Munich Foreigner Advisory Council - Vote 2004

I didn't know anything about this, but found out about it on the Munich Found website. Strange, because I almost never read the mag as I find it doesn't normally contain anything interesting.

Any road up, apparently we (that is, we foreigners living in Munich), have a council to represent our interests. Heh? Why did nobody ever tell me about this? The article says that the turnout last time was just 10%. Well, duh, maybe that is because nobody knows about it!

http://www.munichfound.de/new.cfm?News_ID=1633

If you look at the website they also seem to organise a lot of women's swimming days. Hmmm, goddamn sexual discrimination again!!

Would you trust this man with your children or your interests???
Cumali Naz - Vorsitzender des Ausländerbeirates

Anyone can run for the council however, and Keydeck, if you did and were elected, you could push for mandatory Polizeidepp on the ubahns. Or would that be Depppolizei?

I received a letter asking me to vote in the upcoming elections for Munich's Foreigner Advisory Council. Has anyone heard of these peeps? Anyone planning to vote in this election?

The council claims to represent and provide valuable services to foreigners in Munich. The vote looks open to legal foreigners in general as well as people with dual nationality and naturalized citizens.

Their three major areas of involvement are summarized as:
1. Community Politics - For Munich residents without a German passport
2. Against Discrimination - For Integration
3. Bridges- Between the municipal admin, clubs, associations, and political groups

etc. etc...

Yeah, I'll be voting; even though as an EU Citizen I already get to vote for Munich City Council anyway.

From what I remember about the lists last time, it seemed pretty much a stich up between the largest communities in Munich.

They don't have huge powers but it is worth voting as it is an institution that the CSU has plans to abolish if they ever get to run Munich City Council cos "everyone could choose to apply to be a German so it is unncecessary"...

Yeah, I plan on voting too. You have something like 5 days to do it in too, so there's no panic for just one day. I also plan on voting as this is the ONE thing that I get to vote for, after paying all my taxes. If they are my only representatives for the government, by god, I want them to represent me.