Dialog International

Obama's Speech a Chance for Germany

Turkish-German writer and poet Zafer Senocak has a terrific piece in Die Welt on Barack Obama's historic speech on race relations and why this speech is an opportunity for European and German politicians to change political discourse: Was unsere Politiker von Obama lernen können (What our politicians can learn from Obama).  Senocak writes movingly about America and what it has meant and still means to the imagination of Europeans and Turks. But the America of the imagination is not reality; it is a distortion that either idealizes or vilifies. Obama's speech offers a corrective, and Senocak sees Obama addressing in his speech not just his fellow Americans, but the whole world:

"Obamas Rede rückt die Amerikabilder zurecht, nicht weil er sie meidet,   sondern weil er sie in einen Kontext stellt, der wieder so etwas wie   Wirklichkeit zu Tage fördert. Er drückt das Unvollkommene in der   amerikanischen Demokratie aus, ohne es gegen die freiheitliche Idee der   Gründerväter auszuspielen. Die persönliche Linse macht es möglich. Hier   spricht nicht jemand über ein Land, sondern über sich selbst und sein Land.   Diese Rede, die bei YouTube millionenfach angeklickt wurde, ist auch an   Europa adressiert, an die ganze freie Welt an alle politisch denkenden und   handelnden Menschen auf der Welt, die angesichts der gewaltigen   Herausforderungen oftmals wie gelähmt erscheinen. Viele von ihnen sind nicht   nur ratlos, sondern auch wortlos. Ihre Sprache ist verbraucht, denn sie   kommt nicht aus dem Leben, sondern aus der Retorte der Bürokratie."

(Obama’s speech is a corrective to our images of America, not because he avoids them, but he puts them in a context that is much closer to reality. He is able to express the imperfections of American democracy, without playing them against the ideas of freedom of the founding fathers. The lens of his own life makes this possible. This is not just someone speaking about his country: he is speaking about himself and his country. This speech, which has been seen over a million times on YouTube, is also addressed to Europe. It is addressed to the entire free world, and all politically thinking and acting people in the world, who often seem powerless when confronted with enormous challenges. Many of them are not only clueless, but also speechless. For they use a language that is stale; it does not spring from actual life, but rather from a stilted bureaucracy.)

Senocak ends by pointing to the divide - "the wall" - that exists in Germany between Germans and the Turish, and Turkish-German population, which he sees as not unlike the divide between black and white in America. Obama's speech offers a path towards bridging the divides - in Germany as well as America.

Read my translation of Senocak's complete essay over at Watching America.

John McCain a Danger for Europe

John McCain has been busy speaking with European leaders to assure them that he will look to rebuild the transatlantic relationships that have been severely damaged in the Bush era.  No more "Old Europe" scorn and sarcasm.  No, McCain has been positively effusive in his praise of our European partners.  Last month he had only glowing compliments for Germany in his interview in Der Spiegel:

McCain: "Germany does play a very influential role around the world, and I value the relationship that we have shared for many, many generations. I believe Germany will continue to play a very influential and important role in the world."

Last week McCain visited London and Paris where he impressed his hosts with his commitment to action on climate change. He promised a new era of mulitlateralism, of commitment to the rule of law: he would shut down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and end the practice of torturing detainees at CIA "Black Sites" in Romania. He even praised NATO's actions in Afghanistan; no bashing the Europeans for avoiding the combat theater in southern Afghanistan.  Sure, there was the minor irritation of the Iraq War - which may continue "for the next 100 years", and which has destabilized the Middle East for many years to come - but reasonable people can disagree about this.  All of this was music to European ears: McCain would be a welcome change.

But not everyone buys this image of a softer, gentler McCain who would nurture America's relations with Europe.  Anatol Lieven, professor at Kings College in London, warned in the Financial Times, that Europe "should fear a McCain Presidency":

"Mr McCain’s promises, during last week’s visit to London, to listen more to America’s European allies, need to be taken with a giant pinch of salt. There is, in fact, no evidence that he would be prepared to alter any important US policy at Europe’s request.

Reflecting the neo-conservative programme of spreading democracy by force, Mr McCain declared in 2000: “I’d institute a policy that I call ‘rogue state rollback’. I would arm, train, equip, both from without and from within, forces that would eventually overthrow the governments and install free and democratically elected governments.” Mr McCain advocates attacking Iran if necessary in order to prevent it developing nuclear weapons, and last year was filmed singing “Bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann”."

