Justice for All … Easties Need Not Apply

This story in Le Figaro is really something. A woman in Germany sued a company for discrimination after being turned down for a job because she came from Eastern Germany.

Of course, it wasn't put as clearly as that. Somebody at the company, where the woman had applied for the position of accountant, forgot to detach from her CV a post-it which had the mention "Ossi" (Eastie) and a minus sign in front of it.

The court decided that she wasn't discriminated against because – get this – she had the same ethnic origin as the people at the company who rejected her.

I never would have thought it was ok to discriminate against people from other cities within the same country, but there you go. From now on, people from the south can discriminate against those from the north, east, west, etc. As long as they all have the same ethnic origin.

But what's the deal with the Ossis? Well, the Wessis (Westies, ok?) think they're lazy, haven't worked a day in their life and can't solve simple tasks.

A lot of Westies (everywhere, not just in Germany) think the Easties are only trying to take advantage of freedom to travel within the EU to do mischief, abuse generous benefit legislation, thieve and rape.

True? No. But it's enormously self-satisfying to feel you are superior to a certain category of people – and in this increasingly politically-correct world, the opportunities get fewer and fewer.

One other point here: Angela Merkel is an Ossi. I suppose it's a good thing for Germany that she didn't apply for a job with that company, hoping to work her way up…