What the Hell’s Gone Wrong?

Europe is Dying

The recent series of blog entries have left me in no uncertain terms facing East.

I dont recognise the country where I spent my youth. I dont recognise the people, the social mores, the moral standards, or the politics. I no longer visit Britain because it is not only no longer my home, but it is a strange place that I no longer recognise.

The trouble is that I no longer recognise Western Europe. I used to sleep rough in Paris, and I used to wander around Spain in a haphazard sort of way, and I travelled and lived in Eastern Europe, but I no longer recognise those countries either.

Maybe there are a few pockets of Spain that I do still recognise, but they are way down south. And maybe there are a few pockets hidden amongst the Picos.

One thing is screamingly obvious. The old order is collapsing before us.

I have made a few trips back to where I used to live in Eastern Europe, but I’ve forgotten the Russian I learned, and the people I used to know in Hungary have either moved or died. And the last time I visited Bulgaria it seemed just as depressing as when I used to visit when I was twenty.

I’m looking for alternatives. I want to move to a happy country. The last happy country I’ve lived in recently was Nicaragua, although I’m told that place is on the slide.

Central America is a strange place. There is certainly variety, a nice climate, and I can still speak the language, just about, and when I was last there things were jolly and happy, but whether that is still the case is another matter.

West Asia is out of the question. It is a war zone from one end to the other. Unfortunately, the current animosities are not going to go away any time soon. The damage done by Israel is going to fester for generations.

I have considered India, or the islands scattered across the Indian ocean, and Malaysia. The trouble is, I am out of date. I have hardly travelled at all over the course of the last decade.

Has anybody any suggestions?

This is what I’m looking for.

I want a benign climate. That should be easy to achieve. But I also need somewhere to invest. I come with old fashioned views of the world. I expect to live somewhere, make my money somewhere else, and be domiciled in a third place. That gives me some serious problems.

First, I am not keen on being poor. That means any new financial ventures need to be well away from Europe and North America. Both areas are already bankrupt.

I dont think the USA is going to wipe itself out, but it is going to go through some tough times, and I dont think I can handle the politics and lawlessness of that country.

The big trouble is that although Russia is a stable financial area, with a solid financial base resting on commodities which the rest of the world wants and needs, it is currently using an unloved currency, and since I have a British passport I would probably be unwelcome, and the climate can be seriously hostile.

I do regret the ingrained fear or hatred the British harbour for the Russians. It all seems to go back to the Zinoviev letter, and wasn’t helped by that nasty piece of work, Joseph Stalin. But people do tend to live in the past, and with the appalling level of education across Western Europe, the people are regressing into Campesinos. Of course, peasant thought is all based upon the past. “If it was good enough for my dad, it’s good enough for me,” is the basis of the basic peasant mentality. Which is why a peasant society never manages to rise above ingrained poverty.

Since it is exactly a hundred years since the Daily Mail published that spoof letter supposedly from Mr Zinoviev, maybe it is time we had another look at it.

The gist of the letter was that the Labour Party was seeking to do a deal with the communists and bring revolution to the UK.

It was, of course, a put-up job, initiated from MI6, which is where all the current Russia bashing is coming from. I think the UK secret service is a trifle behind the times. I dont think they’ve noticed there is no communist party in Russia these days. Russia is a solidly industrial capitalist country, and has been for at least the last three decades. It is also embarrassingly old fashioned in its return to a reliance upon christianity, something which died in the West decades ago.

I have always found the Russian people to be very friendly and pleasant. And I’m glad I managed to take my friend Julie to St Petersburg a few years ago. It is still one of my favourite cities, and if the climate in that part of the world was a little more kind I would seriously consider moving there. Whether I could resurrect my creaky Russian is another matter.

For the moment I intend staying where I am, right on the edge of Europe. I am in two minds to escape back to Spain. If I did I would move to somewhere between Jerez and Cadiz. There is something special in that part of the world that resonates with me. It is also very close to Africa. Heck, parts of Spain are actually in Africa, and I do have fond memories of living in that part of the world. When I was in my late teens mother and I lived on the Old Mountain which is probably a suburb of Tangier these days. Back then it was a good walk back to the main square. I dread to think how built up it is now. After all, the population of Morocco has increased more than four-fold since I used to live there.

Let me see. Would it do? It is not in the EU, and it would be a good thing to escape that mess. They speak French, which I can still manage. The food is good. The weather is very pleasant. It even feels like home. As a kid we visited a school-friend’s aunt who was a missionary in Meknes. And I spent a month as a goat herd there. Plus living with mother in a rather nice house on El Monte Viejo.

I fancy living in a BRICS+ country. I must check whether Morocco is thinking of joining. I do think that is the future. I feel I am currently living in a dying civilisation, and that is depressing. Western Europe really does smell of decay, and what is going to happen to those collapsing fiat currencies? Sterling is not doing well but the euro is tanking even faster. That is not good for my future happiness. Real estate prices are still rising here in the Algarve, but I dont think they have much further to go. I’m sure it is a great place to escape to, but are people from other parts of the continent going to have the money to re-locate and pay these high prices? I think we are close to the end of the glory days.

I am unsettled, confused, and not at all happy. And what is worse is that I am surrounded by people in a similar state of mind. This was not how I had envisioned my old age.

What the hell’s gone wrong?