GERMANY. POWERHOUSE OR POWDERKEG? DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY: 3C CREATIVE AGENCY, 3C.COM.AU

ARTICLE BY: CHARLES WEULE

PAINTINGS BY: AMY CASEY IMAGES COURTESY OF ZG GALLEY, CHICAGO. WWW.ZGGALLERY.COM © AMY CASEY

© PLATINUM CAPITAL LIMITED DESPITE SIGNS OF ECONOMIC RECOVERY, EUROPE, INDEED THE DEVELOPED WORLD, HAS BEEN ENGULFED BY A WAVE OF ANTI- ESTABLISHMENT MOVEMENTS OVER THE PAST YEAR. WHAT IS GOING ON? AND WHY? CHARLES WEULE’S ON-THE- GROUND REPORT FROM GERMANY, THE HEART OF EUROPE’S IMMIGRATION CRISIS, MAY HELP SHED SOME LIGHT. II Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

PREFACE

THE PRESENT DECADE HAS The angst and frustration culminated in the vote of the British people on 23 June BEEN A TUMULTUOUS ONE 2016 to leave the EU, but the chaos that FOR EUROPE. MORE THAN ensued at Westminster suggests that A HANDFUL OF COUNTRIES ‘solutions’ and stability, if there were such IN THE EUROPEAN UNION a thing, are still some distance away. WENT THROUGH A Of these continual crises, last year’s refugee crisis has been one of the most trying on SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS IN the cohesion and strength of the EU and THE AFTERMATH OF THE was arguably a key factor that shaped the 2008-09 GLOBAL FINANCIAL outcome of the Brexit referendum. CRISIS AND, AT LEAST FOR While politicians and bureaucrats wonder NOW, FISCAL AUSTERITY AND at the intensity and spread of anti- establishment sentiments and mainstream UNPRECEDENTED MONETARY media busy themselves with denouncing EXPANSION CONTINUE the re-emergence of far-right nationalism, TO SIT SIDE BY SIDE AS an on-the-ground, first-hand account THE TWIN PILLARS OF of the daily interactions between the locals and the newly arrived immigrants ECONOMIC POLICY. may shed some light on the cause of the widespread discontentment and the A REGION THAT WAS breakdown of a precarious equilibrium ALREADY APPREHENSIVE and unity. FROM ECONOMIC And so we present you with this special UNCERTAINTIES WAS report from Charles Weule. Charles is a FURTHER SHAKEN BY THE former investment analyst at Platinum, who now lives and works in Germany. SERIES OF ISLAMIC TERRORIST Equipped with a unique linguistic gift, ATTACKS AND THE INFLUX OF Charles has travelled to and lived in MILLIONS OF IMMIGRANTS many parts of the world. Having learned Japanese fluently, he went on to become AND REFUGEES EN MASSE totally proficient in Mandarin. As with FROM THE OTHER END OF these two Asian languages, his use of THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA German leaves him indistinguishable AND BEYOND. from a native. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 III

Charles has been teaching languages in – which was so atypical of Germans – Berlin. In 2015 he joined the ranks of annoyed, frustrated and enraged many. thousands of Germans to help – to work When large numbers of foreigners with with – the one million refugees that have different religions, different values and found their way to this new ‘Promised different expectations are suddenly Land’. The seemingly trivial encounters imposed on communities, at least some relayed in Charles’ account paint quite of their concerns and displeasure seem a different picture to what one might natural enough. The issue of immigration hear from both Chancellor Merkel and is much more than economics and her counterpart in the Alternative for politics. It impacts on the collective sense Deutschland (AfD) party. of security, identity and sovereignty The picture is not one comprised only of of a population, and is emotive at an lifeless children washed up on the shores individual level. of Greek islands and war-ravaged families While we may observe from afar the marching through the perilous roads of geopolitical crises playing out in Europe the Balkans. Nor is it as simple as altruism and analyse the economic impact of the versus xenophobia, good against evil, ECB’s negative interest rates, Charles’ right versus wrong. Truth and reality are report brings a broader and closer view often drowned out by the voices from the on the situation in the region and gives two extremities of the spectrum. us a rare insight into the thinking of The multiple rounds of financial bail- ordinary German citizens. He also outs extended to other EU nations did provides us with a historical perspective. not much diminish the heroic status of Viewed in the context of the country’s Angela Merkel in the eyes of the German past woes and vicissitudes, the generosity people. But when she decided to welcome of the German people shines through the countless immigrants fleeing war-torn as all the more extraordinary and their Syria and Iraq (and whoever else that saw fear and exasperation all the more it desirous to join them on the journey) understandable. It helps to understand with open arms, many turned against her how governments’ mismanagement of and sided with neighbouring governments sensitive issues like mass immigration with less magnanimous policies. could lead to popular revolts and irrational outcomes like Brexit, and this The lack of consultation with may in turn help us prepare for what Germany’s own citizenry as well as may be lying ahead. other European countries, the lack of consideration given to both short- and KERR NEILSON long-term consequences, and the sheer unpreparedness for what was to follow Managing Director August 2016 IV Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 V

THE BALKAN ROUTE TO EUROPE’S POWDERKEG BY CHARLES WEULE QUESTIONS OF SOVEREIGNTY THESE ARE INTERESTING Sovereignty, once the stuff reserved for kings, has long been owned by respective TIMES TO BE LIVING IN peoples, thanks to Europe’s gift of GERMANY – INDEED IN Enlightenment. Or at least that was EUROPE, WHICH SEEMS the taught thought. TO GROW AND SHRINK, While the Brits, in the tradition of the WAX AND WANE, BE NEAR Magna Carta, are leading the charge against wanton waste stemming from EXPLODING AND THEN CALM Brussels, Berlin’s citadel has been rocked AND CIVILISED (ALBEIT AMID regularly enough over the last twelve TALK OF CIVIL WAR) FROM months to suggest that policy there is ONE DAY TO THE NEXT. also out of joint. Hubris had grown around Deutschland’s INTERESTING TIMES hitherto ability to contribute, indeed – A VIEWPOINT FOR instigate, remedies for the transnational SOCIOLOGISTS AND problems of others. Less than a year ago, however, that reputation began to SIMILARLY PASSIVE unravel, as word went out from Berlin that OBSERVERS. FRIGHTENING displaced folk who could find their way TIMES – IN THE MINDS to central Europe would find shelter inside Germany’s welcoming borders. OF A GROWING MANY. VI Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

