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Germany
July 26, 2011
I just realized that there isn't an English version of Klaus Kordon's novel "Mit dem Rücken zur Wand" (having one's back to the wall) although in Germany it is a very well known book. Some classes deal with it in school and Kordon even received a prize for this work. As you may figure out by reading the following quotes, the plot takes place in the German capital Berlin in the early 30's of the 20th century and it is a criticism of nationalsocialism.
Thus I considered it to be a good idea to translate some especially impressive quotes of this book into English...Here we go:
When the Nazi's decide to celebrate Hitler's nomination as chancellor by making a torchlight procession the main protagonist asks himself "Is it the torchlight that reddens their faces or is it the zeal?" (By the way here I should say that when somebody I know privately read this, she said sarcastically "Or are they ashamed? I wish this was the case, but of course this is very doubtful.")
Furthermore the protagonist makes up his mind about this event and thinks:"Perhaps what happens here is nothing but a sickness - the disease of a whole people."
About the very same evening the author says that there had been a lot of violent conflicts between right - wing and left - wing extremists. One lady mentioned in this book is glad that the police finally interferes, because she just wants calmness as she tells the protagonist's mother. When hearing this the latter thinks "Calmness? Yes! But under the heel of the Nazis?..."
"Maybe faith in human sanity is one of the greatest mistakes that has ever been." (one of the protagonists after getting informed about how many people were in favor of the right - wing extremist party back then)
Still not too long after Hitler's nomination the narrator says:"Hans' brother Helle believes that now all proper people must unite - no matter which religion or party they are form - to prevent the worst from happening."
"The criminals now play police and many people want that. So hence with the few crazy people who have dreams other than that * and everything will be quiet." (a person persecuted by the nationalsocialist regime)
* Ironically even some people who had Jewish ancestors at first were in favor of Hitler. They weren't real Jews and thus didn't feel being talked to when Hitler spoke about the <jewish race> as subhuman beings. Not even all real Jews saw it coming and thus a lot of them firstly realized when it already was too late.
"No matter whether you are communist or nationalsocialist, you all are troublemakers." ( a man after seeing some SA - men beating up a communist boy )
"You have to incorporate with others. Not with many - which would be too dangerous -, but a small group offers protection." (a mother after her son tells her that he is going to take action against Hitler)
Finally a little dialogue:
The protagonist doesn't think that much about it and says "In this quarter there are Jews being poorer than most Germans."
"Jews are Germans, too."
"Should I perhaps have said Christians instead?" ( thinks )
"Yes!" (the same person who said the comment from the beginning of this blog)
June 27, 2011
Yesterday I read an online discussion about forced marriage in Islam. The Muslim girl who opened this discussion tried to explain that saying that forced marriage is part of Islam would be as wrong as saying "Well, there are a lot of prostitutes in Christian countries, so the Bible obviously tells women that they shall gain their money by prostitution." Of course this Muslim girl may be right, but as it seems at the moment she lost against some xenophobe user who indeed blames the situation in countries like Afghanistan etc. on Islam, thus I just decided to write my own argumentation. The following is a list of countries and cultures that practice(d) forced marriage.
Yemen: When she was still a 10 year - old child Nojoud Ali's parents forced her to marry a man who was 20 years older than her. She didn't let them to this to her. Soon after her marriage she - and after all she still was just a child - ran away from him, took a taxi, drove to the next town and asked them to divorce her. Nobody in Yemen reacted surprised to hear that she got forced to marry him, no Yemeni reacted surprised to hear that her husband raped her, but people all over Yemen were astonished to hear that she did something against this. At least in the big city where she got divorced the situation seems to be different, because when the judge decided that she shall no longer be married to him the whole courtroom applauded. Meanwhile she goes to school.Another girl however was less lucky: Her judge said that she was too young to get divorced, so she had to put up a fight before she could axchieve her aim.In Hadscha ( Yemen ) a girl also had to endure a forced marriage with a man of 50 years and - according to the newspaper article that tells about this case - she became pregnant at the age of twelve. Of course she was much too young back then and since the day of her child's birth she suffers from hemorrhage and none ever told her what to do about this. She got forced to do so...When she screamed as she saw her future husband for the first time, her father threatened her and said she shouldn't try to alert the police...He threatened to kill his own daughter in case he'd have to go to prison for this.So far all tries to enforce a law that makes it possible to punish people who force their kids into marriage failed, but they still keep trying...
