Like others I found Wolfgang's post very thoughtful and moving. I agree with spaw - how wonderful it is to read things like this, from someone of a similar generation but a different culture, from the other side of the planet. And I have previously wondered what it was like for you, Wolfgang, growing up with all that to deal with.

As you might have picked up I have worked with refugees for many years and read about Germany's enlightened policies towards refugees in the 90s. To me that was a sign that Germans had truly thought about things - their current humane policies are much more enlightened than Australia's, for example, and they set a good example for other European countries.

The games vary from country to country, in Afghanistan children of the Hazara minority in central Afghanistan play a game called "taliban" which basically involves raiding a pretend food truck and eating all the imaginary food they want.

Media and politicians demonise Muslim Australians - I see some parts of the population uncritically accepting whatever guff they are fed. It can happen anywhere, and our country which was so progressive a couple of decades ago has become stained with racism.

In Australia our equivalent of growing up with a "whitewashed" view of history meant not finding out about the history of what had happened to indigenous people here until I was an adult. There was nothing about it in our history education at school.

And we used Persil to do our washing, too!

best wishes

Freda