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| Russian rocket blasts off The Russian Soyuz spacecraft has launched carrying new crew members bound for the International Space Station bbc.co.uk |
Landmark China HIV trial begins A landmark trial is under way in China of a graduate who says he was denied a teaching job because he is HIV positive, state media say. bbc.co.uk |
Merkel's own goal | Philip Oltermann Germany's leader is wrong about multiculturalism, even though a recent football match may have rattled herToday, when I heard reports of Angela Merkel announcing that multiculturalism had "utterly failed", my first thoughts were: who is she talking about? I am German, and I have a sister whose three boys are half-Peruvian. My brother's children are part-Japanese. My partner is English. Were we all utter failures?"Multi-kulti" covers a grey area somewhere between co-existence and co-operation, and one hopes the German chancellor was trying to speak in favour of team-play and against mere tolerance. My guess is that Merkel wasn't talking about us, or about Poles, Italians or Greeks living in Germany, but about her country's 4 million-strong Muslim population – in which case she has still chosen her words terribly badly. The result is a faux pas uncharacteristic of a politician who has won a reputation for treading quietly in matters diplomatic.So what made her say it? The question over how to integrate Muslim migrants and the rest of German society is hardly new: politicians and commentators have been discussing it ever since the first wave of Gastarbeiter (migrant workers) arrived in the 1960s. If you look at the figures alone, there would be no particular reason to reheat the debate at this time: the number of Turkish immigrants into Germany in 2008 was as low as it had last been in 1983, according to Der Spiegel magazine, and the number of asylum applications is about a sixth of what it was in the mid-90s. More Turks returned to Turkey last year than came to live in Germany, which is actually bad news for the German economy, because with the population forecast to fall by 11.6 million by 2050, the country needs every qualified worker it can get its hands on.A recent football match might have rattled Merkel a little: a Euro 2012 qualifier in Berlin, in which Turkey fans outnumbered the home support and jeered German-born midfielder Mesut Özil, who had rejected the Turkish star in favour of the German FA's eagle. Assuming that most of the Turkey fans were Berlin-based, Merkel's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, was appalled. "These are precisely the kind of integration deficits we are talking about," he said, "and it's not a mistake to address them." But even then the positives outweigh the negatives: Özil silenced the whistles by scoring the second goal in a 3-0 win, acting as the beating heart of a German-Turkish-Polish-Lebanese-Ghanaian-Nigerian team that has come to symbolise successful "Multi-kulti" in action.There was a time when you needed to look hard for successful examples of Turkish integration. Not anymore: Fatih Akin, for example, is one of the saviours of Germany's cinema industry. Another, Cem Özdemir, is the head of the resurgent Green party and fast becoming a headache for Merkel: public disgruntlement with the conservative's urban development in Stuttgart, Özdemir's home turf, has recently won the Green's their first majority in a large city.For the last 10 years, my mother has been volunteering as a German teacher for schoolchildren with reading problems in Hamburg. It used to be mainly young Turks who turned up to her classes – these days, she says, she's having as much of a problem with German kids who can't read their Goethe.Politicians tend to say stupid things when they are under pressure, but in this instance the pressure is coming from within Merkel's own party, rather than society at large. Ever since the former Social Democrat Bundesbank executive Thilo Sarrazin published a book called Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab (Germany is Digging its Own Grave) in August in which he polemicised against the 'dumbing down' of German society through the Muslim population, the right wing of Merkel's CDU party has felt its own kind of claustrophobia. Horst Seehofer, head of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, moved to outflank Sarrazin this week, announcing an integration programme towards German Judeo-Christian "leading culture". Perhaps Merkel and Seehofer are merely trying to close the political gap that might open up for antagonists with an explicity anti-Islamist agenda.Merkel's diplomatic style has made her an unusually popular chancellor – according to a recent Spiegel survey, 59% of the population are happy to see her as a representative of their nation. She has to be careful that party calls for a more hardline approach don't ruin her legacy.IslamReligionAngela MerkelGermanyPhilip Oltermannguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
China unveils own mapping service An official mapping service called Map World has been unveiled by the Chinese government. bbc.co.uk |
China made peace prize decision for us, says Nobel judge Jailing of dissident Liu Xiaobo 'solved the problem' of how committee should recognise Chinese activistsChina's decision to jail dissident Liu Xiaobo for 11 years convinced the Nobel committee to award him this year's peace prize, according to one of the judges.Geir Lundestad of the Norwegian Nobel committee confirmed speculation that the unusually tough sentence made Liu an obvious choice. He said Beijing's decision "solved the problem" of how to recognise Chinese activists.He said the judges had gradually come to believe they had to "address the China question"."If we had given a prize to a dissident from Cuba or Vietnam, fine, there are difficult situations in those countries," he said during a talk at Oxford University. "But the question would then be: why don't you address China?"And we felt that the credibility of the prize depended on this – we had to address this issue – despite the complexities that this would involve."He added: "The next question was who should we give the prize to?"We've studied this for several years: who are the right dissidents? We felt, obviously, that Liu was very important in his own right."But the Chinese government solved the problem for us. On 25 December 2009, they punished him, they sentenced him to 11 years in prison."And automatically, he became not only one, or perhaps the leading representative of human rights, but he also became a universal symbol of human rights."Liu's sentence, for incitement to subvert state power, was one of the harshest handed to a dissident for many years.He was convicted for his co-authorship of Charter 08 – a blueprint for democratic reforms in China, and other essays.No one from the Chinese foreign ministry was available to respond Lundestad's remarks this evening.Lundestad's comments, which may fuel accusations in the state media that the west is seeking to impose its values on China.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters yesterday that Liu was "convicted by Chinese judicial authorities for breaking China's laws".He added: "We oppose any attempt to make an issue of this, and we oppose anyone infringing on China's judicial sovereignty in any way."Others have suggested that Liu's win could give ammunition to moderates in government."The hardliners who decided on this [harsh] course on Charter 08 brought this considerable embarrassment on themselves," said Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.Prior to the announcement of the award, Lundestad said that China's deputy foreign minister, Fu Ying, had warned the committee not to give the award to a dissident.It is still unclear who will collect Liu's prize at the ceremony in December. His wife Liu Xia is under house arrest but has invited more than 140 other people – including dissidents and celebrities – to attend the event in Norway on his behalf.A Chongqing woman who friends said was seized by police in the middle of the night after tweeting that she would march with a banner supporting Liu has been allowed home, her friend said today.Zhang Shijie, a blogger who first tweeted Mou Yanxi's detention, said she was unharmed but "tired and scared". He added that police had kept her mobile phone and computer.ChinaLiu XiaoboNobel peace prizeTwitterHuman rightsTania Braniganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |