A celebrated quote saying that "all large events and historical figures repeat twice: first as a tragedy, then as a farce" buzzed in my head erstwhile I followed events from the Polish-German border in the past week. Eighteen years after entering the Schengen area, beginning borders, eliminating the hated barriers that separated us from the West, Poland restores control. As if these 2 decades of common cooperation, trade, Erasmuss and cross-border transport companies were just an incidental in a 1000 years of common suspicion and resentment. But even in the wildest dreams, I didn't think we'd be the ones to fight them. We – eternal wanderers, scattered around the world, from Chicago to Tobolska, seeking happiness and freedom in Turkish Adampol and Brazilian Parana. So before the chorus of outraged voices begins, that Polish emigration was something completely different from Syrian, Sudanese or Pakistani emigration – let us find how it happened that it was full democratic Poland that was facing the equally democratic West.
Second War Sins
It all began with the 2011 Syrian War and the migration crisis it caused. Subsequent waves of refugees sought refuge primarily in Germany. But the conflict, multi-story and spilling into another countries, seemed endless. The creation of the alleged muslim State – a brutal structure that not only terrorized the surrounding areas but besides organized bombings in another arabian countries – made thousands of people decide to effort their luck by defeating the Mediterranean. News of those who succeeded was spreading. Angela Merkel's government policy was based on both the desire to atone for the sins of the Second planet War and the request to fill the shortages of staff in the economy. In the past, a akin approach has been effective – for example in the case of Turkish economical emigration from the 1960s. This time, however, the situation got out of hand. Migrants arrived, the German strategy began to clogged, and voters lost assurance in the establishment. They started looking for alternatives. Specifically: Alternatives for Germany. afraid by the increasing support for the far right, Olaf Scholz's government was the first to decide to reconstruct border guards on the left bank of Oder and Nysa. Officially – to defend Germany from migrants who were expected to break through the Belarusian marshes and scope here.
Entrepreneurship spirit
When I cross the bridge in Świecki, on the German side I see a shelter and respective policemen with a long gun. Cars slow down, officers look inside, but they don't halt anyone. I open the window and ask what they think about the border situation. They're shaking their arms. They only add that these controls will surely not aid the local economy. “For 2 years they stopped me possibly 3 or 4 times,” says 25-year-old Michał, who after studying in Warsaw returned to Słubic to aid my father run a household business. We talk in a immense parking lot surrounded by gas stations and inexpensive cigaret stores. The spirit of frontier entrepreneurship is floating in the air like tobacco, but Michael is not satisfied with the direction the local economy is heading. We've been getting punches for years. First the movement decreased by the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, due to the fact that they had completely stopped moving the truck from Russia and Belarus, later the farmers blocked the highways, protesting against imports of grain from the east, The Germans placed their checks, and now these "yellow vests" have arrived. If the defender starts stopping cars on our side as shortly as Monday, the traffic jams the city completely and the trade goes down – he says with assurance in his voice.
Self-appointed guards
"Yellow vests" is the Border Defence Movement, set up by Robert Bąkiewicz – erstwhile head of the independency March – a self-proclaimed defender who introduced "civil control" at the border. This was to be a consequence to the actions of the Germans who were to transport migrants to the Polish side and leave them here without any plan. PiS politicians, sensing an chance to rise capital, immediately began to pilgrimage across the border and talk about thousands of migrants carried by the Bundespolizei. To the right, it's almost perfect. Not only have they been threatening migrants for a decade, combining facts specified as the increase in crime in Sweden with complete fairy tales (let's remind Jarosław Kaczyński about refugees carrying parasites), they can inactive usage easy to realize historical analogys. Belarus attacks us with migrants from the east and Germany from the west – that is, they take us back into ticks. This communicative can't stand to collide with facts. Data from the Polish Border defender say between January and June this year The Germans returned 314 people to Poland. This is the consequence of not dropping off random migrants at night, but the alleged Dublin procedure. It means that if a migrant goes to another country, he has the right to send him back to the country where he crossed the border illegally for the first time. The subject of sending back besides appeared in an interview with Michael's father, who joined us: – But these are ours! Understand: the full of Poland is depopulating, but our region especially. Berlin is closer than Poznań. Poles can travel and work in Germany. After the start of the war in Ukraine, we had many refugees who legally took up work here, even in our peculiar economical zone, which functions well. However, they cannot pass through Germany, but surviving in Słubice/Frankfurt cannot be avoided crossing the river. In most cases, they most likely managed to walk and return. They've been caught respective times and that's where the statistic come from. These words are confirmed by the Lubuskie voivode Marek Oniona: – In the region we have large establishments that have avoided bankruptcy thanks to migrants! As an example, I can give you the green mountain Lumel that brought in engineers from India. As these people waited for the bus after work, individual started taking pictures of them and writing online that it was illegal to camp at the bus stop. Elżbieta Rafalska from PiS, who posted photos of artists from Senegal touring at the festival in Gorzów Wielkopolski with a akin signature, showed akin folly. presently 40 1000 workers from Ukraine work in the voivodship, if they were not there, we would be faced with a wave of bankruptcy and economical collapse – we hear.
What would Bąkiewicz's men say?
Over the full dimension of the Słubice bridge, they proudly floated the flags of the European Union, powerfully contrasting with the banner they displayed with the inscription NO IMIGRATION.
