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Greetings from Germany!
Nora:
--- Quote from: MassuhDGoodName on December 30, 2007, 11:39:39 AM ---Re: "...according to them, EVERYTHING was better in the DDR..."
It is a fact of human nature, that when we look backwards we tend to remember only the positive aspects of our lives; we subconsciously repress memories of unpleasantness.
Add to that fact the terrible culture shock experienced, when slaves who from cradle to grave have had every aspect of their lives controlled and decided for them by others, are suddenly made free; expected to now function normally as individuals, not only in an unstable society where competition determines one's socio-economic status, but also in an unplanned economy in which one must make personal choices and decisions from amongst an almost endless array of market and career possibilities which present tremendous challenges, and for which they are unprepared.
--- End quote ---
I think that is a very insightful analysis and I couldn't agree more.
JTFFan:
Wilkommen :)
Ambiorix:
--- Quote from: Nora on December 30, 2007, 03:37:51 PM ---Well, what about the xenophobia of the "Ossies"? Of course we have to differentiate between the politically correct elites and the people. The latter tend to beat strange looking foreigners up, to the hypocritical dismay of the latter, who adamantly refuse to see any connection between that specific sort of violence and that specific dictatorship, which ended, after all, only 18 years ago and may have something to do with the "no go" areas for coloureds in East Germany. But as it is, it's all "Neo-Nazi violence" a violence that came out of the blue, Neo-Nazi violence nobody dares to call post-Communist violence.
That we don't see even more of it is due to the fact that there are very few Muslims or Blacks in East Germany at all because, historically, the former GDR was friendly with the Communist countries from South East Asia, so you see a lot of East Asians here. They are hard-working (shops with horrible, cheap stuff and countless diners come to mind) and keep themselves to themselves. They are inoffensive and reasonably friendly and I have never found that people here are giving them much thought.
Another reason is that Muslims have a huge, thriving infrastructure in West Germany, so why bother with the East?
Yes, all that is sad and what is even sadder is the fact that there are places in West Germany -- no go areas -- where ethnic Germans better don't go. Places, where an unattended ethic German woman or girl better doesn't go. Places, where elderly ethnic Germans better don't go -- AND NO GERMAN MEDIUM EVER GIVES A DAMN. But here I digress from your question what East Germans think about foreigners/Muslims.
I guess the non-violent majority of Germans here just can't fathom what life in a Muslim-ruled town, city or neighbourhood is like, so they won't find them the threat they clearly are. It's not much of a topic here anyway.
To be honest, I personally, find the absence of Muslims maybe THE most redeeming quality here.
--- End quote ---
Very good quality indeed. But are the major East-German towns muslim-free?
Nora:
--- Quote from: JTFFan on December 30, 2007, 04:28:56 PM ---Wilkommen :)
--- End quote ---
Thank you, JTFFan!
Nora:
--- Quote from: Ambiorix on December 30, 2007, 08:09:57 PM ---Very good quality indeed. But are the major East-German towns muslim-free?
--- End quote ---
I am a country person, and I haven't really been to the big cities in all those months I am living here. To Chemnitz only twice for a business meeting and to Leipzig only to pick up resp.to take somebody to the railway station and never to Dresden. The next biggest city I know is Zwickau with a population of roughly 100,000. But no, I have never seen anywhere any discernable Muslims and certainly not in the suffocating numbers one sees them in certain West German cities.
Edited to add:
Light dawns: In West Germany, railway stations are one of their favourite gathering places, the bigger the worse. (Should you ever visit Munich, beware!) The relevance of the fact that there weren't any at Leipzig railway station is only just occurring to me.
I was born in the Fifties and brought up by Socialist (more of the ethical than the Marxist variety) parents, who were politically correct in the current sense before anybody else was. No racism, everybody is born equal, who are we to judge others, never stereotype, never disrespect anybody, never judge somebody by their looks, always be on the side of the weak, we can't tell whether there is a God, the lot. My father was a leading member (on a regional basis) of the Socialdemocratic Party. I was so fed up with politics, that I plainly refused to have any part in it. I can't tell anymore how exactly I became politicised. The advent of the Internet and the fact that I couldn't afford horses anymore may have had something to do with it, but whatever the reason was, it started 1998 or 1999. The "Second Intifadah" then made me a full-blown partisan for Israel and, if possible, 9/11 reinforced that. But the real awakening came with the two years I lived in the slums of a West German town in the Ruhrgebiet, one of the regions with the biggest Muslim population and WAS it an eye-opener! Every politically correct bleeding-heart do-gooder ought to live there, even if only for a couple of months.
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