tapmag

As we’ve been wondering what to do with our political interest now that THE election is over, here is a suggestion: Why not take part in politics ourselves?

[Read more]

Today, Friday, the U.S. government announced the highest unemployment rate (6.5%) since 1994. October marked the 10th consecutive month of decline on the job market. Since August, the U.S. economy has lost 651,000 jobs, October accounting for 240,000 jobs alone, totaling 1.2 million lost jobs so far this year.

[Read more]

One indicator for the influence of a nation in the world is the number of people willing to devote their academic career to the studies of said nation. According to this measure, the future isn’t looking very bright for the United States, if you follow this article in Time magazine. Applications for American Studies have significantly dropped in Great Britain in the last years, even though regional studies are still in fashion.

source: UCAS

[Read more]

Grand seigneur of the intellectual left in the US, Noam Chomsky has given the Spiegel an interview. He makes it pretty clear that Europeans shouldn’t hope for much from a possible President Obama.

SPIEGEL: “Change” is the slogan of this year’s presidential election. Do you see any chance for an immediate, tangible change in the United States? Or, to use use Obama’s battle cry: Are you “fired up”?

Chomsky: Not in the least. The European reaction to Obama is a European delusion.

SPIEGEL: But he does say things that Europe has long been waiting for. He talks about the trans-Atlantic partnership, the priority of diplomacy and the reconciling of American society.

Chomsky: That is all rhetoric. Who cares about that? This whole election campaign deals with soaring rhetoric, hope, change, all sorts of things, but not with issues.

He has more to say about the state of American democracy and the 2008 elections. Chomsky touches upon the role religion plays for campaign managers, the narrow spectre of choices voters are given and McCain’s honest suggestion that this election really is about personality and not issues, as the Obama campaign claims. The full interview is here.

While the public in the US debates an alleged ‘love affair‘ of the mainstream media with the Democratic presidential hopeful, there is absolutely not the slightest doubt about the big crush the German press and public alike have on Obama. The Germans are pretty much a fourteen-year old teenager right now, minus the pimples, but with all the obsessions a young and unexperienced heart can develop when it is captivated by a charming heartthrob for the first time.

[Read more]

In a little more than 13 hours, U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama will stand in the golden hue of Victoria, at the foot of Prussian greatness, walking in the footsteps of American greats before him.

[Read more]

Weather: solid 83° Fahrenheit. Crowd: Tempelhof-groupies and EasyJet-set. Food: German, served with Stars & Stripes. Welcome to Amerikafest 2008.

[Read more]

In Germany and many other European countries, these past weeks have been spent in a state of emergency, with all social activities focused on one thing: Soccer! Find out why the American Embassy is giving out travel warnings after the jump.

[Read more]

Something about the current campaign is quite surprising for Germans, apart from the fact that millions are spend just to determine the final candidates. It’s the notion that many people and institutions of the public life explicitly take sides in this hard fought campaign. But isn’t that what we should expect from them? [Read more]

It is not a small goal that the founders of website Europe for Students have set for themselves.

“We want to link students across Europe”, Thomas Brünne told German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. The website wants to help students who attempt to go for a semester abroad get through the jungle of different education systems, find the cool places to hang out, a job, or a room- basically, all you need for studying and living, and all that across Europe. So if you’ve ever wondered which universities provides the right classes for your semester abroad in France, how to find a cheap stay in Barcelona, or if Vilnius is really the new party- capital, you can find the information here. [Read more]