How we could benefit from multiculturalism in Europe.

I am Greek and I live permanently in Dublin, Ireland. Out of curiosity and excitement I decided to travel in Europe a few years ago, but fate had its plans as they say and I decided to stay abroad permanently.

Before I decided to leave home, I always wanted to see a modernized Greece, cosmopolitan and "colorful" or multicultural as we call it. Not because it is 'fashionable' in Europe. But because I personally believe that as a country we need to come more in contact with other nationalities and learn to think as Europeans and citizens of the world, if we'd like to take advantage of globalization and its advantages.

Globalization is a fact now and all nations are preparing for the new "status quo" on our planet. It has actually started centuries ago with the European conquests and colonization but has grown to its present form after several wars and ideological conflicts.

But multiculturalism gives advantages in a society only when governments manage the changes in the society positively, fairly and always with the contribution of public opinion. When I started traveling to Europe, I noticed that most European countries had failed in many points in the consolidation of a successful multicultural society. This does not mean that the idea is multiculturalism is wrong. Just badly managed in Europe.

And this happens for decades, which only resulted in the rise of many far right groups in many countries of our continent, the alienation and isolation of immigrants and their "ghettoization", but also the recent criminal terrorist attacks in Norway.

When I visited Belgium and saw that the majority of young men of Moroccan origin were unemployed and relied on the unemployment welfare for their survival, then I started to think that this can happen in Greece and many other countries. What is the point of giving approval to a large number of immigrants to enter your country, if you treat them like second class citizens with not the same rights in employment.

I began to understand that such style of multiculturalism is nothing but a modern kind of slavery. Immigrants never become members of the society where they live, even if they gain citizenship. This makes them more vulnerable to exploitation and condemn them to make a low-paid jobs in society.

Many of them start to exploit the "system" and are then regarded as parasites from the rest of the indigenous population. And of course with any economic crisis, immigrants and their mistakes or the problems that they bring in a society are the first to be addressed. The main issue then is why a country allows a large number of migrants in the country when it has not the ability or intention to give them equal rights with the rest of the population.

Personally I think that if a country wants to take advantage of multiculturalism, it should integrate migrants in its society equally. With all the political and social rights that every citizen has and equal treatment from the start. Once someone enters a country legally, pays taxes and contributes in this way in the economy of this country, he or she should have a voice in how those taxes are used.

Besides the real benefit of immigration comes when we do not silence the immigrants and thereby exclude some possible new ideas and opinions on the society we live in, or even criticism of it. Of course I'm talking about legal immigration, not illegal. Because illegal immigration contributes to the human trafficking crime through smuggling, with the only purpose of human exploitation.

Illegal immigration should not in any case be acceptable in a society. For the simple reason that encourages events such as violent and illegal smuggling of women from third countries outside of Europe or the E.U. to exploit them in prostitution.

A society should create a fully functional and controlled immigration policy in order to attract the right people with the right skills and education. In numbers that would not allow future ghettoization and unemployment, but depending on the needs of each country for skilled or unskilled labor.

But perhaps another issue for the inability of some ethnic groups to be integrated in a society, is the country of their origin. Some nationalities face difficulties in being part in the society they live in and this may be due to factors of discrimination and racism, but also prejudices or cultural issues and differences deriving from their home country's culture and heritage.

Mainly nationals from certain Muslim countries of Asia, face difficulties when it comes to marry the culture of their home country with their adopted European culture and to become part easier and quickly of the society in which they chose to live in. The result is cultivated hatred and antipathy towards their host country.

Possible solutions are to help the democratization of the countries of their origin through various institutions and programs and the participation of the EU, its member states and the countries of their origin. Alternatively, cutting  the number of immigrants from these countries and search for more compatible workforce that is closer to European culture. For example, many South American states.

And finally, new ways for integrating those immigrants through various programs, to enable them to understand the culture of their adopted country and to bring all communities living in it more closely. The arts and sport are two suitable instruments that could be used for strengthening the relations between migrants and the native population.

