The ready cyclist and our great collision
In high school I had a physics teacher who was mad about bicycles. One day, he told us a story of how, in another town where he had lived when he was younger, he would ride down a steep hill, picking up great speed. Every day he would think of what would happen if a car suddenly blocked his path. “I’ll stand up on the pedals, I’ll jump high and I’ll land on the other side of the car,” he would tell himself, over and over. “One day,” he went on, “a car suddenly appeared out of a side street; I stood up on the pedals, I jumped high and fell on the other side. I hurt my arms, my legs, my ribs, but I didn’t break anything. I was sore, but I was alive.” I can still imagine 30 pairs of young eyes staring at him. “Always be ready for the worst,” he said and went on with a lesson on vectors.
Some 40 years later I still don’t know if the story was true, but my teacher’s words are seared into my mind. Every day as I ride my motorbike I ask myself if I am ready for anything that may come my way. Now that Greece and the rest of Europe look like they cannot avoid a collision, I wonder how the European Union – this political, economic and social giant of 500 million people – had not made the slightest provision for the possibility of an accident as it sped toward further union.
When Greece found itself in need in 2010, the lack of a plan not only delayed its rescue, but it also sowed the seeds of the whirlwind that Europe now faces – where a lack of trust between Greece and our partners is undermining the very spirit of unity and solidarity that is the foundation of the whole edifice. In five years we have seen a resurgence of divisions and stereotypes from Europe’s bloody past. Now we can see just how unprepared Europe was, how it did not have the necessary rescue mechanisms nor the mentality that all its peoples were members of the same body. Even as the euro was adopted, economic union lagged, as did the necessary checks. And when “unruly” Greece became the first country to run into trouble, our partners left our country hanging for six months instead of closing ranks around it, declaring that the problem was a European one, that Europe would take care of it and would bring its errant member into line. Our partners pointed fingers at us, while inside Greece currents of anger and fear swelled up, undermining relations with our partners.
Mechanisms for collective handling of crises were finally established. But Greece is still seen as a “special case” which cannot respond to the demands of reform, prompting further demands for austerity and change. This stigma feeds the reaction which brought the election of a government promising to restore pride and return the Greeks to a lost paradise through confrontation with creditors. Now our government and our partners cannot join forces and deal with the problem as if they are members of the same family. Instead, they are locked in a dispute which allows neither side to back down. No one was ready for the accident. Yet while we are still in the air there is hope that we may do something so that our fall will not be fatal.
