El video dura 10
minutos y medio. Muestra las consecuencias de la hipocresía europea, tan
frívola a la hora de bombardear países de Africa del Norte y Medio Oriente y,
al mismo tiempo, tan reacia a hacerse cargo de las oleadas migratorias
resultantes. Lo que aparentemente muestra el video es una especie de cuello de
botella, posiblemente en un área fronteriza. Hay historias personales que se
pueden deducir o adivinar a partir de las imágenes que se nos muestran.
Familias desgarradas porque la marea humana separó a varios de sus miembros,
hombres y mujeres desesperados y desvalidos gritando a voz en cuello; chicos
llorando, o simplemente en silencio, mirando con los ojos bien abiertos el
espectáculo dantesco que nunca más habrán de olvidar. Es que esto huele a campo
de concentración, amigos; esto no es joda. Acá está el link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poh3Rke_NkM&feature=youtu.be
Las siguientes
cuatro notas, todas relativas a este tema, fueron obtenidas de Zero Hedge:
Título: This Is
What The "Invasion Of Europe" Looks Like
Texto: On Monday,
we brought you a series of still shots along with a video which depicted the
scope of Europe’s migrant crisis via drone footage.
The point in
highlighting the imagery was to demonstrate just how futile the EU’s effort to
establish a series of refugee “holding camps” along the Balkan route to Germany
is likely to be.
As a reminder,
Jean-Claude Juncker and Angela Merkel are attempting to convince recalcitrant
states to support efforts to place hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers, but
a mandatory quota system only served to enrage the likes of Hungary which
quickly moved to close off its borders with Serbia and Croatia and that, in
turn, set off a Balkan border battle.
Now, Brussels is
looking to provide shelter for the migrants as they make their way to Germany
but as we noted earlier this week, these way stations will swiftly become
overcrowded, unsafe refugee internment camps and they’ll likely be easy targets
for vociferous anti-migrant protests or worse.
If you needed
further evidence of the extent to which any attempt to shelter the flood of
asylum seekers with makeshift camps is likely to prove not only futile, but
dangerous, consider the following video which vividly demonstrates just how
acute the crisis has become:
As you can see,
the situation is quickly spiraling out of control and it isn't at all clear
that Europe can cope with the people flows even if it wanted to. This is
nothing short of an epochal demographic shift and as we've documented on a
number of occasions (see here and here for instance), it's not at all clear
that Europeans are prepared for it.
Caution:
xenophobia ahead.
***
Título:
Meanwhile, In An Average German City
Texto: We can
only hope that these two German ladies racist discussions do not reflect a
growing undercurrent of xenophobia across such a currently open, and
multi-cultural society. However, with immigrants "mysteriously
disappearing," it may be too late:
“None of us want
this. We’re all scared.”“What is this? How will this be in 100 years?”
“This is not my
life. It just shows you how many of them are here already.”
“Now there’s
another 1.5 million who came this year.”
“Every year 2-3
million arrive.”
“It’s generally
about foreign infiltration.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“We won’t dress
like we do now.”
“Here, no! They
won’t take anything from me!”
“Look, when I
walk through the streets of the city, it’s only foreigners!”
“There are
walking 50 foreigners and I only see one European face.”
“Look at the
women! They’re all veiled!”
“This is our
future.”
As we detailed
earlier, anger is spilling over to the common people too: "In Freiberg in
Saxony on Sunday evening demonstrators tried to stop asylum seekers reaching a
refugee centre. The protesters tried to stop a bus with refugees from driving
further down the road by staging a sit-in.
Some people threw
apples at the bus, while others set off bangers, the Süddeutsche Zeitung
reported.
Around 50
counter-demonstrators also turned up to the anti-refugee sit-in and there were
tense verbal stand-offs between the two groups, although police confirmed the
situation did not escalate into violence."
Meanwhile in
Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania, two local politicans have been threatened by
people with presumed far right motives, reports the Hamburg Abendblatt.
Patrick Dahlemann
of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had his car attacked with butyric acid.
The foul smelling chemical was poured onto his vehicle.
