Angela Merkel declares death of German multiculturalism

[Penn]

Well, this comes as a surprise on the heels of the AH show in Berlin.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/17/angela-merkel-germany-multiculturalism-failures

[rdret1]

We were hearing a lot of the same grumblings when were there in the early to mid 90's. A Turkish housing area was set on fire by some neo-nazis and a couple of people died. It seems like there was a big Turkish riot in Frankfurt because they believed the arsonists weren't really being pursued. They were saying then that their social security system was being bankrupted because of their own immigration problems. Some in Germany believed immigration and the drain on the economy were a contributing factor in the perceived rise in neo-nazi youth gangs.

[Thomas Paine]

October 19, 2010
The Multicultural Cult
By Thomas Sowell

Somebody eventually had to say it -- and German chancellor Angela Merkel deserves credit for being the one who had the courage to say it out loud. Multiculturalism has "utterly failed."

Multiculturalism is not just a recognition that different groups have different cultures. We all knew that, long before multiculturalism became a cult that has spawned mindless rhapsodies about "diversity," without a speck of evidence to substantiate its supposed benefits.

In Germany, as in other countries in Europe, welcoming millions of foreign workers who insist on remaining foreign has created problems so obvious that only the intelligentsia could fail to see them. It takes a high IQ to evade the obvious.

"We kidded ourselves for a while," Chancellor Merkel said, but now it was clear that the attempt to build a society where people of very different languages and cultures could "live side-by-side" and "enjoy each other" has "failed, utterly failed."

This is not a lesson for Germany alone. In countries around the world, and over the centuries, peoples with jarring differences in language, cultures and values have been a major problem and, too often, sources of major disasters for the societies in which they co-exist.

Even the tragedies and atrocities associated with racial differences in racist countries have been exceeded by the tragedies and atrocities among people with clashing cultures who are physically indistinguishable from one another, as in the Balkans or Rwanda.

Among the ways that people with different cultures have managed to minimize frictions have been (1) mutual cultural accommodations, even while not amalgamating completely, and (2) living separately in their own enclaves. Both of these approaches are anathema to the multicultural cultists.

Expecting any group to adapt their lifestyles to the cultural values of the larger society around them is "cultural imperialism" according to the multicultural cult. And living in separate neighborhoods is considered to be so terrible that there are government-financed programs to take people from high-crime slums and put them in subsidized housing in middle-class neighborhoods.

Multiculturalists condemn people's objections to transplanting hoodlums, criminals and dysfunctional families into the midst of people who may have sacrificed for years to be able to escape from living among hoodlums, criminals and dysfunctional families.

The actual direct experience of the people who complain about the consequences of these social experiments is often dismissed as mere biased "perceptions" or "stereotypes," if not outright "racism." But some of the strongest complaints have come from middle-class blacks who have fled ghetto life, only to have the government transplant ghetto life back into their midst.

The absorption of millions of immigrants from Europe into American society may be cited as an example of the success of multiculturalism. But, in fact, they were absorbed in ways that were the direct opposite of what the multicultural cult is recommending today.

Before these immigrants were culturally assimilated to the norms of American society, they were by no means scattered at random among the population at large. On New York's lower east side, Hungarian Jews lived clustered together in different neighborhoods from Romanian Jews or Polish Jews -- and German Jews lived away from the lower east side.

When someone suggested relieving the overcrowding in the lower east side schools by transferring some of the children to a school in an Irish neighborhood that had space, both the Irish and the Jews objected.

None of this was peculiar to America. When immigrants from southern Italy to Australia moved into neighborhoods where people from northern Italy lived, the northern Italians moved out. Such scenarios could be found in countries around the world.

It was in later generations, after the children and grandchildren of the immigrants to America were speaking English and living lives more like the lives of other Americans, that they spread out to live and work where other Americans lived and worked. This wasn't multiculturalism. It was common sense.

LINK:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/10/19/the_multicultural_cult_107634.html

[SF-TX]

It takes a high IQ to evade the obvious.:D

A good read on this very subject is Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas. (http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Morons-Ideology-People-Stupid/dp/1400053552)

[mojaveman]

Having spent five years of my life there I can say that the relationship between the Germans and the Turks has always been poor but with the Arabs it's been even worse. I believe they're in for some serious social problems in the not so distant future.

[mark46th]

I was wondering how long it would take the Germans to say enough.

