Last night, I sat with the wife and watched a German news documentary piece from Frontal-21, on ZDF (Channel Two, public TV in Germany).
So the topic was the BamF 'scandal'. BamF is the agency that handles paperwork and the approval process for migrants and immigrants into Germany. In recent weeks, up in Bremen.....the division office for BamF apparently got caught in some fraud episode....having approved hundreds of folks, with no valid reason.
Massive investigation going on, and several thousand cases will be reviewed a second time to see if they were approved under this fraud episode. Suggestions even center on the idea that other regions had the same issue.
So I came to the end of this ZDF production (roughly 8 minutes), and asked my wife....this whole 'scandal' discussed by ZDF's crackerjack reporters....NOT once did they suggest money or bribes were involved? Did I get that correct? Yes, she responded.....an entire report on this scandal and all this fake approval business occuring, and no mention of bribes.
How is that possible.....I asked the wife. She (the German obviously) rolled her eyes and said it can only be two things.
ZDF didn't want to admit that bribes were involved (taking this out of the news piece entirely). Or, in her mind.....there were 'gut-menschen' involved.
Gut-menschen? Well....it's a slang term by Germans to identify Germans who are hopelessly attached to a pro-asylum or pro-migration situation. They would never accept a deportation situation.
As my wife (the German) viewed it....either ZDF is intentionally avoiding the bribe story, or gut-menschen are at the heart of this fraud story.
Typically, people commit fraud, in order to collect money (at least in my American mind). I can't think of too many people with behavioral traits like this.....doing this without some money-angle.
It ended with me shaking my head. They made a big effort to tell this story, but you just sit there and wonder....why would these folks commit to so much fraud, if there was no money involved, and ZDF just left that hanging there.
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