On his Facebook
page Dahlemann said that he would not be intimidated in his efforts to foster a
“a real culture of hospitality” in the poor north-eastern state.
And with
xenophobia slowly on the rise, the far-right elements are stirring:
"Meanwhile in Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania, two local politicans have
been threatened by people with presumed far right motives, reports the Hamburg
Abendblatt."
Patrick Dahlemann
of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had his car attacked with butyric acid.
The foul smelling chemical was poured onto his vehicle.
On his Facebook
page Dahlemann said that he would not be intimidated in his efforts to foster a
“a real culture of hospitality” in the poor north-eastern state.
Party colleague
Susann Wippermann also suffered threats when an unknown person wrote “traitor
to the nation” on her car windscreen.
This follows a
warning last week from the Federal Office of Investigation (BKA) which warned
that politicians who support refugees face increased danger of attack from far
right groups. Earlier in October Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker was stabbed
while campaigning for election by an assailant with self-declared anti-refugee
motives.
Título: Furious
Germans Stage Massive Anti-Islam Protest: "The Concentration Camps Are
Unfortunately Out Of Action"
Texto: Over the
past several months, we’ve warned repeatedly that Europe’s escalating migrant
crisis threatens to set off a dangerous bout of scapegoating xenophobia.
Germany’s open
door policy to asylum seekers has effectively been forced on other countries by
decree, a move which could very well engender intense and possibly dangerous
feelings of nationalism among citizens who disagree with Berlin’s approach to
the crisis. We’ve already seen Hungary resort to razor wire fences, water cannons,
and tear gas to keep migrants out and Budapest’s move to close its border with
Croatia and Serbia has set off a Balkan border battle wherein no one can quite
figure out the most efficient way to get the refugees to Germany without
allowing their countries to be used as migrant superhighways.
Meanwhile, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel is beginning to feel the heat at home. Recall the
following from AFP:
Germany's Angela
Merkel is used to owning the room when she speaks to her party faithful, but
the mood turned hostile when she defended her open-door refugee policy this
week.
In a heated
atmosphere, some of the 1,000-odd members at the meeting warned of a
"national disaster" and demanded shuttering the borders as Germany
expects up to one million migrants this year.
"Stop the
refugee chaos -- save German culture + values -- dethrone Merkel," read a
banner at the congress late Wednesday in the eastern state of Saxony, the home
base for the anti-foreigner PEGIDA movement.
As Reuters notes,
PEGIDA (which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the
West,) almost “fizzled out” earlier this year when the group’s leader Lutz
Bachmann posted the following picture of himself on Facebook with the caption
“He’s Back”:
Now, thanks to
the refugee crisis, PEGIDA is apparently “back” as well, as attendance at the
group’s Monday night “gatherings” swells amid the influx of Syrian asylum
seekers. Here’s Reuters:
The German
anti-Islam movement PEGIDA staged its biggest rally in months on Monday,
sparked into fresh life on its first anniversary by anger at the government's
decision to take in hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East.
But it has
swelled again as Germany implements Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to
accept a tide of refugees that could exceed a million this year, as she argues
that Germany can not only cope but, with its aging population, will benefit in
the long term.
Police declined
to estimate the number of protesters but media put it at 15-20,000, somewhat
below a peak of around 25,000 in January. Around 14,000 counter-demonstrators
urged people to welcome refugees rather than whip up opposition.
PEGIDA supporters
waved the national flag and carried posters bearing slogans such as "Hell
comes with fake refugees" and "Every people should have its country,
not every people a piece of Germany".
Gathering outside
Dresden's historic opera house, the Semperoper, PEGIDA supporters chanted
"Deport! Deport!" and "Merkel must go!".
"We're just
normal people who are scared of what's coming," said 37-year-old Patrick,
a car mechanic. "As a German citizen who pays taxes, you feel like you're
being taken for a ride."
And Bachmann was
there on Monday, not dressed as Hitler. Here’s what he had to say to the crowd
which reportedly handed him bouquets of flowers:
"Politicians
attack and defame us and the lowest tricks are used to keep our mouths shut. We
are threatened with death, there are attacks on our vehicles and houses and we
are dragged through the mud, but we are still here ... And we will
triumph!"
