No alternative?

Alternative Nobel Prize award watchers everywhere were shocked to learn today that contrary to expectations, President Barrack Obama will not be receiving this year’s honored honor.

The annual award, issued right after the official Nobel Peace Prize gets awarded to Obama (most likely every year now too, by the way), is given “for outstanding vision and work on behalf of our planet and its people” so like why the hell didn’t he get it, huh? Maybe because it’s “The Right” Livelihood Award or something.

I’m starting to think that this European peace prize giving industry selection process stuff is rigged.

Der Alternative Nobelpreis wird zum 30. Mal verliehen. Er unterstützt diejenigen, die “praktische Antworten” auf die drängendsten Herausforderungen der Gegenwart geben.

Westerwelle will during appearances further German speak

His refusal, a British reporter in English to answer, brought Guido Westerwelle much malice in.

So will he never foreign minister be, predicted then his critics. But the FDP boss will during official functions continue German to speak and precisely this apparently Westerwelle likable makes.

I could more agree not.

“Endlich sagt es mal einer.”

Sinister American computer games everywhere you look

Quentin Tarantino movies are still okay though because he’s not, well, a gamer and these are movies and, uh, he’s cultured or something.

“Counter-strike was developed by the US Army in order to reduce the violence threshold of soldiers.”

“That games like these lead to violence is obvious to me, despite the debatable scientific evidence.”

“Dass solche Killerspele die Hemmschwelle gegen Gewalt herabsetzen, ist für mich eindeutig, auch wenn wissenschaftliche Belege hierfür noch umstritten sind.”

Another year, another Berlin Marathon

Alena G.

Beautiful German of the week.

Because somebody has to admire them.

When a country turns bad

Or makes a bad turn, I should say.

“The ink had barely dried after GM signed Opel over to Canadian car parts maker Magna and Russia’s Sberbank when they announced they would fire one-fifth of the group’s 50,000 European employees within a year – 4,000 in Germany.”

“Even a strong recovery would leave automakers with huge overcapacity. Against this background – which the sale of Opel does nothing to change – not admitting the necessity of job cuts is either delusional or dishonest to voters.”

“So when Germany’s government put up €4.5bn in loans and guarantees to ensure that Magna prevailed in GM’s garage sale, it presumably expected to get something in return.”

And that was…

“Magna co-chief executive Siegfried Wolf’s assurance that restructuring will be guided purely by commercial considerations is laughable when the group is accepting financing that depends on political decisions. The German money is a move in a negative-sum game of trying to push job cuts across the border.”

“We are naturally determined to resolve the remaining problems in a spirit of European equality.”

How many times now?

They’ve been European Championship champions for five years in a row now. They’ve won 35 consecutive Euro matches in the process.

And if you look hard enough, you might even find a few people (men people?) here in Germany who actually care.

“We played well in patches but credit to Germany, they were very clinical.”

Show Your Colors on Sylt

 

Time to say goodbye

From Afghanistan, for Germany, right before the coming German general election, get it?

 

“Although the issue has so far not played a big part in the run-up to Germany’s September 27 federal election, polls show most voters want the 4,200 German troops in Afghanistan as part of a six-year-old NATO mission to return home.”

“Geman Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) who share power with Merkel’s conservatives, said once it became clear who would lead Afghanistan after last Thursday’s election there, talks should begin over how long foreign troops should stay.”

And he didn’t say it with any desperation in his voice either, honest.

“We need to agree with the new Afghan president…how long international troops should remain in Afghanistan.”

This is not a crocodile

I don’t know what it is, but Germans are doggedly determined to find crocodiles in their lakes, rivers and streams. Crocodiles that aren’t there, I mean. This time, two girls in Bavaria saw one (not) and got the country’s crocodile hunters (professional and otherwise) all tied up in a knot for a few minutes of non-fame.

The last crocodile that wasn’t one turned out to be a turtle. The one before that was probably a bottle of corn schnapps.  And the one before that…

Okay, so you’ve had your little Sommerloch (silly summer season) scare again (not). It’s time to go back to school and/or work again or something already.

„Die Beamten gehen nun aber davon aus, dass es ein Biber oder auch ein größerer Fisch war, der die Mädchen erschreckte.“