Political Trivia from Germany for Beginners

[Angela Shelley]

Political Trivia from Germany for Beginners

1) Politicians can be single, living with partner, married, divorced, widowed. Although voters will gossip about everything, in the end, marital status doesn´t really matter.

2) Politicians can be bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual, or abstinent. Although voters will gossip about everything, in the end, sexual preference doesn´t really matter.

3) Politicians can make sound decisions for families, even without having children of their own.

4) A politician´s choice of religious beliefs is an extremely trivial matter.

5) There are several major political parties: CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP, Green. Each party has a real chance of being represented.

6) Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany. Horst Koehler is the President of Germany.



"Current Trivia" relating to the political landscape in Germany:

1) GWB stated that Angela Merkel is the smartest woman he has ever met.

2) Horst Koehler has recently publicly scolded top managers on their high salaries.

3) Scientology is currently under investigation, will possibly lose "church" status.



A few things which make Germany so attractive?

1) Oktoberfest (which by the way, starts in September)

2) "Christmas Markets" for the Adventszeit, everywhere you go.

3) Germany has rednecks too, but because patios are built on the backs of houses and are too small for living room furniture, because marrying relatives is VERBOTEN, because health care used to cover dental work, and the price of gasoline is too high for average income families to fill up a flat-bed truck, you could only know them on their haircuts. Being that "clean cut" is not mandatory in Germany, it´s hard to tell them from the rest of the folks.

4) Walmart has already entered AND EXITED the German marketplace.

5) Starbucks is expanding, keeping the xenophobic tourists away from really great coffee shops.

6) More often than not, things work, people are on time, the job gets done correctly.

7) You can take a train from Munich, Germany to Paris, France in just 6 hours and 15 minutes.

8) There are no political parties in Germany which are the equivalent of "Republican"

9) Cars that travel at a high speed on the Autobahn do not "shake or rattle"

10) If you see someone with a gun, you automatically know he´s a policeman, a hunter, or a criminal.

11) When a policeman asks "may I see your ID", people aren´t offended, scared, or worried.

12) If you need a change of pace, you can take a day trip to France, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Poland, Italy, etc.

13) When a woman is pregnant, she receives medical care. If she does not want to keep the baby, she can bring it to a hospital anonymously, no questions asked.


Edit: Typo

[reorg]

1. addendum re political trivia

You forgot to mention the Left Party which is currently represented in the Bundestag (8.7 percent) - and has as much chance as the Greens and FDP to be represented in the three states with upcoming elections in January or February 2008: Hesse, Lower Saxony, and Hamburg. All three of these states are currently ruled by the right-wing CDU, and all three are projected to lose that majority, resulting in either "grand" coalitions (SPD/CDU), or possibly SPD/Greens/Left coalitions.

If we did not have proportional representation in all elections, we would be stuck with two large parties, like the Anglo world ...

[reorg]

2. re attractions

1) Oktoberfest - don't give a damn, never been there
3) Don't know about the rednecks, but if you go East (especially Brandenburg) be careful to avoid bald-headed bomber-jacket wearing thugs if you look vaguely "different" ...
5) Unfortunately, there's really not much left of the great coffee shops we had up until the seventies
11) When a policeman or woman asks me for ID, I may not be worried, but you can be sure I AM offended, because it is nothing but harassment in most cases.
12) A "day trip" to a place 500 or more km away? No, thanks. The pace is not much different there nowadays, anyway.

[LeftCoast]

3. I love the Christmas markets

The Glühwein is sooo good. *sigh*

[reorg]

4. You are wrong about the Scientology investigation

"3) Scientology is currently under investigation, will possibly lose "church" status."

Scientology had never "church" status in Germany to begin with, they are organized as an association ("Verein"). What is currently under investigation is if they can be denied that right to form an association. The attempt to make this association illegal is highly unlikely to succeed, however. You would need proof that they try and overthrow the constitutional order in Germany. The reason why this issue is making a headline or two these days is the upcoming elections in three states. The right-wingers (who initiated the current investigation) try and boast their "strength" on the law and order front.