🪧❄️#477: Supporting Indian students, discount travel, more strikes
We don't do that much coke.
Hey 20 Percent!
Thanks to all of you who reached out last week about my pending Untätigkeitsklage (suit for inaction) against the Berlin Ausländerbehörde for taking their jolly old time with my application for citizenship. As one reader, who is also an attorney, pointed out — I can file it on my own, which is my goal.
But as he also mentioned — I should just threaten them first. I was travelling a lot last week so I’ll threaten with the suit Monday. Then they have two weeks to respond before I lower the lawsuit hammer.
And if that fails I now have a trustworthy list of attorneys I can turn to.
I really appreciate the responses and was impressed with the 20 Percent community (once again).
Have a good weekend!
Andrew
Indian students receiving poor guidance
The German government is also doing too little to help Indian students who want to study here, according to Tagesspiegel (paywall). The students often fall victim to unregulated agents who connect them with low-quality universities, whose degrees aren’t recognized by German companies. The fees often exceed the fees at public universities, forcing the students to work for equally unscrupulous delivery companies. The UK and US already have proven university recruitment programs and networks as well as local communities to support students. But Indians only recently began coming to Germany in large numbers to study and the government has yet to develop the necessary safeguards — such as regulating or fining unscrupulous private recruiters.
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More discount travel options
And for those wanting to actively flee the inaction — it’s getting easier (and cheaper) to leave Berlin. Dutch Govolta now offers discount rail trips between Gesundbrunnen and Amsterdam’s Centaal Station on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sunday. The trip is longer than Deutsche Bahn’s ICEs at eight instead of six hours but tickets cost just between €19 and €45, including a seat reservation, according to RBB24. And discount rail travel king Flixtrain is also adding more trains to its Berlin-Stuttgart and Berlin-Frankfurt routes, says Tagesspiegel.
The strike next week will be …
There’s accidental inaction and willful inaction: Berlin’s pharmacies will be inactive Monday as part of a nation-wide strike to protest what they see as government indifference to difficult economic conditions, according to RBB24. The fee the pharmacies receive for selling prescription medication hasn’t changed in 13 years as inflation and other costs increased. About 20% of Berlin pharmacies have reportedly closed because of the difficult financial waters.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
📚 Who was this Habermas philosopher anyway?
🍳 Berlin’s HelloFresh isn’t doing well
🍷 The election in winey Rhineland-Palatinate Sunday
🚓 German comedic actor in off-the-hook sex scandal w/ wife
Factoid
Berlin’s isn’t as awash in cocaine as it seems — the city ranks 38th out of 128 European cities in an annual study by the EU Drugs Agency that uses wastewater to gauge narcotics usage. We also came in 11th in MDMA usage but third in Ketamine. However, the researchers discovered that while most drug use spikes on weekends, cocaine is apparently in use consistently throughout the week in Berlin. The most MDMA is consumed in Amsterdam while Bristol and Middlesborough in the UK lead in Keta and Coke, respectively.
🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗
🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify
I know you’re explicitly against misogyny and sexism, so please don’t take this as more than a very small comment: your title for the collien fernandes story is a bit unfortunate (“German comedic actor in off-the-hook sex scandal w/ wife”). “Scandal” sounds as if they both did something scandalous (she didn’t), and the framing of “comedic actor” / “wife” sounds as if she’s some rando - she’s an actress and TV presenter
Indians do not come here to study!!