GERMANY HAS FALLEN E-Book

Arikpo Lawrence Omini

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 414

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

In a world bedevilled by wars, hunger, inequality, social injustice, racial discrimination and intolerance, almost all of the world's rich societies such as America, the European Union, Australia and Asia set up immigration barriers in order to keep migrants and refugees from coming through their borders and seeking a new and better life, different from the one they knew before, but migrants aren't deterred. They still travel to those countries' frontiers, defying warnings, hoping to make it. In recent years, Germany has taken in many foreign migrants who fled violence, persecution, hunger and death amid a growing atmosphere of resentment, xenophobia, racism and bigotry partly ushered in by the coming to power of the United States of America's dystopian demagogue Hurricane Donald Trump, who endorses politics of hate, ethnic prejudice and religion mostly because these minorities don't look like him. Some of these people pass through hardships into the Sahara Desert. Some are raped while others are used as guinea pigs as their lives are uprooted for transactional purposes. Some are sold and forced into labour while others are killed. Those who survive the ordeal into the Mediterranean Sea lose their lives in unseaworthy boats. What's the end game to this whole global crisis? Will the world cooperate to resolve global issues besieging the world and tackle the forces that enthrone them? Should we still believe in the hope offered the world by the Fall of Berlin Wall, or, should we, in these strange times, believe the Wall has gone right back up?

Leseprobe

Imprint:

© 2018 by Arikpo Lawrence Omini

Coverphoto by Armin Linnarz

(License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode)

Cover-Design & type setting by

Angelika Fleckenstein; Spotsrock

Printed and published by

tredition GmbH

Halenreie 40-44

22359 Hamburg

ISBN:

978-3-7469-7963-2 (Paperback)

978-3-7469-7964-9 (Hardcover)

978-3-7469-7965-6 (e-Book)

The work is copyright protected in all its parts. Any use without the consent of the publisher and the author is prohibited. This particularly applies to electronic or other reproduction, translation, distribution and public availability.

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek(German National Library):

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library) has recorded this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (German National Bibliography); detailed bibliographic data are available through the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

ARIKPOLAWRENCE OMINI

GERMANY

HAS

FALLEN

MASS MIGRATIONANDRISE OF POPULISMIN THEEUROPEAN UNIONAND THAT FAMOUSWALLOF THEAMERICAN EMPIRE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Author of this Book, titled; “GERMANY HAS FALLEN” has written a couple of books over a long period. Some of these books were published in the traditional setting in social and cultural circles. Among his recent books are ‘WINGS AND WHITE ROBES’, a supernatural and historical fantasy thriller novel based around the true nature, life and significance of a mysterious and legendary figure known as the “World Teacher.” Also, the novel titled; “LEOPARD KING,” a Sci-fi, magic, mythological, action-packed adventure and supernatural fantasy based on the 500 years old historical secret of the Leopard Society of West Africa. In their belief, the Panther King is the King of the skies, jungle, night and King of the Underworld or Afterlife. According to the secret of the Leopard Society, the ‘Master of Enlightenment' and ‘God of Storm' called ‘The World Teacher’ will return and would establish his new ‘World Kingdom’ on earth but for that to be successful he has to wage a successful war against the unseen powerful forces from Astron that bring chaos on earth.

The Author has worked as a columnist and editor of both Trumpet Newspaper and Pathfinder Magazine and has written several articles in several journals and gazettes. He migrated to Germany in 2012. He has spent most of his time studying the population, the political entities, social and working life of many Germans and immigrants in the European Union, and the impact recent migration has had on the country and its institutions and vice versa. He currently lives in Würzburg, a historical city in Bavaria, Southern Germany.

For all correspondence and inquiries, please contact;

Email: [email protected]

DEDICATION

This Book is dedicated to all the tens of thousands of people over the years seeking a better life who have lost their lives while making the perilous journey through the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. In particular, this book is dedicated to Alan Kurdi, the three years old Syrian child refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 while making the journey to Europe.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I acknowledge my biological Brothers and Sisters, namely; Peace, William, Essien, Ebri, Ubi, Dorothy, Victoria-Miriam, Magdalene Omini for their support and encouragement towards me. I also acknowledge my friends; Salem Edosomwan, Franziska Cheburashka, Christian Mba and Angelika Flagner among others, for their intelligent and analytical contribution to the writing and finishing of this book.

CONTENT

PROLOGUE

RISE IN ANTI-IMMIGRANTS SENTIMENTS

CHAPTER ONE

THE JOURNEY OF FRIENDS

CHAPTER TWO

A NEW LIFE IN EUROPE

CHAPTER THREE

AFRICAN AND MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

CHAPTER FOUR

GERMAN IMMIGRATION POLICY THROES

CHAPTER FIVE

THE AMERICAN MIGRANT AND FOREIGN POLICY

CHAPTER SIX

TERRORISM AND CULTURAL COMPLEXITIES OF ADAPTING IN GERMANY

CHAPTER SEVEN

EXTREME REALITY OF REFUGEE MIGRATION TO GERMANY

PROLOGUE

RISE IN ANTI-IMMIGRANTS SENTIMENTS

What is Angela Merkel thinking, letting in all those many migrants and refugees into a fledgling European Union? She masterminded and executed her plan of flooding Europe with foreigners opening up to Muslims and now we’re in this political schismatic and discordant climate. She lays out her plan of action, approach and statement of assertion regarding immigration and multi-nationalism, calling on her European counterparts to follow her controversial plan on migration but she has no followers. No one would follow her. Some maintained, they don’t believe Germany has become a better place since 2015. Germany has isolated itself with its refugee policy. The population is polarized and becoming radicalized. We have hundreds of thousands of people within the country. We don’t know who they are or how they’ll turn out … “Merkel Must Go” continued some angry politicians, left- and right-wing groups.