While it's not
entirely clear what "triumph" means in this context, you can get a
clue or two by simply taking a look at the following homemade sign which showed
up at last Monday's rally in Dresden:
More from
Deutsche Welle:
The
anti-"Islamization" movement PEGIDA marked its first birthday with a
significant resurgence - and what many observers saw as a new radicalization.
The new influx of refugees over the summer and a significant backlash against
Merkel's decision to open the borders to Syrians has apparently given the
racist elements in the PEGIDA movement new confidence.
Police put the
attendance at Monday's PEGIDA rally at between 15,000 and 20,000 people, with
an equal number of counterdemonstrators, making this the largest turnout since
the movement's previous high point in February. But there was also a new
aggression in the crowds: a Saxony police statement said the two sides threw
"objects and fireworks" at one another, and said there were several
attacks on officers themselves, who deployed pepper spray.
The media's
attention was particularly drawn to a 25-minute speech by the German-Turkish
writer Akif Pirincci, otherwise known for a cat-based crime fiction series and
a libertarian blog called "The Axis of Good," which has often been
accused of racism.
Pirincci's
extraordinary and occasionally vulgar ramble, all read from notes, included
references to refugees as "invaders," politicians as "gauleiters
against their own people," Muslims "who pump infidels with their
Muslim juice" and a threat that Germany would become a "Muslim
garbage dump."
After the crowd
responded with shouts of "resistance, resistance," Pirincci said,
"Of course there are other alternatives - but the concentration camps are
unfortunately out of action at the moment."
You read that
correctly, the man who stood up in front of 10-15,000 people and delivered a
25-minute rant complete with the suggestion that Germany should fire back up
the concentration camps writes cat detective novels in his spare time...
In any event,
this is precisely what we meant when we said that feelings of intense
nationalism could well lead directly to dangerous bouts of scapegoating
xenophobia, and don't expect anyone at a PEGIDA rally to be persuaded by the
argument that the influx of Syrian refugees may help Germany overcome the
economic hurdles it will soon face from challenging demographic shifts.
We'll leave you
with a quote from Hungary's Viktor Orban and some visuals from Monday's rally.
“Spiritually,
Islam was never part of Europe. It's the rulebook of another world.”
Título: Europe's
Next Refugee Crisis: Thousands Of Migrants Freezing To Death
Texto: “It cannot
be that in the Europe of 2015 people are left to fend for themselves, sleeping
in fields.” That’s a quote from European Commission President Jean-Claude
Juncker and he’s referring to the EU’s effort to create makeshift “holding
camps” along the Balkan route to Germany designed to house some 100,000 asylum
seekers as they make their way north. Eastern Europe is struggling with the
influx of refugees from the Mid-East and while Hungary has simply decided to
close its borders, other states in the region are attempting to strike some
sort of middle ground between relenting and allowing migrants to turn the
countryside into a superhighway to Germany and implementing a Viktor
Orban-style crackdown that lacks any semblance of humanity (say what you will
about a country’s right to protect its borders and cultural heritage, but using
tear gas and water cannons in conjunction with an attempt to ignite an
ultra-nationalist, religious fervor amongst the populace is dangerous at best
and outright irresponsible at worst).
While the effort
is admirable - we suppose - it may nonetheless backfire. That is, while it’s
certainly not ideal to have hundreds of thousands of people sleeping in the
middle of fields and building campfires out of flammable garbage, these ad hoc
way stations will almost invariably become overcrowded, unsafe refugee
internment camps and they’ll likely be easy targets for vociferous anti-migrant
protests or worse.
That said, there
really are no viable alternatives which is frightening considering we’re now
headed into winter. Put simply, the “Schengen” concept is rapidly falling apart
and unless Europe figures something out soon (and by “soon” we mean in the next
couple of weeks) migrants could start to freeze to death. Here’s The Telegraph:
Migrants crossing
the Balkans will begin freezing to death as winter approaches, the head of
European Union has said, as leaders warned the continent was "falling
apart" trying to deal with the biggest refugee crisis since the Second
World War.
