toro-osborneEls resultats de les eleccions europees demostren dues coses: d’una banda la oportunitat perduda per fer pedagogia i avançar en el procés d’integració Europea – la participació ha tornat ha caure respecte el 2004 del 45% al 43%- i de l’altra la parcial incoherència del resultat amb el moment històric en que vivim.

Sobre el primer punt res a dir. Per a qualsevol que hagi seguit la campanya electoral la participació era d’esperar. Estem elegint els nostres representants al parlament europeu -més poderós que el congres dels diputats- i tant el PSOE com el PP es dediquen a parlar d’avions privats, de política nacional, d’atacs personals entre Zapatero i Rajoy quan cap dels dos es candidat a les eleccions que votem… Tant de bo pogués dir que això denota que “Spain is different… malauradament”, pero la veritat es que a d’altres països europeus com el Regne Unit o Itàlia les eleccions han sigut plebiscits nacionals de diferent sort.

Així doncs, per començar donar les gracies al president del govern i al cap de l’oposició pel trist espectacle ofert i pel compromís europeu que han demostrat. Amb gent formada, poliglota i responsable com ells arribarem lluny.

Sobre el segon punt, no deixa de ser curiós que en temps de crisis del neoliberalisme, d’atur galopant, de deslocalitzacions… qui pugi al PE sigui la dreta i qui baixi espectacularment siguin els socialistes. Quan, teòricament, toca fer política keynesiana amb forta despesa social resulta que la gent no troba que els socialistes siguin els mes adients per dur-la a terme. Significatiu. Això pot ser per dues coses: o be és cert que la dreta fa -o ven- millor política social o bé als socialistes els hi ha fallat l’estratègia que tot bon contingut necessita per a guanyar.

Al meu parer els socialistes europeus han sigut víctimes del seu propi conservadorisme. Quan tocava prendre la iniciativa i impulsar un projecte socialista europeu i aprofitar la feblesa d’un president de la Comissió Europea per a proposar un candidat alternatiu que personifiqués el canvi i la il·lusió -i de passada despistés l’atenció de l’economia nacional- els socialistes espanyols i Europeus van optar per no arriscar.

El resultat d’aquesta opció representa una oportunitat perduda per a ells i sobretot una oportunitat perduda per a la Unió Europea. Era el moment de polititzar les eleccions europees amb un candidat fort que personifiques el ideal del projecte socialista per Europa; l’Obama Europeu. Si a tota Europa els socialistes no van poder trobar ni un líder per al seu projecte quan tothom menys els conservadors els hi ho demanava potser és que no mereixen marcar l’agenda Europea. Qui no arrisca no guanya.

Finalment, un darrer comentari respecte al fet “espanyol”: és curiós que mentre que els verds han pujat ostensiblement a Europa amb resultats espectaculars a Alemanya, Franca, Grècia o el Regne Unit, a l’estat Espanyol, tot i la creixent presa de consciencia de la població en temes ecològics i de canvi climàtic, els resultats no han canviat. Per que no podem tenir uns verds com Deu mana? A Franca s’han inventat un partit que verd que gracies al savoir-faire de Cohn-Bendit ha aconseguit gairebé 1/4 dels diputats disponibles. A veure si n’aprenem.

En fi, que una vegada més podem exclamar orgullosos que “Spain is different, malauradament” tot i que per sort no som tan diferents com els italians de Berlusconi o els anglesos de Brown… hi ha un eslògan del Consell d’Europa que diu:  ”Tots diferents, tots iguals!”. Doncs això.

 

the-lost-opportunityShortly after the results of the European Parliament elections have been made public the most astonishing thing is the defeat of the socialist parties in Europe.

Imagine that you have a economic crisis caused by lack of regulation and which according to economic theory requires social(ist?) policies, imagine that you have the head of the executive who is a conservative and who has led the Union through last years, rising unemployment, delocalisations… who do you think would be expected to rise? The right?

The socialists have only themselves to blame for their failure: they played defensive when they should have attacked. Now more than ever it was the time to have a clear program for the recovery of Europe and to play the European card. In France, UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany… they could have hidden their weaknesses by rallying behind a project for Europe. Instead they decided to run national campaigns where, for different national reasons, they were weak and vulnerable.

