Who else?
And even if he could have come, he wouldn’t have come, Roman Polanski said.
Der Silberne Bär für die beste Regie wurde in Abwesenheit an Roman Polanski verliehen.
Category Archives: Habitudes
Why are they booing?
And what are they booing?
The first movie? The big-budget remake with a message because it wasn’t low-budget enough (the movie, not the message)? History?
Or was this flick, like most of the other films that get shown here every year at the Berlin Film Festival, was it like, well, too political? Nah, that can’t be. What’s more political (or politically correct) than the Berlinale?
I know, maybe it was just another really lousy movie. I mean even by Berlinale standards lousy.
“Ein antisemitischer Film, wie wir ihn uns nur wünschen können.”
The times they are a-changin’
Even in Germany, sort of. It’s been a long time coming (damn, a whole year already). From here…
To here.
Happy Karnival time or something. Oh yeah, it’s already over (for a lot of folks it is, anyway).
US-Präsident Barack Obama als gefallener Engel. Der Heiligenschein liegt am Boden.
Iran using tricks?
Really? Who would have thought that? After all these long years, I mean.
It must have been those tricky Avatar 3D glasses that finally tipped the Germans off.
Westerwelle told Deutschlandfunk radio that Iran would be judged by its actions and not by its words, and that only a serious return to negotiations would prevent further measures such as sanctions being imposed on the Islamic Republic.
Who remembers the Uncola?
Well the Germans have an Unword, so there. Only they call it Unwort. And this year’s winner (they really mean loser) is Betriebsrastverseucht (works council (think unions) contaminated).
How shocking or something. This is a real “sprachlicher Tiefpunkt” (linguistic low point), man. Talk about being politically incorrect. Who could ever get the idea that works councils in Germany could ever possibly contaminate anything? Whether they wanted to or not, I mean. Other than the general mood, I mean, which is always pretty lousy here to begin with anyway so like who cares? Just stop and think about it: If there weren’t any work councils here, uh, there wouldn’t be any works councils here. And that would lead to, uh, well, further or even real contamination. The whole nation would become contaminated, so-to-speak. You know, a contamination.
So clean up your act and stop using awful Unwords like that. These are not cola nuts. They`re the other kind.
Die Wahrnehmung von Arbeitnehmerinteressen als Seuche zu bezeichnen, sei ein sprachlicher Tiefpunkt im Umgang mit Lohnabhängigen.
Pull your weight already
Or lose whatever weight you may have had, I mean.
Warning: The following is somebody else`s opinion, somebody you will most likely not agree with (oder doch?). Worse still, it`s been taken from a so-called “blog”.
“The heaviest burden in Afghanistan has been borne by the US, UK and Canada. Of the older NATO nations Denmark has played a major role, contributing more troops and taking more casualties as a part of its population than any other continental European nation. However, other Western nations have not pulled their weight at all, with Germany now acting as the problem child of the Western Alliance.
Germany, with the fourth largest economy in the world and a much larger population than the UK, had less than half of the force strength in Afghanistan as the UK. While British forces are committed to the toughest part of the country, the south, and are there to fight, the Germans have stationed their force in the safest part of Afghanistan, the north, and have and surrounded their commitment with numerous caveats restricting when and how their forces might engage in combat.”
“One of the major consequences of the ongoing war in Afghanistan is a very changed understanding of NATO and the dynamics of the alliance.”
When snowball fights turn bad
I guess it’s officially a tradition now. For the second (or third?) New Year’s now, a group of abominable anarchist snowmen types (this time around 200 strong) have picked a snowball fight with the rest of the world in Leipzig at a place called Connewitzer Kreuz.
Then of course the snowball fight got out of control and expensive cars, buses, store windows and even cops got hurt. Other than all the feelings, I mean. Hey, you’ve got to do something down there. At Connewitzer Kreuz, I mean.
Auch Polizeikräfte wurden mit Schneebällen sowie mit Flaschen beworfen, wobei zwei Beamte verletzt wurden.
This pig foot could be yours!
After you strap a Polish firecracker on it and blow it up on New Year’s Eve, that is. Although… Why you would want to do this is beyond me (like lots of things that get done here).
Germans love blowing stuff up on New Year’s, you see, but they just don’t trust foreign explosive imports (sound familiar?). And a certain annual anti-Polish-firework-movement has even become a near-ritual kinda thang here. German newspapers and cops love to issue dramatic warnings about Polen Böller (Polish fireworks) right before the fireworks hit the fan.
And that’s what this picture is all about. Cops in Berlin and elsewhere are trying to frighten the pants off everybody by showing them what an illegal Polish firecracker can do to an unarmed pig’s foot (don’t worry, they had the decency to kill the pig first). German firecrackers just don’t put holes in your pigs feet like that, I assume.
Anyways, be careful out there this year, people. Blow up your pigs feet and other objects properly and with great care. And buy German. First, I mean.
And while we’re at it, Happy New Year!
Nein, nein and nein again!
And I’ll hold my breath until my face turns blue if you don’t believe me. Geez. This is almost like the good-old Gerhard Schroeder days – saying no before anybody asks anything of you – and that’s even with you-know-who now in office (what’s-his-name is long gone, remember?).
That Germany won’t ever really deploy real troops in a real war in a real country called Afghanistan is certainly no secret to anyone anywhere, least of all the Taliban, but that Germany’s new Foreign Minister is prepared to puff and pout and not even attend the upcoming Afghanistan conference in London should it “degrade” to a pure troop deployment conference, well, that’s kind of special (not).
As predicted, Germany has dragged its feet this past month in the face of calls from President Obama to help with a push to defeat the Taliban with more combat troops, holding off from any decision regarding troop numbers until after the London talks. Now it seems the Germans have reached a new phase: They are now even prepared to hold off on taking part on any talks before holding off on making a decision which, as all the world can clearly see, has been made long ago; nein. Or no, if you prefer.
“Mit seinem Nein zu einer deutlichen Aufstockung des Bundeswehrkontingentes steht Westerwelle ja beileibe nicht alleine. Diese Position ist auch den USA längst bekannt. Aber durch die versuchte Vorfestlegung eines Konferenzverlaufs, den Deutschland nur partiell beeinflussen kann, isoliert der Minister sich und die ganze Bundesregierung innerhalb des Bündnisses. Das ist einfach dumm.”
Ho, ho, ho or something
Beautiful German of the week.
Because somebody has to admire them.
Have a Merry Christmas and stuff.
Observing Hermann 
