Last year, the German Interior Ministry came out and made a strong suggestion across the country.....that people need to have a 10-day supply of food in the house, and have the ability to survive without electricity and heat for that period.
I questioned this, as my German wife brought up this topic. The accepted logic for this was that people used to have a stash of food, and were capable of surviving a week without power. In the last two decades....there's a belief that people aren't prepared for emergencies in Germany. At least, that's the storyline.
Me? I'm a bit suspicious why you need this stock of food, water, beer, etc.....in the basement to make it through the period. Is there some worry that jihadist thugs will hit the grid, and knock power out for a week or a month? Is there some meteor expected to hit? Is there a blizzard anticipated down the road?
This brings me to my part in this emergency planning episode. My wife finally dictated that I needed to get a Coleman-like grill or propane device for emergency cooking. I'd made it throughout life without ever having to buy or use one. I'm a charcoal guy.
So I went through the German camping choices and picked out a simple burner and bought enough fuel for two weeks.
My issue now is that I'll store this in the basement, and it'll remain there for forty-odd years, where my son will one day be cleaning out shelves and find the whole kit sitting there. He'll wonder about the necessity of it....toss it in the garbage, and a week later....some other idiot interior ministry chief will tell everyone to prepare for some emergency, then he'll rush out to buy another propane unit.
To add fuel this fire....I've kinda told the wife that 99-percent of the German soup or can selection is crap, and I'd rather just get ten days of canned peaches and beef jerky.
On beer and wine reserves, it's safe to say I'm not very worried.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Short Discussion over Berlin Airports
Around ten years ago, the general plan in Berlin was that with Tempelhof shut down....both Tegel and Schonefeld would be shut down shortly after BER (the new airport was completed and operational). As of today.....BER is still non-operational and it could be 2018....maybe 2019....before it opens.
Today, I noticed in RBB coverage (the Berlin local public network) that a large petition is making its way around. Folks in Berlin want Tegal to remain open....even if BER opens. Tegal was discussed over a year ago in talks to dismantle the whole airport and use for public projects. Now?
Part of this problem is that five years ago....it was realized that the size of the new BER would not be enough, and they already needed to start work on a renovation project to enlarge the uncompleted airport. That's how screwed up the process has become.
Schonefeld? It was discussed a year ago about keeping it open strictly for discount airlines and VIP flights flying into Berlin.
The local angle? Part of this problem is the new city government (SPD-Green-Linke Party) and the general public frustration in that they might be 'stupid-enough' to shut down the two old airports and leave the city with a undersized BER instead....making air travel for Berlin a joke.
If you get the feeling that the airport business has become some political joke....well, that's the attitude among some folks when you talk about the last decade and BER planning.
Back in 1970....Berlin's population was 3.2 million. Today, it's 3.6 million. Tourism has become an enormous issue, with thousands arriving in Berlin by car, rail, or plane each week.
It's difficult to say that the Berlin political crowd had some futuristic understanding of the airport business or the goals necessary to project out a decade at a time. When you look at Frankfurt....it's not owned or maintained by the city of Frankfurt or the state of Hessen.....it's a commercial operation. If they do decide on expansion plans....like a runway or terminal....they have to ask permission of the state....but the airport has a lot to say over where they are going for the future. You don't get that impression with Tegal, BER, or Schonefeld.
Oh, and to wrap up this discussion? Well....the whole re-use plan of Tempelhof has been hotly contested by the public and the politicians. Oddly, a lot of people have various ideas over how the open ground should be used, and nothing today can be said as 'concreted-down'. The two 6,000 runways? Yet to be taken down. And with all the fairly negative effort around Goerlitzer Park....no one really trusts the city on having a four-star plan.
Today, I noticed in RBB coverage (the Berlin local public network) that a large petition is making its way around. Folks in Berlin want Tegal to remain open....even if BER opens. Tegal was discussed over a year ago in talks to dismantle the whole airport and use for public projects. Now?
Part of this problem is that five years ago....it was realized that the size of the new BER would not be enough, and they already needed to start work on a renovation project to enlarge the uncompleted airport. That's how screwed up the process has become.
