Global Voices » Germany

Germany, France: Disparities in Policies Regarding the Integration of Foreign Students

Abdoulaye Bah — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:09:41 +0000

Elsa Doladille writes [fr] on the Educators Without Borders blog : ” While the Guéant Bill in France aims at toughening the conditions for foreign students to obtain a work permit, Germany encourages the integration of students from abroad in their workforce.”

Eurozone Crisis: Where Will the Economy Go?

Evan Fleischer — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:27:59 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

Economists would be hard pressed to forecast the future of Europe's bailouts and the consequences of the current financial crisis. While opinions differ, reactions abound online to try to make sense of what future awaits for the Eurozone.

Where is the economy going? That question was put to Maria Karchilaki, a Greek journalist and the Foreign Desk Anchor/Correspondent for MEGA TV. She replied:

@karhilam: @efleischer I don't know, really. I'm not optimistic, though. This is an economic Katrina and we are still in the middle of it.

Euro coin. Image by Civitas (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

None of the region’s biggest banks pass a stress test. BNP Palibras has slashed its exposure to Italy and Greece, as has RBS, even though it is apparently awash with liquidity. Dexia, Commerzbank, Credit Agricole, and HSBC are seeking to cut their exposure.

France is planning to cut 20% of its budget deficit, Ireland is planning 12.4 billion in budget cuts and ECB (European Central Bank) interest rates are being kept at 1.25%.

On the micro level, people are not in a charitable mood, one retired truck driver in Greece went so far as to tell The New York Times:

[I am] impressed that the people have not yet stormed into Parliament and burned the politicians alive — like a souvlaki [type of kebab].

The question, “Where will the economy go over the next two months?” was put to the following reporters and Twitter users before the resignation of former Greek Prime Minister Papandreou and former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi.

Efthimia Efthimiou, a Greek journalist, writes:

@EfiEfthimiou: @efleischer … difficult to say right now. Things r changing from hour to hour …

Yannis Koutsomitis, another journalist, replied:

@YanniKouts @efleischer There is a strong possibility that political logic will prevail in Italy and Greece in the next few days. That could calm markets for a while. If political turmoil in these countries continues there's a real chance the euro zone crisis will climax with unpredictable outcomes.

Right now the outcomes are pointing in this direction: John Reed of The Financial Times writes that Italian tyre producer Pirelli has “drafted a contingency plan that factors in a 10 per cent drop in car sales and 20 per cent fall in truck sales globally. That would be a drop as big as that seen after Lehman Brothers’ collapse.” (Though that's emphasized as a worst-case scenario.)

Meanwhile, a WikiLeaks cable written in 2010 began to get to work on (if it's necessary) how one might go about declaring a ‘Eurozone Chapter 11‘.

Douglas Fraser at the BBC discusses what would happen if multiple defaults were in the cards:

If Greece, Portugal and Ireland hit that level of default, half of German banks' capital buffers are gone, a third of Belgium's and a quarter in France and the UK.

But there are indirect effects as inter-bank insurance and lending unravels, and that wipes out 100% of German banks' core tier 1 capital.

Belgium's left with only 7%, France with 25% and the UK with 50%. Britain would take a hit from Ireland in particular, but RBS and Lloyds Banking Group have already written down a lot of their exposure.

And what about adding Italy and Spain? The figures are eye-watering.

The direct effects would require governments to recapitalise German and French banks with 125% of their current core capital, meaning nationalisation.

…

But add in the indirect effects, and you find it would require 275% of German banks' core capital, 270% in Belgium, 225% in France and 130% in the UK.

At that point, Germany is only able (it would hope) to meet the bailout requirements of its own banks, while it is every other eurozone country for itself.

On another FT blog, Alan Beattie writes that:

[…] if the ECB can’t bring itself to bail out Italy direct (sovereign credit risk, no expertise in setting lending conditions) it could in theory, according to Article 23 of its protocol, lend vast amounts to the IMF

The IMF would then set about bailing out Italy (which Megan Greene sees as on the cards ('bail-in'), as does The Economist to a degree), which at the end of it all - amongst all this information - is better than nothing.

