Bruce Springsteen - Old Dan Tucker (Live - Indianapolis)

This post is meant

a.) to establish a "immidiate-response-to-comments" doctrine for this blog (Dont't rely on it, though, as I change my doctrines on an almost daily basis.)

b.) to thank commenter Don for the pointer to "springsteen + seeger" - youtube vids and

c.) to try out youtube's "Blog Video" feature

(Update: It works! I only had to fix the entry title.)

My last Springsteen session was 17 years ago. Looks like "the boss" deserves a second chance.

In the video, Bruce Springsteen, addresses the audience in Indianapolis by saying:

We are few, but we are mighty!

Applies for this blog as well, me thinks.

Flag Day With Johnny Cash

During my youtube-sessions with "johnny+cash"-videos, I came across an outstanding work featuring "Ragged Old Flag" by Johnny Cash. I decided to leave that one for the next U.S. Flag Day. Since my numerous calendar add-ons (U.S. edition) are telling me that today this day has come, here it is:

Ragged Old Flag

By John R. Cash, © 1974 House of Cash, Inc.

I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, "Your old courthouse is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your old flagpole has leaned a little bit,
And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it."

He said, "Have a seat," and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is." He said, "I don't like to brag,
But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag.

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there when
Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it writing Say Can You See.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Pakenham and Jackson tuggin' at its seems.

"And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on though.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag.

"On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II.
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She was sent where she was by her Uncle Sam.

"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit waving her back here at home.
In her own good land here she's been abused --
She's been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused.

"And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more.

"So we raise her up every morning, take her
down every night.
We don't let her touch the ground and we fold
her up right.
On second thought, I do like to brag,
'Cause I'm mighty proud of the Ragged Old Flag."

By John R. Cash, © 1974 House of Cash, Inc.

And here is the youtube-video. Really a great job!

I really love this song. Isn't it like "American history in 3 minutes"? Let me end this post with JC in his own words (hat tip Steven Menke):

There was one [song], "Ragged Old Flag" that I didn’t even have any control over. It came out faster than I could write it down. You’ve heard of people who write song in ten minutes. "ragged Old Flag" was one of those songs.

A Glimpse Of My World - Three Links From The Standard

Hi there!

I'm still up to my eyeballs in work, but this morning I came across three links in The Standard from Hongkong, which provide a glimpse of my world and the three countries this blog is meant to deal with in the first place (once I get my priorities straight - or my time management working):

Racism reports overblown, insists Merkel

German chancellor Angela Merkel has pleaded with tourists not to believe the hype about racism in Germany.

(As almost always with Merkel quotes: Don't hold your breath, folks!)

Hillary Clinton falling victim to her icy image

Five years ago, Al Gore was on his way to near-pariah status within the Democratic Party, scorned for losing the 2000 presidential election and then avoiding the public stage. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was the toast of the party.

(Al or Hillary? Between a rock and a hard place...)

Beijing airs fears on impact of growth

China has warned that its goals for economic growth are in direct conflict with environmental protection and said degradation is worsening despite official efforts to curb pollution.

(That's my story of the day. I wrote a piece about it (in German) over at Bissige Liberale, with more state owned links on that issue in English.)

Q: Why do you hate us, Europe?

Being confronted with the kind of work load, I always wished to be buried under, blogging was light again lately. I should have blogged about Darfur, Angela "the Miracle" Merkel's visit to China, the 40th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution and yes, immigration again, but well...Maybe tomorrow. (If you've ever been to China, you are probably used to this phrase.)

But this story is just too weird to let it go unblogged:

Germans ask why Europe hates them after Eurovision

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans asked themselves on Monday why everyone in Europe seems to hate them after their entry to the Eurovision Song Contest ended up a dismal 15th place and got zero points from most European countries.

"Why does everyone dislike us?" asked Bild newspaper, Germany's best-selling daily on Monday, summing up the mood after the country's unusually strong entry "Texas Lightning" went in with hopes of winning but landed near the bottom.

Yes, BILD is certainly the right paper to ask why everyone hates us, for the BILD people are expressing their eternal love for all the other nations (especially those from Eastern Europe) on a daily basis.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung, center-left hotbed of sophisticated erudity, comes up with a very convincing explanation:

"It seems a good song is a hindrance to winning," wrote the Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Monday. "The typical Grand Prix song these days is a song that is so bad it's actually good again. So 'Texas Lightning' was simply too good, too intellectual."

