My new current affairs blog

I came across this really great website the other day: http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/
It's a great little blog-based European news website which has subsequently given me the idea of writing a Berlin-based current affairs blog! :) That way I won't have so much confusion in this blog about whether to write about newsy or personal stuff.
So from now on this will be my general musings-type blog and the other (I'll post a link when I set it up) a strictly Berlin news based thing.
Wohoo for clarity! :)

WWII bomb brings Berlin to a halt

The biggest news to come out of Berlin in the last couple of days has to be the world war two bomb that brought Tegel airport to a standstill on Wednesday. Just a day earlier another bomb was found near a railway in eastern Berlin.

Sixty five years after the end of the war this is still a pretty regular occurrence in Berlin - as it is also in England, although not as often. About a year ago a WWII bomb was found just down the road from my parent's home in the UK. Luckily you don't hear many horror stories about these bombs going off but it does beg the question about the aftermath of war.

I read an interesting column by US journalist Matthew Schofield. He reports several interesting points:

• During WWII, the allies dropped about 50,000 tons of bombs on Berlin - an average of more than 1,000 a day for about 18 months towards the end of the war. According to German estimates 10% of those failed to explode.
  
• By the end of the war, 50,000 unexploded bombs were still at large in Berlin.
  
• There were also hundreds of thousands more smaller explosives - of which 10,000 are still picked up today each year.
  
• Six full time staff are still employed to deal with old war time bombs in Berlin.
• Since 1945, at least two bomb-squad members a year have died defusing similar bombs around Germany.
• It is estimated that another 2,000 to 3,000 such bombs remain in Berlin.

The story quotes a bomb disposal expert who claims:
"I like to tell people that every time you turn a spade in the garden, you can uncover a bomb. I know that for most people, the war has been over for a long time. But here, and especially for me, it's a part of daily life."

I know it's a cliche, but why, oh why, can't people just get along!

http://voices.kansascity.com/node/8524

Back in the land of the living

Hello folks... Well after a couple of weeks I am officially back and will be blogging shortly. I had to go back to the UK for a week or two and had a hectic few days when I got back so haven't had much time for blogging up till now! :) Expect a few updates in the very near future, so watch this space!