Well, I would say that anything approaching a fanatical belief in anything could be construed to be a mental disorder. Home schooling is permitted in Germany, but not under any/all circumstances. I will most certainly take the position based on personal experience (I have three daughters who were born and raised here) that Germany takes child welfare VERY seriously, and there is nothing wrong with that.
As for being tolerant, while countries like the UK and France are spending so much time passing and enforcing no head scarf laws, in Germany women are allowed to do so and are not persecuted for it for the most part. There are a lot of Muslims in Germany that live among Christian (and atheist) Germans with little friction. I have one daughter attending school in a class that is almost 50% Muslim and there are no problems. So what is the lesson here? Avoid cultural, ethnic and racial policies and laws that promulgate polarization and instead promote and foster tolerance and integration. I think that the US, the UK, France and Australia can learn something from this if they want to. The problem is that they know this already, but in fact want social polarization and alienation in order to "divide and conquer".
But of course all is not rosy (it never is). There are a number of German politicians that see all the "fun" that those in the aforementioned countries are having, and want to play too. The German Interior Minister is one of those, but fortunately he has so far been kept on a leash. All this terrorism fear mongering to support power agenda is something that all who value personal freedom must be ever vigilant against. I remind those who are either old enough to remember or have done a little reading of history that back during the RAF days in Germany (I lived here during all of that), when bombs were going off all over the place, and assassinations and kidnappings were common occurrences, no German politician would have dared even think of trying to push something like our USAPATRIOT Act through or attempt to turn Germany into a surveillance state such as the UK is and the US is rapidly becoming. And this in spite of what the PTB hoped would happen through the execution of programs like Gladio.
I and most other people living in Germany (both German and foreign) hope that it is never forgotten what can happen when a Government becomes too powerful, efficient, and controlling. And religion must ALWAYS be completely separated from the State.
I am an American living in Germany. Germany seems to still be quite tolerant and liberal when it comes to personal freedom vs. many other Western countries. However, there have been a number of recent moves to try bringing Germany more in line with the US, Australia and the UK with regards to being a control state. Not too long ago, the German Interior Minister tried to push through some laws limiting personal freedom and strengthening surveillance authority, all in the name of "protecting" its citizens from the threat of terrorism. Fortunately, this was shot down (for now). But it doesn't mean other attempts won't be made. The scary thing is that what was being attempted seemed to be coming directly from Bush's play book.
It appears that the threat and fear of terrorism is a tool being used by those in power to further strengthen their position. So is it really the terrorists that have won, or those in power who have based their moves on using a "convenient" set of circumstances? Who can say for sure that the 9/11 attack was not the modern version of the Reichstag fire?
I think it is time for all rational, thinking people who place a high degree of importance on personal freedom, regardless of nationality, creed or ethnicity to join together to collectively keep a watch on moves to limit same, regardless of where, and institute measures to work within our respective systems to counter any such moves. Clearly, we will still need Government until the day when most people of the world understand that personal freedom must be accompanied by acceptance of responsibility for one's own actions.
But we also must understand that Governments exist primarily to benefit those on the inside, and therefore are inherently evil and need to be controlled. The nature and motivations of our Governments are best illustrated by the clips and transcripts of interviews with prominent politicians from many countries showing them stuttering and spluttering when being asked if they think it is a good idea to institute a plebiscite methodolgy for passing the majority of laws in their respective countries (as Switzerland does).
So, now that I have made the above statements, I will have to avoid taking any trips in small planes for a while;-)!
Its an elevated railway, and it sure as hell makes it easier and less stressfull to get around Bangkok. Actually a pretty nice and easy to use system and relatively inexpensive. Haven't tried the subway so I can't comment on that.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I was last at Pantip in January of this year and I can vouch for this place being pirates' paradise - probably half of the vendors there sell pirated software, DVDs, CDs and games. But no wonder - how many Thais can afford to pay 10,000 Baht for a legal MS Office PRO license or 2000 Baht for a PS/2 game?
There is a fairly active Thai hacker (in the good sense) community, and guess what? Many of them are working with OSS. There is at least one Thai language specific distribution of Linux the last time I looked (funny that nothing has ever been posted on DistroWatch).
But what about the Minister's statement? Well, we are talking about Thailand, and there is still a culture of corruption there, although significantly diminished during Thaksin's watch. Why wouldn't this statement be part of an attempt to return with full vigor to the old ways? And we certainly can't rule out interference from outside Thailand as history has taught some of us either as alluded to by a previous poster.
We are starting to see some interesting changes in Thailand since Thaksin was pushed out in the last coup. Remember that the accusations and excuses for toppling his Government were based on abuse of power and corruption. It is interesting that the committee that was established post-coup to investigate these alleged crimes have so far come up essentially empty-handed. So perhaps the coup was executed by those in Thailand who wanted to open the door wider to corruption and abuse of power - like the "good old days".
So anyway, I guess we will hear more nonsense like the Minister has spouted while the current regime is in power. However, barring something unforseen, I would expect Thaksin to eventually return to Thailand (assuming he doesn't get whacked first), and then things will get very interesting, as he still enjoys enormous support in many segments of Thai society.
I am an American living in Germany for more than 32 years. There are many, many American expats here, probably more than in just about any other country in the world. Its probably one of the best places to live, even though it has its share of problems. I disagree with a previous post about burocracy in Germany. While it certainly exists, I would say that it is less problematic than the U.S. in many cases, and for sure better than in most other European countries. I now own and operate my own business here, and foreigners have essentially no restrictions on owning property. Taxes are lower than in most other European countries as well. If one has professional skills, it is not that hard to find work here either. However, I will say that when I retire, it will not be in Germany. I am targeting Thailand as the place I will go for that. The key will be to have property, a home and a car purchased prior to retirement (not really that expensive by U.S. or European norms), and then I should be able to live fairly well on the pittance I will get from Social Security, my 401K and my personal savings. Oh, and medical insurance is cheap and high-speed Internet access is readily available and inexpensive. What more could one want?
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Well, I would say that anything approaching a fanatical belief in anything could be construed to be a mental disorder. Home schooling is permitted in Germany, but not under any/all circumstances. I will most certainly take the position based on personal experience (I have three daughters who were born and raised here) that Germany takes child welfare VERY seriously, and there is nothing wrong with that.
As for being tolerant, while countries like the UK and France are spending so much time passing and enforcing no head scarf laws, in Germany women are allowed to do so and are not persecuted for it for the most part. There are a lot of Muslims in Germany that live among Christian (and atheist) Germans with little friction. I have one daughter attending school in a class that is almost 50% Muslim and there are no problems. So what is the lesson here? Avoid cultural, ethnic and racial policies and laws that promulgate polarization and instead promote and foster tolerance and integration. I think that the US, the UK, France and Australia can learn something from this if they want to. The problem is that they know this already, but in fact want social polarization and alienation in order to "divide and conquer".
But of course all is not rosy (it never is). There are a number of German politicians that see all the "fun" that those in the aforementioned countries are having, and want to play too. The German Interior Minister is one of those, but fortunately he has so far been kept on a leash. All this terrorism fear mongering to support power agenda is something that all who value personal freedom must be ever vigilant against. I remind those who are either old enough to remember or have done a little reading of history that back during the RAF days in Germany (I lived here during all of that), when bombs were going off all over the place, and assassinations and kidnappings were common occurrences, no German politician would have dared even think of trying to push something like our USAPATRIOT Act through or attempt to turn Germany into a surveillance state such as the UK is and the US is rapidly becoming. And this in spite of what the PTB hoped would happen through the execution of programs like Gladio.
I and most other people living in Germany (both German and foreign) hope that it is never forgotten what can happen when a Government becomes too powerful, efficient, and controlling. And religion must ALWAYS be completely separated from the State.
