Walking across the North Bronx...

This is my Sunday morning run to Home Depot in order to finally get sth fixed at home - 8 KM total. Just to give you a view of the not-so-beautiful neighborhood, not always those photoshopped pictures taken in parks... Really nothing spectacular, but I think this perspective was missing here. I will do other walks across the area with GPS-tagged pictures, this iphone app is cool...

(Click here for large version)

Now my comparison between driver's licenses in the Bronx and Germany:

Germany:

• paperwork: ID, vision check, photo, first aid class certificate
  
• plenty of theory classes, meaningful written test
  
• 12 required driving lessons (>500$), 45min road test, expensive (>200$)
  
• few people fail, if you fail, you have to wait 2wks before trying the next time.
  

Bronx, New York:

• Huge bureaucratic steps in order to be even allowed to take any classes, no 1st aid class
  
• no meaningful teaching required/enforced, ridiculous written test
  
• 10min free road test consisting of parallel-parking, turning and one u-turn
• 50%+ fail. Can be repeated as often as you please, 10$ fee for every two appointments.

Anyone surprised that traffic in the Bronx is dangerous, especially for pedestrians and cyclists?
But of course I appreciate the freedom to drive given to even the most incapable drivers. Many people don't have a license here anyway, being illegal immigrants and therefore without a chance of getting a NY license.
Seriously, it might be a good thing that there is not much federal oversight ... over anything. I just get annoyed occasionally. And yes, my NYS license was dirt cheap compared to my German one (188$ vs ca 1500$) - and had I applied in Arizona, it would have been a lot easier... But I prefer the Bronx :) ...

Herbsttag

Auch das ist die Bronx - der einzige erhaltene "Ur"-Wald in New York - zu finden im Bronx Botanical Garden:

Dieser Teil des Gartens ist sozusagen noch im Originalzustand - inkl. Indianerpfade - da er schon 1895, als die Gegend noch nicht durchgehend verstädtert war, eingerichtet wurde. Diesen Gedanke finde ich attraktiv - auf Indianerpfaden zu spazieren (wobei lt. Wikipedia auch der Broadway ein früherer Indianerpfad ist). Das gabs im Luisenpark nicht.
Die Fotos hab ich gemacht, nachdem ich gestern um kurz nach vier Feierabend hatte... Bedingt durch Patienten, die ihre Termine in der Ambulanz nicht wahrnehmen*. Damit ist es leider bald vorbei, da ich tatsächlich den Stationsdienst beginnen werde - am Montag...

Im nächsten Post werde ich mich zu den Unterschieden zwischen einer dt. und einer amerik. Führerscheinprüfung auslassen - ich bin nämlich seit gestern stolzer Besitzer einer NY State Driver's license...

*Wenn man bedenkt, wie oft die Menschen hier auch kostenlose Angebote zur medizinischen Versorgung ignorieren/ablehnen, wird m.E. klar, dass die deutlich geringere Lebenserwartung und die höhere Morbidität der hiesigen Bevölkerung nicht nur an mangelnder med. Versorgung liegt. In Europa werden die Menschen eben viel häufiger zu ihrem Glück gezwungen, hier haben sie die Freiheit, jeden Tag extrem billiges Fastfood zu essen und jeden Meter mit dem Auto zurückzulegen...

While I was annoyed to no small extent

by the bureaucratic struggle mit den sogenannten Ämtern hier und der geballten Inkompetenz und Faulheit, die einem dort entgegenschlägt... muss ich sagen, dass zumindest das, was in Frankreich gerade passiert, hier wohl undenkbar wäre. Und wenn es nur an fehlender Koordination zwischen den Behörden liegt :). Wobei die ja ein Stück weit auch gewollt ist - es soll eben gerade nicht möglich sein, dass irgendein Bürokrat in Paris entscheidet, dass jetzt mal alle Sinti und Roma ohne Einzelfallverfahren abgeschoben werden müssen um ein paar Pluspunkte bei den Wählern zu sammeln. Auf lokaler Ebene gab es das hier wohl auch schon (wobei die Fälle meines Wissens trotzdem einzeln geprüft wurden), aber die Reaktion war auch innerhalb der USA äußerst kontrovers und dieses Aktionen sind nicht gerade Alltag. Vor allem kooperieren lokale Behörden nicht unbedingt mit den Bundesbehörden, siehe dieser interessante Wikipedia-Artikel.

