I hope you will be inspired to take action today by (probably) the most effective 'foreign relations' PR political campaign in Berlin history, that involved no politicians at all.
A friend of mine made secret history last year when he formed a one-man Army against hateful propaganda in the Berlin public. His budget was zero. He has no professional background in either writing nor politics. He is not even German. He is not fluent in any language other than english. His team was 1. Yet, he acheived positive political change in Berlin, and wants to inspire you too. Immigrants in Germany should be encouraged in heart.
The story started when he moved to Berlin from the USA and noticed (after a few years of learning German language) that the bias on the BVG Metro mini-TVs was consistantly unfavorable towards the east, and almost always flattering towards the West (in particular the USA).
Please note that the BVG metro Services 2 million passengers per day, estimated. That is more than half the population of Berlin. The mini-TVs are located in the center of each train cabin, and provide a relaxing distraction from the hustle of the crowd. In practice, the TV channel flips through a predetermined roll of news Clips on various topics from Sports to politics. The content seems to be primarily contributed by the following media companies: Berliner Fenster, Bild, Die Welt, etc.
My friend noticed a pretty strong pro USA bias, and anti-china and anti-russia bias. Since he had lived in the USA for almost 2 decades, he noticed the inaccurate 'framing' regarding the overly complimentary news coverage in the USA. The 'Framing' technique is not lying per se, but rather framing is focusing on certain information while disregarding other conflicting or relevant details. In this case, he noticed after years of personal observation in the underground that the news was framing (sharing) mostly positive events from the United States, but mostly negative events from China and Russia.
First step, he wrote directly to BVG and requested that their media team review their content for bias. He never received a response. He lost the battle, and so prepared for war.
Next step, he wrote directly to the ambassador of the Chinese Embassy and the ambassador of the Russian Embassy. He wrote the email messages separately and used online Google Translator to translate from English into their native tongue. He translated backward and forward with the online tool to make sure the message was coherent, because he did not have the time, money or interest to involv a professional linguist.
- If my readers would like a separate post about the technical process for accomplishing this type of translation, please comment below.
For privacy, I have summarized what he wrote. He said that the BVG was promoting a pro West and anti East bias. He said that the BVG was promoting an unfavorable image of China and Russia to their passengers. He pointed out this was not fair because the passengers in the train were basically forced to absorb this information due to the centralized location of the televisions, and lack of alternative stimulation inside the train cabins. He said it was shameful that the media in the heart of Europe would force-feed half of Berlins population with a negative view of the east when the city / country was supposedly trying to promote a unifying, tolerant, open and globalized agenda. Especially since Berlin holds the number 5 ranking spot for most International tourists, we can assume that Chinese and Russian tourists would be deeply dismayed to see such a Negative portrayal of their home country when they travel to here. End quote.
He never received a response from either the Chinese Embassy nor Russian Embassy. Nonetheless, a few weeks after his embassy emails, something amazing happened. My friend never saw negative news in the BVG about the east from that point onward, even until to the present day. Thus concludes (probably) the single most effective political campaign in Berlin history, with absolutely no politicians involved.
If you see a negatively biased news article on the BVG about China or Russia, please comment below (dont forget to include the date you saw it). Let us work together to improve foreign relations and Global unity in the heart of Europe, Berlin.
Image credit: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2014-08/16/content_18369513.htm
