Regards, Ivan
Posted on 05/07/2006 11:47:22 PM PDT by MadIvan
EUROPE'S largest legal annual migration is under way with university professors joining roadsweepers and the jobless to pour into Germany from eastern Europe to pick asparagus.
People come in their tens of thousands from Poland and the Czech Republic for two-months of plucking that which Germans love to see on their dinner tables, but of whose harvest they want no part.
Once again the German government is throwing money at the nation's five million jobless, trying to persuade and cajole them into working for a change. But asparagus-picking is one job they refuse to do.
The asparagus spring harvest is again stirring a heated controversy over the use of seasonal workers from abroad who some complain are taking away jobs from unemployed Germans.
The return of about 300,000 Poles on work permits this season, and several thousand Czechs, has become a national controversy as many people wonder why some of Germany's jobless can't do the work.
Using a carrot-and-stick strategy, the German labour office has launched a campaign to fill at least 10 per cent of seasonal harvest jobs with Germans on the dole. According to Edelgard Woythe, the head of the local employment office in Potsdam - the capital of Brandenburg where 50,000 unemployed could theoretically do the job - the government is trying everything to get Germans into the fields.
"We've put in enormous efforts to convince people to work in the fields," she said. "We've set up training sessions where people can learn how to pick asparagus."
Despite an extra bonus of 25 (£18) a day and free transport to the fields, among Brandenburg's army of jobless only 154 have so far taken on harvesting jobs.
Germans can earn between £1,400-£3,000 during the six-week asparagus season.
If that's not enough of an incentive, some of the unemployed may be made to learn the hard way - through cuts in their benefits.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
3,000 POUNDS for six weeks?
Are these people insane? How can you be unemployed and turn down a job that pays $5500?
The government doesn't need to coerce these people. It rather needs to cut off all benefits and tell them to get a job. What a bunch of leaches!
I wish that I could make that much picking strawberries on my dad's farm.
Poles and Czechs doing the jobs Germans won't do.
Despite an extra bonus of 25 (£18) a day and free transport to the fields, among Brandenburg's army of jobless only 154 have so far taken on harvesting jobs.
Germans can earn between £1,400-£3,000 during the six-week asparagus season.
All the true fruit of Socialism. £3,000 is pretty good wages for 6 weeks and the Germans won't work to earn it.
Unfrigganbelievable.
MMMMMM, the best, stir fried, steamed, raw, etc. The next AM when you go whizz; it's like you ripped a really raw fart. Stinky pee!!
aspargus!...hated it!...Rather get locked in a Porta-potty in July!
Well, I recently saw an interview with one of the farmers of that area. It seems like he's not very interested in taking many of these jobless people because his polish team is very experienced and dependable and he sees no big point in letting 40 to 50 year old inexperienced people collect his asparagus...that might be why only so few jobless are actually working there...
I also saw an interview. The Germans were slow and lazy, compared to the Polish workers. The farmer was more than happy to keep his Polish workers and Polish were more than happy to work.
Don't forget clumsy. Then you wrote exactly what I wrote about the outcome. Thinking about causes is liberal gibberish of course.
As for the labor question, I am amazed that more Germans are not taking these jobs. Incredible.
As I understand it, the spargel is covered with dirt continuously as it grows. At harvest time, the tip is grabbed while a long knife is inserted into the dirt mound to cut the stem at it's base so the stalk can be pulled out. The lack of light keeps it a pale greenish yellow but also prevents it from becoming too fibrous. I found it to be palatable.
On another note, whenever unemployed people think they are too good for any particular type of labor or job, its time for deep introspection (among other things) by the unemployed person and their enablers.
German youth, sitting in a cafe smoking a cigarette:
"Ya, we'll get to it... as soon as we finish our discussion of the predominance of socio-economic themes at last year's Venice Biennale. And then it's off to my African tribal drumming session. And what about tonight's techno rave? And then tomorrow..."
I had an girlfriend in the 70's who was a boniker(Long Island east end from original english stock....a non New England, New Englander)
She had a father who despised my catholic roots. He was over my rental cottage one day helping me install a TV antenna. from the roof you could see a huge convent across a canal in the distance.
In his semi-New England accent he said..."Well there are the nuns...playing squat tag in the asparagus patch"
Mmmmm, spargl............
I LOVE asparagus!!!
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