There are two significant changes coming in Germany over the next couple of years and will be effective in some way as of 1 January 2018.
First, there's this German federal standard for winter tires being established. New tires to be sold in Germany for winter purposes must have a Alpine symbol....basically a snowflake in front of a hill or mountain (depending on your view). You will have until the end of September 2024....to have this type of winter tire. As of October 2024, if you use winter tires with the old symbology....it's a fine.
Better profiles? That's the general suggestion. The tire folks spend a fair amount of money to research and find the perfect winter tire. The government intends to herd folks toward the better tires.
The second item that is being pushed down....e-Call is now mandatory on new cars as of 1 April 2018. It will consist of a GPS receiver and a mobile radio instrument. So if you get into trouble....you push the button, and someone will react.
Something that people demanded? No. If you ask most Germans, the response will be that they will cooperate but it's something that most probably won't ever use (at least they think that).
Will the e-Call work in highly remote areas? Well....no one says this to be guaranteed. I think it will be a shock to the federal folks pushing this, if you find that it only works in approximately 80-percent of the country. I can think of some areas in the Hunsruck where it probably won't work.
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Friday, December 8, 2017
Schulz and the Way Ahead
The SPD Party held a 'congress' this week....trying to enthusiasm back into the limp situation of the party. If you go back to the September election and evaluate things....they were able to get 22-percent of the national vote, which is lowest number since WW II.
The theme put forward by their top guy (Schulz)....EU, period. There was no big chat about jobs, the economy, or typical German themes.
He tossed the chief idea for the Party to capitalize upon....forming up the United States of Europe. He talks of a EU constitution and putting the seat of power into Brussels. In his mind, the only way to fight climate change....is to have one massive state. To take on the problems of migration and immigration....one state. To fight this wave of tax avoidance....one state.
Problems with the idea? Well....Schulz even noted that the enthusiasm to go this far and create this type of environment....is not shared by the 27 remaining (leave out the UK) members. He even said it in the speech. He says that the new constitution would lay out the requirements to be in the 'club', and require each of the 27 EU members to ratify the constitution. Failure to do? You get dumped by the side of the road, and the ones who pass....get to remain in the EU.
How many EU members would fail to ratify such a constitution? It's hard to guess on this. I can think of three countries that might easily fail, and maybe another five that would have a very difficult time.
You can forget about this passing in Hungary, Croatia, and Poland.
Then Schulz hyped up that individual sovereignty of members would just dissolve. Military affairs, borders, and taxes would all be an EU thing...NOT a individual country thing. Once you throw that on the table....you might start to have other problems. Even in France, this wouldn't exactly be easy to sell.
I sat and looked at this speech and the theme. Here's the thing....the SPD Party used to be the party that represented working-class people. If you stood and evaluated the political stand and priorities of the party now? Well....this EU-united thing isn't a priority for working-class Germans. They'd rate this somewhere way past one-hundred on their priority list....maybe even way past three-hundred. Some SPD folks would even say that the Berlin leadership is unable to concentrate and really represent them....so how would the Brussels leadership do it?
My question is....if this were to all come and pass....when would you dissolve the Bundestag? You could turn the Bundestag building into some museum. All of these seven-hundred-odd political folks? Well, if they weren't part of the EU mechanism in Brussels, then they'd be sent back home and find regular work.
I kinda think that this whole EU strategy and theme for the next four years is pretty lousy for the normal supporters of the SPD, and they've devalued their brand-name once again. Slippage from the 22-percent? Yeah. In four years, they might be lucky to reach 15-percent. For the Greens, Linke, FDP, and AfD parties? It's their chance to build onto the numbers.
One last aspect of this whole concept....with all the drama of the UK leaving, and the intense negotiation involved....would you really want to go and create this situation a second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth time?
The theme put forward by their top guy (Schulz)....EU, period. There was no big chat about jobs, the economy, or typical German themes.
He tossed the chief idea for the Party to capitalize upon....forming up the United States of Europe. He talks of a EU constitution and putting the seat of power into Brussels. In his mind, the only way to fight climate change....is to have one massive state. To take on the problems of migration and immigration....one state. To fight this wave of tax avoidance....one state.
