Obligatory MJ post

. . .but I will try to give it a German spin.

We were out jogging today – the first time since pretty much ever – and passed a shop posting the Bi.ld Zeit.ung out in front. It seems that standardbearer of German journalistic quality saw fit to publish the photos of the dead or dying singer as he was being transported to the hospital and cpr was being performed.

While I think I would not go as far as saying that the photos shouldn’t be taken – (You never know what else might show up on a photo that might assist a later investigation) – I am not sure that I undertand the kind of people who will pay money to see them or who want to publish them.

I think one would call it pietätslos. I am surprised that they didn’t draw the line somewhere. What’s next, the post mortem photos?

For the non-Germans – yes the paper has a web page. I am not linking to it here. (And no the same photo is to my knowlege not posted there. Given that it’s a tabloid, it might still not be SFW.)

The paper is also one of the more common targets of the critical Bildblog – here is their post on the Bil.d Ze.itung’s coverage of the story. They don’t address the photo issue.

Re: MJ – love thriller – In the 80s, the roller skating place used to show the video on the big screen at some point during the birthday parties they held there.
You never know what the story is when allegations are made against wealthy people because there are gold-diggers out there as well, but there seemed a lot that wasn’t right with him and I was inclined to believe the charges. The positive tone of the media reaction has, therefore, really surprised me. What’s clear is that everyone was convinced that he was deeply troubled and likely very unhappy. If anything this should make all of us take a moment to be grateful for those positive family relationships we have and that measure of happiness which we have, even without millions. For the religious there’s certainly a thought or two about death, mercy, peace and a thing or two more in there as well.

How do you define integration?

Apparently, it has everything to do with being a member of the club. Literally. In a study widely reported in the news here yesterday, there are around 4.3m Mus.lim.s living in Germany. Previous research had produce lower figures, an error authors of the current study said arose because only some countries of origin were considered.

Here’s the fun part – When evaluating the integration of the groups, the results were presented as follows:

Die soziale Integration ist der Studie zufolge besser als angenommen. Mehr als die Hälfte der Muslime sind Mitglied in einem deutschen Verein.

According to the study, the level of social integration is better than previously supposed. More than half of the Mu.sl.ims are members of a German club/organisation.

Whaaaaaaa? Where do I even start on this? When did this become a measure of integration? I admit, I am not as well integrated as I would perhaps like, and I don’t belong to a club, but I know lots of people who don’t belong to clubs. Particularly if you don’t have hobbies and aren’t into sports, there is a much lower likelihood that you would be. I think there are also generational differences and urban/rural differences and socio-economic differences here which would make it less likely for immigrants to be club members.

The FAZ article even implied (to my mind, but maybe I was just riled) that belonging to a religious organisation or to an organisation associated with the heritage culture was a negative sign of integration.

How about having a job with German colleagues? Or working in a German-dominated field or speaking the language? *frust*

Although there is a sad truth to this, the media presentation of the study also seems to suggest that ignoring Is.lam.ic law is a sign of integration – and more specifically, the parts of it that are nobody’s business, but that of the individual. (Really, if you can leave your neighbors in the vegan WG in peace, the fact another neighbor says “no” to the bratwurst is something you’re just going to have to deal with.)

Die strengen islamischen Speisevorschriften beachten die meisten (80,7 Prozent) Befragten. Muslime iranischer Herkunft setzen sich indes zu 75 Prozent darüber hinweg. Auch Schiiten und Aleviten nehmen die Vorschriften nicht so ernst.

Most respondents (80.7 percent) observe the strict (I am under the impression that there are much stricter dietary codes out there – correct me if I am wrong G) dietary laws. But up to 75 percent of Mus.lims of Iran.ian descent ignore them. Nor do the Shi.ite.s and Alevites take the dietary codes so seriously.

I was really careful

to avoid telling the Beamtin at the foreigner’s office this morning that I had once again failed to wash my windows this weekend. (I am not only a bad blogger, I am a bad German housewife.) If I had, she would definitely not have issued me my shiny new Niederlassungserlaubnis. (The German equivalent of a green card.)

Now there is more or less no getting rid of me.

