Opinion

The absence of the German moment!

July 09, 2018
The absence of the German moment!

Hussein Shobokshi



Germany won the last World Cup held in Brazil with an impressive performance considered by observers and critics to be the culmination of the German moment in the world. The German team was the best in the world, Germany led Europe, its products were launched around the world with great success and Volkswagen was at the forefront of automotive companies around the world in terms of production volume and sales. Germany’s major companies were known for their reliability, precision and quality, and German brands had become the masters of the world’s economy.

However, four years later, in the current World Cup, the situation has been turned upside down. The German team was humiliated, with the World Cup champions being defeated in the third game by South Korea’s very modest team.

This deterioration of the level of the German team seems to be reflected in the general situation in Germany. The German government has lost its mobility and has ceded leadership in Europe to the new government in France. There has also been deterioration in the case of German companies. Volkswagen has been subjected to a series of severe and unprecedented sanctions because of its involvement in a major commercial fraud case. The US Congress is investigating the company and some senior Volkswagen executives have been arrested. There are also calls for an investigation of “corrupt money” in German companies and especially the extent of the penetration of suspected Qatari money and its impact on the management and administrative integrity of German companies.

The Qatari sovereign fund has a strategic, influential and vital investment stake in Volkswagen as well as in Deutsche Bank and has influence on Siemens. A significant number of members of the German Parliament have raised questions about the role of Qatari money in the German economy and its impact on foreign policy. Mega-corporations have lobby-like powers and can influence Germany’s political decisions on Middle East issues in respect to Qatar. The magazine Der Spiegel has already opened an investigation.

Germany is a developed country capable of dealing with its mistakes and with analyzing the reasons for the deterioration of various sectors of its economy. We live in a world in which events and elements of influence are intertwined, and these interconnections affect each other. The German machine works smoothly if all the gears are running with the same degree of efficiency and effectiveness, and if something goes wrong, there will, of course, inevitably be a negative impact.

It will be interesting to see how Germany will restructure its administration and economy, and its success in doing so will provide a lesson for the whole world.


July 09, 2018
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