Reuters UK has it's own take:

More than 60 years after World War Two ended, there is a sense among Germans that the country is still being penalised for the misdeeds of previous generations.

Noooo, not that kind of sinister piffle again. Imagine a soothsayer on, say, August 30, 1939, after a long chrystal ball session would've said: "Don't invade Poland! Just don't! Thing is, if you do, you will never ever win the Eurovision Contest. Oh, wait ... correction ... you will never ever win the Eurovision Contest apart from 1982." ... Wouldn't that have been a very good reason not to start WWII? (Okay, there were other good reasons, but hey, you never know, maybe this one would have turned out to be the most convincing one).

And the closing cliché:

The loud, aggressive behaviour that some intoxicated German tourists display when abroad has contributed to the European image of the "ugly German".

Says who? Reuters UK. UK! Ha!

Seriously, I am not convinced. I mean, c'mon, Europe let us down to vote for aggressive, obviously intoxicated monsters instead? I don't buy that.

To be honest, I missed the whole Eurovision thing completely until I was forced to watch the voting procedure at a birthday party. But Andrew seems to be a fan of the Eurovision show, so if you're interested, see his LiveBlogging over at German Joys: I, II, III, IV and V - and his final conclusion:

"That Eurovision contest was fun. I'm putting it on my calendar for the rest of my life."

For more background information, see this post at Atlantic Review and Mad Minerva's contest coverage.

Even she prefers the monsters. What a desaster for Germany! As for the corpus delicti: How on earth can someone expect to get any votes by singing "No, no never"? Or, in Mad Minerva's words

Singing a song called "No, no never" seems to be asking for defeat, doesn't it?

Exactly. Next year, we'll go for victory with a remake of "It ain't me, babe". Accidently, I found the vid on youtube, so here it is. Enjoy!

Some Remarks On Illegal Immigration

Mad Minerva is on fire - and rightly so:

all my relatives immigrated legally. All our friends did too, immigrating to America from all different countries, like Vietnam, South Korea, India, Taiwan, mainland China, Germany, Canada, etc. etc. They all followed the rules, obeyed the law, waited their turn, filed their paperwork, and did everything legally. Frankly, I think giving amnesty to millions of illegal immigants is an insult and a slap in the face to everyone who came to America legally. I am in favor of immigration -- legal immigration.

I've been following that issue mainly through German national public radio station Deutschlandfunk (DLF), which is taking heavily on this issue by airing about ten pieces a week about it. In my opinion, the coverage is mostly fair and balanced and provides solid background to let the audience judge for themselves.

There are only two points where some bias is involved: First, almost all German media coverage refers to the rallies as "Demonstrationen gegen U.S. Einwanderungspolitik" (rallies against U.S. immigration policy). This expression is mirrored in the U.S. media (and U.S. blogs as well!) coverage about "the failure of immigration policy in Europe". Both conceptions are wrong, and in both cases I tend to ask: "Immigration policy? What policy?"

Germany, for example, isn't experiencing a failure of a given immigration policy, but the consequences of an absence thereof.

And the U.S.? C'mon, do you really want to tell me that massive illegal immigration and failing border control should be labeled as a "policy"?

The second point is, that almost all German media are taking on "eine tiefsitzende Angst der Amerikaner vor den mexikanischen Einwanderern" (a deep-rooted anxiety towards the immigrants from Mexico), and by using that expression over and over again, it sounds like this "angst" is a.) foolish and b.) unjustified. This perception in some German media outlets doesn't apply exclusively to the U.S., but also to Germany: Xenophobia equals racism. End of story.

Now, let's take a closer look at those rallies: The rallies had hundreds of thousands participants. Most of the participants were illegal immigrants. (That's what it is all about, after all.) Some of them shouted aggressive slogans in Spanish. And they launched a lot of "demands".

Sorry, but I can't blame anyone being scared by a crowd of illegal foreigners shouting aggressive demands in a foreign language.

Yes, there seems to be a labor market problem in the U.S. But apart from the fact that Germany would be enthusiasticly happy with that kind of labor market problem: Is it really helpful to address this problem by breaking the law in the first place?

