David Carter sends me a fascinating article about a German man, who has been "operating" in Paraguay:
Jürgen saltó a la fama -y puso en pie de guerra a las autoridades- cuando un periódico local descubrió que se habÃa atribuido la paternidad biológica de 300 menores en Europa, Asia y América.
…Es, ni más ni menos, la fórmula que discurrió para que el Estado alemán tenga que conceder la ciudadanÃa a los pequeños desamparados de este mundo, fruto de embarazos no deseados, de amores transitorios; los hijos de los tarambanas que dicen que van a comprar cigarrillos y se hacen humo.
«Yo reconozco como mÃo a un pobrecito [lo dice en español] del Tercer Mundo y mi paÃs, gústele o no, se ve obligado a otorgarle una subvención de 500 euros mensuales. Asà lo establece la ley, y las leyes están para ser acatadas», explica.
The bottom line is that he is going to poor countries and fathering as many children as possible, and probably fabricating some paternities along the way, so that each child's mother can receive a 500 euros a month subsidy from the German government. The German treasury already has paid out over three million euros to various children under his (supposed) paternity.
In 1993 he was sentenced to prison for three years, for impersonating a lawyer without having a rightful license.
I guess that is one way to increase foreign aid, right?
I don’t read Spanish well, so does the article say he claims 300 children or 1000?
This is what it says, more or less:
Jurgen came to fame, and put the authorities on war footing, when a local magazine discovered that he had attributed to himself biological paternity of 300 minors in Europe, Asia, and America.
…It is, no more or less, what played out for the German state, which must grant citizenship to the little defenseless one of this word, fruit of unwanted pregnancies, of fleeting romances; the children of the shiftless tramps that say that they’re going out for cigarettes and disappear in a puff of smoke.
“I recognize as mine a poor little one [he says it in Spanish] of the Third World and my country, like it or not, is obligated to grant them a subsidy of 500 Euros a month. So says the law, and laws must be observed,” he explains.
Talk about selfish reasons to have more kids!
This could generate the best pick-up line in the poorest countries – “I can make you rich, all you have to do is follow me back to my hotel.”
Anastasia: “Parece que esos periodistas estaban distraÃdos cuando les hablé. Usted tome nota: no son 300 sino más de 1.000 los pequeños que he reconocido”
It seems those journalists were distracted when I talked to them. Take note: There weren’t just 300, but more than 1000…
It seems he was sentenced to prison for two years and a half in Paraguay in 2007 (one year after this interview) for falsification of documents: http://www.adn.es/mundo/20071212/NWS-0608-negocio-padre-ser.html
If true, his sex life must have fun and varied. I guess if you do not care about the looks of your partner, this could be fun.
The story’s old – see http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/0,1518,426627,00.html, which is from 2006.
In the article he’s called a “Querulant”, which is funny. When I read the Spiegel article then, I wanted to do the same, seems like a fun life, fathering children. I finished my PhD thesis instead. Damn.
He is offsetting the declining German birthrate but making the pension system collapse faster
Scoop, get yourself Google Chrome or the Google Translate plugin for your browser. It translates the text with just a quick prompt, and at least that way you know who your translator is.
So he was a representative for the libertarian free democrats (FDP) presumably in some local assembly.
He says that he wants to retaliate against his alleged maltreatment by the German authorities with a flood of immigrants.
His motives hardly sound philantropic to me, rather the opposite. And he isn’t even in it for personal gain. What a sociopathic nutter.
I cracked up about how the journalist took the stylistic freedom to introduce the detail that the young female german college student supposedly blushed red as she had to translate his tales of sexual prowess.
Chauvinist quips like that wouldn’t go down well with the readership of the New York Times.
Other than that I really hate it when journalists feel the need to introduce details about the interview situation that add nothing whatsoever.
“He sipped his coffee, while explaining how…. and he went on to say … as he adjusted his red tie ….”
I second the request for paraphrasis. It is difficult to parse how concepts in your english comment are supposed to map into the foreign language quote even if you understand both languages.
And pointing readers to translation software doesn’t do it either. Automatic translation can easily turn the meaning completely around and frequently produces puzzling gibberish.
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