One of the biggest and loudest protests I have seen in Vienna in years–Austrians of Turkish descent protesting the use of the word “genocide” in connection with the slaughter of the Armenians 100 years ago. I don’t know what to make of it. One of the signs says politicians should leave this topic to the historians. My impression is that the historians I have read or talked to are the first to say it was the first genocide of the 2oth century.
People still abed
Tightly shuttered shops, and yet
A lone dogwalker
Maylo and I went on a wonderful walk with a friend up Nussberg today, complete with simple picnic. The music I couldn’t get out of my head was this. Kathleen Battle at her best before nerves put an end to a fabulous career. Can’t you just see how much she’s enjoying being able to do that!
And for anyone who would like to know more about the piece there is actually a Wikipedia entry, complete with translation of the text.
There are times when I truly love modern technology!
OK, it may not look like much (I took the photo using selfie mode to protect my eyes), but I’m still surprised that only about 10% of the people I saw on my way to the dentist’s this morning were showing any interest at all in the eclipse today.
I know I’ve written a couple of times about the priority given to vocational training in Austria, especially compared to my native land, the U.S.A. And here I go again. There’s a brief article in the Kurier today about the results of the nationwide competition for apprentices in the tourism industry (obviously very interesting for Austria). The results, accompanied by a photo of the three young winners attractively and appropriately dressed in uniform / Dirndl, are listed by federal state only (no personal names). Salzburg won for service, Styria won for hospitality business administration, and Upper Austria won for gastronomy. The young people’s victories have secured them spots at the two major international competitions, World Skills 2015 and EuroSkills 2016. Isn’t it refreshing that young people are getting medals for doing their jobs fantastically well.
P.S. I was a bit disappointed that Vienna didn’t win anything, but, as it was a competition for apprentices, I suppose there was no category for highly qualified but grumpy middle-aged men. 😉
It seems only fair to update my readers on the fate of the fence I mentioned in my earlier post, from June 2013. They restored it to its original beauty! (And, with it, some of my faith in humanity.)
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that this comes as no surprise to me:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2015/03/05/vienna-tops-2015-list-of-the-most-livable-cities-on-earth/
The article is from last Saturday’s Kurier already, but I couldn’t bear to throw it away without posting about it. In Vienna, there are ever fewer Paternoster, that is, early elevators that go around in a continuous cycle with open compartments. One of the ones that is left, though, is at the headquarters of the Federation of Austrian Industrialists on Schwarzenbergplatz.
Recently, this was used to give young entrepreneurs the chance to present their ventures to the CEOs of companies like Siemens and Philips. The CEO and the entrepreneur got into the cabin of the Paternoster together, and the entrepreneur had the full round-trip to pitch his or her business. Since the trip takes almost five minutes to complete, that is between five and 10 times as long as the usual elevator pitch. There was the disadvantage that it was dark between floors, as these contraptions have no lighting, but it still seems like a great opportunity for young businesspeople. And you see–in Vienna even the elevator pitches are given more time.
(Kurier, 28 February 2015, “Fahren wir eine Runde gemeinsam” by Magdalena Vachova)
On sidewalks in and around the University a symbol is springing up: #wien1365. I’ll be curious to see what comes up.
ecbinvienna 