Saturday, September 25, 2010

Gridlock in Europe

Two of the central nations in the European Union - Belgium and the Netherlands - are suffering political gastritis. The two language groups in Belgium are like a couple who want to get a divorce, to become two nations instead of one, but cannot decide who gets custody of the capital, Brussels.

The Netherlands has a major party with Islamophobia as a party plank. The other major parties can't form a coalition government without including it. Inclusion will cause major diplomatic disruptions with Islamic countries. My source article is this one by Paul Ames from RealClearWorld.

Meanwhile, Germany continues to experience indigestion as they try to assimilate their East German relatives. This Globe and Mail article says Poland is actually doing better than East Germany in spite of (or more likely because of) experiencing much less outside subsidy. Putting people on subsidies simply destroys them, destroys their will to work.

And you thought we had problems in the U.S.?