Every day people around the world are working on new and innovative strategies to produce and distribute food, fuel and fiber. Would you believe that some of those work goes on right here in northern Wyoming? Today we're visiting the Powell Research and Extension Center where scientists are working with farmers and ranchers exploring new ideas and crops to help Wyoming's agricultural economy. The Powell Research and Extension Center is located one mile north of Powell, Wyoming on Highway 25. This is where the magic happens. Employees here are hard at work conducting research and providing services to much of northwestern Wyoming and beyond. The 175 acres of irrigated crop land provide researchers opportunities to explore different varieties of crops such as alfalfa, sugar beets and sunflowers. Other research topics include weed control, irrigation efficiency and the use of high tunnels. The station is home to Wyoming's only seed testing lab and seed certification service. The researchers at the lab work with seed sellers to make sure the seeds they sell to farmers are disease and pathogen free. People are encouraged to stop by and check out this wonderful Wyoming resource here in Powell. The center also holds a field day so that visitors and researchers can interact and learn from one another. From the University of Wyoming Extension, I'm Barton Stam, Exploring the Nature of Wyoming.


Aloha, and welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii's Ruderman Roundtable. I'm Senator Russell Ruderman from the Puna District on the Big Island. And I'm here hosting, we host a series of discussions on environmental and good government issues. My guest today is Stuart Coleman. Thank you for joining us, Stuart. My pleasure. Stuart's the Hawaii manager of the Surfrider Foundation, an author of Eddie Would Go, Fierce Heart, and his new book, Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero. His books have won the Katie's Award for Literature and several writing fellowships. Originally from Charleston, North Carolina, Stuart has lived in Hawaii for over 20 years and taught at Pune Ho and Iolani Schools, the University of Hawaii, Minoa, and East West Center. The Surfrider Foundation is a national and island leader in coastal protection, policy education, water quality, low impact development, and community empowerment. So Surfrider, to me, is one of the environmental organizations that protects our oceans and our beaches and our shores. Thank you for the work. Yeah, thank you. It's a pleasure. Before we get started, I think you're the first author I've had on this show. And I'm very, very impressed. You've given me a copy of your book, Eddie Would Go, and your new book, Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero. Will you tell me a little bit about the books? Yeah. When I first moved here, I got a job teaching at Pune Ho, and it just seemed everything pointed to Eddie Aikau. This teacher, Marianne Lyman-Mercerow, was working on an article about Eddie, and she had been on the Hokulea with Eddie, one of the last people to see him. She told me this story, and she's like, do you think there's a story there enough for an article? And I'm thinking to myself, this is one of the greatest stories I've ever heard. But I thought, oh, I can't tell this story. I just arrived here. Years went by, and some of the elders who were involved with voyaging started to get older and pass on. And I'm like, someone has to write this book. So I became friends with the Aikau family, and the extended Ohana, Surfer's Lifeguards and Sailors. And just one thing led to another, and finally, after four years, I produced Eddie Would Go. Oh, good for you. It's great. I love when people write books. Yeah. It's so great. Well, I'll start. I'm trying to get people back into reading. So tell me about Surfrider Foundation's work in Hawaii and across the country. Yeah. Yeah, we have a Surfrider Foundation to celebrate its 30th anniversary a couple of years ago. And we have about 85 to 90 chapters across the country, and we have five chapters in Hawaii. Really? Yeah. So we have one for Oahu, one for Maui, one for Kauai, and then two on the Big Island in Hilo and Kona. And basically we are dedicated to the preservation and enjoyment of the world's ocean, waves, and beaches. And we do that through what I call care, conservation, activism, research, and education. And our biggest issues are kind of water quality and beach access and then plastic pollution. Yeah. What about some of the unique issues when it comes to Surfrider's issue, especially as it relates to Hawaii? Yeah. Hawaii is the birthplace of surfing. And so it was very important to be represented out here and to have a presence because there's just so much pressure to develop our coastlines. And so kind of following what John Kelly started with Save Our Surfrider Foundation is representing, and our goal is 100% coverage of all our beaches and protection. And it's done through this extended activist network, and so it really is a grassroots organization, people who are just passionate about protecting their coastal areas and making sure that there's access and that the water's clean and that the beaches aren't polluted. So we do a lot of beach cleanups. And for Hawaii, I think some of the particular issues are we have the highest number of cess pools in the country. And so that was one of the campaigns that we launched a couple of years ago. We were at the Capitol pushing for bills and appreciate support like you and many other senators gave. And we were able to pass a bill that gives tax breaks for homeowners to convert. Yeah. So it was a cesspool to a septic system. Exactly.  And so this gives them money to, you know, qualifying houses that are within 200 feet of a body of water to upgrade their system so it doesn't leech out. Because believe it or not, in some of the most pristine areas in Kauai, you think the one least developed island, it's, you know, some of these streams and beach areas are 100% chronically polluted. It's just amazing. And we were astounded because there's such beautiful islands, but there's so many cesspools, you know, that are built right near the stream. And if it's a heavy rain event, it just goes right into the stream and not to the ocean. Yeah. So we've been working with the Department of Health and their Clean Water Branch to post-warning signs and also to just do better public notification. So people are going to the beach know that, you know, after a major rain, you never go out within 24 to 48 hours, depending on how serious the rains are, especially that first flush. If it hasn't rained in a while. And that's what we call the brownwater advisories? Yes. And why is it, why is it important not to go out when that happens? Because there are so many different pathogens in the water, you know, just like from the cesspools, but then there's, you know, the