Unlike mobile phones, passports proved SO MANY QUESTIONS irrelevant (which is itself a shocking REMAIN UNANSWERED. fact of temptation. Even after living here HOW MANY PEOPLE ACTUALLY legally for eleven years, whenever I renew ENTERED GERMANY LAST YEAR my residency permit I need to prepare WITHOUT SHOWING ANY ten pieces of stamped documentation IDENTIFICATION? proving that I have work, health insurance, superannuation and that I have How many were refugees fleeing conflict never received a cent of welfare or other and how many were simply opportunists government money). And so more than seeking a better life? Are they literate, a million came. educated? Are they traumatised and needing long-term therapy and care THE IDEA WAS THAT THE REST from psychologists and counsellors? OF THE CONTINENT WOULD BE COAXED INTO PITCHING IN TO Reportedly only 363,000 of the 1.25 million newcomers came from ALLEVIATE THE BURDEN ADDING war-ravaged Syria. Many are from DAILY ON GERMAN SHOULDERS. Afghanistan where German soldiers and Europe’s changing political make-up, others have spent years and millions of however, saw this last of Berlin’s great euros, even sacrificed their lives, helping hopes severely falter, indeed backfire. to bolster the local economy and security. Talk by the Chancellor or any other Why should they qualify as asylum German minister holds less sway across seekers when at least parts of their Europe. Attempts to pull European countries are safe to live in? Why do ‘partners’, even kicking and screaming so many come from countries free of along, have not worked. Lecturing the conflict? Why don’t they stay where rest of Europe with wailing words backed they land in Europe and are supposed by Brussels that Europe is built on values to register? Have they been registered? of solidarity and doing the right thing; Heightened security concerns, especially suggesting Europe should morally act as after repeated terrorist attacks in Europe one, even simply requesting a token show recently, have exacerbated the dilemma of help – Germany’s Coalition ministers that had grown around the number of have resorted to all this in front of the asylum seekers into a full-blown crisis. cameras and who knows what frantic mix of More general concerns have similarly insisting and pleading behind the scenes. taken hold, not least in terms of how This developing lack of continental politicians and people lower down deference has begun to impact German Germany’s bureaucratic food chain ought domestic issues and the topic of refugees has to deal with such large and, moreover, grown into the biggest and most pressing set unknown numbers of people from often of questions for the government, dominating unknown backgrounds. not daily, but hourly discussions on German radio and television. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 VII

Young men from the Maghreb claimed Germany’s Vice-Chancellor has status as Syrians until translators detected suggested that five million refugees could their varied Arabic. Not to worry, suggested be assimilated over the next five years – pro-refugee politicians and overly a statement easy enough to make, easy optimistic industry leaders, Germany could enough for his supporters to support. easily do with a few thousand educated young people to fill vacancies across the BUT WHERE AND HOW booming home economy. SHOULD THESE MILLIONS BE ACCOMMODATED, SCHOOLED Linguistic idealists saw chances to AND EMPLOYED? MANY promote German culture and language EUROPEANS SHARE A SENSE through this supposedly malleable, OF WONDERMENT AS TO HOW integration-willing million. In the meantime, we were told, there are plenty EVERYTHING SHOULD FINALLY of tax euros available to take care of PLAY OUT. accommodation, education and whatever. Countries outside Europe like Jordan Whatever indeed! and Turkey continue to house many Other locals were more sceptical. Statistics more refugees. And Australia has a higher collected about the newcomers remain proportion (with 28%) of foreign-born blurry at best, given the number of folk residents compared to the EU (averaging without identity papers but who share 9%). So why all the fuss? similar names and claim January 1 as their The main cause for furore centres on the birthday. Others shy away from registering fact that Germany has been left facing a their whereabouts in the first place. problem of its own making and the need to accommodate hundreds of thousands UNCERTAINTY COUPLED WITH of newcomers to Europe continues to fall FEAR CONTINUES TO REIGN on German shoulders. However broad ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DEBATE they may be, they are not those of Atlas. WHICH IS DOMINATING Nor has Angela Merkel’s superhero status GERMAN AND WIDER EUROPEAN translated into further trans-European POLITICS. SOME CLAIM THIS IS currency. ALL EXAGGERATION. Part of the ‘problem’ concerns the fact Cognitive dissonance is of course a most that a significant role of sovereign human condition and points to our government – namely immigration policy fallibility and inability to recognise fault. – in effect broke down. Uncontrolled and Cognitive dissonance in the political unchallenged, more than a million mainly world, however, can have dire effects on single young Muslim men were allowed to policy and therefore future generations. flood sovereign borders. VIII Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

DOING THE RIGHT THING VERSUS A DIVIDED EUROPE UNTIL THE MIDDLE OF 2015 EUROPE WAS MOSTLY PREOCCUPIED WITH GREECE’S RECURRENT SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS AND THE POSSIBILITY OF A ‘GREXIT’. THE ISSUE OF REFUGEES So when did the waves of migrants arriving in whichever parts of Europe PADDLING ACROSS PARTS become a European crisis? OF THE MEDITERRANEAN Ironically, the answer depends on which FEATURED AS LITTLE MORE part of Europe you consider. The year THAN A SIDE-STORY, 2014 saw 276,000 people enter the EU BECAUSE, FOR THE MOST illegally, 207,000 of whom crossed the Mediterranean. Almost 203,000 sought PART, GREECE’S PROBLEMS asylum in Germany, 60% more than in WERE ONLY REPORTED 2013. Deutschland is now the second FROM A NORTH EUROPEAN most popular destination for migrants, after the USA. PERSPECTIVE. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 IX X Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

