Best Quote of the Day in Germany

Probably the quote of the day, coming via a cop at the pro-Erdogan demonstration in Koln and listed on Focus:

"I can not understand this. The Turks in Germany using all of their democratic rights in favor of an autocrat to demonstrate.....who wants to abolish democracy in their homeland. "

Absolutely on the mark, and it makes no sense.  You would think after going through x-number of years of school and getting a decent introduction to the values of a democracy.....they'd ask some really stupid questions of the Turkish government, but instead are wasting a Sunday afternoon protesting in favor of demolishing democracy in Turkey.

The Fraud of We Can Do It

This has been an odd week with German political folks trying to each get their piece in about the violence, the threats, the immigration issues, and the way ahead.

I saw a bit of a state-run TV chat forum from Thursday night.....where the moderator had the head of the German Green Party on....Cem Ozdemir.   While I disagree with about ninety percent of the Green platform and chatter.....I'm at least open to hear the conversation because occasionally they will throw one spectacular good idea out there which deserves examination.

Ozdemir came on to mostly hype up the failure of Germany's refugee program.

Since that point, it's been in the news a fair amount and discussed to the point where you sit and ponder.

What the Greens tend to point out is that the whole effort behind the immigration 'open-door' policy has been a hollow phrase....when some idiot say "wir Schaffen das"....(meaning we can do it)....it's just some slogan or phrase that journalists can take and whip up forty lines over.  It doesn't mean anything.

When the German butcher off-loads forty hogs for his weekly production situation....he'll proclaim loud and clear to this three helpers....'we can do it'.

When some trucker is given a hectic schedule for the next five days of long-haul trucking....he'll likely utter 'we can do it'.

When some soccer coach has been hired over a rough crowd of marginal players and the hopes of taking them to some championship....he'll utter 'we can do it'.

Ozdemir went one step further in his conversation.....he said he felt shamed by Germany's failure.  In his mind, Germany could have done a better job....focused their assets better....prevented the right-wing growth.....and reshaped the immigration situation into a successful pattern.

Look....you had three basic elements that conflicted.  First, you had the Constitutional rule that said you had to offer asylum, immigration, or refugee status....to anyone who crossed the border and asked for it.  Whether it took one month or twelve months for this paperwork came to occur, with success or failure.....you had no choice because it's written into the law.  And the law never specified that there was a limit per year, or there were considerations of cost involved.  The law, as written, guaranteed a marginal program.

The second element of failure is that journalists got involved and made this a 'crusade' of sorts.  You were on a great and epic journey to save people, and show the kindness of German culture.  For almost two entire years....Germans got this dose daily and were continually reassured, even when screw-ups and problems started to occur.  The diesel guys at Volkswagen would beg for that kind of journalism to their favor.

And the third element of failure was the education required and limited job potential.  Maybe a quarter of the incoming crowd did have a degree or craft that was easily worked for a job.  But the remaining three-quarters?  They'd have to get training (at some cost) and be covered for three years while in this status.  The kids involved?  They are behind the power-curve and will be that way for the majority of their life.  The German system wasn't prepared for them, and it probably will never be a plus-up for them.

A decade from now.....a bunch of folks will be writing books over Merkel's open-door idea, and how Germany failed to make it work.  People will claim lessons were learned but I doubt if these are the lessons that you'd want to brag about or openly discuss.

The thing about the Green Party position is that they really do want to make the immigration program work, and will continue the trend.  The Linke Party is in full agreement....or at least three-quarters of their membership feel that way.  I suspect that most within the SPD still feel some charm toward we can do it....and helping immigration survive. If you add it up....somewhere around thirty-five percent of the nation is still hoping it'll succeed.  The rest?  Mostly shaking their heads and wondering what the final bill will be when this is finished, and frankly.....they also feel shamed but it's a different variety than what the Greens feel.

Germans and Vacations

By the age of twenty-five, my interpretation of a vacation was to take four to five days off and travel....see things....and reflect upon the landscape of wherever I traveled.  Most Americans, I think are this way.  We aren't generally the crowd who'd take two entire weeks off, and just remain in one single hotel or resort for the whole time.

Then, one day....I ended up married to a German.....which brought these 'forced' changes to my concept of vacations.

Germans, for any American who hasn't had to deal closely with them....are complex and obsessed people.  They will tell you that they are giving 150-percent effort in their work (mentally and physically)....hence the reason why Germans get a minimum of 30 days of vacation a year.

Germans have a different view of vacations....they are supposed to be for rest and recuperation....relaxing over the job stress, and getting you prepared for the next year of hard work.

Most Germans will take two entire weeks in the summer.....which generally coincides with the kid's school school (each German state maintains a schedule, and you will be off from X-day to Y-day).  If you were thinking that they'd have to make up snow-days.....well....if they have to....they will throw a Saturday or two into the mix....to make up the days lost.  If Hessen says school will end on 18 Jul and the new school year will start on 27 Aug, well....that's set into stone and actually know two years ahead of time.  That's why people can sit there and plan some airline trip eight months ahead because they know the scheduled days off.

All of this naturally leads back to the office or plant.  Leave schedules to allow ten guys in some section to all get their two weeks off (if that's their gameplan) will be known six to eight months ahead of time.  It's possible that you might be operating some function normally with ten people and for some short period....just have five guys there because of scheduling.

Two years ago in Mainz....the train controllers had some huge mess to occur when they suddenly had two guys retire (out of the blue), and they had X-number of members on scheduled vacation.  They had insufficient numbers of controllers on hand to manage trains coming in or out of the station.....so they literally cancelled roughly one-third of the trains scheduled, and infuriated the general public for about three weeks.

Where do Germans go on vacation?  There are roughly nine scenarios that unfold:

1.  They go to 'El Balcony' meaning they stay at home....conduct some paint job, wall-paper project, renovation, and maybe use the regional pool five or six times.  This will also occur if they've done a lousy job on saving money and can't afford to go anywhere.

2.  The German vacation.  You still have some Germans who vacation mostly in Germany.  This means they typically go on some hiking expedition, make a run to some quiet valley in Bavaria, or rest some beach cottage/condo along the northern coast.

3.  The Spain trip.  Spain has around three different concepts to throw at people.  There's the party-isle area of Ibiza where young Germans like to go and sip vast amounts of wine and party til sun-up.....then get the best sun-burns from four hours in the sun without any suntan lotion.  Or you have the Canaries trip where it's basically the same thing....less wine.....more family-activity....and guaranteed sun.  And finally there is the Spanish Riviera, along the Med coast where you jump on a bus in Germany....ride 15 hours....and stay at some cheap resort with cheap wine flowing.

4.  The Italy-Greece theme.  With Italy, you can typically drive down from half of Germany in ten hours (mostly because of hectic and crowded road conditions).  With Greece, you might end up going to some German airport at 11PM and arrive in Greece at 4AM, to end up at the hotel at 6AM in the morning....and leave fourteen days later at 6AM from some Greek airport.  In this case, it's for the food, culture, and sun.

5.  Turkey.  Turkey offers this wild-card of sorts (at least until the Erdogan troubles started).  You could end up with some package deal of a five-star hotel, airfare included, ALL drinks (beer, wine, soda) and all meals included....with rail-way tickets to your German airport in Oct or Nov....for 450-Euro.   You typically went to Turkey because of the economic sense and great weather.

6.  The Dominican Republic or Cuba experience.  For years, Cuba has been an option for Germans.  Typically, you'd go for the beachfront resort and cheap booze.  Same for DR.  It's not something that a large segment of Germans will say they've done in their life.  Maybe out of a hundred Germans who are 65 years old.....you might find five who've done this at least once in their life to this region.

7. The US trip.  For the most part, Germans will only go to three regions of the US (Florida, Vegas-California, and NY City).  If it's the Vegas-California trip, then it's a package deal and some bus travel involved.  For NY, it's typically renting some hotel room and walking over the city for ten days.

8.  The adventure trip.  A small percentage of Germans will go radical and rig up some bike trip to South America, or some safari to Africa, or some boat cruise around the Pacific, or end up on some Chinese wellness resort in a remote valley somewhere.

9.  The RV crowd.  For decades, the adventure of RV traveling has been expanding in Germany.  Their destinations will mostly include Germany itself, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.  Some Germans are so pepped up....that they buy a trailer and pre-position it in Italy....going down each summer for three weeks of relaxation at some travel camp which allows around-the-year parking.

The end statement from each of these is that the German got rest and relaxation.....lessened their stress....and are able to go back to 150-percent effort at the job.

Personally, I never believed the 150-percent thing but it's best not to argue with a German.  Have I become Germanized on this two-week rest and relaxation thing?  No.  I generally play along but I'm the typical American who'd like to cram 25 hours into a normal day seeing some vast expanse of landscape or sipping some terrible Greek wine while standing in the midst of Zeus's cave, or walking down into some meteor crater.

The over-riding factors in picking a German vacation?  Here's the thing which you ought to really take into account.  First, they are willing to cram an awful lot of stress into getting to this destination.  If they have to get up at 2AM and drive for sixteen hours to reach the end-point....well, that's acceptable.  If they are willing to get up at midnight, and go to some airport to fly out and spend nine hours on a plane to reach the destination....well, that's OK.

