Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Wolfgang Hampel, Betty MacDonald and touching messages from her family and friends

Betty MacDonald in the living room at Vashon on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

Betty MacDonald fan club fans,

there will be a very special Betty MacDonald fan club event in March 2016.

A Betty MacDonald fan club birthday exhibit with many very special birthday cards by Betty MacDonald's family and friends.

You'll be able to see wonderful cards for Betty MacDonald with very touching messages for example by her daughter Joan MacDonald Keil or her good friend Monica Sone.  

More info will come soon.

Betty MacDonald fan club newsletter January is available with many Betty MacDonald fan club surprises.

Thanks a million for your outstanding feedback!

There are several documents and letters in Betty MacDonald fan club letter collection you can use to answer the Betty MacDonald fan club contest question:

Tell us Betty MacDonald's favourite flower, please.

Deadline: January 31, 2016

You shouldn't miss our International Betty MacDonald fan club events  because you can make the most wonderful friends there.
 
Betty MacDonald fan club event in London was outstanding.


I think London would be the best place for next International Betty MacDonald fan club event because I'd like to return to this wonderful city. 
 
The Betty MacDonald fan club event DVDs are excellent and I already own a whole collection.

Wolfgang Hampel's new Vita Magica guest is a very famous TV lady, author and singer.

Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerl is beloved all over the World.


We are so happy that our 'Casanova'  is back.

Don't miss breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick. 


I'd like to visit Betty MacDonald's paradise on Vashon Island.

Onions in the Stew is my favourite of Betty MacDonald's brilliant books. 


This song could be one of the ESC 2016 favourites.



Wishing you a very nice Wednesday,

Martine & Ina

Don't miss this very special book, please.



 
Vita Magica
Betty MacDonald fan club

Betty MacDonald forum  

Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( English ) 

Wolfgang Hampel - Wikipedia ( German )

Wolfgang Hampel - Monica Sone - Wikipedia ( English )

Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( English ) 

Wolfgang Hampel - Ma and Pa Kettle - Wikipedia ( French )

Wolfgang Hampel in Florida State University 

Betty MacDonald fan club founder Wolfgang Hampel 

Betty MacDonald fan club interviews on CD/DVD
 
 

Betty MacDonald fan club items 


Betty MacDonald fan club items  - comments

Betty MacDonald fan club - The Stove and I  


Betty MacDonald fan club groups 

Betty MacDonald fan club organizer Linde Lund 


Merkel says Austrian cap on refugees "not helpful" for European solution

By Irene Preisinger
KREUTH, Germany, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Germany said on Wednesday Austria's decision to cap the number of refugees it will let in and tighten border controls was "not helpful" to German efforts to negotiate a European Union-wide solution to the migrant crisis and ensure Turkey's support.
Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke during a meeting with her conservative allies in Bavaria, the state bordering Austria that serves as an entry point for virtually all migrants heading to Germany, two members of the Bavarian party told Reuters.
Merkel is under popular pressure to cap migrant arrivals that last year reached 1.1 million, reducing her popularity and fuelling support for an anti-immigration populist party.
She wants to stem the influx by improving conditions at Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, giving Turkey aid in exchange for a crackdown on people smugglers responsible for the passage into Europe of many of the migrants from that country, and distributing refugees across the EU based on a quota system.
Her efforts have produced little tangible results to calm critics at home, including her Christian Social Union coalition ally in Bavaria who want her to reverse her open-door policy for refugees and shut Germany's borders.
Some 3,000 migrants continue to stream over the border from Austria on average each day and if the trend continues Germany will have over a million more asylum seekers by the end of 2016.
Two members of the CSU who attended the meeting with Merkel in Kreuth near Munich said she had criticized Austria's decision to limit the number of people allowed to claim asylum there this year at less than half the 2015 total of 90,000.
CSU leader Horst Seehofer said after the talks with Merkel that his party did not believe the chancellor would be able to broker a solution on the European level any time soon.
"Today was disappointing," he told ARD television. "There was no trace of a concession. Tough politics await us in the next weeks and months."
He added: "We don't believe that in the near future a solution will be found in Europe to limit the number of refugees. Therefore we as Germans have to act now."
Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that Austria's decision was a "cry for help" from Europe.
Gabriel, who serves as Merkel's deputy in a right-left coalition government, added that there was only a broad EU solution to the refugee crisis and that closing borders across the continent would lead to an "economic catastrophe".
INTERIM CONCLUSIONS AT EU SUMMIT
Merkel has expressed fear that shutting borders across Europe's Schengen zone of passport-free travel would menace the very existence of the euro common currency and EU single market.
Eastern European EU members wary of immigration are loath to help Germany, Austria and Sweden, which have taken in a huge majority of migrants. France, where the anti-immigrant National Front is on the rise, has also been cool to refugee quotas.
Austria's decision came on the same day as Serbia's announcement that it would deny migrants access to its territory unless they plan to seek asylum in Austria or Germany.
Arriving at the CSU meeting, Merkel said her government would bring new proposals on tackling the refugee crisis to an EU summit in mid-February. "Then we can draw an interim conclusion, then another interim conclusion, and then we will see where we stand," she said.
Merkel's open-door refugee policy, and her insistence that Germany can cope with last year's influx, has strained local infrastructures and divided her conservatives.
Mass sexual attacks on women in Cologne and other German cities at New Year that have been largely blamed on young migrant men have deepened public scepticism about her policy.
Support for Merkel, long her conservative bloc's main electoral asset, dropped 4 points to 44 percent if a theoretical presidential-style vote were to be held in Germany, a poll showed on Wednesday.
Nonetheless, Merkel remains way ahead of her Social Democrat (SPD) rival Gabriel, who was up 1 point at 16 percent. Merkel's conservatives share power with the SPD in a "grand coalition". (Additional reporting by Noah Barkin in Davos, Madeline Chambers and Paul Carrel in Berlin; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Mark Heinrich)