Articles with the Tag Europe

Don’t Let’s Be Beastly To The Germans

Europe, Funny, Video
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But why shouldn’t I be beastly? You killed my grandma, you teutonic bastards!

Ah, but when I say ‘you’ who do I actually mean? The generation that blitzed Britain, invaded most of Europe and exterminated nearly all of European Jewry is almost gone bar a few aged relicts gumming their Iron Crosses in very clean senior facilities, and the Germans of today bear no responsibility for past horrors.

Rational people realise this. Nevertheless, negative feelings towards Germany and stereotypes about Germans persist, both in the US and in Britain:

Not that there isn’t a kernel of truth in some of the stereotyping; this video is one of a series from German broadcaster Deutsche Welle‘s YouTube channel called The Truth About Germany and explains the concept of speißigheit:

spießig
smug {adj}
suburban {adj}
bourgeois {adj}
philistine {adj}
narrow-minded {adj}
petty bourgeois {adj}
white-bread {adj} [coll.]
square {adj} [coll.: boringly traditional]

The whole series is well worth watching.

As if being labelled petty bourgeois, obsessive and dull weren’t enough, one of the most persistent stereotypes of Germans is that they have no sense of humour.

Oh ja? Is dat zo? German comedian Henning Vehn has made it his mission to turn that particular stereotype inside out and give it a good shake:

Here he is trying to entice visitors with his guide to (West) Germany;

…and boggling at the British tabloids’ obsession with the Nazis and WWII:

Yes, our papers are a bit obsessed, aren’t they ? You’d think the German armed forces were some kind of mechanical death whirlwind rather than fallible human beings:

Less mechanical death whirlwind, more Windy Miller.

So what have we learned from this brief foray into German culture and humour? Bugger-all really, other than the Germans are just like us really, and stereotypes (whilst sometimes having at their core a teensy-weensy little seed of truth) are just mental constructs that serve to distance us from our common humanity. It’s much easier to kill a humourless kraut than it is to kill a fellow human being who’s quite nice really. Let’s not be beastly to the Germans – we’re going to need them soon anyway, when the economy goes to shit.

A Glimpse Of Britain’s Future

creative direct action, Crisis? What Crisis?, liberalism, Life under Capitalism, UK elections
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Syntagma Square filled with strikers

Will UK voters, like the Greeks, be storming Parliament this time next year?

Scuffles between public sector workers and Greek MAT riot police units broke out in Syntagma Square, outside the Greek parliament, on May 5 2010, the BBC World Service reported from Athens.

As hardcore elements wearing motorcycle helmets and gas masks took over the front lines of the demonstration, the riot escalated. Petrol bombs, tear gas, explosions and plumes of thick black smoke were visible around the square as protesters clashed with authorities.

The demonstration, which was peaceful at the beginning, gradually became more heated as protesters attempted to charge up the stairs toward the parliament building itself.

As a general strike started to paralyse Athens, following the austerity measures, German chancellor Angela Merkel said that the future of the euro zone was at stake if a 110 billion euro bail-out rescue package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund for Greece failed to go through.

Not one of the three major parties in tomorrow’s UK General Election has come clean about exactly how they plan to reduce the UK’s own 167 billion budget deficit, but if UK voters really want to know, they can just look at the austerity plan imposed on Greece.

Understandably those affected – ie not the rich but the average Vassili or Eleni – are not happy:

Angry Greeks ‘carrying the can’ for politicians

Like the sting of police tear gas, popular anger hangs heavy in the air as protesters take to the streets of Athens, for the third time in less than a week.

Some Europeans have been surprised by the extent of Greeks’ anger over government cuts in wages, pensions and increases in VAT – all measures needed to get the Greek economy back from the brink of default.

The measures are a condition for the huge bailout agreed by the IMF and EU, amounting to loans to Greece worth 110bn euros (£95bn; $146bn).

Why are Greek people so angry? From the outside, it looks like a spendthrift country getting what it deserves in painful cuts to public spending.

At street level, however, the anger stems from a sense of injustice. Many feel that the average citizen is now paying the price for corruption and government spending that they did not benefit from.

I’m feeling more and more angry every day, because those who got us into this mess are not held responsible
Thrasyvo Paxinos
Teacher

A civil servant in the finance ministry spoke on condition of anonymity. “Greek people are willing to contribute and make sacrifices. The vast majority of people do want to contribute to ease the economic problems of our country,” he said.

“But first of all they want to stop political corruption. So if we see the people responsible for this being brought to justice, we are really willing to pay and make sacrifices.”

“In the past I’ve seen government offices or committees being set up which don’t actually do anything. They are designed only to give important political supporters a wage. In the ministry we’ve highlighted these and said ‘Really, don’t do this! We can’t afford it!’ But no one listens.”

“Also we knew for years in the ministry about the wrong figures being shown to the world about our GDP and our debt. We protested to our seniors but again no one would listen. We are very unhappy about it – taking to the streets is really our only option.”

At least the Greeks have the courage to fight back against a neoliberal austerity plan meant oonly to protect the integrity of the Euro to the benefit of EU founder members like Germany and France.

I’ve a feeling that when Greek-style austerity hits Britain, (and it will – how else are Labour, the Tories or LibDems to fund their spending plans?) all the British will do is moan about it and turn back to Sky Plus for comfort.

(Note: sorry about the on the hoof editing, my preview function is screwed)

You Know How to Whistle Don’t You….?

General goshdarned cuteness
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You just put your prehensile lips together and blow.

Then you make a CD, of course.

Hot on the heels, or should I say claws, of the disco parrot comes the whistling orangutan of Heidelberg:

Entitled “Ich Bin Ujian” (“I Am Ujian”), the CD single by Ujian, a 14-year-old orangutan, will go on sale at the zoo in June. Proceeds will go toward the extension and renovation of the zoo’s ape house.

The song, a jaunty pop-rock number with reggae elements, features Ujian’s melodic whistling as a background element. The lyrics, sung by Tobias Kämmerer, follow a similarly self-aggrandizing stance as the classic “I Wan’na Be Like You” sung by the orangutan King Louie in the animated movie “The Jungle Book,” with the chorus including the lines: “I am Ujian the orangutan, I am so cool, man, I’m a star.”

If Ujian’s the new Susan Boyle, I wonder, will they be giving him a Susan Boyle style makeover?