It was comical in a way, and somewhat amateur to state....after the Hessen election results and AfD getting a fair number of votes....the General Secretary of the CSU came out (Andreas Scheur) at a group meeting in Dusseldorf and did a interview with the Rheinische Post.
What he basically said was that the AfD success would be short-lived and be a temporary action by the public. Then he said the magic words...."If we solve the crisis, the AfD will be gone as soon as it emerged".
It was a fine statement....then a logical guy would ask....when exactly will the crisis end?
You see, they've done a fine job just sitting back and allowing this whole thing to develop on its own. They climbed into bed with Turkey and opt'ed to pay them three billion Euro via the EU, and Turkey this week came back to suggest they'd need more money.....perhaps even a membership into the EU.
Then you have the crime issue created by the varying groups. You've jot Jihad players who probably aren't going away anytime soon. You've got various Muslim groups with an agenda to focus you on their lifestyle and desires from the old country.
Then you have the north African drug gangs spread out now and fairly success at selling something that is absolutely illegal in Germany.
The freeloader crowd? If you go up to Duisburg and ask around.....most every German is furious at what developed and waiting for some politician to wake up and end the misery.
The Syrian and Iraqi situation with ISIS? Just when does anyone really expect it to end? As many bombs as Putin has dropped in Syria over the hundred days.....no one sees much of change. On any given day.....the Turks might be stupid enough to do something else stupid, and this time get a ton of bombs dropped on Turkish soil.....thus creating a panic and more refugees.....this time Turkish.
Maybe if people are patient and wait long enough.....the crisis will eventually end. But eight state elections will come over the next 18 months and a national election, and by that point....the average German standing there and waiting for the end.....will have flipped their vote to AfD to fix the problem. You could very well see AfD in November of 2017 with more than twenty-percent of the national vote. And then what?
One of the other comical features of Monday night was a state-run TV interview deal....referred to as the "Elephant Round" where most all of the parties present hyped up the deal of forcing failed-visa applicants to leave quickly out of Germany. It was great entertainment, leaving most of the thinkers in the audience pondering how exactly would this quick-exit work, and when would you start seeing these results? This year? Next year?
In a tragic way.....AfD is going to be around for a number of years and enjoy more remarkable success....due to the stupidity and naive nature of the five or six other German political parties. They started a party....never entertaining the idea of managing who came to the party and how much it cost....and now have to wonder when the party will end.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Monday, March 7, 2016
Berlin and the Space Issue
If you hang out in Berlin, on the northwest side of town.....near Kurt-Schumacher-Damm.....you've probably bumped into the festplatz area. It doesn't matter if it's spring, Christmas, or late September for Oktoberfest activities.....there's some action going on, with beer consumed and folks having amusement.
Well....things have heated up in recent weeks, as the fest grounds have been selected by the Berlin Senate to build up a container village for refugees (aimed to handle 500 folks).
It should be noted that this is less than a kilometer away from Tegal Airport, and there's a fair sized parking lot across the way, with woods on all four sides of this fest area. No one says how the container village will fit into the area but one might assume that it's on the outer edge and intended to only take up ten-percent of the fest grounds.
The issue? There's some complaints about how this will affect planning and business success for the various markets that set up there....for spring, Christmas and Oktoberfest. Frankly, no one thinks this is a bright idea and it might affect people showing up.
The bigger issue is that the city's Senate has been under continued discussions about finding areas acceptable for container-like situations and trying to make accommodations work. If you were looking for a hot issue that would affect the state election in the fall.....this effort to find open land for the refugee villages would be near the top.
Tearing down some of the woods around the fest area for accommodations? Oh my, that won't wash with the Green guys at all.
So you come to another minor issue.....which in recent weeks, there's been talking of increasing numbers of refugees trying to make their way across to Germany, and it kinda looks like they will be near 400,000 for entry by June-timeframe. Will Berlin and the other major cities be able to find additional housing or module locations for these people? It's a major question.
Things continue to make political fallout a more likely occurrence for 2017.
Well....things have heated up in recent weeks, as the fest grounds have been selected by the Berlin Senate to build up a container village for refugees (aimed to handle 500 folks).
It should be noted that this is less than a kilometer away from Tegal Airport, and there's a fair sized parking lot across the way, with woods on all four sides of this fest area. No one says how the container village will fit into the area but one might assume that it's on the outer edge and intended to only take up ten-percent of the fest grounds.