Indeed, McCain's hatred of Russia and his strong commitment to the eastward expansion of NATO poses a specific risk to Germany.  Yesterday, in a major speech on foreign policy, McCain once again brought up his favorite idea of a League of Democracies, from which he explicitly excludes Russia. In fact, McCain would expel Russia from the Group of 8.  Lieven is concerned that McCain's approach could embroil Europe in a dangerous conflict with Russia:

"Mr McCain suffers from more than the usual degree of US establishment hatred of Russia, coupled with a particular degree of sympathy for Georgia and the restoration of Georgian rule over Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He advocates the expulsion of Russia from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations and, like Mr Scheunemann, is a strong supporter of early Nato membership for Georgia and Ukraine. Mr Scheunemann has accused even Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, of “appeasement” of Russia. Nato expansion exemplifies the potential of a McCain presidency. Apart from the threat of Russian reprisals, if the Georgians thought that in a war they could rely on US support, they might be tempted to start one. A McCain presidency would give them good reason to have faith in US support."

What we have in John McCain is a neo-conservative in sheep's clothing.  Obviously, Europe cannot influence the election in the US. But it should not welcome a McCain victory in November.

See also Der Spiegelfechter: The Manchurian Candidate

From an American Classroom to the German Screen

One of the hits of this year's Sundance Film Festival was Dennis Gansel's movie Die Welle (The Wave).  Angelika Nguyen has a positive review on Ost:Blog and explains the origin of the film:

"Seit über 20 Jahren ist “Die Welle”, der Kurzroman um ein reales Faschismusexperiment an einer USA-Highschool, ein Klassiker, der auch bei uns an Schulen gelesen wird.
Regisseur Dennis Gansel nahm sich den modellhaften Stoff vor und griff, statt den Roman zu verfilmen, zu den Originalprotokollen. Außerdem verlegte er die Ereignisse von den USA 1967 ins heutige Deutschland."

The "Fascism Experiment" she refers to was a project by a young social studies teacher Ron Jones at the Cubberly High School in Palo Alto.

"What came to be known as the "Third Wave" began at       Cubberly High School in Palo Alto as a game without any direct reference       to Nazi Germany, says Ron Jones, who had just begun his first teaching job       in the 1966-67 academic year.  When a social studies student asked       about the German public's responsibility for the rise of the Third Reich,       Jones decided to try and simulate what happened in Germany by having his       students "basically follow instructions" for a day.

      

But one day turned into five, and what happened by the end of the       school week spawned several documentaries, studies and related social       experiments illuminating a dark side of human nature - and a major       weakness in public education."

What began as a class lesson on Strength through Discipline rapidly grew into a movement that engulfed the whole school, with a salute (the wave) and secret police.  Dissenters were ostracized and even beaten up. The students came to believe that they were part of a national movement of select youth that would rise up and create a new community based on order, national pride and action.

Ron Jones soon realized his "experiment" had gotten out of hand and he called a school assembly to put an end to it:

"There is no Third Wave movement, no leader," he told the       stunned audience.  "You and I are no better or worse than the       citizens of the Third Reich.  We would have worked in the defense       plants.  We will watch our neighbors be taken away, and do       nothing," Jones said, referring to the three skeptics exiled to the       library for the crime of disbelief.  "We're just like those       Germans.  We would give our freedom up for the chance of being       special."

After watching Die Welle Angelika Nguyen is moved to ask:

"Stell dir vor, es ist Faschismus: wie würdest du dich selbst verhalten? Welche Rolle würdest du einnehmen? Wärst du Mitläufer wie Dennis oder Fanatiker wie Tim oder würdest du Widerstand leisten wie Karo oder würde dir die Erkenntnis erst allmählich dämmern wie Marco? Oder hättest du das Zeug zu einer Leitfigur wie Lehrer Wenger?
Dem Film gelingt es, unter konkret zeitlichen Umständen universelle Fragen zu stellen. Das befreit sich vom Provinziellen, das deutsche Filmstoffe manchmal an sich haben und macht sich in aller Welt verständlich." (Just imagine that it is fascism: how would you act?  Which role would you take on? Would you be a fellow traveler like Dennis or a fanatic like Tim; or would you be part of the resistance like Karo, or would the truth only slowly sink in like with Marco?  Or do you have the right stuff to be a leader like the teacher Wenger? The film is successful in posing universal questions in the context of a real situation. So the film is able to move beyond the provincialism of so much German cinema and assert itself in the world.)