Iran: Mahtaab Bezadl (name changed) was still a teenager when her parents forced her to marry. She tried to argue with them, since she absolutely did not want to marry this man, but in the end she didn't have any choice but to flee. Through Greece she finally reached Germany, but the latter didn't accept her application of asylum and told her to go back to Greece where she would be homeless. Presuming the article that wrote about this case is still current several human rights activists still fight for her right to stay here.
Afghanistan: In this country men usually get away with rape. Islam forbids any form of extramarital sex - just like Judaism and Christianity - and thus there are many cases in which unmarried girls got raped and later got forced to marry the man who actually did this to them in order to prevent them from going to hell.
India: Although forced marriage is illegal in this country, it happens especially in urban areas that young girls get forced to marry men they don't even want to marry. In these villages forced marriage is an accepted way "for a girl to become an adult woman" and thus nobody would do something if he realized that his neighbour's, friend's whatsoever daughter is going to get forced to marry someone. Since not marrying your daughter at a very young age involves the risk that she may loose her virginity before marriage, some villagers even consider it to be inadmissible if one doesn't force his daughter to get married as soon as possible. Especially the destiny of five year - old Rajani ( I read about it in a newspaper called National Geographic. ) really touched me. Of course she didn't understand what was going on and she didn't even get to know her future husband before. It was almost heart - breaking to read that she even was too young to pull off her shirt in order to pull on her wedding dress or how she wasn't able to stay awake till he arrived and fell asleep. To top it all the groom even was drunk when he arrived! However the same magazine also describes that this boy himself got forced into this. - At least you can guess so, since the author mentions that he wasn't adult either. - and that in a lot of cases these marriages aren't made for the wealth of their children, but for financial reasons or to settle a family feud. That also explains why they guess that each year over 10.000 living in developing countries get forced into marriage. Here girls who still live with their parents are called "paya". Literally -translated this means "the property of somebody else". They even call the idea of marriage out of love rubbish, since not only in villages, but in many parts of India marriages get arranged between Families and not the two fiancés. After all marrying your girl to somebody is much cheaper than letting her achieve good education that would make it possible for her to achieve something better not to mention that by keeping girls locked up at home they at the same time make it impossible that they could loose their virginity... One Indian girl the author told about even was so desperate that she saw no other solution than to threaten her parents at first by calling the police than by threatening to use physical violence.Also the way the author Cynthia Gorney describes the following story makes me think that the following marriage wasn't voluntary either: A sheik showed this reporter his daughter who already had 10 children with her husband. When she got asked whether or not she liked being married to her husband, she said that she was happily married, but judging by the way the author described the look the two Indians shared, this wasn't quite true. In addition the sheik told about what a rubbish all this talking about the risks of teenage - pregnancy was and that the whole situation just got overdramatized by foreigners. He said that of course his daughter had been afraid of her first night with her husband, but that things like these were usual and that after all life still went on. Here it should be said that this night back then this young lady's groom was drunk as this newspaper - article made me guess... Nepal: A 16 year - old girl named Surita got forced to marry. Where she was born this actually is rather normal, but still she screamed and cried when they brought her to her future husband's village. Tunisia: I even have a personal example to tell you.
When my friend and her family went to Tunisia her elder sister befriended a Muslim boy there and I guess what the latter felt for her was more than friendship, because one day he went to this girl's mother ( her father wasn't with them on this trip ) and asked her how much to pay to get this girl. He didn't even ask his "girlfriend" and of course she refused!
