spending two days with american buddy jason in my home country. showing him a city of light, partly much more beautiful than i had in mind. talking about differences, (alleged) personal developments and above all the actual state of a union, originally installed to bring people closer together. at least in my romantic interpretation... however, we are far away from this keynote. the current european union faces two tendencies: the fortress character towards the outside - the non-member states, and an inner core of non-understanding and prejudice. the latter concerns me a lot and it is what i want to speak about now.

what does an austrian (or any other european) know about slovenia? or poland? or hungary? nothing. we live in our cities, surrounded by hills, seas and mountains, helping us to feel safe and among ourselves. looking beyond our own nose is simply not necessary, as long as a lot is going well. frugality between europe's inhabitants differs, yes. but it always exists. investing in an extraordinary idea, older than 50 years in the meantime? not at all. some people may argue now, that the formation of the union is based on economic thoughts. true. but what is the aim of economy, labour and employment? creating better life for people. the question concerning this, in my opinion, is always a directive one. is it right to place economy first? to look at life always in a top-down way? non lo so, but at least i don't think so. we first have to widen our minds, before we are able to live the social, political and economic ideas of an european union. how can we pretend to live together, when we don't even know, that bulgaria is the only country having a yogurt bacteria, we all eat every day. that the netherlands offers more than smoking weed in amsterdam. that the hungarian language doesn't know sexes. we can't, because we refuse to leave. our nations, our need of security and our lazyness. it's all falling back on us, that's for sure.