With an estimated number of at least 2.1 million Turks in Germany, they form the largest ethnic minority. The vast majority are found in what used to be West Germany. Berlin, Frankfurt,Hamburg, Rhine-Ruhr (Cologne, Duisburg and Dortmund) have large Turkish communities. The state with the largest Turkish population is North Rhine-Westphalia.
Youths reportedly shouted “Juden Raus” (Jews Out) as they attacked the dancers of the Chaverim (“Friends” in Hebrew) dance troupe last weekend.
Police said several Muslim immigrant youths were among the attackers and two youths were being questioned.
A German Jewish leader said she feared growing anti-Israeli sentiment.
Full Story at BBC >>
Immigrants are making Germany ‘dumber’, according to a board member of the country’s central bank.
Thilo Sarrazin claimed the ‘limited education’ of immigrants – coupled with their high birth rate – meant Germans ‘are becoming dumber in a simple way’.
He said: ‘There’s a difference in the reproduction of population groups with varying intelligence.’
It is not the first time the 65-year-old member of the Bundesbank has caused controversy since he joined last year.
In October he described Muslim children as ‘underclass’ citizens.
‘I don’t have to accept someone who lives off a state they reject, doesn’t properly take care of the education of his children-and keeps producing more little girls in headscarves,’ Mr Sarrazin said.
‘That goes for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arabic population of Berlin.’ He added that they were not fit for much other than ‘fruit and vegetable selling’.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1285815/Bundesbanks-Thilo-Sarrazin-Immigrants-making-Germany-dumber.html#ixzz0r3CPTbrJ
In 2009, Norway pension fund also divested from Elbit, which manufactures a monitoring system installed on several parts of the separation fence.
By Haaretz Service
Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, had sold its holdings in Israeli arms firm, Army Radio reported Sunday, citing pressure by pro-Palestinian groups as the reason for the move.
Although Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann did not state the reason for the bank’s divestment of the Israeli firm, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Pax Christi, two groups critical of Elbit’s involvement in the West Bank Separation fence, issued a joint statement Friday calling their divestiture campaign “a major success.”
Last year, Norway’s finance minister, Kristin Halvorsen, announced at a press conference in Oslo earlier in the day that its divestment of Elbit had been spurred by the firm’s involvement in the construction of the separation fence.
According to a political source in Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry had planned to issue a harsh statement of condemnation immediately after the announcement, but following the meeting with Lian the ministry decided to tone it down.
The explanations for the divestment provided by the Norwegian envoy at the meeting were apparently the reason for the ministry’s moderation of its response.
At the press conference, Halvorsen said the decision was based on the recommendation of Norway’s Ministry of Finance council on ethics, whose role is to ensure that government investments abroad meet ethical guidelines.
“We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law,” said the minister. She said the shares were sold secretly ahead of the announcement.
Elbit manufactures a monitoring system installed on several parts of the separation fence.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/2010-05-30/ty-article/germanys-deutsche-bank-divests-from-israel-firm-linked-to-west-bank-separation-fence/0000017f-db87-df62-a9ff-dfd738d40000, 30.05.10
SUSPECTED TAX EVASION
AIDS ON DEUTSCHE BANK AND 50 OTHER FIRMS
BY MAX SCHNEIDER AND STEFAN ERNST28.04.2010
The chief public prosecutor’s office searched more than 230 business premises across Germany – including those of international giant Deutsche Bank – as well as the homes of accused individuals.
More than 1,000 officials from the tax fraud investigation office, theFederal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and different police authorities took part in the raids.
Searches also took place simultaneously in other EU member states.
Around 150 people are under suspicion of VAT evasion over the trading of greenhouse gas emission permits.
Wednesday morning at 8.20am in Frankfurt: A large contingent of police and other officials arrived at Deutsche Bank. They pulled out their ID at the entrance and entered the building on Theodor Heuss Allee.
Shortly afterwards, a convoy of vehicles with investigators and specialists from the BKA turned up and pulled into the underground car park with blue lights flashing.
In response to an enquiry from BILD.de, a spokesman from the bank said: “We can confirm that we are one of the 230 entities which were searched. We are co-operating with the public prosecutor’s office.”
A spokesman for another major institution, Commerzbank, said it had not been involved in the raids.
WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
The trick is called VAT carousel or missing trader fraud, and according to BILD’s information the current suspected cases add up to a lost revenue of around €1 billion for the German government.
HOW IT WORKS
Dealers in different EU countries buy and sell permits which allow industrial enterprises to release a certain amount of greenhouse gases.
On the sale from dealer A to dealer B across a state border, no VAT is due. Upon the resale of the permits by dealer B to dealer C within the same country (i.e. Germany), VAT does become owed which dealer C can then claim back from the tax office.
Dealer B owes the authorities 19 per cent in VAT – it doesn’t pay, but pockets the 19 per cent and disappears off the market.
The permit is passed along from dealer to dealer until it arrives back at dealer A, which starts a new chain or carousel.
The Bild
Documents of Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust were kept locked for decades. Now that the archive is being made public, Scott Pelley brought three Holocaust survivors to examine their records.
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I am not racist, but very frequently you hear these words in Germany, and they are often used before a tirade against foreigners. Of course, racism is a worldwide phenomenon, but it is a fact that Germans have a reputation for being an extremely racist people. Many Germans are very offended by this and claim that it is not true. Haven’t we taken in more refugees than all other European Union member states together? Don’t they owe their lives to us? Don’t we give them homes? What is racist about that? These are tirades that they argue vehemently. However, if you look at the matter more closely, you will see that those arguments are neither sufficient nor convincing.
If you look at the way refugees are treated instead at how many there are living here, you will not exactly find proof for Germany’s anti-racism. Some refugee camps are so run-down and filthy that even animals would be extremely unhappy there. Some refugees live in rooms without windows, and if they earn money, they even have to pay for such a place to live.
Moreover, even decent refugee camps are always very dangerous places, because they are popular targets for crazy neonazis who might throw bombs at them. This has happened far too often already. There is a huge amount of hatred behind all that. What is worst, and what scares me very much, is that nothing is really being done about neonazis. Even their political party called NPD (Germany’s nationalistic party, or Nationalsozialistische Partei Deutschlands) still exists, which I find unbelievable, especially considering Germanys history. To me, even the resemblance of that party’s name to Hitler’s NSDAP (Germany’s Nationalist workers party, or Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), which existed during the Third Reich, is very offensive. However, it is not only neonazis that foster so much hate against foreigners. Near my home town, for example, an African was killed by policemen some years ago.
Germans always claim to be tolerant and open-minded towards other cultures. This might be true for certain cultures, namely those similar to our own, like people from Europe, North America or Australia. However, the picture is totally different with foreigners from more exotic places, especially for those with a dark skin. Among those, refugees are certainly the least popular inhabitants of Germany, but they are by no means the only kind of foreigners being ostracized. I have nothing against them, but they should keep to themselves, and so should we, many Germans argue, completely unaware of the contradiction within this statement. For reasons probably not even clear to them, many people think that spending time with blacks will ruin someone’sreputation.
Any person who believes that the German society is not racist should look at the way many parents react when their daughter or son has a black partner. Some will even refuse to regard their child as a member of their family any longer. Moreover, Germans with black partners walking along the street will merely be stared at if they are lucky, or if not, they will be called abusive names. Watching such scenarios will surely make anyone at least doubt the fact that Germans are friendly towards foreigners.
As usual in such matters, one should be careful not to generalise. There are German people who are extremely open-minded. An old lady once invited me and an African friend to sit with her in the tram and spoke to us in a very friendly way throughout our journey. However, I have found such people and situations to be the exception. Certainly there is some degree of racism in any country, but I still have to say that Germany gives a particularly bad picture, especially compared to other European countries. During my holidays in Sweden, Ireland or England I have walked along the street with African, Japanese and Indian people, and I have never been stared at as I have in Germany.
To me, it is apparent that there is far too much racism in my country and that it must be fought with much more determination than politicians are showing at this stage.
The Cheers
A comment from a reader
Andreas Muller says on 2010-02-18 22:07:24 about Racism in Germany
Of course we are racist as German and we are very proud on that. But there are many racists in USA too. Racism in USA is other matter. Now the topic is about this fact, that Germans are centre of extreme racism and it’s true. Our racism is hidden and modernized into sadistically making pain to foreigners. We ruin the life of foreigners and we conspire against them. For us the foreigners are like home animal or prisoners. We as Germans want to make a new spread fascism around the world by our lobbies in other countries.
