The Rose in the Lily Pond and International Relations

This week, a guest author, Wilson Chau, examines the themes of Old Love (Read it HERE). It is like he got inside my head and wrote down my inner most thoughts! Of course Mave and Grant’s relationship is an exact mirror image of the European Union and the United States! I am Rose Rees-Owen, writer, and international relations specialist!

Thank you Wilson for this wonderful analysis and tribute :-)

This is a dedication to Rose. Over coffee, I suggested to Rose that I would read this particular piece and deliberately micro analyse it with the intent of applying the themes and messages to contemporary international relations. Warning, this is deliberate BS :)

1. Introduction - "Old Love" - A critical commentary on transatlantic relations

Rose Rees-Owen’s critically acclaimed classic, Old Love, has been touted as a moment for all of us in the West to reflect and ask questions. Old Love is a commentary on US-European relations set in the context of the post-2008 global economic crisis. The analysis in Section 2 shall firstly focus on Mave and Grant and their relationship, and how this represents the dynamics between Brussels and Washington. In Section 3, other elements of the story shall be fleshed out, each element reflecting developments affecting the course of world history and the trajectory of the world’s future.

2.1. Mave – The European Union

Mave is a personification of the European Union in its current ill state. Mave’s behaviour and activities show vintage and obsolescence, the biscuits, tea and old habits being around for 60 years. It happens that the existence of the EU is also around 60 years, with the European community finding its roots from the early 1950s. While European policy and activities have made it grow and expand, these very habits have not changed or adopted to the Twenty First Century. For instance, Mave could have made her tea with a modern kettle, could have had coffee instead, or done everything with an espresso machine. Instead, she is persistent and even arrogant in her ways. This persistence and unwillingness to change has made Brussels fickle to adaptability, ultimately bringing little vitality to a decaying continent.

2.2. Grant – The United States

Grant is the representation of the United States. Grant’s former looks, smarts and gentleman-like attributes are a subtle reminder of Washington’s former glory as the world’s strongest, most prosperous nation with ambition, hope and armed with the American Dream. But like Grant, America is now obese and clumsy. Grant’s hunger, highlighted by Rose’s graphic description of his stomach rumbling, is America’s undying greed. It is this greed that has sent shockwaves around the world. Even though Grant enjoys a healthy superannuation package thanks to his former successes, he is ungrateful and not content with what he has and yearns for more. This hunger for material wealth has upset his wife, Mave, in the same way that the United States’ pursuit of raw materials, even at the expense of international law and the sovereignty of nations, has distanced its relationship with Europe.

2.3. Mave and Grant’s troubled marriage – EU-US relations

The passion and solidarity between the US and EU is gone, just as the love and youth between Mave and Grant have all but disappeared. Distrust has eroded both respective relationships. Neither Mave or Grant are willing to change for each other, and neither the US or EU will sacrifice their way of doing business for the sake of each other. Rees-Owen keeps referring the reader to the happy days of marriage where there was nothing but optimism. By doing this, the author is alluding to the Marshall Plan during the initial post-war years where relations between Washington and Europe could be described as a honeymoon. The Transatlantic relationship was optimistic. It was meant to be a strategic alliance that would define the globe for centuries to come. That marriage of two powers is now nothing more than an estranged partnership; a bad romance that continues to be eroded by isolationism and poor austerity policies.

2.4. Hope for a brighter future

Rees-Owen challenges her audience and leaders of our time to consider a more optimistic future. She is courageous in not hiding the scars from the past, but she is also gracious to offer hope. Firstly, Mave and Grant are united by the Biggest Loser, something that gives them joy. This is a reminder to Washington and Brussels that they stand on common ground and that their leaders and citizens have a long history of mutual culture that they can take pride in. Secondly, Rees-Owen reminds both sides that their existence is interdependent. In many ways, Europe is lucky to have an ally and saviour like the United States, and vice versa.

3.1. Analysing the other elements

Rees-Owen intricately weaves global affairs and world history into her narrative of US-EU relations. There are global actors and developments subtly disguised as objects or footnotes in the story.