Adding another rant, illegal immigration comes in handy for some businesses in the U.S. in terms of wages, insurances etc. This morning, there was a DLF rally feature, in which an American citizen was quoted: "My husband is in the plastering business. His employer told him: 'If you don't wanna work for six bucks per hour, well, then I have a couple of Mexicans who want." What is more, illegal Mexican workers are easy to handle, no? Now, the illegal immigrants, among other things, demand the U.S. citizenship. This demand sounds like a perfect example of "digging your own grave" to me, because once the illegal immigrants are U.S. citizens, there will be no reason for their employers to further employ them.

Meanwhile in Germany, where btw Davids Medienkritik ones again caught German magazine STERN red-handed on confusing figures (People! To find a mistake in a STERN piece is as difficult as finding a GWB joke in an Jon Stewart appearance), the Deutsche Welle runs a story, claiming that "Illegals in Germany Face Similar Problems as Those in US". It's one of the most biased pieces I've come across lately, including the priceless sub-headline "Restricting illegal immigration harms the economy". Another priceless quote:

That is still the only way illegal immigrants can gain citizenship here -- to marry a German. Another option -- for women -- is to have a child with a German man.

Citizenship? Come again? Neither marriage nor a child with a German citizen does assure you a right of residence. It's been a while since I left this business (the illegal immigration lawyer business, that is), but back in the late 90's, cases like that went like this: eviction order, plus eventual deportation, plus denial of reentry for a couple of months or even years for the woman - and probably an investigation and a fine for the German. Citizenship? Forget about it for the next decade or so. Um, maybe the law situation has changed dramatically in favor of illegal immigrants and I simply failed to notice it.

After stating that

Many of the illegal immigrants who come to Germany have followed relatives who are now living legally in the country

the article concludes that

One would think the easiest solution would be to crack down on illegal aliens even more. But like in the United States, the demand for them is great.

To compare the U.S. and Germany here is to compare apples and oranges. Whereas the U.S. illegal immigration problem is about work force immigrants from neighboring countries who want to stay permanently, the illegal immigration Germany is challenged by consists of relatives of legal immigrants, mostly of foreign citizenship, refugees and declined asylum seekers and temporary (!) labor migrants, mostly from eastern Europe. And even labor migrants from Africa, of which it can't be said for how long they'll stay in Germany, are different from the illegal immigrants in the U.S.: they are not supported by influencial groups, they don't build visible communities, they don't demonstrate or file demands by using their native language, and they don't show any interest of becoming citizens.

Above all: Germany's problem is not illegal immigration. It's illegal employment, due to our overly regulated labor market.

Update:

Here we go. From the Berliner Tagesspiegel (hat tip Ulrich Speck):

Das Deutschland der Möglichkeiten

Weniger Sozialhilfe und mehr Lebenschancen für Einwanderer: Ein Blick nach Amerika täte der Integrationsdebatte gut

(very loosely: The Germany of Choices - Less social welfare and more opportunities for immigrants: America can teach us a lesson) The Google translation of this article sounds rather err... strange to me, but I'm optimistic that Davids Medienkritik will come up with a proper translation ;-).

Update (May 3, 2006)

On a related note: Old member states remain split over easing labour access

Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain have decided to open up their labour markets to EU-8 citizens. However, the Union's strongest economies continue to keep their restrictions in place.

(...)

For the next three years, the EU's strongest economies will remain partly or fully closed to workers from the EU-8 states. Austria, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands will continue to keep their doors closed to job hunters from Eastern Europe (the Dutch may ease the restrictions by 2007). Meanwhile, Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain have decided to adopt the EU's open-border policy. (...)

Tribute to Roy Orbison

Um, as one can see clearly, I again failed to update this blog on a regular basis. Shame over me! But thanks to my two kinda frequent commenters Don and Rayson, this place didn't go silent. Thank you, guys, for keeping the blog alive and being constant reminders to end the hiatus!

As you can see from my last comment, one of the reasons which keeping me from blogging in English recently is, that I got addicted to Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter. But before I start to write about those, I want to mention, that today marks the 70th birthday of Roy Orbison (d. 1988). I found out about that only yesterday, after having checked out the Wikipedia entry about him. And why I came across the Wikipedia entry? Because I've seen his appearance of September 27, 1969 on "The Johnny Cash Show", during my journey trough all videos hosted by youtube tagged with "cash".

Judging from the search engine results, Roy Orbison seems to be almost forgotten. C'mon, people, that's not fair! He was one of the founding fathers of Rock'n Roll and doesn't deserve to be only remembered by contributing the title song to a Julia Roberts movie.

