Yeah, It Can Be Tough

"Life in Germany is sometimes pretty hard."

" If you want success, you have a lot of work ahead and show performance in the language course, in training and in the job "

-- SPD Party Chief Sigmar Gabriel

Yesterday, SPD Chief and Vice-Chancellor of Germany....Sigmar Gabriel gave an interview with Bild over the refugee situation.

There were two great quotes from the interview, which really dig down into the spiraling episode and represent the general attitude by Germans themselves.

After a number of years to observe German behavior and attitude, I'd tend to agree....life in German can be demanding and requires one to find more energy, deeper patience, and augmented enthusiasm.  Nothing.....is simple.

Germans can be bureaucratic in nature, with a dozen-page form to achieve some status or gain some state-favor.  Your parents may have been dead for thirty years....but typically, Germans will still require their names and birth-dates.

I worked with a German in the late 1970s who built his own house in the earl 1960s.  From start to finish....it took roughly six years.  This was done while working full-time over at Rhine-Main Air Base.  He explained to me....that he'd take a couple of days of leave every other month and go ten days straight on work, then spend four hours after work each day (at least in the summer period).....to finish the project.

In my old village in the Kaiserslautern region.....I had two houses which were started as 'from-the-ground' up situations back around 1998 (my last year in uniform).  I noticed six months ago that one house finally had been completed and the two brothers who were the building crew finally moved in (they were both now in their early 40s).  The second house is still two years away from completion.  You have to have an enormous amount of patience to continue on a building project like this.....year after year.

When you go and look at autobahn construction projects....they show the same long-term planning and work ethic....taking an entire decade to complete a simple twenty-mile stretch of road.  The Stuttgart-21 project is supposed to take a minimum of fifteen years to complete.

Some Germans would argue that the new generation of Germans....those that grew up after the 1990s....aren't of the same breed and character.  Their enthusiasm and drive aren't of the same caliber.  I might agree with that statement.

How these immigrants and refugees assemble the job ahead and put together the drive for success is unknown.  Some are probably up to the job, and some probably will be hindered by their attitude of the old country.  I can sense that Ramadan periods where guys get themselves dehydrated and lack any energy in the afternoons because they haven't eaten in ten hours....will be seen by German bosses as unacceptable.  How they find a way to modify their stance or adjust.....will be curious to view.

Gabriel is giving good advice.  Whether it's taken or not.....remains to be seen.