Greetings from high above the streets of Paris, where the biggest labor battle in a decade is taking place.

As I strolled the streets last night you could feel the tension in the air.  The strike had begun, across the country transport workers were walking off the job.  At many of the nation’s universities, students barricaded themselves in. And on the streets, people talked into mobile phones about how they would get to work tomorrow and things to pick up at the store today in case tomorrow it is too complicated.

The issue at stake: the French government’s plan to alter the pension plans for public sector workers, decreasing benefits and increasing the minimum retirement age.

Of course like most of his fellow leaders, president Sarkozy says the country must do this in order to survive and cut spending.  We’ve heard similar stories throughout Europe, it is the conventional wisdom of our time.  Even when citizens have tried to resist, the result is usually only a delay in what has become an inevitable practice of cutting spending and reducing benefits for workers.

While I’m certainly not an economist, I can completely understand the actions of French unions in an effort to resist these reforms.  If they hope to retain any significance when it comes to decision making and rights in the years to come, now is the time to make their stand.  Unfortunately as in many western countries, it almost feels inevitable that the unions will have to cave-in to the big machine known as the global economy, which thrives on eating up benefits and job security and spits out anyone that still clings to these ideals.

And so it is day 1 of the strike, time to hit the streets, and hope for the best.

For us West Europeans, unless we are on our vacations, the Aegean sea seems to be pretty far away, tucked away in one of the most remote parts of Europe. We prefer to think of it in terms of dream islands swimming on a warm sea.

The truth is much more brutal than that: On two fact-finding missions to the region – one of them while millions of Europeans were dipping their toes in Greek seas during the months of July and August, the other one just a few weeks ago, German human rights association ProAsyl and Greek Lawyers found that “Serious human rights violations are taking place:

• The Greek coast guard systematically maltreats newly arrived refugees. It tries to block their boats and force them out of Greek territorial waters. Regardless of whether they survive or not, passengers are cast ashore on uninhabited islands or left to their fate on the open sea.

• In one reported case on the Chios island, the degree of maltreatment amounted to torture (serious beating, mock execution, electric shocks, pushing a refugee’s head into a bucket full of water).

• The police detain all refugees and migrants on their arrival on the islands, including minors. This is in contravention of international law. Without exception, all new arrivals are placed under a deportation order, also in breach of international law. The detainees are left without any information about their rights and without legal counsel.

• All three of the detention camps visited by the delegation offer unacceptable living conditions. The circumstances of detention amount to degrading and inhuman treatment.”

In the report, one refugee is quoted as saying:

“The two policemen in front of me were armed and showed me their weapons while I was being beaten. They looked at me very seriously. They said: We are going to kill you’. The expression on their faces was terrifying. I was very scared. The other policeman-a fat one- came up to me and said into my ear: ‘Tell the truth. These two policemen are very dangerous. They will kill you’.”

We like thinking of Greece as this easy-going place down south-east, right? Travellers arriving there from the other side may see it differently.

Full report by Pro Asyl and Athens Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants (40-page, 700 kB pdf)

Press release (2-page pdf, 22 kB)

Story via Statewatch

Reading through the stastics for the last 7 years relating to the top arms dealers in the world, you can’t ignore the role of Europe in the dealing of weapons around the world.  True no country is a bigger merchant of arms than the US, followed by Russia.

     Yet after Russia the next three largest arms dealers in the world are from the EU; namely the France, the UK, and Germany.  They come in ahead of China, who also come in just ahead of Italy.  Furthermore if you put together the total arms dealing of the EU member states they would come in ahead of Russia, just behind the United States.

One might say, “whats wrong with that” and take great pride in this achievement.  But even if you argue that these arms are primarily for defense, I take great issue with the EU being the world’s second largest arms seller.  Not to mention that at least half of those sales are to developing nations, many of which are plagued by conflicts which are further fascinated by the abundance of arms flowing from their European friends.

Europe may be making great strides when it comes to trade and business, but this is one area that we as European citizens should take great issue with.  The business of war is not the kind of business are money should be invested in.

The United States is the country that is always assumed to be the gung-ho cowboy in the world; always ready to pick a fight.  It casts a shadow over the fact that every step of the way, European nations such as England, the Netherlands and various Eastern European nations… they too have joined the various war campaigns of the co-called “war on terrorism”.

It is my profound wish the being part of the EU would mean that each member state would be absolutely committed to resolving conflicts peacefully, and never seeing war or violence as a solution.  But the truth is, over the past decades, this has not been the case.  The US might be the most famous for it’s rush to use war as a diplomacy tool, but Europe should be recognized for its part in the war machine as well.

And so now we watch as Turkey,  a candidate for membership to the EU, uses its war machine across borders, in the name of anti-terrorism. Suffice to say, the way things have been going among EU members, they’ll fit right in.

A good friend from Chicago is visiting me in Amsterdam. Lately we have frequent conversations about his ancestors, many of whom came from Poland, escaping during world war 2.  Many more of them did not escape and were sent to their deaths at concentration camps.

As we spoke,  I looked over his shoulder at the computer screen.. what I saw was a family tree.  The long painstaking process of tracing his Polish roots, which actually spill over into Ukraine and Lithuania.  Zooming out and panning around the enormous tree he and his family have laid out, I saw black and white photos of 4 generations of his family.

