Their own private Guantanamo
In a way cool and relatively new ritual established to, well, establish something relatively new and cool like this, German civil rights activists have published their annual Grundrechte-Report (basic rights report), hot on the heels of the government’s annual (take a deep breath here) Verfassungsschutzbericht (The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s Report), an annual study of extremist political movements active in Germany.
It goes like this: The government produces alarming numbers about the rising threat posed to the public by Islamic and neo-Nazi terrorist groups and then the people behind the Grundrechte-Report counter by producing alarming numbers about the rising threat posed to the public by the government that just alarmed them. It’s a Nobel Peace Prize/Alternative Nobel Peace Prize kind of thang, or Academy vs. Golden Raspberry Award, if you prefer.
At any rate, if you want to believe these folks, it looks as if Germany is about to turn into a giant prison camp at any moment. The society is being “Guantanamized” or something and the state is stomping all over everybody by allowing such unspeakable things as police searches (with warrants) at suspected terrorist’s homes, all of this solely due to Sicherheitshysterie (security hysteria), of course.
And it’s true, too, I suppose. I thought that planned train bomb attack last year was absolutely hysterical.
Wer Recht hat, hat auch Pflichten.
It goes like this: The government produces alarming numbers about the rising threat posed to the public by Islamic and neo-Nazi terrorist groups and then the people behind the Grundrechte-Report counter by producing alarming numbers about the rising threat posed to the public by the government that just alarmed them. It’s a Nobel Peace Prize/Alternative Nobel Peace Prize kind of thang, or Academy vs. Golden Raspberry Award, if you prefer.
At any rate, if you want to believe these folks, it looks as if Germany is about to turn into a giant prison camp at any moment. The society is being “Guantanamized” or something and the state is stomping all over everybody by allowing such unspeakable things as police searches (with warrants) at suspected terrorist’s homes, all of this solely due to Sicherheitshysterie (security hysteria), of course.
And it’s true, too, I suppose. I thought that planned train bomb attack last year was absolutely hysterical.
Wer Recht hat, hat auch Pflichten.
Kommentare auf Deutsch? Selbstverständlich.
If one day in the future those groups aren't worried anymore, then it's time to grab a gun or a large stick (this is Germany after all) to defend our rights, because something is gone wrong, bad! (Comment this)
The system is unfair and not perfect but there is no alternative, so we show them that we don't like them and hope that it isn't getting worse. We put them (politicians) in fear of loosing the next election, if they don't play by the rules. Checks and balances the German way.
That is my take on the german psyche, it's probably wrong but maybe ... . (Comment this)
It's no accident that psychoanalysis was invented by Germans. Okay, Sigmund Freud was from Vienna and Carl Jung was from Switzerland. But close enough. (Comment this)