it is truly almost incomprehensible that israel's week-long bombing of lebanon is the most intense aerial campaign in the 21st century, outpacing the american bombing of raqqa and anything russia has done. it's insane. all carried out with the full agreement of the US government

this is, moreover, admitted by CNN:

israel is deliberately set on killing as many arabs as it can. other strategic thinking is of second concern

And the German government proudly and without a doubt about it says that of course, we'll keep delivering weapons to Isr*el. On multiple occasions in the last week alone, they said it. Chancellor, ministers, etc. (one source amongst many)

meg jobb a sztori mogotte:

“60 year old historian Martin Bühler (who identified himself to the press, I do not identify activists without consent) appears to ‘photobomb’ a lot of media images of the G20 in Hamburg. In reality he is a long time observer documenting police brutality. In Hamburg he chose to cultivate the most non-activist ‘white bystander in a suit with a bike’ look he could manage and casually walked in front of police. As police slowed down or interrupted attacks and waited for the ‘bystander’ to get out of the way (being caught on camera trashing what look like bystanders is bad press after all), activists had time to regroup or retreat.”

HERO

meg jobb a sztori mogotte:

“60 year old historian Martin Bühler (who identified himself to the press, I do not identify activists without consent) appears to ‘photobomb’ a lot of media images of the G20 in Hamburg. In reality he is a long time observer documenting police brutality. In Hamburg he chose to cultivate the most non-activist ‘white bystander in a suit with a bike’ look he could manage and casually walked in front of police. As police slowed down or interrupted attacks and waited for the ‘bystander’ to get out of the way (being caught on camera trashing what look like bystanders is bad press after all), activists had time to regroup or retreat.”

HERO

Ok so there’s these tidal islands in Northern Germany that are connected by little tiny trains that you have to drive yourself, which is already delightfully ghibli-esque.

But then I found out UNTIL THE 196OS, THE TRAINS HAD LITTLE SAILS AND WERE WIND-POWERED?

THAT’S THE MOST GHIBLI THING TO EVER EXIST ON THIS PLANET, BRING IT BACK YOU MONSTERS.

Ok clearly, we just need a ghibli movie set in a world inspired by East Frisia, because in addition to the Sail-Wagons, they also have:

Windmills

Lighthouses

The world’s highest per capita tea consumption, with adorably ghibliesque tea ceremonies

Houses that look like this

Farms that look like this

Heart-shaped waffles (ok that’s everywhere in Northern Germany, but our adorable waffles deserve a ghibli cameo).

SEALS

3.10.1990 - Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day)

ummmm???? do people forget that hitler’s rise to power didn’t START with the holocaust??? like it wasn’t like day one he became chancellor and said “okay from now on, all jews are going to be put into camps”. it started so much more subtle than that. he started with quietly and subtly removing jewish people from civil services, from government positions, then from the entertainment industry, then from being on radio, then from medicine and sciences, then from not letting them go to university, THEN the nuremberg laws that officially classified jewish people as outcasts. THEN Kristallnacht. THEN ghettos. and then THEN the rounding up into camps. this all happened over a span of YEARS.

dictatorship doesn’t arrive with a slimy red bow, dripping with venom. it comes promising to make your country better by putting the blame conveniently on the backs of people that are easy targets and slowly raises the temperature on them until it reaches a boiling point. make no mistake. these ARE the signs of fascism. don’t pretend that there’s an overreaction when there really REALLY isn’t.

Wannseekonferenz. The day the “final solution” was set into motion. 20th January 1942. Three years into WWII. Nine years after Hitler seized power. 

The racist, sexist, islamophobic, nationalistic, anti-semitic shitbag nazi party just became the third strongest party in the German parliament.

Well fucking done Germany. Well done. Not even a hundred years have passed since World War 2 and ya’ll went ahead and elected nazis into our parliament. Thanks to the millions of people who voted for them and the millions of people who didn’t bother to vote at all, thanks for nothing.

A good number of people who lived during the Nazi regime are still around. Victims. People who had to witness a genocide. And they now live in times where they see people going out there, actively putting the people who applaude the holocaust back into power. How horrific it must be to witness this.

