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I did not know how to make this into a blog, so feel free to move it there if you can. Anyway, for anyone who cares, I will repeat what I already said.
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I wanted to just write to say that I am in a lot of trouble. I will only deal with the most immediate one of them.
I am a PhD student in Germany. Last year, I was hit by a car and entered a long coma. I was not conscious for almost five months. They operated on me. I woke up at home. Now because I did not pay my fees for last semester, there is a legal process to deport me from the "Schengen Zone" i.e. from mainland Europe. Without a student visa, I have no excuse for being in Germany. My legal guardian is trying to fight this legally, but there is a high chance that I will be deported from Europe before getting my PhD.
The law of averages is working against me. Germans do not want more Arabs or whomever coming in and breaking laws, etc. Germany cannot show favouritism in countries except in the case of the EU. I was born in China, came in after my Ma in the Czech Republic, but am a Canadian. No exceptions for me. I did not even know that I had to pay for the next semester. As a PhD student, I do not go to regular classes anyway. I basically wrote last semester off because of the virus. There was no prospect of this thing subsiding, so even if I had paid my fees on time, it looked like I was paying for nothing. But the simple answer is that I just forgot. Too many things on my plate simultaneously... all out of other bad things are happening to me at the same time as this. Everyone wants me to stay, so I still hope that this will be resolved somehow.
I heard that if I am expelled from continental Europe, they wanted to keep me out until my medical issues were resolved. I do not even know about my medical issues. Because of this virus lockdown thing, I have not been able to go back to the hospital that operated on me to ask what if anything I should do.
That is another way that the law of averages is working against me. They have a minimal time period in which you have to live in Germany before you could get a German passport. You have to give up your previous citizenship, unless again, if you are a citizen of the EU and some other exceptions, none of which I qualify for. I am used to living here and there. I am 34 now. Lived in China for 7 years, Canada for 14 years, Germany for 7 years, Czech Republic for 3 years, England for 1 year, and you have to round the numbers up a bit. I speak every language of the countries I just listed, but those are only half of the languages I know....I just read that Germany votes against more immigration. No doubt they are against so many Arabs coming here and breaking laws. There has never been anyone like me, but since Germany has to follow that law of averages, I might fall victim to it. It is in the books, I was just informed today. The only way out, that we could think of at the time, was to have a sham marriage with someone from the EU. I do not know the legal status now, I hope that this thing is resolves itself somehow, but it is looking terrible for me... this thing pulled onto of all my other present problems.
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Norway28240 Posts
Sad to hear old friend. I really hope your problems work out. I can't offer anything but my sympathy, but of that, you have plenty.
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If I understand you correctly you have been exmatriculated because you did not pay the semester fee and due to this you are not eligible for a student visa renewal?
Didn't you receive a demand note before being officially exmatriculated? If not, this may be a possible avenue to object the exmatriculation. Either way, you should have a set amount of time after receiving the "Exmatrikulationsbescheid" to formally object the exmatriculation (normally a month). This is something you should absolutely do if the deadline has not passed yet - preferably after getting legal advice first, but if there is no time to do so, an immediate (so you do not miss the deadline) simple formal letter with "I object due to X or Y" could have a positive impact if you decide to go to court. In any case, you should check if your situation could be presented as a "Härtefall" that would revert the exmatriculation (be it due to corona, your health issues, or any combination of whatever reasons some lawyer's imagination can come up with).
Legal advice is probably absolutely neccessary in your case. No matter if you already have a lawyer or not, you should also try to take advantage of any legal consultations your univesity offers: Most universities offer free "Rechtsberatung", sometimes legal advice is also offered by the AStA and/or the "Ausländervertretung". Even if no legal support is offered, it is worth calling up the AStA and explaining your problem and see if they give you some guidance.
German bureaucracy is pretty heartless but it is also quite sluggish. If none of the above offers any avenue for action, you may consider if any acts towards you or anything you have in writing could be used to claim that any decisions on your situation have been influenced by discrimination (on the grounds of ethnicity or disability). It may sound far fetched, but both are touchy topics in Germany and may be worth a shot - a formal complaint about racial discrimination to the appropriate instituation was all it took to revert a rejection back when I was about to start school. If nothing else works, you could consult with a lawyer on "Migrationsrecht" and see if he has any ideas. Although, I can only assume that this route would most likely prevent you from continuing your PhD even if you are allowed to stay in Germany.
Maybe something from the above could help you find a way to resolve the situation. Or maybe, you have already considered everything mentioned and much more. Either way, I wish you good luck.
