"Living the Best of Two Worlds: 'Commuter Migrants' Between Germany and New Zealand"

Abstract

Every second, there starts and lands a plane at Frankfurt airport. Every five minutes, a subway train goes from Prenzlauer Berg to station Zoo. The new subway in Leipzig will connect the Bavarian station to the central station, Europe's largest head station, and shorten the ride by eight seconds and it will cost over one million Euro. The highway in La Reunion in the Indian Ocean is the most expensive highway within the European Union. Amsterdam has more Fietsen (bicycles) than inhabitants. Around 250 office workers go for a run in their daily lunch breaks at Wellington's Waterfront. They run an average of 20 minutes. A letter from New Zealand to Europe takes a week, the train from Wellington to Auckland takes 14 hours, the flight just 45 minutes. A minute conversation between Germany and New Zealand costs 2.1 cents, which is cheaper than a local call. One fifth of the world's population speaks English. About half of all people live in cities. The price of a square meter for a Paris apartment is the price of purchasing a house in Slovakia. The city stale of Singapore grew from 300,000 inhabitants in 1900 to more than four million today. Couples talk an average of eight minutes with each other per day. Television took 13 years to reach 50 million consumers, the Internet did it in five. Nuremberg has now ten fast-food outlets per Fast Food Chain and shopping pleasures can be satisfied in three branches of the same clothing chain. It takes Bernice from India three hours to cook one of her famous curries. The Maggi five-minute-noodles take only four, in fact. Paula only needs a cup of coffee in the morning for breakfast. Flat rates, fast food, tea bags and Velcro closures will save us estimated four minutes daily. Four out of five children in Germany feel they arc under time pressure. The use of sedatives, antidepressants and tranquilizers annually increase by eight to ten per cent.