My favorite story about Germany was from a friend of mine living in Cologne. He said the worst feeling in the world is to be going 100MPH on the Autobahn with a Turk in a Fiat doing 35 MPH in front of you and a Mercedes coming up behind you at 160MPH...

[Penn]

Is multiculturalism dead here too? Democrat party ask Black Voters to come out and support our President

in an effort to drive up turnout for the midterm elections in Chicago and other cities, Democrats are aiming a less-than-subtle message at African-American voters: "Our President Needs You."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/2818082,CST-NWS-sweet20.article

[The Reaper]

Is multiculturalism dead here too? Democrat party ask Black Voters to come out and support our President

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/2818082,CST-NWS-sweet20.article

If it would be wrong (and racist) to vote AGAINST a political candidate because of the color of his skin, is it not equally wrong (and racist) to vote FOR him for the same reason?

I thought we were supposed to evaluate people on their positions, their records, and the content of their characters?

If I disagree with the POTUS on all of the above, am I a wrong or racist for voting against him?

TR

[Richard]

Complicated it is - and so it goes...

Richard :munchin

German Integration Debate
DerSpiegel, 12 Oct 2010

The debate over integration in Germany won't die down. Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer fanned the flames by telling newsweekly Focus that immigrants from Turkey and Arabic countries didn't integrate as well and that Germany didn't need any additional immigration from "other cultures."

He said Germany should not offset its shortage of skilled labor through immigration from other cultures. "We must first exhaust the potential we have here. I don't agree with the demand for increased immigration from foreign cultures," he told Focus.

Opposition parties have slammed Seehofer, calling him a right-wing populist and accusing him of whipping up hostility towards immigrants in a bid to shore up flagging voter support for his party, the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Merkel defended Seehofer on Monday. "It was a comment focused on skilled workers. We remain a homeland for many people and hope they feel comfortable in Germany," she told reporters during a trip to Bulgaria. "Germany is and remains a cosmopolitan country."

Next year temporary restrictions on people from Eastern European EU member states working in another EU country will expire. Merkel said that means there will be no repeat of the situation Germany faced in the 1960s when it invited large numbers of Turkish "guest workers" to make up for a shortage of labor.

German media commentators say Seehofer's comments are incendiary and divisive and fail utterly to address Germany's key demographic problem: the fact that it will need to attract hundreds of thousands of skilled workers from all "cultures" if it wants to avoid economic decline in the coming decades.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Seehofer has portrayed himself as a slightly xenophobic, friendly conman. He has overlooked the fact that his tricks no longer work with Bavarians. After hearing such sentences, many Bavarians will see even less reason to vote for the CSU."

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"Germany will erode without skilled immigrants. Even the most optimistic predictions of 100,000 skilled immigrants per year and small numbers of people emigrating show that the net inflow won't be enough."

"Seehofer doesn't have a remotely serious answer to the problem of demographic change. His comment came against the backdrop of a psycho-social disturbance that erupted as a result of the sensationalist treatment of the unread book by Thilo Sarrazin. Seehofer ... got it wrong just like President (Christian) Wulff whose speech (on Oct. 3, German Unity Day when he said "Islam is part of Germany") in parts seemed to refer to Islam as a persecuted minority in Germany. The population isn't worried about whether Islam belongs to Germany but about the reverse, whether Germany will one day be part of Islam to a greater extent than it wants to be. Those who don't understand that aren't just misjudging the public mood, they are failing to appreciate the momentum of an almost irreversible demographic development."

The left-wing Die Tageszeitung writes:

"This statement is the sad continuation of a rapidly accelerating debate that started some time before Thilo Sarrazin's bestseller (a book published by the former German central bank board member in late August saying Germany was in decline because of a growing underclass of Muslim immigrants) and whose next twist we should be anticipating with trepidation. It is basically about establishing an ever stronger dividing line between 'them' and 'us.'"

"The debate is a prime example of how to deepen divisions in society and deliberately stigmatize certain groups. A foundation of our society is at risk of being sacrificed on the altar of opinion polls -- diversity. It took decades for Germany to reach the stage of development where different life plans, sexual orientation, ethnic and religious backgrounds were regarded as an enrichment and not as a threat. It evidently takes only a few months to undo all this progress."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"The CSU and the CDU are trying to send two messages at the same time. One is directed at core voters and says: 'We've always been opposed to a multicultural society!' The other message goes to left-wing liberals and says: 'We're better at handling multiculturalism than the center-left parties.' But it's impossible to do both."

