Tuesday 3 November 2015

The problem with today´s politicians: " If no one is in charge, no one can be held accountable"

Markus Somm has written an excellent article in the German blog Die Achse des Guten.

Here is my quick translation of part of it:

Perhaps nothing has made more clear what´s wrong with the present day politicians, than the refugee crisis. Maybe it took this tragedy to open the eyes of the citizens of Europe. Too many politicians enjoy being generous, to help people and to save the world, mostly with money that is not theirs, mostly with decisions the consequences of which they must never wear because they lie far in the future. They often say 'yes, rarely say no.That as so many politicians in the refugee crisis almost instinctively call for international coordination, makes one suspicious. It is symptomatic. When something is "coordinated", as it is always said, it means that a great number of people take part in the decision making - or not - in any case so many that nobody longer understands who has decided what. In other words, who is responsible for what. The present generation of politicians have masterfully managed to blur responsibilities: therefore they are so happy to avoid the decision-making processes of the nation state, where they are clearly seen as rulers, and take refuge in the higher spheres of the supranational, where all and no one are responsible. Who decided? Who's to blame?Nobody knows. Is it the EU? The Commission, the Council of Ministers, the UN and the OECD, or the G-8? Or is it the parliament? If no one is in charge, no one can be held accountable. Borders determine a territory, but they also show where the responsibility lies. Therefore borders are less popular with some politicians. In the EU the view, to know no limits, under the heading Schengen, was made almost a raison d'etre. The more difficult it is now to defend these borders, even the Schengen external borders that had never been lifted on paper.

How true!

If you speak German, you can read the entire article here.


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