Mixed results follow as Germany grants working rights to European neighbors

People from Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia will have the same rights as others in the European Union to work in Germany. Up until now, they've needed work permits.

As of May 1, Permits will not longer be needed but officials have warned that the move will affect the German labour market as immigrants will be willing to work for less wages.

Proponents of the law, say that the law could bolster Polish-German integration.

"The German government economy needed well-educated and well-trained workers and these could be found in Poland. The German-Polish border regions in particular would benefit from liberalized labour laws," Gunter Pleuger, president of the Viadrina Europe University said.

Joachim Moller, director of the Institute for Labour Market and Careers Research said he also saw the development positively.

"The fear that opening up the labour markets for citizens of the new EU member state could lead to low wages in a broad fashion  is something I do not share," he said.

It was widely agreed upon by experts that the new move will help German economic development.

Another example of media changing German history

Thinking back, I remember quite a lot about Anne Frank, the Nazis and WW2 in general from my days back in grade school. As an added bonus, I recently visited her home in Amsterdam so I like to think I know a little more about history from that era than the average student. But something that that everyone can love about history is that as new information is unearthed, history itself is constantly being revised. Among some of my favorite historical myths that are quite interesting was learning the unfortunate truth that Christopher Columbus didn't in fact discover america. This information, although not as revealing, illustrates that whether you have reminiscent moments such as mine or not, we can all admire news coming out of Germany this week in the form of a new book that makes new claims about Anne Frank and the SS officer that arrested her more than six decades ago.

Karl Josef Silberbauer, A member of the Gestapo in the Netherlands in1944, got a tip that jews were hiding in an attic at an Amsterdam home. The man was responsible for extracting of the jews and sending them to the nearest concentration camp. That much we know, but what has been revealed in Peter-Ferdinand Koch's new book "Enttarnt", is that after the war, Frank's pursuant became a spy for Germany's version of the CIA; Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).

I know what your thinking. This isn't breaking news who cares! Well, the information revealed might not be Earth shattering, but it demonstrates two different reasons why this information is relevant. First, this is yet another textbook example of how media changes the status quo. Authors are taking it upon themselves to go "digging" and often stumble upon interesting information that history might have forgotten, they then proceed to publish the information in a book or what have you, and everyone benefits. A second reason why this information is important is because it demonstrates a situation where a member of a terrorist organization -- yes, I view the Nazis as a terrorist organization -- becomes a member of Germany's post-nazi era foreign intelligence agency. Shouldn't these people be punished for their role in the Holocaust? Or at least, we could make it harder for them to find more work after all is said and done.



Either way, This is revealing information that is important. I love how media can add different perspectives to things such as history. No matter how big or small the information is, as long as it's shared, we should all be not only grateful but thankful information like this can be revealed.

Negative German sentiment towards Google causes the company to back down

This week, Google has been busy with its usual business of mapping the country from top to bottom via its street view. Although nearly 20 cities within Germany have been thoroughly mapped by the company, Google will cease collective further data in Germany. There appears to be no information released (press releases, statements, etc.) about why they have stopped, but the article makes it clear that there has been at least 250,000 requests made by German cities to blur their streets and homes which could be the reason why.

Google has been playing nice lately since they've been caught stealing information from local Wi-Fi signals. They do give people the option of being excluded from Google's street view. They also have a policy now, like I said before,  where they will blur your home upon request.

If you thought this was the first time Google has been in trouble with a country, you couldn't be more wrong. Last March, they were fined $ 142,000 in France for violating privacy laws there. That is a fairly reasonable punishment for the corporation who has been completely from countries such as China.


But I'm sure China is just acting in the interests of their citizens. I mean, after all, Google has always boasted positive reasons for their systematic mapping of basically every inch on the planet (give or take a few inches).

"Our business priority is to use our Google cars to collect data such as street names and road signs to improve our basic maps for our basic maps for our users in a similar way that other mapping companies do," a spokesperson said.

I hope they're not referring to companies such as OnStar and TomTom, because I'm pretty sure none of those business are driving cars all over the world mapping the world. I'm not insinuating that Google is up to no good and has evil intent, but they certainly have the means for diabolic operations.

This is just a postulation, but there are people out there who really do think that Google is poised to take over the world. Just because it's actually quite interesting to hear their argument, I've posted one of the many videos you can find via Google ironically enough, that ponder this strange scenario: