Tag Archives: Immigration

German Of The Day: Gleichschaltung

October 20, 2015 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

That means “enforced political conformity” and that’s what’s happening in Germany’s media world right now.

PEGIDA

Actually, that’s what’s always been happening in Germany’s media world but it’s particularly hard to overlook during the current refugee crisis. How the media here unanimously come together in this Pavlovian response to organize massive mind policing undertakings like this is the thing that really amazes me. It’s like… Magic.

You didn’t have to read a paper or turn on a news channel to know in advance what the reaction to PEGIDA’s anti-immigration get-together in Dresden yesterday would be. Do you want the long version? “They’re all a bunch of Nazis!” All 50,000 of those protesting? The same of course applies to all the others who voice their concern about Germany being overrun by refugees (I am convinced that is now what the majority of Germans think): They are immediately made mundtot (another great word – “mouth-dead” or muzzled) and labeled idiots or right-wing radicals. Over a half a country comprised of idiots and right-wing radicals? Well, sure. Why not? I could believe that. But not in this case.

Now we have reached the point where many Germans feel bullied and do not speak openly about what they really think and their resentment about this will only keep growing. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t this already happen here in the past? This guilt-driven obsession with compensating for some dark German past is preparing the way for what could be another one, in other words. Only in the future, of course. You know what I mean. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to understand that these-whole-lot-of-non-Nazi-German-citizens who are gravely concerned about this situation need to be taken seriously by the mind police. Nobody has the intention of building a wall. But I don’t see how anybody has a choice anymore.

The scale of the refugee influx into Germany is almost unprecedented in modern European history: 1.5 million people in six months. It’s as if the US, with four times Germany’s population, were taking in one million refugees each month.

Are We Having An Ugly American Border Wall Yet?

October 18, 2015 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Yeah, I know that this question has already been posted before but now it looks like reality has finally caught up with Germany.

Wall

Sorry, I meant it looks like Germany has finally caught up with reality, of course.

Germany’s police union chief has called for a fence to be built along the country’s border to stem the flow of migrants. Rainer Wendt told the “Welt am Sonntag” newspaper that other countries would then follow suit.

In an interview with the Sunday newspaper “Welt am Sonntag,” Wendt insisted that tough measures – like the construction of a fence along the border with Austria – were vital for the country “to carry out serious border controls.”

Deutschland stehe vor sozialen Unruhen, warnte der Gewerkschaftschef. Daher müsse die Notbremse gezogen werden.

PS: Thanks a lot for this link, A.K.:

Germany makes the best fences in the world and sells them everywhere. For instance, it was Munich-based Airbus Defence and Space that designed Saudi Arabia’s €3.4 billion border fence with Iraq, which works perfectly.

So when German mainstream politicians assert that fences don’t work, we should treat them the same way as Soviet economists saying in 1988 that the five-year plan has been gloriously fulfilled. If fences don’t work, why do Germans spend billions a year building and maintaining them all over Germany?

German Thoroughness Grossing Refugees Out

October 14, 2015 By in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

It’s taking too long to get their asylum papers processed, you see. So now they’re suing. And winning, of course.

Lawyers

A Somali man has won his suit against the German government for failure to act on his asylum application. Despite their increased workload, the federal office for refugees now has three months to decide his fate.

It’s one thing to flee for your life and seek refuge in a country that is apparently willing to help you out. It’s quite another thing to actually have to wait for months until your paperwork gets processed. That’s unmenschlich (inhuman) or something. Just call Larry the Lawyer. He’ll make it happen.

“Sie behandeln uns wie in Syrien.”

What Germans Brought To Amerika?

October 11, 2015 By in Hard Facts, Higher Education, History, Home Cooking, Humor Tags: , , , , , , , 9 Comments

Other than bitching and moaning, you mean?

TTIP

Whah? There’s a German-American Day? I had no idea, again. Too bad I missed the celebrations this year, too.

Hmmm. What did they bring to us (as in US), anyway? Well, there’s aspirin for one thing, for when the bitching and moaning gets to be too much. Gimme a minute. Gimme a minute, I said. OK, there’s the ring binder. That’s pretty cool. They also brought us the hair perm – and the Easter Bunny himself! Then there’s German chocolate cake. Ha, ha. Just kidding. A German doesn’t know what the hell German chocolate cake is, people. That’s as American as apple pie. Anyway, yeah. You know. They brought us stuff like that. And a lot of bitching and moaning, too. Happy holiday.

From Kindergarten and Christmas trees to hamburgers and hotdogs, German-Americans are credited with some of the most recognizable features of US culture to have emerged in the past 300 years.

Less than 5% now speak German themselves.

