Allaa Faham: Ladies and gentlemen,
we are GLS.
I'm Abdul, he is Allaa.
Abdul Abbasi: The other way around. I'm Abdul.
AF: Sorry. I'm Allaa, he is Abdul.
We come from Syria.
I've been in Germany for about two years, Abdul for three years.
We started our project about one year ago.
Basically, it is about -
AF: our - - AA: Allaa!
AF: overcoming the - - AA: Allaa!
AF: prejudices between the - - AA: Allaa, Allaa! - AF: What?
AA: Do you actually have Nutella in Syria? That choco -
Do you actually eat chocolate in Syria? It's nothing you know about.
AF: We do.
AA: You have four wives in Syria, right?
Every man needs four wives. One is not enough, right?
Of course, I understand. I am multicultural - no problem.
AF: But it's not true.
(Laughter)
AA: But they all work at home.
AF: No, my mother works outside it.
AA: Outside in the garden? (Laughter)
AF: No, at a company, actually.
AA: But they are all veiled.
How can you tell your wives apart?
Must be difficult.
But I have an idea.
Every wife has a number like the people at the Olympics.
(Laughter)
AF: Stop it. That's not true at all.
That's not true.
AA: Of course, it's true. You are from Syria.
AF: Nope.
AA: But I have this question, I'm 100% certain about it.
AF: OK, shoot.
AA: Do you have free elections in Syria?
AF: Yes, of course, we have - elections?
AA: Yes?
AF: No.
AA: See. It's true. It's really bombastic where you live, right?
AF: Bombastic?
AA: Yes, I mean, Syrians, bombs. Do you have a bomb with you?
AF: Abdul, do you want to see a real bomb right now?
Do you want to see a real bomb right now?
AA: Let's continue. We make cool videos, people.
AF: I am talking to you.
AA: Nope.
AF: Do you want to see a real bomb right now?
AA: 400 [people]. Allaa, no.
AF: One, two, three.
Yes, that's my bomb right here.
(Applause)
Many people associate my identity, my Syrian passport, where I come from,
with bombs, with death, with violence, with war, with blood,
but to these bombs that we always show, no matter where,
United States, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, anywhere,
they pay little attention,
unlike to the real bombs, of course.
This, ladies and gentleman, is the step to take
to be a real stereotype.
We get the kind of jokes we just showed you
from a lot of people,
AA: Ha.
AF: Abdul, get up.
AA: Are we in paradise?
AF: No, we're still in Münster.
AA: God!
(Laughter)
(Applause)
AF: When you hear these ideas, these questions, this information,
you get the impression that we look like this in Syria.
AA: On YouTube, we sometimes get hate comments,
they write: 'Go back to your camel!'
That would be really cool.
(Laughter)
I would love to have a camel in Aleppo, but unfortunately we don't have camels.
I'd love to, but it would be difficult.
What's the real problem when faced with something we don't know?
We become somehow insecure,
and this insecurity is really a sign of weakness.
And this weakness demonstrates vulnerability.
That's why we try to make it go away as well as we possibly can.
And if we ask a question
about a certain community that we don't know,
we try to answer the question by making generalizations.
We use our own selective individual experiences.
Maybe I once got to know someone from Mexico,
and then I have this picture in my head of how Mexicans maybe are.
That's wrong.
For example, on holidays.
You are simply everywhere.
No matter where you go, there are always Germans.
In Syria, there is war,
but maybe there's a few Germans there on holiday.
Holidays are important.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Once, I saw this man at six in the morning,
and he reserved a beach chair with - What is the word? -
a towel - at six in the morning.
And now, when I think of or about Germans,
there's only this one image in my head,
and I use it to be able to say that I know what Germans are like.
Yes, all of them at six in the morning -
Actually what I am doing here is I am building stereotypes.
AF: The thing with stereotypes is, although we try to do without them -
Abdul doesn't really try.
The thing is that it is a general characteristic of us all.
It is in our nature.
People make mistakes.
I, for example, knew only three things about Germany:
Oktoberfest, Mannschaft and the sentence 'I love you'.
At the beginning, I only knew this sentence.
So I said to anyone, 'I love you.'
(Laughter)
What? Why?
AA: Yes, I understand.
AF: You probably know that Germans are often stereotyped as angry, serious -
and not having a sense of humour.
Which isn't really true, is it?
AA: Well, my girlfriend is sitting here. Of course, it's true.
AF: Even if the Germans
are incomparable in their tolerance towards other cultures,
at least in my experience,
there are still those stereotypes about Syrians in Germany.
The reason for that, of course, is that we, Germans and Syrians,
have little contact with one another.
This is where we need to build bridges.
It is important that we communicate with each other more,
that we talk to each other more.
It is important that we remind ourselves
that we are not all peas from the same pod.
Germans aren't clones, nor are Syrians.