3.2. The Tea and Sugar

The Tea represents the colonial conquests of the West. Note that it is Mave and Grant who consume the Tea, representing their exploits of their former and current colonial territories. Sugar is meant to be a sweetener, but Mave’s unwillingness to grant the Tea sugar indicates the West’s persistent unwillingness to fully compensate the Third World for the dirty past. Note that both Tea and Sugar are products of empire. Tea being bought from China thanks to unequal treaties; tea harvested in India and Sri Lanka; sugar grown in Caribbean plantations where thousands of slaves died. Rees-Owen has cleverly used these everyday comfort items to remind her audience of our civilisation’s dark past.

3.3. The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser represents the big banks in Europe and America, with many facing crises. They are indeed inflated losers who have no way out. Gillian represents international law and its advocates and the efforts of global regulators to try and get the banks back in shape. Although The Biggest Loser was used by Rees-Owen predominantly as a humorous touch, it is nonetheless a reminder to banking CEOs of the dangers of their practices, which might otherwise turn them into the biggest losers in the Twenty First Century.

3.4. The Television

In a dramatic scene captured by Rees-Owen, Mave mutes the “telly”. The European Union and the wider Western world has muted the voices of the Third World and the 99 per cent, denying their former colonies and the common peoples equality with the world’s elite.

3.5. Separate bedrooms, separate levels

In another part of the story, Grant recalls the separate bedrooms and separate levels of their living arrangement. If the house was to represent the world as it is, the separate levels reflects the unequal hierarchies, the 99 per cent against the 1 per cent, the Third World oppressed by the First World, the General Assembly pitted against the will of the Security Council, and the asymmetries between the Japanese and whales.

3.6. The clutter

Grant is aware of the trash thrown everywhere, magazines, newspapers and cups left weeks ago and mould. Note that this is a mess that Mave and Grant are both responsible for, and a mess they have yet to clean up. This represents the legacy of the US and Europe. Conflict, crimes against humanity, ecological disasters, and extreme poverty are messes that continue to riddle the former colonies. Both Brussels and Washington remain unwilling to clean up after themselves. If unattended, this footprint left by both powers could be detrimental to humanity, a point that Rees-Owen is extremely clear on.

3.7. The plates

The washing of plates represents the Transatlantic intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Both Grant and Mave share a desire to clean these “plates”, in effect cleaning these nations of their past dictatorships and introducing democracy. However, neither have done a perfect job. Europe, or Mave, expects the dishes to be cleaned but is unwilling to do so, representing the lack of political will. Washington, or Grant, was the one making the plates dirty in the first place, representing the military leadership of the US in spearheading the invasions, but does not seem to be able to clean the plates as clean as the international community expects it to.

3.8. The final line: “Aren’t they all fat and annoying?”

In Grant’s last gasp before the story abruptly ends, Rees-Owen hints at the challenges ahead for Washington and Brussels, even if they were to rekindle their alliance. That challenge is fundamentally the Chinese. The use of “fat” and “annoying” are used for describing the coming challenge of the Chinese civilisation. Fat is a recognition of wealth in China, and China’s economy with record double digit per cent per annum GDP growth is indeed evidence of prosperity. Annoying is an understatement of China’s challenge. China is the only player that is approaching a position to challenge both Europe and America in terms of military, economic and political strength. While China’s challenge is “annoying” for now, it is an omnipresent threat. As Grant and Mave laugh together, perhaps Rees-Owen is telling her audiences in Europe and America to unite in their strengths and interest to challenge the nuisance of a rising China.

3.9. Other elements

Other elements in the story highlight contemporary global politics, even though these are just nuances. In the line, “Darling, have you forgotten to cook me dinner?”, Rees-Owen hints at the patriarchal nature of world society, in spite of the gains made by women’s rights groups. The stairs represent the quest for space exploration. While budgetary constraints have made the climb to space a struggle, there is still optimism for advancements in the field given the success of private ventures.