Als kleines Zuckerl hier das Zitat des Sprechers des frz. Außenministeriums betr. die Äußerungen der Kommissarin Reding ("Schande"), wie es in der NYT wiedergegeben wird:
''We don't think that with this type of statement, that we can improve the situation of the Roma, who are at the heart of our concerns and our action,'' Valero told reporters. ''It's not time for polemic ... it's time for work in favor of the Roma population.''
Wunderbar... Auf frz., etwas gekürzt durch den rechten "Figaro": «Nous ne pensons pas que c'est avec ce type de déclaration que nous pourrons améliorer le sort et la situation des Roms qui sont au coeur de nos préoccupations et de notre action». Hier der Artikel im "Figaro".

Hier ist, was Le Monde schreibt.

What I like at my job - free food

I just need to try out my smartphone... sorry for this trivial post (as if my others were deeply philosophical...). Will try to avoid heavy metal poisoning secondary to increased sea food ingestion: note the sushi is vegetarian.

Ground Zero am 12.9.2010

Montauk...

Again, a long time has passed. I will try to give an update here.

We have been driving around quite a bit recently, all the way to the eastern tip of Long Island... That was a very nice contrast to our very urban environment in the Bronx.

Our tiny little tent tied to a bush and hiding from the wind behind our friendly neighbor's car... Right next to the beach!

And we intend to go there again on the weekend, hoping to get a spot on this beautiful campground when Hurricane Earl will hopefully chase the namby-pamby campers out of Long Island. Will bring a bodyboard, since the waves are great and we are unfortunately not as cool as this guy:

Other than that... I am currently pissed off by how totally uncentralized a country the US is. No person in any given public office at a specified time will give you the same answer about any regulation as any other public servant in a different office or even the same person at a different time. But I keep telling myself that this is actually a double edged sword. At least it makes it possible that some cities in this country issue ID cards to illegal immigrants... Unimaginable in Germany. There is a lot more freedom in all this chaos and no central government agency will ever be able to keep track of anything :). You can even get a parking ticket in a different state and not have it enforced in your home state. In Europe, you even have to pay in Germany if you get a ticket in Portugal (as far as I know, haven't tried it out yet). That's why you have to physically surrender your driver's license from another state in order to get a NY license. If you kept it, you could divide your points for speeding etc. between several licenses without anyone keeping track. But I will never give up my German license that will remain valid for the next 21 years...
Having a weak central bureaucracy can be a good thing, especially if one considers the efficiency of the German bureaucracy at doing bad things - things that could not happen in a dysfunctional bureaucracy like here... There is just less of "Big Brother is watching you" here. Conspiracy theories notwithstanding...

I am sorry if this post is a little incoherent. I had to get this off my mind.
What else did we do - after all, we had 2 weeks of vacation here... To make it short, here's the list:
Metropolitan Museum x2, Neue Galerie for Bratwurst, Einspänner and Apfelstrudel, Camping and Sea Kayaking in Connecticut, Orchard Beach and City Island (hmm... Lobster), Greenwich Village, Chinatown Manhattan and Chinatown Flushing, Shopping, Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Bridge, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Central Park... and the 2nd birthday of Max, the son of my cousin and his wife... Recently, we had a visitor from Germany here. Hopefully not the last one... Will upload pictures to picasa soon and link here.

I'll write about medicine on another day. Currently, work isn't terribly hard. This too will change...