Last night came the weekly prime Anne Will Show on ARD (German public TV, Channel One). This is the big live chat forum of each week. It will always start at 9:45 PM and run approximately 60 minutes. The topic last night? US - German relations, and Trump.
The guests invited? Pete Altmier (Merkel's Minister of Energy and Economic affairs), a fairly clever guy and probably the only member of the group who leans slightly to the right. Jurgen Tritten, Green Party member. Dieter Kampf, President of the German Industries group, and there to talk the commerce angle to US-German trade. Christiane Hoffman, journalist with Spiegel magazine, which typically takes a negative US angle in articles. John Kornblum, former US ambassador to Germany (1998-2001), speaks German, has appeared numerous times on the show, and rarely has much positive to say over the Trump administration. Yes, in a way....it's a fairly slanted group
Focus, the German magazine talked to the high points of the show.
The chief questions that led off the show....will the tariff crap really occur....can Europe match up to the Americans....has Merkel been outpaced by France's Macron?
The hype early on is that Macron got the star-treatment when he arrived in the US.....Merkel, much less so. Yeah, it's truthful in the way that Macron was given better treatment. Kornblum notes at some point that Macron is probably narcissistic as Trump.
At some point, the guests of the show are trying to assess who from Merkel or Macron options would have presented the pro-EU case....never once stopping to think that Macron might be there to mostly represent France....not the EU.
Toward the latter part of the discussion....the Green representative (Trittin) noted that the Merkel handling of things haven't been that great. First, as he says....in the logic that Trump could be cornered and forced to a Obama-like view of things....was naive. Second, Trittin notes that Trump has actually sought to deliver on campaign promises, which most politicians rarely ever do (true on American political figures.....true on German political figures). Finally, Trittin hits on the speculation that Trump might not be a four-year president....that he might actually be around for eight years.
After the forum, I kinda sat there and pondered upon the affect. So I had three observations:
1. To be honest, at 9:45 PM on a Sunday night....while it is the number one forum of the week....there's a limited number of people who would watch it. With a dozen commercial networks, and at least ZDF (Channel Two of the public TV)....I doubt if they got more than 5-percent of the viewers who were still awake. Most Germans would have looked at the topic in the first two minutes, and said it doesn't really affect them, and flipped the channel.
2. The selling point of this perspective is always sell the EU (united). The trouble here is that they've given authority over trade to the EU. The German government really doesn't contain or own trade authority anymore. They may pretend they have authority, and actually have meetings to discuss their fake authority, but the EU owns all management and control of trade now. Over the weekend, even Merkel came to hint that the only way forward in dealing with the US is a TTIP agreement, which stalled out in the last six months of the Obama Administration (if you remember). Who owns TTIP? The EU....not Germany.
3. From November of 2016 on, there's been this intellectual discussion, and journalistic hype in Germany....that Trump was not legitimate....Trump was an idiot....Trump could not stand in the shadow of great EU leadership....and that Trump would not survive the four years. The news media (particularly the public TV networks) have tried to keep the focus on that 'brand'. I would agree for the first six months, the negative brand game did work....but this is wasting a lot of time, and if Trump is around for eight years.....trying to carry this negative brand situation will be just about impossible.
Why they didn't work to get the current (or new incoming) ambassador? With Kornblum, the forum management folks know that they get a anti-Trump talker. So, yes....the forum was micromanaged to produce a certain dialog.
If you want to watch the forum? Here's the site, although it's all in German.....runs for about sixty minutes.
7 comments:
I've seen Britons (e.g. in the Daily Mail) claiming that the EU is a German-led project. Some went so far as to claim it's the Fourth Reich. For a while, I was puzzled with such a notion considering how the EU's headquarters are in Belgium. That was until some bloke told me that, in the EU, power can be exercised by a nation the headquarters aren't even in, and Germany seems to be the most powerful economy in the EU. Nonetheless, I'm still skeptical that the EU is German-led.
Regardless of the veracity of the "Fourth Reich" allegations, If I were German, I would support any measure that would get Germany (or at least a handful of countries) out of the EU. When you have multiple countries with their own languages, cultures, laws and mores, it's hard to unite them as a political entity without creating any conflicts such as the Eurozone crisis in Greece and Spain. Additionally the EU is forcing some of the former Warsaw Pact nations (e.g. Poland) to let in millions of economic migrants from the Middle East. Frankly, Merkel and Macron should either fix the problems going on with their respective nations or else get the boot.
P.S. What do you think of some of the newest comments in one of your old blog posts? (https://schnitzelrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/07/seven-personality-traits-of-german.html)
I'll confess: I'm an American who has neither been to Germany nor met any ethnic Germans, so I apologize if the comments I wrote seem ignorant/misinformed. My only knowledge came from reading blogs and forum posts written by Anglo-Americans who have lived in Germany, like this very blog. Surely you, having been there, know better than I do. Again, sorry for any trouble I may have caused.
P.P.S. When receiving new comments, are you immediately notified of them, or do you check each blog post manually?
On 'newer' comments, some have good points. Some are in search of explaining their family history, and have found some way to explain things.
I disconnected notification of comments...it's too easily used by spammers/hackers. Bloggers program was not well designed.
I meant the conversation between Tristan, Lonely and LocoMan. And my conversation (argument?) with Tristan. And some of the comments stated by Lonely regarding genetics.
Re: notifications, I guess that means that you manually check each blog post. That could more or less explain the lack of instant responses to further comments on the same page. Oh well.
I discovered in 2010 with the platform, that via the notifications option...spammer/hackers had dumped a little virus through the Blogger platform to arrive via that email. You would think that developmental folks at Google would have built the system to prevent that, but no. And on top of that concern...some questions or notes by people would take time to think about and my hours are limited.
