A new Germany

[Doc]

Any thoughts on the new government in Germany? I've heard and read nearly nothing about it, excepting a few rumblings about being patient while Germany tightens her belt and gets on more solid economic footing.

[David Mosley]

Like you, I know practically nothing about Angela Merkel (just why *do* you pronounce her name 'Angular' Merkel?!! :? ) but I'm glad Schroeder is out. A politician who (sues a news agency over allegations that he) dyes his hair is not to be trusted. :lol:

[lemec]

Ya, I did not hear much about the new chancellor either. She should be good though.

[L'Etranger]

Well, my father used to say that a politician has no chance to be an embarrassment if he/she never gets voted into power.
(No, I think he said "he", as, except for Mrs. Gandhi, women weren't politcal heads of states when he said it.)

Angela Merkel is not the worst choice, but we fear that she'll pay too much lip-service to G.W.Bush in a frantic attempt to restore good ties* between the US and Germany - and Iran and Syria are still on that warmonger's "to do list". The politics of the US government have become more and more nauseating and dangerous - a tremendous source of concern.
She'll also be an easier pie for Blair, even though Labour was closer to Schrأ¶der's Socialdemocrats. Her coalition government is put together with interesting people, also Socialdemocrats, but the economic and social problems are really so big that they are difficult to solve for any government! A women at the top will do us good for a change. And maybe she's less nice to Mr. Putin - which worried the Poles, our neighbours.
Yet I am sure we will miss Joschka Fischer as foreign minister.


* "good ties" to certain people in Washington translates as "we liberated you 60 years ago, so bow to our interests, you SOBs!"

[HawkLord]

Ya, I did not hear much about the new chancellor either. She should be good though.

From what I've heard I wouldn't have that attitude. Several sources have called her the German Maggie Thatcher, though I hope that reflects merely her gender rather than her views. The new 'Iron Lady' seems to be much more liable to side with Bush, and I believe she was a supporter of the Iraq war. From what I read in the paper (which was very positive towards her, by the way) she has had to concede several points that she would not have liked to. The paper made this out as a bad thing, but the points she conceded actually seemed to be good things that I would hope she didn't oppose in the first place.

But hopefully someone else will know a little more of her and her policies, I am very interested in the situation.

[L'Etranger]

Hawklord,
maybe these articles from "Der Spiegel", our "Newsweek"-counterpart are helpful:
"Parties Forge Deal on Grand Coalition" (Nov 11): http://service.spiegel.de/cache/inte...384457,00.html

"The German Chancellery Gets a Woman's Touch" (Nov. 22)
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/inte...386313,00.html

[David Mosley]

* "good ties" to certain people in Washington translates as "we liberated you 60 years ago, so bow to our interests, you SOBs!"

I think certain people in Washington need to be reminded (on a regular basis it seems) how much they owe their own 'liberation' to those pesky, "cheese-munching, surrender-monkeys" from France. :D

[Mikey_C]

Ya, I did not hear much about the new chancellor either. She should be good though.

From what I've heard I wouldn't have that attitude. Several sources have called her the German Maggie Thatcher, though I hope that reflects merely her gender rather than her views.

Sadly, it reflects both; Ms Merkel is a notorious admirer of the "Anglo-American" economic model of deregulation, cuts in public spending and generally shafting the workers. Schroeder was going that way himself, but let's hope Merkel will have her wings clipped in coalition and at least some parts of the "European Social Model" remain intact in its former bastion.

[HawkLord]

Hawklord,
maybe these articles from "Der Spiegel", our "Newsweek"-counterpart are helpful:
"Parties Forge Deal on Grand Coalition" (Nov 11): http://service.spiegel.de/cache/inte...384457,00.html

"The German Chancellery Gets a Woman's Touch" (Nov. 22)
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/inte...386313,00.html

Thanks very much, those are indeed very helpful. I'm still not sure how her policies will shape up, but at least she is trained as a physicist!

[Pietro_Mercurios]

.. I'm still not sure how her policies will shape up, but at least she is trained as a physicist!

Mrs Thatcher started her working life as an industrial chemist and helped develop Mr Whippy ice cream.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Thatcher

...

She did well at school, going to a girls' grammar school and then to Somerville College, Oxford from 1944, where she studied chemistry. She became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946, the third woman to hold the post. She graduated with a 2:2 degree classification, and worked as a research chemist for British Xylonite and then J. Lyons and Co., where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream. She was a member of the team that developed the first soft frozen ice cream.

...

[alian]

* "good ties" to certain people in Washington translates as "we liberated you 60 years ago, so bow to our interests, you SOBs!"

I think certain people in Washington need to be reminded (on a regular basis it seems) how much they owe their own 'liberation' to those pesky, "cheese-munching, surrender-monkeys" from France. :D

one thing must be said : the first and not least reason we poor "stinky" cheese were not able to get rid of the germans by ourselves is that french military and politicians have never seen that there were wasted brains who made very early the relevant observation that equipment and leaders were totally obsolete.
In addition US funds granted for army has always been equivalent to the ten following countries. Flies can't catch eagles.
let me quote one quote : http://paxchristinewmexico.org/SERENE/pcnm/ryan.html
************************************************** ********
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children…This is not a way of life in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

So can anyone tell me who said this? Well, it was Dwight Eisenhower when he was President. So one of Americas greatest Generals was worried about all the money we were spending on the military and this was back in the 50’s. Eisenhower also coined the phrase Military Industrial Complex and he said we should BEWARE of it. And again this was in the 1950’s before half of every tax dollar was going towards some aspect of the military. Think about that for a minute 50 cents of every tax dollar spent on the military, while 6 cents goes for education and 4 cents goes for healthcare.
************************************************** *********
alian.

[HawkLord]

[quote="AndroMan"]

.. I'm still not sure how her policies will shape up, but at least she is trained as a physicist!

Mrs Thatcher started her working life as an industrial chemist and helped develop Mr Whippy ice cream.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Thatcher

...

She did well at school, going to a girls' grammar school and then to Somerville College, Oxford from 1944, where she studied chemistry. She became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946, the third woman to hold the post. She graduated with a 2:2 degree classification, and worked as a research chemist for British Xylonite and then J. Lyons and Co., where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream. She was a member of the team that developed the first soft frozen ice cream.

...

Huh! Chemists! Not surprised

[L'Etranger]

[quote="HawkLord"]

.. I'm still not sure how her policies will shape up, but at least she is trained as a physicist!

Mrs Thatcher started her working life as an industrial chemist and helped develop Mr Whippy ice cream.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Thatcher

...
...

Huh! Chemists! Not surprised

Hey, the quote above attributed to me is not anything I wrote, there's an error in the quoting chain. I don't see much about her to say "at least" to ...

[Mikey_C]

Mr Whippy sucks.

[Pietro_Mercurios]

Mr Whippy sucks.

It is very white and very sucky soft. But, it's hardly wholesome goodness and it doesn't taste very nice.