This week I've been working diligently and spent the appropriate number of hours in the library.

The past days I’ve figured that the triple task of working, e-mailing and blogging is quite exhausting and time consuming.. In that respect it’s helpful that my private life is still.. lets call it "improvable" - so from a social point of view it makes no difference at all whether I’d just go home or spend two more hours in the office..

However, I think it does make a difference from the recreational point of view. I think I should rather return home right after work, relax, have food and then write a bit.. Right after work my head ist just so empty and full that I don't feel capable to write creatively - although there would be a number of things I'd like to talk about.

Of course it would also be helpful if I slept more more.. No big surprise I guess, but by now my rythm has already joachimised, i.e. I go to bed at about 1am and that's just too late when getting up ad 7:30. *yawn* But I've got good Intentions - every day again and again!

By the way, I haven't forgotten the plan of explaining my work, in fact I've started a draft yesterday, but I was sooo slow. English sucks! ;-) Maybe I manage to post a few lines about it tomorrow..

As for today just two World Cup related links:
Der uralte Trick mit dem Ziegel unter dem Hut in neuer Aufmachung:
- Autsch!

The craziness of England's press: Number one World Cup topic -The WAGs (= Wives And Girlfriends - of English team players)
- WAGs gallery - Enjoy! (BBC)
- Sensational: "WAG's reach next round" (The Sun)

After the recent pointed remarks against our northern neighbour I have to defend Germany’s soccer team today – a small miracle isn’t it?

I won’t talk much about their performance as such, but just to have it said: They were as strong as Argentina and I can’t say they deserved victory any less. From previous matches I still think Argentina has more potential – but they couldn’t use it. In fact I’m afraid I have to admit that Germany performed really well and objectively it wouldn’t be undeserved if they won. On the other hand I’ve seen a few matches which they won undeservedly, so they might well suffer that fate at least once. In the end the debate of whether a victory is deserved or not leads to nothing anyway. Who wins, wins. Who loses, loses. Therefore, I still feel free not wanting Germany to win the championship..

But what I want to talk about is the team’s composition. In quite a lot of talks about the German team somebody always pointed at the players origins: “Germany? Just look at that team! Podolski, Klose and Bierowka are Polish, Neuville is Swiss; Asamoah and Odonkor don’t really look like typical Germans either.”

When Eric and Sylwia mentioned that fact, it was partly understandable. They’re both of Polish origin and it must be pretty difficult to see Poland dropping out early while Klose and Podolski have scored 8 of Germany’s 11 goals. Before the match Germany vs. Poland Sylwias father told her he would support Germany because that way at least three Polish players could be successful, while their team as such hadn’t got any chances to win the cup anyway. Sylwia dismissed that logic and jokingly compared it to cheering for collaborators. During that match it was obvious how difficult it was for her to see them play “for the wrong team” as she put it and when both Klose and Podolski failed to score from best positions she claimed: “Well, they can’t score against their country. That just doesn’t work.” Ironically this proved to be correct. In the end the only goal was scored by Neuville and this match has remained the only one so far where neither Klose nor Podolski scored. (I don’t want to imagine those two players being of Austrians origin because that fact would be mentioned at every suitable and unsuitable opportunity in snivelling national pride, which would simply be unbearable. I mean, our sports commentators already declare a foreign national player practically Austrian if his wife’s dog has once been to Austria.)

However, I did not hear those comments from Eric and Sylwia only, which quite surprised me. I mean I would expect them in traditional European national states - and even there rather from conservative people – but not in Canada, a typical immigration country! I’d also understand the criticism if Germany had quickly picked players who don’t speak the language and who haven’t got any true connection to the country and just naturalised them in order to create a good team. I would reject those practices as well because that’s not the idea of having a national team. However, that isn’t the case for the German team. As far as I know most of them, at least Podolski and Klose, have come to Germany in their childhood or youth and have grown up there. So who dares to doubt those players’ German identity? I rate this issue a very sensitive one and thus reacted quite sensitively on that belabouring of the supposed un-German-ness of the German team. When Eric questioned the purity of the “German” team for the second time I commented in dry irony: “You do realise that that’s not very fair, don’t you? Since 60 years Germany has been criticised for its nationalism and now it’s criticised for being such an open society. You really should decide for one of them...”

In fact that remark was meant rather seriously than funny. In my opinion the quality of such criticism isn’t much different than that of the German extreme right party NPD, whose World Cup planner showed a (white) player with the number 25 (which then was the number of Patrick Owomoyela, son of a Nigerian-German couple) and the slogan “Weiß. Nicht nur eine Trikot-Farbe! Für eine echte NATIONAL-Mannschaft!“ (“White. Not just a jersey colour! For a true NATIONAL team!”) (Source) After Owomoyela had sued sucessfully the NPD issued a second planner, which, however, wasn’t any less explicit. It featured a German team with only one white player and asked: "Nationalelf 2010?" (“National team 2010?”). This time it was the German Football Association DFB who sued – successfully and this planner had to be withdrawn from circulation as well. (Source)

In fact the NPD’s current behaviour is fairly interesting and once again proofs the inconsistency of the like extreme right wing philosophy. The party argues that its stance is supported by a poll of sports-magazine “Kicker” which enquired the Germans’ ideal team and – as the NPD satisfactorily notes – people did not at all mention supposed “quota-Germans” such as Asamoah und Owomoyela. Accordingly the NPD listed the mentioned real Germans on their web page including – without any mentioning of their heritage of course - Podolski, Klose and Borowski. In conclusion – to use the right extremist vocabulary –the NPD obviously opposes “niggers” in the German team but is only too ready to turn “Slavic subhuman beings” into proper and pure Arians, when their heritage can’t be heard or seen. (Of course it’s also typical that the party supported the Iranian team – “terrorist heathens” so to say – against their common enemy USA, also known as “puppet of Israel and the Jewish East coast”.) What a truly national philosophy! How good, that good old uncle Adolf doesn’t have to witness this..