The issue? There's some complaints about how this will affect planning and business success for the various markets that set up there....for spring, Christmas and Oktoberfest. Frankly, no one thinks this is a bright idea and it might affect people showing up.
The bigger issue is that the city's Senate has been under continued discussions about finding areas acceptable for container-like situations and trying to make accommodations work. If you were looking for a hot issue that would affect the state election in the fall.....this effort to find open land for the refugee villages would be near the top.
Tearing down some of the woods around the fest area for accommodations? Oh my, that won't wash with the Green guys at all.
So you come to another minor issue.....which in recent weeks, there's been talking of increasing numbers of refugees trying to make their way across to Germany, and it kinda looks like they will be near 400,000 for entry by June-timeframe. Will Berlin and the other major cities be able to find additional housing or module locations for these people? It's a major question.
Things continue to make political fallout a more likely occurrence for 2017.
An Odd Election Day in Hessen
From my state of Hessen (here in Germany), city elections were yesterday. Typically, they don't matter that much and it's not worth discussing. This particular, was different.
By 9PM last night, it was apparent that serious consequences had come upon both the CDU Party (Merkel's group), and the SPD (the coalition partner at the national level with the CDU). Both had lost serious ground to AfD (the anti-immigration crowd).
As you go city by city.....it's a pretty surprising win.
Wiesbaden, AfD took 16-percent of the city vote.....taking 9-percent off the CDU and 4-percent from the SPD.
Darmstadt, AfD took 12-percent of the city vote.....taking equal amounts of 6-percent from the CDU and the SPD.
Bensheim, AfD took 17-percent of the city vote....taking 6-percent each from the CDU and SPD, and even the Greens lost almost 9-percent of their previous vote.
Frankfurt, AfD took 10-percent.
From the vast number of cities and counties.....AfD didn't run a campaign or mount any effort. There's only about twenty that they stood and put a front up against the normal parties. In those twenty areas? They got 10-percent or better in every single case. In Bad Karlshafen, to the far northeast of the state....they actually got 22-percent of the vote.
Shocker? You could tell that the regional state-run TV analysts were having some issues in explaining this.
Voter turn-out for a city-type election didn't go that high. Here in Wiesbaden, they only had 43-percent of the registered voters show up for a Sunday election. If you look at the map, cities and counties to the north of Hessen had better numbers (nearer to 60-percent of a turn-out).
If you look at the total voting situation for the whole state....AfD took around 13-percent of the vote, and probably would have done better if they'd run in more towns. Both the SPD and CDU lost numbers (8-percent between the two of them). Surprisingly, even the Greens lost support (6-percent).
At one point, the HR analyst was interviewing some SPD political player and noting this AfD win and how this would work out in the local city hall and city council situation. The gal stood there and smugly said that AfD would have to learn how to be civil and develop new skills. I sat there laughing....the public is sending a message across about immigration and refugees, and obviously....the message wasn't getting across.
What's next? Well, this gets to an interesting situation on Sunday of next week.....when state elections occur in three states. Presently, the poll people are trending AfD at around 10-percent in one state, and 15-to-18 percent in the other two states. The poll guys will probably go back and figure that some SPD and CDU voters have been saying they'd stick with their party in the vote, and it's obviously not the whole truth.
For Saxony-Anhalt, there's little doubt that AfD will cross the 20-percent point, and both the SPD and CDU will be seriously damaged by this state election.
There's been extensive chatter from the SPD that if they lose badly in the three state elections....the head of the SPD....Gabriel.....will retire. Someone else stepping up to the plate? Unless there is some new focus on immigration and asylum, this new person will last until the end of the year....and they will be 'fired' as the next two state elections occur.
In the end, my observation would be that consequences matter. If you dig up fake-talk and use the news media to form some false agenda that has issues.....the public will eventually wake up and ask questions. If you don't answer them right.....they vote you out. That is precisely what 6 March in Hessen was about, and next week's three state elections will prove that point. I certainly won't say that the AfD solution is the right one.....but so far....no other party seems willing to admit the immigration issue is bad enough to deserve a new focus and direction.
By 9PM last night, it was apparent that serious consequences had come upon both the CDU Party (Merkel's group), and the SPD (the coalition partner at the national level with the CDU). Both had lost serious ground to AfD (the anti-immigration crowd).
As you go city by city.....it's a pretty surprising win.
Wiesbaden, AfD took 16-percent of the city vote.....taking 9-percent off the CDU and 4-percent from the SPD.
