November 2007
Editorial
November Editorial
Dear Reader,
Munich politicians must have an inclination for schizophrenia. Some of us had suspected this for a long time, but during this year’s Octoberfest their divided selves really came out of the closet. On the one hand, they devote a lot of money and energy to anti-drug and prevention programs, highlighting drugs and alcohol as a main source of personal and social problems. On the other, they support the world’s biggest mass booze-up, promoting it as the seasonal highlight for tourists and natives alike. The legalized town-wide two-week daily delirium for thousands of adolescents is as frightening as it is disgusting. Watch these adolescents gulping buckets of beer, or in the evening after the last keg is shut down, stumbling on shaky legs behind the tents with either pale or red bloated faces, glassy eyes, throwing up, urinating everywhere, babbling and without mind-body coordination: You can’t help but wonder about schizo city politics. During these two weeks, the drunk bums who populate Sendlinger Tor Platz, the Hauptbahnhof, Orleansplatz and other public spaces can enjoy a temporary feeling of equality with respectable Munich society. And they even strike a better figure than most: They’re used to being drunk and walk relatively upright, do not mess up the road and leave passersby alone. But why do we look at these bums with disdain, while the bourgeois and political elite swing their steins every day in their reserved boxes, solicit the public to gulp more and more, and proudly announce that this year’s beer turnover was the highest ever? Then they return to town hall, happy and full of good Munich beer, to cut the budget for street workers and drug prevention measures. Perhaps this is not schizo to them, but logos.
Cheers,
Angela Wilson
Publisher
