EinBisschenZuScheise

Dresden, Germany . Over 90% of the city was destroyed.

“turkey starts an offensive against isis: many kurdish positions are already destroyed”

Yes, it really has come to this:

Zugezogen Maskulin - Grauweißer Rauch (via billigesbier)

I’m working at a German refugee camp. It’s an improvised settlement of huge tents on an abandoned airport. It houses about 1,600 people. They live together in tents: No privacy, stale air, sinking temperatures. The camp is in a small village of 3,000 inhabitants of which many feel ‘outnumbered’. The vast majority of the refugees is male; there are a few hundred children and some women and there’s at least one transwoman. 

The overall situation there is stressful, depressing and very tense. And boring. People are not allowed to work, can’t travel around as they please and pastime activities are rare and only provided by volunteers from outside. There are many animosities, often between different ethnic groups. Huge brawls at times. I work in the kitchen. It’s not exactly cooking what’s done there, it’s feeding. It’s preparing 1,500+ meals three times a day. The variety is limited. There’s a lot of rice and bread. A lot. Dishes are European. The kitchen crew is mayonaise German. A local caterer was commissioned for the job.  Many kids from surrounding villages work in the kitchen. These villages are tiny and so are the world views. The n-word is dropped like it’s hot. Gay and retard are some favourite slurs. With every day of working in the camp, I was informed by a female co-worker (who “is not racist, but”), she felt a stronger need for Germany to close its borders, to deport refugees. Every day, she liked the people less. Another one casually told me about her neo-nazi friends, who are super chill though and totally don’t look like right-wing extremists. Her favourite food is “German” everyone who doesn’t speak German or English (the sole languages she recognizes) speaks “foreign” (”ausländisch”). I live in a nearby city, in a very diverse, multi-ethnic neighbourhood. I was told how that’s not cool for a German - yet at the camp I would probably feel “just like at home, right?” Right. Co-workers constantly mock and demean the refugees demands for better housing conditions. My female boss said she’s “looking forward to see their faces when it’s -20°C and they sleep in these tents.” My male boss called a young girl a “bitch” (”Miststück”). He also kept a donation of 500 litres of organic, local apple juice for the refugees to himself and his kitchen staff. This is not a very bad example, an exceptional case: This is Germany, this is Volksgemeinschaft. Sure, there are this highly publicized pictures of refugees arriving in German stations after making it through racist Hungary and being cheered at by a welcoming crowd. At the camp though, there is no such crowd. There are a handful of people now and then, but besides emptying basements and closets from clutter and garment one hasn’t worn since 2000 and dropping the stuff off, there’s not much going on. When CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera and other international news outlets broadcasted the scenes from those German train station around the globe, the world was in awe by Germany’s hospitality. So cosmopolitan. So generous. So previously unknown. World champions of welcoming. Plus soccer. Germany’s on a roll, Angela Merkel’s the “saviour of the outcasts” (as a Syrian refugee said). Merkel however has been repeatedly criticised for remaining silent and indifferent as racist violence and mobilization is on the rise again in the country, especially in the eastern part. The early 1990s saw an increased influx of refugees and asylum seekers too and the era was dominated by pogroms and racist killings and lynchings. As a reaction elected politicians tightened the asylum law, basically annulling it. Not protecting victims of violence and racism but taking political measures to ultimately please the mob. Today, German papers reported on renewed plans to tighten the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. These measures, if passing the parliament, will leave tens of thousands homeless and without care. Germany has always been an advocate of Fortress Europe-politics that murder thousands before they reach the continent. On top, Germany still thumbs the Dublin treaties: Every refugee should stay in the European country he first enters, the only EU country where they can legally seek asylum. This leaves border states with an immense political, financial and structural burden, yet secures the wealth of northern European states who can act like migration’s not their business. Dublin makes it impossible to legally seek asylum in Germany unless you jump off a helicopter with a parachute. It’s highly racist and murderous. The new law will upheld the Dublin treaties and tries to force refugees back to southern Europe by denying them housing, medical care and food. “Fehlanreize beseitigen”. The list of safe countries (these are countries where Germany will deport to) will be enhanced, making poverty-ridden, corrupt Balkan countries safe. Refugees are not allowed to work and they don’t enjoy freedom of movement. New laws shall clip their liberties even further. Unless the German economy needs you as you may be a Syrian engineer. No minimum wage-binding for your future employer, though. Sorry.