Tag: Europe

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Frightened by youth

The month of October 2026 has been marked by youth taking to the streets across Europe. The beginning in Paris was first a peaceful showing of discontent with the resources allocated to education and schools in particular. Buildings have been badly prepared for the heat waves of the hottest summer on record and sanitary facilities are a continuous of dissatisfaction. Teachers and supporting staff are in short supply and a sick teacher has often not been replaced adequately. Pupils have been required to accept those deficiencies silently for too long. The competition for university admission is the next barrier, largely perceived to lack transparency and to reinforce inequalities. Labor market entry even after successful completion of a higher degree remains quite difficult for large numbers of youth, which adds to dissatisfaction. Whereas the engaged students demonstrated in a peaceful way, protests were hijacked by hooligans who smashed windows and looted, mainly shops of luxury brands. The damages could have been avoided if a serious dialogue had taken place rather than disrespect of youth. In democracies youth has a right to go to the streets and they use it. Authoritarian states have no inhibition to shoot their youth in rebellion. Talk to young people seriously, seriously. 

Brussels before youth demonstration 2026-10-31
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Self-publishing as resistance

Self-publishing has been the title of a historical account of the Czech publishing since the Nazi occupation of Czechia since 1939 (mfk-frankfurt.de). Forced into exile or clandestine underground publishing, many publishers and authors had no other option than to go it by themselves. The underground press during the Soviet union dominated communist rule in Czechia had to rely on similar methods, since censorship as well as persecution were a consequence of illegal writing and publishing activities. In the 21st century self-publishing has become much easier, but the persecution even beyond national borders continues to be a threat in many parts of the world.
Platforms that enable a visibility beyond publishing houses and institutional support broaden the scope for authors to reach various audiences as part of  democracy’s vitality and preparedness. Who knows about the grip on publishing of authoritarian and autocratic regimes in advance and their thirst to curb alternative opinions? Historical evidence points to the need to have self-publishing and publishing in exile as an important additional defence mechanism of democracies (Image: Czechia pavilion at Frankfurt book fair 2026)

Czechia pavilion Frankfurt book fair publishing 2026
Czechia pavilion Frankfurt book fair publishing 2026
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Czechia coast

At the Frankfurt book fair we dream ourselves into the imagery of Czechia as a country with beaches and sand castles. The country pavilion of the partnerland of #fbm26 takes us to the ephemeral aspects of literature. While reading we deep dive into uncharted territories and discover unknown landscapes, sometimes even fees. These worlds of imagination become part of us or enlighten sequences of our life course. Taking the perspective of an external viewer widens cognitive and emotional predispositions. There are remarkable ol and new light houses to discover, too. Drawing as performative art, washed away every day like dreams, acknowledges the ephemeral nature of our reading or listening experiences. This message is going to stick with us. 

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War came to us

Ukrainian people had to make the horrific experience that « the war came to us ». Even if the Ukrainians were much better prepared than in 2014 with the illegal annexation of Crimea, the horrors of war to not seem to come to an end soon even in 2026. Putin’s war leading Russia into a miserable war experience has made other European nations face the rationale that war might come to them as well. Alliances are formed and reformed to be better prepared for escalations and more realistic threats as well. Huge budgets are vastes again for military purposes in view of a possible need for defense. CO2 emissions skyrocket at the same time, all due to Putin’s illusion of a greater Russian empire. We keep reading and learning our lessons from the brave Ukrainian defense.

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Security and Popularity

With webpages it is a bit like in the world of glamour. The more popular a webpage becomes, the more you have to invest in security features.
In a parallel webpage project, the choice has been to go for a popular name for the webpage and blog activities. After a year of sporadic blogging the site has become a regular target for hacking attempts by means of login attempts. This has led the administrator to previously allow only one single login attempt before banning login attempts from the same IP-address for several days. This does no longer allow a misspelling of the tricky password on your own behalf or the password-manager, if you happen to use one.
Security becomes a “sine qua non” condition for web-users as well as web-developers. We usually take only sufficiently care of this point, when it is “almost” to late. With 16.000+ login attempts over the time of about 1 year and 6 running locked-out IP-addresses, I almost gave up already on another domain with a more popular name. External backups become another necessity to prepare for the eventual failure to access own content and data bases.
Actually, I feel rather safe going out at night as a man in Europe, but the dangers of the global access to a web-page feels much less safe most of the time.

