European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 22, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes Friday. September 22, 1989 columns Flora Lewis change essential in . Posture toward East a Gap is widening Between . Gov cram Cal and european altitudes toward the East. It is exactly what officials warned about As the political climate warmed and the threat of confrontation cased. Hut it in t the result of mindless euro Pean or sly Moscow manipulation to Divide the Western allies. It conies from the Bush administration s unwillingness to sustain encouragement for Reform launched by president Reagan toward the end of his term and widely welcomed As the new . Policy. Deputy Secretary of state Lawrence s. Eagle Burger threw cold water on euro Pean expectations last week. The context was unexceptionable. His speech on foreign policy in a time of transition was a careful reminder that history in t Over and that a fundamentally different set of challenges lies ahead. The mul Cipolat world into which we arc moving is not necessarily going to be a safer place he said. He called on the West to maintain the Security consensus which has served it so Well Over the past 40 years until the process of democratic Reform in the East has truly become All True. All important. No responsible Alliance official disagrees that the democracies must renew their commitment to a collective and cooperative approach to the major and that this will require american leadership of the High est the sting came in one Short Pas Sage. Eagleburger spoke of the danger that nato members will compete in trying to help Mikhail Gorbachev s re forms. This he said is not the task of american foreign policy nor should it be that of our Western partners. Our task after All is to devise policies which will serve our interests whether Gorbachev succeeds or the Point is that it in t a matter of bolstering Gorbachev or the government of Poland. It is a matter of supporting the aspirations of societies in the East for democracy and a place in the world Trad George will ing system so they can support them selves and become self reliant contributors to facing the new challenges. That is How the europeans Sec their interests and it ought to be seen As in America s interest As Well. Sen. George Mitchell. A Maine. Got it right when he said the administration seemed almost nostalgic about the cold this is producing differences not Only on the soviet Union but on Poland and Hungary As Well. Allied response to Bush at the nato Summit meeting in May showed tremendous Relief that he per formed As a Leader. But enthusiasm drains away when Washington wants to be Lead mule straining to hold things Back when the needs arc so clearly for changes that the allies have been demanding for 40 years. Last week the Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa visited Bonn and got Hearty encouragement and some bad news. Washington announced it would do nothing More for the new polish govern ment than double the Promise of $50 million in food Aid. Foreign minister Hans Dietrich Gen Schur had to Tell Walesa that Eagleburger. Who had just been in Bonn agreed with France and West Germany on debt Relief for Poland but not on a dig increase in technological Aid. Government backed guarantees for private foreign invest ment and More urgently needed food Aid. Which the europeans advocate. There was even discreet political sup port from opposition socialists As Well As from the government to assure Poland thai Bonn did not Challenge its Western Border. Genscher said that for the germans. Eastern Europe began on Poland s Eastern Frontier. You Are Sim ply in inevitably the crumbling of cold War assumptions opens All kinds of difficult new military strategic and political questions that must be addressed with expertise and caution. Gut the human Clement that informs what it has All been about is missing in Washington s voice. The italian editor Arrigo lev recently Comrade the workers of the world Are throwing off their chains set the tone. We have waited so Long for you he said for russians and poles and hungarians to hear. We want you to return and join us. We arc eager to Wel come you Back to the for so Long the Only emotions visible in East West relations have been fear suspicion hatred. It is time to show that. Yes. We Are determined to protect our interests but we see their interests served As Well in Over coming a deadly rivalry. It is not so much a Victory for us that the communist system is breaking Down As it is a reaffirmation of our common human spirit. That was the underlying idea of the Alliance and if Washington won t sustain it the United slates will feel the cold. In italian Economy flourishes by ignoring rules Italy until recently the sick Man of Western Europe is so robust that social scientists should be dizzy. A Mere decade after last rites were being pronounced it is flourishing in a manner that May make it a Model for Europe s fast unfolding future. It May be especially suited to absorb the political and cultural shocks of 1992, the unified Market of the 12 nations of the euro Pean Community. Italy had Europe s first formidable fascist party. As recently As a dozen years ago when eur communism was a cresting wave italian communists got 34.5 per cent of the votes in 1976italy had the last formidable communist party. Ten years ago Italy was the Only european state under serious siege by terrorists. There were 2,500 terrorist incidents in 1978, including the kidnapping and murder of Italy s leading politician Aldo Moro. The fever did not break until the Rescue of the Kidnap Ped american general James Dozier. Until the 1950s, Italy had a preindustrial Economy. A decade ago. A serious commentator Luigi Barzini concluded thai Italy was going Down the Drain like Bangladesh and would be the first developed nation to turn itself Back into an underdeveloped Barzini compared italian workers to Savages who do not connect sexual Intercourse with the birth of a child nine months later they do not connect the Dull discipline of factory work with their cars their holidays and their but Machiavelli s nation is receptive to realism including the distinctive realism of the 1980s, the re discovery of the Virtues and Rigours of markets. In 1980, there was the March of the 40,000," when Fiat work ers went into the streets of Turin demanding against their Union leaders the right to end a strike on terms favourable to Fiat s drive to modernize at the Cost of jobs. Today. Italy is the world s fifth largest Industrial Market Economy behind the United states Japan Germany and France and it is a conundrum for social science Catholic Italy has a higher Standard of living than protestant Britain. What now of the connection Between the protestant ethic and the spirit of capital ism what of the adage that catholics sleep Well but protestants eat Well actually Italy May be the fourth largest Market Economy ahead of France. It is hard to measure and easy to Nlaly s Gnu because of inc size of the Uncas Brablc Black it hums along largely in the interstices of stale supervision and May account for Al least 20 percent of Gnu. One study showed thai 54 percent of civil scr vans had second jobs 33 percent sold goods within their ministries 27 percent ran other businesses during office hours. By tax avoidance and regulation evasion the Black econ omy amounts loan unofficial but effective Supply Side program. Italians show less interest in and More cyclic so about politics than other european Peoples. Italians As a people arc ancient the italian state is Young. Having been governed Over the centuries by spaniards French and austrians. And having been unified Only since the 1860s, they lend to regard the state As a Sci foreign presence. But the italian attitude toward the slate expresses an entire stance toward life and May be some thing Europe will soon need More of. In his new collection of essays Europe Europe forays into a con incl Hans Magnus notes that for 200 years Northern europeans he is a German have fallen under Italy s spell. Disregarding Public inefficiencies and corruptions they would not tolerate at Home they have condescended to italians As charming creative stylish but at Bottom unserious. However writes Italy is not the West s drive in theater a place for Brief entertainment. Rather it May have the mildly anarchic brio required for life in Europe s emerging Mega state. A specs or is or should be haunting Europe the spec scr of. Brussels. Not inc cute Bourgeois Brussels of Fine chocolate and Linen but inc Gray Brussels of bureaucracy the Home of the administrative Machin Ery of inc new in 1992, the 12 nations arc supposed to begin playing by the same rules. The rules will proliferate exponentially. Social scientists writes have assured us that the Price of Progress is life within inc Armor of we must reconcile ourselves to life in Side a labyrinth of Walls visible and invisible As bureaucracy grows along with social complexity. The bureaucracy is the Good Shepherd and the Good Shepherd s Benevolence stops where his own corporate existence is called into italians arc Europe s least slate broken people a fact directly Rel Ald to the fact they arc perhaps Europe s most entrepreneurial people. They arc the least Likely to be inert Clay in the hands of euro planners and other dreamers of statist dreams from which Europe in the 1980$ has been tardily Awakening. C 1989. Washington Post writers group
