...is like watching life in slow motion. Or this song.
Compelling and amusing in an existential sort of way. In that emphatically didactic Brechtian Kurt Wheil Threepenny Opera Mack The Knife kinda way.
And. Contrary to all the conspiracy theories, the anglo press, ecetera, ecetera, ecetera, Europeans have little issue with Germany running the money, in fact, they're all bending over backwards to follow their model.
Here in the Netherlands, do they have issues with the Germans? No. They like the Germans, they rely on the German economy to some extent, they speak German along with Dutch and English. Yes, the Dutch are quite in touch with history along with the rest in this region but like Germany, they are survivors, they tend towards competence, they are a practical people.
The Dutch, a small nation, have to trade diplomatically and often with the outside, it goes back to the Hanseatic League and exists just as vividly today as it did then.
The Italians, well, they're not broke and northern Italy overlaps with bits, borders and history with Germany. Northern Italy is serious. For every myth I've found...
Soon I'll be traveling back along those borders, soon.
Common sense is kind of key and this is what the anglo press has trouble grasping, perhaps for their own benefit, who knows in this random, wacky world. However...
Europeans are serious, they've had a lot of war, they recall the war, they tend to get less excited about 'things', in particular here, up north.
Yes the Eurozone is in trouble, a re-set button needs to be pushed, someone will have to address the issues but until they decide they must, we must wait for Merkel to take yet another breath, perhaps another, and then, only then, will we know what's up with the euro.
But let's be perfectly clear, the Europeans, in Italy and France and Malta and Poland and many of the rest, they're all quite content to have Germany run the money.
Sovereignty is swell, sure, but to be part of the EU means they must obey certain economic rules and many have not, but soon, they will, why? because its the sensible thing to do.
As with this song, which is bemusing and true, I think of all my experiences talking, partying with and hanging out in the homes of so many europeans in so many countries.
Like this song, inspired by a short story by Thomas Mann, life's not all gloom and doom, it's just a rather serious time, sure, why not break out the booze and dance
after all, if that's all there is...
