Since there’s nothing original to say about yesterday’s match, I figured why not just go on the record with someone else’s words and maybe see if a larger point can be made. Heh. So, an article in the Berliner Morgenpost portrays a case of local immigrants having their flag-waving rights challenged by an activist non-immigrant population…the twist of course being that the flag in question is the German one. A telling quote, particularly in regard to broader issues of immigration, integration, and cosmopolitanism:
Aus ihrer Sicht sind wir Migranten. Sie verstehen nicht, dass Deutsche Deutschland verteidigen, die nicht deutschstämmig sind.
That is:
From their perspective, we are migrants. They do not understand that Germans defend Germany who are not of German descent.
This seems to get to the heart of current dilemmas in social policy, let alone foreign affairs. While the national paradigm has its own share of political, sociological, even ethical limitations, the issue of identity across various domains — immigrant, citizen, minority — presents a beautifully complexity. At any rate, back to the football. The Guardian notes that:
The very odd thing about modern Germany is that it appears to be almost entirely a mystery to the British, who are surprised to discover that the side fielded by Germany today hardly consists of the Aryan specimens on display at the Berlin Olympics. Men of Tunisian, Spanish, Bosnian, Polish and Brazilian ancestry form the German squad, together with the Turkish midfielder Mesut Ozil [sic], who recites the Koran while the German national anthem is sung.
In the same post, we are reminded of this, which I incidentally had the pleasure of finding out about while studying in London: What do all these anecdotal tangents add up to? I’m not quite sure. Perhaps that all this World Cup nationalism, despite its occasional ugliness, sure does provide plenty of opportunities to take a look at what we are all becoming. Or, maybe I’m just glad that England’s goin’ home! They’re goin’ home! They’re goin’!
Update: Der Spiegel seems to have found interest in this story as well.
