Life and Death in Austria [MEGATHREAD]

[Malthus]

Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. 

I didn't think it was anything personal I just thought they needed the money.

Naw, my understanding it that it was personal (and petty). Leopold V was pissed by Richard's asshollish behaviour in Acre - Richard basically tossed his flag on the ground and dared him to do anything about it; he handed him over to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also pissed at Richard, for stuff he pulled in Sicily ... Richard just had a way with making friends. 

Of course, there was also financial and political issues, but it seems unlikely these guys would have imprisioned him in the first place if he wasn't so ... onery.

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20151008/man-strangles-wife-who-was-planning-divorce

Man strangles wife who was planning divorce

A 34-year-old man has been arrested in Vienna after strangling his wife to death in their home in the 2nd district.

He called emergency services, saying: "I've strangled my wife and I need help to resuscitate her".

He was given instructions on how to save her and when emergency medics arrived they also tried to resuscitate her but it was too late - by the time the police arrived she was already dead. Her husband did not resist arrest.

The 35-year-old woman is said to have been planning to divorce her husband, who had reportedly been physically abusive on previous occasions. Friends said she had been speaking to her lawyer. However, police said she had not reported the domestic abuse.

The couple have three children - girls aged three, four and seven - who, according to family friends, are currently in Slovakia.

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/ex-miss-austria-dies-mountain-fall-094148695.html

Former Miss Austria Ena Kadic died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a mountain fall while jogging in her home state of Tyrol, police said.

The 26-year-old had been in a critical condition after plunging off the side of the Bergisel mountain near the city of Innsbruck on Friday.

Two students discovered the severely injured woman near the Drachenfelsen (Dragon rock) panorama platform overlooking the steep ravine of the Sill river.

Shortly after hitting the ground, Kadic managed to call her brother and inform him of the accident before losing consciousness, police said.

She was rescued by helicopter and taken to a hospital in Innsbruck, where she succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday morning.

The exact circumstances surrounding the accident remain unclear, but police said the 2013 beauty competition winner was an avid runner who knew the area well.

Some 115 people died and 2,385 were injured between May and September in the Austrian alps, according to latest statistics.

Imagine receiving that call.

[Syt]

It's been in the news here. The tabloids are going wild with it, while more serious media handle it with more decorum.

[Martinus]

Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. 

I didn't think it was anything personal I just thought they needed the money.

Naw, my understanding it that it was personal (and petty). Leopold V was pissed by Richard's asshollish behaviour in Acre - Richard basically tossed his flag on the ground and dared him to do anything about it; he handed him over to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also pissed at Richard, for stuff he pulled in Sicily ... Richard just had a way with making friends. 

Of course, there was also financial and political issues, but it seems unlikely these guys would have imprisioned him in the first place if he wasn't so ... onery.

Homophobic revisionism.

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20151030/salzburg-erasmus-student-quits-due-to-racism

Racism forces Erasmus student back to UK

A black British student doing an Erasmus year in Salzburg says he left after just three weeks after experiencing "more racism and discrimination than [in his] entire life in London".

Writing on his blog, the student whose name on his Facebook profile is Albert Amankona, said he was at the receiving end of four significant incidents which led to him cutting his study year abroad short and returning to London.

Some of the incidents involved a tenant living below him who complained to the landlord that a black man was living in the building, and then told Amankona that he had called the police, apparently believing that the student was living in Austria 'unregistered'.

Another incident involved a woman at a bus stop shouting at him to speak German while he was talking to a friend on the phone, while other passengers looked on.

"Whilst this was terrifying on its own in retrospect what was more chilling is that not one single person at the bus stop said or did anything as this was going on and there were about 15 people there, it was almost as if we were invisible," he wrote on his blog. "It was at this point where I thought that maybe Salzburg was not the right place for me."

He went on: "I never imagined that somewhere in 'Western Europe' contained people as overtly racist as some of the people I encountered during my short time in Salzburg nor did I expect to see a coffee shop called Afro coffee mocking almost every aspect of African culture, down to the cartoons on the wall reminiscent of "Golliwogs"."

"I firmly believe that if everything else in my life was the same except I was white, my experiences in Salzburg would have been completely different and saying that upsets me deeply."

He also framed his experiences in the context of Europe's migrant crisis, which has seen thousands of migrants and refugees travelling through Salzburg on their way to Germany.

According to some reports, as many as 8,000 migrants are coming across Austria's southern border with Slovenia every day, with around 2000 to 3000 travelling daily through the province of Salzburg over the northern border to Germany.

Around 63,000 have applied for asylum in Austria although most seek a life further north in Europe.

Although highlighting the support many migrants receive from Austrians, Amankona concluded that "if you look like you could be a refugee some will treat you as a second class citizen".

Nearly 100 people have commented on his post, written earlier in October, with some agreeing with the student's assessment, a few apologising for his experience, while others arguing that Austria should not be judged as racist based on these few experiences.

"The world is complex and it is not as easy as drawing conclusions from these shameful and outrageous incidents on the Austrian people and Austria," one commentator under the name of Tamara wrote.