Darmstadt, AfD took 12-percent of the city vote.....taking equal amounts of 6-percent from the CDU and the SPD.
Bensheim, AfD took 17-percent of the city vote....taking 6-percent each from the CDU and SPD, and even the Greens lost almost 9-percent of their previous vote.
Frankfurt, AfD took 10-percent.
From the vast number of cities and counties.....AfD didn't run a campaign or mount any effort. There's only about twenty that they stood and put a front up against the normal parties. In those twenty areas? They got 10-percent or better in every single case. In Bad Karlshafen, to the far northeast of the state....they actually got 22-percent of the vote.
Shocker? You could tell that the regional state-run TV analysts were having some issues in explaining this.
Voter turn-out for a city-type election didn't go that high. Here in Wiesbaden, they only had 43-percent of the registered voters show up for a Sunday election. If you look at the map, cities and counties to the north of Hessen had better numbers (nearer to 60-percent of a turn-out).
If you look at the total voting situation for the whole state....AfD took around 13-percent of the vote, and probably would have done better if they'd run in more towns. Both the SPD and CDU lost numbers (8-percent between the two of them). Surprisingly, even the Greens lost support (6-percent).
At one point, the HR analyst was interviewing some SPD political player and noting this AfD win and how this would work out in the local city hall and city council situation. The gal stood there and smugly said that AfD would have to learn how to be civil and develop new skills. I sat there laughing....the public is sending a message across about immigration and refugees, and obviously....the message wasn't getting across.
What's next? Well, this gets to an interesting situation on Sunday of next week.....when state elections occur in three states. Presently, the poll people are trending AfD at around 10-percent in one state, and 15-to-18 percent in the other two states. The poll guys will probably go back and figure that some SPD and CDU voters have been saying they'd stick with their party in the vote, and it's obviously not the whole truth.
For Saxony-Anhalt, there's little doubt that AfD will cross the 20-percent point, and both the SPD and CDU will be seriously damaged by this state election.
There's been extensive chatter from the SPD that if they lose badly in the three state elections....the head of the SPD....Gabriel.....will retire. Someone else stepping up to the plate? Unless there is some new focus on immigration and asylum, this new person will last until the end of the year....and they will be 'fired' as the next two state elections occur.
In the end, my observation would be that consequences matter. If you dig up fake-talk and use the news media to form some false agenda that has issues.....the public will eventually wake up and ask questions. If you don't answer them right.....they vote you out. That is precisely what 6 March in Hessen was about, and next week's three state elections will prove that point. I certainly won't say that the AfD solution is the right one.....but so far....no other party seems willing to admit the immigration issue is bad enough to deserve a new focus and direction.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
A Short Essay on the Fight Against Capsule Coffee
First, I want to say this up front.....I hate capsule coffee. When I'm at some hotel, and there's the Nespresso coffee machine and the six-odd choices for coffee....I just pass. There's two issues....the taste just isn't there, and I've seen the video of the internal guts of these machines.....where it's questionable if 'clean' or not.
Germans like the capsule coffee trend. Some news reports indicate that they consume three billion such capsule coffees per year. For Nespresso, if true, that would make a ton of profit off one country with eighty million residents.
The Green Party has taken an odd position. They think the trend of these little capsules ending up in a recycle bin is silly. So, they want a national tax added on.....to discourage people from using the capsule coffee.
The talk? Well....it's mostly about this huge amount of aluminium involved and how it's a waste. It's the kind of chatter that four kids would engage upon....when someone brought up a chocolate bar and the way that it's packaged.
The Nespresso folks will say it plain and clear.....for this small volume of coffee and the ability to always produce the same quality of taste....this is the only way to bring it to the consumer. They've put tons of research into this and have a point.
A tax on the capsules? First, you'd have to get this into the SPD mind and hope that in the next election.....somehow, the Greens and the SPD will end up as a partner coalition (after November of 2017). The German public? It's hard to say how they'd react. The Nespresso folks may shift over to some cheap plastic and go down a step in terms of quality....just to avoid the tax. Eventually, enough consumers would complain about lower quality coffee and blame the Greens for making this possible.
So, I have my doubts that this will ever occur. But it does demonstrate the continued trend of some German worrying about things which aren't worth worrying about. Eventually, some Green will worry about the number of sheets of toilet paper that you use for your private business, and then you will kinda aggravated about this type of behavior.
