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Helping Ourselves to Helping Others: Who's Helping Who?

  The Pope's call for EuropeanChristians to take in refugees is a little behind the curve. Over the past sixmonths, numerous German churches have been quite outspoken in issuing similarpleas. These have chimed with German politicians, mostly of the Left, who havebeen similarly outspoken about lowering or even lifting restrictions on allrefugees and asylum seekers. Among the more idealistic, there are even callsfor completely open borders. But the recent news of the seventy one Syriansfound dead in a truck smuggled into the EU, and particularly that of the smallchild found dead on a Turkish beach has moved both EU institutions and citizensto demand that much more be done. In this mostly genuine concern about therefugee's suffering is the profound desire to help them, as any humanitarian orany good Christian would be expected by the Pope to do.

I live in the town of Landshut,about an hour north east of Munich, and I have participated over the past twoyears in a number of the refugee assistance activities run by the city and itschurches. Landshut has two of Bavaria's many designated centers for processingincoming Syrian refugees. Half of the expected 500 for this week have alreadyarrived in town. They are staying in a large tent that happened to have beenconstructed three weeks ago for a city festival. The new arrivals have a warmand safe place to stay with nearby toilettes and showers, along with dailymeals suitable for Muslim observers. Lots of provisions - toys for thechildren, clothing and toiletries for the families, have been donated by thelocal charities and individual contributors. This is the way a Christiansociety should function in the time of human need. The Jewish state, bycontrast, has refused to accept any Syrian refugees, this while having bombedSyrian targets numerous times and having provided medical assistance to atleast a thousand wounded "rebels" who are terrorizing the Syriancitizens. But the functioning of this Christian society in Landshut, which Isee first-hand, has led to a few observations. The large tent owner, a localmillionaire, is charging one thousand Euros per day for the tent's usage. A private bus company operator was commissioned to carry the refugees from thetrain station to the tent area; and the shower stalls were constructed by aprivate company. Where there is charity to be given, must there also be moneyto be had?

The Syrian crowds seen at Hungariantrain stations want to be taken to Germany. They don't wish to stay in thecountries where they arrive, which is where they are legally required to remainby EU law. Why? Because they know that all refugees and asylum seekers inGermany receive, from the moment they arrive, free food, free housing and freemedical and hospital care. They also know that, after they are processed, theyreceive a bank account into which is deposited from the GermanGovernment almost 400 Euro a month for expenses. This includes 130 Eurofor food. (For comparison, my food expenses total less than 100 Euro per month.My incidental expenses, including internet and telephone and eating out costless than 50 Euro.) After processing, refugees continue to receive free medicaland hospital care while they live for free in State or Church providedaccommodations. They also receive discounts on train travel and stipends topurchase furniture when they eventually qualify to rent their own homes. Noother EU country provides benefits at this level. The Syrians in Germany whohave been receiving this for the past two years have not kept this largesssecret from their Syrian friends and relatives. Any wonder why the huge crowdsat Hungarian train stations choose this one particular destination?

Many of the Germans seen in themedia greeting the refugees with welcome signs and provisions are genuinelycaring people. They truly want to help the afflicted and they wish todistinguish themselves from those Germans who want to restrict refugeeassistance and free movement. But how many of these caring people are part ofthe social service network system whose livelihood is enriched by the newcomerscan't be known. And how many of the the welcoming committee are stakeholders ofthe banks, supermarkets, clothing stores, phone stores, accommodation centersetc. whose businesses will be getting a shot in the arm from the government's400 Euro per month per bank account also can't be known. And how manyGovernment ministers and politicians are presenting themselvesas humanitarians in their generous assistance to the refugees and asylumseekers while knowing that a large percentage of the assistance is reimbursedby the EU or UN, is not even worth asking. For doesn't the money in EU and UNcoffers come in part from German taxpayers?  What is not being asked iswhy these complex realities are not part of the Pope's or the politician'spublic dialogue about how to end this crisis, and not to just put a profitmaking Band-Aid on it. Six million Syrian refugees are currently living inimpoverished camps in Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordon. Most of them wouldn'tmind being living in an EU country. It is a hard fact that the vast majority ofthose in the camps are poor villagers and without the financial wherewithal topay either the criminal smugglers to flee or the Syrian officials forpermission to emigrate. The vast majority of the current wave of Syrians areurban and middle class. Europe has until now received the cream, but that canonly change dramatically should restrictions continue to be dropped. How long,then, will German citizens continue to hold up welcome signs at railroadstations?

