Monday, September 12, 2011
Europe is Not in Decline
by Juliette Kando
I have just come from Amsterdam via London, back to Southern Spain and I do not see a decline in Europe apart from perhaps fewer Real Estate agents in Spain. Generally the people in Europe are almost as fat as in America, they drive new cars, I do not see any beggars or poor people. In Holland house prices have risen by 30% since last year! Yes everyone moans about the "economy", but isn't that to a great extend just talking about the news?
I repeat: The news bears little relevance to the reality we see around us. How can we, educated middle class Westerners moan about hard financial times when our bellies and shopping malls are bursting at the seams? I don't get it.
Collapse of the EU?
This is the kind of statement you find in the media: "Because of the economic crisis, there is a threat of re-nationalization and the collapse of the EU."
The people of Europe need time to get used to being interested in a unified Europe. It takes time to let go of nationalism, to cease caring only about your own country. It will take one or two more generations for all Europeans to "feel" European. But we sure won't go back to passports, visas, different currencies and more stringent export and import rules.
Never Been Done: What Europe has done has never been done before: They have conquered a vast territory without colonizing or making war. Instead they said to all the poor countries around them like Spain, Eastern Europe etc:
"Get your act together, and then you may qualify to join us." Brussels doled out billions to Spain to ameliorate Spanish infrastructure, highways and airports. Southern Spain is now the "Florida of Europe". West Germany has painlessly absorbed the burdens of its Eastern poor sister. My Slovenian friends spend their winters here working. They don't need a work permit. Most Europeans, especially the younger generation couldn't conceive of things going back to the old ways, it's impossible. We still have a long way to go, but the idea of Europe going back to individual nations is preposterous.
To Sum Up: I believe that with strong long-term planning and learning from past mistakes Europe is going to be fine. We, Westerners could more readily accept the positive sides of Arab culture and recognize our own faults. Then, give or take a couple of generations of intercultural communication at grass roots level, we'll all find a way to live together happily ever after. At least until the Martians come. leave comment here
7 comments:
Will the Arab culture be able to assimilate in Europe? Or America as well? A Pew research study came out and said that in all Muslim states the majority of the population believes that Arabs were not responsible for 9/11. In Egypt it was 3 ...out of 4. I'm told that Europe is beginning to depend on cheap Arab labor like America depends on cheap Mexican labor. Is this not proplematic if your largest immigrant base resists assimilation so strongly?
I was surprsed to read in Juliette's post: "In Holland house prices have risen by 30% since last year!". Actuall, that is not correct. The general stistics reports: "De prijzen zijn gemiddeld 8,5 procent lager dan drie jaar eerder." [Over the past 3 years the mean price has dropped with 8.2%] (Checking facts)
Thanks, Paul,
I'll react to your comment, even though it's for Juliette, who is flying all over the world right now (Philippines, etc.):
That 30% also struck me as questionable when I read it, but I didn't want to quibble.
You may say that the difference between +30% and -8.5% is not "quibbling" and that facts are important.
Absolutely. However, I still feel that Juliette's piece is excellent because it provides a healthy alternative narrative to the usual "chicken-little" bombardment we get every day about Europe. I share her overall impression that Holland (and many other parts of Europe) remain extremely prosperous.
This is for Roy:
Who on earth told you that "...Europe is beginning to depend on cheap Arab labour like America depends on cheap Mexican labour."?
The only Arabs I see in Europe are multi billionaire sheiks owning luxury villas in Marbella and Moroccan merchants selling cheap goods produced in China.
As for the integration of a foreign culture in a new land... Isn’t America the prime example of it working? America is made up of almost all cultures. No, don’t blame the emigrants, blame yourself for believing false propaganda.
This is for Paul:
My 30% increase in property prices in Holland came from the real world, not from published statistics:
There is a list of apartments for sale pinned up on the notice board of my mother's apartment complex in Bergen, Noord Holland. Last year the average price for an apartment was €100. When I went to visit my mother again this year, apartments were up for sale at an average price of €130. What more can I say?
Hello Tom,
Yes, people tend to be too pessimistic, but also: the impact of the crisis has not hit home yet, certainly not in the Neth. (it has in Spain, pretty hard). You're dead wrong about house prices in the Neth: they are falling slowly in most categories and locations, but there is a buyers' strike (hardly any transactions), so, a realistic expectation is for prices to go down another 10-20%.
All the best,
Abram de Swaan, Amsterdam
Abram:
I did not write this post. I am fully aware of the fact that Dutch Real Estate prices have declined. See my response to Paul, above.
Juliette:
The fact that some of the apartments at De Rekere have increased in value does not negate the fact that overall, Dutch Real Estate values have declined.
There is no conflict between "the real world" and "published statistics."
Anyway, folks, this is not my post in the first place, and I am going to stay out of the debate about Dutch Real Estate (which Juliette loses, although her post, I repeat, is excellent).
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