07-29-2007, 02:32 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Europe has lost its nerve </b>
Pioneer.com
Swapan Dasgupta
What do the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Britain's Leader of Opposition David Cameron have in common? The question is intriguing and will leave most people stumped. Yet, this month both politicians found themselves in a similar predicament. Modi was criticised for undertaking a two-day visit to Switzerland at a time when parts of the State were flooded. This week, Cameron - already reeling from adverse opinion poll ratings - was mercilessly pilloried for flying off for two days to show his concern for the citizens of devastated Rwanda. This was at a time when Oxfordshire, where his constituency is located, was in a tizzy over the most serious flood Britain has experienced since 1947. A newspaper carried a particularly nasty cartoon of Cameron sitting bewildered on a patch of land surrounded all around by water; the patch of dry land was shaped like a map of Africa.Â
There is, of course, a crucial difference between Modi's Switzerland visit and the Conservative leader's Rwandan expedition. Modi was trying to sell the Gujarat success story to Swiss investors who are salivating over opportunities in India. Cameron, on the other hand, felt that he would be projecting a more caring and compassionate image of the Conservative Party by facilitating a cricket match and being photographed with smiling African children. Modi was being the hard-nosed Gujarati promoter, constantly in search of economic opportunities for his State; Cameron was trying to be what his party is not - the natural home of bleeding-hearts.
The past decade has seen a curious role reversal of India and Britain. From a country that had lost its self-esteem after centuries of subjugation and poverty, India has become a new aggressive face of world capitalism. It doesn't matter if neither Tata nor M&M wins the bid for the ailing Jaguar and Land Rover brands. What is significant is that the Indian takeover of global companies is now regarded as both normal and legitimate. Indians are seen to be naturally industrious, well educated, a bit too hard-working (Europeans complain that Indians don't take holidays), thrifty and committed to their families. But most important, Indians can take hardships and have a high threshold of tolerance and pain.
Britain had all these virtues a century ago - the reason why it built the world's greatest empire. Today's Britain has become excessively soft and flabby. An unexpected but by no means all that devastating flood has been viewed as the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans two years ago. It is not that those who have basements flooded and their kitchens and living room sofas destroyed by water haven't suffered <b>- more so if the insurance companies refuse to compensate the damage - but this is not a hardship in any way comparable to the devastation caused by, say, the Gujarat earthquake in 2000. Whatever happened to the resilience that saw the British through the enormous hardships of World War II?</b>
Britain is not alone; Europe as a whole seems to have lost its nerve. Last week in Kabul, I heard the bizarre ineffectiveness of much of the 41,000-strong NATO-ISAF forces because many of the national contingents don't believe in confronting the Taliban. The US and the British, to be fair, are not among shirkers but <span style='color:red'>Afghans see the Dutch, Spanish, German and Canadian forces as having been already defeated in the mind. The US is not loved but it is feared; the Europeans (Britain apart) are viewed with contempt in Afghanistan.</span>
This contempt is not going to turn to adulation because Cameron teaches the rules of LBW to Rwandan kids and earnest popstars organised concerts to fight global warming.<b> The touchy-feely, sanctimoniousness that characterises the new Europeans is an expression of a nervousness associated with decline.</b> The claim that Europe is a force for "good" sounds dangerously similar to the old Brahminical celebration of lofty abstraction as the alternative to the ignominy of powerlessness. Fortunately, Britain now has a dour Scot as Prime Minister. He personifies values which a resurgent Indian understands and admires.
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Pioneer.com
Swapan Dasgupta
What do the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Britain's Leader of Opposition David Cameron have in common? The question is intriguing and will leave most people stumped. Yet, this month both politicians found themselves in a similar predicament. Modi was criticised for undertaking a two-day visit to Switzerland at a time when parts of the State were flooded. This week, Cameron - already reeling from adverse opinion poll ratings - was mercilessly pilloried for flying off for two days to show his concern for the citizens of devastated Rwanda. This was at a time when Oxfordshire, where his constituency is located, was in a tizzy over the most serious flood Britain has experienced since 1947. A newspaper carried a particularly nasty cartoon of Cameron sitting bewildered on a patch of land surrounded all around by water; the patch of dry land was shaped like a map of Africa.Â
There is, of course, a crucial difference between Modi's Switzerland visit and the Conservative leader's Rwandan expedition. Modi was trying to sell the Gujarat success story to Swiss investors who are salivating over opportunities in India. Cameron, on the other hand, felt that he would be projecting a more caring and compassionate image of the Conservative Party by facilitating a cricket match and being photographed with smiling African children. Modi was being the hard-nosed Gujarati promoter, constantly in search of economic opportunities for his State; Cameron was trying to be what his party is not - the natural home of bleeding-hearts.
The past decade has seen a curious role reversal of India and Britain. From a country that had lost its self-esteem after centuries of subjugation and poverty, India has become a new aggressive face of world capitalism. It doesn't matter if neither Tata nor M&M wins the bid for the ailing Jaguar and Land Rover brands. What is significant is that the Indian takeover of global companies is now regarded as both normal and legitimate. Indians are seen to be naturally industrious, well educated, a bit too hard-working (Europeans complain that Indians don't take holidays), thrifty and committed to their families. But most important, Indians can take hardships and have a high threshold of tolerance and pain.
Britain had all these virtues a century ago - the reason why it built the world's greatest empire. Today's Britain has become excessively soft and flabby. An unexpected but by no means all that devastating flood has been viewed as the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans two years ago. It is not that those who have basements flooded and their kitchens and living room sofas destroyed by water haven't suffered <b>- more so if the insurance companies refuse to compensate the damage - but this is not a hardship in any way comparable to the devastation caused by, say, the Gujarat earthquake in 2000. Whatever happened to the resilience that saw the British through the enormous hardships of World War II?</b>
Britain is not alone; Europe as a whole seems to have lost its nerve. Last week in Kabul, I heard the bizarre ineffectiveness of much of the 41,000-strong NATO-ISAF forces because many of the national contingents don't believe in confronting the Taliban. The US and the British, to be fair, are not among shirkers but <span style='color:red'>Afghans see the Dutch, Spanish, German and Canadian forces as having been already defeated in the mind. The US is not loved but it is feared; the Europeans (Britain apart) are viewed with contempt in Afghanistan.</span>
This contempt is not going to turn to adulation because Cameron teaches the rules of LBW to Rwandan kids and earnest popstars organised concerts to fight global warming.<b> The touchy-feely, sanctimoniousness that characterises the new Europeans is an expression of a nervousness associated with decline.</b> The claim that Europe is a force for "good" sounds dangerously similar to the old Brahminical celebration of lofty abstraction as the alternative to the ignominy of powerlessness. Fortunately, Britain now has a dour Scot as Prime Minister. He personifies values which a resurgent Indian understands and admires.
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