German News Items

There are a couple of minor notes in the German news this week.

First, Alice Schwarzer comes  up in the news.  She's a figure-head of women's rights and leads a fair amount of the discussions held on media panels on women's topics.  Alice got caught by the German tax guys....having a secret account in Switzerland.  After a long drawn-out discussion....Alice has come to some fine...roughly two hundred thousand Euro ($250k).  This is for an account set up in the 1980s....of a fair nature but we aren't talking about millions....more likely to be in the range of up to one million.  The direct talk of the problem?  Well....some folks think it's unfair that this all comes out in the press....they should have kept Alice's problem quiet and under cover.  Some are kinda hinting that Alice's big press forward on women's rights.....invites criticism of her ethical nature.

Second, some media professors and analysts have come out with personal judgements of "Jungle Camp" (RTL's sixteen day wannabe-in-the-jungle episode with 2nd-rate promi-stars).  It's mostly a lecture over what went wrong over the sixteen days, and how RTL needs to recruit better players for next year.  I doubt if many Germans care about this criticism being laid out.  Jungle Camp...in the minds of most....was simply a soap-opera of a rare nature.  To think anyone takes it that serious and pour over hundred of hours of video to reach some educated conclusion?  Well....there are better things in life to worry about.

Third.  Over in Thuringia....a German state....they had a chief of agriculture.  His main job....as you can imagine....get scientists, farmers, and produce folks...lined up and moving in a positive direction.  It's not a job that you'd get much attention with....except for a vacation trip that the chief of agriculture took.  You see...he went off to Africa, got into a safari....pulled out a fair amount of cash.....and apparently got a chance to shoot and kill an elephant.  Naturally, there's pictures taken.  For some reason....he didn't seek too much on an anonymous nature.  The pictures got sent around, and eventually ended up with some folks who got hostile.  You can't have some chief of agriculture....going off to shoot elephants.  The local press says that he's been relieved while a study is made of the "mess".  So far....no one can say it's illegal to shoot an elephant in some other country, and there's no ethics violations noted in German law.  To fire the guy....they will have to bend over backwards, and likely pay him an excessive amount of money to avoid court appearances.  The comedy of sorts....invites Germans to study the idea of more laws....to ensure they don't run off and kill lions, tigers, whales, sharks, or any creature.  You can imagine the discussions from this episode.

Fourth and final. Berlin's new airport is back in the news.  The short history here....this grand new airport was desired, and the state was willing to allocate the massive amount of property to make it happen.  Two private companies bid on the construction and operation of the airport (going back to the 2001/2002 timeframe).  One won, the other sued claiming it was a screwed up bidding process.  The state stalled the whole thing.  So both companies combined a bid....making them both part of the process and the absolute guaranteed winner.

Well...the city of Berlin had a new mayor around this time period, who held some meetings and determined that the combined bid effort would not meet a satisfactory process.  No one has ever stood up in the media to explain why private efforts were deemed a failure, and why a state-run mechanism would solve all problems.  The cost for this state-run construction episode?  In the 2004 period, it was deemed to be around 2.8 billion Euro (roughly 3.4 billion dollars).  A fair sum.  Construction physically started in Sep of 2006.  It was supposedly done and complete...with a ceremony held in the summer of 2010 for completion.  The subway leading into the complex?  It wasn't done for another eighteen months.  The actual operational capability of the airport four years after the opening ceremony?  Zero.  It has thousands of issues.  They went out and found 15,000 suitcases (don't even ask) and tested their new conveyor system....finding it was more of a failure than a success.  The price of construction, and the "repairs"?  Well...the current government had been talking five billion (with probably another billion hidden in road and railway costs).

So this week....a local member of the Berlin gov't....opposition party no less....says that it'll consume seven billion by the end.  The opening date?  No one will discuss this matter in public except for journalists.  The general given date is 2016 (six years after the grand opening ceremony).   It's a topic that most Berlin residents will consume and discuss for hours...with no real result.