El Morro, Rumba, El Prado

And on we went. The next day we visited El Morro, a massive fortress built in the late 16th century to spot enemies approaching the city.

Vedado and Habana Vieja

We then moved on to the Plaza de la Revolución. The memorial in the middle of the square – named after the national hero José Martí - is not really pleasant, due to its height of 109m yet impressive. We judged most of the monuments that way, seems to be common in communist countries. Nice contrast to the massive concrete building: By chance we saw a colourful parade with dancers on stilts.


While going around the city in the coconuts you obviously get a very good impression of the day to day life in Havana. Most remarkable are the means of transport, pictured below.

The old part (Habana Vieja, above) where we stopped next is totally different from the newer quarters. Here you find colourful houses, newly renovated sights and nicely cobblestoned streets. Could have been southern Italy or so.

I especially liked the houses round Plaza de la Catedral with its balconies and stained-glass windows.

Sightseeing in Havana

We started our first day with a sightseeing tour in the notorious coconut taxis (right, short movie available on request). Eddy our Cuban guide - who speaks an almost perfect but funny German and also a very good English - suggested to start with the real Havana "where the people live" (Centro Habana). We saw some beautifully renovated houses, but mainly ruined buildings. Rather shocking when you see people living under these circumtances. Also sad that the architecture of these houses is superb, but there is no money to reconstruct them. People, however, have more trouble getting everything they need for the day to day life - the average earnings are about 250 Cuban Pesos (ca. £6). At least they don't have to pay the rent.

El Morro seen from Malecón

Our Hotel was directly on Malecón, Havana's famous coast road, opposite El Morro fortress.

Off to Cuba we go!

After a nine hour flight we touched down and the stewardess announced: "Welcome to Jose Marti international airport. The temperature is 28 degrees Celsius." Wow, this was going to be my warmest Christmas eve. My first impression of Cuba, however, was not so positive. First of all, o one seems to work in this country. While waiting at the passport checkpoint we counted as many as 14 uniformed men and women walking around the hall and/or chatting with each other. It took as two hours to get through the checks. And that's considered to be normal our guide explained later. As is the xray hand luggage check on arrival.

Anyway, we were glad to see him the minute we got our baggage and off we drove through the Havana night to our hotel.

Back from Cuba

After an almost 24 hours journey I'm back in London. The last 17 days were really great, I've seen a lot of wonderful places, met lovely people and had a lot of fun. I'm still not completely back, a bit of my mind and heart are still on the island. But, let's face it, tomorrow is the first working day... I took some 800 pictures that I hope will help to bring across a bit of the Cuban spirit. Have fun. BTW there will soon be a Cuba revival party. Christina, Martin?

Viva La Revolución!

We have learned today that the massimo lider is indeed not well, but not terminally ill either. The BBC relies on a statement from Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, who has close ties to Castro. Let's hope that he's right. I'd feel a bit uncomfortable if he died while walking about in Havana.

Crime and Media coverage

Ever since my arrival in the UK in November 2005 I have wondered where there has been such an intensive and frequent media coverage of crime. Especially capital crime. This is true for newspapers, TV and radio. It also - unfortunately true for both tabloids and quality papers like The Times, The Daily Mirror, and The Guardian. I am under the impression that The Independent does have fewer crime related stories or at least does not push it that much than the others. Anyway, looking at the headlines and watching TV news reminded me of Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine.

If you compare headlines and stories in general in German papers as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Die Welt you will soon find out that there are far less stories about crime. If your German is good enough of course.

This is because there is simply more capital crime in the UK and it does therefore affect people more. Really?

647 people were convicted of murder and manslaughter in Germany in 2004. This included attempted murder and manslaughter. For the England and Wales this figure is 670. Considering the inhabitants in the two areas and to make it more complicated, this is about 0.01% of the German population and about 0.008% of the population in England and Wales.

So there is more crime here than there is in Germany. Quod erat demonstrantum. But, given the very small total numbers does that really justify this intensive coverage? I sincerely believe it doesn't. I think it makes people feel unsafe.

