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Germany

Exclusive: Neo-Nazis On The Rise In Eastern Germany

Despite some signs of decrease right-wing extremist violence in Germany as a whole, the former Communist eastern part of the country has registered an uptick in Neo-Nazi action.

(kejoli)
(kejoli)

Worldcrunch NEWS BITES

DIE WELT

With the help of Saxony's Special Commission on Right-Wing Extremism -- ‘"Soko Rex"" -- four young neo-Nazi men were arrested shortly before Christmas Eve, 2010 on suspicion of murder and causing grievous bodily harm.

Three of the men had allegedly beaten up two guests at the La Notte dance bar in Görlitz on October 23, 2010. The attacks were brutal. A beer glass was deliberately smashed into the right eye of one of the victims, leaving him virtually blind in that eye. The second victim's jaw was broken in several places.

Two of the accused are presumed to have taken part in another attack, in which they used pepper spray and sticks against two supposed "leftists."

According to excerpts of a new report obtained by Die Welt, which will be officially presented in Berlin on Friday, acts of violence -- attempted murder, bodily harm, arson, disturbance of the peace -- perpetrated by right-wing extremists have shot up in the eastern part of Germany.

Overall, the number of right-wing extremists has fallen and presently stands at 25,000. However, the number of neo-Nazis who would be prone to violence has increased by 600 to 5,600. Among militant neo-Nazis is a group called the ‘"Autonomous Nationalists,"" which has 1000 members. They function as mirror opposites of left-wing autonomists; right down to copying the latter's way of dressing in black hoodies, black baseball caps and sunglasses.

According to the report, both sides regularly engage in street fights. In 2010, right-wingers injured 232 left-wingers, while the latter caused injury to 308 right-wingers.

Anti-Semitism is the link that binds all the various right-wing extremist groups. The report mentions 1,166 criminal offences due to underlying ‘"extremism or anti-Semitism."" In addition to acts of violence, the report says, there were 16,375, politically motivated criminal acts in 2010 by right-wing extremists of which 11,384 involved displaying swastikas or giving the Nazi salute.

Read full original article by M. Lutz and U. Müller in German

Photo credit - kejoli

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Future

AI Is Good For Education — And Bad For Teachers Who Teach Like Machines

Despite fears of AI upending the education and the teaching profession, artificial education will be an extremely valuable tool to free up teachers from rote exercises to focus on the uniquely humanistic part of learning.

Journalism teacher and his students in University of Barcelona.

Journalism students at the Blanquerna University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

© Sergi Reboredo via ZUMA press
Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ - Early in 2023, Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates included teaching among the professions most threatened by Artificial Intelligence (AI), arguing that a robot could, in principle, instruct as well as any school-teacher. While Gates is an undoubted expert in his field, one wonders how much he knows about teaching.

As an avowed believer in using technology to improve student results, Gates has argued for teachers to use more tech in classrooms, and to cut class sizes. But schools and countries that have followed his advice, pumping money into technology at school, or students who completed secondary schooling with the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have not attained the superlative results expected of the Gates recipe.

Thankfully, he had enough sense to add some nuance to his views, instead suggesting changes to teacher training that he believes could improve school results.

I agree with his view that AI can be a big and positive contributor to schooling. Certainly, technological changes prompt unease and today, something tremendous must be afoot if a leading AI developer, Geoffrey Hinton, has warned of its threat to people and society.

But this isn't the first innovation to upset people. Over 2,000 years ago, the philosopher Socrates wondered, in the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus, whether reading and writing wouldn't curb people's ability to reflect and remember. Writing might lead them to despise memory, he observed. In the 18th and 19th centuries, English craftsmen feared the machines of the Industrial Revolution would destroy their professions, producing lesser-quality items faster, and cheaper.

Their fears were not entirely unfounded, but it did not happen quite as they predicted. Many jobs disappeared, but others emerged and the majority of jobs evolved. Machines caused a fundamental restructuring of labor at the time, and today, AI will likely do the same with the modern workplace.

Many predicted that television, computers and online teaching would replace teachers, which has yet to happen. In recent decades, teachers have banned students from using calculators to do sums, insisting on teaching arithmetic the old way. It is the same dry and mechanical approach to teaching which now wants to keep AI out of the classroom.

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