Final reflection

Before I had read anything I had only been able to know about German culture by stereo types which were incorrect, what I had been told by my teacher, and what I have seen on TV. Now since a lot of this information was incorrect or slightly altered some of it held truth. Even today you can still see the effects of the German culture on Cincinnati which was a city in the United States that had many German’s had immigrated to the United States. This tradition of Oktoberfest and the naming of German things such as over the Rhine which refers to the Rhine River in Germany. Even the large amount of German names in Cincinnati makes its large German impact very apparent.

                The culture of German speaking countries is different in ours in some ways which is apparent in the celebration of Karneval. Now while Karneval is similar to our own Mardi gras it’s very different at the same time. Such as the making fun of political figures and the colorful costumes which are worn by everyone and just a time where everyone has fun. Mardi gras for us is a time to have fun but is much more sexually related such as the whole deal with the beads that everyone knows about.

 Recently the class was told how beer is considered food and everyone drinks it with their meals. This is very different from the United States considering that the drinking age is higher than in Germany. The United States drinking is 21 but originally was change from 18 to where it is now. While in Germany its 18 but kids are allowed to drink with their parents making it much more sociable considering many Americans will binge drink when they have alcohol available. This seemed to me one of the biggest differences in our cultures.  Because it shows how responsible the young people in Germany are compared to our young people.

                The cultures of the German speaking countries are the same while at the same time different it is apparent that they have an idea of right and wrong such as the homeless man who gave aback a large sum of money when many would have kept it. But overall they seem fairly friendly and welcoming such as with Karneval and though they all don’t have the same form of government such as Lichtenstein’s monarchy and Germany’s democracy. It just goes to show how many people can coexist in such a small amount of area.

                Over the last 10 weeks I have learned a good deal of knowledge about the German culture and way of life. I have learned many of our traditions and our ways of doing things have come from German immigrants such as Oktoberfest. I have also learned that it’s just not the United States having economic problems. It more so effecting everyone but some worse than others that are having the problem as well. I have learned about the sociable drinking of Germany and the overall kindness and honesty of the people of Switzerland. Overall the German speaking countries have a lot in common with the United States but there are also a lot of differences. We just have to be aware of our roots and know where we get our traditions for.

Liechtenstein

It surprised me to know that a modern European country is still ruled by a royal family and not a parliament or democratic system. What’s even more of a twist is how this country has a committee like association which tries to pass bills that the prince has a final vote on. Recently there had been talks to limit the princes power in which he replied by saying ill just veto it. This makes it seem unless there is a revolution that there will be no limit to this prince’s power. I am glad that the United States doesn't have this problem because it would make it so nothing would get done. Liechtenstein its self is a lot smaller than the United States so this system may work for them but it seems like there may be same need of reform. This will be an interesting story to follow because already in the past already the prince has shown he wasn’t afraid to veto in 2003 on the abortion issue and this same bill to limit the power is going to keep coming up because apparently for the people to create it in the first place they aren't very happy with the state of things now.

Source:http://www.incyprus.com.cy/en-gb/Showbiz/4118/25741/prince-vetoes-the-veto

Austria

The article I read was about a homeless man in Austria. In which the homeless man named Hermann Schleichert an ex con and man declared mentally ill found 7000 Euros and did the noble thing and turned the money into the police. I feel that was very honorable and you can’t really judge somebody by their past. Not to mention many would keep the money for themselves. After turning in the money to its rightful owner and meeting the guy who was named Mario Berisha in which thanked the guy after which Schleichert began receiving donations and even job offers. This finally allowed him to get off the street and into his first home and even have a job. Schleichert said that he was happy to live alone and have his first apartment and job.
Sources:http://www.austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2012-02-24/39740/Honest_homeless_man_moves_into_his_own_apartment

Current event Karneval

Karneval is the equivalent to Mardi gras in the United States. It’s a huge celebration held in which there is partying drinking and just acting silly. There are many floats which show comical versions of import people on them. Though it is now more sort of a religious holiday it didn’t start off that way. Ancient civilizations such as the Romans and Egyptians celebrated it after the harvest in December. Later on in the middle ages it was performed to create a great crop yield. In the past the church had rejected it and called it pagan but it continued so the churched adapted is so it became a time of self-indulgence before lent in which the church dictates you are supposed to make sacrifices. This tradition of dressing up and partying is shared with the United States in the city of New Orleans which is famous for Mardi Gras. However I was surprised to see that there are guild, clubs and even special days set up for major events. Were it seems the United States version is just a bunch of partying and nudity. The floats that I think will appear this year would be Germanys Prime Minister Angela Merkel and other high office officials. Overall it’s interesting to see just how much Karneval has changed since its original start in ancient civilizations.

