As the BBC News headline "EU Hails Turkey Membership Talks" makes clear, there's a historical global milestone the world is whizzing by, amidst all our other pressing daily concerns.
First of all, for those of us not paying attention to all the details, this has been a milestone that's truly been a long time coming. As the article explains:
"The opening ceremony came 40 years after Turkey took its first step towards requesting membership".
And a reminder that it's ONLY a milestone, one that has a long way still to go, as the New York Times article on the subject explains:
"The ceremony, which began just past midnight after an agreement was reached late Monday, set in motion a process that would probably take a decade or more but could end with the European Union's extending its borders eastward into Asia to embrace a predominantly Muslim country."
There are many dissenters on both sides. As the NY Times article points out on one side:
"Many Europeans - more than half according to some polls - oppose Turkey's membership, arguing that while the country has a toehold in Europe, it is not European at its core. Critics say the union would have difficulty absorbing such a large, poor country and complain that Turkey's membership would open the doors for a potentially huge wave of Muslim immigrants.
By the time it could be expected to join, Turkey's current population of 70 million people would probably have grown to outnumber that of Germany, now the largest European state. Under current rules, that would give it the most seats in the European Parliament, skewing an already complex European agenda."
On the Turkish side, where as the BBC notes "popular support has been waning" from 70% to 60%, the reaction was cautiously optimistic. Again, from the BBC News article:
"Turkish newspapers were jubilant on Tuesday - but struck a note of warning about the long slog ahead to achieve reforms and overcome deep popular opposition in Austria and other European countries to Turkey's accession."
Perhaps not surprising, the French hit the nail on the head in terms of the core issue. The BBC article notes:
Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing on Tuesday claimed Turkey's possible accession risked replacing the "grand French project of political union" with "a large free trade zone".
That is one of the utterly critical, broader questions for the world at large, with ninety-five years more to go on this new century.
Do we as a world start taking our own separate long road, from a world of political unions, to a world of multiple large free trade zones, leading eventually to one big, global free trade zone with greater prosperity for more people on a global average?
The catalyst has already been ignited, when two of the six billion people on the planet switched from the "barely developing" to "rapidly developing" column, just over the last decade and a half.
China and India's sprinting in this direction hopefully will stir the remaining two billion in the still "barely developing" category to start to look beyond their near-sighted focus on today's politics to the future global competitive realities for their children and grand-children.
These near-sighted politicized issues include equality for women, demographic time bombs hinging on aging populations, and unemployment for the burgeoning youth in the developing world as the THREE BIGGIES, flavored liberally by the always popular tribal, cultural and religious squabbles we've grown so good at since stepping down from the trees.
By the by, these issues coincidentally also apply to the two billion that are comfortably ensconced in the "developed world" category be they sipping lattes in Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin or Tokyo. In a post back in June, I touched on the French, and since then the Dutch getting off the EU bus for a siesta.
The opportunity cost of a siesta for most of the world will likely continue to increase, as long as China and India continue their rapacious march towards "developed world" status. And on a simplistic, straight-line, "no major hiccups along the way", type of assumptions, could occur around 2040, plus or minus five years.
About half a generation away. Or about the time it took Turkey to get formally considered for ascension to one of the coziest and cushiest clubs in the "developed world".
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