Germans like the capsule coffee trend. Some news reports indicate that they consume three billion such capsule coffees per year. For Nespresso, if true, that would make a ton of profit off one country with eighty million residents.
The Green Party has taken an odd position. They think the trend of these little capsules ending up in a recycle bin is silly. So, they want a national tax added on.....to discourage people from using the capsule coffee.
The talk? Well....it's mostly about this huge amount of aluminium involved and how it's a waste. It's the kind of chatter that four kids would engage upon....when someone brought up a chocolate bar and the way that it's packaged.
The Nespresso folks will say it plain and clear.....for this small volume of coffee and the ability to always produce the same quality of taste....this is the only way to bring it to the consumer. They've put tons of research into this and have a point.
A tax on the capsules? First, you'd have to get this into the SPD mind and hope that in the next election.....somehow, the Greens and the SPD will end up as a partner coalition (after November of 2017). The German public? It's hard to say how they'd react. The Nespresso folks may shift over to some cheap plastic and go down a step in terms of quality....just to avoid the tax. Eventually, enough consumers would complain about lower quality coffee and blame the Greens for making this possible.
So, I have my doubts that this will ever occur. But it does demonstrate the continued trend of some German worrying about things which aren't worth worrying about. Eventually, some Green will worry about the number of sheets of toilet paper that you use for your private business, and then you will kinda aggravated about this type of behavior.
Vote in Seven Days
Three German state elections occur next Sunday (seven days away). Based on polling, general observations, and just a 'wild-guess'....I will predict the following:
Rhineland Pfalz: The CDU pulls out some marginal win (31-percent), with the SPD close at 30-percent. The FDP will make a borderline five-percent vote, and the Linke Party will fail to cross the five-percent point.....meaning that the Linke will not be in the state assembly for the next five years. The Greens will barely get 7-percent. The AfD will get cross the line with 10-percent. The rest will be marginal parties of no significance. The CDU is stuck....the only coalition possibility is the SPD.
Baden-Wurttemberg: The CDU will get a dismal 27-percent. The Greens will pull out a decent win with 33-percent. The SPD will be amazed at the low count of 10-percent. The shocker will be the AfD coming up with 12-percent.....ahead of the SPD. Neither the Linke Party or FDP will be able to cross the 5-percent point, so they are out of the assembly. This all equals a fairly weird coalition deal where the Greens must accept the CDU as a partner (no other choice).
Saxony-Anhalt: The Linke Party will put on a good show and be happy with a 22-percent vote. The CDU will be the winner with 29-percent. The FDP and Green Party will both slide barely across the five-percent point. The SPD will be happy enough with a 17-percent win. The big success of the day for AfD will be in Saxony where they will get a 19-percent win. The coalition? How the CDU can partner with the Linke party? Impossible. So, it'll be a CDU-SPD-FDP coalition.....perhaps even adding the Greens if the votes aren't enough.
A decent voting deal for the AfD. A bad day for the SPD. A lot of votes for marginalized and minor parties with no real effect. And the news media stuck trying to explain the CDU pain and suffering because of immigration woes. And then.....six months until folks get hyped up over the next state election period in Germany.
Rhineland Pfalz: The CDU pulls out some marginal win (31-percent), with the SPD close at 30-percent. The FDP will make a borderline five-percent vote, and the Linke Party will fail to cross the five-percent point.....meaning that the Linke will not be in the state assembly for the next five years. The Greens will barely get 7-percent. The AfD will get cross the line with 10-percent. The rest will be marginal parties of no significance. The CDU is stuck....the only coalition possibility is the SPD.
Baden-Wurttemberg: The CDU will get a dismal 27-percent. The Greens will pull out a decent win with 33-percent. The SPD will be amazed at the low count of 10-percent. The shocker will be the AfD coming up with 12-percent.....ahead of the SPD. Neither the Linke Party or FDP will be able to cross the 5-percent point, so they are out of the assembly. This all equals a fairly weird coalition deal where the Greens must accept the CDU as a partner (no other choice).
Saxony-Anhalt: The Linke Party will put on a good show and be happy with a 22-percent vote. The CDU will be the winner with 29-percent. The FDP and Green Party will both slide barely across the five-percent point. The SPD will be happy enough with a 17-percent win. The big success of the day for AfD will be in Saxony where they will get a 19-percent win. The coalition? How the CDU can partner with the Linke party? Impossible. So, it'll be a CDU-SPD-FDP coalition.....perhaps even adding the Greens if the votes aren't enough.
