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another pointless rant
Feb. 9th, 2014 07:28 pmRight at the start I want to voice my believe that an equal percentage of people all over the continents is more talented than others, may it be in sports, music, arts or science. What differs very much are the opportunities to be able to develop those specific talents, but that´s not what I want to talk about. I´d like to focus on my home country, which is great, full of talents, offers best opportunities to get to the top -says our most widely read daily paper. So why does it happen once in a blue moon that those talents manage it to really get to the top? If we have lots of training facilities, institutes of higher education, universities- then why do our people continuously lag behind others?
Well, being talented does not automatically mean that one has got a free ticket to success. A talent has to work hard to get among the best of the best. If she or he stagnates, does not push her-or himself to make progress, even the greatest talent might very well be outstripped very soon by those not as talented but more ambitious. And that´s what we have here. Only recently I read the results of a research study which raised to question the excessive praise and attention of the media talented young people in my home country get the moment they achieve something special. It´s not about praising in general but the way we overdo it. A simple "That´s quite good" would usually suffice. "You´re the best" is not quite appropriate, at least in the majority of situations. But that´s exactly what our beloved daily paper does: praising talents to the sky the moment they achive a first success.
Our country is a rather small one, comparable in size and population to Bavaria, but while in Germany there´s a lot of fair competition among the federal states, we do have none of it here. Once we had an enormous quantity of musical talents, now we still have them, save that only every now and again some of them make it to the top, that´s usually when those children are pushed by parents and siblings, so to say a competition inside the family which comes to fruition. The same goes for sports. I watched Olympia today and was intrigued by the Canadian sisters competing at the freestyle challenge and the Suisse sisters at the biathlon competition. Our daily paper would go wild were these athletes our citizens. All the back-slapping! All the poking around in private life! The usual photographs with the functionaries (does anyone but me wonder why all officials here are way older than in other countries?)! We are the best! We are better than the best!
Those model athletes would only tap their forehead and continue to perfect their performance. Ours will stand on the brakes, smile into the cameras, muddle along as long as someone pays attention to them and then sink to insignificance, and, thanks to our yellow journal, we will all be able to follow the descent. I swear, inadequate journalism and the inability to endeavour and achieve great things will be the main characteristics of our nation one day!
Well, being talented does not automatically mean that one has got a free ticket to success. A talent has to work hard to get among the best of the best. If she or he stagnates, does not push her-or himself to make progress, even the greatest talent might very well be outstripped very soon by those not as talented but more ambitious. And that´s what we have here. Only recently I read the results of a research study which raised to question the excessive praise and attention of the media talented young people in my home country get the moment they achieve something special. It´s not about praising in general but the way we overdo it. A simple "That´s quite good" would usually suffice. "You´re the best" is not quite appropriate, at least in the majority of situations. But that´s exactly what our beloved daily paper does: praising talents to the sky the moment they achive a first success.
Our country is a rather small one, comparable in size and population to Bavaria, but while in Germany there´s a lot of fair competition among the federal states, we do have none of it here. Once we had an enormous quantity of musical talents, now we still have them, save that only every now and again some of them make it to the top, that´s usually when those children are pushed by parents and siblings, so to say a competition inside the family which comes to fruition. The same goes for sports. I watched Olympia today and was intrigued by the Canadian sisters competing at the freestyle challenge and the Suisse sisters at the biathlon competition. Our daily paper would go wild were these athletes our citizens. All the back-slapping! All the poking around in private life! The usual photographs with the functionaries (does anyone but me wonder why all officials here are way older than in other countries?)! We are the best! We are better than the best!
Those model athletes would only tap their forehead and continue to perfect their performance. Ours will stand on the brakes, smile into the cameras, muddle along as long as someone pays attention to them and then sink to insignificance, and, thanks to our yellow journal, we will all be able to follow the descent. I swear, inadequate journalism and the inability to endeavour and achieve great things will be the main characteristics of our nation one day!
