Tonight's game by Christian Runkel
I love the foto from the New York Times and attach it: a Turkish and a German flag knotted together in Berlin.
The game tonight has already brought forth a lot of friendly feelings between the local Turks and Germans here. It feels like as if we discover each other in a new way. From the Turkish side words like Hamit Altintops “Ich habe Deutschland alles zu verdanken“ (Complete Interview in Spiegel Online: http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussball/0,1518,561417,00.html) which is quoted* in today’s New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/sports/soccer/25soccer.html?pagewanted=1) renew a mutual feeling of thankfulness that “we” have “them” and they have us.
Orhan Pamuk fears that football could be used to stir up nationalistic feelings, but I would rather say that the nature of football which after all is a game makes it impossible to connect politics too strongly with it. We all have learned several times that we wave flags one day and put them silently down the other (maybe one of us will learn it again Saturday when the Russians have the final waving).
Whatever happens: there will be new wavings in new days to come! There will always be a good team from Turkey and Germany (as long as mothers in Gelsenkirchen give birth to Altintops and mothers in Katowice give birth to Podolskis…)
I will watch the came together with a bunch of Turkish youngsters in Solingen. There is a club house of the Gülen-people there, and Necattin Topel, the leader of their union has invited me (turning my invitation to watch the game here in my house into an invitation to him).
Lots of love
Christian
