“We’re going to prove that three public-sector owners can build a project like this,”

November 23, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Airports, BBI, BER International Airport, Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Humor, Klaus Wowereit, Meglomania, Projects, Public Sector, Satire, Social Democrats, SPD 2 Comments

Wowereit said.

The investigation into the massive delays in opening Berlin’s new BER international airport have begun. Managers have been fired and architects have been sued — but what about the capital’s mayor, who has led the prestige project since 2001?

…Hochtief executives quickly learned that the project had changed since Wowereit had been put in charge. Now the walls were to be covered with expensive walnut veneer paneling. The roof was to be built in a futuristic, free-floating design. And the granite used for the floors at other major airports, like Hamburg and Düsseldorf, was no longer good enough. Berlin’s new terminal had to have expensive Jura limestone floors instead.

…Wowereit, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), also recognized early on that the one person who doesn’t hold any share of the blame is Wowereit himself.

“I don’t see what concrete accusations should be leveled against the supervisory board,” says Wowereit.

Circumcision Decision Revision

July 14, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, Church and State, Custom, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Government Interference, Jews, Law, Muslims, Religion, Ritual 1 Comment

Not that there was ever much doubt about it. That it would come to a big backpedaling Aktion, I mean.

The German government says Jewish and Muslim communities should be able to continue the practice of circumcision, after a regional court ruled it amounted to bodily harm.

That’s what can happen when you have that pressing need to fix things that aren’t broken.

“Circumcision carried out in a responsible manner must be possible without punishment.”

That Didn’t Take Long

July 12, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Health, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, Church and State, Circumcision, Courts, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Jews, Judges, Law, Muslems, Religion, Ritual, State, The Judicial System, Tradition Leave a comment

“We urge the Jewish community in Germany and circumcisers to continue to perform circumcisions and not to wait for a change in the law.”

A German court’s ban on circumcising baby boys has provoked a rare show of unity between Jews, Muslims and Christians who see it as a threat to religious freedom, while doctors warn it could increase health risks by forcing the practice underground.

Die Positionen zur Beschneidung waren bei Anne Will unversöhnlich, am härtesten stritten ein Rabbiner und ein Strafrechtler.

Airbus (Some Call It Airbias) Needs More Germans

March 2, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Airbus, Berlin, Business, EADS, France, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Humor, Paris, Satire Leave a comment

At least that’s what the Germans will tell you if you ask them, which of course nobody is.

OK, we’re actually talking about EADS here. “The German government is deeply concerned by the concentration and centralisation of research and development competencies in the headquarters in Toulouse, which have to a large degree led to the current imbalance,” a pissed off big-time German politician has lamented.

So much for Franco-German understanding (yet again). And if it were up to the Germans, they would even see to it that EADS ensure “equal numbers of French and German nationals occupy positions in the top five leadership levels,” although how you would equally distribute five people is unclear to me (government can do this kind of stuff, you know).

But none of this will lead to anything, folks. I can tell you that right now. The Airbus Chief Executive and designated EADS boss isn’t about to let any pigheaded German government official tell him what to do. His name is Thomas Enders and he’s a pigheaded German himself.

EADS was formed in 2000 from French, German and Spanish assets as a counterweight to U.S. aerospace and defense giants.

@bundestag.de

January 25, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helections, Helplessness, Hi-tech, High Art Tags: Berlin, Email, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Humor, Satire, Spam, The Internet Leave a comment

When the Bundestag isn’t being shut down due to power failure…

Unintentional spam attacks from Bundestag employees can take their toll, too.

You’ve all seen this happen, I’m sure. Somebody on a huge distribution list receives an internal email and accidently responds to everyone (instead of just to the person who sent it). Dozens if not hundreds of the recipients who then get that person’s response feel the desperate need to respond to that in some smart ass way (to everyone here, too) and on and one it goes, for hours on end, until a systems administrator finally loses his/her patience and pulls out the plug.

Well, that happened today in the halls of German government. Just your normal everyday dumb office behavior kind of thing again. Or was it maybe a diabolical terrorist attack doch?

“Liebe Britta, wenn Ihr Euch eindeckt, bringt Ihr mir eins mit? Danke und herzliche Grüße.”

Tax evasion doesn’t pay

February 9, 2010 By Hermann Observer in Heconomy Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Government, Humor, Satire, Tax evasion, Taxes Leave a comment

Not unless you live in Germay maybe. Strange. Right in the middle of the latest craze around here these daze (a host of informants are selling stolen data about tax evaders to the German state), a court has ordered a Liechtenstein bank to pay over seven million Euros to a German tax evader “for not informing him on time” that his data had been stolen – thus opening him up to said informants, get it? I know, I don’t get it either, but things are complicated here.

“Had the claimant been informed of the theft in due time, he would have had the option of self-indictment and not have been obliged to pay a EUR7.3 million fine.”

Fair is fair, I guess, or all is fair in love and tax evasion. Or something else maybe. Damn, these Germans and their ill-gotten gains. And this rampant lawlessness seems to be getting out of hand everywhere these days. The next thing you know pensioners will start kidnapping their financial advisers…

The data was stolen and sold on to the German intelligence service by a former employee of former LGT unit LGT Treuhand AG.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Government