Schonefeld? It was discussed a year ago about keeping it open strictly for discount airlines and VIP flights flying into Berlin.
The local angle? Part of this problem is the new city government (SPD-Green-Linke Party) and the general public frustration in that they might be 'stupid-enough' to shut down the two old airports and leave the city with a undersized BER instead....making air travel for Berlin a joke.
If you get the feeling that the airport business has become some political joke....well, that's the attitude among some folks when you talk about the last decade and BER planning.
Back in 1970....Berlin's population was 3.2 million. Today, it's 3.6 million. Tourism has become an enormous issue, with thousands arriving in Berlin by car, rail, or plane each week.
It's difficult to say that the Berlin political crowd had some futuristic understanding of the airport business or the goals necessary to project out a decade at a time. When you look at Frankfurt....it's not owned or maintained by the city of Frankfurt or the state of Hessen.....it's a commercial operation. If they do decide on expansion plans....like a runway or terminal....they have to ask permission of the state....but the airport has a lot to say over where they are going for the future. You don't get that impression with Tegal, BER, or Schonefeld.
Oh, and to wrap up this discussion? Well....the whole re-use plan of Tempelhof has been hotly contested by the public and the politicians. Oddly, a lot of people have various ideas over how the open ground should be used, and nothing today can be said as 'concreted-down'. The two 6,000 runways? Yet to be taken down. And with all the fairly negative effort around Goerlitzer Park....no one really trusts the city on having a four-star plan.
Germans, Facts, and Fake News
Public-run public-TV ARD (Channel One in Germany) has set up a fake news site called the Faktenfinder.
The mission? Well....they will attempt to find stories which are fake and let the public know about them. And they will attempt to educate the public to recognize fake stories.
I sat and read through the various pieces put up on the site.
They did pick up on a AfD brochure piece, where the political party did stretch the truth on Koblenz and it's sale of property. This was not so much fake news, as false political talk. It would lead me to ask if Faktenfinder folks would examine the diesel trends in Stuttgart, or pick up on the BER airport updates from the city of Berlin. I kinda doubt it.
A "crisis of facts"? Since the dawn of civilization....mankind has had to deal with a continuing crisis of facts. In some cases, it was simply too many facts to come to a rational understanding. In other cases, it was few facts with some expert giving dumping speculation on you which might or might-not be true. We've reached a stage now with news where you might get 200 news pieces in one single day, and to be honest....95-percent have little to nothing to affect you or your lifestyle.
I regularly read through not only newspapers in our era....but also from 50 to 100 years ago. It's an odd thing when you read articles from the 1890s....where the bulk of a newspaper chatted about things within 50 miles of their publishing location, and you found out about lost horses, a fire at such-and-such barn, or that relatives were visiting the Widow Perkins from the Ozarks. Today's news wants to involve you in some terrible snake problem in Malpuri, India, or let you know about the toilet paper shortage in Venezuela, or discuss at length about some Icelandic gal who showed up topless at the Arkanes public pool (folks weren't expecting that kind of behavior).
The problem with this whole fake news discussion in the public eye....is that eventually....some folks will wake up, and start to ask pointed questions. This will evolve into a 360-degree observation and then invoke criticism of various stories. It won't be just fake stories, but bias stories, deliberate misinformation, and false characterizations. Legit news sites will be viewed as much as fake news sites.
I expect in two years that this whole trendy thing of the Faktenfinder and fake news will quietly be retired and the news media folks try to restart the thing from scratch....pretending that they solved the whole mess. When they start to realize that fewer than 200 hits a day occur with their fact-checker....the question will be if it was ever necessary.
The mission? Well....they will attempt to find stories which are fake and let the public know about them. And they will attempt to educate the public to recognize fake stories.
I sat and read through the various pieces put up on the site.
They did pick up on a AfD brochure piece, where the political party did stretch the truth on Koblenz and it's sale of property. This was not so much fake news, as false political talk. It would lead me to ask if Faktenfinder folks would examine the diesel trends in Stuttgart, or pick up on the BER airport updates from the city of Berlin. I kinda doubt it.