[The Brain]

I don't think many refugees get treated as citizens.

[Malthus]

Let's not forget that the Babenbergers' capture of Richard the Lionheart was one of the top dick moves of middle ages. They just didn't like him and used the opportunity to kidnap him while he was making his way home back from a crusade, of all things. 

I didn't think it was anything personal I just thought they needed the money.

Naw, my understanding it that it was personal (and petty). Leopold V was pissed by Richard's asshollish behaviour in Acre - Richard basically tossed his flag on the ground and dared him to do anything about it; he handed him over to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also pissed at Richard, for stuff he pulled in Sicily ... Richard just had a way with making friends. 

Of course, there was also financial and political issues, but it seems unlikely these guys would have imprisioned him in the first place if he wasn't so ... onery.

Homophobic revisionism.

Richard I - stereotypical mincing pansy.  All that he-man macho stuff was just ... overcompensation!

[The Larch]

http://www.thelocal.at/20151030/salzburg-erasmus-student-quits-due-to-racism

Racism forces Erasmus student back to UK

For once that an English student decides to go on an Erasmus...

Now seriously, it's very disheartening what this kid had to go through to make him pull the plug on his stay. And in Salzburg, to boot, not some kind of remote village inhabited by inbred hicks who have never seen a foreigner.

[Admiral Yi]

For once that an English student decides to go on an Erasmus...

Our very own chav went Erasmussing.

[The Larch]

For once that an English student decides to go on an Erasmus...

Our very own chav went Erasmussing.

And that made him part of that particulary small group of people.

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20151102/winter-retreats-from-her-anti-semitic-remarks

Winter retreats from her anti-Semitic remarks

An Austrian far-right MP is rapidly backpedalling after making remarks on social media which were interpreted as supporting anti-Semitic views.

Susanne Winter, of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party, had replied to a post from a person called Hans-Jörg Öhlmann, which said "Zionist Jews are the global problem. Europe, and in particular Germany, are now getting what they deserve from Zionist Jews, particularly rich Zionist Jews in the USA, for the century-long persecution of Jews in Europe."

"According to the Zionists, Europe, particularly Germany, should be cut off as economic competitors to the US."

Winter responded with "It is great. You are taking the words right out of my mouth. There are a lot of things I am not allowed to write. Therefore I'm even more pleased about courageous, independent people."

On Sunday, the Jewish activist organization Anti Defamation League (ADL) was quick to condemn both posts as clearly anti-Semitic.  Shortly thereafter, Winter's post was deleted, but not before copies were made.

Winter made a statement to Der Standard newspaper on Sunday, saying that she was sorry for the post, which she described as "foolish."

"I am not anti-Semitic, I have Jewish friends," she told the newspaper.



Freedom Party General Secretary Herbert Kickl in a statement called Winter's post "absolutely unacceptable."

"The Freedom Party is no place for anti-Semitism," he said, adding that Winter could be suspended from the party.

Anti-Islamic views

This is not the first time Winter has been criticized for her outspoken views.  In 2008, she was prosecuted for incitement, after making a strong anti-Muslim statement:

"In today's system" the Prophet Muhammad would be considered a "child molester," apparently referring to his marriage to a six-year-old child. She also said that it is time for Islam to be "thrown back where it came from, behind the Mediterranean."

A court in her home town of Graz found her guilty of humiliating a religion.  She was fined 24,000 euros, and given a suspended prison term of three months.

She also proposed in a discussion with students that Muslim men should commit bestiality rather than making "indecent advances" on girls.

Winter's son Michael, a former youth leader in the Freedom Party, was convicted of the same crime.  He had suggested in a newsletter that Turkish Muslims were in the habit of committing bestiality.

Disgrace

Winter is "a disgrace to the Austrian Parliament," Oskar German, president of the Austrian Jewish Community, told der Standard.

ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, who is meeting with European officials and the continent's Jewish community leaders, said in a statement: "Once again, a member of Austria's Freedom Party has been caught promoting offensive anti-Semitic stereotypes."

"Susanne Winter's response to the outrageous comments about Jews and money on her Facebook page shows that, when prompted, she would willingly endorse the worst kind of anti-Semitic stereotypes. These are the same grotesque notions that have bedeviled European Jews for hundreds of years.

"Anti-Semitic stereotypes simply have no place in Austrian society. It is bad enough when they are whispered privately, but far worse when such hateful views emanate directly from a member of parliament who has a bully pulpit to express her ideas."

[Malthus]

It's amusing how transparently ye olde-style Jew-baiters have picked up on the fact that if you slap "Zionist" on your screed, you stand a better chance of getting away with it. 

[Valmy]

It's amusing how transparently ye olde-style Jew-baiters have picked up on the fact that if you slap "Zionist" on your screed, you stand a better chance of getting away with it. 

Personally I am comforted that a conspiracy so insidious that it can still operate perfectly centuries after being exposed is working for our benefit

[Syt]

Surprisingly, she's getting kicked out of the party and has been given till 7pm to resign on her own accord.