Adelante!

So Austria is dying out, and so is Italy, only outpaced by Germany, and so governments there are groping around for ways to get women to crank out more babies, or else Europe the way we know it will cease to exist. Just imagine vast sums of money are paid so young women won’t feel that they have to choose between having a child or earning money. At least for the first years.... They must be just pooping their pants if they go that far! Paying mothers!!!

But what are they so afraid of? Western culture disappearing? People looking a little less white? Languages dying out? Nobody there to cultivate a decent Bordeaux anymore?

Language always changes - as much as the Académie Française tries to keep French pure by forbidding the use of foreign words (and thereby making French an even more awkward language) youth culture will forever be stronger and push the limits. And, yes, that youth will increasingly consist of more and more second and third generation immigrants.

And with regards to our culinary tradition...most of the Bordeaux we drink nowadays isn’t even produced in France anymore, the same with pâté and Pinot and with regards to looks...well look again. A little stirr up would certainly not do any damage.

And what culture is that we are talking about? Countries around Europe seem to be in a race to shed their herritage. Six lane highways are criss crossing the country sides of France, Italy and Germany. Only the poorest regions get spared. Discounters and supermalls seem to have become the main point of attraction. The medieval towns in their forgotten midst are slowly falling to pieces. It’s not where the jobs are, you know.

So while we are slowly morphing into a more or less amorphous 21st century shape, I would say let’s hail any good idea from the outside - the Maghreb seems to be a place where things are happening...open the doors. Let’s just hold on to some of our legal and constitutional framework.

Like that we all might be better off in the end.