(no subject)

[astridv]

Well, I knew why I put off installing my graphic tablet for over half a year. After fiddling around with the drivers I at least got my old bluetooth adapter to work on Win 7, but as to my Wacom UD-1212, it looks like a lost cause. I can't believe I can't find any driver for Win 7. Wacom flat out said at their forum that they don't bother making drivers for such antique hardware, and screw all their customers who now can use their fully-functional, expensive devices as doorstoppers.

Question to the flist:
a) anyone, by any chance, know if there's a driver for my antiquity?
b) If there isn't: anyone want a Wacom UD-1212 bluetooth graphics tablet for $ 0,00 + postage? (won't run under Vista or Win 7 or higher, apparently)
c) can anyone recommend me a good new graphics tablet? I have half a mind to boycott Wacom now, but I suspect other companies aren't much better and I'm valuing product quality, so if the best choice is another Wacom I'll grudgingly buy that.

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For something entirely different, there was a fandomsecret last night about some of the cast of Heroes singing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" on a trip to Munich. I learned in that thread that it's a very common misconception that those are the official lyrics of the German anthem.

Ignoring the total overreaction (imho) of a lot of my fellow Germans in that thread over a cultural faux pas, I figure that rather than jump down non-native speakers' throats for not picking up on foreign-language lyrics, cultural nuances and German sensitivities, it's better to simply make it more common knowledge that these lyrics are considered inappropriate. They're not outright banned here, but they might as well be. Only the third verse is today's official anthem and starts with the words "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" (unity and right and freedom).

"Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" is the start of the first verse: the first two verses of the anthem aren't sung in post-war Germany. These words have been irrevocably tainted by the Nazis who gave what used to be a song about German unity a nationalistic and imperialistic slant. (And the geography in the first verse is factually wrong nowadays. The second verse is not so much nationalist as sexist, and overall idiotic.)

Basically, to a German the words "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" imply Nazi thought so if a foreigner starts singing "Deutschland, Deutschland..." around FRG citizens, it will make them very uncomfortable. They will likely not know whether to feel insulted or mocked, not knowing in turn that all this is not common knowledge outside Germany. (In comparison, if a German sang that first verse in my face, my mind would jump in the "possible Neo-Nazi sympathizer, beware" direction.)

In my opinion, Germany asked for that sort of confusion when they didn't scrap the entire anthem instead of just the first two verses. And then when our two countries reunited we had another chance to get rid of the thing which would've made sense on more than one level, and again we let it pass by.

Comments

[busaikko]

It looks like there are hacks on the internet that might get your tablet working if you are computer-savvy and willing to fiddle around with stuff (not sure how well it seems to work for Win 7, though).

Also, Japan is in the same boat as regards the national anthem, they should have changed it after the war (it's all about the reign of the Emperor going on for aeons). Many Japanese people will not stand for or sing the anthem. (Also, it sounds like a dirge....) Would it be hard to start a campaign to change the song, or is it beloved in certain circles?

[ratcreature]

I suspect the key problem is that pretty much all proposals that have come up for the German anthem actually share the verse length so that you still could sing the other to it, because they have verses of the kind of the Austrian emperor hymns ("Gott erhalte Franz, den Kaiser...") which also afaik was the text for which Haydn wrote the current anthem. If you take a look at the former GDR anthem (i.e. "Auferstanden aus Ruinen..."), you can sing that to the Haydn melody, and vice versa you could sing the Deutschlandlied to the Eisler melody of the GDR one. And the one alternate proposal for a text that I remember coming up in 1990, one from Brecht, has the same verse rhythm too. So you wouldn't get rid of people singing the wrong words, unless you picked something entirely different.

[busaikko]

I did not know that. That does seem to be problematic. But I suppose people are attached to the current Haydn melody....

If people wanted to change the song entirely (in the case of Japan, or Germany, or even of the US, our national anthem is not very appropriate) seems like the sort of thing that could be done democratically: establish some rules, solicit submissions, and vote on them. (The Americans would run it as some kind of reality television spectacular, I'm sure).

It seems to me that while national symbols are rooted in history, they are also emblems of a national hope for the future. Here in Japan, I very much doubt that most people hope for the Emperors to reign until pebbles are grown into boulders. It would be interesting to see what kinds of songs people came up with.

[astridv]

Ah, thanks for the link, I'll give it a try at least.

See, I didn't know that about Japan either and I reckon I know more about Japanese culture than the average German. So I don't understand why they are getting so worked up about others not getting it.

Many Japanese people will not stand for or sing the anthem.

Yeah, a lot of people here won't sing it either. I guess it still has the whiff of nationalism, similar to displaying the flag - which in recent years has become acceptable during the World Cup, and pretty much only then. And even that still makes a lot of people cringe. It made me cringe at first though I actually think it's a healthy thing. In moderation...

Would it be hard to start a campaign to change the song, or is it beloved in certain circles?

I really don't think most people care much for it though I may be wrong. I don't quite understand why they never changed it. Maybe just inertia, the hurdle of having 80 million citizens agree on someting new that everybody will be happy with...

And yeah, we'd need to change it entirely, lyrics, melody, and verse length. Something new and fresh.