I asked about the Daueraufenthalt EG, but apparently I am better of just being Deutschverheiratet. And we have no intention of going anywhere, so now I am nearly as established here as the law allows. Short of naturalization, the only other step is waiting another 10 years . If at that point I am still living here, my permanent residency would indeed be permanent, even we3re I to move abroad. This is true at present, but would change if anything happened to the UNGS.

off the radar

we were in barcelona for a couple of days. it was great, but i hadn’t planned much, so we didn’t get to do a lot that we wanted to do.

playing catch up this week – hope all groovy in your little corners of D and elsewhere!

Desperately seeking

London tips.

Have you lived there? No anyone who lives there or who offers good tips on finding temporary flat rentals? Good London expat blogs? (thank you thank you thank you in advance)

I need a place to stay for a month that is clean, safe and not insanely expensive. I would be getting money for work to cover the cost – but I am going to have to pay back nearly half of it in taxes and benefits at the end of the year, so I can’t really splurge.

Wifi is almost a must. I am going to have homework and lots of it and I can’t imagine doing any of it without web access. And then there is the small matter of keeping in touch with my husband. I missed him at a wedding in Tuscony (in Tuscony!) when I was gone for 2 days. Can’t say how I am going to handle a month.

Kitchen access would be a strong plus. And not too far from Paddington Bayswater.

I am going to do lots of work looking. And can I say thank you to the folks at Google? Street view is going to make it a lot easier to decide whether I will feel comfortable walking back to my room at night.

Why didn’t somebody warn me?

Uggh. The form on which we are all obligated to report our foreign bank and securities holdings was changed at the end of last year.

I would still have a ton of work to do because we had a computer crash earlier this year that took the forms with it, but the form now requires a lot more information than it did.

Until last year, one was only obligated to indicate in roughlywhat range the maximum balance had been during the year. Now, they want the exact maximum balance*, which means no more checking of boxes. Instead, there will be excel tables and struggling with adobe forms which do not allow you to copy whole entries and then just change the account number and balance.

And then there is the German way of dealing with bank accounts. You practically never have just one account at a bank. My husband (we don’t know if he has to file and Treasury did not respond to our written request for clarification last year) has 3 or 4 or 5 at a bank, some of which serve only to receive a monthly contribution to his retirement fund and therefore never hold more than €50. One has only a balance of €0.50, but I have to add it to the form. Everything will get moved through the checking account and only  through a checking account, so there is an automatic doubling of the number of accounts. And the depot accounts don’t even seem to have their own account numbers, but need to get reported. Neither one of us can figure out the annual statements.

The UNGS was pretty frustrated last night after I insisted that he tell me what was going on in his statements when I couldn’t make head or tail of them. He suggested I give up my citizenship to avoid all this.

It is kind of crazy that a normal person of average intelligence can’t figure out an incredibly simple tax situation without help, but I’m not tossing the passport just yet. Heck, I just paid $100 for it .

FYI – The form at about.com with some explanations. Deadline is June 30th. So get cracking. And no, no you may not submit this form with your taxes. That would be too much to ask.

**I find the entire experience invasive  - and depressing because it makes it look like we have (compared to what we actually have)  loads of money, and yet, it’s mostly just the same €x,000 making the rounds of the accounts.

NYC Detritus

for Laura -

There was no way anyone was getting me into the mac store to interact with Helooooooo KITee, but at least we got a photo from a safe distance.This is why I will always be boring.

And you thought

that mapris couldn’t get any sexier. Only goes to show how little you know.

All yours for a mere €18.

Spoke too soon

Not my passport. A battery charger that the UNGS bought. boooooo.

Multiple citizenships, another privilege of the privileged

In reading over the weekend (again) the rules about double citizenship and how it’s never going to happen for me in Germany – I saw that if your country of origin would impose a financial penalty, you can keep your first citizenship.

Now if I had USD2m, I would have a case, as the US would find that I was expatriating for tax reasons and at minimum make me file tax forms for the next 5 years. The fees to get this done professionally would be enough to push me well over the minimum financial penatly threshhold.

Unfortunately, we don’t have USD2m and aren’t going to have them any time soon, barring the UNGS getting a big refund on the stupid tax he pays occaisionally. It irks me that fiancial reasons are all that counts – that aging parents aren’t as, if not more important, in this calculation. So, everything remains the same, and  I’ll be sticking with my US citizenship – which I will actually be able to prove again in about an hour because

drumroll

My passport came! Two weeks on the nose. Yey for the passport service – they have come through for me for the second time. (It was not an emergency last time but still.) The UNGS will be picking up said passport because the only official ID I have is inside the envelope he’s picking up!