The first half of 2015 (with almost 70,000 AND SO THE GERMAN arrivals) saw Greece replacing Italy as the CHANCELLOR OPENED THE most popular point of entry. For July 2015, FLOODGATES, INVITING Frontex reported a record of 107,500 AND WELCOMING THE refugees crossing EU frontiers, near half SUPPOSEDLY HARD-DONE- of whom entered Greece while some BY INTO DEUTSCHLAND AND 20,000 arrived in Italy. Arrivals in August alone totalled around 110,000 with near HENCE EUROPE, WITHOUT double that figure registering as a monthly ANY CONSULTATION WITH HER peak in October. NATIVE CITIZENRY OR ANYONE ELSE IN THE UNION, RAISING By year end, between 800,000 and THE IRE OF MANY. 900,000 refugees were estimated to have reached Greece. Previously a bumper It seemed the right thing to do, after year for immigrants to the EU saw all. What decent European could have figures aroundhalf a million. disagreed with her at the time? NEW JARGON SPRANG UP: But many Europeans wish German ‘HOT SPOTS’ WERE THE politicians had been more aware of the ISLANDS WHERE REFUGEES rest of their ‘Europe’ and had acted more responsibly before sending out ‘the wrong WERE FLOODING IN, THE BULK signals’ to desperate folk beyond Europe’s OF WHOM THEN KEPT MOVING shores. There, people smugglers helped ALONG THE ‘BALKAN ROUTE’ feed demand by orchestrating a deluge TO THE OPEN ARMS OF of misinformation, turning the average CHANCELLOR MERKEL. refugee’s ‘smartphone’ into something of Greece as well as Italy became a misnomer that ‘informed’ the desperate overwhelmed by the new arrivals from folk about all the good things waiting in Syria and elsewhere, people whose plain Germany – a free apartment, easy work intent was getting their foot in Greece’s or just free money! door and then into Europe proper. Yet, Indeed, Deutschland’s prying open the the rest of Europe did little to assist. floodgates at one end helped little at It was only when tragic reports the narrow locks along the Balkan way. surfaced of some of the actual victims Despite being under obviously immense of unscrupulous people smuggling strain, little effective aid ever flowed to inside the EU that the authorities finally Lampedusa or Lesbos. acknowledged that something had to I watched, among others, Luxemburg’s be done. The worst came in August 2015 foreign minister, comfortably stationed in when more than seventy corpses were the EU’s smallest, if not richest, member- found in an abandoned truck along a state, condemn Hungary’s actions with road in Austria. One little girl among the tear gas and water cannons against victims was no more than one or two frustrated refugees determined to enter years old. the main part of the European Union. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XI

Then the famous fence rose. The first of WHILE MANY GERMANS ARE many, back down through the Balkans, MORE CONCERNED WITH with the final stand-offs occurring along INDIVIDUAL FREEDOMS AND Greece’s border with Macedonia. News SECURITY THAN COLLECTIVE followed that several hundreds, then SOVEREIGNTY, THEY COMPLETELY thousands, of refugees had re-adjusted UNDERSTAND THEIR their route to Croatia whose government said they would ‘welcome’ them on their NEIGHBOURS’ DISINTEREST way to apply for asylum – further north. IN JOINING GERMANY IN THE MASS INTAKE OF Incidentally in 2014 Hungary reportedly NON-EUROPEANS. registered 43,000 asylum seekers with the number quadrupling in 2015. Croatia’s After all, it wasn’t their heads of intakes are either inaccurate or laughably government who invited a million low. Could Eurostat’s 140 for all of 2015 strangers into the heart of Europe. Far be right? from the notion of solidarity that Brussels intended, the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Of course, there are arguments as to why Hungarians have taken to helping defend refugees prefer not to stay in Croatia, each other’s borders, even sending troops given the country’s ‘overly’ homogeneous in some cases. That is the state of Europe society and the fact that unemployment is caused by irresponsible talk in Berlin, far higher than in friendly multicultural they claim. Deutschland where they can hook up with friends and family from home. Having finally accepted that the problem lies further away than the ‘hot spots’, BUT IT WAS A TELLING MOMENT Berlin saw it bilaterally convenient to WHEN SOME GERMAN donate 3 billion euros to Turkey’s much- COMMENTATORS CRITICISED in-need government in order to convince CROATIA’S LEADERS AS BEING that country’s fickle regime it could NO BETTER THAN PEOPLE better regulate (i.e. diminish) the flow SMUGGLERS IN THEIR DESIRE TO of migrants from Syria to Europe LOOK GOOD WHILE EAGERLY (i.e. Germany). PUSHING THE DESPERATE WEARY SOULS IN TRANSIT TO MARCH ON NORTHWARD. Within hours of the first hundreds of refugees arriving and subsequent tensions with Croatian police rising, Croatia became the next EU country to instigate border closures. XII Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

MOUNTING PRESSURES FROM WITHIN IT WAS IN SEPTEMBER Similarly gaunt during a rare talk show appearance shortly before key provincial 2015 THAT MERKEL’S elections in March 2016 and following TRADITIONALLY OSSIFIED growing support for her chief critic from EXPRESSION FAMOUSLY within, the Governor of Bavaria, the SURPRISED MANY WITH Chancellor admitted to having no ‘Plan B’, asserting that she was sure she was on THE DECLARATION THAT the right track. ’IF WE SHOULD BE SORRY The right-leaning (if not hell-bent) AfD FOR DOING THE RIGHT (Alternative for Deutschland), albeit new THING AND HELPING to Deutschland’s political scene, shocked (HOWEVER MANY MILLIONS) the established spectrum of German parties with their landslide acquisition IN THEIR HOUR OF NEED, of seats in all three provincial parliaments THEN THIS IS NOT contested in March 2016. MY COUNTRY’. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XIII

