SHIFT mag [n°11] - Europe in the mirror by SHIFT mag - Europe talks to Brussels

AUTUMN 2009

N°11

EUROPE TALKS TO BRUSSELS

Europe in the mirror

CONTENT 04

06 > 08

The Diary

The Clash Learning English at all costs

Drawing board

White Lines

Stereotypes and identities in modern Europe

Fine-honed irony breaking the thickest Swedish ice

> 12

Reservoir Blogs

> 17

In quest of concrete

> 19

“A clown has a kind of positive power, to make other people laugh”

ENTROPA: sense of humour or national pride?

22 <

Shiftmag.eu

Shifting with

Rebuilding castles in Sweden

Words of warm summer nights and days

AUTUMN 2009

[N°11]

Europe in the mirror

EUROPE TALKS TO BRUSSELS

EDITORIAL SHIFT Mag EUROPE TALKS TO BRUSSELS Avenue de Tervueren 270 1150 Brussels – Belgium www.shiftmag.eu Publisher: Juan ARCAS • juan.arcas@shiftmag.eu Editor: Laurent VAN BRUSSEL • T. +32 2 235 56 19 laurent.vanbrussel@shiftmag.eu Deputy Editor: David MARQUIE • T. +32 2 235 56 41 david.marquie@tipik.eu Editors: Florence ORTMANS (Belgium), Guadalupe PEREZGARCIA (Spain), Julian GAU (Germany), Frédéric DARMUZEY (France) Contributors to this issue: Timothy KIRKHOPE (UK), Jon WORTH (UK), Roopmati KHANDEKAR (India), Benoît ROUSSEL (France), Judit HIDASI (Hungary), Annette NOVAK (SWEDEN), David LARIBLE (Italy), Rudy LEONET (Belgium), Fanny GUERET (Belgium) Illustrators: Roberto TRIOSCHI (Italy), Mi Ran COLLIN (Belgium), François TACOEN (Belgium), Brieuc HUBIN (Belgium), Christophe WANLIN (Belgium), Nhung VU (Germany), Ricardo REIS (Portugal), Fabrizia AGNELLO (Italy), João SILVA (UK), Artur ŠIRIN (Latvia), Mihaela HUDREA (Romania), Kondor TAMAS (Hungary), Sergej PANCAK (Slovakia), Frédéric HAYOT (Belgium), Anna SCHERP (Sweden) Photography: Fabien GERARD (Belgium), Florence ORTMANS (Belgium), David LARIBLE (Italy) Special thanks to Florence ORTMANS and Roxane MICHEL for distribution coordination, Abigail ACTON and Kevin BIRDSEYE for linguistic proofreading and Brieuc HUBIN for graphical coordination. Production & coordination: Brieuc HUBIN • brieuc.hubin@tipik.eu Nadine SCHWIRTZ • nadine.schwirtz@tipik.eu Benoît GOOSSENS • benoit.goossens@tipik.eu Design & Graphics: Tipik Studio Printed by: Manufast-ABP, Brussels. Administration & subscription: Florence ORTMANS • florence.ortmans@tipik.eu To advertise in SHIFT Mag contact: Jerôme URBAIN (Tipik Communication) • T.+32 2 235 56 64 jerome.urbain@tipik.eu Bruno BONTE (Publicitas NV) • T. +32 2 639 84 36 bruno.bonte@publicitas.com

One of those tongue-in-cheek postcards you can buy nearly everywhere in Brussels illustrates how “the perfect European should drive like the French, be as chatty as the Finns and as witty as the Germans”. But what is really behind such stereotypes? Taking it all with a pinch of salt, we have tried in this edition of ShiftMag to look more closely at “humour” and its varying perceptions in Europe. Are Nordic types really so stiﬀ, serious and...well, downright dull? What is the world’s funniest joke? Read more about it in “Fine-honed irony breaking the thickest Swedish ice” and “What makes Europeans laugh?”. Laughing, by the way, has a price of € 160 210, claims author S. Henry in “Unconscious zillionaires”. Find out what performing clown David Larible told us about his perceptions of humour and its diﬀerences worldwide. The “Map of happiness” will guide you in choosing the right country to live in. An interview with artist David Černý on his sculpture “Entropa”, showing various European stereotypes, could not take place because of acoustic gremlins – he was more interested in listening to loud rock music with his friends than in talking to our journalist. But our colleague took it with good grace and wrote about, “Entropa: sense of humour or national pride?” To explore what humour means in practice, you could get some exercise in the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships (Finland) or the International Bathtub Regatta (Belgium). Or just explore some of the other events in our new “diary”. Yes, in this 11th edition, ShiftMag got some new sections that have proved themselves for ages: not only a diary, but a book review, a photo reportage and a comic page. Not breaking new ground, but sometimes it might be useful for a magazine to be a tiny bit stereotyped…

Tipik Communication – A SWORD Group Company. Avenue de Tervueren 270 – 1150 Brussels – Belgium. Free quarterly publication (cannot be sold). Published by Tipik Communication. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior consent. The views expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent those of SHIFT Mag.

