Kultur 9 Amanda Victory

The first article listed for kultur 9 was Bureaucracy Gone Awry: The German Certificate Fetish, which went on to explain the excessive amounts of paperwork Germans require for just about anything. I was surprised to read this because a previous kultur talked about how environmentally friendly Germany ones and that they were in fact global leaders in environmental preservation. To spend so many resources on meaningless and countless pieces of paper seemed strange in this case. The article continued to talk about how in depth the paperwork was, stating that it pretty covered ones entire life and was required for all jobs. Growing up in America I couldn't imagine making a 16 year old do so much work just to get their first job at McDonalds. I could also see the rate of teenage employment decrease in America if we adopted this German tendency mainly because some high school kids complain about filling out the one maybe two pieces of paper that make up an application as it is, force them to fill out about ten and they'd give up (or make their parents do it). One positive thing about being so reliant on tons of paperwork is that Germans are incredibly organized because of it. Especially right now as we are in "tax season" many Americans are running around looking for lost receipts and such, something that a German person probably knows its exact location. Personally I like this kind of annoying tendency mainly because it would force me to be much more organized and pays off in the end.
The second article was Love Thy Neighbor: German Law Tells You How and this one reminded me why I like being an American. It talked about the laws stating how much noise you could make and when you could make. Basically, anytime during the early afternoon and Sundays/holidays is to be quiet and peaceful. I don't see anything wrong with that statement; however I don't see how a government can decide which hours of the day you're allowed to mow your lawn or things like that. I guess it's the American in me showing, but as long as you are not harming someone else what you do on your personal property should not be dictated. Of course if you do decide to be obnoxious and cut your grass at 5am I'd probably hate having you as a neighbor as well, but you'd just suffer the consequence of living in a neighborhood full of people who dislike you.
Lastly I read Germany's Patriotism Problem: Just Don't Fly the Flag. I wasn't too shocked when I read that most, if not all, Germans don't fly their nation's flag everywhere like we do mainly because they've had a much darker past than America. In my opinion I don't think they choose to not display the flag because they are not patriotic rather what could possibly be implied by saying they love their country based on its history.