Blätter
Eurozine
Blätter
2010-10-18
Summary Blätter 10/2010
Lamya Kaddor
Muslims in "Sarrazinland"
Thilo Sarrazin's provoking theses on the minor intelligence and lacking integration of Muslim immigrants have caused an immense public outcry. Lamya Kaddor, expert of Islamic Studies and Religion, criticises the extensive stereotyping of the Islam and Muslims by Sarrazin and other self-appointed "critics of Islam". She calls for an end to generalizing discussions about "the Muslims", and suggests developing a more differentiated view on the life of German Muslims.
Oliver Schmidtke
Immigrants as commodity. How the market sorts human beings
According to predominant and (allegedly) progressive understanding, immigration is mainly interpreted by focusing on its utility for the receiving country. This view, however, implies follow-up costs for the society. Discussing the Canadian and the German example, Oliver Schmidtke, Professor for Political Sciences at the University of Victoria in Canada, shows how an economically legitimated migration policy can be used for social exclusion and populist resentment.
Otto Köhler
Erika Steinbach's rampage. The Federal Association of Expellees (BdV) and its past
With her recent comments on the Polish mobilisation in 1939 and on the reputedly "bad character" of Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, BdV president Erika Steinbach has isolated herself politically. Even within the CDU, her own party, her compromising theses are increasingly met with criticism. Historian and journalist Otto Köhler detects that Steinbach's statements are by no means "new" breaches, but that revisionist positions were constitutive for the BdV from its beginning.
A great democrat -- In remembrance of Bärbel Bohley
On September 11, 2010, Eastern German civil-rights activist Bärbel Bohley died. In light of the occasion, Blätter co-editor Norman Birnbaum recognizes the "public enemy" of the GDR with a personal reminiscence. In addition, Blätter publishes a striking contribution by Bärbel Bohley herself, which first appeared in this magazine in March 1990. Even 20 years after German unification it is impressively up-to-date.
Armin Paasch
Famine as an export hit. European agricultural policy and its victims
While politics and the food industry celebrate Germany's heavy agricultural exports, the dwindling number of farms proceeds unabatedly. The main reason is that only export-orientated farming gets subsidized. Agricultural expert Armin Paasch shows how -- on the pretext of combating hunger -- agriculture is being destroyed in poor countries -- with disastrous consequences for the local food situation.
John J. Mearsheimer
China vs. USA: The gathering storm
Will the Chinese "economic miracle" and the US-American economic crisis alter the military balance of power in the Asian-Pacific region? John J. Mearsheimer, Professor for Political Sciences at the University of Chicago, analyses Peking's and Washington's geostrategic interests. His controversial thesis: a military conflict over supremacy will be inevitable in the forthcoming decades.
Thomas Greven
Party of the whites. Will the Republicans win the congressional election?
In November, the United States will vote for a new Congress. Currently, everything points to a success of the oppositional Republican Party. Political Scientist Thomas Greven asks for the reasons of this change. His thesis: It is the governing Democrats' and their President's lack of vision and determination which has made the comeback of the self-proclaimed "real Americans" (Sarah Palin) possible.
Mathias Lindenau
100 years of Kibbutz movement: A failed utopia?
Since the foundation of the first Kibbutz in 1910, the Kibbutz movement aspired to realize the social utopia of a communitarian way of life. Mathias Lindenau, Professor of Social Sciences at the FHS St. Gallen/Switzerland, examines the historical development of the Kibbutz movement and questions the ambivalent status of the Kibbutzim in present-day Israel.