Cartoon Map of European Union Dissolution

When I was I remember asking a British immigrant in America what it was like being an European living in the United States. The Brit snapped back with the reply "I am not an European!" That confused me immensely as I had always learned that the island of Great Britain was in Europe and therefore everyone there was European. What the immigrant was saying was not that she was a different continent but did not consider herself or the United Kingdom as part of the European nation as manifested by the European Union.

A new cartoon map featured in this week's Economist features a map with Greece and several other countries being physically separated from the European continent. The cartoon is commenting about fears that Greece may be removed from the European Union and/or the Eurozone (countries that use the Euro) because of its very poor economy and horrible government mismanagement. The Economist believes that if Greece is given the boot, other countries with poor economies (i.e. Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania) may also eventually be given the removed from the European Union. The next step, the fear goes, is that some countries long weary of greater European integration may use the purgings as an opportunity to leave the Union. The Economist fears that these events, starting with the loss of Greece, would kill the European Union and destroy "Europe."