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It's just awesome that your coma does not seem to have caused brain damage, judging from you expression ability. It is actually decent and was neatly arranged. Add to that the fact of your unlikely survival from the crash and the total leads me to think that you have plenty of reasons to appreciate life and not to whine and complain about something as insignificant (in my opinion at least) as being unable to finish your PhD. Yet here you are, choosing to do the latter instead of the former. I will join my opinion to the man above, go ahead and do whatever you legally can to stay in Germany and finish the PhD if you think that's beneficial for you. But if you fail I think you should do your best to keep a placid countenance and move on with your life. I am trying to put myself in your shoes, never an easy task, to be sure. I guess I would make certain all immediate danger and brain trauma is absent, then I would look for legal advice, as already suggested. And also look for other ways to stay in Germany besides a student visa. I think you can start a job and the employer will support you and help with visa issues. Whatever you do, do not go into a sham marriage though. This seems so degrading that even the thought occurrence is repulsive for me. I really wish you all the best and I hope you will steer your life for the best outcome!
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Apparently my academic supervisor now has medical issues of his own, and could not be contacted.
I know that Germany can still be sensitive to charges of racism or whatever. I am not trying to be a holier - than-thou person about it, but it has never been in my character. I cannot hit a person where he cannot defend himself. I will never lynch another person unfairly, even though it seems that this legal issue is deeply unfair towards me.
On that charge of racism, I was just thinking about that lawsuit of "Asian-Americans" against Harvard for "racism." Asian-Americans have to attain much higher grades in school to get into the top schools in the US, including Harvard, than any other race. As far as I know, the guidelines say that race could be one of multiple factors, as long as it is not the only factor.
Asians did not invent the modern University system. It was a European creation. But they are winning the game where the rules were set by another people. As far as I know, you could be rejected from a top university in the USA with no explanations given as to why you didn't make it. The multiple factors non-explanation just sounds to me like a thing that could cause the very thing that it pretends to guard against, i.e. racism or sexism. No one has to explain himself. I do not want a Ivy League university system with 80% Asians either. Asians attain the best IQ scores in the world. They get the highest grades in school. But they lack something that no one can quantify. I read about the "Asian creativity deficit." That struck me as being true too...you cannot quantify it...
I study history. Where there are no Asians. Even my mother told me to not do history, because it would get me nowhere, with no job. I ignored her. Coming in from China, I noticed that math in the west was a huge step down. I was spared the worst, because throughout school I went to a "gifted class." But still I got perfect on every math test through school. Math bored me because I said back then : whereas in history no one can know the truth, in math all you do are the same exercises over and over again. I got very high grades on those, but they bored me. Almost no Asian does history, or literature, or philosophy, etc... They completely dominate math, the natural sciences and IT. As I said, Asians simply have different life goals than western people. People in the west cannot even imagine how materialistic they are. Fine. Let them dominate math and the natural sciences then. Let them make the most money.
I am Asian by blood, but quite western in my mindset. (Some people have called me a banana.) I do not care about money or how much money I make, or my living standards. About that confused entry system into the top American universities, I think they should at least explain why they chose this or that person. Handicap the Asians, I would be all in favour of that. The present system does not work... where you only look at grades. But at least let us know on what basis you are judging the applicants.
One more thing to say : I also noticed that racially, the Asians never fight their own corner. In terms of test results and IQs, Asians > Whites > Blacks. But in some weird way, Blacks > Whites > Asians. Maybe the indescribable "personality factor," whatever that is.
In the USA, a lot of Whites would prove that they are not racist by having a token black friend. In Canada, a much smaller country, we have almost no blacks, and many more Asians per capita. I cannot remember any of them in politics, or on TV, or doing anything of real social importance. In the USA, Asians are so small in every way that no one even thinks about them. I doubt many Americans are even racist against them, because being racist in the USA means that you have another obvious target. Blacks and Asians have almost the opposite problems abroad. Blacks have low IQ, get bad grades in school, commit more crime, but have "personality." Asians are the opposite. Culture is another one of those unsolvable things for me. You can say that Japan is "westernised" economically, but in culture, in my experience, it is still confucian. Perhaps there will be an eternal battle of ideas.
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Contact a lawyer or an organization that can help get you a lawyer (pro bono if necessary), the reasons for your problem are not your fault and you should seek protection through the law which should be on your side here. There are definitely resources you can tap that it sounds like you aren't, people who will help you.
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TLADT24917 Posts
I'm not personally sure of how the law works over there, but ggrrg's post sounds really indepth and gives a ton of options. Explore those imo and go from there. Best of luck and hope things improve for you!
