ACUPUNCTURE AND PUTIN

It’s Thursday morning and I’m sitting on the edge of a table, waiting to have my twice weekly acupuncture treatment. The doctor enters the room to set the needles up and down and either side of my spine. Then one in each hand, in my earlobe, and one on the top of my head. As an antenna, so the good doctor joked the first time he did it. With the needles in place, the doctor tells me to chill for twenty minutes. I rest my arms on a roll cushion on my lap and let my head fall onto my chest. Chill. Easier said than done in these perilous times. Now with Putin doing his damnedest to destroy the people of Ukraine, their homes and their homeland, we watch in very real time, the flood of refugees crossing Ukraine’s borders into former Soviet satellite countries, now NATO members that Putin claims to feel so threatened by. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania.

Why do Putin’s supposed complaints not ring true? Perhaps because none of these countries have done anything aggressive; they joined NATO to align themselves with the West and enjoy a better standard of living than anyone there ever experienced when they were part of the east block, positioned as they were as buffers to protect a paranoid USSR from European imperialism. Right. Oh yeah, and there was the little matter of freedom too. Freedom to come and go, to travel abroad, to have beliefs that didn’t correspond to those sanctioned by an authoritarian regime.

May putin choke on Ukraine!

Chill. I have to keep reminding myself. I’d only just about relaxed some after suffering from four years of trump-induced high blood pressure. The anger and disbelief about what was going on in the US, unchecked and certainly unpunished. The relief of Biden’s election win and feeling that the country could now be turned around, heal politically, and physically from Covid, and hold to account the criminals who had mismanaged and profited from their government positions.

Chill, I tell myself. It will ease the back pain; my legs will feel stronger again. But there I go, making it all about me, while millions are suffering in Ukraine, far too close to us here in Germany. Where will they go? Where will this whole crisis lead? What about those caught in beleaguered cities, being held hostage to Putin’s sick whims? Did I worry this much about all those refugees from the Middle East who have been suffering for years, for decades, forever? Do I worry more because the Ukrainians look like me? Shame on me! What if he attacks a NATO country? Is this how World War III starts? Is this how Planet Earth ends, in a nuclear cataclysm?

Ding! The timer goes off. Twenty minutes is up. So much for chilling. There’s no R & R available for people fleeing for their lives. When I’m out of here, I’ll check my phone for updates on the situation. Maybe there will be news about trump being indicted. That would be an excellent development indeed. But that’s going to take some time yet.

Chill? Not going to happen.

MISANTHROPY v. BIRDS OF THE FIELD

Liquidated Real Estate

Outside in the cherry tree in my garden, a magpie is screeching her displeasure. She probably saw that my window is open and wanted to attract my attention to the crime we’ve committed. We had the birch capped, the one in which she and her mate have been nesting for a few years now. So, she is furious with us.

If I could speak her language, I’d tell her that there is plenty of arboreal real estate in my garden for her to rebuild her nest. Not to mention in the neighboring gardens and the woods that are less than five hundred meters from here, as the magpie flies. How hard can that be?

My resident magpie last year with her nest

It seems she is not convinced. Home is home. She’s upset at being dispossessed, just as humans are when their homes are destroyed. In war, for instance, as is happening in Ukraine. While I sit here in a peaceful German village, bathed in early-spring sunshine, making summer travel plans, my heart goes out to these refugees. These courageous Ukrainian women, with their children, have set out on treacherous journeys and are flooding to their country’s borders and into the EU, to save themselves from Putin’s war machine, knowing that their husbands and other male relatives have stayed behind to fight.

Germany has also opened its borders to them. To drive from Kyiv to Frankfurt, it’s 1800 KM, only 1500 as the magpie flies. Fortunately, many of them are finding refuge much closer to home. Poland and the other Slavic countries bordering Ukraine have put out the welcome mat to their fellow Slavs. They won’t need to travel 1800 KM for aid and comfort.

Other images now flood my head, those of the Syrian, Afghani, and Yemeni refugees who the Belarusians led, cynically and cruelly, to the border with Poland in early winter, 2021. There were no Polish arms spread in welcome for them. No, they were met with water cannons and armed guards who beat them back into the frozen forests. Where the Belarusians left whole families to fend for themselves in the freezing nights. The hypocrisy screams to the heavens.

I don’t begrudge the Ukrainians the help they are receiving. I just demand that we also open our hearts and purses to victims of war and famine from cultural backgrounds different from our own. Especially since many of the causes are manmade, by the same malicious dictator who has invaded Ukraine.

In the evolutional scheme of things, birds of the field can fend for themselves pretty well. By comparison, we humans live far more precarious lives. We humans, a supposedly so intelligent and advanced species, so capable in the art of torture and war, are singularly careless with the lives of our fellow human beings. Oh yeah, and also with our environment.