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THE DIARY

FALLING INTO AUTUMN

And more... International Sand Sculpture Festival Søndervig, Denmark 14 June – 26 October 2009 http://www.worldwide-sculpture-org.com/ Robert Capa Budapest, Hungary 3 July – 11 October 2009 http://www.lumu.hu/index.php Munch & Denmark Charlottenlund, Denmark 4 September – 6 December 2009 http://www.ordrupgaard.dk Modern Life: Edward Hopper and his time Rotterdam, The Netherlands 26 September 2009 – 17 January 2010 http://www.kunsthal.nl/ Design Days Riga, Latvia 1 October – 31 October 2009 http://www.dic.lv/home/ Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970 Vilnius, Lithuania 2 October – 19 December 2009 http://www.ldm.lt/ Chocolate Festival Stockholm, Sweden 9–11 October 2009 http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/ 28th Uppsala International Short Film Festival Uppsala, Sweden 19–25 October 2009 http://www.shortfilmfestival.com/ Piano Espoo – International Piano Festival Espoo, Finland 20–25 October 2009 http://www.pianoespoo.fi/ ArtFutura 2009 Various cities, Spain 29 October – 1 November 2009 http://www.artfutura.org/v2/ Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn, Estonia 12 November – 6 December 2009 http://2009.poff.ee/

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Timothy K

irkhope

The

CLASH

Will Jose Manuel Barroso be re-elected as head of the European Commission? Some months ago this issue was not even up for prior debate and very much seen as a done deal. But then the European Parliament (EP) delayed its vote and the summer suddenly made way for doubts. Enough ingredients for a robust exchange between Timothy Kirkhope, leader of the British Conservatives and Vice-President of the European Conservative and Reformist Group in the EP, and Jon Worth, Jan Seifert and Valéry-Xavier Lentz, organisers of the ‘Anyone But Barroso Campaign’. So should Barroso stay or go? They don’t have the answers, but certainly have their opinions.

Why do you go for Jose Manuel Barroso? President Barroso has generally pursued a policy of change and reform in the European Union. He has slowly sought to move away from, or reform, outdated EU policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy; and he has led a Commission that has been far more considerate of the best interests of citizens and enterprise than Commissions of the past. The Commission took the right steps towards simplifying the rules for businesses, particularly small businesses, when it adopted our proposals in its Small Business Act. It also listened to our calls for an ambitious climate change package, as we head towards this winter’s Copenhagen Conference. Barroso's Commission helped complete the EU's Single Market, and it has also taken steps to begin reforming the EU's budget – finally providing some probity and accountability to the accounts. While I do not agree with President Barroso on everything, he has begun to move Europe in the right direction, and I think he could continue to deliver an agenda of reform in a second term.

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If you had to say something negative about his ﬁrst mandate, what would you say?

knowledge that it will be possible to build an anti-protectionist and antisocialist alliance in the parliament.

We generally disagree over the debate regarding Europe's institutional future. Too often the Commission under President Barroso has suggested 'more Europe' as the answer to a dilemma we face. Instead, I think it should be asking 'how can we help facilitate cooperation without drawing more powers from national governments?' I would liked to have seen President Barroso less supportive of the Lisbon Treaty, considering it and its identical predecessor were rejected by three EU nations.

Our new Group, the ECR, will be crucial for Mr Barroso, if he is to build an alliance firstly to get him elected, and then to stand firm against the Left's attempt to use the recession as a sop for more damaging employment legislation and crippling legislation for our financial services sector.

The other criticism I would level is that President Barroso has not always held firm to his centre-right free-market and open-trade beliefs. This is understandable given the political landscape during his first term. In order to do business in the past Barroso relied on a coalition of compromise between the EPP-ED and the Socialists. However, in the second term he can and should stick to his principles, safe in the

If Mr Barroso is not re-elected who could be a possible successor according to you? I cannot see who is in a better position to deliver in that post. However, as our votes are likely to be crucial to a would-be successor, if other candidates do decide to throw their hat into the ring, I am sure our Group would be more than happy to give them a fair hearing.

h t r o W n o J

Why do you oppose José Manuel Barroso for a second term as President of the European Commission? In democratic political systems the voters judge the political programmes and nominated candidates to decide which party they support. At the moment at European level no equivalent level of democratic accountability exists. None of the European political parties were brave enough to raise the issue of the Commission Presidency in their election campaign. European voters were left with the bizarre predicament: you’ll get Barroso as President of the Commission, regardless of who you vote for at the European elections. This simply is not good enough.

t r e f i e S Jan

Valery-X Lentz avier

The three of us running the ‘Anyone But Barroso’ campaign should stress that we have nothing against Barroso as a person. We do however have a problem with his record, and how the EU has developed during his first term of office.

Commission President himself have meant that the EU has lacked an adequate response to the financial crisis and been unable to take as much of a global role responding to the challenges of climate change as it should have done.

For a start, three countries have voted ‘No’ in referendums on EU questions on his watch – France and the Netherlands in 2005 and Ireland in 2008. Barroso is not directly responsible, but what sort of signal does it send to citizens, pretending that it is very much business as usual in Brussels regardless of what citizens think of the European Union?

In short, Barroso was selected – and looks odds-on to be reselected – as Commission President precisely because he is weak and generally inoffensive. It is perfectly clear why national leaders like him: Barroso is never going to upstage them and make the limelight shine on him instead. As a national leader under pressure (e.g. Gordon Brown, Jose Luis Zapatero), that is just what you want at European level. As a citizen, however, it is the exact opposite of what you should expect.

Business as usual also applies to the policies of the Barroso Commission. Strong lobbying by the relevant industrial sectors and an absence of coherent leadership from the

If you had to say something positive about his ﬁrst term, what would it be? Overall Barroso's first term was a nonevent. The European Union arguably went backwards during this period, although at least Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union during this time. Secondly, Barroso was successful at holding his Commission team together and as an individual he seems to be meticulous and organised, which could not be said for Prodi or Santer, his predecessors.

If Mr Barroso is not re-elected, who to your mind could possibly succeed him? Who are the alternatives? The ‘Anyone But Barroso’ campaign has not endorsed a particular alternative candidate, but we feel that any of the following individuals would have the skills and approach necessary to be more successful than Jose Manuel Barroso: Pascal Lamy, Margot Wallström, Guy Verhofstadt, Jean Claude Juncker, and Joschka Fischer.

