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Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

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Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#191

Post by benhurmarcel »

izolate wrote: post #103
quelltext wrote: post #8

> It’s also more difficult for me as a I have a US layout keyboard at home and a German layout at work. I'd hate tp be forced to use a specific layout governed by my employer and I'm glad it's not been a problem so far to get a replacement keyboard with US layout. It's pretty common nowadays for developers to simply prefer the US layout if their country's is not great, like the German one that makes typing braces etc…

A good company will honour your request for a specific keyboard layout. I've spent the majority of my working life in Europe and have always requested (and fortunately received) a US-layout keyboard at work.

Given the price of a basic keyboard, it's not really a problem. Worst case you get your own.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#192

Post by benhurmarcel »

quelltext wrote: post #8

> It’s also more difficult for me as a I have a US layout keyboard at home and a German layout at work. I'd hate tp be forced to use a specific layout governed by my employer and I'm glad it's not been a problem so far to get a replacement keyboard with US layout. It's pretty common nowadays for developers to simply prefer the US layout if their country's is not great, like the German one that makes typing braces etc…

If that's an issue you can even get your own programmable keyboard, so you configure the layout you want on it and don't have to change the computer's layout.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#193

Post by fit2rule »

ericmay wrote: post #186
fit2rule wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you have a right to disagree, but there is absolutely no reason for these camps to be called anything other than concentration camps, since their purpose is to concentrate refugees off-shore in order to deny legal access to them, and to ensure international laws on the subject of refugees do not apply. You may not like it, but given Australia's history for inspiring tyranny, these concentration camps are a hein…

It's ok to be critical of how Australia is handling people trying to cross into their country without going through the proper process. I don't think it's ok, at all, to call these detention centers "concentration camps" given what's currently going on in the world and what has happened in the past. It's simply not ok. That you live next to Mauthausen and you still think it's ok is baffling to me. I've gone to places…

Australia's Mauthausen: Rottnest Island. A place of vomiting teenagers and little else.

Austrias Mauthausen: a real memorial to the victims, out in the open. (Occasional vomiting teenager notwithstanding.)

Australians hide their crimes against humanity in places nobody reasonable will ever visit, because they don't want to know about Australias crimes against humanity.

The Austrian people maintain Mauthausen, because they never want to forget the atrocities.

The history of The Australian State is rife with injustices and crimes against humanity. The Australian Genocide is a real thing.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#194

Post by ericmay »

petre wrote: post #189
ericmay wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ok to be critical of how Australia is handling people trying to cross into their country without going through the proper process. I don't think it's ok, at all, to call these detention centers "concentration camps" given what's currently going on in the world and what has happened in the past. It's simply not ok. That you live next to Mauthausen and you still think it's ok is baffling to me. I've gone to places…

Read this then: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/worl... Sorry about the amp link. NYT paywall bypass.

Thanks for the link. A tragic situation, of course.

But I'm confused as to how this situation is remotely comparable to a concentration camp? Do the Chinese let Uighur Muslims apply for asylum in other countries? Are kids at these camps being forced into slave labor? Are they being murdered?

These are refugees who, frankly, are getting a shit deal in life. That has nothing to do with actual concentration camps. The Australians are not rounding up people and gassing them, harvesting their organs, or forcing them to be re-educated.

These aren't comparable situations!

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#195

Post by ericmay »

fit2rule wrote: post #193
ericmay wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ok to be critical of how Australia is handling people trying to cross into their country without going through the proper process. I don't think it's ok, at all, to call these detention centers "concentration camps" given what's currently going on in the world and what has happened in the past. It's simply not ok. That you live next to Mauthausen and you still think it's ok is baffling to me. I've gone to places…

Australia's Mauthausen: Rottnest Island. A place of vomiting teenagers and little else. Austrias Mauthausen: a real memorial to the victims, out in the open. (Occasional vomiting teenager notwithstanding.) Australians hide their crimes against humanity in places nobody reasonable will ever visit, because they don't want to know about Australias crimes against humanity . The Austrian people maintain Mauthausen, becaus…

Ah yes, the Australian Genocide. Classic. Very comparable to other genocides, like the Uighur Muslim genocide, the genocide of the Jews, or the Armenian genocide.

