France and the Les Republicains

Over the weekend in France....the UMP Party stood up and renamed themselves.  They are a significant political party in the French republic.....leaning toward the right.

The new name?  Les Republicains.  Yeah.....a catchy title.

Nicolas Sarkozy gave a five-star speech to note the change and lead the political party in the upcoming political election period.  I sat and watched the speech last night.  My French.....other than the words for 'toilet', 'thanks' and 'do you speak English'.....my vocabulary is virtually zero.  But what I viewed was a passionate speech and emotion fitting the occasion.  The German news folks say more than seventy percent of the old UMP Party members agreed on the new name.

There are three major political fronts at work in France, and another twenty odd minor operations which could influence local elections.  The Les Republicains?  Well....lately, they've been running third and some French say they aren't leaning far enough to the right (yeah, that's an odd thing for a French guy to say.....even I'll admit that).

Does rebranding a political party work?  Rarely.  But in this case.....they had to do something of a drastic nature to attract national attention.  Right now.....for the Sunday morning political chat shows in France....this is the ONLY topic of discussion.

As for Germans freaking out over the use of "Republicains"?  Well.....yeah....the Germans tend to associate the word with George Bush.  So, they might be a bit hyper. Oddly, France developed the political ideology two centuries ago.  If you asked a German for the full title of Germany.....it's the Federal Republic of Germany (something that only twenty percent of Germans would realize if you tested them on the streets of the country).

Bottom line?  Elections always enjoy a twist or two, and rebranding might be such a twist.

New Immigration Program in Germany

Without a lot of fanfare.....there's a new refugee program going on in Germany.  The name?  "Welcome to Germany".  Yeah.....the name is lacking but let me explain the rest of this.

What some folks sat down and figured out after a while is that when a refugee family arrives in Germany, and settle in for months and months of temp housing with no hope in stabilizing their life.....people get negative and frustrated.  So, a revitalized view came up.....quicker access to German language training....vocational training being provided.....better living standards for the temp housing....etc.

So, there's some private organizations doing a handshake deal with government agencies and trying to get volunteers into the system to help speed up integration and make it actually occur (rather the fake integration efforts of the past decade).

Over the past two years, I've sat and watched German news media efforts to cover the stories (they've quietly quit the stories over the past year because of public negativity of immigrants and refugees).  The general perception is that Germany has the five-star deal for immigrants....if they can get here.  That's not the perception of Italy or Greece.   So Germany is like a magnet for people to make their way here.

The German placement compounds have been a haphazard effort.  In some ways, it's a roof over your head and heat, with food and some government organization.  No one really wanted to put serious money into it or think long-term.  There's a split on attitude between the federal strategy and the state/local strategy.....with money/funding as a major issue.

I noted last week in Wiesbaden.....near the Kur Park....a volunteer organization doing a cake/coffee deal.....to get donations, which funnel back into a education tutor/mentor deal with retirees working with refugee kids.  Ten years ago.....such a thing was non-existent.

Where this all leads onto?  The national government won't talk much about it.....but population rates for Germany are declining.  At some point within three to five years, unless something happens.....Germany will slip from eighty million in population to around seventy-eight million.  It's a milestone in some ways, and a warning sign.  The smart folks already project a population of around sixty-six million by 2050 (35 years away), unless things change.

Trying to convince Germans this is a positive thing?  The public isn't really buying into it.  If the immigrants and refugees became more integrated into society.....things would be different. So, maybe this "Welcome to Germany" strategy might help to solve the various issues that exist.

Stock-Holder Meeting

I spent the morning at stock-holder meeting.....over at the Frankfurt Jahrhunderhalle (a four-star arena).  The company?  FRAPORT, the Frankfurt Airport company.

FRAPORT is one of those companies which has generally made a yearly profit every single year for at least a decade.  They've continually expanded and bought more airports.....have almost 20,000 employees.....and have an equity of $2.7 billion.  They own percentages of ten additional airports around the world and generally show a profit at all of these.  They pay a decent dividend....roughly three-percent a year, and rarely decease on stock prices.

The meeting?  Well.....it went Ok.  I admit.....the food (as you entered, and later at lunch).....was two-star at best.  Lunch was two weiners, some potato salad that was almost soupy, and a brotchen.  As you walked in.....they had small sandwich and apples to eat.

What you tend to notice while standing there in the lobby....well over ninety-percent of the crowd (three thousand was my guess on attendees) was over the age of 55.  Maybe they buy up the stock for the free lunch.

As for complaints?  Well....about two hours into the episode, they opened up the floor and allowed comments from stock-holders.  One of the political players in Frankfurt (a Green Party guy) was fairly negative over Terminal Three (the next big construction project).

There was a significant fight put around the region to prevent Terminal Three.  It's to say who is right.  The airport folks have numbers to say business is booming and they have only a small window to build and prepare for the decade ahead.  The anti-airport crowd said the numbers were not reliable and the construction wasn't necessary.  Oddly.....the property was already part of the airport's control and just sitting there.  It wasn't like the airport was asking them to give free property to make this happen.

I looked at the argument and ask why anyone would want to limit the airport at any junction.....every penny of profit relates to some tax revenue that feeds into the city and regional spending plan.  Why limit them?  Corruption somewhere in the mix?  Maybe, but political parties are getting money from various players, so it's hard to say the opposition is purely ethical in nature.

Explaining the FIFA Mess

For Americans who hear some brief comment on FIFA......they are generally lost....so this is intended for non-German benefit and bring people up to an understanding level.

FIFA is the international body which acts like the NFL's headquarters....except over soccer around the world.  There are various committees and departments to FIFA.  There's a disciplinary committee for the bad boys or bad managers.  There's a department over rules.  There's a group to handle complaints.  And finally, there's a committee to handle the World Cup selection.

The World Cup, for those you without any knowledge of soccer, is held every four years and geared to be like the NFL play-offs.  X number of teams meet in one country.....play out a series of games, and then move up.  A championship game occurs at the end and crowns the champion of this World Cup.

Why not have the World Cup yearly?  It's roughly five weeks long and takes up the bulk of summer vacation for most players.

I should note here that the series is always held in July and has been that way for decades.

So competition for the World Cup country is a big deal.  Countries wine and dine the selection committee.  The country has to show they have the resources to handle a minimum of a million guests coming in, and have modern stadiums.  If modern stadiums are a problem.....then they have to build the stadiums, and ensure transportation capabilities will get fans to it.

For decades, there's been accusations of the selection committee getting bribes to give the World Cup to certain countries.  No evidence has ever been shown.....until this past week.  What the FBI says.....as selection committee members were arrested in Switzerland (where their headquarters is located)......is that bribes were used for the 1994 World Cup in the US, and in 2014 in Brazil.  They have evidence to support the arrests.

What people generally think is that Russia (2018) and Qater (2022) also paid bribes, and that this is more of an attempt to get these guys talking over new stuff, than over the old stuff.

The amount of the bribes?  Unknown.  Taxation issues?  It hasn't been discussed yet, but I'd think that some folks are in serious tax episodes if this is proven.

Hostility brewing?  Oddly, ever since the Qatar announcement....a lot of folks are peeved.  When the hot summer weather was discussed.....the selection committee suggested that it could all be overcome.  Roughly a year after picking Qatar......the FIFA folks now suggest that it's not possible to play in hot weather, and the schedule will be radically changed (championship game ending the week before Christmas).  This got a lot of the players and fans disturbed and angry.  It was regarded as a five-star lie when Qatar got the games, and people think the selection committee got paid off.

Jail time?  Oddly.....if convicted....these guys could be facing a couple years in some federal prison.

That's the whole thing in a nutshell.

End of the Drone Court Episode

A court case wrapped up in Germany yesterday with a quiet ending.

Months ago....a couple of Yemeni guys used German resources (lawyers, foundation help, etc) to bring a case up.....accusing the US military operating in Germany.....of using Germany to launch drones into Yemen and kill Yemeni folks.  The center of their court argument was 'flight-data' which was relayed onto the control people and thus violated German law (note, it's Yemeni folks who said it violated German law, not actual Germans).

So the court up in Koln heard the argument and yesterday said that there was no case.

This court decision was based on a German effort to inform the US government that the air base in question.....had to behave in accordance with German and EU laws.  The response from the US was "yes, we agree".  Beyond that point, the Germans don't have any device nor any intention of directing the use of troops on German property.

There are exceptions to the episode.  If an American Army unit wants to cut down trees on a post.....they have to ask the local forest manager for permission.  If flooding control or measures need to be implemented on a air base.....the local German government will be involved.  If some radical folks try to storm the gate of some base.....German cops will be involved and arrest the folks with various charges.

The discussion here is simply 'flight-data'.  The Yemeni guys had a lousy one-star marginal argument over this episode.  They got some encouragement from various political groups in Germany to launch a legal court episode against the US military in Germany.  The court looked over this argument and probably realized the 'encouragement' side to the court episode.....and stopped the mess before it got crazy.

