This post is to write about my impressions of Germany, where I was for a two-week seminar recently (this genre being very much inspired by my co-blogger Dhruva’s insightful posts on “An Indian in Israel” and “An Indian in China” )
While Germany is certainly not as exotic to the Indian mind as Israel, or perhaps even China – and two weeks is hardly enough to even begin observing a country – nonetheless I found the country to be very interesting in certain ways:
1. Germany’s cost of living.
When you have to pay 3+ euros for a bottle of drinking water, you know you are in an expensive place. North-western Europe definitely seemed more expensive than the USA on a PPP basis – granted that many of its prices have a VAT incorporated, whereas many American states do not have a sales tax (and hence effectively let tourists pass tax-free). Even then, given the PIIGS debt crisis, it seemed to me that the Euro was slightly overvalued. Maybe a monetary break-up is due.
2. A vibrant but not-very-integrated-yet Muslim minority
Speaking of expenses, the only tasty (and presumably) healthy food that was affordable was Turkish food. It was in all the towns – and of course reminded me of Indian food. The folks at the restaurant were very friendly, but it seemed to me that German Muslims (mostly of Turkish descent) are socially not very integrated yet, and economically still lagging significantly (unlike, say, American Muslims)
3. Palpable differences in standards of living exist between the erstwhile “East” and “West”
I spent some time in and around Cologne, and some time in and around Rostock. The former is West Germany (not very far from Brussels and Amsterdam), whereas the latter is on the Baltic sea in the north-east of the country. Despite unification two decades ago, the East still lacks economically. Partly this is because of restrictive labor laws – which has counter-intuitively prevented the East from re-surging as fast as it could.
4. The Autobahns
Are simply impeccable, better than American highways (though I hear not as good as the Chinese ones). They of course drive on the “wrong” side – and many of their autobahns do not have speed limits! But because everybody follows some rules – left lane for the fastest, do not overtake from the right, and so on – it works. Could not help but think about India….
5. Where are the young people?
Germany is a greying country – at least the “native” white population. Apparently, there are some empty or almost-empty government schools around. The same waste should be replicated in India two or three decades from now, unless of course we privatize before that.
6. The Germans are punctual.
And I mean, really punctual. A few international seminar participants may have missed the bus a couple of times as part of our seminar travels.
7. A unique democratic model and a strong federal structure
A combination of Proportionate Representation (PR) and first-past-the-post. The PR method has a cut-off of at least 5 percent of votes. But can this or should this be replicated in India, I think not? We may soon have real bodies like the IUML and the VHP becoming more dominant, and parties like BSP no longer obliged to form inter-community coalitions. The German federal structure is also very unique – maybe not as strong as the American or the Swiss one – but nonetheless, on issues like education etc., the central government has relatively very little say.
8. Too touchy about neo-Fascists?
Perhaps because I was being “guided” by the Free Democratic Party supporters (liberals), there was repeated condemnation of the National Democratic Party (NDP) as neo-fascists – an equally strong condemnation was not reserved for the far-left parties. While I was glad that the Germans were very keen to suppress any neo-fascist movement, did they come across as too keen? Moreover, apparently many of the NDP leaders are government agents! Where does one cross internal security needs and start entering political interference mode? Germany is one of the great success stories of the last century’s second half (and more recently post-recession) but is it completely at peace with its past?
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