For your forty-four hour stay in Greenland.
Hope you had a nice Tikittarfik back home.
„Thank you, Germans“
Category Archives: Hurt Feelings
American colonialism bad!
European, not so much.
Greenland’s colonial past could be Washington’s way in – Greenland’s legacy of Danish colonialism, forced relocations and cultural trauma may now become the opening Donald Trump needs to pull the island away from Europe’s orbit.
When US President Donald Trump first mused about a Greenland takeover, the initial reactions were a blend of disbelief, bemusement and nervous laughter. It felt like yet another outlandish flourish, and marginally more realistic than annexing Canada.
But beneath the jokes sat a truth few confronted: Greenland’s position within Europe is fragile. The island bears deep scars from Danish colonialism, depends heavily on Danish funds and exists in a constitutional limbo: tied to Denmark, yet outside the EU’s political system. Those unresolved tensions leave Greenland politically unanchored, and exposed.
German of the day: Völkerrecht
That means international law.
And international law, as one German commentator so aptly noted, “is the knife-free zone of geopolitics.”
International law applies to everyone, including U.S., says German finance minister (and vice-chancellor).
Black Outs Matter
Especially when you’re experiencing sub-zero temperatures and your heating is out (thanks a million, Global Warming).
Berlin power outage affecting 45,000 homes blamed on ‘politically motivated’ attack – Many households and businesses in south-west Berlin face days without electricity after high-voltage power lines were damaged by a fire which city authorities said Sunday was a result of a politically motivated attack by “left-wing extremists.”
German of the day: Wenn das Geld alle ist
That means when the money’s gone.
And when the money’s gone, the money’s gone.
Sweden and Germany slash aid budgets to focus on Ukraine and defence spending – Echoing the dismantling of USAID, other countries are changing funding priorities and health and hunger programmes in Africa will lose out.
There’s always a first time
Then a second, then a third…
Volkswagen shutters a German plant for first time ever as Trump tariffs squeeze car giant – Volkswagen is ending vehicle production at its Dresden factory — the first time in the automaker’s 88-year history that it has closed a plant in its home country — as weakening demand and punishing US tariffs squeeze the German car giant.
The last vehicle rolled off the line Tuesday at the Dresden site, known as the “Transparent Factory” because of its glass-walled design, capping 24 years of production that began in 2001.
Nobody wants to host Climate Woodstock anymore!
Not even Germany. Ouch.
Gimme a C! Gimme an L! Gimme an I…
Germany seeks to avoid becoming next UN climate host by accident – Australia and Turkey both want to host the COP31, and if neither back down the talks will be held in Germany.
“We would have to, but we do not want to.”
German of the day: Stadtbild
That means cityscape. And this word is apparently offensive to Germans.
To Germans who are in denial about violence, sexual or otherwise, being committed by… As I said, in denial.
‘Ask your daughters’: Merz defends his call for large-scale deportations – German chancellor accused of taking a page from extremist parties with ‘dangerous’ rhetoric on immigration…
Merz said his priority was “security in public space” and stressed that only if it could be guaranteed “will the [mainstream] political parties win back trust”.
He had drawn flak last week for remarks that critics said hinted that diversity itself was a problem in German cities: “Of course we still have this problem in the cityscape, and that is why the federal interior minister is now working to enable and carry out expulsions on a very large scale,” Merz said on a visit to Brandenburg state outside Berlin.
Ai Weiwei should have read my blog more often…
Then he wouldn’t have been so, you know, surprised.
Just sayin’.
What I Wish I Had Known About Germany Earlier – A German newspaper commissioned an article from me but then refused to publish it…
A society governed by regulations, yet lacking individual moral judgment, is more dangerous than one with none at all.
A society that values obedience without questioning authority is destined to become corrupt.
A society that admits to error but refuses to reflect on its origins possesses a mind as stubborn and dull as granite…
It’s nothing personal, Mom
It’s purely financial.
Daughter suspected of burying Holocaust survivor mother in yard to collect German reparations – Israel Police uncovered the body of 93-year-old Holocaust survivor Maina Tolstikov, allegedly buried by her daughter and the daughter’s partner in their Carmiel yard to keep receiving state and German compensation funds.
The motive, investigators believe, was purely financial. Tolstikov, as a Holocaust survivor, received tens of thousands of shekels each month from the Israeli government and Germany. “They simply never reported her death and kept withdrawing the funds for over a year and a half,” Reuveni said.
Observing Hermann 