Luxembourg- Talking big.
Starting our first morning in Luxembourg we took a bus to reach the University of Luxembourg. After losing our way a bit, we finally made it to the University. At the university we were given a very warm welcome by the professors, students, and the Chancellor of the University of Luxembourg, who greeted us at the steps of the entrance into the University! At that very moment, I knew Luxembourg was going to be a different and pleasantly unique experience. The hospitality of our hosts seemed to reflect with the propriety that is usually associated with old money and old world charm. As we learnt from the presentation that followed the reception, Luxembourg is a small country with very rich inhabitants, the per capita GDP of the country is the highest in the world (Luxembourg, 2010). However, 2/3rd of its GDP is generated by non-Luxembourg companies and citizens. This means that Luxembourg is very dependent on foreigners to stimulate its economy, create jobs, spur infrastructure development, etc. In fact, Luxembourg likes to think of itself as the European Capital: the European investment bank and European court of Justice have its residence in the country. Some even like to think of it as a European Capital due to its location: it is widely believed that the country is situated in center of Europe. However, as Dr. Pit Peporte pointed out, this is just a myth. If one looks at the map, Luxembourg is not the center of Europe, and the myth serves as more of a pride-building measure amongst its citizens, and hence is not the truth. Luxembourg has many other myths that make its history very interesting. For instance, there is no clarity on as to who founded the country, and while many theories that have been put forward; none have enough facts to make a strong case. One of the more popular beliefs is that John ‘the blind’ founded the country, and he is hence today regarded as a ‘national hero’. Moving on, Dr. Pit Peporte did a brilliant job of introducing us to the cultural history of Luxembourg. There were primarily three areas that he touched upon: the history, the geography and the language. While I have briefly touched upon the first two, my observations on the language of Luxembourg- Luxembourgish were that it was more a feel-good measure for its 490,000 odd citizens (Peporte, 2010), while French served as the written language of the administration and government, and German was the main language of the media. Luxembourgish is somewhat a combination of the two and is mainly used in personal conversations and not official parlance. Hence, even though it has been declared a language by law, it still wouldn’t qualify as a “national” language as very few people speak it.
After the visit to the University we had a lunch break, following which we visited the Luxembourgish parliament. At the parliament building we were allowed to see various sections of the building, we were even fortunate enough to sit inside the 60 seat parliament where we were given a brief insight into the political system! Also, we discussed a few political issues that the government was facing. The three main issues the government was struggling with were budget cuts, a weak job market and the integration of foreign residents. The issue of the immigrant society reminded me of the same problem the Dutch had to deal with. While I would have liked to speak more on the topic, our time constraints limited us.
In conclusion, our day in Luxembourg was well spent. We had a very informative introduction into the various aspects of the country. It seemed as though there was a lot more the country had to offer than what we learnt. The culture of Luxembourg intrigued me, and was something I was interested in learning more about. From personal observations, the city looked very aged in the sense that most of its citizens were elderly. In my opinion, elderly people are the best to learn from due to the vast experience. However, this is more of an assumption than a fact. From the history about the origins of the city, their choice of ‘national hero’, claim of being ‘the heart of Europe’ and an European capital, and lastly their invention of Luxembourgish all pointed to a nation aiming to instill a sense of nationalism by building a sense of grandeur. I felt the strong sense of nationalism, and the insecurity that its inhabitants felt due to small size of the country. Hence, while I could relate to the emotions running through the people, I also knew that the feelings of nationalism could prove to be misplaced, and perhaps arising from misinformation.
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