dream_labyrinth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dream_labyrinth) wrote2007-08-29 10:50 pm
dream_labyrinth) wrote2007-08-29 10:50 pm
The promised post about the incident in Mügeln
Even though the subtitles aren't all that good, I'm linking this video anyway because I've wanted to share it for a while now.
But that wasn't what I wanted to say.
On the 19th, eight Indians were attacked by a large crowd of Germans, 50, if the reports are to be believed. They tried to get shelter in the pizza place one of them owns, but the mob broke through the door. Racist paroles were reportedly shouted, and a large crowd looked on during what resulted in four injured Indians and two injured Germans. (Main facts and some links on Wikipedia here)
The incident has caused much discussion, mostly centred on what the federal government should have done or should do now or should do soon. Part of the discussion also is about the prevalence of racism in Eastern Germany. That is actually a very interesting topic.
During the times of the German Democratic Republic, there was no such thing as racism. Just as there was no such thing as attempted flights out of the country or lack of goods. Racism was one of the things that were ignored completely, because after all, this was the nation that was made up of people who had fought the nazis. All the evil people were in Western Germany.
The German Democratic Republic also was neither democratic nor much of a republic.
After reunification, a population where latent racist beliefs had been ignored rather than adressed for years was faced with economic disasters, and they reacted as was to be expected. In all parts of Eastern Germany, but especially in the rural and economically deprived areas, there are racist and neo-nazi groups active. There are the Skinheads Sächsische Schweiz (illegal) and other organisations like them, there are the sympathisers of the right-winged parties NPD and DVU. There are unemployed, not very well educated teenagers with no job and no aim in life, and parents who will tell them that things used to be much better "before" - before the wall came down, before the foreigners came, just "before".
[There also is, and this tends to get overlooked, a strong leftist extremist movement, and the left winged parties do get their votes in elections. It's just that people prefer to overlook the fact that the PDS, now having changed its name once again to "Die Linke" (the left) used to be the German Democratic Republic's main party SED, and voting for them is not more supportive of the democracy of the Federal Republic of Germany than voting for the equally legal NPD or DVU. But this is a discussion for a later time.]
However, in all this discussion, the actual happenings in Mügeln get pushed into the background. Despite the large number of onlookers, it is still far from clear what actually happened, and why.
I have heard that the first person injured was a German, and that this was the result of a brawl on the dance floor, which then escalated. Does it make the incident any better? No, certainly not. But it's not a Nazi attack on poor, peaceful people yet.
Secondly, the racist lines that were shouted: Do wake up! If you are in a brawl, you will insult the other party with whatever comes into your mind. It is horrible that racist paroles were what came to these people's minds, but I don't think that they, at least half drunk and stuck in a hicktown in the middle of nowhere, had any political reasoning.
Thirdly, the onlookers. How come nobody bothers about the onlookers?
Now, I might be idealistic, but I think if I saw 50 people hunt 8 others, no matter what the reason, I'd try to do something about it. Sure, I wouldn't stand in their way and get beat up myself, but there are phones, right? And there is the police to call, right?
Unless of course the onlookers, like the mob, had a political motive. Which I don't really think, judging from my limited experience with the average audience at country fairs in Germany.
My point is this:
The attack was horrible. Something like this should never ever happen. Most importantly, everybody who stood aside and didn't do anything deserves to be punished just as much as the mob.
It was symptomatic. There is a need for concerted action. But what we need is not increased action to protect foreigners from the nazis. What we need is action to protect people from nazi ideologies. Not by forbidding parties or symbols or terms, but by putting something else into their minds and giving them something to occupy their hands with. You can't have a large number of people sit in front of the TV on their lazy butts all day and then wonder why they come up with idiotish ideas.
The incident reminded me of one a while ago, when a black man (please insert politically correct term of the day) was hunted through a town and jumped through a glass door into an apartment building to avoid the mob. He bled to death, lying in that building, because nobody who lived there had heard or seen anything. Yeah right. And then, just as now, the silent mass was overlooked in favour of concentrating on matters on which everybody agreed: OMG, there are evil nazis among us!
Fifteen years ago, those evil nazis staged Germany's worst post-war riots in Rostock. 400 asylum seekers had camped for weeks and months in front of the official building where they would be living once they had been registered. In that building, living conditions were miserable.
People living in the area complained about the situation, but their complaints were largely ignored.
After there had been several attacks on asylum seekers before, on August 22 youths gathered in front of the house and started throwing stones. The police came and stayed until things had quieted down, but in the following nights there were continued attacks against the building and the police forces. Passers-by watched and even cheered them on.
ON August 24th, the main building was evacuated, but a neighbouring apartment building, where 115 Vietnamese asylum seekers lived, was forgotten, and on this the attacks centred.
The house was set on fire. The Germans in the neighbouring buildings locked their doors to make sure nobody could get to them - either for help or to look for more foreigners to attack. A team of journalists was among the 1000 people locked in that building.
The firefighters couldn't get through because of the mob. The police couldn't help because they were much smaller in numbers than the mob. Only when police from other cities come in to reinforce the Rostock police does the situation quiet down.
The crowd around the place consisted of up to 3000 people who helped the attackers vanish whenever the police was close to arresting anybody. There were 370 arrests, yet active participants were about 2000. (German wikipedia article here.)
Are we better now? Did we learn anything? Was Mügeln the same as Rostock, just on a smaller scale?
Am I guilty of playing down the incident because I claim it was not as racist as the media made it appear?
What would be the best thing to do? Is there even a foolproof way of dealing with this?
I wish I knew.
But that wasn't what I wanted to say.