The second obvious thing is a review of safety.  Egypt and Tunisia have both demonstrated an unsafe environment, and both are suffering long-term German fears.  I could get a fantastic two week trip into either country today, for a remarkably low price because they are literally begging for tourism to return to some normalcy.  Turkey, because of the coup and emergency conditions there, has scared a number of Germans, and they won't go there for 2016, and I seriously doubt that they will return in 2017.  The Turks will miss that chance to profit off the Germans.

And the third obvious thing is some "deal".  Germans love package tours.  Getting an inclusive deal, with free drinks for X-amount.....or having some wellness center packages thrown into the deal....or having free parking or a free welcome dinner as part of the offering.....all leads a German to consider such-and-such resort or hotel.

I should note....all of this happens months ahead of time typically.  Most Germans will start in December and January.....planning the trip, getting reservations and bookings, and ensuring everything is covered.  It's rare that a German comes up within two weeks of some leave and suddenly does a last-minute booking to some surprise location.  I'd say less than one-percent of German society is willing to consider some wild trip like that.

So, when the topic of trips and vacations come up with your German associate.....don't be alarmed if this conversation reaches the level of 'nuclear science', where a hundred things are thrown on the table and discussed like a wedding planner.  Germans are the last people on Earth who'd be the accidental tourist type and just pick some place on a map at random.  And if it seems they are recreating a ton of stress on top of the 150-percent job-stress?  Well....it's best not to note this in the conversation.

German ZEE-One?

Somewhere on the satellite listing, in the past twenty-four hours I've been told.....is a new offering for Germans (free-TV)....entitled Zee-One.

So, it's being delivered by Zee Entertainment Enterprises, and is supposed to be a 24-hour channel offering to Germans.....Bollywood movies, Indian shows, etc.

What's been said for the past six months as they planned and built up the programming is that they want to entice German women between 20 and 60 to watch.

I sat there....reading through two articles over this, and just shaking my head.

One roughly three occasions, I've tried to sit down and watch a Bollywood (India-produced) movie.  At best, I'll get around twelve minutes into it, and ask myself....what exactly is the theme or projected outcome of this, and after about thirty seconds of pondering.....I flip the channel.

Course, maybe it's because I'm not a woman between 20 and 60.

Will this idea take off for German women?  What sells for the 15-to-25 year old German gal....is soap-opera-like shows with continual twists.  Maybe these Zee folks will hire up twenty German actors and bring them into India for a month, and produce forty hours of shows for some short novella series.  But how you rig this up for a 24-hour a day production deal and attract Germans to it....to me is unknown.

The humorous part to this....is that if Zee One ever takes off and German women hype it up.....state-run German TV will kicking themselves for years for not predicting this gimmick and getting a women-only state-run channel.

The Bull-Fighter Story

At some point in the 1300s....a lonely Spanish guy from Bilbao, Spain (on the northern edge of the country, ended up walking from this coastal town....to a small village in central Germany.....by the name of Naurod.  It's an hour's walk northeast out of Wiesbaden to reach this valley of sorts.  There's not much in Naurod or the valley to get all peppy about.  No castles, no fortresses, no rivers, no wine districts.....not even a fancy church (at least in that period of time.

Why he left Bilbao?  No one knows.  It is along the way to Saint James....the trail that Catholics took for showing their dedication to the religion.  You had to stop in Bilbao....on the way to Saint James end-point.

Maybe some tired and worn-out traveler reached a point of doubting his ability to make and complete the trip, and this lonely Spanish guy volunteered to escort him back safety.

Upon arrival in Naurod....remember, it's not much of a town in those days, with a population of probably no more than 150 villagers....the guy probably stood there and watered his horse.

I doubt if they had that many strangers pass through, and there might have been a thousand questions that were thrown at the guy.

No one today knows the name of the guy.  He might have been Ricardo Sanchez, or Hugo Garcia, or Ernesto Perez.

What ended up happening is that the villagers took some liking to the guy....offering up some hospitality, and for some odd reason, he stayed.

The thing is....whatever name he gave them.....just wasn't easy to remember or pronounce.  So, they decided that he was the "bull-fighter" and gave him the German translation for the word.

So as the months and years went by.....his old name went by the wayside, and he accepted this nickname of sorts, which became his new Germanized name.  In some ways, I would imagine that he admired the name after a while, and it probably helped in terms of catching admiration from the ladies.  You know how it is with German ladies.....a regular common roofer, or a farmer, some plain old butcher....well....that's not that special.  But a bull-fighter, in the midst of a German village?  Oh, that's different.

So, the months, years and decades passed.

Today, it is probably one of the least known names in Germany today.....although they've been around over five-hundred years.  If you did a phone search?  Well....there is one such person appearing in Baviara, and a handful around the Wiesbaden area, and maybe a dozen-odd folks in Naurod itself.  Because of the declining birth-rate, fewer and fewer of this name-sake will exist.

The bull-figher clan?  I doubt if any of them really grasp that or take it serious.

Somewhere in the back of this whole story, there probably is some five-star story ready to be made into a movie.  But you will never why this guy packed up and left, and why he stayed.....or his original name.  

(Note: I am married to the descendant of the bull-fighter, but it's best not to bring this up.  She gets all testy when I challenge her Germanness).

What Are the Improvements of the German Safety Plan?

Based on the Chancellor's comment today, these are the nine areas to be improved to save Germany from the terrorists:

1.  An early warning system.  Somehow, they want some mechanism built to warn them of radicalization in the asylum process or integration process.  Someone within the political players apparently thinks they can invent this process to ID radicals.  Even if they did.....then what?  Would they immediately go and lock the guy up or would they spend six months trying to get him to leave? This is one of those ideas that look good on paper but never works in real life.

2.  Personnel.  There is to be some order going down to improve staff personnel and improve technical equipment on hand.  I imagine they mean computer and internet security.

3.  Decryption staffs improved.  More efforts to decode messages are somewhere in this mix.  It'll cost money, but Germany has some of the best computer geeks in the world.....why not turn them loose and pay them a check for real services.

4.  Bundeswehr.  The Chancellor hints that it's time to write some clear piece down and pass it via the Bundestag that allows the German Army to work with the Police, when required.  The SPD?  They've stood against this, as well as the Green Party, in the past.  It's hard to say if this will occur now or not.  The one issue that will come up.....you might have some German Army people who say they won't work against their "own" people, and that will really hype up the general public about who these people think they are serving.

5.  Research / prevention.  They want every single possible idea laid out on the table, and bright ideas to get funding for research.  Anything that seems to indicate a positive solution.....will get funding to go ahead.  Again, it'll be curious what comes out of this idea.

6.  Europe-linked.  Every single source of terror data needs to be linked and available across the EU.  If the cops in Prag know something about this one guy sitting in Koln.....the cops in Koln ought to have access to that folder of data.  Getting them all to share this?  The EU would have to invent something and force everyone to play.  I have doubts that they'd all agree to this.

7.  Waffenrecht.  Basically another round of EU gun laws.  At the minimum, they want trade/purchase across country lines to be impossible.  I would take a guess that most in the EU would agree, and this one simple request would go through.  Everything else related to more gun laws?  Forget it.

8.  News services.  They want across the board in Europe and the US.....news sources to limit comments about names or accomplishments of the terrorists.  It would be Mr X and very limited information about the act accomplished.  In essence.....the public would find little out about these acts....so some folks will be hostile about this and say that it's to hide the screwed up policies of political figures from the public.

9.  Finally....moving failed applicants along.  They want the system to work, and get folks as quickly as possible on a plane out of Germany.  On this, the public would support this, and there's no reason why a guy couldn't be told on a Monday afternoon that he failed the application, and he'd be on the Tuesday plane back to his country.  The Green Party and Linke Party won't support this, and no one from the SPD said much.

Will any of the nine things really improve much?  Each has a positive and if they were all passed and working.....I think in six to twelve months....they would have some affect.  But right now?  Zero effect.  The first one which could be passed in a matter of the next month?  Both the Waffenrecht idea for the EU folks and the moving applicants on quickly within the Bundestag....both would be easy to accomplish.

If I were a German.....I would at least be happy they invented some ideas out of thin air.  But I would be asking why they didn't do these last month?  And I would be facing this reality.....there really isn't much left that they can invent if these fail....except to get rid of religious freedom and allowing the public to be armed.....which really change Germany if we ever get down to that degree of acceptance.

The Multiculturalism Fairy Tale

Multiculturalism in Germany.....also starts off with "once upon a time".  Depending on who tells the story, it gets weaved into a positive story for about two minutes, and then they hit some point where the rest of the story can't be told, or it's some woeful tale that dissolves to the point where the story-teller is looking at the floor...mumbling about a lost fantasy.

I've waited for a long time for some German mind (Helmholtz, Kepler, Humbolt, Einstein, etc) to sit down and give some wit and brilliance at a televised political chat forum on German public-run TV on the history and spiral of multiculturalism in Germany.  It's yet to happen.

So, let me offer some observations.

Since the period of enlightenment, Germans have been open-minded and looking for inspiration, wisdom, and culture from other lands (for long period, that meant bringing in people from France, Russia, England, and Italy).