– I am sorry, do you talk Polish? – I was asked by an older man in a yellow vest, holding the leaflet of Grzegorz Braun in his hand. I'm blocked. Even in summertime I am white as snow, and besides I went from the Polish side. “What are the criteria for your detention?” I asked. Are you Polish? Why don't you sign the petition? The card said, "Are you behind the sealing of the borders?" I replied that Donald Tusk has been introducing border controls since Monday, so the petition is actually unfounded and the goal achieved. - What are you doing? Tusk cannot be trusted! – I heard immediately. Only 3 metres distant was the real Border defender police car. I wanted to ask what the officers think about the fact that there are "voluntarily reserves", but I was denied answers. – You won't find out anything – he dropped out of Słubice. – A fewer days ago, Bąkiewicz assaulted 1 girl from the defender here. He put a image of her on the Internet. Now they're all intimidated. In fact, on June 29, Robert Bąkiewicz published a movie on which he made available the individual data of a Border defender officer, giving him a clear comment that he "disdained the Polish uniform".
More than 20,000 sages and 2,000 comments were collected under the recording. A female fell into an avalanche of hatred for no reason at all. After a while, the old man is joined by any young boys. Dressed in National Armed Forces T-shirts, clearly packed and clearly on mission. NSZ – a conspiracy formation, which is simply a right-wing competition for the Home Army – is gaining popularity today. The reason is that unlike the AK, the NSZ, like the exiled soldiers, did not fight only the external enemy, but besides the inner, or left and Jews. I wanted to ask them. “We are banned from talking to the media,” I heard. A fewer moments later, a police patrol showed up, who kindly but powerfully asked you not to impede traffic on the bridge. I take a deep breath and head into the city in search of illegal migrants. First, I choice up a couple with Asian looks sitting on a bench just a fewer meters from the bridge. They're students, and they have no thought what's going on here. Słubice contains the Collegium Polonicum, which is simply a subsidiary of Adam Mickiewicz University and located on the another side of the European University River. besides amazed are the German Turks, who seemingly went to the east side for cheaper products. They had absolutely no thought of the situation on the bridge and assured me that they felt safe here. The first store I entered turned out to be a Ukrainian store. The owner of the packed dried fish did not know of any difficulty in movement. I began to laugh: – Are there any Poles here? – I asked a pharmacist in a close pharmacy. – What you see is proof that the slender-frankfurt multi---culti works perfectly. Only those gentlemen who stand on the bridge are not from Słubic and do not know it – I hear it. – Germany is our friends and there are no illegal migrants here. We feel secure – says the client inside. But the more I distance myself from the bridge and the tourist part of the city, the more uncertainty among the inhabitants. – You're not recording me? – you ask a small conspiratorically at 1 of the cigaret stores. I think it's a good thing they're standing there. It's getting more dangerous, afraid to leave the home tonight. At the next point I hear akin notes: – any do not see these migrants due to the fact that Germans drop them off at night. And I'm back from work. I saw it myself: an unmarked bus, black people getting out of it. The communicative of an unmarked car, without police markings, returns again, this time with an additional twist. I'll tell you this: no police gotta do this. Not many people who want the border to be closed again? To make money for smuggling? – says Zbigniew, 65, a resident of the city from birth. He's seen a lot. I counter that it's a conspiracy theory, but I can't rather get free of it. After all, gangs around the planet work according to the same logic: the higher the wall, the higher the profits. Between Mexico and the US, it's a rule. Why wouldn't it be different over Oder? I remind him that I am now going to Gubin, a border crossing 50 kilometres south of Słubice. – Drive through Germany, it will be faster – it instructs me, which clearly shows what the problem and absurdity will be for the inhabitants of border control.
♪ Everybody sees what they want ♪
When I left, I saw 2 Latinos and 1 African walking with large backpacks. I jumped out of the car, and I amazed them a little. I asked which side of the river they live on. They said it was ours. After all, they may as well have returned from work from 1 of the local logistics centres to which the labour agencies attract legal workers from around the world. And then it hit me: everyone sees what they want to see! Right was quoted at the beginning of the text by Charles Marks: this being shapes consciousness. Affluent residents, looking at migrants, automatically think about the well-oiled device of the local economy and logistics hub that was built on the A2 motorway. These poorer people feel threatened: possibly due to the fact that they have seen images of the “damaged in the chaos of the West” in tv Republic, or possibly due to the fact that Ukrainians have proven in fresh years that they can effectively occupy their jobs.
It was dark over Gubin, but that didn't scare the local border guards. There were sandwiches and binoculars behind the car window.
– Did individual get caught? – I ask, as if I were talking to fishermen.
– 1 yesterday.
– And what did you do with him?
– We called the guards," says 1 of them, pointing his hand at the borderer car 10 meters away.
I feel sorry for them. possibly this is their last "important" mission in life. Work's long gone, grown-up kids, relationship's blown. And here, over Nysa's narrow stream, you can feel needed again.
A bunch of teenagers are standing a twelve yards away. Over them is simply a cloud of fruit smoke blowing out of e-cigarettes, a stench of our time. Among them was a black boy. I'm asking them what they think of the situation.
Those guys in the vests are awesome!
Really? After all, the police can keep an eye on the order – I reply, rapidly realizing that the excess of police in places where young people sit is seldom enthusiastic.
– They make it safer. late there was an attack under the Frog – says the other.
– It was a Facebook! – the 3rd improves it. But the fact is, they come from that side. They hang on, whistle at girls. I say to a black boy: – What do you think?
– If it's safer, it's okay for me – he answers calmly, but the girls immediately jam him:
Omar's ours! Omar's a Pole!
I only hope that the Bąkiewicz boys, those who like to inject testosterone into the advanced thigh, will show as much sensitivity to Omar as the girls, erstwhile they come to replace the sleepy pensioners on their next watch.
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