I don't see an issue with LocoMan and Tristan's commentary...both have wandered around Germany and have similar insight into the culture. Non-Germans tend to ask why things have to run this way or why bureaucratic tendencies occur. You tend to find various 'guests' of Germany (not just Americans or Brits, but Chinese, South Koreans, Japanese, Italians, Greeks) have run into the 'why' question. Go ask a Pole living and working in Germany over their views...it'll end up as a hour-long conversation.
The genetics discussion, at best, is humorous, without much on science. There are animals who are hard-wired to 'operate' and it can only be via genetics (I use Border Collies in this example). 'OCD' is passed down in an hereditary way, and a fair number of the odd behavior issues one sees with Germans (even those living in the US) revolves around OCD traits.
Being OCD isn't always negative either. Bacteriology for example....took an extremely dedicated and small group to figure out....all Germans. Contact lens were invented by a German. The MP3 compression idea....German. The paper coffee filter....German.
So in some way....saying genetics (period) probably won't work that well. But if you look at Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder....it would go a long way in explaining things.
Okay, now I understand why some of my previous comments didn't have any responses. Thanks for the helpful explanation ;)
This more or less boils down to Tristan's generalization of Germans as an unhappy, rude people. I firmly believe that no two people are the same, and that the mentality of one state will be different from that of another.
The experiences of non-Germans in Germany will also be a mixed bag; some will like the system, while others will resent it. Many of the blogs I've come across did not find Germans as rude or nasty as Tristan or Lonely described. Of course this won't apply to everyone who's been there. In other words, your mileage may vary. Getting used to a new system isn't for the faint of heart.
Lonely said...
The German lineage of this peculiar behavior must be bred out of subsequent generations. One must have extreme strength and outside interests to buffer the draining, demeaning, assault of a German. There is always fear of outbursts and rage. Germans thrive on control, argumentation, and useless rule keeping. German genetics program the shell of a German to conquer everyone not like them
(4/29/2018 07:56:00 PM)
"Watering down" of these abrasive traits does occur when the DNA is integrated. There seems to be a softening of harshness. At times the traits do come to the surface.
4/30/2018 07:44:00 AM
Definition of abrasive: (of a person or manner) showing little concern for the feelings of others; harsh.
If I'm not mistaken, didn't the original blog post from 2010 present the seven traits in a neutral, sometimes positive, stance?
The 2010 essay on personality traits was a mostly neutral reflection from a non-German. I would suggest that 99-percent of my essays reflect a non-harsh view on culture or society. If I were critical...the odds are that the topic revolves around either public TV or something of a political nature (like the current pro-wolf stance, and the likely anticipated end-result).
Most Americans and Brits who travel around Europe, will have some assessment of difficulty, useless rules, and nature. In the past year, with increasing Chinese tourists in Germany...I've come to realize that they also observe things, and have commentary to offer. I've spent six weeks of my life in Denmark. From the 300-odd Danes I probably bumped into (gas stations, restaurants, stores, hotels, etc)...it just seemed like everyone was all happy and charming (like they were on some drug). Course, taxes are outrageous there, and the cost of living is an eye-opener.
Those Americans and Brits who've been to Greece, will often sit for hours and chat over the vast landscape. Greeks are just awful friendly people, but everyone is geared toward tax avoidance and nothing works in any true efficient way. Greeks themselves would sit and tell you all the various political woes and lack of trust in any political solutions. They are often harsh over themselves.
A while back, I wrote a piece over the German health care system. An ex-German (one who'd left and moved to Australia) commented over the piece....that there were so many shortfalls of the nursing profession within Germany. The system isn't broke, but there's negativity even within the ranks of the profession.
So I will offer this analysis of non-Germans in the 'system'. I've worked with Americans who here for lengthy periods and entirely 'pro'(some even referring to it as six years in Disneyland). Others took the route of Mark Twain and often told amusing stories, not being harsh but sensing the humor of how crazy things can be. And there are the folks who stepped into harsh circumstances, or felt a moment of rude nature. With the immigration crowd who've stepped into Germany in the past couple of years....even they will get into a discussion and lay out funny experiences/negative situations. Try bringing up driving in Germany with a Syrian...just the handbook with six pages of signs drives them nuts.
But all this critical nature, I suspect, leads back to the Germans themselves....in that they can be harsh and critical of other cultures/nationalities. Drag up the topic of Dutch drivers in Germany with a couple of Germans...all will be leaning toward harsh comments. Drag up the topic of tax avoidance in Greece, and the Germans who've been there are critical. You could enjoy an entire evening with four Germans explaining why Italy is so screwed up.
I don't see an issue with LocoMan and Tristan's commentary...both have wandered around Germany and have similar insight into the culture. Non-Germans tend to ask why things have to run this way or why bureaucratic tendencies occur.
Criticism of bureaucratic tendencies is fine and dandy. But did you honestly read those comments one by one, or did you skim through the whole conversation?
Take a whiff of this:
Anonymous said...
Germans are void of a conscience. They see no connection between action and effect. There is a short circuit between behavior and reason. They are not capable of, and are not able to respond appropriatley to humans.
Hitler loved dogs more than human beings.
3/01/2018 06:58:00 PM
Lonely said...
Germans are an angry, bitter, group. I have pondered if Aspergers syndrome is present in the DNA of Germans? Emotional withdrawal, coldness, ritualistic behavior, etc. Inappropriate reaction to pain and suffering of others.
3/03/2018 04:38:00 PM
It may be important to sift legit criticism from juvenile diatribes. If Germans were as bad as these commentators described them to be, then you wouldn't have married one, let alone gone there, in the first place. IMO Nitpicker was the only level-headed commentator during that conversation.
Again, sorry for any trouble I've caused. I'm just saying that not all the commentary is as insightful as you might think.
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