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BBC Trending: Is this manga cartoon of a six-year-old Syrian girl racist?
"I want to live a safe and clean life, eat gourmet food, go out, wear pretty things, and live a luxurious life… all at the expense of someone else," reads the text on the illustration above. "I have an idea. I'll become a refugee."
The image and caption were posted by a right-wing Japanese artist last month. Now, more than 10,000 people have signed a Change.org petition in Japanese urging Facebook to take it down. The petition, posted by an account calling itself the "Don't Allow Racism Group", claims that several people have reported the illustration and demands that "Facebook must recognize an illustration insulting Syrian refugees as racism."
Although the Japan Times reported that Facebook did not take the picture down, saying it did not go against community guidelines, the artist herself removed the picture. But she remains defiant about her motivations for posting it in the first place. Toshiko Hasumi told BBC Trending that she believed the people signing the petition were left-wing activists. "I draw many political mangas [Japanese comics] which are not favourable to them," she said. "This is why they targeted me."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 10 2015, @07:37PM
Not sure if you're referring to World War I, World War II, or the fall of the GDR.
Suppose Germans had refused to fight in World War I. Surely tthe Central Powers would have lost the war sooner, and the Allies would have had no grounds to demand reparations of Germany? I suppose the Austrians and Hungarians would be displased, but probably the outcome would be better for Germany.
Now, about World War II. The conventional wisdom is that Germany started it, at least in Europe. Suppose that, having embraced Nazism, Germans refused to go to war. I'm not sure what the outcome would have been, but what actually happened was that around 5 to 7 million Germans were killed in the war, major cities were razed, the country lost territory to Poland and Russia, the remainder was split and many Germans had to live under communism.
About that, the GDR ended without need for a war. When East Germans committed the crime of Republikflucht, fleeing the country, the communists treated it as a major problem and I think their assessment was spot-on. Once the border fence between Austria and Hungary came down, there was a mass exodus. That, not fighting, destabilised the GDR. Had Germans taken up arms, there would have been a different outcome. Not likely a better one for the country, I daresay. Suppose the refugees from East Germany had been turned back rather than welcomed.
Now, about Syria. Besides being invaded by ISIS, it's also in a civil war. Plenty of Syrians have taken up arms "for their country" but on opposing sides. That is the reason people are fleeing the country. You advise the refugees to stand up for their country against ISIS, but ISIS is well-armed because it has munitions surrendered/abandoned to it by the Iraqi army. These people who have fled their houses might have what,a rifle or a kitchen knife? ISIS has been winning readily against the militaries of Iraq, Syria, and the USA, and you're telling these civilians to wait in their houses until ISIS' army comes, then fight to the death?