In Berlin, from now on, the lights on the highways will be switched off at night. The reason: emissions and money must be saved. The regulation is to come into force in April.
As the Autobahn GmbH recently announced, the darkening is also intended to counteract “air pollution”. The lights are now to be switched off gradually by April.
The deputy director of the Northeast branch of Autobahn GmbH, Kerstin Finis-Keck, described highways as the safest roads in Germany. “The lighting has no influence on the number of accidents.”
A highway without lighting is just as safe as a highway with lighting, she declared. And anyway, modern cars have much brighter lighting. In addition, the road equipment has been brought up to date, for example in the form of light-reflecting markings. Only tunnel entrances and exits will remain illuminated.
The lights have already been switched off in advance on certain sections of the A100. In the next four months, the remaining sections of the A100 as well as the A103, the A111 and the A114 are also to be switched off. “Of course we know that many Berliners have got used to the lighting,” says Autobahn GmbH. But “technically there is no other choice”.
Every terrible decision by our rulers is introduced either as if there is no other choice or because it’s “green”. The real reasons don’t matter as long as it conforms to their ideology.
Feminist supervisory boards come into force
Another dubious triumph of ideology: political feminism. At the beginning of the new year, the EU directive on the quota for women in listed companies came into force. It stipulates that 40 percent of supervisory boards should be female.
The European Parliament adopted the directive in mid-November 2022 and gave member states a deadline of December 28, 2024 to implement it. As a result, listed companies must now appoint either women in 40 percent of their non-executive directors (supervisory board members) or at least 33 percent of all directors (supervisory board and management board members). Their qualifications are not important.
Violations are subject to severe penalties. “If the board of directors elected by the respective company violates the principles of the directive, it could be declared null and void by a court,” stated a 2022 press release.
The women’s quota is pure ideology politics. The justification for the EU directive states that Europe has “a large and constantly growing pool of highly qualified women, as shown by the fact that 60 percent of university graduates are women.” It goes on to assume: “There is broad consensus that women in management bodies have a positive influence on company management because team performance and the quality of decisions are improved by a more diverse and collectively oriented way of thinking with broader perspectives.”
In February 2022, the Scholz administration decided to approve the directive as one of its first official acts. The Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had stated at the time: “I am convinced that with a personnel policy that reflects social reality, companies make better decisions and are more successful. Diversity pays off.”
Diversity is destroying education
Diversity in German education policy is and remains a disaster. Due to poor school results or a lack of professional qualifications, more and more young people in Germany are not fit for he job market. With this finding, a report by the EU Commission confirmed the inefficiency of the German ideological system.
According to the report, 12.8 percent of young people had a lower secondary education qualification or less in 2023. This proportion was significantly higher than ten years ago (9.8 percent) and above the EU average (9.5 percent). The increase indicates a “critical situation,” the report says.
The latest vocational training report from the Federal Institute for Vocational Training paints a similarly dramatic picture. According to the report, in 2018, 14.4 percent of 20- to 34-year-olds had not completed vocational training. By 2022, the proportion had risen to 19.1 percent, which corresponds to 2.86 million young people. “That is a frightening increase,” said Ifo education economist Ludger Wößmann to the FAZ.
Meanwhile, experts are no longer making a secret of the fact that unchecked immigration is one of the main causes of this fatal development. Among young foreigners, the proportion without a vocational qualification rose from an already high 33 to 38 percent between 2018 and 2022, according to the vocational training report. But even among Germans without a migration background, the rate rose significantly from 8.3 percent (2018) to 11.6 percent (2022).
Staying out of this mess
More than 20 years after joining the EU, the Czech Republic has still not introduced the euro as its currency. This will probably remain the case for the time being, even though President Pavel spoke in favor of it in his New Year’s address.
The head of the Czech National Bank, Aleš Michl, on the other hand, cannot see any advantages in introducing the euro. Pavel had campaigned on the idea that the introduction of the EU currency could help bring the country closer to German wage levels. Michl disagreed: “No, the euro won’t rescue us and it will not bring our wages closer to those in Germany,” said the head of the National Bank. A simple currency switch does not automatically lead to higher wages. Rather, the Czech crown represents a stabilizing force in the national economy and can encourage companies to innovate.
In addition, many Czech companies are already using the euro for transactions or financing, so there is no need to rush into anything.
Public opinion is also divided. According to a Eurobarometer survey from last year, 49 percent of Czechs are in favor of introducing the euro. A survey by the Czech agency STEM, however, showed a much lower level of approval – only 20 percent of Czechs support the adoption of the common currency.
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