...Goethe...

Last Thursday, another sudden day off, since I was already dressed, up and awake, I decided to go to Sydney again, but this time with a mission. My initial plans to study German as a foreign language need concretisation, so I set out to get information at the Australian Goethe Institut in Sydney. The Institution to foster German language and culture all over the world is housed in a beautiful villa in a noble part of Sydney between Kings Cross and Bondi. A classical German Litfaßsäule greeted me on arrival, everything was clean, tidy and shiny new. Germany must spend a fortune on its reputation abroad. The girl behind the information desk was - who would have thought that - one of the plenty interns that kill time there, and of course, had no clue. As in every good administrative institution, the person in charge was gone to lunchbreak. While no one there seemed to be doing anything but surfing on the net, an older women passed by, judging by her pace obviously very busy and in stress. The information desk intern asked her if she knew anything, but she referred kurz und knapp to the internet computers on the upper floor. After pointing roughly in the direction of the stairs she ran off without good bye. I climbed the stairs overwhelmed by the cleanliness and sterile atmosphere of the whole building. In a freshly renovated bright room with glass doors leading to a spacious balcony was the library. They did not only have computers with internet free of charge, but all relevant German newspapers and magazines. From Spiegel, Stern, arte till Psychologie heute (!!!), they were all there. Looking through the oh so well known Sueddeutsche, I realized how bad Australian newspapers are. Drawn to the Sydney Morning Herald by the old style font of its name, its informative value is at best mediocre. Australia, a relative small nation so far away from almost everything, seems to be predominantly concerned with itself. While the dominant topics concern the cut back in child care, the general economic crisis and Baz Luhrman’s movie “Australia” to be released the coming Thursday, world politics takes a minor stance. The accidental drowning of 2 kids and their loving father was covered extensively with 3 articles filling a whole page (big format!), while the total amount of pages entitled “world” were 3.