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EUROPE ACROSS THE WORLD

LEARNING ENGLISH AT ALL COSTS > By Roopmati KHANDEKAR

An article dedicated to the role of the language of Shakespeare in social mobility in emerging countries. India as an example. The sun never set on the British empire and the same privilege is enjoyed by their language in today’s world. English, the language of Shakespeare, has become today the global business language. Many excolonies, most of which are developing or under-developed, now have an automatic advantage over others when communicating internationally. Especially in the case of an emerging country like India. India has always been a land of diverse cultures, boasting several languages and many dialects. The use of Englishand a western style of education which were introduced and promoted by the British colonial empire, served to unite north India with Dravidian southern India, becoming the lingua franca of the Indian nationalist movement. Post independence English became embedded in Indian culture. In contemporary India, dialects and native languages link citizens to their regions, Hindi links them to the nation and English to the world. As was aptly put by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, English has become "India's window on the world". English has become so ingrained into Indian culture, that it would not be surprising to see two Indians conversing freely in English and not Hindi or a regional language. Einglish is used extensively in the realms of politics, education,

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administration, business and industry, giving it a key role in social mobility. In the past, the ability to enjoy an education in the medium of English was only for the elite, now this is available for people from every caste and creed. Education through the medium of English has had a significant impact on the acute social segregation faced by several people of different classes and especially by the lower castes namely ‘harijans’. The knowledge of English acts as a leveler, making for a more level playing field and opening up opportunities irrespective of particular linguistic identities. By removing linguistic barriers, English facilitates intra-country migration towards better job prospects from the under-developed rural areas to developed urban areas, from the north to the south of India. An English speaking workforce is an invaluable asset for the Indian economy. In the age of globalization, English provides Indians with a valuable asset when it comes to emigration and performance of transactions within an international system. With a plethora of arguments regarding the significance of the national language and regional languages over the imported English language, it remains an undeniable fact that English has served as a factor for the coherence of the nation, facilitating interaction between people who hail form different regions and speak different languages. English has progressed towards being the language of panoptic communication in India. It has traversed limits of class,

caste and area and consequently proven to be a unifying factor. India has not one but over twenty official languages and English has become the accepted common language of professional convenience. Technology too has always been imported in English - India moved from typewriter keyboards to computer keyboards all in English. There is an absence of the culture of dubbing and all television shows are broadcast in English directly, without subtitles! With the largest English speaking population in the world, India has acquired a prime position in a globalized international system. If India has an advantage over other emerging countries like Russia, China or Brazil, it is due to its command of English. Every moment, countless international deals are struck by Indians where English is used as the only medium of communication. Even were it to be possible, it would be impractical for every state in India to thrive while limiting itself to its own language. The middle class which is fuelling the surge of India as a global player, has been instrumental in accepting English as an integral part of their realm. With revolution in information technology and outsourcing opportunities there has been an increase in the efforts towards effective communication in English. The power of English has helped India get independence and, in the contemporary age, serves to help the nation forge ahead in the international system. Today, Indian students have no difficulty in going abroad to study and

E U R O P E TA L K S T O B R U S S E L S

integrating with local people, armed with the communication skills of English. Indian entrepreneurs too are much sought after in foreign countries. English thus serves the Indians today as a tool for global mobility. For a developing country like India

foremost, the global citizens bring back technological know how back to the country aiding it to reach newer heights. Let’s have a look at the European context then. The case of the European

Union is quite similar to India, also having over twenty main languages and several dialects. Arguably the unity of the EU and its image in the international system would be strengthened further if it were to have one common language. English as the accepted language of the majority of the globe presents itself as a formidable candidate. India has benefited by facilitation of interactions in English and is united across the length and breadth of the nation. Would it be so unthinkable to imagine the whole of the EU functioning mainly in English? Most negotiations with the EUs biggest trading partners like the US and China are carried out in English. The EU spends a considerable amount of its budget on translations. While English and French are both the official languages of the EU, many negotiations are conducted in other member state’s languages; can English ever be used in the EU without linking it to sovereignty?

An issue as apparently simple as language can, in fact, be very complex. Today English is no longer just a means of communication but a tool to progress, especially in developing countries like India.

In contemporary India, dialects and native languages link citizens to their regions, Hindi links them to the nation and English to the world.

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D R AW I N G B O A R D

Among other novelties SHIFT Mag has decided to make way for cartoons opening to young artists the possibility of sharing their views on Europe.

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C A R T E B L A N C H E TO LES EUROS DU VILLAGE

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

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RESERVOIR BLOGS WELCOME TO RESERVOIR BLOGS – EUROPE'S WEIRDEST BLOG REVIEW, GATHERING ALL THE STRANGEST TITBITS FOUND ON THE EUROBLOGOSPHERE JUST FOR YOU. IN THIS ISSUE, MR SHIFT WILL WHIP OUT HIS FINGER AND APPLY IT TO BLOGS IN ORDER TO SQUEEZE OUT THE JUICIEST AND CRACK OPEN THE NUTTIEST SNIPPETS ON EUROPEAN STEREOTYPES… AS WELL AS OTHER STUFF FOR YOUR DISCERNING PALATES.

