Donnerstag, 18. November 2010

German google streetview paranoia - part 2

Two days ago they finally launched google street view germany with photos of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and some other bigger cities. Of course i looked for the street where i live and what did i have to see?: Half of the buildings where blurred.AAAAAHHHH!!!! I think I am surrounded by paranoid ... (i don't even want to use the word). I learned that if one person in a house doesn't want it even if all the other people would want it the house would be blurred. WELCOME TO DEMOCRACY GERMAN STYLE!!!!

When i saw that this morning it seriously made me really mad. In no other country on this planet it is like it is here in Germany. And it is really stupid to blur houses on a main road where hundreds and thousands of people pass by every day. I could just hit my head against the wall. In my opinion it has nothing to do with being more sensitive to data protection because of the misuse in two totalitarian regimes in the 20th century. What is going on here???

For me this is a general thing being against so many things. There is always a Bürgergruppe against something. You could say that is a good thing that people care about society but where are the groups in favour of something???

There is serious research how anti-progressive Germany is and always was. In the 19th century doctors seriously told people they should not get on a train because a speed higher than 35 km/h (20 m/ph???) would be bad for the brain. I think it is deeply rooted in Germans to be against new ways to do something. You can even find newspaper articles which ask if this country turns in the country of no and that this might be a sign of the aging society
(http://www.focus.de/magazin/debatte/focus-leserdebatte-sind-die-deutschen-fortschrittsfeindlich_aid_560345.html)

People say no to Stuttgart 21, No to Heidelberg congress center, No to the new-built and badly needed new autobahn A100 in Berlin and other autobahns, No to the new airport in Berlin and runways in Frankfurt, Munich, etc. even no to wind power plants because it ruins the landscape. NO, no, no!!!! There is this ideal of back to the roots-eco-friendly-green lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, we have to do everything possible to avoid climate change and we have to be sensitive with pollution and look after good old mother earth but we also have to adjust this to our modern life.

This NO-mentality is one serious reason why i would like to leave this country one day.

Donnerstag, 4. November 2010

Disappointed with the US-Voter

Election day was a mostly sad day for me and my girlfriend. Since in her family are all really really strong democrats (her mother even did door to door campaigning for President Obama in 2008) no one is happy about the outcome of the election. As a German I think i have this gene missing to be able to understand how you can possibly vote for the republicans. The german political spectrum just reaches from the left of the Democratic party (Bernie Sanders) to Dennis Kucinich to the center right of the Democratic party.
Well, as you can see now i am absolutely not a republican and don't get me started to talk about the "caring" next to be speaker of the House John Boehner. Ice Age has come to congress:-(