Problems with the idea? Well....Schulz even noted that the enthusiasm to go this far and create this type of environment....is not shared by the 27 remaining (leave out the UK) members. He even said it in the speech. He says that the new constitution would lay out the requirements to be in the 'club', and require each of the 27 EU members to ratify the constitution. Failure to do? You get dumped by the side of the road, and the ones who pass....get to remain in the EU.
How many EU members would fail to ratify such a constitution? It's hard to guess on this. I can think of three countries that might easily fail, and maybe another five that would have a very difficult time.
You can forget about this passing in Hungary, Croatia, and Poland.
Then Schulz hyped up that individual sovereignty of members would just dissolve. Military affairs, borders, and taxes would all be an EU thing...NOT a individual country thing. Once you throw that on the table....you might start to have other problems. Even in France, this wouldn't exactly be easy to sell.
I sat and looked at this speech and the theme. Here's the thing....the SPD Party used to be the party that represented working-class people. If you stood and evaluated the political stand and priorities of the party now? Well....this EU-united thing isn't a priority for working-class Germans. They'd rate this somewhere way past one-hundred on their priority list....maybe even way past three-hundred. Some SPD folks would even say that the Berlin leadership is unable to concentrate and really represent them....so how would the Brussels leadership do it?
My question is....if this were to all come and pass....when would you dissolve the Bundestag? You could turn the Bundestag building into some museum. All of these seven-hundred-odd political folks? Well, if they weren't part of the EU mechanism in Brussels, then they'd be sent back home and find regular work.
I kinda think that this whole EU strategy and theme for the next four years is pretty lousy for the normal supporters of the SPD, and they've devalued their brand-name once again. Slippage from the 22-percent? Yeah. In four years, they might be lucky to reach 15-percent. For the Greens, Linke, FDP, and AfD parties? It's their chance to build onto the numbers.
One last aspect of this whole concept....with all the drama of the UK leaving, and the intense negotiation involved....would you really want to go and create this situation a second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth time?
The Fake Juvenile Story
This is a complicated story, but I'll try to lay out in a simple fashion.
Back in 2013....in Korfu, Greece...this immigrant kid from Afghanistan got into a bunch of trouble. At that point, he said he was 17 years old....a juvenile. He more or less sexually assaulted and almost killed some young Greek gal. Local cops stepped in.....court case occurred, and they gave the guy ten years in prison. Then Greek justice stepped in, and about six to twelve months later....they let the kid go.
No one from the Greek authorities will explain what happened, and the girl's family (at least in one Greek article I read)....were awful peeved when they found out about the release.
What'd the kid do? Well, he left Greece. He went to Germany.
Now, you'd think....after you really screwed up your life, and almost spent ten years in a Greek prison....you might have learned something.
Toward the end of 2016, he comes up and murders a young German gal in the Freiburg area (south of Germany). Cops spent a fair amount of time....gathered DNA...and found the guy.
Naturally, he claimed upon arrest and the original court action....that he was 17 years old. Using the 2013 info....you would think that the kid would now be 21 years old. But no....that wasn't the claim. The prosecution didn't appear to question much, and originally didn't know nothing about the Greek case (yeah, it is a shock that the Greeks didn't put any info on the guy in some international file).
Today, in a regional court.....the next piece of this story came out. The father of this 'kid' got on the phone and chatted with the judge. The father says....the 'kid' is 33 years old.
The odds of the juvenile slant on this case? Just plain gone at this point. He's going to get real jail time....probably in the twenty-year range.
The question is....how many other fake juveniles exist in the German immigration system? It's a virtual unknown. Forty years ago....you had to present real documentation, a real passport, or some substantial data to get a German visa. Today, that requirement is marginal. There might be ten-thousand fake juveniles in Germany today.
Back in 2013....in Korfu, Greece...this immigrant kid from Afghanistan got into a bunch of trouble. At that point, he said he was 17 years old....a juvenile. He more or less sexually assaulted and almost killed some young Greek gal. Local cops stepped in.....court case occurred, and they gave the guy ten years in prison. Then Greek justice stepped in, and about six to twelve months later....they let the kid go.