In Bukarest ( Romania ) a twelve year - old girl and a 15 year - old boy ( both Roma ) got forced to marry - although in Romania there of course is a law forbidding it. However this isn't just a single case. Just a couple of weeks ago I watched a documentation - My apologies, but I forgot its name - about this people. There they said that for a Roma girl it is unusual to marry as an adult and they even interviewed a man who said that where he lives girls aren't "too expensive" but that he hopes to get at least an acceptable price for marrying his daughter, because she was beautiful.
Germany: In the year 2007 there was a study saying that each year around 30.000 girls get forced into marriage. Of course there meanwhile is a law, but do you really think that within only four years they were able to reduce this number by 100%? Personally I don't! People who force their children into something like that may threaten their sons or daughters in order to keep them silent. In 2010 we even had a case in which a girl of fifteen who lived in Hambourg was to get forced to marry someone living in Berlin (kilometres away ). Of course the police was able to stop them immediately.
America: Among many tribes living all over America it was usual that the parents and not their children decided whom the latter should marry and if they should marry at all. Many people - amongst others the Inka - even seemed to treat girls like some kind of trade product. For example I know a tradition of the Inka that allowed a priest to choose some girls he considered to be beautiful, he brought them to a temple where they learned everything they would need to care for their future husband and later he gave them away to anybody he needed to please at the moment for any reason whatsoever. The fact that the culture of most of these ancient cultures already died, doesn't really excuse anything. Fact is that before Eurpeans defeated them, this was part of their culture.
USA: I once read the story of a fanatic Christian US-American citizen whom they arrested for murdering his own daughter. He wanted to force her to either marry her own cousin or to become a nun. When she refused to choose either of these two possibilities and converted to Islam to marry the Muslim man she loved, her own fanatic father killed her.
Africa: Some parts of the Massai people's culture can be considered as misogynic, too. For example there a marriage only is a deal between the groom's parents, the groom and the bride's parents. The bride usually isn't even asked if she wants to marry this man. In addition he even has to pay the bride's parents for giving him this girl which makes some non - Massai people think that here they make something like a trade product of her. Also it upsets many people living in modern cultures that a Massai man's value depends on the number of his cows and his wives, i.e. they say that here women kind of get equated with animals...However this isn't even the most extreme fact about these natives: When a man has to sleep in the house of another Massai for any reason whatsoever he has the right to ask the owner of this house to sleep with one of his wives. That means that the husband usually forces his wife to sleep with a man who is a stranger to her, because if he refuses, he is considered as a very impolite person by his tribe.
Result: There may not be a single country where practically nobody gets forced into marriage. You will find forced marriage in Islamic countries as well as in Christian countries or in cultures that belong to neither of them. The Muslim prophet Mohammed ( PBUH ) once said that neither young women nor elder ladies shall get forced into marriage. These women have to agree on the arrangement. Somebody asked him how a female shows whether or not she agrees and the prophet answered "By staying silent." In addition a written record that describes how the prophet once annulled a forced marriage still exists. Prophets are sent by God himself and thus you can't really say that the Muslim God doesn't forbid forced marriage simply because none of the suras written in the Koran says something like "Thou shall not force your daughter into marriage." I even remember a sentence quoted from an anonymious author that says "These things don't happen, because of people obeying the doctrine of their religion, but because of people staying ignorant towards it." So, why do most non - Muslims always think about Islam when they hear words like "forced marriage" or "human trade"? I guess a scspegoat just is every person's psychological need. The illusion that you won't find any person trading with human beings within the 357.111,91 km2 ( the size of Germany ) surrounding you, just makes people feel saver. However in Germany there is another problem - namely that you have to be careful when you talk about several ethnic groups. A lot of people - especially Germans - still are too afraid to talk bad about Jews, because of the antisemitism that got practiced in the 3. Reich. They fear that if they say racist parols about Jews they may get insulted as nazis and excluded. The Roma - people also got murdered when Nazi - Germany occupied East Europe, so here the situation may be the same. However Muslims weren't victims of this genocide which may make people loose their inhibition. When talking about Muslims nobody living in Europe chooses his words as carefully as when talking about Jews for example.
