Of
Marlene Knobloch
Wherever children step onto the stage of adults (mostly politicians), there is always the danger of kitschy glorification. The young guests are “cheeky”, “sweet” or “super professional”, as people like to attest to them patronizingly. You can then read about “bright children’s eyes”. And self-gratified in the grown-up world, at moments like this, people stick more crap adjectives on their lapels, which are free of toothpaste stains. Twelve-year-old Ella’s appearance in the “Daily Topics” this Tuesday evening is not sweet or cheeky. It’s liberatingly simple. Nobody asks in front of the blue wall knowingly whether Putin is stuck in the thought structures of the imperial age or whether the West needs to rethink its current energy supply strategy. The commentator asks the question that slumbers in the minds of many adult viewers, smothered in crisis vocabulary: “What’s wrong with people like Putin?”