The end?  No.  I would speculate that either ARD (Channel One) or ZDF (Channel Two) will try to create some five-minute news piece out of this, and speculate on how the court got the thing wrong.  Some political thugs from German intellectual side will chat up on the evil drones, and a one-star marginal story will peak out at the two-star level.

The Concentration Camp Story

Educational requirements in Germany.....differ from state to state (there are sixteen German states, if you didn't know).  So, you could have a certain requirement in the Saarland, but it's non-existent in Hessen or the Pfalz.

So, there's been this debate going on in Bavaria with the CSU folks (the right-leaning crowd) who would like for all Bavarian students to go over to a former concentration camp once in their school lives.  But all these years.....it's been a local school thing....if they mandated or offered a trip.  No one gives statistical averages on this, and I doubt if more than a quarter of all Bavarian students attend such a trip.

The discussion currently met an obstacle.  Opposition political folks say that various immigrant groups don't need to attend such a concentration camp visit.  Among the groups named?  Yeah.....the Islamic folks.

The claim here is that new immigrants must take over the protection of German history and know their obligation in preventing such things from happening. I have to admit.....it's a good discussion and argument.

I've been to one single concentration camp in my life.....Dachau (outside of Munich).  I spent three hours walking around and have to admit that it has some affect on you.  I wouldn't suggest sending 12-year-old kids there......but maybe fifteen or sixteen year-old kids would be agreeable.

Mandating it for all Bavarian students?  Either it's for all or for none.  Once you pretend that only 'real' Germans (not immigrants) need to attend.....the kids wise-up real quick and figure out the gimmick.  The political folks are creating a 'real' German versus a 'fake' German situation once they offer a waiver.  If I were a regular white German kid.....I'd get wise.....note that I'm a 'fake' Islamic guy and ask for my waiver to get out of the trip.  All it takes is one guy doing dumb stuff like this to make the whole thing look like a bogus deal.

The argument by the African kids or the Islamic guys?  Basically.....you picked Germany to come and immigrate into.  It's your tough luck.  If you think this is bogus to attend.....wise-up.....go and find some country with no anchor tied to history and get in line to immigrate there.

For the political thugs playing out this discussion?  Either it's stupid for all kids, or it's smart for all kids.  Don't invent some fake or bogus waiver that gets manipulated by people.  

The Paper Coffee Cup Tax?

There's a discussion underway in Berlin.....just within the city itself.....over putting up a special tax on coffee of 10 to 20 Euro cents.  The deal?  They say there's too many coffee cups that get dropped on the ground and left as scattered trash.  Naturally, a tax would fix this problem (yeah, it's an illogical thought....but this is Germany).

The claim is that they'd hire people or enhance their cleaning process to handle the extra cups (which they are apparently already handle).  It's not clear how this would fix anything except generate tens of millions throughout the city.

It would only affect those who got coffee in paper cups....so if you stopped at some pub or coffee shop and had a regular cup of coffee there.....things would be 'fine'.  I'm guessing if you walked in with your own thermos or personal cup.....they'd fill it....charge you....and the tax would be avoided.

A bogus deal?  Well.....yeah.

Around the city I live (Wiesbaden).....I'd take a guess that 80,000 cups of coffee get bought daily.  So at 20-cents each, it'd be 1,600 Euro collected each day for the city....if they implemented the same scheme.  If you asked me about paper cups laying around.....I might spot forty cups laying around.....mostly in city parks or near the train station.  Most folks dump their cups into the paper garbage.  A big deal?  No.  But I guess that a coffee tax would make me feel better.  All of this would lead folks to carrying their own coffee cup around and drinking coffee in a somewhat unsanitary way....if you ask me.

German Army Issue

The German Bundestag (the parliament) woke up yesterday and got disturbed over the German army and money spent.

You see.....between 2004 and 2014 (an entire decade)....there was roughly 125-million Euro spent on renovating infrastructure on various German army bases.....which shut down.  That got them all pepped up and angry at the present leadership (not the leadership of a decade ago, oddly enough).

Then they woke up again and realized that they will spend roughly 375-million Euro from now to 2022 on more German bases which are on another closure list.

It's an odd discussion.  The SPD and Greens (probably the Linke Party as well) were all hyped up two decades ago since the Wall came down.....to downsize the German military.  Less military.....less cost.

So around a decade ago....the downsizing game went into effect.  Certain bases were identified for closure shortly, and some several years in the future.  They've gone back to the list and added more bases, with more time-lines.

The thing is....you need these bases while in operational use....to be somewhat safe and useful.  Crafting an positive operational and budget plan for a base on a closure list....is next to impossible.  You have boilers that need replacement at certain times.....roofs that need complete renovation....and waterlines fixed when they break.  So simply putting a base on a list for closure in five years doesn't mean you spend zero on infrastructure situations for the five-year period.

When the Americans got ready to turn Rhein-Main Air Base over to the Germans.....there was a curious episode under way.  They'd already signed a construction contract to build the new clinic on the base.  So as the last eighteen months unfolded with the Americans there.....German crews were busy working on this clinic...which would never be used.  Canceling the contract?  You'd pay a fee, which was as much as the contract itself.  So a couple of months after most Americans had left.....it was supposedly handed over....but that stopped when serious electrical issues were noted in the building and the contractor had to be taken to court.....to force him to fix the issues. Needless to say....it took around eighteen months of court action to get over to a final point where the building was flipped to the Germans.  The building today (roughly 15 years later)?  Gone.  It was dismantled as part of the Flughafen's master plan of usage for the property.  Roughly 50-million for the construction project in the early 1990s, and gone today.

That's the problem with these closure lists and the guys trying to stay ahead of the game.  Someone suggests to fix a problem.....you plan out a project and get funding.....you sign the contracts and wait on the start.....someone comes up with a closure list....and you wake up to a significant problem of waste but you couldn't have known how things would play out.

So now?  A bunch of political thugs sit around and whine about this.  Course, one might ask them about the Berlin apartment episode in the 1990s where millions were wasted building special apartments for the incoming Bundestag members.....discovering that these were all without balconies and no one wanted to live in an apartment without a balcony.  

"Markers"

No matter where you go in Greece....around every couple of miles....you will notice a 'memorial' of sorts by the side of the road.   The more rural.....the more obvious they will be.

They are a 'marker' of sorts for Greeks who fell upon some bad luck and died at this point....either by some heart attack, or accident, or maybe in WW II by Nazis.

No one says the statistical average for these or how many there are.....but you get the impression near drastic curves and bluffs.....some guy's brakes didn't hold out and he left the road....maybe in a truck, a scooter, or in a car.

On the various trips that I've been to Greece.....I've never seen anyone standing there and saying a prayer over some guy.  Although you might see a candle lit on some rare occasions.

In the states, you have one-star marginal markers which lay near where some guy hit a patch of ice or ran off into some ditch.  The Greek markers are all four-star 'monuments' in some ways.  They don't spare any money in remember this guy or his accomplishments in life.

It's one of those odd things that you're notice if you ever get to Greece.

A Soccer Story

The soccer league business in Germany is kinda interesting.  At the end of each season (May), there's a determination made on wins and losses.  If you place in the last three of the twenty-odd teams in the league....you do down a league.  If you place in the top three of the twenty-odd teams in the league.....you go up a league.

So, there are four leagues.....even though no one ever talks much of the fourth league (it's the local league of a region).

Typically.....those down in the third league of German soccer.....have a run-down local stadium and draw at best.....five thousand fans on a weekend game.  If the players get paid....it's nothing to talk about.

This past week....Darmstadt ended the season in the second-league and will advance to the top league.  It's a big deal in Germany and sports reporters have talked a fair amount over this.

You see....in 2014....Darmstadt wrapped up their season in third-place.....going up to the second-league, by their record this year.....they've advanced through two leagues in two years.

The hint here is that they've found a couple of local players who are better than average.

The fans?  They are a bit overwhelmed.  For thirty-odd years....they've lingered down mostly in the third league and occasionally got a trip up for a year or two to the second league.

Fairly-tale story?  As an American looking over the story, yeah.....it's a bit of a long road that they've taken.

As for the upcoming 2015-2016 season?  Later this year, after summer vacation....they will demonstrate their skills.  Most fans would be happy if they just won half their games for the next season.  God forbid.....if they were to wrap up next season by placing near 2nd or 3rd place in the top league.  That'd be a shocker.

As for the local stadium? Well....it's from 1921 and renovated in the past couple of years.  Most folks would say that it's not a worldly-class stadium but for the local team....it's good enough.

So, if some German brings up the Darmstadt 98 team.....you might to listen to the whole story.  It's kinda interesting.

"A Vacation in the Protectorate"

I can remember when reality shows were being discussed, and then in the early 1980s....."That's Incredible" was a big success.  By 1989, "Cops" had arrived and introduced a new wave of entertainment.....unscripted to some degree and people like this raw situation show.

