Hizbawi Mekete in Hamburg on the 21st of Jan 2012

Frankfurt – An Eritrean man appeared in court in Frankfurt Wednesday on a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of a Nigerian man, in a case that has grabbed headlines in Germany.

The 35-year Eritrean admitted that he stabbed the 21-year-old Emeka Okoronkwo in the early hours of May 2 last year, but argued that he had acted in self-defence.

Prosecutors said the victim had intervened to protect two women from the Eritrean’s advances on a street in Frankfurt when a fight broke out, in which the accused had taken a ‘targeted stab at the heart region.’

The accused told the court the knife belonged to Okoronkwo, but fell to the ground as the men fought. He told the court that he picked it up and stabbed at his victim out of self-defence.

‘I am not a murderer, I didn’t want to kill anyone,’ he sobbed.

The case has been widely publicized in Germany, where it is being compared with that of Dominik Brunner, a 50-year-old who died in 2009 after two teenagers attacked him for intervening as they harried younger children on a suburban train in Munich.

The hearing is set to resume on February 22.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

A diplomatic row between Germany and Egypt over rights to the 3,400-year-old bust of the fabled Queen Nefertiti reopened yesterday when Berlin flatly refused to accept an official request from Cairo to return the priceless artefact to the banks of the Nile the Independent has revealed.

The world-renowned bust has been on public display in Berlin since 1923 following its discovery by the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt at Amarna in 1912. It rates as one of the capital’s top tourist attractions and is seen by some 500,000 visitors a year.

Egypt, which argues that Germany obtained the bust illegally and by deceit, has been lobbying for Nefertiti’s return for more than half a century.

But on Monday, Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, declared that an “official request” had been sent to Berlin demanding the bust be handed back.

“We ask that this unique treasure be returned to the possession of its rightful owners, the Egyptian people,” the statement said.

Mr Hawass said the demand had received the full backing of the Egyptian Prime Minister and Culture Minister and was submitted to both the German government and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which runs Berlin’s Neues Museum, where Nefertiti is on permanent display.

But Germany dismissed Egypt’s demands yesterday. “This is not an official request,” a foreign ministry spokesman insisted. “An official request is from one government to another,” he added.

He said Germany, which argues that the bust is too fragile even to be loaned to Egypt, would continue to reject demands for Nefertiti’s return.

Biniam has made it. Currently he is waiting to start studying medicine. Until he starts, Biniam works as a first aid lecturer for the Johanniter Unfall-Hilfe.

Integration is an issue that Biniam has been intensively pushing since three years now. In his neighborhood Linden-Süd you could experience firsthand both the difficulties and success. He noticed the differences and similarities regarding one’s ethnic and religious background. For those who know him and have seen him will notice that he is a man of plain and direct words. Beating around the bush is not his style. His open-minded, friendly and supportive nature helps building a comfortable and trustworthy environment, which makes it easier to talk to him even about difficult topics.

He has often witnessed that integration problems are based on massive problems within migrant families, which they cannot resolve on their own. Issues about money, cultural and family traditions often do not enable children to develop freely as it is desired in our society’s ideals. Success in school and at work is missing. This is Biniam’s starting point. Within the Eritrean community in Germany he made people aware of these problems. In numerous personal discussions and on events he crossed taboos – risky, but successful. One could say he has reminded many migrants of their responsibility. His commitment aims to improve the mutual understanding of Germans and migrants as well as strengthening the willingness to engage in a dialogue. As a result, Biniam functions as counselor and adviser for both big and small problems.

In a series of organized seminars across Germany you could present his view and could establish contacts to representatives of political parties. You can find more about it on his homepage www.integrationsseminare.de

Furthermore, he is an active member of HeartHelp Hannover. HeartHelp was founded in 2008 in Hannover. The association consists of doctors, nurses and supporters who all pursue the goal to establish an independent heart surgery in Eritrea. By today a total of 12 patients underwent a cardiac surgery. Thanks to this programme, they can continue to live a life without pain or constraints.

Biniam has lived all his life in Linden-Süd, since the day he was born. Both his parents came from Eritrea. All family members are German citizens by now. Biniam explains: “I am happy to successfully contribute to integration as an Eritrean, and I am interested to strengthen the German-Eritrean friendship”.

His Christian belief supports him to pursue his goals fully committed. Biniam is politically active as well. He is member of the social democratic party SPD in Linden-Limmer and member of the SPD council group’s working group “Migration”. His hobbies are fitness and endurance sports. In future, Biniam wants to promote a successful integration even more in his urban district.

More Info:

Biniam1@web.de

Google translated version from The Spiegel article “I belong to the Underdogs, not to the Germans” by Simone Utler.

Simon Woldeab was five years old when he fled with his family by civil war-ravaged Eritrea. In Germany, the 36-year-old has found a new home. However, he does not feel really as a German.

