I had something else in mind for today, something about the new Antisemitism, but then I took a look at my body of work here, and heard myself saying to me: “so what the fuck are you doing here?’ And decided to write about something else.

When I moved to Berlin the first time, sometime in the winter of 2004, I was completely shocked by the level of customer service. It’s true that I had moved here after spending ten years in New York, a place where a business or a representative would do anything to convince you that you are right even when you are wrong, but I wasn’t ready for the opposite Pole.

I mean, how can you get ready to go to a store looking for a particular paper for your printing machine, and have the saleswoman telling you “why do you have to make me work so hard”.

And don’t even get me started about the service line, very similar in their structure to the toll free numbers in America, until you find out that these calls actually cost you more than a regular call. And then they have the nerve to put you on hold!! hallo!!

Anyway, I want to keep it on the positive. On Friday I went to a copy store, and asked the owner to print me some stickers. She looked at my design, and told me that actually I could get a dozen stickers on one page instead of just six. I thought that it was amazing that she helped me to save money, and that she did so by depriving this money from her own pocket.

I don’t think that what she did has anything to do with customer service, and I don’t think she did it in order to keep me as a customer who will keep coming back. I think that you can still find it here and there in Berlin, people who believe in the sense of society.