waste from animals, domestic and feral, you know, feral cats are a huge issue because they cause a disease called toxoplasmosis, which is really harmful to the monk seals. And so, yeah, and then we have, the monk seals are one of the most endangered marine mammals in the world, only 1,100 left. And so we have one of the highest feral cat populations as well, which was astounding to learn. So the toxoplasmosis survives from the cat into its, you know, pieces into it, the stream into the ocean? Yeah. Really? Yeah. The pesticides, all the oil, the gas leakage, everything in the streets, basically, just gets, goes to the storm drains and directly into the ocean. Yeah. So we really caution people not to go in the water after a major rain event. You know, at the recent conservation conference, I attended a workshop about coral bleaching and carols being threatened in general. I think that runoff such as this is one of the stressors on our carols, right? Exactly. And there's a bill that Senator Sparrow and others are putting forth for Oxy-Benzone, you know, that the stuff in sunscreen, the chemical sunscreen, which has proved to be really, really toxic for the reefs. And it helps with, you know, aids in coral bleaching. And carols are the kind of, we call them the rainforest of the ocean. And that they just, you know, they bring so much life and fish to the area. And without them, we'd be in trouble. So we're, you know, encouraging a ban on Oxy-Benzone. So recommending more zinc-based or mineral-based sunblocks over these sunscreens with Oxy-Benzone. And on that subject, has research shown that zinc and titanium-based sunscreens are relatively safe compared to the Oxy-Benzone ones? Yeah. There's still more research to be done. And, you know, we're not quite sure, but health lies, it's better. And for the health of the reefs, it's definitely better. It is. Yeah. So, I mean, it is more than just an environmental issue, it's a health issue. So we're trying to, again, it's just information and education, trying to get people aware, because we just want them to be healthy and our reefs to be healthy. Good. Yeah. What are some of the other big campaigns you've been involved in in Hawaii? Yeah. So others are, we have our Rise of a Plastics campaign. And so we worked and helped pass with a big coalition of groups, the county levels, the ban on plastic bags. And then at the state level, year and a half ago, we passed the Smoke Free Beaches and Parks Bill, which is great, because we do beach cleanups around the islands and every month.  And that was successful, right? Yeah. Yeah, pass statewide. And we were the first state to do so, and now other states are scrambling to do the same thing. So we've been a leader in many ways. We were the first state to ban plastic bags, county by county, and the first state to create a Smoke Free Beaches and Parks Bill, and we're doing some good stuff. So it's exciting. Well, you're giving me a lot of hope, because sometimes I think that nothing much changes. Exactly. You've actually achieved some very important successes that have made our world a better place. Yeah. Well, it's a group effort, you know, this is one of the things that I realized when I came into this position. I was like, okay, there's no way, you know, some of the environmental groups were fighting amongst each other, and I'm like, we'll never get anything done. We have to form a big coalition, and it's been effective, and it's great, because sometimes people, we were talking about this, think of environmental groups as being just a pain, you know, and they're trying to ban this and ban that, but we're just trying to make, you know, people healthier and create less litter and better, you know, environment for our kids and everyone to enjoy. So I know that one of the issues you've been working on, because it's been an issue on my island, the Big Island, is trying to dress Styrofoam, single use Styrofoam. To me, it's very similar to what we saw with the plastic bag man's, where the same sorts of people oppose it, and people come out and say, well, we can't possibly do that here, and people here aren't conscious enough to make that change, or it's too expensive for the businesses. Now, we saw, with the plastic bag change, that none of that was true. We have made the change. It's not, no businesses have went under, as a result, this guy didn't fall. Yeah. Do you think the Styrofoam push is an analogous to that? Is it going to be the same thing? Yeah, I think it's the exact same thing. It is funny, changing little habits can just seem so monumental to people. There's no way we can do it. I can't do it without Styrofoam. It's like, yet your parents and your grandparents going all the way back in history did fine without it, and so will we. We try to tell people that it's going to happen because it has to happen. Styrofoam is one of the most toxic, the least recycled forms of plastic ever made, and we see it on the beaches, it's one of the most littered forms of plastic. It floats so it looks like food, so all kinds of sea creatures from sea turtles to sea birds ingest it, and it gets stuck in their systems, and yeah, it's just, you know, it's a very toxic material, especially when there are compostable alternatives here, and every distributor across Hawaii has them, they're more expensive, but the more we do of these, the more we sell these, the less they'll cost, and if we can make them here, that's the goal, then we'll be truly sustainable. But also the other thing is, you know, just having reusable plates. Sometimes we, I think our parents really did know best, you know, we need to go back to, we have this throwaway culture that was invented in the 70s, and now we just don't even think we just throw away everything.  And it's almost this idea, this illusion that they're unlimited resources. We can continue doing this forever, and I think we're coming to the end of that consciousness where people are starting to realize, no, you can't just throw away everything. And it's funny because when people think about, oh, there's plenty of room on the earth to throw away stuff and use things up, I think the ocean is sort of the last frontier of that. The ocean can really absorb everything we can ever put in, and it's really not true. It's unlimited just like the land is, and stuff stays around and does damage. There was a study that was just published in Science Magazine and said, on current trends, the way the plastic production, and we're talking about single-use plastics, things we use for 15 minutes and then throw away in the elasticity of the environment, you know, for hundreds of years, that by 2050 there will be more plastic pollution in the ocean than fish by weight. It's almost, you can't even believe, you can't even believe like we have to stop this because the plastics are ending up on our dinner plates because the fish are