When they said multiculturalism in the original period....what they were talking about was great music, opera, art, literature, science, and technology.  Having some great adventurous Brit come and give a two-hour talk over his expedition to deepest Africa at the University in Frankfurt....was a great positive of multiculturalism.  Hearing a recital of some Austrian composer....was a great positive of multiculturalism.  Having a display in Koln of great Japanese erotic art....well, it was a great positive of multiculturalism.

Around the summer of 1914, it can be said that a bump in the road occurred and for five years....multiculturalism was defeated....mostly non-existent.

After the war, for a decade....various characters were in some stage of rebuilding the charm and character of multiculturalism.  By the mid-1930s.....it was put on ice.

After WW II....for roughly a decade or two.....multiculturalism was something you talk about as ancient history....as German museums were being rebuilt, and opera houses were being reassembled "brick by brick".

It is in the 1960s that you can see and appreciate some return to the multicultural world.  Universities are inviting guest lecturers from Russia.  Art exhibits are being shown from various collections.  Germans are chatty about such-and-such singer from Italy or Spain who is warming their heart.  Opera is coming back.  Journalists are hyping up exhibits, shows, and the latest in literature from South America or Asia.

All the way through the 1980s....there's these wonderful things being delivered to German society with multiculturalism.  There are few questions asked or suggestions of braking on the topic.

So the movement of migrants starts to occur.  There is rapid acceptance of Italians, Greeks and Spaniards in Germany.  To some degree, even the Turks brought in for the industrial jobs are readily accepted.

My humble view is that around the 1990s....as you looked at various urbanized areas of Germany....the term "ghetto" started to be used.  Intellectuals refused to use the term, but cops and regular people did use it.

In the last fifteen years, what can be said is that a number of cultures and societies moved into Germany who had no art, no literature, no music, and no science to share.  The intellectual crowd and politicians still conveyed the term multiculturalism, but it was a fraudulent connection to the term.

Since the hyped up period of immigration, refugees, and migrants (2013)....more than half of German society don't buy into multiculturalism anymore.  Even the Chancellor noted about two years ago, that it's now a failure.  Intellectuals won't go and admit it much.....but it's not hyped by the press quiet as much anymore.

As long as multiculturalism could deliver art, music, literature, and science.....it had sense to it.  Without those things, it makes no sense.

In the sense of a fairy tale, this is where you'd like to say that Snow White woke up and married the prince, but in this case....Snow White realized the Prince was a loser....got on her horse, and took off to the next kingdom for another potential prince.....ending there at that point, without any real solid conclusion.  It's a sad way to end such a story, but that's one of the limitations of being an intellectual....some things just don't work out.

Crime in Simple Terms

If you had been an American stationed around in Germany in 1989 and had a good view of crime in Germany at the time.....then came back today, I think you would be shaking your head and astonished at the different environment which exists today.

On the topic of pick-pockets....you rarely saw any German urbanized area with this problem in 1989.  Today?  I'd say almost all of the urbanized areas have this problem....some more....some less.  Snatch and go crimes are common in every significant German city now....with cellphones stolen at hefty rates.  Young thugs from Romania and gypsy gangs are mostly the ones blamed for the upswing.  You have to pay attention to those around on a constant basis.

On the topic of stolen cars....it's typically Audi, Mercedes and BMWs that get stolen.  They've figured out the signal technology to unlock the doors.  Most of these episodes occur between 11PM and 4AM.  On the rare occasions that the thieves are caught....it usually leads back to very small groups of thieves from eastern Europe.  The cars?  Cops tend to say they go toward Czech, and disappear.  The suggestion is that they get into Russia....get registered into the system there and cops just look the other way.  The other game played is parts stolen (tires, safety airbags, GPS systems, etc)....always from Audi, Mercedes and BMW.  In my village of 4,000 people....if you go back to 1989, there were zero cars stolen.  In 2015, around 11 cars that disappeared overnight (my renter had her Audi stolen from in front of the house).

On the topic of assaults....it's generally always at night.  It might be one or two guys who just want to take a swing at you.....or some type of robbery intent.

On the topic of fake cops....it happens on a unpredictable basis.  Three days ago right before sun-down, a car pulls up in Wiesbaden with three guys who flash a badge and ask a German woman to allow them to view her purse.  After they handed the purse back.....they drove off.....she was missing a couple hundred Euro.  Typically it's against tourists.

On the topic of break-in's....it's a regular event now in urbanized areas....almost like a candy store door has been left open.  People are starting to install alarms at a significant rate.  Cops who do catch these folks....usually determine they are east European in nature....Bulgarian or Romanian.

On the topic of drugs....it goes now to all extremes.  Meth can be easily bought....it gets brought into the country from small labs in Czech (the cops say this anyway). Cocaine can be easily bought.  Heroin, LSD, etc.....all within the grasp of German society today.  The users aren't at the same level or rate as you'd see in the US....at least not yet.

On the topic of snatch and go at stores....it's now interfering with normal operations.  Stores are having to spend money on theft-control.  We aren't talking about the normal or big shops....I'm talking about the small two-person operation grocery store.  Even they are getting hit.

On the topic of murders....they might be lucky and see this rate at some similar range of the 1980s.  These usually fall into the jealous relationship area, or just some bad luck in the midst of a robbery.

Germans are a bit hyped up and the political folks are reacting.....hiring more cops.  When you go into a train-station these days in Germany, you will see at least one foot-patrol on duty.  In a station like Frankfurt, there's probably two patrols roaming the station.  If you go to the Frankfurt airport, there are probably five or six foot-patrols roaming the airport now.  

The blame?  Germans will tell you that when the wall came down....it started up around this era.  They will also talk about the cutbacks on cops in the 1990s....to save money.  And Germans will be critical about the foreigners involved in the escalation of crime.

All of this pumps up the agenda of politicians and forces some conversations that never seem to go anywhere or fix anything.  That's the sad part about this story.....nothing is going away.

News From the Weekend

Criticism has come after the long weekend in Germany, with several terrorist acts accomplished and the various news networks....public-run and commercial....covered these in various ways.

First, I will say, from my own view....the commercial networks (N-TV and N-24) did a better job.  RTL News on Monday night....did a great job in summing up everything.

Second, the public-run news from ZDF and ARD showed a limited amount of video from the scene, and simply repeated what the police spokesperson basically said.....with little else.

What has come over the last day or two....are complaints from the general public.

Some Germans are very unhappy that real video of shooting was shown on the commercial networks.  Their feeling is that sensationalized the news.

Some Germans are disturbed at the amount of speculation that was allowed to feed into the news....mostly from the commercial networks.

Some Germans just wanted the simple facts....no big four-star story.

One of the things that I've come to notice over the years of viewing public-run news in Germany is that they package everything into a simplified story.  There's a short video shown....twelve lines max of information....bit-size, as you might say.  Maybe a map with just a city, maybe a river, and the outline of the state or country.

If you ask me....the bulk of German society got used to a plain menu selection of the news.  But then you have to ask yourself.....why did they flip away from the public-run news and watch it via the commercial news networks instead?  Were they like me.....feeling like the public-run news service was marginally telling you much of anything?

I would make five observations about Germans and news delivery:

1.  If this story is complicated and requires more than five minutes to tell the whole thing, then it needs to be spoon-fed process, with a story-teller reporter instead of the typical journalist.

2.  If there is a slant to the story.....the network has to stick to the slant and not change this later with an update saying "sorry, we led you to a deceitful conclusion which we were wrong to do".

3.  Public chat forums on public-run TV are for getting public persuasion to go in a certain way.  That comes later after the nightly news.  This is where you can focus five guests on getting things leading the public to believe a particular version of the story.

4.  Use of comical photos of various world leaders will be used on a frequent basis with public-run TV news.  The commercial network news groups rarely if ever, do something that immature.

5.  It's rare that anyone from the university or foundation systems ever look at public consumption of the news and how they get their daily news.  It would be interesting but I think they don't really want to spill the beans that fewer than 35-percent of the public watches public-run news (my speculation).

Ten German Things That Will Never Be Introduced into the US

This is my list of things which are typically German but just won't make it or be introduced into the US.

1.  Wine and beer consumption at age 16.  The Germans don't see a problem with this.  Go try and convince some American community to allow it.

2.  Unlimited speeds on interstates.  Germans allow on approximately fifty percent of all autobahns....unlimited speeds.  Because of the vehicle inspections and standards set....it works.  In the US?  Never.

3.  Massive use of trams.  I'd take a guess that about forty major urban areas of Germany use trams as part of their public transportation. Various suburbs are closely connected to major cities.  In the US, very few urban communities want to utilize the idea.

4.  Multi-party politics.  The Republicans and Democrats don't want anything to threaten the system they have in place.  The one key feature of the German system is that you tend to find a party that will fit your comfort zone on 90-percent of platform features.  Most Republicans and Democrats will admit....there's always a third of their party's platform which they simply cannot be happy about.  The other unique feature to this is that you have to build coalitions to run a government, which means you have to limit the amount of insults that you use in some political campaign.

5.  Kinder-eggs (the chocolate).  Americans freak out that these toy pieces might be eaten by a two-year old kid.

6.  Tough TUV car inspections.  It's hard for a 15-to-20 year old German car to pass a vehicle inspection unless the owner really makes an effort to keep up the car.  Americans would freak out if the same stringent rules fell into place and they had to go and spend $1,200 to make it qualified for another two years on the road.

