Who pays for what?

I caught this in World magazine (March 13 issue, p. 68) concerning the Greek debt crisis:

The most likely scenario is a bailout led by the Germans, but such a move is extremely unpopular in Germany. Greece's early retirement age is a big sticking point for Germans, who recently raised their own retirement age from 65 to 67. "The Greeks go onto the streets to protest against the increase of the pension age from 61 to 63," said the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in an editorial. "Does that mean that the Germans should in the future extend the working age from 67 to 69, so that the Greeks can enjoy their retirement?"

I think a similar question could be asked about U.S. debt.

Are the thrifty and self-denying Chinese and Indians (for example) supposed to permit Americans to renege on their impossible promises to repay--in good, uninflated money--the trillions of dollars of debt they (our government; we!) have already contracted? Are we Americans supposed to enjoy our "free" health care and Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare while the Chinese and Indians continue to labor for wages worth a fraction of what Americans receive?

The fall of the Berlin wall--November 9, 1989

My dad sent me a link to a series of New York Times articles about the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I happened to go first to this 4:43 video: The Man Who Opened the Gate. Rather chilling, first, to realize the momentous nature of the occasion . . . and the implications of one man's actions.

Be stunned yourself at this visual and auditory slice of history centered on the actions of an almost-forgotten East German border guard named Harald Jaeger.

Alternative education in Germany returning to Nazi-era repression?

It appears as if the legal status of homeschooling in Germany is about equivalent to what it was in Nebraska, United States, back in the mid-80s. (Yes, people in Nebraska were being put in prison for homeschooling back in the mid-80s.)

Check out "POLICE STATE, GERMANY: 'Youth worker' lies about homeschool student". I see it as a pretty intractable problem.

How can a government, rightly (I think) concerned about "parallel societies" [think unassimilated Muslim fundamentalists, by way of example] . . . --How can a government deal with its legitimate concerns while also permitting freedom of conscience, freedom of inquiry, and freedom to pursue alternative perspectives?