eating them and all these plastics attract every pollutant in the water from PCBs, flame retardants, oils, everything because they don't like just free-floating, they have to cling to something and then the fish eat those things and they're 100,000 to a million times more toxic than the surrounding waters. They all gravitate, so it's like the fishing aggregate devices except they're teeny, teeny little things all throughout the ocean and they're very, very toxic and so that's a real cutting-edge form of field in science right now, studying those plastics and the chemicals that are getting in the fish and getting in our seafood. Are there some other areas in the world or around the country that have, you know, gone past Styrofoam and stopped using it? Yeah, France just announced that they will ban all, you know, plastic and Styrofoam disposable items by 2020, coming up very soon, so that's going to be a real, I think, milestone for a lot of nations to look because, you know, there are studies being done right now that show, you know, we spend, I mean, millions and millions of dollars just cleaning it up, just the Department of Transportation, you know, plastic bags on a Wahoo because there's that loophole in the law that allowed the thicker plastic bags which are even worse than the ones before, so we're working to close that loophole but plastic bags in Styrofoam, you know, are just everywhere and people have to clean this up and they don't realize that it actually costs millions of dollars, it clogs storm drains, causes floods and I gave a talk at the United Nations in Costa Rica about this issue and there was an issue that I didn't even think about that it's also a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and so they had Zika outbreaks in Costa Rica and so we have to be careful because we've had dengue on the bank island and so, you know, these are, plastics are the perfect breeding ground because they hold that water, you know, even on the side of the road or in a ditch or in a stream and that's where they love the perfect breeding ground. Let me interrupt you for a minute, Stuart. I'm here with Stuart Coleman of the Surfrider Foundation at the Ruderman Roundtable and we'll be right back after a short break. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii is my Mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. I also have a blog of the same name at kauilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m. Aloha. Aloha. My name is Josh Green. I serve as Senator from the Big Island on the Kona side and I'm also an emergency room physician. My program here on Think Tech is called Health Care in Hawaii. I'll have guests that should be interesting to you twice a month. We'll talk about issues that range from mental health care to drug addiction to our health care system and any challenges that we face here in Hawaii. We hope you'll join us. Again, thanks for supporting Think Tech. Hello, I'm Marianne Sasaki. Welcome to Think Tech Hawaii where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on. I have a show on Wednesdays from one to two called Life in the Law where we discuss legal issues, politics, governmental topics, and a whole host of issues. I hope you'll join me. Welcome back. I'm State Senator Russell Ruderman from the Kuna and Kaui District on the Big Island here at the Ruderman Roundtable on Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm here with Stuart Coleman of the Surfrider Foundation. He's the Hawaii manager of the Surfrider Foundation. As well as an author, we were talking about things that pollute the ocean and what can we do about it. Tell me, you have a new initiative, we were just talking about styrofoam and reducing waste. You have a new initiative, I think, called the Ocean Friendly Restaurants. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Sure. We had an existing program called Ocean Friendly Gardens where we're working with individual homes and businesses and even schools larger to stop runoff from going into just simple things you can do in your yard by creating bioswales and collecting rainwater and just these little things that can save so much water, get it recharged into the ground, recharge our aquifers for our water supply and then also reduce the amount of stormwater runoff, which is the number one source of pollution. That was so successful that we were thinking, we've been trying to reduce the amount of plastic pollution and people kept on saying, as you were saying, businesses can't afford this and they can't do this and it's this old argument that we were talking about, it's just not true. We formed another program called Ocean Friendly Restaurants and we're working with restaurants around the state to certify them as ocean friendly if they follow certain criteria that reduces their plastic pollution, their plastic footprint and also the amount of energy and water they use. We launched it at the end of Earth Month and by now we have almost 82 restaurants that we certified across the state and so it's just really taking off. That's great and full disclosure, I'm a little bit aware of this program because the business I own in the Big Island has received this award just in the last few days actually. We were very excited about it and we proudly display this sticker on the door and tell me how does a restaurant become ocean friendly qualified? What do they have to do? Yeah, well we have on our website oceanfriendlyrestaurantshawaii.org, we have a place where you can nominate restaurants once you see that they fulfill the criteria and the first mandatory criteria are that there's no styrofoam just because as I mentioned it's the least recycled and most toxic and most littered form of plastic and then reusable utensils on site, plates, cups and everything if you're going to dine inside just so that they have that and then third is proper recycling that they have proper recycle on there. So those are the mandatory ones and then we have other criteria such as no plastic bags for takeout and straws only upon request and it's funny because sometimes I think oh it's so small people think it's a little bit of a pain but those straws just refusing straws we go through 500 million straws every single day in the United States. 