Trump might have done Europeans a huge favor by reminding them they have to fight for their own future themselves

Sir, today, May 29, is Memorial Day in the US. That is the day I walk down to the World War II Memorial in Washington, to try to thank those Americans who rescued my polish father from the concentration camp of Buchenwald more than 70 years ago. Had they not done that, I would not be, it is as simple as that.

But today I read Patrick McGee’s and George Parker’s “Europe can no longer rely on US partnership, warns Merkel” all the result of “a new transatlantic rift that has emerged after two days of international summits with President Donald Trump last week.” 

Is that true? No! Even when the partnership in World War II depended on very few, in my mind on Roosevelt and Churchill, any long-term partnership of this nature cannot really depend on what temporary leaders opine. If it did, it never existed.

There are of course general concerns. Like should I ask the Americans in the Mall to forgive Europeans for not showing the same interest in carrying their fair share of the defense load? Like, in these times of outsourcing, are the European and American manufacturing sectors able to respond somewhat similar than America did when it built up what Roosevelt called the Arsenal of Democracy, and that without it would have given the war a totally different outcome? Like, in these times of drones doing more and more of the fighting, are our soldiers capable to keep sufficiently of that fighting spirit that at the end of the day will be needed? And there is more… like the huge public debt loads and other minutia.

Sir, and if Chancellor Angela Merkel is sort of indirectly excluding the UK from the European defense, does that mean perhaps Britain should begin thinking about the need of promoting some English Language Empire as a substitute?

I do agree though 100% with Ms Merkel when she says: “We have to fight for our own future ourselves.” That is always the case, no matter what partnership or alliance you find yourself in. Merkel should reflect on the irony that Trump might have done her and all Europeans a great favor of reminding them of that simple fact of life.

@PerKurowski

Beware of Brexit EU. Britain might not use Euros, but that does not mean the Euro is totally independent of Britain

Sir, Tim Harford writes: “Imagine detaching your steering wheel and flamboyantly discarding it as you race headlong towards your opponent. Victory would be guaranteed. Nobody would drive straight at a car that cannot steer out of the way.”, “Brexit as a game of Chicken” January 28. 

It reminded me that in 1998, on the eve of the Euro, I wrote an Op-Ed titled “Burning the bridges inEurope”, because “in all the abundant legislation that regulates this process, there is no mention whatsoever of how to manage the withdrawal or future regret of any of the union’s members.” That sure was something like discarding the steering wheel.

But looking back at the Euro now, I have also come to believe that part of the glue that has helped the Euro hold together, has to do with the feeling that Britain in EU would be able to help arbitrate and reduce the frictions between Euro’s so dissimilar members.

Therefore the Eurozone should very carefully consider what a bad Brexit would do, not solely to the EU, but also to the Euro. 

Sir, Hartford also writes: “May badly needs to sign a deal with someone –Trump, perhaps, or China’s president Xi Jinping. But neither Trump nor Xi badly need to sign a deal with her. This is not a great starting point.”

I am not so sure about that. The way Trump seems to be digging himself into a hole, he might very well need to sign a big deal with someone. Perhaps “A New English Language Empire”?

@PerKurowski

Could EU survive if it wanted to decide on an official common language different to English?

Sir, Gideon Rachman writes: “any Brits who feel nostalgic for the Anglosphere, and a little resentful about Mr Obama’s ‘back of the queue’ comments, might reflect how much they still benefit from the cultural power of the US. The traditional Anglo-sphere may be in disrepair. But a different sort of Anglosphere has emerged in Brussels, with English now the common language of the EU institutions”, “Obama and the end of the Anglosphere” April 26. Here some varied comments.

It is surprising to hear an Englishman hold that the importance of English is a result of “the cultural power of the US”. Will Rachman get clobbered or is this a generally held view?

With respect to English let me ask, when does a language become so important that it does not belong to anyone more? Scary eh?

So, if Brexit happens, should EU have the right to keep English? And if the answer to that is no, or EU having been rejected does not want it, what language would win? A German-French War? Could EU survive that?

