open sesame

Getting back to the world domination business, I should spell out my USA conquest strategy. You might remember the “open sesame” words for Australia. Now it’s time for the US. Well, I reckon the best way to make Americans surrender is to make them believe that it’s natural. Just market forces. You can’t oppose the allmighty market, can you? Second, make them believe that everyone does it. If that doesn’t help it, tell them it’s God’s will.

back again

Back in Stuttgart, Germany (as stated before). All right, so what was good and what was bad?

First of all, I’d like to mention that Californians are very friendly, communicative and helpful. They seem to be very practical people, too. If there is a problem and they have a solution at hand (albeit far from perfect), they simply go ahead and implement it. Germans would take forever to find all possible solutions and then discuss which one is the most perferct, perfect, perfect one. This certainly has an advantage when it comes to long-term planning (e.g. infrastructure investments) but is a pain in the ass when the problem is rather minor in nature.

What I didn’t like are those flat, wide cities. You can’t walk anywhere, so no one does, so the streets are empty and the whole thing feels like a ghost town. Also, what do you need an SUV or pickup for if you only drive to work and drop your children off at the school?! Obviously the gas is still not expensive enough for you to switch.

I had the impression that Californians don’t whine as much about their problems as Germans. This could be a side effect of the fact that far more risks (such as illness, unemployment, etc.) are private matters there while they are partially social matter over here. The tax level is considerably lower in the US than in Germany and consequently citizens get less from the state. They seem to regard their problems more as their own problems and less as society’s problems. I like the attitude but am still in favor of a government that takes care of its citizens. Seeing your problems as your own problems exclusively makes you miss the point that in part your problems ARE due to structural problems in your society. In a competitive society someone just has to loose, no matter how hard they try. That’s the principal fallacy of the American Dream.

John Cleese (who lives in Santa Barbara) said that he likes living in the US because it has both the best and the worst people in the world. I wouldn’t go as far as that but generally agree. The country is very, very diverse. You can find people like the ones I worked with and people like the current federal administration. Talking about people, I think it’s time for a thank you list:

THANKS to

MF and RG for establishing the contact, DS and FD for their wisdom and expertise, BW and UB for their support at the “home front”, and the “German crew” EvW, RG, KF, SW for the interesting discussions (and the great meals we had, of course).

SPECIAL THANKS to

RG for keeping everything together and for the many invitations. TC for being a cheerful housemate, DW for being an unbureaucratic landlady, and the “Euro crew” SW, LB, JB, JO for the many nights at the local pubs. LB became a close friend of mine, which is kind of a surprise to me as I didn’t expect to find such a friend in California.

touring

I’d love to write a little more about the US but am simply too busy becoming what Germans call a Dipl.-Ing. Before I left I took a rental car and traveled a little around the state where I had spent three months just working (something I was dumb enough not to do in Australia). You may be interested in some of the places I visited so I compiled a few images.

Let’s begin with San Francisco. One of the few cities in California which is not sprawling out into the surrounding land. It is confined to its peninsula in the San Francisco Bay. The positive effect is visible: Most places are in walking distance from each other and consequently the streets are populated with people. Overall, San Francisco is a lot more European than any other city I saw in California.

Market Street, one of the city’s busy arteries. A street in Chinatown with the Transamerica Building in the background. Golden Gate Park, a huge and very beautiful park in San Francisco. And last but not least a view from Alcatraz with the city in the background.

I continued my trip to the east (well, there’s only water to the west) through the Central Valley. Parts of it are pretty neat but most of it is boring, overfertilized, salinized, endless cropland. Ugly to any sane person and even more ugly to anyone with a tiny bit of ecologic knowledge. On the other hand, I did enjoy all the tasty fruit and vegetables from the Central Valley.

I spent a night in Freson which seems to be one of the most boring places in whole California. A wide, flat city with no personal character. My judgement may be biased so please correct me if I’m wrong. Much better was the (far too quick) drive through Sequoia National Park. People told me that Yosemite offers the more beautiful landscape. However, Sequoia features the trees from which its name is derived. Standing in front of a giant sequoia tree makes even me feel very, very small. Here’s a picture of the world’s largest giant sequoia. Note the people at the bottom. After all, the landscape wasn’t that bad.

The last stop on my trip was Las Vegas. I went there primarily to watch a show of George Carlin at the Orleans Casino. The show was great, though he did take some time to get to the hard-hitting political punch lines that I love so much. At the peak of the show he called the ever-recurring phrase “God bless America” a PATRIOTIC TOURETTE SYNDROME. Bam! In your face, nationalists. Interestingly the audience laughed a lot more about the simple, superficial jokes than about the ones criticizing their own beloved country. It seems that this nation needs a lesson in self-loathing (for good reasons, that is). This particular show was my last chance – he died shortly after, at age 71. I didn’t gamble a single cent in Las Vegas. Instead, I invested my money in armory. Nevada has far more permitting firearms laws than California and a number of ranges specialize in gun rental to tourists. Overall I shot two pistols, four submachine guns, two rifles and a light machine gun. For those of you who know what these letters mean: HK USP .45 ACP /w silencer, MR Desert Eagle .50 AE, IWI Uzi 9 mm Para, Thompson .45 ACP, Colt M635 9 mm Para, HK MP5 9 mm Para, HK G3 7.62 mm Nato, SIG 556 5.56 mm Nato, FN Minimi 5.56 mm Nato. It was a hell of a lot of fun (for a gun nut like me). The Hoover Dam nearby is not as spectacular as people may tell you but for a professional environmentalist with some knowledge about hydro power it was worth a visit. What puzzled me is that at no point during the tour did anyone mention the fact that hydro power produces no carbon dioxide. In Europe this would be practically all they’d tell you. The importance of (anthropogenic) climate change has not reached Nevada yet.

A big thank you to the other motorists whom I shared the highways with. I have never encountered more civilized drivers than in California (and that tiny piece of Nevada).