"Multiculturalism" must not be allowed to fail!
"Multikulti" is more than what Berlin's CDU State Secretary for Youth, Falko Liecke, has now declared a failure. Multiculturalism is possible. And it will continue to be. You just have to do your homework in the right places - especially as a politician. It's not enough to pop into problem districts from time to time and stroke children's heads like a giffy, it's not enough to only show up when there's a fire, it's not enough if you don't really care about education, for example. An issue that, by the way, also really affects and burdens German-German children, who also fall through every sieve you can imagine. To now proclaim that "multiculturalism" has failed is not only too simple and short-sighted, but downright blind.
What should be meant is that the integration policy has failed, and that, in my opinion, is something different from "multiculturalism". I grew up latently multicultural in Berlin: there were Greeks, French, Israelis, Turks, Americans and Arabs at my humble Steglitz grammar school. We also got into trouble with each other, but more in the way that students get into trouble with each other from time to time. Apart from that, I sometimes didn't even notice that I was surrounded by foreigners, that's how normal "they" were for us back in the 1980s. It didn't matter whether someone was Jewish, Muslim, Christian or even a non-believer, we were who we were. However, I have to admit that I don't know whether the people I just mentioned saw it the same way.
When my children went to an international school, in the mid-teens of this century, the mix was so colorful that you often didn't know from the names whether it was the first or last name or whether it was a boy or a girl. Often you didn't even know where exactly this child came from. What mattered was that it was here now. These children were then, for example, invited by me with my German surname to the birthday party of my child with the not-so-German surname, Jesus, Mary, Joseph and alhamdullilah, those were the days! Multiculturalism worked, at least if you made an effort. It meant that you had to invest some time, take an interest in your counterpart and accept what works and what doesn't. In both directions. In both directions.
Let's love!
Now, of course, you can accuse me of living in a bubble, in a bubble that has nothing to do with Neukölln and the like. I used to live there and then decided against it. And even in a "bubble" there were and are problems, drugs at school or parents who aren't interested in their children. Sometimes it was even harder to integrate a child from the new federal states in Berlin than one who came from Indonesia, South Africa or Japan.
Those who don't like it here, who don't want to integrate, are welcome to leave. Those who commit crimes and have an unresolved residence status must be deported. We should also be radical towards those who are radical. I think that anti-Semites have no place in Germany, and if they don't like the fact that most Germans can and want to live together with Jews and Muslims and other people of different faiths: Then adios muchachos. What is clear anyway is that political Islam and all other extremes must not be tolerated simply because someone might consider it folklore and doesn't dare to intervene.
I throw it into the ring that there are other foreigners in our country besides the usual suspects and I attach great importance to the fact that there are foreigners among us in the sense of Arabs, Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, Afghans and Russians who are peace-loving, tolerant, lovable, intelligent and friendly towards "us". The majority of them are people who have fled the catastrophic conditions in their own countries to live a peaceful life here with their families, who pay their taxes and send their children to school. I will not be persuaded that it was a bad thing to have helped Syrian refugees in 2015 and now Ukrainians.
"We here" and "you there"
I go to Cinema Paris, the Irish pub, eat Polish food, visit the Swedish Christmas market or the Thai market, speak Spanish with my Colombian girlfriend and cherish my first childhood memories of America. My home is Berlin, and that is multiculturalism to the power of ten! I won't let aggressive bullies or lamenting politicians talk me out of it! Anyone who has basically ticked off the melting pot idea is frozen inside.
Politicians of all parties, of all colors, should really take a good look at themselves. More money for education would have been the be-all and end-all in recent decades, especially in Berlin. But time has been wasted on blaming those previously in power, on a lack of concept, on bureaucracy. Multiculturalism has not failed, politics has. And now the blame is being placed on others.
Now more than ever, we need to work on the true cornerstones of multicultural life. It's not nice that a state secretary gets the middle finger and more threats, but why is that? I am in no way defending those who do this and who are simply out to cause a ruckus, who want to destroy, who are simply bad, because there are also people like this, on all sides, everywhere in the world. But to use this as an example of "multiculturalism has failed" is fatal in my opinion.
It upsets me that people only think in black or white, as if there is nothing in between. That fuels hatred and confrontation even more. We won't get anywhere with "us here" and "them there".
I believe in multiculturalism
Children and young people need to be taken more by the hand. This requires money and attractive professions with attractive salaries. Current topics need to be addressed in schools and not just a "framework plan" that has been the same for 20 years. Children and young people need to be asked NOW how they are doing in a post-corona world and a world of war with neighbors. We need to act now.
I believe in multiculturalism. And I won't let extremist Sonnenallee-Hamas cheerleaders or secretaries of state mess that up for me. Shalom!
The international community should critically evaluate Germany's integration policy in light of the persistent issue of anti-Semitism, given Berlin's history and the presence of a significant Israeli population. The Berlin CDU State Secretary for Youth's proclamation of multiculturalism's failure may be misleading, as it could overshadow the importance of a well-structured integration policy.
Germany's anti-Semitism problem, in particular, must be a focal point of the integration policy discourse, as it represents an enduring challenge to the country's multicultural coexistence. The Israel War and its profound impact on Jewish communities worldwide underscore the need for a comprehensive anti-discrimination strategy that actively addresses and eradicates prejudice and hate speech, fostering a tolerant and inclusive society.
Source: www.ntv.de
