And less kissing. I like these guys, honest. There is too much kissing going on these days.
But I don’t think people should even shake hands anymore, or look sideways at each other for that matter, so don’t listen to me.
“The suspicion for many remains that there is, or may be, an erotic component to the kissing.”
That’s what the Germans call their lack of children here. And with children comprising only 16.5 percent of the total population Germany now has the fewest number of children in all of zee Europe.
And the same report gives child poverty a whole new meaning here, too. It shows that one out of six of these rare creatures is threatened with real poverty.
I don’t know what any of this means. I suppose that Germans just prefer to spend more time with themselves and need to concentrate more on self-discovery and individual fulfillment. And to take themselves more seriously. Than they already are doing, I mean. And that is no laughing matter, believe me. So that makes this place certainly not the kind of place where you would want to raise your kids.
Vor zehn Jahren lag der Kinderanteil bei 18,8 Prozent, jetzt bei 16,5 Prozent, 2030 werden es voraussichtlich nur noch 15 Prozent sein.
When it comes to the German economy and the jobs here, right?
Right. Sort of. Think again. Granted, Germans love nothing better than to bitch and moan about anything and everything they can, their jobs included, but the latest phase of a study done by the Universität Duisburg-Essen has shown that based on a scale from 1 (awful) to 10 (great) German on-the-job satisfaction has dropped from 7.6 to 6.8 during the past 25 years.
In an international comparison, German is even way down at the bottom of the list, the only workers being less satisfied coming from ex-East Block nations like Slowakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia. But at least now the West Germans are just as miserable as the East Germans are, the study says. So that’s progress, I guess.
Hmmm. I guess nothing ever is as it seems.
Im internationalen Vergleich rangiert Deutschland in der Studie weit hinten auf Rang 18 – nur in den ehemaligen Ostblock-Staaten Slowakei, Ukraine, Bulgarien und Russland seien die Arbeitnehmer demnach noch unzufriedener.
Here’s a quick summary of a fascinating Spiegel editorial about the American Tea Party movement and the current US debt crisis. Or the German intellectual take on it, I should say.
Tea Party want bankruptcy. America work for 235 years, then Tea Party come.
Now Tea Party want friction. Tea Party not want results. Tea Party now enemy. Tea Party outsiders.
Tea Party all take, no give. Tea Party not want to raise taxes. Tea Party bad not to want to raise taxes.
Tea Party people make fear, lead America to economic Armageddon.
America now at standstill. Tea Party people want annihilate Washington (see Captain America). They want stripped down state. Not like state. Very bad.
President Obama want improve schools. Tea Party not want this.
President Obama want clean energy. Tea Party not want this.
President Obama want cuts (and taxes). Tea Party not want this (only cuts). This bad.
Tea Party focus on principles. Very bad.
Tea Party practice raw and aggressive democracy.
Tea Party even make fun of Republicans. This good, sort of, but still bad.
Democracy depends on compromise and the American government depends on all branches working together. The Tea Party movement shuns both, preferring instead to drive the state into bankruptcy. On principle.
German rum runners everywhere were stunned to discover yesterday that evil US of Amerika has placed an embargo on communist Cuban goods some 50 years ago and that that nation’s Yankee imperialist lacky puppets eBay/PayPal will no longer allow them to import Cuban rum to Germany anymore (they froze their accounts).
When will the Unterdrückung (oppression) ever end or something?
“Der Händler kann weiter seine Artikel bei Ebay verkaufen, aber nicht über PayPal.”
It’s not as easy being a German naturalist as it used to be. Due to weight issues, more and more clothing has to be taken off or something and that’s become a real pain in the sunburned behind.
And then there are the demographics. Immigrants from Turkey and Arabic countries aren’t interested in “social nudity,” for some strange reason.
Nude sunbathing has a long tradition in Germany. The Free Body Culture (FKK) movement was founded in the early 20th century and succeeded in taking much of the smut and embarrassment out of nudity.
And let’s do so by cancelling a German freedom prize that was to be awarded to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin just days before German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss reinforcing their countries’ growing economic and trade ties.
Whatever. But he’ll be heartbroken for sure.
The Quadriga award annually honors people who are “role models for and from Germany” and is “dedicated to all those whose courage tears down walls and whose commitment builds bridges.”
In Berlin green is glamourous (wow, that’s a no-brainer).
Makes sense, if you think about it. Green certainly isn’t what you would call a “power” color.
But I don’t know. Do you really want to walk around in sustainable clothes all the time? After three or four months of constant wear, that sustainable sweater of yours may not be biodegradeable any more.
The current women’s soccer fest has shown me once again that women just aren’t as good at soccer as men are. When it comes to fake soccer injuries, I mean.
“As soccer fans, we are shocked, shocked to learn that some players might not really be injured when they flop onto the pitch. Now comes a study suggesting that women are less likely to fake soccer injuries than men.”
They’re just missing that killer instinct or something.
We Germans call the shots here in Europe, sort of.
It’s just that we don’t know what we’re going to be calling next.
“Anybody out there still think Germany is running Europe — or for that matter can or will dominate it in time?
The question fits the moment after the German refusal to vote in favor of allied military intervention in Libya, the government’s pullout from nuclear energy largely for reasons of emotion and domestic political calculation, and its willingness last week to put off possibly decisive steps to end Greece’s debt misery.
Over a period of just about three months, that is a lot of unpredictability and policy pirouettes for allies who might have thought German leadership, on the upside, would be rational, competent and closely bound to the West.”