A "crisis of facts"? Since the dawn of civilization....mankind has had to deal with a continuing crisis of facts. In some cases, it was simply too many facts to come to a rational understanding. In other cases, it was few facts with some expert giving dumping speculation on you which might or might-not be true. We've reached a stage now with news where you might get 200 news pieces in one single day, and to be honest....95-percent have little to nothing to affect you or your lifestyle.
I regularly read through not only newspapers in our era....but also from 50 to 100 years ago. It's an odd thing when you read articles from the 1890s....where the bulk of a newspaper chatted about things within 50 miles of their publishing location, and you found out about lost horses, a fire at such-and-such barn, or that relatives were visiting the Widow Perkins from the Ozarks. Today's news wants to involve you in some terrible snake problem in Malpuri, India, or let you know about the toilet paper shortage in Venezuela, or discuss at length about some Icelandic gal who showed up topless at the Arkanes public pool (folks weren't expecting that kind of behavior).
The problem with this whole fake news discussion in the public eye....is that eventually....some folks will wake up, and start to ask pointed questions. This will evolve into a 360-degree observation and then invoke criticism of various stories. It won't be just fake stories, but bias stories, deliberate misinformation, and false characterizations. Legit news sites will be viewed as much as fake news sites.
I expect in two years that this whole trendy thing of the Faktenfinder and fake news will quietly be retired and the news media folks try to restart the thing from scratch....pretending that they solved the whole mess. When they start to realize that fewer than 200 hits a day occur with their fact-checker....the question will be if it was ever necessary.
Promises From the Linke Party
Last night, there was a two-minute news piece from ARD (Channel One from the public networks here in Germany) over a meeting at the Linke Party.
We are in the midst of a campaign season, and politicians tend to meet....discuss objectives and hype up their agenda for the future, and the vote. This morning, I went back and did a fair amount of reading over the hyped-up agenda.
So, there's three interesting aspects of the Linke Party objectives.
First, they want the NATO arrangement ended. Oddly enough, they want a military cooperation arrangement with Russia. They didn't go into details how this arrangement would work but they obviously felt that it could only be a good thing.
With this NATO thing ended....they also wanted the Germany military budget cut by 30-percent, and all present deployments outside of Germany to end.
You might be able to convince 50-percent of the voters that NATO has outlived its usefulness (even I'd agree to that), but having some military relationship tied direct to Russia? Well....no, that idea won't sell well to the German public.
Second, they want the welfare plan of Germany (Hartz IV) to be dumped. This 409 Euro that you'd get individually under the current welfare program? To be shifted into a non-welfare related program....basically called 'basic pay', and you'd get 1,050 Euro instead. Why the nice round number? Well, yeah....that wasn't explained but when you typically throw round numbers out....there's no science or fact to it....it's just a number grabbed out of the air.
Generally, most Germans would agree that the 409 Euro per month, per individual....is a raw deal and barely sustains a guy. It's supposed to be short-term deal to get you encouraged to continue to seek work and move ahead. Last year, I was reading a summary of facts on the German welfare program, and they admitted as of 2016....one out of every seven kids....is living in a household that survives off Hartz IV. Roughly....15-percent of society is now on the program....either for long-term or short-term.
Switching the name to basic pay? It would momentarily end some of the stigma attached to the whole welfare deal, but in a year.....even basic pay would be deemed as insulting in some fashion..
Third, then we came to the cherry on the cake of the Linke Party. Taxation.
Their new idea is that if you made over 86,000 Euro (again, a nice round number), a tax rate of 53-percent would fall into place. You would take home 40,420 Euro. Oh, but then you'd have to subtract health care, pension tax, etc.....so you'd actually only take home around 35,000....nowhere near the 86,000.
That only starts the process. There would another tax to fall into place if you made a million a year....instead of 53-percent, it'd be 75-percent. So a million Euro a year would really only equal 250,000.
