Darf man das SAGEN was viele Menschen DENKEN?

Sarrazin Buchpraemiere Hurra, wir duerfen zahlen
Originally uploaded by Pressefoto Berlin

(see below for English version)

Heute morgen war ich in unserem kleinen Buchladen an der Ecke. In den knapp zehn Minuten die ich dort verbrachte kamen fünf Leute rein, die das neue Buch von Thilo Sarrazin „Deutschland schafft sich ab“ bestellen wollten. Das Buch, dass von den Medien als anti-muslimisch und fremdenfeindlich gebrandmarkt wird ist ausverkauft bevor es überhaupt in den Buchläden liegt.

Natürlich ist Sarazzin, Mitglied der SPD und im Vorstand der Bundesbank, als Provokateur bekannt. Niemand ist wirklich überrascht von seinen aufwieglerischen Kommentaren über Minderheiten, insbesondere Ausländer. Trotzdem scheint er mit seinem neuesten Buch über den angeblichen Niedergang der Deutschen durch die Immigranten auf viel Anklang zu stoßen.

Natürlich hat sich die deutsche Regierung, inklusive der Kanzlerin, schnellstmöglich von Sarrazin distanziert und seine Ausführungenals „schädlich“, „diffamierend“, „polarisierend“, „nicht hilfreich“ bezeichnet.

Natürlich hat die Presse einige besonders scharfe und lächerlich rassistische Passagen aus dem Buch veröffentlicht. Diejenige, die ich jedoch als besonders beunruhigend empfinde ist folgende:

„Ich möchte nicht, dass das Land meiner Enkel und Urenkel zu großen Teilen muslimisch ist, dass dort über weite Strecken Türkisch und Arabisch gesprochen wird, die Frauen ein Kopftuch tragen und der Tagesrhythmus vom Ruf der Muezzine bestimmt wird. Wenn ich das erleben will, kann ich eine Urlaubsreise ins Morgenland buchen.“

Es sind solche Bemerkungen, die die meisten vernünftigen Menschen nicht wirklich ablehnen können und ich habe sie so oder ähnlich in Deutschland immer wieder gehört. Sie rühren an die tiefsten Ängste vieler Deutscher, die Sarrazin, mit Hilfe der Statistik, bestätigt, die beweist, dass sich Immigranten viel schneller „vermehren“ als die „einheimische“ deutsche Bevölkerung.

Ich habe mir dann bei „Amazon“ die Kommentare zu seinem Buch angeschaut (selbstverständlich weiß ich, dass diese oft von Freunden des Autors verfasst werden). Es gab mehr als 20 Rezensionen mit 5 Sternen, alle scheinen zu bestätigten, dass Sarrazin das ausspricht, was viele denken. Wird deshalb innerhalb weniger als einer Woche bereits die dritte Auflage des Buches gedruckt?

Vielleicht sollte ich Herrn Sarrazin ein Exemplar meines eigenen Buches schicken: „Buschgirl: Wie ich unter die Deutschen geriet“ (C.Bertelsmann Verlag) , selbstverständlich handsigniert. Er würde einen anschaulichen Eindruck davon bekommen, was aus seinem Deutschland inzwischen geworden ist.

Is it OK to say IT if a lot of people are thinking IT?

I was in our small local bookstore this morning and in the ten minutes I spent there, five people came in to order Thilo Sarrazin's new book, "Germany Does Away with Itself." Slammed by almost every media outlet as anti-Muslim and xenophobic, the book was sold-out before it was even available in book stores.

Sarrazin, a member of the Social Democratic Party and currently on the board of the German Central Bank, is already known for being a provocateur. No one is terribly surprised when he makes some incendiary comment about any particular group, particularly foreigners. However, he has struck a chord in his new book about the supposed demise of Germany through its immigrant population. Everyone high up in government, inculding the chancellor, has been quick to distance her/himself from Sarrazin and has called his language "injurious, defamatory, divisive, unhelpful. . ."

The press has printed some pretty hot, ridiculously racist passages from the book, but the one that I find most troublesome is this one:

"I don't want the country of my grandchildren and great grandchildren to be largely Muslim, or that Turkish or Arabic will be spoken in large areas, that women will wear headscarves and the daily rhythm is set by the call of the muezzin. If I want to experience that, I can just take a vacation in the Orient."

See, this is the comment that most sane people can't immediately dismiss. I've heard this sentiment repeated over and over again in Germany. This statement touches upon real fears that Sarrazin confirms, through the use of statistics showing that immigrants reproduce faster than the "indegenous" German population.

I went over to Amazon to see what the comments looked like. (Yes, I know that author's friends often write those reviews.) There were about 20 5-star reviews, all of which say that Sarrazin is basically writing what everyone is thinking. Is that why, in less than a week, the book is already in its third printing?

Maybe I should send Sarrazin my upcoming book, "Buschgirl: Wie ich unter die Deutschen geriet" (C. Bertelsmann Verlag). I can give him a personally-signed copy and a visual taste of what his Germany has become.

Stay tuned for more on Buschgirl. Release date is September 20, 2010.