My personal view is that we should have less immigration in Europe, but with full integration of immigrants into our society and with equal rights as citizens from the beginning. The immigration of mankind existed and will always exist, playing a role in creating all the great cultures of our planet, including the Greek. To believe that it will just stop one day is simply silly.

This of course does not mean that we must open all borders and let immigration in our country uncontrolled. If this ever happens, it will be in a utopian global society with all countries having the same standard of living and people migrating simply for pleasure, or to study.

At the moment this has not been achieved. And I am neither willing to "downgrade" the Greek or European culture and lifestyle as many believe. I do not want to alter, as many ultra nationalists claim,  the lifestyle and our culture with the arrival of foreigners among us. Only to enrich the Greek and European culture with that of other nationalities. But this can only be achieved with a responsible and controlled immigration policy, which at present, Greece and Europe in general have yet to create.

The root of this situation lies with the interests and the greed of people who want to exploit other human beings and the unending desire for power and money. A common European immigration policy would be an institution of great help, but like anything else on our continent is very difficult to achieve unanimously.

Especially when the interests of different countries are in conflict and in many cases still keep their colonial past flavor. Too bad because those who lose out are ourselves. The USA, Canada and Australia have built successful working immigration policies that attract workers with the qualifications they want from the countries they want. In Europe in contrast we are left with mainly unskilled workers that enter our countries, and in many cases with very little education.

Some wonder why immigration in Europe has failed. But after all, all we ask for is cheap labor and in fact slaves to do the jobs we do not want to do. How you integrate a slave in your society? What benefits can you expect from them except their tireless work? But when you do not need them anymore what happens to them? You just enroll them in unemployment benefit schemes for the foreseeable future, with the hope that they and the economic and social problems they present will just disappear as if by magic.

With such attitudes in Greece and Europe in general, I believe that not only we are not going to solve the various problems that concern us on this issue, but that we certainly have no idea what we want to do and what we could have.

What has been achieved with austerity in Europe so far?

Last June the Greeks were called to vote on a new government. These last elections were actually given a referendum outlook by many in Europe; it was decision time for Greece and the Greeks had to decide if they wanted to continue being in the euro-zone and vote for a pro-austerity party, or risk to be kicked out of this special "club" if they voted for the radical leftist party, Syriza.

Under such pressure and with the use of lots of propaganda and scaremongering during the electoral debates, the Greeks decided to swallow the bitter pill of austerity in order to remain in the euro-zone.  Now the latest reports coming from many European officials and "analysts" say that Greece will leave the euro-zone anyway and in fact there are more austerity cuts announced for this winter! Are they joking us?

The Greek people can just hold their heads above water and they can not take any further reductions of their salaries. In fact austerity was so unsuccessful in Greece, simply because it did not push for any constructive reforms in the country, like the much needed tax system reform. The taxation system of Greece is rather outdated and purely unfair! The only thing that austerity has managed to achieve in Greece is the rise of far right and far left groups in the country's political life, the demolition of the Greek people's living standards and the total sell out of all national assets of Greece.

So excuse me, but to me this was the only reason that some wanted to impose austerity on the Greeks in the first place; the take over of all Greek natural resources and national assets and of course as someone had to pay for the damages in the banking system and cover the black holes that were created by the greedy attitude of the European bankers, well our elites chose the weakest links. Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Cyprus!! This is a disgrace!

Another thing that this austerity and financial crisis have achieved is the total division of the European population and the European public opinion. Our "national" media- the how national they are is another discussion- have been playing one nation against each other just like the Markets and the rating agencies like Moody's have. And of course that is for a reason! Divide and rule politics. Instead of mentioning the real cause of this crisis, the American irresponsible finances for the past few decades and the weaknesses in the euro-zone itself, they found it easier to scapegoat a few nations starting with the weakest.

