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Germany is the New Bad Boy

Posted by Joerg Wolf on

I am quite excited that Germany participates in the Eurovision Song Contest with an original, charming and funny artist, who can actually sing and is a bit crazy and therefore represents the new Germany very well. Lena Meyer-Landrut will perform the song Satellite at the Eurovision Song Contest, which was written by an American-Danish duo.

Although for the first time in years, Germany deserves "douze points," I don't think Lena Meyer-Landrut will get them from the other European countries. Animosities against Germany are too strong. Most Europeans have stronger emotional ties to other countries.

And Germany's current economic and fiscal policies make us the new bad boy. The NY Times writes "Germany Begins to Shed Its Role as E.U. Integrator":

Resisting a bailout for Greece, digging in over economic policy and opposing parts of a strategy for Europe's growth, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will arrive Thursday at a European Union summit meeting ready to play an unfamiliar role: the bloc's naysayer. Once the invisible glue that bound the Union, German policy is now being dictated by less idealistic priorities rooted firmly by national interests.

I guess, we act now like a "normal" country. Well, so be it!

Germany's previously strong monetary and political support for EU integration did not make us popular enough to win the Eurovision Song Contest either. It just paved the way for German unification, but we got that now and have to focus on bigger national interests, like the Eurovision Song Contest and the Soccer World Cup.

My statements to the Russian English language TV station Russia Today probably cost us a few votes from Greek's Eurovision Song Contest community as well. The 10 minutes live interview took place last Friday. The video clip is from a weekly round-up and mentions just a few short statements of mine:

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Joerg Wolf on :

Super necessary warning: The above post contained sarcasm and hyperbole. If you don't get the humor, then my Germanness is to blame. ;-)

Pat Patterson on :

I guess individual guilt is much better than collective guilt!

Marie Claude on :

‘We have had 10 years of the euro. What has happened is proof that this is not working.” clear, let's go back to our currencies and Germany with a high Mark ! uh me thinks that Greece will not buy any more german products, especially arms

Joerg Wolf on :

Greece should not buy any German or US or any arms. And Germany should not sell some either. Greek and Turkey are both in NATO. They should get over their differences! Greece spends 4% of GDP on defense. That is a crazy level for a country that does not face any serious threats. No wonder Greece is bankrupt and wants Germany to bail it out. Perhaps Athens could sell a few islands to Turkey to settle its debts.

Joe Noory on :

Greece should probably do whatever it thinks is germaine. A quick look at the map shows a Greece with open waters on profitable smuggling routes, abutting a still sketchy Balkans region, and a constitutionally volatile Turkey. As for the Greek government buying into risky funds, one has to cast back to the time in which they did it, wherein they looked like revenue salvation at a time (like today,) where an overgrown public sector wanted more-more-more at whatever cost it came to the rest of society. If they were more reasonable and left some features of life to the individual instead of demanding the impossible of government, the government would not have needed to seek higher yield, risky investments.

Marie Claude on :

"No wonder Greece is bankrupt and wants Germany to bail it out" error, Greece wanted to borrow money at the BCE with the same intersests loans that Germany benefits, about 2,5% to 3%, when the actual markets offer Greece 6 to 8%, but according to the last news, 1/3 of IFM, 2/3 of BCE will make them at ~4% which it's still better than in the worst scenario ! now these are still virtual promises, only dedicated to calm down the Wall Street banksters, and to prevent that they launched new attacks against Portugal and Spain. We'll have to wait after the german elections, where Merkel open support for a greec resolution could become a catastrophe for her party. Anyway, it isn't a monetary crisis, it is more an institutional crisis, depending on Germany for reaching a solution, whether a more concentrated economical governance among the eurozone, or the explosion of the euro ! so as Germany doesn't like to loose money, a return to the Mark currencies would cost a lot, my bets are on a bigger german intervention in the EU rules, so this will be de facto an occupation without war ! that is precisely why christine Lagarde was making her remarcks last week, we will not easily accept more german intrusion in our affairs ! as far as me, I would throw the baby with the water, the EU, the Brussels administration, the euro, and get back to our independance. some more bicquerings to come in EU, american and brit opinionists will not be unemployed, they'll still have to chew at us ! PS) your remarck:"Perhaps Athens could sell a few islands to Turkey to settle its debts." is in the "Bild" vein, thus a racist contempt ! and it has undermined Germany image for quite some times among the other EU nations, thus if Greece was the bad pupil of the EU, it will get the support of these EU nations AGAINST Germany !

Joerg Wolf on :

Why is that racist?

Pat Patterson on :

I guess that would make the Louisiana Purchase racist as well.

Marie Claude on :

Paterson, no, but I suspect that your usual bias for the French would make it look like so ! Glad that Jefferson was a francophile though, unlike you !

