Friday, April 8, 2016

Germans and the 'Under-18' Situation

Focus did a piece today which involved an interview with a guy who is the head of the Children's Commission (under the Bundestag)....Herr Norbert Muller.

He's decided to comment on the German Army (the Bundeswehr) and note that 1,500-odd members are under the age of 18 when recruited.....which adds up to 7-percent of the German Army.

The current law in Germany allows for recruitment and training....but no weapons-related training until after 18.  Signing a German kid up while under 18?  You have to have the parents sign the slip.

The push by the Children's Commission is that they want the practice of signing kids under eighteen to end.  'Adolescents' are possibly affected by the "trauma" is the hyped-up discussion.

The problem I see with this logic is that you already have the the THW folks (the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief......the rescue department) recruit kids and have roughly 80,000 members across all of Germany.  They accept the under-18 crowd as well, and they are put into a training environment where they might be faced with some trauma-events as well.

To also be honest, there are a fair number of people who at age 21.....they might not be mature enough to handle trauma-events.  I've been around people who were in their 30's and not able to handle a trauma-event.

Oddly, Germany allows driver's license applications and permits....with parent's permission....at 17.  Maybe the trauma-hype might be suggested in this case as well?

Nursing schools and EMT-type training for German kids under 18?  There's trauma in this work as well.

It would seem.....if you open up this door....a number of jobs or fields would have to be examined....if you ask me.

No comments: