Caramblogage

Does anyone remember the Nine Inch Nails song on Money, Trent Reznor starting out with the lines "God Money, I'll do Anything for you..." Of, course, the punctuation is unclear, but the sentiment echoes mine very nicely. The situation: Germany is on the brink of economic collapse, even if there is an IPO forcast that the GDP will grow up by 3.5 per cent next year. About eleven per cent of the country is officialy unemployed, most of those in the former GDR. Berlin is a borderline case, it has always been. But whichever half of the city you live in, it is still hard to find decent work. The work I do is definitly not decent in the sense that it is honest. It is hard labour, and every time you enter into the Mode, you have to force yourself to do so. About one- two thousand people a day end up being asked "Do you want to win three months in a fitness studio for free" or words to that effect. It takes a lot of self control and discipline not to tell these peo...

Rain- so many countries complain that they don't get enough rain. So many people die because of droughts, lack of water... well people, come to Berlin- it's all here. It has been raining incessantly for two days now. The city is covered in a thick film of leftover rainwater that is slowly running down the streets into the sewers where a natural cylcle of life can continue for the water. The cities cyclists are all covered by multicolored and multishaped rain protection gear while sitting on their bikes, braving the flood that is breaking down upon us from above, making sure that no patch of dry stays untouched. I used to love rain when we lived in Cairo, because it rained maybe two or three times a year. Here in Germany, a country that is not so famous for having the best weather in the world, I grew to understand why people walk around with faces all the way to the ground sometimes. It's a gray country, this one, and it pours when it rains. It makes for a very monot...

For a while now, I have been hearing about this blog thing. The first time must have been on the Beeb, to which I listen in frequently, telling the story of how some persons' bloig had helped save the day. Weblog. It sounded so much like something out of Star Trek that I just had to try it at some point.... Well here we are, three months later, me having discovered this site through accident and adrants informing the intersted public that Quentin Tarantino ( whether it is him or not doesn't matter.) now has his own blog. Jealousy immediatly siezed hold of my youthful fingers, urging them to click the links and Follow them, until, about five minutes later- voila! Instant Blog! So here it is, to anyone who reads this: Hello! And welcome to this rather arbitrarily named page. The reason, as you may figure is that I currently live in Berlin, Germany (not one of the 23 plus Berlins the States call their own), it is post 2k3 and the world is still turning, even though the Ge...