500 million so you think about that it's just it's massive and so just saying you know one of the restaurants is like you're a restaurant you have to serve your customers if they want to straw you get it to them but just let them request because most people can drink their water fine without a straw yeah so it's uh it's a great program the businesses love it the customers love it and you know environmental groups love it so it's really been this win-win situation and what we're you know hoping is to show that restaurants can do fine and stores like yours you know not only survive not having foam and going through these practices but they're thriving yeah yeah well to toot our own horn for a minute my my company's called I the Naturals we eliminated things like styrofoam from the very beginning more than 18 years ago and have adopted the compostable utensils and containers and we have thrived all along you know and the customers appreciated it doesn't have a it doesn't have a noticeable impact on the bottom line and it's the right thing to do yeah and people are attracted to it you know like but when I go to the big island before I knew you or anything and knew the you know the connection it was like oh yeah we have to go to that store because I know the food is good it's going to be you know mostly organic and they're not going to have all this plastic waste so you know especially for people who travel or people who are really conscious about where they eat and what they put in their bodies you know it's nice to have a list of these stores we list all the stores we have a facebook page also so if you're going out you can say yeah let's let's go in support with our money a place that you know we agree with their principles so let's look at the other side of that point for me let's say you go to restaurants that are using styrofoam so what can a customer do to encourage that restaurant to make that change and will this ocean friendly restaurant be a you know kind of a carrot that they can move for exactly and that's what you know we tell our volunteers who you know it's all volunteers going out and doing this is you know it's just about education so you know if they don't make it now we have a lot of restaurants they're like yeah I want to do this they're looking at the criteria and they think we're not there yet but I was like yeah just keep on trying you know and or maybe try it for a month you know switching over and see what your customers say and and so yeah we're just encouraging and trying to educate and it's nice to see those stores switch and then they say like yeah no I don't know what the problem was like we're actually getting more business people are happier about it well that would a great idea just try it for a month I mean that's not scary yeah because whatever it leaks here it costs too much we change our mind exactly and you have companies like you know sustainable island products and world-centric here you know that we're working with and we're trying to do a program where you know we can offer them you know for the same price for a you know a limited amount of time just so they can make that switch and yeah and see because if you've ever seen you know anything that comes in Styrofoam have you ever noticed that there's always like a bed of cabbage or wax paper on the bottom of like a clamshell yeah that's because they know and you know the absorbs the center yeah the yeah um you know all these federal reports have come out that it absorbs all the chemicals and so you know it's kind of protecting it so just for your own good for your own health if nothing else take a plate to the restaurant ask them to put it on a plate or in a Tupperware dish or something because you know I hate to say it and announce it on this program but 98 percent of us have styrene in our bodies you know the EPA has has done studies and so it's it's already in our systems so we don't need any more of it we need to get it out of our system have you heard any examples of restaurants being convinced to make this change by customer pressure yeah yeah I mean you know we've we're working with you know some restaurants right now I'm not gonna name them but you know that are really popular and people keep on asking them and uh so the requests matter they listen absolutely yeah and if you know if anybody can go to the website um ocean friendly restaurants hawaii.org and download the brochures download the information take it to your favorite restaurants hey I support you guys I want you you know I want you to do this because it's good for you it's good for your customers it's good for the environment and their health yeah wonderful yeah so it's been fun tell us I you we have a new water quality testing program on Oahu is that right yeah can you tell us a little bit about that yeah so we um we're uh working with the department of health for a long time um and we helped get their funding initially to do water quality testing from the EPA through the beach act um long time ago like 15 years ago and uh maybe a little less than that and uh it was very successful but then we just noticed that the numbers weren't getting out there the water quality testing results people didn't know about um and there were we were doing our own water quality testing through the blue water task force and especially in kawaii we noticed that there were just chronically polluted beaches and they were not posted and the law says they have to have signs you know these are very and some of them are very high like you would not want your kids to go anywhere near this water so we're talking about ocean water yeah ocean water and then the streams especially the streams that feed into it um in that area that kind of tidal area um is is you know some of them were really contaminated so you know that we got the EPA involved and now it's great we're working with the department of health and clean water branch to post warning signs and to do that kind of notification public notification just you know we're gonna try to get the lifeguards involved so like it's just one of their signs jellyfish strong currents you know undertow brownwater advisory warning don't go in you know there's there's a high level of pathogens in the water and so that's that's the the goal and i think we've really kind of long way it's been a kind of a national effort and a regional effort and local effort and really successful tell me before we uh before you finish do it how can someone get involved with surfwriter foundation our website is surfwriter.org and then um if you want to look up the particular chapter's websites you just put oahu.surfrider.org or kwai.surfrider.org or kona.surfrider.org or or hilo.surfrider.org and let's say someone like me who's sort of a non-surfer can anybody join absolutely that's probably the biggest misnomer about surfrider foundation we are not a bunch of surfers i'm a snorkeler we welcome snorkelers, spongers, stand-up paddlers yes and anybody who loves the ocean frankly like i'd say probably you know half um uh third to a half of our people don't surf actively yeah so it's just people are concerned about their coastal areas you know whether it's over development or i'm glad to be clear that i'm gonna have to join and become a member yeah i would love to have you thank you so much we've been here with steward colman the hawaii manager of surfwriter foundation here at the ruderman round table we're here on thick tech hawaii every other tuesday afternoon at two o'clock and available on the youtube channel thick tech hawaii thank you very much for joining us we'll be back in two weeks mahala


