Violence update 3.6.93
Debora Weber-Wulff
is now "enlightened" :-) :-), we can shop on "long Thursday" until 20:30
in shops, mostly in the downtown areas, that participate. So this was
not a vacuous call for action.]
It indeed appears that there was only the one 16-year-old boy involved
in the murders of Solingen. He had invented a story about 4 Skins he
knew and their participation in the arson, but they all appear to have
water-tight alibis. The media paint a picture of an only child, a
right-wing wannabe who ran around shouting "Heil Hitler" and such, but
was not taken seriously by either his environment or the right-wing
youth groups to which he wanted to belong. Murder as "Mutprobe"?
The private TV station VOX showed pictures of his apartment house -
his parents have fled the city, along with other residents of the
house who fear retaliation - in the same neighborhood as the house
that was torched. They interviewed teenagers from the Hauptschule he
attended, showed more pictures of devastation in Solingen, a picture of
a truck bringing new windows into town, and then interviewed some
others. A man who investigates right-wing terrorism was shown with
his face electronically distorted in front of heis house, which
has been smeared with saying like "Klaus, we're gonna get you!" The
leader of one of the recently forbidden Neo-Nazi groups is interviewed
full-face, and he sneers that his group is so well trained, they don't
need an organization to "do political work". Just the same, he's
started *another* organization to "save the country".
Flags are being flown at half-mast around the country today. Different
organizations have called for minutes of silence, etc. around noon.
Rita Suessmuth will also attend the funeral, and Klaus Kinkel will
attend the funeral in Turkey. Turkish groups keep calling for Kohl to
attend, but it doesn't look like he wants to go. He'll be in Berlin
on Sunday, though, to officially open the Berlin Cathedral that has
been restored with sacks of DM.
After a peaceful demonstration in Hamburg yesterday there were riots
in the Schanzenviertel. Monst Turkish shops were closed yesterday.
Rioting broke out in Flensburg (Schleswig-Holstein, on the Danish
border) when a group of German and Turkish youth began breaking
windows in the city center.
Noises are being made to extend the federal Opferentschaedigungs-
gesetz, the victim reimbursment law, to cover all foreigners.
Currently, only Germans or EG-citizens that are victims of violent
crime can apply for money, tax-relief, etc. It has been suggested
that the revision be retroactive to 1 Jan 1991 to include many of
the foreigners who have been killed by right-wing violence in the
past 2 1/2 years.
Turkish groups are demanding citizenship and voting rights [remember
"Taxation without Representation" all you Americans?]
Politicians are thinking about easier citizenship for those that
"want to make Germany their home", but are leery of the double
citizenship that is wanted. Perhaps a 5 year period for renouncing
the prior citizenship instead of a 2 year one [they just don't
understand why we can't renounce our citizenship!]. Thoughts on a
"Lex Turkei" for the children born here are being spoken. A
numer of Truks who had applied for citizenship went to the offices
yesterday to rescind their applications.
The Moellner murder trial in Schleswig continued under the shadow
of Solingen. The star lawyer Bossi is afraid that Solingen will
keep his clients from having a fair trail. Upon Bossi's urging the
boys have taken back their confessions.
I don't have time to scan it in, but I urge all who read German to
get the "Spiegel", 20/93 and read the article by Cordt Schnibben
about the new "cold war" being waged in East Germany against the
foreigners. He quite vividly describes the daily racism of eastern
soceity - quite chilling.
A correspondent for a Turkish newspaper, Dilek Zaptcioglu-Rogge writes
in today's Tagespiegel: "Was hat der Staat diesen jungen Menschen
gegeben, dass er heute von ihnen Ruhe und Besonnenheit verlangt?
--
Debora Weber-Wulff, Professorin fuer Softwaretechnik
snail: Technische Fachhochschule Berlin, FB Informatik,
Luxemburgerstr. 10, 1000 Berlin 65
email: d...@informatik.tfh-berlin.dbp.de
Michel Fougeres
3.6.93 by Debora Weber-Wulff@math.
[stuff deleted]
>Politicians are thinking about easier citizenship for those that
>"want to make Germany their home", but are leery of the double
>citizenship that is wanted. Perhaps a 5 year period for renouncing
>the prior citizenship instead of a 2 year one [they just don't
>understand why we can't renounce our citizenship!].
Debora, I admire your courageous and time-consuming reportage, however...
The US government has never understood either why anybody who lives in
the USA would NOT want to renounce his/her (previous) citizenship. An
example among many (more famous than most, true): Charlie Chaplin was
NEVER pardoned by the US police (overt and covert) for declining to
renounce his British citizenship. In the end he was practically driven
out by official US harassment, and when he took his earnings of a
lifetime with him the American press was mad as hell -- they implied he
should have been thrown out WITHOUT his money.
=== Michel
=============================================================================
"The men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only
things, and the men who can manage money manage all."
Quoted by Will and Ariel Durant in THE LESSONS OF HISTORY.
Vinod Doddamani
In article <wg41NMS00...@andrew.cmu.edu>,
Michel Fougeres <mf...@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
> Excerpts from netnews.soc.culture.german: 3-Jun-93 Violence update
> 3.6.93 by Debora Weber-Wulff@math.