No one from the Greek authorities will explain what happened, and the girl's family (at least in one Greek article I read)....were awful peeved when they found out about the release.
What'd the kid do? Well, he left Greece. He went to Germany.
Now, you'd think....after you really screwed up your life, and almost spent ten years in a Greek prison....you might have learned something.
Toward the end of 2016, he comes up and murders a young German gal in the Freiburg area (south of Germany). Cops spent a fair amount of time....gathered DNA...and found the guy.
Naturally, he claimed upon arrest and the original court action....that he was 17 years old. Using the 2013 info....you would think that the kid would now be 21 years old. But no....that wasn't the claim. The prosecution didn't appear to question much, and originally didn't know nothing about the Greek case (yeah, it is a shock that the Greeks didn't put any info on the guy in some international file).
Today, in a regional court.....the next piece of this story came out. The father of this 'kid' got on the phone and chatted with the judge. The father says....the 'kid' is 33 years old.
The odds of the juvenile slant on this case? Just plain gone at this point. He's going to get real jail time....probably in the twenty-year range.
The question is....how many other fake juveniles exist in the German immigration system? It's a virtual unknown. Forty years ago....you had to present real documentation, a real passport, or some substantial data to get a German visa. Today, that requirement is marginal. There might be ten-thousand fake juveniles in Germany today.
Fake Accent Story
I sat on a local bus this week (going into Wiesbaden), with my hearing aid on. Typically, I hate the hearing aid because it barely makes much difference with my tinnitus (the ringing in the ears situation). The thing is....you can start to hear conversations that typically would be beyond the normal range with the hearing aid on.
So I sat there and two older German women were in some moment of 'gossip'. One began whining episode about her granddaughter. One can assume from the chat that the kid must have been in the twelve to fifteen years old range.
The complaint was...the kid has developed this fake accent in the past six months. A Russian accent. Based on the conversation....one might assume that Grandma, her daughter and the husband....are all authentic 100-percent Germans. So Grandma can't understand the necessity of this kid to speak with the fake Russian accent. The word 'slang' got thrown into this, and the kid was even using Russian slang words on occasion.
All of this....had grandma peeved.
I sat and thought about this. Around thirty years ago in Wiesbaden, you basically had four groups of foreigners in the local community. You had Americans, Italians, Greeks, and Turks. That was it. You might have bumped into a handful of Brits on occasion, and a few scattered oddball groups.
Today? There's probably over 60,000 non-Germans in the city population of 285,000. You can pick up twenty-odd accents if you walked around the city today. Accents? They are forced upon the German society, and they can tell you in a heartbeat....what nationality the guy is from.
As for this fake accent 'gimmick' of the young girl? I would take a guess that she's got some new friend who is Russian and this is some 'fun-factor'. Who knows....maybe in twenty years....you've got forty-thousand Germans who are pure-German but they pretend to be Russian-Germans.....dressing Russian, acting Russian, and even throwing out slang as wannabe-Russians. It'll be like some new culture that appeared out of thin air.
So I sat there and two older German women were in some moment of 'gossip'. One began whining episode about her granddaughter. One can assume from the chat that the kid must have been in the twelve to fifteen years old range.
The complaint was...the kid has developed this fake accent in the past six months. A Russian accent. Based on the conversation....one might assume that Grandma, her daughter and the husband....are all authentic 100-percent Germans. So Grandma can't understand the necessity of this kid to speak with the fake Russian accent. The word 'slang' got thrown into this, and the kid was even using Russian slang words on occasion.
All of this....had grandma peeved.
I sat and thought about this. Around thirty years ago in Wiesbaden, you basically had four groups of foreigners in the local community. You had Americans, Italians, Greeks, and Turks. That was it. You might have bumped into a handful of Brits on occasion, and a few scattered oddball groups.
Today? There's probably over 60,000 non-Germans in the city population of 285,000. You can pick up twenty-odd accents if you walked around the city today. Accents? They are forced upon the German society, and they can tell you in a heartbeat....what nationality the guy is from.
