This is a sentence that every member of AEGEE (European Students’ Forum ) knows, and I’m sure they all have used it more than once. This time I want to take it for my starting point as blogger for Th!nk about it.
Some months ago, after a one-week conference in Vienna dealing with different topics related to Europe, it was time to depart. I was pretending to say goodbye to some friends, but suddenly a polish guy suggested I shouldn’t do that. “We are living at the same place. Just knock on my door and we’ll meet”. And up to this moment I realized that we were all living in the same house, we should reach each other easily. And even knowing that, we still have some problems to contact our neighbours. Am I sure I could point the capital of Estonia on a map? Do I really know more than two cities in Romania? Which country is bigger, Poland or Spain?
It’s time to change, and we still have 4 months for our “speed course” on European citizenship before being prepared to vote for the next European Parliament. My aim will be to prepare myself and all the readers of this blog for this instant. It’s just a little moment, the time you need to take a paper, put it on an envelope and vote, that’s all. During the first week of June, the voice of Europe will be elected, the members of the new European Parliament will be chosen in each country. But have you ever th!nk about the meaning of it? Which will be the reasons for you to make your choice? Are you really taking care of our house if you don’t take part in democratic processes?
This blog will b
e mainly addressed to Spanish people, the ones I most know from experience, the ones I live with, and I am also a part of them. But it will be also for my other neighbours, the ones speaking other languages, the ones that can show me other way to understand our home, and those who will propose new ideas to enlarge the rooms of our building, which materials to use and how to come to the dinning room to discuss together. Some of my neighbours came a long time ago. They live in the upper floors. We came some time ago. And the newcomers have just entered the door and are coming upstairs, from the first floor. Anyway, we always meet in the kitchen to cook for all. Of course, guests are also more than welcomed in this house. We have enough place for everybody, and we will be glad to talk to each other and have a nice time.
At the end, the point I will try to show is that Europe is made for its citizens, and all the blogs of this platform should help to make them feel comfortable at home. That should be an easy task. Myself, I will have to discover many things, there are interesting corners that I still ignore, and together we will explore them in the next months. It will be an exciting journey, our own European adventure. Feel free to ask, comment and give your opinion.
Before concluding this post, I would like to thank M. G Varrenti, the artist of the house on the picture, for inspiring the idea. As he will also be publishing in this platform, you will be able to follow his thoughts on his Th!nk about it blog .
Finally, as you may already know, in case you need something just knock on my door.
(30 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)
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Hi! I really like this starting with “Some call it Europe - we call it home!” This is what I noticed already when I was in France as an exchange student and then there where on a Eurotour-trip some Americans, that really explored Europe as something new. For us Europeans, Europe is after all a lot more familiar, and it should be even more. It is our home.
Wow great - this post represents really what I think about Europe and how we should live together on our beautiful continent
I totally agree with you. Europe is for everyone, we just have to realize.
Best.
I didn’t know that Mario is such a great painter
What a lovely picture!
And Marta, agreed to everything - well done
It explains pretty much why I have the same quote in my e-mail signature…
You`re extremely nationalistic.Yes, Europe is great,we love it.But I`m latinamerican and when I met you in some part of Europe you treated me so bad coz I´m not european.
You should be more open with people that don`t belong to your country or continent.
Greeting to all those europeans that recive us like part of their world.
But she is writing “Of course, guests are also more than welcomed in this house.” - so this means for me that we as Europeans are open to welcome all people from outside in our “house”, like we would invite friends to our house.
Or would you invite people that you don’t like, that you don’t trust to your house?
Me personally, I have many very good friends with whom I am not living together in the same house - with some I am even closer than with the people in my house!
… And Vero’s reply leads me to think, that maybe next time we should participate in a world’s blogging competition… Where there are even less (read: no) borders…
I only wish a Europe like we want, like you describe, unfortunately we have a long road to walk if we want to have it…In our hands is make possible this change…
Great post!
I believe in Europe!
Indepe.
I identify myself in your thoughts Marta, I identify myself in the house, in every floor and in the message you so deeply managed to communicate in these few sentences. And thank you for posting the drawing, it reminded me of so many funny and serious serious moments spent with you, my European friend!!
[...] posts including I’m a European and “Some call it Europe, we call it home”, I have become very curious as to how the Europhiles and Eurosceptics balance out in the [...]
To be honest, while that image of the process of developing a European identity as people moving into a house with different floors may be cute and appeal to the Europhorics on here, it seems a little too much like wishful thinking. Cultural identities do not develop in some kind of linear way or in one direction. Oftentimes more appreciation for one’s region goes hand in hand with feeling more European. But in a globalised world it can also go the other way. I think the fundamental problem of the young pro-European movement is that it is torn between supporting the EU, an intergovernmantal bureaucracy without any public legitimisation, and promoting its own idea of creating a true European identity. To use the image of the house: we must build it first, before we move in…
Dear RvdK
Actually, I agree with most of these points. It’s true that this vision is far away from the reality, but that’s why it was a statement of what I think we should try to achieve. And, from my point of view, learning and educating –no matter if it’s about citizenship or something general- is the most decisive weapon to reach that.
I also agree with the risks you pointed out, it’s very easy to empower regionalists movements while trying to cross the current borders to build something wider. Anyway, the goal now should be how to combine both perspectives –the local and the European- so that they are not contraries.
Finally, it’s totally true that Europe is still under construction, and I have mentioned it in other posts. But I support the idea that we can’t wait to start living Europe when we finish building it, because I’m not really sure if we will achieve that, the end of the construction.
Thank you for the remarks, I think you pointed out interesting debates that should be taken into account in further posts.