Princess Europe on the Next 5 Euro Banknotes.

Princess Europe on the Next 5 Euro Bills.  

La Princesse Europe sur le bancnotes de 5 Euros. 

Oни напечатали образ принцессы Европы на новой 5 евро  банкнот

 It was since a  time that also the European Central Bank should have  accepted the objective need to grant more space, on Europe’s official documents,  to cultural, emotional and mithic, elements.

In the new “Europa” series of Euro bills, the watermark will include the image of the mythic Europe,taken from a Campanian vase.

Among the “original sins” of Europe, we must account that “Elusion of culture”, which had been at the origin of the Diktat of the Ministries of Culture of the Council of Europe, issued in Blois, whereby they forbade member states to present, in ministerial programs, the birth of Europe as a long term phaenomenon, hence, a cultural one.

The "infamous" Huntington, who is known worldwide , unfortunately, only for his theory of the Clash of Civilisations, had criticized the critics of Identity, citing the case of a famous Jewish colleague, who, in a first time, published a book for criticizing the idea of Identity, and, later on, another book about Jewish Identity. On the comntray, a concrete reaction to the crisis of Europe could only take place via the re-discobvery of European Identity, to be understood as a “thick” cultural identity. 

Certainly, this “struggle against identity” has a “noble” background in the Millenaristic prophets of “the End of Man”. Identity is confused, according to these ideologues, with Original Sin. Thinking of myself as something different from the rest of the world would be, according to them,precisely that which has originated  Evil in the World. Only the sacrifice of Identity would allow to reconstitute the Paradise Lost, where neither scissure, nor contradiction, would survive.

Between these two apparently opposite points of view (from one side, the “black-and-white” view of those ideologues, and, from the other, actual reality), there are millenaries of historical experiences, who have tought us that, inasfar as we  give up our identity, we open the way to the most inacceptable violence from the side of Power.

As a consequence, “Identity” remains, for us, a bulwark of Liberty.

 

SOKUROV'S VICTORY AT THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

Sokurov, a Real European Filmmaker
Сокуров, правдивы Европейский режиссер
Sokurov, un vero regista europeo 
Sokurov, un véritable cinéaste européen
Sokurov, ein wahrer europaeischer Regisseur

A very important event which has characterised the last week has been the award of the "Golden Lion", at the Venice film festival, for his film "Faust".

We have always thought that Sokurov is the only living "European" filmmaker, in the sense that he considers his task to make films which contribute to the definition of European Identity.

He can achieve this goal by  the most different means, from his  investigations about power and history, or through his debate with great characters of Russian culture, such as Solzhenitsin, Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevkaya. Sometimes, like in the case of Russian Arch, he has been confronted with the idea itself of a mutual cultyural exchange between Russia and Europe. As it is known, the Russian Arch portrays the Ermitage in Sankt-Petersburg as a connecting point between Western and Eastern, Ancient and new Europe, which the Great Catherine left in heritage to all of us, in order to preserve the core of European culture from the threats of history.

Sokurov is pessimist about the future of European (including Russian) culture:"Germans, French, Britons, Italians, tell me: we have money, but we have no ideas.But, then, form when did come Leonartdo da Vinci, Salinger, Remarque, Hemingway? Why have young people no ideas today?Why 90% of cameramen in Europe, who are women, carry heavy cameras?Why Faust is interesting for me, why it is for me a content of my life, why I go threough these  materials, and I devoted to it my whole life, whilst no German filmmaker took care of it?I talk with German journalists: 'Faust?How boring'.That's all."(Interview with Stas Tyrkin for Komsomolskaya Pravda za Rubezhom, 16-23 September 2011, page 25).

Certainly, we cannot share all the views of Sokurov about the future. He is worried by the alternative constituted by Islam.:"They will read and learn the Koran within a couple of years."And, further: "Certainly, the only waybrings to the Koran. An absolutely destructive, revolutionary way. Muslim youth is marked by energy, by the capability and the will to solve problems radically. Islam is complex. It is not a centralized culture. There is neither a Pope, nor a Patriarch, there is no center towards which people can focus for discussion. Islamic culture is dispersed, not unified. Therefore, it's impossible to come to an end with al-Qaida. The only alternative is to reinforce our culture, to stuck to it, to follow an evolutionary approach, to take care of the feelings of youth. No other way out, both for the European and for the Russian civilisation."."Albeit there are sacred books, which have given names to all things, there are, in our culture, deeply doubtful people. You cannot find this in the muslim or in the buddhistic world. There, an holistic world view prevails."

It is true that the lack of ideas by Europeans (and also Russians) favours the penetration of foreign cultures. However, first, we do't find that Islam is so different from Christianity, and, second, we do bot think that Europeans are so much ready to convert. According to us, the real danger, for Europe,an (and Russian) does not lie in Islam, which will have all its difficulties to affirm itself as aleading European religion, but, on the contrary, by the excesses of science and of technique, which are arising from mankind all characteristics which have traditionally brandmarked it.

Irrespective of what we think about the appropriatedness of these visions of Sokurov, he remains, for us, an example of a true, and engaged, European intellectual, who is not afraid to raise a debate, and  whose intellectual contribution we will be always obliged to take into account.

We have not  yet seen Sokurov's Faust (and it will take time to have it on the screens, even in Russia). From what we have read, it would appear that   he has tried precisely that task that we would like all European filmmakers to do, but that no one of them is undertaking, i.e., trying to revitalise the big classics of European renoun, through an updated reading, which stresses the pan-european character of those masterpieces. Fuast is one of those masterpieces which have a "transversal" meaning. for all peoples of Europe and for the most different mindsets (classic and romantic, modern and postmodern).

Moreover, Sokurov has pursued the above objectives precisely in the way we would have expected: he has produced his film in German, with a Pan-European cast, working in the Czech Republic and in Iceland.

Sakurov's victory has been achieved at the unanimity of the Jury, against films which are rather inspired to the mainstream of commercial production. The Jury has chosen, by this way, the traditional European way of "upper culture" production.

Now, the challenge is to follow up this achievement, studying Sokurov's works and drawing, from it, lessons for the future of European culture and arts.

It is not said that we share always Sokurov's points of view. So, for instance,,

So,let's wait anxiously fo the opportunity of seeing the film.

RUSSIA AS A VANGUARD OF EUROPE

Ambassador Rogozin

Reply to Dmitri Rogozin's Article on  Russia and Europe

Ответ на статью Дмитрия Рогозина об отношениях между Россией и Европой 
Risposta all' articolo di Dmitri Rogozin sui rapporti fra Russia ed Europa
Réponse à l'article  de Dmitri Rogozin sur les rapports entre la Russie et l'Europe
Antwort zu Dmitri Rogozins Artikel ueber Russland und Europa

The article of His Excellence Dmitry Rogozin "Repeating the abduction of Europe (in http://natomission.ru/en/society/article/society/artnews/42/) touches some themes which are at the center of my blog http://www.europestwolongs.blogspot.com, with a freedom of judgment which is appreciable in a diplomat.

Although we completely subscribe to the central thesis of Mr. Rogozin, i.e., that “juxtaposing Europe and Russia” amounts to “a profound delusion and misinterpreting the whole is blind to history”, we have some precisions to add as to certain aspects of the mutual relationships of these two areas, which are dealt with in details in our blog.

1.Europe, the West and the South

I remark preliminary that the Straights of Bering and even Vladivostok are much more “eastern” than Indonesia proper and the island of Moro in the Philippines, the more Eastern countries of Islamic Faith, and that Senegal and Morocco, the most Western parts of Islam, are more “Western” than Iceland and Portugal.

In practice, the “West” is in reality just the North of the Planet, and both Europe and Russia, but also the United States and Canada, belong to it. At its turn, the Islamic town of Kazan is on the same parallel of Moscow, Edinburgh and Belfast, i. es., more “Northern” than Berlin, Paris, London and Brussels. So, one has to be cautions in utilizing geographic metaphors for designating cultural identities.

The latter may be traced, and even with difficulty, thanks to historical, philosophical and political concepts, more than to geographic ones.

Personally, I find that “Western Civilizations” are characterized first of all by their common descent from the Old Testament; hence, they include both Islam and Western Secularism, but all of them differ from the “Eastern” traditions of San Jião and from the “Southern” traditions of animism and pantheism.

Within this broad “Western Cultural Area” there is a “tighter” “circle”of “European” culture, which is characterized by the acceptance of the continuity of the Roman tradition, through the “Translatio Imperî” via the “Three Romes”; hence, Western Europe, Russia and Turkey, whilst the USA, the Shiite Islamic countries and Israel do not want to pertain to this “core Europe”, because they reject a legitimization through the theory of the “Three Romes”, seeking their own, messianic, forms of historical legitimation.

2.Russia in Europe

The whole of my blog is devoted to void the prejudice, which His Excellence very appropriately calls “Repeating the abduction of Europe”, according to which Europe and Russia are “completely distinct civilizations with manifestly dissimilar values”.

My blog tries to demonstrate this point of view by dealing with a lot of specific historical and cultural phases, where the role of Russia and of Europe is absolutely interchangeable (migrations of the peoples, Eastern and Græco-Roman influences, Absolutism, Enlightenment, European Federalism, Romanticism, Nationalism, Marxism, a s.o.).I hope that my objective has been achieved, since statistics show that a growing number of readers oall over Europe are following attentively my posts.