I have to admit, that I couldn't get warm with him, though. Aside from my sympathy with his remarkable fate. (To lose a wife in a motorcycle crash and a year later two of three sons in a fire, isn't something I can imagine to get over.)

Apparently, I'm not the first one to post the youtube-Link for that video, but anyway, here it is. Enjoy! [Link]

Btw, on Wednesday, a Roy Orbison exhibition opened up. In Cleveland. It will be open till late October. Since I most certainly won't make it to Cleveland till then (will I ever make it to Cleveland?), if someone out there is going to see the exhibition, please come back and report!

The day I woke as pro-American, part III

It's really, really time to come up with the third part of this story. I hope, getting this of my chest will allow me to be able to blog on a regular basis here.

When I headed back to Germany from China, I was looking for news sources to keep me up to date on China related issues. Since the German media outlets and blogs have little to nothing to add to that issue, the only way to keep myself informed was to turn to the Anglo-american China blogosphere, which is actually large and has lots of participants (check out the China Bloglist, if you don't believe me).

I began to read American blogs on a daily basis - and I found out, that no matter on which side of the aisle in terms of politics they were, they shared a lot of viewpoints as it came to China - from Richard of Peking Duck to Gordon of The Horse's Mouth (to name only two), all of them seemed to be cheerleader for democracy and freedom in China. And they actually did (and still do, of course) something to promote those issues, from taking on certain topics to speaking out against certain meassures of the Chinese government (like blocking blogs or incarcerating bloggers) to providing useful information for China based bloggers on how to circumvent the "Great Chinese Firewall". And even at blogs which weren't dealing with political issues in the first place, like Danwei or Sinosplice , I experienced an attitude I regard as being typical American: service driven, seeing readers and commenters as customers, caring about their opinions and being thankful for the feedback they get from their audience. All of them provided (and still do so, of course) so much useful information, hints, background etc. and they tried to really connect people and wanted to share views and experiences - I was taken aback ones more.

Well, from the very special world of China blogging, it was only a small step to the real American blogosphere, since it virtually lies around the corner (as on the internet, the whole world is only one click away; that's why I love it so much).

As a result, I got deep into the American blogosphere, from Daily Kos to Town Hall, so to say. And every day I happened to find new kinds of blogs: econblogs like Economist's view, Brad Setser, Brad DeLong ; Academia blogger like Gary Becker and Richard Posner or Daniel Drezner, PR blogger like Seth Godin, blogs dealing only with ecology or human rights or...you name it. Great, simply great! And I realized the huge differences between the German and the American blogosphere: the American bloggers were more talkative, more interactive, friendlier (on average, that is), they shared their knowlegde, the entries were much, much longer and there were more comments providing more insight.

And again, as the two times I mentioned before, I asked myself: Why, oh why do most people in Germany regard Americans as no-brain superficial junk food consumers in the first place? Then again, I told myself: Okay, you haven't been to the U.S. so far. It still is possible, that the Americans a.) produce a lot of articles - and no one actually reads them b.) print a lot of papers, magazines etc. - and ordinary Americans buy them only to have something to wrap their sandwiches in and c.) the American blogosphere consists of only three or five people pretending that there were millions just to fool the rest of the world about the intellectual capacity of American citizenry. Then again, those explanations didn't satify me, to be honest with you.

Well, came end of August 2005 and the Katrina Hurricane - and THAT really pushed me over the edge, talking about being Pro-american. I'll leave that to the next part...(yes, it's a cliff hanger ;-).

part I, part II

Submitted to Carnival of German-American Relations

Thank you for the feedback

I want to thank all of you who responded - via email or comment - to my blog carnival submission piece in particular and to my blog in general.

There are a lot of points I am willing to take on, but since it caught me by surprise to be featured by Davids Medienkritik, I'll need some days to take on all of those reactions.

To make you stay (or return), I want to draw your attention to my first ever appearance as a guest blogger over at Mad Minerva's blog. Back in September last year, I wrote a little satire about the difference in terms of mentality between the U.S. and Germany. Enjoy!

I also want to postpone the debate on my "unhappyness" with Davids Medienkritik. In the meanwhile, I point you to one of their pieces which is really great stuff: "SPIEGEL's Karen Hughes Translation Nightmare".

SPIEGEL ONLINE-bashing is one of my favorite free time activities, so no dissent with David & Ray here. Then again, it's not that the U.S. or the Bush administration are the only topics SPIEGEL ONLINE is handling in a crappy manner. No, this MSM outlet is an almost complete failure on almost every account.

