a bit daring, a bit cheeky, a bit desperate

call for a bit of tenderness and responsibility towards old whore/lady Europe, used by all, hated by all and hosting us all.

While living as a liberal and loving cultural diversity, my place of perspective is in the middle. In between right and left, cooperation and competition, freedom and responsibility, liberal (allowing the new) and conservative (preserving the valuable), rational and emotional, material and spiritual, male and female. I seek ways how to hear each other, instead of yelling all at once.

4001 The bloody unpleasant period of contraction

The liberal victory got a bit bitter aftertaste. Multi-culturalism that was supposed to benefit everyone is not that popular at the end? Where do all those uneducated masses come from, what do they see in the populist leaders and how did all this mess happen? Is there a way out, should we try hard or just wait for the next cycle? A daring inquiry into the mistakes that the daring builders of colorful tomorrow might have made.

4002 Iron(y) curtain that did not fall

Between "invasion of barbarians" and "brain drain", the assembly factory of Europe lives mentally in different space, not in communist fantasy anymore, though not in civilized world either. West sucks the resources and cheap labor, East sucks the structural funds, each perpetuating its own reality that sucks. How not to drown the West and perhaps save the East too?

4003 West according to East

Understanding the wide (and sometimes quite void) soul of the East.

4004 Somewhere over the borders

After the enthusiasm of the End of History, almost[multicultural world enters the era of contraction, closing in, closing borders, reinventing what is sustainable, what is acceptable, what is human. How to hear the subtle tones of truth in uproar of clash of titans of ideologies? An open space behind closed borders and walls: for liberal and illiberal, multicultural and nationalist, patriarchal and feminist alike.

4005 Let me offend you

The forbidden, inappropriate, culturally insensitive discussion that never happened yet - played out in my head, on the paper, for the sake of sanity and peace of mind. Are all the religions the same? Are there hosts and guests? Is freedom when we ask what are we free to say? Can we be critical and non-offensive at once? How to stay friendly without being naive? How to respect other's borders without disrespecting our own?

4006 Reimagining Europe - united and diverse

Pondering on the sources of contradictory needs to belong and to be on ones own, to cooperate and to follow ones own ways, to grant everyone his own private playground without making everybody worse off. Thinking of the health of the whole and happiness of the individuals.

4007 Basic geometry of the governments

What systems of cooperation and management of common afairs has the humankind tried? Is democracy the least evil of them all? Even the originator of the idea of "the end of history" does not believe in it anymore... Those who fought for centuries to get their democratic voice, are eager to discard it overnight. What draws us to experiment with muscle-flexing leaders and illiberal flavors of the system? Any better ideas out there?