Europe Paean?

So the session I went to yesterday on transnational feminism was part of a week-long congress run by an organisation called European Alternatives, who are based in London with offices in several European cities. Their website advertises their commitment "to exploring the potential for a post-national or transnational politics and culture, and promoting intellectual and artistic engagement with the idea and future of Europe". They do good work, raise important issues. I find it interesting.

Myriad accents in the room - French, German, Dutch, Polish, British. I realised I was the only non-European. (My status is Indefinite Leave To Remain, still a few years before I can apply for citizenship which automatically confers upon me European citzenship.) But for an Australian I always felt 'European'. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents were from Poland and as far as I know were there going back many generations. My father's parents fled the pogroms in the 1920 and '30s and met and married in Australia. My mother's parents were married to other people; Zaida had two daughters - people who "perished" (the soft euphemism we descendants of genocide use, the soft "p" and "sh" sounds making palettable what is otherwise mindless, violent bloody murder). They met after he was liberated from Auschwitz and she came out of hiding from a Christian household, saved by her fair hair and false papers ("Antonia Schmid" if anyone asked, we still have those documents). They moved to Vienna, had my mother, and two years went to Oystralia because Oymerica was too goshdarn popular.

I have lived in London for almost five years on a variety of headache-to-attain Visas. I could have made it easier for myself had I applied for an Austrian passport (because of my mother, I am entitled to do so). But unlike Groucho Marx, I have no interest in belonging to any club that doesn't want me as a member.

Austrian hotel bans Jewish guests May 11, 2009, 5:44 am

A hotel in Tyrol that said it does not accept Jewish guests has caused shock in the local media and tourism industry, the daily Tiroler Tageszeitung reported on Sunday.

A Vienna family of seven had asked the Haus Sonnenhof apartment hotel in the village of Serfaus for a reservation. The owner replied by email that although the room was free, she did want to take in Jewish guests because of "bad experiences" in the past.

The region around Serfaus has become popular with orthodox Jewish tourists in recent years, and several hotels in Tyrol have started offering kosher food.

At Hotel Alpenruh-Micheluzzi, owner Petra Micheluzzi told the German Press Agency that the rejection by the Sonnenhof was "bad for the image" of Serfaus.

One such incident could destroy all the hard work by others in the travel industry, she said, a view echoed by local and regional tourism officials.

"That's terrible," said Esther Fritsch, the president of the regional Jewish community. So far there had been no such incidents, she told the newspaper.

Irmgard Monz, the owner of the Haus Sonnenhof apartment hotel, could not be reached for comment on Sunday. In an interview with Tiroler Tageszeitung, she offered no justification for her email.

For his part, the rejected father of five has decided to spend the summer elsewhere: "I don't want to spend my vacation in such a racist nest, and I will inform all my friends about what is going on in Tyrol," the unidentified man was quoted as saying.

So, um, yeah. Not to tarnish the whole place with some rotten apples (I'm not racist, I swear! Some of my best films are The Sound Of Music!) but glad I'm not a passport holder. And as far as Europe is concerned, I am pretty conflicted. I will of course be thrilled to become a citizen so I have some say and help keep the rightwing shitheads out of the European Parliament and I am a bit of an NBS (Natural Born Socialist): I have an innate sense that there can be no justice without true equality and a belief that every citizen on our fair planet is entitled to food, water, education, civil liberties, dignity and healthcare, so I am drawn to groups like European Alternatives. (But to appropriate the words of Playboy readers since time immemorial: "I only go there for the feminism!"). I am a bit meh about Europe though. I know its aims are essentially anti-nationalistic and pro-progressive but it is in my blood, my historical DNA to instinctively shudder at these discussions. (Also, the word Vichy was thrown around a bit too often for meine kleine hartz to bear. Vichy. Also sounds soft and a little tender like a sweet little fishy, or a bris boy's pishy.)

So no matter where I begin, I always come back to language. What does it mean, Dr de Saussure?