Geopolitics

I came across this video, via twitter, and was very impressed by what this guy had to say. Please, let us know what you think.

Link in case video display goes awry

"Germans take to the streets to protest against 'Islamisation'"

A new type of anti-immigration protest is sweeping across Germany, as thousands take to the streets against what they say is the growing “Islamisation” of the country.

The new protests, which began in the city of Dresden in the former East Germany, feature no neo-Nazi slogans and have nothing to do with the traditional far right.

Instead the demonstrators have adopted the old rallying call of the protests against the East German communist regime that brought down the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, “Wir sind das Volk”, or “We are the people”. They say they want to preserve Germany’s Judeo-Christian Western culture.

Thousands joined the latest anti-Islam march held in Germany

"Yearning for freedom brought down Berlin Wall, says Merkel"

"During the course of 1989 more and more East Germans lost their fears of the state's repression and chicanery, and went out on the streets. There was no turning back then. It is thanks to their courage the Wall was opened." In a country with few cheerful anniversaries to celebrate after its belligerent 20th century history, Germans have latched onto memories of the peaceful East German revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall on a joyful Nov. 9, 1989.

"It was a miracle that everything happened peacefully," said Merkel, who was on her way home from a visit to the sauna when she saw crowds of people heading west and joined them. "There had been a lot of excitement for weeks. There were tanks that had been on my street since October 7."

8000 lights currently marking the historic path of the Berlin wall

“Whenever Hitler shows up, the world shows an interest”

NYT: "Cups With Hitler’s Image Are Investigated in Germany"

The kitschy, vintage-style cups were on sale for three days at the Zurbrüggen stores before anyone noticed the small stamp showing the profile of the Nazi dictator above the word “Reich,” complete with a swastika postmark.

“Our workers are dismayed and embarrassed, the producer has apologized for the error, and we have apologized to our customers for this terrible mistake that resulted from a chain of unfortunate circumstances,” Mr. Zurbrüggen said in a telephone interview.

Customers have been offered a 20-euro gift certificate in exchange for returning their Hitler cup, which originally sold for 1.99 euros.

So far, 16 of the 175 sold have been returned, reflecting a certain popularity of the cups that caught the attention of the German media and even stirred the interest of the country’s Museum of Contemporary History.

“It is our mission to collect objects that have a relevance to contemporary culture,” said Peter Hoffmann, a spokesman for the museum in Bonn. The museum’s interest does not lie in the uproar surrounding the cups, Mr. Hoffmann said.

“It’s the story that is behind the cup that is interesting,” he said. “But we don’t know right now how it came to be, whether it was intended as a joke, or was simply ignorance.”

Germans are highly sensitized to reproductions of Nazi symbols, which are banned in the country, and move swiftly to remove them or take action against anyone displaying them. Yet in spite, or perhaps because of this, every time an image of Hitler pops up somewhere, it still causes a sensation.

NYT: Germany Announces Deal on Art Looted by Nazis

"The resolution comes months after the public first learned of the more than 1,280 works — including those by major artists such as Picasso, Chagall and Gauguin — held by Mr. Gurlitt. They were seized by Augsburg prosecutors as part of a tax evasion investigation. When the German news media broke the story of their existence last November, it triggered outrage around the world."

Responding to intense international criticism over how it had handled the art, the German government appointed a task force to investigate their provenance with an aim to return looted works to their rightful owners. But questions lingered over what would happen to the collection once it was released to Mr. Gurlitt, if he is cleared of the tax evasion charges. Legal experts also raised questions over whether the state had been justified in confiscating the collection in the first place.

Mr. Gurlitt, 81, who lived a reclusive life seemingly dedicated to defending the modern art collection amassed by his father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, during the Nazis’ reign, had initially insisted that all the art be returned to him. He declared in his only interview, with the newsmagazine Der Spiegel, that he would not give any of them up. (read more)

"Merkel Declares G-8 Defunct Given Crisis in Ukraine"

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared the Group of Eight leading nations defunct given the current crisis in Ukraine, in a clear message to Russia that the world's seven other major industrialized countries consider its actions in Ukraine unacceptable."

"As long as there is no political environment for such an important political format as the G-8, the G-8 doesn't exist anymore, not the summit nor the format," said Ms. Merkel, in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag.

"Russia is widely isolated in all international organizations," the chancellor said. read more

 Wall Street Journal

Germans look to Islam in hopes of saving themselves.

"For the first time, German public schools are offering classes in Islam to primary school students using state-trained teachers and specially written textbooks, as officials try to better integrate the nation’s large Muslim minority and counter the growing influence of radical religious thinking."

For German authorities, countering the expansion of more radical religious thinking has presented a vexing problem. For now, the domestic intelligence service keeps close watch on a growing number, with 4,500 Salafists under observation in 2011 and 5,500 in 2012, according to an annual government report.

Increasingly, attention has turned to education and ways to nurture greater inclusion for Germany’s approximately four million Muslims, a number that has steadily increased since German industry recruited the first Turks as “guest workers” in the 1960s.

One answer, officials in Hesse hope, is being put in effect in classes where young children are guided by a state-trained teacher working from a state-approved curriculum.

In one class, Timur Kumlu recently asked his 19 6-year-old students each to take a strand from a large wool ball. He then instructed the children — whose parents hailed from Muslim countries as varied as Afghanistan, Albania, Morocco and Turkey — to examine how, like the threads, they, too, were woven together.

It was a simple lesson containing a gentle message filled with symbolism — that they were linked by their Islamic faith and practices of prayer.

“We are now all bound together — you come from different countries, and so do your parents,” said Mr. Kumlu, who reminded the children that while their parents came from Afghanistan or Albania, they were born in Germany. 

“I think it’s clear now that for years we made the mistake of alienating people,” said Nicola Beer, who as education minister in Hesse was one of several politicians, professors and teachers who pushed for the Islamic instruction. Now, she said, Germans recognize that “we are here together, we work together, and we educate our children together.”

It will be interesting to see how this experiment works out. Does prayer in schools lead to children growing up terrorist? Our own US constitution precludes that kind of experimentation here in the US. So, we just get to watch, from afar, hopefully in safety.

NYT

A conversation with one of our European betters

A good part of my past week-from-hell was spent entertaining someone with whom I work, from Germany.  On Saturday, he came over and I grilled some steaks.

As I usually do, I not only fired up the grill, but also a fire pit a few feet away.  He asked about this, and I explained that I was doing all I could to forestall the coming ice age.  And at that point, I had to explain to him that I consider anthropogenic global warming to be nonsense.

Well, I didn't have to.  Some might consider mixing work and politics to be...unwise.  But after four margaritas* and a week of being with this delightful German fellow**, it just seemed the thing to do.

Asterisks and more after the jump.