MASS MIGRATION & THE NEXT PROXY WAR

After several months of silence, caused to a great extent by my inability to fathom the goings-on of our world, this blogger finally returns to cyberspace, with no solutions at all. But it is time to share my feeling of helplessness about all the current crises on our planet. Who knows, you may well also be suffering from the same syndrome and appreciate reflecting on it. Here I make a start by broaching the crisis that has Europe reeling.

 
It all started (or at least reached a new high) when, last summer, the floodgates opened. A rush of human beings, driven from their homes by lunatic IS jihadists or by the bombs their own governments were chucking, suddenly stood at the borders of the EU, seeking refuge and solace, seeking a safe haven from the hell their homelands had become. And it wasn’t even “just” Syrians, but also folk from Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea and many other African countries that set off on a desperate exodus by land and sea in the hope of reaching EU shores.

 
I needn’t recap the events since then, for you are all literate. To have missed what’s been happening, you would have needed to have been on an extended vacation on a distant planet. But just to get us on the same page, and braving the risk of oversimplifying the situation, reactions to these developments have been mixed.

 
As I live in Germany, one of the countries that has been more welcoming than most, I have been reading daily of the ups and downs of dealing with this human inundation. We’ve experienced the rise of certain organizations, mainly in the east of Germany, that reject this migration out of hand as a dilution of their culture and a threat to life as they know it. Is it the fear that they will have less if these people receive help?

 
These groups hover on the verge of fascism; at best they are populists exploiting the situation. The number of attacks on refugee housing in the form of arson has risen greatly, but not just in the east. The only reason refugees have not been killed by these attacks is that they have been carried out on still-empty locations.

 
Is it only a matter of time before the perpetrators become murderous enough to burn down a building full of foreign families?

 
The only good news – but this is a biggie – is that in many, many areas of the country, private support for refugees flourishes. Local authorities have been overwhelmed with the task at hand but are doing what they can as fast as they can. Volunteers in every city and small town (yes, also in the east), who donate their time and efforts to helping these people, have taken up the slack and extended the limited reach of government. Refugees arrive with their world and their families destroyed; the personal involvement of locals like you and me puts a human face on the help offered. When communities open their arms, then there is hope.

 
MEANWHILE…

Russia joined the fray in September, unfortunately on the side of Bashar al Assad, and this has proven to be a game-changer. The bombing sanctioned by our dear and erstwhile best new friend, President Vladimir Putin, has augmented the torrent of migration to Europe. I can just see this character sitting in his office, rubbing his hands with glee at the chaos he has caused within the European Union.

 

And that Union is being sorely tested in its unity by this Völkerwanderung. With several former Soviet satellite states reacting with xenophobic zeal and NIMBY mentally, I can only guess that their exposure to the West has not yet been sufficient. That said, there are enough states in Western Europe that are not exactly opening their arms to the needy!

 
After World War II when Germany lay in ruins, 14 million German refugees from formerly German territories in the east inundated what was left of the country. Those in the west who had survived the war with their houses intact were forced to take refugees into their own homes, and that was the situation for years until more housing was built and people found work. This was not necessarily done cheerfully, according to local stories I’ve heard, but somehow the country was rebuilt, and by the 1950s, Germany found itself in the midst of an unprecedented economic wonder that is the foundation of today’s affluence.

 

The challenge now facing Germany – and any other European nation that takes up the refugee gauntlet – is far easier in some ways than it was in 1945. Even the least economically successful EU countries are in rather better shape than in the aftermath of WWII. Demographic concerns about ageing populations are actually eased by the prospects of an influx of young workers who could be trained and soon be paying into the social security coffers to pay the pensions of us oldies.

 

On the downside, these people come with cultures, languages and religious traditions foreign to most of us.

Is this a risk to society as we know it? YES. We are, indeed, at risk of expanding our horizons, of seeing beyond our own borders, of enriching our society with a fresh injection of vitamin C(ulture).
And those migrants? They, too, will have to learn our languages, learn about our customs and our religious traditions; they will have to accept the role of women in modern western society. Above all, BOTH SIDES will have to learn to live and let live, to respect each other’s differences, to even rejoice in the recognition that we are not all alike.

 
By the way, I obviously have a migration background, too. After 40 years in Germany, I still feel just a tick more comfortable speaking and writing in English, not to mention watching Hollywood and Brit movies in the original. We have plenty of German friends, but we also have a circle of English-speaking friends with whom we enjoy cavorting.

 
In other words, we shouldn’t expect newbies from wherever to renounce their heritage and forsake their customs. We should strive for a kind of integration that will build communities across the boundaries of nationalities and religion, integration that will tear down walls and build bridges. (Ah, bridges, a favorite theme of mine.)

Old Europe Ain’t What She Used to Be…

…Isn’t that a blessing?

 

This is not the first time that the movement of migrants into her parts is changing the character of the many diverse societies on the continent. It has been happening for millions of years. So why are some people pretending that the current status quo needs defending? Of course, there are elements that must be defended at all cost. Those include the rule of law and human rights which have been hard-won from the forces who would subject us. Some things are just not up for negotiation.