Another reason for the dominant place of crime stories in UK media might be the rising number of crimes committed. So has the crime rate risen of the last years? No, says the British Crime Survey.

According to the BCS:

• In 2005/06 the total number of crimes in England and Wales was around 10,912,000.
• Total crime peaked in 1995, and has since fallen by 44%.

The Brits and Finance

I know that it is not quite English understatement to criticise people directly; however, I have just learned in my communication skills course that the English habit of apologising in advance rather than coming straight to the point. I also do nit intend to criticise people but a whole system. The British financial system this is.

I have already touched this issue on my blog and would like to add yet another story. I have recently changed my bank because my old bank charged me for going into debt. This is not unusual and I understand that banks charge fees if you do not comply with their terms and conditions. I consider my case - and maybe of millions of others? - to be a little different.

To start with, it took my more than two months to open the current account in the first place after the clerk suddenly decided to accept my overseas utility bill as proof of address. After about half a year I asked for an overdraft and was told that the bank, Barclays, could not grant me one. "But why? I have been a customer for over 6 months now and you see that I have a regular income." "I am sorry, sir, but we can't give you an overdraft". "But why?". "We can't give you one." "I just want to know why!" ...

I did not intend to use the overdraft. It was only a precaution to secure payments if I had to pay a large bill a day or so before my salary would be due. Exactly that happened two weeks after I had asked for the overdraft. So my account was in debt for two days and the amount was less than £5. I was charged £30. My enqueries in person and per email weren't successful so I decided to switch.

smile give you a £500 - at least for the first 6 months. Fine. Anyway, it all worked out well. They transfered my direct debits and I could use the account online about two weeks after I had applied for the current account.

Today I have received this letter. It is a joke, isn't it? I have checked this account online and the new direct debit is listed. So we on earth do they still need the details? And a cheque? Apropos, one of my next blogs will definitely about these ancient form of payment.

Tips for foreigners can be found here. Sorry, it's only available in German.

Make it easy

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be
the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was
the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English
spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in
plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make
the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up
konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the
troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like
fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to
reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always
ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is
disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with
"z" and "w"with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou"

and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu
understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze
forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

Made in Offenbach. Fast.

Nicht nur, dass mein dänischer temp flatmate ein netter Kerl ist, er ist auch erfahren im bügeln. Zumindest ließ sein schnittiges Dampfbügeleisen darauf schließen. Nach anfänglicher Skepsis habe ich den Versuch gewagt und war vom Ergebnis sehr angetan. Es ist tatsächlich ein Leichtes, mit diesem Gerät zu bügeln und - das Entscheidende - das Hemd ist nahezu knitterfrei! Nach zwei Monaten (temp!) zieht mein flatmate nun wieder aus und nimmt natürlich sein Wundergerät mit.

Ich musste zur Tat schreiten. In einem Elektromarkt stand ich vor einem Regal mit 20 verschiedenen Bügeleisen, die sich m.E. nur im Preis unterschieden. In der Kategorie £25 fand ich glücklicherweise ein Modell von Rowenta. Gute deutsche Wertarbeit. Noch dazu aus Offenbach (zumindest dort gegründet, mittlerweile SEB). Wunderbar, nachdem ich letzten Monat nicht ohne Stolz herausfand, dass der Londoner Stadteil, in dem ich lebe, Tower Hamlets, mit Offenbach verschwistert ist, ist dieser Kauf schon die zweite gute Tat, um die ehemals heimische Wirtschaft zu unterstützen.

Als ich das gute Stück zu Hause auspackte und die Bedienungsanleitung studierte, musste ich jedoch voller Schrecken feststellen, dass es mit nichten in Offenbach hergestellt wurde: Made in China prangte neben dem Rowentalogo.

I'm working...

For those of you who always wanted to know what I'm doing. And were wondering if I'm working hard. Pa?

