Dude, you might want to check out our first post about Heye and the no-go zones -- which were established by football officials, not politicians:

http://www.anglofritz.com/2006/05/danger_danger.html

We post a lot, so take each philosophistry as it comes.
 

First of all, welcome; I didn't mean to start a fight. But I remember that post, and it helped inspire this one. The tone was just as snarky about the idea that the danger might be real. A day later Giyasettin Sayan was attacked in Berlin, right? My point is that there's no need to bend over backwards with attitude when somebody states the obvious.

The only thing ridiculous about Heye's remark is that it had to come in the context of a World Cup, since (as Sattva points out) the danger's not only for tourists.
 

the danger's real enough - except if one insists on denying that such thugs DO discriminate on skin colour (believe it or not). i guess some white boys just have no idea...
fwiw, my malaysian friend is hospitalised after being jumped on by 3 blokes in tiergarten on sunday at about 5pm - my friend had been sitting on a park bench for the previous 3 hours reading his german sunday newspapers. And yes, he has lived in berlin quite awhile. The polizei certainly thought it to be a racially motivated attack, which they told him could increase in number thanks to the world cup's added frisson for such thugs...
 

Anonymous #2, thanks for the comment. You sound British, or British-trained German, while Anonymous #1 is obviously one of the Americans at Anglofritz.

Just want to keep things straight in case this thread goes further ... I think the tension in Berlin over these things is higher than usual right now, but I haven't been attacked or threatened. Anyone else?
 

I haven't been attacked or threatened, but today, venturing out only twice, I saw two different groups of teenage boys going at it with each other, including one four-man fistfight in the supermarket. World Cup? It's not a full moon, I checked.
 

Dunno. The World Cup is an excuse to start fights (and raise your profile, if you're a Nazi).