A comment signed by G.H. and published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (16/3) analyses the results of a new survey on demographic trends in Germany, which confirms that the regions that are most economically disadvantaged are those most badly affected by the decline in the birth rate. This especially involves the Länder of the former DDR and Saarland and the zone of the Ruhr, areas that are also penalized by high emigration of youths and skilled workers to more prosperous regions, especially Baden Württemberg and Bavaria; so only the elderly, the unemployed and low-skilled workers are left. “ The incontestable proofs of the fact that our country has a demographic problem have only recently become socially acceptable. […] The danger [of such a trend] has long been recognized, even if it was not done to speak of it, because nothing is more difficult to admit than that a whole society is on the wrong road. […] Ever since the 1960s the interests of individuals have increasingly prevailed. The most diverse tendencies emerged: the campaign for the legalization and social acceptance of abortion, the objective of having a low-cost work force and the concentration of work in the more attractive places or those most covered by state subsidies. From these points of view, German unification has far from succeeded. A policy no longer able to fulfil the constitutional prescription of equality of conditions of life has nothing to oppose to the desolation of entire portions of the country. But wherever the young leave to go elsewhere, ambitious young career women even more than their male counterparts, the birth rate drops further, without increasing elsewhere, because the places that attract them have many aspects that oppose the decision to form a family: pressure of work, smaller homes, and higher cost of living. And these places don’t even give birth to the conviction that this dangerous trend could be rapidly reversed: if only people were to decide to do so“. Mass student protests in France: all of them directed against the Contrat premiere embauche (CPE), one of the provisions of the law introduced by premier Dominique de Villepin which extends to two years the probation period for newly hired employees. To this delicate question the Catholic daily La Croix (15/3) dedicates a front-page editorial signed by Dominique Gerbaud. “ Youth take to the streets: it’s the fear of every government. Having them against you is an odious truth. The fact is that no government has ever conducted a real face to face with youth. Politicians hesitate between firmness and demagogy; they often pass from one extreme to the other, and don’t know how to handle the situation. First, because they never have youth themselves as their interlocutors and the crisis of the student trade-union movement deprives them of recognized leaders with whom to negotiate. Second, because the young don’t have the same political culture, the same points of reference and the same sense of compromise. And third, because the politicians have few contacts with them, they don’t know them well and treat them as a separate category“. The focal point of the students protects is the Contrat premiere embauche. “ Opposition to this contract – says Gerbaud is the translation of a revolt against the various forms of precariousness of which the young are the victims and the expression of a latent anger…No one can say given that youth are politically unpredictable if the unrest could be transformed into an explosion. Or into a new form of resignation“. “ Benedict invited to visit Great Britain in autumn 2007“: the banner headline dominates the front page of the English Catholic weekly “The Catholic Herald”. The paper’s correspondents in Rome, Simon Caldwell e Edward Pentin, write: “ the initiative was announced in a communiqué issued by the office of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor on Monday…A few hours later, Cardinal Keith O’Brian, archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and President of the Scottish Bishops’ Conference, announced that he would like to welcome the Pope to Scotland too. A spokesman of Cardinal O’Connor said in the communiqué that ‘it’s too early to say what the visit will consist of or when it will take place’, given the Pope’s commitments and the many invitations he has received from all over the world”. Also “the Bishops’ Conference of Ireland has hastened to present a formal invitation to the Pope and efforts are being made at the unofficial level to bring the Pope to Northern Ireland, a visit avoided by John Paul II in view of the problems that such a visit might have caused at the time“. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1460 N.ro relativo : 20 Data pubblicazione : 17/03/06