Another feature of this taxation would be that you'd have a 5-percent tax on pure wealth if you had more than a million. So, if you were just a lucky guy on investments and held a portfolio of 2-million Euro....you'd automatically have a tax 100,000 Euro to pay, yearly.
I sat and analyzed this whole gimmick. There are two curious outcomes.
1. If they were successful in making this occur (say as a coalition partner of the SPD)....then you'd have a ton of money coming into the government. How would you use that money? That's not in the talking-papers of the Linke Party. You could be looking at ten to twenty billion Euro in the government's hand....so how would it be used?
2. If you were a fairly successful manager or CEO of some company and facing this type of taxation....why would you keep the company headquarters in Germany? You'd sit and watch at least a hundred German companies suddenly chat about moving the headquarters of the operation into Luxembourg, Austria, or Switzerland. If you had a significant portfolio of ten million Euro....why stay as a resident in Germany....you'd start to draw up plans to move off to Cyprus or Italy. Within two years....the government would be asking why so many rich people left, and why so many German corporations maintain their structure in Vienna or Lux City.
Not much of what was said yesterday had anything to do with safety or security, or immigration. That would be very noticeable about the topics thrown out there.
In some ways, they've more or less ensured that there's no more additional votes to be expected. As a partner of the SPD in some coalition, if the SPD was to win? It's going to give heartburn to a lot of people under the SPD flag.
We are in the midst of a campaign season, and politicians tend to meet....discuss objectives and hype up their agenda for the future, and the vote. This morning, I went back and did a fair amount of reading over the hyped-up agenda.
So, there's three interesting aspects of the Linke Party objectives.
First, they want the NATO arrangement ended. Oddly enough, they want a military cooperation arrangement with Russia. They didn't go into details how this arrangement would work but they obviously felt that it could only be a good thing.
With this NATO thing ended....they also wanted the Germany military budget cut by 30-percent, and all present deployments outside of Germany to end.
You might be able to convince 50-percent of the voters that NATO has outlived its usefulness (even I'd agree to that), but having some military relationship tied direct to Russia? Well....no, that idea won't sell well to the German public.
Second, they want the welfare plan of Germany (Hartz IV) to be dumped. This 409 Euro that you'd get individually under the current welfare program? To be shifted into a non-welfare related program....basically called 'basic pay', and you'd get 1,050 Euro instead. Why the nice round number? Well, yeah....that wasn't explained but when you typically throw round numbers out....there's no science or fact to it....it's just a number grabbed out of the air.
Generally, most Germans would agree that the 409 Euro per month, per individual....is a raw deal and barely sustains a guy. It's supposed to be short-term deal to get you encouraged to continue to seek work and move ahead. Last year, I was reading a summary of facts on the German welfare program, and they admitted as of 2016....one out of every seven kids....is living in a household that survives off Hartz IV. Roughly....15-percent of society is now on the program....either for long-term or short-term.
Switching the name to basic pay? It would momentarily end some of the stigma attached to the whole welfare deal, but in a year.....even basic pay would be deemed as insulting in some fashion..
Third, then we came to the cherry on the cake of the Linke Party. Taxation.
Their new idea is that if you made over 86,000 Euro (again, a nice round number), a tax rate of 53-percent would fall into place. You would take home 40,420 Euro. Oh, but then you'd have to subtract health care, pension tax, etc.....so you'd actually only take home around 35,000....nowhere near the 86,000.
That only starts the process. There would another tax to fall into place if you made a million a year....instead of 53-percent, it'd be 75-percent. So a million Euro a year would really only equal 250,000.
Another feature of this taxation would be that you'd have a 5-percent tax on pure wealth if you had more than a million. So, if you were just a lucky guy on investments and held a portfolio of 2-million Euro....you'd automatically have a tax 100,000 Euro to pay, yearly.
I sat and analyzed this whole gimmick. There are two curious outcomes.
1. If they were successful in making this occur (say as a coalition partner of the SPD)....then you'd have a ton of money coming into the government. How would you use that money? That's not in the talking-papers of the Linke Party. You could be looking at ten to twenty billion Euro in the government's hand....so how would it be used?
