Sweeping Problems Under the Rug

Update: The video that was originally embedded in this post was missing some of its subtitles. Vlad has kindly corrected the problem and uploaded a new version.

If you are using the video that was displayed here earlier, you may want to switch your embed to this one, since it is more complete.


Thilo Sarrazin is a member of the board of the Bundesbank in Germany, although possibly not for much longer. The German elites have taken against him, and he may soon be excommunicated from the establishment.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, Mr. Sarrazin’s outspoken opinions about immigrants have caused controversy for several years, but the real trouble began with the recent publication of his new book, “Deutschland schafft sich ab — Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen” (“Abolishing Germany — How we’re putting our country in jeopardy”).

The video below from German television takes a look at the furor caused by Thilo Sarrazin. It allows the author to make his points clearly in his own words. However, like the Australian TV program about Geert Wilders, the progressive media people who produced this documentary are at pains to prove that Mr. Sarrazin is a dangerous bigot and racist. As you will see, he causes a major outbreak of the Screaming Nazi Heeber-Jeebers among the refined and enlightened guardians of German culture. Polite German society has closed ranks against him.

Frank Henkel, leader of the Berlin Christian Democrats, tells viewers that

There are problems and aberrations in the area of integration and immigration in our city, and it is true that the real problems must not be whitewashed by politics. Anyone, like Sarrazin, however, who, say, bases problems in, say, education on hereditary factors and disadvantages among immigrants, well, he is beyond help… It needs to be condemned clearly here and now.

What would “whitewashing” consist of, if not preemptive condemnation of a hypothesis without the process of research, examination, and logical deduction necessary to prove it wrong?

Did Mr. Henkel do his homework on population genetics and the statistical correlation of social behaviors with genetic factors? Did he immerse himself in twin studies, or longitudinal statistical investigations of families over several generations?

Not at all! No homework is required: “It needs to be condemned clearly here and now.”

Investigation into this topic has been closed. Simply to discuss it is to be just like a Nazi. Anyone who talks about it should be shunned, and maybe even imprisoned.

A “whitewash” would be a big improvement.

Many thanks to the Counterjihad Collective for transcribing the video and creating the subtitle file, to JLH for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


A complete transcript of the video is below the jump.
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Video transcript

Is Germany abrogating itself? The Thilo Sarrazin controversy.

A film by Boris Hermel and Iris Max.

Here it is — the threat to Germany. Immigrant children.

Allegedly, they learn nothing, can do nothing, and merely cost the state money.

At any rate, that is one of the theses of Thilo Sarrazin, federal banker,

previously finance senator, presented in his new book, “Germany Abrogates Itself.”

Here is a sample:

Actually, we do not need the Muslim immigration to Europe.

In every country, the Muslim immigrants — on basis of their lower

participation in the work force and looming recourse to social support —

cost the state treasury more than they bring in.

Culturally and socially, the societal tableau

and moral values they represent signify a step backward.

Demographically, the enormous fertility of the Muslim immigrants represents a threat

for the cultural and civil balance in an aging Europe.

Thilo Sarrazin often attracts attention with his

pithy comments on integration policy.

Recently, an interview in the magazine, “Lettre International” caused outrage.

There were protests, calls for his ouster from the (SPD) party.

That does not bother Sarrazin. On the contrary, he is now presenting,

in black and white, in 464 pages, what he thinks of Muslim immigration.

It is not a theme of immigration in general, for we can definitely see

with immigrants from East Europe, from other EU states.

Russian-German immigrants, as well as immigrants from India

Vietnam, China, the Far East, that there too, clearly, are

integration problems in the first generation, that is, language problems

educational problems, employment problems.

But these problems were largely undone after one generation.

70% of the descendants of Russian immigrants

marry German partners as early as the second generation.

Turkish immigrants marry 97% among themselves as late as the third generation —

mostly partners who immigrate from Turkey especially for this purpose.

Sarrazin goes even further in his book: because of in-group

marriages, the proportion of disadvantages among Turkish immigrants is higher

and so one could come to the conclusion Quote:

that hereditary factors too may be responsible for the failure of some portions of the Turkish population

in the German school system.

Hypotheses (like these) also outrage the head of the Berlin CDU:

There are problems and aberrations in the area of integration and immigration

in our city, and it is true that the real problems

must not be whitewashed by politics.

Anyone, like Sarrazin, however, who, say, bases problems in, say, education

on hereditary factors and disadvantages among immigrants, well, he is beyond help.

That is ultimately a statement of profound contempt for humanity.

It needs to be condemned clearly here and now.

Also to Neukölln’s mayor, Heinz Buschkovsky, who is himself known for

tough demands in the matter of integration, Sarrazin’s in-breeding thesis goes too far.

He likes to talk about the “Turks” and the “Arabs”

and that they have genetic disadvantages which make it superfluous to put in an effort.

That is very dangerous. That is close to race theory.

He speaks of “Muslims.” I consider that not only dangerous, but false.

We know we have Sunnis, Shias, Alevites.

The life styles of these faiths are quite different.

The value system of the Alevites includes gender equality,

the prohibition of violence and the human striving to learn.

I can understand that these people feel disparaged by Thilo Sarrazin.

Sarrazin sees social worlds like these above all from an economic perspective,

in line with the question: Are they useful or harmful to Germany?

His answer is unmistakable:

Our standard of living does not come from groups which have trouble

completing a simple apprenticeship, but from the fact

that our engineers, skilled workers. technicians

produce goods and services that are in demand word-wide.

That is what our living standard comes from. And this base is threatened.

