What Union?
Ellie phoned me in 2012, after years of silence, from Damascus. He said he was sad for Syria, and that he was also sad for Europe. “You do not realize. They will pass through Turkey and you will have them in your own homes. We weep for you, because for us Europe is and remains a dream”. I called him a fatalist, however in the kindest way possible seeing as his country is at war. I didn’t take into due account all his invectives against the international community, “NATO and America and all their allies” because, I thought, he must have been under stress, pessimism comes with war.
It took me four years to realize he was right. We are now talking about an attack on Europe (forgetting that the so-called Islamic terrorism, statistics in hand, kills more in Asia and Africa than in the old continent) and I wonder: which Europe?
It requires a certain degree of objectivity to admit that the European dream of Altiero Spinelli and friends has provided the ideological basis for the creation of political and economic conditions favourable to the safeguard of the interests of short-sighted, arrogant and greedy ruling classes. The Union, which finds inspiration in the principle of free movement for people, goods and capital, has failed to detach from the papers of the Schengen Treaty and become real. Despite the implementation of student programs such as Erasmus and Leonardo, we failed to create a strongly advocated social cohesion and a shared identity. Truth be told, a substantial European culture does not yet exist. Roaming between the Middle East, Venice, Berlin, London and Stockholm I realized that an Italian might well have more in common with the Arabs than with the British or the Swedes. And for obvious reasons of historic nature.
The division exists and it is frequently trotted out for matters of mere convenience. It is no secret that the European states with a still healthy economy prefer to hide behind their respective borders, especially when a common front would seem the most sensible response to general problems. We have witnessed that for instance with the poor management of both legal and illegal immigration, to which Europe has decided to pay attention only a decade after the intensification of the landings on the coasts of Italy and Greece. For years the countries of southern Europe have been left alone to face an emergency that is all but national, thus serving as a first line of absorption (and resistance) for crowds of desperates, who without any doubt would put a strain on the welfare system of the enlightened North European democracies than contribute to the growth of their GDP.
The lack of cohesion is a sad reality even in the hour where Europe tries to cope with terrorism.
The lack of cohesion is a sad reality even in the hour where Europe tries to cope with terrorism
There is talk of war on Europe, but there is silence around the support or conspiratorial complicity the European states have shown towards the aggressiveness of US foreign policy in the last decades, legitimized by a doubtful necessity of exporting democracy.
In 2003 we marched by the millions to Rome, to say no to the military intervention of Italy in Iraq. The capital was literally invaded by demonstrators coming from all parts of Italy, while the police minimized the amount of participants and the media kept silent or ridiculed the initiative. In July of the same year the peacekeeping operation Antica Babilonia began and I learned my first sad lesson as a citizen: the state does not represent the people, not even when the people raise their voices so loud that it can hardly be ignored.
After 9/11, while the press filled their mouths with terms such as “Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, Islamic extremism and jihad”, dividing for the umpteenth time the dead in groups of relevance, I started studying Arabic, the history, culture and philosophy of the Arab & Islamic countries. Travelling among Syria, Palestine and Egypt, I realized that the geographical and cultural distance among the people bordering with the Mediterranean is less than I thought. Yet the European countries, motivated by greed, felt entitled to support operations of political and military invasion in the Middle East, ignoring among other things (perhaps deliberately), that according to Newton’s third law of motion, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
European friends, European brothers. Do not be surprised if you are now shaking with fear and realizing what it means going to work wondering if you will make it back home safe and sound, worrying for your children, for your land. The Arab friends and brothers have lived with this feeling for decades. They still do.
I think of Hassan and Bushra, two teenagers I met in Syria in 2006, in the beehive houses of Suruj, and I wonder if they are still alive, what they had to endure, if they made it. I think of a mother who asked me to send her a picture I took of her 2 year old child in the oasis of I know for sure (I have known for years) that the peoples of Europe are living an illusion that will cost them dearly
I walk the streets of Europe, citizen of God knows which country, and I know for sure (I have known for years) that the peoples of Europe are living an illusion that will cost them dearly.
Ellie phoned me after years. I want to tell him that now I believe him, I thought long about his words and he was right. I ask him how he is doing and he answers candidly: “We do our best. I registered my niece to the club, every week I teach her to swim. You never know what’s going to happen, we need to be ready”.
And you, Europe, how will you save yourself?