A decent voting deal for the AfD. A bad day for the SPD. A lot of votes for marginalized and minor parties with no real effect. And the news media stuck trying to explain the CDU pain and suffering because of immigration woes. And then.....six months until folks get hyped up over the next state election period in Germany.
Adding Up the Volker Beck Mess
Over the past week, various German media devices have tried to explain the Green member....Volker Beck....and his crystal meth episode in Berlin. Even some time on state-run TV has been devoted to the topic.
This morning, I read a piece from Focus (a German news magazine), which wanted to hype the idea of German politicians under stress and pressure.
It should be noted that Beck resigned from most aspects of leadership or authority....but is still a Green Party member, and still a Bundestag representative. The Green Party? It's odd....they have paraded various people around to condemn Beck but they haven't taken any real move to dismiss him from the party. My guess is that they want him to just walk away. Some people may feel sorry for him.....perhaps because they use crystal meth as well, or just feel eternally pressured with the job.
What cops will say about crystal meth is that it's being produced in actual labs in Czech. No production as far as they can see across Germany. They also say that it's a very small sales item at present. The bigger issue is that it's absolutely addictive. After one good weekend of usage....most people will say that it's a permanent addiction at that point. One might analyze part of this story and say that the purity of the lab stuff....rather than bathtub-like production in the US.....makes it slightly safer to use.
There's always been an alcohol-usage angle to the German Bundestag. That existed while it rested in Bonn, and I'll take a guess that it shifted very easily over to Berlin with the 'team' as they set up shop there.
The thing that amazes me is that about every six to eight weeks, there's an entire weekend where each party runs off to some hotel-resort, and has a 72-hour type political fest marathon....where you have to assume there's a fair amount of booze after 5PM each day. They waste the whole weekend this way, then show back up to work on Monday. Their brief reprieve is the summer vacation period where they get roughly an entire month off and no political chat.
How doped up or boozed up are Bundestag members on a daily basis? Unknown. I don't think anyone wants to drug-test or booze-test members either....because it might turn shocking to find forty-percent with something in their system which affects their judgement.
My guess is that after the mid-March state elections are wrapped up.....the Greens will call Beck into a room and just say that he's got a week to clear out his desk and resign from the party. Right now.....he's gone two weeks without a crystal meth hit, and he's probably on some treatment plan by a doctor but he'd really like some meth to help settle his nerves.
This morning, I read a piece from Focus (a German news magazine), which wanted to hype the idea of German politicians under stress and pressure.
It should be noted that Beck resigned from most aspects of leadership or authority....but is still a Green Party member, and still a Bundestag representative. The Green Party? It's odd....they have paraded various people around to condemn Beck but they haven't taken any real move to dismiss him from the party. My guess is that they want him to just walk away. Some people may feel sorry for him.....perhaps because they use crystal meth as well, or just feel eternally pressured with the job.
What cops will say about crystal meth is that it's being produced in actual labs in Czech. No production as far as they can see across Germany. They also say that it's a very small sales item at present. The bigger issue is that it's absolutely addictive. After one good weekend of usage....most people will say that it's a permanent addiction at that point. One might analyze part of this story and say that the purity of the lab stuff....rather than bathtub-like production in the US.....makes it slightly safer to use.
There's always been an alcohol-usage angle to the German Bundestag. That existed while it rested in Bonn, and I'll take a guess that it shifted very easily over to Berlin with the 'team' as they set up shop there.
The thing that amazes me is that about every six to eight weeks, there's an entire weekend where each party runs off to some hotel-resort, and has a 72-hour type political fest marathon....where you have to assume there's a fair amount of booze after 5PM each day. They waste the whole weekend this way, then show back up to work on Monday. Their brief reprieve is the summer vacation period where they get roughly an entire month off and no political chat.
How doped up or boozed up are Bundestag members on a daily basis? Unknown. I don't think anyone wants to drug-test or booze-test members either....because it might turn shocking to find forty-percent with something in their system which affects their judgement.
My guess is that after the mid-March state elections are wrapped up.....the Greens will call Beck into a room and just say that he's got a week to clear out his desk and resign from the party. Right now.....he's gone two weeks without a crystal meth hit, and he's probably on some treatment plan by a doctor but he'd really like some meth to help settle his nerves.
Saturday, March 5, 2016
The Mentally Ill Slant
Up in Hanover, Germany.....we have a criminal case building up over an odd situation.
