EU on Eastern Europe: Let Them Eat Cake

Leaders of the European Union today rejected calls for a bailout of Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe. Is this the first step toward elimination of all foreign aid due to the global recession?

Led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the European Union’s member states roundly rejected Hungary’s bid for a $240+ Billion bailout of Hungary and several other Eastern European nations, threatening a “new Iron Curtain” if aid was withheld. (Where Eastern Europe would get the funding for said curtain is unclear, as Russia veers toward collapse itself.)

Merkel stated that there was no need for a broad bailout package, claiming that “we cannot compare Slovakia nor Slovenia with Hungary”.

Merkel is correct. Slovakia and Slovenia are already on the Euro, and thus further stabilized, while Hungary is not . . . and suffering from a plummeting currency.

The tightening of the purse strings may be a sign of things to come. As all economies head farther into this recession (and probably the Second Great Depression), Western governments such as Western Europe and the United States will not be able to provide foreign aid to Eastern Europe, and will also have to cut the billions in food and medical aid currently sent to third world nations.

For decades, the West has provided “humanitarian relief” to parts of Africa, Asia, and other locales suffering from droughts, famines, and disease. Over time, these “developing nations” have become dependent upon foreign aid, seen their life expectancies extended and populations exponentially expanded. What will happen when we can no longer afford to provide what amounts to food stamps for entire nations?

Share your thoughts. Is the European Union’s closing of the checkbook the first step of many to come?

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Jenny Donati is webmistress and co-editor of Secular News Daily. Jenny is an outspoken secularist who believes firmly in the separation of church and state. She demands evidence to support arguments, and holds herself to the same standard. She doesn't write about herself in the third person . . . but there's a first time for everything.

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