These are some of the publicly declared outrage at the effects of the norm breaking stirring policies, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel was allegedly accused of masterminding and steering to suit her grand action plan on immigration. Although, she tried to keep up the moral ground in the face of criticism from her opposition parties and other right wing political groups, she later made a deal to seal off the route from Turkey across to the European Union with a principle that Germany and Europe can’t solve the world’s problems by proposing a three billion Euro package to Turkey to support that country control the migration coming from the Middle East.

It’s been a wild ride for Europe since then as Hungary had put up a fence to wall out all migrants and asylum seekers coming in through the southern route even proposing a bill that makes helping migrants a crime. Britain has initiated a Brexit plan to leave the European Union due primarily to the issue of migration. There’s the radicalization of extreme hate groups such as the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization Of the West or ‘PEGIDA,' rise in Neo-Nazi and the right-wing populist ‘Alternative for Deutschland’ party and the emergence of fanatics and opposition within Angela Merkel’s coalition government in Germany. Also, the far-right, Freedom Party of Austria with links to the Nazi past that brought the new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to power. There was also the populist anti-immigrant law and justice party movements in Poland and Italy with the politics of resentment and hate that brought Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to power as he vowed to tackle the new threat to Europe’s stability by promising to deport hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers out of his country. All of them echoing the same rhetoric of fear, bigotry and intolerance.

This situation reminded me of a German music I heard a night before started writing this book. It kept me awake all night. Not the music melody but its lyrical connection to my emotional state and a conduit it tapped to magnify its electrical effects in my mood causing a whirlwind of a conscious, troubled even confusing thoughts on that night. It told the truth and nothing but the truth stressing that “Life is a journey that never ends, and no human really knows where he or she is going”. That journey is what we’re going to essentially project in this treatise as it leads many to an uncertain future they call Europe and its many immigration problems.

Recently while attending the 100th Birthday anniversary of Nelson Mandela in South Africa on the 17th July 2018, Barack Obama said “we are living in strange and uncertain times.” “Globalization has increased economic inequality. A few dozen individuals control the amount of wealth as the poorest half of humanity. In many middle incomes and developing countries, new wealth has just tracked the old bad deal that people got because of reinforced or compoundedexisting inequality. The only difference is, it created even greater opportunities for corruption on an epic scale.” Strongmen politics are ascending suddenly whereby elections in some pretense of democracy are maintained, the form of it, but those in power seek to undermine every institution or norm that seem to give democracy a meaning. Politics of fear, resentment and retrenchment is on the move at a pace unimaginable, a few years ago. “Far right parties in the west are on the rise based on the platform of not just protectionism and closed borders but racial nationalism.” Free press is on the attack. Even social media once seen as a mechanism to promote knowledge, understanding and solidarity, has proved just as effective promoting hatred, paranoia, propaganda and conspiracy theories. “Should we see that hope as naive and misguided, by the Berlin wall falling?” “I believe in the vision of equality, justice, freedom, multiracial democracy built on the premise that all people are created equal by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.” Countries that rely on rabid nationalism and xenophobia, doctrines of tribal, racial or religious supremacy as their main organizing principle are eventually consumed by the same extreme ideology as they descend into wars, even as history has shown us. Populations will be moving, and environmental challenges are not going to go away on their own. “The only way to address problems like mass migration, climate change or pandemic disease will be to develop systems for international cooperation. We are bounded together by our common humanity …” Continued Obama.

As one presently living thousands of kilometers away in Bavaria, Southern Germany affected by these dangerous outcomes, it was particularly intriguing hearing those words, as they only confirm my fears of uncertainty and dimming prospects of hope. The ‘Berlin Wall’ was the symbol of the cold war in the eyes of the west. It represented the ethnic divisions within Germany and the separation of Germany into four different divisive parts governed by the Soviet East and Western world but also as a testament to intolerance, hate,bigotry, racism, instability, hopelessness, poverty and sense of insecurity not just prevalent in the communist East Germany, Eastern Europe but also in other parts of the world. Inadvertently, its fall means the world got to experience a socioeconomic transformation and a new lease of life away from the painful legacies and negativities that characterized that old-world order. But over two decades after the great fall of the wall of apathy, egocentricity, xenophobia, racial nationalism, inequality, poverty, protectionism, autocratic control, ethnic and religious divisions, a new illiberal, right wing, unequal, intolerant, partisan, dogmatic and sexist society nestled in democratic institutions and a racist mindset is reasserting itself even as it presents a clear and present danger in today’s world.

