21 May 2015
Welcome to Ourtown; twinned with Votreville
by Lynda Goetz
Is there a future for Town Twinning?
As the smiling young waitress cleared the plates, the attractive, petite French (or rather Bretonne) woman in her early 40s laughed and handed her phone across the table to me by way of response to my earlier comments. The text, from her 21 year old daughter read, “Alors, ce ‘jeune couple’, ils ont quel âge? Dans les cinquantaines?” In fact, the young couple with whom my French companion and her husband were staying were in their thirties, not their fifties, but the daughter’s scepticism was understandable. Looking around the room, the average age of the Twinning Association members from both sides of the Channel was probably around 70, so a couple in their fifties could, in this context, be regarded as young! Of course, we all like to see ourselves as perennially young. It is an intrinsic part of modern thinking. We are never old until we are virtually on our deathbeds. As my father said at 97, “I don’t like this business of getting old”!
The problem with the Twinning movement, which was set up in the late 1940s and early 1950s in the aftermath of World War II, is that it has, like the humans involved, not really rejuvenated itself in the sixty or so years of its existence and does now seem to be showing its age. When it was first set up there was no EEC, let alone an EU and the passionate desire of the politicians and people of Europe was to put an end to the wars that had divided the continent for so long. In 1950 the European Coal and Steel Community was set up by the six founding countries of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, which, in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome became the European Economic Community (EEC) or the ‘Common Market’. Throughout the 1950s, supported by the European Council of Municipalities (as it then was) and in turn at local level by the mayors and citizens of the different towns there was, as stated on the CEMR (Council of European Municipalities and Regions) website, ‘a huge increase in the number and range of twinnings’. At this point in time there was purpose behind the movement. We needed to broaden our horizons, travel a bit more in the spirit of friendship and open-mindedness; learn to understand those strange foreigners in a mode of peacetime understanding and ‘rapprochement’. In 1973 Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the EU and as we all know it has expanded massively since then. How does the role of town twinning fit in with this version of modern Europe?
The local town twinning group of which I am these days a somewhat ‘non-conviction’ member, is the second group with which I have been involved. Each time I have had high hopes of the possibilities and each time have been disappointed by the realities. The current group was set up thirty-eight years ago in 1977. The EU was relatively new, to the British at least, and hopes of forging better links with our old enemies and neighbours across the water was a driving force. Local families signed up; hosted French families; took their children across to France for a 3-day trip involving a lengthy ferry journey and a few hours on a coach on both English and French soil. It is quicker to fly to Greece or Spain (sunshine guaranteed!). However, friendships were forged and retained to this day. In spite, in most cases at least, of very minimal or basic levels of ability with the language of the other country, communication was made; meals shared; different family traditions and behaviours explained; outings undertaken and civic receptions endured.
Thirty-eight years down the line the same people are still enjoying these experiences, their language skills may have improved marginally (or not); their acquaintanceships turned into friendships; wedding and christening invitations have been given and accepted, these events cementing bonds that were initiated in a different time. All this can only be good, as those interminable speeches before anyone is allowed to tuck into the buffet lunch (organised by the Mairie) or the dinner (put on at the local golf club) testify, but where are the next generations? Thirty-eight years on the young families are nowhere to be seen, only the greying, grey, balding or bald heads of the stalwarts who have kept the institution going all this time. So far, so admirable, but somehow we need to encourage the young to join in. At a time when our position in or possibly even our membership of the EU is in question, where are those young couples who should be forging those European links? Does their lack of physical presence indicate an actual lack of engagement or do they have virtual links all around the world which are more important? Has the twinning movement had its day? Is it getting old or is it simply old?
Can the young be persuaded of the advantages of inviting strangers into their houses for a few days; of struggling with a language most gave up learning at 16 or even earlier; of travelling for hours to go a mere few hundred miles when in the same time they could be tens of thousands of miles away somewhere ‘exotic’? Perhaps in a world where the young cannot afford homes but can travel so far so easily, ‘sofa surf’ with organisations like airbnb and communicate (mostly in English/American as the universal language) at the touch of a button, the Twinning movement has no place. Perhaps however the young could participate, join in and put this currently slightly tired institution to use again in our speeded-up world. After all, if you have 1,000 friends on Facebook, 900 of whom you never see, perhaps 10 in a town in Europe whom you see once a year might be enrichment to rather than detraction from your real life?