Jean-Claude
Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said a solution was urgently
needed or thousands of refugee families facing winter temperature on the
hillsides and freezing river-banks of Eastern Europe, would die.
"Every day
counts," he said. "Otherwise we will soon see families in cold rivers
in the Balkans perish miserably."
Miro Cerar, the
Slovenian prime minister, said the EU was days from collapse as his country
buckled under an “unbearable” influx of migrants.
"If we do
not deliver some immediate and concrete actions on the ground in the next few
days and weeks I believe the EU and Europe as a whole will start falling
apart," he said.
Poorly dressed
and under-fed, there are mounting fears they will fall victim to rougher seas
and the Balkan winter that can reach minus 15C as they attempt to reach Germany
and Sweden.
Aid agencies and
human rights groups have also weighed in on the crisis. "As winter looms,
the sight of thousands of refugees sleeping rough as they make their way
through Europe represents a damning indictment of the EU’s failure to offer a
coordinated response to the refugee crisis," said John Dalhuisen of
Amnesty International.
If you thought
the firestorm surrounding the images of drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi was bad,
just wait until the pictures of frozen migrant children start to surface on
social media.
In many ways,
Europe is damned if they do, damned if they don't. If refugee families are left
to freeze in the Balkans because a confederacy of supposedly advanced nations
couldn't figure out how to cope with the influx of asylum seekers from the
war-torn Mid-East, the history books will be replete with references and images
to migrant families freezing to death trying to get to Germany. Then again, if
the whole of the EU adopts an open door policy and something goes wrong - or
even if nothing goes wrong and the people flows simply serve to change the
character of European society forever - the bloc will likely be blamed for not
taking a more measured approach.
Meanwhile, note the
bolded passage from The Telegraph article excerpted above: "...the Balkan
winter that can reach minus 15°C as they attempt to reach Germany and
Sweden." Well, if you though anti-migrant sentiment was on the rise in
Germany (see the latest PEGIDA rally), just have a look at Sweden where as yet
unidentified groups are literally torching refugee shelters. Here's The
Telegraph again:
Sweden’s
migration authorities on Wednesday moved to hide the locations of buildings
earmarked for housing refugees, after attackers set more a dozen prospective
refugee centres on fire in a matter of months.
Mikael Ribbenvik,
chief operative officer at the Swedish Migration Agency, made the decision
after the thirteenth centre, a home for unaccompanied refugee children in the
city of Lund, was set alight on Monday.
“We have decided
today that where asylum centres are located will from now on be classified
information,” Johanna Uhr, a spokeswoman for the agency, told The Telegraph.
“We will no longer be sending out any lists of locations.”
The populist
Sweden Democrat party has been harshly criticised for last week publishing a
map listing the addresses of all asylum centres in and around the city of Lund.
“I find it hard
to see that this is anything other than an incitement to commit hate crimes,”
Veronica Palm, a Social Democrat MP, told Expressen newspaper.
And so sadly, the
choice appears to be between bullets, bombs, and sword-wielding jihadists in
Syria and freezing to death in the Balkans or else being burned alive in Sweden
- and that's assuming you don't die at sea in transit.
The reports from
Sweden underscore our point that Europe's plan to establish makeshift
"holding camps" is likely a bad idea. Anti-migrant sentiment is
running high among Europeans predisposed to nationalistic ideals and while the
facilities torched in Sweden were apparently empty, the migrant camps along the Balkan route won't
be. That said, the alternative is to force asylum seekers to sleep out in the
cold and risk going down in history as a union of advanced economies that
couldn't even manage to cooperate enough to keep tens of thousands of people
from freezing to death.
Of course the
tragic irony is that whatever fate should befall the legions of refugees
seeking asylum in Western Europe, it will all be blamed on brutal Mid-East
dictators and while autocratic regimes should unquestionably be held to account
for their role in creating disaffection among the citizenry, at some point the
West needs to wake up and come to terms with the fact that playing Mid-East
kingmaker everywhere and always has tragic consequences. Europe's refugee
crisis is just the latest example.
