What I don’t understand about the USA

Today I want to write about something I have let’s say problems with, in the USA. Some might say it is a boring topic but I am really interested in it and it totally affects everyone. POLITICS! My girlfriend always tells me how boring German politics and German politicians are. This might be true. They don’t look and talk professional at all. In Germany being authentic is more important. One of the new members of the Berlin Parliament from the Piratenpartei, always wears a craftsman’s blue or orange overall. One reason they got elected was that they are so different and don’t act professional. To be honest I am not a voter and supporter of them. To say you don’t have an opinion on a matter because you don’t know anything about it might be honest but in my eyes this is not a reason to vote for someone. By the way the topic was the economy.

Politicians from the US look a bit like clones to me. The all have the same perfect haircut. Male politicians have modern looking suits and the ties match perfect. They present their perfect family in public with a perfect looking wife. Perfect, Perfect, Perfect!!! This is one of the problems I have with them. Everything is done so professional by the campaign team that I can’t see the real individual. It is too much Hollywood and not enough honesty.

Another thing is negative campaigning about the political opponent. I like Hillary Clinton (to be honest I would think she’d be a better president, ahh Germans love the Clintons). But do you remember the 3am add she had on TV during her presidential campaign? Why do you have to question the moral integrity of your opponent and don’t tell the people where you are good at. Why does Michelle Bachman have to run a campaign against Newt Gingrich being married 3 times. I don’t like him but would he be a worse president because he cheated on his wife and was married more than once. Is it better to show the public a wonderful family life but the truth is a cold and dead relationship like Al Gore, John Edwards and I guess so many more politicians did and do? In France being married more than once might be the thing to do if you want to have a chance to be elected. Also our former chancellor and secretary of state Gerhard Schröder and Joschka Fischer were both married 3 and 4 times. When they were in office a joke was told that they could never fly in one plane together because the state would go bankrupt to pay all the widows alimentations. As a European I don’t care about the private life of a politician. I want them to do the job they are elected for. If they are faithful to their partner or not, not my business!!!!

The biggest problem I have is the polarization of American politics. I am too young to tell if it was always like that. My girlfriend’s mother and her partner told me that it started with President Clinton. The Republicans hated him. Then the Democrats hated Bush and now the Republicans hate hate hate Obama. The term compromise does not exist in US politics anymore. That is so not to understand because everyone knows that life can just work with compromises. If you just stick to your position and you are not willing to give in a bit, well everything will break apart sooner or later. This is true in normal life but also in politics. There you need the moderates of both sides in the middle to run a country. I admit I watch Fox News sometimes just to get angry (do I have a pathological problem???) So often I could just scream because of the stupid nonsense they tell. To all republicans out there I am sorry in that case I am a wacky European liberal (just from your point of view) missing a gene to understand the radical tea party agenda. Radicalism destroys. I agree that you have to balance the budget but this is not the main concern of the tea party and their front runners like Michelle Bachman. They want Obama out of the White House. That is all they care about, not the economy, not the budget and not the American people. Enough said about politics and about the US. This blog is about my strange native land but I don’t really have to complain so much about it right now, so excuse my excursion to US politics.

German politics might be less exciting and less glamorous but sometimes boring is better.

Welcome Back, Fenton & Jesus Christ

I just realised that it has been 3 months since my last post. So it is about time to do it again. My computer broke and I had to get a new one, that was one reason why I did not write for so long. Someone told me about a video which is very popular in the UK. I don't know how many times I have watched it now but I think it is absolutely hilarious. I could just start to laugh thinking about it. Do you think other Germans you know would think the video ist funny or not??? I got mixed reactions from my fellow countrymen after they watched it. Just decide yourself. Sorry again, but you have to copy and paste my link to watch it or as you say here in German now, you have to guttenberg it. (People from the outside of Germany, don't worry it is not really important to understand that). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GRSbr0EYYU

9/11

...In memory of all the innocent people who died today ten years ago...

I will always remember that day of horror even when I just watched it on TV here in Germany...

And again the link doesn't show...aaaarrrgghhh!!!!!

