on Friday night.....was the leaders of various countries which were considered "friends of America"....would not be bugged or covered by NSA.  Everyone else?  Yeah....they were open to bugging business.  So you can imagine the scene....when Chancellor Merkel uses her private cellphone....it's data is being collected....strictly because of her status as a private citizen.  Attempts to collect against her Chancellor phone....will be halted.

Fourth, this all comes back around to who is a "friend of America" and who isn't.  Is there a special list?  Do you get on the list one week, and off the next week?  Well....no one can say much on this.

Overall, Germans didn't really buy into speech or the intent of the changes.  Based on comments of news commentators here in Germany.....it didn't settle anyone's hostility over the NSA business.

My humble guess is that the Chancellor and staff will meet over the next week or two, and form up their own agenda.  This "our friends" speech probably cooled off some people, but the majority still have some anger over what transpired and what's still on the table.

When Good Ideas Go Bad

At some point around 1922....a small German candy company started with this idea of a gummy-like bear substance, with a fair amount of sugar in it.

The Gummi Bear....became a major success, and most German kids and adults....probably consume a ton of the sugar treats over a forty-year period.

Well.....the Haribo Company sought to move into the US market in the last couple of years....and expand.  They recognized that there are unique features about Americans.  We tend to get all peppy about sugar content.

So the smart guys at Haribo sought to make a sugarless Gummi Bear.

This week....with sells going brisky....a number of folks have come to comment that they've encountered an unusual problem with the Gummi Bears.....stomach issues and diarrhea.   Haribo hasn't said much.  I'm guessing that they are asking for test results and trying to establish the real issue.  I'm guessing....being an American....that some folks sought to Gummi Bears for a major hunger....and ate a whole bag in an hour or so.

Naturally, this has gotten into the German news.  Their slant?  Well....no one ever gets sick off regular Gummi Bears.  So they are taking this mostly as a joke....that Americans can't handle this anti-sweet candy.  I'm expecting some German comedian to come out on the stage in the next week....consume a bag or two of the sugarless Gummi Bears.....and suddenly launch himself toward a construction site toilet (the little Johnny series) on the stage.

I applaud the Haribo folks for trying to help determined Americans over this sugar issue.  It's just that you might have wanted to do test research (to the extreme) before you introduce something like this into the US.

Girlfriend One, Two and Three: French Style

For the last week, I've been watching this French soap opera of sorts unfold....with President Francois Hollande.  I thought it'd be a one-star episode....but it rolls around and you have to wonder what the outcome will be.

The majority of French folks?  Well....if he was actually married to this gal who has played the role of girlfriend and first lady....maybe it'd be a serious thing.  Right now, I suspect most French folks are simply asking what the whole story is about?

Francois Hollande is an interesting character.  From years ago....he was in a long-term boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with a political pal of sorts....Segolene Royal.  Between them....they had four kids (all over twenty now).  It was kinda like the Bill and Hillary show for French folks.  They both talked alike and did similar speech topics.

At some point in 2007....Francois was running for the job of French president and lost.  The party wanted a change.....so his Segolene stepped in and ran a neck-and-neck race as the replacement chief of the party.  From comments written out there....it was pretty close and she barely won.  She blamed Francois for some negativity and you get the impression that this relationship was screwed up a year or two prior to that....but she stuck around for 'benefits'.

Currently?  This ex-girlfriend is a political player, but hasn't won anything.

Francois after 2007.....latches onto some journalist gal.....Valerie Trierweiler.  Around a decade ago....she was a major political interviewer for Direct-8 (a channel out of Paris).  Divorce proceedings with husband two took three years, with a fair amount of argument and discussion....ending only in 2010.  No one is saying much over when she met Francois....but I'd make a humble bet that it was early on in 2005 when she got her job with Direct-8.

So since 2010....Francois has been the steady boyfriend, and as he was elected in 2012....the live-in ex-journalist girlfriend....Valerie....became France's first lady.  No arguments....the public accepted this without any questions asked.

In the last month....a Paris magazine finally came up with photos of the President hopping off some motorcycle driven by his personal security staff....at the apartment of some actress gal....Julie Gayet (age 41, seven years younger than the live-in girlfriend).

