w o r d s

German Vice-chancellor and foreign minister Steinmeier is in Togo for talks with Faure Gnassingbe. He appears to be following the new EU strategy of engagement with Gnassingbe, whereby they hope to win concessions on the development of a more functional democracy in Togo. Good luck with that.

Also, I cannot stand these idiotic descriptions of Togo that use the words “sliver” or “wedged” or “tiny.” Yeah - Togo is relatively small, but so are Bhutan, Dubai, Liechtenstein and many more perfectly respectable nations. The only “tiny” thing that is “wedged” is some reporter’s … uh … vocabulary.

The Beluga Skysails, a container ship powered in part by a 500sqm towing kite, has “set sail” from the German North Sea port Bremerhaven across the Atlantic. This is reportedly the first commercial trip of a Skysail powered ship. Spiegel Online has a video (in German).

As I have said previously, this is a brilliant reinvention of sailing technology that has potential to reduce CO2 emissions  by hundreds of thousands of tons yearly. And reduce operational cost of the ships that use it.

As of last night, nine new members of Europes Schengen zone expanded the freedom to travel without hassle at the borders hundreds of miles toward the East and to a total population of over 400 million Europeans. This makes it possible to travel freely up to the border of the countries that were formerly the Soviet Union, thus erasing many vestiges of the Cold War. The Schengen Agreement of 1985 abolishes all border restrictions and controls between member states and provides for a common visa for travellers from outside its borders.

After two years of preparation, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will join the oldest EU states — Britain and the Republic of Ireland excluded — plus Iceland and Norway in the extended zone pushing the area’s outmost borders hundreds of kilometers eastwards.

The expansion is expected to continue with Cyprus and Switzerland planning to sign on soon. London and Dublin prefer to remain outside and keep their own visa regimes, rather than the “one visa for all” policy that applies to the Schengen countries.

Deutsche Welle - 12/20/2007

German President Köhler honored the team that defended the Women’s Football Worldcup Championship earlier this year in China. All the players received the highest sports-honor from the German government. In addition, the coach Silvia Neid received the Federal Cross of Merit in recognition of outstanding leadership in raising the profile of Women’s Football in Germany and making the German team a powerhouse internationally.

A few weeks ago the FIFA announced that the Women’s Football Worldcup in 2011 will take place in Germany.

A huge storm is brewing in the North Sea. The Dutch and the Brits are closing their imposing coastal barriers to keep the water away from their cities. The largest seaport in Europe, Rotterdam, is closed for a day, and oil rigs have been evacuated. The coastal residents in Britain, Holland, Germany, Denmark, and Norway are bracing for gale force winds and a 12-foot storm surge - similar conditions in 1953 killed more than 2000 people.

The storms in the North Sea are still truly frightening. These storms used to be the time when the coastal residents had to pay the price for harvesting the bounty of the Sea. Countless ships were lost to the ferocious winds and frigid breakers. I read somewhere that more ships are unaccounted for in the North Sea than in the infamous Bermuda Triangle.

In the late 80s, I lived for two years on Norderney, a German coastal island in the North Sea, and I experienced several Winter storms. One was especially ferocious, and I remember watching huge breakers crashing over the 20-foot concrete dikes that surround the main town on the island. Some of the streets were flooded, and I remember that the water cut an inlet across the eastern part of the island, where it is about a mile wide (1-2 KM). The docks in the harbor were under water, and we were completely cut off from the main land for several days. Unlike hurricanes, these storms can last for days and days, and can reach sustained wind speeds of 50-60 mph/80-100 KpH.

I really hope that these barriers work. For most, this is the first real test. And I hope no lives will be lost in the storm. Good luck to the sailors on the ships that have to ride out this storm!

What a game! The German Women’s Football Team beat Brasil and defended the World Championship in a tough and fast game. Special Kudos to Nadine Angerer our fantastic goalie with a head like a brick and nerves of steel! She did not concede a single goal in the Worldcup!! Let me repeat this: SHE DID NOT CONCEDE A SINGLE GOAL!!

