Germans Leaving Germany 'In Droves'

More than 1.5 million Germans, many of them highly educated, left Germany during the past decade. — Die Welt.

Germany is facing a spike in migrant crime, including an epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults. Mass migration is also accelerating the Islamization of Germany. Many Germans appear to be losing hope about the future direction of their country.

"We refugees... do not want to live in the same country with you. You can, and I think you should, leave Germany. And please take Saxony and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) with you.... Why do you not go to another country? We are sick of you!" — Aras Bacho an 18-year-old Syrian migrant, in Der Freitag, October 2016.

A real estate agent in a town near Lake Balaton, a popular tourist destination in western Hungary, said that 80% of the Germans relocating there cite the migration crisis as the main reason for their desire to leave Germany.

"I believe that Islam does not belong to Germany. I regard it as a foreign entity which has brought the West more problems than benefits. In my opinion, many followers of this religion are rude, demanding and despise Germany." — A German citizen who emigrated from Germany, in an "Open Letter to the German Government."

"I believe that immigration is producing major and irreversible changes in German society. I am angry that this is happening without the direct approval of German citizens. ... I believe that it is a shame that in Germany Jews must again be afraid to be Jews." — A German citizen who emigrated from Germany, in an "Open Letter to the German Government."

"My husband sometimes says he has the feeling that we are now the largest minority with no lobby. For each group there is an institution, a location, a public interest, but for us, a heterosexual married couple with two children, not unemployed, neither handicapped nor Islamic, for people like us there is no longer any interest." — "Anna," in a letter to the Mayor of Munich about her decision to move her family out of the city because migrants were making her life there impossible.

A growing number of Germans are abandoning neighborhoods in which they have lived all their lives, and others are leaving Germany for good, as mass immigration transforms parts of the country beyond recognition.

Data from the German statistics agency, Destatis, shows that 138,000 Germans left Germany in 2015. More are expected to emigrate in 2016. In a story on brain drain titled, "German talent is leaving the country in droves," Die Welt reported that more than 1.5 million Germans, many of them highly educated, left Germany during the past decade.

The statistics do not give a reason why Germans are emigrating, but anecdotal evidence indicates that many are waking up to the true cost — financial, social and cultural — of Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow more than one million mostly Muslim migrants to enter the country in 2015. At least 300,000 more migrants are expected to arrive in Germany in 2016, according to Frank-Jürgen Weise, the head of the country's migration office, BAMF.

Mass migration has — among many other problems — contributed to a growing sense of insecurity in Germany, which is facing a spike in migrant crime, including an epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults. Mass migration is also accelerating the Islamization of Germany. Many Germans appear to be losing hope about the future direction of their country.At the height of the migrant crisis in October 2015, some 800 citizens gathered at a town hall meeting in Kassel/Lohfelden to protest a unilateral decision by the local government to set up migrant shelters in the city. The President of Kassel, Walter Lübcke, responded by telling those who disagree with the government's open-door immigration policy that they are "free to leave Germany at any time."

This attitude was echoed in an audacious essay published in October 2016 by the newspaper Der Freitag, (also published by Huffington Post Deutschland, which subsequently deleted the post). In the article, an 18-year-old Syrian migrant named Aras Bacho called on Germans who are angry about the migrant crisis to leave Germany. He wrote:

"We refugees... are fed up with the angry citizens (Wutbürger). They insult and agitate like crazy.... There are always these incitements by unemployed racists (Wutbürgern), who spend all their time on the Internet and wait until an article about refugees appears on the Internet. Then it starts with shameless comments....

"Hello, you unemployed angry citizens (Wutbürger) on the Internet. How educated are you? How long will you continue to distort the truth? Do you not know that you are spreading lies every day? What would you have done if you were in their shoes? Well, you would have run away!

"We refugees... do not want to live in the same country with you. You can, and I think you should, leave Germany. And please take Saxony and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) with you.