The euro-zone was set up wrongly. It is not even a monetary union, rather just a currency union. Many countries with different economies just using the same currency! And the cracks became apparent only during the crisis. The euro-zone lacks a strong central bank and government and everyone was playing by their own rules, exposing themselves and all their partners who used the same currency to grave dangers and risks. Instead of naming those two factors our media blamed the Greeks. Now that Cyprus has also asked for a bail-out, a country that had a very strong currency and economy in the past and Moody's have threatened to downgrade Luxembourg, Germany and Holland, now our leaders have decided that something must be done about it....At last!! It is a case of when the fire is coming to your doorstep, the you realize that you have to do something to put it out, after it has already consumed the houses of your neighbors.

Meanwhile 2,000 Greeks are committing suicide each year because of the austerity and the economic crisis. That counts to a small town disappearing in Greece and in Europe if you like every year! And our leaders are still debating about it, they know what needs to be done they just don't want to do it! Because some will lose their interests and comfortable easy money and power. I wonder how our leaders can sleep during the night! I haven't seen a worse case of apathy, negligence, selfishness, stupidity and greed in Europe's recent history!

Will we ever see a true European solidarity?  And I do not mean more bail-out loans or money thrown into Greece and the other 4 EU states that have received similar "help" by the EU/IMF. It would be a case of solidarity if the loans came interest free. But now that there are high rates imposed on the loans, meaning that the lender countries will actually make profit out of these loans I see no solidarity there but an opportunity. And now that it became too costly, they just want to get rid of Greece out of the euro-zone, again for the detriment of the Greek people and their benefit.

I will bring the example of Italy. Many, many years ago, it was actually the South of the country that was rich and prosperous. After many wars that the country had endured things have changed, the industries have moved to the North and now it is the North that is the richest part. Why? Because simply they have won a few wars and they were favored by the victories of others. Something similar happened in the whole of Europe. It was always the South of the continent that was more prosperous and developed. After WW2 though things have changed dramatically and now most industrial activity on the European continent is gathered on the "North."

No, I am not suggesting that we should take all the industries back to the South, because that would mean a poor North again and we do not want that. What we would want though would be a fair and equal distribution of wealth, opportunities and industries throughout Europe, so that everybody can prosper and there will be no need for rich countries to carry the weight of the poorer ones. Our media have made this crisis all about the rich countries paying the mistakes of the poor, corrupt and dysfunctional states, something that is far from true. The crisis is about the interests of the rich few in the rich few countries and the preservation of the current status quo. Now why they are trying to mislead their citizens and make them think that it was the Greeks who caused all that and they should pay, well it is obvious; someone has to pay for all of that and it ain't gonna be the richer or strongest ones!

The only way to gain support by their citizens is this, but what they are actually doing is the widening of the gap between our communities, the mistrust and the lack of support for each other. How can you create a united Europe on this? How do our leaders believe that by allowing this to happen, the European project will eventually succeed, when the citizens think so bad of one another? Or do they actually want it to succeed? The Americans and the British must be rubbing their hands out of joy, as this is exactly what they wanted. To destroy any unification or harmonization in Europe, thus a Europe united challenging their hegemony. How can our leaders not be able to see this and do something about it?

To conclude to me this crisis exposed the real face of the economic system that we have created, the role of USA, Britain but also of the other European "powers" like Germany, France and their accolades like Finland, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Luxembourg. Each to their own, allowing the Markets and the rating agencies to make huge profits out of the unfair competition against each other, the lack of unity, solidarity and the lack of trust. They play, they gain, we pay, go hungry and inevitably die! Not the Europe I want, not the Europe I have dreamed of!

The Property and the Power of the Church in Europe.

During the past few years of the economic crisis, many weak points of the Greek society became apparent and obvious. All the cracks, all the mishandling. Of course the only ones who were asked to pay the price were the people who had nothing to do with it in the first place; the ordinary Greek families, the Greek middle class.