I don'T know why it always happens. Before I post my new blog entry, it shows the included link but at the posted blog entry it doesn't.

Sorry for that here we go again:

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110823-37121.html

bank card theft

Today I want to tell you what happened to my girlfriend and me. I now believe that this is a major crime since you can read about it in newspapers today and within the last days. I am not sure if the article at the end of my post has something to do with what happened to us but it is possible. To be very direct: WE GOT ROBBED !!!!! Let me tell you the story:
We have a shared account for our rent, gas, electricity, groceries, etc. and a few weeks ago we ordered a new bank card for my gf. The letter with the pin number for the first one never arrived and so we had to order another bank card and another pin number for her. We knew we wouldn't be home when the mail arrives because we attended a wedding and visited my parents in the south of Germany. But we had our good friend and neighbor watching our cat and taking care of our mailbox.

The day after we returned it was my birthday and we went out for lunch. At the end we wanted to pay but my card was denclined. By then we didn't think something bad had happened. We also went to the grocery store to buy some things for a little gathering for my birthday the same night. I tried to get cash out with my card at a Postbank atm but I didn't get any, it just said the balance isn't enough to give me money. I was very confused and told my gf that I would go to the Deutsche Bank were we have our account. Together with the woman working there I found out that the account had been emptied the same day, just some 3 hours before with my gf's new bank card. Now I knew that something bad had happened because I was together with my gf the whole morning and even if this would have just been a misunderstanding, she couldn't have emptied the account since she also never got her card in the first place.
To make a long story short. I don't know what exactely happened but someone stole her bank card and the letter with the pin number and took all the money. Thank god it happened after the rent was taken out and the bills were paid so the amount wasn't that big.
I don't have to be so detailed but I can tell you (if someone would think that) that we have 100% evidence that it wasn't our neighbor and friend who took care of our mail box. By the way she also got robbed in the same way and the little research I did in our house showed that the same thing happened to 4 other people in our building since june. Also Bahn-Cards, Health Insurance cards and letters with money in it went missing. The whole house now speculates if we have 1.) a "nice" neighbor, 2.) someone comes in and takes the stuff out of the mailbox, 3.) all these things never arrived here (indicating that someone from Deutsche Post must be involved).

Deutsche Bank told me that they sent the bank card the day we returned from the south. The next day, my birthday, the mail arrived like always arround 11 am and at 11:11 am the account was emptied at the next possible atm some 2 minutes away from us. At least in my case I would say that shows it it likely to be #1 or #2. But the other affected people in our house never saw anything strange or anything at all. This makes everything very very odd.

Well, Deutsche Bank, or their insurance, will give us back our money. We had to file an official police report and let me tell you neither the police nor Deutsche Bank seemed to be very enthusiastic in their attempt to help us. Okay, I get it the Berlin government massively cut spending for the police within the last years but why did the 2 other officers in the room have to throw paper balls at each other while I filed my report?
I am also not happy at all about the service at Deutsche Bank. No one told us what to do or what will happen next. They just started to care when I firmly told them that I am very angry about the bad service and I would think about closing the account. I choose Deutsche Bank because they have a reputation and for that I pay Kontofuehrungsgebuehren (don't get my gf started about that). But if the service is worse or the same than at other banks why should we continue to pay that and keep the account? I don't know why you almost always have to threaten service people here in Germany before they take action. Another sad example for the Service-Wueste (service dessert).

The system banks send out the cards and pin numbers is also very unsafe and old fashioned. The data protection people (Bundesamt fuer Datenschutz) focus on facebook and google street view for months and tell us how awful it is, but there is no action from them when it gets really dangerous and when they should be doing something like here. Odd priorities in this country!!!!

I can just warn you to be very careful. I hope something changes soon. It can't go on like this anymore.

Why can't I include a link ???

I don't know know why it never works to include a link, so I have to type it in. Strange isn't it???

Here is the link for the health plan:

https://portal.versicherungsdienste.de/dsw-studenten-kv/index.en.html

Health Care Problems... solved!!!

