Tag Archives: Aging

Hallo, ist da jemand?

April 18, 2012 By in Habitudes, Hi-tech, High Art, History Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Is there anybody out there?

I like old Helmut Schmidt, and we’re talking old (93). I like that he goes out of his way to smoke in front of everybody, especially there where you’re not supposed to. I also think it’s cool that he doesn’t have a cell phone and prefers writing something called “letters” with something called “paper and ink.”  And I don’t even mind that he thinks the Internet is “menacing.” I mean, why should he be the only one in Germany who doesn’t think that way?

I do wish, however, that he would take that big leap and finally leave the SPD while he still has the time to do so. I don’t think he ever belonged there in the first place. But maybe that’s just me.

„Ich telefoniere überhaupt nur noch selten. Wahrscheinlich habe ich das auch früher nie wirklich gern getan. Ich habe immer die Schriftform bevorzugt, und zwar die briefliche Schriftform.“

The Land After Time

November 19, 2009 By in Hard Facts Tags: 2 Comments

After our time, I mean. Not like this is really news or anything, but the German Federal Office for Statistics has just announced that a third of all Germans will be 65-years-old or older in the year 2060 (not in the year 3000 as Conan O’Brien might have you believe). The German population will keep on shrinking too, from 82 million today to around 70 million in 2060.

No force in the universe can stop this process or something, not even if the German birth rate were to pick up, which, as we all know, won’t. Of course one could consider officially opening up the flood gates and welcoming newcomers to Germany with open arms and having them become Germans and all that but that would be tantamount to letting Ausländer into the country so, like I said, no force in the universe can stop this process. Old people really don’t like Ausländer here, you see. And this constitutes a so-called vicious circle or something.

“Ein Faktor zur Dämpfung dieser Entwicklung ist die Zuwanderung nach Deutschland.”