Couleur Locale - Poultry allowed outside again

The winter finally lies behind us, and the migratory birds have moved to Scandinavia. As a consequence, the risk of spreading bird floo has been reduced so much apparently, that the authorities in our county (Landkreis Höxter) have decided to lift the ban on keeping poultry outside, a local newspaper reports.

Farmers who wish to keep their poultry outside again, have to request for permission in advance, though. Untypically for Germany, however, this permission can be obtained with a simple phone call to the local veterinary service.
Special preventative measures still apply for geese and ducks. These animals will have to undergo regular health checks.

Schützenfest

Around this time of year, in many cities in Germany, the "Schützenfesten" will be held again. Although it is not unique for Germany, it is in my eyes still a typically German tradition. "Schützenfesten" are festivals during which the best shooter of the city is selelcted in a competition. The festival finds its origin in the middle ages, during which each city had its so called "Schützen", a group of men who were responsible for protecting the city against enemies (usually neighbouring cities). Already at that time, festivities were organised around the periodical training activities of the Schützen. (Find the Wikipedia description in German here).

Nowadays, the Schützen, organised in "Schützenvereine" are still very active, albeit not with the purpose of protecting a city anymore. During the Schützenfesten, the Schützen will appear in traditional uniforms, and will determine who will become the "Schützenkönig" (king) during the coming year, with various shooting competitions. The ruling Schützenkönig is traditionally brought to the festival location with a big procession (the "Zapfenstreich"). After the new king has been determined, a ball is held, during which also the ladies will appear in traditional costumes.

The festival is celebrated in many different ways. The worldwide biggest Schützenfesten are in Hannover, where the festivities take up 10 days. In our region, many Schützenfesten are held in the coming weekend (Whitsuntide). It is quite a funny site, to see so many men and women walking around in these old, traditional costumes. It is one of those German traditions that on the one hand makes me laugh a bit, but which I also admire on the other hand, because keeping traditions alive is a must to preserve the characteristics of a culture.

Couleur locale - petrol theft ... again

Make sure your tank is empty, when you park your car! This could be a future recommendation by the police in this region. I wrote about it already in an earlier post. Now again, a local newspaper report another case of fuel theft, last week. This time again, a truck driver was the victim. Around 400 Euro worth of diesel was stolen from his tank.

To be continued??

Merkel in China

German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has paid a two day visit to China this week. The German press praised her today for (unlike her predecessor Gerhard Schröder) addressing critical issues like freedom of speech and product piracy, even though the visit was a trade mission.

Mrs. Merkel was leading a business delegation of around 40 German business men and women. I wonder how many people in delegations such as these, visit China on a yearly basis. Fons is keeping track of Dutch delegations heading for China.

News of the week - Secret service spying on journalists

There is a lot of commotion at the moment around the activities of the German secret service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND). They caused for negative headlines about their activities in Iraq already, around two months ago. And now, the agency is criticised for spying on German journalists.

Last week, the news came out that in order to track down leaks in the organisation, the BND was spying on German journalists in the nineteen eighties and nineties. A former director of the BND has been accused of giving the order to let a reporter spy on his own colleagues. This news triggered a hefty discussion in the media and among politicians, in which the possibly endangered freedom of press has been a focal point.

Experts, politicians and the BND became active immediately in an attempt to formulate new rules with which these activities can be avoided in the future. As more and more incidents came to light, the discussions about the activities of the BND, and how to control this organisation filled many newspapers and news programs on radio and TV.

I found an interesting report of a radio station, mephisto976 which claimed that they had been spying on a spying journalist. Reminds me of the MAD magazine cartoon "Spy vs Spy". What happened to those guys, anyway?

Seasonal landscape

One of my favourite panoramas in Germany are the endless fields with blooming rape that can be enjoyed here from May until June. It is typically German in my eyes. According to Wikipedia around 3,5 Million tons of rape yearly are harvested in Germany. The rape seeds are mainly used for the production of culinary oil and fuel for cars (so called "biodiesel").


On my way to work, I am lucky enough drive through these fields of gold every day. Here is a picture of one of those fields, I made today with my cell phone camera.

Couleur Locale - Region goes Online

There seems to be a competition going on in our region. In the same issue of a local newspaper, there are two articles about new online appearances. On the front page of "Warburg zum Sonntag" I read an article about the new activities of the city of Warburg. Apparently, the city council is striving for more transparence, and will be publishing their decisions and in some cases even meeting minutes on the net. Interesting. I am already looking forward to the first juicy details about mud fight discussions of our councellers. Or will the mayor personally censor the meeting minutes before they are published?
By the way, the article also informs, that pictures and other media will not be included, because the available storage capacity would not be enough. Never knew the city was that short on cash.

The city of Brakel, is also getting more and more active online. According to their mayor, in the "Warburg zum Sonntag" the city has added a few more pieces of the mosaic of information, the city is offering its citizens on the net. The latest are tips for saving energy, and lots of information about wedding locations that are offered in Brakel, all to be found on the Brakel homepage.

