This is a notice that the next Carnival of German-American Relations will take place at the Atlantic Review and Statler & Waldorf blogs on March 11, 2006. Submission deadline is March 7.
Just what is the Carnival?
The Blog Carnival of German-American Relations takes place quarterly. Every carnival is hosted by two blogs from both sides of the Atlantic. One in English and one in German. The goal is to promote dialogue between Americans and Germans and everybody else who cares about transatlantic relations. Liberal, conservative and other bloggers from both sides of the Atlantic are invited to discuss German-American relations by submitting their best blog posts in English or in German. You don't have to mince words. You may submit very critical posts, but they have to be well argued and written respectfully.
The reason I post this notice here is that a number of us with blogs on both sides of the Atlantic had been noticing that much of the commentary about U.S.-German and U.S.-EU relations in general has been dominated by conservative and right-wing blogs, and that much of the coverage of these transatlantic relations in the U.S. media takes on either sensationalist (Freedom Fries???), centrist realpolitik flavors, and/or conservative bents.
Joerg Wolf, at the Atlantic Review writes: I hope liberals and progressives do care about transatlantic relations, but I haven't seen much from them in the MSM and in blogs. I hope my perception is proven wrong. Perhaps our carnival could also contribute to more dialogue between American liberals and Europeans.
This reminds me of something that happened the other night. I was having a discussion with a woman who had been living in Europe during the same years I lived there, between 2000 and 2002, during 9/11 and in the run-up to the Iraq War. We had quite different experiences, it turns out. The girl, who considers herself a "lefty progressive," was living in Geneva at the time and said she felt extreme antagonism toward her as an American, and that even when she was out marching in protests against the possible U.S. invasion of Iraq at the time, she was shouted down by angry protesters just because she was American. On the other hand I never felt much antagonism or "anti-Americanism" to the point of shouting while living in the four countries in Europe I lived in during that period, though I could probably list a few dozen heated and mostly civil discussions with friends and acquaintances over drinks about the state of affairs.
Now I wouldn't even call myself a "lefty progressive" as this woman did, and have never been one to take part in protests. I did have one odd confrontation in Utrecht, Netherlands where this lady was going on and on about how we'd slaughtered the American Indians and brought over all those slaves, but I shrugged it off and ignored her since it didn't make any sense for me to explain to her that my relatives had come over from Belgium in the 1920s long after those events happened. Neither does it make sense that the woman I mentioned before was shouted down in Geneva for the actions of her government which she didn't support anyway. Now these are a couple of extreme cases where dialogue doesn't do much good. But considering the perception that a lot of the blog coverage of Europe coming from America is done by conservative and right-wing blogs, it might be helpful to contribute at least in a small way to this carnival to remind people across the Atlantic that there are more voices of reason out there than the usual suspects with their own extreme views.
For more information on how to join the Carnival, follow the link and scroll down for the details on what you need to put in your blog to submit.