Recent report states that many Germans are feeling gloomy about the future of their country. While many may be happy with their current financial situation, a turbulent imminent malaise may be on the horizon due to a torrent of issues facing the country. The German economy is booming in 2018, and unemployment is at an all-time low. In spite of the good job prospects, low crime rate and attractive environment, many youths feel problems are seething below the surface. They feel less at ease with the direction the arrow is pointing at. Well, it’s easy to fathom why they feel that way. After all, since the summer of 2018, a lot has happened. The country failed to qualify beyond the first round of the World Cup tournament, a situation that hasn’t happened for a long time. Mezut Özil, a member of the German national team quit citing racism. In August 2018, a video footage of far-right sympathizers, rioting and chasing foreigners through the streets of Chemnitz, shook the country. Pessimism remains with the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) right wing party. They are worried that what’s happening, may be a proof that similar patterns may arise anywhere around the country, in the near future, if the public discourse doesn’t change as well as the way people perceive things. But these events, some say, are not isolated or unrelated. The climate change worsens each year damaging crops. Even, the prices of homes and rents, according to Deutsche Bank have risen 80 % in some major cities, while there’s a national shortfall of about one million residential units. All this happens as salaries and wages in many public and private establishments doesn’t grow at par, with the rate of increase of rents and home prices as some fear, it’s only a matter of time before the cost of basic items in the market place rise.

As a foreigner in Germany, affected by these gloomy realities, it places those like me at a disadvantageous position to dream, if those unnerving prospects become real. As the temperature of events around the world rises, and more people coming into the country, the fear is falling in the hands of a bitter immigration officer or judge whose judgment resembles one of those bigots like my former teacher in the German language course who said explicitly, “Schmeissen sie alle raus,” meaning “Throw them all out”. Whose decisions are influenced and fueled by the cry of those on the extreme right whether extreme groups, neo-Nazi or German right-wing political parties who are seeking to further their cause by stoking fear of being invaded or overrun by migrants at their borders. A situation they fear might upset their societal fabric and change their very way of life. Also, a strong reaction to news stories of 2016 January 1st, where it was reported, many in cities such as Cologne and others were sexually assaulted by refugees and migrants in trains and bus stations called “Bahnhof” in Germany. I was left wondering, he knew most, if not all of us in his class were migrants and foreigners but he was unhinged and didn’t care if we in that same situation might be affected by such extreme measures. If those in the corridors of power were to heed to his passionate call and implement them, then most migrants and refugees would be caught between a rock and a hard place, a famous German metaphor. But on regular basis we see such laws emerging that limits access to basic civil and legal rights, tending to control and restrict migrants, asylum seekers and refugees as well as the extent of their freedom in that great country or even outright deportation out of Germany.

The disputes over immigration have threatened to divide the European union on several occasions with each country having its own opinion and agenda on how to treat the migration issues in ways that will suit their political goals. There are many refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach the frontiers of Europe, so they say. However, in recent times, records show the numbers have drastically reduced. The question is, “what country will take responsibility of them and rightly integrate them into their society?” This toxic issue threatened to bring down Germany’s Angela Merkel and alleged to be the cause of the recent rise in Anti immigrants’ sentiments in the European Union. Even, Donald Trump was voted to power as President of the United States of America in part because he promised to build the big WALL to keep out migrants and refugees from Mexico and beyond, seeking sanctuary in America. He promoted a bogus concept of America being invaded by radical Muslims, terrorists and drugs from Mexico. “Is it really a migrant crisis or a political one?” Of delusional and idiosyncratic world leaders with false impression who’ve misinterpreted and contradicted the entire concept of reality and facts, apprehensive on irrational arguments and are confused about their direction while seeking for scapegoats to lay all their blame of incompetence upon? “Do they really care about the many deaths on the sea and the violence and pain undergone by these migrants to reach Europe?” Is the narrative targeting refugees and migrants in Europe and America a digression from the most important issues facing the world right now? Too many things are wrong with the world. “Who’ll fix them?” When the same people who should be addressing those global issues including poverty, racial discrimination, injustice, climate change and inequality are bickering about the unfortunate effects of the problem and not the cause. Once again, should we still believe in the change of unification, inclusion, freedom, peace and hope of a brighter future offered the world by the “FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL AND THE SOVIET UNION?” Or should we assume, that in these strange times the invisible BERLIN WALL, THE SOVIET UNION AND A NEW ORWELLIAN AMERICAN EMPIRE has cropped up? I once heard about the story in the 1980s in Berlin, whereby President Ronald Reagan told Russia’s President Gorbachev “TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!” It’s an inspiring quote and forms the basis and intrinsic idea behind this book. But if there’s anything recent history of mass migration has taught us is that no matter how tall the WALL is, the defiant Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees look taller as they look down on the shrinking WALL unintimidated like a frightened captive who has managed to fight and overcome his monster captor.

