The Evil European

1st January 2007 will see Bulgaria and Romania join the EU. There will be the usual talk....of joining 'Europe' as if they have been living on the moon for the last five decades, of 'floods' of poor people looking for work, the lose of culture and identity and other general pessimistic talk. But take a step back from the usual bellyaching and you see something that is incredible.

The last five decades have seen a stunning transformation, especially when you look back another 5. From Empire and colonisation, though the two most bloody wars in human history and a bankrupt and destroyed continent. The West rebuilt with the help and support of the USA, the East by the USSR, the divide forming the epicentre of the Cold War and mutually assured destruction. The dictators have been swept aside and, the wars are gone, old enemies no more. Its almost if we have come to our senses...accepting that we have more to gain working together than tearing chunks of each other.

What has been created is far from perfect, but what is? What can be said with out a shadow of a doubt is that it is infinitely better than what came before.

I came across this in the Observer, and while it is by a Labour MP, I will let it pass.

"Europe has its own speeds and rhythms. They are much slower than its hyperactive leaders think. Six months is a jolt of the second hand on the European clock. Since 2000 the EU has been chasing its tail with the search for a European finality embodied in a constitution. This notion is a false one. Europe is process, not product; a journey, not a destination."

Europe is process, not product; a journey, not a destination....people talk about the EU as a trade zone, as a fortress, as burden or benefit to people and business. Such views are in their own way true, but seen through the lens of human history, interactions and society, it is something entirely different.

It might be hyperbole, brought on by the coming new year, but what happens in Europe, within the EU, has the potential to re-shape human society. We live in an ever more interconnected and interdependent world. Global challenges are upon us, and the only way though them will be to work together.

Wanna go for a ride?