Fire in a Mega Mall ...

Back in the days when I was still serving in the SA Fire and Emergency Services in Port Elizabeth, one of the major headaches for my team of Fire Safety Inspectors, was a huge shopping mall known as Greenacres Centre. It was fully sprinklered, had all the bells and whistles for smoke and fire control and was reasonably well managed. Since those days many things have changed, not least being that an already very large Mall (It was over 800 metres from one hypermarket at the east end, to the other at the west end with everything else in between  and not including the two hyperstores in that) was doubled in length.

Now you would think that the management of a place like that would ensure that everything, and I do mean everything, that protects it from fire would always be topline. You'd also think that if any part of it was non-operational for any reason, special precautions would be in place. You'd be wrong.

This was the scene yesterday morning as the largest of the now four hyperstores burned -

Talking to my friend the present Chief of the Fire and Emergency Service, I learned that the sprinkler system in this part of the Mall had been turned off for "Maintenance." It turns out it had been off for two weeks. Need I add that there is now a full scale police investigation into this fire ...

Frankly, the insurers should refuse to pay.

Awaiting the Winter ...

We are in the path of some Siberian weather at present. It will arrive in the next day or two, but as things stand the temperatures are alreay falling. The forecast says there won't be any snow - the air is too dry apparently.

Be that as it may, we're expecting temperatures down to minus 10* in our area and Berlin is threatened with minus 25*C. For my part - they can have it! It is also said that the really cold air will move aside next week and may bring moist air - which will turn to snow. We haven't had much this year, so we can't really complain if we get a bit now.

The weekend was busy, today was busy, but hopefullynrmal service can be resumed tomorrow ...

Holocaust Day

The horror of the Holocaust lives on. Six million Of Europe's Jewish people, some four hundred thousand gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and others exterminated. Among those victims were many Christian priests and pastors who defied the regime, including Deitrich Bonhöffer, the Lutheran Theologian. Some five hundred thousand Russian PoWs also died of starvation, disease or in the attempt to escape. Nor should we forget the seventeen thousand Polish officers shot at Katyn by the Russians or the forty thousand Georgian soldiers exterminated by Stalin for fighting with the Germans to free themselves from the Communist yoke, or the many more millions who died under that regime before, during and after the war.

But today, we remember the concentration camp victims of 1939 - 1945 and remind ourselves of the dangers of any ideology based on hatred, greed or envy.

Lest we forget ...

European Court of Human Rights ...

According to a report in the Frankfurter Algemeine, the daily newspaper Mausi reads and the Monk struggles through with dictionary in hand, carried an article today that claims Mr Cameron, the PM of the UK at present, is not alone in having serious reservations about this court's interference in "sovereign" affairs of member states. There are now a number of people becoming seriously concerned at the manner in which this court is being used to overturn matters which are reserved for EU Members sovereign Parliaments, or to interfere in the administration of justice.

Even, it is reported, the Bench of Judges in the ECHR are concerned and recognise that the problem lies in the constitution and remit of the court, not in the rulings, which, after all, must be framed within the parameters of their remit. It is now being seriously suggested that this court needs to be reconstituted and its remit made narrower so that conflicts cannot arise between the interests of the sovereign member states and the overall intent of the Convention on Human Rights.

Calls are being made from German, French, and other states for this to happen soon. All the member states are saddled, as is the UK, with people they know are criminals, but can't deport, because of rulings in the ECHR. There are other matters as well, like the "right" to vote being granted to prisoners serving sentences. This has caused more than a few Teutonic expletives in Germany. There are other examples as well, where a nation's legal system, or its right to govern in accordance with the wishes of the majority of that country, have been, and are being, challenged in the ECHR with the consequent loss of sovereignty for the nation concerned.

Mr Cameron was loudly mocked for his stance recently over Abu Qatada and the ECHR ruling, but it would seem he is not alone in Europe on this issue. Perhaps the Brussels Bureaucrats will get their act together and sort it out instead of meddling in other matters they have no right to.