What country more in Europe had experienced firsthand accounts of what a war can do to a country but Germany itself. A war that was caused by the forces grounded in the organizing principles of hate, right-wing nationalism, racial superiority, supremacy, anti-Semitism, antipathy, ethnic prejudice and xenophobia. If there was anything the second world war did was that it taught Germany a life changing lesson. The same lesson that probably led to the reconstruction and rapid urban regeneration of the country including social and cultural reforms with higher standards of life and a different way of thinking drawing the power of creativity and unity to bear to actualize its dream of freedom, liberty, prosperity, gender equality and most importantly love and respect for their fellow men and women or I would wish it did. I would like to believe so, if not, how could they have emerged from the ruins of war which Nazi Germany caused that brought torture and pain not withstanding uncountable deaths to innocent victims across Europe but today is the democratic leader of Europe, advocate of social reform and a powerful and economic force to reckon with. Eventually, the ‘Giant’ still woke up in the end despite stomaching the dark rain of bombs that fell on it like the ‘rapture black rain’ rupturing and cranking up its fabric blasting towns and blighting out humans, animals and plant life alike. But the “fallen Giant” was up and running again in a few years after the official close of the second world war in 1945. That also reminds me of a film I once watched with a Japanese art of war philosophy that “a Ninja will always be a Ninja or a Leopard as long it’s is not dead when it falls, it’ll rise again, maybe stronger than ever before.” But even in death it might resurrect shedding the old skin like the phoenix rising from the ashes. In this case, positively.

The Germans are strong and resilient in the face of peril but peaceful in the face of a warm economic environment. They have broken down barriers to rise and are still rising, today more than ever, they are a great nation. An economic power nation with a strong integrity index, not just in Europe but around the World. They stand once more, a force not of terror but of good to bring prosperity, justice, peace, order and unity now to a continuously more uncertain, divided, bruised and somewhat fractured European union and the world community. “But who cares if the United Kingdom leaves the Union?” The mighty Germany is there to hold the Union together with its economic muscle and the allure of respect it attracts from other members of the union and beyond. But that also brings us to another topic of conversation of the significance and role the immigrants, migrants and refugees plays in an economy such as that of Europe and Germany in particular. Like one analyst put it, it’s something you can’t estimate or measure because it runs through out every facet of the system of the government entity felt in the socioeconomic and political nerve of the country.

Who else can gauge such indices as a mathematical indicator with value but the German people and economists themselves unless they want to ignore that fact. Even, the government of Germany back in the fall of 2015, said; the positive effects of a million migrants’ entry into Germany in that year in the area of the economy were already beginning to bear fruits. And I can’t stop but wonder that perhaps the increasing economic surplus of the country maybe a domino effect of that particular migration that recorded a huge influx of people all at once to live in the new society. Like a friend of mine, said to me “Behold I saw something, a transient vision as I watched television, on the day of the event of the ‘March of Hope’ of thousands of Syrians that took place in September 4th 2015 after many fagged out and exhausted refugees who were trapped in-front of the Keleti railway station of Budapest were allowed to come to Germany by the Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel. As they walked, they were many illuminatingstars dancing on the faces of many of the beleaguered marching migrants and refugees and a huge pillar of light behind them as they walked on the road to the destination and land of their dreams.” Germany is that migrant’s paradise, their golden land of dreams or the colossus.

A majority of Germans are faithful people who believe in God. Even though the statistics of religious services and church attendance is on the downward spiral. Survey shows China and Europe are both atheist capital of the world. “I quite remember in 2016, during the American Presidential elections, on YouTube were dream testimonies of many people over 80 % surveyed who dreamt that Donald Trump and not Hillary Clinton would win the General Elections. A fire man particularly predicted that the stock market and economy will boom when he wins. Today, all those visions turned out to be true.” But whether Germans believe it or not, the upward swing in the curve of the wave of good economic tidings in recent years may not be deeply unconnected to the entrance of immigrants, migrants and refugees not just out of Syria but from Africa, Middle East nations, Asia and other European nations, of which active presence and social well being translates to vibrant entrepreneurial, innovation, service based economy, strong buying power and value added tax leading to economic growth. Many migrants arrive with skills and contribute to human capital development of receiving countries in Europe. Labour migrants have the most positive impact on the public purse. Employment is the single biggest determinant of migrants’ net fiscal contribution. Migrants boost the working age population and contribute to technological progress. The role and significance of migration cannot be overemphasized especially if the host countries such as Germany, maximize the benefits of it and improve migrants and refugee’s employability situation including true integration. By true integration, unlike countries such as in Africa, Middle East and Asia, the receiving countries such as Germany creates a multi national society based on symbiosis as they offer sanctuary and opportunities to the migrants and refugees, while equipping themselves with a wealth of human resources and information to gather, learn, sensitize, grow and build their collective future projections from.

In conclusion, social and economic integration will mean host country citizens no longer bolstered by ethnocentric values and skepticism will get to meet, interact, understand, adjust to certain changes and support the refugees and migrants to realize not just the contrast in their cultures but the essence of diffusion of other cultures to create a broader trust and empathy rather than suspicion and rejection of outsiders as well as find strength in their pool of diversity. In a similar vein, economic integration, by host countries, don’t have to continue in their old ways by which refugees and asylum seekers are settled, as they are placed in hostels separated from the rest of the society. But to ensure regardless of their status or how long they’re perceived to stay in the country, they are offered a home and mandatory educational training under a devised system that would see the many young and adult uneducated and untrained new entrants, educated to a certain level and after which given period, they’re equally trained on a profession of their choice. After a year to three years of such a deliberate planned effort to get them all committed into the system, by graduating from it would ensure those foreigners get sustained jobs and could establish their own businesses but would also understand the social nature of the societal structure and how to mesh with it.

