September 25, 2008
A couple of days ago someone called me. Nothing special for a German journalist in New York. We get called all the time here: A salesperson from Victorias Secret called a week ago, and asked me when I would pick up the underpants I had ordered. The insurace-company called - and told me my car was no...
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I always knew I would become American one day. My German parents named me Tim when I was born -- not exactly a German name -- so they seemed to have a hunch, too. After passing the U.S. citizenship exam on Friday, my wife took me on a very special three-day civic orientation to Washington, D.C., whe...
go to article »August 25, 2008
August 15, 2008
NPR launched a new series on healthcare last week focusing on the healthcare systems of Germany, France, Netherlands, U.K and Switzerland. I just stumbled upon this today, so for the moment I am going to discuss Germany. A few startling facts about the German Healthcare System: Germany’s vers...
go to article »August 6, 2008
The inevitable echoes of John F Kennedy reverberated around Barack Obama's speech before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin last month. Jane Dailey, a professor of American history at the University of Chicago, recalls the visit to the divided German city of an altogether different US leader: Marti...
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The crowd of 200,000 which turned out in Berlin to hear a mere candidate for the US presidency confirms that Obama is more a phenomenon than an ordinary candidate. I struggle to see how he will lose unless he majorly stuffs up. His flip-flops on the surge in Iraq are not going to be sufficient. The ...
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Yes, I missed Senator Obama’s speech yesterday and actually totally forgot about it as I was sitting in work and my phone buzzed. Trying to make sure my manager did not see me since there is a very strict no cellphone use policy during working hours. I opened up the text message to see that it...
go to article »July 31, 2008
Kanishk is in holiday and asked me before he left to report on Barack Obama in London. It is quite hard to do so. There isn't really a British angle as the trip was played out for US domestic politics. Dropping in on the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition was a politeness. He got ...
go to article »July 30, 2008
Senator Barack Obama's trip to the middle east and Europe from 19-26 July 2008 was no junket. Nor was it an updated version of the old "three I's tour" that Democratic presidential candidates used to make - to Italy, Ireland and Israel - for reasons exclusively of domestic electo...
go to article »July 29, 2008
I'm having one of those days off which doesn't really feel like it. I am still on watch and wait for the accused in a helicopter. But as it looks as if Karadzic won't arrive before Monday, I am back at home, for the first time in three weeks, rather than in The Hague. It means I am observing the oth...
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