When A Cow Leaves The EU, It Can't Return

A Bulgarian red cow strayed from its pasture near the hamlet of Kopilovtsi and visited the sovereign territory of non-EU member Serbia. Decorated with an EU ear tag, evidently a requirement in the bureaucratic wonderland that is the European Union, the bovine's ownership was determined and farmer Ivan Haralampiev was notified of the whereabouts of his missing bovine, known to him as Penka.



A red cow, but probably not Penka.

Ivan naturally happily led his cow home but was stopped at the Bulgarian border and denied admission due to the lack of necessary EU documentation. Regulations require that she be "put down", toddler talk for killed. There's no telling what kind of bovine disease she may have contracted in her wanderings. Somehow animal fanciers discovered this situation and have raised an internet ruckus. We won't know until Monday, June 11 if the Bulgarian servants of the EU will relent and allow Penka to return to her pasture or order her destruction. Of course, none of these bureaucrats will personally plunge a knife in her or send a rifle shot through her brain.

Postscript: Eu honchos in Bulgaria have relented under international pressure and reluctantly allowed Penka to return home.

A Green Urban Desert

This is the area of Minneapolis, MN once known as "Bohemian Flats".  On the west bank of the Mississippi, this spot was one of the first residential districts of the city, the home of workers employed by the mills further upstream at St. Anthony Falls.

Over the years, the area in the foreground went from being residential to industrial, many tons of coal was stored there to supply local power production and salt was piled for spreading on the roads in the winter. Somewhat acclaimed poet John Berryman jumped off the bridge on this very spot on January 7, 1972, landing on the concrete of the docks to fatal effect.

 The same view in 1902, when thousands of immigrants lived along the river.

A view from the upriver side of the bridge. These areas were used to store the detritus of the 35W bridge collapse in 2007 while attorneys argued over who would make the payments to the survivors of the 13 dead and the 145 people injured in the event. The property's value as a recovered natural riverbank setting was less than that of a storage area for junk structural steel.

The powers that be were never happy with the "Bohemian Flats" and as years went by its susceptibility to flooding, antiquated housing and disputed ownership, followed by its increasing commercial irrelevance and unattractive appearance, led it to be acquired as part of the Minneapolis park system.

Oddly, instead of a vibrant "ecosystem" that included many varieties of humans, the flats area is now merely a public lawn. The color "green" is  associated, falsely, with nature. There are "green " political parties devoted to environmental causes. "Green" is a frequently used adjective by those pontificating on environmental issues. Yet, the color, in itself, really has no relationship to the totality of nature, being only the hue of chlorophyll.   The lawns that have been installed are as unnatural as linoleum or carpeting. No bank of the Mississippi anywhere ever looked like this before it was put to use. Never easily accessible from the rest of the city, even now few people are tempted to spend any time in this green, urban desert.

The sterile, vacant aspect of the urban section of the upper Mississippi contrasts sharply with that of some other rivers in the world, which remain vital parts of the cities that adjoin them.


For instance, the Mekong River in Southeast Asia is itself literally the home for thousands.

As time has gone by, public entities have acquired much of the upper Mississippi's banks and turned them into supposedly recreational property. When the last piece has been taken, what occurs next? Will the authorities and the taxpayers demand that areas perhaps a quarter mile from the river be included in its preservation? What is the end point of this process?