dg meets world

Ten years ago I really, really wanted to visit Britain at least once. Since 9/11 in 2001 till today this feeling kinda vanished gradually. Final piece in the puzzle was when I went back from Tokyo to Düsseldorf and I had to land in London (that was in March this year).

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that Britians are not only really, really bad at football (soccer)cooking. They also are pretty retarded when it comes to pub regulations.

If you want to buy a drink at a pub in Oldham, northern England, you must stand in an orderly “post-office-style” line. It must be a straight line, starting one meter from the bar, with barriers, signage, and a “supervisor.” There must be no drinking while standing in line, and no drinking within one meter of the bar. Customers cannot order more than two drinks at one time. And if a pub wants to advertise discounted drinks, it must give the police and local council at least seven days’ notice.

[...]

There is even a “spoken word licence.” One Cambridge pub had to cancel its monthly poetry readings because it lacked specific permission. When the landlord protested that they only wanted “a small number of people to talk quietly,” the council’s “environmental health officer” was firm: “Licences are there to be adhered to and we have them for all sorts of reasons—there need to be checks in place.”

via reason.com

My friend Malte sent me this link yesterday: Germany vs USA

A US American and a German guy talk about the various (cultural, social, etc…) differences between the USA and Germany. It sounds quite interesting, and I, for one, am really interested in this topic, but … maybe you should watch some of the videos on your own first, so you can make up your mind yourself. You know, thinking and stuff involved, but maybe first: the trailer, and yeah, it looks promising, but again …

And now the two episodes about alcohol & drinks, my favorites (I mean the alcohol & drinks, not the videos).

To be honest, Radler, the first drink Alex mentions, really is a girls only drink. No real man ever drinks that shit. So, in conclusion, Alex is a pussy|wussy.

My conclusion: I like the overall concept, I like how they approach the whole thing, but, I can’t really put my finger on it, I, I … I don’t like it. Yet. My very first impression was like “WTH? Who are those two ************? And why the fuck does Alex thing he speaks for all European countries? Or why does it feel like he thinks he is the UBER European guy who knows everything and squat?” But, as I watched some more episodes right now, I kinda getting used to their style and their little rough edges and quirks. Maybe I should give it some more time.

btw, this is their YouTube account info.

Germany vs. USA (GvU) explores the contrasts and joys of two unlikely friends, Jim and Alex, as they learn more about each other’s cultures, languages, and the greater friendship between Europe and America. Insightful, whimsical, educational and always genuine (not to mention unscripted) the show aims to bring a slice-of-life perspective to viewers around the world.

Oh, and they got one thing right:

We believe that learning a language needs a basic understanding of the respective culture.

You may not be familiar with Volker Pispers, but I’d like to introduce him to you. He is a German “comedian”.

But the word “comedian” doesn’t really fit the description. What he does is political satire and comedy, often in a very sarcastic and ironic way. In German we have the word “Kabaret” or better “politisches Kabaret” for this (so he is called a “Kabarettist”), but in English the word cabaret has a very different notion.

The English (or French) connotation of the word “cabaret” is more like this:

But what I mean is this:

His program about the USA is quite old (like 2004 or 2005 or something), but nevertheless it is still pretty good. And here are the remaining 5 parts:

June 7th 2009 is the official election day for the European Parliament election 2009 in Germany.

Today I got my personal documents for a postal vote.

I already announced that I will vote for the German Pirate party. It’s a quite young and new political party which origins in the Swedish Pirate Party founded in 2006. These parties (which are founded all around the world) have a common goal: to strengthen the privacy rights for all individuals, to prohibit censorship, to prevent Orwell-like totalitarian governments and states and so forth.

Here is the current TV campaign advertising for the German party:

Parteien zur Europawahl 2009: PIRATEN

I personally think this TV spot is not that good, but keep in mind it’s a young party and therefore they don’t have any public funding yet.

Nevertheless, I’ll support them. And if it’s just to protest against censorship and stupidity and the transition towards a surveillance society.

via pantoffelpunk.de

And of course it’s a protest vote against the old (maybe archaic and fossil, too) established parties. Their TV campaigns and political programs didn’t really convince me. At all.

So, if you live in the European Union, go and vote! Voice your opinion by your vote. Change the system. Or just grab a gun and go crazy monkey shit on your peers, you know, American style.

You may have heard about the British members of parliament expenses scandal.

If you are not familar with it, here is a quick quote from the Wikipedia article:

It involves the disclosure of widespread alleged misuse of the permitted allowances and expenses claimed by Members of Parliament (MP) and attempts by MPs to exempt themselves from Freedom of Information legislation.

The details are investigated by the Daily Telegraph in their new category “The Expense Files“:

The Daily Telegraph has been detailing the scandal of members’ expenses across all parties with a special investigation, The Expenses Files. Here we present the key allegations and the fallout from the investigation.

Anyway, I just ran across this hilarious “The Daily Show” episode from May 20th where the host Jon Stewart is making fun of the whole mess. It’s quite entertaining, so here is the youtube video for your enjoyment. If you want to watch the full episode in bettter quality head over to thedailyshow.com.

German articles about the scandal:
“Ich besitze ein sehr, sehr großes Haus” - Wie der britische Spesenskandal zur Neiddebatte wird
Schlusslicht: Neues aus Entenhausen