speaking about monopoly

Back to business! I finally recovered from my sickness. After being told by a 'somewhat unfriendly' German doctor that he found no dodgy indication in my blood test result, i felt a bit relieved from the prospect of having infected by malaria after our last Indonesia's visit. Apparently, Lucy was not fully convinced that my illness was just an effect of exhaustion, lack of sleep, bad diet and combined by extreme weather change. So, she had a small internet research about the possible ailment from my symptom. And she found out that my symptoms might have been from malaria, which i of course strongly doubted. It fully fit the criteria, she mentioned. And later, she 'successfully' forced me to arrange an appointment with a German GP to have a thorough blood test. I was surely reluctant about the idea but nevertheless would give it a go. The test was done and the result was negative (as i presumed at the first place!). Despite having experienced a wee inconvenience during the whole processes with the GP, I was nevertheless grateful to lucy and afterward feeling ready for my next adventure. Yup, my internship at GEPA.

I was supposed to do my internship last summer, as it is part of the requirements to complete our course. But for some reasons i was not able to accomplish this at early stage. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to do it in the area which i quite enjoy doing, fair trade, in the regional office one of the biggest fair trade organisation in Europe, GEPA. I have been doing it for two weeks and commute every day from Fulda to Alzenau which takes 1,5 hours with the regional train. It took a while to get used to it but it is only a matter of habituation until one can fully enjoy what one does. Besides that, i've always treated myself with books and music along the journey, and therefore i must say it's always been a pleasant thing to do. But today something slightly changed my mind. As i set off from Fulda at 7 o'clock, the train moved rather in slow pace and it was 10 minutes delayed from the original departure time. Some passangers were really grumpy before the train eventually set off. One could really hear them whinning and bemoaning inside the train, expressing their dissatisfaction of the service from the Deutsche Bahn, the state railways company. I was not surprised at all when this thing occurred, as it was not the first time the train departure delayed from its original schedule, especially during the past two weeks where i've become closer enough to witness their performance.

So, the train kept going in steady pace until it was surprisingly halted at some place in between Fulda and Hanau and had to be returned back to previous train station. The official announced that they were experiencing problems with the railway and therefore the train had to return and travel from another platform at the previous train station. I was thinking to text my co-worker from gepa because he normally picks me up at the other train station and drives from there to the office. At that point i began to realise that i actually forgot to bring my mobile and left it at home (Oupfh! is life not ironic? Most of the time when i needed the train to be slightly late, even if it was only 30 seconds, it never was late and always punctual. On the contrary, when i needed the train to be really punctual, at that very moment, i realised that it always worked the other way round). Anyway, at that point I had to be decisive - which arguably is not one of my strong point - and continued my journey to Hanau. Arriving in Hanau, feeling cold and frustrated, some intriguing question penetrated my mind about the state-owned company performance - in this regard the German railways company. Imagine how many people would be arriving late at the office and became less productive than they were supposed to be? How many passangers could not catch their flight, had they had to travel to the airport and fly overseas? How many students would miss some part of their lecture, had they had early class at the university or school? If one really started to calculate and estimate the casualty that might have emerged from such incident, perhaps interesting numbers or figure would appear.

The thing is, it's not that i am not contented with the service provided by the Deutsche Bahn. They are indeed a very competent service provider and have proved from time to time to be reliable company. Regardless what they've performed recently, they still fulfill certain accountability level which makes the whole difference. Plus, as far as i know, the consumer right protection in Germany is very strong and really well-implemented. So if they detect any erratic or unusual display from public service company, they have the power and ability to turn things round. Then the pressure is there for this company to improve their service. And if their attempt is only to do some lip-service or camouflage to the society, they will fail. The balance is there and the system works properly so to speak.

Yet again, to me, this reminds me to a classical debate whether to open the market for another provider or to keep thing going as it is (i.e. lack of competition for the service and lack of viable substitute service). The presence of the cut-price flight company across the continent, inside the country or amongst region did not seem to move the state railway company either, at least to reduce the fare or giving a certain offer to their loyal costumer. Still, I read in some article that last year the Deutsche Bahn were complaining of the loss and not being able to create good turnover. If the number of people who register their car increase instead of people who buy the annual ticket, I wonder even more how they would react.

In addition to my lovely day, the rain poured really hard and i forgot to bring my umbrella. So i had to walk super fast for about 10 minutes from the train station to the Gepa regional office. All in all, it was somewhat elevating experiences and at the end of the day, one, in this case myself, should and could only laugh at oneself's stupidity. What does not kill you, makes you stronger, said Nietzsche.

Have a jolly good day!