Germans to a T
Germany is both the land of my birth and my ancestors (incidentally, I am a verifiable descendant of Charlemagne, or in German: "Karl der Große").
In Summertime, the country is beautiful. Overall, the people are friendly, fun, and have a great sense of humor. The autobahns have (mostly) no speed limits, and the wines are fantastic (not always a great combo though). There are many more things to love, and generally, Americans seem to feel the same way; you rarely hear anything negative about Germany in the US media (post-WWII, anyway). Unfortunately, the German media doesn't always return the favor - they jump on any chance to bash the US at every turn. David's Medienkritik points these kind of stories out on a regular basis.
Anyway, recently, I found a wonderful comment from his site that I felt described some Germans perfectly:
1. I always scratch my head when I hear the canard that the average American doesn't know anything about Europe. After living in Germany for six years and engaging in numerous political conversations I can tell you that the average German's "knowledge" about the U.S.A. is a farcical caricature; although I grant you that it mirrors the coverage one finds in most of the Mainstream Media in the U.S.A.
What would be the point of gaining a similar supposedly 'profound' European depth of knowledge . . . so we too could tear down, engage in the petty envies, and practice our comfortable, smug, bigotries ... like our more "complex" and "sophisticated" European brethren? Nein Danke!
2. Speaking of the sex trade. Writing a story about an American dying in Thailand is typical of the German media. Of course they have to overlook all the "Sex Tour" advertisements at the local Reisebüro [travel agency - JR], right next to the Family vacations in the Canaries or Majorca. And don't sit in Terminal two in Frankfurt to observe who and what gets off of the return flights from South East Asia. (Discovered accidently while waiting for my kids to arrive for the summer.)
Germans are great people, but they are also a perverse bunch (which is not always a bad thing...).
But you shouldn't criticize America for things that you have virtually perfected yourself.
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6 comments:
Hello John!
Of course I can't resist responding to that, since I am German and grew up here. I think you have to differentiate between several categories of people in general, here and in the US, and that are those that are interested in politics and also take note of what goes on abroad and those who are only interested in local or domestic happenings. The latter is what I experienced myself the most when I was in the US as an exchange student in Iowa. I never heard anything but headlines in the news about what went on in the rest of the world and USA Today is not my idea of a good newspaper. Of course, the sheer landmass of the US is so enormeous that being interested in domestic issues is more than enough because most people don't go to other countries but move alot around in their own.
But that is different in Germany and Europe which are alot smaller and where being interested in what your neighbor does is more important. Overall, common knowledge is pretty bad if you simply ask average people from the street and that is the same here as in the US. Unfortunatley, that group is the majority, and add to that the very strange human notion to always just look out for the bad things others do but generously ignore those you do yourself.
I totally agree with you on the issue of sex tourism which is just disgusting, but then I think that men can be quite the pigs sometimes and that this is also a universal feature and not specific to any nationality or region.
By the way, students in school always have to do cultural studies during english lessons as well and we teach them about different aspects like the election system, history, civil rights movement etc.
You should guest post on David's Medienkritik, or did you lift this off him? Just because a German press outlet reports on the death of an American sex tourist doesn't mean they are always out to get America or portray the country in a bad light.
Oh and Ruth - sex tourism? Thanks for the blanket slur, but women do it to. Ever been to Cuba, Jamaica, the Caribbean in general?
Hello Ian! I was referring to the phenomenon of rather ugly fat white middle aged men taking advantage of the sometimes desperate situation of people in countries such as Thailand where they can get woman dirt cheap and even think that they are doing something good for them. Certainly not every vacation flirt and affair falls into that category.
And sadly no I haven't been to those countries and if I ever go there I kinda imagine the men there to start hitting on blue eyed tourists. At least that's what its like in Italy or Spain, not that I am complaining per se - but that is clearly a far cry from the sex industry where people are exploited that I find appaling.
It is only a slur if you feel that it is directed at you. And I said "men can be pigs sometimes" not that all men are pigs all the time so feel free to exempt yourself from that blanket condemnation of the male population.
Cheers from Freiburg
To Ian: I hardly "lifted" that from Medienkritik, I openly said I got it from there, and linked to it.
To Ruth: I know one older German man who has married three young women from Cuba. He divorced the first two after they got tired of him. But they have German residence now, so maybe they also got what they wanted. It's sort of a situation where both sides exploit the other; equal possibly, but hardly romantic.
Yes, men are pigs sometimes. Me included.
Mr P: my apologies as I did not see the link to David's Medien...whatever. I don't call it kritik. It's regurgitaged drivel, same thing over and over and over. He doesn't like the news, so he shoots the messengers. At least he's not misrepresented the facts to suit his agenda lately, so that's an improvement.
To Ruth: go to www.reuters.com to see today's (Nov.26) article on sex tourism in Kenya. It's exploitive on both sides, men and women.
I just read the article and it doesn't really surprise me. It is in its own way just as deprived because it suggests that if you have the money you can demand any service, especially ina country where whites used to be the colonial rulers. The only thing that is different is that these older ladies apprently didn't care much for young kids. The men they paid were all adults over 20. That doesn't make it better because they too were exploiting the economic situation of people who are desperate for money, and I think that most who do that are in that situation.
It is very rare that people that solicit sex have their union and rights, regular health checks etc like they do in Germany and Holland, but there is this horrendous dark figure of woman and girls that get lured with the promise of a job in a rich western country and end up working basically as slaves. There human trafficking and sex trade are combined in the most corrupt, wrong and appaling way possible.
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