For a fresh example on how SpOn tries to manipulate their readers, see today's story about Condoleezza Rice. You don't need any knowledge of German in this case, because it's only the picture I want you to have a look at. Doesn't Condi look like a pit bull terrier here? Is that the right way to report on other nation's representatives? No, of course it's not.

Restart

Okay, since

a.) a couple of weeks ago Andrew Hammel of terrific German Joys linked to this blog

b.) the other day fabulous Academia blogger and blog friend! Mad Minerva also linked to this blog and Trans Atlantic Review blogger Joerg asked me to contribute to the upcoming German-American Blog Carnival, plus

c.) this blog ist on #7 in search results of a certain CCP-friendly search engine, if you enter my name and

d.) today Ray D. of Davids Medienkritik featured one of my entries which was meant as a contribution to the first German-American blog Carnival and is now one to the second blog German-American blog Carnival...

...well, I think it's time for a restart of this blog, exactly three months after it was set on stand-by due to Christmas holidays.

Problem with running my own English blog is my enduring lack of self-disclipline, plus I'm shying away from blogging in English.

FYI, since February 24, 2006, I'm a regular contributor to Bissige Liberale, a German blog, whose name roughly translates to "sarcastic liberals" ("liberal" in the European meaning of this term, that is, meaning "business-friendly" and "free markets cheerleading"). That's kinda odd, since I'm a member of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which makes me far loony left to U.S. standards. Um, I think, I'm a maverick. Just call me John McLieberman ;-).

As for Davids Medienkritik, I want to make clear that I'm not too happy with their media coverage in general and with the SPD coverage in particular. In his entry concerning my post, Ray D. mentioned the anti-American spin in Germany's media. Well, Davids Medienkritik responds to this biased spin by "counter spinning" and that is certainly not my cup of tea.

The day I woke as pro-American, part II

The "comment box - deflowering prize" goes to GM Roper for his encouraging words about the first part of this story. Thank you very much, Sir! Well, back on topic...

Nanning is the most American city I've ever been to. It has a sky line and some sky skrapers, it follows the "cars first!" approach, it has KFC, McDonald's, Starbucks and Pizza Hut - and a WAL-MART SUPERSTORE. (I had been to a KFC in Prague before and I also had been to a WAL-MART in Moscow, but that wasn't a SUPERSTORE.)

When I had agreed to the contract, I had not been aware of what it really means to teach in China. (That's natural. You simply can't imagine what it means to teach in China until you enter the classroom and find yourself in front of more than 100 eyes filled with a mixture of fear and fascination.) But apart from that, I also had no idea that I would be considered a representative of what the Chinese refer to as the "western world". And in Nanning, "western world" equals - the USA. So there I was with my zero first-hand USA experience, but sophisticated knowledge about the dissolution of the monasteries in mediaeval England and Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar".

But hey, no problem. I enabled my Richard-Ford mode and off it went. The first thing was to get rid of my German name, since "Marian" is as inconvenient for China as it is for the U.S. (even my classmates nicknamed me "Lady Marian"), and I wasn't too unhappy to be called "Mark".

My junior grades did everything they could to help me. There was a TV set in the class room, and when I entered, they were going like: "Watch NBA! Watch NBA!" (On our last day, I gave in and let them watch the Houston Rockets with former "rookie of the year" Yao Ming). When I asked them about their favorite food, they replied in no time with a broad, longing smile: "HAMBURGERS!"

And then there were the books I was provided with. As far as I can tell, they were 100% original US style, as for content and teaching methods. So I taught them "How to make a banana smoothie", "How do you get to school", "Never give up" (a lengthy piece about Thomas Alva Edison), "What friends are for" etc. All the lessons were designed to compare China to the U.S., but the China part usually was a cliché which had hardly anything to do with the living conditions in Nanning (maybe with Shanghai, if anything). One day, we took on mind mapping, which seemed weird to me, because as far as I know, in order to map your mind, you have to make up your own mind in the first place. And Chinese education isn't iconic for teaching junior grades to make up their own minds. Anyway, the mind map in question was about a Chinese student's daily life, like "favorite subjects", "problems", "free time activities" (Wait a minute...free time? What free time?) - and "dreams". And one of the dreams read: LIVING IN AMERICA.

Now, if a German teaching Chinese students to dream of living in the U.S. isn't odd, what is?

