Humor, racism and the euro

I very much enjoyed the article by Ian Buruma (The Jakarta Post, July 11, 2002, No place for Hitler imitations in ongoing European currency debate). It was witty and quite to the point. However I have to pour some more water on the fire of the British (Buruma was apparently too polite to say English) misconception that humor is their exclusive domain.

Each and every country -- and I have traveled to more than 170 countries around the world -- has its own kind of humor, which due to a lack of willingness (or perhaps other more sinister reasons) is not understood by the British/English.

If a distinction was handed out for not having a sense or an understanding of humor, first place would certainly go to the Jews, and I'd like to give a small example. In the 1980s there was an excellent Radio-Talk-Show by the North German sender NDR2. The usual topic was to target "minorities" for their peculiarities and one of these "minorities" were car drivers wearing a hat -- specifically drivers of cars with the well-known star. (proves a bit that Germans very much do have at least some kind of humor).

The call-ins were mostly quite hilarious, except for the call- in by a representative of a Jewish League who condemned the broadcast as anti-Semitism in its worst form, since orthodox Jews were compelled to wear a hat at all times, also in a Mercedes car.

The Germans will never forget the holocaust, but being born after the war, I refuse to accept any personal guilt and categorically refuse to accept that the Germans should carry a stigma of guilt for all eternity. The Jews conveniently forget that they were persecuted, since the Diaspora, to varying extents in all host countries, not only in Germany or its forgoing individual states. Likewise, an uncountable number were killed after the war in the USSR, especially during the Stalin era, but nothing is ever said about that. It is just too easy to fleece the Germans and hammer on the guilt-complex.

As for the Euro, it was, indeed, not easy for the Germans to say good-bye to the Mark, but they did so with grace to the benefit of the community and the furtherance of it. It is very well understood how difficult it must be for the British to say good-bye to their Pound, but shouldn't the British here show their well-known spirit of good sportsmanship? Why not make the change with good grace as soon as possible.

HARM G. FREY, Jakarta