Blogs
Many guests accepted the invitation of the Exile Archive of the DNB, the PEN Center of German-speaking Authors Abroad and the RWG to attend the honor, organized as part of the Frankfurt Days of Exile.
Dr. Sylvia Asmus, head of the German Exile Archive of the DNB, welcomed the festive community to the place of persecution and crime, pain of expulsion and homecoming movingly documented – it was an honor to receive the contemporary witness right here.
Lest we forget!
Words easily uttered and often forgotten. Nonetheless, the eleven athletes and the German policeman, who lost their lives during the attack of Palestinian Terrorists on Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympic Games on the 5th September 1972, were never forgotten in Israel or by Jews worldwide. Most of them were killed during the murderous event as a result of a failed police rescue attack at Fliegerhorst Fürstenfeldbruck.
Few outside South Africa remembered on August 12th this year the tenth anniversary of the Massacre of Marikana.
On that day in 2012, police officers at the Marikana platinum mine near Rustenburg owned by Lonmin, shot 112 striking miners, killing 34 men. The police had claimed they had to defend themselves, when they had been unable to control the men.
At a press conference on August 17th, the Palestinian President Mahmut Abbas spoke with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about “50 Holocausts committed by Israel against Palestinians”. Olaf Scholz should have reacted immediately and strongly, rather than ending the press conference, regardless of whether he angered the guest. How could the Chancellor not immediately contradict this statement, allowing it to remain in the room!
It is not the first time Kenyan elections have made headlines, following the historic days of the strong rule of President Jomo Kenyatta at Independence in 1964, when the election had divided the people ethnically into parties between Kenyatta’s Kikuyu-dominated Kanu Party and the Luo. In 1969 one-party rule followed, with Kanu winning every election until 1988, beyond Kenyatta’s death in 1978. Multi-parties were restored in 1992.
Africa is one of the continents most affected by climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Key development sectors have already suffered widespread losses and damage, such as loss of biodiversity, water scarcity, reduced food production, loss of life and reduced economic growth. IPCC explained that Africans are disproportionately employed in climate-exposed industries: In sub-Saharan Africa, 55-62% farm workers are employed in agriculture and 95% of arable land is rain-irrigated.
We would like to point out that the event takes place during the Frankfurt Days of Exile, to which a rich program of talks and exhibitions on persecution, flight and reception is offered, see below. The references to Ruth’s difficult but also enriching life experiences will be manifold, and we can look forward to the words of the laudator Lutz Kliche and Ruth Weiss speech on this special honor!
The Zimbabwe government of President Mnangagwa is determined to push through controversial amendments to the law governing Private Voluntary Organisation. The Bill was first introduced in November 2021 “to counter terrorism and prohibit political lobbying from non-government organisations.”
Arye Sharuz Shalicar, the German-Persian-Israeli political scientist born in Berlin wrote in the “Jüdischen Allgemeine” on August 2, that Palestinian extremists had shot at a group of hundreds of Jews praying at “ Joseph’s Tomb”, wounding several worshippers.
The concept “democracy” (power of the people) has been repeatedly an issue in the US during the past year and in particular during recent weeks. It was often repeated that democracy was endangered in the United States of America.