And then there were the speech contests, both at school and at university. As a German, I wasn't familiar with speech contests. I'm not sure about the contemporary educational system in Germany, but in the 80's, speech contests were unheard of at German schools. Because "contest" means "competition". And "competetion" is dangerous, for it may frustrate the loser. Or so they said, back in the good old 80's.

But the Chinese didn't care about my personal bio and I suddenly found myself being transformed into an honorable judge.

And on campus, there was the marketing battle "Coca Cola vs. Pepsi". And when Christmas time was ahead, I felt like being in Las Vegas (cum grano salis) - all those blinking-twinkling Christmas trees and the windows decorated with Christmas stuff and university students dressed as Santa Claus'. A few days short to Christmas Eve, I was invited to an expat Christmas thing. Initially, I had hope to get away without Karaoke - but no way, boy. The host, an retired teacher from Kansas (?), handed the mike to me and I performed "Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer" (and "Jingle Bells", of course!) Yonkers!

I was taken aback. What was that all about? Dared I label the whole situation as "cultural imperialism"? (as one Chinese university teacher did) Hm. Then again, what the U.S. actually did was, they promoted themselves - and what is wrong with promoting the own country - and, on a related note, values like freedom and the pursuit of happiness? Did the Americans harm the feelings of the Chinese? Did they damage the Chinese culture? Hardly, I'd say.

Now, when I headed back to Germany, I was on the brink of Pro-americanism. I didn't see it coming, though. Otherwise, I would have cared for counter measures. What made me cross the Rubicon, was my exploration of the U.S. blogosphere. But I'll leave that to the next post.

part I, part III

The day I woke as pro-American, part I

This blog entry was meant to be a contribution to the German-American Blog Carnival. Unfortunately, I missed the deadline. Anyhow, here we go:

One morning, I woke as a pro-American. Now, considering my nationality, you can probably imagine, that I was in serious trouble. I suddenly got an idea of the situation Gregor Samsa from Kafka's novel The Metamorphosis found himself in:

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. (full text)

Pro-american! How low can you get? How could that happen?
In order to answer this questions, I had to investigate my own personal history. This investigation resulted in the following:

I grew up with american TV series like Dynasty, Denver Clan, Hart to Hart and The Fall Guy (my favorite; I didn't hardly miss an episode) etc. Those series didn't coin my views about the U.S., though. I knew that it was only fiction.

I can't hardly blame my teachers at primary and junior high school for becoming a pro-American, either. It was not that they were overly critical on the U.S., but the stuff they taught us was simply too boring to engender any feelings at all: GDP growth, GDP per capita, social structure, class and race, geography. There were only two conclusions, if anything, bothering me about the U.S.: Apparantly, you can't survive without owning a car. And all Americans seem to love fire arms.

As for the political situation in the 80's, there was the Cold War (grumpy old men in Moscow vs. not so grumpy men not so old men in Washington) and the Reagan Administration. Since I didn't like Reagan's approach of fighting communism by supporting the Contras in Nicaragua, this period was probably my most anti-american period of all times. Then again, I tried to distinguish between Reagan's Middle America strategy and the U.S. as a whole. And the Reagonomics appeared to be a successful concept, after all. But I was young, and frankly, I didn't care much about the U.S. at that time.

In my last three years before graduation from high school, I had history and English as majors. If you think, that this must have provided a closer engagement in U.S. affairs, you are wrong. In history, we focused on the social question and the hardships of the working class in the 19th century - and the rise of Nacional Socialism in Germany in the aftermath of WW I. And the English lessons were mainly about the United Kingdom and Shakespeare. I recall one topic we dealt with: "The dissolution of the monasteries in mediaeval England".

After being graduated from high school, I started to study law, and my command of English deteriorated rapidly. Those were the years of the Clinton Administration, the war in former Yugoslavia, Somalia etc. I got annoyed by the soft character of international law and was startled by the fact, that a lot of Germans simultanously accused the U.S. of either engaging too much or not caring enough about world affairs.

And about that period of time, I made my first huge mistake: I took on American literature. Paul Auster's "Music by chance", T.C. Boyle, John Cheever, Philip Roth, John Irving, to name only a few. But the biggest mistake, the mother of all mistakes, was to read "Independence Day" by Richard Ford. [Note to all anti-Americans: Stay away from this book! Don't read it. If you do, provide books by Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky as antidotes. Otherwise it may change your views.] The story of a man, who changes his entire life, moves to another place, chooses a new new profession and starts a new life. This plot is so odd for ordinary Germans! Even fancier for Germans than the plot is the description of Indepence Day as a symbol for american values, as a cornerstone of American identity.

