Europe: the search for a new New World.

In the second half of the 19th century, many people migrated from Europe to America in search for happiness and prosperity. They dreamed of a better life in the new world. I don't know if people from my family were among them, but why not? What would I have done if I had lived back then?

What would have been my reason for migrating? Dreams of a better life? Was the life in Europe back then so miserable that so many people left? Or was it the unknown that was appealing to them? Or was it to follow others that had gone before them?

Most of the people that migrated from Europe to America in these days were farmers, looking for cheaper land and better conditions. Around 1857 Europe had seen three consecutive years with failing harvests, so the threat of poverty resulting from bad farming conditions made the European farmers perceptive for new opportunities, even if it meant leaving their birth ground and families behind. If the threat was big enough and the outlook of a better life somewhere else vivid enough, you went. Over 30 million Europeans did!

Fascinating that such a large group of Europeans took that step. Based on a very realistic threat of poverty and an available way out to a new world with unlimited possibilities.

Why am I bringing this up? What does that have to do with me? Who cares?

The reason for bringing this up is the parallel I see between the failing harvests and the depressing outlook of poverty and despair that must have given these farmers on the one hand and the dramatic developments for today's Northern European citizen in general and pensioners in The Netherlands (and the UK) in particular.

I see a very realistic threat in the way the European Union - an indecisive dragon with 27 heads (and counting) - has been handling the consequences of the banking- and the Euro sovereign debt crisis for the past three to four years. Instead of taking action to take away the root cause of the problem (design errors) and repair what is already broken (create opportunity for weak economies to leave the suffocating EURO so they can bounce back and grow their economy again), the indecisive dragon organizes summit after summit that produce no actions but merely promises that do not solve anything but will keep the financial markets quiet for some time. 

The actual threat is that the first time proper action is taken (redesign the European Union in a way that could work - as a political, fiscal union), the indecisive dragon is trying to take this action without unwinding the dysfunctional current model and renegotiating the new model. What's more scary is that the biggest heads of the dragon are pushing to get this done without even consulting the citizens of the 27 (or 17 if it is about the Euro) sovereign countries. They are left to fill the enormous financial gaps that the Euro saving promises have created, but they are never asked to support any of the actions through referenda or any other form of democratic justification. 

Here I am, Dutch working man, with good pension reserves and money in the bank. Should I trust the dragon and stay, risking the loss of my pension and savings in the name of solidarity with our Southern European fellow Europeans or should I learn from history and leave in the prospect of poverty towards a new New World?

I will not await the unavoidable leveling of all still existing savings, including the pension saving in Europe (NL/UK) so they can be shared with e.g. Greece, Spain and Italy who can no longer pay their pensioners without going bankrupt due to demographic developments they did not act on before, as personal reelections were far more important than taking the required measures. The only thing that can keep me here is the one value / mechanism the Western countries are so keen on and where many wars have been fought over: DEMOCRACY. Let the people of Europe vote on Europe before you divide it amongst yourselves. Let the people of The Netherlands vote NO to this Europe and simoultaneously work together on creating a sensible, governable and truly united one headed dragon.

Could that be my new New World? One new Unified Europe? Or will it become 27 one headed dragons again, living in peace and trying to find common ground where possible? 

I am too old to believe in fairy tales, and multi-headed dragons always end up dead in them anyway, so let's go for the 27 sovereign countries and work together democratically.

Stop the Euro, Stop the current EU and redesign it and let all individual countries of Europe combined be the new Europe: united in vision, but rooted in division. Not in Brussels.