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What must be said

Did you read that German fella
thought he's brave but let me tell'ya
if he weren't such a pussy
would have criticized the muzzie
he would end like Pammy Geller
 
I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
I think that's really fine
I get to travel to the States
And not feel that that's a crime

I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
To be so would be scary
I have a low fear quotient
Of the American military

I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
My parents were quite sage
Not to send me to the mosque
To be the target of your rage

I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
The media think they're crazy
But I think we could all do better
Than to subscribe to thoughts that lazy

I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
But I'd like to hear their take on
The wars, the bombs, the violence,
(But I won't give up my bacon.)
 
Virus said:
Or Theo Van Gough.
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So, to sum up, Gunter Grass didn't do something that isn't any way comparable to the thing he did do, and therefore he doesn't have to suffer the same fate as someone else who did something else which also isn't in any way comparable to the thing he did do, even though said fate is different from what happened to other people who didn't do what either of them did do (or didn't do, in Grass' case) but who did stuff that was worse.

I'm so glad we got that settled.
 
Skepticemea said:
I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
I think that's really fine
I get to travel to the States
And not feel that that's a crime

I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
To be so would be scary
I have a low fear quotient
Of the American military

I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
My parents were quite sage
Not to send me to the mosque
To be the target of your rage

I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
The media think they're crazy
But I think we could all do better
Than to subscribe to thoughts that lazy

I'm glad I'm not a Muslim
But I'd like to hear their take on
The wars, the bombs, the violence,
(But I won't give up my bacon.)
Click to expand...



:clap:
 
ANTPogo said:
That's a completely false analogy, since he didn't criticise Judaism.
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Does Lieberman, Netanyahu [and Virus] know the difference between criticizing Israel and criticizing the Jews? :confused:
 
Grass just reacted to the travel ban with a short statement pointing out that this is happening to him the third time in his life - Israel follows the GDR (soviet East Germany) and Birma (Burma/Myanmar) in considering him, as the then head of Stasi Erich Mielke put it, to be a "corrosive element".

edit: Unlike the other two cases, in the recent one Grass didn't even state an intention to travel to the country (which he has visited several times before).
 
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Childlike Empress said:
Grass just reacted to the travel ban with a short statement pointing out that this is happening to him the third time in his life - Israel follows the GDR (soviet East Germany) and Birma (Burma/Myanmar) in considering him, as the then head of Stasi Erich Mielke put it, to be a "corrosive element".

edit: Unlike the other two cases, in the recent one Grass didn't even state an intention to travel to the country (which he has visited several times before).
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Well, y'know, if they didn't ban him, then Iran would feel emboldened enough to nuke Tel Aviv. Or something.
 
Childlike Empress said:
... fail to see how his text can be considered poetry ... .
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We have an accord. :)
Virus said:
Imagine if he wrote a poem criticizing Islam.
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Flames at an embassy, I suspect.
angrysoba said:
Oh, Islam! You are so crap!
The Muzzies think women are sluts,
Unless, they're under wraps
There is no God but... but me no buts!

I'll just sit here and wait for the fatwa!
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Didn't quite scan. Was original language not English? :D
Skepticemea said:
I'm glad I'm not a Muslim

(But I won't give up my bacon.)
Click to expand...
I also am glad you are not a Muslim, and I enjoyed your poem. :)
 
Virus said:
Wasn't Syria knee deep in blood when this poem was written?
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Ha ha! LOL! ROFL! ROFLMAO!

This is a parody, right?

It's a good one. I remember reading some pro-Israel site around the time that news of the Mavi Marmara was breaking. At this point almost nothing was known of the encounter except that the IDF had shot a bunch of Turkish "activists" or whatever they were.

While almost everyone was still digesting the news and waiting for more details to come in, some of the posters suddenly started screaching, "What about the Congoooooooo?!? Does no one care about the Congo?!?"

It was piss funny!
 
It's more about how people go ape over imaginary crimes when there are real crimes next door.
 
Virus said:
It's more about how people go ape over imaginary crimes when there are real crimes next door.
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That's true. Maybe we should simply ignore Grass's poem then as there's little point expending any energy on it when Syria is knee-deep in blood.
 
Now they harassed the Nobel Academy into releasing a statement:

Peter Englund said:
Regarding the current debate over Günther Grass’ poem “Was gesagt werden muss” I wish to point out that Mr Grass received his Nobel Prize in 1999 on literary merit and literary merit alone – this applies to all recipients. There is and will be no discussion in the Swedish Academy on rescinding the award.
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:rolleyes:
 
I would like to point out, as a native German speaker, that I would translate the title as "What needs to be said".

I'm not sure if I want to go through the whole thing to check translations, as I think it's mostly ramblings of a dirty old man whose way of thinking has always been a bit off. There's still need for discussion, though, as a lot of people here in Germany consider Grass to be an important thinker, so I'm torn. But too lazy to go through translations.
 
elgarak said:
I would like to point out, as a native German speaker, that I would translate the title as "What needs to be said".
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I translated it to "What has to be said" in the OP but chose to title the thread like SPIEGEL translated it. A reasonable translation of the text, at least far better than what seems to be done by a bot posted by angrysoba on page one can be found here.
 
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