This is particularly important amidst a wave of anti immigrant sentiments revving up around Europe such as in Sweden, where it’s reported that suspected migrant gangs set alight over 100 cars in Gothenburg and other towns in the West Coast, in what Police say appeared to be coordinated attacks. A repeat of the 2013 arson attacks on cars and schools in Stockholm fueled by anger among second generation immigrants, at their perceived second-class status in that country. These immigrant foreigners and migrants are isolated in areas made exclusively for immigrants, and such areas termed ‘a no-go zone' by far-right groups that keep emerging on regular basis, with one enemy in mind, “The foreign migrants and refugees.” Sweden like other countries within the European Union have a huge migrant and refugees’ population that remain idle. When would the government, employment agencies and business organizations recognize that keeping migrants on social welfare is not enough, and that more needs to be done to get everyone of this people economically integrated into the system. Educational literacy and employability skills in Swedish non-European immigrants would enable them to be able to contribute to the economy as it’s difficult for non-citizens, not limited to Afghans and Somalians to find jobs in Sweden. This situation fuels idle minds and activities of criminal and drug gangs even terrorism, not only in Sweden but in Italy, Greece, Spain and Germany as well.

If the government of Germany, Sweden and others, recognize and appreciate the ‘candle’ in their insight, empathy and receptivity of this complex and responsible path they have taken due to their awareness of the plight of others as well as the beauty and strength rooted in the spirit of humanity and multiculturalism, and the follow-up active inclusion in the job market with analytical impact, I believe the nation’s possibilities will be endless.

Moreover, many believe Germany isn’t living to its full potentials as a powerful country. They could play an important role to lift Africa up or alongside China and could do it if they try harder. They could rain in investments backed up by an executive or legislative function to compel strong business organizations to invest in Africa and beyond to provide strong financial pillars and social responsibility that supports their sociopolitical stability and democracy. They could form or sponsor an advisory committee as delegation led by its head in the parliament to those countries to meet their heads of states to fashion out a way to improve the skills and employability ratio targeting the youths through training campaigns on various professions with the knowhow or intelligent support systems coming from Germany and their partners. Lastly, partnering with international finance organizations and African governments to liberalizing the act and framework to financial access including grants and loans to individuals in order to enable those already trained to build their platform on a nationwide deliberate, targeted and strategic approach meant to not just lift them out of poverty but to grow the bottom line of the country’s economic index.

Not to mention, bring the media attention to the governments of the region to enhance a transparency to governance including the provision of health-care, social support services and fight against corruption. When it’s all set and done, they could also claim all the glory based on the historical growth that might accrue from this holistic initiative.

Whatever it takes them to achieve that, they could ensure to the best of their ability, that it’s done. In the end, the both parties will be happy for it because it will benefit everyone especially Europe who continue bickering, a situation that brings out the ugly head of the beast. But there are so many ways to tame that beast of racism, xenophobia, and bigotry and ensure it doesn’t raise its ugly head ever again. Not in their streets, council meeting or the parliament, if they are strategic and long term in their approach to solve some of the basic economic and political problems facing Africa and Middle East including implementing ideas such as these.

If America is a land of immigrants, Germany itself can’t escape that future. Ultimately, the future of Germany will be the immigrant future. Some Germans wouldn’t like to entertain such an idea or reality, but it shouldn’t be feared because it is a reality that would visit every nation on earth, it’s a matter of time, unless of course humans live in outer space and not on earth. On earth, there are no borders and artificial borders can’t stop a determined and miserable migrant to reaching and living in the country of his or her choice as he or she flees war, violence, persecution, and hunger. I have imagined it, may be, nature is restructuring the world to suit itself, the way nature has intended of it before humans started imposing their ignorant will on the earth. Barriers and fences are put to create artificial way of life and differences based on shape, color and race projecting laws and legislations that destroy the environment with selfish intentions and ambitions without long-term vision of its consequences. A situation that only benefit a few whiles the majority of others suffer. Who cares, if the guy in Somalia or Eritrea or even Syria dies of hunger, violence and explosion. We watch it on Television, and feel pity, at least for some.

For many others, the images which television have bombarded them with on daily basis, have managed to cause the opposite chain reaction draining out the love of humanity in people’s hearts. So, what? Television is just what it is. Television, not a physical experience. A lot of people watch it like a movie and go home and sleep well. “Who does that?” When his neighbour is dying and screaming? At least what I learned in Germany is that the problem of your neighbour is also your problem. So, Germany of all, recognizes that fact as it sees a surge in migration from other European nationals into its country seeking for a good life, jobs and quality education for themselves and their families. “If that is not a position of privilege, tell me what it is?”