This week....a Presidential press deal occurred, and a question or two was asked.  Private matter, and quiet situation was the general detailed answer.  Francois is upset and says he'll sue the magazine who took the photos of him jumping off the scooter.  Expected haul from a court episode?  Well....it's limited by French law.  The max for this type of situation is an apology and 50-thousand Euro ($55,000).  No one is sure about how this would go.....since anyone on a public street can take photos, and you can't be sure it's him because of the stupid helmet he has on.

The odds here?  He's likely been seeing this Julie-gal (the new girlfriend) for at least three or four years.  You could even take a guess that he's seen her for the entire past decade.

All this leads up to Valerie (gal number two)....being kinda upset and in some stress ward of a major French hospital.  Doctors even told Francois that it just wouldn't be smart for him to come in and do any talking.  She's all pepped up and likely on medication until she simmers down.

None of this would matter much except Francois is supposed to haul off in a couple of weeks to the US for some big meeting with President Obama.  It was supposed to be a Presidential dinner, and some first lady is supposed to tag along.  Will girlfriend number two or girlfriend number three be the appointed first lady?  Naturally, French folks now get interested in stuff like this.

Girlfriend number one?  Well....from what I read....no one has asked her opinion about this stuff.....but I'm guessing that she'd just grin and say that he's doing mostly the same stuff that forced them to part ways.

And this brings me to this conclusion of sorts.  Is there anyway to say positively that there isn't a girlfriend number four or five in this whole mess?  Well....you just can't say for sure.  The one thing is for sure....a socialist kind of French political guy....sure does have a lot of opportunities to meet nice-looking French gals who are socialists as well.

The Missing

I catch a lot of European news, and two odd pieces have appeared since yesterday over missing people in England.

First, there's a three-year old boy who lives in a rural area of England.  The parents put him to bed on Wednesday night.  Thursday morning?  He's gone.  He dressed in clothing, his jacket, and his shoes before he left the house.  

Family searched the grounds, then called the cops.  The British police sent out several patrols and searched all the property within a mile of the house.  Nothing.  Today (Friday), they will return and likely expand out another mile or two.  It's fairly cold, and unless he huddled up in some barn or shed....he's probably a goner.
Off in London, the second case is unfolding.  A couple from Romania brought the husband's sixty-year old father over for a holiday visit.  The old guy only speaks Romanian.  The son took the old guy to the subway.....turning at the right moment....and his father got on the train while the door shut on the son....preventing him from entering.  That was Tuesday morning.

The authorities have done a search of sorts, and put out the word, but it's been almost forty-eight hours.  He might still be on the same train.  He might have wandered into some public park or simply found a spot in a subway station to sleep.  You just don't know.

While I'm optimistic on the old guy being found OK.....the kid is a different story.  No one suspects he got kidnapped....only that he walked away.  In freezing weather....your odds go down by every hour gone.  

Pension Topic

If you notice over the past week or two in Germany.....there's been some debate over pensions, and it's gotten a fair number of Germans talking.  The German media has covered the topic....at least from the political perspective, and lightly on the cost-factor of the two suggested areas of change on the board.

The first area?  There's a discussion to allow retirement at age sixty-three.  You can imagine the happiness factor here.  A bunch of Germans would like this idea.

The negative?  Well....it would cost the country more, and has to be funded in some fashion.  It also invites this discussion of a bunch of Germans coming up and leaving the work-force.  Where will the new employees come from?  The birth rate isn't that great, and you'd have to find replacement workers.

The second area?  Around two decades ago....the SPD pushed through a change to allow a certain year-group of women.....three years of retirement credit for having kids.  The women in the second group?  One year of credit.  Over the past decade....this has ruffled a number of women in various ways.  Unfairness....comes up continually in this pension discussion.

So the SPD minister for labor has voiced the idea that this needs to be fixed.  She won't say exactly how....but the unfairness complaint has reached a peak....so to speak.

The total cost?  The numbers differ....depending on who you watch on German nightly news or what newspaper you pick up.  Generally, add-on for each year is roughly four billion.  But generally....more and more folks retire each year....so around 2030....you peak out with an extra ten to eleven billion Euro in costs.  For the next ten years.....you ought to figure sixty to seventy billion that have come out of thin air to support the deal ($80 billion dollars roughly).

When you put the number up and start to think over how this money would be invented.....it just isn't that simple.  Germans are already taxed to a fair degree....and to add another percent on the sales tax or another two percent on the pension tax.....just won't be appealing.  Yet, most women want the unfairness issue tossed, and most everyone wants early retirement.