3.West and South

According to my point of view, the “South” of the World should not encompass Islam, which is so similar to Europe that many if the characteristics of Europe came even from it. When young, the present Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan used to say that, should all Europeans convert to Islam, nobody would even perceive a difference.

Let’s mention the objective of the unification of the World which was anticipated in Dante’s idea of the Christian Empire, but whose model was the Caliphate; the main features of Catholic and Evangelic theologies (aristotelism, averroism, thomism); the national characters of Spain, Southern Italy and the Balcanic States (besides the ones of many Republics of the Russian Federation) which are deeply impressed by mysticism, Islamic architecture and Arabic or Turkish linguistics.

It is true that Islam participates, today, to an external pressure exerted on “the West” by other parts of the World, for changing the  present cultural and political balance of the same. However, this pressure does not come, primarily, from Islam, which is partially “internal” to the West, and is also politically weak, but, rather, from the Far East. The changes which will likely derive from these pressures are an open question, that needs to be addressed attentively by public opinions, intellectuals and authorities. However, some form of change is needed in Europe’s best interest, because the present balance of the West is too much unbalanced Westwards, so that many “typically European” values, like spirituality, culture, excellence, are sacrificed to performance, economy, technology, profit, and this leads to that overall cultural crisis of Western Europe that the Ambassador correctly denounces.

Such balance shift would not not mean, according to us, a demise of the European Identity, but, on the contrary, the re-discovery of its most deep-rooted origins, which include the ancient Middle East, the Peoples of the Steppes, the Arab Philosophy as well as the heritage of the German, Russian, Austrian and Ottoman Empires.

According to us, a Europe which would become more “Eastern and Southern” will be much nearer to Russia than the Europe of today. At the end of the day, the Polovcy of the Slovo o Polku Igoreva, the Khazars,the Shagané, Hadji Murad, Chakovskij and Diagilev are  an integral  part of  Russian Culture, in the same way as Averroes, Suleiman the Magnificent and Orhan Pamuk are full-fledged Europeans.

4.The Role of Russia

We agree that, so as his Excellence affirms,  Russia is exercising already now a role as a guardian of European culture. That role was expressed very appropriately, in his times, by Tjutchev, by his expression “the Russian Arch”, which has been utilized again by Sokurov, for his film bearing the same name. This expression means that Russia has absorbed so much the culture of Europe, that it is in a condition to preserve such culture inside itself even in these times, when it risks to be overwhelmed by globalization.

However, it is globalization, not “the South”, that endangers Europe’s culture and future.

As outlined in our blog, we recognise a certain  well-groundedness in the idea that Europe is culturally in decadence, and Russia is in the side of the future. This idea has not been invented either by Russian nationalists, nor by the newly born Russian Federation, but, on the contrary, has been a constant theme for a large part of European intelligencija, from Križanić to Kühlmann, from Leibniz to Herder, from Von Baader to Krüdener, from De Maistre to Nietzsche.

In the present days’ turmoil of the European Union, Russia is indeed the sole country with a clear cut vision for the future of the whole Continent, and having the means for implementing it.

However, this extraordinary opportunity, that Russia presently has, could be jeopardized easily, as it happened after the Congress of Vienna, when Russia did not succeed to have its proposals about the nature of the Holy Alliance endorsed  by Austria and England, and this brought about a continuous conflict between Great Powers and nationalities.

Joseph De Maistre, author of “Les Soirees de St. Petersburg”, whilst leaving his long-term assignment as the Ambassador in Russia of the Kingdom of Sardinia, affirmed: “Russia could have done so much for Europe but has done nothing”.

For being able to exploit the present opportunities, both Russia and Europe should focus much more on the study of their cultural traditions and on the ways in which they could foster cooperation alongside such traditions.

5.From the Atlantic to Urals

It is also true that today De Gaulle’s slogan is outdated. First of all, De Gaulle left the power more than 40 years ago, and the world has changed dramatically, emphasizing large distances and brood spaces.

Secondly, he was, unfortunately, no more successful, in implementing his vision, than Tsar Aleksandr 1^st in implementing his one.

It goes without saying that Russia is not limited to Urals, but includes also Siberia, Donji Vostok and a lot of Asiatic Republics.

A project for a really united Europe should have a consideration also for the future of such territories.

It is also true that Russia is doing very much in Siberia, and the visit of Nr. Barroso and Mr. Solana in Khabarovsk should have been very instructive for them under this point of view.

It is true, finally, that economic cooperation with West Europeans for Siberia will be the best way for assuring the European character of that area. Very good examples exist, such as the collaboration with the Italian Alenia and Pininfarina, for the production, in Komsomolsk na Amure, of the “Sukhoi Superjet 100”. However, long term problems for Siberia exist, and they should become an item of Euro-Russian discussions.

6.Operational suggestions

We hope that the article of Mr. Rogozin will be useful for persuading diplomatic, political and cultural circles, that a further reflection on the theme of the cultural interrelationships between Russia and Europe is urgent, for being able to lay the grounds of a necessary cooperation between the two areas in many and many fields.