Clean pubs at last

The date the smoking ban in England will come into force has been announced today. It's the 1st July. So over a week for the pubs to clear until my birthday. Great. But let's have a fag the night before ;-)

Ladenschluss sucks!

Endlich!

"Auch Hessen und Brandenburg liberalisieren Ladenschluss

Nach anderen Bundesländern haben nun auch Hessen und Brandenburg den Ladenschluss weitgehend freigegeben. Der hessische Landtag in Wiesbaden entschied, dass ab Dezember der Einkauf an Werktagen rund um die Uhr möglich sein soll. Lediglich Sonn- und Feiertage bleiben weitgehend geschützt.Das Parlament in Potsdam beschloss eine ähnliche Regelung. Auch eine Ausweitung der Öffnungszeiten an den Advent-Sonntagen ist vorgesehen. Zuvor hatten bereits unter anderem Berlin, Nordrhein-Westfalen und Sachsen die Ladenschluss-Bestimmungen gelockert."

dradio-newsletters: Deutschlandradio 20 Uhr Nachrichten vom 23. November 2006

20 Millionen illegale Waffen in Deutschland

Diese Meldung hat mich geschockt.

[...] 2002 schätzte die Gewerkschaft der Polizei die Zahl der illegalen Schusswaffen in Deutschland auf 20 Millionen, die Größenordnung wurde seither nie ernsthaft bestritten. Die Sprecherin des Bundeskriminalamtes dazu: "Uns liegt hierzu kein statistisches Datenmaterial vor, und Schätzungen geben wir nicht ab." [...]

Ich habe für Amnesty International bei der Kampagne control arms (Waffen unter Kontrolle) engagiert und Passanten und Kinobesuchern erzählt, wie viele illegale Waffen in Afrika kursieren, dass Kindersoldaten an ihnen zum Töten ausgebildet werden und jede Minute ein Mensch durch eine Kugel stirbt. Dabei habe ich habe nicht daran gedacht, dass jeder vierte mit dem ich gesprochen habe, statistisch auch eine illegale Waffe zu HAuse im Schrank stehen hat. Vielliecht bin ich zu naiv...

What a week!

This week was quite an exiting one. It started with an accident just outside our office. A motor cyclist was hit by a car when making a right turn. Despite the fact that the hit must have caused a loud noise I didn't hear anything, but ran out of the office after seeing the crashed bike on the street. Everything I had learned in the First Aid Course rushed through my head. When I arrived at the scene I could see that the cyclist was lying in the street holding is leg that was apparently broken. He was surrounded by people and someone apparently had called an ambulance. So apart from reassuring him that help would be there soon there was no need for First Aid.

On Thursday we had a heavily drunken tramp who was also shouting at passers-by on our door step. We had to call the police. Once there they questioned him, but he was not really in the state to answer them. Then they tried to remove him from the steps. That didn't work either. By the time I left they managed to move him from the step to the pavement. After all.

Friday promised to be very busy as I had to hand in a report. Around lunchtime someone was due in to fix the electricity problem in the office. Too make a long story short, we ended up with an electrician who was furious when I had told that we cannot pay him by cheque as agreed before as the signatory had to leave because of an emergency. Ok, I did not deliver what was agreed. But, hey, what would you do if someone calls you in to fix a problem and you had agreed on a immediate payment after fulfillment? And knowing that the other option, i.e. invoicing your customer (not an unusual thing to do anyway, is it?) would bring you 100 quid more? Right, tell him you have to add that amount to the invoice, get your worksheet signed, leave and report to your boss. Well, he did all that in the end, but not without making a major fuss about our agreement, my responsibility and even our morality.

Just to be on the safe side

We all know that the terror cell who planned 9/11 was living in Marienstraße 54, Hamburg. I am pretty sue that the neighbours have been asking themselves again and again, why didn't we see or hear anything when they had planned the attacks next door? Could have prevented anyhing? The answer to these questions is probably now.

Just have a look at the picture above. I came across it on my way to work. The sign shows the entrance to a mosque. Does that ring a bell? Well, as I live two minutes from there I felt I should let you know...