When the president of the European Commission was conservative and weak the socialists could have taken advantage of the situation to come up with an alternative candidate who could have personified their program for the European recovery. In national politics people would kill to stand against a weak president in times of crisis of neoliberalism, timing could not be more suitable! Yet the socialists decided not to move and play conservative. 

It is a lost opportunity for the socialists but also for Europe. Had the socialists been more daring they could have managed to give a new vision and leadership for Europe which would have been good for them and for the Union. Neither will happen. Without a clear program, the right won thanks to not being contested. It will be difficult and anti-democratic to push Barroso out of the European Commission when the EPP has such a majority in the European Parliament.

I’m convinced that socialists have pages to write in European history but in order to do so they have to be able to articulate their message more clearly, update it to the XXI century and have leaders who in times of crisis can stand up and lead the boat. 

It was the time to think out of the box and they preferred to stay inside and hope for the best. And the best doesn’t happen by itself: if you don’t play, you don’t win.

 
 

wormpower-soon-in-your-homesToday I assisted to a session to learn to do compost at home with worms -vermicomposting- organised by the Inter-Environment Bruxelles and it showed me to which extend we live in a strange world.

The session was very entertaining and a huge success. I was expecting that in a meeting like this I would find 5 to 10 housewifes and/or old hippies, rather the opposite: it was mainly young people -both genders- that you could find any day in the metro. We were taught how to build a worm composter and everything we need to know about the life of the worms: what do they eat, what do they like, when to feed them, how to protect them, how -and when!- they have sex, how long do they live… amazing. I found a bit surreal that our civilisation has reached this level of paroxysm.

On one hand it is clear that more and more people are starting to be conscious about the unsustainability of the throw-away society we live in and this is good. It is good when people look at the garbage bin and ask themselves how can they generate so much trash and they want to help by doing home-composting. On the other hand it shows how people are starting to take the initiative as a reaction to the inaction from the institutions. Because, wasn’t it the role of the municipality to take care of our garbage?

Don’t get me wrong, I think that doing home composting -and vermicomposting which enables those of us who live in apartments to do compost- is great and necessary because it raises awareness about the impact of our actions and it reduces the amount of mixed waste we generate, which in Brussels ends up in the incinerator (producing CO2, toxic ashes and destroying resources; let’s not forget that organic waste is more than 60% water and burning water is not very smart). HOWEVER, shouldn’t it be the authorities who should be ordering the organic waste to be collected separately in order to either generate energy with anaerobic digesters or directly compost it?

I mean, vermi-composting and home composting are great but having seen how it works I can tell you it is not as easy as it looks, it is time consuming and having worms at home is something that we can’t expect that everyone will accept with open arms. Personally I’ll do vermi-composting because I believe in it but I know that the market of this is rather limited and I’m fully aware that nothing really substantial will really change until organic waste is separately collected and treated.

Currently EU legislation says that organic waste should be gradually phase out from landfills -where it produces methane- but it doesn’t say what should we do with it. So we burn it. The EU has been avoiding having compulsory separate collection of organic waste since 10 years and only some countries have taken the initiative to impose it. Of course the incineration industry is happy to burn organic waste -again, mostly water- that would be a lot more valuable as carbon returned to the soil and the European Commission is also happy because less legislation means less work -even when this is effectively damaging the environment-. How long will we have to wait to make possible what is environmentally and economically sensible?

In Flanders they collect organic waste separately and they have reached recycling rates of even 75%, in San Francisco they do the same and they are also recycling 70%. Separate collection, better if door-to-door, radicaly increases recycling which saves money to the people, helps the environment, creates jobs and is the right path towards a Zero Waste society. 

I was surprised by today’s unexpected interest generated by the training on vermicomposting, more and more people are realising that things need to change and they are willing to their bit. Will the competent authorities also dare to look beyond the interests of the industrial lobbies?

In the meantime I’ll start taking care of my worms :-)

© 2012 JM Simon Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha