Education Petition
The Lessons from the Education Petition, 14 Nov. by Herwig Hösele If Austria doesn’t want to be held back, the ideological trench warfare has to stop. However you look at it: The number of signatures for the education petition, compared to level of public support and importance of the topic, is far below [...]
Austria: Island of Stability? – Part Three
Thanks to the lively demand for Austrian goods and services from outside Europe, the real effects of the ongoing debt crisis in the euro area have been contained – at least so far. This year the Austrian economy will post a strong growth of around 3%. Certainly, the reason for this is that Greece, Portugal, Ireland [...]
Austria: Island of Stability? – Part One
With Europe in crisis, Austria can count itself lucky. The country has outperformed the rest of the European Union in these economic hard times. The recession of 2009 was not as deep – Austria’s economy shrank by 3.9% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared to the EU average of -4.2%. And Austria’s return to [...]
British Christmas Dinner
To recreate in Vienna the ritual of a propper Christmas dinner with roast turkey, crackers and flaming Christmas pudding, planning ahead is vital, but it’s also a challenge, and well worth rising to. Order your turkey from Zum Gockelhahn at the Naschmarkt (stand 180-183), a tried and trusted source (and friendly, too). They also sell [...]
ORF & ATV expand, Danube Radio is back
The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) has replaced its tourism and weather channel, TW1, with two new channels, ORF III and ORF Sport Plus. Programming on ORF III focuses on history, travel and culture, as well as explaining democratic institutions and the EU, while ORF Sport Plus expands the sports programming. Almost in reply, the private [...]
Big Citizen is watching you
An independent website monitoring the activities of Austrian representatives in the national and European parliaments went online in November. The site www.meineabgeordneten.at aims to promote transparency and prevent corruption by Austrian politicians. “It is not supposed to be a platform for dirt and gossip,” site editor Marion Breitschopf told the Austrian weekly Falter, “as many [...]
A Debt Ceiling for Austria
On Whose Head Will the Debt Ceiling Fall, 18 Nov. by Hermann Sileitsch What is the best guarantee of a balanced national budget: a debt ceiling? No. It is responsible and strong-willed politicians. We are still waiting eagerly for evidence of this: […] Until now it has been impossible to predict on whose head [...]
Young Muslims less devout
Only 48% of Austrian Muslims consider themselves “practicing”, according to a study by a leading Austrian sociologist of religion, Paul Zulehner. The study, entitled Religious Practice of Austrians 1970-2010, shows a “rapid transition in values” from the first to the second generation of Muslim immigrants, Zulehner said, a precipitous drop that came as a surprise [...]