I am an American living in Germany. Germany seems to still be quite tolerant and liberal when it comes to personal freedom vs. many other Western countries. However, there have been a number of recent moves to try bringing Germany more in line with the US, Australia and the UK with regards to being a control state. Not too long ago, the German Interior Minister tried to push through some laws limiting personal freedom and strengthening surveillance authority, all in the name of "protecting" its citizens from the threat of terrorism. Fortunately, this was shot down (for now). But it doesn't mean other attempts won't be made. The scary thing is that what was being attempted seemed to be coming directly from Bush's play book.
;-)!
It appears that the threat and fear of terrorism is a tool being used by those in power to further strengthen their position. So is it really the terrorists that have won, or those in power who have based their moves on using a "convenient" set of circumstances? Who can say for sure that the 9/11 attack was not the modern version of the Reichstag fire?
I think it is time for all rational, thinking people who place a high degree of importance on personal freedom, regardless of nationality, creed or ethnicity to join together to collectively keep a watch on moves to limit same, regardless of where, and institute measures to work within our respective systems to counter any such moves. Clearly, we will still need Government until the day when most people of the world understand that personal freedom must be accompanied by acceptance of responsibility for one's own actions.
But we also must understand that Governments exist primarily to benefit those on the inside, and therefore are inherently evil and need to be controlled. The nature and motivations of our Governments are best illustrated by the clips and transcripts of interviews with prominent politicians from many countries showing them stuttering and spluttering when being asked if they think it is a good idea to institute a plebiscite methodolgy for passing the majority of laws in their respective countries (as Switzerland does).
So, now that I have made the above statements, I will have to avoid taking any trips in small planes for a while
Its an elevated railway, and it sure as hell makes it easier and less stressfull to get around Bangkok. Actually a pretty nice and easy to use system and relatively inexpensive. Haven't tried the subway so I can't comment on that.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I was last at Pantip in January of this year and I can vouch for this place being pirates' paradise - probably half of the vendors there sell pirated software, DVDs, CDs and games. But no wonder - how many Thais can afford to pay 10,000 Baht for a legal MS Office PRO license or 2000 Baht for a PS/2 game?
There is a fairly active Thai hacker (in the good sense) community, and guess what? Many of them are working with OSS. There is at least one Thai language specific distribution of Linux the last time I looked (funny that nothing has ever been posted on DistroWatch).
But what about the Minister's statement? Well, we are talking about Thailand, and there is still a culture of corruption there, although significantly diminished during Thaksin's watch. Why wouldn't this statement be part of an attempt to return with full vigor to the old ways? And we certainly can't rule out interference from outside Thailand as history has taught some of us either as alluded to by a previous poster.
We are starting to see some interesting changes in Thailand since Thaksin was pushed out in the last coup. Remember that the accusations and excuses for toppling his Government were based on abuse of power and corruption. It is interesting that the committee that was established post-coup to investigate these alleged crimes have so far come up essentially empty-handed. So perhaps the coup was executed by those in Thailand who wanted to open the door wider to corruption and abuse of power - like the "good old days".
So anyway, I guess we will hear more nonsense like the Minister has spouted while the current regime is in power. However, barring something unforseen, I would expect Thaksin to eventually return to Thailand (assuming he doesn't get whacked first), and then things will get very interesting, as he still enjoys enormous support in many segments of Thai society.
I am an American living in Germany for more than 32 years. There are many, many American expats here, probably more than in just about any other country in the world. Its probably one of the best places to live, even though it has its share of problems. I disagree with a previous post about burocracy in Germany. While it certainly exists, I would say that it is less problematic than the U.S. in many cases, and for sure better than in most other European countries. I now own and operate my own business here, and foreigners have essentially no restrictions on owning property. Taxes are lower than in most other European countries as well. If one has professional skills, it is not that hard to find work here either. However, I will say that when I retire, it will not be in Germany. I am targeting Thailand as the place I will go for that. The key will be to have property, a home and a car purchased prior to retirement (not really that expensive by U.S. or European norms), and then I should be able to live fairly well on the pittance I will get from Social Security, my 401K and my personal savings. Oh, and medical insurance is cheap and high-speed Internet access is readily available and inexpensive. What more could one want?