Post Titled:
society, anonymity, invisibility, etc.
Mopey personal-musing opener which I recommend you skip:
I often wonder why I keep-up the TAR ART RAT facade, I mean- MAYBE it has something to do with the fact that -for example- I had a meeting at a fancy resteraunt this morning where I interviewed a woman who- if she was aware of my blog and of my personal/otehr life- might not take me seriously. I mean, I took painstaking efforts to wear glasses, suit, look and act older because I look younger than I am- so interviewing people nearly twice my age is effing tough. They must think "who is this kid they sent to interview me" - to break the ice maybe I should just say "hi, I'm 15." grr. anyhow. Maybe someday I will run naked in the sun with this blog, maybe not.

Moving right along, here is an interesting and honest quote from German Sociologist Heinz Bude I came across in eurotopics this morning:
"The times when we could rely on a growing middle class that integrates an increasing number of people are over. There will be heightened inequality in our society in future, and more and more people will become marginalised, German sociologist Heinz Bude explains in an interview with Angelika Brauer. "There are certain places in our society where opportunities accumulate, and others where the risks accumulate and people have less and less chance of gaining control of their lives through their own effort. ... The point I'm trying to make is: everyone counts, our society can't afford to lose a single person. The message of neo-liberalism was: 'Some are just unlucky. They're superfluous. We can't do anything about it.' We need to take a look at society as a whole and reflect on why some people get left behind and how we can get the 'excluded' back in." (12/03/2008)
full article in German here...
I mean, there are days that I think "Jesus, Germany faces the same race issues that the US was grappling with in the 1950s... but no, it is different. The German immigrant poplation (mostly middle-eastern) is... well, they reside here and grow up adn grow old here- but there is no meshing going on, like- why aren't any of my co-workers Tükish-German? Out of 100 people there should be at least ONE non-white person statistically, right? Well, there is one South American-German and a Brit of Arab decent, but no German minorities... a bit disturning, and as I have mentioned: every day when I walk around Berlin I only see wwhite guys in suits, only... I have difficulty enough integrating as a caucasian American, but I can't imagine the diffiulty if I were from Lebannon or Nigeria for example...
In a casual conversation my boss said "Well, if you go to a country you should learn the language and customs." Ok, true enough. But what if that weren't enough? What if you were simply shut out from the get-go? What is the reason to attempt to integrate yourself then. NK said: "It is no wonder people give up, they just face too much rejection, then they retreat to their comfort zones within their own neighborhoods, which become their own worlds- bubbles where they speak their native language and do not attempt to integrate themselves..."
Living in Krezbeg on the border of Neukölln this is always apparent- and I blogged about it often when I first moved back here, but I kid of burnt-out on the matter and haven't written about it in awhile... nevertheless it will remain an issue for the Germans to grapple with for decades to come whether they like it or not... they can only overlook/look the other way for so long... hmm, we shall see.