2. If you were a fairly successful manager or CEO of some company and facing this type of taxation....why would you keep the company headquarters in Germany? You'd sit and watch at least a hundred German companies suddenly chat about moving the headquarters of the operation into Luxembourg, Austria, or Switzerland. If you had a significant portfolio of ten million Euro....why stay as a resident in Germany....you'd start to draw up plans to move off to Cyprus or Italy. Within two years....the government would be asking why so many rich people left, and why so many German corporations maintain their structure in Vienna or Lux City.
Not much of what was said yesterday had anything to do with safety or security, or immigration. That would be very noticeable about the topics thrown out there.
In some ways, they've more or less ensured that there's no more additional votes to be expected. As a partner of the SPD in some coalition, if the SPD was to win? It's going to give heartburn to a lot of people under the SPD flag.
The Hospital Story
I sat and for a brief time last night....watched 'Hard But Fair' on ARD (public-TV in Germany). The topic was not Erdogan or Turkey. I know....everyone is hyped up but they went to a topic that is starting to be recognized more and more as a major issue.....hospitals in trouble. I should note....I watched only about 25 minutes of this forum.
Focus laid out much of the conversation this morning.
Over the past decade, the public hospitals in Germany are under enormous pressure because there's just no more money to run these operations at the way that the public expects.
Nurses have to cover more patients....meaning that instead of monitoring eight patients....you monitor fourteen patients. In a more stressful environment....you do tidy-up work less, and sanitation become more and more a problem....so some bacteria starts to move around, and infections rise.
Doctors are the ultimate authority in preventing all of this, but if you don't have adequate people to clean up things....it's just accepted.
The minister from the government in charge of public health in Germany did some defense of his position. But all of this comes down to the fact that you can't raise the medical cost on the public. So you start cutting services and corners.
A logical guy could sit and view this growing trend, and just start to think....you really don't want to check into some hospital for any reason at all....because you'd wake up in some recovery phase days later, and get an infection from your buddy in the room, or from the last guy who was in the bed.
All of this is a sign that the system has maxed out, and cannot be fixed without more funding (which simply doesn't exist). Quality in healthcare? You could have a fantastic system in place which you'd like to brag about....but if your odds of getting a serious infection and dying from something that revolves around clean-up operations is like one in ten-thousand....it's a situation that you'd prefer to avoid. Or being the guy who has a leg removed six weeks after your original operation....simply because infection set in after your simple knee operation, and the hospital could have prevented the infection....will get you pretty angry.
Focus laid out much of the conversation this morning.
Over the past decade, the public hospitals in Germany are under enormous pressure because there's just no more money to run these operations at the way that the public expects.
Nurses have to cover more patients....meaning that instead of monitoring eight patients....you monitor fourteen patients. In a more stressful environment....you do tidy-up work less, and sanitation become more and more a problem....so some bacteria starts to move around, and infections rise.
Doctors are the ultimate authority in preventing all of this, but if you don't have adequate people to clean up things....it's just accepted.
The minister from the government in charge of public health in Germany did some defense of his position. But all of this comes down to the fact that you can't raise the medical cost on the public. So you start cutting services and corners.
A logical guy could sit and view this growing trend, and just start to think....you really don't want to check into some hospital for any reason at all....because you'd wake up in some recovery phase days later, and get an infection from your buddy in the room, or from the last guy who was in the bed.
All of this is a sign that the system has maxed out, and cannot be fixed without more funding (which simply doesn't exist). Quality in healthcare? You could have a fantastic system in place which you'd like to brag about....but if your odds of getting a serious infection and dying from something that revolves around clean-up operations is like one in ten-thousand....it's a situation that you'd prefer to avoid. Or being the guy who has a leg removed six weeks after your original operation....simply because infection set in after your simple knee operation, and the hospital could have prevented the infection....will get you pretty angry.