Today I want to write about something I wouldn't have thought of some weeks ago. It is not the easiest thing to get health insurance... in Germany!!! That might sound strange for some people but let me tell you the story. Since the problem is solved I can kind of feel amused about it (but just kind of)
When my girlfriend came to Germany to do a masters program here in Berlin she was required to get at least the state health insurance for student which is 70 euro a month. Since she was covered under her mothers amazing health plan in the US she opted out of the German states health insurance and did not have to pay anything. She had to sign a paper which said that as long as she is still a student she will never be able again to get under the German state health plan. Her mother's plan covered everything even here in Germany. She never went to a doctor here, she just did that at home during the summers and the christmas breaks when she was in the USA. Thanks to President Obama this family coverage was extended for one year untill her 26th birthday. Well, she turned 26 at the end of june and since she is still a student untill october, we started in may to look for private coverage here in Germany. One could say that this was a bit late but we asked like 10 different companies and they all send us some offers. How convenient the cheapest offer was from a guy just one block away from our apartment. So we went there. It was still 145 Euro for the female student plan but my girlfriend was willing to pay for it since she saved a lot of money during the last 3 years.
The first setback accured when the insurance guy asked her for her residence permit. The insurance policies require a 2 years validity. Hers is just valid for 1,5 years. Well, this very helpful guy (exception) came up with a crazy idea which is totally legal but a bit strange. I applied as the policyholder but my girlfriend would be the insured person. 3 days later the guy called us and told us the result: He was very sorry but his insurance denied coverage since another requirement of private insurers is a existing health insurance that meets the german standards. Her mothers plan wouldn't meet these standards and she should have never gotten her residence permit. His insurance would cover her but she would have to pay the normal rate for her age 250 Euro per month (not the student rate) and she would have to pay for the last years (250 every month for 3 years= 9.000 Euro). This would be like it with all the other private insurance companies. Well, of course we did not take this plan (we can't afford it !!!) I thanked the guy for his work since he was really sorry about his insurance decision. I couldn't believe that every private insurance would say the same. Well, I was wrong on this. Every single one came up with the same thing. So I called the state health insurance company AOK and told them about the problem. Since she might get a job here in October anyway and everyone has to have health care there should be a way to get in. They said they are very sorry but she opted out and that is the law. No coverage!!!! At one point my girlfriend almost started to freak out. We felt like a hamster in a wheel. This mess could have caused serious problems for her university degree. The state insurances don't take her the private ones don't take her for other reasons. We both were really stressed. We didn't know what to do. To call the Ausländeramt and get to her again like in january that of course it was all my girlfriend fault to get her residence permit renewed because she must have tricked the Beamtin with her invalid health plan. We dreamed (a nightmare of course) about the Beamtin telling her: For this you have to suffer and pay a fine to the state and if you don't take the private plan offered i will through you out of Germany!!!!. No we did not call the Ausländeramt to ask what we could do??? The sad thing was wherever I called they told me: Sorry this is a very special problem, i cant help you. You have to take the offered private plan. My gf was really depressed and stressed: Why does Germany make it so hard for me to be here and why doesn't anyone help me??? Well sadly I could not give her an answer. For a week we didn't know what to do and just kind of ousted the problem.

Since her birthday was coming up we had to find a solution. After a 3 hours research on the internet she found a number where she asked me to call the next morning. I did and told them the problematic situation. I expected the normal german reaction: Well, you foolish deficient human beeing if she was so stupid to not get the states student plan when she came here she has to suffer now. (This is the summary of what we got to hear the weeks before.) But surprisingly she said: Yes, sure. She can be covered. She has to fill out the online formular and than it is 70 euro per month and she is covered. I was totally surprised and asked like 3 times if this is true. I could not believe it after all these failures. Could it be that easy??? and also cheap??? Long story short: YES IT IS!!!!. My girlfriend has a valid insurance and just in case someone else has the same problem i send you a link to the plan. It is a special plan for foreign students here in Germany. It could have been a lot easier than it was if you would find help at the university or at other places. It was kind of luck that we found this place.