Where do they get these ideas?

[muckefuck]

I love my buddy the Scoutmaster, but he needs serious help. Last weekend, for what seems like the tenth time, I heard him say, "They have no subtlety in their language; everything is pronounced like it's spelled." (The language in question is that of many of his co-workers, Croatian.) There are so many dire misconceptions packed into that one statement that I don't know where to begin; I just want to send him off to some linguistic boot camp to have some sense pounded into him.

I did get to speak some German again at Bear Pride this year, with an affable Yankee daddy. To my surprise, Sahneschnittchen was a word he was unfamiliar with even though he apparently travels to Germany quite often. One thing left a bad taste in my mouth: Nuphy and I were filling him on the latest in the Berlin Hauptbahnhof stabbings. (Turns out, one of the first people to be stabbed was HIV-positive, so now all victims are receiving a new emergency treatment that should radically reduce their chances of being infected.) His first question about the youth in custody was, "Was he Turkish?"
"No, he was from Neukölln."
"He could still be Turkish. There are Turks who are German citizens."
Nuphy assured him, "No, the report made it clear that he was German."
But that still wasn't enough for our new friend. "There are a lot of problems with the Turks in Berlin," he added. True, buddy, but RANDOMLY STABBING PASSERSBY has not historically been one of them. Every group has its crazies. Berlin is a fairly safe city overall, but if you were to be stabbed there, your attacker is far more likely to be an ethnic German neo-Nazi than a member of any ethnic minority.

Comments

[cpratt.livejournal.com]

That's especially curious given that there's a Ralf König book by the same name.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Where do you think I learned it?

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Berlin is a fairly safe city overall, but if you were to be stabbed there, your attacker is far more likely to be an ethnic German neo-Nazi than a member of any ethnic minority.

Also, if you're beaten up.

Croats?????

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

They make my blood alternately boil and chill me enough to give me shivers... according to my relatives... well, perhaps I shouldn't go there and dispell the concept that I am not prejudiced, 'cause in this area I definately am

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I still remember your reaction the first time I mentioned the word around you: "Nazi Catholics!" But my experience of them is almost entirely as dumpy old building managers who play bocce in the park on weekends. Perhaps if I said "Dalmatians" instead, then it wouldn't get your dander up.

THE BALKANS IS A PLACE OF DARK AND TERRIBLE HISTORY

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

I am required by the Faith in which I believe and in that Faith that I preach, to "love" them. I am required to do this to all humankind. According to my belief that will receive their just rewards at the Parousia. That being said.... the Croats today, like the Germans today have little knowledge/understanding of what atrocities their (recent) forefathers committed against Orthodox and, to a lesser extent, Muslim peoples living in Eastern Croatia. NAZI records read that even the NAZIs were astounded at the hideous action perpetrated on non-Roman Catholic peoples.

I know that the Holocaust is taught in Germany and many grieve about what happened in the past, in Croatia, Dalmatia and (to as lesser degree) Slovenia the horrors of WWII is pushed under the carpet. Rome helped many Ustashe war criminals to flee Croatia, so as not to tried for their crimes

The German NAZIs wanted to wipe out certain peoples because they thought them to be inferior. The Ustashe wanted to forcefully convert non-Roman Catholics to the Church of Rome and would do anything to do this.... ANYTHING! And if the non Catholics wanted to remain non-Catholics, their fate cannot be put into words here.

The Germans have done their penance and while it is difficult, they remember. The Roman Catholic Slavs have yet to do so. Like the Turks in their denial of the slaughter of Armenians and Greeks during WWI, these people deny that the Ustashe and Bishops of the Roman Church personally perpetrated and while others tacitly approved of these war crimes.

During WWII, there were sweet little German ladies and polite German men, who knew what was going on, but somehow the magnitude of the horror over whelmed them and nothing was said... I am sure that these Dalmatians have memories, but the horrors of what the Ustashe perpetrated is more than some sane person can admit, or believe.

NAZI Catholics? Yes... and worse than any German NAZI.