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.

Hatred of Germany

This is a topic I find thoroughly distasteful. If you've been following my posts, you'll know that I loathe any form of xenophobia. When it's targeted at Germany where I live, and which (although I didn't grow up here) I consider my home, it's doubly irritating and painful. I also feel that I can't deal with it in an entirely fair manner anymore. Too much has happened; It has made me prickly and sickened, and I don't trust myself to deal fairly with a topic I find entirely disgusting.

Also, I haven't been living in the UK for a few years now. My last abode was Edinburgh, where I didn't encounter any anti-German feelings in particular, but was aware of a diffuse xenophobic atmosphere.

When talking to British expats here in Germany, I notice the same stereotypical cliches coming up: No queuing (nobody outside the UK queues), efficiency (not true anymore in Germany, alas) and over-emphasis on things like being on time, law and order, strictness in a family context. (All about 50 years out of date). They take the amenities Germany provides for granted but don't try to expand their knowledge of it. Empiricism doesn't stand a chance over stereotype in that quarter.

Thus we come to Social Media where the hatred of Germany and Germans is rampant. Only the other day somebody (an English female, allegedly a member of the Labour party) wrote on Twitter

"All Germans are racists. They can't help it. It's in their/your DNA." As far as racist comments go, this one would score highly. The same person maintained that "All Germans are Nazis".
All this was in relation/explanation of Germany's role in the Greek debt crisis.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, today said on twitter: "Germany's [role in the Greek debt crisis] is a disaster. We have to stop this immulation." As it is clear that "We" can neither do anything, or that Boris Johnson has any intention of bailing out Greece in a different way from Germany, these comments have to be taken as an indication of an almost incandescent hatred of Germany.

I deliberately counterpointed  a quote from a (clearly very poorly educated and ignorant) woman on Twitter and the Oxford man Boris Johnson who - however objectionable -prides himself on his worldliness and multi-cultural heritage. Sadly, both of them seem to agree on one thing: The horror that is Germany.

Speaking to a friend about it, he maintained that things had got an awful lot better over the decades. "Think of those dreadful British war films for example." I must admit I've never seen one. A loathing of all things military, war and xenophobic wouldn't make me the ideal audience. But I can assure you, even that sort of spirit is still alive and kicking: Recently, a British family man - otherwise a nice, decent person - enthusiastically raved about a new game app: "Dambusters" - hey, you can play at drowning Germans, how great is that! (War crimes as games, just think!) Incidentally, tens of thousands of  Polish POW's would have died if that infernal plan had worked out.

It is all very sad. I suppose one has to see it as a corollary of Britain drawing into itself, becoming ever more anti-European, ever more parochial and cut off. Germany and Germans are just the lazy way of hitting out. Who could be bothered to open another can of worms by, say, hating Italians or Austrians? Still, it is a sad indictment on a nation, its people. its politicians, its intellectuals (are there any in Britain still?)

It's also a shame that the UK managed to (rightly) make racism and homophobia a hate crime. Xenophobia, however, remains acceptable, is indulged in by high and low (actually, the thoroughly awful Daniel Hannan (MEP!) is another example of somebody who recently compared Germany to an occupying force in Europe - but somehow he is too disgusting to even get into.

Xenophobia really is the last resort of the scroundrel.

My Personal Reaction to David Cameron's EU Speech

I had not realised "The Speech" would come so early on Wednesday. As it was, it managed to spoil my day completely and utterly. The proposition of an in/out referendum for Britain, the ghastly formulaic "We wanna bedder deal" (i.e. more money), and the general bellicose and aggressive demeanour of the speaker churned my stomach.

You know the branding exercise "If  this product were a person, what/who would they be"? I've always found it very useful to clarify my thoughts. So let's think. If today's Britain were a person what would they be?

The image of a dirty old man living in a run-down shack comes to mind. He shoots wildly at his neighbours whilst shouting obscenities and accusing them of trespassing. He lives on his own, maybe with a flea-ridden dog. He has no job and no obvious income. He spends his time watching  TV, and throws the remote at it when something is not to his liking or he thinks it's a foreign program. For food he slops a can of baked beans over some soggy toast. The leaky roof of his hovel is adorned with a tatty flag to which he salutes when he goes out.  He is unkempt, aggressive, and thoroughly unpleasant.

Clearly, in my personal life I would not have any dealings with such a person. I abhor any form of nationalism, xenophobia and racism. Sadly, in today's UK, xenophobia is so institutionalised and socially acceptable, people aren't even aware they're practising it. And small wonder: Lack of foreign language skills, (i.e. no ability to read or listen to foreign media) little experience of foreign countries (apart from artificial tourist resorts - the "Costas"), and an inherited belief that "Britain is best" make for a society that is perennially chasing its own tail. Unable - and unwilling - to look across the parapet. Proud of its ignorance ("I don't like eating foreign muck"), its tribalness, and its provinciality. Only British people who are living abroad find all this embarrassing and off-putting.