Right, let’s get on with the note! Guy La Roche (nice name by the way… are you the designer’s number one fan or is it your actual name?) sent us a small post about European stereotypes and jokes on A Fistful of Euros (fistfulofeuros.net). This note points to an article on the BBC News website (Cakes and jokes at Cafe d'Europe: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4755659.stm) with European jokes in the comments on the article. Guy quotes one of the jokes: “A prize was to be awarded for the first person to discover a horse with black and white stripes like a zebra. A German, a Frenchman, an Englishman and a Spaniard participated hoping to win the prize of 1,000,000 euro. The German decided to spend weeks in the national library researching horses with black and white stripes. The Englishman went straight to a shop in Piccadilly which specialises in hunting gear, bought all the equipment necessary and set off for Africa in his quest for this strange

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What Mr Shift concludes from this joke is that the Germans are studious and meticulous, the English are big spenders and adventurous, the French are cheats and lazy (sorry mes amis, it’s not my joke!), and Spaniards are not short of conﬁdence. Is this funny? Not particularly, wouldn’t you agree? So much for stereotypes… What about another joke in the actual BBC article: “In Heaven the cooks are French, the policemen are English, the mechanics are German, the

LLIN

What a stupid title. Did Mr Shift forget to take his medication? Did he actually mean “zebras in heaven”? Or did he just lack inspiration? Actually, my friends, none of the above… except, maybe, the latter. And once you see what this note is all about, please drop a line on www.shiftmag.eu to reveal your journalistic skills and prove that you can do better than Mr Shift when it comes to his lousy headings. The person with the best idea will, if he’s/she’s been nice, maybe win 1,000, euro… or more likely a lollipop…

creature. The Frenchman bought himself a horse and painted it black and white. The Spaniard went to the best restaurant he knew in Madrid and ordered an expensive meal for himself with a ﬁne bottle of wine; after the meal he […] sat in a luxurious armchair in the hotel and began to consider what he would do with the 1,000,000 euro once he had found this remarkable horse with black and white stripes.”

Zebra and heaven

lovers are Italian and the bankers are Swiss. In Hell the cooks are English, the policemen are German, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss and the bankers are Italian.” Is that any better? The one thing that unites Europeans is making jokes about our respective neighbours, although maybe it would be better if we actually reﬂected on what Harold Evans once said: “Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and clichés.”

HIGHLIGHT

EUROPE IN THE MIRROR Mirror, mirror, on the wall, tell me who is the most and least European of all? Am I the image of my country? It is said that behind every mirror there is another face hiding. Mirror, mirror, tell me which European I am.

COVER STORIES

• 14–15 – ANALYSIS Stereotypes and identities in modern Europe: will the jigsaw fall into place?

• 16 – SOCIETY Fine-honed irony breaking the thickest Swedish ice

• 17 – IN BRIEF In quest of concrete

• 18 – INTERVIEW “A clown has a kind of positive power, to make other people laugh”

• 19 – OPINION Entropa: sense of humour or national pride?

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EUROPE IN THE MIRROR

STEREOTYPES AND IDENTITIES IN MODERN EUROPE WILL THE JIGSAW FALL INTO PLACE? > By Judit HIDASI

Due to the expansion of mobility worldwide practically all professions and affiliations are affected by intercultural experience and international influence. Recent technological achievements have further facilitated our access to world-wide information. The development of the electronic media has produced an unimaginably rich choice of intercultural exposure.

The language challenge One of the most obvious bypoducts of this process is the internationalization of the English language which in a couple of decades has risen to the status of the linguafranca of our time. However, some native speakers look on its role with a certain scepticism: "More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to", writes Bill Bryson in his book Mothertongue. Nevertheless, speaking and using English as a common linguistic tool of communication does not, and should not, imply loss of cultural identity. Unification tendencies in Europe have coincided with globalization. They have often been interpreted as an outcome of it. Despite of successful integration processes in the fields of the economy, finance, and legal harmonization, Europe seems to be resisting cultural integration. On the contrary, partly as a reaction, peoples of Europe appear to manifest their cultural identities more extensively than before.

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Twenty-seven countries have joined to form the European Union (EU) despite differences of culture, customs and experience. One of Europe's assets is the richness of its cultures, traditions, and languages. EU's respect for cultural and linguistic diversity is also seen in its language policy. All 23 languages have equal rights, but some are more equal than others. Multilingualism in Europe is both an expression of its cultural wealth but at the same time a barrier to communication. The language problem in the EU is not only a matter of concern of the European institutions, but also a serious obstacle to the citizens.

The historical heritage Stereotypes are almost as old as mankind. Already Greek historians describing other nations, their neighbors and enemies, commented on their national characteristics. Herodotus for instance (B.C. 484-425) describing the Greek-Persian war (B.C. 492-449) characterized the Persians as "excellent war-man" and "being fond of children" but also "liars" and “people who make debts". As can be seen from these ancient comments, stereotypes are not always negative; they can also "praise". One may wonder if Europe has undergone profound changes - if any – with respect to stereotyping. A widely circulated chart shows how Europeans see each other at the present time. What is the unified Europe going to be like? Heaven if the lovers are Italian, the cooks are French, the technicians

are German, the policemen are English; and if everything is organised by the Swiss. Hell if the cooks are English, the policemen are German, the lovers are Swiss, the technicians are French and if everything is organised by the Italians. In the late 90’s young Europeans were asked to write down the first five words that sprang to mind when they thought about other EU countries. The most frequent answers were: • Belgium: “Brussels”, “Chocolates”, “Tintin”, “Beer” and “Capital of Europe”; • Denmark: “Vikings”, “Copenhagen”, “Hans Christian Andersen”, “Lego” and “football” ; • Germany: “beer”, “Berlin”, “Goethe”, “motorways” and “seriousness” ; • Greece: “islands”, “Parthenon”, “Onassis”, “Moussaka” and “Socrates”; • Spain: “Barcelona”, “paella”, “bullfighting”, “art” and “Juan Carlos” ; • France: “wine”, “Paris”, “Gerard Depardieu”, food and fashion ; • Ireland: “green”, “pubs”, “celtic”, “design”, “James Joyce” and “U2”; • Italy: “Rome”, “pasta”, “shoes”, “art” and “Pavarotti” ; • Luxembourg: “castles”, “banks”, “court of justice”, “small”, “Echternach dancing procession” ; • The Netherlands: “Von Gogh”, “tulips”, “Amsterdam”, “drugs”, “flat” ; • Austria: “Vienna”, “Klimt”, “skyiing”, “Sissi” and “Mozart” ; • Portugal: “port-wine”, “Lisbon”, “explorers” , “cock”,“Algarve” ; • Finland: “Lapland”, “Santa Claus” “forests”, “saunas”, “telecommunications” ; • Sweden: “blondes”, “cold”, “Ingmar Bergman”, “Nobel prize”, “Pippi Longstocking”

