An
urgent letter to the
young voters of Europe
By
Jonathan
Power
TFF Associate
since 1991
Comments to JonatPower@aol.com
June 15, 2005
My
dear nephew and nieces,
There you are in Ireland, a living
example of the so-called Anglo-Saxon model, in the
fastest growing economy of the European Union and here I
am with my Swedish family seeing before my eyes, both
here and across the bridge in Denmark, the strength of a
more socialist model of development that combines rather
good economic growth with all the benefits of a
super-welfare state, including public hospitals that look
to my British eyes like first class hotels.
Why the citizens of France, Holland
and Germany are flagellating themselves to political
death is beyond me. With just a bit more rigor and
discipline they could continue with their rather
successful social models. The French health service is
even better than the Scandinavian and Germany out-exports
with high technology every other European country. If
they had not made the mistake - and is it really a
mistake to prefer more leisure to more income? - of
deciding to work so few hours each month and introducing
their ridiculously early retirement ages and rigid labor
practices, they would have no trouble in being successful
Scandinavians. There is nothing wrong in France with its
productivity per hour and globalization doesn't seem to
bother Renault and Peugeot, Carrefour in retailing, not
to speak of Airbus. Same goes for Germany and
Holland.
What you have to learn from this is
how the media and the political class can run with their
momentary moods with barely a nod at the facts. Of
course, living in Ireland and one of you married to an
Ulsterman, you have witnessed close up the destructive
narcissism of small differences.
In the EU the loss of confidence at
the center has been aggravated by the constant sniping of
the British and the Americans and, in Holland, an
unfortunate run of political murders. But here in Sweden
where Anna Lind, the marvelous foreign minister was
murdered whilst shopping last year and 19 years ago the
prime minister, Olof Palme, was murdered whilst walking
home, people do not get as emotionally wrought as the
Dutch have done. Do we have to lose our reason just
because, as in the Dutch case, Muslim immigration is a
factor?
Let us Europeans not go bananas
about 'Islam on the warpath'. There is no crusade to be
fought. We just have to knuckle down to getting
unemployment down and easing off on too rapid immigration
whilst we repair some of the damage caused by an earlier
too laissez faire approach.
But the main point I want to make
is never forget for a moment how Europe was before the
European Union came into being.
In the latter part of the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the first
period of rapid globalization, many thought the
industrialized world had finally found a way to peace and
prosperity. The statesman of Europe solved disputes with
rounds of conferencing. They even got a world agreement
on banning poison gas and limiting the size of
battleships.
The First World War shattered it.
It happened because too many statesman had a too
naïve faith in the verities of the balance of
power.
This first international war of the
industrial age wrecked economic havoc across the world.
The war tore up channels of trade and communication.
After an initial bounce at war's end the European and
American economies hit bad times. Then came the Great
Depression and the easy rise of Hitler in a country that
was continuingly been bled by the sanctions so
counterproductively imposed by the allies.
Thus, even though most of Europe
hated the idea of war almost as much as they do today,
war, even worse than before, was the outcome.
Briefly put, it was the evolving
European Union with the aid of the Marshall plan that
repaired that damage. Without this pulling together
Europe would probably have tripped over another big stone
in the road.
Peace and prosperity can't be taken
for granted as those in 1913 tended to think. It can slip
through our fingers again ever so fast. We have to keep
the Union growing strong. Already it is the major
non-violent force for peace and reasonableness in the
world, as can be seen with the way that the Balkan
states, the Ukraine and Turkey are all improving their
act in order to qualify for help, and later
membership.
By the way, that constitution
should never have been called a constitution - a too
grand title for a readable rules' manual. What we simply
need is a positive, active and pragmatic attitude to
making the EU work. Tell your friends in Germany, Holland
and France to seize the big picture, and keep on setting
that good Irish example yourselves.
Copyright © 2005 By
JONATHAN POWER
I can be reached by
phone +44 7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
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