Ya gotta love the Germans. Often described as being kind of
staid and uptight and
maintaining a placid exterior, apparently they're also seething underneath
with unmet passions that can be unleashed by a combination of the
consumption of multiple litres of beer and their country hosting the
coveted World Cup. A friend of mine is German and Argentinian,
heritage from two countries that figure prominently in the World Cup,
and from what I gather from him the passion that's evoked by this event is something that most
Americans can't comprehend. Apparently it's like a month's worth
of Super Bowls and Mardi Gras all at once, except that it also foments enormous pride
and patriotism, so much more than simple team spirit. For my
friend, it's enough to get him to drag out the television once a
year that normally lives unwatched in a closet (if you knew him you'd know what an incredibly big deal that is).
So now there's a baby boom going on in Germany
which is being linked to last summer's World Cup. This boom is
much needed, since Europe's largest economy also has the lowest
birth rate in the world relative to its overall population, a fact that
has become something of a concern with fewer than 1.4 babies being born
there for every woman. Go Germany!