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On May 26 2020 18:24 MoltkeWarding wrote: Blacks have low IQ, get bad grades in school, commit more crime, but have "personality." Asians are the opposite. Culture is another one of those unsolvable things for me. You can say that Japan is "westernised" economically, but in culture, in my experience, it is still confucian. Perhaps there will be an eternal battle of ideas. If your thesis is anywhere near as dumb as these statements, I don't think school is really working for you.
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I cannot see what you even mean by that. All I can think of is that I read that you are from China. The Chinese are Japanophobic as hell. It is hardly possible to describe to a Western person how that oriental brainwashing works. The Chinese never forget. In English, the term Confucian cultures is used as a kind of shorthand to refer to all East Asian cultures. Including the Chinese and the Japanese. Japan once looked up to China as an elder brother, until the "betrayal," when Japan started to look towards England, modernised much earlier than China, and the entire matter came to a head in WW2. I do not care much about east Asians in general now. I cannot favour one country over the other in that China vs. Japan war of words. Otherwise I do not know what you mean. Everything I have done academically has been very successful so far, even if I did not really believe in the class, and thought that it was a waste of time.
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Right, it should be obvious to any intellectual that black people are dumb dumbs, and Asians have no creativity.
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Um.... I never made any claims of either thing about either race, if you read my actual words.
And what I said about test scores and IQ was what was established in statistical averages. I did not make up what I wanted to believe.
You can dispute whether IQ actually means anything, if you wanted to make some sort of argument. What you just said meant nothing.
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I don't totally fault reincremate for reacting to someone pointing out these statistics because a lot of racialists use them to advance their belief that black people are genetically inferior. Of course, I find it disturbing that a lot of people seem emotionally invested in believing that blacks are genetically stupider and more criminal, despite scant evidence supporting that notion. That said, MoltkeWarding never attributed these statistics to genetic causes and I think it's fair to make generalizations the way he is doing because the statistical differences are pretty significant and well-supported.
I don't really agree with his point about the Asian creativity deficit either but he stated it as an opinion.
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Update : false alarm. I am not getting deported. New issue: my mother lied about everything. Not only the deportation. Nothing to bother tl.net about. The one crisis mentioned here is apparently over. Now I have my many private problems to deal with.
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On May 27 2020 21:18 Anc13nt wrote: I don't totally fault reincremate for reacting to someone pointing out these statistics because a lot of racialists use them to advance their belief that black people are genetically inferior. Of course, I find it disturbing that a lot of people seem emotionally invested in believing that blacks are genetically stupider and more criminal, despite scant evidence supporting that notion. That said, MoltkeWarding never attributed these statistics to genetic causes and I think it's fair to make generalizations the way he is doing because the statistical differences are pretty significant and well-supported.
I don't really agree with his point about the Asian creativity deficit either but he stated it as an opinion.
. I was also uncomfortable with the post. You're right in saying OP avoids directly linking the IQ statistics to anything, but bringing up the statistics without linking them to socioeconomic inequality and its effect on the development of cognitive skills, or making an effort to separate said development and innate mental ability, but instead using them to make sweeping generalizations about racial identities, just seems disingenuous to say the least.
Anyway glad your immediate crisis has passed, sounds like a shitty situation
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No one could have been poorer than in the China that I grew up in, if you are talking about socio-economic inequality. That China was pretty close to the poorest country in the world back then. Yet one website states that the average IQ in China is 105. Way higher than average. So obviously it is not a question of absolute poverty, with how they measure IQs these days. Maybe relative poverty? But then, you would have to explain why some countries, if their citizens came to the west would be classified as medically retarded.
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United Kingdom10443 Posts
On May 27 2020 22:52 MoltkeWarding wrote: No one could have been poorer than in the China that I grew up in, if you are talking about socio-economic inequality. That China was pretty close to the poorest country in the world back then. Yet one website states that the average IQ in China is 105. Way higher than average. So obviously it is not a question of absolute poverty, with how they measure IQs these days. Maybe relative poverty? But then, you would have to explain why some countries, if their citizens came to the west would be classified as medically retarded.
Maybe google IQ cultural bias and educate yourself before spouting some debunked shit that was used to promote social cleansing/ eugenic arguments.
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I just did.
"According to some researchers, the “cultural specificity” of intelligence makes IQ tests biased towards the environments in which they were developed – namely white, Western society."
The countries which have the highest IQ averages according to this list I am looking at says that those countries are neither white nor western.
If you want a specific article read, link the article so that we can all analyse it.
