Election Results

The results from the 2009 Bundestag Election are all in.

                         %2009                            %2005               seats 2009 (2005)

CDU/CSU=        33,8                               35,2                             239 (222)

SPD           =        23,0                               34,2                             146(221)

FDP**      =        14,6                               9,8                                 93(61)

Die Linke =        11,9                               8,7                                   76(53)

Grüne       =         10,7                              8,1                                 68(51)

Andere     =         6,0                                 4,0                                  0(0)*

 

Voter turnout this year was 72,5%. Not bad compared to what is (was?) normal in the US. However, in comparison to the 2005 election in Germany 77,7%, it’s not so good. Apparently in 2005 the issue of war in Afghanistan was a big pull to the polls.

So, with simple math it can be seen that the Black/Yellow coalition has more than half of the total seats with 332 out of 622. BUT WAIT JOE! Black/Yellow only has a total of 45% of the vote but 53,4% of the seats, how is that possible?!? Strange indeed, but then again, in the US a candidate can win the presidency without having winning the popular vote. The way this works in Germany lies in the way they vote.

Each ballot has two columns. The first column (called the first voice) is to vote for a representative (so a specific person, such as Bosbach in my area). The second column (called the second voice) is to vote for a party. It is possible therefore, to vote SPD in the Erste Stimme but Grüne in the Zweite Stimme. It gets slightly more complicated from here on- I’ll try to keep it simple. The percentage of vote from the second column (Party vote) determines the number of seats a party receives. In addition, everyone who wins in the first column automatically gets a seat in the Bundestag (this is called a direct mandate). In this way, it is possible for a party to win voting districts in a sum surpassing the percentage that they should actually receive. This process is written into the law, and I think it’s meant to ensure that candidates that the people actually want in the Bundestag end up in the Bundestag (the other members are taken from a list that the party makes). 

  **An interesting thing i found out today, is that the main man of the FDP is gay (pictured at the very top). I find this truly surprising coming from the US, because for the entire election season i didn't hear a single thing about this. What a contrast to the US, where it's headlines if a relative if homosexual (-sarcasm-God forbid the actual candidate).

*remember, you need at least 5% of the vote in order to receive a seats in the Bundestag

Random observation

During the time i spend running through the woods, i have noticed that almost all horse riders i see are women, and of those women, the majority look like they're under 25.

One could say that i've lived in Germany a relatively long time. Tonight, on the night of the federal elections, i ask myself one question. This one question has bothered me for a long time, and i fail to understand it. It is so illogical that I don't even know how they came up with it. Anyways, here it is. Pro7 is on channel eight? What? It's like having Fox47 on channel 15. Some things in live will never be answered. 

On a more serious note, it looks like the CDU/FDP (the more conservative coalition) has won the election. I'll let the data solidify before i post more, it is, after all, the night of the election. 

by the way, the Starship Troopers films aren't any better in German

This past week in school has been what's called "Wanderwoche." Despite the name, we did no hiking. It is a week in which every class year does something special. 13 to Sicily, 12 somewhere else, 10 in Holand, 9? anyways, i'm in the 11th. we had a German based week. That means, we chose from film, theatre, poetry, and something to do with audio. I was in the poetry group, the program in German was called "Poetry-Slam und Lyrikwerkstatt." Overall, it was pretty interesting to work with poetry in another language. We got a fair amount of time to compose our own poetry, and i'll share one with you at the end of the entry. On Tuesday evening we rode to Cologne, where we went to this tiny, hole-in-the-wall bar to see Germany's most famous spoken word poet, Bas Böttcher. He was really cool, although with 40-50 people crammed into a tiny, hot room it was a little bit testing. All in all, i think it was a fun way to spend a week at school.  here's some stuff from him: 

He's really tall and is a good performer. Interesting man indeed.

I said i'd post some of what i wrote this last week, so here it is (and of course it's in German):

Es war spat am Abend, wenn ich angerufen wurde,

Ein Nachtrich für mich, entscheiden ich könnte,

Entscheiden mein, Haus zu verlassen.

Ich war vorbereitet, ja zu sagen.

Neun Wochen später, bin ich geflogen,

Von meiner Welt, ganz gezogen.

Leute, Sprache, eine neue Kultur,

Ich stand vor, einer öffenen Tör.

A quick translation:

It was late at night, when i was called.

News for me, i could decide,

decide to leave my home.

I was prepared to say yes.

Nine weeks later, i flew off,

completely pulled from my world.

People, language, a new culture,

I stand before an open door

I haven't written anything in a while, but here is a large chunk of information for you to digest.

One of the more significant events taking place in Germany (no, I’m not talking about Oktoberfest) is the election.  I find this extremely interesting, especially comparing this election to the US presidential election. Germany is a parliamentary democracy, so the chancellor is not directly elected.  How it basically works, is that people vote for a party* and (more or less) the percent of the vote that the party received is the percent of the Bundestag that they will occupy. So, if the CDU gets 30% of the votes, then it will get 179 seats (30%) in the Bundestag. If I’m not mistaken, a party must receive 5% or more in order to get a seat. This prevents a extremely fractured parliament (such as in Italy). After the whole seat thing is figured out, the representatives in the Bundestag vote for a chancellor. In order to be voted chancellor, one must receive more than 50% of the votes. This is somewhat problematic, as no party receives 50%. Thus, coalitions are born. This really makes things interesting. There is a lot of talk about who will join up with together. This alone is enough to give some people the reason to vote for a different party. Obviously the more conservative parties and the more liberal parties want to form their own coalitions. 

