Flags

This, in the NYT, strikes me as strange:

The German flag, long weighted by the country’s postwar reluctance about open displays of national pride, is flying again, an expression of exuberance as Germany plays host to the World Cup.

“When you see so many German flags flying from windows, that’s a development that was long overdue, while not forgetting what happened in this country before,” said Christoph Metzelder, a defender on the German team.

Indeed, the chief indicator of the national mood is that almost overnight, once the World Cup began and all those people from other countries arrived with flags and T-shirts in their national colors, it became almost mandatory, certainly desirable, to respond in kind.

You could almost substitute England for Germany here, apart from the references to a troubled past. In fact it would apply better to England, where the usual squirming at the ghastly chavs displaying the flag, and how they’re all horrible working-class racists, is at last being countered with the dawning realisation that there are thousands of non-white English happily – and proudly – flying the old St George’s Cross.

I don’t recall the Germans having a problem with showing their flag in earlier World Cups, or in any other international sporting context for that matter. It has no Nazi connotations, after all. I realise that Germany’s trying to use the World Cup to change people’s perceptions of them – and good luck to them – but this story looks a bit forced to me.