Europe, Land of Ungrateful Leeches
As a hesitant world traveler who usually loves it when he gets there
but hates the process of getting there, I was a bit shocked by what my wife and
I witnessed during our recent Viking Rhine River Cruise which brought us to four
major European cities over the course of eight days.
Accustomed to the litter and general filth and disrepair in much of New York City, what initially struck us about the cities we toured in Holland, Germany, France, and Switzerland were not the huge windmills or the boisterous brauhauses or the scenic vineyards or the plethora of new public buildings.
We were duly impressed by those features in Amsterdam, Cologne, Strasbourg, and Basel as well as in less famous towns and villages and we enjoyed viewing their respective ancient cathedrals, anachronistic castles, and memorials.
However, what was most striking about the places we toured was the apparent near-perfection of the infrastructure, the absence of street and highway litter and potholes and, especially, the extent of their exuberant growth and national vitality as evidenced by the ubiquity of construction cranes busily constructing impressive new government structures.
Despite Europe’s economic problems, Europeans seem to be thriving, building, prospering while America is on the skids and going broke in part because they are inveterate, ungrateful leeches and we are consummate dupes.
Literal blood-sucking, segmented worms known as leeches can function as medicinal anti-coagulant agents. Supposedly independent nations that suck the life blood from countries in dire straits have no recognizably useful functions.
Europeans don’t exactly bite the hand that feeds and fed them and affords them the opportunities to prosper. More precisely, they tend to ignore history and the nation that made their prosperity possible. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=36661.)
Accustomed to the litter and general filth and disrepair in much of New York City, what initially struck us about the cities we toured in Holland, Germany, France, and Switzerland were not the huge windmills or the boisterous brauhauses or the scenic vineyards or the plethora of new public buildings.
We were duly impressed by those features in Amsterdam, Cologne, Strasbourg, and Basel as well as in less famous towns and villages and we enjoyed viewing their respective ancient cathedrals, anachronistic castles, and memorials.
However, what was most striking about the places we toured was the apparent near-perfection of the infrastructure, the absence of street and highway litter and potholes and, especially, the extent of their exuberant growth and national vitality as evidenced by the ubiquity of construction cranes busily constructing impressive new government structures.
Despite Europe’s economic problems, Europeans seem to be thriving, building, prospering while America is on the skids and going broke in part because they are inveterate, ungrateful leeches and we are consummate dupes.
Literal blood-sucking, segmented worms known as leeches can function as medicinal anti-coagulant agents. Supposedly independent nations that suck the life blood from countries in dire straits have no recognizably useful functions.
Europeans don’t exactly bite the hand that feeds and fed them and affords them the opportunities to prosper. More precisely, they tend to ignore history and the nation that made their prosperity possible. . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=36661.)