"The contradiction has become embarrassing because the conservatives are simplifying both positions to the point of becoming vulgar: While Seehofer is unthinkingly cribbing Sarrazin, Prresident Wulff is copying romantic visions that even the Social Democrats and Green Party wouldn't back these days. It's no accident. The conservatives are increasingly letting the prevailing zeitgeist dictate their positions. But the Zeitgeist changes from day to day. Sometimes, like in the current stormy integration debate now raging, it turns into a whirlwind. Those who don't have their own standpoint then start wobbling."

The business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"What we urgently need is a debate about how we can attract skilled immigrants. But that again doesn't seem to happening. If Seehofer defends himself by saying he must be allowed to raise questions and openly address problems, he's right -- but he has missed his vocation. People who just ask questions should host quiz shows. The job of politicians is to offer concrete solutions."

"The economy lacks skilled workers and the shortage can only be covered through immigration in the long term. Even the best efforts to provide training for our long-term unemployed won't change this demographic problem."

"There is no shortage of practical proposals: making it easier to obtain work visas, acknowledging foreign professional qualificiations and radically shortening the months-long checks conducted by the Federal Labor Agency into whether there are domestic takers for particular jobs that prospective immigrants are applying for. In addition, we need a systematic immigration policy which could consist of annual quotas for various professions with points systems like in Canada and Australia which promote the immigration of highly qualified people. That would help out country a lot more than the eternal repetition of outraged debates."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,722656,00.html

[incarcerated]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110205/wl_afp/britainattackssecurityislammunich_20110205202342

British PM calls multiculturalism a failure

Sat Feb 5, 3:23 pm ET
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned his country's long-standing policy of multiculturalism as a failure Saturday, saying it was partly to blame for fostering Islamist extremism.

In a speech to the Munich Security Conference, Cameron said many young British Muslims were drawn to violent ideology because they found no strong collective identity in Britain....

Cameron, who took power in May 2010, argued that "under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream".

"All this leaves some young Muslims feeling rootless. And the search for something to belong to and believe in can lead them to this extremist ideology," he said.

The response, he argued, should be "a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism".

"A passively tolerant society says to its citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It stands neutral between different values," he said.

"A genuinely liberal country does much more. It believes in certain values and actively promotes them."

Cameron was careful to distinguish between Islam the religion and the political ideology of Islamist extremism, saying they "are not the same thing."

But Muslim groups in Britain reacted with a mixture of disappointment and outrage....

[nmap]

Dare I hope that I'll see the demise of the multicultural ideal? I certainly hope so!

[mojaveman]

Anyone want to guess what the options are going to be when multiculturalism fails? I ran a few through my mind and they weren't good...

[akv]

Anyone want to guess what the options are going to be when multiculturalism fails? I ran a few through my mind and they weren't good...

There is a carriage with bullet holes in it at the military museum in Vienna, it's owner the Archduke Ferdinand had it worse than Anderson Cooper. It's a good thing the Europeans are "too sophisticated and interdependent" to repeat the mistakes of 1914, otherwise the economic woes, rise of nationalism, ethnic tensions and resurgence of Russia might result in interesting times. No need to worry unless they roll that carriage out again...

[mojaveman]

There is a carriage with bullet holes in it at the military museum in Vienna, it's owner the Archduke Ferdinand had it worse than Anderson Cooper. It's a good thing the Europeans are "too sophisticated and interdependent" to repeat the mistakes of 1914, otherwise the economic woes, rise of nationalism, ethnic tensions and resurgence of Russia might result in interesting times. No need to worry unless they roll that carriage out again...

I had visions of terrible riots going on in the streets, something like what's going on in Egypt right now. That would preclude the small civil wars, and eventual larger war again in Europe. Of course that's still down the road aways...

[mojaveman]

I can't see those things coming to fruitation as long as there is a American military presence in Europe.

You kind of wonder how strong our presence will be there in another 20 to 30 years. That's the time frame I was thinking of. We might be having some pretty serious issues going on here. ;)

[nmap]

You kind of wonder how strong our presence will be there in another 20 to 30 years. That's the time frame I was thinking of. We might be having some pretty serious issues going on here. ;)

Given our spending issues, I wonder if we'll even go 10 before we have to start pulling back. It was supposed to be several years before Social Security went into deficit - and yet, it is happening now.

