Around where I live: Architecture, Parks, Nightlife, Food, Wildlife! Willkommen

[Jerome Marot]

Outside

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[Jerome Marot]

Inside

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[Maggie Terlecki]

Jerome,

I see snow has arrived in Germany!

I assume the tent and apartment block is for welcoming refugees? I think that is fantastic. Good for you, Germany!

 

[Jerome Marot]

I assume the tent and apartment block is for welcoming refugees?

Yes, but look more carefully: these are different tents and different blocks. We have these tents all around Munich and inside the city many old buildings which were planed to be demolished are occupied.

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[Asher Kelman]

So, Jerome, these tents are meant for current residents, not new immigrants then?

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

So, Jerome, these tents are meant for current residents, not new immigrants then?

That is the point: these people are not supposed to be immigrants, they are supposed to be refugees. And new tents are being built as we speak:

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This one is not open yet. Apparently, it is missing toilets. The manufacturer of the toilets is completely out of them. Toilets may seem a rather mundane preoccupation, but we are talking hundred thousands of people.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Magnificent! simply a wonderful move by Merkel. We can all learn from this remarkable gesture!

Asher

 

[Antonio Correia]

Magnificent! simply a wonderful move by Merkel. We can all learn from this remarkable gesture! Asher

Can we ?

 

[Jerome Marot]

Magnificent! simply a wonderful move by Merkel. We can all learn from this remarkable gesture!

And what are we supposed to learn?

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The reality is never quite like what one reads in the press. Two messages earlier, we learned that toilets are an underestimated problem. Here we learn that bicycles are a cheap means of transportation.

Let me try with a question: suppose you have about a million people to take care of. They come from different countries and when they come from the same country, they may not like each other at all: it is not because they flee a common enemy that they had not been at war for a few generation. Some of them may even be violent, it stands to reason that some of the ones who survived on overpopulated boats may have made it because they pushed the weaker passengers overboard. Add a fair percentage of young men who fled to Europe because someone told them that money is plentiful and women promiscuous. Add also, of course, a percentage of children who lost their parents and families who left the newly dug tombs of their siblings back home. Now the question: how do you make it so that they survive the German winter, learn the language and somewhat get a job?

It's a mess.

 

[Antonio Correia]

Yes it is a mess.
Are they all pacific and nice people ?
With their birth rate - compared to native European population - what is going to happen in the next say, 20/30 years in and to Europe ?
I read some don't want to come to Portugal ! LOL LOL LOL

 

[Asher Kelman]

And what are we supposed to learn?

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The reality is never quite like what one reads in the press. Two messages earlier, we learned that toilets are an underestimated problem. Here we learn that bicycles are a cheap means of transportation.

Let me try with a question: suppose you have about a million people to take care of. They come from different countries and when they come from the same country, they may not like each other at all: it is not because they flee a common enemy that they had not been at war for a few generation. Some of them may even be violent, it stands to reason that some of the ones who survived on overpopulated boats may have made it because they pushed the weaker passengers overboard. Add a fair percentage of young men who fled to Europe because someone told them that money is plentiful and women promiscuous. Add also, of course, a percentage of children who lost their parents and families who left the newly dug tombs of their siblings back home. Now the question: how do you make it so that they survive the German winter, learn the language and somewhat get a job?

It's a mess.

Jerome,

The fact that you notice there are complexities, likely as not Merkel does too! I have no doubt that it will be quite clumsy at first. However, you will learn quickly from the first mistakes and work out solutions. I have confidence that Germans are smart enough to see through issues as the ones you enumerate.

What has to be accepted really, is goodbye to essentially "Christian" Europe and taking for granted that pork and bacon are standard in school menus, as this would be most offensive to the new population. As long as the folk going to bed together understand how serious their commitment to a marriage has to be, it can work out very well.

The Syrians are going to be a mixed bunch, some with advanced education and marketable skills and a lot needing care. However, in the long run they will reinvigorate the German society with their new blood and diverse abilities and ways of looking at matters. It all depends how Germany and the newcomers succeed in integrating on an educational and cultural values level. As a basis for discussion, the moral compasses of the refugee families will be likely as noble as any in Germany or anywhere else, for that matter. What will be harder to integrate will be the new views of each other and very different rules of the place of women and expression sexuality in the next generation.

If you do not exclude the preachers on the fringes that incite and draw young folk to extremism, then it will be a massive blow to German society. It could be very painful for todays Germans to tolerate serious state intervention in religion. However, for sure the state can and should financially support only Western-educated Imams who see the country as their home]. You cannot have preachers that view Western Societies as bases of those hated "Crusaders"! To only have preachers that see German society as non-threatening, one needs locally educated Islamic Scholars, not those merely financed from the outside. Islam in Germany must become a German spiritual center with its own identity and scholarship. Yes, an oil rich state can readily pay all the salaries, but It's a too severe a Faustian bargain. If folk understand that, you can exclude the recruiters. That way, you have the best of Islamic culture and learning. You can even encourage Koran study for itself. This way, the starved needs of Muslims will be met and not for anti-Western agitation! But without putting hard cash into assuring that those that preach have some understanding of Western Society, the Rights of Man, the scholarship of Western Philosophers that support such concepts, then all you are doing is reproducing areas of Paris and Brussels which are essentially off limits to police and run by extremists.

I doubt that Germans realize this necessity. I also doubt they can imagine themselves taking over the salaries of Germany's teaching of Islam. However, that's the need and wide approach from my single perspective.

Still, my assertions and remarks take nothing away from the magnificence of the gesture Germany is making to take in 1 million displaced persons of Muslim faith.

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

Still, my assertions and remarks take nothing away from the magnificence of the gesture Germany is making to take in 1 million displaced persons of Muslim faith.

Well... allow me to correct you: not all of them are of Muslim faith. Actually, probably only a minority is of Muslim faith: the Muslim (at least the Sunni muslim) stay on the spot. The ones who flee are the others. Quite a few religious minorities were living in the area bordering Syria, Iraq and Turkey.

Something else I would like to point out: there was a similar crisis during the breaking up of Yugoslavia. Eventually, a large proportion of the then refugees went back.

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[Jerome Marot]

Yes it is a mess.
Are they all pacific and nice people ?

Of course not. Are all people in Portugal pacific and nice?

With their birth rate - compared to native European population - what is going to happen in the next say, 20/30 years in and to Europe ?

Maybe the following article will give you a surprising answer:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/5106828/Brazils-racy-telenovelas-inspire-drop-in-birth-rate-rise-in-divorce.html

 

[Asher Kelman]

Yes, Jerome, there are minorities besides Muslims, but surely, the vast majority from Syria and Iraq are displaced Muslims. But I guess there's also considerable influx from the territories of the former Soviet block which lags behind in pay even for well educated people. Is Merkel including this sector in her welcoming gesture?

Germany will be an attractive opportunity for many who want to grow up with more choices. Also Germans are currently facing a low birth rate which could eventually erode the size of the workforce of one of the strongest economical and manufacturing power houses in Europe!

So it seems to be a win-win situation.

Asher