Cops were on routine patrol, and came to question some fifteen-year-old girl (dressed in Islamic clothing). Normally, I wouldn't put the clothing description into a story, but this is a bit different. Whatever the questions were.....things didn't go well....and the young lady produces a knife. What authorities will say....is that the knife blade was six centimeters.
In my book, it's not a big knife.
Somewhere in the course of events....this young lady wheels around and stabs the cop in the neck. Based on the description....she didn't achieve much success. He was hurt, but it wasn't a mortal wound. A second cop standing there.....goes into action and disarms her....calls for help, and the wounded cop survives. No one says much about a permanent injury or disability....but based on the description.....he's doing OK.
The young gal? She's been drawn into court. It's been laid out that she's been down to the Turkish border and some folks seem to think she might be ISIS-indoctrinated. Her brother? Well, that's another issue.....he's in some prison (not in Germany) for attempting to join ISIS.
Her nationality? This gets brought up.....she's Moroccan-German.
Based on two news reports, you get the impression that neither kid listens much to the parents, and both this gal and her brother are fully indoctrinated into some radical tendencies.
So, we come to the problem with the German legal system and the authorities. They'd like to just dump this episode....like they've dumped episodes in the past. But now, most folks around the region know the story and would be awful aggravated if the judges and prosecution team just do a dumping of the case.
If this were a regular citizen....it might be easy to dump the case....but it's a cop, and the cop union will be watching the case as well.
So, there is a suggestion that the authorities want to examine the mental illness side of this fifteen-year-old gal, which means an evaluation.
Let's say that the mental health guy gets a step or two into this, and then labels her a person under some mental illness (related to religious ideology for example).....well, that's fine with the judge and would be easy to just dump the charges and require her to attend some six-month long mental health resort episode.
But if you were looking at the story, and bought off on this mental illness thing.....then why aren't the rest of the fanatics in Germany noted with a mental illness and shipped off to some six-month long episode to 'cleanse' them of the problem? Oh.....man, did I just suggest all this radicalization could be a mental illness?
This would open up a vast gate and put political figures throughout Germany into a tough position. Once you labeled radicals as mentally ill.....well....you could go on and on with this type of treatment plan. I'm pretty sure that the radicals crowd would go into court and say they are perfectly fine and happy with their mental illness.
So, you might want to gaze over occasionally and see what happens to the fifteen-year-old gal. My guess is that she's going to some mental program and will find some new reality by the time she walks out. And if it works.....some people might suggest to broaden this.
All of this.....from a routine stop by two cops to just question someone on the street? Yeah....that's the odd thing about this.
Cops were on routine patrol, and came to question some fifteen-year-old girl (dressed in Islamic clothing). Normally, I wouldn't put the clothing description into a story, but this is a bit different. Whatever the questions were.....things didn't go well....and the young lady produces a knife. What authorities will say....is that the knife blade was six centimeters.
In my book, it's not a big knife.
Somewhere in the course of events....this young lady wheels around and stabs the cop in the neck. Based on the description....she didn't achieve much success. He was hurt, but it wasn't a mortal wound. A second cop standing there.....goes into action and disarms her....calls for help, and the wounded cop survives. No one says much about a permanent injury or disability....but based on the description.....he's doing OK.
The young gal? She's been drawn into court. It's been laid out that she's been down to the Turkish border and some folks seem to think she might be ISIS-indoctrinated. Her brother? Well, that's another issue.....he's in some prison (not in Germany) for attempting to join ISIS.
Her nationality? This gets brought up.....she's Moroccan-German.
Based on two news reports, you get the impression that neither kid listens much to the parents, and both this gal and her brother are fully indoctrinated into some radical tendencies.
So, we come to the problem with the German legal system and the authorities. They'd like to just dump this episode....like they've dumped episodes in the past. But now, most folks around the region know the story and would be awful aggravated if the judges and prosecution team just do a dumping of the case.
If this were a regular citizen....it might be easy to dump the case....but it's a cop, and the cop union will be watching the case as well.
So, there is a suggestion that the authorities want to examine the mental illness side of this fifteen-year-old gal, which means an evaluation.
Let's say that the mental health guy gets a step or two into this, and then labels her a person under some mental illness (related to religious ideology for example).....well, that's fine with the judge and would be easy to just dump the charges and require her to attend some six-month long mental health resort episode.