I noticed in European news this week....over in Czech.....there's a new TV series coming up.

They've taken volunteers and there's this family of seven who will go back in time to the spring of 1939. Germany has invaded Czech and this reality show (A Vacation in the Protectorate) will force the family into encountering radical changes in their lifestyle, starvation, Gestapo raids, and criminal prosecution.

It'll start tonight (23 May).  No one says much over how many shows or weeks this will be done.  My guess is that it's likely set in a rural village and they've got a hundred guys in the background to act as Nazi thugs or Czech secret police under the Nazis.

A shocker?  Maybe.  The first fifteen minutes of Tarantino's Inglourious Bastards is a fairly gripping moment and surprises most who watch it.   I think people will feel the same way after watching "A Vacation in the Protectorate".

Adaption for an American product?  Maybe.  In an alternate time thriller.....you might be able to convince people that the Nazis could have taken over the US and changed the dynamics of society.

Short Story over Crime and TV

Germany runs it's own version of "seeking a superstar" (called DSDS).  It's virtually the same as the US show.  Over the years, I've probably watched about half the shows.  It's rigged up to a great extent and I generally come to some conclusion near the end of each season that it's bogus (like WWE wrestling).

This year, we had a fairly non-dramatic season of DSDS.  From my prospective.....the highlights were one gal who fell off a truck, and one guy was doped up on marijuana for each of his performances.  As the last show came up....it was down to two Italian-Germans and one teenage German gal.  One of the Italian-German guys won.

Twenty-four hours after this guy wins.....Bild suddenly comes out and notes that the guy has been under some cop investigation and facing court appearances over robbing several old ladies around the Frankfurt area.

So, as the story goes.....somewhere around three years ago.....this guy and a couple of others.....convinced some old ladies to give up some personal cash.  The other guys in the group have had court appearances and gotten some disciplinary time.  This guy had the luck of a sick judge for a while, and delayed his court episode until after the DSDS episode.

When you read over the accusations.....it's pretty crappy.  He's robbed some old ladies in some immature fashion and got caught.  If they'd put this info out a month ago, the public would have avoided voting for the guy and he would have lost.  So, it appears that everyone from the news media just avoided saying anything until DSDS was wrapped up.  Maybe there was some ethical argument to this.....but he looks like an idiot now being the winner of the contest (pays 500,000 Euro) and a criminal who robbed old ladies.

The news media (mostly Bild) says that the amount of money involved is roughly 19,000 Euro.  If so, I'd hustle up some cash....pay each lady a ten-thousand Euro bonus, and try to have charges dropped.

As for this hurting DSDS?  If you walk around and ask folks to remember who won each season over the past three years.....ninety-five percent of the viewers would have a problem.  Maybe they'll forget this guy in six months and things just continue on.

The Hitler Horses

Once upon a time....well....it starts this way.

At some point in the mid-1930s....at the German chancellery occupied by Adolph Hitler.....there was an addition to the front of the building in terms of art.  Two bronze horses were put on display.  These weren't mega-sized or regarded as five-star art.  It was simply an item of interest.

During the war, the two horses suffered some minor damage.  They were eventually hauled off in 1943 for safe-keeping.

As the war ended.....they were removed from the scene.  No one talks much over why, but my guess was that the two horses in bronze represented a connection to the Nazis and Hitler.  For the Soviets and the new communist government which took over East Germany.....that was enough.

So, they hauled the two bronze horses off to Eberswalde Barracks.  For decades, they sat around and no one said much.  They wouldn't destroy the horses, but they couldn't really display them either.

As the story goes, in 1989.....as the wall was collapsing.....the horses disappeared.  No one even says that a police report was done.  Some reporters indicate that the horses were procured via cash.

This week, over in Bad Durkheim (about an hour south of Wiesbaden).....cops raided some guy's warehouse and discovered the "Hitler Horses".  What they can say is that some older guys (sixties and seventies) were putting the horses up on the market.  The lawyer says these guys are legit owners and this isn't a stolen property situation.  I might think that the lack of a police report on stolen property would clear up this matter and it might be true over it being a non-stolen property situation.

The problem now?  Well.....cops will hand the case to the Pfalz prosecutor and he'll have some time to figure out charges.  Even if you haul the old guys into some court......if there's no stolen property report.....how do you charge them?

The Hitler horses?  Well.....they will go into another storage warehouse and sit for a while.

If you ask me.....by the cops getting aggressive and finding the horses.....it's a big mess.  How do you display the horses?  Back to the chancellery?  No way....it'll lend itself to the Hitler era.  Some public display in a park?  It'd just be a magnet for the Nazis around Germany.  So, in some ways.....they are stuck now with some bronze life-sized horses of historical impact.....but simply not displayable.

So, my prediction.  The two bronze horses will quietly sit for the next three or four decades in some German warehouse, and eventually get stolen by someone else.  History tends to repeat itself, and I think these horses will be around for centuries.....continually getting stolen, continually being recovered, people charged, and the horses never being able to be displayed.

The Bahn Strike Breaker?

For a number of months, this Bahn strike thing with the GDL union has been a continual episode. It never quiet made sense to me.

There were three things on the table.  The GDL guys wanted some hours cut off the standard week.  The Bahn came across the table and offered some reduction.  Both sides were fairly close....even when you go back to fall of 2014 on this topic.  The GDL guys wanted a pay raise, and the Bahn met the number while in discussions early on.  So, we come to the third item....the GDL guys wanted to incorporate the support staff into their union and have them participate as the GDL union.  For some reason which never made sense.....this went nowhere.  The Bahn organization weren't going to talk expansion.

For each single strike....the expansion thing was the trigger.  Nine strikes.....all going back to no expansion.  It's odd and never made any sense to me why GDL made this such a big deal.  The news media kept quiet and the political folks kept their mouth shut.

So today, the little comes out.  This Friday.....the Bundestag will meet and are expected to pass a new law related to unions.  The law says (if passed as is).....if you have an industry which has to deal with more than one single union....then you only have to deal with the LARGEST union....NOT all of the unions.  One single contract is all that matters, and it leads only to the bigger of the unions.

If GDL had accomplished the inclusion deal.....they'd be the bigger of the unions.  They failed.

The law?  It's been going through various layers of the Bundestag for months.  The various political parties knew it.....the news media knew it.....and the GDL folks knew it.

Presently, GDL is NOT the largest union player with the Bahn folks.  If the Bahn had agreed to this deal.....bringing the support staff onto the GDL union.....GDL would be the bigger of unions dealing with the Bahn.  Presently.....there is a bigger union with other functions related to the Bahn.  Once the law passes.....GDL isn't really much of a player anymore.

Shocking?  Yeah.  The news media basically kept quiet and never uttered a word about this.  Now, everything falls into place.

GDL will wake on Monday to find some court order facing them....ordering them back to work.  The court system might delay the new law because GDL says it's unfair.....but the court will simply say they will review the law, but until they finish reviewing it.....continue on working instead of striking. One single contract with one single union.....basically changes the whole concept of strikes now in Germany.

This brings me to the odd feature of German news media.  There had to be at least a hundred journalists within the news media who knew of the law coming up and the impact on GDL.  They basically sat there and said nothing.  If the public had known of the whole game.....it would have very negative against GDL.  Somehow.....this was the game to be played out, for whatever reason.

A Small Discussion over the AfD Party

In some type of weird discussion forum yesterday with the AfD folks (our anti-Euro political party in Germany).....the head guy and three associates got to this question by reporters over evolution of the AfD.

They reach a point in admitting that there's a continual progression to AfD and yes.....it could evolve into a anti-US, anti-Islam, and various other political stances that the public would be a bit shocked over.

This chatter over evolution of AfD made some who are supporting the political party question the future and suggest the need for another new political party to be created out of thin air, within Germany.

So, here's the thing to ponder about.  Politics in Germany comes in various "packages".  It's simple like in the US where it's just Republican and Democrat.  Beyond the seven national political parties in Germany.....there are a minimum of twenty smaller and somewhat insignificant political parties.  You have a chance to find a party that fits your brand of politics.  But this dilutes the numbers of the seven major parties and creates a group of roughly fifteen percent of the public who never get any national representation.

AfD and it's founders.....one might suspect.....were looking to create a revolutionary new tactic in political party creation within Germany.  Create a party with one simple theme (anti-Euro), then evolve the party into secondary themes....which might just waltz right by most supporters without thinking over the impact.  The general public in Germany probably has around twenty-percent feeling negative about the Euro and desiring some return to the Deutsche Mark.  Half of this group might get serious enough to press on the issue and find some reason to support AfD.

The evolution of AfD toward some bigger 'anti-party'?  If they had individual with charisma, charm and dynamic speeches....it'd be a bigger threat.  Presently, they've presented a couple of folks with limited and marginal attraction.  In political forums where various topics are introduced....the AfD has done a lousy job except for the anti-Euro topic.  This is the same issue with the Pirate Party, where they take IT subjects and really drill down into the source matter.....getting five stars over any internet-related subject, but barely able to maintain a one-star conversation on anything else.