In Sachsen-Anhalt, the AfD upset all scrambled quotes and figures rather rivals, taking second place with 24.2% than any helpful knowledge or practical of the vote, behind only Merkel’s CDU tips for dealing with the newcomers. (Christian Democratic Union) which won There appear to be two sides to the 29.8%, down from 32.5% in 2011 and Chancellor’s approach, summed up losing numerous seats. The Left, which respectively as ‘sit on your hands until came second in the 2011 election, saw the rest of Europe finally does the right about a third of their base obliterated thing and takes several hundred thousand this time round, plunging from 23.7% to refugees off our hands’, and ‘throwing 16.3%, while the SPD (Social Democratic money (reportedly not a problem in Party), the CDU’s federal coalition partner, fiscal-strong Deutschland) at pieces of was embarrassed by the halving of its the problem in the meantime’. support to just 10.6%. Waking up to the reality on the ground A CLEAR SENSE OF MORAL means far more than passing on a few RIGHT MAY OBVIATE ANY NEED euros here and there to local councils FOR MAJOR POLICY CHANGE IN who are the ones who have to deal with MERKEL’S MIND, BUT ACTION OF everything from setting up beds and SOME KIND IS NEEDED. bathrooms in gyms and school halls, Considerable to-ing and fro-ing between then telling surprised locals where they Berlin and Munich only adds to signs needed to go instead for sport and school, of uncertainty. Bavarian ministers tell to re-organising teachers and counsellors Berlin that it is all well and good to say a so they can cater to the individual needs million refugees are welcome but it’s not of new arrivals, to drawing up and filling much fun for everyone in Bavaria, the out new forms for everything from bus south-eastern part of Germany where passes to doctor’s visits. Take it from me: the majority of immigrants trudge their the tasks are overwhelming. way in. Berlin seems to offer little more IN THE MEANTIME, BACK IN than half-baked measures on a region-by- BERLIN, THE FEDERAL MOVERS region basis. AND SHAKERS REMAIN LAX TO Closer to earth, I shuffled along to our ADMIT THEY HAVE TURNED UP local teacher training centre for two SHORT OF MEASURES TO DEAL seminars on ‘intercultural expertise’, WITH THE PLETHORA OF ISSUES followed a few days later by a ‘theme day’ WHICH SHOULD BE DEALT on welcoming and integrating refugees, WITH BY A MORE WHOLESOME where we were advised by our bureaucrat REFUGEE INTAKE POLICY UNDER lecturers to refrain from using all manner THEIR AUSPICES. of ‘water-related metaphors’ when referring to refugees: terms like ‘waves’, Indeed they are increasingly running out ‘flood’, ‘inundation’ were to be avoided. of rhetoric to support the government’s Lots of good intentions lost in a lot of stand or lack thereof concerning the crisis.

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NOTES FROM ON-THE-GROUND LAST SUMMER I TYPICALLY LEFT BRANDENBURG GATE STATION ALONG THE FAMOUS UNTER DEN LINDEN BOULEVARD TO FINISH MY COMMUTE TO WORK ON FOOT. I OFTEN LOOKED BACK PAST THE STATION EXIT AND RAN MY EYES UP AND DOWN THE GATE’S PROUD STRUCTURE, STRUCK WITH ITS ACCRETED SYMBOLISM. I CONSIDER HOW FORTUNATE I AM – WE ALL ARE – THAT BERLIN IS FREE. XVI Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

From West to East, as I would head The dark grey waves of curiously further into what used to be the dreaded undulating concrete lend their own communist zone – hardly imaginable sense of understanding. A mix-match thirty years ago and now a mere fact of Prussian perfection in terms of of daily routine. After work, I typically shared shape and symmetry while each took in some air with a walk towards individual block rises with its own Potsdamer Platz. smack of stature, relevance, and right, tall or short, as if to say, ‘Here I am! Strolling along Hannah-Arendt-Straße, Remember me!’ I would dodge all manner of preoccupied tourists, including go-carters and The end of August 2015 was the end of cohorts on Segways. The broad, deep a month which had brought little rain green horizon of the Tiergarten with its while searing temperatures had motivated traditional order of botanical uniformity many Berliners to rise earlier for work so offered relief with its appearance in the they could achieve more output with pots distance while to my right the Holocaust of coffee or carafes of water during the Memorial opened up its menace of cooler mornings. The harsh climate had reminders to thinking folk. turned the edges of many trees’ foliage into an uncustomary autumnal tone – Beyond, the Reichstag with its trendy a look of healthy vibrant green lost to transparent dome settles in to fill out a premature yellows and even wrinkled, picture of local and global perspective. withered tones of brown. Children and older fun-seekers hug and slap individual pieces of the Jewish That was last summer. Since then much Memorial. Others hop and skip and has changed while many in mid-2016 stand and sit atop the perhaps otherwise are still playing catch-up. As a recently boring, lifeless, non-retaliating blocks appointed teacher for refugees, let me which comprise this most industrial, report from my own on-the-ground most German field of remembrance. experience. AND I WONDER IF THEY, EVEN Good old Europe is still home to many AS TOURISTS FOCUSED ON idealists who want to save the world FUN, HAVE ANY IDEA AS TO THE inside borderless Europe’s fickle frontiers. MEANING OF THE PLACE THEY Finally in January 2016 a perusal of disappointing statistics made clear that ARE BOUNCING AROUND. a high proportion of the new arrivals are illiterate, at least with respect to the ABCs of the Roman alphabet. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XVII

Some Africans feel far from home in Every day I set out dictionaries on desks Europe, believing that every priority is for people I couldn’t be sure would turn given to Syrians and others from the up. When they did come, they didn’t want Middle East at their expense. to bother with books or hand-outs unless there were helpful pictures or – as I have When a group of Somalis realised I was taken to doing – explanations in their Australian, they laughed at my position own languages. as a German teacher. But the laughter soon stopped when one of them was keen INDEED GERMANS ARE GOING to find out what the chances were for OUT OF THEIR WAY TO PROVIDE migrating to Australia. INFORMATION ALL OVER THE THERE SEEMS TO BE A MENTALITY PLACE IN ARABIC AND OTHER THAT THE WEST IS PUTTING LANGUAGES. EVERYTHING OUT ON OFFER Given the distances travelled and the AND THEY CAN PICK AND relatively few possessions they had, it CHOOSE AS THEY PLEASE. should come as no surprise that many asylum seekers are more than keen to A colleague went to the trouble of receive everything on offer. Everybody providing folders and dictionaries to our in class is suddenly alert when someone school’s refugees at her own expense. receives a government form which might The following day, one African handed relate to more money. his gift of a dictionary back, asking why he couldn’t have a ‘new’ one like WHAT IS DISAPPOINTING IS other classmates. THAT FEW SEEM WILLING TO After a mid-term test, I divided the OFFER MUCH OF THEMSELVES beginners into those who could move IN RETURN. AND THAT HAS to intermediate level and those who had MANY LOCALS SCRATCHING to stay behind until they improved. The THEIR HEADS, SOME IN same fellow, kept back as a result of his WONDER, OTHERS IN ANGER. own performance, then stopped coming People see news reports featuring streams to school. There were even a couple who of young, single Muslim men pouring failed to take care of the notebooks we into their countries and swarming around handed out free of charge at the start landmarks where they harass local women of the course and then asked for free while seemingly have nothing better to do. replacements six weeks later. XVIII Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

