George Clooney to meet with Angela Merkel in Berlin

I agree with carolhathaway

Also I think the major problem is that most of the crimes are committed from refugees from north Africa & Romania. Cities like Cologne, Düsseldorf and Berlin have problems with those gangs since years. Berlin is the number one. Berlin had more then 40 000 crimes due to those gangs. Those gangs belong to an organised network in Europe.
They are not scared to put in prison as our prison is compare to they country a 1 star hotel. 
And it is not so easy to deport them. Especially Marocco does not take them back even though by international law they have to. Or once they agree to take them back our government can not find them anymore.
For example 2015, in total 5,500 waited for deportation only 53 at the end have been deported. The rest disappeared and hiding from the government. And that is bad news for Merkel.

Now, those refugees have nothing to do with the Syrian people. Syrian people are war refugees but from north Africa those are economy refugees who are here for few years. But now they get mix all together. Syrians don't do or better haven't done much crime. But the racist wing wants us to believe those crimes were committed by Syrians & Afghan, the "new" refugees who are coming in.

And plus we have a Russian problem as well. The Russians are involved in our racist move here in Germany. The Russians help organizing some of those mops.
Putin is fighting against Merkel. Few weeks ago in the press the Russian Government claimed a 14 years German/Russian immigrant has been raped by refugees. It was a big thing. Our Government had to response to it.
At the end it came out that the rape didn't happen and the 14 year old girl is now in a psychiatry. The Russian Government used this girl for they propaganda. They even accused the German Government to lie and to hide the truth. 
Putin fights Merkel's refugee politic because of the sanction he got due to his Ukraine war.

And I find it very scary that the Russian get involved in our racist mop.

So I agree with carolhathaway it is very hard to know what is true or wrong. We are not talking anymore about "rumor" in the press we talk about professional propaganda on both sides.

fava wrote:Ok, the comments and the meetings.  Now time for George to announce something concrete he (or his organization) is doing to help the situation?  He is not going to change US policy in an election year-- and after that will depend on who wins.  In addition, I understand the vetting for refugees to get into the US can take a couple of years, so no immediate effect.

It will be interesting to see what George will do next. He was talking so "loud" about it that now an action plan from him is kind of expected. There will be a time when the press will ask him again what did he do for the refugees.

But for me, just because he met Merkel and stand for her refugee politic this is already a big thing. Famous German actors did that too and had to take in a big chit storm from the racists. As soon a famous German talks about refugees the shit storm starts online. That now an american actor like George stand for it is great help for others,  in Germany, who speak up.

Nicky,
since I live in a rural landscape I'm not so familiar with these 'gang' problems, but I read about them. There are also some Lebanese gangs but there are German gangs as well...

There were quite some shit storms when German celebrities wanted to work for refugees, I remember very well about when Til Schweiger wanted to open a refugees home just about ten miles away from here, and when it didn't work because of asbestos in the building there was a lot of spitefulness.

Love your comments on the whole situation, Nicky, but I guess one of biggest problems for the whole of the EU now is to get Greece to register properly everyone who turns up on their shores. But unfortunately there is a long history between Greece and Germany............

There's another organisation too we hear very little from and they seem to have been very slow. It's called Frontex.

Really pleased that David Miliband and the Clooneys visited the refugees. But I also think people are understandably very concerned about the large numbers of young men involved here, and how many of them will be turn out to be economic migrants.......or something else.......

thanks to frenchies

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Had.e,
thanks for the find! That really was an interesting article. I think it's true: We all stereotype people bcause it's easier to think of George as just an actor, maybe we add director, writer, producer and prankster which makes it much more complicated. But to add activist, humanitarian and - for the last 17 months - husband is just more complicated.

And a woman who's beautiful certainly can be smart and intelligent as well (although most of us think that that's just not fair ).

One thing which just came to my mind:
I read many negative comments about this meeting because many people here don't like Merkel's refugees politics and shut down everything positive. Quite a few were claiming that George was paid by Merkel for this visit and said that they don't want their taxes used to pay for this actor.

I just thought it was a joke. But maybe that's part of this stereotyped thinking as well: George is categorized as the pretty guy, easy-going actor who likes to party. Many people haven't even realized what he's  doing besides that. And it's also that stereotyped thinking that everybody thinks the same, that everybody who thinks positive about Merkel's politics has to be paid.

People see only what they want to see , the stereo types make life easier for some they don't have to think or evaluate facts.

Yep, I think the negative comments will keep coming....but I wish the IRC connection was made a little clearer

In everything the German Foreign and Diplomatic Office released it stated that the Clooneys were there on behalf of the International Rescue Committee, which means that they could be more involved with them than we know..........

Interesting article, and confirmation that George is now working with the International Rescue Committee...

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Thanks for the find PAN. A bit refreshing ... George speaking about his life, career and his humanitarian work but expanding on his usual responses.

I know his film career is his bread and butter. I know he enjoys making movies ... especially directing. But I have been thinking more lately and wondering if he will slowly turn his attention more to his human rights efforts in the next few years. I could be really off base but I say this partly because of his marriage and partly because he seems very comfortable not being a part of Hollywood and the whole scene. Just my idle thoughts.

Thanks for the find, PAN!
I really enjoyed reading this article since it shows a different George as the one we see on red carpets. That's the George who cares for others,  bothers about important issues and speaks out for others who can't or whose voices are not loud enough.

I can see George doing more human rights work especially now that he has Amal beside him, they are partners and I think that will help him to do even more.  I think George is a wonderful human being his celebrity helps him to help others and that is a wonderful thing.

Don't know whether we have this anywhere, but this is George's previous work with the International Rescue Committee from their website

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