aldamiz

Paul Krugman dedica hoy su columna a Europa y me parece que es mucho más pesimista respecto a nuestro futuro de lo que da a entender en su entrevista de ayer en El País.

Y el problema es uno de los clásicos: falta de liderazgo.

Europe’s economic and monetary integration has run too far ahead of its political institutions. The economies of Europe’s many nations are almost as tightly linked as the economies of America’s many states — and most of Europe shares a common currency. But unlike America, Europe doesn’t have the kind of continentwide institutions needed to deal with a continentwide crisis.

Nos hemos dado una super estructura en Bruselas y Estrasburgo, y la hemos vaciado de legitimidad para de vez en cuando organizar cenas entre jefes de clanes y llegar a compromisos. Lo mejor que ha hecho Europa es el programa de intercambio de estudiantes Erasmus, que ayuda de verdad a empezar a romper barreras.

Necesitamos más Erasmus, a todos los niveles.

A friend of mine told me about his high school friend.

He met him by chance several years after high school and asked what was he up to. “I have a company, freecondoms.com“, he said. Freecondoms, wtf, what a looser, my friend thought (my friend was an executive at one of America’s largest corporations, probably high paycheck, 9 to 5, good reputation, health insurance, big car).

My friend met his high school friend a couple of years later and asked what was he up to. “I have a company, freeipods.com“, he said. Freeipods, wtf, this is getting better, my friend thought (my friend was still an executive at one of America’s oldest corporations, same high paycheck as two years earlier, 9 to 5, good reputation, health insurance, big car, house in the suburbs).

My friend met his high school friend a couple of years later and asked what was he up to. “I have a company, xxx, a team of 50 persons, annual revenue of xxx”, he said (sorry I don’t remember the name of the company and details, but it was a “perfectly fine” company). Wtf, I wish I could work for him. I’ve just been fired, don’t even have health insurance for my family and what’s worse I don’t know what to do now, my friend thought.

This story is almost totally real (my friend is a great guy and it’s amazingly intelligent and entrepreneur, he has not been fired, doesn’t work anymore for Corporate America, and I don’t know if he has a house in the suburbs and I don’t care, so if my friend reads this, don’t get mad at me, you’ve just been used and prototyped to make a point).  Anyway, I heard the story and a week later I read this quote:

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.

• Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Europe is educating youth to be my friend not the friend of my friend.

¿Cómo esta obsoleta Europa puede permanecer en la mediocridad de ignorar esta injusticia? ¿Cuándo nacerá el político europeo capaz de liderar un plan Marshall para África, que termine con esta vergüenza? ¿Dónde está el evento que hará que nos decidamos a parar esto?

La nueva generación de europeos no permitirá convertirse en cómplices de este goteo sucio y criminal.