Good evening everyone and welcome. My name is Melissa Armell and I own a company called the Stock Swoosh and I day-treat and I also teach people how to day-treat. I only trained one strategy and you can make a living trading only one strategy. How do you do that? Well, I'm gonna talk about it in a live webinar this coming Monday. It's Monday, January 25th I'm gonna talk about making a living day trading using only one strategy. Many many people think they have to do a million things to make money in the market, but the fact is the less is more is actually how you do well in the market, meaning the less trades that you take, the more money that you can make. It's about the quality, not the quantity. So if you want to do well and actually make a living doing this, you can. I mean $500 a day is $2,500 a week and $2,500 a week is lo and behold it's 10 grand a month and all of a sudden you're making 10 grand a month. You can make 20 grand a month and you see how it adds up, but you have to be so focused and I am extremely focused on what I do. I only do one strategy and I prefer to short and so mostly I am shorting in the market doing one trade a day and I'm gonna talk about this in the live webinar. So if you want to become a master at something and really do well in the market, come and learn about what I do because I'm more convinced than ever that the only way to make money consistently as a day trader is to do gaps. That's the strategy I trade, but I have a very specific way to do gaps. I have a 26-point rating system that I use to find which stock to trade each day that's scapping and I only do one trade and one stock and that's how I'm doing it. It reduces your losses when they win, they win huge and I'm very very focused. It's about finding that diamond in the rub and the market gives it every day. You just need to know how to look for it. Many, many people are trying to find an edge. The edge is just don't do a million things, become very, very good at doing one thing. The edge in the market is become an expert in doing one thing, which I have done, which is why I make money training and why I am able to teach people how to make money trading and people are making money trading with me. So if you want to learn more, come to the live webinar. It's free Monday, January 25th. The idea of becoming a jack-of-all-trades and a master is not. It's not going to get you where you want to be in the market. If you want to do this seriously, like I mean seriously where you really want to make real money in the market, then come and learn more at the webinar Monday, January 25th and I will teach you how. Thanks everyone. Have a great night. If you're interested in more information, email me at melissa at thestockswish.com.


Thank you for the kind words, and thank you for the invitation to this formidable institute. It's a pleasure and a privilege to speak to you. I've called my short talk in search of a German national identity. And I would like to begin with some agreement being struck in Garmisch-Partenkirchen about eight years ago. In early May 2006, in the lovely mountain resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Bavarian Alps, ministers and senators of the 16 federal states in Germany finally decided what was needed to become a German. After months of intensive parliamentary debates and fierce public arguing, the German lender recommended that immigrants demanding a German passport should, in future, have to pass a language exam, attend an integration course, providing them with information about the German basic law, the Grundgesetz, and about German beliefs, and to attend a citizenship ceremony at the end. The agreement was hailed as a success for German consensus politics, among others by the then minister of interior Wolfgang Schäuble. In truth, what Schäuble and his lender colleagues regarded as a major breakthrough for German integration policy was, in fact, nothing more than the latest chapter in an extended debate about how the country can finally integrate its immigrant population as a Spiegel depicted it. Of course, the question who belongs and who doesn't and how to integrate immigrants into the nation state is not only a German issue. Following 9-11 in the United States, then terrorist attacks in Madrid and in London in 2004 and 2005, the murder of Islam critical film director Theo van Roog in Amsterdam and riots in the Paris banlieues have provoked political and public debates in most of these countries and a flood of new immigration laws and regulations requiring inter alia from newcomers to complete examination and give assurances about their loyalty to their chosen nation. But nowhere has the argument about nationhood and the leading culture, so-called light culture, been more fiercely debated than in Germany. Hovering around the question, can we really require people to learn and accept what it means to be German? It has, however, been widely forgotten that this debate, who is a German or what it means to be German, is in fact much older. It has accompanied the developing of the modern German nation state right from the beginning and even before. Friedrich Nietzsche, the radical German philosopher and writer, ridiculed this speculative, traditional, ready in the 1880s in his famous aphorism. It is characteristic of the Germans that the question, what is German, won't die out. Ladies and gentlemen, I have divided my observations in two parts. First, I would like to say something about the historical background of the quest for German identity after all I'm an historian. Then discuss this issue in its present day context. But let me first define what I mean by national identity. Nations, as you know, are no fixed anthropological entities expressed by language, descent, and culture, or high birth rates, or high rates of baptism as suggested in today's Irish Times. I sure you have read the article. Ethnicities and ethnic clusters can be, these categories are merely what I would call role materials. Ethnicities and ethnic clusters can be at the core of nations, but not necessarily so, as the case of Belgium with three and the Swiss Confederation with four main linguistic and cultural regions demonstrate. Nations are rather the result of political, collective, or concerted actions of social communications and what I would call a sense of belonging. Or as a famous French philosopher, historian, and writer Ernest Renan, phrased in his so one lecture of 1882, a nation is a daily plebiscite. So now to the historical perspective. In contrast to France and Germany, and in contrast to France and Britain, Germany, like Italy, was a latecomer to modern statehood. Germany became a nation state only in 1871. And this Germany was not a centralized state, but a territory of 27 kingdoms, Grand