Our blog cited above is a first tentative to find a ground where, by the utilization of modern technologies, Europeans of the East  and of the West may discuss about their common problems.

We would be happy to have also the Ambassador Rogozin and other Russian diplomats on our pages.

APPEAL TO EUROPEANS

Serov's Abduction of Europe

 

 Let's Discuss together about our Future

Обсуждаем вместе наше будуще

Discutiamo insieme il nostro futuro

Discutons ensemble notre avenir

Diskutieren wir unsere Zukunft zusammen

After so many bad news, finally a good one: more than 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europeans are in a position to evaluate without prejudices the events which occurred to them since then:

-Contrary to what they expected, the fall of the communist system has not given rise to a better way of living or to more peace;

-On the contrary, the former communist states have suffered a huge loss in their standard of living, which they are recovering just now;

-Whilst Europeans had had no war during the last fifty years they have had about 10 wars, both in Europe and abroad, between 1989 and 2010 (Afganistan, Nagorno-Karabagh, Transnistria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kossovo, Macedonia, Chechnya, Irak);

-The economic situation of Western Europe has not become better, but, on the contrary, it has gone deteriorating from year to year, in the sense of the loss of economic perspectives, of individual rights, of investment opportunities, and, especially, of the certainty to be able to program a reasonable future for themselves and for one’s relatives. The last events, including financial crises, Middle eastern events and Japan’s catastrophe, are worsening and worsening the situation;

-The hopes to have a European Constitution, which could have transformed the present European Union into a full-fledged European Federation, have vanished after several tentatives to write a meaningful text of Constitution, and to have it approved by a popular referendum;

-The historical political and cultural leaderships seem to have exhausted their own creative capabilities, and have even given up to speak about Europe’s future, focussing on marginal technical emergency issues, like the salvage of Member State’s budgets;

.-New countries are emerging on the world’s economic and political scene. Europe becomes more and more irrelevant. Paradoxically, only Russia is proposing to Europe something concrete, i.e.:

-      to join forces in the economy, utilizing the huge resources and markets of Russia for maintaining a large amount of turnover, and allowing, in exchange, to Russia, to profit of Europe’s technology;

-    to join forces in politics, for solving the overdue problems of post-cold war Europe: new peace agreements limiting strategic forces; military cooperation; new legal instruments for association between the European and the Post-sovietic areas;

-     to mutually open one’s house  doors, in such a way that the peoples of Europe and of Russia can cooperate and know each other better, working and studying together.

This is a specially favorable moment, in which there is not any so dramatic emergency as to drain political resources in both areas, nor to create a partisan confrontation between “favorables” and “contrary” to Russia.

Creating a structural form of cooperation between Europe and Russia would amount, substantially, to the real completion of Europe’s unification.

This objective, which nobody had formulated seriously up to now, has been expressed formally by Russia’a Prime Minister in an article in Süddentsche Zeitung and repeated at the annual meeting of the Deutsche Führungs Kräfte. Mr. Putin has added that such an objective would have been considered as a dream until short time, but, on the contrary, it could not be considered any more as such, if all of us make an effort in this direction.

He cited also, as an example, the remarkable achievement of Chancellor Kohl, who succeeded in the reunification of Germany, which also many consider as just a dream.

The same objective has been expressed in other occasions by President Medvedev, when he has proposed, in particular at his meetings with NATO and EU, a completely new set of agreements for the European Security, in substitution of the ones of the times of the Cold War.

All of us are conscious of the difficulties implied in such objectives. However, we feel also that what is lacking in our time are, precisely, ambitious objectives which we can realistically pursue, so giving a meaning to our lives.

Personally, as the founder of Alpina Srl and of the Dialexis Cultural Association, I have aimed, since the beginning, at the objective to start a process of innovation  among Europeans,in order  lead to a stronger European Identity, to a stronger European Union and to the enlargement of Europe, in a form or in another, to all “European” peoples.

We would be happy to become the catalysts of a cultural, social and political movement of Europeans striving to enlarge, to Russia, the European Cultural Identity, and to support the political efforts  of Authorities for the association of Russia (together with other Post-Sovietic countries) to the European Union.

These objectives will be pursued through a multiplicity of instruments:

-      debates about Europe and Russia;

-      publications connected with this theme;

-     campaigns, for interesting both the public opinion, and the authorities, on a specific program in this direction.

We invite everybody, who is interested in this program, to enter in contact with us for this objective.

In the following posts, we will inform about the initiatives under way and comment the events which are going to occur in the meantime.

http://www.alpinasrl.com

http://www.dialexis.com 

http://www.torino2019.eu 

tel 00 39 011 6688758

E.mail: info@alpinasrl.com