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 people that the three months are not for free, that their telephone number will be sent out to every marketing outlet in the country, that they are being asked to take part in something so immaginary that the very hardest part of the job is not to burst out laughing when you ask them that question. It is, in short, a lie, a lie which you willingly tell for what? the Bills, of course.
Every year, every individual in Germany who can spends about 2000 Euroes on various bills- Phone (mobile and line), Internet (WAP and line), Electricity, water, gas, more telephone, Garbage disposal, Transport, no to mention the rent...
For all this, the poor student that I am has to dish out money. This money is earned by selling your principles (comes at Three Euroes an H), walking about ten KM's a job (at Three Euroes an h) and talking to people (as this is the least unpleasant part of the job, two E/H). Do I enjoy it? Well excersize does make up, but the rain that I have been mentioning frequently in former entries does tend to make the excersise look a bit overrated. The feeling that your tongue is running out of your mouth, so much do you speak and try and cajole the public into taking part, in joining in the crowd, into becoming one of the sheep you have converted to the religion you are preaching- and your sermons are about twnty seconds long, if I were to take an average.... That's fun, and it's a very good road to televangilism.
But still, I am glad to finally have found a halfway regular occupation, in a city where this kind of thing is hard to get, that pays all the abovementioned bills. And I'm working today. It is raining cats and dogs.
Wish me Luck.
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 people that the three months are not for free, that their telephone number will be sent out to every marketing outlet in the country, that they are being asked to take part in something so immaginary that the very hardest part of the job is not to burst out laughing when you ask them that question. It is, in short, a lie, a lie which you willingly tell for what? the Bills, of course.
Every year, every individual in Germany who can spends about 2000 Euroes on various bills- Phone (mobile and line), Internet (WAP and line), Electricity, water, gas, more telephone, Garbage disposal, Transport, no to mention the rent...
For all this, the poor student that I am has to dish out money. This money is earned by selling your principles (comes at Three Euroes an H), walking about ten KM's a job (at Three Euroes an h) and talking to people (as this is the least unpleasant part of the job, two E/H). Do I enjoy it? Well excersize does make up, but the rain that I have been mentioning frequently in former entries does tend to make the excersise look a bit overrated. The feeling that your tongue is running out of your mouth, so much do you speak and try and cajole the public into taking part, in joining in the crowd, into becoming one of the sheep you have converted to the religion you are preaching- and your sermons are about twnty seconds long, if I were to take an average.... That's fun, and it's a very good road to televangilism.
But still, I am glad to finally have found a halfway regular occupation, in a city where this kind of thing is hard to get, that pays all the abovementioned bills. And I'm working today. It is raining cats and dogs.
Wish me Luck.
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