The Immigrant Brochure

Somewhere in the German news from yesterday, I noticed this little item....the Linke Party has prepared a brochure (of sorts) for refugees.

It's a basic lecture on how how to integrate into Germany.

Now, a guy would ponder upon this and probably say that it's really a good idea.  For example....right off the bat, the brochure says that handshaking is very important when meeting a Germany....referring to it as rule number one in the book.  I actually agree with this and would note that sometimes, it's the only friendly way to get some folks to provide assistance.

Somewhere down the list, there's this other suggestion that they have....called "Trees need only rainwater", which is referring to public urination as being a bad thing.  Anybody who has been in Germany for a while....will grin and admit that about about twenty-percent of all German guys urinate on a somewhat frequent basis in public.  It happens on the way to soccer stadiums.  It happens on the way home from work.  It happens by train stations.  German women have gotten use to it but they are fairly peeved about this public demonstration.

The thing is....at least by my perception....there simply aren't enough public toilets.  Last week, I rode some local train (fairly new), and the one single toilet on board the three-car train....was broke.  I sat nearby and watched five people walk up to it over a twenty-minute period, and they each discovered the 'broke' sign and left a bit frustrated.  Oddly, once you get to most small train stations....you come to discover that they've all shut down their public toilets and your only option is to face some tree and do your business.

I actually agreed with the suggestions by the Linke Party, until it was pointed out near the very end of the suggestions on how to fit.....that left-thinking people are happy people and those people new in Germany....should entertain the left or get to know the leftist thinking.  Yeah, it was more or less an opening to invite the new resident to join up with the Linke Party

It is a curious thing.....if you lived in Syria over the past couple of decades, you'd probably look around and realize that the one thing you don't have in regional politics was extreme leftist or communist views.  It's not to say that the Syrians are negative or against that way of thinking....it's just that it never arrived or spread out.

In some ways, I view the current German refugee mess....as the equivalent of the US immigration mess.  The government simply looks the other way....no one will enforce any laws.....both political parties think it's an open market to recruit and build up more votes.  The trend is set and simply being adapted in some quiet way.

I would suggest this.  Some of these refugees have been in a position to observe years and years of propaganda and they aren't exactly naive or very innocent.  A handful of folks will read through the brochure....ask some stupid questions....then grin because they know it's a fake deal.

The truth is....Germans have a tough job ahead in explaining how to integrate and act like a German.  If a social scientist sat down and analyzed the heck out of this.....he'd eventually come to say that you need a five-volume series of books (400 pages each) on how to properly fit into German society and act like a German.  Frankly, it'd scare the crap out of most people if you laid out 2,000 pages of material and said you needed to read and study this.  They'd probably jump up and run over to France, where the integration book is forty pages at best.