I'll start with something light:
I WON at Ping Pong Thursday!!! It was 20-20, and then I made 2 points in a row. Oh, it is so on now! Of course, yesterday I lost 3 games in a row, but no one can take away my glorious victory.
I also had to buy a new bike yesterday. The blue goo problem was not fixed by changing the inner tube (I know how to do that now! Yay!)... Two completely flat tires (complete with hearing the air escape in a cartoon-like sound effect) in 2 weeks seems to point to a more systemic problem. My new used bike is green and says 'Hercules' on the side. You can call her Madam Hercules, the Incredible Bike.
Now for the serious news:
On Saturday in Köln was the "Anti-Islam Conference" in which people were supposed to be coming from France, Italy, Grest Britian, and other parts of Germany in order to protest the building of a mosque in Köln. Naturally, this is causing a wave of counter-protests, which were more popular than the "Conference" (Gott sei Dank). I'm hearing a lot of words like "Rassismus" and "Faschismus". On Friday I saw tons of police and even a few tanks on the street.
CNN has done a story on the demonstrations:
To give you a little more information, at the beginning the demonstrators are saying "Nazis Raus" or "Nazis Out". It is, to my knowledge, illegal to build anything that is taller than the Cathedral now. I personally think that they should of course build the mosque, but that one should respect the cultural history of Germany and not make the minarets taller than the spires of the Cathedral.
Also, my friend Beate lives very close to Heumarkt, and could not get back home last night (she had to teach in another town during the day) because the police told her people were throwing stones.
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2 comments:
I'm not sure I understand. Was the protest against those who were against building the mosque? It sounds too scary!
No, the protest was against the people protesting the building of the mosque.... Ummm, now that sounds confusing. The demonstrations were to keep the "Anti-Islamic Conference" from happening in Cologne. And it was successful. There were so many protesters that the police couldn't guarantee the safety of the "anti-Islamic Conference" led by the group Pro-Köln, so the Conference was canceled.
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