Anton Coaker: Cologne

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As soon as I heard about the ugly scenes in Cologne over New Year, my heart sank. As you’ve been hearing, a group of over 1000 - apparently- ‘North African or Arab’ young men went on the town, behaving….er…unacceptably, as police stood by. It sounded pretty ugly, given that the perpetrators seemed overwhelmingly to be recent guests. Several hundred complaints have been made, many of them of sexual assault, along with bag snatching and rape. Straight away, the assumption was that this might’ve been the work of feckless refugees, which would in turn inflame German indignation, and create further fallout. And while it was probably coincidental, as investigations started, those icons of liberal modernity, Sweden and Denmark were wrangling over closing borders to migrants without documents, and assorted firebrands were jumping on the bandwagon. Inside Germany, the self-same welcoming liberal ideology which has embraced over a million refugees inside 12 months was outraged. Protests –and counter protests- have been held, with the German people struggling to confront their feelings. Modern Germany has always got the spectre of its past looking over its shoulder, which must shape their reactions.

Presumably in political fear of her job, Chancellor Merkel quickly responded that she’ll change the law so anyone who’s turned up pleading asylum, and then committed such offences, will be thrown out of the country. To which the UN and just about everyone else has said ‘fair do’s’.

Details which have remained somewhat beneath the radar are the wider level of such attacks and behaviour, spread right across Germany, and seemingly elsewhere. Along with a distinct desire to pretend it hasn’t been happening. And while some people will be clinging to the hope that it isn’t the migrants/refugees/asylum seekers, the German police are now quite clear who is committing this crime wave. You had only to listen to the midday phone in on Radio 2 here last week. Callers with first-hand experience of what’s happening in Cologne were equally, emphatically quite clear.

Trying to remain philanthropic, I suppose you’ve got to consider that several hundred thousand young male immigrants have rocked up in Europe recently, overwhelmingly without guiding elders from their own culture, and with few young women. Many of them have come from restrictive conservative countries, where alcohol and liberal attitudes are scarce. These scenes were pretty much inevitable. I want to try and avoid the uncomfortable comparisons with the long running spate of sexual predation court cases in our own Northern cities, involving men from similar cultures deliberately targeting vulnerable young girls. The problem is that it’s difficult to view the matters as unconnected, with such an apparent yawning cultural chasm.

Also less widely reported is what sounds like increasingly heavy handed French treatment of waifs within their borders. Given what’s been happening in recent weeks and months, it too is almost inevitable. The word in some circles is that it’s going to kick off at Calais today.

I hope with every fibre of my being that we can keep it in perspective, and that the young men concerned quickly see the light. This isn’t the 1930’s, and we’ve seen what cultural differences, racial intolerance and animosity can lead to. But the pebbles trickling down the scree face are deeply troubling. The flow of people wanting to come remains, the question is what’s changing in the countries they’re coming to. I don’t doubt for a minute that attitudes in the EU are shifting.

Every bit as much as terrorist attacks in Paris in the last year, events over New Year could prove be one of the moments’ history notes.



Widening the discussion, this is surely going to overspill into our own EU referendum. As much as cuddly Dave tries to mute the perceived connection, we’ll be more focussed on border security, giving strength to single issue firebrand twits. And whatever your views, it’s never the best plan to take counsel from such narrow minded sources. The topic is hence directly connected with conflict and instability in the Middle East, which is equally driven by historic religious intolerance and latterly the oil trade. Ironically, the low price of oil is proving to be a major problem, as both Saudi and Iran struggle with dropping prices….and blame each other. It doesn’t help them that the Yanks are busy wringing a bit more oil out of their own reserves by fracking, so they don’t need to buy quite so much…which is probably just as well, given what could happen if they elect Donald Trump. Oh the joys of an interconnected globalised economy.

About the author

Originally published in The Western Morning News, these articles are reproduced for the enjoyment of TFF members World-wide by kind permission of the author Anton Coaker and the WMN

Anton Coaker is a fifth generation farmer keeping suckler cows and flocks of hill sheep high on the Forest of Dartmoor and running a hardwood and mobile sawmill.

A prodigious writer and regular correspondent for The Western Morning News, NFU and The Farming Forum, Anton’s second book “The Complete Bullocks” is available from www.anton-coaker.co.uk
 

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