Rock'n'Roll All Star 11

The real life England squad will never win the Cup (again), that's almost as certain as death.

As a suggestion for better days I present to you Daniel's All Star 11 of Britain's top Rock'n'Rollers.

I chose a 4-4-2 formation:

                                     8                               9

                            Robbie Williams         Mick Jagger (C)

       11                         10                            6                                7

 Rod Stewart      Noel Gallagher         Elton John             Keith Richards

     3                             4                               5                               2

Iggy Pop           Liam Gallagher         Mick Hucknall       Ronnie Wood

                                                1

                                        Fatboy Slim

Waiting for your suggestions! Play Hot Rod as a support man just behind the strikers? Bring George Michael into the team? Ozzy Osbourne? Don't waste too  much brains, though, because at the end of the day England fans know their fate..

Supporting England is like supporting defeat!

Daniel, why do you show a German flag on your blog page?

Yeah, you’re right. My drummer hates me for it, too. Especially after Germany beat Poland at the World Cup Finals. “Odonkor gets the cross in for Neuviiiiille!!!!! Gooooooooal!!”

Other friends of me are surprised that I “turned Nazi”, which in fact I didn’t. So why, Daniel, why?

Well, first of all because Bono is getting old and someone else has to fill the void. The United States will elect a new president in 2008 and U2 will fold in their tents around that time, too. While I took Bono’s wrap-around sunglasses, I didn’t want to wrap myself in the American flag – remember the TIME cover? First, I don’t like TIME (their person of the year 2003: “The American Soldier”) and second a new era needs a new flag.

Now I will get serious, so it will probably get boring. I am an internationalist, but in the short term I see the nation state as the best protection against economic developments that decrease our quality of life and as a way to preserve our democratic rights – bore, snore.. still want more? I have turned into a Euro sceptic (now you see that I must be right wing), because these guys in Brussels make decisions that matter – but nobody takes notice! European institutions make the big decisions that affect us, and our news media give them as much coverage as MTV gives to classical and avantgarde music.

But what’s that got to do with flag waving? Well, it’s a question of political identification. Many of us don’t identify with the German flag. The main reason may be the people who do identify with it. You know who I’m refering to: xenophobes, right wingers, militarists, and all the punks at the fan mile – singing “Deutschland, Deutschland, Deutschland, Deutschland” – in fact I joined them on several occasions, so I’m only joking. Let’s be precise, many flag wavers may be chauvinists, but the flag itself is no chauvinistic symbol.

Flags are open to interpretation. They can be connected to values. They might as well be abolished, but let’s get real, that’s not going to happen. We can connect them to universalist values of tolerance, justice, help for people in need and community. And that’s exactly what I think we need – a new sense of community, community values.

Of course there are smaller communities we can focus on. Let’s take Berlin. Many Berliners are of Turkish descent. I would suggest to them: take the German flag and make it yours. And they already did! Again: Remember the World Cup finals! Everyone in Berlin supported the German team – well, everybody except me. Now I’m only following the example of others.

The task is to improve our community. I don’t care if the German team wins, I care about our community and I think it’s smart to connect our values to this flag. Because if we don’t, others will use this symbol that we can’t ignore in their own mean ways. Want an idea: turn a a demo in support of liberal immigration and asylum rules and against the hardline deportation policies of our government into a sea of German flags. Now that would be something to remember! Take a look at activists in the US, who are campaigning for peace, for the poor, for the environment – for them it’s a matter of course to link the American flag to their cause.

Let’s be positive! In America they say “we are aallll Americans. We are all Germans, our community is open, we’re always ready to embrace new members to the club. That’s what our flag’s about, what it should be about. We’ve got to give it that meaning. So if my buddy Frank and I were cut, we would bleed black, red and gold..

Peace, Daniel