Actually, judging by your name, Grandpa comes from the same country as yours
I don't think this is offensive, but rather brings an important aspect to the topic. When we look at human effort throughout history it becomes obvious that quality of manufacture/construction appears to be cyclical. Take the Chinese. They used to make quality products when Germans still used sticks and stones for most of their "industrial" activities, and the English as we know them didn't exist as a nation. Nobody even thought something called America would ever exist - Nostradamus wasn't born yet.
Mayans, Inkas, Egyptians, Greeks were producing architectural marvels, some of which appear of much better quality that anything built in Germanic countries even today, and without a Unisaw or Ridgid in site.
Social conditions and ideology/religion seem to have a big impact. The protestant countries generally fare better as work ethic and money making drive found its way into the religious beliefs. In short, the protestant religions were shaped by the growing middle class or manufacturers and merchants.
In Eastern Europe religion shaped the merchants and manufacturers - they weren't exactly despised but often seen as too lowly to be allowed any impact on religion, state affairs etc. Still, they created masterpieces of art, albeit a lot methodically destroyed by none others than quality driven Germans.
Those enterprising minds which could not find fertile ground in their countries simple left to reach greener pastures where things such as communist ideology (as an example) didn't hamper people's desire to move on. Computers, for instance, were considered a product of the "rotten West" and "capitalist garbage". Now Google's headquarters are in Poland. Siemens is there, so is HP and just recently Dell. The same people, with the same skills live there. The only thing that changed is the political system.
Conditions people live in are also important. It is hard to imagine how a person living in a straw hut could understand the concept of high gloss paint, 0.001" tolerance in woodworking, or appreciate the benefits of Leight FMT Jig, which btw. costs more than combined yearly incomes of one or more villages in some countries.