1. Last night, I was watching late-news on ARD, and they got to talking about the number of applications for asylum in the first half of 2024....nearing the 120,000 point (about 25,000 off from the same time of 2023). Majority? Leading the way....Afghans and Syrians.
But there is this odd element of the discussion.....these are the people who applied, and were either accepted or put on a deportation list.
If you go and walk around any major town now in Germany, it is becoming obvious that a fair number of folks have arrived, and avoided the paperwork. Yeah, undocumented and not wanting to announce themselves to the German government.
How many? There is no way to collect this data, or to have a legit discussion over the practice.
Could there be half-a-million undocumented folks around the country? Well....yeah....it's possible.
A couple of years ago in the Neuschwanstein region....a Chinese couple on a tour....just up and walked off (disappearing). I would imagine they had the money set up in Germany and had some 'sponsor' who agreed to house them. There might be a hundred Chinese a week who arrive in some fashion and just lounge around with cash in their hands....avoiding the identification to the authorities.
Would it bother Germans if a lot of people were hidden in the system? I'm guessing they'd ask how this was possible.
2. ARD's Tagesschau (the news hour on public TV)....came up and asked....'what can we do about Russian propaganda'.
The TV news crowd, and the political landscape....are all concerned about the amount of propaganda that exists.
A fair number of Germans would say that ARD (the public TV folks) itself pumps out propaganda, and this simply balances things.
So what's going to happen? If you look at the angle of discussion....the gov't thinks they can limit or cut Russian propaganda...yet as they talk about this....TikTok is still on full-blast, and you could easily insert Russian propaganda into any video.
All of this leading to skepticism? I'd say with German youth...ages 16 to 25....probably one-third of them have a fair amount skepticism over everything they hear....no matter who is talking or producing.
My expectation? Over the next six months....a lot of in-house training will occur where German journalists try to teach you to recognize propaganda, and the more you watch.....the more you question all news you seem to hear.
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