As for this fake accent 'gimmick' of the young girl? I would take a guess that she's got some new friend who is Russian and this is some 'fun-factor'. Who knows....maybe in twenty years....you've got forty-thousand Germans who are pure-German but they pretend to be Russian-Germans.....dressing Russian, acting Russian, and even throwing out slang as wannabe-Russians. It'll be like some new culture that appeared out of thin air.
Love Parade Update
Around seven years ago, in Duisburg....the German city folks and a event-organization....tried to run the 'Love Parade'. What can be said on 24 July 2010....is that the planned event was 'vermasselt' (meaning screwed-up). By the end of the day, 21 Germans were dead, and 500 injured.
What they planned was a bit different from the previous episodes in Berlin (Berlin got sick and tired of the clean-up affair)....so this Duisburg episode was supposed to be a concert-like setting and people would pay for entry. Someone was supposed to make some money. So to get the crowd formed up like a herd of cattle....they had them walk down a path, and through a tunnel. Things went wrong....massive push occurred, and the crowd basically killed people (they suffocated in some cases).
Thousands of hours of investigation have occurred, and the families want someone punished. It could be the organizers.....it could be city officials.
This week, court opened in Dusseldorf. The case will be heard.
To make this clear....it won't be easy. There are 900 hours of video collected. Roughly 37,000 pages of statements and analysis that lay there. The indictment alone is a minimum of 500 pages. For judges involved, you are talking about a full-time job for a minimum of two years.....maybe on up to three years.
A long process? You could go and hear ten different lawyers or retired judges from Germany chat on this, and some think that it could take more than four years to reach some conclusion. The problem is....there is a statue of limits (10 years), and July of 2020 is a deadline. If they fail to end it by then....then the case dissolves, and no one goes to jail.
Yeah....a number of folks will be attempting to delay and force pauses in this court episode. The city itself? Duisburg might have a good reason to hope on a long delayed court episode.
As for page one news? It'll likely get a mention on national news once or twice a month but I doubt that it's something that many Germans care about. They know the history.....they know how the event was marginally planned....they know that 21 people deserve some justice. Beyond that, it's not exactly on the priority list of 99-percent of Germans.
What they planned was a bit different from the previous episodes in Berlin (Berlin got sick and tired of the clean-up affair)....so this Duisburg episode was supposed to be a concert-like setting and people would pay for entry. Someone was supposed to make some money. So to get the crowd formed up like a herd of cattle....they had them walk down a path, and through a tunnel. Things went wrong....massive push occurred, and the crowd basically killed people (they suffocated in some cases).
Thousands of hours of investigation have occurred, and the families want someone punished. It could be the organizers.....it could be city officials.
This week, court opened in Dusseldorf. The case will be heard.
To make this clear....it won't be easy. There are 900 hours of video collected. Roughly 37,000 pages of statements and analysis that lay there. The indictment alone is a minimum of 500 pages. For judges involved, you are talking about a full-time job for a minimum of two years.....maybe on up to three years.
A long process? You could go and hear ten different lawyers or retired judges from Germany chat on this, and some think that it could take more than four years to reach some conclusion. The problem is....there is a statue of limits (10 years), and July of 2020 is a deadline. If they fail to end it by then....then the case dissolves, and no one goes to jail.
Yeah....a number of folks will be attempting to delay and force pauses in this court episode. The city itself? Duisburg might have a good reason to hope on a long delayed court episode.
As for page one news? It'll likely get a mention on national news once or twice a month but I doubt that it's something that many Germans care about. They know the history.....they know how the event was marginally planned....they know that 21 people deserve some justice. Beyond that, it's not exactly on the priority list of 99-percent of Germans.
The Hamburg Story
It was a page three story and won't be discussed much, but there's this odd meeting from Hamburg that occurred this week.
For most who might remember....the G-20 Summit this summer....was in Hamburg, and was a fairly big mess with riots. A lot of locals are still peeved and asking dramatic questions over security, the cops, and the leadership of the city (mostly SPD and Greens, politically speaking).
At the heart of all the riot talk....is this building in the east part of town....the "Rote Flora".