Anyone want to guess what the options are going to be when multiculturalism fails? I ran a few through my mind and they weren't good...

Perhaps there will be less mobility due to energy costs, leading to reduced interaction at a distance. Smaller areas will experience a reduced flux of immigrants and will tend to develop their own unique (but monolithic) cultures.

Of course, there are always other possibilities that would surely meet the definition of not good.

[incarcerated]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361068/Half-Britain-vote-far-Right-parties-gave-violence.html

Half of Britain 'would vote for far-Right parties if they gave up violence'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:40 AM on 27th February 2011
Almost half the country would back a far-Right party if they gave up violence, an astonishing new poll revealed today.
A total of 48 per cent said that they would support a group that vowed to crack down on immigration and Islamic extremists.
They would also restrict the building of mosques and order the flag of St George or the Union Jack be flown on all public buildings.
Anti-racism campaigners said the findings were a clear sign that Britain's mainstream parties were losing touch with many voters on the issue of race.
There has been a recent wave of support for extremists such as the English Defence League and the British National Party.

And the poll, which will spark fresh fears of racial tension, suggests that the level of backing for a far-Right party could equal or even outstrip that in countries such as France, the Netherlands and Austria.
France's National Front party hopes to secure 20 per cent in the first round of the presidential vote next year.

The Dutch anti-Islam party led by Geert Wilders attracted 15.5 per cent of the vote in last year's parliamentary elections.

The revelations will spark fresh fears of racial tension in Britain amid a new wave of support for extreme right-wing parties like the British National Party and the English Defence League.

Findings of the survey, the largest of its kind and involving 5,054 people, are in a major report called Fear and Hope – the New Politics of Identity, which examines views on race, immigration and multi-culturalism....

The report identified a resurgence of English identity, with 39 per cent preferring to call themselves English rather than British. Just 5 per cent labelled themselves European.

In one of the most revealing questions, pollsters Populus asked people if they would back a party that ‘wants to defend the English, create an English parliament, control immigration and challenge Islamic extremism’.
A total of 48 per cent said they would either ‘definitely support’ or ‘consider supporting’ a party with such an agenda, if it shunned violence and fascist imagery.

The results will alarm both PM David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband, who are worried about the rise of right-wing extremists.
In the 12 months to last September, 238,950 migrants were allowed into Britain, the highest figure since records began.

Sixty per cent of people thought immigration had been ‘a bad thing’ for England, against 40 per cent who said it had been ‘good’.
Thirty-four per cent said immigration should be stopped permanently or until the economy improved. The report also found opposition comes from all races, not just ‘white Britons’.
'And 52 per cent of Britons agree that ‘Muslims create problems in the UK’.
Searchlight director Nick Lowles told the Sunday Mirror: ‘The harsh truth is we are in danger of losing touch with the public on race, immigration and multi-cultural¬ism.’

[incarcerated]

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/new-german-minister-islam-does-not-belong-in-germany-1.347329

New German minister: Islam does not belong in Germany

Hans-Peter Friedrich's comment comes in context of probe into killing of two U.S. airmen at Frankfurt Airport believed to be motivated by radical Islamist beliefs.
By Danna Harman
Published 01:53 06.03.11 Latest update 01:53 06.03.11
Just three days into the job, Germany's new interior minister is already causing his government a headache after wading into a highly delicate debate about multiculturalism and claiming Islam was not a key part of the German way of life. "Islam in Germany is not something supported by history at any point," Hans-Peter Friedrich told journalists on his first day as Thomas de Maiziere's replacement on Thursday.

Friedrich was speaking in the context of a probe by German authorities into last Wednesday's killing of two U.S. airmen at Frankfurt Airport, in which it is believed the 21-year-old Kosovan suspect Arid Uka was a lone operator motivated by radical Islamist beliefs. His comments were a play on words, turning on its head an earlier remark made several months ago by German President Christian Wulff, who said Islam now "belongs to Germany" because of the 4 million Muslims who live there....

Germany is home to Western Europe's second-biggest Islamic population after France. The single biggest minority is Turkish. In contrast to the situation in Britain or France, where simmering racial tensions sometimes explode into violence, German Muslims live relatively peacefully alongside mainstream society, but a lack of integration has long posed a problem.

