Timelines - 2002 and 2007

For my first wedding anniversary gift, I made my wife a timeline of our first year together: the trips that we took (we traveled a lot), the things that we did (lots of fests, a lot of evenings at the Schorsch which is a beer garden right on the lake in Fischbach) accompanied by pictures taken during the year. I'd been keeping a journal all year and this really made the effort of keeping the journal worthwhile.
I revisited the timeline this year as a way of showing how different our lives are today, mostly due to a two year old at home and another baby on the way.

I wasn't much surprised at the difference in the two timelines. I expected the second to be dominated by Asha, our two year old. What was a bit surprising was the things that occurred in both years that I included in one and not the other.

For instance, people visited us in 2002 as much as they did in 2007 but in 2002, I included pictures of people who visited but not them in the timeline. Going through my journal back then, it didn't strike me as important while in 2006, visitors were a rather important part of what occurred during the year.

I also hung out with friends with as much frequency and took as many pictures in both years. Granted, a lot of the hanging out was at playgrounds, parks, kid friendly areas but going through the pictures, those did not merit as much space as the things that Asha, my wife and I did together as a family. The family really has replaced anything else as the most important part of my life. If you'd asked me in 2002 what was mostly important, I would have said family as well but perhaps it wasn't all that true.

I prize the importance of ordinary events above anything else. I think that's what make good blogs, or good writing. People writing eloquently and meaningfully about their day to day events. I'm not sure I am able to do that. Writing that is. But perhaps writing isn't the only outlet.

Germany and its immigrants

Modern Germany has had a complicated relationship with its immigrants. On the one hand, they're needed to fuel the economy. They work in basically every facet of German industry and are an engine for its growth. On the other hand, they dilute the German identity that Germany has fought so many wars to defend. After having shed so much blood in the cause, losing that identity to the modern phenomenon of immigration gets under people's skin.

The view of immigrants is on full display at the moment due to the elections going on in Hessen where the incumbent, who is struggling, has started talking about the criminal immigrant youth in Germany to boost his ratings.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,527694,00.html
Some of the statistics in the article surprise even me:
Fully 59.4 percent of Germans either "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement that too many foreigners live in Germany -- an increase of 6 percent over 2002. In addition, 35.3 percent of those polled agreed that foreigners should be sent home should there be a shortage of jobs in Germany, up from 27.7 percent in 2002.

Living on the Bodensee, far from the big cities, far from the center of Germany, stories like this show the disconnect I have from what's going on in this country. At the company I work for, about ten percent of the empoyees are foreign born but many of the wifes (only one woman in the engineering firm and she's the secretary) are also foreign born. Its common to hear turkish, russian, or spanish being spoken if you're out and about, and dark skinned people, while not common, are not an oddity. With immigrants so ever present, its surprising that anti-immigrant sentiment is so high.

The surprising thing about the German view of foreigners is that its not based on am insular view of themselves. Germans are in general very inquisitive about the outside world and are very adaptive to foreign ideas. Non-Germans are even displayed promimently n tv, magazines and ads (which to me is striking as it means like dark skin can sell products) What they are not adaptive to is just foriegners in their midst.

Germans want foreigners to integrate, whatever that means. That is their most common complaint. People will talk at length about what this means: Respect for laws and democracy, equality of the sexes, knowledge of German (ok, ful disclosure: after having lived here eight years, I'm still struggling in this department) and Germany's customs, yadda yadda yadda. A lot of this talk is complete bullshit in my opinion. I think the Germans would have no problems with immigrants if the immigrants looked like them. That's the integration they want. Don't have dark skin. Don't look turkish or east suropean. Don't dress like a muslim. Don't have Chinese features. If you can satisfy that, you can piss on the German constitution and no one will give a shit

The battle cry a while back 'Kinder statt Inder' (kids instead of Indians) strikes bluntly at this point. Its obvious that you can tell an Indian apart from a German. No amount of love for democracy can get around that fact. No amount of clothes from C&A will disguise that. Germans look a certain way and any significant change to that is very problematic to a swath of the German population.

Beyond that most basic problem with looks, integration also means buying into what Germans find important. They want immigrants to vote like they do, to think like they do. Germans want their concerns, enviromentalism, nationalized health care, workers rights, generally liberal views to be continued. its not simply that you accept democracy but use democracy to make sure Germany does not significantly change. Accept equality of the sexes but leave it up to the Germans to determine exactly what the means. 'Don't tell us what we are. We'll tell you what you are' is basically what is boils down to.

