Interesting times indeed. I guess because it didn't happen in a highly publicized press conference during the week, people aren't talking about this little ditty from this weekend. Chancellor Angela Merkel from Germany said, "Germany's attempt at creating a multi-cultural society has failed completely." She added that immigrants need to learn the language or Germany will fall behind economically even more. This comes off the heels of a book by a former German Central Banker, Thilo Sarrazin, called "Germany Does Itself In" where he stated that their country is becoming "more stupid" by poorly educated and lazy Muslims who wear headscarves. Um, the book is a best seller. I don't know if Germany has a GCLU (German Civil Liberties Union) but if they do, I bet they are aghast at these comments. Aghast, I say!
Anyway, last I checked this Germany still has a bunch of blonde haired white people. And the last time the economy was this bad was probably 1933. And that got some short, dark haired guy with a mustache to power. We all pretty much know how that went down. Keep in mind this Chancellor Merkel is (well maybe was) blonde and white. And pissed. As are a lot of people, not just in Germany, feeling like they are not able to feed their families while working (or trying to work) a bunch of jobs, and seeing lots of people get hand outs. And spare me the arguments that EVERYONE wants a job, unless you are a blue collar guy or gal, who are busting your asses, and earning about the same or less than some of your neighbors who don't seem to have to work at all. If you are ok with that, then you can let me know. Does seem to be the feeling in a lot of places these days, doesn't it?
I can't wait to see when new government policies come about all over the world and SPENDING is CUT. It's coming.
And here's a message from another former woman Chancellor. I believe she was Chancellor of the Watts area in Los Angeles awhile back.
Eh, just coming back from Germany, a few comments: lots of folks are indeed aghast at these comments in Germany and being rather vocal about it. The (conservative Party) German President just got himself into hot water with his own party for pretty much taking the opposite position.
That said, stop with the fingerpointing. The US today is much closer to Nazi Germany than this (civil liberties, bad economic crisis, us-vs-them mentality, willingness to apply extra violence as a solution to virtually any problem).
Also, the sentiment that "something needs to be done" is pretty much a direct consequence of inner-city regions becoming monolingually non-German and some very visible applications of Sharia law that are upsetting to your typically culturally sensitive and law-abiding German citizen (honour killings etc.)
Note that the request (immigrants should actually learn the language) is pretty minor compared to what we require in the US.
Posted by: Me | October 21, 2010 at 12:43 PM