7.  Two cops in a patrol vehicle.  You just won't find one single German cop in a patrol vehicle by himself.  They travel and patrol in pairs.  American communities would cite the cost of too many cops and it's just too much for a community to plan around and pay for.

8.  Tough laws on DWI.  When you get cited for a DWI, there's virtually no defense you can offer.....you will lose that license under the German system.  Even if your work is 40 miles away.....tough luck. Go and suggest the same stringent system in the US and watch how everyone gets hyped up against that kind of system.

9.  Liberal drinking standards.  You walk into any German cafe, restaurant, or imbis.....and they offer up beer and wine options.  The most that German communities might limit is the opening or closing hours.  There is simply no such thing as a dry country in Germany.  Go and try to suggest that across the US.

10.  Mandatory chimney inspections.  If you live in a German village or town....their standards for fire safety will require you get a chimney inspection on a routine basis.  A guy will come out and you have to allow him access to the roof and the chimney has to inspected and possibly cleaned.  Go try and mandate to a US community.  

German Reserves Idea Being Discussed

For a number of months, there's been continual talk within the Berlin leadership and the Bundestag....about allowing German soldiers to be called in, if necessary, for civil emergencies.  The French allow for such action.....so does Belgium.

So far, the opposition parties have been totally against the idea (SPD, Linke Party, Greens).....so this never goes anywhere.

So, it's been mentioned over the weekend now of a new idea, which will be pushed.  A national reserve force.

The general idea (it's pretty weak, I will admit)....is that you would create a reserve force that would involve people who've had military or police training.  They would like for it to work like the French military or US reserves model.  It would only involve volunteers.....no one would be forced into it.

Would they be armed?  No one has said anything about that, but you would assume that some firearms might be necessary if they were to serve and protect the public.  This will disturb the opposition parties.

How many would sign up?  That's another unknown in this mix.  If you created tax credit gimmick and said that for every hour of duty, you'd get 10 Euro of tax credit off your taxes.....I would take a guess that 40,000 qualified Germans would quickly ask about requirements and enter.  The truth is....you might only use such an individual four hours a month.  Since most Germans are paying a hefty amount in taxes....a credit would put some of this back into their pocket and serve as "pay" (while being untaxable).  

In Munich from last weekend, they could have activated 100 such reserve members and helped to calm the public and quickly move people out of the danger zone.

Selling it to the opposition?  Someone could hint that it looks like the Brown-shirt goons of the 1930s.  The problem though is that the general public doesn't feel safe.  This would put more people on the street....in some possible uniform, and helping to reassure the public.

Oddly, the French have one rule with their reserve police members....where they can carry a weapon, and some people think this might be a way in the future to expand the reserve police, and give a fair segment of the public a chance to license and carry a weapon.  The same thought might be behind this reserve force in Germany.

My humble opinion is that nationally.....this idea won't go anywhere due to opposition.  But in Bavaria, they might quickly vote up the idea, and pass a Bavarian reserve police force, and it might be active within six months.

Terrorist, Nut-case, Unhinged, or Ultimate Jealousy?

Before you step off and start to ID various shootings, bombings, knifing, and murders into one simple category of terrorism.....you might want to sit down and think about each case.

Last year.....the Eritrean gal killed in Wiesbaden?  That was a jealous ex-boyfriend of hers who killed her....who was not a terrorist.

The Wurzburg Iraqi-wannabe attacker from ten days ago?  That was a fake Iraqi (probably from Pakistan as people suspect) who'd spent an entire year in Germany.  He did a video and claimed all kinds of terrorist causes....so he probably was a terrorist.

The guy from yesterday who killed one gal by knife and wound two others?  He was an immigrant, but cops all lead you to the idea that he was getting turned down left and right as he was trying to make points with the woman, and jealousy probably played some role.

The Iranian-German kid who shot up Munich on Friday night?  He'd spent two months in some mental clinic from last year and probably was on various drugs.  I do agree....he did utter the "AA-word" at least once during the episode.....but he's probably in the category of unhinged.

The guy who tried to blow up the wine fest tent?  He'd been on a list for almost a year to deport, and kept getting a waiver to NOT leave.  No one says how.....some people hint that medical folks kept signing off that he was unwell and could not leave.  The problem is.....if they were doing this.....they didn't end his troubles.....they just prolonged the stress of leaving Germany and put more pressure on him.  He might have uttered the "AA-word" but he was probably fed up with the paperwork and constant attempts to deport him.

The guy in Frankfurt who tried to buy a lot of poison for unknown purposes in 2015?  The court from last month said that he's pretty unsettled and probably needs some mental health time in a private clinic.....stopping short of saying he was crazy but he's not well enough in their mind to be walking freely.

Are there more immigrant crazies in Germany than most of the other countries?  Well....it's hard to substantiate that but you get this opinion that either they came here unhinged, or living in Germany makes you crazy.

I've often hinted this "making you crazy" comment to my German wife, who says it's not a legit psychological condition.

So I'm offering this advice.  After these incidents occur.....assemble all of the facts and draw your own conclusions.  The news folks should not lead you to some false premise.

Effective Nature of German Gun Laws

A fair amount of discussion occurred since Friday's shooting business in Munich, with German society asking questions.  Naturally, as the German logic goes.....something went wrong and we need to fix things.

So, what failed?

Well....the Iranian kid in question....could NOT buy his weapon via the German legalized method of gun ownership.

The first step in gun ownership would have asked if he'd ever been arrested or charged, and on this....he was a perfect candidate.  He'd never been in trouble and apparently never arrested.  He also met the required age requirement.

But the second step was where he'd fail.  You have to have a doctor sign off that you are physically and mentally capable of handling this.  The doctor would have opened the digital file....noted two months in 2015 for a in-patient situation at a mental-health clinic, and currently now in out-patient care with a drug prescription.  On that he would have failed to progress.

The German system worked as designed.

So the kid went to the illegal process.....going to DARKNET and finding an ad for a non-functional Glock.

Cops in Germany have noted for several years that DARKNET is now a problem.....which they aren't really manned for going after the internet area.  They can run a few hit-and-run operations and make a small dent, but the political folks really haven't equipped the German cops for around-the-clock battles on DARKNET.

If you were arresting 200 people a week via DARKNET activities, then you'd start to scare folks into retreating or avoiding it.

It also got pointed out that a fair amount of drug dealing now occurs via DARKNET as well....along with the sales of ID's and such.

My guess is that three months from now when the Munich cops close their report....they will say that every single German gun law worked as designed.  DARKNET attention needs to be focused and more national assets put onto the job.

It won't make Germans happy that there's no easy quick fix or 10-page law to immediately throw up to fix things.....but they might as well admit....they've made just about every single law that is practical and fitting into some fix, and gone well into the impractical or marginalized laws with no effect. Now they need real police work.

Two Footnotes From Munich and the Shooting

Two odd notes made it into the news today in Germany.....over the Munich shooting episode from Friday afternoon.

First, apparently, a couple of Munich teenagers yesterday (Sat) decided to meet up somewhere in the Munich area  for a fantasy game of air-guns (bb guns, for the most part).

Someone made the observation of the three carrying the air-guns in public, and got the cops involved.....who are already hyper-active about preventing any more shootings.

So, the cops connected and found the three kids (two being sixteen and one being seventeen).  They'd gone out apparently on Saturday morning and bought the guns new....at a toy-shop in Munich, and dressed up in dark clothing.

As the cops arrived, the weapons were in full display and in some type of activity.  You can guess the reaction-like behavior of the cops and they were probably ready to shoot upon the three.  Luckily, things got defused quickly, and the three were escorted to the local police station.  Later, their parents were called and had to come down to pick them up.  No comment about the release of the air-guns.

The thing is....right now, the public is drawn to observe and quickly react.....as the cops are.  Anything that looks threatening is going to get cop action immediately. These three punks were wise enough to realize how to calm things down and obey the cops.  In the US.....all three would have been likely shot upon.

The second thing that came out is another footnote about this Iranian-German kid who committed the shooting on Friday evening.

Cops now say that in 2015....this kid was sent off to a psychiatric clinic for two months.  Clinic Halaching.

What they generally said was that he had an extreme case of ADS (Attention-Deficit Syndrome).  After two months there (a fairly lengthy period)....they sent him home and he was on out-patient treatment.

Drugs during the out-patient period.  No one says, but they must have prescribed some type of drug activity.....so I would imagine the cops will spend some time reviewing his medical records and see if it's possible that he was doped up to some extreme that he really wasn't in a world of reality.

The odd thing?  I sat and looked at the name of this clinic.....Halaching.  Last year, RTL (a commercial network here in Germany) did a special report one night.  They sent an undercover team under the Wallraff Report to this clinic.  Various issues were laid out for 2015, and it suggested that they were not really the kind of operation that you'd want to be treated.  No one shut them down or such, but it made enough of an impression on me that I remembered the name.

So, you got a nutcase Iranian kid.....possibly with some serious mental issues.....spending a fair amount of time in a psychological unit last year....probably on some drugs....hyped up on Islam....and got himself a gun.