I have not had the chance to see Die Welle yet, but I did see Gansel's excellent film NaPolA ( American movie title Before the Fall) which dealt with similar themes.

Lenten Reading: Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth

I am very late to the table in commenting on this book, which was published last spring and is now an astonishing bestseller in Germany: over half a million copies sold in the "land of the empty churches".  Jesus of Nazareth is an elegantly written book - as we have have come to expect from Benedict/Ratzinger - which is at once eminently readable and intellectually challenging. (It would be nice to think that all of the people who bought the book actually read it, but I wonder.) It is a book that will delight not just Catholics (I am not Catholic) but any Christian, or anyone interested in understanding the Christian faith and the meaning of the Gospels.

In his preface, Benedict writes that his book "is in no way exercise of the magisterium, but is solely an expression of my personal search ... Everyone is free, then, to contradict me."  I will take him at his word, even though I note that any critics among the 1000 reader reviews on Amazon.com have been excoriated as hostile detractors of the Holy Father or even blasphemers.

Bush's War Enters its Sixth Year

Today President Bush will be giving a speech where he will declare the Iraq invasion, launched 5 years ago this evening, "a strategic success" and "well worth the price" in terms of American blood and treasure (no mention, of course, of Iraqi blood and treasure).

Germany opposed the invasion, and we are still feeling the effects of that transatlantic rift, although Angela Merkel has managed to improve relations between America and Germany to a large extent.

Scanning the German press, there are quite a few commemorative efforts on both the war and Germany's decision to break with its strongest alliance partner:  Zeit, Die Welt, Der Spiegel. The best  - most infuriating - presentation can be found in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.  The Munich daily goes through Colin Powell's PowerPoint presentation to the UN on Februrary 5, 2003, which outlined the case for war (based on completely fraudulent information):  The Long Nose of Colin Powell. Also in the Sueddeutsche is an interview with Gunter Pleuger, Germany's ambassador to the United Nations during the run-up to the war.  Pleuger speaks about his impressions of Powell's presentation and the knowledge that it was based on lies:

Pleuger:"Das war alles sehr gespenstisch. Die meisten im Saal wussten, dass das, was Colin Powell da vortrug, nicht der Realität entsprach. Aber wir haben uns damals nicht vorstellen können, dass Colin Powell bewusst die Unwahrheit sagen würde." ("It was all very surreal.  Most of us in the UN auditorium knew that what Powell was presenting had no basis in reality.  But we couldn't imagine that Colin Powell would deliberately present falsehoods.")

Plueger then speaks about the enormous pressure that the US brought to bear on him and the other diplomats at the UN to go along with the Bush invasion.  In the end, the UN refused to vote approval for the invasion, and then suffered the vilification of the US.  But in retrospect the UN acted honorably:

Pleuger: "Schauen Sie sich die Welt doch an. Heute können wir sagen, dass die Entscheidung des Sicherheitsrates völlig richtig war, gegen diesen Krieg zu sein. Die Mehrheit der Staaten und die Mehrheit der Bevölkerung selbst in den Koalitionsstaaten waren gegen diesen Krieg. Mehr als die Hälfte der Amerikaner ist heute auch dieser Auffassung." ( Just look at the world. Today we can say that the Security Council was correct in opposing this war. The majority of the nations, and the majority of the people in the Coaltion countries, were against the war. Today more than half of all Americans share this opinion.)

We can now see that the Bush War has led to the Bush Recession (Wars are never good for the economy in the long run).

Today I grieve for the four thousand American troops killed, the tens of thousands who return home with permanent physical and emotional scars, the thousands of families across the country who have been destroyed by an unnecessary war, the deaths of untold tens of thousands of Iraqis and the displacement of over 4 million from their homes.  How many more anniversaries of this nightmare will we have to endure?

Deutsche Bank's Ackermann Cries for Help

Oh this is rich. The chief of Deutsche Bank - Germany's best-known prophet of neo-liberalism and the gospel of the unfettered markets - now pleads for government intervention in the capital markets:

"The head of Germany's leading Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, said the world financial crisis currently unfolding would need strong and organized government intervention to stop further bleeding in financial institutions. Simple market corrections, he said, won't do the trick. "I no longer believe in the market's self-healing power," he told an audience in Frankfurt on Monday. "Making liquidity available isn't the cure-all."

