Verboten

I took this verboten photo of the Christmas decorations in the lobby of my office building. After I snapped my photo, I became aware of one of the security guards making some noise. She told me that photos of the building were not allowed. When I asked why, all she could tell me was that this was policy. This policy doesn't make sense to me, especially since I work in the building and am not some weirdo, who walked off the street taking photos of the lobby to plan who knows what. Come on. It's a harmless photo of decorations that don't even look that good! Sheesh! At least she didn't ask me to delete it.

Anyhow, I was scanning the headlines on the Sueddeutsche Zeitung online and saw an article on GEZ fees, which are monthly fees levied on televisions, radios and computers that are capable of connecting to the Internet. These fees are used to support public programming on the channels ARD and ZDF. The article is about proposed fee increases for those households that don't own a TV, but do own a laptop or mobile telephone that has Internet capabilities. According to the GEZ website, since January 2009, the quarterly GEZ fee for a radio is 17,28 EUR. The equivalent cost for a TV is 53,94 EUR. I guess TV's cost more because it gives you more entertainment than a radio.

I don't think I paid the fee when I was over there, perhaps because it was included in my rent to my landlord. In any case, these fees can really add up if they are paid regularly. I'm glad we don't have to pay these fees in the States. We have public television called PBS - Public Broadcasting Station, but these stations are funded by donations from viewers and probably some government support. I like public television because they have shows like Masterpiece Classics, Masterpiece Mystery and Masterpiece Contemporary. They show a bunch of British programming that I wouldn't otherwise be able to get on other channels.