"Germany does not fit you, why do you live here? Why do you not go to another country? If this is your country, dear angry citizens (Wutbürger), then behave normal. Otherwise you can simply flee from Germany and look for a new home. Go to America to Donald Trump, he will love you very much. We are sick of you!"

In May 2016, the newsmagazine, Focus, reported that Germans have been moving to Hungary. A real estate agent in a town near Lake Balaton, a popular tourist destination in western Hungary, said that 80% of the Germans relocating there cite the migration crisis as the main reason for their desire to leave Germany.

An anonymous German citizen who emigrated from Germany recently wrote an "Open Letter to the German Government." The document, which was published on the website Politically Incorrect, states:

"A few months ago I emigrated from Germany. My decision was not for economic gain but primarily because of my dissatisfaction with the current political and social conditions in my homeland. In other words, I think that I and especially my offspring may lead a better life somewhere else. 'Better' for me in this context is primarily a life of freedom, self-determination and decent wages with respect to taxation.

"I do not, however, want to close the door behind me quietly and just go. I would hereby like to explain in a constructive way why I decided to leave Germany.

1. "I believe that Islam does not belong to Germany. I regard it as a foreign entity which has brought the West more problems than benefits. In my opinion, many followers of this religion are rude, demanding and despise Germany. Instead of halting the Islamization of Germany (and the consequent demise of our culture and freedom), most politicians seem to me to be more concerned about getting reelected, and therefore they prefer to ignore or downplay the Islam problem.

2. "I believe that German streets are less secure than they should be given our technological, legal and financial opportunities.

3. "I believe that the EU has a democratic deficit which limits my influence as a democratic citizen.

4. "I believe that immigration is producing major and irreversible changes in German society. I am angry that this is happening without the direct approval of German citizens, but is being dictated by you to German citizens and the next generation.

5. "I believe that the German media is increasingly giving up its neutrality, and that freedom of expression in this country is only possible in a limited way.

6. "I believe that in Germany sluggards are courted but the diligent are scourged.

7. "I believe that it is a shame that in Germany Jews must again be afraid to be Jews."

Many Germans have noted the trend toward reverse integration, in which German families are expected to adapt to the customs and mores of migrants, rather than the other way around.

On October 14, the Munich-based newspaper Tageszeitung published a heartfelt letter from "Anna," a mother of two, who wrote about her decision to move her family out of the city because migrants were making her life there impossible. In the letter, addressed to Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter, she wrote:

"Today I want to write you a kind of farewell letter (Abschiedsbrief) about why I and my family are leaving the city, even though probably no one cares.

"I am 35 years old, living here with my two young sons and my husband in an upscale semi-detached house with parking. So you could say we are very well off for Munich standards.... We live very well with plenty of space and next to a green park. So why would a family like us decide to leave the city? ....

"I assume that your children do not use public facilities, that they do not use public transportation, and that they do not attend public schools in "problem areas." I also assume that you and other politicians rarely if ever go for walks here.

"So on a Monday morning I attended a neighborhood women's breakfast that was sponsored by the City of Munich. Here I met about 6-8 mothers, some with their children. All of the women wore headscarves and none of them spoke German. The organizers of the event quickly informed me I will probably find it hard to integrate myself here (their exact words!!!). I should note that I am German. I speak fluent German and I do not wear a headscarf. So I smiled a little and said I would try to integrate myself. Unfortunately, I brought a salami and ham sandwich to the breakfast, to which everyone was asked to bring something. So of course I had even less chance of integrating.

"I was not able to speak German to anyone at this women's breakfast, which is actually supposed to promote integration, nor was anyone interested in doing so. The organizers did not insist on anyone speaking German, and the women, who appeared to be part of an established Arab-Turkish group, simply wanted to use the room.

"I then asked about the family brunch.... I was advised that the brunch would be held in separate rooms. Men and women separately. At first I thought it was a bad joke. Unfortunately, it was not. ....