And Pakistan?

pakistani children
Originally uploaded by ameerhamza45

At a recent gathering a woman handed me a donation for our orphanage in Haiti. Then she casually mentioned that she had also just donated to Pakistan. Well, this comment started up a discussion that went a little something like this:

Person 1: "If I donate to Pakistan, I don't know if my money is going to end up with Al-Queda."

Person 2: "Well, if Al-Queda is helping drowing children, shouldn't we give them money anyway?"

Person 1: "What if some of that money goes to terrorist activities?"

Person 2: "Do we always know where money to the big aid organizations goes? I say, give money to whoever is helping."

Person 3: "I just think all this press about Islamaphobia toward Pakistan is completely untrue. And when that is talked about, people feel even less like donating because they're being called racist."

Person 2: "Why then has such little money gone to Pakistan? It's an enormous disaster and there isn't as much money being donated there?"

The fact that people haven't donated to Pakistan as they did for Haiti or after the Tsunami in Indonesia, has become a bigger story than the flooding itself, which, as person 3 says, doesn't help matters. But to deny the wave of Islamaphobia that is very prevelant in Europe and the USA right now is naive.

French bans on burkas, Swiss bans on minarets, a murder of a Muslim woman in a German courtroom. . .

Or the anger over the supposed "9/11 mosque". Why does the tragedy of that day give some Americans a pass to be Islamaphobic? We suffered so all Muslims and anything representing the faith of Islam shouldn't be anywhere near Ground Zero. What kind of logic is that? Newsflash: Islam did not crash those planes into the Trade Center, terrorist religious zealots did. Why some Americans can't make this distinction is a tragedy to the very American ideal of religious freedom and tolerance.

And that human beings can't make distinctions between fundamentalism and innocent, drowning children, who cry and suffer just like their own children do, is an even a bigger tragedy for humanity.

Bush Girl Alert: Who Can Tan?

dark-skin-light-skin-pic_edited-3
Originally uploaded by NusaibaTheArtist/L.E.G.A.C.Y

At the end of every summer, when my family has returned from the USA, we often hear "Wow, the boys really tanned." When I say, "All of us have," there is at least one of the following responses:

1. Blank stare of confusion

2. Wide-eyed look of shock. "Really?"/"Im Ernst?"

3. Skeptical look. "How is that possible? You tan?" /"Wie? Du wirst dunkler?"


I'm not sure why this is so hard to believe? Why should my skin (tissue) have different properties than white skin?? I really don't understand why this is such a bizarre concept? And why do they notice that my children have gotten darker and not me? And this time, I am considerably darker than before. It seems like such an irrelevant point but it does make me wonder how much people actually see other people.

I certainly notice when my white friends tan. I notice when they get burned. It's weird.

Any ideas or explanations?

Wyclef Jean's Naive Passion

Wyclef Jean
Originally uploaded by Hkk09

Everyone who had some connection to Haiti, be it through blood or sheer humanity, was stunned into action on the day of the earthquake. The most passionate wanted to fly to the Dominican Republic, hitch a ride across the border and pull a crying baby from the rubble. But everyone wanted to donate money, give time, help with a fundraiser, create an NGO, adopt a Haitian child, something, anything to help.

I am still convinced that Haiti's survival mostly likely rests in the hands of non-Haitians and Haitians in the Diaspora. Haiti hasn't been able to rely on the government for even basic services for years. Even Haitians critical of past politicians get elected and end up in the vortex of corruption.

So I can respect Wyclef Jean's run for presidency of Haiti. I can appreciate his very American-like rescue dream, to save a country that he loves and to which he is rooted. I admire his creativity and the work he has done for Haiti. But I do believe his passion is naive, his vision is vague and short-sighted and that just because he can run for president of Haiti, doesn't mean that he should.

I am not terribly interested in the vilification of Wyclef surrounding the drama of the ill-spent $400,000 from his non-profit organization, Yele, but I do think it is telling of his fiscal naivete. Wyclef may have cried on Oprah saying he didn't do wrong, but, well, it doesn't look good. There is a tax return that doesn't exactly help his case. Did he mean to? I'm hoping not. But that doesn't fly when people are starving, tent cities get flooded and children don't have schools. No amount of crying can save Haiti, not even tears with the best of intentions.

To be fair, Wyclef is not alone in dubiously spent aid money. I already wrote about what I saw when I visited Haiti in May. Lots of people were helping but they were also driving $80,000 cars and living in $10,000/month villas as their hearts bled for the poor they went to save. . .

I am not saying that the same will happen with Wyclef but I fear that if he lacks the understanding of how $400,000 can go astray, then he certainly has no idea what awaits him in a country that has run, at every level, on a well-greased corruption machine for decades.

As a child of Haitian immigrants, I feel Wyclef's desire to help. I understand it at a deep level. We all watched television and considered how close we were to having grown up in Haiti and ending up crushed under a building.

But don't we, (since we know what a real government means to a country) want a Haitian leader who has some experience in governance? Don't we want someone who studied constitutional law or history? Shouldn't we have the same expectations of a Haitian leader that we'd have of an American leader? If Wyclef says that the USA has Obama and Haiti has Wyclef, then Wyclef sure as hell better hurry up and offer something more than a love for Haiti as a plan.

Haiti's problems are too great and the people need too much to take a risk on a rookie, even a well-meaning one.