Conservative coalition= black/yellow (CDU/CSU and FDP) Liberal coalition= red/yellow/green-also known as the Stoplight coalition (SPD, Linke, and die Grüne). There is also the Jamaica Coalition= black/green/yellow (CDU/CSU, Grüne, and FDP)

The political issues here are different.  The environment and job-creation seem to be the big ones.  Nuclear power is way more controversial here and is a significant factor in the election. The “war” in Afghanistan is also an issue, but really only fringe parties support complete withdrawal of the Bundeswehr (who are there to train police and protect the training facilities).  I really suggest doing this online questionnaire put together by the BPB (the governmental political education service). It’s called the wahl-o-mat, and in the end gives you which parties you most closely align with. There is also an English version.

Wahl-o-mat link

In contrast to the US, the campaigning season is remarkably short. It began after the local elections (on 27. August) and ends this Sunday. National elections are always on a Sunday, leaving no excuses as to why you couldn’t vote.

*there are twenty many parties in Germany, however only six are noteworthy. The oldest party is the SPD, which is center left. Second oldest is the CDU/CSU (it is only the CSU in Bayern), as the Christian Democrats they are center right.  The third oldest party is the FDP, which is more or less the libertarian party but European style. Die Grüne is the party that is very pro-environment and is probably a little bit further left than the SPD. Die Linke (literally, the left) is the party that rose from the DDR (East Germany). They are socialists. These five parties are the only ones which will/do receive enough votes to play a role on the federal level. The sixth noteworthy party is the NPD (National Partei Deutschland). This is the right-extremist party (read Nazi party). Their commercials call for the preservation of the German language and the German family. Their posters have a picture of a mosque with an X going through it. On this topic, I find it extremely interesting how the youth here are extremely anti-Nazi. So much so, that these posters from the NPD must be hung up really high, otherwise the youth rip them down. The NPD does find a significant level of support in the east. The DDR left a part of the country without infrastructure or a good economy. Those who could leave did.  What is left is a lot of old people and a lot of unemployed, single, not-necessarily-educated, and young men (sounds like the perfect climate for fascism). From what I’ve been told, a lot of the women leave as soon as they can.  

Just incase anybody was worrying about my safety at school, please don't. There aren't nearly as many weapons available here, and about the worst thing possible, is that a turk could tell me that he'll come back later with his brother (larger families, so it's always a threat that they'll come with reinforcements. On top of all that, we had a fire drill yesterday. They have a special staircase used only in case of emergency. We neatly walked out of our classroom, to the staircase, and down the stairs to the outside. I felt especially safe when we found out the doors to the outside were locked shut, and we had an entire staircase full of people... I'm glad they worked that out in case of a real fire.

Today we had a school-wide "mini-marathon." That means 4,2km (a normal marathon is about 42km). I did alright despite a side-ache about halfway through. I think i placed in the top 30. tomorrow i'll probably find out my time.

Finding on Women

• before you ask a question, make sure you want to know the answer
• expect chick-flicks (and expect to find out how hot certain characters are)
• Grey's Anatomy is universal
• women can be scary after a breakup (sister's boyfriend broke up with her yesterday)
• strong support group (friends who are there for them)
• desert makes everything alright
• think they're fat, even when they're not
• the question, "what do I need?", does not apply in shopping
• know way too many songs by heart
• tend to be very welcoming and friendly
• like to write notes to other people
• have better hand writing
• appreciate when you notice their new earrings/t-shirt/whatever 

School

Going to another school is always a different experience. Adding on top of that, that the school is in another country makes it much more interesting.  For the last few weeks I’ve been attending what’s called a Gesamptschule. It is fairly close to an American high school. There are some significant differences however. Probably the biggest difference for me is the use of block schedule. Some parts of block scheduling I like. Being able to take 11 classes is a definite plus. Another advantage is that a class could meet for more than just 5 hours each week. One disadvantage is that there are some classes where I have class on Wednesday and don’t have it again until Tuesday of the next week. This allows for a lot of time for me to forget homework and what we did last time. Another major advantage I find in the American system, is that we have more options for what we want to take. In math, everyone is on the same track, so I find myself doing now (in the 11^th year) what I was doing in the eighth grade (and some earlier). On the other hand, the foreign language skills of the Germans are much more advanced compared to those of most American high schoolers. The facility itself is not quite as nice as the facilities back home. From fourth grade to thirteenth grade are all in the same building. This is chaotic, and I think the learning environment suffers as a result. The classes are over-crowded. Some of my classes have over 30 students. The computer lab (or as I like to think of it, the museum of early nineties technology) is spacious enough to allow us to go two to a computer.  One thing I really like is that there is no lunch break for my grade, only two ten minute breaks and one twenty minute break. This allows enough time to eat a snack and walk around a bit. School starts at eight and ends at around three (depending on the day). Sometimes, the teacher is gone and we just don’t have that class. I think that there is maybe one janitor for a rather large school, and thus the classrooms are always slightly dirty. For as much taxes as Germans pay, I am really surprised how little of it goes to schools. It is interesting to know, that USA and Mexico put a larger percentage towards education than Germany. The school has no school sports, and I find this a great disadvantage for all who cannot afford playing sports in a private club. As for extracurricular activities other than sports, I think there might be a choir (I think). I feel pretty lucky to have attended a great school (not saying that German schools are bad) with many opportunities.