Stubb or Stubbe
The name Stubb keeps turning up. Always in the media. Now where do I know that name from? Those five letters feel oddly familiar, and they set off little bells from my time in Switzerland.
Ah, now I remember: ZDF (Second National TV station), Saturday evening, 8:15 p.m., and “Stubbe - von Fall zu Fall” flickering across the screen. The slightly eccentric Detective Stubbe cycling along the Hamburg dyke to a crime scene. Working his way through every case with Saxon charm and a Saxon accent. This series wasn’t just successful — as a crime drama it was genuinely unusual. The detective’s own family — a daughter studying journalism, a house by the water with that cool Hamburg flair — got more screen time than the actual solving of the case. And that did the series more than just good. It did the same for me.
A case for Stubb.
But there’s more. A different story altogether, and this one involves Finland. The lead character’s name isn’t Wilfried Stubbe — it’s Alexander Stubb. A real Finn, looking after a much larger crime scene: the EU, the European Union, is the case of all cases. A self-declared EU nerd, as he has explained more than once. The man has many talents. He speaks several languages, is extraordinarily clear in how he expresses himself, always comes across as warm in his appearances, and he knows his way around social media. His biggest case is called Europe, and it is very much alive. Stubb investigates the case of Europe and its members, and he trusts his strategic gut.
“Wouldn’t it be lovely...”
Alexander Stubb has many dreams, and one of them is very large indeed. Stubb wants to expand the EU to 40 member states. My goodness. He has his eye particularly on Canada, making it clear that he’d rather see the number 28 there than 51. The 28th EU member? Well, Prime Minister Mark Carney didn’t exactly jump for joy at the idea and declined a full Canadian membership in the EU. Carney is more of a trade-agreement man, and so far he’s doing that job admirably. But how long can you ignore the fact that 57% of Canadians can perfectly well imagine their country as the 28th member of the EU?
Transferred?
Usually, being transferred isn’t exactly cause for celebration. A transfer feels more like a punishment than a promotion. But there are exceptions. Good old Wilfried Stubbe was transferred from Dresden to Hamburg. I transferred myself from Basel to Newmarket and along the way stumbled over my own quietly fond feelings for Canada. And Alexander Stubb, the Finn, would like to transfer Canada to Europe. Canada does already share a border of sorts with Norway — Hans Island. Even so, the question remains: where does Canada actually belong?
The missing “E”
Nomen est omen may well hold true for Latin scholars. And perhaps for Stubb or Stubbe too. Detective Stubbe set off my little memory bells and in doing so brought the Finn Alexander Stubb — the one without the E — into play. Where did that missing E go, exactly? Could that one E stand for the idea of Europe? Does Stubb the Finn see the idea as a roadmap or as a trial balloon? Well, the man and politician Stubb “suffers” from realistic optimism. People over-rationalise the past, over-dramatise the present, and underestimate the future. Did Stubb say that? No idea, but he’s quite the sort of person who could have come out with a line like that.
Case file: EU — unsolved.
Last year ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) sent Detective Stubbe into retirement. But a Stubbe doesn’t let cases rest. And so Stubb — without his E — has stepped into the glaring light of the political arena in Europe. Alexander Stubb will certainly give us plenty more to talk about. A missing E is no shortcoming. It’s a plus — for Europe.
“Between the 28th and the 51st position lie an ocean and a worldview.”