E U R O P E TA L K S T O B R U S S E L S

• United Kingdom: “Shakespeare”,

“London”, “BBC”, “The Beatles”, “The Royals”. Ten years later these results are mainly still relevant. This shows us endless power of clichéd images and appearances behind borders disappearance.

The myth of the Bloc Western Europe has been experiencing its problems handling multiculturalism within the integration process, but the two last decades have brought new challenges in learning about the new, emerging cultures of Eastern Europe. Since the Eastern bloc started to disintegrate, national cultures have become more visible. Today, Eastern Europe contains a large number of partly differentiated cultures. From behind the "Iron Curtain", much to the

surprise of Western Europe, a culturally rich and diverse world has suddenly appeared on the scene. The problems of Central and Eastern European are proverbially unintelligible in the West, because various races live there in an old mosaic pattern, often disregarding territorial conventions. No nation of Eastern Europe can claim to be “racially pure”. Each is a mixture of indigenous peoples and the “invaders” who periodically migrated across the region. Despite of the fact that geographically and ideologically the countries of Eastern Europe belonged to a single bloc for more than forty years, this does not mean that they became unified culturally. The cultural differences between them set them apart from each other just as much as cultural differences set the countries of Western Europe apart from each other. Empirical research proves, for example, that even clusters like the Baltic states cannot be treated on the basis of a common denominator. Intercultural research data have demonstrated that Latvia is nearest culturally to Sweden, Lithuania to Poland, while Estonia is nearest in cultural terms to Finland. The experience of living within a culturally diverse setting is not new to many communities, especially in the eastern part of Europe, where one could and still often can find even small villages with inhabitants drawn from two or three different nationalities.

It is important to realize that institutional unification does not automatically mean cultural unification. In this respect, it is interesting to note that there is, for instance, more similarity between Slovenia and Austria than between Austria and England. Slovenia may be physically in the East of Europe, but culturally feels itself to be in the West. The common institutional status of Austria and England on the other hand does not affect their differences in terms of culture. It is important to distinguish between the three semantic levels of belongingness: on the basis of ethnic identity, on the basis of cultural identity, on the basis of legal identity. If cultural diversity is "behind us, around us and before us" as Claude Levi-Strauss put it, we must learn how to manage it in such a way that it leads not to the clash of cultures but to their fruitful coexistence and to intercultural co-operation. European societies are multicultural and multiethnic, and their diversity, as reflected by the range of different cultures and traditions, is a positive and enriching factor. The diversity and richness of the national cultures make up the common European heritage. European culture is not merely the mechanical sum of those cultures nor some sort of common denominator, but a living interaction of its national elements. The questions of pluralism, multiculturalism, multilingualism and education must be grounded in the context of the basic values of equality, difference, respect and dignity.

This article was originally published in the journal of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS).

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EUROPE IN THE MIRROR

FINEHONED IRONY BREAKING THE THICKEST SWEDISH ICE Is there such a thing as a Swedish humour? The question, a French radio talk show asked me recently, intrigued me. Especially since the residents of my old country of “adoption”, France, often consider us Nordics stiff, serious and… yes, darn right boring. A close family member on the French side used to portray Sweden by imitating the noise of the howling wind followed by the ticking of an old, wallmounted clock. You don’t need loads of imagination to realise the potential for a complete absence of humour in that kind of environment.

We still love the classic comic duo Hasseåtage who mix music, political irony and blunt humour with a real sureness of aim. Especially unforgettable are the Lindeman series with its sharp but hilarious satire on anything from punk rock to imported football coaches.

> By Annette NOVAK

And I must admit, if you look at it from the outside, we have earned this image. Our country is dark, cold and covered in snow most of the year. The climate not only affects the content of our wardrobes but also the general mood. I mean, hey it’s kind of difficult to feel giggly and lightheaded when you rush between home and your snow-equipped, all terrain vehicle dressed like the Michelin-man!

16 1 6

Imported concepts come and go, one series might be trendy for a while just to be forgotten the next. But one humorous tradition that will outlive us all up here in the north is “The Norwegian stories”, a discipline entirely devoted to mocking our western neighbours. Readers on the continent may recognize this practice, similar to the French habit of making fun of the Belgians or Swiss. A typical Norwegian story would go something like this:

We still enjoy the low-key slapstick of Gösta Ekman’s Mr Papphammar (well, we who are over 40 and remember the guy!). And we have a boiling stand-up comedy scene that has produced names like Anna-Lena Brundin, Özz Nujen, Petra Mede, Björn Gustafsson and many more.

Even our fauna adds to the impression: we don’t have any cheeky monkeys or talkative parrots. We have the silent moose, a huge, four-legged cowlookalike with antlers. Ingmar Bergman’ s movies about death and darkness don’t make us seem hysterically jolly up here either.

One of the most celebrated additions these last decades is Killinggänget, a group of Swedish comedians who produced anything from movies to tv-series and stage shows, always with the biting irony that has become their trademark.

But after having indulged in this type of merciless self-critique, I couldn’t honestly answer the question on Swedish humour with anything but “yes”. Since we do laugh. I promise!

