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Not much happens in January other than a look at the past 12
month and an evaluation of what has to change and what can stay
the same. For the world at large this was a very rude awakening,
to say the least. Something we have been observing for many years,
and worried about, especially for the last 6 years or so, when unusual
solutions surfaced to handle a decline in the economy, has finally
come to pass. It had to happen sooner or later. This is the stuff
that Christopher Marlow already wrote about in his version of Faust
and great statesman like Thomas Jefferson pointed out a long time
ago.
I might add that there are a lot of Jefferson fans out there, that
President Obama is not the only one. Mr. Rolf A. Piro sent us a
whole slew of Jefferson quotes and so did some other folks. My all-time
favorite, and has been for a long time, actually since Kennedy was
assassinated, is this one: "I believe that banking institutions
are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the
American people ever allow private banks to control issue of their
currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations
that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all
property until their children wake up homeless on the continent
their fathers conquered."
These are important words to ponder. We will be entering a new era,
where monetary values will have different meaning and other values
will become important again. This is a matter of necessity and the
faster we begin with a more humanitarian outlook on life the better.
What this means for a community is also abundantly clear. We need
to be more aware of each other’s needs and stand by each other to
support and enhance each other’s survival. This community needs
to stick together and support its own organizations, businesses,
clubs, publications etc.
As the immigrants that created the affluences of the last decades
are dying it takes the rest of them and their children to set an
example to the youngest group to carry on what was so effectively
started after WWII. We cannot let wholesale fiscal irresponsibility
be the reason for the demise of our culture. We can and we must
rally together and find if necessary new ways of making our society
work and make it work better than before. Complacency is unaffordable,
if we want to see a viable future together.
And speaking about the older generation that came here after the
war, we are reminded of Frank Kluscarits, who was a good friend,
as was his wife Rita, who just recently left us. Both assisted me
greatly when I was putting together shows for the Harmonie Club
on Sherbourne Ave. in Toronto. Mardi Gras or Karneval was never
the same after he retired from it. If he would still be holding
his "Buetten-Reden" he would have a thing or two to say to us about
the current state of affairs.
A moving experience
Anyone who had to move from one premise to another knows that
it can be a disconcerting adventure, to say the last. It is listed
as one of the most stressful experiences. I can vouch for it. I
do not want to do it again. Now imagine having to move an entire
official machine from one secure premise to another.
 I
am speaking of course about the German Consulate General, that moved
from its address at Bloor and Bay to the brand new location of 2
Bloor West, 25th Floor, as of late January 2009. A staff
of 20 full time people and about 7 more of a more temporary nature
as well as materials and archives had to be moved. It took only
two days off the official calendar and then the whole affair started
function again with services to the public, such as passport and
papers for inheritances and so on.
The long wait (it has been 4 years since the old building on Admiral
Road burned down) for these new premises was well worse it, from
what we could see when the Consulate General Holger Raasch and his
team invited the media on February 3rd for a first look
at the facilities we first saw totally barren October 3rd,
2007. You may remember the interim report we gave you last year
on the progress of the building of this facility and the promise
it held for an open and friendly representation
 of
the modern day Germany. The German colours of black, red and gold
were apparent everywhere in the interior design, where dark, nearly
black floors dominate and a sudden golden yellow wall sets a bright
accent, with a red chair completing the ambience.
 Everything
is of course very secure and arrivals have to be prepared to be
searched in the same way airport security does, including a look
into the purse. Once inside everything is inviting and friendly
and most welcoming. A hallway decorated with an interesting photographic
show of Berlin then and now leads to a pleasant waiting room where
people can relax until they can be serviced at one of three different
windows.
Other then the view not everything is picture perfect yet. The wall
with the many signatures from the October 3 celebration a couple
of years ago is still waiting to be installed and other walls could
and should and will be adorned with pictures and paintings. Importantly,
everything is operational!
 At
this opportunity we were also briefed on the exciting news of voting
privileges for people who could no longer vote in Germany because
they had been here too long. But more about that in the next issue!
If you want to know more this very minute we recommend you go to
the consulate’s website at
www.toronto.diplo.de.
You will find all sorts of useful and exciting news there.
And you can rest assured that our hardworking diplomats are very
secure in their new working environment, as are you when you visit,
unlike other people who work and live in the hotspots of the world.
We should be grateful that we live in Canada!
Until next time or when I see you at a Via Salzburg concert or the
Austrian Ball,
Happy Valentine’s Day
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
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