I often wonder about the forbearing and retrogressive phrase “Illegal Migration”. Why would anyone irrespective of their status and power use such an indulgent, doctrinal and intolerant phrase. The question is, is there any human that is illegal in a world where all humans are travelers? If politicians use that phrase I might easily overlook it on the grounds that these are hypocrites and self serving, egocentric dotards, preoccupied with their own interests and sucked up in their own little illusory fantasies as well as disregarding the reality of truth and International law. The question is, why would the organized objective Media or world press echo such unreceptive, stodgy and precocious prejudices coming from a place that is narrow minded, judgmental, intolerant neither considerate of others other than themselves when they recognized the sheer power their voice holds. The United States is in blatant breach of Article 31 of the Refugee Convention when it decides to impose penalties on asylum seekers for having illegally crossed its Southern border. The drafters of the Refugee and Asylum Law realized that no country including the United States gives refugee a visa to come make an asylum claim. There’s no other way to arrive other than illegally. There’s no alternative for one in a hurry fleeing from war, persecution, extreme hunger, violence, organized crime and rape.

Media organizations and the free Press has an important role to play in all this. Addressing issues from the cause to where things presently stand while putting pressure on those governments and their global partners to act to proffer a permanent solution to challenges facing various nations around the globe. For example, the southwestern region of the Republic of Cameroon is burning. The French controlled government run by a dictatorial and despotic ruler who has been in power for over thirty-five years, has since the fall of the year 2017 been inhibiting and repressing the freedom of speech, expression and rights to protests by the indigenous English or Anglophone region of that country. Many are brutally tortured, restrained, severely beaten even as many others are killed by the military and houses of poor citizens of the southwest region burnt to ashes as tens of thousands flee into the South-South region of Nigeria to seek protection from cruel and draconian iron-fisted response from the oppressive military, political repression and death. All they seek is greater freedom to be represented in the national political governance and discourse of that country. Being under minded, they sought the right to self determination from the suppressive dominant and discriminative francophone who govern the country and plunged them to alienation and poverty. If they were given an equal hand to contribute to the development of the society, they may not have agitated for a separate state.

Of course, they took a cue from the Indigenous People of Biafra secessionist movement in Southeast Nigeria, their neighbours, which until it was blacklisted and crushed in 2017 by an arbitrary military offensive ordered by Mohammadu Buhari, the arrogant, tribalistic and democratic despot President of Nigeria, it stood for the same principles of freedom, justice and equality like their Cameroon counterparts. It intensified calls to breakaway from Nigeria a few months prior in 2017. The excluded fought back in a language of exclusion. It could be recalled that the same long simmering tensions from the same marginalized ethnic group plunged Nigeria into one of the world’s worst civil wars in recent memory between 1967-1970. A war that left over a million people dead of mostly the Igbo ethnic group. Parts of the unnerving and excruciating details were even captured in the Novel, titled; “Half of a Yellow Sun” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“Where is the Media exposure to all of this?” Where are all the big media stations to reporting the incessant torture and pain undergone by those poor people in Cameroon?” But the same media stations are quick to reiterate the positions of the western governments about how they feel about migrants coming to their nations or to report on how many desperate migrants and refugees are dying in the seas and risking their lives to go where they are not wanted. If they only try more, to covering the outrageous depraved violations and crimes against humanity going on there in their homeland, it could place the government in check and prevent further distressed situations urging refugee mass migrations of the agonizing people to places such as Europe where they are now largely not wanted.

America’s populist Emperor Donald Trump could babble about deporting millions because of seeing their country in such a position of power, respected status and higher standard of living. A country that is blessed by God Himself like the handsome child among other not so cute brethren. While his crack down on immigrants may not seem to some as mass deportations but to many others especially those under the Axe, their relatives and friends, it feels so much like so. The administration attempts to cut down on legal immigration, return to the peak deportation levels or even surpass that of his predecessors, along with rhetoric and drive to act on them in recent months since taking office has sent the chills down the spine of many while loading fear into the immigrant population has made many to feel they could be rounded up, thereby making many to run to Canada before the Immigration and customs Enforcement could arrest them and ship them back to their homeland. The fear is based on the people who were already picked up and put into custody, those who were not previously targeted even under his predecessors.

Many who have called America home for decades are arrested and detained. By targeting legal migrants and refugees, America’s Trump injects into the minds of some, the shuddering fear of themselves falling victims to the implacable misfortune of a cruel crackdown and arbitrary arrests in the hands of a legionary-ants ICE agents enabled by a toxic and inhumane ambience of a country ruled by an inexorable, unsympathetic and intolerant authoritarian wanna be Leader. A situation that is being viewed as mass deportation by the immigrant communities and the rest of the American citizens. Trump raves on all fronts to restrict migration or discourage further immigrants’ entry into his country while projecting America First. In California, employers of labour who know the status of some of their workers as undocumented residents inform the Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) during court rulings or disputes over wages to enforce their oppressive mandate on undocumented employees under a climate poisoned with hate, discrimination and betrayal as well as maltreatment of foreign workers in America. In recent times, under an ever rising intolerant, bigoted and toxic atmosphere, the general question now asked in most rich societies relates to the status of a person such as: “Where are you from?” “Are you illegal or undocumented?” And not about the economic, mental state and social well-being of a person.