Well, time went by, I gratuated from university and moved from Munich to Berlin to work as a law clerk. New challenges lead to the USA not being part of my personal agenda. And then, there was the bright morning of 9/11. I still can recall the wheather conditions at the very moment the breaking news came in...

I was surfing the internet at that moment. And I kept on surfing the internet for the rest of the day. I simply couldn't move. Since I didn't own a TV set (I hate TV, to put it mildly), I turned on the radio. I sensed the growing tide of fear, anger and disbelief without myself being influenced by any pictures. It soon became pretty obvious to me, that the USA was under attack and that this day would have a deep impact on the identy of the USA and would deeply affect the transatlantic relationship.

A few days later, I attented the demonstration in Berlin to commemorate 9/11. I remember a lot of people, holding "solidarity with the USA"-signs. I remember then-ambassador Dan Coats thanking us for showing our sympathy and expressing our solidarity. I remember fighting back tears during the performance of "Amazing Grace". But one thing I found disturbing: apart from the signs calling for solidarity, there were also posters reading "No war!", and I thought by myself: "Hm. This meeting is supposed to be about mourning and commemorating. It's not an anti-war rally. It's not the right moment to tell the USA once more what to do (or not)."

We all know what happened in the aftermath of 9/11. Since the topic of this post is neither 9/11 nor the war on terror or the war in Iraq, I only want to take on one point concerning this aftermath. Paying attention to the news coverage by German MSM, I got the impression that U.S. citizens all thought alike and that their only news source seemed to be Fox News Channel. I wasn't too happy about that and I couldn't understand why the Americans deliberately dumped freedom of speech and variety of thought in favor of watching Fox News. Then again, I came across plenty of articles, colums, op-ed pieces etc. dealing with the war on terror and the war in Iraq and expressing a vast variety of viewpoints and opinions. "Who the heck is going to read all this stuff, if anyone down there is watching Fox News all the time?", I wondered.

This latter thought came on my mind again, when I got intrigued with China. German MSM don't provide much in-depth information about China. Hence, I had to use sources from the U.S. And again: loads of articles, columns, op-ed pieces on "The rise of China", "A new super power in the making", "The power of the dragon" etc. And again the question: If all Americans are such war-mongering lunatics, their heads filled with air - why all those journalists, pundits and experts care to launch all this stuff?

In fall 2004, I was given the opportunity to work as an English teacher at a middle school in Nanning, Southern China. I boarded a Britsh Airways plane in order to discover China. Well, I did discover China. But, and this may sound strange to you here, I also discovered the USA. I'll leave the explanation for that to the next entry.

part II, part III

Blog Title

This blog is dedicated to the Prayer of Serenity. Since I've first ran into it at my doctor's office some 20 years ago, it serves me as a political guideline. In fact, it's the most important guideline I have. It's power provides all I need. I prefer this short version:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

I also like the full version of the original (c.1942) by theologist Reinhold Niebuhr:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

blog in the making

Dear gentle reader,

after months and months of useless rants and musings about "blog policy", "blog title", "comment policy" etc., I finally decided to choose an approach which appears to be rather american and to make this blog a just-do-it project. (That isn't to say that I accuse Americans of ususally acting thoughtless, though :-)).

Since it is a blog in the making, there will be numerous shortcomings for the next few weeks or so. Stay tuned to see it getting better from day to day. Or, to quote a well-known broadcaster: Don't go away!

happy birthday to me or: remembering john

As you probably know, today is the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death. You can hardly call me a fan of the Beatles in general or of John Lennon in particular, but the fact that he was shot on my 10th birthday makes this date kinda special for me.

Admittingly, John Lennon is more famous than me. That's why I put my own birthday aside for a moment in order to share the following piece with you. It's taken from an interview in 2003 with May Pang, who, according to Wikipedia, lived with John from late 1973 until the first weeks of 1975:

[Well, my plan was to post a small part of the interview, but as I tried to copy this part, the pop-up told me the following:

Sorry, that function is disabled. This Page Copyrighted and Images and Text
protected! ALL RIGHTS RESERVED]

Hmpf. Thank you for nothing...Anyway, here is the link: http://www.maypang.com/asiance_story.html.

It's a little off the usual road of "remembering John". Enjoy!