AA: The word 'social', or in German 'sozial',
comes from the Latin word -
Habibi?
Can I look at my text? -
'socialis'.
This word was used in Latin to describe communities
that are nice, polite, cool to each other.
We can actually use this original meaning
and apply it to today's situation.
We can describe humanity as a 'social community'
that has both good eggs and bad eggs.
And for that reason, ladies and gentlemen,
we founded GLS, German LifeStyle.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
AF: Nice. - AA: Cool, right?
AF: We started our project a year ago.
Basically, it is about us Germans and Syrians
talking more to each other,
together overcoming prejudices towards Germans
as well as those towards us, Syrians,
understanding our differences.
We now have approx. 90,000 [supporters] on Facebook.
AA: Yeah, approximately 90,000.
AF: And 20,000 [subscribers] on YouTube.
This is one of our videos.
It's actually a little old but -
AA: Wait.
That's what we do.
(Laughter)
Try again.
We've done that too.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
No problem. We just do it live. Yes?
(Video) [The Germans]
AF: Do you want some chocolate?
AA: No, thanks. Not for me. I'm OK.
AF: OK.
[The Syrians]
(Arabic)
AF: Very nice.
(Arabic)
We were completely contented with our lives.
Before the war, scarcely any of us actually thought about leaving Syria,
but it has sort of come to us as our destiny,
and it all really hurts.
We want to integrate ourselves into your society,
we want to respect the German constitution.
We want to live together with you peacefully,
and for us to uphold each other,
because together we are stronger.
But we can't do it on our own, and neither can you.
Therefore, it would be good if we supported each other,
because we'd like [something to become of us].
We have lost a lot,
but we still hold onto our dreams
and we want to make them come true,
to become full participants in German society.
(End of video)
(Applause)
AF: Thank you.
After thinking about it a lot, we came to this thought:
We have two different societies with a bridge between them,
and we need to cross that bridge.
So we asked ourselves:
How can we cross that bridge?
How can we break the ice?
It is so easy.
It's actually like getting to know a woman.
AA: Yes. - AF: Abdul?
AA: No. - AF: Might you explain to us -
AA: Exactly. Thank you.
AF: - how you get to know women?
AA: No.
AF: Why?
AA: It's all in the past. I don't want to talk about it.
AF: Please!
AA: I am a completely different person now.
I am not a horse anymore.
AF: 400 people are waiting.
AA: (Arabic)
AF: Please!
Come here.
The stage is yours.
And after that?
(Laughter)
What did you do next?
Please!
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Careful, careful!
(Sings: 'My Heart Will Go On')
(Laughter)
(Applause)
AA: Humour.
You see, with humour, you can actually break the ice.
For us, humour is actually a universal language,
and no one is afraid to speak or understand it.
You are, for example, in a foreign culture.
You are afraid to do something wrong.
Your counterparts are also afraid of doing something wrong.
But suddenly, you all laugh.
Now, it's not more important what you have done.
Maybe you did something wrong in the other culture.
But that is not important, no worry - you all laugh -
no drawing apart, no judging each other; you share the moment.
You feel a connection with each other.
AF: Wow.
Nice. - AA: Good, right?
AF: But still, there are people
who don't want to open up to other cultures and countries.
They don't want to make the effort.
And it does take an effort,
discussion is always difficult,
it's difficult to change ideas you have had for so long.
But the question is now:
What do these people miss?
AA: Many people shy differences.
For us, there is nothing wrong with being different.
Being different isn't always a negative thing.
Our experience has shown us
that multicultural people are more open, more tolerant,
than people in isolated, closed societies.
We can learn a lot from each other and share things.
You -
me, for example, we -
I can show you how to cook, can't I?
And you, for example, can give me your German passport.
(Laughter)
German passport.
AF: Religious bigotry, racism and nationalism build boundaries.
We can only overcome this boundary
by getting to know each other;
by realizing what we all have in common:
we are all humans.
AA: That is actually the goal of our project,
the goal of GLS.
Now, back to my first point.
I don't want to have just one image of Germany.
AF: I don't want to have just one image of Syria.
AA: And it's irrelevant
whether it's a good picture or a bad picture.
We firmly believe that no society in this world
should be reduced to one single stereotype.
That's wrong. That's bad.
(Applause)
We, I, Allaa, the horse and many refugees,
many new refugees, many new members of society,
just want to tell you
that the war must not be allowed to be stronger than us.
Our fate must not be allowed to get the better of us.
AF: We are stronger than our reality.
White is actually the colour of peace,
and we now have four flowers.
AA: This one here -
is for my destroyed country,
for my city.
AF: This one is for Germany.
AA: This one is for all the people in the world
who suffer as a result of war.
AF: And this one is for everyone who stands for humanity.
AA: Thank you. - AF: Thanks.
(Applause)