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World Beard Championship in Berlin

Berlin, capital of all that is weird and wonderful, is set to host the world championship in beards and moustaches. Not since the days of the Kaiser has the city seen such magnificent facial hair. Meanwhile in the US, Americans wonder just how democratic their country really is. And could it be November before Germany forms a new government?

It's all happening in Berlin. In 2006 the soccer World Cup will be coming to the German capital, tourism to the city is taking off like never before and now, the crowning event. This weekend, the World Championship in Beards and Moustaches will be taking place in the German capital for the first time ever. Admittedly the event may be more of a niche interest, but judging by the extravagance of some of the facial hair, these guys mean business.

According to Heinrich Dubel, who wears both lipstick and a walrus waxed moustache and will be entering the freestyle competition on Saturday, "The organized german beard-movement is a dazzling sub-culture drawing attention from other dazzling sub-cultures so diverse as Wild-West-Freaks or the fans of the German Emperor."

The event kicks off Saturday, Oct. 1 with the moustache competition at 2 p.m., the goatee and sideburn competition at 4 p.m. and the full beard vying for first place at 5:30. The prizes will then be awarded in the evening, followed by an ominously sounding "attractive live program." Presumably this involves facial hair of some description -- although what exactly the show consists of is not quite clear. Some 300 bearded and mustachioed members of the global facial hair community are expected to take part in the competition.

Berlin's Beard Club was established in 1996 and is part of Germany's National Federation of Beard Clubs, the official greeting of which is "May the beard grow." The Berlin Beard Club is made up 22 rather dada-esque looking gentlemen who meet once a month to discuss how to best maintain facial hair and organize up-coming beard competitions, such as the recent Beard Olympic Games in Austria. But apart from just getting together a load of blokes with facial hair, it is hard to actually pin-point what exactly the aim of the organization is. Maybe, in this age of H&M uniformity, the joy of seeing someone seriously sporting a foot-long moustache should be rationale enough. (2:30 p.m. CET)

Land of the Not-So Free?

Hardly good news for US President George W. Bush. A new survey has discovered that most Americans do not feel that promoting democracy in other countries is enough of a reason to go to war. In other words -- with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq having proven a chimera as well -- the already shaky ground under Bush's feet when it comes to why exactly Iraq was invaded has now been completely whisked away.

The survey, conducted by the Washington-based Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), found that 74 percent of Americans (including 60 percent of Republicans) thought that setting up a democracy in Iraq and overthrowing Saddam's regime was not a good enough reason to go to war. Fifty-seven percent of those asked even want to start withdrawing troops as soon as the Iraqi constitution has been ratified, while 72 percent said that the whole experience has put them off the idea of using military force to bring about democracy in the future -- perhaps a bit of consolation for the other countries on Bush's "Axis of Evil" list.

Steven Kull, director of PIPA commented on the findings by noting "most Americans do not appear to have been persuaded by President Bush's State of the Union argument that promoting democracy is a critical means for fighting terrorism and making the world safer." Only 26 percent believe more democracies made the world a safer place, with only 45 percent agreeing that people in democracies are less likely to support terrorist groups. Republicans showed a bit more support for the anti-terrorist benefits of democracy, but only by a few percentage points.

The survey also revealed that most Americans are not actually as bellicose as Bush's posturing would have us believe. The vast majority favor diplomatic and cooperative means to encourage democracy, such as election monitoring assistance and education for journalists. Sixty-eight percent also said that it is better to work through the United Nations when promoting democracy. Only 25 percent thought that the US should go it alone.

Surprisingly, it seems that -- even as Bush promotes the American Way of Life until he's blue in the face -- a lot of the country's citizens aren't all that convinced that the US is terribly democratic itself. Asked to judge how democratic the United States is on a scale of one to 10, with one being the least democratic, the mean response was 4.5. This compares with 7.1 in Canada and 6.8 in Britain.

The quagmire of Iraq and the recent fiasco following hurricane Katrina have certainly contributed to the foul mood of many Americans. But some analysts believe increasing poverty rates may also have contributed to disillusionment. According to the US Census Bureau an additional 1.1 million Americans slipped below the poverty line last year, meaning that 12.7 percent of the population -- fully 37 million Americans -- are now classified as living in poverty. (12:45 p.m. CET)

No Coalition Government in Berlin Before November?

Compared to the pragmatic Anglo-Saxon approach to problem-solving -- come to any initial solution as quickly as possible and change later if necessary -- the German meticulous attention to detail can appear frustratingly drawn-out. Which is exactly how the current wrangling over the next German government is looking to foreign observers.

It is almost two weeks since Schröder's Social Democrat-Green Party governing coalition was voted out of government and the opposition center-right parties (CDU and CSU) failed to win enough of a majority to actually get voted in. The likely result of the electoral indeterminism is that the next government will probably have to be made up of all of them.

But according to politicians it could take at least another few weeks before the details of the political marriage are hammered out. And with both Schröder and CDU/CSU candidate Angela Merkel insisting on being Germany's next chancellor, the word in Berlin's corridors of power is that it could take even longer. "At the very earliest November," regional CDU Minister President Dieter Althaus told the Financial Times Deutschland on Friday. "Everything else is pure speculation."

It took four months to put together the government in Holland and three months to form the present Austrian government, Althaus rather worryingly pointed out. "Stability is more important than doing things in a hurry," he said, ignoring the fact that, faced with increasing uncertainty as to who is actually leading the country, a bit of speed would also be quite nice.

Both sides agree on general direction of policy and that social spending reform is urgently necessary. Although in view of Germany's massive budget deficit, it would be hard not to agree on that. What is more difficult is agreeing on how these cuts should be made.

But the main sticking point in the talks is who should be chancellor. The head of the SPD party has demanded that Schröder remain chancellor, whereas the CDU/CSU parties have said that they are unwilling to engage in concrete talk until Schröder steps down. One can only hope that Merkel and Schröder are simply bargaining chips to be sacrificed in the parties' interests at some point in the negotiations.

All of this uncertainty is not going down well with voters. In polls the German people are giving the distinct impression they are rapidly losing interest in who runs the country, just as long as someone does. According to the Berlin-based market research group Forsa 29 percent of respondents favor Merkel, 28 percent are for Schröder and 23 percent would like neither. Polls taken just after the vote likewise indicated that well over 50 percent of Germans are not satisfied with the election results. Hardly a ringing endorsement for either candidate. (10:15 a.m. CET)