As Germany struggles with labour shortages in many sectors, local business leaders regularly express concern that the rise of the AfD may be harming eastern Germany’s economic prospects.
You say “labour shortages” but I hear “salary shortages”. Oh well!
And yet many Germans don’t have passports because they don’t need passports, and similarly many people from nearby countries can visit Germany legally without carrying a passport. There are other types of legal identification commonly used.
For travelers who are obviously coming from farther abroad, staff are likely to ask you for the passport, but it doesn’t mean that you couldn’t use another document instead, should you have an acceptable one on hand.
You made a claim about hostels requiring passports. I was pointing out that actually hostels don’t require passports. Why would you write something that you know from personal experience is incorrect? It’s very strange.
@orcrist all due respect you sound a bit paranoid.
I'm a New Zealander. Every time I have stayed in a Backpacker hostel in Germany or Austria they have asked to see my passport and made a note of its number. Sometimes in the past they "held" my other government-issued identification instead but always sighted the passport.
If you don't believe me, that's fine.
But I'm not interested in continuing this conversation. I find it deeply strange.
20-some years ago I lived in a precarious situation in the back of an old Black Panther karate dojo (I know). Newly-minted urban white boy that I was, it was, culturally, quite a learning experience.
I remember one of the guys (an outdoorsman from Louisiana) told me that he was always armed when he went hiking or camping. I didn’t get it at the time, but now I do. It wasn’t bears or mountain lions he was afraid of. It was this shit.
No. The resolution of this specific circumstance in this specific location is not what I mean by this shit.
By this shit I mean the general danger of being the wrong color in nature.
In Europe, there’s nearly zero chance of running into serious, life-threatening, interpersonal trouble on a hike, no matter your color. That is less certain in parts of the United States.
If only all police were honorable and law-abiding and the laws were written to benefit the ordinary person. That would be an amazing world, wouldn’t it? Ah well, it’s important to have dreams.
No I’m sorry I don’t get it, what’s the plan here? Shoot at the cops? Threaten the racists with a gun? There must be a better answer to systemic racism than suicide by cop. A blank card with the words “not talking without lawyer present” would probably be a more sensible choice - against cops, not against mountain lions.
I believe this is the same issue with the other comment, taking what I wrote as a specific solution to a specific problem.
This issue of getting the police called is emblematic of a problem that dark-skinned people have, where they’re considered to be inappropriate for natural areas.
What I was getting at is that there are specific rural areas, with unhinged residents and poor policing, where no outsider should go. If I choose to go, I should expect to provide my own personal protection. Those locations would be vastly multiplied if I had dark skin, to the point that it might become more expedient to just always carry.
I’m certainly not saying it would be appropriate for anyone to arm themselves while hiking in the Alps, or when dealing with police or benign racism.
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