Germany, a weird place it has turned out to be

[greg334]

I really admire the Germans with their Teutonic attitude and their ability to face adverse things and have a positive outcome. (A side note, they can come together and rebuild their country that was destroyed but the people of New Orleans can’t get it together after how long and with how much help?)

Well two things of late make me wonder what the h*ll is going on over there.

The first thing is here is a country that eliminated the death penalty and they have gone from a true democracy to something that is rather offensive. In Berlin there is a zoo, actually one of the best zoos in the world but never the less a zoo. In this zoo they had a birth, Knut the polar bear cub was born but there was a problem his mother rejected him. So the good German people at the zoo took it upon themselves to handle him – big mistake. It seems that there is a number of animal rights, well I will quote Bild;

"Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws," animal rights activist Frank Albrecht was quoted as saying by the mass-circulation Bild daily, which has featured regular photo spreads tracking fuzzy Knut's frolicking.

"The zoo must kill the bear."

Many people over there are not happy with the fact that there are thousands of polar bears that drown every month but here is a chance to save one polar bear and have a chance to save the species and there are animal rights activist who want to kill him.

I don't think that Knut was damaged by hand feeding him, see the picture.

But that is not all,

For the women rights people out there, this is really disturbing. Here is the quote from the AP;
BERLIN - Politicians and Muslim leaders denounced a German judge for citing the Quran in her rejection of a Muslim woman's request for a quick divorce on grounds she was abused by her husband.

Judge Christa Datz-Winter said in a recommendation earlier this year that both partners came from a "Moroccan cultural environment in which it is not uncommon for a man to exert a right of corporal punishment over his wife," according to the court. The woman is a German of Moroccan descent married to a Moroccan citizen.

The judge argued that her case was not one of exceptional hardship in which fast-track divorce proceedings would be justified. When the woman protested, Datz-Winter cited a passage from the Quran that reads in part, "men are in charge of women."

The judge was removed from the case on Wednesday and the Frankfurt administrative court said it was considering disciplinary action.

I wish we could remove judges this easily.

 

[bludragon13]

Greg said,"I really admire the Germans with their Teutonic attitude and their ability to face adverse things and have a positive outcome. (A side note, they can come together and rebuild their country that was destroyed but the people of New Orleans can’t get it together after how long and with how much help?)"


Greg, They started two world wars, supported the Nazi Nationalist state to the end and they're country was rebuilt by the allies with American $$$$$$. On the other hand the largest home builder in New Orleans is Habitat for Humanity. To compare the rebuilding of Duetchland after ww2 with the aftermath of Katrina is another case of right wing nationalist propoganda and slightly racist but don't let the truth get in the way of your fundmentalist beliefs.

 

[greg334]

bludragon13

Racist?

Why would a comparison like this be racist or right wing nationalist propaganda?

Ok if comparing the two where there is not just a slight similarity but a blatant glaring similarity is racist or right wing nationalist propaganda, well I guess. Barring the idea that this is right wing nationalist propaganda, if you can just for a moment, let’s look at things from my point of view.

Both regimes were blaming someone else for the problems they faced; in the case of Germany, blaming the Jews in mid 20’s to the early 30’s for the rampant inflation, unemployment and the near fall of the country. In the case of N.O., blaming our federal government for the levies breaking (you do know that N.O. has been in actual control of the oversight of the construction of them since the conception of the board, don’t you?), the lack of order in a single city post disaster, hundreds of buses sitting in water, that it is a race issue that caused the delays in aid and the inability to coordinate help properly in New Orleans.

Both regimes are (were) not only corrupt and has had a system that rewarded people who, for a lack of better terms, came up with ways to exploit a system for personal gains. We see this in the N.O. police department, the mayor’s office and the levy board that are in the open (oh you do know about the FBI and justice department investigations into the police department, don’t you?). It would take me a long time to list all the things with the NAZI party but I suggest watching Schindler’s list for a perfect and factual example.

Both Regimes used propaganda to twist the truth around, in N. O. the federal government is to blame, not the mayor or governor. The mayor said several times that he is doing everything he could and he and his family are committed to N.O. but he was lying about his commitment to the city at the same time making sure that his family gets out of dodge. He also made it a point that the buses are sitting there because he depended on the feds to evacuate the people, not caring that he could have gotten the people in the super dome to drive the buses to evacuate the people but when asked, his excuse was there were no bus drivers left in the city – a good thing that two 14 year olds figured out how to steal a bus, load it up with people and drive it to Dallas, right?

Both regimes have used the laws to empower themselves. With the NAZIs, they changed the laws to make sure there were no more opposition in their government but with N.O. we have thousands of people allowed to vote while being residents of other states and cities to ensure that there is a ‘fair’ election. Many of these people do not intend to return to N.O. ever and to allow them to vote show the contempt of N.O. has for the rest of the country.

Both regimes are known for their bigoted and racist comments and attitudes. Obviously the NAZIs take the prize but Mayor Nagin is a racist as is Kilpatrick here in Detroit. No where do I find a more offensive and racist comments in my life time than I have with Nagin and his “Chocolate City†comments. Everyone who thinks that they were not racist, are in fact racist themselves. I know that this is strong but when are we as a country going to grow up and realize that there should not be a chocolate city but rather an American city. Right, left, Democrat, republican, you can’t argue with the fact or can you? Is an American city right wing nationalist propaganda? I think not.

When he was reelected, I decided that I will never ever visit N.O. and will not support anything to help them simply because I believed that the people are not capable of change and they have caused their own problems since Katrina by allowing a leader like this to remain in office. I wanted to see a rebuilt N.O., I wanted to see the accountability of those who dropped the ball on the city/state level who went to the twisting of the race card to shift blame, I wanted to see a prosperous area that everyone is welcomed but growing up in an area that is known as one of the most racist areas in the country, I felt I was will never be welcomed at all but my money will always be welcomed.

But you did bring up a good point; Habitat for Humanity is the largest home builder in N.O., why is that? It is not because of a lack of money, there is plenty of that but maybe that the Mayor and the city officials don’t want outside contractors to come in and rebuild? Is the offer from some of the leading home builders to put up housing at cost not good enough for N.O.? Or is it that there is no personal gains to be made within the city’s administration?

As for the actual comparison I made, look deep into some of these issue that prevent N.O. from recovering, the fact that Nagin prevented using golf courses for housing, the lack of concern with cleaning up the government of N.O., the lack of any accountability for the use of the money that we openly gave them, a levy board that is still in place and a whole bunch of things, look. I think that even though we did a lot of the work with Germany, the people themselves didn’t blame everyone else for the destruction of their country, they blamed themselves, and they in many cases were held accountable to the point of losing their lives and built on the ruins of a whole country. It is not a perfect place but it is a lot better than it was, or do you not agree?

Besides my venting, I have to point out that I am not an admirer of the NAZI regime in any way shape or form, which you seem to imply with your “right wing nationalist propaganda†moniker you seem to have given me. I rather see too many similarities between the two governments and made that comment as such. But with that all said, I always have found that only narrow minded people look at things with intent to find racism in a subject or statement and they can not be objective to the subject or the supporting material that qualifies that subject or statement. Not saying you are narrow minded in any way, but then again you did say this was right wing nationalist propaganda.