Monday, April 3, 2017
A Drug Comment
One day, you come to note some colleague that you work with....seeming to have a burst of energy. He tells you of an entire weekend where he was mostly up and partying with friends and associates. Sleep? Almost non-existent, and he's almost proud of that. You kinda note by the end of Monday (his 3rd day in this trail of behavior)....that he's more open to suggestions. He also seems to have no fatigue or lack of energy. Somewhere by Tuesday afternoon....he's now coming down from this odd perception....tired and almost burned out. A day or two later, he's back at the Monday level....highly pepped up and full of energy, but with no sleep. His aggravation level is now a full-time job for the rest of the office to handle.
In a way, you notice that he's got some euphoria at work....a level that you wouldn't notice normally.
The likely cause? Captagon....or Fenethylline. It's a drug that was developed a German company (some believe after the war, but I would suggest that it was originally from the 1940-era). It was legal throughout the world, until the 1960s when the US banned it. A decade later....it was banned in most of the civilized world.
What drove the banning? It was a drug which easy to become addicted to. It drove people to avoid sleep and kept alert behavior at an acceptable level for two to three days. Oddly, you lost weight with the drug. Along the way, you did stupid things, displayed an aggressive attitude, and could have been violent.
Up until five years ago, no one had heard much from Captagon or Fenethylline. Then, the war starts up in Syria/Iraq with ISIS. Almost overnight....the drug appeared and was readily used by members of the ISIS effort.
On the normal market, the drug sells now between $5 and $15 per pill. In Syria, large amounts of the drug are created, and issued out. Across the Middle East, it's become a party-like drug now. Some guy will have some event coming up with a party going on for two days straight....so he gets a batch of the pills and issues them out as folks arrive. Everyone talks about the 'big-party' and how it kept going....and the legend of the Captagon pill starts to spin out.
Captagon in Europe now? Yes. Evidence shows it with the Paris terror guys from 2016, and I suspect that few others within Belgium and Germany also used the pill.
The thing is.....it's likely to progress with more people discovering the pill and it's affect. At $5 for a two to three day 'high'.....it's cheap enough for the middle-class or lower-class to afford.
Some journalists have discussed the idea that ISIS-cartels will develop as the war winds up in the region, and find themselves a new way to survive on and finance their 'gang'.
So don't be shocked if you see more and more people hyped up and acting weird.
In a way, you notice that he's got some euphoria at work....a level that you wouldn't notice normally.
The likely cause? Captagon....or Fenethylline. It's a drug that was developed a German company (some believe after the war, but I would suggest that it was originally from the 1940-era). It was legal throughout the world, until the 1960s when the US banned it. A decade later....it was banned in most of the civilized world.
What drove the banning? It was a drug which easy to become addicted to. It drove people to avoid sleep and kept alert behavior at an acceptable level for two to three days. Oddly, you lost weight with the drug. Along the way, you did stupid things, displayed an aggressive attitude, and could have been violent.
Up until five years ago, no one had heard much from Captagon or Fenethylline. Then, the war starts up in Syria/Iraq with ISIS. Almost overnight....the drug appeared and was readily used by members of the ISIS effort.
On the normal market, the drug sells now between $5 and $15 per pill. In Syria, large amounts of the drug are created, and issued out. Across the Middle East, it's become a party-like drug now. Some guy will have some event coming up with a party going on for two days straight....so he gets a batch of the pills and issues them out as folks arrive. Everyone talks about the 'big-party' and how it kept going....and the legend of the Captagon pill starts to spin out.
Captagon in Europe now? Yes. Evidence shows it with the Paris terror guys from 2016, and I suspect that few others within Belgium and Germany also used the pill.
The thing is.....it's likely to progress with more people discovering the pill and it's affect. At $5 for a two to three day 'high'.....it's cheap enough for the middle-class or lower-class to afford.
Some journalists have discussed the idea that ISIS-cartels will develop as the war winds up in the region, and find themselves a new way to survive on and finance their 'gang'.
So don't be shocked if you see more and more people hyped up and acting weird.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Ten Facts Over Elections in Germany
A basic German election knowledge base.
1. National elections are held every four years in Germany....state elections every five years...and city elections every five years. Rarely do these occur on the same Sunday, especially for a national election.