Women’s Football WorldCup, that is … The German women beat Norway 3:0 and will play against the winner of tomorrow’s game Brazil-USA on Sunday. Sadly, I was not able to see the game, as it started at 8:00 in the Morning here, and I have to be at work, and I have no cable TV at home. But it sounds like it was a great game with a very strong German team. I certainly will get up early on Sunday and watch the final at a friend’s place. Oh boy - I am sooo hoping for a Germany-USA final!!

With three stokes of his wooden mallet, the Mayor of Munich tapped a 224-Liter beer barrel today - the first of many beer barrels to be drained at this year’s Oktoberfest in Munich. He poured the first Mass for the Ministerpräsident (governor) of Bavaria.

Organizers expect to sell 6 Million Mass (Liters) at €7.90, as well as half a million grilled chicken and the meat of 90 oxen.

There is so much interesting and important stuff going on:

• A new film documents the ongoing genocide perpetrated on the Acholi people in Uganda (HT to Vicky), perpetuated by, among other things, US military aid (war-on-terror-dollars)
• The US Congress is debating about subsidies for a road fuel that releases twice as much pollution as gasoline: liquefied coal
• The dictator son-of-the-dead-dictator Faure Ganssingbé has re-nationalized a key industry in Togo. Could it be that this has anything to do with the ongoing rivalry with Faure’s powerful brother Kpatcha?
• NSPD 51: in a “catastrophic emergency” in the US, the Shrubman will become essentially a dictator. Proclaims the Shrubman. Worried?
• The German police used military reconnaissance jets to spy on German G8 protestors. Is that constitutional? Is it smart?
• The Swedes come up with a more ecological way to bury their dead: freeze dried

And so on …

Yet - I am completely preoccupied with my own life. Next week we’re planning to buy a new house and we’re busy boxing up our possessions for the move and fixing up our old shack to sell it.

Oh yeah - and I am finishing the last growler from the last keg of Gruffmeister 8 in Durham …

Germany’s President Köhler made the right decision. He apparently carefully considered the petition for a pardon for Christian Klar and then decided to deny it. The political right in Germany was all in a huff over the fact that he even as much as considered the request, especially after it became public that he met with Klar. The left was in the awkward position of lending support to a president they usually don’t much care for. Köhler may be an egomaniac and a capitalist pig, but he did establish a new benchmark for the independence of the German presidency from politics.

Klar is a convicted murderer and terrorist. Christian Klar was a member of the German terrorist group Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction) or RAF. In 1982, he was convicted of 9 murders and 11 attempted murders between 1977 and 1981 and he was sentenced to 6 life sentences. German law, however, considers any number of multiple life sentences as a single life sentence. Also, most prisoners have the right to be released on parole after a certain amount of time. In Klar’s case, the court decided that he has to have served at least 26 years, before he has the right to be released on parole. That means Klar might get released from prison in 2009.

Klar has not helped the authorities in any way in clearing up some of the remaining questions about the RAF. He has not publicly shown any signs of a change of position or regret. Clearly, at the time his actions were politically motivated. But the way the RAF dehumanized anyone who represented the state, made them more similar to the “fascists” they said they were fighting against, than the “workers” they said they were fighting for. And the fact that they were helped by the Stalinist regime in East Berlin made them into nothing more than pawns in the Cold War.

The RAF showed no mercy - not even to the drivers and body guards, the regular cops and soldiers, all of whom were just doing their jobs, albeit for what the RAF considered the “wrong side.” It seems to me that the German legal system was fair enough for Klar and his kind. And it seems fair enough that he should serve his sentence like anyone else. He’s lucky he’s a dissident in this Germany. Had he been a dissident in East Germany or the Soviet Union, he would have had no lawyers, and the Stalinist henchmen would have shown no mercy. There, dissidents usually died in the Gulag.

The German Constitutional Court ruled (de) that symbols that use the Nazi schwastika as part of a clear, unambigous ANTI-Nazi message is legal in Germany.

