The Future of Europe

I've watched recently a couple of documentaries about Europe and its crisis (it's not just the economical one, it's more the crisis of the idea of Europe itself), that I think are pretty worth to share:

• There are several interesting parts in this Aljazeera documentary. I would clearly highlight the discussion with three editors of Le Monde Diplomatique. They transmit a deep feeling of decline and defeat as main witnesses of the lost of weight in Europe of one of the countries that was one of the main defenders of the welfare state. It's also interesting the interview to one disgusting Czech politician that constantly talks about how bad Southern Europe is and how they, hard workers and intelligent Czechs have nothing to do with lazy and clumsy Southern Europeans (he does not say it directly, but you can feel it). As a Southern European (yes, my Atlantic Asturies is North of the South, but to a greater or lesser extent, it's Southern Europe) there are tons of things that I don't like from Southern Europe, but I've had the luck to work with people of many different European countries, and for sure the problem with Southern Europe is not that we're lazy or clumsy.
• The Disenchantment of Europe is an extraordinary work. Sometimes even Southern European TV Channels :-) manage to output some astonishing productions, and this is one of them. I love the aesthetics used: autumn images, the glorious, imposing statues that embellish Berlin or Paris since centuries ago confronted to citicens that walk slow and lost under the weight of the times they're undergoing, the torn down wall vs the economical wall being erected. It gives you a feeling of sadness and disenchantment that obviously fits the message, that Europe, our Europe, is decaying, and we, her children, are drowing with it. It's painful to be remembered of the social cuts, the reluctancy between the rich Europe and the poor Europe, the sick vandalism in London in 2011, broken neighbourhoods like Tottenham or Saint Denis, the disgusting "City" of London and its financial services, the French factory about to be relocated... but it also lets some light leak through these rough, dark walls: Stephane Hessel, some of the "indignados" (I say some, cause at least in Asturies too many of the "indignados" were just lost guys that had never had any interest in social issues but that now, when the crisis was hitting them, needed to join "the revolt", but without any sort of self-criticism or real understanding of what had been around in the last decades, they were just following the new trend).

I hate this current disenchantment with Europe. Sure the European Union has failed us in part, but not because of trying to unite Europe, but for not having united it enough. we can not go back to the stupid "saloon nationalism" that for so many centuries drained our continent. It's time to proudly and loudly reclaim Europe as what it is, the foundation of Western civilization. A millenary culture that being forged by so many different peoples clearly understands both the need of maintaining its basic identity and the need to continue to enrich it with the contributions of the newcomers, because above all, one of the cornerstones of the European identity is that anyone coming here that accepts our basic rules has to feel welcome to stay and contribute.

It's unpopular to say this now, in an EU controlled by the Banks and the USA, but looking back in history it's easy to see that the European Union is the most important thing that has ever happened to this continent. How many wars were wages in this continent to preserve borders, to gain territories? So much war and desolation, so much pain. The WWI and WW2, the Franco-Prussian Wars, the 100 years war... Living in France one is reminded of the horrors of these wars in a constant basis. Every quartier here in Toulouse has some kind of monument (a statue, a plaque) in commemoration of those "Mort pour la France", mainly in WWI, but also in the Franco Prussian War or the WWII (and by the way, there's also some beautiful homage to the Spanish Republican Exile for their role in the Liberation of France). It also seems like almost every French city has one of its main streets named after Alsace-Lorraine, those regions that for centuries changed hands between France and Germany in so many bloody occasions. So having this in mind, when one thinks of how someone with a passport from the other side of the Pyrenees can freely cross from France to Germany back and forth (when I crossed the bridge over the Rhine that joins Strasbourg and Khel I was pretty aware of how much such a simple action represented when put in a historical perspective, and could not help to think about how impossible such an action would have been less than 1 century ago). When one thinks of the European Aeronautic Industry (market leaders by the way, fuck you Boeing :-D, manufacturing its aircraft between Hamburg and Toulouse, but with pieces developed in UK, Italy and Spain, one can see that we have made huge progress in the last century. Now it's just time to go much further in this direction, with a target in mind, something like a UFSE (United Federal States of Europe). The other option, is just not an option, but madness. A back to the populist, chauvinist, and reactionary local nationalism that appeals to the most basic and involutionary instincts: the clan, us vs the others... its consequences range from the simple stagnation to the risks of wars (as we're seeing now between Ukraine and Russia). That's the suicide of reason and the suicide of Europe.

There can be no room in our continent for internal borders, they're just senseless. Europe is a human continuum, and Europeans are "condemned" to live together, so the more we understand each other, the more we share, the better.