Posted on 09/01/2007 6:13:48 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
GENEVA (AP) - The campaign poster was blatant in its xenophobic symbolism: Three white sheep kicking out a black sheep over a caption that read "for more security." The message was not from a fringe force in Switzerland's political scene but from its largest party.
The nationalist Swiss People's Party is proposing a deportation policy that anti-racism campaigners say evokes Nazi-era practices. Under the plan, entire families would be expelled if their children are convicted of a violent crime, drug offenses or benefits fraud.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
its a shame the term of house cleaning got labeled “Nazi-era practices”
Let the massive deportations begin.
Wow. I never knew Switzerland had so many immigrants. I've always been under the impression that immigration visas to Switzerland were virtually impossible to get.
The Swiss parties proposed policy sounds reasonable to me.
"We believe that parents are responsible for bringing up their children. If they can't do it properly, they will have to bear the consequences," Ueli Maurer, president of the People's Party, told The Associated Press.
Ronnie Bernheim of the Swiss Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism said the proposal was similar to the Nazi practice of "Sippenhaft" - or kin liability - whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for his or her crimes and punished equally.
Similar practices occurred during Stalin's purges in the early days of the Soviet Union and the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution in China, when millions were persecuted for their alleged ideological failings.
"As soon as the first 10 families and their children have been expelled from the country, then things will get better at a stroke," said Maurer, whose party controls the Justice Ministry and shares power in an unwieldy coalition that includes all major parties.
He explained that his party has long campaigned to make deportation compulsory for convicted immigrants rather than an optional and rarely applied punishment.
The party claims foreigners - who make up about 20 percent of the population - are four times more likely to commit crimes than Swiss nationals.
Bernheim said the vast majority of Switzerland's immigrants are law-abiding and warned against generalizations.
"If you don't treat a complicated issue with the necessary nuance and care, then you won't do it justice," he said.
Commentators have expressed horror over the symbolism used by the People's Party to make its point.
"This way of thinking shows an obvious blood-and-soil mentality," read one editorial in the Zurich daily Tages-Anzeiger, calling for a broader public reaction against the campaign.
So far, however, there has been little popular backlash against the posters.
"We haven't had any complaints," said Maurer.
The city of Geneva - home to Switzerland's humanitarian traditions as well as the European headquarters of the United Nations and the U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR - said the campaign was likely to stir up intolerance.
The UNHCR said the law would run contrary to the U.N. refugee convention, of which Switzerland is a signatory.
But observers say the People's Party's hardline stance on immigration could help it in the Oct. 21 national elections. In 2004, the party successfully campaigned for tighter immigration laws using the image of black hands reaching into a pot filled with Swiss passports.
"It's certainly no coincidence that the People's Party launched this initiative before the elections," said Oliver Geden, a political scientist at the Berlin Institute for International and Security Affairs.
He said provocative campaigns such as this had worked well for the party in the past. "The symbol of the black sheep was clearly intended to have a double meaning. On the one hand there's the familiar idea of the black sheep, but a lot of voters are also going to associate it with the notion of dark-skinned drug dealers," said Geden. The party also has put forward a proposal to ban the building of minaret towers alongside mosques. And one of its leading figures, Justice Minister Christoph Blocher, said he wants to soften anti-racism laws because they prevent freedom of speech.
If Switzerland doesn't do this, there will be no more Switzerland. Tiny countries do this if they want to maintain ANY identity that made them who they are.
If this were a NON-white, NON-Christian or NON-European country there would be no outcry. This is aimed at squarely at a MOST politically incorrect nation.
Bump for the Swiss.
Foreigners NEVER get to be citizens, however, no matter how long they live there or if all their children are born there. Foreigners KNOW that when they go to work there.
Only if they marry Swiss can THEIR CHILDREN be citizens.
Foreigners continue to go to Switzerland because it is SUCH a wonderful place to live and work. It beats the HECK out of Bangladesh, India, China, etc.
“Three white sheep kicking out a black sheep...”
Now who do you think the black sheep is? Hmm, let me guess. I got it - Quaker immigrants!!
ANYthing that the MSM considers bad and is taking places in Europe is almost always automatically labeled as "Nazi-era practices."
It's an old ploy people use when they have no argument and no logic to use. The correct term is smear tactics.
See the poster at the website of the SVP (Schweizerische Volkspartei):
http://www.typo3start.ch/sites/ausschaffungd/
It is on a page which features the “Popular Initiative for the Expulsion of Criminal Foreigners.”
The text reads (in part): “In no other country live so many foreigners as in Switzerland. The greater part of them respect our laws. Nonetheless, far too many foreigners abuse our hospitality. They commit hard crimes, threatening our unity, our health, and our lives. Here are the facts:”
[There follows a set or bar-graphs showing the proportion of various crimes committed by foreigners, which is far out of proportion with their share of the population.]
With the expulsion-initiative, we can show foreigners who commit serious crimes that there are final consequences. Thus we can make more safety for our children, our women, and our men.
Sounds good to me. The Swiss are very sensible people.
What is really amazing is that anyone could see anything wrong with wanting to control and expel serious criminals.
Ah, yes. Of course. Somebody needs to clean the urinals at the ski resorts.
It never amazes me that countries will import labor from Third World s**tholes and then act surprised when these people bring their Third World value systems with them --the same value systems that make their home countries a s**thole in the first place!
That being said, I can appreciate what the Swiss are trying to do here. In essence, "You come to our country, you follow our laws. If you don't, you and your family can go back to where you came from."
It is not at all unreasonable.
...imagineable... anywhere in the world where it is attempted.
Other than that...
just saying.
Actually, that's the one "N-word" it's politically correct to use; and it's ok to misapply it.
There just AIN'T enough Swiss for their booming tourist business. It's their own fault for keeping their country so clean, green, welcoming, functional and beautiful.
I may have missed a rather clever pun here. The German word used for instituting this expulsion policy is schaffen, which means “create” or “set up.” The word for sheep is Schafe. It is probable that the cartoon of sheep expelling the bad one from the flock fits with the slogan “Sicherheit shaffen” (make security). It is at least a good mnemonic device: very good advertising.
I like Switzerland. Not your typical European nation.
My mistake. I've never visited Switzerland. Many of the other countries I've visited utilize immigrant labor for menial work so this was the impression I had.
However, it's TRIED and TRUE, especially in this country. The Nazi image is continually kept alive, well and thriving, thanks to our media, T.V., Sleazywood, books, articles, magazines, forums, etc.
I grew up on it and saw the WWII images weekly. They are still all over the boob-tube. Check out the history channel. It's part of their package.
It will continue here forever, even when the rest of the world has put it behind them. What scares those mongerers is the fact that a majority of people on the planet, thinking of the 2 billion+ in Asia here, don't know WWII European history like the back of their hand.
They do know of their own killing monsters. Mao comes to mind here, but they know not of European monsters, as in Stalin and Hitler and that scares those who want to keep WWII alive, well and thriving.
It's very handy to have ONE group of people, especially if they are successful, as the whipping boy for every-anything going bad. Straight white males are OUR favorite whipping boy, as are Germans, Swiss, Austrians, etc. The Italians, Russians and Japanese got a pass on their part in WWII, although the Russians WERE great movie baddies.
NOW the baddies are Arabs, Muslims and other middle eastern types. It never ends. SOMEone has to take the blame for whatever goes bad...who better than our proverbial Sleazywood stereotypes du jour? Pick one.
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