Recent published United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data shows that deportations of people arrested in the United States rose to 61,094 from January 20 to September 30th, 2017, compared to 44, 512 in the same period of 2016. According to the European Migration and Migrant Population Statistics, 2 Million non-EU citizens immigrated to the Eurozone in 2016. Foreign citizens made up 7.5 % of people living in the European Union Member States on 1st January 2017. European Member States granted citizenship to almost 1 Million persons in 2016. In 2016, there were 39,626 people who were removed from the United Kingdom or departed voluntarily after the initiation of removal. Nationals of India, Pakistan and Romania made up of 32 % of the 2016 deportations.

On the other hand, 37 % fewer non-EU citizens found to be illegally present in the European Union in 2017 compared with 2016. Almost 190,000 non-EU citizens were returned outside of the European Union in 2017, 17.4 % fewer than in 2016. Record number of non-EU citizens refused entry into the European Union in 2017 (440,000), the highest since 2009. In Germany, almost 22,200 people were deported to their home countries between January and November of 2017, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. In 2016, this figure was higher at a total of 25,400 people. Almost 30,000 refugees were said to have voluntarily left Germany in 2017 after many were rejected asylum.

In 2016 and 2017, from Afghanistan to Turkey, Ethiopia to Nigeria and the Balkan region, European Union were making struggling nations take back failed asylum seekers. These might just feel like numbers, but these were people who amid pain, frustration and grief were summoned, interrogated, cross-examined, on why they came, while being subjected to a state of uncertainty, fear, anxiety and mental torture until the day they were eventually sent out of the country. What a cruel modern world we live in?

The same migrant kid or young foreigner of today could aspire and excel in several areas of life by tomorrow such as sports, literature, commerce and even in the Technological and Innovation sector as seen in the life of Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook and Elon Musk, Founder of Tesla.

America and Germany with the position of privilege with blossoming economies such as that of Germany in 2016 and 2017 with so much surpluses, and loved by many for its model society including good road network, functional social structures, economic stability and beautifully diverse nation is that beautifully beloved and enviable progeny. How many have thought perhaps the immigrant wave of the past or recent migrants had something to do with it, perhaps zero or a few. According to official estimates, in 2016, Germany recorded the highest trade surplus in the world worth 310 billion dollars, making it the biggest capital exporter globally. In 2017, the country accounted for 28 percent of the Euro area economy, according to the International Monetary Fund. Many Germans want to believe Germany is successful because it works hard.

But an older friend of mine, well not really a friend. More like an acquaintance. He met me when I was writing my book in McDonald’s restaurant and was interested in what I was doing. I said, I’m writing a book. “Really,” he responded. In German or English, he asked. English, I answered. Where are you gonna sell the book?” He asked. “Online, in stores and everywhere where English is spoken including Germany. But it could also be translated into German, I hope it did. After all, the book is mostly about Germany”, I replied him.

“Where do you come from?” You appear interesting, perhaps we could be friends, he asked. ‘From Africa,’ I replied. Nooo! Africa is big. What country? He asked again. Nigeria, I answered. They treat you guys bad and treat the middle Easterners better in this country. Not because they like them. It’s just a matter of scale of preference. Bavarians are just bigots especially the politicians. They don’t like any other people but themselves. They think they’re better of than other parts of their country. They play divisive politics” he added. I like Africans, my wife is African, from Namibia, he said to me. What are you writing about, he asked. “A literature about the nature of the current migration, its causes, European Union's role in addressing those global issues, America and the future of the world, from a careful study of the present times, its handwriting on the wall and interpreting them in a way that would be understood as history and current affairs wrapped up around experiences and testimonies from about fifty people interviewed,” I expounded my ideas. “Do you know Germans think, they are the drivers of their economy?” They must be deluded to think that. Without migrants and the immigrant population in Germany from the start, this country is nothing. I say it all the time to everyone I meet, he responded to me with sincerity of heart.

“Tell me about Nigeria, please,” he asked. Nigeria is a multi lingual, multiethnic and multicultural country. I’d always thought the biblical “Tower of Babel” fell in that country especially in the Southern part bordering Southwest Cameroon where the ‘Bantu’ civilization originated and expanded from. There’s a popular song lyric in Nigeria that says, “every kilometer is another language.” The country is diverse. For clarity, the “Bantu” civilization is not only recognized in known history to have conquered the entire sub-Saharan continent, and building some of the greatest ancient structures, of which ruins are standing up to this day, such as the great West African Monoliths and the Great Zimbabwean lost civilization but recent research and findings placed this old tribe as more than just largely Hunter gatherers, as they might have been the settlers and founders of the Egyptian civilization including the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and the Hittites. Their earliest migration patterns may have played a role in their level of societal structure, enlightenment and development through the Southern Sahara starting about 4,500-3,000 B.C. From the language patterns, to the needle stone carved and the triple concentric artistically designed Monoliths to their prophetic worship of the Sun and Storm deity called ‘BA,' which reflects similar features found throughout the Middle East such as BA’AL, or BEL. Wilhelm Bleek's coinage of the term BANTU in 1857 was inspired by the prefix ‘Ba', after observing the dominant verbal use of the Ba, throughout the cultures of Africa.