The Mood Keeps Getting Better

September 27, 2015 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Not. Here’s the latest Germany refugee crisis update:

Refugees

The European Union has criticized Germany for being much too lax with refugees who are seeking asylum in Germany. Not enough are being rejected (only one in six).

Nearly a third of migrants in Germany claiming to be Syrians aren’t from Syria.

Mass brawls are beginning to break out at German refugee centers.

Germany property is now being confiscated by the government to make it available for migrants.

An imam at a refugee camp refused to shake hands with the visiting CDU party boss in Rhineland-Palatinate because she is a woman.

And chancellor Angela Merkel’s popularity ratings are dropping sharply over her handling of the refugee crisis, two polls showed this weekend.

Other then that, though, everything is working out just fine.

Germany in a state of SIEGE: Merkel was cheered when she opened the floodgates to migrants. Now, with gangs of men roaming the streets and young German women being told to cover up, the mood’s changing

Germany’s Anti-Social Network

September 15, 2015 By in Hard Facts, Hate, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Facebook should do more to crack down on German hate speech and xenophobia about refugees online? Sure, why not? But maybe Germans should do more to crack down on the Germans doing the hating, too. Just a thought.

Facebook

Germany expects to see a record number of asylum seekers this year, most from war-torn countries like Syria and Afghanistan. The country expects to see 800,000 refugees through this year, and has pledged to accept more than any other European government, though its response has stoked some xenophobic riots. Last month, Germany’s ministry of justice criticized Facebook for not doing more to police hate speech, alleging that the social network reacts faster to remove sexual imagery than it does racist messages. German Justice Minister Heiko Maas announced the creation of the online task force after meeting with Facebook in Berlin on Monday.

Are We Having An Ugly American Border Wall Yet?

September 14, 2015 By in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Sooner or later reality gets up in your face.

Germany

Germany has introduced temporary controls on its border with Austria to cope with the influx of migrants, the interior minister has said.

Politically this is a shrewd move by Thomas de Maiziere. His announcement comes just a day before he travels to Brussels to meet other EU interior ministers to discuss the migrant crisis. The measure will help him put pressure on other European countries to do their bit. It highlights just how much Germany is struggling to cope.

The move could also serve as a useful threat; after all, Mr de Maiziere said Germany was controlling the border with Austria “first”, the implication being more could follow. The possibility that Germany might suddenly decide to control its other borders could well help jolt EU partners into action.

Is Bild Without Bild Still Bild?

September 9, 2015 By in Hard Facts, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humility Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Germany’s best-selling newspaper has removed all pictures from its print edition and website in response to complaints about its decision to publish images of the three-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned trying to reach Greece.

Bild

The decision to remove pictures in print and online comes less than a week after the newspaper dedicated its whole back page to the distressing image of Alan lying face down on the beach in Bodrum, surrounded by a black background and a plea for action from Europe.

The Problem With European Immigration Policy…

September 6, 2015 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Is that there is no European immigration policy.

Refugees

There is a mish-mash of national policies, a patchwork of systems and criteria which are contradictory, incoherent, fragmented. Italy is very far way from Finland, not only geographically, but when it comes to immigration and asylum. France and Germany have quite different historical approaches to integrating newcomers. Sweden and Denmark are neighbours with a close shared history, but their immigration policies are chalk and cheese.

The seven countries of central Europe and the Baltic are being asked to take fewer than 30,000. It should not be a problem for big international cities such as Warsaw, Prague and Budapest. But the east Europeans are retreating into parochialism, digging into their national bunkers while nursing resentment at what they perceive to be German bullying.

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is the cheerleader of the “Europe is useless” chorus, but Robert Fico, the Slovakian premier, and President Milos Zeman in Prague are not far behind. Ewa Kopacz, the prime minister of Poland, sounds more moderate, but she looks likely to lose an election next month to the nationalist right. Her hands are tied.

I wouldn’t worry about any of this, however. Think Greece: Europe always manages to get together in the end, when stalling for time is no longer possible, to not solve a problem by doing almost just enough to put it off until it does not go away by itself.

“If this is Europe, you can keep it.”

Germans Can’t Figure Out Why Germans Keep Disappearing

April 30, 2015 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Suffering from one of the lowest birth rates in the EU and xenophobic to the core (although officially in denial about this), Germans everywhere (or at least where you can still find them) are puzzled by the continued drop in Germany’s population.

Population

Federal statistics office Destatis said Germany was expected to have between 68 and 73 million inhabitants by 2060, compared to its current 81 million.

I think it’s time for even more concentrated government intervention, don’t you? More sex education efforts, for instance.

“It won’t fall below the 2013 level until at least 2023.”