Fashion as a phenomenon is the predominance of a certain style in a particular area of life or culture. It is fashion that dictates the style or type of clothing, behaviour, lifestyle that is popular in a society at any given time.
Everyone knows that Paris is the founding father of fashion in couture, London – in women’s hats, and Rome – in shoes.
But it is Washington sowing chaos with their military interventions in a number of countries around the world thereby causing an unprecedented flow of refugees into Europe, has set a trend for a variety of personal and public security equipment.
On New Year’s Eve, there were mass attacks on the residents of Cologne by migrants and refugees who were seeking asylum from the chaos unleashed in their countries by Washington. The police have already received hundreds of reports from women, victims of sexual harassment, and have also recorded numerous thefts. According to a number of witnesses, the attackers included young men of North African and Arab appearance. After that, records were made of attacks on immigrants from Muslim countries all over Germany, as well as mass protests and riots organised by right-wing groups. Similar crimes occurred in a number of other German cities: Hamburg, Stuttgart, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Nuremberg, as well as in Sweden, Finland, Austria, Switzerland and other European countries.
The aforementioned events have given rise to the urgent need and the new fashion for security equipment in the Old World. Direct proof of this was the recent Perimeter Protection trade fair in Nuremberg.
In an interview with The Guardian, Martin Möhring from the State Office of Criminal Investigation of Bavaria noted that recently there was a dramatic increase in the number of domestic break-ins in Europe, which was primarily due to the open borders, proximity to Eastern Europe, and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. “Now, due to the refugees in Europe, people’s subjective sense of security has been further shattered,” he added.
Today’s European market faces a boom that is growing simultaneously with the refugee crisis in Europe, as well as with the increase of wider geopolitical concerns and fears of terrorism. Citizens are seeking to protect their property, while the government’s aim is to strengthen borders across their entire length.
That is why there is a high demand for electrified fences, which cost several thousand Euros per square metre. In particular, they have recently been erected by the Hungarian company Umirs over a stretch of 1,000 km on the border between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Iran. If the fence vibrates, specific electrical sensors trigger an alarm to the headquarters. The fences can also be equipped with the function of recording attempts to dig under the fence, and they can be fitted with galvanised razor wire, which has been dubbed “NATO concertina.” Experts on the boundaries note that the number of security fences and border walls between countries in Europe now is close to that during the days of the Berlin Wall. As Jorge Saura, Director of the Spanish Quickfence company producing metal mesh, notes, “People really feel the lack of security right now, and they are right. All these situations with the refugees and the bombings in Paris, and events in Cologne increased the people’s need in self-protection. Building a fence means that you have a chance to decide to let someone in or not.”
Sprays with hot chilli pepper extract, which are installed in homes and public places to protect against intruders, also enjoy success.
According to Handelsblatt, German residents frightened by the attacks in Cologne started buying up personal security equipment in their masses to deter attacking refugees and immigrants. According to sellers, shops in Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, Düsseldorf have sold out all stun guns, while the sales of pepper spray, air pistols and pop guns have increased. It is noted that unlike air pistols and pop guns, stun guns do not require a special weapon permit.
After the Mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker advised residents not to allow strangers closer than arm’s length, a gun shop in Frankfurt am Main sells pepper spray under the slogan “Always at arm’s length.”
Media in Germany and in a number of other European countries state in their publications that the migration crisis in the EU has led to a panic among Europeans, and, consequently, to increased demand for self-defence means.
European experts also point out that initially the wrong policy regarding refugees was carried out. By pursuing interests of the United States, the problems in the Middle East were ignored. Thus, the wave of migration started, and the entire idea of open doors for refugees was not effective. As a result, the EU has to reap the benefits of its failed policy.
As for almost ubiquitous deterioration in personal and public safety due to the acts of provocation carried out by the US around the world, the former head of the Israeli Nativ secret service Yaakov Kedmi recently set the record straight. In particular, he pointed out that “flirting with terrorists is no good. Those, who flirted with them, divided the terrorists into “bad” and “good” ones and into “moderate” and “useful” ones. But soon they forget that the “moderate ones” become “bad”, when they attack their sponsors. It was true for the US-nurtured bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and financing of terrorist training camps in Chechnya that were called “moderate opposition” in the West. One can hardly forget that it was Al-Qaeda militants who attacked Serbs in Bosnia, burned down churches and villages. Were they moderate?”
Y.Kedmi is convinced that through the fault of the United States and Europe there are no conditions for normal life in the Middle East and North Africa now. Therefore, now Europe is forced to pay for the US hand in the destruction of numerous countries, and plunging Libya, Syria and Iraq into chaos, it ultimately has to deal with fifteen million refugees.
The best way out of the current situation can only be the West’s recognition of its mistakes and its constructive change.
Vladimir Odintsov, political commentator, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
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