Here's another guest post from Dad to keep my innumerable readership entertained while I settle back into my Boston life... Brussels, June 18th. Today, thousands of tractors of all color and shapes converged to Brussels, capital of Europe. They came from Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Poland and all corners of the European Union, dashing (dashing, really? tractors?) through the highways, wreaking havoc on the daily commute. They are mostly desperate milk producers hit by the drop in sell price they get for their product. They lose money on every liter of the white stuff they sell. Consumers haven't seen anything from the price drop so someone is pocketing the change! Nobody understands it because quotas haven't even been lifted: it is a sheer drop in consumption. Today the demonstrations were peaceful but tonight many of the German fellows planned to stay in the city! Hundreds of tractors are squatting a very large park next to the EC institutions around the Schuman plaza. It was an eerie sight: big sturdy guys in work overalls and heavy boots, truly redneck types with big hands, tanned faces unshaven for a couple of days, young and older men, relatively few women, all huddled in groups around camp fires in the shadow of their big machines. Definitely not the usual crowd of eurocrats generally seen around here!
Coming from the outskirts of town with our bikes it was easy to get through and follow the trail of BBQ smell. When we reached the front of the camp, it was different: remains of spilled milk on the pavement, burned tires and some broken junk on the sidewalks. Beyond: a no-man's land ending in front of a barrage of concertina wires and dozen of water cannons with their crew hanging around leisurely. Fortress Europe reduced to a handkerchief of a plaza circled with all those huge glittering buildings now empty. Around us dozen of locals stuck in front of the barrier: no way through. Some of the officers were quite relaxed but younger police, not sure how they will fare come nighttime, worried faces. It looked like martial law had been declared on the city, the sun going down and a stalemate in the air. Barbarians are camping outside the Capitol!
What will be of tomorrow? Sarkozy, Merkel, Gordon Brown and the others are all in town for a summit to discuss... the renewal of the head of the EU Commission: M. Baroso, a self-effacing Portuguese politician trying to win a second term, devoid of any clue about how to get Europe out of the crisis, just please his masters, the heads of states...
Meanwhile, the guys in the park are gearing up for a night in the open, hoping someone will hear their plight!
The people from Brussels are just watching, getting on with their lives, unsure if they should be concerned about the event, the dramatic battle for the future of Europe's agriculture and self-feeding independence a thousand mile above their heads.
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An interesting piece for sure. I will add only, in lieu of an opinion, a short excerpt from Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man, Part the Second":
It is difficult to discover what is meant by the landed interest, if it does not mean a combination of aristocratical landholders opposing their own pecuniary interest to that of the farmer, and every branch of trade, commerce and manufacture. In all other respects it is the only interest that needs no partial protection. It enjoys the general protection of the world. Every individual, high or low, is interested in the fruits of the earth; men, women, and children of all ages and degrees, will turn out to assist the farmer, rather than a harvest should not be got in; and they will not act thus by any other property. It is the only one for which the common prayer of makind is put up, and the only one that can never fail from want of means. It is the interest, not of the policy, but of the existence of man, and when it ceases he must cease to be.
In line with Thomas Paine, some of the German farmers had written on their tractors: "Kuh tot, Bauer tot, alle in Not".
Posted by: Mom | June 20, 2009 at 04:57 AM