Picture sources:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-65424-16.html

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-65424-3.html

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-65424-2.html

Swiss curent event

The article I read was Swiss tax system needs reform says OECD. This article talked about the many problems the Swiss economy and how they are trying to repair and boost the Swiss economy. This is a problem which has recently affected the United States and is still continuing to affect the United States with the Unites States trillions of dollars in debt and just recovering from a recession this is a way the United States relates to the Swiss. The first thing that the Swiss wanted to change in this article is the high income tax return of which is making people have to pay less tax on house hold income which is where most taxes from the Swiss come from instead of like how it is in the Unite States which is from sales. The Swiss had a thought of some method would not only improve the economy but prevent future down turn of their economy. The first of which is that they want to rebalance the Swiss tax system and do so by increasing the taxes on consumer goods but at the same time lower the personal tax rate.  The second thing mentioned is that the Franc was currently very strong that is bad because it means trading to France would result in a loss of money. The reason considered to have caused this loss of value was the slowing of trade to Germany which is a stronger partner for the Swiss to trade to. With trading sped back up to Germany the economy should return to normal. The third thing mentioned was how the banks remained the same and stagnant. This was due to the amount of leverage not being changed. Overall I feel that this is an all too familiar situation. When I read this it took me back to a few years ago when the United States was in the middle of the recession. Even now the United States is still very deep in debt but there are signs of recovery this will be an interesting story to follow to see if the Swiss can pull themselves out of this.

Assignment 1

 

The article I chose was Criticism Mounts against Anti-Nazi Website. This website is led by a right wing group known as anonymous which has been siring up not just problems in Germany but also in the United States. Anonymous is a group of hackers who will hack into a website and then post private information from the hacked site onto their leak website.       This group was originally just in Germany but it has gained support and other groups have formed worldwide. While this group has caused problems for Germany recently when the United States based company PayPal refused to transport donations to this group they had crashed the server and made them unable to operate for a few hours. This is just one incident of how this problem is affecting both the United States and Germany.  This just shows how far people will go to get rid of a great negative that affected the German past and culture.

          I chose this article for many reason one reason I chose this article is because I was interested about what it was about. With the title Criticism mounts against anti-Nazi website I didn’t know what to expect. But after I read the article I realized that the title was not as appropriate as perhaps the Risk of the Hacker Group Anonymous. This article was more so about the hacker group known as Anonymous then the anti-nazi website. I did find this article interesting to read and informative due to the fact that this small extremist group had managed to crash huge businesses such as PayPal with little effort and render it off line for a few hours. Or how the group managed to hack into Visa the credit card company getting peoples account numbers which is a crime. I personally feel that authorities should hunt this group down and put an end to them because this is dangerous to have a group that can get any information from any agency or business. What is to stop these people from getting military secrets and selling them endangering many lives? Until they are stopped no one is safe from this radical group.
             

Source:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,808022,00.html

german culture

German culture is the same and is different in many ways from the US culture. We have the same holidays but at the same time many different holidays and ways to celebrate each holiday weather is traditional to us or completely different. When I thought of Germany and the German people before my German class I thought of stereo typical German lieder hosen and sausage and many other German foods not to mention the beer. But now since I have taken this class I have realized how different my view has become although the stereotypical stuff is somewhat there but it is not only thing I think of throughout the lessons the teacher has shown me the side that we never see.

           For example today in class the teacher told us how nude beaches and clubs are accepted which is not the case here as we know. Or that they always keep their necks covered or they view they will get sick these are just some examples of how their cultures are different than ours. But in a sense we are still the same in Cincinnati the German culture is still apparent not just because of Oktoberfest but because of the names we still call our family members and other things like Oma and Opa for grandma and grandpa.  But now my view of what German is has changed like mentioned before it is still somewhat the same but it has changed I no longer see a German as a drunk sausage eating guy wearing lieder hosen. I see much more I see the creativity and the more open beliefs and I more clearly see the German in me by the German traditions passed down to me by my German ancestors.