In the 1880s, the Rote Flora was built as a theater for entertaining folks. The building survived all the way through WW II....avoiding damage oddly. By the war period, it was in marginally acceptable for musicals, and it became a storage building. After the war, there was some renovation, and it shifted over to being strictly a movie theater, all the way to the late 1980s. At that point, it shut down.
Various efforts were made to flip it to the next period of use, oddly drawing the interest of radicals in the Hamburg area. Eventually, they came....squatted....and made it their turf.
Since the early 1990s....it's been this headquarters for the anti-capitalists in Hamburg.
The neighborhood? They've mostly looked the other way. In the past decade, it's drawn tourists to simply gaze at the graffiti on the building and they all note the building as being some tourist spot in the city.
The cops? Well...they've kinda figured out that from the G20 Summit, the Rote Flora group was at the heart of the planning of the riots. The cops are fed up with the squatters and want the situation shut down....an eviction.
The enthusiasm of the city political folks? The cops are now sensing that the mayor (Olaf Scholz) might now have the patience or enthusiasm to kick the squatters out of the building (even though this was listed on the agenda list from two months ago.
Apparently, the Interior Minister for Hamburg (the guy controlling security, the cops, etc)....was at a joint meeting of the cops and Rote Flora folks, and suggested that enthusiasm maybe wasn't there to kick them out. The cops? Fairly angry at the public statement, and asking questions. This was a private meeting....no reporters were allowed, and it might have been interesting to see how the locals would react to the political statement made.
You would think that the city political folks would be seeking an alternate solution and just suggest that they'd give some other building....in a more remote part part of the city....over to the anti-capitalists, hoping that they'd just move somewhere else, and reset the stage. The cops probably wouldn't be very happy with that type of answer.
By stalling this....it only constructs a magnet for anti-SPD and anti-Green voting in the next city election (Feb 2020). A lot of people will remember the riot and the damage done to the city.
For most who might remember....the G-20 Summit this summer....was in Hamburg, and was a fairly big mess with riots. A lot of locals are still peeved and asking dramatic questions over security, the cops, and the leadership of the city (mostly SPD and Greens, politically speaking).
At the heart of all the riot talk....is this building in the east part of town....the "Rote Flora".
In the 1880s, the Rote Flora was built as a theater for entertaining folks. The building survived all the way through WW II....avoiding damage oddly. By the war period, it was in marginally acceptable for musicals, and it became a storage building. After the war, there was some renovation, and it shifted over to being strictly a movie theater, all the way to the late 1980s. At that point, it shut down.
Various efforts were made to flip it to the next period of use, oddly drawing the interest of radicals in the Hamburg area. Eventually, they came....squatted....and made it their turf.
Since the early 1990s....it's been this headquarters for the anti-capitalists in Hamburg.
The neighborhood? They've mostly looked the other way. In the past decade, it's drawn tourists to simply gaze at the graffiti on the building and they all note the building as being some tourist spot in the city.
The cops? Well...they've kinda figured out that from the G20 Summit, the Rote Flora group was at the heart of the planning of the riots. The cops are fed up with the squatters and want the situation shut down....an eviction.
The enthusiasm of the city political folks? The cops are now sensing that the mayor (Olaf Scholz) might now have the patience or enthusiasm to kick the squatters out of the building (even though this was listed on the agenda list from two months ago.
Apparently, the Interior Minister for Hamburg (the guy controlling security, the cops, etc)....was at a joint meeting of the cops and Rote Flora folks, and suggested that enthusiasm maybe wasn't there to kick them out. The cops? Fairly angry at the public statement, and asking questions. This was a private meeting....no reporters were allowed, and it might have been interesting to see how the locals would react to the political statement made.
You would think that the city political folks would be seeking an alternate solution and just suggest that they'd give some other building....in a more remote part part of the city....over to the anti-capitalists, hoping that they'd just move somewhere else, and reset the stage. The cops probably wouldn't be very happy with that type of answer.
By stalling this....it only constructs a magnet for anti-SPD and anti-Green voting in the next city election (Feb 2020). A lot of people will remember the riot and the damage done to the city.
New Bread Cutter
Bread-cutters are not typically something that Americans buy. But if you live in Germany, because of the way that bakers make their bread (one rounded loaf, never cut into pieces unless you ask them to do it that way).....you need a bread-cutter. My wife said enough with the old one (being nearly 20 years in use), so we went to a new one.
