A vast network of trade and aid agreements connects the EU with more than 70 countries. The union could become an important standalone global actor and even thrive in a multipolar world. But it must first shed its Eurocentric worldviews, complacent policymaking and double standards.
Europe must not be run for Europeans.
Hmmm.
I managed to get through half her article and gave up in despair.
Is Ms Islam some sort of AI bot ?
It is now becoming increasingly difficult to tell the humans from the machines. I had the same feeling about the article you brought to us yesterday. Even their pictures look AI generated with the key “People you’d like to hit with a cricket bat.”
Perhaps The Guardian is really run by SkyNet.
The EU could shed its Eurocentric worldviews by stopping telling the rest of the world how to run their countries, including labour standards, net zero, sustainability, immigration, the degree of banana curvature and so on, cause if they don’t, the EU will impose impassable trade barriers against importation of their products.
Orange Man Bad’s tariffs are bad and the cause of all problems in the world. The EU’s tariffs? No, not a peep.
Aside: Europe is currently run for the tiny (as a proportion of total population) number of Europeans who are employed by the EU, to the detriment of everybody else. The principle is in place already, the writer here merely wishes to change the beneficiaries. Presumably to people like her.
Bullying resource grabs, to use her own words, are also justified causes of outrage across Europe when carried out by illegal and permanently unassimilated immigrants.
Or more pertinently when resources are grabbed by western governments who despise their own citizens and handed out to pretty much everyone else.
Since 2015 Europe has been run for Africans, Middle Easterns anyway.
The level at which my vote counts is the level where control over me and the right to make laws or regulations occurs. An EP vote when we were in did not meet that requirement because the parliament has no powers and you couldn’t vote for the commission.
When it comes to higher global levels (even if they were planning to let us vote) I don’t want to be outvoted by a bunch of people from other continents who have no clue about us but want our stuff.
The article really is beyond parody…. some snippets below
Preface, the writer’s surname is seriously “Islam”?
*****
“But some countries, such as Italy, Hungary, Poland and the three Baltic states, still hanker for life under US protection.”
Strange that Poland and the Baltics don’t want to be invaded by the Russians… whereas Hungary and Italy (while far from perfect) have had the audacity to vote for parties not fully aligned with Islam (pun intended)
“oreover, Brussels has yet to disprove a complaint about the EU’s mindset by the Indian foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he said Europe thinks “its problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems”.”
So, we should support the Russians? I thought that was wrong-think?
“Many in the global south are outraged, for instance, at the EU’s failure to condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza”
So muslims, like Mrs Islam, are outraged that someone is not fully aligned with them…
“As the South Africa-based academic Carlos Lopes, author of a recent book on EU-Africa relations, told me, the EU retains such a deep-rooted “colonial attitude of superiority that it translates into a sort of patronising charity and altruism”.”
I would probably agree with the statement, it does apply to many well-intentioned radical chics. My solution would be much easier though: stop the charity and let them sort their own shit out. (With free-trade)
“Yet the EU remains attached to global trade rules, has an economy that is posting modest growth and an attractive and vibrant single internal market. The time is right for an upgrade in EU relations with the global south, but the old rules of engagement need an urgent overhaul.”
The 2nd part of this section does not follow from the first. Also, I assume that her defition of “upgrade in relations with the global south” is to become muslims.
(Also not sure what is vibrant about the single internal market)
“Von der Leyen claims the world is “lining up” to find safe business opportunities with a Europe that upholds the rule of law as Trump sows chaos on global markets. But having reported on EU relations with the global south for most of my professional life, it is clear to me that EU policymakers must stop lecturing and start listening.”
Same as above, EU policymakers can just let them take their own responsibilities.
(You can also argue with “Europe that upholds the rule of law” but she seems to attribute that statement to Von der Leyen so slightly off-topic)
“the EU has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to re-evaluate its soft-power credentials, which are now tarnished by racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and attacks on women’s rights and the gay community.”
Is she really saying that the EU is more antisemtic and attacks women’s rights and the gay community more than the “global south”? WTF!?
“But only if European negotiators heed figures such as the former Indonesian president Joko Widodo when they stand up against perceived EU coercion and an assumption in Brussels that “my standards are better than yours”.”
Fair, I can agree with that!
“The EU, for instance, has clinched or is pursuing critical raw-material deals with resource-rich countries such as Rwanda, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Europe needs to protect its green and digital transition, but these deals risk turning into little more than neocolonial resource grabs: no wonder Indonesia and some African countries are pushing back.”
I thought the EU was wrong in asking for the same standards as in the EU (which include HSE, etc), that doesn’t sound compatible with “neocolonial resource grabs”. So whatever the EU does is wrong? Also, why should the EU care about what Indonesia thinks about Rwanda or Namibia?
“Since Trump dismantled USAid, European activists are also fighting to maintain EU funding for the world’s most fragile nations. But what hope is there when EU governments, including France and Germany, are slashing their development budgets.”
But I thought you said charity was wrong? Anyway, I hope she is right that “development budgets” (aka aid) are being slashed. It would be a good thing!
“As efforts continue to limit migration to Fortress Europe in all its harsh manifestations, the EU’s strategy of relying on neighbouring strongmen who are paid to deter migrant crossings is provoking serious racial strife.”
Because no “ractial strife” is being caused by lots of illegal immigrants coming to the EU?
““The Tunisian president has accused African migrants of being part of a scheme to change the demographic composition of Tunisia. It is a ‘great replacement’ argument that has never before been heard in north Africa.””
I have to confess that I’m not super clued-in on what the Tunisian president says but there has hardly ever been peace between populations in north Africa so I call bullshit on the 2nd part of her statement
“The EU could also show more grit as Trump takes a sledgehammer to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. But while Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s equality commissioner, is seeking to strengthen women’s rights, no action has been taken so far to revive an important antidiscrimination law that was abruptly withdrawn earlier this year. The EU’s moral authority has been undermined by Germany and other states cracking down on pro-Palestine protesters.”
A couple of random reactions:
1) DEI does not equal women’s rights!
2) you can disagree on specific laws without hating women!
3) WTF has pro-pal to do with DEI? Any “crack-down” is because they were violent and anti-semitic
4) there has not been nearly enough of a “crack-down”
“In many ways, Trump provides European policymakers with an opportunity. They have a chance now to revise some of the EU’s more egregious policies and to truly reinvent the bloc as a credible, relevant presence on the global stage.”
Word salad
*****
In general there is no coherent thought or specific suggestions besides “do what muslims say” and “give us more money”
“So muslims, like Mrs Islam, are outraged that someone is not fully aligned with them…”
That’s what it says on the tin, isn’t it?
The EU can’t replace the US as a global player until it sheds its own colonial thinking
Shada Islam
I agree with Shabba, 14 centuries of Muslim colonisation is enough, and there’s plenty of room for you in the Middle East.
‘Trump sows chaos on global markets’
Trump says, “We’re not playing stupid tariff games anymore.”
No chaos. Equalize tariffs or die.
‘Since Trump dismantled USAid, European activists are also fighting to maintain EU funding for the world’s most fragile nations.’
Whah! Whah! Whah!
‘Trump takes a sledgehammer to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.’
Thanks again, Mr Trump!
‘Trump provides European policymakers with an opportunity.’
He provides THE WORLD with opportunity. Get your shit together or die. Your choice.
Shada Islam demands EU capitulation. Not that I give EU any credit, but I don’t think ANYONE is paying attention to her.