28.8.02023

Post photo: People celebrating | © Shutterstock

swarm city

I've hardly ever asked what we from Heilbronn actually are, the voice of Heilbronn adds and announces that Heilbronn is also a swarm town. This term appeared in the media for the first time in the 2010s.

At least according to a new swarm city study by the DHBW Heilbronn, Heilbronn is a city with a net immigration of young people. Unfortunately, I cannot determine whether this conclusion of the DHBW is based on an evaluation of facts (e.g. inspection and evaluation of the population register). However, one can assume that the current refugee movements since 2015 have also led to a net immigration of young people.

But before we start thinking about how we can make Heilbronn as attractive as possible for these refugee children, we should do our utmost to ensure that they are integrated into our school system as quickly as possible and at least leave with a qualified secondary school certificate.

In addition, we should also ensure that the people from Heilbronn who were born here often graduate from school again, because the current figures are really not a figurehead for our city!

So Heilbronn is currently not a swarm city, but a shame city - at least for those who can still be ashamed. Should the trend continue that fewer and fewer children in Heilbronn reach adulthood with a good education, parents who still value education and performance will very quickly take their children to other cities. As a result, we're becoming a shrinking city; an evaluation of the population register could provide information as to whether we have not been there for a while.

Thanks to the many foreigners looking for work and the numerous refugees, we have been able to duck away from such questions in recent decades.

Community life

After yesterday, among other things, I was able to send out the invitation to the general meeting of the Free Voters, I can now start putting up almost 40 event posters in Heilbronn. A bit out of practice I had completely forgotten to buy the appropriate zip ties and these are not readily available on the weekend.

There are several events in September that I can promote, including two very interesting ones. The first deals with wind energy and the question of whether and how we can also use it in Heilbronn. The second deals with basic European and democratic issues and offers all interested parties the best opportunity to find out about our Europe. Unfortunately, and to my great regret, registrations for both events are currently only trickling. I have already mentioned that democracy also lives from the interest of the citizens, just like the innkeeper from the appetite of his guests. The big problem with democracy is that the guests are also the cooks and have to eat the food themselves. Dictatorship is much easier there, because you eat what's on the table and if you complain, you're thrown out the window or out of a plane.

Democracy

Every rule of the people lives solely from the people alone. If we're all lucky, none of us will ever see the end of our democracy for ourselves — quite simply, I'm counting on the self-preservation instinct of every sane person.

Totalitarian systems show us constantly and quite obviously that it can hardly be endured there as a normal citizen. That's why so many of these citizens keep coming to our democracies. Leaving aside the incentives of different welfare systems, one could rank the best democracies just by looking at where most people go. And if the existing social system there leaves something to be desired, one must assume without any ifs and buts that these countries are among the top addresses for human coexistence - the American Dream sends its regards!

But this also shows that the value of a democracy is much more than personal social security. Namely the appreciation of the individual citizen and also the fact that you are taken seriously as a citizen and as a person. If you then add the fact that you can fulfill yourself and pursue your own dreams, there is probably no better form of government.

But everything has its price and so does the best democracy. People who want to live in a democracy must also become democrats. There is simply no democracy without democrats. It is very unlikely that we humans will be born democrats — we have to assume that this, like almost everything else, is a process of human development or even maturation.

It probably starts with being interested and later realizing that the sausages or cakes don't just pop into your mouth by themselves. Then you start getting involved, even outside of your own four walls. You take responsibility for others too. One recognizes that alongside rights there are also obligations and begins to fulfill them.

You start promoting democracy and then defending it against other people. After all, people organize themselves in political clubs or associations, maybe even in democratic parties, support others who want to make use of their right to stand as a candidate, and finally there is no getting around applying to be a representative of the people.

And very quickly you realize that as a Democrat you have to be able to lose. And if you have achieved this realization, then you are a winner - a real winner in fact, namely one who can also lose. And with that you can describe yourself as a genuine democrat without any ifs or buts.

However, anyone who starts the game right from the "3rd base" has not fully understood the whole thing: every democracy lives from participation and not from winning. Or as so many Chinese philosophers put it so beautifully thousands of years ago: the path is the goal.

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Corruption in Germany

Here you will find a very interesting article by Deutsche Welle on the subject of "What corruption looks like in the West | DW Analysis” (August 2023). We can no longer hide it, we have long since reached the level of a banana republic.