But there is a more fundamentalelement of this crisis that is rarely discussed, even among those who have manygood and practical reasons to be opposed to government sponsorship ofimmigration.  If we are really so concerned about the refugees, why hasn'tsomething been done to stop the US and NATO and Israeli sponsored wars thathave created the chaos in the Arab lands from which the emigrants are escaping?Why are EU countries contributing to the American sanctioned military onslaughtin Arab lands only to face the inevitable flood of refugees? Something thatAmerica and Israel are not facing. And why isn't the billions being spent in EUcountries (i.e. in EU economies) to deal with the immigrants being used in theArab countries and in their economies that are directly suffering the wars orare supporting the refugee camps? Wouldn't that be less self-servinghumanitarian aid? Wouldn't that be what the Pope is asking of Europeans - to bemore Christian? One may note that his not asking that of Americans or Israelismay not only be a geographical matter.

Over a year ago, I spoke to severalmiddle class German couples, each of them church going Catholics, about theimmigration issue. All of them were already then impatient with this situation.They suspected the government was not being honest about the scale of theproblem, nor about how long it could be expected to continue. They saw theirsocial benefits decreasing while seeing their taxes going toward refugee’sbenefits and for eventual job training programs for new employees whose numberswill increase pressure on downward trending wages. The writing, for them, wasalready on the wall, but they were reluctant to speak out on the issue for fearof being branded hateful or racist, names used against such people in the mediaby their own President, Angela Merkel. My acquaintances were certainly notracist nor hateful, nor were they profiting from the refugees. But there aresignificant numbers of people in many walks of life who are. On the emigrationend there are the organized Arab smugglers, many of whom have mafiaconnections, and many of whom must have nefarious business relations withcorrupt EU government officials in order to stay in business. The smugglershave received approximately ten thousand Euro from each refugee to bring themto Germany, though the prices have dropped with the latest influx. Then thereare the corrupt government officials in the Arab countries who demand bribes toprocess the emigrant's travel documents. Those prices have increased with thelatest outflow. On the immigration end, there are the aforementioned socialservice system (which includes the German Churches), the many and variedbusinesses connected to the immigrant's monthly spending, the German governmentwhich obtains increased taxes from the businesses, and large corporate concernslike BMW. How a manufacturer of expensive cars, the last thing a refugee couldcould afford, benefit from them?  Just yesterday, BMW, the largest employerin Bavaria, announced that it was waiting and willing to begin hiring qualifiednew immigrants. Is BMW, the wealthiest corporation in Catholic Bavaria doingtheir Christian duty? Excuse the cliché, but does the Pope shave in the woods?

Germany, like most industrialized EUcountries, has a demographic time bomb of an aging and dwindling population.German government and business leaders who are paid to think about this sort ofthing understand that is not just more workers that are needed to work in Germanindustries and not just more children that are needed to keep the German nationfrom disappearing in five generations.  It is, more importantly in theshort term, more younger workers that are needed to pay the taxes required topay the pensions over the next twenty years for the post war baby boomretirees. And who better to qualify for this task than foreign workers who maynot long remain in Germany and who will not have worked long enough to qualifyto receive their own pensions after they have returned totheir home land?

We are long past the point that onlya cynic wonder if this is not one of the reasons for Germany's leaders apparentwillingness to acquiesce to America and Israel's game plan for the destructionof great swaths of the Arab world and the remapping of the Middle East.Germany's leaders may be blinded by economic concerns and they are certainlysubservient to militarist America's political pressures - The government can donothing about removing American nuclear missiles from its own territory; itdropped an court investigation into NSA spying and President Merkel couldn'teven get a promise from President Obama to stop bugging her personalphone.  But the average German worker, with their declining livingstandard, is not as blind as their leaders pretend to be about the impact ofthis refugee crisis on the economic and cultural viability of theircountry. 

For it is apparent to a number ofthem, as well as to me, that Germany's leader's acquiescence to this flood ofrefugees requires their acceptance of enormous economic and cultural pressureson German society. German businesses have already endured substantial lossesfrom US led EU sanctions against the Ukraine. Two decades of peaceful andprosperous relations with its former enemy, Russia, are in tatters. Germany'sposition as the great economic power in middle Europe is found once againcaught between the Scylla of its Atlantic political "partners" andthe Charybdis of Russia. Without economic stability, helping refugees andthose in need becomes an exercise in self-destructive futility. TheGerman economy temporarily benefits from its refugee assistance, in partbecause it profits from the selling of arms and technology to Arab countries inleague with militarist US foreign policy (which of course creates the masses ofArab refugees.) And it may benefit in the short long term by utilizing refugeeworkers and benefiting from their generated tax payments. But German leaders,who have accepted the imposition of these economic and cultural pressures,cannot be unaware that they are likely to create political divisions in Germanywhose intensity will be difficult to control. And that of giving a bad name tobeing a humanitarian or good Christian will be the least of them.

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Sent to Shamireaders list by Mike Robeson

Comment from JWG: Well said.  Until the people of Europe stop electing governments that grovel before the Zionist banksters who own the US, UK, and Israel, the economy of Europe will continue its fall into the toilet.