A Seminar at the Martin-Luther-University Halle
Ha! This time I really felt remembered to Pictures in the Head and the caricature. Almost the same situation occurred as how I proposed to interpret the caricature with two white people sitting shivering on a bench when a black man appears.
Last Tuesday I was at the “Ausländerbehörde” (Foreigners Department) to apply for a residence permit for S. It is the only day they have opened for longer (from 9 until 18) and some people were waiting there. The majority were blacks. But also a girl from China, who is working for an import-export company near Halle as she told us, wanted to renew her residence permit.
Two counters were opened that day, each in a different room. At the first time when I was in the foreigners department I was quite surprised how unfriendly the room with the counter is. After you passed the door you can only make one step into the room and then you reach a wooden counter which is as high as my chest and from there until the ceiling continues as glass window. There are no chairs in the “guest’s” room. The officer of course has much more space and lives a lot more convenient there. Although at that time I could imagine why it is how it is, I found it actually absurd.
On Tuesday then I understood quite better. At the same time S. and I were called in, there was in the neighbour room a client who let his emotions out. Already in the waiting room his desperation and excitement could be seen. But now he could be heard. -His voice as well as his hand beating on the glass window. The officer said dry to me what I thought in the same moment: “Now you know why we have those glass windows here.”
As we came out to the waiting room again, the noisemaker was still in there. The waiting people shook their heads and commented the sounds from inside with sighs. Probably nobody of them had wanted the loud guy from inside to sit next to them when he comes out. The same scene like on the caricature could have happened and everybody had shivered, no matter which skin colour the sitting people or the person approaching have.
Last Tuesday I was at the “Ausländerbehörde” (Foreigners Department) to apply for a residence permit for S. It is the only day they have opened for longer (from 9 until 18) and some people were waiting there. The majority were blacks. But also a girl from China, who is working for an import-export company near Halle as she told us, wanted to renew her residence permit.
Two counters were opened that day, each in a different room. At the first time when I was in the foreigners department I was quite surprised how unfriendly the room with the counter is. After you passed the door you can only make one step into the room and then you reach a wooden counter which is as high as my chest and from there until the ceiling continues as glass window. There are no chairs in the “guest’s” room. The officer of course has much more space and lives a lot more convenient there. Although at that time I could imagine why it is how it is, I found it actually absurd.
On Tuesday then I understood quite better. At the same time S. and I were called in, there was in the neighbour room a client who let his emotions out. Already in the waiting room his desperation and excitement could be seen. But now he could be heard. -His voice as well as his hand beating on the glass window. The officer said dry to me what I thought in the same moment: “Now you know why we have those glass windows here.”
As we came out to the waiting room again, the noisemaker was still in there. The waiting people shook their heads and commented the sounds from inside with sighs. Probably nobody of them had wanted the loud guy from inside to sit next to them when he comes out. The same scene like on the caricature could have happened and everybody had shivered, no matter which skin colour the sitting people or the person approaching have.
About me
- I'm Gerolf
- From Germany
- I study cultural sciences and am currently working for the biggest global student organisation
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