It's a country where hatred reigns supreme. Everybody there hates everybody. Men/women, northerners/southerners, Tory/labour, car drivers/pedestrians/cyclists, families/childless, old/young, rich/poor. There is not a group that hasn't got an aggressively pursued anti-group. (I've written about this quite often, for example here http://britishandbritains.blogspot.de/2012/04/britain-at-war-with-itself.html So it's hardly surprsing that the whole lot collectively hates all its European neighbours. Hatred comes naturally, and a certain historical invasion paranoia doesn't help. All psychologically logical and understandable, but off-putting nevertheless.

The European idea favours mutual support, trade, exchange of ideas, know-how and talent. Countries forging links and living peacefully together, striving for a maximum level of affluence for as many people as possible. It eschews tribalism, and prejudice. The original idea was conceived in the Enlightenment, and in the 21st century has been augmented by a common desire to be linked up, belonging to (cultural or economic) networks, and  a general drive towards a more integrated, modern, and mutually beneficial society.

40 percent of the UK populace reject those ideas and are in favour of exiting the EU (with only 34% opting for staying - the rest doesn't know, hasn't heard of Europe, or doesn't care). Two thirds of the over-60's want to leave the EU. Those figures clearly indicate that it isn't about power-politics, or even rooting for cash-backs. People want their "sovereignity" back, they don't want to be "governed by foreigners", they don't want to exchange ideas. people, and goods. They want to live in their hovel, and hate everybody. Just like the dirty old man.

For me, that is unacceptable. I prefer not to have any dealings with such convictions. I find them abhorrent, deplorable, and really quite disgusting. British voters might be put off by Europe. I am put off by the old man - I know I should be feeling sorry for him, but I'm too disgusted by his ways.






Sorry, no comments - my openness for dialogue with Euro-haters is over.

Julie Burchill - a Brutalised Hater and Xenophobe

Intercultural Musings doesn't normally comment on journalistic ongoings. There are so many, and a few weeks later nobody knows what the whole thing was about. But in the case of the unspeakable J. Burchill, I will make an exception. If only to raise my eyebrows that somebody like that can peddle her dirty tricks campaign for so long - and hitherto unchallenged.

It goes wiithout saying that her ramblings about transgendered people are abhorrent and shocking ( I will not quote her awful comments here, look it up if you're interested). One can only hope, she was (as seems quite often to be the case) drunk when she wrote such abysmal, crude, and rude stuff.

What perturbs me slightly, however, is that this horrible woman only gets taken to task now. Her hate-campaign against all sorts of groups has been going on for years. In particular, she writes the most inflammable hate-filled xenophobic stuff. She hates all foreigners, is rude about the French, the Irish, the Americans. She is however particularly disgusting about "the Germans".

You can read her unacceptable, vile and ridiculously badly-written stuff here (if you can stomach it)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2001/sep/22/weekend.julieburchill

That The Guardian decides to publish something like that, makes me wonder about that paper (but not for the first time). Imagine somebody would write a piece like that about black people, about Pakistanis or any other ethnic group. But the Guradian obviously thinks that "The Germans" are fair game. (The Daily Mail of course is the runner-up for Euro-hating and -bashing of any kind.)

Maybe it took that below the belt twaddle about the transgendered community to make the British public wake up to the fact that writing brutalised hate-filled stuff  is absolutely unacceptable, and that xenophobia is as disgusting as homophobia, or the hate-targeting of any group.

I'm sorry - Nationalism is Not Acceptable

Nationalism - especially in its celtic varieties exudes a certain panache that chimes in with a lot of people. Moody landscapes, knitted Aran jumpers, hauntingly romantic songs, and maybe the odd rugged-looking native. What's not to like?

Since I've been living in Scotland, I was able to observe it at close quarters - and have totally changed my mind. Nationalism is based on the belief of the supremacy of one's own nation above all others. In its day to day appearance, it is ugly, spiteful, and hurts anybody who is not of that nation.

"Everybody here is nationalist, in one way or another", a journalist friend told me recently, "and everybody dislikes the English". Oh right. So that is acceptable to say things like that, is it? No way.

Whilst support for the actual Nationalist Party in Scotland has waned, this is just a reflection on the fact that most voters now know that secession from Britain is no longer economically possible. Nationalism as such, however, is on the rise. And there is nothing to curb it, as "everybody thinks that way".

So "everybody" here thinks nothing of it when obese thugs (nationalism is much stronger in poor, uneducated strata of the population) glower at people who, say, speak on the mobile in a foreign language. Bus drivers habitually profess not to understand you when you speak with an English accent. Any criticism, if only of the weather, is met with utter hostility, and a threatening glare. When two English people talk to each other in a shop, the other shoppers fall silent, and everybody stares at the offenders. Officially, the line about Eastern European workers is that they are very welcome. They don't feel welcome, I've spoken to many of them.

The hatred is sharp, visceral and ubiquitous. You don't have to go football matches or obscure pubs to feel frightened by it.

I understand that nationalism and chauvinism come about through feeling marginalised, economically disadvantaged and bitter. But bigotry, xenophobia and hatred of people who aren't like you cannot be an acceptable form of voicing your frustration.

For me, the ugly face of nationalism is definitely a big problem when it comes to living in Scotland.