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Series 'My impressions of Vienna, Austria over summer 2015'
by Karin Sawetz, publisher Fashionoffice
17 August 2015: End of politeness?
After the heatwave, Austria experiences now heavy rain showers and stormy weather. Warm - cold is also the current climate in European politics. The new style of treating each other can be summarized by citing the saying of Chancellor Angela Merkel who commented the negotiations with Greece at a 'Summer-Talk' broadcasted via the German TV-channel ZDF: "It helps but nothing when we are all together now nice and in two or three years, it is even worse than it is today." (Translated from a German language citation published on n-tv.de.)
Recently, Austria appeared in an Amnesty International report concerning the refugee camp Traiskirchen. Since then, the emotions here slosh from accusing the government for letting refugees sleep under open air (for example) to counting against the facts of the Amnesty report and present them as only few incidents measured on the positive initiatives which have been organized successfully already. I don't know the actual percentage of (temporarily) open air sleeping places in Traiskirchen measured on all refugees who have already found security in Austria, but I know that many Austrians are very active in helping people from war regions like Syria. For some of them, helping others is more than a rational decision, it's a heart's desire.
The situation is messy in the moment; when someone enters this discussion he or she will experience what the 'end of politeness' means. Anyone who thinks that rational arguments are welcome in the refugee discussion will be hacked up like dog food. I would never express my own opinion! My tip: check out from any emotionalized discussion before the pack of hounds starts running!
1st annotation: Today, the Austrian TV-channel ORF broadcasted an insight into the situation after the weather turn (heatwave - heavy rain) at Traiskirchen where around 700 people sleep under open air. One of them was asked how many days he slept outside; he said four days.
2nd annotation at 18:20: Several hours ago, the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior released a call among the country's citizens (around 8,5 million people) for active help to find quarters for refugees (article on Vienna.at). The ministry expects up to 80,000 asylum applications in 2015.
by Karin Sawetz, publisher Fashionoffice
17 August 2015: End of politeness?
After the heatwave, Austria experiences now heavy rain showers and stormy weather. Warm - cold is also the current climate in European politics. The new style of treating each other can be summarized by citing the saying of Chancellor Angela Merkel who commented the negotiations with Greece at a 'Summer-Talk' broadcasted via the German TV-channel ZDF: "It helps but nothing when we are all together now nice and in two or three years, it is even worse than it is today." (Translated from a German language citation published on n-tv.de.)
The situation is messy in the moment; when someone enters this discussion he or she will experience what the 'end of politeness' means. Anyone who thinks that rational arguments are welcome in the refugee discussion will be hacked up like dog food. I would never express my own opinion! My tip: check out from any emotionalized discussion before the pack of hounds starts running!
1st annotation: Today, the Austrian TV-channel ORF broadcasted an insight into the situation after the weather turn (heatwave - heavy rain) at Traiskirchen where around 700 people sleep under open air. One of them was asked how many days he slept outside; he said four days.
2nd annotation at 18:20: Several hours ago, the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior released a call among the country's citizens (around 8,5 million people) for active help to find quarters for refugees (article on Vienna.at). The ministry expects up to 80,000 asylum applications in 2015.
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