"So my impression of these events to promote integration is miserable. No interchange takes place at all!!! How can the City of Munich tolerate such a thing? In my view, the entire concept of these events to promote integration must be called into question.... I was informed that I am not allowed to include pork in my child's lunchbox!!! Hello?! We are in Germany here! ....

"In summary, I find conditions here that make me feel that we are not really wanted here. That our family does not really fit in here. My husband sometimes says he has the feeling that we are now the largest minority with no lobby. For each group there is an institution, a location, a public interest, but for us, a heterosexual married couple with two children, not unemployed, neither handicapped nor Islamic, for people like us there is no longer any interest.

"When I mentioned at my son's preschool that we are considering moving out of the city and I told them the reasons why, I was vigorously attacked by the school's leadership. Because of people like us, they said, integration does not work, precisely because we remove our children. At least two other mothers have become wildly abusive. The management has now branded me "xenophobic."

"This is exactly the reason why people like me lose their patience and we choose to vote for other political parties.... Quite honestly, I have traveled half the world, have more foreign friends than German and have absolutely no prejudices or aversions to people because of their origin. I have seen much of the world and I know that the way integration is done here will cause others to come to the same conclusion as we have: either we send our children to private schools and kindergartens, or we move to other communities. Well then, so long!!!!!!!!!!!"

Pakistan welcomes Trump offer to ease tensions with India

Pakistan welcomed an offer by US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday, to ease tensions with nuclear-armed rival India over ongoing unrest in Kashmir, which both claim as their own.

In an interview with Indian newspaper Hindustan Times last week, Trump said he would be pleased to be a mediator between Pakistan and India.

"Well, I would love to see Pakistan and India get along, because that's a very, very hot tinderbox.... That would be a very great thing. I hope they can do it," Trump said.

Islamabad said it did not comment on media reports usually but in this case it welcomed the mediation offer.

"We continue to urge our American friends including those in the administration to play their due role in resolving bilateral issues between Pakistan and India, particularly the Kashmir dispute," Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria told a weekly briefing.

"And definitely Pakistan has welcomed in the past also any role of mediation, we welcome such offers," Zakaria said.

The comment was a change of tack after Pakistan's interior minister launched a blistering attack on Trump's "ignorance" in May after the billionaire vowed that if he won office he would free a doctor jailed in 2011 after helping track down Osama bin Laden.

Trump was being criticised in the US Thursday after he turned his final presidential debate appearance into an unprecedented assault on US political convention by refusing to say that he would respect a Hillary Clinton victory in November.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. India rejects any third party mediation and the rivals have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.

Tensions have soared in recent weeks as India blamed Pakistan for a raid on an army base in Indian Kashmir on September 18, which saw New Delhi respond with what it called "surgical strikes" across the border, infuriating Islamabad.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged BRICS leaders on Sunday to take a strong united stand against the "mothership of terrorism" in the South Asian region, in a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan.

India has deployed additional troops along LoC, standing committee told

India has deployed additional contingents of troops along the Line of Control (LoC) and aircraft squadrons on forward bases, Senator Mushahid Hussain told the media in Islamabad on Thursday.

The chairman senate standing committee on defence was briefing the media after a Senate Standing Committees on Defence and Foreign Affairs on relations with India and Afghanistan.

After a rise in Pak-India tensions, India has deployed additional contingents of troops along the LoC, Mushahid said.

Additionally, India has brought Su-35 aircraft squadrons to forward bases, the senator said.

Pakistan's armed forces are on high alert and ready to respond to any Indian 'misadventures' in a 'befitting' manner, he added.

Mushahid added that India has violated the ceasefire agreement 58 times over the past month after the Uri attack and 103 times during the past year and that there have been 213 border violations by Afghanistan.

Indian forces violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir twice on Wednesday, killing one man and injuring three people.

The senator also condemned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks against Pakistan at the BRICS summit in Goa over the weekend.

Modi at BRICS urged leaders to take a strong and united stand against the "mothership of terrorism" in the South Asian region, in a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan.

India is yet to present evidence of a 'surgical strike', he said.