The rich elite, the Greek politicians and all their supporters or accomplices were not affected. Them and another surprising group of people, the Greek Orthodox Church! The Orthodox Church of Greece, like most Churches in Europe and the world, do not pay taxes to the state. I think because obviously they think that their property is not of this world but divine, given to them by God himself!

In Greece particularly, if you want to become a monk or a nun you got to have property. If you want to join a monastic sect, you got to offer them all property you have, all land and money. If you do not have anything to offer, well usually they let you wait or you never join. A friend of my aunt has MS (multiple sclerosis) and is bound to a wheelchair. His is devoted to God and one of his greatest wishes is to join a monastery and serve the God he believes in. He wants to find a purpose in his life. But no monastery will give him this satisfaction. He lives on social welfare you see.

The Greek Church owns a huge number of sites on Greek soil. And according to Greek law that favors this medieval system, any land that is owned by the Church can not be developed unless there is a church built in it. For that reason in the city I originally come from, Thessaloniki in northern Greece, in order to develop a piece of land and turn it in a huge shopping mall the COSMOS- MEDITERRANEAN, they had to built an orthodox church in the middle of it. Because that piece of land they wanted to develop, belonged to the Church fully or partially.

The thing that annoys me the most is the hypocrisy. How can any religion preach that if we have two coats, we have to give one to the poor, seeks to collect more and more property. And not just that. While the Orthodox Church has organized soup kitchens and charities to help the poorest during the crisis, it has not whatsoever offered any of its property to the state to help the repayments. Nor they offered to pay taxes and contribute to the country's recovery.

They are rather like the Pharisees that themselves seem to detest for crucifying Jesus Christ! Numerous scandals broke out as far back as I can remember with priests or monks getting involved in illegal financial agreements and transactions. The most recent and famous one, was the case of the Vatopedi real estate scandal where the monastery was trading low-value land for high-value state property in a deal with the New Democracy government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis. The cost to the state is believed to have been at least €100 million. 

The battles for power between the Orthodox Church and the Greek state go back as far as my childhood. When the Greek state decided that it would be more appropriate to remove the statement of religion from our national identification cards, the Church saw it as the new cards of the "Antichrist" and they campaigned against the new proposed cards. No wonder nothing progressive blossoms in Greece and not just because of the Orthodox Church, but of the rather Byzantine mentality that modern Greeks have.

As if the Orthodox Church was not bad enough for Europe, we also have something worse and more sinister; the Catholic Church. In Ireland they are responsible for the raping, beating and abuse of thousands of children under their watch. And not just in Ireland, but in Germany, Belgium, Austria and many other Catholic countries all over Europe and the rest of the world. 

Because of the poverty that existed in Ireland years ago and after the end of British rule, the Catholic Church took the role of the leading force on the island. Families had no means of work and survival and many kids were sent to boarding schools to get some education or to reform schools to be "educated" for being wretched, corrupt and poor! Most schools in fact were controlled by the Church back then. Even rich families often chose to send their kids in boarding schools to offer their kids "proper and good" christian education.

The result was beatings, rapes and in my opinion broken whole generations of people. The trauma caused by the actions of those priests can never be compensated, not that there was any true effort made. Nobody was jailed, or paid for what he had done. The victims basically just got an acknowledgement, an official apology from the Church of Ireland and the Vatican. That's all. 

What I do find hilarious about the Catholic preachings is the fact that while the priests were prohibiting everybody else to have a satisfactory sexual life, they were the only ones who seemed to have one. They banned and condemned sex before marriage, gay sex even masturbation. Yet it was acceptable between them to rape young boys and girls! 

Human sexuality goes hand in hand with human creativity and freedom of thought! Suppress human sexuality and you suppress our ability to express ourselves, to think creatively and freely. You create unhappy people who follow rules, human robots who obey and can be controlled. The Catholic Church knows this and they still insist to promote those views. 

