The Year of Living Dangerously

It is now almost a year that German Chancellor Angela Merkel unilaterally decided to waive the Dublin and Schengen agreements and thereby triggered off the biggest migration flow in the history of modern Europe.

Much has changed since those fateful days in early September 2015. I will concentrate on the changes in ordinary people's lives rather than the big events (Brexit!!) this decision has brought about.

During the long gloomy autumn months that followed that disastrous September, everybody was feeling absolutely stunned. I remember travelling quite a lot and constantly meeting people who looked perplexed and confused asking each other the ever same question "What is happening here?" There was no help coming from politicians - the official reason of "our humanitarian obligation" was quickly transformed into absurdity as migrants from Pakistan, North Africa and India were flooding Germany in ever increasing numbers.

Evenings were getting darker, and as reports of soaring crime became daily news, going out by yourself after dark seemed a distant memory. Pepper spray became a handbag accessory.  People were constantly looking over their shoulders rather than straight ahead. Whilst Merkel and her allies were calling peaceful demonstrators "scum" and actively encouraged people to sneer at "concerned citizens", Cologne NYE happened. You know the facts by now (against the explicit wish of the government who tried to hide, obfuscate and poo-pah those absolutely mind-blowing occurrences.).

The winter was spent raging against the forces that had made all this possible, trying to find answers, discussing it with friends til the early hours, going over possible scenarios,- and starting to think about leaving the country.

Suddenly it had become clear how vulnerable one really was. Things one had never heard ofbefore actually became frightening reality: Somebody can stand behind you on the escalator and burn your hair off with a lighter (happened in Berlin). Mothers carrying babies could be randomly stabbed (also in Berlin).Young women were admonished to dress decently so as not to "tempt migrants". Houses and flats that once seemed safe were broken into as if a window, a door, a fence were nothing - which  is true, they offer very little actual protection. But in the "old Germany" they used to indicate barriers - this is MY territory do not enter without permission. In the new Merkel-created society such barriers are no longer meaningful. If there's something to get hold of, hey....go for it! And don't expect help or even sympathy from German politicians. Victim-blaming is common currency now

Then the really terrible terror attacks happened, not just in Germany but all over Europe. Train journeys became fraught with danger. Innocence, carelessness, normality, sponaneity have all gone. Instead there is a panoply of crude and rather primitive propaganda slogans urging everybody to do more and get with the programme which is inanely called "Wir schaffen das" (We can do this!). Indeed in her most recent interview Merkel, asked about the increase in sexual attacks on women said "I think we as a country can cope with that".

Life in Germany has become dangerous since Merkel's foolhardy decision last September. And of course this year has seen similarly staggering numbers of immigrants, especially from Central Africa. Thank you Merkel!You have managed to change Germany completely and utterly. Life has become difficult, unpleasant and dangerous, all in one year. Well done!

Xenophobia - a Clarification

Today, I came across an article in the German Press which tells the story of a University Professor who horribile dictu is apparently publishing his thoughts on Twitter. His views, the article explains in a pained and worried tone, are not pro-refugees. They are therefore, the author points out "fremdenfeindlich" - hostile to foreigners, xenophobic. The article is here.

This got me thinking: The professor is against Germany taking in more and more and more (every day, c.3,000) refugees, migrants, asylum seekers whatever you choose to call them. 80 percent of those people are male and 85 percent are Muslim. Whether indeed this is a good idea, is blatantly more than debatable, After the horrendous incidents at NYE in Cologne, people are surely allowed to raise the topic in a more than questioning manner. Crime, especially sexual crime against women has risen dramatically. Other violent crime is also up, especially in formerly pleasant towns like Düsseldorf, or the said Cologne. People, but especially women are rightly afraid to go out on their own. The sale of pepper spray, maze, and demand for legally availablel self-defense weapons has exploded.