The thought of trying volunteer work, The media react with talk of Hetzer like thousands of Germans do, is not (agitators) and those intent on something that crosses their minds, undermining Germany’s post-war whether it is because of the lack of democratic Constitution. They invite such a concept and custom back in liberals to friendly interviews aimed at their homelands or of the uncertain challenging any ‘thinking’ person’s desire circumstances in which they find to side against Deutschland’s ‘welcoming themselves in their new country. culture’ or Willkommenskultur. Then there are those for whom even paid Yet the press claim to be at a loss as to why work seems not enough. One young ever more people feel misrepresented and Afghani man, who claimed to have been denied a voice! Journalists’ condescending a banker in his homeland, was given anti-AfD, anti-PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans a traineeship in a local factory. The opposed to the Islamisation of the West) arrangement was heralded on TV news sermonising only serves to up the ante as a shining example of the government’s against them. refugee settlement policy. But when the Daily scenes are televised of people TV crew returned a few weeks later for stranded further afield at national borders a ‘follow-up’ program on the new trainee, as local authorities have toughened up he was nowhere to be found. and clamped down on letting everybody – So why had he not gone back to work anybody – in. after Day 1? It turned out that standing and doing manual work for eight hours SCENES INCLUDE DESPERATE a day was not what he had expected of MEN RAMMING SECURITY his ‘new life’ in Europe. His wish was to FENCES AND THROWING become a professional footballer. So the STONES AT GUARDS IN good-minded folk who had arranged his FRUSTRATION. ‘WE ONLY apprenticeship were left confused and WANT TO PASS,’ THEY CLAIM. disappointed. BUT THAT‘S HARDLY TRUE. OBLIVIOUS TO HOURLY They want much more than that. ‘An NEWS REPORTS ON THE apartment and social aid money already LATEST GOVERNMENT POLICY waiting for them’, according to some CONCERNING THEIR FUTURES, smugglers’ advertised lines. ‘Germany wants you’, they have heard. ‘Why won’t SOME REFUGEES SEEM EQUALLY they let us in?’ they ask. And children are OBLIVIOUS TO HOW UNWANTED brought into the protest in an attempt to THEY ARE IN MANY PEOPLE’S raise sympathy for their plight. MINDS AND BACKYARDS. But many in Europe ask what parents ‘They don’t want to work like Germans, subject their children to all this. What so what do they want here? Money for person brings yet another child into nothing forever?’ a world wrecked by war or into such circumstances while they are on the run? Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XIX

What sort of responsibility does that show? What sort of people are being let in, often without identity papers, but with what lack of compatible thinking? Time and again I come across some well- meaning journalist’s report about some young refugee who just wants to make it to Germany so he can study computers. That is also the answer I get from several of my own pupils, who yet leave me flabbergasted at their lax attendance records and general disinterest in doing any after-class study. There are positive examples. One of my students found an apprenticeship as a welder and duly asked if he could be excused from school until his training was done. Though he is but one of an entire group, I stay motivated by the motto that every individual life I can help is worth the effort. One does not err by trying. XX Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

DIFFICULTIES OF INTEGRATION, AND DIFFERENT EXPECTATIONS ’YOU HAVE TO LEARN I have given my pupils newspaper articles about the problems refugees face finding DEUTSCH IF YOU WANT a flat, a job, or long-term residency – all TO STAY HERE, LIVE HERE, intended to help motivate them, so that WORK HERE.’ (FAIR ENOUGH. they see learning Deutsch is the key AUSTRALIANS ALWAYS SAY to all these things and more. Yet, they remain some of the friendliest and most FOREIGNERS WHO COME unmotivated people I have ever come TO AUSTRALIA SHOULD across. Of course they are happy enough SPEAK ENGLISH.) in the classroom where they can chat around the room in Farsi or Arabic. BUT THE LEADER OF THE Despite having gestures and body SOCIAL DEMOCRATS language down pat, and when that doesn’t AND VICE-CHANCELLOR work, resorting to my trilingual trick with English and French as well as Deutsch as SURPRISED MANY WHEN required, still there are always one or two HE ANNOUNCED, ‘PEOPLE who want confirmation from a neighbour WHO COME HERE BUT DON’T using their own language. WANT TO BE INTEGRATED SHOULDN’T BE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.’ SENTIMENTS ARE CHANGING. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XXI XXII Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

It is one thing to be understanding and I CAN SEE JUST HOW accepting, but when students spend COMMUNITIES BUILD UP AND all their time outside class speaking RISK BECOMING RULED BY their own languages, their time inside GHETTO MENTALITIES. THE FIRST the classroom has to be in German as GENERATION IS ALWAYS THE much as possible. That is why, when the CHALLENGING ONE AND questions keep flowing in English, I reply in simple, slow Deutsch, so they see that THE ONE FACING THE MOST they can understand. CHALLENGES. I ask what a word means and when they My Scottish ancestors spoke English finally turn to a dictionary and tell me the well enough but preferred to intermingle word in English, I say, yes, but explain and intermarry with each other after the meaning to me in German. ‘I can’t!’ arriving in Australia. It took a couple eventually gives way to a decent attempt – of generations before they branched out and progress. to hitch up with Anglicans and others. Some of my students are keen to head HOWEVER, TODAY IN off into the working world‘ASAP’ (even DEUTSCHLAND, MANY though they are not yet legally permitted NEWCOMERS ARE OF THE to work and hardly possess the basic BLUNT OPINION THAT THEY CAN language skills needed) and I would be ALREADY SPEAK ONE WESTERN left wondering at yet more truancies until LANGUAGE, WHICH HAPPENS I spotted them in tradesmen’s clothes at TO BE ACCEPTED AROUND MUCH the local train station. OF THE WORLD, SO WHY THE As is often the case with adult immigrants, NEED TO LEARN GERMAN?! the eagerness to improve their material I have had to go to meetings to translate situations is not matched by an appreciation (from French or English) regarding issues of the importance of learning the local with their mobile phone contracts, or language and that it holds the key to explain a fine resulting from their riding better work and better housing as well public transport without a ticket. With as their chances of integrating into eleven nationalities represented – Eritrea, mainstream society and becoming Somalia, Kenya, Cameroon, Iran, Syria, accepted. Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Albania and even India – you can rest assured, there is never a dull day in the classroom. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XXIII

