Europe is not a coin

Europe is not a coin. Europe is history, culture, science, philosophy, languages, diversity and heterogeneous peoples. These natural, social values are what characterizes Europe and can bind it. Definitely not a artificial, imposed values like a coin or the economy, banking interest rates, stock quotes or Corporations' need-and-greed for easy & homogeneous mass-markets for manipulation, selling and control. Within this limited, retarded, short-sighted perspective by 'the Markets' the Euro might give te impression to be a failure. However, the only real and valid standard to measure Europe's coin and success should be the easiness for social exchange, that it provides to this vast variety of people and cultures.

If the intention of the Euro-coin is merely to reduce Europe and its citizens to some kind of uniform mass for the sake of one homogeneous market, just for the ease, comfort and profit of the so called "Markets" (basically, financial pirates) then it's best to just forget about it.
And if the Troika lets itself be manipulated by these same 'Markets' pretending that from Hammerfest to Lerapetra the people should live, act and even feel the same way (within the short-sighted criteria of Corporativism), then they are simply confirming their complete lack of awareness and their limited understanding, of Europe as a whole of different peoples. This way Troika is rendering itself completely useless. 

It is downright impossible and stupid to pretend, that centuries of culture and habits of a variety of peoples and countries can simply be stepped on, crushed and forgotten about, to convert it into some kind of pale industrial cheese, without even a trace of real milk, af if it were just another United States.
This has never been the original philosophy behind the foundation of the European Community. 

Europe's maturity

Europe, the 'old' continent, is the 2nd smallest of the world, but wide and rich in values that are diverse, but real, contrary to the one single economic 'value' which is artifical and ever more manipulated. It is about human and social values that have been forged through dozens of consecutive generations, based on trial and error over a time span of many centuries.
It is the continent that has known more wars and battles per square kilometer than any other continent, but which, at the end, has been able to achieve sufficient maturity as to turn into a whole of countries (EU) that has known the longest stretch of continued peace in all human history.

It is in this maturity, and the corresponding awareness, in which the countries and the citizens of Europe come together. It is this concept, and the corresponding emotion, which should lead the politicians and from which they could (should) draw more advantage and utility, specifically in serving as a valid reference for the rest of the world, in stead of the sad and failed economic-financial-speculative approach of the banks.

Europe has the key to escape the yoke of 'productionism'

In fact, it is precisely Europe that could and should take the lead to come out of this negative global spiral in which 'Productionism´ (capitalism/neo-liberalism/corporativism/american dreamism... as opposed to "consumerism") has submerged global society, with it's desastrous philosophy, that justifies the unlimited exploitation and exhaustion of all available resources, both human and natural, own and foreign, without any scruples or worry about the consequences, as long as it generates profit (more or less succulent). This philosophy of Large Industry, not averse from corruption, is leading to the destruction of the planet and society, which will be reached within a generation if it is not drastically reduced starting now.

Precisely in Europe, a high and growing rate of this awareness (partially for being the continent where most natural environment has been destroyed) converges with a high level of industrialization (the reason of that destruction). So it is in Europe where Large Industry is most confronted with the multiple green, alternative, ecologic or real democracy parties and movements. This could be considered the new battle in Europe, let's hope the ultimate one, although not between peoples anymore, but between concerned citizens and the abstract and consiousless 'Markets', abusive and destructive industry, and the speculative and elitist Financial Piracy.

Europe's legacy, responsibility and opportunity

It also can be said that precisely Europe has also the responsibility to redirect this extreme 'Productionism', since Europe itself was it's cradle, with the Industrial Revolution at the beginning of the 19th century, and the most benefited. Even more important is the fact, that Europe prospered in the past, only thanks to the early exploitation of colonies in other continents for centuries. And it still does up to today, allbeit not under a colonial regime or having a monopoly on intercontinental exploitation anymore.

Perhaps the time has come for Europe to have the guts to do some objective and honest autocritisism and openly acknowlegde that it's current wealth is largely due to centuries of exploitation of former colonies, who afterwards and up till now got submerged in poverty and destructurized societies, even if they are called "developing countries" in that 'politically correct' but so absolutely hypocritical way.