Reached by email, RTE's Paul Cunningham said, in answer to the question “Do you have any hope that the ECB might use its position as a central bank to encourage growth instead of austerity?”, that (posted with permission from the sender):

The new ECB President, with the interest rate cut, has illustrated that he's prepared to be pragmatic. There was a question if Mr Draghi might have felt the need
to prove his Germanic credentials by holding off a rate cut until December, on the basis that inflation was above 2%. . The fact that the cut happened at his first meeting
would suggest he is his own man. The debate as to whether or not there ever should have been a rate increase will rumble on for years.

On the wider issue of the ECB's role, it would appear that the President will continue to follow JCT in buying-up bonds in the secondary market, but not in the volume to
alleviate the crisis. There is nothing to suggest that Draghi is prepared to allow the institution become the Lender of Last Resort. In my view, this can only change when
Germany changes ie when the crisis develops to such an extent that the German taxpayer is faced with the ultimate crisis - if we stick to our principles on fiscal control,
the euro collapses.

It's often argued that when Europe is faced with a crisis, it needs to stand at the brink before the deal is done. This time it seems to need Germany to stand at the cliff edge
- if the euro goes, the DM will return, and - immediately - it's export led economy will be in danger. Who will buy their goods when the price has ballooned due to the DM?
Sooner rather than later, deeply-held principle is about to crash against the reality posed by the volatile bond markets.

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

Food Around the World on Blog Action Day 2011

Solana Larsen — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:55:06 +0000

Every year since 2007, Blog Action Day has united bloggers from around the world in talking about one global issue. Collectively, the thousands of bloggers participating have an audience of millions. And this year on October 16, 2011 they talked about food. See live updates on who is posting here.

Blog Action Day coincided with World Food Day, and many chose to discuss the rise in food prices and global hunger. Here on Global Voices, Juliana Rincón has posted citizen videos on hunger from different countries.

Other Global Voices authors have participated in their own blogs too.

Mexico

Andrea Arzaba from Mexico chose to share some photos from a local food market in Coyoacán, Mexico City on her blog One Lucky Life — reminding her readers that Mexican cuisine was declared an “Intangible Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO last year.

Coyoacán food market, Mexico City by Andrea Arzaba

Madagascar

Radifera Ranaivoson Maminirina of Global Voices in Malagasy chose to write about “an incredible food product” from Madagascar that is consumed all around the world, even by astronauts in Space.

I chose to talk about one special Malagasy product, 100% natural, but can compete with medicines and pharmaceuticals produced by devceloped countries.

It's called Spirulina, and it's an edible seaweed, used in many food supplements. Read more about the virtues of Spirulina in Malagasy or in English (thanks to Candy for translating).

Macedonia

Global Voices author Filip Stojanovski in Macedonia is keeping an eye on Macedonian blogs that have signed up to participate in Blog Action Day. He has also shared photos on his blog Razvigor :-) from Bunjakovec food market in Skopje, Macedonia (see also in Macedonian).

Fish for sale at Bunjakovec food market in Skopje, Macedonia. Photo by Filip Stojanovski

Germany

Global Voices in German editor, Katrin Zinoun writes about how food brings people from different cultures together in her blog, dialogtexte.

… it is of no importance, whether the strangers who share a meal belong to different religions or political camps or are even enemies in war. One thing they always have in common: they have to eat. And eating together is connecting people.

So, enjoy your meal! At best with a stranger.

Did you blog about food too?

Depending on your time zone, it's not too late to join Blog Action Day with a post of your own. Feel free to share your links in the comments if you'd like us to take a look.

This year's Blog Action Day is organized by The Voice Project which connects bloggers with important political events through NGO partners. Follow #BAD11 on Twitter!

Global: Online Dialogue on Technology for Transparency

Renata Avila — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:09:02 +0000

The Technology for Transparency Initiative, together with New Tactics in Human Rights, invites you to join an online dialogue on ‘Using Technology to Promote Transparency', starting today and continuing until September 27, 2011.

There has been an expanding and increasingly global movement of technology and digital media projects aimed at promoting government transparency, accountability, and public participation in political processes. After documenting dozens of cases around the world, the Technology for Transparency Network, a project of Rising Voices, documented these transparency projects to gain a better understanding of their current impact, obstacles, and future potential. Now it is time to start the conversation, with the help of the wonderful platform ‘New Tactics for Human Rights'.

Image by whiteafrican on Flickr (under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license).

This week we are inviting 11 experts from all over the world, from different projects promoting openness, collaboration and transparency, to answer your questions, comment on interesting topics and discuss the future of technology in promoting transparency.