WOW. I was a bit worried about this.

It would have been quite ironic if people who clearly express an Anti-Nazi sentiment had been criminally prosecuted for wearing the illegal Nazi symbol. Especially as there is a well-documented resurgence of Nazi- and White-supremacist ideology in Germany.  AND after it was revealed that members of the police security detail for a former member of the Jewish council in Germany were Nazi sympathisers (de).

Congratulations to the German Team Handball Men’s Team! Today they defeated Poland in the final 29:24 (17:13) and won the Worldcup for Germany in Germany!

This is rather amazing - expectations were not very high before the tournament, but the German team really came together and played some amazing handball. And after the football Worldcup last year, the whole country appears to have been swept up by another wave of enthusiasm and cheerful patriotism.
Photo: DPA

This triumph is especially nice, as it brings handball out of the shadow of football, which is the dominant team sport in Germany. Yet handball has deep roots in Germany and it is less corrupted by money and egos that football. It is a great sport and the German players won many more fans for their sport this weekend.

FYI: Team handball, AKA field handball, or European handball is not to be confused with American handball.

… but doesn’t want to. A tale from the Black Forest in Germany.

Once upon a time, in 1791, to be exact, some Benedictine monks in the Black Forest decided to wean the folks in the nearby village off their beloved Schnapps (brandy). Folks were just drinking too much, and often things got out of hand. They were good people, hardworking mountain folk, who lived a short, harsh life logging, farming and making charcoal, deep in the Black Forest. So the Schnapps they made, their moonshine, was the only distraction, the one thing that made life seem a little less harsh. Yet, they drank too much, and the Schnapps also contributed to the shortness of many a man’s life.

So the monks decided that their best chance of cutting down the consuption of Schnapps, was to offer a more nutritious beverage: beer. Monks had been brewing in Germany for as long as any one remembered, and it was a natural thing to suggest for these Benidictine brothers. And so they started the brewery “Am Roten Haus” (The Red House) in Grafenhausen. At roughly 1000 Meters (3000 feet) altitude, it is today the highest brewery in Germany. In 1806 , the brewery became the property of the Grand-Dukes of Baden, and after WWI, the brewery was state-owned.

When I started drinking beer, the Rothaus brews were always a taste of country, and they reminded me of visiting my grandparents. We lived in Stuttgart, and you could not get any Rothaus there (a couple hours’ drive from the Black Forest). Especially in the South, beer is a very regional thing. Every area has its brew. If you’re lost, and you see a Bar, or a Gasthaus, and you see which beer they sell, you can figure out where you are, down to the ZIP code, in some areas.

So Rothaus was the mountain beer, and it had (and has) a very provincial image. They have not changed the label design in 30 years! So when I read in the Spiegel Online that Rothaus has become somewhat of a “cult beer,” I almost dropped my laptop. Apparently, about 100 bars in Berlin sell Rothaus beers and it’s the second most popular beer in Cologne. They just cannot brew enough to satisfy demand. And yet, they don’t even advertise aggressively. I mean it’s great beer. The Tannezäpfle is one of the best Pilsener beers in Germany. But it’s not a hip, sexy beer. Its image is downright boring and provincial.

So are the folks at the brewery excited about all this attention? Do they have plans to expand to fill the demand? Come up with a clever marketing strategy? No. They are quite dubious about this. Their little brewery is just fine the way it is - thank you very much.

Actually, the reasoning is more like this: if they expanded they’d have to buld a new brewery in the valley and they would loose the connection with the community of Grafenhausen. They also might loose the image of the little country brewery, which is a big part of the brand appeal to city folk. And the seven springs where they draw the water can only produce so much water - yet the quality of the water is a huge aspect of quality of the final product.

So what to do? Well, it’s really not that big a deal: brew a decent beer, take care of the local market (90 percent of the beer is still consumed within the state of Baden Württemberg), and see if there is some left over for the city slickers up north.

