New "Rules of Conduct" for German women after Cologne ..

Berlin is slightly risky.. But yeah being brown is more risky..


I'd be the first brown person to join PEGIDA.

Of course Berlin has inherent risk because it's a capital, but tbh I doubt I'd be much safer were I at my home uni of Birmingham as it's also huge.
I didn't mean generally anyway, I meant with specific reference to racism. Being incredibly multi-cultural, Berlin shouldn't be a problem, and the west tends to be less conservative than the east so even though my friend lives in a tiny town visiting shouldn't in theory bring many problems for me. People keep asking me if I'm Persian (that was my fave, being asked if I was Persian - I'd never had that before ) or Turkish though, because I'm half-white, and people love Turks here so I'll probs be all right

Urgh no. It'd be like BNP/Britain First...

Ahh you're half Turkish?
I'm mixed race.. Would they still let me or no?

No, half Pakistani, half English, they just ask if I'm Turkish because of the high Turkish population. Yeah course, you're a British citizen right?

Yup I am.

Have the feminists decried the 'victim blaming' involved in this, yet?

I'm left-wing and all for taking as many Syrian refugees as we can, but at the same time this incident was absolutely unacceptable and something needs to be done. In my mind the one question that should really shape the response to this is can it actually be proven that the attackers were migrants? Is there CCTV evidence which clearly proves the race of a large chunk of them? Were there any other eyewitnesses that could have, say, heard them shouting in Levantine Arabic or something else which would have proved their origin? Because you have to remember that there are a lot of German people of Turkish origin, and many Turks fit the description of looking Arab or North African.

If they weren't migrants, then it's a simple case of re-evaluating sexual education in Germany and the way in which German authorities engage with the Turkish community and attempt to stamp out conservative attitudes towards women's rights lingering within that community. If they were, I think the Schengen Agreement temporarily needs to be suspended to make it easier to set up border posts to verify whether any claiming to be refugees are actually Syrian, and then large semi-permanent camps - with adequate facilities for life, not in third-world conditions or anything - need to be set up and those Syrians claiming asylum should have to live in them until Syria has calmed down and is safe, at which point they should be sent back.

I am not a racist and if Syria was a peaceful country I would say that as long as they have a legitimate right to be in Germany/wherever, then of course they should be allowed to live among the general population, because I think the main reason for this ultimately isn't their culture - yes, Arab culture is much more right-wing than the West's and has a corresponding view of women's rights, but you don't see mass rapes every week in Arab countries. It's more the fact that these people, who previously lived in a civilised country with a standard of living approaching that of some European countries, have seen literally everything they knew smashed to pieces, including the very homes they lived in, possibly had loved ones killed or even been wounded themselves, and then have been on a long walk through Europe. They are pretty much all mentally ****ed up to the point where they just don't care about women's rights or human dignity or values. It's why they don't just allow soldiers into normal civilian life the second they leave the Army - they go through a transition process and there is help, including mental health-related, there for them if they need it. But you can't provide that for hundreds of thousands of people at once. I think that, assuming it was migrants who were responsible for this, putting them into refugee camps is the only solution to minimise the risk of this happening again.

No they haven't. Discrimination towards refugees overrides it.

Have the feminists decried the 'victim blaming' involved in this, yet?

Don't worry they will soon "give a better explanation to people from other cultures about the meaning of carnival"

I'm left-wing and all for taking as many Syrian refugees as we can, but at the same time this incident was absolutely unacceptable and something needs to be done. In my mind the one question that should really shape the response to this is can it actually be proven that the attackers were migrants? Is there CCTV evidence which clearly proves the race of a large chunk of them? Were there any other eyewitnesses that could have, say, heard them shouting in Levantine Arabic or something else which would have proved their origin? Because you have to remember that there are a lot of German people of Turkish origin, and many Turks fit the description of looking Arab or North African.

If they weren't migrants, then it's a simple case of re-evaluating sexual education in Germany and the way in which German authorities engage with the Turkish community and attempt to stamp out conservative attitudes towards women's rights lingering within that community. If they were, I think the Schengen Agreement temporarily needs to be suspended to make it easier to set up border posts to verify whether any claiming to be refugees are actually Syrian, and then large semi-permanent camps - with adequate facilities for life, not in third-world conditions or anything - need to be set up and those Syrians claiming asylum should have to live in them until Syria has calmed down and is safe, at which point they should be sent back.

I am not a racist and if Syria was a peaceful country I would say that as long as they have a legitimate right to be in Germany/wherever, then of course they should be allowed to live among the general population, because I think the main reason for this ultimately isn't their culture - yes, Arab culture is much more right-wing than the West's and has a corresponding view of women's rights, but you don't see mass rapes every week in Arab countries. It's more the fact that these people, who previously lived in a civilised country with a standard of living approaching that of some European countries, have seen literally everything they knew smashed to pieces, including the very homes they lived in, possibly had loved ones killed or even been wounded themselves, and then have been on a long walk through Europe. They are pretty much all mentally ****ed up to the point where they just don't care about women's rights or human dignity or values. It's why they don't just allow soldiers into normal civilian life the second they leave the Army - they go through a transition process and there is help, including mental health-related, there for them if they need it. But you can't provide that for hundreds of thousands of people at once. I think that, assuming it was migrants who were responsible for this, putting them into refugee camps is the only solution to minimise the risk of this happening again.

Yup.

I think the best way to deal with the situation is to view the CCTV, identify the people involved. If they have claimed asylum recently they should have it revoked to show that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and that there are consequences. Putting them in refugee camps would only make the situation worse it would increase tensions and create hotspots for crime and anti-social behaviour they need to be integrated.

Tbf, Karneval is essentially a huge alcohol-fest. Literally people dress up and drink all day. A man walking round town in a giant penis costume may need to be explained to people new to the country

In other words, the Germans are responding like normal people everywhere else in the world would. But instead they'll be demonised as Nazis for even thinking that their culture and society might be worth preserving. The Dalai Lama has similar concerns about Tibetan culture being demographically marginalised by Han Chinese - it's a normal concern for people to have. They should be able to preserve their culture.

Pew Global actually show that the majority in virtually every country surveyed have these concerns.