News of the week - School uniform

Politicians in Germany are really struggling with the question of how to organise integration of immigrants into society. A while ago, the issue of the 'Einbürgerungstest' was occupying the head lines in Germany. Last week, a follow-up was dominating the news. The German minister Zypries (Justice Dept.) is suggesting the introduction of school uniforms, for example here, or here in Spiegel. The Frankfurter Allgemeine also writes about it.
In the city of Contwig in the state Rheinland-Pfalz, the seem to be so enthousiastic about the idea, that they plan to start with it next year.
Interesting critical voices can be found in the German blogospere. 24 Stunden.de, politically incorrect and wildbits for example, write about it.

The discussion started after two school girls in Nordrhein-Westfalen appeared in school after the holidays, wearing burka's. According to the minister, the school uniforms might solve some problems related to social differences between school kids. With a uniform, all kids would be equal.
An idealistic idea, from Mrs. Zypries. However, some kids will always be more equal than others. Or will the minister for example also introduce standard mobile phones for everyone?
If the minister does decide to realise her plans, how about the following suggestion? Everyone would look the same for sure.

Couleur Locale - After the Tsunami

The local news paper "Desenberg-Bote" reports that one of the local banks in Warburg, the "Sparkasse Höxter", will be hosting an exhibition of drawings, made by children from the Sri Lankan village Hikkaduwa. The children were given the opportunity to tell their own story about the Tsunami, that struck Sri Lanka at the end of 2004, in the form of drawings and paintings. The drawings form the basis of the book "Das Wasser kam himmelhoch daher".
The exhibition is the initiative of the foundation "Hikkaduwa-Hilfe", an organisation that was set up in April 2005 by people from Warburg, with the goal to help the families in the costal village in Sri Lanka.

A nice initiative, I feel. And a good reason to pay a visit to the bank again.

News of the week - Elterngeld

Last week, the coalition government in Germany agreed upon the introduction of the so called "Elterngeld", literally translated meaning "Parent money" (a description of it in Wikipedia also exists). As one of their top priorities, the government is trying to increase the birth rate in Germany. With the current value of around 1.3, the birth rate in Germany is one of the lowest in Europe. Many problems are expected in the future as a result of the low birth rate. As in many other European countries, in Germany, the working population pays for the pensions of the retired part of the population. In a few years, when the after-war baby-boom generation goes into retirement, a relatively small amount of people will have to finance their pensions. This is going to cause major problems, so much is clear. These problems cannot be avoided anymore, but in an attempt to reduce the problems for later generations, increasing the birth rate is one of the top priorities of the current government.

Motivated by the success in Scandinavian countries, where, since 2000 the birth rated has supposedly risen by 10% as a consequence of family supporting incentives by the government, the previous German government announced the plan to financially support families if one of the partners decides to take a long-term leave from work to take care of the their newborn.

Last Tuesday, the current minister for family matters, Ursula von der Leyen (herself a mother of seven), announced the agreement of the coalition partners regarding the realisation of "Elterngeld". For all families in which a child is born after 1 January 2007, the government will pay 67% of the last earned net wages (with a max of € 1.800,- per month) of the parent who takes an unpaid leave from his or her job. In case, the other parent also takes an unpaid leave of at least 2 months, two bonus months can be added. This provision will apply, other than is the case today, to all families, regardless of the income level. In this way, the government hopes to reach an effect with the large amount of couples with a high income but no kids, who, in the current situation do not get a financial compensation from the state in case of an unpaid leave.

It is questionable, however, whether financial incentives allone will result in an increasing birth rate. For many couples, the main problem of having children, is the almost obliged step-aside from job life, as too few placements in children day care are available today. Leaving the job for a number of years with the risk of not being able to build up a career anymore, is too often neglected as an important reason for postponing and even refraining from setting up a family. So far, not much has been done to increase the number of children daycare places. If the government is serious about increasing the birth rate, this is problem that should be tackled as well.

Couleur Locale - Demonstrations for a better educational system

In Paderborn, a demonstration will be held on 2 May, to protest against the upcoming reforms of the educational system in Germany. In the reformed educational system, the federal government will delegate most of the responsibility for education to the states. The state we live in, "Nordrein-Westfalen", has decided to introduce tuition fees for higher education. Until now, higher education in Germany, has almost been free of charge (i.e. no tuition fees). Students in Paderborn have decided to protest against these plans. Their motto is "Free education, from kindergarten until university". The planned introduction of tuition fees is not the only thing they will protest against. During the march, they also want to raise their voices against budget cuts for schools, and a decrease of available places in kindergartens. The recent success of student protests in France will motivate the Paderborner students especially.

Couleur Locale - Fuel Theft

I have found very little time for blogging during the past few weeks. That's why there hasn't been any "News of the week" and "Couleur Locale". So, time to make up for that.

Here's an interesting oddity I picked up in one of the local news papers here.

Last week, on Tuesday night, a truck driver in Höxter reported the theft of around 200 liters of diesel from his parked truck at the local police station. The 52 year old was warned by one of his neigbours that a suspisiously looking vehicle had parked beside the truck, and after that, dimmed the lights. At the time the truck driver reached his vehicle, the thieves had already left, with around 370 Euros worth of diesel.

I think this is just one example of the consequences of the record-high fuel prices. I'd better make sure my fuel tank is locked, when I leave my car for the night.