Friday, 10 June 2011

Ich bin got E.coli

Far be it from me to cast sweeping jingoistic generalisations across entire nations of people.

But...

Can you think of another country more likely to blame others for an E.coli outbreak before realising it was actually their own products than Germany?

A couple of weeks ago, E.coli broke out in the Fatherland and killed 29 people. In a developed nation such as Germany that is a lot of folk, and they were quick to pin the blame on some innocent imported cucumbers, which were minding their own business waiting to be in rude films. Much stock was destroyed and bans imposed to curb the bother, while nobody noticed that the countries from where the produce was exported remained suspiciously death-free.

Skip forward to today and they've now decided to 'fess up that it might actually have been home-grown beans sprouts causing the carnage in the first place. A fabulously-named Mr. Burger has admitted as much today, although an apology to the nations who had the Jihad put on them is conspicuous by it's absence. I can hardly say I'm surprised. Someone I know works with German colleagues regularly and has noted that when they believe any blame can be laid at your door, they don't hang around in telling you. When, however, it's actually their fault that the scheisse has hit das fan, they go all quiet and pretend they're in meetings to avoid having to be pleasant or diplomatic.

Not for a minute am I suggesting that all Germans act in this way, so get off your high horse, but can anybody suggest a country more likely to blame others for it's terrible plight before looking closer to home for the cause of their ills?

Us lot in the UK? Er, yeah. Good point.

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