Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey everyone! I finally applied for my Visa. Oh the horror of bureaucracy and procedures…I will write a book about that someday. Thankfully, the troublesome work is all done. Now the final journey prep, shopping, flight tickets, and a l-o-n-g wait…

As usual, in between when I was busy with all these, everything seemed to happen across the planet. Just like always, everything happens whenever I am preoccupied with personal commitments. British embassy attacked in Iran, tit for tat diplomatic retaliation by Old Europe against the Persian hooliganism, NATO bombing of Pakistani army posts and the subsequent posturing, increasing anti-western rhetoric by Russia, probably due to the upcoming elections, and a curious news of India taking over the training of 30,000 Afghan soldiers, from USA. Even though I didn’t write about those, I covered them on the FB page of the blog, and the Twitter. So if you don’t want to miss my extremely erudite and scholarly commentary, you can visit or join/follow the page and twitter. If you are actually interested in world affairs and international relations ofcourse.

However, they are old news. Wars and attacks and military et-cetera titillates the ephemeral thrill seeking human psyche. Something much more important is happening right in front of us, with a thousand times more impact, and one tenth of global coverage that the other pieces of news are getting. Germany is hell-bent on destroying Eurozone. Or so the op-eds of Anglophone media claims. The tone was set by an extremely thought provoking and a little provocative piece by none other than Niall Ferguson, a predictable “German legacy” piece from Washington Post, and a really outstanding historical analysis of Germany and the Euro crisis by Tony Corn. The last essay is authoritative and comprehensive to understand the situation better, and a must read.

The arguements are understandable. The Germans are slowly going back to Bismarckian Blood and Iron policies, The Fourth Reich rises, the stony faced Germans are no longer apologetic of their War legacy, Sino-Russian proxy in Europe, coercion taking place of cooperation and similar line of thoughts. I should admit that I am not an European fiscal policy expert, so I shall refrain myself. However I have two questions, the answers to which I am not finding here.

1. Why in the blue hell should Germany be apologetic forever? I mean the war was over on 1945! Move on!

2. The core issue is never, for once answered. Why would it be the burden of Germany, and Germany alone to carry the non-performing member states? Why will Germany pay for the booze bill, when Greece, Portugal and Italy goes to a bar? And if Germany is to pay the bill finally, what is wrong in expecting reasonable returns, like less expenditure and austerity cuts? Isn’t it the fortune of Greece etc that their voice are still tolerated, when all they do is suck up Germany dry with subsidies and bailouts, and then call them NAZIs when they demand for the bill? “If you can’t face the heat, go out of the kitchen”…shouldn’t it be the most practical guidance of foreign fiscal policies in these days?

The world is changing right in front of our eyes, without most of us even noticing. Just that there is no war drum beating this time. It is subtle, almost like a sabotage. The simple solution is to satiate the ego of the country which is carrying the economic burden of over one fourth of humanity. Simple clarity, transparency, and a little respect for discipline is needed. If the rest of the World stays gleefully unaware of that, we would very soon lose Germany, to a sympathetic Russia or China. It will be the European Union’s funeral.