The knee jerk reaction is to find the current situation a continuation of the German persecution of the Jews. I don't think its that simple. The historical situation is different today and the German mindset has been starkly shaped by the events following World War II. Arguments over immigration and national identity are taking place in many western countries, including the US, and Germany is another one of the fronts for this fight. The difference here in Germany is just the context from which the problem rises, the history of the Germany mostly.

While my macro views of Germans attitides towwards immigrants are quite pessimistic, my micro views are the opposite. I've never had a problem with anyone I've met here (occasinally there are neo-nazi marches and cashiers at shops who are obviously rascist but never with anyone I've personally met). I have close relationships to many German friends and never heard anything rascist from them. I actually love living in Germany and would set down roots here if it were not for the fact that my whole family lives in the States. I hope Germany's attitudes towards immigrants changes but I fear it will not in the short term.

Germany and bears in the spotlight

First there was Knut in Berlin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knut_(polar_bear)

There there was Bruno in Bavaria
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5116316.stm

Now there's another star in the making at the Nuernberg Zoo (no name so far)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/08/world/main3687047.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3687047

Apparently, the foxes in Germany are urbanizing
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,511825,00.html
I can honestly say this is true. After having not seen a single fox in the first six years that I lived in Germany, I has three sightings last year alone. One jumped out in front of me from the bushes as I was riding my bike, growled and then ran off into the wineyards (kinda shook me as I was afraid it was rabid and could come back), I ran over a dead fox a few months later on my bike (riding really early in the morning, in the pre-dawn darkness) and then saw one running across the street once.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

First off, a few disclaimers: I'm a sucker for movies that are non-linear. I'm also a sucker for movies about human weakness. Allright, any sort of exploration of human weakness, be it books, movies....

This movie hits both points. Its non-linearity keeps the movie interesting and moving. And the core of the movie is the exploration of the weaknesses of two brothers who try to rob their parents jewelry store for cash, convincing themselves its a victimless crime.

I'm not one to harp on movie performances as I can rarely tell if anyone is giving an extraordinary performance but it seemed obvious to me that Ethan Hawke really inhabited the character he played and Philip Seymour Hoffman was fucking good (but he's always fucking good. He's kind of like the anti-Keanu Reeves. They always seem to play the same sort of role but on opposite sides of the character spectrum)

I was riveted by the sheer stupidity of the brother in committing the crime and the hubris of the brother who thought up the crime without thinking about it. And as the mistakes pile one on top of another and their lives unravel, the movie just grabbed me (though i had to stop in the middle as my sister was visiting and she was sleeping in the living room where the tv was and she was completely not into it and falling asleep. But that's neither here nor there)

Smoking restricted In Germany

I would never have thought this would happen in my lifetime: Smoking banned inside restaurants and bars in ermany! Partly it has to do with being a smoker at the time I moved to Germany and having moved from the US where smoking was already restricted.
I still remember stepping off then plane @ Frankfurt and being able to light up in the airport. Back at the Dallas airport, I had to go outside if I wanted a cigarrette, which meant having to clear security every time I wanted (ok, needed) to smoke. Germany was like heaven (smoking wise) for me. It seemed like there were cigarrette machines everywhere in Germany as well. I mean not just next to the bathrooms in bars/restaurants but like next to a farm down the street from where I live, there's a cigarrette machine set up. That still goes though the machines no longer accept cash. You need to put in a bank card, the logic being that kids are less likely to have a bank card and thus its harder for them to buy cigarettes.
I've not smoked for a few years now and haven't had much opportunity to frequent bars after my first kid was born. It came as quite a shock when I saw people huddled around an outdoor heater when I met some freinds for a drink the other day. The american newspapers seem to be convering the ban on smoking in France as if it is an affront to their culture (the french will cry and moan about every little thing and eventually do nothing about it. The Germans just accept that some things need change and deal with it without the crying and moaning) but have hardly covered what's happening in Germany, where coffee culture invented the coffee and the cigarrette (I just made that up. I have no idea if its actually true though my experience leads me to beleive there may be something to it)
As usual, the law is not quite so simple. Laws differ by what state it is. Check out the graphic below:

Seems like in Berlin (which in my estimation would be the birthplace of coffee with a cigarette), things have hardly changed. The only places where its restricted are schools, discos (huh?) and hotels.
Smoking's though has been banned at the airports in Hessen, which is where Frankfurt is. There goes the thrill that any future Americans will experience of landing in Germany and being able to light up without clearing security.