This leads the bulk of German voters back to the CDU, the CSU, SPD, Linke Party, FDP, and the Greens.  These parties are mostly careful.  To put out some hostile anti-theme....it might attract two or three percent more people, but anger two or three percent of the present membership to move over to another political party.

The AfD angle?  I have no doubt they will evolve and it'll turn into some type of gimmick party where half the membership doesn't grasp where the party is going or the central theme.  The question is....will they attract more people or have they finally hit maximum capacity?

Satirist, Comedian, and Hate Preacher?

Yeah, it's a weird combination for Dieter Nuhr.....German comedian, satirist, and hate preacher.

So, this begins last fall....as Nuhr starts a comedy routine which hits on several parts of radical Islam.  I watched some of the pieces and he does a very clever analysis of the mindset and character of people who get to the extreme side of Islam.

Naturally, this attracted attention....particularly from those who are close to the radical version of Islam.  They started to identify Nuhr as a "hate preacher".  This drew court action.  Yesterday, the German court said that Nuhr, based on comments and actions, has legally earned the term 'hate preacher'.

The Islamic individual involved?  What can be said is that he's Erhat Toka....a Turkish-born German who is an entrepreneur of sorts (none of the German news media players will say his business operations or how successful they are).  From the one interview I saw......he dresses in normal business fashion and appears to be fairly clever as well (probably as much so as Nuhr).

As for defining hate preacher?  This is a problem.....I came to search across various word definition forums, and found that it's not exactly loaded with definitions.  A preacher is one who tends to use the gospels or religious positions to chat over his position.  One might come to a conclusion that a hate preacher is a minister who uses his forum or platform to talk over hatred for something.

But combining a comedian and satirist into a hate preacher?  It's a pretty difficult position and one might question the judges involved and how they came to this decision.  Based on the number of German comedians who've taken negative positions against the Catholic Church.....they probably are also hate preachers.  In fact, I estimate the area of comedians and satirists......across the eighty million residents of Germany.....there are probably 300,000 hate preachers doing some form of anti-religion on an occasional basis (some are comedians.....some are hair stylists, political figures, car mechanics or second-league soccer players).

What I perceive is that a number of comedians and satirist will review this court decision and start to advertise themselves as 'hate preachers' in addition to their current title.  TV interview forums will end having to interview various characters with their professions listed across the screen, with 'hate preacher' keenly noted.  It'll eventually be a fairly common thing and the legal experts will end up asking themselves if they opened up a Pandora's Box.  My response would be....yes, indeed.

Dixie-Baden

There's a trend around Wiesbaden....a trend that I hadn't seen before.  Over the past couple of months....around the city parks where the homeless or transit folks hang out......more and more Dixi toilets are appearing.  This is by the city park where the old Rose Hotel used to operate.

It kinda stands out.  They try to put these in the corner of parks and in some way to be barely noticed.  Maybe....eventually....they will 'art-up' the Dixi toilets.  Put a Mona Lisa picture on it.....maybe add some design or windmill contraption.....and make it look dignified.

The general problem is that public toilets in most all German cities have disappeared over the past twenty years.  Other than the train station and a half-dozen of these space-age looking toilets (50-cents per use) that are spread around the city.....there's virtually no place for a regular guy or gal to do their 'business'.  So these folks start to just stand behind some tree and pee there, or crap behind some bush.  As stupid as it looks to have a Dixi toilet in a German city park.....it's the only solution because they've gotten rid of all public toilets.

Art

Somewhere along the streets of Wiesbaden.....we have a artsy style shop for those affluent people with style, taste, and extra cash.

Some guy took some time and a few car parts....making this art-type display.

I stood at a window last night.....gazing at the display.  No price tag noted, but I'd take a guess it's more than 200 Euro ($230 roughly).

I will admit.....I have no real art taste.  I could spend five bucks on some drawing by a monkey and feel it was worth the money.  I grew up in rural surroundings and just didn't get a true view of art until I was probably forty-five years old.  As for this piece?  It's hard for me to refer to it as art.

What guy will buy this?  I'm guessing some gal will have a boyfriend with some passion for cars and has a large office area.  She'll buy something like this to impress her guy and think it'll look well on his big desk.  I could see some engineer buying it and putting up on the side of his desk.....to impress the team chief or CEO.  They'll ask where he got it, and rush over to buy one for their desk.  Eventually, every guy with desk space will buy these and get around to more unique rims.  Then some day.....an idiot will buy up some tractor rim and out-do everyone.

I'll walk by the shop in two weeks and see if it got sold.

Koblenz and Die Ecke

If you go to Koblenz.....one of the top things you visit is "Die Ecke".

Where the Rhine meets the Moselle River....there's a memorial of sorts which went up in 1897 for Wilhelm I (the Kaiser).  It's one of those massive displays with the landscape that draws people out.

My general advice....park up near the river front, and take a stroll along the river.  Plenty of places to eat and drink. Old Koblenz is only a ten minute walk away from the river.

The display has an odd history.  In the last few weeks of the war.....American artillery damaged the large statue.  After the war, the French military had responsibility over the region and wanted to remove the memorial entirely.....replacing it with a 'peace-for-all' type of display instead.  For some reason.....this idea wasn't really supported by the locals.

So the corner (ecke) was empty for four decades.  By the early 1990s.....the idea of putting the old statue back up (in one piece) was supported by the German authorities....so in 1993....it was raised up and put into place.

The inscription with the statue? "Never will the Empire be destroyed, so long as you are united and loyal."

The Harsh Reality of Immigration and Refugeeism

First, I agree....refugeeism probably isn't a word in some dictionary, but for me.....it defines a group of people who've given up on one land and expecting to find another land quickly.....in a matter of chaos, turmoil and disorder.

So on the second topic.....the harsh reality of immigration.  Germany is presently target number one for most refugees and immigrants on the high seas.  Oddly, there's no coastal plain that would help most refugees and immigrants to rush in.  With a marginal bit of coast up on the North Sea and Baltic.....a $500-rubber boat just won't work.

German news media folks have actively dug into the whole immigration game being played out.  It's and odd story.  No one really wants to immigrate into Turkey, Greece, or Italy.  They generally know that the benefits package and welcome mat are pretty crappy.  Word has gotten back to Asia and central Africa.....and everyone is pretty concerned that getting to either of those three is a no-go.  Oddly, there's a EU rule that you can only go into immigration status in the country you arrive in....which makes things a bit complicated.  There's talk of a new rule coming up and countries around Europe having to share immigrates more, but that's bound to really shake things up as you might arrive with desires for Germany, and end up in northern Finland.

As an American who has had to 'fit' into Germany.....I've come to review processes and realize that most countries in Europe have a scale of ease or difficulty when it comes to adjusting and getting adjusted to the local environment.

For example, on a scale of one to ten for driving skills.....Germany is a seven in terms of signs, scenarios, driving rules and complexity.  For a guy from some rural country arriving and being used to a max speed of 50 mph.....it's a bit difficult getting used to German autobahns.  The stau business?  Oh, that's something that quickly draws your frustrations out and gets you hyped up.  The seventy-odd signs that you need to memorize and quickly recognize?  That's something which takes several hours to read over and practice.  The sixty-page booklet with the various priority-turn situations?  Don't even bring that up.

Then you come to shopping.  You start to realize that food and drink will cost a bit more.  You want really fresh fruit or vegetables?  You might pay a bit more than your previous country of occupation.
Used to cops being influenced or bribed....to get you out of trouble?  Well....it won't work in Germany.  The influence of your Uncle or some religious figure with the local cops?  No....it just won't work here.

Used to doing untaxed work and avoiding sales taxes?  Well....it won't work here.

Used to cheap electricity which was subsidized by the government?  Well....that's not going to occur in Germany.

Used to a marginally operational car being approved via your old country?  It won't happen in Germany.

Get into some illegal circumstances and using intimidation in your old country against people to avoid jail or punishment by authorities?  Well.....German courts and cops won't be intimidated.

I realize that some awful hell-holes in the world, and I might be easily tempted to pack up and leave.  But somewhere in the consequences and pondering part of my scheme.....I'd probably assess things a bit and try to find a place with simplicity and some ease in adjusting.....of which Germany would be at the end of the list of countries for adjusting into or accepting.

On a scale of difficulty....Germany ought to rate near a '9' or '10'.  Course, maybe all those great pictures of scantily-clad women, luxury BMWs, and wonderful villas on the Rhine.....might confuse me a bit and cause me to do something really stupid and stressful.  Then I'd look at my religious lifestyle requirements, inability to accept other societies, and rush to stupid judgments.....to realize that I really need to be more picky about immigrating.  Life is pretty screwed up, and thinking the grass is always greener elsewhere.....might not be a wise thing to consider.

Another Bahn Strike?

