EUROPE

This week we studied Europe, the student's presentation emphasized on the history of the old continent. The subject of their presentation was Ancient empires and cultures, so they exposed the culture, politics and religion of Greece, Roman Empire, The Holy Roman Empire and the British Empire.

At the end they gave a quick review about the WWs and the European Union.

Despite the good work they did and the effort I'm sure they put on their research I didn't liked their exposition because I think they just stayed in the past.

Although I honestly believe that learning about history is very important and it's a must to achieve greater results and evolve, the history of the Europe and its empires it's not new for us, and we have been studying about this subject since high School, or even earlier.

Being one of the most important and the oldest continent in the history of our world gives Europe a cultural, historical, political and even economic richness that in my opinion; was completely overlooked.

There's a lack of present and analysis and there's a whole in this expositions because of what we could have learned.

They talked about the two World Wars, but even there, some greater work could have been done. Maybe an analysis of the learning's of the Holocaust and its implication on present time and on The Arab-Israeli Conflict could have been more enriching.

The European Union case, it's a case worthy of admiration and analysis, even though it also a regular study topic, The integration of so many different cultures through a supranational entity, despite tensions and conflicts among member countries, it an spectacular subject of study.

Being as disappointed as I was, got me asking myself what else could we learn about Europe? I'm aware that this week's question is less concrete and more opened but it's because the intention is to allow myself to answer any question in the process of finding something to learn about.

Searching on data bases with out an actual direction was wearing and time consuming. So I reorder my Ideas and made the next analysis: Europe it's the father of all present nations due to colonization; every culture in the world has an influence by some European country. Whether it was a positive or a negative legacy, no nation can deny its European father.

So I started to search about the state of European Union now days and finally, I read something that got me thinking and awaked my hunger for knowledge, what I found was an Interviewed made to Geert Wilders by James Taranto, published in The Wall Street Journal on 2008.

Geert Wilders is not a typical Dutch politician; to his admires, he is a champion of Western values on a continent that has lost confidence in them. To his detractors, he is an anti-Islamic provocateur. During the Interview, Mr. Wilders talks about the European Union's culture.

As he sees it, the West suffers from an excess of toleration for those who do not share its tradition of tolerance. "We believe that -- 'we' means the political elite -- that all cultures are equal," he says. "I believe this is the biggest disease today facing Europe. . . . We should wake up and tell ourselves: You're not a xenophobe, you're not a racist, you're not a crazy guy if you say, 'My culture is better than yours.' A culture based on Christianity, Judaism, humanism is better. Look at how we treat women, look at how we treat apostates, look at how we go with the separation of church and state. I can give you 500 examples why our culture is better."He acknowledges that "the majority of Muslims in Europe and America are not terrorists or violent people." But he says "it really doesn't matter that much, because if you don't define your own culture as the best, dominant one, and you allow through immigration people from those countries to come in, at the end of the day you will lose your own identity and your own culture, and your society will change. And our freedom will change -- all the freedoms we have will change."

So, I had my question: with the evolution of the Economic Union integration and its goals to converge even more, what will occur with these millenary cultures? Will they end? Will they join all together and become one?

Unfortunately, only time can answer this, but there are some opinions and facts that can change this.

According to the European Cultural Foundation web page; Diversity and cohesion are what characterizes Europe today. Age-old differences and new urban realities present their own challenges, to artists, to cultural workers, and to people everywhere.

This foundations and other organisations such as, Lab for Culture, have several programs to create a common but yet diverse culture in the EU.

These programs can be taken as a suggestion to the answer of my question, and at this time we could say that all cultures of Europe will continue existing and evolving but they will not merge in to a greater culture.

"…culture is a fundamental human need; that it is not diversity that is threatening us, but the fear to embrace it. We need to educate the next generations on the challenges ahead when it comes to knowledge and employability, but also on being cultured and responsible citizens. It is also up to us to look after and enrich the specificity of Europe, its intense cultures and uniquely diverse peoples, impregnated by our history of failures and progress". HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands in ECF Princess Margriet Award ceremony, Brussels December 9th.

Bibliography & References:

James Taranto. (2008, November 29). The Weekend Interview with Geert Wilders: 'Our Culture Is Better'. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. A.11. Retrieved May 20, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1604200191).

http://www.eurocult.org/

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