Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I'm charmed by Europe's ethnic diversity. Hop on a train for two hours and
you step out into a dif erent culture, dif erent language, and dif erent heritage.
As I watched Europe unite, I (like many of my European friends) feared that
this diversity would be threatened. But just the opposite is happening.
In today's Europe, there are three loyalties: region, nation, and Europe.
Ask a person from Munich where he's from, and he'll say, “I'm Bavarian,”
or “I'm German,” or “I'm European,” depending on his generation and his
outlook. Ask somebody from Barcelona, and she'll say, “I'm Catalan,” or “I'm
Spanish,” or “I'm European.”
Borders and loyalties can be messy. Modern political borders are rarely
clean when it comes to dividing ethnic groups. And most of the terrorism and
troubles in Europe—whether Basque, Irish, Catalan, or Corsican—have been
about ethnic-minority separatist movements threatening national capitals.
Appreciating the needs of these people, peace-loving European leaders strive to
make the Continent's
minority groups feel
like they belong.
Brittany, in west-
ern France, is not eth-
nically French. People
there are Celtic, cousins
of the Welsh and the
Irish. Just a couple of
generations ago, Paris
was so threatened by
the secessionist dreams
of these Celts that if
parents gave their new-
born a Celtic name,
that child would not be granted a French national identity card. Such a
policy would be laughable today.
When I i rst visited Barcelona in the 1970s, locals weren't allowed to
speak Catalan or dance their beloved Sardana. h e Catalan l ag was out-
lawed, so locals waved the l ag of the Barcelona soccer team instead. Now,
in public schools, children speak Catalan i rst, local l ags l y proudly, and
every Sunday in front of the cathedral, people gather to dance the Sardana.
h
As Europe unites, established countries are less threatened
by “nations without states.” In 1999, Scotland convened
a parliament in Scotland for the fi rst time since 1707…and
London didn't stop them.
is circle dance symbolizes national unity as all dif erences are cast aside