Join Elizabeth Wolf from Ciudadano Inteligente (Smart Citizen), Chile; Susannah Vila and Jorge Soto from Citivox, Mexico; Mike Linksvayer from Creative Commons; Jonathan Gray from Open Knowledge Foundation, UK; Diego Casaes from Eleitor 2010, Brazil; Camila Bustamante from Dateros, Peru; Ulrich Muller from Germany; Maya Indira Ganesh from Tactical Technology Collective; John (Kipp) Kipchumbah of InfoNet, Kenya; Amr Gharbeia, Technology and Freedoms Programme Officer for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights; and Mendi Njonjo, Fund Manager for the Africa Technology and Transparency Initiative in Kenya.

The dialogue is an opportunity to share these case studies and tools with the New Tactics online community, learn from the experiences of practitioners implementing these projects, and discuss new ideas, challenges, risks and opportunities. Join us online from September 21-27 to share your stories, ideas and resources.

China: Nazi Chic Cosplay

Oiwan Lam — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:59:31 +0000

ChinaSMACK has a post about about the Nazi Chic cosplay culture in China and translated Chinese netizens' reactions to a set of Nazi Chic photos.

Germany: 50th Anniversary of the Berlin Wall

Vilhelm Konnander — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:30:23 +0000

Kelly Hignett at The View East writes about the Berlin wall, and its historical significance as a divide between East and West, as it is now 50 years since the wall - demolished in 1989 - was constructed.

Syria: World Cities Rally Against and For Bashar

Thalia Rahme — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:23:19 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

As the death toll in Syria increases, the International Community is running out of patience and hardening its tone against Syrian president Bashar Al Assad demanding for change and reforms. Abroad the diaspora has also been involved actively since the beginning of the protests in March 2011. Almost all cities around the world have witnessed rallies and demonstrations, some asking Assad to leave, and others declaring their dying love for him.

From San Francisco (11 June, 2011) and Chicago (July 3), to Washington DC ( 23 July), the US capital, where people chanted: ‘‘Leave Leave Bashar” in front of the White House; almost all big cities in the US witnessed opposition gatherings manifesting their solidarity with the people of Daraa, Homs and Deir el Zor among others.

Here is video uploaded by AhmedIbnAlsham on August 6, where protesters where carrying a poster representing Hafez and Bashar Al Assad and written on it: ”Like father, like son”:

Assad also has his supporters in the US like in California (April 3). Chicago too, held another pro-regime rally on April 3 and June 10 while defenders of the regime met in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York (May 1) to assert their love to their leader.

Wave of rallies hit Latin America as well. On June 26, Syrians in Santiago, Chile, chanted “El Pueblo Quiere Bashar el Assad” or ”The People Want Bashar Al Assad”, as we can see in this footage by Zaizuni:

We move to Europe and start with London (June 18) where Syrians called Assad an assassin, to Brussels (July 23), the headquarters of the European Parliament, to Milano in Italy (12 and 17 July). There, potesters, it seems, are no longer satisfied with reforms or even the call for the toppling of the regime. They want to bring it to trial.

Here's a video by Hazem Daoudi, taken in Geneva on August 6, Switzerland, facing the UN Headquarters:

France which is home to a large Syrian community has been witnessing continuous demonstrations, like in Strasbourg on 2 and 16 July, and this two-week sit-in, facing Place du Châtelet in Paris. YouTube user Mesudh75, posts this video showing a peaceful protest in front of the Syrian consulate and the Syrian Cultural Center in Paris:

In Germany, people took to the streets in Leipzig (July 7), Berlin (July 23) and Bonn on August 6 and August 8, not to forget Munich where on that same day, where this video from HutaafElhurriyyeh shows Germans showing solidarity with Syrians and singing the Syrian National Anthem:

Close to Munich, in Vienna, Austria, another protest took place, where this footage was taken and posted by AhmadSouri during a demo on August 9, in front of the Syrian Embassy:

Anti-Bashar protests also took place in Ukraine (April 22) Romania (June 30), Russia (July 31) and Greece (August 2), calling for the end of fascism:

In Turkey, protesters gathered in front of the Iranian embassy in Istanbul on August 5, denouncing the Islamic Republic stance towards the protest. They were joined on August 7, by members of the Felicity or Saadet party in front of the Syrian Consulate as we can see in this video by khaled111h:

But Assad can also rely on his supporters in Europe, who consider him as the only guarantee for stability and security in Syria. The streets of Paris, France, witnessed severaldemonstrations on June 11 and July 3 , 4 11 and 12 .