The curious thing?  It does not appear that the labor minister has met up with the finance minister....to discuss where the money will come from.  Normally, you'd expect this....but they are of different political parties, and maybe that figures into this mess.

If you ask me....the SPD has opened up a can of worms....which can only lead to a dismal 'no' somewhere down the line.

The Twist to the NSA Affair

News this morning in Germany indicates that the Germans have just about given up on any treaty with the US on this NSA spying business.

So the screw gets tighten a bit.

Germany now indicates that they will go into the EU with this interesting suggestion.  Talk the twenty-eight member group of the EU....into a no-spying clause.  No one will spy on another....unless for terrorism only.

This will invite a fair amount of discussion.  They aren't just talking about regular old-fashioned state-sponsored spying....they'd also bend this to include industrial spying....which is a fairly common practice today.  My humble guess is that most would readily agree to no state-sponsored spying on each other....leaving any industrial spying off the agreement.

The British?  Well....this brings up the eventual expected result.  Twenty-seven of the twenty-eight will agree.  The UK will not agree to a no-spying clause, period.

This will put a fair amount of pressure on British news media to explain the story, and why the British can't possibly cooperate.  Can an agreement survive without complete support (one nation standing against it)?  The EU generally votes and does absolute things.....either it's absolutely approved or it's not approved.

I'm also guessing that several folks are meeting quietly in Berlin and gazing at maps and drawings of the US embassy.  There's going to be some minor project put forth....in the months ahead....which triggers some kind of response to the NSA folks in the embassy.  Making some jammer.  Maybe 'iron curtain' of sorts.  Maybe a digital filter to slow down data flow into the building.  Something will be created to show displeasure.

The amusing side of this?  One can only imagine a couple of NSA guys standing there and trying to create great reasons why spying on Merkel, the German government, or Berlin itself....is a sensational idea and a fountain of fantastic intelligence.  They will pull out some folder with Merkel's shoe size, a list of German political figures who admit they read Winnie the Pooh, the best schnitzel recipe by the head of the Linke Party, some German soccer league predictions for 2014, a listing of gay and lesbian bars in Berlin, and a list of German companies doing business in Sri Lanka.

The real reason why the US can't agree to anything on this?  You agree with Germany....it naturally includes France.  And if you promise this to those two countries....then why not for South Korea, Mexico, or Aruba? You basically open the door to a bunch of agreements....which lead to NSA basically being allowed to spy on North Korea, Cuba, and America itself.  It just doesn't work after that point.

So, stand back....enjoy the latest twist to the NSA affair, and prepare for more delightful comedy.    

The DIN Standard

Going back almost a hundred years ago (1917)....Germany started up something called Deutsches Institut fur Normung.....the German Institute for Standardization.

Basically, some smart guys and some political folks met, and had this bright idea that things ought to be standardized.

Once these institute folks meet, and agree on something....that's it.  It's absolutely accepted throughout Germany, and you are expected to comply.

A4 paper?  Well....it's the accepted size of paper for all German education and business transactions today....only because it went through the DIN process and was approved.

There are roughly thirty thousand-odd DIN standards.  There are standards written for bridges, tunnels, and road surfaces.  There are standards written for airports and train stations.  There's even a DIN for first-aid kits in cars, which is the most recently updated DIN (January 2014).

Once they write a DIN down....it's absolutely mandated.  You can't go around and violate the DIN standards.....you'd end up in trouble....both in court and in connecting whatever you have to the rest of the German world.

DIN 1202 has to deal with pipes and manhole covers.  DIN 1209 has to do with solar devices and solar-powered water-heaters.  DIN 1450 deals with acceptable font sizes for books and letters.

DIN has a hidden plus-side for the German business side.  Because of standardization....German products as they roll off the assembly line....are built by specs and the DIN standards.  If the standard says that brakes must meet this one standard....it's absolute.  If steel is pressed and said to be such-and-such type.....then whoever buys the steel is absolutely assured of its quality.

Would Microsoft and Facebook have developed as they are today....if they'd been German companies and facing DIN standards?  No.  Neither would have been able to make bold moves, as they've demonstrated.  There are as many pluses to the DIN system....as negatives.

For Germans....this act of standardization back in 1917....has major implications for today's commerce.  Germans sell technology and products geared to DIN standards.  You buy a Mercedes because it's a high standard and quality.  You buy German precision for a reason.

