Germany in 2006

What did we look upon?
January - The meat-scandal is on (again) - YUCK! Spoiled meat has been sold, heaps of it. In Bad Reichenhall an ice-skating hall broke down and 12 people died - due to bad building-material or due to the loads of snow is not clear. A 13-year old was kidnapped on her way to school. She came free 36 days later.
February - Virus H5N1 reached Germany. And we got a disaster alarm due to snow.
March - Teacher from Ruetli-School in Berlin ask for help. The fraction of non-german pupils is 83,2%. Temper is aggressive and very disrespectful. Teachers have their cellphones with them to be able to call for help.
April - A german man of african origin got attacked by german racists.
May - A 16-year old attacks people with a knive in Berlin, amongst them a HIV-positive man. One good thing: After being held hostage for 100 days in Iraq two german engineers are back in Germany.
June - Soccer. Yawn... JJ1, brown-bear Bruno runs loose.
July - Airbus A380 will not be ready in time - not a good figurehead for Germany. Terror in Cologne - two bombs are placed at the train station, but luckily don´t detonate.
August - New law set: PCs that can be used to get into the internet will be charged from 2007 on.
September - Due to human error a train crashes in Emsland and kills 23 people.
October - Michael Schuhmacher ends his career, Lotto: Highest Jackpot ever in Germany. People go crazy. One man wins 35 million euros. He is a hospital nurse and keeps working.
November - 03.11.1956 - first TV-ad in Germany is on, Ariel, a detergent. German soldiers in Afghanistan rape a dead body, german people are shocked.
December - we get "introduced" to new laws that will apply in January. For example the value-added tax rises from 16 to 19%, retirement pay rises from 19,5 to 19,9%. Got the infos at gmx.

Highlights for me were starting a blog myself, having a holiday in Cuba, a short one at the northern coast in Germany and a holiday in Perth, Western Australia. This year will be without a bigger holiday, though... Oh, and watching the Braunschweig Lions being German Bowl Defender, again, certainly was a highlight, too.