I think it’s good that the team is how it is. Doesn’t it reflect today’s German reality better than an all white all German-German team? It’s a fact that Germany is not a uniform national state, as the NPD would want it to be, but a naturally developing (and not at all imposed) multicultural society. Doesn’t it show that Germany is (or works on being) not a stubborn and boring country but an open and tolerant society? Doesn’t it make clear that immigrants should be generally welcome because independently from origins, religion or colour of the skin they may be willing to give their best for their new home country and in fact Germany greatly benefits from their work?

So, in this respect I really support the German team. However, having said this I also have to criticise the state as such for not being consistent. For countries such as the Netherlands (which for decades actively supported a multicultural society) and France (where cultural differences did not exist because everyone was French) I think it’s completely legitimate to have a national team consisting to a high percentage of players with migration background. But in concern of Germany it seems a bit strange that the respective players entered the country and have been naturalised at a time when politics still proudly declared: “Germany is not an immigration country!” Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s fine that the team is as it is – but those politicians who now visit the stadiums and cheer for the German national team should really keep in mind this team’s composition next time they discuss immigration issues.

Finally.. Canada Day was a very long day as I got up at 7:30 for something which I don't want to remember and I went to bed at 2:30. In combination with the exhausting week this resulted in 12 hours sleep and afterwards I couldn't be bothered to leave the flat but did a bit of organising and washed the dishes (of pretty much the whole week). Today was bank holiday as well, but I still went here and worked a couple of hours as compensation for Friday).

I had an excellent Canada Day yesterday – although the day developed a bit differently than planned. Originally the plan was to meet at university at 1:30, take the LRT to City Hall to take the tour and eat from the Canada cake then go canoeing on the Saskatchewan and in the evening watch the waterfall from 9-11 and afterwards the fireworks.

As it was a beautiful day we – Lucka, Kamilla and I – agreed to walk, by crossing the river via the Highlevel Bridge (the old railway bridge). When passing the Legislature Building (Alberta’s Parliament) we decided to insert a short extra stop because I’ve never seen it from close. In the end that short stop turned out to be a rather extensive one because we had and took the opportunity to visit the building. (Just now has come into my mind, I’ve visited the German, the British and now Alberta’s Parliament – but I’ve never been inside the Austrian! What a disgrace!) The guides were dressed in historical uniforms (of state offices such as the Speaker or Governor) and clothing of ordinary people (similar to those one could see in films like Far And Away (In einem fernen Land) and explained interesting details about the building and answered questions.

Inside the Legislative Assembly Chamber we were explained the arrangement of the seats, the governing party (the Conservatives) is always seated right of the Speaker but presently “there are too many Conservatives” so some of them have to sit on the right side (I wonder whether that was a completely apolitical statement, because surely they could have expressed it more neutrally..) Also the wall was decorated with flags of the Canadian states, which were arranged according to the date when they became part of Canada. By the way, Canada Day celebrates 1 July 1867, the date when the British North America Act united the territories Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a federation named Canada.

Here they celebrated “100 years of Democracy” because 1906 – one year after Alberta became a Canadian province and the first elections were held – the Legislative Assembly sat for the first time. Next year they can celebrate another 100 years Jubilee: The works on the Legislature Building started in 1907 (and were completed in 1912). As you can see on the photo it’s a typical building of that time..

Apart from the political and historical information we also enjoyed an acoustic experience. If you stand at the so called “Magic Spot” in the fifth floor it sounds as if you’re standing right in the middle of the fountain which is located in the entrance hall. As the guide explained it was not created intentionally but discovered accidentally. And at first a technician was called because it was feared that a pipe might have cracked or the roof might be leaking.. (For a little bit more information see their Web Page Link on which they also feature a virtual tour where you can create a character and walk through the building. (I haven’t tried it because I would have to download a programme, but if you do, tell me how it is..)

After leaving the building it was already about 3:30pm, we had some lunch and then continued walking. Similar to the Legislature Building the Square in front of City Hall was very busy and partly a reason was that here the fountains were open to public as well. Of course Lucka and Kamilla took the opportunity (but i unfortunately was wearing Jeans, so I just enjoyed the view..) When we finally entered the building (I think it was close to 5pm) there were no tours and no Canada cake anymore but it didn’t really matter to me.

After that the quest to find the canoes proved futile as well, which didn’t matter either, because it was a nice walk through the city and Victory park. Afterwards we returned to our side of the river and had lunch in the vicinity of the University. While Kamilla left for meeting a friend we were instead joined by Lucka’s boyfriend Darius and by Ala and her friend/boyfriend (or something in between) Clemens (who’s a visiting professor from Innsbruck). Here you see them close to the river when we (and hundreds of other people) where waiting – in vain as it turned out – for the artificial waterfall which should have been created at Highlevel Bridge. Today I read that it couldn’t be created due to defect tubes. I really wonder why Edmonton sent thousands of police(wo)men to control Oilers fans at Whyte Avenue but not a single one to inform hundreds of Canada fans that the waterfall would not take place. So we were sitting at the river for almost two hours (After some time I was quite annoyed and bored – if at least we would have been allowed to have a couple of beers..) until shortly before 11pm at least the firework took place. It was nice but I’m not such a fan of fireworks and I thought they were not much more spectacular then those on New Year’s eve in Innsbruck. Whatever, at least it was a nice walk, nice talk, fresh air and relaxing - and afterwards we went for a beer, which was the perfect end of the day..

Actually this would have been the perfect occasion to write about some observations concerning Canadian national identity, but David needs the computer and besides this entry is already so long anyway..