2. Elections always occur on a Sunday.
3. Because of a mandatory registration law on the books....when you move from residence to residence or city to city....you must register your location with the local city-hall. That visit also fixes your residence and voting situation. Because of the mandatory photo ID required, that will also be shown as you walk in to vote. Dead people don't vote.....double-voting doesn't occur....and illegal citizens voting doesn't occur. If a city says 99,898 people voted....it's a 100-percent chance that they were all legit. You must be 18 to vote, although some states are pursuing the idea of allowing state elections down to 16 years old.
4. You vote for the party....not so much for the individual. The party will have a meeting (everyone who pays to be a member can have some say), and they will eventually select the Chancellor candidate via that method.
5. The winner party of an election MUST have fifty-percent of the Bundestag membership or have a coalition group (it could be one partner or two partners). You are given roughly 30 days to put together a coalition. If you have no luck, then the number two party could be given a chance to form a coalition. If they fail....a fresh new vote. The coalition is typically built with the division of cabinet posts, and agreed-upon agenda where the partners will go and vote on issues over the next four years. This agreement tends to mean no criticism of a serious nature on various topics between the partners.
6. The Chancellor is the head of government. The President is mostly a ceremonial position. People can vote for the Chancellor....only the Bundestag can vote for the President.
7. A party can be displeased with a member of their group....have a formal meeting....and fire the guy from the party. It would be very unusual. Folks typically resign if it gets this bad.
8. Some free advertising does occur with various parties on public TV. Most of the big-name parties benefit more from weekly public forums where they chat about their policies and suggestions.
9. There are a minimum of forty political parties in Germany. You must have 5-percent of the vote minimum....to sit in the Bundestag. At best....six parties might get enough votes to have a seat. Roughly five-to-eight percent of the nation will typically vote for parties outside of the top six.
10. There are sixteen German states, with various ongoing priorities, scandals, hyped-up arguments, and problems. Parties tend to build their programs or advertised platforms to meet the bulk of voters across those sixteen states.
1. National elections are held every four years in Germany....state elections every five years...and city elections every five years. Rarely do these occur on the same Sunday, especially for a national election.
2. Elections always occur on a Sunday.
3. Because of a mandatory registration law on the books....when you move from residence to residence or city to city....you must register your location with the local city-hall. That visit also fixes your residence and voting situation. Because of the mandatory photo ID required, that will also be shown as you walk in to vote. Dead people don't vote.....double-voting doesn't occur....and illegal citizens voting doesn't occur. If a city says 99,898 people voted....it's a 100-percent chance that they were all legit. You must be 18 to vote, although some states are pursuing the idea of allowing state elections down to 16 years old.
4. You vote for the party....not so much for the individual. The party will have a meeting (everyone who pays to be a member can have some say), and they will eventually select the Chancellor candidate via that method.
5. The winner party of an election MUST have fifty-percent of the Bundestag membership or have a coalition group (it could be one partner or two partners). You are given roughly 30 days to put together a coalition. If you have no luck, then the number two party could be given a chance to form a coalition. If they fail....a fresh new vote. The coalition is typically built with the division of cabinet posts, and agreed-upon agenda where the partners will go and vote on issues over the next four years. This agreement tends to mean no criticism of a serious nature on various topics between the partners.
6. The Chancellor is the head of government. The President is mostly a ceremonial position. People can vote for the Chancellor....only the Bundestag can vote for the President.
7. A party can be displeased with a member of their group....have a formal meeting....and fire the guy from the party. It would be very unusual. Folks typically resign if it gets this bad.
8. Some free advertising does occur with various parties on public TV. Most of the big-name parties benefit more from weekly public forums where they chat about their policies and suggestions.
9. There are a minimum of forty political parties in Germany. You must have 5-percent of the vote minimum....to sit in the Bundestag. At best....six parties might get enough votes to have a seat. Roughly five-to-eight percent of the nation will typically vote for parties outside of the top six.
10. There are sixteen German states, with various ongoing priorities, scandals, hyped-up arguments, and problems. Parties tend to build their programs or advertised platforms to meet the bulk of voters across those sixteen states.