Duchies, Duchies, Principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial region. The complicated process of unifying the nation was accompanied, as you all know, by several wars, notably the Franco-German War of 1870-71, with its final act, the proclamation of the German Empire and the Prussian King William I as Kaiser in the Miroholes of Versailles. It was, like in Italy, unification from above and not from below, notwithstanding the fact that the German national bourgeois classes had fought for it ever since the failed liberal bourgeois revolution of 1848. The first German empire created and shaped by the Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck certainly comprised some democratic features, for instance, universal suffrage, just for men, and the development of political parties. And it was founded on a remarkable rule of law. But the system and what is more its politics were also marked by serious flaws and obvious shortcomings. A significant disparity between the Prussian and the German electoral system, the Prussian Reiklassenwahlrecht, and the political alienation of social democrats and Roman Catholics, who at different times and in church circumstances were regarded by the ruling classes as enemy of the empire, the Reichsfeinde. Other potential foes of the Reich within the Reich included ethnic minorities, like the more than 3 million Poles in the east, almost 150,000 Danes in the north, and the French-speaking population of Alsace-Lorraine and next in 1871 in the west. In order to control and integrate these and other ethnicities, the Prussian-German state followed a strict policy of linguistic and cultural Germanization that occasionally led to public riots and disturbances. The situation got even worse with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Polish and Missourian migrant workers at the industrial centers and coal mines of the Ruhr Valley, the so-called Ruhr Polen, forming their own social and cultural networks, churches, clubs, and associations. Of the approximately half a million, about 150,000 continue to stay on and become assimilated even after Poland became independent in 1919, despite the economic appeals of the 1920s. Today, only the names of famous soccer players in the Ruhr remind Germans of this cultural and social heritage. The soccer club Schalke-Nulfier, by the way, was for many years coined as a Polakian club, Polish or Polak club. Internal labor migration, as well as immigration from Tzarist Russia, among them tens of thousands of East European Jews around the turn of the century, was accompanied by continuing political and public debates about Germany and German them, and what it needed to belong to the German Volksgemeinschaft. The term Volksgemeinschaft for community is much older than the Nazi term, by the way. I come back to this. The nationality law of the German Empire and States of 1913, based on the principle of USanguinis, established for the first time a German nationality, replacing the until then citizenship of the component 27 states. In reality, however, Germans continued to be Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons, Westphalians, or Swabians, respectively. If there was a national identity around the turn of the century, it was a firm belief that the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm presented the best of all worlds, a fast growing population thanks to social and medical improvements, an even faster growing economy, particularly the new electrical and chemical industries, and the well-organized and capable army and navy, even if the German fleet couldn't match the British naval dominance. Most Germans, therefore, not only shared their emperor's conviction that the nation never had it's a good, to quote Harold McMillan, but also the Kaiser's repeated demand for an empire in which the sun will not go down. After the Lost War and the ensuing political revolution, Germany's first parliamentary democracy, the Weimar Republic, was successfully established. But the Republic failed in the end, not because of the heavy burden of the Treaty of Versailles or her economic and institutional problems, but because Weimar proved to be a democracy without mobilizing enough Democrats. The Democratic Weimar Republic, with her ruling coalitions of social Democrats, liberals, and the Catholic Center Party, was neither able to command the unwavering loyalty of her citizens nor develop an identity of her own. German national identity during the 1920s was essentially divided along social classes and down the lines of political parties. Where most Germans, however, agreed was a widespread consensus and conviction that Germany did not cause the Great War alone and that Versailles had been a shameful piece. The beneficiaries of this beliefs were the Nazis, who after 1933 successfully established their mystical unity of a German-Folksgemeinschaft. They were supposed to overcome the distinction of social and political classes.  Nevertheless, the majority of Germans during the 1930s, impressed by the political, economic, and military achievements of the Third Reich, did support and identify with the regime and its furor, not because they were ideological committed, but because they felt that after the previous lost war, what Germany and the Germans were for once entitled to march on the winning road of history. It was a difficult and painful process to acknowledge after the war that their demonstrated affinity and their eagerness to support the regime had been a colossal mistake, a self-deception, and for some of them, a criminal deed. The Second World War, with its hectorcoms of lives, cut off biographies and enormous sales of destruction, represented a watershed in establishing a binding German national identity. Given the bends and distortions of German history in the 20th century, and in particular, the crimes and atrocities of the Third Reich, it was not surprising that most Germans in the West initially declined to accept a national identity that went beyond the formal citizenship. If there was some kind of national identity feeling among West Germans, it was throughout the 1950s and 60s a curious mixture of smugness about the economic achievement, as Deutsche Wirtschaftswunder, the defiance against an allegedly accusation of collective guilt about the Nazi past, and an air of openly exposed arrogance against the GDR, den Brüdern und Schwestern, the Brasen sister in the East. The East Germans, on the other hand, tried to come to terms with the politically decreed socialist identity. They tried to distance itself from all what was seen negative in German history and present day politics, deriving its particular pride and satisfaction from the triumphs of their sportsmen and sportswomen. According to the official GDR interpretation, there were even two German nations existing side by side, not just two German states, and consequently, two German national identities had to exist. The erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the GDR propaganda, as you know, baptized it an anti-fascist protective wall, and the military reinforcement of the inner German borders, intensified the existing divide between the two German nations, the two German states. Continuous efforts by West German politicians to maintain an all German national identity and gesamtdeutsches Bewusstsein became largely obsolete. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the apparent absence of a national identity, particularly prominent among West German students and intellectuals of the 1968 movement. And at the core of this perception was the idea written and argued by a number of prominent national and international historians that Germany and the Germans, in contrast to other Western nations, had historically followed a special path to modernity, and in Sonderweg, at German Sonderweg. This unique German path in defiance of Western political ideas and convictions had in the end led to the Third Reich and to Auschwitz. The concept of a German Sonderweg was subsequently modified, reviewed, but also heavily criticized. After all, you could say that every nation has taken its own way or special path to modernity. The famous German philosopher Jürgen Habermas later suggested a possible alternative to this negativa nationalismus. During the 1980s, Habermas presented his concept of verfassungspatrotismus, constitutional patriotism. The term, by the way, is not Habermas, but goes back to the political scientist, Dolp Sternberger. Constitution patriotism whereby people should orientate to the norms and the values of a liberal democratic constitution rather than to a national inherited culture. Habermas' concept was applauded, particularly by many German intellectuals, but also met with strong criticism for being far too abstract and too specifically German. Allow me to come to the second part of this, of my observation. German national identity today, in contrast to the first German democracy, the Weimar Republic, the system of parliamentary democracy was and is generally accepted, from the left to the right of the political spectrum. This was not only the result of the total defeat and catastrophic ending of the Third Reich in 1945 that did not permit a second step in the back legend or the failure of the GDR socialist experiment that was terminated with the peaceful revolution of 1989. I don't like the term vendor, U-turn or change. I would rather call it a peaceful revolution. Responsible for the acceptance and approval of democracy in Germany is the historical and personal experience of more than 65 years of parliamentary practice that ensures for most Germans economic prosperity, social security, and political freedom, first only in the West, so-called Bond Republic, and for the past 25 years in a unified Germany. Of course, there were and even are today, particularly among the older generations, marked differences and occasionally irritation of the mentalities between the citizen of the old and the new federal states in Bundesländern. The blatant lack of symmetry or krasse Asymetrie, as my colleague Peter Brandt has called it, that accompanied and shaped the process of German unification in 1990, looked at any rate insulting to those who disregarding their personal safety had made the November Revolution possible. The majority of West Germans, therefore, tended to regard unification as a mere by-treat, joining of the club, so to speak, by the five new states, as outlined in Article 23 of the Basic Law. But a project of such historical dimension and consequences should have been decided, this is my opinion, by an old German sovereign constitutional assembly as provided by Article 146 of the Basic Law. The balance sheet after 25 years since unification offers a mixed result. The glass is either half full or half empty, depending on the viewpoint. The process of the two Germanies growing together was not a fabulous story of success, Chancellor Kohl's flourishing landscapes, but neither was it a never-ending saga of failure as some contemporaries predicted at the time. According to a recent study by the Independent Berlin Institute for Population and Development, presented in July 2015, the overall aim, that is the harmonization of living conditions, has undoubtedly advanced, especially in education, environment, and ecology, but there are still noticeable differences between the new and the old lender. East Germans earn less, approximately, only three quarters of the average income in the West, though pensions are about the same height. And productivity and economic performance are considerably lower, largely this is due to the small businesses that have replaced senatoriously unproductive GDR industries. But lower are also house prices and rented accommodation. Besides, there are substantial disparities in the demographic development. Between 1991 and 2013, more than 2 million people migrated from the East to the West. And there are still considerably difference regarding wealth, assets, and inheritance. The study of the Berlin Institute predicts that Germany will have to live with these inequalities between East and West for good. One should add that similar disparities do exist also in the old Bundesländer, the old federal states, for instance between the North and the South, or let's say between the Ruhr Valley and the Neckar region around Stuttgart. The often described differences in mentalities between East and West Germans do exist, but they are of no or little, only little significance. The so-called German Glücksatlas, the Atlas of Happiness, which on an annual basis takes records of individual feelings, income, employment, job satisfaction, family situation. The 2015 Atlas was only published last week. The Atlas states that there is hardly any difference now between the old and the new Bundesländer. This is the lowest gap ever recorded. On a scale of 10, West German figured 7.05 and East German 6.9. When asked about their personal feelings of happiness. By the way, the European ranking, which is also accumulated, based on 30,000 data collected by the EU, sees the Germans on the rank 9, closely followed by the Austrians and the Irish, with an equal score, the Austrians and the Irish, by the way. The happiest nations on the European list of 30 countries for 2014 were the Danes, the Swedes, and the Dutch, the most unhappy ones, the Portuguese, the Greeks, and the Bulgarians. And the results belie the old saying that money can't buy happiness. So what does it all mean for German identity? All political and social indications point to the direction that it has become difficult to maintain a unique German identity as previous generation did. The modern nation state, not just in Europe, has been relativized due to the increasing processes of