Marie Claude on :

ach ya, "racism" ain't fashionable in your country anymore, though its roots haven't changed, superiority arrogance ! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/weekinreview/07kulish.html

Pat Patterson on :

How is the tit for tat commentary between Greece and Germany racist? Jefferson may have been a Francophile but he also sent money and agents to Toussaint L'Overture as well as sending three frigates to the Caribbean to keep further French reinforcements out of Haiti.

Marie Claude on :

then it was the duplicity of the American policy, that is still on nowadays, one with the appearance of morality, one behind the curtains that always looks for americans'interests !

Pat Patterson on :

How exactly was a slave revolt in Haiti in American interests?

Marie Claude on :

don't make the innocent, Jefferson had a plantation in Virginia with a huge number of slaves, and feared that Haiti revolt could inspire them too ! Now The brave Jefferson opposed to the Jay treaty favorising the trades with England again !

Pat Patterson on :

So then why the did he help Toussaint L'Overture? Plus I have noticed that you haven't answered the original question placed by Joerg so I'll just conclude.

Marie Claude on :

I don't care of your conclusions, they only reflect your difficulty to be "liked" !

Pat Patterson on :

Conclude means end.

Marie Claude on :

"conclude" for you means having the last word !

Joe Noory on :

What if they have no choice? [i](Reuters) - In a [url=http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62M1Q520100323]bizarre twist[/url] to the Greek debt crisis, France and Germany are pressing Greece to buy their gunboats and warplanes, even as they urge it to cut public spending and curb its deficit.[/i]

Pat Patterson on :

Greece is not in trouble because of its defense spending but rather from a huge crushing social welfare system put in place to counter some of the subversion of the communists during the Greek Civil War. Plus much of the Greek spending on defense, aside from its air and armour assets are native Greek industries often under license from the Belgian FLN. The Greeks still see themselves as threatened by the Turks and firmly believe that the West will sell them out in a manner consistent to the partition of Yugoslavia. Obviously not likely but an article of faith in the government and in the people of Greece.

Joerg Wolf on :

Yes, but it would help everyone, if they would reduce their defense spending. Re the "article of faith": I agree with you. Really stupid. Why should the rest of Europe pay for this?

Pat Patterson on :

Considering that almost 20% of the IMF is from the US we therefore have "volunteered" to help bail out Greece.

Joerg Wolf on :

Well, US investment banks did shady deals with Greece as well, no? IMF members have a say over austerity measures. Most eurozone members were against an IMF involvement, since they were concerned that the US as IMF's biggest member would get to influence eurozone monetary policy...

Pat Patterson on :

Good point on the Eurozone reluctance to US involvement. But the debt of Greece has been held by bondholders and mostly Greek banks since 2005. It would seem that instead of blaming Goldman Sachs for everything, including Original Sin, that the first pound of flesh should come from the Greek banks that are now reasonably expecting to now hold IMF/Eurozone guaranteed paper.

Joe Noory on :

Be careful with RT, it's a rather underhanded operation that's owned by the state. While they salve it with real news stories,sports, and weather reports, they (like clockwork,) go on smear campaigns whenever the right kind of flunky in the government tells them that "the great Russian nation has been slighted". In other words, they are an unstated propaganda outfit whose intent is to build international leverage for the Russian government. It's exactly why so many Americans are sceptical and critical of any form of state funded and operated media.

Pamela on :

I LOVE RT! I used to be able to receive it via our cable service but it disappeared (now we get Al Jazeera - go figure). Their website is interesting, also. Of course there's propaganda there, but not all of it and what there is of it is - to me, at least, very obvious.

Joe Noory on :

If you aren't too deep in the wilds of NoVA, you can pick it up over the air on MHZ's 10 channel propaganda [url=http://www.mhznetworks.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=62]cluster[/url] which [url=http://www.mhznetworks.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=91]includes[/url] France24, Euronews, RT, Al-Jiz, NHK, and a feed that runs tacky Vietnamese game shows. The really funny thing about the European news operations, is that they don't appear to work weekends, and have a hard time managing breaking news from Friday p.m. to monday a.m.

Marie Claude on :

funny, no american channels , only french and arabs !!! prout prout mon cher, even the opinionists of PJM prefer to rely on alJiz, France 24, rather on the american news !

Joe Noory on :

Did I say -I relied on it?- No. I said that these were state-run operations. They are entertainingly mockable, if anything, and I don't wrire for Pajamas Media as you imply. I take in many sources. How, from what I said, you can assume that I don't take in any American news sources is another example of your sad emotionalization of everythign you see around you - just like the CIA red cell memo. You didn't even seem to read it, but went straight to someone trying to spin something off of what it doesn't say. As for your other retort "based the arguties, cuz your sources are nuts!" makes no sense at all. You're angry at me for pointing out, again, that you take up any headline you think appealing to you without questioning the source, and with no accurate knoledge of American political life, you declare that a fringe lunatic truther website who are obsessive in their hatred of conservativesm is, in fact "conservative." You dion't even seem to look at WHAT people say or DO. You're a trainwreck.

