From Tuesday's WSJ Front page middle column...no link due to required paid subscription...but here are a few snippets below....
Germans Are Trying All Manner of Ways To Improve Etiquette
(teaser)Classes and Books Give Tips On Eating, Hand Kissing; Forget 'Gesundheit'
By STEPHEN POWER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 12, 2004; Page A1
With unemployment stuck at around 10% for months, economic growth weak and companies threatening to outsource jobs, some Germans are looking for answers in the little things -- like manners.
The number of Germans investigated, reported or prosecuted each year for making insulting gestures or remarks to each other has more than doubled since 1990, government statistics show, leading the news magazine Der Spiegel to declare Germany a "republic of insults" earlier this year.
Outsiders are cringing, too. A Reader's Digest poll published by the magazine's United Kingdom edition this past summer rated Germans Europe's "least liked" people. A survey last year by the U.K.-based Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine said Germans are the world's rudest tourists. In the summer of 2003, Italy's then-tourism minister caused a diplomatic row when he complained about Germans who he said "noisily" invade his country's beaches.
Now, in the western German region known as the Saarland, authorities have launched a campaign called "Things Go Better When You're Nice," distributing hundreds of booklets to schools that cover such topics as polite language, bad habits in public places, table manners and even how to dress.
Although I think you can probably find a quote like this in any country, least of all here in Japan
In a company, "a team can only function when all employees are dependable, reliable and deal with care. This can no longer be taken for granted, especially with today's youth," says Mr. Hundt of the employers association.
Personally, I think they just need a bunch a cute mascots doing the good things and evil mascots (like those mean looking blobs of fat that the Tokyo Beruea of Sewerage has put up)
...Of course, you can imagine one of the evil mascots they could use.....