Most shops will carry one or two models, with 99-percent made in China. I have to contend with the fact that my wife is a 'buy-German' individual and makes a big deal about everything bought should have the 'made in Germany' slogan on it. So after a fair amount of search, there is a model and brand out there, and we made the purchase.
It's safe to say....it was probably 50-percent more in cost, and weighed probably twice as much as the old one (it was mostly all plastic and this actually has some metal to it).
So I come to the odd aspect of this bread-cutter. I opened the box, and here was an instruction book....in roughly nine languages....four pages to each.
A necessity to have instructions?
That was the curious thing. There's just one button (on-off) with a bread-cutter.
Somewhere around the 6th line of the instruction came this dramatic statement....people who are intellectually not capable of operating this machine, should not be allowed to use it.
It's an interesting statement, and something that you'd expect a German to say or suggest in a hundred situations.
I could see a German suggesting this for cars, mowers, scooters, bikes and even horses. Some Germans might even slyly go and suggest this for democracy and politics, when centered on Trump.
I kinda turn and think that if this were American instructions on an American-made bread-cutter....it'd be twice as much text, mostly just in English and Spanish, and this intellectually-statement would have been left out. The fact is....at least in my humble opinion, we are kinda sparse on intellectual folks, and it probably explains why we make bread mostly already cut into pieces.
Most shops will carry one or two models, with 99-percent made in China. I have to contend with the fact that my wife is a 'buy-German' individual and makes a big deal about everything bought should have the 'made in Germany' slogan on it. So after a fair amount of search, there is a model and brand out there, and we made the purchase.
It's safe to say....it was probably 50-percent more in cost, and weighed probably twice as much as the old one (it was mostly all plastic and this actually has some metal to it).
So I come to the odd aspect of this bread-cutter. I opened the box, and here was an instruction book....in roughly nine languages....four pages to each.
A necessity to have instructions?
That was the curious thing. There's just one button (on-off) with a bread-cutter.
Somewhere around the 6th line of the instruction came this dramatic statement....people who are intellectually not capable of operating this machine, should not be allowed to use it.
It's an interesting statement, and something that you'd expect a German to say or suggest in a hundred situations.
I could see a German suggesting this for cars, mowers, scooters, bikes and even horses. Some Germans might even slyly go and suggest this for democracy and politics, when centered on Trump.
I kinda turn and think that if this were American instructions on an American-made bread-cutter....it'd be twice as much text, mostly just in English and Spanish, and this intellectually-statement would have been left out. The fact is....at least in my humble opinion, we are kinda sparse on intellectual folks, and it probably explains why we make bread mostly already cut into pieces.
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Bomb Threat Story
Kind of a shock....in my village yesterday....we had a bomb threat.
What the cops say is that as night fell on Wednesday....someone came home and there was a suspicious box on the doorstep (I guess they weren't expecting it).
Why the hype? Well....in the last week or so, here in Germany, we've had this blackmail attempt against DHL (our major delivery service). The people involved had made up a 'fake' package bomb and had intended call DHL and demand a payment with 10-million Bitcoins. The suggestion is that if you don't react....they will send more bombs (Potsdam is the location of the original threat).
From the level of sophistication....it's obvious that they've spent some time studying the idea and think that DHL can be forced to react. If you had five or six 'attacks' to occur.....you'd see Germans freak out and a whole new level of fear would come out of the public.
What the cops say is that as night fell on Wednesday....someone came home and there was a suspicious box on the doorstep (I guess they weren't expecting it).
Why the hype? Well....in the last week or so, here in Germany, we've had this blackmail attempt against DHL (our major delivery service). The people involved had made up a 'fake' package bomb and had intended call DHL and demand a payment with 10-million Bitcoins. The suggestion is that if you don't react....they will send more bombs (Potsdam is the location of the original threat).
From the level of sophistication....it's obvious that they've spent some time studying the idea and think that DHL can be forced to react. If you had five or six 'attacks' to occur.....you'd see Germans freak out and a whole new level of fear would come out of the public.
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