And in regard to Obama’s “back of the queue’, and though I am not a Brit, I was surprised no one asked him: “Are you telling us it is easier for the US to negotiate with Germans and French than with Englishmen?”

Finally Sir, let me repeat two related questions that I made in a recent letter

America is home for Americans. Is not Brexit just a symptom of Europe not aspiring to be home of Europeans?

How many at FT wish one day for Englishmen to call Europe home, as Americans call America home?

PS. Or could one of you even be dreaming of calling Asia home? L

​PS. A New English Language Empire

@PerKurowski ©

FT, for you is an English Language Empire, a too attractive or a too contemptuous idea?

Sir, even if soon two decades ago I wrote an Op-Ed titled “A new English Language Empire” that does not mean I have suggested such thing.

That said I do not understand why, even though you qualify it with that Obama “does not have to spell it out explicitly”, you argue he should “legitimately make it clear that a post-Brexit UK will not be able to rely on an alternative transatlantic or Anglospheric framework of trade and security to replace its connections with Europe.” “Obama tells home truths over the EU referendum” April 21.

Is it because you might feel such possibility could be dangerously attractive and therefore stimulate a Brexit, or is it because you find such possibility contemptuous?

I do not come from an English speaking country but, if Englishman, and if Brexit happens, then I would certainly look with interest at the possibility of a Brentrance into such an Empire.

PS. If Brexit, should EU have the right to keep English, or do you see a fight breaking out between German and French? 

@PerKurowski ©

If there is a Brexit, will EU throw out English and adopt German or French or Spanish as its main language?

Sir, I refer to Martin Wolf’s “Britain’s friends are right to fear Brexit” April 20.

I reread it several times, and of course, if it is Brexit, and nothing more, then UK has the right to be very concerned about the consequences. But, it doesn’t have to be that way.

For instance Britain could try to explore the possibilities of strengthening the bond that the English language represents. For instance when Wolf remind us of how “US resources and will sustained the west during the second world war and the cold war”, I have to ask myself if that was more because of Europe, or because of England, and frankly I do not really know the answer.

Also Europe itself suffers severe existential problems. As you Sir and Martin Wolf know, I believe that the risk aversion implicit in the risk weighted capital requirements for banks basically amounts to a decision to lie down and die. And so if Brexit would come hand in hand with a Baselexit, then surely UK would come out as a winner.

Wolf is right that the UK would always have the option of existing the EU, but our kids and our children cannot afford to wait for better possibilities to find jobs that those lousy bank regulations permit.

As with the wall Trump wants to build, you are never ever really sure on which side of it you rally want to find your family.

PS. Linguistic determinism is the idea that language and its structures limit and determine human knowledge or thought, as well as thought processes such as categorization, memory, and perception.

PS. By the way could EU keep as its main language a language of a non-member? J

PS. During my two-short-long years as an Executive Director of the World Bank, I don’t recall a more enjoyable moment than listening to a colleague, the Executive Director for France, Pierre Duquesne's wonderful spirited defense of the budget allocation for translating English documents into French. Languages are indeed of utmost importance to some.

@PerKurowski ©

In Miami Florida USA, when stores display “Hablamos inglés”, that evidences the global importance of English

Sir, during my two short/long years as an Executive Director of the World Bank, I don’t recall a more enjoyable moment than listening to a colleague’s, the Executive Director for France, Pierre Duquesne's wonderful spirited defense of the budget allocation for translating English documents into French. And that is why I felt a streak of bad conscience when I caught myself discreetly smiling when reading Jeremy Paxman’s “Voilà — a winner in the battle of global tongues” April 8.

Of course English has won the battle. It is such an important language that even in Miami Florida USA, the stores display signs that read: “Hablamos inglès”, “We speak english”.

What has me a bit surprised though, is that I have not yet heard Mr Paxman suggesting an English Language Empire, as a Brentrance to Brexit.

That Empire would, Professor Higgins allowing, at least save itself most of the costs of translations.

@PerKurowski ©