Sometime this afternoon (Monday).....our Bahn union (the GDL folks) will announce the next strike. So far...nine strikes have occurred since September of last year, and if you were a betting guy....you'd assume that we will probably go beyond a dozen strikes.

From roughly a week ago.....we had the longest strike in German railway history....going roughly 127 hours.

The issue in this negotiation?  Well.....both parties have come fairly close on pay and hours (the GDL folks want an hour or two cut off the current standard week.  The problem area between the two appears to be the idea of the support personnel being included as part of GDL in the future episodes of negotiation.  This apparently is an area that the Bahn won't agree upon.

How long for the next strike?  I'm guessing it'll be a minimum of 127 hours and might connect to some German holiday period to ensure the public has travel plan issues.

Thirty years ago....the political establishment would have massive pressure upon the Bahn to agree and prevent the general chaos of getting people to college, school, or work each day.  The general shock that one sees is that the Bahn doesn't appear to be under any pressure.  There's also some speculation that the GDL revenue bucket to cover down-time....might be getting close to empty and covering the cost of individual employees will be difficult.

One of the curious things that I've noticed over the past couple of months are data sheets to explain typical pay for Bahn-type employees in France, Spain, Italy, Austria, etc.  In general.....German railway employees make ten to twenty percent less than several countries within the EU.  Personally, if I were among the GDL employees.....I'd be looking more for higher pay raises for employees over the age of forty, and drop this inclusion of support personnel into the GDL structure.

The Duisburg Fight

It's one of those episodes that won't get any notice in German national news tonight (they always hype European or world news).

Somewhere in the events of Duisburg (a cit to the far north of Germany) last night (Thursday).....a fight occurred.  What cops this will generally say is that a minimum of 250 people were involved in this brawl of sorts.

The centerpoint?  An internet cafe.....strangely enough.

As cops began to arrive.....people dispersed and what was generally left was the internet cafe in a state of chaos and destruction.

The trigger to the event?  Unknown.  There's not a single person, it appears.....that has spoken up on the cause of the fight.

The best guess?  Germans don't usually hang around internet cafe operations.....that's one thing I've noticed over the past decade.  Most Germans have a home connection and wouldn't waste time or money at some internet cafe.  Those who frequent the internet cafes?  Mostly immigrants.  The internet cafe operations tend to be a place where you can browse, do cellphone business (buy time for example), perform cash transactions, and provide cover for guys to chat out of reach of their relatives.

Perhaps some guy said something or had some cash debt issue, and it just grew out of proportion.  Anyway......a curious German event for the week.

Vacations of a Different Degree

I've spent three vacations in my life in Denmark.....the last trip in 2005 (ten years ago this summer).

Truth be told....these were the most relaxing vacations that you could ever devise.

Oh, I'd agree.....it was an enormous event full of stress to travel via the German autobahns on a Saturday.  Toss in the crowd on the road, slow-moving trucks, and various storms that will dump some rain and pass.....it's not a very pleasant experience getting to Denmark.

But then you cross the border and note the speed limit sign pops up immediately.  You start to notice that folks act calm.  Then you get on a secondary road and notice a lot less traffic.  Your blood pressure starts to lessen, and you feel sedated to some degree.

Eventually, you get to this vacation cottage deal.  It's a regular house, near a beach area.  It's no dynamic, eye-catching, or remarkable.  It's just a simple house....a patio with a bar-b-q.....a quiet background with pine trees.....and a few clouds passing over.

Danes are practical people.  If you wonder into the local village....there's not much to get excited about.  Gas is expensive.  Beer is expensive.  Liquor is expensive. Smokes are expensive.  If you wanted any bad habits.....it'd ruin your bank account.

Danes tend to keep streets tidy, uncluttered and organized.  It's hard to find some ghetto area or some area that is really dismal in appearance.

You tend to notice after a while that there aren't that many restaurants or fast-food operations in Denmark.  An American would assume they eat at home a good bit and if they eat out.....they tend to avoid spicy or odd food.

Crime?  It's hard to feel threatened in Denmark.  A drunk Dane is about the worst possible threat that you'd come up against.  You could be in Denmark for two weeks and never see a single cop car.

The issue of a summer vacation in Denmark?  Well....it rains.  It rains.....a fair bit.  Even in the midst of a normal hot July summer.....you might be lucky if you had only three days of pure sunshine for a seven day period.  All this five-star beach access and idealistic landscape......and a limited and marginal amount of sunshine?  Yeah.  That's the negative.

So, you calmly enjoy fourteen days of what you can get.  And after fourteen days.....you leave with a loss of stress and feel like you visited the Danish version of Mayberry.....where life is all calm and enchanted.

Germany and Tornadoes

Over the past two weeks, if you pay attention to weather in Germany....there's been a couple of tornadoes.  Germans will tell you that they rarely, IF EVER, have such things, and this all the cause of global warming, which can only come from America. Well....they say this but it's mostly leading back to statements by a couple of news media enthusiasts that generate this claim.

If you asked a German to explain the trigger or cause of a tornado....they usually look at you in a daze and can't really explain this in any detail.

In simplistic terms.....tornadoes will from tall cumulonimbus thunderstorm clouds.....requiring both a warm front and cold front to converge to some degree.  Fast cold air mixes with warm air from the lower levels.  A swirling action starts up because of the warm and cold air mix.....which is a horizontal type movement.  A funnel starts up in the air, and when it touches the ground.....it's a tornado.

Yeah, it is that simple.

Over the past two weeks.....if you pay attention to regional weather talk (like from HR), they discuss this unique degree of both warm and cold fronts coming across Hessen and southern Germany.  Is a weather front attached to global warming?  The weather guys would tend to laugh over such an observation....mostly because you have hundreds of such fronts that occur over Germany every year.  The same folks will bring up the non-movement of a heat front in 2003, which brought extreme hot weather to France and Germany for almost six weeks.  This was the year where 14,000-odd French folks died from exhaustion (mostly old folks not drinking enough liquids).  Sometimes fronts proceed, and sometimes they stall. It's the nature of a front.

As for the history of tornadoes in Germany?  The first reported tornado on German soil was in Augsburg on 2 July 1587.  Caused by global warming?  No......a cold front and a warm front merged, with swirling action starting up as a horizontal type movement.

If you cross out borders.....you tend to see several tornadoes each year throughout all of Europe.  Rarely do German news media folks bring this fact up because they'd like to focus strictly on Germany and pretend it's an occurrence related to global warming (there are dozens of tornadoes reported throughout Europe in the 1700s).

As for limited damage?  That's a curious thing which an American would note while viewing the video to these reports.  Germans build houses with concrete and brick, and they are rock-solid.  So, what you see as damage is typically a roof removed but the bulk of the house standing there. Trees get uprooted but it's not the same type of damage as you'd see in the US.  German roofers will get to work and a month later.....have an entire neighborhood back to almost normal.

So, yeah.....there's been more than the average number of cold and warm fronts mixing in 2015 so far than normal.  And it's a curious thing to note the occurrence level rising.  But no, it's not global warming at work on this episode.  Save the slant for the right occasion.

Banking in Germany

I sat and watched a news documentary piece last night on Channel One (ARD) from here in Germany.  The item?  German banks are downsizing their 'footprint'.  Ten years ago in a region......you might have had X number of banks.  A town with a thousand people would easily have a bank within their city limits.

Well.....times have changed.....and people got new habits.  Banks kinda figured out that more people use ATMs than ever.  Most people with computer access do their banking requirements via the computer.  So an actual building is no longer required.

The news guys pulled out a map and showed how bank after bank were closed down.  People were interviewed and were kinda dismayed....for decades....they had access in their village to such-and-such bank.  Now.....the bank is gone.  In some cases, the bank didn't even leave an ATM machine, which means a visit to the next village of any significant size.

But this all leads to a curious new invention which I hadn't seen before.

There has been an effort to create 'agents' for the post office system in Germany.  You'd have a town of 3,000 people and the post office folks would make a decision to shut down the postal unit.   Folks still wanted some postal functions in the area.....so the post office created 'agents' (contracted services via a local business).  You could be a grocery store, a drug store, or even a bicycle-rental shop....but on the side.....you'd operate a small postal unit.

So, the banks are creating 'agents' in various communities where they vacated the building.  You go to a grocery operation, a tea shop, or a bakery.....and there's the stand where you can do X number of functions related to your banking requirements.

The truth is.....compared to thirty years ago....everyone is skipping the need to visit a bank.  I looked over myself and the past thirty years.  I can remember when I joined the Air Force in 1977, and there was a visit to the bank every single week....requiring roughly forty-five minutes of my time.  Over the past year, I've been to the banking establishment one single occasion.  Most actions require my use of an ATM machine.  Either via the phone or computer.....I can conduct ninety-nine percent of my business with the bank.

My forecast in Germany is that more and more bank structures will shut down.  If you are lucky.....you get to keep an ATM machine.  It is part of the evolution of society.