Most Germans would sit there and assemble the information....and ask some rather stupid but direct questions.  Did the clinic realize the extent of his problems?  What were the drugs and effects upon him?  Are there potentially more mental cases out there who are hyped up on Islam and a threat to the safety of German society?

It's a crazy world, in the literal sense.

Germany and Turkey

It's been eight days now since the fake coup unfolded in Turkey.  I would say that most Germans are sitting in some disbelief at what has unfolded and wondering what kind of partnership that Merkel and the EU were contemplating....with such a neighbor?

For the most part, the top layer of the Berlin leadership are keeping quiet and saying little to nothing....mostly not to antagonize Erdogan or create unnecessary talk to the press.

The expectations?  The EU and Berlin are quiet.  I think they are speculating and expecting some consequences of an extreme nature.

If you read today's Focus.....there's a fine article which talks about the four routes which will probably unfold with Turks packing up and leaving Turkey in large numbers.

The first route is political asylum.....for government officials fired, judges, teachers, and professors.  They would find some way to exit....walk into a German embassy somewhere and simply ask for asylum.  No one knows how the Berlin folks would handle this but they've shown the tendency to accept just about anyone in a hostile environment.

The second route is family immigration, where you get a cousin or uncle to support your movement into Germany.  With more than two million Turks already in Germany....I'd take a guess that one out of every three Turks has some relative here and could easily make such a request.

The third is the work visa.  Naturally, if you had some real talent....skill....degree...craft....then the Germans would be awful interested if you can prove this via documentation and schooling.  But I kinda doubt that 100,000 welders or 16,000 car mechanics are in this mix.  It would be curious if twenty-percent of all Turkish doctors and nurses were aggravated by the government change and wanted out....this work visa would fit easily into their background and get them immediate jobs in Germany.

Finally, the fourth method....just come illegally in.  Walk in from Romania, or get some Russian to take you up to Finland and enter from the north.

The numbers? Unknown.  You can assume from the news reports that 50,000 people have been given notice or termination.  However, as several Brit papers have proven over the past week.....not everything that the Turkish government is saying.....is factual.  In reality, they may have only fired 5,000 such employees and making everyone think it's ten times that many.

Could Germany handle 50,000 Turks over the next six months?  Easily.  250,000 Turks?  Well....with some effort, yes.  500,000 Turks?  That would start to reach a level of pain for the German political folks.

Does this all play into Erdogan's game?  This is the part of the story that you can't be sure about.  Is Erdogan rigging this up to create a stumble for the Merkel government?  If it is a fake coup.....is it a fake exit door to Germany?

Over the next six months, don't be surprised as you start to notice on German nightly news.....some rule change and asylum law modification.....where it helps 20,000 Turks enter the country in a quick fashion.

On the Topic of Political Parties

I often point out the various minor parties that function in the political landscape of Germany.

One of the 21 parties in the Berlin state election is the Welfare Party (Human, Environment, and Animal Protection Party).

Naturally, you'd ask questions.

Well, they have a general platform which is hyped for the Berlin state election.  Their chief three points are: animal rights and protection, (a ban on any and all animal testing), hyping a public health policy that deals a lot with holistic medicine and nutrition, and no screwing around with DNA (trying to change humans, animals or plants).

You would think that most of what they endorse or support....would be perfect for joining the Green Party.  But no, they seem to want their own status.

I went to their web site and looked at their objectives.  It's a curious bit.  They do have various platforms (refugees, education, social policy, anti-bull fighting (Germans don't allow it but they've all seen a bullfight or two in Spain), and even have an anti-circus platform (mistreatment of animals is very bad thing in their eyes).

In 2011's Berlin state election.....they actually took 1.5-percent of the vote (21,612 votes).

If they had aligned with the Greens?  It would have brought the Green Party almost to 20-percent, and edging ever-so-close to overtaking the CDU Party (number two in state politics).

Why so many minor parties existing in Germany?  It's a historical thing.....going back to the 1800s.  Some of this has to deal with bigger parties refusing to open up platform discussions and combining efforts of two or three parties.

If you look at the Green Party of today nationally in Germany.....it was originally two parties.  The Green Party and Alliance 90 Party found common ground and combined.

On the positive side, it does give everyone a chance to find the perfect political party to support and vote.  Note, there isn't a beer-party or a schnitzel-party, in case you were interested.  

The ZDF "Poser" Series

"Poser" typically means someone who is trying to fit in, but usually only achieves it with an exaggeration.

I sat yesterday.....watching Channel Two (ZDF) here in Germany.  They ran a new series on Saturday afternoons....entitled "Mein Land, Dein Land" (My land, your land).

You can take a guess over the topic.....the successful integration stories of German society.  Failed stories?  Well....after watching their episode today, I'd take a guess that failure stories won't be allowed.

It's more of a slant-type show that some intellectual would build to show multiculturalism is moving along and succeeding in Germany.

Thirty years ago.....with limited choices on alternate commercial networks, the public would have watched stuff like this and probably believed most of what they presented.  Today?  There's a large segment of German society who simply don't watch state-run TV, period.  Then there's the crowd who might watch but questions virtually everything they present.  And there's the three-percent crowd (my humble number) who are intellectually motivated and want to believe in such things as multiculturalism.  These are the same people who watch the opera shows, the political chat forums on state-run networks, and the cultural shows.

If a hundred thousand Germans watched this lamely crafted propaganda piece.....the network will probably be happy enough with the results.  They probably got some order via various political folks that they need to be reflecting some positive trend in Germany society, and this is the result of this strategy session.

So, if you were sitting around on a Saturday afternoon and wanted some good decent propaganda-style documentary series, this might be a fine choice.  Or you could watch reruns of Murder She Wrote, a reality series on lumberjacks in the American Northwest, or a darts tournament on the Euro sports channel.

Rock Solid Performance

After all the shooting business in Munich, I'd like  to sit and pause over the one effective speaker for the Munich police.....Marcus da Gloria Martins.

At around 7PM, the Munich cops staged an emergency location, and Martins became the mouthpiece for the cops, the city and authority.  He came and delivered a five-star performance.  When the press got testy or overreached.....he put them back into their place.

About every thirty minutes, he'd come right back up and update the news people.  He warned Munich residents to stay home and they took his advice.  He was clear in his words, and gave people a boost of hope.

I have to say....if they were looking for some new Chancellor-candidate....this is the guy that I'd hire.  Some political party needs to hire this guy and boost him to the national level.

A Dead-End Party

Sometimes, I write for the benefit of Americans who have an interest in Germany.....sometimes for Americans who have an interest in Europe itself, and sometimes for the benefit of Germans.  This essay is for Germans.....particularly intellectual smart Germans.

In the big world of Islam or nationalities.....Sunnis and Shias should be noted as unmixable.  If you ran a immigration center in Germany and just thought all Muslims were one plain vanilla group....well....you are wrong.

Sunnis and Shias don't mix.  If you forced a group into one room for a little party, with cookies and cool-aid, and offered up general conversation on music, soccer, the weather.....within thirty minutes, it'd be obvious that the room is divided with Sunnis on one side and Shias on the other side.

Why this culture difference?  Well....1,300 years ago, there was this discussion after Muhammad died about the leadership for the religion, and some folks wanted a pure line that went to Muhammad's relatives and one wanted a pure religion line with people of the faith in charge.

But why just stop there?

Noticed how Kurds and Turks don't mix well....even though they are of the same region?

Ever noticed how you can mix some Kenyans into a party which includes some Nigerians and they don't really get together very well?

Ever noticed how Poles and Russians don't mix well?

Ever noticed how English and Scots don't mix well?

Ever noticed how Chinese and Japanese don't mix well together?

Ever noticed how Afghans and Pakistanis don't mix well?

So if you were going to run some mass immigration and refugee "party"....would it make sense to think about the consequences of various groups and how they'd fit into the "party"?

I realize there are a lot of university classes that enable an intellectual to realize some great base of knowledge and understanding.....but is there a class where you openly talk about the savage nature of getting ethnic groups to mingle?

In some ways, as an outsider observing how this immigration idea kinda took off and German leadership just stood there amazed at how it worked and talked about the wonderful side of Germans compared to those evil Nazis of the 1930s.....I come to see this whole event arranged as a dead-end party.

There were good intentions.  There were bold expectations.  There were lofty goals.  There were great barriers torn down.

But if you have 10-percent of society that has a permanent life-long enemy, and they happen to live across the street, or sit in the school desk next to you.....all this nice German behavior doesn't really change much of anything.

What usually happens at a dead-end party?  You reach a conclusion as the host at some point....that you really screwed up and should have reshuffled the invitation list.  In the big scheme of Germany?  Well....you do mostly nothing, and just keep hoping that no one notices that it's all become a dead-end party.  If they come to realize how things developed.....that's probably the end of your hosting responsibilities.

State of Political Polling

Last night, ZDF (Channel Two on the state-run TV).....ran Politbarometer....the news segment where they talk numbers in Germany.

So the latest national polling data:

CDU: back up to around 35-percent
SPD: up to around 24-percent
Green Party: 13-percent
Linke Party: slipping a notch to 8-percent
FDP: slipping a notch to 5-percent
AfD: still at 11-percent

Remember, this a national poll....not a state poll.  We are into the summer season, when politics in Germany has simmered down five notches and virtually no one is talking politics right now.  The SPD from two months ago was at around 19-percent....so they've hyped things up a bit.