On the 19th, eight Indians were attacked by a large crowd of Germans, 50, if the reports are to be believed. They tried to get shelter in the pizza place one of them owns, but the mob broke through the door. Racist paroles were reportedly shouted, and a large crowd looked on during what resulted in four injured Indians and two injured Germans. (Main facts and some links on Wikipedia here)
The incident has caused much discussion, mostly centred on what the federal government should have done or should do now or should do soon. Part of the discussion also is about the prevalence of racism in Eastern Germany. That is actually a very interesting topic.
During the times of the German Democratic Republic, there was no such thing as racism. Just as there was no such thing as attempted flights out of the country or lack of goods. Racism was one of the things that were ignored completely, because after all, this was the nation that was made up of people who had fought the nazis. All the evil people were in Western Germany.
The German Democratic Republic also was neither democratic nor much of a republic.
After reunification, a population where latent racist beliefs had been ignored rather than adressed for years was faced with economic disasters, and they reacted as was to be expected. In all parts of Eastern Germany, but especially in the rural and economically deprived areas, there are racist and neo-nazi groups active. There are the Skinheads Sächsische Schweiz (illegal) and other organisations like them, there are the sympathisers of the right-winged parties NPD and DVU. There are unemployed, not very well educated teenagers with no job and no aim in life, and parents who will tell them that things used to be much better "before" - before the wall came down, before the foreigners came, just "before".
[There also is, and this tends to get overlooked, a strong leftist extremist movement, and the left winged parties do get their votes in elections. It's just that people prefer to overlook the fact that the PDS, now having changed its name once again to "Die Linke" (the left) used to be the German Democratic Republic's main party SED, and voting for them is not more supportive of the democracy of the Federal Republic of Germany than voting for the equally legal NPD or DVU. But this is a discussion for a later time.]
However, in all this discussion, the actual happenings in Mügeln get pushed into the background. Despite the large number of onlookers, it is still far from clear what actually happened, and why.
I have heard that the first person injured was a German, and that this was the result of a brawl on the dance floor, which then escalated. Does it make the incident any better? No, certainly not. But it's not a Nazi attack on poor, peaceful people yet.
Secondly, the racist lines that were shouted: Do wake up! If you are in a brawl, you will insult the other party with whatever comes into your mind. It is horrible that racist paroles were what came to these people's minds, but I don't think that they, at least half drunk and stuck in a hicktown in the middle of nowhere, had any political reasoning.
Thirdly, the onlookers. How come nobody bothers about the onlookers?
Now, I might be idealistic, but I think if I saw 50 people hunt 8 others, no matter what the reason, I'd try to do something about it. Sure, I wouldn't stand in their way and get beat up myself, but there are phones, right? And there is the police to call, right?
Unless of course the onlookers, like the mob, had a political motive. Which I don't really think, judging from my limited experience with the average audience at country fairs in Germany.
My point is this:
The attack was horrible. Something like this should never ever happen. Most importantly, everybody who stood aside and didn't do anything deserves to be punished just as much as the mob.
It was symptomatic. There is a need for concerted action. But what we need is not increased action to protect foreigners from the nazis. What we need is action to protect people from nazi ideologies. Not by forbidding parties or symbols or terms, but by putting something else into their minds and giving them something to occupy their hands with. You can't have a large number of people sit in front of the TV on their lazy butts all day and then wonder why they come up with idiotish ideas.
The incident reminded me of one a while ago, when a black man (please insert politically correct term of the day) was hunted through a town and jumped through a glass door into an apartment building to avoid the mob. He bled to death, lying in that building, because nobody who lived there had heard or seen anything. Yeah right. And then, just as now, the silent mass was overlooked in favour of concentrating on matters on which everybody agreed: OMG, there are evil nazis among us!
Fifteen years ago, those evil nazis staged Germany's worst post-war riots in Rostock. 400 asylum seekers had camped for weeks and months in front of the official building where they would be living once they had been registered. In that building, living conditions were miserable.
People living in the area complained about the situation, but their complaints were largely ignored.
After there had been several attacks on asylum seekers before, on August 22 youths gathered in front of the house and started throwing stones. The police came and stayed until things had quieted down, but in the following nights there were continued attacks against the building and the police forces. Passers-by watched and even cheered them on.
ON August 24th, the main building was evacuated, but a neighbouring apartment building, where 115 Vietnamese asylum seekers lived, was forgotten, and on this the attacks centred.
The house was set on fire. The Germans in the neighbouring buildings locked their doors to make sure nobody could get to them - either for help or to look for more foreigners to attack. A team of journalists was among the 1000 people locked in that building.
The firefighters couldn't get through because of the mob. The police couldn't help because they were much smaller in numbers than the mob. Only when police from other cities come in to reinforce the Rostock police does the situation quiet down.
The crowd around the place consisted of up to 3000 people who helped the attackers vanish whenever the police was close to arresting anybody. There were 370 arrests, yet active participants were about 2000. (German wikipedia article here.)
Are we better now? Did we learn anything? Was Mügeln the same as Rostock, just on a smaller scale?
Am I guilty of playing down the incident because I claim it was not as racist as the media made it appear?
What would be the best thing to do? Is there even a foolproof way of dealing with this?
I wish I knew.
no subject
We had some nasty race riots in Sydney in 2005. I was ashamed to be an Australian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_riots
On the TV little old ladies in the area were hanging out Australian flags and towels etc to spur the thugs on. Right wing swine on the radio spurred them on. A lot of texting by mobile phones triggered the events too.
I do not think there is a way of dealing with this. The Police kept a lid on things the following year, so that was good
no subject
I really loved that as a kid, I think every kid should watch this and maybe then we'd have less idiots rioting and others cheering them on.
no subject
I think it would help the situation too.