Frankfurt am Main – About the issue of integration Woldeab Simon has stopped thinking long time ago. Until once, when the native of Eritreans was waiting with his wife in a fashion store in front of a dressing room, an elderly woman pushed past her husband to them and said loudly: “You do have nothing to do anyway and get the money thrown after you.” Woldeab abruptly turned in the cabin and said, “Then we take a dressing room together.” The couple moved away full of anger.

Woldeab, 36, who lives in Germany since the age of five, went to school and studied Industrial engineering. He has worked for ten years as a management consultant and a doctoral thesis on product differentiation in the energy sector. Although he had been in the circles of the consultant the only Africans, but: “I have no problems because of my race and my heritage, ” Woldeab says, smiling. Especially in this industry include travel in particular. Such encounters as the front of the dressing room are extremely rare.

But since late summer, since the theses Thilo Sarrazin, Simon Woldeab think more often about how he feels at home in Germany. Is it integrated? As before, he answered that question with a nod. “I feel well rooted, have German and Eritrean friends want to spend my life here and not to emigrate if I have enough money.”

No, in subways or on the street he would not be harassed or stared, did not have the feeling of being unwanted. “But perhaps this is also to the fact that I’m staying mostly in Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt.”

More than 300 kilometers on foot

When he came to Germany Woldeab did not even have a birth certificate. In 1979, the then five-year-old fled with his mother, his older brother and other relatives and friends before the civil war in Eritrea. For several weeks they marched, mostly at night because daytime military aircraft were on the road. More than 300 kilometers they put back in the capital Asmara through mountainous country, the low level and in the Sudan. Saudi Arabia, they came to Germany, where they had friends and their problems as political refugees were granted asylum.

Woldeab remembers his first day in Germany, it was very cold, despite the blankets that they had got on the plane. He remembers the first few weeks, as he admired by other guys in the Frankfurt train station, the escalators up and down and drove the model railroad. “For us children it was like an adventure. “

While the majority of Eritreans remained in Frankfurt, the Woldeab were housed in northern Germany, two months Puttgarden, two months Neustadt, then Kiel. “Back then it was difficult, but in retrospect I would call it lucky that we had no community – so we had to learn German.” In Frankfurt there are very many compatriots who have not made their way – perhaps because the integration conditions were suboptimal due to the number of Eritreans living there.

“Language is the key. This will open many doors, ” says Woldeab in flawless German. Even if someone prune after the first glance – “as soon as I spoke the first set, I would be perceived very differently “. German is his native language and he uses it skillfully, sometimes charming, sometimes ironic, always eloquently. Tigrinya, the language of his ancestors is, it is not quite as easy on the lips. He uses it with his parents and the community, even with his children so they grow up bilingual.

“Negative, negative, negro”

The family had then been well received. Perhaps it helped that Eritreans do have a dark skin but European facial features bear, perhaps the fact that many of them Christians, and names like Simon, David, Alexander and Moses, or that Eritreans are very ambitious, in general, asks is Woldeab.

At school he was mostly fine for me. Except once, in the ninth or tenth grade in physics class when the teacher about positive and negative electrical charges said. As a classmate had called the whole hour, “Negative, negative, negro. ” After the hour it had been beaten in the schoolyard, says Woldeab and grins: “But that can not be taken seriously.” Just as the scene when he traveled with his Abi-class England, and asked one of the classmates at passport control at the airport: “Man, where did you get that her German passport”

Since 1990, Woldeab German citizenship – but not really feel as a German, “I am not Eritrean, I live in two cultures. ” He loves to celebrate the joy of the Africans, their generosity and flexibility. He also had many points in African loose and relaxed. “But when it comes to the profession, I am very efficient and targeted.” The desire of the Germans to do everything and control structure is sometimes too strong.

But then he comes to problems with the integration to speak, for which he blames not the people in this country, but the politics of the eighties. “The door was never opened properly under the Kohl government gave it to German and foreign -. and I was very clear to foreigners, the underdogs, just not to the Germans.”

“Integration is give and take”

If they would in the youth not included by the system, then later get the feeling no more. “It’s not really but still wounds, but maybe something like scars.” Meanwhile in Germany was much improved, says Woldeab. And it sounds almost envious, or at least wistful when he spoke of his two cousins, 15 and 18 years old, says. “They grew up in a time walking around the young people of all nationalities for the soccer World Cup in Germany jersey and feel rather than German.”

“Integration is give and take.” foreigners learn the language, organize themselves here, and understand the laws in the German mentality. The Germans and the state would have the newcomers but also shows clearly that they are welcome. “You need to provide a positive feedback, showing that foreigners are an asset, because they bring different ways of thinking and ways of life and a certain potential that can be accessed for the benefit of all.”

Woldeab will play its part. During his studies he became involved in an Eritrean youth group and tried to teach boys and girls to do first, what’s coming, and then to drink tea – not vice versa as usual in Africa. Later, he organized events for young people with immigrant backgrounds and told of his own career, to make it clear: “. There are hurdles, but that may take you”

In the current debate provides an opportunity Woldeab. “Perhaps the Germans are now taking true that we are a multicultural society.”There have already been a break. “Figuratively speaking, we pulled the Germans and foreigners, even from two apartments into a WG. Now just have to accept another roommate or two and abide by the rules. “

On 27 November 2010 the integration conference of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), entitled “Arrived to normality. Successful migrants in German society“, took place in Mannheim.