Maybe it is time that those, who say that some countries or people within the European Community have lived "above their capacity", become aware and recognize that actually the whole of Europe has lived way beyond it's true, own capacity for centuries, especially the elites (up to a point of decadency), only thanks to that abusive and unlimited exploitation of the wealth and resources of other contintents. Because the honest and objective truth is that, with respect to natural resources, Europe is actually the world's poorest continent. And most of what little there was, was already exploited in roman times.

A clip from "Uganda Rising", but the full documentary has been removed by Youtube ("Sorry about that" :/).

Nevertheless, Europe is also the birthplace of democracy - along with countless and diverse contributions to arts, culture, science and philosophy, those human skills that do matter - the political-social model that, for now, is consolidated as to be the fairest option and to which the citizens of many countries still aspire, although of course, they might have already reached it or not even "need" it, had it not been for that same European colonial intervention.

Europe against Tax Havens. Great first step, but watch the politicians!

But well, mistakes of the past cannot be changed, although they may be corrected. And exactly that, is within the scope of Europe, although mainly through its citizens rather than its bureaucratic institutions or influentiably and partially corrupt politicians. Europe, more than any other continent, has the possibility to achieve that democracy be true: really fair, really transparent and with a better distribution of wealth and power. When this is reached it can be expanded to other countries and continents. The massive demonstrations by numerous social and political movements are a clear statement of intent of many European citizens. Now the whole just needs to reach the critical mass, so that the authorities simply can't ignore the public opinion anymore, as they usually have been doing in favor of the banks, corporations and the wealthiest and most powerful individuals.

And, in fact, a first essential step in the right direction is the announced fight against Tax Havens that, if carried out indeed, really opens the door to a more just global society both for humans and for the planet as a whole. However, it is essential to closely monitor the politicians and others involved in this process, as the most powerful and wealthy elites will make hard efforts to influence political or legal decisions as to avoid or minimize any increase in global financial transparency.

Keep in mind that, in fact, it was not a spontaneous and voluntary initiative of the European politicians to undertake this new fight against the Tax Havens (more intents have existed), but they found themselves forced to do so due to Offshore Leaks, the filtration of details from secret accounts in Tax Havens of thousands of individuals and companies, and confirming the collaboration of the "trusted" commercial banks. Additionally there is a danger that the politicians will be already be satisfied with simply eliminating or reducing tax evasion, maybe even only for their own country, while the key is really to eradicate and elminate any trace of any possibility to hide capital so that global finance be 100% transparent without exception! 

The strenght of the global elites to defend their priviledged position, needs to be countered with equal force that, amongst other, should consist in the incessant demand to END Tax Havens by each and every social movement as the first requirement in any of its activities, untiel there is no place in the world left, that offers bank secrecy or exaggerated tax reduction, for example less than three quarters of the international average. Even simpler might be the total cancellation of any "special" taxes for foreign companies.

Once the global financial movements become 100% transparent and taxes more or less equal in the whole world, then it starts to be possible for true democracy to flourish and a new global ordinance to emerge, more focused on people than on entities. Europe can and should be an example and make the first step.

Refs:

• Hollande Creates a Prosecutor for Fraud and Vows to End Tax Havens - NY Times 2013/04/10
  PARIS — Buffeted by a political scandal, a stagnant economy and angry public reaction to an investigative report about secret offshore bank accounts, President François Hollande on Wednesday announced the creation of a position of special prosecutor to pursue cases of corruption and tax fraud, and vowed to eradicate tax havens “in Europe and the world.”
• EU's six largest members agree to fight tax havens - Reuters 2013/04/12
  Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, Britain to tackle evasion 
  France's Moscovici says bank secrecy outdated 
  Austria rejects bank data exchange as offence to privacy rights
• Support grows for European effort to fight Tax Havens - NY Times 2013/04/14
  DUBLIN — Europe’s effort to crack down on tax havens gained momentum during the weekend as the number of countries agreeing to share more bank information doubled.
• EU leaders discuss fight against tax evasion - The economic times 2013/05/22
  European officials say tax fraud costs the 27-nation bloc an estimated 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) a year at a time when much of the bloc is in recession and governments are forced to tighten their budgets despite record unemployment.
  (imagine not only clearing out "tax evasion" but simply ALL hidden, and as such, illicit money world wide!)
• Fight against tax fraud: Is it for real? - France24 2013/05/23
  In Washington, Brussels and Paris, one issue has taken centre stage: tax evasion. While US senators grilled Apple executives for avoiding high taxes, European leaders vowed to crack down on fraud and French lawmakers looked into a recent scandal involving a government minister.
  (this a clear example of a possible reduced understanding of the issue: "avoiding tax fraude" is just not the same as FULL ERADICATION of all tax havens and bank secrecy and eliminate all secrecy from global financial flows!)
  
