The urge to urge

April 16, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: China, Exports, Germany, Imports, Industry, Restrictions, Trade Leave a comment

Urged once again. Due to the urgency, I guess.

Well, I’m sure this urge will finally do the trick.

German chancellor urges Chinese industry bosses to play fair in EU market – Olaf Scholz says European cars should have equal access to Chinese customers.

“The only thing that always needs to be clear is that the competition is fair,” he said during a discussion with students at Tongji University in Shanghai. “That means there can be no dumping, no overproduction and that intellectual property rights are not violated,” he said.

“Expressing understanding”

April 13, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hate, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Berlin, Gaza, Germany, Hamas, Hate, Palestinians, Terror, War Leave a comment

He was the author of a January essay that expressed understanding for the Hamas militants who carried out the deadly October 7 raid in Israel that sparked the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Then understand this.

German police shut down pro-Palestinian conference – Police in the German capital, Berlin, have stopped an event expressing solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza war. Authorities said they were concerned over potential antisemitic remarks and glorified violence.

German Greens thwart imminent Iran attack on Israel

April 12, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Annalena Baerbock, Diplomacy, Gaza, Germany, Greens, Iran, Israel Leave a comment

Other countries should follow their example. All you need is a Green foreign minister lady and a phone.

Why didn’t anybody ever think of doing this before?

German FM Urges Iranian Restraint In Call With FM – German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for de-escalation in the region amid an Iran-led proxy war, in a call with his Iranian counterpart.

“No one can have an interest in a wider regional escalation. We urge all actors in the region to act responsibly and exercise maximum restraint,” German Foreign Ministry wrote on X following the phone call with Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Thursday.

German of the day: Unwahrscheinlich

April 11, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: Dependency, Economy, Energy, Gas, German, Germany, Greens, Industry, Language, Renewables, Russia, Solar, Ukraine, War, Wind Leave a comment

That means unlikely. As in “a recovery of German industry to the level before the war in Ukraine is unlikely.”

Go Green, go… lean.

Germany set to permanently pay for reliance on Russian gas—as power chief says ‘significant structural demand destruction’ means it will never fully recover from energy crisis.

German industry got rich, thanks partly to its close energy trading relationship with political and economic rival Russia. The past few years have shown just how misguided that relationship was, as Russia invaded Ukraine and cut off Germany’s cheap, vital gas supply.

Now, one of Germany’s leading renewable-power bosses has suggested it’s a mistake the country could rue forever, as the fallout from the energy crisis is set to permanently damage its industry.

“Art is what you can get away with”

April 10, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, High Art, Hurt Feelings Tags: Art, Artists, Exhibitions, Galleries, Germany, Munich, Paintings Leave a comment

And this guy didn’t get away with it.

But nice try anyway.

German gallery fires employee for hanging own art in exhibition – A modern art gallery in Germany has fired an employee after discovering the budding artist had hung his own work in an exhibition.

The 51-year-old man had drilled two holes in a wall to mount his painting in Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne.

But why would you leave Helsinki in the first place?

April 9, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hurt Feelings Tags: Berlin, CO2, Finland, Finns, Flying, German, Germans, Germany, Happiness, Language, Travel 2 Comments

To come to Berlin, I mean.

Finns are the happiest people on Earth, I’m told. Germans, well, aren’t. And Berliners erst recht nicht (certainly not).

Traveling from Berlin to Helsinki — without using a plane. Flying is a major CO2 emitter when traveling. But how feasible are alternative modes of transportation?

Real chancellors don’t dance

April 8, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Dancing, Germany, Olaf Scholz, Tiktok 1 Comment

Neither does Olaf Scholz.

In the future, Olaf Scholz will be present on the video platform Tiktok – just like around 21 million mainly young people in Germany every month. But there will be no dance videos from him, he promises...

Tiktok is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance and is suspected of being under the influence of the communist leadership in Beijing and not taking data protection and fake prevention very seriously.

What a surprise!

April 7, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Asylum Seekers, Borders, Crime, EU, Germany, Migrants Leave a comment

Not.

Everybody knows what’s going on. Just like everybody knows nothing will be done to stop it.

Germany: Violent crime reaches 15-year high — report. Germany recorded more than 214,000 criminal acts of violence last year, according to official police statistics. Overall crime also rose, according to data seen by the German paper Welt am Sonntag.

The number of suspects arrested rose by 7.3% to 2.246 million and 41.3% of them did not have a German passport.

Among the people without German nationality who were charged, 402,514 were described as refugees, asylum seekers and those who entered the country illegally.

In 2023, the offense of unauthorized entry rose 40% over the previous year, to 93,158 cases, while the offense of unauthorized stay increased by nearly 29% to 187,059 cases.

A third of crimes (1.971 million) were theft offenses, which rose 10.7% last year.

Having a “war-capable” army?

April 4, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Armies, Bundeswehr, Defense, Germany, Military, NATO, War Leave a comment

What will these crazy Germans dream up next?

Germany’s defense minister overhauls the military command as he seeks ‘war-capable’ armed forces – Germany’s defense minister has announced a plan to streamline and reorganize the country’s military command as part of efforts to make the armed forces of NATO’s most populous European member “war-capable.”

Berlin Airlift 2.0

April 3, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Botswana, Elephants, Environmentalists, Germans, Germany, Greens, Hunters, Trophies 1 Comment

Only now it’s time for some really heavy airlifting.

Botswana offers 20,000 elephants to Germany in diplomatic spat over trophy hunting – Botswana’s president challenged Berlin to take on 20,000 elephants – saying “it’s not a joke” – while opposing Germany’s proposed restrictions on the import of hunting trophies.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi suggested in an interview with German newspaper Bild that Berlin should try living with elephants to experience the challenges the endangered species bring to the community.

Mr Masisi was responding to Germany’s environment ministry suggesting earlier this year that there should be tougher rules against importing hunting trophies.

Botswana’s president said Germans should “live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to”.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”