Marie Claude on :

Joe, I'm not angry, I just find you ridicule with your anti-french obsession there's no way I can have a senseful discussion with you, you're biased at the basis !

Joe Noory on :

In case you haven't been able to understand it at this point, it is called "tit-for-tat", and it's an effort to balance out the unfounded degradation of the US that is taken to be a home truth in mainstream European communications. I am not even a drop in the bucket compared to the baiting and accusitory nature of your own society's politicians, "intellectuals", and tedious cultural figures. It is also, very plainly, an effort to expose prejudices and bias of Europeans largely have against Americans as a society and individually. It is also impossible to take anything sensible away from you when you prefer to get their information from truthers and the like, who, by their very nature, try to revise events for the purpose of the deligitimization of the United States and American society. In fact, since you like to construct theories out of thin air without fact, you are a fine example of someone whose notions need to be put on display to as many people as possible. Getting agngry about my blogging when is is a mere drop in the ocean compared to Soral, Meyssan, LePen, etc., etc., etc., and every mindless amusement? Are you kidding? Your efforts seem more driven by the need to silence people. Not to mention the fact that you "demand that I am cencoring you and that you have rights" when commenting, or recycling whole articles in the comments, etc.

Marie Claude on :

you are of the sort of persons in America that like to entertain this grievance, that especially french people hate the poor ol Americans, though from my experience of the net, I have been reading much more hateful words towards us from your side, though you're a peculiar specimen of the americanism, in that sense that you keep on being so bitter when the very people of America reversed to a normal appreciation of our bilateral relations since Sarkozy was elected, and your business bed is an old hate towards France, sorry, I wasn't born during Lebanon protectorate, besides I have many Lebanese friends ! My sources were good enough for Joerg, too bad they aren't showing the good side of your morality ! (may be you could try other sources than the lefties papers of France, but you don't like another version than the one you're cultivating since such a long time

Joe Noory on :

I never say "poor Americans", I make not of what is plainly visible across Europe. So, for the sake of your feelings, you want people to say nothing, then? In fact, your -reliance- on suspicious sources whose motivates are to -construct- events as they like to see them proves the point better than I could ever. Let's take your logic: if Meyssan is in Lebanon, you are certain that it is because there is absolute uniformity of views in teh Arab world, and that you know precisely what it is, and it is entirely about the matter that your society figures into. That is arrogant beyond belief. Meyssan is clearly a political propagandist of the type I would criticize, and your response is aimed at somehow minimizing the nature of my criticism, and somehow say that he's not a problem, and invent the idea that he's banned in france. He isn't. You simply fabricated that, because you imagine that it will improve your feelings about your own opinion. That says far more about you than it does about me. The other thing what I do brings out is something rather interesting about people: you want me to never criticise your society's absolute and ongoing slander, but in fact believe that I'm supposed to aid it along even if I don't want to (insisting that i MUST publish any comments you leave at my blog), because we're all supposed to believe that there is something magically right about your attitude. You typify something very special, did you know thta? Since you are fond of the moronic fabricated identification "anglo-saxon", I'm going to start calling those who promote that inaccurate silliness "Visigoths".

Marie Claude on :

"suspicious sources" ? olright CIA is sooooo suspected ! Meyssan ? nobody talk of him here, but you still do because of your bed business and he isn't living in France ! according to your suspicious sources I noticed that you were the only guy that removed my comments on your blog joke ! and that you kept hate and insults comment against us with no coherence, while I had always not suspicious sources, but not the ones that go into your bias Comparatively to "F*ck France.com, your site lacks of humor and of intelligence !

Joe Noory on :

Because under your Pseudo, you put in dozens of comments, some just cut-and-pasted from neo-nazi revisionist sites, and you citing as an explanation to the present economy, an inflamatory screed written in teh 70's meant not to explain the Federal Reserve system, but say that it was "run by Jews for their benefit". Moreover, you have no natural right to be published in a private forum. I delete open obcenity, no matter who puts it there, and because you drop in and leave dozens of comments that have NO relationship to the item, I delete yours'. The very idea that you think that you can keep changing names and doing the same thing over and over is empty and irresponsible.