As a freier Geist (free spirit) who has been There was an overriding desire by fortunate to travel much of the world and authorities to prevent distrust of asylum pick up languages here and there, I have seekers spreading as a result. Only 120 to realise that these migrants are here for suspects have subsequently had any very different reasons. action taken against them at all, according to news reports from 10 July 2016. FREIHEIT (LIBERTY) IS STILL A NEW CONCEPT AND EXPERIENCE FOR The 71 unnamed souls who suffocated MANY. BUT AS I SPENT ONE in the truck brought into Austria and LESSON DISCUSSING, THEY the face of the three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach remain HAVE RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS symbols of suffering innocents. IN EUROPE, BUT ALSO DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES, THE FIRST The stone-hurling angry young men along BEING TO REGULARLY ATTEND reinforced EU borders reveal that other CLASS AND NOT JUST THAT, side of humanity when frustration and BUT TO ACTUALLY LEARN THE a sense of injustice feed in to generate violence in yet another situation of LANGUAGE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ‘us-and-them’. HAVE BENT OVER BACKWARDS TO WELCOME THEM IN. Such action does little to win new friends among European populations As a teacher on the frontline, I am one who are fearful of such large numbers of of the few folk trying to guide and cajole disenchanted youths who are not merely these folk into thinking differently, to wanting, but demanding, entry and other begin considering the expectations of local rights from Europe as though they were folk, of the people who go to work every EU citizens and descendants of those who day and pay taxes for their free lessons, over the centuries fought for the freedoms accommodation, travel and healthcare. that Europe offers today. ‘Integrated’ has come to mean learning THE DEVELOPING FEAR IS THAT and accepting the German language, legal system, moral values as well as other IT WILL ONLY BE A MATTER OF cultural mores, particularly respect for TIME BEFORE NEWCOMERS WILL women and gender equality. The shock SEEK TO CHERRY-PICK FROM of the 2015 New Year’s Eve attacks where AMONG EUROPEAN FREEDOMS, hundreds of women in cities like Cologne, RIGHTS AND EXPECTATIONS OF Hamburg and Stuttgart were allegedly RESPONSIBILITY AS THEY SEEK harassed and/or robbed by around 2000 TO IMPOSE NON-EUROPEAN foreign-born men was heightened by the VALUES AND BELIEFS ON THE inability of local police to help the victims REST OF EUROPE’S PEOPLE. or act against the perpetrators and the fact that it took days for details of the incidents to become public. XXIV Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

The Ottoman Empire did enough of that There is also far too much wishful across the Balkans when they had the thinking and self-deluding by the chance, after all. dilettantes among Germany’s politicians and business community. The fact that For who helped Europeans out during many of the newcomers are functionally times of hardship like the black plague? illiterate features little in their rubric-based A pertinent question with respect to the assessments of how easily the refugees history of Vienna. The 1670s saw the will fill the gaps in Germany’s economy. city ravaged by the disease to the extent They seem blind to the possibility that that about one third of the population the newcomers may end up alleviating no succumbed. Far from sending help, the more than a small fraction of the country’s Turks seized the opportunity to attack the shortage of qualified manpower. fatigued survivors in yet another attempt to take the city and all it meant to non- The fact that Europeans might be further Muslim Europe. Europeans have, after all, undermining political and economic gone through hell and more to defend their development of the countries of origin homelands and their peoples, and to bring of these young people is also selfishly peace and prosperity to this continent. ignored by these ‘welcoming’ elements of German society. WHY DO SO MANY HIGH- HANDED POLITICIANS AND And what of those angered by ‘the system’ IMPERIOUS TECHNOCRATS SEE which has no job, no place for them, NO POINT IN CONSULTING even after struggling through school and training programs – whether native THEIR ELECTORATES BEFORE or newcomer? EMBARKING ON POLICIES WHICH WILL NOT ONLY AFFECT THE PROBLEM IS THAT SUDDEN TODAY’S PEOPLE, BUT ALSO INCREASES IN POPULATIONS GENERATIONS TO COME? DUE TO INTAKES OF PEOPLE ‘Nobody asked us!’ is a cry one hears WHO CANNOT BE QUICKLY constantly – about the EU, the Euro, ASSIMILATED AND FEEL the refugees… Sovereignty, those same ISOLATED, EVENTUALLY FORMING politicians like to proclaim, lies with the GHETTOS AWAY FROM LOCAL people. Yet, in reality, they seem to have SOCIETY, INEVITABLY BECOME little respect for it. AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BURDEN FOR THEIR HOSTS. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XXV

No-go zones for police would seem to be WHY HADN’T THE GOVERNMENT the stuff of fantasy and yet it is a very true WITH ITS MASS OF ELITE reality in Belgium, Sweden and Germany. BUREAUCRATS AND THINK- Such places become hotbeds of dissent TANKERS THOUGHT ALL THIS and radicalisation. Forgotten are the THROUGH BEFORE ACCEPTING niceties of Europeans who once welcomed THE FIRST THOUSAND REFUGEES and helped these people. Indeed they rise up in anger against these very neighbours. IN 2015 WHEN THEY NOW HAVE TO RESORT TO SUCH MAKESHIFT AND SO MORE EUROPEANS REMEDIES AT MANY LOCAL ASK, WHAT GOOD DOES PEOPLE’S EXPENSE? MULTICULTURALISM BRING US? Most of my colleagues agree that with 940,000 of Deutschland’s elderly work as fewer arrivals, smaller numbers and a ‘mini-jobbers’ to supplement their meagre more coordinated process, there is a real pensions. Around 10% of locals lack chance to help the refugees as well as functional literacy and can’t perform enrich European society. basic arithmetic. Gastarbeiter (migrant workers) from the 1960s and their BUT WHAT IS TAKING PLACE IN families continue to live in ghettos or EUROPE TODAY SHOWS EXACTLY parallel Gesellschaften (societies). Yet, none HOW ACCEPTING SUCH BARELY of that supposedly concerns the inflow MANAGEABLE NUMBERS YIELDS of new folk, Chancellor Merkel keeps A PLETHORA OF UNEXPECTED reassuring us (or perhaps herself). PROBLEMS. Every level of government has had to Desperation, if allowed to fester, breeds own up to deficiencies in how they are some of humanity’s worst features. trying and being made to cope. Why, Extending a hand of charity leads after all, should school buildings for to further expectations of continued German children and homes for the hand-outs. elderly be turned over for renovation And then there are tensions which as accommodation for refugees? permeate a classroom where ideally all are equal and encouraged to learn and develop. A picture of these folk having left everything with nothing in the hope of something better fades with the daily reality I and others witness, where gratitude seems unknown. XXVI Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