So when you hear someone quoting DIN 6340....you know it has something do with Germans and washers for clamping devices.  It's best not to start asking questions....you'd get pretty deep into washers....their thickness, shape, and precise hole measurement.  Stuff better left for a rainy day discussion, if you ask me.

Population Winners and Losers

Some smart guys here in Germany (the Institute of German Economy)....sat down and analyzed growth data for urban areas around the nation.  They came to this interesting trend.  In roughly twenty years.....the top six or seven areas of Germany will expand out even further in population, while they predicted several areas are marked for population decline.

The areas of population growth?  Hamburg (another ten percent growth predicted), Berlin, Dusseldorf-Bonn, Frankfurt (of course), Munich (the king with twenty-five percent growth anticipated), and Stuttgart.

The areas geared toward loss?  Saxony, Mecklenburg, Thuringia (a hefty 13-percent loss), and the Saarland area (figure roughly ten percent of their population will disappear).

What's this generally mean?  If you lived in Saxony or Saarland....it means it'll be awful hard to convince any state guys to finance new roads or infrastructure.  The statistics tend to indicate that you've got issues and won't be at the same population level in just twenty years.

The boom cities?  I'd suspect that the six cities are quietly reviewing the data and preparing a list of road and bridge projects.

Germany has an interesting method of money distribution for cities.  If your population reaches a certain point, you get into a higher grade of distribution.  Making the 100,000 resident point....is a big deal.   Going from 105,000 in one decade.....to 98,000 in the next decade.....is a big negative, with less capital funding and special project cash.  Cities are always working up gimmicks....like counting in four extra neighborhoods with two thousand residents each....into the city management system.

What should the typical German take away from this?  If you were looking for construction type jobs over the next decade....it's easy to guess where you ought to be living.  If you were looking for cheap housing as you retire.....the Saarland might be fairly cheap in the next decade or two.

For the folks around Munich....if you were growing up there in the 1960s....and someone suggested that it'd eventually be 3.25 million residents....you'd have laughed and said no way.  By 2030....Munich will be a major urban area.....easy comparable to any of the top twenty cities of Europe.

The Bad Google (Again)

Last night was an interesting night to preview German news (channel one from the state network).  Google made it once again into the top three of the evening.  Yeah, it was another negative slant against the company.

Google went out yesterday and bought for $3.2 billion....Nest.  Nest is this developmental company that is arming your entire house in some fashion.....to talk to your cellphone or computer.  As you leave the house, a monitor will note that no one is in the house and raise the temp (in the summer) or lower your temp (in the winter).   It'll monitor security, fire issues, and could possibly get into dozens of household cost items in the future.

Nest is a company that might work itself into half the homes in any urban city within the next decade. The gadgets?  All simple to install and operate.  I suspect they've studied their customers and know that simplicity is the way to get people interested.

So, why the German negative hype?

As far as the German media is concerned.....Google is again trying to get at your personal information....personal data.  This time....it'll be arrangements in the home, your energy usage, the amount of time you spend in the house, and likely calculate if you are wasteful or reasonable on energy.

In the short fifteen minutes news period at 8PM last night.....it was a bullet-format piece taking two minutes.  Later around 9:45PM.....it was a five-minute piece.  All negative on Google.

My general take is that if Google didn't buy Nest, then Microsoft would have done it.  Valuable personal data?  If you wanted to save energy.....it's pretty much a guaranteed thing that you have to share your lifestyle with some computer somewhere.  For Germans, it's the virtual end of privacy.....as far as they are concerned.

If a computer ever figures out the lifestyle of Huns (he drinks four beers every single night after work, watches three hours of sports every evening, and sits mostly in his underwear in the winter months, which means a higher-than-average heating temperature), or Bertha (she stays in the house 23.5 hours a day because of seven cats, drinks only bottled water from France because of a vacation there in 1988, and watches the Arte Channel sixteen hours a day because it makes her cultured)......things would go downhill.

The media might suddenly wake up and realize that Germans are a bit weird.  Weird....like those American folks, or those Dutch folks, or those British folks.  Privacy rules help to maintain the status quo.  Or so they believe.

The Beer Fine

This beer fine story from Germany is an odd piece, and for an American....it'd take a minute to grasp the whole implication.

First, Germans are fairly picky about pricing and cartels.  You can't sell anything for less than it cost to manufacture and deliver it....there's actually a law on the books for this situation (Wal-Mart discovered that you can't sell Pepsi or Coke for less than what you bought a pallet for, or you suffer court-action in Germany).