Travel Tips on Shannon Airport

If you live around Europe and ever have a desire to travel to Ireland....there's basically two airports that you might land at (there are several airports there but most folks end up at Shannon and Dublin).

Shannon is a fairly good-sized airport.  I'm not talking about sixty gates or such, but 1.6 million folks flowed through the airport in 2014.

There are three significant things you need to know upon landing there and planning ahead.

First, there aren't too many hotels around the airport.  This usually makes people start thinking seriously on finding a hotel in Limerick, which is roughly a twelve-minute drive from the airport.  Limerick has several hotels on the outer ring of the city and several in the bar-district of town.

My general advice is to avoid the downtown area of Limerick (keenly known as the stabbing-capital of Europe.  It's not to say folks get stabbed often, but enough that it got some kind of reputation. It's a reminder that the Irish like the argue a good bit, and get testy over lost arguments.

Along the road from the airport to Limerick (halfway), is the Bunratty Castle Hotel.  It's a pricey place but rather easy to find and just minutes away from the airport.

There's also a Travelodge near the entrance of Limerick, near the traffic circle.....a cheaper place worth checking out.

Second bit of advice....the worst possible scenario is you arrive at 10PM at night, in the middle of a storm, and realize only then that it's a left-hand drive car and a left-hand drive nation, of which you've never really encountered this type scenario before.  So, think and ponder over this well ahead of time.  Maybe it's best to arrange for a flight in daylight hours so you can get a better prospective and feel somewhat positive about the trip.

Third, a GPS is a great tool to bring along for a trip to Ireland.  I admit....there are only X-number of roads and turns.....but it's not the kind of simplicity that you'd be hoping for.

Finally, as much as you'd like to stop and ask for directions at times.....be reminded that Irish folks are chatty, and a simple sixteen-word explanation on how to get from A to B.....might turn into a 200-word descriptive chat.

Germans, Murder, and Numbers

On average.....there are about 690 people murdered in Germany every year.  I saw the statistical display up on Focus (German version of Newsweek).

An American looking over the typical news sites of Germany over a year would usually come to couple of observations.

First, mass murders are somewhat of a rare thing (using the FBI definition of three deaths at one single event).  There's probably three or four of these a year that pop up in Germany.  Most are some neighbor versus neighbor event that has been festering for years.  Occasionally, it'll be some grudge held by some kid who gained access to dad's gun locker and wants revenge.

Second, a lot of these are simply a husband-wife situation involving divorce.  I'd take a humble guess that a quarter of these fit the profile of husband-wife or boyfriend-girlfriend episodes.

Third, a significant number of these don't involve firearms.  I've noticed a number of murders here in Hessen (since the summer of 2013) were simply knives, chocking or blunt-object type murders.  

Fourth, on a few rare occasions here in Hessen.....you get news reports of some guy or gal who got robbed, and somewhere in the confrontation within their house or apartment....the old person got pushed around.....fell against something.....and died right there from a concussion or such.

Fifth, out of eighty million......690 is a fairly low number.  I looked at the US for 2013, and there were 14,196 murders out of 300-million residents.  Detroit by itself in 2013 had 316 murders.....roughly half of what the whole of Germany achieved.  Birmingham, Ala all by itself had 63 murders with a population of 212,000 residents.  Oddly, most of their numbers are by gun.

Sixth, Germans don't seem to worry about this statistic.  You don't see discussion groups on TV chat forums bring this up, or newspaper journalists writing up 7,000-word  epic pieces on murders in Germany.  The only exception in the past year was the German-Turkish gal in Frankfurt who got into some heated discussion with some German-Turkish guy, and he pushed her.....causing her to trip and hit the pavement (she died days later from the concussion).  It's defined as a murder.....although it's mostly a push-and-a-trip situation.

Seventh,  what Germans do seem to focus on.....is the US murder rate.  It'll trigger a discussion where they want to say their piece on why the German lifestyle is better than the American lifestyle.  It would be a worthwhile discussion, until you inject the drug-usage in the US (meth, crack, bath salts, cocaine, PCP, prescription pain-killers, etc) and that the vast majority of US murders involve someone doped up on something.  If you injected tons of meth, crack, bath salts, or PCP onto German society.....the murder rate would sky-rocket overnight, and cause everyone to ask stupid questions and focus on getting armed.

Eighth, and final.....if you watched an entire year of the Channel One (ARD) state-run 8:00 PM news....you'd note maybe five or six murders at best, and you'd have the fake view that there's almost no murders in Germany whatsoever.  You have to remember that around thirty-percent of the 8:00 PM news (where most Germans get their daily dose of news)....is mostly about politics. Around forty-percent revolves around the international world, and ten-percent is sports-related.  So just watching this simple fifteen-minute news piece doesn't say much about the nation itself.

Election Shift?

Sunday's election in Bremen, a regional election, probably turned some heads and surprised a few news media folks.

The 2011 election was a big deal for the SPD and Green Party.  Both carried a fairly strong voting situation.

The 2015 election from Sunday?  The SPD carried around 33-percent of the vote (a five-percent loss since 2011).  The Greens were in a similiar position.....getting 15.7-percent of the vote (a seven-percent loss since 2011).

Where did the votes go?  The CDU picked up 22-percent of the vote (getting barely two-percent more than they did in 2011).

The AfD didn't exist in 2011.....but in this election.....they picked up around 5.7-percent.  The Linke Party and FDP both picked up three to four percent more than they did in 2011.....so you can say these three parties were the real winners of the election.

A shocker for the national strategy of each party?  For the SPD.....yes.  If they'd held to the 2011 numbers.....it might have deemed a success, but losing five percent and watching both the Linke Party and AfD gain votes has to be painful.

Some people are thinking that the Linke Party in 2017 (the next national election) might be pulling the best numbers since their inception.  With some strong debate action and careful strategy.....the Linke Party might pull up to the fifteen to eighteen percent level.  With AfD possibly getting five to eight percent.....both the CDU and SPD might be in some difficult times.

Epic End to MS Deutschland

MS Deutschland.....formerly known as the German 'love boat' (used for the ARD TV series here in Germany for a number of years....has finally been bought and the planning stages are going into effect for the use of the cruise boat.

It was built in the late 1990s, and was not what you'd call a big cruise ship.  The original passenger limit was around 620 people.....later when some renovation occurred....it was limited to 520 passengers.

The TV series helped to provide interested Germans who wanted the 'love boat' experience.....and guided them to the MS Deutschland.  The problem was that the ownership reached a point where cost and revenue were not that kind to the company, and they went bankrupt.  The ship's last cruise was back in December.

The new plan?  A US company....."Semester at Sea"....is teaming up with the University of Virginia and placing the vessel in the Suez Canal.  It'll become an experience where you fly into Egypt....get bused out to the vessel, and do a couple of weeks onboard while they assimilate you into Egyptian history.

The impression that you get is that they will interest people into a fact-gathering trip with college professor telling the impressive story and getting a larger assortment of younger people.

The end of MS Deutschland?  Well....a couple million older Germans frequently watched the TV series and were fairly dedicated to the marginal script but loved the onboard situation and visits to exotic countries.  Turning it into a 'floating barge' and just moving people from one Egyptian historical site to another.....well, it's not the impressive end you'd imagine.

Refugee Status by the Numbers Game?

Out of the weekend news....there's this big disruptive episode that came up about refugee quotas that the EU wants to force down onto various countries.

The deal?  Well....there would be a quota of refugees to each European country which would be based on social factors (you'd really have to stretch this one for mathematical standards) and economic factors (easier statistical data).  All of this would be blended into some computer software program to produce a balanced and fair contribution.

Somehow, this would note the GDP of each country, the population, the unemployment rate (either the perceived rate, the fake rate, or the actual rate), and some mythical previous rate of taking in asylum seekers.  Who decided the factors?  Unknown.  Why these factors and not others?  Unknown.

So, for some nations.....it's something that's going to stir up folks because some nations will be 'ordered' to take more refugees (the UK for example, would have to take double the present rate of 30,000 a year).

The other problem that comes up is that refugees now have a laundry list or priority list of acceptable countries.  Most know that landing in Portugal or Italy or Greece.....means a pretty low amount of financial help and a fairly negative view of refugees within the country.  Denmark, Germany, France and the Nordic countries get the positive view.  By using this EU method.....even if your target country was Germany.....you could easily be directed to Spain and find that they've shuffled you to some village way out in the middle of nowhere and you have to accept that instead of getting yourself into some ghetto type of atmosphere where you have 2,000 of your countrymen within a six-mile area and feel "at-home".

What is pushing the EU to do this?  All this business in the Med and rescues have pressed the media to hype up the necessary episode of saving these poor boat-folks.  However, saving them means you have to bring them to some European port.....offer refugee status....and then find some place to house them.

Even in Germany, there's been some statistical data to show the refugees are being placed mostly in highly urbanized areas and mostly in the western part of the country (leaving former East German states out of the picture for the most part).  With a cost factor being noticed now.....the German reaction is starting to be more negative than positive.

