Once Our Biggest and Brightest Hopes

Once Our Biggest and Brightest Hopes

By: Erreh Svaia

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

Napoleon Hill

I admit that one of my biggest disappointments last year came from countries I thought were destined to be big stars and ride high the wave of multiculturalism, nowadays, it seems obvious that the borders are not exactly fading away in our new world, but now instead of ideological divisions, economic divisions seem to be tearing apart our once unipolar world, for once, I thought Mexico would play a protagonist role in the integration of North and South America, but I was wrong, as the country although growing at slow rate, seems to be stuck in a quagmire, still not able to get rid of its past, with a democratic system that looks more like a grotesque simulation, and institutions that are weak and unable to maintain the conditions required for true growth, How would we expect Lain America to grow with Mexico (Its more globalized country) stuck and Brazil (its biggest economy) in a free fall?

Another country whose geographical position seemed to assure it's star status was Turkey, as the country looked to become exemplar in the conjunction of Europe and Middle East, Turkey was the country everyone thought would lead the Arab Spring to a happy ending, but something went very wrong, Turkey became a controversial geographic spot, first, its suspicious closeness with Daesh, then, the conflicts with the flooding hordes of immigrants, and then, finally the clash with Russia, after the Turkish army shot down a Russian military airplane, as if that wasn't enough, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister seems to be divided between making an attempt at concentrating power in an authoritarian way, or negotiate with Germany the entrance of a large number of immigrants in exchange for European Union membership, it seems hard that Turkey, after becoming an authoritarian state could be accepted in the European Union, but, with Hungary and Poland going for the extreme right wing, who knows the new identity that would plague the Union next years.

Poland, a country with a complex and tragic past, was another possible big bet for the future of Europe's, it became post-communist countries biggest story, it became a great example of how a country in an extractive dynamic could integrate into a more inclusive one, at one point, Poland looked closer to Germany or France (although it always remained suspicious of both), and about to make the big jump with Donald Tusk, the Polish leader of the EU, but fear became a powerful factor in Polish politics, and a big change took place, Poland ultra-right took the power, denounced the advance of Islamic, threatening their Catholic tradition, and formed a strange coalition with xenophobic Hungary.

I guess 2015 would bring us even more surprises, as  fear keeps playing a major role in politics, the world seems to be divided between defenders of democracy and more blossoming authoritarian States, even Finland, another strongly developed country that once represented the hope for a better integration between the EU and Russia is turning away from free borders and strengthening their position in order to contain any possible advance from Russia, trying to prevent a situation close to what happened in Ukraine, although the context is quite different.

Is the future for our bright stars a dark one?