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Spring Cleaning
(Our Headquarters) It's itching, it's tickling. What is it? It's spring cleaning.
The dirty dust on the otherwise clean cupboards has to be radically removed. The long layer of leaves on the lawn has to be collected. And many mugs must be managed and washed willingly. The wild wardrobe has to be looked through thoroughly to get rid of rags and pass on still wearable vests and acceptable apparel. Terrific toys can be de-dusted and if necessary washed and if they are not necessary any more, they can be donated to poor kids. The cellar is crammed with useless utensils? Get rid of the rubbish and polish up the perfect pieces. Sigh. There's no cleaning like spring cleaning! (MF)

 

Stereotypes, Prejudices and False Accusations

(Headquarters) The world this week has been shocked by the attacks on women in some German cities on New Year's Eve. newBROOM has invited the scholar Mortimer Brewster-Brown, expert on the field of magical creatures to talk about the events.
nB: Professor Brewster-Brown, thank you for being here today.
BB: No more a professor, my days at Hogwarts were very long ago.
nB: Not so long ago. It was the time when we went to school, so it can't be that long ago. They all still have fond memories of us.
BB: Are you sure about the 'fond'?
nB: Be that as it may, we're here to talk about the vents in Germany on New Year's Eve. What do you make of them?
BB: Well, first of all it's very interesting how news are selected. Who does choose why what to show to us on the news.
nB: Well, we certainly do our share...
BB: Yes, exactly, it's not normal people – no offence meant – but journalist with a more or less good qualification for their job. Why was it chosen, because it is a topic that will appeal to all. It is a provoking topic.
nB: But that's not necessarily wrong...
BB: No, of course not. This is not meant to be an evaluation. It's just the statement of a fact. What would we have made with this piece of news a year ago? Would it have been news?
nB: Well, it did not happen a year ago.
BB: Do we know it has not happened a year ago? Do we have any information on whether this has happened before? The assumption is that the press would have told us if it had happened before, but we cannot say for sure.
nB: We see your point there. Should they not have reported about it?
BB: No, it definitely is a piece of news. The question is how they report about it. They reported about man from Northern Africa, the pubic assumed, ah, these must be asylum seekers, because these are the man from Northern Africa they have heard about in the news before.
nB: But it seems, there were in fact some asylum seekers in the group who attacked the women...
BB: Innocent until proven guilty is a concept that is also applied in Germany. And the shocking fact is that no one talks about presumed offenders even though that would be the correct expression.
nB: That's a good point. If we understand you correctly it's the way in which the suspects are referred to.
BB: Yes, but this is not all. Interestingly enough this report about 1.000 men led to the conclusion that most of the asylum seekers are criminals. Germany is refuge for at least 1.000.000 refugees. The logical conclusion is that there will be some criminals among them. The federal criminal police offer the statistics for 2014 and there were just over 2.000.000 suspects of crime. Taking a basis of 80.000.000 inhabitants this means that 2.5% of the inhabitants of Germany are criminals. 1.000 out of 1.000.000 is 'only' 1‰. That's like saying all Germans burn houses meant for asylum seekers.
nB: Or all Germans are Nazis.
BB: Exactly.
nB: So, what are we supposed to do now?
BB: The most important issue is that we realize that we live in a world that is constructed using stereotypes and prejudices. We need these to make the world easy enough for us to understand. The world and its inhabitants is so complicated and complex that we will never be able to know, leave alone understand everything. If we tried to, we would simply go made. The key is to realize that we have these stereotypes and prejudices. We have ideas about people who we do not know and we also have ideas about people who we know. We should allow ourselves to examine our judgements. It's not bad to apply stereotypes, but it is bad to stick to them when they are proven wrong.
We here at newBROOM would like to express our deepest thanks to Mr Brewster-Brown for discussing the events in some German cities on New Year's Eve with us. As always he has given us some new ideas worth thinking about. (All)