It is not remedied by Muslim immigration,

because it is immigration by groups of people who are neither educated nor inclined toward education,

as well as culturally different; who for the most part are not at all suited

to replenish the growing deficits we have.

And this too correlates systematically with the Islamic cultural circle.

We see all over Europe, in England, Holland, Denmark, France,

Sweden, that the Immigrants from Muslim countries have special difficulties in adapting.

They do not integrate; they perform under average in school;

they live for the most part — although not all of them — closed off and isolated.

They show no interest in the culture of the majority.

They perform below average in the job market.

They are a burden on the social support treasury

and again and again, they are the cause of unrest in their host populations.

Muslim immigrants are a nucleus of violence and criminality.

Sarrazin sees a danger for coming generations.

The question does not trouble me — in 20 or 25 years, I will no longer be here

and then, pardon the bluntness, nothing will disturb me any more.

But I am interested in how my grandchildren and even

my great grandchildren will live. A Germany then, I believe

which has not only become smaller, but which ultimately in great part

has become majority Islamic and has a population

which can no longer carry on German cultural knowledge, especially

German engineering and technical know-how,

and in a situation in which India and China are not only much larger than we are,

but also much richer per capita than we are.

It is not the first time a culture has collapsed under an onslaught from outside.

Words that meanwhile motivate the SPD leader

to demand Sarrazin’s departure from the party.

On the other hand, he is applauded from a completely different side.

Right extremists acknowledge him for having written a genuine NPD book

and want to accept him into their ranks.

I would say it is connected to our having problems with integration

which he is using, generalizing and by doing that himself becomes racist and nationalistic.

He brings up problems and does not solve them.

And because of that, he is the object of outrage from someone

like Mayor Buschkovsky in Neukölln, who says, I’d like more money from him

so that we could solve the integration problems.

He doesn’t want the solution; he is an agitator

I think this reference to the people becoming stupider,

and fewer, and even dying out — that is the idea of the death of a people —

that we know from National Socialism, and it is no coincidence

that the NPD today says that it is a perfect NPD position.

An analysis that is shared inside the SPD, for instance by Raed Saleh.

the Spandau SPD head, who has Arab roots.

That is a pure form of racism. There was a report by Dr. Botsch

last year which attempted to define various characteristics

of racism. With all the characteristics it came out

that Dr. Thilo Sarrazin’s theses are clearly to be designated as racist.

In racism, the attempt is made repeatedly to impose

certain characteristics on certain groups. That is, Sarrazin says

90% of people of Arab derivation cannot or will not integrate.

He says that people are stupider or more intelligent according to their heredity.

That is, he is trying to base intelligence or stupidity on heredity,

but not on individual persons; rather, on whole groups of persons.

That is a pure form of racism, that is a description by attribution

of specified groups by specified characteristics and that is clearly,

basically, no longer ethically defensible.

Thilo Sarrazin, however, does not see himself as a racist, but as

a vanguard warrior and preserver of the German way of life.

Ultimately, culture is something many-faceted but there are typical

distinctive lifestyles. There is a French lifestyle,

there is a German lifestyle. When we travel around Europe,

we enjoy the differences, but we are also grateful

when we one day are back in Germany,

where it may rain a little more, to be sure, where the bread at the baker’s tastes better,

where, to be sure, the person behind the counter is not so friendly,

but nonetheless service is timely because the administration just works

in the way that German administration works, and we find that we like living here.

And we like living among Germans.

And naturally we are delighted too, when

someone passes through the city in a turban.

Even if it were only turbans, however, there would still be a problem.

and I also have a problem with lots if head scarves.

He writes it in his book just as he says it in the interview.

I would not like the land of my children and grandchildren

to be largely Muslim, and across broad expanses

Turkish and Arabic spoken, women wearing headscarves

and the rhythm of daily life set by the call of the muezzin.

If I want to experience that, I can book a trip to the East.

A polemic statement that is not well received in Neukölln.

Thilo Sarrazin is tripping out: “There are genetically stupid peoples.”

Very dangerous. Very dangerous. That is racism, and he is ignoring

in his theory the fact that peoples are not homogeneous blocks

so let us just stay with his example of the Turks.

It is not a statistical stratification

from Turkey that has volunteered to come to Germany.

Those who came were up to 80% from the rural areas,

from areas with little education, people who had never attended a school.

So I’m telling you, you can read it on the homepage

of the Turkish association that 80% of Turkish guest workers’.

come from the lower social classes of Turkey.

If you go to Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul,

you encounter a very different Turkish population.

So I am very, very cautious. He overlooks the fact that in the case of the immigrants

people have started on their way

who have been living in very difficult social circumstances.

So, false analysis, says Buschkovsky.

Meanwhile, harsh criticism is pelting down on Sarrazin from all sides:

Why is he taking up this debate?

There are things that can occupy you for decades.

The subject of demography has captivated me since the beginning of the decline in the birth rate in 1970.

I was 25 years old at the time and followed it with fascination.

I also saw how the society that grew out of that

just swept problems under the rug. After all, it was decades in the future.

Now it is 40 years later. When it began, I was 25 years old

and now the problems are here and only now do people start to talk about it.

Heinz Buschkovsky also wants to talk about the problems,

but he finds Sarrazin’s book not only unhelpful, but counter-productive.

Thilo Sarrazin’s mistake is that he takes the here-and-now and predicts

from that that everything will always stay the same, that it will just keep updating

and that it will then come to a catastrophe.

And with that, he denies society any ability to learn.

He also denies it the ability to adjust to these problems.

So. And this is where I give up.

Progress is a snail — it is slow...