Tag Archives: Germans

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.

Volunteers of America, OK

August 13, 2010 By in Helplessness, History Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

But volunteers of Germany? Good luck.

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is moving ahead with reform plans to reduce the Bundeswehr to 165,000 soldiers, effectively turning it into a volunteer army.

This is a controversial move in Germany because, well, every move in Germany is a controversial move. OK, OK. At least the ones that have to do with the military are.

But like who cares? It’s not as if this new professional German army is ever going to be used for military purposes either. Not unless everybody volunteers to, that is. And how likely is that?

Künftig sollen nur noch freiwillige Rekruten eingezogen werden: Die Planer rechnen mit 7500 Freiwilligen pro Jahr.

Too ostentatious

August 12, 2010 By in Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Charity schmarity. German super-rich types aren’t fooled a minute by any of this “giving pledge” nonsense put forward by Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Co.

Any billionaire can agree to give away half of his/her money to charity. But that’s beside the point, the German super-rich say. It’s all about the principle of the matter, you see (and who should know more about principles than the filthy rich, right?).

German upper crusties think that giving so-called donations shouldn’t replace duties that would be better carried out by the German state. That said state takes in comparatively little from said crusties is another matter altogether, but still. We’re talking about principles here.

“For most people that is too ostentations.”

Street View II

August 11, 2010 By in Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , 11 Comments

Or 2.0? The saga continues. Pack your canned goods and potable water, Germany. Street View is coming doch (after all).

But this time you don’t have to worry about lack of privacy and criminal abuse and all that stuff. This time it’s going to be a German kinda Street View thang.

Not only will the faces of individuals and license plates and street addresses be blurred out, German Street View is going to blurr out the houses and the streets, entire neighborhoods, cities, mountains, lakes and streams and other prominent geographical landmarks including some of our planet’s smaller oceans too – but they were kind of blurry to begin with anyway, so there.

People can also ask to have images of their homes removed from the database starting next week – a move aimed at dispelling privacy fears.

German rapid response team closes down 9/11 mosque

August 9, 2010 By in Habitudes, History Tags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Well that’s a relatively rapid response by German standards if you ask me, OK?

That’s right, this is the same mosque which was frequented by the the suicide hijackers from the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. And now, some ten years later, after what appears to have been some very, very thorough deliberation indeed, Hamburg authorities have determined that the guys running this place might pose a threat to society – and have shut their puppy down.

Germans are known for their thoroughness, get it?

“Recent events have again shown that instructional courses, sermons and seminars held by the organization and texts published on its website are not only aimed against constitutional regularity, but also seek to radicalize their listeners and readers,” the town statement said.

We’re not nearly as upset about Task Force 373 as we were last week

August 3, 2010 By in Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

All the Germans who read Der Spiegel (and that’s all the Germans that there are) were selfrighteously outraged upon reading about American Task Force 373 after this latest WikiLeaks revelation thingy last week.

Now it turns out that the German government has been providing names to the hit list used by the unit. Oh boy, oh boy. The outrage that will now follow suit will be even more, well, not all that outrageous really, come to think of it. But still.

It has becomes clear that, even though German elite units such as Task Force 47 were not deployed to deliberately target people, their counterpart, the American special forces unit Task Force 373, which has since been renamed Task Force 3-10, takes on the dirty work and processes the hit lists — in the territory controlled by the Bundeswehr and on the basis of German information, no less.

The weatherman’s out!

August 2, 2010 By in Habeas Corpus, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

And he’s guilty until proven guilty. Lock your doors already.

They’re going at him big time too, although everything you read about the ex-girfriend’s allegations of rape sounds pretty, uh, flaky at best. And I hate weathermen too. Man oh man, this one’s going to go on forever.

“Wir nehmen gerade die Hauptverhandlung vorweg.”

This blame game is lame

August 1, 2010 By in Habeas Corpus, History, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

What a shame.

Ever wonder about blame? About the need to find someone or something to blame for tragic incidents that just plain happen in what some might claim to be an indifferent world?

Finding blame is very important in Germany for some inexplicable reason (not all that inexplicable really, if you stop and think about it for a bit). It’s not a terribly productive process, however. Especially when the individual being sought out for blame this time can in no way be held responsible for the awful thing that happened.

Like I said, what a shame, whoever or whatever to blame or not. As one Stoic philosopher has written:

“Small-minded people habitually reproach others for their own misfortunes. Average people reproach themselves. Those who are dedicated to a life of wisdom understand that the impulse to blame something or someone is foolishness, that there is nothing to be gained in blaming, whether it be others or oneself.”

But hey, impulse is impulse and this impulse is pulsing quiet strongly in Germany right now.

Maybe they ought to do it like the old Israelites did and symbolically load up a goat (or a wild boar in this case?) with these particular sins and let him loose in the German wilderness for atonement. Oh, you’re right. They already are. Sort of.

Now he is a pariah, holed up in his office and protected day and night by the police. Mr. Sauerland no longer sleeps at home; he has received several death threats and members of his family members, fearing for their safety, have left town.

Abracadabra

July 30, 2010 By in Helplessness Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

How can you make 1000 cops disappear just like that? It’s not easy. It’s pretty simple though.

All you have to do is be the German government and spend $1 million on a UN program to train Somalian police in Ethiopia, then give them uniforms and weapons and send them back home to help keep the peace for their government (or what would like to be one) at which point they promptly desert and join opposition Islamist militia groups instead.

Currently, the transitional Somali government is struggling to suppress the militia, including Al-Qaeda sympathisers Al-Shabaab, who control as much as two-thirds of the country.