Tourism is now a human right in Europe! Yep! Not simply the right to move freely or travel about, but the right, if you are a European, to demand of your government a taxpayer-subsidized vacation to somewhere like, say, Disneyworld! Euro-Disney, that is. Wow, Europe must be such a wonderful place! But where-oh-where do they get all that free money from? I mean it must grow on trees over there! Or maybe the Europeans who work at all the amusement parks, hotels, resorts and other vacation spots just work for free. Not to mention all the folks working on the planes, trains, buses, etc. that are needed to transport everyone who chooses to exercise their new free tourism right. Oh well, I’m sure they’ve got it all figured out. Besides, who cares when it’s a free vacation!
With the big debate over here being about whether there is even a right to healthcare, those fancy European Union folks must think we’re just a bunch of heathens. You can almost hear them in Brussels saying, “Healthcare a right? Oh, mon dieu! Of course that is a right! We’ve wrapped that one up and given it to our peoples long ago, Messieurs. Even Hitler and Stalin knew that! What is it with you provincial Americans and your so-called Natural Laws anyway? No wonder we kicked you out. Ignorant philistines!”
The Griswolds in Europe
Ah, yes. It would indeed appear that the wise men and women of Europe have “progressed” to bigger and better things. The Times Online reports that the European Union has formally declared that tourism is now a human right and that “pensioners, youths and those too poor to afford it should have their travel subsidized by the taxpayer.” According to EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, Antonio Tajani, “Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life.” According to Tajani’s spokesman: “Why should someone from the Mediterranean not be able to travel to Edinburgh in summer for a breath of cool, fresh air; why should someone from Edinburgh not be able to travel to Greece in winter?” 1
And why not indeed? Well, I guess they always have been a few steps ahead
of us over there. I for one will not be completely happy (as is my right) until everyone has a right to a mansion and a yacht and a Maserati Quattroporte and, oh yes, a free lap-dance from that Taiwanese stripper I met the other night. Now that’s what I call exercising a natural right!
_____________________
Fn. 1: To view the full Times Online article, click here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7100943.ece
For a related post on this topic, link to:
https://culturecrusader.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/why-you-don%e2%80%99t-have-a-right-to-healthcare/
Tags: antonio tajani, crazy Europeans, disney, disneyland, disneyworld, Edinburgh, EU, EU commissioner, EU Commissioner Enterprise industry, Euro-Disneyworld, Eurodisneyland, Europe, European Union, European vacation, Europeans, free holiday, free vacation, Gem of the Week, government funded, government funded vacation, government subsidized, government subsidized holiday, government subsidized vacation, Greece, hitler, mansion and yacht, maserati, Mediterranean, mon dieu, natural law, natural right, nutty progressive idea, parc disneyland, progressive, progressive idea, right to go to disneyworld, right to move, right to tourism, right to travel, Stalin, taiwanese stripper, The Griswolds, Times online, Times online UK, Tourism, Tourism a right, tourism right, travel, travel a right, travel right, travel subsidized by taxpayer, Walt Disney
Culture Crusader 
April 24, 2010 at 7:35 am |
You just loooove misinforming. This is a proposal put forward by Tajani for a pilot project that would begin in 2013 to subsidize travel for low-income citizens for up to 30% of their travel costs. In case you’re too thick to figure it out – Tajani’s statement is political-speak for : airlines are crabby because airspace was closed, so we’re going to give them a bail-out and justify it by citing The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that: “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.” And it certainly has nothing to do with Euro-Disney, which anyways has been a flop since it opened.
I’m curious to know what you think about the airline industry in Europe protesting the fact that they are obliged to provide for travelers’ accommodations in cases like the recent air space closures and demanding compensation from governments.
April 24, 2010 at 3:25 pm |
Only a Euro-idiot, such as yourself, would rise to the defense of this hare-brained scheme. It’s not just political speak, it is Progressive-Socialist political speak. Let’s get that straight right off. And, not that I’m some kind of news organization, but if I am misinforming then so are the following:
Times Online UK:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7100943.ece
Eurotribune EU:
http://www.eurotribune.eu/?p=9403&l=0&idioma=2
FoxBusiness:
http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/04/19/your-right-to-an-overseas-vacation/
Besides, who cares when it goes into full operation, the Progressive Principle of calling taxpayer subsidized vacations a “human right” is the point here. And something that is at this level of absurdity is an unmasking of the European Progressive-Socialist agenda. The fact that you Euros have some kind of Mickey Mouse (pun intended) “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (which incidentally sounds exactly like something out the former Soviet Union) is exactly the point I’m making about government-created rights. It allows Euro-socialist hacks like this Italian to come up with just about any taxpayer subsidized program, for just about any reason, including ulterior ones like, as you say, propping up the airlines, and selling it as a human right. Let me put it to you directly, do you think government-subsidized tourism is a universal human right? That is a yes or no question.
Just the other night, I watched the British PM debate and all three candidates, even including the so-called conservative, were tripping over one another to assure everyone that the British entitlement state would not be curtailed in any way. On the contrary, further largesse is coming down the road. This mindset is intractably embedded into the European culture and has been, I think, since the days of feudalism. Why do I care what happens in Europe? Because with Obama’s hot help it is all coming over here, and soon.
As far as any private industry demanding a bailout from the government, where do you think I stand?
April 24, 2010 at 7:43 pm |
Uh-huh. For one, as in many of your responses to my comments, you totally pass by the ways side of what I said. Where exactly did I come to the defense of this scheme?
Mickey Mouse Universal declaration of human rights. Wow. Yeah you’re right, who needs those. I’d much prefer your Mickey Mouse bill of rights that allows any miscreant to carry a weapon and call it freedom. Bravo. No really, you’re much better off just repeating that America is the only truly free, non-socialist place on earth, I’m sure if you repeat it enough and click your heels three time it’ll happen.
Meanwhile, I’ll take you seriously and start setting up my anti-commie-anti-fascist bunker, because we all know that the European Union is some sort of despotic scheme to reincarnate communist and fascist policies and Obama is out to destroy America, that last bastion of freedom. Makes sense to me.
April 24, 2010 at 7:59 pm |
Talk about side-stepping the question… you still haven’t answered mine. Is government-subsidized tourism a universal human right?
April 25, 2010 at 6:31 am |
Well said, Elbert.
I would add that it was our “Mickey Mouse” Bill of Rights that created a country which, in the space of a little more than 100 years, had kicked out one despot, then proceeded to save Europe from two others. It also has saved Europe the cost of protecting itself while it sank into a morass of nanny state socialism.