OLD WOUNDS RE-OPENED IN THE TRUE GERMAN SPIRIT And it is not just the youth who are thinking that. They hear it from their OF ‘EUROPE’, I RECENTLY parents and grandparents who wonder SUBMITTED AN APPLICATION what is happening with this sudden FOR EU FUNDING TO intake and the government’s futile attempt PROMOTE EDUCATION to cope with one million-plus foreigners. AT BOTH ENDS OF THE Remember that some German families have, in the space of a hundred years, DIVERGING SPECTRUM: TO been through the Kaiser’s autocracy, HELP MORE NEWCOMERS TO the ill-fated Weimar Republic with BECOME BETTER INTEGRATED its hyperinflation and black market AND LESS SUSCEPTIBLE TO economy, the Nazi dictatorship with all its horrors before being thrown out of RADICALISING ELEMENTS, their homelands and shoved in with other WHILE ALSO REACHING OUT German refugees in the Berlin area, only TO THE GROWING NUMBERS to be hounded by further dictatorship under Soviet-imposed communism. OF DISENFRANCHISED NATIVE YOUTH WHO ARE IRRITATED BY THE POST- HIPPY STATUS QUO WHERE EVERYTHING MULTICULTURAL IS GOOD AND EVERYTHING GOOD IS HANDED TO NON- GERMANS AT THE EXPENSE OF ‘REAL’ GERMANS. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XXVII XXVIII Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

Rather than being able to finally enjoy the glories of freedom and democracy after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many then found themselves submitting to everything forced on them by West Germans after 1989, including permanent redundancy, thanks to the West’s unforgiving system. And now this! Why do all these foreigners get to fare so much better? Why is there forgiveness all over for them? Many folk have recounted the shocking way in which they were treated following the 1990 takeover of the old Communist East. Solidarity featured little in West German minds. Many Easterners were simply done away with – thrown onto an ever-mounting scrap pile of once-valued workers. Others had to justify why they should be kept on or reassigned, while retraining to Western standards in order to get up to scratch. NOW THE TALK IS ABOUT MAKING GERMANY’S SYSTEM ’FLEXIBLER’ TO ACCEPT WHATEVER QUALIFICATIONS THE REFUGEES CAN OFFER. NO WONDER FORMER GDR CITIZENS REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS. AND NOW? They see people granted free money, medical help and legal representation after turning up without any papers. ‘What reward is this?’, they ask, after working under duress for a lifetime. Maybe they weren’t the freest people, but they had work – something that is very important to Germans – and identity; in other words, security. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XXIX

There were plenty of German children left found refuge. Rixdorf in Berlin still bears orphaned, barefoot and hungry in 1918 signs of their time there. and even more had suffered a similar fate I also make a point of having students by the time one tyranny replaced another make a list of prominent Jewish Germans, in 1945. many of whom have bettered humanity West Berliners still express their thanks with their contributions of work. The idea for the Allies’ governments and pilots who is that they realise Europe has a rich enabled the 1948-49 airlift which kept the and diverse history, where making a island-city alive despite Stalin’s efforts to contribution matters. choke the population. Football can act as a unifying force, given SADLY STALINISM LIVED ON how young men from Syria, Iran and TO BUILD AN UGLY WALL Afghanistan tell me about taking part in WHICH COST MORE LIVES AND regular games in their ‘free time’. It is a LIBERTY. YET MANY OF TODAY‘S pity they don’t view language the same way. Broken English would seem to suffice NEWCOMERS CLAIM EUROPEANS and cutting short lessons to head off to HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY’VE football training is the norm rather than BEEN THROUGH. the exception. I try to counter this attitude by teaching At least that is better than their taking about the long struggle for freedom in part in another violent anti-Israel protest. Europe: the many horrific wars and One Palestinian youth proudly told me rebellions put down time and again. about one such event, and I spent the rest One piece of vocabulary I provide is of the lesson extracting an understanding Trümmerfrauen: the women who filled from him and others that whatever the ranks of workers across post-war political or military situation exists back Germany set to do such back-breaking home, those problems cannot be allowed work as clearing roads and buildings of to foment new problems here in Europe. the mass of rubble left by bombing raids Nor should he or anyone blanket another and artillery bombardments. Most of individual with a general hatred, just Germany’s men were dead or interred, because he or she might be Jewish or so the work was left to the women, of whatever other religion or ethnicity. who got on with it. Positioned in the heart of Europe, Germany has been home to many nationalities throughout its history. As with France’s Huguenots, when Roman Catholics in Bohemia threatened Hussites and other non-conformists for refusing to convert, it was Germany where many XXX Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XXXI

WHY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH UNDERSTANDABLY, The officially propagated show of Potemkin-style communities managing to DEUTSCHLAND’S cope with their dictated share of displaced WILLKOMMENSKULTUR HAS folk seeking peace while willing to learn WITHERED AND LARGELY and work with anyone and everyone in DRIED UP. A LOOK THROUGH Europe – i.e. to integrate and contribute – is typical of the picture the political THE INTERNET REVEALS class seeks to promote: a picture that is WHAT MANY FEAR MIGHT desperately needed to justify their policy HAPPEN IF MORE POLITICIANS of acceptance, even of the thousands who deliberately destroyed their identity DON’T WAKE UP. papers in order to better their chances in Europe. Growing segments of local society are rising up: some quietly, fearful of being labelled racist; others feel compelled to act with a perceived need to take back what Germany’s misguided technocrats have capitulated, and against the people allowed in and given the good life only to throw it back in the faces of hard- working, tax-paying Germans who fund their new paradise. XXXII Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