Europeanization and globalization going far beyond the economic impacts and requirements. This is not to say that nations are going to disappear, but their role as communities of political and collective action and social communication has undergone considerably changes and will do so in future. In Germany, the old question of identity is currently being discussed in a much broader context. People are afraid to ask who is a German, said Josef Janning, co-director of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin last week. Therefore, it has become a debate about identity without the label of German. Janning was obviously referring to populist groups like Pegida in Dresden, a grassroots anti-Islam movement, or the Alternative for Germany, a likewise populist party. Those were already on the decline, although they appear to have undergone a miraculous revival since the refugee crisis began last summer. But the card of a threatened identity, and it's not longer a German identity, but a European or an Abendlendische identity, the card of a threatened identity is not just played by populist movements with an unshamed borrowing of right-wing and folkish labels and stereotypes. Popular signals are also coming from the National Conservative CSU and even from inside Chancellor Merkel's own party. Using the controversial term light culture, a guiding culture, the general secretary of the CSU recently declared that it was essential for, I quote, all asylum seekers to accept our Judeo-Christian system of values on the basis of our constitution, end of quote. This, I think, is a bit much. Of course, the belief that the constitution is, Germany's basic law should be the foundation for all people living in the country is widely shared, not just on all sides of the Bundestag. In October, the German tabloid built even printed a special edition Arabic containing the basic law, which was then distributed in many refugee shelters. But a Judeo-Christian system of values separating Europe from the Muslim world is an historical absurdity or simply an invention of modernity as the French philosopher Jacques Derrida has put it. Given the European history of religious oppression and persecution of Jewish life, it is difficult to see how a make-believe symbiosis could guide Europe's and Germany's behavior towards Muslim refugees. Or does this merely articulate a wishful dream of many Germans still traumatized by the Holocaust? And this brings me to my last point. The Holocaust as part of German identity. In its address to the Bundestag, at the occasion of the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, this 27th of January, the federal president, Joachim Gauke, asked how the memory of the Holocaust, the murder of 6 million German and European Jews, has in the past and will in future affect the quest for German identity. Let me quote his answer. And while the Holocaust will not necessarily be among the central components of German identity for everyone in our country, it will still hold true that there is no German identity without Auschwitz. Remembering the Holocaust remains a matter for every citizen of Germany. It is part and parcel of our country's history, more binding than elsewhere. End of quote. The majority of Germans today, at least those who are politically awake and conscious about the past, will truly agree with their president's interpretation and commitment. Joachim Gauke's statement is clearly not about a collective historical guilt. It is about collective responsibilities for a genocidal crime against humanity that will remain, at least for my generation, historically unique. But what about those who are coming to Germany as immigrants, be the refugees, asylum seekers, or labor migrants? Can Germany expect that they share this historical responsibility? It must not happen again, even if they do not or do not yet identify as Germans? It is a difficult question, but it needs an honest answer. And I think we must expect that the newcomers shoulder this responsibility. If the immigrants want to live, if the immigrants want to share the living standards and advantages of Germany, and if they call this country their home, they also become responsible for what path this country will take to quote Joachim Gauke. Ladies and gentlemen, I did not talk about the problems that Europe and Germany are presently facing while accepting thousands of refugees every day. And I do not want to suggest easy answers to a very complicated and multi-part question. I'm more concerned with the consequence of the so-called welcome culture, the Will Kobenskultur, of accepting refugees and what this could mean for an assumed national identity. Generally, I'm convinced that Germany can do it, as Chancellor Merkel promised with her usual Anglo-American pragmatism, rephrasing Obama's Yes We Can. But it needs partners, and it needs a fair and just mechanism of distributing the asylum seekers across Europe and not just the EU. The big challenge will, of course, be the integration of millions of asylum seekers once a claim has been officially recognized. But I am optimistic. After all, mass movements of people lie at the heart of Europe, whether voluntary or involuntary. Such as Germany has acknowledged and integrated millions of so-called guest workers and their families, some of them now in the third generation. Despite strong objections from some segments of the host society in the past, the acceptance of the current refugees will succeed. What Germany certainly doesn't need are ghetto-like parallel societies that would introduce and reinforce social separation and ethnic or cultural isolation. Parallel societies are, in any case, not compatible with the democratic and welfare orientated nation and society based on the rule of law that chooses and endorses the inclusion and integration of immigrants. On the other hand, democracy and democratic societies also need the recognition of common rules and shared values, for instance, the principles of human rights. And these societies require minimum of cultural and social homogeneity in order to identify the demos, the respective people, capable of acting responsibly and legitimately. Thank you for your attention.


Pure tips to prevent heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke. Drink plenty of water even if you're not thirsty and avoid excessive caffeine and alcohol. Wear loose, lightweight and light-colored clothing made of breathable fabrics. Stay in shaded areas and wear a wide-brimmed hat and sunscreen when outside. Rest in shaded or air-conditioned spots during outdoor activities. Schedule outdoor activities during cooler times of the day. Use cool towels, fans, misters or air-conditioning to maintain a comfortable environment. And remember to protect your furry friends from the heat. Provide them with fresh water, shade and avoid leaving them in hot cars. Stay cool out there.