>
> [stuff deleted]
>
>>Politicians are thinking about easier citizenship for those that
>>"want to make Germany their home", but are leery of the double
>>citizenship that is wanted. Perhaps a 5 year period for renouncing
>>the prior citizenship instead of a 2 year one [they just don't
>>understand why we can't renounce our citizenship!].
>
> Debora, I admire your courageous and time-consuming reportage, however...
>
> The US government has never understood either why anybody who lives in
> the USA would NOT want to renounce his/her (previous) citizenship. An
> example among many (more famous than most, true): Charlie Chaplin was
> NEVER pardoned by the US police (overt and covert) for declining to
> renounce his British citizenship. In the end he was practically driven
> out by official US harassment, and when he took his earnings of a
> lifetime with him the American press was mad as hell -- they implied he
> should have been thrown out WITHOUT his money.
>
This does not take from the fact that Germany badly needs to follow up
on its citizenship laws. By not doing so, the message to the neo-Nazis
is really "You've won, We surrender!". Without making it much easier for
long-time residents to take German citizenship, the changes to the Grund-
gesetz on the assylum law are meaningless, and only justify what the neo-
Nazis have been saying all the time "Deutschland den Deutschen" "Germany
for Germans". 10 years is a heck of a long time for naturalization.
However, we must also not lose sight of what is happenning on this side
of the pond; did anyone see the hype about the Chinese coming on shore
in California, and about the Colombian boy who smuggled himself in the
wheel chamber of an aircraft, or listen to the proceedings of the cong-
ressional committee on immigration(INS). Clinton's broken promise on the
Haitians underscores US-policymaker's current thinking; i.e. We have no
place for illegal immigration. And it's clear what sort of immigrant is
preferred. Mainly European, or educated Asian(brain drain?). Countries
that over-exceeded their quota in the last century, such as Ireland,
Germany, Poland and Italy, still have as large quotas as countries with
much bigger populations and problems such as India or China. And with
the hysteria after the World Trade Center bombing, it's implicit that
Middle-Eastern immigrants are clearly not preferred. Uneducated laborers
from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria or the Congo don't stand much of a
chance. As Pat Buchanan put it: "We'd rather have Englishman come to Vir-
ginia than Zulus". So the "foreigner-friendliness" of the US is also a
myth. I've been advised by many friends not to mention citizenship when
applying for a job here, for example.
Don't want to start any flame-wars,
Regards, Vinod
un03...@wvnvms.wvnet.edu
>> The US government has never understood either why anybody who lives in
>> the USA would NOT want to renounce his/her (previous) citizenship. An
>> example among many (more famous than most, true): Charlie Chaplin was
>> NEVER pardoned by the US police (overt and covert) for declining to
>> renounce his British citizenship. In the end he was practically driven
>> out by official US harassment, and when he took his earnings of a
>> lifetime with him the American press was mad as hell -- they implied he
>> should have been thrown out WITHOUT his money.
Ok. Not arguing, but tell me -- why wouldn't you want to renounce your
citizenship?
I know many immigrants who didn't think two damn second before renouncing
theirs.
> However, we must also not lose sight of what is happenning on this side
> of the pond; did anyone see the hype about the Chinese coming on shore
> in California, and about the Colombian boy who smuggled himself in the
> wheel chamber of an aircraft, or listen to the proceedings of the cong-
> ressional committee on immigration(INS). Clinton's broken promise on the
> Haitians underscores US-policymaker's current thinking; i.e. We have no
> place for illegal immigration. And it's clear what sort of immigrant is
> preferred. Mainly European, or educated Asian(brain drain?). Countries
> that over-exceeded their quota in the last century, such as Ireland,
> Germany, Poland and Italy, still have as large quotas as countries with
> much bigger populations and problems such as India or China. And with
> the hysteria after the World Trade Center bombing, it's implicit that
> Middle-Eastern immigrants are clearly not preferred. Uneducated laborers
> from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria or the Congo don't stand much of a
> chance. As Pat Buchanan put it: "We'd rather have Englishman come to Vir-
> ginia than Zulus". So the "foreigner-friendliness" of the US is also a
> myth. I've been advised by many friends not to mention citizenship when
> applying for a job here, for example.
Buchanan is speaking plan truth - People generally want people who are
like them to be around them. Now I'm sure we see what Buchanan is talking
about -- namely those axe-totin Zulu barbarians that kill innocent people
in the subways of south africa (in their battle with some other godforsaken
tribe). An educated civilzed person in welcome. We don't need uneducated
ditch-diggers - we have enough of those. We needed Doctors, Scientists,
Professional types. That is the future. If we shift the poor slobs over
here we've solved nothing and in fact made it worse for everyone. Let them
fix their countries and then we'll see about letting them in.
Addtionally, of course we have no place for illegal immigration. Look at that
second to last word -- ILLEGAL. Its not permitted by law. We should not
tolerate the violation of that law. If takes a goddamn fence to keep the
Mexicans out then so be it ... but I prefer the strategy of NAFTA. We'll
send out small crappy jobs down south and let it improve their country.
-Sam "Steve" Rogers
L Godfrey
> It indeed appears that there was only the one 16-year-old boy involved
> in the murders of Solingen. He had invented a story about 4 Skins he
> knew and their participation in the arson, but they all appear to have
Phew that's alright then. Perhaps the same person has been responsible for
every incidence of racist violence throughout Germany!
Laurence