On the Topic of Integration
I sat this week and watched two YouTube interviews with North Koreans who'd escaped and resettled into South Korea. (Interview number one and interview number two). It's almost two hours of an interview with two individuals who give a pretty interesting view of North Korea and integrating into South Korea.....but they also talk of their perception of the new life in South Korea. Then they talk about this one topic....integration. From the Korean prospective, it's an interesting interview and I'd strongly recommend people to watch it.
For three years, I've keenly watched this integration topic Most Germans have some opinion and it goes from one side of the spectrum to the other.
For these North Koreans....it's around two months of secluded orientation in some compound before they release you into the general public. As the one gal hinted....there are hundreds of little things that you've never had to mess with, and this bold new life if complicated. Just understanding the 'clever bus-card' and how to travel on a bus....requires some orientation.
In some ways, I think this would have been something that Germany should have done with asylum seekers or migrants coming into the country, but there were simply too many to handle in any organized fashion.
Face it....if you'd come up with a secluded compound and put 300 refugees through a 45-day orientation....talking about German taxes, cost-of-living, progressive lifestyles,the political system, basic economics, driving rules, open perception to drugs, complex regulations....it might have helped some in grasping what they signed up for.
I'm waiting for some PhD type Einstein-guy to do a study on ease of integration into various societies in the world. There should be a landscape type review of a hundred things, and how simple or complex each country makes the rules for anyone to survive.
Even for an American arriving into Germany today....he or she might be fairly shocked at the nature of things, pricing on food, taxation, or just at shopping.
I asked a Syrian once about traffic in Syria....to which he just grinned. He lived in some rural no-name town where four cars backed up at a traffic light was an all-time record. Having ridden around Germany as a passenger in a car.....he had absolute fear of the urbanized atmosphere with often unlimited speeds on the autobahn, and there was virtually no way that he'd ever be able to drive a car. Maybe in four years....he might adjust enough to attempt a license.
Maybe all of this integration business could have been done better.....but you would have had to limit the incoming number and had a different type mentality about the outcome you expected with people. In a sense, you'd want to Germanize them as much as possible.....and that's not the German expectation where they want people to retain much of their character, charm, and uniqueness. A decade down the line....the success or failure will be evident.
For three years, I've keenly watched this integration topic Most Germans have some opinion and it goes from one side of the spectrum to the other.
For these North Koreans....it's around two months of secluded orientation in some compound before they release you into the general public. As the one gal hinted....there are hundreds of little things that you've never had to mess with, and this bold new life if complicated. Just understanding the 'clever bus-card' and how to travel on a bus....requires some orientation.
In some ways, I think this would have been something that Germany should have done with asylum seekers or migrants coming into the country, but there were simply too many to handle in any organized fashion.
Face it....if you'd come up with a secluded compound and put 300 refugees through a 45-day orientation....talking about German taxes, cost-of-living, progressive lifestyles,the political system, basic economics, driving rules, open perception to drugs, complex regulations....it might have helped some in grasping what they signed up for.
I'm waiting for some PhD type Einstein-guy to do a study on ease of integration into various societies in the world. There should be a landscape type review of a hundred things, and how simple or complex each country makes the rules for anyone to survive.
Even for an American arriving into Germany today....he or she might be fairly shocked at the nature of things, pricing on food, taxation, or just at shopping.
I asked a Syrian once about traffic in Syria....to which he just grinned. He lived in some rural no-name town where four cars backed up at a traffic light was an all-time record. Having ridden around Germany as a passenger in a car.....he had absolute fear of the urbanized atmosphere with often unlimited speeds on the autobahn, and there was virtually no way that he'd ever be able to drive a car. Maybe in four years....he might adjust enough to attempt a license.
Maybe all of this integration business could have been done better.....but you would have had to limit the incoming number and had a different type mentality about the outcome you expected with people. In a sense, you'd want to Germanize them as much as possible.....and that's not the German expectation where they want people to retain much of their character, charm, and uniqueness. A decade down the line....the success or failure will be evident.
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