Well now...

[selenak]

Because turnabout is fair, and it's (nearly) always interesting how other people view you: We should take more notice of this woman on the top. It's an article in the Guardian which complains about the (lack of) British media coverage of German politics (the woman in question being Angela Merkel, our chancellor, who just was declared most powerful woman in the world for the fourth year in a row by Forbes), rather flatteringly calls us "probably the most grown-up country in the world today" with "a grown-up leader like Merkel" (with a sideline of "why so much Palin and so little Merkel, fellow journalists, when the former is only a wannabe quitter and the later a genuinenly powerful and repeatedly elected woman?") and goes on quite a bit about Germany as a role model for other countries. Now, we have general elections next month, and I can tell you, all the parties involved talk about the crisis rather than the success in their campaigns; they certainly don't see us as a role model. I don't think we're more grown up than the rest of world, either. (I read our papers and watch our news.) And the lack of coverage for Angela Merkel in particular is due less to the fact she's German and not American and more to the fact her appearance usually gets described as dowdy, she doesn't do scandals and her husband and other family are left alone by the media, and she's not prone to either soundbites, quips or malapropisms. (Or demagogery.) This in any media of the world would lead to her being ignored in favour of more sensation-promising material, independent of her nationality.

All this being said? It still feels... nice... to read an entire article so complimentary about one's country. Very odd, too. Huh. Note to self: get a reality check again by reading the German morning papers.

Moving on to fannish links: considering I complained earlier this week about the lack of discussion, I'm happy to report b5_revisited now features great debate about Vir in Coming of Shadows.

As for that other space station I love: I'll show you mine is a hilarious DS9/ Doctor Who crossover in which Jadzia Dax and the Doctor (with Jack in tow) compare death experiences before branching out to other subjects. Loved it.