The prefix O’BO, O'BU, M’BA, A’BE, O’BA, A’BA representing BA'AL or BEL which signifies Lord applied to various gods in the Mesopotamian religion of Akkad, Assyrian and Ba’bylonian. In Greek, it’s Belus. Linguistically, BEL is an easy Semitic form cognate with Northwest Semitic BA’AL with the same meaning. The God BEL was the chief God of Palmyra in pre-hellinistic times, worshipped alongside Aglibol or A-Ibol. A’Ibol is a similar name used for the Ibo tribe, a Bantoid language family from this area, who were taught to have re-migrated back from the Middle East after the fall of the first and second Jewish temple. The Jews or ancient Hebrew Israelites themselves were said to have emerged from the Canaanites, of which their God was BA'AL. Canaan himself was a descendant of Ham. The Ham descendants and civilization have found its ruins among the ancient ‘Nok culture' that is said to have begun about1500 B.C., in the area now known as Nigeria. The Bantu names like Yak' ubu or A-Ba'ssey in Niger-Delta, O’bama in Swahili and Ba’ndile in Kwazulu are still used all over sub-Saharan Africa. Earlier I mentioned “Babel,” now I think there’s a connection.

The “Nsibidi” hieroglyphs of the Bantoid family, as a system of symbols indigenous to what is now Southeastern Nigeria and Southwest Cameroon, maybe a key or missing link to connect that ancient civilization, and that of the Ba’bylonian cuneiform and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. The Nsibidi hieroglyphics of the Leopard society of West Africa connected to Osiris, the God founder of the Egyptian civilization, with similar patterns as those in Egyptian temples, are said to have appeared on excavated pottery and in ceramic stools and headrests from Calabar region with a range of dates from 400 to 1400 C.E. There are thousands of Nsibidi symbols, of which over 500 are recorded. Even, the name of the country Haiti or Haitian given to it by the European slave traders founded with slaves emanating from this region may be an actual name suggesting that the ancient Hittites or Haittic were of the same earlier origin, who at the twilight of their civilization re-migrated back across the Sahara to settle in West Africa. Clearly, the Bantu tribes may have been preceded by an older A’BA civilization that thrived South of the Atlantic Ocean coast, in what is today known as the equatorial warm temperate rainforest region of Central West Africa. Consequently, further archeological evidence targeting that region would be able to establish that fact.

So, you’re saying, “what we know of the world’s oldest civilizations including the Egyptian civilization was an offshoot of the Bantu family tribe earlier nestled around the Nigeria region?” he inquired further. Precisely, that’s what I’m saying. My research analysis points to that fact.

Coming back to your question of modern Nigeria. One would say, they’re all black and the same. But that’s not the true picture. The only language that brings the country together is English and Pidgin English language. When I looked online, I realized that Nigeria came in third, on the list of countries with the most spoken indigenous languages behind Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. But I could’ve sworn it holds the world’s largest ethnic groups occupying a small space especially in the Southern region. It’s supposed to be the source of our strength, but no, it’s not. In Nigeria, that’s the major source of our division. The country is rich in human and natural resources including tin, copper, iron ore, gold, crude oil, cocoa, cotton, cassava, oil palm and coffee, but that is another part of the curse. As the discovery of crude oil and its exploration brought hope to many Nigerians and West Africans. But years into it, Nigeria abandoned agricultural production and its investments and focused on only crude oil. The cheap money corrupted those in power as autocratic leaders looted the Nation’s treasury even as social infrastructures degenerated and more people became poorer with crippling sanctions that grinded the country to a halt. It was not until the year 1999, that democracy was instituted into the country and people hoped life in the country will change for the better.

True, while the country has changed in some ways since then with thriving financial institutions, Film, Music and Fashion industries, more of the country remains unchanged and poor. In 2018, it was named the country with the poorest people on Earth. That couldn’t be truer, seeing the number of young people migrating out of the country in search for a better life. That’s a brief history of my country, Nigeria. Hmmm! Holistic, interesting, he replied. I predict your book will be a bestseller, as he smiled. It was nice meeting you. He dropped off his card with me saying call me if you can and moved to board his flight almost immediately. After he left, I thought to myself that was a man who speaks the truth. Many Germans are like that because they have seen the shady and gray side often in its own people and could care less speaking the truth in not just issues that are personal to them but the generality of others including foreigners that are often despised, scorned or discriminated against, in a climate of anti immigrant sentiments that started long before 2015, but effectively from that year when they was the wave of mass migration of Syrians and others into Germany.

What would German people have thought will be the reaction of their Chancellor? Perhaps, they would have wanted her to say, “Send them back, we don’t want them.” Maybe, but Angela Merkel was different because she recognized the position she occupies and don’t want history to judge her wrong or treat her legacy with disrepute. Just like many people say one thing in the public and another thing behind the walls like flatulent, stage-managing and doublefaced cowards. But I thought she was unfeigned in her firm expression when she said those historically defining words, ‘Wir Schaffen Es’, meaning “We can do it.” Germany is strong, we can pull it off. She was speaking about Germany, its muscle to shoulder the burden and its prosperous future with all its surpluses which entered a new next level in that year and after the 2015 migrants wave but to be honest, she didn’t go to Syria to tell Syrians, “I urge you to come to Germany, it is good over here.” No, she did what any mother and leader in her position would do in accordance with International law and in contrast to the history her country and Europe witnessed in the 1930s and 1940s during the second world war.