Futuríveis
terça-feira, dezembro 07, 2004
A Alemanha discute valores
Angela Merkel, leader of Germany's centre-right CDU opposition party, on Monday called her country's bid to foster multiculturalism a failure and urged foreigners to identify with "cultural values based on freedom and democracy".
Speaking at the CDU annual conference in Düsseldorf, Mrs Merkel identified patriotism and conservative values as the core of her party's agenda ahead of national elections in 2006, echoing unease across Europe at efforts to accommodate the cultural differences of immigrant minorities.
...
Germany has Europe's largest population of foreigners, with more than 7m non-Germans, but the CDU leader said the idea of a multicultural society "leads to [ethnic] communities living besides each other, rather than with each other."
She went on: "We [in the CDU] are against seeing foreigners as our enemies", adding that foreigners must adopt "certain values and standards", such as learning German and ensuring women from ethnic minorities enjoy full legal rights.
Mrs Merkel said that she supported conservative family values, attacked equal rights for homosexual couples and - by referring positively to Germany's "guiding culture" or Leitkultur - she backed a provocative phrase that reminds many Germans of their country's Nazi past.
...
FT.com
AS EVERY lover of Bach or Beethoven knows, a Leitmotiv is a dominant theme in a piece of music. What, then, is Leitkultur, the new buzzword in German debates? Roughly, it means the guiding or dominant culture, or set of values, in a society. A growing number of Germans think their country needs one.
The very fact that people are discussing values more, including patriotism, is a big and recent change. For most of the past two years, politicians and pundits were talking technicalities; they sparred over arcane proposals to fix the economy. Since mid-November, however, there has been a palpable shift away from this dull techno-talk. Pragmatic approaches are being played down in favour of ethical ones.
...
Politics aside, there may be something deeper at work. Germany has always boasted a peculiar mix of liberal and conservative values. Particularly since unification, it has—by American standards—been quite a secular country, though less so than other west European countries. Only a third of Germans deem it “necessary to believe in God to be moral” (see chart). Institutions such as family, marriage and the nation resonate less among younger Germans. At the same time, most Germans have looked to government to protect the environment and guarantee a social balance. However, this mix seems to be changing—and becoming more “American”. People are less inclined to see government as the solution to most problems, and traditional values and concepts are coming back, says Paul Nolte, the author of an influential book on the “metaphysics” of economic reform.
National identity is only one of the issues regaining salience, he adds. Having children is again considered important, though not necessarily in a traditional family; people are increasingly unhappy about egotism in society and irresponsible behaviour by the mass media; and even leftists now recognise the role of religion in society. Some of this reflects insecurity in an era of rapid change. But Warnfried Dettling, another pundit, sees a different reason. The government can no longer make much difference in big questions of foreign policy and the global economy. So people want it to focus on things nearer home, such as education and immigration
...
The Economist (requires subscription)
Speaking at the CDU annual conference in Düsseldorf, Mrs Merkel identified patriotism and conservative values as the core of her party's agenda ahead of national elections in 2006, echoing unease across Europe at efforts to accommodate the cultural differences of immigrant minorities.
...
Germany has Europe's largest population of foreigners, with more than 7m non-Germans, but the CDU leader said the idea of a multicultural society "leads to [ethnic] communities living besides each other, rather than with each other."
She went on: "We [in the CDU] are against seeing foreigners as our enemies", adding that foreigners must adopt "certain values and standards", such as learning German and ensuring women from ethnic minorities enjoy full legal rights.
Mrs Merkel said that she supported conservative family values, attacked equal rights for homosexual couples and - by referring positively to Germany's "guiding culture" or Leitkultur - she backed a provocative phrase that reminds many Germans of their country's Nazi past.
...
FT.com
AS EVERY lover of Bach or Beethoven knows, a Leitmotiv is a dominant theme in a piece of music. What, then, is Leitkultur, the new buzzword in German debates? Roughly, it means the guiding or dominant culture, or set of values, in a society. A growing number of Germans think their country needs one.
The very fact that people are discussing values more, including patriotism, is a big and recent change. For most of the past two years, politicians and pundits were talking technicalities; they sparred over arcane proposals to fix the economy. Since mid-November, however, there has been a palpable shift away from this dull techno-talk. Pragmatic approaches are being played down in favour of ethical ones.
...
Politics aside, there may be something deeper at work. Germany has always boasted a peculiar mix of liberal and conservative values. Particularly since unification, it has—by American standards—been quite a secular country, though less so than other west European countries. Only a third of Germans deem it “necessary to believe in God to be moral” (see chart). Institutions such as family, marriage and the nation resonate less among younger Germans. At the same time, most Germans have looked to government to protect the environment and guarantee a social balance. However, this mix seems to be changing—and becoming more “American”. People are less inclined to see government as the solution to most problems, and traditional values and concepts are coming back, says Paul Nolte, the author of an influential book on the “metaphysics” of economic reform.
National identity is only one of the issues regaining salience, he adds. Having children is again considered important, though not necessarily in a traditional family; people are increasingly unhappy about egotism in society and irresponsible behaviour by the mass media; and even leftists now recognise the role of religion in society. Some of this reflects insecurity in an era of rapid change. But Warnfried Dettling, another pundit, sees a different reason. The government can no longer make much difference in big questions of foreign policy and the global economy. So people want it to focus on things nearer home, such as education and immigration
...
The Economist (requires subscription)
posted by CMT, 11:24 da tarde