Not All Cultures are Mature

Once upon a time in my life.....I was naive and had this honest belief that all people.....from all cultures....were at the same maturity and understanding point as myself.  You can call it honest respect or just humble stupidity.....but I started out that way.

By my mid-twenties.....the Air Force had decided to send me to Panama.  It took about a year for me to reach a stage where I could judge people correctly.....and determine that a fair number of Panamanians were not at the same level of civilization as myself.  Between corruption, incompetence, greed, and maturity.....there were simply an extraordinary number of Panamanians who just weren't at the same level.

As I've traveled around the globe over the past forty years.....I've come to agree more and more....there are certain societies and cultures which are lagging....maybe just one generation.....maybe five or six generations.

One of the odd features of living in Germany is that you come to some conclusion after a while that most intellectual Germans try awful hard to convince everyone of some connection to all societies in the world, and we can all live together in peace and harmony.  Typically, this works until the German intellectual ends up in Honduras or some pretender African republic, where they hit harsh reality and retreat quickly back to safe valley's of the Rhine.

As you look at immigration efforts in Germany....the various problems (pool groping, integration, marginal job skills, etc)....you come to three basic observations.

First, there are some immigrants who've arrived and doing everything possible to fit in and integrate.  These are the people who appreciate their new land and deserve whatever help they are being given.  Germans like to tell these stories and share it via the news about success stories.

Second, there are those immigrants who are a generation or two behind.  They are living at best....sixty years or more.....behind the culture and dynamics wheel of Germany.  The pace of things....the openness....the bold dress and appearance of Germans....the provocative nature of Germans....TV, music and the internet?   It's all a harsh new world and they barely can fit into it.  This is a mixed crowd, where some of these people will hang on and survive this period of introduction....cruising along at a slow speed but making it.  Some of these people won't be able to hang on, and they won't make it.

Third, these are the folks who are locked in a society that is more than two generations behind Germany.  These are people with various intentions who arrived and are charmed to some degree with the new land, but on a maturity level....aren't ever going to fit into German society.  Even with all the good intentions of the "do-gooders", the intellectuals, and warm-hearted Germans....it won't be enough to drag these folks onto the same level field of play.

It's almost like a soccer game where some national team is directed to play some village in Tonga, and you try awful hard to keep the marginal team up and looking good while they are losing at every corner of the game.

Admit defeat?  I don't think this German crowd really wants to stand there and say....'yeah, we screwed up'.  Nor do they want to admit there are several levels of maturity and you have to sort people out into different groups.

Eventually, down the road in a year or two.....some Germans will stand up and ask about this maturity thing.  Maybe journalists will stand up and talk about it.....or maybe they will just say it's a non-existent topic and just skip the question.

Munich

I started watching coverage of the shooting in Munich around 30 minutes after it started.  State-run TV....early on.....was dismal.  So I flipped to N-24, and occasionally hit N-TV news.

I have to admit, N-24 did a four-star job....live shots....interviews....putting info out for people in Munich....etc.

Around 10:30, I flipped back to public-run ZDF (Channel Two) and they were trying to deliver the episode from a national prospective and act 'extremely calm'.  At one point, they cut to give you a 60-second President Obama comment over the event (I couldn't figure out the value other than he mentioned the word "German" or "Germany" or "Munich" at least three times).

Chancellor Merkel?  On vacation.  So ZDF flipped to her chief of staff and got a 10-minute commentary from him.  Peter Altmaier gave a powerful interview....calming effect....and was probably what some Germans needed for some hopeful inspiration.

The cops?  From what I can see.....they did a four-star act in Munich, and helped to ensure a safe public.

One of the odd things about this episode is that by 7PM, the cops had shut down every tram and bus in the city.  So, if you were a tourist out on the far side of town away from your hotel.....you were screwed in terms of getting home unless you took a taxi.

As for public concern?  It simply motivates people to question the immigration and refugee policy more.  AfD quietly picks up another couple of thousand supporters because there's literally nothing the government can do....except to react and send the cops in to clean up the mess.

If you go and add up all of the acts in Belgium, France and Germany.....it's typically a young male....between 17 and 25 years old....who has flipped to the far side of Islam.  There aren't any fifty-year-old Muslims committing these acts.

Vacationing in a State of Emergency?

Up until the last week, I would have said that Turkey was a decent vacation paradise.  I did a two-weeker there in 1998 at some seaside resort along the Med and gave it thumbs-up.

I will admit for my two weeks....some risky events did pop up.  The bus that would take you from the resort into the town was roughly 10-cents but it was an American-style school bus which had the whole top and windows removed, so it was a convertible bus which was driven down five or six miles of dirt road which left a nifty dust film on your body.  

The food was ok 90-percent of the time....which meant that about every other day....you ate something that really didn't digest very well.  The beers were acceptable except you could line ten beers from the same brewer, and find that five tasted similar in nature, and the other five all had different varieties of alcohol or taste.

So now after the coup, and after a state of emergency has been put in place....why the hell should any idiot German go there?

This is a fine question and I could understand someone who already paid 3,000 Euro for them and Frau to enjoy all-inclusive two week trip to some resort.  But if I were just browsing and hadn't paid any money?  No, there's just no way that I would go into a country which is under a state of emergency.

In fact, I can't understand the German government not standing up and declaring that it's advising people not to enter Turkey during this period.

It would be curious to watch one of the political chat shows on German state-run news, and have some idiot from Berlin explain how in a state of emergency....it's OK to travel to such-and-such country.

Did the Erdogan crew grasp that when they made up this 90-day state of emergency?  I don't know.  You'd think that someone would mention hotels and tourism as they were talking but who knows?

The typical German?  They will sit there and look at some fantastic deals for Turkish vacations....five star hotels....all-inclusive deals with all the beer or wine you can drink.  But somewhere in their mind....they ought to ask themselves, is it really safe?  If it were....why have a state of emergency order?  The logical German would grin and just walk away....refusing to travel into a state of emergency.

If I were the Greeks....I'd be hyping up a vacation campaign right now....come and visit Greece, the land without a state of emergency.

Lost Pension Story

My wife brought this up late yesterday from her German Handelsblatt newspaper reading (the German Wall Street Journal).  They had a big long article over immigration and refugees.  Some private think-tank had sat down and analyzed both employment potential, and pension futures.

Most experts outside of the German government now give only a quarter of the immigrants (figure 1.5 million total) a chance for real employment within the first 18 months of arrival (figure six months of language, and a year of integration of training).  The rest?  They give them roughly six years before they get some type of decent employment (they include burger-flipping, shelf-stocking at the grocery, and lawn maintenance within that category).

Here's the thing....each year that you don't work.....figure six years and you arrived at age 22.....it means less and less pension contribution.  A normal German starts some type of work around age 16 to 17, with the college graduates around 22.  If you are twenty-eight years old and starting out at a low-rung of the ladder?

You could be talking about ten years of zero contribution to your pension deal.

You can probably anticipate your pension at age 68 to be roughly 700 Euro a month, while the bottom-run German guy would likely be in the 900-950 Euro range.

Can you live off that 700 Euro range for the immigrant who missed years of contributions?  Probably not.  So, you will go down and apply for welfare supplement pay at the social office, and the government will dig into taxation revenue.....to find another 250-odd Euro for the rest of your bare essentials income.

Politicians standing and grinning?  I'm guessing the smart guys who play with the numbers....know the whole story and just sit there shaking their head.  It's nothing you'd worry about in 2016.....or 2026.....or even 2036.  Somewhere around 2040 to 2045.....some folks will come up to ask how this immigration issue from 30 years ago will work.  The reaction will be curious.

Boot-Camp

Years ago, I worked in an Air Force office here in Germany, and had an associate who'd been five years in Germany.  In simple terms, he was the most enthusiastic and German-loving American that I'd ever come across.

There are categories of German-enthusiasm, at least in my book.

I'm in the accidental tourist-Mark Twain category.  You could drop me off in Bavaria tomorrow for a whole month on my own, and I'd get by fairly well.  I'd do it without the tour-guide, the tour-books, or any real plan.  I'd be happy with menu selections, beer choices, and just looking at the landscape.

Another category is the fearful cat category.  This is the guy who will spend three years in Germany and stay mostly on base.  He might make two or three trips around to see things but he'll always be on a tour-bus and operate under a plan.

My associate was one of the one-percent types.....the guy who just absorbs all things German.  He asked stupid questions.....dig into German history....and get weepy-eyed over wine festivals.

His observation was that there ought to be a boot-camp upon arrival in Germany....to give everyone a fair dose of German culture, food, drink, and reality.

We discussed this at length.  You'd be tossed out of bed at 6AM, and put on hiking boots to trek across some woods for an hour.  Then you'd have a hearty German breakfast, with coffee that was 200-percent caffeine, and 500 calorie croissants.  Then you'd get a lecture on the 500 road signs that might appear in your normal day.  By lunch, you'd sip through a hearty dark Bavarian beer, and get another lecture....this time on the proper way of handing the cashier 44-cents in one and two cent coins.  By the late afternoon, you'd sit and watch some stupid reality show about some poor German who'd screwed up and left Germany.  And later in the evening.....you'd sing 1930s songs at some local beer fest.