It’s bad enough for people like us that grew up learning about this, thinking what horror it must have been. What an inhumane mindset, what toxic hatred. But I’m thinking of people like my grandmother who lived through the terrors and horrors of war, witnessing the outspoken Nazi party being third-strongest party in Germany within a century after WWll ended. It’s a fucking disgrace.

“it’s just a parking lot”

exactly. there’s nothing there. not a statue. not a plaque. nothing.

[drives over hitler’s death site]

Bloody amazing.

And you know what’s right next to it?

That’s right, the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden, which translates to the Memorial for the murdered jews.

So if you wanna go have a look at the monument commemorating the victims of Hitler’s regime, you can park your car right on the spot he died and walk there.

Makes ya think, doesn’t it?

Germany 101: German Federal Elections

On September 24th 61.5 million German voters will decide on the central decision in their democracy: who should represent them in Parliament and eventually govern the country? Elections to the German Bundestag (like our House of Representatives) are held about every four years, with the last election having been held in fall of 2013.

The Basics

In grade school, most Germans are taught about the five principles in the Basic Law which stipulate that the members of the Bundestag be elected in “general, direct, free, equal and secret elections”. “General” means that all German citizens are able to vote once they have reached the age of 18. The elections are “direct” because citizens vote for their representatives directly without the mediation of delegates to an electoral college. “Free” means that no pressure of any kind may be exerted on voters. “Equal” means that each vote cast carries the same weight with respect to the composition of the Bundestag. “Secret” means that each individual must be able to vote without others learning which party or candidate he or she has chosen to support.

Where Do You Vote?

Germans have the options of voting at polling stations for example in community centers or schools, or sending in their vote by mail.

So. Many. Parties.

Germany has a lot more political parties than the United States. This is due to the fact that the German electoral system uses a proportional system, which means that all parties get a share of the available seats that reflect their share of the popular vote. However, not to have too many political factions which would make the decision making process nearly impossible – and Parties can get pretty specific as to what they stand for – Germany implemented the “five per cent clause” which means a party needs at least five percent of the votes cast to be represented in the Bundestag.

According to the German Research Institute the following parties are likely to be represented in the next German Bundestag, as they are expected to satisfy the five per cent clause:

First and Second Vote

Voters actually have two decisions to make when they go to their polling booth.  This part can get tricky.

The first vote is for the representative of your district. There are 299 electoral districts in Germany and the winner of each district gets a seat in the Bundestag.

The second vote is debatably the more important vote, which is cast not for a person but for a party. The number of seats a party gets in the Bundestag is based on what proportion they get of the second votes. Since the first votes for district representatives take up 299 seats of the Bundestag, the remaining 299 seats are filled up by representatives of each party until each party is proportionally represented.

And now it’s going to get really complicated (also for Germans, believe it or not): In case a party gets more directly elected candidates by the first votes than proportional seats by the second votes, these candidates nonetheless remain part of the new Bundestag. This is called an “Überhangmandat”. The other parties then get seats added proportionally which makes the Bundestag even bigger. The last four years, because of this phenomenon there were in total 631 Members of the German Bundestag instead of the legally foreseen 598.

Coalitions

“Coalition” is not a word used in American politics. Coalitions are alliances formed by different parties in the Bundestag to end up with a group that makes up more than 50% of the seats. Traditionally the party with the most votes tries to form a coalition first. Typically coalitions have been comprised by two parties in the past, but in the future coalitions of three or more parties could be a reality. Why do this? Due to the voting system which is a proportional and not a majority one, this is in most cases the only way to create a majority in the Bundestag which is necessary to pass laws. The coalition parties tend to negotiate a coalition agreement at the start of their cooperation which lays out their policy goals for the coming legislative period. Though the majority party within the coalition typically has more sway in what stance the coalition will take on certain issues – such as who the Chancellor will be – the smaller party benefits from the coalition by typically receiving several Minister positions (think Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, etc.) which are filled with members of their party. They might also enforce some stances on their core political issues as long as they can get the “bigger” coalition partner to agree in the negotiations.

