Today I went for a walk; I was trying to find Europe. After some steps I realized I had a big problem: how does she look like? I started to imagine a nice girl, walking around, being observed by the rest. She doesn’t talk much, and nobody knows really where she is. I’m sure it will be difficult to find her, nobody can help me.
-Sorry Sir, I’m looking for Europe. Perhaps you may have seen her today.
-No, I haven’t ever seen this girl.
I went on my way, a
nd tried to find more answers.
-Sorry Madam, have you seen Europe?
-Well…not today, but I have seen pictures of her somewhere. Actually, I’ve seen many pictures of her. Try to look around. Good Luck!
Slowly I came to the train station and thought, perhaps the man on the ticket cabin could have seen her. He watches people going up and down, he knows everybody here.
-Sorry Sir, could you help me to find Europe? She is very difficult to find!
-Don’t worry, I will help you.
He showed me the front wall, and I recognized her. She had helped to rebuild the old station in the new one. But still passengers go through without paying any attention of her. Just the ticket seller listens to her, while she is talking from the wall.
This was just a short story to illustrate how we cope with our European context. Some people might think, Europe is something for politicians dealing with big issues in Brussels, orsomething easy to understand if we take into account the amount of cars travelling without any borders through the Member States.
And on the other hand, many people would be surprised to discover how many buildings or local infrastructures have been helped to develop with European founds. This was the case of the station in the story, located on a little town somewhere in Valencia, Spain. A shield with the European symbol has been there since years, but could be that nobody noticed it
Anyway, Europe is among us, or let’s say we are part of Europe and Europe is part of us. Maybe it is only a Europhile vision. Or maybe not…Just th!nk about it.
And remember, our Europe is still under construction. Just a little creative present to my readers
"Building Europe"
(Little creative present for the readers)
(29 votes, average: 3.69 out of 5)
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Btw, why Europe is “she”, not “he”? If we pay attention to the grammatical rules, then also in Latvian she would be a girl, but still… What makes her feminine? Or maybe she has more masculine characteristics? Read recently info about cultures which are more masculine and which - more feminine. We should try to characterize Europe by it as well - good idea for some more blog posts!
Europe is “she” for that reason: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(mythology)
I think Europe is a she, well, what I mean is, I think that 2009 and beyond, will be the time for women to shine. The world has been run by men and look where it’s got us. Of course, men should still be involved, but we just need the bright and brilliant to come together to work out what to do with this mess, and many of them will be bright and brilliant young women.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe
Hi Marta,
This is a great post - I very much like its narrative style.
Thank you very much for your comments, dear th!nkers. Actually, I was talking about “ahe” and a “girl” because I also wanted to state the paralelism with the mytology (Europe). But now I see, the post lead to another debate about the gender of Europe, and I think it’s also an interesting point to discuss. Thank you again
Really! I hope by ‘girl’, you mean WOMAN. Girls are children and this is not a fairy tale, but there is no more need to humanize a continent than a boat or a rock.
Hoping to get some ‘European Political Blogging’, soon.
Well, that’s the classical neo-conservative American thinking
The United States is Mars and the European Union is Venus. Have you read Kagan’s Power and Paradise?
I really liked your post!
I really enjoyed your story telling and the creative present
The point you raise about Europe’s visibility is quite interesting. I agree that we are part of Europe but how far is Europe part of us? How far do we feel European and acknowledge it?
From my experience nationalism is still domineering power in shaping people’s views. Being European is seen generally as a positive thing but quite abstract too.
That’s why if you ask your question in reality, you would get the same answers.