The post Europe’s migration crisis – Five years on first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The title is based on the brilliant movie with Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” The story is about a troubled teenager, Kevin Khatchadourian (Miller), who, one day, takes a gun and begins to shoot everyone at his school. When he finishes the massacre, the police arrest him and take him to prison. His mother, Eva (Swinton), looks back at her memories when Kevin was a child and trys to understand what went wrong and why her boy did something like that. Can you see the parallel story here?

Imagine Europe as the school, Europe which is Winston Churchill, Joseph Bech, Robert Schuman, and the other fellows imagined.

They wanted a Union based on respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law. These used to be the #European Union’s fundamental values. Well, now imagine contemporary European leaders as Kevin. They have the gun and they start shooting democracy. The gun changes every time. There is the machine gun which kills people with austerity and cruel measures in favor of global corporations. There is the machete, which kills people with #Police Violence every time they protest about something. Have you made the match or you need more help? Ok, let’s examine certain examples.

Kevin took his gun
It does not matter if you are left or right winged; the only thing that matters is to live with dignity. Politicians who controlled the last few years Europe, forced southern countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece to take measures such as pension cuts, public spending cuts, and more recession for everyone.

Also, they convince local politicians to sell pieces of lands, airports, public services, and everything which was profitable. What is the result? If you check the Eurostat’s graphs you will realize that the result is suicides, poverty, and injustice. I forgot to mention that banks and big corporations are richer after these ‘reforms.’ They called all these cruel measures ‘reforms’ in order to make people believe that this is the only way. So, you already have Kevin with his gun.

Kevin in the school
It does not matter if you are in favor of Catalonia independency; the only thing that matters is to have your beliefs and be able to protest about them. Police enforcement to beat citizens is not a ‘European’ image. Skirmishes between local people and the police are what everyone saw the last few days in Spain. There is a prime minister, who declined any conversation with these people, his government suffers from corruption, and he took cruel ‘reforms’. Now, you have Kevin in the school, killing his fellow students.

Students are dead
It does not matter if you are a Christian or a Muslim; the only thing that matters is to have a home, live in peace, and feel safe. Solidarity used to be a key term in Europe. However, leaders from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland decided not only to not help Italy with the refugee crisis, but they closed their borders. They left people to die outside these borders, and they said a big ‘no’ to sharing the burden. Can you see students’ corpses around the school?

The point is that if European leaders continue these policies, one thing is sure; that there will be no Europe in the future. It is high time for these politicians to change the course of the boat. It is time to bring more democracy and more solidarity. Eva represents the future leaders. They won’t be able to understand why nowadays European leaders allow this situation to destroy the Union. What do we prefer? A Miller with a gun, or a Miller doing his homework and eating dinner with his mother?

Source: http://uk.blastingnews.com/opinion/2017/10/we-need-to-talk-about-europe-identity-in-crisis-002068655.html

The post We Need To Talk About Europe: Identity in crisis first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Long before Larry passed away early this year, he wrote about these cycles. How they are accelerating and coming together in a way not seen since the late 1800s. And how they are likely to increase in intensity each and every year all the way into late 2020.

Europe almost perfectly embodies everything Larry predicted. It certainly has not escaped the geopolitical problems engulfing the world. Lately, it seems like it’s enduring more than its fair share.

The main reason — the European Union’s loose policies toward legal immigration. And a new influx of economic and war refugees is being associated with a rising number of deadly terrorist attacks.

Now, I’m not saying that all migrants or refugees are terrorists or that they even have the potential to become one. My point is simply that the EU’s immigration policies make it easier for a potential terrorist to cross EU borders by posing as a migrant.

Just last week, Barcelona, Spain, was one of the latest cities to experience a terrorist attack. A van in La Rambla Square mowed down pedestrians, leaving 13 dead and more than 100 injured.

Then in Turku, Finland, migrants seeking asylum stabbed 10 people, killing two. This happened after one of the suspects found out his status had been turned down.

And these are just the most-recent headlines. The European refugee situation is clearly out of control. And will most likely only get worse before it gets better.

Is the European Union’s immigration policy destroying its unity? You bet.

Cash-strapped … and, in many cases, near-bankrupt … countries in southern Europe are paying a huge price for the EU’s loose immigration policies. And this has led to growing conflict throughout Europe.

The South’s eastern counterparts (Poland and Hungary) are flat out refusing to take in refugees. The move has sparked hostility among other EU members, with some leaders calling for sanctions against the countries who refuse to open their borders.

Take Italy, for example. The country is the poster child for the looming sovereign-debt crisis. It recently saw a record surge in refugees from North Africa. Italy has accepted nearly 100,000 refugees in the first six months of the year. And I expect that number to rise.

And not surprisingly, Italy has the lowest capacity to absorb migrants among the major EU economies. That’s according to a new report published by Goldman Sachs.

From the indicators Goldman uses, Italy appears to be the least economically and socially integrated of all the EU bloc countries. These findings are noteworthy considering both this year’s surge in trans-Mediterranean migration to Italy and the country’s dire public-finance situation.

And when Italy can no longer handle the load, I expect other cash-strapped EU nations to take the overflow, including Spain and Greece.

And let’s not forget about the election next year that could change the landscape once again …

Italy’s migration crisis will be a central issue when the country goes to the polls next May. Italians are growing resentful of how economic hardships have been amplified by the influx of immigrants. All of which could lead to a rise in nationalism.

The bottom line: Italy and other over-indebted EU countries are being pushed to their financial limits. They cannot possibly survive with this burden alone, as money for their own citizens must now be diverted to the refugees. All the while, the fat cats in Brussels refuse any monetary support.

I expect the migration from North Africa and the Middle East into Europe will not only continue but also to intensify.

This will cause both economic and social harm to the European Union. And over the next few years, I expect the situation to get worse. Indeed, this could be one of the catalysts that ultimately breaks apart the union.

As the European Union becomes engulfed in the migrant crisis, the region’s debt problems with come to a head – leading to a terrific buying opportunity for U.S. equities as we will see money flows leave Europe and head across the Atlantic to U.S. shores.

Best wishes,
David Dutkewych

Source: https://www.moneyandmarkets.com/europes-refugee-crisis-continues-deepen-88218

The post Europe’s Refugee Crisis Continues to Deepen first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.