The thing is, as you look at new immigrants in Germany today.....they more or less had no real boot-camp introduction.

Hajii saw some video-clips of the German autobahn system and cute German blondes in Bavarian farm clothing while back in his homeland.  He got a couple of emails about all the great jobs and fine women of Germany.  So he made the six week walk and adventure into Germany.

Hajii has arrived and been put into some marginal immigration holding camp that doesn't look much like what he saw in the videos.  The food tastes funny.  The guy at the gate gave him 10 Euro for pocket-money today, but he discovered at the grocery just across the street that this only buys you a Pepsi, a can of Pringles, and a BiFi stick of mystery meat.  Hajii sits there and wonders....where exactly is the money and women angle to Germany?

Later, after Hajii gets accepted at the immigration office and gets a visa.....he discovers that they will give him a real voucher of sorts to help get an apartment, but then he finds that in this particular region, there just AREN'T any affordable housing units.  After six months of looking around, he finds a 20 square meter studio apartment that barely fits his needs, but he can afford it.

The German language class helps Hajii meet lovely German women which he writes back to his homeland about but they don't want to share their Facebook or private information.  Hajii describes these women to his buddies back in the homeland as "hard to talk to".

The truth is.....Hajii probably needed one of those six-week boot-camps that my associate talked about.  He needed real orientation about Germany, and at some point.....with reality staring him in the face.....he discovered that Germany just wouldn't work, then you'd give him some paperwork and a airline ticket to return home.

I know.....German politicians would hate this type of deal.  In fact, this boot-camp might scare off sixty-percent of the folks who came all that way for "paradise".  Just for me....finding the ninety-nine ways of taxation on a normal working-class guy.....it'd might freak me out and cause me to leave..

The problem with this idea of boot-camp is that intellectuals would want to get in the middle.  They'd want a reading of Musil and Schiller.  They'd want a three-course dinner each evening instead of brats, sauerkraut or pan-fried potatoes.  They'd want decent clothing instead of the Bavarian style.  They'd talk about great works of music by Handel or Bach....instead of Modern Talking or Lou Bega.  They'd hype up landscape around Berlin, but never drag you out to the rustic Hunsruck land.

Well....just an idea.

The German Fix

There's a piece out of the RP-Online.....the regional newspaper for North Rhine Westphalia......over Islam in Germany today.

The emphasis of this article is that there are literally thousands of young Muslim men....ages 15-18 years old....who are unaccompanied in Germany as refugees or migrants.  All are easily approached by radical recruiters, given some enthusiasm over the religion, and recruited for killing people.

German politicians are now suggesting that it's necessary to push for Islamic education or religious training in German schools for these kids.  Only five German states mandate this for Islamic training.  All German states mandate some religious training either in Catholic or Protestant religions.  This is usually an hour or two a week, for one single school year.  Some call it ethics and religion because it tends to focus more on ethics than anything else.

The idea here is that you would focus these young guys on non-violent actions, behavior of stable person, avoid conflicts, and respect other religions.

Some individuals who've studied the Muslim religion will offer the analysis that the Quran itself is written in a confusing way, and for other sentence that offers good practical advice....there's another sentence to condemn the practical good stuff.  So instruction may have some severe limits.

When this is pushed by German bureaucrats.....the conclusion you can draw is that they are almost at their wit's end....having few if any tricks left in the box to fix the problem at hand.  You really don't want a ax-murderer kid every six weeks in Germany on some train and attacking people.....then having to be shot or put down like some animal.

The class idea?  If this were me.....I'd mandate a class on absolute ethics and respect for every kid in Germany between 15 and 17.  No religion.  Just old fashion respect for people.

My guess is that they will find some way to funnel another billion or so....into some training scheme, and find out by the summer of 2017 that it has zero affect on these young men. But hey.....at least it'll help to funnel another billion in tax revenue into another fake gimmick.

Mentally Confused?

Somewhere among all the news items for Germans today....within public-run TV....is a suggestion that this Afghan kid who attacked folks with an ax on a German train.....was possibly mentally confused.  He, as they suggest....could not grasp his religion, and thus could not survive in this world because of his confusion.

You start it with a simple statement.  Maybe it's just to convince one single person of something that is a bit on the fringe of reality.  Maybe after a month, you've got seven to ten people who've bought into mass confusion.  Maybe after year.....a hundred people.  Maybe after ten years.....maybe 100,000 people.

Eventually some people will wise up and get the joke intended.  Some will wink a bit, and maybe carry on the confusion at different levels.  And some folks will be deadly serious about the confusion....to the point that they'd actually die for the confusion, or allow others to die.....to ensure the survival of the religion.

At some point, those people on the weakest level of survival and existence....will be consumed by such a confused matter.  These are the people who screwed up....lost their place in society, and don't have much left to live for.

The people left at the foolish stage of spending weeks, months, or years handcuffed to and discovering this?  They have to look around and have some desire to walk away, but if your friends and relatives are still into a mass of religious confusion....how can you walk without criticism?  So you fake it.  You drink beer with buddies.....talk of successes and failures.....go back tomorrow to play some fake act with the support of the religion, and just deal with your mental confusion.  After practicing this performance a good bit.....you learn to repeat it day after day.

For those outside of the religion?  We don't really mind letting the pretenders just act out this fantasy and carry it on....for their own benefit.  But there's this second group who aren't exactly rational, respectful, or logical.  This is a group who've taken the mass of confusion to a different level.  In some ways, they've given up on life and determined they'd be best remembered if they were six-feet under, and to achieve that.....they will take civilization down a notch as they go.

Sadly, the pretenders to the mass confusion just stand on and watch this act continue.  They won't dare admit the confusion or convey some words to the irrational or six-feet-under wannabes.  That would risk too much in life for them.

So I go back to the definition of mental confusion, and try to assemble what really makes a good confusion stand out.  To make a large-scale fabrication....you need to charm the public with various statements.  It helps to build up a grand status, having the right people continually pass on messages to support the confusion, and keep quoting some theme which is central to the confusion.  You run songs with video.....offer up some prayers....and talk of the great beyond.  You would wish that a guy would draw a line on confusion....trying to separate it from reality.  But maybe he's just too far into the business.

This really isn't rocket science....but you have to wonder....are these mentally confused people really that screwed up?

Along the Rhine

Summer has arrived in Germany (officially with schools out and working folks off).

So, one of the more practical ways of wasting summer time will be leisurely walks or biking tours.

This area is on the south side of the Rhine in Mainz....near the bridge. If you sit there under the shade for an hour, you probably will observe at least hundred bicyclists and two-hundred walkers making tour through Mainz.

Various trails are laid out and you could bike or hike 30 kilometers in one single day very easily, and return by bus or train to the starting point.

These signs are one of the positive things about Germany today.  Thirty years ago....you rarely saw such signs.  City planners have worked these into the trail system and it helps.

The positive of this choice along the Rhine? Well....it's mostly all flat.  I realize that some folks are begging for hills and steep valleys....but there is something to appreciate about just plain flat surface and straight paths that just barely drift to the left and right.

The one negative is that you don't come across too many pubs or refreshment points.  You kinda have to plan ahead....go a mile off-course....to find a place with ice-cream or a refreshing German apfelwein.

The last picture?  The north side of the Rhine....heading west toward Wiesbaden.

One added note, which an American might appreciate...is that you could ride for an entire day and never be in some region or area that you might fear, or worry about crime.

Even in the most rural of areas along the Rhine, you are at best ten minutes away from civilization, a cold beer, and a comfortable place to chill out.

Germany, the Numbers, and Immigration

One of the better choices of Germans news sources....is the Handelsblatt....the German equivalent of the Wall Street Journal.  The negative is that it doesn't come in an English version.....nor is it a simple reading document (you can figure 90 minutes of reading time, if you actually go and read the entire daily edition).

My wife gets it.....mostly to observe German business news and investment strategies.

Yesterday, they laid out a five-star graphical piece.....two entire pages....with information that they'd gleaned from BAMF (the state immigration agency) on immigration and refugees.  It told the story of what refugees offer and how each group are packaged in a different way.

So for example.....you take the fine graphic of Syrian refugees.  Twenty-seven percent have some fairly decent level of education....with forty-one percent who speak English, and one-percent who spoke some level of German upon arrival.  They made up roughly 327,000 in 2015.

The most educated or trained group?  The Iranians, with 35-percent of them having a degree or craft....but there were only 19,000 of them to arrive in 2015.

The least of the groups in 2015?  The 25,000 who came from Pakistan had only 8-percent with some education or craft to offer....and only five-percent speaking English.

I might also put the group from Eritrea (18,000) at the end of the spectrum as well....with less than 4-percent with a degree or craft, but 18-percent of them did speak English.

The other story told by the Handelsblatt graphic is the incoming and outgoing numbers.  All total....2.1 million people arrived into Germany in 2015.  Yet, almost one million didn't stay.....either moving onto another country or returning back to the home country.

