29th August 2008

Watching last night's TV made me mull over a lot of things. In the programme 'Who do you think you are', Jerry Springer was attempting to trace his ancestors. Quite apart from the anguish of revisiting the horrors of Nazi Germany, he was able to see and feel some of the all-too-real artefacts of that time: newspaper stories, buildings, trains. It became clear to him that these tactile objects from that time weren't merely the remnants from one lunatic dictator's rule, but represented the actual feelings of the general German population 70 years ago. After watching the programme, I looked out of the window and realised that today I was living my life in what was once German-occupied territory. How is it that for such a long time we have been free from world war? Could it be that the EU, for all its bureaucracy and accusations of identity-blocking, is something not to be abhored but to be lauded? Since moving away from the UK, I've come to realise that people become too-insular and narrow-focused living tightly-packed together, brain-washed by all the strident messages from the local media. Pause a while, give yourself time to stand and stare. The more democracies there are which are willing to sign peace treaties with each other, the more chance the people of the world can live without fear or restriction. If this is what the EU has done, then I'm all in favour of it. Nazi Germany must NEVER happen again.