Even worse are their crimes in Africa, where they suggest that people should not be using condoms to protect themselves from AIDS, rather abstain from sex altogether! If it was into my power, I would charge such people for crimes against humanity. But then again who would be open minded enough to support such move and who would be rich and powerful enough to prosecute them?

If we take to account the properties that they also own around Ireland and Europe, always the largest and best estates, it is easy to see how they maintain their rule and influence over the European population. No, I am not against God himself, I am declaring myself also as a Christian. I just do not follow any dogmas, as I feel they are just political divisions that came to be because of the power mongering and politics of our "religious" leaders. And I do not really think that the Church today really represents anything divine! If they did, they would not give so much emphasis in material goods.

Of course not only the Orthodox and Catholic Churches are to blame for everything. Some protestant sects are as bad, like some Presbyterian and other conservative sects. Likewise many Muslim sects, the so called "new" religion of Europe. As Islam expands in Europe, the last thing we want is another ultra conservative, fundamental Islamic expansion and establishment. 

Us Europeans have fought hard to liberate ourselves from the clutches of the mind control of the established Christian dogmas. I accept Islam in Europe and Muslims in our lands, but I would like to see a more liberal, secular European version of Islam to match our values. I would never want to see Shariah law in Europe, I am against any extreme and fundamental religious doctrine, either Islamic, Catholic or Orthodox.

What I would like to see is a total separation between the State and the Church, with the roles of the second being limited in a more humanitarian and spiritual role. Totally separated by politics, education, property, finances and money. There should be no religious schools and the subject of religion should be taught with no books, just open discussions and readings from religious books of all dogmas. 

The Church should not own any property and if it does it certainly should pay tax on it, just like the rest of us. It should donate all of the treasures they got to the state and to the people they supposed to be serving and have them in a museum for all the believers to have access to. Or dedicate this wealth in building hospitals, schools, libraries, parks, and sport facilities that we and our children need.

I am not preaching for a Godless Europe. Rather a more spiritual one, in which religion will be there to answer all questions of the people about God and help them reach a level of knowledge and maturity. Whenever Europeans want to explore their spiritual side, the Church should be there to assist them. Not try to manipulate and control them.

How should Europe react to the worsening Syrian crisis?

For the past couple of years we are seeing a great animosity in our world. From our own economic crisis, to the turbulent uprisings in our own very neighborhood, with "the Arab Spring."

One after another, people in the Arab countries demand change in their societies and reforms. They want to get rid of the established elites and bring democracy in their nations. For the past one and a half year, Syria is the country that is in the eye of this storm of events in the region and the one that after Libya, has experienced the most violence.

Between 18,000 to 25,000 people have died already, between them 500 children. An outcry for the rest of the world, but still this carnage continues. Yet things are not as easy or straight forward as they seem. Russia and China, though critical of the Bashar al-Assad's regime and its actions, they block any foreign intervention especially from the West. Others like Iran, support the regime totally.

But we should not try to explain the events according our version or understanding of politics and social issues. The Middle East and Syria, have a different culture and if we examine their history, it was always violent and full of coups and instability that often was supported by powers outside the region.

For example in 1949 the democratic rule was overturned by a coup backed by America. And when a coup or a civil was comes to a nation, it leaves wounds that are very hard to heal. The country's old divisions between its religious and ethnic minorities have been ever since at odds in many occasions. Sunnis against Shia  Muslims, Kurds against Arabs, Christians against Muslims and vice versa.

And so because of  this mosaic of peoples, instability, need for social coherence, foreign intervention and with its important geopolitical position, Syria created its own peculiar to us political and social system. In this system certain clans gained more power and monopolized the country's politics. But why is the West so critical of this? The same happened in my native Greece where a similar situation exists, yet our partners seem to support and encourage it.

Nevertheless nothing justifies the violence and number of deaths that Mr. Bashar al-Assad's regime is bringing on to their own people. We are in the middle of a power struggle in the region that dates back centuries and is fanned by foreign powers, trying to protect their interests in the region.