Compared to other cultures’ different kinds of humour, I believe the Swedish are more related to the British than, let’s say, the Americans. Though Swedes do enjoy the ironic “Dr House” as well as

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Seinfeld and John Cleese. And who can resist Frasier?

A Swedish hare had reached the Norwegian border, where he meets a Norwegian hare, fleeing in the Swedish direction. • Why are you fleeing? • It is the time of the year when they hunt moose in Norway. • But you are not a moose? • No, but tell that to the Norwegians. There is also the shorter variety: • What do they call intelligent people in Norway? • Tourists. Anyone who now feels that this tradition is somewhat non-politically correct, rest assured, in Norway they have another tradition. Something strange that they call “The Swedish stories”…

E U R O P E TA L K S T O B R U S S E L S

IN QUEST OF CONCRETE Laughter and happiness are emotions that people hold dear. They are undoubtedly the two things that people seek most throughout their lives, but also the two things that terrify them the most as well. For a simple reason: they are irrational and elusive. How to make them more tangible? What is it that makes us laugh? Where is happiness? How much are our daily blessings worth? Since the beginning of time many “scientists” have sought the answers. But does it really make sense to resolve all these questions? > By David MARQUIE and Laurent VAN BRUSSEL

What makes Europeans laugh? Still looking for… W Who would have bet a euro on the Germans being the funniest people in Europe? Or, at least, the ones that W laugh the most easily. This conclusion, which flies in the face of prejudices, is one of the breakthroughs from a project, launched in 2001 by Professor Richard Wiseman and the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to discover the world's funniest joke. People sent in their favourite jokes and rated the ones submitted by others. When listing the countries in the order of how funny they found the jokes, s Germany came first ahead of France, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Regarding the type of jokes G that people find funny, European countries tend to like gags that are a tad surreal or involve topics t which usually make them feel uneasy, such as death, illness and marriage. w

Mapping happiness You thought that heaven on earth was elusive? Or that happiness was located in paradise? According to Adrian White, an analytic social psychologist at the University of Leicester, you would be wrong. This new breed of mapmaker has created a global projection of well-being: the first-ever world map of happiness. Based on the findings from over 100 studies around the world involving 80 000 people, it focuses on three main factors: health, wealth, and access to education. The resultant, unexpected top five lists Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and the Bahamas as the happiest nations on the planet. However, this equation – with due respect to the midnight sun or Tyrolean folklore – corresponds more to a recipe for strike-it-rich capitalism than the key to human happiness…

Unconscious zillionaires We have been sitting on a giant nest egg for ages without realising it: our daily existence! Gazing out of the window as the sun shines, greeting your neighbours, pleasing a friend ... little moments like these are no longer priceless. Thanks to Steve Henry, life, love (hearing the three little words “I love you” is worth € 104 354 to you, you lucky devil) and laughing (€ 160 210) now come with their very own price tag. His new book “You Are Really Rich, You Just Don’t Know It Yet” is a veritable catalogue of all those little moments that have been repeated so many times that they have become run-of-the-mill. This fresh piece of writing is the result of a survey involving one thousand people in Great Britain, who were asked to rate their top 50 experiences. Unfortunately, beyond the freshness it brings, it also masks the old confusion between prices and values. Oscar Wilde remarked that a cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing…

You can buy this book for 8 euro. However it doesn’t say how much richer actually reading it will make you.

Think you can be funnier than a German? Healthy, wealthy and wise… and, therefore, happy? What do you regard as priceless? Tell us: editors@shiftmag.eu  N° 11  > SHIFT mag

EUROPE IN THE MIRROR

“A CLOWN HAS A KIND OF POSITIVE POWER, TO MAKE OTHER PEOPLE LAUGH”

> Interview by Juliane GAU

ShiftMag: Your family has been working now for seven generations in the circus, why did you choose to become a clown and not a trapeze artist like your father? Larible: It is not the man that chooses the clown, but the clown that choose the man. I was always been fascinated by clowns from an early age. When I was already eight years old I told my father that I wanted to become a clown. I love it when people around me laugh, although this got me into trouble at school. I seemed to spend a lot of time in school outside the classroom, as my teachers would tell me “David, you are really funny, but now leave the room!” A clown has a kind of positive power, to make other people laugh. A clown is a more anarchic artist, you have immense freedom. Take the buffoons, they could say anything to the king, things that no one else would dare say.

ShiftMag: What does “humour” mean to you? Larible: If you want to be a good clown, you have to be aware of the fine line between good taste and bad taste. Freedom doesn’t mean that you can be offensive or not

SHIFT mag >  N° 11 

sensitive. To be a clown requires good taste, and harmony between what you are doing and saying.

ShiftMag: On your website you wrote that “there is already a difference in the audience in towns only 15 km away from each other”. What is the difference between audiences? Larible: Everybody laughs in a different way. In Japan, for example, people put their hands in front of their mouths while laughing. In the US, people laugh out loudly, together with other noises (…). When people ask me about the best audience, I always answer, to their great surprise, “the Germans”! When Germans decide to see a show, they just want to have fun. A clown has to add something for everybody, it is a “game of seduction”, it always depends on the audience in front of him. He has to adapt to the audience, and not the other way round. There is already a difference between the afternoon and the evening audience. In the afternoon, there are many kids, and for them, a clown needs to be immediately funny, they are more visual. Kids all over the world are all the same, whether they live in Spain, Italy or China.

ShiftMag: Are people in different countries laughing at different jokes, or is there an “international sense of humour”? Larible: Some of my “humour” works all over world, and some

only works in specific countries. A gag on, let’s say baseball, would be completely accepted in the US. The same gag would not work in Germany, because baseball is just not in their culture. But a gag involving juggling with plates, when some of them get broken, works as “universal humour”, people know plates everywhere, so it is important what material to choose for a gag.

