"Are you a foreigner?" My (late) dog „Lola“ was, whenever somebody asked me – a "Tibetan monastery dog" – thus a ‚top dog’. In reality she was what we Germans call a ‚street mix’. While walking her in my Cologne/Rhineland neighbourhood, Lola again took all her time to study the geography of my hood and the scents therein, until…
And then, let’s call him, Pinocchio came round the corner, a street mix just like Lola. The Tibetan and Pinocchio smell friendly at each other and they do so in a very friendly manner. Until I beg Lola to, please, come home with me from the Northern cold. I extend the O in LOOOLA and almost beg her on my knees. Whereupon the Lady walking Pinocchio asks me:
„Sinte Sie Ausländer?“
Are you a foreigner?
I tell the neighbouress, whomI must have met a hundred times before:
„No, Mrs. Neighbouress, I am an In-Länder, a local boy, but very often, in foreign countries, I am in fact the AUS-Länder, the FOREIGNER. But is it really important?“
And the answer is:
„Yes. But your dog has such a nice name!“
Question: must I, as the local boy, now feel discriminated against? Just because my German dog has such a nice name. Do only foreigners have dogs with such nice names?
I am somewhat lost, until I remember that grafitto on the outside wall of the Bonn University library, which stated:
„Rheinländer raus, Ausländer rein!“
Translated:
„Rhinelanders out – Outlanders in!“ |