OTHER FOLK CLAIM TO KNOW Believing only positive things can come BETTER AND SPEAK ABOUT of accepting even more immigrants, BEING ON THE ‘RIGHT SIDE the fellow said that finally, when twenty OF HISTORY’. PERSPECTIVE, million more ‘foreigners’ are let in, the resulting wave will help to break down HOWEVER, COMES FROM these old, outdated notions and related WHERE ONE STANDS. trappings of the German mentality and The Constitutio Antoniniana is a reminder the German culture. of edicts dealt out by dictators who Suddenly the same man is not what he require no consultation (other than with a few seconds earlier purported to be: their own pious wisdom) and which German. Talk about wanting to pick result in eventual disaster. Emperors and choose – and undo the rest! rashly granting outsiders full citizenship rights merely in the hope that virtues of I asked an African recently in Berlin as to responsibility will trickle down into their his background. ‘Do you know how often barbarian minds in ‘good time’ either I get asked that? Do you know what it’s want to be applauded for their memorable like?’ he started. ‘I can guess,’ I replied. munificence or are plain mad. For what ‘Have you lived as a tall white guy in if ‘good time’ fails to pass before some China or Japan?’ Sometimes it is all about of those barbarians within begin changing someone’s way of thinking, sacking Rome? letting them stand in your shoes, or you trying on theirs, for a change. Oddly, Germany’s brand of politician- intellectuals appears given to dwelling Individual interpretations are what impact on the superficial. Ever chasing race by on our daily reality. Doing the right thing colour, German cameramen are told to remains a shared universal virtue. But for hone in on members of an audience and with whom? who are obviously from an African or Priorities can take their toll. Many Asian background. European women no longer feel safe I listened to one Berliner explain how walking the streets at night. he has grown to resent being regularly asked where he is from, all because of his AND IT IS PRECISELY THE STREETS African father and inheritance of different WHERE MANY FEAR THERE WILL hair and skin. Worse is it when the BE A RETURN TO THE CONFLICT enquirer responds with an expression of AND CHAOS BETWEEN surprise, even disappointment, on hearing POLITICAL EXTREMES WHICH that he comes from Berlin. Books and SYMBOLIZED THE WEIMAR their covers! REPUBLIC’S PLIGHT TO SURVIVE. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XXXIII

WE OWE IT TO THEM TOO ONE REASON I CAME on welfare lead to their becoming prime recruitees for terrorism? What load can TO GERMANY WAS TO local society take before more than the UNDERSTAND MORE OF usual minority of extremists grows to THE COUNTRY’S LENGTH incorporate more of mainstream folk OF HISTORY BEYOND THE disenchanted with what is happening on the ground in their local areas? INFAMOUS NAZI PERIOD. A few people speak of possible turmoil Now I realise how extremes come to inside Germany turning into wider dominate a politically unstable land. unrest. Even civil war. Exaggerations, The Kapp Putsch of 1920 demonstrated I originally thought. But as time passes, the Weimar Republic’s problems from there is more of this talk around. the beginning. Little was heard from moderates in contrast to the shouting and Especially after the heart of Europe stomping by radicals at both ends of the came under attack early on the 22nd of political spectrum. You can read all the March. Then the list of words featuring history books and statistics you want, disenchantment, marginalisation, but it is difficult to understand a time disenfranchisement, frustration, racism you never lived in. and unemployment grew to include straight-out anger and hate. Today, however, I am a witness to how people are feeling pulled one way or the The same day saw an announcement that other as time spreads out long enough, an emergency meeting would be held 48 demarcated by events which help define hours later. And an admission that Europe a populace’s general response to what is – the authorities, those with responsibility going on. and means – had ignored radicalisation for too long. Always preoccupied with more What is going on? Statistics fall short of pressing issues. More pressing than the presenting the real picture and a deficit of boatloads of migrant lives landing on answers encourages, rather than dampens, Lampedusa or adrift elsewhere which fears. Despite all the talk of German passed with little more than a turn of heads scientific method and efficiency, nobody or shake of shoulders by Brussels’ big wigs. can say where the tipping point is with respect to a mass of people who belong It is remarkable how an emergency summit to a minority of nationalities with very can be summoned so swiftly when that foreign belief systems. same Brussels itself becomes Ground Zero. When bombs detonate and chaos explodes How many of these people can settle and only miles from where the big chiefs fit into domestic society over what spread habitually meet for a pow-wow, suddenly of time before social problems like matters of European security matter. long-term unemployment and reliance XXXIV Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016

But how can it be that super-bloc Europe, I can’t remember a time when so many brimming with think-tanks, resources and experts could talk about such a pressing rumours of efficiency, cannot multi-task? issue for so long while achieving so little. TV and radio programs are full of useless Brussels on one hand preaches richness commentary every hour of the day. You of diversity, coupled with magical rhetoric can’t go anywhere without the topic of about ‘solidarity’, while breaching the very refugees popping up in, if not dominating, essence of Europe – diversity of opinion conversation. and culture – by condemning those who suddenly don’t toe the line. Whose line, When I recently took a class of obvious after all? refugees – Africans, Arabs and Persians – for a tour around town, I was amazed at GERMANS HAVE STOMACHED the reactions we got. Some German folk IMPOSITIONS LIKE THE LOSS OF were quite aggressive in how they barged THEIR GRAND CURRENCY, THE past us mumbling disapproval. Others DEUTSCHE MARK, FOR THE SAKE passed careful perusal over us before OF THE MASTER EUROPEAN landing a congratulatory smile on me. PROJECT. Some Germans think I’m a kind of mini-hero for getting on with what But that same Europe has done little to I get paid to do. I guess they wished reach out with equal solidarity to shoulder they could expect the same of their the good burden of suffering the refugees sovereignty-bemoaning politicians. called to Europe’s heart and suckle. Back in Berlin, realising after many Deutschland – for all her grandeur and end-of-school photos and hugs how I will economic prowess – stands suddenly miss more than a few of my wards of the alone, like a time in 1945. Stranded like past year, I consider again the Holocaust a refugee in the middle of Europe. And Memorial. How evil people then and now Chancellor Merkel, after all her splendour can get away with pulling innocent people of diplomatic politicking through earlier about like livestock over unbearable challenges, stands increasingly isolated in distances, whether in packed Nazi railroad her own heartland. carriages or sealed containers today. Her Coalition partner in Bavaria is I don’t think any like-minded survivor determined to stand against Berlin’s of the Shoah would hold it against me lack of a federal refugee policy. Doing for thinking of the 71 victims found so has brought him support right across asphyxiated in the overcrowded truck Germany, rather than mere slights which became their tomb in a part of of criticism for being a traitor to the Europe’s Promised Land. As decent Coalition’s cause. Attempts at new policy members of Humanity, we owe it to them measures have been too piecemeal and too to remember what they had to go through, slow coming, all despite the employment although that should never have been of the term Beschleunigung (acceleration) the case. for the government’s ‘new’ approach. Platinum Capital Limited Annual Report 2016 XXXV