Who should beg whom?
Begin forwarded message: From: Piotr Bein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 12 March 2007 21:59:09 GMT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Who should beg whom? http://byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2006/11/european-serbia.html Freedom-Loving Serbs Do Not Seek Admission to Autocratic Clubs by John Bosnitch, Tokyo posted 26.11.206 (A letter to a student who had to respond to the question "What has Serbia contributed to the world that would give reason for them to be permitted to become a member of the European Union?") The blog's owner, Svetlana Novko of Vancouver, Canada, commented: "to date, the most thorough and the most educated snapshot of the world history and the role of Serbia in it that I have had the pleasure to read" EXCERPT: ============================================ [...] European Union Grown Out of the Rivalry of German Tribes Which brings me to my advice as to what you should write in your report to your teacher.... [...] The question was: What has Serbia contributed to the world that would give reason for them to be permitted to become a member of the European Union? So let's dissect this nonsense question. Since when was a "contribution to the world" a condition for EU membership? (Was Germany's world contribution the Holocaust? And was Spain's the Inquisition -- or was it its wanton rape and pillage of the New World?) Since when should we Serbs, at the heart of Europe, need permission from anyone to be European? (Remember all that opportunistic Western propaganda about Sarajevo being the very heart of Europe -- well, let's flip it back at them.) And then let's ask what authority the EU had in international law to appropriate for its currency the name "euro" without automatically allowing all Europeans right up the Ural mountains the right to call it their own. They certainly have no trade mark on the word Europe -- it belongs to all of us. So, the EU is obviously not synonymous with Europe. Which means that we need to define what, in fact, it is... If you search a little bit, it won't take you long to find that the EU grew out of an economic alliance between the ruling capitalists of Germany and France to end their hundreds of years of civil war. Why do I use the term "civil war" to describe World War I and World War II and the many France-Germany wars before that? Because all of them were based on the rivalry between two groups of Germans; those who stayed in Germany and the Franks (a German tribe) who left Germany to drive West and subjugate the Gauls (who lived in the old Roman province of Gaul that has since been renamed "France" in honor of its German conquerors). The Germans on both sides of Alsace-Lorraine then fought over that territory for centuries after King Lothair, one of three German descendants of Karol, died without a successor and his cousins to the east in Germany and to the west in France could not agree on who should get his kingdom... (Lothair's kingdom = Lothair's regnum (Latin) = Lorraine). German Saddle Doesn't Fit on Serbian Back Many millions of deaths later, these two groups of Germanic peoples decided to stop massacring each other and build a common market based on cooperation first in steel development and production, later in other areas and finally in the form of the EU. The French ruling elites revealed their true roots by submitting largely to German leadership and we now have a new Europe ruled primarily by Germans who have enticed other nations to join through economic incentives -- bribery if you like. For many, the financial offer is more important than anything else -- after all, these are nations that have all been ruled by foreign, German kings for most of their history, so the saddle still fits nicely on their backs. But Serbia is different. We have never submitted to the German-dominated systems -- neither Hitler's, nor the Kaiser's, nor Bismark's, nor the Austrian German variants before that. We have grown to love freedom more than money, or at least that has been our character until now. Joining the German-Led Europe Involves Surrender of Sovereignty And so we face a historic challenge. Shall we finally join the German-led Europe after all these battles for our freedom? If it were merely a free-trade deal like NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) the loss of sovereignty would be limited and Serbia would remain an independent state. But that is not what the EU represents. Instead the EU represents an effort of the ruling classes of each member state to form a common union in which the economic reward is merely a bribe in search of the surrender of sovereignty -- which is their trophy. With national independence snuffed out, the EU ruling elites will eventually operate the place as a single country, ruled mainly from Berlin and the European central bank in Frankfurt. It will have its own army and all the member states will have to send troops to participate in its "adventures." In Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Sudan, and maybe even in Russia, young Serb men would be in arms, extending Western-style "freedom," the essence of [Roman] Catholicism and "human rights" to our brother Slavs at the end of a rifle barrel. The costs sound bad, so what about the benefits? Well, being at the far end of the new German empire, instead of seeing things flow our way, we would certainly see all of our best and brightest youth heading to the center of European power in flows so great that they would dwarf the past flows of Yugoslav gastarbeiters (guest workers) into Germany, the brain drain that we have seen during or since these latest Balkan wars, and certainly the period of forced indoctrination of Serb youths in Ottoman Turkey as kidnapped janissaries. Most of the main economic activity in the EU is based in the center of the EU -- in Germany and France. They make the AirBus planes and Mercedes cars -- we might be "permitted" to make some tires for each of them. Our free-for-all agricultural industry will be totally mechanized and the early-morning markets in the piazzas (public squares) will be replaced by sterile supermarkets full of frozen foods -- have you ever tasted a tomato anywhere in the EU (or even America) that tastes as good as a fresh tomato from an open market in Serbia? No, I did not think so. As a sign of things to come, as soon as the pro-EU opposition seized power in their October 2000 coup in Serbia there were hundreds of truckloads (hundreds of thousands of tons) of genetically modified soy beans (unwanted anywhere else) being dumped into northern Vojvodina as the first doors opened to "superior" Western and EU goods. Since then, German investors have bought up most of the privatized Serbian industries, and even the media. Today, Germans own the main newspapers that Serbs read in Belgrade. Entry to the EU will make the surrender of Serbia's independence and the collapse of national self-sufficiency even more complete. And all trade, not just agriculture, will be regulated by the most massive and inhuman bureaucracy ever seen... a bureaucracy based not in Serbia but in faraway Brussels. For more reasons to stay out of the EU, check the web site of the United Kingdom Independence Party (it is very interesting to hear people talking this way from INSIDE the European Union). Serbia Should Stay Out of the EU So in fact, your teacher's question should not have been the misleading one that you received. Countries entering the EU are not judged on their world contributions, but instead on their level of servitude and willingness to be ruled from abroad in return for some small change. One day, the EU might become a better thing, after this model collapses, and it might be replaced by a real free-trade zone without the loss of national freedoms. That might be something to consider. But for now, Serbia's best bet is to stay out, raise financing independently (perhaps from the booming economies over here in Asia, where I have lived for years) and build a vibrant economy that serves the interests of the Serbian people before all else. With that goal achieved, we could wait for the inevitable gold-embossed invitation from the EU or its likely successor organization and negotiate whatever we like from a position of strength rather than from our knees as beggars. Don't let the wrong question confuse you... no matter how many Teslas or Pupins or raspberries, soccer championships, or guerrillas wars of resistance, or anything else we can claim, the only thing that counts is our willingness to submit, be ruled and smile at the thought of it. Serbia is the richest country in the Balkans. It sits on the crossroads of land and water transport to the east and the south. We can name our price for anything we are asked to do for Europe. But if Serbia is thrown open to the EU now, before we can compete properly, it would only be because our current rulers hope to skim a nice percentage for themselves, personally. Let's stay in step with people like the British UKIP (Independence Party), Switzerland, and Iceland... people who know the difference between a con and a good deal. [...] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
