So said a certain prime minister of Spain. Spain Europe’s fourth largest economy; Uganda fourth largest in Africa. True. Life expectancy, household income. But unemployment at 24% as opposed to 4.2%; economy currently shrinking by -0.1% and currently growing at 5.2%.
In reality it is never easy to compare two items that are so different… but highlights that we are in a decade of shifts. North to South and West to East.
So the future can be one of decline. And I can only see decline when there is no imagination about the future. It is not possible to bring back the former days – not when there has been a change of season. Every season can bear fruit, we just have to discern what the season is. It can be one of decline or a re-invention using new criteria that relate more to the quality of life than to a bank balance. Interesting that the latest ‘help’ for Spain was to help the banks – but there is a deeper problem that is manifesting in the West.
Contagious ideas that bring laughter; that break down barriers; that give dignity to the marginalised.
Also Spain / Europe is not Uganda / Africa. The season is different spiritually. Now that is a challenge all-together different.
That is exactly the problem Martin – lack of imagination. You hit the nail on the head (again). Without imaginative solutions, we will perish. And perhaps we deserve to, to some extent. Listening t0 the news last night, in England, about Greece, I was struck by the new word “redemption” being used of packages being offered to the various European nations in trouble. My intuition is that politicians are searching for language to help make unimaginative solutions palatable but solutions must first be found that are imaginative and then described. What crossed my mind then – and now – is a Jubilee. A release from slavery and a return to the land.
I am no economist, but if Greece chooses a government that takes them out of the Eurozone and they return to the drachma (with all the hardship and humbling that that may entail) they may then find themselves free to rebuild in a way that’s imaginative. Of course, they are fearful because it’s an unknown path and will affect the rest of Europe.
I don’t know enough to know if this is possible for Greece (and maybe others?), and I may be being too simplistic in a complicated financial world but it’s a thought.
J x