Wrap Up

Got more questions? Shoot them to us in the comments below!

Heidelberg, Germany

Germany (by Todt Geyer)

Today Germany saw a record number of people gather together in Dresden. They sang Christmas Carols and smiled together. 17,000 Germans sang Christmas Carols whilst calling for the eradication of Islam and Muslims.

This was the latest and largest in a string of Islamophobic, racist and fascist marches by the right wing in Europe. As a Muslim growing up in the west I am more scared now than ever before. My ancestral homelands are ravaged by war and terror. And my home in the west now also feels unsafe. Islamophobia isn’t something small and uncommon anymore. It’s become accepted as something not only common but as something good. I fear for the future.

If people can sing carols while calling for the death of a billion people then how can I feel safe. I’m scared for the next generation, my younger siblings and their kids. As a student of history it’s frighteningly easy to draw parallels with period before the Holocaust.We all swore never again and yet now my people are the new targets.

Please share and reblog this so people can see that Muslims do renounce terror. We do not hate anyone. We are afraid of what the terrorists do. We are more afraid of what others will do to us because of them. Please share this. Help us see there is nothing to fear.

As a German, I am completely disgusted by the so called “Pegida” movement and I find it very important to spread information about the stupidity and the danger of these people. Yet they are not calling for the death of Muslims. Please, do not take away your own credibility through false information because everything else you said is so veryveryvery important!

These hatemongers usually have no idea what they are even protesting for. They are throwing random images of terrorism together with people seeking refuge in our country - with extremely distorted views on what Islam is about together with general Xenophobia and racism. If you ask them what they want, it would most likely be something along the lines of “to stop immigration” or “to stop foreign infiltration”. By pointing this out, I do in no way want to say these people are harmless. But the fact that they remain hidden in their intentions might make them even more dangerous

In almost every city they are protesting, there are large demonstrations against them that easily overpower them in number in almost every city except for some in Eastern Germany. In Munich, for example, there were 12.000-25.000 people protesting against racism while the Pegida demonstration was called off. Only 20 people came. In the town I live in, 2.000 people had come to protest against the racism of 125 Pegida people.

We have a serious problem here and we are aware of it. Especially in Eastern Germany, people are afraid of losing their culture. It does in no way justify their behaviour, let alone apologize their disgusting way of thinking. It is a part of our history to lose our culture - from adjusting to the insanity of the nazi ideology and forgetting about the democratic spirit that was just about to form over to the socialist dictatorship in Eastern Germany. It is what drives the people in this country, what makes them so easy to be influenced by hate-monging what lets them believe the bullshit some spew.

They are afraid of people bringing their traditions to our country and eradicating ours. It is completely stupid, if you think of it. They are not only afraid of Islam because they throw it together with extremist terrorism but mostly because they see people actually LIVING their religion while most people in Germany have lost their Christian roots. They have NO IDEA about what Islam actually means, they just see people do care about it and that alone scares them. Again, it is no excuse. There is NO excuse for spewing xenophobic, racist hate.

And that is just one factor. Many of these people are jobless and think it was the fault of immigrants taking away their jobs. Which is ridiculous, given that Germany is actually facing a skills shortage! Then they are afraid the refugees coming to our country might be a strain to our economy and social system - they have no idea that some scandinavian countries are taking 10time the refugees we take. But in most cases its the problem that the protesters never had contact with an immigrant, left alone a muslim. They do not even KNOW these people(especially in Eastern Germany there are almost NO immigrants)! They only know what the media tells them and especially the newspapers for the lower classes are a hoard of fear and hate. And those people throw all these tiny factors and a multitude more together without seeing the bigger picture and go protest against something they don’t even know. It is sad, it is horrible and it is scary. I am none to apply the “not all”-logic here and take away the impact those bastards have. But we have this problem and as someone who is strongly against this movement, I am at a loss concerning what to do about them.

Deutschlands Bundesländer || States of Germany

Was soll der #aufschrei, Mädels? MUSS das sein?

