Nena – 99 Luftballons
An evening pause: This pretty 1983 German pop song so perfectly predicts the Biden administration’s silly overreaction to the Chinese spy balloons last month, and the really dangerous consequences that could have resulted.
The lyrics of the original German version tell a story: 99 balloons are mistaken for UFOs, causing a military General Officer to send pilots to investigate. Finding nothing but balloons, the pilots put on a large show of fire power. The display of force worries the nations along the borders and the war ministers on each side encourage conflict to grab power for themselves. In the end, a cataclysmic war results from the otherwise harmless flight of balloons and causes devastation on all sides without a victor.
Hat tip Jay, who is still off in the tropics doing ham radio stuff.
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i remember that, the refrain is stuck in my head. i never saw the video until now. That is one pretty girl.
The English version was notably bad, changing the air-balloons into red balloons. This altered the intent, which concerned Cold War paranoia, into a concern for anticommunism.
Nena herself to her eternal credit disavowed the English version. To the Anglosphere’s credit we didn’t let this version chart. We just listened to the German.