Luneburg, the City

I am in Luneburg Germany, one of the small cities near Hamburg in Germany. Hamburg is the second biggest port in Europe after Rotterdam. Rotterdam is bigger just because of its location. Hamburg for years was Germany's port that served its economic juggernaut from the early times to date. Whenever I have visited Germany, I have never been worried about the quality of anything possibly because they now do some imports. You may be worried that their quality may not be excellent but that's not true. They have control systems that enable them deliver literally high quality goods and services throughout the country. Germany is known for everything good and the Germany bashers always deride them just because they are very good at delivering high quality goods and services and therefore would out compete them. Germans are known for their clockwork system of doing things including keeping the time itself. Reading one of the manuals for international students, those coming to study in Germany are told about the importance of time keeping to Germans and its true worldwide their trains, buses leave and arrive on time. How they do that, that their culture. One of the things that you find in many of these developed countries is the fact that their development did not start 100 years ago. Their development is hundreds of years and it involved taming or nurturing the environment they are in, exploiting those opportunities all for their benefit. Today in the West, many people work four days a week, they use machines to clean the house, to wash dishes, wash cloths and now with the smart phones and advances in technology, they have all the information they need both held in their hands and at the touch of the screen. The story of Germany is something to learn from. Britain conquered the world and went everywhere establishing colonies everywhere and sold to these markets including huge markets like India, unrestricted. The late comers to trade namely Germany, Italy and Japan did not have markets. France of course was an imperial power by itself. It had its colonies in Africa, North America and Asia. We learn in history that the World War I & II were about markets. Having been locked out in the markets, those countries without colonies wanted a share of these growing global markets. Today, no country will grow without exports. Of course as we know today, Japan, Germany and Italy lost the war. As a result both Japan and Germany are very shy countries. They do not want to raise their voices in international affairs lest they are misunderstood as wanting to fight again. In fact, the Japanese army was for defense alone until recently.They hardly participate in peace keeping around the globe. Both Germany and Japan don't contribute troops in the hot spots around the world for fear of being accused of militarism.  But what is amazing is that both Japan and Germany have been able to win over the hearts of consumers without firing a shot. Today the best cars are either Japanese vehicles or German vehicles. If you are looking for machinery it should either be German or Japanese. 

Visiting Leuphana University in Luneburg, one German told me in a sarcastic manner that Luneburg University was preceded by a college established in army camp by the British to re-educate the Germans. I could feel the heart in the voice that was it possible that the English could re-educate the Germans when Germany had superior production systems? Last night watching BBC in Germany, there was a debate on whether Britain should get out of the European Union (EU). By the time the debate ended, 80 percent of the people said it should. What were the reasons? The British could not accommodate German control of their lives. The proponents of the debate actually thought the EU was a dictatorship  a group of unelected people issuing orders and controlling numerous countries which were ruled by elected people. When the European Union was formed, each country had its objectives. For Germany, they wanted to be able to sell the products without hindrance to the entire Europe. The French wanted an alliance with Germans in which they were senior partners to be able to block English designs over Europe. Britain looked at the formation with suspicion. They saw a group of people who wanted to reduce British influence  The British dropped out of the Common Currency system and maintained their Pound Sterling. Today, Europe is trying to take away British financial muscle. All that is in the politics of control and being able to sell what you produce. That is the politics of integration. Today, Germany is the fourth largest economy in the world after the US, China and Japan. Britain is no. 8. France is no. 7. Britain is the 4th largest manufacturer in the world coming after China, Japan and Germany. Germany clearly controls Europe and all the troubles in Europe must be borne by Germany. It has a challenge of supporting failing states. The European Union created a boom where countries like Ireland, Spain  Portugal, Cyprus, Greece which were economically weak, rode ob credit to drive growth  When the economic boom stopped, the countries were spending more than what they could earn. This means the countries were bankrupt. To recover, they had to get out of the Euro zone and re-introduce their currencies. If this happened, the EU as an idea would be failing hence the support by Germany who are the biggest beneficiaries of the EU.  They are because they don't have to get license to export to any of these countries. Since they have good products, they will always sell. This is global politics, it is about putting bread on somebody's table. It is about who does it most efficiently or who can intimidate the other like many African countries are intimidated out of their right to export. When coupled with their inefficiency the African countries will for a long time remain poor. What do I pick from Germany, two words, hard work and discipline. My German friend who was sarcastic about the British re-educating the Germans concluded by saying the Euro will collapse, it is a matter of time and what will emerge is a much stronger Mark.