BTW, I know nothing about your formal "education," but I am going to venture a guess that formally, I am much more educated than you. Informally, I have read many more books, and own a private library that is much larger than yours.
P. S. In the old times, IQ testing was a strategy some used to remove the very "social cleansing" you are referring to.
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On May 27 2020 22:42 catplanetcatplanet wrote:Show nested quote +On May 27 2020 21:18 Anc13nt wrote: I don't totally fault reincremate for reacting to someone pointing out these statistics because a lot of racialists use them to advance their belief that black people are genetically inferior. Of course, I find it disturbing that a lot of people seem emotionally invested in believing that blacks are genetically stupider and more criminal, despite scant evidence supporting that notion. That said, MoltkeWarding never attributed these statistics to genetic causes and I think it's fair to make generalizations the way he is doing because the statistical differences are pretty significant and well-supported.
I don't really agree with his point about the Asian creativity deficit either but he stated it as an opinion.
. I was also uncomfortable with the post. You're right in saying OP avoids directly linking the IQ statistics to anything, but bringing up the statistics without linking them to socioeconomic inequality and its effect on the development of cognitive skills, or making an effort to separate said development and innate mental ability, but instead using them to make sweeping generalizations about racial identities, just seems disingenuous to say the least. Anyway glad your immediate crisis has passed, sounds like a shitty situation
I feel like what he is saying is similar to someone pointing out that Trump supporters are significantly less educated than Clinton supporters. The statement is probably true regardless of how you define "poorly educated" and they are significant enough to the point that a useful generalization can be made but they don't describe every Trump supporter. It surely explains to me why Trump supporters take His word as gospel..
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On May 28 2020 02:45 MoltkeWarding wrote: I just did.
"According to some researchers, the “cultural specificity” of intelligence makes IQ tests biased towards the environments in which they were developed – namely white, Western society."
The countries which have the highest IQ averages according to this list I am looking at says that those countries are neither white nor western.
If you want a specific article read, link the article so that we can all analyse it.
If the average "intelligence" in China is so high, why does no one in the country know how to stand on an escalator? (proof: come to China and see for yourself). While we're making sweeping generalizations here, I'd venture to say scoring higher on things like IQ tests is pretty much unavoidable when parents and teachers literally beat students into academic submission from a young age into adulthood. China and countries in its sphere of cultural influence have a long, well-documented history of valuing standardized test scores (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination), so it's not surprising if aggregately Chinese people and other Asians still score higher on standardized tests, "western" or not. Is IQ a meaningful measurement? Probably not. If so, please explain how. Otherwise, I don't see why you'd even bother to bring it up.
BTW, I know nothing about your formal "education," but I am going to venture a guess that formally, I am much more educated than you. Informally, I have read many more books, and own a private library that is much larger than yours.
P. S. In the old times, IQ testing was a strategy some used to remove the very "social cleansing" you are referring to.
This is like the pseudo-intellectual equivalent of "do you even lift bro?"
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On May 27 2020 22:52 MoltkeWarding wrote: No one could have been poorer than in the China that I grew up in, if you are talking about socio-economic inequality. That China was pretty close to the poorest country in the world back then. Yet one website states that the average IQ in China is 105. Way higher than average. So obviously it is not a question of absolute poverty, with how they measure IQs these days. Maybe relative poverty? But then, you would have to explain why some countries, if their citizens came to the west would be classified as medically retarded.
One significant cause of iq differences come from defects, exposure to toxins and nutritional deficiencies acquired from birth or in the early years of development. That explains why the average IQ in a lot of poor countries is pretty low. I would imagine that infant mortality is a good proxy for how unfavourable the conditions are for infants in a certain country so I am basing my subsequent analysis on this (there are probably better ways to measure this but this one seemed easy to use).
I'm guessing you are mainly referring to sub-saharan african countries for your last statement. I think the disparity in average iq may be somewhat explained by worser living conditions for infants. Sub-saharan african countries have very high infant mortality rates (overall, almost 50 per 1000 births) and has had much higher infant mortality rates than China for many years. There was a time when China was basically close to as poor as sub-saharan African countries but the government was able to provide healthcare to much of the rural population through the rural co-operative medical scheme, which greatly reduced infant mortality and increased life expectancy by a lot (this is probably one of the few good things that I think Mao Zedong did) during the 70s. My hunch is that sub-saharan african countries probably were behind the curve compared to China when it came to providing state-funded healthcare.
So I think the difference in iqs between poor countries might be partially attributable to quality of healthcare but this is my speculation (yes I am aware of the lack of rigor in my argument).
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