EuropeNow – Page 92

Water in Europe and the World

By Nicole Shea and Peter Debaere

Fresh water is essential for life. No plant, animal, or person can live without it. Because whatever we do requires a lot of water, cities and towns were initially built next to rivers or streams, and farmers grew crops where water was plentiful or accessible. Water abundance cannot be taken for granted any longer everywhere. A dry spell and record temperatures caught up with Europe this summer, testing farmers from Scandinavia and England as well as France, the Netherlands, Germany and southern European countries.

Research

Seeking a Blue Urbanism: The Paradoxes of Blue Nature

By Timothy Beatley

We live on the Blue Planet, as oceanographers like Sylvia Earle remind us, but we are also increasingly the Urban Planet. How to reconcile these two realities, and how to integrate them into a unified vision of future cities is a major challenge and a topic I have been working on for many years.

Poetry

The Wedding Party by Jonida Prifti

Translated by Diana Thow

The only illusion is that there’s a road to follow to an end: the hallway inhabits a closed door hourly. The mystery of a dark legend buried inside a tunnel where children grow into adult visions.

Research

The Governance of Transboundary Rivers Across the World

By Neda Zawahri

It may be argued that there is sufficient fresh water in our planet to meet basic human needs throughout the world, however, this water is unevenly distributed. For instance, regions containing large populations, such as the Middle East, North Africa, western portions of the United States, and northern portions of China all confront extreme shortages of fresh water.

Visual Art

Beauty and Waste

Curated by Nicole Shea and Kayla Maiuri

This art series illustrates both the phenomenal beauty of water and the pollution that has washed upon our shores at the hands of humankind.

Justifying a War of Extermination: Identity and Image in Hitler’s Army

By David Harrisville

For decades after the Second World War, both the public memory and historical study of the German military were dominated by what has come to be termed the myth of the “clean” Wehrmacht.

EuropeNow Daily

Against Freedom: Scene 1 by Esteve Soler

Translated by H.J. Gardner

A fence separating one country from another in Europe. On one side, MOTHER, about 45 years old; on the other side, her SON, about 20 years old. They are connected to each other by the umbilical cord that supplies nourishment to the fetus. The cord is still functioning, moving nourishment from one body to the other.

EuropeNow Daily

In Remembrance of Kristallnacht

By Louie Dean Valencia-García

Eighty years ago today, November 9, 1938, an order was given by Nazi German authorities to terrorize and arrest German Jewish citizens, resulting in tens of thousands of people being sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, marked a violent escalation against Jewish people.

Commentary

Immigrant Bashing Fuels Trans-Atlantic Extremism

By David L. Phillips

Hate speech gives rise to hate crimes. Demonizing the other legitimizes violent extremism, undermining principles of an open society and cultural diversity.