Well i was asked what most germans think about pakistan and india. To be honest both countries are far away and play no big role in our daily lifes, but they are seen different here.
Pakistan has a lot of bad publicity in the media here. Terrorism, Taliban and so on. But in general it is seen positive in germany. Some media here show an article that germany is liked very much in Pakistan and we work together on many fields. Military in afghanistan and other fields. When Pakistan was hit from the earthquake a few years ago, we collected money at our school and did spend it to help the people.
Last spring we had a huge flood in germany. Many cities were under water and it was much destroyed. Thanks god nobody died but it was hard work to bring back order in those cities. And students from Pakistan came and helped. They made soup and other food for our firefighters, who worked hard. They helped elderly people and filled sand bags to hold the rivers back.
I´m a voluntarily firefighter myself (we call it FFW) and in our area were 5 pakistani (2 girls and 3 guys) who helped us. The girls grought us food and the guys filled sand bags for us.
That gained alot of respect for you guys here...
On the other hand India...most germans see india as chaotic, poor and in very bad shape. Pictures are shown here with slums, dead bodies drifting down the ganges river...India is seen as a trade partner but not as a friendly nation. We gave India hundreds of millions for development and aid. What did india give us in return, when we had a flood??? NOTHING! ZERO! Even the small and poor Tunesia did send dates to eat for our firefighters. Tunesia said its a poor country and can´t offer much, but its the gesture that counts.
Nobody here expected from india to send millions of €. But they did send nothing. No indian helped here...
The only time when a few indians made headlines in germany was few years back. They went on a festival here and started to molest some women...They were hunted from germans and beaten to mush. They had to hide in a house and be escorted out from police or would have been killed...
That combined created a horrible image of india in germany. And to make it worse there are those constantly stupid games india plays in foreign politics.
That said, i have much respect for Pakistan and i´m thankful for the help we got last spring.
And for india: With friends like you guys, we need no enemies. Maybe you guys should show a better behavior to impress others and to win friends. I was never interested in Pakistan and India, but changed my opinion after pakistani helped us.
.