Opposition member Dieter Wiefelsputz of the Social Democratic Party referred to Friedrich's comments as "rubbish," saying that the minister began his term with "poor judgment."

[RTK]

It will be interesting to see if the new defense minister (who was the interior minister until last week) says anything to detract attention from this statement. He would be wise to stay out of it.

Spent some time at the German General Staff College in November and December - at that time they were a little put off by the former defense minister taking his wife to Afghanistan to visit the troops (same one who was sacked last week for plagiarising his doctoral dissertation).

Have the German crew at Leavenworth for exchange right now - they are not amused by their government.

Not a good month to be a German minister.

[incarcerated]

http://www.loccidentale.it/node/103872

The Failure of Multiculturalism and How to Turn the Tide

by Geert Wilders
26 Marzo 2011
Signore e signori, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends of the Magna Carta Foundation, molte grazie. Thank you for inviting me to Rome. It is great to be here in this beautiful city which for many centuries was the capital and the centre of Europe’s Judeo-Christian culture. Together with Jerusalem and Athens, Rome is the cradle of our Western civilization – the most advanced and superior civilization the world has ever known.

As Westerners, we share the same Judeo-Christian culture. I am from the Netherlands and you are from Italy. Our national cultures are branches of the same tree. We do not belong to multiple cultures, but to different branches of one single culture. This is why when we come to Rome, we all come home in a sense. We belong here, as we also belong in Athens and in Jerusalem.

It is important that we know where our roots are. If we lose them we become deracinated. We become men and women without a culture.

I am here today to talk about multiculturalism. This term has a number of different meanings. I use the term to refer to a specific political ideology. It advocates that all cultures are equal. If they are equal it follows that the state is not allowed to promote any specific cultural values as central and dominant. In other words: multiculturalism holds that the state should not promote a leitkultur, which immigrants have to accept if they want to live in our midst.

It is this ideology of cultural relativism which the German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently referred to when she said that multiculturalism has proved “an absolute failure.”

My friends, I dare say that we have known this all along. Indeed, the premise of the multiculturalist ideology is wrong. Cultures are not equal. They are different, because their roots are different. That is why the multiculturalists try to destroy our roots.

Rome is a very appropriate place to address these issues. There is an old saying which people of our Western culture are all familiar with. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” it says. This is an obvious truth: If you move somewhere, you must adapt to the laws and customs of the land.

The multicultural society has undermined this rule of common sense and decency. The multicultural society tells the newcomers who settle in our cities and villages: You are free to behave contrary to our norms and values. Because your norms and values are just as good, perhaps even better, than ours.

It is, indeed, appropriate to discuss these matters here in Rome, because the history of Rome also serves as a warning.

Will Durant, the famous 20th century American historian, wrote that “A great civilization cannot be destroyed from outside if it has not already destroyed itself from within.” This is exactly what happened here, in Rome, 16 centuries ago.

In the 5th century, the Roman Empire fell to the Germanic Barbarians. There is no doubt that the Roman civilization was far superior to that of the Barbarians. And yet, Rome fell. Rome fell because it had suffered a loss of belief in its own civilization. It had lost the will to stand up and fight for survival....

However, if Europe falls, it will fall because, like ancient Rome, it no longer believes in the superiority of its own civilization. It will fall because it foolishly believes that all cultures are equal and that, consequently, there is no reason why we should fight for our own culture in order to preserve it.

This failure to defend our own culture has turned immigration into the most dangerous threat that can be used against the West. Multiculturalism has made us so tolerant that we tolerate the intolerant....

[Dusty]

http://www.loccidentale.it/node/103872

However, if Europe falls, it will fall because, like ancient Rome, it no longer believes in the superiority of its own civilization. It will fall because it foolishly believes that all cultures are equal and that, consequently, there is no reason why we should fight for our own culture in order to preserve it.

This failure to defend our own culture has turned immigration into the most dangerous threat that can be used against the West. Multiculturalism has made us so tolerant that we tolerate the intolerant....


Key.:cool:

[mojaveman]

Did Rome really fall for that reason though...? Rome did try to defend itself against the Germanic tribes

The Romans were unable to conquer the Germanic tribes so the Teutons eventually became part of the Empire. First by fighting for the Romans and later by being given positions of power within the military and government. The German Chieftan Odoacer was basically already in power when the Empire fell in 476 CE.

Fascinating subject by the way.