Can differences mean unity?
Klaus Harpprecht, German language publicist
All his life, our neighbour Julien has tended the vine fields
down in the valley - and has not been averse to tasting the products of his own cellar
himself. He's what we once - completely inaccurately - called a "simple person."
But he's no fool, even if he is as obstinate as a mule. He thinks his thoughts, as he
prunes his vines with the electric shears or sprays
white clouds of weedkiller and pesticide across the valley. He reads the newspaper,
watches the news, still swears by socialism and doesn't believe a word the politicians
say. But he vociferously calls himself a European, if only because of his many German,
Dutch and Belgian customers - as long as (he invariably adds) nobody tries to stop his
heart beating with pride whenever a brilliant black woman sprinter from Martinique does
the blue-white-and-red flag proud, or when the French rugby stars beat the living
daylights out of their "hereditary enemies," the English. Klaus Harpprecht on
the search for a European identity Europe? Mais oui, he insists with his strangely
high-pitched tenor voice that sounds like a clarion, if only to teach Bush junior a lesson
to two.
Although he would never forget the bravery with which the
Americans liberated his village on August 15, 1944, tossing chocolate bars to him, a
starving little whippersnapper, while a German machine gun was still wreaking havoc up
there in the forest.
But let's get back to Europe. There's one
thing he doesn't understand, and that is how the politicians are always talking about
something called "European identity." What could this be? Good question. We both
scratch our heads. Julien laughs. What did people do in former times, he asks, before
"identity" was invented? Did it exist at all? As soon as I return home after
this chat I immediately check my "Petit Robert." The dictionnaire that never
fails documents the first use of the term in the early 17th century, but doesn't offer
much information about literary sources. And the word is not in the tenth volume of the
great "Grimm," that treasure house of the German language, published in 1877. In
the meantime the term has experienced a boom that can only be called inflationary. These
days every nursery-school kid is searching for his or her identity - and usually already
has to overcome the first "identity crisis" during puberty.
With solemn earnestness, our statesmen and
women, and with them the powerful professional "chattering classes" in the
media, are incessantly invoking German identity, national identity, often with a twinge of
doubt and even more often with an indignant undertone, complaining that we are not
honouring it, cultivating it, guarding and cherishing it - as opposed to our neighbours,
the French, who would never dream of questioning the way they identify with their nation
(let alone the nation itself).
Is this really true? Back in the days of
unfaded "gloire," people did indeed speak of France as a person, even as a
personality, who could enter the scene at any time as the monarchist Joan or the
republican Marianne. Admittedly, General de Gaulle, who was the last person to rally the
national pathos of history in himself, preferred a more cautious phrase. Poetically and
slightly nebulously he extolled "une certaine idée de la France." In the
meantime his compatriots are beginning, hesitatingly and tentatively, to discover
themselves in relation to their regions, whose independent existence had been languishing
for centuries, totally eclipsed by Paris. In other words, France is increasingly reflected
in a multiplicity of faces, as the Germans have long since accustomed to, thanks to their
federalist tradition.
No lack of symbols And Europe? Europe of the
fifteen and soon of the twentyfive? Can Europe ever have an "identity" to which
we can all relate - the Greeks and Swedes, the Latvians and the Portuguese? The lady
dashing along against her will on the back of the divine bull is not exactly politically
sexy.
Yet Europe, a nation of nations, has no lack
of symbols with which to decorate itself. We have a beautiful flag and an anthem with none
of the arrogance or bloodthirstiness of so many national anthems; we share a passport and
have a common currency; we even have a small common army, which allowed a German general
to head the 14 July parade on the Champs-Elysées (without the slightest trace of the kind
of smile, by the way, that might have been fatally misinterpreted as belated
satisfaction); we have a joint parliament and a joint government - of sorts; we have a
joint Court of Justice whose judgements have brushed aside several national barricades of
the mind- a true blessing for the peoples of Europe; thanks to our right to vote in both
local and European elections we have achieved the rudiments of European civil rights; and
we are in the process of submitting to a joint European constitution which at least partly
matches the reality of our situation somewhere between a federal state and confederation
of states: a hermaphrodite creature with several "identities" - including the
chastely camouflaged supranationality in which the nation is not dissolved, but somehow
elevated in a way that simultaneously tames it in a productive way.