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09:29 AM Apr 03 2015 |
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Dorothee
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09:09 AM Dec 06 2014 |
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Dorothee
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Dorothee
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01:06 AM Jul 16 2011 |
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02:54 PM Jul 15 2011 |
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narges
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01:50 AM Jul 08 2011 |
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09:07 AM Jul 06 2011 |
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Rockyy01
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06:35 AM Jul 06 2011 |
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Dorothee
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April 26, 2011
I guess most of you know what Ritter Sport is. They produce chocolate in more than 90 countries. During a meeting with a member of this company (organized by my school) I realized what a remarkable company they are and thus I’d like to tell you about them.
They try to avoid fossil fuels and prefer renewable resources like biogas instead. They even have their own environmentally friendly and resistant block heating station where we were. Of course they still are in need of other not so environmentally friendly power stations, but at least this heating station reduces their CO2-emission by 6800 tons a year. Just to give you an example there is a so-called CO2-footprint in France to make sure that during the production of certain products not to much CO2 got produced-and Ritter Sport-chocolate receives this footprint in French supermarkets.
Another thing they do to help nature is that they reduced the packaging waste of their chocolate as much as possible. Still a little rest remains and as the lady who had this interview with us said “It’s up to the customer to recycle it correctly!” Thus they also were the first ones to sign the Eco- Management and Audit Scheme which acknowledges organisations that improve their environmental performance on a continuous basis.
However this isn’t what I like most about them! What I like best about them are their working conditions-men and women get the same amount of money which is rather unusual in Germany, enforced redundancy practically doesn’t exist, there is additional salary whenever the economical situation allows it, working hours are flexible, these workers get many offers like offers concerning sports and health etc.-and the way they deal with the peasants who work for them.
The 2700 peasants who work for them aren’t allowed to use pesticides during their work which of course is good for their health. To avoid child labor or corruption they even send people to buy these products directly from the peasants. These visits also are meant to control these peasants to find out whether or not they use child laborers. Unfortunately the lady we talked to couldn’t tell us with 100% certainty that no child laborers are used at all, since in some countries (recently Cote d’Ivoire) the political situation just doesn’t allow them to get their products always this way. Still they at least do their best to avoid child labor or an unfair treatment of the people who work for them. In addition to their payments these peasants even receive education as a reward for their work. For example they get taught why it is so important to preserve the rainforests and thus why never allows them to destroy parts of these natural areas to grow the cacao they later are selling to this company. In addition the owner of Ritter Sport privately cares a lot about nature and men living in developing countries and once even invested in an African hospital. Why this case never really became public? He doesn’t like getting too much attention and thus it’s only this lady who tells that during interviews.
Thus it isn’t too surprising that they receive many letters of applications for jobs, apprenticeships and even work experiences every year. You would think that thus it is very hard to get accepted by them in all of the 90 countries where they are active and you may be right, but in certain cases nothing’s impossible. The person who founded Ritter Sport the way we have it now for example was told that you can’t have much success with fair trade. They said that fair trade products just are too expensive (some cent more expensive than ordinary chocolate) and that thus most people wouldn’t want to buy them. The fact that Ritter Sport gains a fortune every year and that their workers-no matter whether they live in industrial or in developing countries-are content with their place of work, proves these men wrong! Sometimes it happens that you are right while most others are wrong…You just have to have the courage to find it out!
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03:18 PM Dec 29 2014 |
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Dorothee
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11:42 AM Dec 02 2014 |
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Dorothee
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Dorothee
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Dorothee
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05:12 AM Jun 18 2011 |
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Dorothee
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dr.mo
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05:35 AM May 07 2011 |
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Dorothee
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10:02 AM Apr 26 2011 |
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Dorothee
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