Was soll der “#Aufschrei!”-Kram…?, mögen Skeptiker fragen.

Und ich verstehe die Frage: Sind ein PAAR blöde Sprüche, die man sich im Alltag halt so einfängt, als Frau… sooo eine Krise? Ist das einen “Aufschrei” wert? Echt, jetzt…?

Ich glaube, schon.

Die Vorgeschichte ist HIER: “Während in den Medien die Sexismus-Vorwürfe gegen FDP-Fraktionschef Rainer Brüderle thematisiert werden, veröffentlichen Twitter-Nutzerinnen seit dem späten Donnerstagabend ihre persönlichen Erfahrungen mit Alltagssexismus unter dem Hashtag #Aufschrei.”

Der Hildesheim-Bezug: “Eins steht fest: Die Diskussion ist in vollem Gange. Verantwortlich dafür ist Nicole von Horst, die unter dem Namen @vonhorst twittert. Sie verschickte den ersten Tweet zum Thema, prompt stieg eine andere Twitter-Nutzerin ein.”

..und der Blogpost (via: Bildblog / 6 vor 9), über den ich heute morgen auf die Aktion / Debatte aufmerksam wurde:

„Mädels, diese Opferrolle steht Euch nicht.“, schreibt ein Twitter-User. Und ich glaube, jeder von uns hat Bekannte, die mit den Augen rollen und sagen: “Echt, jetzt? DAS ist ein Aufschrei? DA fühlen sich Leute zu Opfern gemacht?”

…zum einen (Arschloch-Rhetorik!) fragen sich Skeptiker, ob Frauen “das nicht wollen, eigentlich” – weil sie ja auch “ne Menge tun, um uns Männern zu gefallen! Kleidung, Gehabe etc.” DIESES (Nicht-)Argument hat, zum Glück, endlich nen Namen. “Patriarchal Bargain”. Mehr hier. Lohnt sich:

Zum anderen aber gehts um Deutungshoheit: Schon WIEDER wer, der sich beschwert? Schon WIEDER wer, auf den wir Rücksicht nehmen sollen? Da könnte ja jeder kommen?! Sind die ALLE benachteiligt? Und wir müssen uns ändern – für DIE? Da geht’s doch nur um Macht. Kontrolle. Bevormundung! (Leserkommentare lesen – unbedingt!)

Privat / persönlich macht der “Aufschrei!”-Slogan für mich Sinn, ist die Debatte gerechtfertigt, weil hier “Microaggressions” zusammengetragen und sortiert werden: Der kleine, alltägliche Scheiß. Der sich viel, viel zu schnell summiert.

Mehr hier. Kulturwissenschafts-Freunde? Benutzt den Begriff: nützlich und klug!

Und – zum Abschluss, von meiner Seite: Wenn ich als Leser / Zuschauer zwei, drei Sehrerfahrungen sammle, bei denen Frauen, Töchter, Mütter, Freundinnen eines Helden getötet werden, um die Handlung voran zu bringen, denke ich: “Tja. Okay – braucht mal halt manchmal: ein paar Opfer, um die Geschichte zu erzählen. DAS ist nicht gleich Sexismus.”

Wenn dasSELBE Konzept einen Namen kriegt… sortiert, geordnet und so benannt / definiert wird, dass in jedem Fall geprüft werden kann: “Musste Mausi nur sterben, damit der Held weiter Held sein kann?” aber…

…haben Gespräche – bei der nächsten toten Freundin im Fernsehen – ne andere Tiefenschärfe. Dass Aktivisten sagen: “DAS ist nicht ‘blöd gelaufen’”, “DAS ist nicht ‘normal’”, “DAS ist nicht ‘halt so ne Kleinigkeit’”, sondern: “Freunde? DAS ist Alltagssexismus – und mir steht’s bis hier: #aufschrei”…”

..schärft unser Bewusstsein. Und “bringt” auf jeden Fall was. So “läppisch” die einzelnen Episoden vielleicht wirken, und so gerne viele Leute diese Debatte auch “hysterisch” nennen würden.

Soweit von mir.

.

mehr?