The End of Europe

As  Europe's identity crisis deepens, for the first time, the central premise on which the entire European Union has run since the 1957 Treaty of Rome has been placed in question. WHY, after decades of progress, has the European Union suddenly come to a halt?

The waPo reckons The End of Europe is nigh:

"Europe as we know it is slowly going out of business. Since French and Dutch voters rejected the proposed constitution of the European Union, we've heard countless theories as to why: the unreality of trying to forge 25 E.U. countries into a United States of Europe; fear of ceding excessive power to Brussels, the E.U. capital; and an irrational backlash against globalization. Whatever their truth, these theories miss a larger reality: Unless Europe reverses two trends -- low birthrates and meager economic growth -- it faces a bleak future of rising domestic discontent and falling global power. Actually, that future has already arrived."

What does this mean to us? A divided Europe will scramble for africa, again! The  "New Imperialism" is being driven by low birthrates and meager economic growth, as the WaPo says.

 

Colonialism , then, was caused by different factors. One was strategic, when it was essential for a trading nation, such as Britain, to guard its trade routes. Another was national prestige, to build a nation at a time when expanding population, growing cities and class differences seemed to be dividing the Western European societies.

A new 'scramble for Africa' is taking place among the world's big powers, who are tapping into the continent for its oil and diamonds. Tony Blair is pushing hard for African debt relief agreements in the run-up to the G8 summit in Scotland in July. But while sub-Saharan Africa is the object of the west's charitable concern, billions of pounds' worth of natural resources are being removed. Source-Revealed: the new scramble for Africa.