Together We Are Strong

A Personal Remark

In the middle of hard literary creative work - I am working on a new novel while teaching mature students in my spare time - I have of course followed the news and the latest trends in international, mainly European and US politics. In an earlier blog article I expressed, perhaps a bit vaguely, my own wishes for 2017. Part of those wishes, but only part, have come true. A lot, however, still remains to be done.

The Image of Harmony and Peace on my website is a Dutch motif.

In December 2016, during the presidential elections in Austria, the Austrian voters clearly preferred a Moderate politician as their new President. And recently, just a few days ago, the enlightened Dutch electorate rejected a populist course, giving massive support to the pro-EU parties. Two years ago I chose the motif for my website in Holland, a photo I called Windmill and which to me represented peace and harmony in a wider sense, not just political.
 

Here in March 2017 the image has somehow taken a deeper significance: not to take our gains in Europe, the peace and the harmony, for granted. It is something we must defend and fight for, against those who wreck our societies and disrupt our democracies. This remark is a personal one, and as this blog is not my political 'battle ground' but one reserved for more literary and academic comments and analyses I will not go into a deeper politicised discussion here; I just wish to express my relief that we Europeans, despite Brexit and Trump, in defiance of nationalist populism and Islamist terror, are willing to stand together and act as Europeans to defend and develop our inclusive societies. The Windmill motif is a strong symbol of all the things we take for granted but which we realise must continually be fought for.
 

Long Live Europe.

Steen Alexander