New Neighbours?

It appears that the State of Hessen is now home to a number of predators, animals moving in from the north and east. The country here is ideal for them since Hessen is the most forested State in Germany, a fact which surprises many people. Among the newcomers are Raccoons, known here as "Waschbären," one of which was photographed recently by one of Mausi's colleagues as it peered through his French Window and sized up his living room. It wasn't in the least bit phased by having its picture taken either.

According to today's newspaper though, we now have the European Lynx well established in the Aartal, the valley we overlook. And, if they're down there, they'll be up here as well ...

Around three times the size of a domestic cat, the lynx is a no nonsense predator and certainly not something to tangle with. It probably explains why most of the cats and dogs around here are staying indoors at night these days. 

We already had wild boar, fallow deer and red deer, so why not a few members of the small large cat family? Oh, and just to cap things off, Hessen is also now home to a growing wolf population. Thus far, however, they haven't reached us!

Champagne Socialism ...

A little item I spotted in the news feed yesterday had me almost speechless with fury. The news item concerned the revelation that a certain well known ex-Prime Minister and his good lady, a certain well known Human Rights campaigner and Barrister had paid their tax for 2010. A mere £315,000.

Now you may wonder why I saw red on this. Simples. The man earned a princely £12 million in the year ... Considering that he and his friends in Labour are constantly banging on about the Queen's income, or the Prince of Wales income and their voluntary tax arrangements (Either one pay considerably more voluntarily than he does on similar incomes!) his own tax evasion is a disgrace. How does he do it? Like most people who say one thing about the tax the rest of us must pay and do another - he uses "corporate" status to get away with a much lower tax rate and claim a plethora of "expenses" and "overheads" to wriggle out from under.

It must be said, so does that great organ of socialist propaganda, the Guardian. It's "Holding Company" is based offshore and pays token taxes in the UK. So next time the Guardian accuses one of the banks, or a wealthy individual of "tax evasion" let's just remember that the pot calling the saucepan black is only to distract us. One is as guilty as the other in this.

To add insult to injury, I have a small pension and a State Pension. Last year I earned an additional few hundred pounds - and got a tax bill from HMRC for a third of the extra money I'd earned. No allowance for the cost of the travel I had to do to get there to do the work, and no overnight expenses allowed either. I suppose someone has to pay off the national debt and for Mr Blair's handouts to the benefit dependents.

Obviously I have to earn in the same league as Mr Blair to qualify for a bit of tax relief ...

Aaaaaaargh!

I hate bureaucracy and I particularly hate bureaucrats.

I have just wasted an entire morning trying to get someone in South Africa to see sense. They want documents from me that I cannot provide. Why do I need to beat these morons? Well, I suppose I could just throw in the towel and let the Old Mega Insurance keep the money, but the stubborn streak in me says I won't. I had a small pension plan there many years ago. I made it paid up when I left there 25 years ago. Now I want my money.

It's not as if I'm trying to take millions out. I'll leave that to the Zumas, Mugabes and Malemas of this world. What I have translates into about €2,000 - not a fortune by any manner of means. But I'd prefer it in my bank and not theirs!

The problem is they now have no record of my leaving SA or of my tax clearance. I provided an affidavit as instructed. Ah! Not good enough, the Commissioner of Oaths has only stamped the German side. You must have the English side stamped as well! Useless to point out that the said official is not likely to affix his stamp to the English version if he can't read it and be sure it says the same as the German version. Oh no! Ah, and you must provide proof you are not resident in SA! OK, so I provided, as instructed, proof of my tax status in the UK. No, not good enough, you must give us a letter from the HMRC to say you are registered there! What the blazes is a Tax Return and Statement of Tax then? Ah, but you could be secretly living in SA and just paying tax there. You must also provide us with a certificate from Germany that says you are permanently resident there.

No problem, here it is - in German. No! It must be in English! Go and get an English one ...

I struggle on. It's only taken 9 months to get this far ...