Nome net huodla, gell! Gsundheit!

To Accra, to be specific. The German President Horst Köhler headed a delegation of 170 Germans at the Partnership with Africa conference that included several African heads of state and international leaders: Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor (Ghana), Festus G. Mogae (Botswana), Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) as well as Alpha Oumar Konare of the African Union. The focus of the conference was on leadership development - perhaps the most important aspect of development aid. Besides the big-wigs, the conference brought together 50 African and European “young leaders” for networking and for brainstorming about the future of the Africa, and Germany’s role in it. The event took place at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana’s capital Accra on Jan 12-15.

The fact that Köhler bothered to attend this event is a good sign, maybe. And considering his IMF background, it makes sense. I think Germany, and the rest of Europe, may begin to realize that they need to engage African countries and their people in constructive ways, in order to strengthen the relationship between the two continents. The problem right now is that Europe is trying to fence itself off from Africa, and that is a dumb idea. Europe needs the immigrants from the South, to bolster its dwindling workforce. Those immigrants send substantial amounts of money back home, which supports local economies and builds buying power of consumers in Africa. And if Africa’s ties to Europe are strong, chances are African consumers will want European products. China has discovered Africa as both a labor pool and a market for Chinese products. Europe is going to have to get on that train, or it’ll leave the station. If China has the stronger ties with Africa in the upcoming years, China will have better access to the wealth of resources in Africa, as well as to African markets.

From a European perspective, it’d be a shame to loose out on access to Africa. But if the Chinese wins this one, they deserve it, as they clearly take Africa very seriously. From the African perspective, a strong relationship with Europe must be desirable, because of the geographic proximity and because so many Africans already live there. And competition between Europe and Asia for access in Africa would certainly benefit African economies.

And that’s where the leadership development comes in. Africa has to develop its pool of civic leaders, at every level, from farmer’s coops and teachers to national parties and government. Every community needs a handful of civic leaders, men and women with a clear, progressive vision for the future of their community and their country. These people are the seeds of democracy, and a true, participatory democracy is the best recipe for successful, sustainable economic development. Aid, and debt relief may help, but only in combination with leadership development and local, broad empowerment initiatives. If Germany is serious about its engagement with African countries, that’s where it should start. Germany has a strong tradition of civic leadership and civic life, and it should be quite possible for German leaders to leverage this tradition to help build a new generation of civic leaders across Africa. I think that Germans will find a lot to learn from their African counterparts, and I am sure that such a collaboration would benefit both sides tremendously. And that would make development a two-way street, and a win-win proposition.

A year ago today Angela Merkel succeeded Gerhard Schröder and became the first female chancellor and the first chancellor from the former East Germany. I was not thrilled. She is a political protegé of Helmut Kohl, aka Birne, the corrupt, corporatist pigdog chancellor from hell of the 80s.

Yet, 2006 so far was a pretty good year for Germany: the Worlcup was a huge success and is thought to have produced quite an economic boost; unemployment is down and the federal government is less in the red than last year. The country was riding a wave of patriotic bliss this summer, during and after the Worldcup. But Ms. Merkel has been unable to harness any of these good news and her approval ratings are not particularly good.

The main issue that drags them down is the inability of Merkel and her “grand coalition” of Germany’s two major parties to pull off a meaningful reform of the countries vast network of entitlement programs. And Germany has problems with a growing tide of hate, racism and antisemitism - especially in the east.

Internationally, Germany has to figure out if it wants to be a “major player” and commit troops to more dangerous assignments in “nationbuilding” efforts, like in southern Afghanistan and “peacekeping” missions like in Lebanon. If so, there has to be a clear commitment to such missions, AND there has to be political leadership that creates the environment that properly supports such missions. Otherwise the military will be stuck in impossible missions without a clear mandate. Merkel’s administration has shown little leadership in this issue.

Leadership. A vision for the country. That’s what is needed. Schröder is a flamboyant, somewhat charismatic leader. Merkel is none of that. But neither has shown a clear vision for Germany. Schröder was just worried about his career. And Merkel? what makes her tick? I think that Gemany needs some reforms and a real vision for a truly unified country. Germany does not need to be a “global player” - the country needs to get its house in order. Is Merkel the leader to bring Germany on track for unity, prosperity and social justice? So far I don’t see that.

November 9 has been a fateful day in German history. The März revolution was started, the emperor was dethroned and the Berlin Wall fell on that day. During the night of that fateful day in 1938 German Nazis damaged or destroyed “1574 synagogues (constituting nearly all Germany had), many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish shops, and 29 department stores. Some Jews were beaten to death while others were forced to watch. More than 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and taken to concentration camps; primarily Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen.” (Wikipedia)

Today, however, there is a reason to celebrate: today the new Ohel Jakob Synagogue was opened (de) in downtown Munich. The complex includes a museum, a community center and a school, and it is the largest new synagogue in Europe since WWII.

The Jews are back in town - that’s awesome! Judaism is finally an “official” religion in Germany with the same legal status as the Catholic and Lutheran Churches.

Germany is home to the third largest number of Jews and the fastest growing Jewish population in Europe. There are currently more than 105,000 members of the Jewish community living in Germany – although this estimate does not include the many Jews not affiliated with the country’s main Jewish organization, the Central Council of Jews.

Germany.info, Nov. 9, 2006

Still, it is not all sunshine and brotherly love in Germany. The Neonazis are on the offensive and racist and antisemitic aggression are not infrequent. In October, players from the Jewish football (soccer) club TuS Makkabi Berlin(de) walked out of a game against VSG Altglienicke because spectators hurled antisemitic insults at the players.

Recently, the University of Leipzig published a study(de) where 1 in 4 Germans expressed the desire for a single party and a strong leader to run the country. It comes as no surprise to me that they also found pervasive nationalist, racist and antisemitic attitudes across all social strata. Forty percent of respondents found Germany to be “überfremdet” - overrun by foreigners!

This fear of foreigners, xenophobia, is a fear that lives in all of us. It is a fear borne out of weakness and lack of self esteem. And it is a sentiment rooted in helplessness and a way to attempt to assert control over one’s life. This fear, and the pain and violence it can produce is not a uniquely German problem. But Germany has a special responsibility to face that fear and deal with it because of the incredible pain and destruction the Nazis wrought across Europe and the World, and in particular because of the incredible pain and destruction inflicted upon the people of Jewish faith and tradition. This is not guilt. I feel no guilt. I do feel responsibility and a strong desire to reconcile and make peace and make friends.

The only way to overcome this fear is to learn and make friends. We need Jews in Germany to help defeat this fear by showing flag and sharing their culture with everyone. Jewish culture was once the beating heart of Germany. Things will probably never be the same, but I know that Jewish culture will once again be part of, and enrich, Germany.

Shalom!

Liebes Deutschland - Ich hoffe Du hattest einen schönen Tag der Deutschen Einheit!

On October 3, 1990, the states of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) adopted the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and thusly Germany was reunited after 41 years, and the GDR ceased to exist. That day was proclaimed German Unity Day.

Photos of the former Iron Curtain in Germany by Marco Bertram
Bundesministerium des Innern

The use of biodiesel in Germany has increased by two-thirds compared to last year, according to press reports of the latest issue of the Wochenbericht des DIW Berlin. Germans overall drive a bit less, but the Germans who have to drive a lot, are switching to the more fuel-efficient diesel vehicles, which now represent 21 percent of the total passenger vehicle fleet in Germany. And I’d bet that more and more people switch to diesel vehicles planning to use biodiesel.

A major motivator for Germans are the fuel prices: a liter high-octane costs 1.398 Euros - that’s $6.76 per Gallon (US)! Considering those prices, I find the 3-percent reduction in average annual driving distance rather modest.