But if you were looking at the story, and bought off on this mental illness thing.....then why aren't the rest of the fanatics in Germany noted with a mental illness and shipped off to some six-month long episode to 'cleanse' them of the problem? Oh.....man, did I just suggest all this radicalization could be a mental illness?
This would open up a vast gate and put political figures throughout Germany into a tough position. Once you labeled radicals as mentally ill.....well....you could go on and on with this type of treatment plan. I'm pretty sure that the radicals crowd would go into court and say they are perfectly fine and happy with their mental illness.
So, you might want to gaze over occasionally and see what happens to the fifteen-year-old gal. My guess is that she's going to some mental program and will find some new reality by the time she walks out. And if it works.....some people might suggest to broaden this.
All of this.....from a routine stop by two cops to just question someone on the street? Yeah....that's the odd thing about this.
Friday, March 4, 2016
A Short Essay over the 2006 World Cup Implications
When the investigation concluded this week over Germany and the possible suggestion that they paid of Qatar's representative with roughly 6.7 million Euro....their conclusion was that there is simply not any evidence standing there to support the allegation. End of the story.
There was a deep breathe by the German folks involved because they can now get on with their lives. The allegation? It still sits there. Most people believe the Germans paid for the games.
So, I've sat and pondered over the allegation, the amount, and the results. Here are my thoughts.
First, someone was going to get the games, and it's likely that various people sat at the decision table and simply waited till the end.....when someone would come to bid for their vote. It's a natural tendency. You get on some stupid board.....you have value for your vote.....and someone will make a bid for it. I can't think of many situations where ethics or values overwhelm such a situation. The World Cup games would not function.....unless profit were generated.
So I went back to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. It's an interesting deal. That brief summer....roughly 500,000 temporary jobs were created for about six weeks. For some folks, they were working way more than forty hours a week, this I can attest to in the Kaiserslautern region for it's games.
Germany says in terms of tourism profits for that summer.....they were 400 million Euro over the normal mark. That's a hefty amount of money....tied to hotels, restaurants, pubs, taxi companies, car rentals, and airlines. There's almost three billion Euro tied into Football gimmicks or gifts that they sold throughout Germany, Europe and the World. All of this.....and then tens of millions of Euro spent by Germans themselves for backyard bar-b-q's, beer, and liquid refreshments.
In the Kaiserslautern community, the Pfalz government finally loosen the strings and gave a ton of paving and road money to the local community. Over a one year period.....I was shocked at the number of roads which were fixed.....some widened to handle four-lanes....some had decades-long curves eliminated....some had potholes which were ancient and almost 'holy'.
What people got when they arrived? I generally regarded Kaiserslautern as a fairly clean and kept-up town of 100,000 people. Over the month or two prior to the games.....it seems like the city came out in full force and cleaned the city to the ninth degree. What visitors saw.....was for a brief time.....a crown jewel of Rhineland-Pfalz. No trash on the street. No homeless guys standing around the mid-section of town. No graffiti in public view. Even the stupid unfinished hotel building in mid-town K-town was covered over with some fancy fabric and made into a back-drop for the audience coming for the game.
For that brief summer....Germans were proud of the games and demonstrated some weird happiness over having tourists walk around and consume beers. There was some attitude change that I saw that summer of 2006.....Germans had reached some stage above the 1945 end-of-the-war episode where they could be proud in public.
So, all of this.....for some lousy 6.7 million Euro? In my book, it was worth it. If you had gone public and just said you needed everyone to donate 50 Euro for this bribe....I would have happily paid the 50 Euro and been more than happy with the results from this (frankly, taking the seven curves out of the 2.5 kilometer road behind my house to the next town....would have been worth the 50 Euro easily).
I realize it's all bad ethics and unprofessional to pay off bribes like this. But you know.....if it'd been someone like Greece who'd paid off the guy with 6.7 million Euro.....they would have gotten the games....screwed up on handling it....wasted millions of state money....gotten nothing in return but complaints from the citizens, and then what? You can't find any German who whined about the 2006 summer and atmosphere it created. It's a weird topic that you can bring up with most Germans who remember the year....a decade ago....and how things seemed like some Disneyland-theme-park where people were pumped up, standing there with a beer in their hand, and had some stupid smile or gleeful look over the German World Cup.
Like or or not.....I'm of the mind that it's best to drop this whole thing and just not identify anyone connected to the 6.7 million....if it ever existed...and accept it as just stupid luck that some idiot might have gained such a bribe.
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