Where this EU statistical dumping policy will go?  The British political figures won't support this, and I suspect the EU court system will get involved to say it's unfair in some way to force some poor refugee guy to go to Portugal or Ireland.....when they really don't want that (they'd prefer Frankfurt or Hamburg instead).  I also think public debate will erupt at some point and ask some fairly tough questions over the future intent of accepting these refugees and where this will take the nation.

A Gun Story

The German national media is fairly careful about discussing shootings, and it's awful rare that they will put such an episode on the 8PM nightly news.  Regional media (newspapers and regional TV) might discuss a local shooting and the story leading up to it, at least giving you the basic story.

From this morning's news in my region (Hessen).....there's some story of a dispute between neighbors over a owner and a dog. It reached some point Saturday afternoon in Neuhof....the town involved....that some guy pulled a gun out and shot some gal.

All cops will say is that they were called, reacted, and the guy easily surrendered.  They have custody of the guy and his gun.  The gal?  She's in stable condition and will survive.

There'll be some brief court appearance next week as the legal system goes over evidence and the police report.  Charges?  If the guy is lucky.....there'll only be two or three charges, and if convicted, I'd take a guess that he gets no more than six years in prison.

What you tend to notice after a while is that tempers tend to brew for years and years over some 'problem-neighbor', and people get frustrated that something can't be resolved in a timely manner.  Some neighbor might have a dog that craps on street in front of a guy's house, and the dog-owner never cleans the mess (tidily picking up the dog-poop).  This leads onto confrontation, and various accusations.  No one says how this episode started, but it'll likely be fairly brief story that can be told in 90 seconds.

Having a gun pulled out in this type of mess?  If you carefully review regional news.....there's three or four such episodes noted in an average year for Hessen.  I suspect the other states see the same amount of activity.  If you compared it against the US.....it'd be an awful small amount of episodes (statistically speaking).

The odd thing that will occur here....is that the authorities will have to make a decision about letting the guy bail himself out.  If they allow it.....he goes back to the neighborhood and is within eyesight of the shot lady.  His weapons will be confiscated but you can just anticipate maximum frustration from both parties over this episode.

Science Fiction and Germans

If you sit around as an American and watch German TV.....you come to this one topic.....science fiction, and you kinda shake your head.

Public-run TV (the twenty-odd networks)....do absolutely zero on science fiction.  They might run a full-blown science fiction movie once a month (E.T, Harry Potter, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Lord of the Rings, etc).  It's not their genre, and the intellectural guys who control state-run TV just have no interest in going beyond that.  Go and suggest a zombie flick and watch the reaction....garbage TV would be the comeback.

Commercially-run TV?  X-Files, Arrow, Shaun of the Dead, and soon to be shown Flash.  The general problem for some science fiction movies is that once you get into the violent nature of a movie.....it has to be after 10PM, and potential viewers are less.

The odd thing?  When you sit back and examine German-written science fiction.....there's some historical stuff out there.  Perry Rhodan?  Since 1961, there's been well over 2,000 installments of the fictional science and space series.

Two Worlds?  Written in 1897.....it was a fairly well respected science fiction book.  Most critics write over the bogus way it was handled in translation and made for a marginal book in English.....feeling it was better in German, and no one has yet to do a four-star translation with it.

The Blue Boy?  Written in 1991....considered a great science fiction piece.

Last Day of Creation?  From the early 90's and considered a good science book.

So I come to this personal criticism.....no motivation on any German production team's agenda to make German science fiction series or movies.  There's simply no interest.

With the exception of the 1927 production of Metropolis (a four-star classic) and the recently produced Traumschieff Surprise....there's been almost nothing produced by German film producers.

For TV production, there's the 1966 short series of Raumpatrouille.  That's virtually it.

Now, I realize.....Germans are awful realistic and zombies, vampires, and space aliens just don't get much credit. If you bring up Bigfoot, Nessie, or aliens building the pyramids......this would be the last crowd with any belief.  But surely, there's some room for time travelers, space colonization, or space opera.

Anyway, my two cents.

Seventy Years Ago Today

Seventy years ago today (8 May 1945).....the European War ended.

Across the continent, there are speeches being made, wreaths being laid, and comments over what happened or what didn't happen.

German political figures will hype up that they were "liberated" by the Americans and Soviets.  The Russians will hype up they took down an evil fascist giant.  The Americans.....well....the Americans will just say that they did what had to be done.

There are a thousand 'what-if' scenarios attached to the Second World War.  What if the peace treaty of WW I had been worked out to a better degree with no reparations involved and the Kaiser could stay in charge of the government?  What if the Germans had taken advantage of Dunkirk and stopped the British evacuation?  What if Hitler had been killed in 1940?  What if the Japanese had stuck with 'plan-A' and staged their entire initial campaign against the Soviets in far-east Asia?  What if the US had figured out the approaching Japanese fleet at Pearl Harbor?  What if the Germans had done a four-star defensive job at Normandy and stopped the invasion?

The war lasts for roughly eight years for the Germans.....an eternity in the minds of those who sat and watched each month go by.  The Nazis were only in a great position and public perception for roughly four years.  When the Battle of Medenine came to a close (March 1943)......as the Nazis were retreating....this was the beginning of the end.  Within a year....if a German could see through the propaganda.....there were no positives in the strategy or results.  Trust in Hitler had peaked out.

An American walking around Germany will come to note some odd things.  There are no statues of German generals of WW II, or any of the Nazi leadership.....NOT a single one.  You can still find non-descriptive statues of a common German solder and common statues of men from a town or city that went off to the war.  Statues from Waterloo, the French wars, and WW I?  There are plenty of these statues.  Political German figures of the 1950s and 1960s?  You will find a handful around.

In my village where I live.....there's a memorial to the WW II German solders from the village.....those who served and those who died in the war.  Most small towns gave up an abundance of young and old men for the war.  Some were prisoners held by the US or Soviet armies for months and months after the war ended.  An entire generation of young men was lost in 1919, and the same could be said a second time for what happened after 8 May 1945.

It is the not the same Germany that existed in the 1930s, and politically.....it is more structured and anchored now than anyone could have hoped for in 1932.

I noticed this week a documentary piece that talked on the negative aspects of the Americans who came in the spring of 1945, and the various crimes they committed after the war ended.  There's probably an ample amount of truth to the various comments made.  After three long years of fighting in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany.....the guys who'd made it to the end weren't exactly pepped up on goodness, friendliness, or charity.

Oddly, after screwing up on the peace aspects of WW I......the US wasn't going to allow that scenario to repeat itself.  The Germany that grew out of the 1950s.....was a different type of society.

The odds of this friendly US and German attitude continuing?  It's hard to say.  It would not surprise me if NATO dissolves over the next decade, or if the US is asked to leave, or a somewhat different political environment comes to exist in Germany.  People tend to forget history, stupid previous mistakes, and bold actions.  If you listed the thirty-odd political themes of the Nationalists Socialists (Nazis)....most Germans would actually support twenty of them easily (I might admit that the same number of Americans would also fit into this profile).

How many Germans really care about this anniversary of seventy years?  Maybe a 100,000.  Those were participants in the war and still live.....will care.  Those born after 1950?  Much less so.  And those born since 1980?  Almost no notice of the date or why it matters.  The same is occurring with the fall of the wall and how many young German teens still remember a East Germany existing.

So, seventy years ago today.....as the sun rose across the Rhine and the wind drifted around the hills of Germany.....some men came to a point of ending a long war.  A war over......?  Well....Germans will say the war was over some desires and strategies of marginal and incompetent leaders....failed art students....and supposed to avenge the loss of WW I.  If you were an American Army private and still alive on this day.....you probably dug out a pack of smokes....lit one.....laid down on the grass.....and just felt awful lucky.  It was finally over.

German Court Story

A German court case in Frankfurt is playing out over the death of a student from 2014.....Turkish-German Tugce Albayrak.  Tugce was killed in the parking lot of a McDonalds.....having been pushed to the ground from a young Turk-Greman guy.  To be honest.....most reports all indicate the guy had a bit too much to drink and he probably wasn't in control of himself.

From the opening story that the news media put out.....everyone had some belief that the guy would be convicted for the accidental death of Tugce Albayrak (a female student).

The story was hyped up as a young Turkish-German gal who was a four-star personality and would accomplish much in life.

Well....this week, with the court situation blasting away.....at least one witness has portrayed Albayrak as insulting the young guy (he's around 18) before he pushed her to the ground.

The insult? "Come here, you little son of a bitch."

Presently, the chief charge here is assault, causing death.  Most news analysts will say that the max you can get if five years in prison.

The insult angle to this?  Germans have a different view on insults.  Just flipping a bird toward a cop could land you easily in jail.  Using 'du' instead of 'sie' with a cop.....could be viewed as an insult.  The judge could attach the insult into the situation and have a radically different view on this altercation between the young guy and the young gal.  Even if convicted on the assault charge.....he might lessen the punishment to six to twelve months in jail because of the insult situation.

