Wild facts about Europe

By: ISOSU: Hannes Hanke

Posted: 3/3/08

Europe is crazy! Crazy. Why, you may ask now? There are plenty of good and positive reasons.

First of all, look at other continents like Australia, South America or Africa. If you look at a world map, you can clearly see the borders of these continents and you get a feeling of how big they are. But how big is Europe actually? If you were to ask this question to people from different European countries, you would get as many different answers as people you had asked. Sure, Europe is bounded in the North, South and West through oceans and seas, but what about the East? There are many textbook definitions of how far Europe reaches. Does it, for example, include Russia? I think there is no answer to this question, but the more important fact is that Europe is growing - and fast.

More and more countries are joining the European Union. Former communistic countries are now part of the Union, and you can travel from Portugal's Atlantic coast to the Baltic States. Twenty years ago, nobody would have thought this might be possible some day. This is another reason Europe is crazy: its history.

Unfortunately, Europe has a cruel history, but in the recent past, it overcame more and more borders. It always starts off with the disappearance of physical borders, like the Berlin Wall. And then something interesting happens: slowly (it often takes a long time), the borders in the mind disappear. These days, Catholics talk to Protestants again in Northern Ireland, Spanish people to Basques, German to Polish and the British to the French people. They all not only identify themselves as people of their country, but also as Europeans.

What fascinates me personally about Europe is the fact you can travel only 100 miles sometimes and end up in a totally different country. The people there often speak a totally different language from you and a have a different culture. And this is something I really appreciate about Europe. You can travel from Paris to London within three hours; it is in fact a very short distance compared to American travel standards, but you will experience a totally different way of life.

The British swear by their tea, the French swear by their cheese. French people drive on the right side of the road, the British on the left. And while British people have a weakness for beer, the French prefer to enjoy a good red wine. People in Europe are different and diverse, but they all have a common ground - their continent.

Over 28 different official languages are spoken in Europe. From Albanian to Welsh, every official document of the European government has to be translated in each language. But what makes Europe crazy is not these tedious translations. Beyond the 28 official languages, there are hundreds of interesting dialects. Have you ever heard someone speaking Gaelic or Sorbian? If not and you meet someone from Ireland, Spain, Germany or any other country, ask them if they could speak in their dialect for a moment - you will enjoy it.

A lot of Europeans, especially young Europeans, say Europe is crazy not only because of its cultures, languages and traditions, but also because of its bureaucracy. Europeans love paperwork. In the past 50 years, tons of European institutions were founded. The European Union started with simple economy treaties between several countries. Over time other treaties were added, for example the Schengen Treaty, which allows traveling through Europe without visas or border checks. Sometimes it feels like European people have lost the overview of all institutions - and it is hard to keep track of all treaties and institutions; I would not dare to say that I have a complete overview.

Europe should be decentralized; that is why the European parliament is in Strasbourg, France, the European court in Luxembourg and the European Commission in Brussels. In the last five years the European Union was working on a Constitution to slim all structures down, but all European countries have to ratify the Constitution and that can take a while due to bureau-cra(c)(z)y.

What do you think: how far away is Europe from the United States? Silly question you might think - Europe is right across the Atlantic Ocean. This answer is true geographically. But technically, Europe is much closer than you think. Martinique for example, an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, is part of France and also part of the European Union. And some countries and islands around the world belong to European countries. That is another reason for Europeans craziness - you can find a small piece of Europe everywhere.

Hannes Hapke is a graduate student in colleges of business and engineering, the president of the European Student Association and part of ISOSU. The opinions expressed in ISOSU's column, which appears every Tuesday, do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Barometer staff. Hapke can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.