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Abduction of Europa

In reading Ovid’s metamorphoses we learn about all those mythical transformations of persons into animals (Jupiter into a bull) or persons into plants (Narcissus into a flower carrying his name). Maybe even today we have Europa being captured again by a bull or bulls that try to take away the freedom of movement and expression from her. The threats have multiplied, but the defensive forces of Europe have risen as well. The power of Europe might simply consist in the charming nature, which outlasts brutal force of the bulls, at least in the long run. A ride on the bull, however, can be tough at times and preparing for a tough ride should start as early as possible. Currently there are too many bulls around to feel safe otherwise. (Image: Europa sculpture on display at Chateau Chantilly). 

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Words versus Balls

At the occasion of a visit to the “Deutsche Dom” in Berlin, which hosts the historical exhibition of the “Deutsche Bundestag”, I came across the memorable transcript of the speech by Bundespräsident Steinmeier (Image below), which he gave on 2022-2-13. The German President’s words come across as a forceful defense of freedom and democracy as a matter of mind and heart, and against the authoritarian leaders who keep constructing palaces of ice and golf resorts. (“Mögen die Autoritären doch ihre Eispaläste und Golfressorts bauen. Nichts davon ist stärker, nichts leuchtet heller als die Idee der Freiheit und Demokratie in den Köpfen und Herzen der Menschen!”, p.18). There is indeed an ongoing battle on which kind of diplomacy is more effective, words or playing golf together. Apparently the Finnish prime minister seems to be quite keen to play balls with President Trump on the golf course to ensure continued support of the 1000 km Russian Finnish border. Maybe, playing Ping Pong with the Chinese leadership might be more effective in balancing the trade books between Europe and China, just as much as golfing might do the trick with the current Trump administration. What’s your handicap in the golf and ping pong tournament of  international politics.

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Generation Hope

The whole of Europe has good reasons to take a careful look at the stunning protests organized by the young generation in Bulgaria (Le Monde, 2025-12-13). With spectacular repeated demonstrations in the center of Sophia, the young people attempted to stop a government that is likely to sink further into corruption. It is this generation of young people that have experienced and/or lived in other European countries or in other Western-style democracies around the globe that have enough of corruption in politics and social systems more generally. The well-educated Bulgarian youth has managed to overthrow a government that had been subject to pressure from corrupt forced. It is not easy to get rid of corrupt politicians and powerful business interests as a system based on merits rather than ability to pay remain fragile in the first few years of such a transition. It needs a sizable “Generation Hope” as I would like to call these young enthusiasts of democracies. The message reaches well beyond Bulgaria and gives hope to all those whose political systems deteriorate into authoritarianism across the globe. It took 20 years to build this “Generation Hope” and mobile youth that takes home the messages and learnings from other democracies. Based on statistics from Eurostat we know about the strong in-migration from Turkey and Russia into Bulgaria. Youth is particularly likely to leave authoritarian regimes to seek a better future in democracies, for example as part of the Generation Hope” in Bulgaria. (Image: Cour constitutionel Paris) 

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БЪЛГАРИЯ Bulgaria

The expectations of the entry of Bulgaria into the EURO-Zone are high towards the end of 2025. On the 1st of January 2026 we have new coins circulating in the Euro-countries. The addition of a country to the European currency yields insights into this country’s own cultural heritage. Piece by piece we learn, if we want to, to take a closer look into the more and more obsolete practice to handle currency in form of coins.
I cherish some of the coins with specific meaning to me (see image below, city of Trier, Willy Brandt, Chalk coast on Baltic sea). My small collection of coins from Greece allow me to refresh my Greek alphabet, words and historical landmarks of democracy. The circulation of Euro-coins with Bulgarian inscriptions in the Cyrillic alphabet will broaden our horizon again. Beyond the national features, we cherish the regional or federal organization in some countries, that feature their regional hotspots within this European cultural heritage. With a highly mobile Bulgarian population, not only within the EU, we shall soon see more Eastern Euro-coins with Cyrillic letters in our pockets and collections. … can’t wait for it … Ukraine in 202x, maybe 203x. 

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Bodies in motion

Since more than 2.000 years the art of movement and dance has fascinated people and artists. Early statues from Italy, which are exposed in the museum of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF, see image below) testify to this. This form of art has been practiced within Europe and much beyond Europe as well. The human body in motion needs specific preparations and training to reach the levels of artistic performance. Similar to other art forms the skills have to be experienced and learned before you start to play with movements as a form of freedom of expression. Dance is not only a form of expression and identification of groups or generations, but also a discipline of rigor and body care. The fascination of human bodies in motion rather than the ballet of robots or drones, catches our emotions. Even recent songs do not hesitate to make this the central topic of a chanson. (J’aime comment tu bouge, by Claude Bégin)