The tracing of ancestors, especially in this case – the history of a Jewish family in Eastern Europe, is no easy task.  Thankfully the internet has given rise to some tools for collectively mapping one’s family. Beyond that I recently learned about the Jewish Gen – a database with hundreds of thousands of records, based on either last name or town of orgin.  It includes all the nations of the region that was once encompassed by Hungary.

I expected to see Sweden get high marks for its treatment and policies related to immigrants. Especially in a year where there has been alot of information published on how they are doing such a good job with welcoming Iraqi immigrants in particular.

But as a Portuguese citizen, not to mention a global citizen, I was surprised and somewhat pleased to see my country come in just behind Sweden according to the recent INTI report.  While it certainly isn’t the most well off nation in the EU, for the last 10 years they have made some effort to tackle the issues related to how noncitizens can be made welcome and have access to social services, employment, housing, and more.  The decisions and the governments during that time have been anything but consistent, yet somehow I feel like giving them a little credit based on this data.

Beyond Portugal, I was also surprised to find both Belgium and the Netherlands in the top 5 on that list.  So often, especially here in Holland, the political rhetoric borders on xenophobia, which leads to the conclusion that this country is no longer a good destination for those looking for opportunity in a new land.  Refugee acceptance and application stats reflect this over the past few years.  However, it is a pleasant surprise to know that despite the rhetoric, the Netherlands still ranks high in Europe when it comes to facilitating the process of working and making one’s life in a new country.

Then again, perhaps I should take a more critical look at the criteria….

I gave out a little sigh of satisfaction after a long period of concern.  Germany has decided to put the Maglev train to real use.

According to Spiegel international, by 2014 the electromagnetic train will link the Munich airport to the city.  After years and years of “testing” and that infamous accident in 2006 when 23 people died , it was looking more and more difficult for this innovative new model of public transport. Shanghai has been using it for some time, and in various parts of the world Maglev projects are in development.  At last we now have a set date when Germany’s Maglev will finally go public and Munich will be a fine setting for it.

Over 400 kilometers per hour, less energy consuming then a regular train, quiet, and all around cool to ride…. I need to get me some tickets in 2014!

While in Belgium

the debate rages on about how to manage one state with two groups with so many rifts between them, I find myself thinking about a case of 3 languages and 3 cultures who share one land – the region known as South Tyrol or (for the Italians) Bolzano-Bolzen.

Although they are two separate cases with numerous differences, I’m interested in exploring how Tirolians manage their social and political institutions. Is it possible that there are lessons that can be learned and applied to the Belgian situation?
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Once a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, more than 69% of South Tirolians speak German. While 26% speak Italian and just over 4% speak the lesser known Ladin language.

It became an Italian province after WWI in 1919, the government later engaged in an infamous campaign to populate the area with more Italians.
The region is considered a Eurozone, which is a mostly symbolic name to encourage cross border cooperation for people of a common culture or orgin. There are language quotas for public jobs, and apparently many different social institutions are divided according to language.

Of course I’ve not been to South Tirol so I have not seen with my own eyes how this is all functioning. But if a region with so many differences and such a tumultuous history can make an effort to cooperate for a stable and prosperous future, why not demand the same from Belgium?

I shall keep reading and eventually seek a Tirolian to explain how they see things.

After many years of enjoying the NoComment segment on the European newschannel Euronews, NOCOMMENT has finally gone digital.

Since the beginning of this year I’ve been an avid subscriber to the NoComment podcast: a 1 to 2 minute daily segment of NoComment which also appears on the tv channel.

This segment is not only something I enjoy, I believe it is one of the finest examples of journalism and use of media to inform the public this continent has ever seen. It turns the traditional idea of tv news reporting on its head, but simply showing the visual with audio without that standard voice over explanation. It is amazing to finally see events unfold without some mysterious voice telling us what is happening. Finally we can watch and understand for ourselves, and be challenged to observe and understand without some gatekeeper forcing their interpretation on us.

In many ways it is a small revolution in television journalism which has been going on for many years, practically under the public radar. Now it can also become an internet sensation as a podcast, where we can all watch events unfold and listen to the REAL sounds of life and this world we’ve created.

In the winter of 1912 in a place called Lawrence, Massachusetts, 20,000 textile workers went on a long bitter strike.  They worked long hours and lived in the worst conditions imaginable.  As immigrants from all over Europe, and mostly women and children, the workers were outraged that their already meager wages would be cut.  In their strike they demanded to be treated with dignity and paid properly, which is embodied in their slogan “We want bread, yes, but we we want roses too.”

In today’s Europe we once again see many citizens working hard for meager wages, to the great benefit of a few powerful individuals and institutions.  As leaders layout plans for how the continent will be governed and what quality of life citizens will have, it is once again time to demand not only bread, but roses; dignity, as well.

This blog is dedicated to reporting about the lives of individuals living in and around the continent of Europe. To reporting about how policy decisions are effecting daily life.  And to hear first hand from those involved on both ends of the process. The goal is to be one modest blog on the internet that keeps an eye on Europe and what is going on with our Bread and Roses.