From: maennig@anton.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Olaf Maennig)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada
Subject: Re: Car inspections..
Date: 31 Jul 1992 08:11:52 GMT
Organization: University of Dortmund, Germany
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: anton

In article <30JUL199219365391@bestsd.sdsu.edu>, mccurdy@bestsd.sdsu.edu
(McCurdy M.) writes:
|> In article <1992Jul30.160701.11219@bwdls61.bnr.ca>,
|> jsparkes@bwdls138.bnr.ca (Jeff Spark writes...
|> > 
|> >I've always been amazed that inspections are done *only* when the car
|> is
|> >sold.  Back in Newfoundland, you have to get annual inspections once
|> your
|> >car is more than 5 years old.   I can't believe some of the rust
|> buckets
|> 
|> Germany has similiar rules - they don't mess around there. Of course,
|> they 
|> have higher taxes to cover "doing things the right way", health
|> insurance, 
|> etc. Still, they seem to have a very high quality of life.

In Germany, _each_ car has to be inspected every 2 years, and cars without a
catalyst must go to an extra inspection where they are adjusted to be as
friendly
to the environment as possible. However, that's only the theory. In praxis,
most
garages just misplace the adjustings, so that the car needs more gas than
before...

We pay indeed much for the covering of "doing things the right way". Joking is
that always all strata have to pay higher taxes, so I don't know if we have a
very high quality of life.

Maybe some of you remember my posting a few weeks ago when I wanted to know
what
to do when emigrating from Germany to Canada. I got several answers and
want to
thank all of you. There was a letter in which the author in a way or
another
warned me to go, because Canada would be in pretty bad shape with high
unemployment, technologically years behind Germany, but nevertheless
Canadians
should have a less stressful life.

The following is an extract of what I answered, and I post this now for a
discussion.


Well, I don't understand your statement that you Canadians are
technologically years behind us. You get the same TVs, radios, and HiFis from
USA or Japan like us. Of course, we have German manufacturers, too, but they
don't have that much influence. I don't know about Canadian manufacturers.
Indeed, you cannot get Canadian products in Germany, but I think that's due
to the fact that the factories are in the States.

However, in the field of computer science, I must say that North America is
far in front of Germany. When I see our telecommunication services... it's a
joke! They proudly present us that it's possible now to make a phone
conference. But not as anybody's will, you have to announce your wish, and
then you will get a date when it's possible ...

I heard of high unemployment, but that depends on the province. I don't think
that there is so high unemployment in the Western provinces. However, I think
as a computer scientist, it should not be such a problem to find a job.

I can only agree to your German friend's statement. Life IS less stressfull
than here. It becomes worse and worse every month that passes by. The reason
are the many people coming from Eastern Europe. You can see the narrowness
everywhere: in the streets, on parties, at work. You almost have no chance at
all to find a new dwelling. To buy a car, no matter whether it is used or
new, presents to be a gamble. Getting a job after your studies or your
apprenticeship is almost only possible with what we call here vitamin C
(connexions). If you want to go out in the evening on a sunny day, e.g. to a
bar in the open air, then you will have to expect to wait 30 minutes before
you get a table. Going for a walk in a park on a Sunday turns out to be a
marathon walk with lots of other people.
I think they all have the right to enjoy their lives, but our country is much
too small for those masses of people! In an area, as big as Calgary, live at
least 5 times more people here than there. This is only estimated, but take a
look into a geographical book and compare the densities of population for
Germany and Canada...

In Canada, if you live in a big city, you will only have to drive for a short
while, and then you are so alone that you are almost a hermit.

This came up to my mind in the last two years, and I looked onto a world map
to find out where to go: Asia? Not at all, due to the language(s) and I don't
like the culture that much. Africa? That's not my preference: heat, poverty
and war. If the wish not to get involved there is okay or not, is another
thing... South America? Almost like Africa plus political difficulties.
Remains Australia, Europe and North America. The best is to live where I
don't have that much problems to fit in (language and culture), although I
can imagine to live in some parts of Northern Europe. I don't know much about
New Zealand or Australia, but due to the Ozone hole that doesn't seem to be a
good choice. By the way, additionally I heard much bad things about Australia
what concerns the people. USA? I don't like them very much (world police :-().

Having all these aspects in mind, Canada seems to be the best choice to me.
Okay, the Canadians don't have that much influence in world politics, but
that doesn't matter to me. I find other things more important.


I hope there will be a discussion about that, because I want to see and learn
about the Canadian facts.

Bye,
	Olaf

PS. As soc.culture.canada is the only Canadian newsgroup I can reach, would
    anyone be so kind to put a follow-up to can.general and so on, and
crosspost
    the results to this group again? I'm very interested in this discussion
and 
    hope, it will last long. ;-)
-- 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     _                   Department of Computer Science IV
    / \     |\/|         University of Dortmund, Germany
    \_/laf  |  |aennig   e-mail: maennig@siggi.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------