Feel their pain

Spare a moment this morning, if you will, to feel the pain of the EUphiles. The Wuhan virus has targeted the old, and has targeted BAME persons but let us not forget it has also impacted supranationalists far more than internationalists. As nations and peoples re-assert themselves, the rediscovery of internationalism, of voluntary co-operation, of domestic priorities, is rapidly putting the world back in order. Evereywhere, Globalism is in retreat. But you’d need a heart of stone not to cast a grain of pity for those who, having been floored by Brexit, are now being felled for a second time. Der Spiegel’s cry is almost pitiable;

The fact that in the Alsace region, critically ill patients were transported to distant – French – hospitals despite the fact that beds in nearby – German – intensive care units were available is a function of the bad habits developed in an old world whose disappearance would be anything but detrimental. It is shameful that Germany, the most powerful country in Europe, has again neglected to take any steps towards strengthening the union. It has once again become apparent that EU headquarters in Brussels has no power and that, in the opinion of EU member states, shouldn’t get any. 

Old, nation-state attitudes have deep roots.These attitudes are reflected in small things, such as the fact, for example, that political maps are consistently used to depict the expansion of this virus – as though it were a national problem. The colorings used on the maps are meant to show how each country is doing in the fight against the illness, while diagrams are used to identify model pupils (South Korea) and problem children (the United States). Each country’s supply of face masks is carefully enumerated while national stockpiles of medical equipment are compared. It may sound cynical, but the daily tables showing the number of infections and deaths look almost like the medal counts from some macabre Olympics.

Stay safe.