Ackermann blamed the global financial crisis on the "real-estate bubble" and the sub-prime mortgage meltdown in the United States.  But he failed to point out that Deutsche Bank itself, under Ackermann's management, has been one of the prime movers behind both the bubble and the meltdown.

Deutsche Bank made $$millions in the US by packaging sub-prime mortgages into securities and selling them at a profit to public banks in Germany such as IKB Industrie Kreditbank and SachsenLB - forcing the German taxpayers to fund a massive bailout of these institutions.  Now, Deutsche Bank is the trustee on tens of thousands of foreclosed homes in the US, making it America's Foreclosure King. Don't forget that it was Ackermann and his fellow Vorstand members who lobbied for the the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in the US, so that it could acquire Banker's Trust and the broker Alex Brown. 

We are in the middle of a global financial meltdown which will be devastating for millions of investors, borrowers and homeowners.  The crisis is caused by the deregulation of the capital markets along with the the lack of transparency in transactions championed by Ackermann and his peers in Frankfurt, London, New York and Washington. For the past decade, life was good, and they were able to pocket $$billions in fees and bonuses.  Now, they are looking into an abyss and the government must intervene. This is the neo-liberal mantra: privatize profits, socialize losses.

Ackermann now joins the ranks of the Wall Street Welfare Recipients:

"The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients. They are desperate to be bailed out by government from their own incompetence, and from the deregulatory regime for which they lobbied so hard. They have lost "confidence" in each other, you see, because none of these oh-so-wise captains of the universe have any idea what kinds of devalued securities sit in one another's portfolios."

"Obama Would Be Best for Germany"

Over the weekend Der Spiegel published an interview (English, German) with Stephen Szabo of the German Marshall Fund.  Szabo talks about the foreign policy challenges facing the next US president and concludes that a Democrat stand the best chance for improving transatlantic relations between America and Europe. Democrats would shut down Guantanamo, emphasize multilateral relations, and share the Europe's commitment to international law.  On the other hand, a Democratic White House would look to Europe to take the lead on resolving the crisis in Kosova, and would expect increased NATO participation in Afghanistan.  The Afghanistan issue is especially worrisome for Germany, where popular support for Germany's mission there continues to fall.  On the other hand, the Democrat's approach to Iran is much more in accordance with Europe than the militarism of John McCain.

Why even care about American-German bilateral relations?  Szabo responds:

"Germany is important because it is central in the EU and in NATO. That is not the case of either France or Britain. Britain is central to NATO, but not to the EU, while France is central to the EU, but not to NATO. Neither country plays a central role in both organizations."

Which Democratic candidate would have the most positive influence on relations with Germany?  Szabo gives the nod to Barack Obama, in part, because he represents a generational shift:

"Obama was socialized after the Cold War. During the election, there's been all this talk about experience. But experience with what kind of world? Obama is much more in tune with Europeans because many of them also grew up in this post-Cold War period -- including many young top European politicians, like British Foreign Minister David Miliband, for example. That's why the Germans and Europeans would probably get along best with Obama."

I agree with Szabo. But up to now, Obama (as well as Hillary Clinton) remains committed to the current strategy with respect to the war in Afghanistan.  This could be the seed of future discord with Germany - and Europe - when he takes office in 2009.

Uncle Walt and Der Führer

Unfortunately I didn't make it out to the Bay Area in time to see John J. Power's avant-garde play Disney & Deutschland which imagines a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Walt Disney in 1935 with supporting roles of Leni Riefenstahl (as Hitler's lover!) as well as Josef and Magda Goebbels. The play had a short run and, judging from the reviews, is unlikely to open on Broadway anytime soon.  Still, the drama opens up some interesting ideas, such as the nature of the fascist aesthetic, and Albert Speer as the inspiration for Disneyland. (Anyone who has visited Disney World can attest to a creepy totalitarian aspect to the place at times.)

But what was the true relationship between Walt Disney and Nazi Germany?  It is interesting that the San Francisco Weekly writes of "historically documented 1935 meeting between Walt Disney and Adolf Hitler."  I don't have access to the Disney Archives - perhaps John J. Powers does - but there is no record of a meeting between Walt Disney and Hitler.  What has been documented is an automobile trip in 1935 by Walt Disney and his brother Roy through Germany which included a stop in Munich to meet with the German distributor of Disney's cartoons. But  Mario Dressler writes in a catalog to an exhibition of Disney cartoons in Potsdam (Im Reiche der Micky Maus: Walt Disney in Deutschland 1927-1945) that the Propaganda Ministry in Berlin was aware of the Disney brothers' visit in Munich and flew them to Berlin for meetings.  Whom they met with - if such a special visit even took place - is unfortunately not known.  In view of the detailed records kept by Hitler's Sekretariat, it is unlikely that they met with Der Führer in an undocumented meeting. 

