Note: This post is biased from at least two points of view. The author leans heavily towards an emphasis on - presumably - universal human values. The second bias stems from having lived and worked in several countries on one's own steam.
At issue is an OpEd in Frankfurter Allgemeine, in which the author says that concepts condemned as "right leaning" only yesterday are now firmly part of Germany's "Culture of Welcome", in particular learning how to be German, which means not only learning the language but also German virtues.
It is an OpEd, or as they call it around here, a commentary, so what's the big deal about a statement the blogster does not agree with?
This is where the two biases come in.
Some time ago, there was another wave of "learn the German language" pieces in the media, which was kicked off by the intention of the Bavarian conservative party CSU to include a demand that foreigners not only learn German as mandated by law but also speak German at home.
Part of the problem with the mandate and the planned but dropped call to speak German at home is - very ironically - one of the German virtues: being conscientious and execution oriented.
A legal mandate to learn the prevailing local language has been part of the fashion trend in immigration law for a while. In the case of Germany, the virtue of 'sticking with a decision' (the execution part) has become a problem for thousands of non-EU foreigners who apply for a long term visa: you need to produce a certificate. No certificate - no visa.
Exceptions apply to countries of the closer set of Western cultures.
There is not a single refugee coming to Germany who wakes up in the morning saying" I am so happy I don't speak German.
We jumped into "German virtues" without a definition, so let's try to find one. What virtues are we talking about?
This piece from the Huffington Post claims to list 11, but some are synonyms, and they have really three, which they call "successes and virtues": stability, conscientiousness, and Gemütlichkeit.
A further three of the list are worth mentioning: free public education and a socially responsible free market system, the ability to compromise.
Stability
West Germany enjoyed stability since the 1950s. East Germany had its own less well defined stability (after all the needed a wall to keep people in) for some 40 years and went away. The past 25 years of the "re-united" Germany have been pretty stable.
Conscientiousness
In the eye of the beholder. They do execute pretty well, even if the subject or object of the execution is bad.
Gemütlichkeit
We will not even go near this, because a hard to translate word overlaid with some Alpine lederhosen antics is not a German virtue. Gemütlichkeit really means being cozy, comfortable and relaxed. All mammals can do this, even the smaller, more vulnerable ones who are more frequently on high predator alert.
Free public education
Success or virtue, or a bit of both? Germany still has decent system but it has been under attack for decades and faces mounting budget pressure. So, get it while it is still free.
And Germany is not the only country that has such a system.
Socially responsible free market system
Germans brought the world the first modern social security system. That is as big an achievement as it gets. But the country also has the greatest wealth disparity in Europe and the system has seen serious cutbacks. Somewhat simplified, the current German system is a little bit better than "the best from the more progressive U.S. states plus an improved version of Obamacare".
Ability to compromise
The blogster's understanding of compromise may be - again - biased towards a "win-win" type of conflict resolution. Based on this, Germans do not show a remarkable ability to compromise.
They do negotiate and come to solutions, but the relative calm which the media like to highlight as "ability to compromise" is very misleading. Representatives of big organized groups are very good at making back room deals.
So, in any modern society, there are good things and bad things.
Elevating some to "virtues" is at least good PR.
But asking foreigners to acquire any such virtues is condescending at best and really f***ing racist when you express the demand in a less charitable way.
It implies people show up in your society less are than desirable or Imperfect beings that need to be put though some sort of human equivalent of "doggie school" in order to be acceptable.
And that is not acceptable.
No comments:
Post a Comment