There were two recent anniversaries here in Europe - the 50th anniversary of the founding of the original European Union organization and the 200th anniversary of the illegalization of slavery in Great Britain. The ceremonies on the 50th anniversary of the European Union dominated the news for a few days and were very centralized. They seem to have had little resonance however, in terms of local relevance or important new political action. EU council president and German chancellor Angela Merkel wanted to use the date to launch a new bid to get a European constituion back on the agenda. The statement ended up being significantly watered down.

The slavery anniversary was not only more global in scope, but seemed to carry more emotive effect. Various news sources reported anniversary events in many countries in Africa, Latin America as well as in Britain. Like the EU anniversary, the anniversary was used politically. In this case, however, it was more about human rights organizations using the moment to draw attention to the continued existence of slavery in many parts of the world and slavery-like conditions for various groups such as prostitutes in western Europe and immigrant workers on limited "guest worker" visas in the United States.

This blog should follow these kinds of events more thoroughly in the future. If you are interested in helping, please see the call for contributors.