It's very clear to me you just want to grandstand. And in doing so you're creating even more problems. If you want to criticize Australian treatment of refugees, go for it. Don't call these detention centers concentration camps though, because that's not what they are. There is simply no comparison and I am still bewildered that you would think so.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#196

Post by pinkfoot »

ericmay wrote: post #194
petre wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read this then: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/worl... Sorry about the amp link. NYT paywall bypass.

Thanks for the link. A tragic situation, of course. But I'm confused as to how this situation is remotely comparable to a concentration camp? Do the Chinese let Uighur Muslims apply for asylum in other countries? Are kids at these camps being forced into slave labor? Are they being murdered? These are refugees who, frankly, are getting a shit deal in life. That has nothing to do with actual concentration camps. The A…

Indeed, the Australian experiment showed most of these folk weren’t even refugees fleeing for their lives.

They were normal folk from poor countries who wanted the Western lifestyle and knew their best chance was to fake it in Australia and exhaust the courts.

Proof: when the boat route to Australia closed, very, very few are asking for asylum in Indonesia.

It just hurts some snowflakes SRC sensibilities to admit this.

PS. I really think Western democracies should hold a binding referendum on whether billions of poor people have a right to migrate to their countries, or not. You are tearing yourselves apart over it.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#197

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

rayiner wrote: post #71
fefe23 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany does not have extraterritorial prison colonies. I think this is a combination of hyperbole and choosing the wrong word. Germany does have housing for refugees and asylum seekers while they wait for asylum to be granted or denied, and the conditions there might be construed as prison-like depending on your political point of view. Technically it's not a prison. Asylum seekers are not permitted to do paid work,…

Your first point is extremely ignorant. The mess in the Middle East was mainly created by the Ottoman Empire consolidating disparate ethnicities and religions into one empire, and then Europe’s dissection of it after WWI (dividing it between Britain and France). The US inherited the mess afterward. Syria, for example, is ruled by an Alawite minority. The Ottomans oppressed them and tried to convert them to Sunni Isla…

> Literally every ethnic and religious fault line in the Middle East that is now causing violence is the doing of the Turks, British, and French.

You ought to mention the Soviet Union as well. The Baathist dictatorships in Iraq and Syria were, after all, originally Communist-aligned, and this overture to secularism is part of what infuriated the religious extremists of the region.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#198

Post by Symbiote »

lainga wrote: post #13
doopfoopdoop wrote: post #7

Edit: removed. (My post was too negative and was just me venting.)

It's a shame. If a country can't show you its culinary best at a university cafeteria, where else can you go?

Copenhagen University canteen at its best: https://imgur.com/a/bg5XzLd

They only achieve this level of taste every couple of weeks or so (and this presentation a couple of times a year) but that's a huge improvement on the British universities I am familiar with.

I've visited one university in France, and it was a normal presentation but excellent quality, and a fairly normal day according to the locals.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#199

Post by Symbiote »

HorstG wrote: post #173
_Microft wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get slightly sick every single time I eat at my university's cafeteria. A different idea regarding this: are you maybe eating a different cuisine normally? A change in cuisine can lead to digestive problems because your gut bacteria will be adapted to one but not the other and that needs time to change.

Another possibly related factor in univerity cafeterias: The kitchen personell are public employees, underpaid but unfireable. As our cafeterias head chef told me, this causes them to not caring one tiny shred about anything. The chef can't discipline or fire them, first because of the protections as public employees and second because he can't find replacements. Therefore, even simple stuff like properly cooking noo…

Don't you have food hygiene requirements?

In Denmark the university cafeterias are outsourced to private companies, and subject to the same quality standards as any restaurant or other place that prepares food.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#200

Post by Symbiote »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #162
mseidl wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what to do with the chickens. But the dog is easy to bring.

My dog has 6 acres to run right now... I can't imagine keeping this tasmanian devil in an apartment...

Check with the Munich colleagues, but some of them will live in houses. They're unlikely to have 2½ hectares though.

As well as all apartment-vs-house compromises you'd have anywhere in the US (cost, noise, travel time to work etc), moving to a new country and living at the edge of a town or in a small village can feel more isolated, if you don't speak the language.

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