Shocker?  I would say that the public really didn't expect this insult comment, and it might portray the four-star character that Tugce Albayrak was portrayed as......being somewhat less.

Germany and Aslyum

From 1995 to 2007.....every single year.....Germany had fewer and fewer successful applicants.

In 1995, based on data from BAMF, the country had around 166,000 applicants.  By 2007, they were around 30,000.

Then in 2009.....you could see the shift....roughly 35,000, and by 2010, they were at 50,000.  Last year, 2014.....they were at 202,000.

The sixteen states of Germany are fairly furious.....these asylum seekers are the personal responsibility of each state, and they aren't getting enough funds to cover costs.  So, there's a demand for a state-to-federal government meeting, which will occur today.

From what the German media says.....it'll be a informal meeting and statements by the states and government will be given.  Based on various comments.....no one expects much to occur until after the summer vacation period, and even then.....no one is sure about how the funding will work, or if the government will suddenly say there's a definite limit to refugee status.

Spring

It is spring and one of the things that you tend to notice around Hessen in this period.....are people digging the camper RV out of storage and preparing it for some long-haul vacation trip.

Germans are pretty well split over the experience of RVs.  There are some Germans who would sign up for such an experience.  And there are some who will only do RV trips.....preferring some 'rough' camping experience over a hotel situation.

Once they buy into an RV.....they stay with it.  Some guys have owned their little RV for twenty-odd years.  Some will spend an entire Saturday cleaning out the RV and preparing it for the big trip.

What you tend to notice.....cops have a special interest in the trailers.  The inspection episode for the tag will occur, and they usually pass with no issues.  But once the trip is started.....the vacation planner will toss all kinds of extra weight onto the trailer, and it's way beyond it's authorized weight limit.  That's why you notice cops stopping such trailers on the autobahn and weighing them.  No one says how many such trailers get 'failed' over the weight, but it seems to be a fairly regular routine.

The cause for the weight?  A lot of guys are picky about their beer.....and for this two week camping trip.....they want to bring along a lot of beer.  You can image 500 pounds of beer and the weight on the trailer.  That's long before you toss on the bikes, the clothing, food, etc.

Over the last couple of years, I've come to notice a family driving two vehicles....one pulling the RV and one pulling a trailer with the beer, bikes, etc.  Last year, I saw a car carrier trailer.....where the guy had mounted his over-weight RV to the car carrier trailer, and he was prepared for the cop inspection if it occurred.

So, when you see your German neighbor dragging out his trailer.....it's planning and execution at it's finest.

It's Just a Bit Odd

With the Islamic couple from Frankfurt were arrested last week for terrorism planning.....the cops did a thorough review of their apartment.  At this point, they came to a container with 24,000 Euro (roughly $27,000).  Being a Hartz IV couple (on German welfare).....this was a bit puzzling.  The cops bagged the money, and it's currently in the evidence locker.

So far, at least as the newspapers report it....the Turkish-German couple has said virtually nothing and declined any police interviews.

The 24,000 Euro?  Well....if you did cash-only type jobs, which a number of Hartz IV folks will admit to.....you might have some cash around the house, but certainly nothing more than a thousand Euro.  So it kinda begs questions over where the money came from.  Maybe some relatives gave the couple 'monetary gifts' on occasion, and they simply accumulated the money.  Maybe the couple robbed some folks.  Maybe this was hard-earned money and the couple simply didn't believe in banks.

The thing is.....speculation.  Without any cooperation from the couple.....the cops will continue to hold the money and ask relatives, friends and neighbors for some logical explanations over the couple and their wealth.

My guess?  It would be curious to know what jobs either of the two held in the past and if either 'owned' a store-front.  That would help to explain the cash.  Permanent loss of the money?  There are a dozen fake stories that you could provide and basically force the cops to hand the money back.....although each would involve the Finanzamt (the German version of IRS) knowing the story, and some tax paperwork coming up.  Maybe the best story would be some Muslim charity operation felt sorry for them and just donated the cash to them....in hopes that they'd lead productive lives.  Well......it sounds 'positive', if you think about it.

Statues

One of my favorite cities of travel.....is Vienna, for numerous reasons.  But one of the top reasons is the amount of statues.

I'd take a guess that within the city limits.....there must be over 2,000 statues.  Some are fairly plain.  Some are a bit modern, with no real explanation.  And most are the Greek Gods type of figure.

The thing is.....a statue guy could spend five to ten years of his life working on an intense piece of work.  It's not the kind of thing that you sit with a neighbor....do some drawings....and over three weekends.....whip out some work of art.

If you look over this piece.....the guy had to be thinking over how the eagle will flutter his wings....if he looks menacing at guy tumbling down....and if his claws are digging into anything.

The guy on the bottom?  How much on muscles will you show?  Hair style?  Clothing?

The guy tumbling?  Do you show his toes curling?  Do you have his hand touching anything or fisted up?

The standing guy?  How much you put on the guy for clothing?  Whipping a sword outward or just acting 'cool'?  Grinning or just focused?

What interpretation will these five characters put upon the viewer?  A fight?  A moment of resistance?  Pain and suffering?

Way too much thinking and planning for the mortal man.

Robots?

There's a worrisome report put out today via ING-DiBa (a German finance organization).

Some smart German jobs people sat down and looked at the future, and it's a fairly shocking study that comes out of this.  These guys figure roughly two of three jobs (59-percent) in the German work force could be shifted over to robots.  Between machines and automation.....around eighteen million German jobs would likely go away.

Now, you'd sit and pause over this.....thinking is it possible?

Well.....these guys are looking three to four decades down the road.  They look at the fast-food industry shifting over and having just a couple of guys to manager a McDonalds, and robots flipping the burgers.  They look at driver-less vehicles distributing groceries to your local village shop.  The landscape mowing team?  They would be mostly all robots.

Jobs for robot maintainers?  I'm guessing that it'll become a major job industry within the next decade, and kids will be recruited into this area who have a passion for mechanics and computers.  Maybe a million of the eighteen million will find jobs as the robot maintainers.

But the rest?

This is a study which some political folks might gaze over and ask what exactly our general job future will be about.  You can't have some society existing with twenty-percent of the folks in their prime (18 to 40 years old).....unemployed or just sitting around.

Some folks would bring up that Germany has a birth-rate problem and this robot thing would be positive.  The same folks tell us that open arms for refugees is positive, but then you wonder what the refugees and immigrant folks will be doing.....if the robots are doing most of the manual labor?

Somehow, you would suspect that the Greens and Linke Party will have to take up the discussion over robots having citizenship and voting rights somewhere down the line.  There's probably a Greens statue team working on some kind of dedication to the first robot harmed by the human race and set to be a German martyr.

My humble guess is that some German guys are just grinning over this.....hoping a German female robot is somewhere in this mix.....who can be programmed to accept eccentric and quirky German males over the age of forty, and obedient to a strict German 'master'.

Somewhere in this thing which will unfold....will be this one evening where the 8PM German news guy has a big report over the last Burger King burger-flipper.....some 20-year-old guy from Frankfurt.....who got pushed out the door by a Erik-Series-8000 burger-flipper.  The news guy will ask the burger-flipper what's next and he'll look all gloomy as he responds the unemployment office.  The German news guy will respond....."....yes, the end of an era".

A Biker Story

I noticed in regional Hessen news this morning a cop report.  From some time on Saturday afternoon.....up on the A7 autobahn near Kassel (two hours north of where I live).....there was this motorcyclist with speed on his mind.

Cop apparently tried to pull him over on a couple of occasions.

At one point, they had him going at 296 kph (roughly 180 mph).  On a couple of occasions, he almost tipped the bike over.

In some careful wording, the cops noted that they got him as he came off the autobahn at an exit.....then discovered that his license wasn't valid.

A court appearance?  I'm guessing the judge will want to ask a few questions.

It's Just An Odd Thing

A week ago.....the Green Party here in Germany.....along with the Linke Party.....got all disturbed and upset over the latest in NSA revelations.  It was a terrible and woeful thing that the NSA got 800,000 (still questionable on the numbers) names, emails and phone numbers related to the German military industry.

They spent several days last week.....chatting to the media and doing their best to make this into a major event.

So I sat and pondered last night, and there's this odd thing.

For the last five years, both the Green Party and Linke Party have been at the forefront of harming sales of the German military industry to just about any other country that you could name, and doing their best to limit even German Army purchases of German-manufactured military hardware.  Every step along the way.....they hindered sales of German military hardware.

Now?  They hint it's bad that the NSA was getting data on the German military companies?  Something here doesn't make any sense.

But oddly, the brilliant German news media follows along with one script and rarely do they ever wake up and ask bold questions.

So, as much as they want to shine light onto the NSA and make this all a pretty negative deal.....maybe they ought to shine some light on themselves and ask who hindered the German military-hardware companies more?