ShiftMag: The name of the current program at Roncalli is “All you need is laugh”. What is more important for people, to laugh or to love? Larible: Laugh and love are two different things, but they are also closely related. They are both related to “other people”, to not being alone, to feeling part of something. One can sit alone in a dark room crying, but one should not laugh alone, laughter relates to other people, it should be shared. > David Larible born in 1957 in Verona, Italy, is part of a family who have worked in the circus for the last seven generations. He has worked widely across Europe and the US. In 1999, he won the International Circus Festival of MonteCarlo’s “Golden Clown” award, which is a kind of “Oscar” in the circus world. He is married to the Mexican trapeze artist, America Olivera Jimenez. Their children Shirley and David Pierre are also circus artists. Larible is currently performing in Germany and other European countries for the Roncalli Circus, in their “All you need is laugh” show.

ShiftMag interviewed internationally renowned clown David Larible, about his views on humour and its diﬀerences across the world.

E U R O P E TA L K S T O B R U S S E L S

ENTROPA: SENSE OF HUMOUR OR NATIONAL PRIDE?

Of course there were ere many other factorss that contributed to o the controversy. The nature itself of the Czech Presidency, the fake international authorship (the work had supposedly been

HUB

The case of Entropa, David Černý’s sculpture for the previous Czech Presidency, was rather ather different. In January 2009 Europe’s urope’s media resounded to the diplomatic and social controversyy provoked by Černý’s artwork, which depicted epicted stereotypes of the 27 member states. Just two days before the launch unch event on 15 January, a formal protest had been presented by Bulgaria, garia, which was being portrayed ass a set of squat toilets. Two days later ater Slovakia, ‘the Hungarian sausage’ e’, did the same. A genuine affront to supposedly out-of-date national nal sentiments, or purely rely and simply a lack of any ny sense of humour?

The real originality lay elsewhere: Entropa exposed national stereotypes, publicly, officially, which is not something people expect from the

distant, grey, always politically correct and naive EU. The roots in history of national stereotypes go hand in hand with the creation of the ‘Nation State’ and, in some cases, the war propaganda that manipulated and opposed Europeans in the most simplistic way during the last two centuries. Ironically Entropa, in the framework of a Czech Presidency that was accused of being Eurosceptic, should not be underestimated as a historic landmark towards European integration. It was a satirical invitation to test the limitations of a questionable sense of national pride. Isn’t this the hitherto unreachable goal of the EU itself?

ieuc

On 1 July 2009, Sweden took over the EU Presidency and, like all previous presiding countries, set up a new exhibition inside the Council building in Brussels. If we were to ask Europeans, or even Brussels bureaucrats, they would certainly not know what the new décor looks like. For the record, it is based on the concepts of the environment, nature and handcraft: chairs, tables, bio-wool, handmade carpets and oil paintings representing typical Swedish landscapes.

created jointly by 27 artists from all member states), the accusation of fraud and the sculpture’s removal due to the election defeat of the Czech Government before the end of the Presidency. However, all these elements alone would not have provoked the outcry that swept through the media and fuelled conversations for weeks afterwards. The originality and artistic quality of Černý’s sculpture were nothing to write home about either.

> By Guadalupe PEREZ-GARCIA

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NEXT ISSUE  WINTER 2009

EUROPE IN THE MIRROR...

WHAT NOW?

It is customary to end the year on a positive note. And SHIFT Mag reckons that EUROSCEPTICISM need not always be a negative topic. Not convinced? See what you think in December after reading our “Europe in doubt” issue.

SHIFT mag >  N° 11 

BOOK REVIEW

WORDS OF WARM SUMMER NIGHTS AND DAYS Summer is the perfect time for travel, even if only through the pages of a book, or for that matter with a colony of cricketplaying penguins for company. SHIFT MAG has hand-picked for you: Penguins Stopped Play: Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World by Harry Thompson. > By Frédéric DARMUZEY

If you think cricket is too slow, too boring and too serious, it means you have never heard of or followed the Captain Scott Invitation XI amateur team. Harry Thompson, one of the founders of this club, became a television comedy producer, novelist and biographer. He wrote “Penguins Stopped Play – eleven cricketers take on the world”, a hilarious book about the incompetence of his former team and its world tour.

Thompson’s description of the Captain Scott Invitation XI’s games as well as the portraits of his teammates make the book original and funny. Thompson had a great sense of humour and self-deprecation: “Painstakingly, I taught myself to become a mediocre medium-pace bowler. I also learned one shot: the forward defensive. In so doing, I transformed myself from the runless slogger of our first season into a runless limpet, adhesion now my only virtue.”

supremely preposterous achievement, I thought. How thrillingly pointless. It would make all those men in The Guinness Book of Records who lie for hours in baths of baked beans seem positively serious-minded.”

The book also describes the team’s tours, and more particularly its last tour around the world. The Captain Scott XI embarked on a three-week holiday to play a game of cricket on every continent: “It occurred to me that I was about to become, in all probability, the first man in world history to play cricket on all seven continents. What a

Harry Thompson died of lung cancer in 2005. He managed to finish this book before his death. The end of the book is about his illness: the last pages are touching, moving, sad and funny at the same time. Harry Thompson retained his sense of humour despite his misfortune – a very brave man.

The whole tour and its ridiculous organisation is extremely absurd, amusing and intensely entertaining. This book is not only a good read for people who love sports and cricket, but may also appeal to those who like the English sense of humour.

Many opponents chose not to play against the Captain Scott XI anymore, because they were an insult to this sport, too easy to beat. However, although the members of the Captain Scott XI may have lacked aptitude, they loved the game. This is why they would either do their best or lose in style.