So what should Europe do, to help the people of Syria? Is Syria the next Bosnia, and can Europe solve the crisis there with an invasion like in the Balkans?

We should be really careful in this conflict. The Russians have already sent troops down there and so have the Chinese and the Americans. Each one trying to protect their own interests. The Americans want a change of the regime, since the current one do not serve their plans for the region anymore. The Russians have a long trading relationship with the Syrians, especially with the arms trade.

They also have a naval base in Syria, the only one that remains outside their borders since the times of USSR and it is their only gateway to the Mediterranean. They are showing a great interest in the region, especially now that a huge amount of gas was found in Cyprus. The Russians are investing hugely on the island and they are prepared to defend their interests. Therefore they sent troops to the region, ever since Turkey started threatening Cyprus again.

So the Turks are in a power struggle with Russia, with the backing of their long standing allies the Americans. They also have interests in the region themselves, both in the Cypriot waters and the Middle East. A region that is located in their borders and they have long seen as an great importance. Turkey in the recent years have been trying to establish itself as a leading power in the region. They also support the Syrian rebels for all the above reasons, in hope to change the status quo in the country and promote their interests.

The Syrians on the other hand showed their teeth to the Turks, by shooting down one of their air-crafts that had trespassed their aerial space down. China, showing support for Russia have also got involved in the region. Can Europe enter such situation, we can not afford to enter a war right now. Our economies are not performing well at the moment and we have so many things to solve in our own back yard. But we do not want another Bosnia either.

I think we should only intervene under the UN lead, and only if we have to. The Russians won’t let go of Syria so easily, it is their only ally in the region. It is sad that the Syrian people must pay for the geopolitical games of power between East and West and the established powers of this World. But it has always been this way.

The Syrian situation is far more serious than the Yugoslavian war. It could implicate all major World powers, leading to a hot war that could spread in the whole region and even worse, become global. Can Europe be at odd with the Russians? We need them and unless we find alternative energy resources we can not be hostile to them.

And even if we do, Russia borders so many EU states and in the future they may become even more. We should re-establish new relationships with them, growing away from the Cold War days. But this requires effort and trust from both sides.

In my opinion we should give the UN full power and control over the situation, and if needed Europe will assist the UN and bring peace. But the question is, will the Americans allow it? They have ignored the UN so many times before. Europe is enough involved in hostilities and wars in the Arab world already.

Can Europe be seen to be siding with America once again and get involved in yet another conflict in yet another Arab nation? We could be giving more fuel to Islamic fundamentalists to promote their anti-Western propaganda, if we keep meddling in their affairs.

We should pressure the Arab League to take a more active and decisive role in the conflict. They have suspended Syria's membership in their organization so far, but perhaps they could get more involved. Their actions can not be seen as anti-Islamic or anti-Arab. They have to understand the importance of the situation and for once the Arabs must start uniting and speaking with one voice too, while getting more involved in global issues just as the Europeans are doing.

Europe has a great experience in negotiations and could play a decisive role as a peace broker, as a moderator for the conflict. We should not side with anyone in this conflict in the region.  I do not trust the Western media, after what they have been saying about Greece during the economic crisis.

Some say that the Christians of Syria are being attacked by those same rebels that the EU wants to support.  Why doesn’t Europe protect those people, are we using one-sided drama stories to justify our plans to expand our sphere on influence?

Europe should offer humanitarian aid in all sides of the conflict indiscriminately, we should be seen that we really care for the suffering of the people of Syria, not just for those who we support because our interests dictate so. We should not pour oil in the fire and side with either the Sunnis or the Shia, the Christians or the Kurds.

Diplomacy, aid, and the use of a united voice in the UN, while bringing on board the Arab League to try to bring knowledge and legitimacy in our peaceful involvement in the conflict, should be the preferred solution. For once Europe must start acting ethically, giving an example to the rest of the World.