As we all know, the idea of the nation and
the nation state has inflicted more misfortune than good fortune on mankind. The
destructive force of nationalism is - as we should also have learned by now - not a sign
of degeneration that can be controlled with ease by the power of moral reason; rather, it
is an evil normality, a latent danger.
The most reliable safeguard is something the
French and Germans have been practicing over the past decades in a kind of European
routine that has long since exorcized every storm of feelings between exultant enthusiasm
and black resentment. This is a marriage of reason rather than one of love, marked soberly
enough by mutual respect for each other's individuality and interests - and a calculable
form of egotism.
Hardly any of our statesmen and -women were
born as Europeans, and few of them had Francophile or Germanophile songs sung to them in
their cradles. Yet, since they have attained the responsibility of high public office,
they have all bowed to the historical logic that gives us no other choice but the closest
of cooperation. Permanent consultation by rapid, informal visits and detailed phone calls
has become useful dayto-day practice. Now this has been extended to a new system whereby
the Germans and French each have permanent representatives within the staff units of the
other country's head of government and ministers. And over many decades, some of the
twinning alliances, particularly between the smaller cities, have developed far beyond the
jollity of convivial festivities. They have grown roots. What now flourishes between the
French and the Germans is what we have been wishing for so fervently for a half century: a
Europe of its citizens.
Our neighbour Julien figured this out long
ago. A sign is emblazoned in front of his winepress, inviting not only the French to a
dégustation and the English to come wine-tasting, but also the Germans to a Weinprobe. He
is promoting the idea of also presenting the European flag at future patriotic
celebrations. He was pleased to note that, although the bolero-like melody of the
Partisans' Song was still heard after the Marseillaise - at least the bloodthirsty lyrics
were omitted - to spare the feelings of the German fellow citizens. Tact is a truly
European virtue, perhaps the most important one of all
The author lives in South of France. Text
courtesy: Deutschland N5, October/November, 2003. Embassy of Germany in Kathmandu
FRANCE:
Biotechnology, Biosecurity And Food
Safety
I. DEFINITION OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
The concept of biotechnology covers using living things in a
process to make an end-product (for example, something as well known as beer), using
living things that can provide a service (micro-organisms employed in the treatment of
waste water) and biologically, chemically or physically manipulating a living thing
(genomics, genetically modified organisms (GMO)). Although the first applications are
classic, the last is very new. The new biotechnology, which is now symbolised by GMOs and
genomics, crystallises concerns about food safety and protection of the environment
biosecurity).
II. THE ISSUES
Biotechnology is at the centre of four sets of problems:
1. free access to living things and protecting intellectual
property Although the discovery of a gene cannot be patented, identifying the function
associated with this gene can be protected by a patent. This principal, on which the major
industrialised countries agree, draws criticisms from the scientific community.
2. free access to living things and sharing the benefits with
developing countries
Some biotechnological innovations that have been perfected in
industrialised countries result from natural resources situated in developing countries,
which consider they should benefit from the commercial spin-offs. This demand is embodied
in article 19 of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
3. free trade and protecting the environment
Consideration of the possible risks associated with the
spread of GMOs into the environment has led the international community to define the
conditions for trade in modified living organisms. The protocol on biotechnological risk
prevention, known as the Biosecurity Protocol, was adopted in Montreal in January 2000.
4. free trade and protecting human health
The appearance of new products (GMO) or new diseases (BSE)
makes it necessary to draw up stricter regulations to protect consumers. This however has
to be achieved without creating unnecessary obstacles to trade, which means harmonising
principles, regulations and practices at an international level.
III. AGREEMENTS
Biosecurity
Protocol on the prevention of biotechnological risks adopted
in Montreal in January 2000, known as the Biosecurity Protocol, currently being ratified.
Food safety
For the time being, there is no global agreement. There are
however, general texts (Sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, agreements on technical
barriers to trade under the GATT provisions, Codex standards, European directives and
regulations) that provide the framework for public authorities' action.
Text courtesy: Label France; Embassy of France in
Kathmandu. |
