If you have friends like that. You’ll learn the answer in the second half of the article, but first the news that turned out to be wrong: the Germans don’t donate to Pakistan, because they are worried that the Taliban will benefit.
No, even worse, the BBC stated later: the whole world does not donate and here in Spain you still can’t just walk into a bank and leave your bucks! The State of Pakistan is as old as post-war Germany, but not as fortunate: a people raped by wars, 31 years of military dictatorship with Filipino-style, Mickey-Mouse democracy in between, where the star is the party and the program is the star; accountability only to their own wallet, surrounded by the helpful neighbours India, Iran, Afghanistan and Kashmir. But there are 170 million honest people, 17% existing on less than a dollar a day, which buys food, but no clothes, no doctor and no medicine. Child labour is widespread and life expectancy is low. And this was before the flood, which affects every 9th person.
Don’t let us be concerned with the possible abuse of donations, but with the possible benefits they bring them and us!
Can we afford the Taliban gaining influence in Pakistan? A dirty bomb in Berlin, Madrid, London, New York will be more costly than rebuilding the entire infrastructure of Pakistan. Yes, my dear politicians, the disenchantment with their own government is the result of decades of complicity with corruption.
But no corruption here in Germany, Angela only sat down with our four electricity giants before the last elections, promising them not to shut down the nuclear power stations as planned. They said thank you, paid for the coffee and hoped for a conservative/liberal election win. They won and after lowering VAT for the hotels, which in turn the liberals had promised, because they very much care about the hotel owners, they started reviewing the terms how power plants would continue to be open for business.
I would never call this backstabbing, but just when Angela was on holidays the electricity giants announced, that if a new tax were to be introduced, they would close the plants and Germany would have to buy more expensive electricity from its neighbours. Does that mean that in an internationally linked electricity grid and market, there is enough electricity without having to rely on nuclear power? After all, everybody knows that electricity can’t be stored and has to be consumed or destroyed and that renewable energy is frequently taken off the grid, when there is an oversupply, because it is cheaper than stopping coal or nuclear plants.
There is only one question left. Will they return the one-billion
Euros, which, according to the watchdog, will be overcharged in 2010? Or will Angela force them to do so and at the same time stop their CO2 emission trading with China, who leaves the world dirtier than it already is. Because at least one of the four electricity giants buys emission certificates from Chinese factories, which produce HFC23 gas, 11,700 times more toxic than CO2 for the sole purpose to destroy it afterwards. The avoidance of letting the gas pollute the environment earns them certificates, which can be sold to polluting industries in order that they can continue polluting. That reminds me of the medieval Catholic Church, which sold sin certificates, certifying that the sins were no sins. From 2011 onwards I shall sell certificates certifying that madness is not madness, unless Angela does a bit of backstabbing.