However, after leaving Munich the DIsney brothers did drive on to Rome where they were greeted as cultural heroes by Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. 

What is indisputable is that Hitler was a huge fan of Disney. Goebbels gave him 12 Disney shorts as a Christmas present in 1937, and noted in his diary with satisifaction that  Der Führer "freut sich sehr darüber. Ist ganz glücklich über diesen Schatz." (He is very pleased and very happy about this treasure.") Hitler dreamed about creating a German version of Walt Disney and instructed Goebbels to establish the "Deutsche Zeichentrickfilm GmbH"  in 1942.  But the first production - Armer Hansi - about a canary that longs to be safe in its cage - was a great disappointment and did not come anywhere near to matching the Disney quality.

Did Hitler the artist try to improve the quality of these cartoons himself?  Recently, the director of the war museum in northern Norway claims that he acquired drawings of Disney characters signed A.Hitler at an auction in Germany.  The authenticity, however, cannot be confirmed. 
 

Europe's Way

Americans like to speak of the "American Project", which is usually another way of expressing American exceptionalism, where America is seen as a force of freedom over tyranny.  While the American Project may have been a positive force in overcoming slavery, discrimination of minorities, and the suffering of economic depression, it has more recently fallen into disrepute as the American Project became a rationale for aggressive militarism abroad.  Few Americans can conceive of a European Project, except, perhaps, as an object of disdain. But the blogger parisien over at the European Tribune is driven to poetic eloquence when contemplating the European Project:

What is the real spirit and purpose of the European project? Some think of Europe, with  enthusiasm or with distaste, as no more than a free-trade area. Yet from its beginnings the European dream has been far more than that. It was designed to bring stability and lasting peace to a war-ravaged continent. It offers a modern antidote to the ancient and continuing curse of international anarchy.

Historically, the only practical antidote was empire. (...) Europe has another and better solution. The European Union is a "co-operative empire", a supranational authority in which every member state is subject to a common framework of laws, but also has a share in the making and administration of those laws. Here is a way to achieve international order without the dominance of one nation over others.

[...]Here is the commonwealth of the future, a new kind of civilised international order, free from the old imperial dominance of nation over nation that hitherto was the only alternative to anarchic sovereignties. Never mind the naysayers! This new Europe, whatever its difficulties, represents a new and forward-looking  concept in international relations, an example to inspire the world. 

One of the most inspiring books I've read over the past several years is Tony Judt's Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945.  Here is the story of a continent in ruins, savaged by two wars, that, in just a few decades, becomes a beacon of peace and prosperity. A model for the world? Why not?  Judt's history is now available in German translation: Geschichte Europas von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart.

As a footnote, Michael Frank in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, points out that a country like Austria owes its success today to the European Project: 

(Austria's) immense economic success, the concept of Austria as a small, exquisite delicatessen among mass discounters, has propelled the country to the top of the list of rich countries. It has EU membership to thank for this. Strangely, unified Europe has a bad reputation with the Austrians, even though it's thanks to Europe that they can hold their own with anyone in the world today. ... Thanks to that Community of Equals, that toxic issue, the German question, has evaporated, and with it Austria's feelings of being too small and weak. It no longer needs its big brother - neither as a role model nor as a bogeyman.

A Legacy of Torture

Last week President Bush damaged America's reputation - perhaps irreparably - by vetoing legislation to prevent the Central Intelligence Agency from using "waterboarding" and other "coercive interrogation" techniques. These include beatings and sexual abuse, mock executions, withholding of food and water, and menacing by dogs. The law would have forced the CIA to use only army-approved techniques. The move confirmed President Bush's legacy as "the torture president".

Then the US State Department yesterday removed China from the list of worst human rights violators in its  Human Rights Report for 2007. 

Barbara Lochbihler, the head of Amnesty International in Germany, sees a connection in the two events in her commentary in Die Tageszeitung.  You can read my translation of her op/ed piece in Watching America.