Brief Paper 7/1998: Identités Communautaires et Diversités Culturelles en Europe: Une chance de dynamisation pour la coopération avec le Sud

Abstract:

In Identités Communautaires et Diversités Culturelles en Europe: Une chance de dynamisation pour la coopération avec le Sud we talk about how the fall of the Berlin Wall allowed some rather hasty observers to believe in the arrival of an era of universal values, democracy and market through the free circulation of people and ideas. However, the gravity of the crises that have occurred since then in Yugoslavia, the Gulf and several African countries show, on the contrary, a resurgence of the phenomena of identity withdrawal, misunderstanding and aggression towards the other. In a number of African countries, civil war situations with the resulting economic and social destructuring may even transform these countries into veritable white zones on the map of trade and international relations. Moreover, the presumption and contempt with which Westerners, including Europeans, refuse to admit that their analyses and perspectives represent only one point of view among others, provoke in the countries of the South and of the periphery, exacerbated reactionary behaviours that often contribute to further aggravate the lack of understanding between Europe and other regions of the South. The new world media order, in covering the crises in the countries of the South, often touches the sensibilities not only of the populations of these countries, but also of their citizens who have emigrated to our countries, who, for the most part, feel humiliated, scorned and feel a great lack of understanding of the attitude of the countries and populations of the North. This causes the resurgence of all the old disputes, including psychopathological disputes, between ethnicities, religions and communities of different origins.

Quotation:

Carvalho, José Sequeira. 1998. “Identités communautaires et diversités culturelles en Europe : une chance de dynamisation pour la coopération avec le Sud”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – CEsA Brief papers nº 7-1998.