Europe? Kaput?!

MGF D is a man of the world. Over the last 15 years he lived in 3 continents.
More specifically, 3 of the world's great cities. Every move anticipating the decline of the part of the world he is leaving and the rise of the one he's moving to. D foresaw Cool Britannia before Blair had dinner at Granita and realised it wasn't gonna be cool for long when Blair was still kissing babies. Most endearingly, D is extremely passionate about the place he is going to and utterly convinced of the demise of the one he is leaving.

So, when D said upon leaving London: "Europe? It's the old world. Believe me, it's kaput!" I took notice. Within 3 weeks, we sold the house, converted the £s (all 3 of them) to $HK, took the kids out of school and started home schooling then in Mandarin.

And yet, whilst the £ crashed and the economy shrunk, Europe's demise was not apparent. The sun shined on the Tuscan hills, Paris remained as romantic as ever and nothing in the world tasted as refined as pata negra. So, we bought back the house (prices fell by 40%), converted the $HK back to £s (which crashed by 40%) and sent the kids back to school - we could almost afford it with all these capital gains. Thanks D (as I said, a genuine MGF).

But now things look different. Whilst I can imagine the sun is still shining in Tuscany, Europe genuinely looks fragile. In Copenhagen the US and China struck a deal on climate change without even inviting the Europeans (they were busy drinking espresso, so why bother?). Obama politely declined the invitation to the next EU summit (I guess he is too skinny to have 4 official dinners with the 4 different EU presidents as required by protocol). And now, the Euro is at risk because the rich European countries don't want to pay for the perceived frivolity of the poor ones yet, if they don't pay, the Euro will crash making the rich countries a lot poorer. The G7, which turned to G8 and then G20 is moving to a G2 order in which Europe has no say.

The question going through my head running today was: "what's wrong with that?"
Does a diminished political role for Europe on the Global stage mean that Europe is Kaput? Or, does it relieve Europe from its delusions of grandeur and allows it to focus on what it's really good at: culture, art, food, design, democracy, human rights, engineering?