Diaspora in Odessa, Ukraine, flew balloons with the Syrian flag on June 4 for Assad. Others marched on June 6 in Kazan City in Russia for the same reason.

Syrians in Armenia also portrayed their support to their president on March 2011:

Despite the turmoil and unrest in the Arab world, and its own inner revolution, its capitals were keen on showing their solidarity and compassion with the Syrians.

This is Tunis on August 6, in a video by wadoodfreesyrian where people were chanting:” Syria is Free! Bashar get out!”:

In Egypt on August 1, OmawiTV shows angry people following the Hama Massacre and calling for the expulsion of the Syrian Ambassador:

In Lebanon, the situation is a bit delicate due to the complex relation between both countries. Quite often, opponents and loyalists of the Damascus regime clashed and the army had to intervene to separate both parties. The latest rally in solidarity with the Syrian people was held on Monday, August 8 in Martyrs Square in Beirut. This was a gathering which was attended by a lot of intellectuals, journalists and activists among which we note the presence of prominent Lebanese composer and singer Marcel Khalife. You can check Mahmoud Ghazayel's photos of the event, on Facebook.

Participants were chanting “This a shout from Lebanon - Calling for Human Rights”:

Jordanians conducted Taraweeh, the nightly Ramadan prayers, on August 2 in front of the Syrian Embassy as we can see in this video taken directly from the scene of events by Basemaggad. Bassem recorded another video in August 8 too.

Similar rallies took places in the Gulf monarchies cities, like in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, on August 8, where we can hear people shouting “Syria is for us and not for the Assad Family”:

Here is another video from Jeddah at night on the same day by hama19822011:

In Kuwait (August 5 and 7) and Bahrain (August 5, 8 and 9, protesters are demanding the expulsion of Syrian Ambassador from both respective countries and the freezing of the bilateral ties with Damascus. Protests were attended by several political figures and members of both parliaments.

This video by daraahoran shows people in Kuwait in front of Syrian Embassy, calling for the overthrow of the Baath party.

Syrians and Bahrainis rallied in Manama on August 9, chanting“Daraa, we're with you, till death !”

We conclude our round up in the Australian continent, where seems the Assad opponents and partisans also voiced their support and vice versa.

In Auckland, New Zealand, approximately 200 people gathered in protest against the regime for killing innocent Syrian civilians on July 30.

Demonstrations were also held in Sydney, Australia, on August 2 against the regime:

In another demonstration in Sydney on April 3, protested to say that ”Bashar is the best president in the whole Middle East and the world there will be no one like him”.

Protests against the Syrian regime, are penciled in for London, Paris and Tunis tomorrow (August 13).

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.

Thumbnail and featured image ‘Protest to support Syrian opposition at State Department - Berlin', by Thorsten Strasas, copyright Demotix (06/08/11).

Germany: Stasi and its Informers

Vilhelm Konnander — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:54:27 +0000

David Cook at The View East writes about the East German security police, Stasi, during the Cold War, and its system of informers.

Germany: Rocking the Wall of the GDR

Vilhelm Konnander — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:30:11 +0000

James Shingler at The View East writes about East German rock and pop music and its subvertive role in changing society during the 1970s and 1980s.

Macedonia: Views from Abroad on Protests Against Police Violence

Filip Stojanovski — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:18:50 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.

Ordinary people's reactions to the protests against police brutality in Macedonia indicate the strength of the grip of the traditional media, which is not very keen on relaying such “unpopular” news, and highlights the opportunities for solidarity once the information gets through.

Jovana Tozija, a Macedonian woman residing in Germany, wrote [mk, en] about the reactions of her friends:

Many of my international friends asked what’s going on in Macedonia after they saw me spamming on Facebook with links to sites with strange letters and when they saw that I'd changed my profile picture. I briefly explained to them the incident with the murder of Martin Neshkovski. Here are their responses and my personal analysis of their initial instant reactions.

A Russian woman: So? The police killed a man. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? There is nothing you can do about it.

Obviously, the awareness about freedom of speech in this country is not on the highest level. I don’t know if it is because they are afraid or because it is not developed enough. But I do know that there is over-centralized power of the oligarchs and there is literally nothing you can do about it.

