The "Black sheep" of the European crisis

Europe is in crisis, it’s what we all know and can’t deny anymore. While travelling to university I like to read the newspapers but lately it’s starting to become highly annoying. Not because the crisis has become a normal fact but simply the focus is only laid on the problem itself. I know the crisis is gigantically damaging for Europe and even for the whole world but what is going on behind the crisis is maybe even more scary.  

So what is going on then, right? Well it is quite simple, people are starting to lose their jobs, earn less money, paying more tax but for who or what? And that is where it goes so wrong this moment. The western European governments are asking their citizens for more and more money, for example increasing tax and cost for social security.  This all while these same governments lent gigantic amounts, talking about millions of Euros, to countries who are in economical crisis. And why are these countries in an economical crisis, well because they were never bothered to care about their finances and lived like we Europeans say;  “As gods in the south of France”.

So now you might think, what is the problem then? Well it’s the opinion of the citizens of west-Europe, let’s say France, Belgium, The Netherland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Scandinavian countries.  I know Switzerland is not part of Europe but geographically it does and so does it support Europe in the battle against the crisis. Those countries all show one thing in common,  the extreme growth in supporters of nationalist and right wing parties and ideas. 

Open the doors for abuse? NO! (Swizterland)

In the Netherland the political party of Geert Wilders, the PVV (Party of freedom), is the second party of the country, in Finland the party called Perussuomalaiset (True Finns) won the election, in Switzerland the party called Schweizerische Volkspartei (Swiss people’s party) is the biggest in parliament and i can continue with this country by country. Everywhere right wing and nationalist parties start to win the confidence and support of the people.

And let us not forget the horrific act of the terror attacks happened in Norway this year by Anders Behring Breivik, killing in Total 77 innocent and young persons. All died because according to Breivik  we should protect and save the European culture.

This move towards the right show the growing opinion that immigrants are the cause of the crisis. Within many countries there is no “us” anymore, there has come a growing “we and them” culture. Of course I speak in general but I’m sure a big majority of Europeans will agree with me on this. Now am I not willing to go as far as comparing this situation with the crisis in Germany in 1930ths . Because of that crisis Adolf Hitler came to power with as result the killing of 6 million Jews and many other persons. But for sure the growth of right wing parties and ideas is something we should pay more attention to than we are giving it now.

Are we willing to give up our ideas of freedom, equal rights included in that?  Freedom that counts for everybody and that we are trying to spread in other part of the world. While more and more people get affected by the crisis, the search for the guilty is getting stronger. And while our political leaders, in general now without nationalist and extreme right ideas, keep silent and keep their eyes closed, it are the nationalist and right wings parties offering that “black sheep”. What will happen in the coming year will greatly depend on how this problem is dealt with right now. We learned for our past that this hate towards immigrants can cause immense damage.

While thinking about this in my daily bus trip to university I came to the simple conclusion. History has always been a circle, through the years we see that same happenings happen all over again. In a different form and identity. Will this be such example, let hope not. Let’s hope we did learn from the past and get back together  to fight the real cause of the crisis, the gigantic failure of our political leaders throughout the last decade. 

Marije

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COLUMN: MUAMMAR GADDAFI'S DEATH IS A GIFT TO WESTERN LEADERS

Nobody in this world could have missed the news on Muammar Gaddafi’s death. The video and pictures on which we could see his face covered with blood, filled the news, the papers and the internet. While the Libyans celebrate the end of the Gaddafi era, the reactions on his dead by political leaders started.

While surfing the internet the following reactions filled my screen:

“For four decades, the Gaddafi regime ruled the Libyan people with an iron fist. Their human rights were denied. Innocent civilians were detained, beaten and killed. Libya's wealth was squandered and enormous potential of Libyan people was held back and terror was used as a political weapon. Today we can definitively say that the Gaddafi regime has come to an end.”

US president Barack Obama

Van Rompuy and Gaddafi

“The death of Gaddafi marks the end of an era of despotism, said Herman Van Rompuy, the bloc's president. That Gaddafi died in a raid in Sirte means an end also to the repression from which the Libyan people have suffered for too long.”

The European Union

“This day marks a historic transition for Libya. In the coming days, we will witness scenes of celebration as well as grief for those who lost so much. Now is the time for all Libyans to come together. Libyans can only realise the promise of the future for national unity and reconciliation. Combatants on all sides must lay down their arms in peace. This is the time for healing and rebuilding, for generosity of spirit, not for revenge.”

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon

“I am happy I will be visiting a country fully liberated from a dictator who has imposed his iron fist for more than 40 years. Now Libya can truly turn the page,”

European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek

 “People in Libya today have an even greater chance after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future.”

British prime minister David Cameron

  

Berlusconi kissing hand of Gaddafi

“Now the war is over. Sic transit gloria mundi [Thus passes the glory of the world]”

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi

“The disappearance of Muammar Gaddafi is a major step forward in the battle fought for more than eight months by the Libyan people to liberate themselves from the dictatorial and violent regime imposed on them for more than 40 years.”

French president Nicolas Sarkozy

“With this, a bloody war comes to an end, which Gaddafi led against his own people. Libya must now quickly take further resolute steps towards democracy and make the achievements so far of the Arab Spring irreversible. “

German chancellor Angela Merkel

After reading the above reactions, I don’t know whether laughing or crying is the best way to deal with them. What a bunch of hypocrites they are. In the article Today’s friend tomorrow’s enemy, Christian showed how friendly we were with the man we now call a suppressor and a dictator.  The same man with who they had tea in a tent in the Libyan dessert. Didn’t they see at the time that the Libyan people were suppressed and dictated, or didn’t it matter at those days as contracts for oil were signed in favour of western leaders.

The Arabic Spring hasn’t been a revolution for Arabs alone. The Arabs are opening the eyes of many western people, who can’t escape the image of their “leaders” losing credibility day by day. I so hoped that Muammar Gaddafi would come to my country to be judged in front of the International Court of Den Haag (the Hague). Not even because he deserves punishment or what so ever but just to see what he would tell about his friendly contacts with the western leaders. Now he has taken those secret to his grave.

Maybe that’s the reason why the western leaders are so happy about his dead, not for the Libyan people but simply for themselves. The sad part about it all is that we western people accept the behaviour of our leaders. The leaders who carry double faces and we all know that but still we let it happen. Wouldn’t it be a great achievement if we start our own revolution. To not accept the lies told to us, to not let them decide for us how to live our lives and most of all to reform our current policies based on fraud, corruption and shady contracts between countries to a policy in where the truth is the red wire.

I know it’s easy to say let’s start a revolution but the Arabs, often in Western media called underdeveloped, did it. They said NO, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Can’t we learn from them that change can be made by citizens as long as we unite to tell our corrupted leaders that we had ENOUGH!

By Marije

source

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