DAVE ROSS

It’s what happens when too many people go bananas

Nov 10, 2014, 7:10 AM | Updated: 10:24 am

The Nov. 11, 1989 file photo shows east Berlin citizens crowding the new passage at Bernauer Strass...

The Nov. 11, 1989 file photo shows east Berlin citizens crowding the new passage at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin where East German border police tore down segments of the wall two days after the border were opened in the divided city. (AP Photo/Rudi Blaha, file)

(AP Photo/Rudi Blaha, file)

FILE - The August 1962 file photo shows an aerial view of the wall at Potsdamer Platz and the surrounding areas in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert, file) FILE - The Nov. 19, 1961 file photo shows a view from top of the old Reichstag's building to the Brandenburg Gate, which marks the border in this divided city. The semi-circled wall around the Brandenburg Gate was erected by East German police. (AP Photo/E.Worth, file) The Oct. 28, 2014 photo shows the Brandenburg Gate landmark in Berlin, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) FILE - In this Nov. 10, 1989 file photo Berliners sing and dance on top of The Berlin Wall to celebrate the opening of East-West German borders. Thousands of East German citizens moved into the West after East German authorities opened all border crossing points to the West. In the background is the Brandenburg Gate. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle) The Oct. 24, 2014 photo shows a view from the Reichstag building to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) The Sept. 25, 2014 photo shows a view of the Potsdamer Platz and the surrounding areas in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) The Sept. 24, 2014 photo shows the area of the former Berlin Wall at the Checkpoint Heinrich-Heine-Strasse which was visited by President Nixon. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) FILE - The Nov. 20, 1961 photo shows 12 feet high boards hiding the work as East German troops erect a new concrete wall at the Brandenburg Gate, marking the East-West border in Berlin. In background is the former Reichstag building which is in West Berlin. (AP Photo/file) FILE - The Aug. 13, 1985 file photo shows a view into East Berlin from West Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie. The construction works on East Berlin side of checkpoint were new control barracks. (AP Photo/file) FILE - The Sept. 9, 1961 file photo shows East-German policemen in work dress as they remove barbed wire from a brick wall while other policemen in background are raising the wall to 15 feet at the border between the French and Russian sector at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert, file) FILE - The Feb. 27, 1969 file photo shows US President Richard Nixon looking across the communist wall into East Germany, from West Berlin during his stay in the divided city. Germany's Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger is seen behind Nixon. (AP Photo/file) FILE - The March 12, 1971 photo shows the Berlin Wall checkpoint at Heinrich-Heine-Strasse in Berlin. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert, file) The Sept. 24, 2014 photo shows the area of former Checkpoint Charlie where US President John F Kennedy looked over the wall during his visit in 1963 in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) The combo shows East Germans erecting the wall in front of the Reichtags building on Nov. 20, 1961 and cyclists going by on Sept. 25, 2014 - 25 years after the fall of the wall. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) The Oct. 21, 2014 photo shows a part of the Wall Remembrance Monument at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) The Sept. 24, 2014 photo shows actors wearing uniforms at the area of former Checkpoint Charlie, with a rebuilt checkpoint as touristic attraction in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Twenty-five years ago, when the Berlin Wall opened – I spent a week there watching the celebrations.

People standing on the wall, chipping off pieces of cement as souvenirs. I met Birgitte who had just come from East Germany and was close to tears.

“I’ve been to the wall and saw the people. It was crazy. It was wonderful for me,” said Birgitte.

A lot of us remember that part, but I discovered something else that week in 1989: an immigration debate, a fear of cheap labor.

“They’re already putting up ads for East students who want to work here on the weekends. So they can come over here and work two, three hours and get a month’s rent. I have people coming over to my place saying, ‘I’ll be your cleaning lady. I’ll work very cheap,'” said a business owner I met near the old Reichstag building.

“We call it almost a plague right now because they call them (locusts). A joke is going around because there is no banana left in West Berlin,” said the business owner.

As I walked the streets with my translator, we started seeing banana graffiti stenciled on buildings.

My translator explained, “There is this one joke, ‘How do you use a banana for a compass? You put it on the Berlin Wall and the side which is bitten is the East.”

The fear of cheap labor, the disruption to the status quo – people everywhere mistrust large numbers of strangers.

It’s not just about race or language.

The people flooding into West Berlin 25 years ago were the same race, spoke the same language, shared the same culture and still there was resentment.

Which may help explain why our immigration debate is so difficult.

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It’s what happens when too many people go bananas