He said 79 new wings have been created for Pak-Afghan border management.

The senator said there were plans for 78 new crossing points along the Pak-Afghan border.

16 such crossing points have been decided on, he added.

We have to have a lasting discourse on women embracing technology and playing their part in the industry.

I am sitting in a meeting room at the head office of NetSol Technologies in Lahore. It looks quite similar to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg’s open glass walled office. Sitting in the centre of NetSol’s ground floor, I can see dozens of people outside intently looking at their screens and speaking with peers sitting beside them.A girl full of poise and an air of inspiration enters the room. This is Sarah Hassan, team lead and principal software engineer at NetSol Technologies.

Sara shares not only her experience but also reservations about the technology industry of Pakistan.

There is something very calm about her demeanour. During our conversation she shares even the most difficult and harsh experiences with composure — an attribute not many people have.

Sara is a Computer Science graduate of LUMS. Her story is unusual. “My mother is a doctor and so are my aunts. I have always been surrounded by people in the medical profession. So I, naturally, was also inclined to taking medicine in high school,” she shares.

“Girls in high schools and colleges have no role models. Someone, they can look up to and want to grow up to be.”“It was my mother who pushed me to try something other than medicine," she says, "So, I applied for Electrical Engineering at LUMS and this is how my graduate life began”.

Although Sara studied electrical engineering, she took an advanced programming course in her first year. This was when she heard the bells and identified her true calling. “We would sit in the computer science lab throughout the night and would incessantly code while improving the logic and at the same time removing the bugs. Even during lectures on other subjects, I would mentally be roaming around the computer science labs. I would continuously be thinking about solving the complex problems or effectively improving the code. In the beginning, it was very time-consuming and frustrating. But I enjoyed doing it anyway,” says Sara.By the end of the first year, I realised that Computer Science was my forte and I would like to pursue it full time. I shifted my majors from electrical [engineering] to computer sciences.”

LUMS has a very diverse student base. While studying at LUMS, Sara never witnessed anything stereotypical; the culture is so open and conducive that you one pursue their dreams, follow their passion and be anything they want. There is hardly any discrimination.

Sara thinks, “A major reason why many girls do not study technology is that in our parents’ generation, generation X and baby boomers, no one studied technology. But there were ample people taking engineering, medicine, and banking jobs. So, our parents have seen more role models in those fields who subsequently encourage them to enforce the same career choices on their children."

Times are changing; technology is becoming the heart of everything. There is no way it can be ignored. The important thing is to introduce role models. “I don’t really know any women in technology in leadership positions. We have a project manager, here at NetSol, and she is the first one I have personally come across in my professional life. You see, girls in high schools and colleges have no role models. Someone, they can look up to and want to grow up to be.” says Sara.“Discrimination starts as soon as your professional life starts. Even in the interviews, you are asked questions like: 'Are you engaged? What are your plans for marriage?'”“The conversation needs to be initiated. We have to have a lasting discourse on women embracing technology and playing their part in the industry. Kick-starting the conversation is the first step to getting increased number of girls in technology.”

It is a bitter truth that the technology industry of Pakistan doesn’t pose a very rosy picture. As Sara started her professional career, she got subtle discriminatory signals that left a lasting negative impression on her.“Discrimination starts as soon as your professional life starts. Even in the interviews, you are asked questions like: 'Are you engaged? What are your plans for marriage?' In contrast, if you are married, you are asked: 'How many babies do you have? What are your plans for the next child?'"

“Such probing questions have unfortunately become a standard everywhere,” says Sara.

She herself had to deal with such questions.

She has been a top performer in each one of her work assignments. She strongly believes that women have to work harder to prove themselves and to be taken seriously. Her first job was in the IT department of service sales corporation where she worked for a year. While talking about her experience at corporate, she says, “I felt that there will be more opportunities for growth in a pure technology organisation. Hence, I started looking for opportunities.”