So far, so bad. Back to our tweeting professor. Why, in God's name should somebody who is not in favour (and says so publicly) of taking in millions of misogynist, violent males, who balk at the thought of shaking a woman's hand - refugees in asylum seeker's hostels even refuse to take food when it is served to them by a woman - but don't appear to have a problem with raping women, why then should he not be allowed to say so? Or even more illogically, be smeared as xenophobic? For that is exactly the one aspect the professor hasn't got a problem with - that those people are foreigners. He is not xenophobic - he is worried about the demise of tolerance in Germany.

Likewise, regular readers of this blog will know how much I detest xenophobia. They will also know how much I detest illiberalism and homophobic or misogynist attitudes.Which is precisely why I am against importing millions of Muslim males who are explicitly unwilling to integrate and who demand that their anti-Western views and behaviour patterns aren't just respected but made the norm in their newly adopted countries.

So quite why the German press wants to stigmatize people who are worried about society becoming ever more illiberal, intolerant and proto-fascist as "xenophobic" must remain a mystery. Or shall we say not so much a mystery: Plummeting circulation figures are making German media vulnerable: Government funding is only for those who are happy to be "gleichgeschaltet" and will spout Merkel's message.

Generation Emigration

How many times have we read about people from, say, Ireland leaving their country to start a new life in far-away places like Australia, the US or, like an acqaintance of mine who wasn't put off by the chill factor, and moved to the Canadian province of New Foundland because his academic career wasn't prospering at home!

Who would have thought that one day one would find oneself in exactly the same position. Whilst I've moved often in my life and am certainly no stranger to being an expat, I find this is now an entirely new situation:

Suddenly, ever since the beginning of last September, Germany (where I live) has changed. Within the space of  4 months, 1.1. million refugees have entered the country. Every single town in Germany has to accommodate vast numbers of mainly male Muslim immigrants.Container homes are being built. Twon centers are full of migrants who have nothing to do. And life has changed: You will all have heard about the terrible New Years Eve events at Cologne main station. Similarly horrifying reports have come up from other German cities, and are still emerging as I write. Today, it transpired that two teenage girls in a small town in the South Western corner of Germany were gang-raped by immigrants.

Life in Germany doesn't seem to be safe anymore - all of a sudden. And worse is to come: The forecast is for another 3 million migrants to enter the country in 2016. This would all be bad enough, as there simply isn't any room here anymore, and already newcomers have to be put up in shelters and gyms which are hardly fit for purposes.

Worse, or at least just as menacing, I find another terrible change which has occurred in Germany: The media, the police, officials etc. cannot be trusted anymore. Whilst this has been clear for a while (what for example with varying reasons for the chaotic mass immigration being given - Gemany needs young people, Germany needs qualified workers, oh no it's all a humanitarian imperative, and so on) the events of NYE have proven this suspicion to be fact-based without the shadow of a doubt. Police and media now admit to having neglected to report the real catastrophic extent of the events. Rapes, gropes, robbings, theft, assault, injuries were brushed under the carpet, and only came to light when the pressure of eyewitness and social media reports proved too strong.

So, one suddenly finds oneself living in a country where the dangers of uncontrolled mass immigration are being denied, and victim's are supposed to just get one with it whilst being urged to shut up so as not to "slander" innocent migrants. Germany, once again seems to have transmogrified into a totalitarian state where unpleasantness is being denied, coverd up, and where people who want to speak their minds will be intimidated.

I don't feel I can live in such a country much longer. And whils it will certainly not be possible to move overnight - jobs, family connections etc. standing in the way of rash and emotional decisions - I feel a normal life, such as people were used to here in Germany is no longer guranteedor even possible. I know for a fact that many many well-educated Germans of all ages feel exactly the same.

If Mrs. Merkel and her government can afford to lose people like us, and is happy to import unskilled, largely uneducated migrants from Islamic countries in extraordinarily large numbers, I wish her good luck. Meanwhile I'm thinking of where I shall be moving to. Stay tuned.