Category Archives: Hard Facts

And in case you were wondering…

October 11, 2010 By in Hard Facts Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

(and I know that you weren’t) Germans don’t spend as much time on Facebook as other nationality types do. That’s a real news item, right?

They seem to be more, how-you-say, how-you-say, suspicious, ja? According to some study brought out by a market research institute in Bielefeld, Germans only spend 3.1 hours per week on social network sites like Facebook. By comparison, Malasians spend about 9 hours per week, Russians 8.1 and Turks 7.7. And not even half of the Germans who do have bothered to place pictures in their social network accounts whereas, for instance, 92 percent of the Thais online have. I guess the Thais feel they are more photogenic or something. Or feel more something the Germans aren’t, anyway.

Just thought you might like to know.

Insgesamt sei der digitale Eifer in Wachstumsmärkten wie Brasilien (48 Prozent) und China (54 Prozent) deutlich größer als in Industrieländern wie Deutschland (36 Prozent), Finnland (26 Prozent) oder Japan (20 Prozent).

Still abstract enough?

October 5, 2010 By in Hard Facts Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

The non-threat, I mean? Not if you were one of the five or more German militants in Pakistan’s border area with Afghanistan who just killed in a drone attack. They may have been linked to a group that is thought to be planning attacks on European cities so the threat got very quickly very concrete for them. Opps, I meant European cities that aren’t German, of course.

“What the US broadcaster Fox News and other media are putting out to the world as allegedly concrete warnings is negligent and damaging, and the substance is ridiculous.”

US, Western, it’s all the same to me

September 29, 2010 By in Hard Facts Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

Die Welt says it was a United States intelligence service, Der Spiegel has to call it Western ones, of course.

Who cares, as long as it’s true. Drone attacks in Pakistan are thought to have thwarted a terror plot that is believed to have targeted multiple countries, including the UK, France, and Germany.

Those drones sure are yucky, aren’t they?

“The U.S. has shared intelligence with European allies in recent days and is working with our key partners in order to disrupt terrorist plotting, identify and take action against potential operatives, and strengthen our defenses against potential threats.”

We’re not clearing any Roma settlements!

September 17, 2010 By in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

You must have misunderstood me or something, Nico.

Germany would never clear Roma and Sinti settlements. But that’s only because they don’t exist here. We send our Roma back individually. And very quietly. Got about 12,000 to go. So pipe it down about that from now on, will ya?

Nach Angaben des Bundesinnenministeriums wurden in diesem Jahr bis Ende Juli 102 Roma in den Kosovo ausgewiesen.

A giant leap for Germankind?

September 1, 2010 By in Hard Facts Tags: , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Concerning the demographics problem in Germany, I mean. It’s official now: More and more Germans under 50 are actually “thinking” about having children.

Over 50 percent think they will most certainly have children one day, maybe. Some 26 percent think just that maybe part. Well what do you think of that? It’s the thought that counts.

Familienministerin Schröder sieht in dem Ergebnis einen bedeutenden Mentalitätswandel.

The economy really must be booming again

August 25, 2010 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Humor, Hustle (Hoax) Tags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

This is by far one of my top five if not my absolute favorite scam here.

Although the political class in Berlin still pretends as if workers in Germany will actually be working until they are 67 in the future before being able to retire here (the system – or the demographics – she is broken, Señor), last year’s Vorruhestand (early retirement) numbers shot up 10,000 over the previous year, making it the highest number of early retirees (171,129) to throw in the towel (early) over the past six years.

Don’t get me wrong, though. These folks had to retire early because they were sick. Honest. No, not sick of working. Most of them had one of those newfangled, you know, psychological-like ailment-type sicknesses. But don’t worry. They’re feeling better already.

Der weitaus größte Teil – rund 64.000 Menschen – habe aufgrund einer psychischen Erkrankung in den vorzeitigen Ruhestand gehen müssen.

200 million for Haiti, 2 million for Pakistan?

August 15, 2010 By in Hard Facts Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

That’s how much (or little) Germans have donated privately to the victims of the flood catastrophe in Pakistan so far; 2 million euros.

I’m not going to judge anybody here, you should donate what you feel like donating. But that’s the problem with Pakistan, I guess. For some strange reason, the Haitians’ suffering was one hundred times more deserving than the suffering going on in Pakistan right now, or felt like it was.

Image isn’t everything. Or is it the only thing?

UN-Angaben zufolge warten rund sechs Millionen Menschen dringend auf Nahrung, Wasser, Medizin und ein Obdach.

Help me man I’m sick

July 28, 2010 By in Hard Facts, Health, Helplessness, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Or more sick than I was ten or twenty years ago, I mean.

That Germans are stark raving psycho schizophrenic wacko types is understood and all well and good, but now they’re getting all these psychological and emotional stress related mental health disorders too. Or at least a whole lot more than they used to get. For crying out loud.

Or at least that’s what this latest hospital report link thingy up there says. Four out of five of the most commonly practiced hospital therapies in Germany have to do with mental disorders these days. Nobody knows why this is, of course, although some suspect it might have to do with the fact that being depressed (or talking about being depressed) isn’t taboo anymore. Like how depressing is that?

“Während 1990 nur etwa jeder zwölfte Behandlungstag unter der Hauptdiagnose von psychischen Störungen erfasst wurde, waren es 2009 gut ein Sechstel aller Behandlungstage.”