What you get from this whole graphic?  Well....there are simply a lot of people who don't have an education or craft to offer in a positive way for quick and easy employment.  Translation?  Roughly two-thirds of 1.1 million who came in 2015.....won't be easily employed and will require not just months of job training and language classes.....but perhaps even two or three years.  This also translates into a monetary amount of money, which the Berlin leadership can never really say with a definite feeling....how much this will cost.

If you go to the Hessen state leadership.....they will tell you how much regular school costs (for kids) have risen, and how much they are pouring into job-center training or certification-related classes.  They can relate what they were paying in 2014 and what it's gone up to today.  Oddly, getting all sixteen states to some table and getting the German federal government to grasp the cost....doesn't ever seem to be a big priority.  It's like.....it's best we not know what the real cost amounts to or how it relates to the revenue taxation business.

But you can go further with the numbers and talk about what these Middle East countries have done over the past two decades in terms of education.  

Assad?  For all the evils that one brings up, he put a fair amount of state capital into training, craftsmanship, and universities. 

The same can be said for Iran.  

Eritrea?  Not very much.....and Afghanistan has nothing much to brag about.  

It's not to say everyone from Syria is 'gifted', but it does give them a step up on the immigration and integration process.

There are a hundred ways of looking at how the Berlin leadership handled the refugees and immigration process over the past four years, and grade them from dismal to positive.  The general public today (more than fifty-percent) ask questions....more so than in 2014 or 2015.  They'd like to know just how deep into a mess they've gotten, and how much this will cost in the end.  It's safe to say that the answers aren't comforting or appreciated.  But then you go back to the original German problem.....lack of a decent birth-rate.  If nothing happened, by 2045....they'd be down to sixty-five to sixty-eight million residents (from the eighty-one million of today).  This has been discussed in volumes by private foundations, government statistical agencies, and university research projects.....so it's not much to dispute.

Maybe twenty years down the road....something about this whole thing will make sense and prove the Berlin leadership somewhat correct in their strategy (if there was one to actually exist).  Maybe we will find 40-percent of the burger flippers for Burger King in Germany to be Eritrean in twenty years.  Maybe some Syrian 19-year old kid in twenty years will be Chancellor of Germany.  Maybe three Iranian-German women will win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in twenty years, who were teenage refugees in 2015.  You just don't know.

My parting comment is that occasionally, these five-star graphics in the Handelsblatt will give you a ton of information if you really sit there and read through all the numbers.  

Criticism Over the German News?

One of the obvious things left over from the Bavaria train attack of last night.....is the news delivered and the slow reaction time.  Various news criticisms have been laid out this morning.....with hostility brewing over the state-run news apparatus.

Some Germans will say that state-run news (via Channel One or Two (ARD or ZDF))....are focused upon structured news delivery.  So.....they react in a very slow way to fast reacting news. This is often proven more true for things happening after 5PM in the day, or on weekends.

In last night's case, where they did try to get some pieces of the story on within an hour after the attack.....the description would be marginal and often comical.

One example was a live on-the-spot interview with one reporter from ARD.  The moderator asked a couple of questions.....which led back to a three-line description that he started off with.  At one point, the moderator asked for more direct knowledge, and the reporter responds that some of this....he picked up from some gas station in the local area and was a marginal commentary (maybe by a local guy, the gas station manager, or a cop), but he never made that clear.   In the end......roughly 70 minutes after the attack, all you could get is three simple lines of info.  That was it.

I think the public-Tv-run news folks have three basic issues.

First, they want everything to fit perfectly into a contrived story-telling event.  In most cases, there will be rules on structure.....rules on blame....rules on political agendas.....rules on things fitting a slant.  They've done it this way for decades, and aren't about to refocus or rebuild the design of the news in Germany.

Second, German journalists for the most part....work day-shifts.  They might come in at noon and work through to midnight.  For ZDF, their last night episode at around midnight, will likely involve one senior reporter, a junior reporter, a couple of camera guys, a director, and maybe two or three video-technicians.  All of them will likely be gone by 1AM.  The bulk of news production for state-run TV likely occurs between 1PM and 5PM each day.

Third, let's face facts.....they aren't geared to be an ongoing 24-hour news network.  They may pretend that the Phoenix Channel (state-run) is geared toward this, but I would challenge this by saying that the bulk of what the Phoenix Channel produces is recorded material for later usage.  Even for N-TV and N-24....both commercially run.....they aren't built to handle a 24-hour news situation.  The bulk of their employees probably work from mid-morning to mid-evening.

Look, it's a country of eighty-one million residents.  Roughly one-third of all German adults absolutely vow never to watch state-run networks for anything, even the news.

For the whole state of Hessen (almost six million) it's hard to dig up 30 minutes of nightly news for HR.  So you end up with some reporter doing a spot on tree-planting ceremony, some teacher retiring after 40 years of school-teaching, or a complaint by a viewer on a poorly-planned cobblestone project in Darmstadt.

In the case of this attack in Bavaria?  It's the simple case of a nut immigrant, who didn't need guns.....he just used an ax and knife to cut up on fifteen Germans on an evening train.  Cops reacted....shot just one round.....and ended the guy's life.  Basically three lines of info....at best.

The Train Attack

What can be said is that somewhere between Ochsenfurt und Würzburg, a regional train got stopped in the middle of nowhere.....around 11PM last night, in Bavaria.

Cops were called.  Some nutcase Afghan kid....17 years old....had an axe and was hacking on German passengers.  An ax and knife were used.  Cops say now.....fifteen injured, no one dead (yet).  Cops stormed the train.  Kid was apparently was told to halt.....failed to do so....and was shot dead.  Journalists say it in such a way that the cop fired just one round, which generally goes at the heart at what I've said in the past.....German cops get plenty of practice at shooting.

Three of the folks injured.....were hurt pretty bad....requiring an ambulance trip.  The rest can be put into the much lesser type of injuries.

The emergency brake was pulled by a passenger, thus alerting the engineer of a "problem".

The Afghan kid?  He had come to Germany unaccompanied as a teen, and by German law required to be under parental supervision.  The government says he had been placed with a foster family in Bavaria......no one says for how long.

Oddly enough, Bavarian political folks were up at midnight, getting briefed, and a public press conference or statement was read at roughly 1AM.

I should note that around 11:45 last night, I was up and watching German public-run TV.....a decent movie, and they simply ran two lines of text to alert folks of some attack in Bavaria.  More to come at midnight when the movie ended.  They gave a ten-minute summary, and that was it.  Nothing else.

Most Germans, I would guess.....will ask questions, and it'll be  just another hint of trouble in the big "D".  Some state organization will cough up the money for a coffin, and some Muslim group will conduct a proper burial for the kid.  Radicalized?  Maybe.  Or maybe just a nutcase who got hyped up on some fraudulent religious stuff.

The thing is....from my prospective.....there are millions of Germans who ride the rails everyday, and count on the maintenance business to work, and that people behave well enough.....to safely get to work or home.  Today, they have to question their safety.

Just a Plain Regular Nut

When you go and look at the Nice, France attacker....Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel....there are several things that kinda stand out....for the normal Muslim jihad freak.

Virtually everyone around, even relatives and neighbors....say that Bouhlel actively used drugs, drink heavily, etc.

While married and producing three kids.....everyone around noted that he had absolutely zero interest in religion (any type).

He was never seen for almost a decade in the local mosque.  He ate pork regularly.  He drank beer by preference.  He liked pot.....a good bit.  He liked to make hints to other women on his availability.  He liked women (in the physical sense).

Local folks described a 'blackness' that had overcome his character when the wife confronted him and went for a divorce.  He drank excessively and behaved like some crazy lunatic.  The wife even had restraining orders against him because of his violent behavior.  One has to think that he was using some type of narcotic which hyped up his behavior.

His hobbies?  That's the strange thing: martial arts, boxing, and lifting weights.  One has to imagine that he probably testing steroids on the side, and it might have affected his behavior.

The one strange note comes from the family which describes him from around a decade ago.....in a depressive state of mind and he had was said to be a nervous breakdown.  It would be curious if the doctor diagnosed him with such without any drug tests, and if he was already on some steroids there in 2003/2004.

Finally, the family lawyer makes a comment, which France 24 (a great news source).....from whatever encounters that he had with the guy (probably over divorce paperwork and the court order to stay away from the wife).....his impression was that the guy really wasn't that clever or capable of hiding himself.  He was likely the type who jump to conclusions.....doing things without thinking about them or acting on an impulse.

For anyone who suggests that this guy radicalized very quickly.....I might suggest something other than that.  This guy just crossed some path one day.....to die, and take people with him.  You can call it Jihad or Islam or whatever, but this guy didn't seem to really fall into the "I-got-religion" category.  He just made an impulsive decision and killed all those innocent people.  There might have been a plan, but it was the type that would fit on a 3x5 inch card (which doesn't really say much).

I know.....people would prefer a nice tidy jihad angle.  But this was a nutcase guy.....likely just on an impulse.

And here's the thing.  There are probably 10,000 such nutcases in France who are capable of a slam-bang decision like this and going out in a blaze of glory.  We have the same issue in the US....except probably ten times that number.

All this sorrow.....created by an unbalanced guy?  Yeah.  You can mix Islam into this because he's from the right family and should have hung out in the mosque.  But he's just a plain regular nutcase, who liked beer and pork.  Go figure.

All of this?  From France-24.