politics for the 99%

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Riham Alkousaa, Sven Becker, Nina Brnada, Anna Clauß, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Walter Mayr, Ralf Neukirch, Jan Puhl, Christoph Schult and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmid, Aug 24, 2016 (Photo Gallery).

A year has passed since the dramatic decision by Angela Merkel to take in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. What drove her to make the decision and what price will the country pay for it? A look back at 14 days that changed German history … //

… Germany Has Isolated Itself:

The source, a government official, doesn’t want to be named. He witnessed how Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière and the head of the federal police, Dieter Romann, tried to stop the flow of refugees to Germany. He watched as they tried to resist Merkel, stand up to the mainstream and curtail the energy of enthusiastic volunteers greeting the refugees in Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne.

He doesn’t believe the country has become a better place. “Germany has isolated itself with its refugee policy. The population is polarized and becoming radicalized — not just on the fringes. And we shouldn’t forget that we have hundreds of thousands of people in the country, and we don’t know for sure who they actually are and how they will turn out.” The government abandoned its duties back then, he says, when it allowed a million people into the country, and what has improved? The official then once again insists on anonymity.

It has now been one year since Germany opened its borders to the stream of refugees. The refugee crisis was already looming in the spring of 2015, but the window of time in which the historic decisions took place can be narrowed to 14 days, the days of Budapest. Those 14 days began on August 31, the day the first trains arrived in Munich from Hungary to the cheers and applause of people lining the tracks. Then came the weekend of September 4-6, when the next trains were allowed to travel to Germany, this time with the full blessing of politicians at the highest level of government. And, finally, there was September 13, when the German government decided not to close the border with Austria and stop hundreds of thousands from entering Germany. Although border controls were in place, asylum-seekers were not turned away, sending a clear signal that Germany remained open for refugees.

How did this happen? When the chancellor accepted the Budapest refugees, was she making a major humanitarian decision out of a sense of moral responsibility? Or was she presented with a fait accompli by the Hungarian government, leaving her with no choice but to accept the refugees? And how close was Germany to closing its border just a week later?

A Prisoner of Its Own Liberation: … //

… (full long text in 4 parts).

Part 2: Before.
Part 3: Fourteen Days in Late Summer;
Part 4: The Aftermath.

Links:

The Real Scandal of Clinton’s Emails: conducting Foreign Policy In Secret, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Aug 25, 2016;

Heaven knows I’m radical now, on Socialist Unity, by Andy Newman, Aug 24, 2016;

The Strategies of Global Warfare: War with China and Russia? Washington’s Military Design in the Asia-Pacific, on Global Research.ca, by Prof Michel Chossudovsky, Aug 24, 2016: The following text is a point by point thematic summary of Prof. Michel Chossudovsky‘s presentation at the the University of the Philippines Cebu Conference on ASEAN and the World, UP Cebu, Cebu, 24-25 August 2016;

There was nothing I could do, new instances of rape by soldiers documented in Central Africa, 3.28 min, uploaded by RT, Aug 23, 2016 … new allegations have emerged …;

Ibo Omari, un artiste berlinois, a trouvé un moyen original pour se débarrasser des croix gammées des rues de Berlin, 0.25 min, uploaded by RT France, 23 août 2016;

107 Vidéos: les manifestations qui ont marqué le combat contre la loi Travail, sur YouTube, par RT France, dernière modification le 28 juin 2016;

Evolution of Capitalism, Escalation of Imperialism, on Global Research.ca, by Prof. Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, Aug 8, 2016: … the new imperialism differs from the old, classical imperialism in at least four major ways …;

GLADIO, die NATO-Geheim-Armee in Europa – Dr Daniele Ganser, 89.02 min, von Pegasus.TV am 6. März 2016;
Daniele Ganser (* 29. August 1972 in Lugano) ist ein Schweizer Publizist und Historiker. Ganser wurde mit seiner 2005 veröffentlichten Dissertation über „NATO-Geheimarmeen“ bekannt und veröffentlicht unter anderem Untersuchungen zum globalen Fördermaximum von Erdöl. Er greift Verschwörungstheorien zum 11. September 2001 auf und stellt sie als von Historikern zu prüfende Erklärungsansätze dar …; /NATO-Geheimarmeen; /Sonstiges; /Weblinks;

… and this:

• 30 examples of beautiful underwater photography, on AIROWS, by Jack Archer, Dec 22, 2013.