Marie Claude on :

"Because under your Pseudo, you put in dozens of comments", no, just replies to your insane fellows comments some just cut-and-pasted from neo-nazi revisionist sites, really ? if you call MSM papers as such when you don't like t'em ! and you citing as an explanation to the present economy, an inflamatory screed written in teh 70's meant not to explain the Federal Reserve system, but say that it was "run by Jews for their benefit". ol right, this was the "joker" contribution for your many hate-mongering fellows' comments on the French (besides a former CIA guy brought it on a site that is mostly read by american jews too, I don't remember that they found it offensive, as german, english and french names were quoted in it too) "Moreover, you have no natural right to be published in a private forum." yeah, I experimented your one sided freedom of speech "I delete open obcenity, no matter who puts it there," no, you deleted only my replies "and because you drop in and leave dozens of comments that have NO relationship to the item, I delete yours'." they certainly were a response, that had relationship with the other comments though "The very idea that you think that you can keep changing names and doing the same thing over and over is empty and irresponsib" uh no ! someone 's imitating me :lol:

John in Michigan, US on :

The American accent of the RT talking head jumped out at me right away. Russia wants to be seen as part of Europe, but it uses an American accent for its primary, English-language outlet? Very strange. Side question for anyone: If RT wanted to seem more European, would it adopt a British accent? In speech classes in the US, we are taught that there is a mid-Atlantic English accent (and style, but not quite a dialect) that is proper English but neither American nor British English. Is there a continental English accent that is not British? Do you think one will emerge? What will it sound like?

Pat Patterson on :

Now that the information is more readily available on this IMF loan it becomes obvious that Greece is simply not going to make the cuts neccessary to reduce its deficit, debt or the public sector. It seems perfectly reasonable for Germans to object to Greece borrowing money to maintain its current spending without seriously attempting to reduce its spending. Instead of paying off one credit card they are simply getting another to continue to spend like that proverbial drunken sailor.

Joe Noory on :

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the cause of the venom directed at Germany is quite simple: they are a success at something, navigate through life without the overwhelming tension of revolutionary movements and mob rule... of course the usual haterz will be on you! These movements and the unspoken attitude of so many "well read" critics simply *hate* any society or situation that reminds them of happy, normal people!

Marie Claude on :

sure, that your opinion is fair ! you don't even know on what were based the arguties, cuz your sources are nuts !

Joe Noory on :

Actually, if you think I don't, why don't you tell me. Everybody goes hat-in--hand to the Berlin, just as they did to Bonn, and when they heard no, there were mobs in the streets demanding more services from their Governments that they were assumed to be able to borrow or beg to cover for. They go and demand these things, becuasae they believe they can try to use emotional pressure to get something for nothing, like all good little "social movements" who pretend to be acting in the interest of humanity. Others' are not entitled to Germans' resources without condition, but make them out to be cretins when they refuse. To the contrary of what people like to imagine, the abusive use of the Nazi comparisons is far more frequently seen on the personal level from the mouths of Europeans, not Americans. Strangely, the empathy that Germans and Americans have built for one another over the past 6 decades is probably stronger than it is between individual Germans and the kind of people who use out loud, or under their breathe, the term "bosch" or "Capo", out of simple egoism, self-amusement, or abusiveness. Even young American soldiers who came from the sticks rarely uttered anything of the kind. And to think that these people are to form a union when you know that most of them think of Berlin as little more than a wallet for them to pillage?

Marie Claude on :

that's funny, even one of your venerred economists hasn't your view "Martin Wolf podcast: Why Germany cannot be a model for the eurozone: Last week’s European Council was not a soluti..." http://bit.ly/azzMgP like one french speaking economist http://www.observatoiredeleurope.com/Croissance-anemiee,-Europe-epuisee-la-France-doit-avancer-seule_a1354.html so your attempt is once more to "undermine" the French at any costs ! pathetic

Pat Patterson on :

Who placed that poor man in a suit of decorative wood anyway? Is he an Ent writing for the English?

Joe Noory on :

So judging by that link, you think that France should be able to "go it alone", but think all Germans racist if they do not fund Greece's bloated public sector, is it? Or do you think that if one economist writes an "eat the rich" article about French indebtedness, and has a view that you like, that all persons, French or not, should follow it? It's interesting, because whenever you find bad news somewhere in the world, you don't ever express sympathy, you come up with some reason to rub it in their face. Then you think it wrong to counter it. Any form of dialogue with you is ridiculous, becasue it is entirely about you and your tender ego.

Marie Claude on :

"Any form of dialogue with you is ridiculous, becasue it is entirely about you and your tender ego." cwhy then do you argue here? you have got such a nice reserve with no pasaran

Pat Patterson on :

I thought it was because you said a comment by Joerg was racist then refused either to explain your remarks or apologize to Joerg?

Marie Claude on :

bof ! you're on an easy stalking path, I noticed though that you are very discret on Belmont's LMAO

Pat Patterson on :

And I notice that you still have not either explained or repudiated your statement that Joerg made a racist comment? Let's take care of what you actually said and not what I did not say at all.

Marie Claude on :

he did !

Pat Patterson on :

But last time I checked Greeks and Germans were, even under the old racial identification systems, considered Caucasian. And saying "..he did" is really not a serious response unless trying to find out how stole the marbles.

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