Second, Germans are fairly picky about beer.  Certain brands sell very well.  Certain brands don't sell well.  Over the past decade, Germans have been found to drink less beer than two or three decades ago.  Some reports put the drop at twenty-five percent.  Wine and various other five-percent alcohol beverages have taken up some of the business along the way.

So what happened in this case....a couple of major players in the beer industry ( Bitburger, Krombacher, Veltins, Ernst Barre and Warsteiner) had this odd meeting with a couple of guys from Anheuser-Busch.  There's not much talk over why the guys met, the intended discussion, and how this rate thing got brought up.  The end of the meeting....they all kinda agree that between 2006-2008....they'd raise the price of a case (20 German beers) by one Euro ($1.3).  It's not a big rate change and normally....it'd just be accepted.  But in this....they all conspired to do the deal, and by German law....you can't do this.

The fine?  Because Anheuser-Busch came up quickly to admit quilt.....they basically walk away with zero cost on the fine.  The others?  Well....they all get hit with a combined fine of roughly 105M Euro ($140M).  For them, this will amount (by their words) to roughly one year's profits....and sink them into a slight budget issue for 2014.  Raising cost to make up for the loss?  Normally, a budget person would readily agree on this.

So, this brings to the million-Euro question....was this all rigged up by Anheuser-Busch.....to punish the five German beer brands (Krombach, Ernst Barre, Warsteiner, Veltins, and Bitburger)?  It's an odd deal....you suddenly show up at some German office, admit guilt in something, and you escape punishment....while the other players who stayed quiet are punished.

Can the five survive this punishment?  A decade or two ago....I would say yes.  This 105 million Euro....is a tough thing to accept.  It puts them into some severe problems in terms of growth, discounts, and future business operations for the rest of 2014, and will likely have continuing issues into 2015/2016 as well.  Each will borrow from the bank to cover the fine, and have to deal with costs over the fine later (the anticipated solution).

How did the six brewers come to meet?  No one has said.  Why would they meet?  No one has said.  Why would Anheuser-Busch come to suggest this one Euro price on a case?  No one has said.  Why did the executives of Anheuser-Busch suddenly find ethics to admit this?  No one has said.

German news journalists are kinda like American journalists.  They will see a story....tell the basic story, and then walk away.  In my book, there's fifty percent of the story left to tell.  Would the Bild folks, or Focus, or ZDF news accept a challenge.....and dig into what really happened here?  No.  It'll just fall to the side.

That's the beer fine story....really just half a story in my book, but it's the only story you can tell so far.

The Snowden Card

Over the weekend, it finally came out in Germany that there will not be any treaty with the US over a no-spying clause.  The Germans had folks in DC for a number of days prior to Christmas, and had hoped for a simple policy....which both Germany and France would be parties to the same deal.

Now?  Well, there's a slight hint of some additional meetings.  NDR....Germany's regional state-run TV media from the north part of the country....reports that it's mostly a dismal feeling over expectations now.  There's nothing of value from the past meetings....so zero hope on future episodes.

What happens next?  I'm guessing a couple of the more liberal members of the new combined CDU/CSU/SPD government will talk up the idea of bringing Snowden into Germany, and go into a 'pushing-match' with the US.  The US isn't sure of nothing much over what Snowden took.  You can imagine some hostility on the US part....if suddenly Snowden showed up in some German city, and started public talks which got onto CNN and various networks daily.  The Russian deal was that he had to kinda be quiet and not talk much....to stay. The Germans would want the opposite approach.

In the game of poker, you typically want good odds to continue a game.  If there's not any favorable odds....you terminate the hand, and accept minimal losses.  I'm not sure how Germany appreciates the current game, and if they see good odds with Snowden playing within the German border.

Would the US tolerate Snowden being a puppet in this German game?  Would the US shrink it's military presence in Germany....just to send a message?  Would the current administration shrink it's European connections in retaliation?

There are only three simple facts in this whole mess as I see them.  First, Snowden's mass of knowledge is unknown, and could be even more shocking.  Second, Germans naively felt they were 'friends' for the past decade, now naively think they aren't 'friends', and naively think spying is mostly only done by the NSA folks.  Third, you can sense a bigger mess unraveling from this whole thing....once Snowden is brought into Germany and he becomes a source for daily news from the various cable news networks.  

If you were looking for a five-star mess for Germany to start 2014 with.....well, this is it.