COMMENTARY: Crisis counselling, now.
By Annamari Sipilä
We live in a time of crises.
Politics in Finland is up to its armpits in an election financing crisis, the EU is on the verge of lurching into a political and administrative megacrisis, that is if the Irish do not turn out to vote “Yes” in a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty this coming Thursday.
Then we’ve also got a global credit crisis, food crisis, and energy crisis...
And of course with the coming of summer there are the traditional wrinkles-, crow’s feet-, and “I can’t be seen dead on the beach looking like THIS” crises.
The age crisis itself is no longer even the sole property of the middle-aged, but these days every generation and age-cohort has to have one of its own.
We need crisis counselling, and we need it NOW.
The food crisis. Food just goes on getting more expensive. An acquaintance in Brussels reported that his favourite cheese had doubled in price since last autumn.
Now a 100-euro note won’t get the job done in the supermarket - you need a second one.
And yet, European households still throw as much as 40% of the food they buy into the garbage.
Crisis assessment: Crisis is real, but manageable.
Remedy: Shift over to eating out in restaurants, and order only small hors d’oeuvres dishes. Do not buy anything to eat at home. No food goes to waste, and at the same time the service sector gets a shot in the arm. Indirect benefits for the credit crunch, too.
The EU Lisbon Treaty crisis. At the beginning of the new millennium, the EU’s elite resolved that a new set of rules ought to be found for the Union’s operations.
In their infinite wisdom, the EU leaders rashly and rather pompously started to call the project a “Constitution for Europe”.
Well, of course this was bound to get the chop.
After much toing and froing, the document was renamed the "Reform Treaty", or the Lisbon Treaty after the place where it eventually got signed last December.
Everyone else has ratified or will ratify the treaty through a parliamentary vote, but under the terms of its constitution Ireland is obliged to hold a referendum on the issue.
Crisis assessment: Crisis is limited and goes unnoticed at home.
Remedy: If the Treaty collapses, the EU elite will immediately seize upon the alternative Plan B, which does not actually exist in any official sense. We should think of the Lisbon Treaty as the phoenix, that mythical bird that ignites in its nest and burns to ashes, only to regenerate itself over and over again.
The election financing crisis. Half of the MPs in Parliament do not know, remember, or understand where the money in their campaign war-chests came from. The explanations are muddled, incomplete, or simply non-existent. The government is rocking on its heels, ministers mutter and mumble, and the MPs are collectively squirming.
Crisis assessment: Crisis is real and necessary.
Remedy: The crisis itself is the best medicine. The cleansing effects will be seen in due course if we now dig right down to the muddy bottom layers. At the next election it will be up to us to vote for better candidates. A good many wish they could do it already this year.
The energy crisis. There seems to be no end to the rising price of energy. Fuel is more expensive with every visit to the pumps. Heating costs are going through the roof faster than warm air escaping. There is no going back to a halcyon era of cheap energy, the experts warn.
Crisis assessment: Crisis is real, and we can feel it in our homes and pockets.
Remedy: Borrow a tried and tested model from the traditional philosophy of the English upper classes, according to which a little personal suffering "builds character". Drop the temperature in the bathroom - permanently - to a bracing 13°C. Bathe only under an ice-cold shower, and in the summers only in lake water. Replace taking the car by walking everywhere, but indulge oneself with use of the train for journeys over 30 kilometres.
Age and looks crises. A colleague wrote recently in the Kuukausiliite monthly supplement about how she had been tested and diagnosed as more wrinkled than her age would warrant. Many others have arrived at the same conclusion at home without resorting to the help of experts.
Crisis assessment: Crisis is serious and palpable.
Remedy: Follow the example of the French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, 52, and paint one’s nails a decadent dark blue. Her listeners no longer look at the possible creases on her face, but use all their energy in wondering where the hell she got her hands on some of that Chanel Blue Satin nail polish that is sold out everywhere you go. Huh? What’s that you say? The minister’s message doesn’t get through? Well, nor does the message of incumbent Eurogroup President and Luxembourg’s Prime Minister & Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, 53. But because Juncker isn’t wearing nails the colour of a looming thundercloud pregnant with rain, everybody manages to notice how wrinkled he is.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 8.6.2008
ANNAMARI SIPILÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
annamari.sipila@hs.fi
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| 10.6.2008 - THIS WEEK |
 COMMENTARY: Crisis counselling, now. |
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