Being an immigration society is a daily routine in Germany. Integration is lived million times. And it is far more advanced than the public debate about it. Therefore, we are laying the focus on opportunities, success and perspectives of integration. Our aim is to make migrants participate on all levels in society – economically, culturally and politically.

These topics were discussed by the Vice Chairman of the SPD, Berlin’s Mayor Klaus Wowereit, SPD’s top candidate and state chair of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Nils Schmid and Mannheim’s Mayor Peter Kurz. The event is part of the programme “Future workshop: a fair Germany”, in which the SPD specifically and directly discusses urgent social questions with interested people and parties. The results of the integration conference are documented and influence further discussion and decision processes in the integration politics of the SPD.

Biniam Kiflai: “Native-language classes support integration and shaping of identity”

Since several years guest speaker Biniam Kiflai, whose family comes from Eritrea, has been successfully involved in integration issues. He leads the discussion for a legitimate claim on native-language classes. Kiflai is a member of the Workgroup Migration of the SPD Council Group Hannover.

Speaker Biniam Kiflai (SPD Hannover) pleads to expand native-language class programmes. According to Kiflai, for children it is both an advantage for integration and finding one’s identity. Scientific studies conducted by UNESCO, show that children who first learned their native (family) language, obviously better master the country’s official language.

Furthermore, the language skills play predominant role in developing one’s own personality. Many children of migrants show a lack of bilingual language deficits, which makes shaping an identity very difficult.

Out of this, it is necessary to support children at an early stage. This can be done by improving the pre-school and school education support in which the families have to be included as well. Multilingualism will contribute to society’s and children’s enrichment.

More Infos:

Biniam1@web.de

Selam,

To all Eritreans and those interested in Eritrea!

Due to considerable problems which Eritrean families are confronted with in Germany (Diaspora), a huge seminar is scheduled in Mannheim Germany to directly address these problems in plain-language.

Problem: Analysis and Prevention

The following topics will be discussed: Problems of integration, education, motivation, problems within families, problems of identification, drug problems, juvenile delinquency, diseases (AIDS education), social constraints and much more.

Everybody who wants to make a positive contribution to support the Eritrean community and the integration into German society is hearty welcomed to come.

Language: German

Date & Time: 11.09. 2010 18:00

Place: Haus der Jugend C2, 16 -18, 68159 Mannheim

With best Regards,

Organizer,

Biniam Kiflai

Email: Biniam1@web.de

Police in Germany has reconstructed the final moments of Emeka Okornkwo, who was stabbed to death by two men from Eritrea last weekend.

Detectives investigating the case said that the incident took place when two women left a night club early Sunday morning to catch a train at a nearby station in Frankfurt. The 29- year- old and 43- year-old females were waiting for their train when they were approached by two Eritreans who verbally harassed them demanding sex.

As the verbal assaults got worse, one of the Eritreans started spitting at the females. This is when Nigerian Emeka Okornkwo came to the women’s aid walking up between the victims and their attackers. After a short fight one of the Eritreans pulled out a knife and stabbed the Nigerian aiming at the left side of his chest.

The Nigerian collapsed immediately and died later in Hospital from the knife wounds to his heart. Last Thursday police arrested a 34-year-old Eritrean who is supposed to be the stabber. His 24-year-old companion was freed as no charges had been filed against him.

Samuel, a 14 year old boy from Eritrea, lost one leg during a machine accident in September 2008. Humanitarian medical help group (Hammer Forum) for children in war zones brought Samuel to Germany for operations to his second leg.

Hence, German surgeons have been conducting a series of operations in order to save his second leg. After the operation, Samuel’s condition improved and he is now learning to walk with the help of crutches and a lower-limb prosthetic device for his lost leg.

These operations were necessary and effective because the boy lost part of the bone structure during the accident. Throughout the operations and medical treatment Samuel is living with a German foster family, which makes him feel home. When asked what he likes best about his new home, he said “Watching TV the whole day”.

Samuel is from a poor family background with his mother and his ten year old brother living in a small rural village in Eritrea. He reached 7th grade at school and speaks Tigrigna and Arabic.

His mother could not have afforded the expenses required for his treatment to help her son keep his second leg safe. It was only with the support of the medical help group that made this possible to happen.

Meanwhile, everyone takes care of the boy who has adapted very quickly to his new environment far from Eritrea. His foster family remarks, “We could not believe how quick he learned the German language”.

Samuel’s future plan is to go back to Eritrea once he finished his operations but intends to return for a visit to his friends and foster family and of course he will be watching TV all day long.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck has compared Luxembourg’s bank practises with the one in Burkina Faso. Although, Burkina Faso is not listed as a tax haven according to the BBC, the minister made this remark in a non diplomatic move. The remark upset both countries, which claim that the minister shows an underling prejudice towards their countries. Read more: The BBC.