The team was created by students who had never played cricket before – and who, consequently, were not allowed to play for their college – together with students who could play but could not be bothered to practise with a serious team. Quickly known as the worst team in Oxfordshire, rubbish in every department of the game, it may have been the funniest team in the whole history of cricket. Its members’ witticism was certainly more finely honed than their cricketing skills.

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SHIFTING WITH Rudy Leonet Back to Belgium for this eleventh issue where we met Rudy Léonet, director of Pure FM, the French speaking public radio station dedicated to pop, rock and electro music. With its radio program Festivals Invasion it has become the right frequency to choose every summer to hear the sound of the best Belgian music festivals. We asked him about the festive phenomenon which doesn’t stop increasing in his small country. It also gave us the rise to see whether good people make good interviews… For more information: www.rtbf.be/purefm/ www.rtbf.be/festivals/

> Interview by Laurent VAN BRUSSEL

Music festivals are massively popular throughout Europe today. But is there anything that nonetheless makes the festivals in Belgium stand out?

Some festivals, like Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop, have been going for over 30 years. Have the audiences changed over the years?

Two things: the location of Belgium, which has always been a crossroads, for example between France and Germany, the UK and Italy; all groups know Belgium as somewhere they pass through, so why not stop off there?

Yes they have. People’s tastes have changed. Featuring bands from different musical genres on the same bill (rap and rock, r'n'b and folk, electro and metal) would have been inconceivable even a few years ago. Each festival set out initially to cater for a particular musical genre and tailored its line-up to an audience that appreciated only one genre. Today the cards have been re-dealt and it now seems natural to watch a series of artists from very different worlds perform one after the other and receive a warm ovation from a highly eclectic audience receptive to different styles.

The other element is the history binding festivals and our country. Back in the 1970s large-scale plans for festivals were already being hatched in Belgium with huge amounts of ambition and professionalism. In music circles, therefore, Belgium nowadays is a byword for festival organisation. The most striking example is the exceptional longevity and high calibre of Rock Werchter, which enjoys international fame. Could Belgium be described as a nation of festivals? In other words, is there a genuine festival culture behind the current fashion for such events? Are music festivals in Belgium part of the national heritage in the same way as beer, chips, the Manneken Pis, René Magritte and Jacques Brel? Most definitely, and not only when it comes to rock music. Theatre, dance and classical music are areas that can lay equal claim to the high calibre of their festivals in Belgium. The only area in which there is arguably still progress to be made is cinema, but then again the film industry very much has its own rules and ways of doing things.

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Festivals like Werchter have virtually doubled their ticket sales in the space of ten years. How do you account for this phenomenon? The rise in audience numbers is linked directly to the duration of the festivals. Festivals that ran for one day when they started now run for four days on the trot. That automatically quadruples the number of tickets sold. As a result, the way in which audiences experience festivals has also undergone a radical transformation. Festival-goers now settle in for not just four days, but also four nights; entire communities spring up, turning festivals into vibrant, living villages where people eat, drink, sleep, take a shower and also party on the campsite.

Each festival has its own history and audience. If an anthropologist were to study the main festivals in Belgium, what would he or she have to say? Today’s festivals are mass gatherings for which organisers cannot leave anything to chance when it comes to giving the paying customer more and more extensive guarantees of professionalism. However, you can only bring so many people together in one place when you have a good mix of very different ages, backgrounds, cultures and geographical origins. But, of course, some festivals nonetheless retain their own unique ‘feel’ in keeping with their reputation. A very young crowd at Dour, plenty of families at the Francofolies, a more Bohemian and hippy crowd at Couleur Café and Esperenzah, a more savvy and hip audience at Pukkelpop... Do the festivals (in terms of organisation, style, audiences), as is often the case in Belgium, show the same Flanders/ Wallonia/Brussels split you often find within other areas of Belgian life? You might possibly identify a festival’s linguistic slant specifically in terms of the names on the festival line-up. Few or no artists singing in French will be on the bill at the major Flemish festivals. Similarly Flemish acts (e.g. Gorki) can top the bill at Pukkelpop (Hasselt), for example, but are totally unknown in Wallonia.

and the “Festivals Invaders” I don’t know if we should be talking about overload, but more about an industrialisation of the show and the music. We are a long way today from the friendly local organisers who brought together a handful of fans around just the one stage and a single refreshment stand.

If you had to keep just three festivals, which ones would you vote for and why? Ardentes, Pukkelpop, Dour, Esperenzah. Their line-ups are creative and the vibe at those festivals is still on a more human scale. In terms of newcomers, who have been your favourites during the summer of 2009? Little Boots and Coeur de Pirate. •••

Do the festivals play a genuine role as springboard for (local) Belgian bands? How many Belgian bands manage to earn a place up alongside the big-name international acts?

How do you see the current evolution? Are we heading in the right direction? Aren’t we facing commercial overload? Festivals are commercial undertakings. The production costs are astronomical, and the groups’ appearance fees ever higher, all of which has a direct impact on the ticket price.

No, because for a young group playing at a festival is already a sign that they have ‘made it’. All the hard work to get noticed has been done earlier on at local concerts and during radio appearances that help to build a reputation, which in turn might open the door to playing at festivals.

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SNAPSHOTS

REBUILDING CASTLES IN SWEDEN

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E U R O P E TA L K S T O B R U S S E L S

Go and meet people in the vicinity of Stockholm who make new pastimes out of old legends. > Photography by Fabien GÉRARD

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EUROPE TALKS TO BRUSSELS

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Most read articles • Postscript February 2009 • Visions of Europa • Shifting with... Alain Hubert • Hard times for immigration in the EU • Moving along: end of the line or pit stop?

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