Europe is going down the tubes because it has willfully thrown over board, and with a vengeance, all the fundamental values it not only stood for but fought for and paid for dearly with ‘blood, sweat and tears’.
In the face of ‘balancing the books’, or put simply, trying to make sure the banks and financial institutions, do not lose their exorbitant, unrealistic profits, the current ‘leadership’ of Europe has been perfectly happy to abolish the basic human rights Europe has held high as its core values.
The right to work, the right to health, the right not to go hungry and, perhaps above all if I dare say so, the right to vote and democratically decide what is best for one’s country, have all been thrown to the wind. And quite happily too, I might add, by those in power.
It was celebrated with delight that Greece was not allowed to hold a referendum and Italy was not allowed to hold elections because, it was understood perfectly well, but not said outright, that recourse to the people would upset the Merkozy aplecart trying to protect the super profits and complete unaccountability of the banks.
And what was the lovely fudge achieved by the brains of Europe? Government by technocrats! Now this may not sound too bad in the current shambles Europe has painted itself into. But what does government by technocrats consist of? Well, these perfectly respectable and, under other circumstances, capable gentlemen have been appointed, not elected, with a limited mandate. A mandate not deriving from the electorate, but from the European directorate. In other words, Germany (we may skip the fiction of ‘and France’).
And what is this totally illegitimate mandate? Drive your countries as deep into recession as you can by raising taxes exorbitantly, raising unemployment as far you possibly can, lowering wages for those lucky enough to be in work at all, to below subsistence levels, oh! And of course, curtail but preferably abolish all social security and benefits as fast as you can.
One had hoped that the Prime Minister and Government of a country would have a different mandate. that of trying to achieve growth and productivity for a better life for all. (At least, that used to be the European ideal). Instead, our governments in Greece and Italy for starters, have become appointed executives accountable only to the higher authorities of the Merkozy directorate with a mandate to impose the complete destitution of the people they purportedly serve.
Surely a Prime Minister and Government should be bound to draw up plans, contingency plans for what to do when everything is going wrong. To have as their prime objective the protection of their people and as their goal full employment and a welfare net in place. (Again this is what used to be the European ideal.)
Our current appointed Prime Ministers are well off the mark of what their duty should be. They are not allowed to contemplate anything other than adherence to the destructive directives from the Merkozy center. Even if they are perfectly capable (and I have no doubt that these particular individuals are) of drawing up alternative, contingency plans, it is simply not in their mandate and therefore inconceivable.
Instead of providing protection to their people and providing them with the means to fight back when attacked, as is the basic responsibility of every government, our current technocrats and ‘politicians’ are doing the damndest to destroy their own economies and ruin the lives of the very people they are supposed to be protecting.
Am I going senile or is there something very wrong in what is going on here?