We have only to look at the two world wars in the 20th century to recognize what must be fought for and how precious peace is.

On 27th January Holocaust Memorial Day was celebrated worldwide. For the uninformed, this year is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops (1944). The truth about the heinous crimes Hitler’s Germany had been committing in murdering innocent Jews, Communists, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma and anyone else who opposed the regime became a fact that could no longer be ignored or denied. This crime was the culmination of what happens in a country where basic human rights are flaunted and the rule of law replaced with jack-boot justice. In coming years the world would also find out about the genocides committed by Stalin and co. One can debate at length which of the two dictators murdered more innocent people, but that question is academic.

The nature of authoritarianism has altered in the course of those 70 years. Rather than institutionalized terrorism from pseudo-elected governments, now terrorism is diffuse, existing in cells – some sleeping until woken for duty, and supported by internet recruitment of the next suicide bombers or IS warriors. It is impossible to combat effectively.

On 7th January the long automatic rifle of terrorists’ justice reached out to Paris and murdered 17 people – some random as in the Jewish supermarket, some targeted as the journalists at Charlie Hebdo. Do they really believe that we of this western civilization will surrender our freedoms just because they kill people they consider to be committing crimes against Allah and Mohammed?

Personally, I find it extremely difficult to understand why these Islamists think they have the right to terrorize the modern world and transport it back to the Middle Ages. For them, tolerance is an unkown concept. And quite honestly, they aren’t thinking this through. Were they to succeed in destroying the West, they would lose the internet tools that serve them so well. They would also have to give up their cell phones, their SUVs and all their modern weaponry. What if the source of their bankrolling (oil?) was no longer raking in the money to finance it all? They fail to recognise that these amenities exist only because of the freedom of ideas, speech, press and a lot of capitalism.

Of course, there have been positive side-effects from the Paris attacks. Mainstream Muslims are speaking out and disowning terrorism. And indeed, we must be very careful not to judge all Muslims by the actions of a few radicals. As they have said, those terrorists are not genuine Muslims. They are instumentalizing the religion for evil ends.

As a result of the attacks, tens of thousands – in France, millions of people – took to the streets to march and express their solidarity with the victims and their families. This all comes at a time when, in Germany, some groups have appeared on the scene to defend German culture from becoming inundated by foreign influences. The high number of foreigners is supposedly endangering the country as we know it. The largest center for this is the eastern city of Dresden, a city with a comparatively low percentage of people with migration background. Is this anxiety because of the 40 years during which east German society had little contact with the outside world?

Similar groups have sprung up across Germany, but their demonstrations are comparatively small and the turnout is totally outnumbered by the demos of those opposing them and marching for a “colorful” Germany. These anti-immigrant demos were reported in the foreign press . Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to consider it newsworthy to report on the opposing demos. That is disturbing!

However, I have been heartened in my belief that Germany and a large portion of its citizens are opening their arms to receive the refugees streaming in from such diverse places as Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Serbia. Our newspapers are filled with articles on local private initiatives to find housing, furnishings and clothing for these people.  Private citizens organize get-togethers to welcome them into the communities. And for those who intend to settle, they are offering German courses. Everyone knows: language is the key to integration.

This help for the refugees is not just coming from one segment of society. Young and old are pitching in. In fact, many of the older generation who experienced being driven out of their homes in Poland or Czechoslovakia after the war and were forced to build a new life in western Germany, are especially open to helping. In the late 1940s and early 1950s they were in the same boat, arriving with nothing more than a few meager possessions. Now they are returning the favor – passing it forward, so to speak.

Europe is changing, developing. Nothing is perfect, to be sure, but to stand still would be fatal.

PEACE ON EARTH??

The Peace Bridge author is getting ready to shut down this device for the Holidays and do lots of real-time interacting with family and friends for the next couple of days.
I’d like to wish you peace for Christmas. It is such a precious commodity for its being so rare. Every year the situation on the world stage seems to deteriorate that much more. Or are we just more aware of it, with our never-ending flow of news – BAD news!
There are brief flashes of good news. For example, two grandbabies have just been born – one of them is a friend’s, the other is our very first.What kind of legacy will we be leaving them?

Since I don’t believe in praying to God, I’m praying to you to reach out with a simple act to make the world a more peaceful place. You and I won’t be able to influence world politics to any extent, but if we start close to home, in our neighborhood and in our towns, maybe small kindnesses will swell into larger ones.
I’m thinking specifically of the refugees flooding into Europe from the countries that are war-torn and sinking into chaos. I’m thinking it’s time to do something hands-on to help make them more welcome in our societies which must appear so totally foreign to them. I’m thinking 2015 is the right time to pitch in with more than words. How does that old saying go?

Many hands make light work.

Yeah, that’s it!

Wishing you peace on earth.