US gas price map by county
International Fuel Price comparison

Wal Mart is throwing the towel in Germany! Looks like they’ll sell their 85 German stores at a loss of $1Billion to Germany’s largest retailer Metro. I despise Wal Mart, and I find an odd sense of satisfaction in the news that German stubborn attitudes brought Wal Mart, the death star of retail, to its knees. I can just see Grandma Mayer slapping the bagger at the checkout on his fingers: “Those are MY groceries, young man - leave them alone! I bought ‘em -I’ll bag ‘em!”

Maybe stubborn consumer attitudes hurt Wal Mart, but stubborn worker attitudes really gave Wal Mart the rest. You just try telling German store workers they cannot unionize! Wal Mart sports a patronizing corporate “culture” which encourages ratting on fellow workers, frowns on dating fellow workers (not that I think that that’s generally a smart idea) and generally aims at disenfranchising its employees. This did not go over too well with the German workforce and gave Wal Mart a really negative image in the eyes of the consumer.

Seems like Germans have this funny, antiquated sense that store clerks should be competent professionals, and that they should be treated as such by their employers. Those silly Krautheimers and their attitudes!

Last Sunday, a 28-year-old man was attacked in the city of Potsdam (near Berlin) by racist thugs and violently beaten to a pulp, simply because he is black. This racist attack has prompted a fair amount of outrage and analysis, but also some rather telling statements, like the one from Minister of the Interior Schäuble, insisting that it is “not clear” why the man was attacked, and that “blond, blue-eyed people also can be victims of violence, and sometimes the perpetrators are foreigners” and that that’s supposedly just as bad.

Bullshit!

There is absolutely no question about why this guy was attacked. The Brandenburg police has posted an audio recording (ge) of the attack, which, they hope, will help identify the attackers. As he was attacked, the man recorded the attack with his cell phone to his wife’s voice mail. This chilling recording clearly documents the racist motif of the attack. The attackers can be clearly heard repeatedly calling their victim “nigger” and taunting him. Then they proceeded to bludgeon the poor guy almost to death.

Germany has a real problem. Not just an image problem - a Nigerian delegation cancelled their trip to Potsdam, when they heard the news about the beating. No, Germany has a racism problem. Part of this problem is a legacy of the East German Stalinists. Ironically, despite the fact that Anti-fascism was one of the big slogans of the Worker’s and Farmer’s State, racism is a huge problem (ge) in Germany’s eastern states. Just ask Adebowale Ogungbure (en) a player for the soccer club FC Sachsen Leipzig, who suffers from racist abuse on a regular basis.

Yet, the problem exists all over Germany. Germany’s star national soccer player Patrick Owomoyela had to get a court injunction against a neo-nazi party, the NPD, to stop their recruiting campaign during the Worlcup, which was supposed to prominently feature his white No. 25 national team jersey with the slogan “White, not just a jersey colour for a real national team!”

Jerks!

I have seen it first-hand how this racism permeates German mainstream life. Growing up in Stuttgart, I sometimes hung out with one of the two or three black kids in my high-school. He always had to carry his ID around, because he’d always get his ID checked, especially going downtown. Cops would just walk up to him and demand to see his ID - for no good reason. And he even had a thick Swabian accent for chrissake! And as heinous as the violent racist attacks are, it’s this racist attitude that permeates German culture so deeply, that is the real problem, because it foments the open racism and tolerates the violence.

What to do?

There are many Germans who fight racism. It will be a long, long battle. I think personal contact is the only real cure for racism. So everyone, not just Germans, should look at their community and find ways to build bridges between people. If you live in a place with a strong minority/majority division, seek out those who look or talk different in your neighborhood and invite them to your place. Listen to them, try to see through their eyes. It’s worth the effort. Get your children together - they are your only hope.

The real change has to start with you. So many of our so-called leaders have their heads firmly planted in the sand about this issue. Far too many think that multiculturalism has failed, and far too many think that there has to be a “dominant culture” (Leitkultur) and everyone has to integrate. That’s nonsense, cultural diversity is a good thing and if you open up to it, you will see why.