Thursday, June 8, 2017

German News Bits for Thursday Afternoon

Iranians review attack:  If you go through the German news media, the two attacks in Iran are being taken apart and reviewed.  The Iranians appear to be looking at Saudi Arabia as the sponsor of the two attacks.  A bad thing?  If you take this and the current Qatar business....there's some unstable event unfolding, and one might bet on the Iranians creating some ISIS-like group to operate in Saudi Arabia.

German Red Cross member stabbed:  Several news sources report from yesterday that a German Red Cross member was stabbed at a Psychological center in Saarbrucken for immigrants.  The general story is that it was a young man (27) being treated for likely war-stress (from Syria) and some reaction occurred where the Red Cross member tried to calm the guy down, and it went into a serious confrontation.  PTSD has been brought up on numerous occasions....some journalists even discussing the problem of Syrian/Iraqi kids brought into Germany and their effects from the ISIS-war.  The Germans have attempted to provide treatment but this is not something that they have seen a lot of in the recent past.

More Turkish troops for Qatar:  A short piece came out via Focus today....talking on the topic that Turkey is discussing more Turk troops being deployed in Qatar.  Reason?  Perhaps to send a message to Saudi Arabia but it's to say that it'll be nicely interpreted.  My humble guess is that it'll be a small contingent and just enough to make some statement but not go and be seen as a potential threat to anyone.

New German pension plan:  The SPD Party held a public talk and threw their newest idea for pension reform on the table.  For Schulz, this is a make or break type moment and he hopes to redefine the political campaign which appears stalled right now.  The new deal?  The pension idea would be to freeze and hold pensions at 48-percent of your present retirement salary.  It's a difficult program because the population is decreasing and very few economic models show a method to repair the current pension program.  To make this idea work, the SPD wants to take 3-million self-employed people in Germany....who are presently NOT putting money into the state-program, and force them to participate with the current state program.  If you read through the article, you might note that no one sat and asked the three-million self-employed people their opinion about this.  An added feature of the plan is to mandate everyone work to age 67.....which has not been a big sales item on past suggested uses of this age for retirement.  Of interest to the public in this campaign season?  I might take a guess that only one-third of German society is pumped up about this SPD plan.

The death toll at the Wall:  It's been over 25 years since the Wall came down and Germany was unified.  Recently, the government authorized a study to determine how many Germans died trying to escape from East Germany into West Germany.  Total?  327.  If you went back into the 1990s.....there were much higher estimates, so these researchers sorted through the reports and were able to reach a confident number.

Trial of gunman starts:  I mentioned this episode back in late December of 2016.  Small kiosk operation in Wiesbaden-Biebrich (near the Rhine).....guy enters with a gun....threatens the husband-wife team who run the shop and their nephew who was visiting.  Guy shoots the wife and escapes.  Cops catch the guy within a few days....mostly due to DNA and description.  Repeat offender (noted for drugs and weapons).  Case started yesterday in a Wiesbaden court.  What the guy says now is that he doesn't remember anything....relates to excessive alcohol and possible drugs.

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