FREIBURGER ZEITGEISTLITERATURE (Satis Shroff)

Satis Shroff's ZEITGEIST LITERATURE : Savvy Nepalese Literature? (Satis Shroff) : German Translation By Satis Shroff: Der Preis des Fisches (Shivkumar Rai, Kurseong) Nachdem es wolkenbruchartig in Strömen geg...

German Translation By Satis Shroff: Der Preis des Fisches (Shivkumar Rai, Kurseong) Nachdem es wolkenbruchartig in Strömen gegossen hatte, rissen die Wolken auf. Es setzte ein lauer Südwind ein und vertrieb die dünnerwerdenden, weißen Wolkenfetzen. Der Himmel hatte sich aufgeklart und überall sah man einen blauen, wolkenlos blankgefegten Himmel. Alles kam überraschend. Hatte die Natur für eine Weile verrückt gespielt, so war sie jetzt ruhig. Die sonst nur durch Tropfen aus den Wolken gespeisten Bergbäche waren zu Sturzbächen angeschwollen. Das Tosen der Wildbäche, die sich durch die Bergschluchten fraßen, hallte wider. Rane Majhi trat aus seiner Hütte, legte seine rechte Hand schützend über seine Augen und schaute kummervoll zum Himmel. Dann schaute er noch einmal starr auf den reißend gewordenen Fluss. Rane war ein kleiner, stämmiger Mann und trug sehr alte traditionelle Kleidung, eine schwarze Jacke aus Baumwolle und eine Hose. Man muss sagen, obwohl seine Kleidung an...

PAINT ME A FAIRYTALE TOWN (SAtis SHROFF, FREIBURG IM BREISGAU) A damsel with a mobile, Staufen (c) satisshroff                     Schwarzwaldmädel meets girl from Middle Ages, Staufen (c) satisshroff European Ethnology: PAINT ME A FAIRY TALE TOWN (Satis Shroff) As tradition demands in the Swiss Alps, the cattle were decorated with pine-branches, big bells on their necks, silk roses and, of course, small Swiss flags. After enjoying the freedom of the Alpine meadows in the Flumserbergen, the cows trudged reluctantly again all the way to the Valleys---and eventually the stalls in their cowsheds. What a lovely end to the Alpine summer. It was also on Saturday that the Swiss Fastnacht’s symbolic character named Brother Fritschi returned to his homeland Lucern after languishing for eight months in the custody of the Basler merry-makers of Fasnet or Fastnachtlern, as we call ‘em here. Some 250 inhabitants of Central Switzerl...

QUO VADIS EUROPA? Lack of Cooperation & Coordination in Europe (Satis Shroff) The federal government of Germny will reduce its payments to the asylum seekers by changing its asylum law in a 128-page law proposal, and which will be ready before the refugee-summit of the  German states and Länder on September 24,2015. According to the Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, the asylum seekers should receive a travel-ticket or a flight-ticket plus food for the return-trip. This would hold or all refugees, who have come Hungary, Austria, Croatia or Italy and have been registered there. Pro Asyl has criticized that the government makes refugees, who were allowed to enter Germany, without shelter and deprives them from acquiring social benefits.’ On the other hand, refugees who are obliged to leave the country, because their asylum applications have been refused by the authorities shouldn’t be given privileges necessary for a journey back home. Individual cases will be t...

The Refugee Issue: What’s Up in Europe’s Borders? (Satis Shroff) The Europeans are not united regarding the distribution of refugees. An agreement was reached only on the 160,000 refugees. They will be sent to different states within the EU, according to Germany’s Thomas de Maiziere (CDU).  The Middle East  European and Baltic states were against setting a fixed quota for the distribution of refugees. Another summit of the heads of governments and states will soon take place because of the freedom of travel in Europe after the Schengen System is endangered. Germany made it clear that it does not want to take such a big number of refugee. Due to the border checks there’ll be chaos in the European borders. Chancellor Merkel rang Jean-Claude Junker (EU-Commission) and informed him about Germany’s decision to close the border to Austria in accordance with the Schengen system. Brussels was shortly thereafter informed about the decision, which was intended as an...

Migration: THE SKY’S NOT REALLY THE LIMIT (Satis Shroff) ‘We’re expecting 40,000 refugees from our southern neighbours,’ said the German Foreign Minister Steinmeier. Nice neighbours,eh? Minister  Steinmeier was in Prague recently: ‘I suggested a quota system for my East European colleagues---to no avail.’ What about CSU and CDU? They’re both on the warpath: a course of confrontation. Berlin, Vienna and Budapest had agreed to allow refugees to enter Germany by train. This is the biggest challenge in the history of the EU and it is expected that the European nations will show solidarity. Steinmeier: Even though the German people helped tremendously, we have finally reached a stage when even we have to say that we’ve reached the migration capacity. In the meantime, more and more refugees are coming along the Balkan route. In Serbia 5540 refugees were registered on Thursday, a new daily record. Hungary’s Viktor Orban warned in no uncertain terms that in f...

Commentary:  Destination Sweden (Satis Shroff)                                         Waldmensch (c)Thomas Rees Come Monday and Jean-Claude Junker wants to talk with the Ministers of Internal Affairs of 28 European states, and debate how to make them share the 120,000 refugees. A concept to distribute 40,000 people is already there.  German Chancellor Merkel’s government desires to distribute the refugees throughout Europe, to ease the pressure off Hungary, Greece and Italy where most of the asylum-seekers are located. Whether the people from Syria, Eritrea and Iraq, who have bigger chances of being accepted as asylum-seekers, also wish to be scattered as planned by Brussels is another question. The welcome-culture on the part of the German people and leaders was inspiring and worth emulating but the refugees had another country in mind, namely Sweden; and...