Germany rethinks multiculturalism
Published: 19 October, 2010, 22:52
Edited: 21 October, 2010, 17:25
TAGS: Merkel, Politics, Europe, Human rights, Immigration
All immigrants in Germany should actively integrate into society, German president Christian Wulff said in an address to the Turkish parliament.
He has arrived in Turkey on an official visit – the first of the German leader in over ten years. His statement in Ankara reiterates Chancellor Angela Merkel's comments last week that multiculturalism had “totally failed”. And as it grapples with integrating its 3.5 million mostly Turkish Muslims, German identity is in the spotlight.
Keith Best, a former British MP and Chief executive of the Foundation for Care for Victims of Torture, says the rhetoric of the German leadership can be explained by the desire to gain political points.
“German politicians are very populist. It’s a very disingenuous and disgraceful thing to do – to play on that kind of populism. But people do tend to want to blame somebody for fears they feel themselves. And very often it is foreigners,” Keith Best told RT.
“This is a great chain, we see this throughout Europe. In fact the reality is, of course, quite the opposite. It’s usually the foreigners who’ve come in, helped to bring in new culture, to change the culture – sometimes in a very beneficial way,” he added.
Czech police detain Ukraine’s ex-minister of economyUkraine’s former Minister of Economy, Bogdan Danilishin, who is facing allegations of abuse of power, was apprehended in the Czech Republic, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. |
No cash for old menFrance’s plans to raise the retirement age face strong opposition among the general population. |
Bianca writes that “German neighbours in Baltics have been given carte blanche to adore memory of Nazi times.” May I remind her that the German occupation • Contributed to Estonia’s de-population through 75% of its Jewish people fleeing the country – people who before, unlike in much of the remainder of Europe, were considered valuable citizens and had been granted cultural autonomy that they enjoyed nowhere else in the world. • Resulted in the remainder being killed by Germans, assisted on the margins by a small handful of locals who co-operated with German occupants. • Resulted in Estonian soil being besmirched through Germans establishing murder and transit camps there for foreign Jews. • Resulted in the murder of at least 7,000 other innocent people, including more than 6,000 ethnic Estonians. • Imposed forced and slave labour in Estonia, including of Estonians, and including the father of this writer. • Promised to maintain the permanent destruction of Estonian nation which Soviet Moscow had initiated. • Led to over 3,500 Estonians fleeing the country from German occupants, a large loss for a small country. • Ruined the lives of thousands more Estonians and their families by their illegal forced conscription into the occupying German army. This is calamity that Bianca foolishly thinks Estonians “adore.” The only even vaguely positive thing to be said for the German occupation is that the two Soviet occupations, between which it was sandwiched, were much worse – much, much worse. Having experienced the first Soviet occupation, and desperately fearing the second one, many Estonians saw no alternative to resisting that greater horror by fighting it within the context of the German military. Estonians recognise their sacrifice, and thank them for it. Bianca’s ideology offensively interprets it as “adoring Nazi times”. But to give her credit, this is not Bianca’s idea. She draws it uncritically from Russia, Estonia’s co-tormentor.












The choice of another controversial 'analyst' to endorse 'wrongdoings 'of racially diverse countries is very predictable. Keith Best offended just about every patriotic British citizen when he said that in Britain "immigrants are better than British born". He was a CEO of Immigration Advisory Service, the organisation funded by 90% of taxpayers money of £13million a year. Does anyone know why is Germany in the doghouse here on RT? I was under impression that Russia and Germany are friends, well, sort of.