When it comes to starting a career, the majority of girls opt for a well-reputed and renowned workplace. Sara’s decision of joining NetSol was partly based on that. “I was impressed with the infrastructure and the organisation was well known,” says Sara.Girls are not paid as much as their male counterparts. The primary reason for this inequality, Sara thinks, is the notion that women ultimately have to leave the job for homemaking.Sara was promoted as a team lead 6 months into the job at NetSol. “The experience has been truly overwhelming. After promotion, I kept wondering, whether I was good enough for the responsibility. But the feeling vanished after I received positive feedback from my team,” continues Sara, “I am too critical of myself.”As we move on, the conversation drifts towards unequal pay.

Sara agrees that girls are not paid as much as their male counterparts. The primary reason for this inequality, she thinks, is the notion that women ultimately have to leave the job for homemaking. The organisations, therefore, tend to promote and invest more in males. Unequal pay and promotion opportunities not only affect the women employees, it adversely affects the whole organisation. Because by doing so, such organisations are encouraging women to leave the workforce permanently, or join organisations with less discrimination.

“There are voices that tell you, girls are not getting equal opportunities and equal pay,” says Sara.

Now at mid-career level, Sara is noticing a severe decrease in the number of female peers. Lack of women in senior positions dries up the will power of women to stay and continue their professional career. “You notice women around leaving good positions. That makes me wonder, why am I continuing?!”, says Sara.But Sara is committed and wants to change the trend for girls interested in entering the technology industry. “I plan to continue working. I hope when time comes, young girls will be able to look up to me for inspiration, and shall hopefully change their decision of leaving the workplace!”

Pakistan neither wants, nor engaged in arms race in South Asia:

In a veiled reference to India, Pakistan voiced concern over the growing transfer of conventional armaments in volatile regions, saying it has every potential of fuelling instability and jeopardising the delicate regional balance. “South Asia is a sensitive region where one state's military spending grossly and vastly outshadows all others,” Ambassador Tehmina Janjua, the permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva, told the United Nations General Assembly's Disarmament and International Security Committee on Thursday.“We remain concerned over the growing transfers of conventional armaments especially in volatile regions that are inconsistent with the imperatives of maintaining peace, security and stability,” she said in a thematic debate on conventional weapons. “The policy of dual standards towards South Asia, based on narrow strategic, political and commercial considerations, must be eschewed,” the Pakistani envoy said.Pakistan, she said, was committed to the establishment of strategic stability in South Asia, which includes an element of conventional force balance. “It [Pakistan] neither wants, nor is it engaged in an arms race in the region.” In her remarks, Ambassador Janjua said efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons must not give way to an unworkable imbalance of conventional weapons similar to those that had triggered two world wars. Spending on conventional arms had surpassed $1.7 trillion, she said, adding that the total budget of the United Nations was around 3 per cent of world military expenditures and that 33 times more money was being spent on fuelling and exacerbating conflicts than on preventing them.

Results would be few and far between if the issue of conventional weapons was not addressed in a comprehensive manner, the envoy said. “The utility of a partial approach thatseparates motivations for arms production from the controls of their trade and transfers will be limited at best. As a result, these weapons will continue to fuel conflicts, destabilise states and societies, inflicting enormous pain and suffering to humanity,” she added. Pakistan, she said, has developed the necessary legislative, regulatory, enforcement and institutional mechanisms to address the range of issues relating to conventional arms including small arms and light weapons. “We are taking additional measures to strengthen the enforcement regime, which covers imports and licensing,” the envoy added. Pakistan consider the the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) as a first step towards regulating trade and transfer of conventional weapons and note its entry into force, she said. Even as we continue our national review of the treaty, we believe that ATT's success, effectiveness and universality will be assessed on its non-discriminatory implementation in particular its criteria and strict adherence by its State Parties to the treaty principles,” she said. The success of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), she said, lies in the delicate balance it seeks to maintain by minimising human suffering without sacrificing the legitimate security interests of states. Ambassador Janjua said Pakistan shares the concerns about the acquisition and use by non-state actors and terrorists of small arms and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).