An Iranian man: Only one person was killed?

This was his instant reaction. It’s not easy for him as well. He has seen worse. Last year, during the green revolution in Iran, the government was killing young people, just because [Ahmadinejad] would not recognize the electoral fraud. A bunch of progressive young people were protesting and they failed. Many of them were killed and Ahmadinejad is still in power.

A German woman: How can it be that for 2 days it was not known who the boy was and the case was not reported?

The people of this country are used to the fact that the institutions do their job by default. She was not interested in how a member of the special police units could kill a young man, but how the case could stumble throughout the institutions.

A Croatian man: OMG, the police is going to send us to our graves.

I don’t have a comment on this and don’t know what to think about it. I suppose he is a proponent of the [ACAB] theory.

Bulgarian blogger Yurukov wrote [bg] on his blog several days after protests started:

Why no Bulgarian media have informed about this protest for a week? Why do I have to learn about it from Twitter, and only because by chance I follow several Macedonians? What are they waiting for? An official position from the Ministry of the Interior or from [Prime Minister Boyko Borisov]? Has it come that far? Are we afraid that the media would be blamed for inciting unrest if the protests spread to Bulgaria? Why even the publications that are considered freer keep silent? Or should we wait for the news to become popular, so we can talk about it?

Yurukov noted that in the week after the protests started, only two internet portals published information in Bulgarian: Dir.bg and News.bg. (In addition, these two exceptional media outlets did not post follow-up articles in the next few weeks.)

The website Stop police violence published an article [mk/sr] about the support for the protests from the female choir “Kombinat” [sl] from Slovenia:

We are sending a photo of support, taken during our concert in [Celje], dedicated to you, who protest against police brutality in Macedonia. We'll send you [a petition] signed at the concert. People in Slovenia have no idea what's going on in Macedonia, because the media do not write or speak about it… Accept our solidarity and support, we are with you in our thoughts and hearts…

No Pasaran!

Kombinat concert in Celje, Slovenia. Photo by Kombinat, used with permission.

Macedonian protesters keep inviting people from abroad to show their support for the protests by writing or making videos about them.

This post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.

Moldova: A solution to the Transnistria conflict?

Vilhelm Konnander — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:43:34 +0000

Zimbru of Morning in Moldova comments on and argues against rumours about an upcoming German-Russian proposal on the status of breakaway province Transnistria within a federal state of Moldova.

Germany, Ukraine: Implications of the Demjanjuk Ruling

Veronica Khokhlova — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:41:14 +0000

Alexander J. Motyl writes at Ukraine's Orange Blues/World Affairs about the implications of the May 12 sentencing of John Demjanjuk “for being an accessory to the murder of 28,060 Jews in the Nazi concentration camp in Sobibor, in occupied Poland.”

Germany: Learning German with a Blog

Solana Larsen — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:33:12 +0000

Every Tuesday, Canadian expat Marie in Berlin uploads recordings of the peculiar new words she learns in German to her blog.

Slovakia: Second-Class Customers

Tibor Blazko — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:20:11 +0000

During the last years of socialist Czechoslovakia, there was a typical lack of goods in the country. It's not that people were going hungry or naked, it was still possible to buy basic things. But if you wanted something a bit more special - say, a pair of jeans - you had to go to special shops and pay with special vouchers, which ordinary people could only acquire at the black market.

Shopkeepers kept tropical fruit or better cuts of meat under the counter for the customers they deemed more valuable, such as doctors and specialist mechanics. Most other people had to stand in long lines. Buying a new car or a new flat used to take years of waiting. Western brands - with the exception of soda, perhaps - were very rare.

Shopfront in Czechoslovakia, 1976. Image by Flickr user docman (CC BY-NC 2.0).

Shopping revolution

The situation changed after the revolutionary year of 1989, when the borders opened and nearby agricultural villages in western Austria turned into shopping centers - and they remain so even today, when international brands and stores are now strong players in the Slovak market.

Often, however, food products of the same brand differ in quality and price, depending on whether they are produced for consumers in Western Europe or those in Central and Eastern Europe.

Even though customers might expect products of the same brand to be of the same quality worldwide, regional differences do exist, according to a study [sk, .ppt file] sponsored by the Slovak department of the European Commission and carried out by the Association of Slovak Consumers.

Of the products tested during the study, the quality of Milka Alpine Milk chocolate turned out to be the most consistent: there was no significant difference discovered between versions produced in Western Europe and in Poland. German and Austrian customers however, are guaranteed to get chocolate made of milk from the Alps mountains. The famous purple cow that supplies milk for Eastern Europeans' chocolate may live somewhere in the Tatra Mountains, a fact about which they would not be made aware.

Regional differences

In the case of Coca-Cola, the difference is the kind of sugar used. German as well as Czech consumers will get a version with beet sugar, while the nations further east have corn sugar in their drinks. The company explained [sk] that this way they can supply a cheaper product for the Slovak market - and when you compare Coca-Cola's price table in the study, you can see that it is true.

Blogger Tibor Pospíšil wrote [sk] that beet sugar is more expensive in Europe because of the “sugar lobby” and, for most customers, there is no significant difference in quality. What's more, this way Slovak customers get original American-quality Coca-Cola.

There was visible difference in Nescafé Gold coffee for Western and Eastern Europe - due to different preferences of local customers, according to the manufacturer [sk].

But the biggest differences were found in spice products from Kotányi, an Austria-based company. Customers across Europe are getting similarly-sized packs with different amounts of spice inside and very different pricing per kilogram. Even though everything is produced at one factory, the worst quality was found in a package produced for Bulgaria: nearly 10 percent of its contents was just powder, and in the case of red pepper, a significant part of its natural color was missing. The company's spokesperson said [sk] it had happened accidentally, and, to support this view, it should be noted that packs produced for the Austrian, as well as Hungarian and Slovak, markets had problems with humidity levels.

Below are excerpts from a discussion of the article about the study's results [sk], published in April 2011 in the Economy section of SME.sk online news portal.

freedomman:

If it was just about food, but it also happens with other products, but I always think that it is mainly about the customer, because they import here only that what the customer wants. If the customer does not care about contents, weight, origin and cares only about the price, then the producer will meet his wishes. It's a huge difference between a typical Austrian and a typical Slovak customer. How many Slovak customers are looking at the country of origin? […]

Jumo (in reply):

I do this [check the country of origin] and others do it as well. And I do not think that Austrian customers pay more attention to these things than the Slovak ones.

rini17:

My parents grumble that smoked meat is not the same quality it used to be, but the only thing they care about is the price. With contents or taste they deal only when it is impossible to eat it.

chico34:

It does not matter that food in Germany is of higher quality - here it is more expensive.

hektor22 (in reply):

Official data: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-SF-10-030/EN/KS-SF-10-030-EN.PDF Please, see page 2 - price index for food. Germany: 111, Slovakia: 80. Food in Germany is nearly 40 percent more expensive.

koprolit:

And especially the mentioned Kotanyi… even cheaper brands in Slovakia have higher quality.

zed25:

Common knowledge, now already confirmed by laboratory. From personal experience, I can confirm a big difference in quality of chemical components - for example, there is a big difference in baby diapers bought in Austria and here.

ivan the terrible:

And who is responsible for it, comrades? Show me the guilty ones! Surely, the Western imperialists could be blamed for our own stupidity again! Imperialist companies are giving us second- and third-class goods? But we like to eat them and pay for them!

Radike 777:

And that's why I'm buying Slovak products… Unfortunately, sometimes it is a problem to find Slovak products at grocery stores.

Grüß Gott:

For the stupid tactics of our merchants there is a simple cure. I'm already shopping in Austria only. Prices are similar, sometimes markedly lower, and quality is markedly better.

etrusk:

I was speaking with dairy producers […]. In the era of a Slovak owner, they were using the same recipe as during the communist time. Which meant that cheeses were taking their time to mature and yogurts also were the way they have to be. As soon as a foreign investor stepped in, they introduced a new recipe. Cheese matures in a few hours now…

statocnesrdce:

Nothing compares to the quality I'm using. It is classic quality of food as during the communist era. Milk, meat, eggs, fruit and vegetables - I'm buying them at local farms that are not under [official] control. Egg yolk is yellow and even my son does not want eggs from the shop. And when milk turns sour, it is possible to drink it as sour milk…

Germany: A blog of rare German records from flea markets

Solana Larsen — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:22:08 +0000

Berlin Beatet Bestes is a blog by Andreas Michalke of rare out of print German 45 rpm records found at flea markets. For instance, this 1959 tune of Trinidadian singer Mona Baptiste singing a mambo in German.