Q-and-A: Germany: 23 Feb 2022

 1.  Did Covid drop big-time in the news yesterday?

Kinda shocking that they barely even mentioned anything related to Covid.....the war in the Ukraine is now about fifty-percent of prime-time public TV news.

2.  Are people drawing parallels to Georgia (2008)?

Well....there was a brief five-day 'war', and a chunk of Georgia which had a fair sum of ethnic Russians....was chipped off as a new part of Russia.  Same script, in this case....there's two districts on the far eastern side of the Ukraine, and based on the maps shown by German journalists....they are Luhansk and Donetsk (referred to as Oblasts, not districts).  

The lines drawn?  About half of each Oblast, and the size of maybe  one-sixth of Alabama.  The general chatter is that population-wise in these two Oblast areas....the vast majority of locals are ethnic Russian.  

3.  So these ethnic Russians (former Ukrainians) think they are better off?

This is debatable, and in the 'fury' of the moment.....they probably believe it.

4.  Former Chancellor Schröder in trouble?

Since 2006, he's been a 'talking-head' of Gazprom (the Russian natural gas company) and a major source of embarrassment for the Germans....particularly the SPD Party.  Last week, the BND reminded the government (and public) that they did the analysis back in the 2005/2006 era, and forecasted the close connections to the Russians.

So you have two elements in play.  One element wants the SPD Party to dump (dismember) Schröder.  The other element wants the government to dump all privilege's that Schröder has as a former Chancellor.  Anyone's guess how this will go.

5.  Aren't the Oligarchs  (the Russian billionaires) peeved?

Anyone's guess here, but I suspect if you had ten of them in a bar and asked their opinion....they'd be asking just how much punishment they have to accept (lost profits, no easy access to Paris or Rome, limited banking 'world').

If this were to go on....meaning the two districts of the Ukraine consumed, and the punishment being permanent?  Long-term, it's hard to see Putin being accepted for the mess.

6.  This residential building fire up in Essen turning into a big deal?

Roughly five days ago, up in Essen....at a 50-apartment building...fire started up on some balcony.  This was a complex of several buildings, but the fire was contained to just this one building.  

Totally destroyed?  Yes.  Locals say 3 folks were taken to the hospital....but no deaths.  

So we come to a interesting topic.  It's a new building (10 years old) and they used the foam-stuff to help insulate the structure.  This was a big deal back twenty years ago for folks to add.  Well....the foam helped (with the wind) and 'fed' the fire to be a massive problem for the fire department.  

Lot of chatter going on about this, but one must remember....there are thousands of buildings built in that era with the foam.  

7.  Discussion starting up with mental health folks that there are a lot of Germans who seem to be in need of treatment for hypochondria issues?

For the record, hypochondria is when you worry day and night, that you either are sick with something, or think you are about to have something....but it's all perception.  

Some doctors in Germany are suggesting that Covid has brought on these 'customers/clients' who perceive things but don't have the actual symptoms.  

Long-term issue?  I would suggest that, but there's not much of a cure.  You'd have to ship folks off to some brain-wash 'camp' and convince them that their ailments are imaginary.  

8. If Nord Stream II was authorized to run....just how much of Germany's natural gas would have been Russian?

Well....I can  only cite this from the ARD (public TV) journalists....to which they suggest a fully operational Nord Stream II would have brought the Russian amount up to 70-percent of all natural gas in Germany.  

Kinda funny to see this now.  If I were Putin....I would have waited another year....gotten the authorization to turn it on....gotten massive cheap contracts worked up, and then spring the war on the Germans.  

9.  Minimum wage increase to 12 Euro per hour....now concreted down?

Yes, as of 1 Oct.  Influence upon the inflation business?  It keeps the inflation pot boiling.  Everything, from a burger menu at Burger King....to having your tires changed....to sipping a beer at the local pub....will go up in the 4th quarter of 2022.

10.  Retirement home nurses/support personnel getting a one-time bonus?

What the coalition government says....a 550-Euro bonus will be given out by the government shortly.  Enough to make them 'happy'?  Lets not get silly here....it's enough to smile over for about a week, then go back to reality that they are generally under-paid.  

11.  Should Germany worry about annexation from Russia as well?  

I saw a humor piece (social media wise) where some German suggested there are enough Russians in Germany.....to create a annexation here as well.

The number throughout all of Germany?  It's divided into three groups, but totals around 3.5-million who could call themselves ethnic Russian.  The groups?  There's the plain old fashioned Russians who migrated into Germany over the past fifty years, then you have the Aussiedler/Spätaussiedler/Russlanddeutsche (the ones that left 300 to 500 years ago, then returned in the past couple of decades), and then finally the Russian Jews.

If you asked me over assimilation of this ethnic Russian group into German society....they have mostly integrated.  If you walk into any big-name German grocery.....there will be a Russian row, and sixty-odd products lined up that typically would only be in Russia.  In cities like Frankfurt and Berlin, there are several Russian-only product stores.  I have to admit....there is one small shop even in the Wiesbaden area.

Lot of Russians in Berlin?  Some put the number up around 25,000.  Even in my town of Wiesbaden....I'd go and suggest at least 2,000 Russians have come in....within the past decade.  

This suggestion being a 'joke'?  I'd be about 99-percent in agreement.  But it's a amusement that Putin could suggest as a joke, and German journalists would freak out.