pit

Understanding your grudge because being not treated friendly, please still "Remember, we're talking about cheap metal folding chairs."

The comparison drawn is just beyond and tends to trivialise the dimension of atrocities during the "Third Reich". You seriously do not want to do that.

best wishes

More 'Little Mengele' than 'Little Buddha'!

If you have any interest in supporting businesses with a Buddhist, enlightened agenda I would highly suggest you seek elsewhere. While I can't figure out exactly what is going on behind the scenes of this establishment, I think it has nothing to do with what its name suggests - They call it 'Little Buddha' or 'Der Kleine Buddha'.

I'm allergic to milk and can't eat gluten and therefore frequent this place for bread and the like since there are no other shops nearby offering as wide a selection of Bio goods. However, I always hate entering this shop since the staff - particularly the owners - are some of the coldest, most unfriendly people I have encountered in Berlin. All the Tibetan flags and Buddhist paraphernalia adorning the place could never compensate for the personalities of the staff which are more reminiscent of Fascism than anything Buddhism espouses. But, as I said, my allergies trumped social preferences and I continued to frequent this establishment for over 2 years.

This has finally come to an end today after visiting a friend who was having a birthday party for his 4 year old. They planned a nice garden party but due to the rain they had to move it inside and simply didn't have enough chairs. My friend, who lives in the same building as a café called Greenstuff (they sometimes spell it 'Grreenstuff') - which has the same owners as 'Little Buddha' - said he would ask them if he could borrow a few chairs for a few hours. They have about 40 metal folding chairs which are chained up outside the café, never used or even unfolded, and never even brought inside the cafe at night, apparently just waiting until business starts booming and they'll finally be needed. My friend frequents this café, often buys his child ice cream there and said the owners would certainly recognize him and lend him a few of their unused chairs. I was skeptical based on my knowledge of these owners and their utter lack of generosity or any semblence of kindness or warmth.

To make a short story even shorter, my friend went to 'Little Buddha' and spoke to the female owner who was there and indeed recognized him. He explained her his predicament. She said she wouldn't help him. He pleaded with her and even offered to leave a 200 Euro deposit and pay whatever fee she wanted for rental just to not destroy his little child's birthday party. She again said that she wouldn't help him. When he asked why not, she simply said that "it's not what we do." Remember, we're talking about cheap metal folding chairs which are never used, and would be returned after two hours after being used for a birthday party of a child whose family are customers of theirs and live in their building! This is a store that offers a 5% discount to customers who live in the neighborhood so as to "support the 'kiez'" but they refuse to help a neighbor and customer with a gesture that would have cost them absolutely nothing?!

My friend, who, like me, is a foreigner, was obviously shocked but just attributed it to some different local norms which often makes living abroad so exotic and adrenaline-fueled. Reluctant to have to make his guests sit on the floor he figured he'd try another restaurant just across the street, a restaurant which he never frequents but which also had many empty folding chairs outside. Within a few seconds, the managers - who were either Indian or Pakistani - immediately agreed to lend him as many chairs as he needed. When my friend offered to leave a deposit or pay a rental fee they looked at him as though he were mad and just wished his son (whom they also knew by sight) a Happy Birthday and made no issue of it whatsoever - just as you would expect in a civilized community. It was only these pseudo-Buddhists that offered no help or compassion whatsoever. "Just give us your money and buy our products but don't bother us with any of your needs," you know, just like Buddha would have done.

This little incident just confirmed my long-held suspicions that this establishment - with all its pretense of Buddhist/Tibetan generosity and activism - is just some type of sham shell company covering something quite sinister. I've been to dozens of countries and frequented many Buddhist and Buddhist-themed restaurants and shops and I've never had the types of negative feelings that I get from this particular establishment. I'm not saying they're evil or Nazis but in the grand scheme of things I'd say they're far closer to Joseph Mengele's cruelty towards children than Buddha's selflessness and generosity, and I think calling themselves 'Little Mengele' would be far less-misleading than 'Little Buddha.' In short, If you're not into Mengele and all that he represents, I think you'd be well advised to shop elsewhere.

Der Donnerstagsmarkt ist ja tatsächlich nur ÖKO!! Wunderbar! Nette ruhige Umgebung, nicht so stressig wie andere Märkte. Es gibt alles was das Herz begehrt: Vom Kunsthandwerk bis zu einer riesen Auswahl verschiedener Apfelsorten! Und dass es angeblich so teuer ist: Pah! Das ist es auch wert! Umweltschonend und lecker!

great social commitment!