  

Europe against Ecocide, the destruction of nature and planet

Another great European initiative is to turn the destruction of nature, ECOCIDE, into a crime, just like GENOCIDE. 
And just like Tax Havens, ECOCIDE should be fully eradicated if we want this world, planet and society to survive (ourselves). When Ecocide becomes a crime in Europe, it will open the door to international recognition of this crime and the fight against it.

THE LAW OF ECOCIDE

The destruction of our environment is a crime. A crime for which those responsible should be held accountable.
This crime has a name: Ecocide.

Eco-cide derives from the Greek oikos meaning house or home and the Latin caedere meaning strike down, demolish, kill. It literally translates to killing our home.

WHY WE NEED IT

• to act as one law to end different types of environmental destruction
• to hold decision makers directly liable
• to preserve and protect biodiversity
• to protect entire ecosystems, not just individual elements such as soil, air, fauna & flora
• to trigger the transformation to a green economy
• to honour our duty to future generations
• to contribute to a shift in values to give the earth its own rights

END ECOCIDE IN A NUTSHELL

This article was triggered by the indignation and sadness of this supposed "cute" picture on Facebook where the reference to "progress" eventually led to Europe's role in how it all got so far and how to get out of it.

The picture in itself would be real sweet, ...if it were the turtles alone, by themselves. But it is downright sad that it seems to be "touristicized" and that it in fact it even seems to be necessary. 

Those who say that it should left to natural selection are basically right, if it not were that WE, you, me, mankind has interfered and screwed it all up so much, that the natural processes of life and evolution on this planet, that used to be in harmony and balance before, just don't work anymore.

To allow nature balance itself again (200 years?), most probably mankind should return to about 10% of the current population, only occupy and affect no more than 10% of geographic occupation and even allow some 10% of geography as some kind of a security buffer (to defend nature from ourselves).

With this distribution, the remaining 80% of the planet's geography might just have a change to auto-regulate itself again and recover from the damage we have been inflicting on nature and the planet for over centuries. More specifically, since we (christian - god gave the world to us to dominate and squander it) Europeans started to colonize the whole world with the lame excuse to bring "progress" to tribes on other continents who were actually living in harmony with their natural surrounding.

Of course, this went dramatic and exponential after the industrial revolution in Great Britain at the beginning of the 19th century, only to worsen and grow to yet another scale after WW II, with the "invention" of "marketing", that big success of America (the former GB colony) and its "dream", that has led us to the materialistic consumption-and-throw-away (après nous le déluge) society in which we all grew up. 

So now everybody who lacks a minimum sense of historic feeling (on evolutionary scale) and doesn't look further than his/her own comfortable well-being and of family, house, car, dog... think that THIS is "normal" and "the way things are/should be".

They think that the overload of concrete, cars, TV, air-travel, manipulative publicity & MSM, successful career (which always comes down to selling something to someone) and a spectacular life (measured in "assets": possession, consumption of goods, activities and "emotions") is 'NORMAL'. Not hindered by any awareness or notion that their whole life and generation is just an insignificant instant to what used to be NORMAL before we started to really screw things up: some 200 years of "Progress" in comparison to say 200 million years of evolution (200,000,000).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.409970002416957.95728.14672645...

http://www.independencyproject.org/en/industry-self-destructive-progress...